《Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System》


 1 Chapter 1

    ¡°Congrattions Miss Max, you have a healthy baby boy¡± the doctor smiles down at his exhausted patient. It had been a hardbor, and for a while they had feared the baby would be lost.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you fix that? I wanted a girl. I was certain she would be a healthy baby girl.¡±


    ¡°As you probably already know Miss Max, ethicsw prohibits gic resenquencing between birth and adulthood when the patient can legally consent on their own. If you want a baby girl, you can try again and pay for the assurance treatments.¡±


    ¡°No, that won¡¯t do at all. Those treatments are more than I make in a year.¡± Ca Max thought to herself while giving the doctor a polite nod.


    ¡°I¡¯ll just have to work with what I have.¡±


    ¡°Now if you¡¯ll just sign your name and the child¡¯s, you¡¯re ready for discharge¡± A bubbly young nurse brought the new mother from her reverie.


    ¡®Sign here, and here, and now, what do I name this child, that simply couldn¡¯t be born a girl? Samantha, I will still name her Samantha and she will grow into what she is supposed to be.  Yes, that is the best course¡¯, Ca Max decided.


    The son that Ca Max had just given birth to woke up for the first time, confused and trying to grasp at thest fading memories of his past life, just as his mother was hurrying out of the free clinic where he was born.<sub>.</sub>


    The clinic didn¡¯t let patients stay to recover, they just gave them a generic healing injection and discharged them as soon as they could walk again, in order to free up bed space.


    This newborn boy was Maximilian, Hero of the Ten Worlds Crusade, Defender of Humanity and Bonded Pilot of the God Machine Gloriana. Or at least he was. The memories of his past life were fading fast, until there was nothing left, leaving him alone and confused in this newborn body.


    The clinic was a gray market office, operated by unlicensed physicians in a run down part of town. They didn¡¯t even do the birth screenings for nanotechnologypatibility, or the screenings for physical and developmental aptitude that are somon at every reputable facility, instead they had left them all to be done at the legally mandated 6 month government checkup.


    Every child on Kepler Terminus was closely monitored by the government as a potential military recruit. An intergctic war had been raging for decades and they needed every soldier and Mecha Pilot they could get just to survive.


    Max¡¯s head was aching from trying to understand the world around him with nothing as a reference, not even amonnguage, but he soon found he was able to reach out to a nearby mind belonging to a newborn in a car sitting at a traffic light on the street in front of him.


    [Personal Ability Active]


    Max didn¡¯t even notice the dialog at the edge of his vision, or the voice in his mind, he was too preupied with what he found.<sub></sub>


    This infants mind contained incredible memories. Memories of war, of robotic suits fighting on far offs, knowledge ofnguages and of martial arts. Who was this child whose mind he had invaded?


    There was no sense of self, like they were forgetting who they were, but somehow they were managing to retain some memories of their past life. The exact opposite of Max who remembered his own name, along with his personal sense of righteousness.


    Was it possible he wasn¡¯t the only one reincarnated? Max knew for certain that he was, but that was all he could clearly recall of his former life.


    But Max was determined he would not forget these memories that called out to an instinct deep within him, he would carry on that love of robots from this child¡¯s fading past life. It was a love that he felt deep in his bones, one that shaped every moment of his mostly forgotten past life.


    Max, as he preferred to call himself, ignoring the horrid name his mother gave him, soon realized he had a very useful gift. With effort, he could borrow the memories of those around him. With repeated use he could take on a mimicry of their personality and use skills they knew, to some extent. Currently his small body limited much of his ability to duplicate actions.


    An industrial ident a millenia prior had released nanobots into the atmosphere of Kepler Terminus, where they multiplied and created an artificial intelligence that infected every citizen of the, effecting each person in a different way beginning at birth. Some were born with extra strength, or long lives, some with abilities that bordered on the supernatural.


    Max had gained one of those types of benefits, the microscopic machines in his body were capable of deciphering the brain patterns of those around him, granting a glimpse into their thoughts and recent memories. Such an ability was highly prized in this world, not for science or justice, but for war and espionage.<sub></sub>


    Max was unaware of that fact, so when the police came with a doctor to give him his overdue 6 month checkup, he didn¡¯t try to hide anything and they discovered he had an Alpha level Innate Talent, which caused them to automatically enroll him in the military academy, as they did for every other talented youth in this Kepler Kingdom.


    The Kepler Kingdom, which spanned over two hundred popted worlds, was a rtively young Kingdom embroiled in constant war and needed all of their best and brightest from every. His mother was overjoyed, as parents of future academy students got an extra government stipend to help raise the talented children of the empire. A monthly credit transfer she was free to spend on drugs.


    Max really didn¡¯t care, he just wanted to get away from this crazy woman and her drunkard of a boyfriend, who may or may not be his father. That was the thought that dominated his childhood. That and giant robots.


    To reach that goal, he put everything he had into developing his abilities, learning to walk and talk before age one. Much of this was due to the partially active System created by the nanotechnology enhancing and helping develop his mind and body.


    He had started his second day in this world with a lifetime of someone else¡¯s memories, so he had no need to learn the basics, only to tone his body to aplish them. A feat that is easier said than done for a toddler.


    In the early years of his life, Max only ever saw the one System notification, the very first, when it partially activated to help him understand the world around him. The system wouldn¡¯t fullye online until after a child had started at the military academy, where the AIwork would recognize the need. For now it remained only the most basic of a shell, waiting for his body to mature.


    At home, his mother still insisted he was her daughter, not a boy at all, at least when she was coherent enough to address him and acknowledge his existence. She bought him only dresses, and insisted his blonde hair be worn long and in a constantly refreshed perm. In her mind, that was the only style that properlyplimented his baby blue eyes.


    Were he a normal toddler he would most likely have perished of neglect before age three, but Max quickly learned to control his body well enough to manipte small objects, like the fridge door and food containers, making himself reliant only on there being something edible in the house.


    Fortunately, his drunkard of a father believed that only the finest of snacks were suitable for watching sports games. So chicken wings, prepackaged burgers, pretzels and orange juice for mixing in his mother¡¯s drinks were always in plentiful supply. If that failed, the boy would simply use his father¡¯s data tablet to order prepaid delivery, a happy surprise for everyone when it arrived.


    The known as Kepler Terminus was a highly advanced one, with automation and technology involved in every aspect of their lives. Had his parents been responsible, the talented child stipend, as the government called it, would have been enough to buy him an android nanny, pay off a house in a good neighborhood and buy the most advanced of educational virtual reality simtions.


    Instead, Max learned from the minds of those around him and yed pirated versions of the publicly avable Mecha trainers with a disabled Veteran turned hacker who lived a few doors down. The man found the overly mature boy amusing, and after the toddler gave him a timely warning about the approaching minds of the cyber security SWAT team, they became the best of friends.


    He fed the boy¡¯s obsession with Mecha, and the boy kept him updated on police activities through regr trips to the convenience store past the local police station. If anyone thought it strange the older man in his wheelchair was always with a child that didn¡¯t appear to be his own, nobody in their housing project was willing to say anything about it.


    A few times Max¡¯s parents freaked out on his friend, thinking the man would demand money for babysitting or harm their government funding meal ticket, but by the time the boy was three they stopped caring as long as Max could be found for his mandatory checkups every six months.


    Max passed his entire early childhood in that manner, learning the intricacies of Mecha handling, as well as the best ways to repair pirated technology and avoid police detection.


    He also learned of the system, the artificial intelligence created within everyone in their world that was decentlypatible with the technology. Alpha Rankpatibility like his could activate a higher Quality upgrade than the Beta and Gamma Ranked children, as well as having the chance of activating an Innate Talent.


    For Delta ranked children, The data he found on the informations said it would barely matter to their lives, helping them heal a little faster, or maybe helping them learn trade skills, but with minimal ability to upgrade. F Rankedpatibility, like his parents, would never see the system at all, the technology rejected them as a host.


    F Rank citizens made up over half the, with the nanobots in their system serving only to assist doctors with testing them for injuries and illness. Alpha Rank Compatibility urred in less than one percent of the poption, making them the military elites, as that was their only avable career path.


    e spring afternoon as Max and Dave were returning to reality after ying Mechabat games on hacked VR consoles, Dave¡¯s mood took a somber turn, causing Max to fear his only true friend was more seriously ill than he let on. A poisonous attack had ruined his organs in battle, but so far the nanobots had been keeping his body stable in its crippled state.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be twelve years old soon, and off to the academy the first day of summer, so we need to get you ready. I got you a new uniform and some supplies.¡± Dave finally told him, handing him a package.


    ¡°The buses the day after my birthday, so this will be goodbye for a while at least. I¡¯ll return from school when I can.¡± Max smiles at his friend who is searching for the cigarette pack sitting under his long numb leg.


    ¡°Aye, but first you must survive another Princess themed birthday party. I swear that woman gets more delusional every year. Drugs are rotting her brain.¡± Daveughs, lighting a smoke from the pack he finally found and cing the pack back under his leg.


    ¡°Wanna spot me a bag of Flect? If she gets high enough she¡¯ll forget it¡¯s my birthday.¡± Max teases his friend, knowing he won¡¯t enable his mother¡¯s addiction.


    ¡°Tempting, but no. Now go, and be well until I see you again.¡± Dave says, trying to hide his overflowing emotions as tears run down his leathery cheeks and into his graying beard.

 2 Chapter 2

    ¡°Samantha Darling, you¡¯ve got everything packed, right? The Academy bus will be here soon to get you.¡± His mother called from the living room. About time too, he couldn¡¯t wait to get out of this house and nevere back.


    Twelve long years he¡¯s waited, studying what he can with virtually zero resources and even less parental support. Yet still, his mother deredst night during his birthday dinner that she wants him to drop out of the academy at age eighteen when the government funding for parents ends to be a beauty queen and support the family, refusing to this day to admit that she has a son.


    While Max waited for the Academy Transport and watched a spider slowly pull a piece of chipped paint from the wall, his mind wandered to his first memories of mighty Ion Cannons and Mecha that didn¡¯t match anything in the Kepler Kingdom¡¯s Army. Those memories still stuck with him, driving him every day to learn a little more about Mecha piloting.


    Mostly he learned from Dave the hacker who lived a few doors down, but he did do some official research to look good for the government monitors. After making sure he¡¯s connected to his home wireless and using a default spec generic device of course.


    His parents rarely noticed if he was missing, so the two have spent a great deal of time together, weeks on end in fact, and Max had used the old veteran¡¯s VR set to practice on the ck market Mecha simtors every chance he could, preparing for this day when the academy woulde to collect him.


    There was only so much he could improve himself without having the system active, but many of the lowest ranked Pilots had Delta Rank System Compatibility, which was basically the same thing. For them only pure talent separated the top from the bottom. The very best could even surpass higher ranked ckers who relied on the system for all their improvements.


    Dave for his part made sure Max was learning everything necessary to be the sort of military officer that enlisted men like him looked up to.


    If you ignored the propensity for illegal online activities that is.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Are you all ready sweetie?¡± Ca Max asks her oldest son, holding her twin daughters on her hips.


    ¡°For dinner or for school? Yes to both mother.  I¡¯ve been studying hard to be the very best student at the academy.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good news darling. When I was your age, I was still learning to read. You study robotics for fun and have a daily workout routine. Those kids have nothing on you.¡±


    Despite his intense dislike for the woman, Max was too kind to mention that high level systempatibility enhances cognitive abilities, so an F ranked child really doesn¡¯t stand a chance against one with high rankedpatibility at the same age. Even without his unique advantages.


    Plus, he¡¯s twelve already, even the most dimwitted of F Rank children should have long since learned to read by now. But that¡¯s better kept to himself.


    But she was right, he had indeed been studying robotics, far more than his parents knew. From the moment he met Dave, he devoted himself to Mecha repair, design, development and piloting techniques. At least as much as he could Pirate from the civilian or hack from the online government servers.


    It became clear to him by age two that those government servers were meant to be hacked, there was nothing confidential on them, but an inquiring mind with a thirst for knowledge could find a great deal there. Like the essentials of manual robot control, academy dexterity training and how to build an antique Ion cannon.<sub></sub>


    They were powerful weapons, with the advantage of being driven off the machine¡¯s power core and not running out of ammunition, but with the downside of a slow rate of fire, since the ionized sma took a bit of time to charge.


    Many Line Mecha Pilots used them. They are the Kepler Kingdom¡¯s entry level Mecha and their newer or lower ranked pilots are oftencking the skills to urately deploy a faster firing weapon. The propaganda on the portrayed every Mecha pilot as heroes of the Kepler Kingdom, but Max had a sneaking suspicion that many were there to be nothing more than fodder for the war machine.


    Dave depised war, calling it a waste of lives and resources, but made it clear to Max that the right leader could be the difference between life and death. So he insisted Max should be that leader, both for himself and those under him.


    In therger but faster Corvette ss Mecha the Ion Cannons were rare, but in the true heart of the Imperial Mecha Squadrons, The Crusader and Phnx ss giant robots, they were a time honored favorite. Outdone in many situations by more specialized weapons, like the Gatling Cannon Max preferred inbat simtions, they could still eliminate enemy Mecha and buildings with great efficiency in the right hands.


    Coming into the kitchen dressed in a ck uniform shirt he got from the old veteran two days ago and a clean pair of white pants, Max almost managed to look like the academy cadet he was about to be. All he needed was academy emblems toplete the look.


    Just onest meal with his family and he was free.


    ¡°I¡¯m ready for dinner, where¡¯s mother gone?¡± Max asked, ducking his head through the kitchen doorway and finding everyone but her was already present. No matter how much he despises his parents, it¡¯s not worth the beating to disrespect them to their faces, even on hisst day here. He¡¯s still in a rather small preteen body after all.<sub></sub>


    ¡°She said something about losing her little girl and hid in the bedroom to look at photo albums and cry again. Can you pretty please bring her to dinner?¡± Peter, his father asks.


    ¡°No problem.¡± Max sighs and walks over towards the bedroom door, which hangs slightly crooked and has arge hole in the middle from a previous argument between his parents.


    ¡°Mama, the food is getting cold, did you want to miss yourst dinner before I head to the academy?¡± he called through the closed bedroom door, making his father facepalm at hisck of tact and sensitivity.


    Peter knew Ca had mental issues, and that her treatment of the boy was beyond strange, but he simply couldn¡¯t be bothered to wreck a good thing by making a fuss about it. The boy¡¯s stipend from the government paid for everything he had and he wasn¡¯t about to give it up by alerting child services.


    Peter decided that since Max was leaving, he should start encouraging Ca to make more female friends and talk about things other than her dreams for her daughters, in the hopes that maybe it would help bnce his little wife¡¯s personality. At least that¡¯s what he wished for, not knowing it was a lost cause from the start. She was set on a delusional life of mor, even if it was by proxy through her children.


    Ca came running through the living room, wiping her red and puffy eyes, swollen belly cradled in her other hand.


    ¡°Slow down, you don¡¯t want to trip and risk the babies.¡± Max teased. His mother was pregnant again, another set of twins. Boys this time, and the other twins weren¡¯t even two yet. Hopefully now that she had her girls these boys might fare better than him.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry honey, I don¡¯t know what got into me.¡± Ca cried, hugging the son she had never actually cared enough about to even realize he despised her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry mother, it¡¯s only a few months until spring break and I¡¯ll be back again¡± Max says rubbing her back, with no intention of ever actually returning.


    ¡°But you don¡¯t get toe home for the winter pageants, they get you all to themselves and I will be here surrounded by boys.¡± Ca pouts, heading to the table as Peter brings out the birthday dinner. Shepherds Pie with Cesar sd, and pumpkin pie for dessert, all Max¡¯s favorites.


    ¡°With three little boys to take care of your days will fly by faster than you know it, mom.¡± Max teases.


    ¡°Hey you little rascal I heard that.¡± Peterughs, d they¡¯re actually getting along for a moment.


    Due to a number of reluctant parents not showing up on time, the Military Academy sends a bus for students the night before their first sses, in time to get them to the school residences before sundown, so they can get settled before lights out.


    Dinner finishes just in time for the bus to arrive, and Peter heads back into the kitchen to do dishes, well out of range of his wife¡¯s impending mental breakdown.


    ¡°Greetings Colonel, I wasn¡¯t expecting someone so illustrious toe pick up students for school.¡± he heard Max say. That must be Colonel James ck, head of the academy¡¯s Mecha repair program, and ording to the news, the highest ranking officer on campus.


    ¡°And greetings to the man of the hour.¡± the Colonel says, seeing Maxe out in his new almost uniform outfit.


    The only difference in uniforms between genders is the color of the shirts. Gray for girls, ck for boys. The uniform itself is white in the summer, ck in the winter.


    ¡°Yes Colonel, this is our beloved oldest child.¡± Peter confirms,ing out of the kitchen when his wife doesn¡¯t respond, carefully choosing his words to not set Ca off.


    ¡°I just love Mecha, Colonel.¡± Max says standing up as tall as his twelve year old body can manage. ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing on the publicly avable simtors and I¡¯m certain I have what it takes.¡±


    ¡°Well spoken child you¡¯ve raised.¡± Colonel ck nods politely to the parents, ignoring the ramshackle state of the apartment. ¡°Now if you¡¯ll excuse us, we¡¯ve got to get to the academy.¡±


    Ignoring his nerves, Max rushes out the door to the bus, not wanting the Academy staff to see any more of the disaster he was living in. Or even worse, talk with the woman who calls herself his mother. If they think he will end up like that, they just might wash him out of the advanced program.


    ¡°You are Samantha Max?¡± The driver asks dubiously and Max shows him his official identification.


    ¡°So you are. Lots of students to pick up today, and you¡¯re first. Let¡¯s get a move on.¡±

 3 Chapter 3

    As the bus passed out of the slums where Max grew up and into better neighborhoods it began picking up more students. Very few families were like Max¡¯s and squandered absolutely everything they received.


    The bus slowly filled with his new ssmates, and Max took the time to look into each one¡¯s mind, evaluating them. What he found were mostly the undeveloped minds of small children. Surely there must be at least a few more like himself, who were more developed, but so far Max hasn¡¯t seen much indication of it, except in one student, who has at least yed the restricted mecha simtors before.


    The bus was almost full of children when a girl called Nico got on, chuckling at the students with their clothes in disarray, their eyes red from a sorrowful parting with their parents. Her reaction intrigues Sam, that¡¯s not how any of the others have reacted.


    Her friend Nathan gives her a fist bump, showing her the seat he saved beside him and the girl settles in before making fun of her friend for having cried when he got on the bus.


    ¡°I hope we¡¯re in the same ss¡± Nathan says, looking over the bus full of kids.


    ¡°It will be so boring if we¡¯re not. Who else can even try to keep up?¡± Nathan has an Alpha ranked Systempatibility with Beta ranked physical potential, though he didn¡¯t activate an Innate Talent. Still, that puts him well ahead of his peers in development, and makes him the only other pre academy aged student that Sam¡¯s memory scans have found to be capable of ying the VR piloting programs that Max loves.<sub>.</sub>


    Most of these kids can barely do multiplication, much less master the multi input processes and calctions needed to get the mecha to do more than basic, crude movements. Before the academy, most games are yed on consoles, and a dozen buttons on a controller is a far cry from what is needed to control a Mecha.


    The mind that just entered the bus feels very familiar to Sam for some reason, so he reaches out his ability to borrow some additional memories and learn more about this outgoing and confident girl.


    To his surprise, it¡¯s the girl with memories of her past life. The very first mind he ever touched after he was Reincarnated into this world. He would have recognized those memories of Mecha from anywhere. She had, and might still have, memories of an entire life of Mecha piloting, and her recent memories suggest that has been training just as hard as him to get ready for the academy.


    It seems this girl is also in the piloting program, and Sam makes a devout wish that they can be friends. Her memories gave him not only reference and basic skills to work with as an infant, but a purpose in life to survive the neglect and abuse of a childhood spent with his wastrel parents. If he gets reincarnated again, he¡¯s definitely asking for some memories.


    ¡°When we get there, Even identification numbers to the left, Odd to the right. Odd numbers, your dorm supervisor will be Major Amanda Payne. Respect her as your ranking officer and all will be well.¡± Colonel ck instructs. Both Sam and Nico take note, as they both have odd numbered identifications.<sub></sub>


    Many of the students have very little idea what he means, beyond being polite and listening to her, and even that is iffy for some of the worst behaved. Their parents had been raising them wild and free, hoping the military would reject them and send them home.


    It¡¯s a grossly misguided notion, the children have a decade of intensive ¡®educating¡¯ ahead of them, and misbehaving will keep them in the school the entire time without a chance to visit home.


    So, they simply mill about the asphalt courtyard with its yellow painted grid pattern, waiting for someone to tell them what to do and meeting their new ssmates.


    Major Payne is a tall woman with long dark brown hair tied in a military regtion bun, as opposed to Nico¡¯s military approved pixie cut of her ck curls and Sam¡¯s shoulder length blonde perm. Right to the bitter end, his mother insisted on this dreadful haircut. The first chance he gets, the perm is gone.


    The major turns, looking at them all assessingly, judging who will be trouble and who to fast track. Nico knows this, it was in the government server she had gained ess to, listed as standard procedure for iing students. Sam knows this too, because Nico knows this and it was in her recent memories when he checked on the bus.<sub></sub>


    Max spaces out, sorting through the instructors mind and quickly loses track of time and what¡¯s happening around him. It¡¯s a bad habit of his, but at Dave¡¯s house he could usually hide the fact that he was zoned out behind a VR headset.


    Knowing what¡¯s expected, Nico stands in one of the painted squares at ease, bag beside her, with her feet shoulder width apart, her hands folded in front, in the customary ready stance of the Academy. Nobody else did. In fact they¡¯re still horsing around and giggling.


    Sam snaps out of his reverie and gets into position next to the only other Cadet that knows what to do, feeling sheepish about hispse in attention. He¡¯s at the academy now, he needs to make good impressions if he¡¯s going to get himself chosen as a potential officer cadet.


    From the corner of her eye, Nico sees one little blonde haired girl, standing on the mark on the floor to her left. Or is that a boy with a terrible haircut and delicate face? ck shirt, so a boy then. The major smiles a little and makes a mark on her clipboard.


    It¡¯s about ten minutes before the rest of the students understand that something is expected of them, and that there¡¯s a reason why the supervisor isn¡¯t speaking or showing them to their rooms before they slowly start lining up on the marked floor.


    ¡°Very good Cadets. All under fifteen minutes. You will do onep around the dormitory at a run for every minute it took you to fall in on your arrival. Lesson one. When you arrive. Fall in.¡±


    Four more officers appear and lead the Cadets out ¡°Cadet Nico, Cadet Max, you¡¯re with me. Fall in time was under a minute.¡± Major Payne calls.


    The two are assigned as roommates, and being the star pupils in the supervisor¡¯s eyes, they get first pick of the dorms. All facilities are coed at the school, to build unity amongst the future soldiers. Following that ideal, nothing that divides them except talent and unit is permitted.


    ¡°Could you show us a good choice, Major?¡± Nico asks. ¡°Not too near the bathrooms, but not too far, preferably with a window?¡±


    ¡°Excellent choice Cadet Nico. Tarith Nico, that¡¯s an interesting name, a family name perhaps?¡± Major Payne asks in her all business tone.


    ¡°No ma¡¯am it¡¯s Nico Tarith¡± the girl corrects and the Major shows her the official birth record from her tablet. Tarith Nico. Her parents entered her name backwards on the form when she was born.


    That¡¯s the sort of thing he wouldn¡¯t put past his own mother, Max thinks.


    ¡°From today you are Cadet Nico. You may apply for a change of name once your basic instruction isplete.¡± Major Payne consoles her with a gentle smile. ¡°look at it this way Cadet, you¡¯re the only one that gets to keep her own given name. First names are rarely used here.¡±


    This little tidbit, intended for his new roommate, is the single greatest thing that Max has ever heard. Nobody will be calling him Samantha, the name he despisesrgely because the mother he likes even less chose it for him. Plus, when he finishes school, he can officially change it on his own.


    The room the Major shows them to is a corner unit, the only one for students in their year, the other three corners being taken by the supervisors. Both outer walls have windows, and it¡¯s a slightlyrger room than the other ones they¡¯ve passed. Every door currently stands open until it has two upants so that the supervisors can easily confirm which cadets are where and who is not getting with the program.


    ¡°Thank you for your consideration Supervisor Payne¡± Nico and Max say at the same time and the instructor gives them the fist to chest Imperial soldier¡¯s salute in return.

 4 Chapter 4

    The mood in the dorm is low the next morning, nobody else had less than tenps of the gigantic dorm building that holds seven years worth of ss 1 Cadets.


    After age eighteen, the Cadets will move to the Imperial Military College. Nico was chosen for a schrship to the Military College at birth due to her talent level, which Sam found outst night as they got acquainted before bed. The Imperial College is essential training to be amand officer, so it is a ce Max has worked his hardest in hopes of attending.


    If he can¡¯t score high enough he will end up at one of the lesser colleges, bing a low ranked Line Mecha pilot, and likely end his days doing drudge work under someone else¡¯s orders. That¡¯s thest thing that Max wants, and Nico has agreed to help him with his goal in every way she can.


    But first, they must suffer through years of basic education Nico already did on her own, from what Max has seen in her memories. Max, on the other hand, learned a great number of the things that are considered essential knowledge only today.


    He¡¯s not sure how his handwriting will be, having never actually owned pen or paper, but after multiple uses of his skill on his roommate, a very necessary invasion of privacy he feels truly bad about, he has all of the essential skills and many of the important bits of knowledge Dave missed teaching himmitted to his memory long term.<sub>.</sub>


    Dave was an Enlisted Infantry Soldier, with a D minus System Compatibility score, he was never taught anything about Mecha Piloting, and all he knew of the officer¡¯s training was that they liked to order his units to their death by the tens of thousands while they stayed back in themand center.


    [All Recruits Assemble in the front courtyard at 0900]es an announcement through the speakers mounted all over their floor.


    Max and Nico both snap their attention to the clock, seeing that they have ten minutes to get downstairs. They¡¯re not allowed to use the service elevator and the first years are on the top floor of the building. Every year they¡¯ll get one level closer to the ground with shorter runs when these announcementse in.


    The majority of the others are still sleeping, so the pair calls out to the cafeteria ¡°That¡¯s in ten minutes and we need to get downstairs. Time to go everyone.¡±<sub></sub>


    Wise enough to not want anther punishment for beingte already, everyone heads for the stairs, many still carrying their morning meal. As they run they call out into the dorm rooms in an attempt to get the rest up.


    Dorm room doors don¡¯t lock, but every cadet gets a biometric locked cab in their room. Max and Nico both know to keep everything secured in their lockers and the bed made, but a lot of the rooms they pass look like a hurricane just passed through.


    They were only allowed to bring one small bag of personal effects and Max brought nothing at all except a few keepsakes from Dave and a single change of clothes.


    Nico brought a bit more, but only enough to fill a third of the regtion rucksack that they will be issued soon.<sub></sub>


    As they reach the stairs, Nico taps the data screen built into the wall and winks at Max. The lights start shing red and an rm sounds, pulling even the deepest sleepers from bed.


    She doesn¡¯t slow her pace though, hopping up to ride the banisters down to ground level with Max right behind her. Major Payne is smiling at them and looking at a stopwatch when they arrive and fall in on the painted squares in the courtyard.


    This time a few of the smarter students are not far behind them, panting from the effort of running down the stairs. Fewer than twenty of their ssmates are assembled when the instructor clicks her stopwatch and the other teachers lock the doors and wait inside for thete Cadets.


    ¡°Not bad Cadets. The rm was a nice touch. You will now be issued your Uniforms, Toiletries and have the chance to ess the Commissary for anything you forgot. One Hundred Standard Credits have been issued to your ounts.¡±


    A Sergeantes by to hand each cadet a stic bag with their ID number on it, containing their basic necessities.


    ¡°Fall out and assemble here in three hours, in uniform and ready for afternoon training.¡± Major Payne smiles at the students, many of whom start thinking she might secretly be a kind person and not a harsh taskmaster.


    The rxed first day schedule is a trap though, as are the credits. It¡¯s the entirety of their first Semester¡¯s allowance, and if they spend it all now onforts they¡¯ll have very little for the next four months.


    The academy year is split into three semesters of focused education with a break in between each. The end of summer break they won¡¯t be allowed to leave this year, but the early spring and beginning of summer ones they will be if they¡¯re well behaved.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go get socks. They only give you two pairs.¡± Max tells Nico once they¡¯re dismissed and starts jogging for the Commissary to get there early.


    That was among the most important bits of advice in Dave¡¯s mind when he was briefing Max on his first days at the academy. Clean Socks are the key tofort, he insisted.


    One standard credit each gets them a prep pack, as the Academy calls them. A high tech thermal baseyer that holds optimal body temperature, with six pairs of socks and a boot polishing kit. They each take two.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, my friend says they give you the boots unpolished, Max tells Nico who shakes her head at their pettiness.


    Everything the first day is a test for the Cadets. Even the uniform kit. The underwear in it is cheap and scratchy, but the prep pack baseyer is silky smooth and extremelyfortable. The boots aren¡¯t polished, but they have to be to pass muster. Finally, their cadet badges attach to the locking buttons, but no instructions are given as to their proper cement.


    The military wants to know how fast they can adapt and how strong their decision making skills are, but it doesn¡¯t make life easy on Cadets like Max and Nico who don¡¯t see it as a mental challenge, but a series of minor inconveniences.

 5 Chapter 5

    The two young Cadets head back to their rooms to change and get their uniforms ready. Max made a mental note of the location of the patches on the older Cadets uniforms earlier, so he wouldn¡¯t get it wrong, but Nico has managed to pull the description up on the screen by the door of their room.


    ¡°Is that supposed to be avable?¡± Max asks, indicating the screen.


    ¡°Of course. It¡¯s not locked, they just don¡¯t think we know how to work the system or they would make the test tougher. Now, grab some hot water from the bathroom to soften the boot polish. The can is cold, so I am pretty sure they keep them in frozen storage.¡±


    Max decides they must have done too well yesterday, the Academy is pulling out all the tricks today to catch them off guard. Or maybe like Nico said, they¡¯re being treated as idiots and the Major is nning to teach them everything step by step.


    As if thinking of her Summoned her, the Major walks by their door at just that moment and Max gs her down to obtain a few more important details for their first day. ¡°Major. What uniform will we require this afternoon, the coveralls or the Dress Uniform?¡±


    Major Payne smiles at her new charge, impressed by his understanding, and then notices that the other young prodigy has started cing the polishing kits out and arranging uniform badges.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Cadet, do you both know what you need to do?¡± She asks curiously.


    ¡°Yes ma¡¯am. The data screen showed us everything that we needed to know.¡± Max responds, standing at the cadet version of attention.


    ¡°Since you got the prep pack, I rmend the coveralls. This afternoon is a physical assessment.¡± The Major informs him and walks away to help the other Cadets, who are not doing nearly as well.


    Thebination of the healing abilities provided by the nanotechnology and the Kepler Empire¡¯s advanced technology leads to very long lives for those who can afford it, or those who remain in military service, and Major Payne has been training Cadets for over fifty years.


    She might have seen more outstanding Cadets in the past, but she believes these two have a special promise to them. That assessment goes into her notes, along with a rmendation to fast track them through early education, as most of it will be unnecessary.<sub></sub>


    The Cadets don¡¯t know it yet, but their first Physical Assessment will activate their Systems. After that, she will know just how good these Cadets are. Her Innate Ability isn¡¯t abat type like superhuman Agility or rapid healing, but it¡¯s perfect for a drill instructor, she can see other¡¯s System Status.


    With their uniforms prepped and their coveralls matched with the lightweight training boots that thankfully don¡¯t need polishing, Max and Nico clean up their mess and neatly organize their lockers. When the dorm is spotless they head out to lunch, getting away from the crying,ints and not so patient exnations that fill the First Year Dorms.


    They¡¯re both certain a Dorm check ising soon, they¡¯re just not sure when, and they don¡¯t want to end up on punishment detail like most of their ss will be.


    In addition to the cafeteria on their floor, there is another they can use on the main floor. It¡¯s open to all, but Max understands that with its improved menu, it will be dominated by the top sses. But they have arrived early enough that it shouldn¡¯t be too busy.


    The appearance of a pair of Fist Years, their coveralls freshly steamed free of wrinkles by the in roomundry machine that most Cadets don¡¯t figure out for weeks, startles the Cafeteria supervisor. But they pass muster with every required element in order, so he allows them to join the short line and points them to a corner of the room next to the kitchens.<sub></sub>


    The others are avoiding the kitchen noise, which always makes it thest ce to fill, a small blessing for the two brave young souls.


    Upstairs the lunch meal is tasteless protein sandwiches with a vegetable soup. Here they get the option of four lunch sets. Max doesn¡¯t recognize any of them, the names are all generic, and the Cadets are assumed to know what the dish name means. Unfortunately, neither of them read the menu beforeing here and there are no pictures.


    ¡°Two Lunch C Sets with Juice Please.¡± Nico tells the worker with a smile and pulls Max along before he can decide.


    ¡°Thest six students all ordered it.¡± She whispers and Max nods. They¡¯re in their final years here, so they wouldn¡¯t order anything awful.


    It turns out to be meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Max gives Nico a look as if to say ¡®seriously¡¯ and she just shrugs, digging into her meal.


    ¡°Tomorrow we can check the menus first. But at least it¡¯s not a rbined protein sandwich.¡±


    For some reason it¡¯s served with a tube of spicy processed cheese. Max isn¡¯t sure what that¡¯s about, so he checks the mind of the seniors and finds its a very popr condiment here, but not needed for this meal and usually saved.


    Max grabs both packs and tosses them to a group of seniors who are giving them dirty looks, making the boys smile.


    ¡°Good call junior. You just might get along here.¡± Their leaderughs, spreading the cheese on the noodles of his Set A Lunch.


    Again, the calles for the First Year ss to get to the courtyard. They¡¯re only twenty meters away from there in the cafeteria, so they finish eating quickly and take their ces in the front row. In front of them an obstacle course and a variety of strength training activities are being assembled, making them d the Major rmend the light andfortable version of the uniform for today¡¯s ss.


    Max listens in to the minds passing by as they wait for the other Cadets and learns that the coveralls may be rolled to the elbows without being out of regtion, so he does his, finding that the uniforms are even morefortable this way.


    In the end they stand there for three whole hours while Cadets are reprimanded for a wide variety of failures, often being sent to correct them and then running ap of the building.


    The older students watch in amusement at the spectacle, having the whole afternoon free, since they¡¯re not starting their own semester¡¯s sses for one more day.


    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve finally learned to dress yourselves, let¡¯s see if you can walk across thewn without getting yourself dirty.¡± A Drill Sargeant named Zamm calls out and a cheer goes up from the spectators.


    ¡°Pay up punks, I told you they¡¯d clear Uniform Drill in one shot.¡± The boy Max gave their cheese tubes to cheers, making Max struggle to hide his smile.


    ¡°Nico, Max, to the obstacle course, you¡¯re up first.¡±

 6 Chapter 6

    The obstacle course that they are facing is a more extreme challenge than Max had seen on many of the television shows his father watched. It started with a rope climb to a set of monkey bars across a mud pit. Then came the rope crossing to a rappelling wall, followed by a run across the field through swinging hammers with padded heads. Last up was the log run over a pool and then the finish line.


    The fact they think a child could manage this is insane. Sure, it¡¯s scaled to their size, but the strength and Agility required would have to match a well built adult¡¯s toplete these tasks.


    Max chalks his hands on the bag at the start and begins climbing the rope. It¡¯s easier than expected with the rope fastened top and bottom and well-ced knots, but Nico was just as fast up her side. Determined to win, Max takes the monkey bars two at a time,  gaining some distance from the smaller cadet, and begins to cross the.


    It¡¯s set up like a hammock and turns easily underneath him, almost dumping him off. Nico knows some trick, though, and smoothly runs down the center, making the rappelling wall just in front of Max.


    Neither bothers with the harness, simply grabbing the rope and running down the wall. Max swings away andnds on his feet running, while Nico tucks and rolls, getting dirt and grass in her short ck hair.


    Timing the hammers is hard, and Max takes a hit from the third one he passes, hurling him to the ground.


    [System Active]


    [Wee User Max]<sub>.</sub>


    [Compatibility Determined]  Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [STR] +0%


    [DEX] +0%


    [SPD]+0%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Functions Locked]<sub></sub>


    When Max wakes up, he¡¯s on a mat by the finish line, next to a partially dry Nico. She must have made it to the pool before her system activated.


    A fresh pair of Cadets is challenging the course now, one falling from the first rope, one from the monkey bars. The staff quickly recovers them and brings them to the finish line while their system activates, and two more Cadets are called.


    None even make it as far as the Rappelling Wall before their system activates, but now that he knows the purpose, Max understands that the distance you cover isn¡¯t the point; the course is only designed to activate the system that is dormant in the new Cadets.


    Beside him, Nico opens her eyes and looks around in confusion before nodding her head and closing her eyes again. Secondster, the soft rhythm of her breathing changes, and Max realizes she¡¯s fast asleep.


    That¡¯s a talent Max is a bit envious of; he¡¯s always had trouble sleeping, so he watches thest of the contests instead.


    Once they¡¯re all finished and awake, Major Payne gets the lesson started with a shout. ¡°ss Attention.¡±


    Nico leaps to her feet and into a foreign ready stance with one hand on her hip and the other on top of it. Before her eyes even open, she shifts to the Academy Attention position under the curious gaze of the Drill Sergeants.<sub></sub>


    Maybe it¡¯s a martial arts stance, Max thinks, then scans her thoughts and realizes she was going for a gun. Keeping her memories meant keeping her habits, and immediatebat readiness had been trained in to her during her previous life.


    Max makes a mental note not to wake her up suddenly.


    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve all had your systems activated, we can begin your lesson. The core stats of the System improve through practice. How much they improve entirely depends on yourpatibility and effort.


    Deltas, you will get one-tenth of a percent per upgrade. Gamma Rank gets one-half percent. Betas get One Percent, while Alpha Rank Compatibility gets two percent. Your primary stat will get a little more.


    Cadet Max, what is your Primary Stat and the modifier?¡±


    ¡°Strength Ma¡¯am, with a two-point-five times modifier.¡±


    ¡°Outstanding Cadet. That¡¯s thergest I¡¯ve seen in all my years. Cadet Gomez, what is your Primary Stat and the modifier?¡±


    ¡°Dexterity, Ma¡¯am, with a 1.2 times modifier.¡±


    ¡°That is typical for Delta Rank. The rest of you should fall somewhere in between those Modifiers.¡±


    A Drill Sargeant steps forward to continue the lesson. ¡°If you want to improve your System Status, you must work hard. Training that is appropriate to a stat will have a chance to level up that stat bonus. Every stat is important, and you cannot start unlocking additional abilities of the system until you get to fifty percent total improvement.¡±


    Major Payne smiles at the students again, and many begin to suspect her friendly smile is not really friendly.


    ¡°As you increase an ability, it gets harder and harder to get gains. So, you will all take a holistic approach to training. Every ability is necessary, either in hand-to-handbat or inside a Mecha. Who can tell us the most important stat for meleebat Mecha?¡±


    ¡°You, in the second row. Answer.¡± The Drill Sargeant Zamm orders.


    ¡°Is it dexterity?¡± The student answers, and Max prepares himself for the verbalshing the cadet is about to receive.


    ¡°You will address Drill Instructors as Sir. Every time you speak to them, you will start and end with Sir, do you understand me, Cadets.¡± Zamm yells. That was much more gentle than Max expected. Even his parents were more intense than that.


    ¡°Sir, Yes, Sir.¡±


    ¡°Outstanding Cadets. But the answer is not Dexterity. Cadet Nico, what is the answer?¡±


    ¡°Sir, a melee pilot needs Strength, Sir.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. Now, who can tell me why they need Strength? Cadet Max.¡±


    ¡°Sir, Melee Mecha Pilots take huge amounts of impact and gravitational forces. Without sufficient strength, a pilot cannot properly control the Mecha during rapid maneuvers, Sir.¡±


    ¡°Very good. Inside the Mecha, Dexterity is needed to move between controls. Speed is needed to entermands fast enough to survive. But Strength is needed to keep control when a fifty-ton, angry Cygnus Mecha tries to use you like a rag doll.¡±


    That thought makes many of the students pale, while a few share eager looks. They¡¯re all here hoping to be Mecha pilots, but not all will seed. Some will be chosen for their skills in repair or tactics as support and logistics personnel. Some will be moved to an infantry program for theirpleteck of talent.


    That¡¯s what happened to Dave, and Max knows from reading his mind the Horrors that wait down the path of infantry in a modern battle.

 7 Chapter 7

    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve learned what the system is, we will train and get you your first gains. All students who have Strength as their primary attribute follow Sargeant Zamm. If you have Dexterity as your Primary stat, Follow Sargeant Farhan. Those who have speed as their Primary, stay here with me.¡± Major Payne instructs.


    Max can see that his group has easily three-quarters of the students, with quite a few going to the dexterity course. But surprisingly, only Nico is standing with Major Payne. Speed must not be amon stat to have as your Primary.


    The strength training station is exactly what Max expected it to be. Free weights, resistance machines, and heavy things to move. Most of those are too much for the first-year students, so Max decides to start his usual workout with curls and then try out the full-body resistance trainer. He¡¯s never seen such a thing before, and it looks pretty intense.


    He finds a good spot and begins his workout, ignoring the horsey and chaos around him, much to Sargeant Zamm¡¯s delight. Supervising First Year students is seen almost as a punishment detail for many within the instructor corps, and Zamm is no exception.


    He trains Cadets in physical andbat skills, while the First Year student typically has zero understanding of either one. Even one student that has an existing workout routine is enough to brighten his day.


    The resistance machine is busy with a student trying to understand how it works, so Max moves on to weighted lunges, carefully watching for the first update notification from his new system.<sub>.</sub>


    Across the field from where he¡¯s working, Nico and Major Payne seem to be engaged in some form of fight with sticks. Max is pretty sure it¡¯s a martial art that they¡¯re practicing, but the speed they¡¯re swinging the wooden rods at each other is impressive. The pattern is repetitive, he notices, not testing their talent today, and the fundamental objective is to keep up with your opponent, so you don¡¯t get hit.


    His fifty lunges are almost up when Max sees his first gain notification and checks his System interface.


    [Compatibility Determined]  Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [STR] +5%<sub></sub>


    [DEX] +0%


    [SPD]+0%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Functions Locked]


    Being of A Ranked Compatibility, he gets a 2% base increase, but his Primary Stat strength modifier bonus put him up to a full 5 percent in a single gain during his first session.<sub></sub>


    The fancy resistance machine is now avable, the previous student had given up on learning it, so Max heads over to give it a try. There are well worn written instructions on the machine; step into the harness, press the green button to engage the sizing feature, then begin your workout; the trainer will adjust the resistance as it sees fit¡ªa marvel of high tech training.


    There¡¯s an assortment of objects and a VR headset to keep the training interesting, so Max engages the feed, picks up a racket and picks a tennis program. There¡¯s lots of movement involved, so it should be a good workout.


    [Strength Gain]


    [STR] +10%


    The buzzer signaling the end of the physical training session pulls him back from his tennis match, and Max notices his entire body is so sore he can hardly move. Fortunately, Nico waited for him and was willing to help him up the stairs.


    She isn¡¯t a big person, but his roommate had to practically carry him to the eighth floor where they live after his legs gave out at the firstnding.


    ¡°You¡¯re stronger than you look.¡± Maxughs, doing his best to struggle up thest flight.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m just smart enough not to spend two straight hours in a resistance trainer. Plus, with my healing rate, the bruises from ying sticks with Major Payne are almost gone.¡±


    Max can see what she means; fading bruises are all over her hands and arms from missing a block and getting hit with the bamboo sticks. He¡¯s certain it must have been painful to have left such wicked-looking bruises, but Nico doesn¡¯t appear to mind.


    ¡°I hope you got something to make this all worth it. I¡¯m definitely not carrying you again if you didn¡¯t at least get one gain.¡± Nico huffs as they finally make the top floor and head for the dining hall the grab an evening meal.


    ¡°Get a Gain? I got two today. With my modifier being Strength, I¡¯ll have a much easier time of it tomorrow.¡± Max tries to smile through the exhaustion.


    ¡°But I¡¯m setting the timer. How did you make out?¡±


    ¡°Two gains for me as well. Major Payne is an excellent training partner; I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll do as well if I have to practice alone or with one of the other First Year Cadets.¡±


    Nico drops him in a red stic cafeteria chair and goes to get them something to eat,ing back with bowls of chili and warm bread loaves. A staff member brings them arge jug of ice water, and Max does his best to smile at her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, dear. Someone always overdoes it the first day. Some of them haven¡¯t even made it back to the building; I can still see them lying in the grass after the Sergeants forced the ckers to exercise.¡±


    That makes him feel a little better; at least he wasn¡¯t the only one who couldn¡¯t handle the workout he picked or had picked for him.


    By the time they finish eating, Max has begun to recover, the nanobots in his body working to repair the damaged tissue from the workout and implement the changes for his upgrades.


    After a system stat upgrades, the effects aren¡¯t quite instant. At the lower levels, where the difference between upgrades was more significant, it would take the system time to make the changes, up to an hour in some cases.


    The instructors are still carrying recruits up to their rooms when Max crawls into bed, noticing something strange about how Nico uses the data screen on the wall. He can¡¯t tell what she¡¯s browsing, but she¡¯s not touching the screen to navigate. Is that a feature of the high-tech device? Or possibly an aspect of her Innate Ability?

 8 Chapter 8

    Max decides that tomorrow when they¡¯re both well-rested and fed, would be a much better time to ask Nico about her Innate Ability, so he lets sleep overtake him. Tonight¡¯s rest is much easier to achieve than usual. The pure exhaustion of the day¡¯s exercise has ovee every obstacle to drag him instantly into slumber.


    He wakes up to a small hand on his chest, shaking him gently. ¡°Get up and get dressed, the cafeteria opens in ten minutes, and we¡¯re going to fix your hair first. They let it slide yesterday, but if you don¡¯t tie it back or cut it, they¡¯ll most likely penalize you today.¡±


    Max chuckles happily as he gets into his uniform. The white pants with a ck Academy logo polo shirt and a ck beret seem to be the male cadet version of fatigues, the less formal summer uniform for general purposes. That should do for the morning lessons, and it¡¯s what Nico picked, though the female version of the first year cadet uniform uses a dark gray shirt instead.


    ording to what they found online, the girls are much more likely to wash out of piloting sses, and the logistics and operations staff all wears shirts in that same gray, but a different style, while infantry Cadets wear green uniforms. If they make it to the third year in the piloting program, all Cadets in the program wear the same ck shirts, but with a stripe on the cor to mark them as pilots in training.


    It¡¯s a bit annoying to Max that they put the data screens so far up the wall. Even for the adults, they¡¯re above eye level, plus they¡¯re touch activated, and he can¡¯t reach them without a stool. But Nico doesn¡¯t need to, it seems. She can make them work from wherever she is standing.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°What did you have in mind for my hair?¡± Max asks, grabbing his beret from his locker.


    ¡°Regtion Crew cut work for you? Or do you like it longer?¡±


    A regtion crew cut sounds absolutely amazing to Max, but then he thinks of Sargeant Zamm, with his t-top haircut and blonde hair that closely matches Max¡¯s own.


    ¡°Can you do it like Sargeant Zamm? How good are you at doing hair?¡± Max asks quietly, not wanting to wake anyone in the surrounding rooms.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I do my own, but don¡¯t worry, I have a digital clipper.¡±


    Max isn¡¯t sure exactly what that is, but it sounds professional, so he nods. A digital clipper turns out to be a mesh towel of sorts. It sits over his head, adjusts shape to whatever Nico is instructing it to do with that strange ability of hers, and then with a wave of buzzing, Max has a brand new haircut, safely within regtions, and Nico collects the blonde tresses of his perm.


    She ties one small portion in a bundle and tosses the rest in the trash bin. The bundle she ces on the top shelf of his open locker and then pushes it closed with a smile.


    ¡°A keepsake to remember your first days of pilot training. ording to the screen, we¡¯ve got introductory core studies from seven in the morning until lunch, and then physical training from thirteen hundred until sixteen hundred.¡±<sub></sub>


    Max doesn¡¯t understand her timekeeping system, so he gives her a confused look.


    ¡°Oh, sorry, that¡¯s one in the afternoon until four in the afternoon. They¡¯ll likely go over that this morning in the core studies ss, but the Kepler military counts the whole day in a row, all twenty-four standard hours. Hundred is the double zero that means right on the hour. Fortunately for us, Kepler Terminus has a disbarred length day.¡±


    Come to think of it; Max had heard Dave using terms like that before. But without a set schedule, learning to tell time wasn¡¯t a priority for him. He can read a digital clock well enough to know when food delivery should be arriving, though.


    ¡°Thanks for the haircut, but aren¡¯t those things usually attached to a tablet or something?¡± Max asks, changing the topic as they head for the mess hall.


    ¡°Controlling nearby Technology is my Innate Skill. It was too warm in the car on the way home from the hospital, so I rolled down the window, and that was that. My Innate Ability was set.¡± Nicoughs.


    She makes it sound so basic, but she can navigate menus and set the shape of a digital mesh without seeing the software, so it¡¯s not a weak or simple skill that she awakened.


    ¡°I can see other people¡¯s surface thoughts,¡± Max says quietly, not wanting to alert the whole ss to his ability.


    ¡°Now that¡¯s handy, you¡¯ll always know when they have a surprise nned. Just keep me in the loop; I detest surprises.¡±


    Max suspects few things surprise her, with a lifetime of military memories and the ability to search through technological devices. He isn¡¯t sure that she can hack or bypass passwords, but with a skill like hers, she¡¯s probably learned how to by now. Even he learned the trick to cracking basic security from Dave so he could Pirate games off the Data Net.


    Being the first ones to breakfast, they¡¯ve got time to custom order, so they both get fully loaded omelets with Battered bread, an egg-covered pastry concoction Nico drenched in syrup.


    An hour before ss started, Major Payne came to the top floor mess hall to eat and found her two star pupils going over the cafeteria schedules on one of the wall screens. The worker nodded to indicate that they¡¯d already eaten, so Major Payne wondered what they were up to. Were they meal nning from the avable options? That¡¯s a bit unusual for twelve year olds, even if their mental growth has been enhanced.


    ¡°That¡¯s today, but the next day, everything served downstairs looks strange at lunch. If wee back up here, they¡¯ve got the Coconut Soup which looks pretty good, and the chocte protein shakes.¡± Max says to Nico, who sighs sadly.


    ¡°It¡¯s a long walk, but that¡¯s fine. The schedule says the seniors get out of training an hour after we do, so we should be able to sneak in dinner from the downstairs cafeteria and recover before they get out of ss both days.¡±


    The Major is a bit shocked, not only at their knowledge but their nning skills and the fact they hacked the ss schedules. Or maybe they asked someone at lunch yesterday? That¡¯s a possibility, though the seniors usually don¡¯t give much help to the first years.


    They disappear, and the Major quickly finishes her meal and starts to work. ¡°EVERYBODY UP! sses start in thirty minutes. Get dressed, get fed, and get to ss on time if you don¡¯t want to runps all afternoon. Literacy Skills are in the South Wing, room seventeen.¡±


    She and her Sergeants will be escorting the main group there of course, since it¡¯s their first day, but she¡¯s eager to see who all might manage to make it to the ss on their own and who won¡¯t even think to fall in with the group.

 9 Chapter 9

    Max and Nico arrive well before the others and take a spot near the door. Front Right serms to be their position of choice everywhere they go, but in this ssroom it¡¯s everyone¡¯s choice, the morning sunlight beats down across the left half the room and there are no blinds. It¡¯s hot, bright, and distracting to students who would rather be outside ying.


    Max wonders if it¡¯s intentional, then decides that¡¯s a pointless thought. Of course, it is. Everything here is a deliberate test.


    The friendly-looking young Corporal teaching the ss hands them their ss books, and Max bursts intoughter while Nico hides hers by biting her fist.


    ¡°Is Something Funny, Cadets?¡± The teacher¡¯s tone doesn¡¯t sound so kind now.


    ¡°Sir, no sir. It¡¯s just that the book is an introduction to the Kepler Standard Alphabet, and we can both already read thenguage, Sir.¡± Nico responds while Max struggles to regain hisposure. Musts use a local dialect with its own writtennguage, so not a lot of Cadets arrive knowing the standard Alphabet.<sub>.</sub>


    War might be the fate for half the poption, the ones with a System, but the parents at home are rarely enthusiastic about sending their children to their fate, and nobody uses the standard Alphabet here on Kepler Terminus.


    The teacher¡¯s face has reverted back into a kindly half smile, and he drops a digital tablet on their desks and collects the first books. ¡°Take those to the testing booths across the hall and fill them out. That standard assessment will help with your cement, so do your best.¡±


    Max recognizes the symbol in the corner as meaning that the device is connected to the Academy¡¯s internal Data Net and resists the urge to hack it. It¡¯s the Military Academy, of course they would notice if he uses a password algorithm on their tablet.


    With the fist to the chest Kepler Salute, they leave the room and pick adjacent stalls for the test. The testing stations are soundproof and have no windows to keep the students from cheating off of each other. That¡¯s not going to stop this dynamic duo, though.<sub></sub>


    Max sees the first bits are simple reading and writing skills tests, so he takes out the stylus and quicklypletes the first few sections. Then it¡¯s on to the very basics of Mecha control panelyout, anyone who has used the simtor will know this, so again, he flies through it.


    The third is the basic mechanicalyout of the Line Mecha. Not much was avable about this in the public datawork, so Max looks it over for clues, then decides to see how Nico is doing, using his Innate Talent to check her mind.


    She not only knows everything, but she¡¯s also corrected a deliberate mistake in the exam itself. Max sorts through her mind, trying to memorize everything he can without directly copying her answers. That¡¯s not too hard; it¡¯s just a mechanical schematic, no moreplicated than modifying a VR headset to bypass the bootup restrictions so he can y ck market games.


    With that essential knowledge, he moves all the parts on the screen to their correct locations and then double checks them against Nico¡¯s work. It looks right, so he moves to the final section on basic piloting techniques. He already knows this from the Multiyer Simtors, so he fills in everything as best as he knows it and then goes over the whole test again, looking for mistakes.<sub></sub>


    In the exam monitoring room, Sergeant Zamm is at a loss for words. Both students are on camera, and every entry into the tablet is monitored and recorded. The fact they aced the first-year writing portion was a given, but they didn¡¯t make any mistakes on the second and third-year portions either.


    Then they moved on to the mecha controlyout portion. A third-year final test that identifies and correctly ces every major controlponent in the Line ss Mecha. They also got perfect scores on that portion, with only cadet Max needing to adjust an answer. The same again on the Mechanicalyout. Cadet Max made no mistakes this time, he just took a more systematic approach that slowed him down,pared to Cadet Nico.


    The room the Instructors are in is shielded against System intrusion, so they can¡¯t be using their Innate Skills on the observers. If it even has that much range. The only possible answer he cane up with is that one or both of them already know this information that should be confidential to anyone outside the Academy.


    [Possibility Cadets have used innate skills to learn required information through year three after entering the academy] Sergeant Zamm notes as he watches them finish their tests.


    The information he has says they¡¯re both veterans of the civilian Multiyer Simtors, so the fact they know the essentials of control isn¡¯t a surprise, but it does pose a problem.


    This is the Third Year¡¯s cement exam. Afterpleting this, the standard course Cadets will be sorted into their career paths by aptitude, and not just by washing out of a program. Those with uniquely suitable skills would would officially start a trade program and finish the next three years getting ready for the intensive career training at the University, while those who didn¡¯t qualify as any form of specialists would begin infantry training immediately.


    But how do you ce a student who scored perfectly in everything?


    Sargeant Zamm snaps a picture on his personal encrypted device and sends the final scores and student information to an old friend much further up in the Command Structure. Surely the General will know what to do with two such outstanding Cadets.


    The testing room does don¡¯t unlock until thirty minutes before the lunch break, and both Cadets race out of the building after being dismissed by Sergeant Zamm, wanting to make it to the cafeteria before the seniors line up. Today they¡¯ve got the good enchdas for lunch here, and that¡¯s not a meal either of them wants to miss.


    They take their ces at the loudest table near the kitchen and dig in while the amused upper-level students get their lunch. Everyone pulls tubes of the spicy cheese out of their uniforms, and Max understands why it¡¯s a valuablemodity. The meal doesn¡¯te with it, but it would make it way better.


    That¡¯s valuable survival information in Max¡¯s mind. He will have to obtain more of the cheese tubes.


    After lunch, they return to the workout area, and Max heads straight for the resistance machine. It¡¯s a full-body workout and can upgrade all stat categories, though it focuses on strength. Since the goal is fifty total points of bonus for the first years, this is his best option.


    Today, Nico joins him, taking the next machine and activating a sparring scenario. Max ignored those because the haptic feedback was incredibly painful when you got hit, and you would be hit a lot. Instead, he picked a Strongman Competition today that was marked as suitable for cardio.


    Endurance might not be in the first categories of Stats, but the system says there¡¯s more to be unlocked. In a long battle, Max is certain stamina matters a lot more than fancy piloting.

 10 Chapter 10

    Both of the Year 1 ss 1 Leaders are already obvious to the training staff. Not only are they years ahead of their peers in school work, they¡¯re also dedicated to their training, with impressive System Modifiers.


    Cadet Max has an incredible 2.5 times modifier in strength, but Nico has a 2x modifier in speed plus a 1.5x modifier for dexterity, a rare double Primary. The Dexterity modifier isn¡¯t all that great, being high Gamma Ranked, and even the Speed modifier is Very low Alpha Rank, but together, they should make for very efficient training.


    Both Cadets are gaining quickly, even for students of their Compatibility Scores, and Major Payne is keeping close tabs. Regtions say they must remain in Year 1 sses until they¡¯ve reached 50 percent total bonus, and cannot graduate in the Piloting Program unless they¡¯ve reached 100 percent total.


    Ideally she would like to move them both to year 3 next Semester, to more closely match their training to their skills. But that means more intensive physical skills sses, and there is no guarantee that this rate of growth will hold.


    It¡¯s not strictly regtion, but it¡¯s not prohibited, so Major Payne decides to change the settings for them on the trainers from smooth growth to maximum System Gains. It¡¯s usually used as a punishment setting for Cadets that ck and are in danger of flunking a year due to insufficient progress, even a few hours under those settings are pure torture.


    But when she opens the menu, they¡¯re already changed. She didn¡¯t see anyone else near them, but someone already set the machines for maximum progress. Major Payne suspects Sergeant Zamm is the culprit, but she¡¯s not going to say anything to her supervisors until she has some sort of evidence.<sub>.</sub>


    Instead she waits and watches as the two Cadets train for an hour at maximum intensity, then go grab a drink from the provided bottles. They¡¯re not water, but a form of energy drink designed to help recover energy and repair damaged tissue.


    Instead of moving on to a low intensity activity, as she had expected, they both take a ten minute break, then resume their previous training programs.


    None of the other Cadets dare touch their machines after seeing the workout those two received, and the consensus among the first year ss is that those two are simply masochists.


    Again they repeat the process, taking a break and a drink, but this time they switch programs. Now Max is doing Dexterity and Speed Training while Nico is training primarily strength.


    Compared to their ssmates, the two with Alpha Ranked Systems have a huge advantage in increasing their status bonuses. After a full year of this, most Gamma Ranked students will seed in getting their fifty points to continue along the advanced piloting track. Almost every Cadet with a Delta Ranked System will be moved to a basic path or to a different specialty.<sub></sub>


    The Beta Ranked Students are usually the issue. They have it just easy enough to ck, getting an upgrade every few days to reach their goal, and it tends to make them arrogant and kill their motivation. What the instructors hope is that the clear advantage that these to Alpha Ranked overachievers will gain through their hard work will motivate the others.


    Max had time for four full cycles of training before the cafeteria opens for dinner, and he¡¯s made real progress again today. At this rate, the expectations of the academy are a joke, but it¡¯s possible the gains will slow down a lot as his skills increase.


    [Compatibility Determined]  Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [STR] +20%<sub></sub>


    [DEX] +2%


    [SPD] +2%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Functions Locked]


    ¡°Major Payne, what are the base stats? The system bonuses list as a percentage, but the base isn¡¯t there, Ma¡¯am.¡± Max asks, confused about how to interpret the data.


    ¡°It¡¯s in your locked skills, but I can tell you in advance. Every student will start out with a base of 1 in every stat, except those with Alpha Ranked Compatibility, who will begin with 2. Once you reach fifty percent total bonus, your physical abilities will increase from that of a growing child to that of an adult in a child¡¯s body. It¡¯s the System¡¯s way of rewarding you for hard work.¡±


    They¡¯re only on day two of having the system, and already Max is at twenty four percent total bonus. He¡¯s not sure if that¡¯s normal for people like him, in the top one percent of Compatibility, but there¡¯s an easy way to check. ss 2 isn¡¯t that far away and they¡¯re also training outside.


    Max focuses hard on the childhood friend of Nico who was also Alpha Ranked, looking for thoughts of where his abilities are at.


    He¡¯s also been using the resistance trainer, though Max can sense that he¡¯s not pushing himself, smug in his superiority as the only Alpha Ranked student in his ss. But where Max has seen six total upgrades, Nathan just finally got his first one, giving him 4.5 percent more strength. So he¡¯s got a 2.25x modifier on his strength, which is pretty solid, though not as lucky as Max.


    His teachers and ssmates are fawning over his achievement and how he might even get to the cap in only a few months. They¡¯re in for a huge shock when the Year Wide student progress rankingse out.


    ¡°Major Payne, is it possible to increase the base stats, once they¡¯re active?¡± Nico asks curiously, beating Max to the question.


    ¡°Possible, yes. But it¡¯s not easy. Some students will increase a base stat through hard work, an Innate Skill or a System Reward,  but most Pilots will end their career with the base stat level they began with.¡±


    ¡®Most pilots¡¯ likely doesn¡¯t apply to Max though, he already understood that he won the gic lottery in this lifetime, so he had high hopes for at least one or two bonus points. Though if a base of 1 is average adult, and 2 is exceptional, even one or two would be a huge advantage over the general poption.


    The energy juice today was a lifesaver, and Max even manages to drag himself up the stairs this time, using the stairs and railings for support and locking arms with Nico who is in simrly bad shape, but still, they made it up the stairs and got showered before bed.

 11 Chapter 11

    Within the week, Major Payne has the entire ss on a strict schedule, shouts echoing through the hallway signifying their change of tasks every time an rm goes off. ss, meals, Workouts, breaks. Everything is structured now.


    But Nico and Max aren¡¯t with the group for most of the morning anymore, instead they¡¯ve been assigned two separate morning Instructors. Sargeant Zamm to teach them more about Mecha Piloting, and Sargeant Farhan to teach them advanced mathematics and history.


    They can read well enough for the Sergeants, so literacy skills have been pushed aside for the semester, while the Academy tests the limits of their abilities.


    With Nico¡¯s help Max has managed to organize the ss into evening study groups to help the kids that are falling way behind in their readingprehension. Most either couldn¡¯t read Kepler Standard, or couldn¡¯t read thenguage well when they arrived, but that is quicky changing, with their entire morning being dedicated to it and the assistance of the improved cognitive abilities inherent to higher rank System Users.


    His goal is to make sure they¡¯re not a ss of disorganized individuals, but a single unit working towards a goal as well as proving he is a capable leader, worthy of notice and promotion. This environment is like heaven to Max, no drunks, nobody dissappearing to get high, no dangerous criminals hiding between buildings, just order and camaraderie.


    ¡°At this rate the first sspetition will be a massacre.¡± One of the military observers who is watching over everything through cameras mounted all over the campus notes, while reviewing the materials being taught to the two advanced students.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Those two are natural leaders. The other ss looks exactly like we would expect a ss of children to look. ss 1 barely needs teachers with Cadet Nico Max around.¡± Major Payneughs, using their odd attachment tobel them as one singr person.


    ¡°There¡¯s something off about Cadet Max though.¡± Another observer notes.


    ¡°His Innate Talent is a form of mind reading that he uses for memory duplication. I suspect that repeatedly using it on Cadet Nico and the Instructors to cheat on the assigned school work has subtly changed his personality, but there¡¯s no solid proof that he has been doing it so we can¡¯t reprimand him.¡± Major Payne¡¯s assessment makes everyoneugh. Such an amazing skill for a shirking student.


    ¡°Do we know the limitations of Cadet Nico¡¯s Technology based skill?¡± Colonel ck asks the room but nobody answers.


    ¡°Really, no ideas? A twelve year old is keeping secrets from you, the finest educators and interrogators on the?¡± Heughs.<sub></sub>


    ¡°It¡¯s hacking rted.¡± Major Payne begins, ¡°She regrly prates school digital security to get an advantage on uing assignments and gather other data. But we don¡¯t know what exactly the skill can do.¡±


    The observers have gathered with the senior staff because today marks the freshmen challenge. Each ss has been ordered to do something that will shock their instructors and prove their worth. ss 2 is going to break into the teachers lounge and go for the answer keys. A daring task for sure.


    But ss 1 has not spoken openly, following Max¡¯s suggestions and using hidden notes on edible paper saved from their meals to n their stunt. That alone shows the Observers that they know they¡¯re monitored and can adjust their tactics topensate.


    ¡°Are these really twelve year old kids?¡± a teacher asks. ¡°Even though they¡¯re all elites with two Alpha Rank leaders, this level of organization is remarkable.¡±


    The results they¡¯ve achieved so far are mostly from applying the military skills Nico retained upon reincarnation, but this entire first year ss is outstanding well beyond their rank, they just don¡¯t have anything topare themselves to. A deliberate action by the academy to prevent them from being influenced by outside factors.<sub></sub>


    What they have nned is a two pronged strategy. First up, the ss is going to meet up in front of the ss 2 dorms. The fifth through seventh years are out on a wilderness training mission right now, so Nico is going to loop the cameras and Max is going to lead the ss to stage an underwear raid in the ss 2 dorms, using his own hacking skills to pop open the biometric locks.


    While that is attracting the instructors attention, Nico will escape out to the senior Fairgrounds where advanced Line Mecha handling is being taught, with the n being for her tomandeer a Mecha and steal the school g from the post on the roof. With their smaller bodies and her ability to Command electronic systems remotely, she¡¯s the only one in the ss who could possibly do it.


    That fact annoys Max to no end, but there¡¯s nothing her can do about it at the moment. Soon he will be able to prove his worth.


    That¡¯s the n she managed to convince Max to agree to anyhow, with the wholehearted agreement of the others. Max is in charge of the raid and he¡¯s nning to make it look like they are going full in for the seventh years, but actually loot the first years lockers while they are out on their own mission and hang their underwear on the power lines outside.


    Because picking on the seniors might actually get them beat up, but they¡¯re not afraid of the first years.


    Max nods the go ahead and Nico loops the cameras before getting out of bed and escaping while Max is rousing the others who are eagerly waiting in their beds, pretending to be asleep. As Nico heads to the Fairgrounds, she sees the other ss is right on time. ss 2 has already entered the school building, so only 3 years are present in the dorms for Max and the rest to sneak past.


    There¡¯s a guard patrol out here looking over the parked Mecha that Nico couldn¡¯t do anything about, they¡¯re not online connected for her to hack, and she¡¯s not close enough yet to do anything to their sensors.


    So she waits until the patrol is on the far side of his loop to rush towards the parked Academy issue Line Mecha, using her talent to override the locks and open the hatch to the driverspartment. Step 1plete. Next is the tricky part, she needs to power the Mecha up as silently as possible, with no lights on, and make her escape while the guard is distracted by one of the sses.


    Primary power is up, secondary is up, the radio crackles to life and Nico turns it down to a whisper, dimming the dash lights to nothing at the same time.


    Alright, the Line Mecha is ready to go at any moment. She can¡¯t reach the controls, but using her Innate Talent for control works well enough for basic movement. Nico then straps herself in as securely as possible, the shoulder straps not designed for such a diminutive pilot.


    The second ss has just failed their mission, they¡¯re jumping out windows from the main floor of the school building, trying to escape with the answer keys. They were so obvious that even ss 1 knew what they were up to from whispers in the hallways, it¡¯s no surprise that the academy was on to them as well.


    It¡¯s go time. She leaps into action as the patrol Mecha is distracted, blending in with all the other sudden movement as guards respond to ss 2. Only she heads to the roof of the school, not the main floor.


    The g pole stands 20 meters high above the roof, nothing but a Mecha would get a student up there. The grab is good and the g pops free, Niconding as gently as possible in the far side of the school and ditching the Mecha to return to the ss 1 dorm with her stolen loot.


    5 minutester the rest of the sses inughing, the First Year ss 2¡¯s favorite underwear are out on the power lines. The administration was so into watching ss 2 and their epic failure that they didn¡¯t think to check the cameras for tampering during those fifteen minutes.


    The hacking knowledge Max acquired from Dave worked wlessly, letting them into every room¡¯s lockers at the same time, where the students grabbed a single pair of underwear from each locker before writing the room number on them and locking the door behind them.


    The gigantic school g is proudly hung in the first yearmon area, tacked up on the roof, as the wall wasn¡¯t high enough to prevent it dragging on the floor, which would be a punishable disrespect to the g.


    ¡°Nobody mention it.¡± Max instructs. ¡°See how long it takes them to notice.¡±


    Nicoughs and with a thought she returns the cameras to normal, but they all forgot one vital fact. A gigantic g is now blocking all the cameras in themon room.

 12 Chapter 12

    ¡°Congrattions on your wonderful disy of undergarments ss 1.¡± Major Payne begins as she walks into themon room and finds all her students waiting for her. ¡°You did an, how in the Empire did you manage to get that? Is that the school g from the roof?¡±


    ¡°Yes Major. We ept your appreciation for a mission sessfullypleted. Thank you for this opportunity Major.¡± Nico and Max say in unison.


    It¡¯s almost noon before the school understands what happened, the splice in the camera footage was so smooth they almost missed the hack. But in their review of the patrol mech footage, they saw the parked student Line Mecha rushing to the school as if to help and it all fell into ce from there.


    ¡°That operation is beautiful. Whoever it is runs the machine as well as any student in the school.¡± One of the senior ss supervisors sighs.


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t it be a first year student? How would they even manage it? It¡¯s a trainer Line Mech, all physical controls, it¡¯s not set up with a neural link.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d like to meet the first year that can even reach the foot controls from the chair. Could they have done it while standing up?¡± Colonel ck sighs.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°But I can guarantee I know who it was. Cadet Nico, the hacker. Clearly there¡¯s more to her skill than just hacking the cockpit locks, and the school¡¯s cameras.¡±


    ¡°I believe the raid on the dorms was all Cadet Max though. Unless we¡¯ve overlooked another student with talent, it should be that Max was the one who opened the lockers.¡± An observer points out.


    ¡°By reading minds to get the override code when dorm inspections are being done? That¡¯s a possibility as well.¡± Colonel ck agrees.


    All day long the students of ss 2 sulk about getting caught, iming that ss 1 set them up and tipped off the teachers.


    The Academy doesn¡¯t tolerate failure, so they¡¯re all on extended hours this week, and a modified cafeteria menu, with all the lowest requested options. Max winces at the thought that such misfortune might have been their fate, had they been caught. Nothing but the most nd of rbined protein products, with a side of that strange soup that smells like old socks.<sub></sub>


    They¡¯ve made it through the most restricted period of their education now though, and the luxuries and digital devices they brought from home are being returned to them, with the requirement that it not interfere with their school work.


    This too is a test, to see if they can stay focused under temptation, but all content that wasn¡¯t educational or school approved had been removed from their devices, and ess to the open Data Net is strictly unavable.


    That¡¯s not going to stop everyone though, especially a pair of hackers who are much too advanced in their schoolwork. Nico brought two full VR headsets with her, in case one broke. Packed full of her clothing, they took almost no additional room in her pack, and Max is incredibly grateful that she brought the extra.


    An Academy Internal Network only, military approved version is avable from the Commissary for 60 standard credits, andes loaded with school work approved for their ss level, but neither of them is willing to spend that much. In fact, they¡¯ve spent nothing at all except for the first round of essentials. Max isn¡¯t sure what they¡¯re saving for, but the First Year ss is so restricted that anything they could get would be a waste of money.


    With some careful hacking and borrowed knowledge, Nico and Max managed to obtain a VR simtor program for the Crusader ss Giant Mecha that is intended as a reward for top performing Senior ss students.<sub></sub>


    It took a little tweaking of their headsets user detection to adjust their body sizes in game to be able to work the Mecha, but they¡¯ve got it functioning correctly now and it¡¯s saved as a physics learning program in their VR units.


    VR gaming is a popr pastime for students, but their ess is strictly controlled, only approved and ss appropriate learning materials are permitted to enter the school, and no outsidework ess is allowed at all. Still, it¡¯s better than most of the options they have, especially for the Upper ssmen, who are already learning piloting and repair courses, and as such get ess to rted content.


    ¡°Should we reprimand the two first years and confiscate the contraband program now, or wait to see what they do with it?¡± The digital security officer asks Colonel ck after his weekly audit of the studentswork ess, impressed the Cadets managed to get through his security and gain ess to the program at all.


    ¡°Wait until the winter break is over and then delete it. Officially it never existed on their headsets, but bring me a copy of their mission scores.¡±


    Colonel ck would never let a true talent be wasted with ck marks on their record. Plus, it was from the academy, so they¡¯re not essing anything that the military would criticize him personally for allowing them ess to. If he thinks of it as an advanced ss, he can pretend there is nothing at all strange about his actions and even defend himself from usations, should his superiors within the education Ministry object.


    After the ss challenge, the actual sses start to get more enjoyable, but the rate at which Max is getting gains from the system has fallen off dramatically. He had gotten two or more every day before that, but now that he¡¯s near fifty points, it¡¯s getting harder. Today his entire routine only gave one Strength upgrade.


    [Compatibility Determined]  Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [STR] +30%


    [DEX] +6%


    [SPD] +6%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Functions Locked]


    He¡¯s so close to hitting that magical fifty bonus points that he can hardly contain himself. The prospect of being as strong as a full grown adult is irresistible to him. Only a few more upgrades and he will be at the yearly goal, not even a month into his first semester.


    Major Payne has been busy with the other students, getting them motivated and progressing towards their goals, so she hasn¡¯t taken the timetely to see how the two star pupils are progressing.


    She checks in on their routine daily, giving tips and making sure they¡¯re bncing their workouts, so they¡¯re not going to be suffering from any lingering muscle pains, strains or long term fatigue, but she hasn¡¯t used her skill to see just what the results might be.

 13 Chapter 13

    The two Cadets expand their data collection the next day, after another Status gain drought, adding the piloting program for the Kepler Line Mecha to their headsets.


    Though they¡¯re far from as glorious as the Crusader ss Mecha, they¡¯re of more immediate concern to the two, as they¡¯re the first Mecha that ever students will train on.


    The other new program they got was a Martial Arts program directly from Sargeant Zamm, to help build their hand to handbat skills. Many Cadets view that as unnecessary in an age of high powered weapons, but in urban settings, close quarters engagement is the norm and not the exception.


    Line Mecha in the standard pattern are only 3 meters tall, with the pilot sitting reclined in the torso, so they often get in close to their targets in such scenarios, and not every enemy they face will be human, or even humanoid.


    The actual armament of a Line Mecha varies, but it¡¯s typically simple and either slow firing or self guided, like rocket pods. That makes them perfect for hand to handbat training once Max has memorized some of the dozens of styles Nico knew in her past life.


    Compared to them, what they teach academy students isughable, but ording to Dave, that¡¯s the basic closebat style for the entire Empire, only special forces are taught anything better. Unlike some other Empires, the Command Structure of the Kepler Kingdom views ranged firepower as the great equalizer, and relies upon it for almost every situation.


    Line Mechabat is included in the program that Sargeant Zamm sent them, it was just locked by their First Year ss designation, a problem they quicky solved so that they could train both martial arts and Mecha handling at the same time.<sub>.</sub>


    The difference between in person and in Mecha is huge, as the Line Mecha are fully manual controls, two sticks plus dozens of buttons, switches and levers to control everything. For the most part you can keep your hands on the sticks, but moreplex maneuvers are often done with one hand, while calibrating systems and sensors with the other.


    Far different than simply moving your own body to fight.


    ¡°Third time¡¯s a charm.¡± Nicoughs the next day as they leave lunch, heading for the training grounds. They will both need at least two categories to update today in order to hit the goal, but they¡¯ve got the feeling that it¡¯sing soon.


    Today they pick the tennis simtor, and Nico cranks the machine back up to maximum Stat Gains, as she always does, making Maxugh.  It¡¯s obvious the staff has noticed, and because they can¡¯t me the students, they¡¯re ming each other.


    Max would do the adjustments himself, but since he needs to actually touch the control panel and enter the changes, he would be caught in seconds. Nico can do it from inside the VR simtion, so even if they enter under standard settings it doesn¡¯t matter.


    Max is up 6 points to 5 when his Strength finally increases.<sub></sub>


    [Strength Gain]


    [STR] +35%


    The change will take a while to apply, and they¡¯ve got time, so Max goes for the win, trying to finish the match before their next hourly break.


    [Dexterity Gain]


    [DEX] +8%


    [Speed Gain]<sub></sub>


    [SPD] +8%


    [System Functionality Unlocked: Base Stats]


    [STR] 2 +35%


    [DEX] 2 +8%


    [SPD] 2 +8%


    He¡¯s so happy to see the notifications that he doesn¡¯t even try to block the tennis ball that smacks him in the forehead, making Nicough.


    ¡°Go, take your break, I¡¯ll finish up the timer against an AI opponent.¡± She tells him, then he is forcefully kicked out of the simtion.


    As much as Max loves being able to read minds, that ability of hers is entirely unfair. At least when they¡¯re using VR tech it is.


    Nico leaves the Resistance trainer only a few minutester, so the instructors think nothing of the two taking an extended break and waiting on their Stats to update.


    They¡¯ve been so reliable with their training regimen that Max even notices that others are taking a longer than usual break, assuming that their time is up when he goes back to training.


    ¡°Let¡¯s try something different for a bit. Get some real sunlight through the eyes instead of projecting the images straight into the brain.¡± Max suggests.


    ¡°Water Rugby?¡± Nico asks, and the students around them cheer.


    Water Rugby is a team sport, you need multiple yers per side or it¡¯s just boring. There isn¡¯t a real pool here, but the water obstacle under the log run does the job very well. They can stand in it, with water to their chest, and the logs are just another obstacle to y around.


    It¡¯s also harder than it sounds, pushing through the water, especially with another cadet hanging off your back, trying to pull you under and steal the ball.


    Sargeant Farhan has a new twist for them today, ankle and wrist weights as well as a weighted belt. The extra two kilos per limb isn¡¯t terrible, at least not at first, but the level of energy spent with the extra weight and the wet coveralls is much higher than simply ying on drynd.


    They call the game twenty minutes before the end of training, giving them some time to dry off, since the staff won¡¯t let you in the cafeteria covered in mud or dripping wet, and none of them want to change before they eat.


    To Sargeant Zamm, that means it¡¯s time for the Cadets to take a jog. The baseyers dry out in seconds if they¡¯re not exposed to water, and the coveralls will dry rapidly in the wind.


    ¡°Hop to it, gogogo, let¡¯s get you all pretty and dry for the cafeteria.¡± Zamm shouts, but doesn¡¯t push them hard enough they¡¯ll really start sweating.


    He¡¯s on cafeteria duty today after all, and the fewer sweaty bodies there are in the room, the happier he is. Too many of the First Years barely understand hygiene, or the necessity of washing clothes that aren¡¯t stained.


    Max¡¯s new base stats implement while he¡¯s eating, and Max can feel his uniform getting tighter. That¡¯s a known side effect of the process, it often pushes students through an elerated early puberty, as the nanobots optimize them for adult life.


    He excuses himself to his dorm room, deciding that he can ask an Instructor for new clothes in the morning, or if the change is not too drastic, simply go downstairs in his stretchy baseyer and grab them from the Commissary.

 14 Chapter 14

    When Max woke up in the morning nothing fit him. From clothes to shoes to even his bed, he had outgrown them all in the course of a single night. Forget the n of going down to themissary in his skivvies, he¡¯s definitely going to have to get someone to bring him a new uniform.


    He looks over to Nico, who had also broken past the fifty percent margin yesterday, and presumably had the same issues that he did, only to find the small figure still sleepingfortably in bed. She certainly wasn¡¯t as small as she wasst night, but Max grew quite a bit in a single night.


    Getting up, he found that he could now easily reach the data screen on the wall by the door, and began to scroll through for a way to get new clothes before realizing that he had no idea what his new size was. He didn¡¯t even know exactly how tall he was. Fortunately for him there is an easy way to find out your exact size here in the academy, in the form of a Virtual Reality headset.<sub>.</sub>


    They might have hacked the ones they were using to adjust their size to bepatible with the cockpit size of the Crusader ss Mecha in the simtors, but the unit could still scan your body and tell you everything from your height and weight to your body mass index and if you needed a haircut to stay within regtions.


    So, Max put his set on and booted it up, asking it to run a user scan and report the data but not update any settings in the system at this time. He wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d be done growing at this point, and updating now might mess up their custom settings, making him a giant in the simtors.<sub></sub>


    ording to the headset he had shot up to a whopping 170 cm tall, but still weighed only 39 kilos. He needed to eat to get enough calories into him for the nanobots to finish their work, but he couldn¡¯t very well do that naked. So, he went back to the data screen and paged Major Payne, who he knew would be up by this point anyhow.


    ¡°This had better be good, Cadet. I¡¯m not your mother that you can just summon at will.¡± She growled,ing into their dorm room with her morning coffee in hand.<sub></sub>


    ¡°My apologies Major, but both of us went through the fifty percent activationst night, and now neither of us has anything to wear that even remotely fits. I wasn¡¯t sure what to do, but going naked to themissary didn¡¯t seem like the greatest of ns.¡± Max exins as the Instructor looks at him in shock.


    Not only did both him and Cadet Nico get through the years goal for system gains in under two weeks, but the boy had also undergone one of the more dramatic puberty upgrades, likely due to his strength based Primary Stat. As you mature, the system helps shape your body to the bonuses that you¡¯ve put into it, so a high strength male would naturally be arge and bulky person, where a dexterity specialized soldier like herself tended to be more on the lean side.


    Major Payne produced a tape measure from her pocket and started measuring Cadet Max, getting his arm and leg lengths, as well as his height, chest and waist measurements. The process made Nico chuckle something about his three sizes, but Major Payne did the exact same to her, finding that she was still only 135 cm tall, shorter than average for the amount of maturing that her body had done overnight. The Major¡¯s estimation was that they would still need at least two or three days for the process toplete, so they were excused from sses, and an assortment of the regtion ck uniform coveralls would be sent to their dorm in the meantime.


    She would be checking up on them three times a day, as well as twice daily visits from the doctors to ensure that they weren¡¯t having any issues, but if they felt any sort of pain they were to report to the infimary immediately.


    That suited them just fine, they could take their time and recover, with a LOT of food, and catch up on their simtor exercises that had been sacrificed thesest few days in favor of extra time in the resistance trainer because they were trying for thest few gains to put them over the top.


    In the observation room, the news from Instructor Payne had everyone buzzing in excitement. Not just one but two Cadets hade very close to, if not broken the Empire¡¯s growth rate records, and they were both at the same academy. That would be a great benefit for their careers, as the speed of a Cadet¡¯s progress reflected directly on the efficiency and skill of the Academy training them.


    The news spread quickly and quietly to many other ces as well, with more than one set of ears being interested in the fate of these Cadets. One in particr decided to use his sway and go see them for himself, volunteering as a course instructor for advanced Mecha Piloting at the Kepler Terminus Military Academy.


    Max knew nothing of this though, all he knew was the coveralls arrived in only a few minutes and they could go fill up at the cafeteria. Not only the uniform rules had been suspended for them during this time, the portion size rules had too. During the transition, getting as much energy as possible was more important than maintaining a healthy body weight and blood sugar levels, which the standard diets were designed to do.


    The only real problem was that growing hurt. A lot. Every second of breakfast was agony as his body adjusted, and he didn¡¯t think that Nico was in any better shape, despite remaining much shorter. The entire day progressed that way, just a steady stream of calories for his body to burn and intense pain that no avable painkiller would even begin to nullify.


    The doctors came by twice and confirmed that it was absolutely normal with a growth spurt as intense as his had been, but there wasn¡¯t much they could do about the pain without temporarily disabling the nanobots, which would cripple his advancement, and possibly his body as well.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 15 Chapter 15

    Being so far ahead of the curve left the teachers assigned to Cadets Nico and Max in turmoil. If they kept pushing themselves, they might quicky surpass even the average third year students, which would be a nightmare for the cement exams and training schedules. But if they held them back there would be hell to pay with their superiors for stunting the children¡¯s growth.


    They had a few months to make their final decision still while the two Cadets suffered through the progression and their bodies adapted, but after that something would need to be decided.


    What they eventually came up with, at Major Payne¡¯s insistence, was to allow them full use of the line Mecha training programs in their off time, as well as special dispensation to go home for the fall break.


    First Year students had never earned the privilege before, but there¡¯s a first time for everything, and these two had earned it. That also gave them an extra week to n their transition from the basics of First Year sses into someting more suitable for their skill levels.


    In these newly grown bodies, they didn¡¯t look much different than the older students, and they were roughly the same size, allowing them to fit right in if they were transferred.


    There was some talk of moving them to a different academy, to avoid the upset that would be caused among students in the year three ss at the special treatment, but that was put to a sudden stop when they received the notice of a new trainering.<sub>.</sub>


    The man was a living legend on Kepler Terminus, pilot of a Phnx ss Mecha that specialized in point defense. Alone he could hold a small city against an attack by light Mecha and conventional vehicles.


    He intended to recruit the two Cadets for ssified Special Forces training, testing their worthiness here before moving them should they prove sessful.


    That bought them the time they needed to let the Cadets adjust to their new sizes and muscle density. Puberty in a week didn¡¯te without a cost, and the initial pain was only part of it. The awkwardness was very real, and many Cadets basically had to learn to walk again.


    The day before fall break finally came, Major Payne delivered the news of permission to return home for the early break to the Cadets, who were training on the resistance machine at the lower than usual bnced growth setting so they didn¡¯t strain anything, then returned to the main ss, who were writing exams at the moment.


    ¡°You know what my parents are like, why don¡¯t youe to my house?¡± Nico asks and Max sighs.<sub></sub>


    ¡°My parents might be really terrible people, but they will get mad if I snub them for your family, and I don¡¯t want to make things difficult for you.¡± Max sighed at Nico when the news came in that they could go home early for a visit.


    ¡°What made things so awkward between them and you anyhow? You¡¯re pretty well behaved for a first year¡± Nico asked, putting on her best adult voice then breaking into giggles at the mental image of him beside the other First Years.


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t always control my gift, but I didn¡¯t realize it was subconsciously activating right away. I didn¡¯t know that some things weren¡¯t things I should know, so I spilled secrets and ruined surprises all through my early childhood until a friend helped me out. It made things really awkward with my parents and even worse with their rtives, whopletely stopped visiting.¡± Max decided to skip over the bit where his mother still insists he¡¯s her daughter not her son. That¡¯s embarrassing enough just knowing, much less telling anyone else.


    ¡°I¡¯ll fix this. Come with me.¡± Nico instructs. As expected, Major Payne is found in front of the array of monitors in her office when Nico knocks at the door.


    ¡°Yes Cadets, how might I help you?¡± she asks.<sub></sub>


    ¡°We¡¯ve a bit of a conundrum Major. Cadet Max doesn¡¯t wish to go home, but for the sake of his mental health it is best he takes the holidays away from school. Might there be a way for him to be officially reprimanded to the campus, but still free to see my family for the holidays?¡± Nico asks.


    The Major is, of course, well aware of the Max family¡¯s issues, she¡¯s read all of the medical and observation records for her students, and knew that Max unwittingly told the recruitment officer of his father¡¯s alcoholism and his mother¡¯s affairs and drug abuse during a routine checkup at age 3.


    He would not be allowed by the Academy to return to that house anyhow, so a note that he is not permitted to return home should be simple enough.


    ¡°Will your parents agree? They should have four young boys now, correct?¡±


    ¡°If all is well, yes, they should have two sets of twins. Fortunately, we are capable of entertaining ourselves, and the interaction should prove beneficial to Cadet Max.¡± Nico smiles.


    ¡°There will be cake.¡±


    Major Payne can¡¯t help butugh at that. The pair of overly mature Cadets suddenly reminded her of proper twelve year olds there for a moment.


    ¡°Go on, I¡¯ll settle it for you. See you in two weeks.¡±


    With that they were off, an academy car delivering them directly to the Tarith family doorstep.


    ¡°My baby, you¡¯re back! And so grown. I read the permission letter from the school, you even brought me another girl! You¡¯re too kind, you don¡¯t know what it¡¯s like being around so many boys all day.¡± Mary Tarith all but cries in her daughter¡¯s arms.


    ¡°Your mom is just a much fun as you remembered¡± Max chuckles. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Max. Unfortunately I¡¯m not the girl my parents wished me to be, but feel free to call me Sam or Sammy. Everyone just usesst names in the academy, so I haven¡¯t heard it in a while.¡±


    ¡°Whichever you prefer dear. It¡¯s all the same to me.¡±


    ¡°Then Max it is.¡± Max dered and gave an impish smile to the overwhelmed woman.


    The Tarith family wasn¡¯t a particrly rich family, at least not all of them, but they were a close knit and very old and influential one. Over the course of the first week dozens of rtives came to see the Cadets in their Academy Uniforms, have dinner with the parents or even just watch arge group of the extended family¡¯s kids for a few hours to give everyone else a break.


    Thest day of their vacation was a predictably teary-eyed affair, with Mary finding every excuse to dy their departure until Nico was sure the escort driver was going to simply throw them in the car and flee.


    ¡°Is she always like that, Cadet?¡± He asked as they finally drove away.


    ¡°No sir. She¡¯s got two sets of twin boys at home though and misses having a girl around.¡±


    The driverughs ¡°That I can understand. I¡¯ve got five younger sisters. My father finds any excuse toe visit.¡±

 16 Chapter 16

    Many things changed after that first break for the two young Cadets. Their sses were no longer with the rest of the First Years, instead they had aprehensive new course called advanced Piloting that was scheduled to take their entire day. No separate training, or sses, just that one single item on their schedule.


    It was very simr to the changeover between second and third year schedules. During the third year, Aspiring Mechanics started using basic robotics, ground crew started learning organization, staffing and missionunch procedures, while potential pilots got a control systems course.


    This upgrade for him and Nico was a drastic change from the nned curriculum Max found online, which called for two years of fundamentals like reading and history before such courses started. Perhaps this is what Major Payne meant by being moved to the advanced sses?


    The most obvious change in his surroundings though, stood right by the gates in front of the school. An enormous Citadel pattern Phnx ss Mecha. This behemoth is so heavily armed it takes two pilots to operate at full capacity. One to move it and run the arm weapons, in this case an articted hand holding a huge shield and a mighty triple barreled Ion bombardment battery.


    The second pilot is entirely on weapons and sensors. The array of four independently targeted anti aircraft batteries atop its torso armor, the six chest mountedser cannons and the two shoulder mounted twin barreled 15cm anti armor guns.


    On this venerable machine, those are the only solid projectile weapons, the four anti aircraft batteries had been switched to energy pulse style quad guns at some point in its history.<sub>.</sub>


    From his time ying illicitly obtained simtors, Max knew that this setup, particrly the Ion bombardment battery on the right arm would draw so much power from the Thorium reactor that the whole machine would slow down at high rates of fire, even when the pilot was rapidly cycling the weapon one barrel at a time instead of firing all three at once.


    It was glorious, recently repaired and polished to a gleaming ck, the name te reading ¡®Shining Darkness¡¯ and a banner hanging from its hips detailing the over fifty campaigns it had survived. Just how old was this war machine? How many times was it repaired from devastating damage?


    The first time they saw it in the courtyard, the two Cadets stood staring for a long while, simply looking over the magnificent work of human ingenuity. The presence of such a storied giant Mecha wasn¡¯t something they could fully appreciate with just a cursory nce.


    With the Phnx ss Mecha of course came a pilot, rumor saying he came alone, the previous second pilot having passed away. In this age, humans could live hundreds of years with modern medical treatment, dying of old age was unheard of for a Mecha pilot.


    ¡°Cadet Nico, Cadet Max, you will have advanced piloting with General Tennant. He preferred to sleep in his Mecha, so report to him there.¡± Major Payne informs the duo.<sub></sub>


    That¡¯s not quite what Max was hoping to hear, the students that had seen the General reported him to be an ill tempered old man covered in scars and tattoos. Having years of advanced piloting sses with him didn¡¯t sound fun at all.


    Major Payne had often taught the main piloting course, when she was overseeing older Cadets and she was regarded as an excellent teacher. Strict, but with a sense of humor. Having her ss would be a much more enjoyable option.


    Upon reporting to the giant Mecha for their first lesson the two found nobody in sight. No teacher, no students, nobody at all. Nico tried to ess the Mecha, but was locked out by its security systems. Max had a little better luck though, as he could sense the pilot inside. He just didn¡¯t know what to do about it, as the man seemed to be sleeping or blocked from his Innate Talent.


    Max noticed the direction of Nico¡¯s attention as she looked up at the cockpit, and did the same. ¡°How do we greet him, and where is everyone else?¡± he whispers.


    ¡°General Tennant, Sir. Cadets Nico and Max reporting for duty, Sir.¡± Nico yells up at the Mecha in the most professional voice she can muster.<sub></sub>


    A side hatch on the torso opens when she calls out and a grizzled old soldier steps out, grabbing a wire cable from a winch inside the door and descending down to ground level using the hook.


    The thought of descending from such a height, simply standing on a hook attached to a winch line makes Max feel a bit queasy, but he¡¯s sure he would get over it eventually. After all, the General doesn¡¯t seem the least bit concerned by the action, and he¡¯s likely done it hundreds of times.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re it are you?¡± The General asks.


    It what? ¡°Presumably so, General?¡± Cadet Max asks uncertainly. ¡°We were under the impression this was the advanced piloting course.¡±


    ¡°It is, Cadet. You two are the only pair that have been identified as possible candidates for a future Phnx ss appointment on this right now. So you are the entire advanced piloting ss.¡±


    Identified as a potential Phnx ss team? Phnx ss Mecha are legends on the battlefield. A single unit like the Shining Darkness can defend a city from a conventional army. Or take it from them. To most Mecha battalions, they are the most seniormand element, their General, spiritual leader and strongest ally in battle, all in one massive machine. That is exactly what Dave meant when he told Max to be the sort of leader soldiers could look up to.


    [To see more than one appear on each side of a battle is to see the end of your world] a local proverb says about the Phnx ss Mecha, referring to an ancient battle that rendered a nearby uninhabitable for centuries. Ten Heavy Mecha Regiments faced off on a single world, the aftermath of their battle leaving the ground scorched and skies crackling with ionized energy.


    ¡°So, one day, if we survive that long, we might be piloting something almost as Glorious as the Shining Darkness?¡± Max asks in awe.


    ¡°Not just almost as glorious. If you survive training and your first few tours with the requiredmendations you will be taking over the Shining Darkness herself.¡± General Tennant smiles, looking fondly up at his Mecha.


    ¡°I¡¯m an old man, and the Emperor tasked me with finding her sessors. Ten generations of my family have fought inside Shining Darkness, each doing her proud. One legendary warrior showed so much promise he even moved past her and into the Titan ss ¡®Glory of Sol¡¯, even you young Cadets should know that name.¡± General Tennantughs.


    Of course they did. The Glory of Sol singlehandedly took the Kepler Core star cluster and held it against four hostile armies so the Kepler Kingdom could be founded. There¡¯s not a child in this world, or the entire kingdom for that matter, that doesn¡¯t know the name.


    While a Phnx ss Mecha could hold a city, a Titan ss Mecha, with their interster travel capability and unfathomable firepower could hold a small empire. Even the glorious fleets of the interster Navy couldn¡¯t stop them. A handful of them could hold an entire segment of the gxy.


    But the mental power and skill required to so much as power it up was beyond even most S ss operators. The Titan ss machines were said to work on a dedicated Neural link, making the operator¡¯s mind part of the Mecha¡¯s AI. Not just any mind could handle that.


    ¡°Wait, that means the Shining Darkness predates the Kingdom¡± Max gasps, just now realizing how much time is needed for fifty interster war campaigns to be finished.


    ¡°Suitably awed, not too prideful, I like it. Now to test your skills. Follow me to the simtors for the first lesson in advanced piloting.¡±

 17 Chapter 17

    ¡°Alright, Cadets. Wee to advanced piloting.¡± General Tennant announces once all three of them are strapped into the simtion machines.


    The experience is aplete VR simtion, but the body isn¡¯t inactive like a gaming headset. Instead, the simtion follows your natural body¡¯s response inside the perfectly replicated cockpit of the simtor. The design was created to tone pilots¡¯ bodies and muscle memory in the most realistic way possible.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t basic piloting; I expect you understand the controls.¡± They understand the controls very well, as both had been ying downloaded simtors long before arriving at the academy and had recently been practicing their martial arts inside the Line Mecha in the VR learning programs.


    ¡°So what we will start with today is evasion. The tactical footwork that will help keep you in one piece. The best targeting skills in the world won¡¯t help if you are not alive to use them.¡±


    The Cadets are currently strapped into modified Line Mecha simtors, designed for the younger Cadets smaller bodies, making Max, who is already tall enough to use the regr simtors properly, feel like a giant.


    The Line Mecha is the simplest and lowest grade of Mecha currently used by the Kepler Kingdom, the foot soldier of a fully mechanized force. Standing a mere 3 meters tall, a Line Mecha could easily fight within urban areas or forests, with its seated pilot taking up most of the chest.


    Small Mecha like these weren¡¯tmonly named, instead of being referred to in orders by pilot or unit designation. General Tennant preferred names when teaching Cadets.


    ¡°Cadet Nico, your evasive pattern is in your heads-up disy. Executed perfectly, your unit will not be hit by the pre-programmed defensive fire. Ready in 3, 2, 1.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    Nico watched the pattern appear in her heads-up disy as she drove the small Mecha through an obstacle course, parked vehicles, and ditches. The pattern and technique were unfamiliar but closely resembled the predictive evasion patterns from her childhood memories. She pushed the Line Mecha to its limits and took only a few hits during the entire run, mostly when her footing shifted.


    ¡°Not bad for a first attempt, Cadet. But your movements are toorge to react to the more rapid adjustments. Keep your feet closer to the ground unless you¡¯re stepping over something; shift more at the hip joints and less with leg extension.¡±


    ¡°Cadet Max, you¡¯re up in 3, 2, 1¡± Max barely had time to get himself mentally prepared, having still been taking in the advice Nico got when the instructor began his run.


    Many times iing fire barely clipped his simted Mecha as he made his way through the course, leaving it battle-scarred by the end of the run.


    ¡°The enemy doesn¡¯t wait for you to think, Cadet Max. Work on those reaction times. You¡¯re not moving your whole Mecha into the safe zones, only your pilotingpartment; that¡¯s why you¡¯re taking so much fire. The enemy can still see you. Cadet Nico¡¯s advice was for Cadet Nico.¡±


    ¡°Again!¡±


    So went the entire first day of Advanced Piloting, all twelve hours. Nico and Max were so exhausted that they could barely drag themselves out of the simtors to shower and sleep. Food could wait until morning.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Wee to day two, Cadets.¡± General Tennant greeted them from the cockpit of the Shining Darkness the following day. ¡°Sleep well?¡±


    ¡°Yes, General, like the dead, sir.¡± The Cadets responded in unison.


    ¡°Very good. I worried I was too soft on you for you to sleep. Now, both of you, follow me back to the simtors.¡±


    The pattern was not the same every run. It got harder to follow every time theypleted it sessfully. The first six hours flew by, and both Cadets were sore and frustrated from their continued failures to achieve a perfect run, despite the constant suggestions for improvement.


    The General was, in fact, an excellent teacher. His demeanor was terrifying, but he knew exactly what a Cadet needed to improve and how to exin it to them.


    ¡°Break for lunch, Cadets. Food will be delivered to us here.¡± He finally called, much to their relief.


    At first, they were dubious about the amount of food delivered. After all, despite the recent growth spurt, they didn¡¯t exactly have thergest stomachs. But the food was good, and they were starving.<sub></sub>


    ¡°General, is it even possible to get a perfect run?¡± Cadet Max asked during a break between bites of cheeseburger.


    ¡°If it were so easy to master,  I wouldn¡¯t have to teach a course in it now would I, Cadet?¡± General Tennantughed.


    ¡°I know you¡¯ve borrowed some of my memories to help, but knowing what to do and doing it perfectly every time are two very different things. Until you can do it perfectly every time, you¡¯re nothing more than target practice for enemy mecha.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you one piece of advice while we¡¯re here, outside of the Academy¡¯s observation of your training. Not only is the maneuver you¡¯re given important, but so is the one you¡¯re going to get next. Work on your situational awareness and it will speed up your progression more than anything else.


    If you can predict the uing attacks, you can easily dodge them. Both of you possess Alpha Level System Compatibilitybined with reasonably high intelligence. Considering that, a level of basic precognition through data analysis should be possible for you with practice.¡±


    This was the longest time anyone in the academy had heard the General speak, and the only two to listen to it were his chosen Cadets.


    ¡°Is precognition something that the System can grant?¡± Nico asked incredulously.


    ¡°Not in a true sense, but if you train it well enough, you can unlock a variety ofbat analysis skills that either mimic precognition or will effectively analyze likely enemy movements in advance and give you warning of likely iing attacks. The system is very good at data analysis, don¡¯t doubt its abilities.¡± General Tennant replied with great conviction.


    He¡¯d been through enough battles to know to trust the system¡¯s judgment, it was right much more often than not, and a wasted round when the target didn¡¯t appear was preferable to missing the chance for a shot you could have taken.


    The system was the great advantage that the Kepler Mecha pilots had over their opponents, who had to work with what they were born to. Many other nations used drugs and gic engineering to attempt to emte the results of the system, but so far, none had seeded in anything that wouldpare to it.


    The greatest threats to Kepler Mecha armies were, therefore, not other humans but inhuman beings with superhuman abilities innate to their species.


    Paying more attention to the surroundings made responding to the instructions easier after only a little practice. Under ten ncing hits per run was possible for both Cadets within the week, no matter what battlefield setting the simtor gave them.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like it.¡± Colonel ck mused, watching the simtor footage.


    ¡°They¡¯re progressing at an astounding rate; the General has already moved the difficulty to level 2 a semester ahead of schedule.¡± Major Payne agreed.


    ¡°But he hasn¡¯t even started teaching them weapon drills. Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a bit too unorthodox?¡± one of the Imperial supervisors asked.


    ¡°All the other piloting students spend upwards of six hours a day at the shooting range improving their skills; we don¡¯t even know if these Cadets can operate the weapons systems.¡±


    ¡°The General knows what he is doing. By the time the group training for the year-end inter-sspetition begins in four months, they will have covered everything they need.¡± Colonel ck assures the bureaucrat.


    ¡®The bureaucrats never understand the true genius of abat veteran like him.¡¯ Major Payne thinks to herself, silently judging the overseer sent from the central government on Kepler Prime to ensure the quality of the children¡¯s education.


    ¡°And isn¡¯t it odd that they all eat in total silence?¡± The Imperial Supervisor asks, looking at the screen.


    Yes, it is. Very odd. But as the General is the highest-ranked officer on base, none of them would be willing to call him out on using his System abilities andmand codes to block the audio feed on the surveince cameras, even if he does it every lunch hour.


    Nor will they be mentioning that fact to the government supervisor.

 18 Chapter 18

    With their new ss schedule putting them in the advanced piloting course all day, it was determined by the academy that the two genius cadets would no longer be part of Year 1 ss 1, though for now they would remain in their old dorm room.


    Officially they were part of the Advanced Education department now, which was usually reserved for Cadets in their final two years who showed enough promise to get recruited into the Special Forces training program. Buttely, the quality of Kepler Terminus Cadets had been very good and their dorms were all full.


    That proved to be a problem for the Academy, since the regr dorms of the First Years weren¡¯t all that secure, physically or digitally, and both Cadets were known to have skills in hacking. The General thought it was hrious, but he was the only one on staff that did.


    Everyone else was fully stressed about the fact that they might cheat their way through the exams, but General Tennant knew very well that his own personal examinations couldn¡¯t be cheated on, for he only tested true survival skills that were applicable to the battlefield.<sub>.</sub>


    That¡¯s why no other Instructor really understood his technique, they knew the book theory and the approved methods, but they were teachers through and through, most of them had never seen the battlefield.


    The only one on the ss 1 team that had more than a single tour ofbat duty was Sergeant Zamm. It was Zamm who alerted the General to the two promising Cadets here, and convinced him toe check them out.


    Starting the third day, Max was starting to get used to the grueling schedule that General Tennant kept, but with years of Academy education left ahead of them, and a four year head start on the rest of the Special Forces trainees, he wasn¡¯t sure exactly what the Old General¡¯s rush was.<sub></sub>


    The other trainees had courses ten hours a day, plus physical fitness time, but General Tennant had Max and Nico in the simtors for 12 hours a day, in 6 hour stretches.


    Max had already looked up the standard rotations, and they were three hours each, so he decided that might be why the General pushed for six hours at a time, to get them prepared for the times when they might need to pull a double duty shift in the case of an emergency, heavy losses or ongoing attack.


    Understanding the logic was one thing, but convincing his body that it was actually capable of surviving it was entirely different. He woke up on time, made it through the training, ate and slept, that was it. Nico seemed to be adjusting better, so he searched her mind for answers this morning while he still had the energy.<sub></sub>


    To her it simply felt natural, the empire she served during her previous incarnation used performance enhancing drugsbined with gic engineering to create super soldiers out of their limited human resources, so this body simply couldn¡¯t yet keep up with everything that was asked of her as a Mecha Pilot in thest life.


    Max briefly considers that it might not be in the far past or the future, just an empire whose technology was heavily ssified or far away from where they currently are, because the way she was trained before and the way General Tennant is training them now are entirely too close to be a mere coincidence.


    Or maybebat just has some sort of universally hellish quality to it, and it¡¯s the same no matter where you are?


    ¡°Since you¡¯re enjoying the drills so much, I have added a new realm ofplexity to it starting this morning. Randomly cednd mines. Your sensors are fully capable of detecting them, just set them to the chemical detection setting and you¡¯re good as gold.¡± The General informs them when they make it to ss for their sixth day of training.


    Tomorrow will mark their first full week of training, being their designated weekly day of rxation, so they had hoped that today would be not too bad. After all, they¡¯d gotten good at the previous obstacle courses that the General had been putting them through.


    But it seemed that he simply couldn¡¯t wait until after the rest day for them to move on to a new difficulty level.


    Thendmines are indeed easy to detect with the sensors, the problem is that the sensor setting that finds them can¡¯t be active at the same time as the one that detects charged energy pulses that they use to predict iing weapons fire. The Line Mecha¡¯s systems are simply not advanced enough for that level of multitasking.


    Max has a decision to make,ndmines or energy pulses? The anwer should be both, he just needs to determine how. For his first run, Max decides that the technique he will try is a quick scan forndmines every time he¡¯s about to move out of cover, then back to iing weapons fire, and on to the next covered position, hoping that he didn¡¯t forget where thendmines were.


    It is moderately effective, except that the quick scan doesn¡¯t always catch all the mines, and dodging the iing shots requires moving off the nned path, which means recalcting his path through the buried obstacles.


    He manages to blow himself up the first run, stepping on a mine to dodge an Ion Cannon st, but the General doesn¡¯t criticize him, simply calls out his usual admonishment.


    ¡°You¡¯re dead Cadet. Go again.¡±


    General Tennant knows that this level of obstacle course is nearly impossible for a Cadet at this level, but the more times they face mortality, and the harder the training is to start, the better adjusted they will be to the battlefield conditions when the timees to face realbat.


    He wants these two to eventually take over his own Phnx ss Mecha, but such an honor can only possibly go to heroes of the Empire or direct descendants of the current pilot, of which General Tennant has none that he finds to be suitable and worthy of the opportunity.

 19 Chapter 19

    ¡°Good work today Cadets, you¡¯re getting better at avoiding thendmines when you dodge. Since tomorrow is a break day I¡¯ll see you after lunch for your training. Dismissed.¡± General Tennant informs them with a smile.


    Both Max and Nico saw that oneing, for a man well into his senior years, the General is a workaholic at heart, there was no way that they were actually going an entire day without any form of training going on. At least not under hismand.


    General Tennant had a good reason for that though, a little bit of duty every day builds a habit of training. Once that habit is instilled into the Cadets so well that it bes subconscious they will continue to do it well beyond basic training and instill it into the troops under theirmand as well. The fact that mostmanders let their troops ck on long inteary missions is something that he considers one of the biggest killers of Soldiers in the Kepler Empire.


    The first days ofbat are when the battle is the most intense, targets are the most heavily defended and soldiers are the best equipped. If troops have been on transit for a month or more, barely training enough to keep up their skills, what domanders expect will happen to them? Of course they¡¯re going to get ughtered, you dropped them from the military version of a vacation directly into a hell full of anti mecha firepower and guided missiles.<sub>.</sub>


    Not just the Mecha Pilots either, the mechanics, the medics and the infantry as well. Everyone suffers from that same mise after a long period of little training and no real work.


    To some his method might be unorthodox, or considered a social experiment, but General Tennant has been sessfully using it for decades now, and it¡¯s built him the reputation that he has as a brilliant strategist and peerlessmander. With these two intended to be his sessors, his work ethic is the most important thing he believes that he can impart to them before they graduate to actualbat.


    Compared to his advanced piloting course, the observers noted that the other sses seemed to have it excessively easy. The intensity of his training simply put everything the government approved in their inteary education guides to shame.<sub></sub>


    The Cadets having the most fun were definitely the Mecha Ground Crew students. They learned radio etiquette, proper movement patterns andunch control. All in a virtual reality setting. To the students, it was like getting to handle real Mecha all day, even their book work was studied inside the virtual reality simtion for the most part.


    The mechanics had it rough though. The very basics of their specialty were mecha repair theory and diagnosis. How did it break, why did it break, and what broke to cause this effect. They wouldn¡¯t get to the actual fixing untilter their third year or maybe the fourth. Diagnosis and fine tuning of a Mecha system was life or death for pilots relying on top performance, no gaps in knowledge were allowed in the elite ss.


    Out of the three main courses theirs was the most knowledge intensive. Ground crew needed discipline. Pilots needed skill. But Mechanics needed insane amounts of knowledge. This caused their dropout rate from elite to regr courses to be the highest of the specialties. Higher even than the piloting course.<sub></sub>


    For their first half day, General Tennant had a special treat for his students. Targeting practice. Now, he wasn¡¯t so kind that he would let them do it in a simted firing range with a stationary Mecha and stationary targets the way the other Cadets started. No, this was his advanced piloting course, not the sad joke that he viewed the regr elite piloting course as. He was going to introduce targets to hit into the existing avoidance scenario. Only five for today, and he¡¯d see how the Cadets could do without getting shot to fragments or stepping onnd mines.


    The very first attempt went better than he had expected, with Cadet Max managing to hit three of the targets andplete the course without getting blown to pieces. There was something odd about Cadet Nico¡¯s targeting method though. General Tennant was watching, and she never pulled up her targeting array, only designated a firing point and shot on the move, hitting all five targets with ease. He¡¯d never seen anything like it, so he investigated the data logs and found that the targeting array was indeed pulled up from the very start, but she only pulled the basic targeting crosshairs on to her Heads Up Disy to process on her own instead of relying on the Mecha to determine appropriate leading distance.


    ¡°Cadet Nico, might I ask, how did you hit the targets without using the Mecha¡¯s targeting calctions?¡± He asked once he¡¯d finished reviewing her run.


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty good at guessing General, it¡¯s like an Innate Skill, but not officially.¡± The petite Cadet responded with a smile.


    ¡°You should see her in action in the dorms, even if you dodge, she can still hit you with a paper ball.¡± Max confirms, referring to the normal horsey in the first year dorms and cafeteria.


    ¡°Impressive, but since it works at this level of difficulty I will let you continue. With any luck you may get a targeting rted System Function unlocked when you hit a hundred total bonus points as your first additional function.¡±


    Max thinks about his own talents, what might the system unlock for him? He hopes it isn¡¯t some pointless buff to his already imbnced Strength stat. The System is known to provide you with benefits to what you¡¯re skilled at, not what you¡¯recking in, so that is a distinct possibility that Max is trying to avoid happening to him. But he¡¯s not sure that he has another skill that¡¯s significant enough to get noticed and pull the Nanobots AI away from continually increasing his strength.


    Without any frame of reference, isted as he is with only Nico and General Tennant, Max really has no idea how far his piloting skills have progressed beyond the average, or how incredible the observers found it that he was able to nearly keep up with the dexterity and speed specialized Cadet Nico in the avoidance drills.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 20 Chapter 20

    Every day the two Cadets returned to their First Year dorms, but every day they felt a little more out of ce. They were still the only ones to have reached the fifty point mark two months after the Fall break when their training with General Tennant began, and they had physically matured well beyond the level of their supposed peers.


    Not only that, but their speed, stamina and physical skills were well beyond almost anyone they met in the Dorms, even when they went to the main floor mess hall for dinner.


    No longer did they feel threatened by the seniors, though they were still a little bigger than Cadet Max, the progression slowed down so much that very few would reach 150 bonus points before leaving the academy for the University.


    Feeling that the difference was getting too small to be normal, Max decided to check his System bonuses for the first time in a while. It had been over two months since the thought even urred to him after all, being so busy with General Tennant¡¯s training, and not expecting much.


    The notifications still came in now and then, but always when he was at his busiest, so they were easily forgotten and rendered irrelevantpared to mastering the next technique that the General had set for them.


    Shooting while on the move was now a standard part of their training, and the targets only got more and more tricky as the simtions went on. Thebination of dodging iing fire and ground obstacles while trying to hit those targets required every bit of mental fortitude he possessed.<sub>.</sub>


    Stuffing lunch into his mouth, Max opened the System interface to see how his stats hade along.


    [Compatibility Determined]  Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [STR] 2+60%


    [DEX] 2+16%<sub></sub>


    [SPD] 2+16%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Functions Locked]


    That partially exined the phenomenon to Max, his bonuses had put his strength over 3 points modified, well beyond what the Beta rank and lower senior students could boast of, starting with a base of only one point to modify.


    Even if they too had Strength as their Primary Attribute, they couldn¡¯tpare to him physically. Max decided that must be what was causing his sense of disorientation around others, the System had pushed him too far from the human norm.<sub></sub>


    He briefly wondered if Nico felt the same way, or if her modifiers were too low to have caused that level of difference yet. She had just as much of a total modifier as he did, but it was split between Dexterity and Speed, giving her a good bnce, but no truly outstanding stat.


    The next break wasing up, which for every Academy Cadet meant crunch time, preparing for their end of Semester exams. General Tennant¡¯s ss was no different, just smaller than usual.


    He gave them a deadline of the next break to learn suitable aim for first years and integrate that knowledge with their handling skills. ording to the General, the difficulty level that he had just increased was the bare minimum for Special Forces training standards, and if they couldn¡¯t keep up with that they¡¯d be falling behind on their elerated education schedule.


    Making that standard was not going to be an easy task for any Cadet. What the Cadets Max and Nico didn¡¯t know was that piloting students in the other elite sses first worked on mastering the point firing technique. The method they were taught was to stop and brace their Mecha for urate fire, then move on to the next target. The regr sses would start learning that in year 4 instead of 3.


    Both Max and Nico had major advantages in this area though. Max had mentally scanned and memorized everything he could about shooting theory, targeting and firing on the move from every teacher he met, including the General. Nico, on the other hand, could use the Innate Talent from her System to directly interface with the targeting system and use it more like an extension of her own body.


    General Tennant had been quietly astounded by the skill the students showed from the very first day, but locked away those thoughts using one of his system abilities while teaching so that the mind reading Cadet Max wouldn¡¯t pick up on it.


    That was also why he kept them exclusively with him, one open minded teacher could give away the entire project and let them know just how unusually advanced they were.


    Some civilian experience in simtors was nothing new for elite piloting course Cadets, but these two were not normal. They didn¡¯t have the mentality of the usual twelve year old Freshmen Cadets even before the System elerated their maturation, but now they began their training runs showing matched emotionless faces suitable to seasonedbat veterans or hardcore VR gaming professionals.


    Inside the simtion their shots are methodical, well nned, butcking a bit of muscle memory and intuition only constantbat or physical practice could provide. Much better than any of the other Cadets could boast.


    Within the week after he added shooting to their training, they had mastered point shooting to graduating Cadet standards and beyond, like they both had decades of experience and just needed to shake off the rust.


    Their rapid progression somewhat reminded both the General and the observing instructors of wounded veterans returning to duty. Their actions gave off the impression that the Cadets knew the skills, they just needed to remind their bodies.


    That left General Tennant an entire week to n their final exams for the semester, and he had a particrly good one in mind. So far the Cadets had only shot at training targets, and faced the fire of mounted turrets. But for the exam, General Tennant intended to use a simted battle with actual Line Mecha for them to fight.


    Not only would it give him more insight into their skills, but also their teamwork and ability to function under pressure. In his mind, it was the perfect n. To the other instructors who had to approve all final exams to prevent students from flunking out due to faulty examinations, it was a tragedy in the making.


    How should they even score that? The Instructor who taught a student was not allowed to grade their final exams, to prevent bias from influencing the results, but the General¡¯s proposal was so oundish they weren¡¯t even sure how they should grade his students.


    These were students in their first year of Mecha Piloting training, but even if they treated them as Year Three students, who would be in their first year on the simtor this was too much. Should they grade it like an exit exam, where the senior students earned their qualifications on the Line Mecha in preparation to move on from the Academy? That¡¯s the difficulty level that the General had proposed.


    Even worse, if they could pass that level of an exam, wouldn¡¯t it mean that the Academy had been too soft and using inefficient methods all this time, turning out Pilots who were far inferior to their true potential?

 21 Chapter 21

    The final consensus with the Instructors was that they would grade the exam as a standard ss exit exam, and then all future examinations would be done on the special forces training standards. If General Tennant believed his students were up to this, they would take his word for it, and he would take the fallout if the students failed.


    ¡°Good morning Cadets. As you know, today is exam day. In honor of that, I have prepared a special surprise for you. A new course, simting a proper battlefield with enemy Mecha and everything. You¡¯ve got three hours toplete the search and destroy mission, and it¡¯s a team course, so take your time, remember what I taught you and you will be all ready for your exams.


    Remember, nothing under 90 percent uracy will satisfy me, so don¡¯t get sloppy and just start shooting everywhere. Now go, have fun and I¡¯ll order lunch when you¡¯re nearly finished.¡±


    The two Cadets share a happy nce as they get into their simtors. Getting to run a proper simted battle before this afternoons exam is the best reward they could have hoped for.


    They looked up the Third Year Advanced ss exams, and they had both been better than that the day they arrived at the academy. They¡¯re guaranteed to ace that exam.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a bit hical to keep from the students that he¡¯s modified their exams and that they¡¯re taking them now?¡± One of the observers asks the assembled grading team.


    ¡°It¡¯s a psychological trick to keep their nerves from affecting the oue, you¡¯ll see, they¡¯re going to do just fine.¡± One of the teachers exins to him,ugh lines wrinkling around his one good eye as he smiles.


    The chosen battlefield is one of the final exam standard courses, an urbanndscape against rebel Mecha. The goal of the mission is for the two person team to make it to the rendezvous point alive and eliminate ten of the enemy Mecha.


    The exam is graded on the time taken, damage taken and shooting efficiency. Less than an hour and a half is a perfect time score, while 50 percent Mecha durability remaining and 70 percent on target uracy are passing scores in their category.<sub></sub>


    A bit below the grade in one category can be bnced out to an overall pass, but they all understand that the General won¡¯t see it that way, as he has informed the Academy that he wants these Cadets for the Special Forces.


    Max and Nico watch as the scenario boots up, seeing on the mission map that the pickup point is on the far east side of the city, directly opposite them. They only get to look at the mission map before they start, as scrambled radar is part of all exams, but that¡¯s enough for the two. Their memories are good enough they both have the basicyout of the area memorized before the countdown starts.


    ¡°You take lead, I¡¯ve got covering fire.¡± Nico suggests as the timer starts and they can pick their weapons.


    Both go for the heavy Ion Cannon, in their opinion the best of the options avable, while Nico adds a second Ion Cannon for her off hand and Max picks a shield.<sub></sub>


    The shield doesn¡¯t count towards Mecha damage taken, so the point man can draw some fire and take it with the shield to pull enemies into the open. You just have to be careful not to let your Mecha itself get hit.


    The timer reaches zero and Max begins to lead the way through the city. Most Cadets would go for the main roads, because it¡¯s easier to handle the Mecha and harder to get ambushed on them, but Max goes for a narrow side street.


    He¡¯s identified the most likely ces for enemy Mecha to be set up, and this road should lead them in behind where the defenders are watching the main roads. Line Mecha aren¡¯t particrly quiet, but the scenario is filled with the sounds of an ongoing battle, mostly covering their rubber padded footsteps as they make their way though the narrow alley to the first likely defense point.


    Max¡¯s call was exactly right, there are four line Mecha there, all with their backs to the alley. On his signal, Nico puts Ion sts into the back cooling systems of two Mecha while he gets a third. The final Mecha turns around at the iing fire, only to take a round to the cockpit¡¯s Armored window, killing the pilot instantly.


    [That¡¯s four, move back into the alley, I think I hear a patrol.]


    They both move just out of sight until the footsteps get close. A two Mecha patrol has found their ruined allies. when Max hears one of them lean forward to check the damage on the fallen Mecha, he steps out into the open, sting the power core of one Mecha from the top vents while Nico again goes for the cockpit.


    [That¡¯s six. It¡¯s like fishing from a barrel.] Max jokes before leading the way down another side street to where he thinks another defense point might be.


    ¡°Incredible, six shots for six kills, every one into a critical weak point. Not only skilled, but utterly ruthless. Not many pilots think to aim for the visual targeting slot and destroy the cockpit.¡± Colonel ckmends the performance so far.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t they a bit too aggressive though? They only need ten kills before reaching the exit, and they¡¯ve gotten six in the first few blocks.¡± the observer asks.


    ¡°Ten minimum. There¡¯s no limit on total kills, except that you need to make the exit point in time. They¡¯re still keeping a good pace towards the exit, so unless they get turned around they should be fine.¡±


    The second point isn¡¯t on the side street like Max thought it would be. They¡¯ve actually set up a barricade in the middle of an intersection, with six Line Mecha and a collection of burnt out transports.


    [That¡¯s a bit tougher than expected. Got any good ideas?] Max asks.


    [Parking garage, over there. we¡¯ll have to crawl or climb the side wall to get up top, but it¡¯s got a good concrete barricade and the advantage of height.]


    [You take the high ground, Signal me when you¡¯re ready and I¡¯ll cause a diversion.] Max agrees.

 22 Chapter 22

    Nico circles wide around the intersection so she¡¯s not detected and slings her weapons to climb up the back wall of the parkade. The Line Mecha are heavy, but no worse than a light cargo transport, so the floors will certainly hold the weight.


    [I¡¯m up top with a good line to the Intersection.]


    Max steps from the alley and ducks behind his shield, cing three shots into the defenders, killing one and damaging two others. That turns all their attention to him and a hail of fire ms into his shield.


    They¡¯ve all turned towards Max, so Nico opens fire, leaning forward to shoot down from the parkade. Four more Mecha drop in an instant, leaving just one damaged Mecha. It turns to fire up at Nico, who retreats behind the concrete barrier at the edge of the parkade, while Max unleashes his Ion Cannon into its back.


    [Too Easy.] Max Begins, but Nico cuts him off.


    [Patrolsing from your right and behind you. The group at the intersection must have got a message off. Cross the street to your left and keep running in 3,2,1. Go.] Max runs across to the next alley and keeps going until he reaches the next intersection, turning right to get closer to the Parkade.<sub>.</sub>


    [Stay behind the corner of that building until the shooting starts.] Nico directs, her height giving her a better view of the battlefield.


    She fires both hands at once into the same Mecha, both hitting the torso and destroying the power nt. That makes both patrols target her, and Max rounds the corner, seeing that her timing left two Mecha with their backs to him.


    His shots drop them in an instant, and Max retreats around the back out of sight before he¡¯s noticed.


    More Ion Cannon shots join the sound of the enemy Auto Rifles, and Nico sends Max more navigation points.


    [Back to your first point, the second patrol is using the barricade for cover, but they had to move the transport on that side to get in.]<sub></sub>


    Maxughs as he sees the two Mecha posed up against the transporters to get away from Nico¡¯s Ion Cannons. They¡¯re clearly in the open fun his vantage point, their Mecha side on to him, so he simply sts through their cockpits.


    Line Mecha aren¡¯t heavily Armored, there¡¯s a half dozen spots in the torso that the extreme firepower of the Ion Cannon can punch through theyers ofposite armor. But since it takes an entire second before the Ion Cannon can shoot again, and the Line Mecha only has its primary weapon, any missed shots put you in danger.


    They¡¯ve cleared the defense point and both patrols now, so Nicoes down from the roof and Max leads the way through the alleys towards the exit point. They¡¯ve got more than enough kills already, so he¡¯s just plotting the most efficient course that he can remember while trying to get behind likely defense points.


    ¡°Zero damage taken through a dozen kills, smooth operation through the alleys, no running into walls or getting tripped up by debris. Plus they¡¯re halfway across the course now, only thirty minutes in. Impressive.¡± The observer notes.


    ¡°That¡¯s why they¡¯re up for Special Forces nomination.¡± Colonel ck agrees, watching them pick off another group of the entrenched defenders.<sub></sub>


    This course has more Mecha than usual on it for an exam, with the tradeoff being that they¡¯re fairly predictable, defending main streets from invasion. Some of the other courses, like the woonds course, have every enemy Mecha on patrol.


    The Instructors watch in awe as the duo makes their way through the city, with Max swapping his damaged shield out for a fresh one from a downed enemy Mecha.


    The final trick to this mission is that thending point is overrun. Five additional Mecha are in the open area, and the drop ship that ends the mission hasn¡¯tnded yet when the Cadets arrive. Neither Cadet expected a simple and straightforward mission though, and they simply run in shooting.


    Max runs forward to get behind a cargo container, while Nicoys down on top of another and keeps up a steady stream of covering fire, every shot ncing an enemy Mecha, but unable to reach a vital spit for a kill.


    Once Max is in position she climbs down the back of the container and circles, while the defenders try to get a firing line to her previous location. Max drops the first he catches in the open, then another before Nico is in ce again.


    The three survivors go for Max, leaving them open from Nico¡¯s side and the missionpletes as scorching Ionized sma from her Cannons burns through their power cores and cockpits. Two perfect uracy scores, no damage taken, only 47 minutes psed.


    ¡°They¡¯ve graduated for sure. With flying colors.  Should we clear the General to give them Line Mecha certification and move on, or will we be holding to the ¡®Line Mecha only until College¡¯ policy for Cadets?¡± One of the examiners asks Colonel ck.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure that old war dog wants them cleared on everything, so they¡¯ll be moving on to Corvette ss Training whenever he deems them ready. Major Payne informed me that they¡¯re also nearly to one hundred bonus stats already, so they¡¯ll be going through the second stage of physical development, which will dy new piloting techniques for a while, but we should expect that within the next Semester they will begin training on the Corvette ss.¡±


    Soon, turns out to be now. They both received gains from the Exam mission have put them over the threshold. Unlike fifty points, which causes puberty in young Cadets, one hundred points refines the body to be more durable and faster healing.


    If the two advancement are this close together, it might affect their eventual physical growth, but neither Cadet knows that, nor do most of the Instructors. General Tennant does though, and gets them both to a cot in the restricted training center to rest off the change while he gets food and new clothes, in case they grow out of what they¡¯re in.


    For Max that bit of foresight is again a blessing, as he¡¯s grown to 170cm tall by the time he wakes up, and is gaining muscle by the second. Nico, on the other hand, only made it from 125 to 140 cm tall. Despite her body developing as expected through the elerated puberty process, she has remained exceedingly short.


    General Tennant finds the whole thing a bit amusing. One Cadet is the image of a strapping young man, the sort of chiseled blonde and handsome you would expect to see in an actor or a propaganda video model. The other is a tiny dark haired and ck eyed creature with a maturity that defies her stature.


    She reminds him of the Forest Folk from one of thes he was stationed at. Even their men never got taller than 150cm. The size makes him wonder if it¡¯s from the System¡¯s interference, or if her family was originally from another, where the gravity is a bit different and the citizens are shorter.


    That answer will have to wait though, General Tennant has paperwork to fill out, badges to requisition and the next step in their training to implement.

 23 Chapter 23

    While Max and Nico sleep off their most recent changes General Tennantes back with food and a change of clothes for them. Fortunately for him, the Academy had all the necessary pins and badges in stock, so the new coveralls are ready to go with their new Line Mecha Certification badge and Special Forces Cadet designations attached as well as the name tags. Themissary got him a full set of new uniforms; dress, casual and coveralls for his students, plus baseyers and under shirts, all before dinner was ready.


    Waking up to food and properly fitting clothes put them both in a great mood, the fact that they started their break in the morning was even better. The only question was if they were actually going to be able to leave the academy at all this break, having gotten a special early leave for thest one, and having started training under the intense General Tennant now.


    General Tennant could easily guess at the questions that they had, and their concerns were well founded. Special Forces Cadets weren¡¯t allowed to leave the academy except between years, for fear of data leaks or kidnappings happening if enemy forces should find out that they were unprotected.


    Instead he hade up with a fun little field trip for them. An escorted mission to the forests along with the senior students who had also qualified on the Line Mecha already. There was very little danger to a patrol on Kepler Terminus, being so far out from the front lines of the war, or even from the majority of the inhabiteds of the Empire.<sub>.</sub>


    The mission doesn¡¯t leave until the next morning though, so they¡¯ve got time to familiarize themselves with the actual mecha that the Academy has on hand for students. For the mission, they will be carrying light weapons only, as the Cadets aren¡¯t cleared to carry heavy armaments in public spaces until they¡¯ve graduated and officially entered the Military.


    That¡¯s hardly a loss to Max though, as simply getting to pilot an actual mecha, outside of School grounds is more than enough for him.


    The Shining Darkness won¡¯t being along, nor will General Tennant, citing the need to prepare for the uing Semester¡¯s training while the students are out on their overnight field trip. One day out, overnight watches, then back to the academy.<sub></sub>


    Colonel ck will be leading the Special Units Mission Training as it¡¯s officially called, along with two government observers in Crusader ss Mecha. In total there are fifty qualified students going along on the trip, a number few Primary Academies in the Empire could boast, but fairly standard for abat patrol.


    The mecha that Max and Nico have been assigned are the leftovers that nobody else on the mission wanted, the older and more beat up units from the Academy inventory, but ording to Colonel ck and the Senior Year advanced mechanics ss, they check out as fullybat capable. They just need a little refresh and some exterior paint to be good as new.


    Everything that they should need for the mission has already been loaded inside by the logistics ss and double checked, but General Tennant has them go over everything again, and double check all systems, then their ammunition levels, despite only being issued a single power cell for the Ion Rifles.<sub></sub>


    They can be recharged off the Mecha¡¯s power core if they¡¯re depleted, but without a spare cell or a hardwired connection like the heavier Ion Cannons, that leaves them without any form of weapon for hours at a time, should they actually need to use the rifle.


    They don¡¯t expect to, but General Tennant is a pessimist to the core, and highly suspicious of the motivations of the Government observers. There have been whispers that the bureaucrats might be intending to stage a soft takeover of the government, getting all senior military elements and Pilots of Phnx ss Mecha on their side to take practical control of the government despite the Imperial family having technical authority.


    The Shining Darkness has been with his family since before the Empire existed, and the Phnx ss Pilots swear loyalty directly to the Emperor, not to the bureaucracy that runs things on the day to day. Right now, that serves as a bnce against corruption, but if the bureaucrats controlled the Phnx ss Mecha, there really wouldn¡¯t be anyone to stop them from taking over.


    The Military views the Phnx ss units as their natural leaders, if they turned against the Empire, the entire Military would most likely follow. Just short of three centuries ago, when the Kepler Empire was founded from a collection of independent systems, it was the Titan ss Glory of Sol and an assembled force of Phnx ss Mecha that upheld their deration of unity. The military has not forgotten their heroes.


    Keeping the safety of his potential sessors in mind, the General also equips the Line Mecha assigned to Max and Nico with a sword each, since Academy regtions don¡¯t allow him to requisition more ammunition for them.


    That should at least give them a fighting chance if something does go wrong and the patrol is ambushed. It should also be a surprise to anyone who goes against them, as they haven¡¯t openly used closebat weapons while under observation.


    Everything checks out for the trip, so he escorts them to the back of the pack, where the Colonel wees the two young prodigies to the patrol, then sends them the radio channels and encryption codes for the mission.


    If anyone in the government knew of the General¡¯s suspicions they would call him a conspiracy theorist, and possibly question his suitability to continue as the Pilot of the Shining Darkness at all, which ironically would prove him right. But he keeps his thoughts strictly to himself, using an ability gained from his system to hide the wayward suspicions from even Cadet Max and his mind reading.


    The presence of the two additional Cadets doesn¡¯t attract much attention from the others, as everyone is known only by Mecha number during the patrol for ease of Communication. Max has Mecha A16 and Nico picked unit A86, dering that the seat was the mostfortable. They are technically identical, but in an older unit, they can be worn out in different ways, and Nico is just barely within height parameters for the pilot¡¯spartment.


    ¡°Mission, fall in. We leave in 3 minutes.¡± Colonel ck deres and all the friendly banter over the radio ceases, the Cadets getting mentally prepared for what will be the first real patrol for all of them.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 24 Chapter 24

    Marching out of the Academypound in a double file line is the most excitement that most of the cadets have felt in years. It¡¯s like they¡¯ve finally seeded and be real Line Mecha Pilots. In a way they have, they are certified on the machines, they just haven¡¯t had the opportunity to operate outside of training scenarios before.


    The Academy is outside of the city, due to the noise generated by mecha operations, so the trainsition from the academy to the woods is almost instant. Kepler Terminus is a sparsely popted and tropical world, with no frozen poles, where going into the woods is nearly synonymous with anything outside of a settlement, a blessing for Mecha operation.


    Near the Academy is a dense tropical forest with a variety ofrge carnivoires, but nothing that should be a threat to a mecha. That¡¯s not really the point though, sending the Cadets out into the woods to review the security of the outlying viges is an exercise in confidence, not practicality. The local security forces would have already taken care of anything that threatened the locals.


    Taking up the back, with only Colonel ck in a Crusader ss Mecha behind him gives Max an excellent view of the operation styles and capabilities of the others in the group. The difference is easy to pick out, the regr piloting ss is a bit rough with their controls, distracted by things around them andcking practical experience to make their operations smoother. The Special Forces Candidates are much morepetent and focused, operating naturally.


    On the other hand, Nico seems to have gone insane inside her Mecha. It¡¯s making the strangest gesture, with its hand against the top of the chassis. Then Max realizes she¡¯s piloting by entirely mental link using her Innate Talent and the Mecha is copying her scratching her head.<sub>.</sub>


    [Nico, pay attention, the mecha is scratching its head along with you.] Max sends to her units heads up disy and her unit turns and gives him a thumbs up.


    Being patched into allmunications and watching the strangely behaving unit, Colonel ck isughing inside his cockpit. The Cadets trained by General Tennant are an odd pair, but they¡¯re incredibly capable.


    He hasn¡¯t realized that Nico is piloting with her Innate Talent, instead the Colonel thinks that both Cadets are just so attuned to their mecha that they¡¯re instinctively moving them to match what they want their body to do. Max hasn¡¯t realized, but his mecha gestures with its hands when he talks, the same way he does, just in a more robotic manner.


    He also notices that both of them are carrying closebat weapons, an addition that General Tennant must have made to their kit, but also one that the Colonel approves of. When he was still abat officer, he preferred to have a pair of closebat guards in front of him to keep hostile targets from directly engaging his entirely long range focused mecha.<sub></sub>


    His mecha doesn¡¯t leave one free hand like so many do, instead it uses a Battle Cannon hard mounted on one arm and an Ion Destroyer on the other. At a distance, it is devastating, but when targets get in close he can be at a disadvantage.


    Unlike the General, he doesn¡¯t suspect that anyone would try anything against his cadets on this mission, he just likes to be prepared at all times. It makes a good impression on others, and you don¡¯t get to be a Colonel without being somewhat of a politcian.


    An hour into the mission the difference in training bes very obvious, as the regr ss Cadets start getting tired, being used to training in virtual reality. The level of concentration needed to pilot isn¡¯t the problem, they¡¯re simply not used to the constant physical exertion.


    The academy only has twenty of the physical simtors, as they¡¯re incredibly expensive and getting funding for more hasn¡¯t been easy. with a hundred piloting students a year, their usage is fairly limited.<sub></sub>


    Getting students used to real conditions is the hardest part of the job out here in an outlying system where nothing is viewed as high priority by the central government. But despite that, his academy still turns out some of the highest quality pilots anywhere.


    The instructors in the lead have just called a break when Colonel ck starts detecting something strange on his sensors. He thought it was a central government equipment signature, but then it vanished and a few secondster the same thing at another location.


    He¡¯s not the only one that noticed. Cadet Nico also caught the blip on her sensors, and she passed the warning on to Max.


    [Keep your eyes open, we¡¯re about to have visitors.]


    The disy screen on the left side of his cockpit blinks with the message only seconds before a local government transportes onto the units radar, as if the unit had just been started.


    It¡¯s up ahead at the next vige, nothing abnormal about that, but if there¡¯s one thing they¡¯ve learned about the Academy is that everything is a test. Everything.


    The transport doesn¡¯t move, waiting in the vige while they take their break. Max keeps aware of anything that might be hiding around them, but can¡¯t find anything out of the ordinary. He¡¯s started to rx his vignce when they reach the vige and find that the vehicle on their radar is a road maintenance crew, cutting back new growth to keep the road clear.


    The road crew foreman talks with the lead Instructor for a moment, exining that the road is blocked and the main ss students are ordered into action. Clearing overgrowth is possibly the mostmon task for patrols, since the jungle here grows so quickly.


    The Special Forces Candidates take positions around the main group while Max and Nico take rear guard duty with Colonel ck. The actual clearing duty only takes four at a time, two to cut with the saws provided by the vige and two to clear debris.


    They rotate through every fifteen minutes and the squad slowly makes progress. The next vige is their overnight stop, and the destination of the road crew, who are extremely relieved to have the help. Their transport has a crane arm for clearing cut debris, but the mecha are much faster.


    By the time they arrive, Max is certain he¡¯s heard the life story of half the Cadets, but the crew¡¯s questions bother him. Aren¡¯t they asking a bit too much about the Academy? And why would a local road crew even care?

 25 Chapter 25

    Max had scanned various minds from the work crew, but they all appeared to be honestly interested in the Cadets, who are seen as the elite of society. That¡¯s rxed Max and he¡¯s about to exit this Mecha to grab dinner with the others when he senses that both Nico and Colonel ck are eating from the stored rations inside their mecha.


    That makes him wonder what sort of test this trip might be. He watches the Cadets chat and mingle with the road crew and it bes incredibly clear, how could the academy not know road conditions? They must have known before leaving that this road was blocked, so the test is almost guaranteed to be about something that happened after that. Chatting with the locals, out of their Mecha, guard lowered. The test is Operational Security.


    It seems to be so harmless, but in a war zone you never know where a stranger¡¯s loyalty lies.


    So, Max heats up a ration pack and reclines his seat to getfortable for the evening. At least Colonel ck has a cot inside the ten meter tall Crusader ss Mecha.<sub>.</sub>


    They¡¯re a beautiful machine to Max. The top of the Mecha is covered with a curved armor shell, much like a Turtle shell, extending over the shoulder joints, with a chest te covering the torso from lower angle fire. The arms of the Colonel¡¯s Mecha  both have hard mounted weapons, though the other two escorts have one hand and one hard mounted weapon. The legs are also heavily Armored, the only true weak point is the cooling fins at the back of the torso, or possibly the sensors.


    For that reason Crusaders often operate in groups of three, so they can stand in a formation that covers all the backs of their units.


    Compared to them the headless humanoid forms and exposed mechanical design of the Line Mecha just looks inelegant.<sub></sub>


    It doesn¡¯t help that the Line Mecha are all painted gray and orange for visibility and to identify them as Academy Mecha. It¡¯s not exactly a ttering colorbination.


    After dinner, watches are assigned, with Nico and Max getting first watch, along with one of the Special Forces units and three of the regr ss. Colonel ck will be awake as well, but he¡¯s not officially on watch, since the students are supposed to be taking care of the duty. It¡¯s a quiet time, nobody speaking or moving, and only the sounds of small creatures in the forest keep thempany.


    Two hourster they are reced by the next shift, and Max decides to follow the lead of Nico and the Special Forces Cadets and nap inside his mecha, as ufortable as it might be, instead of rolling out his sleeping bag near the fire to get a good night¡¯s sleep. That proves to be the best call, as just before dawn, the Instructors start waking everyone up, shouting at them to get a move on and that it¡¯s time to go in ten minutes.<sub></sub>


    There was no set move out time when his watch ended, so this must be a thing they do to keep the Cadets on their toes. Since he¡¯s already in his mecha, Max simply powers up and grabs the cleaning kit to wipe himself down before getting dressed. It¡¯s not like anyone can see him in here, he could pilot naked if he wanted to, but he suspects that the worn material of the chair will be much morefortable with a uniform on.


    The Pilot suit is a form of the standard issue coveralls, so it only takes a few seconds to slip into it and put on his boots, the automates adjusting them to his legs with the coveralls tucked into the top. It¡¯s an odd thing that Nico does, but it¡¯s reallyfortable, and keeps from stepping on the hem of his coveralls when he¡¯s in an awkward position during training. That leaves him some time to eat, and Max grabs a breakfast issue nutrient pack from the cab, finding that it¡¯s a generic fruit vored bar along with a pouch of some sort of dry cereal.


    The cereal bag he rips the corner from, so he can pour it into his mouth while pilotingter, but the fruit bar he bites into now. It didn¡¯t look like much, but Max decides that the bars are actually pretty good. He just wishes that the breakfast pack came with a proper drink and didn¡¯t leave him sipping from the Mecha¡¯s drinking water supply.


    The Military rations doe with more variety, but the Cadets are kept on a monitored diet by the Academy, designed by the central authority for optimal growth, supposedly. That¡¯s not much constion when what you really needed in the morning was a coffee, or even a ss of juice to go with an exceptionally dry bag of mixed cereals.


    Colonel ck is impressed with this pair of Cadets that the General is training. He was informed that they didn¡¯t know the field trip was also part of their scoring, and that the General didn¡¯t give them any advance warning of procedures or anything else, but they both seem to have understood what they should be doing without anyone needing to tell them, a quality the Colonel appreciates in a potential officer.


    Before bing Senior Officers, Pilots are ranked by the Mecha that they are qualified on. Line Mecha Pilots are almost all Corporals, with the squad leaders being Sergeants. Once qualified on the Corvette ss Mecha, they will be promoted to Second Lieutenant and usually givenmand of a wing of light mecha. Mostmonly in a fully mechanized Battalion that would be twenty Line Mecha, though depending on troop numbers it might be more or less.


    If they make it to the Crusader ss Mecha, they will start at Captain and be Majors with experience. After that it all starts to turn into politics, as the senior officers lead muchrger units than wings of Mecha. Most armies don¡¯t do things quite the same way, but in Kepler, they im that skill is paramount, so the type of Mecha a Pilot uses determines their rank, treatment and even wages within the Empire.


    It¡¯s understood that there¡¯s still a hierarchy though. An infantry Sergeant might outrank the average Line Mecha Pilot, but he will still never get the same treatment and respect as the pilots of the mighty war machines.


    Colonel ck doesn¡¯t much care for the tiered system, but as an Academy Principal on one insignificant out of hundreds, his opinion doesn¡¯t really matter in the grand scheme of things.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 26 Chapter 26

    Once they were moving in the morning and headed back towards the Academy the instructors started to enlighten the Cadets on all the mistakes and operational security breaches that they¡¯d made during the previous day¡¯s journey. The list was long, and the students were more than a little horrified to hear about the potential ramifications of their actions as so vividly described by the Instructors.


    Max simply enjoyed the vibrant green foliage as they maintained the sedate pace, not stopping for breaks this time, and listened for any actual decent advice that might be hidden among the reprimands. Mostly they were just getting chewed out though, for things they¡¯d already been taught not to do, but forgot at the first hint of civilian admiration.


    General Tennant was waiting for them to return next to the Mecha hangers, a big smile on his face that both Cadets knew didn¡¯t bode well for their future.


    ¡°Wee back Cadets. I made you a very special training room that we can begin work in next week. It¡¯s got your physical simtors in it and everything. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re going to love the new surroundings.¡± The words are friendly and enthusiastic but something about that greeting gives Max chills down his spine.<sub>.</sub>


    When they reported to the training room in the morning, it was just as amazing as the General suggested though. He¡¯d turned the disused training room into a full on apartment for the Cadets. Two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, martial arts training room with a padded floor, the three mecha simtors that they use for their training, desks for book work, everything that they could need was in here. The thought that they might need to actually cook for themselves concerned Max a little. He knew how to reheat premade foods, but cooking from scratch was beyond him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. You¡¯ll still be getting meals from the cafeteria, the kitchen is just for snacks and such, since you won¡¯t be leaving this suite until the next phase in your training isplete.¡± General Tennant gave that same reassuring smile that always made Max think he was being tricked. As usual, he was correct.


    ¡°Is this a gravity room, General? Nico asks, standing by the control panel.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Exactly right. Every day for the next two months the gravity in this chamber will increase to help tone and refine your bodies. We will spend less time in the simtors over these next few months, and more in the gym. I¡¯ve been informed that you¡¯ve both gotten basic martial arts training, so we will be using that to improve your skills as well as your physical conditions. Not every you willnd on has gravity as close to Imperial standard as Kepler Terminus. It¡¯s better that you¡¯re prepared for the change in advance.¡±


    Once he¡¯s finished his speech, General Tennant turns on the gravity system and their body weights immediately increase by a third. The General seems fine, but Nico doesn¡¯t have a huge amount of strength and visibly struggles to move normally under the effect. With his already high Strength, Max is doing better, but it still feels sluggish moving in this environment.


    ¡°First things first, let¡¯s see what you¡¯ve got for martial arts skills, so I know where to work from. Cadets, into your coveralls and report to the gym in ten minutes.¡± The General instructs, watching them run to their new rooms.<sub></sub>


    The interior of the training room has been remodeled to exactly replicate the inside of a Kepler Interster transport ship, with walls painted Navy Regtion blue gray, the rooms were standard junior officer bunks, three meters long by two wide with a bed over a desk and arge locker. The gym too was a direct replica of the one on thest ship he served aboard. His idea was that the surroundings would be their new normal once they graduated, so the sooner he got them used to it the better. Plus, everything on board a ship was designed to survive rapid and extreme gravitational changes, should the ships gravity field fluctuate or fail entirely.


    Both Cadets were back out in a few minutes, excited to have seen that all their belongings were already present in their new rooms. General Tennant was surprised to see that they didn¡¯t have anything hidden in the not so secret crevices of the room or under mattresses, it was all safely stored in their lockers, as per regtion.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll have you two spar to start things off. Do you know multiple styles or just the one?¡± General Tennant asks.


    ¡°A little bit of a bunch of different styles, Sir.¡± Nico answers, saving Max froming up with an exnation of how he learned them all from her memory.


    ¡°Good, begin.¡±


    The two cadets are much more skilled than the General expected, being so used to the ¡®ranged attacks first,st and only¡¯ mentality that pervaded the Kepler Kingdom. But since they were skilled, he could teach them even more without having to start from the very basics. Once you know one martial art, the basics of the others are much easier to learn, just a stylistic difference from what you already know.


    The style he wants to teach them is Kep Maga, an ancient closebat form passed down in his and many other military families that teaches their children both unarmed and knife based fighting techniques. They seem to already know something simr, so General Tennant starts right in on the Grappling techniques once he gets an understanding of their current level of ability.


    The additional Gravity is a great benefit to Max, who rarely won a match before. Nico has troubles kicking him in this environment, so when the General moved them to grappling and closebat, her speed and agility advantage wasn¡¯t as noticeable. She¡¯s still much faster than he is, but it¡¯s not as overwhelming as when she¡¯s free to pick the style and use her legs to counteract Max¡¯s longer arms.


    ¡°Very good, now, try with these wooden sticks in ce of knives.¡± General Tennant instructs, eager to see how his Cadets wille along.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 27 Chapter 27

    After a week in the gravity enhanced environment, Max started to notice major changes to his physique. First was the expected toning of his body, which was a wee improvement. The boyish softness was disappearing in favor of a chiseled look better suited to a proper soldier.


    Since all the kids are taken away to military academies at age twelve, Max had never seen anyone go through puberty in this life, and it hadn¡¯t previously seemed like an important memory to look up, so the whole process took him by surprise.


    Not as much as the changes to his face though. He had often wondered which of his parents he would look like, but looking in the mirror now, shaving the scraggly blonde beard from his youthful face, he recognized this face. Not a mix of his parents but his own face from his previous life.


    It was the first memory of his past life that had ever triggered, and all Max could do is stare at himself and try to recall something, anything else about that past life. But nothing wasing to him.


    He wondered if the system is upgrading his entire body back to what it was in his past life, or if it¡¯s an effect of being reincarnated. Because from what little he had learned of biology, his current appearance makes no sense.<sub>.</sub>


    For one, his height has shot up to 180cm over the week, a full 15cm taller than his father. Combined with the physique and the face, he no longer resembles his current family at all. A small blessing, but an important one in his opinion.


    If Max is stunned by his changes, Nico is only annoyed. Her growth stopped at 145cm tall and stubbornly refuses to increase. She¡¯s gained a lot of strength this week though, since her stat was so low to start with.


    She reminds him of the professional bodybuilders he had seen on the data as a kid, every muscle in her body was visible and rippled when she moved.


    Compared to his own square jaw and strong Roman nose, her facial features looked very angr, elfin and delicate. That was a cruel joke to Max though, there was nothing delicate about his friend. Now that her strength has mostly adjusted to the constantly increasing gravity she routinely beat him down during training.<sub></sub>


    But not for much longer. Nico might have the advantage of experience, but Max was quickly catching up in skills. The new style General Tennant was teaching them seemed tailor made for him and he was confident one day soon he would be the one to secure the wins. Just a little more speed and dexterity should do it.


    Max had just got his coveralls on when the General came in with one of the school doctors, who almost missed a step as the effect of the additional gravity hit him.


    ¡°Weekly checkup for you both, plus your Central Governed Mandated birth control shots now that you¡¯ve reached puberty. The fleet doesn¡¯t want any incidents during Academy training after all.¡± General Tennantughs.


    Max supposes that makes sense, with coed facilities and hundreds of hormonal adolescents, it¡¯s only natural that at least a few romantic rtionships would form. The Kepler Military doesn¡¯t mind that, they just don¡¯t approve of unnecessary downtime.<sub></sub>


    The checkup was a simple thing, just checking their progress. Max read the doctor¡¯s mind as he worked, learning that his physical progress was well ahead of what the doctor expected for his stat bonuses, which he credited to the gravity training.


    General Tennant assigned them a morning warmup of stretches, push-ups and burpees while he went back outside with the doctor to discuss the results.


    ¡°So Doc, what did you find?¡±


    ¡°As we already knew, Cadet Nico¡¯s family is indeed that ancient Tarith military family, and not from Kepler Terminus originally. The size is totally normal for them, in fact the Mecha formerly belonging to the main branch of her family are still in storage and reported to be sized too small in the cockpit for most users.


    The surprise was Cadet Max. Despite his birth records, the Genome search shows he is not a native of Kepler Terminus either. His mother certainly is, but we will need to research who his father is. What I can tell you is that he reacts exceptionally well to the system, and all other forms of nanotechnology.¡± The doctor confirms General Tennant¡¯s suspicions.


    ¡°Thanks Doc, I owe you one. I¡¯ll have someone look into both families. Alpha level Compatibility doesn¡¯t juste out of nowhere like that, there¡¯s got to be something we¡¯re missing.¡±


    The doctor goes back to his work and General Tennant heads back inside to put the Cadets through another day of training. The gravity training is working wonders and their bodies have almost stabilized enough to move on to the next phase of training, moving from simtors to actual Mecha.


    While the experience is very simr, live Mecha training teaches responsibility. Cadets will be forced to assist in the repairs and maintenance of the units they damage in training, alongside the mechanical sses, and it teaches them respect for the equipment and their fellow soldiers.


    At least for most of them it does. This phase of training in the other sses is where the determinations of potential officer promotions begin to be made, with the Cadets attitudes and leadership abilities being put on full disy in a real world scenario.


    For these two it¡¯s already obvious they¡¯re qualified, and that Cadet Max is more of the everyman¡¯s leader, while Cadet Nico has all the grace and charm of a Drill Instructor with a sore tooth. She¡¯s a great tactician, and a good leader, but she¡¯s better suited to scaring Cadets into action than inspiring patriotism in the masses.


    Perhaps he could arrange for her to be Cadet Max¡¯s Executive Officer? General Tennant has friends in the Commissariat, the army¡¯s police and internal logistics department, and he could have them send someone here early to give the Cadets a dose of additional training.


    A well trained Commissar handles a units provisioning, with logistics officers and staff doing the leg work. They¡¯re also tasked with handling discipline matters, and are the perfect choice for an executive officer, a units second inmand.


    General Tennant decides to add it to the list of required topics for the semester, despite the Cadets already having their hands full with physical training.

 28 Chapter 28

    Two days after General Tennant reached out with his offer of Vian Brandy, a high quality liquor favored by Kepler officers, it drew an unusual face to the Academy on Kepler Terminus.


    Inquisitor Wolf, of Central Command Internal Affairs Investigation Department was not a figure that anyone usually looked forward to seeing. His words alone could have entire Academies closed, or Battalions brought up on charges. Due to this reputation and level of power wiring the Kepler Kingdom, seeing an Internal Affairs Inquisitor was considered very bad luck.


    But he wasn¡¯t here to reprimand anyone, he wanted to see the Cadets that his uncle was training as sessors. The old man was notoriously picky, and if he said these would make good sessors when properly trained, Wolf was happy to help.


    He had arrived in the causal cks and polo shirt version of his uniform instead of full regalia to try to ease the anxiety of the academy, but he could still see everyone tense as he walked by. He would havee in civilian clothing, but it had been thirty years since he owned any. Duty was his life, and an Inquisitor was never truly off duty.


    He easily found the training area that was being used by the General due to the distinctck of foot traffic nearby. Stepping inside, he was almost floored by the gravity change from the outside normal to easily twice Imperial standard. Unlike a Mecha Pilot who required a high Rank System to advance, Inquisitors only needed intelligence and dedication. Wolf only had a Gamma Rank System, so even in his middle years, he could just barely match the strength these Alpha Rank Cadets attained without Modifiers.


    The two Cadets, Max and Nico if he recalled correctly, were sparring when he came in. Coveralls tied at the waist and gray tank tops sweat soaked, they¡¯d obviously been training for a while already this morning. He also noticed that the reinforced training batons they were using were bent from the force of the impacts.<sub>.</sub>


    He wasn¡¯t sure if it was the gravity or another part of their training, but these Cadets were monsters. Having over a hundred bonus points while still in primary training, with a two point base, Alpha Rankers were just built differently.


    They also seemed to be using his family¡¯s variant of Kep Maga, which could only havee from the General. He really was going all out for his sessors.


    When they heard his boots cross the threshold, both stood facing Inquisitor Wolf and gave the fist to the chest Kepler Salute.


    ¡°Inquisitor On The Deck.¡± Nico called out and General Tennant came sauntering out from the other room, smiling at the new arrival.


    ¡°Nephew, thanks foring. Cadets, this is Inquisitor Wolf, he will be teaching you the duties of a Commissar over the next few weeks. Diversity of input is important, so I won¡¯t be teaching you this myself, only examining you on what you¡¯ve learned.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°Thank You for educating us Inquisitor.¡± The Cadets answer in unison.


    ¡°I¡¯m here as an Instructor today, so you may call me Major Wolf. General, how much do they know about discipline rules and Requisitions?¡±


    ¡°I had then memorize the Imperial Handbook, so they know the theory, but we haven¡¯t touched on it yet.¡± That makes Major Wolf¡¯s job easier. He won¡¯t have to undo years of local indoctrination onary loyalty, customs and standards.


    Discipline is as much about motivation as punishment and a proper Commissar needs to bnce the two aspects well to keep their troops at maximum efficiency. That holds especially true for a mixed force that contains infantry. More bodies means more issues, and many infantry soldiers are little better than conscripts, serving out a term of service so they can go home.


    For thoses where the system didn¡¯t take well among the poption, or where Mecha Piloting isn¡¯t as culturally ingrained, sending annual Regiments of infantry to the war effort ismon practice. They serve ten years and then the survivors return home to a civilian life.<sub></sub>


    ¡°We will start with a knowledge quiz. After physical training, hit the showers and return in casual uniform.¡±


    Max and Nico return to their match, having only a few minutes left in the session. Max is certain he¡¯s about to win this time when he captures Nico¡¯s wrist and twists, he¡¯s stronger so it¡¯s only a matter of seconds and he¡¯ll have her pinned.


    General Tennant gives him an approving look that neither Cadet notices but Inquisitor Wolf shakes his head. ¡°He¡¯s lost.¡±


    ¡°How do you see that? That¡¯s a textbook lock.¡± General Tennant asks quietly.


    ¡°Exactly, it¡¯s textbook. You recall the Gang Wars at the Salt Mines?¡±


    ¡°Victory is the only virtue. That bunch of savages?¡± The General says, thinking deeply.


    ¡°Just like them.¡±


    Just as he says it, Max pulls Nico in close for the pin and she very clearly bites him, making him flinch. Before he can recover, her flexible body has folded in half and she¡¯s got his neck in a secure choke hold between her thighs. Max does his best to hold out, but ends up tapping out first.


    ¡°You bit me.¡±


    ¡°Lies and nder. I did no such thing.¡±


    ¡°You know I can read your mind, right?¡±


    ¡°Then why did you let me bite you?¡±


    The two officers share augh as the banter fades behind the sounds of the showers.


    ¡°Are they always sopetitive?¡± Wolf asks.


    ¡°It¡¯s even worse inside the Mecha. They¡¯re both fanatics and hate losing to each other, but they¡¯re still pretty evenly matched for now. Give them another year or two at the most to activate their first few System Abilities and it should sort itself out.¡± The General confirms.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got your hands full then. But don¡¯t worry, teaching then the reality of Commanding and Provisioning a unit won¡¯t take long at all if they¡¯re that dedicated. I hope you¡¯re intending the small one for Commissar. The big one seems like a genuinely good person, we need more like that inmand.¡±


    General Tennant smiles at his nephew. ¡°I knew we¡¯d see things the same way. That¡¯s why I reached out to you for their training. If we had to separate them it would be a waste of talent.¡±

 29 Chapter 29

    Inquisitor Wolf was just as intense of a teacher as General Tennant was, taking over a three hour slot of their mornings. There was no gentle start, no introductory exercises, instead he started them directly with the task of provisioning a newly formed Battalion.


    They spent an hour going over the relevant sections of the regtions, and then the Cadets were dropped directly into the virtual reality scenario as the Commanding officers.


    As the Instructors hoped, they fell naturally into the roles, meaning that after theypiled the list of necessities Nico mercilessly referred everyone to Max for final signatures while working out the budgeting with the department heads created by the simtion.


    The whole scenario takes ce aboard an Imperial Light Cruiser, the sort of vessel that carries special forces strike squads to their destinations. Both Senior officers decided this was the best location for it, since that was likely to be their firstmand, and the steel walls covered in gray blue paint is what their training area was designed to duplicate, keeping a sense of total integration between inside and outside the simtion.


    The idea that the General has was to make them forget that they were Cadets while they were training, and have everything flow seamlessly from one task to another. In theory, it should help smooth their transition from the academy to a duty station.


    Drawing on Nico¡¯s memories from her previous life, the Cadets agreed to leave every department a bit of discretionary money after the necessities were ordered. The staff in the scenario are programed to behave as normal soldiers would, and not long after receiving their instructions they start returning to Max with requisition orders for additional items that weren¡¯t on the list.<sub>.</sub>


    Most of these things were fine to approve, but he did catch a number of questionable orders. Either overpriced, not itemized or straight up unnecessary.


    He¡¯s almost through the list when he sees a requisition order for ¡®training equipment¡¯ in the quantity of two crates with no additional details but with Nico¡¯s signature on it.


    Max uses his Innate Talent to see what she was up to and finds that the crates have sports equipment, musical instruments, ying cards and other such items in them. Entertainment and Leisure items aren¡¯t on the approved list for their requisition, but nothing in the crate is specifically prohibited.


    Max signs off on it and when the orders are ced the scenario ends, bringing them back to reality.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see how you did Cadets. I believe in a level of officer autonomy, so I didn¡¯t watch inside the scenario, instead I will audit your requisition orders as a Commissariat Officer.¡± Inquisitor Wolf informs them with his unnerving toothy smile and starts going through the budget and orders.<sub></sub>


    They¡¯vee in five percent under budget, a good sign, and the items look good. The scan from his data tablet says they got everything necessary, plus most of the additional items that new Commanders miss if they micromanage their staff. Just like Max did, he notices the training equipment order, but only has the order sheet to go by.


    So, he pulls up the data from the training scenario and checks the content to find out if they missed one of the nted corrupt logistics officers and ended up with contraband in their order. What he finds are two very standard enlisted troops motivational shipments.


    Ordered as they were, they¡¯re not technically prohibited, but most Cadets and rookie officers would deny them as wasteful spending and then end up with a low unit motivation score when their scenario is run through the preset mission metrics by the Simtion program.


    Overall, he¡¯s very impressed with this first attempt even if a number of their quantities are off from what is actually required and they missed almost every efficiency upgrade because they didn¡¯t force the departments to coborate on their orders. With Kepler¡¯s advanced technology, many specialty items can be reced with a single multi tool.


    He sets the simtor toplete the mission the Cadets were assigned to prepare for with their approved Requisitions, getting back a score of 73 points,fortably passing, but not nearly good enough for his standards.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Barely passable. High scores for readiness and morale, low scores for efficiency, spare parts supply and ammunition reserves.¡± He informs the eager Cadets once the data ispiled.


    ¡°Tomorrow, we will be going over the extensive list of mistakes you made. Expect it to take all three hours.¡±


    Max decides Major Wolf¡¯s smile is a lot like Major Payne¡¯s. It looks friendly, but it really isn¡¯t. Three hours worth of mistakes for a two hour simtion has got to be a lot, certainly far more than Max thought he¡¯d made.


    The lecture was just as painfully long as Max feared, but over the course of the next two weeks he learned an incredible amount about supply consumption by military units and the variety of Kepler technology which quietly powers military society. Which led him to the inevitable conclusion that energy weapons are underrated.


    Sure, they might not be as effective as projectiles and explosives, but the sheer volume of munitions that are required for an extended bombardment are mind boggling. Even with the Kepler Kingdom¡¯s caseless artillery rounds that the Battle Cannon of a Crusader ss Mecha uses, it¡¯s still a struggle to store more than a few hundred in the giant Mecha.


    That¡¯s more than enough for a ¡°normal battle¡± scenario ording to the regtions, but Max isn¡¯t sure who defined that term, or if they¡¯d ever personally seenbat.


    While they finished their crash course in basic provisioning, their afternoon physical training was starting to pay dividends for Max. His dexterity and speed had been growing at a rapid pace even though his Strength stat had barely advanced, making everything from martial arts to Mecha Piloting easier for him.


    He didn¡¯t have to struggle to keep up with the maneuvers anymore, the pace was almostfortable to him now, and General Tennant had dered they were almost done with the Line Mecha training.


    Once he was satisfied with their provisioning skills, Inquisitor Wolf moved on to troop discipline inbat scenarios. Methods, theories, and how everything from deployment formations and equipment to the avability of a field cafeteria instead of reheated rations could affect behavior.


    Unlike provisioning, that topic would not be done quickly, with the n being that he would spend the entire semester on that portion of their officers training.


    The end of the second week also marked their final checkup from the doctor, to determine if their bodies development had stabilized after the System Enhancement at 100 bonus points. Both Cadets really hoped he would say it had, because that was thest thing that General Tennant was waiting on to change their piloting courses.


    The Corvette ss Mecha were faster, more responsive and more heavily armed. Piloting them with a developing body could lead to internal injuries, which would dy training even more than waiting until the Cadets were fully prepared. For that reason the academy didn¡¯t usually teach it at all. The lower the grade of System Compatibility a soldier has, the closer to a systemless human their growth rate bes.


    Everthing rting to youths in society was based around that fact. Even the age of adulthood was set at two years after system induced puberty finished, since that was when their mind and body could be expected to be fully developed. For Alpha Rank Cadets, that often meant during primary training. For Delta Ranks, that could be after their university years if their early training was slow to progress.


    The Doctor¡¯s response wasn¡¯t as good as hoped. Their Alpha Grade Systems were causing more changes than usual to the existing state of their bodies, and they¡¯d need more time to adapt before moving on to new forms of training.


    Part of that dy was also due to the gravity training continually increasing their abilities, which prolonged the change, so General Tennant altered the schedule a little. Instead of teaching them new piloting tricks, next they¡¯d learn Mecha maintenance after their morningmand lessons.

 30 Chapter 30

    At noon the next day Colonel ck arrives with two damaged Line Mecha for the Cadets to diagnose and repair.


    They¡¯d been damaged by the senior ss during their live fire training, and he thought the damage on these units perfectly suited the way that Cadets Max and Nico had treated their simted machines during the qualification exams.


    ¡°Enough chatting Cadets, Let¡¯s get to work. I picked these two damaged Mecha specifically for the pair of you, based on yourbat styles. Somebody thought her Mecha was an acrobatics cyborg and would have blown out a load of seals in the hydraulic systems.¡± Colonel ck can¡¯t help but smile at the memory of Nico climbing up the parkade building, and the various barricades and obstacles she navigated during the examination.


    ¡°And someone else thinks that if he can¡¯t see the target, it can¡¯t see him, so I¡¯ve brought you a mecha with blown capacitors and and scorched armor istors all over the unit.¡±


    Both Cadets chuckle, knowing that this is going to be a long day, but it was mostly self inflicted. No level of mistake, no matter how small, goes unpunished under General Tennant¡¯s watch, so even though their exam was virtual, he¡¯d found a way to make them do the repairs in reality.<sub>.</sub>


    They go over all the damaged areas, and Colonel ck hands each a data tablet with the diagnosis and repair information for the Kepler Line Mecha in it and instructs them to get to work. Just like Inquisitor Wolf, his theory is to see what they can make of the avable information on their own.


    Nico has some maintenance memories from her previous life, which Max has already reviewed, finding them only partially relevant due to differences in technology, but both Cadets had taken the time to read and understand the textbooks on the basic theories and techniques of Kepler Empire Mecha design and repair long beforeing to the academy.


    They couldn¡¯t bear to call themselves a true fan of Mecha is they didn¡¯t understand how they worked, after all.


    The work begins slowly after they finish making notes on the visible damages, and Colonel ck starts offering advice and assistance as soon as the actual repairs begin.<sub></sub>


    ¡°No, you remove the end pin, then the C clip before unscrewing the cap, or it will jam and you¡¯ll have to start over.¡± The Colonel instructs Cadet Nico, pointing out the correct way to disassemble a particr type of hydraulic ram.


    Nico¡¯s day has been the much more mechanical of the two Cadets. The unit Max is repairing just got shot a bunch of times, so he¡¯s mostly removing and recing armor tes and energy absorption capacitors over and over, then checking electrical circuits and the internal structure for damage.


    Nico has rebuilt 4 electric motors and two dozen hydraulic cylinders so far, thanks to the overload damage the unit she is working on suffered when the pilot managed to fall off an elevated walkway. It¡¯s still functional, but leaking from basically everywhere.


    The systems are redundant and isted, so there are dozens and dozens of small damaged parts from the Mecha¡¯s fall and subsequent maneuvers to finish the course.<sub></sub>


    ¡®I should really have apologized to the repair staff in myst life. I brought them machines in much worse condition than this.¡¯ Nico muses silently, going over both past life memories and her new learning to get this job done as quickly as possible.


    ¡°That looks good. Cadet Max, double check all your left arm securements and then we can sign off on that arm. Cadet Nico, power up the unit and check for torso joint leaks.¡±


    Colonel ck actually enjoys spending all his time in the shop, away from the politics and nonsense involved in running an Academy. He asked for the transfer to this duty station specifically to get out of the political trap he had gotten himself promoted into. No senior officer truly escapes politics though, as they¡¯re an integral part of everypanymand level and up posting.


    That being the case, a whole afternoon, with only two Cadets, not even ones from the maintenance program, was almost a perfect day at work for him. If his old friend the General would bring some Brandy it might actually be perfect.


    Once the mechanical repairs are done they Cadets clean the units, then run a double system check for damages and leaks, and finally refresh the academy regtion paint on their armor. By the time they¡¯re done the two units work better than new, properly tweaked and tuned with every little lingering problemmon to a training Mecha solved.


    ¡°And that¡¯s two correctly serviced Mecha, ready for their next deployment. Enjoy your evenings and I will return tomorrow with more units for you to work on.¡±


    Second break is over, and the Senior Cadets are nearing graduation, so every day they will have more Mecha to repair, so many that the repair ss students dread this final semester every year.


    The Instructors say that it¡¯s part of their training, the rush to get units operational during a battle, but the developing minds of the young Cadets always have problems truly appreciating that the reality would actually be much, much worse than what they receive in the academy.


    It¡¯s a bit like heaven for the Mecha loving Max though. He¡¯s literally up to his elbows in a real life Line Mecha, testing systems and recing theposite armor tes that seem to get heavily damaged every training run.


    They¡¯re built of sandwichedyers of a resin impregnated cloth and an advanced ceramic inside a metallic shell, designed to absorb impact, energy and heat and dissipate it without damaging the structure they¡¯re mounted to. Deliberately sacrificial to save theponents that actually keep the Mecha working underneath.


    The design makes a lot of work for maintenance crews, but it¡¯s far easier than repairing the moreplex Armored shell of the Crusader ss Mecha. Most of these Line Mecha armor tes Max can maneuver by hand, even in the increased gravity of their training building. The tes for a Crusader ss Mecha require a crane and multiple team members to safely remove.

 31 Chapter 31

    It is while Max is working on one of the Line Mecha damaged by the Special Forces ss that his system decides that he needs an upgrade. Most Alpha Rank Users will get an additional Function at some point in their school lives, since they be avable after 50 points, with a second one likely after 100. The biggest question is what they¡¯ll get.


    [Function Activating]


    [New System Function Added: Unit Optimization] The System will assist the User in Maintaining Peak Performance of their Mecha Unit. Touch Required for activation.


    Max marvels at the notification for a while, wondering just what exactly the system is going to do for him. But, when he touches the screen to run a system diagnostic on the next Line Mecha, a new interface opens in his mind, like a heads up disy.


    [42 Faults Found]


    [Efficiency Reduced by 37%] Correct Now?<sub>.</sub>


    Max decides to see just what the system is doing, when a drop of his blood, then another and a third fall from his fingers onto the screen, quickly soaking in. Within seconds the damaged interior is pristine again, so Max exits the unit to see what still needs done and what the Nanobots that form his system can do themselves.


    The wires and hydraulic hoses are mending themselves as he watches, and then a notification pops up in his mind, telling him which armor tes and mechanicalponents need recing. Max simply follows the list, swapping damagedponents as he goes until everything is done.


    [Optimization Complete]


    That is an absolutely incredible function. It will only perform the most basic of repairs, reattaching broken wires and mending hoses using the existing material, but the diagnostic ability alone makes it more than worth it. Before he can sign off on this unit he needs to systems test it, so Max straps himself in the cockpit and powers up the unit. The controls respond the instant that he wishes them to, none of the usualg of outdated programs and decades of patched software. The interior lighting is just right, and when he takes it for the test walk around the Shop, the controls are exactly at his preferred sensitivity.


    In short, the unit is perfect, better than the day it first came off the assembly line, and optimized to his own preference. In a higher quality mecha, the difference will be even greater. His Speed and Dexterity might not be amazing, at least not yet, but at this point, it almost doesn¡¯t matter, since the system has optimized the unit to his preference and ability.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Colonel ck, I¡¯ve got another unit ready for final checks.¡± Max calls, opening the hatch to jump out onto the ground, and the Coloneles over to double check his work.


    To the Colonel, the unit is not quite as perfect, as it¡¯s optimized for Max and not him, but the quality of the repairs is immediately evident.


    ¡°Excellent work Cadet. Whatever you did to the software is working exactly right.¡± Praise from the head mechanic and Principal of the school is hard toe by, so Max is going to savor this moment for a while, while he starts in on another unit. This one is entirely inoperative, it won¡¯t even boot up, but as soon as Max touches it, the System Function activates again.


    [Unit Inoperable: Performing Emergency diagnostics]


    [Solution: Rece Power Capacitor 7A and cycle power circuits to begin diagnostics]<sub></sub>


    Max follows the instructions and it¡¯s not long before he¡¯s got the unit up and running. It wasn¡¯t badly damaged, but the blown capacitor in the power rys killed it and cut all power to the mecha. This time Max doesn¡¯t optimize it for himself, only repairs the damages and sends it on its way. Finally he has a true advantage from his system, and not just the Alpha Rank privileged ying field that he started life with. That can hardly be counted, since he¡¯s not even the only one in his ss that can boast about that level of systempatibility.


    Max passes a few more days testing out his ability before they¡¯re finally cleared to start training on the Corvette ss Mecha. This will be the first real test of his new system function, using it inside a real Mecha on the live fire range. The Academy doesn¡¯t have full immersion trainers for the Corvette ss that train your body like they have for the Line Mecha, and once you know the controls, there¡¯s not much more to be learned inside a VR simtor. So, General Tennant has booked them three hours a day on the live fire range with Corvette ss Mecha usually reserved for staff members, equipped with Ion rifles to save on ammunition costs.


    Both Cadets understand that they¡¯ll be repairing any damages they do to these units, so they¡¯ll have to treat them well, but that¡¯s not going to dampen their enthusiasm. When they strap themselves in and boot up their Mecha, Max takes a moment to check his system stats.


    [Compatibility Determined]  Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [STR] 2+70%


    [DEX] 2+24%


    [SPD] 2+24%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function: Unit Optimization] activated


    [Unit Optimized For Use]


    Compared to the clunky and basic Line Mecha, the Corvette ss machines are a thing of beauty. Standing 5 meters tall, they are a perfect mix of flowing lines and hard edges. Their torso isn¡¯t as tall as a Line Mecha and its more human proportions, since the power nt has been relocated behind the pilot instead of below, and the ¡®head¡¯ is removed in favor of more widely distributed sensor systems.


    These models have standard humanoid hands and carry an Ion ster, with k rifles on either shoulder that the Academy doesn¡¯t provide ammunition for during training. While they cannot fly, they can jump huge distances with thruster assistance. Very convenient at the Academy, as they¡¯re used by teachers to intervene should a Cadet make a grave error.


    Max and Nico line up side by side, in adjacentnes of the live fire course and General Tennant starts the scenario without warning, causing a hail of fire toe flying for their mecha. The agile Corvette ss unit responds exactly as Max wants it to, throwing him out of sight behind a barricade and then spinning out the other side to shoot at the first of the dummies. The shot is true and the iing fire slows enough for Max to move to the next point, gaining an angle to take out two more of the turret dummies.


    They¡¯re designed to look like the Academy Line Mecha, but they¡¯re actually just energy absorbing ative ting and a low powered Ion Rifle. His shots won¡¯t really damage them, just trigger their system to inactivate them for the run, but their weapons will certainly leave battle scars on his Mecha that he will have to fixter if they hit him.


    Having the ability to see into everyone¡¯s memory ising in handy now that his mecha does exactly what he wants it to. The instructors know this mecha in and out, every bit of what it is theoretically capable of, and with his new system function, Max can push it to the absolute limits.

 32 Chapter 32

    At the end of the course, Nico has a very respectable 95 percent hit rate, and under 10 percent damage taken, a result on par with the elite results of all her previous examinations. Max, on the other hand scored absolutely perfectly. Perfect uracy, no damage taken and nearly perfect efficiency and timing through the course, with minimal wasted movement.


    Nico looks at the results with a mncholy smile, but still manages a cheerful sounding taunt for her friend. ¡°Looks like my head start has been squandered. You got good while we were working on the repair training. Is this what they call the Male Advantage?¡±


    That was an acknowledged thing within the Piloting Ranks. The system didn¡¯t optimize all bodies the same way, and Female Pilots would cap out lower on strength and speed but higher on dexterity than their male counterparts. Max wasn¡¯t sure exactly what level Nico was at now, but as he understood it, the differences started after 100 total bonus points and only got more and more evident among the elite ranks.


    Because of that, not many elite female pilots existed, but with the right System Functions, there was no reason short of crippling injury that the Kepler Kingdom¡¯s advanced medicine couldn¡¯t repair that an Alpha Ranked Cadet like Nico wouldn¡¯t qualify for and sessfullyplete the Special Forces training.<sub>.</sub>


    The fact Max got a perfect run first was just a bittersweet reminder to her of all the ways she¡¯d taunted him during martial arts training, where she had the natural advantage so far.


    ¡°Not bad Cadets. But watch your footing, the Corvette ss is much more agile than the Line Mecha, but the ground isn¡¯t any more stable, so rapid maneuvers are prone to cause you to lose traction and send the whole mecha toppling to the ground. Especially you, Cadet Max. You prefer to lean your body to stabilize for a shooting position, but that puts a lot of pressure on one foot. In soft sand or mud that will be a hazard. Now, go again.¡±


    The General only increases the difficulty every day, along with the increasing gravity in their training center, pushing both Cadets to the limits until finally Nico breaks. Not mentally, literally breaks her arm during martial arts training when her bone density can no longer keep up with the extreme stress of increased strength and gravity.<sub></sub>


    The System has optimized her as much as it can, or will, and her body has reached the peak of its adult state, at least until she reaches 150 bonus points and the System sees fit to upgrade her in some way again.


    That upgrade isn¡¯t always physical though. Sure, it¡¯s often a bonus to a base stat or multiple base stats, but it is also amon point in their training for Kepler Kingdom pilots to gain one or more additional System Functions, often just before their University exams are due to be taken, should their progression follow the Curriculum expected rates.


    While Nico recovers over the next few days, her healing elerated by the Nanobots, Max has to train alone, except for the theory courses with Inquisitor Wolf. Nico is spending extra time in the theoretical sses now, due to her injury and likelihood of repeat injuries until the recovery isplete, while Max continues with piloting sses under General Tennant.<sub></sub>


    Max really didn¡¯t realize how much he relied upon thepetition and having something to prove, until he had to do it alone.


    ¡°Why the long face Cadet? Surely you still see each other more than enough during Commissar Training and after sses?¡± General Tennant jokes as they bring Max¡¯s mecha back for daily maintenance.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that, more like all this time, I really wanted to prove that I was just as good as the Cadet born with all the advantages. The loving family, noble heritage, Alpha Rank System, plus her amazing Innate Talent. But now, I guess I have, and I¡¯m not sure what I should do now. Does that make any sense General?¡±


    General Tennant nods sagely to the Cadet, lost in his own memories. ¡°When I joined the Military, there was a Cadet just like you. He had the ability, and the drive, but that was it. I was the one born to a heritage of Mecha Pilots. He drove me every day to be a better Pilot, just to keep that one step ahead of him. Then one day he managed it, his unit held their assigned point while mine was pushed back and had to be reinforced.


    But our Commander had a bit of advice for him when he was feeling like you are now. ¡®You might be ahead, but life is never won until the day you die.¡¯ The trantion from his native dialect is a bit rough, but what he meant was, you are now in her position, the one being chased to defend the title as the best. If you ck for even a second, she will take it back from you, so you need to make yourself the absolute best Pilot and Commander you can be every single day, without fail.¡±


    Max wasn¡¯t expecting a profound life lesson from the usually silent General, so it takes him a while to digest that philosophy before hees up with a question. ¡°Where is that Pilot now?¡±


    ¡°Waiting for us to bring in one of his Academy¡¯s prized Corvette ss Mecha. Now get a move on or the Colonel will chew us both out for beingte.¡±


    General Tennant was right, the moment that Cadet Nico was cleared to return to live fire training, it was like a fire was lit within her to take back her spot at the top, and prove to herself that she could keep up with the very best. Max started out with the handicap and had to y catch up, but Nico has just started to work though hers. That ability she has to interface directly with the Mecha¡¯s systems can¡¯t be underestimated though. She¡¯s good, and getting better with practice. Max might have a perfectly optimized mecha, but he¡¯s still got to work hard to keep his position.


    The semester draws on peacefully as they master all the basics of Provisioning, discipline, repair and piloting, training to be well rounded Officer Cadets, but all is not calm in the Kepler Kingdom. External battles are a constant fact of life for the Kingdom, and both General Tennant and Inquisitor Wolf know that their time here is limited.


    If they want to take these Cadets with them as the General¡¯s presumptive sessors when they¡¯re inevitably forced to leave, they¡¯ll have to work hard to find a way and have the Cadets prove themselves.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 33 Chapter 33

    The central government overseer is deep into the drink before the sun goes down that night. Aristocratic Imperial politicians sent him here specifically to prove that the old General was no longer fit for duty.


    Putting him in charge of children was a disaster waiting to happen, and the bureaucrats were certain that he would either fail or be drunken and violent to the point that he could be relieved ofmand and his Phnx ss Mecha Reallocated to a piloting team more loyal to the Aristocracy and their bureaucracy.


    But after this. After a pair of first year Cadets crushed the qualification exams mere months into his tutge, what was the overseer to report to his superiors? His best bet was to suppress the news and buy time toe up with a n. If that Phnx ss Mecha goes to students loyal to General Tennant, they will be loyal to the Monarchy directly, as the original agreement stipted, not the regional governments run in its name by the local aristocrats.


    When the Kingdom of Kepler was founded, all Phnx ss and mightier Mecha Swore Loyalty to the monarchy before all else. So now that the Observer¡¯s superiors in the government feel that the monarchy has be obsolete and is ready to be reced by smaller fiefdoms run by the aristocratic ss and their centuries old structures of government, that loyalty must be erased.


    But it¡¯s not easy. The pilots pick their sessors, both by tradition and byw. Turning the younger generation is the best chance they have. That or sending the venerable machines out on far flung patrols so they can¡¯t return in time to stop the Monarchy from being eliminated.


    The overseer finds no sce in his thoughts and in the end drinks himself to sleep well before lights out.


    While the Observer bemoaned his fate over expensive whiskey, General Tennant was making ns to elerate the Cadets¡¯ training and to move them to a safer location.<sub>.</sub>


    What he hase up with is a training mission. Not a short journey through the woods, a six month tour of duty where he will be the only one overseeing them, and where he will be able to help them earn themendations that they will need to take over the Shining Darkness before the politicians can find a way to strip her from General Tennant¡¯s Possession.


    The actions of the overseer, and other double agents within the Academy are no mystery to the General. The sensors in the venerable Phnx ss machine are noughing matter, he can find out anything that happens within this Academy. Why else would he choose to sleep in his mecha every night when he could have an opulent VIP suite assigned along with base staff catering to his every whim?


    He has managed to contact a ship of the fleet that is on a routine training patrol for Kepler Naval Pilots, with a minimal crew and no intentions of entering into actual danger. That¡¯s just the thing he¡¯s looking for, a fewndfalls that can be polished up in reports and half a year of peace.


    The Captain of the ship is more than happy to have the Shining Darkness on board, the Phnx ss Mecha are a good luck symbol to the entire Empire, and Colonel ck has agreed to the General¡¯s proposal to take his Cadets on the mission.


    The Colonel understands the current situation quite well, and hopes that it neveres to the worst of oues. They have enough enemies without a civil war.


    The next morning most of the Instructors have gathered in the viewing decks to watch the two Cadets under General Tennant practice on the Corvette ss Mecha, curious to how well his secluded students have been progressing.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Mecha Ready. Weapons check¡±


    ¡°Cadet Nico, All Green. Weapons Check Ready.¡±


    ¡°Cadet Max, All Green. Weapons Check Ready.¡±


    ¡°Standby forunch in 3, 2, 1¡±


    The two hurtled out of the starting area at a blistering rate, taking out the first set of targets before even meeting the iing fire. Cadet Nico goes a bit more gently than usual on this run, not wanting to cause herself the need to do any unnecessary repairs after just recovering from an injury. It¡¯s a faster pace than the Line Mecha qualification by quite a bit, but not even close to pushing the more agile machine to its limits.


    Beside her, Cadet Max is taking a very efficient line, but emphasizing his hiding to ensure he¡¯s entirely behind the avable cover.<sub></sub>


    ¡°It¡¯s two perfect runs¡± someone in the control room sighs. ¡°Side by side, it¡¯s like watching instructors demonstrate.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I want to kiss the General for training such talents or kick him for not training the rest.¡± Major Payne snarls.


    ¡°Now, now Amanda. You know you can¡¯t kick ranking officers.¡± Inquisitor Wolf coos and promptly gets a kick leveled at his backside.


    ¡°I said no kicking, absolutely no kicking.¡± Heughs as he dances across the room, having enjoyed the friendly banter of the Instructors here inparison to the suspicion and fear his presence usually elicited.


    ¡°But now they¡¯re into the hardest part. Do you think they¡¯ll notice the ambush target that pops up behind the Cadets at the 90 percent mark?¡±


    A target not noticed is a missed target, not a huge deal to these two Cadets, but it is the point when many others fail their run, having missed their opportunity at earlier targets.


    The two Mecha are side by side as theye to the 90 percent mark and the ambush dronees out. Cadet Max doesn¡¯t even turn, simply spins his shoulder around to aim backwards and sts it into oblivion.


    Cadet Nico noticed a moment toote, still in time to avoid the ambush, but the drone had moved behind cover before she could target it and she must either waste a significant amount of time looking for it or continue the run with the missed target. Nico chooses to take the miss, moving into the final groupings andpleting the course.


    ¡°Cadet Nico, you do know it is customary to shoot all of the targets, yes?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir. This Cadet knows they failed to shoot the Ambush drone, sir.¡±


    ¡°0 missed shots, 0 percent damage taken, 1 missed target. Passable score Cadet.¡±


    ¡°Now that we¡¯ve covered your negligent targeting, tell me this. Were you out for a leisurely stroll? Needed a moment to do your nails? What is with the sedate pacing Cadet?¡± General Tennant barks, making everyone in the control roomugh. Her pace was still a third faster than required for the actual Corvette ss qualification.


    ¡°Sir. This Cadet found the previous Mecha to be exceedingly fragile and did not want to damage more of the Academy¡¯s property, sir.¡±


    ¡°Then we will have to teach you how to run without hurting yourself Cadet. That¡¯s all for this lesson, fall out to the hangars and return your Mecha.¡±


    ¡°Passable he says, passable.¡± Major Payne chokes looking at the scorecard.


    ¡°Cadet Max, not bad, but you almost took a shot to the back wasting time in cover. Get in, get the job done and get out. Corvette ss Mecha are fast attack Mecha.¡±


    ¡°I understand General.¡±


    ¡°Excellent, now fall out and get showered for your next ss.¡± The General dismisses him and the second Corvette ss mecha heads for the customized training hanger to be serviced and put away for the evening.


    0 missed shots. 0 missed targets. 0 damage taken. Perfect run.

 Chapter 34 Charter 34 Change Of Plans

    The overseer silently ends the call with his superiors, hearing the instructorse back from the observation room. The Cadets just have finished their run. He briefly wonders how they did, but pushes the thought from his mind. One more week and they can send an Inquisitor that they¡¯ve turned to their cause.


    The Royal auditors known as Inquisitors are a hard bunch, but they do have weaknesses. Someone has found this one¡¯s and recruited them to help eliminate the General through forced retirement, giving the Aristocracy control of his Mecha.


    As the overseer ends his call, General Tennant begins one of his own.


    ¡°Move up the schedule, use my Command Codes if necessary. We¡¯re leaving today.¡±


    Cadets Nico and Max were doing the final checks before returning their borrowed Corvette ss Mecha to the Academy Armory. Both were in high spirits,ughing with each other while they ran the diagnostic scans, finding nothing wrong but a bit of depleted fuel and some added dirt.


    ¡°Hey Nico, what do you think this field trip will be like? Will we just be observing? Do you think they¡¯ll let us do live training with the crew?¡± Max asked, excitedly going through the notification of a 6 month off world field trip with General Tennant that he had just received.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°I¡¯m sure there will be Training. Can you imagine General Tennant letting a Cadet ck for an entire 6 month tour? That¡¯s just crazy talk. I¡¯ll bet if there¡¯s a patrol in a safe environment he might even let us off the ship.¡±


    For Special Forces Cadets in their final year of basic training, as the seventh year sses were, that was how these rare practical experience fields trips usually went, ording to the Academy¡¯s publicly avable information. Training on board, then patrols on an uninhabited moon somewhere before returning to brag of their experience and begin their final semesters.


    Not every graduating ss even got to do one though, their was too low priority to get approval for annual excursions using a ship of the fleet.


    The scheduled trip was to take them plus the graduating Special Forces ss to a feral world, on a mission to clear a location for a settlement. Heavy lifting inside their Mecha all day long, with a chance to get the top performing Cadets inside modified Crusader ss chassis designed for heavy lifting and military infrastructure under the Engineering Department. They were fitted with two hands instead of solid mounted weapons, making them perfect for heavy infrastructure projects.


    Though the Cadets didn¡¯t yet know it, that n was now scrapped. General Tennant¡¯s worries about a coup pushed him to move forward his departure, putting them all off world should things turn violent as suddenly as he predicted.<sub></sub>


    Just before sunset, General Tennant got the news he had been waiting for. The 42nd armored Mecha battalion is passing by their star system and will be headed out tonight on an emergency deployment to cover for a patrol ship damaged in a border skirmish so the other vessel can be put in dry dock.


    The sound of the giantnding craft awakens every student in the Academy. All eager to see what it might be bringing. Are they bringing a group of retired veterans home? Is the Academy getting another dignitary with his own Mecha like General Tennant?


    Nico and Max have just reached the window closest to thender when the door to the training area opens from outside.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got 5 minutes to pack and meet at thender. Our patrol has been moved up.¡± The General informs them. Fortunately, as Cadets, everything they own still fits in the issued rucksack.


    They dump the contents of their lockers into the bags and run out the door and across the Academywn towards thending craft, where Shining Darkness now stands awaiting the loading crane and the Special Forces Cadets are running from their barracks.<sub></sub>


    The loading process is simpler than any of the Cadets had expected. The huge Phnx ss Mecha is toorge to just walk up the loading ramp into thender, so instead cables are attached to mounts on its shoulders by flying drones.


    The General parked the Mecha crouched down, like he was going to sit in the grass and the crane on thender, more often used to retrieve disabled Mecha, simply picked the Shining Darkness up and ced it inside. Once there, the cables detached and the mecha was moved to a more stable stance in its berth near the center of thender.


    Flight crew exined the protocols and procedures for takeoff while they were showing them where to stow their gear in the Mecha pilots area.


    ¡°Top qualification?¡± The crewman working the storage area asks when the Cadets arrive.


    ¡°Both of us are qualified on the Corvette ss Mecha, Sargeant.¡± Max answers.


    The Sargeant smiles and leads them to a pair of lockers, full height and double width. Every Cadet knew, in theory, that advanced pilots got preferential treatment within the military, but even getting more storage space when they¡¯re picked up for transport? That¡¯s just pure luxury.


    ¡°Permission to ask questions Sargeant?¡± Cadet Max asks.


    ¡°Certainly Pilot Max. Ask away, I¡¯ll answer what I can. No need to stand on formality.¡±


    ¡°If Cadets with pilot ratings are treated this well, Just how good does the general have it?¡±


    The Sargeantughs, the corners of his eyes crinkled in mirth. ¡°Ranking officers like him get their own sitting room. It¡¯s got chests twice the size of your locker, but nobody¡¯s stopping them from using more than one if they desire.¡±


    Both Max and Nico chuckle at the animated way the man talks, clearly not used to interacting with Cadets, and torn between treating them by their military rank or their official status as technically still being civilians until their swearing in ceremony.


    ¡°Thank You Sargeant.¡± The man who brought them here nods. ¡°Now, if you will, Cadets, it¡¯s time to buckle in for departure.¡±


    Cadet Nico takes the opportunity to discretely scan the tablet in the crewman¡¯s hands. Nothing fun or important in it, just a protocol tablet with the guest list. She already knew there were 15 of them boarding, but she did learn that Mecha pilots actually had a specified and regted set of privileges that weren¡¯t just hero worship.


    Cadet Nico retracted her Innate Talent as they reached their seats and buckled in forunch. 6 months until theye back, if everything goes to schedule. Hopefully there¡¯smunication allowed on board the patrol ship, so she can talk to her parents before they return.


    The moment he straps himself into the safety harness, Max is filled with excitement he can¡¯t exin, the simple act of leaving the brings him joy.


    The Special Forces Cadets are no less excited, they never expected that they¡¯d get to go on a full tour field trip, the General didn¡¯t tell anyone until the notifications were sent to dorm rooms and training Mecha just this afternoon.

 35 Chapter 35

    Cadets Nico and Max only start rxing a few minutes after thender makes orbit and the artificial gravity kicks in. Their time in High Gravity training did wonders for their bodies, but did not prepare their minds for the rush of an emergency orbitalunch.


    Going through the memories he has collected since he reached the Academy, Max doesn¡¯t remember liftoff being so brutal, or it taking so long for artificial Gravity to kick in, but he simply chocks it up to differences in technology between ship designs, or the possibility that their crew is also in training and this is a full training mission with an experienced escort.


    None of the customary announcements were made about an emergencyunch or estimated travel time after all, but the timer on the wall says twenty six minutes until docking with the President ss Mecha transport that they will be assigned to for their patrol.


    The crew in thender seems a bit on edge, so assuming it¡¯s the presence of the Cadets, Max decides to ask a few questions to break the ice. He could likey get the answers from Nico, who is sure to be hacking someone¡¯s personal device by now, but this method might prove to be more efficient.


    ¡°Hello Corporals, I was wondering if we could talk until it¡¯s time to dock?¡± he asks.


    ¡°No problems Cadet. What do you need to know?¡± The man closest to him answers.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Our departure time got changed and we didn¡¯t get an itinerary or any details, can you tell us which ship we¡¯re meeting and what unit serves aboard her?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll be meeting the Abraham Kepler, a President ss transporter home to the 42nd Armored Mecha Battalion.¡± The man says with pride.


    ¡°Named after the third King of Kepler, I presume?¡± Max asks and the corporal nods.


    ¡°What is the strength of your armored battalion? Like I said, we got absolutely zero details before leaving.¡±


    ¡°The 42nd is near full strength right now. We have 9 wings of 100 Line Mecha each, fully staffed. 100 Corvette ss operators in their machines, plus 50 Crusader ss Mecha. The Shining Darkness is also on board, but it is not part of the 42nd. Phnx ss Mecha are rarely permanently assigned, and definitely not to a unit like ours without a glorious history or an important homeworld.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°There¡¯s more than Mecha on board of course, though they¡¯re not of immediate concern to most of us.¡± Another puts in. ¡°The 3rd Army Corps from Kepler 111 is also on board, for ground engagements and boarding actions. 40,000 strong they are. All seasoned veterans at this point, they¡¯ve been on patrol for 9 of their 10 years term of service.¡±


    ¡°So they¡¯re not lifelong soldiers?¡± One of the Special Forces Cadets asks and most of the others chuckle grimly.


    ¡°It seems that your friends know. The 3rd division started out at the regtion 250,000 soldiers. There¡¯s 40,000 left toplete their term of service. 10 years of war is more than enoughbat to see an infantry soldier through this life and the next.¡±


    ¡°The ship must be fairly empty feeling then, with so few on boardpared to fullplement?¡± Nico asks.


    ¡°It¡¯s not bad in the Mecha wings. The 42nd is at full strength again, but the rest of the ship can feel pretty spartan. The President ss ships were designed to house two full Field Armies, not one depleted army. But we¡¯re on emergency patrol and didn¡¯t have time to requisition any more troops.¡±<sub></sub>


    [All hands prepare for rapid transition after docking. Do not release securements.]


    [Repeat, All hands prepare for rapid transition after docking. Do not release securements.]


    ¡°What did that announcement mean other than don¡¯t get out of our chairs?¡± Nicoughs, unfamiliar with the term rapid transition.


    ¡°They¡¯ll be going to full faster than light travel the moment thender is secured. Whatever is going on has the Abraham Kepler in a panic to get there.¡±


    Nico nods her thanks and stares at the digital star chart on the wall. Two hundred star systems make up the Kepler Kingdom, spread over hundreds of light years of space. Kepler Terminus is a frontier system, on the very edge of controlled space, where one would expect a patrol ship to end up, not leave in a hurry.


    But they are certainly in a hurry. Less than 5 minutes on the ground and a rapid transition to faster than light travel? Either this under staffed ship is thest hope for someone, or there¡¯s more going on than she knows.


    With a gut twisting lurch the huge warship elerates up to interster velocities.


    ¡°Well, that was fun.¡± Max says sounding queasy and one of the soldiers beside him gives him a solid pat on the back.


    ¡°Took me my entire first tour to get used to it. 6 straight months of feeling queasy at every transition.¡± she says.


    ¡°I remember that.¡± anotherughs ¡°First time we took off you vomited on Jalil. Almost got you killed without seeing action.¡±


    Max isn¡¯t the only one feeling Queasy. This was the first faster than light transition for them all, and only one Cadet doesn¡¯t look at least a little green. The transition didn¡¯t seem to bother Cadet Nico at all.


    ¡°How are you not affected by the transition?¡± Max asks, annoyed that all his scans of her memory didn¡¯t reveal such important information.


    ¡°After looking at you lot this whole trip, a little light speed jump is nothing.¡± Nico jokes, chewing on a piece of jerky.


    ¡°Some people just aren¡¯t bothered by the effect. It doesn¡¯t matter how strong or tough you are, it just happens or it doesn¡¯t.¡± One of the Lander crew informs Max with a big grin, the experienced veteran enjoying the chance to see fresh young Cadets learning new things.


    [All clear. Safety restraints may now be removed.] The mechanical voicedputer announcementes sting from the inte speakers once the motion of the ship settles.


    The crew all releases their harnesses while the announcement is still ying, preparing themselves to get back to work.


    ¡°That¡¯s our cue Cadets. Gather your gear and follow me to get your bunk assignments.¡±

 36 Chapter 36

    The Cadets are led to two distinctly different areas of the ship to get their bunk assignments. Max, Nico and a pair from the Special Forces ss are kept aside when the others are shown to a bunk room with racks for fifty soldiers in it. They¡¯re free to pick their spots as they wish, tossing their bags into the footlocker that matches their chosen bunk.


    The final four are brought to the next hallway, where a series of small private rooms line the walls. It¡¯s all very familiar to Nico and Max, since the gravity room was designed to look exactly like this, right down to the furniture.


    ¡°Wee home Cadets. Getfortable, because the next stop is months away.¡± The Corporal escorting them says with a smile and turns to leave.


    ¡°Corporal, what is the current ship¡¯s time?¡± Nico asks before their escort can leave.


    ¡°03:00, Cadet.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    The Corporal leaves and Max swears under his breath. ¡°3 hours isn¡¯t nearly enough time.¡±


    The two other Corvette ss Qualified Cadets look confused, so Max exins. ¡°General Tennant begins training promptly at 07:00 every morning. Every Morning. So if you want to eat before lunch, you¡¯ve got 3 hours to sleep before it¡¯s time to get up and get fed.¡±


    They passed the mess hall on the way over, it¡¯s only a few minutes away, and straight down the main corridor.


    Having four Cadets qualified on the Corvette ss Mecha is unusual, the Academies don¡¯t usually train the students in anything but the Line Mecha, leaving the official officer¡¯s training in the Corvette ss Mecha up to the Universities. But Kepler Terminus had a very good Special Forces ss and two students, Ibanez and Gomez, were given special consideration.<sub></sub>


    A half dozen of the others are likely to also get the official certification before the end of the year, but they haven¡¯t managed it yet. Much of that is just due to System Compatibility. Ibanez and Russo are both Alpha Ranked, with an advantage since birth. The others have had to grind hard to even try to keep up.


    ¡°Have you been studying under The General for long then?¡± Ibanez asks, only vaguely recalling having seen these Cadets before.


    ¡°We transferred in this year and began studying under him when he arrived at the academy.¡± Nico smiles up at the muchrger Cadet.


    Ibanez got hit hard by the effects of puberty, still showing heavy e on his face even in his senior year.  He also grew to nearly the top of the Pilot Uniform sizing options, leaving him in fear that he¡¯d be dropped from the program as unsuitable because of his size. Fortunately at 194cm he just made the cutoff, even if it was a tight fit inside the cockpit of the light and agile Corvette ss Mecha.<sub></sub>


    Russo got off easier, finalizing his growth at a stocky and hairy 170cm tall. He was near the maximum sizes for waist, but that wasn¡¯t fat, he was simply solid muscle.


    ¡°Alright Pretty Boy, we¡¯re off to bed. Wake me up if I¡¯m going to bete for breakfast. There¡¯s nothing I hate worse than missing meals.¡± Ibanezughs, heading into one of the rooms.


    ¡°Likewise, but not as tacky.¡± Russoughs, waving goodbye and setting an rm on his watch.


    Max decides he¡¯s going to have to requisition one of those soon, since he can¡¯t rely on the academy systems for the time being. Nico taps her empty wrist and Max nods, then heads for the datascreen to see if he can make the order.


    ¡°Already done. It will be here at 06:15, in case you snooze a little past your rm.¡± The petite pilotughs before turning in for the night.


    Max considers telling the others, who are still joking andughing next door, that they¡¯re in for a long day tomorrow, but decides that they will learn better the hard way. Besides, a nice firm Kepler Navy issue mattress is waiting for him.


    The nap might have been short and unfulfilling, but at least it was something, and Max is just about to hit the snooze button on the wall mounted rm again when a Private from the logistics department arrives with his watch, plus an additional pillow and a fresh boot maintenance kit.


    All Max can think is that the General was right, Nico would be a great Commissar. He¡¯s the one that can read minds, but somehow she still knows exactly what he needs, before he needs it. She even knew that the standard issue pillow was too t for him and ordered a spare.


    Ibanez and Russo are both awake by 06:30 and the four head over to the dorm to let everyone know breakfast is being served. It actually started an hour and a half ago, but they¡¯re all still up, gossiping and joking, so they might as well get some food in them before the General puts them to work.


    ¡°Looks like you were right. I hear officer¡¯s boots.¡± Russo whispers to Max at precisely six fifty nine in the morning as they¡¯re sipping coffee. How he could hear that is beyond Max, most likely one of his System Abilities.


    ¡°Officer On Deck.¡± Nico calls from her position nearest to the door as General Tennant walks in, forcing everyone to snap to attention.


    ¡°At ease. It¡¯s good to see you all so lively and well fed. I had thought the time change might be tougher on you all. Now, the 42nd has a fine collection ofbat hardened Sergeants among their ranks who will happily educate you fine young gentlemen in the art of Mecha Piloting. Ibanez, Russo, Max and Nico, you¡¯re all with me and Colonel Marino from the 42nd Armored.¡±


    Groans fill the air as the Cadets realize they¡¯re about to face a full day¡¯s training after being too excited to sleep, but the four senior Cadets only smirk at each other.


    The two officers aren¡¯t leading them to the same training area as the other Cadets though, they¡¯re leading the four Cadets into the training area reserved for the 42nd Armored.


    ¡°Wee to day one of Crusader ss Mecha training. We don¡¯t have long to get youpetent and certified, but you¡¯re all Alpha Rank talents, and we expect nothing but sess from you.¡± General Tennant deres when they reach the row of unfamiliar training simtors.

 37 Chapter 37

    ¡°Just to verify my own sanity, are you telling us we¡¯ll be graduating early and learning to pilot Crusaders?¡± Ibanez asks and Colonel Marino begins tough.


    ¡°Yes Cadet. Once we get to our destination, you will be Field Promoted to an Officer Rank befitting your skills. If you can qualify in the Crusaders, that will be Captain, right from the start of your careers. But first you need to qualify.¡±


    That¡¯s enough motivation for all four Cadets to rush to their simtors and familiarize themselves with the cockpityouts. They¡¯re all standard designs, the Kepler Military default, though Crusader ss controls can be customized to the pilots, who will usually spend the remainder of their career in the same Mecha.


    Max is already very well acquainted with this setup, and lovingly runs his fingers over the controls, feeling them in person for the very first time. Sure, it¡¯s not an actual Mecha, but the simtor¡¯s control panel is made from the real Mecha¡¯s cockpit parts.


    Unlike the Line and Corvette ss simtors, the Crusaders and their simtors have a neural link, allowing pilots to control partially with their thoughts, and increasing their overall capabilities. Max slips the helmet on and gets a message from his system.


    [Unit Optimized]<sub>.</sub>


    [Selecting Optimal Pattern]


    [New System Ability Unlocked: Multi Point Targeting]


    Max isn¡¯t entirely sure what that means, but once the Virtual Reality simtores online he can see the change right in front of his eyes. There are rows of moving Mecha in front of him in the simted course, waiting for him to begin his run. He doesn¡¯t have his heads up disy active, but focusing on any one of them gives him a targeting box in two colors.


    Max tries focusing on more than one at a time and finds he can get to four before the colored boxes stop appearing.


    [Number of Weapons Systems Exceeded]<sub></sub>


    So every color is a different weapon then. Like the Mecha of Colonel ck, Max got one with two weapon arms, one a Gatling Battery, the other a Main Battle Cannon. On top of his Mecha¡¯s domed top shell sits a missile pod, and on the chest is a single Heavy Ion ster, best suited to single infantry targets, or sniping through open hatches as it¡¯s roughly the same weapon that infantry soldiers carry, just hard mounted.


    ¡°Alright Cadets. You should see your course in front of you. Eliminate all targets, take no damage, reach your destination in under five minutes. And GO.¡± General Tennant announces through their virtual Mecha¡¯s internal speakers.


    [Select Automatic Targeting?] May not be optimized for target priority.


    Max thinks about that for a second and decides to see just how well it will do. After all, he¡¯s going to be running this course way more than one single time.


    Max steps his mecha towards cover, forgetting for a second just how big of a difference there is between the five meter tall Corvette ss and the Ten meter tall Crusaders. The wall blocks his lower torso, but both weapon arms are exposed over the top, and the automatic targeting mode activated by his System opens fire on the enemy Mecha, picking targets by distance, closest first.<sub></sub>


    Every weapon is going at once and Max winds his way through the course, avoiding iing fire while his mecha destroys everything in range. It only has a few minor hups, like using the Main Battle Cannon against an infantry motorcycle while the Ion ster was busy with the rest of the unit. Other than that the System Function worked amazingly well.


    Max didn¡¯t n his route very well, not used to the volume of iing fire, and took a significant amount of damage, but he finished in time and anything that moved is now dead.


    ¡°Congrattions Cadet on the most magnificent waste of ammunition I¡¯ve ever seen in a training scenario. Using the Cannon against a motorcycle was a masterful touch, and I apud your aim. Hitting a moving motorcycle with an artillery shell is no easy feat. Thirty percent hull damage taken, forty five percent of ammunition spent. Run again.¡± Colonel Marinoughs over the inte.


    Over and over that morning they run, and Max learns how to fine tune his system¡¯s multi targeting skill. He can exclude types of units, so his light weapon only targets infantry, while the high explosive missiles wait until a group is present to fire.


    It¡¯s also more efficient to control the main guns himself using thebination of the System Targeting and the Heads Up Disy from the sensors than it is to leave them on automatic. He¡¯s just starting to get the hang of positioning his mecha to avoid being shot to ribbons when they break at the end of the day.


    ¡°Good job today Cadets. We will see you right here at 06:30 tomorrow morning. Don¡¯t bete.¡± General Tenant dismisses them, sending the hungry Cadets jogging for the Mess Hall to see what¡¯s on the dinner buffet.


    ¡°That was intense. I¡¯m d I activated additional endurance for one of my Functions.¡± Russo sighs, taking a seat next to the half conscious Ibanez.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to die. Every part of me hurts. I got blown up so many times today I swear I heard the AIughing at me.¡± The big Cadet moans, looking to Russo for sympathy but finding none.


    Nico is silent and thoughtful, and Max wonders if she¡¯s simply exhausted or if she learned something new today that might be interesting.


    Max scans her memories to see what her System Functions might be, finding that she has activated two, the same as him. Only they¡¯re a bit odd, and not entirely Mecha rted. The first is [Rapid Recovery] allowing her to heal and recover energy more quicky and easily than others.


    ording to the function, she can survive off of a mere 200 calories a day, and if necessary her body will process the rest from her surroundings in a way that sounds to Max a lot like it¡¯s photosynthesis.


    The second function is [Mecha Modification] which looks much more like a utility for the techs repairing mecha than someone piloting them. Max can imagine that the Function might be truly deadly inbat though, with all her Weapons tweaked for increased damage and firing rate.


    His Optimization Function only makes the best of what is avable, her Modification Function gives her insight into how to change the Mecha to make it mechanically better, or does it automatically if no physical changes are needed.


    It¡¯s not her System that¡¯s the most interesting though, it¡¯s a memory she was just thinking about of a modified Ion Destroyer, simr to the one that¡¯s on her chosen Mecha. The memory triggers something in Max, and a whole series ofbat memories inside an unfamiliar Mecha known as the Gloriana flood his mind.


    Max understands instantly that these are the memories of his past life, no longer locked away, but still iplete. What he recalls are nothing but portions of battle scenes andbat techniques that were used during them.


    Still, it¡¯s better than nothing, and Max already feels as if they are part of him, ground into his subconscious through a lifetime of repetition.

 38 Chapter 38

    When they get back to the training area for the afternoon, the General leads them to where the infantry are practicing hand to handbat instead of back to the simtors.


    ¡°Crusader ss Mecha see a lot of closebat, so the better you can fight unarmed the better you can survive when your Mecha is attacked. Today you will be demonstrating how much you know ofbat to these veterans. Each of you, pick a number.¡± General Tennant exins, holding out a hand with four sticks in it.


    Max grabs a stick, finding that it is number four, so he will be fightingst.


    ¡°Each of you will go until you win five matches or until you lose. Soldiers, I¡¯ll warn you in advance, these are Alpha Compatibility Cadets, there is no need to go easy on them. Number one, you¡¯re up.¡±


    Nico takes the ring and the soldiers chuckle, sending a rather scrawny looking Private out to meet her. The man takes a confident fighting stance facing her, knowing hisrades are messing with him, and just wanting to get the fight over with so they can see the actual fighters in action.


    ¡°Ready? Go.¡± General Tennant calls and before the soldier could even react a small, booted foot had hit him in the head, knocking him out cold.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°That¡¯s one for me. Thank you for the handicap gentlemen.¡± Nico says sweetly as the soldiers try to process what just happened.


    Next up they send a well toned Sergeant out to face her. By Max¡¯s estimation, he¡¯s got a high Gamma or possibly a Beta level Compatibility. He¡¯s certainly got higher total Modifiers than Nico does, and plenty ofbat experience, it¡¯s visible in his every movement.


    ¡°Ready? Go.¡±


    The Sergeants first punch is knocked aside by Nico and used as leverage to try to kick him in the back. He sidesteps the attack, trying to grab her foot, but Nico has pulled it out of range. They trade punches, Nico¡¯s to the stomach, his to her shoulder, both with little effect.


    The crowd of soldiers is cheering on the fight and it¡¯s drawing even more over to watch. Both fighters are blindingly fast, blocking and deflecting the barrage of attacks their opponent is sending their way.<sub></sub>


    ¡°We¡¯re supposed to follow that up? Forget beating that Sergeant, I¡¯m pretty sure I couldn¡¯t beat Nico.¡± Cadet Russo mutters, making Max chuckle.


    ¡°She¡¯s meaner than she looks. Just watch.¡± Max tells his fellow Cadet.


    The twobatants are trading blows again when the Sergeant grabs her wrist, going for the arm lock, a maneuver Max had failed at multiple times. With the boneless grace of a house cat, Nico rotates her entire body around her arm, floating in the air and swinging her legs up towards the Sergeant¡¯a neck for the leg lock.


    He realizes his mistake a moment toote, letting go of her arm and driving his fist up to prevent her from getting the choke hold. He sessfully gets her leg outside his arm and ms her to the ground on her back, but the tenacious Cadet continues to pummel his face until he throws her off.


    She¡¯s off bnce from hitting the mat again, so he goes for the spear, knocking the breath from the much smaller cadet before wrapping her legs with his to prevent her from escaping before going for the chokeout.<sub></sub>


    She can¡¯t get the leverage on her elbow strikes to break his hold, and soon ends up tapping out, admitting defeat.


    ¡°That¡¯s a loss for Cadet Nico.¡± General Tennant calls as the two get to their feet, the Sergeant bloody in the face and favoring his ribs, while Nico shakes off the grogginess.


    ¡°Thank the stars for Sergeant Johnson, without him we¡¯d have been embarrassed by a forty kilo Cadet.¡± One of the soldiers calls and arge group begins tough.


    ¡°Johns once killed a Moor Bear with abat knife, if he lost to her we were screwed.¡± someone else jokes and the Sergeantughs.


    ¡°Good fight Cadet. If the other three fight like that, my boys might be in trouble.¡± Johnsmends Nico, who shakes his hand.


    ¡°I have to watch the recording of thatst pin, it¡¯s been a while since anyone managed to immobilize me.¡± She smiles back, grabbing a towel to dry off after the exertion of the matches.


    ¡°That¡¯s because you¡¯re secretly made of liquid.¡± Maxins and the tired pairughs.


    ¡°She¡¯s just so light that she can support her entire body weight on two fingers, If you¡¯re not prepared, it¡¯s a bit like she¡¯s defying gravity.¡± another Sergeant agrees.


    Ibanez is up next, facing a simrly huge Corporal using a fighting style that looks like a bare knuckles boxing match. They¡¯re both using the Kepler standard fighting style, and the pairing is pretty well matched, but not as entertaining as thest fight.


    Ibanez has just managed to knock his opponent out when an rm begins to sound and all the lights switch to red. General Tennant takes off running for the hangars, but the Cadets aren¡¯t sure what to do.


    ¡°It¡¯s a Scavenger Swarm. Since you don¡¯t have assigned Mecha yet, you¡¯re with us. The Armory is this way, let¡¯s go.¡± Sergeant z Johnson, who defeated Nico calls, taking off at a run.


    The Armory has a variety of pressure suits hanging on racks, a sealed form of basic powered exoskeleton armor. They can¡¯t take much damage, but in the event that the Scavengers cause a breach they¡¯re a lifesaver for anyone not in a sealed room.


    The internal areas are already on lock down, but the training areas are near the outer hull. Max struggles into the unfamiliar equipment andughs at Nico needing to clean the dust off the helmet of the smallest size they have.


    She¡¯s faster than anyone at getting into the suit, the lights on the chest going green to indicate the powered functions have activated and the suit is pressurized. She heads to the rack and grabs a Pulse rifle with a short barrel and a bullpup stock before moving to the side so others can get armed.


    Max gets caught up on the rush of soldiers finishing near the same time, but manages to grab a pair of Pulse Pistols without too much dy. Pulse weapons are the ship based weapon of choice, since they don¡¯t ricochet like projectiles and don¡¯t leave molten puddles like Ionized sma weapons.


    [All Hands Brace For Impact] the ship¡¯s announcement sounds before a metallic screech fills the air.

 39 Chapter 39

    The Scavengers were a biomechanical species that many spected were the result of an AI run amok. They coulde in almost any form, but were mostmonly the size of a medium dog, and multi limbed for efficient material extraction. Larger Sizes hinder movement, and smaller ones have trouble handling the materials they find without disassembling them first.


    The shuddering and screeching continues for over a minute before the sound of shooting begins. That snaps the soldiers into action immediately.


    ¡°The intes must be down. Cadets, you¡¯re with Bravo Company Third toon. Follow their directions and you will most likely live through this.¡± Colonel Cortez, leader of this infantry unit directs, before giving assignments to the rest of his men.


    Scratch that, the rest of his soldiers, Max sees that there are still some women in Bravo Company. With less than one fifth of their original numbers left, the infantry soldiers still alive in the unit are either the very tough or the very lucky.


    ¡°Lucky you. Our post is right here. The Armory and the training grounds. You can usually hear Scavengers before you see them, but be careful, they can dive in from any direction, their ws let them climb walls.¡± Sergeant Enns who leads the patoon assigned to them smiles.<sub>.</sub>


    He is sandy haired soldier who still looks quite young, despite his years of service, but his team all works as one, so he must be a good leader, Max decides.


    The signs ofbat are getting more distant as the soldiers move out, and Third toon waits, guarding the Armory. Ten minutes in to the battle, the first unites running their way, nearly out of ammunition and trying to make it to the Armory.


    ¡°Look alive. It¡¯s time to work.¡± Sergeant Enns calls and Max activates [Multi Point Targeting] finding that it works just fine in these basic powered suits with a pair of pistols.


    Sure enough, the patrol is being chased by a number of Octopus looking mechanical creatures. The closest of them leaps at a fleeing soldier and meets a trio of Pulse sts. One from Nico and one from either of Max¡¯s pistols.<sub></sub>


    The creature copses to the floor in a spray of ck blood and the iing troops move towards the center of the hall to give the guards a better line to the Scavengers that are mostly moving along the walls. Pulse sts fly constantly for a few seconds until the Scavengers are dead and the hallway is drenched in inky ichor.


    ¡°Thanks for that. I thought we were goners.¡± The soldier who almost got eatenughs as he grabs more power cells for his rifle and heads back out of the Armory.


    ¡°No problem Corporal, but it was the Cadets who saved your ass. The targeting skills of Pilots are no joke.¡± Sergeant Enns tells him, nodding at the youngest pair in his team.


    ¡°You let Cadets shoot at my head?¡± The Corporalins, turning back to Enns.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Pulse rifle to the face hurts less than being eaten by Scavengers. Now get back to work.¡± The unassuming looking Sergeantughs, ushering more of the team in to restock.


    The restocked patrol is still in the training grounds when the next group arrives, with even more Scavengers in tow and Max realizes why this location was chosen for the Cadets to be stationed. There will always be extra units around them, because they will need to get to the Armory, so this is the best guarded position in the area, but still abat post and not hiding away somewhere.


    Max fills his pockets with extra power cells for the pistols, which only have ten shots on a charge and he notices Nico¡¯s suit has gained a backpack. Someone attached a charging station to her suit to fill their magazines and power her rifle.


    Being as short as she is, she can move between soldiers without impeding their firing lines, and the backpack meant she never had to stop shooting, a minor recognition of her talent with a rifle.


    Max has taken a spot near the door to the Armory, while Nico is up front, in a kneeling stance where everyone can get to the spare cells on her back and swap in their depleted ones.


    The returning patrols are stacking their dead cells outside in a trash bin forter recharging and Sergeant Enns tells off a private to start plugging them in to the charger inside the Armory.


    Max thought these fights were usually short, but it¡¯s been twenty minutes and the stream of depleted patrol units isn¡¯t showing any signs of stopping. Most of the time they can¡¯t hear the battle, but the Abraham Kepler is over a kilometer long, so that¡¯s not too surprising.


    The prolonged battle teaches Max a valuable lesson in the Horrors of fighting the Scavengers. One of the units thates back are infiltrators, a squad killed by the Scavengers, with their dead bodies controlled from the inside by the mechanical tentacles of the attackers.


    Once they get closer, they burst out of their disguises and attack. The front rank doesn¡¯t hesitate, blowing them apart with massed firepower, but everyone takes at least some damage, with one soldier losing an arm to a razor sharp w.


    In the aftermath, everyone rushes to help the wounded, sending the most seriously injured with the next group that returns towards the medical wing. Max is helping load wounded on the stretchers when the sporadic fire turns to fully automatic ammunition dumps and the acrid smell of a methrower fills the air.


    Max looks back and a hippo sized Scavenger has burst open and dispersed hundreds of small Octopus creatures. They¡¯re small, but far from harmless, Max can see that the steel floor is deeply gouged where they have passed by.


    The methrower troops check the area, making sure they got them all, but that seems to have been thest hurrah for the Scavengers. A few minutester the orders are given to clear their zones and assemble back at the Armory for casualty checks.


    ¡°Scavengers are drawn to Kepler ships because of the System. They can sense it and want it for their own, but as far as we know, the Nanobots won¡¯t cooperate.¡± Sergeant Enns exins, checking everyone¡¯s suits.


    Under half of them are still sealed, and the entire front row has had theirs shredded after the infiltrators attacked. Nico in particr looks like she was painted ck and red with thebined blood of the two species, both the Scavengers and the dead soldiers they were using as disguises.


    [Sensors Detect All Clear]es the announcement and a cheer goes up all through the assembled soldiers.


    ¡°Good work everyone, fall out and hit the showers.¡±

 40 Chapter 40

    ording to the data that was provided for the cleanup efforts, the Scavengers breached an airlock on the port side, towards the front of the ship. That area should belong to the Second Field Army assigned to the ship, but currently the Abraham Kepler is very short staffed.


    That meant that there were no immediate casualties from the loss of pressure in the area, but it also meant that the infestation had time to spread before the teams could respond. Sensors say there are no remaining threats, but every square inch of the ship is to be visually scanned to ensure nothing survived.


    The Cadets aren¡¯t cleared to ess most areas of the ship, so they have been excluded from the cleanup efforts, much to their dismay. They did help kill the Scavenger infestation, but military regtions say they¡¯re not allowed to help out with the aftermath.


    The group of Special Forces Cadets other than Ibanez and Russo are the most depressed about it. They were sealed inside their training area the entire time and didn¡¯t get a chance to do anything at all. Now, normally safer is better, but they¡¯ve never seenbat, and they have to endure Ibanez and his inted version of his own heroics at every single mealtime.<sub>.</sub>


    That man was never meant to be a soldier, Max decides, he¡¯s much better as a story teller, and would make an amazing teacher. But unless he gets crippled in a way that not only an Alpha Rank System and the very best of Kepler¡¯s treatments can¡¯t fix, that¡¯s not going to be an option for at least thirty years.


    He¡¯s on his way to bing a Special Forces Mecha operator, and retirement doesn¡¯te easy for them.


    One area that didn¡¯t get breached was the Mecha training area, so the four most advanced Cadets are back to their usual training schedule the next morning, minus one of their usual instructors. General Tennant, as well as the Shining Darkness are needed to help st apart the remains of the Scavenger ship, while the Line Mecha remove it from the hull so the Abraham Kepler can be checked for damages.<sub></sub>


    Not that Colonel Marino will allow that to be used as an excuse to ck. He¡¯s been given specific instructions on what level of performance he is expected to hold the Cadets to while the General is away.


    If anything, Tennant has set even higher expectations for the Cadets than he did the day before the attack. Colonel Marino writes that off to having seen most of them in unarmedbat against the real soldiers, but Nico and Max know that¡¯s simply how the General is. Every day the expectations increase and its up to you to keep up or get reprimanded for falling behind.


    He does quietly adjust his expectations if you fail at a task he set, but he has perfected a guilt trip that would make any mother proud. The palpable sense of disappointment has been enough to drive dozens of Cadets to work hard enough to make the elite ranks of the Kepler Special Forces during the years General Tennant has been in the military.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Cadets, today we will be Training for group patrols. Short straw leads the mission.¡± The Colonel says holding up four sticks in his right hand.


    Max draws first, pulling a half length stick with the number one and a line drawing of a battle Cannon on it. The others pull their sticks, looking intently at the sticks before Nico begins to smile like she won the lottery.


    ¡°Your number is your squad position, the drawing is the primary weapon of the Mecha you¡¯ll be piloting. You¡¯ve been getting toofortable with only one setup, and that¡¯s not going to always be viable in the future. It¡¯s my duty to see you have a well rounded education.¡±


    Colonel Marino points to the simtors and the Cadets all rush to get buckled in. Max boots up his simted Mecha, finding that he¡¯s been assigned a battle Cannon and a fist hand with energy type anti aircraft carapace weapons on top of the Crusader¡¯s top shell.


    Ibanez and Russo also share the Anti aircraft guns, making Max think watching the sky will be important. Ibanez got the same pattern of Mecha that Max did, while Russo got an Ion Destroyer and a demolition w.


    The oddball Mecha is Nico, with two demolition ws fitted with thermalnces and no top carapace weapon. Instead it has arge fuel tank for the thermal weapons. They¡¯re more often used as cutting torches, but in an emergency can be a methrower. That design is better suited to construction crews than Mechabat.


    But that¡¯s what they have got to work with, and Nico is happily snapping her ws and spinning up the internal teeth used to shred anything they grab. The outside of the ws are ded, but Max isn¡¯t certain how she intends to fight using that unit.


    ¡°Nico and Russo, you¡¯ve got the front rank. Russo, if you¡¯re not familiar with the w, stand back of Nico until you¡¯ve seen how she uses them. Ibanez you¡¯ve got the rear. Everyone watch for iing air assets.¡±


    Once they¡¯re in position the mission parameterse through.


    [Compliance Mission: eliminate resistance by recently added system. Mecha presence light, conventional military assets unmanaged.]


    That doesn¡¯t really narrow down what they¡¯ll be facing, but it does suggest that most of what they¡¯ll be facing won¡¯t be Mecha. That could mean tanks, Armored vehicles, fighter jets, any number of things, so Max will have to be ready for whatever the simtion might throw at him.


    The scene around them changes as the scenario begins, and they find themselves inside a burned outnder in what sensors determine to be a ruined city, as far as Max can tell. For once the scenario isn¡¯t jamming the Mecha¡¯s radar, or the satellite feed from their presumed transport ship, so they¡¯ve got a pretty good idea what theyout is, just not much about enemy strength or the actual condition of the city at this time.

 41 Chapter 41

    Max uses his Innate Talent to see what Nico is up to and finds that she¡¯s got every single sensor mode pulled up on her screens at once, some ovepped, some separated. Once she¡¯s done, and has determined that the area around thender is starting to get busy as the defenders recover, Max orders the mission to begin.


    ¡°Vanguard forward, don¡¯t give them time to fully recover.¡±


    Nico charges or the door at full speed, light arms fire ringing off her hull. She has her thermalnces in methrower mode, burning everything near her as she runs. The first vehicle she reaches is a personnel carrier, which she grabs in a w and hurls down the street into a tracked vehicle, causing arge explosion and a lot of screaming.


    ¡°Russo, get in position. You¡¯re a closebat Mecha today.¡± Max calls, firing into a dpidated brick building, copsing it across the street on his right to show the advance of enemy armor.


    His next two Battle Cannon rounds hit buildings that his thermal sensors indicate have a lot of moving targets inside, while Nico has made closebat with the enemy tanks. They seem to have misjudged the speed of a Kepler Mecha, and her twin ws are flipping and crushing armor assets one after another.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Iing Mecha.¡± Nico calls, which seems to wake up Ibanez, but Russo is still just standing at the door to thender.


    A wing of Line Mecha in a pattern Max doesn¡¯t know climb the rubble of the destroyed buildings and are met with the firepower of two Battle Cannons. A direct hit from the mighty main weapon wielded by either of the two Crusaders instantly destroys the light mecha, sending shrapnel flying.


    That makes Max realize why Nico is throwing ruined tanks everywhere. The thermalnces set the interior on fire and detonate the magazine. Throwing them gets them well away from her Mecha when they inevitably blow up. Plus, the Psychological factor of a sea of mes and tanks being thrown about like toys can¡¯t be discounted.


    A metallic object flies past Max, who easily sidesteps, but it ms straight in to Russo.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Turn your external audio off and get to work you fething halfwit.¡± Nico yells at him over the inte.


    Max keeps his on minimum volume instead of muted, but turns it up a little too see what she means. The screams of crushed and burning infantry are sporadically drowned out by the booming of Battle Cannons and the crackle pop of stored munitions exploding.


    Russo has a hearing enhancing system ability, he must have had it activated and had gotten himself overwhelmed by the realism of the simtion. Whatever the case, he¡¯s in action now, moving into position and firing his Ion Destroyer.


    Nico is using her Mecha¡¯s ws for their original purpose now, tearing down buildings and burning the contents to create a ring of rubble around their location at such a rapid rate that it only takes a few minutes until she¡¯s got a nice rubble wall built.<sub></sub>


    The burning of the city almost hides the signature of the iing aircraft from Max, since they¡¯re not showing up on radar. But the same is true for his team, the smoke and heat will hide the Mecha.


    ¡°Iing Aircraft. Get your top guns ready. Nico, the satellite feed shows a military unit to the south, head there and try to draw the bombers away.¡± Max instructs.


    Nico grabs the burning husk of a tank and throws it down the main street in front of her to absorb any heavy weapons fire that might be directed her way. It makes it most of a block before exploding from impact with an iing shell.


    But Nico is right behind it and the reinforcements are soon engulfed in a sea of fire. The residual burning won¡¯t hurt a Crusader ss Mecha, but the heat signature should draw the attention of the iing aircraft and the smoke will make it hard to visually target the closebat Mecha.


    Those Heat Lances are a Horrific weapon against infantry, with a range of over seventy meters and fuel that spits globs of burning liquid and sticks to the target when it makes contact while ipletely burned like that. Max recalls that in his past life such things were prohibited, but in this life they¡¯re simply a niche technique of war.


    Suddenly a targeting square shes in Max¡¯s vision, indicating a Battle Cannon Target. He doesn¡¯t hesitate and a secondter a low flying troop transportes over the horizon and straight into the Battle Cannon round, which punches into the engine and explodes, taking the rotors off the helicopter and sending it plummeting to the ground.


    It¡¯s not alone though, a wing of bombers are right behind it and moving much faster. The Anti aircraft guns of all three Mecha engage at once, filing the sky with sma explosions as the jets begin evasive maneuvers. His tracking Talent couldn¡¯t seem to lock on to them, until Max recognized that pattern as a set of Kepler Standard evasion maneuvers.


    That lets him predict a little better, and he fires the Battle Cannon, knowing the flight time will be over a second, then herds a bomber to the desired location with his top guns.


    The round makes its way to the target with a thunderous explosion as the bombers cargo is detonated, the unstable design of the local ordinance lighting up the sky in a greenish burning, low hanging star. Fusion bombs are nothing new to Kepler, but they¡¯re normally not deployed against popted areas, and certainly not in the sort of numbers needed to create a st like that.


    The damage sends warning runes shing all over his disy as the entire section of the city is leveled. Fortunately, they were still Kilometers away from the Mecha, so it didn¡¯t cost Max anyone in his patrol, but he suspects that hitting the ne with a Battle Cannon isn¡¯t found anywhere in the standard procedures.


    That has dampened the defenders will to fight and momentster the notification of the end of scenario brings them back to the simtion staging screen.


    ¡°You¡¯re a Mad Man, you know that right? Even using Ion based anti aircraft against a nuclear bomber is risky, but you actually managed to hit one with a high explosive artillery shell.¡± Russoughs as the simtors calcte their scores.

 42 Chapter 42

    ¡°But forget that, where did you learn to fight like that, Nico?¡± Russo continues and herughter fills the speakers.


    ¡°Did you ever y Chomp Man, the video game?¡±


    ¡°The kids game where you eat rocks and spit them at your enemies? Of course. Oh, Seriously? Well it worked out pretty decently.¡± The stocky Cadetughs, then goes silent as memories of the simted battle fill his mind.


    Max looks into his memories and sees what caused him to freeze. Extra sensitive hearing coupled with the sounds of hundreds of soldiers burning alive, all at once. Having seen that, Max totally understands, and wishes he¡¯d never looked in on the other man¡¯s thoughts.


    [Cadet Max, targeting effectiveness 82 percent, 104,823 confirmed kills. Civilian casualties exceeds threshold, Command Officer notified.]


    Max thinks that¡¯s a bit unfair, it¡¯s not like he fired the nukes. But the Colonel should understand the situation. The others must have gotten their results as well, since they¡¯re all logging out of the simtion already.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Wee back Cadets. Very impressive results in today¡¯s mission, that is record time to bring a city intopliance in this scenario. The odds of a cascading reaction from a damaged warhead might be infinitesimal, but sess against minuscule odds is still sess.¡± Colonel Marino greets them once Max exits his simtor.


    ¡°Ibanez, you need to be more aggressive on the attack. A Crusader ss Mecha has more offensive than defensive power. Russo, we will talkter about you freezing, and you will be taking additional lessons in the properbat techniques for closebat Mecha.¡± Russo winces at that, their days are already long, with extra lessons he won¡¯t be getting much sleep this week.


    ¡°Nico, the methrower into into the munitions bunker was a nice touch, but at least try not to get shot constantly. The repair crew would hate you for what you did to that Mecha, no matter how effective it was.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Nico doesn¡¯t even try to hide her smile, and Ibanez makes chomping motions with his hands in her direction.


    ¡°Cadet Max, overall, decent strategy. However, as team lead, it was your duty to get Russo back to reality. Don¡¯t wait for anyone else, demand full capability at all times. You will have leadership practice while Ibanez and Russo take piloting supplements. Cadet Nico, follow Corporal Fritz to the repair bays. You can return to piloting sses when they say you¡¯ve learned your lesson.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°Corporal Fritz. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you. Given my history with damaged Mecha, I expect to see you again in the future.¡± Nico gives the fist to the chest Kepler Salute and follows the mechanic to the repair bays.


    For Max whates next is a virtual reality set of leadership drills. Ineptitude, insubordination, going off mission, personal misconduct, there is no form of disciplinary issue that he doesn¡¯t face during the missions that afternoon and through the next day.


    When he gets to breakfast the third day, only Cadet Nico is there, already eating. It¡¯s the first time he¡¯s seen her in days, so Max grabs the seat next to her and realizes she smells like burnt welding rods and grease, despite still being damp from the shower and carrying a gentle overtone of citrus body lotion.


    ¡°Having fun with leadership training?¡± Nicoughs, seeing the bags under his eyes and the way he barely dragged himself to the dining hall.


    ¡°You have no idea. It¡¯s like leading first year Cadets into battle. Anything that can go wrong does, and it is all I can do to attempt to correct their mistakes.¡± Max sighs, but Nico smirks at him.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Don¡¯t wait to correct their mistakes. Does the General wait? No, he tells you off in advance, because he expects you to screw up. Do the same with your missions and I think you¡¯ll have an easier time of it.¡± Nico suggests.


    Max is thinking that over when Corporal Fritzes to get her again, looking as rough as Max feels.


    ¡°Nico, let¡¯s get a move on. One more day of double shifts and we should be through the worst of the repairs.¡±


    ¡°You sure you¡¯re up to it Fritz? Didn¡¯t you pass out in the middle of second shift yesterday?¡± Nico teases with augh.


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t my fault, the sensors failed to detect thepressed gas leak.¡± Fritzins as Nico gets up to join him, pping Max on the shoulder, still having to reach up a little, despite Max being seated.


    ¡°Good luck, Max. Don¡¯t forget what I told you, I¡¯m sure it will work out better.¡±


    The first simtion of the day is to lead a group of fresh University Cadets in Line Mecha through a Parade drill. One of the simtions that Max hates the most, as they¡¯re so unforgiving.


    ¡°Good Morning Cadets. Today we are having a parade drill. Now, I¡¯m a reasonable and understanding man, so I will go easy on you. The entire unit will do onep of the academy at Parade March for every time a step is missed during today¡¯s drill.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re awfully quiet, aren¡¯t you thankful for my mercy?¡±


    ¡°Sir, Yes Sir.¡± The Cadets call back, and Max can hear the change in their voices from the times he gave orders over the past few days. The advanced reminder of consequences has made them all focus on the task at hand.


    ¡°Cadets fall in to parade formation, Double file. Face Right and March. Knees up Cadets, you¡¯re on parade not creeping through the swamp. Left, Right Left, Right. Keep your timing. Unit C7, your other left. Do we need to go over that again? Get back in time with the others.¡±


    Thankfully that¡¯s the only mistake the simted unit makes this time, and they finish up without further incident. ¡°Good work everyone. Now thank unit C7 for your extrap of the Academy and March.¡±


    Colonel Marino, who is watching the simtion y through, smiles at Cadet Max¡¯s drill instructor impersonation, but the results are impressive. Only one failure to keep time is impressive, given the limited skills and the personalities that these Cadets were programmed to have.


    Russo and Ibanez are not having any easier time of things. They¡¯ve been running the most nightmarish ofbat drills sixteen hours a day the past few days, and this morning, both slept in. They thought that the Colonel assigned to watch them was strict before, but today, he¡¯s not just strict, they¡¯re also on punishment detail for showing upte.


    They¡¯ve been blown up in ways they never thought possible, shot in the back by ipetent allies, sent on suicide missions and basically tortured all day. But the worst of it is, they know they¡¯ll be doing it all again in the morning.

 43 Chapter 43

    It has taken an entire week of intensive training before any of the Cadets are cleared to return to normal schedule. Russo and Ibanez are still having trouble meeting General Tennant¡¯s insane expectations for Pilot performance, but Max has been achieving consistently positive results the past few days.


    Max had been using a more positive reinforcement method than he did the first day, finding that the more experienced Pilots respond better to it, while the Cadets need the verbal equivalent of someone pping the stupid out of them. Either way, warning them ofmon mistakes in advance is the way to go in terms of effectiveness.


    Cadet Nico was cleared on the same evening, despite the objections of the repair bays who wanted to transfer her to their unit full time. Her Mecha Modification skill was a big hit among the repair staff, as she could diagnose in an instant, and give instructions that left a mecha unit better than new.


    When left to work with the junior techs, who didn¡¯t have any repair rted System Talents, the increase in efficiency was incredible. Every time a mecha repair was finished, she simply walked down the row and gave everyone a task list as she went to get another unit to fix.


    Quite a few Mecha were damaged in a variety of ways during the Scavenger attack, and since they were headed on a mission, getting everything working again in a hurry was top priority.


    If they needed help while Nico was in the middle of a repair, the junior techs would just call for her attention and bring over their diagnostic tablets to exin their problem. It saved their supervisors a lot of trouble and headaches, as well as allowing less talented mechanics to take on moreplex repairs without needing an extra set of more skilled hands.<sub>.</sub>


    While Max is practicing his hand to handbat with some of the Infantry soldiers, a notificationes through to everyone¡¯s smart watches and the ship¡¯s data screens. They have been assigned an emergency change of mission and will be making a stop at a nearby space station to restock.


    Over the course of their deployment, not only the infantry numbers, but also the spare mecha parts and ammunition storage for the 42nd have been depleted. The Abraham Kepler is capable of manufacturing additional munitions if it had the raw materials, but they¡¯re almost out.


    They¡¯re also still down a number of mecha, mostly spare units, but General Tennant has Requisitioned Mecha for the Cadets, now that they¡¯re going to be headed intobat. He might not be satisfied with the preparation of the Cadets, but four of them can pass the Crusader ss Qualifications, and the others have formed two reliable wings, each with a Corvette ss certified operator.


    The destination for resupply is a space station in the orbit of the star officially known as Kepler 142. The 42nd are all excited to arrive at the station, as it offers a variety of luxuries and opportunities for rxation that the Abraham Kepler doesn¡¯t.


    The system has a long and storied history with Mecha, and theary Capital is called Tarith. Max can¡¯t recall if he was told about Nico¡¯s family once being important or if he read it in someone¡¯s memory, but to have aary capital named after them is pretty impressive.<sub></sub>


    After his daily training Max rushes down to the Repair bays. If they¡¯re going to be getting new mecha, the storage and repair bays should have information about them to check the units in.


    ¡°Sorry, Cadet. I know you¡¯re excited, but until the official deployment orderse through, all we can tell you are the names of the unassigned units.


    Three of them are fairly Generic, though strong names. Scimitar, Bulldog, and Stalwart.  The final one is a bit of a surprise, the unit is named Tarith¡¯s Rage.


    He sees Nicoing over to check the list, the same as he did, and her eyes go wide at the Mecha names.


    ¡°I guess we know where one of them is going.¡± Sheughs, and the Tech with her gives her a strange look.<sub></sub>


    ¡°How do you figure?¡± he asks.


    ¡°Cadet Nico is from a branch of an old noble family. The main branch of her family is from right here on Kepler 142.¡± Max answers before a voice from behind cuts them off.


    ¡°Fun random trivia time.¡± General Tennant announces as he enters the mecha repair bays.


    ¡°Cadet Nico¡¯s family is a branch family of an ancient family line whose main branch died out centuries ago.¡± The soldiers nod, that has happened a lot after so many centuries of interster war.


    ¡°The important part is how. Every single adult in the main family was a Mecha pilot. They died to the veryst, all nine hundred odd adults, defending their against attack.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you¡¯re saying that Pilot Nico is Nico TARITH?¡± Corporal Fritz, of the repair department says a bit too loudly, drawing attention.


    ¡°Indeed she is, from the branch of the family that settled on Kepler Terminus.¡± General Tennant smiles at the small form of Nico.


    ¡°Get used to being a celebrity now, it makes it easierter.¡±


    ¡°Has anyone ever told you you¡¯re a mean person General?¡± Nico asks ¡°It was a thousand years ago on a different than I was born on.¡±


    ¡°But it was still your family that held a for an entire year and a day.¡± Corporal Fritzughs.


    ¡°He¡¯s originally from Kepler 142, we picked him up a few years back as part of a troop transfer.¡± The department Sergeant exins.


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him, it¡¯s a local legend on this.¡± Another tells them, raining on his parade.


    ¡°You guys have no sense of history. That battle kept our safe for generations. It¡¯s a good thing you go by Nico, who knows how the locals might react to having a living legend return to the, especially to im one of the heirloom Mecha from the station. It¡¯s been in stasis field storage since before there was a Kepler Empire.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯re saying there¡¯s a lot of work to be done to bring the unit back into active dutymission?¡± Nico asks, taking off her tool belt in preparation to end her shift.


    ¡°Not only the Tarith¡¯s Rage. All four unassigned units are veteran units that have been sitting in storage for at least a century. Crusader ss Chassis don¡¯te easy these days, too many manufacturings have been attacked.¡± General Tennant exins.

 44 Chapter 44

    When the Abraham Kepler transitioned back to maneuvering velocities with the same stomach turning lurch that marked the transition to light speed, every Cadet rushed to a view screen to see the first new star system that they¡¯d be visiting.


    Kepler 142 Station was an enormous military hub, built nearly a millenia ago as an orbital defense station by the¡¯s inhabitants. Once, it was said to shine in the night sky like a third moon, but now, with all the ck hulled military ships docked and generations of continual repairs, most of the shine was lost.


    Still, the sheer size of the station was incredible to Max, and he scrolled through his smart watch to bring up the specs. Over a million inhabitants, advanced Mecha and munitions processing facilities, asteroid processing bays, every imaginable type of retail shop.


    For a kid from the slums, this ce was heaven. In fact, he had never in his life had the chance to visit such a variety of stores. The best they had at home were the goodwill shop or the ck market, and even then the selection was limited.<sub>.</sub>


    [All Cadets, meet at Training Room 3C for Mission Briefing and Clearance Passes.]


    That¡¯s not too far from the repair bays, and it¡¯s the training area that the majority of the Special Forces Cadets have been using since they got on board the Abraham Kepler. Max jogs to therge open area, meeting most of the other Cadets along the way, and finds that General Tennant, as well as Colonel Marino are waiting there for them, along with a stout and hairy Colonel that reminds Max of Cadet Russo. By his uniform, he¡¯s Colonel Romano of the 42nd armored. The Cadets who have been fine tuning their Line Mecha and Corvette ss mecha skills all recognize him, so he must be their assigned instructor, like Colonel Marino does for the Crusader ss Cadets.


    ¡°Wee Cadets, I know you¡¯re all eager to get off the ship and onto the station, so we will keep this short. Your Passes have been uploaded to your wrist devices along with a map of the station. Your Academy Credits will also be converted into proper Kepler Credits once the Pass arrives. You have 12 hours to explore the station before resupply is finished. Anyone not back on board at that time will be written up. Anyone who misses departure entirely will be charged with desertion.<sub></sub>


    Once we are fully stocked and back under way, you will be fullymissioned and briefed on the next mission. Now go, enjoy your day off and meet back here by 0300 ship time.¡± General Tennant instructs.


    For some Cadets this is great news, a little spending cash and a trip to explore a massive space station. For others, they¡¯d spent almost everything the academy gave them, so at best they¡¯ll be able to get a lunch that isn¡¯t on the ship menu. Even the prospect of Commission isn¡¯t quite as exciting for some, who were on the cusp of Corvette ss qualification, they¡¯ll be starting out as Line Mecha operators, in a standard Mecha wing, a few years earlier than nned, but not as Special Forces trainees.


    There¡¯s not much they can do about it now though, so they¡¯re all determined to make the best of their day off before beginning whatever unit drills they will face to integrate them with their newpatriots.<sub></sub>


    Max wonders what sort of deployment he will be given. Four Crusaders is an odd number for a wing, and sending four rookies together is highly unlikely to happen. More likely they will all be broken up to go with other Mecha wings and bolster their numbers.


    That makes him wonder how often he will see any of these people again after the mission. If they¡¯re all assigned to the 42nd Armored, it¡¯s great, they¡¯ll be seeing each other for many years.


    But that doesn¡¯t often happen in Kepler, Crusader ss Pilots that are freshly assigned get moved around between units that have taken heavy casualties, and the 42nd is near full strength.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go. There¡¯s a ce you really need to see.¡± Nico whispers to Max once they¡¯re all dismissed, pulling him towards the airlock.


    The ce he simply must see turns out to be a cafe of some sort. Nico walks up to the counter and talks in a low voice to the clerk, whoes out a few minutester with two fancy coffee based drinks that smell faintly of caramel, as well as two slices of pie. He winks at Nico and then returns to his counter, taking more orders while his coworker runs them out to the tables.


    ¡°I really had to see a coffee shop? I¡¯ll admit, the coffee and food are amazing, but how did that make the top of the list?¡± Max asks, as he finishes his snack.


    Nico subtly drops an item in his hand and points at her head, indicating that Max should read her thoughts. The thing that¡¯s on her mind now is that she found a fellow hacker while exploring the basesputer systems, and they had a hookup for a gray market local specialty.


    What she found is a biotech drug that enhances the nanomachines that make up the system, making them more effective. It¡¯s not approved for use, since the locals don¡¯t want the military knowing about their advantages, but with the name Tarith, she managed to convince the hacker to get her two doses, one for each of them.


    Max is pretty skeptical about putting unknown gray market drugs into his body, but this is apparently just as well known for their pilots as Kepler Terminus, where he was born in this life and where the System originated.


    That¡¯s got to count for something, if they¡¯ve been enhancing their kids for better performance. Nico took hers with thest sip of her coffee, and as Max is watching her thoughts, all memory of the drug disappears behind a firewall that he recognizes as the system.


    Max decides to hold off for a moment, to make sure she¡¯s alright, but Nico has already moved on to talking about the next stops they should make on the station. Best to hold off for now, he decides, and make sure nobody is messing with her body or anything before they leave.


    [System Notice: Non Integrated Nanotechnology Found. Assimte Now?]

 45 Chapter 45

    If the system itself is going to assimte whatever Nico has given him, it should be reasonably safe. At least that¡¯s what Max tells himself before he agrees to let the System assimte the pill.


    [System Talent: Unit Optimization Active]


    [Optimizing Effects]


    The pill triggers his System Talents? It must be more than a simple drug, perhaps a local form of Nanotechnology? If it is, no wonder it¡¯s gray market, the Empire wouldn¡¯t just allowpeting technology to float around or risk altering the system.


    [Optimization Complete]


    [Rate of Return Scaling Nullified]


    [Base Modifier Increased]


    Max isn¡¯tpletely sure what all changed, but he feels incredible. A half secondter, all memories rting to the upgrade fade from his mind, but the memories of Nico forgetting about it remain, giving Max enough insight into what happened to check his System Status.<sub>.</sub>


    [Compatibility Determined]  Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+80%


    [DEX] 3+44%


    [SPD] 3+44%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading<sub></sub>


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    Even as he looks at the system status, the memories gleaned from Nico¡¯s mind fade, leaving no trace, mental or physical of tampering, but giving him a greatly improved system.


    The change has also pushed him past 150 total bonus points, and Max can feel a new ability beginning to form, but it seems to be waiting on something to fully activate.


    The increase in his base stats was an enormous change though, and the increased strength is almost pushing Max off bnce with every step he takes.


    ¡°Alright Nico, where are we off to next.¡± Max sighs at his enthusiastic friend.


    ¡°It¡¯s only a minor stopover for me, but I think you¡¯ll appreciate this one even more than a good cup of coffee.¡±


    She leads him through the winding hallways of the base as if she grew up here, never needing to slow or check directions, until eventually she stops in front of a in looking kiosk with a grand gesture.<sub></sub>


    ¡°This, my good friend, is the Imperial Registrar. From right here, with just your signature and a witness that you have conveniently brought along, you can officially change your name.¡±


    Today is the gift that just keeps on giving. Max has thought a long time about this change, and has a name in mind. He¡¯s gotten used to using Max as his family name and usual form of address, so he will make the title that served as his Family name in his previous life his given name in this one.


    ¡°Got yourself a lousy name did you? Sign the sheet and we¡¯ll get you all set up.¡± The worker tells him, having heard their conversation. It¡¯s not umon for new soldiers to leave behind their old name, and it¡¯s the primary reason this particr station near the docks exists.


    ¡°I did. Where do I sign to change it?¡± Max asks, and the workerughs quietly at seeing his official namee up on the data tablet.


    Max signs the consent form with his new name and the system sends him a message.


    [Name Setting Updated: Wee Keres Max]


    ¡°Not a bad choice. Ker is amon name on my world, so you¡¯ll fit in with themon soldiers when you¡¯re outside your Mecha. What about you, Cadet Nico? Did you get a good one?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Nico Tarith. The family reverses it on the official forms. All of our given names are officially Tarith.¡± Nico exins and the man nods in understanding.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t want to go through the service with the weight of that history chasing you. Best to leave things as they are.¡± He agrees.


    Max mentally celebrates all the way to the arcade, Nico¡¯s next stop of importance inside the Space Station. Max sees that they¡¯ve got snooker tables unupied, so he pulls Nico over for a game, noticing that there are two different versions, standard and 3D, which is yed in cube shaped gravity field.


    That looks way more fun than the regr version, which neither of them is likely to miss a shot at, given their current status and System Compatibility.


    ¡°What¡¯s your System Rank, Cadets. Deltas y at setting zero, Gamma at 2 and Betas at Setting Four, unless they¡¯re really good.¡± A nearby soldier exins the options.


    ¡°What do the settings do?¡± Nico asks, examining the cube.


    ¡°Altered Gravity pockets. The higher settings are both more intense, and the gravity wells begin to move about the table. Only balls in motion will be effected though.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll, I¡¯m new at the game, so how about we start out at setting two and we can increase it if it¡¯s too easy for Max here.¡±


    The machine picks Nico to break, and she puts on the game gloves, grabs a cue and floats in to the zero gravity cube. The gloves let you maneuver and stop, so you don¡¯t run into any of the balls.


    She gets an intense look on her face and Max gets the distinct feeling that he¡¯s been yed. After a final look around the game area, she drives the cue ball into the cluster of red balls and the strangest thing happens. One goes flying out at high velocity, bouncing between the colored balls, its trajectory curving as the ball passes the gravity wells, sending them all flying towards the scoring pockets before sinking into the top center hole.


    The game is scored the same as traditional snooker, one point for red and increasing points for every color with the ck ball being worth the most. But in this game, every shot must always hit a red ball first, and the colored balls are reset to their starting positions after every shot. The game ends when all red balls are sunk.


    Over and over, Nico rotates through the red balls, using the same trick to sink everything, so Max looks through her memories, finding that she really hasn¡¯t seen the game before, it¡¯s just that her calction abilities are so high that it¡¯s not a challenge.


    She finishes the match with a perfect score and the soldiers in the arcade cheer for her as she waves to them.


    ¡°I hope you didn¡¯t wager on this. I¡¯ve never seen anything like that before.¡± The woman nearest to Maxughs.


    ¡°Neither have I, but then she¡¯s always doing strange things, so I should have expected this to happen.¡±

 46 Chapter 46

    They only have time for a few rounds of 3D snooker before Nico¡¯s wrist device res with an rm. It¡¯s supposed to be an off day, but the alert is likely to be important.


    ¡°The new units have just arrived at the hangars. That was Corporal Fritz sending me the message.¡± Nico rifies for both Max and the curious audience that has been watching their matches.


    ¡°Your first personal Mecha, Cadets?¡± One of the onlookers asks, enviously.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re being graduated early along with the whole ss of special forces Cadets.¡± Max nods.


    ¡°Good luck then. Hopefully you get a nice rxing honor guard mission for your first. Juste back safe, we want to see who was going to win this match.¡± The Private jokes as the two Cadets say their goodbyes.<sub>.</sub>


    The ship¡¯s crew is not at all surprised to see them racing back towards the airlock a few minutester. It hasn¡¯t been long since they received the new Crusader ss Chassis, and the guard recognizes the small Cadet from her recent time at the repair bays.


    It¡¯s no secret that four of the new units are for Cadets, in fact the entire 42nd Armored is excited about it. Piloting Cadets good enough to start their career so high up the ranks are one in ten thousand, so having four on board at once has attracted the attention of a good portion of the other pilots.


    Both Cadets raise their wrists to have Theriot devices scanned in as they run by, ignoring the short line of soldiers headed in and out. Being called to duty while docked at a station is something they¡¯ve all faced, and standing around chatting in line when you¡¯ve been Summoned isn¡¯t an option.


    Max and Nico aren¡¯t headed to official duty, but for them, it¡¯s just as exciting. Once the Mecha are in their bays, they will finally know for sure what units they¡¯ll be assigned to.<sub></sub>


    Neither of them knows quite how Tarith¡¯s Rage is equipped, but if they can get the spare parts, the crew will do some customization for the new pilot, to suit Nico¡¯s tastes. Max doesn¡¯t have any clues as to what he will be assigned as a mecha, but he¡¯s hoping for maximum firepower to suit his System Skills.


    The initial assignment rmendations are actually done by the system. If they were regr graduates, they¡¯d also put in a request for a specific armament, and thenmand would finalize it. But with an emergency requisition, they¡¯ll simply take what they get and like it, or try to get a change of equipmentter.


    That can be more difficult though, as Commanders build patrols around what their mecha are equipped for, and a drastic change to even one unit can throw out the bnce.


    ¡°Cadets, I¡¯ve been expecting you. Over this way, we¡¯ve just confirmed your units into the system and you¡¯re in time to help with the check in procedure.¡± Corporal Fritz calls as they enter the aft Mecha bays.<sub></sub>


    This ce has always been rxing to Max. Something about the smell of mecha,b or the Forest of Drab Green and brown mechanical bodies waiting for action, their camouge only broken by the yellow and ck iconography of the 42nd mechanized.


    Fritz leads them to the back, by the cargo airlock where all newly received items are quarantined and checked for count, quality and possible contamination. Among the rows and rows of supplies, munitions and recement light mecha, four giants stand. Three are liveried in blue armor over a silver chassis, while one is Crimson Red over bronze.


    Max reads the chest mounted namete of the crimson mecha, finding that it is indeed Tarith¡¯s Rage. It carries an antique pattern Ion Destroyer on the right arm, and a gauntlet hand is equipped on the left, with a vicious looking serrated sword.


    The Gauntlet had been modified to have two light rail guns above the knuckles, and the coaxial weapon mounted in the left side of the chest is the same. Atop the gracefully curving Turtle shell of its upper armor sits an Ion based quad anti aircraft battery.


    It looks simple, and nearly obsolete with age, but between that Ion Destroyer and the Rail Guns, that Mecha is capable of putting an incredible amount of hurt on a light to medium Armored ranged target. Nico is grinning at it like a love struck groupie meeting their idol, but Fritz leads the pair to another mecha first.


    Stalwart, the namete on the chest armor reads. It¡¯s a fully long range sped mecha, with a Battle Cannon on the right and a Gatling Battery on the left. Each arm has a methrower mounted under the gun, and the coaxial weapon on the chest is a smaller Gatling gun. That is perfect for Max, who can effectively use every weapon at the same time.


    Unlike the Tarith¡¯s Rage and every other Crusader ss Chassis he¡¯s seen with a single centrally mounted carapace weapon, Stalwart has rocket pods on each shoulder, each half the capacity of a standard unit. The overall firepower is unchanged, but in theory, it could still be mounted with an anti aircraft weapon or additional rocket pod.


    Again, the elegant Turtle shell top armor te is antiquatedpared to the sleek curve of the modern units, but it is a beautiful mecha nheless.


    ¡°Pilot Max, wee to your new home. She¡¯s been cleared for pathogens and invasive species, so you can begin the receiving checklist and system operations tests. Be sure to enter everything into the tablet step by step, since the unit needs to be double checked by a senior tech before we can fully clear it. Any mistakes in the list will hold up the process.¡± Fritz says, handing Max a data tablet and pointing to the steps that lead up to the gantry and the walkway near the top of the Mecha.


    That¡¯s all the encouragement that Max needs, and he takes off at a run towards his new mecha, the crew in the receiving area cursing when he pushes by, thenughing when they realize the who and why of the situation.


    A new Crusader ss Mecha is a big thing for Pilots, a once in a lifetime event for many and a dream for many more. They¡¯re not about to spoil the young Pilot¡¯s moment by reprimanding him about decorum and receiving area safety regtions.

 47 Chapter 47

    Max climbs the gantry at a full-out run, swinging off the yellow and ck hazard striped safety trails to make the corner. He only slows down when he gets to the more precarious footing of the Mecha¡¯s curved upper armor.


    The top and side hatches are both already open, so Max drops in from above, sliding gracefully into the Pilot¡¯s seat thanks to his enhanced physical abilities and only narrowly avoiding snagging his head off of the top hatch as he fails past it.


    Max taps the activation code indicated on the new equipment checklist, and the Mecha¡¯s system flickers to life.


    [Wee, Pilot Max. Command Codes Recognized.] The Mecha¡¯srge front internal disy screen reads, showing the default view of the outside world in the visible light spectrum.


    [System Ability Active: Optimizing Unit]<sub>.</sub>


    While System does its thing, Max starts verifying the items on the checklist. Quality and condition of the seat and brackets, then the harness, the neural link headset. As he makes his way through the itemized list of cockpitponents, the system optimizationpletes.


    [Unit Optimized, No Errors Detected.]


    That¡¯s reassuring, but Max continues through the list carefully, one item at a time, then exits the cockpit to begin the external checks. After being in storage so long, Max is more worried about age deteriorated seals that will blow once the unit starts working than he is about stress fractures from itsst tour of duty. Still, he doesn¡¯t have any information about the Mecha¡¯s history to indicate how or if it was maintained, so leftoverbat damage is a possibility.


    Many seals and hoses are visibly aged, but all the mechanical joints and bushings are solid, showing no signs of wear, and look freshly greased. It takes Max two hours to check every part and fitting, leaving him with over a hundred points that he rmends for maintenance or upgrades before putting the unit in service.<sub></sub>


    Compared to the total, that¡¯s not too bad, and functionally the unit did pass inspection, with every system and joint properly operational.


    By the time he¡¯s finished, Ibanez and Russo have both arrived and begun their inspections. They¡¯re both just as excited about their new units as he is, stopping every so often to simply admire their new mecha.


    The blue over silver color scheme is a beautiful look, and Max is a bit sad to realize that it will have to change to match whatever unit he ends up being assigned to, the same as the other units will. The camouge of the 42nd looks reasonably good, but unless you¡¯re flying by at high altitude, you¡¯re not going to mistake a unit of Crusader ss Mecha in the open for a stand of trees or anything else.


    Nico¡¯s Mecha seems to have gone to the extreme opposite end of the visual spectrum, being blood red with lengths of chain hung from the shoulders like sinister wind chimes. They end in hooks, making Max wonder if the previous upant hung war trophies from them.<sub></sub>


    Razor wire loops ring the upper carapace armor and the waist joint, and the shin tes are spiked. It must have spent a lot of time in closebat if the pilot saw a need to prevent infantry climbing the mecha.


    As the name suggests, everything about Tarith¡¯s Rage is designed to intimidate, and Max wishes he could have met the pilot who did that to his Mecha. It¡¯s all so deliberate that there must be a story behind it.


    ¡°All done the inspection, Pilot? If you are, I¡¯ll take the checklist and do the verification so we can get Stalwart moved to the bays for upgrades and renovation.¡± A voice calls from the catwalk behind him.


    ¡°Just checking my work. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s all finished, but I¡¯ve never done it before.¡± Max tells him, walking over to the tech.


    Max jumps the three meters from the Mecha to the walkway, and the Tech sighs. ¡°Must be nice to be Alpha Ranked; those physical skills are barely human.¡±


    They¡¯d grown so smoothly through training that Max had never really noticed. Still, with the recent increase in his base stats that he could not recall being notified of by the system, the cumtive effect was incredible.


    ¡°Living with it every day, you forget it¡¯s not normal. I¡¯d think the F Ranked who never activated their systems feel the same way about Deltas and Gammas, who are easily twice as capable.¡± Max shrugs.


    The two stop talking and turn to look andugh as a string of curses and death threatse from the direction of Tarith¡¯s Rage. The tech doing the second round of checks got tangled in the razor wire at the edge of the carapace armor.


    How he managed it, they¡¯re not sure, but he¡¯s so mad he won¡¯t stop moving so hisrades can rescue him, which is only causing more damage.


    From what they can gather, the crew who cleaned the unit after storage waxed the armor so well it¡¯s ice slick. The only ones in the receiving area who aren¡¯t entranced by the spectacle are Nico and Fritz, who are more interested in arguing the merits of the so-called Light Rail Guns.


    They¡¯re lightpared to the main armament version that fires a ten-kilogram projectile, but they still send out a half kilogram round at nearly twenty times the speed of sound.


    Fritz thinks they¡¯re overkill and should be reced with a more practical weapon; Nico believes they need a higher capacity munitions storagepartment and a higher rate of fire.


    Unlike a standard unit such as Stalwart that uses a Rad Engine, the ancient design of Tarith¡¯s Wrath uses a much higher powered Thorium Reactor. Even with the Ion Destroyer, it has the power to spare. Power that Rail Guns use a lot of.


    Max wonders what exactly she¡¯s nning to shoot with those fist-mounted railguns. Even without her modification skill, they fire once a second and can punch a hole in a Line Mecha with rtive ease. If it weren¡¯t for the crazy power usage andck of flexibility, the rail guns would have been one of Kepler¡¯s most popr weapons.


    The Battle Cannon, Gatling Battery, and Ion Destroyer all have the option for high explosive area damage; the Rail Guns do not. It had been tried, of course, but either the maic field or the eleration caused issues with every explosive they had, so the project was abandoned.

 48 Chapter 48

    Once all the units were cleared and double checked by the senior staff a path is made to walk the Crusaders to their berths in the maintenance bays for refurbishment.


    Max knows he¡¯s got a lot of work ahead of him to get everthing perfect, but it¡¯s going to be worth it. By the time he¡¯s finished he will know every nut and bolt on his new mecha.


    [Initialization Complete]


    [Unit Optimized]


    Before he starts to move, Max uses the sensors to inspect the other units, to see if there are any major differences between these units that were made centuries apart. Design evolution isn¡¯t covered in ss or in the simtors.


    They¡¯re very simr, right down to the structural alloyposition, except Nico¡¯s, which has a number of rare elements in the structural alloy that give it that bronze color. It¡¯s also slightly different in structure under the armor, an Ancient design that his System identified as being slower, but more durable than Stalwart¡¯s more modern design.<sub>.</sub>


    Having seen how aggressive Nico is when she gets the chance at closebat, that¡¯s probably a good thing, even if the speed difference hurts her potential.


    The oil based coating on the armor is strange as well. ording to his sensors, it¡¯s mixed with the blood of a species Max doesn¡¯t recognize. Even his Mecha¡¯s database only has their name and no details. For that reason he can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s a local manufacturing technique or some sort of battle ritual.


    Max isn¡¯t a superstitious man, but polishing your Mecha with the blood of your enemies seems a bit extreme. He will have to ask Nico about itter and see what she has learned.


    Soon after his startup checks, Stalwart received the clearance to move and a route appeared in his Heads Up Disy, leading Max to his storage berth, not far from the receiving area.


    The staff all cheer as he begins to move, showing their support for the new pilots and Max can see that in the crowd both Sergeant Fritz and the Local workers from the station have teared up a little from the sight. These heirloom mecha must have a special history, so Max requests all historical documents on Stalwart be sent to his cockpit.<sub></sub>


    He¡¯s reached his berth before Nico begins to move, giving a Salute to the station with her sword and stalking through the bay. Her Mecha looks more predatory than upright and proud the way most Mecha do, and Max notices that along the structural changes, it also has an extra leg joint, hinged the opposite direction as the normal knee.


    It makes the gait more animalistic, with arger range of motion for climbing obstacles. It looks like a very functional design and Max wonders why it didn¡¯t catch on. Could it be that the extra joint was discarded for ease of control?


    He pulls up the records for Tarith¡¯s Wrath to check, but finds the only things recorded are that it was taken from stasis for the unification war, but no suitable pilot was found, so it was returned to stasis storage without ever leaving the Kepler 142 station.


    Stalwart on the other hand has over a hundred  years of battle records after the Kepler Empire was founded, mostly defending this system with theary Guard. It has faced every sort of enemy Max could imagine and reigned victorious.


    Max gets to work recing aged parts once the spares begin to arrive, making solid headway before a notificationes through to his smart watch.<sub></sub>


    [All Cadets Report to Mess Hall 3A for briefing.]


    Max climbs down from where he is working, descending the scaffolding to the ground. The other three Cadets are just as reluctant as he is to leave their mecha, but this should be the briefing to get their officialmissions and their orders. It¡¯s not something they can afford to bete to.


    As they enter the mess hall, they see a number of officers gathered into four groups, along with a few dozen Pilots of the 42nd Armored. Each Cadet is handed a uniform in a sealed storage bag and a data tablet as they enter, falling in to face General Tennant.


    ¡°You will all get a chance to return to your Mecha tonight, but first, orders and assignments must be made. Our destination this trip is KX117, a mining colony locally known as Belmont that is facing an attempt by insurgents to wrest control of the munitions supply mines from the Kepler Empire.


    Your assignment leaders have been color coded, and your specific missions will be revealed by your group leaders.


    Both wings of Special Forces Cadets in Line and Corvette ss Mecha get red screens on their tablets and join Colonel Romano, while Russo and Ibanez get green and blue, joining separate Crusader ss Pilots that Max doesn¡¯t know.


    He gets a ck screen as does Nico and Max notices the other Commanders making a little gesture that many soldiers believe wards off bad luck.


    Colonel Cortez of the 111th infantry, as well as Sergeant Enns of Bravo Company and a Lieutenant named Becki from the 42nd Armored are waiting for them with a grim smile.


    ¡°We will get right to it. You have be been chosen to apany Bravo Company for thending on Belmont, in the Vanguard wave ofndings. We are expecting heavy artillery bombardment, but light to no mecha presence.


    Bravo Company is a hundred men strong, under themand of Captain Catan. I believe you already know Sergeant Enns, who is representing your infantry support today. Lieutenant Becki, will lead your light Mecha support.


    As the senior Command units, you will be leading the mission, and Captain Max has been chosen as mission Commander, with Captain Nico as his second.¡±


    That¡¯s enough to nearly give Max a heart attack. His first mission is a Vanguard strike into upied territory, leading a single wing of Line Mecha and an infantry Company?


    From what he understands of Kepler Military strategy, mixed units are usually reserved for Special Forces missions, and being in the Vanguard means nobody ising to assist you. They¡¯ll be so far beyond the front lines that their mission is what the Empire calls a Sess Only deployment.


    ¡°Your maps and unit details are on the tablet. I¡¯ll leave you to it.¡± Colonel Cortez deres, getting up from his chair and leaving the room.

 49 Chapter 49

    Max inspects the details and the map he has before addressing the others. ¡°Can anyone tell me how this assignment was chosen?¡±


    Sergeant Enns looks around and smiles. ¡°You see, escort Mecha are chosen by their history. You two are in the Mecha that have the most illustrious histories among all unassigned units, so you got the nod direct from centralmand. Bravo Company are the finest soldiers that The 111th has, and Becki here is on punishment detail.¡±


    The heavily freckled, Ginger haired man flips the infantry soldier off, thenughs. ¡°If I wasn¡¯t so fething good they would have busted me to Private by now, like they did my wing. But no fears Stalwart, we know what we¡¯re doing. You make the orders and we will follow them.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a relief. I was worried they would give me a bunch of ipetent washouts who could manage to shoot their own Crusaders in the back. General Tennant would call it a leadership test.¡± Max jokes.


    ¡°Looking at ournding zone, I¡¯m thinking doors east, Tarith¡¯s Rage will lead with a Battle shield, Stalwart will follow at full fire volume. Light mecha will clear the north building, Infantry goes south. That looks like a vehicle storage to me,mandeer as much as you can.¡±


    The obvious danger of this n is that they will be exiting thender towards what is likely to be a group of tanks and artillery guns. They will need to clear them fast, but going the long way around and using thender as a shield would just increase the amount of time they would get shot at.<sub>.</sub>


    They don¡¯t have any good options, so the unit leaders are fine with Max¡¯s n. It looks a lot better to them than the usual n of use the infantry as Cannon Fodder to soften the target before the big gunse out.


    They are still inspecting the satellite feeds from Belmont when the departure notificationes through and the Abraham Kepler makes the transition to faster than light travel.


    This time Max is ready and the feeling isn¡¯t so bad, but he¡¯s certain that feeling won¡¯t ever be one he actually manages to totally ignore.


    All they can do is wait for the ship to arrive, so Max returns to Stalwart to finish his upgrades. He will be dropping in to Belmont for his first mission in under 48 hours and he wants to be ready and well rested, if that¡¯s even possible for a first drop.


    By the end of the first day, Max has everything on the checklist finished, but he¡¯s still not happy with the way the Gatling Battery loads. It¡¯s Optimized as well as it can be by his skill, but it still feels clunky, despite being within tolerances.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Nico, want toe give me a hand with this? I just can¡¯t get the belt feeder quite right.¡± He calls over to where Nico is painting smiley faces on the bottom of her Mecha¡¯s feet.


    He really doesn¡¯t want to know.


    Nico easily climbs the Mecha to sit on top of the Gatling Battery, pulling the inspection covers open.


    Just as Max did, she measures everything, but then she releases the feed belt and starts measuring the actual rounds. They¡¯re all within tolerances, but on the other end of the range from the Gatling Battery. A few quick tweaks followed by something Max can¡¯t understand, that she does with her System Ability, and Nico closes the unit back up.


    ¡°I polished and honed the chamber mouths for poor quality ammunition. Try the feeds now.¡±<sub></sub>


    [Optimizing Unit]


    Now the feed is textbook smooth. No hints of dys, barrel push, dragging or anything but perfection.


    ¡°Thanks Nico. Mind double checking the Battle Cannon as well? It is pretty good, but you have got the magic touch.¡±


    Nico obliges without hesitation and Max¡¯s System Optimizes again, adjusting to her changes.


    ¡°That¡¯s as good as it is going to get. Good thing they didn¡¯t want us to sneak in anywhere, between Stalwart and my Rail Guns, everyone within Kilometers will know we areing.¡±


    Max can see Nico is still using her System Talent on Stalwart for a few more minutes, looking to anyone observing like she is doing an inspection of the Battle Cannon she just modified. It doesn¡¯t seem to be doing much until Max gets a notification


    [Legacy Equipment Online: Repulsion Shield]


    That¡¯s a technology Max didn¡¯t think he would ever get his hands on. New Mecha aren¡¯t equipped with it, because multiple direct hits can overload the Power nt, but the shielding makes an invisible energy film over the Crusaders Armor, reducing damage from energy weapons and projectiles to nearly nothing.


    This shield is the reason Rail Guns are still in service, the incredible velocity carries a lot of kic energy, which overloads the shield, even though the projectile would deform on modern armor and do minimal damage.


    A higher output version of this shield is standard issue in Phnx ss Mecha, which have more avable power, and that¡¯s the only reason Max is even familiar with them.


    ¡°Nobody ever removes them, they just disable them when they can¡¯t get the parts to fix them anymore. But now you know why Stalwart has such a storied history, and why it was really put into storage.¡± Nico exins.


    Like so many other non standard items, after centuries of war, the parts became obsolete, the nts were retooled to make moremon items and the loss was deemed eptable in the grand scheme of things.


    With the ability to absorb a direct hit or two, this mission bes a lot less risky in the early stages, at least for Max.


    Having Stalwart in such good condition helps Max rx as he watches the ongoing Battle of Belmont through the next afternoon, double checking for changes in the situation near their proposednding zone. Max feels like he has just fallen asleep to get ready for tomorrow¡¯s mission when the ship wide inte res.


    [All Combat Units To Stations. Launches will begin 30 seconds after transition from faster than light travel in Exactly 4 hours.]


    They¡¯re well ahead of schedule, so it¡¯s time to start loading up the Mecha into their assignednders. The faster they can get done the more time they have to make final adjustments to the n.

 50 Chapter 50

    Max orders the infantry to load first, as they will be thest ones out, and all 100 members of Bravo Company file into the Lander. They¡¯re now nine years into their ten year long term of service, andbat drops are nothing new to them.


    The idea that the Crusader ss Mecha escorting them will be their shield during the critical moments of thending is a new one, though. Few Commanders have given them that much consideration, especially at the risk of a high value asset, so they¡¯re not going to let down the expectations of these new pilots.


    Captain Max has faith in them to take the right nk and is willing to draw fire himself to ensure that they can reach the suspected vehicle storage warehouse. To the much-abused infantry, that¡¯s well worth their very best effort.


    Thender is loaded and ready with two hours to spare. The infantry starts gettingfortable, and Max is reminded of the day his System activated during the obstacle course at the academy. Just like Nico did, they stretch out and fall asleep right where they are, expecting the rm before transitioning to waking them up in time to secure their belongings and get ready tounch.


    Max is about to share the amusing memory with her, so he checks her thoughts to see what she¡¯s currently doing, only to find that she is already asleep on the small fold-down cot inside her cockpit.


    Looking at the rack stored above his head, Max realizes he would have to stand and lean up against the far wall to deploy it so he could nap, but Nico is so short that she could leave it locked in the Deployed position above her head.<sub>.</sub>


    It¡¯s worth the hassle, though, so Max sets the rm on his smartwatch for ten minutes before they¡¯re scheduled to drop out of high-speed travel. That should give him enough time to get everything stored and ready before doing sensor scans, searching for any changes in theirnding zone, and updating their ns if necessary.


    It is not the rm he set but the fifteen minutes to drop time ship-wide alert that wakes Max up. All the soldiers are getting into position, the light mecha pilots are getting strapped into their mecha, and disciplined readiness reces the sleepy silence in thender.


    [Final equipment ready check. We already know it will be ugly when wend, and no changes in enemy deployment from thest update are visible in ournding zone.] Max informs the unit as they double check their kit and weapons.


    Max does the same himself, finding that he has 30 days of rations and water, all systems check out, and ammunition storage is at 100 percent. Very few additional munitions are sent with missions like theirs to avoid arming the enemy, so Max will have to go easy with the Gatling Battery unless they find a lot of infantry and light vehicles.


    The Gatling Battery is an amazing weapon, but it does chew through ammunition at a rather spectacr rate.<sub></sub>


    At the five-minute mark, the final locks are set on thender in preparation tounch. From this point on, sess is the only option; there is no way to back out.


    With one minute to go, they are moved to the bay doors, then the stomach turning lurch of a rapid shift out of faster-than-light travel is followed almost immediately by the thrusters on theirnder firing.


    [So much for 30 seconds after trantion] Nico jokes over the inte as the friction of atmospheric entry begins to make theirnder creak.


    With that short of a dy betweenunch and atmospheric entry, the Abraham Kepler must have dropped them from a very shallow orbit. That¡¯s good news for them, as it doesn¡¯t give time for orbital defenses to attack and very little time for ground based defenses to scramble, even though they were already expecting imminent retaliation by the military.


    [Three minutes tonding] The ship inte announces in its familiar mechanical voice.<sub></sub>


    Max double-checks the satellite feed, seeing that more infantry has surfaced in their zone, and several tanks have been uncovered to the east, where the doors of thender will open.


    [Let Tarith¡¯s Wrath clear the door. I expect high explosive artillery fire from the moment wend, and I don¡¯t want anyone getting caught in the st radius.] Max reminds the infantry, who respond with their usual grunting affirmation.


    [Rah]


    With 30 seconds to descend, anti-aircraft fire bes audible in their vicinity, and the shaking increases.


    [Damage Exceeds Threshold. Automated Navigation Offline]es the automated announcement after a cluster of nearby explosions tore tiny holes in thenders hull.


    [I¡¯ve got this. Adjusting Landing zone for Close Combat Insertion. Stand clear of the doors.] Nico calls out, and thender regains some stability.


    [Manual Override Entered. Touchdown in 3, 2]


    Just as the one is announced, the sound of crushing bricks and a sudden lurch jar the upants of thender, which digs in and screeches to a halt.


    Before it has stopped moving, the doors are blown off their hinges, and Nico drops her battle shield, grabbing the muchrger structure of a door instead and charging straight forward. She rotates the wrist of her Mecha, and the door turns sideways, blocking the entire lower half of the entrance to thender from the hail of iing bullets and tank shells but allowing Max to fire over the top.


    All thought of saving ammunition is temporarily suspended. There are over a hundred previously hidden gun emcements barricaded with sandbags in front of and beside him. Nico dropped thender almost to the tanks at the far eastern side of theirnding zone after it bounced off the roof of a building on approach.


    The light mecha run left, making for the shelter of the buildings and lighting up the defenders with their Ion rifles and grenadeunchers. Bravo Company will manage to head for the facilities on the right, mostly under cover of rubble and debris from theirnding, so Max focuses on the gun emcements while Nico Charges the Tanks.


    Battle Cannon rounds make short work of scattering the sandbag defenses, and .75 caliber rounds from the Gatling Battery tear through both the bags and the soldiers behind them with equal efficiency.


    Tarith¡¯s Wrath is a faster runner than Max expected, and the Lander door has been discarded as it reached the tanks. Those furthest from her feel the Wrath of the Ion Destroyer while the multiple Rail Guns are punching holes in the tanks closest to the Crusader.


    Max now has a targeting lock on all of the remaining gun emcements, as well as several Infantry clusters, and his System Skill says he¡¯s ready to fire. The shoulder-mounted missileunchers can independently target twenty-five points each, and Max¡¯s entire disy is full of targeting boxes when he lets loose.


    Half a secondter, bright fire fills the air as the missiles find their marks, and the lightest Armored assets of the Defense force are obliterated.

 51 Chapter 51

    The battlefield slowly falls silent, with the Mecha¡¯s thermal imaging and system enhanced senses not indicating anything alive and moving near thending zone other than their own team.


    [Stalwart reports Landing Zone Secure.] Max calls over the long range radio, lettingmand know they have made it down and are still alive.


    [Casualties minimal, moving to secure the area.]


    The location they were assigned to was a staging area for enemy vehicles, but before that, it was a residential area near one of thes smaller mines. A small, now destroyed downtown core with a few thousand vacant homes. Max isn¡¯t sure what happened to the locals, but they weren¡¯t present during any of the scans of Belmont.


    Is possible the whole region was abandoned and the mine closed before everything started, but after crashing ander though it and the following battle, he would have to search the outlying homes to know for sure. The area around them is simply too damaged to make an educated deduction.<sub>.</sub>


    The infantrypany sends out almost half their force as four toons to search the vige for any remaining hostiles, Each apanied by two Line Mecha. Max plus the Corvette ss unit scout out any likely spots for Armored resistance together while Nico is designated to hold thending zone with a damaged Line Mecha who has retreated inside thender for emergency repairs.


    Allnders have a basic automated repair bay with a few spare parts, welding capability and a material printer, one of the high tech joys of Kepler society. Given the correct raw materials, it can create a wide variety of basic items on demand. Mostmonly Mecha armor and infantry gear, but it can make basic ammunition as well.


    A town this size is honestly toorge for a singlepany to search, even with modern technology, but if they can eliminate the heaviest concentrations of enemy troops the remainder should retreat.


    Fortunately for Bravo Company, they captured 80 percent of the armored vehicles, including two undamaged tanks, that were stored here in the warehouses Max assigned them to target first. The defenders were so focused on the giant Mecha that the infantry managed to seize the vehicles before the enemy operators could even get to them.<sub></sub>


    The resounding sess of the strategy gave the infantrypany a fullplement of protective transport and a big bump in firepower at no cost. When they got this mission, with an untested Commander and a forward deployment, Bravo Company feared this was the end for them, but now they¡¯re better equipped than ever.


    Sporadic gunfire still sounds all over the city, but no serious fighting. It seems the open field theynded in held almost all the rebel forces that had assembled to guard this location. The Intel was correct, and being this far behind the lines of the current battle and out of reach of reinforcement from either force, they got off easier than expected.


    Nico took a little damage from the closebat engagement, but Max didn¡¯t take a single hit to Stalwart. If it wasn¡¯t for his multiple targeting ability and the expenditure of dozens of rockets, that probably wouldn¡¯t have been the case though.


    Before dark, Max orders all units to return to the freshly builtpound and set up a defensive perimeter. Copsed buildings now block all the main streets, preventing ess by wheeled and most tracked vehicles, but a number of building basements are still essible to serve as bunkers for the infantry or hangers for the light mecha.<sub></sub>


    Things might be calm now, but everyone understands thate nightfall, the insurgents are sure to either send reinforcements or a bombing run in an attempt to eliminate this force behind their lines.


    The anticipated attack is right on time. Just as sunset makes optical scans useless for a few minutes, Max¡¯s radar is jammed and his thermal scans pick up iing aircraft. As is protocol, Max calls out to the iing aircraft on the Kepler Military scrambled channels.


    ¡°This is the Command Mecha Stalwart on all short range channels, bomber group, identify yourself or we will fire.¡±


    No response, the jets aren¡¯t theirs.


    ¡°Nico you¡¯re up. Let¡¯s see what those quad guns can do.¡± The anti aircraft guns have a much better range than anything his Mecha carries, and without k, trying to shoot down airnes isn¡¯t easy.


    When the bombers get to the 10km mark, the quad guns on top of Tarith¡¯s Rage power up and explosions start wracking the sky, filling it with points of light as unstable sma charges detonate, sending molten streamers through the air.


    Secondster a bomber explodes, then another. The aim is uncanny, like she knows exactly what their evasion pattern is going to be and puts Ionized sma k directly in their path. Three nes go down before the others break and turn away.


    ¡°They¡¯ll be back. Either with fighters or with ground support, now that they know we have anti aircraft capability. I need a full inventory of what we managed to obtain during thending.¡± Max instructs the unit, confirming the reports they sent earlier.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got three vehicles with quad k guns on them,mandeered from the defenders. We also gained twelve Armored transports and two tanks, all fully stocked. I¡¯ll get them set up in a defensive pattern with a 24 hour crew.¡± Bravo Company Captain Catan informs him.


    As long as their supplies aren¡¯t damaged by an enemy attack, that should be enough firepower to hold this position for a few days at least. For the infantry to gain vehicles of any sort is a huge benefit to his unit, space in the standard assaultnder is too limited for such luxuries, and the Kepler Military isn¡¯t big on sending a lot of extra assets with the infantry during a Mecha led shock assault.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got Line Mecha on patrol around the town perimeter. No resistance so far.¡± Lieutenant Becki in the Corvette ss Mecha adds.


    Split into three rotations, they don¡¯t even have enough Mecha to keep the perimeter underplete sensor coverage, but it¡¯s still better than nothing. There¡¯s nothing worse than going into a battle blind when your enemy knows your deployment.


    ¡°Excellent. Our orders are to hold this location until further notice. Bunker down and getfortable, we could be here a while.¡± Maxmands and everyone gets to work building fortifications and cing defensive weapons to better secure the ruins.


    Even Nico makes herself a big pile of rubble to stand in, hiding two thirds of her crouched Mecha, but allowing full range of motion with her weapons. Max opts to simply stand inside the entryway of thender with the broken door propped up as a shield in front of him, in case a stealth team tries to infiltrate.


    It¡¯s too dangerous to leave infantry in thender, in case of an incendiary rocket attack, but it makes a good shell around the Crusader ss Mecha.


    The light mecha that are not on patrol bring what scrap they can from the tanks back to thender, the materialposition is simr, so the scrap can be used by the repair bay to create armor patches for their mecha.

 52 Chapter 52

    Of course the night was never going to be truly peaceful. Only an hour after they had finished setting up their defenses another air raid came for their position.


    Fortunately, they detected it long before it arrived, relying on abination of visual and thermal imaging instead of the unreliable radar and satellite feeds.


    With the three anti aircraft equipped vehicles plus the Tarith¡¯s Rage, the raid was easily repelled, in fact, almost too easily.


    [Everyone on Full Alert. Light Mecha check the extended perimeter of our position. An attack that easily repelled is guaranteed to be cover for something.] Max instructed the unit as soon as the nts were downed.


    That pulled everyone into immediate readiness, and various sensors began sweeping the area. The Mecha patrolling the outer area stopped to scan for anything out of the ordinary.


    [Movement in Sector 3. Rebel infantry attempting to flee the city.] One of the Line Mecha reports, grabbing Max¡¯s attention.<sub>.</sub>


    [Lieutenant Becki, take two fast units and go deal with them. Watch for ambush attempts.] Max instructs, linking their targeting sensors to his own.


    It is a featuremonly used by Commanders to get a good overview of the battleground, but for Max it has a double purpose. The Battle Cannon is an artillery piece, firing heavy shells on a curved trajectory. With his Targeting Skills, he can use it at longer ranges as an indirect fire weapon, lobbing shells into the air tond on targets from above.


    If they shoulde across an ambush, he can engage on their behalf and provide cover to keep them from being pinned down.


    The light mecha squad corners the traitors in a former Residence, so Max sends one single Battle Cannon round into the building, the explosion destroying the fragile brick structure and killing everyone inside.


    [Sensors detect all clear. Thanks for the assistance Stalwart.] Lieutenant Becki calls over the radio before returning to base.<sub></sub>


    Now that they¡¯ve eliminated thest defenders of this position, the enemy is most likely going to send Mecha in to attempt to clear them out and regain control of the area and the munitions storage bunkers that the infantry has imed.


    That means they¡¯re going to have to dig in for a nasty battle, but fortunately, they¡¯ve gotten an infusion of firepower. Max orders camoting and rubble be spread over the vehicles, as well as Tarith¡¯s Rage and a number of the burned out tanks.


    Nico took that as a hint to hide herself better, tearing through the basement of a building and shielding herself in the ruins, then cing a door from thender over her carapace and covering everthing inting and broken bricks.


    With her Mecha hidden like that, and the thick alloy door as a lid, thermal scans would never detect that to be a mecha. The thermal signature looks far more like a makeshift bunker with a fire lit in back for warmth during the cold nights here on Belmont.


    Her top guns are still functional, as are the guns on the vehicles they covered, so they¡¯re not losing out on defense, but by the time the sunes up their numbers are fully obscured.<sub></sub>


    No more Mecha patrols are sent to the edge of town, only a half dozen infantry scouts, well hidden inside buildings and waiting for the inevitable counter offensive.


    They don¡¯t have to wait too long, the first strikees just before noon. A fullbined Mecha Patrol. Three Crusader ss Chassis and twenty light mecha.


    [They¡¯re splitting up. Light mechaing from the east and west, Crusaders from the North.] a scout whispers into his radio.


    [Stalwart is positioned to fire East. Infantry assets, find me a target lock with theser scopes. Tarith¡¯s Rage, take out the Crusaders, and Lieutenant Becki has the West.] Max makes sure everyone is clear on the n.


    Their pilfered tanks are also facing north, and the infantry have set up dozens of small bunkers around the ruins. With luck, the enemy won¡¯t make it that close but if they do, Bravo Company has a number of anti armor rockets and other heavy weapons with them.


    Theser targeters have two options, either identifying a target directly, or firing a sticky locator beacon. Mecha can sometimes track those targeting beams back to their source, so the first choice is usually to attach a beacon and return to hiding inside a thermally shielded nest to avoid detection.


    The scouts do an excellent job of it, getting four of the ten light mecha in the East and two Crusaders. The light mecha in the west swung wide of their position, and nobody was going to reveal themselves and ruin the trap this early.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage makes the first move, Her Ion Destroyer and all three Rail Guns lighting up the leading Crusader the second ites into sight. The Ion st was a direct hit to the cockpit, followed by three rail gun rounds punching through the weakened armor.


    The unit goes dark in the middle of a step, simply copsing as it loses power, causing the other two giant Mecha to retreat back around the corner of a building.


    Unfortunately for them, that building held one of the Infantry bunkers, and the brave soldiers of Bravo Company put a volley of rockets up into the vulnerable rear structure of one retreating mecha, causing it to explode and creating a burning wreckage that hid their escape through the heavily damaged building.


    The sudden attack has made the light mecha rush their advance in order to offer support, putting the ones approaching from the East squarely in Max¡¯s line of sight.


    The Battle Cannon thunders as the Gatling Battery spins up and the approaching light mecha find themselves caught in a shooting gallery between buildings. They have only an instant to flee before a hail of Gatling Battery rounds tears into them, and Max begins to hear the signs of battle behind him, from the Western front.


    The remaining targets are in full flight now, and Max orders his unit to stand down.


    [Do Not pursue. They won¡¯t be back anytime soon, and we can hold this point as long as we need to. Intelligence says the front line battles are going well.]

 53 Chapter 53

    ording to the satellite feed, the retreating mecha simply kept going, all the way to the capital.


    By mid afternoon, they still hadn¡¯t seen any threats close enough to engage, and Max began to wonder what was going on. It wasn¡¯t clear if the front line battles had stretched their resources too thin to bother with objectives like the one they were on or if the enemy was regrouping.


    Sunset brought the answer. A reinforced mecha wing with twopanies of infantry and a bomber squadron. Textbook rookie Commander tactics.


    Twice the numbers that the defenders can count on, with a fully mechanized final assault, led by expendable infantry. The exact reason that Max¡¯s veteran neighbor Dave hated everything to do with Kepler Military Commanders.


    Compared to their neighbors, Kepler had an enormous poption, with many more habitable worlds than would be expected for the size of their territory. But that led the Commanders to only value the elite and treat the rest of the poption as expendable materials.


    [Stalwart, we have brought anti infantry rockets from the rebel munitions bunker to thender to resupply you with. Do you want your Mecha topped off before they arrive?] Captain Catan asks Max, striding into the damagednder.


    [It is best if we do. Since they have numbers on their side, we need to cut that advantage down as much as we can. Get some scouts out to mark ground targets in advance, that way I can indirect fire on the marked points.]<sub>.</sub>


    That is not a standard Kepler technique, and is viewed as a waste of valuable ammunition by a Crusader ss Chassis. Captain Catan doesn¡¯t mind in the least, sending a detail with orders to keep Stalwart stocked. They don¡¯t have muchpatible ammunition in storage, but they do have a little extra, and they have just retrieved a full Battle Cannon Magazine from the fallen Crusader that didn¡¯t explode.


    Beyond the small city that they are stationed in is arge open area of fields. For the scouts cing targeters, that is perfect, allowing them to make a grid pattern epassing a full two Kilometers out. Every point is recorded and ryed to Max for the map in Stalwart¡¯s Heads Up Disy. All they need to do is call the points now and he can hit them.


    The first attacks to arrivee from a bomber wing. They came in at extreme high altitude, out of range of the Anti aircraft guns, and dumped an inordinate number of munitions towards the city. Looking at the iing waves, Max decides that they¡¯ve almost certainly overestimated the strength of his forces.


    [Iing. Everyone to bunkers.] Max calls as Nico and the Anti aircraft vehicles light up the sky with explosions, don¡¯t their best at reducing the number of iing bombs.


    From that height, they have a long time to do it, but the sheer volume of the barrage is too much for only four sets of guns, and the city is pummeled by the bombardment. They manage to keep the worst of it away from the infantry bunkers and the courtyard, but even their highest priority locations take some damage.


    [Do we still have eyes on the iing Mecha?] Max calls, stepping out of the smoldering Lander. It took a direct hit to the top, but as it was already damaged beyond flight capability, the extra dents and broken frame joists are no big deal, the structure is still holding.<sub></sub>


    [We have eyes on target. The Scouts avoided any direct impacts.] Comes the response right before the call out of locations starts.


    [Infantry entering A1 through A12.]


    [Zone A full. Infantry Entering Zone B]


    That¡¯s what Max was waiting for, and he fires a barrage of anti infantry missiles at fifty points simultaneously. They won¡¯t get full coverage, but the next volley is staggered, aimed for the gaps between the previous points.


    [Get me a reload on the rocket pods.] Max orders the support staff who swing the crane around with a loading rack of rockets at the ready. The process will take a couple of minutes, so Max hopes they don¡¯t mind the Battle Cannon going off.


    The light Mecha, believing that the automated defenses are now expended, charge through the craters towards the city. Max can only fire every half second or so, but the Battle Cannon is doing all it can for fifty shots, leaving the barrel smoking and glowing, and the magazine empty.<sub></sub>


    [Reload on the Battle Cannon, and break out the sprayer, we need to get the barrel temperature down.] Max orders, then drops his empty magazine so that the crew can rece it with the full one they pilfered.


    The inside of the metal box that was theirnder bes a steam sauna the moment the sprayer hits the barrel, but slowly the overheating warnings go away in Max¡¯s disy and he¡¯s ready to go again.


    [Light Mecha, move forward into the city and find cover. Shoot and retreat once the enemy enters the city.]


    Most of the iing light mecha were destroyed by his targeted bombardment, but they are much more agile than infantry, and at least six survived.


    The scouts know their role well, and each of the enemy light mecha gets tagged with a tracker when they enter the city, so the light mecha under Lieutenant Becki can begin hunting them.


    They¡¯re all damaged, some severely, but still dangerous targets, and Becki had managed not to lose a mecha yet this mission. He wasn¡¯t going to throw that away by being in a hurry now, not with five Crusaders iing.


    All five carried the same equipment pattern, a Thermal Spear and a hand. The thermal weapons are great for mining, as they can even melt rock, so colonies like this preferred them for their utility. The downside was the very short range, only a few hundred meters at the very most.


    With their escort down, the Crusaders split up, rushing the city to look for targets.


    [Do not tag the Crusaders. They will g any building they suspect you are in. Just let them approach.] Max orders, receiving affirmative grunts from the infantry.


    They¡¯re not even trying to be subtle, smashing through abandoned brick buildings as they rush to get in range with their deadly thermal weapons. Max¡¯s vision lights up with targeting solutions and he begins to fire again now that his Cannon has cooled a little.


    They¡¯re still spraying it down, and he¡¯s firing slower this time to avoid permanent damage, but he can see that at least two of his rounds hit home, Seriously damaging their targets.


    Like the Thermal Spear inside the Rending w, these Mecha are using are fuel fired weapons, and Nico is making the most of it, putting Rail Gun rounds into the tanks and coating two more in liquid fire.


    The woosh and howl of the ruptured tanks burning has the infantry, safely hidden in their bunkers, covering their ears, but the Mecha have turned off outside sound, hearing very little through the multiple armoredyers of their hulls.


    Two bursts from the Gatling Battery finish two Crusaders, while two more burn to the ground, but Max has lost track of thest for a moment.


    Ites bursting through a building, mes roaring in his direction, but Tarith¡¯s Rage is up and out of her hiding spot, charging him with her sword behind her while her Ion Destroyer nts a solid hit on the intruder¡¯s right arm.


    The Thermal weapon goes silent as its structure is torn apart and the pilot turns to grab Nico¡¯s weapon arm with his Mecha¡¯s hand. The pilot didn¡¯t expect the sword though, being so umon among Kepler Pilots, and the sirens on Tarith¡¯s Rage sound a victorious wail as the broken mecha is lifted into the air and smashed mercilessly to the ground.


    Nico pulls her sword free of the mechanical carcass and returns to her hiding hole without a word over the inte, pulling the batterednder door andting back over her carapace armor and returning to sentry duty.

 54 Chapter 54

    While the rest of the evening passed without another mecha attack, they did asionally hear vehicles in the distance headed towards the front lines. Max reported all movement they detected tomand, but for the most part the night was eerily calm.


    Around two in the morning Nico¡¯s voice broke the silence of Stalwart¡¯s radio.


    [Get some sleep. I¡¯ll bet you two spicy cheese tubes we¡¯ve got an attacking before noon, so you¡¯ll need to be in peak shape. I¡¯ll keep watch for the night bombing raids.]


    [You can¡¯t have my cheese. Wake me at the first sign of trouble.]


    The banter made the soldiers of the Bravo Company smile. Some forms of currency were truly universal. Both pilot and infantry rations contained the highly regarded condiment.


    [Low Altitude aerial attack iing from the South. All k guns prepare to engage] Nico called out just as the sun came up, bringing the camp to full alert.<sub>.</sub>


    Max briefly wonders why they didn¡¯t go for a more effective high altitude run, then he sees the shes in the slowly brightening sky. The air battle has pushed much further forward than it was yesterday and is now almost directly overhead. If that¡¯s the case, then the Mecha battle will likely be pushed back to their location by the end of the day.


    That¡¯s good news for the Battle of Belmont, but not great news for their unit, which is about to be caught between the retreating forces and the rtive safety of the capital region. From what Max can tell, no unit that dropped near the capital managed to hold their position, so the area is still fully controlled by the Rebels.


    There are so manymunications that it is almost impossible to keep track of the battle as the advancing forcese into short range radio distance.


    [Closest Signals are the force approaching from the North. It sounds like they are pushing the enemy into us.] Nico informs Max on themand channel.


    [All units prepare for iing from the North.  Call the grids when they get in range. We want to stall them until the Kepler advance catches up.]<sub></sub>


    Max does this best to restrict Battle Cannon usage for the time being, starting the defense with guided anti armor rockets from his pod. He¡¯s only got twenty five, with no extras avable, so he fires them individually at the group of iing Crusaders.


    The damage they usually do against a heavy mecha is minimal, but if one finds a munitions storage cartridge or a vulnerable joint it can be enough to effectively cripple even the mighty Crusaders.


    As more and more contacts are called, Max realizes that this is not going to be viable, the force is toorge for him to dy with indirect fire from the rtive safety of their entrenched location.


    [Tarith, move forward. Stop those mecha from making it to the city for a long as you can.]


    [Affirmative. Moving out.] Nico replied before climbing out of her hole and stalking through the city in a crouch that puts her heaviest top armor forward, but would leave the pilot hanging in their harness facing the ground.<sub></sub>


    It¡¯s not slowing Tarith¡¯s Rage, though she does move her sword to a mount on the side of her Mecha and stop to pick up the battle shield she was supposed to use for thending before deciding the door was a better tool.


    By the time Tarith¡¯s Rage makes the edge of the city there are ten Crusaders within 500 meters of the first buildings.


    [Enemy Mecha will be stopped in E6 though E8. Charging in 5 seconds, fire for effect.] Nico calls and Max wonders what she¡¯s nning to do to stop the Crusaders.


    But she¡¯s right, the scouts are reporting that they are stopping, so Max drops thest of his anti armor missiles on the indicated locations and begins cycling his battle Cannon at full rate.


    Seven secondster an update calles from the scouts. [Friendly Mecha in E6. Adjust fire.]


    Max ignores the firing solutions in E6 that his System is providing and continues to fire ten more rounds until the cease fire calles.


    Nico¡¯s voice crackles over the radio, heavily distorted, possibly by damage. [42nd Armored, this is Tarith¡¯s Rage. Area is under friendly control. Follow Main road to the secured position.]


    [Copy that Tarith¡¯s Rage. Majestic plus six iing with two more wings to follow. Is yournder repair bay still active?]


    [Affirmative. Bring these fallen mecha for materials, we didn¡¯t drop with any.]


    All eight Mecha enter the city pulling a disabled Crusader, and the men of Bravo Company pull the emergency hatch releases and check the cockpits for survivors. Infantry gets a reward for capturing living enemy officers, payable on retirement or as a death benefit, so Max doesn¡¯t begrudge them any survivors they might find.


    The scouts have already informed the next iing Mecha wings to bring any Crusader chassis they can find to resupply from, and Majestic is organizing his apanying light mecha units by damage.


    That¡¯s when Max finally notices Tarith¡¯s Rage, standing near the back of the line, a bit scorched and pitted, but mostly functional. Nico has hung her battle shield from the hooks mounted on her carapace armor, obscuring the entire front of her Mecha.


    Ii is a very effective method of protecting yourself from frontal assault, but Max wonders how she can see anything. The shield is mangled, but it¡¯s still blocking almost all of her sensors.


    It doesn¡¯t take long for the second and third wings of mecha to arrive and begin to fortify the location. They were sent ahead of the main advance to assist and help prepare this spot to be a forward repair and rearming post. It looks line they¡¯ll be using mostly ammunition pilfered from the enemy today, but with a little luck they might get a supply run tonight.


    The air battle high above them is steadily getting even more intense though. The battles have moved from sporadic to constant, and by mid afternoon the sounds of Big Guns in the distance can be heard, as the advancing Kepler Heavy Mecha are pushing the Rebels back.


    [Majestic, Vidalia, this is Command. Move East towards the front, eliminating all resistance. That road needs to be cleared for a forwardmand asset to move in.]

 55 Chapter 55

    Max didn¡¯t know it yet, but his performance was far from average, and it had not gone unnoticed.


    Most Battle Cannons can only fire roughly once every second, but a shot every  five seconds is standard for the sake of uracy. The big gun shakes not only the pilot, but the Mecha, requiring pilots topensate and adjust their targeting if they n to get the following rounds even close to their intended target.


    With Nico having upgraded his Battle Cannon, he could fire twice a second. The multiple targeting feature of his System would constantly update predictions for firing solutions, and while indirect firing Max was unable to tell what was enemy Mecha moving and what was his mecha moving.


    Nico took full advantage of the situation as well, having linked to his Mecha¡¯s disy using her Innate Talent. She oveid his Targeting information on her own disy, showing where iing rounds would be hitting.


    To those watching, her maneuvering the enemy Mecha to ensure they took critical blows looked like Stalwart having uncanny uracy, even blind. Though even without her assistance, his missiles and Battle Cannon rounds had far better than average luck hitting vulnerable joints and weak points.<sub>.</sub>


    General Tennant and General Mons, who was leading thebined mechanized forces on this incursion were both watching the satellite footage while in video chat with each other.


    [That Red Mecha isn¡¯t afraid of anything are they? That round missed them by millimeters and they didn¡¯t even flinch.] General Monsments, impressed.


    [They must have found a way to work together. Even with his System Skills, that level of targeting shouldn¡¯t be possible. Unless he can see the future or she can see the iing trajectories, there¡¯s no way to have hit that shot. The shell was already in the air when she shoulder checked that wing leader] General Tennant agrees.


    [I sent Command Group 3 to their location. That puts themand group¡¯s artillery in range of the city, and Stalwart¡¯s mixed unit can be moved forward to take the next point in the valley.]<sub></sub>


    [The technologybs? I thought we were going to level them from orbit.] Tennant asks, checking his map again.


    [If we can take it intact Central Authority believes that we will find information on the higher ranking rebels. Under war spoils rules the 42nd mechanized will be able to use the facilities until the end of the battle, that should be enough to motivate the Pilots. The facility is believed to have cutting edge technology.]


    General Tennant sighs, worried for his prodigies. But the way they¡¯ve been performing they might be fine. Who would have known that their trial by fire would go so well? He¡¯d even had units moved in to position to rescue them, but they hadn¡¯t been needed.


    The rumble of tracked vehicles warns Max of the iing force long before he can see them. They¡¯ve identified themselves as Command Group 3 though, so he knows they¡¯re not hostiles.<sub></sub>


    After two the three three wings of mecha left to clear the road to the front lines the battle began to progress more rapidly. No longer are they an isted outpost behind enemy lines, they¡¯re now right at the line.


    Word of entrenched artillery spread to the rebel forces as they retreated, and the battle has kept well clear of Max¡¯s position for thest few hours while all around them a harsh battle reigned, filling the air with the sounds of distant gunfire, but leaving Max and his unit standing in an ind of calm.


    They took the opportunity to finish as many repairs as possible and reload the visiting Mecha with whatever munitions they had avable. That meant that the only ones leaving fully equipped are using energy weapons, since the damaged Lander still has a functioning fuel charger for the Line Mecha. Bothnder and Mecha use the same type of fuel for their power generation, extending the utility of the light mecha without requiring much more expensive long life power nts or a second form of fuel storage.


    They can go nearly two weeks to a charge in a light usage scenario, but topping them off now gets them back to full power, should they be in a constant fire fight.


    The Crusaders got some ammunition each, but there was nothing for the Gatling Battery, or the Anti aircraft guns, just lots of battle Cannon rounds and some missiles that werepatible with what they were using.


    ¡°Captain Max, I am Colonel Ahman of Fleet Intelligence, Third Command Group. We will be setting up a forwardmand post and artillery battery at this location. Excellent work on the take and hold, the offensive appreciates it.¡± A thin faced man in the ck trench coat of an intelligence officer announces over the inte as the vehicles draw close.


    Max orders the Line Mecha that are still on location to remove a portion of barrier for the vehicles to enter thepound, letting themand group proceed.


    ¡°A pleasure to meet you Colonel. We have made a list of suitable points, should you wish to use an existing structure as a bunker.¡±


    ¡°Very good, very good. Underground is always better than reinforcing an above ground structure I say. The Rebels have reinforced the capital for their final stand on the. Fleet data shows that there are too many civilians for an orbital bombardment, which means we level it from the ground. Once the siege starts, the civilians should flee, and anyone who is left will be dered part of the rebel force.¡±


    That¡¯s a bit concerning to Max, and doesn¡¯t fit at all with the sense of upright morality he¡¯s carried all his life. Of course civilians will try to hide where they are instead of fleeing during an artillery bombardment. But at the moment, there¡¯s not much he can do about it.


    Colonel Ahman continues. ¡°Official orders are a few minutes away, but I¡¯ve got it on good word that your unit will be diverted from the second wave of mecha to attempt to break the rebel hold on the city tonight, in favor of taking a secondary high value target believed to have valuable intelligence. High Command wants the Rebels removed from the in the next 24 hours, but do try to gather that data, it could have implications that spread much wider than just this one battle.¡±


    Max sighs at their impatience. Rushing the process won¡¯t help anything, it just makes the High Commanders look good for their politically connected friends if they put down the uprising within a set time frame. But as Max recalls from the returning memories of battle in his past life, the final stages of a rebellion are always going to be messy and cruel, the best you can hope for is minimizing casualties.

 56 Chapter 56

    As expected, the next wave of deployment orders came within the hour. Most of the Mecha on location were instructed to say in ce and guard the Command Group, while Max and his unit were to advance towards the capital and capture a technology research facility.


    Their orders said that any documentation, especially about high-level officers and researchers, was to be recovered and reported back to the Command Group.


    The distance was only 12km, but in the middle of a war zone, that¡¯s a long way. Enough to make Max extra grateful that they managed to obtain enough vehicles for the entirety of Bravo Company to travel inside.


    If the Colonel or anyone else from Command Group Three was startled at the upgrades that they were leaving with, they managed not to show it, and casually watched the mixed unit disappear from sight.


    Max has a simple strategy for their advance. The tanks will lead, then the light mecha, followed by him and Nico, then the Armored Personnel carriers and anti-aircraft tforms. It will keep most of their more vulnerable infantry behind the primary fight, but by leading with local tanks, they might be able to confuse a few defenders into thinking that they were getting reinforced.<sub>.</sub>


    [Satellite feeds show approximately twenty light mechs and no heavy support at the research facility, but there is a possibility of hidden units.] Max informs the team as he gets the updates.


    They move as quickly as possible down the battle scarred road towards their target, looking very much like retreating rebel units. Max hopes that the infantry vehicles that they pilfered still have valid rebel encryption codes to interact with the defenders at the research station. Although, if the enemy were clever, they would have nned to change it at least once a day after the battle started.


    The target is a six story, ss walled office building with fourrge warehouses, all set into a deep valley. While that prevents them from being seen at a distance, it also prevents them from seeing iing units without the aid of cameras.


    This area has clear signs of multiple battles, so there is a chance the cameras are down, but Max isn¡¯t counting on it.<sub></sub>


    [Infantry, identify on Rebel channels as Masks One Six if anyone contacts you. That was the call sign for the unit at ournding zone.] Nico informs everyone, and Max realizes that she¡¯s likely using her Innate Talent inbination with her Mecha¡¯smunications array to attempt to break the encryption.


    They have made good progress, but luck can¡¯t carry them forever, and only two Kilometers out from the target, they stumble across a rebel light mecha patrol, hidden in the trees while attempting to make repairs.


    Stalwart and Tarith¡¯s Rage are clearly not rebel mecha, which are all painted variations based on dark gray, so they waste no time engaging. Max takes half a second to get a target lock, then unleashes the fury of both guns at the same time. Nico charges strictly at the Line Mecha, sword in hand, and drops a wide-area st from her Ion Destroyer on them, incinerating anyone caught outside their mecha.


    Max pans his Gatling Battery across the group and takes out a second target with his Battle Cannon while Nico reaches melee range.<sub></sub>


    To say herbat style is unorthodox is an understatement. When she gets close enough, her sword finds a home in a rebel Line Mecha¡¯s power nt, but she doesn¡¯t wait to bring it back to the ready. Instead, she lifts one giant mechanical foot high in the air, kicking over a rebel mecha and repeatedly stomping on it.


    The infantryman have joined in to assist Lieutenant Becki with their heavy weapons teams, sending a barrage of firepower into the remaining rebel light Mecha, but that¡¯s not stopping the rampaging Tarith¡¯s Rage. Chaos and terror reign Supreme among the Rebels as she deliberately kicks them to the ground, leaving them helpless against being crushed or blown apart by heavy weapons fire.


    [You might kill more mecha, Stalwart, but I can guarantee the enemy is more afraid of the Tarith¡¯s Rage.] Lieutenant Beckiughs over the inte as the one sided battlees to a close.


    [Life is all about bnce, young Becki. Yin and Yang, softness and strength, terror and destruction. It is as valid for battle as for women.] Nico opines in a fake sagely ent, making all the Mecha pilotsugh.


    Max wonders how terror and destruction becameplementary aspects in her mind but then decides thatbat Nico and training Nico are two entirely different aspects of her personality. In battle, she is genuinely frightening.


    [Sir, we have rebel contact, asking for reinforcement to the Technology Research Facility] Captain Catan of Bravo Company informs them.


    [Tell them you are diverting to their location, remember your call sign, and try to bluff your way through. There has been enough chaos that they might believe it.]


    That appears to be the scenario with the best chance that they can get into the facility unhindered. Bravo Company is very good at their work, and against other infantry or rebel militia inside the facility, they won¡¯t have any troubles.


    [I think they bought it. What¡¯s the n?] Captain Catan asks.


    [Stalwart and Tarith¡¯s Rage will break off, Catan, lead everyone else in. Call the moment you sense trouble, and we will provide the distraction.] Max decides.


    The Light Mecha are a generic enough color scheme to be mistaken for local, so Lieutenant Becki stays with the infantry to provide fire support.


    What they find when they enter the valley is not what they expected, though. The upper facia is a disguise. The facility is a Mecha developmentplex, and at least a half dozen rebel Crusaders are in hangers disguised as factory buildings to the Satellite Scans.


    Becki rys what they have found to Stalwart and waits for Max to decide. If those mecha have pilots, walking in there and getting caught would be suicide.


    [Someone get me an exact location on that hanger. When you get closer, I will put a Battle Cannon round inside and try to blow the doors off their tracks so they can¡¯t lock the facility.]

 57 Chapter 57

    [Location is CF55m minus 27 meters elevation] Lieutenant Becki informs Max once they get in full sight of the facility.


    [Continue on course. Artillery iing in 10 seconds] Max advised his unit as they rolled towards thepound.


    The Rebels were expecting them, and the convoy was allowed to move freely right into the valley before anyone noticed the markings on the light mecha.


    The very first calls of rm were drowned out by a series of explosions, four shots over the course of two seconds, ending in a spectacr chain explosion rolling through the heavy mecha warehouse as the battle Cannon ignited the building¡¯s munitions storage, which spread to the underground sma power generator, gutting the discretely Armored building.


    [Everyone out. Get into thebs before they realize what is going on and lock them down.] Captain Catan tells his men, who pile out of their vehicles to storm thepound.<sub>.</sub>


    Lieutenant Becki and his wing of Line Mechay into the remaining defenders with a hail of Ion fire, the explosions of Light Mecha mostly lost in the continuing roar of the warehouse imploding.


    The overall effect is nearly perfect. There are so manypeting voices over the radio that it is iprehensible and most of them are drowned out by the sound of explosions.


    Then, everything inside the buildings goes dark. The Power Grid on the has been down since the invasion, and the sma Generator that was operating the facility has been destroyed. Everymon area door in the building swings open, the maic locks disabled, letting Bravo Company charge through unimpeded.


    Most of what they find are unarmed scientists, so Captain Catan gives the order that they are all rounded up into the auditorium on the main floor. Any who resist or show signs of being armed are eliminated and the soldiers move on.<sub></sub>


    There are no physical filing cabs that they can find, but the soldiers grab hard drives from theputers they pass and a number of data tablets as they go, collecting as much data as possible for their mission.


    Outside, Max and Nico have made their way into thepound, where Lieutenant Becki has already finished with the Line Mecha defenders. Nico uses thebination of the wed hand and a giant foot of Tarith¡¯s Rage to open the bay doors to the remaining buildings, finding nothing but storage and a few forklift operators.


    Faced with the might of a Crusaders Rail Guns pointed into their workce, the staff members are more than willing to amodate any request that is made of them, turning over theirputers without issue and gathering by the doors of the darkened building, where only scattered emergency lights prevent them from being left in total darkness.


    Fifteen minutester, the entire facility is deemed secure, and the surviving staff is escorted into the open courtyard so the buildings can be double-checked for signs of life.<sub></sub>


    [Stalwart to Command Group 3. Facility Secure. Multiple Prisoners were taken, including high-ranked scientists. Please Advise.]


    [Hold tight Stalwart. Air Evacuation unit iing for the prisoners.]


    ¡°Good news everyone. They aren¡¯t going to kill you. Or have us do it. However, Command is intensely interested in the activities of your senior management.¡± Captain Catan advises the prisoners, bringing the anticipated expressions of hope to their faces.


    The Kepler Empire isn¡¯t known for leniency towards traitors. But if they can throw their bosses under the bus to save their own hides? That¡¯s a much different story. Most of these people were just government employees a few days ago, doing menial work in a seemingly normal mecha research facility.


    Max might not know everything there is to understand about human nature, but he is pretty certain that there isn¡¯t a forklift driver on this willing to be executed to protect his boss from charges of treason.


    In fact, the more menial the job, the more helpful they have been. The warehouse staff even showed Bravo Company how their inventory system works so the soldiers could find whatever they were looking for in the warehouses.


    [Nico, hack that tablet if you can. I want to know what is in those buildings that might be useful to us.] Max orders his partner.


    [Already on it. Most of it is just repair parts, which will be useful, but I found some parts that should be for Shield Generators, and some experimental ammunition.] Nico sends the locations through to Stalwart¡¯sputer for Max to look over.


    [Bravo Company, find us a transport vehicle. I¡¯ve found us some good stuff this time.]


    Max sends out the warehouse locations, then notices a listing called [Man Portable sma Cannon v7]. There should be ten whole crates of the experimental weapons, so he adds them as a high-priority acquisition. He doesn¡¯t know if they work, but if they do, the amount of anti-armor firepower his unit will gain will be incredible.


    A sma Cannon has a minimum output level to maintain stability. Getting it into a tform that humans can carry would give some of his infantry the firepower of Line Mecha.


    The transport helicopter thates a few minutester for the scientists is clearly in a hurry to get them back, opening the doors before they are even near the ground. Or maybe they simply didn¡¯t trust that Max actually had the area under control and are expecting to have to do an emergency evacuation from a hotnding zone.


    Either way, they get everyone loaded and gone in a matter of minutes, along with most of the electronics that Bravo Company gathered. Captain Catan ordered his men to keep some good stuff for themselves, the tablets from the Mecha researchbs, especially the ones that are known to have warehouse contents listings, basically anything that might lead Command to order them relieved from the position in favor of arger search team.


    They found the sma Cannons already, and with those in hand, they are hopeful for more new toys. Maybe they can find some of that high-tech full-body armor that the politicos get. It might be the most basic form of powered armor, on par with the transport ship¡¯s pressure suits, but they are heavily Armored to protect high-value targets.


    ¡®Wouldn¡¯t the otherpanies be jealous, seeing me all kitted out in that?¡¯ Captain Catan wondered, searching through the warehouse.

 58 Chapter 58

    [Command Group 3 to Stalwart. Prepare for iing. Rebel Forces from the capital region have been mobilized to attempt to regain control of the facility.]


    Max expected that to happen. You don¡¯t get to take something this interesting and then just hold it without a fight, even if you managed to blow up a good portion of the most valuable technology that was stored on site.


    [Iing Enemy forces, strength unknown. Bravo Company, we need eyes on the target. Either get a patch in to the cameras or send out scouts. Becki, deploy your men for an attack from the capital city side.]


    [Sir, we recoverednd mines as well as the sma Cannons.] Captain Catan suggests.


    [Excellent. Get some deployed on the road and surrounding areas. Anything that will slow or weaken them is a blessing. We are not expecting to be relieved from this position until the battle for the capital is finished.]


    By that Max means they expect to be here until the Battle for Belmont is finished, which with a little luck will be less than a week away. The Rebels are down to onest stronghold, ording to intelligence reports, and they are surrounded on all sides.<sub>.</sub>


    [I¡¯ve got the satellite feed. Sending you the updated target numbers now.] Nico informs him and Max sees a column of vehicles and Mechae up on his screen.


    6 Crusaders, 10 infantry transports, 30 light mecha, and 5 artillery pieces. Not the best odds they have ever faced, but not the worst.


    The most important thing at the start will be to stop the infantry transports and destroy the artillery. With those gone, the Mecha will have to advance the final distance without covering fire, making them easier targets.


    The Rebels don¡¯t have ess to the satellite feed anymore, so they don¡¯t know much about his force or positioning and will have to guess at their targeting until they can get a direct line of sight. They are also likely under orders not to destroy the facility, which will be of great benefit to Max and his allies.


    [Enemy Force is 10 Kilometers out. Finish setting those mines and get back into shelter asap Bravo Company.] Max calls, watching his feed.<sub></sub>


    There is a marshy area that will stop the infantry transports from leaving the road just ahead of their current location, so he ns to take out the lead vehicle to block the convoy, and then shell the rest.


    The marsh won¡¯t stop Mecha, but it will slow them down, making them easier targets, and Max hopes to take advantage of that to buy his men a bit more time to prepare. Assuming that they do scatter and don¡¯t just charge down the road when the attack starts.


    Once all the vehicles are within the marsh, Max fires off two shells, using the live streaming data that Nico is feeding him from the satellite. He picked the wrong targeting box for the first round and ended up striking a Crusader squarely in the cockpit door, an absolute fluke of a shot against a well-shielded weak point.


    The giant Mecha burst into mes, falling across the road as the second round hit home on the rear Artillery tform. The convoy had no idea where they were being shelled from, and could only stop and circle in a defensive formation as the surviving Crusaders dragged their fallen wingman from the road so the vehicles could move again.


    Max kept up the pressure, as they still didn¡¯t know where they were being attacked from, destroying a troop transport to keep the road blocked and then firing the remainder of his shells at the Crusaders and their light mecha escorts.<sub></sub>


    With the hang time, Max could have three in the air at once, and with the Satellite feed in real time, his Multiple Targeting skill has no problems guessing where his targets would be.


    Two more Crusaders take fatal damage before the enemy breaks and spreads out into the swamp where the canopy hides then from Satellite tracking.


    That leaves the trapped and wounded infantry vehicles on the road alone, helpless to avoid annihtion.


    [Armory, reload me with those experimental High Explosive rounds. Tarith¡¯s Rage, take Lieutenant Becki and go hunt down those Rebels. Most of their units have taken damage, they won¡¯t be going anywhere in a hurry.]


    [Copy that Stalwart. Becki, fall in behind me and keep up, I have a good idea where they are headed.]


    Keeping up with Nico is no easy feat, that Ancient Mecha has no business being as fast as it is. Modern Mecha might be mass-produced, but in her hands, Tarith¡¯s Rage makes it feel like technology hasn¡¯t evolved in centuries.


    [Reload Complete, Stalwart.] The infantry members assigned to be his ground crew announce and Max cycles the first round into his Cannon and locates the infantry near the road.


    They have wisely abandoned their vehicles, but they haven¡¯t made it far before the bombardment starts again, this time with ten-meter fireballs throwing infantry shredding fragments of metal much further.


    ¡°Damn those politicians, they said the Empire would understand, that it would nevere to violence. What a load of crap, half the is dead and the allies they promised never showed up.¡± Thest surviving rebel Crusader Pilot from the convoy vents to the cockpit of his mecha as he runs.


    Craig flees for the abandoned bunker on the far side of the swamp as fast as his damaged Crusader will take him. If he can make it that far he will be able to hide from surveince and escape through the tunnels, leaving his beloved ¡®Corpus¡¯ in the hangers.


    He turns to enter a valley, avoiding having to cross a clearing where he would certainly be spotted, now certain that the bombardment of his unit had been guided from space. Why they would care about him was a mystery, so the reason must have been his target, another secret to curse his Commanders for keeping.


    He has nearly made the safety of the bunkerplex when something ms into the side of his Crusader, throwing it to the ground before a sonic boom that overloads all his audio sensors echoes through the swamp.


    He can¡¯t believe he actually took a Rail Gun hit through cover but spins his mecha to its feet to face his opponent.


    His Ion Destroyer shes, sending a full power charge towards the relic of a stalker pattern Crusader charging him. The ursed mecha sways like the pilot is drunk, avoiding a direct hit and shrugging off the rest with a re of the Mecha¡¯s shielding. The counter shot hits his top carapace armor at the left shoulder joint and damage warnings light up his heads-up disy.


    Craig desperately tries to punch the rapidly approaching mecha, but the Corpus¡¯s left arm isn¡¯t responding and then with a sh of overloaded power cells everything goes dark.


    [Captain Nico, this pilot is still alive. What is your call?] Lieutenant Becki asks after pulling the emergency hatch open on the destroyed Crusader.


    [Leave him for the swamp. He¡¯s no longer a threat. Spread out and hunt down the Light Mecha, they must have heard the battle. Stay in sight of each other we don¡¯t need anyone getting ambushed like Corpus here was.]


    Becki thinks for a moment that the menacing red mecha was showing uncharacteristic kindness towards the fallen pilot, but then he sees all therge heat signatures of the swamp creatures.


    ¡°Good luck Pilot. You will need it.¡± Becki whispers as he turns and leads his men on the offensive.

 59 Chapter 59

    Lieutenant Becki and his wing follow Tarith¡¯s Rage back into the swamp, looking for mecha that might have been drawn by the battle.


    If the Rebels are smart, finding them will be difficult, Tarith¡¯s Rage is a huge heat signature and can be seen from quite a distance. The only correct call for a depleted Light Mecha force when they see her is to turn tail and run, hoping that she hasn¡¯t seen them yet.


    Not that a handful of light mecha couldn¡¯t take out a Crusader under normal circumstances, but her closebat style is far from standard, and the water is up to the waist of the Line Mecha in some spots with a muddy bottom. They simply won¡¯t have the mobility to outmaneuver Tarith¡¯s Rage so they can target her weak points and survive.


    [Light Mecha turn north. Satellite feed shows targets in that direction.] Max instructs them as he watches a pair of Rebel Line Mecha moving through a clearing.


    Lieutenant Becki leads the group North while Nico circles wide to get in front of the Line Mecha and herd them towards the attackers. Becki decides they either don¡¯t have their thermal scanners on, or they are damaged since the Rebels continue straight at Tarith¡¯s Rage.


    Nico had other ideas about their motivation though and updates the orders.


    [They must be a diversion. Do note to me, find the group they are covering for.]<sub>.</sub>


    Lieutenant Becki orders all his mecha to spread out and submerge themselves in the swamp water, and then they wait. The moment the leading wing of light mecha engages with Tarith¡¯s Rage a group of three Corvette ss Mecha emerge from the water and make a run for the rtive safety on the other side of the swamp.


    That takes them past Becki and his unit though, and the trap is spring when the Rebels are twenty meters away.


    Thebined firepower of his wing disables them in seconds and they finally get a good look at these Rebels. The units are all borately decorated, notbat units but Command units.


    ¡°Exit your Mecha and throw down your weapons if you wish to live.¡± Lieutenant Becki demands through his speaker.


    All three open their hatches and step out onto the carcass of their mecha.


    ¡°We surrender.¡± The one to Becki¡¯s left in the most ornate uniform deres with dignity.<sub></sub>


    Becki recognizes that uniform, this man is aary governor. There is no higher authority on this than him. Or at least there wasn¡¯t until the invasion started.


    The direction that they fled was towards the research base, unlike the Crusader that ran for a destroyed bunkerplex. Heading this way only makes sense if they didn¡¯t know the facility had fallen.


    [Becki to Stalwart, three high-value targets have been captured, including the suspectedary Governor. Please Advise.]


    [Get them back to the base on the double. Tarith¡¯s Rage, ensure they are not interrupted.] Max orders, seeing that Nico is almost finished with the group that attacked her.


    The light mecha surround the units carrying the prisoners and begin rushing through the trees. Nico is just behind them right now, but it is moving fast and will soon overtake them.


    She isn¡¯t trying to be subtle and is simply kicking over trees that get in the way. Her passage makes an easy route for Lieutenant Becki and his men to follow and opens up the canopy to make them visible to satellite tracking. Once they leave the swamp, the leaders start to get visibly nervous. They know where they are headed now, and it isn¡¯t a ce they expected to be under enemy control.<sub></sub>


    [Stalwart to Central Command. Point Raven Clear. Returning to Station.] Max calls, using the mission¡¯s code for a high-value political prisoner.


    [Understood Stalwart, stand by on station.]


    A convoy from Command Group 3 arrived at the researchplex just before the Mecha escorting the prisoners, bringing a pair of officers from the intelligence department, along with twenty political security forces in Armored pressure suits.


    [Stalwart, this is Central Command. Hold tight to those officers, we will send a recovery copter in 15 minutes.] Comes General Tennant¡¯s voice over the secured Mecha Channels.


    [Central Command, this is Stalwart. Intelligence Officers with verified clearance from Command Group 3 are already on site.]


    [Understood Stalwart, dy as long as possible.]


    [Nico, I know you¡¯re listening in. What can you do for me?] Max asks on the short-range inte.


    [I am on it Stalwart. Watch for results.] Nico replied with a hint of mischief in her voice.


    Lieutenant Becki and his men dyed as much as possible for thest stretch, employingnd mine security protocol the entire remaining distance, while Tarith¡¯s Rage went back behind them to provide covering fire.


    [Captain Catan, please see our guests into a waiting room for refreshments and put on some hot coffee.] Max instructs, and the infantry leader heads to the convoy to escort the intelligence Officers inside the building.


    ¡°Please follow me, sir. Protocol says we must verify the prisoners¡¯ identities before they can be passed into your custody. The process should not take long if they are who they im to be.¡± The infantry officer informs the Intelligence Department force.


    Once they are inside the building, their casual demeanor changes in an instant.


    ¡°Tell me, Captain, how is the analysis of the data going?¡± The Major leading the Intelligence Department group asks.


    ¡°Unfortunately, we have no tech specialists in the group, so all of the hard drives as well as the few paper records we recovered were all sent in the first evacuation flight to Central Command.¡± Captain Catan sighs as if depressed that his unit couldn¡¯t get credit for any discoveries that might ur.


    That answer doesn¡¯t make the officer happy at all though he thinks he is hiding his emotions.


    ¡°Surely there is something left for your unit¡¯s glory?¡± He asks, leading towards the answer he wants.


    ¡°If we can recover anything from the destroyed hanger we might be in luck. The boys are searching now, but a Battle Cannon round touched off the munitions storage, so the building is a disaster.¡± That much is theplete truth. It will be a shock if they recover more than bits and pieces of anything from that rubble.


    ¡°A shift just ended. I can bring the toon leaders in if you would like to speak to them?¡± Captain Catan suggests.


    ¡°That would be eptable. Please organize us a secure room.¡± The Major Commands, and Captain Catan nods his agreement before leaving the room with a hidden smile.


    Oh, the room will be secure alright.

 60 Chapter 60

    While Captain Catan brings in his soldiers from Bravo Company to speak with the Intelligence Department officer, the transport helicopter sent by General Tennant has arrived, carrying the General himself.


    The interrogation room ispletely soundproof, bulletproof and mechanically locks from the outside. Watching the Intelligence Officers sweat as they realize they are trapped is worth every day he has spent on this traitorous hunk of rock called Belmont.


    The three prisoners were who they imed to be, the highest authorities of theary Government, so the Central Command needed a few vital answers out of them before they were taken away. Unfortunately, as senior politicians, they had been immunized against the standard system based interrogation techniques.


    [Do you recall that thing from the Sabbath World Massacre?] Nico asks, moving Tarith¡¯s Rage beside Stalwart, so Max can use his System Ability to read her mind.


    Horrific visions full his mind before they rify to something more human rights convention friendly. In fact, if they used something non mmable, or didn¡¯t light the prisoner on fire at the end, the technique might be called humane.


    [I hate you a little for making me see that. But yes, that could work.] Max answers her, sending General Tennant a written instruction list for the enhanced interrogation technique, minus the burning, along with a request to check Nico¡¯s mental health after the battle.<sub>.</sub>


    The cruelughter of the General when he sees the technique Max named the water board, after changing the liquid from fuel oil, is enough to make one of the politicians begin crying and confessing before anyone has even touched or spoken to him.


    The others don¡¯tst much longer and within five minutes Central Command has the security codes for the remainingary defenses, including the shield around the capital.


    [Intelligence can have them now.] General Tennant instructs Max, who orders infantry Captain Catan to lead them out to recover the prisoners at their earliest convenience.


    The look on his face when the lead Intelligence Officer sees General Tennant is pure shock. The General on the other hand seems to have expected him.


    ¡°You were supposed to be on some frontier dodging Inquisitors looking to have your dered ipetent.¡± The Intelligence Officer stammers.<sub></sub>


    ¡°You didn¡¯t think I would just sit around while you all yed power games did you? I¡¯m going to have to ask you toe with me. You can leave the armor and the sidearm here, you won¡¯t be needing either of them.¡± General Tennant announces and all the guards raise their weapons.


    Before anyone can do anything drastic, the previously silent second Officer makes a quick motion and the Major falls to the ground.


    ¡°Stand down. I will be taking over from this point forward.¡± The fully armored Officer deres, and the guardsply without any hesitation.


    Max isn¡¯t sure what sort of politics are at y, but it seems that the Intelligence Department didn¡¯te here for the traitors, they just happened to arrive at the same time. He hasn¡¯t had time to consult Captain Catan on what they asked the infantrymen about, but it might have to do with the facility.


    Like infantry getting mary rewards, Intelligence Department officers earn promotions through job performance, and a haul of ssified new technology would be a big aplishment.<sub></sub>


    [Isn¡¯t life easier when you can just shoot your problems.] The message from Nico pops up as text in his Heads Up Disy making Maxugh.


    She¡¯s not wrong though.


    ¡°I will take the Major with me. Central Command has a number of questions about his activities and associations.¡± General Tennant decides, and two soldiers exit the helicopter to relieve him of his armor and weapons before cuffing him and carrying his limp body in to the helicopter.


    The second Intelligence Officer, who still hasn¡¯t identified himself beyond his security clearance, leads the guards to their transport vehicles and leaves even before the helicopter is ready to lift off.


    [Care to watch the fireworks Stalwart? They should begin about two minutes before the official surrender, now that the video of the capturedary officials has been sent all around the world.] General Tennant asks Max, with a hint of pride in his voice.


    There isn¡¯t really an option, as mere secondster, a series of orbital strikes crash down on the remaining rebel targets and the capital city, who discover that their Command Codes are no longer working and that the city¡¯s shielding is down.


    A second volley hits even more targets, and the sky crackles with lightning from the immense amount of ionized energy that has passed through the atmosphere. Purple and green flickering waves of light fill the sky, the Aurora Borealis on aary scale.


    It really is a beautiful sight, and Max can¡¯t take his eyes away for even a second. The effect was described in the training materials, but none of the scenarios in the VR simtor portrayed it. Now that he has seen it, the lightning storms and the glowing sky of an orbital bombardment are something he will never forget.


    The tactic isn¡¯t used often, at least not on habitable worlds, for fear of causing too much disruption to their climate and reducing potential crop outputs to below poption sustainability. Belmont is being made an example of though, and Max realizes that killing the politicians without question would have been a kindness to the Rebels, even if it did cost his men the merits for having captured them alive.


    [This is a Wide Announcement on all Open Frequencies. The Belmont Parliament hereby surrenders themselves to the mercy of the Kepler Military and begs leniency for the people of Belmont. All forcesy down your arms and surrender to the nearest Kepler controlled outpost.]


    After the initial announcement, the message begins to rey every 30 seconds on every open frequency.


    The rebellion is officially over, but now the tedious part begins. Surrenders must be epted, rebel forces sorted from civilians, and investigations of all alleged war protocol vitions will begin.


    The Mecha will mostly leave for that part but for the next few days, they must hold their post, waiting for anyone in the vicinity who might want to surrender.


    The first day brings twenty rebel light mecha and one Crusader in, all of which surrender their mecha peacefully. The second day brings one lone soldier, the seriously injured and exhausted pilot of the Corpus.


    ¡°Pilot Craig. I see luck was on your side today. wee back. Please surrender your sidearm and I will escort you to the medical bay.¡± Lieutenant Becki greets the man they left to his fate in the swamp.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to be alive. I don¡¯t suppose you have any food? I had to use my rations to distract the swamp monsters.¡±

 61 Chapter 61

    The day after Pilot Craig arrived they were relieved by a full contingent of infantry, who would be staying in Belmont long term as a part of the security force, since the locals had proven they couldn¡¯t be trusted.


    Max¡¯s orders were to leave with his men in the morning to regroup with the 42nd mechanized and the remainder of the Kepler 111th infantry to catch a ride back to the Abraham Kepler.


    Even the experienced soldiers of Bravo Company weren¡¯t sure how much of this loot they would be allowed to keep. Normally what they bring back are trinkets and sidearms,  things that fit in their personal lockers. While the Sergeants and officers could fit sma Cannons in their locker, that was unlikely to be permitted by the ship crew, on safety grounds.


    If they were required to turn it over they would bepensated for anything determined to be legitimate spoils, and they were explicitly given the right to loot the technology facility.


    [I need all tablets submitted to Tarith¡¯s Rage for inspection. We aren¡¯t giving up every bit of new technology we found here just because we can¡¯t physically carry it.] Max calls out over the inte, and the toon leaders head for Tarith¡¯s Rage, interested in meeting the ultra aggressive closebatant in the flesh.<sub>.</sub>


    Nico has moved the Mecha to take a position on one knee next to a patio on the office building. That ces her cockpit even with the railing, and the top hatch of Tarith¡¯s Rage swings open.


    While they climbs the stairs, Nico rolls out a length of chain mail as a walking pad, for safety on the slippery surface of her upper carapace. The blood infused wax they used is an incredible product. No dirt sticks to it, and even now it is as slick as ever.


    ¡°Wee, one at a time, please bring me your loot. I have hacking rted System Talents, so I will record any valuable information and return them so you can im full credit.¡± Nico informs them over the Crusader¡¯s inte.


    They had thought she would exit, or at least stand up to receive them ande in to sight, but neither happened, and instead they are going to her.<sub></sub>


    First up is Lieutenant Becki, who has already met her in person. He hands the tablets his unit collected down to her, and half a minuteter, he can see scrolls of data filling her Mecha¡¯s screens. She really has hacked them and recorded everything she found interesting.


    ¡°Good find. There is a modified power cell in one of those that will let Line Mecha get 6 extra shots from an Ion Cannon between recharges.¡± That is a pretty decent gain, they will be well rewarded once the Abraham Kepler has this technology for their constructor machines.


    A young Sergeant named Morrison manages to get in line next, so excited that he almost falls off the walkway that Nicoid out.


    ¡°Wee Sergeant. It is a pleasure to meet you.¡± Nico greets him while he gapes in shock at the interior of her Crusader.<sub></sub>


    The outside is all red, ck and bronze, with barbed wire and hanging chains, so he had assumed that the interior would be simrly brutalist in design, but what he found was a light gray and pink bedding set in a regtion tan interior and a petite, raven haired female pilot sitting on the bed with her boots off and the coveralls of her pilot uniform tied at her waist, revealing the regtion ck tank top underneath.


    If he hadn¡¯t seen her fight, that friendly smile might have tricked him into believing she was a kind and delicate girl fresh from training. But she is an Alpha Ranked Pilot, Morrison has no doubt that she could beat him senseless if he offended her.


    ¡°We have recovered these dozen hard drives and two data tablets, Captain.¡± He says formally.


    ¡°Rx, I don¡¯t bite.¡± Nicoughs, and Morrison watches as she holds them in her hands and the data begins scrolling across her Mecha¡¯s main screens.


    ¡°I think we have our winner early. ns for both the new High Explosive Battle Cannon Rounds, and the Man Portable sma Cannons.¡± Nico cheers and throws a small bottle of something up to Morrison.


    He goes to pocket the mystery reward, but Nico stops him. ¡°Drink it and pass the bottle back.¡±


    She probably wouldn¡¯t poison him in public, so Morrison downs the bottle, realizing it is a shot of the ship¡¯s home brewed Rum. He tosses the bottle back and she winks, handing him up the data drives and tablets.


    Liquor isn¡¯tpletely forbidden on mission, but it certainly isn¡¯t in the regtion load out for a drop, Pilot Nico must have hidden it in her personal effects for a special asion.


    One after another the patoon leaderse to get their finds analyzed, most containing research notes and base logistics information which is important to the intelligence teams, but aren¡¯t the big score that they were hoping for.


    ¡°If that¡¯s everyone, store that data for transport and get ready to move out.¡±


    When the detailse through, they find that the gathering point for pickup is only fifty Kilometers away. Now that they have vehicles, that will be done before lunch, so they set out at first light, stopping every half hour or so to pick up more infantry, until their vehicles are overloaded inside and out with troops headed for the pickup location.


    In total they have about three hundred soldiers by the time they arrive, but they had to pick up the survivors of sevenpanies to find that many. At full strength a Kepler Infantry Company is 1000 men, 10 toons of 10 squads of 10 men.


    When they started, Bravo Company was barely a tenth that strength, due to the heavy losses the Kepler 111th had taken over their tour, and it looks like things got much worse after this battle. It wouldn¡¯t surprise Max if the Regiment was retired early, or folded into anotherbat unit to bring their numbers back up.


    If even eightpanies don¡¯t have enough survivors for one full strengthpany, there isn¡¯t much hope for them to be deemedbat effective after this engagement.

 62 Chapter 62

    The Abraham Kepler salvaged as manynders as they possibly could to start bringing troops back on board. Most of the ones that dropped in the first wave are scrap even if they made it to the intact and will need to be recycled, but the second wave mostly made it down without taking fire.


    [Stalwart, please lead your unit tonder AK90210 for orbital extraction.] Comes the announcement for their ride home among a long list of other mobilization orders.


    Thender they are assigned to was amand unit during the drop, extra Armored and painted with adaptive camouge instead of the standard ck. They seem to be thest ones to load, with most of thender¡¯s mecha restraints already upied when they arrive.


    Most of the Mecha look much worse than his own unit, pitted by small arms fire and cratered by mecha attacks. One even has a long, burnt streak almost through the top carapace armor and three deep marks from where it survived closebat with a Thermal Torch equipped w.<sub>.</sub>


    Most of the Pilots have disembarked and are sharing augh and a drink from the small stock of non alcoholic beverages on board, but Max opts to rx in his mecha until they leave the atmosphere.


    Despite the world being dered as fully subdued, leaving in the first wave ofnders can be almost as dangerous as dropping with them. Any surviving Rebels will surely want onest bit of vengeance.


    Max didn¡¯t have ess to thendersputer systems, but there is no sign of hostile fire that he can hear or feel on their way up. Just a few minutes of extremely high gravity and shaking, then a smooth transition to artificial gravity a few seconds after the shaking ends.<sub></sub>


    [AK90210, Proceed to bay H23] Comes the docking announcement and Max smiles. Sector H of theunch bays is closest to their hangers, so his unit will be among the first that are squared away and ready for tomorrow¡¯s debriefing and the expected deployment changes.


    Despite Max¡¯s enthusiasm for returning to his bunk, the mood aboard the Abraham Kepler is somber. They might be the first ones back, but the crew aboard the ship has ess to the satellite footage of the battlefield, so they have been able to keep track of the battle¡¯s progress, as well as the estimated losses.


    Most aren¡¯t watching it for entertainment, instead they need to keep updated on the situation so they can prepare supply and parts drops for the mecha that they are responsible for. Max dropped deep into enemy territory this time, so that wasn¡¯t an option for his unit, but for those on the front lines, regr supplies are both expected and absolutely vital to their sess and continuedbat capability.<sub></sub>


    The repair bays get to work on their units right away, wanting to get as much done as possible before the next wave arrives. Max didn¡¯t take much damage, but Nico did. Nothing that would risk disabling the mecha, but every single armor panel has some level of damage.


    Max is watching them work when a tech called Fritz Comes to talk to him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t look so concerned. For a closebat Mecha, that level of damage is nothing. I mean it looks bad, but none of it made more than a fifteen percent reduction in armor efficiency, it is all surface damage. Not that it makes the repair crews any happier, but they will have it all sorted out by morning.¡±


    Compared to the Crusaders, the Light Mecha had it hard. Six units moderately or severely damaged with two or if them inoperable. But at least they still had all their pilots. Bravo Company lost six men in the initial assault to capture the vehicles, and twenty three more are injured.


    Captain Catan has already led his men back to their quarters, or to medical bay for recovery, and Nico is assisting with the repairs to Tarith¡¯s Rage, so Max joins with Lieutenant Becki and the light mecha for an evening meal and a few drinks.


    More units filter in over the course of the evening, with the all loaded call sounding just after midnight. The Abraham Kepler must have gotten advanced loading priorities, since they have everyone back on board at the end of the first day of the scheduled five day departure window, or perhaps their losses and already reduced numbers justbined to make retrieval that easy.


    Max stops in at the Special Forces Cadets dorms, finding that they are empty, but upied, so at least some of them made it back, but he will have to ask how their mission wentter. Nico¡¯s bunk shows upied, so she must be asleep already, which means her mecha must be fixed. She wouldn¡¯t go to bed if it wasn¡¯t, she would be asleep in the cockpit.


    The full cost of the Battle of Belmont bes clear the next morning, when max checks the ship¡¯s status.


    704 Combat ready mecha, down from 1065 before the battle, and the 111th Infantry is down to just over thirty thousandbat ready men, a loss of ten thousand.


    A thirty percent casualty rate in a single battle might not be unheard of, but if the overall numbers look like that, Imperial Doctrine would count it as a tactical loss, though it was technically a victory as the was brought back intopliance.


    The overall numbers aren¡¯t something that he has ess to though, and at this point, Max would rather not know. Their own personal slice of hell was enough for him.


    The Special Forces Cadets are in mourning when max sees them at lunch, only four of the Light Mecha made it home from their deployment on the front lines, as well as both Russo and Ibanez, but Ibanez was seriously injured when his Mecha, Scimitar took two direct hits from a Battle Cannon.


    The mecha is still on the inoperable list, but Ibanez is now up and mobile after a night of intensive treatment in the medical bays, following the days of treatment in the field. An Alpha Ranked Pilot can recover from almost anything if their body is intact, so he must have been in a very bad way to begin with.

 63 Chapter 63

    Abraham Kepler breaks orbit that evening, headed for a Penal Colony in a nearby system¡¯s asteroid belt. The Central Authority has decided that their numbers are simply too low for whates next, so they are picking up reinforcement infantry.


    Everyone in that sort of Orbital Prison is serving a life sentence of hardbor, there are no innocents and almost as many decent human beings. But with the proper application of advanced technology, they can still serve the Empire.


    The prison numbers almost a million inmates, and Command has ordered a tenth of their numbers be reviewed for rehabilitation. No traitors or child abusers will be considered, but The Abraham Kepler is most likely about to get a hundred thousand murderers and cowards added to their ranks.


    Cowardice in battle that leads to the death of allies is one of the things the Empire will sentence a soldier to life in prison for, on the rare asions that it is obvious and severe enough to be punished. But they are prime candidates for rehabilitation after a few years of 18 hour days in a pressure suit, mining asteroids with a pickaxe.


    The new arrivals are kept mostly segregated, but Max can see a number of them being led to the Line Mecha hangers. Those few were pilots before they were convicts, and now they will be sent out alongside the convict infantry on what is usually a suicide mission behind enemy lines.


    If they prove themselves and survive, they will be fully pardoned, and reinstated into the military. If they flee, or if they turn against the Empire, the imnted prisoner identification will inject their heart with a lethal toxin.<sub>.</sub>


    Max disapproved of the policy, but grudgingly epted that a quick death in battle might be better than a slow wasting one in prison.


    Once the new recruits are loaded and situated, the Abraham Kepler¡¯s next destination is announced. KSF129, an agricultural world with little of note about it, had been invaded by Rebels. Unlike Belmont, the locals are loyalists, and the battle is already ongoing.


    [Prepare for Transition. Destination KSF129, ETA is 37 hours, 16 minutes. Stand by for deployment orders.]


    This is expected by Command to be an extended campaign. Unlike the mining Colony Belmont, this is a fully popted world, with a poption of over a billion, an invading force of millions, and as many ships of the Fleeting to assist the resistance as the Military can spare.


    For Max and the other mecha pilots, that means even more preparation than usual. They will be stocking the Mecha for 60 days of sustainability, including water and food.<sub></sub>


    But that extended duration concerns Max. The Battle Cannon can easily be upgraded with a muchrger munitions storage, but the Gatling Battery burns through ammunition much too quickly for such a scenario.


    He assumes they will be sent to a remote location again, so Max goes looking for Nico to discuss recement weapon options before he turns to General Tennant to ask a favor and try to get one of his main weapons swapped.


    Nico is predictably already in the Repair bays, checking and stocking Tarith¡¯s Rage, but surprisingly she is joined by two men from the infantry. Captain Catan isn¡¯t much of a shock, after fighting together so recently, but there is also a man in a Penal Regiment jumpsuit.


    ¡°Captain Max, wee. You already know Captain Catan, and this is Colmar of the Penal Regiment. He heard that Tarith¡¯s Rage and Stalwart were on board and has toe visit. His unit is from Kepler 142.¡± Nico exins.


    ¡°Wee to The Abraham Kepler, Colmar. Are the Mecha everything you hoped for?¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°That and more Captain. We never thought we would see them out of stasis, but look at them now, all shined up and happy after a battle. What brings you by this early? Stocking Stalwart for battle?¡±


    ¡°Something like that. We are expecting an extended deployment, so I wanted to ask Pilot Nico a thing or two about weapon options. We earned a good bit of merit and imed some high tech trophiesst battle, so I am hoping to upgrade Stalwart¡¯s Gatling Battery.¡± Max answers, smiling fondly at his mecha.


    ¡°I have just the thing. Recovered from the warehouses on Belmont. I know the Stalwart has a standard Rad Engine, but the Pulse Laser Battery is fairly easy on power usage.


    Like the Gatling Battery, it is a high volume, low damage weapon, but it is an energy weapon, not a solid projectile.¡± Nico suggests.


    That would be amazing, and keep the basic functionality andyout of his Mecha, so he would just need to get authorization to use the new weapon, and not to change the role of Stalwart from fully ranged to mixed.


    Max checks the Armory inventory, which should allow him to see what he is cleared to load his mecha with, and finds that not only the Pulse Laser Battery, but the new Battle Cannon ammunition and a few other random upgrades he doesn¡¯t really need have already been processed by the war spoils team.


    Getting their spoils of war processed and cleared that rapidly must have been General Tennant¡¯s doing. Normally the process takes weeks or months but it hasn¡¯t even been two days since they arrived back in the Abraham Kepler.


    Max selected the change of main weapons, and requested the back mounted expanded dual feed munitions belts for his Battle Cannon, which will allow him to switch between armor piercing and high Explosive shells with every shot, as well as expanding his total capacity by more than double.


    Then it is rations and essentials, which means it is time for Max to clean and double check his Mecha¡¯s storage tanks and cabs.


    ¡°It was a pleasure meeting you, Colmar, perhaps we will meet again.¡± Max says with a polite smile and turns to leave.


    ¡°Did they not send the official deployment notice yet? You¡¯ll be seeing far too much of me, my men have been assigned to reinforce Bravo Company of the second Battalion under Captain Catan here, and we are all going to be going to battle with you and Tarith¡¯s Rage in just a few days.¡±


    General Tennant smiles as he watches Max¡¯s reaction to that news over the security feed. Colmar and his unit were all sentenced to life in prison for going awol and off mission, but they did it to save civilians from an unaligned they were deployed to. Before the deres allegiance, they are not friendlies under militaryw, so the punishment was harsh.


    They managed to get out of charges of turning traitor with help from some politically connected friends, who then asked General Tennant to give them special consideration after seeing that they could be pardoned during this recruitment.


    Of all the reinforcement options avable these men were no doubt the best, and it brings Bravo Company back up to full strength.


    The General¡¯sst task of the morning is to requisition some more light mecha to go with them. Lieutenant Becki and his single teen mecha wing aren¡¯t going to be enough for the battles that areing. They are going to need more light mecha numbers, assuming General Tennant can find them among the mob that came from the Prison.

 64 Chapter 64

    Max stopped off to grab a couple of cases of rations for Stalwart before climbing the gantry to tidy up his living space.


    After spending so long inside the Mecha on Belmont, the cockpit needs a deep clean and deodorizing in the most desperate of ways. The first step is to remove absolutely everything from the cockpit that isn¡¯t bolted down. Once that isplete, the high-tech part starts.


    The repair gantry has an automated cleaning machine that will sanitize and disinfect all surfaces inside the Mecha for you, but the pilot is required to remove anything loose or risk it being damaged.


    Max tosses his used uniforms and bedding into toundry cart that sits on the hazard stripe painted walkway, just waiting for a pilot like him to clean out their mecha for the automated sanitizing process. An attendantes by to collect theundry while Max stays by Stalwart and ns out how to organize the limited avable space.


    Theundry facilities automated sanitizer only takes a few minutes to clean everything, so his belongings will be back long before Max is finished with his organization chart.


    By contrast, Nico manually cleans everything inside her cockpit instead of using the automatic functions. It might be that her cockpit had been customized, and the machine isn¡¯t sure what to make of it, or simply that she preferred the hands-on method to be sure everything was to her satisfaction.


    It probably isn¡¯t because of decorations; the only personalized items that she has mentioned are the bedding she ordered when they first arrived, the same time that she called his watch and an extra pillow for the dorm aboard Abraham Kepler.


    After his rations are delivered, and the water tank is sanitized and refilled, Max loads his handful of personal effects back into the Mecha. Looking around the spartan interior, Max decides the cockpit needs something to remind him of the past, but he didn¡¯t collect anything while they were on Belmont.


    Max decides that from now on, he will have something collected for nostalgia¡¯s sake. But as he is sorting away the clean clothes, Max finds a gift ticked in amongst his items. A single photo of him charging out of the Lander behind Tarith¡¯s Rage. It must havee from Lieutenant Becki¡¯s feed since the vantage point is too high for an infantry helmet camera.<sub>.</sub>


    Max isn¡¯t sure who sent this to him, but he is thankful for the fond memory and tucks it into a clear pocket mounted beside his seat, moremonly used for written notes. Many pilots like to write things down to look atter, saying it helps their memory, but Max isn¡¯t one of those people.


    ¡°Captain, are you nearly finished up in there? We need to change out your armaments, so the Mecha will shake some while we work.¡± One of the techs calls from outside, and Max sticks his head out to assure them he is good to go.


    ¡°Go ahead. I will go check on Tarith¡¯s Rage while you work.¡± Max calls, climbing out.


    He will need her help once they finish anyhow. Her [Mecha Modification] Skill is just too good whenbined with his optimization. The Pulse Laser Battery fires twenty-four pulses a second, rotating barrels on six sets ofsers to help control heat collection.


    Ignoring the projectile, it is functionally very simr to the Gatling Battery that it is recing. It also serves the same purpose of clearing massed infantry and light mecha. If Nico can make it more efficient, his optimized multiple targeting will make a genuinely deadlybination without the ammunition limitations of its predecessor.


    The actual swap won¡¯t take long; the lower arm sections on the Crusader ss Chassis are intended to be modr for easy repairs and weapon changes. An hour or two should be enough to do the instation and functionality checks.


    ¡°Hey Nico, how¡¯s it going down there?¡± Max calls as he gets close to her cockpit, not wanting to cross the catwalk to the open hatch.


    Her armor is still marked as slippery when wet, so the custom red paint is still drying, or they applied anotheryer of that slick wax. It isn¡¯t something he would want to slip andnd on, especially with that razor wire still in ce at the edge of the carapace armor.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Pretty good. I¡¯m just finishing posting up my pictures. Did you get the gift from Becki? He had them made tomemorate our first deployment, but he got called away before he had a chance to chat. Something about getting reinforcements to his wing.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to thank himter. But when you get a bit of free time, they are installing the Pulse Lasers on Stalwart, and I¡¯ll need you to modify them for efficiency and rate of fire if that¡¯s possible.¡± Max calls back.


    ¡°No problem. I don¡¯t know how much we can increase the cycle rate, it is set that way to maintain operating temperature, but if we can get thermal efficiency up, I should be able to tweak it a little bit without any overheating issues.¡±


    That¡¯s all anyone could ask for. Not every mecha can do everything perfectly, after all. Pilots bnce their mecha to their skills as well as they are able or allowed to.


    Thinking of skills, Max can feel that his third skill is still hung up, waiting on something. It is early for it to manifest, even with the bump in stats that he got during battle, but the feeling makes him vaguely anxious, and Max hopes that it settles down before he has to go intobat again.


    Nico doesn¡¯t even wait for the techs to finish their work before she climbs up the Mecha and borrows the test device from the repair bay technician that ispleting the instation.


    ¡°We have this. I¡¯ll do the diagnostics, and Pilot Max can do the system checks.¡± She deres, waving them away.


    None of them are going to argue with that, they have too much other work to do. Spending an excessive amount of time onplex jobs just leaves more mecha waiting to be brought back up to operational status.<sub></sub>


    Nico is busy tweaking the system, so Max climbs into his cockpit and powers up in diagnostic mode.


    [Stalwart Active: Diagnostic Mode Engaged]


    [Wee, Pilot Max]


    [Change in Armament Detected]


    The Mecha messages in his Heads Up Disy end at the same time that the System Notices Begin.


    [New System Skill Online]


    [Split Fire] Active


    Max isn¡¯t entirely sure what that does, so he looks through his System interface, noticing that he is still a single upgrade from 200 points of bonus, so the skill really is a little early.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+95%


    [DEX] 3+52%


    [SPD] 3+52%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi-Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Split Fire] Allows rapid adjustments of the Mecha¡¯s high rate of fire weapons to urately target multiple points with a single burst.


    That is insanely good with the Pulse Laser, but if Max had the quad barreled anti-aircraft guns on Stalwart instead of missiles, he would absolutely destroy iing targets.


    But then, with all these skills, and the extremely long range of thesers, he might not need them. A bit of practice, and he could likely hit moving aircraft with a scattered burst from the Pulse Laser Battery.


    The final tweaks don¡¯t take long, though Nico is ordering parts from the repair bay, recing simr parts that Stalwart¡¯s diagnostics and Max¡¯s Optimization said were fine.


    She cut heat retention by twenty percent and power cost by ten percent while maintaining the same output. The decision was made not to change the firing rate, though.


    Instead, the Pulse Laser Battery has be capable of long duration sustained fire at maximum output instead of having to reduce power after five continuous seconds of fire to let the umted heat dissipate.


    What sort of target he might need to shoot for more than five straight seconds is unclear, but with his luck, Max is about to find out.

 65 Chapter 65

    The next morning Max gathers everyone who is going to be under hismand to go over their drop ns for this mission.


    The upper brass have sent a fine collection of soldiers here under hismand. Bravo Company has been reinforced to 500 men, including the group from the prisoner recruitment led by Colmar.


    Originally Bravo Company was going to be brought up to a full thousand men, but that was deemed too imbnced, so half of the allotted recruits were moved to Charlie Company under Captain Tarsus.


    They also gained two more 10 man wings of Light Mecha. One of them was a wing from the 42nd Armored, and a group of ten line Mecha were from the prisoners. ording to Max¡¯s information these guys got life in prison for an attempt to hack the central banking and make their families rich. It would have been an impressive feat, had they seeded.


    All the deployment orders are signed by General Tennant, so Max can see that their teacher is still looking out for them, even if he has much more important things to do in battle than babysit new pilots.


    ¡°Wee everyone. I am Captain Max of Stalwart, your mission Commander. Tonight, as you all know, we will be dropping on to KSF129, a highly popted agricultural world. Most of us haven¡¯t worked together before but I don¡¯t believe that will be an issue.<sub>.</sub>


    Our objective is to take an hold a small vige at the foot of a strategic bridge.Heavy Mecha Support aboard Abraham Kepler is seriously limited after the Battle of Belmont, with over a third of our Crusaders still waiting on repairs.


    That means your heavy support will be myself and Tarith¡¯s Rage. However, theck of heavy mecha left us some extra space in thenders, and we have been cleared to bring some vehicles for our infantry contingent.


    All four of Bravo Company¡¯s anti aircraft tforms areing with us. We will also be bringing two supply trailers and one trenching machine.


    Trench warfare might be outdated, but it is still better than standing in the open waiting to get shot. Especially for the Light Mecha who make such wonderful targets.


    Drop time is now in 10 hours and 17 minutes. When we load for deployment, Tarith¡¯s Rage will load closest to the doors with a heavy shield, in case of immediate hostile fire. Light Mecha will be immediately behind her with infantry on the nks.<sub></sub>


    Spread out and take the vige. I will be in Stalwart on rear guard and serving as long range artillery. Does anyone not understand their orders?¡±


    The infantry all grunts their confirmation and the Pilots Salute with their fist to chest.


    ¡°Very good. See you all here in 8 hours and 15 minutes. Trust me when I say the two hour buffer is required, Abraham Kepler loves to arrive early. Dismissed.¡±


    Max heads to the supply trailer to see what they managed to get, given the limited supplies aboard, havinge straight from another battle without a full resupply. Most of the items in the first trailer are rations, clothing and kit. But below that is arge amount of Battle Cannon ammunition. The second trailer seems to be full of light mecha weapons at first, Ion Cannons to be exact.


    ¡°Nico, what is up with this wagon?¡± Max calls, bringing her and Corporal Fritz of the repair bays over.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Do you like it? During a long Battle, a lot of Mecha get damaged, so I brought spare weapons that can be recharged off of the Crusaders or thender. These ones also have a double purpose feature, they can be tripod mounted and used as heavy weapons emcements by the infantry. An extra twenty Ion Cannons, as well as the new pattern sma Cannons that Bravo Company obtained should really help us out.¡± Nico exins.


    ¡°There are rations for 45 days, as well as two water purification machines. If thender survived it can also filter some from the humidity in the air. That¡¯s the very best we could manage, so your unit should be as ready as they can be to spend a lot of time at that bridge.¡± Corporal Fritz adds.


    Max will admit, the extra heavy weapons are a blessing, and he is sure the infantry also grabbed everything they could.


    At this point in the battle, there are no established lines, which is why they have been sent to control a bridge. Blocking enemy movement will help contain them in to regions where they can be eliminated. Plus, only after containment is established canmand start truly pushing the enemy out of popted areas.


    All of the Mecha and vehicles are being loaded now, so Max heads to his dorm to get a few more hours sleep before returning to thender.


    As expected, the Abraham Kepler is early. Right as Max¡¯s rm goes off the two hour to drop warning rings through the ship. He instructed all his men to be at thender in one hour, so they should still have been prepared and ready in time.


    The Special Forces Cadets are all in the mess hall looking glum when Max arrives to grab a bite before departure, and Ibanez waves him over, attempting a cheerful face.


    ¡°I hear you¡¯ve got a strategic deployment again, and Command of twopanies, plus a light mecha escort?¡± The big pilot asks.


    ¡°Yeah, and mostly convicts as well. But they seem pretty decent, I don¡¯t think they are eager to go back.¡± Maxughs.


    ¡°Lucky bugger. We are all stuck here with the reserves. Our units took too heavy of casualties, so we sit here waiting on repairs and healing here while everyone else heads to the.¡±


    ¡°Plus, reserves always get sent to the worst, most overrun hellholes on the when they do get sent.¡± Russo points out.


    He is totally right, that is the point of reserves, to go where things are worst and reinforce the unit that was already there. If they weren¡¯t losing men and mecha they wouldn¡¯t need the reserves.


    They all chat a bit while Max finishes eating, then it is time to load up. Most of the unit made it there before him, and with fifteen minutes to the scheduled time he set, which is now under an hour beforeunch, only thirty men are not in ce.


    They all turn up in a group, five minuteste and escorted by Captain Tarsus, who found them still ying cards in their barracks.


    ¡°That is everyone. Head countplete. All mecha check good. All supplies loaded and locked for drop.¡± Corporal Fritz informs them before closing the doors.


    ¡°Private, hold out your hand for me.¡± Nico demands of the closest soldier, who sneers and extends his arm.


    Nico pulls a small stick from her pocket with a smile and snacks his hand with it. At first Max thinks it might be a taser, given her history of extreme behavior, but the other soldiers beginughing when they see it.


    When Nico releases his hand, Max can see what it was. A rubber stamp in the shape of a gold star.


    ¡°Since you needed motivation, there you go. One Gold star for attendance. Hands out boys, or I¡¯ll stamp it on your forehead.¡±

 66 Chapter 66

    [Ten minutes to departure.] Comes the faintly robotic programed announcement from thender and everyone gets strapped in for the descent.


    ¡°Oi, who is the second Mecha pilot? Do they note out at all?¡± One of the convicts piloting a Line Mecha asks.


    [Tarith¡¯s Rage needs no Mortal Pilot] Nico jokes over the inte, using the Mecha¡¯sputer to make her voice a deep growl.


    A good portion of the infantry makes the symbol to ward off bad luck, while those who served beside her before try not tough. They all saw the pilot of Tarith¡¯s Rage only an hour ago, but the chances of anyone associating Nico with her Mecha are pretty low.


    ¡°You know how it is, you bring the learning systems tobat one too many times and they start liking it. You just need to offer it a virgin sacrifice now and then. By the way, how IS your luck with thedies?¡± Captain Catan teases the soldier.


    ¡°Not that bad, I swear it.¡± The man says, waving away the attention, while everyone around himughs.<sub>.</sub>


    [You¡¯ve had your fun. Game faces on everyone, we have confirmation that ournding zone has been taken by the Rebels. Their presence is currently light, with only one infantry special forces team on location.


    There is a road running north to south that crosses the bridge that is our objective. Landing Zone is on the East side of the road. Charlie Company, ensure that bridge survives and secure the houses on the East with Light Mecha Squad 3.


    Bravo Company with Squads 1 and 2 will clear the remainder of the vige along with Tarith¡¯s Rage. Expect ambushes that are hidden from thermal scans. Reports say you will outnumber them ten to one, but they are a special forces team.] Max interrupts the joking to get everyone ready.


    [Launching]


    ¡°Hey, Seriously it has been one minute since the ten minute announcement.¡± A soldier calls, struggling into his harness.<sub></sub>


    ¡°We have been prioritized. You get used to it.¡± Captain Catan sighs, wondering if the Abraham Kepler will ever fix the announcement timers. At least they still warn you before every stage.


    In truth, the problem is that theunch crew doesn¡¯t bother to update the timer for everynder, they just set it somewhere in the middle and everyone gets it at the same time. The arrival notices bring wrong is deliberate though, their travel estimates given extra time in case of spies on board.


    Reports of heavy defensive fire fill Max¡¯s radio as thender enters the atmosphere, but as the minutes pass, no heavy shaking or sounds of explosions nearby reach through the thin armor of their vessel. It is only in thest few seconds beforending that they start getting fire.


    [Enemy anti aircraft and heavy weapons located. Altering search pattern.] Nico announces through the speakers on Tarith¡¯s Rage, continuing the ghost Mecha gag from earlier.


    They touch down with a gentle thud, and the pattering of light arms fire against thender.<sub></sub>


    [No signs of Heavy weapons in the area yet. Breaching in 3, 2, 1] Nico announces, bracing her shield and charging out the door.


    Thender had created a huge cloud of dust, limiting visibility, but only secondster the heavy weapons start hitting the shield, while Tarith¡¯s Rage keeps running with Squads 1 and 2 of the Light Mecha behind her.


    [Light Mecha, spread out when you reach the city, but follow Tarith¡¯s Rage. Do not get caught in an ambush.] Max calls, unleashing his Pulse Laser Battery into the rebel infantry units near the bridge.


    The heavy Lasers tear through the infantry and lightly Armored vehicles, clearing the zone in seconds.


    [Charlie Company to Stalwart. Suspected munitions bunker at our location. Targeters locked on the entry shack.] Captain Tarsus announces, and Max lobs a Battle Cannon shell at the marked target.


    The two Mecha Squads that went west with Tarith¡¯s Rage are in a heavy firefight now with Ion Cannon emcements, so Max sends a volley of artillery their way, getting instant calls of gratitude over the inte.


    Nico herself has found the Special Forces team¡¯s vehicles, and torn them apart, but the actual members fled at the sight of the rampaging Crusader. Her Ion Destroyer sizzles and crackles with energy as she levels any building that has a heat signature not marked as friendly, unconcerned for the state of the vige.


    After all, they will be stationed here, which means more iing attacks, and a very low chance that any of the buildings would survive anyhow.


    Max is learning that his conscripted infantrymen are actually much better than expected at their job, taking minimal casualties, despite the attempts at ambushes. Even the light mecha fared well, though they lost one pilot to Ion Cannon fire, and four more mecha are damaged.


    [Eastern Sector secure, moving to verify bridge integrity.] Tarsus of Charlie Company calls, followed a few secondster by the reports of the Mecha Squads.


    [City Secure, Commander, no signs of life. We will continue to monitor and search through the night.] Captain Catan announces to finish off the report.


    [Lander, hop back to the East 150 meters, in the clearing next to the munitions bunker.] Max instructs, getting their evacuation vehicle moved to a safer spot, since it is still intact and suitable for repair and resupply.


    [Get the damaged Mecha to the repair bay and let¡¯s get that trench dug. Cog wheel pattern between the vige and the river, continue it down the west and south sides back to the road. Once that is dug, do the same on the East. Leave the road wide open for troop movement, we want enemy troop movements to enter the shooting gallery.]


    Nico brings Tarith¡¯s Rage over towards him, looking for a good spot to settle in. Thirty meters from the road, where a collection of grain bins hide her from advancing troops looks like a good spot, and there is a destroyed concrete warehouse there as well, providing some cover from enemies across the river, should they spot her.


    Captain Tarsus calls out over the radio that his unit has a great surprise for her. A shovel for Crusader ss industrial Mecha. That allows her to dig first her own hiding spot, then a nice deep bunker for Stalwart.


    Crouched down with a tarp and some rubble on top of him, you would never know there was a Crusader ss mecha hidden right by the bridge. Even the majority of his heat signature is blocked by the dirt around him.


    But Captain Catan has an even better idea. A burnt out car is ced on top of the carapace of Stalwart and secured with ropes, through holes cut in the tarp.


    ¡°Now would you look at that, a Crusader Sized Ghillie suit for urbanbat. The car is a nice touch, really adds to the disguise, and exins any strange thermal readings.¡± Colmar chuckles, double checking the securement.

 67 Chapter 67

    It doesn¡¯t take long for all the light mecha to be restocked, but thest of the repairs aren¡¯t finished until the next morning. The trenching machine worked all night, and now they have a deep gun line dug between the river and the vige, with most of the debris from the trench piled five meters back to form a secondary firing line.


    The Trench only covers the riverside and the far western border but the machine is still working until the scouts positioned two Kilometers out report an iing convoy of Rebels. 6 vehicles with trailers, 2 Armored Personnel carriers and arge wheeled loader.


    Infantry and vehicles, with supply trailers. Exactly what they were hoping to find to bolster their own provisions.


    [Snipers, take positions with line of sight to the road. I want those vehicles operational if at all possible. Everyone else, try not to hit the trailers. Captains, you know what to do, so get them deployed. We¡¯ve got a thousand mouths to feed, and this convoy might have something better than ration packs.] Max instructs his men.


    A portion of Charlie Company is currently scouring the vige for supplies, since the bunker they took had very little in the way of food. There are hundreds of tons of grain and flour, so they are well stocked to make biscuits and oatmeal, but it looks like the vige was otherwise looted dry.<sub>.</sub>


    When the convoy gets to one kilometer out, they hail on the radio for the bridge defense unit they believe to still be in charge here.


    [Bridge Control, Bridge Control, this is Convoy Hotel Juliet seven. What¡¯s the good word, is the bridge intact?]


    Before anyone can think up an answer, Nico¡¯s voicees over the Rebel channel. [It¡¯s been a bit Obscene Convoy. Proceed to cross at idle.]


    [Clearance confirmed. It¡¯s good to hear from you Bridge Control, we feared we had lost you when you didn¡¯t check in.] The convoy answers her coded response.<sub></sub>


    [If only we were all still here Convoy. Long Rangems have been damaged. Can you spare us a mobile unit?]


    Her quick thinking and hacking Innate Talent worked together perfectly. The whole convoy stopped as the driver of the lead truck got out to grab them a radio from among the supplies the convoy was carrying.


    Two secondster a hail of fire brings the convoy to an untimely demise. Every driver of the supply trucks is killed simultaneously by Snipers and the Armored Personnel carriers are destroyed by the Ion Cannons of the Light Mecha.


    [Excellent work gentlemen. Keep your eyes open for survivors. Light Mecha Squad 3, you go in first and clear the area, then Bravo Company can send in drivers to move the supply vehicles. Take them to the sports field on the west side where the Anti Aircraft vehicles are set up.]<sub></sub>


    That area is mostly intact, so the infantry have scattered all through the buildings there for shelter. The school is a Central Government pattern academy structure, though a small one. But that still means that the school structures are built of reinforced Synthetic Rock Crete, and intended to be able to survive a direct bombing run.


    Charlie Company has made that their barracks, while Bravo Company spread out through the handful of government buildings sturdy enough to feel safe.


    Scattered fire sounds from the Line Mecha, double tapping any Rebels who might possibly have survived, before they give the all clear to move the supply trucks and begin to carry the destroyed Armored Personnel Carriers back into the woods.


    One of the men takes control of the loader and drags the bucket down the gray gravel of the road, hiding the signs of recent battle before driving the heavy equipment over by thender in case it is neededter to help with repairs and disabled mecha recovery.


    [Get me a rough estimate on those convoy contents Bravo Company. I want to know what we have to work with, preferably before the sun is fully up and more troops attempt to cross the bridge.] Max instructs.


    The truly only takes a few minutes. [We¡¯ve got 500 liters of fuel for the Light Mecha, fifty Anti Mecha rockets, at least a hundred cases of Rifle Ammo, and four full trailers of field kitchen canned supplies.


    [Best news I¡¯ve heard all morning. Get those supplies somewhere safe, but leave the transports out in the open as decoys. Seeing their own markings might convince the bombers to avoid us.]


    Captain Catan and Captain Tarsus wholeheartedly agree with that optimism. Getting bombed daily on Belmont wasn¡¯t exactly their idea of a good time.


    The supplies are moved to the air raid bunker at the school, hidden deep underground where they will be safe, and a kitchen is set up under a tent in the field. Two meals a day of ¡°fresh¡± goods, with a ration pack in the middle if necessary will stretch out their supplies as long as possible.


    These off world Rebels were very well supplied though, none of this would have been brought with them, it must have been looted from one of the nearby cities to be distributed to their troops.


    With that being the case, they can expect more convoys toe from that direction. Not just supplies, butrge units of troops as well as mecha.


    Fortunately, the Trench line is making good progress with their mechanical assistant in the lead, and it is fullypleted on the south side before the scouts report the next movement of Rebelsing their way from the same direction as the first convoy.


    This is no lightly armed supply convoy though, it is a scout mecha unit. Umon among the Kepler Army¡¯s mainbat fleets, these are moremonly used as local police or sent to worlds that haven¡¯t been settled, where exploration is the objective and mobility is more important thanbat capability.


    They are led by a Lightfoot Pattern Crusader, a slender and elegant humanoid mecha with powerful legs and high speed hydraulics for rapid mobility, as well as improved thrusters for jumping canyons and other obstacles.


    Behind it, twenty Sentinel Pattern Light Mecha follow, looking like an Armored truck cab on stilt like long legs. They don¡¯t even have any sort of arm or grappling capability, just a Laser Cannon mounted on a top swivel.


    As a design, they are awkward and gangly, but their firepower shouldn¡¯t be underestimated.

 68 Chapter 68

    As they approached the vige the squad of scout mecha slowed and then stopped.


    [What are they doing?] One of the convict Line Mecha pilots asked over the secure channels.


    [Did you think that they were dumb enough not to notice a brand new trenchplex all around a vige that¡¯s only supposed to have a single special forces squad in it? They¡¯re deciding what to do.] Captain Tarsusughs at him.


    They all wait anxiously to see what course of action the Mecha are going to choose.


    [Show yourself and report.] The Lightfoot Pattern Crusader demands.


    [Squad 32 stand up.] Nico instructs, rising up out of the dust and rubble.<sub>.</sub>


    Convict recruits wear prison uniforms until they are pardoned, so squad 32 is still wearing prison coveralls under their body armor.


    [Hotel Juliet Six and Tarith¡¯s Rage have reinforced Bridge Control. What is he Good Word Patrol?] Nico¡¯s artificial growles through on the Rebel channel.


    The squad remains in ce for a moment while they confer. The patrol squad number checks out and the name matches the name on the Mecha which isn¡¯t painted in any regtion color scheme.


    [Prepare to activate the Radio Jamming from thender in 5.] Nico says softly over the inte as the scouts confer.


    [Dispatch¡­] The Lightfoot gets out before the jamming signal activates and Nico unleashes the full firepower of Tarith¡¯s Rage on the lightly Armored Rebels.<sub></sub>


    A single overcharged st of the Ion Destroyer takes a leg off the Lightfoot while rail gun rounds eviscerate a Sentinel, punching through both armor and engine before exiting the back of the unit.


    A split secondter, Mecha fire in both directions fills the air. About half the Lasers sessfully connected with Tarith¡¯s Rage, making the shielding sh and flicker.


    Max remains hidden on the off chance one of them got off a signal to the rebelmand. The lower the Rebels think their capabilities are for now the better.


    The return fire from Lieutenant Becki and Mecha Squad 1 who are in the South Trenchesbines with the Infantry¡¯s Ion Cannon emcements to tear apart the remaining Sentinels, their lightly Armored Chassis incapable of surviving such firepower.


    The design isn¡¯t used in directbat for a reason, the front hasrge windows which are easily broken by other Mecha. None survive the first volley.<sub></sub>


    [Collect the scrap and see if any of those Sentinels are salvageable.] Max calls as Nico puts a another volley into the Lightfoot, causing it to explode.


    [Better safe than sorry.] She responds to Max¡¯s unspoken question.


    [With a bit of luck we should be able to make at least six functional Sentinels out of this mess. But if we want more functional Light Mecha, Tarith¡¯s Rage needs to go easy on the Rail Guns. Seriously, they went in one side and out the other, I¡¯ve never seen anything like it, the entire Mecha is scrap.] Sergeant Enns from Bravo Companyins.


    [For now it is more important that they don¡¯t stand back up when we go to check them. Six Sentinels is still a lot more firepower for the Trenches. See what you can get working and set them up on the north side overlooking the river. The Laser Cannons have great range.] Max sends out his instructions and the crews get to work.


    The only real benefit to a civil war is that you will know how to use the enemy equipment, because your team is using it as well. Finding six more bodies who can at least work the targeting systems on the Sentinels shouldn¡¯t be too hard. Plus, they won¡¯t even need to move the Mecha, just use it as a heavy weapons bunker in the trench.


    The cogwheel trench is designed for mecha defense, with evenly spaced wider areas where they can remain crouched and still allow other defenders to move behind them, but there is enough offset between emcements that an Explosive st won¡¯t travel down the length on the trench.


    No soldier in their right mind really wants to be assigned to a trench, but given the option, it isn¡¯t the worst ce to be during a Mecha assault. For that reason, when they are off duty, the soldiers return to the barracks, or to hiding spots in the vige instead of remaining in the trench, but when battle starts they will get into the holes to avoid being in the direct line of fire.


    [Gentleman, we have a surprise trophy from the enemy Sentinels. A pilfered supply of Kepler¡¯s finest synthmint cigarettes. I have split the spoils with Captain Tarsus, and he has agreed that at the end of tomorrow, one lucky soldier will get an entire pack.]


    Many of the soldiers smoke to relieve stress, but these cigarettes go for a full week¡¯smissary rations a pack. They are the sort of high quality luxury only senior officers and politicians get, a real treat, especially for the Convicts, who didn¡¯t have anymissary credits to begin with.


    The dinner ration packs contain a small pack of cheap smokeable stimnt sticks, but that is hardlyparable to the cool and smooth vor of synthmint.


    The crew in charge of the kitchen brings the units on duty a hot meal, using the insted serving containers from the convoy¡¯s supplies and everyone settles in for the afternoon wait.


    Nico has hacked the Rebelmunications codes, so they can be ready and properly greet anyone who might being, but so far, nobody has been, and it makes Max wonder if the scouts got off a warning signal.


    Fearing the worst, he has the few anti Mecha mines they brought ced randomly about a kilometer from the river and the vige, and the mortar tubes set up throughout the ruins.


    They don¡¯t have enough for a sustained bombardment but they do have enough that they can make an infantry column wish they had never tried to take this location.


    While the day drags on, most of the scouts return, having ced a camera around their location. Now they can watch for threats from rtive safety, while they hide in basements and crumbled houses.


    The infantry managed to get a bunch of ying cards and a 3D chess set to the surface with them for entertainment but Max is hoping that one of the convoys they intercept will have more. Entertainment is an essential to troop morale on a long mission, especially one where they expect to be constantly attacked like this.


    For now, everyone is in decent spirits, with hot food and reliable shelter, and Max intends to keep them that way. Alive and only mildly annoyed.

 69 Chapter 69

    The following day slowly dawned, though it seemed that the sky had a distinctck of enthusiasm for the idea. The light cloud cover of the previous days had darkened and was now turning to an inky ck with ominous purple lightning.


    Even two hours after the sun should havee up, you couldn¡¯t navigate without might vision or a System Ability.


    Then the rain began to fall, a faintly oily torrential downpour that stubbornly clung to everything while the infantry rushed to get everthing that they had set up dismantled and moved inside. Max had already ordered the infantry to take cover, seeing on his sensors that a wall of water was approaching across the fields north of the river, but it approached too quickly for them to finish the job in time.


    The only remaining sound was the constant boom of lightning and an ominous background roar that reminded Max of the hissing shriek the Feral cats of the slums made when they were injured, only deeper pitched, as if from a muchrger animal.


    Allmunication with the outside world was cut off due to interference from the storm, and as far as they could tell, nothing was moving.


    It wasn¡¯t until the blue shes of Ion Cannon fire joined the lightning that Max realized what they were looking at. A damaged Cygnus Mother ship had left orbit. The storm was the burning air from the atmospheric entry, and the oily film was spilled fuel from theirnder supply tank.


    Despite aaryndfall that it was never designed to make, the fifty-kilometer wide ship was still fighting against the Kepler navy as it fell.<sub>.</sub>


    The two Kingdoms had been at war for generations, and now it made sense where the Rebels got the bravery to dare to turn traitor; they were expecting outside assistance.


    [Anti Air Weapons, get ready to engage. That Mothership will fire all its drop pods before it crashes.] Max calls his troops over the radio and inte, hoping they can hear him.


    Cygnus is a lifelong fan of the ¡°Bigger is Better¡± theory, and their mecha are enormous. Where Kepler makes their Crusaders smaller and more heavily armed than most Kingdom¡¯s average, the Reaver, their Cygnus counterpart, is over sixteen meters tall to their ten.


    Due to a technology gap, the two are on par in offensive capability; you just had to avoid being grabbed and torn apart.


    The ship is still higher in the sky, and Max¡¯s analysis of the weather and the time they would have been in the atmosphere didn¡¯t add up. The rain began too early. That can¡¯t be the only ship that the Navy has shot down.


    The pods have begun to drop already, still a hundred Kilometers from their location but closing fast.<sub></sub>


    Nico and the Anti aircraft vehicles are getting ready, and Max is preparing his Pulse Laser Battery for a test against Cygnus drop pods when a streak of light brightens the sky, burning away a section of the clouds for the moment, and the falling Cygnus ship explodes into fragments.


    The madmen of the Fleet just used an orbital Lance, intended to destroy cities in a single strike, to destroy the enemy ship.


    One after another, explosions beyond the horizon begin to turn the artificial night to the brightestof days as interster drive reactors go critical.


    A hail of metallic fragments rains down on Stalwart for the next few minutes before everything calms, and the skies return to a more normal-looking thunderstorm.


    [Well, that¡¯s new and unpleasant. Any casualties?] Max asks.


    [Negative Stalwart. All green. As long as this rain washes the fuel spill off our equipment.] Captain Catan answers.<sub></sub>


    [Expect the torrential rain tost. Someone dig a spur out from the low spots in the trench to keep them drained.]


    The order seems better to Max than abandoning the Trenches until after the atmosphere stabilizes. That number of enormous vessels exploding as they left orbit will likely leave everyone fighting in the rain for weeks.


    [And someone find us a bunch of fishings and heavy chains to string up across the river to block debris.] Nico adds.


    The bridge is their reason to be here, and if whatever the inevitable flooding washes down river damages it, their mission has failed. The far bank of the river is lower ground than the vige they are stationed in, so if they create an artificial blockage with whateveres downstream, it will also flood out the road and prevent light vehicle traffic for weeks.


    Good thing they have provisions.


    Their fears turn out to be well founded; within the first hour, trees begin floating downstream, being captured by Tarith¡¯s Rage and driven into the river bottom vertically as pilings for their makeshift dam. Following that with some shovel work diverts the flood waters north and turns the formerly well-tended fields into a swamp.


    But the rains show no signs of slowing, and the level continues to creep up.


    ¡°Mighty kind of the Fleet to give us an ind vacation, isn¡¯t it?¡± Colmar jokes as the infantry officers gather for an evening meal.


    ¡°Could have done without the fuel bath, though. At least the flooding is slowing down the enemy advance.¡± Captain Catan agrees.


    ¡°Maybe they just don¡¯t care about a bridge in the middle of nowhere with everything else that is going on?¡± A Lieutenant says hopefully, making the othersugh.


    ¡°We aren¡¯t just in the middle of nowhere, convict; this is the main highway between two major cities now that the main motorways have been destroyed. Trust me, they care.¡± Colmarughs, amused at the naivety of the young officer.


    He had just finished officers¡¯ school when his unit got the bright idea to hack the Central Bank. As far as anyone can tell, this has been his first real taste ofbat.


    The loader they pilfered is doing double duty now, both bringing gravel for the bottom of the Trenches to keep them from getting washed out by the rain water flow, and digging a berm upstream to keep the rising waters away from the vige.


    The Line Mecha are helping as much as they can using farm equipment, and Max¡¯s math says they should be safe now unless the situation changes again.


    That¡¯s better than they can say for many units, who are reporting that they are trapped in destroyed buildings or have had entire teams washed away by raging waters.


    Nothing has moved for three days until Max suddenly gets amunication on the secure Command Channel.


    [Stalwart, this is the Phnx ss Carpe Noctem, traveling north with a heavy escort. We must know, does the bridge stand?]

 70 Chapter 70

    [Carpe Noctem, this is Stalwart. I confirm that the bridge is intact. Rmend no light or infantry support at this time. Terrain flooded North of Bridge with increasing water levels.] Max responds.


    [Understood Stalwart. Light Support has been assigned an alternate route.]


    Max isn¡¯t sure where they are all going, but he hopes that alternate route involves a helicopter. Radio chatter indicates that no fewer than three of the Cygnus shops crashed into the deep oceans, boiling off over fifty meters of sea level into the atmosphere.


    Forget seeing the rains end during their tour here, the results will likely be somewhere between a mass extinction event and a mythologicalary flood. Looking out over the shallowke that was once fertile fields, Max can believe it.


    But they are also in the lownd, and as such might be evacuated to higher ground when the waters make their defense point of no strategic value.


    Carpe Noctem appears on all its midnight ck painted glory just over an hour after their message, escorted by two hundred Crusader ss Mecha, marching double file down the road.<sub>.</sub>


    [Stalwart, do you have an eyewitness report on the mother ship that went down in this region? Contact has been lost with units near the regional capital ever since.] The pilot of the mighty Phnx ss Mecha asks.


    [The ship was destroyed by Orbital Lance approximately one hundred drop pods in to their deployment. They faced heavy fire from the ground, but the interster drive explosion would have caused heavy damage to mecha and overloaded most digital circuitry with an electromaic pulse. Sensors recorded it here, but damage was negligible at this distance.]


    Max then forwards him thebat report he made for that day, annotated with the reports of Nico and the other officers.


    The thunder is still so regr that their sensors couldn¡¯t tell if there was a battle in the distance, but with the altitude of the explosion, there is hope for survivors, if not for their sensitive radio equipment.


    [Expect returning units within the next 24 hours Stalwart. We are going to retake that city, and their damaged defenders will be leaving the zone via your location. Hold at all costs. There are no other bridges left across the river for five hundred Kilometers.]<sub></sub>


    [Understood Carpe Noctem, and the Emperor¡¯s own luck to the current defenders.] Max responds and the giant Mecha leads his units across the bridge.


    They go single file, only one unit on the bridge at a time for safety, not knowing if there is hidden damage, and soon fade into the distance.


    Max and his unit don¡¯t get to enjoy the thunder storm for long though. A squad of Rebel Crusaders is making their way east down the river banks, pulling their light support Mecha on makeshift rafts through the roughly 7 meter deep, muddy flood waters.


    [Western Zone defense. Do Not let those mecha within sight of the bridge. The vige is blocking direct line of sight for now, but that won¡¯tst.] Max instructs, and numerous light mecha shift positions through the Trenches to get a clear shot at the approaching enemies.


    The enemy looks pretty pitiful, heavily damaged, pulling their support, but desperation only makes them arger threat to the bridge.<sub></sub>


    Once the light mecha begin their fire, crippling two of the lead Mecha, Max uses their targeting data that is being ryed to the unit to begin indirect fire. The first shell hits a barge, dumping a wing of light mecha into the water.


    On a perfect world, the Line Mecha are sealed and can function underwater or in space. But these units are all heavily damaged, and unlikely to be waterproof.


    They are still upstream of the blockage in the river, so there is no real fear of them washing down into the bridge, but Max orders mecha wing 3 who is on the eastern Trenches as well as the captured Sentinels to keep an eye out for mecha signals from inside the river.


    All of the Crusaders are quickly disabled, and the light mecha cut their rafts free to be washed away by the fast moving waters north towards the Carpe Noctem and its support. If they are lucky the Mecha are moving fast enough that they won¡¯t catch them, but Max suspects that will not be the case.


    [Ceasefire, save your ammunition.] Max calls an end to the hostilities.


    He would really like to go recover those destroyed units for his own men¡¯s use, but there simply isn¡¯t a safe way to get to them right now. Instead they will have to serve as submerged obstacles for the next unit thates that way.


    Carpe Noctem found what they were looking forter that evening, with constant radio signals ofbat and the shes of heavy weapons in the horizon. Then just before midnight another familiar voice joined themunications on the encrypted frequencies.


    [Thanks for the spare parts Morning Glory. Shining Darkness is back to full capacity.] Comes the voice of General Tennant over the inte.


    [Prevailing weather patterns indicate that this region should start seeing a reduction in rainfall by morning. Proceed to point seventeen and implement n C25.] The pilot of the Carpe Noctem instructs, getting only an affirmative beep in response.


    Less rainfall during the overnight hours was a blessing, many basements in the vige had flooded already and there were concerns for the safety of their supplies, but that reprieve also brought an old enemy back in to their lives.


    [Iing Bombers] Nico sighed for the third time that night, as the Rebels tried desperately to open a path for their troops to escape the two sided attack from the Phnx ss Mecha.


    It was all target practice to Max though. The Pulse Laser Battery had an incredible range, maintaining cohesion for over twenty Kilometers when fired into open air, and with his Targeting skills, it was almost as good as a k Cannon at filling the air with deadly objects.


    The major difference was, Lasers are much faster moving, unable to be dodged but don¡¯t explode. Therefore it is all on Max to be able to directly hit the bombers in the sky, Calcting the firing dy of his weapon and the movement patterns of the enemy.


    The fact that his weapon serves as a tracer round was incredibly useful before Max was used to the beams firing at the target he picked a quarter second after he selected them with [Split Fire], but that also worked in the opposite direction, and the enemy began firing back at his hole in the ground with their defensive weapons.


    [Excellent work Stalwart. Who knew anti infantrysers could be so good against bombers?] Lieutenant Becki congrattes him as the sunes up, which has signaled the end of the daily bombing attempts in the past.


    [Very effective, but it is a bit like shining a spotlight on myself. Find me a new position further from the bridge that still has good sight lines for defense and indirect fire.] Max directs the Light Mecha officer, while surveying the destruction all around him.


    His own hiding hole is still the deepest in the area, but not by as much as he would like. If he enemy had been less urate at targeting him, the bridge could have been damaged.


    While a new location is chosen Max moves to thender, getting repairs to his top carapace after taking repeated hits over the course of the evening. He decides he needs to learn from Nico¡¯s trick and get an armor te ced above his mecha, and a new camouge vehicle, the old one was shredded.

 71 Chapter 71

    After days of continuous rain, nothing in the vige was particrly dry. In fact, the only two that weren¡¯t soaked through and wishing for clothes that weren¡¯t damp at best were Max and Nico, who were living in their mecha.


    Out of kindness to the troops, they had opted to eat rations instead of making someone trudge through mud and waters that were knee deep in ces, even though their position was elevated enough to be above the water line.


    At first light today another two units of Loyalist Crusaders had moved forward, and the sector to the south was now deemed mostly secured. The first of the retreating units were scheduled to reach them in under an hour, but a very ominous ck cloud is on the horizon.


    The satellite details still say that the rain should end as it appears though, which makes no sense to Max.


    [Stalwart this is Shining Darkness. Is the bridge intact?] General Tennant asks as his mechaes in to sight through the trees in the distance to the north.


    [The bridge is holding strong. Wee back.] Max answers, putting away the trash from his lunch.


    Other than the Phnx ss Mecha, which had only superficial damage from the battle and explosion of the Cygnus ship, this convoy looks even worse than the rebel group they eliminated the other day.<sub>.</sub>


    They are not arriving alone though, five whole wings of Reaver ss Cygnus mecha havee in to sight behind them just before they reach the bridge.


    [Shining Darkness, who do you have that can fight?] Max asks, expecting the worst.


    [Just myself. All Crusaders get across the bridge and proceed to destination at maximum traveling speed.] General Tennant replies.


    That is exactly what Max was worried about.


    Even worse, as they approach, Max can see that the mecha are not alone. Over a hundred gun boats are with them, racing ahead so that their shorter range weapons are able to target the wounded convoy at the same time as the heavy mecha.


    [All units to the Trenches and bunkers. Iing Cygnus attack.] Max calls and the vige bursts in to action.<sub></sub>


    The Anti Aircraft vehicles are moved so they can target the boats, bunkers and ruined buildings fill with soldiers and all three wings of light mechae online.


    The Reavera are wasting no time closing the distance, since the Shining Darkness is a point defense mecha and has a mighty Ion Bombard Array on one arm.


    [Stalwart, you have lead.] The general instructs, sinking his anchors in to the muddy ground to steady himself for the battle.


    [Engagement range is 250 meters. Full barrage the moment anything crosses the line.] Max directs the unit, turning in his hole to get a clear shot at the leading Cygnus Heavy Mecha.


    Shining Darkness also waits to fire, and it has emboldened the enemy, who believe the Phnx ss unit¡¯s main gun has gone offline due to damage.


    Once the boats cross the dered engagement point, Max unleashes all fifty of his anti infantry rockets at once. The shoulder Cannons on Shining Darkness unleash deadly anti armor shells in to the nearest Reaver, stopping it in its tracks, and the Ion Bombard Array hurls energy charges strong enough to burn holes through heavy mecha in a single shot. At such a close range, there is no hope of avoiding destruction.<sub></sub>


    The anti aircraft vehicles and the quad guns on Tarith¡¯s Rage are making short work of the boats that survived the missile barrage, but their early advantage of facing an enemy that didn¡¯t know this point was well defended won¡¯t just long.


    The enemy has recovered from the shock and is battering the defenses with a storm of iing fire. Infantry teams are vaporized by Cygnus sma shotguns mounted on the Reavers, makeshift bunkers are turned to scrap and even the Line Mecha hidden in the trenches aren¡¯t all spared, with massed fire blowing the ground away as nearly fifty enraged heavy mecha return fire.


    The Mecha don¡¯t seem to have noticed that Stalwart is a Mecha and not a bunker, instead focusing their fire on Tarith¡¯s Rage and Shining Darkness. Nico¡¯s handheld shield is battered and warped, with multiple holes in it and her armored carapace is smoking from a rocket impact. Still, the rate of fire from the Ion Destroyer doesn¡¯t slow, shaking Reaver ss opponents with every hit.


    A massive volley of Rockets heads that way and Max winces in dreadful anticipation. But the Tarith¡¯s Rage leaps hard left out of its Bunker, throwing the shield to detonate the iing fire. Now firing on the run, Tarith¡¯s Rage has taken everyone¡¯s attention, giving the defenses a short break to reload and shift from damaged positions.


    Shining Darkness is unloading rounds into the enemy as fast as it can, living up to the Kepler propaganda that says it is worth a hundred enemy Mecha on its own.


    The shoulder Cannons seem to be out of ammunition now, and none of the smaller secondary weapons are working, but the Ion Bombard alone might be enough to deal with the enemy if they can be prevented from getting in to closebat.


    Only 14 of the 50 Cygnus Heavy Mecha are still firing, and every gun boat has been sunk, leaving thousands of bodies floating away in the fast moving current. Their transports were destroyed before many of them could even fire back, their munitions storage burning bright under the water.


    Nico has taken up a kneeling position behind the ruins of an office building, providing cover fire while Max and most of the Light Mecha finish reloading. Warnings blink all over her disy and the mecha won¡¯t walk properly due to a hit to the hip joint, but the gun still works just right.


    Her grandstanding has done its job though, big gunse to life all over the trenches and ruins again,ying in to the remaining Cygnus forces.


    A round from Max¡¯s Battle Cannon causes the reactor on one of the downed Cygnus Mecha to go critical, taking two others out with it while Max trashes another with sustained fire of the Pulse Lasers. Thest Reaver drops to Ion fire from the light mecha in the trenches and the battle ends in as brutal and sudden of a manner as it started.


    ¡°Casualty count and reload weapons.¡± Max calls over the speaker and radio, not knowing who can hear which at this point, given battle damage. Stalwart does pretty good condition, he took a few ncing boots from the Cygnus sma shotguns, but for the most part he wasn¡¯t the priority today.


    Nico limps the Tarith¡¯s Rage over to where she was originally stationed and looks down at the ruins of her favorite shield and her carapace mounted anti aircraft battery. Max hopes at least two of the simrly equipped vehicles survived, or the next bomber flight could be a bad time for them.


    ¡°Charlie Company reports 82 dead or injured including the First Lieutenant.¡±


    ¡°Bravo Company reports 43 dead or injured.¡± Captain Catan reports.


    ¡°Line squad 1 lost 4.¡± Lieutenant Becki reports


    ¡°Second squad lost leader plus 1¡±


    ¡°Third squad, 2 remain.¡±


    In all, nearly half their light mecha are lost, Tarith¡¯s Rage is damaged, their anti air capability is crippled and the infantry took heavy losses, all in a battle that onlysted a few minutes.

 72 Chapter 72

    As the unit addresses their damages and tries to reduce as much as they can, the flow of water down the river suddenly drops to almost nothing and Max forms his thermal scanners towards the ck cloud.


    It is a Thermal shock wave from an intact mother ship collision with solid ground. It is too thin to show on satellite imagery, but that cloud is thousands of degrees and is sh boiling the flood waters. No wonder it isn¡¯t raining behind the wall, it will be a sauna.


    [All troops, you have 30 seconds to get in a sealed shelter. That iing shock wave is going to scorch anything left out in the open.]


    There are a limited number of ces in town that can be properly sealed, so everyone is running for the academy buildings. They are reinforced and with the link to a mecha power output, they can bring the temperature control back online. Nico is on that, kneeling the Tarith¡¯s Rage next to the building¡¯s emergency generator, which is currently offline. It uses a locally refined fuel that they don¡¯t have a supply of, so it has simply run out.<sub>.</sub>


    Captain Catan gets the power lines hooked up to the Crusader ss Mecha while his unit rushes inside. Most of the Line Mecha are staying in position, just taking shelter in the trenches to let the shock wave pass over them, confident their units can deal with the problem. Only those whose Pilot¡¯spartments have been breached are joining the flight to the Academy.


    The wave won¡¯t actually be here for about 3 minutes, just enough that even the slowest moving of injured that were well enough to still be on duty have time to make it to a safe shelter, and the All Clear calls starting in.


    General Tennant is more concerned about the wing of Crusaders that he sent out since a lot of them are in very bad shape. They were all functioning though, so hopefully, the emergency functions will be able to seal the cockpits of any units that need it. There is nothing to be done about it now anyhow, they are far enough forward that the wave has already passed over the top of them.<sub></sub>


    Max ducks Stalwart down even lower into his hole, d he doesn¡¯t have any shoulder-mounted missiles left that might be damaged by the scorching heat of the shockwave. There isn¡¯t much to be done for the Shining Darkness though, he is too big to hide, so all the General can do is just stand there with his anchors set and wait.


    The wave of burning air hits them hard enough that many damaged buildings copse, and the heat blisters the paint on the civilian vehicles scattered through the vige. The military uses a much more durable formtion, expecting attacks by energy weapons and mers, so they survive mostly intact. General Tennant has to lean into the force to keep himself upright, and even then his anchors dig a deep furrow through the soft ground of the former sports field where he had made his stand during thest battle.


    Behind the wave, the air temperature rises to just over fifty degrees celsius, brutally hot but not anything that the unit couldn¡¯t survive. The sensors on Stalwart show that it is safe to be outside, but for the next few hours, it won¡¯t be safe toe outside. All the doors and mecha surfaces are metallic and hold heat from the shock wave, making them too hot to touch.<sub></sub>


    [Any Casualties?] Max asks, and gets confirmation that every shelter the soldiers picked held up to the wave, though the ones that didn¡¯t have time to make it to the academy aren¡¯t too impressed with their new environment.


    The riverbed is almost dry, with only a trickle of water running through it at the moment, and the ground on the north side is muddy but mostly free of flood waters in the higher areas. The roiling cloud of the shockwave collected arge part of the moisture, with the extreme winds blowing the vaporized flood waters past them to wherever that nightmare finally loses momentum.


    Two hours pass before the signal is given that it is safe to exit the building, though gloves are still rmended to touch anything. The men that are off duty all huddle in the Academy, where a fully fuelled but damaged line mecha has taken the ce of Tarith¡¯s Rage to power the climate control. A few of the troopers aren¡¯t too upset about the change though. Theye from a jungle world, and this level of heat and humidity reminds them of home, as ufortable as it is.


    Thender is in good shape, and the munitions bunker where most of the units on Eastern sector duty sheltered is undamaged, so the work to reload and repair their units proceeds as fast as possible.


    By the next morning, they have all the damaged but functional light mecha back online and reloaded, as well as Max¡¯s missile pod and Battle Cannon, and they even managed to repair the Anti Aircraft Battery from Tarith¡¯s Rage using the facilities in thender. It¡¯s not optimal, but the unit is in much better shape than they were in a day ago.


    The ground on the other side of the river, and in fact, on their side as well thanks to the currents, is littered with the carcasses of fallen enemy mecha, and that gives Max a great idea.


    [All mecha units not currently on trench detail, head out into the fields and recover all rebel Light Mecha that you can. Our numbers are depleted, and they might have the spare parts we need to get back up to strength.] It is understood that they won¡¯t ever get to full strength again, even after the pilots that are injured have recovered, but they currently have more recovering pilots than recoverable mecha for them to pilot.


    The Line Mecha move out, recovering what they can, and a few minutester a cheer of victoryes over the inte.


    [Commander, this is unit 29. We found a full wing of Skyfire Pattern Line Mecha here on the North side. They were unmanned when their barge was tipped and appear to be in functional condition.]


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 73 Chapter 73

    [Bring those mecha back here on the double. Skyfire Pattern Line Mecha are amazing anti-infantry mecha, and we have a fair bit of ammunition for them.] Max directs.


    [We have a working t deck transport, would you like us to send it out, Stalwart?] Captain Tarsus asks. They will have to drag it through the mud, but they can load a lot of mecha on it instead of carrying or dragging them back one at a time.


    [Head north and help recover those mecha. We need all the spare parts we can get.]


    Max surveys the fields to see where everyone is right now and finds Nico is examining some of the Cygnus mecha that they took out. She must have used her System Skill to detach one of the weapon arms and she is holding up a sma Shotgun like a trophy. He is about to admonish her since she is supposed to be collecting spare parts when he realizes she has dragged over a fallen Crusader ss Chassis and is carefully removing the carapace-mounted missileuncher, which is totally out of ammunition and heavily damaged.<sub>.</sub>


    [What do you think? Can we make it fit?] She asks, holding the sma Shotgun to the central Carapace mounting point.


    It actually locks in ce, thanks to a simr mounting system, but the power system is totally different. Not only the connectors but the voltage and frequency. If anyone has a hope of making such a hybrid monstrosity work it is her, but even then it won¡¯t be a short and easy task.


    [If you seriously think it will work, bring it back. You can have thender modify it after the Line Mecha repairs are finished.]<sub></sub>


    That is her cue to collect anything she can physically remove, which turns out to be everything but the actual Chassis of the Reaver ss machines. They spend all day doing the recovery, but with the evening inventory, there is good news.


    They are short on Pilots at the moment, but they have recovered or repaired enough Line Mecha to make a total of sixty units, including ten with the Skyfire Pattern quad guns. Doubling their initialpliment of mecha gives them both spares and options, but in order to make full use of them, they will have to do a promotion from within the ranks, and Max isn¡¯t sure they have enough soldiers that have the qualifications, or even a high enough systempatibility to have the necessary physical skills to perform to standards.


    The new ideas didn¡¯t end with Nico¡¯s intentions to add a sma Shotgun to someone though. The infantry has convinced the Light Mecha to help them mount Missile Pods to the top of the Personnel Carriers. The pod is hriously oversized for the vehicles, being as wide as they are, but the Kepler software is all designed to bepatible, in case of battlefield scrounging incidents like this one, and once they are attached the targeting software that normally controls a machine gun can alsounch the missiles.<sub></sub>


    It¡¯s not much, but a half dozen more missileunchers are a good start.


    The missiles are guided, capable of prating ander or a Light Mecha with ease, and a Crusader with great difficulty while having a maximum range of hundreds of kilometers. In theory, they could be used against almost anything, they simplycked the speed for certain targets. The six-wheeled troop transports were made for heavy loads and soft terrain, so the extra weight wouldn¡¯t be a huge issue for them. They could also still carry twenty soldiersfortably, or fifty packed in tight, which made moving the mixed unit around much easier.


    It was a shame they didn¡¯t have more of them, but taking the others they encountered without destroying them would have been dangerous and a waste of precious ammunition.


    [Captains, check among your ranks for soldiers that have checked out on the Line Mecha before washing out to infantry. We have a wealth of spare units now that just need a deep cleaning and some final repairs. I want six wings of Line Mecha staffed in the next 24 hours.] Max instructs, checking the satellite data to see if there is any new information avable about enemy troop movements.


    The survey and double-checking of military records take hours, but the two infantry Captains do eventually find enough men, mostly among the Convicts, who have the training and qualifications to pilot the newly acquired Line Mecha. That cuts their infantry numbers even lower, but the extra armor and firepower will more than make up for the losses.


    After two more days of intensive medical treatment, most of the wounded pilots are back at full strength, and the others are healed enough for limited duties, like waiting here in the trenches for the battles in the cities to y out.


    The radio channels are full of constant streams of engagement reports for Max to listen to while Shining Darkness has some of its most damaged armor panels repaired one at a time. Taking the whole unit offline and doing the repairs isn¡¯t an option, they don¡¯t have a big enough repair rack in theirnder, but they have slowly brought the General back up to full strength, except for the shoulder-mounted Cannons, which they don¡¯t have ammunition for.


    He has been ordered to hold here for the moment. The Cygnus reinforcements have begun a counter-offensive moving south towards them. There is a spaceport in the city to their south, and Command suspects that they are trying to capture it and make an attempt to flee off. The strategy feels like desperation to Max, but he can¡¯t discount the possibility that they are actually trying to take a suitable facility for their own reinforcements tond at.


    Overnight, the orbital battle bes more active, with the shes of energy weaponsing every few seconds. The Cygnus units are almost certainly trying to capture a city withnding facilities. Central Command feels the same and orders Shining Darkness to retreat to the city to their south, stationing himself in the Spaceport under cover of the reinforced bunkers, and wait there for the enemy to attack.


    As good as it was to see him again, the extra firepower wasn¡¯t going tost forever, a Phnx ss Point Defense Mecha is intended to defend a city not a bridge in the middle of nowhere.


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 74 Chapter 74

    The humidity and the waiting quickly started to wear on everyone¡¯s nerves, and the water filtration system was working overtime to keep up with demand over the course of the next few days.


    There was an incredible amount of newbat engagements being announced from all over the, even in all four cities that could be considered nearby the bridge. But nothing right where they were, only close enough to keep them on edge and fill their days with the sound of battle in the distance.


    There was nothing Max could do about it though. With the speed of heavy mecha, the battle could be on them with under 30 minutes¡¯ warning, and that¡¯s assuming the attackers didn¡¯t sneak by the other Kepler Mecha, because their own scouts would be lucky to give them two minutes from the first sighting.


    Darkness was returning to mark the end of the second day since General Tennant was reassigned when the radio call they had all been both anticipating and dreading came over the securemand channel.


    [Bridge defense, bridge defense. This is the Wrath of Carb]


    [Go for bridge defense. This is Stalwart]


    [Rebel activity with Cygnus reinforcements has forced us from our position to your northwest. Retreating to your position now]<sub>.</sub>


    [We will be waiting for you, Wrath of Carb]


    [Everyone to intense battle positions. Get those new missile wagons dug in. Whatever ising our way drove the Phnx ss Wrath of Carb from its post.] Max informs the unit. Nobody is happy to hear that, but they needed to know.


    [First iing should be friendly forces. Hold your fire.]


    Wrath of Carb was on the run, its main weapons had both been destroyed, and the half-meter-thick armor was pitted and smoking. With him came roughly 2panies of infantry in an assortment of civilian and other light vehicles and one fullpany of mixed Mecha, all looking worse for wear.


    [Cross the bridge and have your escort enter the entrenched positions Wrath of Carb. We¡¯ve got a crater hererge enough to hide half of even a Phnx ss mecha.]


    The arriving troopers raced across the bridge and jumped into any and every spot they could find along the trenches and in the nearby buildings, abandoning their unarmored vehicles and getting themselves set up to join the other infantry.<sub></sub>


    The mecha followed after them, taking positions further back, using the ruins and battle craters to obtain as much cover as they could. Those without functional main weapons retreated to the far side of the city near thender to make more space for those who could fight.


    [Are there any othersing?] Nico asked one of the two Crusaders who dug in near her.


    [No idea,munications were jammed. We couldn¡¯t hear anyone until we were almost on top of you.] The pilot responds with an audible sigh.


    [Tarith¡¯s Rage to Shining Darkness and Carpe Noctem. Wrath of Carb and allied forces have been driven from their position, now entrenched with our forces. Hostile forces iing.]


    That was all the message that Nico could force through the jamming signal, sent as a text to their mecha as well as audio, and she could only hope it was actually received.


    [What ising? We didn¡¯t get much information.] Max asks the Wrath of Carb.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Two heavily damaged Dreadnought ss Super Heavy Mecha, and 200 or more Reaver ss. No infantry or light Mecha survived on their side and they should be in worse shape than we are. Thispany was the reserves in our bunkers, the damage is from the attempt to exit the city.


    The entire area was hit by an orbital bombardment, we never even saw iting, but you could see the fleet battle from our position.¡± The pilot of the Wrath of Carb exins.


    Max checked the numbers on the iing Mecha, finding just over sixty light mecha and thirty Crusaders. If the enemy is damaged and low on ammunition the fight isn¡¯t hopeless.


    Max got on the Battalionms [All units, prepare for iing. Arge number of heavy Mecha, with no light escort. Arm yourselves for the expected targets. Scouts, watch the skies, these allies were hit by an Orbital bombardment. We may be facing another wave of the Cygnusnding force.¡±


    The light Mecha Company was busily rearming, while those already kitted for heavy Mecha brought ammunition cases and what recement weapons they had to spare for the iing forces.


    ¡°It¡¯s like you knew we wereing.¡± One Crusader pilot among the group with no main weapons cheers when the infantry brings him a recement Ion Destroyer and a case of missiles for hisuncher on the t deck truck.


    ¡°Ourmander believes in preparing for the very worst. We¡¯ve been salvaging parts from Rebel Mecha since we arrived here.¡± The Line Mecha helping the Crusader ss Mecha reloadughs. Four of them have been assigned by the wing leaders to run munitions for the Crusaders during this fight, keeping the heavy guns firing until all ammunition is gone.


    [New arrivals, status report.] Max calls five minutester when the enemy forces starting into sight.


    [23 Crusader units armed and ready, 41 light Mecha of various armaments also report ready. Infantry has entered bunkers per orders of your Bravo Company.] The Wrath of Carb answers.


    Well, that¡¯s a far sight better than where they were. And being dug into a defensive position, they¡¯ve got an advantage that might even the odds.


    [Wait until they get fully into range to start firing. We don¡¯t have ammunition to waste on a force this size.] Max instructs.


    [Wrath of Carb, kindly do not move. If they believe you are disabled they won¡¯t target you immediately, giving our brave techs a few minutes to get your main armament back online.]


    The repair attempt is either borderline Suicidal or incredibly heroic, depending on how you look at it, but if they can get even one of the two enormous main guns online it will be a blessing. But there are skilled techs among the convicts, and they believe that they can do it. The first priority will be the lightly damaged Ion Bombard Cannon, which System Scans show requires only a few quickly obtained spare parts. The sma mer on the other arm has taken more damage and will take a bit longer to repair.


    [Got it Stalwart. I will be standing by. Unit Command is in your hands.] Wrath of Carb answers.


    Fifty wide and 4 deep, the enemyes at them in an organized rank. Not Reavers as expected, Mecha of an angr pattern more popr in the Cygnus Loop as heavy shock troops. The Warmonger, Max believes the pattern is called.


    Nico searches her memories of studying during government server intrusions when she first saw images and details about these particr mecha. This pattern is more lightly armored than the Redemption Pattern Crusader ss Mecha that the Kepler forces are using. As such, they usually didn¡¯t need to go overboard on prating power to fight them.


    But more importantly, Nico recalls the greatest design feature of the Warmonger Pattern. [Be warned, these Mecha can likely jump the embankment and get to this side of the river.] Nico warned the troops as the Cygnus forces rushed to close the distance, being at an advantage in closebat.

 75 Chapter 75

    The enemy advanced well into range without firing a shot, which confused Max at first, until he realized that the jamming system blocked both radar and targeting systems, leaving them to manual fire. It is a skill every Kepler Pilot learns during their time on the Line Mecha, but one seen as antiquated and obsolete by everyone else. Most don¡¯t even have mechanical controls anymore, instead, they were using exclusively sensor suits or neural links


    ¡°All units Manual Firing Mode. Crusaders Fire for effect, maximum rates. Light Mecha, remain hidden until my Command.¡± This meant their missiles would simply fly straight forward without tracking once fired, and targeting was a simple cross-hair in their disy, with no ballistics or predictive targeting avable to help them. But they could still fire with some degree of uracy.


    They weren¡¯t shy with the missiles, letting loose as many as they could to adjust forck of targeting. Battle Cannons thundered and Gatling Cannons roared their distinctive scream. Only a handful of Mecha were equipped with Ion Destroyers, but they invariably punched hard into their targets, as the sma flies perfectly straight.


    This was Max¡¯s time to shine, as his System Skills don¡¯t need the sensor data when he can actually see the targets, and he still had hundreds of constantly updating targeting solutions avable to him. The greatest threat was the Super Heavy mecha, so Max had unleashed everything he had at one of them, the Pulse Lasers destroying sensors and hull-mounted weapons, while the Battle Cannon dugrge craters into the vulnerable armor at the waist joint.


    Half a second after the first volley was unleashed sensors came back online as the iing forces dropped their jamming signal and prepared to respond. But it was already toote. The second volley was iing, and Nico brought the jamming signal back up, seeing how it crippled the Cygnus force far more than Stalwart Battalion and her allies.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Why is the jamming still up, get us sensors.¡± Their microphones picked up the opposition leader shouting and many of the Kepler soldiersughed in their cockpits.


    [Wrath of Carb, main guns online.] The Kepler Super Heavy announced over the intes, bringing a bit of hope to the soldiers in the trenches, who were dumping ammunition into the rapidly advancing Cygnus mecha force.


    [Wee back sir. If we could get a hand with their Super Heavy Mecha, it would be appreciated.] Max responded.


    Wrath of Carb was equipped with an Ion Bombardment Battery like the Shining Darkness, but also with a massive me weapon that purged sma in a short-range cone. It was like nothing Max had seen in the avable equipment listings, perhaps it was a signature piece created just for that single machine?<sub></sub>


    The huge charges from the Ion Bombard battery mmed into both of the Super Heavy Mecha on the other side of the river, downing one and crippling the other in an instant. But the Cygnus Force had solved something at their end and the iing fire was increasing at an astounding volume with much better uracy. Four of the allied units that arrived already damaged were destroyed, and Wrath of Carb was in a very bad way only a few seconds aftering back online.


    It was saved from total destruction by the actions of a brave maintenance tech, that used the repair gantry crane to stand a hugeposite shield, like Nico was still carrying, in front of the bulk of Wrath of Carb¡¯s crouched torso, barely surviving himself when the crane was destroyed by the intercepted attacks.


    Nico dropped the no longer useful jamming signal and the Kepler forces unleashed their full fury into the enemy lines. The Battle Cannon was smoking from the repeated firing without purging exhaust gasses fully and Pulse Lasers were glowing from the rapid rate of fire.


    The Cygnus Mecha were getting close to the river now, and Max gave the signal for the Light Mecha that had been hidden from the initial attacks to stand up and join the fight. There was no way they could miss at this range, and they were almost all set for heavy Mecha destruction, using every spare heavy weapon the unit had obtained sincending here at the bridge.<sub></sub>


    The Cygnus Mecha were destroyed by the dozen, the river banks became littered with Mecha corpses. The few that got into the base began to shred the defenders, their closebat abilities outssed the Kepler Mecha by a wide margin, especially the fully ranged units, who didn¡¯t even have the option to hold a closebat weapon. Most Cygnus mecha used a single solid mounted heavy weapon, or a shoulder-mounted weapons array to leave their hands free for closebat. The Warmonger pattern was mostly in the second group, very melee focused, with lighter than average weapons on the top of the unit.


    As the first Cygnus mecha to pass the trenches approached Tarith¡¯s Rage, Nico dropped her shield and grabbed her serrated-ded giant sword from the pile of prepared equipment and moved to engage. The fire from her anti-aircraft battery was blinding its sensory systems giving her time to close before the Mecha was fully prepared for her, though it caused minimal damage to the structure of the Cygnus Mecha.


    The Cygnus leader and Nico¡¯s enormous des shed over and over, faster than most pilots believed their Mecha could even move. Tarith¡¯s Rage was being forced back and seemed doomed, if you forgot that it had a huge Ion Destroyer on its other arm, as the Cygnus pilot did, moving to his left for a better angle, and directly into its line of fire.


    The sma breached the machine¡¯s power core, the resultant explosion causing the shielding on Tarith¡¯s Rage to flicker out for a second and destroying the buildings around them in a huge fireball.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage marched out of the inferno with her rm horn ring in victory, bringing cheers from all across the defensive line.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage is charging forward to assist the front lines, but the Cygnus back lines have broken. Both Super Heavy Mecha have gone down, and fewer than 30 of their initial 200 Crusader ss Mecha remain upright on the far side of the bridge. The entrenched troops cheered in victory, firing into the backs of the fleeing machines until they were out of range.


    ¡°Casualty reports, and let¡¯s get the crews out to recover what we can. Clear the river first, we don¡¯t need the water getting Poisoned.¡± Max calls, slumping in his seat.


    [Enemy Repelled, Casualties Light to moderate. Wrath of Carb stands] he sees Nico send a strategic text update to the other two Phnx ss machines stationed in the nearby cities.


    [Super Heavies are being removed from cities into protected areas in preparation for continued orbital bombardment. Good to hear from you Tarith.] General Tennant sends back. So the battle in space is ongoing then, and not looking particrly good for their side.


    Max is quite worried about how the battle in space is going, and the fact there¡¯s nothing he can do about it isn¡¯t helping. As the afternoon fades towards night and the sky darkens, they can see more of what¡¯s going on up there. shes of light mar the sky as transports big enough to be identified as interster ships even from the ground continue fighting back and forth.


    The infantry has been granted permission to use the trenching machine to dig an underground Bunker for their expanded forces, since it is looking like they¡¯re not going anywhere any time soon, and being out in the open seems like a bad idea right now.


    The situation with Wrath of Carb is currently in limbo. After the orbital strike there is no more city for it to defend. But Command can¡¯t decide what to do, so for now, it¡¯s remaining at the bridge with its allied forces.

 76 Chapter 76

    [Hey Commander, we have the trenching machine adjusted for mining. Who has the final blueprints for the bunkers?] Captain Tarsus asked the next morning, as the officers tried to get the chaos back under control.


    The extra units were supposed to be staying a while, so senior staff had decided to burn off some of the pilfered fuel they had obtained to dig an undergroundplex below the vige to hide their numbers.


    Buildings and copsed parking garages weren¡¯t going to cut it anymore, though they would make a great entry and exit point for the undergroundplex.


    A bunker more than 30 meters below the surface, or 10 meters down and reinforced with Rock Crete could survive a low-yield orbital strike and would fully mask their Mecha¡¯s signature from orbital scans.


    They had been careful to only send a few units at a time to scavenge the battlefield this time, giving the impression that most of their numbers were destroyed, should anyone be watching from above. It will be a lot of work, but they had the avable staff to get three chambers dug andyered with Rock Crete today.


    The nt in town isn¡¯t military-grade, since it was meant for civilian building materials, but it had enough of a stockpile when the battle started for their purposes.<sub>.</sub>


    [Never mind, I found them.] Captain Tarsus follows up and then begins calling out to the groups assigned to use mecha to pull trailers filled with rock and dirt to the defensive berms.


    There were some digging tools for the Line Mecha in the ruined vige¡¯s storage sheds, so they are starting on one location while the machine starts the another, using all their numbers that are not on defense to get the job done.


    ¡°Hey Tarith, can youe to give us a hand with Wrath of Carb?¡± One of the Bravo Company soldiers that has been pressed into repair duty calls, pointing at a recement barrel assembly.


    ¡°No problem. I¡¯ve got some repair-rted skills so how about I help you do the diagnosis?¡± She asks, using the speaker¡¯s robotic artificial voice.


    ¡°You are a life saver. None of us have more than the academy¡¯s basic repair sses to go by, so just following the directions is hard.¡± The trooper jokes, indicating where the crew is having issues hanging an armor te on a Crusader.<sub></sub>


    Brigadier General Carb, a muscr soldier in histe middle years watches them carefully, not happy to have amateurs messing with his beloved mecha, but it is better than the alternative.


    Building the entire undergroundplex high enough for him wasn¡¯t an option, so the best he will get is a thick armored roof over his head should theye under heavy fire again. That means he needs all his armor repaired.


    The steam clouds have given way to a haze of smoke as the wind shifted over the course of the day, obscuring their work from visual scans and he fully intends to make the best of it and convince the enemy that his unit moved on after the battle.


    [General Carb, check your iing files. Tarith¡¯s Rage has settings for long-range Ion stability, and I¡¯ve modified them for your Ion Bombard Array. Apply that and you should get a boost to your orbitalnder and Insertion Pod targeting.] Nico informs him once they had almost everything else finished.


    He smiled at the young officer¡¯s initiative and had his System and his mecha check the new data. It looks like a very decent update, with no major ws or viruses, so he begins to adapt it to fit into Wath of Carb¡¯s subroutines.<sub></sub>


    [Stalwart, you are up next. Head to the repair rack.] Nico eagerly announces. Their Phnx ss defender was thest unit on the list, now she can do the upgrades she has been longing to make to the Stalwart.


    They are entirely out of missiles now, since the Cygnus units aren¡¯tpatible. That makes Max¡¯s shoulder-mountedunches useless, and he knows his friend has been itching for an excuse to modify a Cygnus-issued sma Shotgun to fit a Crusader. They are a devastating short-range weapon and shouldplement his existing medium-range firepower very well.


    There is far more than a shotgun waiting for him in thender though. New custom shoulder armor with sheltered weapon mounts, a fewrge metal tes he can¡¯t see a use for and a new design of chest armor are waiting among the pile near the repair rack.


    Everyone else has been banished from thender for now, and Nico has actually left her Mecha to pilot a Line Mecha for the upgrades. His shoulder and chest tes are carefully removed and stored away before being reced with the new design that looks even more durable, with a hinged lower joint that protects his vulnerable waist joint from frontal fire. It¡¯s not a new design, but it isn¡¯t used much anymore due to the weight.


    [The shoulders are fully custom for mounting Cygnus weapons tforms, we will need to test everything when we are finished.] Nico informs him, cing a sma shotgun inside the nacelles on either shoulder.


    [Isn¡¯t that a bit bulky?] Max asks, scanning the new additions.


    [Yes, and adjustability is limited because I set them into the nacelles for protection. You have twenty degrees in any direction. But the firepower will be worth it.]


    Max¡¯s system scan shows both shotguns are fully functional, just awaiting test fire, but Nico isn¡¯t done. She mounts a bracket to his Battle Cannon, then one of the t bars above and one below.


    The des glint in the harsh lights of thender and Max smiles.


    [So if I run out of ammunition, just beat them over the head with the Battle Cannon?] He jokes.


    [That¡¯s the spirit. Give me a second to double-check everything and top off your ammunition and then you will be good to go.]


    [And how did you solve the power draw issues?] Max asks as his friend admires her handiwork.


    [I did what I can, but you will be pretty slow-moving if you use the shotguns and the Pulse Laser at the same time.]


    He will just have to adjust his tactics then. This current objective doesn¡¯t require him to move much, but his greatest advantage lies in his ability to fire everything at different targets all at once, so they will have to work on a solution once they get off this Rock. But before then, a double st from sma Shotguns at point-nk range will devastate anything hees across.

 77 Chapter 77

    Brigadier General Carb was extremely pleased with the upgrades to his Ion Bombard Array for use againstnders and Insertion Pods, so he had it forwarded to all sixteen other Phnx ss Mecha on the with simr weapons.


    His update identifies Captain Tarith Nico as the software engineer that came up with the programming, a personalmendation that should help get her a promotion should the Cygnus fleet manage to get enough of an upper hand that they canunch a full wave attack.


    It might seem like a small thing, but improvements to their mecha that increase the number of enemynders destroyed in approach are a huge tactical benefit. If they can destroy five or even ten percent more than usual the Cygnus casualties will be in the tens of thousands with the possibility that their supply chain could be crippled.


    Armies can survive without ammunition, thanks to energy weapons. They can wear looted civilian clothing and boots, but they can¡¯t survive without food. For an invading fleet like the Cygnus, that means scavenging the battlefield or sessful supply drops.


    The Rock Crete of the underground bunker system finished curing this morning, so the General has moved Wrath of Carb out of sight and into the ruins of an old office building, reconstructed as his own personal hanger and an entrance to the three interlinked bunkers where the majority of the Mecha are currently stationed.


    While the Fleet battle rages above them, the battle on the ground has calmed. Nobody is moving, waiting for new orders while they repair and reload.


    That gives the advantage to the defenders, the Cygnus forces don¡¯t have nearly as much of a stockpile of parts and munitions on world. One way or another, they will need a supply drop and more importantly, reinforcements.<sub>.</sub>


    The forces still in the cities have been working around the clock to bring shielding and orbital defense weapons online again without anyone noticing. The total radio silence on the surface is the brainchild of General Tennant, who fears theirmunications are being intercepted.


    The unofficial ceasefirests for three glorious days of healing, rxing and gaming before an update on the space battle puts everyone back on high alert.


    [Fleet Control to All Ground Units. Fleet assets will be withdrawing for a strategic regroup and counter attack. Hold all positions in preparation for reinforcements.]


    To say the message does not go over well is an understatement.


    But the wisdom of keeping the fact their defenses had been upgraded a secret, even from the Fleet, proves to be of much greater benefit than anticipated. Intercepted and decryptedmunications say that the Cygnus fleet is ignorant of the changes they have made and ns a full scale resupply mission.


    They are expecting five points of high altitude fire, but with the upgraded Phnx ss Mecha, the Kepler defenses are at over thirty points of defense against high altitude targets.<sub></sub>


    It¡¯s not that dropping on a defended is impossible, but to do it the Fleet usually sends arge number of emptynders and orbitalunched anti missile ships along with the wave to intercept missiles and reduce actual losses.


    They will know when the drop starts if the enemy expects heavy resistance. If the firstunches are the interceptors then the Cygnus fleet is on to them. If they save the single use defense vessels, they expect minimal losses.


    Early in the morning, local time, the calles that a full fleet supply drop has begun. Central Command says to give them six minutes to get as much of the dropplete as possible before beginning defensive fire.


    That will give them eighteen minutes to shoot down as many as possible, and it will be toote for thenders to turn back. The majority will be fully autonomous, containing only supplies, and once they get into the upper atmosphere the effects of entry will blockmunications for a few minutes.


    Because of that, they aren¡¯t programmed to ept navigational data until after that point. Experience has taught that iplete course adjustments cause catastrophic oues.


    As the sensors begin to pick up the drop, it bes clear that nothing butnders and orbital Insertion Pods areing, letting everyone on the ground know that the Cygnus fleet doesn¡¯t have a clue what ising their way.<sub></sub>


    The pods are designed for fast drops with minimal damage duringbat, but they can¡¯t be used for infantry, the gravitational forces of their rapid deceleration beforending would kill any unprotected human. In most cases they aren¡¯t even used for mecha with pilots, though the Mecha cockpit can dampen some of the effect.


    Instead they are the supply drops to be picked upter by troopsing innders or already on the ground.


    Six minutes pass as Max starts seeing the first of thenderse into sight. The Insertion Pods are halfway down now, and the call finallyes.


    [All defense units, full fire rate.]


    This sector is a Kepler stronghold, with three major cities plus three Phnx ss Mecha defending and the early morning sky turns bright blue with Ion fire and Defense Lasers.Because of the reduced number of Cygnus forces in the region the defenders are focusing on thenders first, then they can steal or destroy the contents of the pods afternding.


    The air over the vige is crackling from the effects of Wrath of Carb¡¯s furious defense, but Max is across town from him and the effect isn¡¯t interfering with his systems too badly. When the closest Pods get to about fifty thousand meters altitude Max¡¯s System lights up in a happy Kaleidoscope of firing solutions for his Pulse Lasers.


    As he begins firing, he notices he is not alone in his efforts. Every Crusader with an Ion Destroyer is taking pot shots at them. They have the range, but not the uracy of high quality targeting rted System Abilities.


    Max¡¯s continual stream ofser fire is constantly hitting and destroying pods, while Nico is at about fifty percent uracy rate for hitting her targets. The others have only got a few hits between them and Max marvels at the effects of her upgrading ability topensate for ack ofbat rted System skills.


    Unlike the pods that drop straight down, thenders that are passing overhead are destined for the far side of the, or at least they were. Not many have made it across the far horizon intact.


    Max picks up frantic shouting from outside and turns up his external volume while he shoots. Nico has hacked the Cygnus encryption again, and she is ying theirmand channel audio over the megaphone.


    It tells everyone what is going on without cluttering up the radio channels, but more importantly, the pure panic and constant lost asset announcements are building morale among their unit.


    [How do you keep doing that? Their encryption should be System Skill resistant.] Max asks her, and Nicoughs to herself before answering.


    [I stole a radio from a unit the first day, so now all I need to do is brute force the password twice a day. With my Innate Talent that takes under a second.]


    32 randomized characters takes her less than a second? If anyone in Command learned about that she would never leave a mission control room again.


    Innate Talents can be almost anything, and a hacking skill that strong is pretty rare. It is the greatest and also the most annoying thing about Innate Talents. The pure diversity of them makes them unreliable. Most are extremely specialized, the general purpose ones like his that scans nearby brain activity and hers that will ess almost anyputer program are the one a hundred million level exceptions.


    Not much has made it to the ground near them, and now the iingnders are much lower when they cross the horizon, destined tond in their zone. Max almost pities the soldiers that have been sent to take this region, but not enough to slow his rate of fire.


    [Hold off on those pods.] Wrath of Carb instructs as a group of them falls very near the vige. They are unlikely to contain living troops, and they willnd in direct line of sight of the trenches.


    Cygnus might as well have sent them their own private supply drop, assuming that the location was lightly guarded and ripe for the taking. One of them evennds in the city Square before popping open as designed.


    A picture perfect supply drop, but sent to the wrong side.


    [Commander, it is an infantry drop. 90 days of provisions, with a water maker,pany kitchen and a load of those Cygnus energy rifles.] Captain Catan announces once they search the pod.


    That means the others are likely for infantry as well. Max isn¡¯t sure what went wrong, but the enemy seems to believe that Cygnus forces hold this position. No wonder nobody was attacking them for thest few days.

 78 Chapter 78

    It doesn¡¯t take Cygnusmand long to realize that things have gone horribly, unexpectedly wrong. That includes the drop they sent to Max¡¯s position. They saw the super heavy units still present as well as all the Reavers in field maintenance positionid out inside the vige and assumed that they were victorious but lostmunications.


    They learned better when Wrath of Carb began shooting downnders. But by that time they had already sent the location a months rations and all new equipment for ten thousand infantry that were inbound with thenders.


    The simrity between the two nationsnders was remarkable to Max. Both were a flying brick with huge thrusters on one end and doors on the other, with small folding wings for stability and maneuvering in the atmosphere.


    The Cygnus army had almost immediately sent a mecha unit in a failed attempt to recover at least one pod, since the floods and scorching hot shock wave had destroyed almost all the provisions they had in the region and very few reinforcements survived.


    Max also learned from theirmunications that the orbital strike that destroyed the city Wrath of Carb was stationed at was a Kepler attack, with the friendly fleet believing his position to be overrun already due to the signal jamming. An entire Cygnus Heavy Mecha Regiment was lost in the attack, and an unknown number of infantry.


    General Carb hadn¡¯t realized things were that bad around him before the strike, but the Cygnus report reveals that with the city destroyed, the bridge is now a front line strategic location. One that they don¡¯t intend to allow to remain in Kepler hands.<sub>.</sub>


    The following day starts out with an attempt to paradrop special forces in exoskeletal armor just before dawn. None made it to the ground intact. That was followed five minutester by a double wing of Reavers attempting to capture a drop pod, only to realize that the Kepler forces had already emptied them.


    When they realized that their mission had just gotten much harder they didn¡¯t hesitate to rush the trenches,going toplete a recovery. General Carb was sleeping and Max was off duty so Nico led the defense in typically Nico fashion.


    She had all the light mecha in the defense line pick the same target and fire in organized volleys. Every two seconds when she called the volley, a Reaver died and a new target was chosen. Only three other Crusaders were on duty, but following the same tactic at twice the firing rate they managed to eliminate the enemy without taking any casualties.


    Alone, the light mecha don¡¯t do much to a Reaver at maximum range, but twenty at a time they had no problem at all,it was just a matter of organizing them to target the same point. The Cygnus raiders didn¡¯t even get into infantry heavy weapons range.


    ¡°You¡¯d think they¡¯d learn.¡± Max sighed to himself after the third patrol sized raid that day. With just the entrenched infantry and the few light Mecha that are on duty, the base could turn away 20 light Mecha and a wing of three closebat Reavers.<sub></sub>


    The enemy can see they¡¯ve got Wrath of Carb plus a number of Crusaders here. What are they even trying to aplish with these small scale raids?


    Meanwhile in the Cygnusmand bunker, things were not going well. Light Mecha sent on patrol are running out of fuel, the Reavers are low on ammunition everywhere along the front lines and General stores are in an even worse condition.


    The resupply attempt was an absolute disaster and forces have been acting independently to attempt to im whatever they can to survive after the flood. Everthing is chaos, but the Lord Commander of the theater refuses to listen to anything his advisors say.


    Or at least, the ones that are left after he had the first group executed for telling things like they are. Treason and Cowardice he called it.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you even take a simple bridge?¡± The Cygnus Lord Commander shouts at his front line Generals who are doing their best not to roll their eyes at his temper tantrum.<sub></sub>


    ¡°It¡¯s been days since thending, and we haven¡¯t taken a single position in our advance towards the southern cities. You¡¯re trying to make me look like an idiot, aren¡¯t you?¡± He screams, his face turning blotchy red with the effort, as sweat rolls in beads down his portly face.


    None present dared to tell him he was an idiot. They¡¯d lost over a hundred thousand Mecha and ten times that many troops in thending disaster he ordered. None of the supply drops for this sector had survived, and an orbital strike had destroyed all the Kepler supplies they could otherwise have used from the city ruins.


    The Kepler defense strategy and the resultant floods from the destroyed mother ships has amounted to a scorched earth policy, there is nothing left behind, and the Cygnus supply lines have been shattered. Even with orbital superiority, they are likely to starve to death if the Kepler Mecha don¡¯t get to them first.


    If they can¡¯t get things sorted within the week, mass desertion is likely. At that point, there is no point trying to go home, they would be exiled as traitors and pariahs for the incredible loss of life in a failed battle assisting a foreign rebellion.


    The reinforcements who survived to reach the ground went on half rations the day they arrived, and they needed to take a Major City to recover enough to stabilize their hold, but that has proven impossible so far.


    ¡°My lord, if we could just get a supply drop for the target region.¡± one General begins, causing the Lord Commander to smash his fist on the table in rage.


    ¡°We can¡¯t get one until we take either that bridge or the Capital that Carpe Noctem is holding, that evil bastard. They¡¯ve got an orbital defense weapon in the city there somewhere that our supply pods are in range of, and whoever is holding that bridge does too.


    The bridge defence is a handful of Crusaders and a mangled Phnx that didn¡¯t even have main weapons working thest time we got a confirmation of its status, so it can¡¯t be much better now. They have no supply lines or spare parts. How could they even mount a proper defence this point?¡±


    The Lord Commander is in a full on rage now, so the Generals dismiss themselves to make a n.


    ¡°Assuming that Phnx is active and they have ammunition, what do we need?¡± one asks.


    ¡°We¡¯ve only got two Super Heavies in the zone. Send both. Reports say up to ten more Crusaders left, so send fifty Reavers minimum, and a hundred scout ss light Mecha to breach the trenches and take out the remaining infantry positions?¡±


    ¡°And if the force that survived the bombarded city are all still at the bridge in hiding?¡± an old General asks softly.


    ¡°Then, given their numbers and assuming they have ammunition left, we¡¯d need a minimum of 100 main Mecha to match their Crusader ss units in fortified positions, plus both Super Heavies and 200 light mecha.¡±


    ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is we¡¯re all going?¡± The General who tried to get a supply drop says with a defeatedugh. Four of the Six were Pilots of the two Super Heavies, and the others led now mostly depleted Mecha regiments.


    ¡°Might as well empty the city then, send everything we have left in the zone. Death or Glory.¡±


    ¡°Death or Glory.¡±

 79 Chapter 79

    Max decided that sending scout teams out on motorcycles was going to be a necessary upgrade. After the flood washed away so much in the area the area they needed to watch was muchrger, owing to theck of hiding spots. That meant more mobility was needed in order to maintain security.


    They are a standard part of most nation¡¯s infantry kit, though the 111th was all out of them by the time they arrived on this.


    Fortunately for them, their kind and generous Cygnus Drop Master benefactors had bequeathed them a massive supply of infantry equipment, which included a number of the electric powered scout bikes. They could be sr charged slowly, or quick charged from a Mecha, and were assembled from their transport crate in minutes.


    Max sent the scouts in pairs, every pair that they could get mobile, including a few pairs in ramshackle civilian transports that were somehow still functional after all thebat in the area. This silence felt like bad news to everyone, like the enemy was just taking time to regroup and stroke back harder.


    So currently, the scouts are arrayed between them and the cities, with a pair of fast moving Sentinel pattern Mecha sent forward to watch for advances from the most likely direction, where Wrath of Carb was driven out from.


    Not even a Corvette ss Mecha can catch a Sentinel at full running speed, so it is much safer than sending scout bikes to the most dangerous point in their forward positions.


    ¡°Colonel, reporting mass enemy movement. Two Super Heavy Mecha and a hundred plus Reaver ss, with light mecha support units.¡± The Sentinels report in the next morning, and Max can hear the exertion in the Pilots voice as they run back for the main force.<sub>.</sub>


    Oh, how he hates being right.


    ¡°All patrols, report back to base, all units to defense positions, get the missile buggies dug in with sightlines to the river if we have any munitions left. Every pilot and heavy weapon team to the ready.¡±


    ¡°Deploy around the full perimeter.¡± Wrath of Carb adds. ¡°I¡¯ve fought this Commander before, they will send forces to nk and encircle, looking for a weak point to breach and enter the base in order to gain the advantage of closebat.¡±


    ¡°You all heard the General. Full circle defence, heavy on the riverside where the main force will approach from.¡±


    Wrath of Carb was precisely correct with his predictions. Fifty Reaver ss Mecha plus both Super Heavy units and a plethora of light Mecha are in front of them across the river, just out of easy weapons range. At the same time, fifty additional Reaver ss Mecha and more light mecha have been spotted circling the fort at a distance, looking for a way in.


    The way they¡¯re holding back looks as if they don¡¯t like what they see. Nico rushes to hack the custom secure channel they are using for this mission, not wanting to miss any orders or updates.<sub></sub>


    It takes a few minutes, since they aren¡¯t using the standard encryption algorithm, but she does manage to get a workable signal before they attack.


    ¡°It¡¯s the worst-case scenario, Sir.¡± She hears. ¡°I count nine visible Crusaders plus a fullpany of light mecha, another dozen possible hidden units and the Wrath of Carb.¡±


    ¡°How does the Carb look? Did they get it repaired?¡± This voice sounds hopeful.


    ¡°Negative, sir, it looks to be disabled, with an assault shield blocking the front of the cockpit and partially repaired armour.¡± The n worked then. The shield is the one that saved its life during thest big fight, and the armour is patched in the essential areas but in need of paint to make everything match.


    ¡°We can do this. Even fortified, those Crusaders can¡¯t stand against two Super Heavies. The attack begins in two minutes.¡± The voice of the Cygnus Commander announces.


    ¡°I got an intercept on the Cygnusmand channel. They suspect our true strength but believe Carb is disabled. The attack begins in 90 seconds.¡± Nico announces to Stalwart Battalion.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Then we attack in 15 seconds. Ten seconds, pick your targets. 4, 3, 2, GO.¡± Max counts down the attack.


    Missiles fly from the upgraded personnel carriers, and a barrage of Ion Fire flies out, crashing into the Cygnus Mecha while they¡¯re preparing. A flurry of projectiles follows, the hidden Mecha revealing themselves to get in on the fight. The only one that hasn¡¯t moved is the Wrath of Carb.


    The iing Cygnus Mecha reach the ravine in a wave two dozen strong, closing as fast as they can to take advantage of their strength in closebat when Wrath of Carbes alive, its mer melting armour ting. At the same time, the Ion Bombardment Array turns on the Super Heavies.


    They¡¯ve been pelted with missiles and have been doing more evading than shooting, but when the first of them is hit by the big guns of the Wrath of Carb, priorities change. They stop evading and turn their weapons on their wounded peer.


    That¡¯s the signal for Stalwart and the missile buggies to go all out on the Super Heavies. A wave of 60 missiles, thest of their supply, focuses on only the two targets along with the battle cannon and the Pulse Lasers of Stalwart.


    One Reaver has gotten close enough to attempt to jump the river near him and Max hits it with both sma shotguns at once, turning the heavy central armour to molten g.


    He will have to thank Nicoter, these new guns are amazing for close quarters defense.


    ¡°For the record, I dislike this n.¡± Wrath of Carb says as hundreds of fist sized rounds m into the shield hung in front of its torso from the rapid fire Cannons on the Cygnus Super Heavy units.


    One Cygnus Super Heavy explodes outright when the barrage of return fire from the Kepler forces hits it, the explosion knocking the other over.


    Wrath of Carb recovers from the barrage, the shield it was wearing is now shredded and the armour behind it showing moderate damage after his barrier shield copsed under the onught. A second burst of the mighty Ion Bombard Array disables the toppled Cygnus Super Heavy, and a cheer goes up from the defenders.


    Max hears the air raid siren on Tarith¡¯s Rage make a noise he¡¯s sure isughter, and the aggressive red Mecha charges at a sword-wielding opponent that just crossed the river, its de at the ready.


    The other sides are doing a little better than the portion at the river, still holding their opponents outside the trenches. The Kepler side of the gunfire is mostly energy based now, infantry projectile rifles do nearly nothing to Mecha, and they are about out of ammunition for them anyhow.


    The Cygnus energy rifles might not be as familiar, but they have a lot of them avable, and a supply of charged spare power cells.


    Max turns his battle cannon towards the southern road, where a heavy Mecha of a design he doesn¡¯t recognize has crashed through the defences. Two quick battle cannon rounds m into the stout Mecha¡¯s back and it explodes in a tremendous fireball.


    He sees one of the defenders go down, and he unloads on the victorious Cygnus Mecha, knocking it backwards, where it receives a sword through its power core courtesy of Tarith¡¯s Rage, before copsing in an oddly human way. Nico kicks the Mecha off her sword and dashes back into the fray.


    Crashing a hundred tons of metal into brutal hand-to-handbat might not be the most efficientbat method ever. Still, it¡¯s got a substantial psychological effect every time she kills an enemy Mecha.


    The survivors of the attack are retreating, along with what Max assumes was supposed to be the second wave of forces, had the battle been more evenly matched, and the defenders start taking inventory of their losses.


    ¡°Stalwart, we have movement on the field, sensors suggest it is a pilot. Moving to intercept.¡± Tarith¡¯s Rage announces over the speaker. She must have damaged her radio, Max decides.


    ¡°Kindly bring me your Ranking Noble, good pilot of Tarith¡¯s Rage. I am Lord General Kirnd, and I would like to surrender.¡± The bloodied man near the downed Super Heavy announces with a sigh of resignation when Nico approaches.

 80 Chapter 80

    Lord General is a Cygnus title that elevates the rank of a Noble above the hereditary rank of their birth. All Cygnus Generals will be Nobles, but during wartime the Lord General ranks only slightly below the Lord Commander who will be in charge of this theater of War.


    ¡°I believe General Carb is a proper noble, please take a seat and I will escort you to him.¡± Nico answers politely, kneeling and cing her Ion Destroyer on the ground. He can sit ory down on it and hold the safety rails used by maintenance crews.


    The voice sounds young, the General thinks. Perhaps the young Pilot lost her family here to the rebels before his forces arrived? The Cygnus Empire values noble blood very highly and took offense from the start to the rebel¡¯s tactics, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.


    Lord General Kirnd checks the intelligence files on his wrist device, checking for any mention of Tarith¡¯s Rage in their files. What he finds is a bit of a shock though. The Tarith family is an ancient noble line, and at one point even married a Cygnus Imperial family member into their ranks. That would make this pilot an Imperial noble of Cygnus, as well as a hereditary noble in Kepler, even if she wasn¡¯t the most senior member, in line to inherit the titles.


    Of course, there are millions of people who qualify as Imperial nobles at this point, but that doesn¡¯t mean that the Cygnus culture holds them in any lower esteem. The Imperial family has a long history of great deeds and not just those in direct contention for the throne.


    ¡°Might you join me for coffee while the papers are drawn, young Lady?¡± The General asks, curious to learn more about the situation within the Kepler Kingdom and the Tarith family.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Forgive me, General. The battlefield is no ce for a respectable youngdy. I don¡¯t customarily leave my Mecha until a tour is over. I do hope you understand.¡± Nico responds politely, making the General seated on the main weapon of her mecha smile.


    ¡°Of course, safety first. You spoke as if this is not your homeworld; might this not be your firstbat engagement?¡±


    ¡°I arrived with the Abraham Kepler, straight from the battle at Belmont, on my first patrol after academy training.¡± None of this was information the Cygnus intelligence couldn¡¯t already get in seconds, should the General be sending audio back in a way she couldn¡¯t detect.


    ¡°The Tarith¡¯s Rage has a splendid reputation among the forces.¡± a voicees from beside them as they enter the city, and Nico can see that the pilot has departed the Wrath of Carb, standing at the doorway to his giant mecha in preparation to head to ground level.


    ¡°Brigadier General Viscount Carb. At your service. Please follow me, and we will process your surrender while my Mecha is repaired. Thest barrage caused some control module damage.¡±<sub></sub>


    The two nobles head to the local academy, where they can hold a proper discussion, and Nico returns to the field to continue her search, along with the light mecha and a few of the crusaders who have functional hands.


    Very little on the Cygnus Mecha interchanges with their equipment, but it felt wrong to leave it lying about, so Max ordered it all collected and stored within the city until they could find a use for it.


    An hourter, the search teams made a notable find among the limited amount of potentially useful bits, an ejection pod from the exploded Super Heavy Mecha. It was damaged but indicated life inside.


    [Tarith¡¯s Rage to General Carb,e in.]


    [Go ahead Tarith, how might I help you?] He sounds very formal; he must still be with the other Commander.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Cleanup crew have recovered the ejected pilot¡¯spartment from the other Super Heavy. Should I bring them to you for relocation, or should I leave them in there for a while?¡±


    There¡¯s a long pause. ¡°Gather all survivors. Cygnus is willing to ransom all their officers.¡±


    ¡°Keep all officers alive if found, recovery crew. Their country is willing to repurchase all of them with terms.¡± The infantryugh at the Tarith¡¯s Rage. Of course, all Cygnus officers get Ransom, the same way that the infantry gets rewards for the pilots that they capture alive. Lately, they have been too hard-pressed by the attackers to keep Cygunus captives, so they haven¡¯t been making the effort and have been letting them flee instead. Or perhaps, only fighting rebel bureaucrats and their forces during her short time as a Pilot, she had be used to just killing everyone for treason?


    Two more survivors in Brigadier General uniforms are found among the rubble, along with 3 Captains and a Major. Not bad, considering under fifty units survived to flee. All are brought to Tarith¡¯s Rage for sorting, and the capsule is pried open, releasing both pilots alive.


    ¡°Greetings, assembled officers. I am told you value noble rank over military rank, is that correct?¡±


    They all nod, and she continues, ¡°Good, my knowledge of Cygnus culture is limited. I am the Lady Tarith, pilot of Tarith¡¯s Rage. As civilizedbatants, you will be brought to our base to await ransom negotiations. Those that don¡¯t wish that can be granted a merciful death now, dying in battle with full honors.¡±


    This was an honor they never expected. Being ransomed back will cost their families immensely, but dying as cowards would cost their entire lineage their title and good standing.


    The coup de grace, or merciful death, was a custom of Nico¡¯s old life, she remembered. Moremonly used for the severely injured, it was also granted to those whose honor demanded that they not be held captive after a loss.


    One Captain stands up straighter. ¡°Madam Tarith, my family is poor and newly promoted. We could not possibly afford the ransom. I¡¯m afraid I shall perish of my injuries here.¡±


    ¡°My condolences, sir.¡± She says, then flicks his head with a giant finger, shattering his skull and neck.


    ¡°Someone gather his name for the dead on arrival lists.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for your consideration. Cygnus pays a sizeable death benefit to the families who lose a pilot inbat.¡± One of the Generals bows to the sinister-looking Crusader ss mecha, the blood-red paint now scorched and gouged all over, and sttered with mud and oil.


    ¡°Now, to get you all to yourpatriot. One pilot of the other Super Heavy survived as well.¡± Nico informs them.


    That¡¯s 5 of 6 Command Staff Generals apprehended, they realize. The Lord Commander will likely flee in shame at having ordered a mission that got so many Generals captured alive.

 81 Chapter 81

    The captured officers proved to be of greater benefit than was expected by anyone in the Kepler military. The Major and the Captain that they had captured both had an Imperial family, and the three other pilots were considered high-value assets.


    The Cygnus Fleet decided to use the prisoner exchange negotiation to escape the debacle the Lord Commander had created, holding him up as a warmonger and scapegoat while arranging a ceasefire and withdrawal n from the. It was only six of the eighteen Generals on the captured or killed, but it was all in one day and included the Lord General, who currently had the favor of arge part of the administration in the Defense Department.


    [Bridge Defense zone, prepare for a return to the Abraham Kepler. Liftoff is scheduled in 72 hours, please begin preparing yournder for reorbitunch. Central Command requires confirmation ofnder functionality within the next 24 hours. Inform Command directly if thender is inoperative for alternative removal.] Comes the orders for Max and his unit.


    [You heard themand. Time to dig up thender and run diagnostics. Seventy-two hours until we¡¯re back on board the Abraham Kepler.] Max rys to the units gathered within the vige. That causes some confusion, as they did not all arrive on board the Abraham Kepler.


    It¡¯s not unheard of though, and with an intense orbital battle, there is a good chance that some of the transport ships are destroyed or currently inoperative. The standard procedure after such a battle is to extract everyone as efficiently as possible and reorganize at a staging base to refill theplements of the ships that are still in service, as well as replenish the ranks of depleted units. They might be added to new recruitment, or possibly retired early in the case of an infantry unit that is nearing the end of its service.


    ¡°What are your ns for after this, General Carb? I heard you lost your copilot early in the rebellion before we had even arrived.¡± Max asks the Phnx ss pilot that evening, curious as to what his ns are. The Wrath of Carb was stationed on this before the battle, plus this is his homeworld, but at this point, most of the poption is dead and the itself is in horrible shape.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be with our esteemed guests until the transfer, then I¡¯m going to go back and see if there¡¯s anything left of my home. This is my world, after all.¡± The General confirms.


    With the help of so many mecha, digging up thender only takes a few hours, and the systems all test well. A quick test fire lifts it off the ground and out of the pit they dug for it without any issues, so Max rys the information of the test fire to Command and has the infantry double-check the structure and do another pressure holding test. They are the ones who will be unprotected against the atmosphere inside thender, if it leaks they all die, so they¡¯re the best ones to test it.


    For two days, Max was stuck in the Academymand room with the ranking officers, doing paperwork while the defense crew at the bridge packed everything that they possibly could into thender for merits and war trophies. They have acquired a vast amount of gear since their arrival, from two different nations. Mecha chassis, the armored personnel transports they mounted rocket pods on, spare parts, guns, and all sorts of goodies that they are hoping to keep for their next engagements.


    In the end, they barely fit all of the important equipment. But it does all fit and is slightly below the maximum allowed weight for thender once their mecha and troops are added.<sub>.</sub>


    Notificationse in from Command four hours before liftoff. The Wrath of Carb will be staying behind, his duty requires him to be here on the and orbital scans show that his home city is rtively intact. The officers gathered for Ransom will be going with Max and his men to the Abraham Kepler, where the official prisoner exchange will ur.


    The Shining Darkness will also be returning to the Abraham Kepler, with the Carpe Noctem plus an attached armored regiment joining them, as their transport ship was destroyed in the orbital battle. Most of the infantry and mecha from the bridge that didn¡¯t start the battle with Max are from those regiments, so it works out perfectly for them, getting to rejoin theirrades right away instead of having to wait for reorganization.


    ¡°So, will you finally be joining us down here, Tarith?¡± Captain Tarsus jokes after the orders are finalized. ¡°Or have you be sofortable in there that you¡¯re not nning to leave?¡±


    Captain Tarsus doesn¡¯t get a verbal response. Instead, the data transfer function on his wrist device receives a photo of a cockpit bunk piled with soft nkets and pillows, with a data tablet open to the book ¡®Embracing Minimalism for a Bigger Life¡¯ sitting in the middle.


    ¡°So, what did she have to say?¡± Max asks, wondering when he¡¯ll see his friend in the flesh again, and the Captain shows him the picture,ughing.


    ¡°Yeah, that sounds like her. I¡¯ll get the crew to make her disembark before everyone has dispersed.¡± Max assures the eager Captain.


    The longer-serving members of the defense forces have been telling ghost stories to the new arrivals about Tarith¡¯s Rage being an autonomous mecha, operating itself on pure bloodlust ingrained into its onboard systems. The infantry is known to be superstitious, and the rumor seems to have caught on entirely too well. Her aggressivebat style and the modified voices that she uses for the inte didn¡¯t help the situation either.


    In the end, Max doesn¡¯t have to do anything to get her toe out. A protocol notice just before liftoff informs the entire Battalion that the senior officer and all present Nobles are required to attend to the captured officers personally until the hand-off, with two armed guards for each ¡°Esteemed Guest.¡±


    Nico¡¯s name is listed on the order as ¡°Lady Tarith¡±, with verifying documents sent from the Kepler 142 station confirming her identity and lineage at the time that Tarith¡¯s Rage was deployed.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Who did they bang to get the VIP treatment?¡± a sour-sounding Nicoins as she exits her mecha for the first time since they left orbit and the nearby officersugh at her irritable nature and the way she shields her eyes even in the thick haze that covers the sun these days.


    ¡°Captain Tarsus, Captain Catan, you will each send five men to guard duty. I don¡¯t want any screw-ups, so make them good.¡± Max orders, and the two officers leave to inform their troopers.


    Max¡¯smand guarantees both Captains will be on the guard team, along with a few superstitious soldiers eager to see the elusive Nico Tarith in the flesh. They bring two more officers and two enlisted men each. Both in case chores need to be done and to give the enlisted fewer chances toin. The possible existence of a Young Lady inside Tarith¡¯s Rage has been a significant talking point and rumor amongst the troops, after all. Leaving the enlisted out would just breed resentment.


    ¡°The Lady Tarith seems to be in an irritable mood.¡± One of the captured Cygnus Generals notes to Max when he sees her going over the orders with the Captains.


    ¡°She hasn¡¯t killed anyone in three days, it makes her grumpy.¡± Maxughs.


    ¡°But honestly, I think she just doesn¡¯t want to get out of her cockpit and interact with people. Out here, she can¡¯t just turn her radio to a different channel to tune chatter out.¡±


    Max knows she had done that more than once, he saw it in her mind. Everyone else believed that her radio was down and she was working to repair it, but in reality, she was just more interested in the book that she had brought with her than human interaction and only had the volume on sensors and alerts turned up.


    Even with orders to apany the other officers during their trip to orbit, Nico waited until thest minute to exit her mecha, after everyone else was secured in for takeoff. She hopped down from the hull to the attached securement beam with a graceful bounce that was clearly well beyond what average humans should be capable of, waving to the assembled infantry as they sat staring in shock.


    ¡°I thought she was going to stay locked in?¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear, she was ordered to apany the captive Generals?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s so tiny.¡±


    That was the overwhelming thought in the minds of the Battalion on first meeting Pilot Nico. Her 145cm height hadn¡¯t increased even a little bit during their stay, where Max had already needed to switch dress uniforms, his old ones were a size too small in the chest and legs when he tried to put them on the first morning after the battle. The pilot suits were much more forgiving of sizing.


    ¡°Wee, Captain¡­ Nico?¡± The door guard greeted her at the entry to the prisoner¡¯s cabin.


    ¡°You¡¯re Captain Nico, of Tarith¡¯s Rage?¡± he stammered in shock.


    ¡°Good reaction, I like that surprised face. Now, will you kindly open that door and get yourself secured so we can lift off?¡± Nico smiled back at him.


    The guard opens the door, securing himself into the hard-mounted chair nearby before closing it behind her.


    ¡°Sorry for the dys, gentlemen. We should be ready for liftoff.¡±


    The look on every Cygnus Officer¡¯s face is one ofplete shock. This is the pilot of the fearless and brutal Tarith¡¯s Rage? This small child? She wears a perfectly fitted Captain¡¯s uniform, so it must be her, but they had expected that rash and aggressive pilot to be someonerge and imposing. The person in front of them doesn¡¯t fit the image in their minds at all.


    ¡°Are we sure that the Kepler Kingdom hasn¡¯t beenmitting war crimes? The captured Major asks. ¡°There are international conventions on recruitment for war that prohibit the use of child soldiers.¡±


    Nicoughs and hops into a chair to secure herself while the others look for a good answer. Because, yes, by all legal standards, theirmand staff is proof of war crimes. Neither Stalwart nor Tarith¡¯s Rage should have been sent into battle for an entire year after they had been assigned to these pilots, and in normal circumstances, they wouldn¡¯t have been. The rebellion had led to an emergency deployment, and the fact that there were cadet pilots in Crusaders who had not met the two years after puberty legal standard for adulthood never urred to Command. Such an early advancement to Piloting Crusaders was all but unheard of, so it wasn¡¯t something that they checked.


    After the battle of Belmont, they were both fullymissioned and battle-tested officers, so Command simply adjusted their birthdates in the official records and pretended that nothing untoward had ever happened.


    ¡°Appearances can be deceiving, General. While I¡¯m certain I still look to be in the prime of my youth, I can assure you that I was already an experienced officer when the battles between Kepler and the Cygnus army started.¡± Nico assures them, glossing over the finer details.


    ¡°We were in the same ss at the academy, Captain Nico is only a few minutes younger than I am.¡± Max assures them, putting their minds at ease. While he still looks young, he has filled out into a tall and well-muscled young man, his closely cropped, sandy blonde hair has darkened a little from his time inside the mecha and the stress of battle has added wisdom to his face that makes him look more mature and responsible.


    To Cygnus, the minimum legal age forbat troops is 14. Max is only a year younger than that in this reincarnation, but with the memories of his past life slowly filling in, it has been a while since he felt his age. The captured officers take a moment to digest the news about the petite pilot being a veteran before this engagement and afortable silence momentarily fills the room.


    Now that the battle is over and he can actually rx, Max is also starting to feel the change in his system. Livebat helps a soldier grow more than any form of training, and Max is certain that he had gained a lot from this deployment, he simply hadn¡¯t felt a need to look at the details, when he could look at the results of the increases in the uracy and speed of his multiple targeting skills.


    [Keres Max]


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+105%


    [DEX] 3+62%


    [SPD] 3+62%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]

 82 Chapter 82

    With everyone securely strapped in, thender was ready for its final checks beforeunch. Wrath of Carb also wouldn¡¯t leave the area until they were over the horizon, in case any attempt to assassinate the prisoners was made. With his array of weaponry, he was able to shoot down most types of missiles that might be fired at thender, a small bit of extra security for Max¡¯s trip back home.


    Without the urgent rush ofbat, the Lander lifts smoothly off the ground and makes the transition from an anti-gravity field hover to forward flight. In order to get enough fuel to make orbit, they had to drain most of the Cygnus light mecha that still had intact tanks and bring their own light mecha down below a quarter tank, and even at that, they were going to be close on fuel levels if they have to do much additional maneuvering.


    Fuel nning for thenders assumes that they will being back up the same weight or lighter than when theynded, to ount forbat losses and light mecha usage duringbat. That wasn¡¯t at all the case for their unit, so improvisation was needed.


    Most of the passengers in the officer¡¯s room are silent as theyunch, tense about theirunch being discovered and attacked by one side or the other, but Nico and General Kirnd are having a polite conversation about interior decoration of all things.


    They are both of the belief that the standard drab color scheme is not optimal for a pilot¡¯s mental focus, believing that a wider variety of colors, as well as warm and rxing tones, would help pilots to feel at ease. When pilots are more rxed, they should be more in tune with their mecha, which will lead to lower fatigue levels, more attentiveness as well as decreased reaction times.


    The other Generals seem amused at the way that they are subtly probing each other for control tricks and the limitations of their respective mecha, but the infantry officers that are there to supervise the Cygnus officers just look a bit horrified at the implications of increased pilot efficiency. Even slightly more deadly mecha just means an even more brutal massacre for them.


    ¡°Lady Tarith, is it true that you painted skulls on the bottom of your Crusader¡¯s feet to terrify enemy light mecha inbat?¡± One of the Colonels they captured asks, making all the members of Max¡¯s forceugh.


    ¡°On the contrary, the feet of Tartith¡¯s Rage have smiley faces painted on them. For a Kinder, Gentler form of intimidation.¡± Nico disagrees, making Max snort inughter.


    ¡°But Tarith¡¯s Rage is hardly noteworthy as a Mecha, other than its ancient manufacture. I haven¡¯t even customized it yet, the pattern is the same as it was a thousand years ago. Most of the mecha in our unit underwent upgrades during the battle, either due tock of munitions or for increased firepower.¡± she continues with a big smile which makes the Cygnus officers frown.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°We noticed. That Stalwart piloted by Captain Max is a fine example of battlefield ingenuity, using our own sma Shotguns against us to offset the weakness of a fully ranged Crusader in closebat.¡± General Kirnd says with a slightly sour tone.


    ¡°Don¡¯t take it the wrong way General, I would have used Kepler closebat weapons if I had them handy, but we had such a fine collection of sma Shotguns that it would have been a waste not to make good use of them. Just wait, before the next battle, I¡¯m going to teach him the art of kicking mecha in the face.¡± Nicoughs, making the slender and gray-haired General Kirnd smile a little.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that the Kepler pilots¡¯ so-called System Functions can do wonderful things, but I don¡¯t think that just anyone can urately handle a mecha during that sort of extreme maneuver. Just the turn to actuallynd the kick has to be near 3 times standard gravity inside the cockpit. That¡¯s why we switched to neural links instead of control suits, while your Crusaders still use hand controls.¡± he counters.


    ¡°When you only weigh 35 kilos, you don¡¯t need much strength to perform mecha-based acrobatics.¡± one of the other Generals snickers, looking over to where Nico¡¯s head doesn¡¯t even reach the headrest of the seats, being pressed against the back rest by theunch forces that aren¡¯t being fully dampened by the gravity control of thender.


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t want to face her in a basketball game.¡± Max agrees, reminding the others that he is in the room. He might be inmand, but she is the only one with anything resembling a noble title as far as Max knows, and Cygnus values that over military rank.


    Thender transitions to zero gravity as it leaves the atmosphere and the warning rm sounds.


    [Gravity Field adjustment Failure. Please service at your soonest convenience.]


    The polite notification for a situation that could well kill anyone inside thender in case of an emergencynding brings a bit of levity to the assembled troops in the main chamber, before it is followed a few secondster by a navigational update.<sub></sub>


    [3 minutes to docking with the Abraham Kepler]


    ¡°They must be anxious to meet us if they¡¯vee that close to the atmosphere. I don¡¯t suppose you have an outside viewer to show us the situation between the fleets?¡± General Kirnd asks, but Max shakes his head.


    ¡°They were damaged during thending. We¡¯re almost flying blind up here. But the navigation system checked out, and we still have ess to the automated system, should we need to make adjustments.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine then. Lady Tarith, are you betrothed yet? I have a son who would benefit greatly from a personality like yours.¡± General Kirnd changes the topic with a sly wink.


    Nicoughs at his alliance suggestion, knowing it¡¯s just a joke. Both Imperial families would have to approve of such a union, and the two countries were officially at war 4 days ago.


    ¡°Unfortunately, that¡¯s not an option. Though I hear Captain Catan here, younger son of Baron Catan is in dire need of a pretty, young bride now that his term of service ising to a close.¡± Nico teases, making the infantry Captain blush a little, highlighting the scars on his face.


    ¡°Where did you hear that? I hid my family lineage when I applied.¡±


    Now it is Max that isughing. ¡°You thought you could hide anything from Nico Tarith? You were deluding yourself. She likely looked through your mother¡¯s photo album before trusting you with unsupervisedmand of Bravo Company.¡±<sub></sub>


    In fact, she had. Young Captain Garrett¡¯s mother practically lived to post photos on the, she had seen hundreds of the Captain¡¯s childhood photos once she knew where to look on the Kepler dataworks.


    ¡°Your mother is a skilled photographer.¡± shemends, showing everyone a photo of him in his kindergarten uniform.


    General Kirnd is having a greatugh at Captain Catan¡¯s expense. ¡°See boys, this is the kind of banter a unit should have. They¡¯re not stuck on rank or protocol, they¡¯re a proper officers corps.¡±


    From there on out, the conversation is light, often about family, while the trials of war and the battle that brought this odd group together are ignored. It¡¯s almost a disappointment when thender docks with the Abraham Kepler and the orders to disembarke.


    [All arriving units fall in for inspection. Officers and guests hold fast in the secured quarters for further instructions.]


    [You heard the automated notice. All units, exit thender and fall in. Full checks will be done before you are assigned quarters.] Max calls over the intes.


    While they wait with the Cygnus officers, the rest of the force slowly makes their way to the check-in area just outside thender docks to have all their war spoils documented and the remainingpany equipment and munitions, as well as casualties, injuries, and survivors inventoried. The check-in process will take hours, even though the infantry can go when they themselves are done and the mecha will get a full diagnosticter when they are in the repair bays.


    A Kepler supply officeres over to inspect the returning forces, turning to Captain Catan, who is the senior officer present. ¡°Impressive troops. Is it just me, or are these troops better equipped after the battle than when they left?¡±


    ¡°We believe, as Kepler Infantry, in being ready for anything. As such, we scrounge the battlefield for everything useful and add it to our own equipment. If you look over to your left, you¡¯ll see our newly acquired troop transport vehicles.¡± Captain Catan informs him with a smile, pointing at the missile buggies.


    ¡°Those are still infantry transports? How many do they hold?¡±


    ¡°Military Secret, I¡¯m afraid. Not as many as stock, but the missile pods didn¡¯t take up too much capacity.¡± The supply officer nods, knowing already how many the stock version can hold and not particrly caring what Bravo Company chose to do with their equipment, except the munitions capacity that will be needed to resupply them.


    The signal is given that the Cygnus officers can be led out of the secure areas, and everyone straightens their uniforms and puts their hats back on, getting presentable to meet with whatever political dignitaries have been sent to greet the Generals.


    ¡°Generals, Imperial Highness, Captain Max, Lady Tarith. It is good to see your trip went safely.¡± A politician in Cygnus¡¯s official government uniform greets them as he approaches.


    ¡°Ah, Jervis, good to see you here. Please do escort us to the ransom meeting¡± General Kirnd replies, making the man¡¯s eye twitch. Clearly, Jervis is not this man¡¯s name.


    ¡°This way, Sirs and Madam.¡± He intones, motioning towards the far door.


    Nico frowns, knowing that now there is no escape, she will be stuck in meetings until the small hours of the morning. Max gives her an amused smile, secretly d that he doesn¡¯t have to suffer half a day of political nonsense alone. He is very good with troops, but with lifelong politicians and trade negotiations involvings that he has never, and likely will never see? He really doesn¡¯t see any good reason for him to be there, except that he is the one who epted their surrender.


    ¡°Now that everyone is here, the final discussion can begin. Does anyone have any special requests before we begin drawing up the agreement?¡±


    ¡°The pilot of Stalwart must be given a title. It cannot be said that we surrendered to amoner, even if there were other nobles present at the time.¡± One of the Generals insists.


    ¡°Simple enough. Anything else? No, then we can begin.¡±


    The discussions from the fifty or so people present went on for hours, and frankly, everyone is sick of sitting here. Except for a few bureaucrats, they are not doing anything but lending a title to the official record of the proceedings.


    ¡°You look a bit bored Lady Tarith, might I ask what¡¯s on your mind?¡± General Kirnd whispers when he notices that Nico has totally zoned out.


    ¡°If I had just squished you I could be eating dinner right now,¡± Nico whispers back with a big grin, making the manugh out loud and interrupt the proceedings.


    ¡°Something amusing about the transfer of mining materials in exchange for textiles? Lord General Kirnd, Lady Tarith?¡± The head negotiator asks.


    ¡°Battlefield humor good sir. Please, do continue.¡± Nico says in her best formal voice, causing a round of lowughter at the lifelong politicians that have been appointed to head the meeting, who are the only people in the room that were not a soldier at some point, while also being the only ones that actually need to be here right now.


    At least they brought in a fine buffet, suitable for politicians and senior officers soon after. The negotiations continue for nine hours in total, and the outline of the agreement is over forty pages long, but it is finallyplete.


    ¡°It was a pleasure shooting at you Gentlemen, enjoy your trip and I hope to meet you again on better terms.¡± Nico waves farewell as the Cygnus contingent head for their shuttle, making Max and the Kepler delegation facepalm.


    ¡°Likewise, Lady Tarith. Perhaps you might get to enjoy our hospitality next time.¡± General Kirnd replies with a smile and a bow.

 83 Chapter 83

    Bravo and Charlie Companies returned to the infantry quarters, with an ecstatic group of former convicts. The deration came in while they were returning to the Abraham Kepler that they had earned their pardon and would be attached to their respectivepanies, and retired from active service with them when the ship reached Kepler 111 in only a few months¡¯ time.


    Sure, it wasn¡¯t anywhere near their homeworlds, but that didn¡¯t matter. They were better off making a fresh start in a new world as returning war heroes than going home to be known as ex-convicts.


    The infantry army and the 42nd armored are both set to retire from active duty after this battle. Only nine thousand of the original two hundred and fifty thousand infantry from the field army lived to return home, and the Mecha forces aren¡¯t in much better shape, under a third of their original strength. As a reward for heroism, they have all been granted a lifelong sry at their current rank and early retirement back to their homeworld of Kepler 111.


    The sry means very little on the battlefield, but after a decade at war, they have quite a bit saved up, and what they get from now on will be enough for the officers to livefortably, even if they had spent everything before they got home.


    Max realizes that means they are losing everyone he has known and fought beside, except for Nico. A full new field army and an equally inexperienced armored regiment will be loaded on board the Abraham Kepler once the ceremonies for the returning veterans areplete. Experience can be earned quickly though. After all, it has only been two deployments and Max has be quite used to the rigors ofbat at this point.


    That experience came at a high cost though. Despite the rtively sheltered position that they were in at the start of the battle, they still lost a huge portion of their forces in a single battle. Max looked up the roster for the returning forces, and under a thousand of the conscripted prisoners will be going to Kepler 111, and almost all of the survivors are in Bravo and Charlie Company which were attached to him. The paperwork to get the pilots among them properly recognized for their position wasn¡¯t easy to get approved, but Max has managed it, so all the soldiers that served with him will be retired with everything that they are due.<sub>.</sub>


    Lieutenant Becki is a bit less enthusiastic than most to return home. All his siblings were pilots selected during the recruitment for the 42nd armored, and he is the only oneing back. He hasn¡¯t had the heart to tell his mother yet, but since it is their next stop, a form message from the military detailing their service and death benefits will be sent to his mother in the next few days.


    Currently, he is trying to decide if he should tell her in advance or let her find out the hard way and have time to adjust before he shows up alone.


    Personally, Max thinks it will be better for her to hear it from him first, then the denial phase can end when the letters show up, and she can start epting the reality of her loss before herst son shows up.


    Becki is indecisive though, and the final decision is made by one of his wingmen, who uses his inteary contact credit to call Becki¡¯s mother directly, while Max and the rest of the wing keep the Lieutenant from running away. To say the call is ufortable is an understatement of epic proportions, but after a much-needed crying session, the basic details are shared and the timer on the call credit runs out.


    ¡°Thanks, Captain. I didn¡¯t know how much I needed to do that before I did it.¡± Lieutenant Becki thanks Max, who was kneeling behind him to hold him in his chair, before returning to his quarters for the evening, not even waiting for dinner to be served.<sub></sub>


    Late that evening, Max gets an official posting message both to his wrist device and in hard copy delivered by ship staff.


    [Captain Keres Max,


    It is our distinct pleasure to promote you to the rank of Major and assign you to Command of the newly formed Stalwart Special Tactics Unit. Upon arrival at Kepler 111, recruitment from qualifiedary forces will be conducted on your behalf, filling the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit to the strength of a Mixed Batallion.


    Final unit strength and assets will be forwarded as they be avable.


    Lieutenant General Carb,<sub></sub>


    Central Command]


    So General Carb got a promotion and a move to Central Command after the battle. That¡¯s a good spot for him since the General has a good mind for tactics, and a solid respect for all soldiers¡¯ lives, not just the mecha pilots like so many career pencil pushers in Central Command.


    Being assigned a Special Tactics Force is a dubious honor in Max¡¯s estimation. Unlike Special Forces, who are best known for their level of talent, Special Tactics are known for their ability to adapt to almost anything and go anywhere. If the situation calls for rapid insertion, they are a Rapid Insertion force. If it calls for Artillery, they will gear up to be a forward artillery position.


    In theory, that makes them the greater and more prestigious of the two options, but it is also the higher casualty rate option, simply because of the nightmares they are sent into that a standard unit with regtion tactics couldn¡¯t handle. Having to do all that with a fresh green unit is not going to be a pleasant experience.


    Checking the unit details to see if he can find out anything more, Max finds that Nico has been appointed as his executive officer and also promoted to Major. That suggests to Max that at some point he is likely to see another promotion in rank, possibly as soon as the first sessful mission with his new unit.


    Only an hour after thest message, another letter is delivered to Max¡¯s room, notifying him that he has been granted the Noble Rank of Knight. It was one of the conditions of the Cygnus Generals, in order to preserve their dignity in surrender, but it is good to see that the agreement has been upheld so quickly. Even if it was so that any spies that reported back advance information on the deal would see that Max was a noble before the agreement was officially ratified and announced to the public.


    With both letters tucked into his jacket pocket, Max heads to dinner to see if any of the Special Forces Cadets made it back. They are still assigned to the same room as they were before since they were already in the reserves section. In fact, all of the 42nd is there now. Carpe Noctem has joined them and the Shining Darkness aboard the Abraham Kepler for the next leg of their mission, along with his personal Mecha Regiment, so space had to be made for them.


    That still only makes the Mecha hangers a little over half full, but with the 42nd moved to the reserve sector, their former quarters can be fully painted and prepped for the next upants while they get ready to retire.


    At least one full division of infantry came with the Carpe Noctem as well, so Max has high hopes that they might stay on as the ship¡¯s second Field Army, to bnce out all the rookies. It might be asking a lot, but that doesn¡¯t stop Max from holding on to thatst bit of hope. A fully stocked and staffed Abraham Kepler would have been a game-changer when they arrived at Belmont for his first-ever deployment.


    Only one of the Special Forces Cadets is in the dining hall, Russo is having dinner with some of the guys from the 42nd. The whole dining area is packed though, so even if they are here, they would have to wait to get seated. In fact, Max himself will have to wait for a table unless he can find an empty seat. Worst case scenario, he might have to take his tray back to his bunk and eat there.


    Fortunately, Nico is looking out for him, sitting with Captain Catan and Sergeant Morrison of Bravo Company. They have saved him a seat, so Max heads to grab his tray, reminiscing of the days at the academy when they would sit in the corner by the kitchen. Just like then, the table today is in the corner of the room, but Max can see that it is marked on the wall as reserved formand staff, which he and Nico now are. The table properly seats eight, but even as crowded as the room is, nobody is likely to elbow in on themand table.


    If they were feeling snooty, there is a smallermand officers mess only ten yards down the hall, on the other side of the kitchen, but that will likely be full of the colonels and Majors of the 42nd Armored, and Max knows very little about them. Here in the general mess eating beside the rest of the pilots feels morefortable.


    ¡°You made a long walk,ing all the way to the Mecha wing for dinner.¡± Max jokes to the infantry soldiers, who are actually closer to this mess hall than their own, thanks to theyout of the infantry section. They just need to cross the bulkhead between sections that makes up one wall of their rooms at the end of the hall to get here.


    ¡°You should see the chaos in the infantry section. The convicts found out that they¡¯ve all been pardoned as a reward, and they¡¯ve been partying ever since. Fortunately, they have some time before they need to do anything productive.¡± Sergeant Morrisonughs, unterally trading his brownie for Captain Catan¡¯s apple slices. The brownies tend to be rock hard, but the preserved apples are really good.


    ¡°We got the notice just a few minutes ago, we leave orbit tonight, headed home. The trip will be almost a month, and the infantry is excused from training and drills the entire time.¡± Captain Catan exins.


    One month before he has to say goodbye to these battle-brothers and wee a new group of fresh recruits. How did he suddenly be the old man in this scenario?

 84 Chapter 84

    As expected, the Abraham Kepler departs promptly the next morning, on a mission to return the veteran troopers. There is an entire month to kill, so Max decides to take some time to rx and get to know how things are usually done in the other Special Tactics Units. Only, as he discovers, there are none left on board.


    All the ones that were with the 42nd were lost in thest few battles, and the so-called Noctem Regiment, that came with Carpe Noctem, was a fully ceremonial unit up until a month ago. ording to the data that he received from Nico, the political problems that forced General Tennant to take them off Kepler Terminus in such a hurry also caught up to the Carpe Noctem and her pilot. Max isn¡¯t sure if it is suspicious or deliberate that they have ended up together aboard a transport, but two Phnx ss units in one spot is a highly unusual event. The official deployment form for the Abraham Kepler doesn¡¯t even have a column for a second Phnx ss deployment.


    He also hasn¡¯t gotten any more information about the uing deployment to his unit yet, so all he really has to do is kill time. As Max wanders the hallways he hears cheering and shouts of encouragement from the training area in the corner of the reserve barracks.


    That is immediately suspicious, everyone here has been excused from regrly scheduled training for the duration of their transit time. There shouldn¡¯t be much of anyone except a few health nuts in the training rooms, much less arge enough crowd to raise a ruckus that he could hear from the end of the hall.


    Max makes his way over, the crowd parting with mutteredints as he approaches in uniform. The enlisted don¡¯t have the right under military rules to stop him from going where he wants, so Max walks straight in, only to find that they have modified the Virtual Reality boxing program to allow multiple opponents. Six troopers are in VR pods facing away from the crowd, and the data screens all around the room are showing the fights.


    Nobody is going to get hurt in a simtion, so Max removes his hat and coat to show he¡¯s not here on official duty and leans up against a support pir to watch the next match.<sub>.</sub>


    There are six pods, so Max assumed it was a three-on-three fight, special forces attack squad style, but that isn¡¯t whates up on the screen.


    [Major Nico vs Charlie Company] Round 3 Begins


    Max justughs when he sees the fight. They may or may not know it yet, but they are about to get obliterated.


    There is a lot of shouting and betting going on, so Max tosses in 5 credits on Nico, getting the crowd worked up.


    ¡°See that, boys? The Pilots think they are all that. The odds are 5 to 1, the same as the fight. Get those bets up, the betting ends when the first punch is thrown!¡± The Corporal in charge of the bets shouts over the din getting thest few bets in before the fight.<sub></sub>


    The bell rings to signal the beginning of the round and Nico immediately rushes forward, grabbing one of her opponents by the leg and twisting. Despite her size, the system has made her more than strong enough to toss a grown man around like a ragdoll. It would have been kinder if that was what she actually did. Instead, she spun him in a circle, using him as a club to beat his teammates with, raising a wave of jeers andughter from the crowd.


    ¡°No way is she that strong. Major Max, that has to be a glitch, right?¡± One of the soldiers asks and Max shrugs.


    ¡°Watch this and you will understand,¡± Max tells the curious man, before grabbing him and throwing him all the way to the twenty-meter roof of the training room, jumping up to catch him halfway down.


    ¡°Everyone knows that we get a huge benefit from the system that allows us to pilot at a level that no others could, but nobody thinks about what that means when an Alpha Ranked System user is outside their mecha. My modified strength is just over 6 points.¡± Max exins, and a lot of the troopers gasp.


    ¡°At that point is there even a reason to give you a mecha? Why not just give you body armor and a club and let you beat the Line Mecha to death?¡± The trooper asks, tapping Max to ask the Major to let him down from the princess carry that Max caught him in.<sub></sub>


    ¡°The Line Mecha is big enough to carry the power pack and ammunition a pilot needs for battle. That¡¯s why the environmental suits for the political guards are so heavily armored and not more mechanically powerful. The person inside them makes up for the difference.¡± Max tells the soldier with a smirk, setting him back on his own feet.


    The fight is short and brutal, ending in under fifteen seconds without Nico taking a single hit, despite the decade of experience that the troopers have.


    ¡°That¡¯s the round gentlemen. Winnerse up here and im your pay.¡±


    Max collects his 25 credits with a smile at the infantrymen just before a whistle sounds from down the hallway and everyone goes silent, pretending to be working out as thebatants exit the simtors.


    They catch on fast that everyone is putting on an act, and make like they are recovering between sets just as the Colonels from the 42nd armored, Marino and Romano, walk into the room.


    ¡°Colonels, good to see you here. Have youe to get in a few reps while the gym isn¡¯t quite as deserted as usual?¡± Max asks while the two cast suspicious looks around the room.


    ¡°We had reports of a disturbance and illegal gambling going on here. You wouldn¡¯t know anything about that would you Major?¡± Colonel Marino asks suspiciously.


    ¡°Lots of disturbance, the boys got a little worked up. You know how infantry get when they need to burn off some steam. But there isn¡¯t much to bet on unless someone wants to try to beat the daily reps challenge.¡± The challenge is generated by the Abraham Kepler¡¯sputer, based on the usage patterns of the various gyms, so this one, being in the zone assigned to veteran mecha pilots, is set to a standard that nobody without a Beta Ranked or higher system could possiblyplete.


    To start with, the leg press weight is over a ton, for 25 reps. Max canplete it without much trouble, but a bunch of Gamma and Delta-ranked infantrymen? Not even at the end of their term when their system bonuses and natural strength are at their peak.


    The two Colonels rx a little as the soldiers continue to exercise, following a standard training regimen, but with a bit of added motivation. They have already arranged matches against some of the Line Mecha squads, who are mostly Gamma with a few weaker Beta Ranked Systems among them. Those matches they might actually stand a chance against. These elite Crusader Pilots just have too big of an advantage over them to ovee.


    Assured that nothing too out of line is happening, the two Colonels strip to tank tops to begin their daily workout, inspired by the supposed enthusiasm the infantry are showing. They might be on their way home, but getting there in good shape is still a priority. After all, They have been under military supervision since age 12. Not a single one of them is married, and there aren¡¯t many women left in the units to choose from, none at all that the senior officers would be allowed to fraternize with, soing home as war heroes with a lifelong pension, getting married and having a whole litter of children sounds like a pretty good life.


    Theirst two deployments didn¡¯t even have civilian women around who might entertain a friendlypensated offer after all, and that can bring the mind to delusions if left unchecked.


    That bes a daily routine for everyone, fights in the morning, that the senior officers pretend they don¡¯t know about, but with the betting toned down to prevent anyone from getting in financial troubles on their way home, or attracting the attention of higher authorities. Then lunch, followed by an afternoon workout and a trip to the leisure facilities to practice 3D Pool and other ¡®essential skills¡¯.


    Max opts out of most of them. Instead, he opts for studying the wide variety of military tactics used by sessful Special Tactics Units in the past. Nico dly helps him with that, sending him new material to study every day. Max isn¡¯t quite sure where she keeps finding them, but with her skills at hacking, it is probably better that he doesn¡¯t ask too much.


    The data he finds in the tactical summaries sometimes resonate with memories from his past, giving him new ideas about Mecha and infantry tactics that would have worked as well or better in that situation, which triggers more and more of Max¡¯s repressed memories of his past life but unfortunately still mostly ones ofbat, and nearly nothing about his actual life, hobbies, or previous personality.


    The extra knowledge is still a win though, and if nobody in this lifetime has used a tactic, that just means it will be even more effective when he does because nobody will expect it. The memories of Nico¡¯s past are the same, but whatever force she came from wasn¡¯t big on human rights, so some of the tactics that they employed aren¡¯t ones that Max could use in good conscience.

 85 Chapter 85

    Of course, being the only one who knows the tactic won¡¯t do him any good, and the Commander has a lot more to do then just train troops, so Max will need to bring Nico up to speed with his ideas.


    With that on mind, Max spends the evening writing out the battle tactics he improvised so he didn¡¯t forget them. Nico will likely have more ideas to add to the list that she hasn¡¯t sent to him yet, and then they will have to practice them, sote that night Max sends her an alert to meet him at the training simtors at 07:30 the next morning.


    That gives him time to have breakfast and get his mind in order before they start training in all newbat tactics. Even infantry tactics, infiltration, and exoskeleton suits for close quartersbat are within the deployment possibilities for a Special Tactics force.


    It¡¯s a shame that everyone else is retiring though, an extra month to get the officers up to speed would save so much timeter.


    Max suspected that a lot of the new men he is going to be assigned would be graduates from the local academy or university¡¯s Special Forces and advanced officer training sses, but he also knows the Russo and Ibanez were way behind where Nico and him were when they arrived on Belmont.


    The next morning when Max arrives at the training room, Nico is not alone, three offers in Pilots coveralls stand with her. Two tall, olive skinned and dark haired men and one blonde athletic looking woman who has a face like a porcin doll, but with a hint of madness in her eyes that reminds him of Nico during battle.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Commander, meet Paul, Vincente and Ari. All three are qualified Crusader Pilots and all were denied amnesty due to the nature of their crimes. I know you wanted veterans for the team, and these three all have dozens of kills to their records.¡± Nico introduces them and the two men snicker while looking at Ari, the striking blonde.


    ¡°Something amusing Pilots?¡± Max asks.


    ¡°Good morning Commander, I am Captain Mary Aisha, or Ari as everyone prefers. As you guessed, I came with the convicts, sentenced to lifelong penance as part of a botched bank robbery. I was the demolitions expert that rigged the building next door to the back to copse as a distraction, but the cops were onto us and chose it as their observation post.¡± After her exnation, she shrugs as if it was no big deal, or maybe she¡¯s told the story enough times now that it¡¯s just routine.


    Max pulls up her details on a data tablet, finding that she is indeed a highly qualified expert, but that over fifty local defense force officers died when the building copsed.


    That exins the humor in ¡°dozens of kills¡±, she has aplished that both on and off the battlefield.<sub></sub>


    The other two were in for weapons trafficking charges that look extremely flimsy, but bear aary governor¡¯s personal signature as both judge and prosecutor. That exins why they weren¡¯t pardoned.


    All three Pilots have beta ranked systempatibility, with two having strength primary and one with dexterity primary stats. Unexpectedly it is Vincente who has the dexterity primary, though the tall and muscr, olive skinned pilot had put a lot of work into his physique to not look as lithe as most dexterity specialists do.


    ¡°If you arepetent, I will give you a chance. If you can¡¯t keep up, I will see that you are transferred to a suitable posting once the new units arrive.¡± Max decides, d for the chance to have at least enough trainers to get the rookies trained once they arrive. Book smart with no practical experience won¡¯t get them far on a Special Tactics team.


    None of them are infantry officers though, and the squad will be a mixed force again, with infantry making up the bulk of their numbers. He will just have to work with what he will be handed.


    ¡°Alright, the fist test scenario I will use to evaluate your existing skills is a facility capture. Each of you will lead a squad, running the scenario separately. I will give you five minutes after the orders arrive to n.¡± Max deres setting the mission in the simtors, then calling Nico toe watch their test with him.<sub></sub>


    He is nning to have them each lead a team tasked with the assault on the technology facility that he led on Belmont to recover the rebel research and development data. Bravo Company, and even his Stalwart made great gains there thanks to the captured rewards.


    Max knows how he did, so he canpare their responses. Mostly it is creativity and attention to detail Max is looking for. Tactics will be trained as they go.


    The prep time passed quickly and Max checked in on their ns. Paul had made a very by the book sort of assault n. His Crusaders will attack the facility from the top of the hill while light mecha and infantry rush thepound.


    Vincente ns to besiege the facility and send an infiltration team for the data, not terrible, given the information they have, which is the same that Max was given, but with the hidden Mecha in the one hanger, it likely won¡¯t end well.


    Ari ns to send two infiltration teams in advance to bomb the warehouses and cause chaos while the Mecha attack from the main road and the majority of the infantry sneak into the main building using shaped charges to blow in a half dozen windows at once, giving ess all over the building.


    They have all equipped their units very differently. Paul has a bnced force, simr to what Max had to work with. Vincente went with long range heavy weapons for most of his infantry team, while Ari went full stealth. In this case they wouldplement each other well if they were working together, each leading a section of the force.


    ¡°Nico, what do you think? I see some issues, but do you see anything major?¡± Max asks, reading her thoughts to see what his second inmand truly thinks.


    ¡°Ari picked a cooling vent for the power reactor as one of the bombing targets. It¡¯s not in the intelligence analysis, but it¡¯s going to go critical before she finishes the attack. All three are going to struggle to recover the data for different reasons.¡±


    She is exactly right. Paul had problems getting into the main building, but eventually recovered some data. Vincente nearly lost his entire team when the Crusaders in therger hanger activated and had to modify his n and try again with more stealth, skipping six hours in the virtual scenario to give the base time to stand down.


    Ari nearly blew her entire team up when the reactor went critical, but got a bunch of data from the main building and research warehouse out safely.


    ¡°Results are in. Not bad on the creativity. Paul revived the most data, but it might have gone more smoothly if your men had cut the power.


    Vincente, your n was good, but the slow adaptation to the surprise Mecha cost you a lot of time they used to destroy top secret data.


    Ari, bad luck with the breaching charges. That vent was for the nuclear reactor, not the warehouse forges.¡± Max informs them of their results.


    ¡°That was a great twist, totally didn¡¯t expect it.¡± She answers with a nod, thinking of ways she could have avoided such a mistake.


    ¡°It looks like you will all be capable squad leaders, you don¡¯t waste troops and you all equipped yourselves well for the n that you made. Take this as lesson one. The intelligence is always iplete when it isn¡¯t outright incorrect.


    For the rest of the transit time, we will be working on the specialized core skills every Special Tactics team needs to know. Then when we reach Kepler 111, we will all be training the recruits what they need to know to stay alive.¡± Max announces, looking forward to the rest of the day.

 86 Chapter 86

    If the three new officers thought that they would have it easier serving under simrly youthful Commanders, they were sorely mistaken. Both are students of the General Tennant training methods, which are far more intense than anything they had faced before.


    Their day is split into four sections, theory, training, lunch, and repeat. That way they can practice two very different, but rted skills every day.


    Today was their third morning of training and after spending thest two days going over assault techniques that Max and Nico hade up with, they were looking forward to seeing whaty in store for them today.


    ¡°How much experience do you have in mobile suits?¡± Nico asked over breakfast, referring to the roughly human-sized tactical insertion suits.


    They were a step up from pressure suits and bodyguard armor, but still worn around the body. They were often issued equipped with thrusters and wings for flying or aquatic missions and had top-of-the-line robotics that could challenge Line Mecha for strength.


    Forget about using them, nobody in the cafeteria where they were eating breakfast had even seen one in person in years, since the few that were with the original Special Tactics teams were lost.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Will we seriously be using something like that?¡± Vincente asked around a mouthful of pancake.


    ¡°They are in the approved requisition list,¡± Max confirmed with a smile, looking forward to trying them out in the simtors.


    There wasn¡¯t a dedicated simtor for them, instead they use the pressure suit trainer and the modifications are added inside the simtion. The basic controls are the same, it¡¯s just that one has many morebat options.


    Today¡¯s mission is to para drop in from a fast-moving and low-flying transport. Really, they only need to step out the back and hover, then assault the target, an enemy politician hiding inside their fortified home. Stealth has been ruled out because of the security, so brute force assassination is their order for this simtion.


    Max picked the scenario for mobile suit training, which is usually simr to special forces infantry training with better gear, in order to see how everyone¡¯sbat skills are. Nico looks a bit too happy about his decision though.<sub></sub>


    Wondering what she¡¯s thinking, Max looks in on her thoughts, finding her mind lost in memories of a massacre. The enemy they were facing had a weapon that disabled Mecha, but in her past life, the army she served in were all gically engineered superhuman warriors. Even in an infantry battle, the enemy was mercilessly butchered. Hopefully, this training scenario doesn¡¯t end quite that brutally.


    That memory actually gives Max a good idea for this afternoon¡¯s battle simtion. Learning all the techniques needed for closebat will take up most of their journey anyhow, but with Nico¡¯s memories, he might be able to speed that up. His own memories of his former life don¡¯t involve much outside of his Mecha, so they will only be relevant during certain parts of the training n that he has built up for his team.


    ¡°Nico, take the lead. You¡¯re the best in closebat.¡± Max instructsying out the infiltration n to the safe room the politician is almost guaranteed to retreat to.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t Mechabat still much different than infantry fights, even in a suit as light as these?¡± Vincente asks, voicing all of the new officers¡¯ concerns.


    ¡°Trust me, I¡¯ve seen Nico do martial arts in a Corvette ss Mecha better than most can do them on foot. This afternoon we will be reviewing battle footage and physically training the areas we arecking.¡± Max announces, ending the hesitation.<sub></sub>


    The team sets their equipment and the scenery shifts to the inside of the cargo ne.


    ¡°We will drop right over the target, drop straight vertical, and re out before impact,¡± Max instructs before the red lightes on to signal that the rear cargo bay doors are opening.


    [Begin Drop] The inte informs them and Nico leads the team out, charging out the doors and racing towards the ground at full thrust with a de in either hand.


    The ne isn¡¯t quiet, so the guards are already alert, searching the sky for threats. The suits are painted ck to help them blend in with the night sky, but at least a few of the guards on patrol should have some form of advanced optics.


    Everyone but Nico fires their rifles as they chase the de-wielding mobile suit to the ground, reducing the number of guards on patrol. Nico crashes des first into the two soldiers at the doors, smoothly puncturing their armor and letting momentum carry them all through the sturdy metal structure with a resounding crash that echoes through the yard and the house alike.


    [Max has taken up the rear guard position. Close up the formation.] He informs the others, as they reach the ground two seconds behind Nico. The sounds of carnage have brought soldiers out of the side rooms, who are efficiently dispatched by the iing mobile suits.


    Their operation of the graceful units is still a little clumsy fromck of practice, but they are adapting fast. Paul seems adept at knife fighting, dealing with closebat easily, but the others are struggling against the simted Royal Guard, knowing only the most basic of hand-to-hand arts that are taught to Pilots.


    Nico stops for an instant, putting Ion pistol rounds into four targets inside while Max finishes with the targets outside the door, freeing the team frombat.


    The lights have switched to emergency red now, and the sirens are ring. Nico could likely disable them in a second, but that would defeat the purpose of the training mission, and she has used the time she would have been hacking the security to happily dismember the group of guards who had juste out of an elevator.


    She reached inside the waiting elevator and hit a button, sending it away just as the rest of the squad arrived at her position.


    ¡°Halls clear,¡± Ari calls, just as Paul and Vincente report the side rooms clear.


    ¡°Drop at half-second intervals.¡± Max reminds everyone of the n before Nico kicks in the elevator doors and drops down the empty shaft. A swipe of her de breaks the lock on the basement doors and she shoulder checks them open just as Arinds behind her, rifle pointed over Nico¡¯s shoulder.


    A flurry of shooting as Paul and Vincentend is followed by screaming and crashing before Max drops down, firing a round into the hoist mechanism of the armored elevator above them, bringing it sliding down the shaft to prevent them from being followed.


    The basement is coated in blood and a dozen guards lie dead while the team searches the side rooms.


    Only the door to the safe room remains unchecked when Nico calls the all-clear, which is Ari¡¯s cue to ce the charges that will breach the vault.


    The moment the charges detonate Paul and Vincente charge in, shooting anything that moves, and a lot of things that didn¡¯t. If Max didn¡¯t know better, he would think that they had fully emptied their energy storage into the hapless politician. Perhaps the mission triggered a bit of pent-up frustration with their situation in life?


    [Target eliminated.] Max confirms after DNA-checking the politician to be sure it wasn¡¯t a body double.


    They are still under two minutes sincending, leaving them three more to escape before reinforcements are expected. A shaped charge opens a hole in the elevator shaft above the disabled elevator and they head for the roof, where they will be able to signal their victory to the waiting satellites before flying away.


    Again when they reach the heavily guarded roof, Max notices theck of actual fighting ability, moving meleebat training to the top of his to do list. Most things can wait, but betterbat skills will have to be taught to every member of their team, Pilots included.

 87 Chapter 87

    The following afternoon was a nightmare for the pilots, as their new Commanders drilled newbat techniques into their brains.


    ¡°You know, I used to think I was decent at that until I met those two.¡± Paul sighs, as he settles into a seat next to Vincente in the mess hall.


    ¡°No kidding, I feel like I had never held abat knife before today.¡± Vincente agrees, while Ari just shrugs, already having known it was a weak point on her part.


    ¡°I think we might actually learn pretty quickly with those two though. Don¡¯t they say that you can learn more in a day with a Master than in a lifetime with ayman?¡± Ari asks.


    ¡°You¡¯re assuming that this month of training isn¡¯t actually going to take our lives. You were training with Commander Max, you don¡¯t know. I¡¯m pretty sure that Major Nico was just kicking my ass for sport. She¡¯s so small it¡¯s impossible to hit her, and she¡¯s stronger than I am.¡± Paul points out.


    ¡°She¡¯s faster too, and more agile. In fact, I think she might actually have the edge on the Commander when ites to pure physical skills. I heard she has all mechanic field skills though, so we might get our own back when ites to the Crusader ss courses.¡± Ari smiles in anticipation, while Max, who is listening from across the room smirks at their naive optimism.


    Forget oveing the fuside of fire from Stalwart, even against Tarith¡¯s Rage they would struggle tond a hit. Her evasion patterns are all nonstandard, so the Crusader ss Mecha¡¯s predictive targeting is nearly useless. Even his own System Skills struggle to actually connect with her in simtions.<sub>.</sub>


    The next morning Max has prepared a physical training course for them and invited a number of members of Bravo and Charlie Companies toe train with them. Keeping in shape to pass the time is bing more popr as the days pass and the soldiers decide that being in peak form when they arrive home is more likely to impress thedies than a month ofzing around and getting soft.


    Add to that the fact that most of them don¡¯t intend to fully retire, taking up new careers when they get home, and the extrabat training that Max is offering is a very tempting deal for them. Most haven¡¯t had a ton of advanced training, despite the more elite status of theirpanies, and Max is nning to teach control and restraint techniques for the next few days.


    For the Special Tactics force, taking prisoners is often the objective, so his troops will need to know it, and for the retirees who want to get into jobs likew enforcement and private security jobs, it will be even more important. Once they get home there will be no more killing annoying targets, they will need to be restrained with minimal injuries and escorted from the building, or to the prison as the case may be.


    The training room has been split into two groups to begin the day, one that will be learning unarmed fighting and one that will be learning control and restraint techniques. Then after lunch, they will switch. Max will be teaching the control and restraint ss, while Nico goes over the introduction to advanced unarmedbat.


    The ss goes more smoothly than usual, without all the usual clutter of troopers who don¡¯t actually want to be there, and the men are catching on fast to the grappling techniques that Max hase up with as the essentials. On the other side of the room, Nico is teaching her students a particrly brutalbat technique that has all the soldiers staring at her in awe.


    By the time they break for lunch, her group is sparring like they are all Cygnus Special Forces. They had a solid base, to begin with, and while the new techniques are still clumsy in use, they are clearly morepetent than yesterday. Ari in particr is catching on very fast to the new techniques, being limber enough to properly duplicate the maneuvers that Nico is showing them.<sub></sub>


    When they switch, the soldierse to Max¡¯s side of the training hall with a palpable sense of relief, as the grappling training is not nearly as violent and draining as the sparring on the other side. Not that it¡¯s easy, but the recovery after someone is pinned takes a few seconds, giving them a bit of a breather.


    Max grabs dinner in the usual mess hall near his quarters, finding the three new officers chatting with the officers of Bravopany. One of the Lieutenants has a huge bruise on his face that Max recognizes as a boot print, and he wonders how it happened. Neither of them was practicing a technique that involved kicks today.


    Paul waves him over to join them, and Max settles in, giving the bruised soldier a questioning nce.


    The soldier gives him a sheepish grin and points at his cheek. ¡°This? No biggie, I just misunderstood a technique you see.¡±


    Paul nods his agreement. ¡°Exactly. You thought strength was more important than flexibility, and you missed thending when Ari tossed you.¡±


    It seems that the man thought that he could simply brute force stop himself from being thrown to the ground by the smaller officer, and ended up pulling her forward, causing her to step on his face. Max thought he had made it pretty clear that strength wasn¡¯t everything, but even without his warning, Ari has a Beta Rank System Compatibility, and she is stronger than he is.<sub></sub>


    The real news of the day though was Captain Catan sparring with Nico. She had sent him some training techniques after Belmont, and he had been working hard to get better at them, so they went a round to see how his skills had beening along.


    Max knows that he just hit 200 points of total bonus, and his System is currently upgrading his body, a process that usually takes between two days and a week if it¡¯s not only giving you a System Skill. Nico should be close to the same, with a split Primary in Dexterity and Speed, so the fight should have been pretty epic.


    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, it was insane. They used the entire arena like a 3D pool table, jumping between beams and railing like gravity just wasn¡¯t a thing. And the speed, I have never seen a human move that fast, it¡¯s just not natural.¡± One of the troopers is insisting.


    Captain Catan himselfes in a few minutester with Nico, both fresh from the shower andughing about the match, sporting rapidly healing bruises on almost every visible bit of skin.


    ¡°Did you learn a little about what a proper fight looks like?¡± Captain Catan jokes to one of the troopers reying a video of the match for his friends who weren¡¯t at training today.


    ¡°I learned that a flying elbow drop from the Mezzanine balcony doesn¡¯t only happen in staged wrestling matches.¡± The Corporal confirms, so Max looks in on the Captain¡¯s memories to see what happened.


    The two of them had been grappling, and he threw them both off the mezzanine but lost his grip on the limber Major, who managed tond on him elbow first, knocking the wind out of him and ending the match.


    The match looks surreal, like a fight scene from a movie, reminding Max that human limitations as he understands them don¡¯t really apply anymore. He could have done exactly the same thing, and the four-meter fall most likely wouldn¡¯t have caused him much damage, at least not until that elbow hit him.


    Advancing so fast has left Max¡¯s brain ying catch up. Barely a year ago, he was just awakening his System, as a totally average boy entering puberty. Now he could easily throw a grown man the length of a catch ball arena. Maybe a few weeks of taking it slow might do him a lot of good, letting his mind catch up with everything that has changed around him.


    The notion of rxing is put to an end the next morning though. Not only have the trainee numbers doubled, but he also received a new message from Central Command.


    [Major Keres Max,


    In regards to the nonstandard modifications made to the Crusader ss Mecha known as Stalwart:


    The following modifications have been approved for long-term use as standard equipment.


    [1] Shoulder Pauldron Customization


    [2] Cygnus Pattern sma Shotgun X2


    [3] High output Thorium Reactor


    The following modifications have been ordered removed as nonoptimal equipment:


    [1] Modified Battle Cannon Barrel


    Please confirm changes with your Transport¡¯s mecha maintenance crew and prepare a unit paint scheme before arrival at Kepler 111.


    Regards,


    Central Command]


    Max doesn¡¯t recall asking for his reactor to be changed out, but more power is never a bad thing. The real challenge will be finding a unique unit color scheme that will be easily adapted to camouge in various situations, as well as serve as a distinct marker separating them from the standard squads.

 88 Chapter 88

    After seeing the letter from Central Command, Max headed straight for the mecha hangers to see what, if anything had been done to the Stalwart while he was away.


    So far they haven¡¯t done much, only swapped the barrel of his Battle Cannon out for a regtion model with no des welded to it. Even if Command had approved his modification of it, that wouldn¡¯t be surprising, since the old barrel had taken some battle damage over the course of their mission.


    Nobody is currently working on his unit, so Max climbs the gantry and hops inside, powering up the Stalwart to check the functionality and optimize the battle Cannon for the new barrel. Everything looks fully functional, but as Max goes through the structure with his [Optimization] Skill, he notices that everything feels really sluggish.


    Checking again shows that everything is at the very peak of spec performance, and Max pauses in confusion for a moment, wondering what went wrong. Then it urs to him, that his mecha is fully optimized, but it hasn¡¯t been modified by Nico for higher performance. After nearly a thousand rounds out of the old Battle Cannon, going back to a bone stock one is just painfully slow, so Max sends a text alert to his second inmand toe to fix his new artillery piece as soon as she has time.


    The big question tonight is what colors should he go with for the unit? Realistically, the Crusaders will never be able to blend into their surroundings, unless they pretend to be trees in a forest., and even that would require the observer to be at least half blind. But highlighting their presence from a distance is also not a great idea. So he needs something that will blend in with most surroundings, while still being unique enough to make them stand out from the standard-issue troops.<sub>.</sub>


    Max looks over the uniforms for the iing recruits, to see if they will be any different from the 42nd Armored that is retiring, and finds that they are simr, but not quite identical. The new units will be olive green with bronze trim, and the infantry will wear blue berets with their unit insignia on them.


    None of them really know what they will be assigned to do after recruitment, with all the talk of political uprisings, but Max found that after a while, churned dark brown dirt and gray stone dust were the mostmon colors on the two battlefields that he has served on.


    Brown and Gray is a pretty lousy mecha scheme though, looking dingy at all times. Pilots take great pride in their Mecha, so something with a bit of sh is the standard, with the green of the mecha that originate on Kepler 111 being the outlier.


    Max ys around a while and decides that a bone-colored armor with bronze trim and red unit markings is his favorite of all the color schemes that he hase up with so far. In battle, it will make them stand out, but not enough that they will be overly highlighted against the skyline. Meanwhile, on parade, it will look noble and powerful. That should make the pilots happy.<sub></sub>


    Special Tactics units often disguise their mecha for missions anyhow, either for the locale, or to imitate the target units, so the main scheme won¡¯t always be on them, and almost never on the specialty units like the Mobile Suits and Powered Armor.


    Max returns to his room, where he pulls the color scheme up on all of the units that they are likely to be using and sends a copy to Nico. She can give her opinion on that in the morning once she has time to really go over it and make a decision on how she likes it. If she has a color scheme in mind that he likes better, Max will consider changing it, so he doesn¡¯t send the final orders through to the hangers yet, and simply settles into bed for the evening.


    Fortunately, Nico doesn¡¯t have any objections to the new color scheme, so Max puts the details into the Unit¡¯s data before breakfast and heads to the training grounds to see how the three new officers are progressing. The presence of so many soldiers for thebat training is doing them a world of good, not only do they have multiple partners to choose to spar with, they are all at different training and physical ability levels.


    They are still working on unarmedbat, but with the recent practice, Max can start to step up their skills, from basic throws tobinations and defensive grabs. If progress keeps going this way, they shouldn¡¯t have any issues once they get to the recruitment grounds to pick up the new unit.<sub></sub>


    Two dayster, the first round of requisition orders arrives in Max¡¯s inbox. Their total Mecha count has been finalized, with five Crusaders, Thirty Light Mecha, all Corvette ss, and onepany of infantry.


    The provisioning will mostly be done after they arrive, but the color scheme has been approved by Central Command, as have the Light Mecha requisitions and the Crusader assignments. But what Max needs to know, is what patterns will he be ordering? The Corvette ss Mecha can have a variety of equipment, but there isn¡¯t enough budget to get all of them at once, especially not if he is going to order the specialized equipment he knows that the unit is going to need.


    Not having a unit on board to discuss everything with is bing a real headache for him, and even the General doesn¡¯t have much experience with provisioning a Special Tactics unit. He does turn out to be a wealth of knowledge about the actual tactics though, which indirectly gives Max a better idea of what they¡¯re actually going to need and what it is just frivolous spending.


    Once he finishes meeting with General Tennant, Max calls the three new officers to a spare meeting room for what might be the most important meeting of their career, other than the trial thatnded them in jail that is.


    [Ari, Paul, Vincente, report to Meeting room R13 in 30 minutes] he sends to their wrist devices, pulling the three officers out of bed in a hurry.


    They see him every day at the training grounds anyhow, and it¡¯s not even breakfast yet, so whatever he has to talk to them about must be important. They¡¯re all hoping that they are going to learn about their new Crusader ss Mecha today since they are almost halfway to their destination now. None of them thinks that it is likely that they will get any sort of choice, given their military records, but the mere fact that they are going to be back in one of the giant mechas again is a blessing.


    ¡°Wee, you¡¯re right on time.¡± Max greets them, three file folders sitting face down on the desk in front of him when the officerse running in.


    ¡°I have the Crusader assignments here in front of me, as you might have guessed. The decisions have been made by Central Command, so I had no say in what you will be getting, but the Central Computers should have picked them based on your skills assessments.¡± Max begins as the three of them stand in front of him, too nervous to sit.


    ¡°First up is the Bulwark. Crusader ss, equipped with an Ion Destroyer and Gauntlet. It evenes with a matching Combat shield. Ari, Central Command has assigned the Bulwark to you. Conveniently, it is the same basic pattern as Tarith¡¯s Rage, so you can ask Major Nico if you have any questions about tips and tricks for the optimal use of the design.¡± Max says with a grin, making the tall blondeugh.


    ¡°Next up is the Ferrus. Crusader ss, long-range spec, equipped with an Ion Destroyer and Heavy Laser Cannon. Paul, Central Command has assigned the Ferrus to you. Take good care of her, that heavy Laser is going toe in very handy for breaching armor and reinforced buildings.¡± Paul picks up his folder with a big smile, looking over the details and specs of his new unit without a work spoken.


    ¡°Last up is the Morning Glory. Vincente, Command has decided that the optimal pattern for you is a Battle Cannon and a Rending w. That shoulde in handy to support the infantry since the central sma torch can be used as a methrower.¡± Vincente nods, not entirely happy with the choice of the w over the Gauntlet, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers, and in a Special Tactics team, there is a chance that his equipment can be changed in the future to better bnce the squad.


    Max contemtes the crew he has been given. In total, they have two fully long-ranged mecha in Stalwart and Ferrus. They have two that are capable of artillery bombardment when necessary, and they have three that are capable of closebat, including one that has reinforced armor and a custom Combat Shield. That seems to be properly versatile and well-rounded, so at least it doesn¡¯t obviously look like Central Command is discriminating against the pilots that were denied pardons.


    That might only be because of intervention on his and Nico¡¯s behalf, but Max is thankful for whatever caused Command to decide to give them not only five Crusaders for their team but five that should work very well together.


    The three Captains have finally taken a seat, engrossed in reading the history and details of their mecha, so Max sends them a silent message to skip morning training and report after lunch, giving them a little over four hours to celebrate before he pulls them back to work. It¡¯s not like the units are on board yet anyhow.

 89 Chapter 89

    One month flew by faster than Max had expected, and now they were onto the part 48 hours beforendfall on Kepler 111. Everything that needed to be filled out and filed had already been sent to theary Government for processing, with the results of their procurement requests as well as the list of their new members expected any minute now.


    All five officers were waiting in the office that Max had turned into his de facto officetely, while the rest of the ship was in full celebration mode. Tonight the ship would party well into the night, and then tomorrow they would sleep half the day away while adjusting to the local time zone at the spaceport where they would bending.


    Near the military port was the¡¯srgest civilian port, where the trade ships wouldnd to bring and buy goods. The traders were a fun bunch in Max¡¯s estimation, at least the ones that frequented the port on Kepler Terminus where he grew up were. The Empire had been at war for years, and the risk of attacks on trade vessels was high, so only the bravest would volunteer for the job, even with the seemingly insane amounts that it paid.


    The slums weren¡¯t far from the spaceport on Kepler Terminus, since nobody wanted to live near the noise ofnding ships, the smells of bulk products, or the pollution of the outdated heavy industrial equipment that processed it for interster transport. But that just meant that the traders would often wander into the slums for a bit of fun. Drinking, gambling, and other vices were easy to find in Max¡¯s old neighborhood, and they all drew in the traders.


    Max was too young to be of interest to them, they wanted skilled veterans, not kids from the downside who might never have a skill worth mentioning, but that didn¡¯t stop Max from listening in on their thoughts when he went for walks with Dave during his youth.<sub>.</sub>


    That¡¯s how Max learned that only Kepler citizens have the system. Not all other nations are enemies, so not all traderse from Kepler. Many of the traders were not quite human or had exotic appearances like nothing that Max had ever seen on his before. Those ones were also harder for him to read, and he couldn¡¯t get as much detail from them, since their bodies had no Nanotechnology within them that his Innate Talent could work with.


    He could still get some things, though, especially when they were on the open-air balconies of the taverns in the afternoon when the heat made it unbearable to be inside any building without the climate control that the homes of the wealthy had. Now, Max understands, that it was a normal thing for everyone to have and that the slums were the exception, but at the time, Max viewed it as something very highbrow and amazing, to not have to sweat in the afternoon heat every day of the year.


    Max is drawn from his reverie and back to the conversation the others are having by a thought from Nico. She has obtained an image of the Light Mecha staging area and found their new units. Just like they hoped, they managed to obtain thirty Corvette ss Mecha, all painted in the bone and bronze Max chose, with red ents.


    Standing among the dull olive green of the rest of the units leaving the, they look glorious, elite, and distinct without being shy, making Max proud of his choice. He was hoping that she would grab an image of the Crusaders as well, but either the cameras there are down, or they are on a closed-circuit loop and not avable to theary that Nico pulled the parade ground images from.<sub></sub>


    That does make sense though, light mecha aren¡¯t exactly a secret, even the traders usually have a few on their ships from civilian sources, modified forbat. But the mighty heavy mecha are much more heavily guarded, to keep the nation¡¯s true strength secret.


    Looking more closely, these Corvettes are a different pattern than the ones that the 42nd armored has. Instead of being tall and blocky, they are elegantly curved, and nearly human in proportions, with a swept-back top dome that looks a lot like a racer¡¯s helmet and will give more room than usual for sensors.


    ¡°Now that¡¯s a nice change to see. We actually got new build Corvettes. See the rounded hulls? That pattern came from the Commorian conglomerate that merged with Kepler only a decade ago. All of their mecha are exceptionally agile, and the armor is really good, despite looking so slender and delicate.¡± Nico points out the various features on the screen as she goes, and then they all inspect the weaponry.


    These mecha have dual hands and hold their weapons, unlike the Crusader ss Mecha that they all use, but there are two shoulder-mounted energy weapons on them. Only the barrels seem to be above the hull of the chest armor, on a pivot for increased firing options, giving them a low profile inside the rather organic-looking curved armor shell.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Hey, since all the new Corvettes are Commorian designs, you don¡¯t suppose that the new Crusaders will also be Commorian pattern heavy mecha do you?¡± Vincente asks, so eager that he is stumbling over his words.


    The heavy mecha of that pattern share the same lithe and curved design that the new Corvettes do, and are much more agile than the Redemption Pattern that the two existing units are built from, though they¡¯re not quite as fast in top running speed as the Stalker Pattern that the Tarith¡¯s Rage was built on. They also have better thrusters, allowing them to leap over obstacles more easily, as well as more agility for space-basedbat.


    The only really strange thing about them is that they like to forearm mount the heavy weapons, which gives them the benefit of a small hand, but puts the recoil off-center, so they can be a bit of a pain with projectile weapons.


    That might be too much to ask for. The weaponized limbs of the Redemption Pattern mecha, with their durable top armor shell, have served well for centuries, and it seems unlikely that their newly founded units will get so lucky as to obtain even one of them much less three brand new mecha. After all, the amount of money and resources required to build an entirely new unit is enormous. It is much moremon for a to reuse the mecha from the returning veterans to supplement their departing units, after a hasty refurbishment.


    That is arge part of the reason that Kepler forces put so much effort into recovering their downed mecha. Not because they are sacred or anything, but simply because it isn¡¯t cost-effective to entirely rece them when the majority of a destroyed unit can be made into a new one.


    Their unit rosteres in while they are admiring the new Corvettes, and again, it is no surprise at all, and just as bad as Max had feared.


    Thirty Corvette ss pilots, all graduates of the Special Forces program of the local university. Looking closely, they have all graduated from the academy in thest 12 months, so they don¡¯t even have real experience onary defense patrols. Then there is thepany of infantry. Unlike the pilots, these soldiers did not go to university. They are all fresh from the academy, with ten Sergeants pulled from theary defense and one Commanding officer from the local Mayor¡¯s security defense team.


    ¡°Captain Catan?¡± Max asks, pointing out the officer¡¯s name on the roster. It¡¯s the same as Bravo Company¡¯smanding officer, so there is a very good chance that the two are rted.


    Nico gives Max a nod and starts tapping away at theputer. ¡°I¡¯m on it, let¡¯s see here. Graduated from the Academy 9 years ago, just missing the recruitment. Kepler 111 is a heavy agriculture world, with a very mediocre track record for pilots and soldiers, so they have been excused from most of their recruitments in exchange for more agricultural tithes.


    He has an excellent track record with the local police, and then the Mayor¡¯s personal security. But there must be a reason for his transfer, there are lots of other officers to choose from. Yes, here it is. eleven children under the age of eight, with nine different mothers. It looks here like his entire sry as a Security officer wasn¡¯t enough to cover the support payments, so he volunteered for the Commander¡¯s role. While he serves, the military will pay benefits to all his children, and afterward, they will all be old enough that they have gone to the academy, freeing him from the financial obligations.¡±


    ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is that he fits right in and we should both be very careful of his smooth-talking?¡± Ariughs, making Max snort as he tries to avoid joining her merriment.


    ¡°Considering the fact that you could both handily whoop him if he gets out of line? Yes. It is definitely his charm you need to be careful of. He scored amazingly well in closebat skills, and leadership abilities, but his system Compatibility is D Rank, and even then it would likely have been considered F rank on Kepler Terminus.¡± Max agrees.


    ¡°Terminus has so many talented pilots that they can afford to F Rank kids who actually have some sort of System Talent?¡± Paul asks, in awe at the power level of Max¡¯s home.


    ¡°Yeah, ours likes to D Rank kids who have no system but have enough strength to pass infantry training.¡± Vincente agrees.


    That¡¯s practically suicidal for them, in Max¡¯s opinion. D Rank might not be much, but by the end of the academy¡¯s training, they should at least have 50 percent added stats in total, making them a good bit stronger and faster than their peers. With all their infantrying from the Special Forces training, Max is fairly confident that won¡¯t be the case for them, but it doesn¡¯t give him much hope for the rest of the quarter-million souls being sent into orbit to fight and die.

 90 Chapter 90

    [One hour to Course Correction. Abraham Kepler is now entering the Kepler 111 system.] The robotic voice of the ship¡¯s inte informs everyone, bringing a crowd of soldiers to every window.


    They haven¡¯t seen home in ten long years, and everyone is anxious tomit the visual to memory. After today¡¯s ceremony, they will no longer be soldiers, but returned veterans retired with full honors and benefits. So few of their batch have returned this time though, and the only sends soldiers once a decade, so the return is a big thing here, with a week-long celebration among the civilians and a number of formal events for the veterans, but set up more like a dating service than a formal ball.


    Of course, none of them have ever seen one before, having been young children when the first one was held, and leaving the to take up their duty before the second of their lifetimes.


    But the real reason for the celebration isn¡¯t even them, so much as what they represent. Every tenth year, their youth go to fight and die, so that the doesn¡¯t have to send a food tithe, filling their storehouses as a buffer against lean years in the future and improving the lives of all on this mostly rural.


    The two Captain Catans managed to get ahold of each other just this morning, talking about life and family and the Commander that the younger Cousin would be joining tomorrow. He was shocked to find that his older cousin had risen so much, having left straight from the Academy as a fresh-faced Second Lieutenant Cadet. But now they¡¯re of even rank, with the older being a war hero, and the younger a renowned yboy and deadbeat dad, when he¡¯s not the silent bodyguard in the background of local politics.<sub>.</sub>


    The entire crew of Bravo Company thinks that the situation is hrious, especially after seeing the women that the younger cousin had been with. Being only a year apart in the academy, they were all familiar with each other in their childhood, and the two cousins grew up with exactly the same views on what true beauty looks like. There is some hope that the older does have a bit moremon sense though.


    Only a few minutes after making orbit, the rms sound again, signaling that the Abraham Kepler is going to make one of its rarearyndings to pick up the new crew. If the system had a proper star base, they would have picked up the recruits there, but no such thing was deemed necessary by the Central Government for Kepler 111, so loading fromnd is the only practical way to get so much on board in a reasonable time frame.


    The Abraham Kepler is over a Kilometer long, but with the anti-gravity generators, it is fully capable of safely entering orbit, without too much atmospheric damage, and without hitting the ground like a meteor. It is hard on the hull ting though, which is the reason that it is avoided most of the time. Nobody wants to waste military resources repairing a ship that didn¡¯t need to be damaged in the first ce.


    The shake and shudder of the interster fortress as it falls from the sky gives the soldiers a rhythm to dance to, and the warnings to remain securely strapped in and seated for the duration of the entry are entirely ignored. Even Max gets dragged into a dance with the soldiers of Bravo Company, an impromptu mosh pit of joy in the middle of the training grounds.<sub></sub>


    The ship touches down without incident, and orders start sounding from all over the ship to clear out lockers and report to staging areas for final checks before their personal belongings will be transferred to logistics and the homing parade will start.


    That ends the dancing, and everyone starts running to grab their gear, knowing that logistics processing is firste first served, and they are all retiring too, so they are in no mood for nonsense or extra work until all the gear is transferred to the local authorities.


    [Stalwart Special Tactics Unit, report to Mecha Hanger AE86] is the final announcement in the long line, and the five officers all head for the veryst mecha hanger of the Primary Mecha Company on board the Abraham Kepler.


    The loading won¡¯t start until tomorrow, once everything is off and moved away, but their two Crusaders are already there when they arrive, repainted in bone and bronze to match their new unit. It is a strange feeling seeing those two mechs in a new color scheme. They went through so much togethertely that it almost feels like sacrilege to have changed them. Stalwart has changed a lot though, with the new shoulder pads sporting sma Shotguns, an added Ion Type anti-aircraft battery on top of the carapace armor, and the new power nt.<sub></sub>


    That should make for an interesting contrast. The bright white energy charges of the Ion battery contrasted against the bright blue of the sma charges from the shotguns. Nico took the time to tweak and upgrade everything again, bringing it back to what Max is used to, so the only thing he will need to adapt to is the added firepower on top of the Crusader.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage doesn¡¯t seem to have changed nearly as much until Max looks closer. It is still the same basic pattern as before, the Ion Destroyer on the right, the gauntlet on the left with the two rail guns mounted on it, but the size of the Rail Guns has been increased. The hull-mounted version beside the cockpit, where Max has a simpleser, is still the same small one it always was though. Finished off with two anti-aircraft batteries, one on each shoulder instead of a single one in the middle, theyout is simple and clean looking, almost minimalist in design.


    ¡°Wee everyone. Stalwart Special Tactics unit will be attached to the Noctem Regiment for the duration of this assignment, so I thought I woulde and wee you.¡± General Mons, Pilot of the Carpe Noctem and leader of Noctem Armored Regiment greets them, with a silent Colonel standing one step behind and to his right. That should be his copilot, but Max can see that the officer has taken a severe throat wound at some point in the past, and prefers not to wear an augmentic vocal box, so they likely can¡¯t speak.


    ¡°We appreciate it General, and we will be in your care,¡± Nico replies with a polite nod and a salute.


    [What am I, chopped liver?] Max hears the Colonel¡¯s thoughts as Nico finishes speaking, making himugh.


    ¡°Yours as well Colonel. Fear not, I didn¡¯t forget about you.¡± Max replies to the man¡¯s thoughts.


    [What the hell? I almost thought he could hear me there for a second. But I¡¯m sure he¡¯s just being a good little boot licker.]


    ¡°General Tennant frowns upon licking any part of your uniform Colonel,¡± Max replies with dignity, and General Mons bursts intoughter.


    ¡°Oh yeah, meet my co-pilot, Colonel Car. I may have neglected to notify him that your Innate Talent is rted to mind reading.¡± General Mons cuts into the one-sided conversation and the Colonel gives him a dirty look.


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t give me that. I told you before you made a real ass of yourself.¡± The General chastises his copilot, who just shakes his head at the childish prank that was yed on him.


    ¡°This will be your unit¡¯s hanger, so you might as well get acquainted with it. The new staff isn¡¯t here yet obviously, but you can update the system if you don¡¯t like the way the hangers areid out for the equipment you¡¯ve ordered. You have one hour before you need to report to the parade grounds to send off the old units, and then you need to be back at 0900 tomorrow to greet your new unit and guide them to their quarters. All the data will be sent to your wrist devices and the data tablets in your new quarters.¡± The General finishes, giving them a curt nod and getting back to his duties.


    His unit might only be getting reinforced, but there is still a load of paperwork to do, and since General Tennant is a Genius at dodging responsibility, almost all of the work for the iing units has fallen in General Mons¡¯p.


    Max decides to go see Bravo Company before they leave, catching up with Captain Catan, who hands him a sealed envelope to pass to the iing Captain of the Stalwart Special Tactics unit.


    ¡°Since we won¡¯t have much of a chance to catch up, I just wanted to leave him something to remember me by. Just a little bit of a ¡°Good Luck and I hope you left some women for me.¡± To remind him what he¡¯s fighting for.¡± The scarred officerughs, his dark eyes twinkling with mirth under the ck spikes of his fresh haircut.

 91 Chapter 91

    An hourter the Abraham Kepler was resoundingly empty, with only the final fading Echoes of boots in metal decking to remember the old crew by.


    The barracks had been painted, the equipment transferred and the entire crew had been moved to the parade grounds to send off the departing troops.


    Two groups stood facing each other, one of them young and hopeful, the order battle-worn, with the hard stares of seasoned veterans that have only begun to fade after a month in transit. Adapting to civilian life will not be easy for most of these men and women, but the faint smiles on their weathered and scarred faces say they are eager to try.


    The size imbnce between the two forces is enormous, with the new crew outnumbering the old by ten to one, and the eyes of the recruits are darting between the faces of the veterans and the Mecha that have been assembled outside the ship to see them off.


    Max and Nico were chosen for honor guard duty, with Stalwart and Tarith¡¯s Rage standing to either side of the loading ramp, where the two Generals from the army as well as the Admiral in Command of the Abraham Kepler are standing between them on a raised podium.


    There is a shield generator under the podium in case of attack, as suicidal as that notion might be. Plus, this views the tribute as an honor that relieves their burden of taxation, and the thought of doing something today that might make their tribute requirements even higher is unfathomable to most of them.


    General Mons, Pilot of the Carpe Noctem, takes to the microphone with a single graceful stride.


    [Today, we wee home the forty-second deployment from Kepler 111. They have served as true heroes of our great Empire, and have been granted the right of retirement as a whole.<sub>.</sub>


    While the price they paid was great, know that these Heroes liberated seven worlds from invasion and two more from the tyranny of traitors who would have seen their own worlds die for power.


    As an additional benefit for their gantry, Central Command has approved lifelong pensions at twice the standard rate.]


    General Mons pauses there for the cheering to fade. Command had kept the extra pay a secret from the troops for just this reason. They get a morale boost among both the veterans and the civilians that havee to watch, plus the low number of survivors means it is still within the budget set when they departed a decade ago.


    A stout woman in herter middle years with bright pink hair takes the stage next as a representative of the local government. Her dress is immactely designed and fitted, but the gaudy jewels she paired with it ruin the sense of elegance about her in Max¡¯s mind.


    She gives a long-winded speech about duty and sacrifice, how everyone on the has ¡°buckled down and pitched in to get through lean times, with the help of these returning heroes¡±, her overly long nails and delicate skin saying she has done no such thing.


    By the time she has finished congratting her government¡¯s current administration, even Max was contemting how much trouble he would be in if he just shot her.


    After that, the recruits salute the veterans, and the 43rd Armored as well as the 43rd deployment of the Kepler 111 First Field Army are sworn in.<sub></sub>


    The Generals return to the ship and the soldiers are dismissed, with thest to move being Max and Nico who march their Mecha over to where a unit matching their color scheme has been assembled.


    The recruits were sent back to barracks until the equipment is loaded, but a number of retiring soldiers are hanging around the unit, admiring the sleek and organic lines of the Comorian-designed light mecha.


    ¡°Looking at them up close, they are light and agile like a scout Mecha, but the spec says they are as Armored as a standard Corvette. Not bad at all.¡± Nico dered as she scanned the units with the sensors of Tarith¡¯s Rage.


    Their three new Crusaders are there as well. Bulwark, Ferrus, and Morning Glory are all Redemption Pattern Crusaders like Stalwart, and they had been fully refurbished before they were brought to a high shine.


    Including his unit, they will have nearly a hundred Crusaders on board Abraham Kepler after this, with half the Pilots having never fired a round in anger. Noctem Regiment is experienced now, as are all five in Max¡¯s unit, but every single Crusader pilot of the 43rd has zero practical experience. Even theirmanders.


    For their sake, Max hopes they are deployed beside someone else their first time out.


    Max waits until the maintenance crew from the Abraham Kepleres to load the new units and surprisingly Corporal Fritzes out to see them. He is part of the ship¡¯s crew, so he still has some time left in his tour, but even a single familiar face is good to see today.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I am sure you guys know your hanger. If the rookies can stop drooling on the controls you can put them away.¡± Heughs, referring to the three who are getting better acquainted with their new Crusader ss partners.


    The fresh recruits from Kepler 111 don¡¯t know it yet, but they will be meeting their Commanders promptly at two in the morning once the equipment is loaded. This timing keeps them from running off and partying in the early morning, as many of the youths are sure to want to do on theirst few days at home.


    The other four officers meet Max back on the parade grounds at half-past one in the morning, along with dozens of rookie officers, who look like they still need to psych themselves up for this.


    ¡°Rx before you soil yourself.¡± Vincenteughs, patting a nearby First Lieutenant on the back.


    He is an infantry officer, fresh from the academy and barely 18 years old. He clearly advanced due to the fifty point total System bonus recently, his face still shows signs of puberty which will vanish only a few months after reaching the first rank. Or it is possible he still hasn¡¯t reached a total of fifty points and that is naturally bountiful e paired with his scraggly mustache.


    Most of these officers are also very small by Max¡¯s standards. By the time he met the 42nd, their numbers were pretty depleted, so Max didn¡¯t realize how short the men of this world are. 165cm seems to be average, whereas Max finished growing at 183cm. They¡¯re also half his width, almost dainty.


    ¡°Hey Nico, you finally fit in.¡± Max jokes and his executive officer gives him a rude gesture.


    ¡°The shortest woman is 153cm, I checked. It¡¯s just that their men are a bit cute.¡± Sheughs, making all the nearby men re at her.


    Ari wraps her arm around a Corvette ss pilot from the 43rd Armored and gives him a sly wink.


    ¡°Who says we don¡¯t like the cute ones?¡± She¡¯s only a few centimeters taller than her target, but her arms arerger and more defined, thanks to all the recent training, making her look much more imposing.


    ¡°Captain Ari, be kind to the other Pilots. Keplerw says you can¡¯t bed them by force, even if they are cute.¡± Max admonishes her, making the Lieutenant¡¯smanding officer, a Major in his early 20s, burst intoughter.


    ¡°Let me guess. Veteran Special Forces?¡± The major asks.


    ¡°Stalwart Special Tactics Team,¡± Ari replies casually and the man¡¯s eyes open wide in appreciation.


    ¡°A word of advice, Lieutenant, the women who make Special Tactics are scary. You should be running by now.¡± The Major stage whispers and the young man flees from Ari as fast as his legs will move.


    [Move out]es the signal to the officer¡¯s smart devices, and everyone begins the jog to their respective unit¡¯s barracks.


    Max and his officers rush to their unit¡¯s barracks, kicking the door open as Paul begins shouting.


    ¡°UP UP UP! Get going you bunch of grots.¡± The swarthy captain shouts, making Max wonder what a Grot is.


    The Pilots are up in seconds, with the infantry only a little behind them. They all move to stand at the foot of their beds and Max smiles at the new Captain Catan, who clearly expected this and was sleeping in uniform, stepping into his boots and pulling his hat on while the others line up in their skivvies.


    ¡°Good morning everyone. I am Major Keres Max, Commander of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit. It will be my pleasure to introduce you all to the joys of front-linebat. Rest assured, I have read every one of your files and have great expectations for you.


    These three will be your team leaders. Captain Ari, Captain Paul, and Captain Vincente. Beside them is Major Nico, the unit¡¯s executive officer. New to our officer corps is Captain Catan, who has very big shoes to fill as the infantry Captain.¡± Max announces before handing the Captain the letter that was written by his cousin.


    ¡°You have fifteen minutes to get dressed and grab your bags before we head out for your new barracks aboard the Abraham Kepler,¡± Nico announces, clicking the timer on her wrist device.


    Being fresh from the academy, these soldiers are used to timed drills and being graded on everything they do, so they hurry to get squared away. After a great deal of shoving and shouting, they do all manage to get finished on time and Max sends Paul and Vincente down the row with boxes full of the ck berets that mark a Special Tactics Unit, with Nico and Ari following behind to collect their old blue ones.


    ¡°Now move out. If any of the infantry units beat you to the ship everyone is going on double training starting today.¡± Nico calls, opening the double doors for Max to lead his men to their new home.

 92 Chapter 92

    All of the soldiers take off running for the ship, intent on getting there in time to avoid punishment. They didn¡¯t need to panic nearly as much as they did though, because not a single unit is moving from their barracks yet, with many of them still being shouted at to wake up as they pass by.


    ¡°Fall in. Triple Time March.¡± Nico yells over the noise and confusion, causing the troops to fall into a line four ranks wide and get their running roughly in time with each other.


    Max leads the unit up the ramp while Nico paces at the side and the other officers circle the back making sure they don¡¯t have any stragglers falling behind. The training of their new soldiers was very thorough though, and these men and women were all chosen from the top of their sses at the various academies in this world. Simply keeping time for a forced jog across an open field is not a challenge to them, but it is taken as one by every Special Forces unit whose barracks they pass by.


    Max brings them to a halt when they reach the scanners at the top of the ramp, moving to a single file so that they can get everyone checked in as a new crew member. This was the real reason that Max wanted to be first, the ramp is only wide enough for four units to be processed at a time, and thest of them will spend hours waiting outside in the middle of the night, carrying all their kit so that they can finish their paperwork.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Good Morning Major. I see your troops are well rested and ready to face the day.¡± The crewman who is checking in theirne wees them at the top of the ramp.


    ¡°Yes, they simply had so much energy to burn that they couldn¡¯t wait to start training this morning.¡± Maxughs, causing a wave of groans to pass through the ranks.


    They will learn very soon, the option was never between training or not, the option was between hellish training and rtively pleasant training. The data on the pilots has the date that they first reached fifty points of bonus skills and triggered rapid puberty, but for most of them, there isn¡¯t much more. This world doesn¡¯t even keep a government counselor on staff to record details of their skills and do mental progression testing.<sub></sub>


    But the 42nd turned out well by the end of their tour, with every remaining man and woman doing the Kepler Empire proud, so there is no reason that the 43rd can¡¯t do as well or better with the proper motivation.


    With the check-in finished they march through the empty halls of the Abraham Kepler to section AE86, their new home, and pick out their bunks. With a full crew on board, there won¡¯t be a lot of extra space in the ship, but as a Special Tactics unit, they do at least get less cramped quarters. The racks the infantry troopers will sleep on are only two deep instead of three, and the Corvette ss Pilots get semi-private rooms suitable to their status as officers. Two single bunks, one on either side of the same small room that the Crusader s Pilots call home is their fate, and they have already mostly settled in.


    Thest two are a pair named Breckenridge and Murphy. Breckenridge is a burly blonde man, built much like Max, right down the regtion t top haircut, but only 175cm tall, while Murphy is a lithe 165cm with carrot-orange hair and a lithe figure that Max initially doesn¡¯t realize is a female.<sub></sub>


    They are both standing in front of thest room, giving each other a death re, while the other pilots sneak nces out their doors.


    ¡°Problem Pilots?¡± Nico asks, walking over.


    ¡°Can we request a change of roommate, Major?¡± Breckenridge asks hopefully.


    ¡°Who wants to swap rooms with Breckenridge?¡± Nico calls, and the sound ofughter echoes down the hallway.


    ¡°Looks like that¡¯s a resounding NO, Lieutenant. Do you perhaps snore? There are sleep aids to prevent that avable at the ship¡¯smissary.¡± Nico informs him.


    ¡°No Ma¡¯am, my sleeping health is within parameters.¡± Breckenridge deres sadly, realizing that he won¡¯t get a new roommate.


    ¡°That¡¯s that then. Murphy, exin why you are giving your kind and loving roommate such a hostile look. You will be spending a lot of time together in the future, and squad morale is very important here in the Stalwart Special Tactics unit, so you need to sort your shit out and do it now.¡± Nico deres, turning to the other Pilot.


    ¡°We are siblings, Ma¡¯am. Step Siblings to be exact.¡± Murphy informs her, then continues when she sees Nico doesn¡¯t particrly see why that would cause issues sleeping near each other.


    ¡°We shared a room at home, we were one student number apart, so we shared a dorm at the academy, we are both Beta Ranked andpeted for the top spot for our entire academic career.¡± She continues and Nico smiles.


    ¡°I understand. Major Max and I also shared a dorm andpeted for the top spot during our youth. Rest assured, you are no longerpeting for anything but survival. You know each other better than anyone else in this unit, and no amount of training can rece that. You are no longerpeting siblings, you are Soldiers. Once we seebat you will earn a new bond, one of blood that no civilian life can rece.


    I know you¡¯re all listening in, so listen well. Put aside any rivalries you had in the past. Here you need to learn to be one single cohesive unit, or you WILL die. Enjoy the rest of your morning, the mess hall opens at 0530 and I will be collecting you for training at 0700.¡± Nico¡¯s motivational speech isn¡¯t too bad, and Max sends Paul to go do the same for the infantry, who settled into their bunks without much fuss.

 93 Chapter 93

    Seven in the morninges early to the new members of the Stalwart Special Tactics unit, and Max prepares himself to evaluate them and see if the assignments set by Central Command, based on their academy data are even vaguely right.


    Most Commanders go by them until the end of the first few battles, but he really doesn¡¯t have the luxury of finding out the hard way, there aren¡¯t enough members of a Special Tactics team for that sort of shortsighted nonsense.


    So he will train them hard this morning, then head out to the receiving parties for the retirees while Nico takes care of thest of their requisitions. They managed to get five of the Comor Pattern Mobile Suits, but the weapons for them never arrived, as well as a number of other random items that Max had deemed essential on his requisition list. They were all approved, they simply aren¡¯t here, either misced or dyed.


    Technically, Nico isn¡¯t a supply officer, and they don¡¯t have a dedicated person for the position, but with her hacking skills, she is the best one for the job, while Max has been ¡°Promoted to Designated Ass Kisser¡± in her words.


    To be exact, he is to use his skills in mind reading to build rtionships with the other officers on board and see if he can meet up with any of the emissaries from the Comor System to learn more about the capabilities of their new light Mecha. The Abraham Kepler doesn¡¯t have a dedicated trainer for the Comor Pattern Corvettes, and the software they do have isn¡¯t recent enough to include them, so they are currently left in the lurch. Nico will try to find the software if possible, but Max might have more luck with diplomacy today at the Officer¡¯s Ball.<sub>.</sub>


    Little does she know, Max has every intention of using his rank as her Commanding Officer to drag the antisocial Pilot to the formal event as his plus one.


    Despite all the gender equality in the Military, the event is a formal civilian one with a formal civilian dress code. No uniforms are allowed. Instead, Max will be in a tuxedo, and he has ordered an elegant evening gown and heels for Nico. He has never seen her outside of a regtion uniform, so the idea of seeing her in formal wear seems like the sort of memory that he should obtain while the opportunity presents itself. The Emperor knows that he will not have the chance again for quite some time.


    The new crew will only be here for the first day of the event, then they are departing the, so it has to be tonight.


    Once everyone has gathered at their private training ground, a small facility with a little of everything avable to them, Max starts setting the orders.<sub></sub>


    ¡°If everyone will please check the whiteboard on the wall, you will see that we have set teams for today¡¯s assessments. Team 1, you are with Ari, Team 2 with Paul, and Team 3 with Vincente. Gather at your team leaders and let¡¯s get this started.¡± Max shouts, sending everyone running.


    The teams aren¡¯t actually random, Max spent many hours picking them out based on the limited information that he had avable about his new unit. Each one should contain specialists that have the skills that the team will need in the future. They will be training every member to do the basics of everything, but having a true specialist on the team is essential to Missionpletion.


    Special Tactics Teams often move out with one Crusader and a wing of Light Mecha, so that is how Max set things up to start, knowing that he canbine them in the future without issues.


    This morning is a simple assessment, making sure that the data that they have is correct, and that nobody¡¯s file was doctored to make them look bad, or padded to promote an unqualified but connected scion of a wealthy family.<sub></sub>


    It is clear right away that they have at least one member of the second category among their team, as one of the pilots is imperiously ordering those around him to do even simple things like setting up the weights for his tests.


    That isn¡¯t going to fly here, and Max is quick to put a stop to it. ¡°Pilot Orleans, are you perhaps injured? Unable to set up your stations?¡±


    ¡°No sir. As a knight, you must understand, I am the son of a Duke, such things are for themoners, not us nobles.¡± The pilot deres proudly.


    ¡°The son of a Duke you say? Please, follow me, you are right, we will do your examination inside the resistance trainer. The virtual scenario is much more suited to your status.¡± Max informs him in his most smarmy, obnoxious ent possible, but the youth doesn¡¯t catch the fact that he¡¯s being mocked.


    Most of the others do though, and they watch in anticipation as Max sets the resistance trainer to maximum intensity and the exit conditions for sessfulpletion of the final exit exams for Corvette ss Pilots. If he can perform to standards they just need to beat the snobbery out of him. If he can¡¯t Max will not hesitate to wash him out and request a Line Mecha Pilot in line for promotion be selected to trade ces with him.


    The final assessment for Corvette ss Pilots only takes ten minutes, even under the heavy fire simtion that Max set, but an hourter a very sweaty and panting Pilot Orleans is still attempting toplete the course. This time he passes out partway through, and the machine automatically ejects him for safety.


    ¡°Major Nico, begin the paperwork. Pilot Orleans has washed out of the Special Tactics team.¡± Max announces and the pilots all gasp in shock.


    His father will not be happy when he finds out, and they all grew up knowing to be afraid of the noble son¡¯s wrath. They hope that the Duke won¡¯t make things hard for Major Max in the future, but both Majors look unconcerned.


    Ten minutester, a pilot in a Lieutenant¡¯s uniformes running in, stopping to salute Max. ¡°Lieutenant Singh, reporting for duty, Sir.¡±


    ¡°Wee Lieutenant Singh. Lose the coat and get in the resistance trainer. In order to join us, everyone must pass the basic examinations to my personal standard.¡± Max informs him and the man rushes over to the machine while Nico sends Max the file for the recement pilot.


    Qualified third in his ss, Special Forces Cadet with Corvette ss qualifications, transferred to kitchen duty for unspecified disciplinary punishment. That looks promising, and it lets them send the young Pilot Orleans to the kitchen to wash dishes with the excuse of looking out for him and moving him out of harm¡¯s way.


    Nine minutester, the exhausted pilot falls out of the resistance trainer with a smile. ¡°Sir, qualificationplete, sir.¡±


    ¡°Very good Pilot. You are excused from the remainder of training for today. Who was Pilot Orleans¡¯ roommate? Please take Pilot Singh to swap rooms.¡± Max announces just as the exhausted son of a Duke regains consciousness.

 94 Chapter 94

    To say that the son of Duke Orleans is not happy to see his recement is an understatement. He doesn¡¯t know what is going on yet, but he sees his hated nemesis standing next to the Commander with a pleased look on his face and knows that nothing good could be happening.


    His first thought is to send a message to his father and have the annoyance put in his ce, but he can¡¯t do that in front of the Commander of his unit, even with all his impetuous rage, he knows that such things are best done behind the scenes. But Max has given him the perfect opportunity, having an attendant take him to the medical wing to check his system status and physical condition. His family has been doctoring those all through school for him, and he is confident that will continue with only a single message, so he doesn¡¯t put up a fight as the orderly helps him down the hallway.


    Max looks to Nico and she nods back, her thoughts confirming that she has already invalidated all of the Pilot¡¯s test scores as a system error and submitted him for reevaluation once they have left the. Until then he will be held in sick bay, and Nico has blocked all his methods ofmunication, short of convincing a crew member of the Abraham Kepler to make the connection for him.


    To the higher authorities, it all looks very innocent, a simple data transfer error that can be solved in a single day with a full system evaluation and a piloting test. But on Kepler 111, nobody will know about it until it is toote, to avoid anyplications.


    The young noble also won¡¯t be able to leave the medical bay for the next 48 hours, as the new soldiers are all under quarantine orders, to be sure they haven¡¯t brought local diseases aboard the ship, a standard procedure whenever crews from different ships ands have met.


    ¡°I see you are all concerned for the young noble, but not to worry, you all will be taking the exact same examination over the course of the next two days. Of course, if you pass, it will take under ten minutes and you won¡¯t have to go until you drop from exhaustion, but that is hardly the point.¡± Max informs his unit as the physical training continues, bringing a wave ofughter and good-naturedints about having to work so hard on their first day.<sub>.</sub>


    Pilot Singh is led out to go swap bunks just before everyone is released from training for the day. Max and Nico need to get to the Formal Ball, so they need to change, and Max hasn¡¯t actually told Nico that she¡¯s going yet. He even ordered the outfit for her through General Tennant, so that she wouldn¡¯t track the requisition order back to him and find out what he had nned.


    ¡°Nico, I¡¯ve had an outfit sent to your room. Get changed and I wille to get you in an hour so that we have time to get to the event hall on time. Nothing says sloppy management like showing upte.¡± Max informs her, while Nico gives him a dirty look.


    ¡°I take it you couldn¡¯t find a plus one? You know, if you needed I could have arranged one for you. Maybe one of the lovely and dociledies ofunch control?¡± Nico says sweetly and Max shudders.


    The staff ofunch control rarely advance above base rank, so they are always broke, and theck of physical requirements has led to the lovelydies with some brains but no systempatibility using the department as apensated dating service. Not to be judgemental, everyone has needs, but they have all been on the Abraham Kepler for at least eight years longer than Max has, and they didn¡¯t join until after university at eighteen. That¡¯s a bit too much of an age gap for his preferences.


    Plus, he is not giving up on a chance to make Nico suffer through an evening of bigwigs and Nobles alongside him. He can¡¯t get out of it, so she ising with him. Even if he has to order her.<sub></sub>


    A full tuxedo proves to be much more difficult to wear than Max had expected, and with showering and shaving, he is only done a few minutes before he was nning to meet Nico. So, Max adjusts his cummerbund and stiffly walks over to her room, ufortable in the strange clothes.


    Nico must have had the external cameras on, because she opened the door before he could knock, standing there with her short hair lightly curled and some sort of product in it that made it shiny. Max knew nothing of such things, his mother never used them, and Dave never mentioned women¡¯s fashion to him before he went to the academy, where such things were deemed nonessential and prohibited.


    Max is momentarily struck speechless by the sight of his friend in a floor-length ck gown with long flowing sleeves and she smirks at him, giving a little twirl that shows she is having no issues with the spiked heels that the General ordered to go with it.


    Max offers her his arm, as his research showed was proper protocol for escorting a nobledy. ¡°You look lovely. Would you do me the honor?¡±


    Nicoughed at his attempt at being a gentleman and ced her hand on his arm. ¡°After you, Sir Max.¡±<sub></sub>


    He might technically be a Knight now, but nobody has ever referred to him as such. Inside the military only military rank matters. Unlike Cygnus, who puts a lot of weight on noble titles, the Kepler Military answers only to Immanuel, 94th King of Kepler Prime, and by the might of his armies, Seventh Emperor of all Kepler. Max has heard the phrase hundreds if not thousands of times over the years since he was reincarnated, but only now did it really sink in just how many lives had been spent to take and keep that title.


    The two of them walk as far as the main corridor where they are met with a shuttle cart, an open buggy, with seating for ten, that is used as a shuttle around the length of the ship, and today to get to the Ball. There are a few of the officers from Noctem Regiment on board, who all smile politely at the new arrivals, just as ufortable in their formal wear as Max and Nico are.


    Nico¡¯s wrist device has been removed, in favor of a thin gold bangle, but it dings from the small ck silk clutch she is carrying, making her smile.


    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Max asks quietly, not wanting to spread gossip about the unit so early.


    ¡°Our young troublemaker assaulted a nurse when she refused to allow him ess to off-shipmunications. He has been sedated for the duration offall and will face disciplinary actionter.¡± Nico answers, not quite low enough to prevent others from hearing.


    ¡°There¡¯s one in every unit. More than one in some. When thest recruitment from Noctem Seven was done, they had over thirty sedated in the brig for thest few days. All trying to pull Noble rank or get contraband smuggled in.¡± One of the Captainsughs.


    ¡°Oh, I remember that the young master of the Chen n attempted to vent himself out an airlock when he found out that he had failed the follow-up examinations and was being demoted to infantry.¡± One of the others says with a malicious smile, still holding a personal grudge against the man.


    ¡°I¡¯m certain that our case shouldn¡¯t be as bad. There was just an issue with his data and he didn¡¯t take it well, so we moved him for observation until it¡¯s all sorted out.¡± Nico responds, nodding to Max to let him know what the official record says.


    The cart gets them to the hall in only a few minutes, where a pompous man in a butler¡¯s suit is checking their invitations against a chart of noble records. He clearly seems to see himself above most of these pilots, who were mostly chosen for their noble lineage, with only a few being allowed toe simply for theirmand status, but that stops when he gets to Max and Nico.


    None of the others hold titles, they juste from noble families. But Max is a Proper Knight, and that is enough for the man to automatically give him respect. Then he looks at the tablet again and his face goes pale, flicking from Nico to Max and back to his tablet.


    ¡°Sir Max, might I ask as to your rtionship with the Lady Tarith?¡± The butler asks politely.


    ¡°She is my second inmand and longtime friend.¡± Max answers and the butler frowns while Nico begins to smile.


    The man taps a device on his wrist, bringing over a more senior-looking servant, and they converse quickly in low tones before the senior staffer turns to Nico.


    ¡°Madam, is this correct? You are listed here as Sir Max¡¯s plus one, but protocol dictates that you should be introduced separately.¡± The staffer informs her.


    ¡°An introduction as Lady Nico is more than sufficient,¡± Nico confirms and the man shrugs, tapping something on this tablet to confirm the settings.


    ¡°What¡¯s that all about?¡± Max asks as they take their ce in line.


    ¡°Remember when the Cygnus officers kicked up a fuss about titles? They insisted that I was listed as an Imperial Princess, 41 generations removed from session. That¡¯s why these stuffy nobles are all flustered, their data says I¡¯m some foreign Royal, and they¡¯re not high enough ranked to see the details.¡± Nico whispers back.


    That confirms Max¡¯s suspicions about the way the Kepler Empire is structured. The noble ranks have no business being involved with the militarymand structure.

 95 Chapter 95

    ¡°Introducing Sir Max and the Lady Nico, from Kepler Terminus.¡± The herald called out when they finally reached the front of the line, drawing the attention of a few who followed military activities. Both names were mentioned in the Cygnus surrender documents after all.


    What nobody expected was how young they both looked. Cleaned up and dressed in their very best, with the horrors of war mostly faded from their eyes, they both look like the fresh recruits that they should be. There are some whispers about the two of them, but once word spreads among the locals that they are in the same unit and not romantic partners, the first of the noble daughterses to speak with Max, drawn by his striking profile and his noble title.


    Max gestures for Nico to save him, seeing exactly what they have in mind practically screaming at him from their thoughts. It is an issue he has had before when others are thinking intensely enough about him, his System Skill will activate itself as a form of defense against aggression. Only this form of aggression is not a threat to his life, but to his chastity and dignity. No wonder the men of Bravo Company were so eager to go home if this is how the women of Kepler 111 are.


    Nico steps forward gracefully, greeting the iing socialites with a gentle smile and open arms, embracing each in turn and greeting them by name, as if they have known each other their entire lives. Max is stunned until he notices that Nico¡¯s eyes are a turquoise color today. She is wearing digital contacts and pulling up everyone¡¯s data so that she isn¡¯t caught unaware by anyone.


    The youngdies know the routine just as well, recognizing that they must get past the gatekeeper if they hope to get anywhere in their endeavors. It is only when the band starts ying an upbeat tune that they see their opening.


    ¡°Might the Hero of the Cygnus intervention do me the honor of a dance?¡± One of thedies asks politely, barely beating out the others, who are forced to bite their tongues and keep silent to avoiding across as uncouth.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Sir Max, I do believe your dance card has an opening. Meet Miss Mariessa, daughter of Count Verboten of the seventeenth industrial sector here on Kepler 111.¡± Nico introduces them, and Max extends his hand politely, leading his partner to the dance floor.


    He learned the basics of a great number of local and popr formal dances for this event, knowing that all he had to do was understand them and his increased physical attributes would cover the rest. His current dance partner doesn¡¯t appear to have activated the system at all, so Max isn¡¯t concerned that she will want to do anything tooplicated for him to follow.


    The dance floor is filling with young nobles, eager to dance, so Max isn¡¯t put on the spot, and the dance they have chosen is one that Max did study for this event, so he manages to lead his giggling partner through the song, before the tune changes and one set of delicate hands is reced by another.


    Max looks over at Nico who is grinning at him, lining up more dance partners for him, while deftly avoiding the young gentlemen who are trying to catch her attention through the crowd of socialites.


    ¡®I might be able to see all their thoughts, but I have been defeated in the tactical thinking department this time. I¡¯m going to have to excuse myself for a drink to break her rhythm.¡¯ Max thinks as he dances with his new partner, her pink ruffled skirts fluttering as he leads her through the lively menco dance.<sub></sub>


    Once the song changes, Max puts his n into action, acting quickly to politely excuse himself to get a refreshment, and stepping off the dance floor into the shadows of the ballroom.


    ¡°Very smooth.¡± General Tennant congrattes him as Max finds a ss of some sort of alcoholic juice, a local specialty.


    ¡°Thanks. Nico wasn¡¯t happy to have to socialize and I think she is intending to punish me by dancing me to death before the night is over.¡± Maxughs.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it the duty of a second inmand to see to the Commander¡¯s needs? Perhaps she¡¯s just being a good wingman?¡± The General counters with a smirk.


    ¡°Be d you can¡¯t hear what they¡¯re thinking. I¡¯ve seen a few things in this life, but I wasn¡¯t ready for that.¡± Max sighs before the amused General turns him around to introduce him to someone else.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Meet Duke Orleans, Government leader of Kepler 111. He has been looking forward to meeting you.¡± General Tennant introduces him to a tall and powerful man that Max realizes is the father of the troublemaker from his unit. The two look nothing alike, this man is over two meters tall, and either puts a lot into his physique or has high systempatibility with a Strength Primary bonus.


    ¡°It is a pleasure to meet such a dashing young war hero, Sir Max. I must ask, have you had a chance to meet my youngest son yet? He was assigned to your unit, but I haven¡¯t heard from him all day.¡± The Duke greets Max.


    ¡°So I did. My unit had a team-building exercise earlier today, where we all got acquainted. Unfortunately, as this is a critical time for developing interpersonal bonds, all outsidemunication has been blocked. I¡¯m certain he will have a magnificent tale to tell of his military exploits the next time you are in contact.¡± Max answers the concerned father, seeing that he personally disapproved of the alterations of the boy¡¯s records to make him a pilot, preferring him to be moved to a safer station for the duration of his term of service.


    The Duke has many other children, but this time one of them got selected for service, instead of just puffing up his academy record and ending up running a local corporation and bragging of what could have been, if he had been selected to serve.


    That works out well for Max, even if the boy manages to get a message home, he is unlikely to find a sympathetic ear. All Max has to do is have Nico rmend that the boy be moved out of abat role on a skills rmendation instead of as a punishment. That way it looks good on his record and he is still out of their hair.


    They are in the middle of a conversation about the¡¯s agriculture when the Duke¡¯s eyes go hard and he moves towards where Nico and the socialites are standing. There is a veryrge, very drunk man standing by her that looks a lot like the Duke, and Max guesses that it is one of the Duke¡¯s older sons or perhaps a much younger brother. The man is casually touching her, brave on his part, given that she isn¡¯t one of the local socialites who will easily give in for a chance at his rank.


    The conversation clearly isn¡¯t going well, and Max recognizes the smile on Nico¡¯s face as the one she gives him when she knows she has him during a sparring match. That smile that promises great pain if he makes one more misstep.


    ¡°I¡¯m certain the Major can take care of herself,¡± Max assures the Duke, right before the young mannds a heavy p across her face, ringing through the entire room, and bringing the band to a stop in shock.


    Her head snapped to the side, but she is stable again, and the smile is still in ce, only this time even the Duke and General Tennant can see the promise of violence, sending them running her way. They¡¯re not fast enough though, Nico kicks the back of his knees and punches him in the stomach, knocking him down to her height then sneers at him as his father and the General arrived.


    ¡°General Tennant, wee. We could use some advice here. What is the punishment for an officer of theary defense force who strikes a Senior officer?¡± Nico asks and the Duke shakes his head at his drunken son, who is trying not to vomit from the stomach strike.


    Nico knows very well that the punishment is fifty publicshes with a military regtion leather whip, and so do most of the guests, who look horrified at the prospect.


    ¡°Unfortunately, my son is no longer a member of theary Defense force, Lady Nico. If you would like to file aint, might we take it out of the public view? I¡¯m certain we cane to an agreement.¡± The Duke says, making sure his assistant knows to file the paperwork stripping his son of rank and discharging him immediately.


    Max and General Tennant follow the trio into a side room where the Duke waits for the door to close before pping his son unconscious with a single blow.


    ¡°What will it take to settle this quietly?¡± He asks and Max gets a genius idea.


    ¡°We have had some paperwork errors with this intake. Perhaps the wrong son was sent aboard? I believe the scullery department will find they are missing a recruit.¡± Max suggests.


    ¡°That¡¯s a bit extreme.¡± General Tennant points out and Max shrugs. The Scullery department isn¡¯t part of his unit, so he would never have to see the man again.


    The thought of spending a decade doing dishes on board a transport ship is enough to send the drunken noble into a panic and Max recalls the story of the man who tried to space himself through an airlock. Maybe he did go a bit far.


    ¡°How about you two excuse us and we will work out the details while you socialize? It¡¯s yourst chance to catch up with the departing officers after all.¡± General Tennant insists, ushering them out of the room.

 96 Chapter 96

    The event was much more lively once Max and Nico returned to the dance floor, joining the group already twirling in time with the music. Events like the one earlier are nothing new to the local nobles, drunken indiscretions are practically the trademark of Duke Orleans¡¯ children. They don¡¯t see much of anythinging of it, the man has sway with Central Command that can keep the young man from facing any sort of actual retribution, while the young Major is just a Pilot from off-world.


    The young men at the dance agree on one thing though, she does look lovely in that dress, unlike most of the returning soldiers, who have hardened from a decade of war.


    ¡°Lady Nico, might I have the next dance?¡± Colonel Marino of the 42nd armored asks, getting ahead of the youngsters who all have looks of lust in their eyes for the woman who would dare to publicly humiliate the most powerful noble of their generation.


    ¡°Of course, Colonel,¡± Nico responds sweetly, offering him her hand.


    Max is a bit confused, Nico is never that sweet without a good reason. But once she is gone Max turns and sees a dozen sets of eyes locked on him. Now he knows why she was so willing to dance with the Colonel, despite not liking being in the spotlight. Her departure has left him open to all the debutantes that she was encouraging earlier.<sub>.</sub>


    Max is led through dozens of dances, sprinkled with rounds of drinks and assorted snacks from the trays that expertly made their way through the crowds. Most of the crowd doesn¡¯t even leave the building that night, simply finding a convenient spot to sleep in one of the many side rooms of the event hall. As far as Max can tell, such impromptu pairings are somon that the event hall doesn¡¯t even have booked rooms, you just find yourself an empty one, or in the case of some of the nobles, one upied by people you know, and go there for the night.


    That was more than a little bit of a culture shock to him. That is most definitely not military protocol, and even more certainly not how things are done in the slums, where they would never trust a group of party-goers to freelye and go from what amounts to a fancy hotel, at least not without checking them for missing items and room damages.


    When the sun began to creep through the windows, Max finally found a chance to escape the event, as Nico made her excuses to a group of disappointed business Heirs and led him out front to catch the shuttle.


    ¡°Here, take these, and get showered and changed when you get back to your room. The mess hall opens for breakfast in an hour, and the recruits have their first training after lunch. I gave them all the morning off to settle in.¡± Nico whispers, handing him a pair of pills that Max recognizes as a detoxifier to prevent hangovers and the standard-issue mental focus pills that Pilots use on long missions. He might not get much sleep if he takes them, but he knows from experience that he won¡¯t feel the need for it until at least tonight.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Thanks. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do without your foresight.¡± Max replies as the shuttle arrives for them and a few more officers who have joined the growing crowd headed home to the temporary barracks here on their homeworld. Later this week they will start sorting out ces to stay, but for the next few days, they will be celebrating their sessful return home from the rtive safety of the barracks in the receiving zones.


    ¡°How was your first taste of political life?¡± Captain Catan Senior, the retiring leader of Bravo Company asks, walking up behind them with a giggling brte debutante under his arm.


    ¡°More energetic than I thought it would be.¡± Maxughs, looking over the Captain¡¯s disheveled clothing.


    ¡°It seems you received a warm wee home, Captain.¡± Nico winks at Catan, who leans over to kiss his date for the morning.<sub></sub>


    ¡°You could say that. Though this one was a bit more expected than most. Meet my fiancee, N. My parents informed me yesterday that they had arranged a marriage to keep me out of trouble, and once I met this lovely youngdy, I had no reason to refuse. Her father is a local chemical engineer, who received the title of Knight for his contributions to improving agricultural efficiency.¡± The Captain informs her proudly.


    Max didn¡¯t see either of themst night, but going by the state of their clothes and the smell of hotel shampoo, not the military issue that Catan would have arrived smelling like, they were likely upied.


    The shuttle arrives as they are chatting, and the closest group of military officers climb aboard. The first stop is for the civilian transport terminal, where Catan and his bride-to-be get off, along with a few others whose families live nearby. Then at the barracks, which leaves only Max and Nico to head to the Abraham Kepler.


    The security staff seems shocked to see them returning sober and well-dressed. Not many of the crew were entitled to go to the official party, or even leave the shipst night, but the ones they have seen returning mostly had hastily straightened clothing and at least one visible love bite, building on the resentment of the guards, who were stuck here all night long.


    ¡°Wee back Majors. I am certain your unit is anxiously awaiting your return.¡± The guard smiles.


    The departing troops had their own partyst night, much less formal than the Ball for the Nobles and returning officers, and without most of the alcohol, but most of them were too excited to sleep anyhow.


    ¡°We have graciously given them the morning off training. I¡¯m sure they will be rested and eager to show their worth this afternoon.¡± Max jokes back, scanning his wrist device to check into the ship.


    Safely back in his room, Max checks his notifications, finding that the Young Master he is transferring out of the unit is still safely in quarantine and that the General worked out a deal with the Duke to send the other son to take over a quality control supervisor¡¯s position at a meat packing nt that the family owns. After a few years surrounded by the smells of livestock waste and blood, the young noble will likely be at least a little repentant, though Max had hoped for more.


    Then he sees the location, on the edge of a desert along the continental equator where the average daily temperature is well over 40 degrees celsius. Maybe getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and sweating in the heat all day while he checks fences and animal treatment by the farm transports might actually be worse than being in the ship¡¯s galley, where he would at least get to hit on the female soldiers and work in temperature-controlled conditions.


    It was good to be back in uniform. Despite being perfectly tailored to his size, the tuxedo was an ufortable outfit to wear, withyers where there shouldn¡¯t beyers, and not granting him nearly enough freedom of movement. Max carefully stowed it in his locker and looked over the training results from yesterday.


    They were far from getting through everyone¡¯s assessments, and might not even finish them today with thete start, but so far the recruits he had received mostly lived up to their educational records. They were the elite of the local academy after all, no matter how low that academy¡¯s standards were. It even looked like they had to pull Cadets from two graduating sses to make a single Special Tactics team. How the 42nd armored made it through the first few battle was a mystery to Max, assuming that they had it this hard with personnel.


    There isn¡¯t too much to do, so after a quick breakfast to settle his stomach, Max climbs into bed for a few hours of much-needed sleep. His mind might be refreshed by the pill he took, but a short nap never hurt anyone.


    When he woke up, the cafeteria had just opened for lunch, and the unit was rapidly filling the seats, looking eager to prove themselves. Those who passed qualifications to the senior officers¡¯ standards yesterday had an almost smug air about them, like kids who had finished their exams a day earlier than their peers and had nothing to worry about. In a way that was true, but they weren¡¯t going to get off easy today just because they had proven that they didn¡¯t cheat on their exams.


    No, Max had big ns for this unit, and it was going to take him a lot of effort to get them in shape.


    Step 1 was just the examination, but after that came thebat training that he had been doing with the officers and the men of Bravopany over thest month. That part would take the longest since it was the foundation for everything else they needed to know to survive. Step 3 would be to take that knowledge and expand it into a whole new fighting style for the light Mecha. The Comor Pattern Corvettes were even more agile than the standard pattern ones, so there was no reason that they couldn¡¯t learn and execute an advanced fighting style with more meleepetence than a standard Kepler unit.


    Theck of Melee capability had been the downfall of a lot of units when the Cygnus Mecha joined thest battle, leaving the Kepler units unable to effectively defend themselves at close range, and not fast enough to properly maintain distance. Max was not going to allow that to happen to his Pilots.

 97 Chapter 97

    When lunchtime came, Max was ready toplete the assessments of his new unit. Honestly, he expected much more trouble today, once the reality of their situation had set in than he got yesterday while they were still somewhat in shock and struggling to adapt.


    They might all be graduates of the Academy, but they were also the first group in a decade that actually had to do a term of service. The graduating sses every other year joined theary defense force, which hadn¡¯t been mobilized outside of natural disaster assistance in over a century. Max fully expects the reality that they are going off to fight and die to set in sometime today and lead to a wave of misbehavior.


    But then, for the children of mostly impoverished farmers in a rural agricultural world, the living situation on board the Abraham Kepler might not be bad enough to seem like an actual downside. A gship like the one they have been assigned to often gets sent on political missions, where they will be a mostly ceremonial force, and spend most of their careers on parade or in transit, with only a handful ofbat engagements.


    That assumption could be why they chose the younger Captain Catan to rece his retiring cousin. He has experience in personal security for political figures, like the senior officers, and as the only Special Tactics Unit on board, they would be the first ones called upon to take up that duty.


    Despite Max¡¯s fears, everyone seems to be gathered on time and without issue toplete the assessments. If anything, they seem to be more motivated now than they were before, realizing the purpose is to weed out those who can¡¯t pull their weight and those with exceptionally bad attitudes.


    Max nods for Nico to begin the training session and she steps forward, bringing everyone to attention with a nce. ¡°I hope everyone enjoyed the luxury of an entire morning off, that doesn¡¯t happen often in a Special Tactics Unit. There is a lot for you to learn before our first deployment that isn¡¯t covered in any Academy or University. That¡¯s not to say that we are task masters, Major Max is a big softie when ites to his troops, so he has asked that I only set a half-day training schedule for you all.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    That sends up a round of cheers and praise for Max, who smiles, knowing what ising next.


    ¡°And in ordance with his orders, I have set training to exactly one half of the day. Now, it doesn¡¯t really matter which 12 hours we choose, but I prefer early, so training will start promptly at seven every morning with physical skills maintenance, and then mission-specific techniques and tactics.


    Some will be easy, some will not. Some you will already think you know, but I will ensure that they are ground into your very bones so that wee back with exactly as many troopers as we departed with.¡± Nico informs them with a smile, her speeching across as much less intimidating due to her stature.


    It sounds like the standard-issue idle threats, but the other officers know just how strict she can be when ites to training. They have already had a month of preparation for this moment, and they still aren¡¯t sure they are up to her standards.


    ¡°Alright, team leaders, get your soldiers moving through the physical skills maintenance routine and I will call groups by registration number to do their assessments,¡± Max calls out, and the groups split into thirds, ready to face the judgment of their Commander.<sub></sub>


    Max brings them up five at a time, filling the few resistance trainers that they have reserved for their unit, and begins the exams. For the first few rounds, everything is exactly as he suspected, but in the third group, there is a repeated failure. The Pilot should have average scores in the Special Forces training ss, so Max pulls him aside into one of the soundproof side rooms to have a little chat.


    The first thing he notices is that the man is shaking and sweating, but not in the way of an exhausted Pilot who has just finished an exam. He looks a bit sickly, but the biological scans showed that none of the Pilots brought in any infectious diseases. Perhaps it is a lingering issue?


    ¡°Tell me, Pilot. What just happened in the resistance trainer?¡± Max asks, giving him the option toe up with an excuse of some sort.


    ¡°Sir, I can pass, Sir. I swear I can, I¡¯m just not feeling well Sir.¡± The man gives a crisp response, as expected, but the sweat on his forehead is getting thicker and thicker.


    Max pages a medic to urgently report to the unit and looks back at the Pilot, who is trying not to fidget and scratch his arms. Now Max understands what the problem is. He isn¡¯t infected, he is going through withdrawals, the man is an addict.<sub></sub>


    ¡°How long since yourst dose, Pilot?¡± Max asks directly, waiting for the medic. The Abraham Kepler has a variety of treatments for drug withdrawals on board since the screenings catch almost all of the contraband thates on board, leaving a lot of soldiers out of supply before the next stop.


    ¡°Sir, I¡¯m not sure what you mean, Sir.¡± The Pilot says formally, going with the deny it and hope that the symptoms wear off quickly so he doesn¡¯t get into worse trouble approach.


    ¡°I have called for a medic, and he will ask you the very same thing. He will do blood tests to verify, so there¡¯s no point in lying. Get treated now, and get yourself squared away before today¡¯s training isplete. If you do, and you pass the exam, you can stay with no repercussions. What you did before joining the Unit won¡¯t be held against you. Ie from the slums of the Capital on Kepler Terminus, I¡¯ve seen it all before.¡± Max continues and the man looks a bit hopeful.


    ¡°There¡¯s a drug on this world called Dream, made from a local flower. It¡¯smonly used as a painkiller by themoners, but it seems that the scans found it all. I looked, nobody has any, or they¡¯re not willing to share.¡± The Pilot finally sighs, knowing that this is his only hope of not being sent to the meat grinder that is the first wave assault units, or worse, a Penal regiment.


    Max forwards the information to the medic, who sends back a text response that they have an instant treatment for the withdrawal symptoms if he wants, and then they can prescribe a pill to prevent them from returning for the rest of the week until they have faded.


    ¡°Good news, Pilot. They can cure your shakes right away, and you can go to the med bay every morning for the next week to get a pill to prevent them until you¡¯re cleaned up. Tell anyone else who might be having the same issue to report to the med bay on their off-hours, I¡¯ll have them approve the treatment without a formal reprimand.¡± Max decides, remembering how hard the Convicts had it when many of them hadn¡¯t done anything worse than these soldiers but met with a hardline Commander.


    ¡°Thank you, Sir.¡± The Pilot salutes, just as the medices in, scanning his information before suddenly giving him a needle to the arm through his uniform.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine in under a minute, but you will be exhausted if you don¡¯t eat heavily at dinner. The treatment activates the nanobots to purify your system and it will burn a lot of energy.¡± The medic informs the Pilot before leaving, having hundreds of such incidents among the quarter-million recruits reported already.


    It will surely get worse over the next few days, as any hidden supplies of drugs run out while the soldiers are in quarantine, but that¡¯s just part of any recruitment, except on the most hardline of militarys like Kepler Terminus. Thoses mostly overuse military-issued stimnts and rxants, which have been designed to work with the System to avoid lingering effects.


    The unit that the Pilot came from looks a bit shocked when Max leads him back out and has him start the scenario over, retaking his exam with much better results before sending him back to the group and calling another handful over. They were sure that he was a goner, off to scrub dishes for a decade or worse, but the Commander didn¡¯t say anything at all and sent him back to training.


    There are no more unpleasant surprises that day, other than a few who struggled with the scenario that Max set, but there were also a few standouts, who had clearly not been trying particrly hard in the Academy. They came from the ranks of the enlisted soldiers, so that wasn¡¯t surprising. It wasn¡¯t like they had a lot of motivation to try hard with their low System affinity and single career path.


    Once the unit is dismissed, Max calls the officers to him. ¡°So, any potential sergeants among the recruits? Natural leaders, hidden specialists who have revealed themselves already?¡±


    Max takes notes as everyone gives him the good and bad of their observations, but for the most part, the unit is exactly at the expected standard, proving that the educational system did its job. That means that all he needs to do is expand their horizons.


    Max is about to inform them of the training schedule when the officers¡¯ wrist devices all beep in unison with a Command Message.


    [Emergency Deployment orders: SSV17, Local name Sigmund,ary defense mission] is the title of the message, and they all sigh. It seems that the rebels are active again, and the Unit will be tempered in the heat of battle and not trained on board the ship. Sigmund is only a week¡¯s journey from here, ording to what Max remembers of the star charts.


    [All Personnel tounch positions.ary Departure in 30 minutes.]

 98 Chapter 98

    The activity aboard the Abraham Kepler bes frantic in an instant. Many troopers were rxing, sorting gear, and settling into their new amodations. But in the 30 minutes beforeunch, everything needs to be packed away, doors sealed, and all personnel to designatedunch locations where they can be secured to prevent injuries duringunch.


    The process isn¡¯t as dramatic when leaving a space station, since there isn¡¯t the same gravity change, just the transition to faster than light travel. Ships the size of the Abraham Kepler also rarelynd ons and aren¡¯t really designed for it. Sure, they can survive it easily enough, but it is a huge amount of stress on the structure, even with Kepler¡¯s advanced anti-gravity technology.


    On the surface, the parties are still in full swing, weing the veterans home with no idea that the enormous bulk of the Abraham Kepler is about to take off until the sirens start sounding to clear the area.


    There isn¡¯t anything built within half a kilometer of thending pad, but even then, the closest buildings won¡¯t be safe to walk near until the ship is at least ten thousand meters in the air and begins its forward motion.


    If Max could see outside, he would see thousands of veterans standing at attention outside every barracks building, saluting the departing troops and wishing them a safe and uneventful deployment, as impossible as that might be with an emergency departure. If anyone understands the true horror of that short-notice siren, it is them. They heard it two missions in a row, and both missions cost them dearly in lost brothers and sisters.<sub>.</sub>


    Inside the ship, the chaos has begun to settle as everyone gets their gear put away, and runs for the secured seating. The bunks have an option to securely yourself in so you don¡¯t fall out, but even cadets this new know that they don¡¯t want to beid t in a tiny box for takeoff. It¡¯s much better to be in a proper chair. Most of them will be either in the cafeterias, where the high-backed chairs will all be turned to face one direction and the tables fold vertically to prevent flying debris from injuring the soldiers behind them. The rest will either be in the training halls or secured seating within their duty stations.


    Stalwart Special Tactics Unit has its own training hall, so they have been designated to use it as theirunch area, giving them more than enough room to work, and keeping them close to everywhere they¡¯re likely to be during a standard duty shift.


    The ship shudders as it slowly lifts from the ground, minimizing thruster usage to prevent damage to the surrounding area as the anti-gravity drive shifts the gship into the air. Once the Abraham Kepler has reached a safe altitude, the thrusters engage, mming everyone back in their seats with no warning other than a slight rocking motion as they engage.


    Max spends the next few minutes thanking whoever designed thisyout for putting the officers¡¯ seats at the very front of the room, despite the fact that they are facing the mirrored window of the office, with minimal leg room. The sounds of motion-sick rookies let him know that the scene behind him is not going to be a pretty one, even before he looks in the mirror.<sub></sub>


    The thunderous force of atmospheric entry suddenly fades as they reach the boundary to space and the artificial gravity kicks in with a faint hum. A few soldiers are about to get up to clean themselves, having been downstream of the sick trooper, but Max stops them before they can.


    ¡°Everyone remain seated. The Abraham Kepler is about to transition to faster than light travel.¡± He calls, knowing full well just how nauseating the first few times you experience the effects of the warp field engaging can be.


    The actual function is a state secret, but as Max understands it, the drive creates a bubble effect in reality around the ship, bending the naturalws using immense amounts of carefully regted energy in order to let the ship travel faster than the speed of light.


    Keeping it a huge secret only matters to the enemy though, since even if it was exined to him, Max isn¡¯t sure that he could actually understand the level of astrophysics necessary to urately exin how the warp drive works.<sub></sub>


    [Prepare for rapid transition] Comes the announcement, just as Max had predicted, and then the twisting lurch of the warp drive engaging flows through them, causing a few more soldiers to forfeit their dinners.


    ¡°That¡¯s the worst of it. Everyone get clean and get settled in for the evening early. We have one week to pound enough knowledge into your heads that you don¡¯t die within the first five minutes of your first deployment.¡± Max calls out, making a few pilotsugh, but not the infantry.


    Every infantry soldier knows that the life expectancy of a rookie trooper sent on a forward deployment drop is measured in seconds and not hours or days. If they survive the drop, they will usually be expected to secure the position to reduce damage to the resource-intensive Mecha units that follow them. From what they¡¯ve heard among the rumor mill, mostly from troopers who had family in Bravo Company, Major Max isn¡¯t like that and prefers to keep all his members alive, but he doesn¡¯t get to designate the drops.


    The next day, Max sets the basic training for the Pilots to learn the essentials of hand-to-handbat. They now have extremely agile Comor Pattern Corvette ss Mecha, and he ns to equip every one of them with swords. They do learn a little about swordbat in ss, but the footwork and technique to make it truly useful are well out of the skill set that the academy covers. They only have one week, so that is what he will focus on for the pilots. How to survive up close and personal with other light mecha in an urban environment.


    For the infantry, Max has Nico cover a wider variety of skills. It¡¯s toote to start teaching them martial arts, so she will focus on teaching them trench warfare, how to detect enemy hiding spots and basic infiltration techniques. Those three things are the most likely to help them survive the first few days of an assault, and the updates Max has managed to get about the situation on Sigmund say that¡¯s what it will be.


    The enemy is not a human faction, but they are close to it. The has been invaded by the Narsians, a species of humanoid giants, roughly the same size as Line Mecha, between three and four meters tall. Their technology is strangely both very advanced and verycking. They have powered environmental body armor, but they prefer to run everywhere they go, not using transport vehicles. They use high-powered energy weapons, but also carryrge alloy melee weapons, that do devastating damage thanks to their size and strength.


    That¡¯s why it¡¯s so important that the pilots know how to fight up close, the enemy is light mecha-sized and even more melee happy than the Cygnus forces were. They are also surprisingly agile, using a form of anti-gravity drive in their body armor to allow them to run at extreme speeds and jump up to fifteen meters at a time, ording to the strategic videos that Max has managed to find.


    They also don¡¯t use spaceships. Instead, they directly invade others using a form of wormhole technology. Once they have located their target, a portal is opened, and a scout team is sent through. If there is life or valuable resources, the invasion begins only minutester with hundreds of wormhole exits dumping their army all over the and then closing. There is no word for losing in theirnguage, or if there is, it¡¯s the same word that they use for death. If they don¡¯t capture the, there is no way for them to leave again.


    Seeing the details makes Max realize how important the emergency deployment was. Even a week away, they might be toote, since the Narsians attack all at once across an entire. ording to the records, manys fallpletely, the entire poption having been killed during the first two weeks. Narsians don¡¯t keep ves, they view the practice as inhumane. But they also don¡¯t have a use for survivors, so unless there was an enved poption on the world, that they can deport elsewhere as an act of kindness, they simply kill all the indigenous inhabitants of the worlds they target.


    It makes sense to Max, in a twisted way. You eliminate all potential enemies, and there is nobody left toin that you are inhabiting their world. Once they are established, they will set up high-tech factories to build orbital defenses for their newly founded cities, with the old ones being demolished as unsuitable for beings of their size.


    The infantry definitely won¡¯t have it easy here. There are no human infantry equivalent troops on the enemy side of this battle. The only bright side is that as a Special Tactics Unit, they have a wide variety of heavy weapons avable to them so that they can effectively prate the heavy armor or the Narsian shock troopers.


    By the end of the week, the Pilots¡¯ melee skills are looking at least a little less awkward, and the infantry has gotten the hang of breaching buildings and finding likely enemy hiding spots, so they are as ready as they are going to get.


    Thest thing on Max¡¯s list is to request a special meal from the cafeteria. The menu is generally set by Command, but within reason, it can be modified. One of the Kepler 111 specialties is a custard tart, that Max tried at the Formal Ball. All the ingredients are in the meals for this week, just in different forms, so Max has the dessert set for dinner before they drop. A little taste of home for good luck.

 99 Chapter 99

    The deployment orders for the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit havee in. They will be doing a full force insertion, meaning that they will be bringing some spare equipment with them including the Mobile Suits and some vehicles. They will be dropping well behind the intended front lines to secure a secret military instation.


    The facility is currently under Kepler¡¯s control, one of many such facilities within the heavily popted system. Sigmund also has one partially inhabited moon and a few resource bases on outlyings within its sr system.


    They aren¡¯t a powerhouse of military might, but they did have a fairly decent defense force, and they have a Space Station in orbit that is still holding out against the Narsian¡¯s anti-satellite attacks. It looks like the is doing better than most against this alien invasion and that the Abraham Kepler might be enough to stabilize the situation for a few days or a week until more reinforcements can arrive.


    They were the only ship close to the point of the attack since it was so far within the Empire¡¯s borders, but neighboring systems will be mustering as many troops as they can spare and should be here soon. If one of them was close to their annual recruitment, they might even get lucky and see an entire Mecha Regiment and Field Army in the next few days.


    Once theirnder drops within the facility, the Special Tactics Unit has been assigned to fortify the facility as a regrouping and resupply point for the Kepler defense forces. It has an ore stockpile inside, and a wide variety of repair and emergency manufacturing facilities. It is a perfectly suited mission to the Unit, but going by the other drop sites on the list, they might have actually pulled the lowest risk location of anyone aboard the ship, other than those assigned tond with the two Phnx ss Mecha.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Commander, final requisitions are in. I got us a collection of Skyfire Turrets that we can use as an anti-infantry defense when wend. They won¡¯t have any issues with Narsian armor, and the k explosions make them especially effective againstrge-scale assaults.¡± Nico informs him, handing over the tablet with the loading information for the drop ship.


    ¡°Thanks, Major. Now, to get everyone on the ground without issue. From what I can see, the Narsians have taken at least a few cities, so we can expect heavy iing fire on the way down, even if we are headed to a lower priority location.¡± Max sighs, refreshing the battle status on his tablet.


    ¡°Nothing we can do about that. But the troops are ready to load and all Mecha are in ce, loaded, and double-checked.¡± Nico¡¯s assurance goes a long way tofort Max, as he knows her skills would have caught anything that the crew missed, and the crews that loaded thenders are from the Abraham Kepler itself, all Career soldiers, and experienced, not fresh recruits like those going to battle today.


    The entire ship is on edge today, with greenmanders leading green troops on their first mission while expecting heavy iing fire and a hostilending zone. If they stay this nervous they won¡¯t even need the enemy to find them, they will be mentally defeated before they even reach the ground. Max needs to do something about it, he is going to need these Mecha to survive long enough to need toe to his position for resupply.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Special Tactics Unit. On me. We will be taking a long way around to motivate the troops.¡± Max instructs the unit.


    They might not know much more than anyone else, but they are the elite of their group, and Max did give them a lot of extra training this week, all for the sake of survival. Their morale is high, and he hopes that just the sight of his unit¡¯s confidence will help the other units get their act together. Going by the chaos that he can see, it is more than a little bit necessary. Troops are running around trying to getst-minute orders handled, and rookiemanders are flustered by the need to get everything in order for something that isn¡¯t a drill.


    They know how, but the nerves are getting to them and they are making simple mistakes that don¡¯t need to happen.


    As they pass by, the other officers of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit are shouting orders at aimless troops, setting unitmanders back on the right path, and calming the troops. Max was right, just the presence of another unit in their situation that has their act together is enough to solve half the problem, the part where chaos is feeding on chaos and making things increasingly more difficult to organize.<sub></sub>


    They cross almost the entirending bay beforeing to the bay where Shining Darkness stands surrounded by cranes, getting ready to load now that the rest of its entourage is ready. General Tennant himself is busy with a Command Tablet, setting orders and rearranging drop schedules to avoid areas where the highest concentration of enemy fire will likelye from.


    ¡°Major Max, thank you for all the hard work. Security feeds showed me your tour around the loading bays getting the troops in order.¡± The General Greets them as they pass by his hangar.


    ¡°The pleasure is all mine General. If those few of us with experience aren¡¯t on top of things, who would be? All they needed was a bit of confidence to remember that they¡¯ve spent most of their lives training for this.¡± Max answers with a crisp salute for the Senior officer.


    ¡°Your drop route isn¡¯t perfect, but it should be out of range of the worst of the iing fire. Just take and hold that position at all costs. Sigmund has a fairly high poption, but the on resource levels are low. Most of their manufacturing is done on the outers or in space. Until the resupply drops begin, we will be pressed for resources.¡± General Tennant exins.


    Max can see in his thoughts that the General did his best to send his proteges somewhere rtively safe, giving them time to get their troops up to standard before facing the worst that the Narsians can throw at them. Even a few days of lightbat before a major assault will greatly increase the survival rate of a unit, and he has bought them as many days as he can.


    General Tennant himself will be headed for the Continental Capital, a thousand kilometers from where Max will bending, while the Carpe Noctem will be going to reinforce theary Capital, on the other side of the world.


    ¡°Everyone to thender. You have ten minutes to get settled in and secured or I will be writing your names on your seats for the next drop.¡± Max orders his unit, whough as they jog to thest bay to get loaded, lifting the spirits of the soldiers they pass.


    They still have over an hour before the final securement calles, but the Pilots haven¡¯t had much seat time in their new Mecha, and it is of a pattern they haven¡¯t had a chance to physically use before, so even getting an extra hour to getfortable and set things up to their liking is appreciated.


    Max also has to do the same, the interior of Stalwart was painted and renovated after thest battle, so he needs to make sure all the personal effects he has ced in the cockpit this week are secured, and ces his lucky photos into the holders.


    He has a new one for this mission. Of the entire surviving membership of hisst mission on the day they returned to the ship. They are dirty, sweaty, and exhausted with thousand-yard stares, hardened bybat, but they look happy to be home. Now almost all of those faces are retired and their sessors, including many of their younger siblings and cousins, are under his care.


    ¡°Just you watch boys, I¡¯ll bring these Pilots back as real men.¡± Max smiles, tucking it into the clear stic holder, right above the photo of himself between Nico and General Tennant on the day of his first deployment.


    The Special Tactics Unit is living up to its reputation, ready on time and fully equipped, chatting easily as they wait for the final announcements. Max turns on Stalwart¡¯s external speaker and hears Ari taking bets on how far off the ten-minute warning will be this time. They all know that it is rarely even close to their actual drop time, especially for first-wave units, but some of the bets are entirely too optimistic. Seriously, twenty minutes before their actual drop? That would put them in the third wave ofnders. No way will they have to wait that long.


    Thender is moved into the finalunch position and the lights turn to warning red, reminding everyone that they could be facing a drop any second and that any unsecured objects in the cabin could be deadly projectiles.


    [Ten Minutes To Launch] the automated system announces, signaling the start of finalunch preparations by the ship crew, and the rumble of the enormous drop bay doors opening shakes thender.


    The light tan walls of thender look almost dark brown against the bone of the Mecha, and the lighting makes the ck berets of the infantry into voids of darkness over olive-tanned faces as the thrusters of thender power up.


    [Launching] the single word announcement res over the speakers and Maxughs, activating the external speakers of Stalwart. ¡°Eight Minutes and forty-seven seconds early, a new unit record. Captain Ari, who is our lucky winner?¡±

 100 Chapter 100

    Theunch of ander is a lurch of rapid motion followed by sudden weightlessness that bounces everyone off their securement harnesses as thender leaves the artificial gravity of the mothership.


    It is a bit disorienting every time, feeling like up and down have ceased to exist, which in a way they do while you are in space.


    The recruits haven¡¯t experienced it before, but the consensus of their first drop is that theunch is definitely better than the trantion to faster than light transit. At least this doesn¡¯t feel like their insides are being twisted inside their bodies.


    Max can feel that the thrusters are still activated, which makes no sense since the Abraham Kepler is still approaching the, they didn¡¯t need the extra speed to make an approach on the at near structural load limits.


    ¡°Nico, check thender settings and find out what the hell is going on,¡± Max calls over the securemand channel. Nobody will hear it but her and the other Crusader Pilots, so he doesn¡¯t bother to censor himself.


    ¡°Found the issue. Sending the data to Command.¡± Nico answers without borating.


    Max checks her thoughts and finds that theunch orders have been modified, without a verification code. Every Lander in the first wave is headed for a spot near theary capital that is crawling with Narsian troops and antinder firepower.


    The only viable answer for it is that the ship¡¯sunch codes werepromised by an internal traitor, or that the Narsians have a hacking ability much more advanced than the Kepler military was aware of.<sub>.</sub>


    Following her thoughts, Max can see that Nico is busy using the anti-collision datawork to reroute as many units as possible before they reach the point of no return, where it will be toote to significantly change their trajectory.


    They do have thrusters and can reroute, but that involves losing a lot of orbital speed first, and by the time they do, they will be within range of the capital.


    ¡°Confirmation, course alteration signal came from the,¡± Nico calls over the Command channel and Max rys it back tounch control, who rapidly works to change encryption codes before the next wave of Landers isunched.


    The choice of encryption code is left up to the individualunch officers, which will cause some chaos since the Landers won¡¯t be able tomunicate with each other on their way down due to varying encryptions, but that is better than having them all fired directly at a death trap.


    [Shining Darkness to Stalwart. The original target is no longer viable. Your mission will be updated afternding.] General Tennant informs Max over the mecha¡¯s heads-up disy.


    Checking the targeting data, Max can see that the General is correct, they fell too far while Nico was correcting everyone else¡¯s trajectory to prevent them fromnding near the most dangerous points on the, and now they will bending on the far side of the from where they were originally intended to be.


    That¡¯s an unfortunate, but entirely toomon oue, though it is more often due to emergency evasions or damage than a sessful hack of theunchputers.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Do we have any data on the newnding zone?¡± Max asks, looking over the map. There is data there, he just hasn¡¯t studied it at all, since it was thousands of kilometers from their destination.


    ¡°Predicted drop zone is a tropical swamp. Poption under 10 per square kilometer for the entire region. Enemy forces unknown.¡± Nico responds, and Max hears the other officers give a shortugh.


    ¡°So you¡¯re saying that I¡¯m going home?¡± Vincente asks, being from a tropical swamp himself.


    ¡°You¡¯re in luck Captain. Thest time my unit found itself in a swamp, there were giant beasts that could eat a Corvette ss mecha. This one doesn¡¯t show any life signs over three meters long on the initial scans.¡± Max jokes.


    ¡°I heard about that from the other convicts. Back when you were stationed on Belmont, right? Capturing theary Governor alive was possibly the greatest bit of luck I¡¯ve heard about in a while.¡± Paul agrees.


    ¡°That¡¯s the time. Though after the flood, you could almost call the bridge defense a swamp.¡± Nico joins in, helping cut the tension they are all feeling after the attack on their guidance systems.


    ¡°Don¡¯t remind me. Giant Cygnus Mecha everywhere, and I was still stuck on Line Mecha detail.¡± Vincenteins.<sub></sub>


    The very fact that these three survived owed a lot to their pure skill levels. Command didn¡¯t intend for the Convict Units to survive, they were there to soak up bullets to save the better-behaved troops. The fact that Max brought so many of them back was a shock to everyone, including the few other remaining convicts.


    The joking only works for a little while though, they have entered the atmosphere much faster than intended, thanks to the change in their course, and the whole ship is shuddering and creaking under the strain as the thrusters work to keep it on course and reduce the speed.


    Once they get a little lower the Anti Gravity field can be engaged to assist with the descent in addition to the thrusters, but for now, it¡¯s pure fuel-burning power that is slowing the flying brick hurtling towards a popted at thirty times the speed of sound.


    After a few minutes the violent shaking begins to subside as thender gets close to normal entry velocities, but now they have dropped low enough that they are in range of the defensive guns as they pass over the more popted regions of the.


    The explosions are still somewhat distant, a constant thudding as they drop, steady enough that the infantry soldiers, who aren¡¯t protected inside Mecha, feel the vibrations more as background music on their way to hell.


    Even those slowly go silent though, as they cross the horizon and move out of sight of the cities. So far the Narsians haven¡¯t put much effort into the rural areas, beginning their invasion with the highest priority targets, and agricultural areas are low priority since the Narsians are unable to process most human foods.


    [Altitude ten thousand meters, beginning final approach.]


    [We have ournding zone, updating coordinates] Nico adds over the intes, rxing the troops a little.


    In their minds, if the XO is personally updating theirnding zone, it must be safer than whatever Command had in store for them. Of course, they have no idea how close everything went to going fatally wrong, since the earlier discussion was on a secure channel.


    The spot Nico has picked for them is arge, rocky ridgeline lifting out of the swamp like the back of a prehistoric animal. Sensors detected arge empty cavity underground, possibly an abandoned mine shaft, which is suitable as a bunker for the infantry, or will be after it is reinforced a little.


    The n visible in Max¡¯s heads up disy is to put thender in front of it as a makeshift defensive wall, giving them shelter from two sides and providing some cover for the Mecha.


    [Prepare for Landing] the ship¡¯sputer announces, before the fifty meter long box gently settles onto the rocks and powers down.


    ¡°Everyone move out. Team Alpha and Team Bravo secure the perimeter, Team Charlie secure the caverns.¡± Max calls, getting ready to move himself into position to support the teams.


    The teams are a bit rough, not quite in sync with each other, but they are all on mission and in under 20 seconds thender is empty and the Mecha teams are spreading out while the infantry forms the inner perimeter.


    [All Clear]e the unit reports one after another.


    [Radar shows no drops within 100km of our location. Orbital scans show no inhabited areas for 300km.] Nico reports and Max sighs. They really are in the middle of nowhere.


    [Find a way to contactmand and give them a sitrep. Once they know we are here and alive they will likely have to adjust their ns for the unit.]


    [Caverns Clear. It looks like this was a Uranium Mine at one point. The lower shafts are sealed, but the upper caverns read safe levels of radiation.] Team Charlie reports in.


    Just what they needed. The Narsians use uranium as their primary fuel for their powered equipment and energy weaponry. If they are sitting on a Uranium mine, Command will want them to hold it all costs, keeping the enemy from refueling.


    [Get the caverns mapped. I suspect we will be here a while.] Max gives Charlie Squad their orders while Alpha and Bravo squads get settled into position.


    They won¡¯t start building anything yet, as this location might already have an assigned defense team, but they can at least dig some foxholes and get the Anti aircraft guns set up. The infantry is always happier after the heavy support is in ce.


    [Central Command to Stalwart. Hold position until further notice. Reinforcements areing with the third wave.]

 101 Chapter 101

    The worst thing about this posting had to be the swamp itself. The ancient flooded forest produced an enormous amount of methane from its dposing base, and the smell,bined with some particrly aromatic local animal defense mechanisms was nearly enough to burn the eyes.


    Despite the air being safe to breathe, most of the infantry had taken to wearing at least a cloth mask and goggles to keep down the smell and reduce the effects of the fumes on their eyes while on patrol.


    While off patrol, they retreated to the mine shafts, where an air purification and radiation mitigation system had been set up to keep them safe while the construction machines reinforced the tunnels so that they wouldn¡¯t copse when under attack.


    Max was keeping up with the state of the battle as well as he could, given the situation. There wasn¡¯t much to go on, with reports so scattered and the Narsian efforts to disrupt theirmunications being so sessful, but with Nico¡¯s help, he had a pretty good satellite and radar ovey of the region, showing that there were battles moving in this direction, but they were still hundreds of kilometers away.


    It was quite likely that the enemy didn¡¯t yet know that this region was important to them, since they hadn¡¯t had a chance to explore it yet, but that could change on short notice. There wasn¡¯t much data about their sensory and exploration capabilities, but if they could hackunch control, there was no reason to believe that they couldn¡¯t find a buried fuel source on a that they had upied.


    And so, they just waited, building a proper defensive position big enough to hold twonders¡¯ worth of reinforcements, in case the battle turned for the worst and someone needed to retreat to their position. Max didn¡¯t expand the position, that would stretch his units too thin. Instead, they built a second row of defenses on the hill that held the mine entrance. If they were attacked before the third wave of drops, they could retreat to the second row and rig the first one to detonate if necessary, and if they weren¡¯t they were ready to ept a fullnding force to defend the mine.<sub>.</sub>


    This¡¯s evolutionary path didn¡¯t ever use hydrocarbons as fuel, so the entire swamp was rich in both coal and oil, often leaking to the surface and adding to the innate stench of the ce, but that wasn¡¯t going to attract the Narsians, as they had stopped using them centuries ago. It did give Max an idea for defense though, as the floating unrefined oils were still highly mmable and long burning. They could gather them and create ponds on the inds within the swamp, lighting them as a distraction to divert enemy troops or to mask the heat signatures of giant mecha.


    The work wasn¡¯t pleasant, even using the Comor Pattern Corvettes that had full environmental systems, but by the end of the second day, they had a half dozen pools of crude oil filled in case of emergencies. The idea was one from his memories of his past life, where a burning oilfield was used as an ambush site to eliminate an enemy force that relied heavily on thermal sight.


    Nico suggested that a series of randomly ce traps and explosives in the swamp would be a fun and efficient idea, but the risk that friendly troops would be the first through the area was too high. They couldn¡¯t risk their allies being blown up as they retreated toward the unit¡¯s position.


    Their next four days went this way, while the Officers trained the troops on relevantbat techniques to use against the oversized enemies in this world, and the freshly recruited infantry slowly started to look more cohesive.


    They hadn¡¯t seen a proper battle yet, but the location was enough to make everyone put in maximum effort, not wanting to be a liability should they be attacked.<sub></sub>


    [Command to Stalwart] Third-wave has begun. Keep your sector secured, sector GA18 has been selected for attack staging.] The automated messagees up on Max¡¯s cockpit disy and he sighs. That¡¯s their sector, and that means that more than a few Landers areing.


    That also means that they will almost certainly be redeployed somewhere more dangerous once the defense force is here, ending the rtively safe start to their first battle as a special tactics unit.


    The attacking forces were in for a shock when theynded though. The swamp is a meter deep in most ces with dozens of meters of peat bog underneath, built up from decayed nt life over centuries. If they weren¡¯t careful, it was entirely possible to sink a Crusader ss Mecha over its carapace armor in the muck, and extraction would be a nightmare.


    [Stalwart to Command. Copy mission update. Advise that Landers only ce on verified solid ground. Swamp unsuitable for Mecha Travel.] Max sees that the message is confirmed, but doesn¡¯t get an immediate response, not that he was expecting one.


    In only a few minutes, the sky lights up with the fires of orbital drops, though this region is mostly free of anything that could harm them.<sub></sub>


    [Tarith¡¯s Rage to Stalwart. The radar reports mass enemy movement in the zone. Rmend sending out patrols to intercept.]


    She is right, they have charged right by the forces outside the swamp that they were engaged with and areing this way. Thenders will be falling on the far side of where they are now, so the entire Narsian force will have to pass by the mine to get to the targets.


    Their best bet for victory is to attack the moment thender doors open, so they are rushing to get there on time, not even stopping to scan the area, since they hadn¡¯t noted any forces moving about in the zone, oring through since the battle started.


    [Charlie, your turn on base defense is canceled. Bravo, you get an extra shift. Alpha and Charlie squads, prepare to move out. We will be intercepting the forcesing for thending zone.] Max calls and the unit rushes into action.


    They have carefully mapped the area in the days since theirnding, so they know where the deep and soft spots are, which should give them an advantage here. The alpha squad under Ari takes the left side with Tarith¡¯s Rage reinforcing them, while Max moves Stalwart to join Vincente and Charlie Squad on the right nk.


    The Narsian force is running full speed through the swamp, at least they are at first.


    Then they find out about the swamp mud and the seemingly endless peat bog underneath it. Max¡¯s radar scans show multiple groups stop, or entirely disappear in the swamp while the others slow down. Their battle armor has environmental systems, so it is unlikely that any of the giants have drowned, but the effort to pull everyone out of the mud will slow them down for a while, letting the Special Tactics Unit engage them a few at a time instead of in one cohesive wave.


    Those who aren¡¯t stuck only slow for safety, they aren¡¯t waiting for their allies. Doing that would make them allte to arrive, which would greatly increase the casualties on their side since the Kepler Mecha would have time to prepare for their attacks.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage is the first to engage, sending a long-range st of glowing white energy from her Ion Destroyer to obliterate the leader of a Narsian attack squad, before nging her sword against the side of her leg, letting the sound echo through the swamp and drawing wayward attackers towards their position instead of having to chase them down to defend the zone.


    Compared to her, Max¡¯s side is not nearly as lucky. The Narsians heard the attack, and they are rushing in her direction, grouping together near where Max had Charlie Squad set up their defenses.


    They have ten sma Cannons for the infantry, plus ten Corvette ss Mecha with heavy energy weapons. The Narsians are well defended against the energy sts, but projectile ammunition is just too hard to rece for Max to have equipped most of the unit with them. His Battle Cannon roars as the first shell is fired, a high explosive round that throws a half dozen giants from their feet and turns the force in his direction.


    They are still out of visual range, so Max continues firing, using the artillery shells to his advantage and reducing enemy numbers before they are capable of shooting back.


    The n seems to be going well until a huge explosion nearly takes Max from his feet, and topples over a number of light mecha.


    [What in the world was that?] Max shouts, hoping someone has information. If that was a misdirected enemy round, they could all be in trouble. The explosion covered nearly a hundred meters.


    [Artillery hit a methane pocket] Vincente reports, trying not tough at the idental destruction.


    The methane pockets are amon urrence here. Max just happened tond a direct hit on a methane vent and blow one of them sky high, wiping out the enemy units, but creating a giant crater that is quickly filling with brackish water.


    [Add the crater to the known obstacles list. Radar, where is my next target?] Max sighs, checking the position of the Narsian attackers.]

 102 Chapter 102

    Max doesn¡¯t have to wait long for more targets, with the first of theming running out of the woods just after he asked for a radar update. It is his first time seeing these enemies up close, and they are truly fearsome. While their size isn¡¯t intimidating to a Crusader ss Mecha, the speed and agility with which they move through the shallow water are far beyond anything mechanical Max has ever seen.


    [Iing from 220 Degrees] Max calls as a group tries to circle them while staying out of their direct line of sight.


    Beside him, Vincente in the Morning Glory lets loose a Battle Cannon round of his own, having refrained from the earlier bombardment forck of a suitable targeting skill. The enemy is under a hundred meters away and is closing fast until the massed firepower of Charlie Squad¡¯s infantry forces them to take cover. They weren¡¯t expecting the Kepler forces to have stationed infantry here, in a ce so unsuitable to vehicle transport, and it took them off guard.


    A half-second after they move out of the majority of the infantry fire, the Corvette ss Mecha begin their assault, using the advantage of their height above the water to hit targets that the infantry couldn¡¯t.


    Now that they have realized that they can¡¯t hide, the Narsians charge. Their sma shots are mostly going wide of the targets, but they were intended as covering fire, keeping Charlie Squad under cover until the Giants can get close enough to tear them apart at close range.


    The Pulse Laser Array on Stalwart shes as Max makes the best use of his [Split Fire] System skill, taking out one target after another before they can even react.<sub>.</sub>


    [System Update Triggered] Generating Appropriate Skill


    Max doesn¡¯t have time to even notice the message from the System sh in his vision as he shoots, but suddenly the world seems to be moving in slow motion. The Laser is firing so slowly that he has all the time he needs to pick and choose the best targets and adjust to weak points, taking out throats and helmet visors instead of simply hitting the giants with his shots.


    Even his next Battle Cannon round is visible as a fast-moving blur of metal racing from Stalwart¡¯s barrel into a newly detected group of Narsian invaders. At first, Max is baffled, and then the second System Message rifies his situation.


    [New Skill Added: Perception 1] Increases cognitive speed by 50 percent at will.


    That exins the sudden change. His skill for reaching 200 points of total bonus has finallye in. This one is also abat skill, but it will also be very useful for strategy and Command. Having more time to think gives him time to contemte his orders even while under pressure, turning every two seconds into three.<sub></sub>


    The number next to it indicates that this is a skill that can be increased during future advancements, so with time, his thoughts will get even faster. The only unfortunate part is that the System very rarely makes anyone smarter after the developmental eleration. Instead, this skill only lets you make bad decisions faster.


    A group of Narsians in Stealth Suits have almost made it to the small ind that they have picked as their defensive position when Max¡¯s sensors pick them up, and he pings the spot on the radar map to let the Corvettes know that there are iing enemies. They are too far off target to get Stalwart turned around, so he leaves them to the others, while he takes aim at arge group that is charging through the tangled mess of downed trees that the battle has created.


    He sprays them with the Pulse Lasers, eliminating nearly half of them in a second as they charge into the range of the sma Shotguns.


    The sizzling crack of the dual weapons spitting their cluster of light blue energy balls echoes through the area even as static electricity from the continued energy attacks ripples over Stalwart¡¯s surface. But the Shotguns live up to their name, and the wide spread of the pattern leaves the remaining Giants nowhere to escape their wrath.


    With the area temporarily clear, Max checks on Alpha Squad, where Nico in Tarith¡¯s Rage has joined the identically equipped Bulwark Piloted by Captain Ari. They are also under heavy attack, but with Ari carrying a shield in her Gauntlet and Nico enjoying closebat as much as she does, they still haven¡¯t taken any casualties.<sub></sub>


    Max can only imagine how upset the Narsians are on that nk. They view shields as cowardice, and Bulwark is using one to defend the human infantry, which they also detest, even though the infantry weapons often prove lethal to the giants.


    Bravo Squad back at camp still hasn¡¯t faced any enemies, with the two advanced nks pulling everyone towards themselves, but they are preparing for muchrger enemy numbers now that the iing Landers are getting closer, already visible over the horizon on final approach.


    They will be down in only a few more minutes, and will be fully deployed in the area Max is currently defending within the hour, ording to the orders that Max has received.


    Once they are, his unit is to fall back and let the third wave handle defense, while they will be reassigned to a more urgent target than the mine defense. Not that there is much that qualifies as more important in the area, but Max counts over twentynders iing, and fifteen of them are Heavy Mecha Wings. With somewhere around a hundred Crusaders plus Light Mecha support in the area, his Special Tactics Unit is a drop in the bucket of the total firepower during a siege situation.


    Max takes advantage of his newfound cognitive speed to start sending targeting data to Vincente so that the Battle Cannon on Morning Glory can join with the artillery being fired from the base camp to thin the ranks of the Narsians before they get close enough to be a real threat. It doesn¡¯t take much with modern targeting to turn the swamp into a death trap for them, with the artillery rounds falling from the sky as the Narsian forces are slowed by the hostile terrain.


    The scene awakens another of Max¡¯s repressed memories, showing him historical footage of battles from his past life. They were centuries before the Mecha were invented, and even longer before he was born, but the concepts of trench warfare were born from those ancient battles, and Max recalls seeing holographic footage of soldiers rushing through no man¡¯snd between trench lines, attempting to assault the enemy.


    If they could make it, the death toll on the entrenched soldiers would be horrific, left with nowhere to flee. But the number who had to die on the open ground of no man¡¯snd in order to aplish such a feat was equally staggering. Both sides tried to take advantage of each other¡¯s perceived weaknesses to gain the upper hand and minimize their own losses, and that made Max realize what the Narsian¡¯s next move is going to be.


    [All forward units, relocate. Enemy return fire predicted.] Max calls, leading the squad further away from the central camp, extending their coverage and abandoning the ind they were stationed on.


    For a moment, Max thinks he might have overreacted, but just as the radar shows the enemy starting to advance again the sound of Narsian artillery hitting the area where they were stationed shatters the air and sends dirt and steam rising high into the sky.


    Now they are spread too far apart to prevent units from moving between them and attacking the central force, but they are also able to intercept the attackers that have gone wide around the bombardment zone in an attempt to nk them and get to the Landers before they can deploy.


    The n is unintentionally genius on Max¡¯s part, and they encounter a battalion-sized unit of Narsian heavy infantry slowly slogging through the muck, the weight of their gear and thicker armor dragging them down with every step. Even though they are new to war, everyone knows what to do, they need to kill the heavy weapons battalion before they can get prepared to defend themselves.


    Max circles further right, getting a good firing angle on the giants that have hidden out of sight of the main unit, while Vincente goes left, being charged by melee troops wielding giant axes with electromaic fields around them that can cut through even the prodigious armor of the Morning Glory. He has the rending w to defend himself though, and with their recent training, he has gotten very proficient in using it to both attack and defend himself.


    The mer in the center of the w boils the swamp water, creating a thick mist that the vision of the Narsians struggles to prate, while the anti-aircraft battery fitted to the top provides suppressive fire to reduce the numbers charging at him. Their armor is easily torn apart by the might of the w, chopping the soft bodies underneath into pieces, and the battle cannon at close range is causing chaos in their ranks.


    All the while, Max is on the other side, unleashing a fantastic barrage of energy weapon fire, and the Light Mecha are leading the infantry in shooting at anything that isn¡¯t obviously a Crusader ss Mecha. A lot of the targets are trees, but who told them to look so much like Narsian infantry anyhow?


    The first fewnders are down and deployed now, and the radar is showing more and more giants have made it around or through the defense lines outside the swamp. That¡¯s still nearly three hundred kilometers away, but at the rate they run, they should be here within the next six hours, even with the swamp slowing their progress.

 103 Chapter 103

    As the senior unit on location, it falls to the Special Tactics Unit to arrange for the defense of the Uranium mine against the iing Narsian attack wave. Eight of the fifteen heavy mecha wings are down already, as well as all five infantrynders.


    The infantry will take a long time to get here, as they have no amphibious equipment for the meter-deep swamp and its muddy bottom. But the Heavy Mecha should be here within the next ten minutes, so Max sets them a perimeter pattern, enclosing the tightly groupednders as well as the mine, with an emphasis on the side closest to drynd, where the enemy numbers are highest.


    At first, a few units question why he has sent so many to a sector that isn¡¯t currently under attack, but once the iing wave of Narsian infantry gets closer, the spread of their pattern clearly shows that the main force is indeed taking the shortest direct route to where theyst encountered Max¡¯s mecha.


    There isn¡¯t much they can do for defenses in this ce, but many units start piling up fallen trees to form a defensive bulwark in front of their light mecha. sma weapons, like the ones that the Narsians prefer, have very little prating power, the rounds tend to explode on impact, due to their unstable nature. That increases their damage, but it also means that you don¡¯t need much of a barrier to block the first wave of attacks.


    Randomly piled trees are perfect for the purpose, as the pattern means that even as chunks get blown away, the majority of the barrier will remain intact and functional.


    After half an hour, everynder intended for the region has made the ground intact, and their upants have fallen into position. Max assigned six wings of mecha to the base itself, along with all the infantry, allowing them to have a mobile force to defend againstrge attackster without having to rearrange the defenses that Max had set up. From the orders that he has seen, it is possible that half of these Mecha might be sent out on attackter, along with most of the infantry, but for now, the directive is to hold the mine.<sub>.</sub>


    Even Max¡¯s own redeployment has been held for the time being, as Abraham Kepler has detectedrge movements of Narsian troops headed this way.


    ¡°Hey Max, what do you want to bet that we are the bait? Looking over thender patterns, no other group of drops was so densely packed or arrived so close together. They likely think that this is a super-secret military facility or something.¡± Nicoughed over the radio.


    ¡°Don¡¯t even say that. We were the baitst time and it sucked. It sucked a lot. Paulins, watching over the region from inside his mecha.


    ¡°We got a nice safe spot on a bridge in the middle of nowherest time and look how that worked out? Some arse blew all the other bridges up and we got charged by Super Heavy Mecha for a month straight.¡± Nico points out, and Max can hear the infantry outside his mechaughing.


    Everyone knows that a serious battle ising, but if these veteran officers are rxed enough that they can joke about the times that life actually sucked, it must not be that bad, at least in the hopeful minds of these recruits.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Someone put on an extra pot of stew. We have a couple of hours left until the first attackers arrive, and I want everyone up and ready for the first wave.¡± Max orders, sending Alpha Company¡¯s infantry, who are back on mine defense duty right now, into overdrive.


    The other infantry units have also set up kitchens down in the mine to feed everyone here, but usually, only one-third of the mecha are on duty at a time, with the others either on standby and rxing, or sleeping. That way, they also all eat at different intervals, so to have everyone ready and fed at once is a monumental task.


    The Stew as it was called, wasn¡¯t actually an official meal of the Kepler Military. Instead, the assorted dried fruits and meats that came with the rations, items that were only eaten in the direst of situations where extra calories were a life or death matter, werebined together with water and spices and boiled into a stew. The result was a savory and sweetbination much better than the sum of its parts, and without the inherent danger of broken teeth that the dried products came with.


    Since they had a proper kitchen today, they alsobined the breakfast oats into the mix, using the voring and powdered cream to add to the vor.


    An hourter, the meal was being sent out, to the Pilots, while the Infantry enjoyed the extra portions of stew. It¡¯s nearly impossible to transport bowls of hot liquid, so the Pilots get the ration meals, while the infantry trades theirs for stew. It¡¯s an eminently fair trade in their minds, and the Pilots are used to it, since most of them would prefer to stay in their mecha this close to an attack anyhow.<sub></sub>


    Even before the Narsian troops get here, the advance forces will likely set up Artillery to shell their location and try to put the defense force off bnce. They might not have as much technology as the Kepler Forces, especially in the sensory department, but they aren¡¯tplete idiots.


    ¡°Hey, Stalwart, long hot shower and then a bubble bath,¡± Nico calls over the inte, bringing Max¡¯s attention to the stale smell of heavily filtered air as his recirction system strains to keep the rotten stench of the swamp out of his cockpit.


    ¡°You are truly evil, you know that right?¡± Max responds,ughing. The five of them in Crusaders might be able to fully filter the air, but the Corvette ss Pilots have to exit their Mecha at the end of the shift to get proper rest since the cockpit is too small for a bunk.


    ¡°No, evil is freshundry with the Lemon Detergent and a hot cup of cocoa.¡± Nico returns and Max can hear the men outside groan.


    ¡°Make her stop, I was already longing for cocoa and clean socks.¡± One of the newly arrived infantryins, shifting in his wet boots and making the soldiers of the Special Tactics unitugh.


    ¡°How many pairs did you bring, Private?¡± Captain Catan asks curiously.


    ¡°The regtion issue four pairs, Sir?¡± The man answers, not understanding the problem.


    ¡°See son, if you had an experienced Commander like Major Max over there, he would have told you that the answer is twelve pairs. No more no less. You might get by with only the two uniforms, but you need all the socks you can get.¡± The Captain informs him, and many of the other soldiers of the Special Tactics Unit nod their agreement.


    Every few days a pot of filtered water will be boiled to washundry in, and if they are lucky, there might even be detergent to get them cleaner. But in the swamp, four pairs of socks is barely enough for one day, much less two or three.


    ¡°I will put in an order for extras with the first supply drop.¡± Hismander sighs, seeing the enlightenment in the eyes of his unit as they learn about the simple oversight they have made.


    ¡°Any other words of wisdom from the veterans?¡± The Lieutenant asks curiously, looking up at Stalwart, which is standing off to the side of the base.


    ¡°Sure. No matter how much ammunition you think is enough, it¡¯s not. Don¡¯t wait until your men start running low on power packs to start recharging them. Start them the second the first packs are depleted. One less man on the line is a far smaller problem than empty rifles.¡± Max suggests, and the Lieutenant nods and writes it down in a notepad.


    That¡¯s not a good sign. He was most likely made an officer due to his Noble heritage and knows exactly zero aboutbat. Even if they¡¯re not his troops, they are still on his side, so Max decides to give a little more advice.


    ¡°And one more thing. If you have sergeants who have servedside, or inw enforcement, listen to them. It might not be by the book, but what works and what is written are rarely the same thing when you want to stay alive as an infantry officer.¡± Max adds, the amplified exterior inte of Stalwart carrying to most of the Infantry units in the area. Hopefully, most of them take those messages to heart. It is their first mission of a ten-year deployment, and the first mission is always the highest losses.


    [All Units to defensive positions. Artillery iing.] Comes the voice of Ari over the open channel.


    Max isn¡¯t sure how she knows already, possibly due to one of her System Skills, but she isn¡¯t wrong. Secondster the first shells whistle by overhead, hitting the open ground between the mine and the perimeter mecha.


    Great, just what Max needed, an area bombardment to begin his day.

 104 Chapter 104

    The infantry was still scrambling to return to safety and the light mecha of the reinforcements were still powering up when the first shellsnded near the mine entrance. Only a few at first, but there were more and more with every passing second.


    From the radar scans, it appeared that the entire front line of the Narsian assault had stopped in their tracks and set up artillery emcements. It was an excellent strategy, but the Kepler Heavy Mecha had sophisticated enough targeting systems to roughly estimate where the shells wereing from.


    Not every mech could fire back, but those with missile pods or Battle Cannons soon began to return fire with a vengeance. The sound of explosions, both iing and outgoing would have been deafening if not for the protection of the mecha, and the light mecha immediately bemoaned theck of tactical shields. Many of the Crusader ss Mecha had them, and they chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with another mecha, using the shield to cover the main hull of both mecha from iing artillery.


    Max was under the protection of a Mecha Called Sturm¡¯s Fate at the moment, with both mecha firing Battle Cannons at the Narsian emcements.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the artillery barrage to die down though, as the second line of heavy infantry was about to reach the forward lines of Heavy Mecha that Max had reinforced. The sound of energy weapons crackling joined the sound of fading artillery, and then the high-pitched buzzing of Gatling Cannons set a distorted rhythm to the day¡¯s destructive melody.


    [How are you enjoying the first real taste of war,dies and gentlemen?] Max asked on the Unit¡¯s secure channel, as the first wave of attackers was repelled and the front lines finally got a moment to breathe and regroup.


    [It sounds like Captain Vincente trying to beatbox.] One of the Corvette ss pilots joked, making the others chuckle in their cockpits.<sub>.</sub>


    [Hey, my sense of rhythm isn¡¯t that bad.] The Captain in question countered, but even he didn¡¯t sound too sure of his assessment. The man was never cut out for a life of music. Even his speech patterns were disjointed and unevenly flowing.


    [Alpha Squad, move to 195 degrees and reinforce the unit at that position. The radar shows heavy iing.] Max directed Ari¡¯s squad, who immediately began shifting positions, along with Nico, who was currently attached to them.


    Max sent Battle Cannon shells towards approaching targets until his feeder ran dry, and then signaled his wingman that he was breaking off to reload.


    Theirnder still had a fair bit of extra ammunition, as well as a loading and repair rack, so the other units had brought some extra munitions forward to build the stockpile at the base. Most of thenders were within their encirclement, but the ones that weren¡¯t had been picked dry and sealed shut so that the enemy couldn¡¯t easily use them against the Kepler forces.


    With trained staff on the loader, the process only took Max a few minutes and he was almost ready to head back out when a Narsian portal opened right outside the mine entrance.


    That was the worst possible luck that the invaders could have had. Their second wave could onlye through a few at a time, and the troops on the other end had no way to contact the ones on this side of the portal before they arrived. They were traveling blind and had walked into a brutal crossfire.<sub></sub>


    Max¡¯s mind went into overdrive as the mecha fire started, eliminating the Narsians before they could get a signal off. The Special Tactics Unit was granted a number of esoteric weapons for their job, along with the unusual patterns of mecha, and among the toys was a fusion bomb, intended for destroying fortified underground bases. Detonated above ground, it would destroy everything within dozens of kilometers.


    The portal goes both ways while it is open, but it will only be open for an hour at the most. If Max sends a bomb through to the other side, he could well destroy the enemy facility that they are departing from. There is no way to tell what theyout is, or even what they areing from, but one thing that Max knows for sure is that they will have eliminated everyone not of their species before they built the portal facilities and left to spread their territory.


    It might only be a few thousand soldiers destined for this world near the entrance, but the facility itself is a valuable target, and the radiation from the bomb will kill crops well beyond the range of destruction. That¡¯s why the Kepler Handbook doesn¡¯t approve it for above-ground use on civilizeds.


    [Open Crate 16a5 and load the contents as the next shell in my Battle Cannon] Max directs, sending the staff running toply.


    They manually load the shell and signal that Max is good to go. They were just in time too, the Narsians seem to have gotten a signal off, or they didn¡¯t and themand squad was expecting one because the portal was beginning to close already.


    Max doesn¡¯t wait and fires the shell through to the other side as soon as he can see the open side of the portal.<sub></sub>


    [Everyone get clear of the portal] He calls, unsure how much if any blowback they will be receiving on this side from the bomb.


    The portal is almost closed when the shell detonates, sending a concentratednce of searing hot light across the camp and into the hillside, where it sts free a chunk of stone the size of ander.


    ¡°We can call that a victory for our side,¡± Max announces over the inte, and the Kepler Mecha send up a cheer, celebrating the end of the nearest source of Narsian reinforcements.


    Though, the fact that they sent them at all is disturbing. They must have put a very high value on this to send more than one wave of attackers towards it. Normally what arrived on the first day would be the end of them, and enough to take the, ording to their own Estimates.


    They were often wrong because they had no way to ount for nearby space vessels full of troops, but they were also often right, and many worlds fell to their might.


    The attacking Narsian forces didn¡¯t seem to know that their portal had been breached, and they were charging in full force, ignoring the heavy shelling that they were receiving, intent on reaching line of sight of the Kepler Mecha, where they could begin doing real damage.


    One after another, the Battle Cannon equipped mecha returned to thender to reload, and Light Mecha returned to base to pick up additional munitions for their units. This was the greatest advantage of being near a staging location, they could go all out on the artillery fire and get case after case of shells to keep the enemy at bay.


    Any battle where the enemy can¡¯t fight back is a good one in the minds of the Mecha Pilots.


    [Close Contact] Nico informed the defense forces over the group channel, pinging the location on their radar screens.


    That served both to let the others know that there was a chance of infiltrators and that they shouldn¡¯t indiscriminately shell the enemy, since they were now too close to the Mecha.


    The sonic boom of the Rail Guns on Tarith¡¯s Rage was clearly audible even when fired over ten kilometers away from where Max was standing. Three times a second they went off, over and over for ten straight minutes until a tired voice came over the radio.


    [The position has been secured, rotate a standby unit to my location for repair and reload purposes.] Nico called back to base and Max got right on sending a group their way.


    There were three squads in that area, making 30 light mecha and 4 Crusaders and still, it clearly took them a ten-minute long intense firefight to deal with the invaders. That¡¯s a lot to ask of a projectile-based munitions supply.


    Max decided that he too needed to be on the front lines for a while since most of the Mecha pilots here were still rookies, and two of his own veterans wereing off the line for a cycle, so he sent the text notification to Nico that she would be taking over dispatch duties while he filled her spot on the line.


    He picked the three units from the top of the list of mecha on standby and turned stalwart to the west, moving to fill the gap in the lines before more Narsian forces arrived and took advantage of the weakened area.


    He was just in time too, as over half of the mecha waiting for his arrival were out of munitions, moved to the back for their safety while Nico and the mecha of Alpha squad took point, engaging the handful of newly arrived giants in closebat to keep the line from being overrun.


    [I thought you said position clear?] Max joked, sting a pair of giants off their feet with the sma shotguns mounted in the curved nacelles above his mecha¡¯s shoulders.


    [This is as clear as it gets. But the position is secure.] Nico responded and Ari¡¯s dismay at her nonchnce was so intense that Max didn¡¯t even have to focus on her to feel her thoughts.


    [Fall back, you¡¯ve got two rotations of Dispatch duty. I¡¯ll be back after one, and I¡¯ll switch you out after the second.] Max instructed Nico, who gave him a sword to the chest salute as she turned to make her way back to base.

 105 Chapter 105

    Even before she made it back to the base camp, Nico was barking orders for units to swap out, rotating the most exhausted back for a period of sleep and a good hot meal, while the fresh pilots took their ce.


    At first, Max didn¡¯t see the need for her to hurry, but then his radar slowly began to fill with red dots as the Narsian attack waves turned from organized groups to a cohesive mob. They must have hidden survivors from previous waves in the water and had them wait to join the next group of attackers.


    They are under half an hour out from the front lines already, and the density of the attackers is steadily increasing. His new [Perception] skill that increased his rate of thought really came in handy at this moment, allowing Max to make full use of [Split Fire] and [Multi Point Targeting]. To the other mecha on the line, it looked like hissers were guided, every shot hitting a different target, even though they knew that the weapon should be a hard-mounted barrel, adjusted by arm movements.


    Max was going easy on the Battle Cannon rounds, for now, knowing that he had an entire shift on the line at the minimum and that if he went all out on the hard ammunition, with his increased rate of fire, he would definitely run out.


    That is why the Mecha only spent two hours on the line at the most, with the standard shift being one hour. At the maximum rate of fire, two hours was enough to severely deplete solid ammunition, while an hour of intensebat was the point where it started to get mentally draining, even with the enhanced minds and bodies of the System-enhanced Pilots.


    They didn¡¯t need much sleep, but an off hour to rest their minds was still necessary to keep them from mentallygging and making careless mistakes under pressure.<sub>.</sub>


    [Temperature alert] Stalwart reminded Max as the barrels of the Pulse Laser Array slowly rose in temperature with the constant firing.


    They had been modified and System optimized, but he still couldn¡¯t fire them at maximum output forever. The number of giants that were charging them was getting close to overwhelming though, now that the hidden forces had reached the forefront of the battle.


    They were even getting to the tree line, under a hundred meters away from the defensive line now. Max added sts from his sma Shotguns to the mix and reduced the power of hissers to seventy-five percent, letting them cool down a little without reducing his rate of fire. That¡¯s the best he could do, and he could see that the rest of the mecha at his location were in a simr position.


    With the enemy tightly packed and getting closer, Max switched from standard shells to the High Explosive version moremonly used for artillery in his Battle Cannon, the advantage of the Dual feeder that they had installed after taking the facility on Belmont.


    The explosions shook the ground and boiled off the swamp water into a steamy fog that limited actual visibility to only a few meters, butrge sections of the enemy forces were destroyed with every shot, giving the line a half-second breather now and then, as the Narsians moved to fill in the gaps left in their assault.<sub></sub>


    [Close Combat Mecha Forward] Max instructed as that still proved to be insufficient to keep them at bay. The light mecha and a few crusaders with ws orbat shields moved up to push the enemy back from the more vulnerable long-ranged units, and the long-ranged units of the squad started picking their targets more carefully, trying to eliminate those with the best closebat weapons before they could reach melee range.


    It was standard procedure for the Kepler military, and it had worked well a thousand times before, so Max was fairly confident it would again, even if they were now beginning to take damage.


    ¡°Stand Fast. The next unit should be here soon, we just need to hold until they arrive.¡± Max announces, looking at his notifications and seeing that they were still five minutes away.


    Nico had sent the rested units out early, only thirty minutes into their hour-long break, just long enough for the mecha to get restocked and the pilots to be served a proper meal. Not much of a break, but the intensity of the attack was much higher than anyone had anticipated.


    Neither orbital scans nor radar had detected this many Narsians in the area, so Max suspected that there had been more portal openings, either in the swamp itself or nearby in the hills where these giants wereing from.<sub></sub>


    [Just our luck isn¡¯t it? We had to be the ones that pulled the double deployment Narsian invasion with untested recruits.] Nico jokes to Max, her text message popping up on his heads-up disy where the joke won¡¯t be seen by others and damage morale.


    [They¡¯re not untested anymore.] Max sends back as he unloads on a Narsian Heavy weapons team with both his shotguns and his Battle Cannon.


    Their weapons aren¡¯t the only thing increased, so is their armor, making them the Narsian equivalent of a tank squadron. Thebination of weapons is enough to take them down though, and Max lets loose a sigh of relief.


    [Prepare for Iing Orbital Strike]


    ¡®That¡¯s the robot voice of Abraham Kepler, but why here and why now?¡¯ Max wonders, right before the sky lights up with brilliant purple lightning.


    The ship used a dispersed pattern orbitalnce to eliminate everything from a few kilometers away from the defense force to the edge of the swamp. The temperature warnings on Stalwart light up again, but this time not for his weapons, but to inform him that the exterior temperature is unsafe for infantry troops.


    [All infantry back to base and get underground.] Nico instructs a few secondste.


    It seems that the strike was a surprise to her too, or at least it came much sooner than anticipated. The Narsians have been shocked by the attack as well, their carefully nned attack formations faltering and the mecha on defense tearing through the survivors at a rapid rate.


    Max takes a moment when his position bes clear again to check the official logs, not seeing anything about a strike by Abraham Kepler. But there are four more drop ships now onary station, all having arrived within thest twenty minutes. It¡¯s possible that they nned a series of strikes on high-density enemy targets over the Fleet Channels, with updated encryption, so Max wouldn¡¯t have received them, but that doesn¡¯t make it any less shocking when you get a notice of friendly fire two seconds before an orbital strike.


    [Here is the updated intelligence] Nico sent over to Max as he was clearing out the stragglers of the Narsian attack and considering what might have prompted the orbital bombardment.


    Looking over the data that Nico sent, which had just minutes ago been made avable to the Commanders, he finally understood. When Nico rerouted thenders of the first wave, she sent the entire poption of Abraham Kepler to this one continent. One out of the nine that were on the. The overwhelming force cleared out most of the Narsian troops, and even now they were making great headway with the second wave.


    With one secure continent, they were free tounch attacks on the others, and could safely stage supplies, repairs, and logistics. Despite the early setback, the tactic was unintentionally brilliant, sending them all to the lowest value continent with the fewest enemies. The Kepler forces now had a secure foothold on the, and the ships of the fleet were nning to do the same thing on another continent, but with twice as many troops, to ount for the increase in Narsian soldiers.


    If it worked again, the four ships would take two more continents in short order, and then they could push out to attempt to take the rest.


    This would make for a slower battle than nketing the entire at once, but ording to the Fleet data, it should reduce ¡®Resource Expenditure¡¯ or as soldiers called it, casualties.


    Their orders were to hold the swamp while the next waves came down, while the units on drynd scoured the region for surviving Narsians. Bringing the poption of them to zero in a day was realistically impossible, but estimating by the number of red dots that disappeared from his radar, they lost tens of thousands in a second today.


    [Contact South] Nico informs the back line mecha, who have been mostly waiting and killing off sporadic attempts to encircle the mine.


    Not that they haven¡¯t been inbat, just not as intensely as the unlucky lot in front of the main push to break their forces.


    [Contacts are under control] The Southern line reports and Nico sends a round of deployment orders, bringing Max¡¯s group back to base and sending out an equalized force to hold the perimeter,cking the doubled patrols that Max set up for the attack.


    That leaves them with a third of their force avable in an hour to go on patrol, hunting the swamp for Narsian survivors and additional hidden attackers. The muddy and bloody part of the battle is about to begin.

 106 Chapter 106

    For an hour after he returned to base, Max napped, getting his mind in order for the next set of orders that needed to be given. As his body progressed, he needed less and less sleep to function at full capacity, but thisst advancement seemed to be the real tipping point. After only a single hour, he was refreshed and ready to face the day again, confident he couldst through much more than just a single shift if needed.


    Most of the pilots weren¡¯t at this point yet, and wouldn¡¯t be for years toe unless they had a particr affinity for advancing through battle. Fortunately, the orbital strike had made their lives easy, and the single unit patrols on the perimeter could safely be extended, giving the Pilots four hours off between two-hour shifts on duty. As the area stabilized, that could be extended to a full six hours, but that increased the chances of inattentiveness near the end of a long shift, so Max preferred not to do it if at all possible.


    [Special Tactics Unit, gather at Stalwart] Max instructed, bringing his unit jogging over from where they were resting in the base or underground.


    Once they were assembled, Max began his orders. [Mecha squads, you will be going on a cleanup mission. One in each cardinal direction except towards the crater. Mecha only for that deployment. I have a separate mission for the Infantry.]


    The swamps were too deep and difficult to navigate for any of the infantry vehicles they had brought, so there was no point in them slowing down a hunting patrol of highly agile Mecha. Instead, Max was going to have them take care of the second most important aspect of life on base. Supplies.


    [Infantry, keep to your original squads and search thenders that are beyond the perimeter for anything useful. Rations, ammunition, repair devices, raw materials. If it¡¯s there, bring it to us here. I don¡¯t expect them to get cleared out quickly, but there isn¡¯t enough room to move them into thepound and I will not be giving up our resources to the Narsians.]<sub>.</sub>


    That was the sort of mission that infantry soldiers could appreciate. Not only were they not intentionally heading forbat, though they might find it anyhow, but they were also tasked with improving their own quality of life.


    More of the infantry would be sent out soon, but as the elites, Max wanted his own men to scout the area first, making sure that there weren¡¯t any hidden pockets of resistance. If they did find one, the Special Tactics unit was not only better equipped to fight, but also to run away and survive.


    [When you reach the firstnder in your zone, have the Materials Printer create Pattern SBM0420. It is a t-bottomed boat with a crude gravity drive. It won¡¯t hover, but the drive is silent and the disruption to the surrounding water is much lower than a hover boat, with a negligible energy signature.] Nico adds, giving them a way to get around efficiently.


    The boats are flimsy things, made of a single sheet of light metal, but they take only a little more material than a single armor prating Battle Cannon round and can run off a sma Rifle energy clip for an entire day. They¡¯re rtively fast as well and can be loaded with arge amount of gear.


    Max had forgotten about those things, regarded more as children¡¯ske toys than military equipment, but he sees the logic in Nico¡¯s mind in her instructions. The Narsians will likely take them as civilian vessels if they do detect them, and if they make them after leaving the camp, the enemy won¡¯t be alerted to their use until the first round of them arrives back at camp with supplies. Assuming that the mine area is under surveince by the Narsians of course.<sub></sub>


    The capabilities of the Narsians have been surprising this mission, so Max isn¡¯t willing to discount that they might have much better technology than usual.


    The mecha are the first to leave, followed by the scrounging squads. The crater area isn¡¯t a great threat at the moment, so Max holds off on sending any more mecha squads out, letting them rest until they are needed. Even if they haven¡¯t had time to learn much, being suddenly awoken to go on missions is a favorite tactic of academy instructors everywhere, so they should be able to scramble on short notice.


    It would be nice if there was a senior officer on location though. All of the Unitmanders are Majors at the moment, and Max is the senior officer, so he can¡¯t even order one of them to take over until he is redeployed.


    The first few minutes of the mission go quite smoothly, as no Narsian would dare to stay so close to an enemy fortification. That doesn¡¯tst long though.


    [Contact Squad Alpha. 12 Narsian infantry, all injured.] Ari reports as her mecha wing moves through the swamp.<sub></sub>


    These are survivors of the orbital strike, soldiers who were on the very outskirts of the st and managed to escape with their lives. Even injured, they are still fiercebatants, and Max can see that some of the light mecha have taken damage, based on the condition updates that the Mecha send back so Commanders can tell how their troops are doing.


    When everything is good, the unit will show solid green where Max has ced the disys on a side screen inside Stalwart. With only thirty-five mecha to keep track of, they are simply four rows, three for the squads, and one with himself and Nico on it. There¡¯s no such luxury for the infantry, but he has worked out a system for that, using separate sections of the touchscreen to indicate casualties and injuries, as well as reported ammunition shortages.


    The random numbers might not make any sense to others, but to Max, it is aprehensive overview of the units under hismand.


    Soon after the infantry reported that the boats have been created and that they have loaded what they can from the firstnders. It seems that the other units left almost everything behind, bringing only their food supplies and what ammunition was in the mecha. The first fewnders they came across were among the first tond though, and fully mechanized, so they might have assumed that they would be returning, and they didn¡¯t have any infantry to carry resupply provisions for them.


    Even emptying a singlender is too much for the squads. They built six swamp boats each, for the five-man fire teams that would board them, but there is still more valuable material inside than they can carry.


    [Return to base once the boats are loaded. We will send arger-scale mission tomorrow at first light.] Max instructs, checking the amount of sunlight left. There¡¯s plenty for at least one more trip, but building and loading the boats took more time than expected, and he doesn¡¯t want the infantry trapped out in the swamp after dark.


    The Narsian army doesn¡¯t need night vision technology, they can see well enough in the dark on their own, like the feral cats that inhabit the slums of Kepler Terminus where Max grew up. Only absolute darkness is enough to stop them.


    The infantry boats all make it back in good condition if you disregard minor damage due to the fact that nobody on board a few of them had ever piloted a boat before. Kepler 111 haskes and even oceans, but for kids who went to the academy at twelve years old and grew up in the suburbs of a megacity, those were things from picture books, not something that they had ever seen themselves.


    Max is a bit annoyed at the fact, then he realizes that he too might have the same issue, if not for his Innate Talent of Mind reading. He has never been on a boat before, much less piloted one, at least not in this lifetime.


    [Bravo Squad has made contact]


    [Alpha Squad has made contact]


    [Alpha Squad has made contact]


    Ari and her team really did pull the short straw today. They hadn¡¯t gone a full ten minutes on patrol without running into something, mostly injured remnants of the main push on the mine, but Charlie Squad under Vincente in his Mecha, Morning Glory had yet to meet any form of resistance. In fact, they had hardly even seen any signs of enemy movement on that side.


    [Bravo Squad requests reinforcements, portal force detected.] Paul calls and Max perks up, checking the data that he ryed from the newest orbital scans since Paul could only detect a mass of heat signatures.


    They haven¡¯t made contact yet, but they are picking up hundred of Narsian infantry, and the pattern suggests that they have made a base of their own in the swamp, setting up a defensive perimeter and multiple improvised heavy weapons bunkers.


    [Second Shift to your Mecha. Enemy force detected for elimination.]

 107 Chapter 107

    Max watched in appreciation as the pilots got ready for action, powering up their mecha and double-checking the weapons functions as they moved into position for deployment. They are all intensely focused, and he can¡¯t see any real errors or problems with their training as they form a column to move out.


    [Four minutes fifteen seconds. Not bad, but you can do better.] Nico calls over the inte, eliciting a few softughs from the other unitmanders.


    Five minutes is the standard for most units, three is the standard for Special Forces. The fact that they were actually ready in under five minutes for a surprise deployment took most of theirmanders by surprise, but it stands as a testament to their dedication to wiping the invaders off the face of this human-colonized.


    [Everyone move. Double time to the meeting point. We still have a patrol squad in the immediate vicinity and they won¡¯t remain undetected forever.] Max orders, leading the column with Nico moving Tarith¡¯s Rage to his right side.


    She has abat shield in her mecha¡¯s gauntlet, with her sword hung from the hooks on her torso armor. Even after the mecha was repainted to the new color scheme, the chains and razor wire remained. With the red and bone white paint a bit scorched and sttered with swamp filth, thebination gives the ten-meter-tall mecha a menacing aura, which somehow feels more at home here than the other Crusader ss Units, who clearly look like interlopers.


    While Max picked Red and Bone as his unit¡¯s colors, the rank and file mecha of the 43rd Mechanized are all drab green with yellow ents. In a forest, they should look like part of the scenery, but somehow the ck bark of the trees, and the odd teal green of the leaves just highlight the fact that these units were painted to blend into a different world.


    Stealth was never going to be an option, moving dozens of giant mecha through the swamp, so instead, they go for a high rate of movement. None of the Special Tactics Units Mecha are with them, though they will be meeting up with the Alpha squad in just a few minutes, so Max decides to teach the new pilots an old trick.<sub>.</sub>


    [I need two Corvette ss Pilots forward. Grab a long branch, at least your mecha¡¯s height, and move in front of the column.] Max instructs, and two of the Lieutenants hurry toply.


    [Move thirty meters out front and probe the swamp with every step using the sticks. If you find a deep spot, spread left and right and find us a better path so we don¡¯t have to slow down.] Max orders and the two agile light mecha dart out ahead to begin their scouting duty.


    That saves them the need to be extra cautious of their footsteps since the route has already been checked. There shouldn¡¯t be too many deep spots in the swamp, and much of it looks likend until you try to step on it with a mecha, but they¡¯re in a hurry and don¡¯t need to be spending time fishing pilots out of holes. This side wasn¡¯t a high priority for artillery, but it did receive some outgoing fire.


    [Contact, 10 o¡¯clock.] Nico calls and Max turns to engage but doesn¡¯t see anything on his radar or thermal scans.


    [What do you see Nico?] He asks, confused before the Ion Destroyer on Tarith¡¯s Rage begins vaporizing swamp water.


    The moment the first round hits the water, a group of Narsian scouts jumps up and begins to fire back, their purple energy weapons a stark contrast against the blue and white of the Kepler units.<sub></sub>


    They are wearing some sort of flexible body suit that hides their thermal signature, so they didn¡¯t show up on any of Max¡¯s sensors until they stood up and made themselves a moving target above the water. They weren¡¯t even showing any sort of energy signature.


    [Good find Tarith¡¯s Rage. How did you do that?] One of the other Crusader pilots, in a unit named Jericho with a Heavy Laser Cannon and a gauntlet, asks, watching the light mecha verify that the scouts are indeed dead.


    [Call it a woman¡¯s intuition, Jericho. Do you remember how your mom used to catch you sneaking cookies? It¡¯s just like that.] Nico informs him in a smug tone.


    [How did you know about that?] The pilot gasps and thems fill with softughter.


    [Man, everyone¡¯s mom caught them stealing cookies. Even guys without moms were caught by a babysitter or neighborhood auntie. It¡¯s just a fact of life. But I¡¯m guessing she actually used a System Skill.] One of the other mecha teases the naive pilot of the Jericho.


    [A sensory skill as your fifty-point upgrade? That¡¯s just not fair.] One of the pilots, who Stalwart¡¯s disy tags as being in a light mecha,ins.<sub></sub>


    [No, my fifty-point reward was a repair-rted System Skill, and ites in really handy in a prolonged battle. I¡¯m over two hundred points of bonus stats now. Just like you will be by the time you go home.] Nico informs the young man, who clearly forgot who he was talking to.


    [One day for sure, Major. I¡¯ll just have to wait. I only got my first step bonus justst year after all.] He agrees and Max sighs, looking through the pilot¡¯s profile.


    He¡¯s Gamma Ranked for systempatibility, as expected of a Line Mecha Pilot, but back on Kepler Terminus, fifty points was the goal for the first years at their academy, since progress slows down so much afterward, with a hundred points being the goal before graduation for the light mecha pilots.


    Since the stats are based on a standardized average human, that really shouldn¡¯t be too hard to aplish, but it is bing clear that not alls view things the same way.


    [Friendly Mecha sighted.] The two corvette ss scouts call in unison a few minutester, alerting the mecha of Alphapany to their presence, which signals them all to stand up and join the iing force.


    [Here¡¯s what we have found out about the enemy position. They are settled in, but the only defenses that they have built are the heavy weapons emcements. Trenches and Foxholes aren¡¯t really feasible in the swamp after all, but they have a dozen heavy sma cannons, evenly spaced around the base, at the positions that I¡¯ve indicated.


    [Good work, Bulwark.] Maxmends Ari by the name of her Ion Destroyer equipped Mecha.


    She must have gotten caught on a low-hanging branch, because the curved top carapace armor has a rather sizeable tree draped across it, and it doesn¡¯t look intentional. It does make for fairly decent camouge though, and she isn¡¯t in a hurry to dislodge it.


    [Battle Cannon mecha, stay here and take up artillery positions, Bulwark you take the left nk with half the force, and Tarith¡¯s Rage will take the right. Stop once you get a good line of sight. The Narsian sma is decent, but their true strength lies in closebat. Get as many of them down as you can before they close the distance.] Max orders and the column smoothly split.


    Everyone has a preferred wingman, so the Crusaders move by pairs, while the Light Mecha split off a unit at a time.


    Kepler¡¯s battle strategy isn¡¯t big on heroic charges and individual heroism, so as long as the intelligence was correct they should outnumber the enemy force. The artillery will soften the target and move them to hiding spots, then the main force will move in and clear them out.


    Simple, Safe, and Efficient. At least that¡¯s the n.


    Nico feeds live orbital scans to the unit, showing everyone with Battle Cannons, the only weapon they have avable that is capable of indirect fire, where they should start their barrage, and the mecha begin to pick their targets.


    [Begin bombardment, everyone move out.]


    Max¡¯s order begins a thunderous roar of artillery shells being hurled into the air while tworge units of mecha spread out to prevent the enemy from fleeing.


    Even from kilometers away Max can hear the shouting and screams as the first shellsnd, proving that they are right on target. If they hadn¡¯t heard the mechaing already, they know about it now, and Max can see the lights of energy weapon fire in the distance, making the low-hanging fog glow in the dim light under the forest canopy.


    [Spread and encircle.] Nico orders, signaling that the Heavy Mecha have reached the target, so Max orders the bombardment to stop.


    [Artillery, move forward, and engage. Fill any weak points in the encirclement.]


    The battle seems to be going well, at least on their side, and Max doesn¡¯t see any major damage to the mecha of the Special Tactics unit as he advances, leading the long-ranged mecha intobat. But the reason why soon bes clear. The battle is about to turn ugly.


    What they thought was a standard Portal opening is actually a Narsian Special Forces unit, kitted for closebat with extra heavy armor. They must be the ones that sent the scouts that the unit encountered earlier, and they were expectingpany.


    As the mecha move to encircle the camp, Max spots stealthy giants moving around well outside the perimeter getting ready for an ambush.


    [Check your backs everyone, Narsian Special Forces outside the camp.] Max sends the order just as the battle cries of the giants begin. The sound is more like an animal¡¯s roar than any coherent speech, and it is met by the barking report of light mecha firing at the charging heavy infantry.

 108 Chapter 108

    While the Narsian Ambush sprung from the outside of their ranks, most of the force was trapped in the middle of the Kepler Mecha squads formation. Artillery shells from the Battle Cannons continued to rain down on them, while the Giants rushed out to meet the enemy head-on.


    Despite the fact that Max brought greater numbers the giants still had the edge in closebat numbers, since most of the Crusaders were long-range focused, and the Line Mecha weren¡¯t their equals one on one.


    But to get there, they would have to withstand the full fury of a Kepler Mecha barrage. They couldn¡¯t do anything about the Battle Cannons, which were out of the main camp¡¯s range and not close enough to the ambush teams for them to stop, so staying in ce wasn¡¯t an option. Instead, they all charged for the encirclement, opening themselves to iing fire that they hoped would be less damaging than what wasnding in their camp.


    With the heavy weapons emcements expertly taken out by the first volleys of artillery, the return fire as the mecha approach is minimal, butrge portions of the force have turned around to stop the attackers that areing from behind.


    If Max could see them, he would shake his head in shame. For an attack from behind, the standard procedure is to switch every second Mecha around so that the main target wasn¡¯t left unattended, but entire wings turned to face their opponents, leavingrge gaps in the advancing lines, just as the Narsians intended.


    [Spread and fill the holes] Nico¡¯s angry voicees over everyone¡¯s intes, and they hurry to obey.


    They were mostly sessful at taking the Narsian countercharge, but some giants still snuck through the holes in the lines to attack the back of the units who turned to deal with the ambushes.


    For a moment, the two circles are a confused melee, as the outnumbered Giants look for ways to get at the rtively defenseless long-range mecha and to take out the Line Mecha who make up the majority of the bodies that are trapping them in for this attack.<sub>.</sub>


    While the Kepler squad leaders shout orders at their wings to deal with the most imminent threats, the Narsianmanders do the same, their roaringnguage unintelligible to Max. It isn¡¯t one of thenguages that Kepler¡¯s trantion software recognizes, so Stalwart can¡¯t trante their deployment orders for him.


    Max moves forward, locking onto dozens of targets before cycling up his Pulse Laser Array and sting the backs of two of the ambushers as he approaches at the head of the artillery squad.


    They roar something back at him, and a particrlyrge Narsian, standing a full head taller than the rest of his unit lifts his hammer in a challenge, then throws it at Stalwart. The Narsian weapons have a disruptive energy field around them that causes strong vibrational damage to anything they hit, in addition to the force of the weapon itself, but the shield on Stalwart has no trouble with such simple attacks, knocking the flying metal weapon to the ground with a simple sh of energy on impact.


    The failure seems to have enraged the giant, and he pulls arge sword as he rushes toward the giant mecha, every step covering a half dozen meters of ground.


    The effort is doomed though, as the twin sma Shotguns sh and the heavy armor over his body vaporizes, leaving only a lower torso and legs to copse on the swampy ground, dying the teal leaves with the Giant¡¯s blood.


    Since the rest of his unit is already engaged, the Pulse Lasers from Stalwart tear into their backs with impunity, felling a Giant with every strike while Max continues onwards towards the main fight.


    The sound of all three of the Rail Guns on Tarith¡¯s Rage shatters the air, before the keening wail of the serrated de being forced through the air begins and another round of Narsian orders are shouted out.<sub></sub>


    Only this time, someone shouts back at them, using the inte of a Crusader ss Mecha.


    Nico has analyzed enough of theirnguage to decipher the basics of the insults that they have been shouting at the Kepler Mecha, and she is taunting them back in their ownnguage.


    In order to take down a Crusader ss Mecha, they would need at least four team members or a lucky shot with a heavy weapon, so the Narsians divert a few of their warriors from where they are locked inbat with the Line Mecha to go deal with the rude red Mecha¡¯s Pilot.


    ¡°You got this Stalwart?¡± Nicoughs, realizing that Max is looking straight at the unprotected backs of the Giants running her way.


    Max sighs and turns his Pulse Lasers on them, following with a st from the sma Shotguns, before Nico cuts down thest of the five with her sword in a single strike.


    With the Line Mecha holding the giants away from the more heavily armed Mecha, the battle has turned into a ughter. Crusaders are firing at will, sting away Narsian infantry by the handful every second, and the ambush forces are getting ready to flee.


    [Keep them engaged. We don¡¯t need infiltration attacks hitting the infantryter tonight.] Max orders, in case some of the pilots had the idea to let them escape and prevent more damage to their units.<sub></sub>


    A cornered enemy is a dangerous enemy, but it is more dangerous to let them live.


    The Narsian forces are nearly obliterated when suddenly Max¡¯s radar fills with red dots of unidentified movement. Not hours away, and not at the edge of the swamp, like most of the movement that the Satellites detect, no this is detected by Stalwart¡¯s own sensors, and it is under twenty kilometers away and approaching fast.


    [We¡¯ve been detected. All units fall back into the forest and converge on my position.] Max instructed, moving to a small hill where they had detected extremely deep holes under the water on two sides.


    That should limit the number of attackers they will be facing at one time, and give the ranged mecha somewhere to fire from.


    As the Narsians fall, the unit retreats, preparing for additional iing.


    By the numbers, they are over five hundred strong, with unknown equipment, but clearly aware of the battle that just raged here.


    Not that they could have missed it. Between the glow of the energy weapons, and the sound of Rail Guns and Battle Cannons, they would have to be deaf and blind or dead to not notice, and even then there was a good chance they might.


    The enemy is almost on them when they are finally in position, but they do get themselves arranged for a closebat charge before the Narsians are in sight.


    The first sign that they have been spotted is the sma Cannons, heavy weapons being fired on the run, forsaking uracy for the ability to engage without stopping. They are strong enough to make it work, and a number of light mecha go down with assorted damages, while the Crusaders take minimal blows to their armor. The curved armor tes of the Redemption Pattern Crusaders are among the finest of any army¡¯s equipment, a single shot from an infantry-sized sma Cannon won¡¯t take them out.


    Over the heads of the Light Mecha in front, the heavy weapons roar out their reply, lighting up the sky again, as they did with the first attack.


    The Line Mecha brace for impact, but just before the Narsians reach them Bulwark and another Crusader with abat shield step forward to block arge section of the forces, with Tarith¡¯s Rage between them, crouching to sweep low with her sword, forcing the Narsians to try to stop or risk losing their heads.


    It was perfectly timed, even without coordinated orders, and the center of the charge faltered. Then the left nk falls into the deep underwater hole, iling for purchase in the mud before being sted apart by the ranged attackers they were trying to reach.


    [Full rate of fire. After this we will return for resupply.] Max orders, picking dense clusters of Narsian signatures to target with his high explosive Battle Cannon rounds.


    He didn¡¯t bother loading anything else this time. Even if the Narsians have armor on the, they¡¯re not bringing it into this forsaken swamp, so the weapon is best suited to artillery duty and eliminatingrge groups of enemies at once.


    The Giants quickly learn to fear the blue light of his Pulse Lasers, moving behind cover when he pans the weapon in their direction. They are clearly shouting obscenities at him, though Max can¡¯t understand the words.


    ¡°There¡¯s only one thing to do then. Repay the favor.¡± Max chuckles to himself in the cockpit of Stalwart, switching his targeting method to fully randomized, splitting his fire as much as possible to hit Narsians dozens of meters apart at nearly the same time, while the sma Shotguns take out anyone brave enough to stand in front of Stalwart.


    [Light Mecha casualties 20 percent]es the automated message from hisputer and Max surveys the battleground while firing at whatever target seems convenient.


    Most of them aren¡¯t dead, just disabled, so once the battle is over they should be able to recover the mecha and drag them back to base.


    As they themselves did to the Narsians, Max¡¯s patrol has found themselves surrounded. There are enemies on every side, but with the impassible waters on two sides, the ranged mecha are still clearing the Narsian force at a steady rate, despite the heavy damages they are taking in return. One after another the Giants fall until they are at under a quarter strength, causing theirmanders to signal the retreat.


    [Do Not give chase. Gather up the wounded and the damaged mecha and let¡¯s get back to base.] Max orders, his mind slowing from the fast-paced thought processes of battle to a more sedate speed, reducing the flow of endorphins and adrenaline into his system. It¡¯s a side effect Max hadn¡¯t considered. Faster thinking causes an increased stress response, which releases more adrenaline, further heighteningbat effectiveness in the short term, but causing a crash in the long term when the adrenaline wears off.


    He will have to learn to control his excitement even more or at least train his body to handle it. As it is, his hands are shaking, and he isn¡¯t sure if he will be able to pilot smoothly for the walk back.

 109 Chapter 109

    [Everyone double-check the dead and then fall in for the trip back.] Max ordered, using the light Ion Rifle mounted as a coaxial weapon on the front of his mecha to ¡®poke¡¯ the corpses, checking for any response.


    Even those who were very good at ying dead would twitch a little when shot after all.


    A few survivors were found and disposed of in the name of safety, but the mecha are ready to move in under a minute, retracing their steps through the swamp and back towards the mines.


    [There¡¯s something wrong with the radar. Change of protocol. All units will search the surroundings as we go using thermal and energy trace scanners. Do not trust any single scan to give urate information.] Nico deres suddenly, startling Max.


    What she found unusual about the radar was a mystery, Max didn¡¯t see any enemies on it for her to have questioned. But after a few seconds, he too noticed the error. When the formation shifted slightly going around trees and deep spots, the number of units in their squad would fluctuate on the radar, which it shouldn¡¯t if the data being disyed wasing from their own scanners.


    Just like the incident with the drop pods, theirputer systems were being tampered with, only in this case Mecha¡¯s internal systems are secure, so the only thing that can be changed is the signal thates back to the radar.


    Max sends a Command channel emergency pulse with a new encryption code, forcing every mecha in the unit to automatically update their frequencies and security codes. It is an automated procedure and is often used to prevent infiltration when fighting other mecha using societies that might have infiltrated them.


    [All Units, Comms check. Let me know if anyone is having issues.] Max instructs. Only themand mecha have the decryption code for themand channel, so though the rest of the units would be forced to update by the signal if they were being monitored, the enemy was unlikely to have gained ess to the signal itself.<sub>.</sub>


    One by one the units at the mine report back in, showing that none of them have any issues, so Max decided that the issue must be more local to them.


    [Keep your guard up. I think the radar interference ising from nearby. The Narsians might be hiding their true numbers from us.] Max informed the unit as they made their way around arger ind.


    Almost as if his words were prophetic, the movement alert from the Corvette ss mecha on point pinged enemy movement. Roughly twenty Narsian-sized heat signatures at five hundred meters and closing fast.


    [Scouts hold position, all other mecha, keep moving. Don¡¯t let them know we have detected them.] Max ordered, moving one step back so Nico and Ari, the two closebat members of his unit that were on this expedition could take the lead.


    They couldn¡¯t y dumb forever though, and once a third of the unit¡¯s sensors sent Stalwart the signal that they had detected enemies, he ordered the formation to a stop and into a defensive circle.


    Under normal circumstances, this would be a nearly perfect ambush for the Narsians, but since the Kepler Mecha already knew where they were, there was no sense of disorganization as they moved. Nobody needed to look for targets, as they had already locked on and chosen the recipients of their first volley.


    [Fire at Will] Max¡¯s order triggers a barrage of weapons fire, tearing down trees and vaporizing swamp water as heavy weapons designed to eliminate muchrger and more heavily armored targets are turned on the Narsian infantry.<sub></sub>


    The casualties don¡¯t slow the giant¡¯s charge though, and the Narsian forces m into the Light Mecha at a full run, their alloy weapons crashing into durable armor ting with incredible force, knocking many Line Mecha from their feet and damaging many more.


    They seem to have realized that Max is themander this time though, possibly a ryed signal from thest group that Max fought. sma fire flies his way in steady bursts, even while his Pulse Lasers work frantically to thin the enemy ranks.


    [Keep up the fire rate, I¡¯ve got you.] Ari calls, moving Bulwark in front of Max¡¯s Stalwart, with herbat shield nted in front of her crouching form, preventing the vast majority of iing fire from hitting him.


    A ssh and the sonic boom of the Rail Guns on Tarith¡¯s Rage draw his attention for a moment, and Max sees that Nico is using the immense weight of her mecha to pin targets to the ground, stepping on them to keep them out of the fight until she has time to shoot them with the weapons mounted on her gauntlet.


    The Narsian battle armor holds up well against her wickedly serrated sword, at least for what it is, and most targets are only torn open and flung away instead of chopped in half. That makes them easy kills for the Light Mecha, who target the breaches in the armor.


    Nearly a hundred giants fall in the first minute of the battle before the Narsian Commander sounds the retreat and they race out of sight through the trees.


    [Commander, I believe that was a probing attack. Probability suggests that the enemy strength is much higher than the reported number in thisbat zone.] One of the wingmanders, a Major named Alphonse calls over the radio.<sub></sub>


    Max is almost certain that he is right, but there isn¡¯t much to be done about it at the moment. The base is already on high alert for attacks, and they are doing the best they can to get back before they are isted and surrounded.


    [Noted Major. I suspect you are right, but with the errors in the orbital data, and the radar glitches, we don¡¯t have much proof to report back to Command yet. What we do know has been sent.] Max replies with a hint of sadness.


    Themand team aboard the Abraham Kepler is all about logic and data. The gut feelings of units on the ground and anecdotal evidence are often overlooked in favor of solid evidence when ites time to make a deployment or send supplies.


    With their additional dys discussing enemy tactics, the unit didn¡¯t even get moving again before Max¡¯s sensors detected hostile heat signatures, moving towards them from the site of the first battle.


    [Looks like the Narsians came to see what the fuss was. Get a move on everyone, this is going to be a running battle. Fire and move or we will be stuck out here for days until they have exhausted us.] Max ordered, leading the way while sending Nico to the back of the column so her enhanced sensors will be the closest to the approaching Narsian forces.


    High above the, the crew aboard Abraham Kepler and the three newly arrived ships were in a panic. Allmunication with the was being jammed, and the troops on the ground had been receiving falsified data for over a day now.


    They had been unable so far to find the source of the signal, and as far as they knew, nomunications had gotten in or out sessfully. Everything was intercepted, and false reports were being sent back.


    They had even gone as far as releasing spare Crusader ss Chassis on orbital walks outside the ship, and relying on their data since the systems of Abraham Kepler had already beenpromised once. For the most part, everything looked good, but the satellite feeds were all tampered with, severely limiting the quality of their sensor data.


    [Move to a four-point encirclement at high orbit. The ship¡¯s systems scan as secure, so we can use them for coarse data and attempt to establishmunications directly with the surface again.] Admiral Ackbar of the newly arrived Organa Kepler ordered the others as the senior Naval officer on the mission.


    [Moving to Position] The other ships responded at once, beginning their shift.


    Direct line of sight might not tell them everything they needed to know, but they still had the reports collected before the interference started to go on, so they at least had a rough estimate of the situation on the ground as of a day ago to base their next waves of drops on.


    That wouldn¡¯t be any real help to Max though. He had just sent a coded message to Command, intended for General Tennant, but the response was incorrect. His signal was not making it to Abraham Kepler, whose staff would know the code words, and was instead being responded to by whoever intercepted it.


    [Nico, before those Narsians make it to us, see what you can do to get a direct signal to the fleet. Our reports are being intercepted and the responses we are getting aren¡¯ting from Command.] Max orders, hoping his friend¡¯s Innate Talent of Technology Control will serve him better than his own learned hacking skills.


    The column gets five more kilometers back towards the camp before the enemy catches up to them, starting a running battle that Max doesn¡¯t see ending any time soon.


    Being in the lead position, the wide scatter of his Pulse Lasers and the overwhelming force of the sma Shotguns allow him to save ammunition in his Battle Cannon for emergencies, while still clearing the way for the column to keep moving.


    On his left and right nks are two more dual energy weapon equipped Crusaders, one with twin Laser Destroyers, and one with dual Ion Destroyers. The setup is a bit redundant in Max¡¯s mind, as using matched weapons reduces your versatility, but it¡¯s not up to him what other Crusader Pilots choose or get assigned as weapons for their Mecha.


    At least the Ion Destroyers can be set for either concentrated st or wide area st, which creates the ten-meter diameter energy balls that Tarith¡¯s Rage has been spitting out all this mission. They aren¡¯t as deadly, but the Narsians aren¡¯t as armored as a Crusader ss mecha, so it isn¡¯t as big of a deal.


    The twinsers though are intended for heavy anti-armor. While they are deadly against Mecha, it might possibly be the worst matchup against hordes of light infantry. The only redeeming feature is that the pilot can reduce power to increase the rate of fire, treating them more like a heavy machine gun. Without extreme talents like Max¡¯s targeting skills, the capability isrgely wasted, but it looks terrifying, with the wide blue pulses shing in the air as the mecha fights off the Narsian approach.


    [Rear zone clear. Extra attention on both nks.] Nico¡¯s signal means that the enemy has overtaken them, moving past her position and that they are most likely preparing for an all-out attack from both sides the moment that they think the column is vulnerable.


    [Close ranks. Move in a double file column until further notice.] Max orders, mentally preparing himself for the next attacks and checking his map to see how far they have left to go.


    Too far. Thirty Kilometers. But they might still make it before dark.

 110 Chapter 110

    Again the Mecha¡¯s sensors had detected Narsian attackersing closer to the column, but this time, they didn¡¯t seem intent on mindlessly attacking.


    The energy signatures had spiked, and they weren¡¯t moving.


    [Enemy is setting up Heavy Weapons positions.] Max called over the radio and the mecha with Battle Cannons moved so that they could get a better line of sight towards the spots showing active energy weapons.


    The technology was one unique to the Crusader ss and heavier Kepler Mecha, not used by any other nation, so it was possible that the Narsian forces didn¡¯t fully understand how it worked. If they did, they would have set up and waited for the attack signal to be given before powering up their heavy weapons.


    [Sir, thermal sensors are detecting something strange near the energy signatures. The area is suspiciously even in temperature.] One of the scout Corvettes reports.


    It is a standard signature of heat masking technology, usually an energy barrier that disperses the signal over an area, but it can¡¯t ount for the way that the trees and water inside should be slightly different, so everythinges out as uniform. On the open ins, or in city ruins that might work, but not here in the swamp.


    [Battle Cannons, area bombardment. Do not start with the positions of the heavy weapons, they haven¡¯t realized that we can see them yet.] Max orders.


    The barrels of the Battle Cannons subtly shift, and Max gives the order.<sub>.</sub>


    [Fire! 5 shot barrage and hold.]


    The roar of the big guns shakes the trees around them, and the sts light up the mist over the water. Then the secondary explosions start, indicating that someone¡¯s target was their munitions supply and that they had wiped out the enemy emcement, or very nearly did anyhow.


    [Next targets are at 8 o¡¯clock, at a distance of 5600 meters. Commence area bombardment.] Max orders, clearing the next obstacle to their course well in advance.


    It will still take a while before those enemies are close enough to be a threat, but while they are stopped, it is best to draw out any hidden Narsian forces that their sensors haven¡¯t detected yet.


    The same five-shot volley is sent out, and then they wait with their sensors at maximum sensitivity, trying to find any signs of enemy survivors or additional hidden forces.


    Nothing is moving, and the only heat signatures are some lingering fires from the high explosive shells, so the column begins moving again, doing their best to make progress toward the camp at the mines.


    The camp has reported a few light attacks, but the Narsians pulled back when they realized that it was arger camp of Kepler Mecha.<sub></sub>


    That didn¡¯t mean they were safe though, if the Narsians were close enough to attack, they were close enough to detect the signature of the Uranium mine, even if it was sealed and buried with tones of aggregate material.


    So, they would be back, and in force, once they had the numbers. In fact, that might have been the reason for the Special Forces unit that Alpha Squad came across. If the Narsians already knew of the mine, it would also exin the higher-than-usual technology that the patrol had encountered on their way back. The giants might be going all out in their attempt to eliminate arge portion of the mine¡¯s defenders.


    That¡¯s not a reassuring thought at all, but at least Max knows that the attacks on them aren¡¯t a fluke or bad luck. Instead, the attacks are because the Mecha are moving through the zone where the Narsians are staging before an attack.


    Max checks the route in front of them, knowing that thisst stretch was almost entirely void of enemy activity on the way out to assist Alpha Squad. It doesn¡¯t provide much cover for an attack, as they picked the easiest route to travel with the giant mecha, so he has hopes that it will still be the same way, or at least close to it.


    [Increase travel speed. We¡¯re never going to be stealthy in the swamp, so it is better to just get back to camp and reinforce the defenders there.] Max orders, picking up his pace to near the top of what would befortable in a Line Mecha over this terrain.


    The Narsians have surely heard them by now, even if they didn¡¯t know they wereing back to base, so Max sends the signal for the Infantry to be mobilized to the bunkers for an imminent attack and keeps his pilots moving.


    [Contact at 3 o¡¯clock] One of the Pilots reports, stopping to take a shot.<sub></sub>


    [Don¡¯t stop. Fire on the move. We will keep moving until we reach the base.] Max orders, sending a volley of Pulse Laser fire in the direction of the heat signatures.


    Destroying whatever mediocre cloaking technology they were using reveals dozens more Narsian infantry in the area, who are quickly suppressed by the Crusaders as the column moves past, now a mere five kilometers from the mine and closing quickly.


    The giants have realized that they no longer have the element of surprise though, and heat signatures are appearing everywhere, only to be targeted by mecha from both the camp and the unit Max is leading. While they did their best to stay out of the direct line of fire, Max stationed mecha on top of the ridge when they arrived, giving them a better line of sight down into the trees.


    That lets the straight-flying energy weapons target at a much longer range, and they¡¯re using it to their advantage, marking every position that they see with a few shots so that the locations can be added to the map. If they kill some, they kill some, but knowing where all the Narsian attack squads are located is more important, as it gives them a rough estimate of enemy strength, despite the giants¡¯ attempts to hide their numbers.


    [Prepare the reload and repair bays.] Max orders as the mecha column reached visual range of the camp. He took a full third of the force with him on this expedition, not counting the infantry, so they will be desperately needed the moment that the attack begins.


    Both squads at the base are already deployed and ready, and the artillery that the infantry brought back from thenders is happily thumping away. It¡¯s a shame that they didn¡¯t get time to clean out all thenders. Max¡¯s reports say that they only got eleven of fifteen either ransacked or within the encirclement by the time the Narsian attacks forced them back within the safety of the camp.


    In the worst-case scenario, infantry teams can be sent out on those t-bottomed boats tounch raids of their own, but returning fullyden with supplies and parts will be much more difficult.


    The rearming gantries have been greatly improved in thest day, now boasting a full twelve hangers within thender that the Special Tactics unit arrived in. Two more Landers have been moved close to the mine entrance, set up for repairs, so Max divides his troops, reloading the crusaders using solid ammunition first, and then the lighter mecha.


    The light mecha are mostly sent to the repair bays though, as they took the most damage from the Narsian melee attacks, which the Kepler Pilots were poorly trained to counter in this swamp, where the enemy could easily get close to them.


    [Guns up and heads down] Captain Catan, leader of Stalwart Special Tactics Unit¡¯s infantrypany yells over the inte before the bunkers on the far side of the camp begin firing Ion sts into the trees.


    [Nico, I need a patch into everyone¡¯s sensors] Max asked, wishing he could do it himself.


    How such a capability was never added to Command Mecha is beyond him, it is such a useful feature to be able to make a map out of everyone¡¯s sensor data, but he can only work with what he has got.


    His second inmand is perfect for the task though, with her skillsplementing his and making up for the deficiencies.


    [You¡¯ve got it. Thermal and energy only so far.] Nico called back, taking up a spot along the line that looked most likely to be facing a concentrated attack.


    Max himself is currently waiting for his Battle Cannon to be reloaded, a five-minute process when he is nearly empty as he is now. But that doesn¡¯t mean he is useless, and his System improved thoughts are racing to find patterns in the data.


    At first, he just sends artillery to thergest clusters that he can see, as well as some suspiciously empty areas, but after a few minutes, Max does notice a pattern. Short but intense pulses of energy as the enemy brings their heavy weapons and artillery online.


    [Battle Cannons, new targets. A1, A6, A18, B3, B7¡­] Max began calling out every location where he had noticed such a pulse, hoping to eliminate the Narsian artillery before it can cause heavy damage to the camp.


    The big guns rang in unison as he called out the targets, multiple mecha on each number, firing at every target that they could target as he announced them. The infantry artillery continued their suppressive fire, hitting anything and everything that was near where their helmet disys indicated the Mecha had found a heat signature.


    They weren¡¯t fast enough though, and a deafening roar arose from the swamps as the Narsian artillery began firing unstable sma charges, slowly arcing through the air tond within the camp and explode.


    They wouldn¡¯t be firing for long though, already Captain Catan could feel the shaking of the bog beneath his feet as thousands of giant bodies in heavy armor charged through the swamp towards the camp.


    The Narsians had chosen a blitz attack, sending everyone at once to overwhelm and overrun the Kepler forces, destroying their infrastructure within the camp as the defenders were fully engaged. Even if this attack failed, the logic was that they would be out of food and munitions to survive the next one.

 111 Chapter 111

    As the Narsians begin their charge, the Kepler Mechaunch a furious salvo back at them. Blue Kepler sma and White Ion charges meet Purple Narsian sma shots in midair, causing spectacr explosions, while the rounds that barely miss each other cause the surrounding atmosphere to crackle with localized lightning as the opposing charges attempt to equalize in the fraction of a second where they are in close range to each other.


    Most of the mecha are only doing the most basic job of aiming, treating the mass of attackers like a solid wall that they simply need to put rounds into and break down before it reaches them.


    It might not be elegant, or even particrly efficient, but at first, it is doing the job well enough. The volume of fire is thinning the enemy ranks much faster than the return fire is thinning their own.


    [Infantry positions, full attack.] Max orders, and a flurry of light weapons fire, as well as sma Cannon fire, joins the Kepler attack, bringing roars of annoyance from the Narsians.


    Up to this point, they hadn¡¯t realized that there was arge infantry force at the mine and thought that they only needed to clear this circle of Mecha and attack them from behind to win. That strategy will not work if they get shot in the back when they try to circle the Mecha, and the infantry is set up a hundred meters back of the Mecha. Too far to include them in the rush.


    Then the first of the infantry manned artillery, the mortar tubes, joins in the fight. They aren¡¯t arge enough charge to directly breach most Narsian armor, but the impact force is high, and the advance grinds to a crawl as the giants are thrown from their feet while taking minor injuries from the Mortars.


    But more importantly, the fire of the Kepler Mecha is not slowing down, they are giving everything they have to this wave. The Narsians know that if they weather it, the Kepler Pilots will be forced to move half their force back to the resupply stations, and either withdraw their lines or engage in some sort of stalling tactic to prevent being overrun.<sub>.</sub>


    [Commander, Light Mecha at twenty-five percent ammunition.] Nico informs him, taking up the duty of a supply officer for the attack.


    [Odd numbers fall back to the supply points. Infantry, move the Crusader ss munitions forward.]


    This is Max¡¯s n to weather the battle. The Light Mecha use easily swappable magazines for their weapons, so they only need to grab a handful to fill their supply. The Crusaders take longer to equip, and require assistance, so the Light Mecha will bring supplies for a Crusader back with them, and reload their battle buddy before rejoining the fight.


    [The advance is fully stalled now, Commander.] Vincente reports from the far side of the encirclement.


    The giants have been forced to hide in the swamp, using trees and inds for cover. They are now very close to the Mecha lines but waiting for the next wave to arrive before they advance again. Max is hoping that will give him enough time to get everyone reloaded and back at full capacity, or as close to it as possible with the damages they have taken.


    [Commander, Narsian reinforcements have split. They are going for a single-point push.] Paul informs him, sending a copy of his sensor data through to the unit.<sub></sub>


    The mecha unit on top of the hill has been a nightmare for the Narsians, and the Crusaders have been using the naturally rocky terrain as a shield, knowing that sma weapons have lousy pration. The rocks around them have been repeatedly melted into a puddle ofva, slowly flowing down the hill, but now the sma rounds are only hitting the liquid surface and doing no measurable additional damage.


    Max suspects that is their target, gaining them the high ground for their heavy weapons, while the closebat troops push out into the Kepler force and kill as many as possible.


    Mecha are a hard matchup for the giants, due to the ranged firepower, but in close, they are no match and fall as easily as any other human.


    [Commander, enemy signal intercept. I have found out how they keep breaking our signal encryption.] Nico announces and a stream of technical jargon appears on Max¡¯s secondary screens.


    [Inyman¡¯s terms, Tarith. What do we need to do?]


    [I have taken care of everything we can do for the moment, but it isn¡¯t much. There is a traitor on the that is doing the work for them, using the authority of the local government to tamper with the satellite system. The Narsians were even supplied with the technology to jam and fool our radar by someone on this. But what I have managed so far is to disable theirarymand codes for our sector. We should have reliable satellite signals back in ten seconds, during the next sweep.] Nico informed him in a weary voice.<sub></sub>


    The change was immediately noticed by the ships in orbit. What Nico did to bring the satellites back under control was deliberately fail a brute force attack, resetting all the satellites in their zone to default settings as per their safety protocols and locking everyone out for one hour.


    With the change in one sector of satellites, the errors being reported by the others were ringly obvious, and the fleet changed strategies. No longer were they treating the as friendly, instead all onmunications were treated as hostile unless they came attached to a set of double verifiedmand codes assigned to a unit dropped by the fleet. They then sent a handful of attack satellites out to eliminate the¡¯s existing satellitework, and the single smallmercial space station wasmandeered in the name of the military, with the staff on board confined to quarters pending investigation.


    The move would normally be seen as rather extreme, as the government facilities designated hostile would be military targets and anyone in them would be treated as a traitor, leading to arge number of human deaths. But it was the only way to guarantee that the species wasn¡¯t being betrayed by some nihilist cult or foreign power intent on their annihtion.


    Of course, the civilians and anyone in shelters were still a priority rescue target, but anyone attempting to govern or wield power on the that wasn¡¯t from the Kepler Fleet would be wiped out.


    In the bunkers below theary capital, none of this was known though, and the city defense force was going berserk trying to understand what was going on. First, the satellites went crazy, then when they got reports of an enormous Narsian force moving on the swamps for no apparent reason, the codes didn¡¯t match up and the message couldn¡¯t be ryed. Now the entire satellitework is going offline, and they still can¡¯tmunicate with the fleet.


    They know the Abraham Kepler is in orbit, in fact, they have a Heavy Mecha unit here, from a Lander that barely survived the misdirected drop and somehow remained on target to assist them. But nobody can get through whatever jamming signal is being sent.


    Nico did have a bit of luck gathering enemy force strength data before the local satellitework was destroyed though. It wasn¡¯t good news, but she did learn that they had thousands more giants iing than they thought, and not much time to prepare.


    ¡°Dammit woman, why can¡¯t you ever send me good news?¡± Max muttered as he saw the new datae up in her message. They weren¡¯t prepared to take that kind of punishment at this location. It¡¯s not like the bridge, where they had an entire ruined city to fortify inside. Here they¡¯ve got a long hill and a couple of Landers in the middle of a clearing in the swamp.


    [Someone down below, find out what is so damned special about this mine.] Max orders as he tries toe up with a n for defense.


    Stand here and take it doesn¡¯t sound like much fun, but abandoning their mission entirely mightnd them a court martial. So he needs something in the middle, that will slow the enemy, while still protecting the mine.


    Max sends the outline of the situation to the other officers in the Special Tactics group first, hoping they cane up with something that doesn¡¯t involve a heroicst stand for the nation. They all have different specialties, so there is a chance that they mighte up with something that will work.


    [We brought a collection of Blight Bombs, just in case. I can have thenders create modified booster shells toplement them. When the blight bombs hit water tainted by the boosters they will create a huge cloud of poisonous gas.] Paul suggests.


    [No good. The Narsians seem to have gone high-tech for this attack, and they¡¯re almost all using environmental suits.] Vincente disagrees.


    [Though I wish I knew where they got all that tech from. Must have been thest they took.] The usually taciturn pilotins, sending another round into a copse of trees where his sensors detected movement.


    [I don¡¯t suppose we can get another orbital strike?] Ari asks hopefully, looking over the enormous crater from thest one.


    That might be an awful lot to ask for out here in the middle of nowhere.


    The conversation is interrupted by the voice of an infantry officer who has been exploring the mine data.


    [Sir, I believe we have found the reason for the attack. This mine isn¡¯t just a mine. It is a dumping ground for the¡¯s highly enriched fissile material. There are thousands of years worth of the leftovers from nuclear experiments buried at the bottom of these shafts.]


    That means highly valuable stable isotopes and the possibility of crystallization. If the Narsians get their hands on this, with their expertise in the field of nuclear power, they could give themselves nearly unlimited firepower. The contents of this mine would be enough for them to shoot down Kepler transport ships the moment they reached orbit.

 112 Chapter 112

    Aboard the Abraham Kepler, a frantic strategy meeting is ongoing. They finally have reliable data about the situation on the, and it isn¡¯t what they expected.


    ¡°The most pressing is the situation in the swamps. The Narsians have withdrawn from half a continent to gather and defend that region. We sent disturb Landers there in thest wave, and now they¡¯re outnumbered ten to one by Narsian scum. Do you think they mistook it for ourmand base, or do they know about the mine?¡± The head strategy officer asks.


    ¡°Data suggests that they know about the mine and its special contents. But we have over five hundred Mecha there, plus twice that many infantry. They should be able to hold for a while.¡± The officer in charge of the region informs him with a grim look.


    The second wave of Narsian warriors was unexpected, and it is causing chaos with their attempts to n the drops for the other three transport ships.


    Too many regions have gained orbital defenses, and with the interruptedmunications they hadn¡¯t been able to move units to clear flight paths. Until they can do that, a full-scale insertion would be far too heavy of a loss for a low-priority.


    [Sir, receiving a request from Stalwart Special Tactics Unit at the Uranium Mine in the swamp. The message is a materials request for munitions and barricade materials suitable to the terrain.] A radio operator informs them immediately, as it is relevant to the region they are currently nning.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Do they not know where they are and what sort of situation they are in? Even if their numbers were all Crusaders, twenty to one is a death trap.¡± The Colonel mutters.


    ¡°They are doing well so far though. Over five hundred Narsian infantry confirmed killed in thest wave, and the folks of the Special Tactics unit have repair facilities set up.¡± One of the other colonels in the strategy meeting points out, indicating the new visual images.


    ¡°Fine, send them the pods they requested. They¡¯re not the only ones who have burned through munitions holding their location, so we will need to send a whole wave of pods anyhow.¡± The head strategy officer agrees, before turning his attention to the n to encircle theary capital and drive the Narsians away from the surviving civilized portions of the.


    [Good news Stalwart. We¡¯ve got a supply drop iing and they didn¡¯t ask questions. We can start building the traps in the swamp anytime.] Paul informs the unit when the signales in.


    They are currently enjoying a short regrouping period while the Narsians catch their breath and prepare for the next attack. The Narsians haven¡¯t withdrawn, but they are waiting for something, most likely enough manpower for a third push.<sub></sub>


    Every time they fail, they wait a little longer to try with more men and heavier weapons. It¡¯s a vicious circle that is wearing down the Crusaders, despite the constant stream of ammunition that ising their way.


    Unlike Stalwart and Tarith¡¯s Rage, most of the new units were built with upgraded ative armor instead of the obsolete energy shields that the relic units used when new. But in a long battle, the shield is the better option, since the armor takes time and materials to repair, even if it is more durable.


    [Start assembling the caltrops. Two meters high is good. Just enough to make them difficult to move past.] Max instructs.


    The scrap metals from the hillside and mine can be used to make the obstacles, or they can be built from Rock Crete if absolutely nothing else is avable. All they will do is slow down any attempts to charge thepound, giving the Mecha more time to shoot, so their construction doesn¡¯t matter as much as their functionality.


    Getting them ced will be the problem. The Narsians aren¡¯t far away, and the caltrops need to be ced well outside the base.<sub></sub>


    Best case scenario, Mecha with gauntlets throw them as far as they can. Worst case scenario, the light mecha attach a chain and give them a spinning toss like a brutal shot put.


    The fabrication machines used to repair and create mecha parts, known as the Material Combiners, make up a few hundred caltrops in the next five minutes, and the Light Mecha bring them out to every sector of the defense lines.


    [Since they want to wait, let¡¯s give them some motivation to get moving before they¡¯re strong enough to overwhelm us.] Max gives the order over the radio, nodding to the mecha beside him to begin hurling the caltrops at random into the swamp.


    The mecha are bringing out more and more, mostly made of Rock Crete now, and the Narsians are hurling insults as the Mecha throw the obstacles into the swamp between the two sides, but they still aren¡¯t willing tounch a full-scale attack, restricting themselves to asional shots when they think the Crusader ss Mecha with a line of sight to them are distracted.


    That gives Max time to have a full obstacle course created. It¡¯s enough to greatly slow their next attack, and there are still some left. The defense team lines them up tightly together at the base of the solid ground nearest to their heavy mecha. It¡¯s not as good as a wall, but anything is better than nothing.


    While Max and the mecha were scrambling to build a defensive line, the Fleet was scrambling to get their orders ready. With a total of sixteen Landers¡¯ worth of Mecha at one location, the demand for parts, armor materials, and munitions was incredible, far more than a single supply pod could manage. Plus, they were surrounded by Narsians, making the attempt to supply them even more difficult.


    The final decision was to send six pods worth of parts to be sent to the location. Three was the bare minimum for continued operations, and the mission assumed a fifty percent loss due to hostile fire. That was pretty standard for a hostile situation resupply, despite the speed and durability of the pods themselves.


    It was great news to Max though. The Narsians lost arge part of their long-range firepower in the orbital strike, and what they have now is mostly elite infantry, who are not well equipped to take out supply pods. There is a chance they have been hiding that capability and not using it to attack the Mecha at long range, but it would be an extreme tactic by theirmander if they did, considering the number of soldiers they have put into trying to take this mine so far.


    [Six Pods iing in three minutes. Everyone be on alert to prevent Narsian fire once the pods areunched.] Max announced, preparing everyone to fight.


    The caltrops would prevent them from pushing out into the giants just as well as it prevented them froming in though, so charging as a distraction was out. Instead, once the pods wereunched, Max would order the Battle Cannons to begin artillery bombardment of anywhere that looked like it might have heavy weapons, and the infantry manned mortars to begin shelling the closest Narsian forces to prevent a charge.


    As always, the timer was nowhere near correct, and the six podsunched all at once five minutes and forty-five seconds after the three-minute warning.


    [Begin bombardment] Max ordered, and the whistling sound of flying shells filled his exterior sensors, loud enough that it wasn¡¯t quite drowned out by the booming of the big guns.


    From the low orbit location that the pods wereunched, they needed almost four minutes of suppression to keep the Narsians from destroying their supplies, but Max was almost certain they could do it. None of the giants had made a move yet, remaining in their sheltered positions while artillery rained down on them.


    With one minute tonding, it was clear that the pods were iing and on course, and the Narsians began the counterattack. The few locations where theyunched anti-aircraft fire were quickly targeted by the Battle Cannons, lighting up more of the forest with explosions, and secondary fires from munitions storages that were breached.


    With thirty seconds tonding, the front line Commander stood up and ordered the charge, only to take an immediate Rail Gun round to the face, courtesy of Tarith¡¯s Rage. That didn¡¯t stop the Narsians though, and the giants hurled themselves over and between the caltrops, heedless of the casualties.


    Dozens died, and then hundreds, before the pods made a picture-perfectnding right next to the repairnders.


    [Back Line infantry, get those supplies open and get us munitions. We are almost dry on Battle Cannon Rounds and the Narsians aren¡¯t giving up.] Max ordered, looking at his Mecha¡¯s sensor screen, where a continual stream of approaching enemy forces could be seen.


    The sight was like something out of a historical text. Tens of thousands of soldiers in organized ranks, advancing on a target, intent on grinding it to dust. Only this time, he was the target, and it wasn¡¯t nearly as glorious as the textbooks made it appear.

 113 Chapter 113

    The Narsian advance was stubbornly refusing to break under their Bombardment, and it didn¡¯t take Max long to realize why. The giants had obtained a mobile energy shieldrge enough to cover an entire Regiment of ten thousand giant infantry soldiers.


    Simply put, none of their shells were actually hitting the enemy.


    [Clear all the forward units first. Eliminate their scouts.] Max ordered, knowing that the shield would prove much less effective at close range.


    [Close up the defense, pull the back side onto the hill. Captain Catan, rig the mine to blow. I don¡¯t want any of the isotopes to survive if we have to leave here in a hurry, understand?] Max rattles off orders, his calm demeanor keeping everyone operating smoothly, even after they learned what wasing for them.


    Max hadn¡¯t let them down yet, and they had faith that he was hiding some secret n to get them out of here alive.


    [Build us some more swamp boats. I want as much infantry mobile as possible.] He adds as an afterthought. Max knows full well that fighting twenty to one odds against Narsians that he can¡¯t use artillery on is insanity, but if they can at least retreat they should be able to salvage the situation and regroup.


    They have plenty of supplies now, so munitions aren¡¯t a concern. The battle will be over long before they run out of anything.


    [Commander, I recognize that shield. It is one of ours, a mobile design mostmonly used by politicians. Once they get within a kilometer I can hack it. It won¡¯t stay down long though, a forced reboot is the best I can do.] Nico informs Max and his n begins toe together.


    [Mortars, continue shelling the shield. Get them used to the explosions.] Max orders.


    The directive sends a wave of small rockets flying over the swamp, crashing into the shield above the advancing army. Despite the noise and heat, the attack isn¡¯t harming them at all, and their attack quickly picks up speed.<sub>.</sub>


    At two kilometers out, they are sprinting, their alien physiology easily able to cover the remaining distance without tiring.


    [On my count, send everything you have in their direction. Even if it hits trees, keep shooting.] Nico orders a few secondster.


    [Ready in 3, 2, 1, NOW]


    Even the heavy weapons of the infantry join in, despite the range being near their maximum.


    The enemy doesn¡¯t slow down or attempt to evade at all, confident in the shield that had protected them this far. The glowing blue circles of energy where the mortars arending are clearly visible from inside the shield, then suddenly they are gone and a furious barrage of Mecha fire tears the Narsian front ranks apart.


    Max spots the shining metallic dome of the shield generator and targets it with both his Battle Cannon and Pulse Laser Array. The device isn¡¯t armored, and it crumbles under the attack, bringing shouts of rage from the Narsian soldiers who were working on bringing it back online.


    The front ranks of the army havebat shields up now, absorbing the worst of the attacks and limiting the casualties of the second wave of Kepler attacks. The metallic alloy won¡¯tst long though, and the Crusader ss Pilots are doing their best to hit the ranks further back, maximizing casualties.


    The proud Bone and White of the Special Tactics Unit¡¯s Mecha began to catch the enemy¡¯s attention soon after the shield went down. Not only are they eye-catching, but their uracy rate is significantly higher than average, picking out officers, heavy weapons, and the Elite Narsian units with ease.


    The first target of their fury is Paul, and Morning Glory, his Crusader, with her Laser Cannon and Ion Destroyer staggers under the impact of dozens of sma balls.<sub></sub>


    At first, he holds up, continuing to fire as fast as he can, but the next volley takes out the core hydraulics of his torso, disabling the mighty war machine.


    [Grab your mobile suit and bring the others out here as well.] Max ordered the wounded Capitan, who sent only a confirmation beep in response before running towards thender.


    The suits are quick and easy to equip and Paul is running back in under 30 seconds, just in time for the Narsian front lines to crash into the light mecha that are making up the first rank of defenders.


    The organic styling of the Comor pattern Corvettes that the Special Tactics team uses doesn¡¯t escape the Narsians, and they tooe under focused attack, singling out Max¡¯s men with brutal efficiency.


    The other light mecha are doing their best to save the valiant elites, but the numbers are too high, and they are slowly being worn down and beginning to sumb to the damage they are taking.


    The casualties on both sides are Horrific. A quarter of the Mecha have been crippled or destroyed, and the giants have breached the line, using jump thrusters to bypass the caltrops and get behind the Mecha into the infantry.


    Fortunately, not all of them have such advanced armor, and most are being dyed by the spiked traps, or things would be much worse.


    Max turns his sma Shotguns on a group of agile jump troops, melting their glossy ck armor in an instant, even as his Pulse Laser Array treats apart the unfortunate ones stuck in the swamp.


    [Iing from above] someone calls a split second before Tarith¡¯s Rage lights up the sky with anti-aircraft fire. More Crusaders follow suit, trying to st the nes out of the sky before they can drop their payload.<sub></sub>


    The giants havemandeered cargo nes as paradrop ships, and hundreds of fresh and heavily armed Special Forces are about tond in thepound.


    There¡¯s no time left to dy, and his men will begin dying in huge numbers when those forcesnd, so Max signals the retreat.


    [Move back over the hill, all units retreat. Captain Catan, blow the mine charges.]


    Swamp boats skim across the muddy ground as the infantry flees from their position, and the Mecha begin a fighting retreat up the hill.


    The boats are loaded with as much gear as they can carry, trying not to leave anything for the enemy but the destroyed mecha that a Narsian wouldn¡¯t fit in anyhow.


    [Ten seconds on the timers.] Captain Catan calls, boarding thest boat, loaded with precious supplies of the Special Tactics Unit¡¯s Infantry Company.


    Thest of the Mecha are still on the hill when the charges blow, throwing them to the ground while the hill shudders before falling in on itself.


    The direction they are headed is towards the crater from the orbital strike, since it appears to be empty of Narsian forces and there are friendly mecha on the other side.


    Nico has taken up rear guard duty while Max leads the force towards safety. Paul¡¯s Bravo squad is with her, only eight Corvettes strong now from their original ten.


    While the others are running t out, they stand immobile, sting apart Narsian Special Forces as they enter the swamp in pursuit.


    [Switch to melee weapons] Max hears Nico order, right before his sensors show her charging into a hundred Special Forces giants.


    ¡°I¡¯lle back for you,¡± Max promises himself, watching the gant form of Tarith¡¯s Rage get swarmed by bodies half its height. The giant sword collides with Narsian hammers and the Rail Guns bark over and over until they suddenly go silent.


    The left arm of Tarith¡¯s Rage is gone, but the Ion Destroyer continues to fire near the mecha¡¯s feet as it kicks away attackers, defending the final survivors of the rear guard for a few more seconds.


    The column of mecha has made it twenty kilometers away by the time Tarith¡¯s Rage is overrun and finally disabled, with the swamp boats in the lead, scouting and trying to contact reinforcements.


    ¡°Come out and fight, little worm. Your armor is dead, but I will give you a chance to die as a warrior.¡± The leader of the Special Forces, a giant among giants, who stands a full head taller than any of his subordinates, calls to the disabled form of Tarith¡¯s Rage.


    This monster of a Mecha and its sidekicks killed eighty of his men while fighting a rear guard action, and killing the Pilot with a Heavy sma rifle will do nothing to erase his fury.


    The top hatch on Tarith¡¯s Rage pops open and a tiny figure, barely a meter and a half tall even in its mobile suit hops out, brandishing a sword on either hip and a pair of Ion Pistols.


    Seeing this only enraged him further. Size is power and power is everything. To have lost most of his unit to this tiny creature is an insult he refuses to ept.


    ¡°If you want to die as a warrior, I will oblige yourst wish.¡± Nico taunted the giant, sliding down the ruined carapace of Tarith¡¯s Rage to the muddy ground.


    Neither side waited on pleasantries, and the power swords of Nico¡¯s mobile suit, with their des coated in an energy field that creates a mono molecr edge capable of gouging even the armor of a Crusader, directly cut the legs out from under two nearby giants.


    Her system augmented speed let Nico dodge the first few attacks, but then a blow from behind threw her to the ground, denting her armor and cracking her ribs.


    One sword was flung away from her body, but she rolled over with a pistol in her hand,ing up shooting. Another Narsian fell to the pistol fire, then a fourth died to her de as she made it to her feet with a tumbling roll.


    The giants stepped back in wary admiration for the fighting skills she disyed. All of them except for one, that is.


    The Special Forces Commander stepped forward and flicked his ax in a deadly arc, too fast for most of the Narsians to see, and too hard for Nico to parry. Her de was mercilessly knocked aside and a burning sensation began in her left arm as warning lights appeared everywhere on the heads-up disy of her mobile suit.


    Nico tried to raise her arm to shoot this overpowered Narsian Commander, but nothing happened. A quick nce to her left showed nothing but a bloody stump at the elbow, left by a de so sharp she barely felt it.


    ¡°Not bad for a filthy animal.¡± Nico panted, exhausted from the continual fighting.


    The Commander was clearly toying with her, but every second that she dyed, Max and the unit got further away, so Nico was willing to y along to the bitter end.


    ¡°I like this one. Keep it alive for interrogation.¡± The Special Forces Commander ordered, stepping forward with a brutal flurry of attacks. Nico knew that her de couldn¡¯t stop that huge weapon, so she waited for an opening in his pattern, straining her aching body to the limit as she swayed and dodged.


    Finally, she saw her opening, and Nico darted forward, thrusting her sword deep into the enemy¡¯s stomach as pain bloomed along her back and she was driven to the ground again.


    ¡°Stop ying with the humans, you embarrassment. Look at you, you even let her stab you.¡± The trantion fluttering across her heads-up disy was thest thing Nico saw before her world went dark.

 114 Chapter 114

    Max led the columnpletely out of the swamp before they came across a Kepler-controlled position or any living beings for that matter. After the orbital strike, nothing wanted to enter the area, and even the native wildlife was afraid to try to take the territory as their own, on the off chance that whatever happened would happen again.


    [Colonel, I am Major Max, Commander of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit. We, along with these other survivors, were driven from a mine deep in the swamp by a massive Narsian attack. Do you have any more news on enemy movements?] Max asked with a hint of desperation when they were greeted by themander of the Mecha Company stationed at the edge of the swamp.


    This unit is from the Noctem Regiment, who only has the same few battles to their name that Max does, but it¡¯s better than nothing, considering that before they sawbat they were in charge of monument security on their homeworld. They know organization and discipline, which the new pilots will need to keep them focused after their first real loss.


    The residual energy in the crater interferes withmunications and sensors, so Max and his unit hadn¡¯t been able to get any sort of updates since they left. For all they knew, the Narsians were right behind them still, following just out of sensor range.


    [The main force stopped there at the mine all night, but they seem to have started moving again. Word is that the mine being destroyed has sent them looking for other energy sources.] The other Commander answers, sending Max an updated chart of troop locations.


    The advancing troops really didn¡¯t send anyone after him, and only stopped at the mine overnight while he was running away before they turned to head towards the cities. Their new destination is a full thirty degrees off the course that Max followed, so they won¡¯t being within a hundred kilometers of his current position.


    The updated scans show that their numbers are below three thousand now though, a third of their original strength, and low enough for the City¡¯s defenders to reliably deal with.<sub>.</sub>


    The force at the mine only lost a quarter of their Crusader ss Mecha, but over a third of the light mecha, while Max was down two Crusaders and fourteen of his thirty Comor pattern Corvettes. Six of the Pilots were alive and being treated for injuries, but the rest of the members of Bravo Squad who stayed behind as rear guard with Nico were assumed lost to thest man. By contrast, the infantry did exceedingly well, losing only seven men, and recovering almost all the supplies.


    The units here at the edge of the swamp haven¡¯t had it easy either. It¡¯s only been a few days since they were almost overrun by the Narsian advance that was wiped out with an orbital strike.


    It has left them short on manpower, but like Max, they got their most recent round of supplies sessfully, so food and ammunition are plentiful, even if Mecha are not.


    For now, everyone is resting and mourning their lostrades before it is time to sort the gear and set up a new camp. There are the remains of a vige here that the other Mecha are using, and they¡¯re willing to join forces until new orderse.


    [That¡¯s perfect. The units that relocated from the swamp will need a leader, and as a Special Tactics unit, I am most likely going to be reassigned. With you here, Colonel, they don¡¯t need to argue about which Major is in charge.] Max jokes with his counterpart over the Command Channel.


    The entire night passes while the injured Pilots recover, and the assembled force waits for a new mission.<sub></sub>


    High above them in Abraham Kepler¡¯s Command room, a new n was taking form. The city now had no worries about stopping the Narsian attack. They outnumbered the survivors after the battle at the mine, and they were entrenched with a solid rock city wall behind them to fall back to.


    That meant that they could spare the survivors of the Swamp Detachment for other actions, most notably attacking the Narsian encampment closest to their current position to weaken the enemy before tomorrow afternoon¡¯s wave of Landers.


    The Stalwart Special Tactics Unit was needed for that mission as well, but they would be doing scouting duties, with the majority of the force staying behind.


    Of the seven Generals that had assembled to make up the Command team, six were upset that such a valuable asset had taken heavy losses on a point defense mission. That¡¯s not what a Special Tactics team is for after all. Thest was General Tennant, and after seeing Tarith¡¯s Rage reported as lost during the evacuation, he was beyond livid.


    There wasn¡¯t much he could do about it though. At least one of his chosen sessors survived so far, and he would simply have to look for a recement for Nico unless by some miracle she had survived the loss of her Crusader.


    He wouldn¡¯t put it past her, the girl was a force of nature inbat. But facing those odds, there was little chance of even running away. He couldn¡¯t even spare the mecha to have someone check the battle for survivors yet.<sub></sub>


    Until the next wave of mecha was down safely and the region¡¯s major targets and civilian centers were secured, wandering through the swamp to look for a mountain of corpses in hopes of a miracle was out of the question.


    To take his mind off the loss, General Tennant poured himself into a strategy to inflict maximum damage on the Narsians. Not to secure the area, but to demoralize them and crush their will to exist. That was the best revenge he could have for his protege.


    [Command to Stalwart. New orders. Search the area in grid AR12 for signs of a Narsian encampment. Report strengths and assist Noctem Regiment leadership in creating a n for the elimination of all hostiles.]


    Max smiles at the orders he has received. This is a proper mission for a Special Tactics Unit.


    [Ari, Paul, Vincente, Catan. Report to me asap.] Max ordered, climbing out of Stalwart to pull the Mobile Suit from the storage crate attached to the top of his power nt¡¯s cooling fins.


    When the rest of the officers saw Max in the small powered suit they knew whatever wasing up was not part of normal unit operations and breathed a sigh of relief. They had seen enough battles of attrition that they weren¡¯t in a hurry to see another.


    ¡°Wee everyone. Captain Catan, how many dirt bikes do we have? We are assigned reconnaissance of grid AR12, searching for a Narsian camp. Stealth is important, we want to know as much as we can about them without leading them back here. The rest of you will be in Mobile Suits for stealth. As Paul already learned, the suits have excellent mobility, as well as decent firepower.


    Pack light, but bring a bit of everything, and yes Ari, that means you get to bring explosives. If we determine that bombing them is the best way to eliminate them, by the Emperor we are going to do it.


    Our mission includes forming a strategy for their elimination, so don¡¯t fear overstepping your orders.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the best news I¡¯ve heard since we left the ship, Commander. Nothing hits the spot quite like a healthy dose of sweet, sweet revenge.¡± Paul agrees, thinking of all the lost pilots of his squad.


    ¡°We have twenty bikes, Commander. Do you want them all out?¡± Captain Catan asks, making a mental note of who would be best to send on the mission.


    The bikes are electric and nearly silent, plus fast and agile, so drivers with higher agility are best. That narrows down his choices to about a fifth, but not all of them even know how to ride a motorcycle, it wasn¡¯t in the training they had time for. With that in mind, he decides to simply grab the twenty best stealth operators out of the soldiers who know how to ride. Assuming that many do know how to ride.


    ¡°Prepare them all, but we will send out five at a time to do the scouting, along with the four of us in mobile suits.¡± Max decides.


    They know approximately where the enemy should be, so they don¡¯t need a huge search pattern, which means too many of them in the area would be more suspicious and easier to detect than sending the bare minimum.


    Captain Catan called four men over and they began nning the routes they would take to search the grid square for the camp that the Narsians had set up. Looking at the topographical map, the answer was pretty self-evident, but there was always the chance that they split the camp, or picked a less suitable location, either to distract the Kepler forces or out of ack of familiarity with the area.


    ¡°Alright, here¡¯s the n for the first day. The Mobile Suits will search the most obvious locations since they have stealth anti-sensor technology and much faster movement. Take the bikes and search the outlying areas in one continuous sweep, don¡¯t double back or make any obvious stops. If they spot you, I want them to think you are messengers passing by.¡± Max orders.


    Bike Messengers were a time-honored tradition. Not every message can be safely sent over the radio waves, and in cases like this, where hacking is expected, not every radio message can be trusted.


    ¡°If we all know our jobs, we will be moving out at first light. Notify the rest of your riders, in case we don¡¯t find what we are looking for in the first sweep.¡± Though, the chances that they would find more than they were looking for seemed much more likely than finding nothing at all.

 115 Chapter 115

    Just before the first light of dawn, Max orders the scouting team to move out. With the bikes on a big loop, it will look like they are passing messages between units if anyone is monitoring them, and they have permission to stop off and do exactly that if they should find another Kepler Unit in the area, giving them the scouting reports that they have found, in an effort to keep everyone in the loop and reduce human casualties.


    ¡°Follow me. We will split up at the river if we haven¡¯t found the Narsian camp.¡± Max instructs the other mobile suit-wearing officers.


    The suits themselves have an adaptive Camouge function, as well as thermal shielding, housing them from most sensors, but Max added one moreyer, old-fashioned ghillie suits.


    The simples with their tied cloth, sticks, and leaves are viewed as unnecessary by most Commanders, given the technology avable, but Max recalled a battle scene from his past life while he was nning.


    The enemy Mecha had dragged themselves through the mud and then covered themselves with this story of Camouge. Then they shut off all power and waited. The entire front-line force had passed them by, relying on only their sensors.


    It was only Max trusting his intuition that spotted the hidden force and prevented them frompleting their ambush of the senior military officers.


    The four Pilots move silently through the trees away from the ruins of the vige that thebined Kepler force was using as their camp, heading for a hollow between two hills.


    That was the most likely spot for the enemy camp, followed by a clearing near the river and a box canyon that would be extremely difficult for Mecha to ess.


    Being in form-fitting armor is a strange experience for Max. Almost like a pressure suit, but Armored and augmented. The biggest change was theck of targeting indicators in his vision. Inside Stalwart, his System Skills would always be looking for more targets, but his rifle is slung over his shoulder, leaving no weapon to activate his skill.<sub>.</sub>


    It feels somehow very lonely. The fact he had to stop himself from making a joke about it to Nico, who is no longer there to talk to only made the feeling worse.


    [Slow to a crawl. The target should be just over that rise.] Max said softly over the radio, tagging a hill five hundred meters away.


    The location lights up on the navigation disy, and all four Pilots spread out to search for scouts.


    [I have found motion. ] Ari signals and Max crawls closer to get a better look.


    The scout is one of only four on patrol, and the enemy force is a mere three hundred giants. That¡¯s far fewer than expected, and theck triggers something in Max¡¯s memory.


    If so few are here, at the most obvious location, it must be a trap.


    [Back out the way we came. Search the topographical map for nearby hiding spots.] Max ordered, wondering what he missed the first time.


    As the squad settled in to wait and search their maps, Max turned his audio sensitivity to maximum. The Narsians are worse at hiding the noise of their movement than their heat and electrical signatures, so he might learn something unexpected.<sub></sub>


    There isn¡¯t anything on the map that indicates a way for the enemy to have hidden from them. All around is a t forest floor, all the way to the river.


    [First Bike has made it to the end of the zone, no sightings reported.] Captain Catan signals and the five scout bikes make a loop toe back down a different route.


    [Sir, I think I found something. Underneath this location, there should be solid granite bedrock. But the ground feels soft, like the swamp.] Vincente hesitantly voices his observation.


    They had all gotten so used to the feeling that they didn¡¯t notice, but Vincente is right, the ground under them wasn¡¯t solid.


    The radar on their units isn¡¯t ground prating, so the best idea had has is to use the multi-purpose shovel and dig a hole.


    Ari has a better idea first though, attaching an audio sensor to a tree root. Then she taps the ground a few times at different locations and removes the sensor.


    [It might be best for cracking locks, but I can tell you that there is arge cavern under us. If a heavy Mecha came through they would fall in. I can also say for certain that the hole isn¡¯t empty. I heard voices speaking Narsian.]


    So they dug a Mecha trap around the camp and filled it with soldiers? Not bad. Very few scouting units would have noticed and many Crusaders would be lost when the dome copsed and dumped them into the Narsian troops below.<sub></sub>


    That would then leave the light mecha trapped with no support and an army in front of them. They aren¡¯t heavy enough to fall through, so they would easily have made it to the camp before the trap was sprung.


    [They¡¯re not going to leave this spot easily. Our options are to let them know we¡¯re on to their tricks by shelling the trap or to find a way through that won¡¯t copse.]


    The Mobile Suits spread out again, searching for solid spots to cross, but finding very little positive news. As far as they can tell, the hidden moat is a full circle.


    [What¡¯s the n, Commander?] Paul asks, eager to get even with these giant aliens.


    ¡°How much Thermotex do we have on hand?¡± Max asks, checking his own storage for supplies of the Kepler Military¡¯s finest new explosive.


    ¡°I have 24 charges,¡± Ari informs him, cutting everyone¡¯s search short. That much explosive is enough to level a bunkerplex.


    ¡°Set them all as shaped charges around the moat. I want it scoured of life the moment the bikes confirm there aren¡¯t any more hidden forces.¡±


    The order brings a big smile to Ari¡¯s face, hidden under the helmet of her mobile suit. She doesn¡¯t say anything else, silently getting to work and setting charges all around the perimeter.


    [All done.] Ari informs Max a half hourter when she reaches the position where Paul and Vincente were helping rig the charges.


    [All bikes report in.] Max calls, getting a variety of answers back.


    There are no otherrge camps to be found, but if they¡¯re hosting underground, the scouts might have missed them. If they do exist, this boat is certain to bring any hidden Narsian forces running.


    Max rys his n back to the camp and the Colonel agrees to send twenty Mecha with Battle Cannons forward to Bombard the valley when the moat is destroyed.


    The artillery will stop them from sending medics in to rescue any possible survivors. With a bit of luck, this attack will be no less devastating than the orbital strike, clearing an entire Narsian force in an instant.


    [All scout bikes are safely back at camp.] Captain Catan confirms, climbing off his trusty electric steed and plugging it into one of the idle ports on the Lander closest to where his men have set up camp.


    The Crusaders assigned to artillery duty, along with fifty infantry squads with Howitzer-type cannons have already left camp, taking almost all the indirect fire capability with them. The n that Max put forward was to hit the camp so hard that they would have no chance to either survive or even understand what was happening before they were annihted by the force of the explosion.


    Captain Catan wasn¡¯tpletely certain how much firepower would be needed to wipe out an area the size of the valley in a few seconds, but he could see how much they were going to use, and it was pretty impressive.


    He had thought that they would be joining the mission, but as a Special Tactics Unit, their orders were just to do the scouting and spotting for the mission, while the main force did the leg work.


    [Artillery in position.] The call came through, and Max motioned for Ari to set the timers while they retreated from the vicinity of the valley.


    [Fire on my signal.] Max called over the general channel, hoping that maybe the Narsians were listening in, so they could have onest moment of panic before they died.


    Ari positioned the shaped charges so that they would blow in a clockwise circle around the moat, and the effect is glorious. A tornado of fire, hot enough to melt the bedrock circles the trench around the valley, with the charges timed so that each one will pull in the st from the one behind it, turning a single explosion into a swirling vortex, trapping the heat inside the hole and burning away all the oxygen.


    The st is impossible to miss, trees shake and fall over a kilometer away from the main st, and multiple jets of fire explode into the sky where the Narsians had dug emergency escape tunnels. The force even blows out a section of the valley wall, showering the Narsian main force with shards of rock a split second before the artillery shells arrive.


    The bombardment continues once every three seconds for an entire minute until the artillerymander orders a halt to the hostilities.


    [Send out a scout drone. Bring me some good news.] He orders with a big grin on his face for the fate these treacherous invaders have suffered today.]


    The one-sided battle was heard for many kilometers around, as Max had intended, ensuring that no Narsian force could pretend that it didn¡¯t happen and that any lost Kepler Forces knew where they could find arge number of friendly troops.

 116 Chapter 116

    While the team wasying in wait for the oue of the massacre, the Narsians who heard themotion were already on the move.


    [Prepare for iing] One of the Crusader ss Pilots on sentry duty announced, seeing the first few enemy targets headed their way.


    That was the signal for the advance troops to retreat back to base and prepare forbat, while Max and the others in Mobile Suits scouted the area for targets that the sensors missed.


    [Move out together. I don¡¯t want anyone getting isted and ambushed.] Max ordered quietly over the radio, heading deeper into the search zone looking for signs of additional hidden Narsian targets.


    If they had dug one, it was reasonable to suspect that they had created at least one more as a backup, and that meant an intensive search to see where it might be located. Hidden below the ground as this one was, even his squad nearly missed it. If they didn¡¯t find the next one, the Narsians would have a chance to regroup and build up numbers for a surprise attack that might even be strong enough to wipe out the Kepler force in this area with a frontal assault.


    [Sir, multiple Narsians are iing from 275 degrees.] Ari called, alerting the group to the faint blips her sensors had picked up.<sub>.</sub>


    They were starting to get used to that now. The Narsian cloaking technology was very good, but not perfect, so when they were moving they would give off a faint signal, which the Kepler technology could detect, but notpletely identify. But if you were watching closely, you could see the faint image show up before fading away again, and know that it was them.


    [I count three Narsian infantry, let¡¯s move to intercept.] Max answers, carefully leading the way through the trees.


    They¡¯re in mobile suits now, not Crusaders, so the element of surprise is their best hope at remaining undamaged. If they can kill the enemy without being seen at all, it¡¯s even better. Let them send out signals talking about ghosts in the woods.


    The squad managed to make it to the trio, which turned out to be a Narsian scouting squad, without being detected. Maxid himself out on a slight rise in the woods, the mixture of camouge and his Ghillie suit blending right into the surrounding forest floor. The other three picked simr shooting positions nearby and waited for the perfect moment.


    Once the scouts were a little past them, they couldnd a clean shot to their backs and kill the giants without them ever knowing they were in danger.<sub></sub>


    The scouts moved silently over the forest floor, watching the trees and their sensors for signs of mecha, both nearby and having passed through the area. Even the light mecha would still rub trees and break branches as they passed, it was simply unavoidable. That made them very easy to track, which in turn made the enemy scouts a little bitx in their duties since they didn¡¯t fear the Kepler Infantry.


    Four shots shed through the air, Threesers and one Ion st hitting the backs of the inept scouts and killing them instantly.


    Their death causes amotion though. The Narsians had gotten wise to Kepler¡¯s trickery, and put a heart rate monitor on their scouts, so themander knew the instant they all died.


    Twelve more giants came running through the woods, waving a high-sensitivity thermal detector around. Even with the stealth technology of the Mobile Suits, they weren¡¯t perfect, and that sensor would find them pretty quickly. Or at least a few of them, depending on the angle they approached from.


    [When they reach twenty meters, fire at will. I will charge to draw their attention.] Max orders his team.<sub></sub>


    After the mystery gains that he got while visiting the Kepler 142 Space Station, his stats all had a baseline of 3 times human standard instead of 2, and his modifiers were growing quite impressive now, with his strength just recently breaching the 100 percent bonus mark, putting him over six times standard human strength.


    The standard was set by the minimum requirements to pass the military physical fitness standards, so it was actually possible for a person to begin with a negative modifier to their one-point base if their systempatibility was low enough that their body wasn¡¯t keeping up, but for the most part, the Kepler citizenry with D rank or higher systempatibility were all well beyond what the other human nations would consider normal.


    When thebat toon reached the mark he set, Max used the thrusters on his Mobile Suit tounch himself into their ranks. With an Ion Pistol in one hand and a sword in the other, a standard fighting style that he and Nico had practiced for thousands of hours together, Max took the lead Narsian by surprise, sting a hole in its face shield before kicking the body back into itsrades and cutting the right arm off the giant beside him.


    As soon as his first strikesnded, the weapons fire from the other three began and the Narsians moved to shoulder their rifles. All except the three at the front that is, who wielded a mix of swords and a two-handed war hammer to face Max, who was still moving rapidly into their ranks.


    Not having time to properly holster his weapon, Max simply dropped the pistol and pulled the smallbat shield attached to the Mecha¡¯s pack free from under his Ghillie suit. The mighty hammer mmed down on his hastily raised arm, nearly driving Max to his knees, but the Mobile Suit held, the overwhelmed hydraulics were bolstered by the pure physical strength of the Pilot inside, as the designers intended.


    The giant didn¡¯t even have time to marvel at the fact that this human could take a direct strike from his weapon and remain standing before a Laser Rifle shot from the woods caught him in the throat and left him gasping for breath.


    Max knew that the giant was as good as dead, so he turned his attention to the others, sweeping his de in an upward arc designed to sever the Narsian¡¯s leg. The soldier got his sword down in time to block the first strike, but Max¡¯s de bounced off the much more sturdy one it wielded and the Mobile Suit activated thrusters to move behind him faster than the giant could turn his body.


    The next strike of the de cut through the softer sections of the armor, where it was designed to flex for arm movement, and dug deep into the body before twisting and pulling out in a fountain of blood.


    The remaining Narsians were about to turn their rifles on Max when an unexpected guest joined the battle, a single damaged Corvette ss Mecha of the Comor Pattern joined the fight, using an Ion Cannon to st two of the giants apart at the same time and totally changing their target priority.


    Max recognized the markings on that mecha, it was one of his, a member of Paul¡¯s wing that stayed behind for Rear Guard action and was assumed lost in battle.


    With the heavier support, they now had the battle won, with three more Laser shots expertly dropping Narsian fighters and the Ion Cannon of the Corvette taking another, leaving onest warrior to fall to Max¡¯s de.


    [It¡¯s good to see you again. We thought that everyone on Rear Guard was lost.] Paul weed his Pilot back home.


    [It¡¯s good to be back Captain, but I wouldn¡¯t say I really survived by much. I¡¯m about out of first aid supplies, but the bleeding is still bad, I think it¡¯s internal. My mecha was knocked into the swamp and powered down due to damage. The self-diagnostic got it running again after a few hours and I snuck away while they made camp by the mine.] The pilot exins his seemingly miraculous recovery.


    Just the fact that his mecha came back online is a small miracle. The entire structure is in bad shape, and the armor is devastated. But all four limbs are working, at least a little, and it just proved that it was stillbat capable, so once they get back to camp they can get it on a repair rack and get it back to serviceable condition.


    [Any other signs of survivors?] Max asked hopefully.


    [At least one, though they¡¯re likely not alive anymore. When I fled they were torturing someone in the middle of the camp, and building a hero¡¯s pyre for someone. You know the ones from the training data that they build for warriors that kill more than fifty in a single battle.]


    Max knows the ones, they¡¯re typically made up of human corpses, the victims of the mighty warrior that fell to help them secure victory. Fifty or more confirmed kills in a single battle is incredible though, and Max doesn¡¯t recall any outstanding Narsian warrior that might have qualified, so the shaken pilot might be mistaken, and they were simply collecting the bodies for disposal.


    The Narsians usually leave the dead where they fall, returning them to the soil of the they fell on, but in a case like a swamp, where the end result would just be rot, fouled water, and an even worse smell, they sometimes light funeral pyres to dispose of the bodies.


    [Command says the unit that attacked us has moved on. I will find us an excuse to go back and collect our dead as soon as I can.] Max informs the others, more to assure himself that he hasn¡¯t forgotten them than for the benefit of anyone else.

 117 Chapter 117

    With no more Narsian targets in sight, Max¡¯s scouting group made their way back to the camp, ready to switch out for the next group of scouts who would patrol the area throughout the night, watching for enemy movements that the sensors might have missed.


    The knowledge that the Narsians were hiding belowground was a game changer not only for Max and those around him but for the senior officers in Central Command who were nning missions. Withrge numbers of enemies potentially hidden from orbital scans, as well as most sensors, they would need to build a buffer into their future deployments in order to ensure sess.


    That alone had dyed the troop drops that had been scheduled for the evening, pushing them to a tentative time of 0600 ship time the next morning. To Max, that would be about three in the morning, locally, and he did his best to be rested and ready when the morning orders that would apany the drop arrived. The fact that a wave of drops would reach an entire at the same time made for very odd schedules in some parts of the world. Having the reinforcements show up at three in the morning was one of the better options.


    From the ground, a night drop looked like the sky itself had opened up to rain hellfire upon the massed forces inhabiting the. First hundreds, then over a thousand streaks of fire lit up the clear night sky, blocking out the stars and rendering night vision pointless.


    The ground was lit up as bright as early dawn, in a warm red light that gave off a peaceful feeling totally contrary to the tide of armored Landers that had caused it.


    The Narsian forces began setting up anti-Lander weapons, while every Kepler asset in the area was searching for them so that the threat could be eliminated without causing any real damage.


    As Max listened to the iing troops¡¯ reports, he found there was even more good news that Command had hidden from the Communication channels. Four additional drop ships had recently arrived in the system but had been ordered to remain hidden behind an outlying, maintaining radio silence so that the full force drop would be a surprise to the Narsian forces.


    Even now, they weren¡¯t officially announced, but Max knew how many Landers a Captial ss drop ship like Abraham Kepler could hold, and recognized the ship movement locations as being from a different¡¯s orbit.<sub>.</sub>


    The spectacle of so much massed firepower gave hope to the beleaguered forces of the Kepler Military, and the orders to find and kill the Narsian defenses were spreading through the ranks faster than even Max¡¯s enhanced mind could process.


    So, he focused only on orders for his region and waited. One by one, the groups around them were sent to eliminate positions until finally, it was their turn.


    [Noctem Regiment, Unit 17,bine assets with survivors on location and proceed to grid BE8 for the elimination of heavy weapons. Stalwart Special Tactics Unit is to reinforce city scouting forces in grid TA24. Make haste, Stalwart, they will need you there by 2300 tonight.]


    The order is a bit shocking to Max. That is on the far side of the swamp region, hundreds of kilometers away from his current location. Making it there shouldn¡¯t be a problem with the swamp boats, but it is a very long relocation when there are cities much closer that are also under threat.


    The only thing that Max can think is that the region has been assigned to a different ship¡¯s forces and that once it is mostly cleared the Noctem Regiment forces will also be moving out to make way for the new arrivals to hold the area.


    Command prefers that method, minimal ovep lets them segregate responsibility and keeps the Central Command from being overwhelmed by smaller troop movements while focusing on the big picture, the battle on theary scale.


    [You heard the Fleet. Pack up, and get ready to move. We have to make decent time to get to our new destination.] Max ordered, doing one final system check on Stalwart.<sub></sub>


    Everything checked out as properly repaired, and Max ran his [Optimization] Skill on the mecha again to bring it all up to peak performance. The process takes a few minutes, so Max took the chance to double-check his System bonuses and see how his progression wasing along.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+110%


    [DEX] 3+60%<sub></sub>


    [SPD] 3+60%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 1]


    Everything wasing along well, and his secondary stats had evened out again, bringing some bnce to his physical abilities. His body had also undergone two rounds of physical enhancement thanks to the System¡¯s attempts to prepare the vessel for the changes it saw as necessary. That made his bones exceptionally hard to break and increased his senses to well beyond that of his childhood, though neither was deemed worthy of a quantifiable category by Nanobots.


    Once the unit was ready, Max set their first waypoint on their journey through the Swamp. The now destroyed Uranium mine. Traveling a known route was faster than making your way through an unknown swamp, so Command couldn¡¯t have anyints about his route. Plus, it was very important to all of them that they returned to the scene of that battle andid their brothers and sisters in arms to rest.


    What Max didn¡¯t know was that he wasn¡¯t the only Kepler unit currently headed for the mines.


    Deep in the swamp, a young Second Lieutenant, freshly graduated from the academy only days before the recruitment stood at the head of a small column of infantry assembled from a half dozen different units. Every one of them came from the survivors of an attack or a downed Lander, and they were all equally lost in the swamp, unable to see the sky through the foliage, and no longer having any workingmunications equipment.


    ¡°Just what we needed. Now the moon is gone too.¡± The blonde-haired officerined, looking at the red glow of the sky.


    ¡°At least we know those are our own Landers. Plus, they will all be traveling from East to West. So if we go that way, it¡¯s guaranteed to be North.¡± A stout and swarthy Private answered cheerily.


    The Private had a point. They might not know where they are, but they knew there was arge force North of them somewhere. They had heard them on the Command Channel four days ago before a Narsian attack had destroyed theirst working radio.


    Their luck on this mission had been abysmal. First, they were shot down, then they were just in shot at, and now they were doing their best not to drown in the sudden holes that appeared below the swamp. For days, it had been mostly t, but suddenly, there were enormous craters below the surface, deep enough to swallow a trooper whole.


    With the gear they were carrying, it was impossible for them to swim, so the holes were a nightmare for their progress. The Sergeants dered that this was most likely the sign of a Mecha battle, with their giant weapons boiling away the water and sting through the muddy bottom, which meant that they should be near arge group of friendly forces.


    At least in theory.


    ¡°Sir, we have found something, I think you need toe to check it out.¡± Their scout called out from his position a hundred meters ahead.


    Clearly, that something wasn¡¯t Narsians, or he wouldn¡¯t be shouting in the middle of a swamp, but the Lieutenant moved forward to check it out anyhow.


    What they found was a massacre. There were the remains of a section of solid ground, now sted to rubble, along with the shells of over a hundred mecha and thousands upon thousands of Narsian corpses. In the very center sat a pile of Narsian bodies as tall as a Corvette ss Mecha. By rough estimate, there had to be nearly a hundred of them piled up there, with something on top,id on a piece of camougeting.


    ¡°Spread out and check for survivors. Some of these mecha don¡¯t look too bad, and it doesn¡¯t look like the Narsians ransacked them, so they might not have had the manpower left.¡± The officer sighed, running his fingers through his filthy hair as he tried not to vomit while processing the scale of the destruction here.


    The smell of the swamp had long since ceased to process in his brain, but this smell, of burnt flesh, spilled oil and the lingering smell of hot metal and explosives was utterly revolting.


    When he was in the Academy, he was told that ¡°War is Hell.¡± But at that moment he decided that the training officers were wrong. War is war and hell is hell, and of the two, war is the more reprehensible. For in Kepler, the army is conscripted. How many of these dead soldiers would have willingly left their home, his home, if they had a choice?


    They were just beginning the search, using their rifles¡¯ power cells to activate the locks on the fallen mecha to check for signs of life inside when a rhythmic nging became audible in the distance. A mecha squad was returning to the scene of the battle.

 118 Chapter 118

    ¡°Those are Mecha, and they¡¯re in no big hurry. Keep searching for survivors and maybe we can give them a bit of good news when they get back. The better the mood they¡¯re in, the more likely they are to not leave us stranded on a rock in the middle of a swamp.¡± The Lieutenant barked at his troops, bringing about a round ofughter.


    He had a point though, they had a medical team with them that could work wonders if they did find any survivors, so the best thing they could do was to keep searching.


    At first, it seemed hopeless, but then they found not one but two pilots at the same time who were still clinging to the edge of life inside their cockpits. One was in a Crusader ss Mecha with the entire top shell that forms the most formidable armor of the Redemption Pattern machine dented and cracked in. It was missing a leg, and the power nt was crushed, but the pilot was still alive inside, having been forgotten by the Narsians in the heat of battle and unable to free himself due to the weight of another mecha leaning against his escape hatch and the damage to his top hatch.


    The second was a Line Mecha pilot with incredible luck. When his mecha was destroyed, the force of the blow entirely crushed the bottom of his cockpit, squeezing his legs and preventing the mangled wreck of his body from bleeding out. He would be a nobat asset after this unless the upper brass saw potential in him and got him a regrowth treatment to rece his limbs or a very good pair of prosthetics.


    The Kepler Empire¡¯s technology could easily create both full and partial conversion cyborgs from even the most mangled of bodies, as long as the brain was still intact and alive, but due to cost constraints, not many enlisted men got that opportunity. For them, it was basic prosthetics. The pilot would likely walk just fine, but the prosthetics couldn¡¯t keep up with the System enhanced reflexes and impacts involved in Mecha Piloting the way the much more advanced Cyborg conversions could.


    Better to walk with a prosthetic limp than to rot to death in the swamp though, and the doctors got to work sealing the arteries and finishing the amputation needed to free the pilot from the wreckage of his Mecha.


    Strangely, they didn¡¯t see many infantry corpses here. The Lieutenant at first thought that none had been sent to this point, but as he looked, he could see bunkers all around the rubble. Did the Mecha order them to retreat? That¡¯s unusual for a Kepler Commander.


    ¡°Lieutenant, you need to see this.¡± The same call again, from the same scout, but this time he is standing on top of the pile of Narsian bodies looking down at whatever is on the camoting.<sub>.</sub>


    He seemed to be unwilling to approach whatever was there, so the officer assumed that what he saw was going to be hard on the stomach. With that in mind, the young man slowly climbed the mountain of bodies, stopping just before the top when a de whistled past his face.


    ¡°What the feth? Is one of them still alive?¡± He yelled at his scout, who only stared with an open mouth and pointed at the top of the pile.


    The Lieutenant circled around to where the scout was standing, seemingly safe on the other side of the pile. What he saw was enough that he simply fainted on the spot and fell to the bottom of the mound of corpses.


    At just that moment, the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit entered the battlefield at the mine.


    ¡°Find out who those soldiers are and search for survivors. Gather all the corpses you find and we will give them a proper burial before we go.¡± Max ordered, heading into the southern area of the battlefield to see if the more intact-looking Landers still had any sort of functionality. A few gravestones and more boats would be a good start.


    ¡°Major Max, we have found the Tarith¡¯s Rage. It has lost both upper limbs, but it looks like someone started to repair it, as the power hase back on.¡± Ari reported.


    ¡°And Major Nico?¡± Max asked grimly.<sub></sub>


    ¡°No sign Sir. The top hatch is swung open and there are Narsian bodies stuck in the razor wire, I suspect that she exited her Mecha when it was overrun to fight on her own.¡±


    No way would she have gone down easily. ¡°Keep Searching. As a Command Officer, it would damage the unit¡¯s pride to leave her here.¡±


    ¡°Commander, I have contact with the soldiers. They are from a mismatch of units that were mostly destroyed. They have no survivingms equipment, so they just kept moving until they found this point. They have doctors and are working Triage on the two survivors they found before we arrived.¡± Paul confirmed.


    That was excellent news. Not one, but two more survivors from their unit.


    Looking North into the camp, Max noticed that six of their Comor Pattern Corvettes wereshed to stakes behind a pile of Narsian bodies, that had a Kepler scout standing near the top.


    ¡°Paul, go see what that scout knows. Narsians don¡¯t usually build shrines like this out of their own men. We might have taken out a topmander of their force without knowing it.¡± Max sent themand and Paul gave one more longing look to his fallen Crusader before going to fulfill the order.


    While he made his way through the battle, Max struck gold. One of the Repair bays was still functional and stocked. The roof of the Lander had copsed in front of it, and the Narsian forces had ignored its survival.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Get some Corvettes over here. We have a surviving repair bay and materials. We can get some of the fallen Mecha back up and running, we will just have to double time it to make our destination on time afterward.¡±


    Since they had lost far more Crusaders than Pilots, that was great news to the unit. It would let them bring theirbat strength back up a little before their next mission. Every mecha they brought back from the dead was a victory against the Narsians, their own personal vow of endurance against all odds.


    [Commander. I have found Nico, or what remains of her.] Paul informed Max quietly over the secure Command Channel.


    Max left the Lander nearly at a run, slowing only enough that he didn¡¯t step on anyone as he made his way to the pile of corpses where Paul stood next to the Kepler scout.


    It was indeed Nico. Her Mobile Suit was shattered and peeled off her body,id out around her like a wreath. Her uniform was shredded and every inch of her skin was covered in scabbed wounds. Both legs had been brutally amputated, as well as one arm.


    The wounds were ragged, indicating that they were torn free and not cut, and both her eyes were missing, the vacant holes staring at the sky.


    In the one remaining limb, she held her Mobile Suit¡¯s sword, still firmly grasped in the remains of the gauntlet.


    Seeing that, Max looked at the pile of bodies and saw that they all died to des, every Narsian in this pile died to Nico in closebat and they had built a Hero¡¯s Pire to honor herbat prowess.


    The destroyed Comor Pattern Crusaders behind her tied to stakes were their version of a headstone, letting anyone who came by know who the Pyre was for by the unit markings on the Mecha.


    Max¡¯s altered mind was moving faster than ever, bouncing between proud and devastated, when he saw the sword twitch as Paul approached.


    ¡°Paul, Stand Back. I think the body is trapped.¡± Max called, turning on all his sensors to see what the Narsians might have left behind for them.


    As Paul retreated, Max advanced, searching the pyre for anything at all, when his thermal sensors detected something very odd. There was still a heat signatureing from Nico.


    [Holy crap, she is alive. She shouldn¡¯t be, but she is.] Max muttered to himself, not realizing that he still had the Command Channel open.


    ¡°Bring the doctors asap. We have a critical survivor.¡± Paul called when he heard Max whisper over the radio.


    Four men in tattered white coats ran to the pyre, while Paul moved to restrain Nico¡¯s one remaining arm until he could relieve her of her sword.


    Max moved Stalwart as close as he could, trying to establish a mental link with Nico, but there was nothing there. There was a mind, but all he could sense was rage and an instinct to survive.


    Probing deeper, he found her more recent memories, after twelve hours of unsessful torture, they had moved her body from a hard ce to a soft ce and given her back her sword, after which she was soaked in warm blood and then her conscious thought faded.


    Max looked over the pile and saw where thest blood came from, a Narsian officery on the side of the pile with his guts split open and the pistol that ended his life still in his hand. The Narsians must have ordered him executed for ipetence, or something simrly embarrassing.


    Without the threat of the sword, the doctors quickly got to work, but the grim look on their faces wasn¡¯t giving Max much hope for the future. It had been days, and her limbs had been forcibly torn off.


    Max knew Nico had a healing-rted System Function, but could a human really survive that?

 119 Chapter 119

    After an hour of grueling surgery, aided by freshly procured surgical equipment created inside the one remaining Lander bay, the doctors dered Nico to be temporarily stable and said she could be awoken for a short period of time if it was essential to get information from her.


    The power of her System Function amazed them. The surface wounds on her body left by the Narsian torturers were already scarred, and the lightest of her injuries had closed before anyone even arrived. She would likely still have died in a few more hours, but with nutrients, a lot of artificial blood sma, and the very best treatments that field medicine could offer, she now had at least a twenty percent chance of survival. Enough to give Max a sliver of hope.


    ¡®As half a person.¡¯ Max thought to himself, holding her remaining hand in his own.


    The touch seemed to be a signal to Nico, and Max¡¯s wrist device lit up with a message.


    [Put me back in my room.]


    Her room? Did she think that she was still at home? There was no telling how much damage had been done to her mind under the not-so-gentle auspices of the Narsians.


    [Put me back in my room.]<sub>.</sub>


    The message repeated, but this time there was a bit of rity in her mind through the pain and rage. She meant the cockpit of Tarith¡¯s Rage. The cockpit wasn¡¯t sized for another pilot to be able to use it, they were all toorge so it couldn¡¯t be reassigned to another Pilot, but she would have a better chance to live if they brought her with them and kept up with intensive treatment. Leaving both her and her mecha together might be a fitting tribute to her personality, but it would be such a waste to let her die here after enduring so much. Max simply couldn¡¯t bring himself to follow her request.


    While Max considered what to do next and gave orders to dig a trench grave for the fallen, the rest of the battlefield was cleared. Before Max realized how much time had passed, they had spent three whole hours here, putting them far behind schedule, and he had to finish up and get going, or risk being reprimanded for insubordination.


    Finally, he made his choice. Nico could stay and go out the way she wanted. Not as a mechanically rebuilt office clerk, but as a Crusader ss Pilot.


    [Fine, I¡¯ll take you home. We are assigned to grid TA24, if you can, meet us thereter.] Max sent the message to her wrist device, still attached to her single arm, but got only a beep from his own device in reply. She must not have been able to form another sentence.


    ¡°Doctors, move the patient to the cockpit of Tarith¡¯s Rage and leave her with as much healing solution and nutrient drip as you can attach to an IV. We have a battle to get to.¡± Max informs the doctors, who nod their understanding and get to work, asking a pilot with a gauntlet to lift them up onto the carapace, which they have to wipe clean of bodies and blood to be able to safely cross.


    Max thought back to the first day the techs tried to walk on that carapace, and about the unfortunate man who slipped and ended up tangled in the wire, having to be hoisted up and cut free by his coworkers.<sub></sub>


    Other than Tarith¡¯s Rage, which someone hastily attached mildly damaged new arms to, they managed to get four Crusaders active again, and one of the Comor Pattern Corvettes. Everything else had taken too much damage to be repaired on their current timeline.


    Max sent a message to Command, letting them know what was going on, and that there were a lot of materials and broken mecha here to be reimed by a force with the time to repair them. General Tennant assured him that a force was set to be arriving there very soon, and asked that the wayward troopers be left behind to wait for the recovery force. Other than the doctors, they would only be deadweight to a Special Tactics Unit.


    Doctors in the Kepler Military often chose their own assignments once in battle, based on the need as they saw it, and one did choose to go with Max, loading up with as much equipment as the boats could carry until he had a basic surgical suite in crates. The extra weight and bulk were not optimal, but for the chance to get surgery from a proper doctor and not a field medic? They could definitely find a way to keep it with them.


    To get to their destination, the Corvettes were practically running through the swamp, relying on the Crusaders out front to check the depth for them, and the swamp boats were doing their best to search for deep spots as they raced ahead of the convoy.


    Getting to their destination tonight was the order, but it was more important that they actually all made it there. Thus, a few stops were made to let pilots catch their breath and grab a meal, which they couldn¡¯t do properly while operating.


    In the end, they were almost an hour behind schedule when they arrived and the freshly deployed mecha from the most recent wave of Landers were beginning to worry that the Unit had been attacked in the swamp.<sub></sub>


    [Sorry for the dy Gentlemen. There was a battle site along the way and we had to stop to do a burial.] Max informed them, and theints instantly ceased.


    No soldier would hold it against hisrades for stopping to honor the dead, especially not when they themselves weren¡¯t even inbat yet and had just arrived on the.


    ¡°Alright, we have the orders here already. Before dawn, Command wants the city perimeter searched and a secure way into theunch location for anti-Lander weapons found. This location was sending hostile fire at the Landers, and they want it eliminated and for the city to be retaken. Any civilian survivors are a bonus.¡±


    That¡¯s an easy enough order to follow, and Max takes a close look at theyout of the city and surrounding areas ording to the satellite scans. There is arge park near the middle of the city that was obscured in the images, and Max was willing to wager that was their target, but getting to it without getting trapped or forced to a halt by the defenders could be an issue.


    The data they have doesn¡¯t have any indications of resistance, civilian forces, other units in the area, or anything but the actual map of the city, so Max starts plotting entry locations. First out will be the scout bikes, looking for signs of patrols and Narsian forces stationed near the edge of the city.


    Once they have that data, Max can search for a good way into the city itself.


    Max sends the bikes out in the middle of the night so that they can start getting the data right away. Most of the infantry wasn¡¯t too exhausted, having been in the boats for the whole trip, so Captain Catan managed to find his twenty riders without issues and set out.


    From what they can tell, the city is either abandoned or in a full ckout, as they do for impending air raids.


    ¡°Ari, Paul, Vincente, take the Mobile Suits and a squad of infantry infiltration specialists each and make an entry here, here, and here.¡± Max directs, pointing at the map towards routes that the scouts and the orbital scans all showed as abandoned.


    ¡°I will take the mecha of Bravo Squad and enter from the Western main highway as a diversion. If we make entry sessfully, the main force can follow at first light. If not, they will being to one of you. There are more waves ofndersing, and Central Command wants this point clear before that happens.¡± Max instructs, climbing up into Stalwart for the diversion mission.


    One heavy mecha with a single wing of Corvette ss mecha isn¡¯t a huge threat, but it is enough firepower that Max shouldn¡¯t have a problem fighting his way back out if they run into trouble. Nothing they have seen so far suggests a huge enemy force in the city, and the sensor data sent back from the scout bikes showed almost no life near the edges of the ruined metropolis.


    Max circles wide to give the others time to get in position before the sight of Stalwart draws attention, then proudly marches his unit straight down the highway into town.


    [Are we sure this is a good idea?] One of the pilots asks nervously, not expecting an answer.


    [That depends on what your desired oue is. If we want to pick a fight and st holes in a load of Narsians this is an absolutely amazing n.] A second one suggests, making Max chuckle.


    Being the bait is never much fun, but without it, the scouts would be in even more danger, and they were already on foot and without a safe position behind them to fall back.


    The city really does feel empty though. Max isn¡¯t finding any sign of a shield, no sign of a patrol, not even any signs of life in the buildings that they have passed. The whole thing is giving him an ominous feeling.


    [Scout squads, run air quality checks. Something isn¡¯t adding up and I don¡¯t want you walking into nerve gas.] Max orders.


    Normally the Kepler Military wouldn¡¯t use such a thing, as it cripples but doesn¡¯t always kill, which vites the international standards on cruelty. But there is no guarantee that the Narsians or even a civilian force wouldn¡¯t do it if they thought they were going to lose.

 120 Chapter 120

    The moment Max¡¯s convoy stopped, the Narsian infiltrators who were hiding among the buildings realized that something was wrong. This opponent was much more cautious than the ones that hade before him.


    They sent an emergency signal back to the main base and waited for a reply. A few secondster, bright smiles passed across their faces, hidden under smooth metallic stealth helmets and they began circling around behind Max¡¯s convoy, joined by the other scout teams in the area.


    [Look alive everyone, I¡¯ve got iing signals in front of us, fifteen Narsian heavy infantry in a reverse V formation. It looks like they want to funnel us in for an attack.] Max informed his unit, who spread out to counter the Narsian tactic.


    If they let the Narsian attack formation get around their sides they would soon be unable to maneuver and would either be surrounded or forced backward into whatever trap the Narsians had prepared. Maneuverability was one of the few advantages they had at close range, the Corvette ss Mecha, especially the Comor pattern, with its light and nimble organic shell shape, assisted by stabilizing thrusters, had a much easier time traversing rubble at high speed than the Narsian Heavy Infantry.


    [Steady for the charge. Pick your targets and fire in 3, 2, NOW.] Max ordered, lighting up the approaching infantry with his Pulse Lasers and his Battle Cannon, letting the sound serve as a warning to the infantry scouts that the diversion team had found enemies in the city and to be careful.


    The giants¡¯ armor was no match for the weapons of a Crusader ss Mecha, and whenbined with the fire from the light Mecha, every one of the attackers was down in seconds.<sub>.</sub>


    [That was suspiciously easy.] Juan, one of the light mecha pilots muttered over the team channel.


    [Too easy. Hold your positions and circle Stalwart.] Max ordered seconds before dozens more infantry charged out of underground tunnels and ruined buildings.


    The scouts behind them charged as well, realizing that the Ambush was going to have to proceed without the trap since this stubborn Crusader wasn¡¯t going to even attempt to retreat.


    When the sudden roar of sustained Mecha fire sounded through the city, the infantry teams began to increase their pace. It would increase their own chances of being detected and killed, but Stalwart couldn¡¯t hold out forever against an enemy that was making them work that hard from the beginning.


    In the ambush, things were not going as well as nned for the Narsians. First, the Crusader had an energy shield that they hadn¡¯t seen before and it was making a mockery of their snipers, then there was this advanced pattern of Corvette ss Mecha that deflected even the most solid of hits with its curved shape, but the worst had to be the shotguns.<sub></sub>


    Over and over Stalwart¡¯s twin sma Shotguns sent out clusters of unstable sma, burning holes through armor and crippling Narsian targets. The Heavy Mecha wasn¡¯t even trying to kill them, he was firing everywhere with those Pulse Lasers of his, and crippling the back lines with the shotguns, so they could barely defend themselves when the Light Mecha pushed back.


    Despite only losing a dozen or so troops, over seventy fighters had been removed from the battle. They had gravely misjudged the capabilities of this Mecha, assuming it to be geared for fighting other Mecha, the way almost all of itspatriots were. Instead, they had pulled the short straw and gotten what was possibly the only anti-infantry Mecha in the entire sector.


    [Stalwart, target sighted and pinged with theser sight. Scout teams are retreating. Vincente reported, out of breath from the final run-in to locate the target and escape the wrath of the guards.


    The mobile suits weren¡¯t heavily armed, but they could fight off a few patrol members if they needed. It was just that there were way more than a few in that former park along with the orbital defense weapons.


    So, he ran, and his men ran with him like the devil himself was chasing them.<sub></sub>


    [Viable route to the target found. Sending in the main force.] The unitmander back at the camp reported when Vincente¡¯s locator came through.


    That was Max¡¯s signal to retreat since their part of the job was done, so he slowly started backing Stalwart down the road, with the Corvettes still circled around him. The Crusader walked in a stumbling circle, which let it target both the front and back groups with its sma Shotguns as well as the Pulse Lasers, pushing them back and letting the Corvettes clear a path so they could keep moving.


    It was a slow procession, and the damages were starting to add up. Stalwart¡¯s shield was flickering in and out of existence every few seconds as he sustained constant fire, and the status indicators for all of the Corvettes had moved from warning yellow to severely damaged red, with a few showing disabled arms or torso joints.


    They were all still moving though, and the Radar showed that the main force was almost on top of them.


    ¡°It¡¯s been a pleasure doing business with you.¡± Maxughed over the inte, sending a furious barrage of fire into the giants between them and the main force, which was closing at a full run and nearly had a clear line of sight to begin firing.


    The giants were in a full-on rage now, realizing that the Scout unit they had ambushed was bait, drawing them out for the main force to finish, not an exploration team checking the status of the city.


    There were too many iing Mecha for them to handle with their current numbers, so the Narsian attack squad broke off, disappearing into the buildings and the ruins of the subway system before the main force could arrive.


    [They will have all headed back to the defense lines around the weapons. Be ready for a fight to the finish, they won¡¯t give up that weapon easily.] Max weed the Colonel that was leading the main force in.


    [Good job, Stalwart. We couldn¡¯t have asked for a better scout team. Retreat and repair, the techs are waiting for you.] The Colonel replied, leading his men past, shooting sporadic bursts into the city when they thought their sensors detected anything suspicious.


    [Watch for Nerve Gas. We took an alternate route out of the city and found lingering fumes. Someone used it here in the city. There are also heavy civilian casualties in this area, both in the streets and inside buildings, which indicates the usage was Narsian.] Ari reported as her team reached the edge of the city.


    The spot where she left the city was most likely thest stand of the civilians, and the Narsians simply did whatever was convenient to wipe them out as fast as possible to secure the area.


    There was nothing to be done about it now though, except to inflict retribution upon the Narsians, so Ari led her unit back to the camp and began writing her report. This was her least favorite part of her job as an officer, the same as Max. Writing mission reports not only made you remember the parts that went horribly wrong, but it also was dull and boring, and there was a very high chance that nobody would ever read them. They just had to be logged into the system for the algorithm to check for inconsistencies so that you could move on to the next mission.


    It was like a special form of torture designed especially for them.


    The sight that greeted Ari when she got back wasn¡¯t a rxed and waiting camp though, it was a thousand mecha pilots and infantrymen gathered around a slow-moving procession of Mechaing back.


    That was Max¡¯s unit, and looking at it, Ari was shocked that they were all still moving at all. Even with the Landers on site to get everyone into a repair bay in a reasonable timeframe, it would not be quick or easy to get all those Corvettes back up to maximum capacity. In fact, Ari wasn¡¯t even sure if the other Landers had the temtes to make spare parts for the weapons that they were using since they weren¡¯t a standard pattern and had been customized by Major Nico before the mission began.


    They should still have some spares though, so Ari sent a squad to go search the boats for spare Corvette ss weapons. Armor tes could be made in minutes and installed in under an hour, but more intricate things like hydraulics and electronics, as well as the advanced systems in the energy weapons, took a lot longer to fix. Something about this ce put her on edge, and Ari was convinced that having the Corvettes down for even an hour longer than necessary was a recipe for disaster.


    Max was feeling the same way, but for the moment he was writing it off as the fact that so much of the camp¡¯s main force had entered the city without doing a proper sweep. Sure, they had a clear path to the target, but they had no idea what else was waiting for them inside the city limits, and it left the camp in a tight spot if that wasn¡¯t the only force in the area.

 121 Chapter 121

    Feeling the unease shared by their officers, the repair crews worked as fast as they could to get everything in order at the camp. Every repair bay was in use, and for the mecha that could be fixed without the dedicated bay, they set up a spot in the center of the camp for them to be worked on.


    Even troopers with no mechanical knowledge were pressed into service, bringing parts, holding armor tes, and making sure energy storage magazines were full.


    Only once every piece of equipment was in good working order did they begin to rx.


    The battle within the city was going better than expected. The Narsians did push out once they saw the main force, but their numbers weren¡¯t enough to challenge the Kepler force, even with the advantage of being the defenders within a city environment.


    The weapons capable of targeting Landers, as well as all locations that might have housed more of them, were already destroyed, and the battle was now for the Kepler forces to leave the city.


    [More Narsian light infantry from 27 degrees]<sub>.</sub>


    [Additional Narsian units at 315 degrees]


    One after another, the calls came of additional Narsian forces, and Max realized why it was so easy to get into the city. The giants had made it impossible to leave. Over twenty additional Companies of Narsians had been hidden outside the city, or so deeply within the perimeter that they didn¡¯t notice or attract the notice of Max¡¯s scouting squads.


    The radar was acting up again, showing obviously false readings, so Max was certain that they had some sort of jamming device with them. The only question was where, and could he get permission to go looking for it?


    [Stalwart to Central Command. Radar interference device in use at grid TA27. Permission to send scouts to locate the source?] Max called, giving the customary notification.


    [Negative, hold tight, Stalwart. Landers are iing now. ETA 14 minutes.] It wasn¡¯t often that a request to scout was denied, but they were holding a camp full of spare parts and munitions, as well as arge group of support troops. With more mechaing, Max understood why they weren¡¯t sent out.<sub></sub>


    Just as the first streaks of fire from the orbital entries began in the sky, signaling the next wave had begun, the camp scouts reported enemy movement near the edge of their sensor range. A scout unit of Narsians had finally discovered their base.


    The scouts retreated as fast as they could, waiting for more forces to arrive, but Max was having none of that today.


    [Squads Alpha and Bravo, send all Corvettes to eliminate those scouts. I want them dead before reinforcements arrive.] Max ordered and the remaining neen Comor Pattern units belonging to the Special Tactics unit went running out to intercept the scouts.


    Max was tracking their progress with his own sensors, and the moment he had a lock on the scouts Stalwart¡¯s Battle Cannon began sending indirect fire towards the fleeing giants, cutting off their retreat and leaving them vulnerable to the mechaing up on their backs. The battle was short and brutal, with the numbers of Kepler Mecha being enough to take out the scouts in a single volley.


    [Cease retreat and hold.] Came the orders from within the city. The assault force had been drug to a halt and was now moving to a defensive position, waiting out the battle.<sub></sub>


    Either they would manage to eliminate the Narsians right where they were, or they would be wiped out to the veryst. In a battle like that, there really wasn¡¯t any other choice, except the possibility that one of the Landers would drop in the city and give them some fire support.


    Nine minutes left to the arrival of the next wave, the Narsians decided to get sneaky, sending three of their critically injured soldiers sneaking toward the camp as suicide bombers. They would die within an hour anyhow, as the Narsianscked the medical technology to treat such severe wounds, but two of the three managed to get close enough that they heavily damaged Crusaders on the patrol line with their final acts.


    [Move back, reserves, take their ces. The Narsians won¡¯t let us get our reinforcements that easily.] Max dered, hoping to inspire some fighting spirit in the shocked troops of the defensive lines.


    These forces only arrived with thest drop, they hadn¡¯t had time to see the atrocities that the Narsians were capable of or the level of bloodshed that was normal in a full-scale battle. Simtions could only teach you so much, no matter how realistic.


    But in the end, Max was wrong. The Narsians did indeed let them get their reinforcements that easily. Twonders full of Heavy Mecha Companiesnded within the city, and all signs of Narsian activity vanished as they made a desperate push to eliminate the assault force and the new arrivals.


    All Max could do was wait and listen to the sounds of distant battle while the fate of the city, and the Kepler forces around it, was decided. One after another, Narsian forces were found and eliminated, with two hundred freshly arrived Crusader ss Mecha scouring the city for any signs of them.


    Unfortunately, no signs of human life were found until the third hour, when a bunker that had a building copsed over its entry was located, full of civilian survivors. A few hundred out of the hundred thousand who used to live here, but it was a few hundred better than Max had been expecting after seeing the signs of Nerve Gas usage. The bunker they were in was sealed and intact, so they never suffered the fate that the others did, nor did they make it out of their bunker to join the resistance after the initial attacks. They had been stuck in there since the very first day of the invasion, nearly two weeks ago.


    [Stalwart Special Tactics Unit? I am Lieutenant Beckett and my wing has been sent to reinforce you.] a youthful female voice greeted Max as a wing of ten Comor Pattern Corvettes approached from one of the nearby Landers.


    [We brought a recement Mecha for Captain Paul as well. The same pattern as his previous unit Ferrus, with a Heavy Laser Cannon, and an Ion Destroyer. But this one has a top-mounted sma Shotgun of a modified design based on the Cygnus weapons mounted on Stalwart.] A second voice adds, not identifying itself.


    That news is enough to bring a huge smile to the Pilot¡¯s face. His own unit was too heavily damaged for repairs, so he had been relegated to Mobile Suit usage for a while now. The new mecha hadn¡¯t earned a name yet, being fresh off the production line, but if it survived this engagement, it would receive one, most likely involving the word Ferrus, in honor of the fallen predecessor.


    Of course, Ferrus might still be revived, if they could find the parts and determined that enough of the structure was intact to make it worth the time, but from now on, it would no longer be assigned to Captain Paul.


    That brings the unit to only one Corvette and one Crusader less than when they started, so their mecha power was almost back to full, and they had only lost a few infantry so far. This mission could be said to be a very productive one for the Special Tactics Unit.


    [Stalwart Special Tactics Unit, new orders are iing.] Comes the message from Central Command.


    Ny Kilometers east of them, into the foothills of the mountain range that rings that side of the swamp, there is a training facility. They have finished their emergency piloting course, and they need a scout team to identify targets in the mountains for their new Pilots to hunt.


    They were all second-year basic cadets, and the facility was known as a dumping ground for future Line Mecha pilots that couldn¡¯t make the cut for anything better due to poor effort or low System Compatibility, but they have decided that this lot is now ready for battle. All the older students were sent out to fight during the early stages of the invasion and the freshmen aren¡¯t ready yet.


    Max rys the orders to the rest of the unit, getting groans and sighs of frustration and disappointment all around. Some because of the mission, some because Central Command has determined that things are so bad on the that sending cadets out who had only begun practical Mecha use a few months ago is necessary.


    That¡¯s not Max¡¯s major concern though. He has faith that his unit can guide them through the essentials of an introductory battle. His real concern is why they would ask a Special Tactics Unit to take up the duty, when Max can see with his own two eyes that they have sent entire Landers full of Scout ss Sentinel Mecha to the region. Something doesn¡¯t add up, and it doesn¡¯t look good for the survival chances of the trainees.

 122 Chapter 122

    Max walked Stalwart over to the senior infantry officer in camp before disembarking, using the same winch system that he first saw General Tennant using from the Phnx ss Shining Darkness to lower himself to the ground. The only difference is, that Max used the top hatch on Stalwart since the side door is a single-use Emergency Hatch.


    ¡°Colonel. My unit has been ordered to move out to do some reconnaissance for a freshly trained group of local partisans, so we will be departing immediately, but I would like it if you would do a favor for me.¡± Max asked.


    The soldier gave Max a curt nod, showing that he would do it even if he disagreed, and Max continued. ¡°Somewhere in the swamp is a Crusader that looks a lot like mine. Bone and Bronze with red ents and half red shoulder pauldrons. We had to leave it behind due to damages, but if the pilotes looking for us, let them know where we went. I can¡¯t guarantee that they will be able to getmunications working, or that we would hear them even if they did.¡±


    That brings a look of relief to the soldier¡¯s face. Passing along a memo to a lost Pilot is no big deal, though finding that Pilot is a big deal to their unit.


    ¡°Sure thing Major. There are a number of units gathered in the swamp right now, infantry and support units that is. Once they¡¯re finished there, they will likelye here, since they¡¯re from our cruiser. If they bring any of your Mecha I will let them know that you¡¯re looking for them.¡±


    Max gave the Colonel a salute before activating the winch and pulling himself back up to the top of Stalwart in one smooth motion. Given his physical capabilities, he could have easily jumped that high, but this way looks much more elegant and impressive. Now he sees why General Tennant did it that way all the time.<sub>.</sub>


    Thest order of business before they leave is to handle the gear. They¡¯re not in the swamps anymore where the boats can carryrge amounts of gear with ease. Moving through the foothills will take another approach if they want to keep most of the unit¡¯s supplies.


    [Spread out and search for functional civilian heavy transports. One will be the bare minimum, three is enough to keep everything.] Max orders and the infantry goes on a hunt.


    In the worst-case scenario, they can make a trailer from the Landers¡¯ equipment program and pull it with one of the Crusaders, but that would make both the fear and the infantry in the trailer a higher priority target.


    [Sir, we have what we need. There is a transportpany yard with functional vehicles in the garage.] Captain Catan reports just before the humming of anti-gravity drives, or more precisely the low-quality ones used for heavy equipment, sounds in the distance.


    From the look of them, these were heavy mining equipment, not long-distance transports, but in a way that¡¯s even better. They might be somewhat slow, but the carrying capacity is unmatched.<sub></sub>


    ording to the card on the side, they are good for sixty tons of ore each, and they are seven meters tall, enough that the Corvette ss mecha can hide behind them. They¡¯re also heavily Armored, for the safety of the crew while transporting heavy materials.


    One after another, they glide out of the warehouse until ten enormous vehicles are lined up.


    [They even have cranes, so we can keep the boats.] Captain Catan brags, before offering his men to load the first one into his cargo bay.


    It¡¯s an open-topped space, but the Narsians don¡¯t spend much time flying, so the risk is minimal. Given their size, one of these behemoths could hold all the gear, but Max has a better n.


    [Ten is too many. Put some back. We will take three. Spread the gear between them and load the Corvettes inside, crouched out of sight. Anyone who tries to ambush us is in for a world of pain.] Max orders and Seven ore tea sorts are returned to storage.<sub></sub>


    [Ari, you have point. Vincente, you have the tail and I will take the left nk, which leaves Paul the right. To the Narsians we will look like a simple raw materials convoy with a depleted Heavy Mecha Wing as its guards.]


    In the more popted areas that would bemon, keeping the repair and munitions production units supplied. Food and weapons are shipped in other and faster vehicles since these slow transports are vulnerable to attack and can¡¯t run away.


    With everything loaded the protective tarps are rolled over the open top and the convoy begins to head for the foothills.


    Traveling speed for the big vehicles is afortable walking speed for the Crusaders, making their progress down the ruins of the Goodyear look perfectly natural. Even the Narsians watching the camp from a distance don¡¯t see anything odd about it and report it as a material shipment for units further from this contested position to intercept.


    Attacking the supply lines now would give away their position, which is a terrible trade for a single shipment of raw ore. But once they get into the hills Max knows they will be a much more lucrative target. In fact, he¡¯s counting on it.


    At this speed, the journey will take three hours, with the facility being located just off the main highway they are following. But by two hours in, Max was beginning to question his estimate of the enemy¡¯s priorities. Did they actually not care about the Kepler supply lines?


    Or was it possible that they were stretched so thin in this twin that they couldn¡¯t spare a single unit to intercept?


    The unit was only ten kilometers from their destination when they finally found the reason that nothing had attacked them during their slow-moving trip.


    Six Landers full of infantry were entrenched on a hill surrounded by Narsian soldiers. The giants were clearly taunting them, raining sma on them every time they tried to set up bunkers and generally keeping them suppressed and hiding.


    Eventually, the Narsians would attack and wipe these soldiers out, but they were hoping that someone would be sent to assist the Kepler forces first.


    [Alpha Squad, disembark and spread out behind the convoy. Bravo and Charlie, stay hidden until I give the order.] Maxmanded his troops, while the huge transports continued along the highway as if they didn¡¯t know anything was happening.


    To the Narsians that were keeping the Kepler infantry pinned down, an ore convoy that didn¡¯t even rate a full five mecha wing to escort it was possibly the most disappointing set of reinforcements that they could have seen, second only to a depleted infantrypany. But they were still heavy Mecha, so there was no option but to engage now before the attack started.


    So, the back lines of the Narsian attack force turned to face the convoy, only a half second before Stalwart and Paul¡¯s unnamed recement for Ferrus unleash their long ranged firepower. Ari¡¯s Bulwark joined in with its Ion Destroyer, and Vincente¡¯s Morning Glory began lobbing indirect fire up in the air with its Battle Cannon since it couldn¡¯t see properly from its position behind the convoy.


    The suddenness of the attack seemed to catch the Narsians off guard. They had expected the small force to hesitate when seeing the odds stacked against them, but instead, they were met with a withering storm of fire. Even worse, it wasn¡¯t all aimed at the closest targets. The Pulse Lasers on Stalwart had an uncanny knack for hitting Narsian soldiers who were targeting the pinned-down Kepler infantry, punching holes in their backs while they were distracted.


    The infantry took great joy in this small bit of payback, as well as taking advantage of the opening to set up heavy weapons positions and start properly firing back at the giants who had been holding them hostage until moments ago.


    Slowly, the forces from the far side of the Landing zone were moved to take care of the attacking Mecha force, leaving only a scattered line of soldiers behind to keep the Kepler infantry from escaping. That was Alpha squad¡¯s signal, and as soon as the Narsians had removed as many as they seemed likely to, the wing of Corvette ss mecha attacked.


    The result was chaos. Each mecha was left with only a few targets on that side of the encirclement, which all died within seconds of the Mecha opening fire, and now those who had been reassigned didn¡¯t know if they should return or follow their orders and advance on the Heavy Mecha.


    The hesitation only got more of them killed, as Alpha squad advanced and the infantry¡¯s heavy weapons teamsid down as much fire as they could manage.


    Just when things were starting to get under control, Max gave the next order. [Bravo and Charlie, disembark and join the fight. Pin them between us and the infantry.]

 123 Chapter 123

    The appearance of the additional light mecha sent the Narsian infantry into a full charge, turning their back on the infantry to deal with the greatest threat first. Even with their losses, they still outnumbered the Mecha force by almost four to one.


    The Light Mecha, as well as Bulwark and Morning Glory, moved forward to meet the charge. Bulwark¡¯s shield seemed to annoy the giants¡¯ sensibilities every time they saw it, but the Rending w on Morning Glory was their primary target.


    The des on the three crushing pincers were deadly, but the mer in the middle was a much bigger concern. If it was allowed to bathe the battlefield in sma fire they would be at a huge disadvantage.


    The fastest two runners went straight for Morning Glory, losing their lives to a masterful scoop with the w before being roasted by the torch in the middle of the melee weapon. But they weren¡¯t alone. Three more were right behind them, too close to all be deflected.


    One was knocked down by a backhand with the Battle Cannon, but two morended solid hits on the legs of the mecha before being shot apart by the Corvettes.


    By then, the main line had reached the Special Tactics Unit, and furious closebat battles were underway beneath a shing mantle of Pulse Laser fire as Max did his best to eliminate the units still at a longer range so that the infantry could begin to maneuver and assist Alpha Squad.<sub>.</sub>


    The Corvette ss Mecha sessfully repelled the first wave of the Narsian charge, not letting any of them through to attack the rtively helpless long-ranged mecha, but the numbers still heavily favored the giants.


    Max didn¡¯t particrly need protection though, and neither did Paul. Both were now equipped with sma Shotguns that could easily defend the mecha against groups of close-range attackers, so both Pilots moved forward to join the scrum, taking some of the pressure off the Light Mecha.


    The sma Shotguns weren¡¯t a standard Kepler weapon, and Cygnus was an unknown entity to the Narsians, so the first few sts took them entirely by surprise, tearing apart armor and crippling Narsians by the handful.


    It was enough to pull the battle to a stalemate, with the first few Corvettes being damaged to the point of copse, forcing them to retreat and putting pressure on the others. The overall ratio was holding steady though, at four to one in favor of the Narsians.


    Alpha Squad had been forced to a standstill, joining the infantry in their defensive positions and returning fire towards the Narsian forces, so Max brought thest of his reserves into the battle, calling the infantrypany to set up on top of the Transports and thin out the Narsian forces.<sub></sub>


    It was a risky move for them, as it left them mostly in the open and could lead to mass casualties, but for a few seconds, it turned the tide of the battle back in favor of the Special Tactics Unit.


    Then, the most glorious of sounds reached Max¡¯s external microphones. Light Mecha in arge group were running through the forest in their direction.


    The mecha began shooting the moment they saw Narsians, wounding many and letting Alpha Squad get up out of the holes they had hidden in to again put the full weight of their ranged fire into the enemy lines.


    There was something wrong with these Mecha though. They were clumsy, inurate, and visibly inept. To Max, they looked like second-year Cadets having their first outing on the training grounds. They knew the controls, but theycked coordination, and many of them were clearly very slow to enter themands, so the Mecha¡¯s movements were jerky and had visible pauses between them.


    They had the markings of the training base that Max had been sent to scout for though, so he would have to deal with it one way or the other. He just hoped that it was the first battle nerves getting to them and that they weren¡¯t always this bad.<sub></sub>


    If they were this was going to be a very long deployment.


    Two hundred Line Mecha, no matter how inurate, was enough to put the Narsians in a bad position. They could only take so many away from closebat without being overrun, and they didn¡¯t have enough units left at range to effectively suppress both targets at once.


    So, they did what any sensible Commander would do. They retreated, breaking free of Max¡¯s unit and firing as they ran backward, preventing him from following them without taking heavy damage.


    [All units fall in on me. I need damage reports for everyone and then we will get triage started in thenders. They might havee full of infantry, but we have enough raw materials with us to do the repairs.] Max ordered, marking the end of the battle.


    As Max¡¯s men start getting set up to do the repairs, the Commander of the patrol that came from the Academy, who was the only one in a Corvette ss mecha, came up to greet him.


    [Major Max, of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit I assume? I am Colonel Sanders. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you. I don¡¯t believe the has ever turned out a Special Tactics Unit of our own, so meeting an elite of the Kepler Fleet is an honor.]


    They¡¯ve never had a Special Tactics unit from the? Max knew somes had lousy System Compatibility but isn¡¯t that taking it too far? The fact that the Base Commander was the only one in a Corvette ss mecha, and that the one he was in was an older pattern training Mecha, and not an up-armored unit that was moremonly used forbat should have been his first clue that things weren¡¯t well on Sigmund long before the attack.


    [It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you as well Colonel. Did you notice themotion from the base, or were you just taking the Cadets out for a training patrol?] Max asked politely.


    [That¡¯s well, you see. You know what, there¡¯s no good way to put this. Those aren¡¯t the Cadets. Those are the finest of our freshly graduated Pilots. The academy is for failures and screw-ups, more like a Juvenile Detention facility than a military instation, but Sigmund has never turned out a Pilot over Beta Rank System Compatibility. During ourst recruitment, we only had two Beta Ranked Pilots to offer, so they didn¡¯t even form a Heavy Mecha Regiment. They just attached wings of Light Mecha to the infantry as support.]


    [I understand, you work with what you have. I can give them a crash course in not dying on the battlefield if we have a bit of time. What is the average System Compatibility?] Max asked, trying to hide the dismay in his voice.


    [The average should be on the high side of Delta. But I will warn you, I read your file and the standards from Kepler Terminus are much higher than those here. If they can awaken the System at all, they are pilots. Our infantry is all F Ranked and systemless. The infantry from those Landers is likely stronger, better equipped, and better trained than any unit of locals left on the.] Colonel Sanders exined.


    [That¡¯s fine. Let¡¯s get back to the base. How far is it?]


    Colonel Sanders pointed to a ridgeline under five kilometers away, where Max could faintly make out a hidden door. They were in sight of the Landers and it took them that long to get a unit mustered and make it to the battle? Someone is messing with him, Max is sure of it.


    High above the, in a Central Command meeting aboard Abraham Kepler, General Tennant felt a sudden chill run up his spine.


    ¡°Have the units in the swamp made it to the mine site yet?¡± The General asked, looking to the officer in charge of the region.


    ¡°Yes sir. Recovery is underway, and all units are expected to be functional again within 48 hours. Assuming that the Narsian patrols that have entered the swamp are just passing through and notunching another mass attack on the mine location that is.¡± The Captain responded, after double-checking histest sensor data.


    ¡°Once they have everything cleaned up, report back to me so we can reassign them. The swamp is an excellent central staging point for attacks, but it doesn¡¯t have any strategic value other than location anymore.¡± General Tennant ordered before moving on to the next group of orders on his desk.


    The casualties from the first wave have been staggering. Forget ten years of service, this recruitment from Kepler 111 was likely going to need to be reinforced after its first battle.


    On the ground,munications were too limited for the forces to know that though. They could only see how things were going in their region and assume that everyone else got the same amount of reinforcements that they did, not knowing that entire regions had been lost to the Narsians during the first wave and the increased numbers in the best-defended regions were there to take the others back.

 124 Chapter 124

    Looking over these troops, and their instructor, Max was almost tempted to call Command and pretend they¡¯d never found them. But, as luck would have it, Max actually enjoyed helping others learn, so before he told Central Command that they were simply wasting resources, he was going to spend a few days giving his all to see if these pilots could actually improve.


    Right now, all they knew was the skills of a Corvette Pilot, with a Gamma Ranked systempatibility at the very best, and Max suspected that most of the instructors weren¡¯t even to that standard. How could cadets be expected to excel if they had never even learned what a proper pilot looked like?


    Back on Kepler Terminus, all of the instructors were of a very high standard and simply preferred teaching to the battlefield or police duties. Here, they took what they could get.


    [Move everyone back to the academy. If these Landers are functional, assemble them outside the gates in a staggered pattern barricade. We will make the academy our base of operations for now.] Max ordered, bringing sighs of relief from the infantry they just rescued.<sub>.</sub>


    They had feared that they would be sent out alone to face the Narsians since the ship they had arrived on had such arge infantryplementpared to the number of Mecha on board. It wasn¡¯t that they were cowards or ipetent, but beforending on the, they had never even seen one before and knew nothing about their attack patterns, strategies, or weapons.


    With a Special Tactics Unit around, they could pick up tips and tricks from the gossip before they were assigned to go somewhere else and fight it out. If they were really lucky they might get to bring some of the mecha with them as well.


    With a quick location entry from the infantry unit leaders, all sixnders smoothly lifted from the ground and ced themselves in a semi-circle by the academy doors. Each Lander ovepped and left arge gap to move between them, allowing Mecha and troops to move in and out, but preventing any long-range fire from hitting the academy doors directly.<sub></sub>


    Truthfully it wasn¡¯t optimal, since they didn¡¯t know what sort of facilities the Academy built inside a hill actually had, and using thenders as a barricade put the repair facilities in the line of fire, but it was better than having the troops exposed, and they didn¡¯t have a safer spot for the Landers even if they wanted to protect them.


    [Headmaster. Do you have Crusader Capable repair bays here at the academy?] Max asked, voicing his concern.


    [One single bay. But we have a number of spare parts avable. Since nobody on the has strong systempatibility we train a lot of repair and design techs instead and send them out to various space stations for assignment.] Colonel Sanders, in his Corvette ss training Mecha, exins.<sub></sub>


    That¡¯s a good sign. If they can keep everything up and running, all he needs to do is improve the skills of the Line Mecha pilots a little bit to see a big return on investment.


    Most likely they have never learned the little tricks that make piloting much easier and are still doing things by the basic training book. Learning a personalized piloting technique that eliminates all the redundancies and wasted movements is what pilots do in the second half of their academy stay on Kepler Terminus after they have been introduced to the basics of piloting and learned to use the weapons targeting systems.


    From what he saw, the Pilots here haven¡¯t even got that second part down. Though they stopped to fire, as expected of a rookie pilot, their aim was still horrible.


    [Do you have training Simtors? If you do, I have some advanced programs from Kepler Terminus that I modified for my own training. It will give them help with their targeting.] Max suggests.


    It will actually yell at them constantly in General Tennant¡¯s voice, but it does give good hints, all the ones that the General gave out to either him or Nico during their stay at the academy, as well as the basic ones that were already programmed into the advanced piloting simtors.


    [Not the really fancy ones, but we have the full immersion VR headsets for every cadet.] The Colonel deres with a hint of unjustified pride. Those are kids¡¯ toys on Kepler Terminus, but they will do well enough. After all, he learned the basics using one.


    It was a hacked one, with Pirated software and he was five years old, but that isn¡¯t the point. The point is that they will be able to give these pilots an upgrade in skills. Max¡¯s system wasn¡¯t active when he learned and he could still pilot better than what he had seen, so there is no good reason that these cadets can¡¯t.


    [Once we¡¯re inside, gather everyone around and I will give them an update and let them know what¡¯s going on. Then I need to find out where they are currently with their system bonuses. Even if they hit fifty points total bonus by graduation, we could throw them in any spare Corvette ss units you have and call them Sergeants.]


    The Colonel went quiet for a while but eventually agreed with Max¡¯s idea.


    [If there is anyone who hit fifty points of bonus that is.] He muttered to himself inside his mecha.


    From his point of view, this elite pilot has no idea how the standard of things works here on Sigmund. But if he can help the kids that the Colonel has guided for half their lives to survive the destruction of their, the old man is not going to do a single thing to stop or dissuade him from trying.


    Losing so many of his students, even if they were at the very bottom of the barrel by Kepler standards was hard on his elderly heart. The only thing he had to be thankful for was thatmunications were so limited by Narsian interference that he didn¡¯t have to know the full scope of how the was doing and could focus just on his academy.

 125 Chapter 125

    Once the troops had gotten settled into the mostly empty academy built deep underground in this rural part of the, Max got straight to work with the Cadets. They were all eager to get out and prove themselves, but a Crusader ss Pilot held a lot of respect in society, especially one currently active in Special Tactics or Special Forces Unit.


    For most of them, fighting alongside such a figure was no more than an idle daydream of heroism, the sort you never expect toe true, the career version of winning the lottery.


    Max parked Stalwart in the reinforced hanger while Vincente and Charlie Squad took first guard patrol, apanied by a fullpany of infantry from the Landers. Max wasn¡¯t in charge here this time, that was Colonel Sanders, but the Colonel respected the autonomy of the Heavy Mecha and let Max set the patrol schedule for his own men as he saw fit.


    All the remaining Cadets had gathered here in the auditorium, a drab green bunker with no windows and soft yellow lighting that flickered with the pulse of the Academy¡¯s internal generator. It was a bit depressing to look at, but somehow it still reminded Max of home. The slums had the same crappy yellow lighting everywhere since it was the cheapest and most energy-efficient option produced within the Kepler Empire.<sub>.</sub>


    The crowd silenced when Max walked in, heading directly for the stage at the front of the room and preparing a speech as he went.


    ¡°Greetings everyone. I am Major Erebus Max, Pilot of the Crusader ss Mecha, Stalwart, andmander of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit. I have been briefly made aware of the situation here, and I am going to be honest with you, it isn¡¯t great. Therefore, I am going to give everyone here a crash course in Battlefield survival.


    I will teach you smoother operation techniques, rapid targeting tricks, and the essentials of teamwork to ensure that you don¡¯t die on your first patrol, should you meet Narsian infantry. All of the things I will teach you are viewed as necessary for bing an advanced Mecha Pilot, and if some of you prove worthy, I will use my authority to upgrade you to Corvette ss Pilots.¡±<sub></sub>


    Max¡¯s announcement brings a round of cheers to the room. Here, Corvette ss Pilots are the peak for the average citizen, leaders to be respected. Plus, if they live they will be war heroes, and that¡¯s bound to count for something.


    These naive kids don¡¯t yet know the horrors of war, so being a hero seems morous to them, not the trauma-filled lifelong nightmare that Max knows underlies the word out in the real world. But if it motivates them, he will help as many as he can to see the dreame true.


    ¡°Most of this training can be done through your VR headsets, using a custom program that I brought with me. I am sending it to the academy database now, and then you can return to your dorms and get started. I will be watching everyone¡¯s progress, and wing leaders will be chosen tomorrow morning from among those who advanced the most.¡± Max dered, then took a look at the base¡¯s wirelesswork, finding that it was open ess with no password required or firewalls around the server, other than a simple read-only restriction.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Colonel, is this standard for the? This level of file security is a joke, even I have managed to nt a file on your servers without anyone noticing and I¡¯m standing in the middle of the auditorium.¡± Max whispers to the Academy¡¯s Headmaster, Colonel Sanders.


    ¡°Before this, we never needed the security, so most ces were prettyx. There is a scrambling field around the base so that it can¡¯t be hacked from the outside though, to prevent industrial espionage. The valuable files are all offline as well.¡± The Colonel responds and Max resists the urge to facepalm in front of the cadets.


    No wonder the Lander controls had been hacked, the government here didn¡¯t even try to keep anyone from using their authority. Chances are, the Narsians just walked up to aputer someone left logged in, and got straight to work without needing to break the codes at all.


    Max quickly informed the Fleet¡¯s Central Command of this fact, and his findings on the training of the troops here, then walked to the clearly marked observation room to see how the Cadets were doing. They should be logged in by now, and the first bits of training with General Tennant would be starting.


    It wasn¡¯t going to be easy on them, the General¡¯s personality as programmed into the software was demanding and merciless, but it would adapt to their current level of skills, constantly setting the training at just barely possible.


    These kids all knew they were the dregs and needed to work extra hard just to keep up, so Max had high hopes for their work ethic, even after seeing their dismal systempatibility disyed.


    He knew they were all D Rank, but some of these shouldn¡¯t have qualified at all. D Minus with no Primary stat bonus? Were they just straight lying about the kid having a system? Or another one with a 1.01x modifier. A one percent bonus is barely a primary stat at all. Even for the D minus rank that is pretty sad.


    There were some decent ones though, at 1.2x and 1.4x modifiers, which could eventually stack up some pretty respectable physical skills.


    One screen suddenly shes red about fifteen minutes into Max¡¯s observation, signaling that the headset had been removed, so Max switched over to the Dorm¡¯s internal camera system.


    ¡°I am a person, not a worm, I am a Pilot, I can make the Mecha move.¡± The cadet muttered over and over as tears flowed down their face.


    ¡°I guess not everyone is a fan of the legendary General¡¯s tough love training style.¡± Max shrugged, then changed the settings on the program to give the Cadet Major Payne as an instructor the next time they logged in. She was strict but fair, and much more gentle with the Cadets than General Tennant was, despite having zero tolerance for cking.


    ¡°Now, who will be the next to break? I¡¯m sure more than one Cadet thought they could skate by with the bare minimum.¡± Max said to himself as he smiled at the screens, watching hundreds of cadets giving their all to learn the new techniques that they were assured would save their lives a hundred times over.

 126 Chapter 126

    Three infantry units, with the majority of their numbers made up of repair and maintenance technicians, were apanied by four wings of heavy Mecha as they made their way to the battle site at the Uranium Mine. From here, they would be repairing the Mecha left after the battle and collecting raw materials from bulk drops to send out Mecha and spare parts all over the region in the uing weeks.


    The swamp had been deemed temporarily cleared of enemy forces by the Mecha units that hadnded near here and spread out to the edges of the zone, joining the various forces attacking Narsian entrenchments.


    After thest round of Landers, more and more of the giants had started digging in to defend, instead of roaming around looking for targets to attack, a shift in the flow of battle that put the Kepler forces at the advantage.


    The Narsians didn¡¯t really have a choice though. So many more Mecha had shown up that they couldn¡¯t just roam anymore, they had to do all they could just to defend the regions of the that they already held.


    [General Mons, we have reached the Mine site. How long until your unit estimates that it will arrive?] The head of the repair and design force that had been assigned to the region asked over the secure Command Channel.<sub>.</sub>


    The intended recipient was, of course, the Pilot of the Mighty Phnx ss Carpe Noctem, who had been quietly dropped onto the during thest wave. The Narsians didn¡¯t know that he was here, nor did most of theary forces, since Central Command didn¡¯t trust that there weren¡¯t still leaks andmunications breaches in their ranks.


    They now knew how the first attacks had beenunched, poor digital security on theary side. But despite their best efforts and a change in security codes, there were no guarantees that the Narsian forces hadn¡¯t continued to monitor theirmunications.


    To the south of the swamp, in a region where very few Kepler forces had been sent, arge city had been overtaken by the Narsians, and scans showed that the majority of thest wave of arrivals hade there instead of being spread around the.


    To Central Command, that suggested that they might have brought a transportation device with them betweens, so the Phnx ss Mecha was sent to eliminate them, but the battle n called for the Mecha in the area to first prevent any reinforcements from reaching them in time to mount a rescue effort.<sub></sub>


    At the edge of the battlefield was an enormous crater, left by the repeated bombardment of the same location. At twenty meters deep, Carpe Noctem barely needed to crouch to get itself almost entirely hidden inside the murky waters, preventing the enemy from detecting the oversized threat and making preparations for its arrival.


    The repair techs were already hard at work, building up defenses and repairing the more lightly damaged mecha. The thing that caught General Mons¡¯ attention wasn¡¯t the efficiency of the work though, but the way that the troops obviously and carefully avoided one disabled Mecha, a bone and bronze colored Crusader with blood red hazard stripes on the hull and red unit markings.


    The pattern was unfamiliar to him, but the markings said that it came from Abraham Kepler, so the General zoomed in on the card hung from the Mecha¡¯s waist joint, which was still wrapped in bloody razor wire. The hull had received the same treatment, and numerous Narsian skulls and weapons hung from chains and hooks around the pauldrons and top carapace armor.


    The namete was obscured by the war trophies, but the sign hung on the front was clearly legible.<sub></sub>


    [Tarith¡¯s Rage. Final resting spot of Major Tarith Nico, who felled a hundred Narsian infantry in hand-to-handbat.]


    There was a pile of Narsian infantry nearby, in the shape of a memorial pyre, though the area on top had been cleared away. If the sign was to be believed, that was where the enemy had put Major Nico, before the Kepler forces had moved her back to her Mecha.


    General Mons recalled that Tarith¡¯s Rage should have had an Ion Destroyer on one arm and an anti-aircraft battery on top, but now it had a pair of Gauntlets, one hastily painted to a bone color to match the rest of the unit, with the fresh paint looking out of ce among all the battle damage. It was clear that one of the arms had been broken off and reattached at some point, but somehow, it seemed that the damage was all cosmetic.


    General Mons looked closer and realized that the unit itself was repaired. The damage was only oneyer thick in theposite armor, with much of it being only paint damage, and all systems looked to be functional.


    ¡°What a strange way to build a memorial.¡± He thought to himself, settling in to read a novel on his data tablet while the techs worked.


    He was just getting to the good part when the perimeter rm sounded, meaning that Narsian troops had been found in the area. General Mons ducked a bit deeper into the water, as it was essential that he wasn¡¯t detected in advance, and the defensive troops moved out to meet the threat.


    It all seemed to be going smoothly until suddenly there were cries that an infiltration unit had entered the base.


    Infantry scattered, and Crusaders turned to look, only to realize that heavy weapons would kill as many of their own as the Narsians, due to the close range.


    Then suddenly the tomb that was Tarith¡¯s Rage moved with a burst of speed, unlike anything that a Crusader ss Mecha should be capable of, grabbing its sword and a batteredbat shield from the ground and smoothly removing the heads of the nearest Narsian soldiers.


    As the blood flew, the war horn on the mecha, used mostly as a warning siren gave off a piercing wail. Laughter, the mecha wasughing at them as it killed. The de in its hand was a blur, mostly obscured by the fountains of blood from the dying infiltration unit for the next few seconds, then the weapons ttered to the ground, and the techs found that the Mecha was in exactly the same spot and position it started in, with only the fresh stters of blood to show that the battle wasn¡¯t a hallucination.


    [What the feth was that?] Someone called over the radio, and General Mons scanned the mecha again.


    No signs of life, minimal power readings, as if it was set on standby mode like any other inactive Mecha, and the hatches were all sealed shut, possibly welded from the inside.


    ¡®Ghost. It¡¯s the Ghost of Tarith¡¯s Rage.¡¯ some spoke it aloud, some only thought it, but the consensus was that this mechanical tomb had be sentient.

 Chapter 127 Chapter127 Hope

    After the first day of training inside the simtors, the Cadets were actually looking a lot better than they had when Max first saw them. Even the instructors of the academy had taken the time to log in and learn some of the tips and tricks that Max¡¯s advanced training program had to offer since it was all knowledge that they didn¡¯t possess.


    Some of them were eager to begin day two of the training drills, some were most definitely not, since they tried to hide in their rooms under the thin military-issue nkets, but it didn¡¯t take long before the instructors had everyone logged in again and back at work.


    The second day of the training brought weapons fire into the mix. Still, the point firing technique that they were all familiar with, but included the proper ways to use the heads-up targeting system to calcte the lead distance on their targets and increase their uracy.


    An energy weapon like the Pulse Laser that these units were equipped with doesn¡¯t have a travel time, the pulse reaches the target at the speed of light, but there is a slight dy between wanting to shoot and the mecha actually pulling the trigger which has to be ounted for.<sub>.</sub>


    It¡¯s a mere fraction of a second, but at longer distances, that fraction can lead to a target being over a meter away from where they were when you started the process, especially for these pilots with slower reflexes andmand entering skills.


    Since most cadets are naturallypetitive, there was an option to turn on the Kepler Standard passing rate simtion as apanion to the pilot. It was just a digital image of the minimum standard to pass the Line Mecha qualification test, but it was much better than these so-called Pilots were.


    Better, but not so far that it looked unattainable to them. So, most of them had turned it on topete against, wanting to prove to these elite forces that they weren¡¯t the losers that the army hadbeled them as. In fact, if they could meet the standard, Max would agree that the army was wrong, they could meet the standard, it would just take more work to get them there than it took most pilots with higher systempatibility.<sub></sub>


    Among the infantry ranks, it was well known thatpetence and System Compatibility were two very different things. While some soldiers might be faster or stronger, the ones that lived were the ones that were the best at their job. The same goes for the Line Mecha, who could be easily crushed by the Narsians if they made a serious mistake in their piloting.


    While everyone else trained, Max got to work on editing a special edition of the program for the cadets. This one included the Narsians as a target, getting the freshly trained troops used to the enemy and their standard tactics.


    That would be more important than anything else, once they knew how to walk smoothly and target their rifles.<sub></sub>


    Outside the base, things were fairly calm. One wing of Max¡¯s mecha apanied the infantry on guard duty at all times, taking four-hour shifts twice a day, but there wasn¡¯t much to be seen. The valley they were in was fairly isted, and the terrain naturally guided forces around it and not through it. The only reason the first group came here in such high numbers was that they saw the Landersing in.


    Soon, a whole five days had passed, and the Cadets of the Academy got an officialbat order, to go clear out a known Narsian position between them and the swamp. It should be an easy one since the enemy numbers were low, but they were dug in, so there would be resistance.


    [Ari, take Alpha Squad and go scout out the location. Captain Catan, your infantry gets to fill in on guard duty for them. Bring extra heavy weapons with you.] Max ordered as the Colonel rolled a collection of balls around in a small tumbler.


    ¡°What might that be, Colonel?¡± He asked, seeing the colored ball that fell out onto the table.


    ¡°Random selection. Each ball has a unit number. We will be sending Unit C and Unit F out to retake the position today.¡± The Colonel confirmed, and Max gave him a strange look.


    ¡°Double the numbers is for Heavy Mecha fighting the Narsians. Send everyone who is ready if you want most of your cadets toe back.¡± Max corrected his assumption.


    ¡°I had thought that since you sent a third, that was all that was needed.¡± The Colonel shrugged, having spent his entire life in academics, growing through the ranks due to his skills with school management and keeping unruly cadets on track.


    ¡°It¡¯s enough to scout the position, but most likely not enough to take it. Central Command has ordered my men to return before your Unit arrives for the battle, so it¡¯s clearly a test for the Pilots you¡¯ve raised up here. I¡¯ll keep my men as close as I can, but they will need some time to reach you in an emergency.¡±


    That exnation makes sense to the administrator, even if it doesn¡¯t make him happy. But orders are orders, and Central Command is going to be watching closely. For all the Colonel knows they¡¯re waiting for his cadets to fail spectacrly so the academy can be reallocated and he can be relieved ofmand for ipetence. Theary authority that promoted him is long gone, and the Fleet is not nearly as kind and gentle, nor are their standards as flexible.


    [All qualified students, suit up and double-check your mecha for full fuel and munitions. We have an official mission beginning in one hour once Stalwart Special Tactics Unit has scouted the enemy position for us.] Colonel Sanders announced over the school¡¯s inte, bringing the pilots out of their training simtions and rushing towards the hangers, eager to show the world that they had learned the lessons well and were real pilots.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 128 Chapter 128

    Max¡¯s scouts headed out right away and made for the suspected Narsian position. From what they could see it was a scout outpost, only intended to ry messages and watch for Kepler Mecha movements through the very rural areas in the foothills that didn¡¯t have much strategic value.


    As they had feared, the Narsians had dug in, creating trench lines and bunkers that would give them a high degree of defense against iing fire, while also making them harder for the Kepler forces to spot.


    The Crusader ss Mecha has very good sensor systems for detecting signs of the enemy at long range, but Ari knew there was a high probability of the giants noticing her even though she was near maximum sensor range. So, instead of getting close and then retreating, she made a straight pass, as if she was headed into the swamp with a small patrol.


    That was amon enough activity since there were multiple forces in the area and the swamp was almost impossible to scan from orbit. An hourter, they turned and came back, again at a fast walk, as if they weren¡¯t expecting to find what they were looking for outside of the marshy areas. The second pass was closer, to double check enemy numbers and fortifications, but still, they didn¡¯t attract any hostile actions by the Narsians.


    [Stalwart, this is Bulwark. We have enemy numbers. Total over thirty hostiles with four heavy weapons emcements at the designated location. We will retreat out of range and wait for further orders.] Ari informed Max so that he could send out the Cadets.


    ¡°You heard the nice youngdy. It¡¯s time to go. Remember to put mecha withbat shields up front if you have them, they can take at least a hit or two from the sma, even if they are the small ones for the Line Mecha.¡± Max called out into the hangar full of Cadets, who were to be led by their teachers.<sub>.</sub>


    This wasn¡¯t a drill or a training exercise, and nobody wanted to lose friends today, so the Teachers had spent all morning carefully nning their approach. Vincente had made it very clear to them that no battle n survives first contact, so instead they had focused on getting into position to do maximum damage to the Narsians during that first engagement, then a handful of ns depending on how things went from there.


    Once they moved out, Max brought the entirety of the Special Tactics Unit, infantry included, to the halfway point between the academy and the Narsians. This way, if the cadets needed to retreat they would be only a few minutes away and able to intercept the Narsians before they could wipe out the untested youth.


    This time the convoy didn¡¯t look so horribly inept. The few days of training that they had time for had really smoothed out the controls of most of the Pilots, and the sight brought a smile to the face of Alpha Squad when they passed by.


    [Well, they at least know how to walk. Do you want us toe to you or remain here on the nk?] Ari asked when the mecha passed by in the distance.


    [Just stay there. I suspect they¡¯ll need us sooner rather thanter. But if they were actually intending to sneak up on the Narsians, they would be doing an amazing job. None of them is watching the nks, or scanning for threats, it¡¯s like they¡¯re out for a walk in friendly territory. The Narsians are going to think they will walk right by until the Instructors give the order to fire.] Max replied with a chuckle.<sub></sub>


    There was a particr innocence to unskilled Pilots who had never seenbat that just made their piloting look nonthreatening, and these Cadets had it down without any conscious effort.


    [Should we wee them with a couple of Battle Cannon rounds?] Vincente asked once he saw that the light mecha from the academy were almost in position.


    Dropping a few shells on the Narsians wouldn¡¯t be a big problem, but their orders were to let the Academy take care of it and only intervene in an emergency.


    [As much fun as it would be, we¡¯ve got orders. Wait for them to call for a rescue before we start shooting.] Max sighed, watching the mecha get into position.


    They had split into two columns, by ss and were splitting off to move to either side of the location where the Narsians were dug in. Even though they were out of easy weapons range, only an idiot wouldn¡¯t know what was going on by now.<sub></sub>


    [They know the Narsians can see them, right?] Ari asked, not believing what she was seeing.


    [If they don¡¯t they¡¯re about to learn.] Paul replied, keeping a close eye on the sensors for signs that the battle had started.


    Suddenly the signatures that were the Narsians lit up with energy and heat, then a group of them raced towards the Line Mecha in the distance as the Cadets opened fire.


    They might not have experience, but the Instructors at least knew the theory and opened fire from maximum weapons range. That would give them the most time to intercept the giants that were racing to get into closebat with the Line Mecha. One-on-one, the smallest of the Kepler units didn¡¯t stand much of a chance against a heavily armored Narsian in closebat, even if they werepetent fighters, which very few of these Pilots were.


    [Unit 3, focus fire on the targets leaving the trenches. Keep them from reaching us. Unit 1 and 2 keep shooting.] A youthful instructor¡¯s voice came over themand channel before he swore and changed his radio to the proper frequency.


    From the looks of it, the Line Mecha were doing a good job of avoiding being overrun, even if they were using too many mecha to ensure the charging forces didn¡¯t reach them.


    Some mecha had fallen to the Narsian heavy weapons, and a lot more were damaged. The closely packed line was just too hard to miss. But the heat signatures in the trenches were bing scattered, and then they finally broke and retreated into the swamp.


    The Cadets didn¡¯t pursue the retreating giants and Max decided that was probably a good thing. Without the advantage of numbers and position, they would be doomed. In the swamp, it was just too easy to ambush them.


    [Good work Cadets. I will update your training regimen when we get back. Remember to retrieve all dropped equipment and the disabled Mecha.] Colonel Sanders instructed, glossing over the fact that many of those disabled units would have dead ssmates in them.


    His vague instruction style is working though, and the Pilots aren¡¯t thinking too hard about the reality of the fight and are simply following orders. In only a few minutes they have collected everything they came with and are returning to base.


    [Captain Catan. Double tap those Narsians and collect the heavy weapons. Nobody has everined that they had too many sma Cannons for their bunker.] Max ordered quietly and the infantrymander gave him the thumbs up before going to restock his unit.


    The Narsian sma Cannons were sized better for a Line Mecha than an infantry unit, but they were self-contained and had a tripod, which made them a great choice for bunkers. Free weapons are the best weapons when you¡¯re putting them somewhere that you expect to sustain the most iing fire.


    [They¡¯re not even trained, do you think it¡¯s alright to keep sending them on missions?] Paul asks Max over a private channel.


    [The teachers or the students? Neither has any experience. But they want to fight, and it¡¯s not like we have the option to just say no. I¡¯ve already informed Central Command of the state of readiness here, and they¡¯re doing as much as they can, but you have to be ready for them to be fully deployed to a hard target, and us with them.] Max responded.


    Theck ofmunication was bing an issue for Max. He liked it way better back on Belmont when at least he knew what was going on around him. The limited signals here, intended to keep the Narsians in the dark, also kept him in the dark with no idea what might being his way until orders were given.


    If only Nico was here to hack the Satellite signals and give him a view of the big picture.


    [Major Max, we have more orders. Central Command wants everyone here above the minimum enlistment age to move out towards a conflict in the city in grid ST12. At infantry marching speed, that would be two days. Central Command also had a personal message. Your New Friend from Belmont will be meeting you there.] Ari informed Max the moment that the signal came down from Abraham Kepler.


    A new friend on Belmont? That must mean that General Mons was on the and they were going for a full-scale city invasion. Emperor Help them, this was going to be a mess.

 129 Chapter 129

    Max was sitting on the bunk inside Stalwart and meditating to clear his mind of the fog that has lingered in the background his whole life. He has suspected that these are the hidden memories of his past life since the first memory of battle came back to him during training.


    Today, the fog seemed thinner than usual and Max continued to push, hoping for a relevant memory that could help him train Pilots that didn¡¯t have a System.


    Other nations did it, surely he could decipher the method in time, but he didn¡¯t have time, they had to leave soon to join the offensive.


    His focused mind was like the sun on the lingering haze, until suddenly memories came to him in a rush.


    The end of his old life, the promise of reincarnation, and then his time in the womb. He was supposed to transfer in cleanly, like Nico did, and recover his memories as he grew up and his body could handle them. Instead, his mother¡¯s drug abuse had killed the body he transferred into, and only the lingering effects of the divine intervention allowed him to be born at all.


    That was why it took so long to remember his past life, and even now, so much of it was either lost or locked away.<sub>.</sub>


    He still couldn¡¯t recall his youth at all, but there were some shes of training recruits. But these were no ordinary Pilots, most of them weren¡¯t even human, or any species Max recognized.


    The thought that he might havee from a far away ce with many species but simr technology never urred to him. His few memories of himself had shown him as a human, so had thought his old life was more like his current one.


    Since his own memories were a loss, Max focused on Nico¡¯s memories. Her people gically engineered their Pilots, but that should give Max something to work with.


    There weren¡¯t many childhood memories, and what he found when he looked deeper through what he had skimmed from her memory as a child was increasingly disturbing.


    Her past life did not believe in human rights, or war crimes. They believed in war and blood. When they went to war, billions died in the most horrific of ways, with the intent to honor some sort of religion that Max couldn¡¯t seem to understand.<sub></sub>


    Looking deeper through her past life taught Max a lot about Nico. She wasn¡¯t an aggressive pilot without concern for her own life. No, his best friend was a genocidal maniac without concern for her own life. At least she was before she was reincarnated.


    The question was, how much had what she learned from her past life and then locked away during this one influenced her personality?


    For sure, she didn¡¯t follow that blood soaked old religion anymore, he would have sensed it with all the time he spent in her mind, but she was still abat maniac, which could be either a side effect or just part of her personality.


    While Max thought about her personality, the person in question was being rudely awoken by the Crusaders attached to the Carpe Noctem.


    [Ghost, oh Ghost. We have need of you again. The mines are clear and we are moving forward to the next battle.] The pilot tried over the open channel, with no luck.<sub></sub>


    Then a solid bang on her carapace armor almost shook Nico out of her seat.


    ¡°Get up, it¡¯s time for war.¡± General Mons dered out loud with his inte and Tarith¡¯s Rage stood up, grabbing the sword and freshly repaired shield prepared for it.


    ¡°There we go. I¡¯m guessing that your radio isn¡¯t working, so just follow the group for now. We are supposed to meet up with Stalwart Special Tactics Unit in a few days and you can return to your little lover boy.¡± General Mons¡¯ speech brought a round of the creepyughter from the speakers of Tarith¡¯s Rage, but the Mecha gave him a respectful salute before falling in beside the Phnx ss Giant Mecha as its personal guard.


    ¡°Is it just me, or does that Mecha just seem more and more like an angry ghost every time the General talks to it?¡± One of the infantry soldiers, now seated in an amphibious transport for the long journey, whispered to the man beside him.


    ¡°Quiet, or she might hear you.¡± The other man responded with a wink, not believing the rumors.


    The then the bone and blood red Crusader turned his way, and the eye like sensors under the front armor te affectionately dubbed the helmet were firmly locked in him.


    ¡°Sorry.¡± The second soldier muttered, and the Mecha looked away again.


    There are sensors all around the carapace of a Crusader, there was no need for it to look his way to see or hear him, but somehow it felt like the Mecha was actually alive the way it turned to face him when he spoke about it.


    Inside his cockpit, General Mons turned to his copilot with a sad tear in his eye. They had managed to establish a video link with Tarith¡¯s Rage using the Command override. Major Nico was in there, and most likely alive, despite her horrible condition.


    But she clearlycked the physical capability to control the Mecha, sitting stock still in her seat even as Tarith¡¯s Rage smoothly walked and interacted with the people around it.


    ¡°Do we have an analysis?¡± The general asked his second inmand, whose Innate Talent was analyzing the status and condition of other System Compatible humans.


    ¡°Other than the obvious, there are signs of recently healed internal damage, her vocal cords have been burned away and the wound is scarred, and there are no eyes under that helmet¡¯s visor. But her condition is stable and slowly improving.¡± The pilot whispered reverently, unable to believe anyone had survived those injuries.


    [What are we waiting for? There are no enemies here.] The message appeared as text on the disys of the Carpe Noctem, tagged as havinge from Tarith¡¯s Rage.


    They could see the pilot hadn¡¯t moved at all, but General Mons recalled that Major Nico was supposed to be a hacker, using her Innate Talent. That certainly made more sense than a ghost or a possessed Mecha.


    ¡°Everyone move out.¡± The General announced, getting the convoy moving, and he could have sworn he saw a smile pass over Major Nico¡¯s mangled face before the video link was abruptly cut.


    ¡°Arrange for an augmentic surgeon to meet us at the staging area. She is having far too much fun messing with people who think she¡¯s a ghost.¡± General Mons ordered, following his troops through the swamp.

 130 Chapter 130

    General Mons sighed as he looked over the scene of the battle. This was the third time they had been ambushed since leaving the swamp. There was no way that the Narsians didn¡¯t know he was here now, and they most likely also knew where he was heading, based on the number of soldiers they had thrown at his unit.


    Narsian morale was low though, thanks to their own personal Ghost Mecha. Tarith¡¯s Rage was now a fully closebat unit, and Major Nico had no qualms about throwing herself intobat at the first sign of hostilities.


    Thebat style was strange though. It wasn¡¯t anything that the Kepler Military taught, but it was much more efficient than any fighting style the General had seen before. He had seen precise and minimalist closebat styles before, frombat monks to rapier-wielding Cygnus officers, but this was different.


    It didn¡¯t have the dignified presence of thebat arts he was familiar with, which gave the impression that thebatant was aiming for a noble victory. Somehow, all the strikes either cleaved straight down to split bodies in half or slightly upwards to throw arcs of blood through the air. Even the Kepler forces didn¡¯t want to be too close to Tarith¡¯s Rage, ¡®in case it forgot which side it was on¡¯, ording to the Commander of Carpe Noctem¡¯s personal guard, whose position in line Nico had stolen.


    [Are the terror tactics really necessary?] General Mons asked Major Nico, now fairly sure that she could actually hear the radio and simply chose to ignore it.<sub>.</sub>


    In response, she flicked a giant up in the air with the tip of her sword, then swatted the floating body with the t of her de, sending him crashing into the ground a hundred meters away.


    The remaining Narsian forces broke and ran.


    [You know, if I could prove you can hear me, I would have you up on charges of insubordination.] General Mons grumbled before cuttingmunications.


    After the battle, Tarith¡¯s Rage moved to the front of the file so that it would be the first to detect and the first to reach the enemy. The strategy was incredibly effective at keeping the Narsians from approaching the unit.<sub></sub>


    Previously, they hadunched rapid attacks, trying to cut down the Kepler force¡¯s numbers before the Carpe Noctem could react and wipe them all out. Now they actively avoided the column entirely, going as far as running away when they saw them on the horizon.


    They had one more day to the Staging Area where the Kepler forces would meet before the battle and the General was getting eager to meet up with Stalwart and its pilot, Major Max. That young Pilot was the only one who could reliably keep Major Nico in check, and she seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of just exactly how far she could push the rules before actually being reprimanded.


    But more importantly, she scared the troops. Some of the other closebat pattern Crusaders had tried to emte her fighting style, but they were all noticeably slower and much more clumsy. Some of that could be attributed to practice, but there was no denying that Tarith¡¯s Rage had a kill count that was multiple times higher than the others.


    Max was also a day away from the meeting point, at the back of the column of Academy Pilots, which was nked and led by his own Special Tactics unit. They might be considered a military force in their own right, but escorting them with more practiced and better-trained troops lets them watch and learn on the way to the meeting.<sub></sub>


    Each of them had a learning program ying in their Mecha, giving hints and tricks for smoother operations and more urate targeting. It was a highly irregr measure, but every time they came across a Narsian patrol the effects were visible in the improvements made.


    Max had high hopes that by the time they made the destination the next day the Cadets wouldn¡¯t embarrass themselves around the troops that had dropped onto the. None of the other Unit Commanders knew what a low standard the local partisans were working with, so seeing these Line Mecha pilots would be their first experience with them, and build their impression of the.


    It hadn¡¯t been so long since Max himself was a freshman at the Military Academy who had never touched an actual Mecha before, so he could at least empathize with the Cadets, even if he had never been in their shoes.


    [Set up Camp. Take a Four-hour break and then we will push into the meeting point.] Max ordered, directing the unit to a hollow between two hills for the night.


    Taking the low ground wasn¡¯t optimal as a battle strategy, but it would get them out of sight, and reduce the chance that they would be ambushed during their rest period. Many of the enemy units that they had encountered had overtaken them from behind, moving in the same direction that they were at a higher rate of travel.


    If he had ever thought that a major offensive could be a surprise, those hopes were long gone after the first day of travel. Now, he just wanted to get everyone to the starting line alive and wait for his new orders.


    They had only just started moving again, a few hours before the sun came up when Max saw a familiar signal on his scans. Carpe Noctem was at the back of arge unit of Heavy Mecha, and they were under attack by Narsian artillery which had set up in a valley to their right nk. The same right nk that his unit was approaching from.


    [All units forward. Our target is the artillery emcement. The faster we get there the less chance that they will be able to change targets in time to shoot at us.] Max ordered and the Line Mecha began to run towards the target.


    The Narsians attacking the convoy had sent out attacking squads to dy the rushing closebat Crusaders, and that seemed to have taken all their attention. The Line Mecha managed to make it to seven hundred meters away without drawing any enemy fire.


    [Line Mecha, take positions, and fire at will. Attack Pattern A.] Colonel Sanders ordered.


    Pattern A was simple, everyone stopped, took a knee to make themselves a smaller target and more stable, then fired first at anything approaching them, and second at anything that looked like a big threat. As a strategy, it wasughably simple. As abat technique, it was one of the best that the Cadets knew.


    Max was focused on sting away the Narsian defensive positions to let the Light Mecha get at them, so he didn¡¯t notice how the General¡¯s battle was going until suddenly his radar showed a tightly packed line of Crusaders rushing into the artillery position.


    In the lead was a Bone and Bronze Crusader with a sword and shield forcibly pushing through the crowd of giants using pure bulk and momentum. Behind it, the others cut down the Narsians who had been knocked to the ground, staying close enough that none could get between them and break up the convoy.


    ¡°Nico?¡± Max gasped, recognizing those hazard stripes on a Bone white Carapace shell, and more importantly, the faded and chipped smiley faces on the bottom of a foot that had just raised to stomp on a screaming Narsian soldier.

 131 Chapter 131

    [I should have been a farmer. Hunting Narsians is a lot like harvesting wheat isn¡¯t it?] Appeared on Max¡¯s heads-up disy as a swipe of Nico¡¯s de cut down three unfortunate soldiers who were standing side by side.


    Max used his Pulse Laser Array to clear out a group of soldiers that was rushing at her back while Tarith¡¯s Rage tore into the artillery weapons with a vengeance before responding.


    [I don¡¯t see what the two have inmon. It¡¯s good to see you again Nico.] Max sent his response to her as a text message. She would receive that as well as a voicemand, he assumed. But it was harder to intercept and didn¡¯t clutter the radio waves.


    Her energy shield was shing like a strobe light with all the iing fire she was taking, but Nico didn¡¯t seem to care, and the mecha that came with her quickly moved through the Narsian position to eliminate the artillery weapons.


    With Mecha forces on two sides, the defenders were in a hard position to begin with. But with the Mecha now in their back lines and tearing apart the artillery, the battle was turning hopeless for them. Max could see the moment that themander ordered his men to retreat, something that they rarely did, even in the face of annihtion.<sub>.</sub>


    [They must be preserving strength to defend the city.] Maxmented on the Command channel, as the giants began an orderly retreat from the battle, leaving the less mobile elements like heavy weapons and artillery behind.


    While most of the Mecha from the Phnx ss Mecha¡¯s convoy returned back to their stations, one remained behind. The heads and dismembered upper bodies hung from the chains around its carapace made it look terrifying, but the color scheme marked it as undeniably Tarith¡¯s Rage.


    ¡°She lived!¡± The doctor that they gained in the swamp cheered, and the ten-meter-tall mecha slung its sword from a hanger on its shield to give the medical professional a thumbs up.


    ¡°Still injured, are you? That¡¯s alright, when we get to the Staging Area there should be better doctors and a full augmentation suite. I saw the deployment orders.¡± The doctor assured her and the mecha gave him a slight bow.<sub></sub>


    [All Units, fall in behind Carpe Noctem.] Colonel Sanders announced, repeating the orders that he had just received from the General in the Phnx ss Mecha.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage moved to walk beside Stalwart, giving Max a light shoulder bump that set the grisly trophies on her mecha swinging.


    ¡°Good to see you again too. Hold out for the rest of the day and they¡¯ll get you all patched up and mobile again.¡± Max assured his friend, looking through her thoughts now that she had deliberately moved close enough for his Innate Talent to interact with the Nanobots in her body and feed him information.


    As he had feared, the memories of her past life had started to take over her mind. He would have to work with that, but a lot of the problem seemed to be the fact that she couldn¡¯t move and was trapped in her mind. It had made the Mecha her proxy body, and the Crusader ss Mecha was only made for war. Even with two hands, it was still a prodigious war machine before it could ever be a body capable of normal interaction, especially when she couldn¡¯t speak.<sub></sub>


    [You didn¡¯t give the General too hard of a time did you?] Max asked her, getting back images of the various ways she had teased the forces at the swamp and pretended to be her own ghost.


    [As funny as some of those were, we¡¯re going to have to help you behave. You can¡¯t keep acting out like that or they¡¯ll pull your position and put you behind a desk.] Maxughed at the thought of Nico as a secretary.


    [I got a new ability when I hit 200 points of total system bonus. Drone Commander.] Nico sent him a text message to his wrist device so that others couldn¡¯t eavesdrop on the one-sided conversation as Max interacted with her thoughts.


    [What is that?] Max sent back in confusion.


    [Find me some gun drones or something easy to control and I can operate them until they losemunications. Up to two at once, but I should get better with practice.]


    They have a couple of simple observation drones in the storage boxes that only carry a camera, used when they want to scout ahead with some stealth. Max could already feel the eye roll Nico was going to give him for that suggestion and he hadn¡¯t even spoken yet, so he decided to hold off on the idea.


    Therger infantry battalions should have proper gun drones, with anti-gravity drives and Laser Rifles. They¡¯re simr to the drones that the Academy used to train them on the live fire courses and are prettymonly issued to police forces as well.


    [I will see what I can find you.] Max answered, then realized that they might be handy for himself as well.


    The drones could be ordered to hold position around a Mecha, and with his Split Fire and Multiple Targeting skills, he should be able to use them as additional weapons for his Mecha. It had just never urred to him since their usage and offensive capabilities were so limited that they served no more purpose than two extra infantry soldiers, which he wasn¡¯t in need of.


    Max was still passively listening in on Nico¡¯s thoughts when a thought that made him burst intoughter came through the link. The tiny 10cm cubed camera drones with a Narsian Combat knife strapped to the top. The energy field on the knives is enough to punch through armor, and the tiny drones are silent as they move, but the flight drive on them might not be strong enough to hold the knife that was three times their size.


    [Melee Drone is an amazing idea.]


    Maxughed so hard at the ideas she was sending him on ways to use the ridiculousbination that even the infantry noticed the change in his piloting before he got himself back under control.

 132 Chapter 132

    With the additional numbers, nothing dared to attack their convoy before they reached the Staging Area, where arge crowd of Mecha and an evenrger group of infantry were waiting for them to arrive.


    The Phnx ss Mecha is a symbol of hope for the Kepler forces, and seeing Carpe Noctem, which most of the troops didn¡¯t even know was in the system gave them real hope for winning back the.


    Such grand and noble sentiments were the furthest things from Max¡¯s mind thought, since he already knew what standing next to a Phnx ss mecha inbat was really like. He was more concerned with when the battle was going to begin and what his unit¡¯s role was going to be.


    [General Mons, what sort of timeline are we on? Would there be time for Major Nico to be reconstructed before the battle, or should we hold off until afterward to maintain our capabilities?] Max asked, hoping to get a firm answer.


    [There are a minimum of three days left before thest of the units arrive. Major Nico has a Self Healing rted System Function, so there shouldn¡¯t be a problem getting her patched up. The only question will be what they can do for her. Her body is in bad shape, so they might not be able to biological recements.] General Mons responded almost instantly.<sub>.</sub>


    That made Max feel a bit special, the Generals are busy people, so he was hoping for a response within the hour, as it is with Central Command, but General Mons answered right away. The courtesy of the rapid response wasn¡¯t for Max though, it was for the General¡¯s peace of mind. Once Major Nico was an intact and whole person again he could order her to exit the mecha and mingle with the troops, eliminating the superstitious rumors that had been circling through his men.


    But even better than that, he could order her to teach more of his pilots whatever it was that she did in closebat. Even the Narsians saw fit to give her a hero¡¯s burial after seeing it in action and General Mons needed more Heroes on his side.


    ¡°Tarith¡¯s Rage, please report to the Augmentic Surgery department as soon as possible. It has been determined that your healing abilities will have you ready to fight again before the main battle begins, so they¡¯re going to attach some new limbs to you.¡± Max ordered, sensing amusement in Nico¡¯s mind.


    [I need 10 minutes. I used the Biowarfare containment locks to seal the cockpit, and they are on a timer to disable.] Nico informed him by text again.<sub></sub>


    [I¡¯m ordering them to give you a new voice box as well. You can¡¯t just keep hacking everyone¡¯s Mecha when you need to talk to strangers.]


    [Stranger Danger. Good Girls aren¡¯t supposed to talk to strangers.] Nico responded and Max just stared at his wrist device in shock. How do you respond to that? Every kid learned it in the first grade, but that rule doesn¡¯t apply to military interactions.


    Max quietly adds a mental evaluation to her workup. She was a bit off even before the Narsians tortured her, but now she has zero inhibitions in her social interactions. Or maybe she¡¯s just incredibly bored and messing with him is her only avable hobby. It¡¯s not like she can read a book and rx.


    Ten minutester, the surgical bay was ready for her with the verytest in Kepler Cyborg technology. The doctors had seen her medical data as she reported it through the Pilot Status reports generated by Tarith¡¯s Rage, and determined that at the very least a partial conversion was going to be necessary. She didn¡¯t have enough intact and undamaged bones for standard augments, and most of the bones that were whole had healed strangely due to ack of medical intervention before they self-healed.<sub></sub>


    The specs on the experimental conversion looked highly promising to Max. They used a form of Non-Newtonian alloy shell that would be harder under the force of a projectile impact, but maintain a flexible and supple state for movement, increasing armor rating as well as longevity inbat while doing a decent job of mimicking skin.


    They were supposed to be able to interact with the Nanobots as well, but the amount of upgrade they could get wasn¡¯t the same as increasing body attributes. Instead, the System would treat them as items attached to the body, and the enhancement would depend on the System Functions that the user had. For Nico, this was actually a benefit over most augments, other than biological ones which weren¡¯t done inbat due to the month-long healing and integration process, but they still wouldn¡¯t likely be able to keep up with regr pilot development.


    Once she was set on the table to begin the procedure the doctor in charge looked down at her with a gentle smile. ¡°What color were your original eyes? Or do you want something new? My wrist device is in your hand now, I¡¯m told you can answer that way.¡±


    [Thermal oveys on Optical Imnts.] Was Nico¡¯s answer and the doctor frowned.


    ¡°You understand that they won¡¯t look natural, right?¡± He asked and Nico nodded.


    The thermal oveys gave the mechanical eyes a red iris, and if you looked close you could see that they weren¡¯t biological, but had an adjustable camera lens. Nico didn¡¯t mind though, she could wear sunsses with her uniform, and having mechanical eyes was rtivelymon among veterans.


    Plus, as a partial conversion cyborg, she was going to be clearly augmented anyhow.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s put you under and get this started.¡± The doctor announced and the surgical suite went into full lockdown to maintain the sterile environment.


    What was supposed to be a six-hour procedure slowly stretched to twelve and then fourteen hours, and the entire Special Tactics Unit was gathered in concern for their long-lost executive officer.


    ¡°She will be fine won¡¯t she?¡± Ari whispered, looking for reassurance.


    ¡°I can read the minds of the surgical team. She will be fine, but they kept finding more and more damage that was partially healed inside her body and ended up doing a full conversion instead of a partial.¡± Max answered while staring at the wall towards where she wasying.


    Nico had woken up about an hour in, but with the damage she had taken, she was no longer capable of feeling pain, so she simply waited as they worked on her.


    At the fifteen-hour mark, the doors finally opened and the exhausted third shift of conversion surgeons came out wiping sweat off their brows and removing their gear.


    ¡°It is done. We had to have the medical team make up an entirely new torso for her, as well as some additional structure, but everything tested well and responded as if it were a natural part of her body. She is sedated for the final round of unconscious functionality checks now. The neural links need to be double-checked before she tries to move on her own or it could cause an inability to correctly utilize the cyborg body.¡± The lead doctor sighed, looking into the room with a mixture of pride and regret.


    ¡°I must warn you though, full conversions often cause aplete loss of System function. The only natural part of her body is her brain, and even that has been heavily altered to interact with the cyborg body. She might never pilot again.¡±


    With that, he walked away and left the officers of the Special Tactics unit to wait impatiently for her new body to update and reboot.

 133 Chapter 133

    Max watched as the data tethers detached from Nico¡¯s new body and she sat up in bed.


    ¡°Dammit Nico, have you no shame?¡± Ariughed as the Major stood up beside her bed to admire her new form. As it is a Cyborg body and was being updated, the doctors didn¡¯t dress it at all.


    It wasn¡¯t really a big deal, the body didn¡¯t have any flesh, as it was covered in human-shaped armor tes, but the overall effect of the new liquid alloy made it look nearly identical to an actual body, only a little taller and in a nearly white metallic golden color. The smallest size that they had was 150 cm tall, a full 5cm taller than her original body.


    The doctors would have likely given her the standard 175cm androgynous form if they had known from the start that it would be a full conversion. But since they started with the smaller size, thinking they would be keeping most of the body, they had to custom make the rest as they went.


    ¡°I like it. I might actually stand a chance in physical challenges against a Cyborg. Flesh Nico whooped me too many times.¡± Paulughed, admiring the craftsmanship that went into the conversion.


    This particr line of cyborg bodies was intended to be used for stealth since the non-Newtonian highly malleable metal outer shell could be manipted to change appearances to some degree, but they were also among the strongest and most adaptable of technology avable, which is why it was selected for the first major conversion on the.


    Or, so went the official story. General Tennant had actually ordered them in no uncertain terms to give her the most realistic body that they could.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t bet on that. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m still stronger, faster, and smarter than you are. Plus, with this new adjustability, I might even have a bigger dick.¡± Nico teased her fellow officer in a gentle and sultry voice, nothing at all like her original.


    ¡°Party foul. If you¡¯re going to use that voice you can¡¯t say things like that.¡± Vincente interrupted her, looking over the flowing white gold outer shell of her body. Nico was currently adjusting her outer appearance to being slightly more feminine and returning a facsimile of her original face to the generic androgynous cyborg head.


    Then the outer shell¡¯s ¡®skin¡¯ tone changed and faded to the same baster pale that Nico was used to. The only problem was the hair orck thereof. The mission here didn¡¯t call for any political infiltration duties, so the cybeic conversion team didn¡¯t have any morphable hair samples to use. The Military didn¡¯t care if a trooper or a pilot was bald or not, hair was not abat asset.


    Nico unhappily ran her hand over her perfectly smooth, bald skull and then walked to the locker intended for her use in the operating room and pulled out her cover, cing the blood-red beret on her head.


    ¡°There, that¡¯s better.¡± She decided and Max pinched the bridge of his nose to prevent the iing headache.


    ¡°Either change your outer shell back to a battle armor design or put some clothes on. A hat alone isn¡¯t a suitable outfit.¡± He reprimanded her and Nico shrugged.<sub></sub>


    ¡°It¡¯s just a cyborg Commander. A sexy robot and we all know that only Paul has a particr taste for them.¡± Nico said over her shoulder as she put her uniform on, then adjusted her body shape a little to make the uniform fit better.


    Her height couldn¡¯t change more than a few centimeters, and she would be immediately identified as a Cyborg if someone weighed her, but in her uniform, she made a very convincing mimic of a natural human.


    ¡°More importantly, do you still have ess to your System Functions? The doctors said that full conversions often lose them, and I need to know before we go intobat tomorrow. I know it isn¡¯t much time to adjust to your new body, but that¡¯s all you get.¡± General Mons called, entering the operating room followed by a pair of senior medical officers and his copilot.


    ¡°Most of them. My [Rapid Healing] Function says updating, but the rest seem to be fully functional. Even my Innate Talent survived.¡± Nico confirmed and the General sighed.


    ¡°My life would be easier if we could move you to a desk position, but procedures say we still need to test your Piloting Standards and if you pass I must allow you to take Tarith¡¯s Rage intobat unless you apply for an indefinite medical transfer.¡± General Mons¡¯ revtion isn¡¯t a surprise to anyone, but the doctors do look pretty eager for her to fail so that they can have a full conversion experimental subject with all the newest technology at their disposal.


    ¡°Let¡¯s do the test then. As long as my System Functions are active, I don¡¯t actually need a fast body to Pilot, only one that is durable enough to survive the abuse I¡¯m going to put it through.¡± Nico confirms since she knows the General has already seen how she was Piloting Tarith¡¯s Rage before her rebuild.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I was afraid you would say that. Off to the testing station we go.¡±


    General Mons leads them to a smaller back room in the medicalplex, where a number of physiotherapy devices have been set up along with a Piloting Simtor.


    ¡°First you need to pass the basic physical fitness exams. That should be easy enough with this body since the tests are set to the standards for Line Mecha Pilots. Then we will test your Crusader ss Piloting skills in the simtor.¡± The lead doctor that arrived with the General says, taking out a clipboard with a nk exam sheet on it.


    ¡°So, what do I need to do?¡± Nico asks, looking around the room for some sort of course or another indicator that would let her know what the test is.


    ¡°The easiest way is to have a sparring match with another pilot. We don¡¯t have a Line Mecha Pilot here with us, but if one of yourrades goes easy, we should be able to test your strength and response times in under a minute.¡± The doctor informs her and Paul smiles.


    ¡°I volunteer. Thank you for this opportunity, Major.¡± The Captain smiles at her, not at all concerned about the capabilities of her new cyborg body.


    He should be, her System¡¯s [Mecha Modification] Function works perfectly well on the robotics of a Cyborg Body, and Max is certain that she¡¯s already started tweaking it for better performance. Plus, she¡¯s a much better fighter than he is.


    ¡°Who has the camera? We need to record this. For educational purposes of course.¡± Max asks and the doctors both pull out high-definition digital video recorders.


    ¡°Go get him, Nico.¡± Max calls to start the fight and the two pilots drop intobat stances.


    Paul thinks he has the advantage, so he lunges forward, only for his fist to meet the palm of a very hard metallic hand. Pulling back his hand before Nico can grab and crush it, he goes for the follow-up to the chest, but Nico has already sidestepped and treated him to a kidney punch that he never even sawing.


    Paul rotates away from her punch, limiting the damage, and grabs her in a chokehold, making Nicough.


    ¡°Did you just try to choke out a robot?¡± Vincenteughs as Paul realizes his mistake and backs away.


    ¡°Oxygen is filtered through the external shell. No breathing through the nasal passage or mouth is necessary and there are no easily damaged mechanisms in the throat.¡± The doctor confirms.


    Nico moves forward with a flurry of punches, startling Paul with her speed. She¡¯s still slower than he is, but he¡¯s a Crusader ss Pilot with years of experience bolstering his System bonuses, not many things should be as fast as him.


    Paul grabs her wrist and attempts to twist it over to force Nico into an arm lock. With a whine, the arm slowly rotates a quarter turn before twisting back. Then Nico flexes her bicep and tosses Paul up in the air, catching him in a Princess carry.


    ¡°That¡¯s all the data we needed. Now, if you can pass the Piloting exam, you can be cleared for duty.¡± The doctor calls an end to the fight before the red-faced Paul can vent his rage at the position he is in. The best he can do is re at Nico as she sets him back on his feet.


    The piloting exam is passed with flying colors as expected. Nico¡¯s Innate Talent is [Technology Maniption], so she doesn¡¯t even need to rely on her physical skills to pass, but the Cyborg conversion proves to bepletely capable of meeting the standard for a Crusader ss Pilot anyhow.


    ¡°With that, you are cleared to return to duty. As per regtion CRB007, you have the right to request a transfer to a nonbat role at any point in the future, in recognition of the sacrifice you have made for Kepler.¡± The doctor gave her the official notice and signed off on her medical paperwork, bringing Max¡¯s unit back up to its full strength of five Crusaders.

 134 Chapter 134

    Orders for the assault were sent out that evening, giving the Commanders eighteen hours until they were set to depart.


    Stalwart Special Tactics Unit wasn¡¯t part of the main assault force, they had been assigned to depart early and infiltrate a number of buildings on the edges of the Narsian¡¯s highly defended base in the downtown area. Some were to be cleared for infantry positions, some were to be copsed to serve as cover for the advancing Mecha forces and some were suspected to have valuable government information in them that Central Command didn¡¯t want to lose forever.


    Each of the locations was marked on their Mecha¡¯s internal map with a little red g sporting a yellow smiley face. This was Nico¡¯s doing, of course, only she would associate smiley faces with military targets, but the other squad leaders liked them since they could adjust the emoji on the g to represent the current status of the facility.


    [These first four targets won¡¯t be Heavy Mecha friendly. They are all down narrow streets with poor ess. A deliberate design to repel assault in the case of insurrection or Military Coup. The Infantry element will take them out, targets three and four can be demolished if necessary after they are searched for civilians and any valuable intelligence.


    Next are the Mecha targets, I have highlighted them by the squad. If you have any questions ask them now.] Max passed out the unit orders and everyone looked over the data that was avable on their assigned target.<sub>.</sub>


    [Where will Stalwart and Tarith¡¯s Rage be?] Vincente asked, not seeing the two Commanders assigned anywhere, which is unusual for Max.


    [Since everyone else has a target, we are the reinforcements. Tarith¡¯s Rage will back up the Mecha elements while Stalwart will provide heavy fire support for the Infantry, should things go wrong.] Max informed them and the Captain nodded in understanding.


    One Mecha isn¡¯t much backup, but since each of the other Crusaders will be deployed with a wing that is only them plus ten Corvette ss units, it¡¯s still a significant bump in capability.


    The number of targets is unusual though, making the Officers suspect that a lot of the infiltration units did not make it to the Staging Area on time. Normally, a Special Tactics Unit would only get two or three targets at once, not seven. They will be stretched very thin, but the assigned targets are still close enough that the unit can support each other a little if one squad should fall behind schedule.<sub></sub>


    [I can¡¯t stress enough how important the timing is. Everything needs to happen at once or someone is going to get swarmed by Narsian defense forces. We all know how that ends, so don¡¯t do it. If the schedule is in jeopardy, call right away and I will try to get you back on track.]


    That sets most of the unit¡¯s minds at ease, but Paul has onest question.


    [Aren¡¯t the Narsians going to lose their shit when they see the trophies on Tarith¡¯s Rage?]


    Nico tried to make a smile with her new face before responding, but the motion felt unnatural, so she wasn¡¯t sure that she had seeded. Not that anyone could see her anyhow, as she was already in her cockpit.<sub></sub>


    [That¡¯s kind of the point Captain. The angrier they are at me, the less they will focus on you, so you can get your jobs done and the back to the green zone, where the main force will still have reinforcements.] The three Captains nodded, seeing the logic in the taunting technique.


    [That¡¯s the n. Everyone, work out your unit¡¯s routes and ry them back to the Executive Officer, now that she has returned to duty. I will see you all in sixteen hours.] Max dismissed the officers and leaned back in his seat to look over all the best spots to set up. What he needed was a location where he could see the Infantry without being clearly visible to every Narsian in the city.


    That was trickier than it seemed, the city was actually designed to prevent just exactly this scenario, where an attacker wanted to hide from the city¡¯s defenders and do maximum damage. The best he could do was the main road near the middle of the cluster of buildings they were assigned to deal with. If he stands behind a building he can fire artillery shells from the Battle Cannon their way, and if he steps into the street he should get a straight shot towards the majority of the Narsians who will be approaching or chasing the infantry.


    During the afternoon, Max arranged the exact timing with a few other Commanders who had been assigned to do the same in other zones of the city core¡¯s perimeter, so that they could all act at once and spread out the reaction by the Narsians even more.


    The final assault was set to demolish the buildings at five in the morning. That way the infiltration teams, which are almost all infantry, can make it back to base by morning¡¯s light.


    At a quarter past three, the Special Tactics teams moved out, loaded up with more kit than they would likely ever need for a mission, but ready for almost anything that coulde at them. The Infantry targets were the closest, which made things convenient for Max since the Mecha were faster.


    Today just wasn¡¯t their day though. Paul almost immediately ran into arge Narsian unit in the dark. They had been using thermal instion, so his sensors missed them, and there were enough that his unit was pinned down.


    [On my way Ferrus. Once I arrive I will grab their attention and you can immediately proceed with the mission.] Nico announced, using the name of his old Mecha, and possibly not knowing that the entire chassis had been swapped.


    [This is Ferrus. Back on schedule.] Paul announced less than a minuteter and Max breathed a sigh of relief.


    The giants must have all chased Nico and given his unit a chance to run away and reach their target. All they had to do was demolish it so that it dropped across the road, a simple task that they could do in seconds once they arrived, but an important one for the Mecha that would being down the road an hour behind them.


    Once Paul was moving again the sound of the Rail Guns on Nico¡¯s Gauntlet began barking constantly, shattering the quiet morning. Then the city suddenly went dead silent again, with every soldier within ten miles of the noise waiting to see what happened next.


    [Tarith¡¯s Rage is clear.]

 135 Chapter 135

    Max didn¡¯t have to wait long until the Narsians responded. His thermal and energy scanners showed over a thousand enemy forces heading for the park where Tarith¡¯s Rage was standing. Sure, she took out a small patrol that was harassing a single wing of mecha, but wasn¡¯t that response overboard?


    That was when Max realized that the scouts weren¡¯t the only ones that had made a move. The Phnx ss Super Heavy known as Carpe Noctem had also begun to set up for an imminent attack. It had traveled while crouched, to blend in with the Crusader ss Escort, and it was at the end of the main road behind the targets that his Mecha units had been sent to destroy.


    The Narsians must have noticed them, and now they were bearing down on the Mecha at a full run.


    [Everyone, take cover. Let the Narsians run past you, they should be heading for the Carpe Noctem.] Max ordered, and the Crusaders started looking for a ce to hide.


    As hoped, they ran right past the three infiltration units, but Nico wasn¡¯t as lucky. There weren¡¯t enough spots for her to hide in an open field full of corpses, and the Narsians turned to overrun her first.<sub>.</sub>


    But General Mons had predicted this, and he was ready. Massive energy sts from the Ion Bombard Array on the Carpe Noctem started hitting the Narsians, killing everything within a dozen meters of the target with every shot. His other hand had been switched to a multiple target Laser Array, akin to Max¡¯s Pulse Laser Array on steroids, but it didn¡¯t have the range to hit the giants from outside the city. Once it got closer though, it could target a hundred moving objects per second with fairly decent uracy.


    It was a Point Defense weapon that gave the Phnx ss units such a renowned reputation for being able to hold an entire city on their own. Light Mecha couldn¡¯t even approach it with that Laser Array at the ready. The Narsians might do a little better, hiding in and between buildings until they got closer andunching attacks before they were detected.


    But Carpe Noctem was in the open, there was no way to sneak up on it until it entered the city. Instead, they started firing all the artillery they had at the giant Mecha.


    That revealed the secondary purpose of the Lasers. They could intercept artillery shells, exploding most of them in the air before they could do any damage to the Kepler forces below.<sub></sub>


    The light show was amazing. White Ion sts, purplesers, exploding artillery shells, and then a sea of ground-level weapons fire as the Narsians abandoned the battle with Tarith¡¯s Rage to deal with the real threat. They had realized the moment that Carpe Noctem started defending the Mecha that it was nothing more than bait to keep them out in the open where they could be easily killed by the Ion Bombard Array.


    Max was rather impressed. All of the various scout unit Commanders had sent Central Command their ns only a few hours ago, and they had predicted things well enough to bait out so many defenders and then use an unsuspecting unit to hold them in the open while they were killed.


    [Ten-minute warning. Get ready to leave.] Max ordered, watching his timer.


    The units were all reported as ready the moment that Max called it, but someone on the far side of the city jumped the gun and blew up a number of buildings prematurely. They must havee under attack and done their best to finish the mission before escaping, but that was going to cause chaos for everyone else.<sub></sub>


    [All scout units. Finish Missions in 30 seconds.] General Mons ordered over the army-wide channel, and the Special Tactics Unit scrambled to get clear of the charges that they had set.


    ns are just that, ns. Nobody really expected them to hold up once they were actually tried inbat, but they did make it pretty close. Under ten minutes deviation from the schedule.


    [Targets destroyed, but we havepany.] The Lieutenant in charge of the fourth infantry squad called and Max checked his scanners.


    [On it.] He called, firing a half dozen Battle Cannon rounds towards the spots his Targeting Skills thought that the Narsians would be by the time the shellsnded.


    Explosions lit up the buildings and roads near the copsed building and swearing filled the airwaves.


    [Just keep moving. You¡¯re not dead, and the camp can patch you up as good as new.] The Lieutenant¡¯s voice came over the radio again, indicating that something had gone wrong. Either the unit was slower than Max predicted, or some of the Narsians made it through.


    [Major Nico, you¡¯re our lucky charm today. I¡¯ming to you.] Captain Catan called out.


    That was way off his retreat route, but he had run into more resistance than expected, including elite heavy infantry. Those ones could take a Corvette ss Mecha in a one-on-one fight most of the time. His unit had a lot of kit, but not enough to deal with a squad of elite heavy infantry.


    They had taken out a few, but now they were at a full run, heading for the park.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage was running towards them to intercept, and Max fired rounds at the rear edge of the Narsian force, slowing them down and giving the infantry a chance to escape.


    [Stalwart, Units two and three areing past you with a tail if you please.]


    Max saw them running down the main road, with the Narsians in close pursuit, so he stepped out into the road and unleashed the Pulse Laser Array on them, letting the two squads escape. All over the city, simr scenes were ying out as the defenders tried to stop the Kepler forces from setting up barricades and bunkers for their advancing troops.


    [All units are behind you now Stalwart.] Captain Catan called, having just assisted Tarith¡¯s Rage in dealing with the unit that was chasing his own squad. They had been clearing a building for an infantry Company to use as a bunker, so they had the advantage of a defended position to fight from when the giants first rushed out, but still ended up on the run.


    [Stalwart Special Tactics Force, back to base.] Max sighed in relief.


    That went better than anticipated.

 136 Chapter 136

    As the initial recon and demolitions teams were returning, the vast majority of the force was headed out into the city to take advantage of the stage that the first wave had set for them. The Narsians had underestimated the might of a Phnx ss Mecha, since they had never seen one before and the data on them is strictly confidential, even within the Kepler Military, so there was nothing on theary servers for them to have stolen.


    Instead of charging the mighty war machine, they had turned their attention to the forces advancing from the rest of the city, encircling their position and trapping them in the city core.


    Even the mighty artillery that they had thought would take out any true threat to their security had given up on targeting the Phnx ss Mecha and had begun shelling the denser clusters of Heavy Mecha.


    General Mons wouldn¡¯t stand for that though, and the Ion Bombard Array had been pounding away at the artillery positions for the past few minutes, reducing most of them to rubble and forcing the others into hiding to prevent annihtion.


    [Everyone to the bunkers. They have prepared arge enough position for us to rx inside with our transports and mecha.] Max ordered the unit, leading them to an underground parkade forrge transports that had been reinforced to withstand artillery bombardment.<sub>.</sub>


    It was a tight fit vertically for the Crusaders, and those who had taller weapons on their carapace armor had to crouch a little to avoid hitting the roof, but it was secure and well-provisioned. They even had a fully staffed kitchen set up for the Special Tactics Group and the one other Mecha Company that had been assigned to this shelter.


    Since they reused existing parkades, for the most part, each one only held one or two units. This strategy had the side effect of spreading them out all over the quadrant of town closest to the Staging Area, but it also served to secure arge area against attack. The building that Max and his unit were assigned to was right on the edge of town, where the transports from the mine were unloaded to aplex conveyor system that fed a number of industrial facilities within the city.


    ¡°Have those conveyor tunnels been fully blocked off?¡± Max asked, looking at theyout of the bunker.


    ¡°There are four rows of st doors currently closed and sealed. One at the secondary junction, one at the first junction, and then a double set here at the warehouse. Since there is hope to reim the city, they didn¡¯t want to destroy critical underground infrastructure.¡± The traffic controller that had led them to their parking area confirmed Max¡¯s suspicions.<sub></sub>


    [You heard the man. We will be setting a double guard patrol of the infantry. I want guards on the conveyors and the doors, with movement sensors and thermal imaging to be ced further down the line, and in two rows at the entrance. Both around the perimeter of the building and a block away. I don¡¯t want anything sneaking up on us while we are resting.] Max ordered.


    The staff at the bunker thought he was a bit paranoid, but that wasn¡¯t umon for elite units. They themselves had a constant patrol around the building, and the Kepler Military upied this entire quadrant of the city. They weren¡¯t going to stop him though. Having a Special Tactics unit looking out for them made them feel more secure as well.


    One by one, everyone who wasn¡¯t assigned to this shift on duty filed out of their transports and mecha to go see what the Military hade up with as a buffet for them. A meal that didn¡¯t use up their own supplies was always wee, and some of the Field Kitchens served very good food. At leastpared to the shelf stable rations.


    [Nico, that means you too. Come out and be social, it¡¯s good for your mental health.] Max insisted, watching Tarith¡¯s Rage to see if he was going to have to force her toe out.<sub></sub>


    She dide out withoutint, but he could see the annoyance on her face as she stood on the carapace armor. It didn¡¯t seem to be for him though, but for her situation. She wasn¡¯t fully used to her Cyborg conversion yet, and it didn¡¯t have the same physical capability that her old body did. It was likely to be much more durable though, and Nico was willing to test the reality against the design specs.


    The winch that most pilots use to lower themselves is only rated for two hundred kilos. Nico¡¯s new body weighed nearly twice that. She would have to rece the winch eventually, for convenience¡¯s sake, but for now, she ordered Tarith¡¯s Rage to raise a Gauntlet for her to stand on and then lower her towards the ground. Once it got near waist height, she simply jumped down with a resounding bang, only slightly muffled by the rubber sole of her boots.


    ¡°Hopefully I can get back up there,¡± Nico grumbled as she came to stand by Max, bumping her shoulder into him in greeting.


    ¡°We will find a way. There¡¯s a material processor here, the same as in the Landers, so we can upgrade the winch on Tarith¡¯s Rage if you want.¡± Max offered.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s likely a good idea. I¡¯ll see if I can still climb up though. The cybeics are very strong, but throwing a chunk of alloy that high through the air isn¡¯t an easy feat.¡± Nico gave Max a wry chuckle and followed him to the line for the buffet.


    ¡°Wait, do you still need to eat? Or I should say, Can you? I don¡¯t know much about Full Conversions, they didn¡¯t have them on my side of town growing up.¡± Max asked, curious about her new status.


    ¡°You know the supplementary nutrition liquid pouches? I need about one of those a month for actual nutrition. However, my System Functions are still altering this body. The material that it¡¯s made of is reallypatible with the nanobots, and they seem to be having a lot of fun with it. My first physical upgrade cut down on my need to eat or sleep, recing a lot of it with photosynthesis, and I can feel the iing energy flow already as the System tries to adapt to the new body.


    Because they did the limbs first, then realized they needed to do the rest, I managed to transfer almost all of the nanobots to the new body as the doctors worked, it wasn¡¯t like when they do a straight brain transfer from an old body to a new cyborg shell. I didn¡¯t lose many functions at all, and the System didn¡¯t need to put too much into rebuilding itself.¡± Nico¡¯s exnation gave Max a lot to think about, but it would give the doctors even more of a revtion.


    There was a chance that they had been doing conversions all wrong from a System standpoint. Done this way, it was quite possible for a full conversion to keep a good part of their system intact.


    ¡°What are our orders anyhow?¡± Nico asked while Max was pondering herst answer.


    ¡°Standby. We aren¡¯t part of the main assault n, all the recon elements will be waiting until the city is taken or the advance grinds to a halt.¡± Max sighed.

 137 Chapter 137

    Max led Nico through the buffet line, grabbing himself dinner while Nico chatted happily with the soldiers around her. Everyone had a bit to say, a wee home sort of greeting after she was away so long.


    The fact that she still looked a lot like herself was a relief to the unit. Getting used to the generic faces of a full conversion always took time. There were only three designs for the standard body full conversion cyborgs, and they were all androgynous. It was an open secret that the faces creeped most of the poption out, being close enough to almost pass as human but clearly not.


    The warm wee was also setting Nico¡¯s mind at ease. Alone inbat, she felt too much like an outsider, with her memories of a past life driving her in a direction that wasn¡¯t quitepatible with Kepler¡¯s military doctrine. But here in the bunker, she felt more at home, like part of the unit again.


    Well, she felt at home except for the fact that she didn¡¯t have a weapon. Her sidearm andbat knife were both lost in the jungle, and she hadn¡¯t had a chance to rece them yet. All of the infantry carried a knife with them at all times, since they were useful for so many things, including opening ration packs that never tore open along the line as the directions insisted they should.


    If you cut the top open just right, you could use the reseble bag for many other purposes. Holding valuables, spare drinks, and snacks, the possibilities were nearly endless but relied on the perfect opening that didn¡¯t damage the seal.


    Once they were seated the wave of well-wishers dispersed, heading to their own meal while the two Command officers sat and talked about all the things that they had missed while separated.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°You said you got a System Function called [Drone Commander] right? Could you use that to scout potential artillery locations for General Mons? From what I¡¯ve heard he has amazing multiple targeting skills, even better than mine, but hecks the ability to target things his sensors can¡¯t pick up. Out of his line of sight, in stealth, and so on. If you could send out a couple of drones to look for high priority targets, his Ion Bombard Array could eliminate them in seconds once they were in the open, or inside an unarmored building.¡± Max suggested, winking at Nico, who felt the sudden urge to tease her Commander and best friend.


    ¡°There¡¯s an all-female Penal Colony regiment on the other side of town. I could scout out some beauties on the way. You know, just in case.¡± Nico joked, recalling how flustered Max got with the debutantes during the unit recruitment.


    ¡°Those ones might be safer than thest batch of convicts that we got, but the unit would get jealous if I kept them all for myself. We have a few stealth camera drones in storage for the infantry scouts, how good is your range on that skill?¡± Max deflected the teasing to focus on work.


    ¡°From here, I could hit about five hundred kilometers with the help of my Mecha. It¡¯s all based onmunications range though, so in a better environment, I could hack the satellites to send drones globally. At least in theory.¡± Nico exined.


    That would make for a very valuable addition when the unit was on the move and an added convenience for recording the training between members of the unit. Drones got a much better angle on units attempting to hide than troops watching at ground level did.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I¡¯ll have someone send them to you in a bit.¡± Max decided, then flicked Nico¡¯s hand away from his fries.


    ¡°And why are you stealing my food when you don¡¯t need to eat?¡±


    Nico shrugged and grinned at him. ¡°They¡¯re really good. I still have taste buds, even if I can¡¯t digest them. I could always just lick them and put them back?¡±


    An involuntary shudder ran up Max¡¯s spine at that idea. But then again, Cyborgs don¡¯t have saliva or mouth germs do they? No, it¡¯s still a disgusting thought.


    ¡°Fine, just don¡¯t eat them all.¡± Max couldn¡¯t help but smile. He hadn¡¯t realized how tense he was until he finally got a chance to sit down and rx.<sub></sub>


    She might technically be his subordinate, but it was like he had known Nico his whole life. His first memories were hers, they did all their training together, got into trouble together, and went to battle together. Nico was an inseparable part of him, and Max now realized there was an empty void in him when she wasn¡¯t around.


    The question was how to stop her from doing suicidal things like taking Rear Guard alone again.


    For a while, they caught up on the adventures of the unit, and Max told her all about the students of the local Academy and their struggles. His training regimen made good sense to her, given the limited time that they were able to actually practice, and Nico could sense his unease at their fate.


    Because of that, she ended up having the drones sent over right away. Once they were powered on and hovering, she sent them to the door and waited for the next opening to have them fly out into the city.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about the academy Cadets. They¡¯re hard workers and smarter than most officers would give them credit for. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re doing a pretty good job of hiding themselves in a secure position.¡± Nico assured Max as she watched the two streams from the drones in the back of her mind.


    ¡°Oh, not even a minute out and I found something good.¡± Nico cheered, stealing another fry.


    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have a way to show me do you?¡± Max asked, wondering what he was missing.


    A video stream notification appeared on his wrist device and Max pulled up the hologram, only to find four soldiers involved in a rather interesting form of sensual acrobatics in the rafters of a mostly destroyed building.


    ¡°For feth¡¯s sake Nico. Leave the poor horn dogs alone. How are the Cadets doing?¡± Maxughed, drawing the attention of all the soldiers nearby to the projection from his wrist device.


    ¡°No, wait, send the camera back. I still haven¡¯t worked out the mechanics of that position.¡± Captain Catan joked as the drone flew away, headed for the spot where the Academy Cadets should be.


    Even flying through the streets and dodging buildings, the drones were incredibly nimble, and it only took a few minutes until they were in the right area. Nico sent one drone up into the clouds where it wouldn¡¯t be noticed and then moved the other into the building where the academy cadets were stationed.


    It was a former shopping mall, and still in reasonably good shape, despite some battle damage to the outside. The cadets¡¯ Line Mecha were set up in prone positions on the roof, almost two kilometers back of the front lines, assigned to make sure nothing slipped through and made it back to threaten the reserves. It was a much better assignment than Max had thought they would get, but not without hazards.


    Even through the drone feed, Max could see fresh battle damage on some of the units, so they hadn¡¯t had it too easy, but they were at least still alive.


    ¡°One second, I found a thing and I want to check it out,¡± Nico muttered and the drone flew away.


    Momentster it was focused on a team of Narsians setting up a battery of Mortar tubes. They were most likely going to target the front line and then retreat before the artillery coulde raining down on them.


    ¡°Firing orders have been sent,¡± Nico whispered and three secondster the scene in the drone view turned into a ball of fire.


    ¡°That¡¯s better. You keep scouting around the front lines, and the unit can scout the industrial area around us. After seeing the Narsians juste out of nowhere with artillery, the camp is going to need more scouts than they have assigned.¡± Max congratted Nico on her good work.


    Even with scouts out though, this was the closest thing he had felt to rxed since theynded on the. Once he could inform the other units of the danger, they would also send more men to scout, and hopefully, the whole quadrant woulde under surveince by the end of the day.

 138 Chapter 138

    Of course, they weren¡¯t the only ones with drones out. All the infantry assets carried them and used them heavily to avoid being ambushed by the physically superior and more heavily armored Narsian forces.


    All over the city, small camera drones floated, reporting targets, searching for traps, and keeping the troops safe.


    The Kepler lines were slowly pushing forward, and it seemed at first that the Narsians had nothing that could stop them. But the giants were only waiting for the perfect moment to push back.


    Just after dawn on the third day of the assault, the counterattack began at the moment the sun rose high enough that the more advanced sensors of the Kepler army lost some of their advantage against the eyes of the Narsian soldiers. At this point, the Kepler Mecha were well beyond the first line of defense created by Max and the other scouts. They had pushed deep into the city core, creating only makeshift barricades in preparation to move forward again in the morning.


    The sounds of battle were fierce, and the whole city seemed to be shaking from the intensity of the explosions and the number of Heavy Mecha all moving at once.


    The reinforcements had all been called forward, leaving only the scouts in the camp to protect the logistics staff. Once the shaking outside stopped, the area seemed unnaturally empty to Max, even after so long in the isted mine site.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Are you thinking what I¡¯m thinking?¡± Max asked Nico, who had sat down beside him with a book.


    ¡°White Phosphorous bombs via drones to shroud the city center and burn the Narsians out?¡± Nico asked, using that unnervingly innocent voice program in her new voice box.


    ¡°I was going to say bring the support staff indoors because we are definitely about to be attacked.¡± Max corrected her.


    ¡°We can do that too.¡± Nico agreed, nodding her head, but the expression on her face never changed.


    [All Stalwart units not on patrol, report to your battle stations. Narsian attacks are expected to be iing immediately. n to proceed into the city, protect all support assets, and move them to shelter.] The announcement came from every Mecha¡¯s speakers in Nico¡¯s voice. The fact it came from everywhere meant it only needed to be a little louder than the talking volume to get everyone¡¯s attention, a small blessing for those with sensitive ears inside the warehouse.<sub></sub>


    Max hurried to send the same message to all the other scout unit Commanders, and the camp erupted in a flurry of activity again, and not a moment too soon.


    The outdoor facilities were quickly being packed, and the support assets with the least to organize had only just begun to move into the nearest bunkers when the drones that were patrolling the camp picked up the first signs of movement.


    Being at the very edge of town, it was still well away from where Max¡¯s unit was, so they circled the bunker and waited for more information. Fortunately, the only unit with his location as their closest bunker was a single infantry mechanics corps unit, which was more than happy to ditch what didn¡¯t run and drive the rest to safety, leaving the area clear of forces that could be ambushed by the Narsians if they had managed to sneak past the edge of the city and into the Kepler back lines.


    With them inside, there weren¡¯t any friendly targets in the immediate vicinity to worry about, making every heat and energy signature a possible hostile unless it came from one of the other defensive positions on patrol.


    [Contact from the forest,ing inward at 30kph.] Vincente reported being the closest Crusader to the target.<sub></sub>


    [Confirm identity before firing. I don¡¯t want to hit a friendly with damagedms.] Max ordered before shifting a squad of infantry over for support.


    [Confirmed. Narsian scout unit. Moving to engage.] Vincente confirmed.


    [Negative, stay where you are. Narsianmunications indicate that there are stealth units approaching from the woods.] Nico stopped him suddenly.


    [Tarith¡¯s Rage, follow me and we will support the forest line. All other units maintain your positions. I don¡¯t want anything slipping by us.] Max ordered as he climbed the ruins of a building to gain the advantage of high ground.


    That wasn¡¯t an easy thing to do in a ten-meter-tall Mecha, standard building materials weren¡¯t designed for that sort of concentrated weight, even with the anti-gravity systems of Stalwart working overtime to help offset the bulk of the Mecha. Without them, the Kepler army would simply sink in the mud on every they visited, but the systems still had their limitations, and a Crusader ss Mecha still put a significant amount of weight on the ground, and far moreteral force when it wanted to move.


    Tarith¡¯s Rage had moved out in front of the defensive line, being heavily biased to closebat with only three rail guns as ranged weaponry at the moment.


    Her presence was taken as a p in the face by the Narsians. The hull of her Mecha was already decorated with the corpses of Narsian officers and a few of their finest weapons, and the hateful Mecha hade out to challenge them the moment they were detected.


    The giants¡¯ first instinct was to charge, but that was clearly what the Bone and Bronze mecha with the gruesome ornaments wanted. The pause in their movements as they fought with their instincts cost them dearly. Every ranged Mecha in the Special Tactics Unit, as well as the three heavy weapons emcements that the Infantry had set up in range, began to rain fire down on them and the surrounding area.


    That was Max¡¯s idea. If they couldn¡¯t detect the stealth troops in the woods, they would simply remove the woods from their weapons range. With a kilometer of clearing before the city, it would be much easier to deal with anything trying to sneak into their territory.


    Somewhere in Max¡¯s newly returned memories, he recalled doing this before. Clearing Firing Lines they had called it then, and the practice was considered an essential function in defending a fortress in an era that was now long past due to the invention of advanced sensor systems and powerful weapons that didn¡¯t see foliage as an impediment.


    One after another, groups of Narsian stealth units popped up on his sensors as their cloaking covers were damaged, and the giants did their best to flee, hoping to get away and try again at a point that might have less capable defenders.


    [Area secure, Sir. No Narsian signatures and no indication of enemy advance over themunications systems.] Nico reported, standing down and backing up to rejoin the line of mecha at the edge of the city.


    [We don¡¯t know how much they have left for us, but the battle for the city center has turned up the intensity. Everyone hold their positions until further notice.] Max ordered, breathing a sigh of relief.


    Stalwart Special Tactics Unit waited two whole hours before the all-clear was sounded. The might of Carpe Noctem added to the Kepler Heavy mecha had overrun the Narsian base in the center of the city. The entire city was now theirs, and all remaining signs of the giants showed them in full retreat.


    What the mecha on the ground couldn¡¯t know was that this scene was reying on battlefields all over the. Four Phnx ss Mecha had been dropped to retake the most troublesome areas, and now the few Narsian forces that survived were headed into hiding.


    [Mecha Squad C and Infantry Squad 4, sorry about your luck, but it¡¯s your turn on patrol. Everyone else, head back to the bunker and take your break. Alpha Squad and Infantry Squad 1, you are up for patrol duty in two hours.] Max informed the unit before retiring to his bunk to get some much-needed sleep.


    Two hours into his afternoon nap the most wonderful of news came over the radio. Ten more ships of the fleet had arrived, and the initialnding forces were being relieved. The fresh units would scour the for survivors and begin the work of establishing a new colony based on their findings. The was officially considered back in human hands.


    It wasn¡¯t as simple as it sounded, they would likely be clearing out Narsian hiding spots for years, but in the estimation of Central Command, there was little chance of the being threatened again. Humanity had won.

 139 Chapter 139

    With the battle won and the remaining Narsian troops on the run and being hunted by the main forces of the Kepler Army, the entire Stalwart Special Tactics Unit had the next few days off.


    They still set a patrol around the warehouse and kept watch on the sensor feeds because nobody wants to lose friends to a desperate retaliation days before you go home, but for the entire first day, there was nothing to be seen.


    They were getting constant updates, though. This continent had been well managed from the start, and the main enves of Narsian firepower had been taken down with rtive ease, but on the other continents, the Fleet had resorted to more extreme measures. On two continents, they had employed Orbital strikes by the dozen to eliminate Narsian-controlled cities and then swept through with Mecha to eliminate the stragglers. The true horror came on the final continent, where Species-specific bioweapons were tested and destroyed the entire Narsian poption in a matter of hours.


    The test was viewed as a sess, and the chemical would be added to the Kepler arsenal for the next time they saw the giants attack. Of course, nobody really knew where their homeworld was, or if they even still had one, but they had appeared in Kepler and the surrounding nations before, so the threat was still considered uncontained.


    This was especially true after the second wave of arrivals. A second wave of Narisan attackers was a phenomenon that hadn¡¯t been seen before. With a persistentck of linguists due to the rarity of Narsian attacks in their territory, the Kepler Fleet was short on answers as to how and why it had happened to them.<sub>.</sub>


    With a stack of reports in her hands, Nico made her way over to where Max was sitting, double-checking the inventory reports while watching the sensor feeds. ¡°Hey Major, the final set of mission reports is finished, as well as the-to-ship transfer requests.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a lifesaver, Nico. I¡¯m about done with my work here as well, you want to go rx?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Sure. What did we usually do to rx?¡± Nico asked, clearly confused.


    That brought Max¡¯s brain to a standstill. What did they do to rx? All that they had ever done was to train, fight and train some more. Ever since they had met, there was always something that needed to be done and there was never actually time to rx.<sub></sub>


    Once they were back aboard the ship they were scheduled to begin a three-month leisure deployment. They would be taken to a safe¡¯s Space Station, and the ship would remain there for three months while the Mecha, equipment, and the ship itself were in for a full refurbishment and overhaul.


    Only after that would new orders for reinforcements be finalized. In short, they really didn¡¯t have anything to do now that the reports were done.


    ¡°You know, I don¡¯t know the answer to that. We never really took a break, did we? How is your adjustment to the new bodying along? We couldy on the roof and watch the artillery in the distance while your calibrations finish?¡± Max suggested.


    Hearing the two of them contemte what the word rxation meant, Ari could only sigh. She looked up from her romance novel and put down the chocte cookies that Alpha Squad had pilfered from one of the buildings they had passed by.<sub></sub>


    ¡°You two are really hopeless you know that right? I¡¯m even willing to wager that one of you two was thinking of a virtual realitybat simtor as a rxing pastime.¡± The Captain joked, but both of themanding officers looked a bit guilty.


    ¡°You were, weren¡¯t you? Let me guess, a martial artsbat simtor so that you could train side by side?¡± Nico just shrugged, not denying it.


    ¡°We could move the setting to somewhere nice, like a waterfall in the tropics or something?¡± Nico suggested.


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound bad. Set it on minimum difficulty, so we can talk while we train?¡± Max agreed, making Ari sigh in frustration.


    ¡°There¡¯s a hotel nearby that hasn¡¯t beenpletely destroyed. It¡¯s in our zone, so there¡¯s nobody there. Why don¡¯t you two get a room,y down, and watch a movie or something? Just take your mind off everything and actually rx.¡±


    ¡°Good idea. I have the perfect movie in mind.¡± Nico agreed, smoothly standing and reaching out a hand for Max.


    Max had no idea what Nico had in mind for a movie, and he didn¡¯t want to spoil the surprise by reading her mind, so he just followed along, calling out to Ari as they left.


    ¡°If anything happens, call for us. I¡¯ll have my wrist device on, but set to urgent alerts only.¡±


    The so-called hotel was actually a former truck stop that happened to have a motel for the raw materials transport drivers, and it was right next door to the warehouse that they were in. The convenience store had been mostly picked clean, but Max found a couple of bags of gummy snacks and some warm soda in the stock room after Nico broke the lock for him.


    ¡°Alright, we have the snacks, we have the couch, what do you have in mind for a movie?¡± Max asked curious as to what Nico¡¯s taste in movies was like.


    He had a sneaking suspicion that she preferred horror movies and action flicks, but for rxation, he was pretty sure she wouldn¡¯t pick either of them.


    ¡°Only one of the greatest ssics of all time. Catgirl Rangers.¡± Nico joked. The series was a cult ssic, a children¡¯s cartoon series about feline mutated demihumans who looked after a forest. Having seen Nico¡¯s memories before, he was one hundred percent sure that this was not on her list of favorite films.


    Nicoughed at the dismayed look on Max¡¯s face and carefully settled down on the couch, which was marked as safe for cyborgs by a faded sign on the hotel room wall.


    ¡°Fine, I picked The Slumdog Crew.¡± She finally gave in and held up a data storage chip for Max to insert into the holographic projector in the room.


    It was a romanticedy about a bunch of hapless but kind criminals from the downside of a mega city and how they identally ended up living a normal working-ss life together. Now that¡¯s what he needed, stupid mindlessedy.

 140 Chapter 140

    Max didn¡¯t notice when he dozed off, somewhere in the middle of the second movie. He only knew that he woke up in the firm bed that the motel offered with his head resting on something that was somehow bothfortably firm and incredibly solid.


    That something was Nico¡¯s chest. He could see that she fell asleep reading a book, it was still in her hand, and he was draped across her chest. Hopefully, he didn¡¯t drool in his sleep, that would be too embarrassing.


    ¡°Good morning. How was the sleep? I¡¯ve been working with the system to adjust the outer shell settings to a more natural feel.¡± Nico greeted him, still not opening her eyes.


    ¡°The texture is perfect, but your torso is still a little solid.¡± Max joked, before sitting up and realizing he was in his underwear.


    ¡°Noted. Let¡¯s get dressed and head back to the unit. We¡¯ve still got time, there haven¡¯t been any updates, but someone has to keep them in order.¡±


    With that Nico also sat up, the sturdy bed dipping with her weight as she put her uniform back on.


    ¡°Hey, Max, what makes a person a person?¡± She asked, staring out the window with her shirt in her hands.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Their mind I think. Do you recall the lessons on morality in the academy? I think that¡¯s the difference between people and not. The ability to reason.¡± Max answered, wondering where she was going with this.


    Nico nodded, thinking about his answer. ¡°You see, I no longer breathe, I don¡¯t have a heart to beat, and I don¡¯t really eat. But I still feel like me. My system still works, even my [Rapid Healing] System Function finished adaptingst night after you fell asleep.¡±


    Max wrapped his arms around her from behind, giving her a solid hug. ¡°You¡¯re still you, no matter what. Even in a different body, just like thest time, you¡¯re still you.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Max.¡± This time, Nico¡¯s smile was real and genuine, unlike the forced facial expressions she was practicing while they watched the movies.


    Nico just rested there in Max¡¯s arms for a few minutes before finishing getting dressed andughing at a stray thought that passed through her mind.


    ¡°You know, my mother used to say I loved Mecha so much I was going to turn into one. If only she knew how right she was. We should send messages home once we¡¯re back on the ship.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°I¡¯ll send mine via your parents. Dave would freak out if he got an official Fleet message, it might give him a heart attack. Not to mention the months of paranoia about the government watching him.¡±


    On their way back, they stopped at the truck stop storage room and loaded a tarp full of goodies, and bundled them like a sack. Soda, cookies, chips, all of the customarily unhealthy snacks that had remained the staples of road trips for centuries. The bag made it slow going back to the bunker, but contrary to Max¡¯s fears, everything was running smoothly when they finally reached the rest of the unit.


    ¡°We found dietary supplements. ¡± Max called and a handful of soldiers came running over to relieve them of their burden.


    ¡°Have I ever told you how much I love you, Commander?¡± One of the men asked, opening a bag of cheesy poofs.


    ¡°I am a career officer Corporal, it would never work out.¡± Max replied in all seriousness, making the other soldiers smirk at their unfortunate Comrade.


    While Max went to make sure he hadn¡¯t missed any messages, Nico disappeared into the corner of the warehouse where the scrap and damaged Mecha parts were stored for recycling. There were all sorts of goodies hidden there, and her system was begging her for materials toplete the modifications that it deemed to be essential to her optimal performance.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Need any help, Major?¡± A Corporal from the third toon of the infantrypany asked as she started digging through electronics.


    Nico only raised an eyebrow at him. Not many soldiers would even understand what she was looking for.


    ¡°I am a huge tech nerd. I¡¯ve heard you modified all the Mecha in the unit, but if you need an assistant, I¡¯m happy to help.¡± He exined.


    ¡°Good enough. I¡¯ve sent you a parts list. That¡¯s what I need.¡± Nico exined.


    There were various units of light alloys, capacitors, energy rys, and sma conduits on the list, and his first thought was that she was making a new weapon for the infantry. But there were a lot of metals listed and not a lot of electronics, so maybe it was for the Mecha and needed to be maneuverable.


    ¡°Corporal Walker, do you understand the principles of stabilized energy barriers?¡± Nico asked, hoping to pass the time with a simr mind.


    ¡°Ion barriers like the one on Stalwart, yes. I¡¯ve been researching them. But these parts don¡¯t all seem to be for that.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right. Only some of them are. I am going to make a stabilized energy de as well.¡± Nico informed him.


    Corporal Walker has read about them, but they were theoretical. Nobody had made one work for more than a few seconds without overheating as far as he knew.


    ¡°But where will you find the focusing crystals?¡± He finally decided to ask as they dug parts out of the pile.


    ¡°There are the remains of a Crusader ss Laser Cannon right here. I already grabbed them.¡± Nico smiled, giving the Corporal the creeps. Her smile was just too unnatural for his mind to ept it, like a predator wearing human skin.


    The Corporal just assumed that was normal for cyborgs, and Nico didn¡¯t realize there was a difference between this smile and the genuinely happy one she gave Max.


    With everything assembled the two tech aficionados sat down in a rtively clean room to begin their work. There were three items to be created. The energy de, abat shield with an integrated energy barrier, and a mystery third item Nico had collected a lot of rare ultra light alloys for.


    Corporal Walker didn¡¯t know, but Max who had been searching her thoughts to see what she was up to did. Her System demanded those particr materials for an upgrade to her skeletal structure and internal systems.


    The upgrades sounded pretty sketchy, but he had never known the system to harm the user. ording to what the system told her, it should cut her total weight by half and increase skeletal and hydraulic strength, while allowing for better integration of the Nanobots.


    It wasn¡¯t quite living metal, but it sounded very close to it in Max¡¯s mind.


    Nico was doing the upgrade stealthily, sitting on the pile of materials while the nanobots broke it down and rebuilt her body on the molecr level, discarding the unneeded material into the scrap pile.


    While the system worked, so did the two soldiers. The first item was a new design of the ssicbat shield. Tarith¡¯s Rage has an integrated energy shield, but Bulwark, Piloted by Captain Ari, does not.


    This might not be as powerful, but it will take a lot of punishment.


    ¡°So, which unit will get to try the energy de? One of the Corvettes?¡± The Corporal asked as he sorted the necessary parts.


    ¡°This prototype won¡¯t have enough energy output for that. At best will be personal weapons if it works. The unit wouldn¡¯t hold up for Mecha use with the parts we have avable.¡± Nico told him sadly. She really did want to give Tarith¡¯s Rage an energy de, but it just wasn¡¯t feasible. But for herself, using the cold fusion power cell of her new body, the de would be sufficient for most purposes.

 141 Chapter 141

    While Nico and Corporal Walker were deep in discussions about the fine-tuning of the energy de the Officers of Central Command were deep in discussion about how to avert a political disaster.


    Somehow word had gotten out to the Anti Monarchist faction that the first wave of troops tond had taken heavy casualties against the Narsians and they were going all out to paint the Royal family as callous Warmongers who were too detached from the consequences of their actions.


    For this reason, the Nobles who ran the bureaucracy insisted, that they should be removed and the more caring and connected politicians should take over.


    It was an easy sell to the civilians who had never seen war and those who lost loved ones. The ones who would never understand that every battle in thest ten years was a defensive one, protecting their allieds.<sub>.</sub>


    So Central Command needed to do something in coordination with army intelligence to salvage the situation.


    They were already hunting down the informants, but the easiest answer was an intensive propaganda campaign. The recruitment from Kepler 111 would be folded into other units as an auxiliary reinforcement, with the survivor¡¯s registration numbers altered to hide the total numbers.


    Nobody would ever be able to prove how many were lost and they could paint the entire mission as heroic work to save civilians from hostile aliens.<sub></sub>


    The more truth there is in a propaganda campaign, the more effective the lies you folded in will be after all.


    To the allied worlds, the initial force won¡¯t have taken heavy casualties, they will have joined the following waves as experienced local guides and bonded with their new units.


    Since the following waves of arrivals were muchrger, the numbers will easily vanish in the fog of missing-in-action soldiers that are expected after anyrge battle. By the time the casualty lists are finalized the uproar will have died down and the propaganda department will beunching its own offensive, using those spreading negative reports of being traitors to humanity.<sub></sub>


    Is not the first time they have done something simr, and the ones making the most noise against the Emperor will quietly disappear over the next few years.


    ¡°For this to work, we need a public face. Someone from the first wave that we can show in the thick of battle. It needs to be a unit that didn¡¯t lose many officers, so we can make a big deal of promoting them. Emperor knows we have enough vacancies.¡± One of the Generals suggests, checking his reports.


    ¡°What about these ones? There¡¯s lots of good footage of them inbat, they still have all six of their officers, two Majors, and four Captains, plus the Bronze and white is pretty photogenic.¡± Another General suggests, bringing up a short video of the Narsians charging at Tarith¡¯s Rage which appears to be taunting them with its sword while the artillery fire of the Carpe Noctem rains down around it.


    ¡°The two Majors are my Proteges, so I would ask that they be kept together.¡± General Tennant informs the group, looking over the footage that they have.


    ¡°It looks like the Tech Department has already imed them for a special project. I¡¯ll send the group the data logs. From what I can see here, the two Majors both managed to meet or exceed the maximum design parameters of the Crusader ss Mecha Chassis. They must be absolute monsters in the cockpit if they are faster than the machine can keep up with. No wonder you wanted them for yourself, Tennant.¡± General Monsughs, connected to the group chat via the holographic link from the Carpe Noctem.


    The Generals looked over the data set that Tech had provided along with their request for transfer and found that one of the two routinely pushed the movement of the Mecha well beyond design parameters, while the other had an astounding rate of fire with precise targeting adjustments between every shot. It was the precision that had caught the Tech department¡¯s eye initially. It suggested to them that he had a System skill that was well suited to their newest project. The incredible rate of fire was simply a bonus they would have to examer.


    ¡°That works in our favor then. We won¡¯t even need to make up a reward for them. Tech will do it for us and the messaging group can spin it however they like. Why don¡¯t we send the others to you General Mons? They can take a promotion and be Company Commanders to rece the ones you lost, and we will fold a chunk of the recruits from Kepler 111 into your Regiment to make up the numbers?¡± The head of themittee announces.


    He might have phrased it as a question, but he had already made the decision. The Special Tactics Unit will be broken up, with the infantry forming a new Special Forces Unit, and a round of promotions will be announced in a few weeks, once they are safely away from the battlefield.


    The orders that make it to the Unit are simple ones:


    [Stalwart Special Tactics Unit will join Noctem Regiment aboard Abraham Kepler, headed to the Orbital base in orbit of Comor for designated Rxation time before redeployment.]


    ¡°Good news everyone. Orders are in and we are boarding a Lander in the first group to head up. Abraham Kepler will be taking us to Comor, a heavily poptedary system with two designated vacation worlds plus the industrial hub world.¡± Max informed the unit, turning the quiet discipline into raucous cheering and dancing.


    A system with vacations was the very best of options. The vacation designation meant that they had been terraformed after the expansion of the main¡¯s poption, and hadn¡¯t had their natural beauty exploited for resources. They were paradise worlds, intended for nothing but pure enjoyment.


    They didn¡¯t even have to go looking for a working Lander, one was being sent for them that same evening to leave in the morning. That cut their time on the almost a day shorter than they had anticipated, and for Max, it couldn¡¯t be soon enough.

 142 Chapter 142

    Before first light the following day, the Lander had arrived to take Max¡¯s unit back to Abraham Kepler, and their designated berths there. The other units in their warehouse had arrived somewhatter and would be leavingter, so it was a quick and teasing goodbye, as the Special Tactics Unit wished the Mecha and techs that remained behind the best of luck with the cleanup.


    They were all too excited to speak much on the flight up to the ship, but when they werended in the hangar and ready to disembark for examination, Nico¡¯s smile kept getting more and more genuine.


    ¡°Excited to be home and off the battlefield?¡± Max asked her quietly.


    ¡°Yes, but that¡¯s not the best part. I¡¯m totally going to fail the scan.¡± Nico chuckled.


    Of course, she would, she left as a fully organic human and returned as a full conversion cyborg. The ship¡¯s data logs were going to freak out and trigger the infiltration protocols. It happened a lot to Pilots who had undergone emergency battlefield augmentation and asionally to those who had undergone a System upgrade that changed their body by a significant amount during the mission.


    Max had forgotten because their previous missions didn¡¯t have any such fancy medical technology with them, and nobody had undergone one of the rare system upgrades that would trigger the scanners.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Stalwart Special Tactics Unit, Fall In,¡± Max yelled, getting his unit into formation within seconds.


    The staff of the Abraham Kepler looked impressed at their discipline, but all eyes in the unit were on Nico, who had taken her ce as Executive Officer at the front of the formation. That meant that she would be the first one scanned, and everyone would get to watch the show.


    Max decided to prolong the process just a little, and took his ce at the lead, stepping between the man with the scanner and Nico, so he could be processed first. Generally, as the Unit Commander, he didn¡¯t need to undergo the screening with the unit, he could do itter at the medical bay, but a little suspense would make it all the more entertaining, and assure the tech that their device was not in fact malfunctioning.


    The wand beeped happily and the tech saluted Max. ¡°All clear, sir. You are in perfect health, no diseases or harmful microbes detected.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Corporal.¡± Max smiled, stepping aside to watch the man scan Nico.<sub></sub>


    The first part of the scan was across the head to check for altered brain chemistry which would indicate brainwashing, drug impairment, or one of the mind-altering life forms that some other nations used.


    The man waved the wand and nothing happened. A full conversion cyborg¡¯s brain is in an armored capsule in its torso, not its head. After only a few incidents with snipers, the designs for full conversions were changed centuries ago.


    ¡°Thinking is overrated. Why not try the rest of the scan?¡± Nico asked the momentarily confused tech.


    ¡°Yes, of course, Major.¡± He answered, then paused and waved the wand in front of her chest.


    The happy beep was back and the man sighed in relief.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I should have guessed right away.¡± He muttered, and then the happy beep became an angry beeping, indicating that the person he scanned did not match the data on file for that registration number.


    An entire toon of Ship¡¯s security immediately rushed over, guns drawn and aimed at Nico, who was doing her best not tough in the very serious situation.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am we will have to ask you toe with us. Do you have any weapons, drugs, or body armor on your person?¡±


    ¡°No, Lieutenant, I am clear,¡± Nico answered and the tech brought out his metal detector, which predictably went insane the moment he turned it on.


    ¡°Dammit, sorry guys, she¡¯s an unregistered Cyborg.¡± The tech said sheepishly, while the entire Special Tactics unit had restrained tears in their eyes.


    It was like watching a badedy skit. They fell for every single mistake they could have made. But having gotten so used to things going right, the security force was still following the procedures manual and was patting her down to check for weapons and armor.


    Cyborgs often had hidden storage areas for weapons, so patting them down was useless, and they were armor, they didn¡¯t need to wear any additional armor unless they were blending in with a unit, or were only partial conversions.


    ¡°We will have to escort this person away, for the ship¡¯s security protocols. Please continue your scans.¡± The Lieutenant informed the tech with a sigh. He could clearly see he was beingughed at, since the entire unit already knew that she was going to fail the scan, they just didn¡¯t bother to inform the ship.


    ¡°Alright, the show is over. Everyone behave for the tech and let¡¯s get this done with.¡± Max called, silencing his troops in an instant.


    Four more of the infantry failed for infectious disease scans, which meant that everyone was off to the decontamination unit for a shower. They were given an antibiotic pill that would take care of all possible internal ailments, as well as a sanitizing shower, and then everyone was released to pick up their uniforms from the cleaning machines.


    The rest of their gear would also have to be sanitized before it could be returned, but that was an expected part of every return, so nothing that could be damaged by the process was left in their bags.


    The moment Max entered his bunk to change into something more casual, a notification beeped on his wrist device, informing him that his official status had been changed from actively deployed to in transit for vacation, with a date of return exactly three months away.


    He now officially had nothing to do but rx. At the moment, he wasn¡¯t even officially responsible for the oversight of his unit anymore, since they too were off duty, though they would all still face reprimand if someone misbehaved while aboard the ship.


    It was two more hours before Nico returned, and Max noticed that she now had hair on her previously shiny head.


    ¡°Leveraged the medical department or bought it from the stores in exchange for credits?¡± Max asked, checking out her new style, which was much longer than her old pixie cut, but just as jet ck.


    ¡°A gift from General Tennant. They had it waiting for me when I came into the med bay for my examinations and registration.¡± Nico exined, running her fingers through the long locks of silky hair. It was a strange experience for her, she had always kept her hair short and neatly trimmed, but the General¡¯s instructions said to leave this hair at its current length as long as possible, and that it might be necessary for her uing duties.


    His message didn¡¯t exin what they would be doing after vacation, but it must involve some level of human interaction, which meant she likely also wouldn¡¯t be allowed to kill anyone, no matter how much they deserved it.


    A shame really. The battlefield made things so much easier.


    Max had no idea what was going through Nico¡¯s mind, he was simply shocked at her appearance. The mighty Tarith Nico actually looked girly. Even with his brain¡¯s increase in processing speed, Max was having a hard time epting the change in her appearance. She was actually cute, and that¡¯s not a word he previously associated with her.

 143 Chapter 143

    Max was almost certain that the Unit didn¡¯t recognize Nico when they walked past to head to lunch in the closest Mess Hall. The only thing that had changed from this morning was her hair, but it was such a dramatic difference from her usual style that Max caught more than one soldier checking her out as she passed.


    They were busy talking about the amenities of the Comor system, which was on the northern frontier of the Kepler Empire, closest to the Gctic Center. There were no more organized empires or alliances in that direction for hundreds of light years, so thes of Comor had a fairly peaceful existence for most of their history. It was only when the Kepler Empire expanded that they were first faced with a real threat.


    In response, they began developing state-of-the-art Mecha technology as a preventative measure, as well as a number of advanced artificial intelligence systems that were intended to assist them should battlee to them. The war never actually broke out though. The AI that they had developed made contact with the AI that governs Kepler¡¯s ¡®System¡¯ and they brokered a deal between them for mutual assistance.


    The real attraction to the soldiers of Kepler wasn¡¯t their military alliance, but the state of thes. The advanced Mecha showcase was a major attraction to the Pilots, but the pristine beaches and forests of the outlyings weren¡¯t easy for anyone to turn down.<sub>.</sub>


    For Max and Nico, the real attraction was a bit nerdier than that. There was a video game tournament set to start a week after they arrived, where the contestants would get a chance to run a newly released first-person fighting game against the¡¯s best gamers.


    Nobody knew the actualyout, control method, or even the setting of the game, only that it was a first-person survival game that had been developed under strict security for the event. To true gamers, this was the greatest of challenges. It was entirely new and woulde with no instructions. The fastest to adapt and master the game would have the greatest advantages, and the top ten would get a two-week stay at the¡¯s most luxurious resort.


    Nico had, of course, already booked their spots in the tournament, using her Military authority to ovee the obstacles that would normally prevent those who weren¡¯t currently on the from applying. They had proof they would be there, and off duty, and with a little persuasion from the Major, the tournament officials were happy to invite a pair of active Pilots to join the match.<sub></sub>


    Over lunch, everyone in the unit was talking about it, the advertisements were all over the datawork if you searched for events on Comor. The contestants would only y the game for twelve hours to determine the winners, so there was a big buzz about which of the famous streamers would adapt fastest and win the prize.


    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, it will be Lord PockiPok. Nobody else adapts to a new game as fast as he does. Remember Gears of Grindage Seventeen? He was in the endgame within twenty-four hours.¡± One of the soldiers insisted, pulling up video streams from his chosen champion¡¯s past efforts.


    ¡°What about Callsign Flood? He cleared Ark of the Lost only fifty minutes after release.¡± Another one suggested, making a few othersugh. The game was an incredible flop,rgely thanks to his run-through. He hit all the hidden waypoints and skipped all the fluff content, so it was clear that he had an insider on the development team that gave him directions in advance.<sub></sub>


    ¡°If only Blood Goddess was still actively gaming. She was a monster at every fighting game released for like eight straight years, then just vanished a couple of years ago.¡± One of the Sergeants sighed.


    ¡°Blood Goddess eh?¡± Max whispered to Nico, who hid her smirk behind her hand.


    ¡°What can I say? It had such a nice ring to it. Maybe I should use it again for the tournament.¡± Nico chuckled and then turned to the other soldiers.


    ¡°If she were there, we know PockiPok would have no chance. Remember when she went 197-0 on him in the duel mode of Neversummer Days, live on his own stream?¡± Nico joked and a few of the streamer¡¯s fans groaned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t remind me. That was just brutal. She even hacked his webcam so he couldn¡¯t log out, all he could do was just die and die and die.¡± The soldier groaned, while a few others quickly pulled it up to see what they were talking about.


    Being on a ship in the middle of nowhere, their ess to streams was outdated, it would only catch up to live again when they got to a popted, but the streams they were looking for were popr enough to be archived, and old enough that they were definitely in theputers. If they weren¡¯t archived, they could try to pull them up as they passed within signal range of a popted system, but that could be days away.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get our mind offbat. Who is up for a nice leisurely game of Uno?¡± Someone asks, bringing a round of jeering insults their way. Uno was never a nice leisurely game. There might not be any money involved, but the game always ended in a fight.


    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ve got my sketchbook, you bastards sit still for a while so I can memorialize our first day back aboard.¡± The same soldierined, moving to sit by the door where he could see most of the cafeteria with a pad of paper and a pencil in his hands.


    Other than cards and reading, doing sketches was one of the most popr pastimes for the infantry, though most kept a rugged data tablet for the purpose, since the paper in a sketchpad was expensive and easily damaged.


    Theyughed and joked for hours before the staff kicked them out so they could start cleaning and setting up the dinner buffet. The ship was full now, and they were expecting the notification that they were leaving orbit soon, so everyone wanted to get a meal in before their evening nap. After years of experiments, the Pilots maintained that sleeping was still the best way to deal with the nausea and side effectsmonly suffered after a transfer to faster-than-light travel.


    This chapter is a preview, if you want to see a faster and more up-to-date chapter, please visit . for more content.

 144 Chapter 144

    Even though they were all off duty, there really was no escape from training. An hour or two at the gym every day, a little time in the Mecha simtors, racketball games against each other, there was always some sort of physical exercise to do.


    Nobody wanted to lose too many credits to gambling on this voyage after all. They were going to a highly popted, with a four-star orbital station known for its luxurious amodations, and that meant they would need pocket money when they arrived. Actually spending their sry was an umon luxury to the fleet-based military assets. What they needed inbat was provided, and most of their rest time would be at a military spaceport that didn¡¯t have anything worth buying.


    Between watching over the unit and his own training schedule, Max managed to avoid getting bored for the entire first week. But then the lethargy started to set in and he knew that either more intensive training or a proper distraction was needed. He decided that training was in itself a proper distraction.


    So, for this voyage, the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit started a new Mecha Combat league aboard Abraham Kepler. Not a new idea though, they had set up thesebat tournaments before. The only difference was that this time the Fleet was watching them more closely, so they couldn¡¯t set up a betting pool on the matches and had to pretend that they were just friendly training exercises.


    They had a lot of highly skilled Corvette ss Pilots to go with their Crusader ss Pilots, whereas most of the units on the ship did not. The Noctem Regiment had many more in total, butpared to the number of Line Mecha Pilots, their numbers were minuscule.<sub>.</sub>


    So, the League was born. Everyone fought inpletely standard Line Mecha simtors, and everyone got the same weapons. A sword and an Ion Rifle. For many pilots this was very familiar, for others, the sword was an essory that they had rarely used. But with everyone relegated to the same level, they could battle to their heart¡¯s content with the simtors linked and let the training program keep a ranking system for them. Nobody couldin that the others had an advantage other than their system and pure skill because every mecha was the exact same. To most, that made it even more interesting.


    Some scheduled fights so that they could learn from an opponent, others challenged pilots who annoyed them, and others were just there to kill time between card games. But every simtor was soon busy, and the rankings were written on the wall boards in every training arena aboard the ship.


    The fleet staff thought it was hrious, especially after Max pointed out that the Hanger Bay staff were all required to be qualified on the Line Mecha. Sure, most of them had never been inbat, and they had only barely passed their exams, being removed from the Piloting program and shifted to a maintenance track, but they were qualified, which meant that they were allowed to use the training equipment and they could join the battles.


    [Central Command, are you watching these battles?] The Admiral piloting Abraham Kepler asked the authorities that he is certain were monitoring the ship¡¯s training devices from one of the Commands near the Empire¡¯s core.<sub></sub>


    [Stupendous idea Fleet, though I¡¯m certain it was actually the junior officers that got bored and instituted it themselves. We have recorded a number of outstanding prospects for advancement through the training so far.] Central Command confirmed.


    ¡°That Special Tactics Group though, they¡¯re something else.¡± One of the security officers mutters, switching the screen in front of the Admiral to a scene where one Mecha is teaching thirty others closebat techniques at a speed that a Line Mecha shouldn¡¯t be capable of.


    ¡°Are they training their Corvette ss Pilots on Line Mecha?¡± The Admiral asks, looking closely at the scene.


    ¡°The Major insists that if they can¡¯t get a Line Mecha up to one hundred percent output there¡¯s no reason for them to use the moreplex systems of the Corvette ss. It¡¯s an odd idea, but some of them are getting very close to the goal.¡± The security officer confirms, munching popcorn as he watches the unit spar with each other and practice their sword forms.<sub></sub>


    ¡°How much would changing Mecha change theirbat effectiveness?¡± The admiral asks. He was never a Mecha Pilot, he went directly to the fleet academy once his Innate Talent for Interster Navigation was discovered.


    ¡°With the same input speed, they should be about thirty percent more efficient due to the reducedg time andrger size of the Corvette ss Mecha.¡± The officer confirms as one of the more gifted students steps forward to challenge the instructor inside the melee training simtion.


    ¡°Which ones are those? They¡¯re all using default Mecha avatars, and I can¡¯t tell them apart.¡± The Admiralined, sitting back to watch the fight.


    ¡°That should be Lieutenant Wolfe challenging Major Max.¡±


    Those words had the crew bringing every secondary screen in the ship¡¯s bridge to the feed from the training match. If a pilot thought he was ready to challenge the Major, he should be able to make the Line Mecha move at its maximum control speed, so the fight woulde down to talent and technique.


    At first Lieutenant Wolfe thought he might stand a chance against Max in a firefight, moving behind one of the obstacles for cover and opening fire. Max only subtly shifted the torso of his Mecha to avoid serious damage while returning fire and the sensor head on the Lieutenant¡¯s Line Mecha was destroyed in a sh of sparks.


    Without the primary sensors, there was no point in hiding anymore, the Line Mecha would just be torn apart. Fortunately, it has a small armored window in the front to improve visibility in exactly this situation, so Lieutenant Wolfe charged at Max, sword up and in thebat stance that they had been practicing. He had been doing extremely well at it, and his logs showed that he was pushing the maximum speed that the barebones Line Mecha was capable of, so he should stand a chance against Major Max, whose default spec Line Mecha couldn¡¯t move any faster than his own.


    The two swords shed with a whine of steel on steel and overloaded hydraulics. Max easily blocked the strike and pushed Lieutenant Wolfe back, firing two quick shots into the Mecha¡¯s torso to remind him that he did in fact have two hands and that ignoring the rifle just because you were close to your target was a fatal w.


    The two mecha closed again, exchanging blows while Nico narrated for the rest of the unit who was watching the fight.


    ¡°You see how he¡¯s swinging wide to avoid having his de intercepted mid-strike? That¡¯s costing him time, and at the peak of the Line Mecha¡¯s speed, it is making him unable tond a blow. Watch the small adjustments that Major Max is making. See how they put him in a position to block with minimal movement? That¡¯s the proper way to use what you have been learning.¡± Nico¡¯s narration made it very clear to them where the Lieutenant wascking, and the man himself could watch it back afterward to get hermentary and hints for self-improvement.


    Max took it easy on him, giving everyone time to learn from his small mistakes which added up to a big advantage for Max. Eventually, the Line Mecha began to slow due to repeated damage and Max knew it was time to end the fight, using his rifle to knock aside a sword strike and piercing his de through the cockpit of Lieutenant Wolfe¡¯s Mecha, resetting him to the starting area of the simtion.


    ¡°And that¡¯s how it¡¯s done. I expect you all will be able to do the same by the time we reach the space station and our vacation properly begins.¡± Nico dered before encouraging the unit back to work.


    [What a wless style. Make sure you record that.] The order from Central Command was more than pointless, that battle had been recorded on dozens of devices all around the ship already. Nobody wanted to miss out on the ¡®Major Max Combat Hour¡¯ as they called it, where his executive officer narrated the challenges to help the pilots improve their technique. A few even thought to set it to upload to the streams, until they realized that it was a military training exercise and was, therefore, both confidential and security locked.

 145 Chapter 145

    By the time they arrived at their destination, almost all the Corvette ss Pilots had met Max¡¯s standard to finish the training in the Line Mecha, and some of the Line Mecha pilots who joined them for training were getting close to it.


    That second group could easily pass the Corvette ss examination right now, but it wasn¡¯t within Max¡¯s authority to issue the exam. They weren¡¯t members of his unit, only visitors to their training regimen. With some luck, most of them would be allowed to advance by their own Commanders soon, possibly even at the end of this vacation period, but even if they didn¡¯t, those Pilots would be the elite among their peers.


    They also now had a much more rounded fighting style than the training they got in the academies which heavily preferred ranged fire over melee.


    [All hands to stations. Docking with Comor Station in 10 minutes.] Came the announcement of their final approach to the vacation destination.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°You heard theputer. Get your gear ready, we are in the first wave of units off the ship. Grab only what you need for the day, until you have clearance to leave the Station you will need to report back to the ship at night or pay the exorbitant rate for an Orbital Hotel.¡± Max announced, getting his troops in order.


    Everything seemed to be in order, and everyone was ounted for, but one particr Pilot looked very depressed and not at all eager to start their vacation. Max made a note to send a counselor to their bunk, but Nico was already headed over to see how she was doing.


    The two women chatted for a while and joined the lineup with Nico¡¯s arm around the Pilot¡¯s waist in a friendly embrace. It was only when they got closer that Max realized what the problem was. The Pilot was Breckenridge, who was previously bunked with her stepbrother Murphy. They were inseparable from the moment they joined the unit, even though they fought constantly.<sub></sub>


    Max hadn¡¯t noticed them bickering for some time now, and it finally dawned on him that her brother was not with her. Max didn¡¯t recall him being lost inbat. They were both assigned to Alpha Squadron, which lost mecha but no pilots during their deployment.


    Max searched the unit for Murphy and found him further back down the line, giving his finest effort to an attempt to suck the tongue out of the mouth of one of the infantry soldiers. Max couldn¡¯t see who it was, but he knew for sure that he wasn¡¯t getting in the middle of that rtionship mess. If Nico could solve it, he was happy to let her. If not, either the professionals could deal with it or he would do it himself if it became an issue while on duty.


    Unlike many other armies, the Kepler Military only gently discouraged intimate rtions within the ranks, they didn¡¯t have an official ban on the practice. The only time it became a disciplinary issue was when it affected operational effectiveness. The siblings had three months to work things out, and if their fallout had already happened while they were on duty, they kept it out of their work, so no rules were broken. The only time it would be an issue was when it involved favoritism from amanding officer. Aint that a bed partner was unfairly promoted was a serious allegation.<sub></sub>


    In their finest dress uniforms, the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit prepared to disembark and join the crowds of the Space Station. The facility itself was not exclusively military-run like most others, it had two separate wings, serving military forces and private vessels. The central area of the Station was a mingling ground for all walks of space-faring life. Everyone from corporate vessels with bulk cargo to pleasure yachts and cruises joined the massive military transports and the sleek gunships aboard the Station, giving the crowd a more urban vibe, where the multiple cultures mixed randomly.


    ¡°Max,e join us. Breckenridge here is in need of a proper adult beverage and some dancing.¡± Nico demanded, grabbing his hand and pulling him along towards the exit of the ship.


    ¡°Did you say drinks and dancing Major? It would be our honor if we could join you.¡± One of the pilots in line, who was part of the Noctem Regiment¡¯s Special Forces, asked politely, sneaking nces at Breckenridge.


    ¡°The more the merrier.¡± Max agreed, drawing the man and his friends into their group.


    It was barely lunch by the Station¡¯s time, so there was a good chance the dance clubs would be totally empty when they arrived. But if they could round up more soldiers, they could make a proper party of it.


    Nothing could have prepared the Pilots for the shock they received when they stepped off the ship and onto Comor Station though. The design was incredibly luxurious, but very strangely styled. The theme seemed to be Steampunk, but the thick carpets, real original paintings, and crystal chandeliers gave off a very expensive vibe.


    Before bing part of the Kepler Empire, this Station was Comor¡¯s gateway to the world, a private station for their region of the Gxy¡¯s most wealthy of private guests. Even now it maintained that aesthetic, and the Military only sent essential patrols and a small number of elite guests to the Station annually as a reward for exemry service.


    There were four other stations around this alone, with three of them being strictly military in nature, so troop transfers and repairs would be done there. The Comor Station was strictly for vacation.


    Seeing this, the soldiers¡¯ mood brightened, and even Breckenridge started looking forward to what a dance hall on Comor Station might look like.


    Nico was the only one that knew where they were going, the ship didn¡¯t have a map of the Station aboard, mostly for security reasons agreed to in the treaty with Comor. But she had gained ess the moment they were inmunications range and gathered all the necessary information for the first few day¡¯s outings.


    ¡°Wee Soldiers of the 43rd armored and the Noctem Regiment to The Pit, Comor Station¡¯s most eclectic dance club.¡± A clearly augmented human greeted them at the door, wearing some form of a steampunk butler¡¯s uniform with a pair of bouncers in in ck suits standing behind him.


    ¡°We have been expecting you. Please,e in, the party never stops in here. After all, every ship is operating in a different time zone.¡± The man¡¯s airy voice seemed like snobby was its natural state, but he was being very polite to them, even more than their Station and ranks demanded. But if they were getting in and partying, Max decided that it wasn¡¯t worth thinking about.

 146 Chapter 146

    Inside, the lights were dim, strobe lights shed, and thousands of people were dancing in a half dozen differently themed areas, each with their own music. Max had never seen anything like it in his life, and most of the pilots lookedpletely stunned by the sight, which made the greeter smile at their naive nature.


    In truth, The Pit was one of the gxy¡¯s best regarded perpetual parties, and extremely difficult to simply enter. If you weren¡¯t up to their standards, the doors would remain firmly closed in your face and no amount of money would open them.


    The reason they opened for the crew today was simple. Nico had promised them fresh meat for the Augmented Aunties that frequented and owned shares in the club. None of them looked a day over twenty, and every one of them was stunning in appearance, but that was all synthetic. Most of them were hundreds of years old and all of them had a taste for fresh-faced young soldiers. These dozens of Pilots, who outnumbered the women of their Regiment over twenty to one, had only been away from the academy a scarce few years, with the ones from the Special Tactics Unit being new graduates.


    If thedies couldn¡¯t find what they were looking for in this group, then what they were looking for might not exist.


    Max saw what Nico had done in her thoughts and said a silent prayer for hisrades in arms. Their sacrifice today would be honored for life, though never spoken of again. Max decided to call this an educational moment for them, and it was the perfect opportunity to mingle with civilians and take Breckenridge¡¯s mind off the dating status of her brother.


    ¡°If you prefer, the club offers a fashion service for our VIP clients. Would youdies care to partake?¡± A server asked the small handful of women in the group.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°That sounds lovely. Please lead the way.¡± Nico agreed, winking at Max and dragging Breckenridge with her.


    The others came very willingly, and the staff grabbed a few of the men toe with them as well, making Max chuckle as thedies at the bar gave him a knowing smile. There was no doubt that those were the Augmented Aunties that Nico¡¯s thoughts had referred to, and it was also clear that they knew he understood who they were as well.


    The changing process was incredibly fast, with makeup being applied and hair styled by an advanced robot in a matter of seconds. The outfits were themed to a portion of the club, and those who had been offered the service could return at will to match the section that they wished to mingle in.


    Both Nico and Breckenridge returned in short Cheongsam type dresses with their hair up and fis stockings. Breckenridge looked highly ufortable, trying to adjust her dress a bit so the slit up the leg didn¡¯t show as much, but the skirt was cut just specifically to not show what it shouldn¡¯t unless the one wearing it wanted it to.


    ¡°Rx. Nobody will see your underwear. We¡¯re going to dance and drink and forget all about your problems.¡± Nico insisted, giving a little twirl before grabbing Max in one hand and Breckenridge in the other.<sub></sub>


    A few of the Pilots, including the one who first asked to join them followed behind thedies like lost puppies as Nico led them into an industrial-themed portion of the club with a bouncing pop beat. Shots of some glowing blue local liqueur were brought over the moment they entered, and bothdies downed them before Nico spun Breckenridge into the arms of her admirer, telling them to go dance while she found a table.


    The table she found was in a corner, but up on a slightly raised tform that let them see the dance floor, and those near the dance floor see them. The server ced a reserved sign down on their behalf, along with a round of electrolyte recement drinks, perfect for the exertion of dancing.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Max smiled at the server, who gave him a polite bow and walked back to her station.


    Max didn¡¯t miss the signal that she gave a table full ofdies as she passed through. They all looked like local nobles¡¯ daughters, wearing high fashion and not the themed outfits that the club assigned to this room. Everyone knew that soldiers didn¡¯t carry any cash on them, and their credits could only be used or exchanged at specified locations, so the hungry looks the Pilots were getting could only mean one thing.


    ¡°Nico, what have you done?¡± Max whispered, knowing her ears could hear him.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Created some fun. Trust me on this, nobody is going to get hurt, and they will have a wonderful tale to tell when they get back to the ship.¡± Nico responded softly, as the Pilots met the approachingdies halfway and began flirting before heading to the dance floor.


    ¡°Now, shall we? It would be a shame to get all dressed up and not dance.¡± Nico pouted, pulling Max to his feet.


    It wasn¡¯t necessary, Max was in a party mood, and ready to rx.


    He couldn¡¯t help looking into the thoughts of the dancers though and found something very interesting. Nearly a third of the patrons at this time of day, all female, were actually employees of the club, here to dance and party with the paying customers.


    This was how they maintained their reputation as a peak party spot, the club simply hired pretty women to show up a couple of times a week and party. What else they did was up to them, but Max stopped searching before he got to the details of their side jobs, for the sake of his own mental health. Max recalled that some clubs did that back on Kepler Terminus as well. They would pay celebrities to show up to their clubs and bring an entourage with them.


    In exchange, the celebrity would promote the club and bring in visitors and revenue. Of course, a lot of the celebrities ended up spending more than they were paid, living the party lifestyle at a reduced cost, but that too was a win for the venue.


    Max¡¯s stats were far beyond human average, so dancing was no trouble at all, and he had put a lot of work into his stamina. Hours passed, and the club got absolutely packed with patrons for the evening. Breckenridge and her admirer had disappeared with a wealthy socialite some time ago and most of the other Pilots were upied either on the dance floor or at one of the tables, so Max and Nico returned to their booth while Max ordered a fresh drink. The one on the table wasn¡¯t empty, but he had left it unattended for hours at a time.


    No way would he drink that in a ce like this.


    Every few hours that evening Nico demanded to change outfits and regions of the club, checking up on the other Pilots and all aspects of the party. They had just finished their fifth costume change of the night and were rxing in what Max would have called a Cabaret, with a lovely singer from a blue-skinned species Max didn¡¯t recognize when they finally found Breckenridge and her admirer again. Both had a telltale glow and tousled hair, but more interestingly was the way they were both hanging off the obviously wealthy woman in between them.


    That wasn¡¯t what Max expected when this party started, but if they were happy it was fine by him.


    ¡°Alright, everyone is happy, can we go now? You might not get tired, but we¡¯ve been here over twelve hours.¡± Maxined, quietly so as not to disturb the atmosphere of the room.


    ¡°Just a little longer, I ordered you some more snacks. You have to try these ones and then we can go.¡± Nico agreed, humming along with the singer.


    The pastries were thest straw for Max. They were filled with a strongly alcoholic fruit paste, and his vision began to blur a little as he heard Nico chuckle and escort him out of the club. They stopped for a few minutes while a staff member brought him water and Nico changed back into her uniform, but she left with arge bag that had the club¡¯s logo on it.


    ¡°The material printers make them on the spot, the clothes are intended to be single-use, so the Club only uses a specific pattern for one day a year,¡± Nico informed Max as she half carried him back to the ship.


    That was great news, he was looking forward to seeing her in some of those outfits again.

 147 Chapter 147

    Surprisingly, Max woke up the next day with only the faintest trace of a hangover, but an incredibly sore body. Every muscle and joint seemed to ache from hours and hours of dancing and partying at The Pitst night.


    His wrist device had a message to contact Nico when he woke up, and he saw that it was nearly noon already. Max had never slept in thatte a single day in his life, but given his conditionst night, he isn¡¯tpletely sure what time they got back to the ship.


    The most important issue for what was left of the morning was food, so Max headed for the mess hall, where he could already hear boisterous voices talking about all the wonderful things they were going to do with their vacation days. The most popr was the Video Game Tournament, followed by something called a Hyper Luge, which seemed to be a winter sport that took ce in the mountains.


    There was still nearly a week until the tournament venue opened, so Max didn¡¯t know what he was going to do for the next few days but knowing Nico she had something insane nned. He didn¡¯t see any of the pilots who went to the club with him yesterday, but that wasn¡¯t surprising given the state that they were in when he left. Most of them wouldn¡¯t havee back to the shipst night anyhow. They were officially still stationed aboard Abraham Kepler, but as long as they didn¡¯t leave the Station nobody was going to reprimand them for staying out all night.


    Once he had enough food and coffee in him to function, Max started to notice the envious nces the other soldiers were giving him.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°What? Is there something on my face?¡±


    The closest Pilot was Vincente, who onlyughed at his question. ¡°No, Commander, your face is spotless. But we heard a wild tale of your adventuresst night. Did you really manage to sneak an entire wing of Pilots into The Pit to take down a dozen of the¡¯s wealthiest bachelorettes?¡±


    Max could shake his head at that interpretation. ¡°I didn¡¯t sneak anyone in, we passed the Doorman¡¯s scrutiny. I¡¯m not sure who everyone else went home with, but I came straight back to my room this morning.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I saw that part, you were nearly passed out over Major Nico¡¯s shoulder singing Cabaret tunes. I checked the records, and nobody else came back, not even Breckenridge. We were worried about her, but when we contacted her some Pilot from the Noctem Regiment answered for her.¡± the swarthy Captain chuckled.<sub></sub>


    ¡°We¡¯ve all heard the rumors about The Pit, and the women who frequent the club, but to think that so many of the Pilots would luck out and we weren¡¯t invited.¡± Paul sighed, joining in the conversation.


    ¡°I¡¯ll just say this much, you got luckier than they did. Those innocents were no match for what they found in the club.¡± Max told him with a smirk, thinking of the ones who were grabbed up by the Aunties. They might never look at a woman the same way again.


    [There is a suit in your room. Get dressed up fancy, I¡¯ve found us somewhere to visit on the Station.] Nico sent Max¡¯s wrist device just as he finished eating.


    ¡°Alright, Nico has ns for the day, and I¡¯m included, so I will see you allter. Don¡¯t do anything I wouldn¡¯t do, and enjoy your vacation.¡± Max ordered his troops in a serious voice before going to get changed.<sub></sub>


    The ¡®suit¡¯ as Nico called it was a full formal military Tuxedo, mostly worn to political events and weddings. Nobody wore these for daily wear, but Nico had sent it for a reason, so Max reluctantly got it all on and tried to tame his hair, which was getting a bit shaggy, but still in regtion.


    Nico has a hair styling device that will give him a perfect trim, so Max made his way to her room, finding the Major styling her hair into a half up half down style and wearing an elegant Silver ballgown that he recognized from the reception on Kepler 111 after the recruitment.


    ¡°Can you give me a haircut before you tell me what exactly you¡¯ve got nned for today?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°No problem, just wrap it on your head and I¡¯ll trim you back to regtion. Unless you want something a bit fancier, since we¡¯re on vacation?¡± she asked with a smirk.


    ¡°If you¡¯re thinking of giving me a perm like the first day we met, forget about it. Just the regtion high and tight is fine for me.¡±


    Nico looked a little sad at the idea, but a secondter, Max felt his hair being trimmed so he took the cloth-like device to the sink to shake it out. The mirror showed him the image of the perfectly trimmed blonde officer, a shining beacon of hope, straight from the Kepler propaganda videos. The stress of repeated battles had given his youthful face just enough maturity that he didn¡¯t look like a junior officer or Cadet anymore, and Max wondered just when that had happened.


    ¡°Now Lord Max, if you will kindly apany me, we have an appointment to keep,¡± Nico informed him, adding matching gloves to her outfit to hide the slightly mechanical look of her hands. The body had adjusted quite a bit, but nobody¡¯s knuckles were that smooth, so her hands were still clearly artificial.


    A round of appreciative whistles followed them down the halls as they made their way to the exit again and Nico made a point of giving sarcastic curtseys to the people she recognized.


    Again they walked through the opulent halls of the Comor Station¡¯s military wing, then Nico led him to a moving floor and they rode it to the far side of the station where the Yachts were docked and high society parties were held.


    ¡°Tell me we¡¯re not party crashing,¡± Max whispered, worried that she was causing trouble.


    ¡°Of course not. This time they actually invited us without anyone asking. You will understand in a few minutes.¡± Nico whispered back, stepping off the conveyor in front of a grand ballroom where arge number of nobles had congregated.


    There were no questions when they approached, the doormen simply held out a fingerprint scanner for them to verify their identity. Both scanners went green and a bit of data appeared on the screen.


    ¡°Sir Max, Imperial Lady Tarith, the Lord General is waiting for you inside.¡± The response from security immediately put Max on guard, the only ones who would call her Imperial Lady Tarith were higher nobles who were observing every bit of the formal ceremony. Everyone else would call her Lady Nico or Major Nico.


    When they stepped into what was clearly a Noble G, Max was shocked to see Lord General Kirnd, one of the Cygnus officers that they captured on KSF129, their second deployment, where the Cygnus Army intervened. Though the two nations were again at peace, it was a bit of a shock to see the highly regarded Lord General here, on the far side of the Empire from his home territory.


    ¡°So d you two could make it. I saw your transporte in and simply had to invite you both toe to visit. We¡¯re having a little soiree for the titled locals in celebration of the marriage between the Imperial family and the Comor System¡¯s ruling Chen family.¡± Lord General Kirnd exined.


    That exins the tuxedo.

 148 Chapter 148

    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to see you again under such auspicious circumstances,¡± Nico responded with a smile, making the Lord Generalugh. Thest time they parted they had been joking about meeting inbat.


    ¡°Please doe and meet the soon-to-be Imperial Lady Chen. We might have finally found someone your size.¡± General Kirndughed, motioning them toward a table where two children and their parents were seated.


    ¡°Imperial Prince Wushu, Imperial Lady Chen, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Imperial Lady Tarith and Sir Max of Kepler Terminus.¡± He introduced them to the two children, who were most likely the betrothed couple.


    ¡®He was right about finding someone Nico¡¯s size.¡¯ Max decided, noticing that neither child was old enough to have been sent to a military academy yet. Now that they were married, they likely wouldn¡¯t be, as they would be transferring to Cygnus, but the standard was still how Max measured age in his mind.


    The two children¡¯s eyes lit up at the introduction, recognizing the names. It was the boy Wushu who spoke first though. ¡°So it¡¯s really them? I knew it was true, only two nobles held off the advance of our Super Heavy Mecha.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°There was actually a third one there, a Viscount named Carb.¡± Nico rified, and the kids got even more excited, looking forward to Nico¡¯s version of storytime.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we go socialize? They will monopolize your date for at least half an hour.¡± General Kirndughed, leading Max away to introduce him to everyone else there.


    ¡°How did you end up on wedding convoy duty instead of inside a Mecha? Don¡¯t tell me you retired already?¡± Max asked the athletic man in hister middle years.


    ¡°The Royal Family was greatly disappointed with us all. Though the Lord Commander took the worst of the punishment, I¡¯ve been transferred to the position of political emissary. In recognition of my work to ensure a fair and bnced trade deal in the wake of the disaster, of course.¡± The General exined.<sub></sub>


    ¡°My condolences. I don¡¯t think I could do politics full time.¡±


    That was a topic that both could agree on, and they turned to pleasant chatter as they met with the various Comor nobles who were present for the engagement party, as well as the members of the Cygnus Imperial escort that hade along.


    ¡°We have arranged to lodge the pair of you here in the Comor Royal Hotel for the remainder of the weekend until passes to the can bepleted. It¡¯s much better than staying on the ship.¡± The clerk who came with General Kirnd informed Max politely when they met, making his eyes bug out.


    He had heard about this cest night. If The Pit was THE party ce on the station, this was the most desired orbital resort. It had everything from gctically famous chefs to its own exclusive luxury mall and a three-hundred-acre orbitalke with an armored ss bottom, so you could swim out and look into the cosmos from the safety of the Space Station. There was even a golf course, though Max had no idea how the game was yed.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Tomorrow there¡¯s another special event you should attend. A bare-knuckle boxing match that is supposed to have a pair of Beta ranked fighters as the headliners.¡± The General exined after all the introductions were finished.


    Max had watched these as a kid but never in person. He could only afford to pirate them off the datawork. They might not prove as interesting now that he was stronger and faster than the fighters were, but it was guaranteed to be a good show.


    A Noble G was much more subdued than the wild partyst night at The Pit and Max took his time to chat with everyone who seemed to be friendly. Many of them put a high value on titles and he was a Knight, the lowest of titled nobles, but for those who were the younger children of nobles, he was still something to aspire to, a man who earned his own title inbat and didn¡¯t have to inherit anything from his family.


    Before long, the young couple was removed to a secure hotel suite to get to know each other better, though they were already bonding well over a love of the highly exaggerated war stories that Nico told. She had long since moved from her own experiences to retelling Kepler Military legends for the pair, whose parents had sheltered them from such things in their youth.


    The parents still didn¡¯t seem really happy about the stories, but Nico told them so mboyantly, with the gruesome parts glossed over that they would only make the kids wonder what was being hidden if they objected to the stories being told now. That would lead to them searching themselves, and unsupervised searches on the Data Network could show them many things that sheltered noble children didn¡¯t need to see.


    ¡°How is it that you never ended up married into a Ruling Family and instead ended up a Mecha Pilot, Lady Tarith?¡± The father of the groom asked with polite, but intense curiosity on his surgically beautiful features and in his voice.


    ¡°I have an Alpha Ranked System Compatibility, and Piloting is my family¡¯s hobby and primary profession, so I was sent to the Academy like all the other talented children,¡± Nico answered with a smile.


    Her family no longer cares about its noble heritage, but that would be impolite to say to a family who rules over a the same way they used to. The vague answer has only intrigued them more, and Max suspects that one or more of them will try to ess her datater to see what sort of achievements she has managed to back up that devotion to Mecha.


    They are about to retire to the suite that the General has booked for them when one final guest came in, clearly hurrying, and somewhat disheveled in a whiteb coat.


    ?[0)??? ¡°Forgive my appearance, I was involved in my work and lost track of time. Please do give my best to the couple.¡± The scientist dered, drawing stifledughter from many of the Comor nobles in the room.


    ¡°Uncle Lu, it¡¯s after eleven. They have gone to bed, you¡¯ll have to see them tomorrow.¡± The father of the bride dered, smiling in affection at what was apparently his uncle.


    ¡°Oh, and the Noble Couple from Terminus are here as well. I have heard a lot about you, and I look forward to seeing you again.¡± The scientist announced with a bow towards where Max and Nico were standing, then abruptly turned and left towards the hotel.


    His Nephew sent guards after him, likely to stop him from barging in to see his grandniece and her fiancee and the party¡¯s atmosphere began to turn towards retiring for the night.


    ¡°Unlike the clubs here on the Station, we don¡¯t often party until the morning. I thank you all foring to today¡¯s announcement, and a proper series of Engagement Parties will be arranged in the near future.¡± The bride¡¯s father announced, bowing to the crowd before leading his wife away.


    For most that was a signal to disperse, but for some, it was a signal to stuff their face with the remainder of the snacks and start pounding drinks.


    As Max suspected, there were two very different kinds of Nobles.

 149 Chapter 149

    General Kirnd approached the spot where Max and Nico were admiring the devotion of some of the Comor Nobles to gluttony. He weaved his way through the thinning crowd with a smile until he got close to the two Kepler Pilots when he held up a hand with a pair of hotel key cards in it.


    ¡°As promised, your rooms are ready. I hope you don¡¯t mind that they¡¯re on the Cygnus delegations floor. It was the only way to obtain an extra room on short notice. The hotel is pretty much booked full for the uing engagement parties.¡± The General exined.


    ¡°As luxurious as the rooms on a Capital ss transport are, I¡¯m certain that anything you could find us in this hotel would be an improvement, Lord General.¡± Max chuckled.


    ¡°The broom closet is two meters by three with hardwood flooring and golden fixtures. I checked.¡± Nico added, making a number of the guestsugh.


    No aspect of the hotel was overlooked so that malicious photographers would find there were no bad angles to embarrass the luxury of the resort with.


    The General led them to a ss-walled elevator that overlooked the indoorke, and they slowly ascended to nearly the top of the hotel.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to stay in for room service, the beachfront caf¨¦s have an excellent selection of seafood-based breakfast options. In addition, material printers in the room will create your choice of hotel-branded bathing apparel and formal wear. It¡¯s included with every stay, so don¡¯t be shy.¡±


    His description made this day off sound better and better. A whole day spent lounging on an exclusive resort beach with all-inclusive gxy-ss food and drinks? Max was practically in heaven.


    ¡°Say zero eight hundred?¡± Nico asked, and General Kirnd nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be there. I live by the ocean on my homeworld, but good seafood is hard to find on deployment. Ah, here we are, your room. Forgive the plethora of guards. It is protocol with Royalty in the building. The entire hotel is on a discrete partial lockdown until after the young couple leaves.¡± He exined.


    ?[0)??? ¡°That¡¯s to be expected. I certainly don¡¯t want to get caught up in any meaningless international incidents.¡± Max agreed, touching the key card to the door, which automatically swung open.<sub></sub>


    Max and Nico shared an incredulous look at the room. It has deep cream-colored carpets, burnished Bronze ents, blood red curtains, and bedding, with golden filigree on the walls.


    Though there was an extremely slim chance that it was intentional, the hotel room almost perfectly matched their unit¡¯s colors.


    General Kirnd noticed the unique colorbination when his men checked in. When he spotted Abraham Kepler docking, he even rearranged some of the room assignments so that he could put Max and Nico in this particr room for their stay. The Comor Royal Family¡¯s brother, the scientist named Lu, who hade to the announcement partyte today, had asked him to help impress these Pilots to earn their goodwill.


    The General wasn¡¯t privy to the details, but he suspected that they were about to be much more famous in Kepler than he had made them infamous in Cygnus.


    That would not be easy, though. They were the antagonists in a new hit docudrama that had aired all over the Cygnus nation. It had a surprise happy ending, with the antagonists releasing the captured heroes at the end and walking away from the battle to let them escape, but the filmmaker had used their actual names and a close copy of their likeness, so any Cygnus citizen they casually met would likely recognize them.<sub></sub>


    Of course, it was censored and blocked in Kepler since it was foreign propaganda, so they would likely never learn of their own infamy.


    After bidding the General goodnight, Max took a moment to truly admire the room. It was properly a suite since the bedroom was separate, but the dining room and sitting room were in a matched theme. There was also arge holo-projector on which he couldn¡¯t wait to watch movies and a Bronze leather couch softer than any cloth he had ever touched.


    ¡°Could you unzip me? They¡¯ve got a bubble bath that smells like orange blossoms.¡± Nico demanded, pointing to her back.


    Max obliged, and Nico simply stepped out of the dress right where she was, heading for the bath.


    ¡°There¡¯s a separate auto shower if you don¡¯t want to smell like orange blossoms.¡± She called out right before the sound of sshing let him know she was in the tub.


    After a whole day of socializing, Max was ready to shower and have a nap. Whoever decided that these functions should be twelve hours long was pure evil.


    Max finished washing, stepped out of the shower, through the gold framed doorway that dried him with warm air as he passed through, and grabbed a robe from the wall. Nico was making happy noises in the tub, so he headed for the bedroom without bothering her, finding only one enormous bed.


    It was what the slums called a Harem King Size mattress. At three meters in either direction, it was suited for many species of varying sizes but vastly oversized for the two of them.


    It was incrediblyfortable, though; Max was asleep seconds after hey down.


    The next thing he knew, he heard Nico whistling as she got ready in the morning. He cracked open an eye and found her braiding her hair in a dressing gown, bringing back unpleasant memories of mornings with his mother when she was home and would insist on styling his hair for the day.


    She had chosen a fashionable one-piece swimsuit thatced up the sides, showing off her wless metallic skin, which she had managed to alter enough to almost exactly emte her previously baster organic skin. She also had a Yukata, a form of simple short robemonly worn during summer festivals waiting for her to finish her hair.


    ¡°You know those are usually worn without anything underneath.¡± Max joked, and her eyes lit up with mischief.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that cause an incredible scandal when I went swimming? Maybe I should change.¡±


    Max shook his head at her, then noticed a pair of shorts and a lightweight button-down shirt waiting for him with a pair of sandals.


    ¡°I took the liberty of picking matching outfits. Now hurry up or we will bete for breakfast.¡±


    Fortunately, she didn¡¯t go overboard, but the shirt was the same red as her swimsuit. Come to think of it, Max himself had never been to ake unless you counted the day that Belmont flooded.

 150 Chapter 150

    The moment max stepped out of the room a small voice called out to him from down the hall.


    ¡°Excuse me, Mister Stalwart, I mean Sir Max, are you going to the beach?¡± The young Cygnus Noble asked hopefully.


    ¡°Indeed I am. Would you like toe along?¡± Max asked and the boy cheered.


    ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you again, Sir. We would love to apany you, but mother said that the first guards they sent today were unsuitable, so we had to wait.¡± The young Lady Chen informed him, joining Max and Prince Wushu in the hallway.


    ¡°Lady Tarith will be with us shortly. She was unhappy with her sandals.¡± Nico told the two children who looked at their own bare feet.


    ¡°We will be right back. Please wait just a moment.¡± The Prince yelled as he ran back into his room for shoes.


    As a Royal, he has a servant dedicated to dressing him, but they hadn¡¯t expected him to go outside quite yet, so he was still barefoot.


    They were also joined by four Cygnus bodyguards and two Nannies in traditional Maid outfits that nearly reached the floor. The beach area was kept very warm forfort while minimally dressed, so they would be sweltering in those uniforms, but their serious demeanor said that he shouldn¡¯t ask them to change.


    Nico joined the group, taking one small hand in each of hers and then cing them together. ¡°There we go. If you¡¯re holding hands you won¡¯t get separated.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    The Lady Chen blushed a little and Prince Wushu tried to hide his embarrassment, but neither of them let go of the other¡¯s hand all the way to the elevator.


    ¡°You¡¯re a Cyborg aren¡¯t you? My uncle tells me all about new technology. Is that Synthetic flesh?¡± The little girl asked as they gathered in the ss box, her curiosity getting the better of her.


    ¡°This version is the Highly Malleable metal shell. The synthetic flesh isn¡¯t suitable forbat.¡± Nico corrected her and the girl took Nico¡¯s hand in her free one.


    ¡°It¡¯s so real though, that¡¯s amazing. They won¡¯t let me in theb, so I¡¯ve never touched one before.¡±


    ¡°Young Miss, theb is a military facility, it is no ce for children.¡± The Nanny reprimanded her in an exasperated voice.


    ¡°Don¡¯t look at me with those Puppy eyes, I can¡¯t get you in either.¡± Nicoughed as the young Lady pouted.


    ¡°But you¡¯ve got the next best thing. Major Nico will stay near you until the recement bodyguards show up.¡± Max suggested, making the Nanny sigh.


    ?[0)??? Even though she was getting married off early, Lady Chen had high hopes that she could still grow up to be a Scientist like her favorite uncle. It probably wouldn¡¯t be an issue, since she seemed quite intelligent, but it would be in Cygnus, not here in Kepler, so she was kept strictly away from confidential information.<sub></sub>


    ¡°General Kirnd, I do hope you don¡¯t mind a bit morepany for breakfast. We found a few stragglers and brought them with us.¡± Max called out when he found the Lord General sitting at a table, sipping on something white and slushy.


    ¡°I thought they were grounded until new bodyguards arrived?¡± The general asked, smiling at the kids.


    ¡°Who better than a pair of active duty Pilots with Alpha Ranked Systems? Even the bodyguards aren¡¯t allowed firearms inside the building, so there isn¡¯t much to fear.¡± Nico shrugged off his concerns.


    ¡°And if someone does start shooting, she¡¯s bulletproof.¡± Young Lady Chen pointed out.


    ¡°That¡¯s not how Systems work.¡± The General began before looking more closely at Nico.


    ¡°Yesterday, I thought that was Court makeup, but you are a full conversation cyborg, aren¡¯t you? I don¡¯t know how I missed that during the treaty meetings.¡± General Kirnd thought out loud.


    ¡°It¡¯s a recent development. A rather unfortunate incident with a Narsian invasion wave.¡±


    The bodyguards all winced in sympathy and the General patted her shoulder, leading them to the table.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I hope your tastebuds survived, the food here smells amazing.¡± He smiled, watching the Nannies get the two Nobles settled while they were still holding each other¡¯s hand.


    That was a far better progression in the young couple¡¯s rtionship than General Kirnd had hoped for the first day. Young Nobles often fought everything from the wedding ns to their staff and each other. If these two were calm and actually got along it would be a blessing for him.


    The te that was brought out for Max included a dozen matching pieces of sushi, a lobster tail, bite-sized crab sd sandwiches, and a salmon and eggs Benedict. Just looking at it Max is certain that there is no way he can eat all of this, no matter how good it looks.


    Each of the others around the restaurant has received a simrly diverse meal and Max notices that the Comor nobles swap bits off their tes to get an even wider variety.


    ¡°It is the custom here. You rarely end up with more than a single bite of anything but your main dish.¡± Lady Chen exined, noticing his confusion.


    In Max¡¯s case, that¡¯s the Benedict and lobster, which he starts with while Nico swaps one of his sushi rolls with a stuffed mushroom from her te.


    The meal is a bright and lively scene. Even if the swapping of food between tes makes Max¡¯s eye twitch in annoyance, the end result is worth it. Now he knows which ones to order up to the roomter.


    The Comor nobles started a game of beach volleyball just after the meal ¡°to burn off calories¡± and invited everyone to y. The only problem is that Comor is a First Generation Kepler ally, only those who are very young were born with Nanobots and a chance to activate the System.


    Max considered ying at a human level, just for the promise of bikini-d bodies, but declined with the excuse of watching the kids until recement guards arrive.


    ¡°You can go if you like. With the others here we will be fine.¡± Prince Wushu tells him before General Kirnd whispers something in his ear and the boy¡¯s eyes open wide in shock.


    ¡°No way that¡¯s true. No human can do that.¡± The boy informs the General with full certainty.


    ¡°Major Max, might I ask how tough you can jump? The General asks politely, making his point.


    ¡°We don¡¯t really have a vertical jump in our testing, but with a couple of steps to get momentum it is no problem to jump on top of my Crusader ss Mecha, Stalwart,¡± Max replied, keeping the answer vague since his strength is incredibly high even by Kepler standards.


    Young Lady Chen looks intrigued while her fiance looks horrified at the news.


    ¡°A standard volleyball can¡¯t take a hit from a Crusader ss Pilot.¡± Nico informed the boy gently and he just shook his head in denial, unwilling to ept the news.


    ¡°Is that why mom said we needed Kepler guards?¡± The little girl asked Nico.


    ¡°Most likely. With the system active we are very strong and fast. But I can sense that you will have it too, so you might be like Sir Max here if yourpatibility is good enough.¡±


    ¡°You mean I might be able to run as fast as a bicycle and jump over hovercraft?¡±


    Her standards are much too low. Even the D Ranked infantry can mostly do that. But to a little girl who didn¡¯t grow up around it, such things would sound fantastic.


    ¡°Come here for a second and I¡¯ll show you something cool,¡± Max told her, holding out his arms to pick her up.


    Once she was in his arms, Max jumped up and over the volleyball tond in the spectator area on the far side of the court. Lady Chen giggled and pped her hands while Prince Wushu gave her an envious re.


    ¡°Do you want to fly too?¡± Nico asked, but he only gave her a strange look.


    ¡°Could you even pick me up? No offense, but you¡¯re pretty small.¡±


    ¡°Max, he wants to fly with you,¡± Nico called, darting over to his side in a split second.


    ¡°And you could fight against that kind of speed when you¡¯re in a Mecha? Mecha really are amazing.¡± Price Wushu congratted General Kirnd in a very serious voice. The old man didn¡¯t have the heart to remind the boy that he lost, or that their Mecha control systems are very different and the Cygnus models only need a strong mind to move the powerful metallic suits.


    He can find that out for himselfter. Today all General Kirnd wants is for the young couple to get along with each other.

 151 Chapter 151

    They spent the rest of the morning watching the noble guests y beach games then went for a swim before rxing on the beach with sses of juice. Or at least Max went for a swim.


    As it turns out, Nico does not float. At all. So, despite being waterproof and able to absorb oxygen from the water, ying in the deeper parts of theke was not for her without specialized equipment. She did have a lot of fun in the deep water though, walking out to the center of theke to admire the view out of the station through the transparent panels.


    All morning long, Max sensed that something was not right, but when he listened to the thoughts of those around him he didn¡¯t find anything strange or threatening. He was beginning to think he was just being paranoid, the way the threat seemed to keep changing directions throughout the morning, but it was too persistent to be nothing at all.


    After a light lunch of deep-fried fish fingers, specially prepared at Max¡¯s request for the kids, the next shift of guards arrived, six Gamma-ranked Security Guards employed by the Chen family.


    All four parents came with them, ready to scold the children until they saw the two Majors and the General sitting with them.


    ¡°So you did wait for guards, just not the ones we expected. Well yed.¡± The head of the new security detail congratted the two while giving the Nannies a dirty look for not informing him.


    They looked utterly unconcerned, and Max got the impression that they were likely as well trained, if not more skilled than the actual security.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Did you see anything suspicious this morning?¡± The leader of the iing guard shift asked Max politely, ignoring the Nannies.


    ¡°Nothing. It¡¯s been pretty calm here.¡± Max informed him with a smile. It was honestly a very rxing morning, other than that nagging feeling in the back of his mind.


    ¡°Just the one server with the imnted cornea camera, but maybe that¡¯s normal? I don¡¯t know much about Comor employee security procedures.¡± Nico added.


    ¡°Where?¡± Both Maids asked instantly, and Nicounched herself over to a nearby tiki bar, grabbing one of the employees by the shirt.


    ¡°This one, see. It¡¯s a cornea imnt on his right eye.¡± Nico pointed out.


    ¡°How could you even notice that? It¡¯s perfectly transparent.¡± The manined, clearly terrified of the swimsuit-d Mecha Pilot.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I am a Cyborg. Upgraded sensor devices are pretty standard for every full conversion, especially in the Military.¡± Nico told him, keeping her face expressionless since she hadn¡¯t quite mastered a smirk yet.


    It was actually her Innate Talent that found it and identified it as a camera, not some super secret military-grade upgrade to her eyes, though if she zoomed in and used her thermal ovey she would be able to detect the slight temperature variance between the two eyes. But who would examine a simple tiki bar employee that closely? The chances that he would be detected were extremely low.


    ¡°Cameras are strictly prohibited here. We will have to confiscate your recording device.¡± The young Lady¡¯s maid snarled, barely keeping her quiet servant act together.


    ¡°I am with the Comor Free Bacon, I have rights. This is a vition of the press.¡± The man dered suddenly, looking victorious.


    ¡°Under Kepler military securityws, taking illicit footage of military personnel and dignitaries is not a crime. However, publishing it may be considered a vition of espionagews subject to summary execution on conviction.¡± Nico informed him and a small wet spot became visible below the waist of his uniform as the reporter began to panic.


    ?[0)??? ¡°I will see that the footage is properly vetted through the censors.¡± The man stammered and then fled the beach at a full sprint, heading for the main doors out of the hotel and into the Station.<sub></sub>


    ¡°How long has it been since a reporter was convicted of espionage?¡± Prince Wushu asked, eager to learn a new way to get rid of the annoying paparazzi that gued the Cygnus Royal Family¡¯s life.


    ¡°Thest one to be convicted in Kepler territory was thirty-seven years ago. A reporter was found to be a Cygnus military spy and was publicly executed. She was just scaring the reporter away with a threat.¡± General Kirnd rified for the boy, who looked crestfallen at the news that you couldn¡¯t simply convict and kill paparazzi.


    ¡°They¡¯re not allowed to take footage in private spaces though, so there are limits,¡± Max added.


    ¡°You will get used to them, Highness. They¡¯re a persistent lot. But as long as you¡¯re never caught in public with a woman who isn¡¯t your wife the scandals will all be minor.¡± General Kirnd chuckled. Multiple wives for the Royal family were nothing new, but there were strict standards to their behavior nheless.


    The beach games had settled down for the afternoon and the kids were having a nap in a hammock together when the Chen family¡¯s rather entric uncle showed up, looking around to ensure his brother wasn¡¯t there to stop him from hanging out with his niece.


    He had a big smile on his face and a pair of child-sized VR headsets with him. The moment he noticed Max and Nico he came over, wishing to say hello again.


    ¡°I hope you remember me. Everyone calls me Uncle Lu. I am the head of Comor¡¯s Mecha development program and an amateur video game designer. I designed the game you both will bepeting on in a few days, but no spoilers, it would ruin the fun.


    What I really came for was to see you. My department has been gushing about you two ever since that news blurb aired.¡± He adobe¡¯s, heartily shaking Max¡¯s hand.


    ¡°What news blurb? We were in transit and the news is never shown here, so I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Oh, there was some leaked footage showing your unit fighting Narsians on Sigmund. It¡¯s a long way from here, so they didn¡¯t y much footage, but that piloting was spectacr. We¡¯re all Mecha designers in my department, so how the end product will be used is important to us. I won¡¯t drag any more business into your vacation, but I had to say hello before the kids woke up.¡±


    Leaked footage from a with its satellite system destroyed and the cities overrun with giant aliens? Not highly likely. From the sound of it, the footage made them look heroic, so it¡¯s most likely a military video.


    That¡¯s fine though, Pilots have always been held up as heroes, he grew up on their stories, as retold by the government. But in all his years, he had never heard of one from the videos even showing up on his.


    Everyone here already knows who he is and what he does, so a few clips of him in action shouldn¡¯t change much about how he is treated by adults.


    The kids woke up only a few minutester and Uncle Lu began his attempt at convincing the maids to let them try the games he brought. Nico is smiling at his back, so whatever he brought isn¡¯t the usual boring stuff nobles call educational.


    The two servants try the units first, then take them off and put them back on again, to see if he just put a single-use lock on whatever he is hiding. They are all aware of his antics, but he does have the rank to give the kids gifts without interference. Even if the maids will insist on safety checking the present before actually presenting it to the kids.


    They both rush back to their room with the staff and guards while Uncle Lu grins. Once they¡¯re all away and out of earshot Nico turns to him andughs.


    ¡°Gears of Grindage 3 is a ssic. Gene locking it to only the kids was genius.¡±


    ¡°I knew a cultured youngdy such as yourself would approve. Now, would you both like to apany me to the boxing matches? I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ve realized this yet, but there¡¯s only one more day before the gaming tournament starts. I¡¯ll be going back to the tonight after the fights to be a judge if you want a ride without burning credits.¡± Uncle Lu suggested.


    That sounds much better than taking the public shuttle from the station. Tomorrow a lot of soldiers will be cleared to leave, so the shuttle will be packed and so will theary public transit.

 152 Chapter 152

    ¡°We will be in your care then, Uncle Lu,¡± Max said politely, and the old scientist smiled at him, eager for the fights to begin.


    ¡°You¡¯re in for a treat. Though I suppose it¡¯s not so new to you. Fighters with higher quality Systems are still fairly rare here, but I have it on good advice that one of today¡¯s contestants has a base 2 strength. We¡¯ve never had the chance to see Alpha Rank level strength in action.¡± Uncle Lu was clearly a fan of the boxing matches.


    Everyone took a moment to change in the beachfront showers, picking outfits from the Hotel¡¯s selection. Max went for casual jeans with a button-down ck shirt rolled to his elbow andfortable leather boots. Nico went for a Kimono in ck with gold embroidery. Uncle Lu was a bit more formal,ing out in a business suit instead of hisb coat, looking ufortable without hisb coat but excited.


    ¡°If we exit the Hotel and take the conveyor, it will take us there. The venue is on this line. They¡¯ve got a dress code, but we should all be good. I¡¯m not a Chen for nothing.¡± Uncle Luughed, leading them past the startled nobles who didn¡¯t expect to see the entric scientist in public.


    Today the conveyor was busy even in the yacht district, as Uncle Lu called the station section around the Hotel. When they got to the entertainment district, it was packed, though the bodyguards that followed Uncle Lu around everywhere earned them a little space.


    When they approached the VIP entrance to the venue holding the fights, there was somemotion in the street, but Max couldn¡¯t make it what it was over the shouting.


    ¡°It looks like we might be dyed. ¡± The bodyguard in front sighed, leading them forward as far as he could with the densely packed crowd near the entrance.<sub>.</sub>


    It was just a bunch of drunken soldiers causing trouble for the staff who would not let them in the VIP entrance. In a few minutes, the Military Police would be here to break up the fight, so Max checked all the insignia to ensure none were from the units aboard Abraham Kepler.


    The station wasrge, with multiple ships docked at every entrance pier, so it was hard to guess units unless the uniform was distinctive. Fortunately, Max didn¡¯t see any of their own in this particr mess. Instead, these were infantry from a regional patrol ship.


    ¡°Could you defend yourselves against that?¡± Uncle Lu asked as a soldier threw one of the security guards ten meters before he hit a wall.


    ¡°You missed the show on the beach this morning. The kids didn¡¯t believe it either, but yes, we could take them all at once.¡± Max exined.


    ¡°Then do we have to wait? We¡¯re already running behind.¡±


    Nico smiled and stepped forward, looking delicate and elegant in her ck kimono. ¡°Officer On Deck!¡± She shouted, using her augmented voice box to let all the miscreants hear her.<sub></sub>


    She pulled her wrist device from her clutch and activated the identity hologram, showing her as a Major. Max did the same, lighting up the Golden Battle Cannon icon that designated him as the Commander of a mecha unit.


    ¡°Piss off, little girl.¡± The closest man snarled, throwing a punch with all the might that a Delta Ranked veteran could manage.


    The sound of bones splintering as his hand hit her face silenced the crowd, who thought he might have killed the petite officer. But she was standing exactly where he was before he attacked while the soldier held his mangled hand.


    ¡°Feth, she¡¯s abat Cyborg.¡± Someone called out, breaking the hesitation, and the crowd scattered.


    ¡°I suggest that you run,¡± Nico told the man who was still in front of her, cradling his injured hand. He didn¡¯t need a third reminder and began sprinting back toward the military docks for a medic.


    ¡°Problem solved with minimal violence,¡± Nico said happily, taking apact from her clutch to check her makeup.<sub></sub>


    She wasn¡¯t using foundation, so there was only a small mark left behind by the man¡¯s hand and a tiny bit of blood which she touched up with a tissue. After a few seconds of work, her face was wless again.


    ¡°Perfect. Now, shall we, gentlemen? It would be a shame to miss the opening fights.¡±


    ?[0)??? Her suddenly sweet demeanor threw Uncle Lu off bnce, and the older man heard many murmurs in the crowd about how Nico would be watching fights she would have no problem winning. That wasn¡¯t the point, though. Even if you could do it yourself, it was still entertainment.


    The girl at the door checked their tickets and assigned an usher to bring them to their seats. Uncle Lu had them all sitting one row back of ringside, which seemed odd to Max, but it could be rted to Uncle Lu¡¯s eyesight.


    The countdown to the first fight had already begun when they were seated, warning everyone to return to their seats. It wasn¡¯t a square boxing ring like Max expected. The arena here on Comor station was a round, sand-floored pit with padded walls three meters high.


    ¡°Once upon a time, the walls were stone and were part of the fighting tactic. Now things are more civilized, and there are no weapons or deaths.¡± Uncle Lu exined.


    Reading everyone¡¯s thoughts, Max learned that boxing was a loose trantion of this event to benefit foreign sensibilities. It was more of a diator fight, mixed martial arts with no padding, taking ce on a sand floor.


    With three rounds at five minutes each, the format was familiar, as were the victory conditions of tapping out our judge¡¯s decision.


    Uncle Lu picked the second row because the ring girls and vendors would circle the pit between rounds and he hated getting bumped or flirted with. The major cause of his annoyance was that he had a high enough position and enough money that his age was irrelevant to many power-hungry youngsters, as he called them in his thoughts.


    The first match was between a pair of burly dark-haired men that seemed to be Delta Ranked. Or perhaps they didn¡¯t have a System and were incredibly powerfully built.


    The organizers had done a splendid job of the arrangements, and only one fight of the eight before the finale had been a lopsided blowout. But, unlike most, their group of three chose not to gamble on the matches, just watching and cheering.


    When the twost fighters came out, the first thing Max noticed was the prison tattoos all over them. That exined how they had found two prize fighters with Beta Ranked systempatibility out here on the edge of the Empire. They had bailed them out of jail to fight.


    ¡®Who am I to judge? I bailed a bunch of them out to fight to the death on the front lines.¡¯ Max thought, wondering what the Captains were up to right now.


    If it weren¡¯t so crowded, he would have known they were cheering from up in the nosebleed seats above him while Paul and Vincente did their best to try every one of the foods the vendors offered.


    An additional cage dropped above the ring for the finale since the three-meter walls were nothing to the two fighters, and one of them could easily be thrown into the crowd without it.


    The bell rang, and the two men mmed fists into each other, beginning a brutal brawl with no technique, little finesse, but an incredible amount of entertainment value. They weren¡¯t fighting to kill. Instead, they had been paid and freed to put on a show at superhuman speeds.


    Much like every other form of mass entertainment, the final fight was staged, but fun. Max could see in their thoughts that the winner wasn¡¯t determined, only that it should happen in the third and final round or go to a decision.


    hical, but not unexpected. It was a great show, and the flying elbow from the top of the cage ended the fight with thirty seconds left in the final round was a masterful touch.


    The fight was sure to be on every social media highlight reel for weeks.


    The trio waited for the crowd to clear out before getting up to head to Uncle Lu¡¯s shuttle so they could make it to the gaming tournament. They still had twenty-four hours, but the scientist wanted to show them around the Capital first.


    It was his hometown, and he was pretty proud of the attractions it held. Most people outside theb found his constant talk about Mecha tedious or dull, but these two listened, so he wanted to do what he could to show them a good time.

 153 Chapter 153

    ¡°I like your shuttle, Uncle Lu. Is this a local specialty design?¡± Max asked, admiring the elegant thirty-meter-long private spacecraft through the viewport on the docks while the pilot got it ready to depart.


    ¡°Indeed it is. The design was originally supposed to be a stealth insertion ship for special forces, but after the alliance with Kepler, it was redesigned to be a low signature transport for VIPs. With the hybrid propulsion system, it is also a very capable terrestrial aircraft. The government has a hundred on order, but they won¡¯t be ready for a few more years.¡± The scientist exined before going into more detail on the propulsion systems that linked anti gravity technology with an experimental faster-than-light slipstream drive.


    While the three of them were deep in the midst of discussing the potential uses of slipstream technology the shuttle has been prepared and the two bodyguards that were supposed to apany Uncle Lu were impatiently waiting.


    Finally, one cleared his throat and spoke. ¡°Sir, the ship is ready if you would like to continue this conversation on board.¡±


    When the group didn¡¯t change topics and only moved to take seats on the shuttle the bodyguards both knew this was going to feel like a very long day.


    Thirty-two minutester when theynded in the capital the trio was still discussing the merits of the slipstream drive versus the Alcubierre Warp Drives moremonly in use within the Kepler Fleet.


    The conversation had slowed down though, as everyone took the time to admire the natural beauty of the from above and the incredibly high-tech city in the clouds.<sub>.</sub>


    The entire ten million citizen poption of the Capital lived in an elevated city made up of tubes and globe-shaped biodomes, the neighborhood habitats as Uncle Lu called them. A thousand years ago, a movement swept the that insisted humans should limit their interaction with the natural world, mostly in the name of animal rights.


    A dozen megacities were built of materials that were believed to never corrode or degrade, and the Comor poption moved into the sky and the outlyings, which had no native animals.


    The movement faded centuries ago, but the decision was made to keep the surface of the home as a resort world.


    ¡°Our first stop will be the Comor historical museum. I know it¡¯s a bit nd, but every first-time visitor to the one very really should get a chance to see it. We¡¯ve got a fine collection of exhibits on every intelligent alien species we havee across, along with historical artifacts.¡±


    As Uncle Lu described the Museum,rge doors on the top of a habitat dome opened, allowing their shuttle to enter andnd. The shuttle hangar spayed them down with what Max suspected was liquid nitrogen, cooling the shuttle exterior to safe levels before the red lights by their parking pace turned green and they were allowed to exit.


    The hangar had the same Steampunk theme as the Station did, but more industrial and less elegant, this clearly wasn¡¯t amercial airport.<sub></sub>


    ¡°The museum is a bit of a trip from here, but the theoretical researchb is in this building and I left my car here.¡± Uncle Lu exined.


    That made sense to Max. He didn¡¯t look like the sort of person who would demand a government vehicle meet them somewhere or the sort of person who would regrly take public transport.


    ¡°The Museum is below the level of cloud cover so it can see the ground every day. We will exit the building over to our right and head down.¡±


    The hovercar he led them to was a limousine with harsh angles, mixing the feeling of an armored car with modern art, painted in neutral white, blending in with the dozens of luxury cabs they passed on their way down.


    Anti-gravity vehicles were everywhere in the city, due to the wildly varying elevations of the various habitats and the space between structures, making an intricate three-dimensionalwork of traffic passing between regions of the city at breakneck speeds.


    ¡°We should buy some hoverboards. It will likely make getting around the tournament venue tomorrow easier, and we will want them for sure during our vacation afterward.¡± Nico suggested.<sub></sub>


    Max hadn¡¯t thought of it, he can run faster than any hoverboard, but being able to just float along would be nice.


    ¡°Most areas in themercial districts have a verticalne for flying pedestrian traffic. A local board will properly limit speed when you are in restricted areas. The flyingnes near the venue are pretty busy though, but so is the ground, since it is a shopping and entertainment dome.¡± Uncle Lu exined.


    ¡°They will still be nice to have for the next few months while we are off. There¡¯s a lot of the to see, and it¡¯s easier to see from the air.¡± Max agreed with Nico¡¯s n.


    He had a skateboard as a kid, but a hoverboard was way out of his budget. Max briefly wondered if it would be able to do tricks the way his old board did, with his new physique he should be able to pull off some impressive stunts.


    He might be a little overdressed for it though. Not as much as Nico, butmon sense and Nico weren¡¯t exactly friends, so she might actually go hoverboarding in a kimono.


    ¡°There is apetition board shop by the museum, can we stop in there first?¡± Nico asked, doing her best imitation of red mechanical puppy eyes for Uncle Lu, which somehow worked on the Mecha-obsessed scientist.


    ¡°We can do that, and then walk over. Maybe it will help us blend in and distract the paparazzi.¡± Uncle Lu agreed.


    ¡°Are they a problem here?¡± Max asked, wondering if he had misjudged the man¡¯s fame.


    Uncle Lu shrugged. ¡°Normally, no. But all three of us together after you just made the news could bring them out. You know how they can get about foreign news stories.¡±


    The street in front of the shop was quiet except for a few local youths with band patches all over their leather jackets smoking some local herb. They all had highly modified hoverboards, so Max knew Nico had found the right ce for them.


    ¡°What¡¯s good, Army?¡± The lone technician working in the shop asked as they walked in, addressing Max first.


    ¡°Extendedbat leave. You got anything here worth riding?¡± Max asked and the man nodded, the high spikes of his hairstyle bobbing with the motion.


    ¡°If you have the credits, I¡¯ve got the gear to outrun a Sheriff¡¯s bike.¡± The man¡¯s confidence was inspiring and Max began looking at the assorted parts while Nico started pulling items from the shelf.


    ¡°I will need a longboard and a bigger output gravity te than you have on the shelves here,¡± Nico told him with a frown.


    ¡°What are you trying to do? Acrobatics with a Cyborg?¡±


    Nico let her hand shift back to a more armored look and the clerk stared at her in shock.


    ?[0)??? ¡°Didn¡¯t see thating. I¡¯ve got some pre-madepetitive Enduro Boards in the back if you¡¯ve got the credits. Better than anything you will find or build from the shelves.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the cost, I¡¯ll put it on the research division¡¯s tab.¡± Uncle Lu cut in, not knowing that the unit had recovered a huge amount of valuable data and materials on Belmont even before the rewards they had gotten for the recoveredary Governor and the engagement against Cygnus. Sessful Crusader Pilots were never short on money unless they had very bad habits.


    ¡°We will make it up to you, Uncle Lu.¡± Nico bowed, not wanting to be impolite by turning him down. His family ruled the, surely a few hoverboards wouldn¡¯t be beyond his daily spending allowance.

 154 Chapter 154

    ¡°You can leave the boards in the car and we will head to the museum on foot.¡± Uncle Lu suggested, calling for the limousine driver to grab their new hoverboards and then wait near the museum for them toe back out.


    There were a number of shops along the strip between the shop and the museum, all catering to either tourists or the working citizens that lived in the area, so a short walk was the normal tourist thing to do if they were headed to the museum.


    The cityyout was strange to Max, since the street map signs were all three-dimensional, showing the elevators and traffic exits that led betweenyers of the dome.


    The skies above him were all holographic since they were on an insideyer, but the dome was designed to send light from the perimeter through the entire level, reducing the need for additional lighting and giving the city a more natural feeling.


    It felt like the densest of megacities and a nature preserve at the same time, with the way they nted trees and shrubs along the sidewalks. It was beautiful, but everything about it still felt somehow wrong to Max.


    The feeling was a lot like Nico¡¯s fake smile. The feeling that Comor was trying too hard to make the synthetic feel organic.<sub>.</sub>


    The tourists around him didn¡¯t seem to have noticed though, so Max wondered if he was being overly sensitive about his surroundings, too attuned to danger to appreciate the little things.


    ¡°This block gives me the creeps,¡± Nico whispered and Uncle Lu nodded in agreement.


    ¡°Me too, but not many would notice it. All the nts are modified for better growth in the dome environment, and they don¡¯t feel right.¡± The scientist exined.


    The museum was right in front of them now, and they joined the queue to enter, tapping their wrist devices to check in.


    For the soldiers and the scientist, this was perfectly natural, they did it at every building and secure area when they were on duty, but many of the civilians were having issues with the concept of a visitor log, including a pink-haired couple who were shouting at the automated gate, trying to get the staff to let them in without identification.<sub></sub>


    That clearly wasn¡¯t going to happen, and they were holding up an entire file of visitors, but today that was someone else¡¯s problem, so Max just smiled at their idiocy and kept walking.


    The first exhibit they reached was aplex history of humans on Comor. The colonists who had settled here sent their ship away and made up an ancestral tale to tell their children, wanting to make a clean break from the old Sris System and all the high technology they thought was taking over their lives.


    They had kept many of the technologicalforts though, and in under a thousand years the high-tech society their ancestors had tried to eliminate had made a fulleback and they were preparing to terraform the others in the system.


    However, they didn¡¯t have a full history and believed the story of the settlers that they had always been here. In their minds, this was the first step for humanity into space and the initial expansion of the species.


    The cultural shock when they first met with an Independent Trader who had picked up their activity and wanted to add them to his trade route was therefore society-altering.<sub></sub>


    Not only did they learn that they weren¡¯t alone, they learned that their entire history was false. The system spent a century undergoing an unstable cultural revolution, ending in the movement that reshaped society into the elevated cities and resorts for foreign visitors that it is to this day.


    The most interesting part to Max was the history of cultures they had interacted with over the centuries. Many of them had been single cultures of nonhuman species that were now extinct, having fallen to the violent nature of the gxy¡¯s other inhabitants.


    Max noticed Nico smiling at one particr entry, a violent and semi-sentient species that could traverse space in biological ships made of excreted resin, propelled by an Innate Talent of the species for creating a low-level Warp Field. They were not from this gxy and had traveled here fleeing from something terrible in their home gxy.


    They weren¡¯t in the top tier of invasive threats with the Insectoid Klem who inhabited the Northwestern regions of the gxy, or the living metal Scourge, they were more on par with invasive pests.


    They had been eliminated by coincidence, the region they were passing through was at war and both sides thought they were weapons made by the enemy.


    ¡°They¡¯re almost cute, in a hairless cat sort of way,¡± Max said, looking at the hologram.


    ¡°They weren¡¯t airways hairless, they used to be very fluffy,¡± Nico answered. There was a brief image in her mind of a cat-like species with powerful mandible pincers blinking in and out of reality as they moved around a forest.


    The sight triggered something in Max¡¯s memory, he once had one as a pet, and he remembered petting one of the fluffy creatures. That was a new memory, but he still couldn¡¯t recall exactly where they, or he came from.


    Thest portions of his past life¡¯s memory seemed to have taken severe damage during the transition, but most of them no longer held much importance to Max. This was his life now, and it was a good one. There was no need to dwell on the past.


    ¡°Along here you¡¯ll see the recovered species wing of the museum. These are all species native to Comor that were saved from extinction and now roam wild on the. Rest assured, all therge predators have tracking cors and are kept away from tourist areas.¡± Uncle Lu informed them proudly, leading Max and Nico away from the sentient species and into the local fauna wing.


    Most of the animals on Comor were of six-legged designs. For some, the third set of limbs was a pair of wings, but it was rare to see an animal with only two sets of limbs in this section of the museum.


    There also didn¡¯t appear to be any reptiles, but Max was holding out hope for theter parts of the indigenous animals¡¯ portion of the museum. After all, no full of six-legged animals would beplete without that iconic mythical creature, the Dragon.


    Max had never heard of them in this lifetime, but he had memories of the giant flying creatures in his past life, so they must exist somewhere.


    Max was in for a disappointment though, the had very few eggying species and no reptiles at all, though the wide variety of other flying creatures made up for most of theck.


    They even had a flying canine and a four-armed minotaur, though the data said that it was no smarter thanmon livestock, outssed in the intellect department by almost all primates.


    ¡°Maybe we need to take a wilderness tour. I want to pet the flying puppy.¡± Nico whispered, making everyone around herugh.


    ¡°You know those holograms are true to scale, right? It¡¯s got a wingspan of over ten meters and it eats meat. I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll be easy to find.¡± Max pointed out, but Nico only shrugged, unconcerned with the prospect of arge animal trying to eat her.


    Next was the greenhouse, showcasing many of the unique and interesting forms of nt life in Comor, and then the human culture exhibit. By the time they finished the loop both Max and Uncle Lu were ready to sit down for lunch and rx. The museum had to berger than the academy, Max decided, and they had visited every inch of it.

 155 Chapter 155

    ¡°Since we spent a little longer than intended at the Museum, how about we head to the hotel that is hosting the tournament after lunch and get you both checked in? You don¡¯t have to do it until tomorrow morning, but I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll want to rx as much as possible with twelve very intensive hours of gaming ahead of you tomorrow and a sweet prize on the line.


    You won¡¯t regret winning, the resort for the winners is even more luxurious than the Comor Royal resort on Comor Station. They have anything and everything you might need or want since they¡¯re situated between both the ocean and the mountains with a hugework of trails to reach the resort¡¯s private amenities.¡± Uncle Lu exined, calling for the driver toe to pick them up.


    He had a restaurant in mind, and it wasn¡¯t just for Max. The menu at their destination also contained a collection of nutrition concentrates suitable for Cyborgs so that even Nico could gain something useful from the meal to go with the vors.


    Lu was also a fan of Cyborg nutrition supplements. Not because he was converted, but because the high levels of easily processed nutrients allowed him to live on caffeine and cigarettes for days at a time while he was immersed in his work, without suffering nutritional side effects. He had repeatedly suggested various supplements to the Kepler Fleet as an addition to the standard Pilot rations, allowing the Pilots to function for longer periods of time with the same storage space allotment of meals, but the Fleet was concerned about long-term side effects and kept turning him down.


    The restaurant didn¡¯t look like anything fancy from the outside, but it was a favorite with the researchers from the Mechaboratories for their weekly dinner meetings. The Greeter of course recognized Uncle Lu as the Director and a regr customer, bringing the group immediately to a booth in the back corner where they could discuss whatever they wished without disturbing the other guests.


    Though they were quite nerdy, the scientists were quite vocal and not at all shy about their favorite topics, so the restaurant had long since gotten used to their lively conversations.


    ¡°Will the rest of the department be joining you today, or is this a personal meeting?¡± The hostess asked as they chose their seats.


    ¡°Purely for the pleasure of your menu today. I¡¯ll start with the usual, then bring the daily special, plus another bottle and the Cyborg nutrition sampler tray.¡± Uncle Lu informed her, not waiting for the server toe from behind the bar.


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± She nodded, noticing that Nico wasn¡¯t entirely organic.<sub>.</sub>


    That was one of their house specialties though, making the inorganic visitors feel weed here on Cygnus. Everything on the relied on tourism at this point, so anything that they could do to improve the¡¯s reputation, and that of their own business was a win for them. The alliance with Kepler gave them a huge influx of new visitors that didn¡¯t have any preconceived notions about the, and their reviews would shape the first impressions of hundreds of billions more.


    The server came out a few secondster with two bottles of some sort of local wine, as well as a tray of small sealed bottles, each with a picture of a fruit or food item on them.


    ¡°These are a house-developed nutrition shot for our biomechanical guests. As you can see they are in a variety of vors and are rated as the highest quality nutritional supplements by the Kepler Central Government.¡± The server told them proudly, then went back to check on her other guests.


    The food came out only a few minutester, and the three of them spent nearly two hours chatting about local video games. Nico and Max were fishing for hints, while Uncle Lu was happy just to get to talk about his hobby of game development. Not even all the Mecha designers were gamers.


    ¡°Next up is to check into the tournament venue. Thepetitors will be in the onsite hotel, to prevent the chance of outside interference from dying them, and to ensure that no ckmail is being applied. It¡¯s not as luxurious as some, but it¡¯s right in the arena venue where you all will bepeting.¡± Uncle Lu exined.


    There was a guarded room by the lobby of the hotel clearly marked as the check-in spot forpetitors, so both Max and Nico said their goodbyes to Uncle Lu and made an arrangement to see him again the day after the tournament. Win or lose, the old man had a lot of things he still wanted to show them both about the.


    He also wanted them to see his work, but that would have to wait until they were off duty. He hadn¡¯t gotten official confirmation of his duty transfer request yet, but he had faith that the Central Command woulde through for him, given their recent breakthroughs.


    ¡°First up, Keres Max. Gamer Tag of ¡°SlumDogRaider¡±. Height, 185cm, Weight, 120kg. Body Fat index, 4 percent. Impressive, even for a Pilot. Now, we just need to have our attendant check your system bonuses so that the Audience can see the difference if any that they make in tomorrow¡¯spetition.¡± The inspector announced.<sub></sub>


    Max was a bit ufortable with random strangers seeing his bonuses, but surely they wouldn¡¯t show too much to the public. That would cause the Army to force them to shut down before the game even started.


    ¡°You look concerned. All that the audience will get to see is the total points bonus. The rest of the data has been requested by the Kepler Army itself for its own internal analysis. Everypetitor today, except two locals, has an active system at B Rank or higher, though you two are the only ones that volunteered for service.¡± The way the inspector described it made Maxugh. Volunteered isn¡¯t quite the way he would describe the recruitment process on Kepler Terminus or most of the worlds in the Kepler Empire.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+120%


    [DEX] 3+70%<sub></sub>


    [SPD] 3+70%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 1]


    ¡°That¡¯s Um, well, I don¡¯t know what to say. What sort of evolution did you go through that increased all your base stats by a point? I¡¯ve heard of powerful Alpha Ranked Pilots before, but that is insane.¡± The administrator that had the talent for reading others¡¯ System Status gasped when he read Max¡¯s data.


    ¡°That my friend is a military secret. But I can tell you that it doese in exceptionally useful in everyday life.¡± Max informed him, working hard to keep a straight face. He couldn¡¯t very well tell them that he had somehow forgotten the entire event now, could he? He woke up and was at two points, but after the next day¡¯s training when he checked again they were all at three.


    Max knew for certain that something had happened while he and Nico had been on the Kepler 142 Space Station, but he had no idea what it was.


    ¡°Next up is the Lady Tarith Nico, Gamer Tag ¡°Blood Goddess¡±. Height 150cm, weight 180kg. No, that can¡¯t be right. Oh, sorry miss, it didn¡¯t say on the sheet that you had undergone such extensive augmentation. Now, let¡¯s see what the system has to say.¡±


    Tarith Nico


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] No Longer Valid. Status Growth Reliant on Functions


    [Secondary Attribute] Increased Growth Rate


    [STR] 3+88%


    [DEX] 2+46%


    [SPD]2+90%


    [Innate Talent] Technology Maniption


    [Additional Function Rapid Repair]


    [Additional Function Mecha Modification 5]


    [Additional Function Drone Controller 1]


    ¡°That¡¯s an incredible stat line, considering your conversion. State of the art technology for sure. My condolences on your loss though, it has to be hard knowing that you won¡¯t be able to increase your stats anymore.¡± The administrator told her, real sympathy in his voice.


    ¡°I still have some hope. My [Mecha Modificaion] Function is capable of modifying my body now, so it gives me little bonuses whenever it gets the chance.¡± Nico shrugged, having already epted her fate.


    ¡°Mecha Modification level 5. Isn¡¯t that the Maximum rank that you can achieve for a progressive skill? I¡¯ve never seen anyone with a Function level above 3.¡± The inspector pointed out.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s the Maximum, but it¡¯s pretty quick now, at least when I have the materials to work on my own body.¡± Nico agreed.

 156 Chapter 156

    With the check-in finished, the Inspector handed them both a key card for their rooms. ¡°The arena hotel was designed for team sports and families, but the army managed to book you both rooms with only one roommate. They had originally asked that you be ced together, but the moral values of the Comor public would eat us alive if we put a Civilian couple in a mixed-gender room, so we had to split you up. There were no more rooms avable, the whole arena is booked full of contestants.¡±


    ¡°No worries, meeting new people is good. Even though the Army doesn¡¯t separate the sexes, I¡¯m sure that mosts still do it that way with their civilians.¡± Nico answered with her creepy fake smile.


    ¡°All contestants have been given identity cards with just their gamer tag on them, so feel free to address each other that way. Blood Goddess, you are in a room with LilyPotta, and SlumDogRaider is with Lord PockiPock.¡±


    Max shook his head at all the overly dramatic names. He had thought that they would at least be using proper names outside the game, but it seemed that for the immersion, and for the sake of their privacy from intruding fans, they would all be using their handles all the time tomorrow.


    ¡°You two are thest ones to check in, so please, feel free to peruse the amenities of the hotel after you are settled into your rooms.¡±


    They didn¡¯t have much, Uncle Lu had kept their hoverboards in the car to return to them tomorrow, and they didn¡¯t bring any clothes. They would both have to buy at least one change for the tournament tomorrow unless they were going to go like this.


    Max knew full well that the gaming tournaments were as much a cosy event as anything else, and everyone dressed up, so a simple shirt and jeans wouldn¡¯t do. It would only serve to turn the fans against him and make the Army look bad.


    There was a custom clothing shop here in the arena though, that did costumes and fan items for events, so that was where they headed first.


    ¡°Nico, can you tell me what the other guys have picked for costumes? I want something good, but one that isn¡¯t taken by anyone else.¡± Max whispered as they walked.<sub>.</sub>


    That wasn¡¯t going to be easy. There are hundreds of contestants and hundreds of costumes. Even if theputers had some information on them, it would be nearly impossible to find out about them all.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got you. I put an online order for the shop already, once I realized we forgot to get costumes. They had a pretty good listing of what the others had picked out, so I¡¯m pretty sure nobody will have your costume.¡± Nico nodded.


    The moment they walked in, the staff was right there to greet them. ¡°Oh, wonderful, you¡¯re both here. Let¡¯s get you test fit. You¡¯re much more buff than we expected, so the shirt might not fit. Though maybe that¡¯s a good thing in your case?¡±


    Max was ushered into the back where he was handed an outfit somewhat simr to the one he already had on, but tighter. There were no buttons at the top of the shirt, the faux leather pants stretched tightly to emphasize and exaggerate his every asset, and nylon sleeves with fake tattoos finished the look.


    Nico had dressed him as Captain Harkness, a swashbuckling, time-traveling Mecha Pilot and sex symbol of the Kepler televisionworks. The show was government produced, so every knew it, and in the outfit that was more suited to a stripper than a military officer, Max really did look a lot like the actor, even without wearing a wig.


    ¡°Darling are you sure you¡¯re not his illegitimate love child? The resemnce is uncanny.¡± The clerk gushed, fanning himself with his hand.


    ¡°No Comment,¡± Max answered, doing his best imitation of the famous actor and making the staff of the shop giggle.


    Nico came out a few minutester in a short, frilly, ck, and gray Goth Loli dress with rose-patterned stockings and Vampire Fangs in her mouth. The character was Rosetta, the female antagonist from an adult-only age-restricted anime series that began to air during their travel to the Comor systemst week. There were two episodes out now, but with the character¡¯s small stature and the risque costume, it was unlikely to have been chosen by any of the other gamers.<sub></sub>


    Nico had also confirmed the outfits of all the other female gamers, and the petite males as well, making sure that she wouldn¡¯t identally duplicate anyone. For a man, that would be embarrassing, for her, it would be rage-inducing.


    ¡°Perfect. Where did you find the fangs though? Those don¡¯t look like the ones we keep in stock.¡± The clerk asked, ringing up their purchase.


    ¡°Augmented teeth, I can adjust their shape.¡± Nico rified, turning the short fangs that gently nibbled her lower lip into full-length Vampire fangs.


    The Vampires were an actual species, though they didn¡¯t share a border with the Kepler Empire, being much further east in the Gxy, while Kepler upied arge swath of the South Central region. They weren¡¯t undead and didn¡¯t burn in the sun, but they did have hollow fangs and preferred to drain their meals of blood before eating. Combined with the silvery white color of their natural pigmentation, they looked enough like the old Human legend to make many people believe that they had visited human worlds at some point in the distant past.


    The two quickly changed back into their more normal clothes and split apart to head to their rooms on opposite sides of the hotel.


    Max knocked and entered his hotel room, finding his roommate in the middle of a live stream.


    ¡°Hi guys, it¡¯s me, Lord PockiPock. Don¡¯t forget to subscribe for updates, and smash that Like button.¡± The gamer was practically shouting at his camera setup while fluffing the hair of the oundish rainbow wig he was wearing for today¡¯s show.


    He had stuff absolutely everywhere. On both beds, on the floor, on the walls, filling the bathtub, and even outside on the balcony. Max didn¡¯t even own the amount of stuff that this guy brought with him for a one-day tournament.<sub></sub>


    Max decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and simply rested his back against the door, knowing that the stream was going to be a half-hour long and that it would do him no good to interrupt now and drag it out even further with his presence.


    While Max suffered the clutter and an overly energetic streamer as a roommate, Nico had also found her room. She didn¡¯t enter though, since her augmented hearing could pick up what was going on inside. It seemed that her roommate had invited a local Flect dealer over to get high and ¡®assist¡¯ her during her OnlyLewd stream.


    This was the gamer who Nico was originally most concerned about duplicating her costume, buttely, LillyPotta had been on a forced-feeding fetish kick and had put on over a hundred kilos, making the character a poor match. Nico went to the lounge on her floor, finding that there were others there escaping from their roommates already, and picked a seat.


    ¡°Which one did you get?¡± a man in histe twenties asked, watching something on a data tablet and eating popcorn.


    ¡°LillyPotta,¡± Nico informed him in a dry tone and the man chuckled.


    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think we need to worry about that one. I saw the contraband rm go off when she brought that guy to her room. I think the cops were waiting for you to arrive to see if you were in on it.¡± The man informed her.


    His nametag read ¡°Steve Polychronopolous¡± which made Nico smile at the reference. It was good to see that some people hadn¡¯t forgotten the ssics.


    ¡°Blood Goddess? Nice, I thought you retired from gaming. They don¡¯t let fakes use existing names here, so you can be sure that if you see a famous tag, it¡¯s authentic.¡± Steve assured her just as the sound of rushing boots thumped down the hallway.


    ¡°Hands on your heads.¡± The officer orders as the sound of a splintering door echoes through the hallway and orders are barked.


    Nico simplyplied, waiting to watch the show. Incoherent female shoutinges from the destroyed room as over a dozen officers enter, and then the sound of gunfire starts. It ends abruptly a few secondster, and the officers drag arge naked man out, gun still gripped in his hand even in death.


    ¡°We need a Medic, ASAP.¡± The officers in the room call and more police rush in with bags in their hands.


    If they¡¯re calling for a medic, whoever is in there is most likely going to survive. Treating most gunshots that weren¡¯t instantly fatal is a simple matter these days with Kepler medical technology.


    ¡°I need you both to identify yourselves.¡± The officer with his gun trained on Nico and the man beside her dered, motioning with his gun for them to bring it up on their wrist devices.


    The other gamers in the lounge looked freaked out, kneeling with their hands on their heads, but the police weren¡¯t paying much attention to them, having had the floor under surveince since the rm was set off.


    ¡°I¡¯m Stephen Pembrooke, Sir. Assistant art curator at the KSP 108 Modern Art Academy.¡± The man says nervously, bringing up his credentials.


    ¡°You¡¯re clear.¡± The officer confirms, letting him close the hologram.


    ¡°And you?¡± He points the gun at Nico¡¯s smiling face as he asks.


    ¡°Major Tarith Nico, Pilot of the Crusader ss Tarith¡¯s Rage and Executive Officer of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit attached to the 43rd Armored Regiment from Kepler 111,¡± Nico answered using the sultry and gentle voice setting on her audio processor.


    ¡°Holy crap, you really are her. You¡¯re a Fething Legend.¡± Steve eximed, getting to his feet in an attempt to shake her hand before being forced back to his knees by the police.


    ¡°You¡¯re Clear. My apologies Major, it¡¯s just protocol, you understand.¡± The officer told Nico with a polite nod, much more courteous than he was with the others in the room.


    ¡°Of course.¡± Nico nodded, and the others in the room looked a little awestruck at having an actual Crusader ss Mecha pilot in their midst at a Gaming tournament, and not as a judge.


    The streamer known as LillyPotta was alive and annoyingly loud as she was dragged away by the police on charges of drug possession, consorting with a felon, and assaulting an officer. But that left Nico with a totaled hotel room in apletely full hotel.


    ¡°Looks like I¡¯m sleeping in the lounge.¡± Nico sighed, starting a new video on the holographic yer while the other contestants stared at her in shock. She wouldn¡¯t be the only one sleeping here tonight. Going by the number of people here, the personal habits of famous gamers weren¡¯t always even up to the standard of ¡®tolerable¡¯ by their peers.

 157 Chapter 157

    Max¡¯s roommate proved to be somewhat tolerable, once the stream was over. The mess in the room was apparently part of his ¡°aesthetic¡± and he cleaned it all up in a few minutes once the stream was over, politely introducing himself and then going to bed so he was ready for the morning¡¯s early start.


    Refreshed and ready to face the day, Max started hearing rumors the moment he entered the hotel restaurant. The word in the hotel was that the Blood Goddess had her roommate executedst night because she didn¡¯t want to share a room with her. While Max wouldn¡¯t put that past his best friend, he was pretty sure it was an exaggeration at the very least.


    ¡°No, she was in the lobby with us watching a movie while her roommate was streaming. Then the cops came bursting through and pointed guns at us all and dragged her away. She¡¯s not dead, she¡¯s in prison.¡± Another contestant tried to rify the situation, but most of the crowd was taking it as a rumor as well.


    Max could see in her thoughts what had happened, and the second woman was telling the truth, so he rxed, getting a good meal in before returning to his room to change and get ready for the event.<sub>.</sub>


    The tight costume fit him better than he was willing to admit, and Max was attracting entirely too much attention as he walked through the halls toward the venue.


    ¡°Captain Harkness, can we get a photo?¡± A bunch of spectators with cameras called, using the name of the character he was ying.


    Max stopped and gave them a series of poses, which drew even more people over. All over the arena, the same thing was happening, as the contestants did publicity shoots before the tournament. A few refused and were soundly denounced by the crowd for not ying the part, but most of them were having a lot of fun with it.<sub></sub>


    Max was about to move again, getting closer to the stage and the next group of photographers when he felt a tongue on his neck and small hands on his shoulders.


    ¡°Oh em gee. I can die happy now, seeing that.¡± One of the men in the crowd gushed, and Max realized that it was Nico posing with him the instant before he was going to toss whoever it was across the room.


    Nico was definitely having fun today, hanging off Max in all sorts of suggestive poses and ying up her Character¡¯s Erotic Vampire persona.<sub></sub>


    They separated again after a few minutes, taking separate photos again, and Max knew that somehow today was going toe back to haunt him. He could only imagine what Ari would say about seeing him in skin-tight pants and having his neck licked by Nico, whose dress showed off her panties every time it moved more than a little.


    Nico was flitting from gamer to gamer, taunting and teasing them as she went, making much better progress towards the stage than Max was. Looking through her thoughts, he realized what the trick was, and found a female gamer in the crowd to pose with, moving him past a crowd of onlookers with cameras without insulting anyone.


    The character he was ying was a flirty hunk, so Max did his best imitation, making the crowdugh and cheer.


    Soon enough, he had made it to the stage where the group photo would be taken and escaped the mob. There were only about a dozen of the hundreds ofpetitors here so far, so he had a while to wait, posing for a few more photos until the organizers called for the others to hurry to the stage for the group photos.


    ¡°Wee everyone to the Comor Game Development Agency¡¯s newest productunch. As you¡¯re well aware it will take the form of a blind tournament. Everypetitor here has been verified, and none are aware of what today¡¯s game will be. The Agency developers have been particrly cautious not to allow any leaks of this project, just for this moment.


    We introduce you all to Predatory Instinct, our pride, and joy. It is a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Fantasy Game with no NPC or quest content. All gains in the game are made through yer versus yerbat. On every sessful kill, you will gain a percentage of your opponent¡¯s battle power and points, which can be used to buy items to upgrade your character. The more difficult the kill, the greater the reward.


    Every yer will start with the option to take a selection of equipment with them, making the start of the game easier at the cost of decreased rewards for kills, due to their higher power level. But it might pay off in the long run to get that head start, right Gamers? The strategy is all yours, and only yours.¡±


    The room devolved into insane screaming and cheering after the announcement, and the photos were taken before the yers were led to a group of Comor¡¯s most advanced new VR Pods.


    Max saw that he had a collection of options. Warrior, cleric, knight, squire, princess, rogue, mage, witch, sorcerer, barbarian, street rat, and an entire second page of options. Each had its own bonuses and progression paths with different skills and ss-specific equipable items. They also all had different starting skills, except Street Rat, which didn¡¯t have one at all, nor would it ever gain any. It was the pure hardcore mode, with no ability to have heavy armor, magic, or advanced weapons. It wasn¡¯t even a proper rogue, as it didn¡¯t get any stealth skills.


    Given that VR games are usually best when you y based on your own skills, and Max had increased mental processing speed, he decided to go with the mage ss. The faster you could mentally recite the spell chant, the faster the ability would activate. That gave Max a great advantage over others and should offset theck of heavy armor in thete game while giving him an edge in the beginning.


    With his selection made, and his character set to a nondescript avatar, he was ready to begin the tournament. There was a timer counting down at the top of his vision, showing that the game would begin in 5 minutes and run for twelve straight hours, with the umted power at the end being the deciding factor of the top ten yers who would get the resort vacation package.


    Max used his Innate Talent to check the decisions of the yers near him in the pods, finding a fairly wide variety of tactics. Then he found Nico. She had picked Street Rat and had declined absolutely every optional bonus she could purchase. She only bought a crappy poisoned dagger from the starting store. She would get the most possible points per kill, but that assumed she was actually able to kill anyone with low bonus stats and no gear. Knowing her, it was going to be a bloodbath in the starting zone.


    She wasn¡¯t trying to be subtle either. She had made her character look like a street urchin version of her cosy,plete with the fangs and tattered ck dress. Max could only imagine the response the crowd was having to the characters that everyone had picked, some of them were truly mboyant, suiting the personalities of the yers building them, while others were signature looks, or deliberately nd, like Max¡¯s own avatar.

 158 Chapter 158

    The moment the game started, Max found himself randomly spawned on a roof, looking down over an open city square. It looked like everyone had started in the same general area, and he could see at least a quarter of thepetitors from where he was standing.


    A sense of danger came from behind him and Max twisted to the side, kicking the legs out from under his attacker and then breaking their neck, a standard Kep Maga attackbination taught in every military academy, but it caught his opponent off guard.


    [First Kill of the match goes to SlumDogRaider]


    The announcement startled everyone, making them think he spawned behind someone and ambushed them the moment they spawned in.


    [Kill by Blood Goddess]


    [Kill by Blood Goddess]<sub>.</sub>


    [Kill by Blood Goddess]


    As Max suspected, Nico and her knife were on a rampage in the starting zone, so he hopped down from the roof and cast his Magic Arrow into the head of another yer. His Targeting abilities activated the moment he started casting the spell, making it incredibly easy to get a critical hit on the other yers while he recited the spell as fast as he could.


    [Kill by SlumDogRaider]


    [Kill by SlumDogRaider]


    [Kill by Lord PockiPock]<sub></sub>


    [Kill by SlumDogRaider]


    Things were looking up for Max now, and he was racking up the points in a hurry, gaining a head start on the others that would soon let him buy a more powerful spell.


    But there were no targets other than yers, and they had scattered now, realizing the danger of the starting formation.


    In the auditorium, each seat had the option to pick an individual yer¡¯s feed to follow, along with the Kill Cam and highlight reel that yed on smaller screens. Those who paid the extra for the booth seats had virtual reality headsets for themselves, getting to watch from the same perspective as the yers, or adding many additional screens so they didn¡¯t miss any of their favorite yers¡¯ actions.


    Thirty seconds after being killed, the first batch of assassinated yers respawned at random somewhere near the starting zone, cursing their bad luck and noting with some relief that the game wouldn¡¯t bring you below your starting values and that you didn¡¯t lose gear when you died.<sub></sub>


    Currently, Max and Nico were the main topics of interest for the spectators in the arena. Max¡¯s rapid casting abilities were beyond anything that the observers could understand. When most of the casting sses wanted to use a spell they activated the tooltip and then spoke theplex keyword. Max was the only one that had realized so far that the only had to urately pronounce it in his thoughts and not actually speak it out loud.


    Nico was simply being Nico. Right at the beginning of the match, she had slit the throats of two yers who were still trying to get the hang of their character controls and then got caught by a Knight. She dodged his sword swing, but he kicked her knife away into the corner of the room. In retaliation, Nico jumped on him and bit his throat out using the Vampire fangs that she gave her character. The blood effect on the yers faded after a few seconds, but that kill yed half a dozen times on the highlight reel so far.


    It was a bit of knowledge that a lot of yers would have loved to have. There was no introduction, so they had to learn to use the skills of their character on their own unless they wanted to just il around with their weapons doing base damage. They didn¡¯t know that you didn¡¯t need to use a weapon, or that all the base damages were realistic, so at the start of the match, before everyone was powered up, you could just beat your opponents to death and not use skills at all.


    Theck of knowledge was the big selling point of the tournament, and the reason so many yers hade from others to give the game a try before it was publicly avable.


    Max had also learned about unarmedbat, having snapped a neck, and he was quickly modifying his ns for the match. Magic would be needed for the twelve-hour-long match, no doubt, but a backup weapon would be essential. Others wouldn¡¯t expect the mage to stab them, and the yers¡¯ nametes weren¡¯t visible to each other. Unless you recognized the character they picked or they identified themselves, who you were fighting was a mystery.


    Max made his way through the woods carefully, using all the stealth techniques he had mastered to survive as a Special Tactics unitmander. In the first clearing he came to, there was a perfect opportunity for him. Five yers were injured and fighting it out, throwing spells at each other with grand shouts.


    There was a rtively straight branch about two meters long with a forked endying on the ground and Max grabbed it, seeing a notification that it was a in branch and the damage output. Then he tore a little cloth off his robe, thankful that items could be damaged in such a way, and tied arge rock to the end, using the fork in the branch to stabilize it. The Narsians loved the two-handed hammer for a very good reason, it inflicted an incredible amount of damage.


    Max started to swing the weapon as he ran, gaining momentum while simultaneously casting magic arrows as fast as he could into the sorceress furthest away on his right. The witch closest to him turned just in time to catch arge rock to the face, creating a gruesome death scene that made the other yers pause.


    So far, they had killed each other with spells, they hadn¡¯t expected the bludgeoning deaths to be so realistic.


    That was Max¡¯s win. His magic arrows took down two more injured spell casters, while the rock on his hammer took thest.


    [Kill by SlumDogRaider]x5


    [Bonus Points]


    Max checked his points and found that he now had enough points to either upgrade Magic Arrow twice or to purchase fireball which would do area damage. Right now, few yers had teamed up, so area damage was a low priority. He noticed that he could also increase his own stats, and improving his mana to allow more consecutive spell casts was tempting, but being able to single-hit kill low-powered yers at full health was a better benefit, so the points went to Magic Arrow.


    [Massacre by Blood Goddess] shed across every yer¡¯s interface and in the highlight reel of the arena, making everyone switch screens to watch the rey.


    As a hundred thousand live viewers watched in awe, Nico snuck up on a house where a group of yers was discussing an alliance to build their powers. Then she quietly barricaded all the doors and used a purchased torch and oil to burn the building to the ground with all ten of them trapped inside.


    The burning building was a beacon to other yers who wanted the advantage of killing a more powerful but injured yer and getting a cut of their score. But Nico wasn¡¯t injured, she was hiding high up in the trees.


    That was the best ce to get points, so Max also headed towards the burning building, careful not to be noticed as he advanced. The description of the scoring system said that it gave higher rewards to more difficult and innovative kills, so he could definitely get some points near the fire if he tried.

 159 Chapter 159

    Max had almost made it to the fire when the sound of a cracking branch startled him from behind. He instinctively dodged to the side and rolled away, narrowly avoiding the ax of a berserker who was rapidly chopping at him, hitting only trees as Max dodged.


    This yer still hadn¡¯t worked out a properbat style without using his skills, it was likely that he had never held a weapon in real life. In most games that wouldn¡¯t matter, all your actions were skills-based and automatic. In this one, they were only a supplement to your own skills. It urred to Max that this was likely deliberate, an attempt to build up thebat skills of young yers and soldiers that were going to be the primary customer base.


    If you learned to emte the skills inside the game while outside of it, you would inevitably be a more effective warrior for the Kepler Empire. That was something that couldn¡¯t be done in a typical game, where muscle memory wasn¡¯t necessary toplete the skills in a series.


    He was beginning to get the hang of it though, and the few spells that Max managed to get off weren¡¯t doing nearly as much damage as expected. The berserker ss must be magic resistant, Max decided, moving to recover the improvised hammer he dropped.


    Just as he got up though, a de cut across his shoulder, throwing him back to the ground as the second ax came down at his head.


    ¡®I wonder what the respawn animation is like?¡¯ Max thought, but the blow never came.<sub>.</sub>


    A ck streak came racing down out of the trees and the berserker¡¯s head snapped forward, then his body crumpled and the head was pulled free of his shoulders as a small form in a tattered ck lolita dress danced on his back.


    There were shrieks of horror nearby and Max realized that their fight had been about to be interfered with.


    Nico jumped off the berserker with a wink in Max¡¯s direction and raced off toward the screams. She had used most of her points to increase her speed, not her damage, and instead relied on novel and improvised ways to take out opponents.


    Max recovered his weapon and headed in her direction in case she needed help, finding that the scream was a trick and she was outnumbered five on one by warrior sses. But the Street Rat ss was incredibly agile and they were having a hard time catching her.


    She also didn¡¯t fight fair, using her shorter height to go for more ¡®critical¡¯ targets and cripple her opponents while she avoided the others.<sub></sub>


    After she killed a knight ss, she squatted above him and wiggled, the ssic ¡®Teabagging¡¯ taunt, that brought rage to the yer¡¯s eyes before he respawned and vanished. Max¡¯sughter brought the attention of the others to him and they realized they were in trouble, the Street Rat had distracted them too long and now others hade to take advantage of the fight.


    Against opponents that weren¡¯t berserkers, Max¡¯s improved Magic Arrowbined with his targeting skills was a deadlybination, taking out enemies one after another while Nico kept them distracted and off bnce.


    ¡°Has anyone ever told you that you¡¯re truly evil?¡± Max asked as she threw her poisoned dagger into the back of thest fighter and gently cradled his body, lowering him to the ground as his avatar died, paralyzed.


    ¡°Once or twice. Do you think it was enough to make them rush right back here so we can farm them without taking the spawn camping reduction to points?¡± Nico asked hopefully.


    ¡°Probably, the guy you teabagged looked pretty upset.¡± Max agreed.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Perfect,e this way, I found a good spot for you to hide and ambush anyone whoes our way.¡± She instructed.


    ¡°Wait, how did you know it was me? Your character is pretty distinctive, but mine was meant to be neutral.¡± Max asked.


    ¡°I saw you fighting the big berserker and knew right away, it¡¯s in your technique. If you didn¡¯t recognize me you would have known it was me after only a few seconds I¡¯m sure.¡±


    She has a point, there really is no way he could have mistaken her fighting style for anyone else.


    Nico led him to a small rock pir left from a broken statue, overlooking open grasnd, with a border of trees at the foot of the hill. If hey down t on it, nobody would know he was up here. In the distance was the starting area, but they were looking at it from a different angle than the one he first left it from.


    The n was that Nico would head to the starting area and taunt targets out, while Max could help finish them and kill anyone who tried to sneak up on her. For now, it was working very well, she had lured a dozen people out who wanted to get thest blow on one of the current point leaders. This early in the fight the differences were small, butter in the game, your yer would get a Halo and Wings to show their increased power level, both a warning and a target for the enemy.


    The visual effects helped even the ying field and would prevent things like he was doing now as they got closer to the end of the game.


    One of the yers was definitely one that Nico had taunted because he was going wild trying to attack her as she backed up into Max¡¯s casting range andughed. The game area wasrge, but not enough that you wouldn¡¯t be able to find enemies, even if you tried to hide you would quickly be found. On the first day you might hide for a long time, but after the game was released the various maps would quickly be memorized by the hardcore gamers.


    The moment they were in range, Max prepared to put spells into the back of the heads of the ones who had circled Nico and were facing away from him.


    He let the first one loose and Nico made a sudden turn, pulling his target to the ground with her. The spell flew wide and hit the enraged fighter in the face, causing him to respawn instantly. Nico finished the caster that she had taken to the ground and used the body¡¯sst few seconds to shield her from a barrage of iing spells.


    The slower ones to cast still hit her, but none hit anywhere critical, and her avatar survived to run into the woods and hide, while Max picked them off from above.


    In the judge¡¯s box in the arena, the developers sighed at this development. ¡°Letting the two Majors work together was a mistake. The average gamer doesn¡¯t stand a chance, even at the same power level.¡±


    ¡°They will adapt and gain more useful skills soon. The Street Rat is the hard mode character, she will start falling behind unless she can find more people to work with her.¡± Another said confidently, but Uncle Lu shook his head to disagree.


    ¡°Even without skill activations, she won¡¯t have a problem with them if she keeps increasing her character¡¯s stats like that. You forget that they¡¯re both Alpha Ranked, this standard movement rate is practically a crawl to them. She¡¯s over three times faster in real life. Without training, I¡¯m not sure that the warriors will have a chance. The mages will have to use area magic to take her out so she doesn¡¯t dodge.¡±


    ¡°But with her partner there to take out the more powerful mages, they won¡¯t be able to attack her.¡± The developer nodded as he realized the strategy they were using. The Gamers were sure to find a workaround for it in an hour or two, but for now, it was unassable.

 160 Chapter 160

    They weren¡¯t the only ones with the idea, just the best at it. Many other pairs had formed, and some full fighting parties, with tanks, casters, and a healer. Since they didn¡¯t know the way the game¡¯s scaling was bnced yet, letting rotating members get thest hit for the points seemed to be a good way to get everyone powered up.


    Many of them had forgotten that the announcer told them that the game rewarded innovation and difficulty more highly, so the gains they were getting by just taking thest hit on a disabled opponent weren¡¯t nearly as high as they would get in a hard fight. The two-person teams were doing better since the fights were more even, but the solo yers were getting quite a bit when they could ovee a pair.


    Nico and Max working together were making up for theck of bonus in the pure volume of kills. Every few seconds, one name or the other would light up the screen after they abandoned the edge of the forest to go hunting.


    They had just taken down a group of five when suddenly Max felt an incredible pain in his back and realized that he had taken a fatal wound from a distance without noticing. He whistled to let Nico know he was in trouble, and suddenly a de was flying at his face.


    [You have been killed by Blood Goddess]<sub>.</sub>


    Of course, she wouldn¡¯t let anyone else get the points for his kill.


    The developers burst intoughter at this tactic. There were no teams, so there was no friendly fire damage mitigation, you had to trust your allies if you were going to work together.


    Thirty secondster when he respawned, Max saw Nico in the distance, running towards the starting zone. He jogged over to her and rejoined the battle as the reduced points debuff to make it worthless to spawn kill slowly wore off. Fifteen seconds after a respawn was the protection you got. You still took full damage, but the enemy would only get one single point from killing you, instead of hundreds or thousands.


    At the two-hour mark, both Max and Nico had halos above their head, showing how far ahead of the others they were. Max had mastered Magic Arrow, the fastest and easiest spell to cast in the game. He had also learned an Arcane st area damage spell that was fairly quick to cast.<sub></sub>


    Nico had finally given in and upgraded her dagger to a sword that did arge amount of cold damage on hit with a chance to freeze. Neither of them had bought any armor, focusing on their damage output instead. With the advantages gained by more rapid killing, the armor was a waste of points.


    Most of the yers had realized that fairly quickly, and the developers were making notes for a day zero bncing patch to make the armor more worth taking. The only ones who really went into defense were the barbarians and Clerics, who both had magic damage reduction skills.


    By the sixth hour, yers were getting exhausted, and Max cleared a group out of a cave where they were waiting to ambush others. It was too obvious of a spot, it had been used many times before.


    ¡°Let¡¯s take a break and get some rest. Mental exhaustion in a twelve-hour game is going to get a lot of yers.¡± Max suggested.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Good thinking. I¡¯ll cover the door, you hide behind the wall for now.¡± Nico agreed, curling up in a back corner where her filthy, formerly ck rags would let her blend in with the wall of the cave.


    For over an hour, they rested. Not quite asleep, but recovering the mental fortitude to go again.


    It also gave others the chance to catch up, and the Halos for mid-level power started to appear all over the battlefield.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see how many of those Halos we can take away,¡± Max whispered, checking the leaderboard and seeing that their advantage was almost gone after an hour in the cave.


    When they started hunting again, the arena suddenly got very lively again. Like the yers, the spectators had also been intensely excited for hours on end and had started to wear out.


    One after another, Max and Nico wiped out the yers with Halos until faint wings started to form on their backs, and they realized they were the prime targets for everyone on the battlefield. Even if it was ten on one, they were so far ahead of the lowest ranked yers that a single kill of them would move the lucky yer over halfway up the ranks and give them ess to all the skills they had been craving but couldn¡¯t get the points to ess.


    With the two of them dominating first and second ces, the real battle was taking ce between third and fifth ce. It was a delicate bnce, both to eliminate powerful enemies and gain enough points to get upgrades to their power, and to avoid the top two so they didn¡¯t get massacred.


    The audience didn¡¯t know the background of any of thepetitors, so their assumption was that these were simply the most elite among the gamers and they were working together to suppress thepetition. While that wasn¡¯t entirely wrong, they both had a distinct advantage in the form of advancedbat training on their side that allowed them to fight effectively without using skills.


    The people who looked down on the Street Rat ss at the start were starting to warm up to it as more than a gimmick. If you didn¡¯t have the ability to buy skills, you could pump up your stats instead and rely on more skilled movement andbat abilities to ovee the enemies. Max¡¯s rate of casting was beyond most of theirprehension though, even though they could clearly see the spell text progression pop up as he cast.


    It did give hope to a few fast-rapping streamers that they could find a niche in this game with the casting sses, using their unique skill to cast spells faster than their opponents. The Data Network linked entire sectors of the gxy together, but only within a Sr System would thetency be low enough to actually y games like this, meaning that they wouldn¡¯t have to regrly face such monsters as they were seeing today. They could y against locals and stream it with a good chance of sess.


    The one-hour remaining rm sounded and the ranks were all but decided. Those at the top had gotten so far from those at the bottom that even their best attack abilities would do very little to harm the leaders. There were still a few more fighting to get into the top ten, but both Max and Nico had emerged as the undisputed victors, and even if they simply stopped for thest hour, nobody could ovee them.


    So, that is almost exactly what they did. They sat down on a bench in the spawning area and gave strategy tips to the lower-ranked yers who wished to hear them. Most didn¡¯t, since they were all professionals, but a few admired the techniques that the two hade up with, and some wished to edit their skills for thest push to rank up and look better on the final scoreboard.


    Not everyone made it to the end though. Some yers had been so thoroughly crushed that the death penalty had taken them back to their zero power starting point, and they had simply retired early and left the arena without any fanfare.

 161 Chapter 161

    With ten minutes left in thepetition, two yers came over to see the leaders, but not to chat. Both had managed to earn faint wings on their backs, but neither could challenge Max or Nico for the top spots, no matter how lucky they got in thest few minutes.


    The two were Lord PockiPock and Callsign Flood, two of the top streamers, and coincidentally, just out of the running for the top 5 positions. Onest death wouldn¡¯t push them out of the top ten though, and they had a n to end their stream on a high note.


    ¡°I, Lord PockiPock am here to challenge the Blood Goddess to a Duel. I will redeem my name and my honor here today.¡± The first one began, making Max snicker.


    If he recalled correctly, the other soldiers were saying that thest time they dueled in a game she beat him 197-0 and made him rage quit the game entirely, moving his stream to a newly released first-person shooter.


    ¡°SlumDogRaider, I challenge you to a duel.¡± Callsign Flood said more simply, and the fourbatants spread out, making room for them to fight.<sub>.</sub>


    Both of the streamers had taken the Pdin ss,bining offensive holy magic with good defense and swords. In a stand-up fight that theoretically put Max at a disadvantage, but he had long since given his avatar a powerful staff that could take sword strikes without being damaged.


    ¡°The staff is too boring, try this instead,¡± Nico called, throwing Max a small ck item.


    It was an extendable baton that he could channel his spells through, like a stun baton that many police forces used, but with Arcane Magic. This was much more suitable to his spell casting than fighting with a long staff would be.


    Max flicked his wrist, extending the baton while his light blue butterfly wings flickered in the breeze. His opponent wasn¡¯t one for waiting though, he was a warrior ss, and being at range put him at the disadvantage.<sub></sub>


    Plus, his ratings had been dipping over thest quarter and he needed something to draw in more viewers. An epic Pdin on Mage duel would be just the thing to get him situated as one of the top streamers in the new game.


    He quickly activated [de Flurry], a Pdin skill designed to break through the defenses of a Mage-type ss, but Max was ready for the basic opener, parrying all the strikes with his baton. Max moved closer, driving his shoulder into the armored chest of his opponent and knocking him back, then followed it up with a [Arcane Barrage] sending a wave of small magical balls at the Pdin.


    Callsign Flood rolled to the side, dodging most of the attack and the crowd scattered, realizing a bit toote that they had gotten too close to the fight. Max sent a few more spells out before the Pdin activated a charge skill and rushed into him with a flying leap.


    Max dodged the sword and grabbed Callsign Flood¡¯s right wrist, throwing him over the shoulder with assistance from his baton. But he forgot that the deadly little stick was charged with [Arcane st]. When it made contact between his opponent¡¯s legs to help flip him over Max¡¯s shoulder, Callsign Flood made a noise that no man¡¯s vocal cords were intended to make. Even the audio processor of the game didn¡¯t seem to know how to deal with it, and the voice didn¡¯te out in the deep and gruff tone that he had assigned to his avatar.<sub></sub>


    The moment he hit the ground, Max followed up with a strike of the baton to his other head, knocking him out cold and sending him to respawn.


    Satisfied with his victory, Max turned to see how the other duel was going, only to find that Nico had Lord PockiPock in an armbar, and was currently attempting to drown him in a mud puddle.


    ¡°Go ahead say it again. I dare you, call me short stuff one more time.¡± Sheined as she pushed his face further into the mud and the crowdughed.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t this what happenedst time as well?¡± Max asked a spectator, after reading a few minds near him.


    ¡°This is exactly what happenedst time, almost word for word, butst time there was no mud puddle and all she could do was spawn camp him.¡± The yer agreed.


    [One Minute remaining. yers will be ejected after the next death.]


    The game¡¯s announcement made Nico sigh and release her opponent, but she didn¡¯t let him get up, she just moved on to kicking him while he curled up and tried to defend himself. Her health was under half, so he must have put up a pretty solid fight before she took him down, but things didn¡¯t end well for him.


    There was no self-harm mechanism in the game, so he was at her mercy until the timer went off, unless he gave up his spot and exited the game early, forfeiting the match. The others were just starting to feel sorry for him when Nico relented and helped him to his feet, one second before the end of the match when they all were returned to the game lobby to log out.


    ¡°I would say that was a shocking twist there at the end, but as all the viewers who watch the streams already know, that was exactly what we should have expected to happen.¡± The announcer is saying as Max logs out, seeing the rey of Nico smashing her opponent¡¯s face in the mud on therge screen above them.


    ¡°Now that we¡¯re done, I will remind you all, that this is not the only way to y. Other than timed deathmatch, there are points battles, zombie horde mode, and even single-yer battles against pre-recordedbatants. At no cost, you can record your finest performances in the system registry and yers from all over the Gxy can challenge a reproduction of yourself at that point, with monthly prizes being awarded to the top recordings.¡± The announcer deres, making the crowd roar in joy.


    After twelve long hours, they were mostly as exhausted as the yers, except for an intelligent few who snuck in a nap during the dull hours between the 6th and 9th hour of gamey.


    ¡°We will now ask that all the yerse up to the stage for the official announcement of your final rankings, and a rey of today¡¯s highlights with interviews from our most entertaining contestants.¡±


    Hundreds of weary yers trudged up to the stage, their bodies were well rested fromying asleep in the VR pods, but their minds were totally worn out from half a day of gaming. After a moment to recover though, they began putting their public personas back on to match either their online persona or the character that they had chosen to cosy for the event.


    The gameunch was a live-streamed show, as well as a contest. For those in the entertainment industry, appearance was everything, and having their fans see them not at their best was hard on their public image, which in turn meant hard on their ie.

 162 Chapter 162

    ¡°We will begin with the prize for the most entertaining fight of the match. I know, I know, you all want to get to the winners, but first, we must shine a light on everyone else who performed admirably today.


    The three nominated fights, by a vote of the audience¡¯s rey viewing habits, are Julius versus Ming, Ragnarocker versus BussayyyBoi, and Blood Goddess Versus Lord PockiPock. It was a shock to see ast-minute fight make the list, but you now have a final chance to vote for the winner.¡± The announcer dered, bringing the fights up on the big screen above the stage, as well as everyone¡¯s individual screens.


    The first one was an evenly matched duel betweenpetent rogues, and very interesting for Max to watch, but unfortunately, the contestants didn¡¯t get to vote on this category. The second was a marvel of ipetence, with twopletely inept warriors who hadn¡¯t activated any skillsically iling at each other, while the final match was the humiliation of Lord PockiPock.


    Unlike what Max had suspected, it was not a close fight. He had precast an incredibly powerful Fire spell and roasted nearly half of Nico¡¯s life away in an instant, then insulted her a few times before she got ahold of him and beat him near to death before dragging him to a mud puddle and attempting to drown him.


    The timer counted down from thirty seconds and the crowd decision was in. Ragnarocker and BussayyyBoi had won the most entertaining fight of the night.<sub>.</sub>


    With how the fight actually went, it was a dubious honor, but the crowd loved it.


    ¡°Next up will be the fan choice for the favorite individual kill.¡± The announcer dered, and dozens of popr kills filled the screens of the audience¡¯s monitors.


    ¡°We have our top 5, now begin the second round of voting.¡± The announcer man called in a fake happy voice, while the contestants stared at the screens, someughing some ring. One of the options was Max killing Callsign Flood, another was Nico killing Nekkbreaka, the berserker whose head she tore off when she first met up with Max. But the top kill went toedy value, the same as the best fight did.


    PrincessAria, a famously beautiful streamer had jumped off a cliff to avoid certain death, not wanting her opponent to get her points. But shended on the top of a witch¡¯s staff, impaling her chest and giving the points to a yer that never even saw hering. The look on her face, both in the game and when she won was enough to have half the contestants roaring inughter.<sub></sub>


    ¡°With the major categories finished, we have one final category left. This one is a split category, for best and worst sportsmanship. Both the audience and the contestants will have a chance to vote on this one since they will have had very different experiences.¡±


    Max thought long and hard,ing up with one yer who went out of his way to duel to 50 percent with others at the start, so they could learn to use their skills and another who harassed the female yers until they hounded him right out of the game.


    The yers¡¯ votes were all over the map, but the groper came up second on their list of worst sportsmanship. The top vote? Blood Goddess. Taunting them to their deaths enraged well over half the yers into voting her for their most despised opponent.


    Best sportsmanship as voted by the yers, went to Callsign Flood, who had helped a lot of yers out and even gave away his out-of-date weapons, not realizing that he could trade them back to the shop for credits.<sub></sub>


    That went a long way to helping his online reputation, and his decision to full-time stream the new game.


    From the audience side, the groper won worst sportsmanship in andslide, while Max¡¯s efforts to train the lower ranked yers put him narrowly over Callsign Flood¡¯s early efforts to gear them up.


    ¡°And now for the rankings, and the winners of today¡¯s top prize, the resort vacation for two to Comor¡¯s top all-inclusive resort. In tenth ce, we have Ming, who has earned the Narrow Victory trophy, as the final winner of our top prize.¡± The announcer made his way through the victors, stopping to say a little something about each of them, and plugging the streams of those who gamed professionally, which was everyone except the fifth ce Loqueisha, who wasn¡¯t a Gamer, but an adult entertainer.


    Her online site got much more attention from the audience than the others for some unknown reason though.


    ¡°And now for our runner-up, SlumDogRaider. Though he tied for the lead in points, his one solitary death put him in second ce on the leaderboard. He is not an online persona, in fact, we know very little about him that isn¡¯t ssified. But put your hands together for the yer who came in only a single kill from ultimate victory.¡± The mystery got the crowd charged up and Max waved at the crowd happily, watching as they realized from his appearance that he was a soldier and had likely altered his previous online handle for the tournament due to security reasons.


    ¡°And our winner, the one and only Blood Goddess, who suddenly went offline two years ago, but made a hugeeback today. Do you have anything to say to your loyal fans? Any word of a return?¡± The announcer asked.


    ¡°While I won¡¯t be making a return to the gaming circuit in the immediate future, I can assure you all that my future endeavors will still make your live streams, even if you don¡¯t realize that it is me. It has been a pleasure to be here today, and experience this wonderful new virtual reality game. If I had to suggest one thing though, whoever set the taste profiles for yers has no taste buds.¡± The audience cheered and stomped on the ground until the arena shook in celebration of her win, while the developersughed themselves to tears at the thought that someone actually bit enough yers that they could do a taste test sample of them.


    But this was why open betas were more valuable than the ultra-secretive development model that this game used, they brought in yers that thought of things that a single group wouldn¡¯t have ever tried. Since there was an option to make your yer have fangs, they should have foreseen it, but very little thought was put into the taste of objects in the game.


    It was just another item to add to the emergencyst-minute updates to bepleted before the game officiallyunched that weekend. They had done well though, the list was short, and the confidence that they could get it all done on time and not need to rush out a patch only days after release to fix known errors was high.


    As they made ns to update the game, the announcer gathered the top ten winners to give interviews and do an infomercial for the resort that they would be staying at. They would be doing ongoing videos with the winners during their stay, as part of the tournament conditions to advertise the resort. Most wanted to do them in their streaming persona, but Nico and Max had other ideas. Once they arrived at the resort, they would be soldiers on leave again, and both thought it would be good for troop morale all over the Empire to see that they had been able topete here and win during their standard leave.


    War drained every aspect of body and soul, so seeing the light of hope for a fantastic vacation would motivate the troops.

 163 Chapter 163

    Every winner had the option to bring a plus one with them on vacation if they wished. The rooms had a king-sized bed, and the resort was willing to cover the extra ten people as part of the prize they had provided.


    Most of the winners had ns to immediately begin a fan lottery, to bring someone who could be here within the next three days along on their vacation of a lifetime. That¡¯s how long they had before they had to go to the resort. It wasn¡¯t much, but for most of them, it wouldn¡¯t be an issue. There was one exception, the tenth ce yer, Ming, had brought her mom with her to Comor, not expecting to win. Her mom was also a regr feature on her stream, after walking into the room where she was streaming early in her career to call her for dinner and bing an instant hit.


    ¡°Who should we bring? Maybe put it up as a prize for the unit?¡± Max asked Nico, not sure what they should do with the two extra ces.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s the top luxury resort on the, I¡¯m not sure that any of them could actually behave well enough to not get kicked out the first day.¡± Nicoughed.


    ¡°You have a point.¡± Max agreed, right before his wrist device started going insane. The stream that they thought was aired live was actually on a thirteen-hour time dy, and it had just started airing on the Station and the Abraham Kepler.


    Nobody expected their response for a long time now, since nobody else knew that the stream wasn¡¯t live, but they were sending out congrattions and messages of goodwill already.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Since they don¡¯t know that we won yet, why don¡¯t we y a game with them? They clearly recognized us during the fashion show, so let¡¯s have them bet on the final oue, and the closest to top score can have the extra spots?¡± Nico suggested.


    That was an excellent idea. They had won two rooms, and giving one to the unit would give Max a good excuse to share a room with Nico for the week-long stay at the resort. Pure Genius.


    Nico sent out the message as a Unit wide alert, making it sh on everyone¡¯s wrist devices.


    [The member of the Special Tactics Unit who guesses closest to your Commanding Officer¡¯s final score will receive a special prize after the tournament. Don¡¯t forget to ce your bet, we will give you until five minutes after the match starts, and the prize will make it worth your time.]


    That way she didn¡¯t vite the nondisclosure uses of their contract, and they could give away the prize without upsetting anyone or being used of favoritism.<sub></sub>


    They were about ten minutes into the stream now, so the soldiers had been given a vague idea of the way the game was scored, but were still watching the fashion show entry and had not yet seen the first few kills to have a proper idea of what the kill rate would be during the match.


    Once the game started, the bets started rolling in steadily. Both to Nico¡¯s inbox and written in a group chat so that nobody could try to falsify or send multiple bets. So far none of them were even close to how things had actually gone for Max, they were greatly underestimating his virtual reality gaming powers, and the effect of his efforts working with Nicoter.


    But they also only got to see the highlight reel. That was the only version that was publicly broadcast all over the Empire. To get the other views you had to watch one of the streamer¡¯s feeds or manage to get one of the incredibly fast-selling tickets to watch the event live in the arena.


    Five minutes into the actual battle, thest bets were ced and it only took Max and Nico a few minutes to see who was the winner. Captain Catan was only off by a few percentage points from Max¡¯s final score.


    ¡°Should we tell him a little bit in advance, or wait until they are celebrating after the broadcast?¡± Max asked, double-checking the bids.<sub></sub>


    ¡°They will have more fun if we don¡¯t tell them who won right away. Let them cheer all night and we can tell them in the morning.¡± Nico suggested, looking down at her device again.


    ¡°Uncle Lu is outside the building when we¡¯re done with the interviews. He has a ce arranged for us until the vacation starts if you don¡¯t want to stay in the arena hotel.¡±


    ¡°Thank the Emperor for him. I was not looking forward to going back to that room for longer than it takes to gather my clothes.¡± Max sighed, then turned to the staff member who was ready to bring them to their post-event interviews.


    ¡°We don¡¯t need anything too personal. Just a little about your experience with the game, a quick promo spot for thepany, and that should be it.¡± The employee informed them, leading them to separate rooms where there were different interviewers ready, and a holographic background of the game set to base the interview on, without having to edit the backgroundter.


    They weren¡¯t joking, the whole process waspleted in fifteen minutes, even with the retakes that Nico needed after they realized her face couldn¡¯t properly do emotional expressions. They had been hoping for her to y the cute loli character and give a cutesy interview, but Nico proved entirely incapable of it, so they ended up going with the scary and emotionless Vampire that she was cosying.


    On Max¡¯s side, they had spent more time getting him to pose than speak. ¡°Appealing to the segment of the audience that is drawn in by handsome characters,¡± they said.


    ¡°If you have a ride waiting, we won¡¯t hold you any longer. But we would like to verify that your transport is secure, you know how obsessive fans can get about famous figures.¡± The security officer that led them to the hotel to grab their clothes informed them.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that will be an issue. Lu Chen, of the Chen family, is waiting outside for us.¡± Max informed him.


    ¡°The great scientist of the Chen family? How did you manage to befriend such a reclusive celebrity?¡± The guard asked, startled.


    ¡°We ran into him at the engagement announcement between the Chen family and the Cygnus Royal family.¡± Max shrugged and the big man just shook his head.


    ¡°Famous people really do live in a different world.¡± He muttered, making Nicough.


    ¡°I suppose that phrase is a bit too true, isn¡¯t it? Since you¡¯re actually from other worlds.¡± The guard said, realizing the double meaning behind his phrasing.


    ¡°Comor still has its own celebrities though. Two of the top ten are local streamers, so the Comor celebrity contingent wasn¡¯t locked out of the podium.¡± Nico pointed out.


    They quickly gathered their things and changed into casual wear, then waved goodbye to the few people they recognized here, and headed for the street, apanied by the event security. Even while changed back into casual clothes they were still pretty recognizable though, and a lot of spectators were waiting outside to greet them.


    ¡°Sign some autographs and shake some hands, pet some puppies, kiss some babies, you know the routine,¡± Max whispered to Nico, greeting the crowd and moving forward to sign a bunch of event memorabilia with a silver paint pen provided by the nearby event staff.


    It was only thirty meters to the street where the car was waiting, but it took them almost an hour to deal with the closest portion of the spectators and finish enough autographs that they could leave without upsetting too many people.


    ¡°Thank you all foring. We have signed posters from the winners for everyone who wants one. Only 5 credits with proof of event entry.¡± The staffers called out, bringing out tables full of posters hastily printed with the winners¡¯ images and the game¡¯s official logo on them.


    That was enough to let Max and Nico escape into the Limo, where Uncle Lu was smirking at all the attention they were getting.


    ¡°You¡¯re just getting more and more famous. It¡¯s like you¡¯re destined to end up in the spotlight no matter where you go.¡± The old scientistughed, then motioned for his driver to leave, headed for his own vi in the city.

 164 Chapter 164

    Precisely what he meant by them bing famous became apparent the moment that they made it to Uncle Lu¡¯s condo and were greeted by his housekeepers, who both stared at Max and Nico in awe.


    ¡°Wee Majors, would you like your luggage brought to your rooms?¡± The closest housekeeper asked, bowing deeply.


    That seemed a little overboard for a couple of visiting soldiers. They hadn¡¯t gotten that response anywhere else on the. They had met plenty of domestic staff at hotels as well as customer service representatives at various public facilities and hadn¡¯t seen anything like this reception.


    ¡°It¡¯s easier if we show you instead of telling you.¡± Uncle Lu exined, leading them into the living room to sit down and watch the news channel that was incessantly scrolling through random local stories.


    Only a few minutester, it came back to the story of the day.<sub>.</sub>


    [Breaking News, Sigmund was heroically rescued from an attack by the brutal alien species known as the Narsians. The heroes of the Noctem Mechanized Regiment, spearheaded by the Phnx ss Mecha, Carpe Noctem, and the Stalwart Special Tactics Force managed to overwhelm and iste the invading aliens in time for reinforcements from across the Empire to rally and sweep the surviving aliens from the surface of the agricultural.]


    It was apanied by a series of short videos of the Special Tactics force in battle, focusing on a drone-filmed scene of Tarith¡¯s Rage while the artillery from Carpe Noctem rained down around it and the Narsians charged Nico in the clearing of the final city battle, then it cut to scenes of Max leading troops from the local academy, making Stalwart look extra majestic next to their partially trained abilities and a final full force barrage from Stalwart as the infantry from the Special Tactics force raced past him and Max eliminated the Narsians that were chasing them.


    He had to admit, that it was masterfully edited to make them look heroic and minimize the focus on the rest of the unit. But that didn¡¯t exin the fuss from the staff here. Video feeds of Pilots in action were a weekly thing in the Kepler Empire, and the system made more than a few of them handsome young adults. On a normal day, they would only rate a bit of idolization from Mecha fans and a heavy dose of respect from the rest of the citizenry.


    [Comor Gazette special investigators have identified the Heroes from the rescue of Sigmund as the champions of the local Predatory Instinct pre-release Gaming Tournament. That¡¯s right, these mighty heroes of the Empire are currently on leave right here on beautiful Comor.]<sub></sub>


    That was followed by a short scene of the two of them waving to fans and signing autographs in their casual wear as they left the tournament venue. Then it cut to the scenes from the grand entry of the yers, where they were in cosy, and showing off for the crowd, posing and trying to look good for the photos.


    Both characters that they yed were sex symbols and suggestively dressed, ying up the appeal, and the media was eating it up. Max could only imagine what thements sections of the social media feeds would look like by now if this was being leaked all over the Empire by the propaganda department.


    ¡°So dreamy.¡± The younger one of thedies sighed, watching the news, causing the other to clear her throat.


    ¡°He¡¯s standing right behind you.¡± The other one whispered, not quite low enough that Max couldn¡¯t hear her, making the housekeeper blush.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry sir. I didn¡¯t mean it like that, I mean, the character, yes, the character you were ying is dreamy.¡± She stumbled over her words and Max couldn¡¯t resist the smirk, that spread over his face as hers turned redder and redder.


    ¡°I do hope I¡¯m not a disappointment in the flesh,¡± Max told her, copying the character¡¯s husky voice.


    ¡°Oh my.¡± She stammered and then ran out of the room while the rest of the upantsughed at how easily flustered she was.


    ¡°I see what you meant. With that ying on repeat, everyone on the is about to recognize our faces. But if they¡¯re starting the heroic propaganda this early into our vacation, either we are going to get called back early, or they have something much bigger nned for the future.¡± Nico pointed out.


    ¡°I took the liberty to check the status of Abraham Kepler today. It has been moved to the far end of the pier for maintenance and refit with a minimum departure time listed as two months from arrival. Unless they¡¯re moving you to another ship, you should have time.


    I likely shouldn¡¯t tell you this, but the Comor Mecha Development department, my department, has also requested your continued presence for advanced testing, thanks to the piloting skills data files that were recovered after the battles on Sigmund. If they approve it you could be here for a while.¡± Uncle Lu whispered so that the staff didn¡¯t hear him giving out confidential information and spection on military assets.


    ¡°Well, that could change everything. Hopefully, this is just a single shot of propaganda and it will blow over in a few days before we are headed to the resort. I hope you don¡¯t mind if we hang out with you for a while. The ns of visiting the floating city seem like they might be a poor idea for the next few days.¡± Max told Uncle Lu with a wry smile on his face.


    All his childhood, he had looked up to famous Pilots as heroes, but it wasn¡¯t until exactly this moment that he realized just how much annoyance fame could cause.


    ¡°It would be a pleasure to have you stay a few days. The gamemittee will be by tomorrow as well, since the news broke about you they want an extra interview and I¡¯ve got a generic themed video set in the house designed to look like a hotel conference room. I hold home interviews in there so that my location can¡¯t be identified.¡± Uncle Lu agreed easily.


    Two guests were no problem for him, and these two were entertaining even without being more famous than he was. It was an interesting experience for him as well, to not be the target of paparazzi while in a group, and he intended to enjoy it as long as he could.


    ¡°Sir and Madam, your personal belongings, as well as your hoverboards, are now in your rooms. If you require assistance, please just ask any staff member and we will be happy to assist you with anything you need.¡± The olderdy in the silver uniform blouse and ck skirt reported with a deep bow.


    ¡°Are there more staff here, or just the two of you?¡± Max asked, wondering if the other one was over her embarrassment yet.


    ¡°Yes sir, the cook, as well as the groundskeeper, are currently on the premises, though the groundskeeper is off duty in two hours and will be headed home.


    ¡°What can I say, I don¡¯t like doing stuff, and I¡¯m almost always at theb.¡± Uncle Lu shrugged at the look Max spared him over the excessive number of staff for a house with only one person actually living in it.

 165 Chapter 165

    ¡°I know you¡¯re on vacation, but how do got feel about a small chat about Mecha over dinner?¡± Uncle Lu asked, eager to get back to his hobby after a few days off.


    ¡°It is a little-known fact, but we were both obsessive Mecha fans from the day we were born,¡± Nico replied with an absolutely straight face, making the cook chuckle from where she was finishing up in the kitchen.


    ¡°Excellent, so this thought has been bothering me for a while, but what would you change if you could redesign the Crusader ss Chassis armament options?¡± He asked, practically vibrating with excitement.


    ¡°More artillery. The Battle Cannon isn¡¯t nearly enough indirect firepower for the average Heavy Mecha unit, much less a front-line assault unit, which doesn¡¯t have the advantage of emced infantry positions to saturate the target with artillery fire. Plus, so many weapons have the power to shoot past the horizon, but can¡¯t because they travel in a straight line. A variable distance artillery weapon that could keep up with my targeting would be a dreame true.¡± Max answered almost immediately.


    ¡°A truly interesting thought. Traditionally, artillery duties have fallen to the infantry, while they also serve to protect the armor from closebat in abined arms force. But if the Mecha were also doing artillery duty it would allow a smaller Mecha presence in the force without sacrificing firepower, since there wouldn¡¯t be any artillery emcements for the Mecha to defend. What about you Miss Nico?¡±<sub>.</sub>


    Nico was happy to humor the scientist and took a moment to think beyond the obvious increase in firing rates.


    ¡°What about something with better short-range area damage? The Ion Cannons have a burst mode, and the w has a mediocre mer, but what if we could turn that up to eleven? Do you know much about the fusion drills that are used for asteroid mining?¡±


    Uncle Lu nodded his head. ¡°They use a cold fusion reaction, directed out a nozzle to melt theoids into workable pieces. But what would you use them against on a Mecha?¡±


    ¡°Everything. Close quarters Mechabat, purging non-believers, lighting cigarettes.¡± Nico shrugged.<sub></sub>


    ¡°That sort of me could melt bunkers and defensive emcements and breach fortifications, as well as clearingrge groups of light mecha and infantry that had breached the line.¡± Max rified on her behalf.


    Nico¡¯s mind had gotten sidetracked by a memory of how a simr weapon in her past life would light up buildings like a candle if you fired it up from the bottom and melted them from the inside.


    It was almost too effective.


    ¡°Not bad, but it might take some work to make it mobile. What else¡± Uncle Lu was actually taking notes now as dinner was brought out.<sub></sub>


    ¡°If you made the Rail Gun fire razor-thin discs it would be much more fun. Like a supersonic Frisbee. Or maybe you could make a heavier pulseser. The speed is a great advantage over Ion projectiles, and a rapid burst should be possible with staged capacitors. The array type ones like Stalwart uses are great against light targets, but the existing Laser Cannon sucks and it fires way too slowly.¡± Nico suggested.


    ¡°Please eat, it¡¯s best hot.¡± The chef interrupted them, ignoring the implications of their friendly chat. It was better not to think or know about what went on in the designbs.


    ¡°What about a disruptor-style weapon? The ones that break molecr bonds.¡± Nico added and both men stopped to look at her.


    ¡°I am like ny percent sure that doesn¡¯t exist.¡± Uncle Lu informed her.


    ¡°Of course it does. The Scourge use them to breach ship hulls, so there must be data on them. Nobody would be expecting it, so I¡¯ll bet most armors aren¡¯t designed to defend against that sort of weapon. It would be a great hidden trick.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I see, here they are. Comor hadn¡¯t encountered that species before, so I hadn¡¯t studied their technology. It seems like it might be highlypatible with the System as well, so it might be viable as an infantry rifle or imnted weapon for cybeic augmentations if we can sessfully develop our own miniaturized versions.¡± He agreed, now in full scientist mode, speaking around mouthfuls of food as he searched the military database.


    ¡°Eat first, scienceter. We¡¯ve got plenty of time before the resort trip.¡± Maxughed, taking the data tablet from him and cing it on the table.


    Uncle Lu got a pleading look on his face that was almost exactly the same as the one the young Lady Chen used. ¡°Just one more question. Don¡¯t you think the Crusader ss Chassis is a bit too short? Of every nation in the southern region of the Gxy, Kepler¡¯s Crusader is the shortest, but that really limits the cement of the ordinance. The more heavily armed and slightlyrger Corvette ss units we released have been a big hit with the pilots that have used them.


    A single pilot Mecha near the size of the Phnx ss mecha is perfectly viable with an Alpha Ranked System Compatibility. Especially with multiple targeting skills. Going up in size would really increase the Versatility of our elite forces, and the existing Phnx ss and Crusader ss Mecha were designed before the System was in ce and only received minor upgrades over the years, never a full overhaul and redesign.¡±


    ¡°Just remember that Central Command thinks in the terms of millions of units per decade when ites to Heavy Mecha. If you want them to approve a major change like a new pattern of Crusader ss Mecha it needs to be more powerful, versatile, and cost-effective, while also being easy for the Materials Printer to create parts for, so rare materials can sink the approval of an otherwise very appealing design.¡± Max reminded him while Uncle Lu trapped his finger in the table in thought, with his dinner te sitting empty in front of him.


    Nico¡¯s mechanical eyes made a light whirring noise as she looked through something in her integrated heads-up disy. ¡°Why not give them all advanced shields? I know Kepler and everyone else gave up on them for heavy Mecha due to the problems with power supplies and creating spare parts, but that was a long time ago and I am sure your department coulde up with something that was easier to build if they put their minds to it.


    That would improve survivability, and make it easier to sell the design since you could go lighter on the armor and structural reinforcements to make up for the extra size. The Crusader is a timeless design, and nearly indestructiblepared to anything else in its ss, so recing it won¡¯t be easy, but that might be enough to earn you some special forces trials.¡±


    ¡°Bunch of lousy bureaucrats. If they left it between Pilots and Mecha engineers we could have so much better equipment, but NO, some ountant says it¡¯s too expensive. Bunch of killjoys is what they are.¡± Uncle Luins.


    ¡°By the way, is there dessert? We didn¡¯t eat it already did we?¡± He muttered, looking at the table that the staff had already cleaned.

 166 Chapter 166

    In all the excitement of drawing up Mecha designs the next morning to exin the ideas that they began on at dinner the day before, everyone managed to forget that the event organizers wereing that day to do promotional videos.


    ¡°Greetings Director Kim, I will get the Master for you right away.¡± They heard the housekeeper says softly after the doorbell rang.


    Both Majors were in tank tops and fatigue pants when the gamepany director entered, while Uncle Lu was in pajama pants and ab coat. Sketches and mathematical equations were scrawled on papers scattered all over the room, and the three hastily worked to clean them up before the Video Gamepany executives were exposed to sensitive military data.


    ¡°You forgot we wereing, didn¡¯t you? That¡¯s fine, we can make this casual.¡± The Director sighed, motioning the cameras forward to the room that was set up to mimic a convention hall.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that won¡¯t do. Now that everyone on the knows who we are, every official interview represents the Pilots Corps of the Military, so we will have to be in full uniform if we¡¯re not fully casual. Give us five minutes and we will be ready.¡± Max informed him.


    An in-home chat was one thing, but they couldn¡¯t get away with half a uniform for an official promotion. The options were still casual or full uniform.


    Can we get you in the other outfits we have brought as well? We would like to get multiple spots if possible.¡± The clothing and makeup crew asked.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°That¡¯s not a problem, just no uniform elements without a full uniform.¡± Max rified.


    ¡°Perfect, we have a holographic backdrop, so we can do multiple scenes in advance and limit the need for repeat ads. Gamers prefer a multi advertisement intensive campaign, ording to our data.¡±


    Max wasn¡¯t sure who told them that, but the market saturation technique where the game ads came up constantly at every opportunity, was possibly the most annoying strategy ever in Max¡¯s opinion.


    He hurried to change into his uniform, meeting Nico in the hall outside the meeting room.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get this going. I suspect they¡¯re going to want as much footage as they can get.¡± She greeted him, carrying a small basket with drinks and snacks.


    The basket turned out to be for Uncle Lu, who was overseeing the whole process from a chair off to one side.<sub></sub>


    ¡°First up we will do the uniformed intro shots.¡±


    Show business was no less exhausting than piloting, Max decided after doing the introduction dozens of times, in different poses and scenery. Nico had it even worse, they wanted her to change voice settings multiple times a scene as well as all the different poses.


    Then came the same thing with them both together, before it was time for a costume change.


    ¡°Most of the advertisement will be game footage, but we want four full runs. We¡¯re done with the uniforms, then we will do formal since you are both Nobles and high society prefers their own for endorsements.


    After that will be a short beach wear shoot in the artificial resort scenery and one more in casual wear.¡± The director decided.


    Formal wear went smoothly, and they had brought a matching suit and ballgown for him and Nico. The beach wear scene was where things went all wrong.<sub></sub>


    The crew had forgotten the outfits and neither of them had anything suitable with them. Max and Nico had nned to get their own, but the propaganda video made them stay in yesterday.


    ¡°We will order a selection to be delivered. Do you have casual wear? We brought some, but we didn¡¯t know your style.¡± The director exined.


    ¡°We have a little, but it might be too casual for an advertisement if you know what I mean,¡± Max informed him.


    As soon as he said that, the assistants rolled forward a coat rack with a wide variety of clothing on it. There was enough here to do a full fashion show, and the director was worried it wasn¡¯t enough for them to find an outfit they liked. He was greatly overestimating how picky Max was about what he wore.


    Max was easy to please as far as casual clothing went. Jeans and a Comor Game Development logo t-shirt and he was good to go. Nico was a bit pickier, grabbing items off her rack and then going for his.


    They stepped behind the curtains hung in the corner of the room to change, finishing up quickly to get the scene over with. Nico came out and Max couldn¡¯t help but wonder what sort of crowd she hung out with before joining the academy. He had met one friend of hers, who was an egotistical cker, but she never really thought about the past.


    She had one of the ck men¡¯s logo shirts on, tied at the back to show off her figure. It ended most of the way down a gray and white id pleated skirt, paired with fis stockings and leather boots. She had given herself ck lipstick that highlighted how pale she had made her artificial skin and tied her hair back in a ponytail.


    She looked over her body over more time, adjusted her bust up one more cup size, and nodded in satisfaction.


    The two younger camera operators whistled as she walked out and even the female assistant nodded in appreciation.


    ¡°Every big jock needs a small goth girlfriend and this is as close as I could get,¡± Nico informed them happily.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get to work. We will air this one first, they¡¯re perfect together.¡± The director announced, bringing out a new script for them to follow for the casual scenes.


    Before they were done with the Casual wear scenes, the beach wear had arrived. A delivery van brought a variety of shorts, polo shirts, and short-sleeved button-down shirts with tropical flower patterns. Nico had swimsuits with various covers waiting for her, and she was done before Max even picked his first outfit.


    He had no idea what others wore for a whole day at the beach if it wasn¡¯t swimwear, he had been thinking of boots to keep the sand out, but this time it was all sandals and soft shoes.


    ¡°Start with this,¡± Nico said, handing him a flowery shirt and knee-length swim shorts with a pair of soft shoes Max didn¡¯t recognize.


    He changed quickly and came out, but Nico onlyughed and then undid all the buttons on his shirt, showing off his torso. She was wearing a red bikini top with a bright-colored wrap skirt and sandals, so she was showing just as much skin, convincing Max that she knew something about beach wear that he didn¡¯t. Wouldn¡¯t this just lead to sunburn?


    ¡°At the beach, you wear just enough to be decent.¡± She informed him.


    That made sense, on the station everyone just stayed in swimsuits.


    When they finished, the advertising group told them that all the clothes were prepared for them, so they could keep them. They wouldn¡¯t fit anyone else quite right, since it was all custom tailored.


    That solved their shopping issue, they now had a full wardrobe of civilian clothing for their vacation. The only question was what they were doing to do with all this when it was time to go back on duty. A Major was given plenty of storage allotment, but not this much, and it could be a year or more before they wore most of it again.


    Max decided that was a problem forter. For today he was mentally exhausted and just wanted to sink into the couch and wait for food to appear. Unfortunately, it was only the middle of the afternoon. They had made good time on their scenes, not often having to redo them, so dinner would be a while.

 167 Chapter 167

    With all the footage that they could possibly need for their advertisements, the event organizers didn¡¯t need to bother Max and Nico again before they reached the resort.


    The others weren¡¯t so lucky, the rest of the top ten had to do their advertisement spots both individually and sometimes together on the next day and they had been at it for almost fifteen hours before the filming was done.


    Uncle Lu had gotten both Nico and Max an orbital transfer cube to use as luggage for the rest of their uing vacation. They fit perfectly in the lockers on a Lander, and a Major was allowed room for two of them plus their duffel on abat mission, and more if they were transferring for a nonbat duty.


    That triggered the thinning out of the donated clothing until they each had one cube worth to go with their duffel of personal effects that had been transferred from Abraham Kepler.


    The luggage didn¡¯te with official orders, but all of their personal effects were now in their possession, except what had been left inside their Mecha. That amounted to a bit of bedding and a few photos, but they were safe right where they were. Nobody would tamper with a pilot¡¯s cockpit.


    The luggage transfer was rather concerning to Max, giving him the impression that the ship might be down for longer than expected, or that the level of casualties meant that the 43rd Armored was going to get reorganized.


    Unlike his Mecha, Abraham Kepler wasn¡¯t a Relic of a ship, it was only three tours from itsmission date, or a little over thirty years old. It had taken quite a bit of damage since he arrived though, so it was possible they found hidden structural damage that would require a more extensive refit.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°We are all packed and ready to go,¡± Max called to Uncle Lu, who had promised them a lift to the resort so they didn¡¯t have to flymercial.


    ¡°Two bags each. How very military efficient of you. Alright, I will have the driver take us to the shuttle and we can fly over. They have a privatending pad there, so we won¡¯t need a car at the other end.


    I wish I could stay, but once I drop you off I need to get back to theb and work on those ideas we thought up. The team thinks some of them are short-term viable.¡± Uncle Lu¡¯s excitement was visible and Max felt bad about taking him away from his work.


    Even if he was fun to hang out with, he was a top scientist with responsibilities as well as a member of the Ruling family of Comor. The fact he had taken this long off from his duties already was more than a little shocking.


    ¡°Since the shuttle is at theb, why don¡¯t we drop you at work and the pilot can bring the shuttle back when he¡¯s done?¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°Would you mind? It would give me at least three extra hours in theb today.¡± Uncle Lu asked.<sub></sub>


    ¡°It is your shuttle, and you have already been very good to us. You can leave thest leg to the professionals.¡± Nico agreed, patting him on the back.


    ¡°That settles it then. Let¡¯s get a move on. Things to do, people to see.¡±


    On the way to theb, Uncle Lu was already busy working, sending messages about structural alterations to the X109 and X137 designs. He had taken the talk about mass production efficiency to heart and was nning to fully alter the designs to make them more viable to produce inrge quantities.


    It was the final step that most scientists forgot, a mistake that relegated millions of brilliant ideas to obscurity or a purely theoretical existence.


    The Comorb would have ess to the list of all materials that the various units were allocated for orbital insertion, and they could work from there to tweak their design to be morepatible with the existing materials stockpile and othermonly avable materials that could logically be substituted without much inconvenience.


    A half dozen of his researchers were waiting in the hangar with designs in their hands when the trio arrived at theb. They were hasty modifications andbinations of existing proposals, a rough draft that would better match the new design priority. Everyone was so invested in their work that only a few words were exchanged before the whole group disappeared through the security doors to theb.<sub></sub>


    ¡°You get used to it, he¡¯s always like that.¡± The shuttle pilotughed, loading their luggage into the cargo hold of the versatile little ship.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we understand. He was the same way yesterday when we were brainstorming ideas to make the designs more viable and user-friendly.¡± Max agreed with a shrug before climbing the steps into the shuttle¡¯s passengerpartment.


    Max decided to check the news onest time before they entered the resort, where ess by outsiders would be strictly controlled. With luck, the furor would have died down and things would be back to normal by the time they left next week.


    That didn¡¯t look too likely today, the footage from their battles was being used in the new military motivational videos, short pro-Kepler videos meant to give civilians a feeling of safety and national pride.


    On top of that, Predatory Instinct was the biggest pop culture event of the month, possibly the year, with three hundred million users on pre-order for next week¡¯s official release. The ads yed every secondmercial break, sshing their faces all over the datawork.


    ¡°It is all your fault. Who told you to get all those thirsty young women pining for you in the Harkness cosy?¡± Nico joked when the feed rmended a fanption of scenes of Max as their next video.


    ¡°That would be you. I distinctly recall you picking out the costume.¡± Max pointed out.


    ¡°Rx, it¡¯s part of being famous. You should see the fan video feeds they made of me. Luckily for me, the default setting in the shuttle had the child safety on.¡± Nicoughed.


    ¡°There will be tons of bad art and amateur fan fiction created for any popr new game. The streamers use it to increase their viewership when they can be the face of a gamemunity.¡± She added, dismissing Max¡¯s embarrassment.


    They watched a random episode of aedy series for the rest of the flight, which extended to over an hour due to flight routing and speed limits over popted areas. Nobody was a fan of repeated sonic booms outside their hab dome after all.


    The highlight of the whole flight was thending. As soon as they entered the approach pattern, both Max and Nico realized that the resort usedrge, winged canines as part of their security patrol.


    The look in Nico¡¯s eyes was a dangerous one, so Max warned her in advance. ¡°If you upset the security there is a very good chance you will get both of us thrown out before our vacation even starts.¡±


    ¡°Rx. I just want to pet the puppy. Even if they arerge, these ones are trained, I am sure you can pet them.¡±


    Her chance came as soon as theynded. A security guard with a caninepanion came to check their shuttle for contraband, sniffing around outside before they were allowed to disembark, then waiting to the side to wee them to the resort.


    ¡°Wee to the¡­ Lugo, no.¡± The guard started his spiel, then had to stop as his canine lunged at Nico.


    It was fast, so much so that Max couldn¡¯t intercept it in time, but it wasn¡¯t aggressive, it was nuzzling and licking Nico as she rubbed its head. Max recoiled a little in shock, then checked Nico¡¯s thoughts to see what she had done.


    There was no way a trained security dog was that friendly, plus the handler panicked when it moved.


    What Max found was that the guard animals all had cybeic obedience imnts to prevent them from attacking guests. Nico had hacked it to make herself the canine¡¯s new best friend.


    After a few seconds, she changed the settings back and the beast returned to its handler and stood at attention to memorize the scents of the guests the way it was trained to do.


    ¡°I am very sorry about that. It¡¯s a side effect of one of my System Functions and not his fault at all.¡± Nico exined.


    System Functions could be almost anything, and there was very little chance that they could prove she was lying, so the guard simply epted the apology, but he did reprimand his partner for forgetting his training.


    Since they arrived on a Chen family shuttle, that was the extent of the security measures for them, and the guard led them to the reception area where dozens of hosts were waiting to greet them and take care of anything they could possibly need while their luggage was sent to their room.

 168 Chapter 168

    ¡°Have the other two arrived?¡± Max asked the host who was leading them to the rooms they were assigned. Captain Catan won the game tournament betting, but Max never did ask who he was bringing as his plus one.


    ¡°Yes, Sir Max. They are waiting in the room on the right for your arrival. Would you care for refreshments, or perhaps a light lunch after your flight?¡± The host asked, motioning toward the room where the Captain should be waiting.


    ¡°Both I think. I don¡¯t n on venturing out much this afternoon.¡± Max decided and the host bowed before politely knocking on the door of the room.


    ¡°Captain, your esteemed guests have arrived.¡± He announced and then stepped away to fetch the food and drink order.


    After a few seconds, Captain Catan answered the door in just a pair of fatigue pants, smiling at hismanding officers.


    ¡°Wee, and thank you so much for offering this amazing suite up as a prize. The staff told us when we arrived that you two had chosen to share a room so that you could offer the second room to the unit.¡± Catan weed them.<sub>.</sub>


    There was a second person in the room, hurriedly getting dressed while Catan distracted them at the door, Max could hear the rustling of clothes, so he didn¡¯t try to hurry in and instead stood in the hallway talking to the Commander of the Infantry portion of the Special Tactics Unit.


    ¡°It was the right thing to do. We could have picked one winner each, but it was better to let one winner and their date enjoy the luxury. You can tell Lieutenant Breckenridge she doesn¡¯t need socks, we¡¯re not going anywhere.¡± Nico informed Catan, using a formal and polite tone that was slightly different than what her voice box usually generated.


    Max took s second to look into her thoughts and got a shock so major that he almost forgot the reason they were here, standing in the hallway of a resort¡¯s most expensive and famous resort.


    Nico had been using her System Functions to modify her Cyborg body into something entirely new. It somewhat reminded him of the Scavengers, being a nanotechnology-filled living metal body. But she wasn¡¯t going for their consumption-optimized form, Nico was making herself nearly human again, but out of metallic alloys and with very, very different physiology.


    From what he could learn from her thoughts, the System agreed that it would work, and eventually bepatible enough with humanity that her body could assimte human gic material to create a second generation of self-propagating superhumans.<sub></sub>


    How exactly that would work wasn¡¯t clear, but the AI of the System was rarely wrong when it gave information with that level of certainty.


    Max could see that she had been feeding the AI data from her past life though, so perhaps some of that information on Gic Maniption was helpful.


    He had been so engrossed in her thoughts that Max almost missed the others going inside. Breckenridge had thrown on a pair of pink tights and a cream-colored sweater dress, and the mismatch of colors made Max chuckle.


    It clearly wasn¡¯t what she had nned to wear, and it was much too warm for the tropical setting, so there must be marks or love bites that she was trying to hide.


    ¡°Wee to Comor. It looks like you¡¯re already enjoying your stay.¡± Nicoughed and Breckenridge smacked her, then winced and cradled her hand.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Non-Newtonian shell. The harder you hit it, the harder it gets. I am still working on having it maintain flexibility under impact.¡± Nico exined, turning the Lieutenant¡¯s wince into a re.


    ¡°You¡¯ve gotten it so close to looking like real skin that I forgot,¡± Breckenridgeined, then sighed.


    ¡°Some things happened, you know. But we have been seeing each other every day this week.¡± She exined while Catan wrapped an arm around her waist.


    ¡®Did taking her to The Pit flip a switch in her head?¡¯ Max wondered but avoided intruding on her thoughts. He was pretty sure he was happier not knowing about her sex life, but she was well known in the unit for being a bit of a prude and perhaps a bit too attached to her brother under the auspices of having him as her lifelong rival.


    As a mecha and an infantry officer, they weren¡¯t in each other¡¯s direct chain ofmand, so the upper brass wouldn¡¯t have any issues with their rtionship. Plus, they looked happy together. Very happy.


    ¡°There are drinks and snacksing. Have you had a chance to visit the floating cities yet?¡± Max¡¯s question seemed to catch them off guard and the couple just shook their head.


    ¡°Amodations were expensive and hard to find, so we stayed at the Station until this morning. Even if you spent two months there it would hardly be enough to fully explore that ce.¡± Catan shrugged.


    He had a point, Max hadn¡¯t had to look for a hotel room on Comor yet, all of his arrangements had been taken care of by others.


    ¡°What about you two? Other than the gaming tournament, where did you disappear to? I saw you dressed in your formal best when you left the unit.¡± Catan asked.


    ¡°There was a wedding announcement that we were invited to by an old friend, then we spent a few days with a local scientist that we met there and explored the city as much as we could.¡± Nico glossed over the finer details since the full story was pretty unbelievable.


    Speaking of which, the first of the wedding parties was going to start in a few days, and Max had received his invitation directly from Lord General Kirnd,plete with a personal note from the young couple asking him to attend.


    Nico likely got the same thing, since the wedding couple was a big fan of her, and she had some status as a distant member of the groom¡¯s extended family by Cygnus standards.


    Room service knocked at the door and then brought in a collection of pastries, finger sandwiches, and fruit along with an assortment of wines and liquors, cing them on a folding table that the staff brought with them.


    ¡°You must have really splurged, Commander,¡± Breckenridge said in awe, making Maxugh.


    ¡°It¡¯s an all-inclusive resort. Like the ship cafeteria, but without rationing and the food is actually good.¡± Max told her while Catan poured a round of drinks.


    ¡°To victory and fame.¡±

 169 Chapter 169

    ¡°Why don¡¯t we all check out the climbing walls tomorrow? I hear they¡¯re incrediblyplex and should be a proper challenge even for you two with incredibly strong systems.¡± Breckenridge suggested as they finished their afternoon snack.


    ¡°There is a cavern system with an entrance at the top that contains its own ecosystem, with life forms that are only found here on Comor. This was originally habitable with its own flora base, so the native nt life ispletely unique, unlike the nts on so many of the terraformed worlds.¡± Nico added, more interested in the exploration aspect.


    ¡°Then from the caves to the waterfall for lunch? I saw on the brochure that the main kitchen will deliver a pic lunch there for you on request.¡± Catan agreed.


    It was at the end of the cave, so not at all out of their way, and a few hours of exercise would do them all a world of good after cking all week. Max had gotten so used to his workout routine that even a few days off was starting to make him feel like he was beingzy and abandoning his obligations.


    ¡°It¡¯s a n then. Should wee to get you two at say seven in the morning so we can get breakfast and enjoy the sunrise?¡± Max asked, and Catan nodded.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°That would be good. The sun here is a very interesting color, and the sunrises are supposed to be the most vivid shade of blue. I¡¯ve been looking forward to it for a while. We will likely stay out and watch it set as well.¡± The infantry Captain told Max with a wink.


    Their balconies both had great skyline views, but the one that Max and Nico were in faced the morning light, while the one Captain Catan was in faced the sunset. Both were incredible views in their own right, but given the option, Sunset was usually preferable on vacation, just so you didn¡¯t have the morning sun in your eyes when you woke up.


    Max and Nico had just retired to their room when Nico sighed and closed the curtains, before turning to the bathroom and doing the same, then hanging a bathrobe over the inside of the curtain.


    ¡°What¡¯s up with that? Adaptation migraines form the light?¡± Max asked. It was amon side effect of ocr imnts, and hers were still rtively new after all.<sub></sub>


    ¡°No, my thermal indicator found what looked like a person with a camera in the woods, trying to evade the security sweep. It¡¯s most likely Paparazzi again, the same as when we were out with Lu, and at the Orbital Resort. They¡¯re vultures hanging around anywhere they think they might find someone famous in a scandal.¡±


    It sounded a bit harsh, but she wasn¡¯t really wrong. The sorts of people who wanted to be ¡°Celebrity Reporters¡± as they called themselves were usually highly narcissistic failed influencers and not anything resembling decent journalists.


    ¡°Hopefully they get it sorted. All ten winners plus their guests will be here today, so it is sort of prime time for the paparazzi.¡± Max agreed, stripping down to take a shower before changing clothes.


    It was hot here, and something more rxing was the obvious choice. Fortunately, he had a collection of beach wear to choose from that was all light cloth, breathable, and minimally covering.<sub></sub>


    ¡°There¡¯s an infinity pool next to the hotel that overlooks the woods if you want to rx there. The water is not too warm, and there are beverages waiting there.¡± Nico suggested.


    They still had a few hours to dinner, so that would be just the thing to kill some time. Nico changed into a bikini under a pink yukata with sandals, while Max went for a more normal set of long swim shorts with one of the ck floral shirts the Game Company had provided them.


    The amenities list said that there were towels at the pool, as well as lounge chairs, a fire pit, and some other amenities, so they didn¡¯t bother to bring anything with them, only stopping to make sure that the door was properly encoded to their fingerprint. It was unlikely that such a luxurious ce would make such a simple mistake, but it was better to be safe than end up locked out of your room.


    When they arrived at the pool, the gamer known as Lord PockyPock was already there, with a nearly nudedy hanging off of him that Max assumed was the fan he had chosen to apany him on the trip. They had set up their camera and lighting already, it seemed, and were doing a short spot for his stream.


    The camera was off to the side with a great view overlooking the pool and the forest, but it did not belong to the streamer. It was also an amenity of the hotel, for their social media famous guests, so that the best view in the area was never taken. They just needed to wait until it was free.


    There was a subtle lineup, other famous folk lounging on the chairs to get a turn to film for their next day¡¯s broadcasts, or their social media stream, but Max and Nico avoided that end of the area and headed for the end of the pool where the staff was waiting on other guests, who were alternating between the water and the lounge chairs.


    The evaporating water helped keep everyone cool in the afternoon heat, while advanced sunscreens prevented skin damage. Max had totally forgotten about that, having spent so much time inside his mecha that the outdoor elements were a foreign thing to him these days. Nico forgot because she was made of metal, and it simply didn¡¯t matter to her.


    Once she saw the wealthy vacationers applying it, she caught on fast, andmandeered a bottle from one of the nearby staff members, along with a pair of towels for the lounge chairs.


    ¡°I got the oily shine version. You do my back and I will do yours?¡± Nico asked, making Max smile.


    She was up to something, mostly attracting attention for her own amusement, but she was avoiding thinking about whatever it was she was really nning, so Max couldn¡¯t tell her not to do it.


    Max took the first turn and watched as the guys nearby stealthily snuck peeks at him applying the suntan oil. But when it was Nico¡¯s turn, it was obvious she was posing as she applied the oil to him. She didn¡¯t even stop at his back, and did all of his front as well, as the distracted social media starlets gawked in envy.


    The civilian men might spend some time at the Gym, but most of them had low-ranked systems, so their bodies were no match for Max¡¯s technology-enhanced physique. He wasn¡¯t overly bulky, but even his muscles seemed to have muscles these days, and the System deemed almost all fat storage as redundant and unnecessary.


    ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking. It¡¯s all about that pretty face you¡¯ve got.¡± Nico whispered while Max sighed at all the attention he was getting.


    He was definitely going to be in a lot of Keplergram feeds tomorrow.

 170 Chapter 170

    Once the afternoon heat started to fade the crowd around the pool started to thin out and the social media celebrities moved on to the restaurant to take outcrops of their food. It was a ridiculous tradition Max didn¡¯t understand since 99 percent of their audience would never even be on this, but taking pictures of every meal was a tradition all through history.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we order dinner at the tables overlooking the forest?¡± Max asked, indicating a group of tables under umbres off to the side of the pool area where they were out of the line of sight of the main attractions, but still had a great view.


    ¡°That works for me. It will have a great sunset view as well, probably better than the restaurant if we didn¡¯t get a window seat.¡± Nico agreed.


    Those with famous travel blogs were pretty much obligated to go to the most famous spots for a photo multiple times a day, and their antics served as amusement for the truly wealthy visitors who were there to rx.


    The second group, the truly wealthy, are the ones that joined Max and Nico on the patio for dinner.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Sir Max and Lady Tarith, it is an honor to meet you both. I am Baroness udia from Kepler 108. My son is a huge fan of the fighting games like the one you are advertising.¡± An older woman greeted them once their drinks were served.


    ¡°It is a pleasure Baroness. I do hope that Comor has been as good to you as it has been to us.¡± Max greeted her with a smile, wondering how he got so popr even with the civilian Nobles, who have always been somewhat at odds with the military for threatening their political authority.


    ¡°The endorsement of the Ruling Family was a nice touch. Tell me, how did you manage to get them on board with such a venture?¡± The Baroness asked, and Max realized where the misunderstanding came from.


    She thought that he was the Noble backing the game, but he was the one on contract, while the Chen family actually owned thepany.<sub></sub>


    ¡°The Chen family has their eye on many things. To be a top family is to be involved in every facet of your¡¯s economy after all.¡± Nico informed her with a smile, and a number of the other Nobles around her smirked at the subtle jab at the status of a Baroness.


    ¡°Your Tarith family might be waning, but you still have your fingers in a lot of pies do you not? I visited Kepler Terminus a few years back, and for a noble family that refuses a title, the Tarith family does seem to be involved in everything.¡± One of the otherdies present pointed out


    Max knew Nico¡¯s family was veryrge since it included all branches of the main family and had a particr fondness for many children. Over a single school break he had seen nearly a hundred people from her mother¡¯s generation in total, and there was talk of others that couldn¡¯te to visit due to business.


    ¡°You know how it is. Some families prefer to be subtle and understated.¡± Nico answered with a wink and a pointed look at the woman¡¯s heavy makeup and expensive jewelry.<sub></sub>


    Nico herself was wearing bright Sakura pink, but the others seemed to get the reference.


    One of the better-dressed men finally stepped in to avoid a catfight. ¡°Greetings, Sir Max, Imperial Lady Tarith. I am Duke Luigi, of Cygnus. Would you mind horribly if I joined you for dinner? None of the others from the Groom¡¯s delegation are here yet.¡±


    Max took a second to consider the man¡¯s words and noticed that he mentioned the groom, so he must be at the resort for one of the wedding parties.


    ¡°Of course, please do join us, Duke Luigi. It would be our honor.¡± Nico nodded, avoiding a smile, since she knew hers didn¡¯t look quite right yet.


    The intervention of the Duke was enough to quiet the Lesser Nobles. None of them wanted that level of trouble, even if they were up for a verbal sparring match with the military-aligned pair.


    ¡°Will you be attending all the parties, or just the one that will be held here? Now that you¡¯ve be the face of Kepler¡¯stest news campaign, I understand that you might not want to go to all of the public events.¡± Duke Luigi asked.


    ¡°We were at the announcement, so I think just this one should be fine, though we did receive an invitation from the young couple to attend them all.¡± Max shrugged, making the others nearby look shocked.


    ¡°That¡¯s probably not going to work out though. This is the first event, and after seeing you again they aren¡¯t going to let you escape so easily.¡± Nico teased him.


    ¡°She has a point, Lady Chen speaks very highly of you both.¡± A female voice joined the conversation from somewhere behind Max.


    She looked vaguely familiar from the party on the Station, but Max couldn¡¯t immediately ce her.


    ¡°I believe you have met Madam Aria. The younger daughter of Viscount Aria works as a personal guard for the Chen family.¡± Duke Luigi introduced them and Max finally put the pieces together. She was one half of the stern-faced maid pair that followed the young couple around.


    The hotel staff brought out their meals and the conversation turned to the uing day¡¯s ns. Most of the Nobles were doing the forest walk, exploring the unique local nts for the morning. A few were nning on sports outings or the caverns, but those ones were all doing them in the opposite direction that Max and his group were, so that they didn¡¯t have to scale the cliffs to get to them.


    Instead, they would take a second, shorter cavern back to the bottom of the hill and return to the hotel. It was much more of azy outing for sightseeing, instead of a physical workout like the cliffs were.


    Of course, only about half even nned to exit the resortpound. Walking in the tropical heat wasn¡¯t for everyone, many preferred to just lounge around the pool or the spa facilities, maximizing their rxation with zero physical activity.

 171 Chapter 171

    By the time they escaped the chatty Nobles, it was well after dark, and the Military crew had ns for first thing in the morning. They had been assured that the facilities would be all but abandoned at that time of day, despite it being early enough to escape the heat. Most patrons wouldn¡¯t be up for hours after they left, the Nobles assured Max.


    The resort¡¯s patrons were usually carefully curated, to appeal to the highest of standards and not embarrass the resort¡¯s reputation. Just getting them to ept the random winners of a Tournament had been a struggle for the organizers, requiring intervention by the Chen family themselves.


    They had gotten lucky, and the winning crew was fairly respectable, without any slovenly sorts or truly repugnant faces in the mix. With the data being Kepler-wide, thepetition for famous streamers was very intense, and the slightest w was often enough to end the career of an up-anding star. Even the lone adult entertainer in the group of victoriouspetitors was a well-known entertainment feature at a certain sort of Noble parties and blended in well with the crowd.


    She was a bit upset that they prohibited her from filming adult scenes in recognizable areas of the hotel, but Max suspected that she might still find a few friendly faces in the recreation areas.


    When they arrived back at the room the first thing they both did was strip down and go for a shower, removing the scent of pool water from their skin and recing it with the gently scented body washes that the hotel provided.<sub>.</sub>


    Once they were both clean, Max looked at the bed in silent trepidation. The temperature control in the room was incredible, but he slept better if he had some outside venttion. The problem was that opening a door would make it too hot in the room tofortably sleep.


    ¡°Hey Nico, you can alter your shell temperature, right?¡± Max asked, getting a brilliant idea.


    ¡°Of course, it¡¯s a standard feature of all military cyborg conversions,¡± Nico answered, not understanding where he was going with this.


    ¡°So, if you dropped your outer temperature down to a pleasant eighteen degrees Celcius, you would be perfectly soft and cool to sleep on, right?¡±<sub></sub>


    Max¡¯s suggestion made Nico smirk. ¡°I knew you secretly loved to cuddle. I will set my shell temperature and you tell me how it works out for you.¡±


    Max woke up the next morning holding a cool and refreshing pillow in his arms. But it was really heavy. For a moment he thought it was some sort of weighted nket gimmick sleep aid, but then his brain fully engaged and he realized that the weight was because it was Nico that he was wrapped around.


    Her body held the perfect temperature all night, keeping it pleasantly cool under theforter, even with the door open, letting the warm night air into the room.


    ¡°We should do this every night. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve slept that well in, well ever to be honest.¡± Max sighed, shifting to release Nico from his grasp.<sub></sub>


    They had thirty minutes before they had nned to be at breakfast, so he reluctantly got out of bed and went looking through his clothes for something appropriate.


    That led him to another missing point of information from his youth. Max had even less idea what you wore to go rock climbing and wilderness hiking than he did about what constituted beach wear. But that was what the Materials Printer was for.


    [One Comor Resort custom Rock Adventure outing set printing] The machine chirped happily, creating him a pair of stretchy shorts, a light blue shirt that hugged his body, and a pair of strange shoes with stiff toes and low-cut socks.


    If the resort said that was what you wore to go to the rock wall, that was what Max was going to wear. Surely they wouldn¡¯t steer him wrong?


    ¡°What are you dressed as today? Pro Climber cosy?¡± Nico chuckled when she saw him getting dressed.


    ¡°It¡¯s what the Materials Printer said was correct.¡± Max pointed out in his defense.


    ¡°And it wasn¡¯t wrong, but you forgot to choose casual as an option. You look like you¡¯re headed to some professionalpetition, not a casual day trip with your friends.


    ¡°Fine then smartass, what would you pick?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°First, pick normal shoes for the walk. I will pack the climbing ones in a backpack with snacks and drinks. Next, those shorts are very nice, but in an ¡®admire your package¡¯ sort of way. Put on these light pants with the big pockets from the casual wear shoot. There are probably going to be bugs in the woods early in the morning.¡± Nico suggested, not following her own advice at all.


    She wore sensible walking shoes, but with Capri cut exercise tights and a loose shirt over a sports bra. Max was just about to chastise her for it when he realized that it didn¡¯t matter what she wore, she was immune to insects bites from anything that wasn¡¯trge enough to be fatal to humans.


    Plus, she looked really good in that, and it would be a shame to ask her to change.


    Max was certain that hanging out with Nico all the time was going to ruin him for womenter in life. Humans had imperfections, marks, plus various odors and wrinkles, but a Cyborg¡¯s Body was absolutely wless, like a retouched photo or a doll. She seemed to know it too, but it was hard to tell because Nico had never been body shy.


    ¡°We should hit the gymter too. A little walk isn¡¯t much of a workout, and the procedures manual says I¡¯m supposed to keep up my routine so that I more fully integrate with my cybeics.¡± Nico suggested, taking Max¡¯s hand to lead him out of the room.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure they have something for us. A resort this fancy surely gets its share of fitness buffs.¡± Max agreed, looking forward to a workout himself. He could likely draw Catan and Breckenridge in as well. The whole unit was used to training daily, so a trip to the gym after a week off might be wee.


    The couple was already in line for the restaurant when Max and Nico arrived. They were indeed much earlier than the usual time for guests, and the overnight table settings were being changed for a more colorful morning setting, which led to a ten-minute dy before the early rising breakfast diners could be seated.


    They kept to a fairly light breakfast, and a packed lunch. The hotel offered a porter to go with them to carry their bags or an arranged lunch at one of the stops, but the group was more interested in wandering about than keeping any sort of schedule.

 172 Chapter 172

    The hike out to the cliff face wasn¡¯t as long as Max was expecting, only five kilometers.


    By the standards of those without Systems, it might be a long trip, but it was an easy jog for the four soldiers, and they made it in under fifteen minutes without breaking a sweat. The staff working the safety ropes around the climbing hill were somewhat surprised to see them so early, but they weren¡¯t the only outdoor enthusiasts at the resort, so the equipment had already been checked for the day and was ready to go when they arrived.


    There were four basic lines up the cliff, plus one hiking path that made a long loop to the top, and a secondary short cave system that led out near the base of the cliff.


    Two were of moderate difficulty, one could almost be walked up by those with decent agility, and thest had multiple overhangs and nearly smooth sections.


    All four sets of eyes went to the fourth route at the same time, and Max sighed. ¡°I hate to do this, but I¡¯m pulling rank. I¡¯m the senior officer, so I¡¯m going first.¡±


    That made the othersugh, as well as brought a smile to the faces of the staff. Nobody likes to wait in line, but if they are all military, they will at least have a system worked out to decide these things.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°I will take the route beside it. A lot of those handholds look fragile, and I don¡¯t want to damage the cliff face.¡± Nico decided though she was not much heavier than many of the overweight climbers that attempted the route and were essentially hauled to the top by their harness so that they could say theypleted it.


    The third route was up a small box crevasse, an easy route for Nico, whose legs never got tired of holding her body weight at awkward angles.


    Looking down at Captain Catan¡¯s face as he reached the top of the cliff, Max realized that he had made a tactical error. He should have been the gentleman and let thedies go up first. Though, the view from up here wasn¡¯t that bad either.


    Nico didn¡¯t take long to reach the top, thanks to a body that didn¡¯t get tired or sweat under stress while trying to hold onto small ridges in the cliff face, but Lieutenant Breckenridge took nearly thirty minutes to reach the peak of the route.


    The resort had expected this though, and most of their climbers took over an hour since the was mostly visited by Civilians, so they had set up a shower station at the top, with spring water pumped to a barrel for a natural cold shower, perfect for washing away the sweat of a long climb.<sub></sub>


    Once they were thoroughly refreshed, Max led the group into the caverns. There were formed from water runoff through the limestone, giving the caverns a smooth surface with stctites that had grown into full-height pirs in many spots. The crystallized minerals made for a rainbow of colors, but the most incredible part of the entire experience were the nts. Flowers bloomed in every possible colorbination, and a variety of shining scales shed through the air as the small fish that served as their pollinators jumped between the petals, pulling down pollen to serve as their food source.


    ¡°I have never even heard of something like this before.¡± Breckenridge sighed, watching the fish sh through the air.


    ¡°I believe they only exist here, on Comor. From the records that could bepiled, the original settlers found the one-in-a-million worlds jackpot here. A with existing life that was suitable for human habitation. They only had to modify it a little to grow crops that they could eat, and most of the was left intact.¡± Max exined while Catan spent more time looking at Breckenridge than the caverns.


    As they got further underground and away from the light, the cavern changed, turning from flowers to luminescent fungus. The glow served the same purpose as the brightly colored flowers, attracting the jumping fish to spread their spores around the cave.


    They could see that there were warning signs of safe spots if a sudden rain came through, so the Cavern must flood to some degree, helping the nt life spread through the entire system, but there was no call for rain in the forecast over the next few days.<sub></sub>


    Though two kilometers was enormous for a cave system, and they were moving at a rtive crawl so they could truly appreciate the scenery, the trip was over much too soon for Max¡¯s liking. He was tempted to suggest they go back and use the exit that led to the base of the cliff face, but Nico had seen another attraction on the chart that he had somehow missed.


    The Security training Kennels were not far from this exit, set into the woods where they wouldn¡¯t detract from the natural beauty of the resort.


    It was rare for the others to see her that worked up about anything, so there were no objections as she led them down a side trail away from civilization, stopping only when the security guards ordered them to.


    ¡°Guests, this is an unsecured area, please return to the main resort attractions.¡± A man with a half-grown flying wolf beside him asked politely.


    ¡°Ten minutes with the puppy and I won¡¯t give you any more trouble.¡± Nico counteroffered, making the guard sigh.


    ¡°We get your sort a few times a year. Not afraid of anything, not even wolves three times your size. But fortunately, we have just the thing. A few of the failed candidates were too friendly and have be mostly domesticated. They have been trained not to bite, so they are safe to interact with. Give me a moment and I will bring one out.¡± The guard informed them.


    Nico looked a bit disappointed that it wouldn¡¯t be a guard dog or a wild wolf, but Breckenridge was quickly building up to a full frenzy after seeing the pup in training. They had searched the ne when itnded, but the passengers couldn¡¯t see them, and themercial flights went through a more intensive technological screening than the private craft did.


    A golden-winged wolf with a big happy smile on its face and a long blue tongue hanging out bounded up to them a few minutester, nuzzling against Nico and leaving a huge slobber trail up the side of Catan¡¯s face.


    ¡°I see why this one was not suited to be a guard dog.¡± Maxughed as the other three yed with the pup.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got a ball if you want to y fetch with it. Just be sure to dodge the return, because he likes to tackle people.¡± The handler chuckled, handing Max a bright red oblong ball that drew the wolf¡¯s instant attention.


    By the time they were done ying they had definitely missed lunch, and the snacks they had packed were long gone, but the guards were kind enough to offer them a lift back to the resort.


    ¡°No need. Exercise is good for these lumps. We¡¯re all from the same Special Tactics Unit, and we¡¯ve already been on vacation for a week. A proper workout is in order.¡± Max dismissed the guard¡¯s concern and looked back to the resort, now some ten kilometers in the distance.


    ¡°Last one back to the hotel wears their partner¡¯s choice of outfit to dinner.¡± Max joked, then took off at a run.


    He and Breckenridge should have this, Max was certain. As long as the Corvette ss Pilot didn¡¯t get tired, she should be able to beat Catan in a foot race with rtive ease.

 173 Chapter 173

    At dinner, a Casually dressed Breckenridge led Catan in a full tuxedo, while Max, in jeans and a polo shirt, led Nico in a ballgown to the main dining hall, where they had reserved a window seat for the evening. They passed a number of nobles who gave them amused looks, understanding right away that the outfits were a result of a bet. It was a fancy resort, but a ballgown and a tuxedo for dinner were a bit much.


    They had just gotten seated when a small boy¡¯s voice chirped from across the restaurant. ¡°Lord General look, the mechady is so pretty today.¡±


    Imperial Prince Wushu was at a table in the far corner with a group of Cygnus nobles, including the Duke who had sat with Max and Nico yesterday at dinner. The boy was waving furiously and standing in his seat, trying to get their attention. Lord General Kirnd was doing his best to get the boy to sit down, but he wasn¡¯t having it until he got to talk to the friends he had made on the space station.


    ¡°I will be back in a moment. I¡¯ll settle him for dinner, but I suspect we will be busy all evening.¡± Nico joked.<sub>.</sub>


    With an elegant swish of her dress, Nico rose to her feet and seemed to glide her way across the floor, the floor-length skirt of her gown barely making a ripple as she moved. Max was sure it was a trick of her leg movement, but it made her look somewhat like a fairy, floating across the room.


    ¡°Lady Tarith, it is a pleasure to see you again.¡± Lord General Kirnd greeted her, as Nico grabbed the young prince into her arms and gave him a spin.


    ¡°The pleasure is all mine. I¡¯m guessing that you have arrived early for tomorrow¡¯s wedding celebrations, so I won¡¯t keep you too long. I just had toe over and say hello to the lovely young groom here and ask where his blushing bride was hiding.¡± She told the General, who gave her a smile in return.<sub></sub>


    ¡°She has been somewhat dyed. She locked herself in her Uncle Lu¡¯sb today so she could y with the mecha trainers, and it took over an hour for security to get her out. She should be here soon, the staff was told to bring her straight to dinner when she arrived, and then she is grounded for the rest of the night.¡± Prince Wushu whispered to Nico, not wanting the tables around them to know.


    The memory made everyone around the tableugh. A little girl locked Chen Family security out of a secureb? Not likely. But the chances that Uncle Lu refused to answer the door until they were finished ying? That was very likely, if not the only logical answer.


    ¡°Bring her to say hello after the meal if you have a chance. If not, we will see you both tomorrow at the celebration.¡± Nico replied with a nod and a curtsey before returning to her table.<sub></sub>


    That was enough to settle the young Prince down for a little while so he would eat, and a round of the dinner special was brought to Max¡¯s table along with a bottle of wine and a small vial of something Max didn¡¯t recognize.


    ¡°Energy supplements, for the Cybeically Enhanced. A new development of the Chen Family from right here on Comor.¡± The server informed them with pride.


    Oh, those things. Uncle Lu was a big fan and had them try them out already, assuming these were the same ones and he didn¡¯t feed them experimental drugs thest time.


    ¡°Thank you, that is greatly appreciated,¡± Nico responded, managing a proper smile this time.


    Max knew that her System was altering her body, but the speed that she was adapting to facial expressions was incredible. Many Cyborgs take over a year to produce expressions that convey an actual emotion and don¡¯t just look artificial. Some never manage to do it at all. Even those who get organic augmentations will normally struggle with their new appendages and facial features for a few months.


    It¡¯s not a design issue, at least not that Max knows of. It¡¯s that the brain doesn¡¯t recognize it as the original body part and therefore has no muscle memory for it and has to learn to use the perfectly functional appendage all over again. The same thing often happens to people like Dave, if they can get the money for reconstructive surgery that will let them walk again.


    That was something that Max was eagerly waiting to do. The veteran had raised him better than his own parents had, and now that Max had Military Credits, they could be transferred to Dave¡¯s veteran ount for the surgery. The problem was going to be convincing the military medical system that he was a high enough priority to be granted ess to the advanced medical procedures.


    Max could try to go through the civilian system, but that was a mess on Kepler Terminus. Over half of the poption were veterans or government workers, and most of those who weren¡¯t were slum dwellers with no system and low-paying jobs. That meant that ces like the Gray Market clinic where Max was born made up most of the private system, and they didn¡¯t have clearance for the sort of gene therapy needed to undo the damage from the chemical weapon attack and heal Dave¡¯s body.


    It was a hard lesson to learn as a child in this life. Just because something existed, didn¡¯t mean that everyone would be given ess to it. Your contribution to society determined society¡¯s contribution to you.


    But Max was getting sidetracked, and only just managed to pull himself back to the real world in time to keep track of the conversation. That hadn¡¯t happened to him in a while, and usually only happened when he was about to regain memories or was thinking of something that was forcibly repressed.


    Could he actually know something about gene therapy? He didn¡¯t recall it existing in hisst life, and he certainly wasn¡¯t a doctor. He would have to try againter and see if there were other thoughts that triggered the experience.


    The young Lady Chen never did make it to dinner. An argument with her watcher led to her having dinner in her room and only the promise of getting to see everyone at breakfast averted a full-blown meltdown. It was a bit of a disappointment, the kids were an amusing pair, but everyone had a long day today and was ready to get some sleep early in the evening to prepare for tomorrow¡¯s festivities.

 174 Chapter 174

    Young Lady Chen had begun sending messages even before the sun came up the next morning, bemoaning her confinement and making sure she wouldn¡¯t be having breakfast alone.


    There was no fear of that. With all the guests for her party here she wouldn¡¯t get a calm moment all day unless she went to hide in her room.


    Catan and Breckenridge had been warned about the day¡¯s event and nned to stay away from the popr areas for the day. Neither was a big fan of crowds, especially crowds of the filthy rich and their groupies.


    Instead, they had ordered room service and then nned to go to the Grav Ball arena for the morning.


    ¡°Should we do matching outfits?¡± Nico asked, holding up a dark gray button-down shirt from Max¡¯s luggage.


    ¡°Might as well. You know they are going to make us take photos again, possibly even more than usual, since this is a public venue. If you thought the Nobles were obnoxious, wait until the streamers and influencers get a chance to be seen with the Ruling Family.¡± Max grumbled.


    Nico chose a ck kimono with a gray sash and Max wondered where these outfits kepting from. It was possible she was custom ordering them every morning, but that seemed excessive even for her. She really did seem fond of the local fashion though.<sub>.</sub>


    Max looked into her thoughts to see what she was nning to do for the more formal afternoon outfit, but she was busy contemting how many more ces this outfit had to hide weapons than a regr dress.


    She had a point, the regr ballgown had no good hiding spots, this style hadyers that folded at the front and a wide sash to tuck things in.


    Being a full conversion Cyborg, using a metal detector on her was pointless, so she only had to hide them from a pat down.


    Not that she would actually need a weapon against anyone here, but it seemed to rx her.


    The hallway was packed with guests this morning when they left their room to go for breakfast. The Lord General was saving them a seat at the young couple¡¯s request, so they didn¡¯t have to worry about finding somewhere to sit, but the restaurant was packed and there was a rather long line to get in.


    The word that the highest nobles on the were present in the restaurant had spread and everyone who wanted to curry favor had rushed down.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Names for the list please.¡± The host greeted Max when he got to the door.


    ¡°Sir Max and Lady Tarith, with the group of the Lord General Kirnd,¡± Max told him politely and the host gestured inside.


    ¡°This way Sir. Yourpanions have already arrived.¡± Dozens of jealous eyes red at them as they were escorted inside immediately, headed for a private room in the back.


    Therge table would seat thirty when full, but only a dozen had arrived so far. The room felt rather empty with so few people, but shockingly, the Lord General actually had a date this morning, a frigid looking older woman who had brought her own attendant, a younger man who was standing against the wall waiting to be called on.


    The two maids who were assigned to the young couple were against the far wall, watching everyone who entered, while the couple themselves were fidgeting in their seats waiting for everyone to arrive.


    ¡°The Majors are here,e sit and tell us a story.¡± Prince Wushu called happily when he noticed Max enter.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I know just the one for you. It¡¯s the story of a brave hero named Roger, a first-year academy student who held a sma Cannon emcement against a thousand giant Narsians until reinforcements could arrive.¡± Max began and a lot of the Nobles looked ufortable.


    But Max knew his audience well, and the lengthy and highly embellished story of a young Cadet who took a Line Mecha out for the first time and became a hero was a huge hit.


    ¡°I heard one of the officers talking about the Ghost of Sigmund Uranium Swamp, do you know that one?¡± Prince Wushu asked, making Maxugh and Nico turn away to hide her face.


    ¡°That one isn¡¯t a breakfast story. Ghost stories are supposed to be saved forte nights, not early mornings.¡± Max managed to disagree, but not without a smile on his face.


    ¡°So you do know it. It must be a good one, but nobody will tell me. Is it a horror story?¡± The boy asked innocently.


    ¡°A very scary one, but it has a happy ending,¡± Nico told him with a wink, making him giggle.


    More people hade in during Max¡¯s story and it was finally time to eat. Max took his seat next to General Kirnd and his date, the frigid woman who turned out to be the Dutchess Kirnd, Lord General Kirnd¡¯s little sister.


    They had nothing at all inmon, either in appearance or temperament, but the Dutchess informed Max that they shared the same father, though their mothers were different wives, of which he had four.


    ¡°Will you retire and have lots of wives, Sir Max? The news says you¡¯re a hero and that¡¯s what heroes do, right?¡± Prince Wushu asked while the young Lady Chen gave him a look that promised pain at the end of this line of questions.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you a secret. If you have more than one wife, they will join together to pick on you. It¡¯s better to make one wife really happy so she doesn¡¯t bully you.¡± Nico whispered to him, just loud enough for those in the seats nearby to hear.


    ¡°Lady Tarith is really smart. I don¡¯t want to be bullied.¡± He nodded, taking her advice as gospel truth, while the Nobles hid their amusement.


    Breakfast was brought out, and the itinerary of the day¡¯s events was reviewed. It was mostly just two events: A Garden Party, and an evening masquerade ball.


    Both could amodate the entire poption of the hotel, and the staff was prepared for exactly that since everyone loved a good party here.


    ¡°Uncle Lu can¡¯te to the Garden Party, but he wants to see you bothter.¡± Young Lady Chen whispered as they prepared to leave the private room.


    It must be Mecha rted. She did get grounded for beingte because she was in hisb, and that was probably thest time they talked, knowing how obsessed the man was with his work.


    As they walked out of the dining room, dozens of cameras were rolling and the streamers had done their intros quietly in advance of meeting the couple who were the talk of the today. Everything was set and ready for the highlight of their morning stream, showing off that they were at a restaurant frequented byary rulers.


    The high society guests were giving their tackiness disgusted looks, but the shock on all the social media stars¡¯ faces when the couple came out happily chatting with Nico and Max, along with Lord General and Dutchess Kirnd, who none of the streamers recognized, was sweet justice to the Nobles.


    Dozens of perfectly tanned and manicured stars panicked, unable to introduce the two couples escorting the bride and groom. Even the young couple¡¯s parents had moved away a step, enjoying the chaos they caused among themoners.


    These events were usually very stuffy and formal, with thousands of people sucking up to them, so the chance to y a joke at everyone else¡¯s expense was a rare luxury.


    It didn¡¯t take long to get Dutchess Kirnd to open up once they were on the move, though she was very introverted and hid her social anxiety behind her icy demeanor. The secret ended up being storytelling. The Dutchess loved reading and had amassed an enormous library at her home that the kids would be able to ess once they got back to Cygnus since she lived in the same city as Prince Wushu.


    She also had adopted a dozenrge exotic cats, which made an instant friend of Nico, lover of all things furry and deadly.


    It was a slow walk out to the Garden, constantly stopping to wave at people while pretending that this was somehow a normal situation, but it was a veryfortable conversation, now that they realized that they all had enough inmon to hold one.

 175 Chapter 175

    Max was in the middle of the garden party, enjoying the shade of arge tea tree when his wrist device started beeping urgently, sending a string of notifications.


    As unit Commander, he was notified separately of every transfer, and his entire Special Tactics Unit had just been reassigned. Most were going to Special Forces units in the Noctem Regiment, some had been moved to lead other squads, while Ari, Paul, and Vincente had been rewarded with Heavy Mecha wings of their own and an officialmendation, which would give them extra benefits at retirement as well as being considered earlier for advancement.


    He quickly silenced his watch, but the military alert ring tone was unmistakable. Many of the guests around him were giving him sympathetic looks, knowing that his vacation had juste to a crashing halt.


    Nico had also received the alerts as his executive officer, and the guests around her looked absolutely stunned. None of them had realized that she was a soldier, they all thought she was a civilian noble by the way she mingled with high society.


    ¡°My apologies, you know how it can be, contacted any time of the day or night. If you¡¯ll excuse us, I will borrow Major Max for a moment and return once we have sorted these notifications.¡± Nico told the crowd, before smoothly maneuvering Max away.<sub>.</sub>


    You can¡¯t just read confidential military dispatches in public, so they would need to go back to their room to see what all hade through and if there were any issues with the orders. Catan and Breckenridge should have gotten notices as well.


    Back in their room, Max scanned through the orders, checking for errors and transfers that might cause issues, like breaking up a well-bonded wing.


    Some of that was inevitable since some of the Pilots are going to light mecha units for Command experience, but it is better if obvious errors are caught now and not after the Pilots are at a new unit.


    ¡°You know what I don¡¯t see in any of these orders?¡± Nico asked as Max worked.<sub></sub>


    ¡°A demotion?¡± Max answered, noticing everyone had been promoted or given amendation and nobody that had a leadership position had lost it in the transfer.


    ¡°That too. But what I meant was our names. There is no order for either of us in this group of orders.¡± Nico pointed out, making Max double-check the messages.


    ¡°So what are we? A unit of two? I hope this doesn¡¯t mean we have to train a whole new Special Tactics Unit.¡± Max sighed.


    Nico gave a nomittal shrug. ¡°I don¡¯t know yet. But the other two have 72 hours to return to the station, and we don¡¯t have any orders yet.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°If we don¡¯t have any orders we might as well head back down to the party before the kids miss us. They will want to know all about what the message was though, so be prepared for twenty questions.¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°You¡¯re forgetting one thing. The garden party is about to end, and then it is a masquerade ball. Give it an hour to shower and change and we should be right on time for the evening festivities. The hotel is going to be bringing up outfits for everyone attending so that the clothing isn¡¯t an immediate giveaway of everyone¡¯s identity.¡±


    Not that it would matter for the two of them. Not many Kepler women were as short as Nico, and not many civilian men were as broad-shouldered and blonde as Max, thanks to the military grabbing everyone with half-decent systempatibility. There were sure to be more blonde men, some of them bleached blonde, but Max wasn¡¯t an easy person to miss in a crowd.


    He was just about to get into the shower when a sudden and frantic pounding on the door startled him. They had everything that they could need, who would be so excited at this time of day?


    The answer was, of course, Catan and Breckenridge. They had both been transferred to the same Special Forces unit, with Captain Catan getting a promotion to Major andmand of the Infantry section of the force.


    ¡°Majors, thank goodness we caught you. We will have to leave tomorrow if we are going to get back to the Comor Station on time usingmercial flights, and I was worried that we would miss you at the ball this evening. Since we¡¯re shipping out, we decided toe along and celebrate for onest night.¡± Captain, or rather Major Catan greeted them the moment Nico opened the door.


    ¡°It was good to see that you both got a great posting within the Noctem Regiment. Not only do you get to keep your status as special operators, but you will also be around a lot of people you already know.¡± Nico answered, and Breckenridge nodded.


    ¡°About a quarter of the unit¡¯s mecha and almost all the infantry ended up with us. From the look of it, the Special Forces unit is muchrger than our Special Operations unit was, with a full hundred pilot wing of Corvette ss Mecha. They¡¯re standard patterns though, and it will be a sad day to transfer out of the Comor Pattern. The seats are so much morefortable.¡± The Lieutenantughed, thinking back to her time in a Line Mecha, which was not only sparsely decorated but also cramped.


    ¡°There is still hope. Abraham Kepler is in for a refit and restocking here on Comor, and they don¡¯t make standard pattern Corvettes here. You might still get to keep your baby.¡± Max reminded her.


    ¡°We can only hope. Those upgraded Mecha were a godsend for my men as well.¡± Catan agreed, then turned to his two former Commanding officers.


    ¡°So, where did you both end up? In the Politburo doing propaganda videos and hanging out with political officers all day long?¡± The infantryman joked.


    ¡°No orders for us yet. Everyone in the unit was transferred, so there is a possibility that while you lot are making up for lost Command Assets, we will be training a whole new unit from scratch.¡± Max sighed, not looking forward to it.


    ¡°Be positive. It would still be better than being stuck with politicians all day.¡± Breckenridge smiled, then looked at her watch and panicked.


    ¡°Sorry, I have to go, there¡¯s only an hour to get ready for the masquerade ball and I haven¡¯t even showered or shaved yet.¡± She called as she ran across the hall and into her own room again.


    ¡°Best of luck to you in the future. I hope we can see you in the morning before we fly out, but if we don¡¯t, be safe and do the Emperor proud.¡± With his farewells said, Catan headed back into the room as well to get ready for the evening¡¯s festivities.

 176 Chapter 176

    For the evening festivities, Max was given a ck pinstripe suit with a light gray vest and tie and a ck shirt. Paired with a golden metallic mask that covered his upper face, he was ready to go.


    When he finished dressing, Max heard augh from the washroom where Nico was doing her makeup and getting ready. While Max expected it to be a short burst of amusement, theughing just continued, making him more and more curious about what they might have assigned Nico as an outfit that would bring this level of amusement.


    She came out a few minutester in a light blue princess dress, with a matching feathered mask and a white gossamer shawl. Without the mask, it was an exact replica of the dress worn by a famous children¡¯s movie character.


    Nico gave him a twirl as she entered the room and giggled. ¡°I think they made a mistake, but I am totally wearing this outfit.¡±


    Max smiled at her enthusiasm, watching her twirl around the room. ¡°Given who it is in honor of, the theme might be Prince and Princess.¡±


    ¡°Well then, we should get going. I¡¯m sure that a certain little Princess is eagerly waiting for her guests toe and tell her war stories.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    The hotel¡¯s halls were filled with men in matching suits and a wide variety of Princesses as Max made his way to the patio where the ball was being held. Fairy lights were hung in every hallway on the main floor, and the walls had holograms of a stone castle activated over them to add to the ambiance.


    The whole patio has been transformed into a replica of the Kepler Imperial Pce, a grand stone edifice said to have been carved from an entire mountain thousands of years ago.


    It had been rebuilt and renovated numerous times since then, and the true origins were lost to time, but the annual address from the railing of the patio overlooking the gardens, the patio that this event was designed to mimic, was a well-known sight to all Kepler citizens.


    A rather stiff and ufortable-looking muscr Prince caught Nico¡¯s attention and she began to drag Max across the courtyard to where Catan was standing by the wall, overwhelmed by the opulence of his surroundings.


    He had been able to deal with his nerves around such luxury when it was just a grand ce full of wealthy people, but the Royal theme was too much for him to take in all at once.<sub></sub>


    A waltz was ying from hidden speakers while the crowd mingled andughed, so Max danced his way to the infantry officer with Nico in his arms, making the best of the situation to have a bit of fun.


    Catan recognized them in an instant, being such a distinctive pair, and the sight brought Breckenridge back with a small te of snacks in her hand.


    ¡°If you¡¯re feeling overwhelmed, just remember that on a normal day, half these guests look up to you as a hero of the Kepler Empire,¡± Max whispered to Catan, who gave him a wry smile.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel much like a hero.¡± He answered, shaking his head.


    ¡°That¡¯s how you know it¡¯s true.¡± Max shrugged, thinking of everything they had been through together.<sub></sub>


    Cameras were strictly forbidden at this event so that everyone could just unwind and rx without fear of ending up on a video stream or in the news, and the crowd was taking full advantage of that fact.


    By the time it got dark and the fireworks that were to be a highlight of the evening began, most of the crowd was plenty drunk, the dancing had be much more lively and the young couple was clearly exhausted.


    But the fireworks were amazing. Though this was only one of a half dozen events and it was organized for a lesser member of the Royal Family, this was a Cygnus Royal Wedding celebration after all, and no expense was spared.


    The entire region of the was closed to air traffic for the show, which was sent in multipleyers, both close to the ground for the sound effects and high into the atmosphere to be seen from hundreds of kilometers away.


    The spectacr show would take over most of the local news cycle the next day, while the broadcasters wished the daughter of the Chen Family a happy future in Cygnus.


    Max was just about to head to his room and order ate meal to help absorb some of the wine he had gone through tonight when a familiar head of disheveled gray hair came jogging his way.


    ¡°Good evening Uncle Lu. Sorry that I didn¡¯t get a chance to speak to you tonight, your family seemed a bit protective.¡± Max greeted the old scientist.


    ¡°You would think I nned to abduct my own great niece the way they kept her guarded. I only managed to sneak her my parting gift ten minutes ago. But I actually came over looking for you today. I have a document to give you and Major Nico, eyes only sort of thing.¡± Uncle Lu informed him.


    ¡°I thought this might being. The rest of my unit got their orders this afternoon.¡± Max told him, gesturing inside the hotel.


    ¡°Shall we?¡±


    Uncle Lu shook his head. ¡°Not yet. I ordered meat pies for the alcohol, and we¡¯re not done dancing yet. You can take the business messages in the morning.¡±


    The old man took Nico¡¯s hand and ced Max¡¯s in the hand of an unfamiliar young woman in a pink princess dress. Definitely not a noble, going by the way she blushed as Max held her hand to lead her to the dance floor, so either a random guest or one of Uncle Lu¡¯s researchers.


    Once he reached the floor, Max found it nearly impossible to leave. Every Auntie wanted a dance, and there were drinks and meat pies, and some sort of samosa with a vegetable filling and a surprisingly mild spice.


    Too much spice or sugar was hard on drunken stomachs, so the evening selections were toned down to keep the guests partying until dawn, despite the fact the guests of honor fell asleep before midnight and were carried away by the Nannies.


    The next morning Max woke up wrapped around the cool shell of Nico, with a pounding headache and a wrist device beeping with constant messages from the unit as they departed for their new deployments.


    It was a touching gesture, and he would have appreciated it much more if he had turned the notification volume down in advance.

 177 Chapter 177

    Max was still grumbling about the noise of the notifications when a cold hand under the nkets pped him on the backside.


    ¡°Get up and read your messages so that we can go to breakfast, or lunch since it¡¯s the middle of the afternoon. We transfer out tonight.¡± Nico informed him, confirming Max¡¯s fear that they were being sent back to work early.


    There were two messages waiting for him, other than the ones from the unit. One was the notice that Abraham Kepler¡¯s Warp Drive had a fault that required structural overhaul and would be in dry dock until further notice, with the units formerly aboard it being transferred to the Perseverance Eternal.


    The second was the eyes-only message from Uncle Lu.


    [Major Keres Max<sub>.</sub>


    You are hereby relieved of Command of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit with full honors and transferred to the Strategic Development Department for duty in the Mecha Modernization Bureau under General Chen Lu.


    This posting has been ssified Vermilion, all documents will be eyes only outside of a secured facility.


    Duty Status for Major Keres Max will officially be changed to 4F Unfit for Service due to injury, until such time as this posting ispleted.


    You are required to report to the Mecha Development Lab on Comor Prime within 24 hours of receiving this message.<sub></sub>


    ¨C Central Command]


    That was a bit more than Max was expecting. First, Uncle Lu isn¡¯t just an entric scientist designing oddball Mecha for the Comorian Conglomerate, he is the General in charge of modernizing the entire Kepler mechanized force.


    Second, the project is so ssified that the Department doesn¡¯t officially exist and all the members are listed as retired from duty.


    Third, this resort is actually the single most important strategic asset in the entire Empire, and not a single soul knows it, outside of theb. No wonder the old man can¡¯t go anywhere without guards and the security team couldn¡¯t get into hisb to get Lady Chen out.<sub></sub>


    Vermilion ess was a subcategory of Top Secret, an unofficial level of ssified where all documents would delete after being essed and used biometric encryption. Both the device and the intended user needed to match to decrypt them, and if anything went wrong, they simply scrambled the message and then self-destructed with a malicious virus.


    It was a level of security not even used for major military operations, but Max would be living under it 24/7 for the foreseeable future.


    Nico was right, he needed a full stomach to digest this news. And a drink, he definitely needed another drink.


    Uncle Lu, or General Chen Lu as Max now knew him to be, was waiting on the patio by the infinity pool when Nico led Max out to eat. The area was deserted today, since the bright light hurt everyone¡¯s eyes after a long night of drinking and celebration, leaving the old man sitting alone in hisb coat over a casual suit.


    ¡°Good to see you. I thought I¡¯d give you an update on this evening¡¯s tour of the museum. The dress code is casual, with no need for uniforms or fancy clothes. I¡¯ll have your belongings sent to your apartment, so no need to worry about anything.


    I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll love the ce, it¡¯s an outer unit, so it looks out of the dome directly from your window.¡± Uncle Lu¡¯s casual conversation did an excellent job of hiding the true nature of their conversation, but Max did wonder where exactly he would be living.


    ¡°Thank you for your consideration. I¡¯m sure the museum will be an incredible experience. I¡¯ve heard all about it.¡± Nico answered, taking a seat beside Uncle Lu and signaling to the waitress to bring them drinks and the brunch special.


    She used the single-handed signnguagemon among the deaf, but the staff seemed to know it well, and the order was ready before the waitress even got to the kitchen to ce the order.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting to be hanging around quite this long, but I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t be a terrible experience to remain here on Comor for a while,¡± Max added, smiling at Uncle Lu.


    ¡°You will see, it is not bad at all. But enough about that, let¡¯s finish our meal so we can get going. We wouldn¡¯t want to miss our reservation.¡± The General¡¯s face almost looked serious there for a second, and Max wondered if it was a crack in the mask, or if thisid-back attitude was his default setting.


    ¡°We can take my shuttle, it¡¯s waiting outside.¡± Uncle Lu informed them as the meal finished.


    He had already had the staff pack up all their belongings from the hotel room, and double-check to make sure they hadn¡¯t hidden any valuables so that nothing was left behind at the resort. The room itself had a convenient function for this, as every item in the room was digitally tracked, so when the sensors scanned the interior, it would tell them if any additional items remained in the suite.


    It was a small high-tech luxury the hotel employed for their guests, but it proved invaluable many times in the past, finding fallen watches and earrings left behind when guests were about to check out. The guests could generally rece such things without any issue, but sometimes they held sentimental value that was worth far more than a few diamonds.


    The Pilot and security guards were waiting at the shuttle when the three of them arrived to fly back to theb, and their presence felt much more official now that Max knew that Uncle Lu was a General and not just some random member of the¡¯s ruling family.


    The conversation was still just as casual on the flight to theb though, talking of Mecha and design philosophy the entire time, exactly the same conversation they were having thest time they flew together. It was a relief to Max since Uncle Lu was now hismanding officer. Finding out that he was stuck up and strict once you were under hismand would have totally ruined Max¡¯s image of him and would have made this assignment much less enjoyable.

 178 Chapter 178

    When the shuttle touched down in the Lab¡¯s hangar there were dozens of Lab Coat wearing scientists there to wee them back to the facility and gather their luggage from the shuttle.


    ¡°Keep the Hoverboards, they wille in handy in just a minute.¡± One of the workers joked, handing Max the meter-long board that he hadn¡¯t had much chance to actually use yet.


    ¡°Yeah, theb is enormous, and I heard you got an outer ring apartment, so it¡¯s going to be like three kilometers to work every day, and there aren¡¯t any cars allowed in the dome, so it¡¯s all foot traffic, or personal conveyance.¡± Another added.


    ¡°So, the outer ring isn¡¯t about the view, it¡¯s about seniority, being the furthest from work.¡± Nico mused, giving Uncle Lu a raised eyebrow look.


    ¡°Don¡¯t re at me like that. You¡¯re both Alpha Ranked, it would take you like ten minutes to get to theb, and there are electric carts inside to get everyone to their workstations for the day. You¡¯re even on the proper floor for yourb posting, so you won¡¯t have to wait on the elevator.¡± Uncle Lu whined, making the scientists chuckle.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Live testing Lab is my favorite posting, but I¡¯m all the way up top here in the codingbs. All we get are rows and rows ofputers, making hundreds of sets of algorithms topare against each other for efficiency and reliability.¡± The first scientist, a tall ginger-haired woman,ined.


    Even though a set of code looked like it worked, it might be too long to work smoothly, contain a hidden error, or have an unexpected interaction with another bit of code. There were over a thousand moving parts plus the digitally controlled weapon systems to design and code, so the job was one of the most important, but also one of the most monotonous.


    The weapons coders had it the worst. With sma based weapons they needed to precisely control the containment field, the rate of charge, heat dissipation, energy frequency and temperature stability, rate of discharge, and the aim. Then, if that wasn¡¯t enough work for them, every bit of that had to work together and remain functional and stable during a variety of states of damage, with the ability to bypass certain damaged areas or the weapon would be deemed too unreliable for use.


    In short, they were med for absolutely everything that went wrong, unless they could prove that it was a w in the physical design.<sub></sub>


    ¡°The first stop is the Coding Lab. You won¡¯t need to be here much, since you are in the practical testingb, but they will likelye to see you on a regr basis after your analysis.¡± Uncle Lu informed them, leading the group into theb and grabbing a hoverboard of his own, while most of the others jogged to keep up.


    Once inside theb, Max could ess a map of the facility and found that not only theb, but the living quarters were part of the military facility. It wasn¡¯t just in this dome, it was this dome. Theb took up the entire city-sized ball sitting high in the sky above Comor on a long tower of some unknown alloy that Max would have to exploreter. The level of strength and flexibility was impressive, even if the hab domes had gravity generators to reduce the stress on the towers.


    ¡°The codingbs take up five floors, and they¡¯re all identical, so there is no good reason to see them all.¡± Uncle Lu began, but Nico cut him off.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it make sense to make every section a slightly different color scheme, so that you could identify the locations more easily?¡± Nico asked, looking at the sterile off-white walls of the cubicle-filled floor.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I did consider it, but that would imply that I intend to regrly visit these floors, and I don¡¯t want to get their hopes up. If I need a coder, theye to my office, where there is better coffee.¡± Uncle Lu shrugged, making the scientistsugh and nod their heads.


    The coffee was one of the perks of being called to the General¡¯s office. He always had a fresh pot on when there was a meeting and only the finest of blends.


    ¡°Next up is the structuralb. It is only three floors, but threerge ones, given the need for extra height. This section is working on the new Mobile Suits. They¡¯re almost asrge as a Line Mecha, but the Pilot stands in them with their feet ending just before the knees and their arms tucked in beside their torso. From early testing, we think that this should increase mobility and natural responses by Pilots with lower ranked systems.¡±


    Nico wandered away from the group, flying over the stations on the hoverboard until she got to a board with experimental designs on it. The whole group stopped to see what she was up to as the small cyborg pulled a marker from a nearby whiteboard and began sketching a new design on an empty space.


    It looked like a basic exoskeleton, with armored boots and weapon arms, but it had wings on the back and an exposed Pilot instead of the usual full shell.


    ¡°I like it, very sexy, or not, depending on who is flying it. But wouldn¡¯t they just die the moment they get shot at?¡± The nearest designer asked.


    ¡°Not if we give it a proper shield generator. I see you were nning to use the small-scale Cold Fusion generators on the Mobile Suits, so you can port the rear design straight over, then add the wings and the weapon arms. Here is a simple Shield Generator design to add to it. It only needs a tenth of a cubic meter, so I¡¯m sure you can fit it somewhere. My System Function modified it from a design for the Crusader ss Mecha. If you need a practical example of the design, there is a prototype in Stalwart.¡± Nico exined, and the whole section of theb flew into chaos.


    ¡°So that¡¯s how you walked away from so many battles without major damage. The status information we were given for your mecha didn¡¯t show a Shielding system.¡± Uncle Lu informed Max.


    ¡°It was there, but inactive when I was assigned the Unit. Nico has an incredible knack for repairing damaged Mechaponents, so she got it up and running again before we even made it to our first engagement. It has taken a serious amount of abuse, and still, I was taking a fair bit of damage.¡± Max agreed.


    ¡°Are you done causing Chaos in the design team or do you still need a minute?¡± General Lu called over to Nico, who was deep in discussion with the designers.


    ¡°One more minute, I just have to do this first,¡± Nico called back, then scribbled on the board again, modifying the design to lose the wings, but gain precision control arms, in addition to the stronger main arms, plus a pair of welding and multitool attachments that could be wrenches, sockets, or even shears.


    ¡°There we go. The construction exosuit Mark One. Antigravity hover functionality with all the standard mechanical tools used by the repair bay technicians built in.¡± The designers looked dubious, but Nico forwarded them another file and their looks turned to awed reverence.


    Even Uncle Lu looked impressed, scanning through the design.


    ¡°Get a team on this. Someone from a low-priority design. Those Mobile Suits are supposed to be headed to testing soon, so you can¡¯t switch off them yet.¡± He called, all business for a few seconds, but Max could see the joy in his eyes as he looked at the holographic designs for the two exoskeleton suits.


    ¡°I knew it was going to be a great idea to bring you two in. Now, onward, from the Structuralb to the Weapons Lab.¡±

 179 Chapter 179

    The news of the new designs for exoskeleton suits made it down to the weaponsb well before their tour group did, and the teams that weren¡¯t engaged in anything urgent were already reviewing the designs and altering them to amodate the robotic tools that theb already used.


    There was no need to reinvent a tool they already used, they just needed to mount it to the auxiliary arms, which could be the same as what the workstations already had. Being mounted to the user on a highly mobile exoskeleton would give an incredible deal of Versatility and allow them to work in groups around a single station.


    The actual frame and the main arms were the responsibility of the structuralb, but the weaponb was eager to get the additional limbs functional so that they could send them for testing and begin using them as soon as possible.


    The possibility that these skeletons with their anti-gravity boots might be a mass market item never crossed their minds. To the scientists here, these were the evolved form of their own toolkits. To give them away before the wholeb had a newer version was unthinkable.


    The version with wings and weapons was mostly ignored as a novelty for fast attack infantry, a low priority role in the eyes of Central Command, but the [Tech Adept Toolkit Version 1] as they had dubbed it, was likely to see initial testing this week.


    ¡°If you use an articting dendrite instead of a crane boom you will get better control,¡± Max suggested when he saw them starting ns for changing the design.


    ¡°The coders would strangle us if we sent them a design with hundreds of individual joints that need precision movement on three axes. We will save that for ater version when they¡¯re not under as much pressure.¡± The technicianughed while tweaking the torch to use the design that was avable in theb.<sub>.</sub>


    The more parts they could reuse, the more code they could keep, and the faster they could begin testing.


    ¡°You will like this project, Major Max. We designed it based on yourments about needing better artillery. It is a variable velocity mass driver. It can use the explosive slugs from the existing Battle Cannon without their shells, butunch them at varying speeds, for more effective artillery.


    Each turret has two barrels in a single housing for one shot per second at the standard rate. The new design that is being developed to serve as the tform will be nearly Phnx ss and carry three of them as its secondary armament. But we can get to thatter.¡± General Lu told Max with a happy nod.


    The equivalent of six Battle Cannons and it was the secondary armament? Whatever they were building was a monster of a mecha.


    ¡°We also made progress on the fusion mer, though the team is having issues forming a convincing argument for its use.¡± One of the other scientists informed Nico.


    ¡°Plug the data into a virtual simtor and I will show you the true horror of me weapons inbat,¡± Nico assured him and the man turned a little pale.<sub></sub>


    That really was the only way to make Command see the advantages, but the developers weren¡¯tbat soldiers, they were Mecha nerds who literally lived in ab.


    ¡°We will get right on it. The new fast-attack tform is ready for virtual testing as well. I will add the fusion mer tonight so you can test it tomorrow.¡± He agreed, making notes on his data tablet.


    ¡°Thest zone is your department, the testingbs. You will not be the senior officers there, we have a Colonel in charge of that sector, but the rest of the test Pilots were brought in for the development of the Corvette ss mecha and are all Lieutenants.


    They will have to qualify in the Crusader ss to begin testing the heavy Mecha, but now that we have you both we don¡¯t have to wait for their skills to be up to standards.¡± General Lu exined.


    When they entered the testingb there was a station for earmuffs to dampen the sound inside, which the technicians assured them could be overwhelming. There was a lot of sound dampening in theb, but it could only lower the sound level so much.


    Theb was currently testing the durability of a new sword design, having a Corvette ss mecha strike it repeatedly against an armor te.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Will all due respect, that isn¡¯t nearly enough of a test. It might be the standardized test, but it doesn¡¯t cover the sort of abuse that melee des will take inbat. Even sparring does more damage than that.¡± Max pointed out.


    ¡°You two big shots think that you can put a sword through more abuse than that?¡± A voice asked from behind a st shield.


    ¡°Sir, yes Sir,¡± Nico responded with a malicious-looking smile while staring at the Comor Pattern Corvettes waiting in the ready area.


    ¡°That weapon is our newest design. If you can break it, I will give you each one of my vacation days.¡± The voice responded, sounding smug.


    ¡°Deal. Do you have a second one, or is one enough?¡± Nico asked.


    ¡°There is just one, but we have other designs avable.¡± General Lu told her and sent a signal from his wrist device for the test pilot to return to the staging area where they were waiting.


    ¡°Max, grab a sword and shield. Practical demonstrations are best.¡± Nico called, heading for the test Mecha.


    Theb assistants were happy to show him to an idle machine and get him equipped, while Nico jumped up into the cockpit of the Corvette and took a casualbat stance with the prototype de in both hands.


    Once Max was ready and in position, Nicounched a blindingly fast attack at his left shoulder. Max¡¯s vision filled with targeting information and he shifted slightly to the right while raising his shield and striking the iing de with his sword.


    The two des collided just after the tip of Nico¡¯s sword hit his shield and the prototype shattered cleanly in half.


    Nico still followed up with the second half of her attack though, spinning the Mecha to strike down at Max¡¯s head. He flicked his sword up to defend the Mecha and with a bang that shook his entire Chassis, Nico¡¯s de sunk deep into his own.


    She released the hilt of the trapped wagon and stepped back, exiting the cockpit of the Comor Pattern test Corvette.


    ¡°The design changes to lighten the weapon introduced a resonant frequency within the range of a collision withmon armor alloys. The de is strong and sharp, but the feedback from a second collision at the right moment will shatter it, something that the standard test wouldn¡¯t discover.¡± Nico exined as a frustrated researcher came out from behind the protective wall.


    ¡°How did you two make the Mecha move that fast without training?¡± He asked, upset at the loss of vacation days, the Lab¡¯s premium betting currency.


    ¡°It¡¯s pretty normal for Pilots at our level. But we have trained on Corvette ss mecha before and the controls are the same.¡± Max exined.


    ¡°Alpha Rank Pilots are between three and six times as fast as the baseline. They can cap out the control speed limits of the Corvette ss Mecha.¡± Uncle Luughed at the disbelieving look on the researchers¡¯ faces.


    ¡°I think we need to rethink the motive systems for the new mecha already. We approached this with human thinking when the Pilots won¡¯t be human.¡± A researcher who had been following them from the door suggested.


    ¡°Under the premise that an Alpha Ranked System isn¡¯t unreasonably overpowered, but that the Mecha is too slow? That is possible.¡± Another agreed, abandoning the group to discuss their idea while Uncle Lu turned to talk to Max and Nico.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go to your rooms. Max has 1337, while Nico gets 1339, right next door.¡± Their new boss told them, already walking toward the exit.

 180 Chapter 180

    The apartments were slightly more luxurious than the usual officer¡¯s quarters but not by much. They were still a single-room suite, with a washroom by the door, a small kitchen, and a double locker-sized closet. The main seating was a couch that folded down so that a bed mounted to the wall could beid t. There was a hologram projector on one wall and a low table, but that was the room.


    ¡°Nobody really spends time in their room. There aremon areas just down the hall, movie theaters one floor up, and arge gym nearby. There is a lot more to see, theb is basically a city, with over ten thousand residents, so I will let you find the rest on your own. There is a map avable if you want.¡± Uncle Lu informed them.


    ¡°As far as duty postings go, it¡¯s not bad. I see the city runs on ration points more than sry credits, so we should be alright.¡± Max joked since Uncle Lu already knew they weren¡¯t short on money and almost everything in theb could only be purchased with your ration allocation.


    It was much like being on board an interster ship, but with a wider variety of amenities. This section of the city was normally for nomissioned officers, the most senior enlisted men, but it was very close to the testingb, so it was chosen for the two new Pilots.


    Housing was deducted from their city ration, so this choice of apartments actually left them with more disposable ie than the other Majors, who were staying on the upper floors.


    As a long-term posting, and not a traveling one, the scientists lived well in theb, though they were cut off from family except during their vacation days due to security measures. Even then, a good third of the staff wasn¡¯t from Comor originally, so they might as well be traveling, since inviting their families toe to the was out of the question.<sub></sub>


    ¡¢ Even with all the amenities and the city-like atmosphere, Military rank still determined your level of luxury to arge extent. The mess halls were marked as restaurants with varying menus, but the fancier ones could only be essed by senior officers without spending ration points. Aboard Abraham Kepler, the good ones were simply unavable to enlisted men.


    You could also get uniform items on a regr schedule, but everyone wore casual clothing. The idea behind the policy was that if they did have an infiltration attempt, theb could be yed off as a civilian facility and the leaks discredited.


    To Max, the view out the window more than made up for the smaller room. They were above the cloud level looking down on the. That meant every day here was a sunny day, and only the view below them changed with the weather.


    It truly was a marvel of engineering and it would have been a waste to push for a premium suite, gaining him arger space, but moving him to an inner ring of the dome and much higher up, above the center line where you couldn¡¯t easily look down without the other levels getting in the way.


    Max spent the next hour getting everything set up in his room, hanging his small collection of photos on the wall by his couch, and organizing his closet with the assortment of civilian clothing he had been gifted.<sub></sub>


    It was a strange feeling putting away his uniform and knowing he probably wouldn¡¯t be wearing it for months. The Pilot Suit should at least still see regr use though if he was going to be testing Mecha, which was a relief.


    Max was just beginning to get bored enough to consider turning on the news when Nico sent him a message asking if he wanted to go explore the entertainment district. She had found a games room that was popr with the other test Pilots, and it had 3D billiards.


    [Give me 20 minutes to shower and change. I¡¯lle to get you.] Max responded after a moment¡¯s thought.


    [Don¡¯t forget your board, it¡¯s a bit of a trip.]


    Max washed up and changed into jeans and a ck shirt with the top few buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up. Out of habit, he put on his regtion boots before grabbing his hoverboard and going next door to get Nico.<sub></sub>


    Max wasn¡¯t sure what to call her style, but it looked familiar for some reason. Nico had tucked tight red leather pants into ck knee-high tform boots and topped them with a ck military issue tank top. Her hair was in a single braid with a silver ornament at the end that he recognized as the focusing ring from aser rifle.


    ¡°Has anyone mentioned how strange your fashion sense is?¡± Max asked as Nico mounted her board and hovered in front of his face.


    ¡°Constantly. Now are you ready to go or what?¡± Nicoughed, casually spinning the highly modified board to head down the street.


    Their apartment building was fifteen floors high, taking up almost the entire height of the level of the dive they were on, and Nico chose to race along near the roof of the dome level. From what Max could tell, that was the equivalent of a fastne for traffic, and it was almost deserted, with most of the staff choosing a pedestrian route, or using much slower wheeled scooters.


    Given that most scientists had lower-ranked or intelligence-focused system functions, and not a lot of physical enhancement, staying on the ground with the twenty-kilometer-an-hour speed limit made sense. But for Max and Nico, that was barely a jog, so flying above the buildings was much more fun. The hoverboards were only good to about fifty meters in the air before their gravity ting started to have issues holding altitude, but theirs had been modified for racing, so Max had high hopes that they could manage greater heights in addition to their blistering speed.


    They weren¡¯t pushing them at all, since they wanted to learn theyout of the city as they passed by, but both Pilots were still passing the ground traffic like they were standing still.


    ¡°There it is. The Sonic Games Emporium. That¡¯s our destination for the night.¡± Nico called out to Max as they approached their destination, ten kilometers and two floors away from their apartments.


    It was on the lowest level of the Lieutenant¡¯s sector of the Testing Department neighborhood, making it a great mingling spot for all the pilots, but the arrival of Nico and Max on modified hoverboards still drew a lot of attention. Partially because of the speed they approached, since the user only stood on top of a hoverboard, and a high-speed crash could well be fatal, especially from a higher elevation, and partially because of the way Nico was dressed.


    The red leather might as well have been painted on, and as Max looked around the area, he noticed that cks and Cardigans orb coats were the more popr casual wear here. Even he was overdressed for the asion, and he had simply put on a clean and unwrinkled shirt and jeans.


    ¡°We got a couple of daredevils, do we? What department did they stick you two gems in?¡± One of the officers smoking outside the games room asked as theynded and hopped off the boards.


    ¡°We are the two new Crusader ss Pilots for the Testing Department,¡± Max answered with a friendly smile, and the man suddenly looked a little less rxed. Even off duty, they were still senior officers, and he didn¡¯t want to speak out of line before he knew their personalities.


    ¡°Rx a little. If I have to go in after that stick up your ass I¡¯m going to make you pay for cleaning.¡± Nicoughed, making the others outside chuckle, and the man they were talking to sigh in relief.


    ¡°Wait, I know you two. You¡¯re SlumDogRaider and Blood Goddess, from the Gaming Tournament. I heard you were both active duty Special Forces, the boss must be going all out to test the new mecha.¡± One of the men outside said, walking over to check out their boards.


    ¡°Yeah. Uncle Lu found out that we could cap out the mechanical output speed of a Crusader ss Mecha, so he pulled us in here. It¡¯s a bit strange to be at work without anyone shooting at us though.¡± Nico confirmed.


    ¡°Wait, you can do what now?¡± The same sentiment from a dozen different voices filled the air and Max smacked Nico on the back of the head.


    ¡°Good going, now we will never get a game in between questions.¡±

 181 Chapter 181

    When Nico and Max went into the Games Room, everyone outside followed them, looking forward to one of the other Pilots challenging them to a match to see how their skills matched up to Nico¡¯s bragging.


    Sitting in the back row of the room, a shiny new set of Comor Pattern Corvette simtors were lined up, waiting for a challenge. Nico walked straight to them with a smile and turned to face the other Pilots.


    ¡°What do you say, boys? Ready to be taken to school?¡± She asked, bringing a round of jeering from the crowd.


    ¡°You got it girlie. We can talk about terms of the wager after I win.¡± One of the pilots told her with a wink, making Maxugh.


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure she meant all of you, at once. Trust me, you want the backup.¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°You¡¯re not the only Alpha Ranked Pilot here. I¡¯m not going down to some fresh recruit in a mecha I helped design.¡± The Pilot countered, and Max raised his hands in defeat.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Alright, we will be watching.¡±


    The matches inside the simtor yed on the screens above the simtors, as well as in the General¡¯s office and the developmentbs if they had them tuned to the game feed. Both Pilots climbed into their simtors while Max did his best not tough at the misfortune that was about to befall that unfortunate man.


    When the two logged in, the Games Room could see that the challenger had picked a standard sma ster and twin shoulder-mountedser rifles, while Nico had picked two swords to go with the standard shoulder Lasers. Max¡¯s amusement made more than a few pilots nervous, but when the scenario set them up fifty meters apart, they had a bit more confidence.


    That was only four steps at a run, but it should give the pilot time for two free shots before he needed to dodge and move away from the swords.


    The timer started as Nico dropped to one knee, dodging the first sma shot, but then she did something nobody expected, she activated the jump thrusters andunched her Mecha straight at her opponent. His second shot flew wide as he tried to adjust to the sudden burst of speed, and Nico raised a sword to deflect bothser shots.<sub></sub>


    Her own shots hit the enemy mecha directly in the optical targeting sensors, and he lost a fraction of a second as he adjusted his disy. That was enough that Nico was in melee range, with the two des racing at his mecha. He used a standard evasion pattern wlessly, dodging the first de, but Nico kepting forward, smashing the hilt into him and knocking the Corvette backward before the second sword drove up hard between its legs, crippling the mecha and overloading the power nt, leading to instant defeat by the explosion.


    ¡°Did you see that? That speed is insane. He couldn¡¯t even block in time. I take my words back, there really is a gap between the elite and the rest of us.¡± One of the Pilots made a show of apologizing, much to the amusement of his fellows.


    ¡°Just be d it wasn¡¯t you that spoke up first. But we should get in there. If he can¡¯t take her, it really might take all five of us.¡± One of hispatriots dered, setting his beer down to drag his friend to the simtor.


    ¡°What about you, big boy? Do you think you could take all five of us at once?¡± A busty brte researcher asked Max once the other guys had entered the simtor. She definitely didn¡¯t mean in the simtor and she did have four friends with her.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that. My sword work isn¡¯t quite up to that standard.¡± Max declined, but it only made her smilerger.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Good answer. I think we will be good friends, new guy. I am Lieutenant Carp of the Weapons Development Division, night shift team 3. I missed all themotion when you came in today, but I¡¯m looking forward to the exoskeleton you two introduced. Those Mechanic Nerds are a joyless bunch, only thinking of tools and Mecha, but that flying exosuit? That¡¯s pure genius. Not only would it add capability equivalent to a light Mecha without all the transport bulk, but it would be a huge morale boost to the infantry if it was done correctly.¡±


    Max thought about that for a second, and she was right, but he still felt like he was missing something.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to understand now, but you will as soon as we get one up and running for test purposes. The day shift already altered the diagram to use most of the parts directly from the Mobile Suit, so we might even have an Alpha Design ready when you get to work in the morning. I do hate to flirt and run, but my shift starts in thirty minutes.¡±


    With that she blew Max a kiss and sauntered out with her cohort of female researchers, the swinging hips catching the attention of half the customers in the Games Room.


    The Kepler Military was pretty rxed about rtions between soldiers, as long as there were no unintended consequences or nonconsensual actions, but that level of tant advance was something Max never thought he would see again after leaving the streetwalkers of the downside in his past and joining the academy.


    It was tempting though. Even if it might kill him, five beauties at once were enough that he wouldn¡¯t just dismiss the possibility. He still had his entire deployment ahead of him to change his mind, after all.


    All five men had lined up against Nico, who had switched to a sma Shotgun and a sword in her hands. The design of the shotgun was a new one, a lighter version of the ones Max had mounted to Stalwart, designed to be handheld for the Corvette.


    The match started with another thruster rush, but Nico wasn¡¯t going for the melee attack, she was just getting close enough for the shotgun to st the rear armor of a Pilot caught off guard, disabling his mecha and letting her use it as a shield to block iing fire.


    His cursing could be clearly heard in the Games Room as he was ejected and forced to watch His mecha torn apart by his allies. Nico was faster moving than any of her opponents, and they couldn¡¯t get distance from her to create a proper attack pattern, so it was more like four 1v1 fights than a proper four-on-one.


    A second pilot went down to her sword and a third to her shotgun before the final two managed to team up and finallynd a hit on her mecha. It was a solid hit, but not a critical area, and she raced towards them with hersers firing until she was back in shotgun range.


    ¡°Where did she learn that? Those shotguns are brand new, but she knows exactly how the pattern will spread.¡± One of the defeated pilots asked, watching his remainingpanions try to fend her off in closebat.


    ¡°My Crusader was upgraded to equip two of them. She has seen them more than a few times in livebat, plus her System Functions are incredibly well suited tobat.¡± Max exined, as another Pilot was ejected, cussing.


    His final teammate was at a t-out run now, as Nico cut chunks out of his back, then finally chopped a leg off and sted a hole through the hapless mecha.


    ¡°You are an evil one aren¡¯t you? Major Nico was it? I will remember today. I won¡¯t go down like that again.¡± Thest defeated Pilot dered as the two of them left the simtors.


    ¡°Of course not, I won¡¯t be so nice next time. Just be a good boy and die when I tell you to.¡± Nico giggled while the room stared in amazement.


    ¡°I understand why the General likes you so much, you¡¯re both oddballs, just like him. I mean that in the best of ways.¡± A researcher joked with Max, half drunk and waving his drink to emphasize his point.


    ¡°Now, who is up for a round of 3D billiards?¡± Max asked, ready to unwind and enjoy his evening. It was thest night of his vacation, and he wasn¡¯t going to go back to work without at least getting a few games in. On Level 10, Nightmare Mode, of course, to make it a challenge.

 182 Chapter 182

    The next morning came much too early, and Max was not at all prepared for the horrendous noise that his rm made in the quiet apartment. The sound was familiar, it had woken him for dozens of shifts and patrols in the past, but inside a building, without the sound of war all around him, instead of a mecha cockpit, it just seemed out of ce and overly aggressive.


    He had set it to go off a full hour before he needed to be at work, giving him time to shower, dress and eat, but he soon realized that he had overlooked one important factor. He had arrived yesterday and unpacked all his gear, but this was not Stalwart. There was no stash of Ration packs, there was no Unit kitchen mere meters away, and he hadn¡¯t gone grocery shopping.


    His first thought was to ping Nico and see what the n was, but then it dawned on him that it didn¡¯t matter to her, she didn¡¯t need to eat. She hadpletely filled her nutrition storage with high-quality supplements at the resort, so she wouldn¡¯t actually need to eat anything for months.


    This self-sufficient individual thing was going to take him a while to get used to.


    Nico hadn¡¯t abandoned her best friend though, and before Max could make up his mind, the doorbell rang, bringing up a view of Nico holding a brown paper bag outside his door on the security screen.


    ¡°Just the person I needed to see.¡± Max greeted her with a smile, weing Nico into his small and minimalist suite. Hers should be exactly the same at this point since neither had much in the way of belongings, so there was no need for a grand tour.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I knew we forgot to go grocery shopping, and the security cameras showed a huge lineup at the fast food ces between here and work, so I went ahead and grabbed you something to eat from the next floor down.¡± She exined, handing him the bag.


    The smell of grease and spice met his nose the moment he opened the bag, and Max wondered just what she had gotten him to eat. Most of the selections here were fairly nd foods, but whatever this was had definitely been spiced within inches of lethality.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t get a chance to sample them, but there¡¯s a breakfast burrito and a collection of their specialty samosas in the bag,¡± Nico exined, turning to leave so they would get to work on time.


    With hoverboards, the trip was an easy one. They were on the same floor as the entrance to the Testing Lab, so they only had to fly toward the center of the hab dome over the top of the buildings. With most of the traffic being at ground level, it was under five minutes before they were in line to have their identification checked and enter the Labs.


    . ¡°Pilots really are a whole different breed. Aren¡¯t you afraid of something happening and falling from the board flying that high?¡± One of the researchers behind them in line asked as they waited their turn.<sub></sub>


    ¡°At my level, it¡¯s not a big deal. Unless I was doing acrobatics or something, I would justnd on my feet. Both the fifty percent and one hundred percent total bonus reformations increased my physical durability.¡± Max exined.


    The researcher nodded, and then turned toward Nico, before realizing she was a cyborg and shrugging off his concerns. Even if she fell from the top of the level at a hoverboard¡¯s maximum speed, the worst she would do was make herself dizzy and ruin her clothes.


    ¡°First day is it? Report to the Colonel¡¯s office, fourth door on your left after entry. You will get your kit after the meeting.¡± The security guard informed both Max and Nico in the same intrigued tone.


    They didn¡¯t get a lot of new people here, and never visitors, so new members of the testing team were the highlight of his day. Even though he knew almost all the people who would be entering on this shift by name, he still had to check their identification and verify it against their biometric data before they could enter theb. The whole facility was secure, but theb took it to a whole new level, double-checking everything, with every single entry.


    The Colonel turned out to be a strict-faced and very short woman with hair turned to half gray by the rigors of decades in the Military. She was in full dress uniform, and the collection of certification and service badges showed that she used to be, or possibly still was, an intelligence officer with Central Command. Not a field agent, but highly skilled in data analysis and pattern recognition.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Wee to the Comor Research and Development Lab Majors. I am Colonel Noor and I will be your direct supervisor here in the Testing Lab. Your assigned locker numbers are avable on your wrist devices, and contain everything you will need. Although theb coats are fashionable, you will not be needing them, there are Pilot Suits assigned to you. They are also a test product, so they should be worn any time that you are inside a Mecha, for data collection purposes.


    Today, we have the prototypes of the Exoskeleton suits that were introduced yesterday up for their first round of tests. I hear that you two suggested them, so you will be the first to test them. Bay 29 will be expecting your arrival in thirty minutes.


    If there are no other questions, you are dismissed.¡±


    Both Nico and Max saluted politely and left the Colonel¡¯s office to go get their gear from the lockers. The locker room for the testing staff was much more impressive than Max had expected, having not only Rainfall showers with Ultrasonic scrubbers but also an automated medical bay and android staffed Massage stations. That was a lot of luxury for somewhere to put your work clothes on inside a Lab.


    The room was currently filled with staff getting into their uniforms for the day, as every set of clothing was provided, and ording to the directions on the inside of the lockers, no outside items were to be brought further into theb.


    Max quickly switched to the Pilot Suit, noting that it was much more form-fitting than the old one, which was loose until it inted to add pressure, preventing blood pooling during rapid maneuvering.


    ¡°Now this is a Pilot Suit. My ass looks fantastic.¡± Nicoughed, zipping up the neoprene suit and strapping on the outer harness which held the armor tes and pockets for necessary equipment.


    ¡°No lie detected, Major. Though I do wish the individual cut could be a bit more ttering to the package. Do you think we could suggest a bit of built-in armor pad it out a little?¡± One of the Male test Pilotsughed, flexing in front of the mirror in his own suit.


    The dubious looks that many were giving the suits let Max know that these were a new design, but they were extremelyfortable once they were on. Much like the high-tech baseyer to the standard uniform, they controlled temperature and humidity perfectly, with the only downside being that the form-fitting suits did leave you feeling a bit naked like you were piloting in your underwear.


    ¡°What bay did you get today? They randomize it through everything you¡¯re qualified on so that the data isn¡¯t biased by the testers.¡± The pilot who wasining about theck of Package emphasis asked Max as he finished deciphering the webbing harness and getting dressed.


    ¡°Bay 29, the Exoskeleton testing,¡± Max answered, making sure his suit was on correctly.


    ¡°Lucky bugger. I got the Fusion Eradicator again. I swear if that thing blows up one more time I will go to the General and beg to have the design scrapped.¡± The Pilot replied with a ruefulugh, before waving and heading out.


    The bays were essed through awork of overhead catwalks, so that the observers could look down into the bays at the experiments, from the outside of the protective shielding of course, while keeping the foot traffic elevated and out of the way of the heavy equipment that brought the designs to the bays to be tested.


    Bay 29 ended up being off in a far corner of the Lab, and Max had to jog to make it there on time after changing, but he wasn¡¯t alone. Half the staff had to run to make their duty station on time and get checked in before they were marked aste. Max wasn¡¯t sure how particr they were about time schedules here, but going by what he saw in the mind of the Colonel, it was best to be not even a second behind schedule during check-in.

 183 Chapter 183

    They arrived at the bay with a few minutes to spare and found that the entire area had been meticulously set up by the previous shift, in preparation for them to arrive.


    There were two exoskeleton suitsid out on the tables, each with a different array of mechanical equipment on them. One looked to be the standard Mecha Mechanic suit, as Max had expected, but the second appeared to contain a variety of medical tools, like syringes and bone saws.


    ¡°Sweet, one of us gets to y mad doctor.¡± Nico joked, looking over the second suit, while the researchers scuttled about the room.


    ¡°Just wait in the chairs off to the side while we finish our data analysis to make sure they are safe to power up. There is coffee if you need it, as well as food.¡± A young woman with a clipboard told them, indicating a spot in the corner of the area.


    Max still had the smell of spice on his breath, and one of the researchers who walked by smirked at him. ¡°First day is it? I didn¡¯t think there was anyone here I didn¡¯t recognize. For future reference, the Lab brings two meals a shift to us, so nobody eats breakfast outside if they work in the Testing Lab. The lines for the restaurants you saw this morning are the design and programming teams, or the night shift grabbing something on the way home.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s valuable information to have. We were kind of dropped in without much detail, other than a time to report for duty.¡± Max thanked her, making the researcher blush.


    That wasn¡¯t an expected reaction, so Max looked at her a little more closely than just the essential details and noticed that she was barely old enough to have finished the academy, and was local to Comor, without a system. Max already knew that those who weren¡¯t used to the physical changes that the system brought tended to be overwhelmed by those who had undergone them.


    It was said that Kepler had the most beautiful people, but that was almost all down to the System¡¯s interference. After the initial rapid growth, it deemed e, skin blemishes, and excess weight as unnecessary, so it discarded them all. Even if Max ate ten thousand calories a day, his body would simply stop absorbing them after it had reached the upper limits of what it had deemed optimal energy storage. It also increased the energy density of body fat during his and many other Pilots¡¯ upgrades, so that it didn¡¯tpromise their form.


    He would have to get used to the looks eventually, and the crude gestures that Nico was making, suggesting that Max should ask the youthful researcher about a little extracurricr fun after their shift.


    The researcher in question didn¡¯t notice her suggestion, but a few of the others did and gave the girl an envious nce. Max ignored them and turned an annoyed re on Nico, who was ying innocent, pouring out a dozen cups of coffee for the staff of bay 29.


    Nico was an amazing Executive Officer and an even better friend, but her ideas of what constituted normal and moral behavior simply weren¡¯tpatible with Max¡¯s sense of how things should be done.


    He wondered if it was something to do with his past life since he felt such a strong sense of morality and justice lingering in those memories, but Nico did seem even more open and forward than the rest of the people around him, though not always by much.


    ¡°Who takes coffee vored coffee and who needs stuff in it?¡± Nico asked once the cups were full, making the researchersugh.


    ¡°See, this is why you need veterans in theb. Remember when the other Pilots started? They had never even had coffee before.¡± One of the staff joked, making both Max and Nico give him a horrified look.


    ¡°Who has never drank coffee? and how does that even happen?¡± Max asked, genuinely curious.


    ¡°They sent them to us straight from the Academy¡¯s Special Forces training. They hadn¡¯t been on a single mission, all they knew was school, and the Comor Academy doesn¡¯t serve coffee, because it¡¯s known to stunt growth.


    ¡°See, there¡¯s the problem. The System willpensate for that, so the Kepler Terminus Academy serves coffee in all the cafeterias, even if the first years don¡¯t drink much of it. Plus, it is in every single ration pack. Even if they had been on a few field trips, they should be familiar with Coffee Instant Type K.¡± Max informed them, while the team came to get their coffee, with some adding cream and sugar, and some adding liquid shots that Max suspected were the Cyborg Nutrition Supplements.


    Taken by humans, they were a huge overdose of nutrients but designed to be rtively safe, but they gave a longsting energy boost, keeping the workers awake for hours. If they were taking them at the start of their shift, the researchers must be getting pretty burnt out.


    ¡°Already with the energy drinks? Didn¡¯t your shift just start?¡± Max asked, watching the staff hold their coffee with a look of reverence usually reserved for lovers.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t go home after thest one, since the designs for the Exoskeleton wereing in. We¡¯ve been here all night getting the parts made and prepped for this morning¡¯s testing, but we spent the overnight in the upper floorbs.¡± The team leader exined.


    Nobody here had nametags, so Max was going to have to askter, or read their minds to find out who was who. Not that it was truly important in the immediate sense, but building camaraderie was important.


    By the time the coffees were finished, the two suits had undergone final checks and were deemed safe to be equipped and activated.


    ¡°I will go first. Even if it blows up a little, I should be rtively safe.¡± Nico offered, stepping towards the tables.


    ¡°Good, good. Explosion-resistant test pilots are an amazing idea. We should see if we can get that feature added to the Pilot suits.¡± The team leader agreed, nodding her head, and making the frizzy mass of brown curls bounce.


    The first test was obviously going to be the [Tech Adept Toolkit v3]. Max politely didn¡¯t ask what happened with versions one and two if three was the first one deemed safe for human testing, but with a bit of help from the team, the exoskeleton easily adjusted to perfectly fit Nico¡¯s frame, and powered up. A glowing blue ring of light from the sma cell power module lit up on the back, showing that the suit was operational, and the arms came to life, moving to a neutral position just behind Nico¡¯s shoulder line.


    There were a series of simple tasks set up on the end table, designed to test the functionality of the arms since the frame itself was more easily tested. Nico activated the anti-gravity ting and hovered for a minute, narrating the trim change needed to make the suit smoothly hover, then glided to the far side of the bay.


    The torch, welder, and shears were easily tested as functional, then the variable socket pincers and their extension beam, and finally the mping ws were tested for uracy in pressure. The adjustments were urate to intentions within one gram, at least they were when Nico was using the suit, but that did raise the question of how urate the neural link controls would be with anyone else using them.


    Nico wasn¡¯t hacking the suit, but her Innate Talent made controlling the device second nature to her, precision was never going to be an issue unless there was a problem with the suit, which was mostly assembled from precision instruments in the otherbs.


    ¡°Sess. We have sess. Every basic function works as intended, the power augmentation and flight systems are all within parameters, and the neural link is working wlessly, without any major inputg. They did an amazing job on this design, I¡¯ve never seen a first test so sessful.¡± The young researcher who blushed when Max thanked her earlier nearly screamed.


    Max looked into her mind for her name, to save himself the trouble of askingter, finding that she was called Anna, and didn¡¯t have another name, as she was raised as an orphan by the Military. When she realized how loud she was, she blushed again, highlighting the freckles on her face before she hid it in her hands and took a few deep breaths to calm herself.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to hear such enthusiasm for your work so early in the morning.¡± Uncle Lu called from the catwalks above them, where he had been making his morning rounds when he heard the victory shout.


    ¡°Send me the test results and I will send the design back upstairs so they can make tweaks and modifications. Oh, never mind, you already did. Thank you, Major Nico.¡± With that, Uncle Lu was gone again, and the team helped Nico out of the suit before sitting down around a table to write their reports.

 184 Chapter 184

    The Testing Lab¡¯s daily routine turned out to be a little bit of testing and a lot of making reports on the tests that were done. Or, more correctly from the standpoint of the test Pilots, a lot of waiting for the others to make reports. They reported on the functionality, while all the in-depth details and data analysis was left to the research team. Nico had prepared her report before she even finished the test, thanks to her system functions, but the team took three whole hours of going over the data before they were ready for Max to repeat the test and see how the suit functioned with him at the helm.


    It turned out to be incredibly intuitive, even for Max who had no practical experience withplex robotic arms. He did at least have a basic familiarity with Mecha Repair, thanks to his stunted time in the Academy, so at least he didn¡¯t make a fool out of himself during the testing.


    They both tested the medical version just before lunch was delivered at noon and both Nico and Max were expecting a very dull afternoon of not much happening while the rest of the team did their initial reports. ording to the team, after today, they would have ongoing individual tests to go through a few times an hour, so the test pilots wouldn¡¯t be so bored, it was just today there was so much base data to enter into the system that they couldn¡¯t do any more tests until the baseline for the subsequent results was in the system.


    They were saved from absolute boredom by Uncle Lu, who had a simtor for them to test out. The Lab had developed a drone-piloted fighter jet that mounted two enormous Heavy Rail Cannons as well as a pair of Micro Rocket pods for safely and remotely eliminating enemy Mecha. From an altitude of ten thousand meters or more it would be able to engage from over three hundred kilometers away, and still, have the fifty-kilogram projectile impact its target at over Mach 30.


    The jet was a flying wing design, almost a perfect triangle, with scramjet engines above and below the main structure and the two rail cannons poking out from either side of the cockpit at the front. As a supersonic fighter jet, the design was sound and fairly traditional, other than the overkill weapons. A kiloton of impact force wasn¡¯t in the design parameters of any armor that Max was familiar with short of an Orbital Strike bunker.


    ¡°Where do we need to go to find this simtor, boss? This drone looks like a lot of fun.¡± Nico called up at the General on the catwalk.


    ¡°Come up to the Structural designb. They have the simtor there, and it is where most simted tests take ce since we don¡¯t build anything until it has proven itself in theory.¡± General Lu instructed them, before waving at the Exoskeleton team and leaving.


    ¡°Looks like you two get the fun stuff today. You must have really impressed him if he¡¯s sending you to new design testing already. That¡¯s pure theory testing, not like down here, where we put the designs together and prove whether their numbers were right or not in the real world.¡± The team leader told them with a hint of admiration.


    ¡°But this is the most important step. If the theory was enough we wouldn¡¯t have to worry about designs failing or blowing up once they were assembled.¡± Max consoled her, knowing she had a lot of time ahead of her just doing up all the reports for the single round of testing that they did this morning.


    They didn¡¯t bother to change back before going up, though the Pilot suits weren¡¯t needed on the upper floors and they could have switched to one of the casual outfits the office supplied to other workers. Getting to the simtor was more important than fitting in with the crowd.


    The bodysuit look attracted a fair bit of attention though, so Max stopped at the door of the Structural designb and procured them a pair of Lab Coats so that he could avoid some of the inevitable questions about the experimental suit by those who were working on its design.


    ¡°Oh, good you¡¯re here. We will have to do a quick examination to check you out on the x10 Jet Chassis and then you can start the simted tests on the drone version. The two are essentially identical, except the pilot will be in a simtor back safely in Command bases instead of exposed inside the jets themselves. Orbital dropped fighters have had a horrendous casualty ratetely, and the hope is that leaving the Pilots behind in orbit will minimize that and allow for arger force of jets to be sent without decimating the manpower of the transports.


    ¡°The logic checks out. I¡¯ve seen the orbital dropped fighters die by the tens of thousands to ground-based firepower becausemand made a mistake.¡± Max agreed.


    ¡°We watched the footage, but I forgot that you were there on the ground when the Cygnus forces attacked that day. Yes, that is what we want to avoid in the future. Even if the Fighters are destroyed, if the trained pilots survive then we only need to send another wave somewhere safer. Measuring the cost in tons of materials andbor instead of lives sits much better with public perception.¡± The researcher nodded, then gestured to the waiting simtors.


    The inside of a fighter jet was ridiculously, childishly simplepared to a Mecha cockpit, and with his targeting skills, Max aced the exam without ever having to drop his speed. Nico also aced the exam, but almost failed on a technicality. Her body wasn¡¯t bothered by gravity the way an organic human was, so she wasn¡¯t limiting her maneuvering forces as much and almost destroyed the test ne while banking.


    ¡°Two perfect scores, with the lowest times ever recorded. I think that goes for Kepler examinations as well. Transferring Mecha Pilots to the Interster Navy doesn¡¯t happen often, but it looks like there might be some advantages to the practice.¡± Arge-nosed man with an afro and milky white skin dered as Max was leaving his training simtion.


    ¡°Why not send some of the crippled Pilots over to be tested for this program once it goes live? You don¡¯t need arms and legs to operate a Simtor, so even if they have taken damage that their bodies can¡¯t or haven¡¯t yet regenerated they should be able to serve as Drone Controllers.¡± Nico suggested.


    Even better, they would already be on board the transports, recovering from their injuries and frustrated with theirck of ability. Letting them fight would be good for their mental health, Max reasoned.


    ¡°Now, if you would like to get in the simtion for the drone Jets, we can begin initial testing.¡±


    The simtors had started to draw a crowd now since the man¡¯s deration that they had set new records for the previous examination had carried across the mostly quietb section, where most were working on theirputers and not practical structures, which were done on the other side of this section of the Lab, kilometers away.

 185 Chapter 185

    Max climbed back into the simtor, hanging hisb coat over the back of the machine, and powered up the virtual reality program. It brought him to the cockpit of an orbital insertion fighter inside a simted hangar in a drop ship, the standardunching point for the experimental fighters.


    [Launch in T minus fifteen seconds. Please remember structural limits exist within the simtion.] A robotic voice informed him and Max chuckled at the warning that was very clearly for Nico.


    The countdownmenced and the bay doors opened, showing that he was facing straight down towards a yellowish orange. A Sulphur Waste if Max¡¯s guess was correct. They weren¡¯t often human habitable but were often hotly contested due to the abundance of resources that formed inside them.


    The fighter wasunched towards the with a shuddering lurch as the variable thrusters mounted outboard on the wings engaged to adjust his speed and trajectory on the automated path. The two simtions were separate, so Max was alone in this ce, hurtling to what felt like certain doom.


    Dropping in a Lander was much more rxing than watching the fires of orbital entry fill the cockpit window in front of you. The jet was out of his control for a while while the harsh entry overrode any attempts at maneuvering, so Max made a mental note to increase the output of the outboard thrusters so that this vulnerable moment could be eliminated and Pilots could begin their attack pattern over a minute sooner.


    The force was well within structural limits, so a bit of maneuvering wouldn¡¯t hurt anything, and could prevent the destruction of a lot of units. Max wasn¡¯t familiar with the limits of other aircraft, but for this one, the solution seemed usible.


    Once he had slowed enough to maneuver again, Max brought up the targeting sequence, finding that there were two clusters of Cygnus Reaver ss Heavy Mecha, ending in a single Cygnus Super Heavy unit. The program was likely set before the treaty between the two sides had stabilized when everyone assumed that the long-standing feuds would erupt into battle again any day. There was still a chance of that, but it was looking increasingly slim with every week that passed, as more and more trade agreements and alliances were formed.


    The first target was a cluster of five Heavy Mecha, and Max¡¯s targeting skills had alreadye to life, though the jet was nearly five hundred kilometers from the target. He trusted his System on this front more than anything else, so Max sent round after round towards the target. The Rail Cannons could only fire one shot every three seconds, or a six-second gap per array. That was a truly abysmal rate of fire, but the amount of energy needed to propel the rounds was immense.


    Two mecha were immediately scrapped by the Rail Cannons, and then another and another. With the speed he was traveling, Max was already too close to make the fifth attack, so he turned the missile pods to a rearward position andunched them down at thest Mecha while turning the jet toward the second target.


    The jet groaned ominously, and Max checked his structural readings, seeing that he was already over eighty-five percent of capacity, into the danger zone for structural integrity. If they were going to have Mecha Pilots operate these jets as drones, some serious work was going to need to be done. They were simply too fragile for the way they were going to be used, and now Max understood why Nico had almost blown hers up. He followed the optimal route for the test, while she had likely improvised and ended up with more sharp turns in her route.


    ?<0,>?,?l The second squad was only three Heavy Mecha, and they fell to the Rail Cannons from over three hundred kilometers away. The guns might be ridiculous and unwieldy, but he couldn¡¯t argue with their absolute power. He hadn¡¯t failed to get a single hit kill with them yet.


    Max banked and turned for the Super Heavying in low above the hills where the Super Heavy¡¯s powerful weapons wouldn¡¯t be able to target him as easily, then put two nearly simultaneous rounds into it, breaking the shielding, but he was still out of missile range and the second round lost most of its velocity before the shield copsed. Max knew the tactic now, and waited the full six seconds, firing both Cannons at once and following them with a full volley of armor-piercing missiles as his jet raced toward the target at over a thousand kilometers an hour.


    The shielding around the Super Heavy Mecha fell in an instant and the missiles impacted all over the joints of the armor and the cockpit. The Mecha copsed like a doll with the strings cut, and Max turned straight up, gaining altitude, where the crippled Mecha couldn¡¯t easily target him and he would be safer from surprise ground fire.


    At the five-second mark since hisst Rail Cannon rounds, he banked back toward the ground, firing both at once again. The shields hadn¡¯te back up, and the rounds drilled deep into the mecha, causing a core breach, and Max turned away in a hurry as the first signs of a chain reaction glowed in the torso before turning into a full-power nuclear explosion.


    [Scenario Complete. Ending in 5 seconds.]


    Once he was brought out of the simtion to theb, Max found the researchers in a flurry of activity, talking rapidly over each other andparing notes.


    ¡°Did we do something strange?¡± Max asked Nico, who seemed just as confused as he was, though nothing showed on her face.


    ¡°I have no idea. I just took out the mecha the most efficient way and then they called me back to wait for you. I¡¯ve only been back about five seconds longer than you have.¡± She exined.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t have to loop up to take out the Super Heavy with a second volley?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Nope, I waited until I was in range and disabled the shields with the missiles then used the Rail Cannons to blow it up.¡± Nico shrugged.


    Yeah, that was a good idea too. Max hadn¡¯t expected the shielding to hold that well though and had thought the second shot would make its way through and damage the mecha so he could finish it with missiles.

 186 Chapter 186

    ¡°So, what are the Pilots¡¯ impressions?¡± The team leader asked, data tablet in hand.


    ¡°Too fragile, since the Pilot isn¡¯t in danger of over force injuries, they can put the jet through much more than usual. Also six seconds between rounds? Are you messing with me? At least put in a set of staged capacitors so that the thing can fire a second volley before its main weapon is helpless. A high threat engagement is two seconds long before someone dies. Six seconds might as well be worthless.¡± Nico¡¯s cutting criticism made the designers a bit pale in the face, but she had offered a partial solution, so the designers had something to work with, even if they were going to go back to the drawing board on the structure to make it stronger without adding additional weight or changing the bnce.


    ¡°Anything else? Pilot Max?¡± The team leader asked hopefully.


    ¡°The descent thrusters are too weak. You¡¯re helpless for almost a minute during descent before they can get the thing under control again. That might be at high altitude, but anti-Lander fire can reach you up there, and it is a whole minute of helplessness where you can¡¯t maneuver properly. If the output of the outboard variable direction thrusters was increased you could greatly cut that down and increase survivability.¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°Why do I feel like we just got a B minus on an Academy of Engineering assignment?¡± One of the others asked, making the researchersugh.


    ¡°It¡¯s refreshing, isn¡¯t it? Test Pilots, who don¡¯t kiss ass?¡± General Luughed,ing over to see how things went.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I would use that particr word for it, but it is a change for sure. We have a lot of changes to make to bring this design up to the standards that the Test Pilots have requested.¡± The lead designer informed him, sending over the notes.


    ¡°Oh, that sounds fun. I didn¡¯t think about that. Yes, with the pilots being remote, we can really flog these things for all they are worth. Well, you know what you need to do, I will send the gentle criticism of the firing rate down to the Weapons Design teams and we will revisit these tests at the end of the week.¡±


    That didn¡¯t seem like much time to Max, but the team only nodded and started making notes, preparing for the next round of tests.


    ¡°That¡¯s it for the day. Test Pilots have much shorter working hours than most of the team, since we only need them here when things are working, and the projects that I recruited you for aren¡¯t ready yet.¡± General Lu informed them, reverting back to the rxed and smiling version of himself they knew best.


    This was the real Uncle Lu, the one that didn¡¯t need to be serious and respected in his official capacity. Max wondered how such aidback guy had even made General unless there was a design in his past that was so essential to the Kepler Empire that he earned the promotion for his contribution. Knowing him, it was very possible that he had made something incredible at a young age and ended up at the top of the promotion pile before he even knew what was going on.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we all get a snack and then we can talk about these new Mecha designs that you¡¯re working on? If they¡¯re not ready for alpha testing on the simtors yet, we can still make some fun changes, right?¡± Nico suggested, making Uncle Lu give her a genuine smile.


    ¡°I suppose that is true. What do you want to see first? The X109 and the Fusion mer, or the X137 which will be getting the Tri-Axis Variable Velocity Mass Driver?¡± Lu asked.


    ¡°First of all, you need to work on that name, Tri-Axis Variable Velocity Mass Driver is way too long. Pilots would give it a ridiculous nickname like the Boom Gun if you didn¡¯te up with something good first. But I really want to see it.¡± Max decided.


    ¡°Boom Gun, I like it. Maybe Thunder Turret. You will understand when you get a chance to test it. We have a simtion version of the raw weapon avable already, but the chassis that it is supposed to go on had to undergo some major revisions after we created the designst week. I¡¯m sure you understand.¡± Luughed.


    He made them redesign an entire Super Heavy Mecha from the ground up for a specialty artillery weapon after just talking to Max for a few days after they met. General Lu was an absolute madman, but the Pilots were going to love him.


    General Lu led them to another region of theb, taking almost an hour to walk there, with the distance and the constant stream of researchers needing his input on the various things that they were working on. As they walked, it became clear that Lu was the brains behind this entire operation, and he wasn¡¯t a supervisor, but the lead researcher on every project in theb, with many of the ideas and base schematics havinge directly from him.


    The team working on the gun was only using a simple VR headset with a neural link for testing so far, showing the user a scene of the guns mounted on a t concrete surface with the ability to aim and fire them, as well as inspect the unit itself and make adjustments.


    They all sat down and equipped the sets, joining the team members in the simtion to show off their new toys.


    ¡°We got the firing rate down to one point five seconds per barrel, but any faster and we are having feed issues.¡± One of the researchers greeted them without any preamble.


    ¡°I might know how to fix that. I had to modify the feed on my Battle Cannon so that it wouldn¡¯t jam or bounce rounds off the edge of the breech at higher rates of fire.¡± Max suggested, bringing up the design that was saved in his wrist device.


    pA?,??.?0m ¡°Oh, the Battle Cannon on Stalwart. We modified the design to match when we got the data since we noticed the rate of fire, but we are still having issues.¡±


    ¡°Simple fix, shave the feed connector so that the rounds don¡¯te in straight but at a five-degree angle, that will stop the feed jams. I did it to Stalwart after the first battle.¡± Nico added and then walked over to the turrets to make the same change.


    It was a simple thing, and in the digital surroundings only took a second for her to aplish it before she looked over the three turrets, with their linked Battle Cannon barrels. If they could each hold the fire rate of Stalwart that would be about four and a half rounds a second from a single Mecha.


    Uncle Lu had said that this was the secondary armament, but it was a truly formidable one even if it was the main weapon of a Super Heavy.


    ¡°Everyone Clear. Test Firing in ten seconds.¡± The researcher announced, getting the test prepared.


    The Guns lit up with repeated high explosive rounds, carpeting an area of the scenario in explosions as everyone wrote notes until finally a tremendous explosion destroyed the simted turret and ejected everyone from the simtion.


    ¡°Now what the feth was that? I swear it never blew up before, it¡¯s just a lot of Battle Cannons for the Emperor¡¯s sake.¡± The lead researcherined while Nicoughed.


    ¡°Stalwart has the same issue. You have to watch the heat dissipation at the breech, or it gets hot enough to spontaneously detonate the explosive rounds. The problem is minimized if you¡¯re firing armor prating sabot rounds, but it is still possible.¡± She exined.


    ¡°So we need to lower the fire rate, ore up with a better heat dissipation method? Maybe improvements to the liquid cooling? What did you do in Stalwart, Major Max?¡± Uncle Lu asked.


    ¡°I just stopped firing for five seconds once every fifteen seconds to let the gun cool down a little.¡± Max shrugged. It wasn¡¯t a problem that they had fully solved, but it was enough to let the gun keep operating.


    ¡°What you need to be more concerned about is barrel damage from the intense heat. If you used Battle Cannon barrels directly, they will quickly overheat and warp with repeated use at that firing rate. Stalwart reced barrels on a fairly regr basis.¡± Nico added.


    ¡°Improved cooling, and we can use the barrel enclosure as a heat sink while cooling the entire length. That should solve the packaging issues, at least until they take a few hits, but that would likely disable a turret anyhow.¡± The researchers began to ramble, and General Lu led the two Pilots out of theb with a smile.


    ¡°Good work for your first day. Now go home and cause chaos elsewhere. My staff has enough to do for the day.¡±

 187 Chapter 187

    Max led the way back to the changing room and left the Pilot suit behind, after filling out a report on the shift longfort level and essential tool essibility of the harness. Once he got past the feeling of being nearly naked in the light body suit, it was incrediblyfortable for daily activities, and he wouldn¡¯t mind wearing it again every day if he had to. Inside a cramped cockpit, it would be even better than the regr loose jumpsuit style, which often folded under the legs and made the pockets inessible while operating.


    Max knew that for an extended deployment more than a few Crusader ss Pilots simply didn¡¯t get dressed and operated in their underwear. Max had always been a bit too paranoid about something unexpected happening and causing him to end up outside or on a video chat in his underwear, so he at least put pants on, but Nico routinely dyed video links with Command until she had gotten dressed, so she was certainly operating in something less than her uniform.


    He likely wouldn¡¯t be wearing the harness during operations though, or at least not all of it. The armor te would only get in the way of his cockpit securement, and the straps across his back would not befortable for long-term wear over the course of weeks.


    All of that went into their notes, and they made their way back to the apartment, stopping along the way to grab a collection of groceries and other essentials. The apartment had all the cooking utensils that they could need, as well as an automated washing machine, but they hadn¡¯t had time to stock food yet.


    Max noticed that Nico was also doing some grocery shopping, getting an assortment of nonperishable foodstuffs to take home with her, despite not needing them.


    ¡°nning on hosting a party?¡± Max asked, wondering at her selections.


    ¡°Special events need cake. These ingredients will make one at any time, and they are shelf stable so I don¡¯t need to worry about how long it is going to be before a situation calls for cake.¡± Nico exined as if it was incredibly obvious. Perhaps it was, just not to Max.


    Once they got home, Nico dropped her groceries on her counter and came over to help Max put away his muchrger haul. They had left early, but they had been there for both breakfast and lunch servings in the Testing Lab, so Max decided to rx for the afternoon, watching movies with Nico.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we start with the ssics? I know you missed a lot of the essentials of movie culture, so we can start with theedies and go from there.¡± Nico suggested. That worked for Max,edy movies were an easy win in his books, so they settled onto the couch and put on a supposedly cult ssicedy called Space Orbs.


    Max recalled the credits ending, but the next thing he knew, his rm was going off and he was waking up with his head on Nico¡¯sp.


    ¡°I guess we fell asleep watching movies.¡± She mumbled, reaching across to turn his rm off.


    Max wondered what happened. The night before, he had tossed and turned for hours before falling asleep, butst night he was out after a single movie, and on the couch no less, not even in bed. He must have been more tired than he thought.


    They didn¡¯t stop for anything this morning, simply going to the office, where they could have a much more luxurious shower and would be putting on fresh clothes anyhow. Their arrival by hoverboard didn¡¯t attract as much attention as yesterday, mostly because they were a half hour early and there were only a few people headed to theb at this time, with everyone else showing up right before their shift was set to start.


    After a quick shower, Max checked his work locker and found that the Pilot suit was the same as yesterday, but in a different colorbination, so it might be a slightly different model orposition than yesterday¡¯s outfit. This one had a different topyer setup as well, a soft cloth set of overalls instead of a webbing harness. They were long-legged and tucked into his boots, but sleeveless, which might be morefortable than the webbing harness, though they looked rather odd, like he should be wearing a shirt, but wasn¡¯t, with the short sleeves of the baseyer looking like an undershirt.


    ¡°Oh, you got that one, it looks strange, but it¡¯s way morefortable than the webbing. Looks like your partner got something strange.¡± One of the pilotsughed, pointing to where Nico was looking at a jumpsuit that was more mesh than anything else.


    She slipped it on and Max couldn¡¯t help but draw in a surprised breath. ¡°That outfit is just barely making it in so many ways. Tell me there is anotheryer that goes with it.¡±


    Nico smirked and shook her head. ¡°Cyborgbat suit version 9, optimized for cooling and defense against edged weapons. Supposedly this thing will take the de of a Line Mecha without tearing. I think I like it, just the looks it gets are worth it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what though, I couldn¡¯t wear it, and I¡¯m partial conversion. My balls would hang out of the mesh and don¡¯t even get me started on the chafing.¡± One of the other Pilotsughed as Nico grabbed a Lab Coat to wear over the suit.


    ¡°You know, you can turn down the suits if they are unsuitable for use.¡± One of the female researchers informed them,ing into the room toote to actually see it.


    Nico turned with her coat open and tilted her head at the scientist. ¡°It¡¯s functional, but whoever designed it needs to getid. I¡¯ll have to go upstairs and have a conversation with themter.¡±


    The researcher¡¯s eyes bugged out at the mesh suit, and she stuttered, trying to form a response. Colonel Noor saved her the trouble though, grabbing another suit and throwing it at Nico.


    ¡°No need, either of you. I will go talk to them personally, but if you like it, you can keep it. Maybe wear it as a baseyer or something.¡± The Colonel¡¯s face looked furious, so she must have been watching the cameras to see if there were any issues with the day¡¯s outfits.


    ¡°Understood Colonel. Under a crop top and skirt, it would actually look pretty cute.¡± The strict woman just shook her head at Nico and marched out to go verbally tear someone a new orifice.


    ¡°Well, that was a fun way to start the second day, hopefully, we get a testing station that is just as interesting.¡± Max joked, checking the duty roster on the wall to see where he would be. He was on X10 development testing, while Nico was back in Bay 29, doing the second day of practical tests on the [Tech Adept Toolkit].

 188 Chapter 188

    The rest of the week went the same way, Max tested the incremental improvements to the orbital insertion fighter jet while Nico worked with the team on the practical tests of the Exoskeleton. They eventually forced the coding team to write up fully articted dendrites to rece the crane boom arms, making for better ess in tight areas, and better overall artiction without moving the user¡¯s physical body.


    Ten suits had been made so far, and the Testing Department were all jealous of the staff of Bay 29, who were wearing them all day, for ¡°Testing Purposes¡± as they did the modifications on the medical version dubbed the [Medical Adept Toolkit v3]. The extra arms increased productivity and precision, as well as reduced user fatigue, and petitions had already beenunched to dere the suit as suitable for service so that the other bays could get them as well.


    The digital design of the fighter ne hade a long way in a single week, with the structural integrity increasing by over forty percent, allowing much morefortable maneuvering for Pilots like Max from a remote position. They also got the reload time on the Rail Cannons down to three seconds from six. That let the pair fire one shot every second and a half, an eptable rate if you fired them alternately.


    That somewhat limited the damage output, but the impact force of the shells tore through nearly anything, so the spray and pray method wasn¡¯t really necessary.


    The Kepler military was big on precision, and well-aimed shots with deadly weapons, but Max also knew that simply saturating an area in weapons fire worked just as well, with a much lower skill threshold. Unofficially, it was the way of the infantry already, though it was seen as beneath the Mecha Pilots.


    The Testing Department got one day off every week, and Max was getting ready for his first true day off from the new posting whenughter in the locker room caught his attention. They were looking out into thebs, half of them still naked from the shower, but they had run out to see whatever was going on anyhow, so it must be good.


    Max came out to see that the notice on the wall was dering that the two new exoskeletons had passed testing and were now decreed ready forboratory general use. The testing team had decided that this was the perfect time for a show, and they had assembled outfits to match their project. Five men in Coveralls and Lab Coats, with the [Tech Adept] exoskeleton on, and six women, including Nico, wearing the [Medical Adept] version in very short nurse outfits,plete with the hats.


    It was the first goodugh anyone had all week, and they were going all out cheering for the upgraded equipment. Or maybe for the flying nurses, but that was the same thing, really. They were alling off shift as well, so they flew over to the changing room to get out of the suits, where Nico showed them a trick to get undressed. If they had the grasping arms of the suit hold onto the hangars in the locker, they could simply power down and step out of them, and the suit would retract automatically to apact form for storage.


    ¡°Congrattions on the sessful testing, Bay 29. Starting tomorrow you will be on the X109 Mecha testing. It won¡¯t be quite as rapid as the exosuits, but it is an all-new design, Crusader ss, with new weapons systems. You will be testing the entire integrated unit at once.¡± Colonel Noor dered, killing their joy for a moment. An all-new mecha, with all new weapons, would take a significant amount of time to finish testing.


    ¡°Also, the X137 Chassis has moved to digital testing, so you can finally escape Jet Fighter testing Major Max. I¡¯m sure the design team will thank me for approving live tests instead of letting you make more extreme modifications to their design.¡± The Colonel added, then left the room.


    That was what Max had been waiting for all week. The X137 was the Chassis that the Tri-Axis Variable Velocity Mass Driver, now officially code-named the Thunder Gun, was supposed to be mounted on.


    That would finally get him back in a Mecha, even if it was simted, and end a week of torture by boredom. Max wasn¡¯t under any illusions that the digital testing of a mecha would be that much more exhrating, but at least it would be a mecha.


    Max decided to make a stop off at the Games Room for a drink, caving to Nico¡¯s insistence that he needed to learn to have fun at some point. Not that she did much of anything, spending half her evenings watching movies with him and the other half of them discussing Mecha design with Uncle Lu.


    Max was in on most of those conversations as well, and the constant thinking about new Mecha was helping to refresh his memories of the Mecha in his past life. From what he could tell, they were much more advanced than the ones that the Kepler Military used, ahead of even the designs that were making it to the testing floor of the Lab, but he was still missing some essential knowledge of his past, and couldn¡¯t seem to find the memories of exactly how they worked or enough of the design details to exin them, running into thest bits of fog in his memory when he tried.


    He had been trying, but the fog simply wouldn¡¯t budge. It also felt different than the other parts of his memory that he had to work to recover like it had been blocked on purpose and not by coincidence. There was a chance that the being that reincarnated him had locked this portion away on purpose, hiding things that it didn¡¯t think Max would need or that would hinder his next life, but some of them, like Mecha Weapons design he would have preferred to have ess to.


    Though maybe that was the point? He had spent centuries in boredom as a Nation¡¯s hero in his past life. What if the Mecha he piloted had something to do with it? If that were the case, he might irrevocably damage his happiness in this life, leaving him in a level of boredom and drudgery even more monotonous than digital design testing for the remainder of his natural life, and that would never do. Once the upgraded Mecha for the next generation of Military deployments was finished he was going to work to get himself reassigned tobat.


    Maybe live fire testing of the new X137 that Uncle Lu had designed for him would be a good enough excuse?

 189 Chapter 189

    Max greeted the next morning with an uncharacteristic wave of enthusiasm, despite the monumental hangover brought about by a night of drinking and gambling at the Games Room. Today, he was scheduled to begin work on the new Heavy Mecha Project X137.


    Though perhaps it would better be called a Super Heavy Mecha, given the size of the weapons that Max had seen prepared for it. He hadn¡¯t seen the design specs on the new Mecha yet, but it had to be a pretty substantial frame if it was going to take the beating of six Battle Cannons rapid firing from its back. He didn¡¯t even know what the Main Armament was supposed to be for it yet.


    Given the estimated size, the Phnx ss main weapons were all going to be viable options, or perhaps the Lab had prepared something unique for it. They did say that they were making progress on the Fusion mer, so the x137 Might be getting close quarters infantry suppression as well as Artillery capabilities.


    ¡°Ready to get back into a Mecha simtor?¡± Nico asked, walking in his door like she owned the ce.


    ¡°More than you could possibly know. The controls on an Orbital fighter are so simplistic I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you could manage them with your [Drone Controller] Ability.¡± Max agreed.


    Nico was looking much more subdued than usual today, wearing one of the oversized hoodie and tights outfits that were popr among the majority of female researchers for the ease with which they could be changed out for work. They weren¡¯t even brightly colored, just a gray hoodie and ck pants. It was a bit odd to see her that way like she was wearing camouge or something.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get a move on, so we can beat the lineup at the entrance,¡± Max told her, grabbing his hoverboard on the way out the door.


    Now that they were settled into a routine, they didn¡¯t race along like they did the first few days, instead, they slowed down some to wave at and catcall friends from work. Many of them catcalled back, envious of the transportation the two Majors brought with them.


    Most of the staff got no warning at all before they were transferred in, so they didn¡¯t bring anything with them other than the standard military kit. The hab dome sold anti-gravity boots that were fairly fast, but more like ice skates, in that they only hovered a meter or less off the ground. So while they could fly down empty streets, they couldn¡¯tpete with the hoverboards for versatility.


    Much to Max¡¯s surprise, a number of workers from the structural designbs were already in line at this entrance today. He knew that a lot of them lived in this zone, but they didn¡¯t have to change before their shift, so they usually showed up at least half an hourter than the Testing Lab workers did.


    ¡°You¡¯re Major Max, right? I¡¯m Lilith, head of the X137 design team.¡± A tall and curvy blonde greeted Max the moment hended at the back of the line.


    ¡°Then it sounds like I will be the first of your digital testers. It¡¯s good to meet you, Lilith.¡± Max answered politely and the woman got an intrigued look on her face that Max wouldn¡¯t quite ce, but he was almost certain that it spelled trouble for him.


    ¡°We¡¯re all from the same team, we came in early today so that we could get a fresh start on the project and not waste half the morning getting set up. Apparently, they changed the design parameters twice in thest month, and the Coding team was going insane trying to get everything that the Structural team demanded to function.¡± A smaller blonde with bright green eyes dered much too happily for the sentiment behind her words.


    She had an aura about her like she just wanted someone to be kind to her. Kind of like a puppy that was meeting new people, and it was impossible for Max not to want to pat her head and tell her she was a good girl.


    That might be very odd to actually do though, given that he was likely five years younger than most of the staff here, but Max was sure he would not have a hard time making friends on this team.


    ¡°I see you¡¯ve met Moonie. Be nice, she¡¯s a fragile little flower, who had never had her blossom picked.¡± One of the other researchers teased, making the smaller woman blush and the rest of the teamugh.


    ¡°No blossom picking until she¡¯s at least 40 years old. We all know our precious little flower is only interested in wholesome things like sma Flux Capacitors and servo actuators.¡± Lilith admonished the team, which only intensified theughter.


    ¡°Wholesome is the true path.¡± Nico agreed, making Moonie giggle.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call your obsession with mecha wholesome though.¡± Max pointed out and Nico just shrugged.


    ¡°You love mecha too? Have you seen the new designs for the new Comor Pattern Fusion sma Reactors?¡± Moonie asked, making Nico smile.


    ¡°They won¡¯t let me y in the reactor design team yet, since I¡¯m still new. I¡¯m on the X109 Fast Attack Crusader project now.¡± Nico rified, making Moonie sigh.


    ¡°That¡¯s a shame. It¡¯s such an amazing breakthrough, but only so many people get to be on the design team. They¡¯re using it in the X137 though, so I managed to get in here, and get my chance to examine it close up.¡± Moonie exined.


    ¡°I¡¯d say to tell me all the juicy details, but we both know that¡¯s not allowed.¡± Nico winked, then stepped forward to check herself into work for the day.


    She hung around to the side for a moment until Lilith got through the checkpoint, then whispered something in her ear before waving and going to the changing room. The tall blonde gave Max an even more intense version of the intrigued look that she had given him the first time they met, and Max began to worry about what Nico had told the woman. It was definitely about him, but the look he was getting was a mixture of yful and something else that he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on.

 190 Chapter 190

    Max changed quickly and got in the elevator to go to the Structural Labs on the floors above him, while Nico took off for the Testing Bays again to work on the new Crusader ss Mecha. He was getting more and more worried about what Nico had said, but he had determined to just ignore it, for now, at least he had until Lilith herself came up to talk to him.


    ¡°That little friend of yours is an interesting one, isn¡¯t she? You might not know it to look at me, but I also have an Alpha Ranked System Compatibility, only my Innate Talent and initial System Talents were all better suited to Lab work than piloting. I can sense emotions through the system, things like happiness, intrigue, and lust. But the only time she showed any sign of emotion was when the conversation turned to weapons designs.¡± Lilith said gently as they rode in the elevator towards their station.


    ¡°She¡¯s always been like that. Ammosexual a lot of the Cadets called it.¡± Maxughed, making Lilith smirk.


    ¡°That¡¯s a good word for it. I thought it might be a side effect of the conversion, but if she has been like that since the Academy, it must not be the case. Such an odd tiny woman. She told me a bit about your circumstances before we parted ways today as well. Don¡¯t worry, if you¡¯re truly interested in our little Moonie, Big Sister Lilith is right here to help you.¡± Thest part was whispered so that the other upants of the lift wouldn¡¯t hear her, and it made Max¡¯s face blush bright red.


    Nico might be the greatest wingman any Pilot could ask for, but did she really need to employ her assistance skills here? He hadn¡¯t done anything to annoy her, had he? Max clearly recalled the amusement that she got by sending debutantes to him during the events surrounding the recruitment of the 43rd Armored.


    ¡°I will keep it in mind, but for now, workes first,¡± Max said politely, then realized that Lilith could sense his emotional fluctuations far better than she could detect the inflection of his voice.


    The team chatted all the way up to theb, and Max learned a lot about this team. They had been together for two years now, and most of the ten were veteran researchers. Moonie had been pulled from an Academy in the Kepler Core worlds early due to her brilliant designs, and so was much younger than most, while Lilith was treated more as the team¡¯s work mom, or Big Sister as she preferred.


    Like Major Payne, back at the Kepler Terminus Academy, her aging had been significantly slowed by the System, and she had been working in top echelon Mecha development for well over forty years now. She had twin boys, who were now long since graduated, and were Piloting Mecha in theary guard on her homeworld, but they hadn¡¯t inherited her System Compatibility, instead getting low Delta Ranked assessments that were passed over during recruitment thanks to their¡¯srge poption.


    Using family rtions as a form of address was strange to Max, but he knew that it wasmon in many worlds. Calling friends brothers or sisters, respected seniors at work Auntie or Uncle. Uncle Lu was a perfect example, as most of the staff called him that way unless there was a good reason to be formal, like a direct assessment of their work. Sister Lilith was the same way, and a pitiful fate awaited anyone foolish enough to refer to her as Auntie. Max considered sticking with Major Lilith, but the habits of the team were quickly wearing off on him, and by the time they had the simtor set up three hours into their shift he had already fallen into the pattern.


    ¡°Simtion is up. Whenever you are ready we can begin initial function checks.¡± Lilith called, bringing Max¡¯s attention away from his coffee and back to work.


    Max booted up the simtion and found himself in a very spacious cockpit, with a familiar control panel, as well as redundant secondary controls of a Comor design that was dropped when they Allied with the Kepler Empire. Max wasn¡¯t fully familiar with them, but they were clearlybeled, so he thought he could figure them out easily enough when the time came.


    The interior was as spartan as would be expected of a Military Mecha, but there was a bunk as well as an abundance of storage behind his seat, and the roof was high, making the interior have more of a feeling of a long-haul transport or a small cargo shuttle.


    [Powering on] Max announced, flipping the switches one after another in the standard power-up sequence.


    If things went wrong at this point, the coders were going to have a very bad day tomorrow, but fortunately, the mecha powered up, and the screens in front of Max came to life, showing the simted view of arge trainingpound, the featureless default area where most alpha testing was done.


    [Let¡¯s begin at the fingers and work our way up the arms first] Lilith informed Max over the inte, and he moved through the joints one by one, making sure everything worked.


    First the left arm, then the right. The Torso swivel, the main sensor pod, then down the hips, checking both legs at once.


    With all the joints functional, it was time to check the Gyroscope programming, which would keep the mecha upright while walking or otherwise bncing on one leg. This is where they ran into the first problem. Max wasn¡¯t sure if it was coding or a hardware issue, but the moment he began to lift a foot, the other one began to sink into the dirt of the testing area.


    The X137 was clearly a Super Heavy Mecha, going by the height Max was looking down on the ground from, even though he couldn¡¯t see much of the outside from his vantage point, so the weight would be over 150 tonnes. Without the anti-gravity ting working correctly it would sink like a rock almost everywhere it went.


    The foot sunk up above the ankle joint, before the dirt below waspacted enough to hold the weight, but that was a definite fail.


    [Weight distribution system shows fully operational, please adjust calibration.] Lilith informed Max, who dutifully reprogrammed the settings to increase the output.


    After a reset of the surroundings to stock, Max attempted to move again and encountered the same result.


    [Confirmed error in Weight Management activation. We will have to abort the movement for now.] Lilith¡¯s voice over the inte in the simtor sounded sad.


    [Try environment setting L18. It¡¯s a volcanic ind, and the ground is sturdy enough to take the weight.] Max suggested.


    [Not a bad idea. Resetting surroundings. Confirmed, begin gyroscopic tests without malfunctioning systems.]


    The Gyroscope programming was so far off that the machine violently lurched and shuddered every time Max tried to move the legs until he eventually had to turn it off and put it into programming mode, while he moved the Mecha on his own.


    That was the advantage of a skilled test pilot, being able to operate without all the usually essential functions, but even when the settings were reprogrammed the system still failed.


    [That¡¯s enough for the day. We will all be writing reports for the rest of our shift, so the night shift can start trying to figure out what is wrong with the gyroscope.] Lilith sighed, beginning the shutdown countdown on the simtion.


    X137 was an incredible Mecha, from what Max could tell, but it needed a lot of work.

 191 Chapter 191

    While Max was working through the frustrations of an all-new Super Heavy Chassis design, Nico was having the time of her life doing the live testing of the X109 Fast Attack Crusader. Built with the angr and humanoid design moremon with Line Mecha, and sporting an incredibly powerful thruster array on its back, it could traverse terrain with incredible speed, moving at hundreds of kilometers an hour.


    Any enemy that saw a wing of these Mechaing at them would be rightly scared out of their wits, once they realized what they were seeing.


    The Mecha was designed for close to medium rangebat, with the new fusion mer on its left arm, and a sword in its right hand, with an experimental disruptor cannon, mounted over its right shoulder. That was the truly fearsome weapon of the group unless you were in a light Mecha, which would be turned to g in an instant by the fusion mer.


    The disruptor wasn¡¯t perfect yet, but they had found that the side effect of disrupting all electrical activity was just as valuable as the intended effect of breaking molecr bonds.


    The weapon was powerful enough to shut down Mecha¡¯s reactors from three hundred meters, while at under a hundred meters, it would most often turn any armor it hit directly to ash. When it hit a biological being at a long distance, the radiation fried their neural systems and overwhelmed the body¡¯s electrical impulses, killing them instantly, with no visible warning. From close range, organic matter simply vanished in a puff of dust and escaping gasses.


    It left no light, no heat, and no noise to indicate that it had been fired, so unless the enemy had a radiation sensor active, they wouldn¡¯t even realize why they were dying.


    In short, Nico was reasonably sure she was in love.


    [If we introduce a wavelength oscition, I¡¯m pretty sure that we can get the pilot, even if it is through the cockpit shielding.] Nico suggested to the Testing team, which only sighed at her sixteenth lethality increase suggestion of the day.


    The problem was that they were all good suggestions, and she usually had some sort of data or algorithm to back them up. The same was true this time, and they added the code for the radiation wavelength oscition to the simtion and ran it again.


    The test started over, with a Line Mecha at five hundred meters, well outside the effective range for the weapon to shut down the reactor or damage the Mecha¡¯s armor.


    The burst hit the mecha, and something that the team did not expect began to happen began to happen. The temperature of the water-based liquids in the cockpit, including the water in the Pilot¡¯s body all instantly spiked to over four hundred degrees Celcius, sh boiling them all to vapor and causing the Pilot themselves to explode.


    Half of the team rushed for the trash can as their breakfast threatened toe back up, while Nico and two of the researchers cheered on the sessful result.


    [Effectiveness still degrades at an exponential rate with distance, but there is hope for it to be lethal against a variety of targets. Moving on to the Crusader ss Tests, and then we can start in on the alien and exotic materials testing.] The team leader announced.


    Uncle Lu, who was watching from his office, raised an eyebrow in interest at this development. He hadn¡¯t thought about trying to find a radiation range that would prate the shielding on the cockpit. They were designed to reject harmful radiation of all sorts, but the Disruptor wasn¡¯t just radiation, it only emitted it as a side effect, and the particle beam itself was what was prating the shielding, and then emitting the radiation from inside the cockpit.


    That meant that more work needed to be done though. If they had a weapon that could prate cockpit shielding, eventually someone would reverse engineer it. If they couldn¡¯t defend against it, the results would be disastrous.


    There was also a moreplex secondary problem. International treaties banned the use of weapons designed to maim or cripple. If this weapon was used in an uncontained manner, it could irradiate a huge area and cause widespread radiation poisoning, which was definitely against the International Convention on War.


    Uncle Lu might not have known Nico too well, but he knew that the idea of using the Disruptor as an area of effect weapon woulde up sooner orter, and he would have to make sure that no such experiments were conducted, so they could never be used of designing a weapon capable of creating a treaty breach.


    In the past, many Mecha reactors had gone critical, before the designs were modified to prevent such catastrophe, and the radiation from them wasn¡¯t considered a treaty breach, because it wasn¡¯t an intended effect of the power generators. If they didn¡¯t test the Disruptor as a dispersed beam, they could im it was an unexpected failure if it happened in the future.


    The Crusader ss tests were a failure until fifty meters or less, as the variedposition of the cockpit shielding stopped the beam well enough to prevent the targeted radiation emissions. That brought a sense of relief to Uncle Lu. A small upgrade to the cockpit shielding on these new Mecha would make their pilots safe from the side effects of friendly fire. If they could effectively shield the power systems as well, it would be possible to use the weapon with friendly Mecha in close contact, instead of treating it like an explosive weapon, not to be used with friendly units near the target.


    Between the X109 and the X137, it felt like every item tested led to two more modifications that needed to be made, but they wereing along well. The Chassis of the X109 was nearly wless, thoughckluster in flight, and the X137 was actually functional by the end of the second week.


    To Max, it felt like an eternity of minute changes and adjustments, but two weeks was an incredibly short period of time to rush a Chassis design to theoretical functionality by Mecha Development standards. Most new designs took a minimum of five years to work out all the bugs, and another five to be ready for the assembly line.


    Uncle Lu had set a goal of six months to get both new Mecha ready for the first rounds of Battlefield Testing. Central Command had dered that the stalemate must end, so they needed something that would change the bnce. Three new designs of Mecha, all with significantly improved capabilities and reduced manufacturing demands might be just the thing to overturn the bnce of power, and not only put down the remaining Nobility Rebellions, but also deal with the Empire¡¯s more hostile neighbors.

 192 Chapter 192

    The Kepler Empire was one of the closest habitable regions to the Gctic core on the south side of the Gctic ne, leaving them one borderrgely free of threats, now that Comor had been brought on board, but they still faced great threats from their immediate neighbors, as well as threats from those further distant, who would cross the no man¡¯snd of the gctic core to look for news and resources.


    To their east sat the Eagle and Trifid Empires, both of them were human territories named after the ancient words for their Home region. Both had formed near a neb, for the abundance of resources, while the Cygnus Empire was named after a ck hole that marked the outward southern border of their territory.


    To the Kepler Empire¡¯s Northwest, at a bit of a distance, but still a significant threat because of the randomness of their violence was a sector of the Klem Territory. An Insectoid species, with a hive mentality, they were nheless just as powerful as a Mecha army and routinely strippeds bare for their own use, then retreated to core hive worlds to feed their Queens and expansion efforts.


    They had settled everywhere in the western region of the Gxy, from close to the northwestern edge of Kepler, all the way out to the Outer Reaches of the gxy. It wasn¡¯t a unified empire, but rather pockets of the species upied by independent Queens, but the threat they posed to the Gxy couldn¡¯t be ignored.


    Southwest of the Kepler Empire, and sharing a border with the western edge of Cygnus, was the Tapani Alliance. Not generally considered a threat, thanks to their history of diplomacy, they still had a significant military presence.


    The Narsians were rumored to have begun their existence in the far north of the Gxy, and shouldn¡¯t have been a threat, except for their wormhole technology that opened portals to habitable worlds for them to invade. They had been found in every empire and sector that Kepler hade in contact with, except for the Death Wind Sector, which imed that the giants had never been brave enough to attack their beloved hive of viiny and Piracy.


    Compared to most of the Gxy, the regions around Kepler were rather sparsely popted, but also highly aggressive. While Kepler had thousands ofs under their jurisdictions, there were Alliances in the Gctic East and North that had dozens of simrly sized Empires in their ranks.


    Central Command envied them sometimes, so safe and insted from threats, with the Fornax, Klem, Narsians, and others not bothering them, and good rtions among their neighbors. But arge portion of the militarymand maintained that it made them weak and that one day they would fall, either from within or from an external enemy tearing their alliance apart with little resistance, thanks to their centuries of peace and technological stagnation.


    It was true that weapons of war were much more advanced in this region of the Gxy, but that wasn¡¯t always the deciding factor. For example, the Tion Fleet was known to build massive vessels renting from a hundred kilometers long to the size of a small moon, serving as wandering homes for their nomadic traders and intergctic explorers. Once, long ago, their army was so mighty that none dared challenge them, and they ruled an entire quadrant of the gxy by default. Then they started expanding out of this gxy, and slowly their influence waned, until they only controlled a small region, but held an immense amount of respect.


    When their world ships arrived in Kepler, they were greeted by everyary Ruler in the immediate vicinity, with full fanfare, despite the fact they were most often only there for a bit of trading and a vacation stop for their residents at a known safe haven.


    The Kepler Empire¡¯s greatest worries right now were the widespread uprisings among the Nobles who thought the Empire had served its purpose, and the Klem, who had befortable in their settlements to the northwest of Kepler and were therefore beginning to run low on resources.


    When the Klem began to run low on resources, they would send waves of pods containing an attack force towards nearby systems, and the ones that survived would bring back what they could gather once the was fully conquered. Infested was the word that the humans all used for the Klem worlds, given their insectoid appearance, and the difficulty of removing them once they had settled in.


    That was thergest reason that Kepler wanted to get stronger in a hurry. If their human and humanoid neighbors kept attacking them, they might not have the resources to defend themselves against the imminent threat of the Klem.


    But simply building up the military wasn¡¯t their only strategy. At the edge of the gxy were a number of uninhabited regions that were known to haves suitable to be terraformed. They were simply too far out, and of no interest to the nearest major forces, so they had never been developed. Central Command had been looking to them as a possible backup n, settlements to be created in a peaceful region where they could retreat if things turned catastrophic for them at home.


    It wasn¡¯t a n for the majority of the popce, but then most of them would be fine no matter what name was on their empire. The same couldn¡¯t be said of the Military leaders and members of the Royal Family.


    Uncle Lu¡¯s timeline of six months was the minimum time that Central Command expected peace with Cygnus tost, as well as the minimum time before the Klem attacks were expected to begin on the furthest outlyings in the Empire. Unfortunately for Uncle Lu, and the people of Comor, their system was one of the closest to the Klem, and unfortunately for Max and Nico, Kepler Terminus was between Comor and the Klem worlds, since it was a frontier at the very edge of the Empire.


    So, the race was on to see whether they could reinforce the military and political situation enough to stabilize the Empire, or whether they would be facing attacks on every side again by the end of the year.

 193 Chapter 193

    Initial testing was going far better than anyone had hoped, thanks to the in-depth analysis of the design teams and the modr nature of the design process. In only two weeks, functional testing on the X109 had finished.


    That meant that the X104, its predecessor that had been designed without the rapid movement thruster pack, was able to be brought back to the testingb, and rebuilt with all the upgrades that the X109 had received.


    The X104 was a direct recement for the Redemption Pattern Crusader ss mecha. Standing fifteen meters tall, it was on par with the height of the Cygnus Reaver pattern Heavy Mecha but lighter and more graceful. This was why it was initially scrapped as the Main Force Mecha; the reductions implemented to reduce material cost made it too fragile for the rigours ofbat, at least in the eyes of Command.


    The introduction of the new Tarith Pattern Void Shield, as the Lab had named the design after Nico who introduced it to them, meant that any heavy or Super Heavy Mecha could now take multiple direct hits without severe damage, so the extrayers of ative armour were no longer necessary, butrger power nts became essential parts of every new Kepler Mecha design.


    Since most of the new weapons also drew an immense amount of power, this was a winning solution for the Comor design teams, who had been hard-pressed to justify their weapon¡¯s power requirements.


    Max had moved into testing the primary weapons of the X137 Super Heavy, a pair of upgraded Ion Bombard Arrays. With fifty percent higher output than the original but keeping the three-barreled design, these weapons were a modern ssic, instantly beloved by everyone who used them.


    Because they were based on such a venerable design, there was very little that could go wrong with them, other than a few power rys that needed to be upgraded, so they didn¡¯t overload during rapid-fire situations.


    The decision was already made that the X137 would be going to live testing at the beginning of next week, once they had the first functional prototype chassis constructed with the final design.


    They had already started building everything but the primary weapons, which were still in testing. Still, programming all the Materials Printers to create the new parts was a monumental task for every new Mecha since the final code would be sent to an entire¡¯s factory facilities for mass production once testing was done, so no errors were allowed.


    Instead of going for a monumental level of shielding, the way that the Phnx ss Mecha did, the X137 had gone with fiveyers of the standard Shielding unit used in the other X series Heavy Mecha. That gave it enough shielding to take sts from other Super Heavy Mecha, but it also reduced the vulnerability to massed Heavy Mecha.


    The iing fire would overload the shield generators one at a time, so unless they could get them all down before the first one came back up, it could weather the firestorm. Units like Shining Darkness had a known weakness where they could be targeted for up to a dozen seconds after the shield had been taken down, though actually getting the shield down in the first ce was not an easy thing to do.


    This also meant that the shield for the X137 could be easily found if the unit was damaged. Every Heavy Mecha in the new lineup used the same one, so they could be scavenged from fallen units when a unit was in need or short on materials. That was a massive benefit over the Ancient design of the existing Phnx ss Mecha¡¯s shielding systems.


    There would also be additional weapons created for the X137, though the initial test run would only offer this single artillery variant. It was the same with the X109 and X104. Though they shared the same basic chassis, each mecha pattern would be built with a single purpose-specificyout. Once they were in the field and fully tested, the patterns could be easily changed, based on the need and the supply of spare parts, as the Military currently did with the Redemption Pattern Crusaders.


    This new level of diversity would be a challenge for some Commanders, who believed that more Heavy Mecha was the answer to everything. The Corvette ss units had proven themselves to be highly lethal well beyond their predecessors, and the new Super Heavy Unit was such a rare addition that most Commanders weren¡¯t even used to trying to factor one into their ns, leaving it mostly to the esteemed Pilots of the Super Heavy Mecha themselves.


    Since they were usually Generals, this actually worked out for the best in most situations but if there were going to be multiple Super Heavy units in a Regiment, it would no longer be practical to elevate them all to Generals and have them be independent Command Assets.


    Despite being purpose-built, the X series was pretty versatile. The X109 Fast Attack and the X104 both had a pair of Chassis mounted pulsesers to defend against infantry and light threats, while the 137 paired four of them with two small missile pods that would fire either fragmentation or smoke charges.


    The extra cover on the battlefield could be offensive or defensive since the smoke contained long-burning metallic sparks that confused heat sensors. You couldn¡¯t see in with conventional sensors, but those in the smoke would also have a hard time seeing out with their sensors, giving an advantage to the Thunder Cannons and their area suppression.


    The singlergest change to the force was the elimination of the Line Mecha. Instead, Uncle Lu intended that they would be reced with the Archangel Pattern exoskeleton suits. The winged and heavily armed version of the [Tech Adept Toolkit] that theb technicians initially didn¡¯t care about.


    With the light shield generators, they were more durable than the old Line Mecha, plus they were faster, just as heavily armed and could fly. Not particrly well, at least notpared to an actual airne, but between the wings and the anti-gravity ting, they could maintain one hundred and fifty kilometers an hour over all terrain, keeping up with the X109.


    The only significant limitation was range. To save on production costs, they ran on sma Cannon power cells. Under optimal conditions, they could go 72 hours without charging, but taking damage would directly reduce that since the shield ran off the same power source as the unit.


    Light weapons fire was no big deal, but a hit with a sma Cannon or other weapon from a Line Mecha would drain ten hours¡¯ worth of charge and temporarily overload the shield. Of course, that same shot could kill or cripple the old pattern Line Mecha, but it was still amonint during testing.


    In the next run of the Comor pattern Corvettes, they were also getting the light shield from the Exoskeleton. The Comor Pattern Corvettes that had been sent to Max and the rest of the units with Noctem Regiment were the first round of live fire tests for the design, and the new shield designs had necessitated a change to the final design.


    The units already in cirction had performed admirably, so they were left in service until the soldiers that were using them came up on their next retirement phase in a few years. The footage collected of the first set of Comor Pattern Corvettes would also confuse the enemy about the capabilities of Kepler¡¯s next-generation units.


    The smaller they thought the improvement was, the heavier the casualties they would take when the final product showed up.


    Even though everyone was disappointed that the exoskeletons weren¡¯t going into full production, Max didn¡¯t fail to notice that the new Archangel Pattern exoskeleton testers, which physically only covered the arms, lower legs and upper back, with a light frame joining the legs to the upper unit, had all been female. How the Corvette ss test pilots managed that was a mystery, but seeing the tight pilot suits flying around the testing area, Max at least understood how the suit got its nickname.

 Chapter 194 Live Testing Begins

    Time seemed to fly that week as Max eagerly anticipated the physical testing of the X137 beginning.


    Data analysis of the System Skills of Crusader ss Pilots showed that under two percent of them should be capable of meeting the eptable standard for individually using the Super Heavy Mecha, which was determined to need a minimum targeting ability to exert simultaneous control of at least three weapons, but preferably five, so that the artillery battery could be individually aimed. For perfect control, nine separate weapons needed to be used at once.


    Simr to the issue that the Phnx ss Mecha ran into, that was too many weapons for almost all pilots, so they added automated defense protocols to the lighter weapons, to deal with nearby threats, while the pilot dealt with the serious ones.


    Still, one in fifty was a lot better than expected and meant that they could easily field an entire wing of them with most mechanized regiments. Most regiments currently didn¡¯t have any Super Heavy Mecha in their numbers, and their presence would be a turning point for many battles, without creating a higher ss of Mecha that would create an arms race.


    The team all looked a little depressed under their excitement when Max arrived at work that Monday. The mecha was ready and standing ready in all its glory, so Max didn¡¯t understand why they were so glum until he overheard that the Archangel Suit had been sent back to the drawing board. Central Command didn¡¯t trust the shield in ce of conventional armor, so it was being relegated to the pile of fun ideas that the top brass didn¡¯t see the genius of.


    Its construction requires under five percent of the materials of a Line Mecha as well, so the project being mothballed was seen as a travesty by the scientists. Uncle Lu was already making new ns for the project though, removing the wings, adding chest armor, and reducing the anti-gravity capability so he could market it as a new armor for Infantry Special Forces.


    The full armor the Special Forces used now was expensive and hard to store, so he thought he might still get the exoskeleton to the battlefield that way.


    That left them one unit type short of a standard deployment, so a Line Mecha recement was in the works. Like the original, it would be bare-bones and basic but would equip light shielding and have better mobility than the old pattern.


    ¡°What do you think, the humanoid or the transport pod on legs?¡± One of the X137 team asked Max, who was filling out a questionnaire for pilots about which design to prioritize.


    She had a point, the second design did look like someone ced an armored hovercar on a Sentinel chassis. The first one was stylized to resemble a warrior inyeredmer armor, with the pilot in a semi-seated position in a cramped torso.


    It might not be the most practical thing he had ever seen, but it was just in cool. Max checked the box for the human design, then looked at thements section and added his personal rmendation.


    [It needs a sword. I rmended not sending them out without a sword.]


    That would be much better in Max¡¯s mind. Even his somewhat unconventionalmon sense knows you can¡¯t make your Mecha look like an ancient warrior and not give it a sword.


    Theyered design was supposed to take more damage before failing and was easy to rece in modr units. At least, that was the Lab¡¯s official position on the reason that design won.


    The size and very human dimensions reminded Max of a Narsianmander instead of a Mecha, though. It was a bit unsettling for someone who had fought against them, but he couldn¡¯t deny theirbat effectiveness. Mimicry was the most sincere form of ttery after all.


    That design would take some time to be ready for testing, so the majority of the design teams were focusing on what was almost prepared, with a n to leave Line Mecha pilots entirely out of the first deployment if they couldn¡¯t get a new design ready. There was still some hope, but Command had rejected every recement for the Line Mecha that theb had sent over the past few years.


    Lamer mecha was very cool but highly likely to get a summary rejection once it met a bureaucrat¡¯s desk.


    ¡°Forget all that. We can still y with the exoskeleton suits ourselves. Let¡¯s get this X137 powered up for the first time and see what we¡¯ve got for glitches and bugs.¡± The head of the live testing unit called out.


    Max could see that they had an audience above them. Sister Lilith, Moonie, and the others from the chassis and weapons design teams were all here to watch as Max brought the X137 to life for the first time.


    ¡°Main power is online. Diagnostic Disys are online. Sensors are active.¡± Max narrated the bootup sequence.


    ¡°Power nt active. Hydraulic pressure in range. Control diagnostic shows no errors.¡± The second step of the startup sequence was now done, and Max waited for theputer to run the scan of the weapon system electronics.


    ¡°All green. X137 reads good to go.¡±


    It was official, the Kepler Empire¡¯s newest Super Heavy was ready for live testing.


    The whole sector of theb stopped working for a moment as the supports were retracted, and the X137 stood under its own power for the first time.


    ¡°Begin testing with arm movement. Right arm up¡± The lead tester ordered, his tone all business despite the festive atmosphere.


    ¡°Arm response is within parameters,¡± Max announced as the limb came up to shoulder height.


    ¡°Lower arm to the default position and repeat with the left.¡±


    Max gave a little wave to the crowd before lowering the limb and repeating the process.


    That upset the humorless researcher more than Max had expected. ¡°Was the wrist motion a system error or a user input error?¡±


    ¡°I have it recorded as an unscheduled dexterity test Lieutenant. Arm motion shows within parameters.¡± Max answered, smirking at the re he was getting from the team leader.


    ¡°I will remind you that this is my test bay, Pilot Max.¡± Lieutenant Bean, the humorless man in charge of this bay almost snarled over the speaker as his teamughed at him.


    Ever since he found out that he was going to be a testing bay leader during thest employee review he had been insufferable, and everyone on the team was about sick of his attitude. Max just thought he needed to lighten up a little and he should be alright.


    Up to fifty percent of employees were shuffled every six months based on their evaluations to encourage productivity. After the bi-annual review, he was in that group, and four months ago he was brought down to practical testing to lead a team whose leader had a poor review.


    It wasn¡¯t going well for him, and he was likely to be shuffled again early, or be demoted from his new leadership position at the next review two months from now.


    Max spent the first half of the day trying not to make life hard on the hapless man as he gave imperious and redundant orders to his team. The bystanders were looking at him with more and more disgust until finally Sister Lilith had enough and stomped into the bay to drag him away for a talk.


    ¡°Break for lunch. It¡¯s only ten minutes early.¡± Max called, as the senior officer in the bay and put the Mecha in standby mode, waiting on his unlock code.


    ¡°Major Max, how about one more lunch with us?¡± Moonie called sweetly as Max climbed out of the Mecha and hopped over to the catwalk. She had a slight blush on her cheeks when she asked, which Max was certain that any man would find hard to resist.


    She was a sweet girl, and Max was going to miss being in her department, so he didn¡¯t even think about turning her offer down.


    ¡°I ordered a full lunch spread to the bay for all the spectators.¡± Sister Lilith announced,ing back out without team leader Bean, but in a much better mood than she had been in a few minutes ago.


    Max had heard that Lieutenant Bean didn¡¯t eat lunch with the team, which was very strange in thisb, and coupled with his attitude, Max decided that it was enough to g him as a suspicious person of interest, with a note that he was a high likelihood for disgruntled employee malfeasance.


    Max would have to do up a full report to justify his suspicions, but something about a scientist who was hostile to his own research team just didn¡¯t seem right to Max.

 Chapter 195 Lunch with Moonie

    The bay was quickly filling with scientists eager to see the new X137 in person. Sister Lilith had ordered more than enough for everyone, which only encouraged more people toe over, and even the sports field-sized bay wasn¡¯t going to be enough to hold them all.


    Max quickly spotted Nico, who was wearing one of the Tech Adept exosuits and gesturing with the whiplike articting limbs as she discussed something. Max was surprised to see that they had given up on the crane-style arms so quickly, and moved to the flexible whips, despite theplexity.


    Nico came over as soon as she saw him, giving Max a fist bump and hugging Moonie with her additional arms, making the shy scientist giggle.


    ¡°After spending so long designing the chassis, I bet Moonie would love a tour, wouldn¡¯t she? Why don¡¯t you two head up there and I will bring you lunch?¡± Nico suggested, and Max could see Sister Lilith wink at him.


    ¡°That sounds like a great idea. What do you think Moonie?¡± Max asked, hoping she would say yes.


    She nodded nervously and blushed, so Max was going to lead her upstairs, but Nico suddenly picked her up with the suit¡¯s extra arms.


    ¡°You can climb. I¡¯ll bring your princess.¡± Nico teased, slowly floating up toward the door using the exoskeleton¡¯s levitation function.


    With a leap to the knee armor, then the left Weapon arm, and a swing to the side cockpit door, Max was up well before they were. This door wasn¡¯t often used by the Pilots, but if you didn¡¯t have a three-meter or greater vertical jump it was annoying to lower thedder so you could use the top exit, meaning that the side door was the entrance of choice for scientists.


    When Max stepped inside to help Moonie he saw that the Mecha was already filled with lunch for two, including drinks and dessert, as well as a tablecloth over the flip-out table and a set of red and white bedding on the bunk.


    The interior lighting had been set to a soft red glow, and there was music ying. Those two were definitely Nico¡¯s doing since Max has locked the systems when he left.


    Though it was designed for one pilot, there was enough room that they had built in someforts, enough for the two of them to sitfortably at the table anyhow.


    ¡°I, um wow this is amazing. I¡¯ve never been inside a real one before.¡± Moonie stammered as Max led her by the hand to the bunk, which was the intended seating position to eat at the table.


    It shifted back to form a couch but had been left in the down position, likely so Sister Lilith or whoever arranged this could make the bed.


    ¡°They really went all out.¡± Max agreed, sliding in next to her and taking the covers off their lunch.


    ¡®Steak and lobster with roast corn? How did they even obtain that at lunchtime?¡¯ Max wondered while Moonie blushed.


    ¡°Sister Lilith went too far. But it looks good, so we shouldn¡¯t waste it.¡± He told her with a smile, and she slowly nodded, while taking in the cockpit.


    ¡°I don¡¯t recall the mood lighting being in the design parameters, plus, this bed definitely isn¡¯t regtion.¡± She blurted, then covered her mouth.


    Max didn¡¯t mean to listen in on her thoughts as she mentally chastised herself for talking about work. Sister Lilith had helped her n for days, but she was so nervous that the first thing she managed to say was about work.


    Max set a hand on her thigh and offered her a bite of food. ¡°Rx, breathe. You¡¯re doing just fine.¡±


    Her thoughts to a definite turn from work-rted matters with the feeling of his hand against her leg, but it did help clear her mind.


    ¡°Have you ever yed 3D Chess?¡± She asked him with an excited expression as they began to eat.


    Max has only ever seen the game advertised. He had never even seen the board in person before, but it looked like a great mental challenge.


    ¡°They preferred shogi in my neighborhood. Maybe you would like to show me how to y sometime?¡± Max asked and her face lit up with enthusiasm.


    ¡°I would enjoy that very much. Nobody else wants to y, but you are amazing at targeting calctions, so you should be really good at chess.¡± Moonie told him with a gleam in her eyes.


    ¡°We could y after our shift is finished unless you have other ns?¡± Max asked, trying to extend this lunch date into something more.


    ¡°I never have ns, we can y all the time.¡± She agreed, and Max briefly wondered if he had gotten himself into more than he could handle. But, listening to her thoughts, she was berating herself again for being socially awkward, not realizing that Max wasn¡¯t much better around women than she was around men.


    When they finished dessert Moonie leaned against Max¡¯s side and sighed with contentment, but her face held a look of concentration as she built up her courage.


    Her thoughts were practically screaming at Max, he couldn¡¯t tune them out even if he wanted to, but Max was thinking the same thing, and it didn¡¯t need more words. cing one hand behind her head, Max leaned in close and ced a deep kiss on her lips, gentlyying them both down on the soft bed.


    Outside the Mecha, the celebration ran well past the standard lunch break before the stricter researchers chased their teams back to work. Then the bay staff had to clean up before the next round of tests to eliminate foreign object debris hazards, but Nico and the test crew for the X104 Heavy Mecha stayed to help, as well as Sister Lilith, though she sent the rest of her team back upstairs.


    Lieutenant Bean had returned by the time the bay was mostly cleaned and was frantically tapping at a data tablet, trying to get the test data back online so that the experiments would be ready to go the instant the bay was prepared.


    [Major Max, are you in the cockpit? The cameras are down and I am locked out of the sensor data.] He demanded, bringing Max¡¯s attention back to his job.


    He ced a finger over Moonie¡¯s lips to remind her to keep silent as they sat up and straightened their rumpled clothes.


    [I am in the Mecha, Lieutenant. Everything checks out at my end.] Max answered while Moonie hid her smirk at the faint marks on his neck and corbone.


    [We can proceed as soon as the bay is clear.] The Lieutenant informed him, and Max looked outside to see everyone from lunch had already left.


    ¡°Have you ever been part of a live test?¡± Max asked, focusing on Moonie¡¯s soft red lips. One extra observer wouldn¡¯t hurt anything, and her team was between projects for the day. It was the perfect excuse to spend a bit more time together.

 Chapter 196 Suspicious Transmission

    They had just started the afternoon¡¯s movement tests when more visitors came to interrupt their day.


    ¡°Lieutenant Bean, kindly pause all testing activity. The servers have logged an unauthorizedmunication from this location and we are required to investigate.¡± A Major from theb¡¯s Military Police directed, apanied by no fewer than twenty other officers, including specialists from the Anti-hacking team.


    ¡°You idiots had better not have been on social media at work.¡± Lieutenant Beanined, and Moonie began to panic.


    Strictly speaking, this wasn¡¯t her workstation and she wasn¡¯t supposed to be in the Mecha during testing. Max didn¡¯t look worried though, so she began to rx a little. Unlike her specialist rank of Lance Corporal, Max was a Major and a Pilot. He could get away with some little breaches of the standard protocol using personal initiative as an excuse. The enlisted personnel didn¡¯t often get that luxury.


    Max opened the side door for Moonie and smoothed out her hair a little before lowering them both down on the chassis winch, gently dropping them to the ground.


    ¡°Come see me tonight with your chess board,¡± Max whispered to her before she scurried over to where Sister Lilith was looking at her with a mixture of motherly pride and understanding.


    ¡°Everyone present, please ce all electronic devices on the counter and empty all pockets.¡± The officers instructed.


    That amounted to wrist devices and a few markers and data tablets since they all checked their outside items into lockers at the start of their shifts.


    One by one, starting with the most suspicious group in the officer¡¯s minds, the two from the Chassis designbs, they went through everyone who was not from this bay, then scanned them all thoroughly a second time.


    Lilith and Moonie were all clear, as were the team from the X104 project, though they spent quite a while doing a diagnostic on Nico, who had internalmunication capabilities.


    Her logs didn¡¯t show anything, and the scan determined that the signal definitely didn¡¯te from her internal transmitter.


    About half of the researchers had an augmentic imnt for either data processing or calctions that the human mind was not great at, and they were all scanned without incident until the officers double-checked Lieutenant Bean.


    He had a data tablet still in his pocket and the officers were not impressed.


    ¡°Hands behind your head, fingersced. Care to exin?¡± The Military Police Major demanded harshly.


    ¡°I just forgot it was in there. It is ab issue tablet.¡± He insisted.


    The officers searched the device, then confiscated it for further inspection. Only Max, Nico, and Moonie got their wrist device back, as they were all standard military issue models and easily searched, the others were gathered for additional inspection.


    ¡°This bay is closed for security investigation. Your continued presence in the security offices may be required at ater time, please don¡¯t leave the secure area.¡± The Military Police team instructed before directing them to the catwalk and out of the bay.


    ¡°There is a break room by the change rooms. We might as well go wait.¡± Nico suggested, leading everyone out of the main testing area, while still wearing the experimental exoskeleton.


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you take that off?¡± One of the members of Max¡¯s team asked.


    ¡°We¡¯re doing long-term usage testing. The four of us are wearing them during our entire shift for the next week. We needed more data on task assistance and interference before making them general issue.¡± Nico exined, pointing toward the other members of her team who had tucked the extra arms tight to their bodies when not in use, while Nico kept two of the six active as extra appendages.


    While Nico preferred the more flexible side limbs, the others seemed to prefer the crane arm that extend from the top for grabbing and holding things in front of them. They had also used the extra appendage to hold their lunch tes and found that it made an excellent improvised table.


    If you loop the flexible arms behind your back you can sitfortably on the couch.¡± Nico suggested, gently settling down on one and grabbing the remote for the television.


    The room had a simple t screen instead of a holoprojector, leaving more space for seating. There wasn¡¯t much to talk about when everyone was suspicious about a traitor in the room, so they all rxed and waited for the next few hours while aedy movie yed in the background.


    One after another, they were called away by security to give a report, but none of the members who were called returned afterward, so the researchers in the waiting room couldn¡¯t get any additional information and just had to suffer the boredom and anticipation.


    Finally, it was Max¡¯s turn and he was brought to a room where Sister Lilith, Moonie, and Nico were already waiting along with Uncle Lu and the Testing Lab security chief.


    ¡°We have cleared you four as non-suspicious, due to video surveince of your locations at the time of the incident. The signal originated from somewhere in theb, but not the Mecha, which clears Major Max and Lance Corporal Moonie. Lilith was on the catwalk at that time, and Major Nico was at the garbage disposal, away from allmunications devices.¡± The head of security informed him.


    ¡°Could it have been a dyed signal? A lot of people were in theb over lunch.¡± Max asked, unsure what sort of signal was sent.


    ¡°We are investigating that now. We gathered you all here to clear you to return to your duties tomorrow. Live testing of the X137 has been transferred to the team under Sister Lilith until further notice. Major Max, you are still the lead test pilot on the project.¡±


    The security officers left and Nico smiled at Uncle Lu. ¡°We¡¯re all cleared because we didn¡¯t have to send anything from theb if we wanted to take the data, right?¡±


    Uncle Lu nodded solemnly. ¡°You all have had full ess to the data, and were mostly unsupervised through the initial testing phases without a breach. The signal was intercepted and never left theb, thanks to our security measures, but it only contained a short video clip of the mecha in motion and a bit of basic data from the morning tests.¡±


    ¡°Wait, how did Nico get ess? She¡¯s not on this project.¡± Max asked, confused.


    ¡°She is working directly with me on the shield generator project, and we had all the new designs open.¡± Uncle Lu shrugged, reminding Max of all the time they spent talking about technical details.


    He was certain neither of them had taken a full night¡¯s sleep since he arrived here, but that didn¡¯t surprise him at all. Those two valued a good night¡¯s rest far less than he did.

 Chapter 197 197 A New Atmosphere

    Once they were dismissed, Max headed back to his apartment to freshen up in hopes that Moonie would still being over to y chess tonight. First a shower, and his best casual clothes, from the casual wear photo shoot for the tournament winners of course, so he didn¡¯t get it wrong, then he cleaned up the few random itemsying around his apartment and set the auto clean to dust everything.


    By the time that was done, Max was starting to get nervous. He had actually invited a girl to his room. A woman who was an actual romantic interest and not Nico, who was more like family in his mind after all they had been through. The feeling of her cool skin against him as he slept was a hard thing to forget though. Cyborgs are veryfortable to sleep beside, at least ones with that new design of the outer shell.


    As though thinking of her had summoned her, Max¡¯s doorbell rang and the security camera showed Nico waving at him happily.


    ¡°I brought you snacks, two premade meals you just need to heat, and a bottle of Comor¡¯s famous wine. Sister Lilith thought you might not be fully prepared, so we covered everything else. I see you did at least clean the ce, that is a good start.¡± She rattled off, cing items in the fridge and cupboard as she talked.


    ¡°The outfit is good, the ce is clean, you have the preparations, do you have a second pillow? A good pillow is essential.¡± Nico teased but actually checked his bed to see if there was a second pillow and if the bed itself was properly made.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think you¡¯re going a bit too far?¡± Max asked, sighing at her antics.


    ¡°Not at all. You two are an adorable couple. You and me, we¡¯ve seen a lot of stuff and killed most of it, but you¡¯re still a green recruit on the battlefield of romance, and so is she. That¡¯s why Sister Lilith and I are doing all we can to help you both get along.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°Like you have so much more experience in that field?¡± Maxughed and Nico just shrugged.


    ¡°Temporarily irrelevant. My System Functions are still in the process of upgrading this new body. that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t have yourself a nice steamy romance with an equally nerdy researcher while you¡¯re on Lab duty. Besides, and I can¡¯t stress this enough, you two are good together, I¡¯ve seen the footage from the Mecha.¡±


    Max frowned at that since he was certain the internal cameras were disabled but chose not to say anything. If it was electronic, Nico could find it.


    ¡°Do you know anything about the signal that was sent from theb? It wasn¡¯t you messing around to set up things for our lunch date, or scrubbing the camera footage was it?¡± Max asked quietly, afraid to hear the answer.


    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t me, though I did manage to trace it back to the source. It came from the tablet in Lieutenant Bean¡¯s pocket, but as far as I can tell, he never essed it. Uncle Lu and the security head both think he was set up and the tablet was remotely essed through a virus that self-deleted. They are going over the device tonight to see what they can find.


    But you can worry about that in the morning, for now, just enjoy yourself and know that the lovely Miss Moonie is not a suspect.¡± Nico blew Max a kiss and left the apartment to head back to her own unit next door, so Max quickly checked the contents of the food Nico had brought and found that there was also a small bagbeled [Clean Clothes for Moonie] on the counter, making him shake his head at her sense of humor, or maybe it was optimism.


    He couldn¡¯t very well offer up snacks or dinner if he had no idea what they were, so Max made sure he had a full inventory of everything that had been brought into his apartment. Nico had brought two vegetablesagne dishes that looked the same, as well as an assortment of chips and some chewy caramel candies, plus some chocte-covered mints that had a sticky note on them, the same ones that the Lab used for basically everything that wasn¡¯t digital.


    [Mints are good for fresh breath when you need it. -Lilith]


    Max crumpled the note and tossed it in the bin before anyone else could see it, and then nervously washed his hands onest time while checking theyout of the room. It wasn¡¯trge, but there were two ces at the table to y chess, so he had that going for him. But she was a Lance Corporal, her room was most likely even smaller than this, since most people spent their time in themon areas, and not in what was basically their bedroom.


    When the bell rang and showed him Moonie standing outside the door, with arge box in her hands, Max rushed over to open it for her, instead of simply calling to unlock it as he did for Nico.


    ¡°I¡¯m d you could make it after all the chaos today.¡± Max greeted her with his best smile.


    ¡°Thanks for inviting me. I¡¯m surprised you chose here to live though, I thought you would be up with the other senior officers and way up at the top like Sister Lilith. I¡¯m almost right above you, three floors up in the Specialists District. Our rooms are really small, so I don¡¯t even have a proper table, the bed folds up against the wall to set the table up.¡± Moonie exined.


    Max had seen those units before, they had them all over the neighborhood he grew up in. They were the cheapest of options, intended for bachelors, but were mostly rented by couples trying to save money to either pay off debts or feed addictions. His own parents had previously lived in one but had been forced to move when his mother got pregnant, as the suites didn¡¯t allow children.


    Moonie set the game up on the table and activated the holoprojector before taking off her coat, showing off a delicate and heavily freckled corbone above her light gray bodycon dress. The hab domes were temperature controlled, so jackets weren¡¯t really a necessity, more of a fashion choice for soldiers that were used to wearing them as part of the uniform.


    ¡°You look lovely tonight,¡± Max told her, taking a seat across from the blushing researcher and admiring her past the chess board.


    ¡°Thank you, Sister Lilith bought it for me, she said it would bring me luck.¡± Moonie smiled, but Max could see her thoughts. What Lilith had said wasn¡¯t to wear it for luck, but to help her get lucky, which had almost made Moonie refuse the form-fitting garment.


    ¡°Okay, so here are the basic rules to the game.¡± Moonie began, honestly excited to y chess, which brought Max¡¯s attention back to the task at hand. Since he could read her thoughts, the game shouldn¡¯t be too hard to pick up on, or so he hoped.

 Chapter 198 198 A New Atmosphere Pt2

    Max woke up the following day to the sound of the shower running and the doorbell ringing. Looking at his watch, he had seven minutes to be at work if he wasn¡¯t going to bete, so he hurried to throw his pants on before unlocking the door for Nico.


    ¡°Get a move on, you two. You will have to give Moonie a ride, or you will both bete.¡± Nicoughed, hearing the shower running, then left and closed the door behind her.


    Max realized that he should have set an earlier rm since he usually showered at work in the change rooms, but Moonie was used to getting ready at home since she had been working in the upstairsbs, and her job didn¡¯t require a change of clothing.


    ¡°I heard her. I will be out in a second. You won¡¯t get in trouble foring to work without a shower, will you?¡± Moonie called as the shower cut off.


    ¡°No, I need to change into one of the Pilot Suits every day, so I shower there. It¡¯s easier, and you count as clocked in before you enter the shower rooms.¡± Max called back while Moonie came out in one of his shirts that he left hanging in the bathroom.


    ¡°I, um, I may have forgotten to bring a change of clothes.¡± Moonie stammered when she realized her mistake.


    Max walked to the counter and picked up the small bag, handing it over to her. ¡°Either Nico or Sister Lilith thought of that, and they sent this over yesterday before you arrived.¡±


    Moonie just smiled and opened the bag, which contained another simple dress, a hooded andfortable-looking item that had corsetces at the sides, as well as clean underwear. There were even a pair of slip-on ts in there. They really had thought of everything.


    ¡°When I first arrived, I didn¡¯t understand casual clothing. I was raised at the Military Academy since my parents were deemed unfit, so I had never worn anything but a uniform. For the first six months, Sister Lilith dressed me every morning.¡± Moonie smiled, dropping the shirt and sliding the dress over her head.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t that bad, but since I grew up on the downside, I wasn¡¯t good at casual clothing that would suit the station. Nico helps me when I¡¯m in a jam, but her own fashion sense is questionable.¡± Max consoled her since she was looking embarrassed again.


    ¡°She dresses like a Reaver for sure.¡± Moonieughed.


    Once he heard the word, Max knew where he had seen Nico¡¯s fashion before. There were trading ships on the Kepler 142 Station, her family¡¯s homeworld, that dressed that way. From what he remembered, they were basically mercenaries, selling whatever goods they could get to trade, as well as theirbat services all over the neutral territories and toary governments with problems that they didn¡¯t want to involve the Military in.


    There had been talks many times over the years to have them dered a criminal organization, but so many people used their services that the motion never actually made it to the Emperor, and none of the Emperors had ever taken it upon themselves to do anything about the situation. In fact, the Reavers were said to have been formed as a private army by one of the early Emperors before the Military was as strong as it is now.


    Max would have to ask her about itter and see what her thoughts revealed. He already knew that the Tarith Family was no ordinary family, given how everyone knew them, even the Cygnus leadership, but the topic of exactly how that happened never really came up, so all Max really knew of her family history was the final battle that ended their leadership of the Kepler 142, where they held off an invading army alone for an entire year and a day until reinforcements arrived to rescue them.


    Since Moonie was now dressed, Max straightened his clothes and grabbed the hoverboard.


    ¡°I hope you¡¯re not afraid of heights. We are going to be in a bit of a rush today to get to work on time.¡± He teased, leading her out of the apartment.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never actually ridden one before, but I¡¯ve seen youing to work on it before, and it is really fast. We should make it with 42 seconds left if the line is at statistical average.¡± Moonie agreed, holding out her arms so he could pick her up.


    The board was only big enough for one set of feet but had more than enough power to support the weight of two people, though his top speed and height would suffer for it. Not so much that he couldn¡¯t still hover above the buildings, but not the usual breakneck pace that they set on the way to work, enjoying the wind on their faces.


    The line was almost gone today, and Moonie cheered at the fact they would be on time for work, climbing down from Max¡¯s side when hended at the doors amidst a round of whistles and jokes about loverboy showing off for his girl.


    ¡°Just on time today, Major Max. The Colonel is in the change room waiting for you to arrive.¡± The gate guard informed him as they checked in for the day.


    ¡°See you at the bay then,¡± Moonie called, running away, with her hood bouncing on her shoulders.


    ¡°You pretty boys get all the luck. It¡¯s not fair, I tell you, save some of the pretty ones for the rest of us.¡± One of the other pilots joked as Max entered the locker room.


    ¡°You could try hitting on Major Nico. She¡¯s pretty cute too,¡± Max suggested, making the other pilots, as well as the Colonel, allugh.


    ¡°No encouraging the Pilots to take on suicide missions, Major.¡± Colonel Noor told him in a serious voice that only made the other pilotsugh harder.


    ¡°It seems you are already aware of the change in the testing team for the X137, so that saves me a lot of time this morning. But that isn¡¯t important enough to bring me in person. The x137 will require one hundred percent uptime, so alternate cockpit configurations for a second upant will be tested along with the Mecha. Keep notes on potential long-termfort and interference issues, as well as storage issues for an extended deployment with two individuals.¡± The Colonel informed him.


    That wasn¡¯t a surprise to anyone. Ever since the System came into effect, that has been the primary reason almost all Super Heavy units that get deployed still have two pilots instead of one very skilled one.


    ¡°Will the second person be a Pilot as well?¡± Max asked for rity, so he knew what would be needed.


    ¡°The second upant is intended to be a technician with Piloting skills. They will not be the primarybat force, but an onboard repair staff is believed to have the potential to keep the Mecha running more reliably inbat than the current two pilot setup.¡± Colonel Noor informed him.


    ¡°Thank you, Colonel. I think I know exactly what we will need for the testing then. Technicians will require tool storage, where a Pilot wouldn¡¯t, as well as somewhere to ce recement parts, or raw materials and a printer.¡± Max answered with a fist to the chest Kepler salute.


    ¡°Good, you get the issue that we are facing. I expect a full report on my desk at the end of the week. New cockpit designs will begin digital testing this afternoon, with physical tests in the morning.

 Chapter 199 Cockpit Design Needs Work

    Max hurried into his work clothes, another variant of the tight Pilot Suit that the Comor designers favor, and headed for the bay to begin today¡¯s tests.


    After climbing into the cockpit with a wave at the testing staff, Max found Sister Lilith waiting for him, with a smirk that promised that she intended to get every juicy detail of yesterday¡¯s date night.


    ¡°I will be your assigned technician today. I have the most practical experience with Mecha repair, so it made the most sense. This design clearly isn¡¯t going to work, it doesn¡¯t even have a second seat with restraints, and the bed isn¡¯t secure enough for the second seat during heavybat.


    The storage is good for two pilots, but not enough for tools if I¡¯m going to actually aplish anything. But there is a small maintenance room below us with reactor ess. We could put the tools there. If we can get a small materials printer to make repairs on damaged parts that could work since the reactor room has ess to most of the internal structure.


    The biggest issue will be getting the parts removed and brought to it.¡± Lilith finished her speech and looked around for more ws in the design.


    ¡°If we equip the tech with the new Exoskeleton they can take care of most of the repairs in ce if we have some raw materials. It can weld, bend pushrods straight, plus print seals for the hydraulics and boards for the electronics. We will just need enough material for it to work with.


    Clearly, we can¡¯t really keep extra armor tes on board, unless we strap them to the outside somewhere, but with a supply of materials, you should be able to keep the Mecha running. I will introduce damages during this afternoon¡¯s virtual testing and you can check the feasibility of ess and repairs during service.¡± Max agreed, trying to think of a better solution.


    With the shielding they shouldn¡¯t need armor repairs too often, usually, weapon repairs are the priority for Super Heavy Mecha and the armor is an afterthought that is taken care of when there is time.


    Lilith sent for a seat harness to be sent up right away, rectifying the oversight so she could strap herself in properly with the bed folded into the couch formation. It took minor modifications, but this cockpit design was going to be pulled in a few days anyhow to live-test the next version.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t bad. It is secure, I can see the diagnostic Disys and reach the main circuit board in case of overload. Not a bad location for the technician.¡± Lilith noted it out loud, recording the observations on her tablet.


    ¡°A second bunk might be a good idea for long idle times. But it would interfere with the storage above you.¡± Max added.


    ¡°Yes, for a standard assignment pair, the second bunk would be essential, we will have to work on the storage. Though it might not be necessary for all units. Thebination of yours and Moonie¡¯s shampoo on the cushions is a nicebination. I wonder how they got so mingled?¡±


    Max did his best to ignore Sister Lilith¡¯s teasing. Let her guess all she wanted, he wasn¡¯t giving away any secrets.


    ¡°If we scrap that entertainment station, we can put a load of extra storage next to the food preparation station. Maybe swap it out for a roll screen, so it is avable when needed but doesn¡¯t use up space? This design of the cockpit is more Naval Fleet Officer than cramped Mecha quarters anyhow.¡± Max suggested.


    Lilith got to work designing while the team led Max through a series of movement and pose tests to check design interactions at extreme angles.


    Digital design, which this team was originally in charge of, caught most things, but the chance of chafing or pinch points for lines and flexible parts still needed to be verified after assembly.


    They had already found two Hydraulic lines that could possibly flip around and get caught on other parts, one under each arm, that the digital design didn¡¯t predict.


    ¡°This Mecha has a much better range of motion than the old Phnx did. It couldn¡¯t aim straight up because of the design, but this one can even shoot backward over the shoulder, it is a very impressive structure.¡± Maxmended the X137 as they finished the morning tests and Lilith sent off the proposed cockpit changes for the baseputer to render into a virtual reality simtion to test after lunch.


    The team all gave Max a knowing look when Moonie sat next to him at lunch, and finally, Sister Lilith couldn¡¯t hold her curiosity in anymore.


    ¡°So, we all know you two had a great night, but have you made it official?¡± Lilith asked.


    ¡°What makes you think things went that far?¡± Moonie asked, clueless as to why everyone was teasing her so much today. None of them had seen her arrive with Max.


    ¡°You use a citrus body lotion and floral perfume. Max uses a coconut lotion and no cologne, plus he uses the standard scent officer¡¯s shampoo, while yours is minty.¡± One of the other members pointed out.


    Max was impressed, and a bit disturbed that he knew the scent of his coworker so well. The man must have caught the look Max was giving him because he hurried to make himself understood.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, we work at adjacentputers all day, I am not into something weird.¡± He defended himself.


    ¡°That really didn¡¯t make it sound any less creepy. But he¡¯s right, Moonie always smells good, but today she smells like you. Not that you smell bad, but you don¡¯t smell like Moonie.¡± One of the female researchers, a tall brte with short hair, agreed.


    ¡°I told you, Sandi, we yed chess until veryte and I slept over,¡± Moonie said shyly, and Max gave her a one-armed side hug.


    ¡°Enough picking on Moonie. Did we find everything today, or should we begin tomorrow with a repeat of the movement tests?¡± Max asked, changing the topic.


    ¡°We had to make a couple of changes. Let the night shift do the physical updates, and we will check them in the morning to make sure we didn¡¯t introduce any new problems.¡± Sandi, the short-haired brte told him.


    ¡°Well then let¡¯s get a cockpit design for them to work on as well. Can¡¯t let them ck because we couldn¡¯t make a decision.¡± Lilith dered, getting up from the table and cleaning up her lunch tray.

 Chapter 200 200 Cockpit Design Pt2

    After lunch, they all headed to the couches in the testing room to enter the virtual reality simtion for the cockpit testing. They were just simple virtual reality headsets, but it was good enough to do the modifications to the design that were needed at this stage.


    This setup would allow them to modify the interior, as well as add and remove standard items to make the design more user-friendly. Fortunately, they had a variety of body sizes in the team, so they wouldn¡¯t need to call anyone else in for the user function verifications, which would save them a lot of time between finishing the digital design and getting the physical prototype made.


    The simtion was just the cockpit and internal structure area of the Mecha, as well as the structure of the pod that it mounted in, including shielding and the finalyers of ative armor. Unlike Cygnus which used ejection pods, the cockpits of the Kepler Super Heavies were a ck box, intended not to be breached, even if the Mecha was destroyed.


    Max was a fan of the ejection method, though he did realize that there were many drawbacks to being helpless in a small pod that could be buried in rubble or carried away by enemies, instead of being trapped in hundreds of tons of disabled Mecha.


    They helped the Pilots survive, especially in a space battle, but at the same time, they were often hard to track, and there were known instances where they were lost entirely after a battle, with neither side iming recovery of the Pilot inside.


    With Lilith at his side, Max tested out the cockpit ergonomics, adding every conceivable tool, spare part, and an excessive amount of personal gear to the storage, modifying and shifting it until they could easily store and ess everything within the confines of the space they had.


    Building storage into the upper folding bunk turned out to be the winning recipe for thest of their storage needs, being used for items that needed to be essed in a hurry, including the medical kit, the diagnostic tablets, and the two upants¡¯ emergency sidearms and survival kits.


    They always took up arge amount of valuable space, since they needed to be essible in seconds, but there wasn¡¯t usually a good space for them. Increasing the thickness of the upper bunk a little let them be ced out of the way, and made them even faster to grab in an emergency.


    Nothing was left unmodified. Even theyout of the standardized headpartment, with its vacuum toilet and an overhead shower, was reworked.


    ¡°What does everyone think? I know you were working on the upgrades to the armor to deal with Disruptor weapons, but head inside in pairs and tell me if you find anything awkward or inconvenient.¡± Sister Lilith instructed, sending her team in one after another.


    This led to a short argument and another minor redesign. The food preparation station was made modr, so the user could switch the locations around after it was pointed out that a left-handed user had a hard time using the coffee pot in the position by the back wall.


    The removable canisters for the spare raw materials to be used for repairs were a big hit with everyone, and they fit into the standard maintenance cart, so nothing on a ship¡¯s inventory needed to be modified to work with the new mecha, other than the hangar bay securements.


    [Nico, where did you put the auxiliary sidearms on the X109 Fast Attack Mecha.] Max asked when concern about the overhead locker being thrown open by impact and dropping a rifle on someone¡¯s head was raised.


    [Two rifles in the back of the seat and a pistol under the control module by the right knee.] Nico responded, and Max took a moment to consider if they might have gone too light on the firepower. Nico had as much firepower for one person as they did for two.


    ¡°Hey, Lilith, pull up the Pilot seat from the X109. I heard they redesigned it for weapons storage, so we can make the bunk storage less critical, and maybe open from the top under the mattress.¡± Max suggested since he didn¡¯t know where the file would be found in the server mainframe.


    The two models were nearly the same, but one had an opening back te, which stored a pair of rifles, a small water tank, and a week¡¯s rations. Once they switched out both forward seats for this model, they now had enough storage to keep the pilots provisioned in the case of extended breakdown. Part of the insert could even be pulled out, making a small backpack full of water and food.


    ¡°Now I understand why they were so upset with her in the design team. This seat is a great improvement, but making it soplex had to be a nightmare for the team.¡± Lilith smiled, reaching for the coffee pot before realizing they were in the simtion and there was no actual coffee avable.


    ¡°Should we fix the bunk and send this to mockup for physical construction?¡± Max asked while considering what the bunk could be used for now.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we make it arge open cab, essible from the top? It could hold formal uniforms or function outfits t, or extra rations and provisions.¡± Lilith suggested.


    ¡°We have so much stuff in the lockers now, there¡¯s no need for more clothing storage. But something to hold more food and drink, then put an assistance ram on the bunk to offset the expected extra weight.¡± Max decided, letting Lilith redesign the upper bunk.


    By the time they finished, the others had modified the armor to be sufficiently improved that they would feel confident if they were the ones in the Mecha on the front lines. That was the standard Uncle Lu insisted on, and they weren¡¯t sure that he wouldn¡¯t actually send them to find out in person if there wereints about the Mecha being subpar.


    The design was incredibly rushed though, so everyone was sure that despite their best intentions there would be issues once it hitbat and battle damage was introduced.


    That reminded Lilith that she wanted to test the Tech Adept skeleton on simted internal damages, to check the level of ess that was avable without going outside the Mecha. If it was a limb, there was no other choice, but a torso, hip, or shoulder joint should be repairable, as well as most of the main wiring loom and hydraulic system.


    The flexible whip arms turned out to be much more versatile than expected. The small maniption arm and material welder could reach all the way to the elbow joint to repair damages, using the ess holes for the wiring and hydraulics. With that level of ess, they could even get at the backside of most of the weapons, so small repairs like a blown capacitor could most likely be done without leaving the Mecha, keeping the technician much safer.


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ve done what we can for the day. Let¡¯s get this sent off for finalization ande back tomorrow.¡± Sister Lilith dered, booting everyone out of the simtion before she sent it away to be someone else¡¯s problem for the night.

 Chapter 201 Aboard Abraham Kepler

    While the staff at the Lab was working to get the new Mecha designs finished, far above them, docked to maintenance station three, Abraham Kepler, the President ss transport was getting the mostprehensive overhaul that the crew had ever heard of.


    Firstly, the warp drive was being fully upgraded and not just refueled, with the intent to increase the ship¡¯s maximum speed by over fifty percent to make it a more efficient first response vessel. Secondly, the entire crew quarters and every hangar bay needed refurbishment after the damages and hasty patches during the Scavenger attack.


    Every bulkhead, every floor te, and every electrical connection was checked, verified, and resealed.


    On top of that, all new mecha repair gantries were being installed for the new mecha contingent that was going to be boarding in a few months. They weren¡¯t the same pattern as the previous gantries, and there were no Mecha currently on board to test them against, but they looked to be just as functional.


    There was only one odd part about them. A number of them seemed to be for Super Heavy Mecha when they already had General Tennant and the Shining Darkness in residence.


    The venerable Mecha had been moved to the station during the refurbishment efforts, but the crew listing still showed it as being stationed aboard Abraham Kepler.


    Corporal Fritz was in charge of the refurbishment of the final threeunch bays at the rear of the ship, a high honor that indicated to everyone around him that he was likely to be promoted to Sergeant as soon as this refurbishment was over.


    The men who worked with him all respected him, and he was excellent at his job, but that had been his downfall. He was simply too good at diagnosing and repairing Mecha, so Command had held off on his promotion, sticking him at Lance Corporal, with an Engineering Specialty, for most of a decade.


    That didn¡¯t really bother Fritz though. He enjoyed his job, and the people he met while doing it.


    This final bay was an unusual one for Abraham Kepler. The ship had many otherunch bays for orbital insertion fighters, but this one was the only one in Corporal Fritz¡¯s assignment. They wanted it changed out tounch a new pattern of fighter, which was nothing unusual, they changed them all the time, depending on what enemy they expected a mission to be meeting, but this time they wanted the refurbishment to include fifty VR pods in what used to be a crew ready room.


    That made the Corporal think that this might be thest hoorah for the high casualty attack nes and that the storage racks were going to be only for emergencies. Normally all the pilots would assemble in this room, updating their wills and leaving messages for loved ones beforeunch, so if this room was being eliminated, there was a good chance that the pilots were as well.


    They might only fight for a few hours of every deployment, but it wasn¡¯t unusual for them to lose a quarter or more of their numbers every time they were deployed. Some ships even went as far as recruiting prisoners or using soldiers on punishment detail to pilot the fighters when they were needed.


    At least they had approved a color change for the hangar bay. It used to be a dull gray-green, but now it was a sky blue with white ents, making it feel a bit less miserable to be hanging out in the hangars all day. Less like an enormous warehouse, more like he was outdoors.


    Because they were in the middle of a refurbishment and not on vacation like the Pilots and infantry were, Corporal Fritz hadn¡¯t had the chance to see the real sky above him in over a year now, and likely wouldn¡¯t for at least one more, unless they got this refurbishment finished ahead of schedule and earned a few days down on the below them.


    ¡°Fritz, we¡¯ve got the next round of directions in from the design crew. They say that the structural team has finished the work on the hallways between our bays, and we can close them off toplete the painting and install the new floors.¡± One of his team members called out, pulling Fritz away from his thoughts about the future of the Orbital Insertion fighter teams.


    The VR pods weren¡¯t here yet anyhow, so there was no point in worrying about them, only about painting the room to put them in.


    While Fritz worked to get the ship ready, General Tennant was working to keep the crew in the dark about the nature of the changes that were being made. Everything was done in modules, and the crews were carefully segregated by sections of the ship deemed in need of structural repair.


    That had kept the crew locked aboard the ship for over a month already, but the major overhauls were nearly done, and they were mostly waiting on the final bits of crewfort, as well as the final work to be done on the faster-than-light engines.


    So far, it was clear that none of the teams working the bays had realized that the whole ship was being converted for a new pattern of Mecha, or that there were going to be a rather astounding number of Super Heavy Mecha aboard it. Having just two of them on board for thest few missions had raised gossip and spread rumors among the crew, rumors that themunications teams had to work hard to keep from being spread to friends and family of those aboard, for security reasons.


    They had been working hard to iste all chances of breach and betrayal before they could set out, and at his suggestion, they had even gone as far as having the manufacturing moved from the closest fews here in the Comor System, to mostly uninhabited outposts a few star systems away.


    Since there were only factories on the and no civilian poption, they were ideal for a secret run-up of new designs, and the losses would be minimal if they were discovered and Command had to scuttle the nt to keep the technology out of enemy hands.

 Chapter 202 Call The Boss

    The next morning brought a freshly built cockpit mockup from the night shift, installed in the prototype of the X137 and ready to go the moment that Max and the team walked into the bay.


    It had everything that they had requested, including the upgraded shielding and the new design seats, they had even put removable dividers into the under-bunk storage to keep items from shifting around while in motion, a small detail that Max and the team had overlooked, and one that wouldn¡¯t have caused anything worse than an annoying rattle as items shifted.


    ¡°Power it up and make sure that everything works. We had to change a lot of the electrical routing to make the packaging work withoutpromising the integrity of the shielding around the cockpit pod.¡± The head of the night shift, who stayed behind to meet them this morning, instructed with a smile, already knowing that it should work.


    They didn¡¯t have a test pilot on the night shift, but they could at least power the unit up and do a diagnostic on it.


    Most other projects had Pilots on every shift, but the X137 was a bit of an outlier. They didn¡¯t have any more Pilots qualified to Pilot it other than Majors Max and Nico, so all the testing was done on the day shift.


    They spent two hours going through every ry and possible motion configuration to make sure there were no more issues before Sister Lilith dered that the Mecha was fully functional. That meant that they could call Uncle Lu here, and see if they could get approval to walk it to the test firing facility, where they could unleash the weapons for their final check and clear the design aspleted.


    Both of the Crusader ss recements for the Redemption Pattern Mecha had already undergone this stage more than once, due to design modifications, but this would be the first time the Lab had actually sent a Super Heavy to the bay. It was a cause for celebration if the Base Commander would approve it, and Uncle Lu did love approving live testing of his new designs.


    It didn¡¯t take long before the man himself was at their bay to verify their results and get ready to formally move the Mecha to the live fire bays. They were on the same floor, but in a contained area near the edge of the facility, so that any idents wouldn¡¯t cause serious damage to the rest of the hab dome facility.


    ¡°Since we have a qualified Pilot already in the Mecha, why don¡¯t we skip the transport rack and let the testing bays see just how well you all did?¡± Uncle Lu suggested, signing off on the change of location paperwork that Lilith had sent him.


    In Max¡¯s mind that would be the best possible option. The ground floor between bays was strictly off limits to all pedestrian traffic, thanks to the number of Mecha and forklifts that traveled between bays, bringing materials and taking away failed experiments, so there wouldn¡¯t be a fear of stepping on anyone while he walked across the city.


    It would be loud, even with the noise canceling, but Max could minimize that with good control of the Gravity tes and a smooth walking motion.


    ¡°Pilot Max, please be ready to begin the movement in 1 minute. Directions for the route are being sent now, please maintain the indicated pace.¡± Sister Lilith instructed, reminding Max that all movement between bays was monitored, with much of it being automated, so maintaining the correct speed prevented collisions and traffic jams.


    Max moved out, carefully following the directions, as every tester in the area came to watch from the catwalks. The X137 was the pride and joy of their Lab, the first new Super Heavy Mecha that the Kepler Military had approved in nearly a century of warfare. Sure, they had issued hundreds of upgrades over time, but the basic designs had been the same for most of the Empire¡¯s history.


    With its release, they could soon be considered technologically on par with the greatest of Militaries in the Gxy, and not an Empire holding on by sheer perseverance.


    It was not an easy task to improve on the existing designs, like many truly ingenious things, they were simply better than anything that had been intended to rece them, enduring through time well beyond their intended lifespan. Many had joked over the years that Kepler¡¯s Mecha was the rubber tire of the war machine industry. The rubber tire, in various incarnations, due toary differences in nt life, had been around for millennia, and it still wasmonly used on many worlds for everything from children¡¯s toys to light industrial equipment.


    There simply wasn¡¯t anything that could rece it and not be cost-prohibitive in regions without easy ess to the higher end of technology, like many agricultural worlds thatcked the rare resources to replicate anti-gravity ting locally.


    Max had learned from some Pilots who had grown up in such worlds that themon person believed that if they were intended to float through the air, they would have been born with wings. The rich could fly all they wanted, but the ground was where humanity truly belonged.


    That belief led to the idolization of the Mecha. Huge and stompy, firmly grounded on the earth the way a proper human should be, they were a symbol of might and hope to the masses. Even on worlds as advanced as Kepler Terminus, where wheeled vehicles were all but unheard of, Max felt that belief on a personal level.


    The poor walked, and the rich floated along in their hovercars. That was how it was, and the Mecha were seen as hope for a better future, even at the risk of one¡¯s own life.


    Max precisely followed the route as he was lost in his memories, watching the crowd cheer on the mightiest addition to the Kepler Military. Word had already spread that the design was approved for construction, they just had to finish the final tweaks so that the factories could begin their work.


    For the bureaucracy of the Kepler Empire, that was astounding. Too astounding in fact. Enough that Max suspected that this decision hade straight from the Emperor to Central Command and had been decreed to Uncle Lu before the design was even put through testing.


    ¡°There would be a new Super Heavy, and it would be better than the original, or else.¡± That was how Max imagined the conversation went. But they had done it, the X137 was moving on its own to go test an all-new weapons suite. Onest test and the factories would be hard at work.

 Chapter 203 Live Fire

    ¡°The Vault¡± as the testing facility was known, loomed in front of Max when his nned route ended. an enormous door, the height of the entire level, and twenty meters thick stood in front of him in shining metallic glory, open and waiting for his arrival.


    [X137 Please step to the Blue Line to begin testing the Main Ion Bombard Arrays.] Came the voice of Sister Lilith over the inte, shaking with excitement.


    Her team wasn¡¯t involved in that part of the development, so she had never seen the new design in action, even in a simtion. This was a big moment for her and the team.


    The Blue Line was the closest to the door, giving the weapons the maximum range of 800 meters to the far wall where a thick armored target was set up to take the full fury of his sts. It was covered in dozens ofyers of energy shielding, so it didn¡¯t need to be reced every time it was used, and Max could only wish such a thing was practical for a Mecha.


    Unfortunately, the power requirements were too much for even a reactor as mighty as the X137 carried and needed one intended to power an entire major city to keep them online. This was a modified design of the Orbital Strike Defenses that all major cities had, but used on a much smaller area. The chance of a Mecha unleashing something more terrifying than the Orbital Lance of the Fleet¡¯s Destroyers and President ss transport ships wasughable, so Max had full confidence in unleashing the full fury of the new weapons in this room.


    ¡°Single Shot, Maximum output strike with the right arm.¡± Sister Lilith directed, and Max triggered the blinding white light of the Ion Bombard Array to crash into the target.


    ¡°Excellent results. Now, left arm.¡±


    ¡°All six barrels at once.¡±


    ¡°Rapid Fire, cyclic pulses.¡±


    The Ion Bombard Arrays were put through their paces, including heat retention and power draw tests that saw them put on rapid fire mode for a straight minute to ensure that they had a level of stability that the original versioncked. That was mostly due to power output though. The X137 had a muchrger reactor than even the Shining Darkness, which was set up specifically for Energy Attacks.


    ¡°Align the Thunder Gun, we will start with all three barrels on single shot mode,¡± Lilith instructed.


    Hundreds of people were observing and there were ten team members, they had more than enough manpower to analyze all three guns at once, so she might as well put on a show for the crowd. Within test scenario regtions of course.


    All three guns barked out their crackling report as the Mass Drivers pushed their shells toward the target. The speed was lower than usual since the distance was short and speed wasn¡¯t necessary, but all three rounds hit the target millimeters apart.


    ¡°Excellent synchronization. Repeat the test with maximum velocity.¡± Lilith instructed and the guns barked again, except this time with a heavy boom of the sound barrier being broken by threerge projectiles.


    With that sort of speed, the X137 would have no problem lobbing projectiles over the horizon, making it a suitable recement for the standard artillery battery that the Infantry units currently deployed.


    ¡°Maximum Rate of Fire, staggered intervals at maximum velocity. The design team is eager to hear the thunder in person.¡± This time the voice belonged to Uncle Lu, who was just as eager as the weapons team to hear the sound in person and not in a simtion.


    The two should theoretically be identical, but he had always felt that the simtion wascking something visceral. A feeling that only the real world could provide, no matter how well simted the sound and shockwaves were.


    The observers were all in a separate room, thickly armored and isted from the worst of the effects of the live fireb, but Max was pretty sure that this would get their hearts pumping like the bass line of a dance club.


    At two hundred and forty beats a minute, the rhythm of the Thunder Guns made the air inside the live fireb shake, and even the instion of the cockpit couldn¡¯t keep the changes in air pressure from the vibration from affecting Max.


    It wouldn¡¯t hurt him, his System had made him far too durable for that, but he could see it giving lower-ranked technicians a severe headache with prolonged fire.


    Max added it to his notes and let the guns fire for the entire minute of the test, running the test munitions dry at the end.


    ¡°Munitions spent,¡± Max reported, and the sound of pping came over the radio as the scientists celebrated.


    As Uncle Lu had expected, the tests were wless. Virtual testing only ever failed if physical construction didn¡¯t meet specifications, and hisb did an amazing job of creating exactly what they were told to.


    The first signal the entric General sent was to Central Command, informing them that the tests were sessful and that the production of the Pre Production models could begin for the first round of battlefield testing.


    The second signal he sent was to General Tennant aboard Abraham Kepler.


    [My dearest brother Tennant,


    It is with great regret to inform you that you are no longer the most beautiful in the family. Today we celebrated the birth of Sanju Nana, the most beautiful baby girl. One day she will grow up just as mighty as her big brother, I am certain.


    With Regards,


    Uncle Lu]


    General Tennant had been waiting for the signal from the Labs to indicate that the testing was finished, but what he hadn¡¯t expected was that the General in charge was such an odd character. General Tennant did view the Shining Darkness as his own child since it had been in the family for generations, but that message was a bit unexpected.


    Sanju Nana was the localnguage¡¯s word for thirty-seven, so General Tennant knew exactly what the message was about, and how long he had to get all the upgrades finished before it would be time to go pick up the test units, as well as a crew to staff them.


    It was going to be a very busy month for him.

 Chapter 204 Testing Completed

    Once the tests werepleted, X137 was walked back to its testing bay and the whole team gathered around for an afternoon celebration. The Heavy and Super Heavy Mecha projects had been taking up most of thebined manpower of theb for most of a year now, with an intense crunch at the end when General Lu decided that the nned design needed some serious overhauls, but now that all three patterns were finished in house testing, they could finally rx and start focusing on less time-sensitive projects.


    Some would be moved to Exoskeleton projects, some to small arms development, others to Virtual Reality upgrades or even civilian interests, like better shelf stable ration packs for the disaster recovery portion of the mission that came at the end of most military interventions.


    That also meant that the primary reason General Lu had brought in Max and Nico was now finished, which raised the question of what they were going to be up to next.


    Max hoped that it would be something rtively safe and interesting, but that sort of assignment didn¡¯t oftene up two deployments in a row, and this one had been pretty good to him so far.


    There were still many more mecha designs that needed to go through the final testing phases, including upgrades for the existing models of mecha within the Kepler Military, and the new weapons for the Corvette ss units, so there was hope that he wouldn¡¯t be leaving here for a while.


    The most important part of not wanting to leave was actually standing right next to him though. Moonie was looking up at him with a data tablet in her hand, wanting to get his take on the data that she had collected during the live fire exercises, and hear all about what it was like being inside a Super Heavy Mecha when it was actually in action.


    ¡°Is it as loud in there as it was in the observation room? I mean, they turned down the external volume, but it was still pretty loud in there.¡± She asked, impatient for more details.


    ¡°It¡¯s loud, but it¡¯s not the volume that really gets you, it is the air discement from the vibration. There really isn¡¯t anything you can do about it, being so close to three high-powered Mass Drivers, but it can really shake your insides.¡± Max exined.


    ¡°Hmm, we have the sensor data from inside the cockpit, and it includes vibration information, as well as audio and other sensors. I will have to send the data to be analyzed for overall safety, so they can determine who is safe to send in as the Technicians in these units.¡± Moonie nodded, tapping away at her tablet.


    ¡°What are our ns for the rest of the day, Sister?¡± Max asked Lilith, who was only a few meters away, working on her own data analysis.


    ¡°Data, data, and more data. The General has a questionnaire here for you to fill out about the responsiveness of the Chassis. You might need to go into the virtual trainers to check on some of the answers, but most of it you will be able to fill out right away.¡± Lilith informed him, handing over a data tablet with the questionnaire open.


    It was all simple things. Lag time, responsiveness, any hesitation under rapidly changedmands, potential overloads, and thermal variations in the electronics after prolonged firing. Some he knew, some he could look up after the testing, but some he would have to go to the simtor for as Lilith suggested. They hadn¡¯t done anybat maneuver testing yet, which woulde sometimeter, so the simtor was his only option for the day.


    The rest of the day passed in a mind-numbing blur until finally, it was time to head home. Max checked out of the simtor and headed for the locker room to freshen up, wondering what he would order for the night. He rarely went to the restaurants, and instead preferred to cook or pay the extra fee and have something delivered to his room.


    A bit wasteful, but everywhere was so packed with peopletely that it was hard to enjoy yourself. Even the Games Room had been near maximum capacity, which was strange because the total number of people on the base hadn¡¯t changed. It was like everyone was just congregating in this district for some reason.


    That made Max think of the unauthorized message that had been intercepted. How many of these people had allegiances other than the Military? How many were sent specifically to gather data to send home, or were hired by outside forces? The vetting process was good, but top scientists were needed, so the employee pool was limited, and it was unreasonable to think you could fill a city with people who didn¡¯t have split loyalties, even over an area asrge as the Kepler Empire.


    Max was just about to start looking up data on employee recruitment when his doorbell rang, bringing up a security feed that showed him three women standing outside his door. Nico, Lilith, and Moonie, who were all dressed up to go out.


    ¡°Ladies,e in. Wee to my humble abode, and I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t have enough chairs.¡± Max greeted them.


    ¡°A small Cyborg has brought it to our attention that today is a very special day back on your homeworld.¡± Sister Lilithughed, walking towards Max¡¯s closet.


    ¡°And so, we are dragging you out for the evening. Reservations have been made, so there is no reason for you to turn us down.¡± Moonie agreed.


    Max thought for a second about what would constitute an important day, then checked his watch, not finding anything.


    ¡°In two hours and sixteen minutes, Kepler Standard time, you will be another year older.¡± Nico smiled, seeing Max¡¯s confusion.


    That¡¯s it. The change in seasons and from Kepler Terminus to the Standard calendar threw him off, but it will indeed be his birthday. ording to the altered data in his official records, changed when the Cygnus officers were captured to prevent usations of child soldiers, today will be his eighteenth birthday and not his fourteenth, but it is still his birthday. That¡¯s fine by Max though, with all these returned memories, he certainly doesn¡¯t feel like a youth anymore.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you will love it. We put a lot of thought into what would be just the right evening.¡± Moonie smiled, giving Max a kiss on the cheek, before handing him the clothes that Lilith picked out for him.


    ¡°I only have one more question. Did our favorite Cyborg troublemaker tell you that it is her birthday too? We were born only a few minutes apart.¡± Max pointed out, and Nico just shrugged. In her mind, she wasn¡¯t that nonchnt, she was greatly looking forward to a proper birthday party, but she didn¡¯t know how to show that, so instead she arranged a party for him.

 205 Chapter 205

    Max¡¯s party outfit for the day, as chosen by Lilith, was a ck on ck shirt and pants, with a gray vest and tie. Max rolled the shirt up to his elbows, as was customary for off-duty officers, to remind themselves that they weren¡¯t in uniform. After straightening his tie, Max strolled out into the main room to a wolf whistle by Nico and an appreciative look from Moonie.


    ¡°Now that the birthday boy is ready, we can head out. The reservation won¡¯t wait, and we used a lot of pull to get this spot.¡± The big brte told him with a wink, making Max wonder what exactly they had nned for his birthday.


    Outside, one of the electric carts that served as group transport, but were normally only avable to those whose duties required patrolling the city, was waiting for them, along with a uniformed driver in his parade best.


    He was one of the men who usually worked the gate to the Testing Department, so Max had seen him almost every morning. The man gave him a knowing wink, then helped thedies into the cart with a very gentlemanly gesture that made him look like an actual chauffeur.


    ¡°It will be ten minutes to get you to your destination, so please, rx and enjoy the ride.¡± He called over his shoulder as the cart slowly rolled away.


    ¡°You know the hoverboard is twenty times faster than this thing, right?¡± Maxughed, making Nico smirk and gesture at the others.


    ¡°Do you really think we should take properdies in such elegant gowns on a hoverboard ride through the city? Imagine the scandal.¡± Nico¡¯sugh was contagious, and the image of high winds flipping skirts as they raced through the city made Max realize the error in his suggestion. He wouldn¡¯t mind seeing it, but he certainly wouldn¡¯t want to share the view with the whole city.


    The cart stopped at the nearest elevator, where the driver punched a button for one of the top floors, reserved for senior officers and those willing to blowrge amounts of their sry to enjoy the finest that the city had to offer.


    Their destination was a ce called Chateau Chen Ming, an upscale hotel and event hall, where the Management staff hosted important visitors that held a sufficiently high-security clearance to enter the Lab City.


    That meant that it was mostly empty, with the visitors usually being researchers celebrating special events more significant than a birthday party. But they also just finished up the X137 project, so there was a decent excuse if they had needed one to get reservations at thest minute.


    ¡°It¡¯s still a bit early for dinner isn¡¯t it?¡± Max asked quietly as Moonie and Nico led him by the hands to the hotel¡¯s restaurant and Sister Lilith greeted the host with a big hug that smothered his face in her chest.


    ¡°Please, follow me.¡± The man stammered while his face turned bright red in embarrassment. Lilith had a pleased look on her face and Max recalled the first time they had met. Younger, easily embarrassed men were exactly her type.


    Despite the early hour, the restaurant was already starting to fill up, but the host led them to a private booth that had sound-deadening curtains all around it.


    ¡°Your orders have been ced and prepared in advance, please do enjoy.¡± Were hisst words before he left their side.


    A group of waitresses arrived secondster with an assortment of appetizers and Comor¡¯s local champagne, made from a local fruit that gave it a distinct taste Max enjoyed much more than the original. He wasn¡¯t sure who knew he liked this version, since only a few people had been around him when he was drinking, but he suspected Nico and raised a questioning eyebrow at her when the staff left the bottle of premium wine behind.


    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look. It¡¯s the house specialty. The Chen family¡¯s vineyard makes it, so they bring a bottle for all the special events.¡± Nico responded, sticking her tongue out at him.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m old enough to drink.¡± Moonie hesitated, looking at the drink.


    ¡°The Kepler drinking age is your day of enrollment into the academy. After that, you are under military regtion until you retire. I¡¯m quite certain that you are in fact old enough.¡± Lilith corrected her and Moonie took a sip, looking surprised at either the bubbles or the taste.


    ¡°It¡¯s like soda. I could begin to enjoy this.¡± Moonie told her team leader, pouring her ss full.


    Unlike a normal wine, Comor Champagne was a fortified spirit, at sixty proof, so drinking it like soda with her meal would lead to a very drunk Moonie. Especially since she had zero alcohol tolerance.


    Lilith promptly moved the bottle out of her reach and held up her ss.


    ¡°To victory, growth, and new beginnings.¡± She toasted.


    ¡°Hear Hear. A fine toast.¡± Nico congratted her, sipping the bubbly wine happily, knowing that she wouldn¡¯t suffer any side effects.


    They chatted about their time since enlistment over appetizers, all of them deliberately ignoring the topic of early childhood for various reasons clearing the first round of tes just before the main dish came out.


    Sister Lilith had ordered them all Prime Rib dinners, in some sort of mushroom sauce. The meat fell apart under gentle pressure from a fork, releasing an irresistible aroma into the room.


    ¡°It¡¯s from the the Tapani Wildebeest. I don¡¯t think they exist in Kepler, but they are incredibly good.¡± Sister Lilith exined.


    Max noticed that while three of the dishes were identical, Nico¡¯s was brought out split in half, on two tes.


    ¡°I don¡¯t actually need food, and you¡¯re a big guy, towering over us littledies. I¡¯m sure you need your nutrition.¡± The raven-haired Cyborg teased him, the metallic sticks that she used to style her hair into a bun waggling in time with her hand as she waved off his concern.


    The wait staff brought multiple bottles of wine to go with the meal, and the group drank andughed for hours until an rm on Lilith¡¯s Wrist Device went off.


    ¡°Alright, it¡¯s ready, let¡¯s get this party properly started.¡± Sheughed, wiping thest bit of gravy off her te and totally ruining thedylike image she had been going for all night.

 206 Chapter 206

    Once they had left the Restaurant, Lilith again led them to a waiting transport cart, with another driver from the security team, a shorter man with almost coal dark skin and hair who Max didn¡¯t recognize. That likely meant that he was a friend of Lilith¡¯s and worked on the upper research floor entrances, so Max just greeted him politely and hopped in with the others.


    ¡°Now that we¡¯re all nearly in a fooda from the birthday dinner, there is a full team party going on to celebrate thepletion of thest of the three new Heavy Mecha designs. They reserved the Military Museum deck just for the party, and I¡¯m sure you will find something amazing there.¡± Lilith joked while thinking hard about everything but the museum and the party to try to fool Max¡¯s mind reading.


    It was working pretty well, Max got hints of the party nning, but nothing about what sort of surprise would be so amazing in a Museum. But maybe that part was for Nico, she loved the history and design process as much as Max loved Piloting, so the Museum likely did have a lot in store that she would enjoy, even if there wasn¡¯t a party.


    The Military Museum Deck was near the bottom of the city¡¯s spherical shape, taking up an entire floor to itself. This wasmon in many Hab Domes, since the entrance that most people would use came in from the bottom, the first few floors were all shopping and entertainment districts so that the tourists didn¡¯t have to pass through the residential areas to get to the ces that they actually wanted to be.


    In this case, it also served as camouge in case someone did get in by ident. They would find themselves first in the shopping area for designer augmentic imnts and clothing, then the museum, after which they would find that the elevators needed authorization to go higher, or appeared to have a malfunction, depending on who they were.


    The moment they stepped out of the Elevator, the most unexpected sight in the world greeted Max¡¯s eyes. Two Bone and Bronze Crusader ss Mecha encased in Stasis tubes, with a detailed write-up of the long history of the Redemption Pattern Crusaders on the cards in front of them and a huge sign saying Happy Birthday.


    All of the base¡¯s senior staff were there waiting, along with General Tennant, who Max didn¡¯t know was even still on the.


    ¡°Congrattions on living to reach another year older, Majors. Your new orders will arrive in the morning, but today we have a monumental achievement to celebrate. First, the retirement of the two Heavy Mecha, Stalwart and Tarith¡¯s Rage. Secondly, the birthdays of both of their pilots, Major Keres Max and Major Tarith Nico. And finally, the official announcement that the Alpha development and testing phase of the Next Generation Project that the entire Mecha Modernization Bureau has beenmitted to has now beenpleted.


    I realize that was quite a mouthful, but I will only have to say it once. Tomorrow, a lot of you will receive updated orders for the next round of testing, which will be done off-world for practical reasons, meaning that this might be yourst chance to socialize together in this group. Enjoy it.¡±


    General Lu¡¯s speech set the whole crowd to cheering, and even the most dour-faced members of the Mecha development teams managed a smile for this moment.


    ¡°Happy Birthday you two. There is one more thing I should show you before we get too invested in the party. It¡¯s over on the far side of the Library, and not up for public viewing yet, but you two will certainly be interested.¡± General Tennant told Max and Nico with a smile, motioning them to follow him away from the party that was quickly getting rowdy as drinks were served and the previously low music was cranked up.


    He led them through a series of corridors and back rooms until they reached a massive storage hangar, where items that the Museum held, but didn¡¯t disy were stored in a controlled environment. It was impossible to not know what he brought them here for, Shining Darkness stood proudly in the center of the room, inside a half-assembled Stasis Tube.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. She has been mothballed. It was a good run, but the faithful old girl has seen thest of her active service unless something truly catastrophic happens.¡± The General told them, his eyes glistening with suppressed emotion.


    Nico moved over to give him a soft hug from behind, while Max asked the obvious question. ¡°So, if they have grounded Shining Darkness, what is next for you?¡±


    ¡°I have been named Fleet Lord Commander of the Testing fleet, with an upgrade from two to three star General. I will be in charge of Central Command for the testing missions, as well as whates after. Understand, I am not at liberty to discuss that, and my System Skills should be enough to keep you out of the parts of my mind you shouldn¡¯t be in, but we will be together for quite some time. The only difference is, that I won¡¯t be grooming you to take over the Shining Darkness anymore, but to take over a newly formed Mechanized Regiment.¡±


    ¡°Why us? There are thousands of experienced Colonels and Brigadier Generals who don¡¯t currently have a Command posting. Why would Command pick us for a newly formed Regiment?¡± Max asked, unable to get the answers straight from the General¡¯s mind.


    ¡°The same reason that all Super Heavy Mecha Pilots swear an oath directly to the Emperor and in his presence. Loyalty. Experienced political officers all have strong connections with the various noble factions and are usually from one of them themselves. You two both hold Noble Title, but neither of you has an inherited faction or outside influences. I won¡¯t lie, I have been instructed to raise you up as loyal servants of the Emperor, and so far you have been exemry soldiers.


    But the new Regiment will be in the spotlight from the moment they set foot in battle after our test missions arepleted. Kepler can¡¯t afford a Commander that might pit factions against each other, or work to undermine the leadership. The Rebels are still simmering away, waiting for their moment to try again, and we can¡¯t afford to turn on our own with our neighbors breathing down our necks. A loyal show of force with the new Pattern Mecha is what the Emperor believes we need to settle the situation.¡±


    General Tennant¡¯s lengthy exnation both rmed and reassured both Max and Nico. The Emperor was doing what he could to avoid civil war, even if it meant letting his enemies survive a bit longer until the Kepler Empire was strong enough to eliminate them without being swarmed and overrun by hostile outside forces.

 207 Chapter 207

    After the stunning revtion that one of the Empire¡¯s most revered war machines was being put into retirement, and all that followed, the trio returned to the party, where Sister Lilith was waiting for them with drinks in hand.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t bother putting alcohol in yours Nico, it¡¯s a fruity energy concoction, made into a slushie. There are a lot of partial conversions on the research team, so they can process this much more easily than a normal drink, plus it tastes amazing.¡± Lilith exined, handing out the drinks.


    Nearly a thousand researchers were here, all celebrating the end of a project, and the possibility that they would be transferred to somewhere outside theb. Active duty was terrifying and dangerous, but most of them were researchers and notbat certified, so they would be staying aboard whatever transport they were assigned to, doing the data analysis of the new Mecha¡¯s engagements.


    There was still some risk, but there was also the hope that they would be able to contact family, see the Gxy during the testing, and not spend more years confined to the hab city. It was a nice city, but eventually, many of them wanted to see more, even if it was just the nature reserves on Comor they would have been happy, but during the development process even that was too much of a security risk.


    It didn¡¯t take long before the entire crowd was in full party mode, with all sense of decorum forgotten in favor of looking toward the future with drunken optimism.


    ¡°Max,e quick, we have a situation,¡± Lilith called, drawing his attention to where Nico was consoling a very drunk Moonie. That couldn¡¯t be good, but her thoughts were so scattered by alcohol that Max couldn¡¯t make sense of them, so he couldn¡¯t determine why Moonie was crying, but he did hear his own name.


    ¡°There he is. The greatest man ever. Did you know that he is an amazing chess yer? Like really amazing.¡± Moonie rambled to Nico, who was carefully leading her toward the edge of the room.


    ¡°What set her off?¡± Max asked Lilith quietly, so he wasn¡¯t overheard over the beat of the music.


    ¡°Something about the deployments. I think she¡¯s worried about being left behind when everyone else leaves because she¡¯s a new researcher and this is her first assignment.¡± Lilith exined though Max could sense it was about half guess and half interpretation of her outbursts.


    ¡°Why are you taking me away? He¡¯s that way, take me to that marvelous dick. Have you ever seen it, it¡¯s so beautiful.¡± Moonie called, making the researchers around herugh at her single-minded devotion to getting what she wanted.


    ¡°We went through the academy and three battlefields together, and we both work in theb as Pilots, the only person who has seen him naked more times might be his mother,¡± Nico confirmed, making Moonie pout, but renewing theughter of the other testers, who all changed together every morning.


    ¡°That¡¯s not fair. I should have asked to be a Test Pilot. Did you know that they didn¡¯t even let me practice in the Mecha after learning my System Functions? It¡¯s total bullshit. I would have been a great Pilot.¡± Moonieined, and Lilith pulled Max over before the girl could embarrass herself anymore.


    ¡°Alright, we brought you the handsome man with the beautiful dick. Now how about you two take this key and head to the Hotel on the next floor up to sleep it off?¡± Lilith suggested, giving the key to Max.


    ¡°Make the best of your time in life, you never know what tomorrow holds,¡± Nico whispered in his ear before handing him a small package and picking up Moonie to ce her in his arms.


    ¡°Oh, there you are, we were just talking about you.¡± Moonie cheered when she realized she was being carried by Max.


    ¡°I heard. Now, let¡¯s get you upstairs and into bed.¡± Max chuckled, nodding goodbye to the people he knew as he left the hotel.


    Max was quite certain that he hadn¡¯t gotten more than two hours of sleep when he woke up to the feeling of Moonie shifting positions on top of him and the sound of two wrist devices ring out the urgent alert notification that wouldn¡¯t end until the message was read and confirmed.


    Moonie was an energetic drunk, and even after they reached the room she had spent hours showing Max just how much she would miss him if they were separated by the new deployment. Max wouldn¡¯tin, but he certainly wasn¡¯t in much of a condition to aplish anything the next morning.


    No, make that afternoon, the morning had already passed by the time Max checked his message.


    [Major Keres Max,


    Please be notified that as of receipt of this message the entirety of the Heavy Mecha Development teams will be transferred from the Mecha Development Lab on Comor Prime to the transport vessel Abraham Kepler, currently docked in wing C Bay 4 of the Comor Orbital Station.


    Your Duty Status has been reinstated at A1, Combat Ready, and fit for service as of this message.


    You have 48 hours to gather your belongings and report to your new duty assignment.


    Regards,


    Central Command]


    Usually, these messages are quite personal and don¡¯t refer to anyone else, but if they are mentioning that the entire team is going, then their deployment isn¡¯t meant to be kept secret from the other members that are going. The news that everyone is going is also good news for him because there is a cute little blonde passed out on his chest that he would hate to have to leave behind.


    ¡°Moonie wake up. You have a Duty Assignment message on your wrist device and it needs to be read and confirmed to make the thing stop beeping.¡± Max whispered in her ear, before giving it a gentle bite to wake her up.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not getting dressed,¡± Moonieined before Max handed her the wrist device.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get dressed then, you¡¯re perfect the way you are. But you need to read the message.¡± Max tried bargaining.


    ¡°My heart isn¡¯t ready yet. Give me ten more minutes.¡± Moonie whined, but a quick smack at her backside made her take the beeping device and open her messages.


    ¡°We¡¯re going into space. All of us, for livebat testing.¡± She gasped in astonishment and then gave Max a big hug.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m like this, I don¡¯t know what came over me.¡± She whispered to him, making Max smirk.


    ¡°I can think of a thing or two, but I will let Lilith fill you in on what happened at the party when you meet up with herter.¡±

 Chapter 208 208 Chaos On Deck

    Now that Moonie had a purpose, she was more than happy to get up and get dressed. They were excused fromb duty today, since their project had ended and they were being reassigned, making it pointless to assign them a new task for a single day before they left.


    Unlike Max, who had only been here a short time, and had barely purchased anything, Moonie had been here for nearly two years and had made herself at home, assuming that she would be remaining at thisb for the majority of her Military Career.


    That meant that she had an abundance of personal items, clothing,mps, bedding, and so on that she would have to sort through to see what she could fit in the storage cases and what she could not.


    Fortunately, Nico and Lilith had woken up much earlier and were well prepared for this scenario. They had sent a new duffel bag and two storage cubes to Moonie¡¯s room, which was more space than she had expected to get allotted as a Corporal. Since they were researchers and not active dutybatants, the Fleet had made exceptions to move them all to officers¡¯ quarters, giving them individual rooms of two by three meters, only slightly smaller than the ones the lower ranked researchers like Moonie were currently in while stationed in the Lab City.


    But the level of decoration that they had done in the base simply wasn¡¯t going to be possible aboard a transport ship, so Moonie had a lot of cleaning house to do.


    ¡°It¡¯s only the team from the Mecha Projects going, under a hundred of us out of ten thousand, so I¡¯m sure you could just donate some of the good things you collected to others. There are still a bunch of new arrivals here. Would you like me to send a message?¡± Lilith suggested.


    ¡°Oh, that might be good. Once I get everything I can take packed, you can send a message and arrange for them to pick anything that they like.¡± Moonie agreed.


    Downsizing wasn¡¯t easy, and a lot of these things had sentimental value, so it was a slow process for Moonie that afternoon, and it became even slower when Nico showed up with Vacuum bags.


    ¡°These self dete, sucking out the air so you can pack soft items like clothes and stuffed animals into a quarter of their original space,¡± Nico exined, looking at all the stuffed decorations on the bed.


    Nico didn¡¯t know that most of Moonie¡¯s collection was already filling her transport cubes until the blonde popped it open and fluff practically exploded from every seam.


    ¡°It looks like I made the right call. I will let you two work now that you can dete the stuffies. Don¡¯t worry, once the vacuum is released they will gain their shape back in only a few hours. You can also use them to pack clothing more tightly, they are designed to sit inyers inside the cube, so pack as much as you can.¡± With a swish of her long raven hair, Nico was out the door again, headed to assist other team members she had worked with on the X109 Fast Attack Heavy Mecha project.


    They were the original X104 Crusader Recement Project team as well, so most of them had been in theb for almost a decade, making the moving process a hard one for them. Fortunately, other than the coding team, they were all officers or assigned to officers dorms aboard Abraham Kepler, so everyone who was going got a second storage cube to go with their duffel bag worth of space that even the lowliest of privates in the infantry were allotted.


    Some packed light, others had hoarded until their rooms were packed and were having trouble deciding what to take, so the whole first day was insane for the teams that were moving.


    Max and Moonie had finally packed all her favorite clothes, about half her stuffed animals, plus her duffel bag full of Military Uniform standard items and undergarments when the doorbell rang and the security camera showed a group of younger female staff members milling about outside, one with a takeout bag in her hands.


    ¡°Sister Moonie, let us in. We brought dinner for you and that super hunky pilot boy.¡± The leader called while the othersughed.


    Moonie opened the door to keep them from making a scene in the hallway, or at least any more of a scene than they already had, and the girls rushed forward to give her a round of hugs.


    ¡°Greetings Major Max. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve met, since we¡¯re all in the food service division and you don¡¯t live near our floors, but we all arrived here on the same shuttle as Sister Moonie here. But we¡¯ve been friends a long time and just heard that the whole Mecha team is being sent on an extended research mission, so we came to say goodbye.¡± One of the girls exined to Max, bringing him into the group hug.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to meet you as well. The mission is a full change of posting and not a research trip, so Moonie has to clear out her dorm here. Which of course has way more than a storage cube can contain. If you ask nicely, I¡¯m sure that she has a few things left over that need loving new homes.¡± Max suggested.


    That was exactly what the girls were hoping for. ¡°Dear Sister, I don¡¯t suppose you had room to pack all your clothing did you? Aboard the ship you will need to wear a uniform every day, and you¡¯ve got such great fashion sense.¡±


    The girls pleading made Moonie smile. They had often exchanged clothes with each other in the past, to find just the right outfits, and they were right, she had stacks and stacks of casual clothing in her room already.


    ¡°That wardrobe was expensive you know.¡± Moonie gave them a fake pout, not wanting to give in too easily.


    ¡°We have prepared a credit transfer for you. It¡¯s two months¡¯ wages, not enough to buy everything new, but it should help you start to rece the things you lost here when you get to anotherb assignment.¡± The leader exined, setting the food down on the small kitchen counter in Moonie¡¯s apartment.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to. I already knew I had too much stuff to transfer with me. I¡¯m all packed now, so feel free to take what you like, even the fluffyforter. I packed one with me, but the second simply wasn¡¯t going to fit, even vacuum packed.¡± Moonieughed.


    ¡°Not so fast youngdies, you¡¯re not Moonie¡¯s only friends you know.¡± Someone called from down the hall, and Max realized that the door was still open, due to the abundance of people in the small space.


    ¡°Auntie Margaret. I saved you the potted nts.¡± Moonie called, and the old woman¡¯sughter rang through the hallway.


    Slowly the well-wishers came from all through the building. Moonie¡¯s gentle disposition and shy personality seemed to have made friends with everyone she interacted with over her time here in the Lab. Many of them left with small items, stuffed animals, trinkets, or a particr clothing item in the case of those around her size and fashion sense.


    By the end of the evening, the girls from the food department, Moonie¡¯s first friends here, left with an armload of clothing each, and the room was clear of everything but the issued furniture and bedding.


    ¡°Well, that went smoothly. I thought we would be cleaning for hours, but they even brought someone from maintenance to vacuum the floors, so that the automated system would have an easier time of things and not dock you credits for excess energy usage.¡± Max told Moonie while picking her up in a hug.


    ¡°Yes, it went perfectly. I totally didn¡¯t expect that Big John from security would love hydrangeas so much that he would argue with old Auntie Margaret over them though.¡± Moonie agreed. The flowers were hard to get on the station since they weren¡¯t native to the, but Moonie got the seeds from another new arrival, who had packed them in his storage cube.


    ¡°Since your room is now clean and empty, let¡¯s head to mine and not mess it up,¡± Max told her, picking up the transport cubes so that they wouldn¡¯t have to return here in the morning to load them for shipment to Abraham Kepler.


    ¡°Lead the way, Sir Max.¡±

 Chapter 209 209 Moving Day

    The next morning Max woke Moonie up in time to take a shower and then double-checked the shuttle schedule. It wasn¡¯t easy to leave or enter this hab dome, so he wanted to make sure that they were aboard the morning shuttle, giving them plenty of time to make their way across the Comor Station and get settled into their new homes aboard Abraham Kepler.


    Of course, he wasn¡¯t the only one that had that same idea, and the upper floors near the hangars were absolutely packed already when he checked the cameras. Getting off the base shouldn¡¯t be an issue, the military was nothing if not efficient in nning transportation, but it looked like it might be wiser for them to wait a while.


    [Attention all Staff Transfers. Cargo pickup will begin in fifteen minutes for those wishing to send their luggage ahead. Please schedule your luggage pickup with the Transportation Department.] An announcement repeated all over the station¡¯s public areas, as well as appearing on the wrist devices of the crew that were leaving today.


    Max barely had time to read the message before the confirmation of his luggage pickup arrived, and a message dinged on Moonie¡¯s wrist device as well.


    ¡°That was quick, did you send it while the announcement was ying, or did you arrange it in advance?¡± The blonde researcher asked.


    ¡°Neither. I¡¯m willing to wager that Major Nico arranged them both, and likely a pickup for Sister Lilith as well. Her skills are uniquely well suited to mission organization.¡± Max exined.


    As expected, a few seconds after the message there was a knock at their door, and the cyborg in question was waiting outside.


    ¡°How did she get here so quickly? That¡¯s just crazy.¡± Moonie muttered and Max couldn¡¯t help butugh.


    ¡°She lives right next door, she was literally five steps away.¡±


    Max let Nico in, and she handed them both a small digital token. ¡°These are your boarding passes. The mob that assembled upstairs forgot that this is a military transfer operation, not a public bus. You don¡¯t just cram yourselves aboard at the first opportunity, everything is organized. We are all on the transport leaving at zero nine hundred, so we¡¯ve got over an hour before we need to start heading for the hangars. The staff should be here soon to gather all our luggage, and Sister Lilith is on an earlier transport, so she won¡¯t have time toe down and meet us.¡±


    Moonie nodded in eptance. ¡°Onest trip to the breakfast burrito stand then? I go there all the time on my days off when I¡¯m not eating in theb.¡±


    That was a good enough n for the day, and the shop ended up being a rather good takeout food ce, with breakfast burritos as the daily special every single morning. More than a few people were here, despite it not being close to a standard shift change, but it didn¡¯t take long to get their breakfast ready and head back to the rooms so that the staff coulde to get their luggage.


    As usual, all baggage would be scanned, disinfected if necessary, and randomly inspected before being allowed aboard Abraham Kepler, despiteing from another military facility. Protocol demanded that baggage was checked at every entry and exit incidence, so sending it separately meant that you didn¡¯t have to personally wait for it to be done before you could go aboard yourself. It was a real time saver when there was arge movement of troops, like today.


    The luggage carts arrived only a few minutes after they finished eating and took their bags, leaving them sitting in an empty room with time to spare.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we head up early, in case the chaos isn¡¯t cleared yet? If the shuttle is waiting by the time we get there we can get the good seats near one of the curved windows, so we can watch the as we leave?¡± Max suggested.


    Their rooms already have an amazing aerial view of Comor, but there is just something about watching it fade as you leave the¡¯s atmosphere that makes the view a little more amazing in his personal opinion. Unlike abat drop ornder pickup, leaving in a shuttle you really get to appreciate the trip into space in a shuttle.


    The elevator was almost empty when they went up, containing only a single security officer whose identification badge identified him as part of the Cyber Security team.


    ¡°Majors, Corporal. The general wanted to give you an update on the unauthorized signal situation before you left, but he couldn¡¯te himself due tost-minute obligations. Both the user who modified the tablet and the intended recipient have been identified and detained.¡± He greeted them once the doors had closed, isting them from any outside listeners.


    ¡°Domestic or foreign?¡± Max asked, wondering how much the officer could tell them.


    ¡°Domestic. Both were affiliated with the same noble family, who is a major producer of Redemption Pattern Mecha. Questioning has determined that the incident was a corporate one, but their home has been ced under temporary administration of the military as a precaution.¡±


    That wasn¡¯t entirely unexpected, otherbs are constantly trying toe up with a design that the military administration will approve since the royalties for a new pattern of mecha would make them both immensely wealthy and respected.


    Though if the whole is now under administration by the military, there might be much more to the story that they aren¡¯t authorized to know.


    ¡°Thank you for your consideration, it will let us leave with a clear conscience knowing that the incident is resolved,¡± Nico responded with a polite salute.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got to get back to work, but I will give you onest piece of advice. Room A7 will have the best view of the Western Mountains as you leave. I highly rmend iming it early.¡± With his piece said, the officer tapped the button for the next floor and got off the elevator, leaving the three of them alone for the short trip to the flight deck.

 Chapter 210 210 Back In Space

    When they got out of the elevator, Nico led them past the crowd and out on to the flight deck where the next shuttle was still cooling down for boarding.


    The guards greeted her with a fist bump and escorted the group through, much to the dismay of the crowd that was waiting in line to load.


    ¡°Shut it. Qualify as a Super Heavy Pilot and you can dodge the line yourself.¡± The staff responded to theints of favoritism, silencing the crowd.


    That wasn¡¯t a status that any of them would ever make, and the man who walked around the line almost certainly outranked them all. Even worse, they might end up his direct subordinates once they got to the ship, so antagonizing the Pilot or his two cute friends could make their deployment a nightmare.


    Nico led them straight to their destination, a four-seat private room in the nose of the shuttle on the Port side. It was thest booth towards the bow of the ship, and the hull curved slightly, giving it an exterior wall with a panoramic view.


    It was only a few minutes before the temperature was low enough that everyone else was cleared to enter the shuttle and Max could hear them allpeting for the best seats.


    The private rooms were usually for senior officers only, so Max thought thought they would be flying alone, but at thest minute a young man in parade uniform opened the door with a sheepish grin.


    ¡°Forgive my intrusion, it is a full flight.¡± He exined, taking the seat across from Max and buckling himself in next to Nico.


    ¡°Major Keres Max, good to meet you. That is Major Tarith Nico and Corporal Moonie.¡± Max introduced everyone.


    ¡°Lieutenant Coates, formerly lead technician of test bay seven. We did most of the weapons testing for the new heavy Mecha.¡± He responded with a smile, happy that thest avable seat wasn¡¯t next to some stuffy Command officers whose clique he wasn¡¯t part of.


    ¡°So, are you going for the second seat in amand Mecha or a repair and redesign spot aboard the Abraham Kepler?¡± Nico asked, making the slender Lieutenantugh.


    ¡°Despite having a physique like this, I have a Beta Ranked system with two separate System Functions for Mecha repair, plus a degree in Nuclear Physics. I am afraid I am condemned to live in a cubicle.¡± Lieutenant Coates sighed.


    ¡°There¡¯s still a chance. I heard a rumor that the Super Heavy Pilots will be allowed to choose their own technician, so you might get to risk your life in gloriousbat for the fathend before you know it.¡± Nico joked.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got the connections now. I¡¯m sure if everyone¡¯s favorite killer Cyborg puts in the good word someone will take me in.¡± Coates agreed.


    ¡°All you need to do is act like a lost puppy, flutter those big green eyes, just begging to be picked,¡± Nico told him with a straight face while Moonie tried not tough.


    They wouldn¡¯t get their final assignments or even a unit that they would be attached to until after they arrived on board, and probably not even then. As far as Max knew, there weren¡¯t even any Mecha on board now that thest three had been moved to a museum, so they would need both mecha and crew before those final decisions would be made.


    Max knew that the General had earmarked him for Command, but what exactly Nico¡¯s position was going to be was still unknown. Whether she would be his executive officer still, a Company Commander under him, or even moved to maintenance or logistics for a time. The variety of her System Functions made her future unclear, unlike his ownbat-focused System.


    Max thought at first that she might be his second seat, but she was highly overqualified for the position. From what Max had learned so far, the second seat was there purely as a technician, and they weren¡¯t intended to be a full-fledged pilot for the X137 Super Heavy Mecha.


    [Shuttle departure in 30 seconds] the automated announcement came over the shuttle¡¯s inte moments before the vessel began to shudder as the engines were powered up and the preflight checks were finished.


    Once off the deck and out of the confines of the hab dome, the shuttle ride immediately turned ss smooth and the vessel banked gently, aligning itself with one of the¡¯s approved exit routes. The mountains slowly passed in front of the windows as they got ready, giving the three of them time to fully appreciate the advice that led them to this room.


    The smooth hover of anti-gravity flight shifted to the pressure of rapid eleration as the shuttle¡¯s dampeners did their best to mitigate the force of theirary exit. A momentary floating sensation marked the transition into space before the artificial gravity adjusted and everyone let out a soft sigh.


    There was no pretending they were still on a rxed research assignment now.


    The magnificent sight of Comor Station quickly grew in front of them less than twenty minutester and the inte warned them of the standard docking procedures.


    [All personnel are to remain seated until the disembark lights turn green. Shuttle staff will guide you to exit in an orderly manner.]


    They were in the civilian wing of the station, in a shuttle bay, so they would have to cross arge portion of the station to get to their destination, but that was just a good excuse to explore and rx.


    They still had eighteen hours until they needed to report for duty, which meant they could rx for most of the day on the Station before they needed to get their rooms set up and sleep.


    Most of the staff would only pull out, iron, and hang up one uniform tonight, for them to wear tomorrow, but Max preferred to have everything in ce the first day.


    Moonie¡¯s wrist device dinged and she smiled happily at the message before turning to ry the message to Max. ¡°Sister Lilith is nearby in the Cafe at the book store. She has proper coffee for us.¡±


    Having to drink Mess Hall coffee was going to be one of the greatest losses taken by the staff that was transferring from theb to Abraham Kepler, and soon every coffee shop and import store would be swarming with researchers looking for enough of the good stuff to get them by until their next station stop.


    As they reached the Cafe, Max could see that Sister Lilith was among the horde of coffee aficionados, as she had no less than six packages of roasted beans in a stic bag beside her seat and arge thermal insted cup in front of her.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get some of the good stuff and watch the Chaos.¡± Nico cheered, looking back to the busy intersection outside the shop where the rest of the crew would soon appear.

 Chapter 211 211 On The Road Again

    The insanity was every bit as amazing as they had all hoped for. Between the soldiers that didn¡¯t use the luggage service, and the ones who had issues clearing security, everyone was in a panic. Half of them didn¡¯t know where they were going, since they hadn¡¯t arrived at the Comor Station on their way in, plus there was simply so much to see and do that they couldn¡¯t possibly have time for it all.


    Through everything, the quartet of Mecha enthusiasts simply sat in the coffee shop, which turned out to have a rather amazing soup and sandwichbo and just watched.


    ¡°It¡¯s almost dinner time, should we find a restaurant or head aboard and get our gear set up before we hit the mess hall and begin the adjustment?¡± Max asked, but he didn¡¯t need to read thedies¡¯ minds to realize that the question only had one possible answer.


    ¡°One more real meal before we go. We have been spoiled too long, I don¡¯t want to start on the fleet meals the very first night.¡± Sister Lilith announced with a very serious look on her face.


    ¡°Done and done. Follow me, I have a table reserved for us.¡± Nico announced, startling everyone but Max, who was mostly used to her efficiency.


    ¡°How did you even manage that? The ce is packed and everyone is looking for somewhere to eat.¡± Moonie asked, looking outside to the crowd who could barely walk past each other.


    ¡°I have my ways, you will understand when we arrive,¡± Nico smirked.


    Her wrist device dinged a few secondster, and they saw one of the luxury hover tforms from the Comor Royal Hotel waiting outside, piloted by a hotel butler in uniform.


    ¡°That¡¯s our ride, everyone aboard,¡± Nico announced, taking Sister Lilith¡¯s waist and jumping up on the tform with her.


    Max grabbed Moonie and followed close behind, and the Butler left for the hotel with a silent nod to his passengers. Both of the researchers looked shocked at the luxury, not many facilities and even fewer individuals had the privilege of flight within the station, but it was saving them an incredible amount of time.


    Once they reached the hotel restaurant, Nico tapped wrist devices with the Butler and gave him a wink, which the man returned with a bow and a smile, before escorting them into the building.


    ¡°Private room for Imperial Lady Tarith.¡± The butler announced when they reached the host, who seemed to recognize both Max and Nico the moment he saw them.


    ¡°Right this way, please. Your table has been prepared, did you have any special requests tonight?¡± The Host asked.


    ¡°Ourpanions have not yet had the pleasure of visiting the Comor Royal Hotel, but unfortunately we are deploying this very evening. Do you have an assorted tter? I¡¯m certain we can manage a family-style meal to let everyone try a variety by the finest chefs in the System.¡± Nico suggested.


    ¡°We have just the thing. Your server will be in momentarily.¡±


    The host wasn¡¯t lying, the meal was fit for a buffet, but in smaller portions, with nearly two dozen dishes served if you counted desserts. They even packed up four small boxes at the end with an ¡®evening snack¡¯ as they put it.


    Moonie and Lilith looked even more despondent than they had at the thought of a meal aboard the ship by the time they made it to the security lineup checking all the soldiers into Abraham Kepler though. Thest meal at the station was one of the greatest experiences of their life, with a live ssical band ying in the background, incredible food, and staff treating them like royalty.


    The harsh green of the walls in the military docks only highlighted the difference and reminded them that this would be the color of their lives for the next few years unless something changed the schedule for the testing.


    ording to the n, the Mecha were to be tested against nonsentient threats first, then against nonhuman sentient targets before being officially revealed to the public and rolled out with the next wave of recruitments.


    The change would impact the entire deployment strategy and to an extent, the basicbat doctrine of the Kepler Empire. Using overwhelming force has always been their way, but it was the force of numbers before, once the entire army is updated they will hopefully be fielding a Super Heavy Mecha with almost every Company. One Super Heavy for every hundred instead of every ten thousand would totally change the strategy of the Kepler Military, as well as their casualty rate.


    Since only a thousand soldiers were aboard the ship at the moment, they were all assigned to the reservist quarters where Max had spent so much time in the past, waiting with the retiring forces returning to their homeworld.


    Even his room was the same. Third door down the hallway to the left of the Mess Hall, with Nico beside him. Moonie and Lilith were in the same block, but around the corner, and the main barracks were currently empty, with the research staff housed in the officers¡¯ bunks regardless of rank.


    ording to the assignment data, most of them would be staying there, and the reservist area would be the research wing of the ship, slowly modified to serve whatever purpose they needed it to once the rest of the Pilots and the equipment were on board.


    Max quickly set up his room before changing into thefortable silk pajamas he had acquired on Comor and turning in for the night. Everyone had an early morning tomorrow once Abraham Kepler left the docks, so he nned to get as much sleep as he could.


    It wasn¡¯t as easy as he remembered though. Without the cool exterior of Nico, or the soft flesh of Moonie, his bed felt exceptionally small and empty. Max had heard from other soldiers that the first few days back from shore leave were the hardest ones to get to sleep, but he never fully understood what they meant until tonight.

 Chapter 212 212 Its Just a Day Trip

    The next morning brought the rm bells that signaled the exit of Abraham Kepler from its berth at Comor Station. No official announcement had been made yet as to what their destination was, only that once everyone was aboard they would be going to pick up the rest of the required resources for the testing.


    In the Kepler Empire, that didn¡¯t really narrow down their destination by much. Other than the actually inhabiteds, there were countless mining and manufacturing outposts ced within asteroid fields and Nebe with the needed natural resources for the products that they were making.


    Not every Empire did it this way, many of them sent bulk freighters to go recover the resources and bring them to the manufacturing site for safety and ease of ess, or in the case of some smaller nations, safety during manufacturing. Leaving your most important facilities exposed near the resources that your neighbors would definitely want was a risky proposition when your Nation wasn¡¯trge enough to fully surround it.


    [All Personnel, please prepare for the transition to faster than light travel.] The announcement from the ship¡¯s inte called out into every room and corridor. For Max that was easy, preparation within your room only meantying down and waiting. Every room on the ship was set up with one side of the bed facing the rearmost wall, so even if the transition was rough and you got thrown backward, you probably wouldn¡¯t fall out of bed.


    Today¡¯s transition gave a sinking sensation instead of the stomach-twisting feeling that Abraham Kepler used to give Max, and he wondered exactly what they had done during the overhaul, and just how worn and damaged the engines were before to warrant such a difference with optimal operation. That definitely wasn¡¯t aint about the current transition though, he would take this version over the old one any day.


    With the transition over, Max headed to the closest Mess Hall to grab some breakfast, finding it full of curious researchers who had never been stationed on a ship of the fleet before.


    ¡°Max, we¡¯re at the usual table.¡± He heard Nico call, then saw her waving and seated next to Mooney and Sister Lilith.


    Both of the girls looked exhausted, but he knew that they went to bed earlyst night, so he wasn¡¯t sure what the trouble was. In this crowd, it was hard to pick out individual thoughts, so Max got in line to wait his turn.


    ¡°You might as well go to the front. None of us know what is good, so it takes them forever to decide.¡± One of the researchersughed, motioning Max forward.


    The kitchen staff was exactly the same crew members as before, but now with a much happier look on their faces, in their freshly refurbished kitchen, which was no longer painted in the military pale green. Instead, it was a more pleasant sand color, though that was still a military standard paint.


    ¡°The departure special is up today, the Menu 13 breakfast.¡± The cook called to Max when he finally saw a familiar face.


    That meal was a stack of French toast, with eggs and sausages, served with arge amount of syrup on top, and a side of fruit. Definitely not one of the healthier options, but one of the best.


    ¡°I will take it. And a ss of juice, give me a day before I dive back into cafeteria coffee.¡± Max replied with augh.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know how good you had it Major. We¡¯ve been renovating the ship for months, and only got a single week aboard the station to enjoy the good life. But they found us a couple of new chefs, and they updated the meal ns, so I can guarantee that this here will be the finest Mess Hall on the ship.¡± The cook told him proudly.


    It was fairlymon for the different regiments aboard to get different menus to match their individual tastes, at least when they weren¡¯t all eating standard ration packs, so a new chef might be just the thing that this ce needed to be more than tolerable.


    With the cook¡¯s rmendation, the researchers started getting more adventurous and ordering random meal sets to see what they liked, while Max took his ce next to Nico since Moonie and Lilith were sitting side by side.


    ¡°We got our assignments today. Me and Moonie here are both going to be in theb doing data analysis for thebat trials. I don¡¯t know when the decision was made, but it looks like they have a pool of extra pilots who have repair functions that the Super Heavy Pilots will get to choose from.¡± Lilith told Max before he could start eating.


    ¡°Strange, usually the orderse all at once, and I haven¡¯t gotten anything yet,¡± Max told her with a frown.


    ¡°General Tennant was by earlier, while I was in the Gym with these two, getting them back in shape. None of the Mecha crew will get an assignment until tomorrow, but the research teams will be getting theirs today once the Team Leaders pick their members.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°That makes sense. So, are you leading a team again Lilith?¡± Max asked, wondering how things were going to be organized.


    ¡°Not just one of them. They put me in charge of Data Comption and official reports, so I get to be the evil older sister who drives everyone to get their work done on time. That¡¯s why I¡¯m stealing Moonie back. I need a friendly face to keep them from whining and arguing.


    ¡°Maybe we can get you a nice hairy fellow like Russo to cuddle with,¡± Nico suggested with an evil smirk.


    ¡°The cockpit must have a weight limit. With both me and him in there we would barely have room to move.¡± Max replied, making Lilithugh.


    ¡°You know, that dide up during the design phase, and they determined that it was just within the eptablefort range for use by two maximum size pilots.¡± Sister Lilith pointed out, having done some of the calctions and simtions herself.


    ¡°See, as I said, it would be cozy. Then I could find myself another Pilot from Kepler 142 and we could treat the cockpit like a hotel suite.¡± Nicoughed, knowing that like her family, most of the was much shorter than average, small enough that most of their women couldn¡¯t be pilots because they didn¡¯t meet the minimum height requirements. Nico herself was within 1cm of being too small before her conversion.


    [Next transition will be in 13 hours and 7 minutes. All Crew, prepare for docking after the transition to sub light speed travel.]

 Chapter 213 213 Arrival Assignments

    Max and the others spent most of the day ying cards and chatting, with a short workout tossed in to burn some excess energy so that they could take a nap and get on schedule with ship¡¯s time.


    Arrival at their destination would be at 0800 by the ship¡¯s clock, so they all expected to have a full day ahead of them, starting the moment they arrived.


    Max woke up from his nap not to the rm as expected, but to an urgent notification on his wrist device.


    [Major Keres Max,


    You are hereby awarded the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and assigned Command of 1st Batallion, Comor 1st Heavy Mecha Regiment, under the directmand of Brigadier General Yaakov.


    The General is scheduled to assemble the Regiment for the first time at 1000 today, Abraham Kepler¡¯s standard time and full attendance is mandatory.


    Best Regards,


    Central Command]


    The message might have been a bit abrupt, but the instructions didn¡¯t need much more. His new rank insignia were already delivered to the mail slot in his door, so Max hastily attached them to his formal uniform and hopped in the shower to get ready for the day. When he was clean and ready, Max headed for the staging area where new troops would first arrive aboard the ship, excited to meet his new troops.


    The attached data showed that his unit would have three Companies of Heavy Mecha. Each with one X137 Super Heavy, 10 X109 Fast Attack Crusaders, 40 X104 Pattern Crusaders, and 100 Comor Pattern Corvettes. There were no Line Mecha at all in most Heavy Mecha Regiments, but a pure Heavy Mecha Regiment was usually fielded alongside a mixed asset or arge amount of infantry, to make up for their inability to defend well against small targets that got very close to their Mecha.


    Max thought it was a bit odd that he hadn¡¯t seen Nico yet, and that she wasn¡¯t waiting in the staging area when he arrived. Usually, he would sense her thoughts from next door if she was awake, but she didn¡¯t seem to be in her room today, so he had thought she was ahead of schedule.


    [Prepare for the transition to Sub Light Speed travel.] Was the announcement over the inte, and Max took a seat, along with the other handful of officers that were waiting in the staging area already.


    They still had two hours to kill before the meeting, but none of them had anything better to do, and they were all nervous and eager to meet their newrades. Especially the Pilots who had spent most of their career testing the Corvette ss Mecha. They had all been qualified on the Crusaders before they left, so this would be a big promotion day for them, and a jump in their prestige as well.


    ¡°Colonel Max, congrattions on your promotion.¡± A deep voice came from behind him as Max rested his eyes, waiting for the ship to dock.


    Max looked back and saw a Major named Miller, who kept sneaking proud nces at his new rank emblem, showing that he was freshly promoted. Max saw in his thoughts that he was from the Logistics division and had just been assigned the position of Executive Officer of 1st Batallion, under Max¡¯s Command. He was a qualified Crusader ss Pilot, but his System Skills had developed toward bookkeeping and notbat, so he had originally been transferred to Logistics, and only now, at over fifty years old, had he managed to get back into abat posting, despite his repeated requests.


    ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you Major Miller, and I look forward to working with you.¡± Max greeted him, startling him for a moment before the Major decided that Max must have gotten a personnel listing.


    He hadn¡¯t but his ability to read minds came in very useful today.


    Just before they reached the dock, the ship¡¯s crew came and hung signs all over the room, indicating where each unit should meet, so the two officers moved over to where the 1st Batallion sign was hung to wait for the rest of their Pilots and logistical staff to board the ship.


    Max almost missed it when Nico arrived, using some trick to block her thoughts from his Innate Talent. She had a friendly smile on her face, and she was greeting everyone she recognized, or who recognized her, but Max could clearly see from her bodynguage that she was livid.


    If she was a little mad, he might have missed it, but that tension in her movements, added to the way she kept clenching her hand halfway into a fist before releasing it and the blocked thoughts all pointed to her state of mind being somewhere between a murderous rage and the contemtion of new and unique war crimes.


    ¡°Hey Nico, what assignment did you get?¡± Max asked as she walked up to give him a friendly shoulder bump.


    She didn¡¯t reply, only opened her messages for him to read.


    [Major Tarith Nico,


    It is against Command¡¯s better judgment that we have granted General Tennant¡¯s request to assign you to the Technician¡¯s position apanying Lieutenant Colonel Max. After reviewing your medical history and System Functions, it is our opinion that Major Tarith Nico should have been permanently reassigned to the repair division, though we have eded to the authority of Theater Command on this matter.


    Please note that the position of Combat Technician is probationary, and if at any time you should reconsider, the posting as head of Regimental Mecha Maintenance will remain open for your arrival.


    Regards,


    Central Command]


    ¡°No wonder you¡¯re cranky today. They didn¡¯t even try to sugarcoat how mad they were that you weren¡¯t in charge of maintenance. I guess we shouldn¡¯t expect the warmest of wees from our new Regimental Commander when he arrives, eh?¡± Major Miller asked, having read the message at the same time that Max did.


    ¡°I am certain that he will adapt to the reality of the situation with great punctuality,¡± Nico replied, deadpan, making the Major wince in anticipation of the conflict that was sure toe.


    Max was more disturbed that he still couldn¡¯t read Nico¡¯s thoughts. He would have to keep the two of them apart for now, in case she was willing to risk prison time for the suggestion that she should spend the rest of her career in a repair bay.

 Chapter 214 214 First Battalion

    [Brace for Contact. Docking in 3, 2, 1] Abraham Kepler settled into the docking bay on a small mining base, built into an asteroid with a gentle thump, and immediately began the procedures to bring aboard their new crew.


    They had been waiting outside in ranks, ready to meet theb staff and thest few officers that hade from Comor to meet them. The Regiment was named the Comor First Heavy Mecha, but only a small handful of the members were actually from Comor. In reality, it was a Special Testing unit, more akin to an elite strike force than a regr Mecha Regiment.


    The moment the doors touched down, carts started ferrying luggage to the ship¡¯s staff, while the Regiment marched aboard, lining up to meet their remaining members.


    Max was the only Battalion Commander that wasn¡¯t already present, but the First Battalion had heard a lot about him already. Not only from the official reports they were sent, but they had also been exposed to the Government¡¯s portrayal of him as a War Hero, as well as an Elite gamer. An officer the average rank and file could look up to and rte with, as well as a symbol of hope for talented youth.


    Being isted in the Lab, Max hadn¡¯t seen himself on video much, but that wasn¡¯t the case for the rest of the Kepler Empire. He and Nico had been all over the Data Net since the tournament, and even now a fresh wave of propaganda was being prepared, just waiting on their test footage to bepiled and edited, so the Empire could announce their new generation Mecha to the gxy.


    ¡°First Batallion, Fall In on me,¡± Max called, letting his men know where he was. That brought nearly two hundred Pilots and technicians running, but it also brought the attention of General Yaakov, a slender and aristocratic-looking middle-aged man with a curved nose, owing to a break in the past that had not been set correctly.


    There was a hint of a sneer in their direction, but Max could sense that it was for Nico standing at his side and not for him. Max wasn¡¯t sure if it was her or General Tennant that had gone above the Regiment Commander¡¯s head to override Central Command¡¯s rmendation, which was obviously made by someone who had never met them, but it appeared to have left a bad taste in the man¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°So d you could join us. I went over my expectations with the other Commanders and Pilots already, I will send it to yourmunicator, so do get yourself up to speed before we reach our next stop.¡± The General sneered, then walked away to oversee the other Soldiers.


    ¡°Code Red?¡± Nico asked, using the military ng for a forcible attitude adjustment, and Max shook his head.


    ¡°Some Nobles are just like that. Nothing will change his mind that far up thedder, even the Theater Commander¡¯s opinion wasn¡¯t enough to change his mind, it was only enough to get him to send a thinly veiled threat posing aspliance.¡± Max corrected her.


    The inability to see her thoughts was annoying, and Max would have to talk to her about thatter. He didn¡¯t often look in, but being able to when he needed to was an essential part of his nning method.


    The instructions that the General had sent were utter garbage, things you would only have to tell new academy graduates about how things actually worked, so Max skimmed them for anything particr. All he could find was that the General wasn¡¯t to be disturbed during set meal times and that you weren¡¯t to address him directly unless you held a Noble Title. Anyone else should address allments to his adjutant who would pass back the response.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised he spoke to you directly. You all fancy with a noble family?¡± One of the Pilots in Max¡¯s Battalion asked quietly after falling in at the head of the line for Able Company.


    ¡°No noble family. I got a Knight¡¯s title for Capturing a Cygnus General.¡± Max replied under his breath as he inspected his troops.


    ¡°Nico, no scratch that, Major Miller, please get these soldiers in shape. They have forgotten how to wear their uniforms.¡± Max spoke in a loud voice to carry across the ranks of his troops, who quickly began adjusting their uniforms and straightening their ties.


    Each column was ten soldiers wide, with four columns in total, three for the Mecha Companies, and one group for the Battalion Logistics team. They all seemed very professional and well-trained, and Max was surprised that none of them seemed to look down on him for his apparent age as their Commander.


    ¡°Good Morning Soldiers. I am Lieutenant Colonel Keres Max. To my left is my personal Technician, Major Tarith Nico, and on my right is my Executive Officer, Major Mack Miller. If you need anything at all,e to Major Miller or Major Nico, and they will get you sorted.¡± Max introduced the only three members of the unit that were joining them from the ship.


    In front of each column of Pilots were two soldiers, The Company Commander, and the Technician who would serve as their executive officer, and the second seat in the Super Heavy Mecha they would be assigned.


    Able Company was led by Major Ivanov, Baker Company got Major Pippin, both of whom were tall blonde men who would have looked a lot like Max if not for the distinctive shape of their faces that made them look almost like brothers. It was clear that they weren¡¯t from the same that Max was, but other than that, the three of them physically had a lot inmon, including Alpha Ranked Systems.


    Charlie Company was the outlier, Major Petrova was a tall and burly woman with curly brown hair cut into the short pixie cut that Nico previously favored. She was not much smaller than Max, at 180 cm tall, and certainly no smaller in the arms, which strained the standard cut of her uniform jacket, but her face had the look of a kind and gentle motherly sort that Max was absolutely certain had nothing inmon with her personality after listening to her thoughts for even a few seconds.


    ¡°All here and ounted for, Sir. Logistics reports that all luggage for First Battalion is already in the assigned dorms.¡± Major Miller dered after finishing his inspection of the troops.


    ¡°Very good. You have four hours to get settled and fed. Meet in training room 1A at 1200 for assessment.¡± Max informed his troops, then let them fall out to go get settled in. The faster he could get away from their new Regiment Commander, the better.

 Chapter 215 215 Assessment

    By the time noon arrived, all of the First Battalion was assembled in the training room, wondering what their Commander was nning to assess.


    ¡°Company Commanders, to me please,¡± Max called, bringing the three of them over with their executive officers following.


    ¡°Pay close attention not only to test results but their personal interactions. This is your chance to rearrange the wings for optimum performance.¡± Max exined and the officers nodded in understanding.


    All of the Mecha would be in one of the limited numbers of standard patterns for the experimental Mecha, so how well the wings worked together would make all the difference.


    There were no substandard Pilots in the Battalion, they had all been carefully selected for the assignment, but Max could see that some clearly didn¡¯t get along easily with each other. It would be a test for the Company Commanders to get them organized in a way that minimized problems within their unit.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t the Regimental Commander already assign the wings?¡± One of the technicians asked politely, making the Pilotsugh.


    ¡°He absolutely did, and now we use our authority as Company Commanders to reassign them based on personality and equipment conflicts.¡± His Pilot exined.


    ¡°Discipline and Doctrine, Chapter 16, section 3 Paragraph 7. Matters of interpersonal conflict and morale are under the purview of Company Command Officers, until such time as they must be escted to reach an amicable conclusion.¡± Max agreed.


    The other officers nodded their agreement, all of them having been Company Commanders in the past. They were well aware of what they could and could not do to alter and modify the orders that came down from above to make them work for their troops.


    Every wing went through a short assessment mission in the simtors, to determinepatibility and shorings, but most of the answers that the Commanders needed were already obvious before the teams even made it that far.


    In a group of equals, such as a Mecha wing, a leader would be chosen to keep things clear and concise inbat. But not every wing could agree on who that should be. Egos shed and personalities conflicted all the time. Not every wing would be perfect, but they could only do so much with a bunch of prideful elites.


    Once they had done a single run-through in the default formation, Max addressed the Pilots. ¡°If anyone has a request for their Company Commander, please inform them now. If not, we will be making some alterations to the wings under the rmendation of the assembled Command Staff for the First Battalion.¡±


    A few soldiers approached, requesting a transfer, none of them a surprise, though one was a request to have a member moved, instead of the Pilot asking themselves for a different wing. The pilot in question was undoubtedly obnoxious, even inbat they wouldn¡¯t shut up and questioned everything constantly.


    ¡°We understand. Give us ten minutes to arrange the wings by their requests and we will see what can be done.¡± Max informed them, while Nico worked with the Commanders to set a new wing n, based on what they had observed of the potential personality conflicts.


    There was some support for forming a wing of all the obnoxious people that nobody else really wanted, but that would leave one Company a full wing under strength, since they were unlikely to work well with each other, so instead they took the time to ce them under Wing Leaders with strong personalities. It would surely annoy some of the Pilots, but it was their best option to get everyone working well as a Unit.


    ¡°Listen up troops. We will be running a second assessment starting now. Adjusted wings are up on the screens. Unless there is a serious issue, this will be thest adjustment until after the first live test, so make it work unless you want to end up grounded.¡± Max ordered, sending the Pilots to check the screen on the wall for their new assignment.


    ¡°This is crap, how am I not a wing leader?¡± The Pilot who got punted from their wing for their constant questioning of every action yelled loud enough for themanders to hear.


    That¡¯s what the Company Commanders had expected. But to get the position as wing leader you need to have good ideas, not just whining about the ideas that the leader put forward, and the Pilot had not shown any sign of better battle ns during the first assessment.


    ¡°Not every asshole that thinks he should be the leader ispetent enough to actually earn it. Now shut up like a good little boy and get your ass in the simtor.¡± Someone called back, causing a wave ofughter.


    The Pilot looked a bit sheepish, but they were thest Pilot from their wing that wasn¡¯t ready, and they had to run to get to the simtor before they timed out and the simtion started without them.


    Nico handed Max a summary of previous postings, and he noticed that over half the pilots here had led a wing at some point in the past, either as Line Mecha Pilots, or in their current Mecha, so a few disgruntled voices were to be expected, but one argument that he could hear going on was particrly interesting.


    Three of five Pilots wanted to change their wing leader. Not because he wasn¡¯t a good leader, but because the fifth pilot had a very sexy radio voice, and they didn¡¯t want to listen to him talk all day. They were bothpetent Pilots, suited for the task, but she didn¡¯t want the job, and the assigned leader was staying out of it.


    ¡°That reminds me how you used to scare everyone with the altered voices over the inte.¡± Max joked with Nico, who smiled in reminiscence.


    ¡°You say that like I¡¯m not nning to do it again. I¡¯ve got all the voice augmentations saved to my voice box.¡± Nico responded in a deep demonic growl that shocked the other Company Commanders.


    ¡°Can you imagine waking up to that voice in the middle of a war zone? Half the unit would have to change their drawers before they could put their Suits on.¡± Major Ivanov, leader of Able Companyughed while his Technician nodded in agreement.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s see how they manage this time.¡± Petrova sighed, watching the team with the chatterbox make their way through the mission. It was better than the first group, but that wasn¡¯t saying much. At least this group seemed to have a better handle on how to shut the Pilot up and get them to focus.


    After the lecture, everyone else was doing their best, with some pushing hard to try to convince leadership that they deserved a Wing Leader position once a spot came open. With a whole day wasted, but no major failures noted, they deemed it a sess and sent everyone to the Mess Hall for dinner.

 Chapter 216 216 Prepare to Work

    Max and Nico, as well as Major Miller, Max¡¯s new Executive Officer, had to change rooms to be with their new unit, but that was a simple task, aplished in a single trip before heading to dinner.


    Major Miller and the other Super Heavy Pilots were waiting at his new dorm when he arrived, eager to talk shop and get to know each other better since they were actually all on less formal terms. Some Unit structures were very strict, and the upper echelon had very little interaction with those below them, though not usually to the point of the Regiment Commander who didn¡¯t want to even speak with anyone who wasn¡¯t a Noble.


    ¡°I heard that you already hit 250 points of total bonus at your age? What sort of crazy System Functions did you get?¡± Petrova asked, drawing the attention of the others in the Command Officer¡¯s Mess, which served the entire Regiment¡¯s Command Staff.


    Max looked over his status quickly, thinking back to how and when things had really started to change for him. It was almost certainly after that day on Kepler 142 Station when he gained the secondary bonuses and extra points of base stats. Since then the concept of diminishing returns no longer seemed to apply to him, and the points above 200 total bonus, which was generally considered the Human Limit where gains became nearly nonexistent, had been as steady as those from 150 total bonus points were.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+129%


    [DEX] 3+76%


    [SPD] 3+76%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 1]


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m over 250 points already, and at the rate which I am gaining, I will likely reach three hundred within the next few years. One of my physical makeovers greatly reduced the Diminishing Returns, so I have an easier time than most.¡± Max exined.


    ¡°Good on you then. I had wondered why they had made you the Battalion Commander so young, even if you were the face of the new Mecha Propaganda films. They could have kept you as a Crusader ss Pilot and portrayed you as an everyman¡¯s hero for great effect. Now I understand why they didn¡¯t, you¡¯ve got too much potential to be held back for something like that.¡± Major Pippin of Baker Company said, loud enough that those around could hear him. It was a small thing, backing up the silent criticism of his Battalion Commander, but Max appreciated it.


    ¡°But why isn¡¯t your Technician, Major Nico, one of the Wing Leaders? Half the Empire knows she¡¯s a monster inbat, we have all seen the videos.¡± Major Ivanov asked, and Max shook his head, not wanting to exin.


    ¡°Regimental Command thought that her skills would be better suited to Command of the Mecha Repair Group. Central Command is the only reason she¡¯s still in a Mecha.¡± Major Miller said quietly, filling in the others on her situation.


    ¡°Does she have a really good System Function for diagnosis or something?¡± Major Ivanov asked, still not understanding why anyone would want to transfer a Pilot like that. He was a bit of abat maniac himself, and just the thought of the closebat scenes they had shown gave him a bit of a tumescent glow.


    ¡°You could say that. She¡¯s not just a monster in Combat, but she does it without a single Piloting-rted System Function. All of her skills are Technical unless you count Drone Controller, which could be considered abat skill, though not a Mecha one.¡± Max reluctantly informed them.


    ¡°She can Cap out the Emag on a Redemption Pattern with pure skill, and in a Cyborg body? Monster doesn¡¯t even begin to cover that level of skill. If she had the sort of Multi Weapon Activation skill that I have, she would have been a shoo-in for a Super Heavy Pilot.¡± Petrova whispered, referring to the electromaic over hydraulic movement system that the Redemption Pattern Crusaders use for motion.


    ¡°I heard it¡¯s not only in Mecha. There was a rumor among the second wave thatnded on Sigmund that she went ten-on-one with the Narsians in a Mobile Suit and lived. The officers were talking about it before the Regimental Assignment, saying that Regimental Commander General Yaakov actually wanted to transfer her out ofbat so he could have her assigned as his personal assistant.¡± A Major at the next table leaned over to tell them quietly, not wanting to be overheard spreading rumors.


    That would exin why he was so mad when General Tennant moved her into a Super Heavy as a technician. A Personal Assistant for Generals was more than just an assistant, they were bodyguards, problem solvers, and sometimes even a lover. The position was one that a lot of noblewomen aspired to since it didn¡¯t involve a lot of danger but had huge rewards and political influence. Not just women of course, but two-thirds of the Generals were men, and many of the female Generals preferred a female assistant as well, so most of the personal assistants were female.


    ¡°He wouldn¡¯t have survived it. She¡¯s not that kind of gentle and agreeable Noble.¡± Max chuckled, imagining the look on her face if the Regimental Commander had actually had a chance to make the proposal.


    ¡°Speaking of which, where is she?¡± Major Pippin asked.


    ¡°Since she¡¯s a full conversion, she doesn¡¯t keep the same meal schedule, but she is likely hanging out in the general Mess Hall with the other technicians, or over with the Lab staff in the next sector,¡± Max exined. Their new rooms were only twenty meters from their old ones, since First Battalion was right next to the researchers¡¯ quarters, so it would make sense for her to be hanging out with them.


    While they were chatting, General Tennant was putting the final touches on their first live trial. There was a nice uninhabited near the border with the Tapani that had an abundance of hostile non-sentient animals, and breathable air. The Empire wanted to secure it with a military base as a front line defense against the threat of a Klem invasion since the Insectoid species was the greatest nonhuman threat in the region, so General Tennant had volunteered the test Regiment to go clear out anding zone for the base construction crews.


    [Mission Assignment: Prepare Rae 3 for construction of Military Facility]


    The order went to all personnel on the ship, along with a time stamp and basic maps, but that only brought more confusion.


    ¡°What are we supposed to fight them with? The Mecha aren¡¯t here yet?¡± Max thought to himself, not liking being kept in the dark about the schedule, or theck of time for the actual testing since the star system they were going to was so close it would only be a few-day trip.

 Chapter 217 217 Cargo Transfer

    While they sat in the isted meteor station, cargo ships came and went, picking up raw materials to bring to the nearby manufacturing systems. But today, they weren¡¯t empty, nor were they the civilian mining shuttles that usually made the run.


    Today they were military freighters in disguise, bringing in loads of mecha and gear to outfit Abraham Kepler for an extended mission.


    Five battalions of three Companies each meant that they were receiving a total of twenty Super Heavy Mecha along with the hundreds of other Mecha.


    Other than the Comor Pattern Corvettes they were all new designs and highly ssified, so Central Command had determined that bringing Abraham Kepler to the source was too much of a risk and instead had it dock here under the pretense of restocking the raw materials forbat repairs.


    Just watching them being rolled aboard on their transport racks was impressive, and Max could only imagine the horror on their enemy¡¯s faces when such a force actuallynded on a popted for a pacification effort.


    Many colonies don¡¯t even have five major cities, much less the twenty that would be needed to spread out a force like theirs.


    It took two days for all the Mecha to arrive and get checked over in their hangars, but finally, it was time for the Pilots to say hello to their new homes in person. Max and Nico were the only ones who had ever actually seen one in person before, all the others were trained on simtors, so the atmosphere aboard was incredibly exhrated.


    ¡°Colonel, I heard you and Major Nico were on the development team. Do you have any tips and tricks for using the new Fast Attack Crusaders?¡± A captain named Booth asked as he stared in envy at the four X137 Super Heavy Mecha that belonged to their Battalion.


    ¡°Talk to Nico, I¡¯m sure she would happily hold a training simtion for anyone who would like it. That fast attack Mecha is her baby, designed specifically because she and a select few others could operate faster than the standard Crusaders could react. The full capabilities of the Mecha are incredible.¡± Max exined.


    ¡°Thank you, Colonel. I will grab the others and go talk to her. Once we find her that is.¡± Captain Booth agreed with a fist to the chest salute.


    If you knew Nico, where she was wouldn¡¯t be hard to guess, but these troops were all new, so Booth didn¡¯t realize that Nico was right in front of him, in technicians coveralls and wearing the Tech Adept Exoskeleton while she tweaked and checked over Max¡¯s new Command Mecha.


    Fortunately, some of the others were already aware of her personality and knew to look for her on the Mecha.


    ¡°Major Nico, could you give us a crash course in closebat tactics for the X109?¡± One of the Pilots called up as she finished her first round of modifications to Max¡¯s new Mecha.


    ¡°No problem. The design and mobility favor very aggressive piloting, so it might take a bit of adjustment.¡± Nico agreed, using the exoskeleton¡¯s gravity control to float down from the Mecha.


    The ten Pilots who were in the Fast Attack model X109 all quickly assembled at the training simtors in bay A1, the primary training facility assigned to the First Batallion.


    ¡°I will set everyone up for individual training, but first you wall should watch and see how I do it. Run the mission through, and then exit to ask questions and we will go again until you all have the hang of things. I would hate for the Mecha to get a poor review just because the Pilots weren¡¯t really familiar with how to use it properly.¡± Nico instructed them, before logging into the simtor.


    The scenario that she created was a familiar one, an attack that she had previously trained many Pilots on. The attack on the tech facility on Belmont.


    Once everyone was loaded in to spectate the scenario, Nico engaged thrusters and rushed straight into the base, hitting the Mecha Hangar with the shoulder-mounted Disruptor Cannon, while using the Fusion mer in her left hand to melt the infantry and light Mecha in the courtyard. Crusaders began to pile out of the warehouse, and she hit the back ranks with the Disruptor Cannon, before charging the front rank with her sword, cleanly cutting through the cockpit before the Pilot could even react.


    She then flooded the warehouse with Fusion me and used the Mecha¡¯s thrusters to fly away as the building went up in a crackling cloud of cooked-off explosives and fuel.


    That had eliminated all the military targets in the area, and the shield on the X109 that Nico was Piloting never even suffered a breach, only a few ncing blows from the Crusaders and some light arms fire.


    [Did you all see what I did there? Log out and we will have a proper conversation, then you can try yourselves.] Spectator mode didn¡¯t allow them to interact with the Pilot in the simtion, so Nico exited the simtor and used the whip arms on the Tech Adept skeleton to stand herself up out of her seat and face the other Pilots.


    ¡°Well, who is first?¡± She asked as they tried to form proper questions for her.


    ¡°The Fusion mer, what is the effective range at full spread?¡± One of the pilots finally asked.


    ¡°Seventy-Five Meters to the end of the mes. You can sneak a bit more against infantry, but anything beyond seventy-five won¡¯t melt Light Mecha armor anymore.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°Is there some optimization trick to speed up your control inputs? I didn¡¯t think that a Cyborg hand could move fast enough to exceed the Crusader¡¯s input responses.¡± Another one asked.


    ¡°Not really, I use a System Function to speed things up, you all will have to do things your own way, but the controls are more customizable, so you can set them up just how you like them for better responses with minimal inputs.¡± Nico couldn¡¯t well give them the ability to directly control the Mecha the way she does, so that much was up to them.


    They would also have to practice to get more skilled in closebat since the Fast Attack Mecha was a close-range machine, but that would take time, and it was more important that they mastered the basics first before trying to learn newbat styles in a new Mecha.


    ¡°Everyone back in the simtion, and remember: Be Aggressive. It¡¯s the most survivable route with short-ranged weapons. In a Company sized attack formation the rest of the squad will cover you from ranged attackers, so just focus on what is close and what is targeting you directly.¡± Nico directed the team, who eagerly logged in and began running the same scenario that Nico just finished.

 Chapter 218 218 Familiarization

    For the next four days, learning and bingfortable in their new Mecha was the goal of every Mecha Pilot on the ship. They were securely in their storage racks, so there wasn¡¯t much for the repair team, or the researchers to do, though the research team did spend a great deal of time preparing data tables andparative studies, just waiting for the data sets toe in so that they could get to the main part of their work.


    The task was surprisingly time-consuming, and Max only managed to spend a few hours a day with Moonie, who had epted that soon Max would be in the field and they would have to go their separate ways, but for now they were enjoying each other¡¯spany and the games of chess.


    The speed of Abraham Kepler was greatly improved with their new faster-than-light drives online, and they were going to be approaching Rae 3 in only one more day. That meant that it was time to start getting all the Mecha loaded and prepared forbat.


    They needed ammunition, rations, water, final checks before deployment, a review of the Landers functionality, and finally the Pilot¡¯s personal items to be loaded before deployment.


    The final checks brought Max to a familiar face for the first time in a while. Sergeant Fritz, formerly a Corporal from Mecha maintenance, was in charge of operations in the First Battalion¡¯s section of the Cargo Bays. He would be supervising their preparations and making sure the Mecha had everything Max had requested for them.


    With the new patterns, that would be easier than usual, since only the Super Heavy Mecha used a solid projectile main weapon system. Both the Super Heavy X137 and the Comor Pattern Corvettes used a variety of projectile secondary defense systems though.


    None of the units had names yet, and they wouldn¡¯t for at least the first few missions until they had been deemed suitable for long-term service, but more than one Pilot had already started thinking of names for their new Mecha. It was customary that the first Pilot got to name it if the unit wasn¡¯t a recement for a destroyed unit, so this was a prime opportunity for the Super Heavy Mecha Pilots.


    If development returned to the status quo, these units would be in service for a century or more, going through a half dozen pilots before being reced by an upgraded model. Some of the previous Citadel Pattern Phnx ss Mecha had served for almost a thousand years, due to the stagnation of development, but Max couldn¡¯t see that happening again. The other Nations had already started moving forward, and the cold war of progression wouldn¡¯t stop as easily this time as it did previously.


    Much of that could be med on the System. It had increased intelligence, and the capabilities of everyone, not just Pilots, so new developments were inevitable, and the old generation of politicians was dying out. Whether it was of old age or hubris turning them against the Empire didn¡¯t really matter, for most of the powerful nobles their days were already numbered, and they had ruled as long as they could before turning over their power to the younger generation.


    Max went back to his dorm and dug through his duffel bag, pulling out the collection of pictures that he liked to post up around the view screen in his mecha. This time there would be much more room avable, so Nico could put up all she wanted as well, but from what he remembered she only ever had one picture up inside the Mecha, plus that bright pink nket.


    Major Miller was helping the unit prepare for deployment and had already prepared his own Mecha, living up to the reputation as an efficient Logistics Officer that had earned him the position in the first ce. Nico was over with the technicians, tweaking a weapon system on one of the X104 recements for the Redemption Pattern Crusaders. It had one of the new pattern Dual Ion Destroyers in its right hand and a pair of sma Shotguns on the shoulder packs that doubled as both heat dissipation for the reactor and adjustable thrusters for mobility.


    The Ion Destroyers weren¡¯t linking right when they did the system test, but somehow the defect hadn¡¯t been caught before today or had only just started. Max expected more than a few such incidents would pop up duringbat, which was why he nned to send out twice the forces he thought necessary for every mission.


    If something broke down, or they found a glitch, the extra manpower would allow the unit to be taken out of service for a while without jeopardizing the mission.


    The enemy was supposed to be no smarter than the average beast, but thinking of the Guard Dogs on Comor, that didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t smarter than some of the people Max knew. Most of the Company and Battalion Commanders thought the same way, caution first to test the new units¡¯ reliability, since they had solid theoretical numbers for the firepower.


    The defect turned out to be a manufacturing defect that wasn¡¯t detected, so the technicians were going over all 120 units that were equipped with the weapon, forty of them per Company. Only a few more defects were found, none of them as severe, and all of the other weapons were likely to have remained functional until taking damage and overloading the weakened circuit, but it was a good reminder that this was an experimental unit.


    The message was passed to all the other Technicians serving the other Battalions, who raced to check all their Mecha before deployment. This final day was always hectic, even with proven and battle-tested units, so Max didn¡¯t expect anyone in the technical team to be getting any sleep tonight.


    The checks also provided the first set of manufacturing quality data to the research teams, so they would be hard at work for the foreseeable future, leaving Max in a bit of a limbo state, surrounded bypetent people who really didn¡¯t need his input at the moment.

 Chapter 219 219 Rae 3

    [All Personnel are advised, that the first round of drops to the Rae 3 Construction Zone will begin in precisely 6 hours.] The announcement startled almost everyone who was still awake and off duty.


    None of them intended to be awake at this particr hour, as it didn¡¯t fit with the schedule of either school of thought rting to Drop Preparations. One group maintained that dropping in the middle of your shift was best, so you could finalize any issues before the drop and have the soldiers awake long enough to establish their base of operations. The second, which Max preferred, was to sleepte and begin his shift an hour before the drop so that the unit was fresh and had more energy for whatever was waiting for them on the surface.


    The second group made up most of the first wave forces, and those used to being on the front line, who understood that setting up a base is no easy feat when you are the first forces on the ground.


    So, Max and the First Battalion mostly didn¡¯t hear that announcement, and woke up four hourster, rushing their morning schedules to get to their Mecha and do a final readiness check before they were loaded into the Landers.


    Thenders were going to be crammed today, as they always were for a Heavy Mecha Company drop, and it would take some time to get them loaded and bnced. Not only was it the first time these mecha patterns would be dropped intobat, but it was also the first time a crew had loaded them for an actual drop.


    Virtual Reality gave the crew confidence in their methods though, and the units were quickly loaded. The only strange part that Max found was that even when all units reported ready, hisnder was basically empty, with only his Mecha, Major Miller, one more X109 Fast Attack Mecha, and most of the unit¡¯s spare parts and raw materials loaded into the hold.


    It was a strange arrangement, but looking through the data that Nico had pulled up, the Battalion Command Mecha couldn¡¯t go in with a regr Company, the two Super Heavy Mecha together with a Heavy Mecha Wing would put the Lander overweight.


    The creatures on the weren¡¯t expected to have any anti-Lander capabilities, since the flying creatures weren¡¯t strong enough to damage the Landers themselves, so in theory, the drop was going to be low risk, with Max and his Command Lander droppingst into the middle of the pattern formed by the rest of his Battalion.


    Once they had that aplished, they would establish a base camp, and begin to spread out and eliminate all hostile life forms in the area.


    Max had seen the poption data, and sending Super Heavy Mecha here was pure overkill. The most dangerous native inhabitant was an eight-meter-tall ape. There were many creatures that were deadly to humans, and a reasonable number that could challenge Line Mecha or Corvettes, but ones that could challenge a Heavy mecha were few and far between.


    ¡°Pants on youzy fethers, gogogo. You have five minutes to get to your Mecha.¡± Nico was shouting in the hallway, making the Pilotsugh. Until that very moment, this felt like a training assignment to most of them, low risk and controlled, but that shouting felt so much like home that it reminded them that this too was a battlefield.


    Boots started jogging down the hallways since everyone was nearly ready anyhow, and First Battalion quickly assembled around their Company Commanders for their final orders.


    They weren¡¯t fresh recruits from some backwater, these were all experienced soldiers, so the process was smooth and painless, getting everyone loaded and ready a full hour before their scheduled drop even before the transition from faster than light back to standard speeds.


    [ALERT ALERT. Klem Incursion has been detected on Rae 5. All Troops will be diverted to defend the Empire against the alien incursion.]


    Rae 5 was a binary star system only five light years from Rae 3, a difference of under fifteen minutes at full velocity, but suddenly the ship was decelerating, sending a lot of unprepared troops stumbling, while the Pilots of the First Battalion were securely locked into their seats.


    [Our approach vector was set to take us past Rae 5 on the way to our destination, they must have done an emergency trantion to get us in position faster once the threat was identified.] Nico informed the Battalion, settling frayed nerves, and getting the hangar staff back on track.


    The Klem popted worlds by pods shot into space from their organic vessels, much like deadly data probes that grew into enormous monsters in a matter of hours. Rae 5 had no intelligent life, and nothing that was a threat to humans, but it had a lot of nt life, and that is what the Klem invasion was after.


    They only attacked two types of worlds. Those with a lot of biomass, and those with an extreme threat. Their space-faring vessels harvested the rest of the resources their species needed to survive by ingesting small asteroids.


    [So much for a rxing working vacation. Get your game faces on everyone. Company Commanders, find out who in your unit has fought these evil insects before and form a new battle n before we drop. The pattern will be the same, but after that, we will have to adjust to the situation on the ground.] Max ordered.


    They didn¡¯t have enough information yet. Max didn¡¯t even know if the infestation had taken hold or if the pods were on their way to the. If they hadn¡¯tnded yet, things would be easier. They didn¡¯t hatch until they had cooled down and after that, they needed to eat to gain strength before they were a real threat. If they were already entrenched on the, it would be a nightmare to dig them out.


    [Updtated Drop times are ready. The first wave drops in eighteen minutes.] Sergeant Fritz called from the hangar, and Max prepared himself for the very worst.

 Chapter 220 220 Not So Gentle Landing

    [Launch in T minus 10 minutes] The standardized announcement came and Max made an announcement of his own.


    [Get your wagers in with Command, to the second. The closest bet to actual drop time gets this drop¡¯s prize. One Can of Comor¡¯s finest Apple Pie filling, and a carton of cigarettes.]


    The Pilots all quickly sent in their messages, in case the Lander dropped much earlier than expected, but the mood became much less tense.


    At seven minutes and forty-eight seconds, the Lander shuddered and then went into freefall, marking their officialunch time. Max would check who was the official winnerter since the satellite data had finally started toe in and he could see the situation on the.


    The Klem had alreadynded, but from the looks of it, they hadn¡¯t had time to spread very much yet. He also got the targeting data for the Five Battalions arrivals. One on each nk of the Klem invasion, and one exactly in the center.


    A Hammer and Anvil deployment, where the enemy would be driven back against an immovable stone in the middle of their ranks. It was a highly efficient strategy, but it relied on the center force holding out for the entire battle and not getting overrun by the enemy, a virtual impossibility when fighting the Klem.


    Given a few days, they would have spawned thousands of warriors the size of Line Mecha, with long, spiked front appendages that could tear through the sturdiest of armors and the strength to pull limbs off the Light Mecha. Given a week, the infestation would move to the second stage, with creaturesrger than Super Heavy Mecha that could overrun the best-defended fortresses.


    They had much more firepower than a previous generation force their numbers, but this battle was going to be a very ugly one.


    ¡°Did you perhaps get the Regimental Commander¡¯s daughter pregnant on yourst shore leave? Maybe his wife as well?¡± Major Ivanov asked when he saw that the First Battalion would of course be the center of the force, the anvil for the others to hammer the enemy against.


    ¡°Look at it this way. At least you don¡¯t have to march anywhere. Just stand there and the enemy wille to you. Plus, this is Colonel Max¡¯s favorite deployment. A strategic bridge, a Uranium mine, no matter where he is sent he gets to stand there while the rest of the continent tries to kill him.¡± Nico responded, then sent data on theirnding point and potential defenses to the Company Commanders.


    With five artillery-capable Super Heavy Mecha, they weren¡¯t helpless, it just wasn¡¯t going to be fun dealing with waves of giant insects. From what Max heard, the bipedal ones weren¡¯t too bad. They were among the deadliest, but the crawling ones and the centipede-type ones were much more disturbing for the troops and were often equipped with innate corrosive bodily fluids that would eat through armor even if you killed them at close range.


    Having no infantry in their ranks was a small blessing on this mission.


    The Landers began to shudder as they entered the atmosphere, on a slightly steeper approach than usual, since the opponent¡¯s current abilities were unknown.


    There were no sounds of impact or warning lights that would indicate that the Lander was taking damage as it hurtled through the atmosphere until thest thirty seconds.


    [Warning, severe electrical storm ahead] Thender announced.


    Lightning strikes often made for very roughndings as they overloaded circuits, or prevented the Anti Gravity ting from engaging, and today was no exception. With a bang, all the interior lights of the Lander went out, leaving Max in the dark until the emergency lights kicked on a half secondter.


    ¡°Power and guidance are still up, but gravity control is running at sixty percent,¡± Nico informed him, making Max sigh.


    That was a survivablending, and they were unlikely to take any injuries, but the crates containing raw ore and spare parts would not be so lucky, and the interior of thender was going to be a mess when they got to the ground.


    ¡°How are the othernders doing?¡± Max asked, checking the sensor data of theirnding site to make sure they were in factnding in a clear field and not in the middle of an ambush or a rockyndslide.


    ¡°Minor damages, all systems marginally operational. We should have our full force when we reach the ground.¡± Nico informed him, so Max sent out the orders to form an encirclement around thenders and clear the area of any hostile presence.


    They were close enough for thermal imaging now, and it was obvious that just clearing the Landing Zone wasn¡¯t going to be an easy task. There were hundreds of Klem Warrior and smaller signatures in the area. The smallest of them were known as the Klem Worker Drones, or simply Drones, and individually they were no threat to a Mecha, but in arge group they could be deadly, eating through hoses, armor, and even structural supports as they swarmed over the Mecha¡¯s chassis.


    [All Units, beware of the Drones and don¡¯t let the unit get overrun. Let¡¯s see how much they like the Fusion mers.] Max instructed, getting the final response just before the firstnder touched down.


    The Mecha stormed out in a furious wave of gunfire, mowing down all the Klem who were unfortunate enough to be near thenders, and then spreading out to clear the area. The pattern repeated with each Company¡¯snder with Max and hismand group being thest out.


    There was nothing left nearby for him to shoot at, so Max activated the sensor link between himself and the other Super Heavy Mecha, which gave him indirect fire solutions all over the map.


    That was a new feature the old generation didn¡¯t have, and Max hoped that the others enjoyed it as much as he was going to. The extra sensors were an incredible upgrade to his targeting abilities, letting him see anything that the Company Commanders could see without having to rely on the satellite data.


    [Area Clear, Sir.] Pippin reported, finding no more heat signatures or movement within range of their sensors.


    [Excellent work everyone. Send any damaged units to the repair racks and get the men to work building fortifications. Build them tall and strong, we expect to be here for a while.] Max ordered, then looked over at Nico, who had a small smile on her face as she sorted through sensor logs and began making the updated blueprints for the position¡¯s defenses.

 Chapter 221 221 Forbidden Barbecue

    [All Companies set three shift rotations. Defense building, guard duty, and rest. I want this position dug in before night falls. There are adequate shovels for the Corvettes in the Landers.] Max ordered, wishing he had thought to bring a trenching machine on this mission.


    It wasn¡¯t that the Landers couldn¡¯t create one from the raw materials that they brought, but that material would be needed very soon to start repairing damaged Mecha. For that same reason, they wouldn¡¯t build anything too borate, at least not yet. Most of what they found here in the core of the infestation was swarm and warriors, with none of the Heavy Mecha-sized behemoths in sight.


    Not that they wouldn¡¯t be there eventually, but not today.


    For now, the n was to transport the material removed from the trenches to thenders, using the Materials Printers to create huge rockcrete blocks that would create the primary wall around their position. Though not as hard as armor, the reinforced concrete would stand up to arge amount of abuse, and could easily be constructed from the loose soil and rocks that were removed from a trench.


    Each of them was a standardized two meters high and thick by four meters long, easily moved by a Crusader ss Mecha, but they would securely interlock when stacked, to create a durable defense.


    The Battalion got on the job as quickly as they could, knowing that the better they did now, the less they would sufferter, once the Klem realized that they had intruders inside their territory. The likely wouldn¡¯t take more than a few hours, so the Pilots were wearing themselves out, digging the trench and hauling the blocks back to ce inside the line.


    Once that was finished, a liquid polymer would be created and poured into the trench, making it more difficult for the Klem to tunnel under the wall.


    [Colonel Max, we have a wave of Klem warriors approaching from all directions.] Major Ivanov, Commander of the First Company called, and Max immediately moved into a position where he could defend the fourth quadrant, leaving the Super Heavy Mecha evenly spaced.


    [Avoid projectile usage during the first wave. They are still too scattered, and munitions are limited.] Max ordered, waiting for the Klem to get within an optimal range for the Ion Bombard Arrays and light up his targeting skills firing solutions.


    At five thousand meters, targeting squares began to fill his screen, and Max opened fire over the heads of the Mecha who were working frantically to finish up the walls.


    The other three opened fire a few secondster, bringing the advance to a halt as the Klem stopped to reorganize outside the expected range of the Kepler weapons. They weren¡¯t truly sentient, but they had a very good memory, and they would stop at that point in the future, building up their force density for an attack, but leaving themselves vulnerable to the Mass Drivers on the X137 Command Units.


    For two uneasy hours, more and more Klem gathered in a ring six kilometers away from the Kepler position, and the defensive wall waspleted, with the trenches lined in fast curing polymer.


    [Any signs of Behemoths?] Max asked, making sure nobody had seen anything that he hadn¡¯t.


    [Negative, we have a high density of warriors but nothingrger yet.] All the units reported the same, and Max watched as the flow of Klem into the area slowed to a trickle.


    They would only migrate so far to deal with a threat, and it looked like they had already assembled all the forces that they thought would be necessary.


    ¡°Do you want me to send out the scouting drones?¡± Nico asked, showing him their supply of ten weaponless drones on the secondary view screen.


    ¡°No, I think the first attack should be straightforward enough that we won¡¯t need to look for additional threats. Save them for when things start looking suspicious.¡± Max disagreed, then sent out the order to begin the attack.


    [Full Area Bombard with the Mass Drivers. Start in the back of the cluster and roll back toward the base in 3, 2, 1.]


    The air filled with the thunder of artillery, and explosions lit up the sky in the distance, slowly closing in on them. The Klem quickly realized the threat that wasing from behind them and began their charge on the First Battalion¡¯s position.


    When the front ranks reached three kilometers they were at afortable distance for the Ion Destroyers on the Crusader ss Mecha, and bursts of white energy joined the red and yellow explosions. The Klem ranks were starting to get thin in a hurry, as the warriors were unable to survive a hit from the Heavy Mecha, but that didn¡¯t slow them. At two thousand meters, the Corvette ss Mecha joined the fuside and the attack nearly vanished under the barrage of energy sts.


    [Cease Artillery. Save ammunition for the next wave.] Max ordered and the torturous thunder of four Super Heavy Mecha ceased in an instant.


    The silence was deafening, leaving a lingering ring in the ears, despite the sound dampening of the Mecha, but still, thest remnants of the attack rushed for the walls, only to be met with the Fusion mers of the X109 Fast Attack Crusaders just before they could reach the trenches.


    The smell of burning chitin filled the air, filtered from the Pilot¡¯s noses by the rebreather systems of the Mecha, but the lingering haze of burning bodies and vegetation remained in the air, hiding the base camp from sight to anything more than a kilometer away.


    [First Full engagement reported. First Battalion has eliminated a Klem Warrior wave with a zero failure rate. Data is being sent to the analysis department.] Regiment Commander General Yaakov reported from his position in the observation bays of Abraham Kepler, forwarding the data through to the scientists.


    ¡°See, he will be fine. They wiped out the first wave before it even reached their defenses. They can handle this.¡± Sister Lilith assured Moonie, who had been in a state of mild panic ever since the Mecha dropped.


    She thought she was ready for this, but knowing Max was in Combat and analyzing the data from his battles was proving harder on the nerves than the small blonde researcher had anticipated.

 Chapter 222 222 Klem Bait

    The mers turned out to be both their best friend and worst enemy in closebat. They were insanely effective, roasting everything that came near them, hot enough that they even partially melted the stone and earth outside the trench. But that effectiveness came with a price. The smell of roasted Klem.


    The others seemed drawn to the smell, and after the battle groups of Klem warriors and Swarm would arrive to cannibalize the bodies on the outer reaches of the battlefield. What they needed the most at this stage in their invasion was food, and they weren¡¯t above consuming their fallenrades if it meant helping themselves grow.


    [Well, that¡¯s disturbing. But we should do something about it before they start getting much stronger.] Pippin sighed over the Command Channel.


    [The other four Battalions have already settled in on the outer perimeter and are spreading out by thepany to begin pushing into the Klem in the morning. If we wait for the offensive we should have an easier time of it. We don¡¯t have any data on their organizational abilities, so waiting for a distraction is prudent.] Max informed him, quietly implying that they should make ns for when that happens.


    Most Battalion Commanders didn¡¯t micromanage, they gave a vague directive and left it to their Company Commanders to get it done the best way they could. Max had worked under that sort of Battalion and Regiment in the past, and it was very refreshingpared to the horror stories some of the Test Pilots had told of their time on active duty.


    Of course, ones like their current Regimental Commander, who viewed lineage as more important thanpetence were equally bad, but at least General Yaakov was willing to let them run their Battalions as they saw fit.


    Max didn¡¯t realize that the General wasn¡¯t always like that, and that other than his aversion to talking to Commoners, his lousy attitude had been entirely due to having been thwarted in his attempts to recruit a new Personal Guard. For example, right now aboard Abraham Kepler, he was working on a n to relieve the center of the fight with Orbital Fighter Drones if the Klem threat started to ramp up to levels that they didn¡¯t believe that the experimental units could handle.


    Losing their firstbat engagement wouldn¡¯t look good on his resume, or the new units, and he had high hopes for this new Regiment Organization that didn¡¯t rely so heavily on infantry. On his homeworld, themoners were a valuable resource for the factories of the wealthy nobles, the loss of so many in an infantry battle hurt his wealth-minded soul.


    Just after dark, the Klem started gathering at the seven-kilometer mark, one kilometer back of where they werest time, outside the ring of corpses left after thest artillery bombardment.


    [They learn quickly. They are past the point that they think our weapons can reach.] Major Petrova of Charlie Company noted on the Command Channel.


    [Hold fire until they have begun the rush and avoid pushing them out of sensor range?] Major Ivanov suggested, getting the men of Able Company ready.


    [Colonel, after the resultsst time, I think we can each cover a third of the zone if you want to take a backup role and reinforce the areas where the density is highest.] Major Petrova suggested.


    An artillery zone thatrge was going to be hard to cover even with the terrifying force of three Super Heavy Mecha, but they didn¡¯t need to kill everything, they still had a full Battalion of Mecha with them to keep the base clear. This was a test of everything they brought, and not just the X137 after all.


    [Agreed, Major. I will support the areas with higher density. During this rush, I rmend not having the X109 Fast Attack hold back so long. Put them up front with the Corvettes and let that Disruptor work its magic. The Klem army doesn¡¯t have radiation shielding, as far as I know, so the radiation should be devastating all the way out to five hundred meters.] Max directed them, much to the joy of the Pilots.


    They hadn¡¯t had much chance to see the weapons in action since they mostly waited to use their mersst time, but putting them in support of the Corvettes, for abined fast attack line made good sense, with the less mobile units behind them burying the enemy in energy sts.


    For most of the night, they waited, as the Klem force built up to an astonishing level. The infestation was already moving into the middle stages, and the first Behemoth had been spotted along the outside perimeter, though the main assault hadn¡¯t begun yet.


    [They must have cleared almost every bit of life from the area to build up this strong. The clouds are keeping me from getting a visual on the area, but the heat signatures are pretty intensely clustered out there.] Nico informed the Commanders, sending a still screenshot to the Command Channel.


    It was within expectations for a mid-stage infestation, and the battle ns already existed, but the Klem had advanced to this stage a few days faster than expected.


    Thanks to the rotation of the, the tightly clustered pods scattered across five hundred kilometers of the, which was now fully contained by the Kepler Military, at least in theory. The main attack was going to begin at first light when the change in light should make it hardest for opponents that rely on visual senses to fight, but from Max¡¯s viewpoint, it looked like the Klem force was doing the same.


    Nico had already sent the data to Command, along with everything they had recorded about the Klem¡¯s actions so that the Generals could learn more about the opponent. The insects were notoriously adaptable, so it was always prudent to reassess their capabilities at the start of a battle and not just go by what you saw them doing on another.


    [Colonel, it is almost dawn, should we bait them in? A little fire should refresh the scent that drew so many of them to us in the first ce] Major Ivanov suggested, though the number of Klem corpses in the area that weren¡¯t already ash was fairly low.


    [Do it. We have waited long enough for them.]

 Chapter 223 223 Taunt

    The Fusion mers light up a half dozen corpses and acrid ck smoke fills the air, followed by enraged shrieking from the Klem lines.


    They might not understand Mecha technology, but the smell of their own kind burning is unmistakable, and the entire Klem force begins to charge toward these offensive invaders.


    Once they cross the six hundred meter mark the artillery Bombardment begins, sting the thick brown chitin apart and adding a newyer of texture to the field of smoldering craters. This time the target doesn¡¯t change, as more and more Klem continue to charge into the target area, desperate to avenge the insult to their might.


    [By the Emperor, someone should warn people about those Disruptors. That is absolutely disgusting.] Major Pippinined when the fastest of the Klem warriors reached the five hundred meter line and the radiation weapons boiled their insides, causing them to explode.


    The Ion Destroyers blow holes in them, but nothing like the violent explosion that the Disruptor causes.


    When they reached the four hundred meter mark it became obvious that even with this level of firepower, they weren¡¯t going to manage to eliminate all the Klem before they reached the walls. At least not when the Klem had corpses to shelter behind as they advanced, using the bodies of the fallen to keep themselves alive even a few meters further.


    Using this strategy to push the dead in front of them was causing the corpses to pile up, giving shelter to the advancing tide from the direct fire Ion shots.


    [Reduce Bombardment distance. Three Hundred fifty meters and roll outward to the five hundred meter mark. Clear those corpse walls.] Max instructed, sending updated firing solutions to his Mecha, targeting the spots where the piles were highest.


    ¡°Nico, send up the drones. I¡¯m having trouble targeting beyond the interference.¡± Max called over, and Nico¡¯s face went nk for a second before the sensor feeds off a pair of drones was added to the avable sensor data.


    [Appreciate the data, Pilot. It¡¯s getting hard to tell what is alive and what is dead.] Ivanov thanked her, not knowing who was operating the sensor drones.


    [Shredder ss Klem detected.] Nico announced, having spotted the ten-meter-tall multi-limbed creatures joining back lines of the tide.


    These were a different type of threat than the warriors. These Horrors could fire a barrage of spikes into their enemies, piercing steel and poisoning organic targets.


    In close, their serrated ws were simply terrifying, and a single one was known to tear through an entire squad of Line Mecha with little difficulty.


    [Keep up the clearing barrage, I will get to them in a moment.] Max decided, seeing that the firing lines were almost clear again.


    ¡°What¡¯s the status of the perimeter forces¡¯ advance? They can¡¯t be driving the Klem to us already, can they?¡± Max asked Nico, who could monitor all the radio chatter at once using her Innate Talent.


    ¡°No, the Klem charged them just after we attacked. They are stalled near their base camps and still seeing new arrivals. These are all from the interior.¡± Nico rified.


    That was both good and bad news. It meant less resistance when the others began advancing, but it also meant that they wouldn¡¯t be seeing any relief in the near future.


    The spikes that therger Klem were firing like artillery, arcing them up through the sky, began to rain down on the defense just as Max finished clearing thest piles on his targeting list.


    The barriers of mecha shields began to sh as the projectiles were deflected, leaving the First Battalion mostly unscathed once the scattered barrage of organic spikes ended.


    The off-duty Corvette ss Pilots, whose cockpits weren¡¯trge enough tofortably sleep in, had been sleeping in the Landers instead, but they definitely weren¡¯t sleeping now, with the spikes sounding like a hail storm inside the armored shell of the box-shaped spacecraft.


    Many of them moved back to their Mecha, preferring the safety of their cockpit until the attack was over, while others began making their way to where the logistics crew had hot food ready.


    The logistics crews were also getting ready to send people outside the moment the Shredders were dead. The Super Heavy Mecha would be running low on rounds for the mass drivers after an hour of sustained Bombardment and they were already halfway there. They weren¡¯t willing to risk running out in the middle of an assault wave and having to go out in even worse conditions to reload their primary defenders.


    The data that was being ryed back to the ship was encouraging to the researchers though. Only a few damaged units after a volley of spikes, which would have caused heavy losses among thest generation force, and the cooling systems that they built into the Mass Drivers were functioning exactly as intended, allowing each Mecha to take the ce of dozens of infantry crewed artillery pieces.


    The sensors in the pilot suits had picked up some anomalies though. The air pressure changes from the ny beat per minute artillery firing rate shaking the Mecha was causing the Pilots¡¯ heart rates to synchronize with the Mass Drivers. It wasn¡¯t a health issue at this time, but if the firing rate increased it might be.


    [Send a supply pod to First Battalion. Four Standard Shipments of Mass Driver munitions and ten gun drones.] General Yaakov ordered, seeing the tremendous expenditure that was needed to sustain the furious defense of the First Battalion¡¯s position.


    They had raw materials for the Materials Printers, but those were best used for repairs, and their supplies of extra munitions would be hard-pressed tost a whole day without creating more if this drop wasn¡¯t sent.


    [Pod iing. Mass Driver munitions mostly.] Nico reported when they got the data, and Major Petrovaughed over the inte.


    [That¡¯s got to be a new record. Additional munitions two hours into the first day of the first offensive push.]


    [At least for a mission where the initial supply allocation was correct, I¡¯ve seen some pretty messed up drops. Who knew that we would be firing artillery continually for hours at a time?] Pippin agreed.


    Max noticed as he fired that the process was getting easier and easier. Not just because he was getting used to the Mecha, but his mental processing speed seemed to be improving.


    The Klem Shredders quickly fell to the Ion Bombard Arrays of the four X137 Super Heavy Mecha and three minutester the mes of an iing supply pod lit up the sky above the First Battalion.


    It was right on course to hand in the center of the base, and not a minute too early. Nico¡¯s drones had detected morerge heat signatures, and the logistics staff had just moved out with their munitions buggies to reload the four X137 units which were all too busy toe to them.


    The push began to falter, and the Klem retreated to a distance of ten kilometers but remained in formation for another attack.


    [Let them wait. Cycle out the duty shifts, get everyone fed and ready for the next round.] Max ordered, then slumped in his seat, sore and tired from the strain of rapid targeting.


    The standard Bombardment pattern could be done with a macro, but picking off specific targets was much more physically demanding.


    His mind momentarily went nk and he just stared at the bowl of stew Nico handed him, brought over by the logistics crew when they arrived to reload the Mass Drivers.


    ¡°Eat up while it¡¯s hot.¡± She said softly, pulling him from his reverie just as a System Announcement appeared in his vision.


    [Perception] has advanced to Rank 2

 Chapter 224 224 Whistle While You Work

    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+140%


    [DEX] 3+84%


    [SPD] 3+84%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 2]


    Max stared at his system bonuses in shock. Very few Pilots ever made it to three hundred points of bonus, much less with a third base point in every stat. Just seeing the numbers in front of him made Max realize that he was likely one of the most physically powerful humans alive.


    Not only that but inside the Mecha very few would be able to match him now. The increase in the [Perception] skill was more like a form of battle focus, allowing him to slow apparent time to a crawl when he needed.


    ¡°Catch a couple of hours of sleep. The technicians can take over for a bit while everyone gets ready to go again.¡± Nico told him, and Max could sense that she sent the same message to the other Commanders.


    The technicians were all Crusader ss Qualified but had skills better suited to repair than the multiple weapon systems that the X137 fielded. If the worst came to pass and an attack started while the primary pilots were asleep, they could all at least manage an artillery bombardment and pick off high-threat targets, even if it wouldn¡¯t be quite as smooth or precise as usual.


    Max was asleep only seconds after his head hit the pillow, and didn¡¯t wake up until Nico shook him four hourster.


    ¡°There¡¯s oatmeal. The Klem force is building up again, but not as heavily, so the consensus among the technicians is they¡¯re waiting for something. The perimeter forces have begun making progress, despite meeting arge number of Shredders.¡± Nico quickly caught him up in the situation, but it only made Max more curious about what they were waiting for.


    Klem weren¡¯t known to be patient hunters, they were usually ravenous and went straight for the kill.


    Max could see that both his Battalion and the Klem were on edge, but he just couldn¡¯t understand what they were waiting for. At least not until the corpses began to shudder and move, being pushed up into windrows to cover the Klem advance.


    [They had the swarmy eggs in the bodies and they¡¯re creating defensive walls to cover their approach. As soon as those walls are ready, they will charge.] Max called over the radio, unsure who was awake among the Command team.


    [Closest row is two hundred meters, should we send the mers out to light it up?] Major Pippin asked.


    [Do it. I will have Nico send up the drones so we can properly target through the smoke. Everyone Crusader ss and up should be able to link the data feeds to their heads-up disy. The Corvettes can wait until the Klem are in closer, just don¡¯t burn the portion that is upwind of the base.]


    As soon as permission was given, nine of the X109 Fast Attack Crusaders leaped out and turned their mers on the corpses, creating a wall of mes that engulfed three-quarters of the closest circle of bodies before the Fast Attack Mecha jumped back to avoid being overrun by the nimble cockroaches that were the Klem Swarm.


    Major Pippin and Baker Company were upwind today, so they got a clear view, but they also got an influx of Klem, who had moved around the base to avoid the fires. Klem corpses were rather mmable but had a very high ignition point. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn¡¯t burn, but once they were lit with the Fusion mers the piles became a daunting inferno that even the bravest of the insects didn¡¯t dare approach too closely.


    What they did do was rush toward thest row before the mes and get ready to attack the moment the mes died down.


    [We have motion in the clearing, but the mes are spreading around to the upwind side.] Baker Company reported as the Drone feeds showed the Klem beginning to charge.


    [Artillery, full barrage, I will assist Baker Company At the clearing.] Max ordered, and once again the Thunder Guns made the very air around them shake.


    By the time the Klem realized their mistake it was already toote. The artillery shells were raining down among them, and the fires were still burning too hot for them to charge.


    Pure chaos ensued among the insectoid aliens, and Baker Company¡¯sbined firepower began putting in work to prevent the Klem who had circled the base from entering the gap in the mes. It was creating arge pile of corpses, and the mes were inching closer as they consumed the initial pile that the swarm had created.


    ¡°The fires are spreading. The artillery spread some of the burning bodies into the second pile, and it is spreading through the whole battlefield.¡± Nico informed Max as she watched the Drones¡¯ thermal sensor feed light up with more and more fire.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. We needed to do something about them before they rotted anyhow. The Klem will create a new batch for us soon enough.¡± Max shrugged, keeping up his rate of fire with the Mass Drivers while sniping the Shredders with the Ion Bombard Arrays.


    Soon, the problem wasn¡¯t the fire itself, but the smoke. It wasn¡¯t long before thick ck smoke covered everything, forcing the entire unit into their Mecha or inside Landers with the doors sealed.


    That also killed their visibility, and the fire itself made thermal targeting nearly impossible. The Klem seemed to have fled, but if they came back now, they would be nearly on top of the unit before they could do anything about it.


    Nico had two drones outside the fire area, showing no movement, but that ck plume could be seen, and smelled, for hundreds of kilometers.


    To the Mecha on the perimeter, the fire was clearly visible, rising high into the afternoon sky, a beacon to mark their destination.


    Most units had already learned the drawback to the immensely powerful mers on the X109, that being their propensity to start forest fires and light Klem bodies if they were used for more than a short burst at a time. They were possibly too effective, but the nature of their ignition didn¡¯t allow for them to be turned down in intensity by very much.


    The other Battalions were certain that the First Battalion, who dropped right into the thick of the infestation and therefore had seen the heaviest attacks, must have known as well, so the other Battalions¡¯ Commanders took the smoke as a diversion tactic, confusing the Klem and keeping them from focusing on the Mecha Army that had surrounded them.


    ¡°It takes some big brass ones to risk drawing an entire Klem infestation down on your own head to make it easier for your reinforcements. Let¡¯s get a move on and wipe them out before the bugs can get organized.¡± Colonel Sanchez of the Second Battalionughed, before ordering his entire force to advance.


    They had hundreds of kilometers to cover before they would reach that smoke, and even in with light resistance, it would take them days to get there. But they were no longer being held at bay, as the Klem forces were in disarray thanks to the conflicting reports of Kepler Mecha threats, so this was the perfect moment to advance.

 Chapter 225 225 The Push

    Although the bodies burned hot and smoked heavily, they didn¡¯t burn for long, and a half hourter, ck smoke darkened the calm skies above the battlefield, but very little new smoke rose from the smouldering remains of the Klem force.


    [Group of three Shredders at 52 degrees]Nico narrated over the inte, spotting targets for the technicians in the X137 units while the main Pilots rested in preparation for the next battle.


    The technicians had it easy in First Battalion. The mecha had barely moved, hadn¡¯t had their shields breached yet, and none of the battles had dragged out long enough that they had to take over in the middle of an engagement.


    The most they had to do was use the advantage of their height to target long-range opponents that the Crusader ss units couldn¡¯t see yet.


    They were almost enjoying themselves, searching for movement and eliminating targets the drones found in their sector. They weren¡¯t holding back to the short-range perimeter anymore and had switched to eliminating anything they saw before the Klem could organize another attack.


    [First Battalion, this is Fifth Battalion Command. Our spearhead will be approaching your sensor range within the hour and then will hold position to prevent the Klem forces from circling within the containment zone.] The Colonel in charge of thest Battalion in the Regiment reported. Nico recalled he was a white-haired older man with ashen gray skin that had wrinkled to the texture of an old leather boot and seemed friendly, but she couldn¡¯t recall his name.


    [First Battalion has drones in the sky. I will send you the encryption codes now.] Nico responded, sending the codes over so that the Colonel could see the situation in their area.


    He would be stopping on their northern nk fifty kilometres away, but with artillery, that position was still in range if they needed to reinforce each other. Thepanies of the Fifth Battalion would be stretched thin with him moving this far inside the enforcement, though and would have to work hard to avoid being encircled.


    But his assessment was correct. If the Klem were allowed to move freely, they could gather a force strong enough to overrun a Battalion and break out, infesting even more of the and making them nearly impossible to eliminate.


    [You made an incredible mess of the area. How are your munitions holding out?] Fifth Battalion¡¯s logistics officer asked?


    [We got a drop pod earlier, so we¡¯re still above the original values. How are your supplies?]


    [Not great. Repair materials are at sixty percent, and munitions are at thirty percent of original.] The officer responded, and Nico could hear repair work in the background.


    Being more spread out to maintain the line meant that they couldn¡¯t turn the full force of four Super Heavy Mecha against dense clusters of Klem, so they were inevitably forced into closebat, where the piercing and crushing limbs of the Klem were able to show why the species was a ss 1 Threat. By contrast, First Battalion had used under five percent of their repair materials.


    [Let us know if you need anything. We have an entire maintenance staff if your spearhead is too far from your facilities.] Nico added.


    Satellite data showed that the Kepler forces had cleared the outer third of the zone and were moving steadily inward, pushing the Klem in front of them. But the smoke seemed to have had the opposite effect to what everyone had expected.


    Instead of rallying to attack First Battalion, they were desperately trying to rush past them and escape the containment. That wasn¡¯t like them, and high above the, the Generals were searching for a sign that there might be a behemoth active to guide their strategy.


    Once thergest and most innovative of their force had matured, which could take weeks or even months depending on local conditions, fighting against these insects became a very different problem than just numbers and ws.


    [Lines breached in grid F7. The Klem took advantage of a tunnel system to get behind its without alerting the sensors.] Someone, presumably a Company Commander, reported over the Secure Channel, waking Max up to begin his watch.


    ¡°Great, that¡¯s just what we needed. The ground under us is solid, though. I checked.¡± Nico told Max before pulling up a map on one of the side screens and moving out of the main Pilot¡¯s chair.


    F7 led into a mountain range outside the far western edge of the containment area, and if arge number of Klem had made it that far even a Mecha force wouldn¡¯t be able to find and eliminate them all before they multiplied.


    [We have more movement in the East,ing in fast.] Major Petrova reported as the sound of her artillery filled the air.


    [On it. They must be heading to join the group that escaped out the western edge. Don¡¯t let anything by us.] Max ordered, adding his Mass Drivers to the barrage.


    The aliens weren¡¯t even stopping for our trying to dodge the artillery, simply charging in a direct line to whatever they were going, which happened to be straight through First Battalion¡¯s camp.


    ¡°We need more forces on the eastern front. mers as well.¡± Max told Nico, who had been on duty and awake long enough to know who should be avable.


    ¡°They¡¯re already on it, and Fifth Battalion is to our north, strung out in a line. Second Battalion should be to our east, driving this group toward us, as nned.¡± Nico exined.


    As she talked, she sent the gun drones to the East, giving everyone a better view of what they were up against while using the Laser Rifles to snipe the asional target in an attempt to herd the mass of Chitinous bodies.


    As they ran, the Shredders started firing barrage after barrage of spikes directly at the X137 units, trying to eliminate the artillery threat.Individually, they weren¡¯t a massive danger to such a giant Mecha. Still, when it was hit with hundreds of spikes in a second, even the mightyyered shielding of the new Super Heavy units began to falter.


    ¡°We¡¯ve overheated a capacitor. 5 minutes for it to cool down and regain that shieldyer. I¡¯m going to head below and swap it out; try not to move the torso too much.¡± Nico called, dropping out of sight through the hatch on the floor.


    Max¡¯s unit still had two of its fiveyers of shielding active, thanks to Nico¡¯s relentless modifications, but the three Company Commanders had all taken minor damage.


    Max turned his Ion Bombard Arrays on the closest Shredders and sted them to pieces, reducing the hail of spikes before any of the Super Heavy units took significant damage. At the same time, the Disintegrators and Ion Destroyers of the Crusaders tore the closest warriors apart.


    It was just too many targets and moving too fast to keep them at a safe distance, but at two hundred meters, the missiles and Lasers of the X137s close defence system, as well as the primary weapons of the Corvette ss Mecha, would be in an optimal range.


    Nico popped up fifteen seconds after she went below, giving Max the thumbs that the job was done. That meant he could safely move, so Max repositioned closer to the Eastern Front, beside Major Petrova, closing a little more distance to fire his shorter-range weapons.


    [Fifth Battalion, cluster up on your Company Commanders, we¡¯re taking too many casualties.] Max heard the other Battalion Commander call out as the bugs reached his defensive line.


    His tactical judgements were spot on; if they were allowed to run free, these Klem would have joined the mass attempting to break out. His only mistake was underestimating how many Klem there would be when the Wave finally arrived.


    They took the time to w and Rend the Mecha as they passed by, but most units were left only half-crippled, with the Klem ignoring them once they didn¡¯t look like a threat anymore. The only ones destroyed were the units whose weapons remained active to the bitter end.


    As far as the eye could see, the skies were filled with flying dirt and debris from the barrage the Kepler Mecha sent out. However, the Fifth Battalion was still forced into tight defensive rings around their Commanders Super Heavy Mecha, using a wall of mes and Lasers to keep themselves safe as the survivors of the Klem force rushed between them.


    [Central Command, Fifth Battalion now under 75 percent effective at dying the Klem Advance.] Their Commander reported.


    [First Battalion is still holding a 25-kilometre radius from the camp, but I estimate a simr breach rate near the edge of our radius in the next few minutes.] Max reported, watching the Fusion mers begin their job of defending the camp as the Klem nearly reached the wall.


    With speed, the Klem were moving; they didn¡¯t have the rate of fire to hit them all before they made it past unless they ran straight into the fire. The best they could do was thin the ranks.


    Nico, who had the direct feed of all the drone data, was the first to notice and report the oddity in the forces the Klem had deployed.


    [Be aware, the Klem have left the Flood behind, the smallest bugs will be going into hiding until they think we have left, then they will repopte.]


    Above them, aboard Abraham Kepler, all that General Yaakov could do was a curse as his carefullyid ns fell apart. If the Battalions stopped and torched every possible hiding spot to get rid of the little bugs, the Big ones would escape. If they focused on the big ones, they would pass the little ones and let them run and breed more big ones elsewhere.


    One Regiment was not enough firepower for the job, even with these new Mecha. The casualty rate had been astonishingly low, though, and he was very impressed with the Mecha¡¯s performance under pressure, as were the research teams, but the cleansing was not going well.


    [Sweep as thoroughly as possible. Sensors report that many Klem have disappeared into the mountain cave systems already.] General Yaakov ordered.


    They would clear this zone and then make a n to remove the Klem from the mountains.

 Chapter 226 Unwanted Favoritism

    [Battalions Two through Five, close the encirclement and rendezvous at the Location assigned to First Battalion for resupply and repairs.] General Yaakov ordered over the Command Channel.


    There was no realistic chance of immediately catching those Klem who had escaped into the mountains, so the best course of action was to close the noose around the others and limit the numbers that they would be facing in the future.


    The tunnel system was vast and well connected, with some areas being over thirty meters tall naturally. The Klem would also dig them out to create passable tunnels for their own kind, leaving room for the smaller Mecha to chase after them. That still left a major issue for the Kepler forces though. Most of the tunnels that the Klem would dig would be big enough for a Corvette ss Mecha, but very few would amodate anythingrger, and the most important ones were those that led to the incubation chambers, which would be under two meters tall, forcing even the infantry to crouch or crawl to explore them.


    And, as Max had been grateful for earlier, there were no infantry troops on the at the moment.


    That almost certainly meant that there were going to be reinforcements, even if it meant that the First Comor Regiment needed to retreat back to Abraham Kepler to keep their firepower a secret until the opportune moment.


    It would be a great shame if they did have to leave early, instead of holding the alongside their allies, but Max totally understood that there were politics at y, and keeping the new Mecha a secret until they were ready to be used against human enemies was paramount to those who were in the highest echelons of Central Command.


    ¡°How are the munition stocks and repair materials looking?¡± Max asked Nico, who already had the data tablet in her hands.


    ¡°We have enough to supply everyone back to full, but with no reloading and depending on the level of repairs, we should be able to get most of them. The calction says we have enough for 200 moderate or lower level armor patches.¡± Nico informed him while going over the data.


    That would change as the Klem army was forced toward the center, as the original n had called for, forcing his unit to use up their reserves, but it was a good sign that they wouldn¡¯t have to wait long before they could start moving again once the Perimeter forces made it to them.


    [We¡¯ve got iing. An awful lot of iing.] Pippin reported, setting a pin on the map where he noticed a huge group of Heat Signatures.


    [Hold up, that doesn¡¯t look like a Klem cluster. The temperatures are too high. Let me send the Drones to verify] Nico called, concerned that they would end up shelling their own allies.


    The drones sped toward the heat signature, finding that the Fifth Battalion was closing in on them, no longer attempting to stop the Klem force from rushing past.


    [First Battalion, please prepare for our arrival. Fifth Battalion has been ordered to reinforce your position now that the line is shorter.] The Fifth Battalion¡¯s executive officer, a Major named Melody informed them.


    Max¡¯s own XO, Major Miller, was busy keeping the maintenance and reloading on schedule. The sustained fire had found a minor design w in the Disruptors, in that they would slowly lose calibration if they were overheated, and then would need to have a technician mechanically adjust them back into spec. It was a small thing, but somehow, self-adjustment had been overlooked. Only one unit had needed it so far, but the Major was a Logistics veteran and understood very well that where one case existed, others soon would.


    So, while other Battalions relied on the XO to pass messages, or assist with battle orders, Major Miller took care of the Logistics side while Max and Nico took care of thebat side.


    Overall, this was more efficient for everyone, since nobody was overloaded during battle or when preparing for arge movement or shift change. The Central Command might view it as inefficient on arge scale, but on a Battalion scale, especially with experimental Mecha, it took a lot of mental stress off the officers.


    All of the Company Commanders hade to rely on Major Miller, since he kept the meals on schedule and set rms to wake up Pilots who were about to bete for their shift, taking the burden off their direct superiors, who were also exhausted from continualbat.


    Logistics staff from the First Battalion enjoyed the luxury as well. Instead of reporting to a veteranbat officer who didn¡¯t really understand what the Logistics side was doing, despite the mandatory courses almost all pilots slept through, they got their own former supervising officer.


    [Fifth Battalion, report to the outer trench, standard formation. Keep your men evenly spread and send me through the report on munitions levels and damages.] Major Miller called over the Command Channel, preparing to add the new troops to his responsibilities.


    Their own logistics staff were back at thenders, sending buggies back and forth with what they could, and hauling damaged Mecha back for repairs since the Fifth Battalion was too stretched out to have theme back to thending zone for their off shifts.


    That was the situation most pilots were used to. Stretched and strained supply lines, and dragging the disabled and damaged Mecha with them as much as possible until they reached the next depot that could get them up and running again.


    In a way, that made Max and the First Battalion the only forward operating base on the at the moment, though once the others reached him the Battalion whonded in the west, closest to the mountains would be the new forward position, while Max held up the rear, waiting for new orders.


    ¡°Why would they order an entire Battalion to our position? If they spread out through the perimeter forces we could finish this up much more quickly, instead of having the advancing forces grind to a crawl, while they try to force the Klem to flee in front of them.¡± Maxined to Nico, the only one who could hear him.


    ¡°Likely one of the Generals was worried about our potential casualty rates. The satellites show the Klem have gotten wise to our games, and they are building up in huge numbers using the no man¡¯snd between us and the perimeter. If they turn our way, things will get more than a little hectic. Hell, we might even get to make a bigger better bonfire next time.¡± Nicoughed, then pulled a small bag of chips out of a storage cab to offer them to Max.


    ¡°It would be hard to beat that fire. The ze was pretty impressive with the way the Klem piled up the corpses for us. I¡¯m not sure they will do that again, even if it does allow them to get much closer before they begin taking losses.¡± Max waved off the chips and focused on where the Fifth Battalion was positioned.


    [Move the Super Heavy Mecha back inside the defenses. You will need the extra range to keep the Artillery going when the Klem tide reaches the walls. The Thunder Guns are great, but they can only aim downward so far without unbncing the Mecha.] Max ordered, making the new arrivals move their deployment a little.


    They had taken pretty heavy losses among the Corvette ss Mecha, nearly a quarter had been sent back for repair and refurbishment and hadn¡¯t returned by Max¡¯s count. They were only down a few Crusader ss units though, and the Fast Attack Crusaders, the X109 were all still functional, though many of them sported battle damage.


    [The massed Klem are starting to move our way. ETA 30 minutes.] Nico reported over the Command Channel, opening it to include Fifth Battalion¡¯s Commanders in all messages so their staff didn¡¯t have to ry information.


    They were halfway through a shift, so keeping them active shouldn¡¯t be an issue. The current rotation only kept a third of the force active most of the time, with the rest either sleeping or eating. That way, in a case like this, the next unit toe online could be called early and double up the defenses without significantly exhausting anyone.


    Fifth Battalion was simply all in for the battle, having not had time to set up a rotation after thest battle where all hands were needed to prevent themselves from being annihted, so Max could only hope that the System Enhanced Physiques of the Pilots were up to the task.


    [New orders are in. All Perimeter forces are ordered into full advance. This will be the final battle of the encirclement, and we won¡¯t be stopping until the Klem are eliminated from our zone.] Nico reported, watching the Central Command Messagese in.


    [Klem advance at 30 kilometers. All Artillery Units, begin area bombardment of your assigned zone. Let¡¯s show them what the Thunder Guns can really do. Logistics, prepare for intensive reload requirements.] Max ordered, picking targets by area while Nico sent drones forward for more precise data.


    The roar of eight sets of Thunder Guns shook the ground with a shuddering wave of continual noise. Even with the noise dampening of their environmental suits, the vibration was making some of the Logistics staff nauseous. ¡®Like they had been put in a paint shaker and ordered to work¡¯ as one Corporal described it.


    [So eight in close proximity is the limit for infantry. Note that down Moonie, these vital signs are incredibly unexpected.] Sister Lilith ordered from herb aboard Abraham Kepler. Never during all their tests, had they thought about what sixteen rounds per second in close proximity to a minimally defended human body would do. But now they knew, and they could input that data into the system to help develop new battle tactics that were better suited to the new models of Mecha.

 Chapter 227 227 Klem Incoming

    With three Battalions of Heavy Mecha at their backs, the Klem began to charge for the center. In their minds, since breaking free of the confinement didn¡¯t distract these hateful metallic monsters, and their attacks didn¡¯t draw more defenses to any particr spot, that meant that the leader was clearly the one in the center. Once Fifth Battalion was reassigned to Max¡¯s position, it cemented this notion in the minds of the Klem.


    If they could overrun the position in the center, the Klem were certain that the Mecha organization would crumble and they would be left leaderless and weak. In the past, they had fought enemies that had turned even more vicious when the leader was killed, but going by the way these Mecha were organized by size, the Klem had decided that they were a Caste-based enemy, so their leader should be very important to them.


    What they hadn¡¯t counted on was the fact that the X137 had been hiding the true range of their artillery. From the moment they began to charge, the high explosive shells rained down among their ranks, killing indiscriminately and tearing apart the forest they had hoped to hide in.


    If they had known how much difort the barrage was causing their allies, the Klem would have seen it as much less than they deserved for this cowardly tactic of attacking blindly at an area. The Klem were smart enough to understand that it was the Mecha force in the center of their territory that was attacking them, but what they couldn¡¯t understand was how they knew where to find the Klem army.


    All they could do was increase the speed of their charge, hoping to get within range of the enemy leader as fast as they could.


    [Two Kilometers to the front ranks of the Klem charge] Nico called over the Area Channel, working as the station intelligence officer.


    [Prepare for close contact, bring the mers to the ready positions in front of the other Crusaders and prepare to repel the first wave.] Max ordered.


    Theirpound wasn¡¯trge, made for onepany of Mecha, not two, so even the sixty-five Fusion mer equipped Mecha that were on duty right now would make a dense wall of searing mes once they engaged the Klem.


    The throbbing roar of artillery was making it hard to even think, but for the moment all they needed to do was obey. Just get into position and roast everything that came close enough.


    Secondster, the front ranks of the charge came into sight, and the Mecha opened fire. Every energy weapon they had unleashed its full might against the Klem, struggling to thin the wave before it crashed down on their outer defenses.


    The wall wasn¡¯trge enough to contain a full second Company of Mecha, so most of the Corvettes from Fifth Company, as well as all the active X109 Fast Attack units with their Fusion mers, were currently in the trench outside its questionable defense. It was never intended to hold the enemy at bay, only to slow it down long enough that they could roast the bugs more efficiently.


    The bodies quickly began to pile up, torn apart by the fury of three hundred Heavy Mecha, but it wasn¡¯t nearly enough, and the tide simply rolled over their bodies, never slowing in its advance. This was the true horror of the Klem. As they consumed everything on a, their numbers would swell to an unimaginable level, and they would simply drown their enemies in chitinous bodies.


    [Enemy at eighty meters. mers in 3, 2, 1 NOW] Nico announced, and the area around thending site turned to an inferno of superheated air and burning bodies.


    [Corvettes, closebat formation] Both Max and Colonel Meek of Fifth Company ordered at the same time, instructing their lightest Mecha to get their swords out and prepare to repel the Klem that made it through the mes.


    They were burning, but that wasn¡¯t enough to stop them, and the survivors mmed into the Corvettes at a full-on run, impaling themselves on des, and knocking dozens to the ground as the next wave of Warriors followed closely behind them.


    Mighty sts from the Crusader ss X104 in the rank behind them destroyed the seared bodies of the Klem Warriors, and flew blindly into the mes, tearing apart more of the Warriors that were so desperate to make it through to engage the Mecha forces.


    The first of the Shredders were close behind them, firing a thick wave of spikes into the Crusaders, wearing down shields and damaging vulnerable joints. The Ion Bombard Arrays of the Super Heavy Mecha had been decimating them since they came into sight, but through pure numbers, they still had the power to disable many of the Crusader ss units on defense.


    The Shredders¡¯ only regret was that they couldn¡¯t target the units with mers in the front. The heat was too intense, and the wall of spikes would have been turned to ash.


    [Change Bombardment targets. Grid Ring 2, wipe out everything that is in attacking range.] Max ordered, setting the bombardment coordinates to obliterate everything from one to two hundred meters away.


    That would mean a heavier wave of enemiester, as they were no longer thinning the ranks of the main force, but if they didn¡¯t their defenses would be breached early and the shields wouldn¡¯t have time toe back up.


    With eight Super Heavy Mecha, clearing the zone only took a few seconds, adding a wall of explosions to the ring of fire around the base.


    That led to a moment¡¯s rest for the outer ring defenders, who kicked the remains of Klem corpses off themselves and stood back in formation as they waited for their shields toe back online after the damages they had sustained.


    [Casualty report.] Max ordered, preparing for the Klem he could see on the radar nearing the two-kilometer point, where they could be directly targeted past the hills and remains of the forest that once stood here.

 Chapter 228 228 Tide Rolls In

    [Zero losses so far. Nine units are lightly damaged but still functional.] Major Miller reported, having already organized a squad to resupply the Thunder Guns with munitions.


    None of the technicians really wanted to do it, as outside was a nightmare of artillery fire and noise, but the option was being overrun with Klem, so the Carts were loaded, the Tech Adept Harnesses were equipped and they were out the door.


    Fortunately, the design team had been prepared for this sort of situation, and the guns could be reloaded without ceasing fire, unlike their predecessors, who needed to be moved to a repair rack, or have a munitions magazine swapped in the field to reload their projectile based cannons.


    The process took a bit of time, as the rounds rolled down a roller conveyor and into the Mecha, but in only two minutes they would be done.


    It wouldn¡¯t be a peaceful two minutes though, as the Klem Warriors had amassed another charge in the distance that they could see from the tall shoulders of the X137s, and the attack was about to begin again.


    The Klem weren¡¯t stupid though, they had a new tactic for the second attempt. While most of the force charged, they also sent arge number of shredders forward. Not to fire spikes from in close, but to leap over the wall of mes.


    They couldn¡¯t do this alone, but with the assistance of two others, a Shredder could be hurled over seventy meters,nding near the front ranks to tear into the defenders.


    The method still had a downside though, being in the air, they couldn¡¯t dodge, and many of the flying Shredders were torn apart by heavy weapons fire before ever reaching the ground. Those who weren¡¯t killed in the airunched a devastating assault on the Corvettes, easily punching through shields and tearing off limbs before sumbing to attacks and being reced by the next group.


    This time there was no break, the Klem tide kepting, ignoring the artillery fire and charging into the mes to reach the front ranks of the Kepler defenses.


    [All remaining Corvettes, pull the damaged units to safety and take point. All off-duty Mecha to the front lines for the final push. Allied forces are at the fifteen-kilometer mark.] Max ordered, pushing the Battalion Commanders tomit their reserves to the battle.


    The Klem army wasn¡¯t going to give them a days-long war of attrition, where they could cycle out the tired and injured, they needed every gun they could get on the front lines to stop the advance, and it wouldn¡¯t stop until one side or the other was eliminated.


    The Klem wave was now using the bodies as a barrier in order to get closer to the front, letting the Fusion mers burn through the corpses as they pushed the pile in front of them, getting within thirty meters before they needed to face the mes.


    That was as close as they could get, due to the increasing heat incinerating the corpse piles faster than they could build them up, but it was enough. Most of the warriors were making it into closebat now, and the mes were beginning to falter as the X109 units engaged in melee.


    [All Super Heavy Units, maximum firepower. Bring all the point defense guns online and push the tide back off the mers.] Max ordered, and seven Technicians took a seat beside their Pilots.


    From there they could effectively operate the four lightest defensive weapons against the Klem Warriors who had gotten too close, filling the sky with purplesers that didn¡¯t match the color of anything else that the Kepler forces used.


    [Iing Drone Fighters. Abraham Kepler has deployed all fighters to join the battle.] Nico reported, an intense look of concentration in her mechanical eyes as she pushed her limits to operate four drones at once while rying all the data she could to the other units and up to Abraham Kepler.


    The extra targeting data was vital to the sess of the bombing runs and attack of the drone fighters, who had no way to effectively determine the most important targets among the mass of bodies during the initial stages of their descent.


    ¡°Where is all this dataing from? I don¡¯t recall having a recon team on the surface.¡± General Yaakov muttered in themand room aboard Abraham Kepler, watching the progression of the battle.


    ¡°That would be Major Nico. Her ability to control drones gives her a lot of flexibility in information collection. She has been doing the advance target scouting for the Super Heavy Mecha as well.¡± General Tennant answered his counterpart with a smile. The man annoyed him to no end, being elevated from a political officer to Command due to his years of service and high-security clearance.


    Given the option, General Tennant would have cut him out of the loop, but the Regimental Commander was rtivelypetent and hands-on, so there was no proper excuse not to have him involved in everything. What General Tennant could do though was insist that he was there in person, and eliminate that even more annoying adjutant of his from Central Command Meetings.


    The man was some rtion of his, raised purely through nepotism, and more than once General Tennant had considered Voiding him out an airlock for insubordination.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t the perimeter forces too slow in advancing? They¡¯re barely keeping up with the Klem advance.¡± General Yaakovined, making Tennant sigh.


    ¡°Each centimeter on the map in front of you is two kilometers. Given terrain difficulties,bat, and the need to keep Mecha supplied, they are moving along much faster than expected. The Klem isn¡¯t a force that you can chase down and overrun on foot.¡± General Tennant exined wearily, checking the updated damage reports from the Central Position.


    They were still holding strong for now, but they were running low on Corvettes, and the rest of the Mecha weren¡¯t well suited to fighting the Warriors, who could swarm therger units and avoid their closebat des.

 Chapter 229 229 Anvil

    As the Drone Fighters screamed down from orbit the Super Heavy Mecha stepped forward into the gaps left by fallen Crusaders, giving their defensive weapons a clear line of sight to engage the Klem. The number of missiles that they carried was limited, but the four sets of Gatling Lasers were free to fire at full capacity.


    With his Ion Bombard Array set to maximum dispersion, creating unstable, exploding energy balls that raced into the Klem lines beyond the fire, Max did his best to repel the enemy from his small slice of the defensive lines.


    Using his System Skills let Max target the Shredders that were in range and most likely to attack his Mecha, which meant that he was taking far less iing fire than most of the others. That was enough to stall the momentum of the Klem advance and force them to regroup.


    Once one sector had been stalled, the others began to retreat as well, realizing that their previous tactic had failed and that they would need to find a new way.


    The mers fell silent as the Klem left their range, though the intense heat from the weapons lingered much longer, and the ck haze of burning bodies lingered in the air as the fires on the ground spread through the closest walls of bodies that the attackers had used to shield their advance.


    If it wasn¡¯t for the constant beat of the Thunder Guns firing, it would have almost been a moment of peace on the front line. Instead, the contrast between the calm in front of them and the violence that they knew the big guns were sending into the distance made for a surreal experience as the two forces stared each other down.


    Then the artillery from the rear line of Mecha met the barrage from the First and Fifth Battalions and all hell broke loose on the battlefield. Gone were any grand ns of victory, or finding the Kepler army¡¯s leader, the only thought the Klem had left was vengeance.


    The central force was closest, so that was the direction that they charged, heedless of the wall of Fusion mers that met them on the way in. So dense was the wave of bodies that those in front didn¡¯t even fall, they were dragged forward even in death, as those behind were pushed by the third line when they too inevitably died to the horrendous heat.


    The eight Super Heavy Mecha turned the Thunder guns downward, no longer lobbing artillery fire into the distance, but directly firing them into thest fifty meters in front of their own lines, sending burning chunks of chitin flying through the air, hissing, and smoking as the moisture was burned out of them.


    Despite the wrath of the Kepler forces, some few Klem still made it close enough to engage the Corvettes guarding the front lines, who had changed tactics to a full defense, only guarding themselves until the Crusader ss units behind them killed the monstrous insects or the Klem burned to death.


    On and on the fight raged, with the Drone fighters overhead unleashing their Laser Arrays into the Klem force long after the bombs had all been deployed. Most of the Shredders were dead now, targeted for destruction by the Super Heavy Mecha, so the fighters were in little real danger, other than theck of visibility caused by the fires.


    [First Battalion Commander, this is Third Battalion Command. We are now at the two-kilometer point and have visual confirmation of your position. Proceeding with the cleanup.] Came a wee voice over themand channel.


    At this point, that was beyond Max¡¯s optical range, due to the haze, but his sensors had already picked up the Mecha in the distance, and the sensor feeds from the drones and Drone Fighters had kept him updated on their entire advance.


    [Confimed, Third Battalion. Once the two fields of me meet we will drop ours to finish the remnants.] Max agreed.


    The others weren¡¯t far behind the Third Battalion, advancing under the cover of the Fusion mers, burning everything in their path to ashes. When the two sides were one hundred and fifty meters apart the two fields of me met and the First Battalion dropped theirs,shing out with the rest of their weapons to clear thest few Klem targets from the battlefield.


    It was total annihtion, but that was the only way to stop them from repopting anding back in a few days to try again.


    [First Battalion to Regimental Command. The Klem¡¯s presence has been eliminated from the initial containment zone. Beginning rearming and repair of the forces still in the field.] Max reported and a big smile spread across General Yaakov¡¯s face.


    The battle was a heavy victory for them, with under ten percent casualties, and most of those still had surviving pilots and chassis that would be repairable with more time than they had during the battle. The Higher Ups would be pleased with the news, and Central Command had already received reports of additional forces being deployed to the area to clear the Klem presence from the mountain regions.


    [Supply Pods are iing with munitions and raw materials. All Battalions, reposition the Landers to form a base camp within five kilometers of the central base camp to effect repairs and await orders.]


    The order made every Battalion Commander sigh in defeat. General Yaakov was still on Abraham Kepler, he couldn¡¯t possibly understand just how hot and horrible smelling this ce was, much less the effects of the thick smoke on their logistics crews. It would clear out eventually, as almost all of the bodies were either burnt or still burning, but thendscape here was a scorched nightmare, and so heavily battered by artillery fire that there was no such thing as an actual t spot for ander, so moving around the camps would be treacherous, no matter where they ced them.


    [First Battalion, rotate out. On duty Crusader ss Pilots, report to the Landers to collect a plow. Pile the Klem bodies into bonfires and get this mess cleaned up so we can breathe again.] Max ordered, setting the unit in motion.


    Fifth Battalion did the same, deciding to simply camp exactly where they were, intermingled with the First Battalion. They could scatter their Landers around the Base Camp and settle in. It wasn¡¯t like anywhere within five kilometers was going to be any better than where they were now.

 Chapter 230 230 Preparation

    The Materials Printers only took a few minutes to make a collection of plows for the Mecha to drag around the area, pulling the remaining corpses into piles so that they would burn offpletely and make the battlefield a bit more tolerable to stay in.


    Over the next few hours, while the Mecha worked to clear the battlefield, the Landers from the other Battalions all assembled on the outskirts of the battlefield, on the smoothest terrain that they could find among the craters.


    That was no easy task, for the Thunder Guns did a magnificent job of rearranging the terrain over the course of the battle, and the closest thing to a t spot on the ground was the ces where the corpses had been piled so deep that they absorbed most of the damage.


    The terrain was still only a secondary concern for the staff inside the Landers though. Their major concern was that something was still alive inside those piles of corpses, and would rush out to eat them when they emerged to supply and repair the Mecha from their Battalions.


    The Mecha had already done multiple sweeps of the area and were starting to send out the undamaged units to double-check the zones that they had advanced through for survivors, but the thought of being eaten by an enormous cockroach was still very high on the list of bad ways to die.


    Three more pods came down that evening, with munitions, rations, and repair materials, which gave the Pilots the impression that they would be staying here for an extended duration. What they were going to be doing was a question that nobody had answers for, since they couldn¡¯t fit in most of the tunnels that the Klem were going to be hiding inside, and could only target the ones that came to the surface within the mountains, but they were still d to have a bit more fresh food instead of ration packs.


    Fresh was a rtive term of course since almost all of it had been preserved in some way, either canned or vacuum packed, but it was still decent foodpared to the Emergency Rations.


    [Colonel Max. All Mecha of the First Battalion have been resupplied, and repairs are underway, currently showing 49 units in need of some level of repairs.] Major Miller reported, proving once again the value of his supply and management experience.


    The repairs continued through the night, even with fournders all equipped with repair racks, it was not a short process to repair four dozen Mecha with the sorts of torn and mangled parts that an interaction with the Klem left behind.


    Out of everyone, Third Battalion had gotten the luckiest. Not only did they not lose any pilots, but they also only had thirty-two Mecha damaged, and most of them only lightly. Their zone had been very heavy on the smallest of the Klem, and incubation pods that hadn¡¯t hatched yet, so they mostly rolled over the enemy but had to spend significantly more time hunting down the hiding spots where the next wave was likely already growing and waiting to attack.


    Their onlyint was that clearing waves of the smallest Klem wouldn¡¯t earn them nearly as much merit and glory as an hours-long artillery bombardment against thebined strength of the main strength of the infestation.


    When morning dawned the next day, the fires were burned out, and the majority of the bodies were removed from the area, making it a bit less unpleasant to breathe in the area around the Landing Zone where Max was stationed, overlooking the work being done to get the experimental Mecha back into pristine shape for their next engagement.


    Normally the army would let the little things slide until after the mission, but there was an entire sector of the ship devoted to the researchers gathering Combat data, and that data wouldn¡¯t be urate if the force wasn¡¯t at full function when a data set started. Numbers could be ounted for, but hidden damages and limited individual capabilities were unknown variables that would skew the oues.


    [Regimental Command to All Units. Reinforcements are reported to be iing. Hold for further instructions.]


    The message from General Yaakov took everyone by surprise. Their Mecha were supposed to be a top-secret military program. Would the Kepler Military really risk exposing them by sending them to fight alongside other units at this point in their testing, especially on a battlefield that wasn¡¯t even technically part of the Empire, as it was uninhabited and outside the borders?


    That didn¡¯t make any sense at all to Max, but none of the Battalion Commanders were in any position to question the orders that they were given, so he could only hope that this decision was vetted by General Tennant and those above them so that it wouldn¡¯t turn into a total disaster for Kepler¡¯s Public Rtions department.


    Inurate reporting of the capabilities of their new designs could turn out very differently than what the Emperor had intended, depending on what the leaked information said and how it was interpreted.


    ¡°Should we bring the entire force back aboard and im an urgent response to another threat within the Empire¡¯s borders? It would give us leeway to keep the secret while not causing much disturbance.¡± General Yaakov suggested.


    ¡°The Klem are a Category 1 threat. Unless there is a full-scale military invasion somewhere inside the Empire, we couldn¡¯t retreat from the without orders from the Emperor himself.¡± General Tennant disagreed.


    ¡°Can we silence them? They are mixed Mecha regiments and infantry, so none of the three ships are likely to have anyone aboard from Central Command who outranks you.¡± Yaakov tried another path to keeping the Mecha Project a secret.


    ¡°Normally I would say yes. Let theme and then we can put a gag order on them and stop allmunications, but I suspect it is already far toote for that. We are outside the borders, on an uninhabited. Kepler doesn¡¯t monitor this area of space, nobody else should know that the Klemnded here. Even we wouldn¡¯t have noticed if we weren¡¯t right in the vicinity.


    So the question is, where is the leak, and who are they trying to tip off about our expanded Mecha capabilities.¡± General Tennant countered.


    A defector, spy, or traitor in their midst would be the worst-case scenario for the mission, and both Generals knew that very well. But neither could deny the possibility that they had one or more security breaches since makingfall, the arrival of the three transport ships full of soldiers was too strange to be a simple coincidence.


    ¡°Let me contact the Imperial Command. If they can¡¯t shed any light on the situation, they can likely tell us what the backup n is for this situation. There is no way that they didn¡¯t at least n for the possibility that the secret would be exposed early on.¡± General Tennant decided, then nodded to his counterpart and left the room.


    Once he was in a secure office, protected against bugs, data intrusions, and all forms of external spying, General Tennant turned to his Adjutant, a woman in herte fifties, apparent age, and frowned.


    ¡°Keep an eye on Yaakov, and especially that idiot assistant of his. I want to know how a signal got out of this system without us noticing.¡±

 Chapter 231 231 Mind Games

    General Tennant was doing his best toe up with a way to keep the capabilities of the new Mecha secret, but there simply didn¡¯t seem to be a way, short of pulling them all back to the ship so the unexpected arrivals couldn¡¯t see them.


    ¡°We could just lie through our teeth. Make up some absolute nonsense and see how long it takes them to catch on. It might even help flush out the traitors.¡± His adjutant suggested.


    ¡°Abraham Kepler is a distinct pattern of Transport vessel, a one-off that would be hard to mistake for anything else. The mecha we could y off as someone else¡¯s though, and really get the iing troops worked up.¡± General Tennant answered, a n slowly forming in his mind.


    He started scribbling down notes on his pad, then handed them to the adjutant. ¡°This does not get entered into the system, and only the ship¡¯s crew involved will be notified. Use Mecha Bay 1, I know First Battalion¡¯s support staff will be willing to y along.¡±


    In Mecha Bay 1, Sergeant Fritz was looking at the orders in his hand in shock. With everything that they had deployed, Command wanted forty Sentinel pattern scout Mecha, equipped for aary research mission. They already had hundreds of Drone Fighters that had sensors every bit as capable while being a hundred times more mobile, making a bunch of Sentinel Pattern Mecha made no sense at all.


    But he had learned years ago that asking questions only brought headaches and answers he didn¡¯t really want to know, so he hurried to get the bay prepared.


    While Sergeant Fritz was working to refurbish the bay, Nico¡¯s serious tone, an actual separate voice setting she used for official announcements caught Max¡¯s attention. ¡°New orders from Central Command. All units are to scramble frequencies. You are in charge of picking the new ranges. No contact outside the experimental Battalions is permitted until further notice. Contact with Regimental Command will go through Central Command.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like something has gone wrong up above. Watch for further mission orders while I inform everyone.¡± Max agreed, picking a randommunications range outside the standard military frequencies and generating a new sixty-three-digit encryption code.


    In Max¡¯s memories from his past life, little things like making an encryption code one digit shorter or longer than usual made it nearly impossible for unsuspecting enemies to Crack.


    ¡°Everyone¡¯s frequencies are updated using your Command codes. Nobody else should know anything changed.¡± Nico informed him, then opened the new message from General Tennant for Max to read.


    [Three suspicious friendly vessels are approaching Rae 5. Operational Security has been breached. New cover identity generated: You will be Death Wind Mercenaries hired to defend the region for the Talos Mining Conglomerate. No signals on Kepler frequencies are permitted, take all measures to ensure your cover story remains viable.]


    General Tennant¡¯s message covered everything they needed to know, so Max put it into action immediately. He could hear over the radio that the other Battalion Commanders had also received the message, but none of them realized that Max had already scrambled their frequencies away from the standard Kepler range.


    [All personnel, make a uniform change to Death Wind Civilian garb, effective immediately. Anyone found portraying themselves as Kepler Military without permission will be prosecuted under the War Secrets act.] Max called over the radio, getting everyone organized.


    The change was a small one, and the ck Pilot¡¯s suits could be kept, but without the usual military emblems. The ground crew would have to change their distinctive pattern of coveralls to new ones created with the materials printers, but the rest of their issued gear would be fine.


    All the Landers had been stripped of emblems when they were refurbished, and the Mecha themselves had no Kepler markings on them, as they were still experimental. That made the switch to their cover story as mercenaries an easy one, with the help of the fact that the unit didn¡¯t have full and official military documentation and regalia assigned to them yet.


    The Death Wind territory was argelywless space at the very Southwestern edge of the gxy, and often had to improvise to maintain theirbat capabilities, so the rest of the Kepler forces would likely assume that these were modified from an ancient foreign pattern that the mercenaries had pilfered. The sizes of the units did put them in line with many Cygnus Mecha patterns of the past.


    Nico had put a tracer on all themunications equipment in the Regiment, so she would immediately see if anyone attempted to send a signal on an unauthorized frequency, but her suspicion was that the problem that had the staff on Abraham Kepler so worked up didn¡¯t originate among the Mecha but among those left aboard the ship.


    Above them, aboard Abraham Kepler, the ship was on lockdown preparing to receive visitors. The three iing vessels had all identified themselves as Mixed Mecha Regiments, while Abraham Kepler was iming to be on a research mission to Rae 3, but had diverted here when they detected a foreign vessel and a Klem infestation.


    To further this image, General Tennant was holding the video conference in Mecha Bay 1, which was conveniently now full of research pattern Sentinel ss mecha. Sister Lilith was with him, representing the research division from Comor Prime, where she was officially still stationed.


    ¡°Greetings. We didn¡¯t expect any Kepler forces to be sent here. As you can see, ourary drops have been dyed due to the Klem presence, but under Imperial Orders, we are observing the Death Wind Mercenaries currently engaging the Infestation.¡± General Tennant greeted them.


    ¡°We had been sent intelligence that your forces had taken severe losses, so we were dispatched to relieve you and take over the clearance effortsside. It seems that our information was incorrect.¡± General Muriel, the assigned leader of the expedition and senior officer among the Central Command contingent aboard the arriving vessels replied with a sour look on his surprisingly youthful face.


    ¡°Now that you¡¯re here we can¡¯t well send you away with a Klem threat active on the, but it is unknown how the Mercenaries would react to a Military Presence.¡± General Tennant told his counterpart with a shrug.


    ¡°We will contact Sector Governance and get back to you.¡± General Muriel replied curtly, then cut the transmission.


    ¡°So, they were sent by Sector Governance, not Central Command, or Imperial Command. They should beary defense forces then. Find out where they were recruited from, both the Regiments and the senior staff in control of them.


    Somewhere in there, we should find answers about who our mysterious data leak was in contact with.¡± General Tennant told his adjutant with a smile. General Muriel had given away quite a bit of useful information today, and it could very well be the key points they needed to see the truth of the situation.

 Chapter 232 232 Mercenary Life is Much Better

    [So, let me get this straight, the forcesing to the are from the Kepler Military, and most likely friendly, but we have to pretend to be neutral Mercenaries from the outskirts of the Gxy until Central Command can find out who sent them here to interrupt a ssified mission?] Colonel Li, the middle-aged woman in charge of the Second Battalion asked Max dubiously, despite seeing the orders from General Tennant in front of her.


    [Yes, and nobody is to have direct contact with them without orders. We don¡¯t need someone getting recognized. Because I¡¯ve been in one too many propaganda films, I will be wearing a mask during all requiredmunications and using a voice modifier. From what I can discern, they are nning to send a force to the to go hunt Klem in the mountains, which we couldn¡¯t do ourselves, so make the best of what we have and try not to let them die.


    The chance that any of the Pilots in the three regiments have a clue what is actually going on is close to zero.¡± Max exined.


    [Does that mean no more military discipline? By default, First Battalion takes charge when Regimental Command is unreachable, so it is your call, Colonel Max.] Colonel Klinger, the wizened soldier in charge of Fifth Battalion asked.


    [Yes, kick back, rx, just make sure that everything gets done. There will be no saluting, no ranks used, and no military drills until further notice. Also, I will be Commander Keres, and you can call my copilot Rage. Feel free to use nicknames that your men might have over the radio, and in person outside, just in case someone is listening. Be sure that every single one of your men understands that they are not to screw this up.] Max ordered.


    [Yes, Sir.] All four other Battalion Commanders responded in unison, then began passing orders to the troops.


    It only took a few minutes for the change to be visible. Gone were the orderly ranks of mecha waiting for or finished repairs, instead the Corvettes were sent to gather firewood, while the Crusader ss units crouched to block the wind from the camp areas where the Pilots were gathered.


    First Battalion did the same, but their Landers were already in a circle, so they only had to close all but one of the gaps, letting them get Mecha in and out while creating a mostly sheltered central camp. The design caught on quickly, and the other Battalions moved theirnders to create four more circles at the cardinal points, each a hundred meters out from the main lines.


    That area had been thoroughly cleaned by the plows, so the ground was clear and somewhat level, plus it was close enough that they could make onerge defensive line around everything if they needed. The Drone Fighters werended in the fields outside the defensive lines, waiting on a refueling so that they could begin flying again, but the effect made the force look muchrger than it was like they had intended to be here for an extended period of time before the Klem had arrived.


    Mercenary bases were often like this, set on isteds nobody cared about due to their danger level, and theck of an interster transport on site was no surprise, as they rarely hung around to lure outsiders to their bases.


    In orbit, the representatives of the three ships had taken shuttles over to Abraham Kepler, meeting with General Tennant in Mecha Bay 1 for a strategic conversation that couldn¡¯t be conducted over a data link, for security reasons.


    ¡°I looked up the Abraham Kepler, official records say you¡¯re still stationed at the Comor Station, waiting on a new crew, but attached to the Comor Research Lab. What exactly is it that your crew is here to study?¡± General Muriel asked.


    ¡°Xenobiology. Imperial Command has had some luck in developing new medicines from alien nts, and data showed that the nts and animals of Rae 3 are almost entirely indigenous, not terraformed.¡± General Tennant exined.


    If their original destination was leaked by someone before they left, they would have been expected to head for Rae 3 not the Rae 5 system, so maintaining the cover story was important to him.


    ¡°Interesting. We weren¡¯t told anything about a mission to Rae 3, only that we would find you here and that your team was in danger. Might I ask, what were the actual words of the message that you sent to the Sector Government?¡± General Muriel asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing. We didn¡¯t send a message to Sector Governance. In fact, we didn¡¯t send any signals at all before you made contact with us.¡± General Tennant answered with a displeased look, and the expression on the leader of the force on the second of the three ships to arrive, General Ming¡¯s face turned deadly serious.


    General Ming turned to General Muriel and gave a curt nod before speaking. ¡°I will report that all forces are fully engaged in a battle against a Klem infestation on Rae 5, and then contact Imperial Command. Something is very wrong here, but as you said, we can¡¯t ignore the Klem this close to our borders.¡±


    The four Generals from Central Command and their immediate Subordinates took a seat in Mecha Bay 1 while the order was given to scramble all Mecha and infantry to the surface of Rae 5 for Klem suppression. They were tond in and around the mountains and send one Company to make contact with the Mercenaries, asking for their assistance in the endeavor.


    In the eyes of the Generals, that was a risky but necessary move. If the Mercenaries had a base on the, they would want to recover what they could before moving their base somewhere undetected, but if they had only justnded here to start forming one, they might believe that they were being attacked by the Kepler Military when they saw all the Landers start to fall.


    The biggest issue was simplymunication. They didn¡¯t know what frequencies to contact the Dark Wind Mercenaries on. Or at least, most of them didn¡¯t.


    General Ming spoke again, addressing the room. ¡°What I say is for your ears only. I am an Inquisitor for Imperial Command, supervising the Sector Government and deployed military forces. I have a way to contact the Dark Wind force on the. A code that was obtained through great difficulties, and if this temporary alliance fails, only usable once. I will attempt to contact the surface and tell them of our intentions to help with the Klem infestation then leave the region. If they agree, that Mecha force should fight on our side, for a price.¡±


    All the Generals nodded in agreement, but General Tennant was nervous. That wasn¡¯t a Mercenary force on the, and he had no way of knowing if they would even detect much less interpret the code that General Ming was going to use.

 Chapter 233 233 Negotiations

    Using the Tech Adept harness for mobility, Nico left the Mecha to go grab them some new clothes from the material printers in the Landers.


    The service area in the Super Heavy Mecha had a small materials printer for parts, but there wasn¡¯t any raw material suitable for making clothes. Neither of them was short on civilian wear back aboard Abraham Kepler, but that wasn¡¯t something that a Pilot brought with them on an extermination mission.


    She was only away for a few minutes, casually dodging the queue and grabbing them both one set of new clothes and a small tub of raw polymer that could be used to make anything from synthetic denim to faux leather.


    ¡°In case we need to make contact, they would expect a Mercenary leader to have at least a few sets of clothes,¡± Nico informed Max as she returned.


    Her whole persona seemed to have changed. Even her standing position was cocky and rxed, while her clothes were an eclectic blend of leather and metal in a Gothic Steampunk style Max had seen her wear before.


    She had also changed her physical appearance, showing off one armored mechanical arm and turning her face into a generic feminine full conversion pattern, with arge exposed armor te on the left side.


    Thebination of the changes and the Multi-Armed harness she was still wearing made her look a little terrifying, and Max decided that if they had to deal with the other Kepler forces, she would be the spokesperson.


    She was the better actor, and nobody would believe she was a proper Kepler Officer when she was looking like that.


    The clothes she had picked for him were in a simr style to her own, as the Reaver¡¯s fashions were popr with the Death Wind Mercenaries.


    ¡°The others are almost all changed now, so we can start working on our act in a few hours,¡± Nico added, returning to her chair.


    They wouldn¡¯t have hours to prepare, though. Only fifteen minutester, the mes of Landers entering the atmosphere lit up the sky, and Nico¡¯s eyes opened wide in shock.


    ¡°We are receiving a signal on one of the secure encryption patterns that my family uses as our private channels back home. The one that we use for the inteary trade ships. Even the security codes check out as one of ours. I think it is being sent by someone from the family¡¯s fleet branch.¡± Nico informed Max, who rushed to put his shiny golden mask on.


    ¡°Do it. Let¡¯s see what they want.¡± Max instructed, and Nico opened the video link, bringing up the image of an unknown but youthful man in a Kepler General¡¯s uniform.


    [You¡¯ve got some big brass ones to be using this Cypher, don¡¯t you, Kepler? Well, get to it then. What in the seven hells do you want?] She asked the serious-looking young General on the other side of the screen.


    [The Tarith Reavers granted me a favor.] He answered calmly while holding up a gold coin of a design Max didn¡¯t recognize, and Nico nodded.


    [Speak then. What is your request.]


    The General looked visibly relieved before he spoke again. [We have sent forces to the ground to eliminate the Klem threat. They are too close to our borders to be allowed to thrive here. Are you willing to cooperate with our efforts?]


    Nico nodded decisively. [We share amon enemy. This trade depot can¡¯t be established while they still live. For that reason, we will work with you for a reasonable price.]


    The mention of money didn¡¯t seem to phase the General, but Max could hear muffled sounds of amusement in the background that he was sure came from General Tennant.


    [Name your price, and we can negotiate.] The General agreed after a moment.


    [As I said, I am a reasonable woman. One hundred tons of raw materials for Battle Cannon munitions, and you leave the system once the threat is nullified.] Nico smiled.


    Weapon-grade materials were always in short supply outside of the frontline forces, and they had used a lot of themtely to reload the Mecha, mostly depleting what they were dropped with. The amount she asked for was equivalent to three supply pods full and would fully restock the entire regiment.


    [Your version of reasonable is still very steep, isn¡¯t it?] General Ming asked, intending to drive the cost down.


    [I know you can see us from orbit, take a good long look. We aren¡¯t some petty band of ore smugglers, I need munitions to stay at full strength. How about one hundred tons of materials, plus your withdrawal after the battle, and we call this an even cooperation.] Nico¡¯s offer meant that the unnamed General wouldn¡¯t use up a favor by asking them to risk their lives.


    Not that they were in any position to im the favor anyhow, since they weren¡¯t actually Death Wind Mercenaries. Though the way Nico negotiated, Max was beginning to question if that was true or not. If you dressed like Mercenaries, acted like Mercenaries, and received secure Communications intended for the Mercenaries, at what point did you actually start being Mercenaries?


    Nico¡¯s family was into a bit of everything and had a suspicious amount of political influence on Kepler Terminus, despite the appearance of only being moderately wealthy. But Nico either didn¡¯t know or refused to think about the truth behind her family¡¯s continued influence, so Max didn¡¯t know the full extent of their activities.


    [Deal. The materials will arrive in eight hours. I will be in contact.] General Ming agreed.


    [A pleasure doing business with you.] Nico told him, then cut the video link.


    ¡°One day, I will find out the truth about your family. Normal people don¡¯t get name-dropped when you are asking for favors from Mercenaries that live on the edge of the Gxy.¡± Max told her, but Nico just smiled.


    ¡°You already knew a branch of the Tarith family were Reavers, remember? Back when we were on Kepler 142, they told you all about it.¡±


    That was a very generous description of events. Max recalled hearing about the quasi-legal trading arm of the Tarith family exactly one time before. But at the time, it had seemed like a historical event, not something ongoing.


    ¡°That was quite the negotiation, General. They might only be a small Regiment, but those Mercenaries look strong.¡± Muriel said to Ming once the conversation was over.


    ¡°That conversation was more strange than you could ever know. But it worked out in the end.¡± General Ming agreed.


    When he contacted the Mercenaries, they needed to authenticate the Cypher he had used to open the video link. A normal Mercenary band would have had to contact their bosses to get the code verified, but this one answered right away. Every Kepler Imperial Inquisitor was a curious person by nature, and now General Ming was very interested to know what these Mercenaries were doing so far from home with such a strong military force.

 Chapter 234 Terminus Trading Company

    [The Landers seem to be friendly, and they have epted our cover as Mercenaries, with a promise ofrge amounts of raw materials for our assistance in clearing out the Klem that are hiding in the mountains. They don¡¯t know the extent of the infestation at the moment, and we are not going to tell them that it was only a small percentage that broke our containment.


    It would lead to too many questions that I have no intentions of answering. Be sure you are all in character as Death Wind Mercenaries, and we are ready to go.] Max instructed the Regiment over the recently changed main channel.


    [If we¡¯re going to pull this off, we need a name. Eventually, someone is going to ask about contact information, and if we don¡¯t know what to say, someone is going to screw it up.] Major Miller pointed out.


    [The man has a point. Something simple and easy to remember.] Another voice agreed.


    Max thought about it for a few moments, trying toe up with something that was suitable to a group of mercenary Mecha pilots but not so obvious that it would be taken by another group and arouse suspicion if anyone looked into it.


    [If anyone asks, we are the Terminus Trading Company. It fits with the Death Wind¡¯s way of naming their Mercenary forces as if they were legitimate businesses, and I am reasonably sure that it isn¡¯t taken yet. My copilot, Rage, has checked it out and says that it looks clean and usable.] Max told the Regiment, giving Nico a thumbs up for her timely search of their avable data.


    The Landers started falling all through the mountain range, clustered in t spots near every region where Abraham Kepler¡¯s sensors had detected that the Klem might have gone to hide.


    The ship had, of course, been keeping very close tabs on the Klem force¡¯s movements, so the orbital insertion was very focused, without the usual scattering of troops to far flung regions, just in case.


    As the Pilots of Max¡¯s Battalion watched the troops arrive, the expanded Central Command contingent aboard Abraham Kepler was working out the best way to deploy the ¡°Mercenaries.¡±


    ¡°Just look at the number of Super Heavy Mecha. They could take a small Empire. Asking them to spread out to cover more territory with that vicious-looking artillery shouldn¡¯t be an issue.


    The brigands of the Death Wind territories are many things, but nobody would dare call them cowards.¡± General Tennant suggested, and the other officers nodded in agreement.


    Inquisitor General Ming suspected that General Tennant might know more about these Mercenaries¡¯ intentions than he was letting on. But by their position between Kepler and the Klem on the edge of the Gctic Core, where few habitables existed among the vast nothingness of empty space, he suspected that the group was nning something much more insane than a simple Trade Depot.


    General Ming suspected that this bunch might actually be nning to raid Klem territory for precious resources. The insectoid aliens gathered everything that they needed near a Queen once a was fully under their control. With twenty Super Heavy Mecha, it was conceivable that the Mercenaries were going to raid one and loot them dry.


    If only he had seen their vessel, he would know for sure.


    ¡°Contact the Mercenary team and convince them to split up. It¡¯s your idea, so you get the honors, Tennant.¡± Ming instructed, using his rank as Inquisitor to take the lead among the Central Command team.


    Inquisitor Ming had already sent a silent query out into the intelligencemunity, wanting to know more about these Mercenaries and which n Leader might be here to authorize the decryption of his request without dy, but a response could take a few days, assuming that someone else had noticed that they were in the region at all.


    [Mercenary Force, this is General Tennant of Kepler Central Command. We have a deployment request for you. We are sending six Regiments of infantry with light mecha support to the surface and would ask that you spread your force to provide Heavy support for them.


    It would free up a lot of our infantry and light mechanized forces to enter the underground without fear of being ambushed from behind.] General Tennant¡¯s request was reasonable and didn¡¯t ask the Mercenaries to take all the risk, only to protect their backs while the Kepler Military hunted the Klem.


    [Would you like the whole force on guard duty?] Nico answered, looking as if she was considering the matter.


    [If you can spare forces, the supply depot could use heavy Mecha support as well.] General Tennant suggested, after referring to General Ming.


    [Agreed. ce your supply facilities between our camp and the first mountain face. I will have my men stationed to defend the camps.]


    The Generals all rxed a little when she agreed. Most of them because they previously weren¡¯t sure how the idea would be received, and General Tennant because he understood Nico¡¯s personality and had feared that she would make them sweat over it for her own personal amusement.


    While the meeting between the other Generals was ongoing, General Yaakov was hunting for the traitor in their midst.


    He hated to admit it, but logically, he was the prime suspect. The Empire was bordering on civil war thanks to Bureaucratic Nobility who wanted to overthrow the Royal Family, and he came from a noble lineage as old as the colonization of his home system, with many family members serving the bureaucracy.


    For that reason, he couldn¡¯t tell any of his own inner circle what he was looking for, or anything that he suspected. Most of his staff was chosen for loyalty, but it was Loyalty to the family more often than to him personally.


    Though hergely agreed that the System of Royalty was outdated, he also saw the greed and self-interest that drove the rebellion and how theck of strong leadership would inevitably cripple the Empire.


    General Yaakov strongly valued stability, unlike the upstart Bureaucratic Nobles faction, most of whom still had family members who were alive the day they were granted titles for their administrative work. After all, with modern medicine, it wasn¡¯t unreasonable to expect an oligarch to survive for close to three centuries if they weren¡¯t assassinated. Longer if they got lucky with the bonuses from a higher System Compatibility.


    His Yaakov Family had a lot inmon with the Tarith Family. They had held power for nearly three thousand years before the Kepler Empire was founded and their influence extended well beyond their home.


    But unlike the Tarith Family, which suffered a tragedy on their homeworld and focused on spreading their power in the shadows, the Yaakov Family proudly held their homeworld and openly supported their other businesses, which limited their ability to spread their reach.


    The Nobility was a jealous sort of culture, after all.

 Chapter 235 235 In Position

    With the official request for deployment made, Max started to set the strategy, as interim operation leader.


    ¡°Fourth and Fifth Battalions, split into Companies and join with the Infantry forces. Second and Third Battalions, do the same and join with the Kepler Light Mecha groups. There should be six of each headed to the at regimental strength. One Super Heavy and a Company of Heavy Mecha each should set their minds at ease while they work.


    I will take the First Battalion and spread our forces along the line between the Kepler staging area and the mountains, so we can guard the exit of any mecha needing to reload or get repairs at the main supply depot.¡± Max ordered, spurring the other Battalion Commanders into action.


    ¡°Oh, how I wish someone had just shown up with a Phnx ss Mecha and apany of Heavy Mecha back when I was still a Light Mecha Company Commander.¡± Major Ivanov of Max¡¯s Able Companyughed, watching the Mecha start moving out into the mountains.


    They wouldn¡¯t take their Landers, though a short hop would significantly reduce travel time. Thenders had a limited amount of fuel in them, and as they weren¡¯t expecting heavy casualties, they would need most of what they had to get back up to Abraham Kepler once this was all finished.


    Since they couldn¡¯t riskmunication with the Kepler Navy right now, it would be up to General Tennant to get rid of the other ships ande back for them after the mission wasplete, assuming that they did manage toplete it without alerting the newly arrived forces to their true identity.


    [Use the Materials Printers to make some crude Hover Trucks. Load some munitions and repair materials inside, along with provisions for a week, and send whoever you deem necessary to join the Mecha Companies on their mission. It would be too suspicious if the Mercenaries showed up without any sort of support vehicles or even a camp kitchen.] Nico instructed all of the logistics and repair officers from the Regiment, covering a small detail that most of the force had overlooked.


    If they needed anything, they could have it sent over in a hurry, they had the technology, but a Mercenary force wouldn¡¯t leave them behind and risk being cut off without supplies. Mercenaries were much more used to fighting in small groups than a military force was, so a Mercenary squad would still stick together in times like this when many smaller groups had assembled.


    There were a lot of jokes about having to rough it for a change since the Corvette ss Pilots would be sleeping inrge tents instead of the Landers, but everyone moved out smoothly, headed for their chosen unit.


    All five Battalion Commanders stayed back, waiting to see where they would be needed, while the Company Command units brought moral support to the Light Mecha and infantry units they went to support.


    ¡°Eight Super Heavy Mecha to defend the base camps? I don¡¯t know if they are being overly cautious, or do they have something at their camp so valuable that they won¡¯t risk it?¡± One of the Command officers aboard Abraham Kepler asked, pointing to the defensive line in the satellite feeds.


    ¡°My first thought is that the extras are their Command Group, the n Leaders. But since they are all artillery spec Mecha, it¡¯s possible they are simply taking a position to give long-range support.


    If those are Mass Driver style artillery weapons, they could have an indirect firing range of hundreds of kilometers.¡± General Tennant offered, already knowing who they were and what the guns should theoretically be capable of.


    ¡°My System Scan says they can hit most of the Mountain Range from there. I have threat assessment as an Innate Talent, and it doesn¡¯t like those Mecha, they are much more dangerous than they look, especially the ones with the jump packs.


    If they turn against us, the System data believes they should take under ten percent losses to eliminate all Six Regiments.¡± General Jefferson, the most silent of the group informed them.


    Compared to infantry and light mecha, they certainly had the advantage, but the Regiments did have their own Heavy Mecha. The System was usually very urate though, so unless there was arge tactical blunder, Jefferson¡¯s predictions should be close.


    ¡°So we keep them on our side. Then we find out where they got those units from. They look a bit like stylized Cygnus units, so they might have manufacturing facilities somewhere that we haven¡¯t detected yet.


    Imperial Command would love to get their hands on new toys like that.¡± Inquisitor General Ming agreed.


    He would add the other General¡¯s opinion on the threat level posed by these unknown Mercenaries to the daily reports he sent to the Emperor¡¯s Intelligence Minister. Hopefully, he would get permission to negotiate a trade deal for the designs.


    They could send an overwhelming force to take them, but whoever designed the mecha would probably sell the ns to every enemy the Kepler Empire has in retaliation. A sanctioned deal would be infinitely better.


    ¡°Generals, we have first contact. Mostly warriors, with an assortment of smaller species. Lupo Regiments Light Mecha have engaged and¡­ by all that is holy.¡±


    The junior officer¡¯s report cut off suddenly, and General Jefferson brought up the feed the man was watching on the War Room¡¯s Main screen.


    The infantry had just engaged the Klem, and their Line Mecha support was moving into position when the valley they were walking through exploded with fire and flying dirt from an artillery Bombardment. Then twenty Crusader ss Mecha came flying over the Ridgeline, bathing the Klem in fire from their arm-mounted weapons.


    The temperature of the mes capped out the thermal sensors at over two thousand degrees, and the Klem group vanished in an instant.


    [Greetings fellow humans. Doc Engels and Casanova of the Terminus Trading Company at your service. As determined by our game of dice, I will be guarding the Line Mecha here, while young Casanova will be taking very good care of the men and women of the Infantry.]


    The announcement came as two Super Heavy Mecha marched into sight over the Ridgeline where the flying Crusaders appeared from. They were apanied by nearly a hundred more Crusaders and two hundred Corvette ss mecha, all jogging toward the Kepler Army.


    ¡°Looks like we have some interesting allies this time.¡± The infantry Colonelughed, watching the strange jump pack Mechand among his troops.

 Chapter 236 236 Revelations

    Simr scenes yed out all through the mountains. Compared to the nightmare of a battle they just finished, these pockets of Klem resistance seemed positively harmless. Their enthusiastic killing also helped assure the infantry that these strangers truly had their backs.


    Max had given orders to limit contact though, so only the Company Commanders actually talked to the allied forces,and they set up afortable distance away to discourage mingling.


    The infantry understood that they were on their own for the next part, with only sporadic support from Line Mecha where they could fit in the tunnels. They didn¡¯t have to wait until they were underground to find another fight though.


    The Klem needed food to reproduce, and they hadn¡¯t had time to stock up on nt life from the mountain valleys. The infantry above them drew arge number of Klem swarming to the surface, eager to gather food and bring it back to the tunnels where they were attempting to incubate more Warriors and Shredders.


    They would start breeding the behemoths that could eliminate the hateful Mecha soon, but their instinctive drivepelled them to create the smaller warriors that were needed to protect their leaders first.


    A thousand generations of gic memories told them that without guards the behemoth was vulnerable, so the thought of doing anything differently never entered their minds.


    [More of the gribblies and a pair of warriors in the south.] One of the infantry Sergeants reported as his shift came to an end and he prayed his men would be able to finish the fight and retreat without any more casualties.


    The small Klem came in many shapes, so the infantry had coined the word Gribbly as a catch-all for any Klem smaller than a human.


    Suddenly the two Warriors exploded in a cascade of gore and a plume of fire spread out over the heads of the infantry toward the remaining Klem. One of the Mercenary Crusaders hade to their assistance, using the strange energy weapon on its shoulder to eliminate the warriors before burning off most of the smaller Klem.


    [Finish the group and change shifts, it¡¯s time.] The Sergeant informed his troops, giving the Mercenary Pilot a salute.


    Far above their heads, Inquisitor General Ming finally received a response from Imperial Intelligence to his inquiries about the Terminus Trading Company and their unusual Mecha.


    [Everything I could find about that force and their unique Mecha is Vermilion level ssified, with maximum ess security. For the sake of your health, I rmend you stop looking. A loyalty assurance team has been dispatched to Sector Governance as of this morning.


    Be safe.


    Your Friend, John]


    That created more questions than it answered, but Inquisitor General Ming was no fool, he would stop asking questions before he also got a nighttime visit to correct his attitude.


    His best course of action right now was to do what General Tennant was doing and just go with the flow, not drawing any suspicion on himself while others investigated the situation.


    In Ming¡¯s mind, it was very possible that Tennant was here to observe the Mecha in action and make a deal with the creator when the unexpected arrivals interrupted his Top Secret mission.


    Ming¡¯s most reliable friend at Imperial Command didn¡¯t say anything about General Tennant, only that Sector Governance was being investigated, which meant that his presence here was sanctioned and that even a Sector Governor, a Duke of the Empire, and normally a trusted advisor of the Emperor himself was being censured for sending ships to his location, a bit of knowledge that meant General Tennant was trusted above all others in this matter.


    That line of thought led Inquisitor Ming to recall that General Tennant, aboard Abraham Kepler, was until very recently awaiting refit at Comor Station. Then suddenly he was here with an ultra-secret research squad and a whole lot of Mecha that nobody had ever seen before.


    But he wasn¡¯t the only notable figure on the Comor, was he? A Cygnus delegation had left just a week ago, celebrating a marriage between Comor¡¯s ruling Chen family and their Imperial family.


    There were also a number of famous Pilots vacationing on the recently. That Keres Max fellow, and the one with crazy closebat skills.


    Tarith Nico, that was her name, General Ming realized, and all the pieces fell in ce in his mind. The Tarith Reavers Cypher being instantly decrypted, the reports that the unit was called the Terminus Tradingpany when the two most famous absentee Pilots in the Empire were from Kepler Terminus. The presence of the new Mecha, and those Corvettes that looked so much like the rumored new Comor Pattern units.


    He, an Imperial Inquisitor, had been fooled by a pair of pilots that hadn¡¯t even seen their twentieth birthday, and General Tennant had ever so humbly asked for the assistance of his own Research and Development team.


    Then he had them trick the reinforcements into sending them munitions materials out of their own supply when there was no doubt that Abraham Kepler was loaded to the gills with everything imaginable to keep the Test Units functioning.


    General Ming¡¯s friend John had a point though. He would be best off not saying a single word of this to anyone. They would clear out the Klem, leave the system after epting whatever nonsense excuse General Tennant found to stay behind and forget that this ever happened.


    It was the only sane and safe way to ensure that the Regiments he had apanied here weren¡¯t purged as a threat to National Security.


    There might be no saving the Sector Governance department, or whoever tipped them off though.


    But those were the risks that a subversive agent took. They might think their cause was just and noble, or even essential for survival, but if they weren¡¯t on the winning end of the game, their lives were forfeit by default.


    Whatever idiot had set this all in motion had better suffer a very slow and painful death, or General Ming would not be a happy man when he returned to his station.

 Chapter 237 237 Big Boom

    All of the Mercenary forces were in position now, and the infantry was waiting for the orbital scans intended to detect subterranean caverns were finished before they began their assault.


    The scan wouldn¡¯t tell them which areas were dangerous, but even having a general idea of where to look would save them a considerable amount of time and effort tomorrow.


    The data they had already gathered told them that the Klem force was limited, so they would not face a full incursion that went underground, only the portion that escaped from the Mercenary force.


    With that in mind, their gear was optimized to fight smaller enemies instead of loading the infantry withrge amounts of anti-armour, which was necessary to deal with the Shredders.


    [Attention, all forces. The assault in the tunnel system begins in 30 minutes.]


    With the announcement from Central Command, everyone sprung into action. The movement would attract the Klem, so the surface would see a rush of the ravenous creatures until the light mecha dispersed and spread the vibrations through the whole region.


    The infantry walking shouldn¡¯t draw much attention, but thousands of Line Mecha in one spot were hard to miss. Once they were dispersed and moving through the tunnels, they would be harder to distinguish from Klem activity.


    As predicted, an impressive host of Warriors charged up through the tunnels to meet the Mecha the moment that they began to mobilize.


    The first wave met the Fusion mers that the X109 units had pointed in the tunnel mouths, and the disgusting smell of roast Klem filled the air. The Crusader ss X104 Pilots took advantage of the scent, using tarps as fans to blow it through the tunnels, much to the foot soldiers¡¯ dismay.


    But that brought thousands more Klem to the surface, all through the mountains, which was exactly what they wanted.


    The more bugs they killed up here, the fewer men they would lose below.


    It took over an hour for the surface to be dered clear, thanks to the constant stream of new arrivals, and the test Regiment began to question how many Klem had made it through the breach in their lines.


    Initial reports said it shouldn¡¯t be this many, but the Klem hatched reinforcements at an astounding rate.


    [The surface is clear, moving downward.]


    The light mecha moved out first to clear the main tunnels so the infantry could move unimpeded.


    The Mecha were faster, so the infantry left right behind them, on aplex deployment, to search all the small side tunnels that the orbital scans had detected.


    On the surface, there was nothing left to do but wait.


    The front hatch on the Comor Pattern Corvettes swung downward, creating a ramp for the pilot when the suit was crouched, but it could also be dropped halfway, and that¡¯s what the Pilots did now, standing their Mecha in a circle and sitting on the hatch to y cards.


    In an emergency, they could jump back into their seats and be active in under ten seconds, but until then, they could rx.


    The second shift of Line Mecha stared at them in envy, cramped in their tiny cockpits, while the Terminus Trading Companyughed and joked around.


    But with a Super Heavy Mecha at every position, they had a good reason for their confidence.


    [Line Mecha report that the Klem are scattering east, headed back for the foothills. Possible Behemoth sighting.] General Tennant reported to the line of mecha defending the base camps.


    That, too, was expected. If they could get to the open grasnd again, the Klem would have enough food to repopte faster than the Mecha could destroy them.


    [We are on it. Care to make a small wager on whether they will make it into mer range?] Nico responded, looking to the lower bunk where Max was sleeping.


    So far, he had been awake for all the major artillery Bombardments; she hadn¡¯t gotten the chance to y with the Thunder Guns as much as she wanted.


    [One case of Carib Rum says you can¡¯t stop them from reaching me range.] General Ming answered for themand group.


    Carib Rum was a slightly sweet ck Rum popr with Soldiers and Mercenaries all over the quadrant. The that made it was an open port, a neutral nation that bordered Kepler, Cygnus and two other small countries.


    [You hear that, boys? Free Rum. As soon as you see them, give them hell.] Nicoughed, and all the X137 Pilots moved into attack position, stabilizing their mecha for maximum rate of fire.


    The Klem group was slightly over two hundred kilometres from the defensive line when they breached a cliff face and reached the open air.


    Hundreds of Shredders and thousands of warriors surrounded a pair of Behemoths with six legs and elongated, barrel-shaped bodies.


    Nico recognized these from the training data; they could fire a caustic poison hundreds of meters, melting through flesh and armour equally. The goo that was left was easily processed into nutrition to hatch new Klem.


    Once the group was too far from the hole in the wall to escape, every Cannon on the eight X137 units barked at once. To the Klem¡¯s great misfortune, they had left the mountains at the top of a Ridgeline in clear sight of the distant mecha as they raced down the hill toward the abundance of food in the form of a coniferous forest.


    The Klem didn¡¯t miss the iing balls of energy and stopped, seeing that most had been fired on a trajectory that was expecting them to keep moving.


    That was exactly what the artillery wanted, stationary targets. Over the next ten seconds, as the Klem panicked, over a hundred shells rained down on them, therge explosions annihting the warriors and crippling the Shredders that apanied the Behemoths.


    ¡°So they are Mass Drivers and not cartridge projectiles. That range is impressive.¡± General Mingughed, watching the Mercenaries put his payment for their services to exemry work.


    ¡°I hope you have a case of Rum on hand because I think they¡¯ve got this one handled.¡± General Tennant pointed out, watching the video feed of sixteen Ion Bombard Arrays furiously hurling rounds at the Behemoths who were doing their best to employ an evasive running pattern.


    They were too heavily Armored to truly fear the Artillery, but the Ion weapons punched holes in their chitin every time theynded a solid hit.


    The Klem never even made it into a range of the Crusaders before being sted into oblivion, and General Ming smiled.


    ¡°A small price to pay for such an impressive show.¡±

 Chapter 238 238 Rude Awakening

    Max was abruptly pulled from a deep sleep when the Thunder Guns started firing, showing the entire chassis. He quickly checked Nico¡¯s memory and found that arge Klem Contingent, including the first Behemoths they had seen, had emerged from the mountains and were facing the fury of the Command group.


    Though Nico wasn¡¯t at the controls, Max could tell that the Mecha was firing at seventy-five percent of the maximum rate. She was deliberately holding back, either for the sake of their orbital audience or for heat management.


    ording to the sensor feeds, the others were doing the same, so it looked like the firing rate was coordinated at the very least.


    Unlike everyone else, who would strap themselves in to keep a steady hand on the controls, Nico was on her feet, singing and dancing in time with the gunfire.


    ¡°It¡¯s raining Klem, hallelujah it¡¯s raining Klem¡­¡± She sang and giggled while she danced.


    Max didn¡¯t know the song, but he had to admit that it was a pretty catchy tune.


    ¡°Care toe dance with me?¡± Nico asked as the Mecha shook, and the pulses from the Ion Bombard Arrays that were now firing forced her to change her rhythm.


    The dance took all her weight off the floor in time with every shot, letting the Mecha move under her while she remained stationary.


    Max shook his head and got dressed. Since he was awake he might as well work. It wasn¡¯t until he took over the controls that Nico stopped her dance and flopped down into the seat beside him.


    The behemoths had just fallen, and the area was clear again when Nico opened amunication channel to Central Command aboard Abraham Kepler.


    [That¡¯s one case of Carib Rum for me, General. Feel free to send it down with the ores you promised.] Nico gloated, as Max scowled at her.


    ¡°You know that you could have warned me, right?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°But then you would wake up and I wouldn¡¯t get to y with the Klem. I hadn¡¯t killed anything in like two days, it was getting boring in here.¡± Nico answered and shrugged in response.


    ¡°You could have taken up the offer to lead the maintenance team. I am sure you would have killed someone the first day.¡± Max pointed out, and Nico smirked.


    ¡°It is a good thing I didn¡¯t. General Yaakov is the one in charge of hunting down whoever sent the transmission to Sector Governance. If he was gone we might have to do an actual investigation on our own.¡±


    Max wondered how she could be so sure that he wasn¡¯t the source of the problem, to begin with. He might be a trusted General, but evenary Governors and senior military officers had chosen to side with the rebels they had already fought.


    Her thoughts said she was certain though, so she had been watching him. A minor detail, which also meant that she hacked Abraham Kepler¡¯s security cameras or got General Tennant to grant her ess.


    Of the two, only one option was realistic. She definitely hacked the ship.


    [Line Mecha report at least one more Behemoth headed toward the East. It looks like they are trying to abandon the mountain tunnels forck of food now that we have arrived to attack them and they know that hiding underground isn¡¯t going to save them.] Colonel Klinger reported.


    [Let¡¯s wait and see if they try to take the same tunnels out of the mountains. If they do, the Light Mecha might be able to push the entire Klem force out into the open where we can deal with them.] Max instructed.


    There was a lot ofbat data to catch up with after his nap, so Max started sorting through the battle reports, making notes of where the clusters were found, and what sort ofbat power the Klem were hiding underground.


    With eight Super Heavy Mecha out here to intercept them, Max wasn¡¯t worried about being overrun if they exited the mountains, but there was a chance that some of the forces in the mountain valleys might be, especially infantry that had been separated from their support.


    The reports all followed the same pattern. Heavy resistance at the start, with a rush for the surface, followed by steadily decreasing enemy numbers through the side tunnels, and asional spotting of Shredders and possible Behemoths off the Main caverns.


    Two of them had fallen to the Command group on the ground, while one more possible sighting remained unresolved and atrge in the mountains.


    For Max, it was a case of hurry up and wait since his job was to defend the camps, but even for the support units waiting above ground for the Infantry and Light Mecha to return it was the same. After the initial battle, the Klem hadn¡¯t dared show themselves aboveground again.


    [Sorry about your luck Commander, we have spotted thest Behemoth.] The Colonel in charge of the Fifth Battalionughed, and Max¡¯s sensors picked up the sh of an Ion Bombard Array the same second that they finally reported the Behemothing into range in a mountain valley just past the second ridge.


    Klinger¡¯s Company Commander wasn¡¯t the only one with a clear shot though. Second Company of the Third Battalion was only a mountain away and had a clear shot into the valley where the behemoth had been sighted. They couldn¡¯t use Ion weapons, due to the mountain between them, but they certainly could fire artillery at it, so that¡¯s exactly what they did.


    [Just a friendly reminder that you can¡¯t hog all the glory.] The pilotughed over the radio, and Max¡¯s sensors showed arge number of high explosive shellsnding in the valley near the heat signature that was the Behemoth.


    It had picked a terrible spot toe to the surface. Not only was it the first one out of the tunnel, but it was also in the range of two Super Heavy Mecha, and in direct line of sight of an entire Heavy Mecha Company in the new pattern units. Everyone waspeting to see who would get the killing blow on the enormous target, but in the end, it was impossible to tell. Too many rounds hit it at nearly the same time, tearing the beast apart before the Fusion mers set it on fire and sent acrid smoke billowing down into the tunnels.


    [Infantry, be aware of smoke in the tunnels. Equip smoke prevention and low oxygen gear.] Max reported before he even bothered to check the results. The question wasn¡¯t if the tunnels would be full of smoke, but how many of them would be.

 Chapter 239 239 Never Fight In A Basement

    With their gas masks on and the rebreathers active, the Infantry forces slowly advanced their way through the smaller tunnels of the mountainplex.


    Made of limestone, and naturally formed over thousands of years of runoff, these caverns were an amazing testament to the natural powers of running water. Or at least they were before the Klem arrived.


    The monstrous insects¡¯ presence was everywhere here, and unmistakable, as their sharp legs made distinct patterns in the soft stone, and they carved awayrge portions of the existing tunnel walls to make way for themselves, not worried or not understanding that their cleared path only made it easier for the humans to follow them.


    ¡°Pan right, I see w marks headed up the wall.¡± Lieutenant Calda barked at his squad.


    The w marks were unmistakable, but they didn¡¯t seem to lead anywhere, only into the darkness above them. The Lieutenant turned his spotlight upward to illuminate the roofline better than the small lights on theser rifles could, bringing a hidden cavern entrance into view.


    ¡°Grenade out,¡± Calda called, lobbing the fist-sized projectile with every bit of strength he could muster.


    For a Kepler soldier with a Strength base primary bonus, that was much further than what an average human could manage, and the grenade bounced off the wall fifty meters away and rolled down into the cavern on the other side before exploding.


    The sound of Klem shrieking as mes engulfed the room echoed through the caverns, and an enraged rush of Klem Warriors came from the tunnel mouth, racing toward the human threat, while Lasers burned holes in their chitin.


    The squad had the Warriors at bay, and the bodies were beginning to plug the exit, keeping the smoke and mes from the incendiary grenade contained, until suddenly the tter of running feet came from behind them as well.


    The branch tunnel they were in was a dead end, there was no other way out than the way they came in, or possibly out of the other side of the cavern that they had just lit on fire to eliminate the Klem inside.


    ¡°Circle up, we¡¯re fighting on two fronts now.¡± Lieutenant Calda ordered with a grim smile on his face.


    They had already spent every charge from their heavy weapons dealing with a pair of Shredders they hade across a few minutes ago, and now they were boxed in by the Klem.


    The Oxygen warning on his mask began to beep, notifying him that the mes in the other room had run their course, burning all of the oxygen out of the enclosed space until they could burn no more.


    That was a small blessing for his men, as the Klem still needed to breathe once they were active, but his men had an air supply that wouldst at least another eight hours. Theck of breathable air didn¡¯t seem to be slowing the ones that wereing down the tunnels toward him though, they were simply charging over the fallen bodies of theirpatriots through the six-meter-wide tunnel spur, eager to get to the fresh meat at the end.


    One after another they fell, and slowly the sounds in the cavern behind the squad fell silent, leaving them to fight on only one front, with a few men watching the rear for signs of activity.


    The tide of warriors stopped, leaving a pool of greenish ichor among the bodies scattered on the floor, and the Infantrymen were cautiously optimistic. They had won this engagement, and their rotation was almost over, they could head to the surface again soon.


    ¡°Move out, let¡¯s get back to fresh air and start making our way to the surface.¡± Lieutenant Calda ordered, making a note that the final chamber hadn¡¯t been verified due to heat andck of oxygen.


    Retracing their steps was the most efficient way out, so the squad started moving back the way they came from, past the corpses, and the smallke of disgusting blood.


    They were almost to the exit when the scouts froze in terror. Not one, but two Shredders stood between them and the blessed light of the surface above them, blocking the main hallway. Corpses of infantry, and Line Mecha that Lieutenant Calda recognized as their reinforcements from the second shift littered the hallway along with dozens and dozens of Klem corpses.


    ¡°Back away before they see us. We will find an alternate exit to the tunnelplex.¡± Calda whispered, backing away from the horrific sight. But he knew that wasn¡¯t going to happen. They had explored every inch of this branch except the final chamber. There was only one way in and one way out, and it was right behind that pair of Shredders.


    On the other side of the Mountain range, things looked much different. Lieutenant Johns had been leading his squad through the caverns for ten hours now and hadn¡¯t found a single sign of life. There were abundant signs that the Klem had been here, and were headed east, but after that, just nothing.


    He had checked side caverns and sent men crawling through tunnels barelyrger than their bodies to see if there was anything hiding on the other side, but it was empty, the entire cavernplex in his region had been abandoned.


    [Johns to Company Command. Spur TXC13B confirmed clear, no signs of previous Klem activity.] He reported, making a note on the digital map.


    ¡°Lieutenant, there is light up ahead at the end of the next main tunnel.¡± One of his scouts reported, crouching down to stay out of sight of any Klem that might still be near the source of the light.


    ¡°Move out men, if that¡¯s an unknown exit from the caverns, Command needs to know about it. The map doesn¡¯t show anything here, much less a major cavern headed east.¡± Johns sighed, wishing there was a better way to keep the maps updated.


    The satellite data was very good, at least it was when they got it. But they had been underground for half a day, where they couldn¡¯t get updates, and even their radio signals had a hard time reaching their closest allies, so they couldn¡¯t know what the Klem had been up to until they stumbled across it.


    Crouched low to the floor and hugging the shadows of the wall, Lieutenant Johns crept toward the light, through a tunnelrge enough that a Crusader ss Mecha could have passed by him with room to spare. No other tunnel he had seen was thisrge, and it was clearly not a natural formation.


    ¡°Make a note, possible Behemoth activity,¡± Johns instructed the scout closest to him as he reached the light.


    It was an exit from the caverns, atop a high ridge with a steeply sloping hill, facing east. From here he could see the Base Camp and the defensive line of Mecha that was defending it. But more importantly, he could see the smoldering corpses of two Behemoths and thousands of Klem Warriors and Shredders.


    ¡°By the Emperor. Now we know where the Klem went, and I for one am d we weren¡¯t here before they left. Even the whole Regiment assembled would barely make a snack for that force.¡± Lieutenant Johns sighed, then sent the signal indicating that he had reached an exit, as well as sending the update of the tunnel structure to the ships above him since he could finally see the sky again.


    ¡°Let¡¯s stop here for a break, get everyone out into the light,¡± Johns ordered, bringing his squad forward and breathing in the rtively fresh mountain air. With all the fighting, the tunnels had turned smoky, stuffy, and suffocating, it was good to be back in the real world.


    [Lieutenant Johns, proceed to base camp to reload and restock, as it is the closest essible position to your location.] Came the order from his Commander.


    ¡°You heard the man, it¡¯s the closest essible position,¡± Johns ordered his troops, who could only sigh and look at the hill in front of them.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened behind us, but if two hundred kilometers on foot in in sight of an entire squad of Super Heavy Mecha are our orders, I am not going to ask to go back into those tunnels. Now finish your smoke and get moving.¡± His Sergeant agreed, making the men chuckle.


    It might take them all day, and most of tomorrow to get there, but anything was better than fighting below ground. Their only concern was the talk of the other exits not being essible. The infantry had no way to know that the Fusion mers had lit a number of the tunnels on fire, or that some had copsed due to heavy weapons. The stone of the tunnels blocked mostmunications, so they only knew what was ryed to them, and that was to watch for loss of oxygen as they explored the vast undergroundwork.


    [Twenty Credits says that they don¡¯t make it here before dark tomorrow.] Colonel DiFranco of the Fourth Battalionughed, looking at the pair of five hundred-foot vertical walls bordering a raging river that was between the infantry that had been ordered their way and their final destination.


    [Twenty Credits on Sunset tomorrow minus three hours.] Colonel Klinger wagered, making the rest of the Battalion Commandersugh, and the maintenance staff around them sigh.


    ¡°I guess that means the Mercs aren¡¯t going to send a hover truck to pick them up.¡± One of the repair technicians told his partner with a wink.


    ¡°Likely means that if we try we would make enemies of everyone who didn¡¯t win the bet as well. Just keep your binocrs at the ready, we should be able to see them almost the entire route back to camp.¡±

 Chapter 240 240 Tunnels Clear

    While the Command group was enjoying the spectacle of an infantry unit slogging down a mountain to get to the base camp, the first round of supply shipments was sent out to resupply the troops that returned to their starting points.


    The transports raced away toward their destinations, loaded up with equipment and munitions that had been created at the Materials Printers inside the Landers, while the Mecha support ran power cables to chargers, set up to handle all of the Infantry unit¡¯s Laser Rifle power packs at once. They could also recharge the sma ster¡¯s power packs, and those had been the first items on the charging stands, in the expectation that the number ofrge Klem would only increase the next time they went below.


    Many of them had been trapped for hours by Shredders blocking passages and ack of sufficient firepower to deal with them. Fortunately, the Mercenaries took pity on them and sent in squads of Corvette ss Mecha to clear the exits when they received signals that the units in the tunnels were having a hard time.


    There was something odd about those mecha though. More than one trooper had reported strikes from the giant aliens simply bouncing off the Mecha, leaving not even a scratch despite the ferocity with which they struck.


    The Infantrymanders wrote it off as superstition at first, but there were some highly respected officers spreading the rumor, so they couldn¡¯t keep it out of the reports forever. Central Command was used to strange sightings and superstition in the reports anyhow, it was just how soldiers were, but in this case, even a rumor of the capabilities that their allies could field would be incredibly valuable.


    Aboard Abraham Kepler, the staff dutifully recorded the reports, then redacted them for transmission away from the vessel. Unlike theplement of the other ships, the staff aboard Abraham Kepler knew full well what was going on, and that the Mecha they were seeing were experimental units, not an alien Mercenary Group, as the reports insisted.


    [Good news, General. The mole problem aboard the ship has been settled to my satisfaction.] General Yaakov sent to General Tennant while making a gesture of respect for the dead toward the body slowly floating away from the airlock in thending bays.


    Over the course of thest few days, he had spent every waking hour, and some of his sleeping hours dedicated to finding out everyone who sympathized with the Bureaucratic Nobles and to exactly what extent they had or would assist the movement.


    His reputation as a Noble snob who refused to speak directly to his lessers helped him immensely in this case, causing most of the men he questioned to view him as an ally, right up until the very end.


    He was greatly saddened to see the level of disloyalty and self-interest among the officers that he talked to, with a good portion of the officers who weren¡¯t even nobles, much less ingrained parts of the Bureaucracy, being sympathetic on some level to the notion that the Emperor should be removed from power.


    The sentiment that a rebellion was the way or even eptable, was fortunately much rarer, with most of the disgruntled forces believing that the Military should be the ones to take over the running of things in the Kepler Empire.


    That was somewhat understandable, and as loyal soldiers, as long as their superior officers were loyal, they would be as well.


    In the end, he had only needed to eliminate a dozen people before the entire conspiracy to have the Bureaucracy expose and capture the Prototype Mecha was fully revealed. There was only one remaining issue, there were four more names on his list that weren¡¯t on his ship. General Yaakov didn¡¯t have any authority over the other vessels, so he had toe up with something before the ships left and the traitors would feel safe enough to send another message out.


    So, he had to take a risk of having missed someone important and inform another General of his findings.


    Inquisitor General Ming was the obvious choice. Yaakov knew that it would lead to an inquiry into his own loyalty, but he was ready for that. There was nothing but loyalty to the Emperor to be found, so he could withstand a few days or weeks of interrogation before the truth was settled.


    So, General Yaakov took the final step and forwarded the data that he had found not only to General Tennant but also to the Inquisitor, hoping that the turncoats that had arrived with the other ships could be exposed and dealt with before they left the.


    His actions had been stealthy, but there was a small change that none of the other Generals missed. This morning, the obnoxious sidekick that followed him everywhere was nowhere to be found.


    ¡°General Yaakov, I do hope your Nephew is doing well. Though his presence was a distraction, he seemed to be an enthusiastic officer.¡± General Tennant greeted him, giving him an easy chance to exin the disappearance.


    ¡°Unfortunately, it seems that his enthusiasm cost him dearly this time. While he was on a tour of the repair bays, a misced wrench fell on his head. Though the physical wound was healed quickly, the mental damage is extensive.¡± General Yaakov replied sadly.


    The mental damage would never heal, he had made absolutely sure of it.


    ¡°A pity. Be sure to send a condolence letter to his parents when you get a chance.¡± General Tennant replied, then turned back to the mission ns.


    ¡°Once this sweep is finished, we should have full clearance on the tunnels. Most of the Klem have been either cornered and eliminated or swept out of the entrances to be dealt with by the Heavy Mecha squads. They just have to double-check areas that could not be verified due tobat damages, which means clearing a few copsed tunnels and waiting for others to cool.¡± General Tennant brought the Regimental Commander up to speed, pointing to the relevant spots on the map.


    The others in the room all assumed that he was a member of the Central Command team sent with General Tennant on this research mission, since there wasn¡¯t officially any Mecha Regiment aboard the ship, so no questions were raised when he rejoined the group after days of other duties to attend.


    ¡°Shall we copse the tunnels once they are verified clear?¡± General Yaakov suggested, highlighting the spots where an orbital strike could copse arge portion of the mountain range.


    ¡°Imperial Command says no. They intend to assign a defensive colony here in the future, due to the continued threat of Klem incursion into the Empire, so they want the atmosphere in pristine condition if possible.¡±


    Yaakov nodded, seeing the logic behind the order. ¡°Understood. It will lead to a few more losses, but from what I can see in the data, the total loss tobat this mission will be under five percent, a resounding victory unless the unexpected should happen in the final stages.¡±


    General Ming interrupted their conversation by clearing his throat. ¡°Now that our numbers have been bolstered by the return of General Yaakov, I have a few matters to attend to back aboard my own vessel. I will return by the end of the day, but I can stop off if anyone else needs anything.¡±


    The other two Generals nodded in agreement but waved off his offer.


    ¡°On second thought, bring over some extra Carib Rum. You sent the only case we had here on Abraham Kepler down to the Mercenaries and I¡¯ve got a bit of a thirst.¡±


    ¡°And a case of cigars from my locker. My adjutant will happily give them to you if you stop off.¡±


    Their small errands gave the General the perfect excuse to visit all three vessels for a few minutes and contact the hidden Inquisition officers aboard each, having them judiciously deal with the issue of the suspected traitors. Communication by radio wasn¡¯t secure, but in person, he could get all the updates that he needed on how things had been going.


    ¡°I will see you all at dinner. I hope to hear good news.¡± Inquisitor General Ming told them as he left the room.


    ¡°Now that he¡¯s gone, we can rx a little. There has been enough by the book, let¡¯s send in the Fusion mers and have them clear thest pockets of resistance. Not many of the side spurs are more than seventy meters long, and a little burnt limestone shouldn¡¯t bring the whole mountain down on them.¡± General Tennant told the others with a smile.


    Officially, the Mercenaries were a support force, not to be sent underground to the front lines, but those nasty mers would burn to ash anything from Klem Chitin to the very walls of the caverns they were hiding inside. In a pinch, the Disintegrators could also be used to open up tunnels, but the dimensions that they had for the main caverns showed that they should be able to move Crusader ss Mecha down them far enough to do a final clearance after the Infantry had gotten everything they could find.


    The Klem were sneaky, but a fire would guarantee that nothing they hid in the mountains would survive to hatch, while the itself wouldn¡¯t suffer as much as if they used an orbital bombardment to do the same task.


    It was a minor technicality that the Inquisitor would surely catch, but if it was done before he returned, it was safe to assume that it was close enough to within regtion that he wouldn¡¯t have an issue with it.

 Chapter 241 241 Scorched Earth

    [All infantry units ounted for. Survivors have exited the tunnel system.]


    The report from the infantrymanders was the signal to send the X109 Fast Attack Mecha into the undergroundbyrinth.


    The terrain was incredibly poorly suited to the fast-moving Crusader ss chassis, but their weapons were ideal for the situation and enemies that they would be facing today.


    That alone was reason enough to send them. The perfect weapons on a less-than-ideal chassis? That was an excellent start to a data set that would justify additional weapon sets for the Corvette ss Mecha, or even for infantry units in the future.


    The researchers were overjoyed with the situation, and Sister Lilith had them all working well beyond their usual quotas in order to process the data that they were getting in a timely manner.


    On a normal deployment, the data sets from just the first battle against the Klem would have taken three to six months to process, and indeed they were far from done, but the need to form at least an operational outline of every ongoing engagement couldn¡¯t be ignored, so the deep analysis was put on hold in favor of simply gathering the most relevant points for the Senior developers back on Comor.


    ¡°Who was in charge of analyzing the probability data for a runaway burn of the Limestone caverns?¡± Moonie called from across the researchb, trying to keep everyone on task in her role as Lilith¡¯s assistant.


    ¡°Over here, Moon. Our numbers say an eight percent chance, but if they limit the mer bursts to under five seconds at a time they should have a one hundred percent purge rate, with a less than one percent chance of a runaway Limestone burn taking down the entire mountain.¡± One of the team members shouted back.


    ¡°Thank you. Now, who has the data on the Disruptor¡¯s pration rates? Can they safely be used against Limestone that doesn¡¯t lead directly to a cavern?¡±


    ¡°Ten meters per second in natural limestone. Safety rates are within tolerances.¡± Another group called.


    ¡°Sister Lilith, all the data looks good, you are clear to send them into the caverns,¡± Moonie informed her boss and best friend.


    ¡°Thank you, Moonie. Get ready for a flood of data to be sent up when they reach the surface again since we don¡¯t know how well themunication devices that they are equipped with will be able to contact us while they are underground.¡± Sister Lilith¡¯s instructions dampened the mood in the room instantly.


    They all knew that they were going to be getting a flood of data, but if it came in all day long it was manageable. If it all came in at once at the end of the shift it was a nightmare of information overload for the research teams.


    ¡°Have some faith, Sister. We designed the newmunication systems with very high gain digital audio, it should be able to reach the surface well enough for the rest of the team to ry it back to the surface.¡± One of the team leaders said hopefully, crossing his fingers behind his back for luck.


    They would need it. The Fusion mers caused a load of interference on their own, and coupled with the underground environment, getting any sort of useful data through was going to be a minor miracle. At best, they could ry audio, but a full set of sensor data would be too corrupted to be interpreted by the time it made the surface.


    [Send them In.] Sister Lilith ordered, and General Tennant sent the official Commands to the surface.


    ¡°Now Ladies, don¡¯t fret. Your beloved Cassanova will be here with you even after our fast attack units head below. Whenever you are ready, gentlemen.¡± Company Commander Carlton, better known as Cassanova or Young Cassanova, ryed the order to his Mecha, making the Pilotsugh.


    Unlike his namesake, the Company Commander had not had much luck with thedies of the Sector Defense Regiment that he was assigned to. In fact, he had none at all, if you didn¡¯t count them humoring him with yful conversation.


    That was exactly what the unit counted on though. Cassanova was a forty-seven-year-old virgin with horrible luck in love. He had only managed one girlfriend that anyone knew of, and she cleared out his bank ounts and tried to im military spousal benefits for the six children she already had when they met.


    On the other hand, his antics made the rest of his men look better, byparison, so they were happy to y along and help him with his technique and morale.


    In person, he could start out incredibly suave, but after a few drinks or a day of interaction, his true nature woulde through. None of the Pilots could exin why, but despite actually being a decent guy, he immediately turned off every woman he interacted with.


    Some even suspected that it was a prank yed on him by the System during one of his advancements, forcing the wannabe yboy to focus on Mecha Piloting, forck of luck at anything else.


    One squad after another, the Fast Attack Crusaders went below, heading for the end of the tunnel system to start their purge, so that they could work back to their origin point without having to cross over regions that they had already burned to lime dust.


    Within an hour, the entire mountain range looked like a forest fire had spread through it, but all of the smoke wasing from underground.


    Here and there, pockets of Klem that had been hiding were burned to ash, with a few even managing to make closebat with the Mecha that was burning them out of their hiding spots, but none of them managed to do any serious damage before they were obliterated either by fire or Disintegrators.


    [Rockstar to Command. We have a minor issue. Fusion mers have found a Coal seam among the stones.] One of the squad leaders reported, catching Max¡¯s attention.


    That wasn¡¯t good news. Coal would burn nearly forever in an underground environment, maintaining heat for decades despite the absence of oxygen.


    [This is Keres. Do what you can to iste the burning seam with your Disruptors. If necessary, we will dispatch a team with cryogenic tanks to cool the area. Pure Carbon is a valuable building material.] Max ordered, then listened as the message was ryed through all the units in the Mountains.


    With a resounding explosion, that proved to be a failed attempt. The disruptors broke apart the molecules, but even independent, floating Carbon atoms were highly reactive to heat, and explosive when exposed to fire.


    [Attempt Failed, Unit retreating from the region for fire control entry.] The Pilots reported.


    The rest of the Company Commanders sent out orders to watch for signs of Coal seams while they were working so that the fires could be contained, and a hover truck with a liquid nitrogen tanker was quickly printed and sent out to quell the fires.


    The Disruptors had slowed the fire by creating a small fire break, but the area still needed to be cooled to end the fire, and the supercooled liquid would do the job reasonably well.


    [Commander Rage, we have a report. A munitions transport wagon has picked up an infantry unit on the mountain and returned them to the defensive line. Barring a rest break, ETA for the wagered unit is two hours to Staging.] Colonel Klinger reported.


    They had been so distracted with actual work that they had missed the unit they were watching walk down the mountain being picked up by an unsuspecting transport truck.


    ¡°That¡¯s too early by a lot. Nobody is within six hours of that time.¡± Nico grumbled, having abstained from wagering so that she could referee.


    [Logistics team. There is an infantry unit at the front lines that look pretty hungry. Why don¡¯t you head over and get them a nice hot meal?] Nico ordered on a private channel just to the staff that was working on the front lines.


    [Got it, boss. We are on standby here, and the Stew is still hot.] The logistics sergeant replied, thinking that the Major was only being kind to the infantry who had walked so far to get back to their location.


    They didn¡¯t hear the order, but everyone in the area could see the Lunch Truck heading to the infantry, who gathered around it for their first hot and proper meal in days. That would dy them at least a few hours, and it would soon be mid-afternoon, and most units preferred not to march in the direct sun, so they might stop a few extra hours before continuing on.


    The Mecha were starting to return back to their units already, having only needed to st open a few tunnels and burn mostly empty caverns. Forty Mecha for that job was overkill, but it got the job done before anyone couldin, plus the data that they collected would prove incredibly valuable to the research teams, once they had time to analyze the effects.


    [Good job everyone. Standby as units and wait for further orders.]


    As far as Max could tell, the Klem infestation was contained and annihted, they just had to wait and see if there was any more activity detected over the next few days. If there wasn¡¯t they should be able to send these spectators away back to their home deployment and move on to their next assignment without causing any more ripples in theyer of secrecy over their deployment.


    Inquisitor General Ming was thinking exactly the same thing. The other ships had all been watching the action on the ground and detected the deployment of the Mercenaries belowground before the underground temperature readings spiked to incredible levels, indicating that they had burned out any chance of Klem survivors.


    They had perfect timing. He had just enough time while everyone was distracted to deal with the suspects on the other vessels and return to Abraham Kepler before they returned to the surface.

 Chapter 242 242 Job Well Done

    Inquisitor General Ming arrived back aboard Abraham Kepler with an assortment of Rum and Cigars, as well as his personal favorite, a thirty-year-old Rye Whiskey that was made on his family¡¯s estate. No matter how many worlds he visited, or how far he traveled, that whiskey always reminded him of home.


    ¡°Gentlemen, I see our Mercenary friends got a touch impatient while I was away. But, all is well that ends well, so I brought along a bottle of the good stuff to celebrate a world cleared of hostile aliens.¡± The inquisitor greeted the other Generals as he entered the Command room.


    ¡°Excellent choice. As the Mecha forces have burned almost all the bodies on the, we have begun a biological scan from orbit, and we will be sending various units to check the Klem signatures and either burn them or eliminate any survivors that might be found.


    There aren¡¯t many of them, though they are most prevalent in the area around the Mercenary base camp. It looks like they had a rather hard-fought battle before we arrived, despite appearing to still be near full strength.¡± General Tennant agreed.


    The orders were ryed to the surface, setting everyone in motion. The infantry loaded themselves into hover vehicles so that they could make decent time to their destinations, while the Mecha squads immediately split off.


    Time was always of the essence against Klem, so no unit dared to dy their missions, even the ¡®Mercenary¡¯ forces under Max had eagerly agreed to help clean up the area, so they could send the Kepler Fleet on their way.


    Scouring the mountains for signs of Klem blood and body parts was a simple task, and the Fast Attack Mecha could quickly burn anything that they found, dering the area sanitized and then moving on to the next point.


    In this way, the mountains themselves were cleared in only a few hours, and by dawn the next morning, forces had scattered all over the region, searching for thest few signatures that were detected.


    A few turned out to be buried eggs, waiting for the threats to leave so that they could safely hatch, but for the most part, it was just body parts and blood that were showing up on the sensors of the ships in orbit.


    [Rage, now that we¡¯re all finished up here, how about you and me spend a little time together? Get to know each other better? I¡¯m a good judge of character and nobody with that voice could be a bad person.] One of the Heavy Mecha Company Commanders from the Kepler fleet messaged Nico, shooting his shot while he had a chance.


    [Oh, a nice intimate evening? I¡¯m game, but I must warn you, I only top.] Nico responded, making the Mecha give a series of lewd-looking hip thrusts in the direction of the allied Commander¡¯s Mecha.


    [Why so quiet? Don¡¯t tell me our romantic evening has been prevented by amunications system failure?] Nico asked, the false sincerity clear in her voice.


    [How about we take a raincheck on that? I, uh, just got notified of a thing I have to do.] He replied, making the pilots of both units, who could hear the conversation on the general channel, burst intoughter.


    [She is taken anyhow, Major. Don¡¯t take it too personally, it takes a special sort of man to tame a woman like that.] Klingerughed.


    [All points clear. Klem infestation is verified removed from the. Please standby for orders.]


    The message from Central Command broke up their joking and marked theirst viable excuse to hide inside the Mecha.


    It was customary for the leaders of a Reaver or Mercenary squad to shake hands with their allies in person to mark thepletion of a deal, so it would be very strange and rude for Max and Nico at the very least not to exit their Mecha and visit with the other Regiment and Battalion Commanders.


    This would be the greatest test of the unit¡¯s deception. If the Kepler Mecha force could be sent back to their ship without anyone realizing who they were dealing with, the operation had been sessful. The Commanders had already seen them, but a video feed could be altered to show what you wanted it to. That is why Mercenaries did things face to face, where they could personally verify the identity of their employers and customers.


    The opposite was true as well, and it led to a level of mutual trust being necessary for doing business, keeping slipshod operators and sketchy employers out of the loop.


    Before they could assemble to finalize everything, a single shuttle was seen entering the atmosphere. It hade from one of the ships overhead, and the unannounced vessel made everyone a bit nervous.


    Max and his unit feared that they had been made, while the Kepler forces feared that the Mercenaries would think they had been double-crossed. That might be the case on asion, but today they had a significant advantage in firepower.


    [General Ming and General Yaakov are iing to your position for the final ceremony and data collection for the archives.] General Tennant informed them, only a few minutes toote.


    The shuttle was on a shallow approach though, racing around the while slowly burning off speed, a technique that was highly unorthodox in this day and age, better suited to a sightseeing tour than a military insertion.


    Though, it did make sense if they were trying to subtly search the for additional hidden threats, like a hidden Mercenary base, or additional Klemndfall sites.


    [Understood General. We will be waiting for their arrival.] Max responded, getting ready to disembark.


    Nico had made him a pair of ck leather pants and a ck military jacket with most of the patches removed, save for one that was modified with what Max recognized as Nico¡¯s family heraldry. She paired it with a bright red button-down satin shirt and a collection of fake gold jewelry, making Max stand out, but still look somewhat like apetent Mecha Commander. For herself, she had chosen a menco dress in matching ck and red, worn withbat boots and her hair tied up in an elegant bun.


    The visibly mechanical features of her disguise made the outfit seem somewhat incongruous to the setting, but when she added a leather belt around her waist holding a pistol and sword and a shortened military jacket that almost matched the slightly battered-looking one that Max received, it somehow worked.


    It was like an outcast Pirate had done her best to dress to impress, but just couldn¡¯t quite bring herself to leave her weapons behind, so she failed with a fashionable ir.


    The other four Battalion Commanders joined them in the open field where one single tent had been set up for the meeting, each of them dressed wildly different, but all with the slightly militaristic style of the Reavers.


    Nico must have been in contact with them, as they all had the same patch on their jackets that Max and Nico did, which was an ancient badge of the Tarith Family Reavers.


    Outside of a few pre-Empire historians and the Reavers themselves, Max doubted that anyone alive would recognize the heraldry, but it was good to have everyone match so that the returning forces didn¡¯t have more questions about the alliance between multiple Mercenary forces.


    The shuttle touched down gently, a hundred meters from the Commanders standing near the tent, under the watchful gaze of twenty Super Heavy Mecha, piloted by the Company Commanders and the Technicians of the Battalion Commanders.


    Max¡¯s own unit seemed to have no trouble tracking the shuttle while keeping an eye on the others, thanks to Nico¡¯s Technology Control abilities, so the immobile Mecha wouldn¡¯t give itself away as unupied.


    The two Generals stepped out, followed by a dozen men of Abraham Kepler¡¯s staff. Notably absent were the two adjutants or assistants that most Generals never went anywhere without. The Generals approached on their own, while the staff guarded the ramp to the Shuttle, looking like the rxed but ready veterans that they were.


    ¡°Greetings, Commander Keres, Miss Rage. I am General Ming of the Kepler Sector Defense fleet, as you no doubt already knew. This is General Yaakov of Central Command. We have the formal agreement documents on hand, as well as tokens of an alliance, signifying a sessful alliance with the Kepler fleet. Feel free to use them in the future as proof of identity should you need to ally with the Fleet again.¡± General Ming introduced himself with a genuine-looking smile.


    ¡°You are too kind, General. As we said, this was a mutual interest.¡± Max deferred.


    Nico gestured toward the tent, and the Commanders of both forces made their way inside to where the cooks of both forces had assembled a buffet and a long table so the two sides could sit across from each other.


    Once they were seated, General Ming was the first to speak. ¡°I would like to thank you all for your cooperation. The safety of the frontiers of the Kepler Empire is of paramount importance to all of us within both Sector Defense and Central Command. But I must say, that I never expected to see such a sight as what I found here on this remote world.


    Not only the Mecha but to find so many impressive backgrounds assembled in one spot. Did you know that General Yaakov is one of the old Nobles, whoseary rule predates the Empire? Of course, Miss Rage here is an impressive person herself, even if she chooses to keep quiet about it.¡± The General began, giving the badges on their jackets a pointed look.


    ¡°We can¡¯t forget about Commander Keres either. Though you might not be as notoriously influential in Kepler, your infamy was well noted among the Cygnus poption.¡± Max wasn¡¯t sure what the General meant by that specifically, though he could guess that the man knew who he was.


    Max hadn¡¯t seen the Cygnus propaganda movies that senior Inquisition officials were privy to, so he didn¡¯t realize how famous he really was at this point.


    ¡°It is always an honor to meet a Defense Official with such an incredible pedigree as yours. Your work during the reconstruction of Belmont wasmendable.¡± Nico answered with a smile, while Max was looking for just the right thing to say, and reading the minds of the two Generals in front of him to see what they really knew.


    General Ming almost choked on his drink at that but quickly recovered. The memory of him quietly purging traitors all over the shed through his mind, along with bewilderment about how Nico could have known. In his mind, he used their real names, so there was no doubt that this Inquisitor knew who they were, but he also wasn¡¯t going to say any more than he already had.


    He simply wanted to establish dominance in the meeting, showing off his knowledge. A tactic that Nico absolutely crushed by mentioning Belmont.

 Chapter 243 243 Verbal Sparring and A Return

    Max checked Nico¡¯s thoughts and realized that she had hacked the man¡¯s wrist device the moment that hended, giving her ess to his personal files and travel history. Secure documentation wouldn¡¯t be stored there, but knowing whichs he had been on recently was enough for her to get an edge on the General who thought that he was the only one in the know.


    General Yaakov looked a bit lost at this point, as he didn¡¯t know how Nico knew anything about General Ming, but he was hiding it well.


    ¡°I heard that your Terminus Trading Company might be looking to expand their alliances in the future. Perhaps we could make time to discuss it in greater depth if we should meet again.¡± General Yaakov added, not being specific about who he was addressing thement toward.


    ¡°Alliances are the lifeblood of any Company. I am sure that we will meet again at some point.¡± Max agreed politely, while the conversation around them turned to battlefield stories, with only the two leaders engaged with the Generals.


    The food was brought to the table by the Logistics staff, who were trying very hard to hide their amusement at their top officers putting on an act like they didn¡¯t know each other while sitting across the table from each other.


    It was a level of political nonsense that was rare for them to see since they wouldn¡¯t normally be allowed into such a meeting. Only the fact that it was a Mercenary Troupe made the meeting informal enough to allow those unranked soldiers inside the tent where a sound barrier had been set up.


    ¡°We do hope that our performance was up to your standards. The Terminus Trading Company doesn¡¯t have thergest history, so a few positive words about our reliability would go a long way, should the topice up in the future.¡± Max told General Ming, who nodded in agreement.


    ¡°It would be hard to argue that your performance and capability were anything but ster. I am sure that even Imperial Command would be impressed with the Combat abilities of your unit.¡± He agreed, making General Yaakov look a bit pale.


    He still thought that the other General didn¡¯t actually know that they were an Experimental Regiment and that he only recognized a few of them from somewhere and filled the rest with conjecture. Yaakov had done his very best to keep it all under wraps the entire battle, so this friendly banter about secrets best kept was getting to him.


    ¡°I hear that General Yaakov has a very lovely granddaughter who ising of age soon. Perhaps we should apply for a pass to enter Kepler¡¯s space and attend her Debutante ball. Commander Keres here is a bona fide noble himself, and I¡¯m sure his charm is more than any genteel youngdy could resist.¡± Nico teased their Regimental Commander.


    ¡°Perhaps it might be possible. Alliances between Noble Houses are always a wee addition to the Yaakov family.¡± He replied, not willing to let his subordinate taunt him like that.


    Though, once he thought it over, it wasn¡¯t a bad match. Max was a war hero, with a promising future, and his Granddaughter had a D Minus systempatibility, so despite her beauty, she wasn¡¯t a prime target for a High Noble Marriage, where most of the elder generation believed, rightly, that strong System Compatibility was the future of their ns.


    ¡°Miss Rage here has a particr fondness for helping me look for the perfect match.¡± Max agreed, making the Officers around them burst intoughter.


    They had heard the stories before they were deployed to the. Colonel Max¡¯s Technician was rumored to have tried to set him up on three differents so far, despite never leaving his side.


    The dinner finished more quickly than most would have preferred, as the staff had gone all out with the meal, and it was time to sign the final documents and start sending everyone on their way.


    ¡°If the Terminus Trading Company has no objections, I do have some additional business with them, and would like to stay behind a few days.¡± General Yaakov announced just before everyone was ready to leave.


    General Ming smiled, realizing that this was General Tennant¡¯s way of dying Abraham Kepler¡¯s departure until after the other ships had left the system so that the forces left on the wouldn¡¯t attract attention.


    Max nodded in agreement and lit one of the fine Cigars that General Ming had brought. They weren¡¯t tobo, but some local nt from wherever they were produced. It had a pleasant herbal smoke, with none of the harshness that Max had feared. He had been around Cigarette smoke all his life, but he had never actually seen much less smoked a cigar.


    ¡°That is eptable. Let¡¯s get the rest underway and we can talk business once the Sector Defense forces are safely on their way home. I hear that there are some problems in Paradisetely.¡± Max said suggestively, hinting at the rumors of rebel nobles that had spread well beyond the borders, thanks to their attempt to draw Cygnus into their war.


    The other Commanders returned to their units and began leading them to theirnders, packing up thest of the campsite that they had set up. The tent came down, and the tables were cleared, with the leftover food quickly imed by the Logistics forces, and the Mecha were lined up in preparation for securement in their Landers.


    In well-regted lines, the Mecha, then the infantry entered the Landers leaving only the Test Unit and General Yaakov out in the open. In a well-practiced maneuver, the Landers lifted off, one every ten seconds, and screamed back toward the ships in orbit.


    ¡°Well, it looks like we pulled it off, even if we couldn¡¯t fool the Inquisitor,¡± Max told General Yakkov happily once thest Lander had left the ground.


    ¡°You don¡¯t think he knows everything, do you? Even if he does, an Inquisitor should bepletely trustworthy. At least they should be now.¡± Thest sentence was added in a low whisper, and Max saw a memory of an Imperial Command order to relieve a number of possiblypromised Inquisitors of their duties about a year ago.


    ¡°As you likely recall, my Innate Talent is mind reading. He not only knows that we are a Kepler Military force, he even knows all our real names and backgrounds. What he didn¡¯t know is where the Mecha came from. He did know who called for the reinforcements though, and it seems that particr someone had an unfortunate ident while passing by a malfunctioning airlock. Tragic really.¡± Max replied.


    General Yaakov nodded solemnly, for he was the one who had spaced that particr traitor. ¡°Yes, a true tragedy for such a promising young soldier who chose the wrong path in life.¡±


    ¡°So, are we waiting here for the Research Team to finish up the data analysis, or are we leaving as soon as the others are out of sensor range?¡± Nico asked, getting right to business.


    ¡°We will wait here for another forty-eight hours then depart. In keeping with your cover, you will construct a hidden Mercenary base underground. There is no need to leave anything behind, just make it look like you abandoned the ns to build a base after you were interrupted by a Kepler patrol.


    That should be sufficient for anyone who mighte looking, and Central Command will leave a data probe on this¡¯s moon to record every ship that visits the system in the near future.¡±


    It was a solid n, and the moon¡¯s rotation around its axis was in sync with its rotation around the, so the same side always faced the, making observation easy.


    ¡°Come join us for drinks General. You got stuck aboard the ship all this time and missed out on the fun. I am certain that a little camaraderie among the troops would do morale a world of good.¡± Nico suggested, but General Yaakov waved her off.


    ¡°I don¡¯t drink while deployed. I am certain that you understand.¡± He excused himself politely.


    Max did his best to hide his smirk. The General was beginning to lighten up, but the long ingrained Noble snobbishness ran deep through his veins, drinking and carousing with themoners was too far for his sensibilities.


    As they discussed the various issues that the unit had run into over the course of the deployment Max did notice that he didn¡¯t hesitate to talk directly to everyone who addressed him though, and that was a start.


    All of their reports on issues and possible improvements would bepiled by the Research Teams, but the general consensus was that a few more weapon options for the standard Crusaders would be nice, as well as a Fusion mer type weapon for the Corvette ss Mecha, who could infiltrate smaller areas and move with more stealth than their Crusader ss counterparts.


    How exactly that would be aplished was another question. The fusion mers used an incredible amount of power. More than the Corvettes could sustain.


    The next day passed in rtive peace, with every pilot and technician writing their mission reports, or discussing the mission with their teams while they waited for the all-clear so they could begin building the fake underground base, and then return to Abraham Kepler.

 Chapter 244 244 Just A Minor Adjustment

    Twenty-three hours after the others departed, General Tennant deemed it safe to begin the modifications to the mountain region to form a hidden base that could be passed off as a Mercenary stronghold, includingrge underground Mecha Hangars.


    In an emergency, this location could be used by the Kepler Military as well, so the effort was not a lost cause, only a contingency n.


    Max looked down at the ns he had drawn for his Battalion¡¯s portion of theplex and then out at the Mecha around him. The Corvettes wouldn¡¯t be an issue, and the twelve-meter tall Crusader Recements, with their sharp angles and radar absorbent ck paint, should also be fine, but designing a hangar bay for the X137 Super Heavy was more difficult.


    Where the rtively slender and humanoid Mecha that made up the rest of the force could walk two abreast through a standardized door, the Super Heavy units would struggle to fit at all.


    Even if it pulled its arms in close so that the triple-barreled Ion Bombard Arrays on either arm were mostly out of the way, it was still twice as wide as the Crusader ss units, thanks to the bulk of the torso that had been widened to amodate mounting the three Mass Drivers of the Thunder Guns.


    Those would also need to be watched when passing through a door or entering a room, as they added up to eight more meters to the already twenty-two-meter height if they were extended upward for Bombardment.


    They would have to put a storage notification into the standard procedures for bringing the Mecha inside.


    On the X137 the designers had kept with the harsh angles to reduce reflected radar signals, but Max did have to wonder how effective it actually was on a Mecha sorge. Given the size, it would be easy to mistake a crouched unit for a house on the radar.


    For the testing, they were also adorned in t ck paint like the Crusaders, but that would change when they were deployed in a regr unit. Without the radar absorption, they would look even more like a randomly ced house on the radar. One with a t roof and steep gables.


    While Max was calcting the space needed for the Mecha Hanger, which should hold their entire Regiment, Nico was inmunication with the Research Team, making ns to tweak the Mecha after analyzing battle data.


    The other Battalion Commanders were assigned to other areas of the base, but they could all use standard patterns for their design, as the spaces were for human upancy.


    ¡°Hey Max, unequip the Ion Bombard Arrays, I need to get at the power couplings,¡± Nico called, not looking up from her conversation with Sister Lilith, who was in charge of design updates before the official production run was started.


    Max leaned the Mecha forward andid the two Arrays, with their angr shells protecting the three Ion projectors, on the deck of a transport truck that had been parked in front of him for that purpose. He didn¡¯t see a driver, so either the crewman had already left, or Nico had overridden the controls and borrowed the truck on her own.


    Once they were in ce and not going to drop and damage anything, he retracted the internal power couplings, then backed up and slid the Mecha¡¯s lower arms out of the housing, exposing the Super Heavy Mecha¡¯s hands for the first time.


    ¡°Thanks, boss,¡± Nico called, then hopped out the side door, using the Anti gravity tes of the Tech Adept Exoskeleton to keep her in the air.


    Thirty-meter roof heights in a Hangar seemed like overkill to Max, but after reviewing his calctions, that was the minimum height to properly service all of the new Mecha, so Max updated the ns and submitted them to General Yaakov.


    [Very good. It will serve the purpose. The hangars will be closest to the entry, so your team is up first with the mining equipment.] General Yaakov responded, sending Max a location pin in the foothills of the mountains and a roughyout, with the areas that were not finalized yet left gray.


    [Orders are in. Corvettes proceed to the location with the newly built mining equipment. Able Company, you are up first. Baker will rece you in four hours.] Max ordered.


    [Got it. Move out everyone.] Major Ivanov of Able Company ordered.


    The heavy Mecha would bring the equipment, which was sized for the Corvettes to use. The light mecha would do the majority of the work, while the heavy Mecha removed rubble withrge ore wagons.


    The Generals had at least picked a nearby location for the base, and there was andslide nearby where the rubble would blend in with the terrain, saving them a lot of effort in camouging the area.


    Compared to the X137 units, which were all getting some circuitry updated in their arm-mounted weapons, the Crusader ss units were in for much more work. Max had just seen the list, and they would need weeks toplete all of that work with the staff that they had.


    From changes to the armor shape, userfort modifications inside the cockpit, and mechanical updates to the thrusters on the Fast Attack models, everything about the new Crusader ss Chassis was getting tweaked.


    They were even changing the Main weapon from a hard-mounted setup to a handheld rifle pattern which would lock to the arm only when in use, allowing the Mecha more freedom to hold tools or other weapons.


    It would also make changing main armaments a thirty-second job, even if the Pilot wanted a whole different setup than what their Mecha was currently equipped with.


    This wasn¡¯t possible for the fast attack units, where the weapons were more integrated, but for the others, it was very convenient. Except that the new munitions pack for the Mass Driver that was recing the old Battle Cannons, which hadn¡¯t previously been an option for these Mecha, looked a bit clumsy and needed assistance to equip.


    They had scheduled live fire testing forter that day, using the whole Regiment to increase the data sample size and hopefully eliminate some of the unforeseen issues they had found the first time.


    Everything performed without failure during the fight against the Klem, except after being damaged, which couldn¡¯t be urately tested in theb. The research team thought they had found a fix for all of the vulnerabilities that had been identified here, and the Crusader ss Pilots were looking forward to testing their new toys out.


    Lack of diversity in weaponry had been their topint, as they found that some of the Klem were better defended against certain weapon types and the Energy Weapon dominant pattern that they were all equipped with struggled against a few opponents, as well ascking in long range area damage capability.


    [This thing is awesome, it¡¯s like the old grenadeunchers that the infantry get, but belt-fed.] One of Max¡¯s Pilotsmended the new Crusader ss Mass Driver.


    [We saw what the Thunder Finds could do inbat, so with one of these in either hand, my wing would be unstoppable.] Another pilotughed.


    [Yeah, for about fifteen minutes. They are still rmending an energy-based offhand due to the munitions consumption.] One of his squad mates replied, deadpan.


    The Pilot had a point. With the increased rate of fire and limited storage, the Thunder Cannon, as they nicknamed the single Mass Driver, didn¡¯t have much longevity in a sustained fire scenario.


    But it could be dropped and reced in seconds, so it wasn¡¯t the wasted capability that a Redemption Pattern Mecha with an empty Battle Cannon was.


    [Colonel Max, we are ready for you to use your System Functions and check the updates.] Nico called up from her seat atop the right arm¡¯s Ion Bombard Array.


    [Optimizing] Max¡¯s System informed him as he equipped it, then provided him a short list of changes that needed to be physically made and couldn¡¯t be done by the System.


    Max sent them to Nico and she got back to work, double-checking everything before sending the data to the research team.


    [That is an impressivebination of System Abilities. Between the two of you, the output of the Ion Bombard is up by sixty percent on the baseline without overload or overheating issues.] General Tennant congratted him on a secure channel and Max resisted the urge to tease his instructor about being upstaged by the new generation.


    It wasn¡¯t really a generational issue, Max and Nico simply worked too well together.


    [As long as stability isn¡¯t affected, I will be happy. The original design had the long-range stability changes we made for targeting Landers included. It would be a shame to lose that capability.] Nico pointed out.


    The other Super Heavy Mecha began to implement their changes now that the data had been verified. Only half of the X137 units would do this final round of updates right away, the others would be the control group topare them against.


    None of the tests would begin until the underground base was finished though. They had a whole worth of space to test, and the team wanted real-time data from everyone at once to reduce environmental variables.


    The only issue Max could see was that [Optimize] was intended to be for his personal use, so it might not be right for the others.


    Their Mecha would all have been set up slightly differently, to their Pilot¡¯s preference, so the changes might conflict and lead to unwanted oues.


    [Mecha Hangars areplete and makeshift repair gantries are installed. Returning to position so the other teams can begin work.] Baker Company reported halfway through their shift, and the Pilots of Charlie Company celebrated.


    Their Battalion¡¯s part of the digging was done, and they didn¡¯t have to do any of it. They would be up first next time, but today, they were the lucky winners.


    Max set his rm andy down for a nap, knowing he had at least four hours before the call to begin testing would be made, and that they would be busy loading everything up and leaving the after the tests wereplete.

 Chapter 245 245 On the Road Again

    When Max woke up he was curled around a cool metallic shell. It was time to get up, no matter howfortable he was. Looking at her happy sleeping face, it was obvious that Nico was content to stay in bed and Max contemted just leaving her there, but that wasn¡¯t going to be feasible today.


    Sister Lilith would need the Mecha¡¯s data from his tests and Max wasn¡¯t going to analyze it all himself when Nico had a System Function that would let her do it in an instant.


    So, once he was up and dressed Max picked her up and used Nico¡¯s metallic body as a barbell to do curls.


    ¡°If anyone else could see you, they would think you are into some weird stuff,¡± Nico told him, but made no attempt to move, hoping he would put her back in bed.


    ¡°And you think differently?¡± Max asked, lifting her higher to blow a raspberry on her stomach.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need to see you to know what you are into. I have your browser history since you were a child.¡± Nico teased, finally twisting herself off of his arms to stand on her own.


    That wasn¡¯t entirely true, she probably didn¡¯t have anything from before he came to the academy, but her point was valid.


    [All Command Mecha, report to the pinned location for live fire testing.] General Yaakov¡¯s voice brought everyone to full readiness, with Nico slipping into a pair of fatigue pants to go with the tank top she slept in and stepping into her boots.


    ¡°Good to go. We will have to get back into uniform when we get back to Abraham Kepler anyhow, we might as well stayfortable for now.¡± She told Max before fastening her safety harness.


    All twenty Super Heavy Mecha in a line was a glorious sight. The bulk of their torsos, with the massive amount of ammunition storage and the artillery batteries, stood out like soot-ckened statues among the scorched ruins of the battlefield, giving Max a sense of nostalgia.


    There was a scene like this in the memories of his past life. A single line of mecha standing in front of a mighty mountain fortress had survived a firebombing, and looked out over the battlefield, waiting on their fate.


    The perspective didn¡¯t make sense to Max, he was looking at them from above, but he didn¡¯t seem to be moving, and the rest of the memory was missing. All he had of the battle was just that one scene.


    Once all the X137 Units were lined up, General Yaakov designated a point in the distant sky for them to target.


    [Sensor logging is active and functional. Maximum firing rate, ten-shot burst. Fire at will.] The General Directed the Pilots, and the sky immediately filled with bright white Ion sts.


    As Max had suspected, after the changes, the weapons were no longer all firing at the same speed, and the sts were staggered wildly, with some of the Mecha finishing the ten-shot pattern more than a second after the fastest of their peers.


    That was Max, of course, finishing slightly faster than two other nearly identical firing rates. Against a static position, targeting skills didn¡¯t matter, and they weren¡¯t moving, so just firing the guns wouldn¡¯t tax the skills of any Pilot that they would allow in the Cockpit of a Super Heavy Mecha.


    That left only the actual capabilities of their weapons to make up the difference in speed.


    Though there were a lot of variances, the two groups, modified and unmodified, were clearly visible in the times, but more notably in the stability and power of their attacks.


    Half of the Ion shots were visibly more powerful than the others, and they held cohesion much longer as they raced through the sky toward the simted Orbital Insertion target.


    [Again] General Yaakov ordered, verifying the data that they had collected the first time.


    The results were nearly identical. None of the Pilots was holding back, or making an error, they simply had a different level of equipment, though they were ostensibly the same weapon.


    Five times in total they repeated the tests until the Research Team had enough data, and then it was time for the Crusader ss Mecha to be put through their paces.


    That process took nearly three hours with all the changes that had been made to the Heavy Mecha, but in the end, the Researchers were satisfied with the data that they had, and the stability of the changes that had been made, so the orders were given to proceed to their Landers, and get ready to return to Abraham Kepler.


    ¡°Nico, you don¡¯t see anything in orbit, or any transmissions from the ship back into Kepler Space do you?¡± Max asked, making sure that the infiltrator wasn¡¯t still active.


    The ship watching them could be taken as a sales pitch, but loading them on a Kepler Military vessel was pretty solid proof of ownership if anyone who wanted to use the information against them was watching.


    ¡°No, we are clear. The Inquisitor has everything worked out at his end, and the teams that came to assist us won¡¯t be spreading any rumors. The moment they got back to base, he ordered them to be put on a thirty-daymunications ban during debriefing. I intercepted the transmission between him and General Tennant.


    I suspect that there will be trouble with Sector Governance though, and soon.¡± Nico informed him.


    ¡°That should do. In thirty days, they will likely be ready to tell the public about the new Mecha anyhow. I can¡¯t see Imperial Command losing the chance tounch a surprise announcement about our improved capability after all the work they have gone through so far to keep things secret.¡± Max agreed.


    [Everyone to the Landers, you know the drill.] Max ordered First Battalion, then headed for the Lander that he came in.


    With just one Super Heavy Mecha and two fast attack Crusaders as Bodyguards, the inside of the Lander felt positively empty. They didn¡¯t even have the supply of munitions and materials that they did on the way down to keep themselvespany, the Lander was empty except for the Mecha.


    They were the first up if you didn¡¯t count the Shuttle that General Yaakov was in, so Max didn¡¯t have to wait long before the oppressive force of the thrusters engaging to propel the cavernous transport to orbital velocity pinned him to his seat, marking the official end of the trials on Rae 3.


    [Docking at Hangar Bay 1 in 14 minutes 30 seconds]


    The announcement came just as the thrusters calmed and the artificial gravity kicked in, allowing them to move freely around the Mecha again, and was apanied by a string of Mecha data returned by the Research Team. They hadpiled the averages from all of the test firings, ande up with a ranking of adjustments, to be tested in the Virtual simtors once the Pilots had returned to the ship.


    Clearly, they were not a big fan of downtime, preparing the next round of experiments even while they worked on the data from the first round, but at least that solved the problem with bored Pilots that so many expeditions suffered from during long transit times.


    The Lander gently docked with its mounting point, sending a vibration through the whole structure, and spurring the Ground Handling Crews into action. For safety¡¯s sake, the Mecha would be moved with repair bay trollies, and not under their own power, reducing vibration in the ship and the chance of stumbling if there should be a hard docking in a nearby bay during the move.


    Now that they were back aboard the ship, every unit would be cleaned, refreshed, inspected, updated, and repainted. Which brought Max to his next problem.


    Now that their firstbat mission wasplete, it was time to name the Mecha.


    Names for Heavy and Super Heavy Mecha were firste first serve, and couldn¡¯t be duplicated within a Regiment, though duplicates between separate Regiments were known to happen with popr names.


    Not only would Max have toe up with a suitable Moniker for this behemoth of a Mecha, he would also have to check every other Crusader ss Pilot¡¯s entry against the rest of the Regiment¡¯s entries and reject all duplicates.


    But there was a solution to that. [Major Nico, you are in charge of the verification of duplicate names. Major Miller, you are in charge of the official filing of names. Company Commanders, please gather your Pilots¡¯ naming suggestions and submit them to Major Nico for verification by the end of the day.]


    The ability to delegate was definitely the best part of being a Battalion Commander.


    All he had to do now wase up with a suitable name for his new partner, and send it to General Yaakov, who would be confirming the names for all twenty Super Heavy Mecha before any of the others were processed, giving them priority in case someone else wanted a name better suited to the new Command Mecha.

 Chapter 246 246 Whats In A Name

    Max kicked up his feet and leaned back on the bunk in his room, thinking about what he should name his new Mecha. Officially he was the Pilot, so the naming rights fell to him. Plus, he was a bit afraid to ask what Nico might want to name the new Super Heavy Mecha.


    If it was left to her, there was a nearly one hundred percent chance that her annoyance at being moved to the position of Technician, in an attempt to move her out of the cockpit entirely, woulde shining through to be memorialized forever.


    But just to be sure, Max decided to send her a message asking if she had any ideas.


    [I have been thinking about it. Since the Commander wouldn¡¯t approve something catchy like ¡°Call Me Technician one more time and I¡¯ll feed you your balls¡±, how about something that blends our previous Mecha¡¯s names together?]


    That wasn¡¯t a bad idea. The second part, the first one was a bit wordy. Stalwart and Tarith¡¯s Rage. Dropping the Tarith was obvious since the family name was so closely associated with Kepler 142 and their history, but the rest had possibilities.


    [How about Enduring Rage?] Max asked.


    [Oh, I like it. Simple, elegant, not wimpy or flowery. Enduring Rage sounds like what a Phnx ss Mecha should be named. Feel free to send that through to Command.] Nico agreed.


    With that done, Max now had some time to rx while the rest of the Pilots picked names and the verifications were done. Most of the Pilots had decent naming sense, but Max was certain that the General was going to have to reject at least one variation of ¡°Killbot 3000¡± and ¡°Shooty McStabberson¡±.


    While the entire army would likely appreciate the joke, Central Command felt that Super Heavy Mecha should have some level of dignity. Once in a while, one got past them though, due to a Regimental Commander not knowing a bit of ng, or being too busy to fully vet an application.


    For instance, Colonel Klinger of the Fifth Battalion had tried to name his Mecha ¡°Feculent Rain¡±, and had been promptly rejected by General Yaakov. Max assumed that the old man had hoped that the General would miss it among the mass of names until it was already registered. Instead, he had ended up naming his unit the ret River.


    Given the mess that the Artillery made against massed enemy forces, rivers of blood were a distinct possibility, so the name wasn¡¯t too out of ce.


    For the first two days, the Research Team was at full capacity, trying to analyze data, while the repair teams touched up everything that hadn¡¯t been done on the surface, but the Pilots had next to nothing to do.


    Everyone simplyid around their rooms, or hung out in the Cafeteria and Gym, killing time. That¡¯s where Max found Nico this time, practicing her sparring with Major Miller. Since he was in a Fast Attack Crusader he was likely to need closebat skills more than most, and he was barely above average.


    He did have a dexterity primary stat though, so he should be able to keep up with the advanced movements needed to performbat techniques in the Mecha. The biggest hindrance to most pilots wasn¡¯t ack of Piloting skill, but ack of knowledge aboutbat techniques that could be transferred from unarmedbat to Mecha Close Combat.


    The style they were using was one that could be used inside a Mecha, so once he had started to get better at it he would be able to perform the techniques directly and increase his damage output. They had a few observers in the training room, but most of the unit was focused on their own training routine.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to spar her. That woman is a machine, she just never gets tired.¡± One of the Pilots muttered as he watched, then blushed as he realized what he had said.


    ¡°Yes, literally.¡± Max agreed, chuckling softly as he moved to one of the Cardio trainers to begin his own routine.


    Major Miller was faster and at least as limber as Nico was, but watching the two spar, it was obvious which of them was the expert. He was moving at an incredible rate with the wooden sword in hand, going through the smooth techniques of the mechapatiblebat style while struggling tond a strike. Nico blocked and swayed, but only had to move her feet a few times a minute to avoid letting the other Major get behind her.


    They had just settled down for a break when the final announcements came through. The names for the Mecha had all been approved, and the painting of the names would begin as soon as the General had approved a new paint scheme for the Battalions.


    That was entirely up to General Yaakov, but every Battalion Commander held out hope that they would get a good one. During the recruitment on Kepler 111, Max had been allowed to pick a paint scheme of his own for the unit, but General Yaakov wasn¡¯t that kind of Commander. He much preferred to decide such things on his own, for a unified aesthetic appearance.


    There might also be orders from above on what the new mecha should look like since there would undoubtedly be propaganda films made featuring the new patterns in the near future, but either way, the Battalion, and Company Commanders weren¡¯t asked for their input, only informed that their Mecha would soon be repainted.


    ¡°What do you want to bet that we get our old colors back? We are already on enough propaganda that they might as well make us a recognizable unit again instead of trying to get the public to identify with both a new design and new color scheme at the same time.¡± Nico suggested.


    ¡°I swear, you are better at reading minds than I am,¡± Max muttered and Nicoughed.


    ¡°There is no need to read your mind, I¡¯ve told you a lot of times that you are entirely too predictable and nostalgic. They mentioned paint, so of course, you were brooding about our old colors, that you did such a fine job designing.¡±

 Chapter 247 247 Onward and Upward

    Max pondered Nico¡¯s suggestion. She had some sway with the repair bays, so she could likely get a few small modifications made to the color scheme if they were actually assigned Bone and Bronze colors again.


    ¡°Point taken. They would look good in bone and bronze though. Maybe we could ask for a bit more red on the Crusaders this time though. Those red hazard stripes you did on Tarith¡¯s Rage were an excellent look and really helped the Mecha stand out as a unitmander. We could ask the repair bay to do the same this time, with red Chevrons for the Unit Commanders. It would help morale as well.¡± Max agreed.


    Two more days passed without any updates, other than that the ship was en route to its next testing site, though no destination, time of arrival, or mission data was provided. Finally, Max couldn¡¯t take the suspense anymore and headed down to the repair bays to check on their mecha and see if the paint schemes had been started yet.


    As a Battalion Commander, he had clearance to go whenever he wanted, unlike most of the unit that was prohibited from the area, for now, to keep them out of the way of the repair staff who had enough to do that they didn¡¯t have time for distractions.


    The Mecha were mostly painted, and the teams had started with the lightest units first. The Corvette ss Mecha were all Blood Red with Bronze ents, while the Crusaders had a bit of white added to them for unit markings.


    It was simr, but the inverse of what he had done for the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit. It made for a good-looking unit. Imposing and powerful, but not so light that they would stand out against the night sky the way that the bone color did.


    None of the X137 Super Heavy units had been painted yet, they were all still in their repair racks sporting the ck radar absorbent paint they had for the first test, but at least now Max had an idea what his unit would look like when they reached the next destination.


    Command had the Research team segregated in their own area, so he couldn¡¯t even go visit Moonie after her shift. Strangely, that didn¡¯t bother him as much as Max thought it would. They had a good time together but somehow it just never had that something that made it feel like the rtionship couldst. Their worlds were just a little too different, and unless one or both of them gave up on their passion, they were only destined to cross paths for a little while.


    Port Romance is what the other Pilots called it, and Max was beginning to understand just what they meant. He would be sure to exin his feelings the next time he saw her in person. In the meantime, he would send her their usual daily messages, which got shorter and shorter as they both got busier.


    They had been aboard for a total of one week when Central Command finally saw fit to send them a message detailing their next mission.


    Rae 3 wasn¡¯t the only with a Klem problem, they were advancing toward the borders of every nation that was near them. The second test mission would see them acting as Death Wind Mercenaries again, at the request of the Imperial Inquisition. The Tapani had seen an increase in attacks from their Insectoid neighbors, and they were looking for help.


    Kepler Imperial Command agreed with the Inquisition that the test Regiment was uniquely positioned to pull off an intervention without attracting the attention of the other empires in the Western Region of the Gxy, thanks to their unique Mecha.


    The Imperial Inquisition intended for them to show up, assist the Tapani with their Klem problems, and deliver an Inquisitor who was hunting a high-value Kelper defector.


    The Tapani had a unique issue with the Klem, one that the infestation that Max faced on Rae 3 didn¡¯t exhibit. They were close enough to the Klem homeworlds that the iing pods would still be inmunication range with the Queens. That made them smarter, more diverse, and exponentially more problematic to deal with.


    Tapani and Kepler were uneasy allies, so a full Liberation Fleet would be seen as an attempt to take over the whole region, but a ship full of Mercenaries in one ce, a single ship in another in the name of upholding their alliance, and some small interventions would be much easier to aplish without issues.


    The hope of Imperial Command was that the arrival of Kepler forces on others would flush out the targets for the Inquisition, but not rm them so much that they disappeared again.


    Only one thing needed to change, their transport vessel. Abraham Kepler was far too recognizable, so the Terminus Trading Company, better known as the Comor First Heavy Mecha Regiment, or the Test Regiment, would be shifted to a Reaver transport at a nearby space station.


    The ship had been abandoned for nearly a century, after the crew died of a mysterious illness contracted on a mission to an unexplored region on the edge of the Gxy, but had been dered clear and safe by the Military decades ago.


    The basics of the transfer were documented in their Mission orders, though the details about who their ¡°VIP Guest¡± might be were left out and no mention of Inquisition involvement were shared with the Regiment.


    ¡°Looks like we are in for some fun again. When we get a chance, contact your family and let them know what we are up to. I wouldn¡¯t want trouble with the actual Tarith Reavers for appropriating their name.¡± Max whispered to Nico, who was lounging in the cafeteria, ying cards with the other pilots.


    ¡°Already on it. The Regiment Commander requested that I make contact a few hours ago, and everything is a go. If anything, we might have issues with the ship they have found us. All the data that I could find is that it was lost in space with all hands dead from infectious disease. It¡¯s not against anyw to im the vessel if none of their n remains to im it, but the Reavers and Mercenaries are superstitious, and taking over a ghost ship is pretty taboo.


    Normally they would be stripped for parts and fully recycled, not rmissioned once they were decontaminated.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°Great, now we are THOSE Mercenaries, with the heavy-duty firepower and the cursed ship. Can we rename it or something? Maybe hide its identity?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Ship¡¯smunications have a serial identifier to them, a particr code that is embedded in every message, identifying the sender. Even if we fully refit the thing with Military Gradems gear that can hide the signature, we don¡¯t have a valid identification to use instead.¡± She shrugged.


    ¡°If nothing else, it fits our cover as a newly formed Mercenary group with a load of experimental gear we are looking to turn a profit using. New groups usually have half-refit scrap ships that they pulled out of dead space and repaired enough to make a go of the trade routes. This one is in decent shape, but cursed, so even fewer would want it.¡± Major Miller added, having read through the dispatch beforeing over to talk to his Commander.


    ¡°Alright, get everyone ready for the transfer,¡± Max ordered, wondering how things were going to work once they had changed ships. General Yaakov was many things, but a Mercenary Leader wasn¡¯t a role that Max thought the upright Noble would be able to pull off.

 Chapter 248 248 Home Sweet Hellhole

    When Abraham Kepler docked with the facility where the ship was stored, everyone sprang into action at the same time, getting ready to move every mecha, all their support gear, and essential provisions to their new home.


    This vessel was designed for bulk freight andary Landings, so it wasn¡¯t equipped for dropping Landers. Instead, it was intended tond on a or asteroid and be loaded to the brim in a dedicated facility.


    It, therefore, had oversized engines, and an extremely sturdy hull design, that wasn¡¯t necessary for the average Kepler Navy vessel.


    Since all the personnel that was transferring were either Pilots or Support Staff, everything would be moved by its dedicated operator. Even the repair materials had been preloaded into carts to be pulled by the Mecha so that the entire process could bepleted in a single pass. They would have all sorts of time to get things sorted once they were on board since the ship was in need of renovation and didn¡¯t have storage or repair racks inside, but Abraham Kepler needed to be gone again before it aroused suspicion.


    It was only supposed to be taking on a small amount of Ore here, and delivering some food supplies, which gave them a reasonable window of three hours before someone might notice the extended stay.


    General Yaakov, in his role as Regimental Commander, would be assigned a cover story as a traveling documentary maker. His family had a lot of connections in the film industry both within Kepler and in the surrounding nations, so he could pull off a cover story about making a frontier documentary for at least a few years, traveling with a Mercenary Band.


    It wasn¡¯t unheard of, filmmakers were known to do strange and seemingly suicidal things in order to get their movies made, and General Yaakov had that sort of overbearing and self-assured demeanor that made the story believable.


    New Mercenary groups were likewise well known for taking strange and annoying jobs if the pay was right. An established force might turn down something like a documentary maker, but a new force usually couldn¡¯t afford to.


    As soon as the all-clear was given, the Mecha, beginning with First Battalion, moved out of Abraham Kepler and into the holding bay of their new home at a fast jog, clustered in a designated area near the far wall to give everyone room to get in and set up. First Battalion got the Port side front Bay, number one of six that the Ship contained.


    The Cargo space aboard this vessel was positively cavernous, muchrger than the Mecha bays of Abraham Kepler, even if you counted the Lander Storage. The ship itself was much smaller though, and Max was a bit concerned about what quarters aboard were going to look like.


    [Nico, go check out the living areas. Tell me what you find and what we need to get them ready for the Battalion.] Max ordered since Major Miller was busy getting all of the Battalion¡¯s gear organized and ready to be moved to their new home.


    [Got it.] Nico reported, and Max watched as she hopped up onto the catwalk along the edge of the storage bay and disappeared into a side room.


    There were no proper diagrams of the ship avable to them before they arrived. Nobody had cared enough to make one or to transfer a copy from the ship¡¯sputers.


    Fifteen minutester, everyone was aboard, but Max still hadn¡¯t heard from Nico.


    [Hey, what¡¯s the holdup? Are we ready to start moving gear into the crew quarters or what?] He sent to her wrist device.


    [The average Reaver Crew is about two hundred persons. With Support staff, First Battalion is two hundred. Then there is the Regiment¡¯s staff that aren¡¯t assigned to one of the five Battalions.] Nico sent back, confusing Max.


    [And? Tell me what you¡¯ve found.]


    There was a short pause before Nico responded again. [The crew quarters for First Battalionprise of tworge rooms in Cargo Hold 1. One marked Hazmat storage and one marked Freezer. Both have been disused for decades, and not renovated, so they are rusty and have peeling paint everywhere.


    I have gotten the lights working, and the air inside the rooms refreshed, but I suspect that the men will actually be morefortable setting up in the Hangar and keeping these rooms for physical training and a Mess Hall.


    Every Battalion is required to arrange its own provisioning and quarters, there will be no central facilities, so a mess hall is needed. I suggest using the Materials Printer to create a multi-level hab motel along the stern wall of the bay. At two Meters by three, that should be enough space to house everyone.


    The staff can start refurbishing these rooms right away, and we can start serving in the Mess Hall tomorrow, once everything is ready.]


    Nico really didn¡¯t pull any punches with that description, but she did send a design schematic for the printers to create the living spaces, which could be locked together in individual units and had locking attachments so they also stacked safely in the bay. The interior of the rooms that were supposed to be crew quarters was a nightmare though. They were certainlyrge enough to hold two hundred bunks if you triple racked the entire Battalion, but that would be even worse than living in their Mecha for most of the Pilots.


    The individual rooms were a much better n, and they had brought everything with them, as the ship was known not to have any sort of facilities, beyond the basics for the initial crew, which would be taken up by Regimental supply and logistics staff.


    [Clean that up as much as you can. Use a paint stripper if you need it, but I don¡¯t want to scare the staff before they even get to work.] Max ordered Nico.


    This was going to take some time, but Max could see the promise of this setup. Every Battalion got their own space, and they could do with it what they wanted, so they could express more individual personality than was usual for a Military force.

 Chapter 249 249 Renovations are in Order

    Nico appeared in the bay for a few minutes before heading back upstairs again with a Tech Adept harness attached to her back and an assortment of devices carried in the additional mechanical limbs. Max couldn¡¯t be entirely sure, but it looked like a media ster that was used to strip Mecha Paint, as well as a sanitization unit.


    The ship was supposed to have already been sanitized, but if they left enough moisture in the air that the interior rusted, either they didn¡¯t do a good job of it, or something was leaking from above them.


    [Major Miller, send someone from repair to the level above the hangar and see what it looks like up there. Major Nico suspects that the ship¡¯s hatches might have been left open to the elements for all these decades, so the corrosion might be fairly bad on the surface, and there might be leaks.] Max told his Executive Officer.


    [Got it. I have just the person for the job. It will take a strong stomach and enough experience to know what it will take to clean up that mess if it is as bad as you say.] The Major replied, and Max saw an older Sergeant heading for the upper structural levels of the ship.


    This time the report didn¡¯t take long at all. The Sergeant had finished the inspection before Nico even reported the rooms as clear.


    [Zero damage, no leaks, all fittings, and lines look pristine, and the area shows no signs of wear. I believe that it was purged of atmosphere after sanitization.] The man reported, letting Max breathe a sigh of relief.


    Two bad rooms with a well-preserved storage bay and structure were well within the level of damage that they would be able to handle.


    The third Battalion had the opposite problem. Their interior rooms and structure were pristine, but the door to the main bay had been left open by almost a meter, and there was a thickyer of dust and debris over everything.


    The storage bay was made of a durable alloy, and the paint should withstand almost anything, but the same was true of the side rooms in Max¡¯s bay and they still ended up looking haunted.


    Third Battalion moved all their Mecha back out into the station, while the crew cleansed the hangar so that they could enter, but after that, they dered that everything was serviceable, though they weren¡¯t impressed at the idea they should all be housed in one of the back rooms, or use both as bunk rooms and set up their cafeteria in the Mecha hangar.


    Max sent the rest of the Regiment their design ns for housing when he saw theints, which calmed down all the pilots, but it also brought a new round ofints. This time from the logistics and provisioning staff, who hadn¡¯t nned for the Regiment to use up so much of the material that they had brought with them to renovate their living quarters.


    General Yaakov wasn¡¯t taking sides in this battle though, and he ordered them to work it out on between themselves. The end result was that the Regimental staff backed down when they were asked if they would like to swap quarters with one of the Battalions so that they could use minimal materials for theirfort, and the Battalion could sleep in the existing quarters.


    Once they had seen the issue in person, theint about resource usage ended, and the Regimental staff started cleaning and setting up their gear in the old crew quarters. There were someints that the ce felt haunted to them, but with a fresh coat of paint all over the ship, General Yaakov hoped that thoseints would die down in a few days.


    The renovation effort was going to take them at least two weeks, to set up, build the Mecha maintenance facilities and storage supports, and refresh every room and hallway on the ship. This Reaver group had been almost purely a trading group, with only a small military force from what they could determine, making them an easily ignored vessel should theye across hostile forces.


    Taking over rivals was great, but taking over a bulk freighter was about the most work you could possibly do for the lowest reward. All the money was in capturing technology after it was built, not in grabbing a hundred thousand tons of bulk ore, which the ship was designed to haul.


    The ship was ominously named the Dutchman. It was a name that carried no weight here in Kepler, but in Max¡¯s life, the Flying Dutchman had a long history with terrestrial sailors and wasn¡¯t a name that someone would pick for a modern vessel.


    Max wasn¡¯t the most superstitious of people, but this vessel just seemed to bring it out in everyone, right down to the usually level-headed Battalion Commanders. The only two who didn¡¯t seem to be doing some sort of purification ritual in thending bay were Major Miller, who was too busy, and Max himself, who was likewise too busy, but at observing the others, not at an actual task.


    [How are the roomsing along Nico?] Max asked, seeing that everything else had starteding along on schedule.


    [Nearly finished. I have stripped and sanitized both rooms down to the bare metal, and I will put a fresh coat of paint on as soon as the sanitizer dries. Give them two hours after that and the paint should be ready for the staff to start moving the kitchen facilities in.


    I rmend keeping the freezer room as just a cold storage room and kitchen though, we don¡¯t have any other temperature-controlled storage areas, and the open areas of the Hangar can be used for training.] Nico responded.


    [Got it. I will update the directions. Did you find the cause of the rust? Is it a serious issue?] Max asked.


    [Not at all. The temperature control unit was left on the entire time that the ship has been here, and the drain was plugged, making the condensation back up and spill over the roof of these two rooms, which led to them being extremely humid, and then their deterioration.


    The underlying alloy structure is still solid, it was just the trim pieces and some fasteners that deteriorated. I welded everything that needed it and used the small Printer on the Tech Adept Harness to rece the corroded-out fasteners and such. All it needs is paint now.]


    That was much better news than Max had dared to hope for and put the Battalion well on track to afortable deployment. Things were starting to look up on this old Reaver vessel.

 Chapter 250 250 VIP Guests

    Before dawn the next day the hab blocks had been finished and First Battalion had beenfortable moved into their new home. The paint had dried in the admittedly creepy back rooms, and the Kitchen had been set up, with abundant space for cold storage. That amount of frozen food was a true luxury to any Battalion aboard a Navy Vessel, normally almost all of their food was dried or shelf stable. The abundance of room for frozen food meant that they could acquire a lot of fresh food the next time they madefall.


    That would be their first order of business once their final guests arrived aboard the ship. The final storage hold had been dedicated to high-value ores, both for repairs and upgrades, as well as for trade, which would provide their cover story.


    There were two schools of thought about the proper method of transport for high-value materials. Either send them on a small and fast ship that might be overlooked and could more easily run away, or bury the items of true value inside a bulk freighter like the Dutchman, where anyone who was looking would see a target that wasn¡¯t worth the effort.


    The base had documented the ship as picking up one hold full of refined aluminum, totaling fifteen thousand tons, and they were supposed to be taking it to a small nation, just outward of the Kepler Empire¡¯s borders named Derrax. Their territoryprised six stars and only four habitables, but they were strong allies of all the nations around them and worked to maintain their neutrality.


    Once that drop had been made, they were supposed to pick up another shipment somewhere in the area and take it back west to Tapani Territory to begin the next phase of their testing in a battle against the Klem who had exhibited an unusual level of intelligence and coordination.


    Those were all the details that they had been given about their future travels, for security reasons, and Max still wasn¡¯t sure who was supposed to be Piloting this vessel.


    Mecha Pilots didn¡¯t usually train for interster ships, and a Pilot with the skills for that sort of navigation would be transferred to the Naval Academies at a young age.


    In the worst-case scenario, they could have Nico serve as their Admiral. She had ess to the ship¡¯s maps and she could make it move at the very least, but Max was holding hope that the VIP guest that they were still waiting on was the one who would be steering the ship for them.


    Of course, so was Nico. The Admiral had to remain aboard the ship in case of emergency, so even if they got into a battle, she wouldn¡¯t be able to leave if they assigned her that task.


    They didn¡¯t have long to wait though. Only six hourster, the crew shuttle came to relieve the miners at the base, who were on thirty-day rotations. Along with them came the two new arrivals to the Terminus Trading Company, one new face and one that was vaguely familiar from their recent videomunications.


    ¡°Inquisitor Ming, to what do we owe the honor? And who might that be with you?¡± Max heard Nico ask the moment that the doors were securely sealed and the two men were aboard.


    General Yaakov looked more than a little shocked and was standing near the entrance with his mouth slightly opened, but Max couldn¡¯t be sure if it was for the arrival of the Inquisitor or for Nico¡¯s pure audacity to usurp his chance to formally greet the guests.


    Knowing him as Max did, the answer was almost guaranteed to be the second option.


    ¡°Lady Tarith Nico, imagine meeting you in a ce like this. You have no idea how difficult it was to convince Imperial Command to give me this assignment, especially after I made a fool of myself, falling for your acting on Rae 3.


    General Yaakov, it is a pleasure to see you again. With me is Admiral Drake. He will be taking the helm of The Dutchman for this mission. He has extensive experience with the Klem and has studied the Death Wind Territory for many years, earning a Doctorate in the field.¡± The General paused for the Admiral to introduce himself, and the man stepped forward with a slight limp.


    ¡°It is good to meet you all. Don¡¯t let my disability fool you, it is a recent injury, and as I am not abat officer, it was deemed eptable to give my System the year¡¯s time it needed to regrow and repair my leg naturally.


    I spent over sixty years on simr missions, gathering intelligence, and if my own word counts for anything, I can assure you that the Regiment is in good hands.¡±


    His speech was well rehearsed and smooth, but Max¡¯s mind reading told a very different story. The Admiral was holding some sort of subtle three-way conversation with Nico and Colonel Klinger using bodynguage and hand signals that were totally different from his spoken words.


    They had filled him in on the incident on Rae 3, how they fooled the Inquisitor into giving them repair materials without giving themselves away, and he was telling them about thest mission he was on, to recover a defector from the Trifid Empire.


    If Max couldn¡¯t read their minds, he would have never known that they all spoke that secretnguage, and the fact annoyed him much more than it had any right to.


    Nico was his best friend, and he knew she viewed him as hers, but she never let him know that she spoke another secretnguage, and it seemed to be one rted to the Reavers and Mercenaries.


    Digging deeper through Klinger¡¯s thoughts, it was also used by many gray market businesses, which made Max wonder if he had simply missed it being used during his childhood because he responded out loud and not in the correct way.


    There were a lot of things Max didn¡¯t know, but he did know that one way or another, he was learning this subtle gesturenguage before they finished their mission. That method ofmunication was just too convenient, as he could use it during a regr conversation over the video link without tipping off anyone who didn¡¯t already know.


    Inquisitor Ming also seemed to know what they were talking about, because his annoyed thoughts didn¡¯t match the spoken introductions, but his mind was carefully schooled, with the deeper thoughts hidden. That was a limitation of his Innate Talent that Max didn¡¯t run into very often, usually, minds were an open book to him.


    Now he had two things to take up his time during this journey, and it was going to bother him until he had a solution to at least one of them.

 Chapter 251 251 To Derrax

    The two officers motioned for the weingmittee to follow them toward the bridge and Inquisitor Ming filled the others in on a few of the extra details. During the day that they were in Derrax, they would expect one more guest, an informant from Kepler Intelligence who would report directly to him. If any of them noticed the person, they were to tell him as the Informant was still training to be an Inquisitor and being noticed as a spy was a potentially deadly failure of his mission.


    The second was that he would be leaving the ship at some point during their mission, most likely during the battles against the Klem, and he would require a specially modified Drone Fighter for the purpose.


    It would blend in with the rest of their Drones, so none of the Tapani should be alerted. If he returned, he returned, if not, they weren¡¯t to wait on him.


    Max nodded solemnly at that revtion, understanding that the danger level of the Inquisitor General¡¯s mission was extremely high and couldn¡¯t be aplished with help, even from a supposed Mercenary Group.


    The two officers were thest thing that they were waiting for, so the Dutchman signed out of the base and lifted off in the direction of Derrax.


    Compared to the Faster Than Light transition aboard Abraham Kepler, the engines of the Dutchman were both incredibly harsh and much faster to activate. It threw many of the troops off bnce and made many more nauseous, but this version was much kinder to Max than the drawn-out version had been.


    [Reminder to all units. Absolutely NO uniforms are to be worn until further notice. Clearance is given to create one civilian outfit to supplement your current wardrobe.]


    General Yaakov¡¯s announcement was well received by the Regiment. This time they had their entire wardrobe with them, but a traveling soldier didn¡¯t keep much, and they weren¡¯t about to turn down the chance to make something fashionable.


    Max had no need for any such thing. He had too many clothes, to begin with. He just had to pick out a few outfits from his collection that would fit in with the Aesthetic. Or so he thought until he saw everyone else.


    From flowered shirts to Leisure suits, to id shirts and jeans, the look of the crew perfectly matched their tastes and didn¡¯t try to be anything that they weren¡¯t other than civilians.


    Given a few days, they would settle into afortable wardrobe and start to match with their units for the most part, with only a few lively characters really standing out.


    Cassanova was one of them, and Nico was another, but surprisingly, so was General Yaakov. The man looked like he had juste from meeting the Emperor himself. The Noble was totally at ease in a burgundy velvet jacket trimmed with whitece, making for quite the spectacle against the mostly working-ss Pilots surrounding him.


    Max had epted the General¡¯s invitation to have dinner in the Officer¡¯s mess near the bridge of the ship tonight, along with the Inquisitor, the admiral, and Nico.


    Max briefly wondered who was piloting and watching for asteroids and other such hazards, as they didn¡¯t have an actual crew, so he ducked his head into the bridge, where three men from the maintenance team were seated, watching screens.


    They all seemed to know what they were doing, so Max assumed that they had some training on ship systems, which was a great relief.


    Making his way through the halls, Max met up with Admiral Drake, who was slower moving than most, and openly wearing a leg brace now that there was no reason to hide it under his uniform. It was clear that the leg only took up half of the space inside his pant leg, so the damage must have been extremely heavy, but the older man was right, given time he would be good as new again.


    That was an option Nico didn¡¯t have. Even with an Alpha-ranked System Compatibility, it would have taken multiple years for her body to regenerate the damage that had been done to it, and there was no guarantee that she would havee out at anywhere near peak performance.


    She seemed happier this way though and had changed her appearance back to having one mechanical arm, though she kept her own face this time. She had picked a puffy red princess dress for the formal dinner and wasughing with General Yaakov when Max and Drake walked into the room.


    Inquisitor Ming was seated at the table, watching the two of them making a mockery of formality with an amused look on his face and a drink in his hand.


    ¡°It¡¯s cheap, but it is plentiful. Feel free to pour a ss.¡± General Yaakov weed thest two guests, before pulling out Nico¡¯s seat for her and getting her settled at the table on his left.


    He wasn¡¯t lying, the Rum was definitely not the good stuff, but it did the job of taking off a bit of the day¡¯s stress before the dinner came out.


    As he sat, Max thought it was odd that the other Battalion Commanders weren¡¯t here, as they all held equal rank to him and higher than Nico. Going by General Yaakov¡¯s behavior though, he was in character, as a Noble explorer, which meant it made sense that he invited only those with noble heritage to have dinner with him.


    Until they finished the mission, they would have to practice their roles, so that nobody screwed it up at a critical moment and exposed them to the gxy as Kepler Military forces.


    Beyond that, everyone avoided dinners with the General anyhow, so Max shouldn¡¯t have been shocked that the others didn¡¯t volunteer toe to have dinner here with an Inquisitor and their Commanding Officer.


    The Inquisitors had a lot of power, and with that came a rather dangerous reputation. Max recalled that way back when they first left Kepler Terminus there was a rumor that an Inquisitor had been turned by the rebels, and the thought in everyone¡¯s mind was that such a feat was nearly impossible, not to mention the sort of punishment you would get if you tried and failed.


    To the minds of the Academy staff, such a fate was worse than death.

 Chapter 252 252 Derrax the Dull

    ¡°So, what do you know about Derrax? I haven¡¯t had time to start researching it yet.¡± Max asked over dinner.


    ¡°There really isn¡¯t much to know. It is an isted nation, a minor shipbuilder of merchant freighters a few generations back of Kepler technology, and kept deliberately neutral by its neighbors.¡± General Yaakov shrugged.


    ¡°They view color as frivolity, so all their buildings are in concrete, even the houses. Everyone on the covers themselves from shoulders to ankles at all times, and they don¡¯t do physical greetings.


    I am told that it is due to fear of foreign diseases, but the habitables aren¡¯t exactly a vacation spot, they had fully industrialized them before recovering advanced technology and environmental illnesses are still rampant.¡± Admiral Drake added.


    ¡°The system was settled by ident, a colony ship hit a wandering meteor and became disabled. Emergency protocol sent it to the nearest habitable, where it crashnded and woke the surviving expedition members.


    They lost most of their experts and tradesmen, as well as their military forces. But their agronomy and industrial manufacturing volunteers mostly survived, so they made a settlement and focused on just getting by until they could recover enough to be interster again.


    The Cygnus Trade fleet was the first to discover them, so the Cygnus Empire holds a high level of respect in Derrax.


    I hate to say it, but you might end up being the spokesperson again, Lady Tarith.¡±


    Inquisitor Ming¡¯s exnation gave Max a lot more to go on, and he now had enough that he could pick out the details he wanted to know in advance, so he didn¡¯t embarrass himself.


    They were here as the Terminus Trading Company, and no Mercenary group would take a cargo without at least knowing about their destination.


    At least no reputable one.


    After a few seconds, Inquisitor Ming continued. ¡°Derrax reminds me of a prison colony more than anything. Conditions were hard, and they fought to survive at first, but even now the poption is strictly regted and lives under a heavyyer of obscurews. I wouldn¡¯t bother getting to know the civilians, and they likely won¡¯t let us meet any of them anyhow.


    The way most of us are dressed is fine, but they might have a collective heart attack if a Reaver showed up dressed as a princess.


    Their sense of humor is atrocious. But dressed as everyone was before dinner they won¡¯t have an issue.¡±


    ¡°Other than hugs, are there any other social taboos that we should know about in advance?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Follow Yaakov¡¯s lead and embrace your Nobility. Like the Cygnus forces, they put a very high value on pedigree.¡± The Inquisitor shrugged and the conversation fell silent for a moment.


    ¡°Have you gotten your team all settled into their bay yet? I saw the messages about the hab blocks going in, but the bays were pretty spartan.¡± General Yaakov asked Max.


    ¡°We are settled in very well. All we are missing is fresh provisions for the freezer that we inherited. We have lots of supplies, but if we can get fresh and frozen food on Derrax the troops would appreciate it.¡± Max informed him with a smile.


    ¡°Derrax has a lot of milk production because they need the leather for their industrial production. We should even be able to get them ice cream if you really have a working freezer.¡± Yaakov told him with a sly wink.


    ¡°One hundred square meters are currently dedicated to frozen foods, forty to fresh, but there are another two hundred Units recognized as being underutilized in the kitchenyout. I am certain we can find room for ice cream.¡± Nico agreed.


    Max was starting to like these undercover missions. There was never ice cream on a regr deployment.


    This dining room looked like the sort of ce for the creamy treat too. It was part of the original crew area, with actual carpet on the floor, a long mahogany table, and matching carved wooden chairs.


    There were deep red tapestries and paintings on the walls, lending the room an air of elegance that Max wasn¡¯t used to, but from the other¡¯s memories, this was normal for a Command Staff dining room.


    Max was certain to be seeing a lot of this particr decor since the ship didn¡¯t have a dedicated war room and General Yaakov enjoyed the ambiance of this room.


    It was a little dated and worn with age, but that somehow made it better, in a strange way.


    Maybe it was just because of the older officers in the room, but brand-new furniture just wouldn¡¯t feel right.


    The dinner ended with a round of bread puddings, served with whipped cream. Both Nico and Yaakov looked excited to see it, but the other three didn¡¯t immediately see the appeal of the exceedingly in dish. It came up on the regr rotation as well, and it wasn¡¯t one of the favorites.


    It wasn¡¯t until Nico poured Rum all over the bread and dropped the whipped cream on top that Max understood the brilliance of this dish.


    The sweet burn of cheap ck Rum, mixed with crumbled cake and sweet cream was an excellentbination. Even the serving staff seemed intrigued at the revtion, so the alteration to the dish must not be a Kepler standard, but an old family recipe.


    ¡°It is a Cygnus idea, but it¡¯s too good not to try.¡± General Yaakov exined as he ate, waving his spoon to emphasize his point.


    ¡°My grandmother makes a caramel with a lot of Rum as the sauce, but this isn¡¯t bad.¡± Nico agreed.


    ¡°Oh, I know that one. My ex-wife makes a Rum caramel, but she serves it with ice cream.¡± Admiral Drake informed them with a nostalgic smile.


    With the meal finished, Yaakov sent one of his staffers to get some data tablets and the other Battalion Commanders.


    ¡°They can opt-out of dinner, but not the tactical meeting afterward. The meetings on Derrax shouldn¡¯t take long, but as our first stop of the mission, we all need to get on the same page before we arrive.¡±


    He might as well have made the whole event mandatory, but that wasn¡¯t his style. It also gave the two Generals and the Admiral a bit of extra time to work their way through the bottle of ck Rum while there were only a few people in the room.


    Once the others arrived with their assistants the bottle would onlyst one more round at best.

 Chapter 253 253 Preparations Complete

    The meeting with the rest of the Battalion Commanders was mostly a rehash of the dinner conversation, with a few more details about the Derrax system added by the officers who had stayed to study it.


    The Rum disappeared before they arrived, as General Yaakov insisted that it was inappropriate to be drinking during a Command meeting, but from what Max could tell, it wouldn¡¯t have made a difference, as there wasn¡¯t much left when the bottle was put away.


    As the details about Derrax came out, the meeting devolved into generalints about having to deal with a nation as poorly run and repressive as they were. Only the intervention of Inquisitor Ming kept things on track.


    ¡°Remember, you are not here as Kepler Mecha Pilots but as Reavers of the Terminus Trading Company. If you can¡¯t learn to behave appropriately for the role, I will have to use my Command authority to keep you confined to the vessel withmunications locked.¡± Inquisitor Ming admonished them.


    Reavers and Mercenaries weren¡¯t picky about their clients, as long as they reliably paid, and this stop was a necessity to create their cover story before rushing off to help Kepler¡¯s allies against the Klem.


    It was agreed that if anyone asked, the shipment they were picking up was a time-sensitive one for their client, so they had a good excuse not to stand about and chat.


    Derrax was forbidden by treaty from sending weapons to other nations, so instead, they sent raw materials, civilian equipment for the rebuilding, and rations when they were asked to help with an emergency.


    That way they could build a reputation as reliable without losing more than they intended.


    That suited Max and the other Commanders just fine. Both them and the troops they were going to assist would need any and all of the above, so they would take what they could get to fill the cargo hold that wasn¡¯t upied by Mecha.


    Reavers paid for their shipments in advance, there was no IOU system or consignee transfers. When they got to the destination they would be paid for the goods, with markup for their efforts, and that was what kept them in business.


    In the rare case that a Mercenary or Reaver ship was used to transfer aid supplies that the other side wasn¡¯t expecting to be paid for, it was seen as a sign of trust. They had the goods, and they were out nothing but reputation if they didn¡¯t all make it to their destination. Since they were notoriously independent, that didn¡¯t happen often, though the Reavers did take some for therger nations, as a sign of goodwill, to keep their fleet moving through that nation¡¯s space duty and harassment-free.


    Max was quickly learning that the carefree life of a Mercenary wasn¡¯t as simple as it looked on the surface, but it was still much more rxing than that of a regr soldier, even if he did have his unit doing daily training drills while they were in transit.


    [Transfer to Slower than Light travel in 8 hours, destination Derrax Prime.]


    The ship¡¯s announcement broke up the meeting, and everyone agreed to meet again in six hours to work out their final details and prepare to meet their arranged employer.


    Max returned to his bunk to rest up before the meetings, falling easily asleep with a half dozen shots of Rum in him, and waking up only mildly groggy when his rm went off five and a half hourster.


    That gave him just enough time to shower and change, then head up to the Officer¡¯s Mess in his finest faded denim jeans and Leather jacket. Paired with a band t-shirt he had been given on Comor, he blended right in with most of the crew that he passed, and would have fit right in with the slums he grew up in if he had been a little less clean and a little more ragged.


    Max decided that this was his look for casual wear. He had gone through dozens of styles, mostly thanks to Nico throwing clothes at him, but this felt the most like himself.


    Inquisitor Ming looked him over and nodded in approval when he got to the Mess Hall where most of the other Command staff was seated, waiting on thest few to arrive so they could get started.


    Nico looked Max over from head to toe, then got a slight frown on her face and began to dig in the backpack that she had brought with her.


    ¡°You all are too nd. Not you General, or the Inquisitor. But none of the rest of you have any jewelry. We can¡¯t being across as that poor, or worse, as some weird fundamentalist cult.


    Fortunately for you, I prepared for this on the way up. Costume Jewels for everyone. Grab a chain, a watch, a bracelet, or a leather bracer if that¡¯s more your style. Just do something to spice up your looks.¡± Nico instructed, dumping the bag on the table.


    Max was wearing a coat, so he didn¡¯t need much, but there was a gold rope with a number of fake rubies in it that caught his eye. With that, plus one lighter gold chain around his neck, he decided that he looked suitably not broke.


    Nico had her usual goth meets steampunk look on, with the sleeveless leather jacket and pleated skirt over ripped stockings, but she also had gold bracelets on her wrists, a ne with a strange coin hung from it, and diamond stud earrings.


    ¡°You all look fantastic.¡± Colonel Klinger cheered as he came in, dressed much like Max but with a worn-out leather vest instead of a jacket, and a long-sleeved ck and white id shirt. The look was a familiar one to Max. Dave had often worn almost exactly that outfit, except he almost always wore ck fatigue pants instead of Jeans.


    He also had rings on every single finger and a thick chain around his neck, but that one looked like real gold to Max, so he probably dressed like this on his time off, and it wasn¡¯t a costume to him.


    General Yaakov began his speech with a stiff adjustment of his coat, smoothing the irregrities in thece trim. ¡°Good, that is everyone, and you all got the memo. I¡¯m sure you all read the debriefing that I sent over the break, so we won¡¯t go over it again, except for the most important points.


    The Terminus Trading Company is from Rae 3 if anyone asks. Imperial Command has ced a beacon that can contact us in the abandoned facility there. Most likely, nobody will go looking for us in person, as they know the is uninhabited and we aren¡¯t there at the moment.


    Don¡¯t forget everyone¡¯s nicknames, if they prefer them, and stick to the ones yourrades have given you, no making up new ones on the fly and confusing the others.


    Once we reach Derrax, they will instruct us where to dock ornd to exchange cargo. Major Nico will be our spokesperson, as the Terminus Trading Company is working as an upstart branch of the Tarith Reavers. That¡¯s nothing new, any Reaver with enough backing and a ship can try to branch out on their own. The others encourage it, because they will either seed and spread influence, or they will fail and fall deep into debt, letting their counterparts gain a lifelong subordinate.


    Colonel Klinger, you are her bodyguard, since you understand the unspokennguage as well. The rest of us will stay off camera during video links and a step behind during meetings. We want to get in, get loaded, and get out. The Tapani are waiting for us, and this load.¡±


    They all gave the fist to the chest salute, then rxed back into their informal states.


    ¡°Alright, Rage, Klinger, you need to head to the bridge and wait for the call. The rest of you can wait wherever you like, but you will be needed at Cargo Bay six once we are docked.¡± General Yaakov dismissed them with a wave of his hand and left the room to finish his own preparations, whatever they might be.

 Chapter 254 254 Just Business

    Max returned to the Battalion to get them ready for work and waited for the transition rm to sound.


    Everyone was well aware of their role, namely to just wait in the hangars unless they were called upon. Unless things went very wrong, they would not need Mecha for a simple business deal, but caution dictated that they should all be ready to fight from the moment they made contact.


    ¡°Miller, how good is the shielding around these bays? Their patrol ships aren¡¯t going to pick up anything strange are they?¡± Max asked his executive officer.


    ¡°Not a thing, sir. Even Abraham Kepler wouldn¡¯t see us in here. Though if we have tond on the they might be able to scan through the shielding.¡± Major Miller replied.


    ¡°Good to hear. I will be in the Enduring Rage until further notice.¡± Max informed him, then hopped up to his Mecha¡¯s knee and climbed the side to get back inside.


    [Transition to Maneuvering Speed]


    The announcement was followed by an immediate lurch as the ship left faster than light travel, making their entry into the Derrax system.


    The hail that came momentster from the defense fleet was broadcast to all the Command units, and Max tuned in to see who they were dealing with.


    A balding man with heavily wrinkled ebony skin, wearing a in gray uniform coat that showed off a well-kept figure appeared on the screen.


    Unlike the Kepler military, there were no rank badges, adornments, nothing at all that would indicate from a distance whether this man was important or not. It was almost like they were in battle camouge, but with freshly polished boots.


    Max had been warned in advance that the Derrax people weren¡¯t big on colors or anything frivolous, but he hadn¡¯t expected that it would extend as far as removing all sorts of badges from their military uniforms. Even the Captain¡¯s chair that they could see in the background was bare stainless steel, without so much as a hint of padding on it.


    Self-discipline was an admirable trait, but Max was beginning to believe that this had nothing to do with self and that it was something that was forced on the entire culture, whether they liked it or not. There simply wasn¡¯t a better exnation for that level of denial offort, especially after knowing about the battle readiness advantages of ergonomic seating.


    He wore a name tag that identified him as General Juarez, and a dour look on his face, but no other adornment.


    [Unidentified vessel, state your name and purpose in Derrax.] He stated without preamble.


    [I am Rage, of the Terminus Trading Company aboard the Dutchman. We have an appointment.] Nico answered simply and the man lifted a tablet into sight.


    He tapped the screen a few times, then scrolled through whatever data came up in front of him, with the same impassive look on his face the entire time.


    [So you do. Bay W4 of the orbital station. Do not disembark, the process is fully automated.]


    After that themunication was cut, leaving Max and the other officers startled by the abrupt nature of their greeting.


    It was more than a little bit of a culture shock for Max, who was used to the ritual and formality of Military discipline. Meeting a culture where even their military was that abrupt and emotionless was a disconcerting sight, despite the fact that they didn¡¯t seem to be in any way hostile toward the Dutchman or her crew.


    ¡°I think he likes you, their bureaucracy is notorious for messing with trade vessels and wasting their time.¡± General Yaakov congratted Nico.


    ¡°It¡¯s all in the details. I messaged ahead to make a docking appointment. There¡¯s still no guarantee that they will actually swap the loads in any sort of reasonable time though.¡± Nico responded with a roll of her mechanical eyes, anticipating a long wait for no good reason.


    Admiral, be sure to watch your speed, they are very particr about port speeds.¡± She continued, bringing the guidelines and intended flight path up on the ship¡¯s main screen for everyone to see.


    Nico¡¯s assurances set the other¡¯s minds at ease, and the Dutchman smoothly maneuvered toward their assigned bay. The path had a half loop at the end, turning them so that they were broadside to the station, but the Dutchman didn¡¯t have theteral thrusters to enter the bay that way. It was too tight of a fit for therge cargo vessel, and wouldn¡¯t leave room for the shipment to be unloaded.


    Admiral Drake turned the ship and guided them in slowly using the reverse thrusters so that they were facing the doors and the bay that they were going to unload was closest to the equipment that was waiting in storage lockers along the side of the dock.


    That position also pointed their main weapons at the bay door, which closed behind them before the atmosphere was injected back into the area.


    Once it stabilized the Admiral opened their cargo bay, and the waiting game began.


    Behind Armored ss overlooking the bay, a series of questions were being asked through video link with a very annoyed patrol ship captain.


    ¡°Are you sure they are authentic? You didn¡¯t even send for a second opinion.¡± A bookish officer shouted at the man who had appeared in the video link with the Dutchman.


    ¡°The ship code matches the radio. The radio matches the reservation appointment. The encrypted security code matches the shipment documents, and to top it off the representatives are both from Reaver families, you can tell just by looking at them.


    Now unload them and get them out of my zone before I bringary administration into it.¡± The Captain countered, looking far more annoyed than a simple questionnaire about a shipment would seem to have called for.


    The dock¡¯s unloading equipment began to move secondster, and the shipment was quickly removed from the hold, then reced with the aid supplies for the Tapani.


    [We are pleased to report your loading process isplete.] A voice announced over the inte in the bridge of the Dutchman, bringing a smile to the face of everyone in the room.


    [Verifying anticipated weight and volumes. Please hold 15 seconds.] Nico replied, and pulled up a camera in the storage area.


    The hold was nearly full now with identical rows of neatly stacked air-tight crates, and the scanner on the door had recorded all thebels as they entered. It all looked good to Nico, and the weight checked out, so the boxes weren¡¯t empty. There was no guarantee that the contents were the desired cargo, but that wasn¡¯t their business. They were the transport, opening the cargo was something that was viewed as the height of suspicious behavior.


    Nobody wanted their shipment damaged by the crew that brought it to them, so they assumed the risk that the shipper might try to swindle them in exchange for the security of knowing that the sealed boxes hadn¡¯t been tampered with.


    [Verificationplete. Volume correct, weight within two percent of expected numbers. Loadingplete, please clear the bay doors for atmospheric integrity checks.] Nico informed the staffer, who nodded in relief and maneuvered the loading equipment back to storage.


    The ship¡¯s doors were sealed and the atmosphere warning in the dock sounded, letting them know the station was preparing to let them exit.


    ¡°That was crazy, I¡¯ve never seen a loading dock work that fast. What did you put in the appointment message?¡± Klinger asked Nico.


    ¡°That¡¯s just it, there wasn¡¯t anything in my message other than basic details. My guess is that either the politicians are involved or someone is up for a performance review.¡± Nico replied with a shrug, just as confused about the situation as Klinger was.


    Five minutester, they were clear to move out and the dock doors opened, letting the Admiral gently maneuver free of the station and out of orbit, preparing for faster than light travel.


    The Captain of the patrol ship watched carefully until they disappeared in a sh of light, headed towards Tapani space.


    ¡°Feeling better now?¡± His second in Command asked quietly.


    ¡°Much better. You know how Ghost Ships creep me out, and that one was notorious. Half a dozen crews died while exploring it before it finally disappeared. I can¡¯t believe someone was crazy enough to not only go looking for it but to take over its helm.¡± The Captain responded.


    He was much more superstitious than most of his Darrax counterparts, but everyone in the country that was old enough to have seen one knew that the Ghost Ships were taboo and not to be touched.


    Aboard the Dutchman, the Pilots of the Terminus Trading Company were just happy to be heading back to civilization. That Derrax Captain was an oddball, and they hadn¡¯t seen a single living person during their time there unless you counted over video.


    It was a big change from the Kepler stations which were more like a bazaar, with shops and people everywhere. Very few crews didn¡¯t send at least a few members off the ship at a Kepler station, and this situation ruled out them picking up any fresh supplies or other desired goods, other than what Nico might have put in the pickup order on their behalf if that was even possible.


    Max wondered how the Tapani would respond to their arrival. They were waiting on final orders, but the mission was abat one in a civilized world, so they were bound to meet at least a few other humans. If the Tapani were friendly toward Mercenaries, there was a chance that Max could arrange some sort of trade to get fresh food for the Battalion. They had been on freeze-dried ship rations for far too long now, and he was looking forward to something with the distinct taste of fresh.

 Chapter 255 255 Interior Decoration

    With all their equipment in perfect working order, there wasn¡¯t a lot for the crew to do until they reached their next port of call. Butziness brings sluggishness when it is time to fight, so Max began to make up a schedule for training that would keep everyone in good shape while they were in transit.


    The Kepler Military had a training regimen, but it was rudimentary at best, and barely maintained the physique of most Pilots. It wouldn¡¯t be hard to top that, and in fact, Max had been working with a much better n than the default one the military provided ever since he first left Kepler Terminus.


    [Mandatory group training from 0800 to 1200 beginning tomorrow.] Max informed the rest of the First Battalion, then started in on the nning.


    They didn¡¯t have many VR simtors on board, only a handful from the maintenance team for troubleshooting, so their efforts would have to be in the hangar and not in virtual space. They had been with him long enough now that their hand-to-handbat skills were getting better, and it wouldn¡¯t take long to build an obstacle course. Add those to the exercise equipment that was already set up and they should be able to keep the Battalion in top shape.


    The Martial Arts training was very popr with the Pilots, giving them something other than simple exercises to work on their dexterity and speed, areas where most Pilots werecking. Like Max, the majority had a Strength Primary thanks to their system, which was great until they hit diminishing returns at about 150 percent over the base.


    That made the Alpha Ranked Systems physically extremely strong, on par with abat Cyborg, but their flexibility often suffered from neglect, other than their fingers, which most remembered to train for control speed.


    In theory that was enough to improve their piloting skills, but Max had realized that being able to move more than your hands quickly was a great benefit and did much more to improve your reaction speeds.


    Being used to moving the whole body more quickly trained the mind to move the mecha more quickly and processplex movement routines more naturally, which improved firing uracy while on the move.


    There wasn¡¯t much he could add to the routine, it was pretty well optimized already, so he started looking for more ways to pass the time.


    The cockpit of the Enduring Rage was still pretty in, so that became his next project. They spend almost all their time in the Mecha, so Max thought that it would be a nice little surprise to personalize the space before Nico returned from her assignment on the bridge of the Dutchman.


    What could he do though? Max had never once in his life tried to decorate a room, much less decorate a room to suit him and Nico at the same time. He could maybe change the color of the walls. That might make it feel more like home, or give it a more rxing feeling.


    Max pulled up articles on color theory, and decoration, trying to decide what to do with the space that they had.


    ording to the article, green was for calm, and yellow was for positivity. But the walls were already a drab shade of yellowish green. That didn¡¯t help him at all, since the official advice was absolutely hideous.


    Even if it was the most efficient, it was still ugly.


    He didn¡¯t have anything to hang on the walls to ¡°Make it His Own¡± like the article suggested, so that was out as well. He also wasn¡¯t going to arrange dozens of throw pillows and knickknacks around the Mecha. He wouldn¡¯t even do that to his own room, though Mooney had a bunch of stuff around her room and it definitely suited her personality.


    After an hour of reading the articles, Max was starting to think that whoever wrote this drivel was an absolute moron.


    It was when he gave up on changing the room and decided to do a physical check of the systems that the idea came to him. The wall looked pretty cool with the panel removed, showing off the gears and hydraulics of the arm assembly that were behind it.


    That was highly unsafe during operation, but a single panel reced with clear aluminum might make for a suitable ent window. Max sent the order to the material printer in their bay and climbed down to go collect his updated part, then added a maic hanging rod and two pieces of cloth to the order.


    Twenty minutester, and after a bit of tinkering with the lighting, Max had a backlit window in the food preparation area, overlooking the arm mechanics, with a pair of curtains tied off at the sides.


    Now it felt more like the kitchen at Dave¡¯s house, whose window overlooked the brick of the building next to them. That was a huge change to the feeling of the room. It went from an enclosed box with arge screen on the wall to a studio apartment with a crappy view.


    With the two piloting seats moved out of the way and rotated back to face the main area of the cockpit, it felt even more like an apartment, and Max began to see the potential.


    [When you get back to the barracks, bring me two seat covers for the Enduring Rage. You can pick the patterns.] Max messaged Nico, knowing that she should be back soon.


    She didn¡¯t message back, but Nico never missed messages, so she would have the seat covers for him when she got here, he was certain.


    She did one better than he had requested and even brought a rug for the floor, which would attach to the cargo securement loops, so it wouldn¡¯t move while in motion.


    The seat covers that she picked were ck and soft, with their names stitched into the headrests while the Carpet was a collection of gray shades that went well with the military drab of the walls, at least in Max¡¯s estimation.


    ¡°I like it, the window is a nice touch, feels more like home that way.¡± Nicomended him as he finished setting up the room.


    ¡°Yeah, it feels less like a box and more like a room now. The lights behind the window were just the thing, and the viewport is actually functional since it lets you see the state of the right arm mechanisms without having to leave the cockpit.¡± Max agreed.


    Nico snapped a photo of the room from the side ess door and smiled at Max. ¡°I should show Klinger. He was going on earlier about how he was changing his cockpit to be less drab.¡±


    The other Colonel messaged back secondster, raving about the window in the food preparation area and asking for design ns. It was only one recement clear panel and a set of curtains, so Klinger was off to make a recement right away.


    He had already repainted the interior in sand and sky blue, making his cockpit feel more like a beach, in his opinion, and the window was the final touch it needed. Klinger didn¡¯t leave the mechanisms behind the panel open though, he built a small diorama and ced it behind the ss, making it look like you were actually looking outside.


    The Crusader ss Pilots all thought they were a bit odd, but it was definitely a better environment than the default interior had been. Plus, it was all within regtion, so they wouldn¡¯t need to change it back after this deployment when they would presumably be inspected by another ship¡¯s maintenance staff.


    Maxid down for a nap, catching up on sleep before training in the morning, ship time, and woke up to the smell of coffee and bacon filling the cockpit.


    ¡°Oh, now that is just torture. That had better be for me.¡± Max muttered as he sat up in bed and looked over at the other side of the cockpit, where Nico was making food in nothing but an apron.


    ¡°What exactly are you wearing?¡± He stammered as Nico danced to the low music she had ying over the speakers.


    ¡°An apron. I didn¡¯t want to get greasy, I just washed. Here, drink the coffee and the food will be ready in a few seconds.¡± Nicoughed, handing him a mug.


    Looking more closely, the meal was the Bacon and Egg omelet ration pack, but she had pulled it out of its pouch before frying it in a pan with a can of boiled potatoes that she had spiced up to what he hoped was edibility.


    ¡°Very domestic. I am impressed. You even make good coffee, but where did you get the spices?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°I grabbed them from the kitchens aboard Abraham Kepler before we left. They were better stocked than what we took with us. The pilots officially request that we find real food on the next battlefield by the way. The Battalion Kitchen is pretty good, but as you know, the meals are on a two-week rotation, and everyone has them memorized.¡± Nico informed him.


    ¡°One thing at a time. We need to get everyone back to daily training first and take their minds off the boredom. Once they have things to do they won¡¯t focus so much on memorizing the kitchen menu.¡±


    They had to skirt the edge of Kepler space, then turn to the Gctic west and pass a few small nations and a section of empty space near the Rae System to get to their destination and it would still be almost a week before they arrived.

 Chapter 256 256 Border Running

    The food was better than Max had expected, but also very spicy, to the point Max was d he had the coffee to soothe his tongue.


    That was still better than the perpetually nd taste of the ration packs, which were designed to be easy to digest and edible by as many¡¯s soldiers as possible.


    At home, he had always liked spicy foods, especially the hot wings that his father kept in the freezer to fry during sporting events. This spice was a different story of heat though, it crept up on his taste buds, so he was halfway through breakfast before it felt like his head was on fire.


    Nico was properly dressed again by the time he finished and they descended on the winch line mounted beside the cockpit door to go lead the daily training session for the First Battalion.


    Most of the soldiers were already waiting when they arrived, despite the early hour, which Max took as a good sign. Enthusiasm for training meant that the unit was getting along, and that morale was at least average, both of which were ongoing goals for every Commander.


    They all knew the routine, so they split into two groups of roughly equal size as soon as he arrived, and began their pre-workout stretches.


    Max was an hour into leading his half of the training when he realized that they had guests waiting by the Mess Hall. General Yaakov was waiting for him, apanied by a ginger-haired young man holding a data tablet and wearing an oversized white hoodie.


    ¡°General Yaakov, to what do we owe the pleasure?¡± Max called out over the noise of the training and motioned for his team to keep going while he was gone.


    Max jogged up the stairs to the General, who handed over a data tablet for him to examine. On it was a sensor log of what appeared to be a colony ship, but partially destroyed and floating dead in space.


    There was no way to know how long it had been that way, but colony ships usually had an immense amount of useful material aboard, in addition to their terraforming technology.


    That could be an excellent chance to stock up, as well as a chance to make a name for themselves if there was anyone to rescue.


    ¡°I think it should be fine. The scan shows it is still mostly intact. We can send in Pilots using Mobile Suits and likely some of the Corvette ss units as well. The corridors in a colony ship are made for heavy equipment.¡± Max agreed, seeing that the General wanted to divert their course to explore it.


    ¡°It is across a border, and that system isn¡¯t friendly with Kepler, so they might not be on good terms with Kepler-born Reavers either. The other Battalion Commanders expressed some concerns about starting an incident.¡± Yaakov exined.


    ¡°Feth them if they can¡¯t take a joke. We¡¯ve got twenty Super Heavy Mecha aboard, we could probably take out their nation¡¯s entire fleet if they want to try us.


    Don¡¯t think as a Kepler Officer, or a Noble, but as a Reaver. It would be more suspicious if we didn¡¯t take the bait and go check it out.¡± Max told him.


    ¡°So, you agree that it is a trap. I thought the same, but the others didn¡¯t see it. You have a point though, we have the firepower and the X137 model has decent zero-gravity capability. The X109 should be a capable breaching unit if we are attacked as well.


    It is decided then. Have everyone on standby in 90 minutes and we will run the border to go take a look.¡±


    Max returned to the training area with a big smile on his face.


    ¡°Good news everyone, training is over for the day. We have found a derelict colony ship and we are going to take a little cross-border excursion to go explore it.


    In case it is under guard, be prepared for a fight. The nation closest to the wreck isn¡¯t a major power, but it might also be guarded by other Mercenaries or Pirates.


    You know your jobs, when the calles, move all personnel to areas with secondary atmospheric containment.


    Got it? Good. You are Dismissed.¡±


    The First Battalion was in a much better mood now, and everyone raced to get cleaned up and get their Mecha ready for action, eagerly anticipating a field trip to a Colony ship.


    The Dutchman was built for this sort of mission, and had a low emission setting on its engines, cutting speed to a Warp factor of only 1.2 but making them much harder to track. It was the interster equivalent of sneaking up on the target, and Admiral Drake brought them in as cautiously as possible.


    ¡°Three Light Cutters in the vicinity. Pirate markings on all three. The colony ship is dead in space, but the design isn¡¯t one recorded in ourputers.¡± Admiral Drake reported.


    The vessel¡¯s flowing organic lines weren¡¯t anything Max recalled from either of his lives. Nico looked intrigued, but she didn¡¯t seem to recognize the design either, and she had run it through every database they had avable.


    It was clearly ancient though, withyers of impact damage on the hull from an extended time in space. Given the damage, it looked as if they hade across a rogue meteor, and it had taken out the ship¡¯s engines.


    [Tarith, you are up. We are inmunications range, please say hello for us.] General Yaakov ordered, winking at Nico over the video link.


    Nico thought for a moment, then sent a contact signal to the Pirate vessels. Secondster three annoyed-looking men appeared on the main screen in Enduring Rage and Nico began to speak.


    [Good morningdies. How incredibly kind of you to look after this salvage case for us. But since we are here now you are free to leave.]


    Max could only imagine the response of the other Kepler Commanders to her words, but he had to maintain a straight face since he was on camera, sitting beside her in the Mecha.


    The Pirate Captains weren¡¯t impressed, and all began to speak at once before one of them silenced the other two.


    [Who do you think that you are to take a prize from the entire fleet of the Golden Hand?] The Captain demanded, tapping his golden mechanical hand on the control panel in front of him.


    [Insolent Peasants, did I not give you enough of a warning? I told you, the Terminus Trading Company hase for our salvage rights, now leave.] Nico replied in a very soft and dismissive tone as if they were beneath her concern, flicking her fingers in a shooing motion to emphasize her point.


    The Pirate ships began to move and Max sent the signal for his Battalion to be ready to move on an instant¡¯s notice.


    [Let¡¯s see how smart you are when we burn that relic of a ghost ship out from under you.] The Pirate leader dered, then cut the video link.

 Chapter 257 257 Pirates

    As soon as negotiations failed, Yaakov sent the signal for Third through Fifth Battalion to send out their Super Heavy Mecha, with the X137 units anchoring themselves to the exterior hull of the Dutchman for stability.


    The cargo bays have a protective force field around them that allows for the transfer of goods from unsafe environments, but from what Max could see, the Pirates forgot about that, or simply didn¡¯t expect them to have Mecha on board, because they made no move to evade until the X109 Fast Attack Mecha activated their thrusters and raced towards them.


    The ships were under five kilometers apart, close on a space battle scale, but it would still take some time for the Heavy Mecha to reach their targets.


    The Super Heavy Mecha¡¯s Ion Bombard Array had no such issues with the distance, and a barrage of white energy balls from a dozen Mecha flew toward the three ships just as their shields powered up.


    The repeated impacts made the entire barrier glow, a sign that these shields were not at the level where they could take a sustained Bombardment from Four Super Heavy Mecha each.


    They were light attack ships, suitable for targeting lightly armed merchants and for scavenging the remains of a battle. They weren¡¯t designed to be front-line forces in a Mecha-based space battle.


    The majority of their power was going to keep their shields active as the mighty siege weapons battered their defenses, leaving the ships still immobile when the X109 group arrived.


    [Breach in the forward shielding] Colonel Klinger reported, sending extra fire toward the nose of his unit¡¯s victim.


    Fires burst all over the Pirate ship¡¯s hull as energy rys overloaded, and the Fast Attack Crusaders moved in for the kill, using the Fusion mers to breach Airlock doors and windows.


    Those were the two most vulnerable spots on the vessel, but they were still careful not to cause indiscriminate damage. These Pirates hadn¡¯t done anything to them personally, and they might still surrender.


    Not every group thought that far ahead though, and when one of the Warp Drive housings was damaged by the Third Battalion, a chain reaction spread through the ship, shredding half the structure before the emergency bulkheads held and stopped the explosion frompletely destroying the vessel.


    [Mercy, I beg you, Mercy.] The Captain of the stricken vessel pleaded as he struggled to keep his ship from exploding entirely, using thest of their power to keep the atmosphere intact and the bulkhead shielding active.


    [Power down your ship and prepare to evacuate. There is an inhabited system within range of your lifeboats. Any ship still active in thirty seconds will be fired upon.] Nico demanded, highlighting the fact that they had the ability to destroy all three vessels on a whim.


    Max counted the seconds, expecting to see onest stand and an attempt to flee, which they might have actually managed if they had done it from the start instead of trying to absorb the iing Mecha fire with their shields.


    At the count of twenty-eight, the other two shields came down, and the ship¡¯s power systems went to standby.


    There were no more radio signals, likely because everyone was rushing to gather valuables before they fled for the rtive safety of the nearby.


    Max was beginning to run out of patience, and about to ask Nico to send them another message when the first lifeboat, a small cargo shuttle from the disabled ship,unched.


    A few minutester, a second one from the same ship, then one each from the others set everyone aboard the Dutchman¡¯s mind at ease.


    Four more shuttles left in the next half hour before General Tenant decided that the Pirates were all gone. The scan didn¡¯t show any more life signs or energy instability aboard the three vessels, so he had one of the X109 units approach the cargo bays of each ship and force them open.


    The vessels were abandoned, and clearly stolen from a military force, but they didn¡¯t find any signs of sabotage, which gave General Yaakov the impression that they were going toe back to them once the Dutchman had left.


    They didn¡¯t have any need for the extra ships, and there wasn¡¯t much worth taking, so the logic was good, he really did intend to leave them there to be recovered by whoever wanted a heavily damaged Attack vessel.


    [First and Second Battalions, head to the Colony Ship. Your Command Assets can go in Mobile Suits to navigate the smaller corridors. See what state the interior is in and report back to me.] The General ordered.


    That meant max needed to leave his cockpit and go to the storage area to grab an Armored suit, but it was a good excuse to see the interior of the derelict vessel and try to recover some usable goods.


    [Fast Attack units, give your Commanders a ride over and you can patrol the exterior. Corvettes, check the main corridors.] Max ordered.


    [And be sure to double-check the sensors before opening any doors. If there is still atmosphere in any of the spaces we absolutely do not want to vent it. There might still be live nts or colonists in there, Colony Ships are designed to have a very durable inner structure.] Nico added, including the entire Regiment in hermunications.


    That hadn¡¯t urred to most of the soldiers, but since most Colony vessels traveled with only a few crew active and the rest in stasis, it was possible that they were hiding in the core, using what power reserves they had to survive.


    Major Miller was the ride for Max and Nico, who had attached the Tech Adept Harness to her exosuit. The extra articted arms and tools would be a huge benefit but among the technicians, only she had the system functions that would allow her to control them from inside a mobile suit.


    Building a few of the harnesses into atmospheric suits for hazardous conditions operations was quickly added to the Battalion¡¯s requisitions list when the repair staff saw here out wearing the setup. Using tools through an atmospheric suit was awkward at best, and they had all gotten used to the luxury of the Tech Adept Harness since it was introduced.


    If only they still had the Research team with them. They could have had one designed and a prototype built before the exploration team even returned.


    [First Battalion, move out.] Max ordered,tching on to the arm of Major Miller¡¯s X109 pattern Mecha so he was out of the line of fire of the thrusters mounted on its back.

 Chapter 258 258 Thats Not Human

    After a short flight, Major Miller deposited Max and Nico near arge airlock on the colony ship. Using the articted arms on the Tech Adept Harness, Nico secured herself and put power to the touch panel beside the entrance.


    It glowed a light blue before the airlock softly slid open, showing a well-preserved interior twelve meters in height. That was a tight fit for the Crusader ss chassis, but it could fit, so Major Miller followed them in while slightly crouching to give himself a bit more headroom.


    The airlock itself, and then the hallway beyond it showed signs of much use, but not much age degradation, and the atmosphere had been evacuated, either by intent or because of a breach somewhere else in this zone.


    ¡°If nobody else is going to mention it, I will. The touch pads are all three meters up the door frames.¡± Major Miller pointed out as Nico unlocked another one with a touch of the arms on the Tech Adept Harness.


    ¡°At least there isn¡¯t any gravity ting active or that could be a real pain for the other teams.¡± Max agreed.


    Nico snorted in amusement, but only her thoughts gave away her opinion on the likeliness of the other teams actually powering up and unlocking the doors instead of just using the Mecha to force them.


    [This is very strange, Colonel. We have been patrolling the exterior, and there are no signs of actual breaches in the hull, only surface damage. Even the area where the Pirates were working isn¡¯t breached.] Major Petrova, the leader of Max¡¯s Charlie Company reported.


    [How is the interior condition in your zone?] Max asked.


    [Interior Condition? None of us have managed to get inside yet. Short of sting the doors apart, I don¡¯t think we actually could. As I said, the hull is intact. How did you get in?] Petrova responded.


    [Major Nico powered up the door panel and hacked it. The door swung open without any issues.] Max responded.


    [You heard that, Technician teams. This is your time to shine.] Petrova sighed.


    For a regr technician, hacking an alien door security system wasn¡¯t an easy matter. It was only Nico who could actually get them to function for her.


    ¡°Max, we found something. I think it is aboratory.¡± Nico reported, drawing Max¡¯s attention to where she was standing.


    The wall had windows all around, and a collection of instruments and screens inside, untouched by time.


    ¡°Good call. How is the condition inside?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Purged of atmosphere, but otherwise it looks intact,¡± Nico informed him.


    Max checked the area to see if there were other simr rooms around, but they all seemed to have the same curved organic walls, with unknown markings on them that seemed somewhat familiar to Max, a vague memory of his past life that he couldn¡¯t quite ce.


    Then he noticed that all the doors that they had passed through were closed again. That shouldn¡¯t surprise Max, it was standard that doors on a spaceship had some sort of emergency system that kept them closed in the case of power loss, keeping the crew safe, but it still felt strange like they weren¡¯t alone here.


    ¡°Pop the door and let¡¯s see what is inside. When you get a chance, power up the electronics and see what we can learn.¡± Max ordered.


    [All Units, do not damage the ship any further. If you can¡¯t hack in, wait on my orders outside. I believe we may have found an interiorb area that will fulfill the mission objectives.] Max directed the rest of the First Battalion.


    While Nico worked at the door which lit up red, indicating to Max that it was locked and not just closed, Max examined the next door in the row. Reaching up, he touched the screen by the door to clear the lightyer of dust so he could read the writing, or at least record it for their records.


    The screen lit up green when his suit-encased hand touched it, and the door, previously flush with the wall, swung into the wall, leaving a five-meter-tall entrance.


    ¡°Hey Nico, did you power up the whole hallway?¡± Max called, rmed.


    ¡°Maybe? I don¡¯t know what is on what circuit, but I¡¯ve got this panel powered up.¡± She confirmed.


    ¡°Major Miller, keep an arm in this door so it doesn¡¯t lock me inside. I¡¯ve noticed that they are closing on a timer. I want to see inside this room.¡± Max ordered.


    The room was almostpletely empty, which was unusual on a Colony ship, where every square meter was precious storage for their next homeworld.


    There were still a few neatly stacked boxes in one corner though, and once Major Miller was in ce, Max stepped over his arm and went to examine them.


    ¡°I have some sort of technological device in a case. The case appears to be Gold ted, perhaps for corrosion resistance. Case contains, one device, six rolls of cloth, and some unidentified liquid.¡± The red markings on the top seem somehow familiar. I suspect that these are First Aid Kits. Recovering one for future study.¡± Max reported for his mission recording, narrating his actions as he removed the storage bag from thepartment on his Mobile Suit and ced one of the suspected First Aid kits inside.


    ¡°We are in Colonel,¡± Nico reported happily as the door she was working on finally opened to her hacking skills.


    As soon as she was in, Nico blocked the door with one mechanical arm, then turned to the screen by the door and started to work, bringing the whole room to life in a few seconds.


    ¡°How is your suit¡¯s power capacity?¡± Max asked, watching her work.


    ¡°All good, I am using my internal generator for this. The draw is remarkably low.¡± She reported, then began tapping happily at the keyboard, changing the screen in front of her from a in design to a series of data sets.


    ¡°You can read that?¡± Major Miller asked, shocked that she was messing with the alien technology.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have to, my System Function trantes and tells me what key to press. The ship is shut down, but there are still fairly significant power reserves if we want to bring the lights online and let the others inside. I don¡¯t have any more data on the survivors or supplies yet, but give me ten minutes to work through all this technical data to find it.¡± Nico reported.


    Max was about to answer when an emergency message shed to his wrist device, ryed by the Communications system of the Dutchman.


    [Commander Terminus,


    It is with great regret that I have to report that the recent raid on the facility has resulted in a total loss of relevant data for your project. Sector Command apologizes for the inconvenience and informs you that they will be meeting with Abraham Kepler in the Tapani System on schedule to obtain their copy of the data. Compensation will be made for the dys.


    With Apologies,


    Researcher Chen Lu, Comor technology development and entertainment division]


    ¡°What the hell is that all about? We aren¡¯t aboard the Abraham Kepler anymore, and Uncle Lu knows that.¡± Max muttered, then read the message again.


    The Lab had been raided, and the Mecha research data was destroyed, so Sector Command was looking for Abraham Kepler to get their hands on the real thing, or perhaps the research team, which had all conveniently been transferred out of theb, leaving nobody with any knowledge of the project to be interrogated.


    [General Yaakov, did you see this?] Max asked, not borating.


    [Confirmed Colonel. Standby while I contact Imperial Command.] The General responded grimly.


    Max didn¡¯t see any way that the message from Uncle Lu was not a warning that the Rebels were hunting them and the research team, but at least it looked like they didn¡¯t know that they had changed identities yet.


    Max waited while Nico examined the ship¡¯s systems, and General Yaakov tried to contact Imperial Command for a few minutes before an update finally came from Inquisitor Ming, who Max wasn¡¯t expecting to be in the loop so fast.


    [Sector Command is spreading the news that Abraham Kepler and her crew have gone rogue and defected to Tapani. The propaganda is everywhere in the sector and apliance fleet from the sector Inquisitors is on its way with a battle fleet to apprehend them.


    Imperial Inquisition is aware of the situation and assures me that Abraham Kepler isn¡¯t headed for the Tapani Sector. They only had one other message before they cut the link though. ¡°Upgrade Security by one rank¡±. I wasn¡¯t made fully aware of your situation, where does that bring your security?] The Inquisitor General told them.


    [We were already at Vermillion. All units, as of now, this mission has gone dark. Nomunications with Kepler, her allies, or any other nation are to be made without double confirmation. Complete your exploration of the colony vessel and we will proceed on mission.] General Yaakov ordered.

 Chapter 259 259 They Come In Peace

    After ten minutes of tinkering with theputer, Nico had ayout of the Colony ship brought up on her screen for Max to examine.


    ¡°What¡¯s with this color coding? It is all various shades of purple¡± Maxined as he examined theyout.


    At three kilometers long, the vessel was enormous, and from the trantions that Nico had made, it was capable of easily terraforming most suitably sizeds to be friendly to life. It even had what Nico had tranted as aary Core Drill and Reactor, which he could only guess was intended to reheat the core mass of a that had cooled too much to sustain liquid water.


    It was currently unknown if that bit of technology was still on board or functional, but the location that it should be in was clearly marked.


    Most of his men and all of the Second Battalion were currently exploring the exterior of the vessel, making notes and trying to hack their way into the airlocks, so it was up to Max to go explore anything that looked interesting.


    That was still inconvenient since he couldn¡¯t split his team up. If they came across any locked doors he would need Nico to open them, and if they came across danger, they were relying on Major Miller to take care of it for them, since they didn¡¯t grab weapons to go with the mobile suit, other than the basic sidearm and some tools that could be used to bludgeon.


    ¡°Is there any sign of where we might find the settlers? If they are still on board, that is the first ce we should check.¡± Max asked while Nico brought up a map.


    ¡°They should all be in this one internal section. There are genebs in that area too, so I am assuming that they were intending to make more settlers when they arrived, and tailor them to their environment.


    It¡¯s a very-friendly approach, and suitable to arrival on a that already has life forms present.¡± Nico borated.


    ¡°So they¡¯re not inherently bad people is what you¡¯re saying? Got it.¡± Major Miller agreed from outside the room.


    ¡°It¡¯s about a kilometer from here, but straight down this main corridor, so it shouldn¡¯t take us long to get there if the bulkhead doors aren¡¯t locked.¡± Nico directed, taking off at a jog.


    That was a slow walk for the Crusader ss Mecha, so Max matched their pace, keeping his eyes open for anything moving or suspicious since he didn¡¯t trust the tranted internal scans to tell them everything that they needed to know about this ship in just one sitting.


    It was never that easy. If you could just sit down at a console and find out everything, operational security wouldn¡¯t mean a thing. Data was always divided between multiple systems on an interster ship of any sort, especially a colony ship, where redundant systems were absolutely vital to their survival.


    Nico was getting the hang of the doors as they went, essing them remotely so that they would open before the group arrived, letting them keep their pace down the corridor.


    ¡°You know, it would have been easier if we had just turned on all the power in the ship, and not just a little bit for the corridors we were using.¡± Major Millermented, looking down a darkened side corridor.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know what systems are damaged, and the basic functions are still working. It¡¯s best not to take any risks until we can search the ship and make our way to the engineering department to do a full scan.¡± Max disagreed.


    He was also curious about what was down the corridors that they were passing, but they could wait until the ship had at least been searched for survivors.


    ¡°Here we are. Stasis pod room one of four. There are double doors to this area, with a sanitizing system and the interior still has an atmosphere, quality unknown, the walls are interfering with my scans.


    If you two want to wait out here, I will search the room and report back. The fewer people we send inside the easier it will be on the ship¡¯s remaining power supply.¡± Nico suggested.


    ¡°Works for me. Make sure you record it all for the mission report.¡± Max instructed her, then turned to inspect the other doors in the area.


    The walls were smooth, and slightly curved, made of a silvery substance that Max¡¯s suit determined wasn¡¯t metallic, but it couldn¡¯t name the alloy or polymer that they were constructed of. It seemed to be dozens of different materials all bonded together into one block, like theyeredposite armor of a Mecha, but at a molecr level.


    It would take some time for his Suit to fully scan these walls, which were different from the in silver ones that made up the rest of the ship so far.


    This must be the aliens¡¯ version of security material, and knowing what it was could either be a huge benefit to the Kepler force or tell them a lot about the technological level of the people who built this ship.


    The construction method was very advanced, but that didn¡¯t always trante into more durable or higher quality construction, only a very different culture doing the building.


    ¡°Max, the room is empty, but they left a note on the wall. Give me a second and I will have it tranted.¡± Nico informed him a few minutes after entering the stasis room.


    [Ship engines offline. No source of Dilithium Crystals was found within the navigable area. The crew has been evacuated to the Colony Ship Hope along with essential materials. Pray to the Gods that we find a peaceful new home, free from conflict and the brutal species.]


    Nico sent the trantion and Major Miller burst intoughter.


    ¡°Wow did they evere to the wrong fething Gxy. This whole ce is a warzone, and that¡¯s without counting the petty stuff, like the species that just want to eat everything that they see.¡± He chuckled.


    Not the most glowing rmendation of their home gxy, but the Major wasn¡¯t wrong. This wasn¡¯t what a colony ship would hope for if they wanted a peaceful home.

 Chapter 260 260 And We Are Peace

    ¡°I have more data for you, Colonel. I have biological data from the stasis pods, about theirst upants.¡± Nico informed him.


    That was the sort of breakthrough that they were hoping to find. With that they could know exactly who the colonists were, and where they might have gone, assuming that they had survived to be a known species of the Gxy.


    Nico sent over a wave of data, and at first, Max thought that it was from a number of different species, because the gic diversity and appearances were so widely varied. But after looking more closely, they were all one group, just different lineages.


    They were bipedal, like humans, but had a total of six limbs. For some that meant a set of wings, for some it was a second set of arms. There wererge ones and small ones, but for the most part, they were just over three meters tall.


    If it weren¡¯t for that, he would have thought that they were the ancestors of the Narsians.


    Though, given that Nico mentioned that they had gene modification bays, they actually might have been, if this ship had arrived in the system early enough.


    ¡°Nico, what is the age of the message? How long ago did they leave, can you tell?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°ording to the timer on theirputers, they left about 2600 Kepler standard years ago. The Navigation data isn¡¯t avable though, so I have no idea where they came from or where they intended to go.¡± Nico informed him.


    That was too recent to be any of the major races in the Gxy, but maybe they did find a peaceful sector of the Gxy to call home. Until they had more data, there was always hope.


    ¡°Check all the stasis bays while Major Miller and I check out the area for any other interesting items left behind for us to find. If they transferred to another Colony ship, they must have been short on space, so there is bound to be something left behind.¡± Max told her, then turned to shine his light down a darkened corridor.


    [We have more information from Imperial Command. Sector Command doesn¡¯t know that you have left Abraham Kepler, and the Tapani have canceled their request for aid. That seemed suspicious to the Emperor, so he ordered a sensor sweep of the area and found that the iing Klem pods are not going to strike Tapani space, but fly right by them and into Kepler space.] Inquisitor Ming reported.


    That wasn¡¯t good news. Kepler Terminus, Max¡¯s homeworld, was one of the closest Keplers to that border, and from what he could tell, the majority of the Sector Defense fleet was currently headed to Tapani territory looking for the experimental Mecha.


    [Do we have any additional orders or just a partial situation update?] Max asked.


    [No new orders, and I don¡¯t expect any. At the moment, we don¡¯t officially exist, and the Emperor himself will deny that any such experimental Mecha Force was created. Until proven otherwise, the Rebels are wasting Kepler¡¯s resources on a witch hunt over an incident that only urred in their imagination and proving themselves unfit to be allowed to return to their positions of power.] General Yaakov reported.


    [I know it is a selfish request, but if those Klem pods are headed for Kepler Terminus, I would like to divert there, in our capacity as the Terminus Trading Company.] Max asked General Yaakov.


    [Current trajectory shows that your homeworld is safe from the Klem, but all the way out here, we can¡¯t get much data, only the bit that Imperial Command made avable to the other frontiers.] The General informed him with a sigh.


    They had gotten used to sending any and all annoying matters to theyer ofmand above themselves, now that it was gone and they were out of contact, they would have to start making their own calls, based on the data that they could collect themselves.


    [All the pods are gone, as are the stored gic material and the entire contents of the Gene sequencingb. Most of the Terraforming equipment is still in the storage bays, and I¡¯ve got the cameras online now. This station has enough clearance to verify that it is safe to turn on the lights if you would like.] Nico reported.


    [Do it, and if you can search for escape pods or shuttles of some sort, that would be great. I want to know as much about their technology as possible before we have to go.] Max suggested.


    [Why should we leave at all? We¡¯ve got a mighty fine colony ship here, plus two and a half cutters. If there is any empty storage we can move the Pirate ships inside the Colony ship and drag the whole fething thing with us.] Major Miller joked.


    [No, you have a point, Major. Once First Battalion has finished searching their current location, move to the aft of the ship and inspect the engines. It sounded like the problem was ack of resources to repair engine damage. If we can fix that, we can take the whole thing intact.


    I don¡¯t know if Imperial Command will count it as war spoils, but a Colony Ship of unknown origin has to be worth something, right? If nothing else, I will take it home with me and dock it at my family¡¯s spaceport.] General Yaakov ordered.


    Now he was starting to think outside the box. The rebels were looking for Abraham Kepler right now, but if they got enough data they would be looking for the Dutchman, but nobody would be looking for a pair of Pirate Cutters operating from a battered alien Colony ship.


    They wouldn¡¯t even be the only ones. Discarded Colony ships were once a popr home for Mercenary groups. That reached its peak a few thousand years ago, when thest colonization wave ended, but there were still a number of archaic vessels floating around like drifting cities in space, home to all sorts of folk who didn¡¯t really fit in with regr society.

 Chapter 261 261 We Can Do This

    ¡°You heard the man, we are finished here in the empty stasis quarters, let¡¯s go explore the enginepartments.¡± Nico dered, far too happily for Max¡¯s peace of mind.


    He didn¡¯t need to be a mind reader to know that she was intending to find a way to get the engines of the Colony ship back online so that they could travel through space in style.


    ¡°You¡¯re thinking of something strange aren¡¯t you?¡± Major Miller asked, thinking the same thing as Max.


    ¡°Define strange? It just urred to me that if we are still on this mission and haven¡¯t officially turned in the Colony ship when our tour of duty ends, legally we are allowed to keep it.¡± Nico suggested with a slight giggle.


    ¡°See, now that¡¯s what most people would call odd. A proper soldier of the Empire is not supposed to make ns to inhabit a captured Colony Ship and explore the Gxy selling trade goods to species that most of the Kepler territory doesn¡¯t even know exist.¡± Major Miller pointed out.


    ¡°So you¡¯re in?¡± Nico joked.


    ¡°Fair shares for the whole crew though. I have heard some of the work contracts are pretty brutal.¡± He told her, leading the way to the aft of the ship with his X109 Crusader.


    Max watched the Mecha leave and decided that they really needed a proper name for the new Mecha. It was distinct from the standard Crusaders, both in mobility and firepower, despite sharing most of the same basic chassis, so it certainly should be defined as a distinct pattern.


    [While you lot are waiting outside for the hackers to do their work, why don¡¯t youe up with a new name for the X109 Fast Attack Crusaders? I will be epting suggestions until wee up with a good enough one for all the Battalion Commanders to agree on it.] Max suggested over the radio.


    [Now we¡¯re talking. The new patterns have earned something after taking out a pair of fething spaceships.] Ivanov replied.


    [Yeah, and we should likely stop using the official designation inmunications, just in case.] Pippin agreed.


    It only took them a few minutes to get to the aft of the ship and find the Engineering bay where all the Engine controls were. The problem that forced the crew to abandon the ship was immediately obvious as soon as they entered the bay.


    The engines used a Crystal Matrix to generate the Warp Field that allowed faster-than-light travel. Something had overloaded the engine, most likely the asteroid impacts and the Captain maximizing shielding output to avoid having the entire vessel destroyed.


    Without the Crystals, they were dead in the water, and Max didn¡¯t recognize the structure as anything from this Gxy.


    ¡°What do you see Nico? My System Optimization says to rece the Crystals before proceeding, which isn¡¯t useful when I have no idea what they¡¯re made of or where theye from.¡±


    ¡°They are just cracked, and it destabilized the Matrix that let the energy to shape the Warp Field flow through them. My sensors say that there is another set in the radiation-shielded storage room over there, so they must have destroyed both their main propulsion matrix and the backup set.


    Give me a little while and I think I can do something with this. My function allows the Nanobots to attempt repairs if they can determine what they are working with. Since they are all broken in different spots, I have all the data that I need.¡± Nico confirmed.


    ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is¡­¡± Major Miller asked.


    ¡°I am totally stealing a Colony ship,¡± Nico confirmed, making Max constrain the urge to smack her on the head and tell her to focus.


    She stuck both hands of her Mobile Suit into the containment field around the crystals, grabbing them in her hands and standing stock still for ten whole minutes before backing up.


    ¡°This is where Maxes in. I have the repairs done, but this system is stupidly finicky, and I¡¯m not sure that I can get it to actually work properly with the Functions that I have. But Max can optimize them, so as soon as I bring them online, he should be able to tweak the positioning using this control panel here and make them functional.¡± Nico exined.


    Max spared a thought about how ironic the situation was. The ship was battered but holding together, but it was stopped dead by something that was a fifteen-minute repair for the Nanomachines that the entire poption of Kepler had.


    Of course, at the time, they hadn¡¯t been deliberately spread through the poption yet and were still confined to only Kepler Terminus, but on a gctic scale, they were very close to a location that could have actually fixed their ship and gotten them going again.


    Assuming that the humans didn¡¯t just kill and rob them, that is.


    The array began to glow as Nico interacted with theputer, and Max moved to the control panel, activating his [Unit Optimization] Skill.


    [Make the following changes to bring the engines to optimal performance]


    [Make the following changes to bring the control system online]


    Make the following changes to bring the power systems online]


    ¡­


    There were hundreds of lines of directives from the system for things that needed to be done to make the ship¡¯s systems optimized, but he started with the engines, tweaking them until the System told him he had it right. Then he brought the control systems back online, as they had only been manually disabled.


    Max suspected that was the equivalent of a mechanic¡¯s lockout so that nobody messed with the settings or powered anything up while they were working.


    ¡°Nico, bring the main power back online and run a system diagnostic. I want to know if there are any holes in my ship?¡± Max ordered.


    ¡°Your ship?¡± She asked.


    ¡°I outrank you, therefore when we retire with the Colony ship, it is totally going to be my ship.¡± Maxughed, seeing the mental image of Nico sticking out her tongue at him.

 Chapter 262 262 Please, Do Come In

    ¡°Power is online. There are two areas where breaches are shown, due to damage, both are under ten centimeters in size and can be blocked with energy barriers. Would you like me to send a repair team from the Battalion to patch the holes in your ship?¡± Nico asked.


    ¡°Do it, they aren¡¯t doing anything important anyhow, and the Dutchman has enough materials on board to make a few small repairs so that we can get atmosphere back on the ship. Is there any in reserve or are we going to have to break down an asteroid to get what we need?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°They evacuated the atmosphere from the ship before they left, to put it into storage mode and reduce corrosion. Once we fix the holes and get everything else working, we can release it again.¡± Nico informed him.


    [General Yaakov, we have the ship¡¯s main engines online. There are a few small holes in the ship, if you could authorize a team toe to repair them, I will send you the data.


    The Colony Ship has enough storage space to hold all four vessels in its hangar bays since the Colonists took all their shuttles and most of their materials with them.] Max informed the others over the Command Channel.


    [That is excellent news. Take what you need and get the ship patched, then send the Admiral the destination coordinates so he can bring the Dutchman in.


    Third, through Fifth Battalions, use your X109 units to maneuver the Pirate vessels into the cargo bays and out of sight. We will inspect them and get at least the two of them back online as we go.] General Yaakov ordered.


    Nico unlocked the airlock doors for the First and Second Battalions, along with sending the location of the holes to the teams. The external hull was made of the same materials that the main bulkheads were, so there was a good chance that they could manage a temporary patch using the existing ship as the source of materials, saving the time of creating apatible alloy with the materials printers and sending it over to them.


    They could repair the bulkheads at will, but the external hull repairs couldn¡¯t wait. At least not those two, since there were tens of thousands of other small damages that didn¡¯tpromise the structure littered all over the outside of the ship.


    ¡°Hey, Max, do you see what I see in these design specs?¡± Nico asked, drawing his attention to the screen that she had managed to get tranted into Kepler Standard.


    ¡°Total Mass, power output, hydroponic bays, crewpliment. It all looks pretty normal to me.¡±


    ¡°No, in the actual specs. This ship is only capable of a Warp Factor of two. It isn¡¯t running from pretty much anything. Plus, it isn¡¯t exactly stealthy. We might have to talk to the General about where exactly we can go that isn¡¯t going to get us attacked by idiots that think they can steal our new houseboat.¡± Nico told him.


    Each numerical increase in speed represented a square of the speed of the previous factor, so going down to a factor of two from the factor of six that the Dutchman could maintain was going to be painful.


    ¡°Even after the modifications that we both made?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°That I won¡¯t know until we actually try. It¡¯s probably better than the original, but looking at this, the ship was definitely a generational transport. Getting here could very well have taken them hundreds of years.¡± Nico answered, unsure of the answer herself.


    ¡°Do we know where they came from?¡± Max asked her.


    ¡°Not yet. They deleted all the navigational and personal data from the systems, it was only because I could hack the pods that we even know what they looked like.¡± Nico sighed.


    They could have been from one of the Dwarf Gxies that were rtively near their own, but Max didn¡¯t have enough information on them to know for sure if they had any advanced civilizations. Many of them were at the end of their probable life-supporting period, with their Stars moving into the Red Giant phase, so if they had civilization, it would have most likelye and gone billions of years before Humanity was born.


    That thought was actually a little terrifying to Max. If there was still an intelligent species out there that had been evolving for a billion or more continuous years, what sort of being would they have evolved into? It was better not to think of that, all of the answers seemed terrifying.


    The Pirate ships were slowly moving now, being maneuvered by battalions of Fast Attack Mecha, while Admiral Drake led the Dutchman to therge Cargo Bay near the front of the Port side.


    The information they had said that it used to hold terraforming devices, so it was exceptionallyrge and had gantries and overhead cranes to facilitate both movements of materials and repairs.


    There was a smaller version that the Pirate Cutters were brought to in order to be repaired, and the technicians were already beginning the system scans to determine if they could be properly brought back online with the materials on hand.


    [General Yaakov, If we scavenge the third, mostly destroyed vessel, we can bring the other two back up to peak condition, and even increase their firepower with the Mecha technology that we have on hand.] The technicians determined a few hourster, after exploring the ships.


    [Good. Get on it, and give them some defensive firepower worth mentioning. Then use some of the leftover ship to patch the more damaged areas on the hull of the Colony Ship. Make it obvious too. I don¡¯t want people to see a new fleet of colonists, I want them to see a repurposed Colony City, understand?]


    [Yes Sir, we will get right at it.]


    That had the Technicians busy for the foreseeable future, and now that they were all on board, General Yaakov wanted to get as far from here as he could.


    The mission was a failure, and they had to hide somewhere, so he nned to continue on course, but not turn to head into Tapani Territory. Instead, he would head along the border with Kepler toward the Gctic Core, where very few inhabited star systems existed.


    From there, they could skirt inhabited space and keep an eye on the Klem Pods. If they weren¡¯t intercepted and madendfall on an inhabited, they could offer to step in, and nobody would be any the wiser. They had a Colony ship now, so their technology could be attributed to anywhere in the Gxy over thest two millennia.


    Nobody expected cutting-edge technology aboard such a ship, but arge fleet of ancient and obsolete war machines retired by their home systems? That was how most Mercenary Forces were formed.

 Chapter 263 263 Make Yourself At Home

    [Unfortunately, the Navigation and Control Systems haven¡¯t been tranted yet, but I can control them from here, and I have a full bridge suite of data avable. Just give me a heading and I will serve as helmsman for the day.] Nico informed General Yaakov.


    They had been working on the ship for thirty straight hours, and they were ready to start making way, but the controls on the Colony Ship weren¡¯t usable by just anyone, as thenguage wasn¡¯t intelligible, so a System Function that could bypass the need to trante was needed.


    [Set a course along the Kepler border. Keep an eye out for threats, and those Klem Pods. I think that someone is about to make a big move once the Klemnding has distracted the Emperor. The Sector that the pods are going tond in is the same one that is chasing us, so their defense forces are almost all gone to Tapani right now, and we have no way to know if they are returning since we lost ess to Kepler Military Communications.


    I have some connections among the unaligned systems, and if you have any more, let me know and we can pick up supplies. Trading some of the destroyed Corvette¡¯s hull sections should be enough credit to at least get us topped off on fresh foods and clothing creation supplies.]


    [Setting the course now. Our total travel speed is still unknown and might take some adjustment to get right. It is an alien ship after all.] Nico informed him, then started tapping at the control panel.


    As she did, the ship began toe to life, all of the unused systems were brought online and a gentle hissing filled the ship.


    ¡°What is that noise?¡± Max asked, trying to find the source.


    ¡°The ship wants the atmosphere bnced in the control area before the engines engage. There is probably an override somewhere, but I haven¡¯t found it yet, so we will be able to take off the suits in a few minutes.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°I am sure everyone will appreciate being able to move about without suits on. It¡¯s a long walk back to the Dutchman to take a break and remove the helmet.¡± Max agreed with a sigh of relief.


    The three-kilometer hike from the engineering bay to the ship every time he wanted a bite to eat was a pain in the neck, and Max would be more than a little happy not to have to do that again.


    ¡°There it is, engineering has an atmosphere, pressure nominal, the default setting is ten percent above standard, but the elemental bnce is nearly identical to Kepler Terminus, with its slightly elevated Oxygen levels. You can remove your helmet now, the hallways outside are pressurizing right now, and the doors to unpressurized areas are hard locked.¡± Nico informed him.


    ¡°Oh thank you. It is so good to get the helmet off.¡± Max said, pressing the button to retract his helmet shell back into the armored suit. At least now his vision wasn¡¯t limited and the ustrophobic dome was gone.


    [Were you nning to pressurize the hold with the Dutchman in it any time soon? We are locked in.] Major Miller asked over the radio, sounding more than a little grumpy.


    He had been running the logistics for the First Battalion since they arrived, and Max suspected that he hadn¡¯t slept at all in thest thirty hours.


    [Go to bed. The ship will be pressurized in a few hours, but first, we are going to try to engage the warp drive.] Max informed him.


    [Good idea, I will be in my bunk. If this relic blows up when you try to take it to Warp I would rather not find out.] Major Miller¡¯s nihilism made more than a few Pilotsugh, but he had a point. If you were sleeping when the ship blew up, you would never know it.


    It took fifteen minutes to get the ship to agree that it was in a fit state to attempt to power up the engines. They had been inspected for damages inside and out, with over a dozen techs using System Functions to make sure there were no hidden defects over thest day.


    The whole engineering bay glowed in bright blue as light flowed through the crystals at the core of the Warp Drive, then the disys showed the familiar graphic of a bubble forming around the hull and the engines shuddered gently before bing smooth again.


    ¡°Well feth, what went wrong? I thought we were on the right path.¡± Maxined, looking at the glowing engine core, which looked perfectly functional.


    ¡°Nothing is wrong. The warp bubble has fully formed, engines are at seventy percent output, and we are sustaining a warp factor of two point five.¡± Nico shrugged.


    ¡°That was a trantion? What utter bullshit have the Kepler Drive engineers been doing when this was an option?¡± Max asked rhetorically, but Nico answered anyhow.


    ¡°They used power rys and a phase modifier to engage the bubble, while this system filters everything through those perfectly tuned crystals. I don¡¯t think it was usually this smooth, but the engines are running perfectly today, and better than expected. Even at seventy percent power, which is optimal cruising speed ording to theputer, we are twenty-five percent above the previously recorded maximum speed.¡±


    [Well she might not be a warship, but we are at warp, and all systems show stable. Pick us a destination General, I think the crew would appreciate some fresh food and a nice restocking stop.] Max called over the general Channel.


    [That had to be the smoothest trantion I have ever felt. It was barely a shiver of vibration through the ship as the engines engaged. You two are officially on maintenance duty the next time one of our ships needs engine repairs.] General Yaakovughed, then sent a destination that was near the border, and only a few days away at their current speed.


    [Head there. It is a neutral system, protected by Kepler, and my family has a trading post there. I will send a Cargo requisition, hiring us to move the supplies that we need. Nobody will ever know the difference.] The General informed them, and Nico updated the navigation coordinates.


    ¡°Now, how about we find a nice spot to sleep? There are engineering team quarters here, and they should be warmed up and ready by now. I set the temperature high in them so that they would be morefortable after being in that suit for so long.¡± Nico told Max with a wink.

 Chapter 264 264 Bargain Bin Shopping

    Once the atmosphere inside the Colony ship was deemed safe throughout the whole vessel the Regiment started doing a room-to-room search to see what might have been left behind. There was a surprising amount of supplies left behind by the Colonists when they transferred ships, presumably because the other vessel was already fully loaded and there simply wasn¡¯t anywhere to put them.


    There weren¡¯t any sorts of weapons, and most of the agricultural plus all the terraforming technology were taken with them, but they still left many things behind for the Kepler forces to find. The most notable of which was the Stasis pods themselves.


    The technology was impressive and took a different approach to Kepler¡¯s designs that were designed to extend one¡¯s life. These ones were believed to have the capability to reverse physical aging, while Kepler¡¯s technology could only slow it to roughly a quarter of its original rate.


    The search was taking some time though, due to the size of the vessel. There were well over a thousand soldiers searching the ship, but it seemed that despite the presence of stasis pods, the ship had been intended to serve as a permanent residence for somewhere around a hundred thousand people.


    Many facilities that they searched were toorge for humans to conveniently use them, but it would make moving through the vessel with Mecha much more convenient if they were ever boarded.


    They did discover the origin of the ship¡¯s uniquely organic curved structure while they were searching the engineeringb though. It was based on the hive of an underground burrowing species on the aliens¡¯ homeworld. The creatures excreted a unique concrete-like substance that made the underground structures nearly indestructible.


    So, when they set out to the stars, they used an example from nature, and build the walls in a way that they knew would absorb incredibly high shock loads, as well as being difficult to damage with impacts, due to the curved surface deflecting objects to mitigate impacts.


    Kepler did something simr with the design of the Redemption Pattern Crusaders like Stalwart. The upper shell and shoulder pads were based on the form of a species of local Turtle and deflected impacts to protect the main structure of the Mecha.


    That design philosophy gave way to angr surfaces to defeat sensors when they were designing the newer Mecha, but the theory was solid.


    The Colony ship had just passed an uninhabited system when they got a message from a Merchant Group, asking if they needed anything.


    [We are a bit low on fresh foodstuffs and clothing polymers for the Materials Printers if you have either. We can trade structural alloys.] Nico offered, taking up the role of the ship¡¯s spokesperson.


    Using any nation¡¯s credits here would be done at a heavy loss on the exchange, due to the inconvenience of an independent or Rogue merchant needing to have them exchanged back, but structural alloy was always in demand since it could be put through the Materials Printer to make repairs all over the ship.


    [Drop us out of Warp but be prepared for an ambush. Patrol duty to the ready at the airlocks in preparation for defensive action.] The General ordered, and Max tapped themands that would bring them to a gentle halt near the merchants while Nico got ready to go meet the visitors.


    The Merchant¡¯s vessel was a fairly modern design, produced in Tapani Territory, and they offered a wide selection of seeds and nt cuttings when General Yaakov told them that the ship¡¯s hydroponics bay had sustained a serious mishap and cost them their entire crop. They had some material for clothing as well and offered to send both in a shuttle.


    The dismantled Pirate Cutter was no longer recognizable and was in a hangar bay of its own, so she ordered the shuttle there to meet with Max and his Battalion¡¯s representatives.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bring any mecha into sight of the bay, but keep them close in case there is trouble. We will use the loaders that were left behind in the bay, as well as the cranes to do the offload. I trust we are all vaguely familiar with them by now?¡± Max asked the Company leaders in a group video chat.


    ¡°We are. The disassembly time wasn¡¯t wasted, we¡¯re right up on the use of the loaders. No need to worry about us, just keep up your cover story and we¡¯re good to go.¡± Major Ivanov agreed.


    Max climbed into a Mobile Suit and grabbed a rifle to apany Nico as she spoke to the visitors. In their cover story, Max was the actual Commander, but Nico was their designated spokesperson, while Max hid his face behind a mask so he wasn¡¯t recognized. It was a bit of a pain, but they had started it that way, and there was a chance that these merchants were actually Tapani soldiers in disguise the same way they were.


    ¡°Greetings from the Terminus Trading Company. You may call me Rage, and that is Commander Keres. He doesn¡¯t like idle conversation, so I will be taking care of today¡¯s dealings if that¡¯s fine by everyone involved?¡± Nico asked.


    Reavers and Mercenaries were known for odd behavior, so the Commander not speaking to them personally wasn¡¯t a big shock, though it was considered a courtesy to them that he came in person to greet the shuttle Pilot with the trade goods.


    The technicians verified the contents quickly, finding that the seeds were all in good condition, and the materials were the right ones.


    ¡°It¡¯s authentic.¡± They called over to Nico, giving her the thumbs up, and she gestured back to load the alloy onto the shuttle.


    This wasn¡¯t a high-value trade, more of the equivalent of a grocery shopping trip, where the price was pocket change to both parties involved, but as a first meeting, it was still an important one.


    They had never done business with each other before, and the Merchants wanted to make a good first impression. The Colony Ship was huge and was assumed to have a lot of people on board, so it could be a valuable customer in the future if things went well today.


    The whole exchange only took a few minutes, and the shuttle returned to the cargo vessel, which reactivated its engines right after and left the area.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think that was a bit too small of a deal? A few hundred kilos of alloy in exchange for some seeds for the hydroponics bays?¡± One of the technicians asked.


    ¡°It was more important to get their secure channel codes so we could contact themter. Besides, we wanted fresh food, and this was dirt cheap. If we bought fresh food at a station, we would have paid fifty times as much.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°Now, who wants to get the hydroponic bays activated? They¡¯re all ready for seeds, and it looks like the aliens had a rather advanced fast-growing system.¡± Max asked, making the technicians groan as they realized that they had just been volunteered for more work.

 Chapter 265 265 Sustainable Living

    Chapter 265 Sustainable Living


    Despite every soldier¡¯s aversion to additional work, the technicians who had been voluntold to go get the Hydroponics bays up and running were getting right to work. Not that they particrly wanted to do it, but the thought of fresh fruits and vegetablesing soon was enough for them to give their very best to the project.


    The traders had only sent them seeds, and some small cuttings, so it would be some time before they would be able to harvest anything fresh, but that didn¡¯t matter. Once it was nted, someone would have to tend it and watch it grow every day, and that was one of the best duty rotations that the Technicians could apply for.


    Not only was there very little heavy lifting, most days you were paid to literally watch the grass grow.


    There were arge number of Kepler wheatgrass seeds in the shipment, a perpetually growing nt that could be cut down periodically, with the main stalk dried and ground into the finest of flour for baking. It was a simple luxury, but still a luxury for any spacefaring force.


    Abraham Kepler had a supply on board as well, but it was mostly reserved for officers since the space on board was limited when they had two full-field armies of infantry plus a pair of Mecha Regiments on board.


    The Dutchman had a very limited hydroponic bay, with nothing growing in it at the moment, but the Colony ship not only had a massive facility, but it had a transparent dome over it, so it could save power when they were near a star by strategically positioning the bay toward the light.


    Max found that to be a bit odd, but the design of this ship was intended for much longer use than most. Either it was because they were expecting a century to cross between gxies, or because they were going to keep using the ship after finding a new home.


    That was different than Kepler, or most Human strategies. They often made the ships modr, so they could drop off all their supplies on the and use the containment as building materials for the first settlement, while the core of the ship was left in orbit for safety and as a possible emergency escape vessel.


    [Ice-bearing asteroid found. Location iing.] The staff on navigation duty called over the inte. They could now do basic manual course adjustments, but it was still easier to have Nico or the Admiral, who also had a System Function for navigation and Computer Interaction, do the actual precision navigating.


    [Course input. The Colony ship has a gravity capture system for asteroids, once we are in close proximity, I will bring us out of faster-than-light travel and pull the object aboard for processing.] Nico replied, letting everyone who was monitoring the Regiment¡¯s General Channel hear the conversation.


    These asteroids weren¡¯t particrly umon, but they were highly valued for their ice content and heavy metal cores. Both were valuable materials, and with the Kepler Empire¡¯s technology, they could both be processed into usable forms within days.


    As Nico brought up the details of the asteroid on the screen, Max realized they wouldn¡¯t be able to take it on board intact. It was over five hundred meters across, toorge for any of the bays that they had avable.


    Even if they processed it, they didn¡¯t have room to store that much material in a single bay, but they could split it up and only fill about a third of the ship¡¯s total storage capacity.


    It was a monumental find for them, even if the metallic core turned out to be mostly low-value metals and not something that could be used for militarized structures.


    [Analysisplete


    Total Weight: 517,047 tonnes


    H20 Weight: Approximately 108,000 tonnes


    Metallic and non-metallic contents are as follows:]


    Max ignored the listing of the detailed materials but found that there were a number of Mecha structure metals included in the thousands of tonnes, enough to make dozens of Super Heavy Mecha or most of a Battalion worth of Heavy Mecha.


    The trade value of that was immense, but realistically, it was impossible for most merchants to move that much material in any sort of timely manner, so they would take only what they needed and thought they could sessfully fence within the next few months or a year.


    They weren¡¯t just a Mercenary force though, they had the capability to build entire state-of-the-art Mecha. With this asteroid aboard, they should be able to sustain significant damages and still be back at full capacity for the next battle as long as they didn¡¯t lose many Pilots.


    That was their great limiter. The Mecha could be reced, and Munitions restocked, but they had exactly zero spare Pilots and no ability to rece the ones that they had. At least not without discontinuing the birth control regimen and waiting a few decades.


    Nobody was happier about the news of the asteroid than the hydroponics bay. The only water they had came from the ships they arrived on, the Colony ship¡¯s stocks had been removed by the previous upants. With this influx, they could bring the entire facility online and start expanding their facilities at the maximum growth rates.


    It wasn¡¯t like they actually had enough people to need all that food, but it could be processed and kept for trade goods. The Kepler Military looked favorably on such an initiative, and they would be rewarded for it if they ever turned it over to the authorities.


    [We are in position, reducing speed now. Prepare for Transition.]


    Again the transition was a barely noticeable shudder of the ship and the asteroid came into view on the screens in the Engineering bay where Max and Nico had taken up residence.


    The rest of the First Battalion was working in this area as well, so it was no inconvenience for them and only a few minutes jog to the Battalion Mess Hall.


    A light blue ball of ice grewrger on the screen until the sensors showed it within a few hundred meters of the ship and the rtive speeds stabilized to have the two objects traveling through space in sync.


    [Gravity Control activated, activating Mining Lasers] Nico reported.


    ¡°We have mining Lasers?¡± Max asked in shock.


    ¡°Of course, what sort of Colony Ship doesn¡¯t?¡± Nico replied with a smirk.


    He really had to catch up on those ship schematic reports that the Battalions were reporting every few hours.

 Chapter 266 Processing a Trade Deal

    Chapter 266 Processing a Trade Deal


    The ship''ssers got to work right away, splitting apart the asteroid into manageable pieces, while Nico deftly used the Gravity Control to move them to the empty storage bays.


    The Technicians were already hustling to get Materials Printers set up in the bays so that they could use them to process the raw ore into refined and usable raw materials for their Mecha and to create anything else that they needed.


    The Materials Printer technology was a controlled Military Technology, far superior to the versions that were avable on the Civilian markets, and capable of processing almost anything on a molecr level, as long as they had the base elements to work with. That gave them a huge advantage over other traders, in that they could directly refine the asteroid and not need to pay a mining facility with specialized tools to do it for them.


    Cutting out even one level of middlemen in the processing stage doubled their profits immediately, and they were only two days out from the station that the General had rmended.


    That wouldn''t be enough time to actually process the entire asteroid, but even if they sold off a few hundred or a thousand tons of high-grade materials to the station they could get anything that they needed.


    Max wasn''t part of that process though, other than making sure his scheduled Battalion members showed up for their shifts, so he had a lot of time to kill. Most of the other Battalion Commanders were bogged down in logistics, keeping their units running, but Max had Major Miller for that, and he was so effective that even he seemed to have arge amount of free time to kill.


    Even scheduling and discipline weren''t brought to him unless things went very wrong, since Nico had automated the schedule the very first week the Battalion was formed. Her algorithm even processed leave applications and kept track of earned days off and totalbat effectiveness without any additional human input. If there was an issue, he would get a notification.


    Capable subordinates really were a blessing.


    So, Max was headed to a meeting with General Yaakov to work out what they were going to tell the station, and what they could ask for without seeming too suspicious.


    They needed a number of materials for making more Thunder Gun ammunition. They had the casings covered after this asteroid, but the core elements of the explosives weren''t included in itsposition.


    They weren''t controlled substances, not at their most basic levels, so they could request them easily enough, but the Super Heavy Mecha went through an incredible amount of munitions in a sustained firefight against the Klem, and they were expecting to suffer such a fate again, even if it was because they volunteered this time.


    "Good, you are right on time. The other Battalion leaders left this up to you and me, so we can work it out over coffee. There was arge supply of the good stuff left behind on the Pirate ships." General Yaakov greeted Max when he reached the assigned meeting room, near the cargo bay where the Dutchman was stored.


    "Well, that''s one way to save time. How much are you thinking we need to trade for?" Max asked.


    "If the material prices haven''t changed much, and given ourck of reputation, I suspect that we will need at least five thousand tons of explosives per engagement. The raw materials are much less expensive than refined structural metals because only the military or specialized facilities can refine them from there." General Yaakov exined, pulling up the munitions usage data from theirst battle.


    "So, if we get ten thousand tons to start we should be off to a good start. Can we even transfer that much without pulling out the Dutchman?" Max asked.


    "For a small fee, they will send it directly to us by barge, but the Station might let us actually dock with them. They are Reaver friendly, to an extent, so we can try that approach." Yaakov suggested.


    "Just toss Nico out front as a shield and let her family name do the work. That''s a bit risky." Max pointed out.


    "Not out here it isn''t. In Kepler, they are an ancient and Noble family. Out here they are the Tarith Reavers, and even if you attacked a ship that wasn''t really theirs they would retaliate for the insult, and they have the power to back it up. Of course, we have enough firepower of our own that we shouldn''t lose an engagement, but that''s not the point. What I''m saying is that the chances of her being associated with herself are very slim." The General exined.


    "Okay, I will buy that. She has done an exemry job of being our public rtions face so far. But now that our course has changed, what will your own story be? Will you still be posing as a Noble writing a documentary or are youing up with something new?" Max asked.


    "The story can stand. A little work using a noble''s influence ismon enough that it even has a defined value when bartering for passage. But we should see what we can trade off and what we need to reserve for our own usage."


    What followed was two solid hours of bncing their supplies against their materials usage rates and determining what they could trade. Most surprisingly, what they had a huge excess of were actually the heavy ores used for Reactor Cores. Each Mecha only needed a few hundred grams, but they had over a thousand tons of them.


    A on the outskirts of civilization would love to get its hands on that. Not only could it help build their military without alerting international authorities, but it would also help power their industrial facilities.


    The ores were very rare to find, even when asteroid mining and General Yaakov was more than satisfied that they could build a reputation off of just this find.


    "So, one Tonne should buy us thousand tons of explosives?" Max verified.


    "Yes. They are mostly Carbon-based, and that is easy toe by anywhere, so it is dirt cheap, literally. The rest is a bit more expensive, but not by much and we have the more expensive metallicponents already." General Yaakov agreed.


    "Alright, I will have them prepare twelve tons of reactor ores to buy the explosives, and whatever personal effects that we might need." Max agreed.


    "Be sure to add a lot of random items to the list. Clothing, soaps, toiletries, fresh fruits, the sort of thing that reminds soldiers of home. It''s what every trading ship needs on top of their actual business dealings."


    With that General Yakkov ended their meeting and Max returned to the Engineering bay to look over the storage bay cameras and make sure they had enough material processed.

 Chapter 267 267 Negotiations

    From the inventory that the crews had produced, they had more than enough of the materials that they intended to trade already processed, so Max simply ordered the crews to prepare the required amounts for shipment, in preparation for their arrival at the space station.


    That left him with only one more essential detail to n. If the station didn¡¯t allow them to dock, they would need to use one of the Pirate vessels as a shuttle to bring the materials to the station, so they could have the barge bring their payment back to them.


    But the ships were currently designated as Pirate Vessels, withmunications systems that any respectable station would realize weren¡¯t legitimate even if they didn¡¯t recognize them as wanted Pirates right away.


    That meant he would need to get all of the essential details changed within the next day so that they could safely venture out to meet with others and not risk being immediately arrested.


    They had a couple of crew members on board who could aplish the task, so Max decided to split the details between them. Most of the technicians would take one ship, pick a new name for it and change all themunications data, while Nico took the other.


    She would likely be faster, so Max intended to tell her first so that the other team could follow her lead in doing the second ship and not have her spend all her time on one project while she was organizing the work schedules.


    ¡°What are we going to name the Colony Ship? The Pirate vessels that we confiscated should be marked as shuttles or defensive vessels for the mothership, but we haven¡¯t named the Colony ship yet.


    ¡°Do we have names in for the New Mecha yet? Maybe we could pick something from there and run it by the General?¡± Max asked, then shook his head.


    ¡°On second thought, simple is best. Is there another Colony ship named Terminus? We are the Terminus Trading Company, so it only makes sense that our mothership would be named Terminus.¡± Max continued.


    ¡°Most of the Colony Ship names are not in Kepler Standard, so even if one means the same thing, it shouldn¡¯t actually be called Terminus. Do you want me to use it as the basis for ourmunications? I have gotten far enough into the Colony Ship¡¯s systems now that I can set the identifiers for our new home. Then I will make the Cutters secondary to it, and we should be good before we are inmunications range of the Station.¡± Nico agreed.


    ¡°Please do. And then tell the other techs how to update the second Cutter so you don¡¯t have to do it yourself.¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°I will get it. The Colony ship will take a few hours to update, but I can reprogram the Cutters in under a minute a piece since they don¡¯t need to be military-verified security codes and I can just make one up. Civilian and Reaver radio codes are much easier than Military.¡± Nico informed him, then turned back to her work.


    ¡°Fine. Wake me up when you are done and I will get the cargo moved to one of the Cutters so that we are ready the moment that we make contact. Being in an alien Colony Ship they might not want us too close to their station for safety protocol. I remember that Comor did the same thing, and had certain vessels dock at secondary stations and take local shuttles to the main station.¡± Max told her, receiving a thumbs up in reply.


    It was just before lunch the next day, ship time when they finally made contact with the station.


    [Gado Station, Gado Station. This is the Terminus, looking to trade.] Max announced over the radio as Nico and General Yaakov listened in.


    Nico followed that up with a confirmation code for the Reavers, letting the Station know who and what they were so that they would respond to begin negotiations.


    [Terminus, this Gado Station. I¡¯m sorry to inform you, that due to oversupply, we are somewhat limited in the supplies that we can ept today, but if you have something worth trading we are open to negotiating.] The Station replied.


    Max sent them an elemental analysis and a photo of one of the baskets of Reactor Material that they had set aside for trade.


    [Now, why didn¡¯t you open with that? How might we help you, my new friend?] The Station representative asked.


    [I will send over a list of the supplies that we need, and the trade goods that our customers have requested.] Max confirmed, letting Nico send the listing.


    There was a few minutes¡¯ long pause before the Station replied again. [We have all of these materials in the quantity requested. It won¡¯t be cheap though, I will need at least 9 tonnes of processed metals for that much.]


    Max looked over at General Yaakov in shock. That was much less than they had expected to pay, so even if the goods weren¡¯t perfect quality, they were stilling out ahead.


    [9 tonnes including the containment cage and you have yourself a deal.] Max replied. The cage weighed a few hundred kilos, but it would allow the shipment to be immediately weighed if the cage was included in the trade weight.


    [I am a reasonable man. Pending quality verification, I agree to your terms. Please proceed to docking spur number three.]


    Being on the end of the station¡¯s dock would let them transfer their goods directly, and save the hassle of a shuttle, a perfect scenario for them.


    ¡°Bring the goods to the empty bay on the Port side and dock it to the station. We are on security rotation right now, so I will assign a Mecha detail outside the bay in case things go south.¡± Max directed Nico, who started tapping orders into theputer before a pair of work drones picked up the shipment and weighed precisely nine tonnes, plus twenty kilos, in case the Station¡¯s scale was out of calibration.


    [Charlie Company, send a team to Port Storage Bay 6. Remain outside as guards. Myself plus Nico will be going in to make the trade.] Max ordered his troops.


    They wouldn¡¯t ck on the detail with their Commanders on the other side of the doors, which was a relief to Max, who was a bit nervous about making such arge and sensitive trade with people he had never met before in a nation he had never dealt with.


    ¡°Grab your Mobile Suit. I had it repainted in red and bone Reaver camouge patterns, so they won¡¯t realize that it is anything but stolen or obsolete military tech.¡± Nico told Max as he was about to leave the room.


    That was better than the armored work suits that were hung by the storage bay doors by the teams that were working in them, and it gave him a bit more presence, due to the size of the suit.


    ¡°Good luck you two. Feel free to use my name if they give you too many problems, and I will deal with the fallout.¡± General Yaakov instructed them before they left for the meeting.

 Chapter 268 268 First Guests

    While the Admiral carefully brought the Colony Ship into docking position so that the Station could ess their cargo bay door, Max got everyone else into positions. Nico would be their front person, while Max stood beside her as their leader and gave any necessary permissions if the deal needed to be altered on the fly.


    That did happen on asion, either due to off-quality items, shortages, or a simple conversational mention that they had something else interesting avable.


    Max was hoping that none of that applied today, since it was their very first trade deal, but you could never know when a deal too good to pass up would be avable, and they were trading with rare and valuable metals, so the Station might logically want to try to barter for more with the other items that they produced on the.


    [Docking Sessful. Seal integrity one hundred percent. Bncing Atmosphere.] The Admiral¡¯s notification marked the sessful mating of the alien ship to the Station as smoothly as if they had done this a thousand times before.


    If anyone had heard from the Pirates that they let go, they would assume that the ship was a trap all along and that the hapless group had simply been ambushed and robbed blind by the upants of the Terminus.


    That wasn¡¯t far from the truth, but they would be hard-pressed to make anyone believe it if the question was raised.


    ¡°Wee to the Terminusdies and gentlemen. You may call me Rage, and I will be your customer service liaison today. Beside me is Commander Keres, who has the authority of the group to finalize adjustments to the deal, should they prove necessary.¡± Nico greeted them.


    ¡°Greetings I am Zorbo, the Foreign Business advisor of the Gado Station. I see you have the materials prepared, might we take a moment to verify quality before we proceed?¡± An amply-built older man with shockingly gold eyes responded politely.


    Nico gestured grandly at the bin of materials and nodded, making the pudgy man smile and adjust his silk vest before motioning for the workers to go test the goods.


    They had a scanner with them, and the whole process only took a few seconds while Max waited in silence for their verdict.


    ¡°The scanner says 178 kilos light on the pure ore, 20 kilos over on the total weight. Military-grade refinement, no fillers, defective product, or other issues noted.¡± The technician reported, making Nico smile.


    ¡°A trade station with a perfectly calibrated scale. I am starting to like you more and more.¡± Nico told the Gado Station representative.


    ¡°With Military Grade reactor materials, you must have an easy time making friends. Could there be anything else that you require today? I am certain that the extra twenty kilograms could get your crew something nice.¡± Zorbo suggested, and Nico turned to Max for an answer.


    ¡°If you have it, we could use a bit of Lithium and a generous supply of good quality Rum,¡± Max responded, then had to turn down hisms so that the cheering o the crew wasn¡¯t screaming in his ear.


    The lithium could be made into the crystals they needed by the Materials Printer, and then Nico¡¯s repair type System Function could adjust those crystals into the functional matrix for their engines instead of having to search the Gxy for apatible set or having the engineering staff learn a whole new Faster than light engine design theory to make the artificial ones work.


    ¡°We have both. How much of the Lithium did you need?¡± Zorbo asked politely.


    The crystals weighed under a kilogram in total, but Max decided to err on the side of caution.


    ¡°Ten Kilos of Lithium and the rest in Rum should keep the crew happy for an evening.¡± He answered with a smile, making the Gado Station crewugh.


    An entire barrel of good Rum went for less than what a hundred grams of Reactor Metals did. What Max had asked for was over a hundred and fifty barrels of rum, in addition to the Lithium that hadn¡¯t been on their list.


    ¡°We can have that here in a few minutes, both are in the storage on the station, since they are somonly requested.¡± Zorbo agreed.


    ¡°Then please, sit and rest your legs. We are out of the good stuff, but not all out of Rum.¡± Nico told him, removing a sk and two shot sses from her jacket pocket.


    Zorbo smiled and pulled out his own sk and shot ss before sitting, and Max moved to watch the materials being loaded into their cargo bay as the reactor metals were taken out.


    They had ordered a huge amount of food and other perishable goods, but it seemed that the Station crew had no problem moving the crates into the cold storage section of the bay for them without further instructions, just guided by the signs on the walls.


    Max did appreciate a true professional, and they were making his life very easy today.


    Nico and Zorbo poured each other a drink, a sign of trust between Reavers and Independent Merchants as Max understood from their thoughts, and downed them as thest of the supplies arrived.


    If the Station Commander had been here, it would have been Max that was obligated to drink, but since it was the trade representative, the duties fell to Nico. It felt oddly familiar to Max, almost like the Military structure where simr levels of Command interacted with each other, but without all the regtions, and instead relying on ritual and tradition.


    Unlike Comor Station, Gado Station was entirely a cargo facility. There were civilian stations in orbit around the, and Max had seen a few leisure shuttles headed to them as they approached, but a ship the size of the Terminus had no business docking at a station smaller than it was. Even the attempt would be enough to unbnce a small resort station, so today their crew would have to remain aboard.


    They had more than enough to keep themselves busy now anyhow.


    [There is an orbital freighter waiting off our stern. I believe that they dyed his arrival window for us to make this trade in person.] Admiral Drake informed Max over the radio.


    ¡°I do hope we don¡¯t seem rude, but our customer is in a hurry for some of these materials, so I do hope you will forgive us for leaving as soon as the cargo is verified,¡± Nico informed Zorbo, who stretched out his arm for a handshake.


    ¡°Prompt, efficient, and considerate of others¡¯ time. Please, take this data chip, it has our direct contact information should you have more to trade in the future.¡± Zorbo informed her with his best professional smile.


    ¡°I appreciate the offer. Our contact information is here, should you need to get ahold of us in a secure manner. I look forward to doing business with you again.¡± Nico replied, handing him back another business card sized data chip.


    With that, the Station staff retreated from the Terminus, and the airlock was purged of atmosphere before the maic docking mps were released, letting the Admiral maneuver the enormous bulk of the Colony ship away from the station and into open space to make their trantion back to faster than light travel.

 Chapter 269 269 Well Stocked

    [Mess Hall officers, you have first priority of ess,e get your supplies for the week. We have two weeks of fresh produce, and then we¡¯re back to shelf stable, but the good civilian stuff, not the packed by the lowest bidder version.] Max informed the Regiment as soon as they were back at warp.


    He would never hear the end of it if he made the crew eat another freeze-dried and canned meal when they had literal tonnes of fresh food sitting in the cargo bay.


    Since they needed the crew rtively sober, the General had decided to ration the Rum supply. One Barrel per Battalion per month. That worked out to roughly a bottle per person every month, or a shot a day, which gave them enough for celebrations, but not daily intoxication.


    All of the officers expected their rationing to meet with at least some bacsh, but the General had given them enough to quiet almost all the malcontents. What they had failed to ount for was the sudden demand for aluminum through the smaller materials printers in the general quarters, as the soldiers who preferred a little nip every day ordered sks to store their weekly ration.


    Max headed to the First Battalion Mess Hall for dinner, to see what they made of the new supplies, and found a surprisingly simple meal on offer, but a very happy crew.


    There was a chicken and dumpling stew, along with Toasted Tomato sandwiches and an assortment of fresh fruitid out for the crew.


    Max could smell that the bread was freshly baked, a distinct change from the hard biscuits which were the staple starch of the rations and long voyage kitchen packs.


    They had ordered a lot of raw flour and shelf-stable milk this time, which weren¡¯t on the military¡¯s usual procurement list since they avoided issues withctose intolerance. The creamy stew and buttermilk biscuits that the small sandwiches were on seemed to be a hit though, so Max made a digital note to keep the ingredients in supply every time they picked up rations.


    ¡°This is amazing, but the real question is if there will be bacon.¡± Major Petrova, the muscr woman who led Max¡¯s Charlie Company asked.


    ¡°Likely at breakfast. It stores for 90 days ording to the ration guide, so we ordered enough to serve it at breakfast regrly for the next three months.¡± Max informed her.


    The look that she gave the kitchen staff promised violence if there was no bacon tomorrow, the good stuff, not the freeze-dried version that every military unit kept in stock for its high protein and fat contents.


    With the lunch meal served, the work crews were off to the storage bay to move all the new materials back to their assigned Regiments. The idea was that if they took heavy fire and one area was heavily damaged or rendered inessible, they would still have raw materials in four others, so they could keep fighting and not be crippled by ack of munitions and repair parts.


    The Terminus seemed to have extremely impressive shielding though, and Max wondered what it took to put it into the state that they found it in. It was obvious that the ship¡¯s power supply was overloaded, but going by the data that Max had seen, they would have had to basically autopilot directly into an asteroid field for that to happen.


    Which made him wonder if there was a problem with the navigation or sensors. A failure of either could be a disaster for the Regiment if they ran into the same issue that the Colonists did.


    Max sent a report on the topic to all the Battalion Commanders, as well as engineering, Nico, and the General. He requested a meeting that evening, which would make the General happy. He always preferred to have dinner meetings now since he didn¡¯t have a staff of nobles to chatter idly and fill his quarters with noise anymore.


    His first idea was to retrofit additional sensors to the ship while they tried to recover the logs that the Colonists had destroyed in their attempts to remove all traces of their identity.


    The engineering teams had deciphered enough of theputer¡¯s programming now to work out how to add some sensor data to the ship¡¯s own information, and they had the technology to build a new sensor suite suitable to an interster ship.


    The only issue was that at faster-than-light speeds, the energy of the warp field made it unsafe to work outside the ship, so they would have to wait until the next time that they stopped to do the actual retrofit.


    For now, it looked like they were getting good data, but they couldn¡¯t be sure. In fact, they didn¡¯t even know if the majority of the damage had been done before or after the Colonists abandoned the ship. The reports that they had recovered named theck of mobility as the reason for their leaving, but there weren¡¯t any more details.


    Their next nned stop was a small Kepler zero gravity manufacturing facility, just outside the Empire¡¯s official borders and next to an asteroid mining facility. General Yaakov had been in contact with them already, and they had a need for some of the materials that Terminus had picked up, plus they could provide them with Kepler-approved trade goods that the Regiment could use as cover to enter back into Kepler space without drawing suspicion.


    It wasn¡¯t illegal for a Reaver ship to enter Kepler space, they just had to prove that their trade goods weren¡¯t on the prohibited list.


    As of that moment, the only shipments that Terminus had on board were from approved import nations and facilities, with the rest of the ship housing their mercenary force, which was only subject to regtions on its usage.


    This was their new hide-in-in-sight n. They could trade their way across Kepler space much more easily in a Colony ship without raising suspicion, and they could disappear without a trace if they needed if they employed the assistance of Imperial Command and known loyalist forces.


    As long as they weren¡¯t recognized they should be perfectly safe.

 Chapter 270 270 Getting Loaded

    [Manufacturing Docks, this is Terminus. We have an appointment.] Max called over the radio as they approached the facility.


    The site was a gray market operation and didn¡¯t have a proper name, they relied on the code embedded in the radio contact to verify that their visitors were legitimate.


    [Wee Terminus. You are a bitrger than we had expected. Please hold position ten kilometers from the facility and we will bring the shipment to you.] The dockmaster confirmed.


    The barge left the facility only a few minutes after they made contact, so they were at least prepared for this sort of thing. Max looked over the shipment information, a load of crystal nanotubes that could only be grown in zero gravity.


    They weren¡¯t rare or valuable, so why they were being grown in zero gravity was a mystery to him, at least until he saw the markings on the barge. It belonged to the General¡¯s family. That meant that the whole facility, and the mines that fed it, were likely deliberately ced to evade taxes, and the General was using his influence to keep them legitimate by calling them foreign facilities when they were actually part of the Kepler Nobility¡¯s holdings.


    Day by day his views of the Empire as an upright and noble force guiding their people to survival were being jaded by the reality that upright and noble just meant thest person standing with dignity at the end of the battle.


    At least they didn¡¯t ask any sort of questions. In fact, they didn¡¯t ask anything but for Terminus to remove the atmosphere from the cargo bay and turn off the artificial gravity so they could unload. That was easily done, and the payment was removed by a pair of workers, then the bulk cargo was dumped into an empty cargo bay in only a few minutes before the barge retreated to its hangar and a digital message confirmed their shipment details.


    [Pleasure doing business Gentlemen.] Max replied by way of farewell, then closed the bay doors and gave the signal for the ship to make its way toward Kepler space.


    Artificial Gravity was left off in that bay to reduce damage to the delicate freight, and Terminus silently glided back toward Kepler Terminus, the closest border point for them to enter the Empire.


    It was ridiculous and insane, going back to his homeworld in a stolen Colony Ship, with ck market freight. That made it absolutely perfect, and the first signals from the border patrol confirmed that they had made the right choice.


    [Colony Ship Terminus. Wee to Kepler Terminus. Hey, what a coincidence. Send over your shipment documents and prepare to be boarded.]


    The vessel was a President ss Transport, the same as Abraham Kepler, making it less than a quarter the size of the Colony ship, but the border patrol had confidence that they held the edge in firepower. It wasn¡¯t true, but they didn¡¯t know that yet, they had only seen the ship itself, which came from a peaceful species, and so wasn¡¯t equipped with any ship-to-shipbat weapons.


    [Will you be boarding by shuttle or direct contact?] Max heard Nico ask the patrol.


    [We will be sending a Cutter ss interceptor. Do you have docking facilities?] The patrol replied.


    [Of course, Admiral. Proceed to bay four, second from the bow on the port side. The bay is equipped with an atmospheric shield, so you can directly enter. The majority of our crew is human, the atmosphere is suitable for your crew.] Nico replied.


    They would be wearing armored environmental suits anyhow, but it was a friendly gesture and told Max that he should send troops without environmental protection to the front.


    The Cutter approached much faster than Max had expected, reversing thrust at thest second, likely to attempt to limit the amount of time that they had to prepare for the boarding action.


    [Fifth Battalion, you are closest. Send a weing party. Lightly armed, no environmental suits. Let¡¯s set them at ease, but if we look like pushovers they will get suspicious about how we held the ship long enough to make it our own.] Max ordered.


    [On it. I will greet them myself.] Colonel Klinger replied, amusement clear in his voice.


    He had much more experience than Max did with boarding actions, and had now been on both sides of the equation. He climbed into his mobile suit and brought two technicians with Tech Adept Harnesses with him, as well as five more soldiers in full battle armor carrying rifles.


    Everyone was masked so they couldn¡¯t be personally identified by the scanners that all boarding missions should be carrying to look for fugitives, and they were ready before the first boots came out of the Cutter.


    Max was still on his way over, with Nico hot on his heels. There were a pair of Corvette ss Mecha, in the Comor Pattern, repainted in Reaver Camouge the same as his suit was, standing outside the bay when Max arrived, and Colonel Klinger had already finished the greetings.


    Max double-checked his mask and lowered the clear helmet on his Mobile Suit to join the conversation, and Nico stepped to his left with a big smile, looking directly at the Commander of the boarding mission.


    That guy looked really familiar, now that Max thought about it. It took him a moment to realize, but Nico¡¯s thoughts cleared up the confusion right away. These soldiers were all on standby at Kepler 142 Station thest time they were there.


    Nico shifted her jacket a little to show off the Tarith Reavers badge and the Commander smiled back at her but didn¡¯t stop his very professional speech about the duties and tariffs that a foreign ship entering Kepler space was subject to.


    Nico was looking at Max now, and gave him a long blink, signaling for him to read her thoughts.


    [Don¡¯t lie about your ce of birth. They can tell with the scanners, and Reavers cane from the backside of anywhere. Just don¡¯t give any extra details.]


    Max nodded back. That much he already knew. The traders on the docks of the slums he grew up in were from so manys that even his impressive memory couldn¡¯t store them all, and the crews were never all from one spot.


    That was one thing this Regiment had going for them. They were assembled for testing, so they weren¡¯t all from one founding. Thousands of soldiers all from one spot would definitely have gotten reinforcements called on them.

 Chapter 271 271 Clearing Customs

    ¡°If you will show me to your Commander, I am ready to begin the inspection.¡± The boarding action leader informed them.


    ¡°I am the leader. Anything you need, just ask and I will do what I can to make your visit easy.¡± Max informed him.


    ¡°First up, let¡¯s see the two cargo bays. I see that one is stored in a vacuum and without artificial gravity?¡± The investigator asked.


    ¡°Yes, the crystal nanotubes. It is the lowest damage storage method. The ship¡¯s mass provides enough natural gravity that they don¡¯t float around the room.¡± Max replied simply.


    ¡°Fine, take us there first.¡± The boarding action leader motioned for his men to follow them into the hallway, then almost tripped over his feet when he saw the two Comor Pattern Corvettes standing at attention outside the door.


    ¡°Are those¡­¡± He muttered.


    ¡°Legally acquired before the alliance with Kepler was formalized into membership. We have documentation if you need it.¡± Nico stated in her best businesslike tone.


    Literally, she had a setting for it in her voice box.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t our primary business here today, since I assume you are not intending to trade them?¡± The leader asked.


    ¡°Zero percent chance of that.¡± Max agreed.


    ¡°Good, then we will verify yourbat capabilities once we search the cargo.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t too far to walk, since the cargo holds they used were in the same quadrant of the ship as the patrol Cutter, but they couldn¡¯t move too fast, as the team wanted to look into random rooms as they went.


    ¡°Pretty empty in here.¡± One of them pointed out.


    ¡°Spacious though. The ship was made for a quarter millionrge people, we only have a few thousand at the moment, since we don¡¯t have refugees or a generational poption yet.¡± Max rified.


    ¡°No refugees is a good thing, saves on paperwork. Is this the correct bay?¡± The investigation leader asked.


    Max nodded and led them into the viewing bay, where they could look through the armored ss window into the storage bay. The natural gravity of the ship was toward the far wall, not the floor as it was oriented, but that made the pile clearly visible from their position.


    The team scanned the load, then ran it through their ship¡¯sputer to verify the estimate of their tools. Once that was done they gave their boss a thumbs up and he left the room, motioning for Max to lead him to the next cargo bay.


    It was only one bay over, and Max led them in to check the piles of metal and assorted other materials. This one would take a fair bit longer, so the investigator prepared for the next part of their search.


    Their patrol ship had already scanned the vessel, finding a ship in one bay, which they identified as a Ghost Ship, of no particr concern to them, but the scans also found a pair of Cutters and a number of Mecha toward the rear of the ship.


    ¡°Where did your team acquire the cutters in the rear bays?¡± He asked, to save time doing his report.


    ¡°Just outside Tapani space, about three days at warp two,¡± Max informed him. That was well outside Kepler territory, so the team wasn¡¯t concerned. Salvage rights between nations were always a contentious issue, so most nations didn¡¯t argue about them unless it was one of their own military vessels.


    ¡°And the Mecha in the adjacent bays?¡± That would be the First Battalion, the only one whose Mecha wasn¡¯t inside the shielded storage of the Dutchman when off duty.


    ¡°Mostly from Comor, designed prior to them officially joining the Kepler Empire,¡± Max replied.


    Some people got System Functions rting to telling when others were lying, so half-truths were the best way to respond. The Mecha were indeed designed before Comor joined with the Kepler Empire, but they weren¡¯t built until afterward.


    ¡°All done boss. It checks against their deration.¡± The team reported, and the leader began to smile.


    ¡°I love when things go smoothly. Show me your Mecha force and we can finish up here.¡± The investigator announced, and Max called for a cart. It was nearly four kilometers to the rear cargo bays where his Battalion was staying, and he had no intention of walking when they could drive.


    The carts were the tbed equipment decks that were used to hold parts during Mecha maintenance, the same ones he had set the arm weapons from the X137 on way back when it was undergoing the very first round of adjustments.


    Everyone hopped on the deck, while a red-robed and hooded Technician with a silver face mask on drove them back to the Mecha bays. Their Tech Adept Harness was drawing a lot of interest from the Kepler forces, which hadn¡¯t seen anything like it before. It gave them the impression that this team had been much further afield than most that they encountered, even if their gear had started out in Comor, at some unknown point in time.


    Nico arranged for the Pilots to move the Mecha around so that they looked more informal and less disciplined, changing some of the postures in the storage racks, and moving the ones on duty into clusters as if their Pilots had been chatting with the cockpits open just before the investigators arrived.


    Unlike the others, she could send a signal without speaking out loud into a radio, which would alert the border patrol team.


    ¡°Wee to the Terminus Trading Company¡¯s Debt Enforcement and Humanitarian Aid Department,¡± Max announced as they entered the room, and the border guards gasped in shock.


    Four Super Heavy Mecha, One Hundred and fifty Heavy Mecha, and at least as many Corvette ss units were arrayed in the hangar, a formidable fighting force that could certainly enforce any debt that they might have been owed.


    ¡°That is truly impressive.¡± The team leader sighed, looking longingly at the Super Heavy Mecha.


    ¡°I doubt they areparable to anything currently aboard a border patrol ship, but they have been good to us in the past. Even against the Klem, they stood their ground.¡± Nico told him proudly.


    That was, a fine bit of doublespeak, Max thought. She was right, they weren¡¯tparable to anything on the patrol ship. They would mop the floor with the defense force of the border patrol. But the team took it as the Mercenary Mecha being obsolete technology, and only gave it a few longing nces before turning to leave the room.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough for us. Here is your certificate of import. Don¡¯t lose that code, you will need it for your customer. If you could give us a ride back, we would appreciate it.¡± The team leader informed Max with a smile.


    That went much more smoothly than he had expected, and the investigation team didn¡¯t show any signs or thoughts about betraying the Empire, so they weren¡¯t in on whatever insanity Imperial Command had reported Sector Governance to be up to.

 Chapter 272 272 Back in Kepler

    ¡°Is there anything else we can show you? Terminus is a great ship, but a bit sparsely popted, since we haven¡¯t taken on any riders.¡± Nico asked as the boarding crew finished looking over the Mecha.


    ¡°She is an interesting design for sure. I think we have seen all that we needed to other than the two cutter ss shuttles in the next bay. The Mothership wants to confirm that they aren¡¯t militarized.¡± The leader of the team told Max with an eye roll at his superior¡¯s request.


    Even if the two cutters were weaponized, they were no match for the Kepler fleet or even most heavy trading vessels. But the documentation said that these ones didn¡¯t have any heavy weapons, and Sector Command wanted to verify that.


    As soon as they reached the bay the scanners came out, checking the hull for signs of both hard-mounted and hidden heavy weapons, predictably finding none. The ships did have weapons, just nothing dangerous enough to be ssified as heavy weapons and subject to restrictions.


    ¡°How do you deal with attackers, since you don¡¯t have heavy weapons on the Colony Ship or the Cutters?¡± The team leader asked, genuinely concerned for this happy-go-lucky group of Reavers.


    ¡°That¡¯s what the Mecha are for. The thrust packs on a group of the heavy Mecha work wonderfully in space, and their Fusion mers do amendable job of breaching hulls both derelict and hostile.¡± Nico informed him with pride.


    ¡°Fusion mers is it? Yeah, that would do it. I should have suspected from the thrust packs that those were modified orbital mining Mecha. It exins the size too, mining gear is always oversized for the job, I¡¯m told it makes them more durable.¡± He agreed,ing to a very incorrect conclusion from the information that he was given.


    They would do the job fairly well though since the mers were in fact developed based on mining equipment. It was just the structure of the Mecha itself that had very little to do with the rugged and slow chassis of a mining Mecha.


    Their Commander didn¡¯t send them any more orders, so the investigation crew headed back to the cargo bay where they hadnded and prepared to leave the Terminus behind. They all loaded into their ship, and the shielding was raised so that the atmosphere could be purged and the doors opened.


    [Kepler Border Patrol you are clear to leave at your pleasure.] Admiral Drake informed them over the inte, and the Cutter¡¯s engines powered up, then suddenly shut down.


    [Kepler Border Patrol, is there an issue?] Nico asked, watching from the observation window.


    [Negative Terminus. All systems show as being fully functional. Departing now.]


    Again the engines powered up and then down, but the ship remained exactly where it was.


    [Give us five minutes Terminus. We seem to have a technical issue.] The Cutter¡¯s pilot reported.


    ¡°Check the gravity ting and securement. They¡¯re not mped down to our deck or locked in ce, are they? Even a light power-up like that should move them a little.¡± Max asked Nico, checking the screen by the door for himself.


    The Terminus didn¡¯t show anything unusual on its disy, and after ten minutes, the crew of the Cutter reported no mechanical issues found.


    [Requesting permission to bring another Cutter over to serve as a tug.] The Pilot informed the crew of the Terminus with a hint of embarrassment.


    Few things in life were quite as ridiculous as when aw enforcement vessel broke down in the middle of an inspection and had to borrow a hangar bay to either get repairs or get towed out.


    [Take all the time you need, Kepler. We always schedule for a few minor mechanical issues. If you need, we have a pair of our own Cutters and we can use them to maneuver you back to the mothership.] Nico suggested.


    While they waited for the border patrol to decide what they were doing, Max decided to run a full scan of the star system. If there was someone messing with the border patrol, they should be somewhere within the sensor range of the Colony ship, assuming that the sensors were working correctly.


    Hidden in the sensor distortion around a moon, Max found what he was looking for, signs of a Battle Barge ss vessel, more than twenty kilometers long. It seemed to be waiting for something, possibly for their vessel to move along and the Border Guard to proceed to their next point, putting the Battle Barge out of sensor range for a few minutes and allowing them to sneak past the lines.


    If they had tried that at warp, they would have been detected immediately, but gliding along with minimal engine power they were harder to pick out from all the other emissions in the area.


    They might be posing as Mercenaries, but they were in fact loyal soldiers of the Kepler Empire, so Max knew they had to do something, but they had to do it without blowing their cover.


    ¡°Nico, can you tell me who that ship hiding by the moon on our starboard side is? They¡¯re putting a lot of effort into sneaking past customs.¡± Max asked.


    He fully intended to do it himself, at least he did until he realized that the interface on the panels hadn¡¯t been tranted, so it was unintelligible other than the mostmonly used few screens, and he had no idea how to use it to get more information about the ship in the distance.


    ¡°That would be the Tapani vessel Cosmos. I¡¯m not finding much about it, but itsputer did respond to amunications ping.¡± Nico informed him.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got it from here,¡± Max answered, then opened themunications portion of the panel.


    He sent a hailing ping on the general channel, used to contact any vessel in the area, instead of the secure military channel. As expected, the Tapani vessel¡¯sputer didn¡¯t send anything back, but now that it had been identified manually, the Terminus noticed it was there easily enough.


    The request for an open channelmunication code that it sent out indicated that the Terminus was sending the message to both nearby vessels, by location, as well as the nearby Civilian space station and one more border patrol ship in the distance,pletely standard procedure, for a general message.


    [Terminus to unknown Station, requesting permission to dock for supplies once we have finished with Customs. Our fresh produce supplies are running low.] Max sent out, making the general request that the other vessels would be expecting.


    That was enough to alert both border patrol vessels to the presence of another vessel in the area, and Max knew from experience that all hell would be breaking loose aboard as they tried to determine how it had gotten so close without being detected or contacted.

 Chapter 273 273 Unexpected Allies?

    The moment that the Tapani vessel was identified and approached by the second border patrol ship, an urgent message from Sector Governance came through over the open channels, informing everyone that was listening that the Tapani hade to assist with the iing Klem threat and that Border Patrol should stand down.


    [That¡¯s not how it works at all. Sector Governance doesn¡¯t have the authority to tell Border Patrol to stand down, even if they do have the authority to request allied forces to assist with a threat.] Inquisitor General Ming informed the Command staff through their wrist devices textmunications.


    [If you have a way, contact Imperial Command and let them know what is happening. I will go see what is going on with the Cutter that Border Patrol sent.] Nico informed him.


    [Don¡¯t bother. I set a jammer on the level below that will prevent their engines from powering up. I noticed the vessel while you all were guiding the inspectors through the Terminus, but I ran out of time to do anything about it before you got back.] Inquisitor Ming replied.


    That was a load off Max¡¯s mind. At least the vessel hadn¡¯t been sabotaged and it could leave them at any time now that the Tapani had been identified.


    [Got it. I will have Nico go pretend to fix the issue then and send them on their way, so we can get out of here before things go sideways. Someone is bound to notice that things aren¡¯t right in this situation, and I don¡¯t want to be here when they do.] Max sent back.


    ¡°Sure, volunteer me. I will be right back.¡± Nico told him, stepping into the airlock that led to the cargo bay where the Border Patrol Cutter was sitting.


    She didn¡¯t bother with an armored suit, opting instead to wear the Tech Adept Harness over a simple atmospheric suit and jumping out into the bay using the harness¡¯s gravity control to float to thending legs of the ship.


    She hunched over them one at a time and then stood upright and gave the ship the thumbs up.


    [I will retreat to the minimum safe distance, try to release now. I believe it was an interface issue between the Terminus¡¯ technology and yournding legs.] Nico reported.


    How thending legs would cut power to the engines wasn¡¯t clear to Max, but the crew of the Cutter didn¡¯t question it before starting their engines again and gently floating into the middle of the bay.


    [We appreciate your help, Terminus. Please make a note of the issue before allowing more Kepler vessels to dock with you. They might take it the wrong way when they can¡¯t leave.] The Cutter Pilot called as he made his way back to the mothership.


    That was their cue to get out while the getting was good, so Admiral Drake made way for the station, fully expecting to be turned away, due to the ongoing incident nearby.


    He was not disappointed.


    [Terminus, we regret to inform you that due to security protocol with the iing Klem threat and the foreign vessel, we will not be able to do business at this time.] The Station reported.


    [Understandable, Station. We will catch you next time.] Admiral Drake answered, then turned the Colony Ship for open space.


    [Do we have a path on the Klem pod infestation that is iing from open space?] General Yaakov asked, once they were back at faster than light and headed deeper into Kepler territory.


    [We do. By my estimate, there will be seven separate falls, two of which will be inhabiteds. What are our orders?] Admiral Drake asked.


    [Take us to the closest inhabited system that you suspect will see Klem pods. They are far enough out now that they shouldn¡¯t be visible to sensors inside Kepler for another week. That is enough time to make it look like we are just benign traders selling our freight.] Yaakov instructed.


    [I will get right on finding us a buyer for the nanotubes. Should I offer up any of the extra materials, or are we holding them in expectation of taking damage?] Nico asked.


    [Keep everything but the nanotubes. I hope you two are up on your social skills, the governor of this system is a real uptight arse.] General Yaakov replied with augh.


    Max pulled up what they knew of the area. The destination was Pallid 9, one of twelve inhabited stars in rtively close proximity to each other that were all colonized in the same wave. The was ruled by a Duke, not much detail on him in their system, as he didn¡¯t have much interaction with the Military, which Max took as a very bad sign in these times of political instability.


    Thetest shipment information for the showed that they had been importingrge amounts of crystal of the sort used for Laser Rifles and other focused energy technology. The crystal Nanotubes that they were carrying could be used in many simr functions, so they might have found themselves a reliable buyer.


    [Nico, find us a buyer on that. I don¡¯t care if you call yourself a Reaver or a Cygnus Imperial Lady, but I want to talk to the Duke. Everything I see in the system is screaming at me that this is a rebel that is about to get hammered with Klem and left to die as martyrs by their allies.]


    The idea had appeared as Max was reading the data, and he couldn¡¯t shake it, so he had chosen to share it with Nico, who was usually reliable about calling him on loopholes. She didn¡¯t do it this time though, and that concerned Max even more than if she had called him paranoid.


    As he thought about the possible oues of this trade and the iing Klem attack, Max idly checked his system status.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+150%


    [DEX] 3+88%


    [SPD] 3+88%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 2->3]


    His Perception skill had leveled up without him noticing. That might be the cause of this strange feeling. Perception type System Functions often led to the AI of the Systeming to conclusions on the user¡¯s behalf and giving them seemingly random suggestions about cause and effect.


    The speed of his thoughts seemed to be the same as before though, or perhaps he had gotten so used to the change already that he simply didn¡¯t notice the difference.

 Chapter 274 274 Noble Lineages

    Nico¡¯s request was sent as a digital message, not a voicemunication, due to the distance involved, and General Yaakov¡¯s authority signature was employed, with his permission, of course, to authenticate the message.


    What they requested was a direct meeting with the Duke about arge sale of Crystal Nanotubes and a conversation about a matter ofary security. That should be enough to at least attract the attention of his staff, so Max simply sat back and waited as the Terminus fell into orbit around the, waiting on a response that would determine if they could sell their wares here and what this world¡¯s fate might be.


    The Klem pods approaching Kepler were still outside the range of mostary sensor systems, so they might not even know about the threat, or they might be in on the deal with the rebels and the Tapani and they might think that they are safe.


    It was a good thing that they were ying the mercenaries in this scenario, it would make their implications that the Klem approach might have been miscalcted hold more weight, and encourage the Duke to action when a Loyalist military force would have met with official resistance.


    Duke Cass, the localary ruler sent them a response twelve hours after they had first requested a meeting, a fairly rapid response given the level of procedures needed to contact aary Governor directly.


    [Colony Ship Terminus,


    We wee you to the orbit of our and have some use for the trade goods which you have procured. Please proceed to the Space Station at the marked coordinates and dock with the final spur bay for the negotiation of a trade deal.]


    The message bore the Duke¡¯s authentication, so it was as good as an entry visa, and the Admiral moved the Colony ship into position to dock with the Station.


    This one was definitely a luxury station, and it held a number of very fancy interster Yachts and cruise ships at its terminals. The approach of the battered-looking Colony ship, therefore, drew a lot of attention from the civilians aboard the facility.


    They didn¡¯t often have a chance to interact with Spacers of any sort, much less a Reaver or Mercenary crew strong enough to hold a Colony Ship as their own, so the mere sight of Terminus started waves of gossip.


    [Docking mps Engaged. Same bay asst time.] The Admiral instructed as the ship settled into position next to the station.


    This one wasrge enough that it wouldn¡¯t be thrown too much off bnce by the Colony Ship, but they still had to be careful with their thrusters and approach, so that they didn¡¯t identally knock the station from orbit. The Kepler-built stations were blocky and well-defended facilities, in case of dust and small object collisions, but their thrusters took a lot of power to keep engaged and weren¡¯t intended to do more than maintain the position of the facility.


    If there was an incident that required it to be repositioned, the ships on the station would lend their aid to get the Station into the correct orbit, a synchronized dance of enormous proportions that required tremendous skill and timing, and also aggravated the Captains required to do it.


    Max and Nico waited for the Duke to arrive with a smallpliment of five Corvette ss Mecha in the back of the bay, in sight of their hosts. It was what every Reaver Ship would do, a small show of force to discourage their business partners from double-crossing them. This didn¡¯t seem to have any ties to the reavers, so they were especially cautious, in case there was a very good reason for that.


    A few curious residents of the station passed by, using an excuse to pass through this terminal to sneak a peek at the new guests, before rushing away, afraid to get caught while in an off-limits cargo transfer area.


    ¡°Commander Keres, I presume, and the Imperial Lady Tarith Rage. I ran a quick background check on you before you arrived, I do hope you won¡¯t mind. Congrattions on the founding of your Terminus Trade Company, and it is an honor to be among your first customers. The Cygnus Royal Family had good things to say about you, even though they seemed a bit secretive about your origins.¡± The man beside the Duke weed them.


    ¡°Background checks are always a prudent measure. It is good to hear that they haven¡¯t forgotten about me entirely, despite the length of time since my lineage was Royal.¡± Nico responded politely, making the Duke himself smile.


    ¡°Are these the nanotubes? It looks like you have stored them in low gravity for the trip?¡± The Duke asked, indicating the piles of crystal that lined all the walls of the bay.


    ¡°It is the best way to ship them without damages. The artificial gravity was off in this room until we docked, then slowly raised so that the settling of the crystals wouldn¡¯t cause any breakage.¡± Max informed him from behind the nondescript golden mask he had chosen to cover his features today.


    ¡°I have a wide variety of items made on my to trade with, what is it that your next customer would prefer?¡± The Duke asked while sending a technician from his entourage to check out the merchandise.


    ¡°Our next customer is a collector of the finer things in life, both for himself and his. So, a variety of your locally made rugs, dishware, and a small selection of luxury personal transport vehicles would be a pleasant surprise for him, in addition to the Laser Focusing Arrays that your is best known for of course.¡± Max suggested.


    The Laser focusing arrays were a military item, and strictly regted, theary Governor shouldn¡¯t be selling them to Reavers, but Max could see by the look in his eyes that he was considering doing just exactly that.


    ¡°Might your next customer be within the Kepler Empire?¡± He asked, seeming uncertain if he should make this deal.


    ¡°In fact he is. A true old blue blood, one of those snotty lineage sorts who predates the Empire, but he has been a very reliable customer of other branches of the family.¡± Nico informed him with a suggestive wink.

 Chapter 275 275 Intelligence Matters

    That helped set the man¡¯s mind at ease. He wouldn¡¯t be tried for treason, since the goods weren¡¯t heading out of the Empire, and there was a very good chance that they would be going to help a fellow rebel upgrade their civilian Mecha to join the battle against the Emperor.


    Max listened carefully to the Duke¡¯s thoughts, as well as those of his guards, before making his next offer.


    ¡°If you need more than just crystals, I do believe that we have a bit of reactor material left. I don¡¯t suppose that you might be short a ton or two would you?¡± Max asked in a friendly voice.


    ¡°Now, I believe you are correct, we are a bit short for our industrial robot production. How about we have a seat and we can discuss the other urgent matter while our adjutants work out the specifics?¡± The Duke responded, nodding to the upper levels, which he thought were private rooms, but were actually cold storage facilities.


    ¡°Separate temperature-controlled zones, for multiple product shipments. Right this way is a sitting room, do forgive theck of luxury, we are still a struggling youngpany after all.¡± Max informed the Duke.


    ¡°Understandable, we all start from somewhere. My own family was once ministers to the local Royal Family, back before the Kepler expansion integrated us into the Empire.¡± The Duke informed Max with a polite nod.


    They stepped through the main doors to the hangar, then into the airlock, and finally across the hall into a room that had been hastily prepared with couches and a rug created by the Materials Printer.


    It would be obvious to the well-informed that the materials were synthetic and therefore cheap, though they were fashionable, which helped reinforce Max¡¯s assertion that they were not yet in a position where they could be spending money frivolously.


    ¡°At least you have good taste. You should see the horror that passes for fashion among the Tapani.¡± Duke Cass sighed, settling into one of the couches.


    From his thoughts, Max saw that the Tapani didn¡¯t believe in cushions on furniture, instead being of the belief that hard seats helped build character. So most of their chairs were hard metal or stone, and an actual couch was basically unheard of, with sitting rooms instead having carved stone benches for group seating.


    ¡°The stone benches are not exactly to my taste either.¡± Max agreed, then gestured to the liquor cab along one wall.


    ¡°We are short on many things, but we have a small selection of Brandy and an ample supply of good Rum. Would you care to partake?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°I wish I could, but I was born to disability in this life, an allergy to alcohols of all sorts that medicine has had no luck curing.¡± The Duke sighed.


    That was a lie, he was actually a very heavy drinker, but he didn¡¯t trust the alcohol of a random Reaver troupe to be to his tastes. It was his loss, as the Brandy was extremely expensive stuff from General Yaakov¡¯s personal supply, brought down for the meeting so that they could appear to be good hosts.


    ¡°That is a great loss. In that case, I will get on with the important matters. This data chip shows the trajectory of a swarm of Klem Pods headed for Kepler space. I can confirm that the Tapani already know the destinations, as the swarm passed very near to their territory, but the pertinent part is this bit here. This arm is going to make direct contact with your system. If not the main, then one of the outlying ones in this star system.¡± Max informed him, bringing up the trajectory information on a Holo Projector and handing the Duke a copy of the chip so he could check it for himselfter.


    ¡°And what might have brought about this bit of altruism? A Reaver never does anything for free.¡± Duke Cass asked suspiciously.


    ¡°As you said yourself, we are still a newpany, in need of connections, customers, and the little luxuries that make life worth living. I believe that you might be able to help us with all three, but it does require that you still have a popted to govern.


    Though it is a boon to you, sharing this bit of acquired intelligence is also in our best interests.¡± Max informed him.


    ¡°A very valid point, Being a border system, we do make for a natural stop on the way into the Kepler Empire. Normally I don¡¯t have dealings with lowborn trading groups, but youe highly rmended, with lineage from the Cygnus Royal Family, so I am willing to make an exception.


    If you can add two tonnes of Reactor Material to the shipment, I can outfit your vessel for the luxury of two thousand crew members, including a small supply of proper liquor. For the guests who do not suffer my unfortunate allergies that is.¡± Duke Cass agreed.


    Two thousand would cover all their Pilots and officers, but not all the enlisted crew from the maintenance and logistics staff. It was a very good start though, and they would be able to put on a good front the next time that they were inspected, showing off a number of luxury crew suites to the patrol members.


    It might not be logical, but wealth was still associated with legitimacy. If your Company had been around long enough to acquire luxuries for themselves, they were viewed as more trustworthy trading partners than a group of random Pirates, even if they had killed said pirates and stolen their goods.


    ¡°That won¡¯t be an issue. We had a rather fortunate encounter with an asteroid soon after we founded the Terminus Trading Company and acquired enough of the materials to purchase ourselves a small army of Mecha, outdated though they might be. Two tonnes are still within our stockpile.¡± Max informed him, then pulled out the trade agreement that had been made up while they talked.


    It outlined everything that they had agreed on, and then they added the Reactor Materials and the list of domestic supplies in trade for them.


    This wasn¡¯t arge Mecha manufacturer, but if they were nning to fight off a Klemnding, they would need those materials. Even if they thought he might be lying, they would need them for the rebellion, so there was no chance of loss in the Duke¡¯s estimation of the situation.

 Chapter 276 276 The Good Life

    The trade goods started to flow into the ship within minutes, and Nico reluctantly agreed to allow a group of interior decorators as well as supply staff into the Terminus to decorate crew quarters in a long line down the center of the ship.


    Theyout made areas for all five Battalions, as well as the general staff, but to an interior decorator, it looked more like they had been separated by crew shifts and duty types. The fact that certain areas of the ship, which hadn¡¯t currently been upied by the Regiment were left entirely ignored by their decorating efforts.


    They had no way to know that the ship was nearly empty, running at under ten percent of its normal capacity, so it seemed to them that they were rightfully decorating rooms for the upper crust of the Terminus Trading Company and their paying guests.


    Since they were all still cramped into quarters on the Dutchman, other than the First Battalion, who had moved to the aft of the ship near engineering, to be close in case of attack, none of the Pilots or staff were aware of the changes that were taking ce aboard the Terminus.


    Simple alien furnishings were moved aside to make way for two thousand luxury suites, and the old furniture was moved into storage in the unused rooms.


    There were some leftover bits of technology that were kept in the suites though. There was a very interesting form of replicator in each suite, originally intended for a family. It only created a few things, namely a simple uniform in various sizes, and three different alien meals that Max hadn¡¯t had the courage to try yet, though Nico informed him that they should be safe for human consumption.


    It was simr to their materials printer, only it used a generic block of material as its source, reforming both molecr bonds and even atomic bonds to create exactly what they needed.


    When the devices were first discovered, they had searched the ship for a more capable version, knowing that the ship must have had one at some point, but much to Max¡¯s dismay, it had been removed when the Colonists left.


    When they got the chance, they would analyze these and send the data to Uncle Lu, at the research and development Lab, to see if he could make a breakthrough in the Materials Printing Field, but for now, that would have to wait. They weren¡¯t going to be anywhere near Comor for a while, and it wasn¡¯t safe to attempt to send that sort of information across the gxy as a data signal that anyone could intercept.


    It took twelve hours for the staff to finish the decorations and depart the ship, but finally, it was time to inform the Regiment that their new homes were ready for upancy. But first, Max decided to take a look at the suite that had been assigned to him.


    There were three levels of the ¡°Luxury Unit¡± as the designer called them decorated today. Penthouse, Suite, and Dwelling. The names were terrible, but they did make sense to Max if you assumed that the people using them were a noble family and their staff.


    In practice, they would be Commanders, Senior Officers, and Officers suites.


    Max stepped into his suite, intended for a Commanding Officer, and gasped in awe. All the designs aboard the Terminus were originally intended to be family units, and the interior decorator had converted an entire unit into a suite, which was officially just for him and his guests.


    There were kitchen facilities, a small gym with a spa, a luxury bathroom, with a jetted tubrge enough for four of him to sit in and soak to their neck, plus four bedrooms and a living room, all decorated in the finest furnishings that Max had ever seen. The decorator had even put a crystal chandelier over the coffee table in the middle of the living room.


    This was insane. He had thought that he would have enough room for two thousand men, as his agreement went, but Max didn¡¯t ount for the trantion issues between soldier and Noble. Nobles do not live in a single-room bunk, they live in a suite, with room for guests and entertaining.


    ¡°Nico, you are checking out a standard officer¡¯s suite aren¡¯t you?¡± Max called out into the hallway, knowing that only eight of the top-level suites were designed. Max had requested five suites for the Battalion Commanders and their Technicians, and one each for the General, the Admiral, and a Guest, which would be upied by Inquisitor General Ming for now.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m inspecting some of the mid-level suites that the designer made. It¡¯s still a full-family suite, but it¡¯s not quite as swanky as the one you are inspecting. They didn¡¯t even use real silver cutlery, and the chandelier is synthetic, can you imagine that?¡± Nico called back from the next unit over.


    In that case, it would still have four bedrooms, suitable for an entire wing of Pilots. Three Pilots to a standard wing, four bedrooms to a suite, which left them room to entertain guests, or have a storage room for every wing. It also gave them three times as many rooms avable.


    If they moved the Heavy Mecha wings into shared suites, they would have a lot of extra space.


    The problem was that the Corvette ss Pilots were in wings of five. But Max had hope that the excess space that had been converted in the higher-end suites might not be wasted in the lowest-grade version.


    He was right in his assumption, but in a very different way than he had thought. The ¡°Dwelling¡± suites, which the designer intended for staff, had ten rooms in a cluster, around a central living room and kitchen, each with a small ensuite bathroom, but no huge main bathroom, gym, or sauna.


    ¡°Change of ns. Assign each suite to a wing, based on their Mecha, and then put the remaining ones up for grabs to the enlisted men. They can sort out their own rooms, and I can almost guarantee they won¡¯t ever have had a ce this nice before.¡± Max called Nico, who forwarded the directions to the rest of the Battalion Commanders, who had no idea what she meant until they got the map of their assigned zones.


    The enlisted quarters wereparatively cramped, but the rooms aboard the Terminus had originally been built for muchrger people, and they were four meters by six, making them asrge as Max¡¯s room at the Lab and now had been furnished with a bed, desk, and couch, all in the finest of materials, plus ess to the shared spaces.


    Byparison, their bunks on the Dutchman were three beds high, thirty men to a room, with just enough room to walk between the bunks and a standard locker for each enlisted crew member.


    If theyined about the new rooms, they were free to stay in their old ones.

 Chapter 277 277 Moving Day

    The Terminus was going to remain at the station for two more days, giving their crew a chance to disembark and rx, enjoying a bit of time among the civilians. It would have been suspicious if they left right away, since Reavers were known to be the partying sort, not disciplined military forces, and the data that Max had provided to the Duke showed that the Klem Pods were over a week away, giving them ample time to stay a while and still leave the system before they were in any danger.


    ¡°I knew that you were looking out for the troops, but this is impressive, Colonel.¡± Inquisitor General Mingughed as he was shown to his new suite aboard the Terminus.


    ¡°Only the finest for our valued guests. The Heavy Mecha Pilots get synthetic furnishings, and have to share a suite with their whole wing.¡± Max responded, doing his best to keep a straight face.


    ¡°It was a good call. Not just for crew morale, but for the next time that we have guests or are inspected. Set up like this, I don¡¯t think that anyone will suspect us of being anything but a Trading Company.


    It isn¡¯t official yet, since I don¡¯t want to alert anyone by contacting Imperial Command, but I will use my authority as an Inquisitor to have papers drawn up making the Terminus Trading Company a recognized trade entity within Kepler.


    Intelligence has a few others among their ranks, the covert operations forces of the Empire. Since we are hiding anyhow, we are in a better position than most, since very few of them haven¡¯t had their identitiespromised by the Nobility that they work with.¡± Inquisitor Ming informed Max.


    ¡°How were they usually discovered? It would be best if we weren¡¯t since they are using us of being traitors to the Empire.¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Most of them have Nobles among their ranks that keep in close contact with their families to use their contacts for intelligence gathering and such. It makes them more effective, but as soon as one of their informants ispromised, or a member of the family gets ambitious, they get revealed as a Government asset.¡± Ming exined.


    In light of that, maybe using General Yaakov¡¯s name to get ahold of the Duke wasn¡¯t the greatest idea, but it was the only one that Max had at the moment. They would just have to be careful in the future not to use it too much, or people would start questioning them.


    ¡°I will keep that in mind. I am sure that it is a bit of a nuisance for the General, not being able to openly lead his Regiment, but he is too easily recognized, as a senior Noble of the Kepler Empire, so I hope he understands.¡± Max told the Inquisitor with a sigh.


    ¡°He wasn¡¯t nning to remain as a Regimental Commander for long. He signed up for the testing phase of the new Mecha, and then he was supposed to retire back home with full honors, doing a publicity tour for the new Mecha designs as hisst deployment, to pad up his fame and ie.¡± Inquisitor Ming told Max with a smirk.


    That exined a little about his rxed attitude toward letting others take the reigns. He never intended to have them anyhow, he was just there for onest hurrah, and maybe a chance to get back in a Mecha again before he hung the Pilot¡¯s suit up for good.


    [All Units, your new dorm assignments are now posted. Please move your gear to your assigned rooms within the next twenty-four hours. If this assignment is not eptable, please see your Battalion Commander for remediation.] General Yaakov announced over the ship¡¯s inte as Max and the inquisitor were talking.


    ¡°This is going to be an amazing level of chaos.¡± Maxughed, remembering just how shocked he was when he first saw his new suite.


    The Inquisitor¡¯s room was toward the bow of the ship, where the majority of the ship¡¯s control staff were stationed, as well as General Yaakov and the Pilots of the Second Battalion, whose station was the bow of the ship, should theye under attack.


    Now that new dorms had been assigned, the Mecha would be moved out from the Dutchman to locations closer to their posting, with only Colonel Klinger¡¯s Fifth Battalion keeping their mecha on the ship.


    They would be the mobile response unit if they had to send Mecha out in the Dutchman for some reason, like a small-scale battle, or other short-notice action.


    The two Pirate Cutters were being refurbished at the moment, and they would be capable of taking another Battalion split between them when they were finished, but no decision had been made on who would be dropped in the Cutters should the need ur.


    [Colonel Max, do you know which bay the Drone Fighters will be in? I don¡¯t see them on the map.] One of the staff from the First Battalion asked using the text function of Max¡¯s wrist device.


    [They should be in the aft, between our Mecha and the Cutters.] Max responded after a few seconds of thought.


    They hadn¡¯t really worked out the logistics of them, since they didn¡¯t have too many avable. They were veryrge, and only a few had been loaded on the Dutchman, but they still had a full crew to Pilot them, as well as the VR pods that the Drone Pilots would need.


    Building a new fleet of Orbital Fighters would take some time, and a lot of materials, but if they could get even ten of them active they would be in a much better position when they needed to fight, as they would have air superiority and a much better set of observation sensors.


    Before he forgot, Max sent the building requisition to General Yaakov, so that they would have some Orbital Fighters avable before the Klem pods got to their destinations. Thes under attack would pay a princely sum for the extra help, and they were in the perfect location to help.

 Chapter 278 278 Time Limited Luxury

    By the end of the day, all of the soldiers had been relocated to their new dorms, and the Battalion Kitchens had been moved from the Dutchman to various spots inside the Terminus, except for Fifth Battalion, who remained aboard for fast-action responses.


    With that out of the way, it also gave time for some of the men to go to the Station to unwind. With strict warnings not to blow their own cover and not to get too out of hand. They didn¡¯t want to give their Trading Company a bad name for being drunk and disorderly after all.


    It was the strangest shore leave that any of them ever had, they were so free to do anything as Reavers, but still under strict observation as soldiers, and the contrast was a bit unnerving. The Station had a lot of fun to be found though. All sorts of games, gambling, even live shows and a very high-tech holographic movie which put the audience inside the scene, looking from various angles at the action all around them.


    Thatst one was a hit with everyone, even the couples that had formed among the crew were up for it since different times of day yed different movies. Thete-night one was a horror flick, but the afternoon one was a romance that was supposed to feel incredibly real, ording to the Pilots that went to see it.


    Max skipped on both of them and spent his time on the station hustling games of three-dimensional Pool. Nobody expected the Reaver to have a System interface, so they bet before their brains caught up to their mouth, and Max cleaned them out, collecting some gray market credits that could be used in a variety of nations.


    Those woulde in handyter, so he had pocket money and didn¡¯t need to work small amounts of cash into every deal for the crew. He would still need to do it every time they were going to stay somewhere for a while and disembark, but when they only needed to send a single team for a few hours to aplish a mission, they could use this stockpile of money to get through without alerting anyone to their use of Kepler Credits.


    With the new suites, the crew wasn¡¯t evenining when it was time to leave the Station and head back out into space again. The front edge of the Klem Pods was getting close, and the Admiral assured them that theary authority had sent repeated messages to Sector Command, requesting an interception and emergency rescue team once the trajectory was determined to match the ones that Max had sold to them.


    They were definitely going to get hit by one of the smaller branches, but with their limited military force, it could be enough to wipe out their whole poption if they weren¡¯t lucky with the Mining Mecha.


    ¡°Has there been any response from Sector Command?¡± Max asked Nico, who shrugged her shoulders in response.


    ¡°They keep scrambling their codes and keywords, so I am not totally sure, I have missed too many messages to piece everything together, but it looks like they are nning to let thes get hit and then swoop in with the Tapani as heroes and clean up the Klem, turning the civilians¡¯ loyalty away from the Emperor,¡± Nico informed him.


    As far as rebellion ns go, it was a pretty solid one. Rebelling without giving the citizenry a very good reason always ended in assassinations and failure.


    ¡°Do you think that they will call on us?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Doubtful. The Tapani have sent a strike Cruiser to the area. It should deflect a portion of the wave into the star, and make it easier to clean up the rest. Low-effort hero points and an easy-to-make propaganda film to send out just as the others are about to get hit, painting them as rescuers on their way to save the day.¡±


    Max asked the Generals and got basically the same answer. The Tapani and the Sector Fleet would y hero, but only after letting thes take a little damage so that nobody would doubt their heroic intervention was anything less than noble.


    The best n that they had, for now, was to record what they could, stay out of sight, and wait to see if anyone really did need the help of a Mercenary Mecha force to deal with an infestation.


    General Ming had sent regr updates to Imperial Command, now that they were close enough to a Kepler-inhabited for him to have an encrypted ry station in range, so they were assured that the Emperor at least knew what was going on here, even if he didn¡¯t have a chance to respond right away, since the front lines had turned against him.


    Kepler Terminus wasn¡¯t one of thes that were in the path of the Klem, but from what Max could see in the enemy movements, it was some sort of central hub, likely due to its high poption and infrastructure.


    Their sensors were picking up a lot of traffic in and out of the system, all military, and almost all parts of the Sector Fleet that they already knew had turned and allied with the Tapani. The thought that Kepler Terminus, home of the original ident that caused the System, would go rebel was insane, but Max was watching the evidence build up in real-time.


    [Tarith Echo Seven to Terminus Trading Company. We request your presence at the Cargo station of the Kepler Terminus System. Any Reavers in the area, please ry.]


    The Admiral was the first to get the message and passed it to Nico, who informed them that Echo Seven was the Cargo Station itself, or at least their family¡¯s operation on the station. They knew that Terminus Trading Company was part of the Family Operations, so they would expect them to reply and react right away if it was important enough to send them a direct open message.


    [Terminus Trading Company to Tarith Echo Seven. Excellent timing, we were just on our way to you. Expect our arrival within the week.] The Admiral sent back, being deliberately vague so that anyone who was hostile and listening wouldn¡¯t know exactly when to set a trap for them.


    Terminus changed course, picking up speed, and Max was headed home for the first time since he left on an emergency patrol with General Tennant.

 Chapter 279 279 Briefing

    Chapter 279 279 Briefing


    For most of the crew, the flight to Kepler Terminus was going to be a rxing one, with very little to do but check their Mecha and make sure that everything was at one hundred percentbat readiness.


    For Max and Nico, it was a very different story. They were currently in a meeting with the Generals, where Inquisitor Ming had requested a full update and debriefing on everything that the two of them had learned from their interactions with the suspected rebel elements and independent nations that they had met so far along their journey.


    That was a lot of information to fill him in on, and the Inquisitor wanted rification of every single line and detail of the reports that Max had made, making sure that he didn¡¯t miss any clue or a bit of nuance to their interactions that could be vital to the Empireter on.


    It was clear right away that the they had gone to trade off their Crystal Nanotubes was in on the rebellion, but it was also clear that they didn¡¯t know they were going to be a sacrificial scapegoat for the rebels and the Tapani to make themselves look good in the eyes of the Civilians.


    There was also the question of what exactly was going on with the authorities on Kepler Terminus. Max knew how many ships should be in and out of the on a daily basis, he liked to watch them out of Dave¡¯s window as he was growing up. The number should be less than ten a day, but over the course of thest twenty-four hours, their sensors had detected over sixty vessels just leaving the system.


    Kepler Terminus produced mostly Mecha Pilots, and elite ones at that, there was no reason that they should be sending sixty ships a day out of the system unless someone somewhere had been stockpiling materials for just this asion.


    As they ryed every bit of information that they had and built a data grid to attempt to link them all together so that they could see the big picture, Max began to think about the day that they left. General Tennant had been in a hurry, and Max had detected thoughts about an Inquisitoring to take his Phnx ss Mecha, to turn it over to a Bureaucracy-friendly family.


    At the time it had seemed like a personal attack because he knew the reputation that the General had, as well as the fact that he refused to rece his copilot. Now, it seemed like the earliest stages of the Bureaucrat¡¯s attempts to disarm the Empire and give themselves the upper hand.


    ¡°General, since we are headed back to Kepler Terminus, I should warn you before we arrive. The Inquisition on the ispromised.¡± Max informed General Ming, then began the long story of how they had been chased off the and everything that had happened before and after they met General Tennant, as he learned it with his mind-reading skills.


    ¡°That¡¯s worse than I thought. One Inquisitor turned might not seem like much, but it is very, very hard to turn an Inquisitor, and until he is detected, he could cause untold amounts of damage to the Loyalist elements.


    Worse still, if one is turned, we can¡¯t rely on the others, and I can¡¯t openly ess the Inquisition documents avable on the, as the rest of the Inquisition could potentially see my activity. It will be like going in blind unless we can identify and eliminate the corrupted elements and the ones who turned them in advance.¡± The General sighed.


    ¡°There are still the Tarith Family assets to work with, as we know that they aren¡¯t part of the rebellion. They might not bepletely loyal, but at least we know that they are not actively working with the Rebellion.¡± General Yaakov suggested.


    ¡°That remains to be seen. We will know for sure once we arrive at the station and see what their assets in orbit have to say to us, thinking that we are an allied Reaver group.¡± Inquisitor Ming dered.


    He had a point, with a rebellion, you couldn¡¯t rely on old alliances or friendship to get you by. Brother would turn on brother, neighbors against each other, and only ideology would stand as amon denominator.


    ¡°It¡¯s only one more day, and with me there, they will tell you absolutely anything that they know. Or, they will tell me, and I will tell you, but the same thing really. The big question is, what exactly is going on with the Kepler Terminus star system? There are way too many ships, all outbound. If I didn¡¯t know any better I would say that they are trying to evacuate the without ordering an evacuation.


    If that is the case, the rebellion might be using the as a staging ground for their future ns, and they are moving the civilians away so that they aren¡¯t used of war crimes and ganged up on by their neighbors. The Tapani are in a rather precarious position, despite their military power. If the systems around them turn on them, they would be eaten alive, without the manpower to both fight a war and defend their northern borders against the Klem.¡± Nico told the group.


    That was close to what everyone else was thinking, but it could also be that they are stripping the system bare of assets and then nning to leave the civilians to die when the Kepler Empire retaliates against them, using the small system¡¯s legendary name as the source of the initial System as their own propaganda point.


    In the end, it would all boil down to exactly how ruthless the Tapani and the Rebels were willing to be with a civilian poption to get their way, and Max had already seen firsthand that they didn¡¯t hesitate to destroy Capital cities without warning to defeat the Loyalists.


    That was information that they all had already, and most of them had seen it in person, on the ground.

 Chapter 280 280 Mama Im Coming Home

    Chapter 280 280 Mama I''m Coming Home


    The entire trip went the same way, going over and over details, looking for anything that they had missed. Max and Nico, working together, managed to get a few details of the shipments leaving the system, but they were so obviously false that not even an idiot would believe that they had originated from Kepler Terminus.


    That wasn¡¯t really unexpected though, so once they got closer, Max started tuning into the local news stations, looking for new propaganda and other things that didn¡¯t add up with how he remembered things on Kepler Terminus.


    What was told to the general poption was usually the most telling of indicators that something was wrong on a, from an outside perspective. It didn¡¯t matter if they were saying everything was perfect, a new leader was amazing, or that the economy was being rebuilt in record time with an eye toward the future.


    From the outside looking in, when those messages changed and didn¡¯t match the reality, something was wrong, and the stronger the media maniption to make something seem like it was good or bad, therger the problem had gotten. Unfortunately for those on the, their information was controlled, so they would never know that they were being lied to.


    What Max found was that there was a huge scare on the Kepler Terminus news channels. Arge volcanic system had be active, and the fallout was going to make it impossible to live on the surface of the for decades toe.


    It was clearly false news, The Colony Ship had the technology to monitor the tectonic, seismic, and volcanic activity of any in its sensor range, and the only volcano that had detonatedtely had been artificially triggered by an orbital weapon.


    But the news made it clear that they were evacuating everyone who could afford to leave the, in preparation for something veryrge.


    ¡°General, if you don¡¯t mind I would like to contact someone on the, a Hacker I grew up with. He should have a great deal more information than is publicly avable, and for personal reasons, it would be good to see him off-world when things get ugly.


    ¡°Do it. We need all the information that we can get before things blow up here. I definitely do not want to be here when that happens. Sorry about your homeworld, but I get the feeling that it is about to meet an orbital bombardment that will make the destruction of Noctis Seven look like an afternoon pic.¡± General Yaakov replied.


    Max wasn¡¯t quite sure what he meant, but looking at the General¡¯s thoughts showed a pattern of ship movements that Max had missed. The Tapani fleet was sending arge number of orbital strike cruisers this way, with their hulls disguised to make them look more like Kepler ships.


    That was enough to cement the rebel¡¯s n in Max¡¯s mind, and he updated General Ming instantly, giving him all the details that he could, before sending an encrypted message to the, telling Dave to get to the main Cargo Station in orbit and meet with the Tarith Family there, then wait for more instructions.


    They had used this code before, mostly to avoid police raids, and it was one that Dave wouldn¡¯t question.


    Whether the crippled old veteran could actually get himself a ride to orbit was another question, but it was the best that Max could do without risking tipping anyone off about what was really going on, or who Dave was supposed to be meeting.


    Even if the Tapani read this message, it would look like a Reaver sending for an informant to find out about something on the, and that was perfectly normal activity, not something that they would be highly rmed with when the was sending dozens of ships a day away.


    The level of activity was bound to alert someone, and the fact that it had would only confirm to the Tapani that things were going ording to the n. First, the Reavers would find out, then they would profiteer, and then finally the Empire would show up. It was the way of the Gxy during almost every tragedy.


    [Cargo Station, Cargo Station, this is the Colony Ship Terminus, home to the Terminus Trading Company, requesting a docking assignment at the outer spur, due to the size of our vessel.] Admiral Drake informed the Station, broadcasting it to the ship so everyone could get ready.


    [Colony Ship Terminus, we have been expecting you. Proceed to Echo Seven Terminal and make yourself secure for atmosphere-stabilized loading.] The Station responded.


    That mean that whatever they were expecting was either living or very sensitive, so Max suspected that the Family was using their allied Reavers to get their people to safety.


    [DudeBro to Youngling, I am all out of smokes, can you meet me at the store?]


    The cryptic message was sent directly to Terminus, making Maxugh. Of all the ways that Dave could have chosen to tell him that he had made it to the Cargo Station, that had to be the greatest one that he could have chosen.


    But since Dave was in orbit, and the Tarith Family had arranged for them to pick up something that needed a stable atmosphere, Max had high hopes that they could get the people they cared about off the before things got really ugly.


    Echo Seven terminal wasn¡¯t thergest of them on the station, but it was run by the Reavers, andrge enough for their purposes, not hindering the Admiral from docking against it with a gentle thud, and then the hissing of maic locks engaging from both sides before the seals were engaged.


    The maintenance teams had put a lot of effort into making sure that the doors sealed properly over thest few days, and the smooth hiss as a formerly unused door engaged perfectly the first time was music to their ears.


    [Terminus securely docked, prepare for atmospheric bncing.]

 Chapter 281 281 Homecoming

    Chapter 281 281 Homing


    With the atmosphere stabilized between the vessel and the station, the doors slowly slid open, revealing arge group of people waiting for them behind the secondary airlock doors.


    Max and Nico both jumped down to the main level of the cargo bay, skipping the stairs entirely, but heading for different people in the crowd.


    ¡°Brother Dave, it is good to see you again.¡± Max greeted the wheelchair-bound veteran the moment the airlock doors opened.


    ¡°It is good to be seen. There are a lot of things that we need to talk about, but probably not here in the hallway. I do believe that the Reavers have a lot of stuff that they want to start loading on this oversized tin can. Where did you even find this thing?¡± Dave asked.


    ¡°You know, just floating about in space, with a pair of friendly Pirate ships guarding it for us. Real kind sorts, they even left us their ships when they went home.¡± Maxughed, stepping behind Dave to push his wheelchair onto the Terminus.


    Nico was talking to her family as he led his old friend into the ship. They didn¡¯t have any fancy spare rooms decorated, but they had a lot of materials to make basic things for guests, so it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to make a room for Dave near the other passengers.


    Of course, Nico¡¯s family might have something to help them out with that as well, but he would find out what they wanted once he was sure that Dave was somewhere safe and secure.


    Inquisitor Ming would also have a lot of questions for him, so that was where Max headed, to the meeting room where they strategized their actions for the next few weeks as the Tapani fleet arrived and the Klem began to makefall.


    ¡°You got here just in time. A few more days and I wouldn¡¯t have been able to even bribe my way off that rock. Things have gone insane down there. The slums have risen up in rebellion against the Bureaucracy, using them of being traitors to Kepler. There are foreigners everywhere, and everything of value has been moved off-world. There aren¡¯t even school books in most of the ssrooms anymore. Well, not that there really were, to begin with in our neighborhood, but you know what I mean.


    Thenst week, they shut down all civilian datamunication, and killed cell phone service, as an emergency measure to quell the riots, they said.


    Rumors are that it was your friend Nico¡¯s family that was stirring up themoners against the foreigners, but they have too much power for the government to go directly against them, or at least they did until the Tapani military arrived in orbit.


    I think they¡¯re nning to leave Kepler Terminus, and have the Imperial Fleet do aary Censure. They even sent the Cadets away yesterday on one of their vessels. Just like you, a so-called field trip, but with less than twelve hours notice to clear out every student and training Mecha from the entire academy.¡± Dave ranted.


    Those were some pretty serious usations, but if they moved the entire poption of the academy off the world, it made a lot of sense for them to be true. It would also exin the intense propaganda that they were seeing on the news, and theck of othermunications from the, when normally at least a few ground-based tradingpanies would attempt to contact a Colony Ship spotted in the vicinity, looking for a deal on whatever they were carrying.


    ¡°Alright, here we are. This is Inquisitor General Ming. He is in charge of unfucking situations for us.¡± Max exined, making Dave chuckle.


    ¡°Boy, I know better than anyone, a good Inquisitor can do a lot of things, but they can¡¯t fix this one.¡±


    The door opened from the inside as Inquisitor Ming weed them in, then smiled at Dave. ¡°I didn¡¯t think I would see you again. How was your retirement posting?¡±


    That took Max by surprise, Dave was an infantry soldier, how would he know a General from the Inquisition?


    ¡°Pretty cushy. I got one single alert the entire time, and he lived down the hall from me already. I believe you know Samantha Max?¡± Dave asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s Keres Max now. He changed it the moment he got off-world. But yes, you could say that we are acquainted. I will let you get back to retirement soon enough, but we can count this as both the second and thirdmendation in your file. Now, tell me everything that you know, and don¡¯t leave anything out.¡± The Inquisitor demanded.


    Reading their thoughts, Max got a basic outline of how they met. Dave¡¯s unit had been sent to some long-forgotten hellhole to dig out a forbidden chemical weapon, and the Inquisitor had been attached to their unit, posing as a Colonel recing one that had been killed in action.


    Once the mission was over, Dave was given one Commendation, which he used to take early retirement, but on their trip back the ship was attacked by scavengers, and Dave lost his legs. Since he was an infantryman, a Corporal, and retiring, he didn¡¯t meet the requirements to get augmentation, so they dumped him at home with a wheelchair and a lousy pension and called it a day.


    But Dave wasn¡¯t going to give up that easily, so he volunteered forary service with the Intelligence Agency. They would give him three missions toplete, and he would be eligible for Partial Conversion, which would both extend his life and let him walk again, better than new.


    Overseeing Max as a child was his first mission, something that he had managed to hide from Max, who had thought the paternal overseer was just Dave being Dave.


    To an extent it was, that was just how Dave was once he met the young Max, and his job didn¡¯t stop him from his little side projects, though the hacking and other activities might have prevented him from getting more missions afterward.

 Chapter 282 282 Homecoming Pt2

    Chapter 282 282 Homing Pt2


    The detailed situation was just as bad as the overview that Dave had given Max on the way in, and just before they finished, Nico, her Mom, and two other men dressed as Reavers came into the meeting room.


    ¡°Mom, dad, and the Reavers of the Tarith meet Colonel Max and Inquisitor General Ming. Gentlemen, we have some minor details that should likely be shared with you.¡± Nico announced as soon as they entered.


    Nico¡¯s mom found it was easier not to speak, so she handed them all a data tablet with an overview of theirbat ns, detailed data of the betrayal of bothary and Sector Governance as well as a log of all materials moved in and out of the Kepler Terminus system over thest year.


    ¡°This is as much as we could do. Until we had enough proof, we couldn¡¯t call in the Reavers, and now that the Tapani are here, it would be too big of a loss for us to do it, so we are asking you, as Tarith Reavers in service to the Kepler Empire, to take us to safety on Kepler 142.¡± She announced proudly.


    When he first met her over the holidays, she seemed like the normal momly mom of arge family, but seeing her now, he could understand where Nico got most of her personality from.


    The bloodthirsty was certainly from her past life, but her assertiveness, her sense of humor even in the direst of circumstances, and the very unexpected domestic nature were all inherited from her mom.


    ¡°Is something amusing, young Max?¡± The matriarch asked, staring Max down without effort.


    ¡°I was just thinking how your daughter resembles you so much it¡¯s uncanny. Not just in looks, but her entire personality.¡± Maxughed.


    ¡°Oh, do borate? What did she do that reminds you of me?¡±


    Nico¡¯s Dad and the two Reavers were intensely interested in what Max might say now, so he decided to add a few more details than the shortest version of the story.


    ¡°Has she told you about our firepower?¡± Max asked, and the family members nodded.


    ¡°Good, that saves time. Well one day, we were in the middle of a Klem invasion. We had just finished fighting off the initial wave, and I had passed out on the bunk for a few hours of sleep when I was woken up by the smell of Bacon.


    Nico had pulled apart ration packs to make me a proper breakfast wearing nothing but an apron, then thirty secondster, she was ready to take over the artillery while I ate breakfast.¡±


    That was a bit of a stretch on how things actually happened that day, but there was a naked apron breakfast, that much was true.


    ¡°Oh, now isn¡¯t that sweet? When should we n the wedding for? Spring on Kepler 142 was always nice when I went to visit.¡± Her momughed, clearly meaning a week from now when they arrived with everything that the family had managed to sneak off the before they were found out as the cause of the riots against the rebels.


    ¡°After our first tour is finished. I am still using my System Functions to adapt this mechanical body.¡± Nico informed her mom in a very serious voice.


    ¡°Speaking of family, I do apologize about yours, it was a rather unfortunate incident.¡± The Matriarch informed him.


    ¡°I hadn¡¯t gotten to that bit of news yet. Best ites from you.¡± Dave informed her.


    ¡°Your biological parents were executed by the pro-Kepler Militias as traitors. The rebel intelligence forces were offering narcotics and alcohol for information about potential subversives in the neighborhood. They were seen going in and were hit by a car on their way home.¡± Mary Tarith informed him.


    ¡°Somehow that is both depressing and entirely predictable. They always believed what they saw on the television, and they wouldn¡¯t have hesitated to turn in half the neighborhood for drugs, even if it wasn¡¯t true.¡± Max sighed.


    ¡°Dave was more parent to you than they were anyhow, and he¡¯s here, so I don¡¯t count it as much of a loss.¡± Nico shrugged, her callous attitude pulling Max away from depression.


    ¡°Thanks a lot,¡± Max replied in his most sarcastic tone, but Nico only winked at him.


    ¡°How much do you haveing aboard?¡± Max asked, thinking ahead to how much space they would need to make in order to fully load the shipment.


    ¡°If you can clear six cargo bays the size of the one we arrived in, that should about do it.¡± Mary Tarith informed him happily.


    Six bays the size of the one they entered was over two hundred meters long, an enormous amount of storage space. But as a colony ship, they had it avable.


    ¡°Including or not including quarters for your personnel?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Plus quarters for ten thousand. Though a number of them are security staff that we pulled from various businesses, so they can be housed in the same bays as their equipment. They¡¯re soldiers, they should be used to it.¡± Mary replied with a smile.


    She had a point, even aboard the Dutchman, the entire Regiment shared cargo bays with their Mecha. They had made it into a veryfortable living arrangement after a little while, so as long as there were raw materials, there was no reason that the Tarith family guards would suffer.


    ¡°Alright, we can work with that. Six bays in a block, on the far side of the ship, so if anyone doese looking to see what we are doing, they will see a lot of friendly faces, just Reavers being Reavers, and a bit of cargo.¡± General Yaakov announced, walking in at the end of the meeting.


    ¡°They briefed me down in the cargo docks, so I have a detailed listing of what we need to move aboard, now bring me up to speed on what happened here.¡± The General asked, and Max made a hasty retreat, pushing Dave so that they wouldn¡¯t have to sit through that exnation for the third time.


    ¡°Hey, I hate to ask this, but security on the ground was a bit tight. Do you have any smokes?¡± Dave asked as they rolled down the hall.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve got smokes. I¡¯ll stop in and grab you some from the First Battalion Supply bays. You will love these new Mecha we¡¯ve got.¡± Maxughed, d that Dave was still the same as always.

 Chapter 283 283 Upgrading Lunch

    Once Max had rolled Dave all the way to the aft of the ship where his unit was stationed, he had a pretty decent idea of what had happened in the old neighborhood since he left. The Police presence picked up, the drugs and violence got worse and worse, and the factories nearby were repurposed from general goods to high tech which none of the workers from the slums were qualified to make, so a lot of people lost their jobs, making things even worse.


    ¡°What about the twins, and the other ones that my mother was scheduled to have?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°They lost them all, just after you left. Theary Inquisition was at the clinic in the neighborhood when she came to give birth, and I suspect they were looking for you, now that I know you had already left the. But what they found was your mother, all strung out on drugs, and they called Child Services to take the kids away.


    But she was so high that she didn¡¯t understand who they were looking for and insisted that she never had a son, only one older daughter who had cruelly abandoned her to a life of poverty.


    They assumed that she was mentally deficient, and coupled with the drugs, Child Services determined that it was for the best if they just took all the children away from her.


    I have no idea where they went, but we never saw them again, so I think that they put them into a cement in a better neighborhood, not into the foster system. You know how popr kids younger than toddlers are among parents looking to adopt.¡± Dave exined.


    ¡°Well, at least they weren¡¯t left at the house to starve to death when one day nobody came home for them. If it wasn¡¯t for you, that might have happened to me long before they stopped showing up for good.


    But I would like to know where they are now, with everything going wrong on the. Nico is a better hacker than either of us could hope to be, her Innate Talent lets her control technology with her mind, and she can just straight bypass security measures instead of trying to crack passwords and decode encryptions. I will ask her to look into it here in a minute.¡± Max told his friend, then paused before opening the Mecha hangar door.


    ¡°I hope that you¡¯re ready for this old man. These aren¡¯t the Mecha of your Generation.¡± Max teased, then pushed the button to open the st doors.


    ¡°By the Emperor, your force has four Phnx ss Mecha, and they¡¯re all artillery pattern? No wonder you had the guts to actually stay and face a Klem invasion.¡± Dave muttered, making Maxugh.


    ¡°My Battalion has four Phnx ss Mecha. There are twenty of them aboard the ship right now, all identical. Then there are the new pattern Crusaders. You would love these Fast Attack Pattern ones. Infernus Pattern the troops have started calling them, thanks to the Fusion mer on their arm.


    These things can melt rock to liquid and burn even the toughest of bugs to ash.¡± Max bragged.


    ¡°Keep talking them up like that and I¡¯m going to need an alone moment. But let¡¯s go see these Mecha up close.¡± Dave joked, rolling himself forward down the ramp, picking up speed as he went.


    Now that he was aboard their ship, and they had the technology, Max thought he should check the Tarith Family passengers for an augmentic doctor. They could patch Dave up as good as new and he would be ready to walk off the ship by the time they reached Kepler 142.


    ¡°Commander, who might this old infantryman be?¡± One of the techs called, as Dave rolled up to the leg of Enduring Rage and began stroking it with the sort of affection only someone whose life has been saved by Mecha could know.


    ¡°This is my childhood friend and caretaker, Dave. Take good care of him for me, would you? I need to grab him a pack of smokes from the supply.¡± Max called back.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother, I have a fresh pack on me. The troops didn¡¯t hold back with the requests, so we have a year¡¯s supply of smokes in the cold storage.¡± The tech replied.


    ¡°That should keep them fresh. Have you had any luck with the programming for those material rbiners that the Terminus came with? The ones that made the food paste crap?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Well, kind of? It¡¯s a work in progress since Nico has been too busy to trante everything for us, but we have the basics down, and now it makes Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches, but the bread in the sandwiches tastes pretty basic.¡± The Tech exined.


    ¡°Better than ration biscuits?¡± Dave asked.


    ¡°Not many things aren¡¯t better than Ration Biscuits. But it¡¯s still a pretty basic meal.¡± The tech shrugged.


    ¡°I could live on Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese. I am also a fairly skilled programmer, why don¡¯t you let me see what you¡¯re up to?¡± Dave asked.


    Max nodded his permission to give ess to the isted unit that they had pulled out of storage for the tests, fearing that modifying one of the linked ones mounted in the ship might destroy them all if they made a mistake during the process. And they had made mistakes, more than a few, some of which might actually be a new variety of bioweapon.


    Dave tapped away happily at the screen for a while, shocking the technicians, who had spent almost the entire time just learning the aliennguage before beginning to work.


    ¡°How are you doing that?¡± The tech asked as Dave worked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need to read theirnguage, I can read your codingnguage and go from there. The major problem is that whoever created this isn¡¯t a cook. They inserted the final product for the bread, but not the ingredients and process, which the machine was looking for, so it is estimating the missing steps, see the error codes that came up. I can¡¯t see what they mean, but they only ur in the bread, since the rest of the meal is simplybining and heating to temperature.


    Try it now, and I think that you should have a nice breadyer, with a crispy crust, like the sourdough I made at home.


    The tech activated the machine, and the meal came out the same as always, but with a small change, the sandwich now had a crust to it, and a distinct smell of toast, not the nd nothingness that it had before. The Tech ced a piece under the sensor suite beside the device and hummed happily as he read the oue.


    ¡°It looks safe to eat. We have been using a Cyborg to taste test everything since they can stop their stomach from digesting anything and therefore won¡¯t get poisoned, even if we fed them a stone.¡± The tech exined, but Dave went straight for the sandwich and dunked it in the soup.


    ¡°Yep, definitely edible. I lived on Military rations for almost a decade, no simple synthetic sandwich is going to hurt this stomach.¡±

 Chapter 284 284 Loading

    Chapter 284 284 Loading


    The process of loading everything that the Tarith family was bringing on board was a long one, as expected of a shipmentrge enough to fill multiple standard freighters. At a Kilometer long, the Kepler Bulk Freighters were consideredrge by any nation¡¯s standards, except for a few in the far north of the Gxy for whom intergctic expansion was their primary objective.


    To those select few, even the Colony ship Terminus was considered too small to be adequately sized for their purposes.


    They had moved most of the items listed as valuables, personal effects, and furniture aboard, and had started on the civilian poptions, moving them into the upper decks of the central part of the Terminus, where they could be safely monitored by the crew, and out of the way of the loading efforts in the middle decks.


    Now, they were starting to load the so-called industrial equipment, better described as the family¡¯s agricultural machinery and mecha stockpiles.


    Nico was watching it alle in from an upper observation deck, where she was seated beside her mother, who was carefully tracking every item that entered the ship and checking it off her tablet of family inventory.


    ¡°With all this, and a Colony Ship, why don¡¯t you head somewhere new? There are still arge number ofs that haven¡¯t been settled and are outside of any nation¡¯s zone. In fact, the Tarith Reavers even already have a dubious im to the Rae 5.


    After the battle against the Klem, we dug an underground base and left it behind in case a Kepler Loyalist force needed shelter, or a Rebel force came by for verification that there was indeed a Reaver presence on the, in case they began to suspect that they had been hoodwinked.


    Going to an inhabited, with lots of resources and a Mecha force of your own would let the family begin to rebuild their own new Kepler 142. A under the Family¡¯s rule, where they could control things well enough to prevent the corruption that has rotted away the Kepler Bureaucracy.¡± Nico suggested.


    ¡°That is an outstanding idea, but going there directly might just bring our enemies to us.¡± Mary Tarith pointed out.


    ¡°Enemies of the Kepler Empire, leaving Kepler Territory and disappearing after a raid on a Reaver outpost? They would be aughingstock of every nation in the vicinity if it didn¡¯t work out wlessly for them, and it would give the Reavers a new safe to work from. I know a number of them have been lost to political alliances turning neutral ports.¡±


    ¡°How is the terraforming? Is the habitable?¡± Mary asked.


    ¡°It is. Perhaps I should get the Generals and the Admiral here before we go any further. I know they¡¯re expecting a trip to Kepler 142, but I¡¯m also fairly sure they wouldn¡¯t mind taking a small detour if it involved a n to lure the Rebels out of hiding.¡± Nico suggested.


    ¡°Fine, bring them here, but not until we finish loading. I am going to try to get a few final items up from the since our ns might be changing. I will let you know in a few minutes if everything is alright.¡± Mary informed her daughter with a pat on the head.


    Nico wasn¡¯t officially privy to family secrets or the exact contents of the shipment, but that was no hindrance to her with her Innate Talent, so she had a very clear view of what the Tarith Family had brought with them, and what they could try to bring up from the.


    Or at least, she thought she did, until her mother started requisitioning items from the Kepler Terminus Settlement museum. The remaining relics of colonization were there, including terraforming equipment,rge-scale building printers, and many more items that would only ever be needed on a lightly inhabited, where city-scale construction projects were ongoing.


    The Museum Curator seemed happy that someone was interested in preserving their relics since they had been fearing the worst, in the form of the¡¯s destruction, so he was happy tomission the flight himself, with no links to the Tarith Family other than the destination aboard this space station.


    It would take almost an hour to get a ship and get it into orbit, due to the traffic volumes at the moment, but they would still be loading at that point in time.


    Therge volume of shipments was beginning to get noticed by the station¡¯s crew though, so things might not be smooth forever. Theary Government ran the station, and most of them had joined the rebellion against the Empire, meaning that when they started asking questions it would be time to leave, even if they didn¡¯t have quite everything that they had hoped for.


    It was better to leave without a few luxuries than to be trapped at a station with an iing hostile military fleet out for your destruction, especially when your ship wasn¡¯t the fastest thing in the fleet.


    If they could make a clean getaway, they could take the Colony ship through a neb or other high-interference area, throwing off all attempts to track them. But that would take at least a day or two without being positively located and followed, more time than they were likely to have.


    The other option was to move to the border and try to get a signal to the Imperial Inquisition, outing the Rebel fleet, and turning the area into a huge shooting gallery, with the surviving forces being left entirely up to luck.


    Obviously, that was not the preferred option.


    ¡°Alright, the shipment from the Museum is on its way up, and the Station staff have been bribed to look the other way until after we are gone. Now, bring in the Generals, and we can start working on a n to get to an uninhabited system and possibly have a fleet meet us there.¡± Mary Tarith announced with a smile much more bright than the situation seemed to call for.

 Chapter 285 285 Welcoming Committee

    By the time the museum pieces had arrived at the station, everything else had been loaded, including over a thousand civilians as part of the Tarith Family retinue.


    How they got that many people off the without anyone noticing was a mystery to Max, who was still back toward the aft of the ship with Dave, while the old veteran smoked and told war stories to every technician willing to listen. He had been a bit lonely since Max left, taking all the noise and activity of a preteen boy with him.


    Nico and Major Miller were watching the door, with a squad of mixed Mecha from the Fifth Battalion stationed on the other side of the internal doors, in case there was trouble with the station.


    A line ofrge transport dollies came into view, with a young man in a suede jacket riding in the lead cart along with a member of the station staff. The man was waving happily, clearly not in the loop on the fact that this was actually a ndestine departure.


    ¡°Terminus Trading Company? That¡¯s you right? I have all the museum pieces that we could get in the relic Lander here with me and ready to be loaded.¡± The young curator exined.


    ¡°Straight into the bay gentlemen, we will take them off the station dollies and sort them afterward. This is ourst shipment before departure.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine by us.¡± The driver called back, then slowly pulled the line of roller dollies loaded with machinery into the Colony Ship.


    Once they were inside, the line stopped, but nobody moved, as they usually would, to release the locks on the machinery so that the loading bay cranes could remove them.


    ¡°Say, what¡¯s the price for a one-way trip out of here?¡± The driver asked with a conspiratorial smile.


    ¡°For how many?¡± Nico replied in her artificial business tone, doing her best to hide her eagerness to help a few more civilians leave before things got really bad.


    ¡°Thirty-five, including the curator. I know it¡¯s short notice, but I would appreciate it if you would give us a lift.¡± The driver replied.


    ¡°Fine, close the station doors and secure the airlock. We will be ready to depart in three minutes.¡± Nico announced.


    The whole bay turned to organized chaos, as the staff activated the remote locking procedure for the station doors, then set the atmosphere in the containment zone to purge after one minute, so that the docking mps would automatically release without the need for a manual override that would alert the station¡¯s senior officers that something unusual was happening.


    The Ship¡¯s doors closed, and exactly one minuteter, the lights at the door went green, indicating that they were free of their securement and ready to depart the station.


    [Colony Ship Terminus to Station Command, requesting a clearne for trantion to faster than light.] The Admiral requested when he saw the ship was free of the station. He moved them just far enough away that the locks couldn¡¯t engage again and waited for the reply with his hands on themand terminal.


    [Colony Ship Terminus, follow the route provided out of the star system before trantion, this is a no Warp zone. It was a pleasure doing business with you.] Station Command replied, sending through a set of coordinates that would send them in an entirely different direction than any of the other ships leaving the system.


    ¡°Admiral to Mary Tarith. Can you check this route? It looks suspicious to me.¡± The Admiral requested, forwarding it to the terminal in the Loading Bay observation room.


    ¡°No, that route is approved, it is the standard route for Reavers to leave the station so that they don¡¯t show up among the general cargo traffic. Station Command is still among the Loyalists.¡± Mary replied, before going back into her tablet¡¯s logs to double-check their supply load records.


    The bulky Colony Ship began to make its way out of the system just as the first Tapani attack cruisers arrived in the system, following the standard trade routes. Max saw that Nico was recording everything and that there were no fewer than twenty other officers also watching the surveince sensors on the Colony Ship, so he hoped that nothing important would be missed in tomorrow¡¯s briefing.


    They didn¡¯t go straight to the station though, they stopped a freighter and boarded it at the edge of the system before Terminus left sensor range, baffling most of the officers, and causing General Yaakov to add it as a point for the next strategic meeting.


    ¡°I think I know what Tapani is after here. Kepler Terminus was the origin of the System. The AI is very particr, and won¡¯t transfer itself to people it doesn¡¯t recognize as friendly to itself, including most non-Kepler descendants born in the Empire. I think that they¡¯re after the source to try to modify it for their own use, to spread the System outside of Kepler.¡± Nico informed the Command staff.


    That could be a nightmare for the Empire, but there wasn¡¯t anything that they could do about it right now, the Tapani Military was more than capable of dealing with one Colony Ship, and if they turned back, there was no way that the Terminus could outrun them to even attempt a nking maneuver to pick off the most vulnerable.


    ¡°I will send it to Imperial Command right away. I know there is a fleet already dispatched to the sector.¡± General Ming replied almost instantly, followed by a message from the Admiral.


    ¡°We are not alone on this route. Five vessels of unknown origin at a stop ahead, blockade formation. Should we hail them or attempt to pass by?¡± The Admiral asked.


    Mary Tarith tapped a few times at her data tablet, then responded to the Admiral before anyone else could.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t responding to Reaver security codes. They¡¯re not one of ours.¡±


    That was good enough for the Admiral. He altered course to give them a wide berth without entirely leaving thene he was assigned to and prepared to engage the Warp Drive.

 Chapter 286 286 Too Demanding

    The Admiral smoothly shifted the Colony Ship to faster-than-light travel, while setting the alert for all units to stand by in preparation to be attacked.


    All the Pilots that were previously off duty were running for their Mecha as the Colony Ship passed by the blockade without being challenged. But that wouldn¡¯tst long, all of the ships that were waiting in the channel turned to follow them, not overtaking, but following closely behind them as the muchrger vessel glided through space.


    [We have alerted the Reaver fleet to a Pirate threat. The ships following us still aren¡¯t answering any of our attempts at contact.] Nico reported to the Command Staff as she jogged to the rear of the ship to join Max inside Enduring Rage.


    [The nearest response is two Destroyer ss Reaver vessels, seven hours away. They are iing at maximum speed, but it is up to us to hold out that long.] Mary Tarith reported.


    [The energy weapons of the Super Heavy Units should be capable of bringing down the shielding of the ships behind us. No guarantees about casualty rates until we can confirm their firepower.] General Yaakov reported, having just finished analyzing the enemy shielding.


    [One vessel per Battalion should be possible for us. I rmend targeting by Battalion, starting from the Port side with the First Battalion.] Max rmended.


    As they were strategizing, an energy pulse streaked across their bow, exploding in space in front of them and destabilizing their warp field for a moment, but not enough to drop them back to slower-than-light travel.


    Finally, the enemy ships were taking action, and Max noticed that they had just crossed the border, officially out of Kepler Terminus System space. That must have been what they were waiting for, the chance to attack without being targeted by automated defenses or iing Kepler Fleet ships, who wouldn¡¯t care about a fight between Reavers and Pirates.


    [Reaver Vessel Terminus, stop your engines and prepare to be boarded. Sector Command has issued a bounty for the War Criminals aboard your ship.] The central ship behind them reported.


    ¡°Great, they¡¯re bounty hunters and morons at that. We should ask them which war criminals they mean, just to piss them off.¡± Nico joked.


    [Terminus to the following fleet, we have looked in the cargo hold twice but found no War Criminals, kindly bugger off before we are forced to take defensive actions.] Admiral Drake replied.


    [First Battalion, that means get ready to deploy. Prepare the Cargo hold for emergency deployment, restraining tethers on all units.] Max ordered, and the Technicians hurried to check all the tethers before exiting the bay with all loose objects that could be ejected by ident if the bay was opened.


    A full volley of fire met the rear shields of Terminus, but the Colony Ship was no slouch in the defense department, and the barrier held strong.


    [Dropping from warp speed. Dead stop iing, all Mecha prepare to deploy] Admiral Drake announced.


    The ship gently shuddered as it tranted back to regr speed and the reverse thrusters almost made the enemy ships overtake them before they couldpensate for the faster-than-average trantion of Terminus¡¯ engines.


    [They¡¯re right on us. Deploy Now.] General Yaakov ordered, and the full Regiment raced for the exits.


    With the tethers on, most of them wouldn¡¯t go far from the ship, but the Infernus Pattern Fast Attack Mecha disengaged theirs to close the few hundred meters to the enemy vessels, priming their Disruptors for an attack on the enemy bridge.


    An interster ship was extremely well radiation shielded, so it likely wouldn¡¯t punch through to injure the crew inside, but with the outer hull damaged the ships would be in trouble when the energy shields went down.


    The Super Heavy Mecha focused fire on the bridges of all five ships, depleting their shields in an instant, and then the fast attack Mecha went to work, damaging the outer hull.


    [Armor ting depleted.] Max¡¯s Fast Attack Team reported.


    [Mass Drivers, full output, aim for the breach in the hull. Let¡¯s give them a taste of Kepler High Explosives.] Max ordered, not slowing the attacks from the arm-mounted energy weapons before sending shells from the Thunder Guns into the ships.


    The substructure proved more resilient than expected, and most of the explosions vented into space and didn¡¯t breach the hull, but a few managed to, and the ship on the far Port side that Max was engaging turned to break away from the Colony ship.


    [Target the Engines, these Bounty Hunters are not leaving here today.] Max ordered, changing his target.


    The Warp Drives were a vulnerable spot on any ship, and therefore heavily shielded, but ship-to-shipbat typically didn¡¯t see the level of instant firepower that four Super Heavy Mecha could deploy, and the barrier behind the bounty hunters vessel began to flicker and pulse before a single Ion Bombard round made its way through and the warp drive went dark.


    [Port vessel disabled, switch target to the others.] Max ordered, turning his fire on the ship that Second Battalion was targeting. They had put all shields to the rear, attempting to save their engines, but that left the rest of the ship undefended, and the First Battalion targeted everything they could, from airlock doors to the existing breach near the bridge of the ship.


    With a sh of light, the vessel went to warp, but the stream of fire and venting atmosphere left in its wake would be easy for anyone to follow, and a bad sign for their chances of survival. Warp Travel was stressful on the hull of the ships, and they had to be specifically designed to mitigate the forces. If there was too much damage, the warp field could break the structure apart and leave them floating in space in multiple pieces.


    Fifth Battalion also managed to disable their target, but the third and fourth did not, leaving two more trails through space, marking the departure of a damaged vessel.


    [Everyone back inside. Whoever sent those bounty hunters after us is bound to have a n B.] General Yaakov ordered, marking the end of the fight.


    The bounty hunters could deal with the Reavers if they were still here when the reinforcements arrived. Though even if they tried to flee, they would have a lot to answer for, as the Reavers took an attack on any of them as a personal affront, not just Reavers that were part of their own fleet.

 Chapter 287 287 Into The Void

    Chapter 287 287 Into The Void


    When Terminus trante back to warp speed, the Admiral turned them away from the Kepler borders and further into the Empire, where they would have a higher probability ofing across a military patrol, and not the revenge of whoever sent the bounty hunters after them.


    They didn¡¯t even know which of them was being used of War Crimes yet, though it might just be the entire Command Staff on the ship, depending on how the determination was made and who made it.


    Certainly, there were a few schrly sorts who would argue that the Disruptor and the Fusion mer were both impermissible as weapons of war, no matter how effective they were.


    [No pursuing vessels detected, clearing the border areas now.] The Admiral reported to the ship a few hourster, letting them breathe a sigh of relief.


    Terminus hadn¡¯t taken much damage from the Bounty Hunters¡¯ return fire, but any damage was more than they would prefer since they didn¡¯t fully understand the ship¡¯s construction and they didn¡¯t have a full design schematic, only a structuralyout.


    That was the downside to being on an alien Colony Ship, they didn¡¯t really know much about its construction, and how it was intended to be properly repaired, or even if it was. More than a few cultures over the Millennia had sent out Colony ships on a one-way mission, intending for them to be dismantled at the end of the journey and not survive any longer than that.


    Of course, that had proven to be a mistake in most cases, as damages in transit often left that variety of ships too mangled to fully terraform and Colonize a once they arrived, leading to harsh lives or even the loss of the Colonists.


    The shields of the Mecha had held up well against the small defensive Lasers of the enemy ships though, well enough that most units didn¡¯t even think to destroy them. Max certainly hadn¡¯t and he didn¡¯t have any of the Mecha suffer breached shields either, though that could be due to the effectiveness of the first spot that they chose to target.


    General Yaakov had gathered all the Command Officers in his room, as well as Mary Tarith and the Reaver named Jeff who was formerly in charge of the operations on Kepler Terminus Station.


    ¡°Rae 5 appears to be our best bet. We will have to cross through rebel territory and close to what I am calling the Tapani upation, but that should help draw them to us. Major Nico here has generously offered to assist in increasing the Colony Ship¡¯s shield output since it wasn¡¯t designed for war, and the Imperial Inquisition has been in contact with General Ming.¡± General Yaakov reported, before deferring to the other General.


    ¡°The Inquisition forces have identified seventeen rebels in the area, including Kepler Terminus, which is currently in a state of civil war. In response, a battle fleet of seventy-two heavy Transports, plus Cruisers, Destroyers, and Cutter escorts has been dispatched to arrive within forty-eight hours.


    Their only request is that we attempt to draw Tapani¡¯s attention. If we can prevent them from going all in on the defense of the Rebels, the fleet believes that they can take them with minimal losses, then turn the space-based assets on the invaders and drive them out.


    As you know, Tapani isn¡¯trge enough of a nation to deal with that sort of fight and may choose not to engage at all, if they are given time to think before they have to engage.¡±


    The General made good sense, but trying to pull an entire small nation¡¯s fleet away from the front lines with just one Colony ship was an impossible task. They likely couldn¡¯t even draw enough away for the fleet to take back Kepler Terminus without a major fight.


    ¡°What do you propose that we do?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°I know it might sound a little crazy, but I want to use the Colony ship for its intended purpose, to terraform Rae 5, and then send out an open channel message that the System is now a free port, Reaver controlled and open to all Reaver business.¡± General Ming insisted.


    ¡°You want to create an independent nation on an uninhabited and make people believe that it is a threat? It¡¯s close to Tapani, but I can¡¯t see that working.¡± Max pointed out.


    ¡°Only, it won¡¯t be uninhabited, will it? We have city-scale construction equipment aboard Terminus, we can build entire empty cities on the to draw the enemy¡¯s attention, and scatter what few people we have through them as defenders. The message should draw a few Reaver fleets who are short a home base to us, and anyone who answers will be ready for a fight.


    The Kepler Fleet has many contacts among the Reavers, and they pay well, so I have hopes that our n will work. I am also trying to get a portion of the Kepler Fleet to join us there to stop the Tapani counterattack.¡± General Ming replied.


    ¡°And after this fight? What do we get out of all this risk? This is my Family we¡¯re putting on the line for your n.¡± Mary Tarith pointed out.


    ¡°Rae 5. When the battle is over, you get to keep the, though I suspect you will be sharing it with a number of other Reaver forces. You can organize them how you like, and we need multiple cities built on the for this n to work, so there should be enough space to go around.¡± General Ming replied with a smile, matched by Mary Tarith.


    ¡°A free for the defense of the free? That¡¯s not a terrible deal. Put that in writing, with the Emperor¡¯s mark on it and you¡¯ve got a deal, I will have the fleet call as many as they can.¡± Mary Tarith agreed.


    Max just shook his head at the insanity. The Reavers were a wild and free bunch, the only use they would have for a was to rx and party after a hard mission, and to make repairs. If Reaver fleets controlled an entire, even the Death Winds Territory, known for its Mercenaries and danger might be impressed at the level of debauchery.

 Chapter 288 288 Big Plans

    The process to get an official agreement from the Emperor, at least when General Ming was asking, was a surprisingly short one. Within an hour, they had an official deed, granting Rae 5 to the Tarith Reavers to do what they wanted in exchange for their assistance in dealing with the Rebels¡¯ alliance with the Tapani.


    Mary Tarith used that as leverage to get a lot of other Reavers on board with the deal, promising them the use of cities that Terminus would construct, and for some of therger groups, rights to put a Space Station in orbit around the for their own personal use.


    It was like heaven to the Reavers.


    Now, all they had to do was make sure that Tapani High Command noticed the wave of Reavers heading for the uninhabited buffer system, and didn¡¯t notice that some of them were in fact Kepler Military Vessels.


    For the Reavers, their ships were precious and hard-earned, nearly impossible to rece. For the Kepler Fleet, ships were just another line item, so the intention was to have Kepler forces deal with most of the orbital fleet, and the Reavers deal with anything that directly threatened their control of the since their presence was officially only to distract the enemies of the Emperor.


    The response was muchrger than anyone could have anticipated. Over the next six hours, they received responses from over fifty Reaver fleets looking for a cut of the deal, and Four Death Wind Mercenary Companies looking for use of repair and cross-dock facilities to move their goods from ship to ship.


    All of that could be built and agreed to without issues, they would just need to borrow a small asteroid from the field in the outskirts of the Star System so that they would have the raw materials to create a Space Stationrge enough.


    Rae 5¡¯s habitable didn¡¯t have a proper moon of its own to control its motion, so putting an especiallyrge space station in orbit would actually be for the benefit of the¡¯s habitability. It would help stabilize the rotation and the tides, as well as provide a brutal final line of defense.


    Mary Tarith had big ns for her new home, and to Max, it looked like she wanted to live in a fortress world.


    ¡°Are you nning on fighting something bigger than Tapani afterward?¡± He asked, looking at the ns for a series of highly armed defensive stations around the system.


    ¡°Not particrly. We agreed that everyone would have their own space in the system, we didn¡¯t say that they would all be in orbit of the same. If we space them out around all of the mid-zones, we can give everyone more space to work in privacy, out of the direct line of sight of theirpetition. That will make them a bit happier than all being crowded around one, and we can provide an open trading port for general purposes.¡± Mary Tarith said proudly.


    ¡°What Mother means is that the defensive weapons on those moon-sized space stations would blow any approaching fleet out of the system, and the scatter of thes means that there would be no safe angle to approach from 99 years out of one hundred.¡± Nico tranted.


    It was a bit hardcore, but who was he to argue? The Reavers kept trade in the Gxy moving, and if they were going to get their very own star system to use as a distribution hub, here in the southwestern quadrant of the Gxy, they could do what they wanted with it.


    Where they would find the manpower to actually do all that was the question. Terminus had great terraforming tools aboard it now, but they were museum pieces, and not intended for use in space.


    [Terminus Trading Company, do you mind if we convoy with you?] A signal came through to them, alerting the Admiral.


    It wasn¡¯t a Reaver code, but a Kepler Civilian one that anyone could be using.


    ¡°Nico, we need a patch through thest contact. I want to know who is sending us messages and if they are legit.¡± Admiral Drake messaged directly to Nico¡¯smunicator.


    ¡°I¡¯m on it, give me a few minutes to message back,¡± Nico replied, preparing to establish a connection to the approaching vessel.


    She was only working for a few seconds before she stopped and sent a positive reception message.


    [Terminus Trading Company to Civilian merchant vessel Monarch, I see we all have the same destination in mind, please do join our convoy. You will be pleasantly surprised with what we have prepared at the destination.]


    The message wasn¡¯t encoded, encrypted, or even sent in pulses to try to keep it from being detected, like two unconcerned merchants casually chatting about public business on the public airwaves.


    That could only mean that it was exactly the opposite of that, and soon after Nico sent the radio information of the lead ship that had contacted them. It was a Kepler Destroyer, three times the size of Terminus, with an armament that could annihte a small nation¡¯s entire fleet in an instant.


    But it wasn¡¯t alone, it was traveling with three Mecha Carriers and eighteen Battle Cruisers in a formation designed to confuse enemy sensors and make their fleet look like close to fifty much smaller vessels.


    So, Terminus led the way to the Rae 5 system, with the Military in tow,ughing and joking like old friends over the airwaves and talking about the profits that were to be made once this deal is done.


    They didn¡¯t specifically mention Rae 5, but they were headed straight there. Any idiot could follow their route, and they were hoping that a certain group of idiots would try.


    [Admiral Drake to all units, we have detected hostile signatures iing. After we trante into the Rae 5 system, we will have four hours before their arrival to make our presence look legitimate.]


    That wasn¡¯t much time, but if they could get the Military to tow some asteroids into orbit and ce smaller vessels near them, to appear to be Reaver work vessels while hiding the fleet itself inside the disruptive atmosphere of the Gas Giant, they should be able to make this ambush work.

 Chapter 289 289 Tweedle Dee

    They weren¡¯t alone when they reached Rae 5 though, there were already over a hundred Reaver vessels in the System, some of which were pulling asteroids and otherrge ore deposits with them in preparation for the construction of a massive scale industrialplex.


    The sight seemed to amuse Nico more than anyone else, but that might only be because she had hacked into the military transmission encoding and knew what their response was to this sight.


    There was no way that they weren¡¯t panicking about the fact that literally hundreds of Reaver ships were in the system preparing it to be a major industrial producer. For one, the Nations relied on the Reavers to be their transport vessels between each other, despite many of them officially denying it. For two, nobody in the military knew what exactly it was that they were nning to produce.


    Did they steal the design schematics to build something incredible? Were they going to be making a y as Industrial Mecha producers, since it was well known that most of their defense forces were built from them? Or could it be something much more sinister? Not knowing was not fun for the Kepler Fleet, even if they were allies at this point.


    [Wee to Rae 5 everyone, home of the Reavers. We have a few hours before we have unwanted guests, so please prepare your defenses in the meantime, and we will hold a proper meeting on the surface of the habitable afterward. Thank you all for your assistance in this matter.] Nico broadcasted to the ships in the system, confirming that they hadn¡¯t been conned.


    The Kepler Fleet dropped a handful of random Asteroids, as if they had been in tow and abandoned, then hid in thergest¡¯s perpetual storms, waiting for their guests to arrive.


    Mary Tarith was already making an inventory of who had put what where inside the system so that she could alter the ns to respect the spots that they had already imed. So far nobody had imed the space around the main habitable, recognizing it as the territory of the Tarith Reavers, who were still en route, as they stopped to pick up something that they deemed important along the way.


    Just under an hourter, the first of the Tarith Reavers arrived, immediately dropped onto the main in the system, and began deploying construction machines in various spots. They had stopped to acquire a number of low-cost building constructors that could build a high rise in a single day. Left alone, they could build an entire metropolis in a year or two, which was still well within the timeline of most of the Reaver troupes, who expected to take years to finish constructing their orbital bases before they nned to start making real inroads into popting the with their members and allies.


    The amount of firepower in this one system was mind-boggling to most of the observers, but Max¡¯s System enhanced mind was already working on the odds for a space battle.


    ¡°They know that someone aboard this ship is a Kepler Officer, or they wouldn¡¯t have sent Bounty Hunters to apprehend us. Has there been any word on the ones we left disabled?¡± Max asked Nico, who was the unofficialms officer of the ship at the moment.


    ¡°Nothing yet, they were gone when the Reavers passed by, so it is suspected that their friends came back for them. No sign of a destroyed vessel in the area, so they weren¡¯t disposed of.¡± Nico replied while scanning throughmunications.


    ¡°I will be happier when I know what they know,¡± Max told her, knowing she could take a hint.


    He had a lot to do today, making sure the Battalion was ready for Combat. In space, the distance didn¡¯t matter as much, and the Ion Bombard Arrays would fire energy bursts that were stable for thousands of kilometers. In practice, that still wasn¡¯t far, but it made them a deadly defensive weapon when they locked themselves to the hull of a ship.


    It was amon practice among Reavers to use their Mecha as additional ship weapons, sending out Heavy Mecha to fight alongside their vessel to increase their odds against any sort of hostile threat.


    All of the Tapani ships should know that already and have some sort of n for it, and that was where the Kepler Fleet came into y. Before the invaders could wipe out the Reavers, they were supposed to intervene and wipe them out.


    [Iing Fleet has spotted us. Not like we were hiding anyhow. They have increased speed and should be tranting from warp speeds in under thirty minutes.] Nico reported to the arrayed Reavers.


    [This is our spot, nobody else¡¯s. If a sad little nation like Tapani thinks that they can take it from us, they are going to have an enlightening day.] One of the Reaver Captains replied, bringing a round of raucousughter to the radio.


    The Tapani could obviously hear them and decrypt their signals, so they would know that the fleet was ready for them. That made Max curious about what exactly they had brought with them to deal with the colonization of Rae 5.


    Like the Kepler Fleet, their pattern was designed to cause interference and make it hard to decipher their numbers, but it was a veryrge fleet, over fifty vessels for sure. Under normal circumstances, that would be a close fight against the reavers, unless they brought something unexpected with them.


    But with the Kepler ships in wait, it would be a giant mess.


    [Terminus Trading Company to all Reaver Vessels, I have an iing modification for you that I believe you will enjoy. If you can implement it before our unwanted guests arrive, I¡¯m sure they will enjoy it as well.] Max thought that was a taunt to the Tapani at first until he saw that Nico really had sent something to the Reaver fleet.


    ¡°Nico, what did you just do?¡± He asked over his wristmunicator, not being close enough to read her mind.


    ¡°Just a minor change to the anti-ship Ion Weapons. Remember how the Disruptors basically passed through the Bounty Hunters¡¯ shielding without resistance? Tapani Ships use the same sort of shield generator. If this works as well as the System says that it will, we should blow a wonderful collection of holes in their ships.¡± Nico replied happily.

 Chapter 290 290 Tweedle Dumb

    The Reavers worked like mad to get their weapons specifications changed on short notice, while the military fleet bore down on them. Once the fleet was fifteen minutes out, they were too close for their formation to disrupt the signal anymore, and everyone was in for a shock.


    ¡°Sweet mother of God, they sent the entire fleet. Did they really fake an invasion of Kepler space in order to ally with the Rebels and try to wipe out a few Kepler Officers and a Reaver Company?¡± Max muttered as he counted the vessels and updated his evaluation of thebat odds.


    [Looks like we¡¯ve got all the friends now. That new weapon configuration had better work Tarith, you know the rules.] One of the other Reavers broadcasted.


    Once their ship had taken fifty percent or more hull damage they were no longer obligated to stay for a battle and could leave. Nobody signed on for suicide missions.


    Of course, that wasn¡¯t the case for Terminus, it was too slow to run away, at least for now, since the engine upgrades they had been working on weren¡¯t finished yet. The shield modifications were all up and functional though, and ording to the numbers, they should be almost as well armored as a Kepler Destroyer.


    [Don¡¯t fear, I will never lead you wrong. If there is one thing that Tarith Rage knows, it is war.] Nico replied, assuring the other Reavers that they weren¡¯t all idiots for believing that they could sessfully set up here.


    There was a good reason that there were no other Reaver Systems. No Nation would dare to let them have an independent presence that strong, so every time they tried to establish a base, they were ambushed by the nations around them and destroyed.


    That would be what it looked like from the outside, arge number of Kepler Rebel ships had joined the Tapani Fleet to attack Rae 5, giving the impression of an alliance between nations to prevent a Reaver uprising.


    [Tapani will be tranting in ten seconds. All hands to Battle Stations.] General Yaakov reported.


    Nico was still somewhere in the ship, so Max ran for Enduring Rage from his spot at the Engineering bay control panels, where he had been watching the sensors.


    Secondster, Nico came running through, with a Tech Adept Harness already attached to her back and engaged the anti-gravity ting to fly up into the Mecha.


    ¡°Sorry, I had to go see a guy, about a thing.¡± Nico apologized, then strapped herself into the second seat.


    ¡°You know, that exins exactly nothing, right?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Or everything, depending on how you look at it.¡± Nico shrugged, so Max looked into her thoughts.


    She had sent a series of fake messages to Sector Command, that was supposed to be from General Tennant, ordering them to stand down, dering that he was on Terminus, and negotiating with the Reavers for assistance with the Rebels.


    That was both pure Evil Genius, and pure Evil. They were both on Terminus, and they had just lured an entire Sector Attack Fleet to them.


    [Tarith Rage to Reaver Fleet, remember the n, and you will see the results.] Nico broadcasted.


    Nico had told the Reavers to target enemy engines first when they attacked so that the ships would not be able to leave the system. Sure, it didn¡¯t reduce theirbat effectiveness at all, since the inteary thrusters weren¡¯t on the same power grid as the main engines, but it did leave them with a whole lot of ships to steal if the enemy chose to surrender.


    The enemy fleet tranted in, with the Rebels leading and the Tapani spreading out to deal with the Reavers, which were their nation¡¯s primary concern in this situation.


    For a moment, nothing happened, except ships closing the distance on the waiting Reaver emcements, then suddenly the entire Star System was littered with greenish-white Ion sts and explosions.


    [All Mecha, deploy. The Rebels are almost on us.] General Yaakov ordered.


    They were ready, and Max was firing before he even had time to lock himself to the hull, using the recoil of his weapons to position the Mecha where he wanted it.


    The explosions of the shells from the Mass Drivers would blind the enemy sensors, while the Ion Bombard Arrays did the real work of depleting their shields.


    In this battle, they were targeting the smallest vessels first and hoping that the shields of Terminus would hold against the first few volleys from the Rebel Cruisers.


    A tremendous Explosion rattled Max inside Enduring Rage and Nico cheered, tapping away happily at the controls to modify their Ion Weapons to more effectively deplete the Rebels¡¯ shields. Unlike the Tapani Vessel¡¯s inferior technology, they couldn¡¯t just pick a vulnerability and shoot through it, but even short bursts were taking down the shields on Cutters and allowing the next wave of bombardment to destroy the smaller vessels.


    Then the Kepler Loyalist fleet came streaking out of the Atmosphere of the Gas Giant and began annihting everything that moved. They were so trigger-happy that a few of their misced rounds even hit Reaver vessels after narrowly missing Tapani Vessels, but that wasn¡¯t entirely unexpected.


    Allies are allies, but the military won¡¯t care if they cause a little coteral damage while dealing with an enemy fleet and a Sector¡¯s worth of Rebels.


    [Terminus Shields at 30 percent but holding. Engine output at 90 percent, temperatures stable.] The lead engineer reported,ing through Nico¡¯s speakers loud enough for Max to hear.


    30 Percent meant that they would be seeing breaches in the shield soon, as it got too thin to block the powerful sts from Kepler¡¯s vessels.


    Max turned from the destroyed Cutter in front of him to a rebel Mecha Carrier and turned his weapons on their engines. There were a lot of people aboard that vessel, and not all of them, or even most of them, would have any clue what was going on. Max was almost certain that they had been told a very polite official story that made them the good guys in this scenario.


    The other Super Heavy Mecha seemed to have the same idea, and a flurry of sts took the Warp engines offline permanently, and damaged the deployment bays, locking them inside even if they tried tond on the to escape the wrath of the orbital fleet.


    [Imperial Inquisition Destroyer Monarch to Rebel Fleet. Stand down and prepare to be boarded. Resistance will lead to the destruction of your vessels.] The Kepler Destroyer announced, just as thest fewrge vessels in the Tapani Fleet went offline, either destroyed or entirely without power to give off an energy signature.


    [You hear that you ursed traitor. You can¡¯t escape into a Reaver fleet this] Came a mocking voice over thems before a st from the Destroyer took a Cruiser offline.


    [Again, Rebel Fleet currently engaging the Loyalist Reavers, bring your ships offline and prepare to be boarded or you will be destroyed.] The Kepler Inquisition Vessel repeated, bringing silence, and then a wave of radio signals marking the Stand Down status of the rebel Kepler Vessels.


    Now, all that was left was the politics.

 Chapter 291 291 For Me?

    The end of the battle didn¡¯t mean that everyone was willing to go peacefully. Some of the Kepler officers were stillmunicating with each other, trying to organize a counter-attack, to escape the ambush, and the Tapani certainly hadn¡¯t given up.


    [275 degrees, plus 15 degrees elevation, Tapani Cruiser¡¯s engines justpleted a sessful prestart check cycle.] Nico reported, parsing thousands of lines of sensor data a second with her Innate Talent.


    Max sent a single st from the Ion Bombard Array at the vessel in question, thenughed as a Technician exited an airlock to throw a wrench across the expanse of space at his Mecha.


    The feeling was understandable but still amusing.


    Sporadically, the Reavers continued to fire on the Tapani vessels, until they gave in to demands and moved their crew into the escape pods.


    There was one empty transport vessel in their fleet, and the Reavers intended to load the escape pods in it and send the entire Tapani fleet home. While keeping their vessels and Mecha of course.


    [You lot really have no pity for the Tapani do you? They¡¯re going to be in trouble without those ships.] The Kepler Destroyer¡¯s Admiral asked over the jointms channel.


    [We are eminently reasonable businessmen, Admiral. For the low and reasonable price of eighty percent of retail, we are willing to sell the Tapani a variety of used vehicles and Mecha to supplement their army in their time of need.] Nico responded, making all the Reaversugh.


    Eighty percent of the retail price of their entire attack force? Even Kepler would struggle to afford to buy that many ships all at once, much less a small nation like Tapani.


    Their only saving grace was that they didn¡¯t pull anything from the front lines which faced the Klem borders for this mission.


    [As long as you¡¯re not truly disrupting the bnce, I don¡¯t see any reason that the Emperor wouldn¡¯t continue to uphold the deal he made with your leadership.] The Inquisition Admiral agreed.


    [Now, Rebels, prepare to be boarded for questioning by the Imperial Inquisition.] He added, on the Kepler Military channels.


    That was the cue for the resistant Rebel leaders to make their run for it, and hundreds of Ion sts from Inquisition ships and the Regiment¡¯s Mecha streaked through the system again, disabling a number of the engines.


    [I¡¯m sorry that you feel that way. As per the terms of our agreement, the disabled vessels remain in the Rae 5 System as defense vessels as payment for the Reavers¡¯ assistance. Tapani Vessel status is between the Reavers and Tapani.] The Admiral informed them as arge number of shuttles streaked out from his Destroyer to the Rebels who continued to fight back.


    The deal was for the vessels, not the people on them.


    Many nations, not counting Tapani, would be upset about this battle, but Nico had high hopes that with the backing of Kepler, they would recognize Rae 5 as a single-system interster travel capable nation and not want to fight about it.


    Max was getting bored with just sitting around by the time the Inquisition forces departed the disabled Kepler vessels seven hourster. The cutters left much more slowly than they arrived,pensating for the tightly packed mass of human bodies they had taken aboard, and a singlender fired from each vessel into the nearby star, cleaning up the rest of the Inquisitors¡¯ work.


    ¡°All Functional Rebel vessels, form into a tight column, pattern Beta Seven and prepare to be escorted back to Kepler Space. There will be questions once we arrive, so think carefully about your answers.¡± The Inquisitor ordered, training the main guns of his Destroyer on the hapless ships of the Rebel fleet.


    There were still a lot more rebels to deal with,s full of them in fact, but without orbital support, now that they had sent so many people to apprehend the supposed War Criminals aboard Terminus, they were in a bad spot against the iing Loyalist fleet.


    ¡°Nico, I don¡¯t suppose that Drone Controller works on those ships, does it? Or do we need to fix them first?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°They all have enough capability to at leastnd on the intact if that¡¯s what you prefer. They¡¯re not going much further than that before they¡¯re repaired though.¡± Nico shrugged.


    [Generals, Admiral, we have the capability to set an autopilot on the Kepler ships tond them on the, if that¡¯s the preferred choice.] Max called for verification.


    [Do it. After that, we have an important staff meeting to hold. The Inquisition had some interesting information for me.] Inquisitor General Ming answered, as the highest ranking officer aboard.


    [Reavers, do not shoot at the Kepler ships when they start moving, we are remotely piloting them to the for repairs and assessment.] Nico informed the forces in the system.


    [You hear that Tapani Scum? Get in the damned escape pods and we will send you home alive.] One of the Reaversughed.


    That seemed to be the end of the resistance, and pod after pod fired, only to be collected and loaded into the cargo vessel.


    Once the Reavers were satisfied that nobody else would surrender, they sent their armed forces onto the Tapani vessels to clear out everyone who remained behind and im the vessels for their various Companies.


    There were hundreds of things to do all at once, but the Reavers made short work of delegating the decisions. Construction machines were sent to the to create cities, a moon-sized asteroid was brought into orbit around the primary of the system, and work had begun on turning it into a giant, militarized space station, all by the end of the day.


    ¡°This is insane. First Battalion, head back inside. I want a full report on your Mecha and battle statistics within twelve hours, so get some rest first. I have a briefing to go to.¡± Max ordered.


    Whatever the Inquisition had to tell them was bound to be interesting, to say the least.

 Chapter 292 292 Extraction

    The Command group all assembled in the main meeting hall of Terminus, including a representative from every Reaver Company that hade to assist in the battle.


    ¡°Wee everyone. First off, good job, the Inquisition appreciates your hard work and wishes you the best with your new acquisitions. They managed to find the source of the rebellious forces, a younger Kepler Prince, who had entrenched himself in the Bureaucracy.


    Those of you with bureaucratic connections might find dealing with them to be an issue going forward, but dealing with Loyalist forces will be much easier after today.¡± Inquisitor Ming started the meeting.


    ¡°Do they know where the Prince is now? If we¡¯re going to have problems in other sectors as well, it would be good to know.¡± One of the Reavers asked.


    ¡°As per Royal Family protocol, he, along with his proven sympathizers, have been separated into seven individual pieces each and are currently on their way to the nearest star in ander.¡± Inquisitor Ming informed them, and the Reavers made a traditional gesture, crossing their hands over their chest and bowing in respect for the dead, even if they were enemies.


    ¡°The deal they made stands, and they won¡¯t be back to harass you about the Tapani vessels that you imed. Furthermore, they left a message of thanks to the Tarith Reavers for clearing out the historical legacy of Kepler Terminus before the Civil War got out of hand.¡±


    The room went silent, as everyone looked at Mary Tarith.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, the Reavers are now in possession of the original Artificial Intelligence that started the System. It will be in ourmunal care from now on, to be kept strictly secret from the entire Universe.¡± Mary Tarith exined, making the Reavers cheer.


    The System was always picky about who it considered an ally, and now the Reavers that were moving to this System had the motivation to train forces to defend the, hoping to make their Mecha Pilots even more skilled than the generations before them.


    ¡°So, are we part of Kepler by default now, and not independent?¡± One of the Reaver representatives asked with a hint of disgust.


    ¡°No, we are Reavers, no more no less. But Kepler does expect us to take good care of their treasure, in case they have need of it again. Think of it as a multi-generational deal.¡± Mary Tarith rified.


    That was good enough for the Reaver leaders.


    ¡°Do we really get to keep the space stations we nned? I¡¯ve got some really great ns for mine.¡± A young-looking woman, who Max suspected was actually a semi-organic Cyborg, asked.


    ¡°We will have the most heavily defended system in the Gxy. Even Kepler Prime won¡¯t have as many armed stations and vessels in it on an average day as Reaver 5 will.¡± Another oneughed.


    Reaver 5, was a nice nickname for the system and could be passed off as almost anything from a Mecha or a person to a ship if the person listening didn¡¯t know the truth.


    ¡°Thest point of order for this meeting is that we need volunteers to construct the moon station. Terminus has the technology aboard now to make it into a habitable station, but after making all the required equipment, we will need thousands of workers per shift if we are going to do a three-dimensional reconstruction of the moon.¡± General Yaakov added.


    Maxid out the ns that they hade up with on the table, and the leaders gathered around to take a look.


    ¡°Are those all Orbital Lances? What are you nning to fight?¡± One leader asked, pointing to the enormous focusing barrels evenly ced in a grid all around the station.


    ¡°Seven hundred of them to be precise. As to what we¡¯re nning to fight, well, there is no kill like overkill. They have limited adjustability, and only fire at light speed, so they can¡¯t intercept high-speed vessels, so mass damage once the enemy drops out of warp and approaches the is the order of the day.


    ¡°And how do we hide that?¡± Another Captain asked.


    ¡°See these structures? Thending bays for shuttles visiting the Station are directly above the Lances. The entire structure tilts to aim, though the vessels inside will need to be removed if we aren¡¯t nning to destroy them.¡± Max rified.


    ¡°Dual purpose, I like it. Then these structures must be the warp torpedounchers. You know, this thing needs a Warp drive, we could just float around destroyings for giggles with that much firepower.¡±


    The amount of power that would be needed to move a sphere over three thousand kilometers across at warp speed was mind-boggling, even if it wasrgely hollowed out to make a functional space station.


    ¡°We might need a few more technological advances for that.¡± Max chuckled.


    ¡°So, you did think of it? I like you, Mecha boy.¡± An old Captainughed.


    ¡°I need to change my ns. Six Orbital Lances don¡¯t seem like nearly enough for a Space Station anymore. Maybe I can put six more on the bottom.¡± A young woman sighed, making the other Captains nod in agreement.


    ¡°Kepler Terminus Station has two, and it was considered heavily armed.¡± One of the more practical men offered.


    ¡°But it didn¡¯t hold the system against an entire nation¡¯s fleet. If we can get these stations operating, we will have our own little nations scattered all through the system. Over a hundred of them around at least six differents. Because I know how everyone likes their privacy.¡± The firepower-loving young Captain disagreed.


    That was an impossibly high standard, but even if they gave up because of resource requirements, they would still have a lot more capability than most, as well as the massive amount of reactor capability needed to maintain a high-output industrial facility.


    That woulde in essential when they needed to rece Mecha and ships in a hurry. It was only a matter of time until someone realized that they would now be able to be a producer of goods and not just a bunch of nomadic merchants with guns.

 Chapter 293 293 Call For Help

    Chapter 293 293 Call For Help


    While the Reaver forces were reveling in their victories, the borders of the Kepler Empire were not in such a festive mood. Many of them were subject to an intensive loyalty enhancement program, but a dozen of them were currently in the process of attempting to avert disaster caused by a Klem invasion.


    [Pallid 9 Command to Tarith Trading Company, pleasee in. Pallid 9 Command to any Reaver Vessel inmunications range, pleasee in. Mayday Mayday.]


    The message was enough to catch the attention of everyone in the meeting and have them stop talking to see what the message was about.


    [Pallid 9 Command, this is the Tarith Trading Company. What can we do for you today?] Nico responded, ying the part of the Company¡¯s public rtions officer.


    [Your estimation of the Klem arrival was spot on. We are less than twenty-four hours fromndfall, and the defense fleet has left the area for reasons unknown. They are no longer in contact, and the Duke was with the fleet. We are willing to pay handsomely for a Reaver defense against the Klem.] The Pallid 9 Representative responded.


    ¡°Oh, now that¡¯s rich. The rebel didn¡¯t even tell his home what he had done, he simply took the fleet and left.¡± One of the Reaver Captainsughed grimly.


    ¡°They are so fethed. They don¡¯t even have aary Mecha force, they rely on the station and the fleet.¡± Another one agreed.


    ¡°Can we even get there before thendfall, or will we be picking up the pieces afterward?¡± General Yaakov asked.


    ¡°If we take Terminus, we will get there roughly two hours before thending, leaving right now at maximum speed. If we bring another forty Reaver vessels with us from Cruiser ss andrger, we should be able to deflect the wave into the star without having to leave thefort of home.¡± Max calcted quickly.


    ¡°A shield wall deflection? Not a bad idea, but forty of us are too many to move right now. We have a new system to defend and a Colony to build.


    [Night Wind Manufacturing Alliance to Terminus Trading Company, requesting a secure channel.]


    That would be one of the Death Wind Mercenary groups, Max assumed, going by the name. Though it might be one of the Reavers that hadn¡¯t arrived here in time to get in on the defense deal.


    [Go for Terminus on Trading pattern three. Channel is now encrypted.]


    [How much do you want for that defense contract? We are close enough to start with a partial block and we have the firepower to do the cleanup ourselves.] The Mercenary group asked.


    [You might have heard that we have been a bit overbookedtely, so I am feeling generous. Bring me one Pallet of Rum when you are finished and the contract is yours. I would appreciate it if you don¡¯t embarrass my name in the process.] Nico replied, gettingughter back from the Mercenaries.


    [Understood Terminus. We will see you soon. Death Wind Territory sends their warmest regards on your new outpost and is looking forward to the grand opening of the trade bazaar.]


    ¡°See, we¡¯re making friends all over the ce today. And I think these ones might actually be friendly friends.¡± Nicoughed as the conversation finished.


    ¡°Those Mercs must be hurting for money if they¡¯re going to take on a Klem invasion on their own.¡± A Reaver Captain sighed, pulling up his details of the Night Wind¡¯s known forces.


    ¡°They have four Cruisers that I know of, each with a Battalion of Heavy Mecha. They could likely do the job cleanly if they manage to deflect a good portion of the wave before itnds.¡± Another representative agreed.


    ¡°If there is anyone passing through the area, they can go. If not, we will leave it to them. It¡¯s a Rebel, so the Kepler Forces won¡¯t be too horribly upset if the bugs cause some property damage before they¡¯re dealt with.¡± Mary Tarith suggested.


    ¡°Alright, we will send our Colony Ship, Amazing Grace. It is in the area and can intercept. It doesn¡¯t have a Mecha Force on it though, so once the wave deflection is over, they will leave it to the Mercenaries and call it a favor.¡± One of the other Captains agreed after notifying his people.


    ¡°There will be eleven more Klemndfills this week, all inside Kepler space if anyone is up for fighting them off or deflecting portions of them. Pallid 9 was the closest to their origin, so the rest should be easy enough to intercept, as we will have an extra day or two.¡± General Yaakov informed the room.


    ¡°Then we should get off the ship and get to work. Set down on the and we will unload all the Tarith Family gear and terraforming equipment that we brought with us.¡± Mary Tarith suggested.


    ¡°Terminus isn¡¯t really made for repeatedaryndings, at least not anymore. We can transfer most of the gear to the Dutchman and then make a second trip, or we can drop the terraforming essentials and you cane for a little vacation with us.¡± General Yaakov denied her request as politely as possible.


    ¡°The Tarith Reavers have brought enough on the other ships, and it¡¯s already on the. You can take a week off to go y ping pong with Klem Pods ande back to start on the major construction of the Moon Base.¡± A Tarith Captain offered.


    ¡°See, who says that Reavers can¡¯t be reasonable and y together? I bet thes will be willing to pay a pretty tidy amount of money to not be bug food as well, so a week or so dy is no big deal.¡± Mary Tarith agreed.


    That made greed light up in a number of faces, as she had intended.


    ¡°You know, we have a few more Colony Ships on the way here. They¡¯re not fighting ships, but we would be willing to pay you out of the defense fee for some upgraded shield technology.¡± A full conversion cyborg Captain offered.


    ¡°Well, the shields do the heavy lifting in this job, so I think about twenty-five percent for the upgraded tech should be about the rightmission, shouldn¡¯t it?¡± Nico replied with a smile, and the other Cyborg red at her.


    ¡°Now, I know you¡¯re young and ambitious, but give an old man a little credit. Ten percent is more than reasonable.¡±


    ¡°Make it twenty and I will show you how to expand the radius to three times your vessel¡¯s size as well.¡± Nico counteroffered, extending her hand.


    ¡°I hate dealing with rich people, they always have something else up their sleeve to sweeten the deal. Twenty Percent it is, but if it breaks my ship, I¡¯m taking it out of yourmission.¡± The apparently old Cyborgughed.

 Chapter 294 294 Call Answered

    Chapter 294 294 Call Answered


    With the deals for improved shielding worked out with all the fleets that thought they might want it for theirrgest vessels, all of the Reavers returned to their ships to get ready for the work ahead of them.


    Once everyone had left Terminus, Max and the other senior Command staff met to determine where they would be headed, and to learn thest bit of information that Inquisitor General Ming had kept hidden from their Reaver allies.


    That was the most important part to Max since it had brought an entire Rebel fleet down on their heads.


    ¡°I suppose that there is no need to sugarcoat things now. The usations of War Crimes are rted to the agricultural world KSF129.¡± General Ming paused there, and Max had to think back for a moment to recall what incident that was. There had been so many lousy deployments in a row that it was hard to guess.


    KSF129 was the world that had taken an orbital bombardment from the Rebels in an attempt to remove the Super Heavy Mecha from the cities and then got near mythical rainfall afterward, flooding everything and drowning out half the cities that the Rebels were trying to take, along with most of their Mecha forces.


    ¡°What are they even mad about there? I wasn¡¯t there, but I don¡¯t recall news of anything out of the ordinary happening in that sector, other than a few Rebellion battles.¡± Colonel Klinger asked.


    ¡°The Rebels orbital bombarded the, vaporized half of the oceans, and then it rained so hard that we had to move the Line Mecha to the very top of the city to keep them from getting submerged. Even the Crusaders were getting washed away if they tried to move in the wrong areas.¡± Max exined the situation as he understood it.


    ¡°My unit was in the mountains for that. It came down so hard that it washed Crusaders over the cliffs. I lost half my unit to a natural disaster, with no ce to go, in cliffs too steep for a Mecha to climb without specialized rigging.¡± General Yaakov added.


    ¡°I was there as well. To execute the¡¯s Noble Bureaucracy.¡± General Ming sighed.


    ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is that we have absolutely no idea what part of our Command structure they are using of war crimes since it could be any of you if they pretend that they weren¡¯t the ones that flooded the?¡± Colonel Klinger asked.


    ¡°More or less. General Tennant was there, and in his Mecha at the time, serving on the Central Command Council, so they might be after every unit that was under him since we know that they have been hunting for him. The question is what led them to Terminus?¡± General Yaakov asked.


    ¡°That part we do know. The border patrol noted The Dutchman as being docked on Terminus. One of the bureaucrats traced Abraham Kepler to The Dutchman, and a suspicious stopover and they just started making assumptions.


    The fact that we started shooting when they started making usations only proved them right in their minds about whoever they actually wanted to find being aboard the ship.¡± Inquisitor Ming informed them.


    ¡°Alright, so they¡¯re on to us, sort of, in some way. That¡¯s nothing new and exciting. But they¡¯re on the ropes at the moment, so it shouldn¡¯t be a big issue to go help rescue a or two. There will be both Reavers and Kepler Loyalists nearby, and it¡¯s not like we can¡¯t defend ourselves. We haven¡¯t gotten to shoot any traitors in months if you don¡¯t count shooting their ships in space.¡± Max pointed out.


    ¡°Oh, I see why my little girl likes you. Very shoot first, then shoot them some more so they don¡¯t lie when you ask questions.¡± Mary Tarith told Max, giving him a thumbs-up gesture.


    That actually described Nico entirely too well.


    ¡°You and me, we need to have a long talk about your parenting methods. I didn¡¯t notice it over the holidays, but Nico grew up to have a rather unique personality.¡± Max informed the Tarith Family Matriarch.


    ¡°No need to tell me that, I¡¯m the one that raised her. Did you know that at three years old she nearly managed to kill a burr? Peace was never an option for that girl, but we civilized her as much as we could.¡± Mary Tarithughed, while the other officers looked at her in horror.


    ¡°Please tell me that¡¯s a joke.¡± General Yaakov asked Mary.


    ¡°I wish it was. He came in her bedroom window, and she stabbed him with the broken ss when he picked her up.


    Max remembered that memory, but he had thought it was a giant of a man, from her past life, since the scene was so dark. He didn¡¯t realize that he only looked huge because she was extra tiny at the time.


    ¡°On second thought, she¡¯s actually getting better, now that she¡¯s a soldier. But I will still need to see the baby pictures.¡± Max told Mary with a wink.


    ¡°Oh, we have them. In hard copy, because she likes to mess with my digital photo folders. But where are we taking this alien relic? I¡¯m assuming somewhere fairly close since it¡¯s so slow.¡±


    ¡°We have confirmed a call from Kitimat 3. They are going to be facing a Klem tide, and they are currently in the midst of a battle against Rebel forces. Loyalist Mecha are on the ground and request assistance with the deflection of the Klem tide.¡± Admiral Drake informed them, bringing it up on the three-dimensional map.


    Kitimat 3 was a farming, with a very low poption, but intense crop production. One of many in the sector that kept the more densely popteds eating well. How the rebels managed to turn the was a mystery, but Max suspected that most of the farmers didn¡¯t know anything about it until the Fleet showed up in orbit.


    ¡°Alright, we can do this. The more we can deflect from orbit the better because there is a lot of biomass on that for the Klem to feed on. Everyone inform your units and we set out in fifteen minutes.¡± General Yaakov agreed, ending the meeting.

 Chapter 295 295 Kitimat 3

    [Prepare for trantion] Admiral Drake announced as soon as he was back at his station.


    Terminus shifted so smoothly to Warp speed that it was hardly necessary, but it was so ingrained into every space-faring human to give that warning that not much could ever change it.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m off to the drone bays. We have to make some new Drone Fighters, and I have a design for a small version of Terminus¡¯s main engine that is much more space and material efficient than the old ones.


    Then we will move the Corvettes and Crusader ss Mecha to the smaller ships and upgrade their shielding to withstand a few extra hits from an orbital defense position.


    The shield on Terminus is ready for the mission now.¡± Nico informed Max.


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll keep tracking the Klem pods and get the Super Heavy Mecha ready for defense when the shield fails. In space they should be easier to deal with.¡± Max agreed, already tracking their target swarm.


    This one was much more spread out than usual, and Max suspected that it came close to a meteor oroid whose gravity affected their course and pattern a little.


    They were all still going to hit the, but not in a nice tight, easily managed pattern. They would be spread around three-quarters of the instead.


    Attempting to prepare a Mecha defense against that would be a nightmare, especially if theynded in the oceans. Nico would be a bit sad, but Max had no intentions of letting any of the Klem reach the.


    He knew she was looking forward to fighting Rebels and Klem at the same time in some strange free for all three-way battle, but the very thought gave Max a headache.


    In the evening all the Command Staff gathered to present their ns for the defense, and the ns that they presented were all basically the same. ce Terminus at the Eastern edge of the swarm and deflect it past the as well as they could.


    Their shields wouldn¡¯t expandrge enough to block the whole swarm now that it had spread out, but only the Eastern edge would hit an ocean, so it was the highest priority.


    A handful of naval vessels was no match for a Klem infestation that had time to grow in the depths.


    [You all forgot we have drones.] Nico reminded Max as they were handing the fire zones for the Super Heavy Mecha that would be on defense.


    They were called orbital insertion fighters, but they could fight just as well in space, at least the ones that used energy weapons could. They only had a hundred VR pods, but that was still a lot of fighters that could thin the swarm as it approached.


    Assuming they were capable. The team had redesigned them once they found Terminus, so nobody outside the Drone Technicians really knew what they could do.


    [How many nes do we have?] Max asked.


    [We will have two hundred ready when we arrive. One hundred for space, then another hundred plus the survivors for the ground battle.] Nico replied.


    That was enough. Not by much, but one wave of fighters would be enough support to make theirnding much less likely to be a disaster.


    Getting information from Kitimat 3 was difficult. Both sides were trying to jammunications while they waited for reinforcements, and neither side knew which one would arrive first.


    Max knew. It would be them because nobody else wasing. There were still a lot of Rebel ships in the sector, but they were all engaged in battle with the Inquisition Fleet. Neither side had any more resources to help this world, especially when they were facing annihtion anyhow, in the form of giant alien bugs.


    ¡°Alright, the drones will deploy as soon as we drop out of Warp, and attack the Wave of Klem Pods. We will stage here, giving us maximum chance to sessfully deflect into the star, and time to react to changes in the course, if the calctions were wrong.¡± General Yaakov outlined the final n while the Pilots made notes.


    [One Hour to Trantion, all hands to battle positions.]


    The announcement came just after lunch, ship time, and Max climbed into Enduring Rage, finding Nico already present, asleep with a VR headset on.


    ¡°One hour until it¡¯s time to work.¡± Max reminded her, in case she had the Mecha¡¯s radio off.


    ¡°Got it. Have you eaten? I can make happy juice if you need.¡± She offered, meaning coffee made with an energy drink base instead of water.


    ¡°Just finished lunch. I thought you would be with the drones.¡± Max replied, wondering why she fell asleep here ying games.


    ¡°Experimental controls. The headset is tied to the ship¡¯s sensors and the drone¡¯smunication. If it works as expected we were thinking about making smaller drones to send with the Battalions to do long-range recon.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°And how do we know which ones are the experimental ones so we can judge performance?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°The ones with the happy little Gatling Lasers on the front. You¡¯ll know when you see them.¡± Nico exined.


    That didn¡¯t tell Max much, but he suspected that the pattern would be easy to recognize. Nico never was subtle.


    [Tranting now. Deploy drones in 30 seconds.] General Yaakov ordered.


    Space around them seemed to twist through the sensors add they slowed back to standard speeds. They were still moving too fast, Max thought, and they were in front of the Klem pods, but the drones raced out at incredible velocity.


    They could easily match any military cutter at less than Warp speeds, and they were already firing at the Klem by the time they got into even a semnce of a formation.


    Each had a multi-barreledser array in the front of the elongated egg-shaped body and Ion Cannons at the end of the wings. The drones were set up as a bine with the wing ends boxed, so they should be incredibly maneuverable in an atmosphere, and the design let them have a 270-degree rotation for the adjustable wing guns.


    Most were bone white with red markings,plementing the Unit¡¯s Mecha, but out in front were two bright yellow ones with smiley faces where Max would expect the cockpit to be.


    Nico was right, he knew which ones were the test units.

 Chapter 296 296 Blocked Play

    The drone¡¯s weapons were lighter than the ones on the heavy Mecha, and not quite able to reliably prate the shell of the Klem pods, a fact that they were doing their best to make up for with pure volume of fire.


    A hundred rapid-firing Gatling Lasers were lighting up the void of space in a flurry of blue streaks, thinning the invasion group¡¯s far edge as much as possible before Terminus was in position.


    The more that they could destroy, the easier it would be for the former Colony Ship to deflect the shattered remnants and the lower the likelihood that they would take any damages during this phase of their mission.


    The two yellow drones didn¡¯t seem to have any issues keeping up with their peers which were piloted from much fancier pods, but Max couldn¡¯t tell how much of that was due to the controls and how much was Nico¡¯s Innate Talent smoothing out the process.


    [Terminus is in position. All Super Heavy Units Deploy.] General Yaakov ordered, and Max marched Enduring Rage out to the exterior bow of the ship with the other Mecha to meet the iing wave of Pods.


    The pods were out of range of their Ion Bombard Array still, over two hundred thousand kilometers away, but in space that meant nothing to the Mass Driver type Artillery.


    The shells could be set to explode on impact, and the pods were closing on them at a rate of over five hundred thousand kilometers an hour. Even if the shells failed to explode, the force of the impact at those rtive speeds would shatter the pods into tiny fragments.


    As they fought, Terminus would move to more closely match the pods¡¯ speed to minimize the impact against their shielding while still effectively deflecting the pods, but for now, the artillery would be especially effective, if it was on target.


    Hundreds of shells left the mass drivers as the Mecha began their attack, with the orbital fighters carefully moving out of the way to target the outer edges of the group.


    For fifteen straight minutes, the Bombardment continued, while Admiral Drake adjusted the ship¡¯s trajectory and speed to make the crucial shield bump that would send the Klem to a fiery death.


    [Coming into Ion Range now] Max reported to the Battalion as the pods began to approach the ship¡¯s shield range.


    This was theirst chance to get real damage in before the deflection shield went online, and every Mecha made the best of it. Pods turned to shrapnel, and the terrifying wave was beginning to look more like space dust than an invasion fleet when the shield went up and the Mecha defense was forced to halt.


    [All units back inside. The Drone Fighters can finish the work out there.] Admiral Drake informed them, always happy to see an operation go as nned.


    Some of the pods would still reach the surface, but the number would be very minimal, and with the warning, the defense emcements could get some before they evennded.


    The drones didn¡¯t slow down their attack on the fringe section beyond the reach of the colony ship¡¯s shield, and by the time he was inside, Max could see the leading edge of the debris field burning up in the atmosphere.


    Back toward the wave of Pods, it was hard to see anything at all, between the debris and intact pods hitting the shielding and being bounced off toward the center of this sr system in a continual series of energy shes.


    [Terminus to Kitimat 3, expect fragments in the atmosphere and a chance of scattered intact pods. We estimate the deflection effort has been over 90 percent effective.] General Yaakov reported.


    The drones were still working, though the Mecha had now all been returned to storage in preparation for makingndfall.


    The firepower of this new pattern of orbital fighter was truly impressive, and with their n to only attack the outer edge of the pods, Max hadn¡¯t seen any idental collisions or damage to the vessels.


    [The tail end of the Klem pods is entering the atmosphere now. Drone Pilots prepare to enter the ground battle. All Mecha secure yourselves in the attack ships.] General Yaakov updated them.


    The surviving Klem seemed to be falling without anyone contesting them, but the moment that the Drone Fighters entered the atmosphere, a wave of attacks wasunched at them from all over the.


    [Initial data ising in. Thirty prevent casualties during entry. Taking continued attacks. The analysis says this is non-Kepler weaponry.] Nico reported on behalf of the Drone group.


    [The ground forces have sent up interceptors. Reports count at least fifty thousand Tapani-designed Mecha on the, possibly two mixed Armored Regiments.] Nico reported again.


    In the Command Room, the Generals were trying to determine what had happened here. It didn¡¯t make sense, they were contacted by the loyalist forces for a rescue, and now they were under attack.


    None of their messages were being returned, and the consensus was that the Rebels held the and had no intentions of paying them for services rendered.


    General Ming was the most frustrated among them, as the contact hade from a trusted loyalist officer.


    ¡°We need suggestions. The issue has been reported, but there aren¡¯t any forces to deal with it. That defense force is clearly beyond our abilities, and even trying would be a disaster.¡± General Ming asked in the officers¡¯ channel.


    ¡°The Drone Fighters are capable of delivering a Virus Bomb campaign against the. Estimated efficiency at eliminating the Klem infestation, one hundred percent.¡± Nico suggested.


    The three top officers looked at each other and decided not to dignify that with a response. The mere possession or manufacture of those weapons was a War Crime by international convention.


    ¡°Did the Tapani do something to personally offend her?¡± Admiral Drake asked after a moment¡¯s silence when nobody else had any ideas.


    ¡°I think they shot down her experimental Fighters. Or it is possible that she analyzed the chances of sess and that was what it would take to win. Major Nico is ruthlessly practical like that.¡± General Yaakov sighed, leaning toward the second option being the more likely of the two.


    When the seven surviving Fighters, including both yellow test units, returned to the ship, his suspicions were confirmed.


    By Nico¡¯s calctions, nothing less than annihtion would work with the forces they had, but that begged the question, how did this situation happen?

 Chapter 297 297 Choices

    Using every relevant System Skill that they had, and listening in to thearymunications for the next few hours revealed the extent of the situation to them.


    The Tapani had dropped an entire Heavy Carrier worth of Mecha here before they left the system, and that made all the difference in the battle. With their sensors jammed, the locals had no idea that the enemy even had reinforcements on the, so they called for help to clear the Klem and save themselves.


    Then the allied forces moved, wiping them out to the veryst, and continuing radio silence until Terminus had dealt with almost all of the problem for them, knowing that the Reavers wouldn¡¯t do it for free, and likely wouldn¡¯t do it for a Tapani force at all, not a single day after the Tapani had worked with the Rebels to annihte most of the Reaver fleet.


    They still didn¡¯t know just how badly that n had gone and had thought that Terminus was one of the ships that didn¡¯t make it to the system before the Reaver presence was wiped out, so they were currently celebrating two victories in a row as they fought off the scattered group of Klem that hadnded on the.


    General Ming looked grimly at the other Commanders in the briefing room. ¡°You know, Major Nico is starting to sound more and more right as the day goes on.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still too far though. What do we have that might teach them a lesson, and not risk our soldiers?¡± He continued.


    ¡°I have a suggestion,¡± Nico nearly shouted, raising her hand in the air. Normally she wasn¡¯t present for the Command meetings, but since she had such an extensive knowledge of Ending methods, and nobody else wanted to ask how she learned them, she had been called in today.


    ¡°This had better be good and not a War Crime.¡± General Yaakov warned her.


    ¡°We¡¯re on a colony ship, right? What if we identally sent the wrong sort of probe down to the surface to see what was going on?¡± She suggested, then continued quickly as she saw that they had the wrong idea.


    ¡°Not a virus bomb or anything of the sort. I have recovered the ns for the initial Terraforming probes that would have prepared the very first colonization areas for the arrival of Terminus and its civilians. If we identally terraform a few regions and wipe a couple or twenty thousand rebel Mecha that should be well within what is allowed, right?¡± She asked.


    General Ming tapped away at the data tablet that he was carrying and frowned.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s prohibited separately to terraform an inhabited region. We would still be a pariah if we did it.¡± The Inquisitor sighed.


    ¡°Then I have one more, not-so-pleasant idea. What if we introduced a rapid growth probe to the currently Klem-controlled regions? They would rapidly evolve to contain behemoths, their numbers would skyrocket, and best of all, there would be no evidence left after the fact to show that we had boosted the growth of biomass in one single region because the Klem will devour it all.


    The Rebels should still win and hold the, but it will cost them dearly.¡±


    She was right, that was a much less pleasant idea. Plus, if she was wrong and the Klem actually won, the would be lost to humanity, giving the species a foothold within the Kepler Empire to expand from.


    ¡°Too risky. What can we do for localized extermination? We have all the evidence we need to prove that the major cities turned traitor, and most of the Rebel forces that aren¡¯t near a Klemnding zone are still holed up in them.


    It is a bit unfortunate that we don¡¯t have an orbitalnce, or we could send them a very abrupt and direct message.¡± The Inquisitor sighed.


    ¡°But we do have the equivalent of an orbitalnce, Inquisitor. Terminus has a wonderfully powerful gravitational lock system, intended to pull along asteroids for mining and resource replenishment.


    There is a convenient asteroid belt in the outer reaches of this system.¡± Max let the end of his exnation trail off.


    ¡°Better yet, we could use the drone fighters to push the asteroids off course and guide them to the. They have nothing left that could defend them against an asteroid hitting the, they barely managed to hold off the Drone Fighters.¡± General Yaakov nodded happily.


    Using an orbital bombardment had guidelines, but unlike Virus Bombing or Terraforming the under your enemy¡¯s feet, it wasn¡¯t immediately a crime.


    General Ming and General Yaakov shared an intrigued look.


    ¡°New n, we send out the second wave of fighters in with thermonuclear bombs, st away what we can before they are destroyed, and then we use the survivors of the first wave of drones to toss some asteroids at them as we leave.


    They should never know that we were responsible for the asteroids, and it will be assumed by military scans that they were impacted by the Klem on the way through. I like it, it deals with the problem, and gets us a bit of payback for thepensation that we aren¡¯t going to get for this mission.¡± General Yaakov decided.


    ¡°Work out the calctions. I want one headed for the every day for a week. I don¡¯t care where it hits, just make them paranoid.¡± General Ming agreed, and Nico nodded, already working on the numbers.


    Max was certain that this was going to be a huge mess, but there wasn¡¯t much that they could do at the moment other than either leave impotently with their reputation in shambles or take some sort of pyrrhic action that didn¡¯t risk their own lives.


    ¡°Colonel Max, you are our public leader, make a call down to the and demand payment for our services while we arrange the drones. We don¡¯t have any nukes prepared, they have been obsolete in Kepler for a thousand years after all.¡± General Yaakov informed Max before dismissing the meeting.

 Chapter 298 298 Debt Collection

    [Kitimat 3ary Forces, this is Commander Keres of Terminus Trading Company. The service you requested has beenpleted, and we are awaiting payment.] Max broadcasted down to the, and out into the Kepler Empire at the same time.


    Let the surrounding systems know that something was very wrong here and that they were refusing to pay the people who saved their from a Klem invasion. It would look horrible on the Rebels once the news began to spread.


    [Terminus Trading Company, this is Kitimat 3ary Command. We thank you for your assistance, but the request was made by the previous administration, and we do not pay debts owed by the Lapdogs of the Kepler Empire.] The¡¯s official broadcast responded and was ryed to the Empire by Terminus¡¯s broadcast equipment.


    [Regardless, it was brokered on behalf of your, and the owes a debt.] Max continued.


    [Take your debt up with Kepler, this is a free now, no longer beholden to Kepler Scum and under the protection of Tapani.] The broadcasted back.


    They had realized that they were being ryed to the whole Sector, and had broadcasted thest for everyone to hear. That made Max¡¯s life a little easier.


    [If your cannot pay its debts, then we will take it up with Tapani. I am sure they will willingly pay up, or forfeit the goodwill that we showed their fleet when they came to us on Rae 5.] Max responded.


    [You are a fool Terminus. Rae 5 is done for, and the Kepler Empire is dying. Tapani will never let a Reaver force upy a, even if we have to wipe every Reaver out of existence to do it.] Theary force bragged.


    Dozens of signals flooded into Max¡¯s radio right after that announcement, mostly from other Reavers, but some from the Death Wind Mercenaries, who had always considered the Reavers their natural allies. They all said basically the same thing.


    [Signal Confirmed as Tapani Origin. Thank you Terminus, it is good to see their true colors.]


    Tapani had just dered war on the Reavers as a whole.


    That would be an issue for the few Reaver ships that were currently in Tapani-controlled space, but it would be a muchrger problem for Tapani as a whole since they still relied on the Mercenaries and Reavers to keep them supplied with hard-to-find resources.


    Even a few months of this conflict, and being cut off from the rest of the Gxy would cripple them.


    [If that¡¯s how you feel, please, do enjoy our parting gift as we go to speak with your friends in the zone.] Max replied once the iing broadcasts had died down, and then General Ming began an open channel broadcast as the Drone Fighters descended upon the, with their shields taking multiple hits from the defense weapons before a series of mushroom clouds littered the surface and a dark cloud blotted out the skies.


    There was minimal radioactive fallout from these Fusion-type weapons, but a nuclear winter was inevitable, and they wouldn¡¯t be growing anything on Kitimat 3 for at least the next three seasons if they didn¡¯t get the air scrubbed, a technology that mosts didn¡¯t have in ce.


    The Reaver forces found the short video hrious, as it would cripple the Tapani, and starve out a worth of their supporters if nobody came to rescue them. Plus, Kepler still considered that theirs, and wouldn¡¯t allow Tapani to just waltz into their territory again now that they had sided with the Rebels.


    ¡°Send the Asteroids. The bombing was particrly sessful, but I want them to learn a valuable lesson on diplomacy.¡± Max told Nico, who had picked a bunch of personal transport-sized metallic rocks for the purpose.


    They wouldn¡¯t do much on aary scale, but if they hit near a city or a military force, it would be something close to being nuked again when the impact urred.


    Enough that it would remind them of the price to pay for being traitors anyhow.


    Like so many other Rebels, this one had voted for the Rebel forces, on the promise of independence, greater prosperity, and a utopian future. None of those were ever possible, the Rebels were just leading them to live under a new set of masters, but the people fell for the lies anyhow, believing in the utopian fantasy that they were selling.


    ¡°Drones are back on board. We may depart anytime.¡± Nico reported, and Admiral Drake took them to warp with only a five-second warning.


    The broadcast had crushed the Rebel morale in the Sector. It was clear now that they had been used and lied to, and worse, that those who had lied to them never actually had any intentions of protecting the people or trying to implement the fantasies that they had sold theirs in order to get them to turn against the Empire.


    That was making things easier for the Kepler troops that were contesting dozens ofs at that moment, as theary forces had huge numbers of defectors, and in some cases even turned so strongly against their leadership that they handed the back to the Kepler forces faster than they could take it for themselves.


    For the Reavers, it was even better. Terminus was the only one that had any issues at all getting paid. Even the Rebel-controlleds that they had gone to block Klem waves from hitting happily paid their debts, despite their precarious situation. Nobody wanted to be the second one to be made an example of, because it was always worse than the first.


    [It looks like we have things under control here, let¡¯s head back to Rae 5 and drop off these civilians.] General Ming ordered.


    [Before that, could we make a small detour? There is a cargo freighter full of refugees nearby, and they are requesting to transfer their cargo to Terminus, as the supposedly safe that they were heading to is currently in conflict.] The ship¡¯smunications operator asked.


    [You know what? Why not. Rae 5 has got a whole full of space to work with, and everyone could use some more people. The details can be worked out by the Reavers if they want to take more refugees in afterward, but we will take this bunch.] General Yaakov decided.

 Chapter 299 299 Civilians Smell Funny

    [Cargo Vessel Keptanic 4, This is the Terminus Trading Company, approaching from your starboard side. We are prepared to ept the Cargo transfer on behalf of your passengers.] Admiral Drake announced as they approached the vessel that had contacted them.


    [We appreciate it Terminus. Your destination is outside our designated routes, and the usual drop-off spot is not currently viable due to conflict. We are sending over a crew manifest now.] The Cargo Ship responded.


    ¡°Forty thousand people, each with under ten kilos of luggage. They must have left the with a single backpack, crammed into a cargo freighter for the emergency departure.¡± Nico informed Max faster than he could read the newly arrived data sheet.


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty extreme, even if there was a natural disaster or whatever nonsense they told the locals, don¡¯t you think they would have tried to bring more with them?¡± Max asked, then thought a bit longer and realized these were likely what were known as third-ss refugee passengers.


    They would have bought the cheapest avable tickets to get off the since it was all they could afford, and if the Captain said they got to bring a backpack, they only left with a backpack. It was a practical decision, based on space. Every three loaded suitcases was another paying passenger that they could fit, so the suitcases were eliminated, and the hold was packed to standing room only.


    ¡°Do we have bunks ready for them?¡± Max asked, knowing that was highly unlikely.


    ¡°No, but the printers are working on it. We didn¡¯t expect so many when we turned to intercept, so the initial print was only ten thousand ces worth of the standard naval triple cots.¡± Nico informed him.


    The First Battalion was on weing Committee duty every time they brought passengers on board or met new people, since both their supposed Commander and the Human Interaction Specialist, as Major Miller had started calling Nico, were in the same Battalion.


    ¡°That should be enough to get us started, have them arranged in a hold, and put the women with small children and the elderly in the cots. Everyone else can spread out on the floor, the hold has enough space for everyone to lie down anyhow.¡± Max decided.


    ¡°Major Miller is on it. They¡¯re setting them up at the same bay where the refugees will arrive and should have them ready before we dock.¡± Nico informed him, getting into her Reaver best to go meet new people.


    That meant that Max needed to put his Mobile Suit on and wear the face mask that would keep people from recognizing him and reporting their survival to the Rebels, who were already gunning for Terminus based on someone they thought was aboard.


    The two ships docked without issues, using a man-door-sized docking ring only three meters squared. The main door on all their bays wasrge enough to fit a small freighter through, and that would only cause unnecessary procedures to safely bring the people aboard.


    ¡°Wee to the Terminus Trading Company, everyone. Please, make yourselves at home here in this bay, and we will see to all your needs in just a few minutes once everyone is aboard.¡± Nico informed them repeatedly as they entered.


    ¡°No need to crowd the main floor, this hold is divided into three levels. Those of you with better physical health, please proceed upward and leave space on the main floor for the infirm.¡± Max called out to the crowd, getting them moving again when the room started to fill up.


    By appearance, the bay was five levels with arge open mezzanine by the cargo door, but the levels were actually intended to better organize freight, instead of stacking it fifty meters high inside the ship. For humans, the ten-meter roof height within the levels felt positively spacious, and they now had more than enough room to spread out.


    ¡°That¡¯s everyone. The Manifest matches the count that entered, so there shouldn¡¯t be anyone left behind on the Cargo Vessel.¡± Major Miller reported once the transfer was done.


    ¡°Very good, thank you. Now, Captain, would you like a drink? We have some fine Rum aboard Terminus.¡± Max offered.


    ¡°Just a quick sip might hit the spot. I¡¯m sure you understand, the Reavers have caused some troubletely, and though I trust you with the people of my, I don¡¯t really want to be seen doing business with you today.¡± The Cargo ship Captain exined.


    ¡°Understandable.¡± Max agreed, pouring two shots of Rum and downing one, before handing the second to the other Captain.


    ¡°Not bad at all. Now, business, what do you want to finish the job for us?¡± The Freighter asked.


    ¡°One-quarter of the third ss rate for forty thousand souls, no more, no less,¡± Max informed him.


    The man thought for a moment about bargaining, since he had taken all the risk of getting shot to pieces leaving an active war zone, but decided it was better not to tempt the Reavers to drop them somewhere unpleasant.


    ¡°Deal, in Kepler Credits.¡± The Captain agreed.


    That was less than perfect since they were only used at the full value within the Empire, but Max wasn¡¯t here for the money, he was here for the people.


    ¡°I can live with that, given the circumstance. It was a pleasure doing business with you.¡± Max smiled, epting the transfer of Credits on a digital storage chip, the secure equivalent of a mobile bank ount.


    The Cargo Ship Captain and his crew left immediately afterward, and Max looked at Nico.


    ¡°Did you see anything good in the list? You were surprisingly docile today and didn¡¯t even try to mess with them one time. That¡¯s not like you.¡±


    ¡°Since you asked, I did indeed find something good. Follow me, I put a tracker on it as it entered.¡± Nicoughed.


    She led him through the hold, past the bunks where the infirm and young families were, to the ramp that led upward.


    ¡°Let me get my camera ready, this is going to be great.¡±

 Chapter 300 300 Smells Like Home

    [Supply staff of the First Battalion, please bring in the rations synthesized by the food processors from Terminus and the water barrels. Get these people fed and watered as quickly as we can, I don¡¯t think they¡¯ve eaten in days, packed in that tiny hold.] Max ordered as they walked.


    Nico got off the ramp at the third level and turned to walk through the crowd, much less tightly packed on this level than the first two had been, stopping only when she reached a middle-aged woman with a stroller.


    ¡°Commander Keres, meet Sasha, Sandy, Sara, and Sal.¡± Nico introduced the four children, two sets of twins, to Max once they arrived.


    ¡°Hello, little ones.¡± Max greeted them, and the four children waved happily at him snacking on shared portions of a protein bar that their caretaker had given them.


    Two were boys and two were girls, but all had blonde hair, and the older sisters had a very familiar style of ringlets curled into hers.


    ¡°Are these who I think they are?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°They are. Meet Miss Molly, an adoption agent from Kepler Terminus. When the evacuations began, the foster parents returned the children to the system, so when Miss Molly took them and bought passage off the, it was back under the Max surname, and I noticed them immediately.


    In fact, I would have even if I didn¡¯t have their names, since they look so much like you used to.¡± Nico told him with a smile.


    ¡°Pardon, but can someone exin?¡± The adoption worker asked.


    ¡°Commander Keres is Keres Max, formerly Samantha Max of Kepler Terminus, and the older brother of these four children,¡± Nico exined, and the woman¡¯s eyes went wide in shock.


    ¡°You were supposed to be dead, killed along with the entire crew of Abraham Kepler after turning Traitor to the Empire.¡± The woman informed him.


    ¡°False on all ounts. I am not dead, or a traitor, and I clearly am not aboard Abraham Kepler, which as of thest message that we received, has not been destroyed.¡± Max informed her.


    ¡°Well, it is good to know that they have someone in this world, even if you are a Reaver now. Do you think that there will be real food soon? The trip was only supposed to be two days, but we have been almost a week now, looking for a safe port that will ept us.¡± Miss Molly exined.


    ¡°There will be tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches soon. It¡¯s the easiest to produce items for our nutrition supply processors toe up with in suchrge quantities, so that¡¯s what everyone is getting.¡± Max informed thedy, while the kids cheered.


    Dave had the same response when he found out that was what they had made from the Food Replicators as well.


    Max decided that he had a new job for the old veteran. He was an official Government babysitter for Max, even if it was undercover, and he would do a great job again, especially with help.


    Reincarnation might have changed everything about Max from his potential to his gic code, but he still felt a sibling fondness for these four children and hoped that they could be safely settled down on Rae 5 once they returned. But in the meantime, he could move them out of the refugee area and into a spare room in the First Battalion quarters.


    There were a lot of mouths to feed, but the sandwich production had been improved so that they could be directly produced wrapped in paper, and the soup came out hot in a sealed tub with a spoon attached to the lid, so cart after cart was sent to the floors to distribute food.


    There was a lot of cheering from the children andughing from the adults, but everyone seemed happy to at least have gotten food.


    [There will be a proper meal this evening, ship time, but we thought you could use something to eat in the meantime. We weren¡¯t expecting so many to have fit in that tiny ship, so extra rations are being prepared, and we will be heading to your new home right away.] Max informed everyone, using the inte in the storage bay.


    He took the lead, while Nico took up the rear and they headed out of the bay before gging down a transport cart to take everyone to the Aft crew quarters.


    ¡°There are a few spare rooms near my quarters. They¡¯re not perfect, since they were intended for enlisted soldiers, but they should do well enough for these purposes.¡± Max informed them.


    ¡°He must really be our brother, he¡¯s way nicer than that foster family.¡± One of the twin daughters informed Miss Molly.


    ¡°I even found a friend from back home to help watch you until you get off the ship. Do you remember Dave, or were you too little?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know anyone from where our biological parents lived. We weren¡¯t even two yet when we were sepum-rated.¡± The little girl stumbled over the big word.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. He¡¯s a good friend of mine, and he might remember you, so I will ask him to help Miss Molly for the next few days. He even has ess to the good snacks.¡± Max told the girl with a wink, unable to tell them apart with a nce.


    Dave met them at the door, with a wet cloth in hand and four sets of pajamas ready, two for boys and two for girls.


    ¡°I suspect that soup and sandwiches were messy, so I came prepared. But who is this lovelydy? You didn¡¯t tell me that you had captured an angel.¡± Dave greeted them, giving Miss Molly his very best smile.


    ¡°Smooth, but you¡¯ll have to do better soldier boy.¡± Mollyughed.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got all day to work on it. Come in, the bunks are ready, and I prepared them with retainers so the little ones don¡¯t roll out. I wasn¡¯t sure if the boys were walking yet.¡± Dave replied, rolling himself backward to let them into the ten-bunkmunal dorm room.


    ¡°This is all for us?¡± Molly asked, looking at the plush couches, television, holoprojector, and fully stocked kitchen, with synthetic versions of the fancy dishes that the Nobles preferred.


    ¡°This is what we have. It is meant for a wing of Light Mecha Pilots, but we didn¡¯t have enough to fill all the rooms, so you can use this one until we reach the unless you¡¯re captured by Mary Tarith, who has entirely too many boys of her own, and loves little girls.¡± Maxughed.


    ¡°That Mary Tarith? Her family donates a lot of money to children¡¯s causes, and she was all over the news when the fighting broke out.¡± Molly told him.


    ¡°Oh, trust us, we know. She¡¯s here on board right now, and I¡¯m going to guess that she¡¯s bored and upset that she didn¡¯t have anything do to this time, since it didn¡¯t require an outside specialist.¡± Nico told Molly with a wink.


    ¡°If you say that the news is wrong, I will believe you. You¡¯re here after all.¡± Molly agreed, then sighed as the girls began running around the living room examining everything.


    ¡°Pick your rooms for the trip girls. I will bring your bags.¡± Dave called.


    That should keep them busy for a while. The rooms were all absolutely identical.

 Chapter 301 301 More Family

    The selection of rooms took exactly as long as Dave had suspected. The moment one twin chose a room, the other demanded that they get the room because it was clearly the best one, and they should get equal rooms. Then different rooms were selected, and they were still somehow unequal.


    In the end, Miss Molly ended up with a tape measure, checking the distance to the fridge, snack cabs, and showers to provide a perfectly bnced set of distances between both selections, which naturally put them side by side in the center of the group of bunks.


    The infant twin boys stayed next to Molly, who took a room at the end, and Dave took the far side so that nobody could escape out that end to wander the ship unattended.


    They had already tried, assuming that they could find a better room if they just looked hard enough.


    That was likely true, at least in their minds. The technicians and logistics staff had a number of odd characters in their ranks who would be highly entertaining to a pair of small children who were bored from days and days of being cramped into a cargo hold where they couldn¡¯t even sit down properly.


    They had just had soup and sandwiches, but the dinner meal would be served soon, getting everyone back on schedule with the ship and past the initial food scare which led to refugees hoarding and fighting over supplies in cases where they thought they might be limited.


    None of the officers wanted to deal with that here, so they nned two meals back to back, and they would be cing the meal ns and times for the rest of the journey up on the wall once the buffet was set up.


    Feeding a small city¡¯s worth of refugees was no small task either, even if they had the technology on Terminus to do it, they still needed hundreds of staff to keep the lines moving and get everyone fed. Five floors, with roughly eight thousand people per floor, now that they had realized that there was more space at the top and spread out, meant that each Battalion¡¯s logistics staff would need to make over two tonnes of food for every meal.


    If they didn¡¯t already have experienced staff who had dealt with Infantry Regiments before, it could have been a disaster.


    Back in the First Battalion dorms, Dave had a great idea to keep the kids entertained. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go have lunch with all the Reavers in this section? They¡¯re having the same thing that the people you traveled with will be having, but I¡¯ll bet they will be lots more fun, and they haven¡¯t seen a kid as cute as you are in a while.¡±


    Molly smiled at that joke. Kids on a Reaver vessel? That was actually extremelymon, but to see kids who didn¡¯t grow up with space travel and violence was a rare thing.


    ¡°Or they coulde to eat with the rest of the Family? We have our own section in the middle of the ship, set aside for passengers.¡± Mary Tarith suggested, walking in through the open door.


    ¡°Mary Tarith, meet Miss Molly, an adoption worker from Kepler Terminus.¡± Dave introduced them.


    ¡°Oh, I remember, you were the coordinator for the new food bank drive just before things started to get messy back home.¡± Mary dered, looking at Molly.


    ¡°I am honestly shocked you remember me. I mean, you¡¯re practically a trillionaire, from what I¡¯ve heard, so why would you remember someone like me, who only organized one event?¡± Molly asked, then covered her mouth, not having intended to say some of that out loud.


    ¡°I always rememberpetent people. If things had gone better and theary government hadn¡¯t managed to shut us out of the news media, I would have likely taken you on as an employee. We¡¯re not as rich as you think though, we just give the entire family¡¯s charity spending through one organization.


    There were hundreds of us on the, with many different businesses, so it adds up, even if each one only gives a few thousand to a cause.¡± Mary Tarith exined.


    That was how she had organized things in the Family. Instead of doing things personally, which could draw attention to a number of questionable business practices or to the Reaver branches of the family, who weren¡¯t directly involved with theary branch, Mary Tarith made a separate foundation to do all the charity work, and she became the spokesperson for it.


    That led to a number of rumors going around about their hidden power and wealth, but that was always the way with old-money families. Their power was buried deep, though this time it had turned out to be too shallow to keep things under control when the¡¯s government had sided with the Rebels.


    ¡°We might as well go to them, or they wille to us. Mary here is pushing hard for Commander Keres to be her son-inw, so I¡¯m sure she won¡¯t pass up a chance to befriend his remaining family.¡± Dave smirked.


    ¡°If only that daughter of mine hadn¡¯t made it so hard. I mean, between bing a full conversion Cyborg, and his closest confidant andbat partner? I don¡¯t need to pull them together, I need to shift their dynamic apart enough that they can see each other as potential romantic partners and not battle brothers.¡± Mary sighed.


    ¡°If they¡¯re that close, do they need to get married at all? They sound like they¡¯re practically family already.¡± Molly asked.


    ¡°See, Nico is supposed to take over the Family, as the oldest child of the current leader. That might not happen, since she loves Mecha too much to sit at home and do paperwork, but if she¡¯s married then we can have them adopt a few kids, or gene sequence some from the pair of them, and continue the bloodline that way, skipping a generation to give the lead to my grandchildren.¡± Mary exined.


    ¡°That sounds like a lot of pressure for a young couple.¡± Dave pointed out, making both womenugh.


    ¡°Sure, fighting to the death in a Reaver ship is no big deal, butmitting to a rtionship? Now that¡¯s the real hurdle in the mind of a veteran.¡± Mollyughed, making Dave chuckle and pick up the twin girls to set them on hisp as he wheeled himself toward the door.


    ¡°Shall we go then? Young Ladies, your chariot awaits.¡±

 Chapter 302 302 Family Dinners Are Stressful

    Dave rolled his wheel chair over and ced the twins in the back of the cargo shuttle before lifting himself and his chair up onto the deck, while Molly lifted the boys in their stroller beside them. Mary joined them all in the back, then thumped the roof for the driver to return to the Tarith Family dining rooms.


    Along the way, she told the kids a wonderful story about how a heroic Mecha pilot held a all by himself, fighting off evil enemies until finally a rescue came for him and took back the. That was the child¡¯s version of the Kepler 142 resistance story, and the girls loved it, demanding more and more details as Mary told the tale.


    Fortunately, it was a historical event, and she knew all the details, so she could indulge every question that they wanted the answers to.


    ¡°You¡¯re good with kids,¡± Molly observed, having not seen Mary Tarith interact with children before since their event was mostly for donors and such the day that the two of them met.


    ¡°I have three hundred nieces and nephews at the moment, and they¡¯re all aboard this ship. In our family, you get very used to having kids around, since we all like spending time together.¡± Mary exined.


    ¡°So are you staying on this ship? Traveling as a family?¡± Molly asked.


    ¡°No, once we get to Rae 5 we will be departing, along with all the refugees. The Reavers are currently building cities on the formerly uninhabited, and we are looking forward to having a stable poption.


    The Reaver ships are short on craftsmen,borers, and general service workers all the time, so having so many Refugees filling up a Capital city will be a good start for us. You can rebuild your lives, and the Reavers will supply the products to get you started.


    It might mean that those who want to start a business take on some debt if they didn¡¯t have anything to bring with them, but it will be a good deal with the Reavers since they need the manpower. I think a lot of them n to keep the businesses in the Companies, but they will still need employees to sell their goods, so there are going to be jobs for everyone to go to, as well as homes.¡±


    Molly was stunned to silence, while the kids didn¡¯t really understand what was going on.


    ¡°A newly built, modern city, with jobs for everyone, selling products and services for the Reavers? That sounds a bit too exciting.¡± Molly pointed out.


    ¡°Think of it more like living on a resort. Everyone wille there to trade and rx, while the more sensitive and bulk goods will be sold in the Space Stations in the system that are manned by Reaver Company staff.


    The is supposed to be a homeworld for them, so a lot of young families with children will be transferred to the surface instead of remaining on their vessels.¡± Mary exined it a bit more clearly.


    ¡°Oh, that makes sense now. It sounded a bit like a huge ck market venue the first time.¡± Molly chuckled while Dave did his best to hide his smile.


    It wasn¡¯t that far from the truth, but it wouldn¡¯t be some seedy underworld ce where they had to hide from thew and do their business without being noticed. Here they could do whatever they agreed was within the bounds of good taste.


    Reavers allowed many things, but certain drugs were off limits for being too damaging to their users, ssified information couldn¡¯t be sold openly, as it caused too many problems for the people, and Human Trafficking usually led to a very painful death, because so many Reavers started out as ves in foreignnds who were either bought or freed by force by the Companies that they now worked for.


    Dave had forgotten how much stuff the Tarith Family had brought aboard when they left the. This dining hall was pure luxury for a thousand guests or more, with real leather chairs for the heads of family groups, and an actual golden throne at the head of the main table.


    ¡°Seriously? A golden throne? I didn¡¯t take you for the melodramatic type.¡± Daveughed.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not my seat, I sit to the right of it. The throne is for the oldest living member of the family present at a meal. It¡¯s an old tradition from before we started passing down the reigns of the family before the existing leader died.


    Today, that seat will be upied by my grandmother.¡±


    Mary Tarith pointed to where an ancient woman was being held upright by a small Cyborg with jet-ck hair.


    ¡°Good Morning Dave. Did you see Max on the way in? He¡¯ste for dinner.¡± Nico called across the room while helping her great-grandmother to her seat at the main table.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t. Your mother came to collect us, so we didn¡¯t walk all the way down the ship.¡± Dave exined, then spotted the blonde hairing reluctantly down the hall.


    Max was dreading this family dinner. The Tarith Family was way too friendly, and loud, and had no idea what the words personal space meant, at least in Max¡¯s opinion. Plus, they were pushing way too hard for him to get with Nico.


    ¡°You going to tell them boy, or should I?¡± Dave asked as Max walked up and patted him on the shoulder, not having expected the kids and him to be there to rescue him from awkward conversations.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m going to tell them. But I¡¯m not sure they¡¯re going to listen. Just look at them, it¡¯s like they¡¯re some fundamentalist cult that worships childbirth. Have you ever seen so many kids in one spot?¡± Max asked, making the crippled veteranugh.


    ¡°You forget, your own family had five children in total. But they do have a lot of them for sure, and that¡¯s just the ones too young to have gone to the academy.¡± Dave agreed.


    ¡°That reminds me, did we ever track down the ship that took the Cadets off-world? I bet they wouldn¡¯t mind a small change of venue for their education now that Kepler Terminus is in the middle of a mess.¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Not yet, but we¡¯re working on it. The more we can find the better, especially trained pilots.¡± Nico informed him, then turned to Dave with a smile.


    ¡°I have good news for you though. I made some time with the Tarith Family Doctors. They can see you tomorrow and start patching you up a little. Just tell them what you¡¯re after at the consultation and we will see what we can do with the supplies that we have on board Terminus.¡±


    Dave¡¯s eyes glistened with unshed tears, and even Max felt himself getting a bit misty. He knew that there were no Cyborg parts in stock on the ship yesterday, though they had a number of specialist surgeons in the Tarith Family, so Nico must have arranged time with the materials printers as well to make this gift happen.


    Even when everything else was chaos, trying to deal with an influx of refugees, Nico somehow still managed to keep her own ns on track to look after others.

 Chapter 303 303 Very Stressful

    Max found himself seated between Nico and her mother for dinner, at the head table, while Daveughed at him from the next table over, seated between Molly and Max¡¯s little sisters. On the other side of Nico sat Generals Yaakov and Ming, with a woman in herte thirties sitting between them flirting with General Yaakov.


    The General looked quite smitten with his much younger suitor, but given that Max could tell that they both had rather powerful systems, they didn¡¯t look too different in age and could have many decades or even a century together before old age overcame them.


    Neither were Alpha Ranked for System Compatibility, so multiple centuries might be asking too much, but they could certainly make it to at least a hundred and fifty before they started looking and feeling truly elderly.


    That was the paradox of Military life. Your body was still technically quite young, based on its maximum, but after fifty or sixty years at war, you were ready to retire, call it quits and never hold a rifle or wear a uniform again.


    General Yaakov had been at that point before they had even taken on the mission to test the experimental Mecha, and was supposed to be using it as a finalmendation to cap off his career.


    General Ming was no younger, but he enjoyed his work and hadn¡¯t often been on the front lines ofbat, as the Inquisitors worked mostly behind the scenes. That had left him mentally fit for many more years of duty, and looking forward to all of them.


    Max wondered how he would be in fifty more years as a Mecha Pilot. These first few were pretty crazy with civil war and Rebellion spreading through the Empire. Still, there was a chance things would either calm downter or break down so much that a decades-long ceasefire would be dered to let everyone get themselves reorganized again.


    ¡°So, Max, what are your ns once you have dropped off the family and the refugees on Rae 5?¡± Mary Tarith asked.


    ¡°You know I¡¯m just the figurehead, General Yaakov makes all the big decisions inmittee with his Command staff,¡± Max replied, not wanting to undermine the General in any official capacity when he was sitting only two chairs away.


    ¡°Oh, you didn¡¯t hear? I suppose they¡¯re too busy flirting for their thoughts to be on anything long-term right now.¡± Maryughed, catching the attention of General Yaakov and his suitor.


    ¡°Madam Tarith, I believe I heard my name.¡± The General asked, leaning forward so he could see her more easily.


    ¡°You did. It seems you haven¡¯t shared the news with your staff yet.¡± Mary answered, and Max saw the truth in General Yaakov¡¯s thoughts.


    ¡°I was saving it for tomorrow¡¯s staff meeting. The paperwork has been done for months, there was just not a suitable spot for it.¡± The General answered with dignity.


    His retirement was already official, to be effective the moment that he left active duty of his own volition. He had chosen to depart Terminus along with Gwen Tarith, the woman next to him when they reached Rae 5, and use his savings along with hers to set up a restaurant in the newly established Captial.


    By Kepler Military Doctrine, the Colonel in charge of the First Battalion took over a Regiment that lost its leader without an official recement, so unless Max declined the honor, the role would go to him. Their ties to the Empire were bing a bit tenuous, given the situation, but Max was still a proper Colonel, and this was still a proper Mecha Regiment, even if they were somewhat unorthodox.


    In Max¡¯s past life, such units were much moremon. The Mecha pilots wereuded as heroes, and given all sorts of perks and benefits befitting the highest in society. That meant that opulent rooms, nonexistent discipline, and groupies were the standard, not Military regtions and strictly tiered Unit assignments.


    In fact, every Mecha in Max¡¯s past life, as far as he could remember, was personalized. A one-off unit that was built for a specific person, who then passed them down through their family or through the prodigies that they trained.


    He had experience dealing with those sorts, and getting them to work together, and his memories had almost all returned, except a small portion that was still locked away for some reason, but it was enough to give him the confidence that he could be a good leader to this unit as long as they remained together.


    ¡°With the General retiring, that might shake things up a little, wouldn¡¯t it? Maybe encourage some rapid decisions, and move things along to the next step?¡± Mary asked Max suggestively.


    ¡°Mother, I already told you, you have to wait if you want us married. It¡¯s not the time for that yet, no matter how much you want grandchildren.¡± Nico reminded her.


    Max sighed and rubbed his temples. This was why he was dreadinging here. Mary Tarith had no filter, or at least she refused to use the one she had, and she really, really wanted grandchildren, even before her youngest was old enough to have joined the academy.


    ¡°If you were in such a hurry to have grandchildren, perhaps you shouldn¡¯t have waited a decade between the first and second attempts at children. You could have increased the odds much earlier.¡± Max pointed out.


    ¡°Bah, don¡¯t you think I tried? That husband of mine is sneaky, he would find excuses to be out of town on my fertile days so that he, and I quote, wasn¡¯t drowned in children.¡± Mary grumbled, making a man sitting across from Daveugh.


    Max hadn¡¯t noticed, but it was Nico¡¯s elusive father. Max had no idea what the man actually did for a living, only that he was very good at making himself inconspicuous, even to Max, who could read the thoughts of everyone around him. Right now, the man was entirely focused on dinner and talking to Dave, with no hint of other thoughts in his mind.


    That was entirely too suspicious. He had just been called out for his behavior, surely it would cross his mind for more than a moment, but as far as Max could tell it didn¡¯t. He would have to ask Nico about itter.

 Chapter 304 304 The Big Announcement

    Despite Max¡¯s suspicions about the true role of Nico¡¯s father in the family, and even in the Kepler Empire, the dinner went fairly smoothly, with only minimalmentary on his rtionship status, thanks to the revtion of General Yaakov¡¯s uing retirement and marriage.


    Because the news was leaked at dinner, General Yaakov decided to move up the morning briefing to right after the meal, calling every member of the Command Staff to his office so that he could tell everyone in person. Since he told them that it was very important, everyone brought their Adjutant and Technician, assuming that it was rted to arge-scale Regimental Operation.


    In a way it was, but not quite the way that they expected.


    ¡°Wee everyone. I would like to introduce you to Miss Gwen Tarith. An exceptional structural engineer, and my bride-to-be. We have decided to make Rae 5 myst official stop as an active duty General in the Kepler Fleet, and I will be retiring as soon as we have disembarked.


    The wedding will be on the, and open to everyone who wishes to be present.


    After the wedding, we will be setting up a restaurant, selling the diverse delicacies of the Kepler Empire, and enjoying our time together.¡± General Yaakov exined.


    The Command Staff burst into apuse for him and his new bride, and someone brought out a bottle of high-quality Cognac, passing it around in the bottle for the group to celebrate.


    ¡°I¡¯m d you found someone General.¡± Nico congratted him.


    Max looked into the General¡¯s thoughts, certain that he had once mentioned a close family, not just an extended one, and found a predictable sadness in his recent memories. He did indeed have a wife before this until his trusted subordinates determined that she had been turning his household to the Rebel faction.


    But that was something that he had inmon with Gwen Tarith, who had assassinated her own husband at the start of the civil war on Kepler Terminus. In a twisted way, the two grieving widows were an amazing match, and Max could see that their personalities instantly meshed when they met, this wasn¡¯t just a marriage of convenience or a rushed rebound rtionship.


    It might be both of those things, but not just them. Though Max wondered how the General was going to react to her views on family. He had a number of children of his own, all grown now and married themselves, but she did not, and Gwen felt a lot like Mary Tarith about children. The more the merrier. Though she did temper herself somewhat and her thoughts showed Max that she would be happy with just four or five.


    ¡°But now that we¡¯ve made our way through a bottle of the good stuff, we should get down to business. By regtion, Colonel Max will be the interim Regimental leader until such time as the Emperor sees fit to make a permanent assignment. If anyone has an issue with that, please speak now.¡± General Yaakov instructed them.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see an issue. He¡¯s the best choice as a face for the Regiment, and I am NOT getting involved in the Imperial Politics involved in Regimental Command.¡± Colonel Klinger, the most experienced among them dered.


    That was a sentiment that most of them shared. Battalion Commanders were as high as most Pilots wanted to ascend. Beyond that, you would most likely never seebat inside a Mecha again, as you would have too many other responsibilities to take care of to be on the front lines unless you were a Super Heavy Mecha pilot.


    They all were at the moment, but that was only due to the unique nature of their Regiment, and still General Yaakov wasn¡¯t a Pilot, at least not anymore.


    So, they were happy to let Max take over the duty, and he could deal with the Imperial Court and their demands once this mission was over and they were back in regr contact with the Empire, assuming that their tour of duty wasn¡¯t over by then.


    Most of them already nned to retire and keep this lovely Colony Ship, after hearing Max and Nico joking about it, so they honestly hoped that their redeployment orders didn¡¯te too quickly, or that they would at least allow them to keep this cover story up and not rejoin a regr regiment with old pattern mecha.


    There hadn¡¯t been any word of new pattern machines on the battlefield, and they all knew about the message that General Chen Lu had sent, announcing that all data rting to their project had been destroyed to keep it out of rebel hands, so it was likely that there wouldn¡¯t be any more Regiments like theirs for the time being.


    That was both a good thing and a bad thing. It meant that the Rebels wouldn¡¯t have easily produced Super Heavy Mecha, since the old patterns were strictly guarded top secret information they would have to manually scan andpile to make a full one with a standard Material Printer, but it also meant that trying to crush the Rebellion would be even harder since the Kepler Fleet wouldn¡¯t have the new Mecha either.


    ¡°For now, we keep this among us. Once we get to Rae 5 I will make all the official announcements and turn over control of the Regiment. Then I hope you will all stay until the wedding.¡± General Yaakov finished.


    ¡°Remember, we still need to deploy our residents and possibly build them an entire city, since we don¡¯t know how the progress on the ising. Then we will need to be on location while the initial stages of the Orbital base arepleted until it is a habitable space for the workers to live in while they finish mining the asteroid hollow and building the base. At my best guess, we will need at least a month before we go anywhere unless there is an emergency.¡± Max reminded everyone.


    That was a lot of things to do, but unless they volunteered to help with their Mecha, none of those things were for them personally to do, so they could be spending a lot of time on the ship practicing their piloting skills in the limited number of training simtors that they had avable.


    Max saw those thoughts in their minds and sent a memo to both Nico and Major Miller so that they could requisition time to build more training units. Enough for the Regiment, but also enough that they could take in trainees at ater date and expand their capabilities with new pilots.


    You never knew when an opportunity would present itself after all, and there were a lot of refugees in the gxy with military training.

 Chapter 305 305 Planetary Swag

    As Terminus approached the Rae 5 sr system they could immediately see the scale of the improvements that had been made. Dozens of partiallyplete space stations were arranged through the system, and the main now showed signs of habitation.


    The machinery sent by the other Tarith Reavers had been busy and three cities were already visible. One in the middle of a fertile in, one on the ocean, and one in the mountains, near where the Regiment¡¯s first misadventure here had found numerous mineral deposits that weren¡¯t easily mined from asteroids.


    That was an excellent start, even if the didn¡¯t have any cities on its other side yet.


    Not much had been done on the moon base, but they were waiting for therge-scale equipment aboard Terminus to get started on that particr project.


    Now that they were back, they could start filling the city with people and getting essential services set up. Structurally it had everything a city could need, it just didn¡¯t have anyone to operate it at the moment.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got thousands of farmers on board now and almost nomercial fishermen or miners, so how do you feel about settling in the grasnd?¡± Max asked Mary Tarith as they checked the notes about the refugees they had taken on board.


    ¡°A capital city in the open is a good idea, it gives more room to expandter and easier ess to food supplies.¡± The Tarith family leader agreed.


    ¡°Then we will begin preparing Terminus forndfall. It won¡¯t be easy on the old ship, but with so many people it would take four or five round trips to move everyone with The Dutchman, and then, even more, to bring down all the equipment.


    The shielding has been upgraded, so we should be fine on that ount, it¡¯s just the gravitational forces that we are concerned with.¡± Max informed her.


    ¡°What are the chances of structural failure?¡±


    Max shrugged. ¡°Less than one percent, but stress fractures might require repair before we leave again. Nothing that puts us in the severe risk category, just a small dy.¡±


    ¡°That should be fine then. There are plenty of resources already on the to finish the repair without depleting the storage on Terminus. If you can set us down outside the city, we will take over the organization from there, and get everyone settled.¡± Mary agreed.


    They couldn¡¯tnd too close to the city with a five-kilometer-long Colony Ship, but the passengers shouldn¡¯t mind a little walk if the city didn¡¯t have transport vehicles yet.


    ¡°I will ry the message to the Admiral and we can find a goodnding spot.¡±


    Max sent out all the directions, and the Admiral found them a propernding site where they wouldn¡¯t sink the enormous vessel, which had limited anti-gravity capabilities while the main engines were offline for safety checks afternding.


    [Prepare for orbital insertion in 30 minutes. Please secure all loose items and be prepared for turbulence while entering the atmosphere.] The Admiral¡¯s voice informed the ship.


    This should be an interesting trip. The outer hull of Terminus was rounded and well-designed fornding, but it was truly ancient. Even after their best analysis, the ship¡¯s durability and performance were only theoretical and they wouldn¡¯t know until the first time they made an entry if they were correct in their estimations of its structural integrity.


    The vessel began to shudder and vibrate as they reached the atmosphere, but the effect was more gentle than in a modern Keplernder.


    Max checked all the avable diagnostics himself, then signaled Nico to give him a report.


    ¡°The ship¡¯s structural integrity is holding at one hundred percent. Terminus is making the entry like a champ. Weather is optimal, minimal turbulence detected, and we should be down in twelve minutes.


    Retro thrusters are active and our speed is in the expected range. ¡± She narrated as she went through the diagnostics.


    [Landing Legs deployed, prepare for impact.]


    The warning rmed the refugees much more than the crew had expected, and panic began to spread until the gentle thud of the ship meeting the ground resounded through the hull, and Terminus came to rest on the surface of Rae 5.


    ¡°You all suck. I thought we were going to crash and die.¡± Someone shouted and the cargo hold full of civilians began to fill with relieved chatter.


    [Please wait for an escort to lead you from the ship. Current hull temperatures are too high for an unprotected departure.


    Once you arrive in the city, arrangements will be made for employment, housing, and provisions to get you settled in here on Rae 5, the first sanctioned Reaver-maintained Star System.] The Admiral¡¯s voice informed them politely.


    The general feeling was somewhat dubious about those ims, but even the hope of a normal life again was enough to keep most of them going.


    Once the ship had cooled enough to safely open the cargo bay doors, the first of the Reaver weing party approached. Not just from the Tarith Reavers who were in charge ofary operations, but also from the other Companies that were setting up businesses on the.


    This was the Reavers first hiring fair, possibly ever, and they all wanted to snag a variety of skilled workers. Not just from the trades, the act of selling to and entertaining Reavers and Mercenaries was an art form of its own that couldn¡¯t be overlooked.


    An inexperienced waitress left to work alone would probably never show up to a second shift around such a rowdy and crude group, so if they didn¡¯te from the Companies, then they needed extensive training to work hospitality jobs.


    ¡°That city is nuts. Did your family have some highly skilled architects on staff that nobody else knew about? And if so, why weren¡¯t they working on Kepler Terminus?¡± Max asked Mary Tarith as the elegantly curved skyscrapers of the new city came into view on their sensors.


    The buildings were connected by walkways covered in nt life on multiple levels and clearly designed to be friendly to vehicle-free travel while still allowing for easy cargo movement.


    ¡°Apparently the n came from Nico, out of the database aboard Terminus. This is what the ship¡¯s original owners intended to build, a fully self-sustaining city.


    The material of the windows is actually a highly efficient sr collection array, and everything but the manufacturing district could operate without a separate power nt.


    If we can find the aliens¡¯ ns, we might even find more efficient ways to manufacture Mecha and general goods than the materials printers. But that might be hopeless, they don¡¯t seem to be in the system, only the basic city was in the ship¡¯s terraforming data.


    ¡°So the others are the same?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Modified for terrain, but yes. All three cities are the same, and then there are ns to have different styles on the other continents, for variety.¡± Mary informed him.


    This empty was starting to show a lot of potential. Max just needed to find a way to get it filled since this single city could hold far more people than even thebined Reaver and refugee efforts had supplied.

 Chapter 306 306 Reaver Job Fair

    ¡°Wee everyone to the first-ever Reaver Job Fair. Here in this park, we have employers looking for workers, as well as the city administration office which will be registering public workers and avable to any settlers who want to farm the open ins.¡± The guide announced as they reached the edge of the city, where argendscaped park, filled with exotic fruit and nut trees was filled with Reavers.


    ¡°Come one,e all, and get your applications in, many great bonuses await the right workers.¡± A Reaver was calling over a megaphone when the first load of refugees arrived in the city.


    There were already people there, from the other ships in the system, many of whom had also picked up passengers, but not in such high numbers as Terminus.


    The signage in the park was very clear about the various jobs, but some of the refugees weren¡¯t sure what sort of job they would even be suited for in this world, having done something specialized, or even nothing at all back on Kepler Terminus.


    ¡°I was a homemaker back on Kepler Terminus, but my Husband didn¡¯t leave with me and the kids were all at the academy.¡± One woman exined to the organizer.


    ¡°If you¡¯re not looking for a new husband, then we have housekeeping, city park maintenance, and various cooking jobs. Do you have an active system?¡± The guide asked.


    ¡°Rank D Minus. I flunked out of the academy, even the infantry didn¡¯t want me. But I¡¯m a pretty good cook.¡± The woman shrugged.


    ¡°Then try over there with the restaurant workers. They will be testing the applicants inside a VR simtion, so everyone has a chance to prove themselves.¡± The guide informed her, then sent the woman on her way and greeted the next troubled arrival.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t worked since I retired from the military. PTSD they said when they locked me up.¡± The man informed her. He still looked rather young, so he likely wasn¡¯t retired for long after his ten years in the infantry.


    ¡°What did you do in the infantry?¡± The guide asked, preparing to find a spot to send him.


    ¡°Regimental Logistics Sergeant.¡±


    That was an easy one to work with. ¡°Head to the city section, and tell them your skill set. Logistics skills are always in need, and they can ce you either with the city or refer you to a transportpany scheduling deliveries or something.¡± She informed the veteran, who nodded happily.


    More than a few fights broke out during the job fair, for a wide variety of reasons, but overall it was going better than expected.


    None of the sections were extremely short on people, and after dealing with the drunken bystanders who had apanied the Reaver Recruiters for a few minutes the Hospitality sector was no longer flooded with applicants.


    There was still some resistance from the more prudish refugees about what all ssified as hospitality though. Anything that the workers were willing to offer, as long as it didn¡¯t harm anyone, was fair game.


    But, to some of the refugees, openly recruiting topless servers and prostitutes in public was a step too far.


    Max watched the chaos from a feed Nico had patched into the city¡¯s security cameras, while she wasughing at the chaos, and pointing out random entertaining bits.


    ¡°Oh, check out the cooks.¡± Sheughed, rewinding it a bit.


    A recruiter was telling two cooks that couldn¡¯t seem to get along to either solve it between themselves or go find anotherpany¡¯s line to take their test results to, while the servers told them both to get lost.


    It was a huge argument, right up until the housewife who had been asking for directions earlier grabbed them by their ears and forcibly dragged them out of line, then sent them in their way with a kick to the backside.


    ¡°That¡¯s the can-do attitude we need around here.¡± The recruiter cheered, but she only stared him down for a few seconds.


    ¡°I expect you¡¯ll keep better discipline with the ones you actually hire.¡± She insisted.


    ¡°Oh, I like this one. Hey girlie, want a job with special benefits?¡± Another Reaver from the Company asked, giving a lewd hip thrust.


    She looked down at his waist andughed. ¡°Little boy, don¡¯t tter yourself, that¡¯s neither special nor a benefit.¡±


    The recruiter snorted in amusement and thumped hispatriot on the head. ¡°You know what Lady, you¡¯re hired. Pick your kitchen staff from the applicants.¡±


    Max shook his head at the chaos. How they expected anyone to work in those conditions was beyond him, but most of the retail and factory jobs seemed to be pretty normal andid back, it was just the hospitality jobs that were so rowdy.


    The farmers were the exact opposite. The recruiters and applicants were having some sort of nerd out,paring seeds and crop rotation diagrams while gesturing at the biodomes built into the city for the purpose of local food production.


    Max didn¡¯t know much about the topic, but they looked like they were really into whatever they were talking about. The city designers from Comor would love them, he was sure.


    This city wasn¡¯t built up in the air, but the high-density food production was very simr.


    Thest spot Max checked before returning to the drudgery of making sure the ship got safely andpletely unloaded was the applicants for factory construction jobs.


    That was the mainstay of the blue-cor Kepler citizen. They supervised an automated machine as it made parts, moved inventory around by forklift, or worked one of the many specialized assembly units.


    Kepler Terminus preferred the final assembly of precision parts be done by humans where possible, then double-checked by both automated scans and an extra human so that no mistakes were made.


    The AI loved to chastise them for making mistakes, so they got very good at their jobs, while not needing to make specialized jigs and machinery to do final assembly on special orders. That was the one great advantage humans had over a standard assembly robot. The ability to change patterns and tools in an instant.


    The wasn¡¯t nning anyrge-scale manufactory work, but parts still needed to be produced on demand for customers who had damaged ships or needed spare parts, and the more skilled workers could branch out into other fields once the essential jobs were filled.


    The only thing that they were really short on now was Mecha technicians who had experience with multiple nations¡¯ patterns of Mecha. Every Reaverpany wanted them, and the stations around the needed them, but they weren¡¯t something you could just stumble across by ident.

 Chapter 307 307 Blessed Announcement

    ording to all of the initial data that Max was getting back from Terminus¡¯s systems, thending didn¡¯t actually cause any structural damage to the vessel. Given its tremendous size and weight, Max had expected some sort of structural stress fracturing, but it appeared that the ship¡¯s systems managed to prevent everything that he had feared.


    Even the data on required power levels to get back to orbit all looked good, and they could return fully loaded without any issue, if there were materials on the surface that they needed to take back up with them.


    As far as Max knew, everything that was needed in orbit was already there, so Terminus should be heading back up very light, but not for a few more days. They had the final checks to do before they moved again, but they also nned to wait for the Refugees to get settled into jobs on the surface and attend the wedding of General Yaakov and Gwen Tarith.


    He was supposed to be making the official announcement soon, and Max was certain it would cause chaos throughout the entire Regiment.


    Not only was it their Commanding Officer that was retiring, but he had also found love in the middle of a space voyage and not during his time off. In the minds of a lot of soldiers that was enviably good luck.


    It was far from unheard of, though the Kepler Military didn¡¯t permit soldiers to marry until their term of service wasplete, more than a few were long-term couples in most units.


    [Attention all Personnel. Please be advised that as of 1200 ship time today, the Command of the Regiment is being passed to Colonel Keres Max, while I, General Abraham Yaakov will be retiring mymission and remaining here on Rae 5 with my bride-to-be, Gwen Tarith.


    All members of the Regiment are invited to the Wedding, which will happen at 0630 tomorrow, making it a Noon ceremony by local time.


    It has been an honor serving with you all.


    Thank you, and good luck.]


    The announcement had the effect that Max had anticipated, celebrations broke out all over the ship and all semnce of order and progress were abandoned in favor of cheering on the General and his new bride.


    There wasn¡¯t much of importance going on, since the ship¡¯s scan showed no damage, so Max simply let them go, allowing Mecha Pilots and Mechanics to flood the passenger area, where Gwen and a few of the other Tarith Family members were still aboard.


    The bride would be swarmed with well-wishers for hours, as would the General when the unit caught up with him, so Max kicked back in a chair at themand console in the Engineering bay and decided to rx for a while.


    ¡°Hey, Commander. I¡¯ve got some interesting news for you. Our little refugee exchange seems to have inspired a few more of therge Reaver vessels, and some intrepid Merchants. There are four morerge ships inbound, each with thirty thousand or more refugees aboard, alling here to the capital.


    But more importantly, one of them seems rather familiar.¡± Nico greeted Max the moment she walked into Engineering.


    ¡°Oh, and what sort of familiar face might we have found out here in the middle of nowhere?¡± Max asked since Nico was deliberately not thinking about it so she wouldn¡¯t give herself away.


    She tossed a data tablet at Max with a smile and sat down to wait for him to y the recorded message.


    [This message is for Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company. Your dear Uncle requests a meeting in the Rae 5 System to discuss the settlement of refugees and a new business venture. Please Respond.]


    The voice was clearly Lu Chen, or Uncle Lu, the head Mecha Technician from Comor. What he was doing out here with a ship full of refugees was anyone¡¯s guess, but it sounded like he had some sort of n that would lead them to new toys.


    ¡°Did you already respond?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°But of course, I couldn¡¯t leave Uncle Lu hanging. He will being to the city in two days, and he will meet us here at Terminus once his ship hasnded and unloaded its passengers.¡± Nico informed him.


    ¡°What would he even be flying anyhow? I don¡¯t recall him having a warship in the Comor docks.¡± Max asked.


    ¡°I think that he grabbed a load of refugees in the cargo hold of his yacht, but I can¡¯t be sure until they¡¯re in range of the System Scanners, he might be traveling in a Cargo vessel as well,¡± Nico replied with a shrug.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s one more VIP guest for the Wedding. I wonder who else we can get together on such short notice?¡± Maxughed.


    ¡°You would be surprised. I managed to get one more General that Yaakov used to work with toe our way for the wedding.


    Officially he is on extended border patrol, searching the zone for escaping Rebels and any sign of Klem that went off course andnded on the uninhabiteds. Just because humans can¡¯t live on most of them doesn¡¯t always mean that the Klem won¡¯t survive.¡± Nico replied.


    Since most of the General¡¯s family had turned Rebel, his side of the aisle would be filled with his Regiment. It would be good to have at least one or two old friends there, who could fill the role of best man.


    It was likely that General Ming had been asked to do the honors since Yaakov had known him for a while as well, but an old friend would be a wee addition.


    ¡°Any other surprises that I should know about?¡± Max asked Nico before she could leave.


    ¡°Nope. That¡¯s about everything.¡±


    Her thoughts told a very different story though. She had spent most of the day today reprogramming the Food Replicator they had isted for experiments. Soup and Sandwiches were no longer the only things it could do. Terminus could now produce a full three-course chicken or steak meal of officer¡¯s lounge quality, as well as a red wine of questionable vintage.


    Max didn¡¯t think she had time to have anyone test the wine¡¯s vor yet, but she had at least scanned it and found it was nontoxic and 12 percent alcohol. The soldiers would love her for that one since the replicators were so much easier to supply than the regr kitchens.

 Chapter 308 308 Guests of Honor

    While Nico returned to the experimentation bay to keep working on more food products from the Replicator system to inflict on unsuspecting crew members, Max waited for the excitement to die down so that he could start arranging duty assignments with the Battalion Commanders.


    There was some reorganization to be done, first and foremost, he would need to assign a new leader for the First Company now that the was moving to Regimental Command. The obvious choice was Major Miller, his adjutant, who already handled almost all of the Regiment¡¯s logistics and other business.


    Then he would need to pick his Executive Officer, again an easy choice, since Nico was the one who kept him informed as often as the official chain ofmand did. But most importantly, they needed a new Mecha.


    He had no intentions of giving up Enduring Rage without having a recement ready, so the First Battalion would need a new Command Mecha or it was going to be shorthanded.


    They had the technology, and they could make another, but Max suspected that Uncle Lu might be able to talk him into trying something entirely new again. The old man was persuasive like that, and Max didn¡¯t want to build another Super Heavy Mecha, at a huge resource cost, and then end up making a new experimental unit with the Mecha-obsessed scientist anyhow.


    That left all his important decisions made, and now he only needed to catch up on all the paperwork and Command Level details that the General had prepared for him before he finished hisst shift.


    That also meant that he would need to have a private briefing with Inquisitor General Ming, since most of what the Inquisitor had to say couldn¡¯t be put down in writing, for security reasons.


    The Inquisitor was with the General at the moment though, and both were drinking happily, so no confidential meetings were going to happen today, and none tomorrow or the day after either.


    With three days to catch up on the paperwork, Max was certain that he could get everything in order without any issues, even if his mind kept wandering to what a Steak Dinner made of rbined biomass would taste like.


    The machinepletely changed both the molecr and even atomic structure, but the crew had found that the most energy-efficient thing to feed it was a fast-growing algae since the base structures and elements were so close already to things that humans would be eating.


    The slimy green nt was grown in the hydroponics bays of the ship, and if they didn¡¯t start actually using the Replicators on a regr basis, they were going to have so much of the stuff that they would never get the algae all cleaned up, it would just be a self-perpetuating loop of organic life feeding off itself and taking over a hydroponic bay.


    Max spent three hours checking over Command information before he got bored and went to check on Nico and the Replicators, finding all of his young family members outside, waiting expectantly for something to happen.


    ¡°Dave, Ladies, what¡¯s up today? It looks like a special event.¡± Max greeted them.


    ¡°The pretty robotdy is making ice cream, and we get to be the very first to try it.¡± One of the twin girls informed Max happily.


    Nico gave Max an innocent smile, and he saw that she had already taste tested and used her cyborg body to verify the safety of the Ice Cream sundaes that the team had programmed into the system, so the kids weren¡¯t experimental testers.


    Knowing this bunch, nothing was impossible. Especially when it came to the Replicator.


    They were also working on altering the base design to make an improved Materials Printer based on that technology, but that was a good bit further off since they didn¡¯t have the expertise to fully redesign such aplex machine on their own, even with their System Functions helping them along.


    ¡°Alright, everyone line up, Ladies first. We have Ice Cream Sundaes in three varieties. Chocte, Caramel, and Mixed Berries. Which would you like?¡± Nico called out.


    ¡°Chocte.¡± The two little girls screamed in unison, and Max could see the Technicians cover their ears to stop the shrill scream from deafening their enhanced hearing.


    It was cold, creamy, and definitely topped with chocte sauce, everything that Max could have asked for in a dessert, and ording to the data tablet that was sitting off to the side, creating it took very little energy, less than making an equivalent amount of hot food.


    That was a nice little bonus for them, especially once they had taught this machine enough recipes that it could be viable to activate all through the ship.


    Once that day came, Terminus might well be the best-supplied Reaver vessel in the entire quadrant of the Gxy. The abundance of strange technology did make Max wonder if somewhere else in the Gxy there was a more advanced version in use by the descendants of whoever arrived on this ship.


    ¡°What¡¯s the big n for the new menus? They look a bit fancy, but not enough that it seems like you¡¯re going for the luxury passenger market.¡± Max asked the lead Technician in charge of the project.


    ¡°Those are the meals for the General¡¯s wedding. We found out in advance from Gwen Tarith, and we¡¯ve been working on it ever since because there are no steaks anywhere in this star system as far as we know. There are still plenty of chickens and frozen chickens, but we couldn¡¯t find any of the breeds of herd animals that Madam Tarith was hoping to have for her wedding options.


    They¡¯re quitemon on Kepler Terminus, but none of the Reaver ships have any in stock. Not even us, since thest we stocked on, didn¡¯t have any, and the Tarith Family had more important things to bring with them than cases of beef.


    That was incredibly thoughtful of them and would make for an incredible wedding gift.


    ¡°Does she know yet? I wouldn¡¯t want you to have to argue with the caterers.¡± Max asked.


    ¡°We sent her a message already and forwarded it to the Caterers so that they could pick up the meals here. It¡¯s going to clean out a good portion of our Algae stock though. We¡¯re expecting dinner for at least ten thousand once the Regiment, the Tarith Family, and the Reavers who want toe to the wedding are factored in.¡± The technicianughed.


    Good, they had entirely too much algae on this ship.

 Chapter 309 309 Pomp and Ceremony

    309 309 Pomp and Ceremony


    ¡°Just for the sake of curiosity, how long will it take the algae that we used today to regrow?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°About a week?¡± The technician shrugged, unsure of the exact number since that was the domain of the botanists, not the technicians.


    Roughly two thousand people in the Regiment, and the current algae growth rate supported a banquet meal for ten thousand at a time? That should be one meal at this level per day for the entire crew. That wasn¡¯t as ridiculous as Max had thought, and he began to rx.


    ¡°I know the numbers you¡¯re doing, and they¡¯re wrong. If the stockpile wasn¡¯t so heavily depleted it would take much less time to regrow. They currently have enough that at full supply it could nearly cover all three meals a day for the entire crew.


    That¡¯s why we¡¯re working so hard to get enough recipes in order that we can bring the rest of the units online.


    If we can get the big ones in the kitchens going this week before the stockpile regrows, we should be able to sustain the kitchens indefinitely, as long as the waste recycling system holds out and we have a small supply of fertilizer to keep growth rates up.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°How did you?¡± Max began, but the techniciansughing interrupted him.


    ¡°I will give you one piece of advice Commander, if I may. If anyone ever asks you to y poker, send Nico. Every thought you have is clear as day on your face once we learned what to look for, that¡¯s how she always seems to know what you¡¯re thinking.¡± One of the technicians replied.


    Max hadn¡¯t considered that. Being Commander came with a lot of interactions, but he had always been wearing his mask so far, so it didn¡¯t be an issue. He might have to start working on his poker face though, just in case there came a time when he needed to lie to the crew to keep them from panicking.


    ¡°Noted, no poker games for me. Keep up the good work, and make sure you¡¯re on time for the ceremony. I¡¯m sure the General would appreciate it if the entire Regiment was there to send him off, and we have a number of new allies to impress.¡± Max reminded them.


    The only people who would be left behind to guard the ship were a single Company from the First Battalion, who would make sure that nobody broke in or tampered with the ship while it was empty.


    Once the wedding party left for the city, the Regiment would be the only ones left there, and that meant that they would only have to guard against threats from the outside again. Not that they had any trouble with either the Tarith family or the refugees, but it was always better to be over-cautious.


    The wedding was scheduled to start with a parade of light Mecha carrying banners, apanied by midday fireworks that would mark the official start of the wedding ceremony. As he was a retiring General, and he was marrying a Reaver¡¯s daughter, there would be two Super Heavy Mecha on guard, Enduring Rage, piloted by Nico, and one from the Tarith Family, which Max hadn¡¯t seen yet, as it had arrived with the Reavers from Gwen¡¯s side of the family.


    By any normal standard, this would be a spectacr wedding, and if it wasn¡¯t for the limits of the venue that they had chosen, many more people would have chosen to attend.


    That was why the weddingpany would begin with a parade so that the whole city could join in on the celebration if they wanted.


    Most of these people were either fresh from battle, or forced to flee their homeworlds, so a big fancy wedding might help things feel a bit more normal for them.


    There would be free rounds at the city¡¯s newly established Taverns in the evening, a crash course in serving drinks for the freshly hired staff, who hadn¡¯t had a chance to prove themselves yet.


    The ceremony would be officiated by General Ming, as agreed by both parties, making things easy on everyone else who was worried about differing customs between the two cultures.


    Max dozed off to a short nap, mentally preparing for the day ahead, and was woken up by Nico sending him a message.


    [One hour to get to the wedding hall. Just in case you were still napping. The parade is about to begin, and I¡¯ve got Enduring Rage, as well as the wedding banner.]


    Nico apanied it with a photo that was clearly taken by a drone, of arge banner hung between the Mecha¡¯s outstretched Ion Bombard Arrays, dering that this was a wedding between Duke Abraham Yaakov of Terminus Trading Company and Lady Gwen Tarith of the Tarith Reavers.


    Max looked over the picture and noted that there were flower petals everywhere along the parade route in front of them.


    [Where did you find that many flowers?] He sent back to her.


    [We didn¡¯t find them, we made them. ten tonnes of them, to spread through the route and the venue. They calm the mind and increase dopamine output, so it should put the whole city in a happy wedding party sort of mood.


    Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re paying overtime for the city roads department toe to sweep them up tonight.]


    Max thought that they might have gone a bit overboard, but he put on his best Reaver-appropriate suit and jogged out of the ship to head to the open field where the wedding would be held, surrounded by walls of flowers.


    If he was right, this venue was actually abat arena, but now that it was covered in flowers, with all the seating decorated, it made an excellent wedding venue.


    As he reached the gates, all of Max¡¯s previous concerns about going overboard were nullified by the sight above him. The Tarith family had jettisoned thousands of tonnes of metallic scraps from their ships in low orbit, to make an incredible mid-day fireworks show that lit up the skies overhead with bright streaks of colored fire.


    Then a pair of drones began deploying re countermeasures in a heart-shaped pattern overhead, and Max saw the two Mecha, one of them Enduring Rage, the other an ancient pattern of Phnx ss super heavy that made even the venerable Shining Darkness that General Tennant used to pilot seem shiny and new.

 Chapter 310 310 Just in Time

    310 310 Just in Time


    Max headed to his position in the waiting room, as he was part of the wedding party and would be standing beside General Yaakov¡¯s best man.


    Nobody else was there except the bridesmaids when he arrived though, and Max began to worry. If the Kepler patrol ship which was carrying the best man was dyed it would be a real shame. He knew that they were cutting things very close to get everyone together for this event, but Max had really hoped this would work out perfectly.


    Just before the party arrived, the scream of a shuttle on rapid approach filled the air,nding just outside the venue, and Max heard theughter as something happened that amused the guards.


    He ran to the back door to make sure that nothing was going wrong, only to find Uncle Lu and an old man in a Kepler General¡¯s uniform running across the field, putting on their tuxedos as they went.


    [Someone, please send a vehicle to go get them, they¡¯re in the wedding party.] Max ordered, and a cargo cart raced out of the building toward them.


    Once the cart arrived at the building, a big man with apletely bald, but heavily tattooed head jumped out in a Kepler Military Dress Uniform, covered in des.


    ¡°You throw a hell of a party here on Rae 5, don¡¯t you? We met up with this miscreant and his cargo ship on the way over, but we couldn¡¯tnd for thest half hour because of the orbital fireworks. It¡¯s good to meet you, Commander Keres, I am General Pell of Kepler Imperial Command.


    It seems that we were fated to meet eventually. Inquisitor Ming called me to this sector to help put down the Rebels and their dealings, then your staff contacted me about the General¡¯s wedding. We have been friends forever now, and it would have been a shame to miss the old man retiring and getting married.¡±


    Thinking that this huge tattooed man was a good friend of the Nobility-loving General Yaakov was a strange concept, but since he also knew Uncle Lu, who was so deeply ssified within the Kepler hierarchy, he must be who he imed to be.


    ¡°I¡¯m d you could make it on time. We didn¡¯t tell Yaakov that you wereing, just in case you couldn¡¯t make it on time. He will be overjoyed to know that you¡¯re here when he arrives.¡± Max informed the General, who burst intoughter.


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t know? Oh, that¡¯s even better. I can¡¯t wait to see the look on his face.¡± General Pell wheezed, as he tried to get hisughter under control.


    ¡°I see we weren¡¯t the only ones with that idea.¡± An elderly woman¡¯s voice chuckled, and the trio of groomsmen turned to see who had spoken.


    It was clearly a Tarith woman. That face and size couldn¡¯t be anyone else, but Max didn¡¯t recognize her.


    ¡°Isabe Tarith. The bride¡¯s great-grandmother. My ship arrivedst night from a trading expedition into Death Wind Territory. She doesn¡¯t know that we are here yet, but her entire extended family is here, not just the few who were on vacation on Kepler Terminus during thisst mission.¡± The old woman exined.


    That was even better. The tradition was that the couple would walk down the aisle together, under the crossed des of a line of light mecha making an arched roof, so they would only see all of the newly arrived guests of honor once they made it to the pulpit where they would be saying their vows.


    Molly came through the waiting room with Dave and the kids headed for their reserved seating in a box above the main hall, where the kids wouldn¡¯t get trampled or disturb the likely raucous revelry of the ceremony.


    ¡°Is it just me, or are there a lot of guns here for a wedding?¡± Molly asked Max with a very concerned look.


    ¡°It¡¯s tradition. The Military wears their sidearms, the Reavers all carry a ceremonial weapon of some sort as well, plus the Mecha that are here as part of the decorations. Nobody in their right mind would try to disrupt this sort of a wedding with anything less than aary invasion force.¡± Max agreed.


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen a lot of things over the years, dealing with foster kids, but this wedding is way above and beyond. Just the fireworks could have bought a hundred houses back on Kepler Terminus.¡± She sighed with her eyes sparkling in envy.


    ¡°Well, let us know when you¡¯re ready to settle down and I will see what we can do.¡± Max winked at the Social worker, whoughed off his offer and led the kids upstairs.


    That was when Max realized that one very, very important thing had changed, and he had entirely missed it.


    Dave walked in with the kids.


    Dave hadn¡¯t walked since he left the Infantry.


    ¡°So it was sessful?¡± Max asked, giving his old friend a hug to hide the happy tears in his eyes.


    ¡°Worked perfectly. I¡¯m still having issues moving correctly, but Nico got me set up well enough that I can at least walk and sit today. She dragged the Doctors out of bedst night and moved the surgery forward so that I could be here for the wedding. The venue isn¡¯t wheelchair friendly, and I didn¡¯t want to have to ask someone to carry me up the stairs.¡± Dave replied, stepping back to show off his new limbs.


    They were biomechanical recements and looked like the real thing, they even had natural flesh growing over them from what Max could see when Dave lifted his pant leg a little.


    ¡°How much did they have to do?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Hip bones, legs, and a spine through ribs brace to deal with the added stress. Once I¡¯ve built up muscle again by moving around it won¡¯t really be necessary, but it¡¯s imnted, so it won¡¯t hurt anything. The batteries in the legs should be good for a year before recharging, so there are no worries about my legs going dead in the middle of the day either, like with those cheap augments from the slums.¡± Dave replied with a smile, very pleased with the quality of the work.


    ¡°It¡¯s time. They are almost here, we should head for the stage.¡± Isabe Tarith reminded them, and Dave shook hands with Max, then headed up to meet with Molly and the kids.

 Chapter 311 311 Weddings Are Fun

    311 311 Weddings Are Fun


    Isabe Tarith and General Pell took their ces on opposite sides of the stage, nked by the rest of the wedding party, to wait for the couple to arrive.


    Right on schedule, the Imperial March began to y, and the happy couple started making their way down the aisle.


    [Don¡¯t miss the recording of the moment that they realize we found them two guests of honor for their ceremony.] Max reminded Nico, who had a perfect view of the event from inside Enduring Rage.


    Most of the Regiment would be interested in seeing that footageter, so it was important that it was captured from as many angles as possible.


    They were so captured by the scene around them that they were over halfway down the aisle before they noticed that the wedding party wasn¡¯t standing in the formation that they had expected.


    The smiles were impossible to hide, and it didn¡¯t take long for all the guests to realize that someone on the stage was a surprise guest, that they hadn¡¯t expected to be able to make it for the wedding.


    They did manage to keep their pace though and strode gracefully between the Line Mecha up to the front of the chapel. Once they were at the altar, the Line Mecha retreated to the back of the congregation so that they weren¡¯t blocking anyone¡¯s view and stood guard over the ceremony.


    While the two Generals were sharing a proper hug, poor Gwen was being admonished by Isabe for crying and making her makeup smudge before the ceremony.


    As far as Max could tell it was a running thing between them because everyint only led to more hugging and crying until eventually General Ming cleared his throat.


    ¡°Wee everyone to the blessing of the union between Abraham Yaakov and Gwen Tarith. If anyone has a good reason why this wedding should not happen, speak now or be branded a coward foriningter.¡± Inquisitor Ming started the ceremony.


    That wasn¡¯t the beginning that Max was familiar with, or the one he was expecting from studying the rituals, but nobody objected, and the Inquisitor continued the ceremony as Max scanned the room for dangers.


    That was somewhat pointless since basically everyone in the area had a gun or sword on them, but it was still a habit that he couldn¡¯t break so easily.


    The ceremony wasn¡¯t a long one, as neither culture put a lot of merit toward organized faith systems, but there were a number of rituals included, beginning with the couple exchanging rings and getting the fun part of the ceremony started.


    ¡°With the promises made, this assembly needs proof of your devotion.¡± Inquisitor Ming spoke the ritual words.


    Both parties of the wedding would be expected to exchange something that would prove their devotion to the other, to the satisfaction of the audience, whose job it was to weed out weddings of opportunity and unfaithfulness.


    Max had no idea how such a tradition had started, but it was now a time-honored tradition.


    ¡°General, you may go first.¡± Inquisitor Ming informed them.


    ¡°The gift is still en route, as it had a long way toe for you, but I present to you the deed to the Cargo Frigate Yaakovian, my family¡¯s fastest interster vessel.¡± General Yaakov told his new bride with a smile.


    A roar of approval apanied by stomping feet shook the ground so much that Max was worried that the stage would copse, as the Reavers present showed their approval for the gift. The fastest ship you own was an incredibly good wedding gift, in their estimation.


    ¡°Madam Yaakov, you may now present your gift.¡± Inquisitor Ming continued the ceremony.


    One of the bridesmaids brought out a small golden stasis box and handed it to Gwen, who smiled fondly at it before passing it over.


    ¡°I know it might be a bitte to salvage most of your sons¡¯ futures, but I have a gift of constion for you. The Company collected the testicles of the Rebel Duke who turned your family against your wishes for their future.¡± Gwen informed him, making all the guestsugh.


    Now that was a strangely appropriate gift for the asion.


    The General had chosen to retire here because most of his family had turned Rebel, which led to him meeting Gwen and falling in love, but his retirement did leave that one bit of revenge as a loose end that she had now solved for him.


    Max looked up into the upper boxes where the kids were, along with Dave and Molly, who were desperately trying to find a way to exin that gift to a pair of confused three-year-olds who didn¡¯t actually understand what it was that he was given. The toddlers had it easy, they were simply munching on popcorn in their stroller, uninterested in the proceedings when there was food nearby.


    ¡°With the gifts exchanged, it is time for the first dance. Mister and Missus Yaakov, please step to the floor and show the assembled guests how it is done.¡± Inquisitor Ming called out, and the crowd up front parted to open up the dance floor, which had been covered in guests who wanted the best camera angles.


    Both of them were from Noble families with a long history, and both had been properly trained from childhood for public dancing. Max had one set of lessons before the one and only formal recruitment ball that he had attended, but he would be up in the next round.


    The Best man, General Pell, would be dancing with the Maid of Honor, so Max would be with the woman next to her, who turned out to be Isabe Tarith.


    ¡°I hope you can forgive my poor footwork, I never learned to dance,¡± Max whispered to the old woman.


    ¡°We can fix that. Do you know the Kepler Knife Dance?¡± Isabe asked.


    It was a paired martial arts pattern, where the two participants went through a set of attacks and blocks in a predetermined order to practice basic knife skills, almost every soldier at least knew it.


    ¡°Of course.¡± Max agreed.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let go of my hands, and we will do it at one-third speed. It matches the rhythm of the next song.¡± The old woman told him.


    Even at one-third speed, the dance would still need a lot of physical agility that he wasn¡¯t sure a woman nearing five hundred years old was capable of, but if nothing else, he could support her through the deeper dips and moreplex movements.

 Chapter 312 312 Dancing Fools

    312 312 Dancing Fools


    The song changed to a fast and upbeat one, and Max took Isabe¡¯s hand, letting her lead him to the middle of the dance floor.


    The old woman was incredibly agile, and Max suspected that she had rather high-ranked systempatibility in her youth to still be able to move like that.


    The dance would normally look rather erotic, the way the two dancers entwined bodies when their hands were locked, but the age difference made it moreical than anything, and the Reavers were all cheering him on by the time Max finished the dance, carrying Isabe back to her chair since the Elder was exhausted from the effort of such a physical dance.


    ¡°Who knew that a Regimental Commander actually knew how to have fun?¡± Mary Tarithughed, pping Max on the back and pulling him back to the dance floor while whispering the moves to another dance into his ear.


    The ceremony was only over for five minutes before the crowd was doing shots straight from rum bottles and losing clothes for a less formal type of dancing. The men and women of the Regiment were being hauled to the dance floor, and chairs were being folded and tossed over the wall to make more room for more dancing.


    The dinner was scheduled for three hours from now, and Max wasn¡¯t entirely sure anyone would be in fit shape to actually eat at the rate that they were drinking. But they certainly intended to try. The word that quality steaks from Kepler Terminus had been procured for the dinner had already spread, and a lot of the Reavers had never tried them.


    The food was served outside thepound, due to space constraints, and the wedding party began to spread out into the field around the venue, leaving only the close family and Senior officers inside to eat.


    That was probably for the best, as Max could see personnel cartsing from the city loaded high with more liquor, so this party was not going to end any time soon.


    ¡°Now, where is the Young Lady of the Tarith Family? Nico, I believe her name was.¡± Isabe asked as she sat beside Max to wait for her children to bring her dinner.


    ¡°Look up and to your left. She volunteered to be the honor guard today, so that is her Piloting Enduring Rage.¡± Max exined.


    ¡°Hmm, that granddaughter of mine said that was your Mecha,¡± Isabe asked, a bit annoyed at the contradiction.


    ¡°It is. During regr operations, Nico is my Technician or copilot inside Enduring Rage. Though possibly not for much longer, as we are reorganizing to fill the vacancy that General Yaakov¡¯s departure left.


    After that, we will either be out of the Mecha, or we will have to build another to fill the spot if we want to keep it as a Command Mecha.¡± Max exined.


    ¡°Or you can let me make you something extra cool. We don¡¯t have to worry about Imperial Command approving designs here.¡± Uncle Lu told him,ing over with a tray of tes and a bottle of strong brandy.


    ¡°What brought you here anyhow? Weren¡¯t you in charge of Kepler¡¯s new Mecha development?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°I was, but that project no longer exists. After the Lab was raided by the Rebels and I scrubbed all the data, the project was mothballed. They don¡¯t n to begin it again until after the Rebellion is dealt with, the risks were deemed too high to attempt to continue.


    So I came here to have some fun. I couldn¡¯t sit in the Lab, which is now a Museum, as the Curator for the rest of my life.


    Here I can start over, assuming you can find me a secure Lab again and not one that will bepromised or raided.¡± Uncle Lu asked hopefully.


    ¡°There is a huge void in the middle of the Moon Base that isn¡¯t being used for anything. It would make a rather nice development Lab, and the station moves so much material that nobody would ever notice your orders moving from the storage rooms to the Lab.¡± Mary Tarith suggested.


    A floating city in the sky worked pretty well until the Rebels found out about it, but a Moon base with the firepower to defend against an attack fleet would be so ridiculously obvious that no sane man would ever think that they would actually put a super secret base there.


    You didn¡¯t put the super secret base in the ultra-obvious murder star, you hid it somewhere that it wouldn¡¯t be noticed, like deep in the mountains. At least that is whatmon sense said.


    ¡°You can finally build the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha.¡± Maxughed.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got a pattern made for a God ss Mecha. There hasn¡¯t been a new one built in a thousand years, and each is unique, but Miss Nico sent me all the design specs for the Engines on Terminus, looking for advice on how to improve them, and it gave me an incredible idea.¡± Uncle Lu whispered, so only the four of them could hear.


    That would be a shock to every system that they dealt with. Most small empires didn¡¯t even have a weapon that deadly, so if the Reavers and their single-system nation did, it would totally break the bnce between Empires in the region.


    But in a good way for the Reavers. It would be too dangerous to attempt to attack them, even for Kepler.


    ¡°So what will we need?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Well, two Pilots with a unique set of skills thatplement each other when designing Mecha, to begin with, but after that, we will need time with Terminus to analyze the Warp Drive ande up with a much faster-moving version. Then we will need a collection of rare materials to actually do the construction.¡± Uncle Lu sighed.


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound so bad.¡± Mary Tarith shrugged.


    ¡°Right? It should be easy once we have everything that we need. The design is almostplete, except for the power nt and the outer shell. It¡¯s a good thing that Terminus has huge cargo bays though.¡± Uncle Lu agreed.


    ¡°And why is that?¡± Isabe Tarith asked.


    ¡°Well, it is a God ss Mecha. Its main structure is seventy meters tall, and carries enough firepower to purge a.¡± Uncle Lu shrugged.


    ¡°Seventy Meters tall? And how did you n to send it intobat? There¡¯s a reason the ones that exist aren¡¯t used much. You can target them from across a continent.¡± Mary Tarith pointed out.


    ¡°Well, I did consider camouge. Like this one. See, when it crouches it looks like a Cathedral.¡± Uncle Lu said proudly.


    ¡°Vetoed. No enormous walking Cathedral. No matter how incredible the architecture is.¡± Max objected.


    ¡°Well, we can talk about thatter.¡±

 Chapter 313 313 Domestication

    313 313 Domestication


    Now that everyone was getting settled into their new homes, and Uncle Lu had a wonderful new Mecha Design project that the entire Rae 5 system would benefit from, there really was no choice except to make themselvesfortable for an extended period on the.


    It was much safer to examine Terminus¡¯ engines while they were powered down and the ship was on the ground and not in space, so Uncle Lu was making the best of his time here to get the essential study done.


    He hadn¡¯t been cking on his original designs, but he needed a much smaller power nt that would be capable of the energy output that he required for his weapons and travel designs, which the Terminus promised to provide him, assuming that he could understand enough about its design to engineering a miniaturized version of it for the Mecha.


    ¡°You know, I¡¯ve seen something simr to this before. One of the Intergctic cultures on the Northern side of the Gxy uses a form of Crystals to power their drives. Unfortunately, we¡¯ve never seen one of theirrge ship drives, only the one on a crashed shuttle that Kepler Engineers studied before the mother ship came to retrieve it, but I suspect that they were the origin of this ship.


    The technology is too simr not to be, but it looks like this one is at least fifty thousand years out of date, from their first wave of colonization in the Gxy.


    ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is that this design has the promise to reach speeds that would make intergctic transport possible?¡± Nico asked hopefully.


    ¡°No, as I understand it they use a version of stabilized wormhole to travel to distant gxies, getting close to their perimeter with the wormhole then using the Warp Drives to travel the rest of the way in. Even getting the travel time to a decade would take a warp factor in the thousands, and that¡¯s just not practical.¡± Uncle Lu sighed, wishing that he could actually find a way to do exactly that.


    ¡°Even if we could get this old ship up to modern Kepler standards it would be a huge victory for us. In the role of a cargo freighter, we are slow but eptable. As a frontline attack ship, we areughably slow to respond, and the Reavers are going to need all the firepower that they can get once the Tapani either rebuild their military force or arrange enough alliances to return.¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°We will start with new engines for one of the Cutters. Once it is up and functional, we can do the testing and start on a version of the Colony Ship¡¯s engines that will help it keep up.¡± Uncle Lu agreed.


    Taking their research subject offline for modifications was thest thing that he wanted to do, even if the colony ship needed to be faster.


    For an entire week, Max organized training drills for the Regiment, making sure everyone was still in top shape in case of attack, while Nico worked on the recipes for the Replicators, and Uncle Lu reverse-engineered the ship¡¯s main engines.


    It was starting to feel like home here on Rae 5, even though his actual family was moving out in the next few days.


    They hadn¡¯t made anything official, but Max had seen the housing request for the children and Molly, but Dave¡¯s name was also on the tenant list for that unit. It looked like his old friend had found himself in a mighty fine new situation after all the hardships he had gone through.


    [Commander, we have an update from Imperial Command. The rebellion in this sector has been officially put down, and the Civil War on Kepler Terminus is over, with the Loyalists victorious. How loyal the remains is still in question, since the forces on the were allied under the local authority and not the Fleet, but for now, things are stable, and they are allowing Refugees to begin to return to a number of their homeworlds.] Inquisitor Ming informed Max.


    [So the flow of them here to Rae 5 is nearly over then?] Max asked.


    This week they had seen at least two ships every day, after the initial influx, and it had gone a long way to filling the other two cities that had been built on the so far.


    [I wouldn¡¯t say that it is over. A lot of ships are still making inquiries abouting here, but as with the ones that have already arrived, vetting all their passengers and crew for Rebel sympathies takes a lot of time.]


    That was the Reavers¡¯ biggest challenge these days, looking into everyone who arrived and making sure that they weren¡¯t here to take down the new Reaver stronghold before it could even be properly established.


    For that reason, they limited the number of visiting ships in the system and put everyone in quarantine until their credentials could be verified.


    There were still threerge ships that had to be cleared before they could either unload their refugees or leave the system, but the progress moved along fairly smoothly, with cooperation from the Captains and thes that they had been evacuated from.


    Some had indeed been full of Rebels, though they were civilians, and the refugees were not happy to find out that they were being turned away because the leadership of the Rebellion had turned on the Reavers.


    The Reavers were a sign of freedom to most of the Rebel Civilians, people who lived outside the rigid constraints of the system, and out from under Imperial Rule. But to know that the so-called freedom fighters had attacked the people¡¯s heroes for sheltering former soldiers that the news on most of theirs had been calling deserters and traitors for half a year now, went against everything that the Rebellion was supposed to stand for.


    Instead of being allowed on the, those groups were mostly split up between the Reaver Companies, so they could keep an eye on them. Sending them back to Kepler was a death sentence for most, and kicking them entirely out of the system would only give propaganda ammunition to the Reavers¡¯ enemies, but isted on mining stations and outlying space stations, they could be vetted for problematic individuals before the rest were given a free pass to move on, or work under lower supervision.


    In essence, they were prisoners. Well-paid prisoners, but prisoners nheless.

 Chapter 314 314 Breakthrough

    314 314 Breakthrough


    It only took Uncle Lu ten days to have a working prototype of the miniaturized Crystal based warp generation engine ready for testing. The hull to be used was a former Kepler Cutter, heavily damaged during the battle but patched back up to basic functionality by the crews of the Terminus Trading Company.


    The technicians saw a great opportunity in this phase of the designs. They were making huge repair facilities for visitors and Reavers, but they could repurpose some for full construction since they had the materials. If they coulde up with an entirely new design of Cutter, they could make a killing selling them to mercenaries and others who were always short on vessels.


    New ships weren¡¯t easy toe by, especially small ones that were capable of faster-than-light travel. They were strictly regted by most nations, and the designs that could be reproduced elsewhere were limited to older technologies that were much better understood, so the actual number of fast Cutters that were avable was very small.


    The Kepler Cutter was a diamond-shaped vessel, narrow in the front, and wide in the rear, for more rear storage room, sufficient for a Battalion of Mecha, but the Engines on the Kepler Design took a full third of the ship.


    That was a huge loss of space in a small vessel, and these ones could barely sustain a warp field, being better used inside a system than to travel between them.


    The vessel had currently been gutted, and the parts were put into storage for the next person who came by and needed them. The ship was little more than a bare structure now, with exterior shielding hastily patched and an experimental Warp Drive mounted in the back.


    Obviously, testing it in the atmosphere was out, so the ship would be sent into orbit with a freighter that was leaving the surface, carrying only a minimal crew.


    Nico was going for her System Skills, along with five other Technicians, and a single Interster Pilot from the fleet side of the crew. All were wearing armored exosuits, and the ones that the Technicians had picked were particrly unique.


    Following Nico¡¯s lead, they had built the Tech Adept Harness into the armor, so that they had four flexible dendrite arms and one rigid lifting arm attached. It limited their abilities to get into small spaces, but they could now do almost anything that they needed in the safety of a protective suit, and with or without atmosphere.


    Max had voiced his objection to sending Nico into orbit, as the second in Command was impossible to rece, but she was too valuable to their research to keep on the ground. So instead he would be watching the entire thing from the sensor rooms of Terminus along with Uncle Lu.


    There were dozens of shuttles on standby, as well as cleanup and damage prevention crews, so if something should happen, the researchers were instructed to bail on the vessel and wait to be rescued.


    [Reaper 1 to Terminus Base,e in Terminus.] Nico called happily over the radio after they made orbit.


    [Go ahead. We are ready for you to begin initial testing.] Max replied, wondering when Nico had made up a code name for the experimental vessel.


    [Power up sessful. Power generation at 60 percent of nominal capacity and rising. Power stabilized at 85 percent. Initial data sent.] Nico replied.


    ¡°Oh that is wonderful, it is just as great as I had hoped with the slight alteration to the shape and the material of the crystals.¡± Uncle Lu cheered.


    ¡°Well, fill me in here, I haven¡¯t been following the design work,¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Current engine output is 85 percent of the designed maximum, but that is roughly six times the output of the original engines in the Cutter. With a vessel thatpact, both the firepower and the speed should be close to what we need in order to progress with the new Mecha design.


    The engine will still need toe way down in size of course, but we can work on thatter. For now, we need to see if the new engine design can actually sustain the warp field that it was designed for.¡± Uncle Lu exined.


    [Power up the warp field for stability tests.] Uncle Lu ordered.


    There was a long pause, then Nico responded. [Field Stabilized. Taking it back offline for adjustments.]


    There were ten minutes of silence, then her voice came back again.


    [Adjustments sessful. My System Function says that this is the best level of adjustment that the current design is capable of in terms of stability and reliability while maintaining output.]


    And that was why she was in space right now. She couldn¡¯t analyze or make those adjustments from the ground, they needed to be done inside the ship. Max could optimize themter for usability, but as far as technically correct, they were at their peak right now.


    [Warp Generation back online. Power output increased 36 percent from initial attempts.] Nico added happily.


    Everything in the data that they were sending down showed that the field was not only much more powerful than expected, but it was also incredibly stable. Thest question was if it was properly adjustable so that they could regte it to take them to faster-than-light speeds.


    This was the really dangerous part and one that Max wasn¡¯t looking forward to. The first test of a new FTL drive design was risky. If the field had a w, it could let debris through, punching holes in the ship and tearing it apart in an instant.


    But Max did have faith in this team, and his System said that the field was good, and gave him suggestions on how to alter it for adjustability.


    Max sent those up to Nico and waited while they checked every power system again before they tried to actually move the ship.


    [All Green. Let¡¯s blow this popsicle stand.] Nico informed them a few minutester.


    [Exellent, excellent. Prepare for transition.] Uncle Lu responded with a big smile on his face.


    ¡°What is a popsicle stand and why does she want to blow it up?¡± The researcher asked Max quietly.


    Max burst intoughter and grabbed the Mic.


    [Transition in 5, 4, 3, 2, NOW]

 Chapter 315 315 Need For Speed

    With a sh of light, the Warp Drive transitioned them from a dead stop toward light speed and beyond.


    [Sensors indicate the warp field is steady. Reports from the outlying Companies areing in, and no issues reported with the warp field.


    We will be moving to maximum speed once we are clear of the boundaries of the Sr System] Nico informed them.


    There was an odd dy in the transmission that Max wasn¡¯t used to. The Kepler messaging system was much more high-tech than their vessels were and should be capable ofmunication at a Warp factor of 6, or the speed of light to the power of six.


    Inside a sr system, that was essentially instant transmission, so if there was a dy, either they were really far out, or they were already moving faster than the transmission, causing distortion. That seemed a bit farfetched since the fastest of Kepler Ships currently struggled to make it above Warp 5, but they did say that the new engines were a number of times more powerful than anything that hade before them.


    The design of the warp field was all new as well. Theoretically, it was an improvement based on alien technology from Terminus that Uncle Lu had improvised and adapted. The design was proving its worth now, and the sensor data that Max was getting from other vessels in the system showed that the ship had currently exceeded a Warp Factor of ten.


    That was a theoretical breakpoint, where either a change in design or an immense amount of energy would be needed to surpass the limit, much like breaking the sound barrier inside an atmosphere, which was once considered impossible during the early days of humanity¡¯s development.


    They watched the sensor data for over an hour, before seeing that the vessel was returning. The data was all garbled, as they were moving faster than the transmission, but the ship was doing a good job of making sense of it, even now that it wasing in on top of itself, with the ship closing the distance faster than the transmission wasing.


    Near the edge of the system, they dropped back to less-than-light speeds, and glided back toward the, sending victorious messages even as the data that they had sent earlier continued to arrive.


    Thatmunication issue was going to be troubleter since they couldn¡¯t warn anyone of their arrival if they were traveling faster than the message, but it would also make for a very stealthy attack craft.


    [Uncle, your changes to the formation of the warp field were incredible. Power usage surged 300 percent at warp 10, but the field was stable and made the transition without any issues. If we can increase output even further, I think that we can actually sustain much higher speeds. The increase dropped back to the expected nominal rate once we passed the second transition.] Nicoughed, and Max could hear the other technicians celebrating in the background.


    [And how is the ship? Have you done a structural analysis yet?] Uncle Lu asked.


    [Mostly fine? We will have to make a few adjustments to the design if we¡¯re going to take more ships past the second transition.] Nico dismissed his concern but sent the data anyhow.


    The ship had taken moderate damage from the journey and had stress fractures everywhere. Some of them might be from a life of military service, but it was clear that a lot of them were new and that it wouldn¡¯t be a wise idea to try that test again without fully rebuilding the cutter.


    [That design isn¡¯t going to cut it at all. But I think that there might be a reason for the curved shape of Terminus, even in its interior structures. See where the stress fractures are? They¡¯re all on straight surfaces, not at the joints where we would have expected them. The damage must be from the change in the warp field.]


    Uncle Lu began to rant about ship design as the Cutter returned to the¡¯s surface, so Max went out of the room to grab lunch for the researchers.


    They were bound to be hungry and ready for a drink after that wild ride, and there were hundreds of Reavers on their way over, sent by their bosses to try to find out when the new technology used to send a Cutter to such speeds would be avable.


    Each Warp Factor was an exponential increase on the one below it, so even at Warp 6 or 7, it would be impossible to intercept their vessels with any of the currently in use standard attack vessels. There were some experimental and ssified designs that might do the job, but running into one of those on a mission would be an incredibly bad bit of luck.


    But beyond the safety considerations, moving from warp 4 to warp 6 would cut their travel time from one side of Kepler to the other by over a month. For urgent shipments, that was a selling point that couldn¡¯t be ignored.


    It would also make the Death Wind Territory more essible, as they would be able to bypass the defense fleets of the nations that had an interest in keeping them isted and starved for resources. In short, it was a win all around, once they could redesign the Cutters to actually survive that sort of abuse.


    The Reavers were approaching at a t-out run now, so Max headed out to greet them with a bottle of Rum in his hand.


    ¡°Wee everyone to the first round of testing for the new Reaper ss Warp Drives. I¡¯m sure you all saw that our proof of concept performed nearly as well as we had hoped, but I do have some bad news for you. The old Kepler Cutter we bolted it to did not. Before we can do the final testing on the drive, we will have to design a ship capable of taking that level of stress, and we all know that isn¡¯t going to happen this afternoon.¡±


    That made the Reaversugh, but they were here as much to celebrate as they were to try to influence him to get early ess to the drives.


    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have a lighter version of that, do you? Something in the Warp 7 range that doesn¡¯t tear apart anything you mount it to with raw power output.¡± One of the new arrivals asked.


    ¡°We had considered making such a practical design at the start, but you see, the engine design was under the supervision of Uncle Lu and Tarith Rage, so all forms of moderation were tossed into the trash along with such silly thoughts like [This is insane] or [We¡¯re all going to die].¡± Maxughed.


    Among the Reavers, it was no secret that Uncle Lu had designed the Super Heavy Mecha that the Regiment was using, so clearly, his thoughts on what was necessary and moderate were questionable, and any Reaver who would name herself Rage had a dodgy grasp of moderation to begin with.


    ¡°Fine then, we will let youplete the tests. Just the fact that it tore the ship apart too much to do another round of tests is enough information for the bosses.¡± One of the Reavers agreed, pulling out another bottle of liquor.


    [Can someone from supply please bring us a light lunch for a little over one hundred to the main reception area outside Terminus?] Max sighed into hismunicator, knowing that they wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere for a while.


    Reaver Politics might be more fun than usual, but they weren¡¯t any faster.<!--


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 Chapter 316 316 Expanded Product Line

    ¡°So, what did you think of the new warp drive design? With these few small changes, we should be able to make Cutters that can take the punishment.¡± Uncle Lu exinedter that week at a meeting with Max and a select group of influential Reaver leaders.


    ¡°Impressive, but looking at the materials list, it won¡¯te cheap or easy. Everything we need is in this star system though, which is a good start.¡± A Reaver Admiral nodded, looking over the lists.


    ¡°Can you retrofit an older ship to that sort of speed? Or even Warp 7 to outrun the border patrols?¡± Another asked hopefully.


    ¡°We ran the calctions, and with an upgraded shield, plus a modified structural support field, it would take roughly three million man-hours ofbor to retrofit a ship the size of Terminus to sustain that sort of speed.


    We can safely get most designs to Warp 4 or 5 with a simple drive retrofit in under a month, but anything beyond that is extremely hard on the structure, especially in areas of turbulence, or during impact withrger debris. The fluctuations are simply too much for the Lowest Bidder construction model that everyone has used for millennia to keep their fleets fighting.¡±


    Uncle Lu was visibly pouting about that fact still, but the work to retrofit Terminus for Warp 5, which they could both withstand, and fit a drive to sustain within the existing structure, was well underway already since it was only a small modification to the existing Warp Drives that didn¡¯t pose serious risks to the vessel.


    The entire crew was stoked to find out that they were no longer going to be the gctic slowpoke, and that they were getting all-new attack craft.


    The first four Reaper Pattern Cutters would be designated for the Regiment, so that they could deploy wherever they were needed, using Terminus as a Mothership.


    The great advantage of all this additional power was twofold. Not only could they respond in record time, but they were also going to be a more formidable force when they arrived. The Warp Drive was the primary source of energy for a ship¡¯s weapons, and with the output on their cutters exceeding most Fleets¡¯ Cruisers and some Destroyers, they would absolutely obliterate a light response fleet in a fight.


    Part of that had been Max¡¯s idea, to give the ship orbitalnces to soften targets before the Companynded, but the design team had taken it a step further and mounted the weapon with a variable angle turret so that it could be adjusted for use duringbat without moving the ship.


    It was deemed too much structural work to modify Terminus to have weapons, but with the new drives, their shielding capabilities would skyrocket, making them impervious to most attacks.


    At least the first few strikes.


    The second greatest selling point of the new cutters wasn¡¯t their Orbital Lance though, it was the fact that the design team had mounted over a hundredunch bays for modified Orbital Insertion Drone Fighters.


    These had the upgraded weapons everyone had expected, thanks to the new power output, but more importantly, they now had a small cargo hold. They could either pack four regtion-sized soldiers in for use as an escape pod, or they could beunched with supplies for ground troops.


    Combat Capable escape pods were possibly the most Nico thing that Max had ever heard of. You were fleeing from a destroyed main ship, supposedly running for your life, but the escape pods that the new ships carried would have more firepower than most light Mecha.


    The ships were being constructed at the Moon Base, which was still under construction itself, but they provided the camouge for Uncle Lu to begin his final projects.


    The mass production of the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha, and finally the new God ss Mecha project, which only these select few were going to know about.


    The new Warp Drive was deemed sufficiently powerful to power the Mecha, and the numbers that Max had been presented with on the theoretical damage output, using current technology, werepletely insane.


    It was supposed to use the same drive configuration as the Cutters, but at seventy meters tall and humanoid, instead of a two hundred meter long spaceship, the unused portion of the power when it was moving either on a or within the low orbit area was much higher.


    The only issue they had left was the design. Uncle Lu really, really wanted it to be an enormous stomping cathedral with guns. It was ridiculous, impractical, andpletely insane, but the old man simply loved the aesthetic.


    Max was trying to convince him to make it a standard humanoid pattern, but the consensus among the team was that basic humans had been done, so unless Max wanted to go Hyper Realistic and make it look like an actual statue, his visioncked creativity.


    ¡°Rage, back me up here. Humanoid is Mecha tradition. Walking buildings with guns is out of the question, right?¡± Max practically begged Nico to side with him.


    ¡°Yes, I have a humanoid design to present,¡± Nico replied happily, putting her design up on the 3D projector.


    It was definitely a humanoid Mecha, with organic body lines, making it look like a shirtless man. But with cloven-hoofed feet, wed hands, and a horned, demonic face. The weapons were mounted as wings, fully adjustable for multiple target acquisition which would be incredible for Max, and arge cannon in the chest, with a retractable armor ting over it for transport.


    It had chains hanging across its chest and wrapped around its waist, presumably for the storage of trophies, and arge sword hung on one side.


    ¡°What do you think? Since we can¡¯t camouge it, why not go all out and remind everyone who sees it in action why you don¡¯t mess with us?¡± Nico dered proudly, while the whole room stared at the incredibly well-detailed design in wordless shock.<!--


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 Chapter 317 317 Nico The Artist

    ¡°You know, I was leaning for the Cathedral, but this, this is incredible. With the Samurai Line Mecha, it would be like a whole demonic army charging the enemy lines. Even the bravest of soldiers would mentally break when they saw that army inbat.¡± Admiral Drake sighed in longing, staring at the evil-looking Mecha.


    Trying to injectmon sense into this group was like herding cats through a field of catnip.


    ¡°You mentioned the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha, do we have a design for the God ss Mecha to be an enormous Samurai Statue?¡± Max asked hopefully.


    ¡°Oh, yeah, I made one of those as well. Itcks the single target oomph of the Rage ss Mecha design, but if you look here, I mounted Thunder Guns on both forearms that will still let it use the sword, as well as what I like to call the Hundred Points of Enlightenment, a Pulse Laser Array on par with a hundred Crusader ss Mecha¡¯s Pulse Lasers.¡±


    Thesers were mounted as focusing lenses on the edges of every armor te, so only half of them could actually be trained on a target at a time, closer to third in most situations, but not many targets needed thirty Crusaders¡¯ worth ofbined firepower to take them down.


    This seemed to be the most practical version of the design that anyone hade up with so far, though that wasn¡¯t saying much, and the reception was very good.


    ¡°Who could even pilot that though? A hundred and six simultaneous targets are way beyond any Pilot that I¡¯ve heard of.¡± Mary Tarith pointed out.


    ¡°Me. She designed it for me to pilot, and I can target over a hundred points at once, with perfect uracy.¡± Max responded, making all the Reavers smile in barely hidden joy.


    ¡°So we have an agreement then? We will go with the huge Samurai and not the walking Cathedral?¡± Max asked hopefully.


    ¡°For a Mecha that glorious, we canpromise on aesthetics. I vote for thest design presented.¡± Uncle Lu finally relented, breaking the stalemate in the room.


    With his agreement, the final decision was made in only a few minutes, while a few design changes were suggested. An energy barrier for the de, so that it could be used to hack holes in enemy vessels, minor changes to the armor design to match armor that the Reavers were familiar with, instead of the design that Nico had pulled out of memories of her past life, and the possibility of an Orbital Lance Cannon, to be made handheld and stored on the back when not in use.


    That was more contentious since it would block a lot of thesers, but it would give the Mecha that initial oomph to really get its point across when it arrived on a battlefield.


    Uncle Lu would work on something to make the design more practical, he insisted, and the Mecha was sent back to the drawing board for the modifications needed to make the new outer appearance work with the necessary structural elements.


    With that, the meeting was dismissed, and Max had to return to the daily drudgery of actually running his Regiment. Keeping everyone training and in top form, installing the new training simtors that they had acquired, and negotiating with the other Reaver Captains.


    [Commander Keres, there is an iing ship requesting you personally.] Admiral Drake reported from the bridge.


    [Patch it through to the office next to the meeting room.] Max agreed, waving goodbye to the others so that he could take the call from the unknown vessel.


    [Go for the Terminus Trading Company. This is Commander Keres.] Max confirmed, opening a video link so he could see who he was dealing with.


    The face on the other side of the screen was one he never thought he would see again though.


    [Major Payne? What are you doing here?] He asked, too startled to wait for her to speak.


    [Good to see you again, Commander. We were out on a training mission and we seem to have run into a bit of trouble that I was hoping you could help us with. Nothing too dangerous, at least not all the way out here, but urgent.] His old Dorm supervisor replied.


    [Your vessel looks sturdy enough forarynding, but if you need, we can shuttle you and your team down from the orbital station. It is under construction, but there arending bays alreadyplete.] Max offered.


    [With permission, I would prefer tond next to that monstrosity of a Colony Ship you seem to have acquired. We don¡¯t have much, but it would be easier to transfer while onnd.] She replied, and Max sent through a request for a flight path to the Capital¡¯s flight controllers.


    [See you soon.] Max replied, then pulled up the sensors from Terminus to take a good look at the new arrivals.


    They were in Kepler Terminus Royal Academy¡¯s private vessel, a small cargo ship modified for sending graduates to their first deployments. If they had mecha with them, there weren¡¯t many, and the ship was only designed to carry about a thousand people, plus rations and gear.


    It wasn¡¯t arge vessel, and barely Warp Capable, since it was never intended to go much further than the Military bases in the surrounding systems at the lowest possible purchase price.


    They might well have been on their way here for an entire month at this point and had only just made it due to their slow travel speed.


    Still, a friendly face from the past was always wee, and Max assumed that she had brought them some more refugees to be settled in the city. If they weren¡¯t nning to leave, the sale of the little ship could them a prettyfortable life here on Rae 5 as well.


    Max pinged the ship and then hacked through the Academy¡¯sughable security as soon as they stopped talking. They hadn¡¯t even updated the passwords since he left.


    What he found was that the ship was at twice capacity, which was unexpected for an Academy vessel, but as he looked he found that every person other than the Major aboard that ship had their Personal Data altered to make them appear to be Academy Dropouts bound for the Infantry.


    Why they would do that when it was a death sentence for the Cadets was a mystery to Max, but if the Major had gotten wise early, she might actually have a very good surprise for him.<!--


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 Chapter 318 318 Old Friends

    The small Academy vessel, barely more than a Shuttle by Military standards,nded in the clearing with Terminus between it and the city.


    Max, along with a wing of Corvette ss Mecha from the Regiment met them at the door to their ship, and Major Payne came out smiling at their caution.


    ¡°I like your instincts, but this group has been carefully vetted already. The most outspoken allies of the Empire were sent on a mission together, then we found ourselves all demoted to infantry soldiers and branded deserters. We borrowed this shuttle from the Academy¡¯s fleet after a short discussion with the Rebel Inquisitor who was piloting it, and well, here we are.


    The Rebels obviously know who we are, and the Loyalists aren¡¯t going to believe that we didn¡¯t desert our so easily, so the only real option that we had was to divert and make a run for you out here in the middle of nowhere.¡±


    Her exnation made sense, so Max brought up the stolen vessel¡¯s flight logs. It was indeed being flown by a local inquisitor. Not someone grand and powerful like General Ming, theary version, loyal to the local government, not the Emperor directly.


    Still, General Ming would be interested in this information, since it would help shed light on how deep the corruption went. There should have been someone from Imperial Command supervising all of the Inquisitors on Kepler Terminus, and it would be suspicious if they had never reported anything about the problems.


    This wasn¡¯t the first incident of corruption on the either. General Tennant had fled the with them at the start of their career so that he could avoid their attempts to strip his mecha from him.


    ¡°Do you have the original data files for the Cadets?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°Right here. I made hard copies and a backup, in case something happened. The whole mission felt off, even before we left, but it wasn¡¯t like we could just ignore orders to deploy, since all these kids just graduated.¡± Major Payne exined.


    So they were fresh graduates. Max flipped through the information and found that they were mostly unremarkable, nobody from the Special Forces ss, but all qualified on the Line Mecha.


    Two thousand trained Line Mecha Pilots would be a pretty significant fighting force if they could equip and deploy them, and with the System, most of the Reavers would want a bit of that action. Even Gamma Ranked Pilots were still well above the human average and valued by other nations.


    [Terminus, open the cargo bay doors to the refugee area. We have a couple of thousand Pilot Candidates on this shuttle that I think might be a good match for Terminus.] Max ordered.


    ¡°If you bring everyone out, we can get them a proper meal, since I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve all been eating rations since you left. Once they are on Terminus we can discuss their future. There is a lot to exin about what has gone on here, but I would like to know how you knew to look for me here?¡± Max asked.


    ¡°That part was easy. I tried finding a safe harbor as soon as we took over the ship, and got ahold of a friend on Kepler Terminus Station. He told me that you had taken away a load of the loyalists, and what the Commander¡¯s names were.


    From there it wasn¡¯t hard to put two and two together and hope that I hadn¡¯t actuallye up with five. As soon as the Admiral answered my call I knew I was right. He was a frequent visitor to the Academy in the past, and I recognized his voice.¡± Major Payne exined.


    ¡°Well then Major, wee home. As much of it as we have brought with us.¡± Max agreed.


    They would have to get a voice changer installed for the Admiral if he was going to keep interacting with the iing ships from Kepler. Who knew how many other people would recognize the likable old Ship¡¯s Captain?


    Two thousand soldiers in Academy Uniform drew the attention of everyone on Terminus, and a lot of them came over to see what was going on, bringing loads of food from the Replicators, as requested.


    A Reaver wasn¡¯t the sort of ce they had expected Academy Cadets to make ayover, no matter how strange their mission was. It was only when they recognized the emblems as being from Kepler Terminus, whose civil war had just ended, that they understood why these Cadets were there.


    They were so far from home that they couldn¡¯t turn around when the news made it to their ship. They didn¡¯t have the supplies to make it back, even if they trusted the broadcast.


    [Someone post up the crew listings with real names on the Refugee board. If anyone in the city is looking for their kids, they should get an alert that someone with a matching name is here on Terminus.] Max ordered once everyone was aboard the Colony Ship.


    ¡°You have a rather evil smile on your face, Commander. Care to share?¡± Major Miller asked as he entered with the crew bringing the food.


    ¡°You know how Uncle Lu wanted to do some testing on the new Samurai Pattern Line Mecha, right? I think I just found us two thousand volunteers to join the mission.¡± Max replied with a smile.


    It was a tradition in the Regiment after all. They had all been transferred from their units without a clue, only to end up testing Uncle Lu¡¯s new Mecha designs for the foreseeable future. Recruiting a couple thousand more to the Regiment was just carrying on business as usual.


    ¡°Well, I guess we are a Mixed Mecha Regiment now. Should we tell Nico to make the procurement order, or should we wait until shees running in to ask permission to do it?¡± Major Miller asked.


    ¡°I will tell Nico. She¡¯s likely excited to see Major Payne anyhow, so she wille here on her own.¡± Max agreed, then waited for the elusive woman to appear.<!--


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 Chapter 319 319 Is That A Job Offer?

    Max was exactly right, it took less than two minutes for Nico to make it to them with a data tablet in her hand and a smile on her face.


    ¡°Amanda. It¡¯s good to see you again. You can call me Rage these days. Rx, there is no need to stand at attention, it makes my back hurt and I don¡¯t even have bones anymore.¡± Nico greeted her, making the Major wince at the informality before she adapted to the reality of the situation and the new standards.


    She wasn¡¯t officially part of their organization at the moment, and all of them were in some sort of administrative limbo as the war yed out in the Empire.


    Nico continued her happy spiel, giving Major Payne a one-armed hug and showing her the data tablet she was holding.


    ¡°Some of the former Cadets have family here, and so do you. Namely, your Mother and two sisters are here on Rae 5, they arrived with one of the other Reaver ships, so they¡¯re living on the coast right now. We can ask that they are transferred, but from what I can see, they seem happy with a beachfront life.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear, but I¡¯m more concerned about my own future at the moment.¡± Major Payne told her while smiling at the picture Nico had pulled up from the immigration logs.


    ¡°That¡¯s easy enough. We can put you in the Logistics department, or move you to one of the Mecha groups. As I recall, your skills were more based on analysis and logistics, right? That was why you ended up at the Academy.¡±


    Major Payne nodded at Nico. ¡°Yes, that is correct. I will happily take a logistics position, but I am also skilled in repairs. Perhaps not as much as you, but I do still have repair-rted talents.¡± The Major replied.


    Nico turned to Max. ¡°What about the First Battalion? Since Major Miller is being promoted from adjutant, and he handled Battalion Logistics, they could use another skilled set of hands in themand structure.¡±


    That wasn¡¯t a bad idea. With the loss of a Super Heavy mecha team, as well as the promotion of their logistics genius of an adjutant, the First Battalion was certainly short on talent at the top.


    ¡°We can give it a try. Call Major Miller over and he can wee our new member to the Battalion.¡± Max agreed.


    ¡°I should talk to your official Commanding Officer as well shouldn¡¯t I?¡± Major Payne asked.


    ¡°Commander Keres is our official Commander right now. The General just retired and passed the Regiment to him, as much as it is a Regiment anymore. For all intents and purposes, we are the Terminus Trading Company at this point, and we are under official orders from the Emperor to remain beyond Vermillion ssified.¡± Nico informed her.


    Major Payne gasped. ¡°If it¡¯s that much of a secret, why did you tell me at all? Shouldn¡¯t you have been putting on your best Reaver act, making it look like you had departed the Kepler Military entirely?¡±


    Max chuckled at her response. ¡°You actually thought you had an option to not ept? Wee to the Terminus Trading Company, Major. You have been volunteered. If you need, we can make it official with a signature from a General in the Imperial Inquisition.¡±


    ¡°What is all this logistics Chaos that I¡¯m seeing on my sheets?¡± Major Miller asked as he came into the room.


    ¡°We picked a new adjutant for you, so you will only need to find yourself a technician for your new Super Heavy Mecha once the experimental design for the new Command Unit is ready. Meet Major Payne, a former dorm supervisor at the Kepler Terminus Academy.¡± Max informed him.


    ¡°A dorm supervisor? If you can deal with children that well, you should fit right in with the rest of our unit. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re aware, but the entire Regiment is a bunch of oddballs whose units volunteered them for experimental Mecha programs.


    They¡¯re incredibly skilled, but not exactly the most orderly of Battalions that you could be assigned to. I keep the logistics extremely well run though, and I expect that will continue under your supervision.¡± Major Miller informed her.


    ¡°That¡¯s the first half of the Chaos. We also requisitioned two thousand experimental Line Mecha from the manufacturing facilities in the orbital base. The two thousand freshly graduated Cadets are about to be informed that they have been assigned to test the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha and the orbital insertion drones.¡± Max told him with a wink.


    ¡°Voluntold is it? That¡¯s the best way to deal with fresh green pilots. Just give them orders until they know enough to think for themselves. Four hundred Line Mecha per unit is a lot for a Heavy Mecha Regiment though, so I guess we will have to adapt tactics. It shouldn¡¯t be hard.¡± Major Miller agreed.


    ¡°I am d you see it our way. Light Mecha are better suited to city operations, and pure numbers count for a lot sometimes. The new Cutters will also berge enough to amodate the changes and still take a full Battalion without issues, so that isn¡¯t a concern.


    Thest thing we will need though is more staff. We have enough for basic operations, but we have to pull from that for Drone Piloting, so I suggest that we only add three hundred fifty Line Mecha Pilots to each Battalion, and make thest fifty of them drone Pilots, which should be enough to keep the drones on the Cutters operational without stealing from maintenance.¡± Max rified.


    They needed staff to actually Pilot the Cutters as well, but those could be acquired easily from the Reavers. There were more children than adults this generation, thanks to tactical changes in their routes reducing losses, so the had a fair number of trained spaceship pilots, even if they didn¡¯t have systems to enhance their skills.


    They could recruit those once they got all their new toys built though.<!--


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 Chapter 320 320 Signature Style

    The basic outlines for the new Cutter Hulls were done quite quickly, and the work had begun before Max even had time to get all of the crews arranged to start training on the new systems.


    These ships would use a tranted version of the navigation system on Terminus, which was of a higher quality and resolution than the ones in most of the vessels avable to the Reavers, so there would be some adjustment time needed before they would be ready to actually take it into space.


    Then there was the crew who actually had to maintain and repair these vessels, assuming that the theoretical numbers held true and they didn¡¯t discover any ws during initial testing that would require another round of extensive overhauls.


    Max expected that there would be at least some work that needed to be done to them after the initial tests since they were breaking new ground in space travel for their quadrant of the Gxy, but after the Mecha testing with Uncle Lu and his team, he had pretty high levels of confidence that they wouldn¡¯t be absurd to the point of a full redesign.


    The man was entric, but his work was amazingly grounded in reality and not in theory, so Murphy¡¯s Law never seemed to bite him too hard. Little things, like breaking the first hull, were the sort of negative probabilities that he ran into, not like most design teams who missed a variable or two and failed dozens of times before they realized their mistake and managed topensate for it.


    The graceful curves that marked the outside of Terminus were also going to be used on the new Cutters, though the shape would be very different, keeping the diamond shape of the previous cutters to maximize cargo space.


    That would serve the secondary purpose of making them more agile inside an atmosphere since Cutters were often deployed forarybat operations and didn¡¯t carry drop pods for any mecha troops that they might be carrying. They weren¡¯t even designed to amodate them.


    While they finished, Max had to spend his days doing interviews with potential applicants. Nico and Major Miller had vetted them before they were sent to him, so he had a good feeling that they would be capable, but finding a personality match for each Battalion Commander was also important.


    Therefore, all five of them would be in the room with him and Nico when they did the interviews for Cutter Pilots, which were normally a team of four, either all on duty forbat or taking solo watches in six-hour shifts.


    The ship design could take arger crew without crowding, but even sorting out twenty Pilots in one hiring was going to be a nightmare, Max didn¡¯t want to try to make it twenty-five or thirty if he didn¡¯t have to.


    They had all been arranged to arrive at once so that everyone in the Command Staff could see how they interacted, and how they got along with the Commanders.


    The first part of the interview wasn¡¯t a formal interview, for that reason. Instead, Max had arranged a lunch buffet and told everyone to get to know each other, in case they would be working together in the future.


    A lot of them already did know each other and had grown up together, but that didn¡¯t always mean that they would make a good team together, or even a better one than with people that they had just met today.


    They let them mingle for half an hour before Colonel Li, their only female Battalion Commander, sent Max a message to call four applicants in for testing. She liked their chemistry and wanted to see how they would work together as a team, and how fast they could adapt to the new system with only the VR simtions guidance tooltips.


    The simtion was very good, Max had checked it himself, so he called the four to go to the testing room, and the energy in the waiting room spiked. Since the Commander had called four at a time, and nobody else had left yet, it must be the first round of preliminary testing, in the opinion of the applicants.


    Major Miller was the next to call for a group, and then the others until finally, Colonel Klinger called four very shocked young women from the corner of the room, where they had snuck a whole tray of snacks and were splitting a bottle of Rum.


    Those were his type of people. They cared enough to show up when they were told and they could clearly work together, but everything else was just a waste of energy. They would all get called eventually. That was just how interviews worked.


    Coordination in the meeting room didn¡¯t always trante to chemistry in the cockpit though, and in the second round of tests, once these Applicants had been tested in random groups of four would rearrange those who didn¡¯t have great initial scores into teams by their personality profiles, as determined by the AI, a benefit of having Major Payne around.


    With her they could see everyone¡¯s Skills, and have Personality Types analyzed on the spot, making this task much easier on Max¡¯s patience.


    Once everyone had been tested in groups, Max left them waiting a while before the second round, to see how they did under stress. These were all children of Reavers, but some of them were likely coddled all their lives and only sent here because their parents wanted them to do something more productive than work a retail shop front in the city, or whichever random job they had managed to find, despite their training.


    The second round had the teams rearranged, and five short simtions were done by each team, one each by the Battalion Commanders to test them. Each was a disaster of some sort. An asteroid, a botched enemy firepower analysis, mechanical failure, and most interestingly, Major Miller had set them up for a rescue boarding action, which involved extremely skilled piloting to dock with the enemy vessel and get the Mecha deployed without getting destroyed.


    ¡°Did everyone find a team that they are happy with?¡± Max asked the Command team once the tests were done and the applicants were back in the waiting room.


    ¡°Yeah, though there are a couple of others who I think could be very capable teams, if the others don¡¯t take them.¡± Colonel Klinger agreed.


    ¡°Alright, mark your top three on the data tablet and we will see what we get.¡±


    The initial team that Klinger had picked ended up on everyone¡¯s top 3 list, and not everyone got their top pick, but in the end, they did find five teams that everyone could agree were very capable Pilots, suitable for training to take Command of the new Cutters.


    ¡°Were any of the other Companies looking for Pilots for their smaller vessels? I know a lot of them are refurbishing the reimed ships from the battle.¡± Max asked.


    ¡°More than I can conveniently count. There are a lot of uncrewed vessels in the system right now.¡± Nico informed him.


    ¡°Good, send the test results of the ones that we¡¯re not hiring to everyone else who needs Piloting teams. It should be a good reference, none of the applicants was actually bad at the job.¡± Max ordered, d to finally be done with one more round of hiring.<!--


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 Chapter 321 321 Flight Tests

    After two more weeks, the first of the new Cutters was ready for testing, and the other four were waiting on final assembly so that they didn¡¯t have to be pulled apart if there were changes that needed to be made to the design.


    Major Miller had won the game of rock, paper, and scissors, so his team would be going with Nico to do the testing on the new ship.


    It was an honor among Reavers to be the first to do something, especially something as insane as this test flight was likely to be. They would do a maximum speed test, then maneuvering, followed by less-than-light speed maneuvering, and a simtedbat strike, with Nicounching drones at an asteroid that one of the Companies wanted to be split up into manageable chunks.


    She was getting better at the [Drone Controller] System Function, Max noticed, and nned tounch five Drones at once to do the assault.


    This would be the first time that the drones were seen in action, and their firepower wasn¡¯t to be underestimated. Despite their tiny size, they were a true menace to any light or medium-ss vessel they came across, especially if they were deployed en masse.


    [Terminus Cutter X1 ready tounch from Quadrant 5 bay 1] Nico reported from the construction bay on the Lunar base.


    [Begin testing.] Uncle Lu confirmed, unable to hide the eagerness in his voice.


    He might be in love with Mecha, but the new ships were still his brainchildren. Seeing the first of them off was a day that he had been eagerly awaiting since they destroyed the first Cutter in the trial of the new Warp Drives.


    The ship had been loaded with ore, simting the mass of a Mecha Battalion, so that the test wouldn¡¯t be biased toward empty performance, at the request of the other Captains who had intended to purchase one of the vessels after testing wasplete.


    The extra weight didn¡¯t seem to make any difference to the ship, and it smoothly transitioned to Warp with a sh of light, but no noticeable disturbance inside the vessel itself. At least not enough to visibly affect the crew.


    [Beginning Maximum Speed test.] Nico reported, and the data stream started to distort again as the vessel exceeded the Warp 6 transmission speed of theirmunications.


    It raced out into open space, then Max saw that they had begun maneuvering tests, once it hit the safety-governed maximum speed of Warp 11.9. That was 95 percent of rated engine capacity, and pushing any harder could possibly affect their defensive systems, due tock of power.


    The ship seemed to handle the maneuvering just fine, with the Warp field adjusting smoothly to their maneuvers and not putting any excess stress on the structure.


    They returned to the Star System and began a tight pattern of standard evasive maneuvers at near-light speed, the maximum stress state for the ship, and Max didn¡¯t see any stress warnings at all. In fact, the ship seemed to bepletely undamaged by the maximum output tests, a rarity among any pattern of vessels.


    They approached the designated asteroid and slowed so that Nico couldunch the drones, which showed off their own maneuverability for a moment before sting the rock to bits and returning to their bays.


    The main weapons of the Cutter itself weren¡¯t publicly disyed, for security reasons. It was unreasonable to expect that an entire and hundreds of Reaver Companies wouldn¡¯t have anyone in their ranks who wasn¡¯t sending data to unknown factions.


    In fact, that was pretty much expected. The Reavers might want them for themselves first, but after that, they would want to be selling some of these vessels and weapons that were being developed to other unaligned groups they had friendly rtions with.


    The design of the ships was confidential for now, and the purchase price for anyone other than the handful of Reaver Companies in the affiliated group who had negotiated new technology discounts in the original deal regarding the God ss Mecha would be astronomical, but that wouldn¡¯t stop at least some of the Mercenary Groups who were flush with resources from trying to get ahold of one over the next few years.


    [All testsplete. Returning to base.] Nico reported, and Max could hear the cheering in the background.


    They had done an exemry job of piloting the ship, and nothing broke, so there would be a celebration when they returned home tonight, leading to an official assignment once all five vessels were assembled and tested at the end of the week.


    Max only wished that he had more data on the design of the new God ss Mecha. As far as he could tell, it was all being done by Uncle Lu, isted in hisb with only Materials Printers and a handful of robotic constructors under hismand.


    That was his version of operational security. Nobody would miss one Scientist, and would just assume that he was holed up somewhere working on the ship designs, while he was actually doing a much more important project in secret.


    [Commander, did you know about the kitchen in this new ship? This thing is incredible. You just push a button and it makes the food you ordered right in front of you.] One of the Cutter Pilots sent to Max as the ship made its way back to the docks.


    They would have over an hour since they had arrived at the very edge of the outer asteroid field to do the drone tests, so they had gone to explore the ship and have some lunch while Nico watched the controls.


    [The Replicators are reproductions of the ones on Terminus. Their range of selections might not be perfect, but they can make a pretty good variety of meals that are better than travel rations.] Max replied to the excited crew.


    [Best Posting Ever.] The Pilot replied, making Maxugh. No wonder Major Miller liked them, they knew the value of a good kitchen, and the man was obsessive about Battalion logistics.

 Chapter 322 322 Hostile Visitors

    Over the course of the next week, the production facilities in the city were busy making all the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha that they could to finish up Max¡¯s order before they moved on to other tasks, an order from the Tarith Reavers to get the ship that was supposed to be the gship of the Rae 5 system up and running.


    Max, of course, hadn¡¯t had a say in that. You weren¡¯t allowed to vote for yourself in a Reaver selection, someone else had to nominate you, and then the rest of the forces in the area would decide if it was a good decision.


    Terminus herself was a unique-looking vessel, plus a Colony Ship, so it could be dispatched to do almost anything that they were asked to deal with and would make a good base of operations if they were sending multiple vessels.


    Many Reaver Companies worked out of vessels the size of the Dutchman, which was currently docked inside Terminus, so the logic did make some sense, from a purely logistical viewpoint. If a small Company¡¯s vessel was damaged in action, they could not only ferry it home, they could put it in dry dock and start to do repairs on the spot.


    [Gimli Merchant Alliance to Rae 5 Command. We have a confirmed attack against Reaver vessels by Tapani allied vessels who are now approaching the outskirts of the system at high warp.]


    The alert was ryed directly to Max, who shot up out of bed. The Mecha were still here on the, and the Cutters were on the orbital base. The travel time wouldn¡¯t be much but it would take time to load the Mecha into the Cutters if they were going to do a boarding action.


    [Kagar Reavers will respond]


    [Mki Reavers will respond]


    [Tarith Reavers will respond]


    [Terminus Trading Company will respond]


    Thest was in Nico¡¯s voice, and Max saw the alerts that said they were preparing to emergencyunch the Cutters with just the four-person crews on them.


    This would be an extreme test of their abilities as pilots, handling all the weapons systems of the ships while fighting. They didn¡¯t even have the extra crew to pilot the Drones as far as Max knew.


    A quick scan of the ship¡¯s logs showed him that wasn¡¯t quite right though. The engineering and maintenance crews had already arrived aboard the Cutters, and Nico was still somewhere in the Moon Base, presumably harassing Uncle Lu about the new toys she wanted.


    Max hadn¡¯t seen her in a week, since as his second in Command it was her job to make sure that the construction was proceeding on pace.


    If the attack hade a few dayster, they would have been fully prepared. Thest orders of Light Mecha were on their way to Terminus, and after that, they would return to orbit and dock with the Moon Base to transfer the Cutters and stay ready for situations like this.


    Tapani must have called in a lot of favors to try to get revenge today, and Max had a lot to prove, with five untested attack ships in his fleet.


    They were definitely going to be the first ones to the Tapani fleet though, by nearly ten minutes, now that they hadunched and had set a course for the attackers. The speed difference was a bit ridiculous, and the Cutters were leaving the other Reaver vessels in their wake.


    The Tapani fleet seemed to think that it was a sensor anomaly, even though the ships were flying in a standard attack formation.


    ording to his sensors, the two fleets were getting exceedingly close, but the Cutters hadn¡¯t deployed countermeasures to force the Tapani fleet out of warp where they could properly attack them.


    But Nico was aboard Cutter X1, and she had a much more fun n, one she recalled from her past life.


    If you actually collided with another vessel at warp, it would knock both out of warp, usually with severe damages. But if you modted your Warp Field to match theirs and didn¡¯t quite hit them, you could do a hit-and-run bombardment.


    Nobody ever expected it the first time, and the damage it would do was immense since defensive shields couldn¡¯t be raised while the Warp Field was active.


    Three of the cutters bounced off their targets, missing the modtion by just a hair and pulling both vessels from Warp with minimal damage, but Cutters 1 and 5 both made the modtion adjustment perfectly, and two streaks of fire and debris littered the open space near the Rae 5 system as the vessels they hit disintegrated under the force of an abrupt transition and an Orbital Lance to the hull.


    [You Psychopath! If you want to die so badly, we can do it for you!] Max heard a Captain scream into themunicator, and the fight between the five cutters and the iing fleet moved to standard speeds.


    The Cutters were much more maneuverable than the heavy Destroyers that the Nations had sent this time, and their hard-mounted main weapons couldn¡¯t track fast enough to target them, leaving the secondary ordinance to deal with the five experimental vessels. The battle was starting to turn lopsided in favor of the Reavers even before the strike forces of three more Reaver Companies arrived.


    That was all the hint that the intruders needed, and they turned tail and ran, fleeing the system as fast as their vessels could move.


    [Cutters, collect your drones and report damages. The enemy has disengaged.] Nico reported, making Max smile.


    That went better than he had hoped. The Cutters didn¡¯t take any direct hits from main weapons, and a single hit from the secondary weapons wasn¡¯t enough to take down their shields. It would severely strain the power supply, even with the upgraded power output, but that was way more than any other Cutter could brag about.


    With the output of a standard Kepler Cutter, a single hit from the Secondary Armament of a Destroyer was usually lethal, unless it only nced off a nonessential area of the hull.


    [Drones have taken an average of seventeen losses per vessel. Minor structural damages to all vessels. Operational Capacity still over ny percent, maneuverability unimpaired.] Nico reported, taking stock of their losses.


    The Reavers would love that. Drone Fighters made the loss of life zero, instead of a dozen or more per vessel with standard fighters, and the ships were still in good shape after their surprise attack.


    [Return to base and start repair and recements. Terminus will join you in orbit tomorrow.] Max ordered, then started sending the orders to get everything packed up for them to depart Rae 5¡¯s surface.

 Chapter 323 323 Time To Play

    The loading of all the new Mecha that they had ordered was going well, and the Reavers were all eagerly awaiting the oue of the first round of testing for the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha.


    This would be the first new design produced within their territory, other than the ships, which were still being held as a national secret for now. The Line Mecha wasn¡¯t exactly a huge powerhouse on the battlefield, and every mercenary, trade, and Reaver group used some pattern of them. Even the farm worlds often used them in ce of equipment for various jobs which needed more mobility.


    So they had found a suitable proving ground for them. There was a small lunar outpost just past the borders of Kepler¡¯s territory in open space, where the locals dered that they were under attack by a Rebel force.


    The Kepler Military couldn¡¯t deal with it right away, they were too busy cleaning up the mess on their own worlds, but the outpost produced valuable trade goods, The Reavers could make more than they stood to lose on the testing as a reward, which would go to Terminus Trading Company as payment, but would help the image of the Reavers as a whole.


    Thebined forces of the two sides of the conflict were reported to be under a Regiment, so even if it was a trap, there was a good chance that they woulde out on top, after factoring in their orbital superiority.


    [All units report status and prepare for liftoff.] Max ordered, going over everything that might be in the vicinity of Terminus so that they didn¡¯t damage anything on their way out.


    The shuttle that the Academy students had arrived in had been moved to a storage bay, since they didn¡¯t want to sell it just yet, and Uncle Lu had determined that the hull was a good candidate for mid-Warp Speed experiments.


    A new age of luxury travel, he had insisted.


    If a shuttle-sized vessel could be pushed to Warp 3 or 4 then interster travel would be essible to a wide variety of nobles and wealthy businessmen who could afford their own private yachts.


    Currently, if they wanted to leave their own star system to go further than the next system over, they would take arger transport, since like the small transport that the Cadets had arrived in, making Warp 1.5 was just a dream for most of their yachts.


    He likely wouldn¡¯t end up using much of the shuttle¡¯s actual hull, but it would give him good data once he strapped a new drive in it and tried it out.


    [All Units are present and secured. Area clear. We are ready for liftoff, Commander.] The Admiral reported.


    [Take us up to the Lunar base. We need to trade this shuttle for our Cutters and drop off thest of the supplies that they requested.] Max ordered.


    Terminus shook and shuddered as it left the surface, reluctant to return to space now that it had happily madendfall andpleted its original mission. The ship didn¡¯t have a true AI in it, but Max was certain that he could feel the reluctance to abandon its mission and continue working at first until it broke the upper atmosphere and the coordinates were entered to reach the Moon Base.


    They were toorge to enter the primary hangars, but the station had been developed with them specifically in mind, and there wererge enough bays at the surface of the station to ept even the mighty Colony Ship into their embrace.


    The Cutters had already been moved into the one that Station Command directed them to, shining Bronze and red in the harsh artificial light of the base.


    [Atmosphere Stable, prepare for unloading.] The base directed them, and the Admiral opened up the storage bay that had the shuttle and the raw materials loaded in it for their research purposes.


    [This one¡¯s a beauty. Not a lick of damage on it, a bit of a shame to turn it over to Research and Development.] The crewmented, watching the Academy¡¯s vessel being unloaded.


    [But think what they can do with it once they have it. The Cutters are an incredible advancement, and we will all be rich if we can start selling luxury yachts to the Nobles.] One of his coworkersughed.


    A portion of the profit being shared among every worker involved in a facility¡¯s production was a normal thing for Reavers, a bit of encouragement to do the less desirable jobs. If they didn¡¯t do it, Max was pretty sure they wouldn¡¯t have had a single volunteer to work on the.


    Loading the Cutters took a little longer since they had to be carefully maneuvered across the bay under their own power since the cranes didn¡¯t have the capacity to move a single object that heavy and Terminus was in the way of the heavy loaders being able to move them around the room.


    Max napped while the work was being done until he felt a cool, metallic body slide into the bed next to him.


    ¡°Ah, there¡¯s my hugging pillow. We¡¯ve got another hour before they¡¯re finished and then the Admiral has his departure instructions to start our transit toward the outpost.¡± Nico informed him, drifting off to sleep.


    Max was certain that she had not been this soft before. Her temperature control was still spot on, so she hadn¡¯t changed her structure in any fundamental way that he could tell, but the flexible metal of her shell felt almost spongy now like there was ayer of soft flesh over the hard metal.


    He wasn¡¯t one to question a good thing though, so Max just returned to sleep and enjoyed the return of his favorite temperature control unit until the rm signaling an imminent transition to Warp woke him up.


    This would be the first one with the new Warp Drives for Terminus, and Max wanted to be awake for it so he could tell how it felt, andpare it to the previous trips.


    Their speed only increased a little, due to the power needed to move such arge vessel, but now they could at least keep up with most of the ships they would encounter, as long as they weren¡¯t fast attack ships. The Transition had be even more smooth than before, barely noticeable, much like he had seen in the videos from the Cutters.


    This was a much better mode of travel than Abraham Kepler and her stomach turning lurches to Warp Speed. A few more generations down this path of development and they might even be able to drop the warnings of transition entirely since the upants of the ship would barely notice them at all.

 Chapter 324 324 Knock Knock

    At their new speed, they had six hours to their destination, and almost everyone was intending to sleep as much as they could, in preparation for a long, sustained battle the moment that they arrived.


    All the Mecha were being moved to their Cutters, and Terminus herself would stay well outside the destination system, hiding in an asteroid field so that they didn¡¯t rm the Rebels that they wanted to wipe out.


    When the Cutters arrived with the Mecha, the n was to st the Rebel transport vessel¡¯s engines so they couldn¡¯t flee or fight, and then force their way into the facility and fight it out.


    There was air on the moon, but not of the breathable type or density, so they would have to suit up inside their Mecha to go into battle, just to be safe.


    Having a small puncture in the cockpit suffocate the Pilot would be a tragedy, so the secondyer of protection was standard procedure for all such fights.


    Their mecha all had an advantage over the old Kepler designs as well, they all had a forcefield for protection, so they were less likely to take small damages like that that would cause otherwise functional Mecha to be inoperable.


    The Line Mecha couldn¡¯t take much of a beating, but the shield would make a big difference to them in the battle.


    Inside the facility, the ceiling height wouldn¡¯t be tall enough for Heavy Mecha, but they were made high enough for Line Mecha and other heavy equipment. The Line Mecha and Corvette ss units would enter the facility, while the Heavy Mecha would join the battle outside and help deal with the Rebel ships. Or at least that was the n.


    Once they were in sensor range, the situation proved to be much different than what had been portrayed to them by the message. Yes, the facility was under attack by only a fewpanies of Rebel Mecha, but they weren¡¯t the only rebel forces on the.


    Two more transport vessels had taken refuge there, well away from the only inhabited facility, and it appeared that they were nning to hide out for a while and use the moon as a staging point for whatever they had nned next.


    ¡°Commander, do you see that? The vessels are damaged. It looks like they were on the losing side of an engagement with the Kepler Fleet. I¡¯m only picking up minimal life signs from them as well, I don¡¯t think the other two Transports are fully staffed.¡± Admiral Drake informed Max, with a big smile on his weather-beaten face.


    ¡°Now that¡¯s the best news I¡¯ve heard all day. We can send a Company a piece to go liberate those vessels, and I am certain that the Kepler Fleet will pay a handsome reward for their safe return. Or at least they will once they know that we have them.¡± Max agreed.


    ¡°And if they don¡¯t, the Rae 5 administration could use a couple of new cargo vessels, so I¡¯m sure they won¡¯t mind holding on to them for safekeeping until we decide what to do with them.¡±


    That was standard procedure for the Kepler Military after all. You held onto war spoils until your mission wasplete and they could be processed for merit. The fact that they were veryrge vessels did make the matter a bitplicated, but the procedures in the handbook were quite clear that it wasn¡¯t theft of military property if they held onto Rebel equipment until such time as their current mission ended.


    [Shuttles 1 and 2, You have new Targets. Deal with the Transport ships. We will do what we can to assist your hackers to enter the ships without heavy damage. Shuttles 3, 4, and 5 you will proceed to the Facility. Heavy Mecha will take and hold the exterior while the Cutters prevent them from leaving. If they can be taken intact, I want them. If not, disable or destroy them. I don¡¯t want a single Rebel making it off this rock.] Max ordered.


    [Understood Commander] The Battalion Commanders all replied at once.


    [Major Miller, I will be joining the First Battalion with Enduring Rage since you are down a Super Heavy Mecha until the new Command Unit is finished. Colonel Li, Major Nico will be joining your infiltration team to speed entry into the vessel. Her skills will have her inside in moments, so try not to disable the vessel if possible. That one should be our best chance of recovering a transport intact.]


    Nico looked really happy with his decision and was already sending a requisition order to storage to get her the extra gear she expected to need for the mission.


    She wasn¡¯t taking explosives, but she wanted a bunch of zip-tie bindings and tranquilizers. She clearly meant to storm the bridge, but this time she wasn¡¯t nning to wear her usual Tech Adept Harness and Mobile Suitbo. Uncle Lu had brought her one of the surviving prototypes of the Archangel Pattern Exosuits, with their weaponized wings and mobile force field generator.


    Adding a sma Rifle and a pair of pistols to that, Nico was thinking that she should be almost heavily enough armed for the mission.


    In Max¡¯s estimation, it would be an interesting test. The shield was as strong as the one on the new Line Mecha, but with the suit folding up to the size of the user, plus 10cm for the height of the boots, she would be able to fit in many tight spaces that were designed to avoid pration by enemy Mecha.


    Mecha-level firepower in close quarters would be devastating, which is what Uncle Lu had nned when he designed the flying exosuit as a recement for Line Mecha. The Fleet simply didn¡¯t see it the same way, so this would be the first practical test that the unit had ever seen, despite being functionally very simr to the Tech Adept Harness that had caught on with every single technician who had managed to get their hands on one.


    There were tons of orders for them outstanding, but so far no production had been approved. The suits were simply too useful to put a price on until there were variants avable topare them to.


    ¡°Try not to get shot. You might have a forcefield, but you¡¯re not in a Super Heavy mecha this time.¡± Max reminded her, and got azy thumbs up in return before Nico got up and dressed to go to battle.

 Chapter 325 325 Whos There?

    ¡°No worries Max. We upgraded the Archangel. It now has a second power cell connection just for the shielding, so it won¡¯t die entirely if the shield goes down. Since I will be bringing a sma Cannon with me, I will have plenty of spares with me if things go bad, and the shield can take five or six direct hits from a Line Mecha before the cell is depleted.


    That should be overkill inside a ship, but as you said, you never know. So, I will also be packing a number of stun grenades in my kit. They don¡¯t work on Mecha or Full Conversions, but they should be pretty good against the crew of the ship.


    I¡¯ve also got enough firepower on the Suit itself to deal with most threats, so I¡¯m not too concerned. I just need to get the Battalion inside, and then take the bridge. Most bridge staff only have a couple of guards on duty, less if they were fleeing from a defeat, so there is hope that they will surrender when they see the Mecha breach the ship and go for the Engineering Department to keep them from taking off.¡±


    Nico was absolutely certain that her assessment was correct, so Max didn¡¯t bother to second guess her. The Archangel Suit needed abat trial anyhow, and there wasn¡¯t a soul in the Empire, or possibly even this quadrant of the Gxy better suited to the task than she was.


    [All Mecha are transferred to the Cutters, 5 minutes for Personnel to be ready.] Admiral Drake reported just after Nico left to join the Second Battalion for the operation.


    The sensors of Terminus had already detected two other Reaver ships hiding in the area, sent to assess the mission just in case Max tried to lie about the unit¡¯sbat effectiveness or hide a miserable failure from them to buy time to reconfigure without being found out.


    Max considered giving them ess to some of the live video, but a Reaver should have their own hackers, and some level of pride in their Company, so he wouldn¡¯t do it unless they asked first.


    [All Forces report ready. Launching in 10 seconds] Admiral Drake informed everyone.


    The moment that the Cutters were clear of the ship, they went to Maximum Warp and dropped in nearly at the moon¡¯s outer atmosphere, streaking through the sky in bright plumes of fire that stressed even the new ship¡¯s prodigious shielding.


    However, it saved them over nine of the thirteen minutes between a standard transition andnding, and any enemy would be hard-pressed to organize a proper defense in four minutes.


    Three through Five broke off to hit the facility, deploying the Super Heavy and Fast Attack Mecha before the ship had evennded, their pilots had chosen to simply jump out the open hangar doors at the back corners of the ship.


    The moment that the Rebels realized what had happened, all hell broke loose, but by then their ship had already been disabled by Ion Bombard Cannons and they couldn¡¯t go anywhere, or even maneuver to be able to fire on the Mecha Force attacking them.


    A Thunder Gun burst hit the main doors of the Facility¡¯s outer shields and the Light Mecha started running for the gap.


    In thirty seconds or less, that shield would be back up, and they would have to drop it again, breaking their formation, but every Line and Corvette ss Mecha was in a tight formation, headed for the gap.


    It wasn¡¯t without chaos, as all the Line Mecha were piloted by green recruits who had just left the academy and had never seenbat, but they didn¡¯t outnumber the Corvette ss Mecha by much, operating in wings of four, with three Line Mecha being directed by a Veteran in a Corvette ss Unit.


    Once they were through, the Heavy Mecha made for the ship, intending to take it as intact as possible, now that they had disabled the engines.


    [Facility Strike Force is inside the building.] Colonel Klinger reported, just as Max and the First Battalionnded next to a seemingly immobile Rebel vessel. Their engines were powered down, there were no shields active and multiple doors were open on the exterior, showing that the cargo holds were empty and exposed to the thin but toxic atmosphere.


    ¡°Breach the vessel, secure Engineering, and the Bridge then report back,¡± Max ordered, wondering just exactly how he had pulled the short straw in his own operation.


    He could see where the Second Battalion hadnded but was too far off to make out the movement from over the horizon, so he didn¡¯t know how their operation was going, only that the ship they were targeting didn¡¯t move.


    [Commander. The interior of the ship has taken heavy damage, multiple casualties were found in the medical area, and no other life signs were found. They have abandoned the vessel.] Major Miller reported as his men reported their progress.


    [Any idea where they went?] Max asked.


    [We have signs of a wheeled vehicle headed toward the position of Second Battalion.] One of the Heavy Mecha reported, sending Max the visuals of the tracks.


    It was just one transport vehicle, no more than a hundred infantry could have crammed into it. There were no signs of Mecha movement, and the tracks weren¡¯t deep enough to have been hiding them on a wheeled cart.


    The situation was very different for Second Battalion. Like the Facility Team, they deployed while the ship was in motion, but only because they were taking fire and needed the extra boots on the ground to cripple the enemy¡¯s defensive position.


    The Super Heavy mecha had made short work of the task, eliminating both the exterior defenders and the defensive weapons on the side of the ship facing them while Nico raced past the lines and straight through a door that opened as she approached.


    There was arge explosion at the bay door, and a Line Mecha fell out, blocking the sliding doors so that they couldn¡¯t be sealed.


    [Your defenses have fallen. Surrender Peacefully and vacate your vessel, so we can negotiate a peaceful transfer of equipment.] Nico ordered over the radio on Kepler Military Frequencies, making Maxugh.


    [Filthy Reavers. If you want this ship you¡¯ll pry it from our cold, dead hands] was their reply, and Max¡¯sugh turned to a sigh.


    ¡°She was really hoping you would say that.¡± He muttered.


    [First Battalion, leave apany here to secure the ship and the rest of us will move out to assist Second Battalion, who have encountered actual live opposition.] Max ordered.

 Chapter 326 326 NICO!

    As two-thirds of the First Battalion started running their way, Second Battalion was digging in for a hard fight. Their target had a full Company of Mecha or more still with them, and they had dug defensive positions to avoid being easily overrun.


    But Nico and a strike team of Light Mecha were already inside, with the Light Mecha going for Engineering to cut the main power, while Nico was supposed to take the bridge.


    They heard the message back from the Rebels and a few of the veterans began tough.


    [What¡¯s so funny? Doesn¡¯t that mean the hardest fight we had nned for?] One of the Recruits asked.


    [One thing you need to understand about Rage. She has never not wanted a good fight. We might be in for a hard fight out here, but they¡¯re in for an even worse one inside the ship.] Colonel Liughed at the youngster¡¯s concern.


    The Commander of the Second Battalion was spot on, Nico was overjoyed at the news, and had gone on a rampage through the Mecha Hangers with a sword and pistol.


    ¡°Come out,e out wherever you are.¡± She sang as she raced through the corridors using the gravity control flight function of the Archangel Exoskeleton.


    Every time the thermal ovey of her red mechanical eyes picked up something that looked alive, she shot it, or if she was close enough, stabbed it.


    [Send out the sma Cannons and kill them all. It¡¯s just an upstart Reaver Company hired to work defense for the Facility.] Nico heard an officer order his troops and heard the movement of Light Mecha in the room in front of her.


    Light Mecha wouldn¡¯t do much against a Battalion with a Super Heavy, but it might be all that they had left. Nico had no way to verify since the ship¡¯sputer was offline thanks to the efforts of the strike team in Engineering.


    [Kill them all.] The Rebel forces cheered back, and Nico flew through the door with a smile.


    ¡°Your terms are eptable.¡±


    Her first sma shot hit the Commander, vaporizing him and the cockpit of the Line Mecha behind him, and then Nico was into their ranks with an energy-shielded de in either hand, slicing apart Infantry and Mecha with single slices.


    The des had been designed to have a chance at prating the armor on the new pattern Heavy Mecha. Theseary defense budget model Line Mecha didn¡¯t stand a chance, even if they had a pilot that could track fast enough to shoot her and not their own allies.


    [We are 3 minutes out. How is the fight toward the bridge going?] Max asked Nico directly.


    [Not bad, halfway there. There were more enemy Mecha than expected, and it has put me behind schedule, but I will have the bridge soon after you arrive. Feel free to reinforce the fight outside.] Nico replied as she surveyed the carnage in the cargo hold.


    [You sound too happy.] Max asked suspiciously.


    [They did the whole ¡°fight to thest, death to the Reavers¡± speech. It was really touching, made my day.] Nico told him, leaving the destroyed Mecha behind to head for the bridge.


    Max was afraid of that. [How is your power supply doing?]


    [Fresh recement for the sma Cannons was just inserted, 6 spares left. 40 percent remaining on the shield power cell, and 4 grenades remaining.]


    That meant that Nico had burned nearly half of her munitions already, and Max wondered just what she had found inside that ship. Either she wasn¡¯t joking about more resistance than expected, or she had found too little and was just blowing stuff up for fun.


    ¡°Secure the Bridge doors. Don¡¯t we have a welder in here somewhere?¡± Nico could hear the Commander on the bridge shouting as she approached.


    She turned out of the direct line of fire and powered up the door controls to open the bridge, throwing a pair of sh grenades and a frag before stepping through behind them and moving away from the door.


    Once the initial chaos settled, the Rebel Commander found himself unguarded, standing between a pair of slowly falling corpses, with the remaining bridge staff cowering in fear or nursing injuries from the grenade.


    ¡°Wee gentlemen. My name is Rage, and I am here from the Terminus Trading Company to offer you the deal of a lifetime.¡± Nico greeted the Commander happily.


    ¡°What the hell are you? A flying Cyborg? Someone kill that thing.¡± The panicked man shouted.


    Nico sighed and shot both of his knees out with her st pistol.


    ¡°Let¡¯s try this again. ¡°Good afternoon my Rebel friends. My name is Rage, and I am here from the Terminus Trading Company to offer you the deal of a lifetime.¡± Nico tried again.


    ¡°What sort of deal are we talking about?¡± One of the crewmen on the ground asked.


    ¡°Finally, someone intelligent. I propose that you leave this ship, unarmed and head for the facility, where you will join yourrades in arms. In exchange, I will take this damaged relic of a ship off your hands and give you each ten thousand Kepler Credits.¡± Nico replied, smiling down at the terrified man.


    ¡°You bitch, how dare¡­¡± The Commander¡¯s reply was cut short, not by Nico, but by one of his own men shooting him in the back of the head.


    ¡°Where did you say we were headed?¡± The crewman sighed, knowing it was their only choice of leaving the room alive.


    The power was out, they couldn¡¯t fly away. They were under siege by Super Heavy Mecha, who could destroy the ship entirely if they wanted. ying along and living to see another day was the best oue he could see.


    ¡°Four hundred and seventeen kilometers at bearing 308. I suggest you bring as many breathing apparatuses as you have avable. Or a suit with a rebreather.¡± Nico rified.


    ¡°Fine, do we have your word that your Company won¡¯t kill us?¡± The man who had shot the Commander asked.


    ¡°You do.¡±


    The man was about to speak again when an explosion rocked the ship¡¯s hull, and Nico assumed that one of the support legs had been damaged.


    [Resistance Mecha have been eliminated. The majority of the First Company is now in position.] Max reported.


    [Stand down until they begin shooting. A number of the Rebels wish to surrender and walk to the Facility to join their allies.] Nico told him.


    Four hundred kilometers on foot would take days in this toxic environment where they couldn¡¯t even remove their helmets, but it wasn¡¯t a guaranteed death sentence.


    [Understood. Send them out.]

 Chapter 327 327 Not a Janitor

    The Rebels suited up, grabbing as much as they could carry, since Nico wasn¡¯t stopping them, and walked out of the ship, defeat clear in their every movement. The sight of so many Super Heavy Mecha, even if they were an unknown design that might be of questionable quality, was enough to break thest of their will, and get all the survivors of the Rebel ships moving toward the facility, where they would join theirrades, to face punishment for what they had done and be ransomed back to the Empire.


    Or so they thought.


    In reality, the Terminus Trading Company was nning to rob them blind, steal all the ships and Mecha that could be salvaged, and then leave them to the not-so-tender mercies of the inhabitants of this world that they had tried to kill, while the mercenaries flew away.


    ¡°Nico, how long will it take to get the engines back online and get this hulk ready to move?¡± Max yelled over the loudspeaker, since the ship¡¯s shields were still up, and might interfere withmunications.


    [Give it ten minutes, the team took Engineering with minimal damage. After that, we should be able to move the ship wherever we want.] Nico informed him.


    [Good news. We found a lot of nothing and a broken ship at our drop point, why don¡¯t we all ride over there in this one, and you can help the team get it working again.] Max suggested.


    [Sure,e on in, don¡¯t mind the mess.]


    That sounded ominous but not nearly as bad as what they actually found inside. The cargo bay was painted red with blood, there were limbs everywhere, and destroyed Line Mecha littered the floor.


    [Nico, what did you do?] Max asked, surveying the carnage.


    [Exactly what they asked me to. You can just push the scrap out the door or something, I am pretty sure there is a Crusader-sized broom in here somewhere.] Nico replied from the bridge as she checked over the ship¡¯s systems as the power came back online.


    [I don¡¯t think a broom is going to cut it. But we do need to do something before the ce starts to stink worse than it already does.] Colonel Li agreed.


    [Fine, I will deal with the mess, but I will have you know, I am not a janitor and this is not in my job description.] Nicoined.


    She was the only one that could fit through most of the hallways where she had been fighting though since they were designed to keep Mecha out. They didn¡¯t have any infantry with them, and Max was keeping the new recruits outside the ship until the worst of the mess was cleaned up. He didn¡¯t need them vomiting in their cockpits on the first mission, and whatever happened in here wasn¡¯t pretty.


    Ten minutester, Max had moved all the bodies in the hangar to a waste recycling chute, where they would be automatically sent to a temperature controlled Morgue for sorting and identification, and some of the other Mecha had found arge water hose, rinsing the room out and bringing it back to nearly perfect, if you ignored the damage from the battle that had taken ce in here.


    The Line Mecha that the Rebels had been using was simrly rinsed and stacked in the corner for repair and resale at someter point, giving Max high hopes that they would build themselves a very good reputation after this battle, or at least a lot of wealth.


    Taking the Crusaders intact was nearly impossible, and not many people could use them to their full capabilities, but the Line Mecha was a different story, everyone wanted them, possibly even more than they would want another transport ship.


    The Reavers had made out very well in the battle against the Tapani after all.


    [Battallions three through five, how is the battle for the facility going?] Max asked for updates since the general chatter on the made it impossible to tell how things were going.


    [We still have the upper hand, and minimal casualties, despite the fresh pilots in all the Line Mecha, but it is turning into a grind. The Rebels managed to sneak an entire Regiment into the Facility in advance, as well as the two Battalions outside. We are digging them out, but it¡¯s not pretty.] Colonel Klinger replied.


    [All Cutters, deploy drone fighters and st the Rebel forces into oblivion. Major Miller, prepare for pickup. We wille to grab you and move forward to the Facility. Nico, you depart here, and either get that ship flying or scuttle it. I don¡¯t want the Rebels to have any hope of getting off this rock.] Max ordered.


    As soon as their pilfered transportnded, First Company rushed in, and Nico rushed out. This ship was in very bad shape, bad enough that the Rebels themselves had given it up as a lost cause, but if anyone could get it running it was Nico.


    While Max flew the Cargo transport away on a shaky flight path, thanks to the fact he was remote piloting from inside his cockpit, Nico looked around the mess that was the abandoned Rebel ship.


    ¡°I swear, they really do think I¡¯m a janitor. This ce is a disaster zone, broken stuff everywhere, and I can¡¯t even get started until half of it is cleaned up, since it¡¯s blocking the ess ports.¡± Nico sighed to herself.


    Looking at the rubble, she was fairly sure that she would be able to get the ship running again. The vessel might be trashed and out of everything, but the pieces that were broken off by itsst battle were enough to do the essential repairs to get it back in the air.


    Whether it would be able to make Warp under its own power again was another question, but they could at least get it off the and use the gravity beam on Terminus to drag it home with them.

 Chapter 328 328 Battle For the Facility

    [We will be touching down in 3 minutes. As soon as we are down, First Battalion will nk west, Second Battalion will nk East, and we will pincer the Rebel forces outside the facility between us while the Cutters do their work with the drones.


    Push as hard as we can, I want those Rebels down before they can do real damage to our men inside the facility.] Max ordered.


    Max¡¯s disy lit up with potential firing solutions the moment that the doors opened on the Transport ship. The vessel hadn¡¯t evennded yet when Max hit the ground running, unleashing every weapon on Enduring Rage at the highest rate of fire that he could manage.


    The maneuver caught the Rebels off guard. The ship was one of their own, and though it hadn¡¯t responded to messages, they had hoped that it was reinforcements from the outer regionsing to help them deal with these Mercenaries.


    The appearance of more of the unusual Super Heavy Mecha caused panic in their ranks, as the Rebels realized that their reinforcements weren¡¯ting and that they were now surrounded by Reavers.


    Max did his best to pick off the Crusader ss units in the force since the Rebels didn¡¯t have a Phnx ss Mecha with them. The pilots of the Kepler Super Heavy Mecha were loyal to the Emperor before all else, and as far as Max knew, they had only managed to turn a couple in the entire Empire.


    Max switched his Ion Bombard Arrays to a dispersed pattern, firingrge, unstable rounds that exploded on contact, best for dealing with Light Mecha faster than individual shots could manage it.


    His charge had inspired the rookies in the Line Mecha, and within minutes they were overtaking him. Their weapons were shorter range than those of the Thunder Pattern Mecha, as the recruits were calling the Super Heavy Units.


    Seeing the line of Samurai Mecha charging, Max realized that he would have to update all their closebat skills to match their new units. It was one thing to look the part, but they would need to actually be able to fight in closebat if they were going to get a significant edge on thepetition.


    Fortunately, both Max and Nico knew a load of Mecha Combat styles from their past lives that would improve the closebat capability of the new pilots to a great degree. Max knew many efficient and lethal styles, but after watching the Samurai fight, he thought that Nico might be right, Terror Tactics would be much more devastating against an enemy like this than a simple loss of numbers.


    That sinister sword style of hers that seemed designed to split things in half would be great for the Line Mecha pilots if they could be trained to use it effectively.


    [Inferno Pattern Fast Attack Units, thruster jump over the lines andnd among the Rebels. The standard Kepler Line Mecha can¡¯t thermal shield against the Fusion mers, and you¡¯ll roast the Pilots before the Mecha melts.] Max ordered, sending two dozen Crusader ss Mecha into the sky over his head.


    The Rebels weren¡¯t expecting that, and the sea of me that followed broke their spirits, sending them running from the battlefield, even as Max heard the orders to regroup and fall back to the Facility, despite the fact that it was mostly held by the locals and the three Battalions that Max had sent to reinforce them.


    [Push forward through the Rebels. Crush their positions and dig them out of those makeshift bunkers. mers, you know the drill.] Max ordered, striding forward between the Line Mecha as he continued to fire.


    Those Rebels that weren¡¯t dead were starting to fall back to the Facility, joining the other attackers and allowing the First and Second Battalions to join forces again to present a unified line of firepower.


    [System Update: Additional Function]


    Max smiled as he saw the update message. He hadn¡¯t leveled up enough to get a new boost in a while, thanks to the increased level of his bonuses. He didn¡¯t suffer from diminishing returns as badly as everyone else did, but it still took work to get gains when he was already so powerful.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank A


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+180%


    [DEX] 3+98%


    [SPD] 3+98%


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 3]


    [Additional Function Unified Force]


    [Unified Force] Allows all linked Mecha to gain the benefit of the user¡¯s targeting data.


    Max quickly linked every Mecha in the Regiment through his and watched as the cadence of the battle changed. He got hundreds of targeting updates a second, and with the System sharing that data, adapted for the other Mecha¡¯s positions, their rate of fire was tearing apart the Rebels.


    For the veterans, the differences were small, since they all had skills of their own and were limited by their physical ability to fight and shoot any faster. But for the rookie Line Mecha, the amount of sma fire that they were putting into the Rebels took a visible leap.


    [I don¡¯t know what that update was, but this new targeting data patch is incredible.] One of the Corvette ss Pilotsughed, unleashing all of his weapons on separate targets.


    [The targeting Data says that it ising from Enduring Rage. The Commander must be going all out.] Colonel Klingerughed from inside the Facility.


    There were a number of units that Max couldn¡¯t see, but not many that he couldn¡¯t target once the Mecha¡¯s sensors were all linked into one feed for his [Multi Point Targeting] to pick from. Though he couldn¡¯t hit them, that didn¡¯t mean that Colonel Klinger and his men couldn¡¯t, and the targeting skill had an uncanny ability to pick out enemy weak points.


    [Archangel iing. The Rebel vessel has been put on an automatic course for orbit. Its condition is fragile at best, and I wasn¡¯t going to risk staying aboard it, even in this minimal atmosphere.] Nico reported, and Max saw her Exoskeleton unit flying in low from the horizon.


    [Good job. If it makes it up there, we will drag it home with us. Grab some drones and go reinforce Colonel Klinger. They¡¯re having issues with Rebels inside the Facility hiding from Mecha.] Max ordered.


    [You¡¯re too good to me, you know that?]

 Chapter 329 329 Show of Gratitude

    When Nico disappeared inside the building Max realized that he had maybe, possibly, made a tactical blunder. It only took seconds before the screaming flooded the Rebelmunication channels, making it impossible to track their movements and orders through the confusion.


    [What in the Feth is she doing to them in there?] Colonel Klinger asked in annoyance as he gave up on trying to track enemy movement.


    [Sorry Colonel. I set the sma Cannon to wide dispersion and it caused a minor chain reaction fire when it hit the infantry. They should calm down in a second.] Nico replied, but Max could see her dataing up on his firing solutions, and that didn¡¯t seem likely.


    That Archangel suit was just an unfair advantage, allowing her to drop directly into the middle of the enemy¡¯smand area and go anywhere that a regr-sized human could, with the firepower of a Light Mecha.


    [Switch to Thermal for movement. I have all the Regiment¡¯s sensors linked, so you should be able to extrapte from radar data until the Radiomunications return to normal. Treat it as a radio silence protocol situation.] Max suggested, turning the artillery fire from Enduring Rage to wipe out a group of Crusaders who were trying to nk around the Fifth Battalion¡¯s left side.


    [Commander, we have reached the Facility¡¯s shield generator. Should we defend this point or push past it?] Second Battalion Commander Li asked from her Super Heavy Mecha, Shining Glory.


    [Hold that position. Once we have this infestation cleaned up they are going to want to bring that barrier back online, so try not to let it get damaged.] Max ordered.


    With their Command structure in disarray and their reinforcements gone, the Rebels were already in a bad position and had been forced together into one sector of the Facility where they were being quickly encircled and eliminated.


    [Rebel Forces, this is Tarith Rage of the Terminus Trading Company. Lay down your arms and surrender. Your position is no longer defensible, and our Cutters are iing with sma Bombs. If you do not wish to face annihtion, surrender now.] Max heard Nico¡¯s demand over the Kepler channels and chuckled.


    The Cutters wouldn¡¯t even need to do anything, the drones that she had justunched were carrying the bombs in question, and with the facility shields down, the Rebel¡¯s core forces had nothing to protect themselves from the force of a bombing run.


    [This is Duke Millicent of New Plimpton. We wish to negotiate.] Came the resigned call in return, unencrypted, so that everyone could hear and understand it.


    [Exit your Mecha and I will meet you with a delegation from our force and the terms of surrender documents.] Nico replied, then sent Max a copy of the standard form that Reavers used to negotiate a surrender.


    It was all based on the financial rewards for the Mercenaries, and was their primary source of ie since the ones who hired them often weren¡¯t in a position to pay enough with so much of their world destroyed before they were willing to call in Mercenaries.


    Max filled in the confiscation of their weapons of war, as well as terms for the Rebels to be held here on the until such time as a delegation arrived with the payment for their release. That would repay the locals for much of the price they paid for the Mercenaries who came here to test their new Mecha design and help with the rebuilding of the Facility.


    [We need an honor guard. I am on the far side of the Facility with Enduring Rage, who is close?] Max asked unsure who was where at the moment.


    [Colonel DiFranco of the Fourth Battalion reporting. I am only a hundred meters from where the Rebel Signal originated. I will send four of my Corvette ss units to her as an honor guard and join them in a Mobile Suit.]


    [Good enough. I have the paperwork ready and sent to your unit, print it off before you leave. Protocol says that everything is done in duplicate hard copy.] Max ordered.


    [This is Dar Mar of the Facility¡¯s quality control team. I am currently the highest-ranking survivor on the, so I will lead the negotiation team to your position Miss Rage.] A pleasant young male voice reported.


    The Rebels had formed up around theirst remaining ship, defending it until they could secure a way off the, a hope that wouldn¡¯t happen now.


    Max waited while the three groups organized to meet in arge warehouse that could be seen by all three sides and that none of them would have time to organize an ambush in.


    [You¡¯ve gotta see this guy] Nico texted Max, sending him a picture of the Rebel Commander. He was clearly aristocratic, with the defined features that marked the nobility, but also clearly inbred, and cross-eyed. He looked like a living mockery of the nobility, the way that a kid from the slums would draw them as an insult.


    [Just y nice. They still hold theirst ship, and they¡¯ve likely got enough on board to pay off their ransom and leave. That¡¯s what we want, but we want them to leave with nothing but that damaged ship, and return to Kepler¡¯s borders where the Loyalist forces are waiting for them, understand?] Max replied.


    [Got it, Boss. Loot them but don¡¯t kill them. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m a professional.]


    Once the locals arrived, Nico stepped into the warehouse, slinging her sma rifle over her shoulder and folding the wings of the Archangel unit close to her back. Once she was inside, she ced the rifle on the table off to one side of the meeting area and took a seat with a pleasant smile.


    ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you, Duke Millicent. I believe I have heard your name before, but I recall it being attached to a much older man. Forgive my confusion.¡± Nico greeted the Rebel Commander.


    ¡°The branch family staged a coup on my homeworld and took over our ancestral title. At this moment there are three Dukes of the Millicent family, Madam Tarith.¡± The Duke replied cordially.


    Colonel DiFranco ced the documents on the table between them and stepped back, preferring to let Nico take care of the politics while he simply stood guard.

 Chapter 330 330 Negotiating with Idiots

    ¡°I must say, Miss Tarith, you have a rather unique appearance.¡± The Duke smiled, giving Nico¡¯s tight and stretchy piloting suit and winged exoskeleton an appreciative look.


    ¡°The particr joys of being a full conversion Cyborg, your Grace. It frees me to modify my body to be capable of many feats a normal human is not, even with the vaunted System of the Kepler Empire.¡± Nico replied.


    There was no way that the Duke could know that she still had an Alpha Ranked system active, so he just nodded in agreement and looked over the documents as Max had prepared them.


    ¡°Most of this is agreeable to us, but the terms of return to Kepler must be removed. Until matters are settled, we will be remaining in neutral space.¡± He said, tapping the document, then striking out the relevant portions with red ink.


    ¡°In that case, the full payment for damages and Ransom must be paid before you leave the. Do you prefer internment by the local forces, or can you pay with your remaining assets?¡± Nico asked.


    The Duke turned to his assistant, who was quickly calcting something on a data tablet. ¡°If they will take the precious metals and remaining Mecha in exchange, we should have enough for the ransom of the men, but not enough for all the reparations.¡±


    [Demand legal title to the ships we are taking.] Max ordered, listening in through an open link with Nico.


    ¡°Your allied reinforcements didn¡¯t fare as well as you did, but they left behind two Transport ships. Give the Terminus Trading Company legal title to them and we will consider the Ransom to Terminus Trading Company paid.¡± Nico suggested.


    She could see the man¡¯s brow crunch in confusion, not quite understanding for a few seconds before he smiled and nodded. He hadn¡¯t realized that the Reavers would want the other ships, they usually only demanded a percentage of their value as ransom, since a Reaver force already had a shiprge enough for their needs.


    If they imed every ship that they attacked, they would be a public nuisance that the nations would wipe out, but a ransom fee wasmonly paid in situations like this where they were hired as mercenaries and spared valuable assets for their opponents to keep.


    The ships were from his¡¯s defense fleet, not the Kepler Fleet, so he could sell them if he needed to, though the action was highly frowned upon. Not that Kepler¡¯s regtions really concerned a Rebelmander, but the sense of tradition was strong among the Nobles.


    Dar Mar sat down and handed a document to the assistant, with the estimated damages as well as the standardized reparations fees for him to work out. That would pretty much wipe out the remaining Rebel assets, but they would be able to keep a few of their luxuries, which would help cate them.


    With everyone in rebreathers or armored suits, thanks to the poisonous natural atmosphere that filled the facility with the Shield down, the meeting wasn¡¯t as formal as normal, with the two sides simply waiting across the table while the numbers were done and a list of assets for transfer was made up.


    The Facility didn¡¯t seem all that picky about what they were paid with, Dar Mar didn¡¯t even dere any of the items to be worthless to them, he simply checked the numbers and nodded.


    ¡°That is eptable to the facility. If the Terminus Trading Company is happy with their payment we don¡¯t require anything else.¡± He suggested, trying to weasel out of actually paying for the services since the ships that they confiscated were worth hundreds of times their standard fees.


    They had only lost thirty Mecha, all of which had been recovered, and three Pilots, all from the new design Light Mecha. It was unfortunate, but an outstanding battle result in the circumstances, and Max could hear the Reaver forces watching from orbit already beginning to send celebratory messages back to Rae 5 about the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha¡¯s capabilities.


    The tactic that the Light Mecha wings had been using was to cycle out their forward units, letting them take hits until their shield began to fail, then letting them fall back to recover while others took their ce. Doing things that way led to a front line that never seemed to lose anything to attrition, as the shields only needed a minute at the most to recover if they weren¡¯t damaged.


    [ept the deal. We will use the ships for Rae 5 security patrol, so it¡¯s worth it to us.] Max ordered Nico, who smiled across at the Duke and filled in the payment details on the agreement.


    His assistant had a printer with him, set up on the table where Nico had left her sma Rifle, and he scanned the paperwork and then printed two new copies for the two sides to sign.


    Dar Mar was about to sign the moment it reached the table, but Nico thumped him on the head. ¡°At least read it and check for errors first. It isn¡¯t a crew rotation document.¡±


    As expected, there were a number of items left out of the payment details that were included in the original calctions, which Nico politely pointed out and had the assistant print out a new copy.


    ¡°Very sorry about that, you know how those scanners are.¡± Duke Millicent simpered, while Nico fought to avoid rolling her eyes at the man.


    ¡°Of course, I have signed a number of these documents over my career, so I have learned to be cautious of mistakes where the document scanners are involved.


    This time everything was correct on the document, and there were no visible errors or changes made. Nico snapped a copy of it to send to Max, who double-checked her work and dered it correct.


    [It¡¯s good to sign. Everyone, remain on your stations until the payment is made, and then we can head back to orbit and arrange to return the new ships back to Rae 5.]

 Chapter 331 331 Glowing Recommendation

    While the Mecha of the Terminus Trading Company watched on, the surviving Rebels finished the transfer of valuables off of theirst remaining ship and departed the in shame. Max wished that they could have forced them to return to Kepler space to face judgment, but the Facility had kept the Empire updated on the current situation, so if they had the manpower to spare they would send someone to deal with them.


    ¡°Well, Mister Dar Mar, it was a pleasure to meet you, and I am d that your Facility managed to survive the incident mostly intact. Our Mecha have secured your shield generator and are working on bringing it back online now, so you can have safe air to breathe in the next hour or two.¡± Nico informed the leader of the Facility.


    ¡°It was a pleasure doing business with you as well, and my condolences on your losses while attempting to save us.¡± Dar Mar replied.


    The casualties had been remarkably light, but he couldn¡¯t know that. He had only seen the battle footage from his security cameras, and it showed a prolonged and intense firefight, that would normally mean a heavy loss of Light Mecha.


    ¡°This was the first outing for the newly designed pattern of Line Mecha, and as you saw, they are far more effective than the ones that they are recing. I do hope that you will think of us if any of your allies shoulde into simr troubles.


    The Empire might be too busy to respond, but we are always happy to help. For the right fee that is.¡±


    The residents of the Facility chuckled at that. The Reavers had made out very well today. Even after paying the death benefit, and recing the lost Mecha, they were still way ahead on this mission.


    Unlike the Military, who dropped crippled veterans back on their homeworld with a lousy pension, and never mentioned those lost outside of the monthly holiday ceremonies, the Reavers paid a very significant sum to the families of Reavers who died on a mission, so that they wouldn¡¯t suffer from the loss of their most talented.


    [How is that ship I sent into orbit looking?] Nico asked Max as they finalized the security checks of the Facility and prepared to depart.


    [Trashed. But the other Kepler Ship that we traded for will be able to pull it along at Warp speeds without issues. The main structure scans as solid, it is everything else that is shot full of holes and damaged beyond recognition.] Max replied.


    Even that was an understatement. If anyone had been on that ship when it left the atmosphere, they would certainly have died from the experience, and a number of the outer areas had been first scorched into a soft metallic putty and then frozen, shattering many of the secondary bulkheads, which weren¡¯t intended to undergo such rapid temperature fluctuations.


    The thoughts of adding that ship to the defense fleet would have to wait, it was in no shape to even be rehabilitated at the moment, and would be better used as scrap metal to build more ships in the new designs with higher speeds and better weaponry.


    One squad of technicians was transferred from the First Battalion¡¯s Cutter to the better of the two new ships, and the Regiment started loading back into their vessels in preparation to depart theoid.


    ¡°Those are some fancy ships, Miss Rage. Might I ask, what system did you find them in?¡± Dar Mar asked.


    ¡°They are produced from an alien schematic that we found aboard our Colony Ship, Terminus. They are as impressive as they look, and the other Reaver Companies have created quite the waiting list to get their hands on one.


    I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard about our newly established Colony on Rae 5. That is where the Reavers will be gathering to rx and do deals when they are not on a trade route. If your Facility should find itself with a bit more product than the Empire is ready to purchase, don¡¯t forget to contact us and Rae 5 Command can help you find alternate buyers.¡± Nico offered.


    ¡°And that is why everyone loves the Reavers. Such selfless and helpful sorts. I will keep your offer in mind. Best of luck on your way back home.¡± Dar Mar told Nico with a smile.


    Nico led the honor guard back to their ship and then flew back to the First Battalion¡¯s Cutter so that she could go through the debriefing with Max and make contact with their observers.


    The Reaver Companies that came to watch would surely have a few things to say about the effectiveness of the Samurai Pattern Line Mecha, since the casualty rate was incredibly low, despite using them as the front-line shock troops that they were intended to be.


    [Excellent Showing Terminus. Those new Line Mecha that Rae 5 has started making are very impressive. I had my reservations about the shielding system, given the power output of a Line Mecha, but they took the abuse like champions.


    We have somebat analysis data to add to your own as well. It might not be as urate, since we were all the way out here, but I¡¯m sure that the other Companies will be interested in secondary sources.] One of the Reaver Captains informed them as they approached Terminus.


    [The pay was better than expected for a testing mission as well. Rae 5 has gained two new ships for the defense fleet. Well, more like one and some spare materials to make another, but that¡¯s basically the same thing.] Max informed the other Company leader, making the Reavers who were listening in give a chuckle at his sense of humor.


    [Thirty new pattern Mecha lost of a thousand, with only three Pilots lost due to the new cockpit reinforcements. I would say that that test was a rather sessful one. Even their power supplies held out well, and we didn¡¯t have any issues with keeping the energy weapons firing at full output.] Nico added, sending the basic battle data through to their observers.


    [I have already put in my order for a Company of them. But it looks like you have been training your men in new closebat styles as well?] The Reaver asked the question with great interest, wondering what all they had done to prepare their crew for these new Mecha.


    [Yes, and we will be improving their closebat training now that the basic testing is done. The Pilots did very well, but their damage rates dropped when they got within twenty meters of the enemy, and that is less than optimal. With better training in less conventional methods ofbat, like the Cygnus Close Combat styles, they should be able to make up the difference and let us n for a number of new tactics that will best utilize the abilities of the Samurai Pattern.] Nico agreed.


    [I hacked the cameras in the Rebel ship before the assault started. Perhaps you should be training them in whatever it was that you did to the Rebel infantry? If a Mecha fought like that, we wouldn¡¯t have to worry about casualties.] The second Captain told Nico and sent over a short clip of her raiding a Cargo Hold full of Light Mecha and infantry.


    It was as predictably gory and brutal as Max had expected, but the Captain had a point. If they could teach Line Mecha pilots to do that, the Reavers wouldn¡¯t have much to fear during boarding actions, where Line Mecha were the primary assault force, due to size limitations inside a space vessel.

 Chapter 332 332 They Dont Teach That In School

    ¡°By the Emperors, who taught you to fight like that? And where did you get that exoskeleton? I can see that the power supply is limited, and you had to change the power pack a number of times during the battle, but thatbat style isn¡¯t like anything I¡¯ve seen before.¡± The first Captain gasped when he saw the footage.


    ¡°That, I am afraid is a family secret. But I can teach the pilots to fight better than most in closebat, just not using that style. I don¡¯t think human bodies were meant for that sort of maneuvering. At some points, even my gravity sensors triggered overload warnings, and a full conversion is good for forces up to thirty times the gravitational standard.¡± Nico replied.


    ¡°Yes, I am getting dizzy just trying to follow it. But then, your core crew are all Kepler Pilot retirees, aren¡¯t they? Seeing the physical skills of System users is always mind-boggling.¡±


    That was a kind way of putting it. At nearly six times the human standard, Max could deadlift a small car and toss it a few meters. The major limiting factor was his actual flesh and blood body. It had received a lot of upgrades to deal with the system increases to its capability, but even now he had to be careful if he was going all out so he didn¡¯t injure himself.


    As much as the nanomachines rebuilt him, he was still essentially human, with intrinsic human frailties, like organic muscles that could be torn under extreme stress.


    ¡°We will make up a training regimen for Pilots using the new Mecha once we get back to the. Using them properly is the key to their survival, and unless you have a Cygnus Pilot among your trainers, I suspect a lot of Companies will becking in that department.


    The shielding lets them close the distance in rtive safety, so a front line, rear linebination seemed to be the most effective method during the battle, and then have the front line fall back when their shields were depleted, letting the back line take over while they recovered.


    It is unconventional, but with only three Pilots lost among a thousand testers, I don¡¯t think there is going to be a better technique, just better Pilots.¡± Max informed the Reavers who hade to watch their battle.


    ¡°We will be waiting for the new simtion data for the training. I just got confirmation that they will be starting on my units right away, based exactly on the test units unless you wish to send them some design changes before they start.¡± The Captain informed Max.


    ¡°I think these are good enough. Let the individual Companies tweak them to their own liking, and we can make them all to this standard for distribution among the Reavers.¡±


    The conference call ended as the ships all got in position to start heading home, and Max ordered the Cutter back to its cargo bay aboard Terminus.


    ¡°Nico, it looks like you are going to be busy making training simtions for the new Pilots. They have a lot to learn about closebat, and it will take a lot of work to make a simtion that will cover all the skills and tactics that they are going to need to know in order to be properly trained melee fighters in Mecha.¡± Max informed his best friend with a wink.


    ¡°Nico do the thing, Nico, make a simtion, Nico train the rookies, Nico, stop disemboweling the enemymanders. Everyone is so demanding today. But I¡¯m already on it.


    We modified the martial arts programs when we were still in the Academy, and I have been adding to them as I got downtime. I don¡¯t know how well some of the ideas from my old memories will catch on, but the more simple and efficient ones I have already put into the martial arts trainer.


    Once I put in the Samurai Pattern Mecha data they will be able to start training the basic techniques, then they can start on the tactical upgrades once they have learned to at least somewhat fight in the new units.


    Do you think that I should make a program for the purchasers to receive with their new Mecha? I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll all want one either way, so it might be a nice touch to have them packaged together, buy the stupidly expensive brand new mecha, and get the meleebat training simtion at a discount?¡± Nico¡¯s rambling answer reminded Max that she was still somewhat human, and feeling as overworked as anyone else would be.


    ¡°You can add thatter. How about we take a nap in the meantime? We¡¯ve got a bit of transit time back home, and there will be far too much work waiting once we get there.¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°Excellent n. Go shower, you¡¯ve been working all day, and I had to wash off before they would let me out of the Storage area of the Cutter.¡± Nico told him, already stripping off her uniform jacket.


    Fortunately, Max¡¯s room wasn¡¯t far from the office where he received the group call, because Nico was very enthusiastic about her naps.


    ¡°Have you been altering your shell? I know the non-Newtonian alloy was supposed to be soft when not being impacted with high forces, but you seem softer than you used to be.¡± Max asked as he climbed into the bed next to her in his pajamas.


    ¡°I have. The System Functions have been assisting me, and they¡¯re giving this body a full makeover. I would say that I¡¯m over halfway to Biomechanical now, and the process is speeding up as I gather more data. At first, I didn¡¯t have much to work with, but I have been studying every known cybeic capable species, and the new information has been a big help to the System.¡± Nico exined, dropping her shell temperature until she was a cool pillow against his side.


    ¡°Maybe we could take a journey to the Northwest of the Gxy. Nobody knows much about the area, since the Klem and the Narsians bordered either side of the quadrant and nothing ever seems toe past them. But we might find fun new things there if it isn¡¯tpletely overrun with bugs and murderous giants.¡± Max suggested.


    ¡°That sounds like way too much work. I¡¯ll keep checking the data looking for advanced tech from the Northeastern Quadrant. They have a lot of good stuff, since they¡¯re one big alliance and never had to focus on warfare. They just don¡¯te down here often, since they view it as far too dangerous, and our weapons are much better than most of what they can field.¡± Nico disagreed.


    Since her System was reworking her anyhow, they didn¡¯t actually have to do anything, Nico just wanted new data so that she could make herself even better than what could be aplished with the data that the AI had already.


    ¡°What was your most recent upgrade? The more natural shell reactions?¡± Max asked sleepily.


    ¡°No, I did that a while ago, it¡¯s just slow to adapt. The newest change is variable-zone temperature control.¡± Nico informed him.


    Originally, her entire exterior would be one temperature, so having the ability to adjust zones was pretty neat, though the practical uses of it escaped Max¡¯sprehension.

 Chapter 333 333 Ignorance Was Bliss

    Max awoke with a jolt as a freezing cold hand crept up his thigh. ¡°Dammit Nico, that¡¯s just evil, and your hands are freezing.¡±


    ¡°Seven degrees below freezing to be precise. It¡¯s time to get up. I¡¯ve got the Samurai Pattern data added to the training simtions, so it is time to start training the Line Mecha Pilots in hand-to-handbat, and you¡¯ve got messages waiting for you from other Reaver groups who are looking for data on the trials, which also needs to be sent to Uncle Lu again so that he can verify that the first set of numbers he got wasn¡¯t corrupted.


    Oh, and there is some sort of issue with the new Mecha design, something about the increased height causing resonance issues with energy fields. I¡¯m sure he will exin it in depth when you see him.¡± Nico exined.


    ¡°That¡¯s too many things to do for one day. Now I understand why nobody else wanted to be in charge.¡± Maxined, looking over the list of Reaver Commanders he had meetings with over the next 24 hours.


    ¡°Fine, I will take care of the Line Mecha Pilot training, you take care of the Reavers and Uncle Lu. I¡¯ve already sent him my opinions, just a few minutes ago, so the rest of his concerns are all for you.¡± Nico suggested.


    Nico rolled out of bed and Max gave her backside a p for freezing him with her hands, hitting a solid block of alloy instead of the soft flesh that it was a half second earlier.


    ¡°That¡¯s not enough to outsmart the alloys. But I appreciate the sentiment. Now, get dressed, unless you¡¯re going to the meetings naked.¡± Nicoughed.


    Max spared a moment to pity the recruits as Nico got dressed and left for the training halls aboard Terminus, then checked his schedule to see where all these meetings were supposed to take ce.


    There wasn¡¯t enough room to dock all those ships with Terminus, so unless they were meeting somewhere centralized anding in a shuttle, he would have to grab a shuttle of his own and make his way to the meeting location.


    The first eight hours were all scheduled to be aboard the Moon Base, where Terminus was about to dock, so that was a real time saver, but the six-hour block after that was in the capital down on the surface, and then back up to the base for his final meetings with Uncle Lu.


    The design issues with the new God ss Mecha weren¡¯t going to be an easy discussion, especially since it was uncharted territory for everyone, using loads of new materials, and all untested design elements.


    The previous round at least had a base structure to build off of so that the designers knew what was likely to work and what they knew would cause issues. That was not the case with this one, and it sounded like some major changes had been needed.


    Max hailed a personnel transport, one of the electric-powered carts with seating for a dozen, like an oversized golf cart, which the crew used to move around the Moon Base, and headed for the exit, just as his wrist device started lighting up with short videos and messages of bothint and amusement from the Regiment.


    Nico had insisted that all of the Battalion and Company Commanders as well as all of the Corvette ss units who would be fighting alongside the new pattern Line Mecha, be trained in the newbat styles.


    By her logic, if they had no idea what the unit was capable of, there was no way for them to bepetent leaders, especially the Corvette ss Pilots who were often deployed in Mixed wings with the Line Mecha.


    [Boss, you should see what the tiny demon wants us to do. I swear that shouldn¡¯t be physically possible.] Colonel Klinger sent, along with a short video from inside the simtor of Nico¡¯s version of basic meleebat forms.


    She did them three times. First at her full speed, which was the theoretical maximum speed of the Line Mecha, plus a bit for her own optimizations, and then again a third slower, but still faster than a standard Line Mecha could move. That one she called a passing grade for the day.


    The third was done at a sedate crawl so that the pilots could take in every minute adjustment of the Mecha that was required to make the maneuvers work.


    The style she had picked was simr to the Cygnus style, but more graceful, as befit the noble design of the Samurai Pattern, and her execution looked almost human.


    In short, there was absolutely no way that the Pilots were going to be able to live up to her standards, which Max knew meant extra practice as a punishment, as well as personalized training, a function that had been built into the Martial Arts training program, to begin with.


    [Good Luck Klinger, you¡¯re going to need it if you¡¯re going to get up to speed in a Line Mecha in one day. How long has it been since you were even in one?] Max replied.


    [A decade, maybe two. It¡¯s been a while.]


    At least all of his senior officers would have the training to make sure that their charges were living up to expectations, assuming that they could all pass Nico¡¯s training.


    After the first six hours of boring meetings, going over the same data that he had sent to the Commanders two days ago, and watching the same videos over and over to exin the basics of how the shield regeneration worked in the new Mecha, Max was mentally exhausted.


    [You¡¯ve got 45 minutes to nap between boarding the cutter from the base until your meetings on the. Take a 30-minute nap.] Nico told him as Max left the meeting hall, being stopped constantly by jubnt Reavers, who were ready to ce huge orders to update their Mecha forces.


    [If I can. How is training going?] Max asked.


    [Not bad, we¡¯re only six hours in, and already we have some that have passed the day one portion of thebat forms. Give it another six hours and the rest should be properly motivated to do it right tomorrow.]

 Chapter 334 334 The Joy Of Simplicity

    The Mechabat style that Nico was teaching them was broken down into eight essential attack movements, with eight matching defensive movements, and sixteenbinations of footwork. She insisted that it should only take two weeks for them to memorize these new movements, as they already knew how to operate a Mecha, and then the real training of putting it all together could begin.


    Max would have liked nothing better than to go and see how the training was going, but instead, he was resting his seat back as the Moon Base''s private shuttle took him to the''s surface for more meetings.


    These ones shouldn''t be as bad, as he was only a consultant there, about the capabilities of the Mecha, while the main topic of the meetings was scheduled to be about the procurement of materials andbor to produce them in the numbers that were requested after the ster showing during the test battle with rookie pilots at the helm.


    Because they rarely had enough Heavy Mecha, if any at all, the Reavers had a lot of skilled veteran Line Mecha Pilots, who were certain that they could do even better with them than the recruits did.


    That had been a constant annoyance during the first meeting. Captains loved to brag about their troops, and Max had fielded a thousand men with no battle experience for the tests. Half of the first six hours had just been them reying the battle and telling everyone how they could have done it better.


    Max''s hopes for a peaceful meeting were quickly dashed though. Where the Commanders bragged about their own forces being able to do it better, this meeting was full of materials vendors and manufacturing nts trying to get approval to substitute materials and cut corners to reduce production costs and increase profits.


    They had already done as much of that as they dared to though, and any more, or any substandard materials would lead to catastrophic failures since the integrity of the unitrgely relied on a technology that strengthened molecr bonds. If the wrong materials were used, it would not work correctly, and the strength of the unit would drop by over two-thirds, a fact that he had to demonstrate in simtions a half dozen times before the prospective builders gave up and adjusted their quotes to build the unit as designed.


    Without approval, they didn''t dare to make modifications, since every buyer knew where they lived, and woulde to them for answers if they lost a friend due to a manufacturing w.


    With the demand for Mecha, their profits were going to be astronomical anyhow, but an extra five percent of a few billion credits a day made a huge difference to the owner of the manufacturing facility.


    After the first full day of marathon meetings, Max had to dy his meeting with Uncle Lu so that he could be coherent for the meeting that they were nning to have, returning straight to his bunk to sleep the morning away before the one meeting that he deemed actually essential.


    [Uncle Lu, where are you at? I wille to you for that meeting.] Max asked once he woke up.


    [I''m in the VR training hall. The little one is making people cry again, and it was too good not to watch.]<sub> </sub>


    That was enough to pique Max''s interest, so he headed down to the training hall where most of the Regiment would be mastering their hand-to-handbat skills.


    "You almost had it that time. Only twenty-seven seconds off the pace, but that''s a ten percent increase over yourst attempt. Nine more tries like that and you have this. Don''t give up on yourself." Nico encouraged one of the Pilots, while a few others who were outside the testing machines and sparring in the ring off to the side tried not tough.


    Max looked up at the scoreboard and saw that the sessfulpletion time for today''s set of maneuvers was one minute. Eachbatant faced an enemy mecha who performed a set series of maneuvers based on the speed of the pilot, and if needed, they could add a hologram of what they were supposed to be doing to the simtion so they could watch it and learn.


    The fact that the pilot took eighty-seven seconds toplete the one-minute series meant that he was having a particrly bad day, especially after hearing that it was an improvement for him.


    "What did she show them today?" Max asked Uncle Lu as he found the old man in therge hall littered with VR pods in orderly rows.


    "Nothing at all. This is a continuation of yesterday, that''s why some of the pilots have been let out of the simtion to try it in real life to build muscle memory. Everyone that passes today will be doing that tomorrow, and then they will keep adding to it until they are doing a routine that uses all the core maneuvers of the style." Uncle Lu exined.


    That was, surprisingly reasonable, given the circumstances. They weren''t under any particr deadline, they just needed all their pilots to bebat-ready as soon as possible so that Terminus Trading Company could get back to work and start taking missions to build their funds and reputation.


    Thirty-two moves, that was all they had to learn. It sounded so simple, but actually doing them seemed to be much more difficult than he had expected.


    "Hey Rage, find me an open pod, I want to try this once I finish talking to Uncle Lu." Max called, then turned to the old scientist.


    "There is an office off to the side here, in what used to be a secondary storage area. It is soundproof and all electronics in the room are shielded and not linked to the outside." Max offered.


    "Perfect. The details that we need to go over are only minor things really, but they aren''t for general consumption." Uncle Lu agreed.

 Chapter 335 335 Minor Adjustments

    Once they reached the secured office, Uncle Lu brought out a new design schematic and ced it on the table.


    ? "This is the current design n. I won''t know untilter in the testing if it will need to be changed again, but the original had some issues.


    All of the technology is new and untested, and the multiple types of energy fields can interact in unexpected ways. For example, trying to use the Hundred Points of Enlightenment took both the shielding and main power offline.


    Engaging the Warp Field interfered with the structural stability field, because of the shape of the Mecha itself. As you recall from the Cutter tests, they are very finicky, especially at higher Warp factors.


    So, while the design is simr, the height has been reduced to forty meters. The Thunder Guns on the arms were swapped for a freshly upgraded design of Disruptor that is stable over extreme distances.


    There are still six barrels per arm, but they can also be linked to create two modified orbitalnces.


    I also managed to keep twelve Pulse Lasers in the shoulder ting. Their rate of fire has been increased from the standard, so they should serve the purpose of defensive duties.


    You''ve also still got the sword, though a spear or polearm could be made instead.


    It might seem like you''ve lost a lot, but the Disruptor design is very versatile, and can even make short work of the shields on a Destroyer ss starship."


    Uncle Lu praised his design changes while Max tried to understand the intended fighting style of this new design.


    "It is too small to be called a God ss Mecha now, isn''t it?" Those were the first words that escaped Max''s mouth.


    "True. It would still be a Titan ss unit though. With that amount of firepower and a Warp 12 top speed, I don''t think anyone would argue against the title, even if forty meters isn''t as tall as most Titans." Uncle Lu agreed.


    Max looked over the Disruptor design schematic and saw that thebined output was greater than two regr orbitalnces. How the scientist managed to get enough power production for that weapons array into a mecha was a minor miracle, and definitely exined the unusual power field interactions.


    "What was your target enemy for this design?" Max asked.


    The design was too focused for massed enemies unless the Disruptors could make wide-area attacks as well as focused beams, and too destructive when used at the full output against heavier targets unless you didn''t care about the''s infrastructure.


    "With input from the others, it was designed for the things no other Mecha in our arsenal could do. Eliminating Transport Ships to prevent invasions, and rapidary Bombardment to clear alien held worlds."<sub> </sub>


    "By input from others you mean you asked Nico and she wanted to bomb a into submission, don''t you?" Max asked.


    "Everyone else I asked agreed with her. It''s far more firepower than the cutters have avable, and when deployed into low orbit, most enemy sensor grids wouldn''t even detect it until it was toote, they would identify it as space debris from the battle." Uncle Lu told him with pride.


    "Can the Disruptors do wide area coverage?" Max asked, just to rify the weapon''s capability.


    "Both wide range on the ground, making a thirty-degree cone twenty kilometers long, for sixty degrees total coverage between the arms, or a dispersed orbital strike, which would hit a circle of roughly thirty kilometers in diameter directly, without relying on secondary explosions to destroy an enemy position.


    "That''s got to be a war crime," Max muttered, thinking of what happened when the Disruptor output was lowered enough that it didn''t just disintegrate its target.


    "Nope, I double-checked this time. Because the core is still lethal it''s legally sound. The outer areas are considered secondary damage, like the outer radius of an explosive. Even if someone files aint, they won''t get too far without making fools of themselves when their political opponents counter their arguments." Uncle Lu gloated.


    That was the thing about always being at war. You didn''t always have to fight your own battles. Often, a group who had a grudge against those using you would do it on your behalf.


    "Well, it''s near twice the height of the Super Heavy Mecha we''re using now, so I say it''s a good design. We can work out any little ws in its utility with additional handheld weapons once the main mecha is finished." Max agreed.


    "Oh, that''s an excellent idea. I could make a gun de. You know, a sword with a huge Ion Cannon in it or something, or a Halberd that doubles as a Laser Lance for sniper duty when you turn it around.


    I think we''ve finished our briefing, I need to get back and work on these edits and start designing the alternate weapon load outs."


    That was all the warning Uncle Lu gave before he ran out of the room and to a waiting transport cart that would take him back to the underground areas of the moon base where hisb was located.


    "You chased him away." Nicoughed when Max came out of the office, shaking his head at the overly creative old man.


    "We were talking about new ideas, and he suddenly shouted gun de and ran away to get back to work. You know how he is when inspiration strikes. How many questions have you gotten about that exoskeleton you were using?" Max replied.


    "Not as many as I had expected. It seems that the acrobatics and the risk of the shield going down at an inopportune time made it less desirable as a weapon of war. It''s not like the Reavers are crazy enough to field infantry battalions after all."


    She had a point. As cool as the Archangel Exoskeleton was, this was not their target market for that sort of device. In fact, there weren''t a lot of target markets for it, except the beleaguered infantry Regiments of the Gxy, whom everyone seemed highly averse to spending good money to upgrade.

 Chapter 336 336 You Dont Ask A Lady That

    The next few weeks passed in peace, while everyone in the Terminus Trading Company practiced their closebat skills, even going so far as to hold dailypetitions outside the simtions so that they could train their bodies more thoroughly and keep improving their System bonuses.


    That was one of the major reasons that so few made the upper ranks during their careers, they were simply too busy with everything else they had to do that they didn''t spend the time to train their bodies for more than basic maintenance.


    Gaining or losing a bunch of weight would make your Mecha seat ufortable until you had time and permission to have a tech alter the seat shape after all.


    [All Units, please report to 1900 tomorrow. Dress Code Casual Party.] Max saw the Regiment-wide announcement and realized that it came from Nico, so the first thing that he did was check the calendar.


    It wasn''t one of the high holidays, so that couldn''t be the reason for the celebration. Maybe thest of the Line Mecha Pilots hadpleted the entire closebat exam to her standards? No, it was too early for that as well. Getting everyone to pass would take at least another month.


    "What are we celebrating?" Max asked Nico when she came into his office with a data tablet for him to examine.


    "Your birthday of course. Don''t tell me that memories of past birthdays have made you block out all thoughts of the previous ones and the inevitability of this one?" Nico asked.


    That might actually be urate, even looking at the calendar, it hadn''t urred to Max that this was his birthday. Of course, the year he was born was hidden by the military, so everyone would think this was his seventeenth if they could ess his military records, but those were under strict lockdown after the Inquisition had ordered their mission to go radio silent and wait for orders.


    General Ming still gave Max daily updates on anything that he heard, but that wasn''t much. The Rebellion in the sector closest to them was under control, and the main fleet was pulling back, leaving a newly raised sector security fleet from the other side of the Empire to keep things in check now that the local Nobles were almost all gone.


    That meant that refugees were returning home inrge numbers, though very few on Rae 5 had been looking for transport back to their homeworlds. Things were good here in Reaver territory, especially for those at the bottom when theypared it to the lives they were living before.


    Max realized that his mind had wandered to work again, and Nico wasughing at his instinctive denial of all thoughts about his birthday.


    "Fine, how about we tell them that it is my birthday? Will that make you feel better?" Nico asked.


    "Much better. I know some of the crew already know that we share a birthday, but we can celebrate yours without me having to field any awkward questions about my own. Plus, your mom will love it." Max pointed out.


    "Oh, you have no idea. She is preparing a birthday cake for five thousand, plus decorations for the ship. We will have some visitors from the Tarith Family, but they will being through the Station, so there won''t be a need for docking security protocols.


    What else? Birthdays are usually a big celebration with no clear goal other than to celebrate the fact you lived another year, but this one might cause you some mental trauma." Nico added.<sub> </sub>


    "Mental Trauma? From YOUR birthday?" Max asked.


    "Yes. Since our birthdays fall during the summer break at the Academy, Mother Mary Tarith had nned to celebrate them all until I left home on deployment, which would still be at least one year away if things were normal.


    This one is Princess themed and she refuses to budge on that part."


    ? Max shuddered at the memory and gave a moment of thanks for the fact he had never had to face his parents from this lifetime again.


    "You be the Princess, I will be Prince Charming. It will be fine, I am sure of it. But I''m afraid that since I forgot, I won''t have a proper gift for you." Max sighed.


    "Who do you think I am? It''s not like I need much, but I have prepared for this situation in advance. Uncle Lu will bring you a wrapped gift box to add to the pile of presents. Reavers don''t usually exchange them within the wholepany, it would be utter chaos and destroy any hope of having enough space for storing them all. Only immediate family and any visiting leaders will give them. So you, my parents since my siblings are too young, and a half dozen more." Nico shrugged.


    "You really did think of everything. I take it the troops will have the day off of training to prepare, so they''re not too exhausted to celebrate?"


    Nico shrugged. "That''s your call, not mine. I''m sure they would appreciate it though. Days off at random always help morale, especially when there is cake."


    Mary Tarith was devoutly refusing to insert her Cake recipe into the food replicators, insisting that it was a family secret that must remain secret and not be a standard menu item for an entire ship, so she would be bringing the Cakes byter, cooked by her own staff and not here aboard Terminus.


    That left Max with only a bit of organization to do today.


    [All Units, training schedules are canceled for tomorrow, in preparation for the Second in Command''s birthday party and the arrival of guests. Security rotations, be sure to have your teams swap out in the middle so that everyone gets a chance to partake. I am told that the birthday cake made by Mary Tarith is an event you do not want to miss.] Max sent a Regiment-wide order, and the Battalion Commanders began to reorganize their crew rotations.


    Max was headed for the Mess Hall when he heard the First Battalion asking the one question that they dare not say to Nico''s face. "Which birthday do you think it is? I''ve heard rumors that she''s actually really young, like the Commander, but in a full conversion body, she could actually be centuries old and just cosying as the cute little girl."


    That made the man''spanionsugh. Tarith Nico and "Cute Little Girl" weren''t often used in the same sentence. Especially not after evening training.

 Chapter 337 337 Maybe Birthdays Are Alright

    Max woke up on the morning of his birthday to the soft feeling of what he assumed was Nico giving him a kiss on the forehead.


    "Good Morning, and Happy Birthday," Max mumbled.


    "Good Morning to the Birthday Boy." Mary Tarith giggled as she stood up.


    "Birthday Breakfasts are a tradition in our family, but I had no idea what you like to eat, so I had Nico let me in to wake you up." The matron of the Tarith Family exined.


    "Anything that''s better than an MRE pack is fine by me, but if there is fresh fruit juice, that is even better," Max told her, stretching out in the bed as he began to wake up properly.


    Despite the fact he was only sleeping under a light nket, Max found himself stifling hot and somewhat sweaty this morning, making him wonder if there was something wrong with the temperature control in his suite.


    "If you want to pick some breakfast food, I will catch a shower, and then we can eat," Max suggested.


    Max came back out to a luxurious feast of assorted meats, cheese, pies, tiny waffles with syrup and fruit as well as eggs and juice.


    "You''re a big guy, so I made a bit of everything. Real food, not from that replicator thing on the wall." Mary Tarith informed him.


    "You should really try it. The replicator makes some good food. I know, I designed them myself." Nico said, entering the room in a full-on Princess dress,plete with Tiara and wings that Max recognized as being a feathered cover of the Archangel Exoskeleton.


    "Oh, Nico, there you are. I knew it would be perfect on you, but what did you do to the wings?" Mary asked.


    "I fixed them. They actually fly now." Nico told her with a wink, then floated across the room a few centimeters above the ground.


    "It''s only breakfast and you''re already dressed for the party?" Max asked, wondering how much Mary Tarith loved birthdays.


    "Just a test fit, since the dress was premade before we left the Academy. I can adjust my dimensions a little, but only so much." Nico informed him.


    "Alright, go change back before you get it dirty. There are more dresses in the room for you. I saw your closet, and you needed them." Mary insisted.


    Nico would wear a proper dress? Skirts were normal for her, but a regr everyday dress, not something cosy, or over-the-top fancy just seemed like such a personality sh that Max couldn''t see her wearing them. Mary Tarith had a very normal motherly fashion sense, and you would never guess the personality that hid under the neutral colors and cardigans. Nico was one to wear her personality though, and it was always mboyant.


    Nico came back out in a buttercup yellow sundress, with a leather Coat over the top and military boots and fiss below. That was exactly what Max had expected.


    "Thanks, mom, they''re perfect," Nico said, giving Mary a big hug while the older woman rolled her eyes at Nico''s fashion sense.<sub> </sub>


    "I got you a few options for suits to pick from tonight. All of the VIP guests know it''s also your birthday, so they will bring you gifts and expect you to be there to greet everyone, but we don''t need to make a big deal of it with the Trading Company if you don''t want." Mary informed Max.


    "I''m not sure if you heard from Nico already, but I''m not a big fan of birthday parties, so I would rather just blend in. Breakfast and Cake is already a good day." Max replied honestly.


    Not long after they finished eating and cleaned the dishes, Dave and Mollie arrived with Max''s younger siblings, all of them eager to wish him a happy birthday and present the handmade gifts that they had created. One handmade beaded ne from the girls and finger paintings from the toddlers.


    Max knew that the girls barely remembered him, and the boys hadn''t met him until after they were refugees, so the gesture was a touching one.


    "Thank you all for the wonderful birthday gifts." Max thanked them, then snuck the girls a few pieces of chocte from the cupboard.


    "Why don''t we all watch a movie? Something rxing, as a family?" Mary Tarith Suggested, already turning on the projectors.


    In consideration of the children present, it couldn''t be too oundish, so Max didn''t have any objections to letting her choose. Knowing Mary Tarith, this was likely nned well in advance anyhow, she wasn''t one to leave things to chance, or make spur-of-the-moment decisions.


    As it turned out, getting a pair of three-year-olds to actually watch a romanticedy wasn''t happening, so Max set up the cartoons in his room for the kids to watch at their leisure.


    For a change, they were going light on the snacks, the staple of movie enjoyment in Max''s mind, because Mary didn''t want everyone to be too full to enjoy the evening meal that she had nned for before the party started.


    That turned out to be a huge hit with everyone who had gathered, including Nico''s father, who showed up for dinner, just in time to receive an earful from Mary about having skipped the movies.


    Max understood romanticedies weren''t for everyone, and Mary was really into them. Hiding until her tears and theatrics were finished was likely the best option her husband had.


    Mary had made Barbecued Burnt Ends, with smoked ribs, baked beans, and some sort of shredded cabbage sd that Max didn''t have a name for, but Mary''s mind called w. Even the kids were overjoyed about that revtion, and the fact that they weren''t going to get in trouble for eating with their fingers.


    "So, Brother Max, will you being to our birthday next? It''s only one more month until we turn four now." Max''s sister Sasha asked.


    "Of course. We will still be around the as well, so you can even try to get Miss Molly to n a special event." Max suggested.


    "Just no Princesses." Sandy, the other twin sister insisted, making Max chuckle.


    "I can agree to that."

 Chapter 338 338 Older And Wiser

    When the girls saw that Nico was getting dressed as a Princess for her birthday, they giggled, thinking it was a thing that every mom did every year if you didn''t stop them, but they happily got dressed up for the event.


    Max knew that there would be an awful lot of drunken ''Prince Charming'' sorts tonight, but the party should be a pretty fun gathering for everyone involved.


    It had been a while since they had a good reason to just let loose and party, and Terminus had more than enough space for it, even if they had invited ten times as many guests as they had here today.


    Max entered the room holding Nico''s hand and waving at the sound of cheering that was filling the bay, which had been renovated into a four-level ballroom,plete with themed decorations and bars on every level.


    Sound barriers would let the zones be different moods, with different music, once the party was in full swing, but first, there was an introduction from the guest of honor, and then the servers would starting around with drinks and the much anticipated birthday cake.


    "Thank you everyone foring to celebrate another birthday with me. I know for most of you, this is the first time, but it won''t be thest. I do love a good excuse to party. I see that the room looks more like a high-end dance club than the storage bay of a Colony Ship today, but fear not, the bars are open and drinks are free.


    Don''t forget to grab a slice of cake on the way by, and let''s get this party started." Nico called out to the crowd, patching herself into the ship''s inte.


    [Max to Maintenance. When you clean up the decorations, leave this entire space as an event hall. I think Terminus could use a full-time tavern on board as well, so keep the top floor stocked and we can work it into the duty rotations. We can just close the other levels when there isn''t a big event going on, or we don''t have visitors.] Max sent the order through to the teams who would be in charge of the cleanup tomorrow, adding an impromptu amenity to the ship beyond the Mess Halls.


    Sure, you could get the same food in either ce, but that top floor, with thefortable seats and the cigar lounge atmosphere, seemed like the sort of thing that the crew would enjoy on a more regr basis.


    "Commander, congrattions. Both on your sessful test of the new pattern Line Mecha, as well as thepletion of another year among the stars. I am Garth, of the Garth Maul Mercenaries. We heard a rumor that the Reavers had found a few geniuses who had been disced by the fighting in Kepler and I am very d we came to investigate." A tall and nerdy-looking man in thick ck rim sses greeted him.


    "Nobody is happier with the new unit''s performance than we are, I assure you. After all, we are keeping the first batch." Maxughed back, making the Mercenary smile.


    "So, which among you is the older and wiser?" Garth asked, looking to where Nico was floating among the crowd, using the gravity control of the Archangel suit hidden under her angel princess outfit.


    "Older goes to Rage, but wiser is still firmly in my court," Max replied with dignity.


    "You have a point there. She is too much like her father. If it wasn''t for the appearance, which she took from her mother''s side, you would swear that they were the same person reincarnated." The Mercenary Leader insisted.


    "I haven''t had much time to interact with him, are they really so much alike?" Max asked.


    "Ask Mary to tell you about how they met sometime. Her father and I were friends forever, and it''s not my story to tell, but yeah, they''re just alike. I even recall the day that he rigged an orbital bombardment cannon to go off on a so he could get around the international treaties on the deliberate orbital targeting of species not capable of space travel."


    That had Max''s attention, but the elusive Tarith Family Patriarch chose that moment to break up their conversation. "You always did have a way of telling other people''s stories in the worst light. Come, Garth, let''s get a drink before Mary catches me again."<sub> </sub>


    With that, they were gone, and Max was met with more well-wishers. This time Reaver Captains that he recognized from the wedding of General Yaakov. If anything, they might actually be more dressed up today, to match the prince and princess theme of the event, than they had been for the very formal and fancy wedding.


    "My gift might not be a physical thing, but I brought something just for you Commander. At the far southeastern edge of the Death Wind Territory, we have located an Emissary that is very interested in meeting with you.


    Apparently, their species made this ship and left it behind when it had issues during their colonization efforts. They saw the feeds of the battle here on Rae 5, and they seemed intrigued by the changes that you had made to get it operational again.


    I can''t imagine that they will want the ship back, they are in what the Northerners call a World Ship, a thousand times the size of Terminus and their technology is far more advanced than anything I''ve seen you use, so this thing is most likely a historical relic from their viewpoint." The Reaver told Max quietly.


    "Then what would they want with us at all?" Max asked.


    "The World Ships aren''t fast you see, nor are their shuttles. They''re just indestructible, and they can do things that seem like magic with their technology. I think they might want to trade techniques with you. They''re not warlike people, and if anyone attacks them, they just leave and cklist you, so that you''ll never get a chance to deal with them again." He exined.


    "I''m d you told me and not Nico first. If you told her we would already be on our way to the Gctic South to go looking for them. She goes crazy for shiny new toys." Max sighed.


    "You''ve got it hard, Commander. But you seem to run a tight ship. I don''t see any signs of dissent or disunity among your troops, and that is a very rare thing with a new Commander. It''s how a lot of Companies recruit, by taking in those who are unhappy with new leadership, and I suspect it''s why Mary Tarith invited us all here to party so that we could see that the Terminus Trading Company was standing strong under your leadership."


    "As much fun as you two are having whispering about this and that, the dances have started. Get yourselves to the floor." A female Mercenary Captain informed them, then extended a hand for Max''s.


    "Shall we?"


    "A wonderful idea. But we are finding some of that cake on the way by." Maxughed, then looked for the staff who should have the trays.


    "I''ve got you, Commander." Colonel Klinger informed him,ing over with a full tray of cake and an annoyed-looking server following him.


    "One for you, one for me, and one for the prettydy. Tell me little girl, is your Mother here? I bet she''s a true beauty." The battle-worn Pilot teased the Mercenary who likely wasn''t much younger than him.


    "ttery will get you everwhere, Pilot. Wait until I''m done with your Commander, I will be back for you." The woman smirked, then took a bite from the rich chocte cake, wiping the cherry filling from her lips as they moved to the dance floor.


    "They weren''t joking, this cake is amazing. Well worth taking a shuttle halfway across the sr system." She whispered to Max as she spun him into the first steps of the lively dance.

 Chapter 339 339 Unusual Requests

    For six more hours, Max was dragged from dance to dance, meeting new people and seeing sides of his Regiment that he hadn''t expected to exist.


    Some, like Colonel Klinger having incredible luck with thedies, weren''t that unexpected, but some, like the quiet corvette ss Pilot from the Fourth Battalion leading a thrash metal open mic session on the third level of the venue were entirely unexpected.


    From what Max could find out, a number of pilots had spent their allocations for the materials printers to get musical instruments made. So, when the time for a party came, they found a good spot and took it over to hold an open mic jam with anyone from the Regiment who was willing, along with a number of volunteer singers from among the guests.


    The cake had first appeared at seven in the evening and seemed toe back every two hours thereafter. Thest time Max saw it was just after midnight when Nico had convinced a number of Reavers that if you soaked it with rum and ate it with a spoon it was even better.


    Max wasn''t sure how much that would improve the vor, but between the cherry pie filling and the decadent chocte, the alcoholic hint of the rum probably wouldn''t be unpleasant once it had time to soak in.


    Though, the group was mostly drunk enough that they wouldn''t notice anyhow.


    "Commander, I heard that you were going to authorize the top floor to stay open as a ship''s facility, a full-time tavern aboard Terminus." One of the Wing Leaders from the Second Battalion asked.


    "That''s right. I thought everyone could use another ce to unwind. There''s no reason to be ufortable, since we have all this extra space avable, and we''re unlikely to take on so many refugees again that we will need multiple Cargo bays to hold them all."


    The slightly tipsy Pilot thought about that for a moment then nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will go talk to the crew about setting up weekly open Mic nights for us."


    Terminus was meant to be a flying city, not just a set of crew quarters, and they were slowly renovating everything to suit themselves, but even with the newly added Line Mecha Pilots, they were under ten percent of capacity.


    Those unfortunate souls were still sleeping in regtion dorms, made with the Kepler Materials Printer, and not in the fancy suites that the rest of the Regiment had inherited after their trade dealings, but that was just one of the hazards of being at the bottom of the list.


    They weren''t too crowded, though they shared space with their wing, as the Corvette ss Pilots did. They just didn''t have the luxurious surroundings and lived in dorms like the in one Max had been assigned in Uncle Lu''s Lab.


    Max seemed to recall that one of the Captains that he had talked to earlier had specialized in renovations of ships. They had a lot of space, so maybe Max could talk him into doing something here on Terminus, giving them more guest space, plus some entertainment facilities.


    "Nico, have you seen the Captain that does ship renovations?" Max asked the next time he saw her. She had just finished some sort ofpetition with another cyborg, but Max couldn''t tell what they were actually trying to do, as they were mentally focused on a picture.<sub> </sub>


    "Oh, the guy who thought we needed a high-tech, terrarium-themed shopping mall and theme park in the central promenade of the ship? He''s upstairs talking with some of the guys from maintenance about decorating themes." Nico informed him, and Max saw their location in Nico''s mind through the link she was holding open to the ship''s cameras.


    That wasn''t a bad idea, but Max wondered how she didn''t drive herself mad multitasking like that. But then, Nico''s mind had never worked like everyone else''s.


    "Captain Ctrava, do you have a few minutes tomorrow? I would like to talk to you about a few ship''s features if you can get them designed and implemented in a reasonable timeframe." Max asked.


    "Are you really going to approve renovating the whole ship? We''ve been telling him how much of a pain some of the original sectors are to work in since they''re all designed for muchrger people, or for Mecha." The leader of the group of logistics staffers that the Captain was sitting with asked Max.


    "Not the whole ship, but I was interested in the ideas about the mall and the theme park, as well as some other entertainment venues, as well as standardized housing. We might not have a huge crew right now, but we might end up increasing our numberster, and we will need to have space avable before we can take any more people in." Max agreed.


    At five kilometers long, and roughly one and a half kilometers wide, the total area of Terminus was vast, and shouldn''t be underestimated against the potential capacity of a small city. Since they could easily build vertically, they would have no issues hosting a few hundred thousand long-term residents, should they decide to be an actual colony ship, carrying intrepid travelers in search of adventures and new homes.


    The thought of being a glorified interster cruise ship was actually quite amusing to Max, and it gave him a good basis to have the ship''s interior redesigned. The bnce of living space and entertainment everywhere, with the all-inclusive nature of a cruise ship, or a Military Vessel, would be perfect for their needs, and serve both asfortable living quarters for the general staff, as well as excellent camouge, should someone suspect them of being a military invader.


    Max put a lot of thought into that over the evening, while he looked into the resources of the Reaver that he was nning to hire.


    The crew was well known as ship rebuilders, modifying derelict and captured ships to the new owner''s specifications. They had arge number of Reaver vessels in their customer list, as well as civilian luxury yachts from a dozen different nations. That seemed trustworthy enough for Max to let them aboard the ship.


    They also had six vessels here in the Rae 5 system and were building a space station near the gas giant that made the middle of the system. They wouldn''t mess up their good thing here by causing issues on a job for the unofficial gship of the system.


    So, with consideration to the five newly built Cutters, plus room for five more equivalent-sized vessels in the bays above them and a plethora of cavernous storage spaces for any sort of cargo that they might pick up to trade, Max was left with a good estimate of the space he had to work with, and made ns to have them build a luxury cruise ship for fifty thousand taking up most of the front half of Terminus, while the Regiment would renovate the rear half to make room for refugees, or military forces to be stationed, equal to two President ss Transport Ships.


    How he was going to exin his ns to the Regiment was the hard part. Taking on passengers wasn''t part of their ns, and they weren''t nning to take on entire Infantry Regiments either. The more spartan areas could be passed off as refugee preparations since they might pick them up from further away, but the Cruise Ship amodations would be harder to exin to the men and women under hismand.

 Chapter 340 340 Renovating Again

    "Why don''t we make a big deal of it? Since we''ve got the new technology aboard, and everyone will know it soon, we should y it up and offer trips once a year or something. You know we''re going to be called on to do random political nonsense, so picking up a load of tourists on the way and making a spectacle of it would make it very hard for anyone we are negotiating with to justify attacking Terminus." Nico suggested.


    "Are you saying to use the passengers as human shields?" Max asked suspiciously.


    "No, of course not. But can you imagine the bad publicity if the gxy found out that someone attacked a bloody Cruise ship full of tourists because it was run by a neutral nation that they were supposed to be negotiating with?" Nico countered.


    She had a point, especially if they picked them up within the boundaries of the same Empire. Kepler and Cygnus had pretty good control over their own media, but something like that would still make it through on the undergroundworks until it became a huge scandal for the sectormand.


    "I will keep it in mind while we do the designs. I have a structuralyout of the area for them to work with, but the rest will be left up to the designer, assuming that he can get it done in a timely manner." Max told her with a smile.


    "Oh, I am sure he will. Their Materials Printer Technology is almost as good as our Replicators, only instead of specializing in food, it specializes in bulk furniture and structural elements. As long as they can get a design made that fits within the existing structure, their staff numbers say that they should be able to put thousands of people on the job at once and get it done within a few weeks." Nico agreed, showing him the same set of data that he had looked upst night.


    "Alright then, I''m off for the meeting. Make sure all of our guests are in good shape this morning and see to the cleaning of the venue. All of the VIP guests should still be in the guest suites, I don''t think anyone has checked out yet." Max said, then jogged out to catch a lift to the middle of the ship where the VIP sorts were staying.


    That would be just aft of the new Cruise Ship, which would fill what the builders of the ship had intended to be the central hub of life aboard the ship.


    "Captain Ctrava, it is a pleasure to see you again. I have a schematic of the area of the ship I want to be renovated, and a theme for you to design toward." Max greeted the whip-thin Reaver, and the six young women he had brought to the meeting, all of whom were sitting in front of design stations so that they could input what Max and their boss talked about in real-time."


    They input the schematic as soon as Max handed over the data tablet, a nk one with only the limitedyout of the portion of the ship they would be working with included, and waited for the two to begin.


    "So, what is the n for the Terminus and her mighty crew of entric Mecha?" Captain Ctrava asked.


    "I want you to build me a cruise ship in that space, big enough for fifty thousand guests to reside in luxury. Make it a self-contained city, I want the guests to have ess to everything they could desire, but the food can alle from our Replicators and be served either as buffets or in restaurants. I will supply those as needed in your designs, and the dimensions of the units are included in the data that I sent you." Max informed him.


    "So a cruise experience, and not a vi experience, I get it. This huge central tunnel though is bound to cause vertigo." Ctrava told Max, pointing to the opening in the central promenade.


    It certainly would cause vertigo, it was a hole a kilometer high. But they didn''t need to leave it empty.


    "Why don''t you add levels of terrarium there, with nts, maybe some hardy species of animals that aren''t going to harass the visitors and won''t die during space travel? It can be mostly open, but even anding every four or five floors to give people something to look at would be an interesting feature." Max suggested.


    The Captain tapped something into his design tablet, and the assistants got to work right away.


    "Do you have a preference for the rooms themselves? An architectural style? Theme? Anything?"


    Max shook his head. "Make it represent the Reavers as well as you can, but I want it to be pleasant and open for the guests so that they don''t feel stifled despite the high density. Don''t forget to put in staff quarters in the cruise ship area as well. I n to keep it isted from the rest of the ship under normal circumstances so that we don''t get tourists among the Reavers, or spies trying to sneak into our Mecha bays."


    Terminus could shield her bay doors, so you could fly a ship in and out without purging atmosphere from the area first, but the actual application of that design was sketchy at best, due to temperature differences. The ships would be alternately freezing in some areas and scorching hot in others, making it nearly impossible to keep amunal hangar operating continuously.<sub> </sub>


    That meant limiting off-ship excursions as much as possible or doing them in veryrge groups so that only a single shuttle could be sent at a time. Purpose-built Cruise Ships just made many small individual hangars, but that was not a feasible option for Terminus, as the outer hull was too difficult to modify without causing other issues.


    They chatted pleasantly for a few minutes while the assistants worked, and then Captian Ctrava brought out a design for the renovations.


    It was tropical-themed, much like the facilities on Comor Station were, with simr architecture, and an even more prominent steampunk influence that somehow embodied the Reavers'' personalities.


    "Not bad, luxury, but not snobby. From what I can see, there are easy esses to food and basic amenities in every sector, since they''re basically copy-pasted with a slight change in the color theme so you don''t get lost.


    Turning the central column into a huge park with benches and wading pools is very child friendly, and I see that you did find a space to include a theme park." Max listed as he looked through the designs.


    "Not only that, there is a water park split into two sections that interlink with gravity-controlled waterslides, so that they can be on the same level and still get the feeling of a two-hundred-meter downhill slide. One side is more adult-oriented with hot tubs and lounges, while the other is more family oriented, with games for the kids." The designer said proudly.


    "The question is, can you do all this on my timeline?" Max asked.


    "We are just finishing our own station, and we haven''t taken on any other work yet so that we could finish our own first. If we can keep Terminus here on the Moon Base for one more week, and get all the required materials, we can finish in a single week." Captain Ctrava informed him proudly.


    "And the Price?" Max asked, concerned that they might want something that he couldn''t easily provide.


    "One Company of Heavy Mecha, in the new pattern that your troops use. New, painted in the pink and gold of my design group."


    Normally that would be a non-starter since Mecha designs were kept secret as long as possible, and giving out their new patterns would let anyone who had dealings with the designpany have ess to them, but Max''s System Improved Mind came up with a n.


    "From Uncle Lu''s original designs, not as we have personalized them for our own use." Max insisted.


    That meant that the improved power nts based on the design in Terminus wouldn''t be used, and the design of the Disintegrator would be one generation older than the ones that they were currently using, but for the most part, the Mecha would remain the same.


    They would be identical in outward appearance anyhow.


    It also meant that the spare parts that they had acquired while they were upgrading the Mecha could be put to good use since the power nt was the most expensive and difficult to produce part of the entire unit unless you counted the precision electronics to control it.


    "I can live with that, but if possible, I want Cygnus controls in them. They use the Neural Link, and it''s much better for pilots like ours who don''t have the advantage of a System boosting their abilities." Captain Ctrava bargained.


    "Deal, I willmission them from Uncle Lu, to be built specifically for you." Max agreed. Uncle Lu would know what could be shared and what shouldn''t, and he could adjust appropriately without anyone knowing any better.

 Chapter 341 341 Poaching Talent

    "All I am saying is that your ship isrger than the old Lab on Comor was. If you wanted to there is no reason why you couldn''t have your own mecha manufacturing onboard Terminus.


    You could tell everyone that your pickup site is confidential, obscure where the Reavers are building the new Mecha, and then just keep making as many as you need from the safety of your own ship. It''s the perfect hiding spot, nobody would ever suspect that a small tradingpany was the one that was carrying the blueprints and technical data around." Uncle Lu was telling Max.


    He had stopped in at theb to talk to him about the custom order for Line Mecha with neural links, and they had gotten sidetracked by the proposition of makingrge numbers of Mecha aboard Terminus for distribution to their allies here in the Rae 5 system and abroad.


    "It''s not a terrible idea. With the new amenities, we need to hire staff to do everything in the Cruise Ship area, so we could bring on a bunch more workers at the same time, under the guise of taking them as maintenance and technical staff." Max reluctantly agreed.


    "Don''t forget that you have a visitoring as well, and if you get on their good side you might be able to convince them to get you some upgraded construction technology that would put your current materials printers to shame." Uncle Lu added.


    That might be pushing their luck. As a pacifist species, the makers of Terminus would naturally be very reluctant to give Max anything that could be used in a military capacity. They most likely had much better materials printing technology, going by the state of the Replicators, which were now considered ancient relics to them, but they wouldn''t want to part with them to help out the humans.


    "We will take that as ites. We can make them with what we have, we salvaged a few military-grade printers from Kepler ships already, and they are set up to make everything on a standard Mecha. Updating them to build the new patterns shouldn''t be too hard, at least not for the Line Mecha, which doesn''t use any truly exotic materials in its build."


    Uncle Lu nodded as he thought and then started making notes on his pad. "All is well that ends well. If they won''t give you new printers, that''s not a big deal, since you can get by with what you have. But you might want to hide the fact that we have been updating the power nts of all the Mecha in your Regiment using the Crystal Generators based on the Warp Drive in Terminus.


    They areing here to see what you have managed to do with the technology, since they detected that someone had broken the warp 10 boundary, but they won''t be happy to find out that the majority of the examples of the new drives are in military ships, so you shouldn''t tell them that you put them in the Mecha as well if they don''t specifically ask." Uncle Lu sighed.


    The continual advancement of technology was his goal in life, curtailing and hiding it for reasons of politics was anathema to his outlook on life, even if he understood the necessity and went along with it for the greater good.


    "I will let you get to work building those custom units. Feel free to go wild with the neural link. I promised them something like Cygnus, not an exact copy, so if you have a better idea, feel free to have them test it for you." Max informed Lu, then started making ns to get more staff hired.<sub> </sub>


    With the sector around them stable, the influx of refugees had slowed to a trickle, so he would have to hunt down over a thousand people to run and maintain their new facilities, as well as skilled manufacturing workers for the construction bays.


    With a whole new, he had at first thought that this might be the easy part, but it turned out that everyone had the same idea, and they had snapped up as many workers as they could get to work all the new shops and factories in the system.


    Once Max left the meeting with Uncle Lu, he went to a terminal and ced an ad on the local data, looking for workers. All sorts of hospitality, maintenance, custodial staff, and factory staff for the onboard shop item production, ording to the job advertisement.


    It would be held the next day in two locations, here on the Moon Base, for those who were already in orbit, and on the in the Capital. Even if they lived in one of the other cities, there was a public shuttle that flew between them on a two-hour loop all day and night, so it wasn''t hard to get to the meeting if they really wanted the job.


    There were still a fair number of people looking for work on the, but finding enough that wanted to be on a touring Reaver Ship for the indeterminate future should be a lot harder than just finding people that wanted work.


    Or so Max thought until he saw applications that were being sent through. Not only were there far more than expected, but the applicants also had a wealth of experience that he didn''t expect. Most were between 26 and 28 years old, and Kepler born, meaning that they had just finished their tour of duty beforeing here to Rae 5 as refugees.


    Some were Reaver born, but the majority of applicants that Max saw were definitely Veterans.


    In the normal course of events, Pilots and specialists who didn''t actually want to be in the army would finish their tour and go home, and then would be recruited out of retirement to work in government-associated facilities on their homeworld.


    But many of those worlds were barely habitable right now, and a few had taken ELE Orbital Strike Barrages after the Rebellion was deemed to have won the battle against the loyalist forces on their surface. They were the object lesson that had made most of the others in the area surrender, but that left billions either dead or homeless throughout the sector.

 Chapter 342 342 Far More Lively

    With the ns that Nico brought him the next morning, on behalf of Uncle Lu, Max now knew that he would need nearly two thousand staff to keep everything running with full uptime, after ounting for standard absences, vacation days, and such.


    Unlike the soldiers, who lived on call, the staff for the factory bay and the Cruise Ship area would be working 5-day weeks, shift work, because a cruise ship never really slept.


    Nico would take care of the recruitment from the Moon Base, and send the data back to Max, while he took a team to deal with the muchrger group down on the surface. Max suspected that he had been duped into taking the lousy side of the job, but everyone who was in space at the moment was likely a Reaver, to begin with, so letting them deal with Nico wasn''t going to scare them away.


    Many had already sent their credentials, hoping for a headstart on the hiring, but there were at least five thousand people waiting for him when he arrived.


    [Did I post something strange?] Max asked on the Regiment''smon channel when he saw the crowd.


    [I wouldn''t call it strange, but cruise ship work is good work. We pay well, and it is expected that we will be stopping off at a load of desirable locations, right? Even if the staff doesn''t get to see them all because of their work schedule, they''re bound to have days off on one of them eventually. It''s a pretty good perk for the sort of people who want their life to be a working vacation.]


    That bit of wisdom came from Inquisitor General Ming and was quickly seconded by a dozen other voices thinking the same thing.


    Many of the Kepler Citizens who had only seen warzones and third-rate space stations for shore leave still felt the need to travel, and many more who had the opportunity to see a few of the vacations desperately wanted to see more of them.


    They were going to be doing a lot of diplomatic work in the near future, once theirst Mecha was ready, so they would certainly get to see a few more civilizeds. But still, this was a lot of people, with a lot ofbat experience between them.


    "I''m sorry Miss, but even Reavers havebor standards." Max heard one of his entourage telling someone in the crowd, so he went to investigate. It was a young couple, possibly brother and sister, and too young to have been at the academy when things got messy on their homeworld.


    "Come on man, I can push a broom and make a bed as well as anyone, and I can prove it if you want." The girl insisted again, holding out her application.


    "Put her in the system. As she says, she can do the job. But we''re not a daycare center, so you had better be prepared to work your full shifts or we will drop you at the next port with a travel debt." Max warned the pair of youngsters who looked offended.


    "Just give us the chance and we will prove ourselves." They dered in unison, before clearing the front of the line for the next applicant.


    "As long as they''re close to age, take the applications. They''ll grow into the job eventually, and it''s easier to train kids thanbat veterans." Max whispered, making the two Pilots taking applications at that table chuckle.<sub> </sub>


    "Got it, Commander. I see what you''re going for."


    There were a lot like that in this crowd. Not well suited to most jobs, but they could do simple tasks well enough, and there were a lot of simple tasks to be done. Most had been passed over because of their low System Compatibility since mosts didn''t send nearly as much of their poption to the war effort as Kepler Terminus did.


    They couldn''t be pilots, their didn''t need more infantry, so they were stuck at home, flunked out of school and out of work even now that they were on a new, thanks to theirck of qualifications.


    Fortunately, there were also enough qualified people from maintenance and Logistics departments in the military who could be hired as supervisors to train all the new workers and keep things running smoothly.


    "Is there a particr look you''re going for Commander?" A woman in her mid-twenties, with visibly muscr arms covered in tattoos, asked as Max was checking the crowd for issues.


    "That depends on the job. It''s a cruise ship, so we''re going to put a bunch of the cute ones on day-shift public rtions, but other than that, it doesn''t matter. What was your specialty?" Max replied.


    "Mecha Repair Technician. I might have made sergeant if I could actually get along with my Commanders. Instead, I retired at the first opportunity." She shrugged.


    "Excellent. Take this pass and catch the shuttle up to the moon base sometime in the next 48 hours. If you know any other technicians, we''re short on them. Not for ourbat Mecha, but for all the excursion equipment and the security Mecha for the Cruise Ship areas. If you know any more, send them our way." Max exined.


    Many of them would end up working to produce and quality control test brand new units, but that wasn''t something that Max was going to advertise in public.


    "Nice, a few others from my unit are in the crowd somewhere. I will send them to you personally if they can skip the line." She told Max with a smile.


    "Do that. Technicians are wee anytime. Plus, I think you''ll get along well with the ones we already have. You''ll understand when you meet Rage. Our techs aren''t as uptight as the unit you came from." Maxughed.


    The Techs on Terminus held oil wrestling matches with Tech Adept Harnesses on, iming that it helped with their fine control skills. Max couldn''t imagine many other Commanders overlooking that. Even General Yaakov had been hard-pressed to pretend that it wasn''t happening so that he didn''t have to reprimand them.

 Chapter 343 343 Mixed Regiment

    Over the course of the next week, thousands of new arrivals came to Terminus, bringing with them lively attitudes, and bright colors that even in their Reaver garb weren''t usually associated with the sensible Pilots of the Terminus Trading Company.


    They had somehow managed to fill every vacancy that they had advertised, as well as most of the ones that they hadn''t spoken of openly, filling out the shift managers and quality control positions for their onboard Mecha Manufacturing nt.


    It wouldn''t turn out all that many Mecha, at best twenty a day, but the stockpile of rare materials that were needed was also limited, so it worked out well in the end. They would take the time to visit a few asteroid fields along the way and build up their stockpiles again, but for now, they could rest assured that they had the capacity to fulfill all but the most extreme of orders.


    Despite the rate that the Kepler Empire went through them, a Mecha wasn''t cheap to produce, so most private security forces who wanted a brand new unit only ordered a handful at a time, to show off their wealth and power to their clients, cycling out the oldest units in their fleet to a less fortunatepany looking for a bargain on somewhat serviceable Mecha.


    At Uncle Lu''s suggestion, they included a sample of the Tapani Mecha that they had captured during the battle for the system into the design parameters of their bays. Just a little p in the face from the Reavers to the nation that had dared to attack them.


    Max thought it was actually rather fitting. They had lost the battle and left their equipment behind, even agreeing to the Reavers'' terms that it was all forfeit. That meant that they weren''t actually doing anything wrong by reproducing the technology they reverse-engineered, though it was all a few generations out of date anyhow, and not top of the line even when it was new.


    Tapani wasn''t that sort of powerhouse, to begin with.


    Max was taking a tour of the crew quarters where the staff who would be working the cruise ship section was staying when he came across a familiar young face. The clearly underage girl from the recruitment fair had made the cut as a housekeeper.


    "Good Morning Commander Keres. It is an honor to be working with you." She greeted him, catching the attention of the other staff nearby.


    "It''s good to see you again. Are you getting properly settled in and used to your new job? Max asked politely.


    "I am. They even gave me the good one. I''m on hallway duty in the crew areas." She informed him.


    Right now, that was one of the harder jobs, since most of the construction work in the residential areas was done and there were no upants in the rest of the ship. But it also kept her safely tucked away from the passengers, where she could be monitored by the older employees. That probably wasn''t a coincidence, though Max hadn''t checked to see who the shift manager who set their schedules and duty roster was.


    Tomorrow was the test opening of a number of the bars and food venues, a rolling event that would see everything test run at maximum capacity for four hours over the course of the next week, to make sure that everything was operating as it should.


    The Regiment had no idea what most of the drinks were, or what was on any of the menus, and they wouldn''t be informed in advance, so they could show up and pack the venue, with a line outside to properly stress test the staff, while behaving as much like clueless tourists as possible.<sub> </sub>


    After a few days aboard, it would be expected that people would start checking the cruise data so they could find out about all of the entertainment and food options.


    Live entertainment had proven to be an issue for them. Good entertainment wanted to be known, not doing a years-long bit on an unknown cruise ship going who knows where to nations who had never heard of them. That left them with a lot of holographic shows, but they did find a few others, street performers who were currently ying to scrounge enough change for rent and were happy to take the offer to y in the streets for tourists while getting a guaranteed sry.


    "Is it true that you have thousands of Mecha Pilots aboard the ship?" The young staffer asked Max hopefully.


    "It is, we have a very strong defense force, so even if we stop off somewhere dangerous to take on a mission, you don''t have anything to worry about," Max informed her.


    "I heard that every woman loves a Mecha Pilot from the other cleaners, so I think I will go meet them when the restaurants open tomorrow and see what they''re so excited about." The girl told Max innocently, before taking a soft swat to the head.


    "What have I told you about listening to those harpies go on about men?" The shift supervisor admonished her.


    "Not to." The girl sighed, then picked up her tools.


    "It was good to see you again Commander."


    Max turned to the supervisor, whose nametag only stated her position with the name left nk.


    "Is she fitting in well enough? I know everyone was worried about her and her brother''s age." Max asked.


    "It wasn''t his age we had to worry about. He was sent back to the surface for smuggling contraband drugs aboard. Some get rich quick scheme he worked out with a few of the others. I checked, and she wasn''t in on the deal, so we let her stay, but he''s been cklisted." The Supervisor informed Max.


    If they were contraband by Reaver standards, they were some nasty sorts of drugs, so Max wouldn''t try to intervene on the boy''s behalf, even if it would be very hard for him to find decent work in the future. Him and his partners had basically thrown away any chance at a decent career in the future when they got caught, which was quite the aplishment on Rae 5 and not in a good way.

 Chapter 344 344 Enter Valkia

    "Commander, we have an iing vessel, requesting to make contact." One of themunications officers called out to Max nervously.


    "What''s so strange about that? We get visitors at least every other day for one reason or another." Max replied.


    "Not like this. Whatever that thing is, it makes the Moon Base look like a pebble. Seriously, it looks like Terminus, but a thousand timesrger." The officer responded in a shaky voice.


    Max pulled up the sensor data, and if anything, themunications crew had downyed the size of their new arrival in the system. It hade to a halt well outside the path of any other, or its pure mass would interfere with their orbits. Whoever had designed that thing had not intended for it to remain in a sr system at all.


    "What did they introduce themselves as?" Max asked before reaching for the microphone.


    "They said they are Valkia of the Corvus, Lead Ship of the Noctem Fleet." The crewman informed Max and linked him to the recording of the conversation.


    [Valkia of the Corvus, this is Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company aboard the vessel Terminus. How might we help you today?] Max broadcasted on the same frequency that the-sized vessel had used to contact them.


    [If you have a moment, please doe to visit. We have much to learn about each other, and that historical relic that you call home.] The other Commander responded as soon as the message was sent.


    [We have three more deliveries arriving today, and then we are free to leave the base and meet where you like, or I cane with a team in a shuttle. I suspect you would prefer to have ess to Terminus though.] Max replied.


    [It would be valuable information to have in our records. There is no record of another Colony Ship from that Era surviving this long. That wave of expansion wasprised of anti-technology puritans, and they dismantled their vessels once they were settled into the Gxies that they arrived in.]


    That alone was incredibly interesting information. To think that their people, at whatever point in the distant past, had been sending colonists to other gxies, this one being only one of many where they had arrived in their attempt to leave whatever culture they came from.


    ? Plus, she had referred to them as anti-technology Puritans. If the level of tech on this ship was considered minimalist to them, he could only imagine what one of their higher-tech ships would be capable of.


    It was also somewhat telling to Max that they had instigated an audio-only conversation, despite the fact that they were clearly evolved enough to manage a video or even holographic conference with him. They must be keeping their appearance a secret to some degree.


    Max already had a pretty good idea, they should be bipedal humanoids, four meters tall or thereabout, going by the way this vessel had been designed. That would be toorge tofortably explore many of the renovated areas of Terminus, but all of themon areas, like hallways and such, were designed to fit Line Mecha through and used the original ceiling heights, so they could do some exploration.


    Bringing Terminus to them was a risk, but the Death Wind Mercenaries who had warned him that these people wereing had said that they were strictly pacifists, so unless they wanted this "Historical Relic of a ship" as they had called it, the risk was minimal.


    [We will await your arrival at our current location. It has been deemed to have no impact on the orbital trajectories within this system.] The Commander responded, then cut the link.<sub> </sub>


    "Well, we have work to do gentlemen. What is left on the roster today?" Max asked.


    "We have two provisioning runs iing, for the final details of the renovation. Lists say they are the final details for the VIP suites. Both are small shipments, and then we have one entire cargo bay reserved for use by the Station for delivery of an oversized shipment, Security Coded Vermillion."


    That was most likely to be the greatest delivery of them all. Uncle Lu had been bragging all week about how well his new construction designs were working, so it should be the payment for the renovations, ready to be delivered. An entire shipment of new Line Mecha.


    "Let me know when they are all ready, and get everyone who has taken leave back aboard to make ready to depart," Max instructed, then headed back for his quarters.


    When he arrived, Nico was in themon area, making an ear-splitting screeching at a hologram of some sort of silver blob. The creature was responding in kind, and Max wondered what they were doing for a few moments before it dawned on him.


    She was on a video call with whatever that was, and thenguage was Binary, the same noise that a modem made if you listened in on it during data transmission.


    Nico seemed to apologize on behalf of Max, and the blob waved at him so Max waved back politely and nodded to Nico before heading into his room to shower.


    When he got out, they had finished talking, and Nico was lounging on the couch in themon area with a huge smile.


    "So, what did you learn today?" Max asked, knowing that this should be an interesting answer.


    "That was Theta, aboard Corvus, of the Noctem Fleet. His species is living metal, and the scans of the system that their vessel ran detected me when they entered. So he snuck out a private call to have a chat since simr species are so rare.


    Their ship has no less than ten species aboard, all from the same cluster of Gxies. It sounds like they have an alliance that spans Gxies the way ours spans star systems, and it is fascinating. He couldn''t spare the bandwidth to send me the data without being discovered, so we will chat once I arrive thereter.


    I should also warn you, Valkia isn''t the Commander''s name, it is the Species of the Majority aboard the vessel, and the current leader of their alliance.


    I also learned that this ship was some sort of low-tech hobo tribe, trying to live the simple life in less developed Gxies over ten thousand years ago. The trantion was a bit strange, as Theta doesn''t speak themonnguage as most do, only his own, and doesn''t interact with others much. He is only there to keep things running properly and isn''t much interested in the affairs of Mortals.


    He remembers when this ship wasmissioned though, so he''s at least ten thousand years old."


    Nico dropped that information dump on Max with a happy smile and stretched out on the couch, doing something inside her mind that Max could only interpret as reviewing the ship''s status since the lines of data were passing by so fast.

 Chapter 345 345 Not Quite What I Expected

    The deliveries to Terminus werepleted right on schedule, and they departedter that evening, ship time, to head out to meet the Corvus.


    The Lead Ship of the Noctem Fleet, as they had introduced themselves, was eerily simr to Terminus in design, leaving no doubt that they were designed by the same culture, despite the fact that Corvus was over eight thousand kilometers long.


    The sheer mass of that vessel should be impossible. There was no way that it should be able to travel through space without the forces tearing any known material apart, but there it was in all its glory.


    [Wee Terminus. Please proceed to Bay MC8 for docking and structural integrity verification.] A pleasant synthetic voice greeted them, likely the trantor of the alien ship.


    They had at least been assigned one of the closest bays on theoid-sized ship, and a gravity beam from the massive vessel brought Terminus in smoothly after the Admiral powered down the engines,nding them inside the bay while a wall of light passed over them on the other side of an atmosphere containment shield.


    That was interesting, the wall of light seemed to normalize their ship''s temperature so that they could safely enter the bay and not endanger any unprotected life forms that might also be present.


    [Nico I hope you are making notes.] Max sent to his second inmand, who replied only with a smiling cat emoji.


    Once they werended and their status was verified, a signal was sent through to Terminus that made a green ring glow around the outer edges of the ship''s screens, indicating their safe-to-depart status.


    Max hadn''t known that the screens could do that, and it was an incredibly handy way to verify that amand series waspleted and the ship was ready. He would have to get it coded into more of their status notificationster.


    [Commander Keres of Terminus, our weing party will be ready for you in ten minutes, by your time measurements, at the foot of your main departure ramp.] The pleasant trantor voice informed Max directly to hismunicator.


    [Thank you, my Command group will be present to make their acquaintance.] Max replied, getting back a happy-sounding beep that reminded Max of thenguage that Nico and Theta had been speaking.


    "I don''t suppose that you can trante, can you? I don''t know if we''re going to be able to talk directly to them once we arrive there." Max asked Nico, just before meeting with the honor guard assigned from the First Battalion for this function.


    "I''m already on it. Theta says they have trantion imnts, so they will understand. I am programming their standardnguage into your headset right now, and it will trante in close to real-time, so you can just speak your responses as you hear the conversation." Nico replied.


    "And the same for you?" Max asked suspiciously.


    "Nope, I already programmed theirnguage into mynguage subroutines, so I will see ite up as subtitles."


    Maxughed at the thought. Subtitled reality? How strange would that be? A bit like watching foreign movies, but in real life. The ultimate VR full immersion experience.


    Unfortunately, Max was going in what passed for formal uniform among Reavers, so he didn''t have a helmet disy to do the same, and had to rely on the earbud to trante for him. Many Reavers got imnts for this purpose so that they didn''t have to actually learn foreignnguages, but Max had never seen the need so far in life, and the earbud didn''t interfere with anything.<sub> </sub>


    Max and Nico arrived with the ten soldiers behind them, five men and five women, all in their formal best, the same as the reavers dressed for General Yaakov''s wedding, minus the pistols and knives. If things got messy here, it would most likely be about a misunderstanding about their own aggression from what Max had learned of these strange vessels, not because Terminus and her crew were attacked.


    The ramp opened slowly, revealing a very eclectic group facing them.


    There were two giants, who Max had assumed were the primary poption of Terminus. They looked a lot like the Narsians, butrger, and somehow softer. That made Max wonder if they were actually rted, just separated by Millennia. But they weren''t in charge, nor were the pink-skinned ones with tails, or the pair with bestial faces, or Theta, who was waving happily from the far left side.


    That honor went to a group of four blonde-haired women, roughly two meters tall, wearing simple cloth tunics and holding ceremonial spears that Max could see weren''t sharpened, or containing any sort of technology to make them lethal.


    As the ramp reached the floor and Max stepped forward with Nico a half step beside him on his left, winking at Theta, the four blondes shifted slightly, andrge white wings unfurled from their backs.


    The sight was incredibly impressive, and even the lighting through their feathers gave the impression of gentleness and power.


    [195cm average height, high-density muscture, hollow bone structure, hybrid carbon and adamantite-based life form, average weight 32 kilograms, determination, flight-capable in standard atmosphere.] Max heard Nico''s mental analysis.


    Why that was the most important part to her was a mystery, but the revtion about their bones meant that they were not only bulletproof, they could likely take direct hits from light energy weapons without severe injury. Like Theta, they were also a metal-based life form, but a biological one and not purely living metal.


    "Wee Humans, and Nico. I am Nena of the Vakia. It is both a pleasure and an honor to meet a group of travelers with such respect for the integration of history and modernity, though the choice of technologies seems a bit incongruous." The leader greeted them with a slight bow.


    Max saw Nico smile at being given her own species designation by the alien leaders, but she remained silent while Max stepped forward to speak on behalf of his people.


    "Thank you for the warm wee, Nena of the Valkia. I am Keres Max, Commander of the Terminus Trading Company, and leader of those aboard the vessel we have named Terminus."


    "Theta, they have trantors, you can stop screeching in my ear." One of the pink-skinned creatures whispered, making Nico snort in amusement.


    "Interesting. So you can understand not only my greeting but the ultrasonic trantions of Theta?" Nena asked Nico.


    "My hearing has been upgraded from the human standard, so his range is within my detection capabilities. Binary wasn''t hard for me to pick up, given my nature, and the assistance of the Nanotechnology in my body." Nico replied politely.


    "Please, join us in a sitting room. We have far more to talk about than even I had expected." Nena replied, gesturing behind her, as the weing party from Corvus parted to let Max and his group pass between them

 Chapter 346 346 Meeting Aliens

    On their way to the meeting room, Max realized one very important fact. The winged humanoids were reading his mind the same way that he was reading theirs, only their ability was biological and his was thanks to the wonders of the System.


    They all took seats onfortable chairs around a rotating table with an assortment of fruits and vegetables on it, which Max eyed with trepidation. They looked alright, but he had never seen them before.


    "Your species isn''t carnivorous, is it? Did we make a mistake?" One of the giants asked.


    "No, we are omnivores, I am just unfamiliar with these particr items. Nico, would you mind?" Max asked. As long as it wasn''t too caustic, a Full Conversion Cyborg could eat almost anything, food or not, and analyze some basic data about it.


    Nico spun the table slowly and took a small bite of everything, nodding happily as she went.


    "Nothing toxic in the mix, and some of them are quite good. Your analysis of humans was spot on." Nico informed the giant who was concerned about the snacks.


    "We have offered them before, but humans usually refrain from trying new things. It seemed to be a weakness of the species, their dogged determination to hold fast to the things that they know instead of going with what is best for all." Nena spoke slowly, but with a gentle tone that Max realized was deliberately chosen to set them at ease in this meeting. A basic psychological trick usually used for traumatized veterans or panicked animals.


    The revtion didn''t speak too highly of their views on humanity, but that was somewhat to be expected.


    "After all, you are a species that developed the technology to see into the hearts and minds of those around you, where your bodies could not, and instead of any other choice, you chose to use it for war," Nena spoke, answering Max''s thoughts, while Nico took notes about their interactions.


    This was the first time that they hade so close to the Gctic core, so they had never interacted with a Kepler Citizen before and had only heard the vaguest of rumors about them using a mysterious technology to empower their soldiers.


    "Brick, you would like the blonde one. He is nearly as strong as you are, and far more civilized than those brutes that we found on the other side of the Gxy." Nena spoke to the giant who had asked about the food.


    "That would be the Narsians then? When I first saw Brick, I thought there was a chance that they were descended from an ancient settlement by his people." Max spoke out loud so that the whole group could hear what they were discussing, a concern that most of the Valkia didn''t share, as their thoughts showed that they moved back and forth between modes ofmunication, based on who they were addressing, using silentmunication as a form of whispering.


    "I can tell already that your people aren''t quite like the others we have run into from your species. The fact that you managed to get this relic of a ship working was the first sign. Most would have given it up as unrepairable.<sub> </sub>


    The scans of your Terminus show some very interesting modifications as well. The new design of the Crystal-based Warp Drives is truly impressive, though I see you have adapted those as well as tools of war." Nena sighed.


    "An unfortunate side effect of living in this region. It is quite dangerous, so all of the best technology goes into war machines. We did make some advancements in the food replicators though, and they can make a decent variety of dishes from a self-perpetuating hydroponic system that recycles the ship''s waste."


    They all looked confused for a moment, then Brick began tough. "The Emergency Ration Machines?" Those were archaic ten millennia ago. The fact that you not only got one to work, but managed to learn the programmingnguage and improve it is impressive. The technology has been obsolete so long that I don''t even think that I could get one of them working for the museum."


    The Giant''sughter was infectious, and the Pink skinned humanoids looked very excited to see what he was talking about.


    "We have made spares if you would like me to have one brought to you. You mentioned a museum, and at its age, that''s likely where the technology belongs, even if we have managed to upgrade it to be more effective than what we were using before discovering it." Max agreed.


    One spare Replicator was no loss to them, and if it built goodwill among these highly advanced aliens, it was well worth the effort to build them one.


    "That would be very kind of you. The Museum is in the bow of the ship so that the past can be the first thing to meet the present when we arrive. A bit sentimental, but my people have always been like that." Brick agreed, his blue skin flushing slightly in embarrassment.


    "How do you get around the ship?" Nico asked with great interest, and a rapid screeching began from the amorphous form of Theta.


    The metallic blob had taken the shape of a t-bottomed sphere while they were talking, which seemed to be in its resting form. Max couldn''t quite tell, as he didn''t understand thenguage that it was thinking in, but Nico seemed to be following along easily enough, moving their conversation down the octave range until it was a low buzzing, like the hum of a cheap audio amplifier.


    The change in tone seemed like it was a relief to the others around, who could hear the ultrasonic range where the two were conversing earlier, though Max could not.


    "We just use portal pads. A stabilized version of the portals that the Narsians use to move between worlds. It is possible that they once came from our species, but if they did, they gically altered themselves to adapt to their new environment, and forgot all about their past.


    They certainly didn''t recognize us when the other ships of the Noctem Fleet arrived in their territory." Brick informed Max.

 Chapter 347 347 Meeting Pt2

    ? "Interesting. Tell me, you said that the Terminus was once the equivalent of a hippie wagon, a fundamentalist group looking for a low-tech restart. Were they of your species? If so, the data that we found in the logs might shed some light on their origins.


    There was another ship traveling with ours at the time its engines malfunctioned and were deemed unrepairable. All of the essentials were moved to the other ship, and both crews packed into one colony vessel, but we have no idea where they ended up, and the Narsians are the closest thing we have seen to fitting the description of the ones who were here." Max asked.


    "Indeed, it was us. Do you have those logs essible? I had hoped to see the ancient vessel myself, but I had never dreamed that it would have remained so intact that it would have recoverable data."


    Brick was so excited that his foot tapping was slowly shaking him out of his oversized chair, so Max pulled up the information that they had onto his data tablet, then realized that he didn''t know how to transfer it.


    "Say, I don''t suppose that you have a datawork do you? Or the technology to grab files off this tablet?" Max asked hopefully, making the pink-skinned and slender women giggle, a motion that was more a waggling of the tentacle-like ''hair'' on their heads than a vocal noise.


    "Just let me touch it and the problem will be solved. My species is in charge of most technology in the Noctem Fleet because we can decipher almost anything electronic." The woman informed him with a smile.


    Max realized that the eclectic crew of their ship served the same purpose as the carefully selected System Functions of his own crew. Specialists for every purpose, based on innate talent.


    The Valkia all smiled as Max had that thought and Nena nodded. "Exactly right. We choose our crews as a bnce of species that have innate gifts for the various roles that we need to perform. Everyone is happier when they are doing what they are best at, and it provides much-needed insight into other species that we meet." Nena told him.


    Their setup was starting to make Max envious, and he briefly considered asking if they would be willing to do a small crew exchange, but that would only cause issues for everyone. The other Human nations wouldn''t react well to random aliens in his crew, and the ones chosen to exchange would be out of ce in both ships, whose crews had already been optimized for productivity. If anything, a short vacation aboard one of the vessels might be the closest thing to a beneficial exchange program.


    They could certainly trade information though, and it looked like Nico and Theta were already doing exactly that, judging by the excited ripples in the creature''s surface.


    "How can you tell that he is excited without knowing what he is thinking?" Nena asked Max, watching Theta carefully as the metallic blob interacted with Nico.


    At this point, her arms were buried in the creature, and their conversation was done by direct vibration, which Max could only assume was more efficient than sonicmunication.


    "Look at his surface. It is cid and shiny when he is calm. When the shape changes, it seems to be for specific reasons, like greetings, or to express an emotion. At the moment, the surface is rippling from dozens and dozens of different spots, and Nico doesn''t seem perturbed at all, so it must be a sign of excitement, not an attack of any sort." Max exined.


    "Humans use interesting logic. I learned to read his species byparing their temperature and volume changes. As they get more excited, their density increases you see." Nena exined.


    That subtle change was too minute for Max to have picked up on, though if he watched closely enough, he might manage it. That seemed unlikely though, and this way was much easier.<sub> </sub>


    [Can someone send in a spare Replicator? They want it for their museum pieces.] Max asked his crew during a lull in the conversation.


    [On it boss. We will pass it to the honor guard at the door to the ship, and they can give it to the locals.] Colonel Klinger responded right away.


    There weren''t too many other pieces of tech left on the ship, and he had already sent over the majority of the initial data that they had collected to Brick, whose species seemed to have made the ship in the first ce.


    The item arrived in only a few minutes, carried by a very curious giant, who was eager to see what it could do. The crew from Terminus had even brought it with a sample of the Algae that they were using as its base material so that the Museum Curators could make a proper video and record data of it working.


    "I would like to reward you for this find, as it seems that this is an original model from the ship, with your custom programming added. But I am uncertain of what we might really be able to trade with you.


    You don''tck raw materials, and as a species at war with itself, most of our technology is prohibited by alliancew to be transferred to humans, or any of the other species in this Gxy." Brick sighed.


    "Is that why we don''t see your ships very often? Because thew so severely restricts our interactions that there isn''t much that you can offer us, while our technology means there is little that we can offer you?" Max asked.


    "That about covers it. You are a very astute man. Though it looks like your second in Command and our design specialist are close toing to an agreement." Nenaughed as the buzzing between Nico and Theta increased in intensity.


    She was trying to convince Theta to trade a sample of himself for a sample of Kepler Nanotechnology, which was very different than the technological path that Theta''s species had taken. Theta seemed to be unsure of the legality of such an exchange, given that Nico was a soldier, though as his categorization system determined that she was a Species with a sample size of one individual, Nico insisted that the prohibition didn''t need to apply to her, despite the fact that she worked with the humans.


    It was a very Nico bit of logic, but it seemed to be getting through to Theta. Nico only wanted the sample to continue evolving herself anyhow, so there really wouldn''t be much harm in it either way.


    "Here''s a thought. Could you trade us a new model of the replicator for the old version? Sort of a like-for-like change?" Max asked.


    There was an intense discussion about the prospect, which led to a stalemate between the species, as the letter of thew was unclear on the matter.


    "The new one fully rbines atoms. With a supply of heavy elements, you could make anything from a new Mecha to a recement limb to be sewn onto an injured crew member. The military potential of the trade would be too high." Brick sighed eventually, giving in to the majority.


    "That is understandable. The item is a gift, I don''t require any payment for it, but if there is anything you can teach us, to help us move past the necessity of war, it would be appreciated. I will also send over the original data of the ship before we renovated it." Max informed the group.

 Chapter 348 348 Museum

    "Can you stay a little longer with us? I want to talk to your ship design team about the Cutters that made it past Warp 10. The way you did it is incredible. Who would have thought that a resonant hull and brute force could aplish such an interesting feat?" One of the technology-focused representatives asked.


    "You will have to pry the leader of the team away from Theta, but I can call in a few more of the design team for you to talk to." Max agreed.


    "Oh, in that case, I will just have Theta ask all the questions and answer for us." The woman replied happily, and Max realized that she thought Nico wasn''t good at speaking themonnguage since both she and Theta had been speaking Binary the whole meeting.


    "You can ask her yourself, she understands just fine. It''s just that whatever she is speaking with Theta is a fasternguage tomunicate in." Max exined.


    "Why don''t we go check out the museum? Everyone loves the Museum." Nena suggested, indicating a tform in the corner of the room.


    "That sounds excellent. Even a view of the progression that your technology took might be a good way to encourage our sentient neighbors onto a more peaceful course. The Klem might be a lost cause, but the rest can be reasonable." Max agreed.


    "Yes, the Klem as you call them are innately parasitic. We had thought the same about humanity until we realized that the colonies lived in a state of symbiosis. The Klem species isn''t smart enough for that and only consume until they kill themselves off, leaving entire systems bare." Nena sighed, obviously disappointed in the species.


    "It''s a good thing they''re not smarter though. They would be the only species in this Gxy if they were much smarter." Nico pointed out, having finished her negotiation with Theta.


    "However, with appropriate technology, and some raw materials, they do leave behind prime candidates for terraforming, since they don''t strips of their atmospheres. If you drop a fewrge meteors on them to rece essential elements for the growth of life, moving a distance behind them would lead to prime opportunities for colonization, and they would never know, as they don''t return to deads." Brick pointed out.


    That was actually a genius idea, and Max wondered if anyone else had thought of it. Possibly the Narsians had, though he didn''t have enough data to be sure. These aliens might know the extent of the Narsian''s borders though, and he would askter, once they finished looking at all the amazing things the museum was likely to have.


    When they approached a small portal, justrge enough for Brick and the other giants to pass through, opened, showing the doors to the museum, clearlybeled, in anguage that Max couldn''t read, but it looked like the defaultnguage on Terminus, the one they had been tranting.


    If he had armor on, he could trante it right away, but he would have to just guess for the moment.


    To move more quickly, Theta had turned himself into a long metallic worm, simply extending over the distance in a sh of fluid metal and passing through the portal. His level of speed was unexpected, and it made Max wonder what sort of world they developed in that his species needed such fast reflexes, even as a liquid metal.<sub> </sub>


    "Their homeworld is very vtile. Volcanic activity urs with little or no warning at all, so they had to learn to avoid being burned to death or drowned as they evolved. At this point, it isn''t much of a concern for him, but in the ancient past, they were closer to a species of snail than purely living metal." Nena exined, responding to Max''s thoughts again.


    Theta as a snail actually worked as a visual. He still preferred a round shape, and extending out to reach a location and then pulling his body behind him was a lot like how most snails moved. That made Max think of the friendly ball of silver in a whole new light.


    The entry to the Museum was very impressive, meant to be able to move relics in and out, and Max could see a lot of activity not far from the doors, where a group of giants was adjusting one of the exhibits.


    "That''s where the replicator you donated is going. The sector is designed so that a journey through the museum from this entrance is chronological, for my species. If you take the left path, it will follow the Valkia, if you go further right, it will follow the Innu." Brick exined.


    The sector wasbeled the Fundamentalist Uprising and Expansion Era. Not exactly a creative name, but it did give a very precise description of the era that Max could appreciate. Much of the tech in this area was simr to what they had found on Terminus, though most of it was holographic, as no preserved samples survived the exodus of the Colonists.


    The main body of the species was already moving forward in technology, and ording to the data Max could see in front of him had started gic modifications to enhance their species that the Colonists objected to, though inter years it was found that they often employed it in crude and violent ways on themselves in order to survive the environments where theynded.


    That was viewed as less invasive than full terraforming of the world theynded on.


    Looking it over, Max was almost entirely certain that the Narsians were in fact from the same base species as Brick was, they had simply modified themselves into a very different species, whereas Brick and his people had modified themselves to be capable of photosynthesis and a number of other things that Max couldn''t trante, as nonguage that he knew had a word for them.


    The words were in the Commonnguage that Nena had been speaking to them, but the words didn''t exist in any dictionary in this Gxy.


    That gave Max a great idea.


    "I don''t suppose that a few science textbooks and a dictionary would be too much to ask for?"

 Chapter 349 349 Museum Pt2

    "That shouldn''t be an issue. Those sorts of things for students are fair game in every agreement we have made. If you develop new technology yourselves, it isn''t against our rules to provide you with basic knowledge of the universe." Nena agreed.


    "In that case, I might need a map as well. Between what we have managed so far, and the portal generator that we captured from the Narsians, it might not be more than a generation before the Reavers are capable of visiting other Gxies, and it would be awfully rude for us to show up unannounced." Max suggested, making the aliensugh.


    "Our history is full of that. Very few species think of asking what is in a Gxy before they leave their own for the first time. It is only because your species has taken such an odd evolutionary path that you had the opportunity to gain such knowledge in advance." Nena agreed.


    Max could see in her thoughts that they didn''t tell the Mercenaries where they were from, as it wasn''t knowledge that they thought such a low-tech species needed. But Max and the Reavers had exceeded the Warp 10 boundary and attracted the attention of the more evolved, who monitored for such developments as a sign that a species would either soon reach enlightenment or be an intergctic threat.


    Going by the thoughts of the resident aliens about the species they had met in the past, Max put humanity closer to the intergctic threat side of the equation, but with just a few more tweaks they could eliminate most of the reasons for violent expansion.


    That left pure and simple greed, but that wasn''t something that could be just eliminated from a species.


    "Sure it can. The Valkia were once viewed as harbingers of death everywhere that we went, as the need for a challenge was ingrained into our very gic structure, but we managed to evolve past it and turn our need for challenge toward less violent pastimes.


    So it wasn''t ack of potential for violence that they measured, but a species'' capability to keep it under control and not let it turn into-wide wars.


    Perhaps this Gxy wasn''t as incapable as he thought. They just needed unity and a few centuries to get their acts in order once the politicians were reigned in.


    Walking past the section that was mostly items from Terminus, Nena led them down a side path, which was an eclectic mix of items vaguely like thest section, and biomechanical technology samples. It was all holographic, for obvious reasons, but the living power packs, filled with a form of slime that could store incredible amounts of energy, were the real attraction.


    Forget massive capacitors, and powering up the main engines, a single one of these packs the size of a ration pack could store enough energy to power a hovercar for years.


    Using a version of that tech alongside the Replicators would be a huge benefit to their systems, reducing the draw on the main power when they were underway. The replicators were great at making food, but like the Materials Printers, they were huge energy hogs.


    "I thought that you might appreciate this particr section. It was the development path where the Innu met with the Giants and started mixing their technology. They were the ones that started the development of portals, as their species never developed space travel at all and simply went for higher quality telescopes and portals until they could reliably ce themselves on others.


    That introduced them to a few nearby species, and since the Innu didn''t have any natural predators on their, things went much more smoothly than expected." Nena exined.<sub> </sub>


    The Innu were the hot pink aliens with tentacles for hair, which seemed much moreid back than the others, as well as tech-focused, something that it seems they weren''t always.


    "On the contrary, they were too tech-focused. They learned to send probes into space, but their focus on technology meant that they never deciphered how to make space travel safe for a biological organism, so they were trapped on their, with their bio-engineered technology. They once had a version of nanobots that were simr to your own, but without the artificial intelligence, and controlled by the users to perform tasks for them and enhance their natural bodies."


    That had Nico''s full attention now, and she was carefully inspecting one of the technicians in a way that was clearly making the alien ufortable.


    "Nico, we can get you data from a hologram. I think you''re scaring our host." Max called as Nico lifted the woman''s hair tentacles to examine them.


    "Oh, sorry. Theta mentioned that they had a collection of the same sort of biomechanical upgrades that I''m working on, and I forgot that there was a person attached." Nico replied, giving the woman a polite bow and her best pleading face.


    The Innu didn''t seem to mind though and had already started asking Nico rapid-fire questions about her own modifications, and the technology that she had incorporated, so Max decided to ignore the weirdos and continue the tour.


    He was recording as much as he could, and he could sense that Nico was as well, between conversations with the people around her, so they shouldn''te away empty-handed.


    They looped through the organic technology of the Innu, and then over toward the section that represented the Valkia. It made up most of the museum, as they were thergest group on the ship, and ording to the signs had been an interster species for twenty thousand years or more.


    Twenty thousand years ago was the event they called "The Blessing" which seemed to be the point when they gave up killing things for entertainment.


    That section was so far beyond anything that Max could understand that he could only identify most of it by the written descriptions, and there was no hope of him reproducing it on Terminus, even if they were given decades to try.


    No wonder the Valkia wasn''t worried about letting him into the museum, there wasn''t anything in here that wasn''t thousands of years out of date, and most of it was utterly iprehensible with his level of scientific knowledge.


    It was a very enlightening experience.

 Chapter 350 350 Parting Ways

    "I trust you enjoyed the tour of the past?" Nena asked on behalf of her group of representatives, while the tech-savvy Innu quietly bombarded Nico with questions.


    ? "It was incredibly enlightening, and I can see why so many species have abandonedrge-scale conflict as their technology advanced. I have the feeling that humanity will soon be at that breaking point. Not because of enlightenment, but because we are developing weapons so powerful that the thought of war would be unthinkable, due to the consequences." Max told her.


    "I will admit, that it is not the usual path to enlightenment, but we will be watching for your progress in the future. We do have one item that we can share with you, that is deemed permissible to every species that has the capability.


    That is our basic hyperspeedmunications technology. It is already built into Terminus, though the colonists removed the transmission terminals when they left. We will reactivate the functions for you, and provide the schematics to add the technology to all of your vessels capable of faster than warp 10 travel.


    By our standards, they should be on any vessel holding more than one hundred thousand, for safety, as well as all high-speed vessels which may require safemunications. Think of it like abination of your Faster than light broadcasts,bined with an emergency transponder. If you activate the transponder, it lets others of the more evolved species know that you are in danger, so they can send a rescue attempt to your location.


    That is intended for emergencies only, of course, and you will be expected to respond to such messages in return, should another equipped vessel broadcast in your vicinity." Nena of the Valkia informed Max.


    That was a fair deal of responsibility, though they answered emergency transponders anyhow, and the actualmunications features were something that they desperately needed for the Cutters.


    "I thank you for your generous gift. We are always happy to help those in trouble." Max thanked the Valkia as Nico finished her conversation with the Innu about some sort of optical technology that Max didn''t understand.


    "The full scans of Terminus and the vessels aboard her are finished now, and we have received a gift from your Admiral. Something about food is integral to human culture?" Nena asked Max curiously.


    "It is tradition to feed guests. Now, technically you dide to visit us, despite Terminus being aboard your vessel, so he most likely had an assortment of foods from the various cultures aboard the ship sent to your guards. Feel free to scan them for your records, or eat them if they''repatible with your digestive systems." Max replied, and Theta looked exceptionally excited.


    Max assumed that the metallic organism could eat almost anything, though that could just be biased based on slime-type opponents in video games, at the very least the Admiral''s thoughtful gift wouldn''t be wasted.


    The Museum aboard this vessel was dozens of kilometers across from what Max could see, and they were only allowed in a small portion of it, so there should be a space somewhere for their interaction with humans.


    The portal pad took them back to the meeting room, and after pleasantries were exchanged, Max led Nico and the honor guard back to the ship.<sub> </sub>


    The Innu had thoughts of Warp Drive modifications running through their minds, based on the brute force method that the human ships used to achieve high speeds, but linked with the advanced technology that they used to do it even more smoothly, while Nico''s mind was full of thoughts of how she could modify herself now that she had made such a great trade with Theta.


    [Terminus, prepare to depart.] The message from the alien World Ship reminded them once Max and the team were safely back on board.


    Their method of bringing ships in by gravity field was ingenious, though it relied on the unique barrier that normalized outside hull temperatures for the safety of the crew. That might be something that they could replicate in the near future, or it might even be a feature of Terminus that they hadn''t decoded yet. It had both the barriers on the bay doors and the capability of a precision gravity field after all.


    "So, how did you make out?" Max asked Nico once they were away from the alien vessel.


    "Incredibly well. A lot of this will have to go to Uncle Lu and other specialists, but some of it I can start using right away. For example, the healing function of the next generation of replicators. I can update the ones in our medical bays to create gicallypatible recement organs and limbs, which the current generation can''t do, and in seconds not weeks, like the current Kepler technology takes for a perfect recement." Nico informed him.


    That would be a huge feature for their crew and guests. No more unfortunate souls like Dave left crippled.


    Max would have included Nico in that sentiment, but she actually seemed happier this way and was clearly enjoying the challenge of making herself into a new species, which she had just gained a huge amount of data about.


    "Anything else that we can implement right away, other than the medical bay improvements andmunications systems?" Max asked.


    "Well, there is one small thing that I managed to pick out during my discussions with the crew of the Corvus. I know how their portals work." Nico responded with a smile.


    How she had kept that thought to herself was a mystery to Max, so he probed into her mind a bit more deeply to find the trick. Only, it wasn''t a trick at all, it was a System Function that allowed her topartmentalize thoughts so that they weren''t in the surfaceyer that was easily read by Max and species like the Valkia.


    She had been hiding it for quite a while, but Max could see that she hadn''t actually used it much, only a handful of times when she wanted to surprise him in particr, knowing that he could read her mind.

 Chapter 351 351 Never Ending Issues

    They were almost back to the Moon Base when a distress call came through to Terminus. Not from the Reavers, as they had expected, but through their newly activated emergency beacon. It wasn''t a mayday call, so the ship wasn''t in immediate danger of death, but a pleasure yacht from the Innu had broken down in the Klem territory while sightseeing the vicious alien insects.


    Like Terminus, theycked the capability to rece their Crystals, and so theycked both the ability to form a Warp Field and the power to open a portal to go home, relying on their organic power packs as backup power.


    [Hold tight. Former Colony Ship Terminus is on the way to effect your retrieval.] Max responded.


    "Well, we wanted to know what was over there, and there aren''t any closer intelligent species, since the Corvus went the other direction I think, so we have a good reason for a journey," Max told Nico.


    "Live science test! I will link in Uncle Lu while I set up the portal generator. Terminus wasn''t equipped with one, they took the conventional warp journey here despite the time required, but we can retrofit it without changing the outer hull. It operates much like the gravity field generator, only with a warp field integrated. This is going to be amazing." Nico cheered, already sending messages to Engineering, design, the Admiral, and Uncle Lu about her impromptu n.


    "And how long would it take to get there if this doesn''t work?" Max asked, trying to put some realism into her enthusiasm.


    "About a week in a Cutter, or a couple of months in Terminus? They''re way out there." Nico replied, bringing up the full map on a nearby terminal screen.


    "From the looks of it, that is right in the heart of the Klem territory as well, so there will be fully colonizeds, with active Queens and full forces capable of defending against intruders." Max pointed out.


    "That''s what makes this so much fun. But their yacht is only a hundred meters long, even in a Cutter we could drag it aboard and return, as long as we didn''t bring any Mecha." Nico responded, knowing that the Klem had no way to catch the vessels.


    "That was a lot of data just for a portal array." Max pointed out as Nico sent out the data she wanted everyone to work on to carry out Max''s orders for a rescue attempt.


    "Oh, since not everyone can be on the same project, I sent them the data of the organic power packs. If they can properly create them after they get the next generation of medical replicators online, we can start moving to industrial-scale production and converting the ship''s power backup systems.


    As it is, I suspect that the process to open a portalrge enough for Terminus will take upward of fifteen minutes, due to power use constraints, even with our enormous power output. There is a better way, I am certain of it, but the only solid data that I have is for the tforms that they used to get around the ship, and this isn''t really the time to be wildly experimenting before we have made the base design function." Nico replied.


    She really had made the best of her time with the aliens, while Max had focused on a progression path that might lead to them not needing to fight an endless war for resources and territory.


    One of the items that they didn''t speak of, but that Max had noticed, was that some of the star systems listed in the museum had a creation date. A recent creation date, not something gradual over billions of years.<sub> </sub>


    Humanity might never reach the point where they were creating entire star systems for their own use, but knowing that it was possible meant that obtaining the resources to do it was also possible, and no matter how powerful the Reavers grew, they would likely never need that much raw material.


    It took them over an hour to get Terminus ready to begin the initial testing that would allow them to test their portal theory. Well, perhaps it was more than a theory since they had the same equipment as one that they knew functioned, just a different model and power output.


    [Fifth Battalion, Third Battalion, to your cutters. We don''t know if there are active Klem on the other side of this portal. We will open it here outside the system to give us room to fight, but it is possible that we will get hostiles the moment that it opens.] Max ordered.


    The two Battalions scrambled to their Mecha, which were already staged in the Cutters as a matter of standard practice, and Max waited for their ready call before beginning the experiment.


    [Cutters three and five,unch and get in position to intercept possible hostiles.] Max ordered, sending the two sleek vessels into the vacuum of space.


    [Ready to begin portal activation on your order.] The Engineering team reported, sending Max a stream of data on their expected power usage and the targeting data to open the portal one thousand kilometers from thest transmission.


    [Activate.]


    A shimmer of purple light, the same as what the Narsians used to move between worlds lit up the void near Terminus, much smaller than their own Colony Ship. It was right on target, and Max could see the strange, alien design of the vessel, which somehow resembled a hybrid of Terminus and an actual Nautical Yacht.


    It was possible that the hundred-meter-long vessel was actually capable of both, given its size and shape, making it a pleasure yacht in the truest sense of the word.


    [Terminus? Is that your portal? We wille to you.] The Captain of the yacht hailed them and Max realized that this technique would be far more deadly than expected.


    He didn''t need to send Terminus ces, he could send just the Cutters in an instant, and bring them back, along with any other damaged vessels that they mighte across.


    The ship was on reserve power, but with only a thousand kilometers to cover, it took them only a few minutes to make their way through the portal and line up to dock with the former Colony Ship turned Cruise Ship and gship for the Reavers of Rae 5.


    [Wee to Terminus. Our technology might becking, but we have a wide variety of materials avable to make repairs, as well as a working knowledge of Crystal based Warp Drives. Our staff will be with you soon, and will escort you to the luxury suites of the Cruise ship, where you can wait while your vessel is repaired if you should wish.] Max informed the Innu aboard the yacht.

 Chapter 352 352 First Passengers

    [Thank you so much. We weren''t expecting trouble so far out here, with nobody in portal range. It''s a miracle your species heard us at all.] The young Innu female who seemed to be in charge informed Max over a video link.


    [You can actually thank the world ship Corvus of the Noctem Fleet for that. They were the ones who only just yesterday provided us with the new radio technology to meet interster standards.] Max replied and the Innu in the background cheered.


    [Are you guys seriously a cruise ship though? How lucky is that? We expected to have to wait for a freighter to take time out of their route since the resource usage for an interster rescue portal was more than our insurance would cover.] The Innu asked with infectious enthusiasm.


    [We really are, though that''s secondary to us being a Reaver trading vessel. We aren''t actively touring right now, but the amenities are staffed. We haven''t fixed the temperature control systems at the hangar bay doors though, so you will have to wait a while before you exit.] Max replied seriously.


    [All good, all good. Nobody at school will believe we were on a human cruise ship, we will be the most popr kids in the ss for an entire semester.] The girl brushed off his concern, and Max heard the Admiral chuckle in the back of the room.


    In total, they had picked up twenty-five Innu college students on an unauthorized vacation in one of their parent''s yachts plus five staff members. They had managed to cover the provisioning for the trip, but they hadn''t brought any spare parts or other items that weren''t already aboard the ship, other than the essential crew members.


    In a few minutes when it was safe to approach the vessel, Max went to greet their new arrivals with a small crew from the Cruise Ship area''s hospitality team. This would be their first time weing guests, and Max wanted to see how their training was going.


    "Greetings and wee to Terminus, the finest Cruise Liner in the Reaver Fleets. My name is Mindy and I will be your hostess for the morning. Feel free to ask me about anything you like, and I will do my very best to see that your every need is fulfilled.


    If you would like to pass your luggage to the porters, they will bring it to your rooms for you, and we can begin our tour of the ship''s features." The bubbly, bleached blonde hostess weed the Innu students without any hint of hesitation, despite never having seen the species before.


    "Oh, thank you. Is that a phased matrix holographic projector on your wrist? Do your people always use them, or is it just a fashion trend?" The closest student asked, leaving the Hostess stumped.


    "The Innu are big lovers of all things technology. Forgive my staff, it is their very first time weing actual guests. I will fetch a technician to apany you around with the hostess." Max informed the group.


    "Oh, Commander Keres! I didn''t expect you toe here in person, it is so good to meet you, and thank you for the efforts you put into our rescue so far. The crew tells us that if you have the resources on board, they should be able to get the ship operational again within a week or so. Humans measure the time that way, right?" The Innu asked.<sub> </sub>


    Their thoughts said that their week was also seven days, but their day was only twenty hours long, standardized by the Innu homeworld.


    "Our days are twenty-four units long instead of twenty, as the Innu measure, and our weeks are seven days, the same as you are used to, so you might expect a bit of trouble adjusting to the extended hours, but otherwise the measurements are still urate," Max informed them.


    Max called a Tech over from the team that was analyzing the Yacht and had him join Mindy to show the Innu around while he followed behind the main group with the self-assigned leader of the students.


    "Are you in a hurry to get to your next port? I think it might be to our advantage if we waited things out here, at least until my mom isn''t so upset about borrowing the yacht and breaking down in the middle of nowhere." The girl asked Max.


    "You can stay as long as you like really. I know you have things to get back to, but even three or four weeks won''t interfere with anything. But what possessed you to be in that region of space in the first ce?"


    "Well, we heard that there was a fully insectoid culture you see. We had heard of but had never seen an entire run by insects. I mean, they''re supposed to be kind and cuddly, and in tune with nature, adapting to maintain the perfect bnce in their ecosystems.


    Those things might look like insectoids, but they are not. How could a genus that needs a stable ecology to thrive turn into those wretched and violent things? They strips bare and kill everything that they see. Even the humans seem civilized and gentle inparison to them.


    No offense, I mean, you seem quite nice, but Humans are monsters from fairytales where Ie from." She exined.


    Max looked through her thoughts and found that humanoid, muscle-over-bone species were the exception in the region of space that the Innu came from, not the norm, and ones more than fifteen centimeters tall were exceedingly rare. Most species were either like Theta, highly amorphous, or more nt-based, requiring very stable environments and being vulnerable to brute force.


    The mammalian species like the Innu and the humans were greatly feared for their physical prowess and capacity for violence.


    That helped Max understand their weingmittee a little better when they met the world ship. It wasn''t that there weren''t other species suited to greet visitors on the ship, it was that nobody else would willingly interact with humans. The rest of the crew were likely to have been utterly terrified of them.

 Chapter 353 353 Amenities For All

    Max and the student known as Kryll chatted while the group made the short trip from the docks to the cruise ship portion of Terminus, waiting at the back while Mindy and the weing crew did their best-prepared presentation at the main bay doors.


    "Wee to the Cruise Ship Terminus. Ahead of you on the right are the passenger cabins you are assigned to, but first, let us show you around.


    On this floor, we have two primary methods of travel. The moving sidewalks, and the gravity slides. Those are partially filled with water, and best for visitors who are looking to rx in the pools and not on drynd.


    Immediately in front of us, you can see the wee center, where you can find maps, personal items, ship branded clothing items custom made to order, as well as an assortment of trinkets and keepsakes."


    That was all she had time for before the group got distracted, with half going to the shop and half dragging the technician away to examine the data screens on the wall that gave information about the ship.


    Like Nico, they could find out all they needed to know with a touch, but the hostess seemed a bit sad that they didn''t even let her finish introducing the areas that they could see from the door.


    "Looks like we need to shorten the introduction a bit. You did an amazing job. Page everyone and make sure that they are all ready to receive guests, and not as a drill or training exercise." Max informed the hostess, who nodded and scrambled away.


    The crew had been stress testing everythingtely, so it was all staffed and ready to go, but those weren''t actual guests, who she assumed were paying customers, and would give input that would affect jobs, and not just the ship''s preparations.


    "I should have kept some luggage. I didn''t think that humans, a terrestrial species, would have made amodations for the amphibious in their designs." Kryll sighed.


    "Are the Innu amphibious? I didn''t know that. But you can get clothing suitable to wear in the water at the wee kiosk and we can take the slides." Max informed her.


    "Why do you call them that anyhow? Such a strange name for a flooded tunnel." Kryll asked, making Maxugh.


    "As you know, humans aren''t amphibious, but we enjoy ying in the water. The tunnels aren''t for walking through, the gravity is rotated inside of them so that you can slide from ce to ce with no effort at all, carried along by gravity and a flow of water that is constantly purified and cycled." Max informed her.


    That was all the encouragement that Kryll needed, and she dragged Max to the wee desk, looking through the swimsuits andparing them to her own form. It would have to be a two-piece or one of the low-backed models since the Innu had tails, but there were suits that she could wear already on the racks.


    "Humans really don''t consider the stomach an erogenous zone, do they? I had heard that from theputer while we waited for rescue, but you all cover your torso, so I thought it was mistaken." She murmured, looking at the suits.


    "Human fashion is a very detailed topic, that I''m not an expert in, but no, the belly isn''t one of the primary erogenous zones of our species. There are a number over here that cover most of your front, and still have an open enough back for your tail." Max suggested, pointing to the racing-styled suits.<sub> </sub>


    "Everyone, gather up on me. I found something amazing." Kryll yelled, bringing the others running into the swimwear section.


    "Why are there water suits? Aren''t humans ground mammals?" One of the others asked.


    "No, I heard from the Valkia that they like ying in the water the way that a Valkia likes running onnd. Does that mean that there is water here to y in?" Another student asked.


    "There are change rooms in the corner. Pick something you like and the staff will send the rest of your items to your rooms." Max instructed while the staff came over to help the group with their selections.


    "Alright, the closest gravity slide is this way. Everyone put your water shoes on if you''re concerned about damage to your feet and follow me." Max called out, gathering the tourists.


    The slide was only a dozen meters away, nestled into a small pool surrounded by tropical trees. The Innu looked entranced by the scenery, then ran into the water with a collective sigh.


    "How is the temperature? It is set for humanfort, and we don''t have the data for the Innu." Max asked.


    "Oh this is nice, so warm, just like home, not like the open oceans though, they''re always so cold," Kryll informed him.


    "Then, our next stop will be the Atoll Area. It is a restaurant and bar area marked with a collection of sandy inds surrounded by water. There is only one branch between here and there, so keep right at the split and I will see you all soon." Max directed as the Innu were already running for the tunnel.


    Screams of joy filled the air as they realized what he meant by a gravity slide, and the shift pulled them in as if they were falling toward their target and not crossing down the same floor of the ship.


    "You know, I thought the idea was silly, and would only be used by children, but the ship-wide waterslidework looks like it might be one of the most popr features." The Technician that they brought from the hangarughed as thest of the Innu disappeared.


    "You never know what you will find when you meet new species. But I am off to meet them." Maxughed, then stepped into a changing room to swap into trunks and put his clothes into a waterproof bag.


    The Innu sent theirs to their rooms, but Max would bring his clothes with him, so he could change back once they were settled in and get back to his duties.

 Chapter 354 354 Vacation Destination

    Max raced down the tunnels after the Innu, who he could hear discussing the technology used to create the gravity slides all the way to their destination.


    Despite having technology that was well above what was disyed aboard Terminus, the Innu were having the time of their lives. It seemed that the way humans and Innu thought was a very different process, and they had never considered using basic technology, as they called it, for pure entertainment would be so much fun.


    And then they arrived at the more adult of the two sections of the waterpark and were greeted by the smell of freshly baked snacks and servers with drinks for them.


    "We should call for more people. It''s kind of cool, like an exclusive pass, but I think it would be even better if we had more people." One of the Innu suggested.


    "That''s a great idea. Another thousand people would make for a great party. But do you really want to send a message home and let your parents find out what happened?" Another questioned the decision.


    "Hmm, you have a point. Oh, there is the Commander. Are there more guests around?" One of the Innu in their matching swimsuits asked, and Max began to wonder just how they told each other apart.


    They looked so simr that he couldn''t tell at a nce and needed to memorize small details until he could pick out a specific one in his memory. They also didn''t often refer to each other by name in their thoughts, at least not from the parts that Max could understand.


    "There aren''t any other guests, but there will be members of the crewing byter. This is a fairly popr spot. There will also be a holographic movie ying in the theater at the end of this area, and I am told that a lot of people wanted to watch it from the water." Max replied.


    The movie was "The Life and Times of the Cygnus Otter" a documentary about a fluffy aquatic mammal that was known for its intelligence and ability to dive to extreme depths. Animal documentaries had always been popr among the Mecha Pilots for some reason, likely as a break from their day-to-day reality.


    [Scans are underway of the Yacht that the Innu arrived on. Keep them entertained and we should be finished within twenty-four hours.] Nico informed Max over hismunicator.


    [Has anyone been notified?] Max asked.


    [The crew of the yacht followed protocol and sent a request for parts to their local warranty dealer, since the vessel is nearly new. They will be arriving in a few days.


    We could have repaired the damage to the crystals, but since the vessel is under warranty, the owner insisted that the dealership send their own technicians here to effect the repairs.


    We will also be expecting more guests to arrive with the repair team. When they opened the link back to their home world, the pending social media messages that the Innu had prepared all posted, and it seems that their visit here on Terminus is going viral in real time.] Nico informed him.


    [How viral are we talking about? They''re just college students.] Max asked.


    [The Gravity Slide has three hundred and seventy million views. I have routed requests for docking to the Admiral, and requests for lodging to the Cruise Staff. So far we are expecting four simr vessels on what they call an "extreme adventure vacation".<sub> </sub>


    Be prepared for them to ask you for footage of the Klem as well, as most of the species don''t believe that an insect-based species could be that violent.]


    Max sighed and read the message again, wondering what he was going to do about random aliens just showing up for cruises. That wasn''t exactly in the n, but they came with their own vessels, so it really wasn''t a big deal to host them and let them leave on their own schedule.


    Unlike regr vacationers who needed to be picked up and dropped off at a set location, ones with interster yachts could do as they pleased, and onlye to see the bits that they were most interested in.


    "Oh, my holy bear. Look at that thing. I want one, where can we get one? Are those seriously real?" The screeching voices interrupted Max''s thoughts, and he realized that the projectors were testing the setup for the Otter movie.


    "They are very real. The movie is about their natural habitat, in another portion of this quadrant of the Gxy." Max informed them with a smile.


    "I can''t wait to get home and tell everyone." One of the guysughed.


    "Oh, there is no need for that. Your crew hasmunications open so that they can talk to the Yacht yard back home, and your social media posts have been going live in real-time." Max informed them, making all the pink-skinned aliens turn very pale.


    "Any word on our parents?" One of them asked nervously.


    "Nothing yet. The yard is sending a repair crew in the next day or two, and there is some talk of others from your homeing to visit as well. It seems that you aren''t the only ones that loved the idea of the gravity slides." Maxughed.


    "The crew told us that there are sections that don''t just transport too. Is it true that there is a loop? Like a tumbling waterfall?" Someone asked.


    "There are loops, drops, one section that has arge jump, dropping you into a deep pool after ten meters of flying through the air. The slides are much more than just transport. You can check the maps on the wall once you finish watching the movies. I know that the Innu are pretty good with technology, so following the map shouldn''t be an issue."


    Over the next ten minutes, nearly a hundred crew members with floating toys gathered in the pools to get ready for the movie, earning envious looks from the Innu.


    "The toys are over there on the wall to your right, or you can just ask the staff to bring you some," Max whispered, and a few of the girls took off running to get the best toys, returning with a matched pair of intable duck pattern inner tubes.


    "OTTERS!" the crew cheered as the movie started and Max retreated to let the people who were actually off duty have their fun.

 Chapter 355 355 Sideshow

    Max checked up on the Innu the next morning when he got the first messages about iing vessels requesting permission to dock with Terminus and found that they had not only survived the night, but had sessfully made it down for breakfast, and were engrossed in a very loud and very public discussion of structural design theories with the technicians in charge of the gravity slides.


    They found time the night before to take all of the recreational courses of the park, and found that the human notion of "Fun" was somewhat extreme by gctic standards.


    For example, the ramps, which were a huge hit with the human crew, had convinced most of the Innu that they were going to die when they hit the water at the bottom.


    There was actually a gravity field in ce to reduce speed if someone found a way to fly too far or too fast, so it was definitely within the established safety parameters, and even the Innu were highly unlikely to be injured by the experience, but their species was an aquatic one, and not ustomed to being above the ground without a supportive mechanical structure.


    Some of them greatly enjoyed it though, and the loops were a huge hit, with everyone enjoying the tumbling spin.


    [Commander, we have a vessel here that you are going to want to greet in person. Or at the very least, you should intercept Nico, because she is way too excited to meet them.] Admiral Drake informed him, and Max shook his head.


    They had met a lot of aliens already, what could be so exciting about these ones that Nico would freak out?


    When Max saw the data for the vessel that was about to arrive, he understood perfectly. They were an invertebrate species, much like an octopus, but with ten tentacles, that piloted robotic exoskeletons as their method of casual travel among the other species.


    [I have already arranged their rooms. Suites on the upper levels, since there is nobody else there. The pools will be empty, and the rooms in that region all have hot tubs, it should be perfect for them.] Nico messaged Max, but even without reading her mind, he knew she was most excited about their robotics technology.


    He was as well.


    From the data that Nico had sent him, taken from the Innu Yacht, the species was pacifist, and their suits carried no weapons, only environmental functions, and were mostly intended to make it safe for them to travel among therge species and in dry environments.


    Max met them at the dock, just as a ship glided through the bay''s forcefield and was met with a wall of light.


    "As it turns out, we had the capability, we just didn''t understand the functions of theputer well enough. It''s not as good as a modern vessel and requires a very slow approach with engines off, but we can now safely bring vessels into the cruise docks." Nico informed Max as he jogged up.


    "It would be nice if someone told me about these things in advance. You know, since I''m the Commander." Max told her.


    "It''s on the schedule for the weekly briefing. The crew of the Innu Yacht helped get it fixedst night. They have been a huge help while they wait for the spare parts to show up.<sub> </sub>


    "How long for that, by the way?" Max asked.


    "Tomorrow at the earliest. Apparently, it''s a holiday for their shop, and they weren''t willing to send anyone out until they returned to the office tomorrow. Something about it being a non-emergency call now that they have been rescued by a friendly vessel." Nico shrugged, happy for the repairs to take as long as possible.


    "Greetings Noble guests of the Illithid Empire. Wee to Terminus, I do hope you enjoy your stay with us." Nico weed the group as they stepped off the vessel, already in swimsuits with towels over their shoulders, while a group of automata in butler costumes carried their luggage.


    "I do hope we don''t seem presumptuous, showing up without reservations, but the tubes couldn''t wait." A robotic voice replied, and Max realized that they were using trantion software of some sort to attempt to speak humanmon.


    "We will take you straight to the top floors where your rooms are. I have made a note to reserve the area for more delicate aquatic species, so you will be safe to wander the area as much as you please. The human staff might be inexperienced, but they will pick it up quickly." Nico informed them.


    "We have linked all of our nerve endings to our suits, so there is no need to exit them outside of our rooms, but we appreciate your concern. How far is it to the tubes?" The robotic voice asked again.


    "We put you in a hangar on the top level. If you follow me thirty meters outside the entrance, we will enter through the side doors and you will be at an entrance to the gravity slides." Max informed them and got a round of robotic cheering in response.


    [You''re really enjoying this aren''t you? New technology everywhere.] Max asked Nico as he led their new guests to their floor.


    [Not as much as I hoped. Their security AI is incredible and noticed me right away, so I haven''t been able to skim any data from them or their ship. I made out like a bandit with the Innu, though the cruise ship didn''t exactly have any secrets in it, other than the interesting way that their Warp Drives work.


    ? It doesn''t even have a portal generator on board. It seems that their small ships use a mothership or dedicated port to open a route for them.] Nico replied.


    [Innu Vessel iing, warp 47. Repeated Hails from the Captain. I believe it is the owner of the yacht in our maintenance bay.] Admiral Drake informed them as they left the new arrivals to their own devices, with the promise that an assortment of human fish dishes would be sent to their rooms for dinner in two hours.


    "The man whose kid stole his yacht and broke down in the gctic equivalent of the middle of the slums. I bet he''s in a particrly great mood. But that speed is incredible." Nicoughed.


    [Put him in the same bay as his yacht and I will meet him there.] Max informed Admiral Drake, and turned back to the outer regions of the ship.

 Chapter 356 356 Dads Are Dads

    [Admiral Drake, get as much data as you can about the Warp Field on that fast-moving ship. The technology should be simr to ours, and I want to know how they''re getting the vessel to move at such a ridiculous speed.] Max ordered, heading for the docks to meet the vessel when it arrived.


    Each numerical increase in Warp Factor was an exponential increase in speed, meaning that while travel at warp 12 was over two hundred times faster than warp 4, traveling at over warp 40 meant that their new visitor didn''t even need to use a portal, he could simply fly here from his home gxy in a matter of hours.


    A few million light years was no deterrent for that level of technology, which made Max wonder exactly what sort of parent the Innu students had upset.


    The ship didn''t even need to use their technology to regte its hull temperature, it did that itself as it glided into the bay next to the damaged yacht, and three men emerged from the sleek vessel.


    All of them were Innu by species, but two were exceedinglyrge, over 2.5 meters tall, while one was wearing what Max understood as the equivalent of a Tuxedo.


    "Greetings, I am Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, operators of the vessel Terminus." Max greeted the guest, who was carefully inspecting his yacht for signs of hull damage.


    "The High Chancellor thanks you for your hospitality, and your care in preventing his wayward children from causing any more trouble. He would also like to warn you that all recordings of the vessel he arrived in will be automatically expunged by our onboard Artificial Intelligence when we depart.


    We do apologize for the inconvenience, but it is a matter of intergctic security." The man at the leader''s right hand informed Max.


    Nico looked somewhat crestfallen, and the wealthy man, identified as High Chancellor smiled at her.


    "You are an interesting creature, aren''t you? You can''t have the secrets of Hyper Warp Technology though. Your gxy has barely made it to warp ten, it is far from time to allow you free reign of other Gxies, especially given your propensity for weapons development." The Innu High Chancellor informed Nico.


    "But it was such a wonderful idea." Nico sighed, and the manughed at whatever he had inferred from their interaction.


    Max thought back to what Nico had been doing, but he couldn''t quite understand what they were talking about until the thought entered the Chancellor''s mind. Sending an Artillery Shell toward a at high warp and simply letting it impact.


    The result would be devastating, and a molten core would incur a seismic event on a scale that would totally reorganize its tectonic tes, while a solid cored would simply shatter with the energy dispersed by the impact.


    "Nico, remove that thought from your mind. Even for our rather violent and backward Gxy, that is most definitely a war crime." Max instructed her, while both Nico and the High Chancellorughed.


    "I can see why you are so high-stress. Humans and their descendants are strange species. The yacht yard has informed me that they will be here soon with the spare parts, I do hope that we didn''t offend your staff by not allowing them to make an emergency repair." The guard at the Chancellor''s right hand spoke to Max on his behalf, while the Chancellor himself returned to inspecting the yacht for damages, making mental notes of everything down to small bits of food on the carpet and a handprint on the window.


    "Stress is a natural state for us, it helps focus the mind and motivates us to better ourselves, to reduce the stress level," Max informed the guard.


    "Interesting. I see the validity of the process and have used simr coding when creating semi-intelligent programs in the past. Tell me, what do humans do when their stress level lowers to the point that their productivity begins to fall?" The guard asked, going directly into nerd mode when the conversation turned to a topic he could rte to, as the Innu that Max had met were all liable to do.


    "We are instinctively driven to find another challenge when one ispleted, so the stress level never drops too low until our entire backlog of intended lifetime achievements isplete," Max informed him.


    "Hmm, so there is a state of nned obsolescence among humans? Retirement I believe the other species call it." The guard asked while Nico and the other two boarded the yacht to do a more thorough inspection.


    "Yes. Retirement is standard for our species well before the age of physical inability. Normally we choose new tasks, moving from a physical career to family life, or starting a new career, but some with high levels of achievement are held up as role models and heroes for the species, and spend their time teaching and motivating the next generation." Max told him.


    The guard took out a digital notepad and began writing Max''s observations in it quickly with an increasinglyrge smile on his face.


    "I am feeding that information to our Nanny bot. I have an infant child that seems to be unmotivated by the existence of technology and I feared that he would be mediocre. Perhaps your methodology of constant goal setting toward a defined oue will help keep him on track." The guard said with a smile.


    "You have an infant, and you are already concerned?" Max asked.


    "We canmune with technology from birth. Normally Innu infants spend all their time learning about the technology around them, gathering knowledge that they will use all their life. My child only seemed interested in the parts that directly rted to his life in the mundane world. You see, we split our consciousness as we work, into multiple data streams plus our physical interactions with the world.


    "Oh, I see. So, he only cares about the physical world, and the multiple streams of data he is capable of are only tools for him to use to that end. Perhaps you would like to have him focus on mechanical engineering? Children who are talented with physical objects, their interaction and design are often sent that way among the humans." Max suggested.


    "An Innu inventor? It''s not impossible, though we are better known for maintaining and improving what others make." The guard said thoughtfully.


    Dealing with aliens was a strange experience, but Max was starting to get the hang of the Innu and their ways.


    "The inventory of the Yacht isplete. Tarith Rage has provided us with the information on the Crystal Matrixbinations that the Terminus is capable of producing, and they would be capable of recing the damagedponents, were they not under warranty.


    I will add that data into the Innu travel data system so that any other vessels in the vicinity with problems that could be resolved by the facilities in the Rae 5 System or aboard Terminus will know who to contact." The High Chancellor informed Max.


    That sounded a lot like they had earned a new customer for the Reavers, one with nearly unlimited resources, and a massive poption, even if they were understandably reluctant toe anywhere near this Gxy.

 Chapter 357 357 Even When Theyre The Boss

    With the pleasant part of their conversation out of the way, the Innu official sighed and turned back to his yacht, then looked into the ship, presumably having already essed the security cameras.


    Max checked Nico''s thoughts and found that she had shown the man how to navigate the system, and where to find his daughter and her friends so that he could see that they were safe.


    The Innu''s natural ability and Nico''s Innate Talent were very simr in function as far as Max could tell, though their minds worked in very different ways. They simply resonated with all sorts of energy fields and naturally inserted themselves into them in order tomunicate with a wide variety of technologies as naturally as breathing.


    That included the Nanotechnology of the Kepler Pilots, though the AI did keep the Innu from seeing most of what they were doing, taking the intrusion as a personal challenge at first, since the System wasn''t used to random people simply popping into its data flow to see what was going on.


    "I should talk with my children. I don''t know if you are aware, but your gxy is marked as off limits, an S Ranked hazard, threatening all forms of life. They should not be here at all, much less in my Yacht. The only vessels thate here are authorized exploration fleets, like Noctem, as well as some government investigators and others who wish to determine if the status of this gxy is still deserved.


    There are species in the northern arms of the Gxy who have nearly earned their ce among the Universe with their peaceful ways, but their technology is so severelycking that none of the administrators will grant permission to do more than trade basic trinkets with them, and authorize a fews to be terraformed in uninhabited regions so that they can feel included while they develop.


    Given another few millennia, they should be ready, assuming that they can keep improving their technology, while Humans are on a different path. You are advancing technology at an incredible pace but in all the wrong ways.


    Your capabilities for war are even greater than your ability to terraform and survive on hostiles, to the point that you can actually use weapons of war as part of your attempts to terraform the worlds that you arrive at.


    Nobody knows what to make of it, so they simply ced your whole gxy off-limits until they can decide." The Innu exined.


    "And howrge of a process is that? Would it be hard to convince them that we are worthy once we can get our species settled down and end the wars?" Max asked, making the guardsugh.


    "Nothing is simple with the administrators once they have made a decision. You would need unanimous consent from all thirteen thousand and some species involved to totally remove your designation as a hazardous species, though you could much more easily receive dispensation for small groups among the species to be dered safe for civilized interaction.


    I believe that the Valkia have already applied for conditional interaction status for Terminus, based on their interactions with you, but that only means that it is safe for people toe to this specific ship, and not just any random human, even though you met the technological threshold to be able to traverse gxies on your own." The guard who always remained to his boss''s left exined.


    "Unfortunately, I think things will get much worse before they get better for humanity as a whole." Max sighed.


    "That was our assessment as well, but never fear, the alliances won''t hold it against you once you have moved past your own age of strife. Look at the Valkia, they killed every other sentient species in their gxy before they decided that it was time for them to end the cycle of violence and pursue more peaceful pastimes." The Guard on the right agreed.


    That was a relief. The Valkia seemed well respected, and Max was pretty sure that they wouldn''t have to kill everything that they met in order to end the wars. The northern part of the Gxy was already getting close to peaceful, and they had humans among them.


    So really, it was just down to politics. End the messy politics and stabilize the gxy and humanity might have a chance to be seen as properly civilized.


    That probably wasn''t actually possible even if Max was given ten lifetimes to work with.


    "Why don''t we lead you to your offspring, and then to a nice soundproof room so that you can have a fine discussion about the technicalities of borrowing a yacht to go to a restricted zone for vacation?" Nico suggested.


    The guards burst into involuntaryughter, while the boss looked even more annoyed, but he nodded in agreement.


    "I don''t suppose that you have a confinement facility here do you?" He muttered as they walked the corridors.


    "We do, though it is probably best if you deal with them yourself if you are wishing to charge them for the theft," Max suggested.


    "Oh, not like that. It is standard practice with Innu parents. Put the misbehaving child in the corner of a shielded room with the lights off, where they can''t see or interact with anything. A time out, for our species." The guard on the left exined.


    "Sensory Deprivation is deemed a form of torture by humans, so I''m not sure that we have that sort of a facility, though I suppose we coulde up with something simr." Max agreed, thinking of options while they walked.


    "I''ve got an idea. It wouldn''t take much to make our Immersive Virtual Reality work with the Innu. We could put them in a simtion that epassed their whole mind. It would be useful both for punishment and for learning if we ran a simtion on it. We use it to train pilots and other skilled trades among the humans." Nico suggested.


    "Yes, eternal homework. That is perfect." The Innu fatherughed, looking way more eager than Max expected to implement this punishment.


    He had a point though, homework as punishment for going on an unauthorized trip was oddly fitting.

 Chapter 358 358 Time Out

    Simple Virtual Reality headsets were avable all over the cruise ship area of Terminus and were used for a variety of experiences from simted bird watching to interactive movies for the guests.


    Nico grabbed a headset from the kiosk as they passed with a wave for the staffer who was shocked out of reading a book to pass the time on the mostly empty floor.


    Despite the low number of guests, the whole area was staffed, to avoid the feeling of a ghost ship. They were also expecting a number of additional visitors over the next few days, on what the Innu were dubbing an "Extreme Adventure".


    To them, this was like watching a movie about the history of the Valkia in real-time. They had been warned of the dangers of Terminus being destroyed, but they decided the risk was minimal to go on a vacation in hostile territory and have a chance to see species that had been deemed too dangerous for interaction up close and personal.


    It seemed that despite their peaceful cultures, the universe still had its share of adrenaline junkies and war buffs present.


    "Lbeth." The one dry word from the High Chancellor stopped the entire group of Innu students in their tracks, right at the entrance to one of the gravity slides.


    "Father, hello. I didn''t expect to see you here. Might I ask what brought you away from council meetings this fine afternoon?" One of the girls asked with great trepidation.


    "Let''s see. Possibly a daughter who didn''te home after school? Or a missing pleasure yacht that cost five hundred million credits? Or could it be the slew of missing person reports, or possibly the signature of my private portal activating to send someone to a restricted zone?" The High Chancellor asked with no emotion in his voice.


    "Oh. Well, as you can see, we''ve been found." Lbeth said with a hint of desperate hope.


    "I can see that. Of all the harebrained stunts you have pulled, why this one?" The High Chancellor asked.


    "There were Insectoids and we wanted to see them. Only they were not only highly aggressive, but they actually destroy thes that they are on. We didn''t expect the new ship to break down, and there is a whole exploration fleet in this Gxy that could safely send us home before break ended." His daughter informed him, while her friends trembled in fear.


    "Oh, so it was a matter of insufficient education on the dangers of an S Ranked threat. How wonderful, as I have just finished modifying this device for exactly that purpose.


    The rest of you may enjoy your afternoon. Your families will no doubt have a few choice words for you when you eventually return home. Lbeth,e with me to your suite." The High Chancellor demanded.


    Nico led the pair away while Max remained behind to calm the rest of the group.


    "Do you think she will be alright? The High Chancellor is terrifying. We didn''t think he would notice at all. At worst, we thought the nanny might be notified and send someone toe look for us, but we can deal with that level of scolding." One of the students asked.


    "She is in no danger of physical harm, though I suspect that by the end of the day she will wish she was." Max chuckled, hearing Nico and the High Chancellor''s thoughts as they exchanged data messages silently.


    "What does that mean? Will she get a time-out?" One of the students asked with a shudder.


    "Worse. He modified a virtual reality headset to force her to do homework until she learns her lesson." Max informed them, and all the students made aplicated gesture that their thoughts identified as the schematic of a circuit breaker.


    "That is horrific. Only the High Chancellor would do such a cruel thing with a technology that could show us fluffy Otters and bunnies. Have you heard of the Bunnies? Three kilograms, fluffy, long ears?" One of the girls asked.


    "They actually have them in the world that I grew up on. They''re quite friendly most of the time." Max informed them, and all of the Innu sighed.


    "Our world is covered in technology, there are no wild animals left on the surface, only in museums, and most of those are replicated holograms, not the real thing." One of the students informed him.


    That exined their fearless love of all things animals. They had never actually interacted with one before, so they didn''t fully understand that they could be dangerous, even when they went sightseeing to the Klem worlds.


    "We were thinking about bringing some live animals aboard but decided that it was too much of a problem to maintain the bnce on the ship when we had so many species of nt from differents and climates. The risk of idental poisoning is too high, not to mention the cleaning." Max exined.


    "That''s probably for the best. Some of the other species are petrified of fluffy creatures. On the Northern edge of the alliance territory, there are gxies full of small furry creatures that use a form of spatial technology to devour entire worlds down to their cores and then float around in space until they get hungry again." One of the students exined.


    Nope, that wasn''t horrifying at all.


    Nico would probably want one as a pet.


    "Well, enjoy your trips through the slides. We are expecting more guests over the next few hours, so these might be thest peaceful moments you will get before the cruise ship is in full operation." Max informed them, then returned to his duties, returning to his office to check the sensor logs for iing vessels and reservation requests.


    From what he could tell, they should have about ten thousand visitors, far from enough to fill the ship, but more than enough to make it feel upied, and to give the employees the stress test that they had been training for, with an extra twist.


    The requests would being from species they had never met, so nobody knew what they would want.

 Chapter 359 359 We Are The Entertainment

    For the next two days, ship after ship came and dropped off tourists aboard Terminus. Most of the vessels didn''t stay, serving as more of an interster taxi service, ferrying hundreds of people at a time to the ship for a month-long stay that seemed to be the gctic standard for vacations.


    Almost all of their reservations ended on the same day, one month from arrival. That could have to do with school schedules though, as their guests were mostly young people from the Innu and the Illithid Empire, but there were some older and younger guests, as well as a few giants and Valkia among the crowds.


    The giants'' name for themselves tranted directly as "People" so everyone else just called them the giants since their homeworld''s name was unpronounceable by anyone who couldn''t growl and whistle at the same time.


    Max was just starting to get used to the constant stream of reports from the ship when an emergency message came through to Terminus, requesting reinforcements to help deal with an attack on a Reaver ship that had cut through the border between Cygnus space and an independent system to the Southeast of both Rae 5 and Kepler territory.


    It would be too far for Terminus to travel if they didn''t have the portal avable, and Max wasn''t sure that it could be stabilized for the huge Colony Ship to pass through, so he sent the request through to the Admiral and the design team to see what they could do.


    [We can stabilize the Portal to hold for up to fifteen minutes without input. That is sufficient to get Terminus through.] The Admiral confirmed.


    [Excellent, I will inform the ship.]


    [All hands and Guests, Terminus has received a request for aid and will be traveling to another location within the Southeastern Quadrant of this Gxy. All arrivals and departures will be put on hold until the situation is under control. I thank you for your understanding.] Max informed the ship over the inte and watched as their guests went into full party mode.


    This was what they were hoping for when they arrived. Not just to see the new gxy, but to see why it was off limits firsthand, but with the protection of a high-tech force that made them feel safe enough to not run away.


    The Reaver ship had been forced tond on a and was currently using its defensive forces to hold off an attack by what they had identified as Pirates. They wouldn''tst too long, the Pirates weren''t idiots, they knew what they could attack and win against, but Max could get there much faster than anyone had anticipated.


    [Activate the Portal. Every minute lost is lives lost. All Pilots to your Mecha, Cutters make ready to deploy. All Drone Pilots to your Pods.] Max ordered as Terminus began to power up in preparation to open the portal.


    It would take even more power than their Warp Travel did, but they had enough to spare with the updated Drive designs, even if it was a slow process without the living energy storage that they had pilfered the designs for from the Valkia.


    The slow activation was actually popr with the guests, who were given a few carefully selected feeds to choose from so they could see what was going on outside the ship. It felt more rustic and real to them than the nearly instant build-up and smooth movement of their top-of-the-line ships from the current generations. A reminder that despite the luxury, the ship they were on was more than ten millennia old.


    [Portal Stable. Preparing to Transit.] Admiral Drake informed the ship, as Terminus eased through the shimmering void in space, barelyrger than its hull.


    On the other side of the portal, there was utter Chaos.


    Max had thought that they hadn''t sent a follow-up signal since they were under attack, but what he found was that both the Reavers and the Pirates were under attack by the Scourge.


    [Keep Terminus well back and send in the Cutters. Keep Fifth Battalion aboard Terminus in case the Scourge notices us. Full attack in 30 seconds.] Max ordered.


    The ship''s rms began to re as the Cutters made ready to depart, and the ship''s shields powered up to defend against the probability of a Scourge attack.


    [Head to the surface with the troops. The Scourge will cut off long-rangemunications.] Nico suggested as Max sighed in disappointment that he had duties.


    [There''s no time for that.] Max pointed out right as a small portal opened in front of him, showing him the roof of Enduring Rage.


    [A gift from our Innu Guests. Now get going, I have insane guests to deal with, who all want more data feeds to see the battle from.] Nico informed him, clear annoyance in her voice.


    She was certainly better suited to that job than he was since she could send out drones to fulfill their requests. So, Max entered his Mecha, minus one Technician, and powered up the systems right as the First Battalion''s Cutter got ready to leave the hangar.


    [It''s good to see you, Commander, I thought we would be short a Pilot. First Battalion is ready on your Command.] Major Miller informed him, from the cockpit of his Infernus Pattern Fast Attack Crusader, formerly known as the X109 model.


    The moment that the Cutters cleared the Moon that Terminus had arrived behind, The Scourge were alerted to their presence, sending arge portion of their forces to intercept the four Cutters, who were already unleashing a furious salvo of fire toward the mechanical species'' ships.


    This would be somewhere between a horror movie and a train wreck from the Innu point of view, Max was sure. They had such a close affinity with technology that a hostile AI species was anathema to them. But the fact that the Terminus Trading Company was fighting them off with Mecha would make it robot-on-robot violence, at least from the outside perspective.


    [Battalions two, three, and four, head to the surface and assist the Reavers. The First Battalion will be heading to the Scourge ship to nullify the threat. The Scourge is known to retreat when their vessel is damaged.] Max ordered, then double-checked the Super Heavy Mecha''s systems.


    It was time for war again, but this time with an audience, so no questionable tactics which might be called war crimes.

 Chapter 360 360 Landfall Gone Wrong

    The Cutter with the First Battalion raced toward the''s surface as the other three Battalions made contact with the Scourge ships.


    They didn''t dock, that was only to the advantage of the Scourge, but they exited the Cutters and used the Gravity Control and maic ting functions of their Mecha to lock themselves to the Cutter''s exterior.


    A wave of drones raced out from Terminus to keep watch and assist where needed, while a furious barrage of fire smashed into the Scourge mothership, which went into an immediate frenzy at the unexpected level of damage that it was taking.


    The Cutters had Orbital Bombardment level weaponry, and the Scourge mothership was ill-equipped to deal with it, having already lost their main shielding, causing them to start taking casualties to their automaton forces before they had even made contact with their newly arrived target.


    Aboard Terminus, the passengers were staring in a mixture of awe and horror as Nico ryed the background of the scourge as subtitles at the bottom of the video feeds, as well as an ongoing narration of the battle that she was broadcasting while she piloted the drones taking the footage.


    Normally, the scourge did as they had to the other two forces here, they took their targets by surprise, and then made for closebat to recover as many resources as possible from the target vessels before retreating.


    That was not how this battle was going through, and the Scourge Mind was not pleased.


    [Warning, Unorthodox Attack Detected]


    The warning from Max''s System wasn''t anything he had seen before, and it came at the worst possible moment. They had just madendfall, and the first members of the First Battalion were just stepping off of the Cutter to engage the Scourge who were threatening their Reaver Allies.


    The Scourge Lander shed with blinding white light, and everything went dark. All power was knocked out, not only to the Mecha, but to the Cutter, and to both human forces on the surface. It seemed to be mutual destruction, as the Scourge had also fallen to the ground, disabled by their own attack, and Max was racing to get his Mecha back online.


    He didn''t even havemunications to talk to the rest of his forces.


    What he did find was that his Mobile Suit tucked away in his locker, was still operational, unlike everything else. Even the power packs for the backup pistols had been discharged by whatever the Scourge had done.


    Max force activated all the other Mobile suits, so at least the other Super Heavy Pilots would realize that they had an option if the fighting wasn''t over, and donned the protective armor as he continued to try to get the reactor back online.


    It looked like a lost cause for the moment, as the energy matrix of the crystal structures was entirely wiped out, but the Super Heavy Mecha still carried smaller fusion power nts as a backup, originally intended to be a supporting power supply for the shields and emergency supply, if they should start takingrge amounts of damage.


    That system Max might be able to get back online if he had a bit of time since his Optimization Function was telling him to follow a reboot protocol.


    [Commander, the Scourge are starting to move again. Please advise.] Major Miller asked frantically over the radio in his Mobile Suit.


    [Let the Technicians start getting everything back online. That''s their job. Command Staff, exit your Mecha in the Mobile Suits and keep the Scourge from overrunning the Battalion. Do not go far from your Mecha, just keep the Scourge off the Pilots as long as you can.] Max ordered.


    [Force Reboot Initiated: Fusion nt online in 240 seconds] The secondary power nt of Enduring Rage came to life with a small infusion of power from the Mobile Suit, then broadcast its status to the other Mecha in the area.


    Using the power of the transmission was enough to activate the passive transponders in the Heavy Mecha, and begin their own reboot sequence, but the Corvette ss and Line Mecha would have to wait until they could be repaired, or the overheated circuits reset themselves, assuming that was enough to salvage the situation.


    Max climbed to the roof of Enduring Rage to get a better signal and received an iing supply notification from the Drone Pilots.


    Nico had noticed their plight and sent them a supply drop. A small collection of sma Cannons, and a crate of organic power packs which could be plugged into the power transfer port on the Light Mecha to get them temporarily back online.


    They would die again in an hour or less if they used their energy weapons, but that might be just long enough.


    [New orders. Get the Light Mecha online while everyone else reboots.] Max ordered as he grabbed a sma Cannon from the drone''s hold.


    The Scourge force was alreadying his way, and twenty shots wouldn''tst long, but he only needed four minutes. Two hundred and forty seconds and the Mecha would be back online and they would be able to eliminate the scourge threat.


    Max charged forward with long strides, running the Mobile Suit on minimal power assistance so that he had more for the sma Cannon, and relying on his own immense strength.


    The Cannon shed twice as he ran, dropping a pair of Scourge Sentinels that were in the lead, sending mechanical tentacles flying in every direction as they exploded, and drawing all of their attention.


    If they had emotions, Max would say that they were surprised that they had been shot at, and they were definitely not happy about it.


    The Cannon couldn''t fire fast enough to keep them off of Max, but three more dropped in the seconds before the Sentinels made it to Max, where they were met with his sword and the armored boot of the Mobile Suit.


    "Hey, are humans supposed to be able to do that? The Commander just kicked through the head of a Scourge Sentinel. Our data says that they are a lightweightposite alloy armor." One of the Innu students asked Nico who paused her narration to reply.


    "The System, made up of Nanobotsprising a widework of Artificial Intelligence, rebuilds the bodies of our Pilots, to the System''s estimation of optimal performance. At this point in his life, Commander Keres is roughly six times as strong as a standard human and much more durable.


    He could easily exert enough force even with an armored boot to damage the Sentinels, though it will cause damage to his suit in return." Nico replied, still broadcasting to the whole ship so that everyone would understand what was going on.


    "That energy Sword, my analysis says that it is based on a standard Laser Torch. In effect, he is using an industrial tool to disassemble the Sentinels in the most brutally efficient way possible." One of the Innu observed, making Nico and the staff of the shipugh.


    That was one way to put it. The Scourge Sentinels certainly looked like disassembled scrap when Max was finished with them, and the pile of robotic bodies was growing by the second.

 Chapter 361 361 Rescue

    High above the Chaos on the ground, the battle was a very different one. The Mecha had absolutely dominated the Scourge Mothership, and the three Cutters that remained in orbit had sted it very nearly beyond repair before it began to retreat.


    Realistically, they could refuse to let it retreat, as the Cutters were the faster vessel, but they couldn''t get ahold of the Commander or the forces on the ground after that pulse, and minimizing their own casualties was every Reaver force''s primary concern.


    The Kepler Military might sacrifice Battalions for a greater cause, but not a single officer in what was now the Terminus Trading Company was willing to do that.


    Though most still considered themselves Kepler Officers to some extent, there was no doubt that the willingness to follow the sort of Suicidalmands that Central Command often issued was entirely gone.


    They would never be able to return to being meat for the grinder.


    Max saw the light of sma Cannons shing around him through the mass of Sentinels and realized that while the mechanical killing machines were active, they were not fully functional. Their energy shielding and energy weapons were all offline, as well as some of the tentacles on the Sentinels that he was fighting.


    That was letting the sma Cannons rip through multiple targets, thinning out the crowd of Sentinels in a hurry as Max furiously hacked through the mass of metal.


    With a kick to a shiny silver head, he threw himself up in the air and fired a burst of sma back down at the spot where he had been standing, creating a new opening for him to fight in, and giving him a moment to assess the battlefield.


    Most of the Corvette ss units were back online, as well as about a third of the Line Mecha, all of which had chosen to engage in meleebat to preserve the limited energy in the power packs that they had been sent, and that seemed to be enough to form a barrier around the disabled Mecha that was holding steady as the timer to reboot on the Heavy Mecha''s power nts counted down the seconds.


    Screams of horror rang through the Cruise Ship portion of Terminus as Maxnded back among the sentinels, and Nico gave a wry smile. With the damage the Sentinels had taken, Max was not only stronger and faster, but he was also more heavily armed, and his Mobile Suit was still showing itself to be in above average condition, with the feet Max had been using to kick Sentinels being the most damaged portion of the entire armor.


    Nico made a note to update that design for increased durability as Max hacked his way through another wave of Scourge attackers and retreated back to the line of Mecha.


    There were now 60 seconds left on his reboot timer, and once that was up the First Battalion would unleash the full fury of a Kepler Armored Strike Force on the scourge menace.


    [Commnader, the mothership has retreated. The Scourge forces on the are now isted and abandoned. Battalions two through four have passed the outer atmosphere. Do you copy Commander.]


    The message was a great relief to everyone on the, even the Pirates, who knew that they weren''t in for a good time and weren''t going to win this engagement, especially with their ships offline due to the scourge attack.


    [Copy that, Second Battalion. One minute on the reboot of the Heavy mecha and we will be back online. Spread into a defensivending pattern, in case they try the same thing again.] Max ordered.


    [Problem Neutralized.] Nico''s happy voice came over the radio, a half second before the drones targeted a point on the ground and three Orbital Lances from the iing Cutters lit up the sky.


    That might be overkill, but if it worked, they wouldn''t need to worry about the Scourge disabling the rest of their Mecha.


    Max made it back behind the line, and a pair of Line Mecha stepped in to block the sentinels that were still following him, burning some of their precious power reserves to wipe out a whole rank of attackers with their Ion Cannons.


    Max made it back to Enduring Rage just in time for the lights to starting online as the Mecha powered back up.


    [Fifteen Seconds until full output and operational readiness.] The Mecha''s onboardputer informed him happily as he entered and strapped himself into the seat, not even bothering to remove the Mobile Suit, only disabling the power assistance in the hands, since it couldn''t keep up with his fingers during piloting maneuvers.


    The sentinels wouldn''t slow their attacks. They knew that they were expended resources at this point, and their only remaining function was to do as much damage as possible before they were eliminated.


    [There is an official request from the Innu High Chancellor for the remains of a Scourge Sentinel if possible. They want to add it to their museum of mechanical development, as a warning to future generations about the dangers of artificial intelligence evolving in the wild.] Nico informed Max.


    [Thene get it yourself. We''re a bit busy here.] Max replied, knowing that she had actually meant after the battle wasplete.


    [I suspect that if his guards didn''t stop him, he would be on his way already. Drones will be in position for aary sensor in ten seconds. We will await guidance from your Targeting data.] Nico replied, ending the message with a digital smiley face.


    Max sighed in relief. At least she was still paying attention to the essentials, even when she was taking care of the tourists.


    [All Units, prepare for linked targeting data in 3,2,1 NOW. Fire at will, full output. Let''s put on a show for our guests.] Max ordered.


    All four Battalions were in position, or at least mostly in position, when Max gave the order to fire, and the rolling boom of the Thunder Cannons echoed across the region, marking the moment that the Super Heavy mecha came to life, and the Scourge threat realized that their time had ended.

 Chapter 362 362 Rescue Completed

    When the guns fell silent, there were no signs of scourge energy signatures left on the at all. All of the Mecha had slowly been brought back online, though the Light Mecha were operating on backup power packs since they couldn''t be rebooted in the field without a technician. The pulse that had disabled everything seemed to have caused them some actual damage beyond overloaded circuits.


    The Super Heavy Mecha of the First Battalion would need some repairs as well, as the Crystal Matrix Power nts that they had been retrofit with, based on the ship''s engines aboard Terminus, had been nked, and new crystals would be needed to get them back online.


    The lockers did give a good idea of what upgrades would be needed to repel future attempts by the Scourge to deploy simr weapons though, and it was so ridiculously simple that Max was surprised that they hadn''t done it by ident.


    Unlike every other part of the Mecha which had been carefully examined for durability, longevity, and the ability to remain unaffected by energy surges, the simple tin lockers and cabs had just been reshaped to fit the cockpit.


    They only held clothing and misceneous items, they weren''t of any real significance themselves. But because of that, the energy attack designed to pass by their shielding had simply bounced off the lockers, as if they were a faraday cage.


    If Max had been paying more attention, he would have noticed that they were distinctly hot to the touch from the energy exposure, but they held up intact without any issues. If he had been turned a little further to the left, they might have actually absorbed and reflected enough of the energy attack that the Power nt could have stayed online.


    But the attack had beenpletely unexpected. The Scourge had never before used a self-sacrificing attack, and if they had more infantry on the ground in their area, with projectile weapons, the casualties among the Scourge Sentinels would have been immediately catastrophic.


    Even a single machine gun nest would have torn apart hundreds of inactive sentinels in the first few seconds before they starteding back online, and in fact, they had, over where the Reavers and Pirates were defending their positions.


    [All Units report. Did we take any casualties?] Max asked while he searched through the data stream for reports of units lost.


    [First Battalion lost four Mecha, all repairable. No Pilots lost.] Major Miller reported.


    [No losses among the orbital fleet.] The other Commanders reported.


    That battle really couldn''t have gone any better. Now it was just a matter of dealing with the Pirates.


    The visitors from the Illithid Empire held a very dim view of pirates, though they understood the concept somewhat differently than humans did.


    They abhorred lies and dishonesty, and the word Pirate tranted into theirnguage as abination of Thief and Corrupt Businessman. Both were at the very bottom of their society, and they were keenly interested in what the humans would do to such reprehensible members of society.


    The Innu understood the concept of Piracy as well but rted it more to software piracy, and it took them a while to understand that they were taking solid goods, and not making unauthorized copies of data.


    Once they understood that part, it all fell into ce for them, as they had experienced such things before, with up-anding species that would attempt to pilfer technology at any cost in order to advance themselves.


    The Technicians from Terminus who had been aboard the Cutters which were in orbit were already working to get the Reaver vessel back online, using their Materials Printers to rece damaged circuits, and mobile power packs to bring emergency power back online so that the rest of the systems could reboot.


    That part was of more interest to the Innu than anything else that had happened today, and Nico ended up hacking into the helmet cameras and sensor feeds from the Tech Adept Harnesses, which the Innu found to be the greatest Technological Marvel in human possession, ording to the Students.


    They had made multiple requests for Nico to sell them some, as their evolution path had led straight to manipting technology, and bypassed using technology to enhance themselves. They didn''t see the appeal of Cyborg Conversions, since it damaged the body, but a Tech Adept Harness simply strapped on and added functions that they could use for multiple work-rted projects at the same time, thanks to their multi-track minds.


    When the Reaver ship came back online and the Pirates started bringing them crates and crates of supplies, the passengers aboard the ship were intrigued, unsure of what to make of the spectacle.


    [This is the standard penalty for Piracy among the Reavers. They will be looted dry, all items of value that they had will be forfeited as a financial penalty for piracy, and they will be left with their ship somewhere habitable, which in this case will be on the''s surface since the ship itself is not currently habitable.


    With a lot of work, they should be able to get it up and running again, and they will be able to contact any allies that they have once the Reavers are gone.] Nico exined to the ship as the work was ongoing.


    "That is surprisingly humane, given your species'' reputation." The Innu High Chancellor told Nico, who gave him an evil smile in return.


    "It''s not as kind as you might think. They are in for a very hard future, and not everyone will be as kind as the Reavers. You see, if they have made enemies of another group, and those people arrive before their allies, they could well lose the ship, and possibly their freedom, depending on if they are wanted for any other crimes.


    Even if they are found by their allies, they no longer have their equipment, and they have taken losses of personnel in the battle, so they will be in heavy debt to whoever agrees to resupply them." Nico exined.


    "Humans really do have strange rules. Before they reached enlightenment, we used to simply call the Valkia after disabling such vessels. Their sense of righteousness would determine the oue for those deemed undesirable for society." The High Chancellor informed her.


    Knowing that the Valkia killed everything in their gxy that wasn''t themselves, that wasn''t exactly a humane answer to the problem, but Nico was pretty sure it was enough of a deterrent that no Pirate in their right mind would attack the Innu.


    [Repairs and Transfer workplete. We are returning to Terminus now, if you would like to end the broadcast.] Max ordered Nico so that there wouldn''t be any stray cameras still looking at the if the Reavers decided that they needed a little vengeance on top of the price already paid. It was the least that he could do in the circumstances since they weren''t sticking around to help the Reaver ship rebuild their damaged systems.


    They had gotten them repaired enough to fly, and he had agreed to let them follow through the portal so that they coulde back to Rae 5 where their main staff was, but Max wasn''t going to spare any extra parts on this rescue mission that he didn''t have to.

 Chapter 363 363 Live At Nine

    [All hands and guests, prepare for movement through the portal.] The Admiral announced as the Cutters arrayed themselves around the freshly formed shimmer in space.


    Terminus led the way, followed by the damaged Reaver ship, with the Cuttersing throughst to ensure that nothing hostile could follow them into the Rae 5 system. Every vessel had been thoroughly scanned both for live Scourge and even small remnants of their Sentinels, which might be a tracking beacon or an infiltration unit.


    Nothing had been found, and the Scourge hadn''t made it close enough to them for anything to breach security, but it was still best to be absolutely sure before returning to a popted world.


    [Wee Back Terminus, you have be quite popr it seems. Please be advised that quarantine procedures are in ce for all vessels arriving with unknown species.] Themunication officer of the Rae 5 Moon Base informed them.


    [Understood Moon Base. We won''t be making anding today, only escorting a Reaver Vessel home after a Scourge attack. Arrangements for the assistance have been made with their home terminal already.] Nico informed the base staff.


    Max directed the First Battalion''s ship to return to their dock, while he watched the location update broadcast to all of the iing vessels who had reservations to dock with Terminus.


    That should be an amusing wake-up call for the Reavers since they had never seen a vessel like most of these before, and they were alling to visit Terminus.


    [Hey Max, did you know that you''re famous? I''ve got a link to the Innu Social Media sites active now, and the live stream of you inbat with the Mobile Suit is a real hit. "Malevolent AI meets AI-enhanced soldiers." is the headline over the entire Innu-dominated section of theirwork.


    You know how they are about technology, and they have never faced an enemy like the Scourge before, so it''s all new to them.


    I don''t think it will help the tourist numbers into this gxy, but the Innu news media loves us for today.]


    Max sighed at Nico''s description of what she had been doing while they were gone, then decided that it was likely for the best. They could only take so many passengers, and the journey wasn''t guaranteed to be safe, so they didn''t need to push for mainstream status.


    Once they were settled into the bay, Max tuned into the ship''s inte and listened to a recorded voice giving a glowing rmendation of the''s natural beauty, and status as an open port among the human poptions, though the passengers were warned that sadly a quarantine protocol was in effect, so they wouldn''t be able to go to the surface today.


    [Commander, we have a request for the Reavers from the Imperial Inquisition. They have detected possible Rebel activities on the border near Cygnus, and they are requesting a vessel with good trade rtions with the Cygnus Empire be sent to check it out.


    There is a generous payment for urate data, and we are the perfect vessel to go.] General Ming sent to Max while the recorded voice finished its spiel about Rae 5.


    [That sounds like a good time. We could invite some dignitaries aboard toe to visit our tourists. If they meet the best of humans, they might get a better impression of us than if they keep seeing us battling something.


    Just give me a day to arrange cargo for the area and we can head out.] Max replied, then sent the trip n to the Admiral and the Cargo request to Mary Tarith, who should have something going to the region, thanks to her extensive connections.


    [For my favorite Son in Law? I am sure that we can find something of value going to the Cygnus border.] Mary Tarith responded only a few minutester, followed momentster by a collection of orders that were going to the region and hadn''t been imed yet.


    Nico walked in while Max was staring at the list of orders, stopping to massage his shoulders before heading to the showers.


    "Nico, you need to talk to your mom more often. She''s getting grandchild fever again." Max called as she walked away, making the Cyborgugh at him.


    "Try it yourself. None of my System Functions arepatible with the task of changing my mother''s mind." Nico replied, then turned on the water, drowning out Max''s response.


    Like that was possible. Every time he talked to her, Max found himself caught up in her pace, dragged along to whatever the woman had already decided to do. It was an incredible personality trait for a Reaver leader to have, but it was more than a little annoying when he was trying to redirect her.


    Max picked a shipment that wasing from the Moon Base, a cargo hold full of refined polymers that were going to the very same system where the Cygnus Representative was supposedly meeting with the rebels.


    ? That was suspiciously convenient like they wanted a Reaver ship present for some reason, likely to hire as assistance for whatever n they had cooked up. But, if he was taking the offer from the Imperial Inquisition, it was the best possible bit of luck, even if it was clearly suspicious, and likely a trap.


    [We also have a code Vermillion shipment from the base itself directly to you, Commander. Two crates marked highly vtile.] Themunication officers on the bridge informed Max as he ced the order and got ready to receive the barge from the Moon Base, since they were under quarantine, due to the unknown species aboard.


    [Have them arrive directly in the empty cargo hold next to the First Battalion. All sensor equipment and cameras in that bay will be disabled effective immediately.] Max ordered.


    "Nico, you heard that, right? Be a dear and take care of it for me would you." Max yelled to his second-inmand, who was still in the shower.


    "Got it. The bay is secure, only you, me, and Inquisitor General Ming will have ess to the bay." Nico yelled back, then turned off the water and came strutting back out to grab fresh clothes.


    "Damn Nico, you really are putting in work to get that body modified." Max whistled as she walked by with an extra sway in her hips and a smile on her face.


    "Of course. Just wait and see, it''s going to be amazing once I''m finished."

 Chapter 364 364 Shiny Objects

    Their guests seemed to be easily entertained, and the hourly reports that Max was getting showed that the most frequented area of the entire vessel was the gravity slides. The Innu weren''t even stopping to see the attractions until they were tired or hungry, they simply spent hours at a time racing around the ship on the waterslides, while the visitors from the Illithid Empire preferred to rx in the hot tubs and only moved when they wanted to remove their exoskeletons to eat.


    They could bring the food inside their robotic bodies, but it was preferable to release themselves and eat in the luxury of their room. They deemed it too high of a risk to remove their robotic assistance bodies even in the dining halls, so all their orders were for room service, to be left outside the room and brought in by the one person who "got dressed" as they referred to equipping the suits.


    [Sir, we have new arrivals. More Innu, as well as the warranty repair team for the damaged yacht.] Admiral Drake informed Max, who was already swamped with messages about the iing shipments.


    [Send the repair team to the same bay as the yacht, and bring the others to the far side, near the main entrance so that the weing team can do their thing. How many more are in this batch?] Max asked.


    [Roughly one thousand going by the preliminary bookings. Scheduled to be here for a month, with a request to see human-popteds.] Admiral Drake replied, with a note of amusement in his voice.


    They would definitely be seeing that. In fact, they might even get to meet some ''wild humans'' from Cygnus, assuming that there weren''t any major security concerns with bringing them aboard the ship.


    Both ships arrived right on time, between the cargo barge and the code Vermillion shipment, and docked without incident, but these Innu were much different than the students.


    Not in appearance, but in personality. This wasn''t a bunch of College kids and their social media followers, this vessel had been full of Innu xenomechanists. Scientists specialized in alien technologies and wanted to know absolutely everything about humans, human technology, and their history.


    They were much more serious than the first batch, but just as thoroughly taken with the gravity slides the moment that they were exined to them.


    At least some things were universal.


    They didn''t y around on them all day though. Once they took a trip through them to get close to their rooms they went in and started unpacking their equipment to make a proper entry for their records.


    The ship they arrived on requested departure clearance barely an hourter, after verifying that nothing had been left behind by ident, and the scientists began to make ns for their extended stay as if Terminus was an unexplored in the far reaches of space and not a luxury cruise ship. The sight amused all of the human crew members that saw them, but they were well aware of the unique personality of the Innu as a whole, so they didn''t think anything of it.


    The repair team turned out to be incredibly efficient, verifying the remote diagnostics the moment that theynded in the bay, and managing to get the warp drive torn apart within two hours so they could do their physical verification for the Warranty im.


    The technicians on duty could only watch in envy as they finished up within another hour and had the job cleaned up and the yacht back in pristine condition within four hours of their arrival. They could really use a few technicians like that on their crew, and everyone wondered what it would take to get a group of fully trained Innu Warp Drive Technicians to sign on to work aboard Terminus.


    That was something that hadn''te up so far. It was clear that they still used some sort of mary system, given the disparity in resource distribution, but whether the Reavers could offer something of equivalent value was questionable, as they didn''t know what the Innu valued as a precious resource.


    Max was sitting in his office when the door slid open with a gentle hiss, revealing the High Chancellor and his bodyguards.


    "Wee High Chancellor. What can I do for you today?" Max asked politely, ignoring the fact that he was certain that door was locked a moment ago.


    "The boatyard staff has confirmed that my Yacht has been repaired, and as much as I would love to stay and enjoy the adventures of the good ship Terminus, I must return to work and leave these lovely gravity slides behind.


    The children will be staying behind here for the duration of their break from school, though I have put them all on punishment, with three hours of mandatory studying to be done daily through the virtual reality headsets provided by your concierge.


    If you could verify that they are keeping up with their duty, I would appreciate it, but I will verify when they return either way, and the punishment will be tripled and restarted if they have failed."


    The odd dichotomy of allowing them to remain on vacation even when they were in trouble amused Max, but he managed to keep a straight face and respond to the strict official.


    "Of course. I will have the staff remind them twice daily. You can set the times for the alerts if you prefer." Max agreed.


    "As long as they actually keep up with the studies that they cked on and learn their lesson, it doesn''t matter what time they get it done. I will leave it in your capable hands, and request a departure window to exit the hangar beside the repair vessel." The High Chancellor asked.


    "Would you like a portal back to your home system? I believe that we have the appropriate technology to stabilize a long-distance portal, though we haven''t tested it outside our own Gxy so far." Max offered.


    "I am sure the repair crew would appreciate it, seeing that you don''t charge for the energy usage, but I will return under my own power. Safety protocol says that I can''t follow a predetermined course back to the home system, to prevent my vessel from being intercepted. It''s quite annoying, and highly unlikely that I would encounter any difficulties, but rules are rules, and these ones were coded in our mainframe by my own ancestors, so it wouldn''t be eptable for me to alter them." The High Chancellor replied politely.


    "We will assist you in setting the portal coordinates. There is a predetermined set of coordinates, based on origin, to avoid traffic jams." The bodyguard informed Max and then began uploading data to Max''s console screen with the facing and precise destination for the portal, as well as the alterations to the field generation that would optimize long-distance stability and power usage.


    [Repair Vessel Ready for Portal formation.] The maintenance crew reported, and Max brought the portal generators online, watching the power consumption of the ship spike to levels higher than what was necessary to bring Terminus to maximum warp.


    No wonder they charged for this, if they had small vessels regrly moving between gxies, they would need hundreds of dedicated facilities to open the portals, and going by this, even the mighty Crystalline Warp Drives on Terminus didn''t have the power to open a portalrge enough to move the Colony Ship through.


    They would need the assistance of the Cutters to bring it online and stabilize a portal thatrge.


    But now they knew where the Innu lived, or at the very least, where they had their private yachtsmissioned.

 Chapter 365 365 Toybox

    The High Chancellor left immediately after the repair vessel, but on a different course, one that would lead him one gxy over from where the repair ship was headed, assuming he didn''t change course once he reached open space.


    [Nico, tell me what we lost. I''m certain he didn''t leave without scrubbing the system.]


    Max was already looking through the ship''sputer, searching for missing or recently deleted data, in case something could be salvaged.


    [It looks like the only thing he cleaned was surveince logs of his vessel and his team. The data we scanned about it is gone, but everything else, including the repair logs of the yacht, is intact.


    There are no ring inconsistencies, they just changed their appearance to be nothing. I could find a few spots where others were clearly talking to nothing, but no sign of the High Chancellor.] Nico reported.


    [And your own memory?] Max asked.


    [I couldn''t get a very good look at the vessel myself, they were careful about that, but I know what it looks like, and a bit about the Warp Field.


    Not enough to replicate it, but enough to give me a clue as to where to start.]


    Overall, that was better than expected. Max had been worried that they would remove much more than the Chancellor and his team, but it seemed that the Innu weren''t concerned about Terminus gaining knowledge of their civilian vessels.


    He took it as a small sign of trust since the world ships that had interacted with humans before had blocked all forms of scans, even of their smaller shuttles.


    [Traffic Control, what do we have left on the schedule for today?] Max asked, now that the important parts of his concerns had been settled.


    [Commander, all arrivals areplete, we have one cargo barge still unloading in the port side bays that will be leaving within the hour. All other vessels aboard have expressed their intent to remain for the journey.]


    [Inform me when the barge has departed. We will be departing for the Cygnus border as soon as we are loaded.]


    [Yes, Commander.]


    Max sent a signal for Nico to meet him at the bay they had locked off for the Code Vermilion shipment and left his office in the aft section of the ship.


    Uncle Lu hadn''t spoken a word about what they were getting, but Max assumed that the two crates were the new Mecha and a collection of spare parts. He couldn''t wait to see what the modified design turned out to be.


    Nico and Inquisitor General Ming met him at the door, and Max gave the Inquisitor a confused look, wondering how the man knew that they were going to be there.


    "I was waiting here for you two to arrive. I knew your curiosity wouldn''t hold out long after locking down an entire bay to receive a shipment from the base." He exined.


    "Alright then, let''s see what we have." Max sighed, knowing that it would be more trouble than it was worth to try to keep secrets from the Inquisitor.


    The two metal boxes weren''t the same size, and only one seemedrge enough to hold the Mecha, so that is where Max started.


    The whole front of the storage box swung clear of the crate with an input of his handprint, revealing the long-awaited Titan ss Mecha in all its glory.


    The statuesque Samurai knight stood tall at a full forty meters to the top of its helmet, with a long-nosed red Tengu mask on its face under matte ck armor.


    The Laser lenses in the shoulder pads were clearly visible, and the lower forearms held six barrels each, encased under Armored ting, whichbined to made up the new Disruptor-based main weapon.


    Beside the Mecha stood an assortment of weapons. A long sword, a short sword, a shield, and a retractable Halberd.


    Then there was an odd-looking pair of pistols that Max hadn''t expected, as pistols hadn''t been on any of the design outlines.


    A hologram of Uncle Lu appeared in front of Max, smiling in the rxed manner everyone was used to seeing.


    "Greetings Nico and gentlemen. I am sure you have questions, so I programmed this short introduction video for you.


    Most of the design specs are as we discussed. You can explore those at your leisure. The melee weapons all have energy fields over the des, with randomized, rapidly rotating frequency patterns to prevent countermeasures from rendering them ineffective against Interster vessel shielding.


    The swords are self-exnatory, but the shield carries an internal power pack, based on the biological energy storage units you discovered. It is very much a prototype, so I expect data if you do use it. The Halberd is much like the swords, but it has an Ion Cannon built in to give your enemies a nasty little surprise. The pistols are simple Ion Destroyers, in case you run short on other weapons.


    The shielding unit has been upgraded from the super heavy Mecha, linking three modules together in order to withstand the level of iing fire it is expected to receive.


    I will leave the rest to you, and advise you to open the other crate if you haven''t already done so. Knowing Commander Keres, he went straight to the good stuff, while Nico is losing her mind because I shielded the boxes so she can''t examine the contents until they are open."


    Thest bit made both menugh, while Nico just shrugged in agreement. If the Titan ss Mecha wasn''t so amazing, she would have already ripped the other box open just to see what Uncle Lu had hidden from her.


    "The other box can wait a few seconds. I am not moving on until this beauty is humming under my fingers." Max advised, then ran to the side of the crate to climb the internaldder which led to the cockpit of his new Mecha.


    With a short leap from the wall to the Pilot''s door, Max stepped inside, finding himself looking at the interior of a tiny luxury apartment.


    "Wee, Pilot Max, to the Titan ss Mecha Cleansing Light. This unit is now coded to your unique genome and will function for no other without your permission.


    Please note the presence of a stasis pod with the finest healing technology avable under the bed for your exclusive use. Here, nothing short of total obliteration should be capable of ending your life." Uncle Lu''s voice greeted Max as he entered.


    "Well now, isn''t that something? Let''s get this beauty powered up." Max told the empty cockpit in front of him, then headed for themand station.

 Chapter 366 366 Premium Death Machines

    Max settled into the seat and found that the controls weren''t the standard Kepler Mechanicalyout, though those were avable on the console in front of him. There was a neural link halo that lowered over his head, linking the movements of the mecha to his intentions and removing the physicalg between his intentions and his physical movements.


    The setup also had the option to synchronize, so that he could physically control the Mecha, while he mentally targeted, or the reverse.


    With Max''s improved cognitive functions, that wouldn''t be necessary, as he could urately target with every weapon consciously while also mentally piloting, and not relying on instinct and muscle memory to do the movement portion of the work for him.


    He also noted that the shield mounted to the forearm weapons on the left arm, so it wouldn''t interfere with his firepower when equipped, and every weapon had a secure holster avable.


    He really did look like a forty-meter tall, living Samurai Knight, right down to the traditional demon mask that was supposed to intimidate enemies of the human warriors. It was a bit redundant when equipped on a Titan ss Mecha, but he appreciated the sentiment and effort.


    The shipping crate also contained the maintenance rack for the Mecha, so it would have to be secured to the bay once he had chosen a proper ce for it.


    With the neural link equipped, Max didn''t even have to remain in his pilot seat to operate the Cleansing Light.


    One after another, he picked up and stored the weapons in their holsters, noting how the Mecha moved in a perfectly natural manner, matching his thoughts as if it were his own body. That was a wee change. Most Titan ss Mecha were a bit slow and clunky but made up for it in pure lethality.


    Cleansing Light could purge aary capital in an instant and still walk perfectly naturally as if it was a System enhanced Kepler Pilot. Uncle Lu had really outdone himself on this project.


    There wasn''t the space or opportunity to test the rest of the features of the Mecha, but Max did verify that his tracking and targeting were working properly, and powered up the Mecha''s sensor suite, doing a full system check.


    Movement in the corner of his eye made Max turn, just as Nico opened up the other crate and beganughing hysterically.


    As expected, the other crate contained some raw materials and parts, but it also contained a new model of Material Printer, and a second smaller crate, which was what caught Nico''s attention.


    "What did you find, Nico?" Max asked.


    "There are lots of goodies for you, but Uncle Lu also sent me a present," Nico informed him as she used the bay''s overhead crane to move the new Materials Printer out of the way so she could open the other crate.


    It was roughly cubical, and fifteen meters tall, no taller than one of the new Heavy mecha, butrge enough to hold four of them, and Max wondered what sort of thing Uncle Lu had sent for her.


    Nico took the time to set up the new Materials Printer before she returned to the crate with a look of reverence and dived into it through a small door on the top.


    The door of the crate popped open from the inside, and a bright red, kneeling form unfolded itself from inside.


    It was a Mecha, but like nothing else that the humans had ever produced. Standing twenty meters tall, and having an organically curved outer shell that looked very much like a soot-ck muscr body, the four-armed Mecha wielded a de in each hand, and stood on cloven feet, with a grinning demonic visage staring up at Max.


    The sight stopped Max in his tracks, as thest parts of his lost memory came crashing back into his consciousness.


    He knew that Mecha. In fact, there was nothing in his past life that Max knew better, for it haunted his every dream, even after his retirement and all through the isted years stuck on a throne world being venerated as a hero. That Mecha led the armies of a fanatical cult of gically modified soldiers that had torn half the gxy asunder in under a decade, drowning worlds in blood and killing trillions of soldiers.


    Eventually, Max and his army resorted to sending suicide bombers tounch a surprise attack and destroy the fortress that theirmand group was holed up in, crippling their leadership and allowing his forces to eliminate the remainder of their army in one crushing wave.


    Even in the mighty God Machine Gloriana that he had piloted to innumerable heroic victories in his past life, he simply couldn''t defeat that evil Mecha and its Commanders. Every time he thought he had them, they would get a warning of the imminent threat and simply disappear without a trace, only for him to get news of new carnage and race across star systems in a desperate attempt to save another.


    [Soul Drinker] He breathed over the inte as Nico stood up in the Cursed Mecha that Uncle Lu had created for her.


    While from the day of his birth Max recalled who he was, and the morals he should hold, he had only slowly regained everything else from his memories. Nico was the exact opposite, she recalled all of the useful skills from her past life and much of how they were used, but she recalled nothing at all about herself, or why she had done the things she recalled doing.


    The blood-soaked religion that Max had seen in her thoughts now made sense. It was possible, and even somewhat likely that she was the reincarnation of the elusive leader of the greatest threat his former life''s Gxy had ever seen, assuming that Mecha was rebuilt from her shattered memories, and not entirely a coincidence on the part of Uncle Lu''s design preferences.


    "It''s glorious, isn''t it? I''ve never seen something so beautiful. Uncle Lu really outdid himself this time." Nico cheered as she stretched out her new Mecha''s limbs to explore its range of movement.


    ''Maybe it really is a coincidence. Nico''s thoughts don''t show any hint of recognition of the Mecha, this is certainly the first time that she has seen it and she wasn''t involved in the design. Could it just be one big cosmic joke, creating that same Mecha in this life?'' Max wondered to himself before collecting his thoughts well enough to answer.


    "It really is something else. I thought you might be upset about only getting a custom Super Heavy Mecha." Max replied, doing his best to tuck away the newly released nightmares of having to hunt that Mecha across the Gxy.


    "Size isn''t everything. Plus Uncle Lu gave it the most perfect name ever." Nico replied, and Max looked at the engraved words on the cor that mounted the head assembly to the shoulders.


    [Shattered Pride]


    "Oh thank the Emperor."

 Chapter 367 367 Travel Plans

    "Those are some impressive Mecha. General Lu has really outdone himself on those designs. But doesn''t that demonic one look a bit too lightly armed? You can''t have apletely Melee Super Heavy can you?" General Ming asked as he watched the two Mecha move to face each other as the pilots inspected their counterpart''s equipment.


    "It''s not as lightly armed as it looks. There are Disruptors in each arm, and the mouth of the head is an oversized Fusion mer. It might have less than half of the ranged firepower that Cleansing Light has, and it can''t link them for a near orbital strike level attack the way that the Titan ss unit can, but it is still very nearly on par with the Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha in ranged output, just without the ability to serve as artillery." Max exined to the Inquisitor.


    "So, reduced ranged output from the original Super Heavy Mecha design, with a more intimidating and agile design, and higher melee output? That''s not bad, it would make a good leader for the Inferno Pattern Fast Attack units." Inquisitor Ming decided.


    It would also make a very good bodyguard for Cleansing Light, which had incredible ranged firepower, and more limited, but still devastating melee capabilities. Keeping the enemy off of their Titan ss unit would let Max keep firing at the optimum output for longer before engaging in closebat, and that seemed to be what Uncle Lu had designed Shattered Pride to do, as well as epting challenges from the mecha of nations like Cygnus, who put great value on pride.


    "Alright, let''s pack everything up now that we know what we have. There is a rather suspicious call to the border with Cygnus to respond to, and we will be doing it at Warp 5 so that we can show the tourists the highlights of the route across the Kepler Empire." Max instructed as he moved Cleansing Light into a stable transit position.


    "Got it. I will go prepare a tour guide spiel for every inhabited system that we pass by as soon as you have the course ready." Nico informed him, then made her Mecha kneel with the lower two fists on the ground for stability and hopped out of her new Mecha.


    "The bay won''t open for anyone but us three, nobody else has the clearance, so we can be sure that there are no leaks about the new units outside this room. We will have to use them sooner orter, but I want them to be an absolute surprise to our enemies, so no informing the Inquisition." Max instructed, making the General chuckle.


    "There won''t be any need for that. They have their hands fulltely. The fighting might have died down, but now it has turned to politics, and that is just as deadly. That might be what the rebels and the Cygnus representatives want us for. If they''re nning some sort of political stunt, they will want the Reavers to at least know what they''re nning, so that they don''t end up with a load of mercenaries on every side of the battle making a huge mess of everything." General Ming suggested.


    "It''s going to be a mess either way. The Rebels have lost too much ground in the battle, and they''re being forced to make a full surrender. I can guarantee they''re about to do something so monumentally stupid that it will make the history books.


    We might just offer the most incredible tour in human history, watching a quarter of a Gxy implode under the weight of its own politics." Nicoughed.


    "Aren''t you just a ray of sunshine? What do you know that the rest of us have missed?" General Ming asked.


    Nico walked to the wall of the bay and brought up a three-dimensional map of the gctic region marked with hundreds of various colored dots.


    "I noticed it while preparing for the tourists. These are the battles between Kepler and the Rebels. These are the battles where the Rebels brought in outside forces.


    Now if I ovey the reported losses to show the percentage of regional strength that has been destroyed in the past two years, what do you see?" Nico asked.


    The map only had a few streaks of green in it, plus Cygnus. Most of the map was yellow for having lost over half of their military strength, including almost all of the smaller surrounding nations. Even if they rebuilt as much as they could in the meantime, they would be in a very tight ce for manpower, short on resources, or in very deep debt.


    Then when you added that to the hostile nations further out who weren''t involved in Kepler''s mess, along with the Klem threat, looking at a Tapani Empire whose territory was colored as orange as having lost two-thirds of their strength, it was clear that nowhere in the region was up to the task of defending itself from outside threats.


    The moment that the stalemate broke they would be in for a gigantic mess, and there simply weren''t enough resources to rebuild everything in time to salvage the situation in any meaningful fashion.


    It didn''t matter if it was the Klem, the Nemians, other humans, or something that Max hadn''t considered, it would be a bloody and brutal war of attrition, due to ack of defenders.


    "So, you think that we might be going to a meeting to discuss how to divvy up our own Empire?" Inquisitor Ming asked.


    Nico shook her head. "I don''t think anyone else has pieced it together yet because nobody else should have all of the data that I have collected from the Reavers and the Mercenaries databases. I think they''re nning the particr bit of idiocy that will tip the scales and get the ball rolling on the destabilization of the region."


    There were other options, and she didn''t have the data on how many new recruits had been gathered, but in the sector closest to Rae 5, Max knew that recruitment was minimal, and they were still working to stabilize arge portion of thes, while the rest had been mostly stripped of their military might, moving it all to fleet based deployments.


    With that in mind, Max prepared to send a message back to Mary Tarith, to be ready to supply a load of Mecha to Kepler when they asked. The Reavers were unlikely to get directly involved, they only had enough forces to hold their own single system in the worst-case scenario, but they could make a killing off of the trade of weapons if the worst did happen.

 Chapter 368 368 Border Patrol

    Once Mary Tarith was informed of their most pertinent intelligence points, Max ordered Terminus to prepare to leave the Rae 5 System.


    [Attention all passengers, we will be approaching the border of the Kepler Empire in two hours'' time. There is a chance we will be stopped and questioned by the border patrol, and I do apologize for any inconvenience that might cause.


    Here, security is their first concern, and all foreign vessels are suspicious in the eyes of the border patrol.] Nico''s voice informed the ship as Terminus began its journey.


    This caused a predictable wave of excitement to flow through their guests, who were about to experience the protocols of moving between independent nations with only rudimentary political ties for the first time.


    The Admiral had alerted the border patrol that The Terminus Trading Company would be arriving in Kepler space, and their estimated location of arrival an hour in advance so that they could have a ship ready, should they wish to meet with the Reaver''s vessel in person.


    When they got near the border there were two ships, both smaller vessels from aary defense fleet present and waiting.


    [Reaver Vessel Terminus, you have entered independent Tapani Kepler Territory, prepare to drop out of Warp and be boarded. No casualties will be necessary if you follow directions.] The lead vesselmanded.


    Max quickly checked the sensors and found that the Kepler Border Patrol was still ten minutes away, and closing fast, meaning that these were likely Pirates clinging to thest hopes of victory against Kepler.


    [Tapani vessel, please be aware that at this time the Tapani Alliance is still at war with the Reavers. If we drop out of Warp, we are bringing a Reaver attack fleet with us. Please confirm your previous request.] Max ordered over the radio.


    Max could sense the amusement of the crew members that were still listening in, and the seconds drew on as they waited for a response from the two vessels.


    For thirty long seconds, themunications remained silent, and then the signal from the actual border patrol came through.


    [Wee back Terminus, you are clear to proceed. Unknown vessels, please power down and prepare to be boarded for Customs inspection.] The Heavy Cruiser signaled.


    [It is a pleasure to see you as well, Kepler. We have a number of trade stops along the way, but we will check in again before we leave your territory.] Max informed the Cruiser, who had already changed course to intercept the two smaller vessels.


    Max began to rx as the Pirates broke and ran from the border patrol, then turned on the feed from the Cruise Ship''s inte and security cameras to see how the passengers were taking it since they were given a live stream of the interaction.


    [As you can see, the Pirates often cling to delusions of authority to help reconcile their trauma at the loss of their insurgency to the established power, and attempt to enforce said imaginary authority on others. But when confronted, their cowardice shows itself and they flee without a fight, unable to back up their threats.] Nico''s voice was narrating, as the majority of the passengers watched the video screen showing two small vessels fleeing from onerger one fading into the distance.


    If they could hear her description of them, they might actually turn around to settle that insult to their honor, but the rebels remained blissfully unaware that arge portion of the nearby gxies would now view them as opportunistic cowards.


    After a few hours of peaceful flight as Nico narrated the recent history of the region, as well as the major industries and poptions of thes they were passing, a new signal came in for Terminus.


    [Trade request. Kepler 808 Station requires 4 standard pattern Line Mecha and 100 tonnes of shelf-stable rations. Offers artisan furniture and infantry kit in trade.]


    The text request came up on Max''s terminal, and he frowned at the trade terms. The was known for its unique forests, so the furniture was a standard offering for them, but why would they be offering arge amount of infantry equipment?


    [Admiral, was there arge battle on Kepler 808 recently? They are offering infantry equipment in trade for shelf-stable rations.] Max asked.


    [Not that I can see. The data on the doesn''t show any extensive damage. I don''t see any supply ships in orbit though, or many cargo vessels in the region. I suspect that the reason for their request is an uptick in piracy targeting the cargo vessels in the area, as they are very close to the border.] Admiral Drake replied.


    That made sense to Max so he sent the positive affirmation of their intent to trade, and ordered the Admiral to turn for Kepler 808 Station.


    [Nico, I need a scan of that station as soon as you can manage it.] Max informed her, then began his own attempt to hack through theirputer firewalls.


    It was a civilian station, and not big on security, so it didn''t take Max long to get basic ess, revealing that the station was incredibly overcrowded and that all shuttles from the surface of the had been halted due to the high refugee poption already present and stressing the infrastructure.


    Now things made much more sense. They weren''t getting outside supplies, and the unrest had moved far too many people to a lightly popted that couldn''t adapt fast enough to the influx. They had sent repeated requests for farm equipment, to supply an expansion of the farms, but the itself was desperately short on metallic alloys without their usual supply shipments.


    That made this mission look more like a humanitarian mission than a simple trade, and Max sent the data through to logistics to produce a hundred tonnes of rations, while he had the Manufacturing bay create four new Light Mecha in the old standard Kepler pattern. That would let them bargain on anything the needed, and he could offer to make them some farm equipment to sweeten the deal when they inevitably tried to get a little extra.


    A quiet win for everyone involved without overloading the station with any particr item.


    [Kepler 808 Station, Terminus requests clearance to dock, or an envoy from the station to begin negotiations.] The Admiral requested as they approached.


    The station was on the small side to be docking a vessel the size of Terminus, so he was expecting them to send a barge to meet them and execute the trade. What they brought with them would give a good idea of how desperate their situation was, and what they could offer in trade.


    [Terminus, please carefully dock with the end pier of the Terminal. We currently have no barges avable.] The station reported.


    No barges? That was unheard of, and even the most desperate of Pirates usually wouldn''t try to take an orbital barge. There simply wasn''t any other use for them. They didn''t even make goodbatnders.


    [Understood, we will be as gentle as possible so as not to throw you off your orbit.] Admiral Drake confirmed, and began the final maneuvering, giving everyone watching the exterior cameras an excellent view of what a Kepler civilian station looked like.

 Chapter 369 369 Exchange

    The Admiral did a textbook job of docking the Colony Ship with the station,ing to a hover mere centimeters from the docking ring, so that the station could extend its mps and grab ahold of the ship without any transfer of inertia.


    Max and Nico, as well as a crew from Logistics, met the Station staff at the bay, only to find pandemonium on the other side of the door.


    The refugees on the station had noticed the iing ship and had rushed toward the doors, loudly begging for food and supplies.


    [Everyone shut the feth up. We have all the supplies you need, but you need to back up from the door so that we can make the exchange.] Nico roared, using the audio amplification function of her cyborg voice box.


    That seemed to startle the refugees enough that they stopped pushing forward for a moment.


    "Really? Do you have enough to trade for everyone? Food is hard toe by anywheretely." The representative of the station asked, stepping forward to begin the negotiation.


    "We prepared one hundred tonnes, as your request stated you were willing to trade for. We also have a few spare Mecha, brand new never seenbat, if you have deep pockets." Nico informed him.


    The word that the Colony Ship had enough to spare spread through the refugees, and the mood immediately lightened.


    "Our furniture is known all around the Gxy as exquisite in quality, you won''t have a problem trading it at a profit. Guys, bring forward the samples." The stationmander ordered.


    "Logistics, if you''ve got the army stew ready, start passing it out to anyone who has a dish. Humanitarian aid for these refugees stuck in space." Max ordered, then moved back a bit so that Nico would be the one forced to deal with the negotiations.


    Being able to delegate was definitely his favorite part of being Commander.


    The people aboard the station hade prepared, and they all had a bowl of some sort ready for just this situation. Most likely because they were carrying everything that they owned, but that wasn''t the point.


    Nico had out a tablet with assorted valuation tables, looking over the furniture, while the Station Commander waited patiently, looking over the cavernous storage bay with its assortment of random crates and equipment.


    Max noticed the moment that he noticed the terraforming and farming equipment in the corner of the bay, mostly hidden behind crates of ration packs.


    That was perfect, things were going to n already, they wouldn''t have to mention the equipment, and he would find a way to work them into the deal if it was at all possible.


    "Everything seems to be up to your usual standards. I can offer you all of the rations and two of the Line Mecha for the quantity that you have listed in stock." Nico decided.


    Looking at the list, it should add up to all four Line Mecha that they had prepared, but even for a Station full of refugees, Nico wasn''t running a charity.


    "The Line Mecha is a secondary requirement, I can ept the two, but your price is too low. Perhaps you could offer some of that fine farming equipment to the deal? It wasn''t on our list, but the poption on the finds themselves in need of it for new arrivals who wish to be colonists." The station Commander suggested.


    Nico looked over her shoulder at the collection of new gear and tapped her chin as if pondering his proposition. "Those were intended for another customer, but there is a spot between here and there where we could restock them. How about all the rations, one Mecha, and all of the farming equipment?"


    The man sighed and looked longingly at the gear. "We really do need the second Mecha for station repairs. Both of ours are out ofmission. I can offer you a stock of local Rye Whiskey, should your crew have a taste for it."


    All of the Logistics staff smiled at that. Liquor was always wee as part of a deal with Reavers, and they didn''t have any objection to a supply of Whiskey to supplement their Rum.


    "Rations, two Line Mecha, the Farm equipment, and four pallets of local Rye Whiskey, and you''ve got yourself a deal." Nico agreed, and a cheer went up from the station side.


    The Logistics staff moved the two Mecha which weren''t part of the deal back out of the bay to the adjoining storage area, leaving only the items which were part of the deal, then gathered to bring the trade items from the station aboard.


    It took them a while to clear a path to bring out the crates of furniture, but with the knowledge that they would be eating well in only a few minutes, the crowd was much more agreeable.


    "Aren''t these all Kepler ration packs? Made this year they say. It looks like the rumor that the Rebels ran afoul of the Reavers was true." Max heard someone say as they were loading the boxes onto the station''s carts.


    "The Tapani as well. The Reavers have done very well by themselvestely." Another station staffer agreed.


    If they thought that these were plundered from a defeated Rebel vessel they wouldn''t have anything negative to say about the Reavers having so much of a precious resource while they were in a hard spot.


    "I don''t suppose that we could beg delivery from you, could we? The refuses to send any of the barges back up to the station, but we need the farm equipment on the surface." The station Commander asked Nico once everything else was delivered.


    Ah, the ssicst-minute addition to the deal. But they didn''t actually have a problem with that, and they had a shuttle they could use, originally belonging to The Dutchman, the transport vessel they had begun this crazy journey on after leaving Abraham Kepler.


    "That won''t be a problem. Would you like to apany it, or should we just drop it and leave?" Nico asked.


    "Drop it outside the city next to the guard posts. They will know what to do with it, and it should improve their attitude toward the Station." The Commander replied quietly.


    [Logistics, bring around a Shuttle for the farm equipment, it needs to go to the surface. Tell the guards that it was purchased for them by the station and return to the ship.] Max ordered over the radio.


    The staff brought the shuttle to the next bay, taking advantage of the fact the Innu had brought their cargo bay barriers back online, so they could freely enter and leave without worrying about hull temperatures.


    In a few minutes, the shuttle was entering the atmosphere, and the first batch of rations had been handed out, clearing the path so that the rest could go into the station''s storage area to be distributed as needed.


    The process wasn''t a fast one, as they could only bring the boxes through on small carts, thanks to theck of operational equipment at the station, and the shuttle was back by the time they finished, followed by a single cargo barge.


    [Sir, the Colony Staff wishes to express their gratitude to Terminus for the thoughtful inclusion of much-needed supplies in the deal.] The Logistics staff informed Max as they returned.


    [Guide them into the bay beside us. They should have room to dock the barge.] Max ordered, hoping that they would see sense and start letting people back off the station.

 Chapter 370 370 Onward To Glory

    The Colony Commander departed the barge as soon as it was dered safe to open the doors and made his way into the cargo hold where the meetings were taking ce, escorted by a security detail from the Second Battalion, who was on duty in this section.


    "Greetings Commander Keres, Lady Rage. I am Jeri, Governor of the Kepler 808 Colony, at least for the moment. The farm equipment that you sent will go a long way to making a sustainable future for the new arrivals to the Colony." The older woman greeted them, her curly hair pulled into a bun and stress lines aging her face more than her years had.


    "It is no problem at all. The Reavers'' primary business is trade after all." Max shrugged.


    "With that said, I do have a proposal for you. On this station is a ratherrge contingent of Loyalist Kepler Soldiers, whose transport was destroyed by the Rebels inbat. They have expressed a willingness to return to active duty, and we would appreciate it if you could move them to a Kepler loyalist vessel. Off the books that is." She suggested.


    That wouldn''t actually be an issue for them, they had more than enough room for them, and it also exined why the station had been willing to offer so many infantry equipment items in trade for food. The soldiers they belonged to were still on the station and hungry.


    The infantry items hadn''t been part of the deal, so they could return the soldiers fully equipped to the nearest loyal ship with only the smallest of excuses, and it would help the station in its time of need. But first, they had to make sure these were loyalist soldiers.


    "I need deployment details for them. Their names, ranks, andst deployment. As you know, the Reavers have embargoed the Rebels after their attack on Rae 5, so moving Kepler soldiers is a touchy subject if we can''t verify their origins and loyalties." Nico informed the Governor.


    "Jeff, bring in the leaders of the infantry. They should have all the details that you need." Governor Jeri ordered, and the leader of the station ran off to do her bidding.


    He returned secondster with an infantry Colonel in full uniform, holding a data tablet.


    "Greetings, I am Colonel Ping, of the Tennant Regiment, formerly attached to the Phnx ss Shining Darkness." The man introduced himself.


    "The Shining Darkness you say? How long ago was that?" Max asked politely.


    "This will be twenty-two years since the Legendary Shining Darkness went into retirement while the General looked for a sessor. But as I have been the Commander of this infantry Regiment all that time, we still hold the honor of using the title." The Colonel informed them with a mix of pride and resignation.


    Twenty-two years asmander of an infantry Regiment is a very long time in Kepler.


    "We had the distinct honor of meeting General Tennant and his proteges not long ago, though I heard that they were separated by a redeployment, so I am not aware of where either is now," Nico replied.


    "Likely whipping some fat-arsed Noble popinjay into shape, if I know him. Pardon mynguage. Don''t believe those rumors about him, no way would he turn rebel or flee the Empire. There is nothing more important to that man than Duty and Honor." The Colonel said with a wink.


    "I think you will find that thenguage regtions are somewhat more rxed on a Reaver vessel Colonel. How many of your men remain?" Nico asked.


    "We have four thousand and change left, including the cripples. They might not be good for much, but the military will take them back, I am certain of it. Even if it is only to retire them to some desk job on a forgotten and forsaken colony." Colonel Ping chuckled.


    Max looked through the deployment details for the Regiment and found that they had been the defender of one of thes he knew to have resisted Rebel''s invasion, so at the very least they hadn''t openly turned on the Empire. Their depleted numbers made the story more believable as well. Four thousand of a quarter million wasn''t enough to hold a, so they had been redeployed to a border patrol ship.


    Only, they were attacked and they never made it that far, abandoning ship in a group of Landers and ending up here.


    Everything the man said added up, so Max nodded his approval to Nico, who extended her hand for the Colonel to shake.


    "Get your men and bring them on board. We have some medical facilities, and I am certain that we can get approval for a few augmentic repairs to bring some of your officers back to full fighting strength." Nico told him with a smile.


    There was an unspoken understanding that it wouldn''te for free, nothing in life was free, but in this case, they might not be the ones who had to pay the tab. If he could get some top-notch medical treatment, his men would thank him.


    Terminus had a lot of medical equipment onboard, some from their refit, some from the military supplies, but they also had the disused pods that the original colonists had left behind, which had impressive regenerative abilities now that they had obtained the operating and repair instructions from the Innu ships to get them operational.


    They wouldn''t regrow limbs, but they would fix broken spines, nerve and muscle damage, and some neurological damage. The rest they could deal with using cybeics and the assistance of the system, which could do wonders for those with high enoughpatibility if given enough time.


    "Hey Commander, what do you think our guests would think of a video series on the reconstruction of injured human soldiers using technological augmentation?" Nico asked.


    "You want to make videos of the surgeries for the Innu to watch?" Max asked dubiously.


    "I would let them do the surgeries if they were qualified, but I get the feeling that you wouldn''t approve of that. We have three teams of surgeons on board right now, which is barely adequate for most Regiments, but we don''t take many casualties in transit, so they should have the time to attach some limbs." Nico rified.


    She was right, Max wouldn''t approve of letting Innu xenobiologists do augmentic surgeries on injured veterans for entertainment. But selling videos of the process for their entertainment and archives was another story.


    ording to Nico''s thoughts, their social mediawork was mized by the view, thanks to advertisements, and Terminus had actually been racking up a lot of interster credits thanks to the live streams that they had been doing over the past days. A series of human surgeries might actually pay for the parts that they were using, or at least the raw materials that they used to build them since Max assumed they would be printing them using the ship''s resources.


    "Fine, but keep it tasteful. You know how I feel about making a fool of veterans." Max instructed.


    "Even if you ignore the one taking care of your family right here on Terminus." Nico agreed.


    "Even if I... hey, it hasn''t been that long since I talked to my family. I should call them to dinner though, shouldn''t I?"

 Chapter 371 371 Surreal Experience

    Max smiled to himself as the soldiers of what was once General Tennant''s personal regiment, the way that Noctem Regiment was to General Mons and the Carpe Noctem. It was like having a little piece of him back, even if he was currently missing, on a secret mission somewhere across the Gxy.


    Most of the injuries that he could see weren''t as terrible as he had feared. There were a lot of gunshot wounds that had crippled limbs, and some broken backs that had led to paralysis, which couldn''t be fixed with the Station''s limited facilities but could be easily dealt with by the medical facilities aboard Terminus.


    [All veterans listed as currently injured or disabled, please stand to the right for triage. Terminus has top-ss medical facilities avable, and will begin treatments immediately upon your arrival.] Nico''s voice informed everyone.


    Nico herself seemed to be busy sorting their new arrivals, so Max assumed that she had sent the message to make her own life easier. The veterans were supposed to get settled into the holding bay, which would be their home until they passed final security checks, in case the Regiment had been corrupted and not reported.


    Max didn''t sense any signs that the soldiers had joined the Rebellion, or any harmful intent toward Terminus though, only honest gratitude at the opportunity to get off of the overcrowded station and back to their duties.


    [Check this out.] Was the whole content of the message that Nico sent Max a few minutester, along with a video file that Max brought up to view on the visor of his armor.


    The Mobile Suit was standard practice for him during meetings these days, in case their deals went sour and someone thought of targeting the Reaver Commander, so he brought the video up, watching the video rey a short battle between two ships, and theunch of a Lander. Then it cut to the Lander and followed it in fast forward to the station.


    The battle was as they described it, but the important part was the vessel that had destroyed their transport. It was a Tapani ship, not a Kepler one, so it was quite clear that the upants of the destroyed vessel were not on the side of the Rebels and their allies.


    That went a long way to calming Max''s concerns. It was possible to be mistaken and give false evidence, or to believe a lie, which would make Max think he had heard the truth, but video evidence from the battle was pretty decisive.


    [Where did you find that?] Max asked once he had viewed the video in full.


    [Thender is trashed, but it is still on the station. I pulled it from the ck box.] Nico replied.


    Max had hacked the Station''s systems earlier and didn''t find anything, so he checked again, now that they were docked and close enough for a direct signal.


    He still didn''t see the Lander, but after searching for half a minute he found what had alerted Nico. It wasn''t what she saw, but what she didn''t. There was arge cargo bay blocked off from the rest of the station''s mainframe, and all the cameras were off. Following Nico''s lead, he hacked in, finding that it held the Lander, thest few Soldiers who were helping the disabled members get moving, and a small supply of military equipment and rations.


    That must be the ship''s most secure area, hidden so that the desperate refugees didn''t do what Max did and hack through to find thest of the food supplies, then riot to get to them.


    Once everyone was on board, the Station staff prepared to close up their bay so that Terminus could dock, and the Governor of the Colony turned to Nico for her farewell speech.


    "It has been a pleasure dealing with you all, and now that we can increase crop production, we can put a lot of our new arrivals to work, and let those on the statione down to the surface. The amount that we could afford to trade for might have everyone on half rations until the first crops are grown, but we are in a much better situation than we were before."


    Her gratitude was palpable, and the handshake she gave Nico was a friendly one, though she refused the customary sharing of liquor that most leaders partook in after a deal was done.


    "Send another message to the Reavers if you have more to trade. There are a few other ships in the area still, and they could likely arrive within a few weeks." Max informed her.


    "Thank you. I just hope that this peacests. The Nobles have all gone insely. I am sure that one of your intelligence officers found this information already, but we had to purge the ones in our colony when the unrest began. That is why I am governor, and not some high-minded Marquis looking to expand his holdings."


    Max''s respect for the tired-looking woman grew in an instant. To think that they had simply purged the entire noble poption of their for Sedition and appointed a civilian Governor. That was a rare thing in Kepler, where the Nobles were usually pretty entrenched through a bureaucracy that could stop any such revolt from taking hold.


    Even on Kepler Terminus, the resistance had failed to eliminate the nobles'' bureaucracy before they could lock downmunications and bring in reinforcements. The best they could do was get as many people as possible to safety. Kepler Terminus was a much more popted world though, with a muchrger government, he supposed, so the difficulty level was iparable, but it was still impressive, and an excellent proof of character.


    "I will offer you improved trade terms with the Tarith Reavers. Take this card and contact them first when you need anything that you can''t find through the official channels. Tell them that Tarith Rage rmended you and they will understand." Nico told the woman, then ushered her back to her shuttle, so that Terminus could leave the dock and get back on course.


    This stop was fruitful for them, but hardly entertaining for a cruise ship. Excluding the Innu researchers of course. They were greatly entertained by the chance to study a human manufacturing colony''s infrastructure.

 Chapter 372 372 All Is Not Well

    Once they left the station and brought Terminus back up to Warp 5 for their journey to the border, Max began to analyze all of themunications data that they could get from the Keplers that were along their path.


    It should give him an idea if there were rebel elements left active in the region, if there were other humanitarian issues that needed tending to, or if there were other beneficial cargo shipments that he might be able to pick up and turn some profit for the ship to keep themselves running.


    They were getting paid by their guests, but it was in interster Credits, which held absolutely no value in this Gxy since they couldn''t use them for anything, and most of the things that they would want to use them for they were forbidden from having, thanks to their violent tendencies.


    Proving that they were safe enough to be trusted with the most modern alien technologies was a bit like trying to convince the universe that a Jakalian Dire Bear should be taught to use a sma Cannon.


    Max wasn''t sure how, but Nico had a spiel prepared for every they passed, not just the closest ones along their route, but she had made a short speech for every inhabited system even vaguely close to their path.


    While he sorted throughmunications, Max took a moment to look into it and discovered that Nico had simply changed theputer voice to her own so that when guests pulled up the data files from the ship''sputer to look up nearby gctic waypoints, they were treated to a speech in her voice that was simply a reading of the summary that every ship had programmed into theirputers.


    It was actually ingenious and saved them a lot of time dealing with inquisitive passengers. They could look up bits of data about inhabited systems and learn everything they wanted while the screens randomly zoomed in on exciting things they were due to pass.


    After a few hours of searching, Max found their next two stops. One that wanted to trade for furniture, and one uninhabited but atmospherically safe that had the most incredible geography.


    They had taken some of the furniture shipment to decorate officers'' quarters for the infantry that were staying on the ship, but they still had a huge amount of it to trade, so Max ordered themunication officers to set up a meeting on their behalf, while he nned the excursion stop at the uninhabited.


    Letting people off the ship didn''t seem safe at all, but if they had their own ships, he would let them depart for a shore trip and make sure that they were as safe as he could make them.


    A cruise wasn''t a cruise without the chance to see more than the ship, after all.


    [Sir, Kepler 903 says that they can''t mention the type of item that they have to trade, but they do wish to trade for the furniture.] Themunications officer informed Max a few minutester.


    That wasn''t entirely unusual. You didn''t just broadcast that you had arge number of illegal materials and products to offer in trade. The Reavers might buy them, but you couldn''t risk the transmission being intercepted.


    [Tell them that we are on our way. If it''s no good, we will move on. Furniture is easy to sell almost anywhere.] Max informed the crew, letting them make the course adjustments necessary for the meeting.


    Nico was out among the guests when the announcement came, and the Illithid had questions about their trade policies and general level of sanity.


    "You offer dangerous items for trade to dangerous people. How do you guarantee that you won''t be betrayed?" One of the guests asked her.


    "There are no guarantees, but the Reavers are an essential supply route for most of theses. If they attack a vessel during a trade, they would face an embargo that could starve out their citizens and stop them from getting the goods they produce off-world.


    There are an intricate set of protocols for interacting with each other to show respect for each other to prevent violent incidents. I will make a video about them after this next meeting." Nico informed the Illithid, who burbled happily, an odd noise that sounded like a happy baby to the humans but made the Innu run away from them.


    From what she learned from the Innu, the noise had a psychic element to it that caused them physical pain, like a feedback loop in aputer system would when you tried to interact with it. It didn''t seem to do anything to her or the other Pilots who came to rx in the cruise ship area, but Nico had noticed that the lower-ranked pilots and infantry subconsciously avoided the Illithid the same way that the Innu did.


    Not all the time, only when they got excited or were drinking. The Illithid turned out to have virtually zero alcohol tolerance, even after factoring in their actual body size.


    Like Max, Nico had been monitoringmunications traffic in the region, but she picked up on the issue a little faster than Max had. All of the messages were perfectly normal and benign. Even the data traffic seemed normal and uninteresting. But when she checked on some of thes, they had been heavily damaged by fighting and were in the process of rebuilding.


    If everyone was homeless, and the cities were still smoldering from the battles with the Loyalists, why was the data traffic perfectly normal, uploading gaming stream scores, vacations, and various other nonsense social media messages at the same rate as before hostilities broke out?


    She sent the data through to Max so that he could be prepared and left the actual nning to him while she sat down with a bottle of Rum to exin the intricacies of Reaver Social protocol with a group of Illithid.


    Max saw her on the view screen and just sighed. He couldn''t evenin much, as she had found the aberration, but leaving all the nning work to him was just cruel.


    The first thought that he had was that it was possible that the Rebels had won, but the more he searched through the data, the less likely that seemed. It appeared that the Loyalists had won the battles, and in some cases were still there repairing the damage caused by the battles.


    The signals that were being sent out were a cover, either to hide that anything had happened at all, or to keep those in the area from noticing that something was about to happen.

 Chapter 373 373 Suspicious Trade

    [In fifteen minutes, we will reach our next trade destination, Sanchez, a highly popted world best known for its reliable production of workers for the Kepler Empire.] Nico''s voice exined to the ship, and Max had to fight not tough.


    That was certainly one way to put it. They were best known for not producing a single Gamma-ranked or higher Pilot in generations, so they raised an Infantry army every single year for thest century.


    There were clear signs of a recent battle on the surface, but it looked like the was pretty intact and hadn''t suffered too heavy of a loss of life. That was a good sign for them and for the actual value of whatever they wanted to trade for.


    A hold full of luxury furniture would likely be for the''s nobles, or their Corporate leaders, recing what was lost in the war with the status symbol imported items.


    [Terminus, please hold your position in orbit around the. Our only station was downed in the recent unpleasantness, so we will have toe up to you.] Theary authority informed them with the usual bureaucratic efficiency.


    Meaning, of course, that it took them two hours to get around to sending someone up to meet with them, and even then, it was in a shuttle and not a vesselrge enough to take the furniture back to the surface if they should happen to make a deal.


    Still, Max and Nico met them in a cargo bay with a selection of furniture and pulled them in with the gravity beam to regte their speed through the barrier. The upants of the shuttle looked shocked at that level of technology, and Max knew that they had the upper hand in this deal right from the start.


    "Wee, representatives of Sanchez. It is now safe to exit your vessel. Wee to the home of the Terminus Trading Company." Nico greeted them, and the back hatch of the shuttle swung open with a gentle hiss.


    "It is a pleasure to meet with you, Terminus. I do apologize for the unorthodox procedure, but you see, the trade goods aren''t something that we can easily bring to orbit without an agreement." The leader of the Sanchez group informed them.


    "We have dealt with a number of vtile goods, sir. I doubt that you could shock us with anything these days." Nicoughed while the group from the shook their heads.


    "No, this is something else entirely. The Rebels brought a new type of weapon with them, something that we had never expected. At first, it was catastrophic, but after we managed to reverse engineer it, we have turned it into something wonderful, though perhaps against the sensibilities of the Kepler people." The representative informed them.


    Max examined the group more closely, realizing that none of them were particrly well dressed, nor were they in the eclectic garbmon of Scientists who didn''t interact much with the outside world. That definitely wasn''t right. You didn''t send blue-cor workers in a shuttle to do a deal thisrge.


    At least you didn''t unless you expected them to be expendable.


    "Oh, do tell. I have very particr sorts of tastes. It might prove interesting to me." Nico informed him, and the man at the back of the group smiled at her with dead eyes.


    "As you order." He spoke robotically, then slit his throat, sending a cloud of silvery mist into the air.


    [Emergency Purge] Max ordered, but the mist was already filling the whole bay.


    [Now, your ship will be ours. Wee to the new republic, mind ves.] A voice from the shuttle announced, then beganughing hysterically.


    Max activated the gravity locks on his Mobile Suit''s boots and locked himself to the floor while Nico simply stood there with an unimpressed look as the atmosphere was vented, blowing all of the representatives out of the bay, along with the mist. A cleansingser scoured the bay, burning off Nico''s outfit and scorching the paint off Max''s suit, but after a few minutes, the lights turned green, and the ship''sputer announced that the threat had been neutralized.


    [Interesting. It was a biomechanical weapon designed to hijack the nanotechnology of the Kepler citizens and spread through their breath to anyone in their vicinity.


    Once they had it active, the user could control the technology and essentially order the people to do anything that they wanted. Those men were nothing more than zombies. Their minds were nked and reced by the parasitic weapon.] Nico informed Max over his suit''s data screen.


    [And it didn''t work on you?] Max asked, knowing that she had been exposed.


    [Not well enough. My System Repair Function found and neutralized it immediately, then analyzed it and altered my exoskeleton''s shielding to block the rest of the cloud.] Nico replied, gesturing to the Archangel unit that she was wearing, with the wings folded out of the way behind her.


    [You know, you''re going to have to go into quarantine anyhow.] Max sighed, not wanting to lose his right hand for that long. Especially since they would have to block her fromputer ess, in case her mind really waspromised but could use her System Functions.


    [That sounds incredibly boring. Can''t we just ask the Illithid to give me a checkup? They''re the experts in the mind.] Nico suggested.


    [Not a bad thought, but before you do either, we need to discuss our action n. You''re the best acquainted with the guests. What can we do that won''t offend them too much? We are trying to get into their alliance''s good books, after all.] Max asked.


    [I am already on it. I don''t know if it''s just this one or all of the ones with suspicious signals, but I am working on reverse engineering the modifications that they made to the Zombie virus.] Nico informed him.


    [Oh, and what are you nning to have them do?] Max asked.


    [The only thing that every good Kepler citizen should want to do after they realize that their world has been hijacked by seditious forces. Purge the Heretics.]


    Nope, that didn''t sound good at all. [Wait, back up a moment. No genocide, even if they''re doing it to each other. Bad Nico.]


    [Not genocide. They will just purge seven generations of the family of everyone who tries to exert control over others using the modified virus.] Nico exined.


    Max considered the implications of that for a while, then sighed.


    [How long will it take?]


    [Already done and activated. Thank you for your cooperation.] Nico chuckled.


    Max waited while the atmosphere came back to the storage bay, then issued a new set of orders.


    "Get us out of orbit around this forsaken rock. They are infected, and the whole region is to be gged as under quarantine until further notice due to a new form of a mind-altering virus." Max announced.


    That caught the attention of the Illithid, that had been watching the exchange with great interest, though they were too far away to know exactly what was going on.


    [Commander, we have a request to examine both you and Rage before you leave the bay. The Illithid are insistent that they be allowed to ensure that no mind viruses can infiltrate the ship.] The crew informed Max.


    [Send them down, full containment protocol. It might seem strange to them to put their environmental suits inside an armor suit, but the Mobile Suits are designed to be scoured clean in case of exposure to hazardous materials or entities.] Max ordered.


    "This is going to be a very long day, isn''t it?"

 Chapter 374 374 Strange Inspection

    It only took a few minutes for the Illithid to arrive at the cargo bay, equipped with sturdy environmental suits over the top of their usual protective mechanical bodies. They didn''t pick the ones that Terminus had on board, instead preferring the ones that they had brought with them on their own vessel.


    They seemed to be sturdy enough, and their race was so much more advanced than humanity that Max had little doubt that they were fully protected from any potential threat of the virus.


    "Thank you for the opportunity to let us examine you. Our species takes the threat of mind-controlling viruses, and bioweapons very seriously. As you are likely aware, we have rather powerful mind-affecting abilities ourselves, so in our distant past, that was a great threat to the very existence of our species, with many others insisting that we could never be safe as a group and that we should be either excluded or eliminated.


    It took centuries before we managed to convince the collective that we weren''t a menace to civilized society, and now we work mostly in the mental health field, and other medical professions since our analytic skills make diagnostics so much easier.


    It seems that your AI-based System might do the same for humanity, at least those of you who awaken a suitable Function, so it is good that we have the chance to make you aware of the potential issues in advance." The Illithid leader announced as he came into the cargo bay.


    The other two with him began tough, and Max gave them a look of confusion.


    "The first thought through your partner''s head was eight out of ten, slightly long-winded." The Illithid exined.


    "Oh, yes. Sorry, I''m so used to her thoughts that I don''t even notice the rampant sarcasm anymore." Max exined.


    "Understandable. There are arge number of inside jokes among our species that I wouldn''t expect others to understand. Though, since you can read minds, I suppose you will get used to it in time." The Illithid told Max.


    "I don''t read them all the time, though. I often let the ability rest so that I don''t have to deal with intrusive thoughts from others. It can be an issue when surprises happen, but on a daily basis, it is a positive only to read essential and surface thoughts of others."


    The Illithid''s thoughts almost felt like a collective to Max. They were all individuals, but they could all read each others'' minds, so they delegated topics between them, spreading out their mental powers as if they were aputer delegating tasks to save processor space.


    The process was incredible, even when he began to feel the probing of their abilities against his own mind as they searched for traces of the virus or any other potential threats.


    "It seems that your System is not a big fan of us. It does a very respectable job of blocking us out, and that''s not a feat that the technology of many species can im. Commander Keres, or Max, if you prefer, you are clean. None of the virus spores prated your suit, and the sanitization protocols scrubbed the filtration system clean of all potential threats, ording to our medical scanners.


    Tarith Rage, or Miss Nico. I''m sorry, the double names thing is strange to us. Illithid can''t lie to or deceive each other, so nicknames aren''t really a thing in our species. It looks like your body has mostly handled the virus, but we found a mutated version of it still lingering on your surface despite the cleansing, and we need a few minutes for our medical scans to examine you to ensure the safety of your mind."


    "I''ve got all day or all month since exposure to a virus of this nature would normally call for a thirty-day quarantine to ensure that none of it had been missed and allowed to proliferate." Nico agreed.


    "That is perfect. Please stand right where you are. We will erect a barrier and attempt to remove all foreign material from your body. We scanned you on our first meeting, so we should have a fairly reliable baseline for what belongs within your body and what does not." The Illithid leader informed her.


    "While he does that, I will do a quick mental health examination of your thoughts, ensuring that they haven''t beenpromised or left vulnerable to control by outside forces. It is a standard procedure for Illithid, and we perfected it over fifty millennia ago. There is nothing to fear." One of the Illithid in the back informed her, and Max began to get nervous about what they might find.


    "Rest assured, Commander, we are well aware of her particr oddities. She can''t hide them from us any better than she does from you, and we can read thoughts from a much longer distance than you can." The Illithid reassured Max in a way that wasn''t reassuring at all.


    "You wouldn''t happen to know where those events in her previous memories happened, do you?" Max asked, wondering if the Illithid, with their long history, could help him out.


    "We don''t have any records of simr cultures or technologies. It is possible that they might not have happened yet, due to some form of Temporal Fluctuations, or they might simply be from a much more distant region of the Universe, beyond what we have been in contact with." The Ilithid informed him with a hint of sadness.


    They didn''t like not knowing the answer to things. They loved knowledge of every sort. There was no such thing as forbidden knowledge to them, only forbidden actions, so finding out that these two people had memories of culture and events that their species was unaware of was disconcerting but exciting at the same time.


    A small cloud of material floated up from Nico''s body, including what Max suspected was the contents of her lunch, and then was vaporized by the Illithid''s technology.


    "I can certify that her body is clear of the virus, in all its permutations, as well as the modified version that her own system created to negate the effects." The leader of the group informed Max, apanied by a mental chittering noise that he assumed was their mental expression of pleasure at a job well done.


    "I wish I could say that the mental damage she has suffered between this life and herst has been repaired, but it is stubbornly persistent. What I can assure you is that between her mental fortitude and her System Functions, your second in Command was never in danger of being mentally controlled by such a crude biomechanical weapon.


    In fact, I would assume that as it is with our presence, only the members of your species with the weakest system Compatibility were vulnerable, to begin with." The Illithid exined.


    "So, the civilian poption could be controlled, but the higher-ranking Nobles and Military Officers with higher System Compatibility would be left unaffected by the original virus?" Max asked.


    "That is correct. But the modified version that Nico sent to the surface has no such restriction, as it does not control the conscious mind and only imnts a Moral Imperative into their subconscious. Only those with a healing or repair function would be immune to that, or possibly those like yourself with mind-rted abilities."


    The Illithid didn''t seem upset at her actions, so Max also decided to let it slide. But he would send out a message to warn the Reavers and any Kepler forces that he could guarantee were Loyal about the situation.


    The Reavers would take the quarantine notice that was already sent seriously for at least a while, but if they didn''t fully understand, they might just do as he had and institute basic quarantine protocol, which wouldn''t save most ships from having their interior contaminated.

 Chapter 375 375 All Clear

    "We have a broad spectrum vine already analyzed and ready to be produced if you wish to distribute it by airborne insertion to the affecteds." The Illithid suggested sending Max the details of the Vine against both the Zombie virus bioweapons and the modified versions.


    "That could be incredibly beneficial to the region. We don''t know how far the virus was spread. We only have a list of suspiciouss, so being able to innocte them all would help bring them back under control." Max agreed.


    It wouldn''t help with the totalitarian powers that had seen fit to enve their entire poption for the overlords'' benefit, but it was a good start. The people should recall what was done to them, and with that in mind, they might do as Kepler 808 had and overthrow the government and nobles.


    "It is aplex issue, and one for your species to decide, so we won''t interfere, but we suggest that spreading the inoction the same way that the System was deliberately spread through the poption of the Empire would be for the best for everyone involved.


    We would also rmend adding it to the vine schedule for your troops so that they aren''t subject to simr attacks. The Alliance has a well-tested regimen with side effect rates under the eptable rate of one in ten billion, but most of those would be ipatible with your species."


    The Illithid had a point, but resistance to change and untested medical procedures might be hard to ovee for the troops, who had grown up on horror stories of mad scientists doing things exactly like what they had encountered today.


    The Illithid were still strangers, and only Max could read their thoughts, so the choice to trust them was entirely on him.


    "Send it as an aerosol through the ship. I don''t want to lose anyone to those sorts of attacks. I will take responsibility in front of my troops if there are side effects. Our route brings us right through the suspicious region, and it would be a long detour to go around, not to mention being suspicious to anyone who might have managed to track us." Max decided, hoping that it was for the best.


    "We estimate a side effect of one in a million, thanks to theck of research time, and we are happy to help with our medical technology if there are issues. The regtions might prohibit providing them to you without supervision, but that doesn''t mean we are discouraged to provide medical treatment using Alliance-certified doctors." The Illithid leader exined.


    "So, what you''re saying is that we could just hire a doctor from the alliance, and they coulde with their own medical suite to serve the passengers of Terminus?" Nico asked hopefully.


    "I don''t see any reason why not, and I have the entire eighteen million pages of Alliance regtions regarding less developed and dangerous species memorized." The Illithid leader agreed.


    He wasn''t joking, either. He personally memorized the entirety of the regtions as part of his training as an expedition Captain. No other species would be expected to, but the Illithid had incredible memories.


    "Excellent. We will look into it after the first payments go through. Exploring a dangerous region of space is a great attraction, but doing it without a proper doctor familiar with their species'' treatment is likely to reduce the number of willing passengers we can attract." Max agreed.


    That seemed to please the Illithid, who were heavily biased toward the medical professions, and their happiness was evident in their thoughts as they sent onest round of scans over the bay, double-checking that nothing harmful had made it into the ship.


    "All clear. There were no breaches of containment. The inside and outside of the vessel have been verified as safe, as well as the two exposed crew members." The Illithid leader noted in his personal log.


    "That should make for an interesting addition to your vacation memoirs. How often is it that you get to be the very first to see, analyze and neutralize a new form of virus?" Nico asked.


    "Once every seventy-two days, someone in the alliance has that honor. Viral mutations are pernicious and appear from the most unlikely of sources. Even our technology has failed to prevent them from forming entirely, thanks to the necessity of other microbial life in the cycle of life." The Illithid answered seriously.


    "Let''s get out of this bay and get the crew inocted against the new viruses. We have warp-capable probes that we can send toward the suspiciouss that we pass, preventatively inocting them. If they have the virus, they will be thankful. If they don''t, they will never have to." Max informed the group, then signaled the security staff that it was safe to let them back out of the bay.


    In the legacy medical bays left behind by the original Colonists, it took them under an hour to have the medicine for the crew ready and fifty warp probes prepared to send at the inhabiteds in the region.


    Nico had convinced the Illithid that not immediately sending one to the they were leaving was the best course of action. Instead, they would wait until evening and send it back at low warp, so it would arrive a week after they had left and give the retrovirus she had sent down time to work.


    Assuming that it did work, that was. She had used the Replicators to make globules full of the heat-activated liquid and had the crewunch them inside a probe, much the same as they were doing this time, only a bit more makeshift and without all of the extra knowledge that the Illithid brought with them.


    [Thank you for your patience, guests. Terminus is now verified safe and contaminant free. We will pass through the newly quarantined area for a few more days, but we still have one stop left that won''t be interrupted. There is an uninhabited along our route with simply stunning geological formations and weather patterns but no risk of infection.


    We will send the details closer to our arrival time, so look forward to it.] Nico informed the ship.


    Max couldn''t tell if his own people or the tourists were more excited, but he would definitely have to answer some requests to borrow shuttles to head to the''s surface by the time they arrived.

 Chapter 376 376 Splash Waterfalls

    [If everyone looks up at the screens spread through the ship, you will see our next destination approaching.


    The has a nearly identical atmosphericposition to that aboard Terminus, with no sentient poption but arge mammal poption and nearlyplete nt life coverage.


    It was terraformed in the distant past, but the original colonists were evacuated centuries ago. They found the primitive living conditions that their forebearers had created to be intolerable, so when they managed to regain the technology to contact a passing ship, they requested evacuation.


    Since then, the has been uninhabited, with few visitors, thanks to its location off the main trade routes and itsck of mineral resources. The itself was made almost entirely of basalt, with no other precious resources worth mentioning, making a mining colony or self-sustaining advanced civilization untenable.] Nico''s voice informed everyone.


    With the announcement out, Max went looking for the Illithid group, as they would have all of the safety data that he would need to determine if it was actually safe enough to let the tourists go down to the. He had gathered as much data as possible from the ship''s sensors to make the determination, but they had more information than he did about themselves and the Innu, so they would know if he had overlooked something important.


    Plus, it was basically a default setting Human terraformed colony. That wasn''t something that you get a chance to juste across every day. It would make an excellent addition to their records and a great segment for the video crew that was aboard Terminus if they could get down to the surface to video it properly.


    They could rely on the drones to do the work, but that might not get all the footage that they wanted, and it might not be in the quality they were expecting since the technology was so much different between the two species.


    [We see your data. It all looks safe, though we rmend that you cordon off the following areas. The woods north of sector C2, the base of the waterfall, where the impact of the falling water may cause injuries and trap swimmers underwater, and the cliffs in x9, where a toxic species of fungal life has been found.


    It appears benign to humans, but it is a strong hallucinogen to the Innu.]


    The Illithid warning about not letting the Innu have magic mushrooms made Maxugh, which confused the mind readers.


    [Are hallucinogenic drugs not a thing in your Alliance? Humans are known to use them recreationally.] Max informed them.


    [Interesting. No, I don''t think I know of any species that ingest toxins recreationally for the side effects. Even the toxic smoke that many of the infantrymen are fond of is unheard of elsewhere. Humans really are an interesting species, developing their own resistances forcefully as a form of recreation and relying on their Artificial Intelligence augmentations to heal and prevent damage to their bodies.]


    When they put it that way, it did sound a bit extreme. Especially since humans did that even knowing that it would lead them to a slow death.


    Max posted the guidelines for the excursion, following the Illithid''s advice, and added an option for guests to sign up for a shore excursion.


    The result was unanimous. Everyone wanted to go, and Max was pretty sure that would include most of his own crew if they were given the choice.


    But someone needed to remain on Terminus, and someone needed to guard the tourists, so he couldn''t just give everyone the day off. But what he could do was rotate them. Have them operate in shifts since they each had their own Cutter to get around in. Three off to begin with, with one active on the surface and one on Terminus, then two on guard and one returning to Terminus for the evening.


    "Is it really fine for us to take shore leave with all that has gone on?" One of the infantry officers asked when Max passed their barracks.


    "Of course it is. Transit time has always been personal time unless training duties are assigned by the Regimental Commander. So, as long as he doesn''t object, there is no part of the regtions that say that you can''t apany the teams to the surface for the day." Max informed the Corporal.


    "Sweet. Cliff diving it is, and we only have to convince the Commander." The man''s squad mates cheered.


    Max didn''t have the heart to tell the man that the cliffs were in the areas designated as off-limits. They could either find out or find a way around the rules when they got there. The infantry was good like that.


    They were truly impressive too. Twenty meters high, with crystals lining the bottom pool, they sent shimmering rainbows through the air around them. It would be an incredible experience to dive off of them.


    The''s vicinity was as vacant as expected when they arrived, without even signs of recent warp travel within the sr system. The destion was perfect for their purposes, and Max double-checked the itineraries while he checked the ship data to ensure that the vacationers would be able to withstand travel in the Cutters. It was a given for humans, but it was worth at least verifying for their very first orbital entry with new species.


    [Commander. You''re going down with the first shift off duty. Admiral Drake and his staff have declined the opportunity to leave Terminus. They said that they preferred a moment of peace and quiet to an insane group of Pilots who haven''t had a day off in too long.] Nico informed him just as they settled into orbit.


    [Then I will meet you down there. Don''t forget to bring a bathing suit.]


    [You had better believe it. I am totally going cliff diving.] Nico replied.


    Of course, she wanted to. He might have to justbel the cliffs as dangerous and not rmended instead of fully off-limits. Maybe he could station a medical crew by the pond as well. That might be for the best.

 Chapter 377 377 Ready To Land

    [Will all passengers wishing to visit the surface of the please report to themon area on the fourth floor for sorting and transport vessel assignments.] The ship''s announcement dered.


    Max, Nico, and all of the Battalion Commanders were waiting there for the intrepid passengers toe and get officially prepared to leave Terminus.


    Terminus herself would be pretty much empty by the time they finished getting everyone loaded, a strange situation for the Colony Ship, but a littleside vacation was exactly what everyone needed after all of the chaos that they had enduredtely.


    There was more than enough room in a single Cutter to load all the passengers as well as the Mechapliment, but it was better to mitigate the chances of catastrophe by spreading them out between all three that were going to be off duty to start the visit.


    The sun was just about toe up over the waterfalls, and that was a moment that Max didn''t want to miss, as the light refraction through the falling water and off the crystals looked amazing in the remote scans.


    "Wee everyone to the first official shore excursion. This is as new to us as it is to the rest of you, so bear with us if there are some hups along the way.


    The three roughly even lines you have formed will be your ship assignments for thending. Each Cutter will take a slightly different route to the''s surface, so you all will get a unique experience of the view on the way down.


    It urred to us that since everyone was sharing their photos on social media, it might be more interesting to have some differences between them, where possible. Nobody likes reposts, right?"


    Max''s speech made the Innuugh and snap pictures of him in his casually Reaver tunic shirt and leather pants.


    The Cutters had been stocked with an assortment of beverages, snacks, spare swimsuits, towels, and misceneous items that Logistics thought might be needed on the surface, such as art books and colored pencils.


    Max wasn''t sure which artist would forget such essentials, but it was better to be prepared for every eventuality.


    "If there are no objections, please follow your team leader to your vessel," Max ordered, then started walking toward the hangars to catch up to Dave, Molly, and his siblings, who were already waiting for him there.


    Nico was headed the other way, though, back toward the aft of the ship where the First Battalion and the Drones, as well as their own quarters, were.


    "Did you forget something?" He called as Nico split from the group.


    "Not at all. I prepared my own transport to the surface in case we need to do a rapid evacuation or reorganization. An ambnce, if you will." She replied, waving as she walked away.


    That actually wasn''t a bad idea. They had prepared medical teams, but the amount they could do on the surface was limited, and getting a Cutter ready for orbit took time. Having an Orbital Insertion Drone as an ambnce could save a life if things went very wrong.


    But as far as Max knew, they would have to load the injured person in the bomb bay, not exactly the mostfortable of amodations, even if they wererge enough for the patient and paramedic while the cockpit could hold two persons.


    Max read Nico''s thoughts as she left, just in case she had done something strange again, but it looked like she had just set up a first response cot in a standard Orbital Insertion Fighter Drone.


    That gave Max a good idea for the next trip, though. Slightly bigger drones, with seats and windows, so that they could do low-altitude flying tours of wherever they were visiting. It would also make for a great passenger shuttle for them, instead of their Kepler military-issue cargo shuttles, which were likely to draw some unwanted attention if they had to use them in a popted area.


    Max added it to the list he had for projects to be undertaken when they had time, though realistically, it would be mostly Nico and the Engineering team that would most likely make the new vessel.


    He really should have made her the boss. His paperwork load was suspiciously high, while she had a lot of free time, and it couldn''t all be exined by her doing her tasks as his second inmand digitally in the background.


    "Uncle Max. Are we really going to go y on a whole new?" One of the girls that Max had to identify by her thoughts, as Sasha asked.


    "We are. There are no people living there, only the people from the ship who are visiting. Have you explored the Cruise ship and met the new people yet?" Max replied.


    "We did, we did. Molly didn''t want us to go, she said she was tired, but we got to meet the Innu camera people. They said we could be in their documentary. We could be famous in a whole other world. Isn''t that awesome?" Sasha giggled.


    "Ask the younger Innu to y on the waterslides with you the next time you have free time from your studies. They love the waterslides." Max told her with a wink while Molly, their former foster worker turned surrogate mother sighed in frustration.


    "It''s hard enough to keep them concentrating on their work as it is. They don''t need more excitement to look forward to." The long-suffering woman told Max.


    "Just wear them out first. Ask Dave how he handled me. He was pretty good at finding ways for me to burn off excess energy." Max suggested while Molly cast a look at the two sets of twins, implying that such tactics were not possible with this group.


    "Well, they will be tired by the end of the day today. There are camping supplies in the Cutter, so we should load up and get ready for the drop."


    Max herded his family toward the Cutter, letting the Battalion handle the mass of tourists while he settled his group into one of the smaller private rooms.


    [Attention all Passengers. We will be departing in three minutes. Please take your seats and secure your restraints as described in the instructions on your seat. Thank you for your understanding and please enjoy your flight.]

 Chapter 378 378 Abs Of Steel

    The Cutter left Terminus with a smooth push from the gravity beam, only really noticeable because of all the screens showing the scenery outside the ship.


    There were only a few transparent portholes, and they had all been taken up with professional camera equipment, so everyone else was watching the screens as the atmosphere of the approached, starting from the dark side of the and passing across the light side until they reached the dark again, just past the line that marked the sunrise.


    If the professional footage turned out half as well as the fixed cameras, they were in for a treat when they edited all three ships'' worth of footage.


    The first few minutes were lost, of course, due to the mes of the superheated atmosphere burning around their shields, but the Cutters performed wlessly, and all three were reporting themselves precisely on course and on time when they reached thending zone nearest to the cliffs and the rainbow pool, as Nico''s tourism brochures called it.


    [Now that the hull has cooled sufficiently, please begin an orderly departure. If you have finished in the next fifteen minutes, you will be on time to see the sunrise through the mist of the waterfall. Adjutant Rage has set up pic nkets and reclining chairs already, so you only need to step out and find your preferred spot to watch the sunrise.]


    That caught Max by surprise. Nico hadn''t been thinking of that when she was around him, but it was also possible that it was set up by Logistics, and she only found out when she arrived in her drone ship loaded with supplies.


    The Innu did an excellent job of not pushing and shoving, moving smoothly out of the Cutter in a fashion that any Kepler soldier would be proud of. In fact, Max suspected that their presence was actually encouraging the Soldiers to be better behaved than usual so they didn''t embarrass themselves in front of the aliens.


    The surface temperature of the was nearly thirty degrees already, and the sun hadn''te up, so it was going to be a scorcher of a day away from the cooling mist of the pools, but that shouldn''t be a deal breaker with everyone nning to swim and rx anyhow. It would certainly slow down those who might want to go hiking through the woods though.


    Max felt a shoulder bump on his ribs just before the sun crested the ridgeline, and the air lit up in a beautiful rainbow. It was like nothing he had ever seen before, a kaleidoscope of colors that took up half the sky.


    Hundreds of cameras captured the moment, but what really caught Max''s attention was the handful of tourists that weren''t holding imaging devices. They were more interested in the Human Soldiers, who had all stripped down to swim trunks and bikinis in preparation to enter the waters once the first round of photos depicting the uninhabited and pristine nature of the ce had been taken.


    "Do humans not put on a fatyer? It''s like someone chiseled their muscles out of marble." One of the Innu girls sighed.


    "A little body paint and some proper tentacles to rece that fuzz on his head, and he would be perfect." The student''s friend agreed.


    "I think we might have to worry about more things than the species not getting along soon," Nico whispered, winking at Max when he gave her an annoyed look.


    Her red mechanical eyes glowed in the twilight, matching the bikini she had chosen with a translucent sarong wrapped around her waist. It was a stark contrast to her dark hair, which she had left loose to blow in the breeze, except for two small braids on the sides, one hung in front of either shoulder.


    "Well, I hear we''ve even got multiple species within the crew now. At least by intergctic standards. So how about we show them some peaceful interspecies rtions?" Max joked.


    "Right here in front of the waterfall? I never took you for the exhibitionist sort, but I''m game."


    Nico''s response made Max groan in embarrassment as he realized he had just left himself wide open for the teasing.


    "You know what I meant. Now, let''s go for a swim. It should help everyone rx if they see us in the water first. Being told it''s safe and seeing that it''s safe are two different things, after all." Max replied.


    "Sounds good. Give them a show, Commander." Nico told him, then took a knee and cupped her hands for him to step into.


    It was the same method that infantry and others with lower-ranked systems used to boost their squad mates over obstacles, so Max stepped back, then took two fast steps before stepping into Nico''s hand andunching himself into the air with her assistance, flying the thirty meters to the deeper section of the pool with ease and diving in.


    He couldn''t hear the cheering, but he could sense the approval of his form, so he dived down to check the bottom, making sure that it wasn''t too hazardous to be swimming here, even if the water was pure.


    The Crystals had almost all been worn into round shapes by the flowing water, so they were more like reflective pebbles, perfectly safe to swim around, while the actual shoreline had built up a sandy beach for the first few meters.


    One after another, the others joined him, with the Innu enthusiastically heading into the deeper waters to admire the gemstone base of the pond, where the rapid flow had pushed all of the sediment off of the rocks.


    "Dave, will we be able to do that one day? I want to fly through the air like a cartoon hero." Sandy, the younger of Max''s twin sisters, asked excitedly.


    "It''s possible. He is your brother, and he got such a powerful affinity, so you might do pretty well yourself, even if you don''t have as much affinity as he does." Dave agreed.


    The girls were barely into Gamma Rank, and that might be a generous ranking on behalf of their inspector or, more correctly, a bribe that had been given to him to increase her rank and, thereby, the subsidy her mother was getting.


    Even the Illithid had gotten in on the fun, wading through the shallower river sections, not wanting to get into the crowded pool when they could rx in the cool water and watch the rainbow reflections of the sun on the mist as the day warmed up.


    "The Commander made an excellent choice. Look, the humans are heading up the cliffs to dive. Get the cameras ready. Nobody will believe that they survived if we don''t have a video. They''re not even an amphibious species." One of the Innu videographers was directing his crew while the Pilots, who were significantly faster than the infantry who tried to race them to the top of the cliffs, prepared for the first dives of the morning.


    The winner of the race was Colonel Lucas, the stout and muscr but surprisingly nimble Colonel of the Third Battalion.


    He didn''t even slow, simply running to the edge andunching himself into the air, arcing through the sky into a perfectly executed headfirst dive.


    The spot they were jumping from overhung the main cliff face, so there was no real danger of hitting the rocks ornding in the shallows, but the dive was very impressive andnded him right in front of the waterfall''s most turbulent area, where he could easily swim to shore with minimal effort and maximum visibility for the spectators.

 Chapter 379 379 Were Doing This Again, Right?

    The Logistics staff did an excellent job of arranging a lunch buffet for the shore excursion, and the watch shifts changed at that point, giving them three Battalions on Duty instead of two, which left one avable to escort tours through the forest, while the area around the waterfall and Terminus were both still adequately guarded.


    "You look like you''re deep in thought. Care to share?" Nico asked from a nket on the ground where she was overseeing the crowd.


    "I was just thinking about a n I had earlier for a shuttle made based on the drones. Larger than the drones, with passenger seats and windows so that we could do tours of the wilderness from above. I would love to see what this world looks like from above when you''re not entering at above terminal velocity.


    I think it would be a great amenity, and it would really impress any Stations that we had dealings with if we showed up in a full custom shuttle." Max exined,ying down next to her and rxing with his hands behind his head.


    "That''s an excellent n. It wouldn''t take me long to create one since I already have ns for arger drone. You know, the one we were going to use for bombardment and resupply runs? It would berge enough for twenty passengers, which is also enough to supply a Battalion for a month on basic rations and minimal munitions." Nico suggested.


    "But with huge windows. I want the passengers to be able to really see." Max rified.


    Nico thought for a second, then nodded. "We could use the transparent hull material that Terminus has for windows. It''s just as strong as the existing materials, but we could create sturdy windows that extend right down to the floor, so you could lean over and look straight down or all around you. With the privacy coating that we use on bathroom stalls in use, it can be opaque, so the passengers don''t freak out during entry or over unsettling scenes."


    "That would be an incredible amenity." One of the Illithid announced from about twenty meters away but clearly talking to them.


    "We can''t all fly, but the views are incredible up there." Nico agreed.


    "Oh yes, I forgot that you use a collection of flying devices. Are you not equipping them today?" The Illithid asked, walking over to speak to them from a morefortable distance.


    "I brought one with me in case of issues, but for now, I just left it waiting in my shuttle," Nico exined, which caught the attention of the Innu students.


    The documentary team had brought camera drones, so they already had great footage, but everyone else had only seen the view from near the ground or during the entry.


    "Can we have them for the nextnding? The cool one with the tentacles. Flying with grabby tentacles would make exploring the forest so much more interesting than just walking through them. We have hover boots in the yacht, but none of us thought to bring them since we got all distracted thinking about the waterfall.


    I think we''re all too tired to go far today, but the next we visit, I totally want to fly through the forests with a sample collection suit." The Innu boy informed them.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "We can likely make some basic versions. The ones we have for the crew have welding and material printing attachments, as well as precision mps and other tools that you wouldn''t need for a nature excursion." Max reluctantly agreed.


    Keeping track of flying Innu on an unknown would be a nightmare, even if they put trackers on them all. Max had seen missing person reports when he was young of people who went missing on Kepler Terminus, and it was fully mapped and well popted.


    "There are so many things that we didn''t think of in advance. It looks like we''re not as fully stocked on amenities as we thought." Nico sighed, then turned her head to look at the river andughed.


    Max looked over but didn''t see anything out of the ordinary, only a few of the Illithid sitting around in the shallows, as they had been doing all day to beat the heat. Their protective suits were temperature controlled, but they could feel the heat on their shell.


    Listening in to the thought in the area gave away the source of Nico''s amusement. A few of the Illithid had abandoned the safety of their suits and were having a water fight in the river, hidden from in sight by their environmental suits and the distance.


    Nico had spotted them using the thermal optics of her augmentic eyes while they were darting through the water using their tentacles to move with incredible agility.


    "I thought at first that we had missed a mammalian species in the area. I didn''t expect them to let loose and really start having fun." Nico exined to the Illithid standing next to them.


    "They are younger than most of us. It is good for them to get it out of their system before they drive us all insane with their boredom." The Illithid chuckled.


    [Will everyone wishing to go on thest wilderness tour of the day please meet at the top of the ridgeline where the friendly face of Colonel Ri is waving at you in her Mobile Suit.] A Mecha''s speaker dered, bringing a number of tourists running to get in on the action.


    They only had a few more hours before it started getting dark, at which point they would do a twilight meal, watching the sunset hit the waterfall from the opposite side, and then they would all return to Terminus before dark.


    They could remain here another day or two, but everyone was exhausted, and they had plenty of ideas for improvements, so they would move along for now and look for another stop when they could.


    They also couldn''t put off the meeting at the Cygnus border for much longer. A few stops would be expected, but they were on a timeline, and Max didn''t want to bete for something that important if it was the sort of seditious alliance that he thought it was.

 Chapter 380 380 Drug Dealers?

    Once the tourists were all loaded back on Terminus, given a basic medical scan for infections and injuries, and settled back into their rooms, Admiral Drake made ready to take the ship back to Warp and get them headed back toward the border.


    Before he could even power up the engines, they got a rather unusual message from a nearby independent trader, sent on the Reaver''s open frequency for any Company in the area. By the Decree of Sector Command, a wide variety of drugs and medicines had been banned, leaving the Merchant with nowhere to unload his cargo.


    Given the state of the Sector and the run-in that they had with thest group that wanted a trade, Max was reluctant to answer the call for a deal, but after searching the ship''s travel logs and finding that they had just arrived in the sector from the far side of the Kepler Empire where the requested medicines were produced, he decided to have some mercy on the group.


    Rae 5 could use most of these items when they got back, and they couldn''t be easily reproduced with Kepler technology, which was why the merchant had gone to such lengths to buy and deliver them.


    [This is the Terminus Trading Company. We wille to your pinned location to make a trade. Please hold position, and be aware that the entire region is considered under quarantine by the Reavers, so interaction with the locals would include you in our quarantine measures.] Max informed them.


    [Copy that Terminus Trading Company. There is something off with this sector, and we will be leaving with whatever you have to trade. Someone somewhere will want it.]


    That was the sort of attitude a good merchant should have, so Max ordered the Admiral to meet with the Merchants. He also had the Engineering team prepare a long-range scan for the new viruses, which weren''t caught by their standard scans until it was far toote. They had a lot of random items on board, but the easiest to move would be to trade the Merchants some newly produced standard pattern Line Mecha for their medicine.


    Everyone knew at this point that the Reavers had quite a few of them to trade so that it wouldn''t draw too much attention, and they had an ample supply of the materials that were needed to make them.


    Max thought about trading off the luxury furniture that they had acquired, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought he should use it to upgrade the officer''s quarters for the infantry and more military barracks aboard the ship instead.


    They would take the trade loss for the items and call it an upgrade for thepany. They were making enough by leveraging their advanced manufacturing abilities.


    The Merchant ship turned out to be an oddity just as rare as Terminus. It was one of the Warp Sail vessels made by the Vampires in the far north of the Gxy. Instead of using a full energy shield, they used physical sails to help shape their warp fields, making them more efficient than most but limited in top speed.


    It was an antiquated design, just like Terminus, but still popr with Merchants in the North, though rarely brought this far south into the more dangerous regions, where speed and firepower mattered more to most merchants.


    [Terminus Trading Company? That is a rather impressive vessel you have there. We weren''t expecting such a grand Generational Home Ship to be in the hands of an unknown name.] The merchants greeted them.


    [Though the name is new, we have many familiar names in the Company. If you would like to send a shuttle with four-meter ceiling heights, we can make the deal in our Port side Bay 24. We have a gravity arrival and hull regtion system in ce, so please cut engines before reaching the barrier.] Max replied.


    It was only a few minutes before the traders sent their shuttle, matched to their ship in the same antique vintage and with the Vampire gothic fashion sense.


    It wasrge enough to take a handful of Light Mecha, and the Merchants could sell them anywhere that they wanted within the Empire, in essence giving them a free pass to pick up whatever load they wanted next.


    They arrived at the dock with a smooth stop and were pulled into where Max and Nico were waiting in the nearly empty bay, with only the Mecha they intended to trade visible, and all of the security staff moved outside of the bay entirely.


    This time even Nico had the barrier on the Archangel suit up, as it was already programmed to prevent intrusion by the mind-altering biomechanical virus.


    "You lot really have all the good toys. That temperature regtion feels like it''s Alliance technology." The ck-d and bone-white-skinned Vampire that led the trading group greeted them.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "That''s because it is. They helped us repair a number of the amenities aboard Terminus when we met with them.


    The vampire''s eyes lit up a brighter red than even Nico''s did when he heard that news and excitement were visible both in his mannerisms and his thoughts.


    "They actually interacted with you? And it went well enough that they agreed to grant you assistance repairing an antique colony ship? Now that''s a credential nobody would believe without seeing it themselves. But we have, and I am impressed." The Vampire told Nico with a smile.


    "Funny what happens when you don''t shoot at strangers, isn''t it?" Nico replied, making the whole Vampire groupugh.


    "We have a request, if possible. We are returning home after this trip, as we have secured the goods that we came for, so if possible, we would like to trade for Credits. That way, we could use them for provisions at face value without needing to arrange a trade." The merchant group''s lead Vampire requested.


    "We have Reaver, or General Credits, as well as Kepler Credits avable. Which would you prefer?" Nico asked.


    "If you have fifty million Kepler Credits, we will take those and then restock once we are out of this sector. The Reavers don''t quarantine an entire Sector without a good reason, and we don''t want to find out firsthand what it is. We don''t deal much in southern politics, and we have been away from home too long to be dyed by an infectious disease." He requested, sweeping his white hair out of his eyes with an annoyed huff.


    "We can do that. We also have a barber on board if you need it?" Nico joked.


    "I appreciate the offer, but I am trying to grow it back out, and it''s just at an annoying stage." The man exined with a sad smile, blowing the hair out of his face again.


    Max scanned the medicine, and it was all legitimate and urate in quantity, as he would expect of the notoriously hidebound Vampires. They lived an exceptionally long time, at least by this Gxy''s standards, and disliked all forms of dishonesty. They weren''t above some old-fashioned butchery when it was needed, but they would never lie about it tounch a sneak attack. It was beneath their dignity. If Max had known it was actual Vampires aboard the trade ship, he would have been much less reluctant to make the trade.


    The Credits were transferred, and the medicine was brought into the bay when one of the traders got a panicked look and turned to the bow of the ship, then whispered something to hispanions.


    "Well, as much as I usually love to stay and chat, I think we should leave immediately. We aren''t on the best of terms with the Illithid you see, and the one you have on board has noticed our presence." The leader exined.


    "They are guests. I am assured that they won''t harm anyone." Max told him.


    "Not physically. But we also share some mind-altering abilities, and their collective will hold grudges for a very long time." The merchant exined, looking more nervous by the second.


    "Then I won''t force you to stay any longer. It has been a pleasure dealing with you, and if you happen across us again, I would be happy to do the trade aboard your vessel if it makes you morefortable." Nico replied politely.


    The Vampires bowed politely and boarded their shuttle, gently moving out of the bay before taking off at maximum speed and returning to their own vessel, leaving the area the moment the bay doors closed.


    They weren''t kidding about having issues with the Illithid, it seemed. Max added it to his list of notes on theputer for future interactions.

 Chapter 381 381 Travel Time Needs Improvement

    After their deal with the vampires was finished, Terminus made its way toward the border through the newly quarantined sector, making a point to note and not respond to any messages that were the least bit suspicious or that came from a whose data traffic didn''t seem to match the situation on the surface.


    Calcting this way and sending the vine probes to every inhabited that they passed slowed them by a significant amount, and it took them almost a week to get clear of the region where the virus could possibly have spread to.


    The sector that they were passing through now hadn''t suffered any unrest of either the Zombie or the Rebel sort.


    "So, how are the data feeds on thes that we vinated?" An Illithid doctor asked Max as they passed a Binary star system, whose mismatched stars made the most amazing cat-eye effect when viewed from a certain angle.


    "There are no reports of mass side effects, but there have been some uprisings as the vinated regained their mental faculties. That was within our expectations, and it has done an impressive job of disrupting the attempts to mind control the sector." Max replied, passing him a tablet with the ship''s collected data on the subject.


    "Good, good. I am always d to see a ne to fruition. How much longer until our next stop? The passings are interesting, but the human settlements in this region are very simr, with all of them focusing on basic self-sufficiency and not a unique contribution to the collective."


    That described the majority of Kepler''ss. They just kind of got by and sent a Regiment every few years as a tribute. It was rare that you came across one that specialized in something that wasn''t abundant in the region, thanks to the uniformity of the Kepler Expedition''s terraforming efforts.


    "Tomorrow, we will reach the border region where we have some business to take care of, and then we can pass into Cygnus space. They have a slightly different culture than we do, and they were settled by an entirely different wave of human expansion, so there should be enough differences to keep things interesting for a few days.


    We have also identified another stop for a week after we leave this location. They produce unique crystal structures through sonic maniption. The technology is exclusive to their, so it shouldn''t be anything that the passengers have seen before." Max exined.


    That cheered the doctor up. New things and new knowledge were what the Illithid lived for.


    The Innu mostly only had two weeks left on the ship before they were scheduled to return home from their month-long voyage, so it would make for a pleasant endcap to their trip after weeks of viewings and ying in the gravity slides.


    With all his visitors taken care of, Max went down to the Hangars, where Nico was supposed to be working on a new shuttle design to carry passengers on their away missions.


    They had been at it for a week, tweaking and modifying the design to be safe enough for orbital entry atbat velocities while having suitable viewing angles for passengers to look out and enjoy their trip. A single-purpose vessel was far from up to Nico''s standards, so she was putting a lot of effort into this design, making sure that it was suitable for defense if they should meet a hostile indigenous species and maneuverable enough to evade capture by any known human vessel.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    The ship seemed to be ready when he arrived, painted bone white, with red markings identifying it as belonging to the Terminus Trading Company.


    Max could pick out six Laser Projectors mounted in the wings, as well as a retractable top turret that seemed to be an Ion Cannon. Not heavily armed for a Mecha conflict, but enough to deal withrge flying predators in a feral world.


    "Good timing. It''s all ready. Climb in and tell me what you think. The seats are adjustable, and we can remove one row and shift the others if there isn''t enough legroom. In the current design, it carries twenty-four passengers and two crew members, but with the seats shifted, that would be twenty. Plus, the crew.


    As you can see, the visibility is a little over two hundred degrees, with only the centers of the floor and ceiling being opaque. The structural beams shouldn''t interfere much with the views on the side, so I think we''ve fulfilled the design requirements." Nico informed him.


    Max entered and realized right away that not everyone would be cool with this design. The windows extended below the outer seats, letting you look straight down as if your seat was suspended in midair. There was an adjustment to block the views out of the window, though, turning them ck and opaque, so that would help a little with vertigo that Max assumed most people would suffer in this vessel.


    "It''s not bad, but those outer seats are going to freak a lot of people out," Max called to her as he took a seat, looking out the windows at the hangar bay.


    "That''s part of the appeal. Humans are already known as extreme and barbaric, so having a tour of the that feels like you are floating in your chair is exactly the sort of extreme butpletely safe adventure that we can market to the Alliance tourists." She disagreed.


    That wasn''tpletely incorrect, but Max''s attention was drawn by a storage rack in the back of the ship, along with a secondary door that appeared to exit straight out the back. Completely impractical except as an emergency exit was his first thought, but then he realized that Nico had designed this, so there was certainly a reason.


    A quick inspection of the rack showed that it held two dozen Archangel Exoskeletons, modified so that the wings were smaller and only contained cameras, not an array of weapons. Which meant that the rear door was for para-dropping. In the suits, with their force fields and gravity control, you could jump out of the ship while it was in motion to explore an arena, then fly back to the departure point or an arranged meeting location.


    It would also be incredible for dropping special forces teams into nasty situations since the drone used the same Crystalline drives as their warp engines and didn''t give off a huge energy or radar signature for enemies to track like a traditional Kepler dropship or Lander would.


    "You know what, I think I like this thing. Make a few more of them tonight, but be sure that you are ready to go when we arrive in the morning. I don''t know what idiocy we will be facing, but it is likely to include pompous Cygnus Nobles constantly preening, so we need to show them our very best." Max instructed her, then climbed out of their new shuttle to head back to his room.

 Chapter 382 382 Are You Everywhere?

    [Colony Ship Terminus, please maintain a safe distance of two thousand kilometers from the station while staying no less than two hundred kilometers from the other ships in orbit and send a shuttle of under one hundred meters in length with your representatives.] The control room of the station where they were supposed to be meeting the Rebel and Cygnus leaders for their meeting announced after Admiral Drake hailed them.


    There were three Cygnus Cutters and a Destroyer, two President ss Kepler transports, and three more Destroyers of Factions that Max wasn''t immediately familiar with.


    [Understood, Station Control. Prepare for an iing shuttle.] Max replied.


    He looked over at his team, twenty specifically chosen Pilots from among the Corvette ss units of the First Battalion, all equipped with Archangel Exoskeletons under their Reaver garb. They would put the forcefields up the moment that they arrived at the station and remain behind Max and Nico as their retinue.


    If the station had a problem with the Reavers carrying weapons, this could be an issue, but Max was hoping that nobody would say anything, at least not here on this frontier station, which was already hosting multiple factions, going by therge vessels they had seen on the way in.


    They all took their seats in the new shuttle, with Nico guiding it out of the bay using the Tech Adept Harness that she feltplimented her look the best, and made their way to the station at a sedate one-quarter of the suborbital cruising speed limit.


    That should give their hosts plenty of time to get a good look at their new shuttle, whose windows were now opaque, hiding the upants from casual inspection, while Nico kept a jamming signal up to prevent them from being scanned.


    It would annoy the Rebels to no end, Max was certain, but the Cygnus officers were familiar with the practice, as it was how they arrived when they were sending a ranking Noble.


    Everything about their approach had been carefully calcted to make them seem more impressive than they were, bolstering the image of the Reavers as an emerging power with unique new technologies that the other Nations should have at least heard rumors of by now, even if they hadn''t found any solid footage to confirm it yet.


    As they passed through the barrier around the cargo bay, Max saw their power usage spike as Nico normalized the hull temperature of the shuttle without waiting for the systems of the Station to do it for her, one more small power y that let them disembark as soon as the shuttle was stable and powered down, before the reception team could get properly in ce.


    The retinue formed up into two ranks, making an aisle for their Commanders to exit the shuttle, then fell in behind them as the Station''s representatives came into the bay to meet them.


    "Your technology is surprisingly effective. Pardon our dy. As you are thest to arrive, having been summoned after the meetings were already underway, please follow me to the reception hall where the others are waiting for you." The man in the in gray uniform of an outpost station weed them.


    "Kind words for our technicians'' skills are always wee. You may tell them that Commander Keres and Tarith Rage of the Terminus Trading Company will meet them personally." Nico told the base officers.


    "Certainly, Madam. This way, please. All weapons are to be out of sight during the meeting or ced in the care of the staff if that is not possible. The tensions have been somewhat high this past week with so many factions present. I hope you understand."


    "Entirely reasonable. All of our weapons are out of sight." Nico agreed with a smile that made the man shudder a little.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    They followed the staff through the hallways to arge convention hall, where Max could sense hundreds of thoughts ongoing inside, negotiating a trade deal between Cygnus and a small nation to the East of them, on the far side of their nation from here.


    That was unusual. Normally nations were only concerned with their immediate neighbors, and Kepler was many light years and multiple small nations away from their borders.


    "Commander Keres and Tarith Rage of the Terminus Trading Company, representing the Reaver Faction." The staff announced them at the door, drawing every eye in the room to their location.


    There were some wees and some grumbling about the apparent youth of the representatives, but after a few seconds, the crowd settled, and the leader of the meeting, a Rebel Kepler Duke, came forward to speak to them.


    "Might either of you hold Noble Titles, or should we refer to you both by your bare names?" He asked haughtily.


    From behind him, a familiar voice chuckled. "You may call him Sir Keres Max, and that is the Imperial Lady Tarith Nico."


    That voice couldn''t be anyone but Lord General Kirnd of Cygnus and his introduction had caused a panic in the room. The two of them were considered war criminals by the Rebel faction, and their presence here representing the Reavers was enough to make many think that they had been tricked.


    "Lord General, you do appear in the strangest ces, don''t you? I hadn''t expected to see you again after our abrupt departure from the service of the Kepler Fleet, but it is pleasant to see a familiar and dignified face, even if we are surrounded by cowards and traitors." Nico greeted him.


    Max resisted the urge to smack her in the back of the head, knowing that she had a forcefield up, and resigned himself only to sigh.


    The Rebel Duke looked incredibly offended and was about to speak when Nico turned to speak to him.


    "Certainly not your dignified self. Duke, whoever you are. Rest assured, we are here on behalf of the Reavers and only the Reavers." Nico told him.


    "You still have a way with words, Lady Tarith. I understand that you are bulletproof, but not all of us enjoy that luxury, so I would politely ask that you not touch off another gunfight inside the meeting hall." Lord General Kirnd requested.


    "I will keep it in mind. Now, what were we called all the way across the Kepler Kingdom to talk about?"

 Chapter 383 383 Opportunists

    "The reason that the Reavers have been called to a meeting between nations is a simple one. We foresee the copse of the Kepler Empire, and we all want a part of the spoils. There is a n already in ce that will spell the doom of the Empire, and we will need goods moved when things are unstable.


    As much as it pains me to say it, there isn''t a force in this region of the Gxy that is actually capable of that except the Reavers. Their impartial reputation, before recent regrettable events in the Terminus Sector involving the Tapani, means that everyone here has dealings with them and is willing to ept them as trade partners during the inevitable chaos as we divide the spoils." The Rebel Duke informed the Reaver representatives.


    Nico nodded slowly before answering. "So, an understanding that the rest of the Rebel movement does not align themselves with the group that sent the Tapani after us and trade through Kepler space, even if it changes hands? I think that is something that we can work out."


    "Aren''t you a bit too proud for the representative of a lowly trade faction?" One of the foreign dignitaries asked.


    "Crown Prince of Califa Seven, are you not a bit too arrogant? Our Colony Ship has more Super Heavy Mecha than your." Nico retorted.


    That was a fact that everyone had at least heard, though most hadn''t believed the rumors of dozens of Super Heavy Mecha in an unknown design in the hands of the Reavers at Rae 5. The results of the battle were clear, but the method of victory was still a matter of much debate among every other faction.


    This was why Max hated politics, all of the nonsense and posturing, while nothing at all got done. Nico was a natural at it, though her methods always seemed to end in violence. Even with that unfortunate side effect, it was still better to let her take the lead most of the time so that Max didn''t have to suffer the annoyance of dealing with politicians himself.


    "That''s enough, you two. Can we stay on track for at least two minutes at a time?" Lord General Kirnd asked.


    "You seem to favor the little Reaver girl. Have you two perhaps met before?" One of the foreigners asked.


    The Cygnus group shared a grim look, but the Lord General answered honestly. "Before they left the service of the Kepler Military, the two representatives of the Reaver Nation met me in battle. They had the good fortune toe out on the winning side of the engagement, and the resulting agreement is what led to the Cygnus forces withdrawing support for the Rebels."


    "So full of nobility and honor. Bunch of nonsense if you ask me." The foreigner, who Max identified as a Duke of the Califa delegation, sighed.


    "Let''s move forward. Come, take a seat and let''s get to the actual business." A rebel Duke dered, pulling the attention of the crow back to therge ring of tables that dominated the room.


    Nico used a mechanical dendrite to pull out Max''s chair for him, then sat beside him, subtly indicating that he was the one in charge, though she was the one speaking on his behalf.


    "Good. Now, we can''t share the details for fear of leaks, but within the next six weeks, there will be an incident that will destabilize the situation in Kepler. Once that happens, we ask that all those who are vying for a slice of the corpse send their troops in and take over the region they have been designated as rapidly as possible, in whatever manner suits you best." The Rebel leader informed the room.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Max could see that there were already divisions drawn on the holographic map in the middle of the circle of tables, so he motioned for Nico to record them for future reference.


    "I won''t question your methods or timetable, but are you absolutely certain that it will cause a significant enough disruption to break the chain ofmand and not just lead to a military coup that would see the fleet crack down viciously on anyone looking to cause trouble?" Nico asked.


    "The others asked the same at first. But yes, our ns include dealing with the organization of the Fleet. With them just as disorganized as the rest of the Empire, our allies will be able to move in with only the local defense fleets to be concerned with, and we are already moving as many of those out of their home regions as we can.


    There is a Narsian invasion on the North side of the Empire, and we have fed arge amount of misinformation about it to the fleet and Central Command, leading them to send the majority of their avable forces. By the time they realize what is happening, it will be toote to recall them, and they will be left to defend whatever they can.


    That is why there is no assignment for that northern region of space. Most of the fleet will be there, and they will naturally attempt to stabilize the region that they are in, then wait for orders that will nevere as the Empire falls."


    His idea made sense. It might not work, but it at least had some semnce of logic behind it.


    Max was about to open his mouth to point out that the distribution of forces that they had indicated on the map would leave their homes vulnerable to each other and to the forces that weren''t here in this room, but Nico pinched his side with a mechanical arm, silencing him.


    It wouldn''t do any good to point that out at this time, and he would only be seen as a troublemaker trying to sow division in this makeshift alliance. They would have to learn for themselves the danger that they were putting themselves in by moving so much of their military out of their home region.


    "So what you want is for us to set up a tradework to make up for the regr shipments that won''t be moving during the unrest? I don''t see that being an issue. It might deprive some of the outlying regions of their regr trade missions, cutting frequency to half what it is now, but we can at least keep basic trade functions avable." Nico agreed, posting some basic data on publicly known regr trade Routes for Reaver Companies to the map, oveying their existing battle ns.


    The only one who had noticed that they were holding something back was Lord General Kirnd of Cygnus, who had dealt with Max and Nico before. Max could sense in his thoughts that he was calcting the trade routes looking for whatever he missed.


    The light in his eyes when he realized that it wasn''t about trade, but about the points that they would be trading to almost made Max break character to wink at the quick-witted Noble.


    Of all the nations here, the only one that could sustain theirmitment and have a good chance at remaining stable was Cygnus, and even that would stretch their more stable inner regions fairly thin.

 Chapter 384 384 Cygnus Knows

    "Looking at the map this way, I havee to a realization. The current requests would draw our supply lines extremely thin. Perhaps I have been too greedy in early negotiations." Lord General Kirnd sighed, pointing to the map.


    If this n worked, Cygnus was set to absorb an enormous portion of the former Kepler Territory, starting at their border. Like Cygnus, they had taken heavy casualties in the past few years, so it wasn''t going to be the most straightforward deployment for them, but the gains were undoubtedly worth it, looking at the resources that they were standing to gain, especially if they could peacefully transition a number of the more important manufacturings.


    "What are you saying, Lord General?" A representative of the Tapani asked.


    "I believe that Cygnus will be willing to ept a smaller portion of the spoils in exchange for our assistance if the Nations that initially wanted the regions at the edges of our new territory are capable of taking them as well as what they currently nned." The General informed the room.


    Many of the representatives looked dubious at his motivations, but one of the smaller fleets, whose home territory was only four star systems, highlighted a lightly inhabited farm world.


    "This would be within our capability. It isn''t much, but it would save you from wasting an entirepliance fleet to take care of it." The man suggested.


    ? "Cygnus has plenty of new farm worlds in our core territory expansion. I don''t see any harm in granting you that request." Kirnd agreed.


    The devious smiles spread through the room while the Lord General silently celebrated in his mind.


    Unlike most of the people in this room, Cygnus didn''t actually need any of the new territories in order to help their people. It would be a gain on paper only, as they gained territory but retained the bnce of resource distribution within the Empire.


    Max suspected that it was mostly lingering enmity that had brought them here in the first ce, especially after Kirnd ordered his adjutant and their team to continue making deals.


    That went on for three hours while Nico and Max sat silently, watching the show.


    None of this changed their role in the overall n, as someone would still need supplies for all of thoseary regions.


    The Lord General updated the map with every deal, and while every deal was small, Max noticed that by the end of it, Cygnus had given up nearly half of their nned expansion, as well as all but four of the heavily defended systems, a level of conflict that was a day to day normal for them when they were at war with Kepler.


    This expansion would cost them nothing but the casualties on their attacking force, and it wouldn''t stretch their resources on the home front, especially with so many nations with whom they shared a very tense rtionship focused on Kepler.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    For Cygnus, there was no loss now that they had reduced the greed of their ns. They could hold the home front, and even if the n failed, they would just retreat to their borders while their neighbors lost so much that they would be unable to defend themselves.


    Like Nico, he had grasped the bigger picture in moments, thinking not only about the alliance forces but those further out and how they would react to the change in defenses among their neighbors as they went on the attack.


    The fact that nobody else had noticed was almost painful to Max, whose sense of righteousness couldn''t stand to see so many nationsmitting virtual suicide. But it was their choice, and there was the chance that they could do with alliances and hidden assets what Max didn''t expect them to be capable of.


    There really wasn''t much for Max to do since he had easily agreed to let the Reavers continue their trading activities in the affected regions. There would have to be an agreement with the Rebels and Tapani, as well as all of the other nations who wanted a part of Kepler space, but that could be written up easily enough tonight and dealt with tomorrow.


    Max also had a great idea for the agreement, a bit of consequence to betraying it, other than the obvious stoppage of shipments.


    These nations weren''t friends, they were only temporary allies, so Max was nning to add a use that if the nations involved betrayed the Reavers, the nations holding neighboring territory would help the Reavers take vengeance, with the territory affected aspensation after the traitors were defeated.


    It would be a wonderful mess of a situation and make things even more chaotic, but that might just be enough to keep the Reaver trade vessels safe during a time of unrest when they were often targeted by various fleets whose resources had run low.


    Everyone loved getting something for nothing, and robbing a merchant using a military fleet was a very easy thing to do.


    Since he didn''t have anything to do with the rest of the conversation, Max began drafting the agreement, using a temte that was stored in the database of Terminus for situations like this. It was a Kepler agreement, and surely some of the others would recognize it, but he knew that it would be legally solid and that the nations involved would honor it. At least to the point that they thought they needed to.


    "Alright, let us break for dinner, and we will return to the meetings tomorrow morning." The leader of the Rebels present at the meeting ordered, raising up from his seat and shaking hands with those nearest to him.


    "Lord General Kirnd, would you like to join us aboard Terminus for an evening meal? We have a few things that we should discuss with you in private, apart from the matters of these meetings. We were already headed your way, so this is perfect timing." Max asked the Cygnus Noble.


    "Of course. We will follow you on our shuttle. I would love to get a chance to see the inside of your magnificent new vessel. To think, it wasn''t long ago that you were ying aboard Comor Station with the Imperial Prince. We have a lot to catch up on." Lord General Kirnd agreed.

 Chapter 385 385 Cygnus Honor

    The shuttle holding Lord General Kirnd and his entourage followed right behind Max''s shuttle as they entered Terminus, thinking that they would be waiting for the hulls to adjust together.


    Being grabbed by the gravity beam and slowly fed through the field as the ship''s barrier prepared them for immediate departure from their shuttle was an incredible shock to their pilot, despite being warned by the automated warning that it was about to happen.


    "This ship has all sorts of surprises waiting for us, doesn''t it?" The general asked as he departed the shuttle, tipping his hat to the staffers who came to collect his luggage but stopping them from collecting his bags from the shuttle.


    "Let them take your bags, and you can stay the night in one of the luxury suites in our guest area," Nico suggested, motioning for the staff to continue.


    "You even have a guest area set up? You really have put some work in if you think this relic of a ship is ready to host dignitaries." General Kirnd chuckled.


    "You have no idea. But here we are at the entrance to the public areas. Wee to Terminus, the finest adventure cruise ship in the Gxy." Nico replied with a smile, motioning at the vast expanse of the central gardens and slides that made up the cruise ship areas.


    They had private VIP quarters, appointed to the finest of Noble standards, but it was much more amusing to let the Cygnus officers loose in the Cruise Ship section, where they could be interrogated by the Innu, who were already moring for details about the new pattern of shuttle that had arrived aboard Terminus.


    The documentary crew had discretely set up on a balcony, using telescopic lenses to get the footage that they wanted, and Max waved for them to send someone forward, then sent a thought to the Illithid that they coulde to greet the foreign Noble if they wanted.


    [That sounds entertaining. They are much like you but somehow very different. Not only in technology but in mind and body as well. Oh, that''s it. They don''t have any nanotechnology enhancing them. How curious.] The thoughts of the Illithid came all at once and not in a string as humans would put them, but Max was getting used to their concurrent streams of conversation already and didn''t have any issues understanding their burst of thought.


    "Greetings, I am Jorda of the Innu people. Our home Gxy is a founding member of the Gctic Alliance, located four point nine seven standard units from here." The first of the Innu to arrive greeted General Kirnd with a polite bow.


    "Lord General Kirnd, of Cygnus Prime, homeworld of the Cygnus Nation, seventeen hundred light years from our current location." The General replied politely while Max shook hands with the new arrival.


    "The Innu, and in fact their entire multi-gxy alliance, is a peaceful culture who have moved pastary scale battles. They have joined us for a tour of the Gxy and to document human culture in its natural state at this moment in time. We also have representatives of the Illithid people aboard at the moment, though they are a few moments from arrival, as we neglected to warn them of our arrival in advance." Nico exined.


    "By Alliance, do you mean THE Alliance, the source of the invincible world ships?" General Kirnd asked.


    The newly arrived Illithid gave a snort of amusement but answered on behalf of the guests. "You wouldn''t know that they were invincible to your technology if you hadn''t shot at them. But yes, that Alliance epasses both of our species'' homeworlds."


    General Kirnd blushed a little in embarrassment. "Yes, about that. We are very sorry for the misunderstanding."


    The Illithid waved off his concern. "It is no more than we expected. Most primitive cultures shoot at strangers in their territory. The exploration fleet''s interactions with you would have been very minimal anyhow, as you haven''t made the minimum benchmark for technological advancement that activates our weing protocols for newly evolved species."


    Max was certain that he had his emotions in check, but Nico''s red mechanical eyes were flickering as she failed to contain her amusement.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "You get used to them after a while. The Illithid don''t lie, and they rarely sugarcoat anything, so don''t take it to heart. The standard that they mean is the ability to travel at Warp 10, which is enough to allowfortable transit between Gxies without using Portals or wormholes." Nico exined.


    General Kirnd gave her a calcting look, then spoke slowly. "Which means that you have reached Warp 10, and you didn''t shoot at them when they arrived. What else have you been hiding from the Gxy?"


    Nico shrugged, but the smirk never left her face. "What if I told you that there are actual flying angels with organic metal bones or that the Reavers have the ability to manufacture Super Heavy Mecha?"


    "I think I would find it easier to believe that the angels with metal bones could fly." General Kirnd scoffed in amusement, then went quiet as he realized that she wasn''t joking.


    "It seems that I have missed a lot of very important developments. No wonder you abandoned the Kepler Empire after they dered you a war criminal."


    Max frowned. "Are they still on about that?"


    Kirnd''s assistant nodded with a sad smile. "Not only are they on about it, enough of Central Command believes it that the status is official and not just an usation by the Rebels."


    That was something that Max didn''t know. The question was what particr incident was the one that made thembel him and Nico as official criminals.


    Kirnd didn''t say anything, but he tapped his temple to get Max''s attention and thought of the intelligence briefing that Cygnus had held on the topic.


    Transport Vessel Abraham Kepler, assumed to have them and General Tennant aboard, had deployed killer bombs against a highly popted world, turning the air to acid and then setting the entire atmosphere on fire in a self-perpetuating chemical reaction until the world was barren.


    Cygnus couldn''t determine the truth of the matter, but it was considered official by Central Command, and the General had been stripped of his rank and position. He would have been stripped of his Mecha as well, but Shining Darkness was already a museum piece sitting on Comor.


    "It seems that we really do have a lot to talk about. Please, join us all for dinner. I can assure you it will be worth your time." Max sighed.


    If Central Command bought that line of nonsense, then it had already fallen to the Rebels, or at least a segment of it had. Their orders hade from Central Command, to begin with, so they should have known at the very least that he and Nico were no longer aboard Abraham Kepler.


    The fact that they had been forgotten meant that there was a good chance someone had scrubbed the Central Command mainframe of their actions, and whoever took over from that person didn''t know anything about what had happened.


    [Inquisitor General Ming, please join Lord General Kirnd and us for dinner. I think you need to hear what he has to say.] Max requested sending the coordinates for the steakhouse in the Cruise Ship section and making them a reservation at the same time.

 Chapter 386 386 Timeline Issues

    While everyone was getting seated for dinner, General Ming came running in with a data tablet in his hand. He didn''t say anything, just stared at Max for a moment and then ran back out, leaving most of the rest of the table in confusion.


    "Interesting, so he is with you as well. We had been looking for the inquisitor for months, but as it turns out, he had been sent to infiltrate the Reavers." General Kirnd mused as General Ming left the room.


    "Not the most sessful attempt ever. We all knew who he was from the start since he was friends with our former Commander. But he doesn''t cause problems, and having an inquisitor around when you''re plotting a course through troubled areas is a real benefit." Max shrugged.


    "That is true, I suppose. Can you tell us what the big message was that he couldn''t speak it out loud and had to skip dinner?"


    Max considered how much of the message he should tell the Cygnus Noble, knowing what the n was for the uing weeks.


    "The Rebels have staged a false surrender ceremony, and it seems that the Emperor is ying into it. He has left the Capital and is headed out to meet them with the Royal Compliance fleet." Max finally decided to exin.


    It wouldn''t change anything on their end. If he seeded at whatever he was nning, the Rebels'' n was likely going to go down in mes, but if they seeded, it was better for Cygnus to have the advance warning because they were the most stable force in the region and it could avoid a lot of unnecessary bloodshed within Kepler.


    Max''s mind was torn by the situation. He was a Kepler loyalist through and through, but at the moment, Cygnus were allies, even if they were nning to betray that at the first opportunity. The other nations would need to send their fleets a week or more in advance due to the distance, so Cygnus could make out just as well by taking their territory while it was nearly undefended if Kepler defeated the Rebels, and that was a big win for Kepler.


    But on the other hand, the information would also prepare the Cygnus fleet to invade.


    Not exactly a great option, but in bnce, Max thought that it would save the most lives and shorten the chaos.


    The Cygnus delegation let it rest at that and simply sent a message to their Commanders to verify the information and update their strategies for the mission should it turn out to be correct.


    The primary concern that General Kirnd had was that if the Emperor was moving now, any n to act against him or the military wasn''t going to be able to wait for weeks. When the Emperor took direct action, Central Command was shelved and exchanged for the Emperor''s own confidantes, eliminating their chance to corrupt orders and even aplish the central part of their n to order the majority of the fleet to the edge of the Empire to deal with the Narsians.


    "How about we show you around the ship, and you can take an early night? They expect us all back at the meeting first thing in the morning anyhow." Max suggested.


    General Kirnd knew that he would be the only one getting any rest, as the Innu were incredibly eager to speak to his team about the intricacies of Cygnus technology and culture.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "That sounds excellent, but I propose that we arrange another meeting before I go. There is a vacation world much like Comor set on the southeastern edge of Cygnus space. With your Colony ship''s speed on its trip here, it would only take a week or two for you to arrive.


    If you leave right after the meetings, it might help clear your mind, as well as show your guests a few new things about our lovely and backward Gxy." Lord General Kirnd suggested.


    What his thoughts showed was that the region was as far as possible from the fighting and the territories that were likely to be unstable, as the Nation that bordered that region of Cygnus hadn''t signed on to the Rebels'' n.


    "Unfortunately, I think we will have to stick around for a little while, we have customers to service before we can head so far out, but I will consider it," Max replied politely, wondering what exactly the best course of action might be.


    Max left the guests to their own devices and returned to his office while they explored. Nico was with them, so they could only get into so much trouble, and he had far too much paperwork to do.


    [Commander. We have multiple messages for you. Rae 5 reports that the Tapani fleet is using gravity technology to redirect Klem pod waves toward Reaver-friendly worlds, The Death Wind Mercenaries report that an unknown force has attacked near the border of Cygnus, and the Reavers report chaos among the Kepler fleet.


    Dozens of ships have changed directions in thest three hours, most headed our way, but many of them are scattering out all through the northern Regions or headed to the gctic core border to deal with the Narsians.]


    So much for having two weeks to n and get things in order. Events were already in motion that couldn''t be stopped, and even a warning from Inquisitor General Ming might not change anything at this point.


    Max sent him all the details that he had about the ns that the Rebel Alliance had made, but how much good the Inquisitor General could do with it was questionable.


    [One more message for you, Commander.] Themunications officer informed Max as he red at his screen.


    [What is it?]


    [Nico has intercepted foreign signals headed to your location at warp 7. Nationality unknown, all vesselsrger than a Kepler Destroyer. Signal patterns and scans indicate that they aren''t from the Alliance, and the probes that they have passed indicate that they are most likely heavily armed.]


    Max sighed and made up a battle n, assuming that they were about toe under attack by someone who had seen the same thing Nico had. Arge group of vulnerable nations whose emissaries had gathered in one spot.

 Chapter 387 387 About The Visitors

    From what Max could tell, they were the only ones that had noticed the iing ships, so it was impossible to tell if they were part of one of the delegation''s fleets and just in a pattern that wasn''t recorded in the Kepler military logs that they had copied into the database aboard Terminus.


    If this was just someone''s fleet showing up early for the attack, it wasn''t going to be a big deal since they should be expecting arge number of attack vessels toe past this point soon, as it was near the edge of both Kepler and Cygnus space, where a lot of the smaller nations would need to cross to get to their target areas.


    Max would be able to rx a lot more if he had any sort of way of confirming if the Kepler Emperor had even heard their message and warnings, but the fleet that he was traveling with wasn''t sending out any signals at all, observing radio silence the way that Abraham Kepler had been ordered to, and the way that Max was supposed to be doing, if he wasn''t acting as a Reaver Commander at the moment.


    It was a convenient workaround to their orders, allowing him to keep in contact with the world without outing themselves as a loyalist force.


    The Reavers were theoretically neutral, but it was usually in their interest to maintain the status quo, so asking them to go along with this insane mission directly depended on the chances of sess. If a small nation looked like they were going to fail, the Reavers who were trading in the area would almost certainly help the loyalists to victory, maintaining their existing business rtionships as much as possible.


    What Max really wanted to know was what the Rebels thought they could do that would totally destabilize the Empire. Now that the Emperor was acting directly, infiltration of the bureaucracy no longer mattered. He would simply override them and have anyone who he thought was betraying his orders executed for either sedition or ipetence.


    The Rebels also didn''t have arge enough fleet to take on hispliance force, so a direct battle to wipe them out and weaken the top echelon was improbable, even if they had a secret ally.


    The iing fleet might be exactly that ally, but still, it didn''t seem likely that it would be enough of a military force to do anything to stop the Emperor.


    [Keres Max, we need to speak of these new vessels. The Illithid know these vessels, and they are not from your gxy.] A voice in Max''s mind informed him.


    [What do you know? Are they hostile?] Max asked.


    [They are hostile to everyone. For that reason, they were denied membership in the alliance, and their territory marks the border of our allied forces. They live for the hunt and use power-assisted armor simr to your Mecha, but biologically based and not fully mechanical.]


    A living Mecha? That sounded both horrific and incredible at the same time.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    [What will they want when they arrive? Annihtion or a challenge? Many hunting species wish to challenge the very best first.] Max replied.


    [They are a matriarchal society, so they will want to challenge your strongest female to a test ofbat first. Their hunting suits are fifteen meters tall, so they are somewhat on par with your own Heavy Mecha, but as far as capabilities, I cannot say.


    If the challenge is satisfactory to them, they will attempt to make a deal with your species champion. Usually, they want ess to territories with more hunting grounds for them. Either ones where they can fight in their suits or the more extreme ones where they will fight unarmored.] The Illithid informed him.


    Were there really that manys with animal species that could challenge a Heavy mecha? Most of Kepler''s territory had been terraformed, so such a thing was all but unheard of. The fact that a species that existed for the challenge of such ces was still roaming around the universe meant that, on arger scale, Kepler was the anomaly.


    Maybe they would like to fight the Nemians? The giants would certainly love the challenge of fighting this hunter species. With their technology, they could match up to most heavy Mecha, and though Max didn''t know the alien hunter''s size, fighting the Nemians without their giant hunting suits, as the Illithid called them, should be an impressive challenge.


    [General Kirnd, it seems that the region will be receiving some unexpected guests tomorrow. The delegation from the Reavers will meet with them, as they are known to be rather belligerent on first meetings with new species, so I do hope that you can pass our message on to everyone else.] Max requested.


    [Nothing productive will get done at tomorrow''s meetings anyhow. I have been instructed by the Imperial Crown Prince to inform them that you have members of the Alliance aboard your vessel and the exact reason why we, as humanity, have been deemed unworthy of their interaction. That will be more than enough to throw a whole week into chaos.] General Kirnd replied.


    Finding out that your entire species was deemed too violent and primitive for civilized interaction was going to be hard on them. Especially the nations who considered themselves evolved forms of demihumans, thanks to ancient Gic Engineering.


    One week to get over the shock and starting to grips with the way The Alliance sees them might be too short of a timeframe.


    [Understandable. If they need us to send a representative from the Reavers, let us know. The other fleet should be here in the morning after the meeting has started, and we will move Terminus to intercept so that it doesn''t be a huge mess with the gathered nations.] Max informed him, and sent a proposed timeline and movement chart.


    A bit of data could go a long ways to helping the Cygnus delegation keep things under control on their behalf after all.

 Chapter 388 388 Unleash The Nico

    "It was a pleasure getting to explore the public areas of Terminus, Commander Keres. I will return to the meetings and inform them about the viewpoint of The Alliance, as so many of them have attempted to gain an audience in the past.


    Perhaps some might have a change of mind about their future path, knowing that there is such arge group of peaceful species out there, just waiting for us to be ready to join them." General Kirnd told Max.


    Max nodded and gave the General a conspiratorial wink. "I suspect they might have to wait just a little bit longer, but please do record their reactions. I might not be able to attend, but I don''t want to miss out on that spectacle."


    "Of course. The Imperial Family has made the same request as well." General Kirnd chuckled, then tipped his hat and entered his shuttle, making ready tounch back to the station for the meetings.


    As soon as he was clear of Terminus, Admiral Drake sent a message to the assembled fleet, letting them know that Terminus needed to meet some iing vessels and that they would return as soon as possible to continue their meetings.


    That didn''t seem to ruffle any feathers. Many delegations had switched their representative in the past weeks, so the Reavers doing the same wasn''t an issue. They were far from a decision anyhow, even though they didn''t know about the bombshell that General Kirnd was about to drop on them.


    [Hunter fleet, this is the Human vessel Terminus, on an approach path to your current course. Please respond.] Nico broadcast to their unexpected guests using the frequency and pattern that the Illithid had provided to them.


    [Human woman, this is Huntress Khan. Are you prepared for a duel?] The fleet responded curtly.


    [In Mechanized armor of the twenty-meter ss, or would you prefer an unarmed duel between champions, so your technology doesn''t matter?] Nico asked in a polite tone but with a hint of underlying insult.


    [We will duel in Hunter Suits first to see if your species is even worthy of being called a challenge. Send your strongest female to the Arena ship at these coordinates.] The Hunters replied, then cut the link.


    "Well, that went better than expected. But maybe you should have introduced yourself directly instead of the ship. Nothing we can do about that now. Admiral, can you make for those coordinates now that their fleet has dropped out of warp?" Max requested.


    "On it. We will arrive in ten minutes at warp 5." The Admiral replied grimly.


    "Rx a little. I asked the Innu about these duels, and they''re not to the death. I have confidence that I can put up enough of a fight that they will at least be impressed by their first taste of humanity. After that, they should be willing to work with us to find hunting grounds since they don''t usually hunt sentient species unless they are also up for the challenge." Nico told the Admiral, looking unconcerned behind the non-Newtonian metallic mask that was her face.


    No matter how realistic she had made it look, Max couldn''t quite bring himself to forget that it was still a state-of-the-art piece of armor and that much more than a gentle caress would turn it solid.


    Nico and a small team of volunteers went to the First Battalion''s cutter, the smallest vessel that they had which could hold Shattered Pride, her new custom Mecha.


    The team was all female, as the Hunters were said to view their females as the warriors of society, while the males were the builders and engineers. It seemed like a good bnce to Nico, but Max was more on the side of gender equality. The best person for the job and other such sentiments.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    The barrier of the Arena ship lowered, and a video link was sent to Terminus so that everyone could watch Nico and her team arrive and the path that they would take to the Arena.


    The distance stopped Max from knowing their thoughts, and they were blocking the Illithid, so Max could only guess at their intentions, but it seemed that they were interested in having everyone know that the duel was conducted with some sort of honor or other protocol.


    It had been a long time since either the Illithid or the Innu had been involved in such a thing, so they couldn''t say for certain if the protocol had changed, but they hadn''t heard of any radical departures from tradition among the hunters.


    The Cutter settled gently into the bay, its hull temperature normalized instantly on entry, and the bay doors dropped open.


    [On the side of the Humans, their champion Tarith Rage, in the Hunter Suit Shattered Pride.] Max heard over the inte from the stadium.


    Hundreds of thousands of hunters had gathered, all wearing the same golden masks over their faces, with simple togas over sand-colored skin that looked like it might be scaled. The cameras weren''t focused on them, so the detail wascking, and Max had forgotten to ask the Illithid about it earlier.


    "Most is just tough hide, but they do have some spikes and protective scales over strategic areas of their bodies." The Illithid closest to him replied to Max''s thoughts, then brought up a small hologram in front of him.


    They certainly looked vicious, even in a simple toga, standing roughly 250 cm tall, with heavy muscle and those creepy golden masks over their faces. ording to the Illithid, the males were much smaller, close to 160 cm, and slender but were much more intelligent. That was why they had split their society into specialist segments.


    The four-armed, demonic visage of Shattered Pride stepped clear of the doorway of the Cutter, and Max could hear the entire crowd begin to roar in appreciation of Nico''s chosen Mecha. It wasrger than their standard hunter suits, suitable for a Champion, in their estimation, and looked very imposing, with its armor designed to mimic a demonic form and horned mask.


    [On the side of the Hunters, their champion, and our Commander, Huntress Khan, in the Hunter Suit Dominus.] The announcer dered, and a twenty-meter-tall mecha entered the ring, externally mimicking the biological form of the Hunters, right down to the muscles rippling as it walked.


    The two war machines stood on opposite sides of the arena, facing each other in silence as they waited for the announcer to finish the rituals that would begin the fight, and the upants of Terminus waited to see if they stood a chance of being taken seriously.


    Max sighed to himself, annoyed that he missed yet another chance to fight, but the Illithid decided to take this chance to console him.


    [If she manages to impress them, there will be plenty of chances to fight. They love bringing those who impress them hunting, and alone, even your mighty Cleansing Light is no match for some of the things that they will team up to fight.]


    Max wasn''t sure that was actually reassuring, but it did mean that he wouldn''t be stuck as a glorified figurehead for much longer, even if the Rebels got smart and picked the peaceful way out.

 Chapter 389 389 Monsters In The Arena

    [As we have never faced a human champion before, the weaponry rules will be rxed by this match, but all other rules will stand. No cockpit hits, no attempting to kill the champion, and stop when the opposing Hunting Suit is disabled.] The announcer dered, bringing a fresh round of cheering from the audience.


    [Normally, they only duel with built-in weapons and melee weapons, no handheld heavy weapons.] The Illithid informed Max.


    That was all that Shattered Pride used anyhow, as the Disruptors were built into the forearms, and each hand currently held a de.


    "Agreed," Nico informed the Hunters and gave a slight bow, crossing her upper des in front of her chest.


    "Agreed. Now, hurry along. I want to fight." Huntress Khan told the announcer, eagerness clear in her voice as she face Nico''s Mecha.


    [In that case. Begin.] The announcer shouted, nearly drowned out by the audience as the two Mecha lurched into motion.


    The spear of the Huntress thrust forward with the distinctive crackle of a sonic boom as Nico stalked forward, swaying on her feet and knocking the spear away with an upper de as her lower arms Disruptors burnt the torso armor of the opposing Mecha.


    The crowd cheered the first blow as Huntress Khan disengaged, reassessing Shattered Pride now that she knew those very ordinary-looking protrusions on its forearms were actually very dangerous weapons.


    The fact that her Suit hadn''t been torn apart or rendered inoperable by the point-nk st by the Disruptors was a testament to the advanced technology, but Max could see that the waist controls weren''t working right, where Nico''s attack had damaged the biomechanical muscles.


    Nico''s des took three rapid hits from Huntress Khan''s own forearm-mountedsers before the champion growled and took a step back.


    [When I learn how you managed to parry my attacks, you will go down to a crushing defeat, human.] The Huntress taunted, annoyed by Nico''s ability to block what shouldn''t be blocked.


    In truth, Nico had just interfaced with her Hunter''s Suit and brought up the enemy''s targeting data on her own disys so that she would know where thesers were pointed. It was a dirty trick but less insulting than many of the things that Max had expected her to do.


    [Less talking, more stabbing.] Nicoughed as the four des of Shattered Pride rained blows upon the mighty form of Dominus, pushing Huntress Khan back across the arena floor.


    The Hunters were loving it. They had never fought a mechanized enemy whose machines could move so fast. The pilots'' minds and bodies were too slow topete with the Hunters in their own specialty, so once they got in closebat, like in the arena, the battles were inevitably lopsided.


    Dominus managed tond a blow on Nico''s lower right arm, cutting the main control rod and rendering it limp, though it was still holding the de, dragging it across the floor with a soft scraping noise that made the stalking motion of the four armed Mecha sound as ominous as it looked.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    If Dominus was the proud and noble Hunter, Shattered Pride was a predator, raw and feral, stalking it around the ring as des met spear, and energy sts were exchanged in both directions.


    Nico had an uncanny ability to avoid getting hit anywhere sensitive, while Huntress Khan wielded her spear with such skill that very few des were making it past her guard to damage her Mecha.


    It wasn''t going well for the Hunter champion, though, and with an unexpected side shift, Nico managed to cross her des on the shaft of the spear and tear it from the grip of Huntress Khan, who immediately charged to Grab the wrists of Nico''s Mecha, forcing her arms up so she couldn''t sh at Dominus while it was vulnerable.


    With a kick to the back of a knee and a quick twist, Nico threw Dominus over the shoulder of Shattered Pride, sending the Mecha skidding across the floor with an ear-shattering screech.


    Huntress Khan took the chance to activate her Mecha''s thrusters, moving to grab her spear and regaining her feet just in time to parry Nico''s follow-up blows before taking a st from a Disruptor on her lower arm to the Mecha''s face, ckening many of its sensors, and turning Huntress Khan''s movements sluggish for a moment before a portion of the chest armor turned transparent, and she resumed the fight under her own senses.


    The butt of her spear shed up against the side of Shattered Pride''s knee, sending the Mecha to the ground before the point of the spear pinned the mecha to the floor just as two des sunk deep into the torso of Dominus.


    For a moment, everyone waited in breathless anticipation as the two Mecha stood motionless over each other. Then, both cockpit doors opened, and two smiling women, one massively muscr with sandy skin and long ck dreadlocks, one petite with shining ck curls, faced each other.


    "It seems we havee to a draw, Huntress Khan. Both suits have powered down due to damage." Nico chuckled while her opponent surveyed the carnage to her Mecha, as well as to the ring, from their battle.


    "I did not expect such a glorious duel from the humans. Tell me, Tarith Rage, are you the greatest of Humanity''s champions?" Huntress Khan asked.


    "I could only wish for that title. I am not even the greatest champion aboard Terminus, only the greatest of the females. You see, our men are therger of our species, and my Commander is both stronger and faster, with better Mechabat skills and a more powerful Mecha than mine." Nico replied.


    Huntress Khan''s eyes lit up with joy at that announcement, and Nico frowned.


    "No stealing my man."


    The assembled crowd of Hunters burst intoughter, hundreds of thousands of voices joining the thousands aboard Terminus in mirth over Nico''s im over Max.


    [It seems your future is decided for you. Congrattions.] The Illithid congratted Max as one, not bothering to hide their amusement at the unusual circumstances or the look on his face.

 Chapter 390 390 Negotiations Needed

    The Hunters carefully extracted the two Mecha from their death embrace, removing the des from the armor and shifting them to anti-gravity tforms, where they were taken back to their respective hangars, Huntress Khan''s to their repair bay, and Nico''s back to the Cutter.


    "The first thing I must ask is if all humans are like you. Are they great warriors? We haven''t seen much sign of advanced technology among them, and we were losing hope before you came to see us aboard that repurposed Colony Ship." Huntress Khan asked.


    "Most are not as skilled as I am, and as you saw, their technology is lower. Our Mecha is a unique design created by this generation, so they haven''t been spread to other groups yet, not even the ones we are allied with." Nico responded.


    "Interesting. So most groups of the species are incapable of Warp 10 and cannot build a weapon that can give us a decent duel?


    That is a conundrum. By ourws, you might be the only group of humans we would consider Sentient beings and not a game species. But if the rest are close to your standards, then it would be a significant moral issue back home, as the current sentiment says that we should no longer hunts with sentient creatures for entertainment." Huntress Khan informed her.


    "Most of therger groups in this region have at least one or two Mecha that could outperform the ones we used today on the battlefield, but they don''t often engage in duels, so the designs are made for long-range engagements between a mixture of military assets," Nico exined.


    Huntress Khan looked horrified at that news. "You involve the weak and those incapable of piloting a Hunting Suit in your battles? Even the battles against each other?"


    Nico just shrugged, unsure what the best way to exin it was.


    "In some battles, we involve everyone who is not a child or invalid. Human battles can be quite brutal, and though therger Mechanized forces prefer to face each other, it isn''t umon for there to be coteral damage among the lighter units or the infantry."


    The Huntress just shook her head. "And here, the Alliance calls us savages for hunting the Game Species just because some of them can talk."


    Nico patted the muchrger woman on the shoulder in constion. "In all honesty, they only even spoke to us because we reached Warp 10 with a Cutter, and even then, we are still under observation, and our entire Gxy is listed as a restricted area while they try to determine how to ssify us. We have some Innu and Illithid guests aboard the ship for a vacation, though, and we are hoping they will put in a good word for us that will at least convince the Alliance to consider limited trade agreements."


    "Those are good choices. The Innu know much about technology, and we have learned a lot from our interactions with them. The Illithid is just one huge creepy hive mind, though, and they don''t even have Hunters Suits. They just dominate the minds of their enemies. I will get you a detection token that indicates when they are trying to influence the minds of those around them. It is the only way that they can be trusted."


    Nico smiled in gratitude. "That could be incredibly useful. We have nanotechnology that usually warns us about attacks on the body and mind, but you can never be too cautious."


    "Yes, our sensors detected that, but we couldn''t determine the purpose of them, despite the fact almost all of your humans aboard are hosts. So they are a medical tool?" Huntress Khan asked.


    "Far more than that. The artificial intelligence is coded to our gics so that we can pass them to our children, and nanotechnology slowly rebuilds our bodies far beyond the human baseline so that we are individually more effective warriors.


    Huntress Khan burst intoughter at that news and gave Nico a big hug, startling her with the unexpected affection.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Our species was once a quadrupedal reptile species, which developed great intelligence due to an ident with an alien ship crashing into our. The first technology that we developed was gic engineering to improve ourselves and eliminate our vulnerabilities.


    We made ourselves warm-blooded, faster, and stronger, with better eyesight in new spectrums of light and heat, then finally, we made ourselves bipedal for optimum mobility when raiding other species for new technology.


    Hearing you talk about your people is like hearing about our own children but left to work everything out without guidance. You''re all just doing the best you can and then adopting things that worked better than the thing your parents tried."


    Nico sighed. "I''m not sure if that is apliment or an insult, but I will take it as apliment since, ording to yourputer system, I really am a child inparison."


    Huntress Khan stepped back, confused. "What do you mean? I am among the youngest of our champions, at only six hundred standard cycles, by the Alliance Calendar."


    "And I am less than twenty, by Alliance reckoning. Humans grow to maturity much faster than Hunters do." Nico replied.


    Her words were only making the Huntress happier for some reason.


    "Baby Hunters. A whole ship full of primordial Hunter infants." She whispered.


    "Would you like toe aboard and meet the crew? I am sure that they will want to hold some sort of meeting about an agreement not to hunts full of humans for sport." Nico suggested.


    "Can we at least hunt SOME of them? The ones that are on the wrong path? Or the ones without the developmental nanotechnology?"


    This was not going to be an easy meeting.


    "We have a system known as Mercenaries, where outside forces can be hired to join a battle on behalf of one side or another. Would that bepatible with your ethics?" Nico asked.


    "Possibly, in very limited circumstances. We would never allow Hunters to be hired by a Game Species though, and I am not convinced that most humans aren''t game." Huntress Khan replied carefully.


    "Then, if you would like to assemble a team, we can have the ones who enjoy such details work out an agreement about what is game, what is not, and the formalities for joining a Hunt if you find something exciting to fight," Nico replied.


    "Excellent n. We can leave it to the men and have a drink. Tell me, do humans know about alcohol?"

 Chapter 391 391 We Have A Deal

    The team that the Hunters sent over had already been waiting in anticipation of the news by the time that the match ended, so they departed within seconds of the order, arriving at Terminus within a minute.


    Max nearly didn''t even manage to get a team to the bay on time since he hadn''t had any more warning of negotiations than they had, and he wasn''t sure where they would be taking ce or who would be involved, given the matriarchial nature of the Hunters.


    They didn''t arrive alone, though. Two more shuttles, all filled with Huntresses, followed the negotiation team so that they could see the amenities aboard the ship and see for themselves what Nico was trying to exin about human males.


    They had scanned thes that they passed but hadn''t entered Kepler territory yet, so they hadn''t experienced the wonders of a System enhanced male physique. The men aboard Terminus would be much different than the random farmers and warehouse workers they had scanned as they passed by the peacefuls of the outer territories.


    Huntress Khan herself had flown back with Nico and her entourage, listening to stories of their battles against the Klem, a species that the Hunters were incredibly excited to face inbat.


    Like the Innu, the concept of a violent insect species baffled them at first since they apparently didn''t exist elsewhere in the universe, but after being shown somebat footage from drones and inside Nico''s cockpit, their enthusiasm for battle was back in full force.


    The consensus was that the Klem should be a match for most of the hostile species they had encountered in the past, and their unique method of adapting to their environment in rapid fashion might even make them more of a threat than anticipated since they could have developed new ranged weapons and chitinpositions since thest time they were encountered.


    For a Hunter, there was no better game. A more advanced form of intelligence was the only thing they were missing to be perfect. If they were undeniably intelligent like humans were, they could be the apex predators of this entire region of the universe.


    "There are other species as well. The Narsians are a force to be reckoned with, though they don''t use hunter suits. They are as tall as the Giants and have advanced weapons technology, so they are undoubtedly the finest unarmoredbatants humanity has ever faced.


    In fact, they are the reason I''m in this mostly mechanical body now. I took up a rearguard action to dy them from following our main force and ended up outnumbered and overwhelmed. It was a glorious battle but didn''t end well for me." Nico exined.


    "So your evolution into what you are is a result of your technology, specifically designed for battle, and augmentations made after taking on a disadvantaged duel against the champions of a species more than twice your height? Are you sure that you weren''t born as one of us? That is a story for the ages. We will ask our historians to record as many of the details as they can so that we can send them home to tell the tale of the Human champions.


    It will let the Hunters know all about the virtues of Humanity." Huntress Khan exined.


    "A champion is never a coward, even in the face of certain defeat." One of her assistants agreed while the other Pilots nodded along with the sentiment.


    Nico was a terrifying presence inbat. None of them had been there the day that she fell against the Narsians, but they had heard rumors, and now part of Nico''s side of the story. Certainly, not one of them would have dared to get out of their destroyed Mecha and face a Narsianmand squad in closebat.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "What brought the Hunter Fleet all the way out here anyhow? We are a long way from your borders and in the opposite direction from your usual hunting grounds, not a spot that you would typically be expected toe looking for a new Game Species." Nico asked as the gravity beam settled the Cutter into its bay.


    "The Alliance did. Or, more correctly, theirmunications. They broadcast the quarantine reminder, amending it to note that a highly advanced and potentially hostile species was present. That is the same way they ssify us, so it was deemed worth it to take the time to explore this Gxy and look for a challenge." Huntress Khan exined.


    "So, advancing enough to be noticed caused us to be noticed by others as well. I shouldn''t be surprised, but it is a good thing that we were the first to meet with you. Without the guidance of the Innu, we might not have understood your customs or even had the Alliance Language properly tranted into our databases.


    Humans are pretty good withnguage, but a whole new one can take a significant amount of time to adapt to." Nico exined.


    "I will make sure that is entered into the data so that the teams thate to challenge the Klem don''t make mistakes or get frustrated. Is there anything else that might be worth knowing?" Huntress Khan asked.


    "Just this one important point. For the men with Kepler heritage, size doesn''t matter in rtion to power. Theirpatibility with nanotechnology does. The difference in strength between a man from another empire and our Commander is roughly six times. While an average civilian can lift a hundred kilos, he can do the same with six hundred. The only limiting factor at the moment is the strength of his bones." Nico exined.


    "What about these ones?" One of the assistants asked dubiously, looking at the leader of the Corvette ss team.


    "They''re from the medium side ofpatibility, but most of them should be roughly halfway in between. Their growth is optimized by the nanotechnology to bnce strength and size, so the strongest are usually in the medium size ranks, between 170 and 180cm tall." Nico offered.


    The Pilot in question stood up and went to a locker, picking up a rifle for a Line Mecha, an item that was close to the proper size for a Huntress to use but weighed nearly a hundred Kilos with the integrated power pack.


    He grabbed it with one hand and held it out to her, his forearm visibly bulging as the task strained his ability to show off for the musclebound and maskeddies of the Hunter species.


    The Huntress took the rifle and nearly dropped it at first, not expecting the weight, but then held it up with some effort and attempted to aim it before noticing that it had no external sights.


    "It is for our lightest ss of Mecha, so the targeting is integrated into the disys and not a physical protrusion. But I see that even the Corvette ss Pilots aboard Terminus are somewhat on par physically with the Hunters, so we might be able to train together or hold friendlypetitions with less destruction than a formal challenge."


    "Not a bad idea. Our men could barely lift that upright, much less with one hand. We will set aside gender roles while dealing with your humans, Miss Tarith Rage." Huntress Khan agreed.

 Chapter 392 392 Keep The Mask On

    The show of strength was enough to break the ice between the men of the entourage and the women of the Huntress''s entourage, and happy chatting aboutbat filled the air as the teams departed the Cutter and began to make their way through the bay.


    "We have a transport waiting and rooms prepared in the bow if you don''t have any issues being housed near the Innu and Illithid." Nico offered.


    "That is fine. We have the technology to keep the Illithid at bay from our minds, and the Innu are good people. What did you do to keep them here, though? They customarily only stay in ces with advanced technologies that they haven''t seen before. If not, they lose interest, even if they are supposed to be working." Huntress Khan asked.


    "We have waterslides with gravity control linking the whole section of the ship reserved for public viewing and residence. They are huge fans of them." One of the Pilotsughed, drawing all the Hunters'' attention to him.


    "What do you mean by waterslide?"


    "A tube, with rapidly flowing water, roughly 30 cm deep inside, and the gravity altered so that it feels like you are always sliding down to your destination, regardless of where it is in the ship," Nico exined.


    "Where is this transport? I must see this marvel immediately." Huntress Khan demanded.


    [It seems that we have more fans of the waterslides. We are on our way over, and the Hunters evolved from an amphibious reptile. They freaked out a little when they heard about the gravity slides and demanded to see them immediately. They might like them even more than the Innu do.] Nico told Max.


    Max looked over at the very harassed-looking members of the Admiral''s negotiation team, who were dealing with the obsessive pencil pushers of the Hunters negotiation team, and sighed.


    [I am d you are having fun. The men of their species arepletely literal,pletely humorless, and obsessed with details. They''re expecting no fewer than a thousand pages of an agreement to cover who and what might be hunted in this gxy.] Max replied.


    [Good luck with that. There is a temte from the Innu Yacht that you can use as the basis if you like. I believe it is their agreement with the Hunters, but I haven''t actually read it. I only skimmed the titles.] Nico informed him.


    That should be enough to get them started, and Max could have his team alter the document as they went through since there would be an eptable hunting species in this Gxy, the Klem, and they would have to localize the agreement only to the regions that they were familiar with, as they didn''t know how some of the species in the Northern end of the Gxy felt about the Hunters and their ideology, or if they even knew about them, despite their limited ability to move between Gxies.


    "You seem somewhat stressed, Commander. Do you not often negotiate treaties?" One of the Hunter''s negotiators asked.


    "No, most treaties in the region werepleted centuries before I was born. But now, I have two to work out at once. The one with your fleet and the one that we left toe to meet you." Max exined.


    "That is a high honor, Commander, and we thank you. Dying ongoing business to meet a new fleet is an honor to the strangers that we didn''t expect." The negotiator told him with a bow.


    This species needed toe with a manual. Even though he could read their minds, Max was having trouble determining how they would react to any given situation since their standards and his were so different.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Our Champion tells me that you might also enjoy the Gravity Slides once today''s meetings are done, so I will make sure to have the escort show you the map of where they lead before you retire to your rooms tonight," Max told him, and the man looked perplexed.


    Huntress Khan says that you will enjoy it, so I will keep the details as a surprise, but they lead right to the rooms that we have prepared for your team, assuming that you don''t need to be on the same floor as the Huntresses. They requested a room close to the Barbecue restaurants, but the rooms we originally prepared for your team were the ones closest to this meeting room." Max exined.


    "That is fine. Our teams have very different interests, so they don''t customarily interact much outside of mating season." The Negotiator exined.


    Seasonal mating. That was another item for the list of details about the Hunters. If his experience in this Gxy held true, he could expect increased aggression and territorial behavior at that time. The Huntresses seemed to lean toward aggressive and territorial anyhow, so heightening those sentiments could cause some violence, though likely nothing that he couldn''t handle, if the Alliance deemed them civilized enough to deal with, though not peaceful enough for membership.


    "Admiral. I have a copy of the Innu version of their basic agreement with the Hunters avable as a temte if your teams would like to start from there. Just be sure to keep it regional since we can''t speak for everyone, and be sure to include hunting rights for the Klem, as I have been informed that it is very important to Huntress Khan that they be included and detailed." Max informed Admiral Drake, who was leading the human negotiation team.


    "They want to hunt Klem by the full, do they? That takes some serious bravery. I will make sure that all the appropriatenguage is included, including remuneration, if they happen toe across a recentndfall where humans are still fighting. The locals can take it up with the Reavers if they don''t like the mercenary fee to save their from the Klem." Admiral Drake agreed.


    With that settled, Max went to meet Nico, who should be just arriving at the Cruise Ship area now, only to watch the transport skid to a stop from maximum speed as a group of Huntresses rushed out to examine the gravity slides.


    "Wee, Huntress Khan. I am Commander Keres of Terminus Trading Company. I do hope that our Champion spoke kindly of me." Max greeted them, stopping their advance toward the slides.


    "You, throw her straight up in the air and catch her." Huntress Khan demanded while Nicoughed.


    "They think I''m exaggerating the strength of an Alpha Ranked System specialized in strength," Nico exined.


    At 250 cm tall, the Huntresses weren''t light, well over two hundred kilos, but that was nothing to Max, who gently took one in his arms in a Princess Carry, then hurled her straight up in the air, crossing over the next floor beforeing back down into his arms and being set on the floor.


    "Oh, I do approve. I apologize to you, Tarith Rage, for misunderstanding when you said that your men weremendably strong. If the hunters had men like that, we might never get anything done." The Huntress that Max just caughtughed, then turned to look at the gravity slides, with no emotion showing through her smooth metal mask but a clear wave of excitement and joy in her thoughts.


    "Take a good look at the map first, you don''t want to end up lost on the cruise ship, and the slides run for dozens of kilometers in total," Max informed her, then made a grand gesture toward them.


    The fact that the Huntresses were in white cloth togas totally escaped his attention until the first of them rocketed toward the slide at a full run,unching herself onto her stomach and racing away through the tunnels.


    Hopefully, they brought a change of clothes, but if not, there were towels avable at every exit.

 Chapter 393 393 Maybe We Should Let Them

    To Admiral Drake''s annoyance, the negotiation team made up of men from the Hunter ships had every intention of working in shifts so that the negotiations could proceed continually from the moment that they arrived until they were finished.


    The temte that he had received sped up the process a lot, but it was designed to cover all interactions between two species. The Hunters weren''t convinced that some Humans didn''t qualify as a Game Species. There were also other species that the Commander had instructed him to add to the agreement as mutual targets, which necessitated a Hunting Alliance agreement.


    Between the two, it quickly turned the agreement from eight hundred pages to fifteen hundred, but the speed with which they progressed was impressive. Everything was double-proofread so that nobody snuck deceptive uses into the agreement or made any errors. The work was split into teams, with each group taking care of only eighty pages or so, making it more manageable for the teams to get through.


    By evening the next day, they were almost done with the negotiations, thanks to the heavy use of form temtes from the Alliance, who had been negotiating with the Hunters for centuries. The basics were that if the Hunters were hunting Klem, they were required to invite at least one group of what they deemed "Civilized Humans" with them. Only groups that were aggressively attacking outside of their own border could be deemed as Game after consulting with a "Civilized Human" faction.


    That way, there was at least some assurance that they weren''t going to be causing trouble around the Gxy but that they still did it in a somewhat ethical and sustainable way.


    The Admiral had been quite hesitant at first. Still, after they used a few examples of nations that they had passed aggressively attacking everyone around them, not to take over territory or maintain stability, but simply as a continuation of a generational feud, it became clear that there were, in fact, groups of humans that he wouldn''t be too upset about seeing attacked by Hunters.


    By their rules, they would take no more than ten percent of the poption unless it was an invasive species like the Klem, so it wasn''t like they were going to be totally depoptings. They would serve as an excellent boogeyman if they were pointed at the Gxy''s troublemakers though.


    While they were working themselves to the bone, the Huntresses were having a much better time, rxing and getting to know the Mecha Pilots of the Terminus Trading Company. They were quite shocked to see the ratio of males to females but slowly began to ept that allowing them to mingle freely like this wouldn''t lead to the males being bullied by the human females.


    They were willing to set aside their judgment of the males'' skills and did that right away once they saw the physical capability of all of the Heavy Mecha Pilots and the footage that the Innu had captured during their outing to the uninhabited, but the idea that they were on a socially equal footing was harder for them to understand.


    Max was having dinner with Huntress Khan, Colonel Klinger, and Nico when the negotiation teams said the deal had been finalized. He had expected the Huntress to want to read every detail and go over it line by line, but surprisingly, she took a two-page summary sheet from her negotiator, the same one that was handed to Max and Nico, and nodded as she read.


    "These terms all look eptable. We will contact you or your representatives on Rae 5 when we want permission to hunt humans. So far, you are the only group that has proven that you are not Game but worthy allies, after all." Huntress Khan informed them, then tucked the paper away in some sort of storage device that Max couldn''t see and couldn''t find a way for her to be hiding under the in toga.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "You don''t know the t space technology? I suppose those snotty Alliance sorts wouldn''t trade you for it. They''ve always got some moral reason to hide the good stuff. But we will deal with you. It was developed by the Innu, using an advanced form of the Warp Field Technology that warps the volume of the interior. It isn''t big enough to hold me, but perhaps Tarith Rage would fit.


    For the very reasonable price of twenty of those lovely sma Cannons that the Line Mecha carry, I will give you the design schematic for the t space storage devices. Just don''t tell the Alliance until you can make your own. They get cranky about spreading their technology." Huntress Khan offered.


    "We can make you a lighter version with external sights, or would you prefer to alter them yourselves?" Max asked.


    "Every Huntress customizes their own weapons. They will adapt them to their own preferences. We don''t use any sort of stabilized sma weapons, so these should be a novel change for our Huntresses, and I have already verified that we can make our power distribution systempatible with charging them." Khan agreed.


    "Then you have a deal. We have our own manufacturing facilities, and our design teams love the challenge of adapting new technology." Max told her, shaking her hand to seal the deal.


    "See, males? That is how you do a deal. Who needs thousands of pages?" The Huntressughed while the men shook their heads at her simplistic outlook on what was involved in an alliance treaty. She never read more than the outline, and if there was a potential conflict of the minor details, it was up to an advisor from the foreign affairs team to inform her.


    "We must get going now. Our long-range scanners have detected a Klem wavending on an uninhabited beyond the borders of human space, and my Hunters are eager to test out our skills against their chitin." Huntress Khan dered.


    "Do enjoy yourselves. We must return to a negotiation with the other humans, so, unfortunately, we can''t join you. If we finish early, we will open a portal so we can watch you in gloriousbat." Nico told her, making the Huntressugh.


    "See, she knows the way of the Hunters already. Thank you for hosting us, Terminus Trading Company, and we will return soon for barbecue and Gravity Slides."

 Chapter 394 394 Drudgery To Chaos

    The Hunter fleet gathered in a circr formation and opened an immense portal to their next destination, not wanting to waste time sightseeing now that they had official permission to hunt the Klem.


    The process was highly informative to the engineering team aboard Terminus, who hadn''t worked out how to make multiple ships work together correctly to create arge-scale portal to distant locations. Between that observational data and the design schematics for the new t space storage device, they had a lot of work in front of them.


    "Nico, send a copy of that to Uncle Lu as well. He will likely make better use of it than we can, and I suspect there are clues to both warp drive advancements and munitions storage technology hidden in those schematics." Max ordered.


    "Oh, that is a good idea. I should have asked for a few examples to test, and we could attach them to our suits and stuff a huge power pack inside. Neverending sma rifle charges. I like the way that you think." Nico agreed, then her eyes went dim for a moment as she focused on sending the message to Uncle Lu in a way that couldn''t be intercepted and decoded.


    "Done and sent. Now let''s get back to the drudgery before they do something incredibly stupid without us." she finished.


    Terminus turned back to the station as soon as the Hunters were gone, not looking forward to the meetings ahead of them but unable to find a way to get out of them. They shouldn''t take too much longer, though, as the Rebels had said that they nned to do something big within a week of today.


    Everything appeared exactly as they left it. Even General Kirnd''s message weing them back into position just in time to send the delegation back to the station for the morning''s meetings conveyed utter boredom.


    "Tedium, drudgery, superfluous, nonsensical, irrelevant," Nico muttered as she sat in her chair beside Max, pretending to clean her nails with a knife.


    "Stop that. You''re making this more boring than it already was." Maxined as the various nations continued to haggle about borders.


    ording to the Cygnus delegation, they had been at this since Terminus left and still hadn''t finished the negotiations.


    "Are your ns still the same?" Nico asked General Kirnd on Max''s behalf, and the old noble nodded.


    "Yes, we will take and stabilize that one portion of space while we reinforce our borders. I haven''t heard about anyone moving, but I think it won''t be long now. Once the majority of the fleets are on the move, it will be impossible to hide that something big is happening, even if nobody else knows where it will happen."


    "How about I get us some tea and snacks? We can rx while they argue and wait for something worth our attention now that our part of the day''s proceedings is taken care of?" Nico suggested, getting to her feet.


    "Bring back whiskey instead. Tea isn''t going to be enough. While you got to go intercept a foreign fleet, I''ve been here for days, covering for the Reavers, though you''ve only had a few questions directed your way." General Kirnd sighed.


    The entire day passed as they sipped whiskey and ignored the rest of the proceedings, as it didn''t involve them.


    The next three days were all the same, rxing in afortable chair and drinking while the smaller nations worked out their differences.


    On the fourth day after their return, the first news of fleet mobilizations made it to their ears, and everyone understood that they would have to deal with what they had, as it was no longer possible to hide their actions. Tens of thousands of warships had been spotted moving out of their home nations, and Cygnus was said to be reinforcing their borders, an action that seemed perfectly normal to the outside observer who didn''t know that Cygnus was aware of their actions.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    The leader of the rebels gathered everyone to the main table again for a full announcement, joy lighting up his face.


    "We have the news that we all have been waiting for. The first six Princes of the Kepler Empire joined the Rebellion on the side of the Nobles. They will assumemand of the six fleets that wemand and rule over the six territories that we have agreed to pacify.


    As of 0600 Kepler Throne Time today, the Emperor has fallen.


    While his body double was holding a meeting to bring the Princes back intopliance, the Royal Assassins loyal to the Crown Prince assassinated his father. The Kepler Empire is no more. The Kepler Royal Alliance begins today."


    The entire audience was stunned into silence. The Emperor was dead at the hands of his own children, and the Royals had betrayed the bureaucracy to stand behind the Princes in establishing a new Royal structure.


    It was unthinkable to most of them. The idea that the Rebels were actually Royal agents for the Princes, ying the bureaucracy for fools while they built power and destabilized the Emperor, was never part of the calctions.


    Never before had the Princes worked together on anything, and their attempts to kill each other were said to be nearly constant.


    For this n to have worked, they must have been nning this moment for at least fifty years, never once letting on that they were colluding with each other. The scale was unimaginable, but if it was true, they needed to adapt quickly.


    The Royal Family would still control three-quarters of Kepler space, with the forces not directly loyal to the Princes about to be annihted by the iing attack fleets before they even knew what was happening.


    The Emperor had taken directmand, so if he were gone, the Command Structure would be in disarray as Central Command was certain to fall to infighting as they tried toe out on top in the chaos.


    [I have used a portal to send the message directly to the Reavers. Every one knows every detail that we have heard here today. I can''t verify the truth yet, but I can verify that there is some sort of battle near the Imperial Compliance Fleet.] Nico informed Max of her thoughts after tugging his sleeve to ensure he was listening.


    "We must get back to Rae 5. There is much to be done and many preparations to be made." Max dered, getting to his feet.


    "Not so fast. Until the fleets arrive, nobody leaves this system. We can''t have double agents and secret loyalists sending messages out to their allies. Allmunications from the system have been blocked for a month, and we will keep the secrecy of our ns as long as possible." The Rebel leader announced.


    "That is fine. Terminus will hold right where it is until the chaos dies down, and then we will begin working out the details of who will take over the trade routes." Max replied with a polite bow.


    "Typical Reaver, no patience at all. Off to get paid the moment that things get interesting." One of the representativesughed with hispanions while Max feigned innocence, and Nico updated Max on their situation.


    [Our messages have gone through, I used a micro portal to transmit directly. It saves on the transmission time from across the Empire.]

 Chapter 395 395 Its Not There

    News slowly filtered in as every ship in the system enhanced itsmunications systems to pick up even the faintest signals. They could receive anything that happened to be sent in their direction but couldn''t send anything out, so it was a bit like watching a docudrama.


    Max''s mind reading was the most sessful method of intelligence gathering that they had at the moment, though, as every fleet was using its own encryptions and frequencies. All of the representatives were being kept up to date on their nation''s activities, and Max noted them all for Nico to send through to the Reavers on Rae 5.


    It waste in the evening that he heard a thought that finally made himugh at the pure insanity of the Rebel''s n.


    [The Crown Prince has searched the Royal Pce, including the vaults. The System Intelligence isn''t there. It wasn''t on Kepler Terminus when we ransacked the host warehouse, so the assumption was that the Royal Pce had taken it away at some point in the past and only left the original warehouse as bait.] The Rebel leader was informed by his assistant.


    They would never guess that the Reavers were in possession of such a valuable National Treasure. Max had been there when it left Kepler Terminus, and he still couldn''t believe it. But it made sense that all of the Imperial Princes would want to gain control of it.


    The Original Intelligence still had a lot of influence on System Development within the Kepler Empire, and it was the reason that simply stealing some blood to inject into the citizens of other nations didn''t spread the System all through the human race.


    If they couldn''t find it, there was a good chance that it would turn on them and cripple entire generations by limiting the activation of their systems. In the worst-case scenario, the AI might turn malicious and convince the System to turn on any host that tried to damage or harm the Original.


    Max knew that it was in the form of an autonomous mainframe, made entirely of nanotechnology, with a small humanoid robot that allowed it to interface with the outside world, but unfortunately, he didn''t know what Mary Tarith had done with it after they left Terminus.


    That made the Emperor''s n that much more genius. The man himself might be dead now, but his legacy would live on, with only those who had remained loyal to him and those who were allied with them gaining the favor of the System.


    "Nico, you know a thing or two about the original ident that spread the system, right? What can you tell me about the warehouse?" Max asked quietly.


    "Not much. It was a privateb, owner unknown, managed by a member of my family. Thought that might be obvious because we ran most of the nanotechnology developmentpanies in Kepler. Even on Kepler 142, the branch families still work on new developments." Nico replied.


    That brought up something in Max''s memory, something about his System and Kepler 142 Station, but he couldn''t quite recall what it was. Maybe it wasn''t that important because the memory of changing his name, which came just after that, was still as clear as if it had happened yesterday.


    He immediately dismissed the thought and focused on what he knew. If they were running theb at the time of the ident, there was a very good chance that it wasn''t possible to separate the Tarith Family from the System. It would exin the strange status that they held within the Kepler hierarchy. Normally a Reaver Family would be expelled from the Empire and not continue to have family branches politically active on multiples.


    Not because of any criminality but out of loyalty concerns. It wasn''t the greatest statement of loyalty to the Empire to have arge chunk of your family go independent without being renounced by the rest of the family''s branches.


    It would also exin why Mary Tarith got custody. The Emperor likely didn''t have a choice if he was going to relocate it and keep it away from the Rebels.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Max just wished he could tell someone what he had realized. He could tell Nico, but her Ego was big enough that he didn''t need to give her more reasons to be proud of her background. She might create a newyer on her "Crazy Pirate" persona that even he wasn''t ready to handle.


    As they waited, news came in that the threergest vessels of the Imperial Compliance Fleet had escaped the trap that had beenid for them, destroying hundreds of smaller vessels and disappearing through a neb.


    The hunt was on for them, as the vessels were damaged, but it hadn''t turned up anything so far. Everyone was more focused on the initial attacks that would keep the fleet busy enough that they didn''t rally together to establish a Military Authority that could return the Empire to the status quo even without the Emperor at the helm.


    In practice, the Military ran the Empire''s logistics and security, with the Nobility taking care of paperwork and bureaucracy that kepts running. Today was intended to change all that, giving the Nobility the military control that would make them the true power in their territories, but Max could tell that it wasn''t going to be that easy.


    To start with, most of them were ipetent idiots who had advanced through life entirely on nepotism.


    Secondly, Someone had alerted the fleet, and they weren''t going where they were expected to. Instead, they were showing up in random systems and attacking foreign fleets, then fading away again as if they had only stopped on their way to another emergency.


    The Rebels and the allied nations were putting details of every battle and fleet location up on the map of the Empire, keeping track of potential threats, while Nico ryed the details back to the Reavers.


    "I have news from the Cygnus Fleet. These seventy-two systems have been peacefully assimted." General Kirnd told the Rebels with a smile.


    The Cygnus n was ingenious. They didn''t attack at all. They waited for the news of the Emperor being attacked and potentially killed by the Princes and then showed up with security forces in the Emperor''s name, taking over from the local fleets and organizing the whole region under themselves as if they were simply assisting the Emperor in keeping rumors under control like any good ally should.


    By the time anyone realized the truth, they would be peacefully assimted Cygnus Citizens, and nothing at all in their lives would change except perhaps the badges on the security forces.


    The n also had a hidden upside. If the rumors were false, and the Emperor lived and regained control of the Kepler Empire, or most of it, they could y the good ally and simply hand the territory back with a generous payment for their troubles, which would help them take over their depleted neighbors.


    Assuming that others hadn''t beaten them to the punch and attacked their neighbors first.


    These backwater Nobles and small nation politicians could learn a lot from Lord General Kirnd and his invasion n. As far as Max could tell, it was nearly wless, and Cygnus would win no matter what happened.

 Chapter 396 396 Failures And Victories

    As the news trickled in, Max began to notice a pattern to the madness. The entire inner rim of the Kepler Empire, closest to the Gctic Core, had proven impregnable to the foreign troops, and the border closest to Rae 5, where the most recent Rebel activity had been, was proving decidedly deadly for the Rebels as well.


    Those sectors linked to create a crescent-shaped territory that held the majority of the Empire''s rare resources and heavy manufacturing facilities but very few of its citizens. Two nations'' entire fleets had been lost with only garbled cries for assistance, and nobody really knew what was happening until the fateful moment that a force finally got a warning out to the Gxy.


    The Titan ss, [Glory of Sol], and the God ss Mecha, [Wrath Incarnate], which was thought lost during the unification wars that formed the Kepler Empire, were working together to eliminate invading fleets in seconds before they could even respond and get out a message to their home nations.


    Both Mecha were supposed to be on the Imperial homeworld, locked securely in vaults, without a pilot for the previous few centuries. It was said that they would be given pilots and taken out in times of crisis. Still, everyone had assumed that with the Imperial Princes controlling the homeworld and the Emperor dead, the two legendary Mecha would remain locked in their vaults for the duration of the battle.


    That put a serious dent in the allies'' ns, and usations began to fly that the Crown Prince, whose territory was supposed to border the region where the two Mecha were sighted, had betrayed their allies in an effort to bolster the strength of his alliance with Cygnus.


    On the surface, it seemed to be a reasonable usation, as he stood to gain a huge amount of territory if he eliminated the nearest Foreign forces, but both the Rebels and Lord General Kirnd were too shocked by the news that the Kepler Empire''s lone God ss Mecha had been sighted in action for them to have been in on the betrayal.


    "Drive the traitors out. Cygnus has betrayed us. Wipe them out and take their territories." One of the foreigners shouted.


    "With what? Your fleet has been annihted by Wrath Incarnate, and the Reavers have a mutual defense pact with Cygnus. Unlike the cruisers you all sent here with your negotiation teams, we came prepared with a colony ship and an entire Super Heavy Mecha Regiment. Not just one unit, but twenty-one Super Heavy Mecha." Max yelled back, silencing the argument.


    "You couldn''t have. The Reavers don''t have Super Heavy Mecha. No nation would sell that sort of firepower to the Reavers, and they don''t have the capability to make them themselves." A Rebel leader scoffed.


    "Please watch your screens for verification," Nico replied.


    [Third Battalion, please exit Terminus. The Rebels require a show of force not to do something stupid.] Nico informed the battalion on guard duty at the moment.


    "We have an entire reinforced Regimentposed in the same manner as the Battalion on disy now. If you want to try your luck, you are free to start a fight, but rest assured, we will be the ones to finish it." Nico informed the room as they watched the Mecha Battalion move from the hangar bay to stand on the hull, facing the Station.


    "Those are the rumored Comor pattern Corvettes. I saw the video of them in action some time ago. Does that mean that Comor equipped the Reavers as well? Or did they get these from somewhere else? Does anyone recognize the pattern?" One of the Rebel envoys asked.


    "Wait, I have seen those before. Sector Command in the Terminus Sector sent a fleet after Abraham Kepler in an attempt to capture General Tennant. They were rumored to have met with Reaver Mecha of an unknown pattern,rger than the Crusader ss Mecha. We took it to mean they had obtained Cygnus Heavy Mecha due to the described height, but the Reavers scrambled all of the footage before the fleet could transmit it home." A Rebel assistantmented, pulling up the data for everyone to look at.


    "Terminus Trading Company. Both there and here. The Reavers have had Super Heavy Mecha for months, and nobody noticed. No wonder they got so cocky with the Tapani fleet." Someonemented.


    "We only lost because they allied with the Loyalist border guards and baited us into a trap." A Tapani Commander whined, and Max sensed that a grand fight was about to break out in the room.


    Max leaned over to whisper to Lord General Kirnd as the shouts got louder and the pushing started.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Stand behind us when it gets nasty. Our whole escort team has forcefields, so you''ll be safe from stray gunfire."


    The warning was just in time, as the gunfire started secondster, with the Tapani turning on the force that insulted them, calling them a waste of space now that their fleet had been annihted.


    The Archangel Exoskeleton that Max was wearing under his outfit was fully weaponized, withsers in the wings, but Max kept them folded tight to his back and inactive. He would let the idiots here fight it out without involving them for as long as necessary.


    If they gave up on the secrecy and broke off the meeting, all the better for him. The organized attack would fall to chaos, and the Loyalist fleet would have an easier time getting things under control.


    This wasn''t the first gunfight of the meeting, though, and after a half dozen were killed, the other representatives got the situation calmed down. Only a single ship left orbit with the remains of its representative team.


    A half dozen followed soon after, as their fleets were lost to the Loyalists, and they no longer had a chance to im much of anything. All they could do was return home and face the repercussions of their failures.


    General Kirnd retook his seat while Nico stood hers and Max''s back on their feet with a mechanical dendrite from the Tech Adept Harness.


    [Request for you to either return or turn off the live feed. The Innu videographers are annoying the staff to no end with their requests to get better footage of what happens when human negotiations go wrong.] One of the staffers from the Cruise Ship section asked, making both Max and Nicough.


    [Denied. They will pout more with no footage, and we can''t leave just yet.


    Tell the Third Battalion they can go back inside. It looks like nobody will be attacking Cygnus or us for the moment.] Max responded as the meeting was brought back to order.


    The two Mecha that tore up the invading fleets didn''t seem to be expanding their area of operations, though, and instead focused on stabilizing what they already held in conjunction with the main force of the Kepler Fleet in the region.


    It led to an odd stalemate. The Loyalist Fleet held half of the border. Only a small section had fallen to invaders. If you didn''t count the section that the Cygnus Fleet had taken without a battle, and the three Princes held the center of the Empire.


    Looking at it on the map, it looked like the Loyalists and Cygnus were about to crush the three Princes while a number of the outlying systems had splintered off to independence. Theyout of the current situation definitely didn''t appear to be to their advantage the way it would if they held a border and could freely move goods in and out.


    Comor had officially removed itself from the Empire and returned to Neutral Nation status, awaiting the oue, and no ship had dared to attack them, as the Comor fleet remained intact and at home.


    The strangest part of it all was that the Crown Prince held the Kepler homeworld, essentially seeding as Emperor while being despised by the locals as a traitor, where only days before, he had been hailed as a war hero and the next Emperor, destined to lead Kepler to glory.

 Chapter 397 397 Hoodwinked And Bamboozled

    It didn''t take long before the allied nations began to suspect that this had been a setup from the start. The Kepler Loyalists had used the hidden strength that the Rebels assured them was secured under their control, leading to the Kepler Royal Family holding almost everything. At the same time, Cygnus got a nice handout for their trouble and a free shot at their weakened neighbors.


    ? It was just after midnight, Station time, when news came through that the section taken by the two mighty Mecha had dered itself the Inner Rim Federation, under the control of Empress Nobu, the Emperor''s Neice, daughter of the Emperor''s sister, who was best known for her work in designing the MK IX standard issue infantryser rifle.


    Nobody had thought she hadrger business or political aspirations. However, at the key moment, it was found that she had managed to take a controlling interest in the major businesses on over four hundreds all along the borders of the Kepler Empire.


    Through her shellpanies, she was making a truly fantastical amount of money thanks to her position along the border and aggressive trade negotiations.


    Max was impressed. The self-appointed Empress would have made a better Reaver Commander than any Reaver he knew.


    The allied nations were shouting and screaming about the fact that the Kepler Royal Family now held everything that Cygnus did not, and Max was certain that there would be no stopping the violence this time.


    Then, a message arrived on his wrist device, tagged as having been sent from Rae 5.


    [Commander Keres, Lady Mary Tarith would like to inform you that a trade agreement between the Reaver Empire and the Inner Rim Federation, as prepared in advance by Herself and Empress Nobu.]


    Sneaky. Max approved.


    "The Inner Rim Federation haspleted trade negotiations with the Reaver Empire. The Reavers stand with the new Empress and will be supplying them with goods as approved in our agreement." Max informed the room, and chaos broke out.


    It was impossible to say who fired the first shot, but within seconds, energy beams and bullets were flying in every direction, and Nico was herding their delegation and Cygnus back toward the only exit to the room while their teamid down suppressive fire from the Archangel Exoskeletons.


    The advantage was overwhelming; by the time they managed to st the locked doors open, there was very little resistance still standing.


    "Get to the shuttles and back to yourmand ships. It was a pleasure seeing you again, General, and I suspect that we will see you again very soon. There are a lot of weakened and angry nations gathered here, and the Reavers are always up for mercenary contracts if the odds are good and the price is right." Max told the Cygnus Lord with a sly wink.


    "Wait for our message. I suspect that the Cygnus Council will have a job for you within the next few minutes, and if your words about the firepower aboard Terminus are correct, the odds should be heavily in your favor." Lord General Kirnd replied with a slight bow, then led his team at a run toward their shuttle bay.


    "Let''s get out of here before we have to shoot our way out," Max ordered his security detail.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Shoot our way out more, you mean. These suits are phenomenal. We should really start stocking them inside the Heavy Mecha in case we need to bail out. The firepower keeps up with a Line Mecha, and the shields didn''t go down at all during that firefight." One of the Pilots in the bodyguard detail replied while running toward the bay.


    The shuttle was powered up and ready when they arrived, thanks to Nico, and they were exiting the station by the time everyone was seated.


    [Terminus, to battle stations. I don''t know who is going to be the first to attack, but the Allied Nations think they have been betrayed.] Max informed the Regiment.


    [We saw it on the live feed. Excellent shooting, Commander. All Mecha Battalions are ready tounch. Take your shuttle straight to the secure hangar. I am informed by Inquisitor Ming that the Shattered Pride has been repaired and is ready to go.] Admiral Drake replied.


    This might be just the moment to reveal the fact that they had a Titan ss Mecha of their own, but if the resistance were light, Max would hold off and only take Cleansing Light out when they made it to arger battle.


    [Terminus, this is Cygnus Command. We have an official request for the Reavers. Thepliance of Tapani has been sanctioned, and a battle fleet has been dispatched to ensure thepliance of the nations from Cygnus to Tapani.


    Will the Reavers be avable to assist?]


    Now that was the sort of insanity that Max should have expected. The section of space from Cygnus to Tapaniprised half of the nations in the Alliance, and Cygnus intended to take them all into their fold by force.


    [Hold for an official response.] Max sent his response back, then ryed the request to Rae 5 so that they could see how the other Reaver Companies felt about the matter.


    There was a ten-minute pause as all of the Reaver Company Commanders who were in the main council came to a decision, and then the decision was returned.


    [The Reavers can send twenty Mechanized Regiments, led by Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha, to thepliance of the smaller nations, but Cygnus must take Tapani and maintain the border against the Klem threat. Standard intervention fees, with double penalties for lost forces.]


    Max ryed the message and got an almost immediate confirmation, with a deration that Cygnus had dispatched an envoy to Rae 5 for the official signing of the agreement. They also sent a list ofary targets, all of them single-system nations that had joined the fight against Kepler and had been left very short on defensive capabilities.


    That was ideal for the Reavers and would save Cygnus a significant amount of resources in penalty. Max might have to apologize to the Innu, though. They weren''t going to get to the next vacation destination before they had to go home. The battles would take too long.

 Chapter 398 398 Grax

    "Commander, how about this one? Nobody has imed it yet, and I really wouldn''t mind shooting those jerks." One of the Pilots in the escort suggested.


    Nico had brought up the map in the shuttle so that everyone could better visualize the situation. The sight of the map and the details of the request from Cygnus had led the Pilots in the escort to immediately request vengeance on the factions that had been rude to them at the meeting.


    The target looked decent from a military standpoint, but Max wasn''t sure about the morality of inflicting that much damage on them at first. Then he saw the details of the two inhabiteds.


    [Poption] 17 billion consisting of 32 million Grax and the remainder hereditary human ves.


    That was more than enough of a detail for him and any other Reaver Commander to take up the job.


    [Cygnus Command, Terminus Trading Company officially requests to take on thepliance of the Grax.] Max informed their contact as the shuttle entered the secure bay.


    The gasps of the security detail reminded him that only three people on the entire vessel knew that Cleansing Light existed. He could make that twenty-three now since all the guards in the patrol knew, but soon enough, the entire Regiment would be aware of their newest addition.


    "Meet Cleansing Light. Thetest and likely the only Titan ss Mecha in service to the Reavers.


    I know many among the Regiment are Loyalists to the very core, but the old Kepler Empire has fallen. We don''t know who the ideological inheritor will be for the moment, so I am taking the Regiment with me in joining the Reavers.


    If there are issues with that, we will deal with themter, but I am sure that not a single Pilot willin about freeing a system full of ves." Max told the security escort.


    "We came to grips with the fact that the Empire had cut ties with us long ago. The chances that a unit ordered to go dark and leave Kepler Territory would ever return to the light were slim at best, and we have done very well as Reavers.


    I mean, look at how we lived as soldiers, and look at us now. I don''t think the Regiment would have agreed to return to active duty even if they were asked." The head of the team replied, shaking his head at the thought of going back to living in a tiny officer''s bunk aboard a transport ship.


    [All hands and guests, we are now departing the system and headed for the Grax System, where Terminus will be involved in a pacification action against a culture that still holds sentient ves. Please prepare for the transition to faster-than-light travel.] Admiral Drake informed the ship as he received the orders.


    That didn''t mean as much anymore, with the smooth transitions of Terminus, but those who were rxing did at least keep a hand on their drinks so they didn''t spill or fall off of tables.


    "This thing is glorious. Why did they name it Cleansing Light, though? It''s not even shiny?" One of the pilots asked.


    "The forearm-mounted Disruptors can be linked to create an orbitalnce level single strike weapon. That is the Cleansing Light that gave the Mecha its name.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    We might even get the chance to see it here. The majority of the Grax live in a single city on one, with thest million or so spread among the ves that make up the rest of the poption." Nico exined.


    "A Mecha that can deploy an Orbital Lance? Oh, you do know what thedies like." One of the Pilots joked, then winked at Nico.


    "Enough jokes. Head back to your unit, and let''s get ready to makefall.


    Nico, you will remain in charge of the Drone Fighter Battalion aboard Terminus while I am in Cleansing Light for the battle.


    When we arrive, I will deploy at the same time that the Cutters areunched. Cleansing Light will make short work of the defensive ships, and I will take care of the Orbital Defenses while the Cutters makefall.


    I don''t know if they are using technology to control the masses, but if they are, that will be on you to disable Nico, so prepare something that can link you to the surface. We don''t want to kill the humans if possible, so I need that done the moment you find out if it is necessary."


    Max''s orders were simple, and everyone rushed to their stations, even if Nico was clearly pouting about not getting to drop in and chop things up.


    [You got to fight alone when we met the Hunters. You can do technical work this time. Life is all about bnce.] Max told her as Nico left the bay.


    [If there isn''t at least a boarding attempt, I am totally turning up my shell temperature while you try to sleep.] Nico responded, making Maxugh, despite the serious nature of the situation.


    The meeting was being held near the border, to begin with, and they only had to move three star systems over to begin their work, with an estimated travel time of two hours at maximum Warp.


    They could be there even faster by sending only the Cutters and Cleansing Light, but it was better to take Terminus, as a Colony Ship was taken much more seriously than a collection of smaller vessels.


    The remains of their delegation were still fighting at the Station, where the Cygnus fleet had sent ships in to rescue their own delegation and had been ambushed by the nations that felt betrayed by the way that the attempted Coup in Kepler had yed out.


    That left only a handful of Cutter ss and smaller ships in orbit, ording to their scanners, and Terminus had detected only a single Orbital Battery on the surface, in the middle of the major city, which already had its battle shield up.


    This might not be as easy as he had hoped, but ording to Uncle Lu, the Disruptors could fire every three seconds at Orbital Lance output, so it wouldn''t take him long to take out a city shield, even if it withstood the first st.


    [Dropping out of Warp in 10 seconds. All vessels, prepare tounch.] Admiral Drake''s order brought everyone to full attention, nervously grasping their Mecha controls in anticipation of their firstbatnding in a while.

 Chapter 399 399 Combat Landing

    As soon as Terminus dropped out of warp, in orbit around the Grox homeworld, Max began an all-frequencies broadcast from the cockpit of Cleansing Light.


    [This is the Terminus Trading Company, under contract to the Cygnus Empire. Thepliance of your nation has been sanctioned. Please disable your shields and prepare for the peaceful reorganization of your political leadership.] Max informed them, hearing theughter in Nico''s thoughts from the other side of the bay where she was preparing tounch the Orbital Drone Fighters.


    [The Grox answer to no Human Empire. Leave now, and we will forgive this transgression for a nominal penalty.] The response from the arrived almost immediately.


    [You heard the man. All unitsunch.] Max ordered, then jumped out of the open bay door so that Cleansing Light could face the Grox Capital.


    Barriers were going up all over the, as expected, but they wouldn''tst long against the firepower of the Cutters, and if they were smart, they wouldn''t fight back at all after Max dealt with the Capital.


    There would be a lot of coteral damage from this n, but it was the best way that he hade up with to end the fighting before it started, so Max began to charge the Disruptors on his Mecha for one concentrated burst.


    The Grox must have detected the power surge with their sensors because they sent a volley of fire from their Capital defenses straight at him, flickering harmlessly against the shielding of Terminus.


    Max moved forward out of the protection of the Colony Ship and let loose the first volley, faintly greenish light from the Disruptors forming a pir through the atmosphere for the entire second that the weapon took to discharge. Then an immense explosion came from the ground, blinding every sensor that Max had.


    Nico''s evaluation came in even before Max''s sensors had recovered. [The Variable Frequency Disruptor entirely bypassed their shielding, annihting the city and causing the four fusion power nts below the Capital to go critical at once, with the st partially contained by the city''s defenses.


    The chances of survival are less than one in a billion.


    Chances of salvageable technology, less than one in ten million.]


    While the Captial burned, the Cutters madendfall near the fivergest work centers in the system, dropping their Battalions, which immediately split into Companies to secure their assigned zones.


    Mecha surged out of the cities to meet them, shouting and chanting litanies that made no sense to the Regiment. They were all in a foreignnguage that the Keplerputer systems didn''t automatically trante but seemed to be some religious litany by the assortment of banners and gilded leadership Mecha.


    [Commander, the first trantions are in. It appears they are calling us "God Killers." The Grox have set themselves up as deities to the enved human poption.] Nico reported.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Secondster, the Orbital Fighters wereunched, a wave of drones meant to reduce the casualties taken by their Mecha in the first wave of an enemy counterattack.


    [Just great. Now we have to deal with two worlds full of religious zealots. I don''t intend to kill every soul in this system, so someone needs toe up with a n in the next five minutes before the engagement starts.] Max ordered.


    They had a staff aboard Terminus that was just for logistics, nning, and data analysis. Hopefully, they coulde up with something quickly, or Max was going to have to do this the hard way.


    [n H is to inundate them with propaganda touting us as the saviors who are here to overthrow the deceivers. We could modify it to call them false gods. Every Grox that we kill will reinforce our message that they aren''t deities.] The nning staff suggested.


    [That''s not the worst n I''ve heard today. Get on it. I want it on every television and every radio on boths. Bombard them with the message that their overlords are usurpers, iming something that they have no right to.] Max ordered.


    [All Units target their leaders. Every signal you get that suggests a Grox lifeform, take it out with extreme prejudice. The loss of leadership will enrage them but also demoralize them and break the chain ofmand.]


    Aboard Terminus, the Innu and Illithid were watching the battle y out with a mixture of horror and rapt attention. Like a live train wreck, they were unable to look away. War might be anathema to their cultures at this point, but the thought that people had been manipted into epting their ve masters as deities they needed to worship was equally terrifying, especially once Nico started ying the footage from the for them, as the Grox who were stationed outside the main city rallied their forces to move out against the invaders.


    They clearly weren''t going toe out to fight themselves, so Nico started marking them with the sensors from the Drones, giving the Mecha more targeting solutions that would directly hit the Grox leadership.


    Max''s [Unified Force] System Talent and theputing power of Cleansing Light gave him plenty of options, fed to him from the entire Regiment as he hovered in orbit around the main, so Max chose the most pertinent first. He ordered the Cutters to take out the shields on the various cities and manufacturing areas. Then he obliterated the Grox Temples, where arge number of them were hiding and issuing orders to the Human militaries under theirmand.


    That was all that he could do from orbit, so Max searched thebat logs for the Company facing the direst situation and sent Cleansing Light hurtling through the atmosphere toward their position for some close fire support.


    The Second Company of the Fourth Battalion had particrly bad luck with thisnding. They had been assigned to what looked like a special forces training area and were outnumbered by Heavy Mecha at least three to one, with more assembling in the city.


    The Grox didn''t seem to have any Super Heavy Mecha so that the Thunder Guns would help even out the numbers, but for the moment, the Second Company was pinned down and beginning to take casualties.


    Six Disruptor sts turned two wings of Heavy Mecha into ashes as Maxnded between the Grox military and his own troops. His arrival brought cheers to his forces and panic to the enemy. A Titan ss Mecha did not belong in a Reaver attack force, and they had no ns on how to counter such a devastating weapon.

 Chapter 400 400 Cleanse The Grax

    The Grax military recovered quickly from the shock, returning to action with a vengeance. Zealous cries of outrage rang out as they concentrated fire on Cleansing Light, filling the air with bursts of light and explosions as their attacks detonated against its shielding.


    [Shields at 50 percent and falling] theputer informed Max as he turned to ce his shield between the main attacks and his Mecha, then unleashed the defensive Lasers and half the Disruptors with reduced power so that he could increase his rate of fire.


    Explosions blossomed all through the Grax lines as Cleansing Light tore through their out-of-date Mecha, with the Second Company rising up out of cover to join in the offensive.


    In under a minute, the Grax lines broke, and the Mecha fled at full speed back into the city behind the reinforced rockcrete walls, which could take the sustained attack of a Heavy Mechapany for hours on end.


    [Grax forces, you have been deceived. We have been sent to punish the false prophets for iming divinity. Lay down your weapons, and the humans of this world will not be harmed.] Max informed them, causing confusion among the defenders.


    They didn''t know that the Capital was gone yet, the news hadn''t broadcast it, and the st was out of sight from this location. So, naturally, they didn''t believe Max at first, but when their Commanders didn''t respond to requests for updated orders, chaos began to take hold in their ranks.


    Much of that was Nico''s doing, sending out encrypted messages suggesting that their Commanders had fled to save their own lives and abandoned them here, and part of it was because so much of the Command Structure had already been destroyed by targeted strikes that there weren''t enough coordinated officers to get timely messages to a billion soldiers.


    Under normal circumstances, a handful of officers could rally a dozen Regiments, which is what the Grax had been doing so that they didn''t have to send most of their species to work. But when Max began targeting them, the rtively small number of senior officers left everything to the human Regimental Commanders, who relied on the guidance of their Divine Leaders before making anyrge decisions.


    So, they held behind the walls, not retreating and not engaging the Terminus forces, as they waited for orders that weren''ting.


    [Commander, I have infiltrated theputers of the city''s primarynding bays. I amunching their ships into orbit now. They really should have updated their security.] Nico informed Max,ughing as she worked.


    The sight of the Holy Relics, the colony ships that had brought the Grax to their world, rapidly departing the atmosphere without taking any of the Humans with them crushed the forces'' morale. Max quickly jammed their standard long-range frequencies so that nobody outside the immediate area could contact them to see what was happening, reinforcing the idea that they had been abandoned here to their fate.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    This scene yed out all over the, but not every Regimental Commander was gullible enough to fall for it. Some managed to scan the ships and found them nearly empty, while others relied on faith to decide that it was a trick and kept fighting.


    Over the course of an hour, the two sides dug in their positions, sending volleys of attacks back and forth with some restraint, with the goal of keeping their targets pinned down while they waited for the situation to change.


    The forces from Terminus knew that if it came to it, they couldn''t take on a military a billion strong, even if ny percent of it was infantry. But on the other hand, the Grax forces knew that most of their divinities were dead or gone, and they would need to sacrifice many lives to drive this invading force from the.


    So, the initial shock assault turned into a dozen entrenched battles, with a handful of roaming forces on the and sporadic bombing by the drone forces if anyone got ideas about trying to muster up arger force.


    The Grax air force wasughably bad, intended as a civilian police force to keep the humans in line, and they didn''t even have weapons capable of damaging the Mecha or the Drone Fighters. After the first few minutes, they didn''t even dare tounch a helicopter anymore for fear of losing the pilots needlessly.


    The only time that a Grax vehicle was seen in flight was when it was marked with the Red Circle that they used to denote their medical teams. On principle, the Regiment left those alone, letting them evacuate the wounded, a tactic that was confusing the Grox forces even more.


    The Terminus forces weren''t attacking, only holding their positions outside all the major cities on the, and no more orbital strikes hadnded. However, they were clearly capable of them. Coupled with the propaganda that was being spread on every outlet, the sentiment of the civilians was quickly turning against their own defenders.


    [The Illithid have analyzed your tactical decisions in this battle. Our collective estimates seven more days before the poption begins to abandon their alien religion and turn against the military, with a peaceful transition within another four days afterward.] Nico informed Max as he reclined in Cleansing Light, searching every sensor feed he could for signs of an imminent attack.


    [Thank them for that. I seriously hope that they are right, but I suspect that given human nature, there will be ast stand, as the most zealous attempt to regain control at thest moment. They won''t simply ept that the poption has turned against them, especially the ones that were granted arger amount of power by the Grax.] Max replied.


    If there was one thing Max could count on in human nature, it was that they would never simply give in and give up. Arge portion of them would be willing to die for their beliefs, even if they were shown evidence to the contrary. It was fundamental to the human psyche.

 Chapter 401 401 For The Grax

    As Max had anticipated, the battles began the very next day, with the most zealous of the human forces working out ns to leave their defenses, which had lost all of their spiritual guidance, and head for some other location that they suspected might be in better shape, with a stronger leadership group.


    Terminus had allmunications locked down on the, with only their own securemunications allowed to broadcast. Still, the propaganda feed on the civilianworks was in full swing, ying an assortment of peace messages, as well as fake news updates from around the, showing the Grax abandoning the humans the moment that someone showed up to challenge them.


    Nico had been careful to make a point of showing that all of the Mecha Pilots in their fleet were human, just like the civilians, and that they were here to liberate them from false prophets, using the disappearance of the Grax overlords who had ruled these peoples lives for centuries as evidence that they were no more than cowardly aliens.


    Max was actually quite impressed by the quality of the propaganda, and the subtlety of the subliminal programming that was contained within it, which the local poption wouldn''t have the technology to uncover and counter without their leaders and militaryputers.


    That only increased the violence of the rejection by the zealots, though. Their every belief had been challenged, and in the morning, when the entire poption typically tuned in for their morning sermon and daily news but only found the new news broadcasts, the Zealots decided that this was their moment to act, to prove to the people with their own eyes that the Grax Administration was still in power and could not be overturned by some puny human ship.


    [Commander, we have Super Heavy mecha iing from zone G6.] Colonel Klinger happily informed Max, knowing that the Commander had been spoiling for a fight after the Hunters insisted that their champion was a female.


    [On my way, Colonel. How is the state of your men?] Max responded as heunched Cleansing Light into the air to meet the enemy threat.


    [Holding strong. The Company''s technicians managed to repair most of our damages overnight, and we are over 90 percentbat effective.] Colonel Klinger informed him as Max began to see the first signs of renewed battle at the city that they were camped outside.


    Colonel Klinger had opted to spread his forces around the city, with His Command Mecha taking the North wall, while the Company Command Mecha took the south, and the First Company of the Fifth Battalion split in half, taking the East and West walls.


    The enemy had decided to concentrate their attacks and were all headed for Colonel Klinger''s Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha, ret River.


    The artillery was roaring at maximum output, the Thunder that gave the Mecha its name, while the Ion Bombard Arrays tore apart heavy Mecha, and the defensive Lasers obliterated the Light Mecha that was either brave or foolhardy enough to show their faces.


    The Super Heavy Mecha was still hanging back a few kilometers, letting the main force weaken the enemy like most Kepler Commanders would expend lives to save expensive Mecha.


    That wouldn''t save him today. Max was headed straight for the Grax Super Heavy, the massive form of Cleansing Light dwarfing the enemy Mecha. Anyone watching from the walls of the city could clearly see the difference between the two Commanders, with the clean lines of Max''s Samurai-themed Mecha contrasted against the arches and spires of the Cathedral atop the Super Heavy of the Grax military.


    Max saved multiple images and started a video feed to send to Uncle Lu, who had initially wanted his Mecha to look like that. The old man would appreciate the sense of aesthetics if nothing else.


    He wouldn''t simply obliterate it. That wouldn''t give the effect he needed today, so Max raised his physical shield and drew his sword, pointing it at the enemy Mecha.


    [Your false Gods have abandoned you. Stand down and rejoin humanity in self-governance. You are no longer a ve.] Max dered over the loudspeaker of Cleansing Light.


    [You know nothing of faith. By faith, we are born, and by faith, we will prevail.] The enemy Commander dered, then sted Max with a Thermal Lance.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    The beam crashed against his shield and dispersed without any harm done to the Titan ss Mecha. It hadn''t even depleted the secondary barrier on his physical shield, much less forced Cleansing Light to put power toward the main defenses.


    [Then suffer the fate that traitors to their own deserve.] Max announced and stepped forward, striking downward with his sword and cleaving arge portion of the cathedral and one of the main weapons off of the enemy Mecha in a tremendous explosion of shattering energy shields and power couplings.


    Before it could retaliate, Max brought the de back on an upward trajectory that would take it through the center of the Mecha, gouging arge hole out of the structure but failing to find the power core hidden among all of the architecture.


    The Super Heavy Mecha staggered back, mes licking from all over the unit where the chemical feed for the Thermal Lance had ignited on the surface of the Mecha when the weapon was destroyed, and Max aimed his fist down at the fallen Mecha, targeting with his Disruptors.


    The st vaporized half the Mecha, leaving a crater in the ground where it once stood, and Max turned to face the enemy lines.


    The de that Uncle Lu had designed could send out a Disruptor wave for mowing down infantry and light Mecha, an invisible strike that should be suitably impressive to these superstitious folk.


    Max swung his sword, sending the wave of Disruptor energy into the back lines of the Grax army, dropping hundreds of Light Mecha as if the mere wind from his de was more than they could withstand.


    [Surrender and exit your Mecha, or we will be forced to take drastic measures to ensure the safety of the human civilians on this from your zealotry.] Max ordered.


    ? That brought a renewed barrage of attacks against Cleansing Light, to which Colonel Klinger and Max responded with a full-force barrage of weapon fire, wiping out the remainder of the force in a single second.


    Max looked up and saw a swarm of drone fighters in the air, spreading apart seconds after the battle was decided.


    They didn''t intercede, so they must be the ones Nico was using to film propaganda to broadcast to the popce.


    [Your Divine Holiness, Cleansing Light, we apologize for our mistaken attack upon your forces. Please, can you release the daily rations?] The city broadcast to them.


    [Nico, what are they talking about?] Max asked.


    [Give me five seconds. Oh, there it is. The grocery stores and food warehouses are all keyed to the Grax genome. The humans couldn''t get in to get their daily rations, and the Grax didn''t allow them to have more than a day''s worth of food, as they called it, hoarding. I will have them unlocked in 30 seconds. You can announce it whenever you like.


    Make it sound good.] Nico replied.

 Chapter 402 402 Not Convinced

    [I am not Divine, I am human, like every one of you. My forces will have the food supply released to you within one minute. Please have the regr workers distribute food as normal. There is no need for panic or hoarding, the battle for the city is over, and you are in charge of your own fates.


    Once the zealots who would see you remain as ves are eliminated, an additional force will arrive to assist you with governance during the transition to full self-rule. Again they will be humans sent to assist you, not some Divine beings who would see you as beneath them.] Max announced from Cleansing Light, ryed through the city thanks to Nico''s control over their public broadcasting system.


    The cameras of the drones overhead showed the orderly procession of humans heading to various stores and warehouses while workers in uniforms hesitantly opened the doors, then looked around inside, not finding any of the Grax.


    Normally, they would be given permission to proceed, but the automated systems had stocked the shelves, so they began their work with minimal fuss, handing out in cardboard boxes, which Max could see everyone leaving with.


    That was a good start. At least the city wasn''t in civil war.


    Yet.


    The same could not be said for many of the other cities, which had to physically break into their warehouses to distribute the day''s supplies. It didn''t escape the notice of the civilians that the military had to break into their own facilities, as the Grax weren''t there to let them in anymore. The scenes in those cities were much more chaotic, even without ounting for the artillery bombardment that was keeping their mecha forces pinned down and shaking the air of the city.


    All day Max waited for something to happen, but the live stream of him and one single Super Heavy Mecha stopping the attacking force trying to leave the city was enough to dissuade the others from making a move during the daylight hours.


    [Sir, we have movement from the position at F4. Arge mass of civilians left the city with hand tools. If they are hostile, the estimated effectiveness is zero.] Second Battalion Command informed him.


    [Maybe they''re going to work? Hell, maybe they are running away from the city. We will have orbital data, and drones keep tabs on them in case they''re going to a secret weapons warehouse, but for now, let them go wherever they please.] Max ordered.


    There was no other news for most of an hour as darkness settled in over the side of the that Max was on, then Second Battalion reported again.


    [They''reing back, looks like they''re pulling carts loaded with supplies. Raw grains and root vegetables. They must have gathered them from a farm storage location.] The logistics officer reported.


    [That''s fine. We aren''t trying to starve them out. Let them go. Propaganda will incorporate it into the uing messages. I am sure that they will be overjoyed to find out that we aren''t stopping them from getting food or living their lives. We are just after the military assets.]


    It might just be the strangest battle that Max had ever been involved in, but over the course of the day, on the far side of the, teams left every location and returned with food, using all manual tools and wagons.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    It couldn''t be enough to support the poption, and Max wondered if there was some sort of replicator technology in the warehouses inside the city, like they had aboard Terminus.


    The video of the teams going out and back with supplies yed in the broadcasts, which incited the poption against the Military, which had insisted in most cities that the warehouses could not be essed without permission from the Grax, and put the food under lock and key.


    The teams that were sent out were zealots, gathering rations for the military, and once night fell, the civilians began to feel hungry enough that food mattered more than threats. In some cities, the guards on the warehouses were attacked, and the food supply locations were looted. In others, small teams of rebels left the city, waving at the Terminus Mecha along the route as they passed through to the food warehouses, finding them broken wide open and guarded by a small team of Light Mecha, who helped them load carts to bring food back to the city.


    It was a genius idea of Major Miller, who insisted that the key to loyalty would always be food, so if the Mecha made sure that the rebels could sneak into the warehouses to get anything that they needed and didn''t attack them, it would help reinforce the subliminal messaging that the invading Mecha were their friends and liberators.


    Aboard Terminus, both the Illithid and the Innu were highly impressed by the show, and the Innu had equipped a number of the Drone Fighters with their advanced cameras so they could get a suitable set of footage to end their documentary since they would be heading back home after this engagement.


    They had more than enough for a full documentary on the Humans of this Gxy and nned to make a sequel if this one sold well, but that would be at least two years from now, once approval was given and funding was secured.


    They had also helped Nico set up a better social media presence for the Terminus Trading Company and Cruise Line. That way, she could post random videos, the Innu could tag her in their posts, and they could advertise their "Unscripted Adventure Cruise" service, which was a somewhat gray market in the Alliance, but not outright prohibited, except by a few members nations which fully banned travel to high-risk locations.


    Mostly those were the more fragile and environmentally sensitive species, who wouldn''t fare well in a standardized atmosphere designed for other species of muchrger stature.


    For example, the Pix, who was only six centimeters tall and whose wings were very easily damaged by energy surges and sudden warp shifts. Their council had deemed the risk of visiting the humans too high, as an attack on Terminus, even if it was absorbed by the shields, could cause an energy surge through the ship high enough to identally kill their species.


    Another day passed in chaos as the food supply runs on both sides continued, and the situation inside the cities began to deteriorate. The attacks that Max hadn''te until the veryst moment, though, and the first of them wasn''t aimed at his force but at the civilians.


    [Sir, we have a situation. We have an official request from one of the cities to eliminate the military presence within their walls. They have begun attacking the poption for failing to adhere to their orders.] Major Miller informed him.


    [Prepare to move. I will be there in seventeen minutes.] Max replied, leaving his position and heading for the city that the First Company of the First Battalion was guarding.


    The other cities weren''t likely to be far behind them, and his forces were stretched thin, so Max ordered Nico and the Drone pilots to stand by for emergency deployment. If they needed to eliminate forces inside the city, the small and agile drone fighters would be better than Super Heavy Mecha, and cause less coteral damage.

 Chapter 403 403 Compliance

    Everyone was in position and ready to move as Max cleared the horizon, using his height advantage to add targeting Data for his Pilots on the ground. That let them urately target the Heavy Mecha of the Grax military forces with artillery, breaking armor tes, and disabling weapons in preparation for their entry into the city.


    [Advance] Max ordered, and the Fast Attack Crusaders activated their thrusters and leaped over the wall, bringing the fight to the enemy, while the others took down the gates and let the Line Mecha and Corvettes flood into the city, with the Heavy Mecha as their backup.


    The Super Heavy stood back and continued to shell the Grax Heavy Mecha Regiment as the Terminus forces advanced, joined by the rebels, who fell in behind the Mecha, carrying mostly industrial tools, pitchforks, and shovels, the truest of all melee weapons.


    The moment that the protesters inside the city saw that the reinforcements were the Terminus Mecha from outside the walls, the fight against the Military turned suddenly brutal and bloody. The civilians charged the soldiers, while the Light Mecha picked off as many as they could to reduce civilian casualties.


    The Grax Mecha responded within seconds, running to the scene just in time to be met by the Fast Attack Crusaders and melted down to g in the streets.


    The antique design that the Grax was using was particrly vulnerable to high temperatures, as the alloy of the structure softened significantly and made the armor tes buckle, letting the Terminus Mecha disable them in seconds.


    Before Max fired a single shot, it was clear that the civilians would win this engagement. But when he unleashed the Disruptors on the Military bunker where thest of their reserves were being deployed, all will to fight vanished and the Military vehicles and Mecha began powering down.


    Their upants mostly exited the vehicles to surrender to their civilian neighbors. However, some did flee into the city, hoping to hide and erase any memory that they had sided with the vanished Deities.


    The fight raged on for a few more minutes, but there were no targets that needed his level of firepower to deal with, so Max resorted to simply corralling the remaining defenders with his lightsers, crippling their Mecha and guiding them to the main forces to either fight it out or surrender.


    Most chose to surrender.


    [Sir, we have arge movement at A3. Suspected Super Heavy Mecha and an underground military fortress.] the Third Company of First Battalion reported, drawing Max''s attention away from the fight at hand.


    [On my way.]


    They had taken very few casualties so far, and the medics weren''t reporting any dead yet, only injures and broken Mecha, a state that Max would dly maintain if it were at all possible.


    [Multiple uprisings reported. Deploying Drones to assist.] Nico informed Max as a string of reports came in all at once.


    This must be the Grax Loyalists''st stand, their organized effort to push the Terminus forces away from the cities while their force is spread thin and they haven''t yet received reinforcements.


    The number of fighters that Terminus had wasn''t high, but even a half dozen per city could do a lot of damage to forces that were unprepared for an aerial attack.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    Max arrived at the mining facility designated A3 in under a minute and found something that he never thought he would see in actualbat.


    The Grax had created a rolling fortress. Initially, it had been mostly buried, but now that it was moving, it was over a square kilometer in size, rolling on gigantic treads, with its own shielding and numerous defensive guns.


    [Would you look at that? It''s an actual mobile city. I''ve seen them in video games, but I never thought that someone would be insane enough to actually try to build one. I wonder if we can get the design schematics for this thing before we leave? The Gamers Museum would love it.] One of the pilots raved as he watched the city rise up from the ground.


    The gamer''s museum would love this fortress. It had everything a mobile city could need, and it was a shame that they would have to break it to stop the military from using it to wipe out their Mecha forces.


    The guns on the fortress were specifically designed for this scenario, Cleansing Light notwithstanding, and they were more than capable of sting a Heavy Mecha Company out of existence.


    Max focused all of the Disruptor beams on one arm andunched an attack against the front gates, the blow causing the city''s shield to warp and flicker.


    [This shield is a different technology than the Capital shield. I will continue to fire, so prepare to breach the city once the gates are down.] Max ordered.


    A second st caused a breach in the shield, and damage to the gates, while the third blew the gates wide open and cleared the mass of defenders that were lined up behind it, leaving the mangled remains of a Mecha Battalion scattered through the streets.


    [Moving in. Command requests that you keep the shield down in case we need to make an emergency evacuation.] The Mecha Company requested.


    [I am on it. Nico, see what you can do to disable this city.] Max replied, knowing that she listened to all broadcasts simultaneously.


    [Working on it. This is not a Grax-built piece of technology. I think it was left by the humans that were here before them.] Nico replied.


    That made sense, the idea of a mobile city was archaic, outdated for millennia, even on the most hostile of worlds now that Terraforming Technologies had advanced so far.


    The Terminus Mecha were fighting in the streets, but it seemed that the defensive guns could not be turned inward, and only Max was subject to their sporadic fire. After a few minutes, even that ended, and the city ground to an abrupt halt.


    [Commander, we found the power distribution node. The main power to the city has been cut. The facility is nearly abandoned, with only a few surviving soldiers and four Grax clerics remaining.] The Mecha Company Commander reported.


    [Excellent work. Capture the Grax for interrogation, and bring the prisoners out of the facility. We will have to sort them outter.] Max ordered.

 Chapter 404 404 Not Found

    The days of propaganda and subliminal messaging were doing their job, and the first few attacks by the drones when they turned on the civilians were enough to convince most of the resistance forces that were still active to surrender to the mercy of their fellows.


    In the end, only the one group of Grax that they had found within the mobile city had survived the initial assaults, and from what Max could tell, they weren''t talking, but they were trying to influence his troops.


    Like the Vampires and the Illithid, they had some mental maniption ability, but theirs wasn''t evolutionary. The scans by his Pilots indicated that it was actually an imnted device in their brains that was used specifically to target the humans and convince them to worship the Grax.


    After a somewhat inelegant disassembly procedure, a sample of the device was sent back up to Terminus so that Nico and the technicians could examine it and counteract the effects.


    The Grax seemed somewhat horrified by the raw brutality of the Human forces after experiencing that particr surgical procedure, but Max made sure that only his own men would be able to see what went on in that holding cell. They were doing a decent job of impressing the Innu with their morality and letting them film the soldiers torturing and beheading an alien for ease of study would not help their case.


    [Once that device is analyzed, send out the message that the is pacified and request for payment. Cygnus should have an enforcement team prepared to take over from us.] Max ordered once the sample was safe aboard Terminus and into ab.


    [We''re on it. The device seems to be incredibly simple. It works simrly to Illithid mentalmunication, but on a lower level that might not be perceived by the human consciousness, so it would be like a constant indoctrination message ying in their subconscious.


    Just removing the Grax from their presence was enough to begin undoing the damage, but a bit of a tweak to the subliminal messaging won''t hurt anything and will undo the damage faster.] Nico replied.


    No sooner than Nico had finished speaking, a message came from the Cygnus Military.


    [Lord General Kirnd had high praises for yourpetence, so we sent the enforcement team in anticipation of your timely victory. The estimated time of arrival is seven hours and nine minutes, with sixty thousand peacekeepers and administrators bringing the back under human control.


    We are analyzing the data that we have been sent now and will adapt our technique topensate for the former status of the citizens. Your payment is prepared, and you may relieve your troops as soon as we makendfall.


    Glory to Cygnus.]


    [You have to love that bureaucratic efficiency. It might have been a mess if we hadn''t finished on time, though.] Max sighed over the radio.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    [I don''t think that they expected us to take so many of them alive. Sixty thousand administrators is not a lot for an entire world when the administrative work wasn''t done by anyone still living on the. They''ve got their work cut out for them, training a whole newary logistics department.] Colonel Klingerughed, realizing immediately that the Cygnus force would have a much harder time rebuilding things than they had to break them.


    The propaganda changed from battle reports to assurances that everything was being brought back in order and that human help would arrive to assist them in getting everything working properly again and the supplies moving to where they needed to be.


    That part turned out to be easier than Max had expected. Like Terminus, they had a very basic form of replicator, one that only needed raw biomass. So, once the fighting was over and they started bringing truckloads of raw grains and vegetables into the cities again, their food shortages were quickly solved by citizens carrying on their daily duties.


    In fact, they were so well trained to do their assigned tasks that they brought most of the factories and industrial facilities back online on their own, even without directions.


    The military was gone, so there was some chaos in the streets, which was being taken care of by newly minted neighborhood watches made up of former building security staff. Even with the Grax brainwashing them, the theft had still been an issue, so there was plenty of civilian security in ce, and not all of them had been killed.


    In some cities, the damage was fairly crippling, though. Max sawints that over half the poption in one city had died because the Military moved before the Terminus Mecha had and had gone on a killing spree to eliminate the civilians who were rioting for food.


    Max remained at the mobile city, thest bastion of the Grax, while the staff on Terminus worked on a device to counter the mind control devices. They hade up with a handheld tool that would block the signals and lead them directly to the source. The technicians nned to give them out to their Mecha forces in case there were still some Grax hiding and biding their time, waiting for the Mecha to leave so that they could reassert control over the poption.


    They would also be useful against simr attacks, and Nico added a function to interpret and identify the Illithidmunications so that others without Max''s talents could hear them from a distance and not force the creatures toe to stand next to them for verbalmunication.


    For the moment, it was one way, trantion only, but the Illithid thought it was a great advancement, letting them broadcast to humans like a radio station so they could get their point across to everyone at the same time. Individualmunications were mostly deemed inefficient by the species used to coborating on everything they did.


    He would soon learn that not all great advancements are great ideas. Max had gotten used to the constant chatter, but the device wasn''t capable of being selective, and it broadcast every thought and sentence that the Illiithid wished to share with everyone around them, which with twenty of them on the ship, meant that there would be about five thoughts broadcast at any given time.


    In the mental realm, the Illithid were incessant chatterboxes.

 Chapter 405 405 Extinction

    After a significant amount of interrogation, the Terminus Regiment found that the Grax poption was thest of their kind, a species on the run after another''s residents had overthrown them, presumably for the same sort of thing that they had done here to the humans.


    Their attitude made it both more difficult and more pleasurable for the interrogation specialists to work, as they actually believed that their technology had made them gods. In their minds, that was all it took. If you could force others to do your bidding, you were their god, end of the story. So, they believed that they had every right to do what they pleased and that humans should remain below them.


    That exined a lot about their attitude at the negotiations for territory. Max hadn''t been able to pinpoint their attitudes among the crowd and had thought that they were merely arrogant. Seeing them here made him realize just how delusional the Grax really were.


    [Ground Forces, prepare for iing shuttles and Landers. The Cygnus fleet also requests Commander Keres''s presence in orbit for the final payment transfer and formal transfer of responsibility.] Admiral Drake informed them as Max finished the paperwork confirming that all of the settlements had returned to normal food distribution.


    The rest of the issues were no longer his problem, but he had to at least make sure that the people wouldn''t starve if the Cygnus administration had issues getting used to their jobs here.


    [I am on my way up. Hopefully, Cleansing Light doesn''t scare them too much.] Max replied with a chuckle.


    Nobody had warned the Cygnus forces that they had a Titan ss Mecha with them, so the appearance of one in the hands of the Reavers was going to cause some serious ripples through Cygnus politics.


    [We have a cutter ready if you wish to use it to return to orbit.] Nico offered.


    That might actually be the best idea for today. The rumors that the locals spread would be wild anyhow since his forces had eliminated their former deities, so talk of one giant Mecha who had intervened in a few cities would be passed off as superstition.


    [Do it. I will ride the Cutter back up, and then you can send it back to the surface for the battalion. Please have a shuttle ready when I arrive unless we are holding the meetings on Terminus.] Max decided.


    [Second Battalion''s Cutter is closest. Inbound now. Your departure will have to wait until thenders have cleared the airspace above you. We don''t have ess to Cygnus flight paths.]


    Nico was clearly annoyed by that fact, but after the recent news of military facilities being hacked by both Kepler and the Narsians, they had put some effort into upgrading their security measures.


    While Max loaded Cleansing Light into the Cutter in a kneeling position, being too tall to walk into the bay, the locals waved a happy goodbye to him, well conditioned to believe their news media, and now well indoctrinated to see the Reavers and Cygnus as their rescuers, but Nico had been careful to make sure that they would see the Cygnus administration as fellow humans helping them get their up and running for themon good of their new allies.


    The Landers were reaching the ground now, far too widely spaced to be in an invasion fleet, but Max knew that they were bringing thousands of Light Mecha with them for security purposes since the ones belonging to the military were mostly destroyed and weren''tpatible with Cygnus repair facilities anyhow.


    The Cutter took him back to the bay, where Nico and his security escort were waiting for him to arrive.


    "We have the paperwork all ready, confirmed, and double-checked by both myself and the Admiral. Cygnus wants to pay with a mix of materials and goods, to be picked up from their sources. We have the copies of the requisition orders ready to be signed." Nico informed him.


    "It feels like we actually did something worthwhile today," Max replied with a smile, making the security forces chuckle.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Is that our next goal? Turning the humans into less of a Gctic embarrassment?" One of them asked, the helmet keeping Max from immediately telling who.


    "It''s not a bad goal. Even if we can get to a status like the Hunters, it would be a good start. Once we finish here, I n to take us back to the western edge of civilization. The Klem has been a problem for too long, and we are in a good position to clear a few high-threats while the rest of the region ys politics." Max replied.


    "So, we let them do what they do, then we show up afterward with technology and start reshaping the Human Species?" Nico asked.


    "Is it such a bad n? Someone needs to kick them in the ass to get them in shape, and we need to start somewhere." Max asked before he noticed the dubious thoughts of the guards and Nico''s misconception about annihting anyone who disagreed with their n.


    "I say we start in the outer arms. If we start by organizing the Mercenaries and building their technology to match the Reavers, we can have all the unaligned humans on the same page. With all of the merchant and Mercenary forces on another level, it will force everyone else toply or be left out of the new trade routes that we can manage in days instead of months." Max rified.


    "That''s not bad. We could talk to the council and get permission to start bringing the Mercenaries into the Reaver nation. Most of them have already made trade agreements with Rae 5, so it would just be an expansion of what we are already doing and some serious shipments of new technologies.


    I think even the Alliance would approve of your methodology, though a Colony Ship full of Titan ss Mecha sounds like a much more fun way to brings intopliance.


    Just imagine it. A thousand orbital strikes at once, broadcast all over the Gxy, to remind humans that it is time to give up on the notion ofrge-scale wars or be deleted from the future." Nico sighed.


    "Peace through Genocide. It''s a catchy motto, but I don''t think that he''s going to go for it, Nico." One of the guards reminded her.


    "Just wait. He will eventually get frustrated with the stupid people, and my way will start sounding better and better." Nico disagreed.


    Max could already see how that was a possibility. That was the danger of Nico''s ideas. They would work so much better than doing things the right way. Who would dare to start a war if Terminus would just show up with enough firepower to annihte your entire culture in a single strike?


    It was fairly simr to how the Valkia had done things, but he was hoping that such drastic measures weren''t going to be necessary. Even the Hunters wouldn''t appreciate that tactic since it wasn''t sporting of them to win by pure overkill.


    "Don''t hold your breath for that. We will do it with technology and culture, not Orbital Strikes." Max replied.


    Nico gave a pointed look down at the below them.


    "Alright, limited Orbital Strikes to make a point when necessary."

 Chapter 406 406 Payment Plan

    Max changed from his Pilot suit into more mboyant garb that Nico had prepared for him and led the way into the Shuttle. Most of the time, this was the most nerve-wracking part of the deal, where the leaders of your team were exposed, in a light vehicle, on their way to talk to a business partner that you could never fully trust.


    They had a lot of faith in the goodwill of the Cygnus forces, at least at this point when the Reavers were helping them take arge number of others as well, but that wouldn''tst forever. Once they were no longer vital to the n, there was always the chance that they would be double-crossed or the terms of the payments would suddenly change.


    That was the primary reason that the second in Command was usually the one sent to these meetings. They were trusted to do the job, but the Company wouldn''t crumble without them, and they were rewarded ordingly.


    But Cygnus was one of the great powers among the human species. It would be an insult to them not to show up himself to hand over control of a that they had pacified.


    The shuttlended in the Cygnus Cruiser''s bay and waited for the hull temperature to adjust while Nico stared at her watch and sighed.


    "We really do need to start teaching them how to do essential things. I don''t know how we ever survived without the bay door barriers fully functional, and it''s only been a month since they were fixed.


    Maybe we should mass produce a simple replicator and sell it to them like a microwave oven, where they can put ingredients in and get real food back. Bribe the soldiers through their stomachs." Nico suggested.


    "At least teach them to fix the door. That is such an amazing bit of tech that everyone should have it. I was talking to some friends back on Rae 5, and they are already retrofitting all Reaver vessels with it, and it has been incorporated into the new vessels they are making." One of the guards added.


    "I will send it to Lord General Kirnd, and he can distribute it. If I deal directly with him, they will take it as an agreement between Nobles, and appropriate payment for the use of the royalties won''t be an international incident like it would if we tried to move the technology through the military procurement channels." Max replied.


    Once it was safe to exit the vessel, Max led the team out of the shuttle, feeling a bit like a peacock in the ck leather pants and shy gold silk shirt with a long red coat that Nico had put him in. She was, of course, dressed to match and looked amazing, but it was a bit much for Max, even without the hat that she had tried to add.


    "Commander Keres, Imperial Lady Tarith, it is a pleasure to meet you both. I am Archduke Von, Cousin to the Imperial Princes." The leader of the deployment greeted them.


    "A man of your stature leading thepliance effort on such a backwater? I am surprised that you agreed to be so far from the influence of the court." Nico responded after a polite curtsey.


    "Trust me. It is far less stressful to be away from Court, even on a calm day. My older brothers all run thes of our home system, and I was a bit slighted on the inheritance, but Governor of Grax doesn''t sound too bad on the resume, and it looks like I will have carte nche to establish things in a way that I would never get to on a more civilized.


    I have grand ns for this small system. The asteroid belt alone is a treasure trove, and a small allocation of mining rights would lift the quality of life on the surface to new heights. It is already sparsely popted and mostly wild, so it is the perfect tform for a retirement system." The Archduke informed them.


    "A retirement?" Max asked, unfamiliar with the concept and not understanding what the man was thinking.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "When they grow older, it is customary to turn their positions over to their children. The aging Nobles of Cygnus are often targets for positions as advisors, business leaders, and other such annoying nonsense. So, I n to keep the system on a restricted ess basis so that they cane here to retire and rx.


    It will take some serious upgrading of the city''s amenities, but we are prepared for that, and everyone will benefit from it. The domestic staff of a Cygnus Noble lives better than ny percent of the human race, and I n to make a whole full of them."


    "Don''t try to set yourself up as separate and above the locals. It will sh with the propaganda that we have been feeding them, that humans are equal and worthy," Max replied.


    "As long as I can still set up a hierarchy of employers based on wealth, it should be fine. I take it there was no local hereditary leadership other than the aliens?" Von asked.


    "Only the military positions which were put in charge of overseeing the others. There is a whole report ready for your reading." Max told him.


    "Ah, marvelous. I will take some time going over everything. For now, the forces on the ground are not nobles, so they will serve as work supervisors and middle management, which every society needed to begin with. They know that they are not the boss, so they should be rtable to the locals, I hope.


    Cygnus used the biometric data we could obtain to send workers who looked somewhat like the locals. The facial features will be different, but we didn''t want to separate the new arrivals by having them all look wildly different than the ones they were supervising."


    Max nodded in agreement. "Good call. They are good about following orders, and they took the initiative in most cities to get things working normally even before we started our efforts to prepare for your arrival, so their job should be an easy one. Now, should we get to this formal paperwork?"


    "Of course. We have already verified it, and it is ready for signature. The Reaver Command on Rae 5 has already begun arranging pickup times for the payments to the Companies that are doing the leg work to help Cygnus expand its territory. The amounts were simply toorge for most of the vessels to be able to carry, though I suppose your Colony Ship could have managed it." Archduke Von agreed.


    The two copies of the agreement werepared and read over onest time, then signed by all parties present before the formal handshake and shot of Rum to seal the deal.


    On the way back to Terminus, Max calcted the actual payment for their work, and it was more than enough to build another Terminus and rebuild every Mecha in their fleet. They had lost nearly fifty units but no Pilots, thanks to the new shield technologies that helped defend the cockpit from attacks, even after main power was down.


    If Rae 5 was using the payments for this scheme to build the new Mecha they were nning to sell, they had just won the proverbial lottery. Every hard-to-manufacture part and rare resource they would have trouble mining for themselves was included on the list for just this single. From what Max knew, there were dozens of others that Companies were working together to prepare for a transition to Cygnus rule as well.


    Rae 5 would be busy just trying to unload this all to the dozens of stations in the system, much less process it all into new vehicles and Mecha.

 Chapter 407 407 Head West For Adventure

    [I need all Command staff in the meeting room in one hour for a briefing.] Max ordered as he made ns for their next destination.


    There was a human world isted in the depths of Klem Territory that he wanted to intervene with.


    They had sent out a request for assistance or evacuation, but nobody had been willing to take it on so far. Over the course of the past decade, the Klem had taken every system around them, leaving them an isted pod of humanity in the middle of Klem territory. It was strongly suspected that they were being used as bait so that the Klem could attack the ships that came to rescue them or trace them back to their homeworlds in search of more biomass.


    So, he would take Terminus toward the empty space of the Gctic Core, and they would travel in from that direction, leaving no definite evidence of which inhabited area that they hade from.


    The location might not be a trap, but it wouldn''t be the first time that the Klem had done something surprisingly sneaky when it was near their core worlds and they hadmunication with their centralwork of Queens.


    They might only work together when none of them stood to benefit personally. Still, when they did, they could be incredibly cunning, far beyond what they were normally considered capable of.


    Max waited for the others to arrive at the meeting while he prepared coffee and notes for them all to go over, showing the intended route, the inhabitants of the, and the exact content of the evacuation or aid request.


    Max was certain that none of them would have an issue with it, though there was a significant risk of injury or death, but perhaps one of them could see something that he had missed or a w in his n.


    One by one, they filed in, taking seats around the table with the holographic map in the middle where everyone could see what the presenter was talking about. Last up was Nico, who arrived with snacks to go with the coffee, as well as one of the Illithid.


    "The Innu are leaving tomorrow, but the Illithid wish to leave an advisor with us when they go. They''re not hiding that they intend to report back to the Alliance about our activities, and they can read minds, so I don''t see a good reason not to include them in the nning meeting at this point." Nico informed the group.


    "You might as well take a seat. It''s less creepy than having people think you''re spying on them from another room." Colonel Klinger agreed, making the Illithidugh.


    "It ismon practice for all ships in the Alliance to have an Illithid aboard for prevention of deception and mutiny. Now, your ship has Commander Keres for that purpose since it is very hard to lie to him, but I hope that my insight can prove my worth as an advisor." The Illithid introduced himself.


    They didn''t give themselves individual names, so Max really couldn''t call him anything else, except maybe Advisor Illithid, which was both amusing and ironic at the same time.


    "Let''s get this started. We have received a request for aid. This is surrounded by Klem-held worlds and is requesting preventative evacuation. I think it will be the perfect ce to pass some time doing good work while things settle down.


    The n for the attack we can discuss in a moment, but the real reason that I have called you here is that I have a n for the future of Terminus, both as a ship and as a Trading Company.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I want to push humanity toward the standard for gctic eptance. Now, the standards of the Alliance might be a bit high for an immediate goal, but at the very least, a unified Human Alliance, with sufficient technology tying it together not to be considered archaic by intergctic standards, would be my preference.


    I also have the n to do it.


    What I want to do is wait for the Chaos of the fall of the Kepler Empire to subside and for the new nations to establish basic peace treaties among theirs. While they work that out, we will work with the other Reavers to spread technology to the Mercenaries that they have been cut off from for Centuries.


    They have alreadypleted all of the negotiations to ally with the Reavers, and trade between the groups has been authorized, with the exception of a few cklisted groups. Between the two groups, we have the manpower topletely dominate international trade. The Reavers can take over every single major trade route once they have the new ship technology to break warp 10.


    With that, they can spread the basic design of the replicators and the new materials printers to every that is interested, with the caveat that they will be wiped out of existence if they use them for war against other nations that share the technology.


    It feeds into their feelings of importance, and with so many nations set to fall and others to greatly expand, the timing is perfect to renegotiate treaties.


    At the very least, Cygnus, The Reavers, The Death Wind Territory, and the Kepler Free Region, who has already begun working with the Reavers, are in.


    I don''t know how many small nations will survive this next year or two, so we can''t calcte that yet, but that covers over half the inhabiteds in this region of the Gxy."


    Max stopped for a moment to show the regions that were likely to say yes immediately, as well as list out the basic technologies that would be distributed as bribes to sign onto the agreement and improve human living standards even more than they already were.


    Nico perked up as she looked over the map. "Hey, that gives me a really good idea. The Replicator technology can use pretty much any form of biomass to create food you see. We have a Klem infestation on the border and a freshly developed technology that can turn them into delicious, nutritious ration packs for our forces and workers."


    Everyone stared at her for a moment before the Illithid began tough. "I suspect that convincing the poption to eat food made of rbined giant insects might meet with more resistance than you have suspected, Miss Nico. Even if it is a perfectly normal ration pack, the innate mental resistance to eating bugs is strong among almost every species, including everyone else in the room, myself included."


    Nico frowned but nodded. "Noted. No telling the forces on the ground that we n to feed them rbined Klem to save on resources, and no giving them out as humanitarian aid packages."


    The Illithid looked to Max for assistance. "Her mind doesn''t work the same as Humans. Is she always this stubbornly inventive?"


    That got everyone in the room in on theughter. "You have no idea. But the short answer is yes. If there is a creative answer needed, we make sure to ask her. Though the answer often involves a genocide of convenience, her n always includes elements that will work to solve the problem."

 Chapter 408 408 Agreed?

    "But how did you know to call her Nico?" Major Miller asked before holding up a hand to forestall the answer.


    "Sorry, I forgot that you can read minds, so nicknames and code names mean nothing to the Illithid."


    "Are we in agreement then?" Max asked.


    "I don''t see any problems with the n. Even a standardwn or a city park could feed arge portion of a neighborhood if everything can be made edible. That would make things much easier for theary administration and turn naturally grown food into a boutique specialty. That''s good for farmers who are growing for more than bulk production.


    The addition of new design Materials Printers to small nations will be a huge change. Most of them don''t have the technology at all yet, and they are still building conventionally. The limited rbining abilities of the new printer will revolutionize construction for them and allow the construction of ambitious new designs by their local architects.


    I think it will work, at least to some degree. There are bound to be holdouts, at least for the first few decades, until we can prove that we have the right n and that it''s working. Then the civilians will vote with their feet. Those who can leave for greener pastures on others, the ones that are allied to the Reavers, will leave the reluctant nations, and the pressure should force them to ept or be virtual pariahs." Colonel Klinger agreed.


    Max looked to the Illithid, but all he sensed was agreement, and a sense of appreciation for the devious nature of humans, who would shame and leverage their own people into doing what was in their own best interest.


    "Excellent. I had expected a bit more resistance to such an ambitious n, but this makes things easy. Nico, please get in touch with the Reavers, and make sure they know what we have nned. I have messaged the basics to your mother already, but she hasn''t responded yet. I suspect that she''s too busy with all of the big-picture negotiations to deal with me right now." Max exined.


    "She only messages back when she wants toin. That''s just how she is. If you haven''t heard from her yet, she thinks the idea is worth considering. I will make sure that it is all organized, though, and that every Reaver Company is being given ess to the appropriate ns so that they all have the Replicators and new design Materials Printers." Nico replied with a smirk.


    "Where did we get the new materials printers from anyhow? I saw them going up in the repair bays after thest battle, and they''re pretty cool, but I''ve never seen them before." Colonel Lucas of the Third Battalion asked.


    "I wasn''t nning to say anything until they left, but we might have reverse-engineered them from the technology aboard the Innu vessels that are docked here aboard Terminus.


    I am not sure how the Illithid or even the Alliance as a whole feels about that, so I was keeping it quiet." Nico told the thickly bearded pilot.


    "You managed to reverse engineer technology, just by looking at it, without disassembling it, and managed to make a working but lesser version using a basis of your own technology? That is simply incredible. I don''t even think it vites the Alliance copyrightws since your thoughts say your design is significantly different from the original.


    Innovation is encouraged by the Alliance, and I am sure they would be impressed by your resourcefulness in using as much as you could to advance your own species without asking for handouts from other species to move humanity forward." The Illithid replied after a moment''s reference with itspatriots.


    "In that case, I will keep using as much as I can to send my results to our greatest scientists. Some of the things that theye up with are truly unexpected, and they are already allied with the Reavers." Nico told him with a smile.


    [All of the words are true, but I get an ominous feeling from them. How unusual.] The Illithid told Max through mentalmunication.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Yes, that is a defining trait of interacting with her. There is something subtly off about her logic, and it is hard to pinpoint what it is until she does somethingpletely outrageous.] Max agreed.


    "Now, to the essentials of the n. How is the modification of the Portal Projectoring along?" Max asked.


    "We have the projector on Terminus modified to create a portalrge enough for itself to fit through, thanks to the elongated and rounded shape. If you want to use it to approach the suspicious, I can say that the technology is ready, but a secondary stop in between so that the Klem don''t trace it back, assuming that they even have the capability, would be a good idea." Nico replied.


    Colonel Klinger was the next to speak up. "The whole message seems suspicious to me. Since when does Klem leave an entire surrounded and unmolested? They have never shown such patience. They uses near their borders as bait, not ones within it."


    Max nodded. "That is a very valid point. You think the might be under Klem''s upation and is only generating fake signals from the remaining human infrastructure?"


    The other Battalion Commanders all took a moment to think about that while Nico brought up an expansion report detailing the pattern that the Klem had spread by to get to their current borders.


    "Stop there. Back up one standard monthly unit. That swarm is not traveling by predicted gravitational adjustments. The Illithid are very good at that sort of math, and that pod swarm didn''t originate where the calction says it did." The Illithid interrupted.


    Nico rewound the report, and the advisor added three edits to the projected route of the pods, one of which should have intersected the location of the that they were headed to.


    "Interesting. The timeline matches, so either it was deflected and passed on very near to its original route, or itnded and was reced. It is a standard urrence ons where the pods aren''t bringing invasion but much-needed resources.


    I can''t see a scenario where humans would be in a position to trade raw materials with Klem, though, so I do suspect that something about that is off if the calctions are correct." Nico muttered as she adjusted the projections for the new math.


    "Could they be hybridizing? They have done it in the past with other species that they found useful. Perhaps the Klem have found a use for something about the humans and are using that as a test site for a new hybrid organism that has a capability that theycked?" Colonel Li suggested.


    "What would they even be missing, though?" Major Miller asked.


    Nico flipped him off, then wiggled her fingers at him. "Prehensile hands. None of the Klem variants have thumbs or simr opposable digits, so they find it nearly impossible to use humanoid technology. It is one of the greatest advantages we have while fighting them, as all of our most deadly devices arepletely useless to them, deliberately designed to need human hands to operate, which theyck.


    I have seen them try with tentacles, but the results have been incredibly poor, as their eye-tentacle coordination didn''t evolve for the task. So, it is a possibility that they are creating something new and cool out of the formerly human residents of the."


    Max sighed. "Nico, please do not call new Superhuman killing machines a cool development."

 Chapter 409 409 Hop Skip And A Jump

    "Then it is decided we need to do something about the suspicious that may or not be full of hybridized Klem. First, we will make a jump to head into the gctic core, far from any inhabited, and then we will jump into the sr system where the suspicious is.


    Needless to say, if it really is full of Klem, there is a good chance that we wille under attack the instant that we arrive, so we will need to be ready to defend the portal so that they don''t realize that we have tricked them.


    Unlike the newly colonizeds, the core worlds will have Queens on them, meaning that there will be more intelligence as well as new types of life forms. They are capable of attacking into space, using energy bursts directly or dislodging asteroids from their orbits.


    The shielding on Terminus should hold up against either one, but if they start firing pods at us, we could start having issues. The pods can be designed to absorb most types of energy to develop, which includes the ship''s shields, so we will need to deal with them, and Terminus is not a weaponized vessel.


    So, everyone will be on standby to deploy, but first, we need to see everyone off now that their vacations and the filming are finished."


    Everyone in the room rose as Max finished his speech, getting ready to make the preparations for their next move and to see off the new friends that they had made among the Innu and Illiithid.


    Max headed to the hangar bays where the Innu ships were stored so that he could see everyone off and make sure that they enjoyed their stay on Terminus, while Nico went to the Cruise Ship section to say a personal goodbye to some of the technicians among the Innu before they left. She had bonded with them particrly well, thanks to their simr skill sets and love for new technologies, and Max suspected that a lot of Nico''s new ideas were actually gained by brainstorming with the Innu and reading their data tablets as they worked.


    The Innu could do the same thing, of course, so it was simr in a way to how Maxmunicated with the Illithid, both reading each other''s minds, though Max couldn''t broadcast his thoughts the way that they could.


    It was only an hour before all of the Innu were ready, and the row of handshakes as they made their way back to their ships to head home began.


    Terminus was providing a portal to them, saving energy from their ship''s systems since such a long jump was beyond their capabilities, and multiple shorter jumps would take a significant amount of time or require them to use amercial portal at their own expense to make the longer portion of the jump.


    It wasn''t far from where Terminus was sitting. The nearest one was at the borders of the Alliance, which began quite close to this Gxy, but the fees for the energy consumption were high, so the guests highly appreciated the service.


    "It still amazes me that humans managed toe up with a drive that has such tremendous energy output in a usable package. I am sure that design elements of it will start making their way into Innu luxury ships within a decade at the most.


    The Alliance is so used to highly efficient transport that they haven''t included the power to make a portal jump of multiple Standard Units for centuries. Why would they, when you can use a dedicated portal station and less than one percent of traffic moves that far?" The Illithid who was staying behind told Max with an odd sense of nostalgia in his mind.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "The Valkia mentioned that brute force to reach higher speeds wasn''t the customary way that things were done, so I guess we really are following our own technology path. It doese in handy in this situation, though. Being able to send Innu back and forth to their home system will help us attract guests. Losing hours or days of vacation time to extra travel steps isn''t the best marketing strategy." Max agreed.


    The Innu and Illithid ships all left through the portal without incident, and Max was about to order it closed when he received a signal from the other side. One Innu ship requesting urgent permission to transit to their location.


    [Permission granted. Wee to Terminus, Innu Vessel. Please proceed to Docking Bay 17 and wait for the Gravity Beam to escort you through the barrier.] Max informed them.


    The vessel that arrived looked a lot like the yacht that had just left but in much worse shape, repeatedly patched with the repaired hull sections left mostly unpainted andundry hanging from lines along the mezzanine.


    [What am I looking at?] Max asked the Illithid Advisor, who mentallyughed at the question.


    [That, my young friend, is an Innu Tech Nomad. Your world had the digital nomads, who wandered the, making videos of scenic locations and their adventures with very little financial backing, as I recall. This is the Innu equivalent. They live off the royalties from new technologies that they send home and the videos they make about them on social media, using open portals as a way of hitchhiking between locations.


    It is a good thing that you provide free travel portals because they could never afford the standard rate to send that relic of a yacht back home otherwise.


    They might only stay a while, then explore humanity, but given the mission that Terminus is on, you might have just obtained long-term new guests.


    Never fear, though. The royalties that they make from videos about the ship should be more than enough to pay for their room and board. In fact, they were likely only one of the dozens of simr vessels waiting at likely transit points for you to send thest group back home so they coulde through.]


    Max sighed and looked at his advisor. "I heard that we were popr on social media in the Alliance, but I didn''t expect to be so popr that we brought ships full of influencers here so fast. I hope they''re not as obnoxious as the ones on my homeworld."


    The Illithid shook his head. "No, they are nerdy and tech-obsessed, not outgoing and social. If your second inmand ys it right, she might even manage to hire them for a while. They are always short on credits, and you can offer free amodations as part of their pay package, which is their primary goal in life, to exist for free and see new technology."

 Chapter 410 410 Into The Unknown

    "Wee to Terminus. I am Commander Keres, in charge of this vessel and its crew." Max greeted their new arrivals, who were wearing clean but well-worn coveralls tied at the waist with tank tops sporting assorted stains, but smelling ofundry soap.


    "Thank you for amodating us. We are Expedition Wrenched, a Nomadic Vessel in search of new technologies to share with the Innu people. It is an incredible pleasure to be here aboard Terminus, home to so many new and incredible sights." The lead Innu woman greeted him, clearly filming her arrival for ater social media post.


    "Well, you can start right where you are. I don''t think that any of the other guests took the time to record the sights of thending bays. They are an archaic design by Alliance standards, as Terminus is believed to be a relic of the early expansions of the Giants, during the fracture of their culture at the point when they joined the Alliance." Max informed the group, who all appeared to be female.


    [Is it normal that they are all women?] Max asked the Illithid.


    [Totally. Innu women outnumber men by arge margin. They deemed it more efficient to have the majority of the species be capable of carrying children since they have the technology to gene splice between chosen partners and reproduce asexually if they desire.] The Advisor exined.


    That actually made sense, in a Nico sort of way. There was nomon sense to it, but Max could see that thebination of technology and biology made it the most efficient method for perpetuating the species.


    [They don''t pick partners to reproduce with for romantic reasons but for developmental purposes. Their romantic partner and their reproductive choice are often very different, based on the way that they want to introduce new genes into their children in an effort to optimize them toward the parent''s goals.] The Illithid borated.


    Yep, they were definitely on Nico''s wavelength.


    "That is truly incredible. Look at the alloyposition. It''s every bit as strong as the hull of Expedition Vessel Wrenched, despite being millennia old. Truly a marvel of engineering for its time.


    Even without using a portal, it must still be capable of at least Warp 3, right? Or have the Warp drives been totally reced?" One of the nomads asked.


    "They have been overhauled but are simr to the original design. The ship was originally abandoned because both sets of Crystals had been overloaded and destroyed, and theycked the resources to repair them. The substance isn''tmon in this gxy, assuming it can be found at all." Max exined.


    "So you know some of the history? Does that mean that some of theputer files remained intact?" They asked together before making a strange pose of shock and excitement for the camera.


    "Some. Once you are settled in, I will introduce you to our second-inmand and lead development technician. You will get along very well, I think, as she shares a simr skill set to your own." Max informed them.


    "Oh, we saw that online. Nanotechnology Artificial intelligence embedded within an entire region worth of humans, helping their culture advance. Incredible. If it''s at all possible, we would like to experiment with that." The leader of their group, a woman with bright green eyes that Max could tell were artificial, asked hopefully.


    "The System''s intelligence is all linked and very selective about who it chooses to operate for. But if you can obtain a willing sample, you might be able to interact with the nanotechnology." Max agreed.


    "We will work on thatter. Will there be swimming? Human males in swimming shorts are one of the top trending topics after you made that stop and went cliff diving."


    That made the Illithid advisor chuckle. "There are many pools at the end of the gravity slides. They are amon leisure spot for the crew, especially the ones maintained above body temperature. It seems that the heat helps rx human muscles."<novelnext></novelnext>


    His response brought the chatter to a frenzied squeal of excited Innu nning their adventure, so Max decided to intercede and save his eardrums.


    "Why don''t we get you all settled into rooms first? My second inmand wille to visit youter, but for now, we are about to embark on an exploration mission to a human we suspect has beenpromised by the Klem, a race of vicious and invasive insects that you might have heard of from our previous guests." He suggested.


    "Oh, battle against destructive invasive species. The Flora demographic will love that. Invading species eating their kin and strippings dry is the basics of the Horror genre in their gxies." The Innu informed Max.


    "Then let''s get moving. If the is still holding out against the Klem, additional dys will cost lives, and I''ve got our entire security force on standby at the moment."


    "Oh, yes, don''t let us get in the way." They agreed, following Max to the cruise ship area, where they all stopped in awe to take in the majesty of Terminus in all her glory.


    "This is amazing. We might have misjudged our budget, though. It looks really expensive." One whispered.


    "But the Gravity Slides are unique in the whole Alliance. How could we miss that? We can just ask them for work. There''s always some sort of work for an Innu." Another countered.


    "They''re not Alliance members, though. We don''t know any of their tech, and we''re not allowed to trade Alliance tech to them unless we want to end up in jail at our next port."


    Seeing that they were beginning to panic, Max joined the conversation. "You should know that both myself and the Illithid can hear thoughts. But I do have a proposal for you. We aren''t allowed to trade for Alliance tech, but there is no rule saying that we can''t hire Innu.


    If you would like to join our crew for the duration of your stay, you can help our technicians and engineers make entirely new technologies and work alongside our development team.


    Videos of new human technology in development would be good for your streaming videos as well, and we can arrange for all your living expenses to be covered as part of your wage."


    "Including clothes, food, and ship parts?" Their leader asked.


    "Ship parts might have toe out of your wage, but we can include all meals, rooms, and a clothing allowance. The other Innu seemed fond of human swimsuits for the Gravity Slides." Max offered.


    The Innu Nomads conferred for a while, then made their decision. "No contract term and no markup on ship parts. Our Expedition Vessel is in dire need of a cosmetic refit."


    "You have a deal. We can make most of them on board Terminus, so the cost will be very low if we have the raw materials." Max agreed, shaking their hands one after another.


    "Now go y. You''ve got a few days to settle in and explore the public areas of the ship before the design team will need you to do anything. My second inmand will get you crew security passes when she has time."

 Chapter 411 411 The Math Doesnt Math

    While the newly arrived Innu Nomads got changed to test out the Gravity Slides, Max headed back to his office to get everyone ready to work.


    [Prepare to open a portal to the Gctic Core area. All hands to ready stations. We will be transferring again immediately after our arrival.] Max ordered, and the crew of Terminus began to double-check their equipment in case of attack.


    The portal slowly opened in front of Terminus as Max watched the power draw on their systems increase to eighty percent. It seemed that the technicians were correct, and they had modified the portal enough that they could make jumps within the Gxy with arge enough portal to move Terminus through without any issues.


    The enormous Colony Ship glided through the open portal to the vast void of the Gctic Core, where the presence of an incredibly powerful ck hole at the center had prevented any stars from forming. This was the perfect ce to be if you wanted to avoid being tracked back to your source. Even the signature of the previous portal was being dispersed by the faint draw of the ck Hole, rendering the signature iprehensible.


    Max made a note of this for the future, as eventually, someone else would learn to follow their portals to their source, and this would make an excellent staging point to avoid detection or pursuit.


    He was under no illusions that the unity of humanity would be easy to achieve, and there were certain to be some factions that wanted to control everything by force, which would lead to violence on a ratherrge scale before everything was settled.


    [Open the next portal. Let''s see what we are going to be facing.] Max ordered, setting up all of the scans that he intended to run the moment that they arrived.


    The nose of Terminus passed through the new portal, and Max began the scans. There were no Klem pods or other foreign objects in orbit, nor were there any space stations or human vessels.


    That was concerning, as even the least inhabited of independents should have at least a small station or a transfer ship in orbit to meet trading vessels. But this had nothing at all.


    Scanning the surface returned simrly strange results. The scanners detected intense concentrations of Klem biomass, as well as humans, but the itself didn''t appear to have been razed for biomass the way that the Klem did to every other that theynded on.


    The oceans showed heavy signs of non-Klem life forms, the forests were lush and green, and the humans were still wandering outside the cities. It didn''t make any sense at all. Then the scans reached the far side of the, and things only got more confusing.


    What was formerly a highly popted continent was now stripped bare, the cities ruined, and the scans showed Super Heavy Mecha-sized Klem every few dozen kilometers, but there were still signs of human life. There didn''t appear to be any resistance effort remaining, and the signs were too much for a few survivors inside the cities, so Max changed the scans to see if the human poption had moved underground.


    The signs all seemed to be near the surface when viewed using triangted coordinates, so Max just made a note and moved on to scan the rest of the.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It was the same thing, a lot of open violence but norge Klem presence and no stripped. It was as if the Klem had only invaded one continent and then decided not to move on.


    Max began to scan for something that might be stopping the Klem from moving, but he wasn''t finding anything at all. They had stopped of their own volition.


    That meant he had to search for a Queen. Normally they wouldn''t be spawned until a waspletely in control of the Klem and linked to its neighbors, but he suspected that there was one here somewhere. He just needed to find it.


    Repeated scans came up with nothing, but the levels of Klem biomass on the other continents were concerning due to theck of actual Klem that he was seeing.


    Terminus moved into orbit around the, expecting some reaction. If the message was bait to draw them here, there should be some hostile response. If it wasn''t, then the human cities that were still mostly functional should send them some message, either to trade, ask for help, or tell them to go away.


    But there was nothing at all. It was as if they no longer had the capacity to detect the Colony Ship in the sky, despite it being on the dark side of the andrge enough that it would be visible to the naked eye, thanks to the light it reflected.


    [What in the world is going on, Commander? I think we''re all seeing the same scans, but it makes no sense at all.] Colonel Klinger asked over the inte.


    [Your guess is as good as mine. I am going to send a message to the surface and see what we get in response.] Max replied, wondering what they should send.


    ary Defense, this is the Colony Ship Terminus, home to the Terminus Trading Company of the Reaver Alliance. We have arrived in response to the request you sent. Please respond.] Max tried.


    The radio was quiet for a few minutes until a faint signal reached their antenna.


    [Terminus, flee. It is a trap. The Klem are hiding in the humans, stealing their minds and mutating their bodies. Save yourselves. It is toote for us.]


    Max switched back to internalmunications. [Did you hear that,dies and gentlemen? Not only do we have humans to save, but we have also found the Klem doing something new and strange. Prepare tounch. We will start with the ruined continent, as I suspect that it is where this all started and the most likely location to find answers to the question we all have about possessed humans.]

 Chapter 412 412 Wild Ride

    [Nico, I have good news and bad news.] Max informed his best friend and second in Command.


    [If you say we''re going for a peaceful resolution, I am going to hijack Cleansing Light and Orbital Strike something.] Nico replied.


    [That''s the good news. There is going to be a battle. And even more good news, the Innu Nomads need jobs to pay for their stay, so they will be joining you in a few days.


    But the bad news is that you will be remaining on the ship again. We need the drones and their data too much for you to join the battle on the surface.] Max informed her.


    [See, I was afraid you would say that, so I have already prepared for such an eventuality. I have upgraded my drone control pod to a full virtual reality simtion. That way, it at least feels like I am inbat.] Nico replied with a sigh.


    [I am d you understand. At least you get new friends to y with while we are all down here risking our lives to find out what the Klem is up to.] Max quipped back to lighten her spirits.


    [There is always total destruction. If we drop a firestorm barrage on the, we can sort through the ashes to find answers.] Nico suggested, referencing a chemical weapon of mass destruction that bonded with Nitrogen to make the''s entire atmosphere mmable, burning a whole world to ash in a single day.


    [Tempting, but save that idea for after we fail to find answers on our own. It destroys too much evidence.] Max replied, knowing that she wasn''t as upset as she sounded.


    Max input his battle n into theputer, letting everyone know what they were doing and setting the drop paths for the Cutters.


    First up would be the wave of Drone Fighters to assess the anti-orbital resistance that the would offer, as that was never clear with a Klem infestation until they started firing for the first time. Every infestation developed differently as they adapted to the resistance that they faced.


    That meant it was possible that this isted might not have much at all for defense against them, but it might also be possible that they were relying on Klem-infesteds near them to send assistance if this was, in fact, a developmental that humans had never seen before.


    Not much was known about the core of the Klem infestation, so this sort of thing might be normal for them, and the humans hadn''t seen it before. They had clearly evolved from something, and they had data to help them adapt to new foes, so there might very well be many mores like this one, only they were too far from the human-held territory for their presence to have been detected.


    The drone fighters wereunched, and Max noticed that there were new designs among the fleet of remote-controlled ships, more heavily armed than the usual fleet of fighters and slightlyrger than even the ones that they had modified for shuttle duty.


    [Testing a new toy, are you Miss Nico?] Max asked sarcastically.


    [If I said no, would you believe me? The Klem presence tends to be higher density than Mecha-based targets, so we prepared an experimental new anti-infantry Drone in thebs over thest few days.] Nico replied.<novelnext></novelnext>


    That would help make up for some of what theycked since Max had no intentions of sending the remaining infantry to the surface. They were doing well in the drone control rooms and logistics roles that they had taken up while waiting to return home.


    Though, now that everything had gone insane in the Kepler Empire, he would have to talk to them again and reassess their intentions. He could certainly drop them off at home if they wanted, but that might not be what they intended anymore.


    By the time they finished here, they should have had enough time to make a decision one way or another.


    The drones had entered the lower atmosphere and were attracting attention from the seemingly human areas that they passed over. Still, there was no resistance at all, not even from the orbital defense weapons that appeared to be intact in the cities.


    The drones reached the ruined continent and found the Klem and their first line of resistance, a scattered wall of needle-firing giants stationed around the shores of the continent and attacking the moment that the drones came into range.


    [We have our data, gentlemen. Launch the Cutters and prepare for increased resistance when the Klem force notices the size of your vessels. Short approach,e in over the ocean and straight to the destination city. I don''t want the Cutters to pass over the other Continents this time.] Max ordered.


    The Cuttersunched, and Max walked Cleansing Light out of the secure hangar to join the battle. The Titan ss Mecha was capable of dropping straight in like a Supply Pod and using its thrusters to avoid crashing into the at Mach 200, and that was exactly what Max was nning.


    It would give him three minutes to deal with the heaviest of the resistance around what he had identified as a possible Klem developmentb before the Cutters arrived. There were numerous Behemoth ss Klem in the area,rger by far than a Super Heavy Mecha but simrly dangerous.


    That wasn''t the sort of risk that he wanted his Regiment walking straight into, and it would make a good test of Cleansing Light''sbat prowess in a setting where simply annihting the entire area wasn''t an option.


    On the surface, the cid mass of Klem going about daily business changed attitudes in a second once it spotted the ming ball racing toward their location. Hundreds of long-range adapted Klem that used chemical projectiles or energy bursts to attack bombarded the iing fireball, while the ones adapted to fire rapidly growing spikes off of their bodies waited, recognizing that the fires of rapid entry from orbit would disintegrate their attacks and waste energy.


    None of that made a difference to Cleansing Light. The force of the atmosphere,pressed to the point of ignition that was being forced along in front of the Titan ss Mecha, was enough to stop most of the attacks before they even reached the Mecha''s shielding.


    Max was under three thousand meters from the ground when he fired the retro thrusters, decreasing his speed as rapidly as his system-augmented body could withstand. The force was enough to turn his vision momentarily red as the capiries in his eyes burst and then were healed by the nanobots in his body, but his control of Cleansing Light never faltered.


    The forty-meter-tall samurai-themed Mecha touched down with an explosion of dust and viscera on top of a Klem Behemoth with enough force to create a crater around his location.


    "That''s one down. Three minutes remaining to clear the area for the others," Max muttered with a smile, enjoying the chaos that his arrival had caused among the Klem.

 Chapter 413 413 Titans And Behemoths

    The immense force of Cleansing Light''s arrival caused Chaos among the weaker Klem, but it immediately drew the strongest defenders'' attention. The Klem shared a mental bond, and the death of the Behemoth that Max hadnded on would not go unnoticed for even a second.


    Max could see that dozens of Klem Shredders and a handful more Behemoths were headed his way already. However, they were being careful to remain as much behind cover as they could, so he couldn''t get a clear shot at them without sting through the hills and buildings, which risked destroying valuable evidence.


    Max wasn''t sure if that was deliberate or simply a coincidence based on the locations that they wereing from. Still, it was annoying, so he decided to draw them out by setting the Disruptors to a wide dispersed beam and eliminating every Klem Warrior and Swarm insect within half a kilometer of his location, giving himself lots of room to work.


    That was the key. The Shredders rushed him the moment that he began the mass clearing of the smallest of the Klem, screeching and racing across the sand with incredible speed.


    They weren''t alone either. Swarms of Klem Gargoyles had taken to the sky, darkening the air around Max with their wings and beginning to fire spikes at him from their elevated positions. They didn''t do anything against the mighty shields of the Titan ss Mecha, and Max turned his defensivesers against them, downing dozens of them a second while he targeted the Shredders with his Disruptors.


    The Klem might not be considered conventionally intelligent, but they did understand some basic tactics, and after the first wave of Shredders went down, they began to adapt their tactics. The thick top chitin of theirrades survived the beams, mostly dispersing the energy, so the second wave picked them up to use as shields, forcing Max to return to a concentrated beam to st the iing insects.


    These ones had adapted perfectly to the desert, nearly white on the leathery portions, with a dull and slightly orange chitin armor on their fifteen-meter tall bodies sporting six cruelly spiked forelimbs, and running on their hind two legs, or on all eight legs, depending on the surface.


    If it weren''t for their immense size and the heat signatures that Cleansing Light was using to pick out the best targets, the Klem would be nearly invisible from even a low-altitude flight. That was the Klem''s strongest evolutionary advantage, their adaptive camouge coupled with their ability to spawn exactly the type of creatures that they needed for an invasion.


    Max continued shooting, tearing through the Shredders as fast as they could approach for most of a minute before the weight of the swarm got them into melee range. Max took a moment to annihte a Behemoth with a concentrated st of all three Disruptors on his right arm, then brought his sword down, splitting apart a pair of Shredders and then another three on the backswing.


    Max switched to a flowingbat style that would keep his de in constant motion, piling Klem bodies as fast as he could while the defensive Lasers fired at their maximum rate, working to keep the Titan ss Mecha from being overrun.


    They had underestimated the Klem presence in this area. The scans hadn''t detected all of the ones that were hiding underground, and the flow never seemed to slow, despite the hundreds of Heavy Mecha sized Klem Shredders that Cleansing Light had downed.


    [45 Seconds to Cutter approach] Max''s timer reminded him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    No more time to take half-measures, even if they were doing their best to save the human ruins. He had to eliminate the Behemoths in the area so that the new arrivals had time to get settled in before they were facing a living wall of chitin and rage.


    Max took Cleansing Light up into the air, using a dispersed burst of the Disruptors to clear the skies of Gargoyles and then targeting thest two Behemoths that he could see at the moment.


    The enormous Klem were both barrel-shaped, six-legged types with pressurized chemical storage in the majority of their torso, corrosive enough to eat through Mecha armor in seconds and forceful enough that they could fire over impassive distances. Max''s sts tore holes in their torsos, sttering the area in corrosive liquid that ate through their surroundings and their allies alike.


    Those were always the highest priority target since they could cause wide area damage to a Mecha Company, but they were so heavily armored that a single hit from a Heavy Mecha wasn''t always enough to take them out.


    For the moment, the Klem had been reduced to Shredders and some Warriors, and the mass had swarmed close to Max''s location, leaving thending zones of the Cutters reasonably clear of hazards.


    The Battalions were already exiting their Cutters, which would return to high altitude flight and offer air support for their charges, anything that they could to clear the area of Klem so that they could search for the suspectedbs in the ruins.


    [I think they like you, Commander. I don''t think I have ever seen so many Klem on a single, much less all in one location.] Colonel Klingerughed as his Super Heavy Mecha, ret River, began raining Artillery shells down on the Klem forces while his arm-mounted Ion Destroyers shed constantly, wiping out the Shredders that were headed for hisnding zone.


    [I am a likable person. Why wouldn''t they like me?] Max returned, pulsing his Disruptors at a half dozen targets at once, vaporizing the Shredders in an instant.


    [Drone support iing. Thanks for clearing the airspace so we can work.] Nico''s voice informed everyone as ck specks appeared on the horizon as the Drone Fighters approached the battlefield at supersonic speeds.


    Max would have loved to have many more of the Drone Fighters, but theycked the pilots to send as many as he would hope to use into battle. A few hundred was a good start, and could control the airspace over a grid sector without much trouble, but with ten thousand of them, he could enforce a no-fly zone over an entire continent, making it much easier for his Mecha to deal with enemies, and eliminating all possibility of the enemy openly maintaining supply lines.

 Chapter 414 414 Siege Tactics

    The five Battalions encircled the ruined city, setting up within direct line of sight to two other Battalions so that the ovepping fields of fire could prevent mass Klem movement out of the region, at least above ground.


    If the Klem wanted to move below ground, it would alert the seismic sensors, and the Regiment would have to decide what to do about them, but for the moment, the voracious insects were trapped within the ruins, pinned down by artillery fire from the Super Heavy Mecha, and hunted by Cleansing Light maintaining a flying vigil overhead.


    Max couldn''t keep that up forever, though. He was alone in the cockpit, so he would have tond and sleep eventually, the one great disadvantage of a single Pilot setup.


    The Battalions had already set up a three-shift rotation on the front lines, with one group on duty, one on standby, and one resting at all times, so they could instantly mobilize two-thirds of their forces if arge attack began.


    The shifts had just changed when Max decided tond Cleansing Light behind the First Battalion and see what the Klem would do when the Titan ss Mecha was no longer clearly visible overhead. He had considered setting an autopilot, with a damage warning to let him know if something attacked him while he hovered overhead, but drawing the defenders out directly seemed like a more efficient use of their resources.


    He could still stay awake for hours, and he was hoping that they would take the bait and attack soon after hended, attempting to overrun the Regiment when they were apparently at their weakest.


    The Klem were reliant on their leadership castes, so the disappearance of the Command Mecha should signal to them that it was an opportune moment to attack.


    Max flew out of sight of the city, then returned low along the horizon and crouched behind a hill, fifteen kilometers behind the First Battalion, to wait.


    Twenty minutes passed, then thirty, before the first reports of the Klem gathering inrge numbers, despite the continued artillery shelling, started toe in from every Battalion at once.


    [Prepare for a mass charge. Target the Behemoths first. At the first sign of trouble, hit the emergency signal, and Cleansing Light will take to the air to reinforce you. I don''t want any casualties during this early part of the investigation if we can avoid them.] Max ordered.


    The danger was that he would reveal himself too early and the Klem wouldn''t send out their strongest forces, dragging out the siege for longer than it had to be. They weren''t here to cleanse the region. At least that wasn''t their primary goal. They just wanted to know what the Klem host was up to so that they could begin the ns for the next phase.


    Without any detectable signal, the entire mass of the Klem force rose up and charged the five Mecha Battalions at the same time, preventing them from reinforcing each other. As far as tactics, it was simple but brutally effective. Send the first line of warriors with shields to block some of the attacks as the lines rushed forward, and then get the Shredders into closebat.


    If any of the five-meter-tall warriors survived, they could deal with the Light Mecha, but the Klem didn''t count on it, preferring to let the much more lethal Shredders do the dirty work of clearingrge groups of enemies with their rapid attacks and multiple limbs.<novelnext></novelnext>


    That wasn''t all that the Klem had prepared today, though. The Shredders also included simrly sized Tyrants, which were grown with ranged energy burst weapons instead of the extra central limbs, firing balls of ming or corrosive liquids at the Mecha lines, exponentially increasing the threat that the swarm presented to the Mecha of the Terminus Regiment.


    The Heavy Mecha responded the moment that the Klem ranged troops revealed themselves, trading Ion fire for Chemical bursts and rapidly thinning the ranks of the giant beings among the Klem.


    The true horrors for the Klem attackers began when they got close to the makeshift bulwarks, and the Fusion mers lit up their front ranks, turning them to ash and setting off any of the Klem that were equipped with ranged weapons and too close to the Mecha lines.


    [Status Report] Max ordered.


    It only took a few seconds for the Mecha Company Commanders to update their status on theputer, showing the lines holding strong and no Klem making it to their Mecha now that they were facing the full fury of a Heavy Mecha Regiment.


    Then the Drone Fighters began their work, hitting the Klem with strafing runs and dropping bombs into their ranks, creating farrger explosions than the artillery of the Thunder Guns.


    The Klem tried to send up a wave of Gargoyles to counter the Drone Fighters, but the agile nes were ready for them, meeting the small winged Klem with a scorching wave of Laser sts, clearing their airspace again, and letting the strafing runs continue.


    Being attacked from multiple directions at the same time was confusing the Klem, and they didn''t seem to understand what they were supposed to be defending against, which brought the attack to a halt. It was a fatal mistake for their Commander, or whatever hive mind was in control of the Klem attacks of this nature.


    Too much wasn''t known about the way that the Klemmunicated and interacted with each other to be certain which was correct, but Max was leaning toward a simple form of shared consciousness, with smarter and more developed Klem serving as Commanders.


    It made the most sense from what he had seen of their tactics. Removing a few Commanders or separating a small group from the main force didn''t affect their nning or ability to coordinate, but killing all of thergest Klem threw them into disarray.


    With a little luck, the facility that they had built under these ruins would shed some light on how the species operated on a daily basis. It wasn''t really essential knowledge. Knowing how they fought was enough for mostmanders, but Max thought that if he knew more about them, he might be able to use the knowledge for other purposes.


    Terminus always had some sort of experiment going on, and if he could find a way to link functions the way that the Klem appeared to link minds, he could make his [Unified Force] System Function even more deadly.

 Chapter 415 415 Suburbs

    Thebination of Drone Fighters and Mecha fire was driving back the Klem lines, with the insects fleeing back to the rtive safety of the ruins to get away from the drones.


    [All Units spread out and advance. Maintain your spacing and close in on the city. If the Klem force continues to fall back, we will take and hold the outer city area.] Max ordered, then changed all his screens to show aposite aerial viewpiled by the Drones.


    That would let everyone in the Regiment use his firing solutions, thanks to [Unified Force], while Max himself took a much-needed breather. Fighting in the air was much more taxing than fighting from a stationary position on the ground, after all.


    He just needed to remain awake so that the Regiment could continue to gain the advantage of his Targeting Functions, which were making quick work of the Klem Shredders and Tyrants, which further demoralized the remaining warriors, who relied on the heavier carapace chitin of theirrge kin to get close to the Mecha.


    [Third Battalion, watch your left nk, I have tagged arge group of Warriors trying to sneak up on you. Fourth Battalion, hold fast, you have a wave of Warriorsing straight for you, and your lines are getting spread out.]


    The warriors were counterattacking in full force, tens of thousands of bodies rushing through the cities, so densely packed that they appeared to be charging over top of their own kin to try to be first to the enemy.


    Max could see that the Fusion mers weren''t going to be enough to fend off this wave, which wasn''t just following the streets but charging over and through the ruins of the buildings that used to make up the city, so he took to the air again, intending to thin the charges with a wide Disruptor beam.


    The Klem army was ready for that and began firing at him with Tyrants and a new group of Behemoths the moment that he came into sight above the horizon.


    It did reduce the attacks on the Regiment a little, but their primary concern wasn''t the heaviest of Klem attackers, but the fact that the warriors outnumbered them a hundred to one and had the advantage of cover.


    Max dodged the iing attacks and began sweeping the area with his Disruptors set on maximum dispersion while circling the city to relieve every Battalion in turn. The effect was good but not asplete as he had expected. The Klem warriors didn''t just look like they were climbing over theirrades, they really were, and the bodies of the upper level shielded the lower level from his disruptors, letting the Klem Warriors surge toward the Mecha lines while Max was forced to move along and render aid to the rest of his forces evenly so that none of them was overwhelmed.


    Fusion Fires lit up the suburbs, turning the weaker building materials of residential areas to ash and stopping the Klem attack in its tracks for a moment until it could build up enough of a pile of intact bodies to force its way into melee.


    [Fifth Battalion, as we discussed. Ten Meters back and continue firing.] Colonel Klinger ordered a moment before the other Battalions did the same.


    He was thest that Max had to relieve, so the swarm was heaviest at his position, piled up thickly and already defended by an impressive pile of corpses.<novelnext></novelnext>


    If it weren''t for the fact that the Klem would Cannibalize their dead to provide biomass for the next wave, Max would be stunned at their ability even to maintain their force with this sort of tactic. Still, he had to admit that against the overwhelming firepower of the Mecha, it was incredibly effective.


    His Disruptors made a double pass over the line in front of the Fifth Battalion, thinning the Klem ranks and vaporizing arge portion of the corpses that they had piled up for their attack.


    [Shields to the front. They are getting ready to push.] The Battalion Commanders ordered, and the Line Mecha made a wall of interlocking shields nearly as tall as their Mecha while the Fast Attack Mecha backed them up to make a wall of fire that should vaporize the wall that the Klem tide was going to shove along in front of them before it could reach the lines.


    Max spun on the spot, using more concentrated Disruptor beams and his defensive Lasers to tear gaps in the Klem barriers all through the city, unfortunately destroying even more buildings. There likely wasn''t much evidence to be found here, but they had advanced past arge portion of the suburbs with minimal resistance, so he would have scouts search those buildings that hadn''t taken much damage for evidence of what happened when the Klem first arrived here.


    That left him stationary in the air, and he took a furious wave of attacks from the Klem heavy attackers, but his shields were holding up well enough for the moment.


    It was beginning to look like a wholesale victory for the Regiment when a thunderous noise filled the air. A ten-meter-wide swathe of the city copsed, making a ring of lowered ground a hundred meters in front of the Mecha lines, from which a furious wave of attackers poured forth.


    These were undeniable Klem, with four arms and chitinous spikes on the lower arms, but they also had hands on the upper arms and a bipedal stance, which let them utilize the remnants of what appeared to be the human defenders'' equipment.


    They were all wearing pants, and some had either a shirt or body armor on, while others had a chitinous shell on their torso, but the most important part was that they were all carrying infantry weapons.


    Nico''s voice filled the airwaves a half secondter.


    [I have good news and bad news, Commander. The good news is that those things are full-blooded Klem and not made from humans, just in their image.]


    [And the bad news]


    [They know how to use the sma Rifles]

 Chapter 416 416 Data Gathering

    [Forget saving the city. Eliminate all threats with extreme prejudice.] Max ordered, bringing cheering from the Mecha lines.


    No longer did they wait until they had a target in sight. They annihted the buildings where the enemy might hide or take shelter. They began a carpet bombing pattern with the Thunder Guns that would quickly level everything from them to the trenches, which the Klem had copsed out of the city''s former ring road.


    The new Klem infantry, as the Pilots had dubbed them, were undeterred, hiding in the smallest piles of rubble to avoid taking direct fire and spreading out so that they weren''t losing too many forces to any single strike.


    Their presence confirmed to Max that something unusual had happened beneath the city, but he couldn''t say what it was yet, only that it was an entirely new behavior for the species, who seemed to disdain all things human in the past. It was possible that it was only because they couldn''t understand or use them, but if that was the limitation, then a force of humanoid Klem who could use rifles marked a dramatic change in their strategy towards increased intelligence and strategy over mass consumption and overwhelming force.


    Every nation in the Gxy would be concerned if the Klem began to strategize on a higher level to go with their invasion forces, which were already an existential crisis to manys near their borders.


    There wasn''t any word of strange happenings elsewhere yet, so Max suspected that this world was the testbed for the new strategy. If he could put it down at the source, the Klem could possibly be convinced that the technique was a failure and return to their traditional methods of assimtings into their borders.


    The Klem infantry began to shoot up at the Drone Fighters, the only threat that they could see from their hiding spots, and Max began to wonder if he had overestimated their intelligence.


    They could clearly understand basic targeting, as they were hitting the Drone Fighters'' shields with eptable uracy for a draftedary defense force. Still, they seemedpletely unaware that the Mecha could see their weapons sticking up out of the rubble and the sh of the muzzles and energy sts, which let the Mecha track their hiding spots.


    Of course, that happened withary defense forces who were given nothing more than a uniform and a firearm when their homeworld came under attack, so it was possible that the Klemcked battle tactics at the moment, as the humans here hadn''t known them.


    Given time, they would learn it from battles on others, and even against the Terminus Regiment, and then spread the knowledge to the next that they invaded, building it further with every sessful invasion.


    Unlike humans, whose internal organs would take catastrophic damage from being near the explosions of the Thunder Guns shells, the Klem infantry had no such issues, only slowing their rate of fire if they were directly hit.


    Their numbers were dropping fast, thanks to Max''s enhancements and thebination of Line Mecha and Corvette ss units using their light weapons at a high rate of fire and clearing them from their hiding spots.


    They seemed to have done their job, though, and by the time all of the structures that could provide cover between the trench and the Mecha lines were obliterated, the main Klem force had regrouped in the trench that encircled the city.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Do you think that they might have assimted a Kepler General? I haven''t seen such a marvelous waste of infantry lives to let the heavy units regroup since we boarded Terminus.] Colonel Klinger joked as the guns fell silent, saving ammunition while the Klem army was hidden from easy targeting.


    [That''s not funny. It''s urate but not funny.] Major Millerined.


    [Can I start bombing things properly now?] Nico asked as the swarm of drones circled the outskirts of the city.


    The trench was ten meters across and deep enough to hide a Klem Shredder in it, but it seemed tock any variance or offsets to stop a st within the trench from spreading all down its length. A series of attacks from Cleansing Light would be devastating to the assembled forces if they were all still in the open.


    [If the Drones currently have a payload of bombs, drop them in the trench and clear it out, let''s see what the Klem do when they realize that the trench isn''t invulnerable. Their new behaviors could be very important to us during the rest of this mission.] Max ordered.


    The Drone team didn''t bother to answer. Instead, they sent a wave of Drones toward the center of the city, dropping cluster bombs toward the trench. They were about to detonate when the most curious thing happened. A line of chitin tes raised up from the trench, blocking the majority of the sts and keeping the upants of the fortification mostly intact.


    [Bombing run failed. Effectiveness under fifteen percent. We are analyzing the data now, but it appears that they have created a new form of winged creature. Not one that can fly, but one that can spread armored wings to defend those below it.] Nico reported from her position aboard Terminus.


    [They really are learning. Trench warfare is a big advancement for the Klem, and it looks like they understand both the essential purpose and thergest vulnerabilities of the tactic.


    Thunder Guns, once you are resupplied from the Cutters, begin a low rate of fire bombardment of the trenches. Keep the Klem pinned down for now while the main force rests. The Klem have always preferred to attack at night, so I want as many units as possible prepared for a twilight charge.]


    That was the best that he could do for now. They had advanced their lines halfway through the city, taking up most of the suburbs, while the Klem now held the central city with a trench line.


    The fact that they hadn''t tried to escape was intriguing. Normally they would at least attempt to send arge force out of the city to encircle the Mecha, but it looked like they were defending something here. They certainly had at least some underground tunnels dug since the infantry was waiting underground, and they copsed a whole ring of the city, which wasn''t a tactic that a Human city would have prepared.


    They were the same species that he had fought before, but this was a totally different battle, and Max was eager to find out just how much the Klem had advanced and how they managed it.

 Chapter 417 417 Revelations

    With the artillery holding the enemy in the trenches, Max implemented a new n.


    [Nico, send some data probe drones into the ruins to find the underground level entrance. I need to know what is down there and if it has any rtion to the Klem integrating human technology.] Max ordered.


    [On it, boss. No signs of a functional power grid are detected at the surface level, but the reading from the Klem won''t let us detect one that is still active underground.]


    Knowing if the Klem had human technology still active would tell him a lot, from their capability to produce new Infantry, to their ability to recharge the energy weapons that they were using. If they were working with a limited ammunition storage ability, that was the best oue for the Regiment.


    They wouldn''t be able to fight for long with only what a city garrison kept charged. However, if they still had power avable somewhere, or they had improvised a way to recharge sma weapons, the threat that the defenders posed would increase by an incredible amount, given the Klem''s ability to rapidly reproduce smaller creatures.


    He hadn''t seen any of the Swarm-type Klem, who usually nketed the ground during an invasion, recovering resources for the main force, but that could just be because this whole area had been cleared of all living things already, and they were no longer needed here.


    The smaller scouting drones were carried within the Drone Fighters, and Nico deployed a half dozen of them in an instant, sending them to scout the central city while Max waited well back of his forces and out of sight.


    There hadn''t been any sign of reinforcements yet, but with the majority of this continent under their control, it was only a matter of time before the Klem determined that the local force couldn''t deal with the Regiment and started to surround them with overwhelming numbers.


    That was why Max had kept the Cutters on the ground, on standby in case they needed to evacuate to a new location to continue scouting for answers about this strange.


    They still hadn''t sent any more messages to Terminus, as far as he could tell, and that didn''t bode well for the human resistance.


    The drones only scouted for a few minutes before Max''s disy showed that all six had found a way into the underground levels of the ruins. All of them were carved by Klem, from what he could tell by the camera feed, but before long, they were into a human-built undergroundplex with its hallmark concrete walls and drab green paint.


    The Klem had breached it, so Max didn''t have high hopes for survivors. However, what the drones found was anything but normal. There was no blood on the walls and floors, no bits of bodies that hadn''t been recycled into useful biomass by the insects, nothing.


    Other than the fact that the power was out, it appeared to be just an ordinary abandoned government facility, no different than any average developmentb or security holdout.


    [I am sending one to the control room to see if I can recover anything. The drones can remotely read a solid-state drive even with the power off, so we might learn something. At the very least, their security logs should give us a timeline.] Nico informed Max over the Command Channel.


    [You have ayout already?] Max asked, confused.


    [The evacuation ns on the walls by the elevators are in perfect condition. This seems to have been a civilian research facility called the Wolf Mountain Development Facility. What they were developing is unclear.] Nico replied.


    [If the answer is Klem-specific bioweapons, I am climbing out of this Mecha to kick someone''s ass.] Colonel Klinger muttered over the radio.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It was a sentiment that Max and every othermander could understand. Many worlds tried to reverse engineer the Klem to make more effective weapons against them, but if those samples somehow ended up in the Klem''s hands, it could help them develop a resistance to all of the new weapons being designed to fight against them.


    Unless their research wasn''t rted to any other development streams, it could be a huge setback for every other border nation that was relying on previous generations of weapons that they had based their research upon.


    Max watched as the drones raced through the facility at a breakneck speed, finding itpletely abandoned and strangely clean, with no sign of damage from armored spikes and pincers, which he would have expected after the Klem breached the facility, just from walking through an empty building.


    [I have a power signature. Subbasement 37 has an active generator. Control roomputers show that the facility is intact but powered down. Working on the security logs now.] Nico reported.


    So, the Klem didn''t kill the power. It was off when they arrived. Perhaps they didn''t even explore and only passed through as they were digging the tunnel. It wasn''t unknown for them to have shown little or no interest in ruined buildings.


    One drone went further down, while the others spread out, searching for signs on this level, where the tunnel passed through the facility and then working their way to the surface, where there were most likely to be signs of battle.


    [I have logs. There is no report of the Klem arrival when the facility went offline six months ago. What I can say for sure is that they weren''t expecting it. Everything seems normal in the logs, including thest half-finished hourly report, then suddenly nothing. Just logs of the main power supply going offline and a lot of door openings as the battery backups kept things running for thest few days.


    It''s strange. There is no panic, no sign of damage, or reason for the sudden shutdown. It just happened with no exnation. They even still have the next month''s shift rotation running when the power goes offline. It''s all marked absent. They didn''t even try to cancel shifts or indicate that they didn''t need to be here.


    Not even the most abrupt bankruptcy should be like this. At the very least, the security guards should have left a message or kicked a wall or something.]


    [Keep searching. It might have been a government raid, which would have grabbed the security forces right away and stopped them from doing anything on their way out.] Max suggested, wondering if they had uncovered nothing more than a bankrupt and corrupt techpany that the government had recently shut down.


    A few minutes passed, and the sporadic artillery fire gave a thumping rhythm to the battlefield, a tense heartbeat as both sides prepared their next moves.


    [I have found something, and you''re not going to like it. This is a System Replicationb. They were trying to produce rapidly adaptable super soldiers to emte the effects of the Kepler System has on our Pilots.] Nico reported, sending the data she found in ab through to Max and the teams aboard Terminus.


    [Gically Engineered Soldiers are nothing new. Why is that such bad news?] Max asked.


    [Because the researchers never left. There is amand post for them in subbasement 37, and I just intercepted a signal from them to somewhere else on the, detailing the battle with the infantry on the surface.


    They might not have made them, but the survivors are definitely trying to adapt Klem biology to help them adapt and ovee the invasion.] Nico reported.

 Chapter 418 418 Morons

    The drones had reached the surface and were returning to the lower levels, which were turning more and more gruesome as they progressed.


    The hallways were immacte as if nobody had ever set foot on them, but thebs were all full of failed human experiments. Some were inert, some had survived the power outage but couldn''t escape their confinement and had starved to death, but all were heavily mutated humans.


    [Commander, you don''t think that they sent the test subjects to the surface to fight the Klem and ended up giving them material that helped build a new design of Klem, do you?] Major Miller asked.


    [I don''t know. It is possible that the super soldier project that the base was working on was among the defenders, but theb shut down months before the distress signal marked the invasion of the.


    For now, we need to rely on Nico and keep those drones scanning. We need more information.] Max replied.


    [We have movement. It looks like the Klem forces areing up and over.] The Second Battalion reported, and Max''s sensors showed that the entire defensive force in the trenches had started moving all at once, using the adapted defensive Klem to block for the forces behind them.


    Immediately, the Thunder Guns went to full output, lobbing the shells on a higher trajectory to make it over the front line of shields while the Ion Bombard Arrays of the Super Heavy Mecha began to st holes in the shields that the lighter Mecha could fire through.


    The infantry began to rush underneath the shields, moving forward at an impressive rate of speed that no ordinary human could maintain, much less through the loose rubble of the ruined city. They fired as they went, heedless of the fact that they weren''t having any real impact on the Mecha that they were charging toward.


    For the most part, they were ignored, and they chose to dig in at a new location, under a hundred meters from the Mecha lines, presumably to be advanced scouts for the next wave of attacks.


    With the heavily armored wings of the defensive Klem in front, the attack wave was barely beginning to falter at the hundred-meter mark, while every Mecha was unleashing their firepower at the maximum output, except for the Fusion mers of the Fast Attack Mecha, which weren''t quite in range yet.


    This time, the Klem didn''t try anything fancy. They just kept charging forward, getting shredded, and then lit on fire while theirrades charged over their bodies.


    [Prepare for closebat.] Max ordered,unching Cleansing Light into the air to join the battle.


    There was something strange about the humanoid Klem. It was like the others didn''t even see them, running past and over their position heedless of the damage that they were doing to the scouts that had just picked their hiding holes.


    Max had every intention of capturing one alive so that he could read its mind, but first, they had to deal with the main force before the Regiment started losing Pilots.


    The Drone Fighters were doing their best to eliminate the attackers, but there weren''t enough of them to do the job. It was enough that the front line of the Mecha was holding though, blocking the Klem advance while the ranged units behind them sted away.


    This time, the Klem didn''t stop at the Mecha. They kept going, using the gaps between Battalions to spread outward in an attempt to surround the Battalions, the more standard strategy that the Regiment was used to.


    Being surrounded actually made it easier for them, as it let more Mecha fire without the interference ofrge metal bodies in front of them, unleashing their fury in a full circle around their positions instead of just inward toward the city.<novelnext></novelnext>


    For over an hour, the Klem kepting from the ground until the numbers started to dwindle, with ast few specialized Kleming outst, throwing their lives away when they realized that all was lost.


    Even the humanoid Klem had joined the attack near the end, along with the few swarm bugs and nobat specialized insects, marking their position at the bottom of the hierarchy.


    [No signs of live Klem on the surface. Minimal signatures underground, which might be eggs that haven''t hatched.] The observation team aboard Terminus reported as the battle came to a conclusion.


    [Drone team, what is the situation underground?] Max asked.


    [Level 37 has been entered. No more life signs are found. Beginning the search now.] Nico reported.


    The drone feeds showed that this level had signs of inhabitants, though, as the floors were dirty, there were empty food wrappers everywhere, and the air quality sensors showed that it would most likely smell foul but was still breathable down there.


    As the drones passed thebs, they found most of the doors had been ripped off the hinges, and whatever was inside had long since escaped. There were dozens of bodies of humans inb coats, mostly freshly deceased, within thest 24 hours at least, but no signs of life or movement.


    [I have data from theirputers. Thisb was shut down for illegal human experimentation, and the team returned here after the invasion halted the investigation of theb by the authorities.


    Their n was to weaponize the human genome to make the Klem capable of empathy,passion, and human reasoning. ording to the data, they had some sess using the Klem Swarm, which they returned to the surface to infect the rest of the swarm two weeks ago.


    It looks like this is, or was, a branch of the Human Resistance trying to degrade the Klem into something that they could reason and bargain with.] Nico informed the Command Channel.


    [So, what you''re saying is that instead of empathy and reason, the Klemtched onto the portions of the virus that represented humanoid forms and attempted to recreate the soldiers that they had faced instead?] Max asked.


    [It''s circumstantial right now, but yes, that appears to be what happened.] Nico replied while continuing to scanputers to send more and more data back up to Terminus to be analyzedter.


    [Just what we needed. Idiotic peaceniks, giving the Klem a headstart on the evolutionary process.] One of the Battalion Commanders sighed while Max searched the battlefield for a surviving humanoid Klem whose mind he could scan.


    It didn''t look like he would find one, they weren''t heavily armored, and they had joined the full frontal assault once the main force began to run out of bodies. Even a grazing hit didn''t leave much of them for him to interrogate.


    [Troops, spread out, search the area for survivors. If you find a surviving humanoid, bring it to me, kill everything else, then find and destroy the eggs that Terminus suspects are still underground. The data is in your maps.] Max ordered, getting the Battalions up from their defensive positions while the techs from the Cutters made their way forward to recover and repair any damaged or disabled units.


    They now had an idea of where the strange humanoid Klem came from, but they didn''t know how they had spread across the or why the main Klem force hadn''t advanced.

 Chapter 419 419 Rolling On

    [We have our data and the origin of the new Klem. I love it when a nes together. We didn''t even have to search half the to get the information.] Max told the Command channel, eliciting a round ofughter from the Battalion Commanders.


    [So, what is the n, Commander? It looks like there is no remaining human resistance on this continent. Will we try to rescue who we can, or will we go search for more of the modified Klem to gather more data?] Colonel Klinger asked.


    That was a tough decision for Max to make, but in the end, he decided that it was simply too dangerous to leave these modified Klem alone to spread through the system. If the insects started routinely using captured human technology, they could be in real trouble, especially if the Klem learned to pilot Mecha.


    Armored Killer Insects inside giant war machines were a terrifying idea that he really didn''t want to have to contemte. The best option was to eliminate the poption here as efficiently as possible, eliminating any chance of survival for the Klem that had taken over.


    The tricky part was that their sensors couldn''t tell what was going on with the other continents. They still seemed to be operating as usual, at least from orbit, so there might be quite a few humans left there for whatever reasons.


    [We will send the Cutters to eliminate the major Klem poptions on this continent and then clean up the stragglers we encounter as we move north toward the coast. The gap between continents at the point I have marked is less than forty kilometers, an easy transit for the Mecha. Once we reach the coast, we will send probes and drones to determine what is going on with the rest of this.] Max ordered.


    [Already on it, Commander. There is no air traffic anywhere on the, so I have deployed a pair of drone fighters toward the nearest continent to see what the response is. The cities look intact, but the sensors aboard Terminus are detecting huge amounts of Klem biomass.] Nico reported, as efficient as usual and anticipating his orders.


    Max made up an attack pattern for the Cutters to deploy to high altitudes and use a limited Orbital Strike to wipe out the more massive clusters that weren''t along their route.


    The Cutters took off on their mission, and the Regiment formed up into a wide arc to move out toward their next destination, a former mining settlement that might have survivors underground and which should have a limited poption of Klem, ording to their scans.


    If they didn''t find any human survivors underground, they would copse the mines to prevent them from being used to incubate Klem, but mostly it was just a short stop on their route north. Walking would give the Cutters and the drones time to work so that by the time they arrived at the coast, they should have a good grasp of the situation.


    They only had fifty kilometers to their next stop, barely an hour at a fast march for the Mecha, so Max made sure that they stopped for a quick break and a meal before they moved on. Their logistics staff was incredibly efficient, having already packed up the supply vehicles while the battle was still ongoing, but most of their supplies and repair facilities were on the Cutters, to begin with.


    What was on the ground were mostly munitions and food supplies, with some repair materials and Technicians wearing the Tech Adept Harnesses to make field repairs without a full repair gantry.


    [Ready to move, Commander.] Major Miller reported, taking up the role of adjutant to keep an eye on everything while Nico was up on Terminus.


    [Good, let''s go. If you see anything vaguely Klem, kill it. If it was actually human, we will apologize afterward.] Max ordered, leading the convoy across the sun-baked dirt of a continent stripped entirely bare by the Klem upants.


    Forty-Five minutester, they were nearing the mine site, and the first ranks of Klem scouts came into sight, a handful of Warriors watching the horizon, who had surely spotted them already.<novelnext></novelnext>


    A Regiment of Heavy Mecha wasn''t exactly subtle.


    [Maintain your pace and position. We will sweep across the site at a walk and then analyze the mine to make a determination.] Max ordered.


    [The mine is full of Klem eggs. Just finished scouting it. I rmend a Firestorm Bomb.] Nico reported.


    A Firestorm Bomb only had one setting,ary destruction.


    [Nico, we are still on the, in case you forgot.] Max replied.


    [But you don''t have to be. Just saying.]


    Max could see from the data feed that he was receiving that the mine was practically packed full of Klem eggs, most of them in the Shredder and Tyrant size, giving them a reserve of tens of thousands of Heavy Mecha equivalent Klem just waiting to be hatched and deployed.


    Seeing that, the Firestorm suddenly didn''t seem like such a bad idea anymore.


    [Fast Attack Units, Fusion mers to maximum range. I want that mine full of eggs hard-boiled before we blow it up. Shredders are known to dig themselves out of the rubble when they hatch.] Max ordered.


    The ruins of a building were one thing, but copsing a hundred meters of rock on top of them should crush anything that survived the mes due to distance.


    The Klem that were on the surface formed up a defensive line, preparing to meet the iing Mecha when Max ordered the bombardment to begin from ten kilometers out. It was much too far for them to close the distance in any reasonable time, and the Thunder Guns were making short work of the sparse defense force.


    [Fast Attack, me every entrance to those Mines, ovepping fire until the shafts fill with magma.] Max ordered, deciding that there was no kill like overkill.


    Molten Rock did a wonderful job of killing Klem eggs, after all.

 Chapter 420 420 Nice

    The Fast Attack Mecha activated their jump packs and flew over the defenders,nding with the First Battalion''s force facing the former town while the other four Battalion''s Mecha began to flood the mine entrances with Fusion mes.


    The effect was immediately effective and incredibly brutal. Even from his current distance of eight kilometers away, Max could hear the Klem shrieking from underground as they struggled to stay alive and find a way out of the tomb that they found themselves inside.


    [Thermal Scans detect another exit point at two kilometers east. The shaft stops just short of the surface, most likely a Klem-created emergency exit. Fifth Battalion is heading there now.] Colonel Klinger reported, a hint of joy in his voice, that he was the first to find it and im the new target for themselves.


    The Thunder Guns sted the cap off of the nearly finished tunnel as the Fast Attack units arrived, wiping out the Klem who tried to escape to the surface with their Disintegrators before filling the shaft with Fusion mes.


    This time their attack didn''t go unanswered, and Max saw that they had pulled a number of wandering Klem to their position with the Thunder Guns, which could be heard for dozens of kilometers around them.


    [We have iing from every direction. Outer nks, take defense. Core positions continue on target. We will keep moving through the target, and then I will use Cleansing Light to copse the mine after the mers have finished with it. Just in case there were some safe zones.] Max ordered.


    Realistically, he could take care of this minor target entirely on his own, but keeping the entire Regiment together was the best call in case of a counterattack. If that mine had been full of fully grown Shredders, they would have needed Cleansing Light to deal with the influx of Giant Klem, despite the low poption of detected defenders.


    [Time for the fun stuff, Commander. Terminus detects a group of ten Behemoths heading for your position from the next location along your route. It looks like they couldn''t wait to y.] Nico reported, highlighting them on the map.


    Melting a mine full of eggs was a pretty sure way to draw every Klem in the area to their position, so Max wasn''t surprised to see the iing Behemoths before they had even fully reached the target.


    [I will move forward to deal with the Behemoths before they get the Regiment in range. Continue with the n.] Max decided.


    The Behemoths were very obviously freshly hatched, still showing the glistening shell remains on their bodies that they hadn''t had the chance to absorb yet. The Klem had picked them, or modified them, specifically to deal with the Regiment, and each of them had both a tail that fired chitin spikes and two giant arms with crushing pincers.


    If they got close to the Regiment, they could cause dozens of casualties in only a few seconds.


    Max began to close with them, unafraid of the spikes and wanting to get a good shot with the Disruptors without going too far in the air and attracting even more attention to their location.


    The spikes weren''t their only defense, though, and the ten Behemoths all unleashed energy sts on par with an Ion Bombard Cannon at the same time, forcing Max to dodge to avoid taking heavy damage.<novelnext></novelnext>


    That was another new attack for them. Energy attacks weren''t unheard of for the Klem, but they usually took a form more like lightning and not this controlled burst. The Klem of this world were definitely learning new things that he really didn''t want them to know.


    Max retaliated with his Disruptors, taking out two of the Behemoths in an instant before being forced to dodge again as a wave of spikes and energy balls was sent his way in return.


    If it wasn''t for his increased cognitive speed, there was no way that he would be able to dodge that, and Cleansing Light would have just taken two direct hits from a group with the firepower of a half dozen Phnx ss Mecha.


    It didn''t make any sense. They weren''t near the border. This wasn''t a strategic target or rich in biomass for them to reproduce. There was no reason for so many Behemoths to be staged in the middle of nowhere.


    Not knowing was really getting on Max''s nerves, and he could feel the frustration beginning to affect his movements, making his controls a bit more harsh and jerky than intended.


    Realizing that he was making a mistake by overthinking with his increased mental capacity, Max instead focused on tactics to deal with just the Klem in front of him.


    There was no terrain to hide behind. Both Cleansing Light and the Klem were far toorge for the small hills in the area, so it was going toe down to a slugfest. He was more agile, so he should be able to dodge most of the iing fire, while the Behemoths were heavily armored, forcing him to concentrate all three Disruptors from one arm to ensure their destruction.


    Every shot left an enormous crater at their location, as the ground they stood on had no such resistance, but there was nothing else he could do. A single beam wasn''t enough to guarantee a kill, and his sensors couldn''t tell him if two would do the job, so Max was staying with what he knew worked.


    Two more beams shed out from his arms, disintegrating two more Behemoths, and another wave of fire came in.


    This time it wasn''t directed just at Cleansing Light but at his likely escape routes as well. Max dodged and moved into the air, avoiding the majority of the attacks, taking only a few spikes and one energy st on his shields. The barrier held, but the st was enough to visibly drop the effectiveness of the outeryer.


    A full barrage of all twelve remaining energy sts might actually be enough to drop his shield to critical levels, leaving him vulnerable to another spread shot, so Max knew he still had to keep dodging instead of standing and firing.


    The next volley from Cleansing Light dropped two more Behemoths, and Max breathed a sigh of relief. The odds were back in his favor. Even if he made a gross miscalction, he should be fine taking what they could put out for the few minutes they would survive.

 Chapter 421 421 Subject Acquired

    With Max holding the Behemoths in ce, the reinforcements for this location were proving to be no issue for the Regiment to deal with. The First Battalion had adjusted their position to cover the nks and rear of the force while the other four battalions led the charge through the mining town, eliminating thest of the resistance as they reached the far side.


    [Commander, we have cleared the vige. No signs of life on the surface, but it''s impossible to tell underground due to the magma from the Fusion mers.] Major Miller reported.


    [Got it. The Behemoths will be down in under a minute] Max replied, charging thest two of the enormous Klem, killing one with a point-nk with the Disruptors and splitting the other in half with his sword, the first time that it had actually been used inbat, thanks to the ranged capability of the Titan ss Mecha.


    With the Behemoths dead, Max took to the air, gaining altitude so that he could drop an orbital strike on the mine shafts.


    [Everyone, keep moving toward the coast. I will finish up here once you are out of range.] Max ordered.


    The Regiment was only a few kilometers from the location at the moment, not nearly far enough to be safe with even a limited ground prating strike that would copse the mines. Max had to admit, the Disruptors were incredible pieces of technology, with multiple modes for dispersion and pration as well as output, unlike most weapons in this ss, which were only capable of a single mode: Mass Destruction.


    When the Regiment made it to the ten-kilometer mark, Max initiated the strike, letting the Disruptors prate the ground to a depth of five hundred meters, destabilizing the mine shaft, and copsing it into a pile of rubble that let thepressed magma that had run to the bottom of the shaft flow to the surface, forming a superheated plug over the former Klem breeding colony.


    [Well, that should do it. I have word from the nearby continent. It doesn''t make any sense, though.] Nico reported as Max watched the rock slowly cool, watching for survivors.


    *Alien visitors, please note that you have entered from an indigenous protection quarantine area. Please exit the continent to orbit with all reasonable haste.*


    [They''re saying that the Klem destroyed continent is an indigenous protection quarantine area? I have read the data on the, and the Klem are definitely not indigenous.] Max asked.


    [That''s why it makes no sense, but it is possible that it is what they have been telling the locals to hide the Klem presence. The strange thing is that all of the life signs show signs of Klem DNA, though they appear mostly human.


    I am working on a definitive scan, but I didn''t want to abduct anyone before consulting you.] Nico informed him.


    [Sorry to interrupt, Commander, but what are the chances that the modifications that we saw in thatb were turned into a bioweapon that backfired and infected the with a portion of the Klem genome, which stopped the invasion, thinking that the had been conquered?] Admiral Drake asked.


    [You''re thinking that it is human intervention that has made this so strange? Why wouldn''t they have dealt with the Klem if they had pacified them this way? A hostile response to attacks by what the Klem thought was their own forces?]


    The idea had merit, given what they had seen so far. A famous scientist had once said that only two things were limitless, the Universe and Human Stupidity, but he might be wrong about the Universe. It was clear from their data that the supersoldier experiments were against this''s ethicsws, so it wouldn''t be likely that the whole had received simr modifications, but some forms of Klem poisons were viral in nature, so it might have been a vine experiment gone horribly wrong.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Nico, how subtle can you be about abducting someone? I need you to analyze one of the random civilians so that we can see what is going on. If they''re cognizant and reasonable, interrogate them. If not, dissect them and tell me what happened.] Max ordered.


    [I knew you couldn''t bear to bully me forever. I will have your answers soon.]


    Nico''s answer made Max consider rephrasing his request to have someone else do the work, but Nico would probably be the most efficient one at the job, so he would only be making his own life harder if he ruined her fun.


    Within minutes, Max''s sensors detected a drone returning to Terminus, even before he had time to rejoin the Regiment.


    They marched until dark, when Max ordered a halt in a small valley, keeping the light from their Mecha and equipment out of sight. It was more difficult to move by night, as the number of sensors they could navigate by was limited, and the support vehicles had very limited sensor capabilities, navigating mostly by sight unless there was a need for other sensors.


    [Set a perimeter. Let the Light Mecha out to stretch their legs and get a hot meal. I''m sure they''re sick ofpressed ration bars and a cramped cockpit by now.] Max ordered.


    Terminus was directly overhead and didn''t show any signs of Klem in the immediate vicinity, so they had a few hours to rx in rtive safety.


    Just before dawn, Nico had the report from her captured civilian.


    [Sir, Subject four has been interrogated. She has no memories that are more than three months old. All the surviving subjects honestly seem to believe that they are fully human and that their appearance is normal for humans. They realize that they have chitin armor and thermal vision, but they don''t know that''s not normal for humans.


    They know nothing of technology and call all the technological devices on the Ancient Relics. Even though they''re mostly still operational, the residents don''t use them or understand how to use them.


    Examinations suggest an intelligence level of around 50 standard points, on par with a small child.


    The analysis of Subject Three determined that they were originally human, and this change is due to a mutagenic virus that was released on the roughly four months ago.


    More samples will be needed to determine the spread pattern and origin location, but the number of random variances between subjects has determined that it was not near the quarantine zone.]

 Chapter 422 422 Self Inflicted

    [I thought I instructed you to interrogate them if they were sane and capable of reason?] Max asked.


    [Subject Three was unreasonable. But the others became much more reasonable after the dissection. Subject One and Two are currently in holding since Subject Four provided all information that we required.]


    [Acquire samples from a few more subjects around the and determine the origin of the mutation. I want to know if the humans or the Klem made it since your subjects don''t know anything.] Max ordered.


    [On it, Commander. Now that I know what to look for, I can analyze them with drones from a distance. Dispatching now. Give me one hour to get answers.] Nico responded.


    [Everyone, get ready to move out. There is some Klem activity on the scanners, but they either don''t know we are here or don''t care.


    Their behavior in this world is very unusual, and standard procedures aren''t going to be helpful in preparing for them.] Max reminded the troops.


    The Regiment started packing up and getting ready to move, cleaning up all traces of their presence here, except for the inevitable tire tracks and footprints that they had generated by congregating in one spot for the night.


    They were going to have to detour off their direct route today. The valley that they had been following led to the ruins of a Mega City, formerly home to at least ten million humans but currently in a state of total destruction. Given their encounters so far, that meant that the Klem had a full invasion army there but had stopped both their advance and their continued growth for some unknown reason.


    That was way more trouble than they wanted to take on, so Max was going to keep a hundred-kilometer distance from it, so he wouldn''t attract undue attention. There were a number of smaller, outlying ruins, but if they struck fast and kept moving, it shouldn''t be an issue.


    Today they weren''t moving as fast, more interested in finding signs that might inform them of what happened here than hurrying toward any destination.


    The first such sign came an hour into their march when the tail of a ruined airne was found on the horizon. Not a shuttle, hovercar, military transport, or anything so fancy, it appeared to be an actual propellor-driven aircraft with a wingspan of around sixty meters.


    [Scouts, tell me what you can about that location. Do not exit your Mecha. We haven''t scanned it for possible pathogens yet.] Max ordered.


    A single Corvette ss Mecha headed out for the downed aircraft, locking its handheld rifle behind its back, so it had both hands free to move rubble and explore.


    [Sir, it is a bomber. Four-engined, propellor driven. It looks to have been hastily retrofitted with fuel-burning engines, and the cockpit shows signs of advanced avionics having been removed and reced with analog.


    I suspect that the region was hit with an EMP during or just after the invasion, but this ne went down afterward, as the corpses have not been cannibalized by the Klem.


    No signs of mutation on the remains of the upants.] The pilot reported.


    [Nico, send a drone for recovery of the remains and begin full bioweapon containment procedures. Once we know when they died, we can start building a timeline. Check for a paper log or diary as well. If they survived an EMP and were still fighting, they should have paperwork in hard copy.] Max ordered.


    The Regiment continued along their path, and the signs of a primitive battle against the Klem became more and more frequent. Bodies of soldiers with projectile weapons, domesticated mounts instead of mechanized vehicles, and finally, a fully equipped bunker with its power cut.


    Max personally deployed a small camera drone to explore, finding that the door was a maic lock, now demaized and easily pushed open by the drone. The inside was still fully stocked, with food, water, and beds for twenty people.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It sat in the ruins of what Max assumed was a farmstead by the remains of metallic implements that the Klem hadn''t eaten, though all signs of crops or even the farmhouse were long gone.


    The beds had been used, though. The drone detected signs of human DNA on the sheets, so someone slept in them, then made the beds. There was no visible damage to the bunker itself, so Max assumed it was possible that the upants waited until they thought it was safe and then left, never to return.


    Of course, they could still be on their way back, but they hadn''t detected any signs of living humans on the continent, so they might have also been infected and forgot that they had somewhere to go back to.


    [Sir, I have a timepse from one of the major cities on another continent that will interest you.] Admiral Drake reported, and Max''s Mecha dinged at him to report an iing data file.


    Max opened it and put it on a side screen, so he could keep his eyes open for threats.


    At first, everything looked normal, but then Max realized that the residents were all doing random tasks over and over. They only did the things that they remembered how to do, either their job or some random hobby that was stuck in their memory when everything else disappeared.


    The part that really showed how wrong the residents of the city were was highlighted about two minutes in when the timepse showed people randomly pulling and eating grass or jumping into the river to grab fish, eating them raw while they went about their daily tasks.


    [Nico, ask your subject what she had for herst meal, what she does for work, and where she got the clothes she was wearing.] Max ordered.


    A new voice came over the speaker, that of a young woman, possibly a teenage girl. [What do you mean? I made steamed vegetables and rice, the same as every other meal. I stay at home taking care of the kids, and the clothes are in the closet.]


    The voice switched to Nico''s. [You have that for every meal? Do the kids go to school? When did youst change clothes with other ones from the closet?] Nico asked her questions one after another, and Max could hear the Subject stammer, looking for an answer.


    [There used to be more dishes, but the spot where theye from is empty now. I don''t really know what a school is, but the kids go to a ce from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. Then theye back, and I make them a meal.] The Subject reported.


    [What did I ask you about yesterday?] Nico asked.


    [You asked me things yesterday? No, that can''t be right. I wake up, get dressed, see the kids off, then wait for them toe back so I can make them a meal. I have never seen you before.] The Subject responded.


    [Thank You.]


    There was a pause as Nico presumably left the room before reporting. [Our sensors and the Illithid report that they can only retain new information for a few hours, so if they don''t continue a task regrly, they will forget how to do it and act on instinct when faced with new situations. From what I can tell, they live their lives on repeat, doing the exact same thing over and over.]


    [Send another drone to the border and see what the response is.] Max ordered.


    *Alien visitors, please note that you have entered from an indigenous protection quarantine area. Please exit the continent to orbit with all reasonable haste.*

 Chapter 423 423 I Understand Now

    [That reminds me of the Klem Warriors and the smaller bugs. They do the same things over and over. No matter how often you kill them, they will keep doing what they were directed to, and only therger ones will adapt or try to force you to stop messing with their system. Like, if you keep burning away Swarm who are trying to gather biomass, they will keep trying to get into their designated area to collect it and won''t stop their mission to do anything but defend themselves.] Colonel Klinger pointed out on the Command Channel.


    [You think that their minds have be more like the drone ss of Klem,pletely task-oriented butcking the individual directions to make the sort of varied decisions that humans are best known for? Like a simpleputer program where then NPCs can only react within predictable parameters?] Nico asked, rting the behavior of the infected humans to technological problems that she understood very well.


    [Yeah, that sounds about right. They can do what they were doing, and a few other things, and react to your presence, but only in the ways that they already know. They''re justcking the extra bit of creativity and initiative that makes humans human. All of the Klem are like that, except the Behemoths.] Colonel Klinger agreed.


    [And the Queens.] Max added, thinking that he had found the root of the issue here. The humans of the had been modified to act more like Klem, but they had lost too much of their individuality to continue working together as a society. Theycked the leadership to direct them, and the virus that changed them hadn''t created a Leadership Caste as Klem had.


    At least, not yet.


    Perhaps that was what the Klem horde was waiting for, a Queen to be born so that they would have guidance and contact with the outside world. That simply could not be allowed to happen, though. Max would destroy the before he allowed word of this disaster to spread through the Klem territory. If they realized that they could simply convert humans to their cause, they would begin targeting highly popted worlds to convert instead of lightly popted or uninhabited ones to colonize.


    Humanity had enough issues right now. They didn''t need to add to them.


    The question was, what should they do next? Grab a sample to analyze and leave, or should they continue onward on the and try to iste the origin of the problem in case the Klem already knew how to replicate it?


    [How are we doing with the samples? Do we have a spread pattern yet?] Max asked an hourter when he finally decided that he couldn''t make a proper decision without thatst bit of information.


    [Initial mapping indicates sixty-four points of upper atmospheric distribution. We have obtained samples from water features and unmutated animal life that should give us a good handle on what the original strain looked like.


    It was very much intentional. I have recovered data from the government buildings that indicates that they deployed it as a Klem countermeasure, billed as a vine that would camouge them from the Klem, and prevent the spread of the alien invaders.


    There is no indication of what went wrong, but we have the human trials data, and it is nothing like what we see here.


    The samples say that it is the same virus, though.] Nico reported.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Again, Max wondered how so many smart people could be so stupid. Of course, viruses mutate to increase their spread and develop unexpected side effects. But that is all in the past now, and this is beyond saving.


    [Cutters, to our position, we are withdrawing from the.] Max ordered, readying the Regiment to leave this Klem-infested rock.


    There wasn''t much more that they could learn here except for the finer details of the timeline that led to the mistake that doomed their civilization, so it was time for his men to leave.


    But not without undergoing exceptionally thorough decontamination. He really did not need his pilots devolving into mindless drones on him.


    The Klem began to swarm when the Cutters came into range, instinctively knowing that the presence of human ships on the surface meant biomass for them to consume and encouraged by the Behemoths in the nearby city.


    [Defensive positions, this will be abat extraction. Prepare for the arrival of the first wave of Klem attackers in 90 seconds.] Max ordered his pilots.


    Combat extractions were never fun. Too much could go wrong, and it was a risk to the ships, but there weren''t many ces that they could go on this continent and not attract arge number of Klem when they tried to leave, so now was as good of a time as any.


    Each Battalion was clustered into a defensive arc, facing the city where the first wave of attacks woulde from, allowing their rear lines to fall into the cargo hold first and then cover the front lines as they copsed inward and followed them into the Cutters.


    It was a well-practiced routine, and they had practiced a dozen variations for different scenarios, so every Pilot was confident that they knew what they were doing, even in the heat of battle. The only issue would be keeping the Klem off of them long enough to actually get in the ship without it being swarmed.


    The Cutters came in fast, opening the bay doors before they were even on the ground and weing their first upants before their gravity control systems had even stabilized them on the surface.


    The high-speed maneuver had bought them some time, and the closest Shredders were still five hundred meters out, but it would take at least one minute to get an entire Battalion into the ship. The doors were wide, and they could enter from both sides if they wanted, but the space in the bay was tight, so the Mecha that weren''t on defense needed to get to their storage racks immediately to make room for the next arrival.

 Chapter 424 424 Forget This Place

    Max charged forward to meet the Klem, intending to keep them away from the Cutters as well as he could.


    The six Disruptors on Cleansing Light shed a wave of energy at maximum dispersion, directly vaporizing the closest Shredders, as well as the ground that they were standing on, creating a sloped ditch between the Titan ss Mecha and the approaching aliens.


    The tide only hesitated for a second before spreading out, hoping that he couldn''t get to them all at once, but Max was already firing again, wiping out the nks and letting the portion of the assault force that was closest to him advance.


    If there wasn''t a Behemoth guiding them, that was the best way to trick Shredders into going where you wanted. They could think for themselves a little bit, but when guided toward a threat, they would lock onto it.


    They were strangely conniving when they were on defense, though, setting many traps and proving to be uncanny with their ability to pick positions to ambush from. It was a strange adaptation for such a powerful attacker, but given theirck of ranged attacking power, it did make more sense for them to wait for enemies to approach and then ambush them than tounch suicidal runs across the sand toward a Mecha Regiment.


    The only reason that they were doing it at all was that the Behemoths had spotted the Cutters and ordered them to find the invaders and eat them.


    The Thunder Guns began to rumble as Max demonstrated his n for the Klem, forcing them toward the Titan ss Mecha and buying their Battalions more time. They weren''t directly targeting the Klem with every shot. Instead, one in three went into the sand outside of their nks, causing them to dodge toward the center, which would create a new gap for the next shell to fall in.


    They didn''t pack them too tightly, as even the instinct-driven Klem would realize that they were being herded if they did, but it was enough that most of them were focused on Cleansing Light as the primary threat.


    It was going amazingly well, and the corpses were turning the sand into ichor-soaked mud until the Behemoths reached a hill in the distance and gained a line of sight to the battle.


    That was enough for them to realize what had happened, and the Shredders began to spread out again, leaving only a small group to target Cleansing Light while the others intended to rush past to target the Regiment.


    The ranged units weren''t in range yet, having arger distance to cover, but the sensors detected an iing mass containing thousands of the two-meter-long flying species known as Gargoyles due to their vague resemnce to the carvings that adorned the top of many buildings.


    They weren''ting from the main city but an outpost somewhere around forty kilometers away, and it had taken them a little while to get into the air, likely due to confusion about the situation. They wouldn''t immediately assume that the was being invaded unless they could see and identify the threat, so they hesitated until something had determined that the objects were human vessels.


    This might be a nightmare to fight on, but it was a treasure trove of battle tactics, so Max was recording all that he could, intending to add it to the simtors as a practice scenario that the Pilots could take on to test their skills and Command decisions.


    With a fully inhabited like this, every action was interlinked, and a wrong decision could bring hundreds of Klem down on a scouting party before they could even regroup for defense.


    [Sir, we are eighty percent loaded.] The pilot of the First Battalion''s Cutter reported.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max''s screen showed thest defense was a group of Fast Attack Mecha, which could rejoin theirrades in the air, thanks to the jump packs, which gave them limited flight capabilities, but the Regiments all still had their Super Heavy Mecha on the ground.


    Their position was next to the door, so they needed to loadst unless they didn''t care about dying the other Mecha, but it was giving the Regiment a rather formidablest stand.


    The artillery was throwing up clouds of dust, blown by the wind generated by repeated bombardment and the thermal disturbance of Fusion mers, which were finally in range of their targets as the Klem charge reached itsst stages.


    From underground, a rumbling indicated something was wrong, and the seismic sensors on Cleansing Light indicated that something huge was moving underneath his feet.


    Max jumped straight into the air and engaged his thrusters, intending to hover and finish off the center line of Shredders, but a huge mouth followed him up.


    The Klem appeared to be an armored worm with thousands of rows of teeth in a mouth asrge as its body. The Kepler Empire called them Constructor Worms, which dug the undergroundplexes where the Klem preferred toy eggs after the initial assault was sessful, and they could devour and pulverize anything from bedrock to a Heavy Mecha with equal efficiency.


    The enormous worm followed him fifty meters into the air before crashing to the ground, snapping the opening of its round maw open and closed in frustration at being unable to eat the biggest potential meal in the area.


    [Get the Cutters off the ground ASAP. Constructors are never alone, and if they start eating away at your hull, we are going to have much more severe problems than a full of mutant Klem.] Max barked, and the Super Heavy Mecha hopped onto the loading ramps at either side of the Cutters, leaving a gap at their back for thest few Fast Attack Mecha to make their retreat as the ships took off.


    The extra training and time to practice paid off, and not a single Mecha other than the Fast Attack Crusaders was left on the ground, and they were rapidly leaving as well.


    One unfortunate soul was grabbed by the Constructor Worm before Max''s Disruptors sted the behemoth ss worm in half, letting the mangled unit climb free.


    Its Fusion mer was still working, and the pilot was doing their best to deal with the Klem around them, but the jump pack waspletely mangled.


    Max took Cleansing Light to ground level and grabbed the final straggler, carrying them to a waiting Cutter and preparing tounch an Orbital Bombardment to finish off the remaining forces, as well as the ruined city that they hade from.


    [All Units ounted for. Terminus Regiment returning to the mothership.]

 Chapter 425 425 Back In Orbit

    The bay doors on the Cutters closed and sealed as Max powered up Terminus to follow them back off the, stopping only long enough to eliminate thest few Behemoths, which might stand a chance of damaging their vessels on the way home.


    Admiral Drake''s voice weed him back into orbit as Max updated his notes to epass thest battle and the strange behaviors they had experienced on the.


    [Commander, we have a full data set for the general poption, including the spread, the markers which identify theb where it was produced, which is here on this world, as well as some data from the government buildings about the operation to innocte the poption against the so-called Alien Diseases, which they imed the Klem could spread through humanity.


    The general poption wouldn''t have known what happened and assumed that the vine didn''t work on their loved ones for some reason until it started to affect everyone, and by then, it was toote to do anything about it or the ones who had created it.


    The mutations seem to have been partially intentional, but they evolved in unexpected ways when the virus mutated within hours of the initial distribution.


    Miss Tarith hase up with a viral containment n for you to peruse at your pleasure, and the Illithid Doctor has verified that the viral containment procedures for the Regiment will be sufficient to have eliminated the threat. It seems that after the initial mutation, it began to spread by direct contact and was no longer an airborne pathogen.]


    [We will go over the n as soon as I arrive. Prepare a meeting room and inform all of the Battalion Commanders to meet there in fifteen minutes.] Max replied.


    That would be just long enough tond, get a quick shower, and change to meet the Regiment, though it would leave some of the Commanders tight on time after getting their units disembarked.


    The Mecha could stay in the Cutters, as they would need to be fully sanitized, along with the bay that they arrived in before they could be repaired and moved to storage, so that wasn''t the Pilot''s problem today. They only needed to go to the scanning and decontamination room.


    The sensors on the Cutters didn''t detect any signs of diseases, viruses, or other hostile life forms that might have been picked up on the, so it would likely be a short process, but they would be held for a few hours until the more thorough deep tissue scans werepleted.


    The Commanders could all be quarantined together during their meetings, a standard practice for many Regiments that allowed them to save hours of hassle and get all their paperwork done during the scanning process.


    They had all been on the same battlefield, and none of them had left their Mecha during the deployment, so with a quick sanitization of their Mecha, before they exited, there was little chance that any of them were going to be infected anyhow.


    With the apartment-level luxury inside the cockpit of the Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha, there weren''t a lot of good reasons for the Commanders to disembark during battle unless they were holding negotiations with another human force, something that would likely never happen with the Klem.


    "Wee everyone to today''s debriefing and Command Staff decontamination. I have a mission report in front of you. Check it for uracy, and write your Battalion''s version. I know we aren''t a military force anymore, butprehensive records are essential when we need to look back for missing clues duringter battles." Max reminded his Officers.


    "Some things never end. Paperwork is eternal, but you have a point, Commander. Especially for this mission, where we encountered so many new actions and patterns of Klem, it is imperative that we keep good notes. If wee across them somewhere else in the Gxy, we will need to know how they got there and as much about them as possible." Colonel Klinger agreed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [I have the n to finish the decontamination of the ready if you would like to go over it while you enjoy your decontamination.] Nico suggested over the inte.


    "Does it involve Firestorm Bombing or Orbital Strikes?" Max asked.


    [That''s the best part. I managed to find a way for both of them to work together for an extra fresh, minty clean feeling.]


    The Command Staff chuckled at Nico''s enthusiastic response before looking over the n.


    She wasn''t joking. Her n was to have the Cutters fly a grid pattern in orbit, carpet bombing the with Firestorm Bombs, thenbining their firepower with that of Cleansing Light, all on the same spot.


    ording to the seismic scans, that was a weak spot in the tectonic tes, and thebined Orbital Lance assault should send a ripple through the entire''s crust that would shatter the continents and turn many of the pieces over, leaving them face down on the molten mantle of the.


    Combined with the Firestorm, the chances of Microbial life surviving were less than one in a billion, with a chance of the Klem infestation surviving calcted as less than one in a trillion, with a secondary n to use Chemical weapons to eliminate thest microbial life that might have survived, should any be detected.


    "You know, we could have worked out a retroviral concoction that would decontaminate the''s humans." Max pointed out after reading the pure overkill double Extermination n for the infested world.


    [I already did that. After the virus is eliminated, they no longer stand any chance of contaminating others, but the majority of their Genome is still Klem, and they are essentially brain-dead. Given time, they might recover some brain function, but the instinct-driven portion of their existence is all that is keeping them functioning.


    Disabling the Virus makes the Klem portion of their bodies dormant, and it could safely be surgically removed, in most cases, but it leaves them with the brain functions of a newborn.] Nico informed them.


    "So, the test subjects are dead?" Colonel DiFranco, of the Fourth Battalion, asked.


    [No, just infantile. They are very much breathing.] Nico exined.


    "What do we do with that? Do we even have a use for a bunch ofatose Klem Hybrids?" The Colonel asked.


    [Of course, we do. I''m not sure what it is, but I am going to put them in cryogenic stasis anyhow. Maybe it will matterter.]

 Chapter 426 426 Better To Be Safe

    Max spent a few moments trying to think of ways that they could solve this issue, but in the end, it always came back to destroying the.


    If the Klemnded here and made contact with their surviving Kin, then it wouldn''t matter if the retrovirus worked, the Queens would know what the Humans had done here, and there was a chance that they would do it again.


    That was a risk that Max was not willing to take, especially so near the border to one of their important allies.


    This side of the Klem Territory was near many small nations that Max didn''t care much about, but it was also near the territory that Cygnus was taking over and the innermost boundaries of the Death Wind Territory, where the Mercenary locals had long been allied with the Reavers.


    [Prepare to Firestorm Bomb the. We will assess the need to continue once the extermination isplete.] Max ordered, bringing a round of rueful sighs to the room.


    They had all hoped that someone would be able toe up with a way to save the humans there, but there really didn''t seem to be any way. Curing them turned them into infants, and the majority of the poption would starve to death in that state, while Klem would likely eat the rest once the aliens realized that they were not part of their species.


    Ignoring it was clearly not an option, and simply killing the Klem and leaving would still leave the hapless mutant humans for the rest of the Klem to find.


    "Look at it this way. At least it''s a humane death. The fires will spread so fast most won''t even know that they''reing, and the heat burns away the nerves faster than they can register the pain, so the infected will not have to suffer." Major Miller pointed out.


    That brought some relief to the others in the room, and they all got busy writing up their mission reports.


    ? A few hours passed before Max realized that the quarantine buzzer should have gone off already, clearing them to leave or informing them that they had brought amunicable disease aboard and were in for extended istion and medical treatment.


    "Hey Nico, I know you''re still listening. What is wrong with our quarantine timer?" Max asked.


    The artificial voice of the Illithid advisor answered on her behalf. "That is my doing, Commander. Our studies on psychological stress indicate that it is better for subjects to believe that they finished their work before the timer than to rush to finish it after the timer. Major Miller is just finishing his report now, so I have dyed the timer with the intention of having it ring three minutes after hepleted his task.


    That is the optimal length of time to achieve the feeling of aplishment without inducing new stress rted to finishing too close to the end of the window."


    "So, we have all been sitting here because Major Miller makes excessively detailed reports?" Colonel DiFranco of the Fourth Battalion asked.


    "Alternately, it could be that your own report was insufficiently detailed, leading you toplete it far earlier than your counterparts. I can''t say for sure unless I actually read the reports in their entirety." The Illithid responded.


    Colonel Lucas, the unassuming leader of the Third Battalion, a taller than average Pilot, nearly at the 185cm height limit, with a closely cropped hairstyle that nearly mirrored the one that Max preferred, snorted in amusement.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "You''ve never even spoken to the Illithid, and he knows all about you. The rest of us are just impressed that you can actually read. We don''t expect much of your report."


    Colonel Li, the lone female on the Command team, if you didn''t count Nico, ced her hands on DiFranco''s shoulders, holding therger man in his chair so he couldn''t get into a physical altercation with Lucas, but that didn''tst long, as he simply stood up and took her with him.


    "Did you think you could stop me like that?" The Colonelughed, shaking her off his back before turning to Lucas, who was openlyughing.


    "What''s so funny?"


    "You know, it''s said that lower primates are much stronger than humans are at the same size. She never stood a chance."


    Even Max had tough at that one while the two men engaged in a grappling match, with Colonel Lucas, who was actually the stronger of the pair, pretending to be overwhelmed, and continuing with the jokes.


    "You know, the more upset you get, the more fun he''s having, right?" Li asked when DiFranco backed away from the challenge.


    "Just you wait. I still owe you for the cheese tube incident." DiFranco muttered, then moved to the mirror to straighten his uniform.


    "Cheese Tube Incident?" Colonel Klinger asked, having missed the story about that one.


    "DiFranco put itching powder in Lucas''s socks, so Lucas swapped thebels in his replicator and reced all of the jpeno cheese tubes in DiFranco''s rations with strawberry jam." Colonel Li exined, smiling at the memory of the prank.


    "And he survived? I know the guys love a little prank now and then, but the cheese is sacred." Max asked as he read the memory of the incident in the minds of both Lucas and DiFranco.


    "They might not look like it, but they have been friends since the Academy and fellow Company Commanders for over a decade before they got a Battalion Commandmission and a promotion with their transfer here." Colonel Klinger reminded him.


    Nico ended the yful mood with a mission update.


    [I know you''re having fun, but it''s time to work again. The Cutters have been loaded and prepared for their mission, and we will need Cleansing Light on standby in case the Firestorm doesn''t get all of the Klem that are hiding underground. They have a lot more of their poption inside mines and other underground structures than usual this time.]

 Chapter 427 427 Cleansing Light

    Max made his way to Cleansing Light, preparing to join in on the attack after the results of the Firestorm Bombing werepiled.


    The Cutters had already made their way out of the hangars, the sleek curves of their outer hulls shining like tinum in the faintly blue light of the closest star.


    With their organic curves and polished exterior, it was a hard thing to believe that such beautiful vessels were on a mission to destroy an entire, but one after another, the five Cutters adjusted their course and began dropping drones into the upper atmosphere, where they hovered in position, waiting for the signal to begin their mission.


    In total, two hundred autonomous drones were dropped, each hovering at its preprogrammed location with a Firestorm Bomb attached.


    Fewer than twenty would be enough to burn the''s surface bare, but if all two hundred went off in order, the surface should be turned entirely molten, eliminating the need for the Orbital strike to finish the job.


    Destroying the''s ecosystem was one thing, but if they had to destroy the itself, it would upset the bnce in this sr system, and that wouldn''t go unnoticed for very long, with the Klem controlling every system around them.


    [All bombs are in position.] The Cutter Pilots informed him as the five vessels fell into formation around the Titan ss Mecha.


    [Initiate.] Max ordered.


    A wave of fire lit up the far side of the, rushing around the surface in a wave of superheated death as the exquisitely timed explosions pulled the front of theary Firestorm onward, creating a ten thousand degree hurricane on aary scale, hot enough to melt even diamonds and Tungsten in minutes.


    For over an hour, the inferno raged as the atmosphere of the was burned away, leaving a barren and uninhabitable ball of molten rock behind.


    Max watched in awe as the fires slowly faded, then in horror as a circle of solid rock began to form where the''s maary North Pole was. The thermal sensors showed that it was dropping by hundreds of degrees a minute, solidifying the surface of the in a slowly growing ring.


    [What the feth is that?] Admiral Drake asked, watching the cool at an unnatural rate.


    [Sensors detect strong energy under the surface, but it is fading fast. I think that whatever triggered it is burning through their reserves to cool the surface enough to escape.] Nico reported.


    That was even worse than their nned worst-case scenario. Nobody had anticipated that something which could survive under the crust of the would exist or that it would have the capability to cool the molten ball, which should burn for decades before even the smallest part would be solid again.


    ? [Change of ns. Prepare the formation to attack the center of that cold spot. We must not allow anything to escape the''s destruction.] Max ordered.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The shift only took a single minute before the five Cutters, and Cleansing Light were back in position again. The targeting systems watched as the surface rapidly dropped in temperature while they readied their Orbital Lances for the attack.


    [Synchronize your targeting systems to Cleansing Light. I will target and trigger the attack.] Max ordered, relieving some of the tension in the Pilots'' hearts.


    Nobody wanted to be the guy whose systemgged and fired a split secondte, ruining thebined effect of the six Orbital Lances.


    Max didn''t wait after the calctions were finished, giving himself no more time for doubts and second thoughts. He triggered the attack, and six mighty beams of energy converged on the solidified portion of the.


    But it did not vaporize as he had expected. Instead, the glow of an alien shield lit up the center of the strike, and the entire solidified te was forced down into the mantle of the, sending a destructive shockwave through the molten ball.


    The first portion to fail was the south pole, with the direct transfer of energy blowing arge portion of the surface out of the''s gravitational field, followed by rippling bacsh which met the shockwave from the strike near the equator, causing the to implode and st outward in a t wave of material that was quickly cooling as the small globules of liquid rock and metal met the vacuum of space.


    It reminded Max of the rings that some worlds collected around them, only this time, there was no at the center, only a small glowing object, still emitting faint shield energy.


    [To be able to take that sort of a strike, I do not think that is a human or Klem invention. Nico, send a drone to recover that shielded object for us if you can.] Max ordered over a private channel, keeping the mainmunication lines silent as the Regiment recovered from their shock.


    [On it, boss. I will analyze it as soon as I can. Anything that can take the full force of abined Cleansing has to be a good thing. Assuming we can determine what it is.]


    A solitary drone fighter, one of the specialized ones that Nico had created, which wasrger than the others, made its way to the object, which appeared to have been serving as the''s core. The distance distorted Max''s sense of size, but as the drone approached, Max realized that it was nearly a thousand kilometers in diameter.


    [Oh, it is a good thing. Can I keep it?] Nico asked, moments after the drone had arrived and before she had even ryed basic information about it.


    Max''s sensors couldn''t detect anything about it at all, the shielding was blocking all attempts to scan it, and from this distance, it only appeared to be a smooth metal ball from his optical sensors.


    [Don''t keep me hanging, what did you find?] Max demanded as Nico''s drone circled the object, the erratic flight pattern showing the extent of Nico''s curiosity.


    [I think it is a Dyson Sphere. It surrounds an energy source, and it absorbs everything that we send to it. That''s why we can''t scan it. It just absorbs the energy of the scanners.

 Chapter 428 428 Dyson

    [It''s great that you know what it is, but what can we even do with it if it absorbs everything that we send its way? We can''t move it. We can''t really do anything with it.] Max responded.


    The sphere was simply toorge for them to do anything at all about.


    The Illithid advisor was the next to speak. [The trick to a Dyson Sphere like this one, which absorbs energy from both sides, is not in the signal but theck of it. You need to block ambient energy around it in a pattern to influence it. I can demonstrate if you like. Terminus has the capability.]


    [Please do.] Max agreed, and a strange pulse was emitted from Terminus.


    It seemed to be simr to a jamming wave, directly countering the energy frequencies in the area, and it continued for a few seconds, osciting the energy that it let through in anguage that Max couldn''t understand.


    Once it finished, there was a response in the same fashion emitted from the sphere. It onlysted a split second, and then everything went back to normal again, leaving everyone in confusion.


    [The sphere says that we are not qualified to wake it from storage mode. I don''t know what species made it, but it is quite old, I would say close to a million years now.] The Illithid informed them.


    [A million years? That means that it was inserted into the for storage and that the didn''t form around it.] Max pondered out loud.


    [That is correct. I am detecting foreign elements in the debris, likely carried here by the sphere when it drilled into the to go into stasis.


    But, since we can''t wake it up, and it still has a program running, there isn''t much we can do.] The Illithid sighed.


    [Send it a message about current events. Maybe it will leave on its own now that the is gone. That would save us from trying to prevent the Klem from messing with it.] Max replied, hopefully.


    His message was unnecessary, though, as the gravity around the sphere was increasing, pulling the remains of the back together into a cohesive ball. It seemed that the sphere was fond of its camouge and intended to get it back in whatever condition it could.


    That action gave Max an idea of why it was cooling the as well. It wanted the to be inhabited, and supporting life, to hide from whatever it didn''t want to be detected by while it was in storage.


    They hadn''t known it was there until it took action to defend against their strike, so the trick had worked perfectly, and the sphere was still in the same orbit that it had been, to begin with. Now that the hybrid threat was gone, there wasn''t any reason to be concerned about this within the Klem borders. It could be taken over by them again or left a barren rock, and wouldn''t threaten humanity at all.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They might not be able to influence the sphere now, but in the future, they might find out more and learn the method to wake it from storage, bringing them an energy source that even the Alliance would be envious of.


    ? The Illithid got right to sending the message, continuing for over a minute this time, but there was no response from the Dyson Sphere except a single pulse that the Illithid tranted as "Received."


    [Are we just leaving it here, Commander?] One of the Cutter pilots asked as Max ordered them to return to their hangars.


    "Unless you know a secret way to make an object the size of a''s core with the energy supply of a small star,e with us," Max replied with augh.


    The human race had progressed down that technological path before, though nowhere near that far, and the few surviving examples were incredible feats of engineering that had taken dozens of generations toplete. It was too much to hope that they could simply take over this one the moment that they saw it.


    [Sir, there are Klem pods iing. ETA 23 hours.] Admiral Drake reported.


    By that time, the would have been rebuilt by the sphere, and it had already shown its ability to control the temperature, so the Klem should arrive at a lifeless rock, not the recently colonized they were expecting.


    [Let''s get out of here. We will head toward Death Wind Territory and look for clues there about the recent political developments so that we can n our next move.] Max decided, getting Terminus ready to embark on another mission.


    Max took Cleansing Light back to the secure hanger, where he was sure that nobody could mess with it while he was away, and went to meet with Nico and the Illithid. Between the two of them, they would be able to help him n the next stage in their efforts to begin unifying humanity.


    Death Wind Territory was their target, and the alliance papers were already drawn. They just needed toe up with a n that would convince the notoriously free-living mercenaries to join the alliance and agree to the terms.


    The fact was that nobody really knew enough to be able to generate leverage over them. They had inhabiteds that nobody outside their territory knew much about. Not many knew the living conditions after centuries of embargos, and even fewer knew the threats that they were facing.


    So, their first step would be to gather as much information and build as much trust as they could, based on the data that the reavers had collected about Mercenary Groups that they considered trustworthy, and then work to convince them to join in the alliance.


    "Just a simple and easy task," as Dave liked to joke about everything Max had struggled with as a kid. The phrase was incredibly annoying, but somehow it always managed to motivate him.

 Chapter 429 429 Onward And Outward

    Max sat at his desk, scanning all of the inhabiteds that they would be passing on their way to the outer arms of the Gxy and then cross-referencing them against the trade rtions that each of them shared with the Reavers and with Cygnus, who was going to y arge part in the early stages of their n to unify humanity.


    After all, if they were going to build a species-wide mutual defense and trade agreement, they had to have the military might to back it up.


    There would be no central government or anything of the sort. They had learned that lesson from human history. Trying to rule over too much territory only led to resentment and bitter civil wars, as well as an unchecked bureaucracy. Instead, they would have a court on Rae 5, where the ambassadors of the allied nations would gather, and those with grievances coulde to request assistance or settle their disputes.


    Max suspected that it would eventually turn into its own clique and bureaucracy, filled with massive egos and entitlement, but it was the best idea that they hade up with. Or at least the best one that could get popr support.


    The first system that they would petition for support was the Klux Empire. A grandiose name for a three-system nation that was dangerously close to the Klem threat but one that was well known for its open trade policies andck of instigation of conflicts.


    It was an excellent choice of nations to bring in early, and it was along their route, so they wouldn''t have to send another Reaver vessel out of their way to negotiate.


    Max looked up more about the system and found that it was only an Empire in name only. They had no Emperor for thest few centuries and had formed a collective democracy. It wasn''t working out particrly well for them, in Max''s opinion, as the open trade policies were matched by nationwide poverty, so even though they could trade for nearly anything, they couldn''t afford it.


    They could be there in two days, even without using a portal, so Terminus was going there at Warp 5, its current maximum cruising speed.


    The leader that they were trying to contact was a man who simply went by Joseph, not using any family name, and he had already sent them coordinates to dock with therge space station near the main, ording to Admiral Drake.


    [Nico, have we prepared enough trade goods to get them on board?] Max asked his second inmand, who was in charge of shiny toys aboard Terminus.


    [We have one hundred industrial-sized Replicators created, as well as two of the old Kepler design Materials Printers, which Klux doesn''t have any of right now. All their building is done traditionally to ensureplete employment of the poption.


    There is a chance that they won''t want them at all, but I havee up with an altered design that better suits their preferences.] Nico replied.


    [Better suits their preferences? How so? It''s still a materials printer.] Max asked.


    [I designed a console that separates every function into different screens so that you can have twenty workers cooperating on the same assembly line. If they make a load of them and fully staff them instead of automating the process, they can waste an immense amount of manpower.] Nico replied with a note of amusement in her synthetic voice.


    She was getting better and better atplex emotions with the artificial voice box as she evolved her body. Soon, Max was certain that he wouldn''t be able even to pick out thest notes of the artificial speech patterns which she had begun with.<novelnext></novelnext>


    It was a nice change from her teasing everyone with that extra sultry tone that had been in the default settings.


    [Every nation has its own priorities. Klux likes to see everyone capable of working having steady employment and equal wages. There''s no harm in humoring them.]


    Max didn''t particrly care what they did with theirs, as long as it didn''t vite the basic standards set by the Reavers or cause violence with others. The alliance had agreed not to step into internal strife unless it was funded or instigated by outsiders, so even if their method caused a civil war, it wasn''t their problem, assuming it didn''t interfere with their alliance obligations.


    [Do we have anything else for them?] Max asked, sure if a single trade good would be enough to secure a deal.


    [There are agreements to let them purchase new ships and space station technologies. They don''t use a Mecha Army and prefer an advanced infantry force with powered armor instead, so I have also included some improved armor designs for them to purchase at a discount after joining the alliance.]


    A membership discount? That might actually be the best selling point for a lot of their partners.


    [Alright, make sure it is all ready and staged when we get there.] Max ordered and returned to immersing himself in the data about their destination.


    Near midnight, Max retired to bed, barely bothering to dry himself after his evening shower before dropping into bed.


    He woke up in the morning curled around a soft and cool object that smelled faintly of military-issue shampoo and that unique odor that a mechanics bay always seemed to pick up.


    "Good morning Nico. Did you sleep well?" He asked, trying to disentangle himself.


    "Shut up and go back to sleep. It''s still far too early to be up, and there are no new updates for you to deal with," Nicoined, refusing to open her eyes.


    "It''s time for my morning workout. Are you getting up, or will you just hang off me all morning?" He joked, moving to a sitting position.


    "Have it your way. Come to the test bay after your workout. I have something cool to show you." Nico agreed, climbing out of bed and wandering next door to her own room to shower.

 Chapter 430 430 Cant Trade That

    Max trained for an hour, keeping up his physique, even though the gains had seriously slowed down due to ack of the extreme exertion that was needed to properly test himself at his current level of physical ability.


    If Nico said it was cool enough that he had to see it in person, Max woulde to check it out as soon as he finished his morning routine. The development team had a lot of new material to work with, and they could have developed almost anything in thest few weeks since meeting the hunters and receiving new technology.


    When he reached the developmentb, he was met by the sight of Nico happily petting some sort of Mobile Suit, only a little taller than she was. There were a number of other suits in theb, all in different sizes, and they appeared to be designed to mimic a soldier in Special Forces battle armor.


    There were also tables with an assortment of items that Max wasn''t able to identify, as well as racks of weapons.


    "Why don''t we start with the really cool thing first, and then we can work down to the little things? Or do we do that the other way around?" Nico asked while all theb technicians turned to look at the armor suits hanging on racks.


    "Start with the armor, even if it''s not the really cool thing. What''s so special about a new form of infantry armor?" Max asked.


    "This is no ordinary armor. It has been reverse-engineered from the Hunter Suits. It is a biomechanical suit designed to amplify the strength and agility of the wearer. It is a flexible armor and uses the wearer''s body as a base structure, but does have a lot of its own structural stability once it is equipped.


    Climb inside and see for yourself. They are skin tight, so go ahead and strip down, then pick number seven. It''s your size." Nico informed Max with a smirk.


    Max stripped to his skivvies and stepped into the suit, which fit like a onesie with a helmet and gloves, with the torso held together by the chest te that swung across his body and sealed to the back tes.


    Putting it on felt like any other Pilot Suit or set of protective armored coveralls, but once he put on the helmet, the suit activated and formed perfectly to his physique, giving him a feeling of weightlessness as it augmented his every movement.


    "The materials are incredible. It can triple the user''s inputs up to twenty times the human standard. That is how the Hunters control their Mecha, with a suit like this, so that therger Hunter Suit perfectly mimics their movements. I just integrated the two for a more powerful option on the human scale.


    Technicians, please put up the Line Mecha ting, old pattern."


    The workers scurried about, prepared for the order, and hung a familiar te ofposite armor on a stand, then rushed back to their waiting positions to watch the show.


    "Activate the energy barrier and punch the armor as hard as you can," Nico instructed Max, gesturing to the stand.


    The stand was slotted into the floor and wouldn''t copse even if a Crusader ss Mecha identally kicked it, so Max didn''t hold back at all, testing the speed augmentation tounch himself forward and drive a punch into the armor ting.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The shield over his fist glowed light blue at the impact as if absorbing a projectile shot, and a deep dent formed in the armor ting, leaving it wrinkled and with a clear fist mark in the center.


    "That is absolutely ridiculous." Max gasped, looking at the destruction.


    "With your strength, you are definitely close to maximum output, which will give your punch an impact force of around eighty thousand newtons, so if you have a handheld weapon, like a w, equipped, you should be able to punch holes in that armor te." One of the technicians exined before recing the te in case Max wanted to try again.


    "I will assume that you made such a weapon?" He asked.


    "What are you, silly? Of course, we did." Nicoughed, then threw Max a weapon that mounted to the armor''s forearm ting and had three extendable ws.


    The lead Technician spoke up as Max equipped the weapon to his armor. "Those ws contain their own energy field, the same as the one on your Mecha''s sword, only on a much smaller scale. Our testing shows that it should hold up indefinitely under the force that the suit is capable of exerting, though."


    Max hit the button, and a crackling red energy field surrounded the three des that extended from the weapon. He threw a simple, straight punch at the armor, and the ws sunk in until the energy field on his first stopped them and dented the te.


    With a downward twist, Max wrenched the ws out through the bottom of the te with a shriek of tortured metal.


    "Alright, I admit it. This armor is amazing. We can discuss why you thought we wanted to send infantry into a fistfight with Line Mecha and Klemter. What else do you have to show me today?" Max asked.


    "We have an assortment of firearms scaled to the suit, which I would like to mention, uses the biological energy packs, with a maximum operating duration of over a month without recharging. sma rifles, Disruptor Rifles, Ion Pistols, ws, abat knife, and finally, a handheld Gatling Laser." The Technician exined.


    The Gatling Laser was a six-barreled man-portable cannon that used a backpack-sized power pack and, ording to the attached data te, could fire over a thousand beams a minute, using the rotation of the "Barrels" and a liquid cooling system to keep the arrays cooled since each projector only had to fire one-sixth of the rounds.


    "And the intended mission for this weapon is what?" Max asked.


    "Urban pacification and peacekeeping," Nico replied proudly.


    Sure. If your urban area was being invaded by Narsians and you didn''t have Mecha or tanks.

 Chapter 431 431 Cant Trade That Either

    "What else did you develop? It can''t be all weapons, right?" Max asked.


    "Of course not. We didn''t start with the very coolest thing since you wanted to see the armor first.


    Meet the holowatch version one. It does all of the things you would expect of a standard smartwatch, with a holographic projector for videomunication and data gathering. Plus, we have managed to adapt a very basic version of the t space technology into the device. It has a one cubic meter storage space for rations, spare energy cells, and explosives." Nico introduced Max to the least assuming-looking device set out on the tables.


    Max picked it up with the surprisingly agile fingers of the suit''s gloves, which felt like he was using his own fingers, though a bit desensitized, and strapped the oversized device to his wrist over the armor.


    The device linked to his helmet controls, so he could control it by voice if he didn''t want to or couldn''t touch the screen. That was much more convenient while inside an armor suit, and Max wondered how to interact with the t Space Technology that the Hunters had introduced them to.


    "Just say t Space Open," Nico informed him.


    Themand opened a shimmering space over his arm, which Max found he could reach into, though there was nothing in it at the moment.


    "Here, we designed the entire Infantry Pack to fit in the space''s dimensions." A technician informed him, throwing Max a rack with various drawers and pieces of equipment slotted onto it.


    It wasn''t a bag. They were all essible from the outside so that he could grab anything out of the t space in an instant. Max put the crate away and then grabbed a pair of Ion Pistols out of the space before ordering it to close.


    "At the moment, only the one wearing it can open and close it, but anyone can grab the items in it if it is open. We haven''t managed to replicate that security feature yet, so there are some drawbacks to the first edition, but I think it will be more than sufficient to impress our soldiers." The Technician informed Max with a sigh.


    "I can''t see why anyone would be depressed about this. The device is an incredible improvement. I can see that there is at least a week''s worth of rations and what appears to be a water dispenser, as well as all the usual kit." Max replied.


    "It holds ten liters, but it has a dehumidifier function, so you can pull fresh water from atmospheric humidity on extended missions if the device is left deployed. It removes from the crate with a press of two buttons." The technician agreed.


    That wasn''t a bad start, and it weighed nothing at all. The perfect essory for daily wear.


    "Is there a version for casual use?" Max asked since this one was oversized for use over the armor.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Of course. We made five versions, including that one. There are two utilitarian versions for daily use, and two fashionable versions for formal asions. The cost might be a bit prohibitive at the moment on the general market, given the materials needed, but we can equip the entire Regiment with them if you want."


    "I also made a modified version for Technicians. It is a full forearm te with nine storage spaces included to store all your spare materials for repairs and resupply." Nico informed the group, who all looked ecstatic at the news.


    The device was huge and bulky, but it could be worn with the Tech Adept Harness to give them a supply of repair materials at all times. They could even carry reconnaissance drones and other small luxuries with them.


    "The total volume won''t change, but the shape of the space can be altered, so it is possible to keep your rucksack and hoverboard in the storage space of your casual device." Nico pointed out, showing the versatility of the technology for civilian use.


    "This technology might be a bit much to be sent out right away. But based on materials and energy requirements to produce it, what sort of market price are we looking at to sell them when the timees?" Max asked.


    "For the casual ones, without all the secure militarymunications features, and with only the basic holographic projection? Roughly fifty thousand credits." Nico shrugged.


    That was expensive, but not prohibitively so. It could very well be mass marketed as a luxury necessity for the wealthy.


    "Do we have a scanner that can detect what is hidden in the space? These could be a serious security risk." Max realized.


    "Not yet. We can detect the presence of the space but not the contents at the moment. The Hunters didn''t give us any clues on how to detect the space, so we have had to muddle through that on our own. Even now, if it is a foreign design, like theirs, our scanners won''t find it at all. Only the rudimentary version that we have made is wed enough to be detected with the sensors we have." The technician team exined.


    "Well, we can work on thatter. Is there anything else in this pile that is going to shock me into speechlessness, or just the watches?"


    The technicians chuckled at the thought that they might havee up with even more than just a new armor suit and the watches in the few weeks that they had been working. It was nearly a miracle that they had even managed to get a beta version of the watches ready under an hour ago for him to inspect. They had only made the breakthrough that allowed them to stabilize the spacest night.


    "No, Commander. I think that will be enough for one day. We did consider swapping the Pilot Suits for the new armor since it can increase mobility and dexterity. It would make even our D Rank Line Mecha Pilots perform more like elites. That was the project''s original purpose before we realized that it could be weaponized to let monsters like yourself take out light Mecha in hand-to-handbat." The lead Technician exined, embarrassment clear on his weathered face.

 Chapter 432 432 The First Trade Deal

    "Why don''t you go forward with the n to rece the Pilot suits, then? Using old-issue Kepler suits or random bits of gear, as the Reavers do, is working fine for everyone, but I think this will be a much-appreciated addition to our kit.


    Especially the watches.


    Once we have the whole Regiment upgraded and we have a few rounds ofbat testspleted, we can consider spreading them to arger audience. We certainly can''t do it until we are absolutely certain that there are no bugs, though. Even a minor w or glitch in the design would be a huge hit to our reputation." Max informed the design team.


    With cheers and a round of high fives for a side project going mainstream, they got back to work while Max went to change out of the armor.


    "Leave it on, but remove the helmet and gloves. That''s how most Pilots spend their days, so it''s a proper test." Nico suggested.


    Even with the helmet removed, the suit remained active and could still be adjusted and manipted with a small touchpad on the upper right arm. Most of the pilots and soldiers were right-handed, so the touchpad would be a bit awkward to use for them, but it would also not require them to put down their rifles to adjust the suit.


    Max could see that he could also ce his hand on the touchpad and voice control it when the helmet was off as well, so that was an option for times when you didn''t want to take your eyes off the target but needed to adjust or remove a piece of your armor.


    It might be a very rare urrence, but if you got hit with an incendiary round, it could save your life if you got out of the suit fast enough.


    "That''s fine. I am sure everyone will be excited to get a sneak preview of the new suits anyhow." Max agreed.


    The next task on his daily list was to patrol the ship and talk to whoever he came across, making sure that there were no issues being ignored and giving the Regiment a chance to make suggestions.


    Most of them in the Kepler Empire would be about the food, but with the Replicators, that wasn''t an issue aboard Terminus. Even if they didn''t like the food in their Battalion''s cafe, they could go to the Cruise Ship area for something different.


    The ship felt pretty empty right now, with only a few visitors. It was pretty much empty, to begin with, as the Innu teams weren''trge, nor was the Illithid contingent, but they were loud and excited enough that the cruise ship area at least felt upied.


    Hopefully, they would get more visitors soon, but that would rely on them sitting in one spot for a while so that the targeting scanners in the Alliance could lock onto them.


    There wasn''t much to report, the ship was in pristine condition, with excellent amenities, but he did hear from multiple people that the ship felt empty with their major entertainment venue not hosting any tourists, only the small team of nomads they had hired as engineers.


    They were no fun at all, ording to the Pilots. They were only interested in technology and rarely left the workshops andbs, even when they weren''t on duty.


    They were thest stop on his route, which would bring him back to the research bays where he was doing the testing earlier, so Max took some extra time to visit.


    "Wee back to the stream Tech Nomads and Nomadettes. We areing live to you from the Human Cruise Ship Terminus again, and we have a wonderful new invention to show you." One of the Innu was speaking into a camera as Max entered.


    "We have readied generation four of the Replicators. We call this the Colony Ship Generation of the design, as Terminus was originally a Colony Ship sent by the ancient Giants and abandoned here in this Gxy when it broke down.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Now, I am transmitting the technical specs in a digital substream. Don''t worry. Terminus has filed all the appropriate patents for a low royalty, free application patent, so you are free to build them yourselves if you like. The Royalty fee for this one is quite a bit more than usual, and we apologize, but it is set at the Alliance standard rate for replicator technology at fifty credits per unit produced.


    I am certain that it will be worth it to all of you creative inventors, though. This design isn''t based off of anything that hase before, and not even the Alliance''s domestic units are this capable.


    I know, big words, so here goes. Input mass is the standard biomass slurry, as you can see on the feed sensors, and output is . . . That''s right, living seedlings!


    How is that for development? Using human technologybined with Innu ingenuity, we have made a mass-producible live nt seeding unit for your own home. Do you want rare housents? You''ve got them. The freshest of produce, with that homegrown vor you can''t get from a generic replicator product? Just nt them in advance and let them finish in your garden.


    For those of you on low-densitys, you can make the perfect garden with only the biomass from your food waste."


    The Innu stopped when she noticed Max standing by the door and waved him over.


    "Wee Commander Keres, the leader of the Terminus Trading Company, who owns the patent for this amazing product. As you can see, he is wearing the hostile environment version of the newly developed explorer''s suits, avable for your own production in our recent uploads, with a very reasonable royalty fee.


    Commander, this is the first time you have seen the Colony Ship Generation replicators. What do you think?"


    Max chuckled at her enthusiasm and gave her a very serious-looking warning look. "I think you will be fending off marriage proposals from the hydroponics bay team when they find out."


    That made the rest of the Tech Nomads burst intoughter, and they led Max off-camera while the broadcaster finished her exnation of the new design.


    "I am d you like it. Since we''re employed by Terminus Trading Company, these design patents belong to thepany, but the stream has been doing unexpectedly well, which makes up for the revenue splitting. What we wanted to talk to you about was the chances of a performance bonus to get some extra allocations of resources so we can speed up the renovation of our ship.


    We have seen your new warp drive designs, and they make ours look like relics, not to mention that they have almost a million hours on them already." The leader of the Tech Nomads suggested.


    The crystals to rebuild a warp drive were a restricted item in the Alliance due to their propensity to explode if misaligned, so they were prohibitively expensive for vagrant inventors like the Tech Nomads, which led to things like millions of hours of travel without a rebuild.


    "Are you nning to leave us so soon, or are you doing a renovation video series?" Max asked.


    "Renovation Series! They get so many views from our fellow Nomads." The Innu replied in unison.


    "Besides, our contract says that on top of materials at cost, we get ten percent of the revenue from patents we assist with while employed here, paid quarterly, and the Colony Ship Replicators have gotten five million paid downloads already, despite the high cost. It might cost half a billion to rebuild a warp drive at a shop, but I think we can do it much cheaper using Human methods and some tweaking." The leader whispered to Max to keep sensitive ears on the stream from possibly picking up even a trace of her voice through the door to theb.

 Chapter 433 433 Arrival

    After Max finished his talk with the Innu Nomads, he returned to his office to get ready for the meetings. This time he wouldn''t switch into the mboyant Reaver Garb or the usual Mobile Suit. Instead, he would remain in the new augmentic bodysuit, which appeared slightly less armored, but was, in fact, much more powerful and durable than the old armors were.


    [Commander, we have a message from Klux. They wee us to their star system and repeat their request for us to dock at the end of the station, stating it is the only locationrge enough for a vessel our size.] Admiral Drake informed him.


    [Excellent timing. Alert the security team that is on duty to meet Nico and me in the cargo bay.] Max informed him and turned to leave his office.


    The suit really did look a bit in, Max thought, so he had the ensuite materials printer make him an oversized coat, a full-length trenchcoat in ck leather with gold spikes and buttons, then slipped it over the armor.


    That was much better. Very post-apocalyptic warlord whenbined with the new pattern of body armor.


    Being a Reaver Commander, he had appearances to maintain, so he ced the helmet in the t space storage of his new watch, then had the replicator make a sk of Rum and a bowl of assorted candies, cing them in the space along with his helmet.


    It was strange how things stayed exactly where he ced them, not settling to the bottom or being affected by his own movement, but it was certainly convenient. This way, he could keep the full armor suit with him at all times in case he happened to need it in a hurry.


    That gave him another great idea. If they could make dog tags with the t space technology, every soldier could have backup storage for gear that they never needed to take off. Most Pilots, himself included, hadn''t taken them off since they entered the academy. There simply wasn''t any reason to.


    When Max arrived at the bay, Nico was waiting, and the security team was on their way. They had five minutes until they docked at the Klux station, so he took the time to exin his idea about convenient storage inside dog tags to Nico, who was overseeing new product development.


    "I don''t see why not. They would need to be half a centimeter thick since that''s the best that we can do for miniaturization for now, but that isn''t too excessive, and many of the Pilots already put a rubber trim ring on them for decoration." Nico replied after a moment''s thought.


    That was still fairly heavy andrge for a tag, but hanging from a chain around your neck, under your uniform, seemed like the best ce to keep a storage device, in Max''s opinion.


    Terminus shuddered slightly as it came to a stop, the effect only noticeable because they were at the outer edge of the ship next to the bay door, which transmitted the vibration and noise directly to them.


    [Docking sessful. Atmosphere bnced. Station checks clean ofmunicable diseases. Preparing to open bay doors.] Admiral Drake reported.


    The barrier over the door didn''t lower when the doors opened, meaning that there would be no atmospheric mixing between the station and the ship, but the safety precautions were standard procedure, and a rapid change in pressure could cause significant damage to the human body.


    "Commander Keres, Lady Tarith. My name is Joseph. First Among Equals here in Klux. It is a pleasure to receive you in our small system." The burly man on the station side of the barrier greeted them.


    "The pleasure is all ours, Lord Joseph. Please do enter. The barrier will not stop you." Nico greeted him politely.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The man seemed a bit shocked as he passed through the barrier, leaving behind a wisp of dust and dirt off his clothing as the barrier skimmed the contaminants off him the same as it would any vessel or other object that entered Terminus.


    His military uniform was rather in but with the markings of a General, and the entourage behind him wore nearly identical uniforms but with less impressive hats.


    "I am surprised that the Reavers thought of us for a Trade Alliance. As we all know, the Klux system doesn''t export much of extreme value. We have been cut off from ship manufacturing for many years, so our ess to repair parts for the asteroid mining facilities is limited, and our primary industry is farming." Lord Joseph said once his team was on board and then settled into one of the two luxurious recliners prepared for his team.


    It appeared that he didn''t bring a second inmand at all and simply came himself, as theary Governor, to do the negotiations.


    "That is part of what makes you perfect for an early entry into the Alliance. Youck the technology that we have, as well as ess to open trade that would help your people increase productivity beyond subsistence.


    Klux is admittedly not a military power, but you are also not an aggressive force, and the cornerstone of our deal is a non-aggression and mutual defense agreement. The more humans that we can ally with, the more peaceful we can make our portion of space, with the goal to stop interster wars between humans." Nico exined.


    "So, you want to create one nation?" Lord Joseph asked dubiously.


    "Not at all. That never works. We want to make onerge trade alliance with thousands of member nations who don''t fight each other. The Reavers have no intention of governing anyone. We just want everyone working together, so we can trade in peace and deal with outside threats in a unified manner." Nico informed him.


    "So, it''s not part of what the Cygnus Empire is up to now that the Kepler Empire has fallen?" He asked.


    "They intend to join the alliance once they have settled the situation with their neighbors. Obviously, they aren''t qualified quite yet, given the current violence, but they have agreed in principle to join once their more violent neighbors are brought under control."


    That made sense to the leader, but he still had a lot more questions. Joining an alliance led by the species'' most notorious rogue merchants wasn''t a spur-of-the-moment decision that he would make on behalf of his.


    "Why don''t we start by showing you the basic technologies that we intend to trade to every member of the alliance in order to improve their living conditions?" Nico suggested.


    Every eye in the Klux team lit up at that suggestion. Being shown the highest level of technology during the very first hour of their meetings was a good sign that the Reavers really meant what they said and that they would not be withdrawing their offer due to the nation''s low status or outside pressure.


    "That would be a wee diversion. I have heard that the Reavers are trading a materials printer technology to their proposed members. Do you have a sample here with you?" Lord Joseph asked.


    "More than a sample. We have units here to trade, and we may be able to offer you one as a signing bonus should you agree to the terms of the Trade Alliance."

 Chapter 434 434 Shocking The Klux

    Max gestured to the security team, and they brought out one of the new pattern materials printers, then opened the bay doors to the next bay, where arge cargo shuttle in the same organic styling as Terminus and the Cutters was waiting.


    "The Materials Printer is something that we are offering to every nation in the alliance as the basis for their own advancement. With enough of them, there will no longer be a need to do all of your construction manually. You will be able to create advanced materials andponents with the printer and then simply have your people assemble them.


    However, the cargo shuttle was made here aboard Terminus, especially for the people of Klux. It has a decent cargo capacity, but more importantly, it has an extremely strong gravity beam. It can easily drag asteroids toorge for the Station to process back to you for deconstruction.


    Youck ship-building technology, but the Reavers do not. So, we will offer this cargo shuttle to you as a sign of goodwill. It doesn''t have a warp drive, but for work inside your system, there is no better technology avable to humanity." Nico informed the Klux delegation proudly.


    "Seriously? You will just give us one of your shuttles?" Lord Joseph asked in amazement.


    "Not one of ours. That one. Terminus is a Colony Ship adapted for the specific use of the Terminus Trading Company, which includes limited manufacturing facilities. It was designed and built right here on our vessel, specifically for you." Nico informed theary leader.


    The entire Klux delegation simply stared at her and Max in shock, unable to believe that the Reavers were so far ahead of them in technology that they could simply build a space vessel on the bleeding edge of technology aboard some random trade vessel, even if it were a former Colony Ship.


    "May we examine it?" One of the women in the delegation asked, taking out a simple scanning device.


    "Of course. Would you like to pause the negotiations for a tour and exnation? This seems like the perfect time for it." Nico suggested.


    "That would be greatly appreciated. By the way, what is that sitting beside the Materials Printer? I don''t believe that we got to its description." Lord Joseph asked.


    "Ah, the finest of our offerings for our new allies. The Replicator. It has the ability to turn generic biomass, like bulk crops or even food scraps, into a variety ofplete meals.


    It has be a staple of the kitchens aboard Terminus, as we can have it make anything on an entire menu in an instant out of hydroponically grown algae sludge. It is the fastest growing biomatter supply that we could find, but you can use anything your specializes in."


    That stopped the delegates who were moving toward the shuttle in their tracks. Such a device was beyond belief. The conditions on Klux were harsh, and even with extensive engineering of their crops, and the devotion of the majority of their revenue to farm technology, they still struggled to grow a surplus.


    But algae could be grown abundantly in any body of water, and it didn''t need to be edible or appetizing if this device could make it into other food products.


    "Why don''t we check the ship first, and then we will make lunch with the Replicator, and everyone can sample its output potential?" Max suggested, speaking for the first time in this meeting.


    "Yes, of course, Commander Keres. I look forward to trying the sort of ration pack that would appeal to a man of your stature." Lord Joseph agreed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    His sycophantic tone annoyed Max, but that was unavoidable. Reaver Commanders who controlled a Colony Ship were equally ranked withary Governors on the social hierarchy, and some could generate revenuerger than a small''s GDP by trading precious materials. More importantly, they also controlled a Mecha force that could challenge systems like Klux without even calling for reinforcements.


    It was just a fact of life that weak nations would be walked over in negotiations, and Lord Joseph knew that very well. That was part of why the Reavers didn''t have their Commanders lead such meetings, even though they were present. A representative could be bargained with. The man with the biggest guns was much harder to deal with.


    Nico led the team to the Shuttle, exining the features as they walked, which impressed the scientists among the Klux team.


    "Tell me, Lady Tarith. Are you also interested in the fields of advanced technology?" One of the representatives asked as Nico started getting into deeper details.


    "Very much so. In fact, this particr ship is my own design. Klux produces mostly food crops, so the cargo hold was designed for bulk crops to be easily loaded and unloaded, including a rotational gravity control, which can pour out the entire contents of the bay without any human intervention. But the systemcks raw materials for manufacturing, as the itself is very low in metals, so I upgraded the gravity beam to bring asteroids to your station." Nico told him.


    The man was nearly in tears of joy at her thoughtfulness, and even Lord Joseph was staring open-mouthed at the little cyborg.


    "You really did go all out to prepare for the meeting. It almost feels like we are negotiating on equal footing for the first time in my career." The Lord chuckled.


    "That''s how it is when you are dealing with Reavers. Every customer is important, and with the new alliance, soon many small systems will be on equal footing and share the same trade terms, so you won''t have to worry about merchant vessels gouging you simply because they can."


    The trade minister, who had a beam scale pin on his uniform hat, looked startled. "How do you propose that the Reavers will take over the trade routes?"


    "That''s going to be the easy part. We have developed a new generation of trade ships. They are much smaller than Terminus here, but they are on par with the Cutters that we carry, able to move a hundred thousand tonnes of bulk goods at Warp 10. As Warp factors are exponential, they can make the trip across the human-controlled territory in a matter of days instead of months.


    Who else couldpete with that level of speed for long-distance trade? No more will you have to wait months to receive products you have ordered from farther-flung destinations, and with the time saved, the cargo rates will lower somewhat for long voyages, as you are only tying up the vessel for a few days, not for months."


    Nobody seemed to have a response to that. The thought that the Reavers would be able to move cargo at Warp 10 was so far beyond reason and logic that the Klux delegation couldn''t process the news at all.


    "Why don''t we put the tour off for a bit and have lunch? It seems that this is a lot to take in, and it will be easier to digest the news over a nice meal. We will bring in the wait staff now, and you can watch as they make your orders with the Replicator. The menus are already on the table." Nico suggested, leading Lord Joseph to a table in the back of the cargo hold, which had been prepared for the purpose.


    "Yes. That would be good. Do you perhaps have any Rum? I think I need a drink."

 Chapter 435 435 This Is Artificial?

    Lord Joseph''s question made all of the staff from Terminusugh. This is a Reaver ship. How could we not have Rum? Putting aside the fact that we have replicators, just think of where you are.


    "Of course we do," Max told him, taking the sk he had created out of the t space and taking a sip before passing it over.


    The tradition was one of trust, showing your guest that the bottle wasn''t poisoned, but from the look on theary leader''s face, it wasn''t necessary. He simply needed the drink as soon as possible in hopes that it would help his brain recover from the shock that he had received.


    Joseph finished the sk of Rum in one long swallow, then epted the staff''s lead to his seat at the round table they had prepared for lunch.


    "That is a fine Rum. Where did you get it?" He asked curiously, staring at the empty sk, which was made out of some sort of stic he didn''t recognize.


    "It is from the Replicator, as is the sk. That is why it is stic and not metal. The replicators only make organic matter, so nt-based polymers are the basis for all dishes and containers it creates.


    You can ce your own in the machine and let it create food on top of them if you like. That is what our kitchens do because it saves on waste and energy usage.


    You can keep that sk if you like. The replicator can make more with only a few seconds'' wait." Max exined.


    "So, everything that you are serving at this meal is artificial?" One of the staffers from Klux asked.


    "Rbined, yes. Everything here was made on board Terminus, from the meal to the dishes and even the table that we are sitting at, which was created with the Materials Printer." Nico informed him.


    That startled the delegation, but a secondter, the dishes starteding out. Nico had picked what she called a surf and turf dinner. Steak and Lobster with an assortment of sides on a huge tter were ced in front of every dignitary seated at the table, filling the air with a delectable aroma that was making the Klux officers'' mouths water.


    Everything was in limited quantities on the, and there weren''t many species of domestic animals that could survive the''s conditions, so while they regrly ate fish, the steak was a rare delicacy.


    "Eat up, please. This is all from the replicator, so with moderate energy usage, you can make meals like this out of any sort of base biomatter that you can provide. I think that it will be a big hit on the, even if your first order is only enough for a few locations." Nico suggested.


    "Does it also make in sorts of dishes? The tastes of most citizens of Klux tend toward the very basic, thanks to thousands of years of cultural development." One of the officers asked.


    "We could have made it a simple meatloaf and mashed potatoes with steamed vegetables if that is your preference. We even have a variation that uses oatmeal as a filler in the meatloaf because it reminded one of our technicians of the way his mother made it at home." Nico told him with a chuckle.


    That made all of the Klux officers smile. They did the same thing because the meat was expensive, and their government officials had an image to maintain. Luxurious meals, while the general poption was on simple rations during lean years, wouldn''t go over well with their egalitarian ideology.


    Max nodded to the staff, who made the three simple dishes they had nned to suggest for just this reason. Meatloaf, shepherd''s pie, and a te of samosas. Thest one was a bit spicy but still simple enough to make and vegetarian, which the locals would more likely be used to.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Corporal working as a waiter, ced them in the middle of the table, and Nico pointed with her fork. "Feel free to sample them. We can adjust the recipes if they aren''t to your tastes."


    All of the units sold would have protective software in them that would prevent tampering and alterations so that Alliance members didn''t start pumping out inferior knockoffs and damaging the reputation of the Reavers who had distributed the Replicators.


    That did mean that they weren''t easily user serviceable, but the Reavers would be happy to honor the warranty and rece them should one of them malfunction. It didn''t take them much to make them anyhow.


    Each of the dignitaries sampled the three new dishes on the table, looking pleased with the offering, and giving envious looks toward the Replicator.


    "Can it do bulk orders? The tradition here ismunal meals, so stew in ten-gallon pots would be more convenient than these lovely individual dishes." The Minister of Agriculture asked while he eyed the Samosas with greed.


    "Yes, ten gallons at a time isn''t an issue. You can even use your existing pots. The replicator even has the advantage of creating the meal at temperature, so nothing will get cooked to the bottom of the pot, or you can use it to create raw ingredients for your staff to cook in the traditional manner if that is your preference."


    The Minister nodded. "That will definitely help with eptance. We can feed the machine ground grasses and algae, as you do, and have it produce whatever we are short on until we have generated the funds to make them more mainstream. Then we can slowly switch to using them for everything.


    But with the new shuttle and the Materials Printer, it shouldn''t take us long to turn things around. No more than a year or two if we can get trade vessels here."


    "I am d you see things our way. You will find that the Materials Printer is very versatile, and as you can see, this one is industrial scale, capable of recing an entire assembly line.


    We can offer you this one as a bonus, as well as the first Replicator, and then we can sell you even more before we leave if you want to fully outfit the space station."


    That caught their attention.


    "So, we could have an industrial station, on par with the first-tier nations, starting today? We could start selling the dishware that our was famous for on arge scale again. When we still got regr trading ships, it was the major export of the, and the hand-painted porcin went for very good prices." Lord Joseph announced.


    Max looked up the dishware that they were talking about and found that it came in two varieties, one was a delicate porcin with hand-painted designs on it, and the other was a meteoritic alloy version with an enameled surface, which was well-known among themoners of others as being virtually indestructible.


    Max waited while the Ministers all shared appreciative nods about the proposal. It only took them a few minutes toe to a consensus before Lord Joseph turned to Nico with a smile on his face.


    "Let''s see that Trade Agreement. Klux would like to be a signatory to your Alliance, even if it means we need to send men to war to keep the peace."

 Chapter 436 436 Signed And Sealed

    The Klux delegation had already been given time to go over the agreement before Terminus arrived. They weren''t asking for any modifications, so this signing process was more of a formality than a negotiation. They weren''t in a position of power to be demanding more and were honestly ttered that the Reavers would even consider letting them join such a Trade Alliance.


    The official document was ced on the table after the meticulously cleaned tes were gone. Lord Joseph didn''t waste any time verifying that it was the same as the digital copy he had received, then signing.


    The document was then scanned and uploaded, letting all the Reavers know that Klux was now a member of the Trade Alliance, along with an attached note that they would soon have high-end and highly durablemon-grade dishes for trade, as they had in the past.


    That got positive attention from both Cygnus and the Kepler Free Territory, both of whom had a lot of rebuilding to do inside their territories after the recent battles. Suchmon things as dishware might not seem like much, but when you were struggling for resources to rebuild critical infrastructure, being able to bring your citizens the necessities from a foreign location was a great benefit.


    "Let''s go over and show you the details of the Materials Printer. This one has been modified for the particr way that Klux prefers to do their manufacturing, with each process overseen by a separate human instead of having everything automated.


    Of course, that is still an option, but the twenty-station quality control design is unique to the units we have made for your." Nico exined.


    Lord Joseph admired the machine from every possible angle, then looked at the small pile of meteoritic ore sitting nearby for the purposes of demonstrations.


    "May I? I have the design ns for the hardened dishes, assuming that this unit ispatible with the Mark 2 Constructors Files?" He asked.


    That machine was obsolete by nearly three thousand years, and wasn''t even a Materials Printer. It was an automated forge. But the files were so simple that the Materials Printer could analyze and transform them in a matter of seconds.


    ? "Please input them into the main console, and the machine will convert them into modern formats for Materials Printers," Nico said with a grand gesture while Max signaled for Ore to be moved to the feed input side of the Materials Printer.


    As expected, the process was quick and simple, and the printer extrapted the desired material from the raw ore that was provided. Unlike the old version, which was painted with hard enamel, the Materials Printer would simply color and coat the outeryer of these ones, leaving a surface no softer than steel.


    It could make a separate enamel coating to be applied on top, but it was simpler to save the step and form it at the same time.


    Fifteen seconds after the data was input, the machine began to glow with energy, and the safety railings blocked the area where the work would take ce. A minute after that, thousands of sets of dishes sat neatly on the floor, waiting to be boxed for shipment.


    "It seems that we forgot to input data to put them in boxes. But that''s a small oversight. Check them out and let us know if you find any quality issues with our products." Nico shrugged, seeing the dishes sitting on the floor.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "A small issue is no issue at all. If they were boxed, we would have to take them out to quality-check them before shipment. This way, we can box them on our own and ship them out. Is this the limit, or just the amount of material that you had on hand?" Lord Joseph asked.


    "Just the amount of avable material. The Materials Printer can make entire armor pieces for Super Heavy Mecha if it is programmed with the data, and they weigh dozens of tonnes each." Nico exined.


    That impressed the delegation enough that they didn''t have any more questions, except about the actual dishes that it had created. They appeared to be exactly the same as the ones from the original ns, but the method of creation was so different that they had a hard time believing that it wasn''t a trick.


    Eventually, they resorted to using an energy knife and cutting one of each dish apart to check the cross-section, finding that they did indeed meet quality control standards and weren''t just an imitation that looked simr.


    "At the price listed, we have enough spare funds to purchase six more units of the Materials Printers toplete the manufacturing lines of our Space Station, as well as one hundred units of the Replicators to go to the busiest locations in each city on the.


    How long will it take to have those delivered?" Lord Joseph asked.


    That was a slightlyrger order of Replicators than Max had expected since he had thought that they would be more resistant to the technology, given their very structured culture, but Nico was ready for the request.


    "We have the Printers ready now, and we can have the Replicators ready tonight. If you would like to make the credit transfer, we can unload the Materials Printers now and load the Replicators in your new shuttle when they are ready tonight. It is fully capable of repeated atmospheric entries without damage."


    "Yes, that would be perfect. I will send a Piloting Crew here for instructions on the controls and navigation equipment since ours is a bit antiquated, so their training might not be sufficient, and we will begin assembling the Materials Printers right away.


    That will take some time anyhow, as we need to disassemble the old production lines to install them, but we should be able to have it all ready in the morning for the first shift."


    The Lord was certainly ambitious. They had just signed the deal, and he was nning to have the factory online the next morning with entirely new technology. Max put that down to enthusiasm until Nico shared an iing message to the with him. Cygnus had ced an order for over a million units to be sent to one of thes that they had just taken under their wing.


    The damage to the must have been fairly severe, or the Cygnus Lords were looking to make a closer tie with Klux, which was going to be near their new borders when everything was settled.


    Either way, it wasn''t Max''s problem. They had made their deal, and it was time to move on to the next system once the delivery was finished.

 Chapter 437 437 Holy Truth

    "I should return to the surface and give my people the good news. Being part of a Trade Alliance is a big deal to them since it will increase our revenue for the''s services. Even before we introduce them to the new technologies, this day is a cause for celebration on Klux." Lord Joseph dered, then stood up and straightened his uniform.


    "I am certain that the revtions of the day have been hard on the constitution. If you would like to return to the surface and inform your people, just leaving behind the trainees to learn to pilot the shuttle will be sufficient. We will make the delivery in the morning." Nico agreed, also rising to her feet to bid farewell to their new Alliance members.


    "Thank you for your hospitality then, and we will be looking forward to the arrival of the Replicators. The first of them will go to the cafeteria of the government building so that all workers and petitioners can enjoy the benefits of our new Alliance equally.


    I think they will be pleasantly surprised to find out the capabilities of the Reavers and the true benefits of joining with them." Lord Joseph announced.


    He was about to continue when a beeping noise from his watch interrupted him. [Iing Vessel. Holy Truth Warship, Cruiser ss.]


    Lord Joseph sighed and looked sad for a second before standing a bit straighter and beginning to issue orders.


    "We have a mole in the administration. Find them. Every member of the delegation will have their transmission logs checked." he announced, just as another announcement was broadcast throughout Terminus.


    [Terminus Trading Company. This is Cardinal Red of the Holy Truth. You have vited the embargo of the Klux system. Please stand down and prepare to have your vessel boarded.]


    Nico and Max both burst intoughter at that pompous deration. The Holy Truth nation might not know it yet, but they were the final system that Cygnus was intending to annex now that the Kepler defenses had eliminated their war fleet. Not only that, but Terminus carried five fully equipped Cutters, which were more than a match for a single cruiser, even without deploying the Mecha contained within.


    "It looks like the Trade Alliance needs to earn its keep on the very first day. Don''t worry about those idiots. They won''t have a system by the end of the month. We just need to keep them busy until Cygnus shows up.


    You likely already know that most of their fleet went to fight in Kepler, but what you might not know is that the two most powerful Mecha in the Kepler arsenal were activated by the defenders, and the foreign fleets that were attacking have been eliminated.


    None of their war vessels areing back. They couldn''t enforce a blockade even if they wanted to." Max exined to Lord Joseph, who was preparing his men for battle.


    "So, you really will stand and fight for the Trade Alliance, even with a Colony Ship?" Lord Joseph asked curiously.


    ? "Terminus is much more than a Colony Ship these days. She carries an entire Mecha Regiment and has been renovated to be one of the finest cruise ships in the gxy while keeping the majority of her cargo capacity." Max informed him with pride.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Lord seemed a bit confused about why they would have turned a Reaver vessel into a cruise ship, but the fact that they had a Mecha Regiment aboard was more than enough to calm his nerves.


    Klux might not have a Mecha army, but if Terminus did, they wouldn''t have any problems at all dealing with the Holy Truth Cruiser.


    [All hands to battle stations, hostile vessel iing. Prepare tounch the Cutters.]


    Nico''s voice over the inte caused a wave of activity through the ship, and within three minutes, Max had received the first message that the Cutters were loaded and ready to go. That just might be a new record for the Regiment, but some of it was a coincidence since the majority of the ship had been on standby anyhow, in case the trade negotiations didn''t go well.


    [Launch the Cutters, hold your fire until mymand] Max ordered, then began a transmission to the Holy Truth Cruiser.


    [Cardinal Red, this is Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company. Cease your hostile actions at once, or prepare to face return fire. Klux has be a member of the Reaver Trade Alliance as of today and is entitled to invoke the mutual defense uses within said agreement.]


    The Holy Truth vessel did not take that well and began to fire on the Klux space station, which was unfortunately on the far side of Terminus itself. It was obvious that they were intending to disable the''s ability to do any space-based trade by destroying the dpidated station entirely, but the shields of the Colony Ship extended far enough from her hull that they absorbed the entire volley.


    [This is an open broadcast. As of this moment, the Holy Truth has opened fire on the Terminus Trading Company and dered war on the Reavers.] Nico sent out over the open airwaves with a hint of amusement in her voice.


    [Open fire.] Max ordered at the same time.


    Five Orbital Lances from five Cutters hit the Cruiser''s shields in the exact same instant, overloading the ship''s power source and copsing the shields.


    They had reduced the power enough that the ship wasn''t outright destroyed, but onence did get through the ship''s armor ting and disabled their Warp Drives permanently. That was no ident. Even an outdated warship like the one the Holy Truth had sent was an extremely valuablemodity, which could be captured and repurposed by the Reavers using their new technology.


    They only had to clear the old crew out of it and call for a barge or otherrge ship to haul it back to Rae 5 for a refit.


    "Lord Joseph, do you perhaps have a boarding vessel? We find ourselves short on infantry, and the aggressors need to be removed from the Terminus Trading Company''s new Cruiser. Alive would be more humane, and we do hope to avoid further damaging our new ship." Nico asked politely.

 Chapter 438 438 Night Shift

    "I certainly do have boarding vessels. Quite a few of them, in fact. We onlyck interster capabilities due to the embargo and repeated attacks. If your Cutters can deploy their light Mecha to establish a breach head, we can be there in five minutes." Lord Joseph announced.


    He had already called all of the defenders aboard the station to arms, and they could be aboard the shuttles used for hostile boarding maneuvers in under a minute.


    They weren''t advanced, but they didn''t have to be. Their only purpose was to ram an enemy ship, then use a circrser array to cut a hole in the hull that would let their upants board the enemy vessel. They were just as disposable as Landers, and it was assumed that there would be losses every time they were deployed, so they weren''t fancy vessels in any way.


    That said, Klux stillcked the facilities to efficiently rece them or hadcked them up until a few hours ago when the Materials Printers arrived, with the ability to build an entire boarding shuttle in under a day.


    [Fourth and Fifth Battalions, you are up. Get us a bay door open on that Cruiser and prepare a path for thending parties from Klux.] Max ordered.


    They could easily destroy the vessel with their firepower, but it was disabled and unlikely to get the power back online anytime soon, so it was much more beneficial to simply take the entire ship away from the Holy Truth force.


    The Battalions spread out through space while the Inferno Pattern Crusaders flew forward with their thruster packs. They used their Disintegrators to st out the outer doors of a dozen human-sized airlocks, which the boarding vessels wouldtch onto, saving them the time of cutting through the hull, and then one of the Super Heavy Mecha removed its Ion Bombard Arrays to allow it to use its powerful hands to open a main bay door.


    A single st from the defensive Lasers was enough to cut handholds in the door, and the twenty-meter-tall Mecha forced the doors wide, revealing an empty hangar where the defensive Mecha should have been stored.


    Colonel Klinger had been expecting heavy defensive fire the moment that he forced the door open, but instead, he found that they didn''t even have the usual Company of Light Mecha that every Cruiser should be carrying.


    [All forces be aware, no Mecha were found in the hangars. They might have already been deployed throughout the vessel.] The Colonel informed his forces, then ordered the Line Mecha and Corvettes forward to attack.


    They were the only ones that could possibly move through the hallways of a warship, and even that was a challenge for the older patterns. The new ones were more slender and agile, able to pass through the bulkhead doors that were designed to slow attacking Mecha that wanted to use routes other than the main halls, which wererger to allow cargo to be transported throughout the vessel.


    [Breaching Crews are deploying now. Estimated casualties, under twenty percent.] The Klux space station''s inte announced happily, causing all of the Reavers to give the Lord and his retinue a disturbed look.


    "What? That''s actually pretty good for a breaching crew. A lot of the time, we lose over half of them before they even make it to the vessel."


    He defended his military''s calctions with a firm voice, but he had entirely missed the fact that the Reavers were disturbed by the fact that he still expected to lose a fifth of his troops, despite the enemy not having power aboard their ship, and a friendly Mecha force being present to reinforce them.


    Even Kepler Generals didn''t view infantry as that expendable.


    The forcefully opened airlock doors were pulled closed again after the Light Mecha were aboard the Cruiser, limiting the atmospheric loss so that the infantry supporting them wasn''t killed by the change in pressure. Then the interior airlock doors between the empty hangar and the ship were opened, revealing a dark and cavernous main hall that ran the length of the ship.


    Normally, they would have expected to meet arge infantry defense force at this point, along with the defense Mecha, but instead, they held their fire, illuminating the length of the vessel with their spotlights.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Sir, we have no hostile contact. The defense force is not in ce.] The leader of the Light Mecha squad announced with a hint of confusion.


    Their primary job is to take and hold the half dozen main corridors on the Cruiser. If they don''t find anyone, what did they evene here for?


    [Search for traps and proceed. They might not have been expecting the hostile response.] Colonel Klinger ordered.


    Max was reviewing the scans of the vessel, which showed plenty of life forms aboard, but no energy activity. The Cruiser certainly had defenders, but for some reason, it had not sent them out. There was some hope that they would surrender without a fight, but that seemed a bit unrealistic to Max.


    Nobody ever surrendered without a fight.


    "Nico, send drones and see what you can find through the ports," Max ordered, wondering if the power outage was so severe that the ship had been unable to get orders ryed to the defense teams.


    If that were the case, they would realize that something was seriously wrong, other than the power outage, in a few minutes and would follow their training to organize and defend the vessel.


    "On it, Boss." Nico agreed, and Max saw the video feeds of a pair of drones joining the data that wasing in from the Mecha.


    This new watch was amazing. Even without his helmet on, the holographic disy could make dozens of screens, showing him all the information that he needed and even emting the screenyout inside his cockpit for ease of use.


    "Did I say to make these watches standard issue yet? If I didn''t, do it as soon as you can produce them." Max whispered to Nico as he watched the drones begin searching through windows for signs of activity.


    "Found it. I know why they''re not responding." Nico gloated, then sent a video feed to Max''s disy.


    It was the bridge of the Cruiser, where a dozen people were just beginning to regain consciousness while floating in the dark.


    "The power surge knocked out the gravity before the shields broke and stopped the ship. I can see the blood stains on the window where someone''s face hit it. I don''t think they have taken many casualties, but they haven''t given any orders to the defenders." Nico informed him, then ryed the report to the Klux breaching teams, who were using maic boots in ce of fancy technology to keep their feet on the ground.


    "We understand. Special Forces are on their way to secure the bridge now, and we are prepared for counterattacks." The breaching team''s leader reported.


    [All Main Hallways are secure. Preparing for enemy engagement.] The Light Mecha teams reported secondster, having set up their full defensive coverage grid.


    There were still secondarydders, but the main stairwells and the empty elevator tubes were all in the main hallways, giving them basic control of movement on the ship on all levels. It was only a matter of time before the Holy Truth crew realized that they had lost the vessel.

 Chapter 439 439 More Presents?

    While the Mecha secured the hallways, the Klux breaching teams were not idle. They had stormed the staging areas for infantry, the crew bunks, and the engineering bay during the first wave, and the second was well on their way to sweeping the main floor that they had entered from.


    Sporadic screaming and the repeated shing of Laser Rifles said that the breaching team might not be taking the directive to capture the enemy sailors very seriously, but they had brought multiple groups of prisoners to the mecha staging points for supervision within the first ten minutes.


    That was a long time for a boarding action, in Max''s opinion, but the top-floor st doors were still secure, and the Command Staff was securely locked on the bridge. Max didn''t know enough about the design of their ship to be able to tell if they stood a chance of getting power back online from there, and theputer system had no schematics on the uniquely cathedral-shaped vessel, so the most he could do was wait.


    "This is taking too long. Request to manually extract the Holy Truth Command Squad." Nico asked Max very formally, with a professional smile not quite masking the bloodlust in her mechanical eyes.


    "Does this n involve taking Shattered Pride and kicking in the windows of theirmand bridge to pull them out into the vacuum of space?" Max asked suspiciously.


    "I am d we are on the same page, Commander. Can I take that as permission granted?"


    Max ced one hand on each of Nico''s shoulders, then grabbed her and moved her back to a chair at the table.


    "Sit. Stay. Don''t space the Command staff unless the Klux team fails to gain entry. I can see right here on the cameras that they don''t have protective suits on, despite the situation. If you kicked the windows out, you would just kill them all, and we can do that with a drone." Max informed her with a grin.


    [Second Holy Truth Cruiser iing] Admiral Drake informed them, and Max sighed while Nico gave herself a congrattory fist pump.


    "Alright, you can deploy. The Cutters will disable the Cruiser after they refuse to stand down, and then you can go to work." Max agreed.


    Nico looked a bit crestfallen at the news, and Max realized that she had intercepted the iing Cruiser''s signals and was hoping to get free reign to mangle the iing ship by virtue of proximity.


    [Iing Holy Truth Vessel, be aware that your nation has attacked the Terminus Trading Company, and we are currently in the process of collecting reparations. Please stand down and leave the system to avoid further hostilities.] Max informed the Holy Truth Captain.


    [This is Grand Deacon Blue of the Cruiser Divine Truth. Firing upon a Holy Truth Vessel is Heresy, punishable by death. You have thirty seconds to lower your shields and submit to judgment.] The Cruiser''s Captain responded.


    "Nico, don''t break his ship too badly. This one is even fancier than thest one. I don''t know if it can even be made useful, but I want it." Max ordered her before she could leave the cargo bay where the meetings were being held.


    "In that case, I will just stay here. I have already sent the weapon modtion for a coordinated st that will disable the ship with minimal damage, just likest time. We will have to scrap the engines anyhow. They''re a Warp 2 relic made out of freeware schematics to begin with, and nobody would ept amission to pilot such a vessel these days.


    Uncle Lu is going to absolutely love you for this, though. You sent him two flying cathedrals after denying him Cathedral-themed Titan ss Mecha. Once he has finished retrofitting them, they will likely be gship quality vessels, worthy of being the face of the Terminus Trading Company." Nicoughed.


    Momentster, the iing signal came again.


    [I repeat, this is Grand Deacon Blue aboard the Cruiser Divine Truth. You have been convicted of Heresy and are scheduled for execution. You have ten seconds to lower your shields and stand down, or your punishment will be increased.]


    "They have a punishment worse than death? It''s a shame they won''t exist long enough to try to implement it." Nico told Lord Joseph, who was looking positively petrified by the announcement.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [All Cutters, fire on the Divine Truth.] Max ordered, and the Orbital Lances shed again, leaving the second vessel in the same shape as the first, dead in space and drifting.


    Max checked his sensors to ensure that the vessel really was disabled, finding that half the Warp Drive was floating freely in space at the moment, but surprisingly the powerless ship was showing signs of activity.


    [The rear bay doors on Target 2 are opening. Drones get me a good look at what is happening. Cutters, prepare to fire.]


    The drones raced over to see what was going on and sent back the strangest sight that Max had ever seen.


    Hundreds of men in space suits were lying down t on a wheeled cart that four men were pushing into the bay of a standard Kepler-produced civilian cargo shuttle.


    "Do you think that is their form of an attack squad? Or is it some sort of lifeboat?" Max asked Lord Joseph.


    "That is their version of the breaching ship. They have a strong EMP weapon that shorts out our doors, and they just push the cart out of the shuttle and storm our ships after the doors are unlocked." Lord Joseph informed him.


    "Do you not have shields?" Max asked, confused.


    "No, all of our ships are repurposed mining ships. Why would they have shields?" Lord Joseph answered.


    Max had to try very hard not to vent his frustrations on the ipetence of his new allies. Why wouldn''t a mining ship have shields? They are exposed to constant debris and harsh conditions at every single orbital mine site in existence. They normally have even better shields than a military ship the same size because they don''t need the power for a weapon system.


    "Well, if they think that tactic will work on Terminus, they''re about to have a very bad day," Max informed the leader of the Klux, then turned away to watch the parade of idiocy that was the Holy Truth attack n.


    He would have to warn the Cygnus fleet not to take them seriously. These twoary systems full of oddballs really did deserve each other.


    Max was about to issue another order to the drones to stop the shuttle with a gravity beam when Nico asked the most important question of the day.


    "How did you let yourselves get embargoed by this group of imbeciles?"


    For an instant, Lord Joseph looked outraged. Then the look turned to embarrassment. "You see, the ships are powerful, and the threats are very impressive. How were we supposed to know that they were empty? We just assumed that since they had a Mecha army, they had actually sent some to threaten us with.


    Most of the time, they even send out a few squads of Line Mecha as a reminder before they make their demands." He tried to deflect, but even to himself, the words rang hollow.


    "Maybe it is a one-off, and they simply didn''t have any to send after the failed invasion, and with Cygnus drawing close to their borders? I have already sent a message about this incident to the Cygnus fleet, which will be arriving in the Holy Truth''s territory very soon." Nico offered, as a form of apology for herments and a mollification for the Lord of the Klux.


    "Yes, hopefully. But your Trading Company has done very well for themselves today. You got a deal signed, and it seems you will have two Cruisers to add to your fleet. Do we perhaps have any more Rum? This deserves a celebratory sip."

 Chapter 440 440 Ants In The Dark

    "Of course, we have more Rum. Don''t forget that we have replicators here. I will get you a bottle right away to split with your team." Nico informed Lord Joseph.


    "You won''t be joining us?" He asked, wondering if she was still nning to take her Command Mecha to attack the disabled ship.


    "I will, but I am a full conversion Cyborg. I can''t get drunk." Nico exined, and all the Klux officers did a double take.


    It was clear that she had mechanical eyes, but they had thought that was the extent of her modifications. Her non-Newtonian shell closely mimicked human flesh, and she was getting very good at an aloof version of normal facial features, so they hadn''t noticed that she had been fully converted.


    "Well, that was unexpected. I can see how Rum would lose its appeal if you could only drink it for the taste. Especially the cheap stuff that most merchants live off of." Lord Joseph agreed.


    "I can also get you an assortment of other liquors if you would like. Terminus has it good, not having to worry about running out of the good Rum." Nico offered.


    "In that case, can you get us a bottle of brandy? We make a version on Klux, and I would like to see how the Replicators version stacks up against it." The Agriculture Minister requested.


    Their local version of the liquor was made from Ice Berries, and it had a minty cold aftertaste, which waspletely different from a regr Brandy, despite appropriating the name due to the simrities inposition. Drinking the generic version from the Replicator could be a very enlightening experience for them, Max thought.


    [Iing Projectile Imminent. Size, 17 tonnes, velocity, 240kph.] The automated defense warning was announced while Nico brought back arge bottle of replicated Brandy.


    She set the bottle on the table and turned to watch Max, who was viewing the Holy Truth boarding attempt, only to find him staring ck-jawed at the hologram in front of him.


    "Did they actually get through? I can send some forces to clean them up." Nico offered, scrolling through the data feeds with her mind to see where reinforcements were needed.


    Max brought the screen up over his shoulder level so that everyone behind him could see what he was looking at. Hundreds of small back objects had bounced off the Shielding around Terminus and were slowly floating away from the ship as the thruster packs they were wearing struggled to slow their velocity.


    "The shuttle just turned around and released them without even checking if we had our shields up. I mean, they should have known the answer was yes since we blocked the first attack with them, but they didn''t even try." Max stammered, ovee by the sheer idiocy of the events taking ce.


    "Oh, free shuttle. Bonus points for me." Nico cheered, and Max watched as the Gravity Beam grabbed hold of the small vessel that was frantically powering up and down their engines, trying to break free from the overwhelming force.


    [Holy Truth Shuttle. Please reduce power to your thrusters. I do not wish to see any harme to my new shuttle.] Nico announced over all channels short-range broadcast.


    Most of the Klux dignitaries looked at her in confusion, wondering if she really assumed that they would follow her orders after she tantly told them she was stealing their shuttle, but only a few secondster, the engines powered down, and the small ship was safely brought into the bay next to them.


    "One moment, gentlemen, I need to go see a guy about a thing. I will be right back." She exined as she walked through the open door separating the two bays and began to bang on the rear hatch door of the newly arrived shuttle.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Don''t make mee in there and get you, or I''m bringing an ass whooping with me," Nico shouted at them while Max facepalmed at her unique negotiating style.


    Surprisingly, the hatch opened, and two pilots stepped out with their hands in the air. "We surrender. Please don''t shoot. On behalf of the seventeenth breaching squadron, we surrender ourselves to your custody. Please save our disciples from the vacuum."


    When they saw Nico and realized that they were twice her size, they looked a bit startled, but they immediately scanned the room and realized that they were surrounded by Mecha with no way out and a disabled shuttle.


    "Our shuttle suddenly shut down, and we couldn''t even rescue our team from space. Please, save them. They don''t deserve to die like that." The second pilot begged, dropping to his knees and kowtowing before Nico.


    "Fine. I will collect the ants. Inform them that if they resist, I am throwing them right back out of the bay door." Nico informed the pleading pilots and then watched as the Gravity Beam she was controlling brought the rest of the team safely through the barrier.


    Once they were inside, the breaching team began to form up for an attack, but the Pilots immediately began shouting at them in their local dialect, anguage that wasn''t recorded in theputer trantion files that Max had obtained from the Kepler military, and wasn''t one that he had heard before.


    With only a little convincing, the team threw down their weapons and removed their helmets, leaving them vulnerable if Nico really did follow through and throw them back into space for misbehavior.


    "We have a lot of questions for you today, and since I am in a good mood, we will start with a simple question and no pain. Why are there no Mecha and no actual soldiers on either of the ships you sent here to Klux?"


    The question startled Max and made him focus on trying to read their minds. Much of it had to be done through imagery since he didn''t understand thenguage they were thinking in or speaking to each other, a deliberate defense against Kepler''s Mental Interrogation, but he got the basics fairly quickly.


    Cygnus was ahead of schedule. Their system was already under attack, and these two vessels had been in dry dock when the news came that Klux was signing a treaty with the Reavers. The Holy Truth Central Command believed that Cygnus would just punish them for their failure and then leave, so they mustered as many spare desk jockeys and retired naval staff as they could to intimidate the Klux into not signing an agreement.


    "I request terms of surrender." The pilot announced resolutely, not answering Nico''s question.


    By rights, they could surrender their vessel to the Reavers if they were the ranking officer, or his representative, and it would end the hostilities, but it would not give them safe passage back to their country. They would remain prisoners of the Reavers and would face charges for any crimes they hadmitted under Reaverw.


    In this case, that would be one shot fired against a Reaver vessel with no physical damage or loss of life. Even a harsh judge would only give the crew a few years of hardbor at the worst and triple that for the officers.


    "Is that so? Alright, I will send drones tomunicate with your bridge staff and see if they agree with your request." Nico informed the Pilot with a smile.


    This might just be the easiest acquisition of two Cruisers in history.

 Chapter 441 441 Angry Mimes

    Nico immediately sent the drones that were observing the bridge of the Cruisers forward to ce a vibration probe against the windows so that they couldmunicate directly.


    As long as there was enough of an atmosphere on the other side, the probe could use the window as a speaker and microphone tomunicate with those inside, a very convenient feature during orbital rescue missions.


    [Holy Truth Admiral, this is Tarith Nico of the Terminus Trading Company. We have a request from your boarding pilot to begin surrender negotiations. Should they be sessful, your crew will be spared, and a trial will be held regarding restitution for the incident involving Holy Truth Ships firing upon a Reaver vessel.] Nico informed both ships at the same time.


    [You bitch, do you know what you have done? None can survive the wrath of the Holy One. You will not be spared for this.] The man known as Blue shouted at them.


    The cameras showed that his crew was all looking embarrassed, and the crew of the other ship, who were treated to his response, thanks to the linked drones, were all shaking their heads in annoyance.


    [Heretic, are you listening to me? Return power to my vessel, or we will annihte you and your pathetic Trade Alliance.] Blue demanded.


    [Yes, I hear your demands, and I have considered them very thoroughly.] Nico responded in a calm monotone that Max knew very well.


    [Well? I am waiting.] Blue shouted.


    [Power to bridge doors restored. Opening security locks.] Nico replied as a pulse of energy passed between the drone and the st doors, sealing the team in the bridge.


    The meter-thick doors silently slid open on their tracks, revealing an overjoyed Klux special forces team with prybars in their hands.


    [Cardinal Red. Mister Blue has been taken into custody by the Klux Special Forces, as he declined the offer to surrender to the Reavers. You have been silent so far. What is the verdict of your crew?] Nico asked.


    Max could see that the Commander of the first vessel to arrive was looking in horror toward the other vessel, where twenty burly soldiers were viciously beating themand staff of the other Cruiser.


    [Lady Tarith, we request to discuss terms. As per Reaverw, we wish to ensure that our crew is not harmed until a council of Captains has tried us.] Cardinal Red requested.


    Max signaled to Lord Joseph, who sent the order for his men to capture the remaining crew on Cardinal Red''s Cruiser peacefully. With no power on the ship, they wouldn''t know what was going on, so some would likely still fight, but being office staff, the chances were that most of them would not willingly get themselves shot.


    [Mecha Squadrons, what is the situation with the prisoners?] Max asked the teams that were guarding the hallways on the Crusiers.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [No problems to report, Commander. Once the shouting and shooting started, they became especially well-behaved and even reported to our stations without requiring Klux forces to escort them.] The leader of the first team reported.


    [Same here, Commander. They did warn us that their leader was a stubborn and prideful sort that might not ept being captured though.] The second team leader dered.


    [Yes, we noticed. Nico unlocked the st doors and let the Special Forces onto the bridge to give him an attitude adjustment. I think he will see things our way very soon.] Max replied, then began scanning through the Mecha cameras to verify the information that he had received.


    It seemed to be correct, most of them didn''t have any signs of rough handling on them, and they certainly weren''t active-duty soldiers. Those who weren''t far too old to be on activebat duty could never have passed a physical examination.


    There also weren''t many of them, barely enough to call it a skeleton crew. Only the second vessel had sent an attack team, and the numbers suggested that the first ship didn''t even have the personnel.


    After a few minutes, Max saw the Special Forces bringing the Command Staff to the Mecha checkpoint, dragging the ones that couldn''t walk while the others applied white numbing cream from a first aid kit to their faces and ribs.


    Even as badly beaten as they were, they did not look at all repentant. In fact, the sight of their peacefully captured crew was only making them more upset, and Max suspected that they were in for a second round of attitude adjustment in only a few minutes at the rate they were going.


    Cardinal Red and hismand staff had opened the st doors and were being escorted to the Mecha teams as well, ready to be taken off their vessels as prisoners of the Terminus Trading Company.


    [Shuttles, please prepare to depart for the captured Cruisers. The crew will be detained here aboard Terminus for the time being.] Max informed the hangars.


    "We will turn them over to the transporter that I have called toe to get the new ships. I have no intention of waiting here for a gathering of five Captains to hold a council, so they can just go to Rae 5 instead." Max told Lord Joseph, who could only sigh in disappointment that he wouldn''t get to deal with the crews under Kluxw.


    "You certainly have the space for them. I will give you that much. They would have looked good swinging from the courthouse gallows, though." The Justice Minister told Max with a resigned look on his face.


    They didn''t win many of these encounters with their hostile neighbor, so it would have been a huge public rtions victory for them.


    "I would say that you''ll get a chance next time, but I suspect that there will be no next time unless it is in the next few days. After that, you will have Cygnus as a neighbor, and it won''t be long before they are also a Trade Alliance Member, so you won''t have to worry about these sorts of things again." Max consoled the Minister, hoping to get this all done and over with smoothly.

 Chapter 442 442 Getting Answers

    Four shuttles managed to transfer the entire crew of the two vessels to a secure Hangar aboard Terminus, where they were restrained and ced in the former produce cooler as a group holding cell.


    Max hadn''t considered the need for a prison facility, so they didn''t have any proper holding cell aboard the ship, an oversight he would have to rectify eventually, even if it was just for these sorts of rare incidents.


    The Reavers didn''t usually try enemy crews in court or capture ships unless the crew couldn''t afford to pay the ransom to make reparations. If they did, they would have more ramshackle ships than they did people by now. But these weren''t Pirates, they were proper military ships from a recognized nation, so it wouldn''t be proper to treat them like Pirates.


    The fact that their nation was about to fall didn''t help the odds of them paying to get their ships back either.


    Once they were all aboard Terminus, Max decided it was time to say his goodbyes to Lord Joseph and let theary leader return to his business while they finished making his order and got ready to send it to the surface.


    "Lord Joseph, it has been a pleasure working with you. My men report that there were no casualties among ourbined force and no damages to our Mecha at all. Yournding force did an exemry job of dealing with the invaders.


    But, now it is time for me to begin interrogating them about their intentions and working on an official agreement for their surrender."


    Joseph gave him a pleased smile at the word "interrogating" and rose to his feet. He extended a hand for a formal handshake, then motioned for his entourage to head back to the station.


    "Feel free toe by again. You are always wee in Klux, and I suspect that you will receive a hero''s wee after the poption gets a chance to sample the Replicators."


    With that, he headed back to the station, and Max left for the hangar that the prisoners were being held in, which was on the far side of the ship, closest to the two Cruisers. Nico was already over there, having personally escorted thending crew who had bounced off the Shielding of Terminus, and Max could sense from the Illithid''s thoughts that he was there too and found her version of interrogation highly entertaining.


    She hadn''t hit anyone yet or even tied them to a chair. Instead, she had begun by insulting and berating one of the officers until he cried and then began asking him questions in between threats. It was working far better than it had any right to, and even the Illithid was impressed by the efficiency.


    When Max arrived, she was leading her first victim back to the holding cell and looking for corroboration of what they had been told.


    "Alright, Holy Worms, who will volunteer next? Tweedle Dumbass already told me what I want to know. Now I want one of you to tell me if he was lying. All you need to do is tell the truth, and it will only hurt a little bit." She announced, dragging the first man forward to rejoin his crew.


    The tear-soaked face really helped sell the story, and Max could sense that even if she had exined that she didn''t hit him, nobody would believe her.


    "Lady Tarith, I will go with you on behalf of my Crew." Cardinal Red announced, looking grim as if he was facing execution.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max followed the two into the room across the hall and took a seat beside Nico across the table from Cardinal Red.


    The Holy Truth leader was the first to speak, and he looked very sincere and contrite already, despite no pressure being applied. "Lady Tarith, I apologize on behalf of my crew member. If I had known that he would try something so outrageous, I would have personally had the men searched for weapons."


    Max watched the rey of the incident in the Cardinal''s mind and saw that the crewman, affectionately known as Tweedle Dumbass, had attempted to stab Nico as she walked through the crowd to pick out the first person to be interrogated. She had kicked the feet out from under him and caught him by the hair before he even hit the ground, so she could swiftly drag him out of the room while the others tried to process what happened.


    Once they were in the room, Nico tossed him into a corner and began shouting at him. It seemed a bit too effective though, so Max looked deeper into her thoughts and found that she had electrified her hands so that the metallic walls would work as a taser, shocking the subject as she shouted at him.


    It wasn''t as gentle as Max had first thought, but it was surprisingly humane, considering the source.


    "Apology epted. How about we start with the easy questions? What would you do at home if we released you now that the Cygnus Fleet has arrived on your homeworld with no intentions to leave?" Nico asked.


    Max checked themunications log quickly and saw that they had intercepted a message only a few minutes ago while he was walking to the holding cells from the Cygnus Fleet, announcing that the Holy Truth nation was now under their control.


    Nico reyed the message for the Cardinal, then a second message informing all Holy Truth vessels that they were to return to the for the transfer of assets.


    That was even faster than he had expected. Max had thought they would at least put up a few days'' resistance, but it appeared that they folded within thirty minutes of the Cygnus fleet announcing their terms.


    "Holy Light has fallen to Cygnus? No, that can''t be right. It has only been a few hours since we left." Cardinal Red replied, confused.


    Nico reyed the message, and a stream of horrified thoughts passed through the Cardinal''s mind before Max saw a hypnotic suggestion take effect, and the man reached into his robes.


    "None of that. Hands on the table." Max shouted, moving to grab him before he could do anything and pinning his arms to the metal table.


    He had a small vial in his palm, which Nico took away, opened, and carefully sniffed, then analyzed with a scanner from her pocket.


    "Dragon Fire Root poison. Potent enough to cause his cells tobust if he drank it. The Holy Truth clergy must have some sort of suicide pact." Nico informed Max.

 Chapter 443 443 Sadly Predictable

    Max watched as the hope faded from the Cardinal''s eyes, only to be reced by horror at the action that the hypnotic suggestion was going to have him do. In his mind, the vial contained a Divine Will elixir that would keep the secrets of the Holy Truth safe from interrogators, but once he had heard the name of the poison, the suggestion was broken, and he realized that his superiors had brainwashed him intomitting suicide if he was asked questions about the security of the Holy Truth.


    This revtion was helped along by the Illithid, who had noticed the mental interference almost immediately, despite not being in the room with them. Their species was very sensitive to such things, and the thoughts of others were like background noise in a room to them. The dissonant noises of interference were immediately clear, like fingernails down a chalkboard or a bad remix of a familiar song.


    The thought caused a revtion in Max''s mind, and for the first time in a while, he received a message from the System.


    [Innate Talent] Mind Reading has evolved.


    [Innate Talent] Active Telepathy is active.


    [System Compatibility Rank increased to Rank S]


    Recalcting abilities.


    That startled Max so much that he forgot he was in the middle of an interrogation. Fortunately, his hands didn''t move, and Nico relieved the Cardinal of the poison before forcibly relieving him of his clothing to make sure he had no more hidden tricks.


    "Impressive resolve. Now tell me why you came here with two empty vessels." She demanded.


    "It was all we had. The Holy Truth ignored the will of the Oracle and sent their entire army to Kepler in the name of greed and wealth. Taxes and Tributes from the nations we sanction make up the majority of our revenue. Even in the face of such a crisis, we couldn''t allow Klux to make an alliance with a powerful force like the Reavers.


    They might not generate much, but even one percent of a''s revenue is an enormous sum." The Cardinal barely whispered, as ifpelled by the pair of red cybeic eyes staring deeply into his own.


    "You know what, I believe you. And not just because I hacked the mainframe of both your ships to read all of themunications logs." Nico informed the Cardinal, who looked so pale with fright that he might have already had a heart attack.


    As she interrogated the man about what she had found in the logs and the other nations that they had under sanctions, Max''s new Innate Talent began to settle into his mind, bringing to him the thoughts of everyone aboard the ship, all at various volumes, depending on the intensity of the determination or emotion behind them, and their distance from him.


    The thoughts of the prisoners felt weaker than those of the Illithid or the Kepler forces, while the thoughts of the Innu were somewhat muted but made an annoyingly happy bubble in theb area.<novelnext></novelnext>


    How they could be so happy all the time was beyond him. From their thoughts, they were in the middle of trying to redesign their ancient yacht to amodate a higher-speed warp drive. It wasn''t groundbreaking work. They were studying it from better-equipped models by the same manufacturer, not designing an entirely new hull, but the level of happiness that they were emitting was incredible.


    [The Innu have very intense emotions. That is part of why their culture developed the Tech Nomads. They be obsessed with the things that they like and can''t let go of them or even function in a role that doesn''t involve their passion.] The Innu exined, and Max could sense its curiosity at the changes he was undergoing.


    Max considered that for a moment. It made sense that they would be obsessive if this were the level of joy that they felt about even the simple things in life and ones that involved arge amount of physicalbor at that.


    [I will show you a trick to filter the thoughts around you.] The Illithid offered and began to focus on a form of meditation technique that the Illithid could do with only a small portion of their thoughts, which would let them focus on the things they wanted to hear, or the people closest to them.


    It wasn''t hard, and with his enhanced [Perception] skill, Max managed to activate it in only a few minutes, focusing on Nico and the Cardinal, who had just finished spilling everything that he knew about the politics and military strength of the Holy Truth.


    Max looked at the destroyed clothing on the floor with regret and called for someone to bring a prisoner''s orange jumpsuit to the interrogation room so that the old man didn''t have to sit around naked now that they were finished with their questions.


    Nico had learned everything that they needed to know and that the first prisoner she interrogated wasn''t lying to her, so they could safely assume that the interrogation process was finished.


    "Commander Keres. Might this humble prisoner make a request?" The Cardinal asked after getting dressed in the gaudy orange coveralls.


    "Certainly, though I can''t guarantee that I will grant it." Max agreed.


    "If the Holy Truth has really fallen to the Cygnus Fleet, can you relocate us to another when our sentence is over? Returning home would be too painful for the crew, and it would be a small mercy not to have to think too much about the horrors that have befallen their loved ones with barbarians in charge of the Holynd."


    Despite the phrasing, the request was somewhat reasonable. Many prisoners wished to be released into a new life when they finished their sentences.


    "I will transfer you to the freighter that is taking the vessels back to Rae 5, a Reaver-controlled system. You will be tried there, and once you have served your sentence, you may remain there and join the ranks of released convicts working on the.


    Reavers are a forgiving sort, you might even get a spot back on another vessel with the navigational experience that you have, or you could work in one of the businesses on the. Ex Convicts might start at lower rates than those who are seen as more trustworthy, but it isn''t too hard for them to find jobs." Max agreed.

 Chapter 444 444 Bon Voyage

    "Wait, I have an idea. Since the attack was on Terminus, I will request for the Tarith Captains to hold the trial. It is one of their freightersing here anyhow, and they can transfer the convicts to a mining colony for work release. Serve the time there, and you can directly join the staff. In fact, everyone on the colony started out the same way, with some crimes beingrger than others." Nico suggested.


    The Cardinal looked at her with veiled amusement. "Do you think that an old man like me would survive a mining colony?"


    Nico tilted her head in a motion that reminded Max of a confused puppy, then answered directly. "It is an entire colony. There are more jobs than breaking rocks in the mines. They need someone to do paperwork, medics, nurses, equipment operators, and every other job that any other colony needs. Don''t you have skills other than being a Cardinal?"


    "In fact, I am a very skilled surgeon. I was the chief medical officer of a Destroyer ss ship before being elevated into the clergy. Cardinals in the Holy Truth are a political position, and I am also the Minister of Health. Or I was until this morning."


    Nico nodded happily. "See, no need to work you to death in the mines. You can stay in a nice sterile room and make sure that nobody else is worked to death."


    The Reavers were actually much more kind to their prisoners than most nations were, but openly saying that woulde across as a lie, or a slight against their fierce reputation, so it was left unsaid for prisoners to discover once they were put to work.


    Only those who were a danger to others were imprisoned constantly. Everyone else whomitted a crime was either sentenced to unpaid work or a mary fine based on a percentage of their wealth, with a minimum limit, so that crimes couldn''t be shuffled off to the poorest among a group.


    "Now, we will inform the rest of the group of their fate, and you areing with us to do it," Max announced, helping the old man to his feet.


    He marched the Cardinal back into the holding cell while Nico had the maintenance staff make and send over a full set of prisoner coveralls for the Holy Truth crew. They had all been brought in now, and the Mecha were all back aboard Terminus, except for two squads of Infernus Pattern fast attack Crusaders, which were keeping an eye on the disabled ships while they waited for the transporter to be ready.


    [Sir, the Transport vessel is ready, and Mary Tarith is requesting that we open a portal for them toe directly to us. The target coordinates have been verified as safe.] Admiral Drake informed Max, who was overseeing the change of attire for the Holy Truth prisoners.


    [Tell her to send a prison shuttle as well. Nico will inform her of the details.] Max replied, then input his authorization code so that the Portal could be activated.


    The shimmering energy in the air formed a perfect circle that showed them the distant sight of the Rae 5 Moon Base and the itself. It looked like the ships would be going directly to Uncle Lu for a refit and not into storage around the fifth in the system, where many other disabled and obsolete vessels were currently in orbit awaiting refit or scrapping.


    [Also, send a message to Uncle Lu, telling him that we were thinking of him when we saw these particr ships. He will know what I am talking about.] Max added.


    The Transporter wasn''t arge ship, more like a tugboat with an immensely powerful engine and little else except basic structure, so it had no problem entering the portal and dragging the two ships into position with its gravity beam.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Normally two such transporters would be needed, one per Cruiser, but since they didn''t need to go to Warp, a single one would suffice today, sitting in between its two pieces of cargo and maneuvering them carefully on course for the Moon Base.


    The Prisoner transport showed up a few minutester, and Max realized that they had forgotten to tell Mary that the ships only had a skeleton crew aboard them. The immense orange vessel, the same color as the coveralls the prisoners wore, could move ten thousand prisoners at once, enough for even thergest of captured vessels, but they didn''t even have two hundred captives to give it.


    [Dock with bay door B8, and we will transfer the captives directly to your hold.] Max informed them as the ship turned to glide into position.


    A double file of prison guards marched out as soon as the ship docked, and Nico began to giggle.


    "What is so funny, little sister?" The lead guard asked.


    "Don''t call me sister. My mom is way cooler than yours. Cousin Darrell, meet Commander Keres. Commander, meet Tarith Darrell, one of my many cousins and the unfortunate son of the Tarith family. As the only member of the immediate family with a Gamma ranked system, he was givenmand of a prison ship and not a Reaver trading vessel." Nico introduced the pair.


    "She makes it sound like such a disgrace, but it''s an easy job, and I get to beat annoying people. It''s not so bad, really. But miss Nico here was always a genius, and her disrespect knows no boundaries of age or distance." The prison ship Captain responded politely.


    "You get used to her. Unfortunately, you have sent more guards than we have prisoners today. The two Cruisers barely had enough people aboard them to keep them running, and a single boarding crew between the two of them is the closest thing they had to defenses.


    No need to go too hard on them. They only fired a single shot that we blocked with our shields so that it wouldn''t hit the Klux station. A bit of time in the mines and a fresh start outside their home system, which has already fallen to the Cygnus fleet since they left this morning, is just what they need, I think." Max exined, ensuring that the prison ship was in on their ns.


    "We can do that. There are a lot of new mining colonies going up to provide supplies for the Mecha and Ship factories. You shoulde to visit again after your mission. There are eight facilities now, all run by an alliance of Companies, that are making Warp 10 capable cargo ships of the Cutter ss. It is quite a sight in orbit around thes these days." Tarith Darrell suggested.


    "We will, for sure. But first, we are going to head all the way to the end of Death Wind Territory and arrange deliveries. We have the portal now, so we can send for supplies as soon as we finish our deals from anywhere in the Gxy." Max agreed.


    "The Reavers will love you for it. It also looks like we have a cargo shiping for the Klux already. They just sent me a message asking how long the Cruisers would be blocking the portal." Darrellughed.

 Chapter 445 445 Trade Resumed

    "The transporters are always careful when maneuvering, aren''t they? But I am not sure if the Klux even have their order started. We are still making half of their initial shipment of Replicators, and they only brought the factory online with the new Materials Printers half a day ago." Max exined.


    "They can wait. The customer is far enough away that the difference in speed will make a huge difference, even without you opening a portal to them." Darrell dismissed the crawling pace of the transports as nothing to be concerned about since a one-ship wait for the portal was still much better than spending days making their way here in the traditional manner.


    [Sir, the Replicators are finished, and the Shuttle is loaded. We can send it to the surface at any time.] The maintenanceb, which was in charge of making the customer''s orders, informed Max.


    [If the crew is trained enough to safely pilot the shuttle to the surface and back, let them go. Just give them some training materials so that they can learn what the ship is capable of.] Max replied, d to be finished with their side of the trade deal.


    Once the Cruisers were safely through and clear of the portal, a brand new Tarith Reaver Family trade vessel made its way through the portal, requesting clearance to dock with the station.


    It was slightlyrger than the Cutters but clearly based on the same design. It was sleek, with flowing lines and no hard edges, and wider in the back for extra cargo space, keeping the triangr top profile. This was one of the cargo-specific Warp 10 vessels that the Moon Base shipyards had just finished.


    [Commander Keres, Miss Rage, it is a pleasure to see you again. This is Tarith Domond of the Reaver Vessel Blood Mist.] The other Captain greeted them.


    "Did you just ce the portal right beside the Tarith Family station so they would get the first chance at everything?" Max asked Nico before responding to the other Captain.


    "I''m hurt. I wouldn''t do something so underhanded. I put it right next to the Moonbase, and we just so happen to control the region around the main." Nico replied with false dignity.


    [It is indeed a pleasure, Captain. Congrattions on the fine new vessel. She looks like a real money maker.] Max replied.


    He had to search his memories to recall who the man was. He had only met him once at the General''s wedding, and at that point, the man had been without a vessel of his own due to damages in the preceding battles.


    The ship was impressively armed, though Max knew it only carried a single wing of Mecha as a defensive force. Any more would cut into their cargo capacity. The ship sported an Orbital Lance grade front Disruptor, apanied by sixteen Ion Bombard Arrays mounted along the hull for 360-degree coverage.


    Not many vessels would dare to take on such a monstrous attack craft, which sported more firepower than even the Cruisers of most nations. If anyone thought that the new Reaver trade ships would be traditional, lightly armed targets, they were in for an unpleasant shock.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Assuming that they could catch one to attack it, that was.


    The newly built Klux factory lines had been busy since they were assembled, and the moment that the Blood Mist docked, they began loading crates into the hold. They didn''t have enough stockpiled to load it with therge cranes and were using forklifts to bring in the crates as they came off the line, but it was more efficient than some of the poorly organized facilities where the Captain had loaded before.


    At the very least, they had started loading as soon as he arrived instead of needing most of a day to organize the effort to get the cargo to his ship after his arrival.


    [Do you need us to open a secondary portal for you to the customer?] Max asked once the portal to Rae 5 was closed, and their business was officiallypleted.


    [No worries, they will still be a day or two to finish loading the entire hold at this rate. It would be great to have a portal of our own, but nothing smaller than a Colony Ship has the output to make that even remotely feasible.] Captain Domond told him with a hint of greed in his voice.


    That was understandable. What merchant wouldn''t want a vessel with fifty times as much cargo capacity and the ability to instantly move between star systems? Max had considered moving between potential allies that way but had decided that the chance to intercept signals along the way and pull in unexpected allies was more important while they were traveling through these more popted areas of space.


    None of the systems should be unaware of what was going on in the region, and the chance that some of them might change their mind when they saw the mighty Colony Ship moving near their borders was too good to pass up.


    The goal was to pull as much of humanity as possible into this alliance after all.


    [Klux Station, Terminus will be departing in five minutes. Thank you for being so cooperative, and we wish you better days ahead.] Max informed their new allies.


    [It was a pleasure doing business with you, Terminus. Good luck on your journey.] Lord Joseph answered, and Max could see that the signal originated from the new shuttle, which was on its first journey to the system''s asteroid belt, looking for suitable source material for their production. That wasn''t normally a job for aary leader, but Klux was an odd ce, to begin with.


    Right on schedule, Admiral Drake maneuvered Terminus away from the station, shing their exterior lights in a farewell to their fellow Reavers, before taking the ship to Warp 5 and heading toward the edge of the Death Wind Territory.


    Their first obstacle would be the border nations, which had kept the Death Wind Territory under sanctions for millennia. The Reavers intended to bypass them for now, but Max was hoping to make a deal along the way, so he wasn''t willing to portal past their territory just yet.

 Chapter 446 446 Maximum Gainz

    Two days after they left Klux, Max was in the gym, working on consolidating his strength after the changes in his System Compatibility, when a message that every human hoped for but never expected to see appeared in his vision.


    [Safety threshold reached, Increase Canceled. Maximum Modifier Achieved.]


    Max quickly checked his status to see what level he had reached that would be as good as his physical body could handle.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank s


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x, 0 Diminishing Returns


    [STR] 3+200% CAP


    [DEX] 3+104%


    [SPD] 3+106%


    [Innate Talent] Active Telepathy


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization]


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 3]


    [Additional Function Unified Force]


    With a base strength of three points, plus a two hundred percent bonus, he would be at nine times the human standard, which seemed to be the maximum that his body could handle without risking damage to his own bones and muscles, which had reached the limit of what they could be modified to aplish with his System.


    Nine times the standard for a full-grown man was noughing matter. Max could bench press nearly two tonnes and easily jump on the roof of a Crusader ss Mecha. By the logic of most species and any unaugmented human, he was practically a superhero, but it seemed that this was as far as the System would take his strength.


    "I guess I need to work on agility and speed, then." Max sighed to himself as he saw the data. If he couldn''t increase strength, he could still work on the other aspects.


    He briefly wondered how many people in history had actually managed to Cap out an S Ranked System, but it didn''t seem to be any different than the cap for Rank A since he was only a few points away even before he gained Active Telepathy.


    That meant that the limit was most likely based on his bone and muscle structure being ipatible with any more upgrades since he gained an upgraded Innate Talent with thest upgrade and not a durability rework of his entire body.


    [Nico, I don''t suppose you have a way to increase the body''s durability without recing anything, do you? I have hit my strength Cap.] Max asked Telepathically.


    [There is a Max in my head? Oh, this is going to be fun. When did you upgrade your skill?] Nico responded.


    [Just a few days ago. Now, do you know a way to improve my durability, or am I stuck at this level for a while?] Max tried again.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [I have an idea, but we haven''t started human trials yet. The Valkia are incredibly durable, and I think we can convince that their bone structure is an eptable upgrade for human beings. We are somewhat limited by the sensibilities of the System, as it won''t ept modifications that it deems inhuman, as they are ipatible with its goals of improving humanity.


    A slight change in boneposition should be enough to let you gain a bit more strength, but why do you need it? Seriously, I''m not that heavy.] Nico''s thoughts were interspersed with scenes ofbat, grappling, and "Grappling" in a more intimate sense.


    She had a point, he didn''t actually need to keep increasing his strength, but he wanted to. It was the principle of it. He was still a young man. Reaching his limits so soon would be a real shame.


    [Alright, we can start on thatter. What else has your teame up with?] Max asked.


    [We improved the suits a little bit. We now have a version two Pilot Suit, which still has half the augmentic increase, but no added armor ting. Some of the testers had expressed concerns about the fact that it is so form-fitting, so we added a standby mode, where it would hang loosely like a standard suit unless extreme gravitational forces were applied or the pilot chose to activate it.]


    [You could have just added a bit of bulge to the design at the groin, and they would have stoppedining.] Max pointed out.


    [False advertising. We don''t pad the chests for thedies.]


    [Alright, get back to work. I am still waiting to see what you were trying to do with your own modifications.] Max told her, then focused on his workout again, heading to the agility trainers.


    He didn''t spend much time on them, only making them an incidental part of his workout, but today he split his time evenly between agility and speed training, which shocked the others in the Gym.


    "Commander, are you preparing for a marathon or something? Where are the weights?" One of the Pilots, a fellow Gym Rat that was affectionately known as Beefcake by his Battalion, asked with great confusion.


    "I capped out my strength. The system says I can''t go over the equivalent of 9 basis points without risk of physical damage that exceeds safety thresholds." Max told him, not holding back on taunting the man who had put immense effort into increasing his strength.


    "How is that even possible? I have a hundred and fifty bonus points and a two-point strength base. Nine points total is a monster, not a human." Beefcakeined, flexing his biceps with a rueful look.


    Five times the human standard was already impressive. Compared to those without a System, Beefcake was a walking disaster, and it hadn''t urred to him that anyone could be so far ahead of him.


    "A lucky upgrade brought me to a three-point base," Max exined, and the big man nodded in understanding.


    "Fate truly favors you, Commander. Not only are you strong, but I have seen that you''re also pretty fast since you can pretty much keep up with Major Nico. It''s like the two of you stole all the bonuses for an entire." Beefcake chuckled.


    "You aren''t wrong. Mosts in old Kepler couldn''t keep up the Systems of those who were born on Kepler Terminus, to begin with, and we both lucked out with great innate talents." Max agreed.


    "What is her Innate Talent anyhow? Something to do with Combat Perception, right?" One of the other Pilots in the Gym asked.


    "No, she can innately control technology."


    Max''s response made everyone look at him with shock. "I thought she was just smart and loved to hackputers. You''re saying that is her Innate Talent, and thebat ability is just her own skill? Or does she havebat System Functions?"


    "Her System Skills are Mecha Repair rted. Originally, Central Command wanted to put her in charge of the Regiment''s maintenance corps. It was only because the Thunder Pattern Super Heavy units got to have a Technician that she wasn''t your Maintenance Chief." Max told them.


    Beefcake frowned, with a hint of terror in his mind. "Can you imagine getting reamed out by her as maintenance chief? Not only is she scary in person, she knows everything. Like, everything. Even the things you don''t know about your own performance."


    He wasn''t wrong. The amount of performance data that she couldpile from abat record was terrifying.


    "See, I''m not the only one with good luck. You all got lucky as well." Max told them, then returned to his workout.

 Chapter 447 447 Emergency Call

    A few dayster, just before they were set to approach the Border Nations, Terminus received a message from an Alliance Vessel in the outer reaches of Death Wind Territory. An unexpected failure of their Warp Drive had caused an explosion and thrown them off course.


    They knew where they were, and they knew that ess to this Gxy was supposed to be restricted due to high danger, so they sent a message for immediate retrieval.


    As the only Alliance vessel in the Gxy, Terminus was responsible for going to help them out. The vessel was the Exploration Vessel Gaia, a Cutter ss scientific ship from the far side of the Alliance. ording to the data that hade with the message, they were over a hundred Alliance Standard Units from home, putting their home Gxy out of humanity''s observed universe.


    Now that they knew where it was, they might be able to search for and find it, but until this point, it was not a star listed on any Kepler map. The only data that Terminus had about it came from the Alliance.


    [Exploration Vessel Gaia, this is the Human Vessel Terminus, we are on our way to your location. We will open a portal in ten minutes.] Max informed them, then began nning a new route through the Gxy and back toward Rae 5 from the outer ring inward.


    The portal took shape six minutester, and Admiral Drake led the ship through to the location indicated by the Alliance ship, only to find that they weren''t the first ones there. A group of Pirates had just dropped out of warp and began firing on the disabled ship, hoping to capture it and plunder the technology, bringing them to the peak of human development.


    Or so they thought.


    "Cutters,unch now. Rescue the Gaia, and eliminate the Pirates." Max ordered.


    Secondster, the Cutters were flying out the bay doors, their secondary weapons already firing. The impacts were making the shields on the Pirate ships flicker, and both vessels immediately turned to flee.


    Two blinding shes lit up the vacuum of space, followed by a field of debris as the Pirate vessels exploded under the force of the Disruptors.


    [Sorry about that, Gaia. As I am sure the Alliance warned everyone, there are still Pirates and other hostile forces active in this Gxy. Terminus has certified status as a trusted force, verified by the Valkia and Giants. You are safe with us.] Max greeted the vessel which had sent the distress call.


    A video link opened between the two vessels, and Max found himself in the odd position of looking at a forest without anyone visible in the scene.


    [We cannot thank you enough, Terminus. We are the Shin, a flora-type species, as you can see. Like the Illithid aboard your ship, ourmunications are primarily mental, but we also have a well-developed physicalnguage that might be difficult for you to learn and impossible for you to replicate without hundreds more limbs.]


    They were speaking the Alliance standardnguage, which Max was well used to after dealing with the Illithid for so long, so understanding them was no problem when they were speaking telepathically.


    [You can call me Commander Keres. I am also capable of a limited version of the mentalmunication that the Illithid use, though that is very rare among our people. Most will answer you verbally if you can understand that or through technology if you cannot.


    We will bring your vessel aboard ours for repairs, and you are wee to enjoy the facilities we have avable. How is your mobility?]<novelnext></novelnext>


    [We have gravity control technology, so we can be quite agile for flora-type species. Do you have hydroponic facilities? Perhaps even something as luxurious as real dirt gardens?] The Shin leader asked.


    [We have both. We also have shared water features that the Innu and simr species enjoy. Do you require oversized amodations?] Max asked, not having any data on their size.


    [Our species is under two meters tall. The sizing of your amodations should be fine, though we prefer to be inmunal areas to rest. Separation from others is stressful for our root systems.]


    Max considered a moment and had the Cruise Ship maintenance crews add arge portion of dirt flowerbeds to the public walkways in the central column, the open area at the core of the Cruise Ship area. That should meet the Shin''s needs formunal activities.


    Terminus pulled the disabled vessel aboard with a gravity beam, revealing the extensive structural damage to the hull from the explosion of the Warp Drives, though the Pirates hadn''t managed to breach their shielding, despite the damaged state of the vessel.


    Once they were in ce inside the hangar, a group of ten small coniferous trees came out to greet Max, looking a lot like Bonsai trees but with various colors of needles.


    "Wee to the Cruise Ship portion of the Colony Ship Terminus, a human trading vessel. If you would like to apany me, one of our technicians can work with your engineer to help repair your vessel. We have extensive refit facilities here and can work as a dry dock facility for smaller vessels such as your own." Max exined.


    [Who would have thought that we could find a dry dock out here in the middle of nowhere? The Alliance really has spread out recently. Thank you for your hospitality, and we are looking forward to seeing what an isted species of mammals have created for the first Flora Species that they are recorded to have met.] The Captain responded.


    They floated behind Max as he walked, their bodies mostly motionless, but Max could see the rustling of their branches, indicating that they were speaking to each other in their silentnguage. How they perceived each other or the world around them was a mystery to Max since they had no eyes, but they didn''t seem to have any difficulty navigating the hallways or interpreting the motions of their neighbors.


    "I believe that we can start here. We have created gardens on all twenty levels in the centralmon areas. The gaps in between the walkways can be used to traverse the ship with gravity-controlled flight if you like. Onlymon courtesy limits flight in the Cruise Ship area.


    At this kiosk is a map of the facilities, and we have prepared arge meeting room for your group, as you stated that you preferred to be together."


    Max led the way to the meeting room on the main level, where the floors had been reformed to bare concrete and covered in thick ck loam, with clusters of various nts ced around the room to make it less barren. There were watering spouts hanging from the roof, almost reaching the soil, which could be touch-activated, but none of the staff really knew what these new arrivals would like.


    "We honestly had no idea what you would prefer in your amodation, so we can reform the room if it isn''t suitable," Max informed them politely.


    "No, this is amazing. So many species don''t have soil floors avable. They grow entirely by hydroponics, so real soil is a true luxury. Even on our ship, only one room has soil, and it isn''t nearly this rich." The Captain, a bonsai tree with immactely manicured branches and blue needles, informed Max.

 Chapter 448 448 Repair Plans

    "We used species of flora that are foodstuffs or visually pleasing to the Humans, which you can relocate if you don''t like them. We can also bring more if you like. There are gardens like this, with the same nts and soil in themon areas in the center of the ship.


    The other species enjoy the scent and sight of flowers, so we put arge number of them aboard the ship."


    One of the Shin darted forward and snuggled its roots deep into the soil, finding that it was only half a meter thick, then reached a root up to tap the hanging hose, making it spray water over the area.


    [Look, water sprinklers. Do you think we can raise them, so I can make it rain on my canopy? That would be amazing.] They asked.


    "Just control the panel at the door. It is in Alliance Common at the moment. You can adjust the height of all the hoses as you prefer." Max informed the happy nts.


    One after another, they settled into the soil, and Max could have sworn he heard a sigh from their branches, though the noise might have been mental.


    "We will exploreter. For now, resting here is perfect. We will take good care of your nts." The Captian informed Max, then stretched out a branch to tap the controls and lift the sprinklers to make a gentle rainfall in the room.


    The drains would take care of the moisture. It wasn''t hard for the staff to remodel Terminus on short order, as long as it was only a few rooms, so the water shouldn''t be an issue, even in the long term.


    "What do you need for nutrition? I can create whatever you require." Max asked.


    [We are a slow-growing species. The nutrients in this soil are enough for us to stay here for a decade. I don''t think we will need that long to repair our vessel, though it might take that long to convince the crew to leave this room.] The joke was clear in the Captain''s tone, so Max gave a polite bow and left them to their own devices.


    He had heard before that humans and simr species were umon and much more active than most species, so he wouldn''t rush their guests around at a human pace.


    Max walked back to the hangar where they docked so he could talk to the engineer and see what they needed for their repairs. Nico and the Innu were already there, discussing the incident with the Engineer, whose thoughts seemed rather star-struck.


    It seemed that he watched the live streams from their particr group of Tech Nomads long before theynded here on Terminus. He hadn''t expected to ever see them in person since they were only passing by the region on their way between Alliance gxies. When the ident urred, they had no choice but to divert here, as it was the closest star system.


    The Tech Nomad video channels were very popr in the Alliance, even if this particr group only got tens of millions of views per video out of trillions of watchers. Thinking about the potential of increasing market share on a scale asrge as the Alliance was a mind-boggling concept to Max. If even a single percent of the viewers were fans of your channels, you could earn enough to straight purchase and terraform your own after only a year or two of streams.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Of course, here in this Gxy, there were so many undeveloped regions that they could simply im and terraform one with the technology and resources at their current disposal, but it was much different when it was one in an already inhabited system or close to one.


    "How bad is it?" Max asked as he approached the damaged Exploration Vessel.


    "A few damaged main spars, some hull sections are scrap, and the Warp Drive is totally destroyed. At best guess, it will take us at least a month just to do the work, and I''m not sure if Terminus has the materials we will need." One of the Innu replied absently as she examined the forward sections of the main structure, which seemed to be intact to Max.


    "Let me know what you need, and we will get it if we don''t already have it. We have a pretty good selection of shipbuilding materials, at least for our own vessels."


    That got the Innu excited. "You mean we could use your military-grade materials to rebuild the Exploration Vessel? Don''t you guard those really closely?"


    "We can always stop and get more ore from any random system, and our technology is good enough to make it into usable alloys. It might not be the peak of Alliance technology, but it is enough that we can repair anything that we own." Nico exined.


    "This is going to get so many views. I mean, it will expose your alloys to the Alliance members, if that''s alright but other than that, it shouldn''t be an issue." The Innu Technician cheered.


    "The Alloys are nothing special since the Exploration Vessel doesn''t need armor, just structuralponents and hull ting. Every ship in the Alliance has equivalent materials, so it shouldn''t be a big shock even if ours are a differentposition." Nico dismissed her concerns.


    The alloys for ship frames were quite basic since the Kepler design philosophy used ative armor ting that could be reced when it was damaged withoutpromising the hull. The structural material for Warp 10 capable vessels was a new alloy for humanity, just developed for their new generation of high-speed vessels, but it was still no better than what they were working with on the Shin Exploration Vessel, which was a state of the art Civilian exploration vessel and only recentlypleted.


    "You can input their alloys into the Materials Printers as well and rebuild it just as it was the first time. I don''t know what you will do with the Warp Drive though unless you have the schematics or you are going to rece it with one of our designs." Max told the excited group of tech nerds.


    "We will use a new hybrid drive. Compiling what we know of human Warp Technology and the new designs that we have been working on, we can make one custom fit to this hull." The Innu told Max, so excited that she was practically vibrating.


    "Well then, have fun with that. I will try not to distract you too much since this is paid work, as well as material for your video stream. I will only need to pull you away if a new trade partner requires something custom made." Max told them and then retreated from the onught of hyper-excited thoughts.

 Chapter 449 449 Death Wind Territory

    With the rescue missionplete, Max turned his attention to the trade deals that needed to be made in the outer reaches of the Death Wind Territory. Normally, these would be among thest to join the Alliance, but many of them were already on good terms with the Reavers since they were the only group willing to run the embargo ced around the Mercenary-run territory and bring them essential supplies.


    The closest base to them belonged to the ck Wolves, a Mercenary Company with long-term ties to the Loutian n, a Reaver Family like the Tarith Family. They were trusted allies of the Reavers and were on the shortlist for the alliance, so Max sent a message to their homeworld immediately.


    [ck Wolves Command, this is Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, here to discuss the terms of a potential Trade Agreement with the Reavers.] Max''s simple message was enough to get the point across, and the fact that it was sure to be intercepted by other Mercenary groups meant that it was best to avoid any chance of misunderstanding.


    [The Terminus Trading Company? How did you get all the way out here to the fringes of the gxy?] The ck Wolves replied, not trusting a random message, even with the appropriate codes, given the strange situation.


    [We had a mission to do for the Alliance, and we came here by Portal.] Max told them.


    That brought long minutes of radio silence before the ck Wolves replied with a simple set of coordinates for their Space Station.


    Terminus set out for the indicated location as soon as the message was received, not wanting to attract more attention from Pirates after they destroyed two vessels and took what they would view as their rightful prize, the disabled Alliance vessel.


    Two Cruisers met them at the border of ck Wolf''s home star system and guided them in, as the station was hidden behind aplex array of shields and traps. Even knowing where it was would not guarantee that you could get to it safely without an escort.


    Max realized along the way that the sensors on Terminus could see through most of the tricks and signal jamming technologies, which made the journey much less perilous for them, but out of courtesy, they closely followed their guide toward the final destination, an immense Space Station surrounding the moon of an inner.


    The close proximity to the star was used to harness sr energy for their purposes since it was very difficult to get ahold of specialty parts for other forms of reactors, a result of the concerted effort to destroy any Mercenary Company which managed to obtain manufacturing technology that wasn''t approved by the powers closer to the center of the Gxy.


    That would normally pose a problem for Max''s n to spread the Materials Printers and Replicators, but they already had the Crystal Matrix power nts used for the Warp Drives and the organic power packs, so Max was sure that he could have the staff create something to provide them sufficient output to keep replicators running.


    The sr array was quite impressive, though, and being so close to the star, they would be harvesting an immense amount of energy, so it might not be necessary at all. Their ships could power the Replicators without issue, it was only the Space Station or anyary settlement that they were in charge of that Max was concerned about.


    [Wee to the ck Wolves home, Commander Keres. Please dock at the closest avable pier, and we will send a team to wee you.] The Station greeted them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The station fully encircled a small moon, and Max wondered if they had built it themselves or if a failed colonization attempt had left it behind. Many outer arm stars had been colonized and abandoned in the past due to violent fighting between colonies or various crises.


    Admiral Drake docked them at the station, using a bay that was almost perfectly fitted to their cargo doors, a small luxury that anyone moving goods between the two would appreciate. Then, they waited.


    The Mercenaries knew where they were, but getting here from the far side of the moon, or wherever they were currently, could take some time.


    That time ended up being less than thirty minutes, so they must have been led to a point close to where the staff was already waiting for them. The ck Wolves sent a ten-person team, including one man who bore the badge of a Mercenary Company Captain, indicating that he either controlled a ship of their fleet, or the station itself, an honor that Max hadn''t expected, given the short notice.


    "So, it is true that your Colony Ship can open portals across the Gxy. We heard it from the informants, but we truly didn''t believe it until we got confirmation that you had just been in Klux and sent back two Holy Truth Cruisers mere days ago.


    Here you are, so what is it that the Reavers are proposing, a set fee to run the blockade?"


    The man waspletely practical and was speaking for himself instead of letting his second inmand do it, so Max had to answer instead of leaving the annoying part to Nico this time.


    "We propose a Free Trade agreement among all members and a mutual defense pact, with terms of nonaggression. You can infight all you want, but the agreement states that no member will be the aggressor between nations and that they will assist allies if another nation does move against them." Max exined, then sent them the official agreement for them to look over.


    "Have a seat and take your time to read through it. We have time." Max offered, gesturing to the same round table that they used for thest negotiation.


    The decorations in the room had been reced, as thest set of equipment had been transferred on Klux, but there was a new Materials Printer and a Replicator in the room, as well as one of the more heavily armed shuttles that Nico had developed for moving infantry teams around.


    The Mercenaries would love those. They frequently entered hostile environments on foot to search for treasures and valuable materials, as well as the frequently requested bodyguard duties and boarding actions that Mercenaries were famous for.

 Chapter 450 450 But Will It Kill?

    The Mercenaries all looked at the staff with great interest when they produced Rum and snacks from the Replicator and ced them in the middle of the table.


    Max was the first to move, pouring a dozen sses of Rum, which emptied the bottle, and then taking a cream puff from the tray and popping it into his mouth.


    "There''s just something about the taste of Replicated whipped cream, you know? It''s not the same as the reconstituted powder stuff that we used to keep in our pantry." Max told them between sips of his drink.


    "We use the Replicator for almost all our meals now, it''s just better than keeping a full pantry, but we do grow some of our own fresh food aboard the ship. The Rum, though, that is the best part." Maxughed as the Mercenaries were still looking nervous about the offering.


    "If you want to call for a Cyborg, we can wait," Nico suggested.


    "Bah, the Reavers wouldn''t kill someone like me with poison in the first ce." One of the guardsughed, then downed the Rum and popped a pastry in his mouth.


    His eyes immediately began to water, and he let out a soft wheeze and tapped the table. His allies all began to reach for weapons before he waved them off with a growing smile on his face.


    "Damn, I forgot what good Rum is like. We make ale here on the station, and it might as well be water inparison," he exined.


    "And here I thought you were just confident in your drinking ability." Max chuckled, realizing what had happened.


    Now that the initial test was out of the way everyone else gave the food a sample, with most going for the sweets but a few going for the meat and crackers.


    "It tastes fresh, like we are in an agricultural world, and picked it all up at the market. That''s incredible. We don''t have an inhabitable world of our own, the Company isn''trge enough to defend one all the way out here, but with this, we can live like kings." The Mercenary Captain sighed.


    "What do you have to input to make things like this?" The first man to drink asked, looking at the Replicator in the corner of the room.


    "Any form of biomass will work. We use algae from our hydroponicbs, but you could use anything you have in abundance. Hell, you could use chopped-up Klem if you were brave enough." Max told them with a smile.


    They all shuddered at the thought, and Nico rolled her eyes. "It''s rbined. I don''t get why everyone treats it like eating bugs."


    A young woman from the Mercenary teamughed at her expression, then did a double take as she realized that Nico was a full conversion and not just a Reaver with artificial eyes.


    "You might have forgotten about the necessity of food, and I don''t know how long it has been since you were fully human, but even the thought of Klem inside me is enough to be repulsive."


    The man sitting next to her smirked at that and decided to taunt his teammate. "Like a bit of cooked Klem would be the most disgusting thing you''ve had inside you."


    The young woman pped him directly off his chair to the uproariousughter of the rest of her team, as well as the Reavers, who were close enough to hear hisment.


    "It''s good to see a team that gets along so well. Thest group we visited was a bit uptight and rigid. Thest two, if you count the idiots of the Holy Truth." Nicoughed.


    "You get used to them. We are the station crew, so we don''t get out much. We just sort and repair and repair some more. We''ve got more Mechanics on the station than anything else, and some days it''s still not enough to keep things running as smoothly as I would like." The Captain, who seemed to be the Base Commander, answered.


    "Well, we''ve got top ss Materials Printers for everyone who signs the treaty, a Reaver-developed technology that every Trade Group member will have ess to. It should make life easier for your staff if they can toss the damaged part into the printer and have it repaired.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Replicator is mostly a quality of life improvement, and it has been pretty popr, but the Materials Printers are more practical." Max told them.


    "You aren''t afraid of the Embargo?"


    Max shook his head at that. "They will either join the Trade Group, or they will be wiped out the first time they attack a member. There won''t be an embargo for long, and the Reavers are hoping that this part of space can be developed to a higher state than it is now, so we don''t have patches of humanity living in the technological dark ages while others are already pushing Warp 10 trade vessels and unconcerned about food supplies."


    "Then what do you need the Mercenary Companies for? We''re not national powers." The station Commander pointed out.


    "You''re not. But you are skilled fighters and trade groups. You might deal in the gray market, but with some new vessels and an agreement that will eliminatepetition with the Reavers, you can take trade missions all over the human territory."


    They spent a long time thinking about that and talking among themselves while the staff brought out more bottles of Rum and, eventually, a full meal.


    Max could read in their thoughts that they were in contact with the Mercenary Company''s real bosses, so he didn''t interrupt their quiet conversations. Each of them was linked to a Ship Captain of the fleet, and they were discussing it on behalf of their representative faction.


    "Everyone has seen and read the agreement, but we are waiting for two more Captains who can''t be contacted right now. The ck Wolf rules say that all alliances must be unanimous, and without thest two votes, we can''t make a decision right away." The Station Captain exined.


    "That''s fine. We have both time and patience. Would you like to spend the evening on the Cruise Ship portion of Terminus? All we ask is that you behave and don''t harass the alien guests." Max offered.


    "You have aliens aboard?" The Captain asked.


    "As Customers, Guests and Employees, yes. All of them are from the Alliance, the so-called Ghost Ships, as many of the Mercenaries call them." Nico replied before Max could and then called in one of the Innu Technicians.


    "Well, I''ll be damned. You really do. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss." The Captain greeted the Technician.


    "Do you bring new things? Or do you need old things fixed?" The Technician asked, not aware of why she was called in.


    "They are going to go to the Cruise Ship, and we didn''t want to startle them too much," Nico exined.


    "Oh, so you don''t need me to recalibrate his Laser Pistol? It''s down over thirty percent in output due to the damaged reflector." The Technician asked sadly.


    "Not today. But we can offer him a new one if it makes you feel better."


    "Please do. Poorly maintained equipment hurts the soul." The slender woman with pink skin agreed, her hair tentacles wiggling in frustration.


    "The Innu canmune with Technology. She meant it when she said it was mentally painful to see a piece of gear in poor repair. It annoys them as much as if you were wearing your coat one button out of even." Nico exined as the Technician left the room in frustration.


    The Station Captain was rendered nearly speechless.


    "Oh, I see."

 Chapter 451 451 Cruise Ships Need Guests

    Max led the group to the rooms he had picked for them, halfway up the Cruise Ship area, and well away from where the others were staying, just in case there was an incident or the negotiations fell through at the ck Wolf end.


    Thest thing that he wanted was for one of their visitors from the Alliance to be injured or killed. It would ruin not only their reputation but the reputations of all humans in the eyes of the Alliance arbiters, even if the Illithid spoke on their behalf.


    Some barriers could be deployed all over the ship to stop a violent rampage, but even one casualty was too many at this point, and it was making even the most basic of hospitality seem stressful to Max. Mercenaries, like the Reavers themselves, viewed it as rude and a sign of distrust to ask them to leave their sidearms behind, so he couldn''t even do that much to ensure the safety of his guests.


    The ck Wolf Company wasn''t likely to start any trouble, though, and they were getting along very well with the Innu Technician who had joined them for the walk. She was happy to discuss the technical aspects of the things they saw along the way, like the Gravity slides, which the Mercenaries didn''t quite understand until they saw an off-duty pilote gliding out the end of a tunnel and into a pool.


    "So, you''re saying that you built a giant waterslidework through the entire public portion of the ship? Exactly how many disposable resources do the Reavers have?" One of the Mercenary representatives asked.


    "Oh, this is nothing. The water can be filtered and recycled, so we don''t lose much of it, and Terminus carries enough resources to be self-sufficient for decades, assuming minimal casualties among the Mecha forces." Nico offered.


    "You have a strong Mecha force? Most Reaver vessels don''t. They prefer ship-to-shipbat and trade missions, with fewer rescues. That''s what we usually do." The Station Captain asked.


    "Terminus is an emergency response vessel, thanks to her unique technologies. We carry a full Heavy Mecha Regiment with some special surprises." Max informed them with a wink.


    That earned them a lot of respect from the Mercenary Company, who were quite eager to learn about the defensive capability of Terminus, which was the only vessel of the Trade Group that they were nning to join that was in the region around their base.


    "Are they the new patterns that we have heard the Reavers are making in the Rae 5 system? I have seen some photos of them from our informants, and they look quite impressive." One of the Mercenaries, a big man with a scar running from his mouth to the back of his head,mented.


    "That''s right. We were the test fleet for them, so our entire force is new pattern mecha made by the Reavers. We poached some top talents in the chaos, and I can say for certain that they are not inferior to current-generation Kepler or Cygnus Mecha.


    Once you are firmly dedicated to the Trade Group, they will be made avable to you as well. The Reaver Captains only agreed to hold back until we are sure that they won''t be going to double agents who want to get their hands on more firepower before breaking the terms and attacking their neighbors."


    The Station Captain looked intrigued by the answer and followed up with a simple question. "Why are the Reavers of all people so dedicated to nonaggression between sr systems? In the past, they kept neutral and served everyone equally. This could hurt their customer base and trust."


    "The Alliance that these alien speciese from is arge part of the driving force. They have incredible technologies to improve humanity''s standards of living, and we want ess to them. The Reavers will continue to service anyone who isn''t attacking a member of their group, so that much won''t change, but if we can convince all of humanity to keep it in their pants for a couple of generations, we can earn ourselves some intergctic trust and start working toward opening up trade to other gxies."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "So, the Reavers are ying the long game to open up some new markets?" One of the Mercenaries asked.


    "Not just some. The market share is roughly ten thousand times the size of the entire human poption, spread over thousands of Gxies. If we could sell our specialties to them, we would never run out of customers, and we simply aren''t capable of producing enough to ovee demand. The Gxy doesn''t have the logistics or manpower." Max exined, and the Mercenaries stared at him with awe.


    "What about the ones who just love a good fight? Even if it isn''t a war, some folk need to fight." The scar-faced man asked.


    "There''s still the Klem, the Narsians, and hundreds more increasingly dangerous species. We already met a group calling themselves the Hunters, which uses a Biomechanical Mecha technology to hunt beasts that make the Klem look like angry puppies." Nico informed him.


    The two shared an overjoyed look, reveling in the potential for intergctic hunting missions to rece the mundane reality of war, and Max realized that actually gaining membership in the Alliance was not something that was going to happen in a single generation or likely even ten. They might have a chance at bing trade partners like the Hunters, though.


    "Here we are, the seventh floor. You might as well take the luxury suites since the ship is almost empty at the moment. We just have some members of a nt species and the Innu staying here right now." Max offered.


    The Mercenaries hesitated, wondering what was included in a luxury suite and if the Reavers were trying to bribe them with something illicit. The Reavers had killed entires over human trafficking rings in the past, though, so that wasn''t their major concern. But the Station Captain knew that a supply of illicit drugs, which the Reavers had no problems delivering as long as they weren''t too addictive, could sway some of his team.


    "Don''t worry. It''s just the basic stuff you would expect on a high-end cruise. Comfortable beds, hot tubs in the rooms, holographic theaters, and ensuite replicators in case you need a snack or an off-schedule meal.


    There are restaurants all over the area, with the majority of the ones closest to you being on floor five. That''s where most of our crew goes to party and rx when they are off duty, so you will find the closest thing we have to a crowd there if you feel like socializing." Max exined after hearing their thoughts.


    "Now we''re talking. Do you have dancers? Live bands?" One of the men on the mercenary team asked.


    "The dancers are holograms, sorry. But we have live bands. Since we don''t have to worry so much about storage as a smaller ship does, we have a couple of talented and fully equipped musical groups in the crew."


    Max opened the door to the first suite, and the Mercenaries stopped in their tracks. It was just a single-bedroom suite, very simr to the one Max stayed in, though without the extra rooms attached and a smaller living room, butpared to the rough and simple decor of a Mercenary station, it was practically a royal pce.


    "This whole section is the same. Pick the rooms you want, and the door locks will register your fingerprints when you enter for the first time. The red light on the door means it is assigned to someone else."

 Chapter 452 452 Mercenaries Incoming

    Max set the rm to get up early the next morning to prepare for their meetings, but it seemed that the rm wasn''t early enough. He was awoken by an urgent message from the bridge staff.


    [Sir, we have iing Mercenary Vessels. Not just a few. Our signals count over fifty.] The radio officer informed him.


    The ck Wolves should only have a dozen vessels, and some of them barely qualified as Cutters, so either they had brought back allies to split up loot after a sessful mission, or this was a trap.


    [All hands to ready stations. Mercenary ships are iing, and we have not yet determined if they are all friendly.] Max ordered, quickly getting into the augmentic armor suit that he had been given after the trials wereplete but leaving the helmet in the t space storage.


    He raced to his office, where he could check the screens and view the data streams much more conveniently than the projections from his new watch. It did indeed show over fifty signatures, though some of them might be doubled up, as arge vessel could take a few smaller ones into their warp field for shelter and ease of transport.


    [Someone, find me the ck Wolves Station Captain, I want to know what is going on.] Max called over the Regiment-wide general channel.


    [I''m with him now, Commander. It seems that their transmission wasn''t as secure as they thought it was, and every friendly Mercenary group that they passed wanted in on the action, as well as a few hostile ones who wanted to give them a try inbat before they could finish the deal.] Nico replied, and Max could hear the sound of boots thumping on the walkways as she spoke.


    That meant they were likely running either to him or to one of the meeting rooms in the public areas, which were set up for groupmunications.


    That seemed like the more likely choice, so Max got up and searched the thoughts of the crew to find their location before running to join them.


    As he ran, he started to get a list of the Mercenary Companies that wereing their way. They were all friendly or neutral toward the Reavers, though not all on the shortlist for early alliances. Doing things in bulk might work much better, though, as he could pull a whole region of the Death Wind Territory in at once if he yed his cards right.


    With the new generation Cutters and a Titan ss Mecha on board, he wasn''t particrly concerned about being overrun if they decided to y a trick on him, so Max started making preparations in his mind about how he would begin the negotiations once the leaders of these groups arrived.


    By the time Max made it to the room where the Station Captain was chatting with the new arrivals, the details of the iing fleet were already known. There were only tworge Mercenary Companies among the mix, the ck Wolves and the Exterminators, a massive group that specialized in border fights against Klem waves.


    Apanying them were thirty small, single vessel Mercenary Companies who did mostly bodyguard work and lived from their ships, with no permanent base station or homeworld of their own.


    That meant that this deal wouldn''t gain them much territory, but it would gain them arge force of trade vessels that could assist with their early attempts to corner the market.<novelnext></novelnext>


    One after another, the ships docked around the station, spreading out in an organized dance of steel like they had practiced all their lives. Once they were in ce, the Station Commander turned to Max and put on his best formal smile.


    "We have a request to join the negotiations. Thirty-one new groups would like to join the Reavers Trade Group."


    "Please invite them aboard. I will have the crew prepare more seating for the meeting." Max replied, then sent out the message to make sure that there were at least seventy seats at the main table and much more seating in the back for assistants and others.


    The room was ready quickly, but it took an hour before the Mercenary groups had assembled outside the cargo bay door where Terminus was docked with the station. It looked like they had sorted themselves into some sort of hierarchy based on the strength of their forces or perhaps by some sort of internal ranking that Max was unaware of.


    The man in front was huge, almost tall enough to be a Narsian, at 2.8 meters, and heavily modified with cybeics.


    "Commander Keres of the Reavers. I am Commander Arnold of the Exterminators. It is a pleasure to meet you." The big man greeted Max when he stepped through the threshold.


    "Likewise," Max replied, shaking his hand and getting a mighty squeeze in return.


    A normal human''s hand would have been pulverized, but Max was no normal human, even without the addition of the augmentic armor, and his return greeting was met with the squeal of hydraulics being forced open as his grip strength exceeded their limits.


    "So what they say about Kepler Commanders is true. Small but mighty." Commander Arnold smirked, pleased with the result of his test.


    Max could already tell that this man was going to be difficult to deal with, but his fleet included a Human-made colony ship, aary base, and over twenty otherrge vessels. They were supposed to be contacted by the main negotiating fleet more than a month from now, but Max''s appearance at the ck Wolves base had drawn their attention.


    "Come, let''s find a seat, and then everyone can introduce themselves." Max insisted, motioning to the huge round table that was now set up in three concentric rings, with the rear two on risers so that the upants could see what was happening at floor level.


    "You don''t look concerned with all these Mercenaries aboard your ship." Commander Arnold noted as he took a seat next to Max in the central ring.


    "Terminus herself is a force to be reckoned with, and we have a few technological advances that can provide personal security." Max agreed, tapping the new augmentic armor he was wearing.

 Chapter 453 453 Expansion

    Once everyone was seated, it became clear to Max that they were almost all subordinate to Commander Arnold and would follow his lead in these negotiations, trusting him to broker the deal on their behalf.


    "Now that everyone is gathered, we will start things over. I know some of you have been informed of the details of our proposal already, and I have sent a copy of the Trade Agreement to every Captain and Commander.


    So, that brings us back to the introduction of the benefits. The most important to the majority of you is that the Reavers are willing to share their advances in Warp Drive Technology with all members of the trade group.


    I have seen that many of the ships in the fleet are Warp 2 and Warp 3 generation vessels. That is impressive here in Death Wind Territory, but soon the embargo will be gone, and on the scale of the whole of humanity, it isn''t fast enough.


    So, the Reavers have offered to help you retrofit your vessels or purchase new trade vessels that have top speeds exceeding what your current hull designs are capable of."


    The whole room burst into excited conversations as the Mercenaries worked to digest the fact that the Reavers were capable of doing something that had been a mere dream to them for Millennia.


    "At what cost?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "Just as you read in the agreement. Materials,bor, plus a fifteen percent markup and five percent tax. That goes for a retrofit as well as purchasing entire new vessels.


    The stations gathered in the Rae 5 system have already begun turning out new hulls in preparation for the expected orders, and I am sure that at least one or two of the Companies has gathered the assets for an upgrade that they were unable to obtain in the past."


    The Commander''s look was somewhere between cid and mildly surprised, but his thoughts were a jumble of shock and awe that Max was taking as a good sign.


    "So, you are saying that if I turn over the resources, I could have new hulls here within the year?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "I am saying that once your Company is a Trade Group member, I can open a portal to Rae 5, and you can have new Warp 10 capable Cutters that day, assuming you have the resources gathered," Max exined.


    The room was now too loud for anything to get done, so Max simply waited and practiced the mental technique that the Illithid had taught him to lower the volume of the thoughts around him, so it didn''t feel like a hundred people were shouting in his mind.


    It worked very well, and he was able to focus only on the few influential Captains within a minute, silencing everyone else''s thoughts to a quiet murmur.


    "We will want a lot of vessels, both for ourselves and our vassals." Commander Arnold warned him.


    "As long as they are members. The agreement states that the new technology isn''t to be spread outside of the Trade Group, an incentive to membership, if you will. But as of thest time I checked, there should be at least two dozen vessels ready and waiting, though some will have been snapped up by the Reavers already.


    Don''t worry, though. They have some earmarked for purchase by new members so that everyone understands that the Trade Group isn''t just for the benefit of the Reavers. The Materials Printers and Replicators we can build right here on Terminus, so that isn''t going to be a problem unless you need more than we have the materials to create."


    They had a huge amount of suitable ore in the ship that they had saved from their previous trade deals, so unless they wanted to retrofit an entire, Max wasn''t too concerned about that part of their orders.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "How good are the Materials Printers? We have some among the Exterminators fleet already."


    Max smirked at the question. "They are an upgrade on the previous generation of Kepler military units. They might not be as good as the bleeding edge units we are still experimenting on, but they are solid units capable of producing everything from domestic items to entire Mecha if you have the ns."


    That got their attention. They hadn''t expected to get technology at that level out of the trade deal, but more importantly, it meant that the Reavers were already working on an upgrade that would give them the upper hand on anyone who might oppose them. With all the chaos in the gxy, it was unlikely that anyone else was devoting much manpower to research and development of nobat technology.


    "I want to see it." Commander Arnold demanded, producing a data card from his jacket.


    That was clearly a Cygnus military data card, and it didn''t look too old, so it might even contain current-generation equipment ns. How they got it was a secret that the Exterminators could keep to themselves, but as long as the security measures didn''t corrupt it during extraction, the Materials Printer could work with it.


    "Follow me. We have a unit set up already, and you can input your blueprints and make whatever you like within the limits of the resources we have set out." Max offered.


    They had set out enough for most basic items, but if the Commander wanted to make a whole Mecha, it was going to have to wait.


    Commander Arnold followed him to the side of the room while everyone at the tables turned to watch them as well as they could.


    The big mercenary was clearlypetent and familiar with the interface, quickly navigating the menus before inserting the data card that he had produced and beginning the process of creation.


    Only a few minutester, a shiny new sma Shotgun, in light Mecha size, suitable for such a huge man to carry as a heavy weapon, sat on the floor of the bay.


    With reverent hands, the Commander picked it up, and a small cable extended from his arm, powering up the insert weapon and bringing up the menus, as well as a 1 percent charged notification. That wasn''t enough to fire a shot, but it was more than enough to run the diagnostics and produce a puff of sma at the end of the verification.


    "It really worked. With this level of technology, the Death Wind Territory would be on par with the major powers for the first time in their history. Are the Reavers sure that they want to sell such a valuable thing to all of their allies?"


    Max snorted in amusement. "Do you think there is a Mercenary Company in existence that could take the entire might of the Reavers and their allies if they broke the agreement and used the technology to attack their neighbors?"


    That brought a few chuckles from the other Captains. Of course, there wasn''t. Not even the entire group of them working together would dare to dere war on the Reavers. They weren''t idiots like the Tapani.


    "You have a point. So the mutual defense pact is also a way of maintaining order. What about domestic issues?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "What about them? This is a trade alliance. Internal issues are internal issues. They only be an issue if leadership changes." Max informed the room.

 Chapter 454 454 A New Hope

    "So, you don''t intend to interfere in internal issues or issue governance guidance for members?" The Mercenary Commander asked.


    "No, we only intend to ensure that international incidents stop. There are too many humans for one leadership group to work for the benefit of everyone, but if we can stop the interster wars, we can expand our trade into the Alliance after some time.


    They turned down our application once already, as humans were too violent and unrestrained to be deemed civilized, but we can change that and bring our Gxy up to the standard where other Gxies will at least trade with us." Max exined.


    "The invincible ships? Now that''s a lofty goal. No wonder the Reavers are taking action with that sort of trade Market up for grabs." The big manughed, understanding the driving motivation behind Max''s push to expand their group.


    "It''s a long way in the future, but the first step is to stop our people from going to war with each other. The Reavers n to do that by bringing everyone up to a higher standard of living, where there simply won''t be so much of a need to fight over resources. The Trade Group will do that by cornering the market with an overwhelming force of numbers until nobody dares to start a war."


    That made sense to the Mercenaries, and if they weren''t going to interfere in internal matters, it meant that it wouldn''t mess with their business, which wasn''t international war but domestic issues and security.


    "Try the Rum. We''ve gone too long without Rum." The Station Commander called from a seat in the back since his bosses had taken the seats up front.


    "Where are my manners? Of course, there is Rum." Nicoughed, bringing out an entire pushcart full of matching liquor bottles.


    "Fresh from the Replicators. Have a drink and look over the agreement. Ask us anything that you have concerns about, and we will work with you." Max told the group.


    "Do the Reavers really have Warp 10 capable vessels? I heard a rumor, but that''s all it is. A rumor." One of the Captains asked.


    "We are using them to deploy our Mecha here aboard Terminus. Would you like a speed test?" Nico offered on behalf of the crew.


    "Seriously? Isn''t this a Colony Ship?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "It''s far more than that. We have added facilities for intergctic vacationers, and we carry the firepower to keep our interests safe. It wouldn''t make any sense for the Reavers to send a ship forward to make deals if we couldn''t deal with the fallout if a deal didn''t work out." Max replied.


    "Let''s just take them to the hangar. Let them see the First Battalion in person, and it should answer all of the concerns about our capability." Nico suggested.


    That would definitely work. It would reveal their military might sooner than Max had intended to, but it would silence all the critics at once if they saw the Mecha force that Terminus could deploy. The Mercenaries would see it sooner orter. Not every deal would go so smoothly, and there were other threats out here that they had to deal with, including various species as vicious as the Klem but not as widespread.


    "Field trip, everyone. Get up and follow us." Commander Arnold dered, taking charge of the Mercenary forces and leaving Max no room to refuse the demonstration.


    Max bristled a little at the other man issuing orders aboard his vessel, but he was only directly ordering the Mercenaries, not the staff of Terminus. That was where Max would draw the line.


    The First Battalion''s Cutter was only a few bays down, so Max walked the whole entourage down the hallways as Nico borated on the design elements of the new vessels that the Reavers were making, getting everyone ready for the reveal of the Cutter.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Company was loaded aboard the ship already, in preparation for emergency deployment, so they would reveal the Mecha second after the Mercenaries had a moment to take in the outer appearance of the high-speed ship.


    "And this is the home of the First Company. Excuse their mess. I can see that they have been tinkering with their toys." Nico weed everyone to the hangar. Their repair team had been doing a few bits of maintenance while they waited, so there were some Light Mecha in the new pattern, which none of the Mercenaries had seen before, sitting out on the repair racks.


    Nico ignored that, though, and introduced everyone to the Cutter itself, going over the performance and storage capabilities.


    "We also have a pure trade version avable, with smaller facilities for the crew, and a slightlyrger hull, giving fifty percent more capacity, with no loss of speed or maneuverability." She exined, then remotely opened the walkway that would lead them in the back doors to the Mecha bay.


    "We will go in the back today since I know you are all concerned about the military might that we can offer to enforce the rules, should ite to that.


    This is the First Battalion of our Regiment, and we do have a few hidden aces up our sleeves, but I think you will be impressed." She told the Mercenary Captains, then stopped at the base of the ramp, where the mighty form of Enduring Rage was parked at the entrance, taking the role of the point attacker during assaults.


    The stop was perfectly timed, and the bay went silent as everyone stared at the Super Heavy Mecha and the unusual armament it was equipped with.


    "Meet the Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha, the next generation of war machines being produced by the Reavers. These aren''t avable for public purchase yet, but the Crusader ss variants that you will see in a second are."


    All at once, the Captains rushed forward to get a better look at the Mecha.


    "Six Battle Cannons and a pair of Ion Bombard Arrays? That''s insane. Oh, I see defensive Lasers as well." Commander Arnoldmented with a whistle of appreciation.


    "Those are actually Mass Drivers, much more powerful and longer ranged than the conventional Battle Cannons. The Ion Bombard Arrays are also an upgrade on the original design. She also has a multiyered defensive shielding capability for defense.


    The Crusader ss variants also share the shielding on a smaller scale and have some unique new weapons. The details will be avable to members when an order is ced with the factories on Rae 5." Nico informed him.


    "With a force like this, no wonder you are confident." Commander Arnold replied, looking enviously over at the second Super Heavy Mecha in the hold.


    "This is only the First Battalion. Rest assured. We have much more to go with it. Terminus is not a soft target." Max told the big man with a confident smile.


    This might be the easiest way to negotiate with a difficult Mercenary Group. If there was one universal truth in life, it was that strength was always respected. And they had the strength to back up their words, even this far from their home base.


    "So, let''s see this ship in action. The Mecha are clearly powerful, but getting them to the battlefield is always the most difficult part of the mission." Commander Arnold dered, doing his best to keep an impassive face while Max could read the joy and excitement in his thoughts.

 Chapter 455 455 Joyride

    Nico escorted everyone to the front of the ship, where there was a crewpartment with windows so that the infantry could see what was going on as they deployed instead of sitting in the dark waiting to see what was happening.


    "These will be our seats for today''s voyage. Our crew has already requested for a navigator from the ck Wolves to join them so that we can safely navigate a path around this star system and surrounding areas.


    Please buckle yourselves in. The gravity control is quite good inside the ship, but we don''t need any incidents should the unforeseen ur."


    The Mercenaries chuckled at Nico''s phrasing, asmon sense dictated that you would get a fair bit of feedback from maneuvering as well as the Warp Transition. Their ships were even more dated than the Abraham Kepler, where Max and Nico had started their careers, and that ship had enough of a lurch that the crew just epted that arge portion of them was going to feel nauseous every single time they went to warp.


    "I will bring up navigational data on the board in case the view out the window gets confusing. The distortion at higher warp speeds can make the world outside the bubble lookpletely foreign. If you wish to confirm our routes and speed, I am certain that your vessels will have their own logs of our route when we return, so you don''t need to just take our word for it." Nico added.


    Most merchants would be at least a bit offended if you questioned the integrity of their demonstrations, but this was no simple purchase. The Death Wind Territory had been under embargo for over a thousand years, and every time they attempted to create a new shipyard or other military manufacturing facilities, they were viciously attacked by the border nations to keep them deprived of the might to fight back.


    That meant that most of thesepanies had never even had the chance to obtain a new ship. They weren''t pirates who would raid a vessel to im as their own, and the missions that they took weren''t high enough profile that any client would risk the retaliation of a dozen small nations to pay with prohibited goods.


    At least not prohibited goods as high profile as a new military space vessel.


    The Reavers were the first in a Millennia that were brave enough to even try, and not only were they offering new ships, but also state-of-the-art Mecha, in medium and Heavy categories, not just the Line Mecha that most Mercenarypanies relied upon.


    Big groups like the ck Wolves or Exterminators would have dozens or even a hundred Heavy Mecha, salvaged from battlefields or covertly purchased from more distant customers, but that put them in apletely different category than the single-ship operators.


    [Departing Hangar in 5 seconds.] The pilot of the Cutter announced, then gently guided the ship out of Terminus''s enclosure and out into space.


    That alone was enough to impress a lot of the Captains. Smooth maneuvering in tight quarters was a sign of precision skills and engineering, and they hadn''t even felt the ship move, only watched the bay disappear around them as it left the mothership.


    [ck Wolves Navigator reports that the route is ready for autopilot. Engaging Warp Drives as soon as we are at a safe distance.]<novelnext></novelnext>


    The ship''s thrusters took them well away from the station and into open space that was designated for ships going to warp so that the field creation and energy surges wouldn''t affect the station or the defense systems that had been set up to defend the Mercenary Company''s base.


    The hull of the Cutter shook gently as the Warp Drives engaged, and the world distorted outside of the window before turning into streaks of light as the ship raced up to maximum speed, showing off for their customers.


    "Was that a Warp Trantion? It was, wasn''t it? That is incredible. I didn''t know it was even possible to shift so smoothly." Commander Arnold had lost all sense of decorum once the ship was underway, purely shocked by the experience.


    "Why is my data feed getting distorted? Is there something strange about the Warp Field that interferes withmunications?" One of the other Captains asked, looking at the messages his crew had sent.


    "We are currently heading away from your vessels at Warp 10.5, and the subspacemunications that your ships are using only travel between warp six and warp eight. The distortion is caused by the speed differential.


    But the high-speed vessels doe with upgradedmunications so that you can keep in touch with others as you wish, though those without the new technology will still have trouble contacting you when the vessel is traveling away from them." Max exined.


    Theypleted the turning point of the demonstration, on the far side of a nearby star, and began heading back, which filled everyone''s devices with a flood of notifications as they caught up to the messages that had been sent to them while they were underway.


    Commander Arnold''s smile was getting bigger with every word that Max spoke. "I hadn''t even considered the implications of that sort of speed. This means that if we run an embargo line, we will arrive before the messages warning the reinforcements of our impending arrival. That is a huge advantage when passing through hostile territories. At least for now."


    Before long, they had dropped out of Warp and were gliding back into the hangar bay of Terminus, ready to continue the negotiations.


    "Please follow me out of the vessel, and we can have a bite of lunch before we continue the meetings," Nico informed the crowd.


    "Miss, we justnded." One of the Captains pointed out.


    "Oh, not a worry. The cargo bay shielding on Terminus has a hull temperature normalization feature. You only have to turn your engines off before you reach the bay and let the gravity beam to the work, and you can exit immediately upon arrival." Nico informed him, stunning the room into silence.

 Chapter 456 456 The Exterminator

    "So, you''re saying that not only do you have the fastest ships in the Gxy, you also have the technology to let them unload shuttles the instant they arrive, without the half-hour waiting times every time they enter and exit a cargo bay?" Commander Arnold asked."


    "That''s right. We can also keep a double barrier up, so we don''t need to worry about pressure loss, and you don''t need to evacuate the bay every time you need to move a vessel around for loading. It''s a real time saver." Max agreed.


    "That bit of technology alone would be enough for some of our traders to join your group. To think of all the contraband that could be moved if you could have a turnaround time of under a minute without worrying about damaging the cargo." One of the other Captains sighed.


    "You know, if you do it right, you don''t even need to enter. The gravity beam can pull the container out of the hold as you pass by, and as long as the crate can hold up to vacuum and hold temperature for a few seconds, it''s not a problem for it to move between vessels." Nico pointed out.


    ? That got the attention of every smuggler among the Mercenaries. They had often thought of it, but it simply wasn''t technologically feasible to do it when they needed to remove the atmosphere and evacuate both bays.


    The shielding around the bay doors wasn''t unheard of, but it wasn''t exactlymon either. Very few Kepler vessels had simr technology, mostly due to the fact that the hull temperatures and hot exposed engine parts would affect the atmospheric temperature so severely that it was more efficient to remove it entirely.


    "It''s a small invention that makes life better, but it is standard on all of the new vessels that the Reaver Shipyards are producing. Between the speed, the unique hull designs, optimized for maximum rear cargo space, and the added features, like on-board hydroponic supply systems for the Replicators, and the docking system, the Reavers are hoping that their designs will stand out as a sign of excellence in shipbuilding.


    They might not have many customers yet, but once the Gxy starts to learn where the new vessels areing from, it should really help their reputation. You know that a lot of nations view the Reavers in an unfavorable way, but we''re hoping to change all that in the near future."


    Nico''s spaceship salesman spiel made a few of the Captains chuckle, but after having experienced the pure luxury and capabilities of the new vessel, as well as the hangar bay of Terminus, theughter was all good-natured.


    "What about a retrofit? For a lot of us, these ships are our homes. Not just for a few years but for generations. Many of the bunks in my ship have gone through eight generations of Mercenaries now, with dozens of names scrawled on the wall, reminding the future generations that they were here." Commander Arnold asked.


    That turned the mood much more serious. The Commander had a point. As cool as a new, Warp 10 capable ship would be, for the longstanding Mercenary Companies, the main battleships were every bit as entrenched in their identity as any hometown could be.


    "We can sell you the Replicators, the Materials Printers, and the hangar bay door upgrades right now, and your own technicians can install and calibrate them, but Terminus doesn''t have enough staff to do more than a few full Warp Drive retrofits.


    We could open a portal for you to Rae 5, where they could do a Warp Drive upgrade, bringing your main ships up to Warp 4 or Warp 5 capabilities, depending on the design and condition of the hull itself. That would at least put you on an even footing with the major militaries of the Gxy when ites to ship speed, and then you can add the Cutters to the fleet when you are ready to purchase fast Merchant Ships." Max informed him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "So it is possible to keep these vessels up to standard. That is a good thing for the Death Wind Territory." He agreed, apanied by many words of agreement from the lesser Captains.


    "With enough resources, anything is possible," Nico added.


    "Anything is possible, you say? Like our own Shipyard, with design schematics to make those new Cutters that the Reavers are selling?" Commander Arnold asked with a sly wink.


    Nico returned his wink with a smirk of her own. "Anything. But the price won''t be cheap, and you would have to fight the border nations to be able toplete it right now.


    However, if you wait even one year while we finish the negotiations, I think that the Reaver Captains might be able to work you a much better deal than they could today."


    "Bah, they only leave us alone out here in the Death Wind Territory because the stars here are strange anyhow. There are too many base elements missing from our Star Systems to be able to make ships without importing resources even if we had the ns." One of the Captainsined.


    "But once we begin working the trade routes with high-speed Cutters, courtesy of the Reavers, we will be able to trade for what we don''t have. Given enough time, we could do it." Another Captain pointed out.


    "And that brings us back to what Tarith Rage said to start with. It''s possible if we have enough resources. Which means it''s probably not worth it." Commander Arnold sighed.


    "Every region of the gxy has its own specialties, based on the resources they have avable to them in abundance. As the Reavers learned when they tried to colonize a of their own, skilled workers are a vital resource too, and they can be harder to find than any rare element." Maxforted the big man.


    "Isn''t that the truth? Finding a skilled technician to run the Materials Printers and install the Replicators is going to be hard enough for most of us. I hope theye with a warranty and an instruction manual." One of the Captainsughed.


    That was a good sign. They weren''t considering whether to join anymore but what to do with the resources they were going to get after they did. The mental resistance to change was often the hardest part of the negotiations to get through, and they had just glided right past it.

 Chapter 457 457 Mercenary Vacation

    "If we wanted to send some smaller vessels to Rae 5 for a full refit, how long would they have to wait until the work could begin?" Commander Arnold asked once the crowd settled down again.


    "Atst update, there were sixteen empty dry dock spaces in that Star System that should be fully staffed. If you''re only sending a few vessels, it shouldn''t be a problem for them all to get started right away. But, as you know, Reavers are firste, first served sorts, and if another Mercenarypany or new ally beat you to the spot, you would have to wait." Max exined.


    Arnold nodded in understanding. That was how the Reavers always were. Getting priority and favors from them was nearly impossible.


    "Then, how long would it take you to make a Replicator for each of the vessels that we have here in the ck Wolves territory? We might have to wait for most of our ships to get new engines, but we can at least start eating well instead of rbined protein slurry." He asked.


    "There''s only about fifty of you here. If you want one per ship, we can make industrial units for your kitchens tonight and deliver them within 24 hours. If you want the smaller private units inrger quantities, it will take a while, but we do have a few in stock since ourst stop also wanted therger ones for their main meals and not a private replicator for their officers." Max offered.


    "We will take it. And the Exterminators want six Materials Printers." The Commander demanded.


    "Then you need to finish the paperwork. None of the good stuff goes out until you are officially a member of the Trade Group." Max replied, motioning for a staffer with the stack of agreements toe to the table.


    One after another, the Captains signed off, and their agreements were double-checked for validity, ensuring that no fake or prohibited groups were tagging along unnoticed. It didn''t seem to be a problem, the Mercenaries were quite selective about who they invited, despite therge number of groups that reported here at the same time, and only a few spelling errors slowed the process.


    That earned them some good-natured ribbing about their literacy from their fellow Captains, but the nervousness during the signing of such an important agreement was totally understandable to them all.


    "There we go, all signed up." Commander Arnold shouted happily once his copy of the agreement was collected and sent off to Rae 5 for verification and registration.


    "Excellent. I haven''t seen any reported issues with any of your applications, so we can start deliveries. Are there any other supplies that you need at the moment? Terminus carries a variety of raw materials for custom orders." Max suggested.


    "If you can send a team to the Station to help install the Replicators and Materials Printers that the ck Wolves have purchased, we would be willing to pay the full Death Wind going rate." The Space Station Commander requested.


    "That shouldn''t be an issue. We will need some time to make all of the other orders, so why don''t you all stay here aboard Terminus tonight? We have retrofitted the ship with the height of luxurious amodations, and all we ask is that you don''t harass the aliens." Nico replied on behalf of the maintenance teams.


    They would send human teams to the station for the safety of the Innu, who weren''t familiar with any other human cultural norms and might inadvertently cause an issue due to the fact that they were only really familiar with Terminus, and mostly Nico''s personal guidelines on behavior. Leaving them alone with Nico for that long was bound to cause an issue, but since they were so focused on their work, they hadn''t picked up on her bad habits or genocidal tendencies yet. At least, not as far as Max could tell.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I think we will take you up on that offer. I heard good things about your indoor beach and the tiki bar area." Captain Arnold agreed.


    There had been a party therest night, mostly infantry from the ill-fated Regiment who had been aboard since before Kepler fell. Their status was sort of in limbo, despite the fact that they were working aboard Terminus in dozens of different positions. They were more than simple crewmen since they were trained soldiers, but Max hadn''t had time to make an official status for them.


    Terminus didn''t officially have security staff since it was all military personnel, to begin with, but that would be the most logical position for the infantry, who didn''t fall easily into simple service jobs or mechanical work.


    "Call the staff and let them know we have plenty of guests for the Tiki lounge area. We can house them all in that same area so they don''t have far to stumble to get to their rooms for the night." Nico informed someone, who replied with a double beep of the radio as confirmation.


    "You boys are in for a treat. We have the finest of rooms for you, and theye with energy credits to update your wardrobe for a beach outing, so I will show you to them now, and you can get ready for an all-night party." Nico informed them.


    "Energy Credits?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "There are Replicators that only make a limited menu along with Terminus branded clothing and toiletries installed in every suite. You can either buy swimwear at the kiosk or create it inside your room. The Kiosk has a much better selection, as the room makes swimwear in one single style, as well as a bathrobe and slippers." Nico exined.


    "You see, they''re just flexing on us now. Oh, we have Materials Printers in every single room. Like that''s nothing at all." One of the Captainsughed.


    "It''s a Replicator, actually. Since the clothing is all made of natural fibers, it can be created out of the basic Replicator supply. No synthetic materials, but Cotton and linen are no problem for the Replicators." She exined to the confused Captains.


    "So, you''re saying that if I had enough materials, I could just make myself fresh underwear every single morning and trash the old ones instead of washing them?" Captain Arnold asked, intrigued.


    "It would be wasteful, but it would be simple to do. You could even set a timer so that it made fresh underwear and coffee for you every morning."


    "Pure Luxury." The big Commander agreed.

 Chapter 458 458 Cant Be Hungover If You Are Still Drunk

    Nico and Max led the Mercenaries to the Cruise Ship area, and the Station staff, who had been herest night, took it upon themselves to exin all the cool things they had seen along the way.


    "Why do we need to change anyhow?" One of the Captains asked when the Station staff stopped everyone at the first Kiosk that they came across.


    "Do you not know what a Tiki bar is? It''s on the beach, so rxing in the loungers in the water with a margarita is a given. There are hot tubs as well as holographic dancing girls. I asked about real ones, but it seems that they are too short-staffed to have real dancers everywhere." The Station Commander replied.


    "I asked thedies if they wanted to dance for a living, but they got a bit stabby about it." Nico joked.


    The Mercenary Captains shuddered at the thought. The women in their Companies were violent enough. They didn''t need to risk death by trying to convince the Reaver''s Mecha Pilots to change careers.


    Max left the Mercenaries to their own devices for the evening and headed back to his office to ensure that everything was going smoothly with the production of the Replicators and the Materials Printers that had been ordered.


    [Sir, we have a privatemunication from Commander Arnold. He would like to have four new Cutters delivered here to ck Wolf Station directly if possible. He has arranged payment with Rae 5, and they have his order in stock.] Amunications officer informed Max.


    That wasn''t the sort of thing that he would have wanted to say in front of all the other Captains, who mostly only had Cutter and Cruiser-sized ships of a much older vintage. It would make his allies look bad if he was unting his wealth in front of them, so he had done it afterward when everyone had settled in their rooms for an hour before they were going to meet for food and drinks.


    [Inform him that I will have them brought through after the Ships going for engine retrofit pass through the portals tomorrow. Also, inform Rae 5 of our intentions so that they can have them ready with a few tugs to make the delivery.] Max replied.


    [On it, Commander. I will make sure it is all organized and ready in the morning.]


    Most Mercenary Commanders in the Death Wind Territory didn''t demand payment immediately from the Reavers when they worked for them. Instead, they would keep an ount open with the Reaver Company in question and use it to purchase goods and services as they needed them.


    With old, established Families like the Tarith Reavers, the two groups could have had such rtions for centuries, so in the case of the Exterminators, it was surprising, but not entirely inconceivable that they could have had enough cash stored with the various Reavers Companies to outright purchase four new ships for blockade running.


    The Border Nations weren''t going to know what hit them, and they didn''t have anything fast enough to intercept, should the Exterminators decide it wasn''t even worth their trouble to hide. All they could do was swear or try to retaliate against their slower-moving orary assets, and that assumed that they could determine who was in the ship, to begin with.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Since these ones were in a brand new Reaver pattern, they wouldn''t be able to tell if it was a Mercenary Company or a Reaver Company that had run their embargo, and not one of them was brave enough to go to war with the Reavers, who were much more organized than the Mercenaries had ever been.


    Max kept watch on the tiki bar area untilte in the evening as he organized the delivery of the order that they were making, as well as the instation of the Replicator aboard the station, which his crew had started in the middle of the night so that it would be ready before breakfast for the staff to try.


    At five in the morning, he woke up and made his way to the Cruise Ship, where there were still Mercenaries partying. The orders were all ready to go out now, though he expected that they would have to wait untilter in the day, given the situation.


    "Where is Tarith?" Max asked one of the staff members, who was assembling a tter of breakfast burritos and tequ for the Mercenaries on the beach.


    "She took Commander Arnold up to the gym on the next floor so that they could have a sparring match. They spent hours discussing cybeic enhancements, and he didn''t believe us when we told him that Nico was a monster in human form." The womanughed, pointing out the Gym in question.


    "Well, his order is ready, so when you see them again, let them know," Max told her.


    He turned to the beach and raised his voice to address the group that was still in party mode. "Your orders are ready. Who wants them delivered to your ship by the Station Staff, and who wants to send their own crew for it?"


    "Let the Station do it. My boys aren''t going to be up to do anything this early in the morning." One of the Captainsughed, seconded by almost all of the others.


    "Then page your security team and tell them to expect a delivery within the hour," Max informed them, getting back a series of sloppy salutes that ended as soon as the food arrived.


    "I don''t think we''re going anywhere today. It will be noon before they pass out and night before they regain consciousness." The man cleaning empty bottles and trash off the beachughed, watching the Captains unwind with their friends.


    "That might be for the best. We can collect the orders that areing from Rae 5 while they are all passed out and deal with the questions about themter."


    If they docked the Cutters with the Station, the Exterminators could transfer their new crews over directly and without having to do it in the open where everyone else was watching. They might have also ordered more items to go with the Cutters, which would be delivered in their holds, and this would give them a chance to transfer everything in one convenient spot.

 Chapter 459 459 Jealousy

    While thest few hard-partying Mercenaries retired to their rooms for the day, the teams from Terminus finished the installs of Replicators on over fifty ships. They didn''t take particrly long, they only needed to be connected to power and double-checked for functionality, but fifty ships in a day were far more than they had expected to ever have to do.


    They also delivered the Materials Printers to the dozen Mercenary Companies who had ordered one right away, while most of the others had held off on the spending until they had their ships refitted in the Rae 5 system, deciding to do all the upgrades at the same time.


    This end of the gxy would surely see a resurgence in Mercenariespeting for work in the uing years. Max could tell that most of them were nning to spend their entire life''s savings to upgrade their vessels and get the new technologies that the Reavers could offer.


    The construction facilities had already reported back to Max that they had orders for over a thousand Mecha just from these few Mercenary Companies, plus all the work on the ships and the Materials Printers that they were nning to have installed. It would be a big change for most of them, who currently only had obsolete Line Mecha they had customized making up their forces.


    Once they got the new Reaver Pattern Line Mecha that closely mimicked the Samurai appearance of Max''s Cleansing Light, they would more than double their firepower without increasing their numbers, and their survivability would skyrocket.


    The fact that all of the new Reaver Mecha had shields, so they wouldn''t need to be repaired after every single mission if they only took small amounts of enemy fire, was a great selling point for the ever-frugal Mercenaries.


    In the long run, they would save far more than the unit''s cost simply by not having to purchase recement armor pieces to fix the damage that had been done to them.


    While they were finishing the work, Max received a status update from Mary Tarith on the happenings in the gxy so that Terminus wouldn''t be caught off guard during future negotiations and would know to skip certain systems that had proactively joined or had declined the Reavers invitation.


    Some of the news was just as they had expected, the Border Nations between Rae 5 and Death Wind Territory had all been approached, and they all turned down the invitation because the Reavers wouldn''t ept their terms that the entire Territory must be excluded and officially embargoed.


    ? More unexpectedly, the Cygnus forces were ahead of schedule, and almost all of the small nations that had attacked the Kepler Empire had been absorbed into their borders. Many went without much of a fight. Some even came willingly when the Cygnus fleet showed up, but one after another, they had all agreed to join.


    Unsurprisingly, the two regions governed by the Kepler Princes were in a state of civil war with each other after a dispute over a group of small nations along their borders that both of them wanted to annex.


    The best news for the Reavers and for Terminus was that the Cygnus Military had purchased the rights to produce the Tarith Pattern Shields that Nico had developed, and the royalties were astronomical as they retrofit millions of Mecha with shielding units. The Kepler Free Territory had done the same and was purchasing entire Mecha Regiments from the Reavers since their facilities along the Inner Core of the Gxy werecking in Mecha facilities and focused more on nonmilitary production, which was profitable enough that they didn''t want to retrofit it.


    By any standard, other than the size of their fleet, Terminus Trading Company was currently the single wealthiest Reaver Company in existence. They didn''t actually need the money at the moment, but it was nice to know that they had the funds to obtain favors or resources anytime they needed them.


    Max had just finished reading the status update and nning their route, which shouldn''t see any disturbances now that they were starting from the far side of the Death Wind Territory instead of being closest to Rae 5 as the others were when the notification that the Cutters were ready for shipment arrived.


    The Mercenaries had partied well into the day when Max was expecting to have them depart hours ago, and the Transport Vessels were needed to move other ships around, so Max had to request for the Station to give clearance to the four brand new vessels to dock with their bays.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He called them Reaver Ships for delivery, but the obfuscation didn''t fool anyone. Only one of the assembled Companies could afford four new ships, and the ck Wolves hadn''t ordered any for themselves yet, though they could afford at least one new Cutter.


    [Did I hear that right, Terminus? Four new Warp 10 Cutters for delivery to this location?] The Station Commander asked.


    [That''s right. We can''t confirm the customer, as per standard privacy agreements, but they have been ordered for delivery to this location.] Max replied.


    [Fine, dock them next to Terminus on the spur arms. Whoever ordered them can move their gear to that location.] The Commander replied, sarcasm clear in his voice.


    News of the vesselsing through the portal that Rae 5 had opened using Terminus as a beacon spread quickly through their new allies, and everyone was out of their rooms, checking the public viewscreens, which showed the outside of the ship so that they could verify the news that their crews had sent with their own eyes.


    "How much bloody money did they have to spend? I am not sure we have made that much in total, much less enough to have that stockpiled. Those new Cutters go for nearly ten times as much as our old ones are worth." One of the Captainsined.


    "Do you think that means they''ll have old ships for sale? Or are they going to expand and try to corner the delivery market in this arm before the rest of us can afford to upgrade?" Another asked and promptly gotughed at by his counterparts.


    Of course, they were trying to corner the market. Both in trade, since they could easily run the blockades with these ships, and for emergency intervention requests, since they could get to a call so much faster than any other Mercenary Company.


    "Get everyone packed up. We are heading to the dry docks as soon as the Replicators are installed." One of the Captains dered, intending to be the first among the firste, first served priority.


    "The Replicators are all installed and functional. Most of your crews have already had a meal from them as well. Our teams worked all night to get you ready." Max informed them, and the Captains started moving to their ships, which turned into a foot race as theirpetitive nature took over.


    [Station Command, prepare for multiple departures.] Max informed the staff while he sent a message to Rae 5 to hold the Portal open at maximum diameter, as they had a lot of ships iing over the next hour.


    [Got it. Good work Terminus. This should make you the leader on the recruitment list by number of deals signed. There is no prize except pride, but you lot are rich enough.] The Moon Base Communications Officer, who was in charge of all Portals in the star system, replied.


    [Find us some more staff as well. We need everything for the Cruise Ship and guest quarters, as well as an Infantry Regiment, preferably Kepler born, so that we can test some new designs.] Max informed them.

 Chapter 460 460 Delivery Service

    [Not a problem, Terminus. We have a waiting list of applicants that we can pick from among the refugees, so at least a few Battalions of Infantry shouldn''t be an issue, and we have lots of trained staff for domestic positions and ship logistics if you don''t care what nation theye from.] The Moon Base replied.


    [Make it as varied as possible. We get a lot of alien tourists, and I want them to experience the full spectrum of human culture and gic variation so they aren''t surprised at any of our stops.] Max informed the base.


    [If your precision Portal Function is working, open an interior Portal at these locations in six hours. We will have your staff assembled since it is now early morning in the Capital.]


    The location was for a public promenade in the Capital city on the ins, and six hours from now would make it the middle of the afternoon there when he was scheduled to pick up his new crew.


    That wasn''t much time for them to pack, but the Reaver standard was much like the Military. They would arrive with only a single duffle bag worth of gear, which most of them kept packed at all times. They might swap out a few items if they had time, but if they got a short-notice deployment offer, they didn''t want to miss out because they didn''t have their gear ready.


    The city even offered a packing and storage service, where the contents of an apartment would be loaded into storage for them so that they could take off the moment they got an offer and not have to worry about their belongings or rent payments.


    A Gig Economy, Dave would call it. Thinking of him made Max sentimental, and he scheduled dinner with him and the kids, who he hoped had been adjusting well to life aboard a Reaver ship instead of in the slums of Kepler Terminus.


    The Infantry were going to be shocked when they arrived aboard Terminus, as there were no standard infantry racks anywhere on the ship. Instead, they would be assigned the simplest of barracks, which still had small single rooms, instead of the three high bunks in amunal room which most ships assigned to the lowest of priorities.


    Originally, that had been a storage bay, and then it was made suitable for a Mecha Battalion before being upgraded to house any potential Refugees that they might pick up, so they had more than enough space for their new Infantry, no matter how many the managed to organize for them.


    [Good news, Nico. Tell thedies that we are going to receive testers for your new infantry armor designs. I ordered an Infantry Regiment from Rae 5 along with more staff.] Max told his second inmand.


    [Perfection. We have all sorts of new toys for them to work with, and we are short on all sorts of Technicians and logistics personnel. The Innu will be overjoyed that they don''t have to wait for testers anymore. I will steal some from the existing infantry that is aboard the ship so that I don''t mess up the new arrivals.]


    They were going to need more Shuttles as well if they ever wanted to actually deploy this Infantry without loading them alongside a Mecha Battalion in a Cutter, but that could wait forter. Until they finished their outreach work here in the Death Wind Territory, they likely wouldn''t be engaging in a full-scaleary invasion.


    The new Cutters were securely at the dock now, and the Transports had departed, leaving their cargo attached to the space station and unupied while they queued for the increasingly long line to pass through the portal. Once they got motivated, the Mercenaries were in action surprisingly quickly, and they formed a double file line to depart for Rae 5, being just narrowly capable of passing through the portal that way.


    [Exterminators, your presents have arrived. They are on the same spur as Terminus and are currently unupied. I will meet you there in five minutes to code your biometric information into the locks.] Max informed Commander Arnold and his teams.


    [Now that''s what I call service. Same-day delivery of fully equipped warships with all the bells and whistles. I''m not sure if my ancestors would be proud of me or weep at the loss of all the savings they had umted.] The Mercenaryughed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    These were all in the Cargo pattern, which wasn''t really unexpected, given their speed. So, they would only be able to load a single Company of Mecha without losing Cargo space, instead of a full Battalion with no additional major cargo storage, except the materials for repairs.


    Max jogged out to the dock doors, joined by Nico and a team of Technicians, who would program the initial biometric data andmand codes for the four ships.


    "They really went all out. The delivery order says they each have a full Company of mixed Mecha aboard. One hundred Line Mecha, fifty Corvettes, thirty Crusaders, and twenty Infernus Pattern Fast Attack Crusaders in every Cutter. The Reavers aren''t willing to sell the Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha yet, so this is the absolute best loadout that money can buy.


    They must have some additional connections beyond simple money after all these years, or they wouldn''t have gotten approval for four Cutters with all new Mecha on a single night''s notice." Nico whispered to Max before they passed through the barrier at the bay door, which blocked all sound from the other side.


    "Good to know. I hate being surprised by our own deliveries." Max told her with a wink and led the team out into the corridor.


    Max led the team out into the corridor, where the Exterminators had split into four groups, each with roughly two hundred fifty Mercenaries, each headed by a grizzled veteran who should be the one nominated to be the Exterminators'' newest Captain.


    "Wee to your new homes,dies and gentlemen. I am sure you have all been frantically pleasuring yourselves to the specs all day, so I will cut the niceties short and have your Captains line up at their chosen door to input their biometrics and pick a name for their new vessel." Nico greeted the Mercenaries.


    "Why do you have to call me out like that?" Someoneughed from the middle of the crowd, but the four Captains stepped forward without hesitation, picking the doors closest to themselves.


    In theory, each ship was identical, but they had clearly thought about which one they wanted in advance, as they were standing in a specific order near the doors instead of being arranged around their Commander as they usually would.


    Nico activated all four door controls and brought them into programming mode at the same time. "ce your face in front of the sensor and both hands on the tablet. That is the basic biometric lock, and then you will be able to set passcodes and additional users once you are granted rights as the Captains."


    The process barely took a second, and all four doors opened.


    "I know none of you want to wait until the entire crew is programmed in to begin the tour, so head in now, and the Captains can sort everythingter."


    "Now, Commander Arnold, which vessel should we tour? I will add you to all four vessels as an administrator, and you can set your passcodes now." Nico suggested as thest of the crew members ran past them into their new homes, each carrying a single dufflebag.

 Chapter 461 461 Terminus Refilled

    Max had expected them to bring more with them, but perhaps they would transfer their personal belongingster. Or maybe it was custom that Mercenaries didn''t keep more than that one duffle bag, given the cramped quarters of their old home.


    Compared to that, these new Cutters were running a Skeleton Crew and would have to recruit more members as they went.


    Being assigned to a brand new ship was an honor, no matter how low your position aboard was, so Max was certain that Commander Arnold wasn''t going to get anyints from those he transferred, even if they didn''t have any spare hands around to allow them to take days off at the moment.


    "Let''s head to the far left vessel. If my guess is right, it should be called Pride of Emmaline, after my Daughter, the Captain." Commander Arnold replied.


    The woman who had led the team inside didn''t look any younger than the Commander, but with the variety of life-extending drugs and cosmetic surgeries avable to even the mostmon of folk, that could just mean that they were both reaching the age where the drugs no longer worked as well and that they had multiple generations of offspring in the fleet.


    When a long-lived Mercenary could reach two hundred years old, but theymonly began families in their teens, wanting to have children before they died in a very dangerous upation, the Elders would have quite a lot of extended family.


    Max led Commander Arnold inside, where Emmaline, the Captain of this vessel, was waiting for them while the rest of the crew had spread out to check every nook and cranny of the vessel.


    "Wee to the Pride of Emmaline" She weed them with a grand gesture.


    "This is quite the vessel. Seeing the specs and the VR simtion doesn''t do it justice. The Reavers deliberately obscured some details, I believe. Perhaps as a security measure against obtaining too much detail of a customer''s vessel." Commander Arnold replied.


    The Cargo bay looked cavernous to Max, being a full twenty meters longer than the hold on his own Cutters and still having Mecha hangars in front of it, near the center of the ship.


    In this design, they could deploy from the top of the ship as well as the rear doors so that they could deploy even if the cargo hold were packed full. It left an enormous space for cargo, and the Mercenaries were eyeing it as a training ground and rxation area.


    They would take trade orders now that they had the perfect ship for it, but they were still Mercenaries at heart.


    "The cargo bay is nothing. Come look at these new Mecha. You''re going to have to order some for yourself." Emmaline told the Commander.


    "We just ordered the full loadout special, which they offered to us with a discount, so I haven''t seen any of the specifics yet, other than the ship, which had a full VR walkthrough avable." Commander Arnold exined.


    "In that case, I will make sure you have training simtors on board. These Mecha aren''t like the ones you are used to, even if they have neural links instead of manual controls." Nico assured him.


    Max hoped they were neural controls since pilots without a system would struggle to deal with the manual controls that Kepler Pilots excelled with. The fine control was better with the manual controls since distractions could distort the mental controls inbat, but if you didn''t have an enhanced body, there was no way you could physically aplish the task.


    They stepped into the Mecha bay, where the new units were secured to their storage racks, row upon row, and both Mercenaries gasped in awe while most of the crew was simply standing in front of them, staring at the glorious war machines, painted in the Silver and ck livery of the Exterminators.


    "So this is how it feels to live life without the threat of an embargo. This one ship has almost as many Heavy Mecha as the rest of the fleet does. We are going to need a lot of training." Emmaline sighed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max looked around and saw a room to one side marked training. "That should be the VR simtors. I don''t know which ones they installed, but we have very good ones avable." Max informed them.


    "These should be the Cygnus standard since they used the Cygnus neural link for all of these Mecha." Nico rified, taking her hand off the closest Crusader.


    "You got details of our delivery?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "No, I have a technology-rted System Function. With a single touch, I can learn an immense amount of data about a machine, and I am already familiar with these since they''re nearly the same as the ones that we use on Terminus." Nico rified.


    "That''s just cheating. But I am d that someone knows how to use these things. We might have to send you messagester if we run into dead ends with our training." Captain Emmaline informed her.


    "They installed the meleebat training module that I created, as well as a number of targeting simtions based on Commander Keres'' missions, so you should learn how to operate them quickly enough. The true challenge will be in your deployment orders andmands, but a Mercenary Captain has their own style, and I am sure you can adapt to having a plethora of Heavy Mecha quickly enough." Nico shrugged.


    "So Terminus was the beta test for these Mecha?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "From the very beginning of the design phase. We have been with them since they were drawings in a VR simtion." Max informed him.


    "Then my little girl is in good hands." Commander Arnold chuckled.


    "Aren''t you going to upgrade your gship? I had thought that the first order of business would be to upgrade your own vessel." Max asked.


    "I have a custom Warp Driveing. They agreed to ship it to our home base, where my gship is currently in dry dock after a battle with the Magno. I might have lost the entire ship and crew that day if the Demons hadn''t shown up." Commander Arnold told them quietly.


    "Demons? I don''t recall there being any Vampire forces in this region of space." Max asked, assuming that the Commander was using amon slur for the species.


    "Oh, not them. Real Demons. Ten meters tall, as tough as Mecha, but they bleed when they are cut. They look almost like a human but with golden masks for faces and dreadlocks that have deadly spikes." Commander Arnold exined.


    The Magno was a species of heat-loving six-legged aliens, sentient but even more violent than the Klem if that was possible. They killed everything that they came across until they were the only animal species left on thes that they took over, then recreated the nt life to better suit their needs.


    "I think you mean the Hunters. Did they look like this?" Nico asked and put up a still from the fight she had with their leader.


    "Yes, that''s them, but they seemed smaller than that one. And what is that fighting them? Is that some new Super Heavy Mecha that I''ve never seen before?" Commander Arnold asked.


    "That is Shattered Pride, my personal Mecha. She is twenty meters tall, give or take, so yes, the leader is twice the size of the others. But those aren''t their actual bodies. They are biomechanicalbat suits. They must not have deemed you impressive enough to talk with, but if your new ships run into them, they might interact, so please warn your crews to be prepared and polite. They love a good fight, and you won''t win if you pick one with them." Nico exined.

 Chapter 462 462 Grand Tour

    "Shattered Pride is an apt name. I don''t think any of my teams would have any pride left to mention after a fight with that thing if it is as impressive as it looks." Commander Arnoldughed.


    "She won the fight."


    The Mercenary Commander, as well as the Captain, and every crew member in earshot all turned to stare at Nico in awe.


    "You won a fight with one of them? And not just some random fight. It looks like a duel with their leader." Captain Emmaline asked.


    "That''s right. The two strongest females fight each other either in person or in Mecha as a way of judging whether you are worthy of their respect. I rmend that you fight in Mecha because they would tear a human apart in hand-to-handbat."


    The Captain looked Nico over for a second as if she wanted to ask if Nico wasn''t, in fact, a human herself, but after realizing that she was entirely cybeic, it made more sense. There was no vulnerable flesh or easily damaged muscle, only state-of-the-art technology with a human brain embedded in it.


    "Even after conversion, you can still keep up to the Kepler Standards? Or do you use a neural link?" Commander Arnold asked.


    The System was the great advantage of the Kepler military, and every foreign attempt to create super soldiers on that level had failed, whether it was cybeic or biological.


    "I am a little slower than I was, but I retained enough of my System Functions that it doesn''t matter inbat," Nico informed him with a wink, letting the Commander know that she wasn''t going to reveal that sort of personal information.


    "We should check out the rest of the ship while the Captain works out a training schedule for her best pilots to learn the new Heavy Mecha. The Line Mecha is a bit more agile and more capable in closebat, so they all might need updated sword fighting training, but learning the Heavy Mecha will be a muchrger change, especially the proper use of the Fast Attack Mecha." Max told the Mercenary leaders.


    That was when he noticed that the Fast Attack Mecha were not the same as the ones aboard Terminus. They had the same chassis and the same jump pack, allowing for incredible mobility, but they didn''t have the same signature weapons.


    Instead, they were equipped with a sword and shield, with twin shoulder-mounted sma Shotguns, the same as he had previously mounted on Stalwart, the first Crusader ss Mecha that he had been assigned as a Pilot.


    It would be devastating in closebat and not as difficult to use perfectly as the Disintegrators were. There was no focusing distance, output calibration, or frequency adjustment. A sma Shotgun only needed to be pointed in the general direction of the enemy and fired. Perfect for new Pilots.


    Not that the Mercenaries were new, but inparison, their skills werecking. The VR Trainers that came with the ship might actually prove to be as much or more valuable to the Exterminators than the Replicators and Materials Printer that they had been so excited to receive.


    Nico led the tour through the barracks, showing off the individual rooms for the crew, as well as the Replicator in the mess hall, which had been set up like a traditional cafeteria where they could order at the counter and pick up their food in only a few seconds as if it was prepared in advance, but always hot and fresh, unlike a buffet.


    "The boys are going to get inted egos if we treat them this well." Captain Emmalineughed while gesturing to the diner in front of them.


    "Just work them harder. That should keep them in ce. The training run records for every simtion that Commander Keres and I set are all programmed into the simtions, so you can use those to keep them motivated." Nico told the older woman.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "You don''t think they will ovee you?" The Captain asked dubiously.


    "If they can get the Mecha to 105 percent of its designed capacity for an entire run''s average, they will defeat us. But if they can''t hit the rated maximum mechanical output of the Mecha, they don''t stand a chance." Max offered an exnation.


    "Exceed the rated output? Is that even possible? Even with a neural link, it''s not possible to make the Mecha move that fast." She countered.


    "It is with mechanical controls, as long as your dexterity and speed are at least five times the human standard, and your mental acuity can keep up," Max told her.


    Commander Arnold shook his head in dismay. "That''s not even human anymore. Now that Kepler has been shattered, perhaps we will not have to deal with that sort of monstrous talent anymore. I heard a rumor that the System you all use was only willing to activate for members of the Kepler Military and could have a strong bacsh if the nanotechnology realized you were a traitor."


    "It didn''t do as much as hoped to the traitors, but then perhaps they actually thought that they were doing what they did in the best interests of the people, so the System let it slide.


    Nobody really knows what parameters the System''s AI is working with, only that it is linked through the entire poption, and if you keep a Pilot isted long enough, it will begin to give them survival-rted skills, assuming that they are thest survivor of their unit." Max told the Commander.


    That much wasmon knowledge among most nations and all Kepler soldiers, but to actually get a new survival skill could take years, and it usually didn''te until the next scheduled 50-point bracket. The System seemed unwilling to bend on that standard.


    "And here are the Officer''s quarters. This is the Captain''s suite if you want to check it out before we move on." Nico diverted the conversation as they reached the next group of barracks.


    The Captain''s suite was identical to the one that Max had aboard Terminus but with a different interior decorator. This one was in cream and gray, with real silver trim. It was also only a single room with a decently sizedmon area, whereas the Officers'' suite had a five-bedroomyout with argermon area.


    "I get my own kitchen with a Replicator and ensuiteundry? What else did they stuff in this ship?" Captain Emmaline asked.


    "If you ask the Materials Printer, it can make you a butler bot so that you don''t have to manually activate the self-cleaning functions or fetch your own food," Nico suggested.


    "No, that''s a step too far. My crew would lose respect for me if I started behaving more pampered than the averageary governor." The Captainughed, then led them back out of the suite to finish the tour.


    All that was left was the bridge, which was a simple and standard area at the nose of the ship, and the maintenance bay, which they missed on their way through the Mecha bays since they went down the side with the majority of the dorms.


    "Well, that is the basics of it. Let the other crews know what we covered so they don''t miss an important function, but you can always contact Rae 5 or Terminus if you have any questions. We have the full design specs and software suite, so we can help with most issues." Max announced once theypleted the loop, ending up back in Mecha Bay.


    "Don''t let us keep you then. We will be a while getting settled in since everyone is distracted by the Mecha, and they''re still wandering around with their luggage." Captain Emmaline replied, waving goodbye to the pair of Reavers while she led Commander Arnold to inspect the new Heavy Mecha.

 Chapter 463 463 Variety Pack

    Max headed back to Terminus with Nico and the Tech crews, who had finished the basic coding of the biometrics for all of the Command Staff of the new vessels, and prepared to receive their new crew members.


    They should be ready to arrive in only a few more hours, and the maintenance teams reported that all of the rooms were ready for them to move in, including the possibility that they might receive a reinforced Regiment of infantry.


    The chances of that seemed pretty low since Max had specified Kepler soldiers so that they could take full advantage of the new augmentic suits, but he really didn''t know for sure how things had been going on the new Reaver homeworld or how many vessels full of refugees and trainees they had taken in since he left.


    Thirty minutes before the scheduled arrival time, Max opened the portal to the open area in the Capital city and watched as the scene of over a thousand assorted humans and demihumans appeared in front of him.


    What Max knew as the Demihumans were the descendants of human colonists who had chosen to adapt themselves to their new world instead of adapting the world fully to themselves. Most had bestial traits or increased physical skills to make up for an aspect of the human body that wascking in their new environment, but at the most basic level, they were still mostly human.


    None of them lived anywhere near Kepler since their colonies were on the very edges of the Gxy and far from the strongholds of humanity. Some of them even came from the far side of Klem territory, isted and forgotten refuges of humanity that only the Reavers even remembered the existence of.


    They had mostlye from Reaver vessels and Mercenary ships who had taken them on board as paying passengers. Anyone who would sign up for such a voyage was among the most adventurous, or the most desperate, of people, so they had the sort of personality that wouldn''t mind working on a traveling vessel like Terminus.


    The variety would also make their guests from the Alliance feel more at home when they came to visit, Max hoped. Like the Valkia, there were others with wings here, as well as many who could be called giants by human standards, but unlike the Alliance members, they all shared amon gic base.


    Max stepped through with Nico at his side, and the crowd burst into apuse for their new employers. The sight was enough to crack Max''s serious demeanor, with his Telepathy skill flooding his mind with positive thoughts and hope for the future.


    The jobs that almost all of these people were applying for weren''t skilled trades, so very few of them would have much education, and even fewer would have any sort of trade skills, but Max could always train from within if they needed more professionals in the future.


    That was how most Reaver Companies did it, but until this moment, Terminus hadn''t had enough people to fill their staff, much less enough to be diverting them for extended onboard training.


    "Wee, everyone. As you have guessed, I am Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, and this is Tarith Rage, my second inmand. Theary staffing society has given me a full write-up on every one of you, as well as a glowing review of your personalities and skills.


    For your sake, I hope you can live up to the hype. Life aboard a working ship is not always easy, and it is almost never slow, so we will need you to adapt quickly and learn from the senior staff members.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Now, does anyone have any questions?"


    Most remained silent, eager to get started before anyone could change their minds and send them back to the odd jobs pool, but one hand did shoot up in the air, a veryrge woman with small, round animal ears on her head.


    "Is it true that you are running a Cruise Ship for tourists aboard your gship?" She asked.


    [Da. Demihuman, mixed with Ursa family traits for cold resistance and increased strength.] Nico informed him with a quick message.


    So, she was part bear, which made the sheer size of her make sense. Max could also see that she was one of the skilled employees who had signed on for a Technician''s position.


    "Technician Da is it? Yes, it is true that we are running a Cruise Ship, but we should mention that most of our guests are so-called extreme tourists from other Gxies who view us as violent savages working our way toward civilization.


    For that reason, everyone was thoroughly vetted for personality. We don''t need to prove their worst suspicions right.


    But it also means that there will be many new and unexpected issues and short-notice alterations to the ship. That is why we need skilled Technicians like yourself to keep up with the demand." Max exined.


    "Oh, there was a thing like that back on my homeworld. People would go and see the primitive tribes and how they lived." One of the other new hires whispered to the person next to them, catching Max''s attention with their thoughts.


    It wasn''t that far off the truth, at least for some of the species. The Illithid just thought that they were interesting, and the Innu were more interested in new technology than anything else, but the little ess they had made to the Alliance''s social media showed that Humanity was viewed more as a curiosity than a serious contender for membership by most.


    "If there are no other urgent concerns, please step through the portal and find your division head. They will have signs posted on the bay wall to guide their new members to the correct locations." Max instructed.


    He could meet them allter. It was too much to individually get to know thousands of people at once out here in a public park. That left him with only the infantry force to meet, and they should be here soon.

 Chapter 464 464 Military Might

    Max had requested a fully assembled Regiment, which shoulde with its own Commanders, so he was eager to see what the Reavers coulde up with on short notice.


    The number of qualified infantry officers floating around the Gxy without a home or duty was seriously limited, but they could have filled them with promoted Sergeants or possibly Reavers who enjoyed fighting since many of the Companies had Kepler-born members in their ranks.


    He watched as the force made their way onto the parade grounds, led by a very familiar face from the past.


    "Colonel Cortez. I watched with my own eyes as you retired. What brings you so far from home in your golden years?" Max asked as the Infantry Commander who had led the Kepler 111th aboard Abraham Kepler when Max was deployed for his very first mission came to a stop in front of him.


    "Oh, how times change. Thest time I saw you, you were a wet behind the ears Academy Cadet in a Crusader that still had the new oil smell to it. Kepler 111 is no more. The foreign invaders virus bombed us when they realized that the might of the Kepler Fleet wasing for them in thest battles of the revolution.


    Most of us were already in orbit, fighting against their fleet. My team and Imandeered a fast attack vessel that I would call a Cutter if I were feeling generous. More like a shuttle with guns and a warp drive, but it got us out of the system after the Titan ss Mecha showed up and wiped them out.


    We thought about picking a new home among the Kepler Free Territories, but you know how it is. We are all retired soldiers, we served our time, and none of the boys wanted to keep at it forever, so we came here.


    But, all we know is soldiering, so here we are again." Colonel Cortez borated.


    "Well, I have some good news for you. We don''t need an infantry Regiment as the Kepler Military uses them. We need a force for boarding actions where the Mecha can''t gain ess due to their size, and we have a new generation of powered armor for all of you." Max offered.


    "I thought that might be the case when they told me it was a Reaver Colony Ship that needed an infantry force, but imagine my shock when I saw you on the recruitment sheets. You can hide behind a mask, but you can''t hide from soldiers who have spent time in the trenches with you by just covering your face.


    Maxughed at that and took off the golden mask that he wore to public engagements, letting the Colonel see him in person for the first time since the retirement ceremony.


    "It has only been a few years, and you''ve grown up so much. No more fresh-faced kid. Should I know the little cyborg beside you? Perhaps another of the Pilots from your wing?" The Colonel asked.


    "That would be Tarith Nico, formerly of Tarith''s Rage. There were some issues while fighting the Narsians, and she got a small cosmetic upgrade." Max exined, bringing a double take from the Colonel.


    "Well, I''ll be damned. It''s good to see you again. My apologies for not recognizing you. I had thought you were a distant rtive from the Tarith Family. There are quite a few here on the, after all."


    Nico nodded. "That was the point of changing only my given name for public use. We didn''t want to sever the link to the Tarith Reavers at first, but the Rebels were still calling us war criminals and even allied with the Tapani to hunt us down, so hiding in in sight seemed like the best option."


    Two more men walked up as they chatted, both wearing Captain''s bars and Reaver fashion.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "We were short on experienced Commanders, so I took the liberty to recruit from the Reaver''s vessels. These two needed a ce to go but couldn''tnd amand position elsewhere due to Political concerns. Both their families are currently under censure, but I can personally attest to their character.


    Meet Aaron and John, who prefer to go by their bare names only."


    Max could see that they were Kepler citizens, with blonde hair and blue eyes much like his own, which were umon in the Empire, but sharply angr and distinctly Kepler facial features.


    "Good to meet you all. I won''t ask about your past unless it is relevant, and honestly, I don''t care as long as you are loyal and hardworking.


    ? I trust the Colonel, and I will take his word that you are worth trusting as well. It looks like we have three Battalions of infantry, which is better than I had honestly expected, so let me show you all to your barracks.


    They might not be as fancy as the Pilots get, but you lot are likely used to that, and you will still have full ess to the Cruise Ship amenities in your downtime. I will set up training schedules and courses to get used to the tactics and equipment that Terminus employs once we are on our way to the next stop.


    But first, let me address the men."


    Max stepped past the three officers and saw the moment that the survivors from Kepler 111 recognized him, sharing the information with the soldiers from other locations and deployments.


    Almost all of them were from Kepler 111, but other than a few hundred veterans, they were mostly children, likely rescued from the Academy or hastily deployed to defend their against assault, leaving them in orbit when the died.


    "It is good to see so many familiar faces among the new ones. For those that haven''t been informed yet, I am Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, a former Kepler Military Crusader ss Pilot with an Alpha Ranked System Compatibility.


    Why do I tell you this? Because it is important that you all know that we areing from the same ce. Some of you spilled the same blood in the same mud that I did in the past, and it will be an honor to do it again if the timees.


    You will be the boarding action team for Terminus, and we have prepared state-of-the-art Mobile Suits for you to fight in.


    But more importantly, you are now members of the Terminus Trading Company, with all the benefits thate with the title.


    Wee to the family. Your Commanders will lead you to your new barracks right away, and we will begin your orientation tomorrow. Now, let''s get a move on so that the city can have its park back." Max ordered.

 Chapter 465 465 Crew Orientation

    Max gave the infantry a few hours to get settled in while he went to check up on the other workers, who were currently in the middle of orientation with their section managers. So far, they all seemed eager to get started, and there weren''t any major issues that the managers hadn''t managed to solve, but Max was sure that there would be at least one or two.


    Many of the workers were bound to have strong personalities, and some would be convinced that they would be much better managers than the one that they were under, which was guaranteed to lead to conflicts in the future, but that was an essential part of any Reaver ship.


    Weak minds wouldn''t hold up to the stress, but strong ones were bound to have conflicts.


    The first incident that he came across was with a particrly snobbish woman who waspletely convinced that she deserved to be the hospitality manager for the cruise ship, in charge of setting all schedules and the individual requests of the VIP clients.


    They only had a few of them right now, and they hadn''t chosen to leave their soil-filled room since they arrived, though Max had seen that they had toured the entire ship with the virtual simtion, letting the cameras show them everything avable, but without taking their roots out of the soil.


    "Do you not know who my father is? I was born to lead, not work a schedule set by a peasant like yourself." The woman was demanding, and Max looked over to see who their manager was.


    It turned out to be a slender Reaver woman in a Terminus Hospitality Staff uniform vest with no shirt underneath, wearing the mark of the Tarith Family burned into her arm as a brand.


    It was a mark of devotion that many of the adopted members would choose to prove their lifelong devotion, as the scars couldn''t be easily covered as a tattoo could, and no Reaver surgeon would be willing to remove it for them.


    "Your father is a middle manager under the backwaterary governor of a nation that no longer exists. Mine is the Commander of the Destroyer ss Reaver vessel Memories of War. Now, sit down and shut up before I put you ontrine duty so long that you will space yourself just to get rid of the smell." The manager replied in an even voice, making Maxugh.


    That caught the attention of the group, and the new hire''s attitude immediately changed, and a sultry look came to her face as she adopted a provocative pose, thrusting her chest out to ent the prodigious but clearly artificial size. "Commander Keres, surely you understand. A Noble Lady shouldn''t be exposed to such demeaning roles."


    "Imperial Lady Tarith Rage, the heir to the Kepler Terminus branch of the Tarith Family and second inmand of the Terminus Trading Company, is currently in the Mecha Maintenace bays, rebuilding the hydraulic cylinders on an experimental unit that our development team is working on. Perhaps you would prefer to join her if the tasks of a Hostess are too demeaning for a Debutante of your background?" Max asked.


    The thought of an Imperial Lady ever getting her hands dirty, much less one with the status of Second In Command, was enough to shock not only the snobbish noble into silence but most of the room as well.


    The only exception was the adopted daughter of the Tarith family, which was managing this group.


    "Yes, I agree. I think that a few weeks of orientation as Miss Rage''sdy''s maid would do a world of good as a remedial ss on the proper decorum of a Reaver noble."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Assuming that she survived, it would certainly be an eye-opener.


    Max checked the employee data to see who the woman was and verified that the manager was correct. She was indeed the youngest daughter of an upper-crust bureaucrat, and her home was now part of the Cygnus Empire. The employee vetting notations said that her best career options would be as a prostitute or a lounge server, and the hiringpany had rmended her as a Hostess to work the reception areas of the Cruise Ship.


    "Unfortunately, she is quite busy, and doesn''t have time to train a new assistant, so we will have to work with the assignments as they are. Service and customer satisfaction are key to the reputation of the Terminus Trade Company as a family and organization. Since it was missed during your debutante training, I am reassigning you for the next two-week rotation, Miss L.


    You will work as the floor manager for the Broken ster Lounge until the end of the rotation. Your reviews from the bar manager and customers will determine the progress of your training and your future assignments."


    She looked somewhat mollified at the word Floor Manager, but the Broken ster was a rough-and-tumble sort of Reaver bar in the crew area, not the cruise ship, where the majority of the non-training room-rted injuries aboard the ship began.


    If there wasn''t a bar fight there on any given night, it was usually because the entire ship was on standby, and the Reavers were all atbat positions.


    If she could survive two weeks on the floor there, in a short pleated uniform skirt, dealing with drunken crew members, she could handle almost any other hostess position.


    Max expected that she would beg to be reassigned within a few days, and by the end of the first week, she wouldn''t care what position she was moved to.


    "You, with the auto mop. Juan, isn''t it? Would you kindly take the lovely L to her new duty station at the Broken ster? The evening shift change ising, and she needs to get into uniform and get oriented before the staff starts arriving." Max called out to one of the maintenance staff.


    "You''re sure? The crew will eat her alive, and maybe not just in the good ways." The old Reaverughed, then stowed the cleaning device in his cart and extended a cleaner sanitized hand to the buxom young noble and ducked his head in apology.


    "My apologies for questioning your orders, Commander. Right this way, please, Lady L. I am certain that the crew will treat you very well as the new Floor Manager."


    The fact that the other senior staff managed not tough until she was out of earshot was a minor miracle.

 Chapter 466 466 Unsettled Borders

    Max left the bemused staff behind for the manager to finish her orientation and checked the rest of the ship, making time to stop and check in on the Shin.


    There was a chance that they were just shy around so many bipedal mammals and were afraid to leave their rooms, despite the fact they could move quite well with their gravity control technology, and Max wanted to make sure they were having a good time.


    Just as he approached, the door opened, and a room service deliveryman stepped out, bowing politely to Max.


    "They have everything that they requested, and they have just put on a holographic video of a historical space battle, ying on the holographic projectors of the whole room." The crew member exined without Max having to ask.


    That would make it look like they were either looking out from a ship or at a very close range on aary surface as the battle yed on every wall and the roof, an immersive experience that Max hadn''t expected them to be interested in.


    Perhaps it was like watching horror movies in their culture.


    Terminus certainly had enough footage of various battles taken from the historical archives for training purposes.


    Max sent them a notification that they might enjoy the battle of Tanna, a jungle world that had a decade-long, Mecha-based civil war, whose footage was the basis for most nations'' jungle piloting training.


    [Thank you, Commander. We will watch your rmended Film right after this one. Of all the things we expected Humans to be able to provide, we never expected that you would have such an incredible variety of hyperrealistic horror films. It''s like the camera crew was really there when the actions took ce.] The Shin leader responded, and Max didn''t have the heart to tell them that it was because they were watching actual War footage.


    At least the Shin guests were easy to please.


    Max was finishing his rounds when the long-range scanners detected a group of warships in the patternmonly used by the neighboring Border Nations approaching at low warp, giving themselves a bit more time to maneuver if they detected traps or an ambush.


    [All Combat Staff to your positions. Infantry, finish your orientation with the new equipment first. Iing hostile vessels, with a chance of battle greater than fifty percent.] Max sent out to the inbox of every Pilot and member of the fighting staff.


    Terminus was still at the dock, and the Exterminators were still transferring equipment to their new Cutters, so the chance that the Border Fleet wouldn''t notice something was out of the ordinary within the next few minutes was very low. The question was, what would they do about it?


    The few Mercenary groups that were still gathered around the Station began to fall into defensive positions, and the main guns of the mighty structure powered up to greet the unwee visitors, who were far from their own territory.


    [Terminus Trading Company, we have reason to believe that you are providing weapons to a sanctioned group. Please stand down and prepare an exnation of your actions.] The Border Fleet broadcast beforeing to a stop at the edge of the Sr System.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They were ready for this, and the other Border Nations had already made their position on bringing the Mercenaries into the fold quite clear, but so far, it hadn''te to open violence.


    [The relevant Mercenary Groups are now part of the Reaver Trade Alliance, which is not on the embargoed entities list. Our deals are fair and equitable for the purpose of increasing quality of life.


    The Trade Group is open to all who are willing to abide by its terms and conditions. Would you be open to receiving an information package?] The Admiral responded with the canned response that they had prepared for exactly this scenario.


    [Cut the crap, Terminus. Selling weapons and manufacturing equipment to the Mercenaries is strictly prohibited, and you know it. Exin your actions, or we will be forced to recover the prohibited items by force.] The Border Fleet responded.


    [As members of the Reaver Trade Group, our technology trades do not vite your sanction rules. By the terms of our mutual defense agreement, we are required to respond if you should initiate a hostile international incident.] Nico responded. Max was certain that it was her. The tone of voice was a bit eager and not the monotone version of her voice that the Ship''sputer used.


    [It seems we have much to discuss. Are you willing to meet us on neutral ground for a diplomatic session?] The Commander of the Border Fleet asked.


    [Give us fifteen minutes to safely depart the station, and we will follow your lead.] That response was the Admiral, and Max began heading to the nearest restroom to freshen up and change into his armor, currently stored in the t Space of his new watch.


    [Do you think they will try something stupid?] Max asked Nico, who was surely pouring through the fleet''s data right now.


    [Oh, I really hope so. They don''t have a single Super Heavy mecha aboard their entire fleet, and the Cutters could pierce their shielding with a single st.] Nico responded, verifying Max''s guess that she had already hacked them.


    [What are their protocols for the meeting? Will we bending somewhere for a face-to-face talk?] Max asked, having not read the details yet.


    [Sort of. The meetings are traditionally on an uninhabited, inside the Command Mecha of the respective forces, with a five Mecha escort.] Nico responded with a hint of glee.


    Those terms definitely favored them.


    [Prepare Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride, plus four Infernus Pattern Fast Attack Mecha. If it is held on a moon without atmosphere, we will depart directly for the surface without using a ship.] Max ordered.


    That way, they could have all five Battalions at the ready, with only one of them being a wing of Crusader ss Mecha short of full capacity, and none of the Cutters would be distracted from their duties.

 Chapter 467 467 Border Disputes

    Their luck was good, and the location that the Border Fleet chose to hold their first meeting with Terminus was indeed a barren rock floating in space with no atmosphere to speak of. It wasn''t a moon as Max expected, but an outer of a nearby system with an exceedingly thin atmosphere, which would allow the Mecha to depart directly from Terminus and fly to the surface.


    [Terminus Trading Company, please assemble your leadership delegation and meet us on the surface.] The Border Fleet demanded, taking their ce in orbit andunching a Lander toward the coordinates marked on the message.


    Max waited until they were almost down before ordering his entourage to depart. Until this moment, not a single person in this sector of the Gxy knew that Terminus was in possession of a Titan ss Mecha. Very few were even aware that they had Super Heavy Mecha among their Battalions, and most who had heard only viewed that as a rumor.


    The sight of Cleansing Light appearing from the hold at the rear end of Terminus was enough to fill themunication channels with shocked calls for verification from every Mercenary Group in the region, as well as frantic calls from the Border Fleet back to theirmand station.


    There would be no intimidation by the Border Nations today. That single Mecha could take out their entire patrol fleet with ease. Instead, they would be forced to negotiate terms with the Reavers on a more even footing.


    That was the response that Max had been hoping for. If the Border Nations panicked, he could sway them away from their bias against the Mercenary Groups and toward joining the Reavers in their new trade group.


    The promise that the Mercenaries wouldn''t raid their border outposts as long as they were part of the Reaver''s agreement was a great boon to them, reducing the threat level in the region and giving them the chance to build allies to deal with more ouw sorts, who preferred Piracy.


    [Greetings Admiral Bogan. I am Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company in the Command Mecha Cleansing Light. It is my most sincere hope that we can resolve this issue peacefully today without the need for further hostilities.] Max began the meeting the moment that hended.


    Normally the Border Fleet would begin with threats and posturing, but they were all still too shocked to respond, even a full thirty seconds after Max had greeted them.


    Eventually, a hesitant voice responded to Max''s greeting. [My apologies, Commander, it seems that the appearance of your uniquemand Mecha has taken our Fleet by surprise, and the Admiral has requested a few minutes to confer with his counterparts before we begin.]


    Max couldn''t see any sign of transmissions from the Mecha on the ground, but he chose not to call the man out and instead gave him a few moments to collect himself while the Mercenaries watching from a distant orbit celebrated.


    If the Border Fleet couldn''t make the Reavers back down, it was a good sign that they had made the right call by joining the Trade Group, and it would bring many more ships in the region to their cause.


    Finally, the Admiral, in a gilded Reaver Pattern Cygnus built Mecha, chose to join the conversation.


    [It seems that there has been a misunderstanding between the National Command and the Tarith Reavers. Please, do tell me which families are part of this trade group?] The Admiral asked.


    [All of them. The entire Reaver Nation has signed onto the trade group, and they are working together on technological advancements that will be made avable to all members as soon as they are properly tested.] Max replied, then waited as the radio silence dragged on again.


    This time, there were signals back and forth not only from the Mecha on the surface to the ships in orbit but from the ships back to the Borders.


    News that every single Reaver Family was working together and that they were pulling in Mercenaries was toorge for them to ignore.


    After ten minutes had passed, a sigh from the Admiral opened the next transmission.


    [It seems that this has be a muchrger issue than we can resolve between ourselves. Would the Terminus Trading Company, on behalf of the Reavers as a whole, be willing to join us for a Border Nations summit to discuss the terms of your trade group contract?]


    That might be the best news Max had heard all day.


    [Of course, we will. Drawing as much of human civilization into a nonaggression pact and trade agreement is the reason that we are out here in the far reaches of the Gxy.] He replied, giving the Admiral a military salute with Cleansing Light''s sword.


    There was another short pause while the Border Nations sent frantic messages to determine who would host such a meeting, with the threat of a Reaver Colony ship and Titan ss Mecha above their heads. After much wrangling, the closest was ganged up on by the others and was designated as the site of the meeting purely due to location.


    They didn''t even have a ship in this patrol group, so they protested vehemently that this was not their fault nor their responsibility, but in the end, they couldn''t just leave the group of Border Nations over the issue.


    [Please follow us to the resort world of Mercury Seven. Over the course of the next week, all of the Border Nations will be meeting there to discuss the new developments with the Reavers and their trade group.] The Admiral informed Max, then did his best not to make it look like he was fleeing as his entourage retreated to the Lander.


    Watching the six Mecha fly back up to Terminus instead of using anding vessel was a unique sort of flex on the Border Fleet, which had ess to Cygnus technology that was only a generation out of date, but who couldn''t afford to get all the top of the line upgrades for every ship''s defense force.


    [Looks like we might not have to get the Cygnus Fleet to pressure them after all. Better do someundry. You''re going to need all your finest clothes for this one.] Nicoughed, reminding Max that he had just brought another whole round of negotiations upon himself unless he could find a substitute.


    [Contact Rae 5. Get us a negotiation team. We can sit pretty above their heads while the professionals deal with this.] Max suggested.


    [I thought you might say that. I''m on it.]


    Max docked his Mecha in the hangar and did a double-check of all systems before he left. They hadn''t seen any violence, but it was a one-of-a-kind, experimental Mecha design, so it was worth it to make sure that everything was good every time that he moved it.


    Nico met him at the foot of the Mecha as soon as he departed, already finished with her own system diagnostics for Shattered Pride.


    "Good news. The Staff on Rae 5 has a whole delegation ready for us since we''ve gathered the Border Nations all in one spot. They have a team from the Reavers, as well as a Cygnus Royal negotiation teaming to do the actual dirty work, and all we have to do is sit here and look pretty. Maybe shoot a few stupid people for effect."


    "You added thatst part yourself, didn''t you?"


    "A girl can dream. But speaking of dreams, you''ve got a birthdaying up soon. What sort of present do you want?"

 Chapter 468 468 Party Planning

    That was a fine question. What did he want for his birthday? He had ignored a couple of birthdays since bing a Pilot, but the ones he did celebrate in the past were a source of mental trauma for him.


    "Why don''t you pick whatever you think I will like? I don''t really do birthdays."


    Nico raised her hands with the index fingers crossed in a gesture that children use to ward off evil and unwanted things. "Oh no, you are the Commander, and we have thousands of staff members and soldiers under yourmand right now.


    A Commander''s birthday is a big thing, and most Companies make it a statutory holiday, with almost all duties canceled for the day. You can''t just ignore it. The crew would get offended."


    She had a point, the Commander''s birthday was a big deal even in most Mecha Regiments, and since the Reaver Companies were basically nations to themselves, the leader''s birthday was one of their biggest holidays.


    "You can organize the party as you like. Seriously, I don''t care what the theme is. Just make sure it is enough to keep the crew happy and talk to the group leaders to ensure that the shifts are altered for the day as an official holiday." Max reluctantly agreed.


    "That''s the spirit. Now, let''s head out to meet our Guests. They will be arriving by a portal, so we will be arranging transport for them to and from the meetings, as well as a security detail, which will give us a chance to show off our new augmentic suits." Nico informed him.


    They had just arrived in the cargo bay designated for portal arrivals and business meetings when a new thought urred to Max. His birthday was also Nico''s birthday.


    "What are you nning for your birthday celebration? Since we are born on the same day, if I can''t escape a birthday party, neither can you." Max insisted.


    "Why would I avoid a birthday party? I look amazing in a princess dress. But this year, it will be a crew-only celebration, while yours will be for all of our assembled guests and friends since we will be in the middle of a negotiation." Nico teased.


    "Fair enough. I am sure that the Innu won''t let you get off without some sort of celebration. They do celebrate birthdays, don''t they?"


    "They Innu have a fun birthday tradition. To mark the celebrant''s entire home with their new age. Balloons, signs, even the tes for their meals will have their new age marked on them."


    That did sound like a lot of fun, and Max hoped that they would make it a crew-wide thing. A few of the veterans might take offense to having their age broadcast, but if it were just in their own quarters, it would only be seen by their friends and a few close subordinates, not the thousands of members who would be joining the celebration for Max''s birthday.


    "Wait, are we telling them our real age or sticking with the modified version that is on all of our documents?" Max asked before Nico could cause a scene for her own entertainment.


    If he didn''t rify, there was a very real chance that she would actually put his age since rebirth on the walls. He didn''t feel that age anymore, not since all of his memories had returned, giving him a lifetime of experience, the same as Nico was born with, so the thought of reverting to a younger age just made him feel even more disconnected from his childhood in this life.


    "It''s been a long time since we had the minds or bodies of someone our own age, so we will stick with what is on the paperwork, which makes this your eighteenth birthday. An important one for Reavers, though you jumped the gun a little, and we won''t be bringing in any Senior Officers to give you an official rank and position in the Company."


    The thought of that was enough to make Maxugh. Who would even be qualified to grant him an official position in the Terminus Trading Company? An outside Reaver force? Maybe the Admiral? Certainly, it wouldn''t be Nico, no matter how much she might enjoy the prank.


    "And what do you want for your birthday?"


    Max''s question brought a smirk to Nico''s face, and a strangebat song that he recognized as a battle chant of the Reaver forces blocked her thoughts from his detection.


    "I have already made ns to get what I want for my birthday. No peeking into my thoughts, no matter how easy it is with your new skills." She reprimanded him.


    "Fine, keep your secrets. I will find out soon enough." Max agreed and sent the Admiral directions to follow the Border Fleet back to the meeting location.


    The journey wasn''t a long one, and they were there by evening, just before the negotiation teams were scheduled to arrive, after a few hours'' worth of dy, as they prepared more materials for the uing deals.


    The Materials Printers would hold low value to the Border Nations, as they had ess to a version from their Cygnus allies, but the Replicators would be in high demand, so the Reavers arranged more raw materials to be sent to Terminus, as well as some other civilian technologies that they thought the locals would like.


    While Max was preparing to meet the new arrivals, Nico was involved in a deep technical discussion with one of the Innu technicians, the new Bear hybrid Technician Da, and one of the Shin. They had all been informed of the uing birthday holiday and the party ns that would involve the whole ship, and they all had ideas on how to make it better from the viewpoint of their own culture.


    Nico had exined the Innu''s tradition, but Da wanted them to assemble a moonlight walk through the woods, a tradition on her for birthdays, to help them align themselves with the stars, ording to the big woman.


    Shin tradition had nothing for birthdays, as they only celebrated seasonal changes, but the talk of a forest aboard the ship was enough to catch the aliens'' attention, and they wanted to convert a cargo bay with holograms and actual living trees.


    The Replicators could do the task, but it would be a huge waste of biomass, in Max''s opinion, to convert an area just for a party.


    Fortunately, the Shin had thought of that objection. They suggested that it might be better to convert a forward section in the cruise ship, which was currently an unused space with vast armored windows overhead. The forest could extend the height of the ship, and their unique abilities with nts could grow a World Tree, three hundred meters tall, to extend the height of the open central column.


    It would be a masterpiece of botany worthy of any''s praise if they could pull it off, but they only had a few days until his birthday, and they would be busy dealing with negotiation teams until then. Even a basic party would be cutting it close.


    "Fear not. We have friends arriving to enjoy the luxury of your soil rooms, and they can bring all the tools we need." The Shin informed them.


    "Excellent. There are more Innuing as well since this is a long holiday on our homeworld. If we put the Commander''s birthday celebrations in the feed, I bet we can fill the Cruise Ship." The Tech Nomad turned employee informed Nico with a giggle.


    "I will take care of the scheduling, and I have rooms nned for any delegates that we might receive from the humans. Go ahead and advertise, but warn them that we might run short on hangar bays if they''re all bringing private ships, so be sure to book space in advance if they''re staying for an extended period."


    Nico was definitely taking this whole birthday celebration over the top, but it would be great to see their ship full for the first time.

 Chapter 469 469 Hectic Schedule

    The portal was opened to wee the delegations the moment that Terminus came to a halt in orbit around the where the meetings were taking ce. The technology that they had wasn''t advanced enough to pull them aboard while the ship was traveling at faster-than-light speeds, so the negotiation teams had been waiting for multiple hours already, and they were eager to get checked into a room and settle down for a nap before the meetings started.


    The Border Nations were also assembling, and they wouldn''t be ready for at least another day due to the traveling distance from one side of the Death Wind Territory to the other. That also meant that Max''s birthday party would take ce before the negotiations began, or at least the start of it would.


    Because Terminus was a Cruise Ship and was hosting dignitaries from multiple nations, a decision was made to extend the celebration to a whole week so that conflicting schedules wouldn''t interfere with the party.


    One hour after they were in orbit, their location was confirmed by the first of the Alliance Jump Points in Innu space, and a portal was opened, delivering what Max took to be their equivalent of four busloads of tourists.


    The Ship''s official itinerary said that they would get to watch a human negotiation between hostile nations, as well as celebrate the Commander''s birthday, and it had pulled in a huge number of guests for the week-long break.


    They weren''t the only ones, though. A small vessel full of Shin arrived soon after, followed by two dozen private yachts from the Valkia and finally a shuttle from the Hunters, containing members of a Hunter team that they had yet to meet.


    With everyone showing up at the same time, through multiple portals that the local forces had never seen before, the Border Nations were on high alert for an attack.


    [Terminus to local defense. These vessels are not a threat. They are clients of our Cruise Ship service, here to experience the negotiations firsthand. Their vessels will remain in our dock until the meetings are over if they are not immediately departing the system.] Max informed them with the hope of calming down their panic.


    [What nation are they representing? Are they also part of the Reavers Trade Group?] The Border Fleet Admiral asked.


    [They represent the Intergctic Alliance, a varied group of species from beyond our Gxy. They are strictly anti-war, so don''t expect them to get involved or drawn into any sort of shenanigans.] Max informed him.


    [I will have to report this to Central Command. Please Stand By.] The Admiral replied curtly.


    [We''re here for a negotiation. We aren''t going anywhere.] Max sighed, then stepped away from the radio to make sure that their influx of guests was being handled efficiently.


    The staff was running at full capacity, and there were some dys getting everyone checked in, but the hangars were efficiently docking all the ships as they arrived, and nobody was left exposed in space, so they weren''t doing too badly.


    The decorations were already going up all over the ship, and the forest was being installed in the formerly unused portion of the ship, though the giant centerpiece tree was no more than a sapling at the moment, like most of the other nts.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Shin were incredibly capable botanists, so Max had faith that they could do something about the bare ground in the forested areas, but growing that tree to thirty meters or more in height seemed like an impossible task, even for them.


    The Valkia had taken the top floor where the Illithid had been housed during their visit, and they seemed to enjoy the ability to look down upon the rest of the people on the ship. Max suspected that their urge to control and the haughty nature were actually gic traits of the species, as he hadn''t met any without them, but he would know for sure when he saw them up close again.


    With the upgrades to his mind reading, it would be quite clear what everyone''s personality was like instead of having to cherry-pick who he wanted to listen to.


    By his best estimate, they had taken in over five thousand guests in the past few hours, and the human delegations were beginning to look a bit overwhelmed with the influx of alien visitors and the barrage of questions about their technology and attire by the Innu guests.


    [Nico, please save the negotiators. The Innu have found them, and they brought a lot of ceremonial weapons and devices with them to posture for the meetings.] Max informed his second inmand.


    [On it, boss. You will be needed at the main stage on the first floor in two hours. They will be expecting a short speech, and we will be holding the first celebration for your birthday there.] Nico replied as she ran through the ship, using a Tech Adept Harness for the Gravity Control to fly between floors.


    She was being tailed by a number of young Innu, who hadn''t realized yet that the harness and its flexible arms weren''t part of Nico, but an essory that she was wearing. They were quite excited to see what species she was, but she was moving too fast for them to catch up.


    Max changed into Reaver attire suitable for a party,plete with a sidearm, and began making his way through the back passages toward the stage. If he went through the main corridors, he would never make it there on time.


    He wasn''t alone in the cargo corridors. They had be the break ce of choice for the staff, who had never worked this hard before, and the air filtration was struggling to keep up with the influx of smoke as the workers on break tried to regain some portion of their sanity before they went back to work.


    "You''re all doing amazing. I know it''s the first real stress test for the crew, and we just got a lot of new employees, so don''t worry too much if things don''t feel perfect today. We''ve got a whole week at full capacity to adjust." Max assured them.


    "You say one week like that makes it better. I''m starting to envy the Princess of the Broken ster at this point." One of the menughed, referring to the bureaucrat''s daughter, who Max had reassigned after her arrival.


    He would have to drop in and see how she was adjusting when he got a moment.

 Chapter 470 470 Is This Normal For You?

    Nico made it to the beleaguered delegation of negotiators in only a few minutes, rescuing them from the Innu by virtue of her unique technologies.


    "Gentlemen. Wee to Terminus. I see that you have met the Innu, this section of the Universe''s greatest lovers of technological gadgets. Please don''t be upset with them. The chance to see a new piece of technology is a huge event in their lives, as important as the birth of a child." Nico greeted the confused group.


    The Innu tourists nodded happily, confirming her analysis, even as the mechanical arms of Nico''s harness rearranged the ones who were getting too grabby. The mps simply picked the overjoyed Innu up and moved them to the side, where their analysis of the Tech Adept Harness wouldn''t interfere with other guests trying to navigate the ship.


    "Our in-house Innu Technicians have analyzed the Tech Adept Harness and filmed the process. Their Tech Nomad broadcasts contain a full four-hour feature on the device, including basic design elements, if you are interested." Nico informed the crowd, then sent a short-range broadcast to their devices so that they could watch the stream''s rey.


    "Oh, thank you, Miss Rage. But what is with all the relicser pistols? Is it a thing? Like historical cosy?" One of the Innu asked.


    "Sort of. They are ceremonial items that the negotiation teams carry with them to meetings. They show the long history of the groups present, as well as a veiled threat of violence should someone break the rules of decorum." Nico exined, relieving one of the negotiators from the Cygnus delegation of his weapon so she could show it to the group.


    "See, it is functional, though not optimal, because they are not intending to have to use it, but having a non-functional device would defeat the purpose." She added, then handed it back after the closest Innu had time to examine the pistol.


    "Forget the pistols, that watch. I haven''t seen something like that outside of a museum. Is it seriously just a timepiece andmunication device?" A tall girl whose hair tentacles were adorned with braided ribbons in a rainbow of color asked.


    "It really is. Even among the humans, this is a relic, made of precious metals and worn as a show of simple elegance." Nico told her.


    "I see, so as the really wealthy Giants do. They don''t wear any technology at all and have a servant with anything that they might need." The girl suggested.


    "Simr, but without the assistant having ess to his privatemunications." Nico agreed.


    The team looked a bit miffed at being talked about like they weren''t present, but with so many new species roaming around, they weren''t willing to say anything that might be taken as rude. They were professional mediators, after all.


    While they were talking, one of the Valkianded on a tentacle that Nico had extended overhead to keep it out of the reach of the Innu, then hopped down to examine the humans.


    "How quaint. Are these the primitives of your species? They don''t have any of the nanotechnologies that your crew does, and they aren''t enhanced to the same standard that you are." The winged alien with satin smooth silver skin and long ck hair asked Nico.


    "It is considered rude to call them primitives. They are unaugmented humans, yes. Their culture is catching up quickly, though, and they are our allies. They will be doing the actual negotiations here." Nico informed the haughty Valkia.


    "I like them. They''re like wet y, just waiting to be molded into a masterpiece." The alien told her, then leaped back into the air and vanished in a powerful p of his wings.


    "Those ones won''t be easy to deal with, will they?" The Cygnus Noble asked Nico as the Valkia left.


    "Not at all. They don''t even consider most humans as civilized since their technology and culture aren''t up to standard. By their rules, you really are primitive savages, but we can change that soon enough. Give it a generation or two, and we will have most of the Cygnus Empire up to a standard where they at least consider you to be a civilization.


    The Kepler-born humans got a bit more consideration thanks to the System and its nanobots. But they''re still leery of us, as they consider us too violent."<novelnext></novelnext>


    That made the Reaver delegatesugh out loud. "They consider you as too violent to be considered civilized? Well, imagine that. I think there are at least four human nations who would agree with them on that count."


    "Oh, I saw that video. No, it can''t be that one. Everyone died, so there wasn''t anyone left to call her uncivilized." One of the Innu tourists called out.


    "She did what? You know what? I am going to have to keep up with an entire alien social media site just to keep up with the battle strategies of the Terminus Trading Company. We''re on the same team, and the aliens still knew before I did." The delegate replied with a frown.


    "That one wasn''t broadcast. My sister is working here as a Technician, and she sent me a snippet." The girl told him, then smiled at Nico.


    "Who would have thought that there could actually be violent bugs or humans who tried to integrate with them?"


    The Reaver red at Nico. "I need a full debriefing on this one. Seriously, doesn''t anyone report important developments to the council anymore?"


    "I did report it, though. There is a whole incident report waiting for them to review it. It only happened a few weeks ago, and they are pretty backed up with all the battles that have been happening, so fights in Klem space are low priority." Nico offered.


    "Fair enough then. As long as I''m not out of the loop on anything that mighte up in the negotiations." He agreed.


    "You are going to negotiate the new trade deal with these humans? Can Ie with you? Do you have good cameras? Is there a live streaming agreement?" The Innu closest to the Reaver asked, clinging to his side and giving him her best version of a pleading look.


    The Innu did that by twining their hair tentacles together like crossed fingers, as well as wide open eyes and pouted lips, so the man might not understand right away, but even the best pleading wouldn''t change the answer.


    "Negotiations are confidential until the deal is signed. I am very sorry, Miss, but no unauthorized personnel is allowed, and absolutely no cameras."


    "What sort of a negotiation is that? Surprise plot changes are sost decade." The girlined.


    The Reaver turned to Nico for an exnation, only to find herughing silently and failing to hide it behind her hand.


    "Trade Negotiations aren''t a reality TV show. They are a serious political deal, like a Royalty adjustment." Nico told her.


    "OH! We are here for something really big, then. The Royalty rates haven''t been adjusted in decades. If human nations are doing something like that right now, it is huge news. We should set up daily updates when these guyse back." She cheered.


    "Is this what Innu Paparazzi look like?" the Reaver questioned, but Nico could see softness in his smile as he noticed the genuine excitement in her attitude.


    Perhaps she should provide the humans with data on intimate interspecies rtions before they got into a situation they didn''t expect.

 Chapter 471 471 Not So Fast

    As Nico got all of the chaos sorted out and the humans introduced to the myriad of cultures that had arrived in thest few hours, doing her best to keep things under control, using data pilfered from the various ships which had visited Terminus in the past, or were here now, Max made it to the stage to give the first speech for his birthday celebrations.


    "Wee everyone to Terminus, home of the Terminus Trading Company and official ambassador of the humans to the Alliance. It is good to see such a wide variety of faces here to celebrate my birthday.


    Today I will be celebrating my eighteenth birthday, the age at which even the slowest developing of human cultures consider their citizens to be adults.


    We have a variety of events nned, and all amenities of the ship are included in your room fees for this week, so let loose and enjoy anything that you see. If we can aplish it, and it doesn''t break anyws, we will do our best to provide it to you."


    Max''sst line caused a round ofughter from the crowd that had assembled by the stage, and he stepped aside, letting a holographic dance show begin while staff moved through the crowd with snacks and drinks.


    The contents were clearly listed, as some species that had arrived with the Innu busses couldn''t tolerate alcohol or various foods, but that didn''t calm the enthusiasm of the crowd at all.


    The dance show that was ying in the hologram was all Kepler citizens, enhanced well beyond regr human standards, and performing gravity-defying moves that had the crowd in awe of the physical abilities of humanity.


    Max made his way through the crowd, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries while the party atmosphere spread through the ship.


    The older infantry soldiers had been pressed into duty as security, though the crowd was peaceful so far, and they were more of an armored tour guide than anything.


    Putting them into the augmentic armor might have been a mistake, as most of the Innu hadn''t watched the live streams where the design was exined by their technicians, and the guards were all swarmed by excited tourists, eager to find out more about their armor, and the t space technology in their new watches, which held weapons, in case they were actually needed.


    Among the crowd, Max managed to find one of the representatives of the Border Nations, who had arrived by shuttle only minutes earlier, ording to the ship''s data.


    "Wee to Terminus. I am sorry we didn''t put on a proper wee for you, but as you can see, things are a bit hectic here for my birthday, and everyone is upied keeping Terminus at full readiness." Max greeted the older woman and her two much younger assistants.


    "No offense taken. We didn''t send any advance notification. We just snuck over when we saw all of the alien vessels. This is quite the sight. Is that normal for your ship?" She asked.


    "Not really. We usually aren''t nearly this busy, and some of these species are visiting us for the first time. This Gxy is a restricted area for them, and a vacation here is akin to war tourism, going to an active conflict area to see what the locals live like." Max exined.


    "I see. I can understand why they might view us that way. Normally they don''t respond tomunications at all, so the chance to meet and interact with them is a novel experience for us. It will also help convince others that your goal of mutual defense and nonaggression has a valid basis in the situation as you are experiencing it.


    The Mercenaries have mostly been a threat because of their penchant for taking missions to attack outposts, so if they aren''t going to be doing that anymore, there is a very slim chance that the Border Nations will consider taking some of them off the embargo list."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max smiled at the good news. "d to hear it. The more of us that can work together, the less we have to spend on our militaries, and the more that we can spend getting our citizens up to standards.


    The Reavers have a number of valuable new technologies to that end, and you will have a chance to experience them tonight. All of the food and drinks here have been made by our Replicators, so you have an opportunity to enjoy the luxuries of one of the most important pieces of new tech that we are offering to our allies in advance.


    They can make all of this out of nearly any sort of biomass, and I am sure that an ambassador can see the advantage to that."


    Max handed the woman a flute of champagne and a small te of spiced fried mushrooms that the Innu were particrly fond of.


    "Oh, this is divine. Where did the recipee from?" The ambassador asked.


    "You see the pink-skinned aliens with the tentacles for hair? This mushroom recipe is one of theirs. The mushrooms are a species that was known to the Kepler Empire, but thebination of spiceses from their homeworld. We can include it in the programming of the Replicators that you order if you choose to join the Trade Group." Max offered.


    One of the assistants chuckled. "See, this Reaver knows how to properly bribe an official. No threats or cash. You give them things that they can''t obtain on their own."


    Max shook his head. "This isn''t a bribe. It is a normal menu item here aboard Terminus that everyone has ess to. That makes it a negotiation tactic and not a bribe."


    The two young assistants looked dubious, but once they tried the mushroom bites, they were as hooked as the senior was.


    "There will be a grand banquetter, avable at every food service station aboard the ship, so feel free to indulge in anything that you would like to try and enjoy your time here aboard Terminus. You are wee to return in the evenings after the meetings as well, as I see that you have managed to procure a suite on the fifth floor." Max reminded them, then moved on to talk to the Shin, who were gathered together with huge containers of some mysterious liquid that was making the sapling on the main floor grow to enormous heights in a matter of minutes.


    "Commander, I told you we could grow you a world tree in time. Well, almost in time since everyone showed up so early. But the nutrients are in, and we have modified its genome to reach the desired growth parameters, so it will be on the top floor by the end of the night. It will also give off a healing aura, a form of nonvisible light that stimtes other nts to self-repair and maintain their peak growth state for extended periods of time." The Shin leader informed Max as he approached.


    "That is incredible. Though maybe I shouldn''t be as surprised by the abilities of your flora since I have met you, and your entire species is beyond what humans considered possible even a few years ago." Max replied.


    "Just wait. We have nted moonflowers as well, and once they finally open, it will be incredible. They are bioluminescent, and many consider them a treasure of gics." The treelike alien replied with pride.


    "It is a true honor to have you here aboard Terminus. None of this would have been possible without your assistance."

 Chapter 472 472 More Guests

    The party had moved into a slower-paced nighttime mode, and the ship''s clock was almost to morning again when Max received a message about more vessels iing to the.


    These ones hadn''t identified as Border Nations, and they weren''t Mercenary vessels, but they had refused to answer any hails from Terminus or the other vessels present.


    [Nico, wake your ass up. I need a ship identification, and I need it now.] Max ordered.


    [Keep your panties on. I will find out who they are.] Nicoughed, and Max distantly felt her thoughts over on the far side of the ship where the Innu guests who were still awake were brainstorming ways to modify the Materials Printers that wouldn''t vite Alliancews.


    Some of their favorite technologies relied upon synthetic Ions, which weren''t stable in nature, but could be artificially bonded together through advanced technology. They had a pair of very drunk Valkiawyers with them, objecting to everything that they proposed, as well as one Giant bureaucrat who would look up the relevantws and copyrights on their behalf.


    He was not getting in the middle of that, so Max let Nico do her thing and just waited for the message.


    [Got them. They are Omwat-built vessels, with their hulls modified to evade identification. Their ship''sms have been altered as well, and I am detectingrge numbers of Mecha power signatures aboard the vessels.] Nico responded.


    Omwat was not part of the Border Nations, but they used them as a shield to keep trouble from their own borders. The fact that they had sent multiple vessels here in disguise was not a good sign.


    [Size and Capability] Max demanded since Nico had gotten distracted by the conversation again.


    [Thirty Destroyers, with an escort fleet encased in their Warp bubble. True power unknown.]


    That was enough for Max to scramble all Pilots and the new Infantry Regiment to ready positions. They had been reminded not to drink too heavilyst night, but fighting with a hangover was a longstanding Military Tradition, so the actual level of sobriety was questionable.


    If nothing else, running through the halls of a Destroyer during a boarding action would sweat thest of the liquor out of their systems.


    The Abrax were not on good terms with the Reavers for a number of generations, so the chances that they were here to join the negotiations were pretty low, and if they were, they wouldn''t have needed to send so many vessels.


    This fleet was enough tounch a fullary invasion of the half dozen inhabiteds in the vicinity of the meeting, where the Reavers and their Allies would need to engage in a ground war to try to dig them out without incurring significant civilian casualties.


    Even the presence of Cleansing Light wouldn''t mean much if they invaded thes, as Max couldn''t unleash his full fury on a friendly.


    Max did his best to avoid rming the guests while he mobilized as many of his troops as he could and called the Illithid advisor to his side. The man was a genius with strategy, both for preventing battle and keeping it from spreading if it were inevitable.


    The Illithid was a practical species, thanks to their mind reading. They knew that violence was inevitable, so they just did their best to keep it contained, and they had managed to do it so well that inteary conflict was basically unknown in the Alliance for centuries, even without anyone taking action to assist others.


    "What can we do to keep this iing fleet from causing major issues?" Max asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Illithid gave him a pitying look and brought out a data tablet with their calctions visible. The chances of keeping them from makingndfall were less than one percent if that was their goal, and the chances of the negotiations proceeding on the schedule were zero. Not less than one percent, the Illithid had calcted them as absolute zero.


    "Alright, then, we will have to be proactive the moment that they make their intentions clear. But if they are makingfall, we will need clearance from the Border Nations, or at least the ones involved." Max sighed.


    [Nico, contact the Ambassador from the Border Nations that is here on the ship and let her know what is going on, assuming that she doesn''t already know. We might not have an agreement signed, but some goodwill will go a long way if we can keep their from getting overrun by their neighbors.]


    [Her assistants are up. Life signs in the room say that the heart rates are high enough that they must be awake or having a nightmare. I will page them, and they can wake their mistress up.] Nico agreed.


    After a few minutes of frantic motion behind the scenes, the Ambassador wasing toward Max in her evening gown, and the Mecha were loaded and ready inside the Cutters.


    "Commander Max, is what I hear right? The Reavers are willing toe to our defense, despite our history?" The woman asked as she ran up, much faster than her abundant and aged physique would suggest was possible.


    "Since there is no agreement at this point, our intervention will not be free of charge. But we are willing to provide as much force as we can to ensure that the Omwat fleet does not overrun the border nations in this region." Max agreed.


    "With only a single Colony Ship here and a few Mercenary Groups nearby, what can you even do?" She asked, afraid that her home was going to take the brunt of this offensive.


    "We can call for reinforcements, but Terminus herself has an entire Heavy Mecha Regiment, as well as a few specialized units. I thought your military would have informed you already." Max replied.


    "The Border Fleet was holding the data of your interactions until everyone was assembled so that they didn''t cause a panic, or so they said." The assistant replied on his boss''s behalf.


    "Fair enough. We have a Titan ss Mecha here, and we are perfectly capable of dealing with the Destroyers, but we will be unlikely to stop the majority of thearynding fleets." Max informed her.


    The woman held up hermunication device, a handheld version of the smartwatch Max and most others wore, showing him that everything they said had been transmitted to a group chat.


    She kept silent for a moment while they argued, then turned up the volume so that everyone nearby could hear.


    "The Border Nations are willing to submit immediately to the Trade Agreement terms as written. The paperwork will be signed and submitted within the next fifteen minutes." A very official voice announced.


    Well, that was certainly one way of doing it. They would lose out on any potential benefits and freebies, but they would save the cost of a Reaver military intervention, which might save them money in the long run. It was a calcted risk on their part, but Max would take a win where he could get it.


    [Nico, inform the Reavers that we have the entire Border Nation grouping into our fold within the hour and that they are under attack by the Omwat. We need anyone who is free for defense, and I intend to take the entire nation of Omwat as a Reaver territory aspensation.] Max informed the war-crimes loving Cyborg.


    [You''re so good to me. And on my birthday, no less. I will have to find you a much better present than I had nned.]

 Chapter 473 473 Um What? Omwat

    "I am sorry to cut you short, but please deal with my assistant while I head to my Mecha. I will be needed for the defense fight." Max informed the older woman, who just waved him away and turned to hermunicator to make sure that she had heard their instructions correctly.


    As the Illithid had predicted, there were no messages before the fleet left warp, and the second they did, the fleet at the closest started dislodging Landers from five Destroyer ss vessels, as well as fifteen Mecha Carriers roughly equivalent to Kepler''s President ss vessels.


    That should give them a force of thirty Mecha Regiments headed to the in the next five minutes.


    [All forces deploy. Nico, get the drones active and shoot down those Landers while we deal with the fleet.] Max ordered.


    She was way ahead of him. Max had only just stepped out of the hangar, and Shattered Pride was already ahead of him, surrounded by dozens of drones, which were headed for the atmosphere while she was headed up into open space to confront the fleet.


    Max focused all six Disruptors on the closest Destroyer andunched the equivalent of an Orbital Lance at their shielding, making it flicker and sh, then fail entirely as the sts from the Cutters reached a secondter.


    The massive vessel, only a half kilometer shorter than Terminus herself in size, violently exploded, filling the space around the Omwat fleet with debris before they could even react to the iing Reaver vessels.


    They didn''t hesitate at all, and the Cutters were forced to evade as a barrage of iing fire came for them. The shields on the Cutters were tough, but the Destroyers weren''t lightly armed vessels, and a single hit could well drop the shields of even their new pattern Cutters.


    The Border Fleet was only a breath behind them,unching missiles and Ion Beams toward the Carriers, hoping to reduce the number of Landers that could be sessfullyunched.


    Ahead of Max, traveling as fast as her Mecha would carry her, Nico plowed into a Carrier de first, with both of her Disruptors firing a continuous beam.


    Shattered Pride punched through the shielding, then the bay door of the Carrier, and the Super Heavy Mecha disappeared from sight.


    Max dodged a few volleys of fire from the Omwat Fleet, moving upward so the angle wouldn''t put any of the ships in orbit behind him, which would risk coteral damage from the shots he dodged.


    Before he could get in ce to fire again, a Carrier exploded, and Shattered Pride flew from the ruins with a foreign-designed Super Heavy Mecha speared on her de. Nico threw it at a Destroyer and moved to attack the bridge of a damaged Carrier, tearing apart themand center, then firing directly inside the vessel, setting off a chain reaction from the ship''s engines thatpletely destroyed it.


    Shields red as Landers, which were almost ready tounch, were thrown clear, only to be targeted by the Border Fleet ships and the Drones.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max coordinated with the Cutters and a second Destroyer went up in a fireball as the ruptured engines burned off the ship''s atmosphere.


    The cloud of Landers was thinning already as the emergency deployment came to an end only a few minutes after their arrival, and Max detected signals indicating that the fleet was preparing to run away from the unanticipated level of damage they had taken.


    That would leave the force on the vulnerable, but they could still threaten for control of the surface with the numbers that they had managed to get to the surface, even with the defensive fire and the Drones attacking them.


    Max knew that they had it easy. They had destroyed nearly half of the forces on their way down and crippled the fleet in orbit. The others which were under attack were unlikely to have fared nearly as well. They had defense fleets and orbital defenses, but they didn''t have the Orbital Lances that the Cuttersunched by Terminus had deployed to deal with the Destroyers, so therger vessels would have been capable of covering for the Carriers while they finished their deployment.


    A red streak raced through space, and Max watched as the engines of a Destroyer, formerly glowing with intense blue light, went dark. Nico had taken advantage of the vulnerability in the shields as the vessel prepared to go to warp to enter the enclosure and attack their warp drive, leaving the ship dead in space.


    Thest two Destroyers managed to transition to faster-than-light travel and fled the system, leaving behind the Carriers, who needed more time to activate their engines, and who were taking much heavier fire since they were the ones most likely to be destroyed by the Border Nations'' firepower.


    [First and Second Battalion, join Shattered Pride and board the disabled Destroyer. We will take it intact as reparations.] Max ordered.


    He would hold off on the infantry for now until the ship could be secured with Mecha. After that, they would be ordered in to take the ship and clear out the defenders.


    They couldn''t space the attackers today, as so many aliens were watching and wondering how close to civilized humans were, which did limit their options, but it could be done subtlyter, in the form of a funeral rite.


    The only hidden blessing in this situation was that the Omwat were not human. They were simr to humans in the way that the Vampires looked vaguely human, but they were shorter, with four arms and four eyes set into thick, leathery skin.


    That would let Max y this off as humanity being attacked by hostile aliens, a situation that the Alliance was very familiar with. The fact that humans and the Omwat had been doing business with each other for over a thousand years, and living side by side, could be glossed over for the sake of posterity.


    Max and the other three Cutters continued to bombard the Omwat fleet until thest few Carriers chose to stand down instead of fighting to thest. The Border Nations chose to be the ones to board and secure the vessels, as this was their home system that was attacked, so Max ordered the Cutters to standby in orbit until they had agreed on a n of action to retake the, which was currently under attack by more than a dozen Mecha Regiments, and an unknown number of infantry.

 Chapter 474 474 Boarding Action

    [Commander, the main hallways of the Omwat Destroyer are secure. Requesting a boarding force to secure the secondary corridors and individual rooms.] Major Miller requested ten minutes after thest of the Carriers had surrendered.


    [What is the situation with the survivors?] Max asked so he could n how many troops to send.


    [They were initially reluctant, but we currently have just over two thousand in custody.] Miller replied.


    That should be close to the whole crew of a destroyer once the payload was delivered, as they were mostly armor and weapons systems and didn''t carry an enormous crew despite their size.


    He might as well send the entire Regiment, though. It would be good practice for them, and they hadn''t actually done a boarding action together yet, though they had trained together in the VR simtions.


    [The infantry are on their way. Hold the hallways, and they will do a full sweep to make sure that we don''t have any saboteurs aboard.] Max replied, then called for the First Battalion''s Cutter toe to pick up the infantry for the boarding action.


    They had shuttles, and other small vessels for this sort of thing, but not nearly enough for an entire Regiment, as Max hadn''t really been expecting to do a full clear of an alien Destroyer so soon after upgrading his crew.


    They were on a diplomatic mission. Sure, that meant the possibility of failure, but that should mean they were denied, not that they were disabling thergest ships in the nation''s fleet.


    [Commander, the Reaver, and Cygnus fleets have arrived at the other affecteds via a portal, and a Cygnus Pacification fleet is headed to the Omwat homeworlds to im them in the name of Cygnus.] Themunications officer informed Max while he waited for the infantry to load up.


    If anyone was truly benefitting from this situation, it was definitely the Cygnus forces. They had gained a huge number ofs in thest few months, and they were about to gain even more thanks to the Omwat attempt to stop the Border Nations from joining the Trade Group.


    If they got too powerful, they might try to take over the whole group, but that was a problem forter. For now, they were the closest ally with the firepower to deal with problems like this since the smaller nations had all fallen into their grasp already.


    The one advantage that they had was the close rtionship between the Reaver Companies and the Cygnus Nobility. Many younger children had married Reavers, which brought them into the Cygnus Nobility, though as distant rtions to the ruling powers. That reduced the chance that they would be betrayed and increased the chances that they would be willing to work together toward the goal of mutual defense.


    Max waited in orbit while Nico returned Shattered Pride to its hangar, showing many signs ofbat where her shields had been brought down by the concentrated fire of the defenders or possibly where she had caused herself enough damage to drop them while destroying ships with a melee weapon.


    [I will take care of the guests. Have fun out there, but remember toe back when you''re done. I have a birthday present for you.] Nico reminded him as she settled her Mecha back into its repair bay.


    [How could I forget? They will be celebrating all week.] Maxughed, then cut it short as the Cutter deployed the infantry, d in the finest of experimental augmentic suits, onto the Omwat Destroyer.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max linked the team leaders'' cameras to his feed and linked the sensor data both from the other infantry units, as well as the Cutters and the Mecha force inside the vessel, to their heads-up disy.


    That way, they wouldn''t miss anything that might have been found with a bit more data, and it would be nearly impossible for the Omwat to hide an infiltration team in any secret spaces of the ship.


    They had a number of technologies that could block an area from Kepler Scanners, as well as the new versions that the Terminus design team hade up with, but those showed up as ck spots on the disy. It practically begged the boarding team to search those areas to see what had been hidden in them.


    Not many hidden sailors were found, but the boarding crew did find arge amount of contraband among the hidden areas of the ship. The crewmen knew where the sensors couldn''t prate, so that was where they hid all their liquor, drugs, and porn.


    Omwat porn was of no interest to the boarding team, but the rest could be either resold or given as presents to the Border Fleet if they hadn''t prohibited them.


    [Sir, the ship is clear. All rooms have been searched. We have ounted for the entire crew roster, either dead or alive, and we have two additional personnel that were not on the roster. Signs indicate that they are stowaways.] Colonel Cortez informed Max.


    [Juveniles or nonmilitary personnel?] Max asked.


    [Civilians, Feline Demihumans of adult age. We found them hiding in the energy conduits outside the main engine bay. What are your orders?] the Colonel replied.


    [Bring them back with you. We will verify their story and get them settled somewhere.]


    Max turned his attention to the attacking forces on the and updated his battle n. The Border Nations had a significant military force, so the battles were already intense, but there was one region that had an unusually high density of Omwat forces.


    [Requestingnding permission to send Mecha forces to the surface to reinforce the troops on the ground. The locations are being transmitted now.] he informed the local militarymanders.


    [Permission granted, Terminus. Will your Mecha be distinguishable from the other forces?] The local General asked.


    [They will. Our whole Mecha force is in the new Reaver Patterns, and our infantry are all in distinctive augmentic suits.] Max replied.


    [Confirmed. Good to have you.]

 Chapter 475 475 Planetfall

    Max searched the''s surface until he found the perfect spot to drop off his forces. There was an industrial city near a hugeke in an open prairie area, with frequent rock outcrops that could easily hide a Heavy Mecha. Bands, they were called on Kepler Terminus, but Max wasn''t sure if that was their official designation.


    There were two Omwat Mecha Regiments in the area, and a city defense force of unknown strength, so the odds weren''t that bad for Terminus, and they could establish a foothold that would let them move out through the region and work on eliminating the rest of the invading forces.


    The simple number suggested that if they didn''t act fast, there wouldn''t be much left to save. Fifteen Mecha Regiments per side was enough to destroy everything worth destroying on a within a matter of weeks, even if the defenders did their best to save the infrastructure.


    It would be even worse if Terminus were on the attacking side since the Super Heavy Mecha had incredibly capable artillery mounted to them, so they didn''t need to bring in any additional forces to level a city and move on.


    The Cutters were just finishing the distribution of infantry when Max got the official arrival notice of the Reavers and Cygnus forces at their targets. They had used portals to speed up the process and had decided to split the attack on the Omwat homeworlds, with each force taking half as reparations, while abined force of Cygnus and Reavers would be sent to each Border that was under attack.


    That way, neither ally took heavier casualties, at least not by much, and the Border Nations would see that they were working in good faith.


    The Mercenaries were also on their way, looking to get in on the action so that they could salvage the Omwat Mecha for themselves once the battle was over, in lieu of payment for their services.


    Everyone but the Border Nations viewed the situation as a win, as they were all getting significant gains out of it, while the Borders would have to bear the brunt of a massive interster battle.


    Omwat would be required to pay reparations, likely through the sale of their military assets, as their nation was about to be split up like a holiday turkey, but the Borders would get funding to repair the damage, as well as ess to the new technologies that the Reavers had developed, which would let them make state of the art, futuristic cities on the affecteds.


    [Cutters, you have your destinations. We expect minimal anti-orbital fire, as the cities have not yet fallen. Get in there and drive the Omwat back, then cleanse them from the bands.] Max ordered.


    [Copy that, Commander.] The pilots of the Cutters replied in unison and turned their ships toward the.


    Max was about to join them when a message from Mary Tarith arrived at his Mecha from an iing Reaver vessel, carrying a full Mecha Regiment to reinforce them.


    [I like your new strategy. Capture thergest enemy vessel to add to your fleet every time you engage in battle. At this rate, I will have to start looking for fights, or my own Son In Law will overtake my fleet.] Nico''s motherughed.


    [Pure coincidence, I swear. But we''re not doing badly, are we? Two Cruisers and a Destroyer in thest couple of weeks alone. I''m keeping those, by the way. I will find crew for themter or split off my Battalion Leaders to take charge of them once we get one more ship.] Max replied.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [See, for such a young Commander, you do us all proud as Reavers. My Regiment will be just south of yours, reinforcing the military-industrial facilities. We will meetter.] Mary Tarith informed him, then Landers began tounch from the Carrier that she had arrived aboard.


    The data that her ship had transmitted to the allies indicated that this force was implemented the same way that Max''s had been, with four Super Heavy Mecha per Battalion and Five Battalions in the Regiment, using entirely new pattern Mecha.


    The Omwat were going to have a very bad day down on the''s surface, and there was still two Cygnus Regiments inbound on the far side of the.


    With the Cutters on their way down, Max dived down toward the surface of the, intending to take a position above the city to ensure that the Omwat forces couldn''t overrun it before his men arrived.


    He was joined by hundreds of Drone Fighters, as Nico used every spare Pilot and infantryman that they could train to expand the remotely controlled force.


    Attacking from above, they were already taking shots at enemy forces in the open when Max arrived over the city, bringing a cheer from the defense force that had dug themselves in along the outer perimeter of the city.


    [Keep your heads down for now. The Drones will hold their attention for a while, but they are fragile, and heavy weapons will take them out soon.] Max informed the defense force leaders.


    [Will you be staying here with us, Lord Commander?] A wheezy female voice replied immediately after, giving the impression of a lifelong chain smoker nearing retirement age.


    [I will make this my Command Post for the day. I have an entire Regimenting this way in the next few minutes while the Drones distract the enemy.]


    The Cutters were alreadying over the horizon, firing their retro thrusters to slow their approach as they spread out to deploy their forces in a defensive line.


    It was unfortunate that they couldn''t just st the area level and eliminate everything with the Orbital Lances, but this was an inhabited, friendly, and they likely wouldn''t take it well. Especially not when Max could see awork of roads winding through the bands on his scans.


    If they weren''t mining the area, it was a major tourist attraction, and destroying that would breed even more ill will than lost infrastructure.

 Chapter 476 476 Command And Control

    The five Cutters touched down on the East side of the city at the same moment, and the Thunder Guns could be heard the second that the doors opened, with the Battalion Commanders leading their forces out.


    The Drone Fightersbined with Max''s [Unified Force] System Talent gave them precision targeting data on every detected Omwat Mecha Company, and the Battalion Commanders were determined to thin their ranks as much as possible using High Explosive shells before the enemy had even realized where they were being attacked from.


    Thanks to the high-capacity organic power cells in the new Augmentic Armor, all of the infantrymen were equipped with Ion Cannons as well as sidearms, letting them take out Light Mecha with rtive ease once they were in range, but for now, they were taking the back lines, and spreading out to make sure that nothing got past the lines of Mecha using terrain to block their presence.


    [Iing Artillery] Max''s onboardputer warned him as rapidly approaching targets appeared on his screens.


    That was sooner than expected, so the Omwat must have realized just how poorly things were going to go for them and set up their artillery before they had secured the area.


    The Laser arrays on Cleansing Light burst into action as Max rapidly selected targets, destroying the artillery shells in mid-flight. Nothing got past him this time, but that was a serious workout, given the number of calctions he had to make at once.


    Auto targeting, using only Lasers, on every enemy target that approached at high speed would take a lot of the load off of his mind and keep the additional targets for his Regiment active, so Max made the adjustments to his targeting parameters and shifted his Mecha to stand in front of the defense trenches on the side where the Omwat hadnded.


    With the Regiment out there, they wouldn''t be able to encircle the city, so he only had to defend this position for the moment while the others got to work.


    [Contact on the left nk. Moving to intercept.] Major Miller, in charge of the First Battalion, announced, and the sound of Mechabat became clear even to the unaugmented ear, filling the city''s residents with fear and sending even the most reluctant scrambling for a spot in the bunkers.


    One after another, the Battalions engaged, using their superior firepower to drive back the Omwat Mecha and move them closer together, intending to encircle the entire Regiment before they went looking for the second.


    There would be no search, though. Nico''s Drone force found the others only minutes after the first battle, sheltered under camouges which had hidden them from detection by orbital scans.


    [Omwat forces on the move from the North.] Nico reported, and Max watched a number of her fighters blink out of existence as the Mecha counterattacked.


    [Defense Force, hold your positions. I will take Cleansing Light and deal with the other Regiment while my forces hold the Eastern Front.] Max informed his allies, then began to fly across the city, keeping close to the ground so that the Omwat Mecha couldn''t target him.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The shielding on Cleansing Light was incredible, but fifty or a hundred Heavy Mecha attacking him at once had a very good chance of breaching his shields, and once that happened, he was only a little more durable than the usual Super Heavy Mecha due to material limitations.


    Once he was clear of the city, Max moved to fly just above the ground through the valleys between the rock outcrops, sneaking up on the position where he had found the enemy Mecha. Or at least doing as well as a Titan ss Mecha could do to sneak up on anything.


    A powerful energy signature appeared in front of him when he was three kilometers away from the force, and Max saw a drone shatter against a shield. The Omwat Mecha had erected a forcefield on par with a small city''s Orbital Bombardment shield to protect their Mecha, and Max could see it advancing his way as the Mecha Regiment raced toward the city.


    The two shields would interfere with each other when they reached the city, making it easier to breach the city''s defenses. Max couldn''t allow that, but he didn''t want to draw too much attention to himself yet.


    [Nico, send in the drones on a low trajectory and drop some bombs from high altitude at the same time. I want them to think that they have met with a Mecha Battalion trying to break their shield, not more drones.] Max ordered.


    [Copy that. We have some recement fighters iing now. I will have them bomb from low orbit with Sabot shells.] Nico replied.


    The Sabot shells were essentially an ultra-durable slug intended to deal maximum kic damage to a shield, but they were easily countered by theyered armor of a Heavy Mecha, dispersing the impact energy.


    Max waited and watched the enemy advance for a few seconds until the whistling and mes of the sabot rounds approaching at orbital entry velocity filled the air.


    Nico might have forgotten that the enemy could see the shells if they were burning the atmosphere around them and that there would be no way that they would mistake that as artillery, but the bombardment was enough to shatter the shield in an instant, with thest few rounds mming into the ground and sending up huge clouds of dust before Ion sts came from the West and North sides of the Omwat position, low on the horizon, as if the invaders had encountered a Mecha force.


    [They are taking up a defensive encirclement, heavy on the west and north. I believe that they have fallen for the diversion.] Nico informed Max before more bombs, these ones at more normal supersonic velocities, shrieked through the air.


    They exploded in a storm of metal fragments and small explosions designed to cripple Light Mecha and infantry at the same moment that Max charged, priming all six Disruptors to fire as soon as he had direct line of sight.

 Chapter 477 477 Position Clear

    Max raced between the stone pirs of the bands,ing into sight of the Omwat forces just as they turned their attention upward to deal with the iing drone bombers.


    They had a single Super Heavy Mecha with them, a development that Max hadn''t expected since the designs were so hard to obtain outside of the Reaver factories where Uncle Lu was doling out the good stuff like candy on Halloween.


    It was turned to face the West side, where a number of Ion sts had juste in, so Max unleashed two of his Disruptors into its back a quarter second apart. The first disabled its shielding, and the second punched through its torso, vaporizing its cockpit and power nt at the same time, sending it crumbling to the ground as Max picked off the leaders of the Heavy Mecha Battalions.


    Rule one of causing Chaos, target the leadership first. Then, once the enemy has no leaders, you can rampage.


    The tactic was one from Nico''s memories, but it was especially applicable here. For almost a half second, the enemy hesitated, letting Max''s shots cripple theirmand structure before they got their act together.


    Max set the defensivesers to maximum attack rate, targeting everything not tagged as friendly, and Cleansing Light began to glow in blue light, dischargingsers all over the encampment while he charged and prepared for his Disruptors to be ready again.


    The Omwat Mecha moved to encircle Max, causing him to take damage from multiple sides, but that also moved more Mecha into the targeting range of his Lasers.


    Max raised the mighty sword straight out on his right side, sweeping it through a dozen Light Mecha at the same time and ending with a blow that chopped a Crusader ss chassis in half. Then he turned and targeted the next batch of leaders with his Disruptors, this time on wide dispersion, wiping out the entire wing of Mecha around them and killing the pilots inside dozens of other units who happened to be too close to the st''s core.


    Max could hear the panicked thoughts as seemingly undamaged Mecha stopped responding, and themand structure vanished again, but he didn''t hesitate, tearing his way through the Reaver Pattern Crusaders with abination of de and his handheld shield.


    He probably shouldn''t use that as a bludgeoning weapon, as it contained a number of defensivesers, but it was just so convenient to crush Mecha with it that Max didn''t hesitate to use it if a Mecha got close enough to his left side.


    The fact that there was a Titan ss Mecha in their midst had dawned on the survivors through the fog ofbat, and the Omwat Regiment began to scatter, running through the hills and valleys to get away from Max''s wrath.


    Max cleared out thest few stragglers who were in the area, then pinned the location on the map so that the defense forces, or his own teams, coulde and recover the Mecha that his Disruptors had disabled. With a quick rebuild of their Electrical systems, most of them could be put back into action. Cleaning the smell out of the cockpit would take somewhat longer.


    Not all of the Omwat forces had run away from the city in their rush to get away, so Max turned back in the direction he came from and moved to intercept the ones who were heading toward the trenches.


    A dispersed Disruptor st to the back took out an entire wing of Crusaders while a swipe of his sword dealt with their Line Mecha escorts.


    That was one down, and his sensors picked up six more that were heading the same way.


    The drones were also moving to intercept, doing their best to keep the casualties inside the city to the bare minimum. Both Max and Nico had learned during the Rebellion in Kepler how deadly a desperate enemy could be, and these Omwat Mecha were beyond desperate after seeing Cleansing Light in action. It wouldn''t be surprising if they detonated their power cores when they saw him, just hoping to deal some sort of damage to his Mecha.<novelnext></novelnext>


    If they got close enough to the trenches to epass them in the st, it was almost guaranteed that they would use an explosivest stand. With the shielding and failsafe in ce, it wasn''t even guaranteed that a Disruptor st would stop the power cores from going critical and sting the immediate area into ashes.


    Nico must have been thinking the same thing because when he approached, she sent him a message.


    [Turn back and take care of the fleeing forces before they can hide again and switch to guerri warfare. I will help the defenders take care of these groups.]


    That might lead to a few casualties from the Border Nations, but it was for the best.


    Mercury Seven was a resort, and every bit of it was precious to the Border Nations, so letting the Omwat run free and destroy what they would actually be a worse oue than letting them attack the city defenses.


    Max doubled back, racing between hills as he searched the satellite and drone data for more targets. There weren''t many of them left, and they were running at full speed, but that wasn''t going to save them today. Cleansing Light could attain orbit on its own. No ground-based mecha would outrun it.


    The first group fell before they knew that they had been detected, but the next heard himing and began firing wildly in his direction, hitting him with a half dozen sma shots before he could eliminate them.


    One more group had fallen to the drones, and Nico was sending him a report of a strange signature. There was Mecha, ording to the visual scans, but no life or power signatures. It was possible that the Omwat had ditched the Mecha and made a run for it, thinking that they would have an easier time hiding in the rocky terrain without the armor.


    It was thest group that had fled from the scene of his battle, so Max approached with ease, walking up to a few hundred meters away.


    When he did, a single life sign appeared on his scanners, but Max chose to pretend not to have noticed yet and kept walking toward the abandoned Mecha.


    When he got to fifty meters, the energy readings spiked, and the power cores immediately began to overload. The thrusters on Cleansing Light threw Max hundreds of meters back in an instant, so fast that the gravity made blood vessels burst in his eyes, healing secondster, thanks to the nanobots, but turning his vision red for a bit longer.


    The explosion was truly impressive, ripping through an entire kilometer of grasnd and vaporizing the one who had stayed behind to trigger it, but it wasn''t enough to take down Max''s shields from that distance.


    [City Defense, the Second Omwat Regiment has been dealt with. An unknown number of infantry survivors have fled into the bands, with possible Light Mecha reinforcements.] Max reported, just in case they had missed something on the scans.


    [Understood, Cleansing Light. Good work out there.]

 Chapter 478 478 Hold Fast

    The appearance of Cleansing Light had put new urgency into the actions of the Omwat attackers in the region. Not only the ones closest to them but even the next city south, where Mary Tarith hadnded her forces, was reporting a full-scale offensive.


    [Nico, send Drones south to reinforce the Reaver force. We are down to one Regiment here, and we have the superior force.] Max ordered.


    The Regiment hadn''t reported any Super Heavy Mecha among the force on the East side of the city, and so far, their damages only amounted to a few disabled Light Mecha, with no Pilot casualties.


    The shields that the new Mecha all had were making all the difference. If they took a hit, they could hide for a few seconds until the shield came back up, avoiding any actual damage. It was only when they took multiple hits in close session that they were in real trouble.


    The additional forces were a huge benefit to the Regiment, and the Cutters had brought all of the damaged Mecha into their repair bays and would have them active again within the next few hours, bringing the Mecha forces back to full strength while the Infantry had taken no casualties at all, and had only worked to herd Omwat patrols toward the Terminus Mecha Battalions.


    For soldiers who had been viewed as expendable for their entire careers, this was the best battle of their life. They all had heavy weapons, with plenty of ammunition, and they had top-of-the-line augmentic armor, as good or better than the Mobile Suits that the Elite Kepler Special Forces had.


    It even had a shield, the same unit that was on the Archangel Exoskeleton. The Innu had talked about merging the two, making flying augmentic suits with weaponized wings, but that n hadn''te to fruition yet, assuming that it ever would.


    The Tech Adept Harnesses were everywhere, though, and the entire repair team was wearing them, which allowed them to work together to drag disabled Light Mecha to the repair bays on their own without outside assistance and bring repair parts to any Heavy Mecha which were damaged.


    The front lines were a much more dangerous ce to work than back at their repair racks, but the advantage was that they could do the repair while surrounded by Heavy Mecha instead of relying on the fact that they weren''t close to the known enemy locations to keep them safe.


    Max returned to his position on the Eastern Perimeter of the city, waiting for more news of enemy positions, and ducked down in behind an armored military high-rise building, keeping himself mostly out of sight so that Cleansing Light wouldn''t scare the enemy away.


    While he was waiting, he received a request from the Tarith Reavers to link Cleansing Light and the drones to theirbat data feed. It would let them directly use the Drone camera feeds to target enemies the same way that his Regiment did, but it would also let him link his [Unified Force] Talent to all of their Mecha, improving the firing uracy and targeting speed of the Reavers, who were mostly not professional Mecha Pilots, though the Tarith Family Pilots almost all had a System Interface.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He wasn''t sure if it was intentional or not, but he linked them in anyhow, expanding the force that his Talent recognized as allies to twice its original size and opening a huge portion of the region to his targeting skills.


    With the Drone Patrols, they now had almost perfect visibility of the entire area between the two cities, except for areas hidden by the rock pirs. That was much better than relying on the ship''s sensors and the Satellite systems of the Vacation, which werecking to start with and only partially essible to the Reavers.


    [You know, this is practically cheating. Is this your System Function adding all of the targeting data?] Mary Tarith asked Max from her position on the defense lines of the city to his south.


    [It is. I share it with the entire Regiment as a matter of course, and it''s why we send out so many Drones.] Max agreed, knowing that Nico was weak against her mom and would cave the moment she asked about it.


    [Cleansing Light will have quite the legend with you at the helm. Nobody will forget the Titan ss Mecha that can calcte targeting data for entire Mecha regiments at the same time. If we didn''t have Pilots with Systems, the difference would be enough to sway an entireary battle.]


    She had a point. Without a System Function for targeting, many Pilots could only fire half as fast. With his Function improving them, it would double the firepower of a Non-Kepler force without adding a single new Mecha to the lines.


    He hadn''t thought about it that way before, but right now, he wasn''t willing to link all of the Border Nation defenders into his entire data feed just on the off chance that the city got attacked. They would do what they could do, and he would send his Regiment to reinforce them.


    The locals already held the Terminus Trading Company in awe thanks to the show of power, so they would ept being overruled on matters of defense, at least as long as the enemy didn''t breach their lines. When it came to fighting inside the city, they would be much more territorial, Max was certain.


    Short of manually searching through the entire wastnd himself, there wasn''t much for Max to do at the moment except watch the screens and keep the targeting data up for everyone else, so he plugged a meal order into the Mecha''s replicator and made himself dinner.


    The novelty of a fresh, hot meal in the middle of a battle might never get old, even if it dide in a maic bowl that wouldn''t fall if he had to move in a hurry, and the drink had a sippy cup lid.

 Chapter 479 479 Infiltration

    [Commander, we have reports of Omwat infantry in the region around the city. No confirmed scans, but the Drones have picked up some suspicious signals.] Nico informed Max just after night fell over the battlefield.


    The data that she sent seemed to show that the shape of the ground as scanned didn''t match the surface as it was viewed by the sensors, which Nico believed indicated that some sort of camouge was being employed.


    If she was right, that meant that arge infantry force was approaching the city, and they had no way to urately predict their location or strength at the moment.


    [City Defense, we have received data signals that indicate an infantry force capable of hiding from sensor detection is approaching your lines. Whether they have optical disguises is unknown, but the force appears to number in the Battalion Strength range.] Max informed their allies.


    [Copy that, Cleansing Light. We have heard of this phenomenon before, and thest time that they appeared, their disguise included optical cloaks, though they were far from perfect. Our sensors haven''t detected anything. How did yours find them?] The Defense General replied.


    [We used Sonar on the Drones, and their map of the ground didn''t match the reports of the other sensors.] Max reported.


    [We will keep that in mind. I will requisition some sonar units from the fishing fleets and distribute them to the units on the line.]


    The General''s decision seemed like a solid one, and Max wished that they had the option for all of their Mecha, but even having it on the drones was a good start. At least it gave them a small heads-up that there might be an issue.


    [Nico, increase the Drone patrols over the perimeter of the city. Try to find the Omwat force again and track them without being noticed.] Max ordered.


    The pattern of the drone''s flights subtly changed, but if he hadn''t known what it was supposed to be, he likely wouldn''t have noticed.


    It only took a few minutes before the notifications began rolling in. Each drone that passed over the area reported an anomaly, but they all reported it in a slightly different position, moving at a sedate walking pace suitable to short-legged humanoids.


    When they got to five kilometers from the city, Max decided to take action.


    [All Thunder Guns in range begin bombardment on my signal. Carpet pattern Delta, duration 30 seconds.]


    [Commence Bombardment.]


    The Thunder guns rang out from five different locations all around the area, peppering the region around the designated point where the disturbance had been seenst with high explosives. When it stopped, and the dust was cleared with the help of the thrusters of the drones, Max found the area littered with not only bodies but also hundreds of Omwat Light Mecha.


    There were also signs of blood trails heading for the city lines but no visual sign of the force, so their cloaking technology must still be in effect.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [City Defense, we have done heavy damage to the iing force, but there are blood trails headed your way, and we have lost the signals.] Max reported.


    A single shot rang out, and Max watched as a short body appeared on the ground, missing most of its head.


    [Our Sniper Units have been assigned sonar essories for their scopes. We will keep our eyes open and hope that the threat can be neutralized before it reaches our lines.] The General informed him.


    That was an idea that Max hadn''t had, but it was a good one.


    [Nico, put a drone with Sonar into a position hovering over my location. They know that we can find them now, so there is no need to hide our methods.] Max informed her while the drones moved out, looking for more targets.


    Hopefully, there were no lost civilians in the area outside the defensive lines, as the drones were shooting everything that moved, just on the off chance that it was an enemy soldier. They had caught some unfortunate wildlife as well, but that was a small price to pay for the elimination of an invisible enemy.


    The infantry Regiment was on high alert at the moment, and nobody was allowed out of their armor for any reason. They didn''t have a good way to find the Omwat infantry, and even the lightest of weapons would delete an unarmored head in an instant.


    It was shaping up to be a stressful night all around, but the next morning brought good news. The Innu Technicians had managed to crack the cloaking technology, and the electromaic scanners on their Mecha could detect the interference. Using that ovey, the Omwat couldn''t hide from the Reavers anymore, and the patch had already been sent to the Tarith Family forces to their south, in the expectation that they would face a simr threat.


    Unfortunately, the mecha used by the Border Nations weren''t capable of detecting the frequencies with their scanner, so they would have to rely on the Reavers to find the infantry and inform them until a method could be found to make the Omwat visible again.


    [All units fall back and join the city defenses while the drones scour the area for additional threats. Initial reports indicate that we are nearly done here, but we will hold this city for the remainder of the day and move out in the morning.] Max ordered his troops.


    A few more cloaked units were found as the Mecha approached the city and quickly eliminated with heavy weapons that the Omwat mistakenly thought would not be able to target them.


    [What is the situation on the?] Max asked while he checked the reported locations of the various attacking forces on their scans.


    [Most of the is holding well so far. Two Mecha forces to our East are currently uncontained after retreating from the defensive forces, and the locals have requested assistance due to insufficient forces to perform an offensive without risking civilians.] Themunications officer reported.


    Max checked the report against the data that he found and came up with an estimate of half a Mecha Regiment, widely scattered through the wilderness, which would be a pain to hunt, but if they brought the Tarith Reavers with them, they could clear it up with rtive ease.


    [Nico, contact your mother and let her know of the n.] Max ordered.

 Chapter 480 480 Over The Hill And Through The Trees

    [You know you''re the Commander, right?] Nicoughed as Max saw the group chat open to make the request.


    [She''s still your mother, and she''s got a particr knack for getting past my defenses.]


    Somehow, Mary Tarith always found a way to turn the conversation around on him, and Max had no sure counter to her verbal skills, so it was better to let Nico do it. She had a lifetime of experience in dealing with the woman and her doublespeak.


    The signs of the enemy disappeared overnight, hunted to extinction or hiding so well that nothing they had could find them. It was possible that a few Omwat had hidden in caves and deactivated their cloaking technology, then powered down their weapons so that they wouldn''t give their position away, but that small force shouldn''t be a threat to a city defense force.


    Just after dawn, when the night watch had a few hours to sleep, and everyone else had gotten a hot meal in and their gear repaired from the little battle damage they had sustained, Max sent the order to move out and meet with the Tarith Reavers to form a sweeping line across the forest. They would march straight out in a spread pattern and clear out any threats that they found with the help of the drones.


    [You are moving out with your forces, Lord Commander?] The City Defense General asked as Max broadcast the orders for deployment.


    [They might need me on the front lines. Fear not. We have cleared out all the detected threats in the region. You shouldn''t have to face anything more than a few stragglers after we leave.] Max assured him.


    [While we do feel much safer with you here, I am certain that the other cities would as well. Safe travels, Commander.]


    Max walked a few kilometers behind the main lines so that he wasn''t a shining beacon alerting the enemy to their presence before the Regiment could get into weapons range while Nico and the Drone Pilots flew patterns overhead, keeping up an active sensor that gave them a good idea of what they would find in the forest, right down to animals smaller than themon housecat.


    As they walked, Max collected updates from the others that were under attack, listening to the reports of entire Reaver Companies and Mercenary forcesnding on the surface, with the Reavers using Disruptors near maximum range to disable the enemy Mecha without destroying them.


    They hadn''t shown up with just a few ships per as they had promised. They were on a mission to full-out loot the Omwat forces before the Border Nations could make a im on the military assets as reparations.


    The Cygnus Compliance Fleet was alsopeting with the majority of the Tarith Reavers for the Omwat homeworlds, which werergely depopted by orbital strikes already, a fact that Max hoped had been withheld from the aliens aboard Terminus, who were watching intently as his Regiment marched through the woods.


    The Shin would be somewhere between overjoyed and shivering in terror at the footage, as they viewed the trees as the victims of this battlefield, and unlike the open bands where the first fights took ce, they were marching into a thick ancient forest now.


    The asional sh of Ion fire from the Drones was followed by the report of Thunder Guns sting at the marked threat from beyond visual range as the Regiment herded the enemy force in front of them.


    The Omwat had given up onmunications, as it was all being intercepted and decoded by the Border Nations anyhow, so there was a chance that they hadn''t yet noticed that the line was as wide as it was or that they were being forced into a dead end, where the two Mecha Regiments would force them back into the guns of the city defenses.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Contact with the Two Three] A wing leader reported, meaning the Second Battalion''s Third Company, giving the Regiment a good idea where the enemy was along their line.


    The Mecha had stopped to take up positions while the nking units split off half their members to reinforce the unit under attack, keeping the integrity of the line intact in case this was a diversion.


    This time it wasn''t, and a reinforced wing of Crusader ss Mecha was quickly eliminated when the Company Commander managed to get a firing solution and turn her Ion Bombard Arrays on them.


    [Good work, everyone. Back in position, and let''s keep our pace up. The faster we push them, the less likely they will be to realize what we are doing.] Max ordered.


    [Sir, we have arge iing force on the western edge of the city. How far out are your forces?] A frantic voice asked a few hourster.


    That must be the Commander of their destination city''s defense forces or themander''s radio officer anyhow.


    [Terminus Trading Company is holding pace with the Tarith Reavers to sweep the forest clear. ETA to your location is four hours.] Max reported.


    [Requesting an advanced force. We are taking fire from enemy Super Heavy Mecha, and our lines cannot hold against that.] The voice over the radio reported.


    [Reinforcements iing.] Max replied, then changed to a secure channel to hail Nico.


    [What do you see? How strong is the force attacking the city?] Max requested.


    [The city is taking zero fire at the moment, ording to orbital scans. There is some movement along the lines as the shifts change, but I do not detect any damaged Mecha.] Nico informed him.


    It was a good ploy, luring him into a trap where they had set up heavy weapons to bombard Cleansing Light the moment that it appeared. But not good enough with Terminus in orbit. It would only take him a few minutes to fly there, and a more impulsive Commander might have done it without thought, but Max preferred to double-check everything before he redeployed.


    [Find me the ambush. I want to know where it is before they open fire on the city defenses for real.]

 Chapter 481 481 City Under Fire

    [Is there a chance that the city''s perimeter is an optical illusion fooling our scans? The Omwat have already shown remarkable camouge technology.] Max asked as he considered his next course of action.


    [The chances are low, but with what we have seen, I wouldn''t say the chance is zero.] Nico responded grimly.


    [We have found multiple groups of Omwat, including signs of infantry, but we don''t have clear enough data to determine which, if any, of them might pose abined threat to Cleansing Light.] She added a few momentster.


    [Well, Feth. Keep Drones near my position. I am going forward to see what the actual situation is.] Max replied, unwilling to leave a city to be invaded, even if it might be just a trap.


    Instead of staying low to avoid notice, this time Max took Cleansing Light up to twenty thousand meters altitude and flew toward the city as fast as he could inside an atmosphere, arriving at the center of the city in under a minute.


    The report seemed to be incorrect at first, but themunications were erratic, and the orders didn''t make any sense. They would countermand each other only seconds after being issued, none of the defenders knew where they were going, and from the sound of it, the shifts hadn''t changed yet.


    Max had a strong suspicion that he knew what had happened here. The Omwat had infiltrated themand structure and were sending fake signals out to the defenders, causing chaos in preparation for a full-scale attack.


    [Nico, send a jamming signal over the whole city. I don''t want them to hear anyone but me until I am finished.]


    The telltale buzzing on themon channels began a secondter as Nico used the drones to activate the jamming signal, and Max got to work.


    [City Defenders, this is the Titan ss Cleansing Light. I have takenmand of this location andmandeered allmunications. Omwat infiltrators were causing chaos with your chain ofmand, and all previous orders are now negated.


    All Command officers will exit their Mecha and reveal their faces to their unit, then turn to face my Mecha. You have one minute toply. All who do not will be taken as Omwat spies and eliminated.] Max ordered.


    That stopped almost all the Mecha in their tracks, and Max made note of those who kept moving and where they went.


    One after another, cockpits popped open, and the officers stepped out, waving at their troops, then facing up toward Cleansing Light.


    [Nico, send those who we have recorded individual orders to inspect their units as well. Even a few Mecha in a unit hiding Omwat pilots will be an issue.]


    Max made records of the units thatplied while Nico sent out the messages until the minute was nearly up.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Ten-second warning. This is not a drill or a practical joke. Those who have not revealed themselves will be fired upon in 4, 3, 2, 1.]


    A flurry ofmanders exited their Mecha in those few seconds, but the final warning also brought a flurry of Mecha fire toward Cleansing Light, which Max returned with sts from his Disruptors, wiping out entire units of Mecha at a time.


    That got a lot of the units out of their Mecha to meet their Commanders in person, but it also started a number of small firefights among the Mecha units, both in the trenches and spread throughout the city.


    The chaos in the city alerted the Omwat forces outside the city, and they dropped their stealth to begin charging the trenches.


    There seemed to be almost an entire Mecha Regiment left, though some of them were missing weapons and charging into melee instead of opening fire from a distance like the others. They must have been repelled previously and had regrouped to counterattack.


    The entire city fell into a running battle, and Max turned his weapons on the locations where the Mecha units, who didn''t stop moving, had retreated to. They seemed to be mostly hangars and barracks, so Max didn''t immediately fire on them, but he sent a signal to the defense forces that suspicious units had entered those locations.


    His Disruptors didn''t stop firing, but soon the scrum was too intermingled for him to use the devastating weapons without hitting allies, so Max began issuing orders to keep the lines secure.


    [Two Reserve Units to the west trenches, identify yourselves visually on arrival. I will be watching. One Heavy Mecha wing from squad One Seven to the barracks at the location I have pinged on your map. I have already confirmed your identity. Clear all suspicious forces. North Trench, keep your heads down. I will clear the iing Mecha wave.]


    Max used all six Disruptors on a wide pattern to take out five kilometers of Omwat Light Mecha that were heading toward the city, leaving only the more heavily shielded units for the defenders to deal with.


    Max targeted units outside the city every time he found onerge enough to be worth his time, as well as every unit that he found trying to infiltrate using stealth. If he could convince them that everyone could see through it, they would give up on the practice for the duration of the battle, and it would make life much easier for the defenders.


    The fury of the battle annihted the meticulously groomed forest and pristine beaches surrounding the city, leaving the former resort city a shining beacon in the rubble, but within two hours, the defenders had brought the chaos back under control, and they had distributed new tracking devices to their units. They had found an alternate way to ovee the stealth, using radar imaging oveyed with a visual image, to find hidden targets.


    The cloaking mostly blocked radar signals, but that was the key to the detection method. Range Finders would read infinite when they scanned past the location, so the defenders would know something was up and fire at it.


    Some were false signals, and some were misses, but if they hit, the enemy would be visible again, and that was good enough for them.


    They had also changed their helmet settings, eliminating the anti-re function, and letting their allies see their faces. Most humans were too tall to be mistaken as Omwat, but it made the troops feel more secure to be talking face to face after all of the betrayals that they had suffered today.

 Chapter 482 482 Change Of Heart

    The defenders spent most of the day digging the rest of the invaders out of the city, with many of them choosing to surrender rather than die today.


    In the forests, the situation was much the same, only with less mercy. Many Omwat Pilots chose to abandon their Mecha and flee into the forests, relying on their stealth technology and hastily discovered hiding spots to keep them safe from the advancing line of Reaver Mecha.


    The Mecha were destroyed as the line passed by them, leaving nothing to be recovered if their pilots should return, not even the food and water rations, which the infantry imed and added to their own stores.


    The supplies they had were much better quality, but you never knew when you would need more supplies.


    The Infantry hadn''t been with them long, but their senior staff had mostly served with Max before, and they had been chatting with the Commanders of the Regiment to get a feel for how he liked things to be done.


    The battle of the bridge, where an undergeared and outssed unit, led by Max in the Crusader ss Stalwart, had be a Regimental Legend of tenacity and innovation. The story of putting Crusaders in hiding holes to ambush and renovating civilian vehicles with captured heavy weapons was the sort of heroicst stand that all infantry aspired to be in.


    One where they lived.


    The reminder that they might be stuck on this indefinitely, and they only had so many replicated meals avable led the Infantry to hoard the Omwat supplies in the t space of their devices as much as they could without removing the Heavy Weapons and power packs that they had loaded up on before deployment.


    The way the battle was going, they had hoped to get to leave this location soon, but there was a whole out there, and there was no way to tell how many enemies Mecha remained since it was impossible to know what was actually inside thenders that had made it to the surface.


    Every Lander that they located was ryed toary defense for recovery so that they could obtain the materials and technology inside to reinforce their own Regiments and deprive the Omwat of the chance to resupply.


    [Madam Mary, how are things going down at your end of the line?] Max asked since they weren''t heading for the same city that he was.


    [We have advanced scouts in the city now. No signs of infiltration, and we are driving a small force their way to close the trap. But don''t call me Madam. It makes me sound old.] She replied.


    [Got it, Lady Tarith. Report any unusual findings and let me know when you are close to the target, so I can have drones reallocated to make up for theck of firepower at your end of the line.]


    Max could almost hear her screaming at him that they didn''tck any firepower with twenty Super Heavy Mecha at their end of the line, but this end of the line had a Titan ss Mecha waiting for the line to arrive, and that was hard topete with.


    By the time the line came into sight of the cities, the force that they were pushing in front of them had dwindled to under a hundred Mecha from the multiple attempts to break free from the trap and the numerous pilots who had abandoned their Mecha in vain attempts to survive.<novelnext></novelnext>


    After such an intense, though short-lived, battle in the city, which was still clearing out various buildings in case there were stragglers from the infiltration teams, the arrival of the Omwat that the Regiment had trapped was severely anticlimactic.


    They didn''t even try to fight when they saw Cleansing Light in the sky in front of them. Instead, they knelt their Mecha on the ground and stepped out with their hands in the air, surrendering to the Reavers.


    [Local Defense, capture and disarm the Omwat forces, then lock them in your local prison to await sorting to a long-term facility or return to their homeworld.] Max ordered.


    The prisons here were mostly empty andrgely for show anyhow, meant to help scare tourists into behaving instead of using the "They Can''t Arrest Us All" logic to justify bad behavior.


    The beautiful, gothic architecture of the four-story prison building was enough to assure them that, yes, the locals could, in fact, arrest them all and would if they had to.


    The situation was simr on the other end of the line, though they did put up a small fight before realizing that the Reavers had brought so many Super Heavy Mecha to one single location.


    [Terminus Communications, how are things going on the others and the Omwat homeworlds?] Max requested now that he had a few free moments.


    [No significant progress on the other worlds. All are reporting ongoing battles, with no confirmation of progress due to the myriad of forces that flooded them and theck of coordinated information systems.


    The negotiations for the Omwat homeworlds have begun already. Thes have fallen, and the politicians are working out the deal to determine their future.] The Communications officer replied, apanied by a small data file of relevantmunications and data.


    Max scanned the reports of their own theater of war for a while and realized that they, too, would be finished soon. Between Terminus Trading Company and the portion of the Tarith Reavers that hadnded nearby, they had eliminated six of the fifteen or so Mecha Regiments that hadnded on the in thest few days.


    With the remainder of the Reavers still active and two ships full of Cygnus Mecha, plus the Border Forces that were already in orbit thanks to the meeting, this was not going to be a long battle at all.


    No matter how Max looked at it, there really was no kill, quite like overkill.


    [Do you see what I see, Commander Keres? We are almost finished here, and a little bird tells me that there are still a few days left in your scheduled birthday celebrations aboard Terminus.] Mary Tarith asked with augh.


    [Will there be cake?]

 Chapter 483 483 Allies Secured

    For the next two days, both Terminus Trading Company and the Tarith Reavers held their respective positions, with their units spread out over the territory that they had covered, looking for stragglers. That was when the area was dered officially cleared and under the control of the locals, allowing the Reaver forces to return to their ships.


    The final signatures had alle through without issues, and deals were being made to secure the technology that they had missed out on by signing in a panic during the invasion.


    Overall, it was still a win for the Border Nations, and the Terminus Trading Company hadn''t lost a single soul during the mission, only some equipment, so it was a very low-cost intervention on their part, while they would get a nice share of the profits from the Replicators that they were making for their new allies.


    "So, when is your mother arriving? She seemed quite determined that she was going to make it here before my birthday celebrations ended." Max asked Nico once he wasfortably back in his office, where she had prepared him coffee and a list of notable events aboard the ship while he was away.


    "Within the next few hours. You know how she is. She needs time to prepare herself to make a grand entrance everywhere that she goes." Nicoughed.


    "Yes, I certainly do know that."


    Nico smiled at his frustration, then hopped into hisp and took over the console that he was working at, finishing the daily ship''s logs in an instant using her Innate Talent.


    "You really aren''t good at dealing with her, are you? Just think of her like me, but older." Nico suggested.


    Max snorted in amusement. He wasn''t good at dealing with Nico either. He just went with the flow and stopped her when she wanted to go overboard. But maybe that was what she meant. Just let her mother do her thing unless it was too oundish.


    Nico turned around so she was seated facing Max, straightened his hair, then adjusted his cor.


    "Perfect, now it is time to greet the tourists. They have been waiting for you toe out after your post-mission quarantine, and everyone is eager to congratte you on defending a human world from alien invaders. The Shin particrly wish to convey their deepest regards for making the live footage avable to them."


    "What live footage did I make avable? You were in control of the Ship while I was gone." Max reminded her.


    "Yes, but you are the Commander who gave the permission, so you get all the credit, not the technicians who actually put the footage together. That''s just how it works. Like any other movie, everyone knows the Director and the Stars, but nobody knows who the footage editors were."


    "Can you at least tell me what this big birthday surprise is now?" Max asked.


    "Hmm, I''m not sure we have enough time. It will take a while, and you have a meeting. How about tonight, right after dinner?" Nico suggested.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Fine, but I will hold you to that. You have been dodging that answer all week, but I can sense that you''re secretly excited to tell me all about it."


    Nicoughed and flipped herself off the chair into a standing position, making even the sturdy alloy creak with the weight of the two of thembined, then held out her hand to lead him out the door.


    "While you greet the guests, I will go change for the formal dinner. Theary Governor will be arriving with my mother and some other Border Nation dignitaries for a very political birthday dinner. It should be exactly as annoying and stressful as you think it will be, but it is thest one before we depart."


    "Fine, but only because it is necessary." Max sighed, following her out of the office.


    The moment that they reached the Cruise Ship area, a full fanfare weing partyunched into action, with confetti, thousands of strangers congratting him from a dozen different species that Max didn''t recall being on the ship when he left, as well as some political brown nosing from the Border Nation Delegations that had been left aboard during the battle.


    Compared to that, even the fur-covered species that licked your hand as a greeting was tolerable.


    Max reminded himself to start carrying hand sanitizer in the t space of his watch and trudged on through the celebration until the official announcement was made that the buffets would be opening for a grand feast drew most of the crowd away.


    That was also his signal to head for the private dining room that had been reserved for their meeting and face the exuberance of the politicians and Nico''s mother.


    Nico met him in the hallway on her way there, holding a pile of clothes for him, and wearing a floor-length gray silk ballgown that entuated her curves while hiding the fact that she was wearing tform heels to increase her height from 150 to 160cm.


    "You can change in the room to the side here. It is secure, and you can store the uniform in your t space if you have room. If not, I will hold them for you." Nico informed him, tapping an borate gold ne with a pendant that Max recognized as the same base device as his watch, only hidden behind an enormous diamond.


    That was an excellent idea for Noble Ladies at parties since they wouldn''t be wearing a watch or carrying a purse of any sort.


    "Are we selling those yet? I am sure that at least a few of our guests will be interested in knowing about your jewelry." Max asked.


    "Not yet. We aren''t distributing them outside the Reavers until we have a new and improved version. The only other person who has one is my Mother, whose jewelers set the device for me, so you can tell the guests that it is a handcrafted Family Specialty."


    "Got it. Now let''s get in there and get drunk. I suspect I''m going to need it."

 Chapter 484 484 Birthday Presents

    Max entered the ballroom with Nico on his arm, much to Mary Tarith''s delight, when the Reaver met him just inside the door.


    "Happy Birthday Lord Commander. It is an honor to be here for your eighteenth birthday. Such a momentous asion for all Reavers, even ones who have distinguished themselves early in life."


    "I suppose it is a bit different for me. I won''t be receiving an official cement within the Company for one, and I won''t be saying goodbye to a Mentor for another." Max agreed.


    "That''s why we have to try harder to make it noteworthy so that you don''t forget about it in the future. This is supposed to be a memorable event, aing of age rite, and not just another week in your past." Mary Tarith informed Max with a smile.


    "I would say it was fairly memorable. I got to use a Titan ss Mecha against aliens on a resort world to pressure an entire region into joining the Trade Group." Maxughed.


    "You have me there. I can''t say that any Reaver I have ever heard of managed to get that for an eighteenth birthday present."


    "Have you had a chance to check out the festivities? The crew has been trying toe up with alternatives to your secret cake recipe." Nico suggested, diverting her mother''s attention away from Max.


    "Not yet, but I will soon. You both look amazing tonight, and I will let you get to your guests."


    So began another procession of greetings, but this time interspersed with dancing and flutes of some sort of hard liquor posing as champagne. Max wasn''t sure what the base was, but after downing the first ss, it was clear that the alcohol content was closer to Rum than wine.


    The staff was getting very good with the drinks already, deftly maneuvering around the species that couldn''t process the beverages on their tray to head for those who might like one while simultaneously calling over a tray of drinks that the guests they passed could imbibe.


    The process made it clear that out of all the species present, it was humans who had the iron stomach. There were very few things that they simply could not drink, though there were a few that the human guests were encouraged to avoid due to the contrast between vor profiles.


    One of the species liked things so incredibly sour that only humans could stomach their beverages, and another was sensitive to water, but not alcohol, so they measured the water content of their drinks, including the version of champagne that Max had grabbed.


    Finding out about that sensitivity had been a shock to the crew. It wasn''t mentioned on their species profile provided by the Alliance, and the teenage members of their party managed to escape their guardians and take a trip through the Gravity Slides to lounge in a hot tub. They had been so inebriated when they were found that they had to be taken to the medical bays.


    Once he managed to sort through the jumble of thoughts in the room, the groupings began to make sense to him. The species were sorting themselves by where the best drinks and snacks wereing from, naturally grouping simr species together inside the room.


    That made it easier for Max to find dance partners to keep the conversation flowing all night, though Nico managed to cut in every third song or so, each time picking a song with a different beat so that she could pull him into a different type of dance.


    "It''s almost over. Onest toast by the Innu, and we can escape back to your suite." Nico assured Max just before he was about to make an escape on his own.


    "Finally. I love a party as much as anyone, but it''s nearly dawn by ship time, and we''ve been here all night." Max sighed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max made a quick round of goodbyes on his way out, with assurances that he didn''t intend to stop the party, then let Nico guide him back to his suite for some much-needed rest.


    "Don''t think that I have forgotten that you were hiding one more birthday present from me." Max teased as Nico followed him into the suite and locked the door behind them.


    "I have disabled allms into this unit for the next four hours, and the door is overridden from the inside. Nothing short of an orbital battle could stop me now." Nico agreed, then let the dress slip from her shoulders and pushed Max backward onto his bed.


    Nico didn''t speak, but she was focusing on a set of data and modifications that she had made to herself. She had integrated the lightweight alloys and some aspects of the self-healing metal of the Hunters Suits and perfected the non-Newtonian shell of her body. Now, as long as the impact wasn''t hard enough to cause damage, it would respond exactly as real flesh should, ording to Nico''s calctions.


    But somehow, Max found that hard to focus on once she started to remove his suit so that she could move on to the "Practical Demonstration."


    "Are you sure about this?" He asked as his pants were unceremoniously tossed across the room by the smiling raven-haired cyborg.


    "I have never been more sure of anything. I might have sent you for a little training along the way, but you are, and have always been, mine."


    Max smirked at her phrasing and grabbed Nico by the hips, pulling her up for a deep kiss and enjoying the feel of her body pressed against his.


    She was a normal human temperature today, though he knew she could change it at will. It somehow made her feel more real, more natural, more alive.


    Max pinned her hands over her head, enjoying her frustration when she found he was too strong for her to break free and touch him, but it was a short-lived victory. Nico wrapped her legs around him, and Max knew right then that he would never forget this night.


    --------


    Sometimeter, Max woke up to the feeling of Nico''s hand running down his abdomen, drawing little circles on his skin while she waited for him to wake up.


    "What do you think? Are the upgrades a sess?" She asked with a smirk.


    "I think you have been given ess to parts of the inte that no Nico was ever meant to view. But yes, I must say, you are absolutely exquisite."


    Nico gave an uncharacteristic girlish giggle and looked up into his eyes. "So, will you inform your mother-inw, or is that still my duty?"

 Chapter 485 485 More Questions Than Answers

    "So, how much do you have left to do to your body with the knowledge that you have right now?" Max asked as he admired the sight of Nico sprawled in his bed. Sure, he had seen the sight many times before, but somehow it was never quite like this.


    "This is it for now. However, I''m still working on adapting the Hunters Biomechanical technology to my own cybeics in a way that doesn''t inconvenience me. Their suits are impressively powerful, but they require quite a bit of upkeep. There are a few more features that weren''t relevantst night, though, like the t space technology embedded into my arms, the modified power systems, and the micro replicator that I reced my salivary nd with."


    Thatst one startled Max a little. What would she need modified saliva for?


    Then her thoughts hit him. It could create toxins, nerve agents, and even a potent aphrodisiac if she wanted it to, but in small amounts.


    "Of all the attacks that were avable to you, you chose to add a kiss of death?" Max asked.


    "It seemed somewhat fitting. Every demure youngdy should have a way to defend herself."


    Max wasn''t sure how valid that self-description was, but he was having an amazing day, and he was not about to start arguing semantics with Nico this early.


    "What''s on the schedule for the day?" He asked instead.


    "We have meetings with the Border Nations to make the first of their Replicator orders, while the other Companies will be working on the rest of their requests. We also have to open a Portal back to Rae 5 since none of the other vessels here arerge enough, and the Moon Base is busy."


    "That''s easy enough. I will make some time to circte through the tourists as well since I know that running a tourist vessel is all about appearances." Max agreed.


    "Then you have a suit fitting with my mother and one final dinner party before the dignitaries depart." She added just before he could leave the room.


    "See, you left that for the veryst because you know that she stresses me out."


    Nicoughed at his pouting face. "It''s only because she''s obsessed with grandchildren, and she forgets that I can''t give them to her. Just bear with it until she either manages to get some from my siblings or she steals gic material from both of us and bioengineers herself one to keep her busy."


    "See, that seems like the most likely course. You two don''t know what the word overkill means."


    "But you love us for it. Now, we''ve killed all the things we get to kill this week, so let''s go get dressed up and have some cake."


    Maxughed and apanied her out of the bedroom and across the ship to where the VIP guests were staying. Mary Tarith had an entire staff of tailors and seamstresses waiting for them and a huge smile on her face.


    "Well, don''t you two look chipper this morning? Did something good happen? Perhaps a birthday present that was better than aary invasion?" She taunted.


    "Oh, he''s blushing. You really did, didn''t you? That''s my girl."


    Max shook his head and looked at the rack where a number of clothing samples were waiting.


    "So, what am I dressing up as today?" He asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "A proper nobleman. The Cygnus delegation has sent a number of higher Nobles, and we still have the Border Nations dignitaries here for one more night, so we are obliged to entertain them, and that means dressing up like real nobles and not Reavers for a night." Mary informed him.


    "So, you will be showing up without a gun?" Max asked.


    "Now, who is the one who takes things too far? I will hide it under my dress."


    Max tried on a few styles of the avable suits until he found one he liked, a simple suit with a vest and a t cap worn with a wool coat, despite the fact that the ship was climate controlled.


    The tailor insisted that itpleted the look and it would be taken by the doorman when they entered the meeting room, so Max didn''t argue with him about it.


    The custom-fitting machine made Max''s new gray suit exactly to his measurements, including an allowance for his sidearm, which was worn in a hidden pocket inside the vest and essed from the top. Looking at him, it was impossible to tell that he was wearing it at all.


    Of course, he had heavy weapons and an augmentic suit in his t Space storage, but that wasn''t the point. Reavers never went anywhere without a gun on them, and it would be strange to the others when they scanned him if he didn''t have a weapon on him.


    As Mary Tarith said, it was all about appearances.


    Nico was fitted with a cocktail dress in the same midnight blue as Max''s shirt, while her mother chose a silver ensemble in a simr cut to Nicos.


    Looking at the two side by side, it was impossible to miss the fact that they were rted, though Nico''s appearance was artificial.


    "Shall we, Sir Keres Max?" Mary asked, extending her hand.


    Max crooked his elbow for her to take, then the other for Nico, who wasn''t bothering to hide her mental jokes about the chances that he could bolt at any second, so he needed the double escort.


    "What are we going to do about the production materials? We only have so much aboard Terminus, and we''ve been too busy to go asteroid mining. And the takeover of the Omwat homeworlds, how is that going?" Max asked as they began to walk.


    "Worry about thatter. We will ship you materials from the storage stations to make up for the orders that you have to fill, and the others are taking care of the negotiations for the new worlds now. It is going to take a while, though, since the two parties are so far apart." Mary replied.


    "Far apart on the negotiations? What are their positions now?"


    Nico smiled up at him. "We want the whole cluster of systems, with payment to the Cygnus for their assistance. Their delegation requested exactly the same thing."


    "What do we need entire star systems for?" Max asked. There simply weren''t that many Reavers in one spot at any given time. Even keeping the star system that they had imed fully staffed was a challenge.


    "What don''t we need entire star systems for? Seriously, it''s a whole star system. If I were in charge, I would name it after myself and put statues of Shattered Pride in every city center." Nico reminded him.


    She would do it too, he was certain.

 Chapter 486 486 Dignitary Dinner

    Navigating the tourists was getting easier every time Max did it, and soon he found himself in front of a crepe stand that had been set up near the base of the world tree in the nose of the Cruise Ship.


    The root system of a World Tree was like nothing Max had ever seen before. It was a semi-sentient living being that lived almost entirely off of photosynthesis and water, but it adapted its roots to attract other species, who would drop foodstuffs for it to absorb for additional nutrients.


    That meant that the walkways were all wooden. There were benches, flower gardens, artificial rivers, and much more that the tree thought would be attractive to the species on board.


    They didn''t stop at one level, either. The three levels below the base of the tree were all engulfed in the roots to a distance half again, asrge as the crown that filled the hollow vertical void of the atrium that had been turned into a terrarium.


    A number of the Shin were rxing in the garden near the crepe stand when Max and thedies stopped in to get a breakfast snack, so he stopped to say hello.


    "Excellent work on the World Tree. I must say, it is a unique marvel among all of humanity. The gardens that you made with the roots are truly impressive." Max congratted the tree man.


    "Not that we had much to do with the roots themselves. We just built the gardens, and the World Tree filled in the rest on its own. Even the water features aren''t really made of water. They are sap from the world tree, and if you watch, it is much like a slime creature, and it will move to pick up dropped food to absorb as nutrition." The Shin replied with amusement.


    "That''s pretty cool. We have self-cleaning technology, but selfposting and recycling are new. Have your holiday with us been otherwise enjoyable? I do hate to make anyone work on their days off." Max asked.


    "nting a new world tree is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of us, and all of this real soil is amazing. I have sent pictures back to the homeworld, and they thought that humans might actually be benevolent gods until I sent them the footage of your battles." The Shinughed.


    "I hope they were prepared. You can''t just send random people live-action battle footage without warning them." Nico giggled.


    "We warned them, but they didn''t understand the word Mecha, I don''t think. They freaked out when they saw the artillery start firing through the lens of the Drone footage. It was amazing. They think that the humans are terrifying, but a lot of them are eager toe here and enjoy the facilities. The war footage should be enough to keep them all on their best behavior.


    "Have you ever seen human gardeners in action?" Mary Tarith asked.


    "Oh, yes, the shaping and the binding and trimming. They''re like sadistic barbers of your species, right? But the results that theye up with are to die for. I might even let one or two of my branches be trimmed if I could look that good." He told her.


    "If you want to find out, let me know. I specialize in flower arrangements and Bonsai trees." Mary answered with a smile that made the Shin shudder.


    "We will have to update the dictionary once we get home. The bonsai tree is a new word, but the implications are terrifying now that I know what it is."


    "Would you like to join us for a formal dinner with the human dignitaries?" Max asked.


    "Thank you but no, definitely not. Politics are not my thing at all." he denied directly.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I don''t me you, I feel the same way, but as Commander, I have to be at every one of them."


    With their snack finished, Max led the group through the ship, checking in with everyone and collectingpliments on their fashion sense.


    That killed enough time that they could head to the dinner, where a pair of butlers were on duty to take his coat, as well as thedies'' shawls, before calling staff to lead them to their seats. Max was impressed by the professionalism of their new staff. He was a bit worried that they wouldn''t manage to present a properly high-ss front for such multi-nation meetings, but this one was going very smoothly, even with the variety of guests that they had invited.


    "Lord Commander Keres, it is good to meet you. I am Lord General Samwise, Lord General Kirnd sends his regards, but unfortunately, he is upied at the negotiations for the Omwat homeworlds and is unable to attend tonight." An older Cygnus noble with a tobo-stained gray handlebar mustache greeted him.


    "It''s hardly reasonable to expect to keep him on call as my own personal negotiator. It is good to meet you, and I hope that you are enjoying your stay here aboard Terminus."


    The old General smiled happily. "It has been a highlight of my long life. To think that I would see so many new things in one mission. Alien Engineers, machines that make borate dinners with the press of a button, Cutters doing Warp 10, and talking trees."


    "All of the nobles stuck back on the homeworlds that won''t get updated to the new technologies for years will be incredibly jealous of your experiences, but I am sure that we can make a spot in the production queue if you want one for your officers mess aboard the vessel you arrived on," Max suggested, stealthily sending the order to the production bays to reserve the Lord General a replicator.


    "Oh, you are too kind, Lord Commander. I would be in your debt if it were possible. Ship''s rations never sat well with me, and I am told that this will be an extended mission."


    "Consider it done. Now, have you met Governor Li of the Border Nations? He is theary governor here, a most tragic position to be in, but we hold high hopes that his world can recover from the invasion in good time." Max said, turning the conversation to bring the nearest guest into their conversation, a tactic that he would be using all night long.


    "Yes, we were talking earlier about some business. They are short on many things right now, and Cygnus is in a position to deliver. With the help of the Reavers and their fantastically fast new ships, that is." The Lord General replied, then pulled in even more nobles while Nico and Mary split off to chat with the otherdies.


    The dinner went smoothly, and when it was time for the dessert course, Max couldn''t help but notice Mary Tarith''s excitement. She had actually had the staff make her famous birthday cake for him inrge enough quantity to serve the entire room.


    "This will be a treat, gentlemen. The dessert today is not from our world-ss replicators but hand-made by the lovely Lady Mary Tarith." Max informed the room, bringing a round of polite apuse as the cake slices were set out in front of them.


    "I can feel my diabetes acting up already." One of the Border Governorsughed, looking down at the cake.


    "It is sweetened with a unique nt from Kepler 142. It tastes sweet, but there is no sugar at all in the cake. If you can take a few slices of bread, the cake is safe enough to eat." She replied.


    That was a good hint she had given out, assuming it was true. He just had to find the sweet nt that was not sugar from Kepler 142, and he would have one of the secret ingredients.

 Chapter 487 487 Next Up, Nobody?

    The next day at noon, Max was rxing in one of the many hot tubs in the Cruise Ship area, having finally gotten rid of all the foreign dignitaries. Even Mary Tarith had left off to reinforce some of the other Tarith Reavers who were still fighting.


    All that Terminus Trading Company had left to do was to finish making the orders that they had received and ept delivery of raw materials sent from Rae 5.


    It was the most rxing morning that he had enjoyed in quite some time, and he was determined to make itst for at least a few hours before someone interrupted him.


    The pools near him were full of the Innu Technicians out for a midday swim on their break, reveling in the ability to stay properly hydrated even while living among and-based species. Their versions of swimwear were getting more and more risque though, despite the fact that Max knew that skinny dipping wasn''t really a thing among their people, especially not in public.


    The humans might be rubbing off on them, as tiny bikinis and tight shorts were popr among the pilots and infantry, who were usually quite proud of their bodies, even with the plethora of scars that they had umted over the years.


    Most of the other species seemed to favor minimal coverage as well, at least the ones who were likely to enjoy the water features. Max wondered if it was an international standard, with humans being the prudes, or if it was just a case of tourists kicking back and unwinding to an extent that they couldn''t at home.


    He even had time to order lunch to be delivered to a poolside table and eat before anyone bothered him. The production bays had finished up the Replicators for the ships that were present from the Border Nations, which was all that they were responsible for, and the resupply of materials would be arriving soon, requiring his permission to dock since the Admiral was off duty at the moment.


    "That all looks good to me. Arrange for deliveries to be made. You can use our shuttles for the deliveries if the other ships can''t fit it into their schedules. Send me a message when the materials are unloaded and verified. The duty staff for the bay can take care of that. Do we have any more requests?"


    The technician shook her head. "Nothing at all. From what I can tell, we have no specific requests once these tasks areplete."


    "Perfect, I could use a day off. Now, off you go. The sooner you finish, the sooner we can all rx."


    He was left alone again, and returned to the hot tub for another half hour, letting the jets work the tension out of his muscles, only roused from his rxation when he saw a new set of posters going up on the notice boards that he didn''t recognize.


    ording to the sheet, the games room had obtained a new virtual reality simtor. A mental control Line Mecha simtion for the truly adventurous. You could run simtions from guarding against animal attacks or helping with construction tasks to a full-scale battle.


    He hoped that they had toned it down enough that it wouldn''t traumatize their guests, but more importantly, he didn''t recall authorizing the renovation, so someone had spent their own energy allotment to have the software created and then put it in the public arcades.


    Max looked through the ship''s logs to see where this all originated and traced it back to one of the Valkia VIP clients. They had shelled out a significant amount of Alliance Credits to the Innu Tech Nomads, who had spent their ship energy allotment to have the programs created and distributed.


    Most of the guests had VR headsets in their suites, which could y the "Game," but it wouldn''t be as immersive while the body was in rest mode as on the Mecha Simtors in the Arcades.


    The muscle activation made it feel much more real and helped the body retain the memory once the event was over, which was why the simtors existed in the first ce.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Since it was just Line Mecha and the standard Kepler Pattern with an added neural link, not the same as the ones that they were using aboard Terminus, Max didn''t see much risk to their security, so he didn''t do anything about it except head to the arcade and see how it was being received.


    The Innu guests had control of the two machines in this arcade at the moment, with their progress disyed on a screen above the simtor, so others could watch. They were both on an engineering simtion, using the Mecha to build a bridge. Hardly a surprising pastime for the innately Tech Savvy species.


    Heading up to the Arcade on the next floor, Max found one of the Valkia in the simtor, with a species he didn''t recognize in the other. They seemed somewhat human but werepletely covered in clothing, and since they were immersed in the VR simtion, he couldn''t gather any more information about them at the moment.


    The Valkia was in a war simtion, and the winged man was a true natural. Hisbat instincts were spot on, and his anticipation was incredible, but Max could see that he asionally became frustrated with the fact that the Mecha couldn''t fly.


    As a winged species, it was only natural that they thought in three dimensions, whereas a Mecha battle wasrgely two-dimensional, at least on a''s surface.


    The guest exited the simtor with a huge smile on his face, and Max moved to greet him.


    "What do you think of the simtors? I can have them add some additional features if you like. Perhaps a space battle, or a version of the Archangel Exoskeleton, so that winged species can fight while flying." Max suggested.


    "Oh, I have seen those exoskeletons. There was a video of your Second in Command using one to demonstrate a new capture for dangerous species. They''re the ones that are like the technicians unit, but without the tentacles, right?" The older Valkia asked.


    "That''s right. They have weaponized wings as well, so they are capable inbat but still lighter duty than the Line Mecha from the simtion.


    "Enjoyingbat too much is unseemly for a Valkia, but I would greatly enjoy the chance to try out one of those exoskeletons, the guest answered in a measured tone meant to hide his excitement, which was no longer socially eptable in the Alliance since they had eliminated interster battles.


    "I will get them on it right away. It shouldn''t take them more than a day or two to prepare it for live use." Max agreed before waving goodbye as the man turned back to the simtor.


    Humans really were a bad influence on the universe, but it was good to see the Valkia bing a bit less uptight. Max knew from their public records that there was still plenty of crime and violence in the alliance, they just kept it contained on the, and the Valkia loved to be both negotiators andw enforcement officers.


    Perhaps if they worked it right, they could market the Archangel Exoskeleton as new Police Equipment. Max made a note to have one equipped with nonlethal weapons and then present it to the Innu for their estimation of its marketability.


    The blueprints from their podcasts were apparently making a not-so-small fortely, and a new piece of kit for dozens of Gxies worth of police could catapult the Terminus Trading Company from an extreme vacation destination to a household name.

 Chapter 488 488 New Excursion Destination

    Max made ns to get the Archangel Suits to market that afternoon while most of the passengers simply enjoyed the rtive peace and quiet of their vacation. But the point of an adventure cruise was that it was either moving or doing things, so he was also looking for an excursion destination for the passengers to enjoy.


    Thest one that they found was still unupied, and they could return there, but if possible, he would like to find them a new ce to visit so that they would have all unique and new vacation photos to show off on their social media.


    The search didn''t take long. There was a suitable destination only a few systems away. Completely uninhabited but with plenty of nt life. This one was supposed to have a variety of mammals on it as well, but the notations in the records called it a zero-risk, suggesting that the local wildlife posed no threat to humans.


    [Admiral Drake, make ns to travel to this location. I see an uninhabited but habitable in that star system, and I think a shore excursion would be exactly what our passengers would enjoy.] Max informed the vessel''s pilot.


    [I know that one. It is horrifically misidentified. The species on the are ten meters tall, venomous, and faster than a Comorian Raptor.]


    That wasn''t good. The Comorian Raptor was a bird of prey well known for its dive-bombing ability, moving close to a hundred kilometers an hour. Even as an extreme tour, they couldn''t put guests down on a like that.


    [What else do we have as options?] Max asked.


    [Why not ask one of the Mercenary Groups? They often hold uninhabiteds out here, so we could visit almost all of the world and never see anyone if we stay away from their outpost. That would make for a great tourist stop, and it would earn some credits for our allies through docking andnding fees.] The Admiral suggested.


    [Perfect. I will get on it and let you know what I find out.]


    Max started sending messages to their new allies, looking for a suitable, while exining that the visitors needed to be isted from all chances of infectious diseases that the locals might be carrying since their varying biologies could be an issue in the unregted environment of aary colony.


    Aboard a ship, everyone was tested and quarantined and decontaminated every time they returned, but for citizens on a, illness and disease were just a normal part of life, and if it wasn''t serious, it often went untreated as a minor inconvenience.


    Minor to the locals, but to the aliens, it could very well be fatal, or worse, mutate and begin to spread through new species.


    It didn''t take the mercenaries long before Max got a plethora of replies, some more suitable than others. The one that really caught his attention was a note from the Stardusters. It wasn''t aary excursion but an abandoned moon base. It still reported a habitable atmosphere, and for a small fee, they were willing to prepare and stock it for the visitors while maintaining sanitary conditions so that they could visit safely.


    It also had a view of the remnants of a gas neb at the edge of the system that constantly changed colors, providing a spectacr view from the moon base, whose orbit and pr location provide a constant view in that direction.


    [What do you require forpensation in order to prepare the facility for our arrival? We will need it stocked with local nt life, as well as some data about the local phenomenon that you believe is worth noting.] Max requested.


    [We request eight units of the Replicators and one Materials Printer. Our crew will prepare the mineral caves with safety markings, as well as clean the base and maintain the nt life before your arrival.]


    Mineral caves sounded like a lot of fun for everyone to visit and a distinct change from the gravity slides and newly grown forest of Terminus.


    [You have a deal, we will be there in seventy-two hours.] Max informed him, then ryed the location to the Admiral so that they could make way as soon as they had a flight path.


    Soon after, he got a message from the various Border Nations, wishing them a safe trip, and Terminus was cleared to depart.


    He was just beginning to rx again, enjoying the artificial sun, when two bodies appeared, blocking his view. One was a ship security guard, and the other was a woman roughly Nico''s size but with cat ears and a tail.


    When she turned to face him, he realized that she had more feline features than just the ears and tail but would still count as a demihuman. That must be one of the stowaways that they captured from an enemy ship not long ago.<novelnext></novelnext>


    All of the prisoners from that encounter should have been sent away to Rae 5 with the ships, so her presence here was a bit of a shock.


    "How can I help you, and who do we have here?" Max asked.


    "This is Trina, leader of the Felian stowaways. She has a request for you." The guard informed him.


    "Oh? And where did you find her?"


    The guard smiled at the memory before answering. "Same spot asst time. We found them in an energy conduit, where the power converters made it warmer than the ship''s standard temperature."


    "So, there is a whole group still here, despite the attempt to send them to Rae 5 for refugee status and housing? Alright, Miss Trina, what can we do for you?"


    "We uh. Gimme a second." She stammered, then took out a crumpled bit of paper and stared at the notes for a while, then turned it over and stared at it again.


    "Why don''t you pass that to me, and I will see if I can read it?" Max asked.


    "Thanks. I forgot the words."


    Max took the paper and looked at the poor writing, scrawled in the human standardnguage, but the poor hand of a small child or illiterate.


    [The Felian Delegation Officially Requests Asylum as an endangered species.]


    "It says here that you want asylum. That means that you want to stay here and find somewhere safe to live." Max exined after reading the note.


    "And food. There should be something there about feeding us too." She quickly added.


    "Yes, that is part of the asylum request. The meaning includes all aspects of ensuring your care, including that we should take care of your basic needs and keep you safe. That means somewhere safe to stay, food, clothes, and showers if you like them."


    The cat woman considered it for a while. "Can we have jobs too? Is that too much? We''re really good with people. Well, we were before we were dered house pets, and the rebellion started."


    The guard looked a bit sad that he wouldn''t be able to keep them as a pet. Crouched down to plead with Max, she really did look like arge housecat wearing rags.


    "Once you get settled in, we will begin an assessment. Most of our jobs require reading, but we might be able to get you jobs serving food and drink or maybe cleaning and running errands." Max agreed.


    "Bring the rest of them out of the power conduits, and get them settled into crew quarters away from the Infantry. The infantrymen are a bit too high energy, and I don''t want to hear about the Felians running away again." He ordered the guard.


    "Got it, Sir. Trina, let''s go get your people, and I will bring you to your new rooms." The Guard told her with a smile.


    "Wait, first, stop at the stand and get some clothes for them. We can''t have them running around in rags. It looks bad on us."

 Chapter 489 489 Prepare To Sightsee

    Terminus left orbit less than an hour after their new destination had been determined, heading back into Death Wind Territory for their nned stop at the abandoned Moon Base so they could let the guests out to see some of the highlights of this Gxy.


    Max updated the digital notices, including details of the base and the phenomenon, so that guests who wanted to see it could sign up for the tour.


    The Mercenaries had sent them an updated map of the base and the mines below them, which extended for dozens of kilometers. They had once mined a collection of gems and minerals, but with a change in tastes, the market for them died, and the base was abandoned, kept only minimally operational by a local Mercenary Group as ast-ditch shelter should theye under attack.


    As far as bases go, it wasn''t very impressive, at only a few thousand square meters, but the mines were pressurized and sealed so that the workers could operate without breathing equipment, which made it a much better tour stop than it might otherwise have been.


    The signups started almost immediately after the notice went up, along with a few requests to take home souvenirs from the mines.


    Max wasn''t sure if that was safe or not, as he hadn''t seen the condition of the tunnels yet, so he left the requests pending and checked up on the progress of the other Reavers who were working in the Death Wind Territory.


    The work was going much more smoothly now that the Border Nations weren''t interfering, and more of the previously vetted Mercenary Groups were signing up every day. Enough of them that the purchase orders for new vessels and ship renovations were beginning to strain the capabilities of the Rae 5 dry docks.


    Some of the work, like engine refits to gctic standards and interior remodels, could be done all over the Star System by the various Reaver Families that had set up space stations, but the extreme work, like high warp modifications and full power system refits for the new organic power packs, had to be done at the Moon Base, as nobody else had the expertise to do the refits yet.


    They had begun training, but training a new ship engineer took years, especially with all the new technology that they didn''t have a previous background in.


    ording to the notices that he had seen, the Replicators were already solving many food supply and distribution issues though, which was going to improve a lot of lives. The Stardusters, who were hosting their tour location, were among the lucky ones who had been struggling before the Replicators arrived but were now moving toward luxury.


    Their homeworld had a fairly sizeable poption, in the tens of millions, as a properly colonized world, but it was mostly swamps and oceans. With the Replicators, they were mulching the fast-growing swamp weeds, which were inedible, into biomass paste that could be gourmet meals.


    The additional eight units would relieve a lot of strain on their infrastructure, but Max wasn''t sure how long the rebuild interval was on themercial units when they would presumably be running nonstop.


    [Nico, do we have an industrial-sized version of the Replicators or only amercial kitchen-sized one?] Max asked.


    [There is an industrial version avable, though not many have been ordering it since they n to refit every restaurant with one, which would make the industrial ones obsolete in only a few years.] Nico replied.


    [The Stardusters'' homeworld has millions of people and a food shortage. I think they might want a few per city at an industrial scale to pump out the equivalent of deluxe ration packs, like the heat-and-eat meals that my parents bought all the time. Do you know the ones?]<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Yeah, I know them. They might as well be Academy Cafeteria food, but they are food and better than shelf-stable ration packs. Do you think that they would want to make that sort of thing by the millions?] Nico replied.


    [Maybe not the cheap ones that the downsides eat, but yeah, something like them. If they can make them by the pallet load to ship to grocery stores, we might be able to count on them to bring more force in the future as well.]


    [I will get the crew working on it. The material difference is prettyrge, but it''s not like they''re asking for Mecha. All eight units together will only weigh a couple of tonnes. The Materials Printer that they requested is already built. Or, more correctly, we had one prebuilt in storage.]


    A notification arrived on Max''s watch, notifying him that over eighty percent of the guests had requested to see the caves, which meant that Max needed more tour guides.


    The best ce to find volunteers at the moment should be the Broken ster, where a lot of the crew would be on lunch break between training and their duty shifts. He could take the time to check up on the new hire that was sent there as a waitress.


    Max made his way through the ship to the public areas serving the crew quarters and stopped to check on the conditions. Themanders gave him reports, but he didn''te here often to make sure that nobody was fudging their numbers.


    It all looked in perfect repair, and the people he passed were all in high spirits, possibly because of their recent mission with no loss of life and a week-long birthday party. Either way, it was what Max wanted to see.


    He stepped into the Broken ster, and the atmosphere changed from a clean and orderly military ship to a downside honky tonk. The bar now had sawdust on the floors, barrels of mixed nuts for the patrons to snack on, and a visibly intoxicated cover band ying their version of some popr rock song.


    "Hey, Princess. You''ve got a special request." The bartender shouted, and Max saw the new hire wave from where she had just set down a table full of drinks, then saunter up to the bar and escort a man into the back rooms while another girl came out of the back to cover for her.


    "Is she doing what I think she is?" Max asked the bartender, who froze in shock when he realized who was speaking.


    "Commander Keres. Well, you see, it''s her choice, and there''s now against how she can make her tips on the side. Plus, she''s popr." The man stammered.


    "Nevermind that. As long as nobody''s forcing anyone, they can do what they like. But I need to find some volunteers that are sober ish and good with tourists. Most of the guests want to head to the mines, and we don''t have enough assigned tour guides."


    "No problem, I know just the ones you want. Echo Company are all teetotal and friendly sorts. I will send them a message, or you can have Colonel Cortez do it."


    "I will get the Colonel to do it. No need to put yourself out. I wanted to inspect the area anyhow, and I knew that you would have a good idea of who I could trust with the task instead of drawing lots." Max told him with a wink, looking around at the patrons who were already heavily into the drink in the middle of the day.

 Chapter 490 490 Spelunking

    Colonel Cortez was happy to help and well aware of what went on at the Broken ster. It seemed to be the ship''s premier hookup spot, and if you didn''t have any luck with thedies, there were a few regr patrons who would help you out for a bit ofpensation.


    ording to the burly Colonel, Princess was the true Princess of the bar, and the price for her services was much higher than most would pay, so it was surprising that Max had seen her busy with anything but serving tables.


    These were things that Max likely should know about his ship, but as with any Military Regiment, there were some things that the men would prefer not to tell the Commander about in case he disapproved. They weren''t in the military anymore, not really, but the mentality and structure remained.


    The Admiral turned Terminus the moment that they dropped out of warp so that those looking at the sky through the terrarium could see the neb''s gas clouds and their rainbow of flickering lights and let the ship hover there for a while before announcing their arrival at the moon base.


    [The First Tour of the day will begin in 60 minutes. All of those who are signed up for the first tour, please gather at the main gates in preparation for your shoreside excursion.]


    The station couldn''t amodate Terminus, as the ship was considerablyrger than it was, so they would be sending the guests in waves aboard a Cutter.


    Every hour a group would go, and the tours wouldst three hours in total, letting them rotate through the guests smoothly without crowding any particr area.


    Max supervised the loading and departure of the first group and then sounded the next announcement.


    [Second Tour Group, your ship will be leaving in sixty minutes. Please be ready at the main gates before that time.]


    He was nning to go down with the third group so that he could get feedback when the first group returned from their tour and so that he could see the mines for himself, and not just in the VR tour that the Mercenaries had sent to let the tour guides be familiar with the location in advance.


    If you followed the arrows and the guide rail, it was basically impossible to get lost, and the side tunnels had energy barriers erected at their entrances so that nobody wandered off where they shouldn''t be and got lost, plus all the guests were wearing locator beacons, just to be safe.


    Max thought that should be enough precautions to ensure that the tours went smoothly, but the guides were also armed, carrying their augmentic armor and heavy weapons in the t space of their new watches.


    The second wave made it away safely, and the third began to gather even before the announcement was made. So far, nobody had missed their flight, and the tour guides had only reported minor issues keeping the groups together and well-behaved.


    As Max had suspected, some of the guests were quite eager to snag a souvenir from the walls, which meant moving to the far side of some of the caves where the deposits hadn''t been totally cleared out, but they were all safely returned to the group with their treasures intact.


    The gemstones were considered semi-precious to humans and could be synthetically created when they were wanted, but something to remember a vacation by was a tradition among many species, and a novelty shop trinket wouldn''t always do.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The flight down looped around Terminus and then closer to the Neb so that the guests could spend time admiring the view through the simted viewports in the hold, and thennded beside the other two Cutters, taking thest of the parking spots outside the base.


    The automated pressure tubes were working, and they attached smoothly to the man door of the ship, letting the guests walk out into the station under the stern gaze of the tour guides who were telling them not to run.


    The first group had just reached the surface when they arrived, and was enjoying a light meal in the station, looking up at the neb, so Max moved over to make sure everything had gone smoothly.


    "All you need to make sure of is that none of the guests breaks an ankle trying to move through the caverns to snag a gemstone out of the walls in the open caverns. Quite a few snuck away during the tour, and we just told them it was a one-item-per-person limit to keep them in line." The soldier leading the tour group informed him.


    "Not a bad call. That also keeps them from cleaning out the caverns in case we want to return here for tours in the future." Max agreed.


    "No worry about that. Most of the deposits are far toorge to be taken away by hand, so the whole cavern glitters in the light. You''ll see when your group goes down. It''s pretty impressive as a tour. Even the pirs left by the mining machines are nearly decorative because of the moon''sposition."


    "I''m d it went well for you. I think your time is almost up though, so I will let you go and rejoin the third group through the tunnels."


    Max jogged off to catch up to his tour group, nearly getting reprimanded by the guide, until they realized that it was him and not a lost tourist. The thought that their Commander might get lost even with a map wasughable. They were only worried about the tour group because they were so easily distracted by the shiny things.


    Max wondered for a moment how hard it would be to catch Nico or the Tech Nomads if they were left unattended down here. It was just pretty rocks to Max, but he was certain that those innovation-minded nerds would go off on a tangent somewhere, looking for a rare mineral.


    The very bottom of the mine was the highlight of the tour. An unknown heat source had fused pure carbon into a clear diamond over three hundred meters around. It looked like a giantke at the bottom of the mine and was the secret treasure of the Stardusters Mercenary Company.


    Diamonds didn''t hold the value that they used to now that they could be easily synthesized, but they were incredibly useful and still valued for jewelry, which made this final deposit worth enough for thepany to purchase a new vessel should they lose everything at some point in the future.


    The mine really was theirst line of defense, and Max would have been shocked to have been allowed here if he hadn''t known that the Terminus Trading Company was so wealthy that they had no need of such simple things as an enormous diamond.


    "Everyone follow us back to the surface for a light snack and a viewing of the neb. Not through a viewport, the top panels of the station are clear, and we can view the lights directly while we eat." the tour guide instructed, rounding everyone up and marking thest stage of the shore excursion.

 Chapter 491 491 Popularity Matters

    Once all of the tourists were safely back aboard the ship, Max contacted the Mercenaries to make the payment for their work getting the Moon Base ready for the tour. It was a huge hit with everyone who went. Even the Shin enjoyed the tour of the exotic underground minerals, and they generally weren''t fond of underground spaces.


    [Thank you for your prompt payment, Terminus. Would you like to dock with our vessel or send a runabout to us with the product?] The Mercenary leader asked.


    Normally Mercenaries would be much less amodating about getting their payment, especially in payment after services rendered situations, but with the reputation of the Reavers, it was not a big concern. They knew that they would get paid sooner orter.


    [Please proceed to Bay E7, and we will transfer your goods.] Max confirmed, leading them to the storage bay where the product was prepared for pickup.


    The great advantage of a Colony Ship was that they could easily dock with other vessels, thanks to their immense bulk, keeping them stable enough that a small misjudgment wouldn''t knock them off course and prevent sessfultching of the docking rings.


    The Mercenary vessel was an ancient and decrepit cruiser, barely serviceable anymore, with centuries of battle and debris damage left unrepaired. It wasn''t hard to guess that the Stardusters were not a well off Mercenary Group and had only formed to bring in some sort of ie when it was no longer viable to remain a self-contained colony due to the harsh conditions of the poorly terraformeds in the Death Wind Territory.


    Not forck of trying, of course. Thes in the region were simply missing too many elements for the very limited terraforming technology of the time to sessfully remake them to the preprogrammed standards.


    That gave Max another great idea. They were working on more advanced Materials Printers technology, more in line with the state-of-the-art machines that researchbs had avable than the Military units that they had been basing all of their products on so far.


    Nico had, predictably, pilfered the schematics when they went to the Alliance Museum, so they had something to work with. They just needed to find a way around the Alliance copyrightws or integrate the human technologies, including atom reorganization, which were far too unstable for general-purpose usage.


    The advanced technology had existed for thousands of years already, but with little advancement, as perpetual war and the abundant supply of raw materials from asteroid fields made them more of a niche technology than a mainstream necessity.


    It reminded Max of a story from ancient humanity''s history in his past life. A great Empire had fallen back when humans were only on a single, and with it, the schools that had taught its technology to the world.


    For the first generation, all was fine as those with the knowledge taught their apprentices. But as time passed, the knowledge became more precious, and those who had it hoarded it. One by one, they died out, still holding their secrets, in whole or part, and by the time the fourth generation was born, almost all of the advancements had been lost, throwing the species over a thousand years back in development until a more enlightened time came and the old ways were slowly rediscovered.


    [Nico, what do you think about hanging out here for a while? I have an idea that I want to try.] Max asked.


    [Sure, what''s up, boss?]<novelnext></novelnext>


    [I want you and the design team to develop a whole new generation of Terraforming technology based on the atom-altering materials printers technologies. Find a way to make it pass Alliance standards, but I want a new toy before we leave here.


    [Oh, that sounds fun. Are we going to start offering terraforming technology? I''m almost totally certain that that is going to be out of everyone''s budget.] Nico replied.


    [No, once it is ready, we are going to downscale it and start using it off-brand as a Materials Printer. I''ve been studying the various technologies that we havee across, and I think that starting from the most advanced forms of terraforming is going to be the key to making a breakthrough in Materials technology.


    Well, either that or we will develop a new-killing weapon, but that''s not the goal.]


    Max could sense Nico''s amusement even from halfway across the ship. [Yeah, not the goal. But if we happen to rbine their biomass into grass for the renovated world, that''s totally cool, right?]


    Max wasn''t sure where Nico was going with this, since she was out of range of his ability to clearly sense her thoughts, but he was certain that it was nowhere good and involved inhabited worlds.


    [Is this about the Klem again?] Max asked, just to be sure.


    [Totally. If we build Replicator Technology into the device and then modify it to also rbine inorganic elements, I think we can do wonderful things for the Klem worlds.]


    [And who might you think would be willing to live in a renovated Klem world?] Max asked.


    [The Hunters? Probably some military outposts or something. I just want to rbine the Klem into something less bitey.]


    [Fine. But only since your n to expand the replicator technology is the best one that we havee across so far.]


    With that, Max let Nico get to work, and started to focus on a new task, optimizing Cleansing Light. His skill was getting better with use, and Max could sense that a breakthrough was on the way if he could just find the inspiration to guide the System toward a new way to use the skill that it had given him.


    That was one of the peculiarities of the System, it improved your strengths, so if he worked on trying to optimize Cleansing Light for long enough, it might decide that he was on to something and improve his own capabilities instead of simply referring him to Nico to make mechanical modifications like she was an extension of his own body or a tool in his kit.

 Chapter 492 492 Cleansing Light Optimized

    Max sat in the cockpit of his Mecha and stared at the schematic in front of him. He had a rey of all of his previous battles in front of him and a log of every time that he had taken shield damage since nothing had yet managed to take down the might barrier around the Titan ss Mecha.


    Most of the incidents were due to him relying on the shield while he waded into meleebat, but some were clear limitations on the design.


    For one, he could only move the body so fast, but against shielded enemies. He was also limited when they rotated their shield frequencies, preventing his Disruptors from punching straight through to the armor or to the pilots inside the armor.


    Max was certain that there was something that could improve that issue, so he dug up all of the weapon data and brought up a maintenance simtion to make changes to the system without immediately activating them.


    Over and over, Max tried to find a way around the problem, using Shattered Pride as a target since it was the second most individually powerful Mecha that he had ever personally seen.


    Max had run the simtion over fifty times without any major gains when a thought came to him. The Disruptor didn''t have to be just a Disruptor. The weapons emitted a particle beam of sorts that generated the radiation. What if he optimized the beam itself to do damage instead of relying on the primary function?


    Max started the simtion again and activated [Optimize], which took far longer this time as the system tried to determine what he was going for with the changes he was making to the weapon parameters himself.


    Max felt it take hold and waited as the System did the work for him, wondering what it could do with the data that they had avable on such an obscure weapon as the stabilized Disruptors that Cleansing Light used. There literally weren''t any more of them in the known universe, and the System needed data to work with.


    The simtion shed in front of his eyes thousands of times in a second before he got the mental notification.


    [Optimization Complete]


    Max ran it again to see for himself and got an incredible shock. The beam had been changed in a parasitic way. Any solid matter that it encountered would be left with a stabilized bit of its energy, like electricity, after a lightning strike.


    When the beam hit the shield of Shattered Pride in the simtion, the whole shield absorbed the properties of the Disruptor, sending out a pulse of energy and radiation as it broke. That still left the inneryers the same as before, but it was better, and staggering the six Disruptors would let him st right through in an instant.


    Max set the simtion to a Fortress City on par with aary Captial of a major Star System and tried again, but this time from an orbital distance with the beamsbined.


    [Optimization Complete]


    Max unleashed the st and watched in horror as the entire upperyer of the city vaporized in front of his eyes, destroyed by the altered energy of their own shield.


    Forget using multiple shots to take down a Fortress City''s shielding. The data said that he had killed nearly a billion residents without breaking the shield, with theplete destruction of the city likely after the next st.


    That was definitely an Optimization worthy of the name.


    Max mentally congratted the System and looked at the rest of the issues with the performance standards he had found.


    The defensive Lasers were working exactly as designed and hadn''t let him down, but there was still a bit ofg in the thrusters. Not enough that it would be noticeable to most pilots, but Max wasn''t most pilots.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Mechanical Upgrades needed. Summon Technician?]


    "No, can''t we make this modification ourselves? Maybe just show me how to do it?" Max requested. he was certain that was what Nico''s System had done at the start, just given her directions for mechanical upgrades.


    The system was silent for a while, then gave Max an update.


    [Unit Optimization 2] Active.


    [Updated Schematics avable]


    Now he was in business. He could now see both what he could do with the optimization of existing parts and what he was likely to do with recement parts that it rmended or that he tried to insert into the design software.


    Max entered the proposed part into the design and then ran the simtion again. The thrusters activated three milliseconds faster and came up to full output nearly twice as fast, with just that one small change.


    Max checked it for a while to see if there was a good reason not to use this new part, then found a note in the design logs rting to it. The previous part had been designed with a slower reaction rate to prevent catastrophic failure if the thruster was damaged.


    That wasn''t an issue. The new part could react at the previous speeds, giving the safety features time to activate during normal operation while allowing him to overclock it during intense battle if he should choose to.


    One more minor annoyance down. Only a few more to go.


    The next few that Max came across simply didn''t have a solution. They were ones that Uncle Lu hade across during design, and the materials that could withstand the forces he wanted to apply to them simply didn''t exist, not even in his System''s catalog of structural alloys.


    That was a shame, but the new weapons would be a huge improvement for the Mecha at the very least, and they could be achieved without physical modification of the Mecha itself.


    [Finalize Proposed Weapon Modifications] Max instructed the System once he left the simtions and returned his mind to the physical cockpit.


    [Optimization Complete. Test Fire now?]


    No, definitely no firing the Orbital Lance inside the ship.


    Perhaps he could improve thefort of the cockpit a little bit. He hadn''t really personalized Cleansing Light since he got her, and for some reason, it was feeling a little nd at the moment.


    Max had the replicator make him a new photo for his lucky pocket on the console of Nico in the gown she wore to her birthday party, and then ordered a new set of bedding and updated the virtual view out of the artificial window.


    That should be better once the bedding was in. But it wasn''t the thought of Nico''s outfit during the party that the photo was reminding him of.

 Chapter 493 493 Downtime

    Waiting at the moon base was no great loss to the residents of Terminus, and over the next few days, many of the guests chose to return to the moon base to explore the caves further or enjoy parts that they felt that they didn''t spend enough time on the first time.


    Now that it wasn''t so crowded, they could see much more and truly take their time to enjoy, with the tour guides being quite rxed on the schedule as long as they made it back to the ship on time.


    The Mercenaries down on the were d for the dy as well, as they ran into a few issues while integrating their power supply with the new replicators. They had adopted the''s power supply from the alien vessel that they had recovered from the edge of deep space, and it ran at an extremely high frequency that wasn''tpatible with most human technology.


    Since they didn''t have ess to most human technology, it wasn''t an issue in the past, but the design crew of Terminus did have to design and send them down a power transformer, along with a sample of the fast-growing algae that Terminus used for their own supplies.


    Data indicated that they could grow it in one of the isted reservoirs without too much risk of it spreading and continue to feed their poption with minimal effort. What the team rmended was that they catch as many local fish as they could and stock theke with them, as the fish would eat a portion of the algae, and they would provide most of the nutrients that werecking in the natural water supply to keep the nt fertilized.


    That seemed to be a win/win to the locals, as it was both food and food, now that they had the replicators, so they got the work underway the same day, while the Terminus Design team, apanied by a number of Innu Guests who simply could not be chased away for any extended period of time, returned to the work of making a terraforming device that could alter atoms to provide missing elements for aary settlement.


    The initial design was actually two machines working in tandem. One that altered an entire mass into a single element, and then a second one thatbined a materials printer with their newest generation of live nt Replicators, which was mounted to a drone and would alter the surface of the one strip at a time, after the atmosphere was finished.


    ording to the Innu helpers, as well as the fans of the live stream, the idea was revolutionary, as they could precisely control the development of the world as it was terraformed instead of altering everything bit by bit until it was capable of sustaining life, and then seeding the entire world.


    Max was d that they liked it, but the most important part to him was the first device.


    Once it was another generation along, it could be set to create alloys and otherplex molecr structures, so they could start making new parts out of any raw material that they found, even the rocky leftovers after an asteroid was mined for its precious minerals.


    The technology really was better suited to a World Ship, like the one that they had first met the Alliance members on, but the colony ship would suffice, even if it really had to devote a huge portion of its storage to the devices in order to sessfully terraform a in a reasonable timeframe.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They could drop a single pair of drones off on a with full instructions and juste back every couple of centuries to see how they were doing, but if they wanted to get the timeframe down to under a decade, they would need roughly ten thousand pairs, as well as either a fewrge asteroids or a disposable small moon. The fact that the Valkiawyer had seen the videos of their work and didn''t raise any objections, nor did any of the viewers, meant that they were on a unique path as far as the actual design went and that, finally, they could really start making some advancements without having to get their entire species out of the intergctic version of the stone age first.


    [How are the locals doing with the technology? Do they have the replicators fully online?] Max asked the bioengineering team who had been working with them to solve their crisis.


    [Yes, sir. They have them all up and running on a full industrial scale, and the fish have been transferred to help keep the algae reservoir stocked. Within the month, they should be at sustainable production, but at the moment, they are able to provide full rations to the eight major cities from replicated materials.] The team leader responded.


    [Excellent news. We will be moving out soon.]


    Max searched the areas around them and found a star with no inhabiteds and no reports of Mercenary Bases hidden in it, thanks to the violent gravity shifts of its trinary star cluster.


    [Admiral, once all hands are back aboard and ounted for, mark a sixty-minute dy and then set a course for the system marked on the map and find us an asteroid to pull into an empty cargo hold. I want to test out our new toys on the most worthless bit of rock that we can find.] Max informed the flight deck.


    [On our way in four hours, Commander. A group just went to the base to run a tour ending in a romantic dinner under the light of the neb.] Themunications officer on duty informed him.


    That wasn''t a bad idea, and Max sent Nico an invitation to join him in one of the meeting rooms in the Cruise Ship area. The whole room could have a holographic projection ced upon it to look like anywhere that was in the programming, so a little dinner under the stars would be easy to achieve.


    He just had to pick up some food on his way over.

 Chapter 494 494 Dinner Under The Stars

    By the time that Max had picked out dinner and drinks, including one that doubled as a Cyborg Nutrition Supplement, he could sense Nicoing from the Technician''s bays with a sense of anticipation on her mind.


    They had all been working nonstop for thest few days, too engrossed in their work to sleep, so he was sure that at least her mind needed a break, even if her body could keep going indefinitely. She did have a System Function that reduced the amount of sleep that she needed, but he wasn''t sure how well it worked or even if it was still active after her conversion. He suspected that it was since she always seemed to be awake except for the rare time that he would catch her sleeping beside him, but he would have to ask her about itter to verify.


    When he finally saw hering, Max was d that he had taken a moment to put on something nice since Nico had changed from her coveralls into a slinky ck dress in a strange satin pattern that looked somewhat like a leaf.


    "You look lovely today, as always." He greeted her with a smile, stepping to the door to activate the auto opener so they could enter.


    "Thank you, it''s our newest development in sustainable living. The Silk Leaf Tree. We hybridized it from a handful of samples, and this dress is made of a single leaf, cut, and stitched into a gown that is not only durable but recyble and edible.


    "Edible clothing?" Max asked, startled out of his previous train of thought.


    "Possibly for emergencies only. I mean, the thought is interesting, but do you really want to eat someone''s dirtyundry?"


    Maxughed and punched in the code to set the room to the starry night on a grassy hilltop that he had selected for their rxed dinner and set out the nket and pic basket that he had chosen.


    "Oh, I like. Excellent choice."


    Nico settled in next to him as he opened up the basket, checking out the topyer with amusement.


    "You really did go all out." Nico whistled as she saw the selection of fresh fruits that made up the top of the basket.


    "Oh, it gets better. You can''t call it a romantic dinner under the stars if there is no dinner." Max informed her, then began to unpack the basket, bringing out small sandwiches, sliced meats, cheeses, and then a selection of pie and cake squares, followed by the wine.


    "Watch out, Commander. At this rate, they will make a proper noble of you yet. Very impressive, and you even properly matched the wine to the meal." Nicomended him, then moved in for a kiss.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max was breathless by the time she pulled away to begin the meal, choosing to move to hisp and feed him random bits more often than she took anything herself, other than swigs of the Nutritional Supplement drink.


    The bottle said that it was Spiced Rum vored, and it was made by the Reavers, so Max was certain that was likely the correctbel, but watching her drink it straight from the bottle gave the whole scene a slightly surreal feeling like they were Pirates or Ouws putting on an act, not respectable Reavers rxing between trade negotiations.


    Come to think of it, Reavers weren''t really respectable, and they themselves had probably killed a few too many people to call themselves innocents, so perhaps it wasn''t an act at all.


    The dinner and the flirting continued right up until the Admiral sounded the thirty-minute warning for departure, meaning that all of the guests had been back aboard the ship for half an hour already and had started to settle into their daily routines.


    The spot that Max had chosen wasn''t particrly close, even at Warp 5, the maximum speed that Terminus could maintain without using a portal to travel, so they would have some time in transit, but that was part of the joys of traveling via Cruise Ship.


    Thest thing that they wanted was someone dropping in to see what they were up to when they were in the middle of an experimental weapon or technology test. Not only would it be awkward, but it would also make things difficult for the Reavers as a whole, as whoever saw them would assume that the entire Reaver Nation would have ess to whatever they had seen and were simply holding out on their allies.


    Of course, they really were holding out, but the good stuff that the others were holding back was a full two development generations behind what they were testing. This reminded Max that they needed to send some of these goodies to the Moon Base on Rae 5 to be optimized for mass production and distribution.


    Especially the augmentic armor, and the t space technology, now that they had enough that everybat crew member had one.


    The Reavers would love that particr bit of tech. Maybe not his mother-inw, since she was the only one that had it at the moment, but the rest of the millions of Reavers would appreciate it.


    "What can we send off to Uncle Lu when we arrive at the test location, and what do we still not have an upgrade for?" Max asked Nico as she rested with her head in hisp.


    "We can send them the first generations suits and watches, as well as the upgraded sma Rifles that use the bioelectrical packs, the previous generation of replicators that we''re recing with the ones derived from the Terraforming device, and I think that''s it for now. The rest of our gear is either at their standard or only one generation ahead, which means we''re still testing it." Nico informed him, then pointed at a star.


    "Look, I found our old house."


    Max did a double take. She was right. That was Kepler Terminus that the screen had just panned past. Max had totally forgotten that they were watching a recorded video on the walls and not the scene from outside the ship. It was good to let these pleasant distractions take his mind off reality for a moment.

 Chapter 495 495 Product Testing

    From the moment that they arrived in the uninhabited star system, things aboard Terminus began to get busy again.


    They had found a suitable asteroid in the outer reaches of the system, a type C asteroid made of a loose amalgam of silicate rocks and y. The great advantage to these otherwise worthless rocks was that they often weren''t really solid the way that a metallic or semi-metallic asteroid tended to be.


    That saved them from having to break it up into little bits with specialty tools. The technicians had crumbled arge pile of gravel for the tests with a simple hammer and had a great amount of fun doing it.


    Max made his way to the testb to see what they were up to and observe the tests firsthand, equipping his armor in advance since it doubled as protective equipment forb experiments.


    When he arrived, Nico was standing in front, facing a huge number of Innu observers, likely every technician and tourist currently aboard the ship. They had multiple tripods set up for the live stream of their experiment, but the most interesting part was where they were working.


    To make their experiments easier, they created a zero-gravity vacuum tube and filled it with the material for the printing test. That way, the creation in progress didn''t need to support itself and could be builtyer byyer, making things much easier on the terraforming device.


    They had clearlye up with a n since they were allowing an audience, and Nico raised her hand to silence the crowd, then signaled for one of the Tech Nomads to join her at the front.


    "Wee everyone to the first round of the Terminus Trading Company''s newest terraforming device testing.


    As you all know, we have been teasing this for days, and now it''s ready for the very first Alpha stage test, live for your enjoyment.


    For today''s experiment, we will be rbining this clump of gravel from a type C asteroid into an inverse dome habitable shell moon. That was the basis for the majority of the original world ships, a technology that is still well beyond humans, but possibly not for much longer.


    The rotation of the vessel created artificial gravity inside the dome, allowing the upants to thrive there for extended periods of time while still leaving lower gravity areas for experiments and specialty manufacturing near the axis and core.


    This will be no more than a scale model and proof of concept, but the goal is to create a self-sustaining biome inside the sphere powered by sr collectors on the outer shell."


    Nico paused her introduction for all of the observers to cheer, and then the Tech Nomad began to scan and verify the contents of the materials, showing that they were nothing special, just the mostmon types of rock found in any asteroid field in the gxy.


    The gravity was disabled, and the tube was evacuated of trace gases from the ship''s atmosphere, then the terraforming device got to work.


    The thousand-kilo ball of rock was nothingpared to what the unit was designed for, and the whole process waspleted in only a few seconds after the design schematics were input.


    "The schematics for the dome shell station have been uploaded in the feed''s substream, so we can now begin proving that we have sessfully terraformed our test sample.<novelnext></novelnext>


    We have a unique volunteer here. Meet Lucy, our robotic test mouse for the day. It will send back a full report of interior conditions after entry."


    Nico ced the robotic mouse next to an airlock on the dome, which allowed the mouse inside, and a new video and data feed appeared on the screens in the room.


    Inside the fifty-meter-tall ball, there were a variety of grasses, a habitable atmosphere, water features that were currently floating above their designated location, and a small engineering bay running the length of the sphere that was exined to contain the stabilization devices as well as the thrusters.


    It wasn''t meant for travel, but as a space station, so the thrusters were minimal, but enough that it soon began to spin inside the chamber, and the mouse, as well as the floating water, were forced to the wall.


    Gravity inside was very low, as expected for a small station at low-speed rotation, but it was enough to prove that the concept was valid.


    As far as a space station went, it was no big aplishment for any of the Alliance species, or really even for humanity, other than the fact that it had been technologically infeasible to actually create one before today, so the questions naturally turned to deep questions about the device that created it, and how it differed from the standard versions that anyone in the Alliance could obtain with enough credits or influence.


    "The basic rbining process ispletely different, as you see here. Also, if it is fed organic matter, it can directly rbinerge molecules andplexpounds without breaking them down, providing the energy efficiency of one of our Replicators while creating organicpounds with the versatility of a full atomic rbination function." Nico exined while a stream of data flew over the screens and was sent along with the broadcast.


    "An Alliance copyright legal team will now join us for verification of the copyright and intellectual property rights. These are not our employees. The generous folks at Nurba Gruber Terraforming sent them to us to ensure that our design team vited no Alliance patents."


    That brought a fewughs from the audience. It was quite the way to view an undercover team of investigators that had been sent by yourpetition to try to trap you in a legal proceeding and bankrupt your new designs.


    Fortunately, the Alliance had the technology to make it easy, and a certified patent verification device was ced out in the room by the Valkia and Giant duo, where it began to scan both the sphere and the terraforming device.


    "Patents belonging to the Terminus Trading Company identified. No other patented physical substructures were identified. Beginning software analysis." The device reported to the audience.


    This was the hardest part for any of them to pass. So much software had been written and patented over the years that trying to write code that was original enough not to be a direct ripoff of existing software was a nightmare.


    For this reason, mostpanies would simply license software from a group of existing designers, then rbine it into their signature product, with a nominal fee paid. Nurba Gruber wasn''t looking forward to having a newpetitor in the field of Terraforming, though, and they would quickly buy up entire softwarepanies to deny Terminus Trading Companies the licenses if necessary.


    "Code segments unique to three patents belonging to the Terminus Trading Company identified. No other patented software identified." The device reported then began to broadcast a signal with its detailed analysis of seventeen million near matches, which were deemed not copyright vitions by the testing device.

 Chapter 496 496 Big Dreams

    "It seems you have indeede up with something new and exciting for the universe to enjoy. Our employers would greatly like to purchase this patent from you, as well as all rted devices and their patents. At an above-market valuation, of course." The Giantwyer informed Nico with a very professional smile.


    "While I appreciate their good intentions, this is only the Alpha version. The Terminus Trading Company and its employees still intend to upgrade and improve the capabilities of the device, as well as develop an industrial-scale version for the mass production of space stations and World Ships in the future. Please do continue to enjoy our hospitality if your employers do choose to maintain constant observation." Nico replied.


    That was news to Max. Were they going to make a version that could make a moon-sized vessel? That was t-out insane.


    As Max watched the show and the live stream came to a close, his watch began to go crazy with requests to open a portal to Terminus for an extended, indefinite vacation. That could only be the other Materials Printer, Replicator, and Terraforming device manufacturers sending their observers to the ship.


    There was only one problem. They all wanted to send hundreds of people with requests for office and meeting room space, and there were thousands of requests. Terminus herself might have been intended to house hundreds of thousands, but they hadn''t made the Cruise Ship area nearly thatrge.


    The best he could do was agree to a meeting with a representative of each group tomorrow and advise them to arrange smaller groups due to limited space aboard the ship.


    With the stream ended and the cameras put away, Max approached one of the Innu Technicians to see how it was going.


    "What do the sales numbers look like for this schematic?" Max asked.


    "Since it is a high-end Terraforming Device, and proprietary software, the Alliance IP category was pretty exorbitant. Buying the ns with permission for one manufacturing unit is five billion Alliance Credits. The expected wholesale price of the device is currently near five hundred billion credits, giving us the industry standard one percent of wholesale price designmission, and we have just received a contract for a thousand-unit license for the full-scaleary terraforming device from Nurba Gruber''spetitor, the Innu-Vation Terraforming Company, once that version is ready sometimeter this month.


    Since the license is individual, the terraforming devices in the Alliance are usually embedded into thes that they modify, allowing ongoing regtion for the lifetime of the device. It''s a small price to pay when you''re working with the scale of aary poption. Only a few hundred credits per first-generation resident. That doesn''t even cover the taxes on their flight. It will revolutionize the entire segment." She told Max happily.


    "Did we undercut the market that badly?" Max asked.


    "Nurba Gruber does not directly sell their devices, but they charge fifty trillion for an M ssary terraforming." She replied with a smirk.


    "Why do I feel like we are the bad guys here?" Max asked.


    "Because you''re not greedy expansionists looking to create intergenerational debt bondage within the colonies that you establish?" One of the observers asked.


    "Yeah, that might be it. I am just d that everything went smoothly. Even if nobody wants an obsolete relic of a world ship, the device that made it seems quite popr.


    [Nico, we need to talk about market prices and the dangers of disrupting the market bnce.] Max mentally informed her.


    [Nah, I understand, and we will limit ess if it bes an issue. This way is just much more fun. Think of all the Terminus-brandeds and ships that will be floating around the universe for centuries toe.]<novelnext></novelnext>


    [You want our name on entires?]


    [We offer credit terms to colonization groups looking to prepurchase aary scale development device, with the stiption that the colony is identified as a Terminus Colony until the debt is paid in full.] She informed him.


    [Since when?]


    [Since about four minutes ago. Romantic, isn''t it? Gifting people their dream with no down payment and no interest charged? Limited time offer only.]


    Max''sughter drew a lot of concerned looks, but he tapped the side of his head, and the Innu understood that it was a mental conversation that he was reacting to.


    "Well, if the show is over, we have a lot of work to do getting a fullary scale design developed," Nico informed the guests, who finished up their questions for the Technicians and exchanged many hugs and handshakes before leaving.


    "That was one hundred percent a lie." One of the Technicians pointed out.


    "Of course it was, and once they think about it for a moment, they will realize that this design is intended to be modr, so theary scale version is actually just thousands of licenses for the module sold as a bundle. Thewyers are going to blow a blood vessel in rage when they realize it." Nico agreed.


    "How long will it take to get a distribution-ready version ready?" Max asked the group.


    "The Alpha version is functional and already on sale on for small-scale construction, but give us a few weeks to work out the small bugs and interface issues to get the linked versions ready. We will have tomandeer another cargo bay as well. I feel bad to be taking up so much of a Colony Ship for experiments, but on the bright side, just the presales from thest fifteen minutes could buy you a nice country somewhere."


    "Our new generation ship engines are almost ready as well. The renovation stream is going incredibly well since funds are basically unlimited, and we have stockpiled a bunch of them to do weekly releases to keep stream traffic up."


    "There is nothing worse in the world of technology than to be forgotten or overlooked." Max agreed.


    "Now that everyone is gone and the bay is secured, with the monitoring devices that thewyers left behind disabled, let me show you something cool," Nico informed Max.


    "They left behind a tracking device in a room full of Innu? Did they think nobody would notice?" He asked.


    "With all of the technology in the room, it would be practically impossible to notice one bit of nanotechnology, much less locate it, if Nico hadn''t been tracking their every movement and signal. The device is currently broadcasting a prepared video of us exining the technical details to you like a toddler." One of the techniciansughed.


    "Alright, what do you have for me to see?" Max asked.

 Chapter 497 497 Only Nico Would

    Nico stepped toward the Terraforming device with a flourish, holding a data chip in her hand and a huge smile on her face.


    With her input, the spherical mock space station was lowered to the ground and rolled to the side of the room, where the Technicians blocked it into another zero gravity chamber and started it spinning again as a disy piece in theb.


    Then she inserted the data chip and brought up another set of schematics, pressing start before waving her hands to the side like a game show assistant doing a big prize reveal.


    "Wee to the one and only Miniature Terraforming Assistant, Tarith Nico edition. Ites with a full control panel, bipedal drive system, and state-of-the-art localized terraforming tools." She announced as the machine created a much smaller object inside the anti-gravity zone.


    No matter how Max looked at it, that was a knockoff of the standard Kepler Pattern Line Mecha with a sma Cannon in its hands. Even when he looked at the diagnostic screen showing the data from the current build, he couldn''t see anything but the Mechaponents that he had once memorized in the Military Academy, but with the venerable fuel-powered drive system reced with a bioelectrical energy pack series.


    "That, my friend, is the greatest terraforming tool known to humanity, now avable with a more environmentally friendly power source. Careful data analysis that I have conveniently made up on the spot shows that more cubic meters of soil have been reconfigured by units of simr design than any other single tool known to humanity. Not even the ssic spade shovel has rearranged so manys." Nico announced in her best showbiz voice, a digital mimicry of a famous idol.


    "Tell me you didn''t register a Line Mecha with a shovel as a Terraforming tool in the schematics."


    Nico looked away and whistled, but her thoughts were clear. Line Mecha with shovels and tow-behind plows were totally part of the avable options in the programming.


    "Is this what a tractor looks like in your brain?" Max asked, looking at all the small modifications that she had made to the Mecha so that it only superficially resembled the Kepler Mecha that he was familiar with.


    "Of course not. A tractor needs a utility hitch. This is the hostile environment pest control model, without the additional fittings, avable to be added separately, but with the high-efficiency rodent removal package."


    The Innu were in tearsughing at their exchange by this point, so Max relented.


    "Alright, so if the sphere was fifty meters tall, then we can print even Super Heavy Mecha if we have enough raw material avable in this Alpha version of the printer?" Max asked.


    "Exactly correct. I still need to add the software after the printing, but the machine can do that automatically, and the energy packs and weapon capacitors are uncharged, so they will need a tremendous amount of energy to get ready for use after creation, but that''s also within the realm of normal energy usage for a Mecha Battalion." Nico agreed.


    "Under a minute to create a fully assembled Mecha, ready for programming and charging? That is beyond impressive. I can only imagine the horror of being an enemy that is facing a force with this level of tech. The assault forces would never end, and initial scans would show zero defensive forces in the area since they could be held as raw materials until needed." Max realized.


    "I thought you would appreciate the subtleties of the new technology. Once we are ready to distribute this technology to our allies, anyone on a fully upgraded Reaver Standard ship will be capable of deploying as many Mecha as they can find pilots for. They could even deploy them as drones if they had the raw materials and energy to spare for the inevitable destruction since drones are so easy to trick."


    "How many other vehicles are included in theary terraforming software that you sold to the Alliance buyers?" Max asked.


    "Four vehicles and an assortment of tools. A passenger bus, a cargo transport, and a hovercycle, all with anti-gravity flight. Then there is arge tractor, like a real one, with four tracks. They didn''t get any Mecha designs but a modified Line Mecha without armor or built-in weapons because we didn''t want to cause any usations of selling war implements.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Thebination Replicator and Materials printer, residential version, is a licensed by creation downloadable content for the terraforming machine." One of the Innu Technicians informed him.


    "Microtransactions embedded into a terraformed world? You lot truly have learned the dark side of humanity." Max sighed.


    "Oh, no. That''s standard procedure for Innu technologies. We have great reverence for innovators, so the payment for intellectual property is a standard part of most creation ns. The fact that we included public and private transport, plus a farm tractor with unlimited on free-use licenses, will be a huge thing once the buyers discover them.


    The Line Mecha derivative is a license-by-use item, but they are all branded as Terminus Trading Company products." She told him proudly.


    Now Max was really sure they weren''t the gctic good guys. They were official purveyors of software with mandatory microtransactions to unlock all of the top-tier content.


    "Well, now that we''ve covered that, why did you need a full cargo bay again? If this is modr, then don''t you only need to do virtual testing?" Max asked.


    "On the contrary, we need intense practical testing to ensure there are nopatibility glitches when working with ovepping fields. They might be linked as one, but they are actually a lot of smaller units working together, and theary version includes mobility drones that we didn''t use here, to expand the area to aary scale without excessive resource expenditure."


    She showed Max the n, which was to mount these units on hover drones and have them fly at one thousand meters over the surface in a grid pattern, remaking the to a depth of one hundred meters. For an M ss, one that would have gravity close to human standards, the whole process would take about a year with the full package.


    Not the fastest, but fast enough to be impressive, even if it was mostly a surface remake and would require a basicallypatible world beneath the terraforming. It included a nuclear fusion subsurface torpedo design as well, though, which could reheat aary core and begin molten core cirction if fired in the proper pattern and timing.


    That would create a temperature-stable world out of mostoids in the habitable zone, as well as many moons. The thought was surreal to Max. Large moons with their own atmosphere and molten core but low natural gravity due to their size. Was that what a private ind looked like when you had an amount of wealth that was far beyond anything average humans consideredprehensible?


    Now that he thought about it, the idea was actually pretty cool. But how would you top giving a moon as a gift? That was the endgame. If you ever messed up in the future, there was nothing you could do to top it.


    No amount of flowers, cars, vacations, or other gifts would ever top the time that you gave them a terraformed moon as a gift, so buying your way out of trouble would no longer be a viable option for anyone who made that particr mistake.


    "What will you be working on in the new bay? We do have one to assign you for your research, but I would like to know what you have nned. I am not actually a fan of surprises, despite the amount that Nico likes to spring them on me." Max exined.


    The group all looked to Nico to answer, assuming that she had the extra sway to get them the toys that they desired. "We wanted to make some of the new high warp capable cutters that our nearby Mercenary Company customers had ordered, but for that, we will need an entire bay equipped with linked devices. The actual creation of aary terraforming array would take up over two-thirds of the cargo space aboard Terminus."


    "Fine, I will assign the bay. I look forward to the good news that the array design isplete and tested, but right now, I have thousands of travel requests to sort through frompany representatives that are concerned about the implications of our technology and the free distribution of our IP for licensing by theirpetitors."

 Chapter 498 498 Good Little Worker Bees

    Over the next week, Terminus kept in close contact with Rae 5 Command, testing the new technology while building a wide variety of devices from Replicators and Mecha to furniture and prefab building segments.


    Over the course of their experiments, they did find a few software glitches that needed to be updated, but nothing that caused a catastrophic failure of the product only hung subroutines during the creation process.


    They weren''t alone in their work, though. After the original team from Nurba Gruber had been sent home for their attempts to bug the designb, which had earned them an industrial espionage investigation from the Alliance Central Government, Terminus hade to an agreement to take one thousand new guests aboard from one hundred different interested parties, and allow them to sit in on the experiments with strict limitations prohibiting any form of recording or broadcasting the process.


    Every time there was a minor software glitch, they would celebrate the failure of their newpetitor, and every time the issue was fixed with a software patch a few minutester, they would be crestfallen.


    It was almost like watching a romanticedy with a heavy side of drama.


    With thousands of orders filled and transported to Rae 5 through a precision portal, another Terminus modification of the indoor portals that Alliance vessels used, they were finally beginning to catch up on the backlog of minor items that their new allies had ordered while the major factories and shipyards took care of the major product requests as fast as they could.


    Max strode into the testb with great confidence that day since he had a surprise for all of their unwanted but paying guests.


    Nico and the Technicians had announced that the initial tests of the linked units were sessful in creating multiple Mecha, and they were ready to show them off to the audience.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Alliance''s major Terraforming Companies. Wee again to our test bay, but today we have an extra special surprise for you. We will be moving to another bay further down the ship, where we have prepared another Terminus Trading Company Exclusive product for you to observe.


    This will be the first official Alpha stage test, and the product is clearly not ready for market yet, but it would be remiss of me to send you away when we have such a momentous asion for you to observe." Max informed the gathered corporatewyers and engineers.


    "Is it rted to the patents that we havee here to inspect?" One of the engineers, an older Innu woman whose enthusiasm defied all concepts of time and aging, asked excitedly.


    "In fact, it is. It is a custom prototype based on an array of units of identical patterns to the one that we are using here. Working in conjunction with one another, we hope that they will be able topletely rece the traditional factory assembly line." Max informed her, bringing the crowd to an uproar about worker rights and protections.


    The Alliance did have the same level of technology in its factories, or much higher levels in any self-respecting system, but somehow that never stopped the activists that got upset about every single new technology that reced a traditional worker.


    "Fear not, this version of the device requires arge number of operators and supervisors to function at full efficiency. They are just removed from the line and ced in a safe environment, away from hazardous materials." Max informed them.


    That was a t-out lie. Nico alone would be doing the work while the other dozen technicians were actually analyzing the performance of the machine, but the observers didn''t need to know that.


    The exnation served its purpose, and the majority of theints faded away as they walked down the corridor toward the testing bay set up for therge-scale tests.<novelnext></novelnext>


    For a change, ship security only had to turn around one visitor who got "sidetracked" and wandered into the secure areas of the ship, an improvement from every day before that Max took as a sign of interest in today''s tests.


    It really was a pain keeping an eye on all of these people, but fortunately, they only sent a few hundred to the daily tests while the restpiled data and wrote reports back in their rooms.


    "Wee to the test bay, everyone. Please find a seat in the auditorium here, so you can observe through the window. Yes, the bay appears to be empty for now, but the entire wall and roof structure is part of the assembly machinery, and the raw materials will be brought in momentarily."


    The raw materials, in this case, were from a freshly captured asteroid that was plucked from space by a shuttle with a gravity beam and deposited directly into the bay.


    It was a dense metallic amalgam and floated in the center of the room for a few moments before the machines began to get to work.


    First, it was broken into segments, and they were moved around the bay toward the locations where they would be needed, and then the work began from the floor up, printing floatingyer afteryer in the zero gravity environment.


    For this to work, Terminus had to be at a dead stop, with norge objects nearby that could exert gravitational force on the ship and pull the object out of alignment. They were working on a method of stabilization, but it hadn''t been incorporated into the room yet. If the object shifted too much, they had to pause construction to reposition it and begin again.


    Only a quarter of the small asteroid that they had brought in was being used for this process, with the remainder moved to the side, but it was clear that the bottomyer of a ship''s hull was taking shape in the bay.


    Once they realized what was going on, Max was certain that the crowd was going to lose their minds. Having the device create objects less than fifty meters in size was not a huge deal to them. It wasn''t a level of development where they felt that the human species was a threat to their business interests.


    But if they could link them to create an entire spaceship, and they sold that technology the same way that they sold everything else, as a "fee to create" type of blueprint, it would crush thousands of corporate monopolies that had been carefully nurtured around the universe.


    Those with money and power carefully hoarded technology in the Alliance. They made the products avable but not the advanced production methods. Those they patented for centuries after creation and refused to license, letting the weight of the bureaucracy crush anyone who dared defy them.


    The Tech Nomads were a fringe group wanting to distribute anything to anyone as a form ofmunal betterment, while Nico simply thought it was funny to make people mad.


    The shuttle took form inside the bay, and then arge energy transfer began, jump-starting the Warp Drive and bringing the ship''s bioelectric systems to life, albeit at one percent capacity and slowly growing.


    "As you can see, the Shuttle is nowplete, and the factory bay has powered down. Please follow me for an in-person exploration of the shuttle''s build quality and functionality." Max informed the group, looking toward the engineers, as they were the only ones actually qualified to know what they were looking at.

 Chapter 499 499 Outrage And Purchase Offers

    The engineers followed Max down to the factory floor, where the gravity had been increased high enough to walk properly and took out their scanning tools to examine the ship on a molecr level.


    Nico had verified that the devices did not record or transmit anything, so the technicians would have to verbally describe what they had seen to the other members of their teams, whosemunications were monitored.


    So far, none of them had broken the confidentiality rules that were in ce, but they weren''t going to take any chances, especially after the first team to see their work had tried to ce a nanotechnology bug in theb, which most facilities would have missed.


    "Is this the same pattern of vessel as your other shuttles?" One of the technicians asked.


    "We have a few like this, but the ones we use for the majority of thebor work are not warp capable and don''t need to be, so they are a much simpler design. This is a passenger shuttle, suitable to be repurposed as a small yacht with its twenty-meter size. Inside you will find that the design team has set it up for couples travel, with a single luxury bedroom suite andfortable seating, including an in-flight holographic entertainment system."


    Max led them through the small shuttle in groups so that nobody missed his details of the ship''s features, and then back outside to extol the virtues of the warp 12 capable design, using the newest generation of their crystal-based warp drive technology and a new design of warp field hybridized from Hunter''s technology.


    There were demands for the patent verification device to be brought in again, so Max had the group wait while awyer team was brought down with therge machine, and the scan was run on the shuttle.


    [Patents belonging to the Terminus Trading Company detected]


    [Expired Patents verified for generic use detected and confirmed free of charge]


    [No other patented parts or software found]


    "Is it even possible to create an unpatented Warp Field at this point? Hasn''t society already patented them all?" One of thewyers asked.


    "Five hundred years after the first patent is issued, a warp field configuration enters the public domain. Many budget shipbuilders use such obsolete technology to keep their costs down for consumers." One of the Engineers informed him as if the man was an idiot for not knowing such a simple fact.


    "Patent device, when did the Patent for the Warp Field Configuration in use on this vessel expire?" Thewyer asked the pile of machinery sitting on the floor.


    "All patents rting to Warp Drive Components and configurations belong to the Terminus Trading Company and were registered within thest standard Decade." The Machine informed him.


    "Then what are the expired patents for generic use?" Thewyer asked.


    "Forty-seven structural alloys licensed for generic use by the Hunter civilization are detected. Three Holographic Disy Technologies patented by the Innu civilization and licensed for generic use are detected."


    "They used five-hundred-year-old holographic technology for the disy? That''s incredible. The fact that they could make it work with their own new software and hardware alone is an engineering marvel. Those parts belong in a history museum." One of the engineers announced after looking up the patents that the machine had disyed.


    A number of assistants andwyers ran out of the room at that point, rying the message to their bosses since nomunications were allowed in this region of the ship, and the engineers began tob over the design of the shuttle again.


    "What will be the blueprint cost for this shuttle when you put it to market?" One of the engineers asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "For the moment, we are not nning to enter the private yacht market, so this design will not be mass-produced or the blueprints licensed at this time," Max informed the group.


    They had enough angry people on their ship without bringing in the Yacht designers.


    "When you say not mass produced, do you mean that those with influence might have one custom made here aboard Terminus?" Someone asked, hopefully.


    "That might be possible in the future, but as a new design, this shuttle must also undergo thorough evaluations and test flights before we allow anyone outside the organization to obtain one. Our reputation is too important to allow an untested space vessel to leave our control."


    That they all understood testing generally took years so that they could go through every possible scenario and evaluate long-term wear in a real-life situation before anything was sold. When technology was already so advanced, it wasn''t a dy to anyone''s development to thoroughly test new products. The industrial revolutions of any interster species were millennia in the past.


    Though, as they watched the Terminus Trading Company working with the Innu to develop new technology, it was a bit like the humans were undergoing a second industrial revolution of their own, from interster flight capable primitives to a technologically advanced developing species in a single generation.


    "Just what would it cost to have a custom yacht built here aboard Terminus? I want to get one for my fiftieth wedding anniversary, so my wife can enjoy the trip between our home by the main facility and the vacation house on Kugox Seven. She absolutely despises flying onmercial flights." One of the engineers from the willowy Dryaa species asked, shing his very best smile at Max, in what his thoughts said was a pleading expression for his species.


    "How custom are you looking for? A replica of this Patent, or would you like an individual yacht made, with the Patent guaranteed locked, so it will always be a one-of-a-kind hull?" Nico asked.


    The mere thought of an individual hull made many of the attendees flinch at the damage such a thing would do to their wallets. The fee for a custom design was exorbitant enough. They should know they were engineers, but to have it locked for a century before the designer could produce another was a huge loss to their business, so only the most wealthy would dare to even suggest it.


    "I was thinking Cutter ss, and your existing hull design simply wouldn''t do. It''s too militaristic. Perhaps something more elegant?" He suggested.


    Nico turned to the Technician closest to her, who handed her a tablet with a series of numbers on it.


    "Is six months delivery fine? Human standard months, that is. This is the price estimate, including Patent fees and single unit production upcharges." Nico informed the man, handing over the tablet.


    He looked it over for a moment, frowned, sighed, and then frowned again.


    "I may have been overly optimistic. How much if it besmercially avable afterward, with a limitation on factory application of my specific interior color scheme?" He asked, handing the tablet back.


    The technician edited it for a few moments and handed it back. The man''s face brightened, and he flipped through the options she had prepared.


    "What is thisst one?"


    "That is the Tech Nomad method. All units sold with your specific design will be marked as the Lord Governor Moop Edition of the vessel, including an engraved card by the cockpit and main doors, letting visitors know that it was designed to honor your wife."

 Chapter 500 500 Custom Order Central

    Max knew instantly that the technician had scored a critical hit. The only thing better in theary Leader''s mind than having a unique vessel for his wife was an entire line of Spaceships dedicated to her, so there was a chance that one day she would be rxing poolside and see a vessel in her honornd nearby.


    "I will prepare to sign the contract and transfer the necessary funds. Please understand that this amount of credits will take some time." He agreed, cing his thumb on the document as a tentative agreement.


    Slowly, everyone filed out of the bay, satisfied that the show was over and unwilling to beg for a copy of the luxury shuttle when Lord Governor Moop was dropping half a trillion credits to have a custom Cutter designed for his wife to get to her vacation home.


    Max retreated to the design room to see what they were nning, only to find the Techniciansughing so hard they were crying.


    "What''s the joke? I wasn''t paying attention to your thoughts." Max asked.


    "I just mentioned that since this is being designed and built on Terminus that we are entitled to a ten percent cut of the gross price for our efforts. Fifty Billion credits are more than our entire families will make in their entire life, and we will have his ship ready in a month if he doesn''t object to too many of our designs."


    She had a point. They were spending so much time renovating a nearly derelict ancient yacht for the stream, but here they were building a brand new Cutter for aary Governor, with a profitrge enough for them to buy every member of their team a brand new recement for their vessel at full retail cost.


    "Someone once told me that once you get enough of it, money doesn''t matter anymore. I think that''s the feeling that you''re having now. So, what are you going with?" Max asked.


    "Well, his species likes things that look like trees. They live in hollowed trees that they bioengineer back on their home. It''s not the most conventional design sense, but I think that species like the Shin will love it when we are done.


    We could even add dirt floors for the Shin, with a secondary containment barrier, so the dirt wouldn''t be disturbed in the event of sudden impacts.


    The Dryaa like nature, but they''re clean freaks, so no dirt floors for the Lord Governor. Instead, we will have it in polished wood with a hardened enamel coating. The alliance doesn''t use anything like it, but we found it all over human wood products."


    Max watched as the screens all over the room went crazy as ten Innu and Nico all started making custom ship designs at the same time, modifying the hull to look like various trees and altering the interior to look like the interior of the nt.


    "What about this one from our homeworld? It''s actually a fern, not a tree, though." Max suggested, showing them a picture of a Kepler Palm tree.


    "Not bad. Theyered bark can be windows to look out of without disrupting the flow of the exterior." One of the Innu agreed, making a quick alteration to her design, while the others shook their heads, happy with what they hade up with.


    The Lord Governor hadn''t even made it to his room when the first designs came into hismunicator, and he began to run so that he could examine the first drafts to see what they were after.


    Six had aspects of trees, while the other four had the ssically elegant lines of his''s ocean-faring yachts.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He ended up picking one of the boat-like designs, but with a few alteration requests to make the interior more like the natural-themed ones they had designed, causing the race to design to begin all over again.


    Max had forgotten howpetitive both Nico and the Innu Nomads could get when it came to technology, and they were betting on whose design would win each round of the design phase.


    Nico won the next round, and the Lord Governor dered it absolutely perfect in form, not wanting any more changes cosmetically.


    Then they moved onto the furniture and flooring and lighting until it was morning, and they had gone through forty enthusiastic revisions with the Dryaa man, who was now sitting in their designb to save the time of rying his instructions.


    "I knew that having the Innu design a custom Yacht would be a marvelous idea, but these human designs, how do youe up with them?" He asked, waving his hands as he watched the virtual walkthrough that they had prepared for him.


    "Most of them are based on ancient human vessels and animals of some sort. Like that curved sink, it is the shape of a shellfish species on one of our worlds. Lovely, isn''t it?" Nico asked.


    "How long will it take now that we have a design finalized? It''s only a little over six months to my anniversary." He asked.


    "Honestly, since we designed it in-house with your help, we can directly port it to the constructor using existing Terminus Trading Company drive technology and software. We could make it this morning before the main tests are set to begin, and then we will just have to fine-tune, and flight test it before delivery." Nico exined.


    "Fine tune? Didn''t we already adjust the hull shape for smoother Warp Bubble activation?" he asked.


    "We did, but that is theoretical. Sometimes manufacturing tolerances mean that it isn''t as seamless as intended. Since the basic hull is based on a proven design, we can skip the destructive testing and move straight on to the tuning.


    Max was startled to fully awake when he realized that everyone was looking at him for permission.


    "Fine, I will cancel all tests and meetings scheduled for today. Finish your custom order, and keep it hush-hush. I don''t want the others badgering us for custom runabouts on a single-day turnaround schedule." Max agreed.


    "Excellent n. We can pretend that it was one of the clients'' private yachts. Nobody will know any better when we do the flight tests." Nico agreed.


    "Good. Now, I am going to bed. Your enthusiasm is wearing me out." Max informed them after sending a message that the custom ship design process was taking up so much of the team''s time that today''s meetings and demonstrations were canceled.

 Chapter 501 501 More Orders

    The announcement that they were putting new development on hold in order to focus on the order for a custom yacht had exactly the opposite effect that Max had been hoping for. Even more people than usual were crowded around the exit to the Cruise Ship area, looking for permission to head to the development bays to see the work in progress.


    If it were like the other projects, that would involve Nico and the Innu debating minutia back and forth for hours on end while they tried to perfect their product, but the Yacht project was not really a new development to them, only a new shape for their existing technology, like a model year update on vehicles.


    Because of that, the design work was already done, and there was nothing to watch, but they couldn''t very well tell the guests on board that they could do the job in a single day, even with their entire development team on the task.


    The biggest concern of having others find out too soon was usations of slipshod engineering and a potentially dangerous untested product that was pped together to meet a deadline. It would ruin their reputation, even if it were the way that militaries all over the Gxy modified new weapons and technologies in the field.


    The team had built the basic hull first so that they could add the custom touches after the initial walkthrough, and that turned out to be the right call, as once he understood just howrge a human-built Cutter was, the client wanted some of the rooms redesigned and resized for better ergonomics, and flow.


    Humans would get a sense of that just through the virtual reality simtion since it was designed for the way their minds worked, but he didn''t really get it until he touched everything for the first time.


    In the bay, it wasn''t a big deal to move the room bulkheads since there was no flooring or anything else installed yet, so they got to the redesign and then worked out a few new color schemes for the crew and guest quarters so that everything could be visually identified.


    The crew uniforms would be designed to match both themon areas and their own quarters, but they would sh against the decor of the private bedrooms, highlighting the fact that anyone other than the butler and maids did not belong there.


    That structure was part of his culture, which had started from a parasitic fungus that merged with mammals. Everything had to have structure and a specific ce, or it bothered them to no end. ording to the client, his people were well known as the decorum and ritual experts of the Alliance, as well as talented structural engineers, but lousy architects since their need for structure kept them from truly harnessing creative talents.


    Nico thought it was highly amusing that there were precisely nine servants for each noble on board, as well as multiples of three for every duty station, but the client insisted that it simply must be that way, no matter how the humans usually did things.


    That meant that what would normally be a vast expanse of cargo or visitor space was instead dedicated to staff quarters at the rear of the ship, but enough room was left for them to load shuttles and other small craft for leisure activities.


    The Terminus pattern Shuttles already had a smooth lower hull for easy atmospheric entry, so with a small redesign, which included retractable top ting at the rear of the vessel, they could be repurposed as a leisure watercraft with an open rear sundeck and provisions for towing a variety of water toys.


    The shuttle would have to use its gravity control systems to move in the water since thrusters were out of the question, but even fifty knots was way more than most species were willing to endure while dragged behind a boat on skis.<novelnext></novelnext>


    All of the little things that came up after the initial design took them two more days. Days when the rest of the guests who came to supervise the new technology development slowly went crazy about being excluded from the process because it was a private client and not a production design.


    Finally, the client and the design team relented and let the others in to see thepleted vessel before it began space trials.


    "The hull design is based on a ssic human vessel, Patent obsolete, slightly modified for aesthetics, so we didn''t need to begin structural tests from the beginning. The interior is fully custom, but the Warp Drive and Shielding Technologies are Terminus Trading Company Standard models." Nico introduced them to the ship when the viewing port to the bay opened.


    "Behold, the Lord Governor Moop Edition Luxury Yacht, by the Terminus Trading Company. Patents have already been verified, and we are ready to begin the very first power up of the engines."


    "What will be the official designation of the vessel once it isunched for public consumption?" One of the engineers asked while admiring the vessel''s hull lines.


    "It will be sold as the Lord Governor Moop Edition Luxury Yacht by the Terminus Trading Company. No licenses for third-party construction will be considered, but the interior color schemes may be ordered from a preset collection of approved patterns." Nico informed the group.


    A few of the others gave him appreciative looks. Getting his name on a new yacht line by a trending designer was an impressive feat, and it would make him somewhat famous among the luxury yacht crowd.


    ? Only so many people could afford a Cutter as a private yacht, but on the scale of the Alliance, that number was over a million. Still exclusive enough to be the envy of themon citizen butmon enough to ensure that there would be a few more ships of his design sold.


    "Might we all join you for the test? The drive technology is a tested and proven design, as is the basic hull, so it shouldn''t be an issue, right?" One of thewyers in the group asked.


    "Unfortunately not. I only brought my nine servants with me for the mission here, so I do not have the appropriate number of staff to properly entertain guests at the moment." The Governor sighed.


    "We can provide you with a small crew of Terminus Trading Company employees if you wish to bring a few friends aboard, or we can open a micro portal for you to bring a ship crew from home," Max suggested.


    "Oh, that would be lovely. There is nothing quite like having your own people around. I will arrange a crew for the ship, and we can leave this afternoon after lunch." The Lord Governor agreed.

 Chapter 502 502 Test Flight

    Four Hundred and fifty staff. That is what he requested from home for the Cutter''s service staff alone, plus the sixty that would actually be flying the ship and working in the technical areas.


    That was at least triple the flight staff that Terminus used, but the hundreds of people he hired to serve fifty guests seemed more than a little excessive to Max. No task was duplicated. The servers for alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages were even different people, with every guest having their own.


    "You know, this is kind of swanky. I feel like a true Princess here with so many staff scurrying about making everything perfect while somehow managing not to be underfoot." Nico whispered to Max as they boarded the yacht, dressed in their very best formal wear that afternoon.


    "I think it''s because they''re all so small and slender. It''s like they''re barely there at all, though I know that they''re everywhere." Max agreed.


    The uniforms chosen managed to blend nearly perfectly into the walls, so the servants lining every room basically vanished the moment that they stepped out of the way.


    How much training it would take to aplish that, even if they were using some sort of technology to supplement the effect, was astounding, and Max began to feel that their level of service might be somewhatcking by intergctic Nobility standards.


    He wouldn''t go all out like this, but perhaps a few extra people hired for the VIP clients wouldn''t be amiss. Perhaps the Lord Governor could refer some trained staff to him, so he could assign a butler and maid to each VIP room.


    The forty-seven chosen guests, plus Nico, Max, and the Lord Governor, all gathered in the front srium for the preunch announcements and the start of the tour by their assigned staff. Max assumed that a route was chosen so that the fifty guests would never cross paths with each other during that process while getting a full impression of the luxury and style of the Lord Governor''s personally designed vessel.


    "Wee, everyone. The design team has allowed me the honor of weing you all to the first test flight of the Milly Moop, named in honor of my lovely wife, for whom this vessel is a surprise anniversary present.


    We will test every system of the ship, including the Replicators and the furniture, so please do feel free to rx and enjoy yourselves while weunch. I am assured that the gravity control systems work well enough that the risk of spilled drinks from rapid maneuvering is minimal."


    That made a number of the wealthy guests chuckle. Every ship had a bit ofg when maneuvering, where the gravity controls struggled to keep up with the changes in inertia while the majority of the ship''s power was diverted to the Warp Drives, and the delicate dance of keeping one''s drink bnced had be part of their muscle memory at this point.


    They didn''t know it yet, but human vessels were very different in that aspect. While most vessels had a gentle sway to them as they maneuvered, due to the highly efficient drive systems and limited power supply, the humans still used brute force for most things. The power output of the yacht was on par with vessels twice its size in the Alliance, even though it used the most advanced Warp Bubble designs that Terminus had managed to develop, so keeping the gravity functioning wlessly was child''s y to the power system.


    As a luxury yacht, much of the outer hull had transparent metallic windows so that the upants could enjoy the view outside with their own eyes, including the current view as the ship lifted a half meter and was gently escorted out of the construction bay.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Once clear of the Colony Ship, they wove a tight course between a group of asteroids, showing off the precision gravity control of the ship while the guests clutched their drinks and looked fearfully out the windows at the asteroids passing dangerously close by.


    "Fear not. The shielding is top-notch, on par with the Military vessels of the human species. A minor asteroid collision at this speed will not damage the vessel at all. It is one of the many luxuries of Owning a Terminus Trading Company Luxury Yacht.


    The flight was going wlessly at first, and Max couldn''t sense any issues until he suddenly sensed a sh of malice, followed by a short scream and ss breaking. One of the female guests had tripped another onto a couch, and the shattered ss had split her skin wide open.


    A servant was at her side in seconds, using an Alliance medical tool to heal her hand, while a group cleaned up the mess and removed the stained couch that she hadnded on. The servants quickly cleaned her dress by waving some sort of tool at it, and Max nodded at Nico to make sure that she was recording all of these tools so that they could modify them with human technology and provide them to the Reavers.


    Momentster, a new couch was brought out, and it was as if the incident had never happened. If you ignored the two women in matching dresses having a stare-off in the middle of the room, that is.


    "The ship evenes with spare furniture?" Someone among the crowd asked, with an impressed note in his voice.


    "On the contrary, the damaged unit was scrapped as material for the Replicator, and a brand new one was created on the spot. The ship''s crew has ess to replicator ns to rece all furniture, fixtures, and floor coverings present inside the vessel. Even custom monogrammed bedding is avable." The Lord Governor dered proudly.


    "If you are the sort that prefers the utmost discretion, the evening''s bedding may be recycled daily, and a new set created every morning when the staff makes your bed to prevent any unnecessary drama or incidents," Nico informed the gathered guests.


    "Is a log of such activities also avable?" One woman asked once Nico was finished speaking.


    "With the authorization of the ship''s administrator, all items recycled and created can be reviewed at any time." Nico agreed.


    The woman smirked at her husband, who was doing his best to look innocent, while most of the guests did their best not tough at his plight. Destroying the bedding to hide a dalliance from his wife seemed not to be in the man''s future, even if he could afford to buy a vessel of his own.

 Chapter 503 503 Test Flight Complete

    "Might there be a smaller version of this design avable at ater date? I love the design, but such arge vessel would be unseemly for one in my position. Frugality and appropriate government spending are important to the voters of my." A guest asked as the pilot prepared to engage the Warp Drives.


    "At some point, we will be creating a smaller pleasure yacht version of this design in the fifty-meter range. Large enough to provide all the basic amenities for a traveling couple or small group." Max agreed since he had already seen the hull designs for a ship that size on the Innu Technician''s minds.


    It was the size of the vessel that the Tech Nomads traveled in, and while it was extremely expensive when new, it was small enough to be affordable after it had seen heavy use and was retired from general use.


    "Oh, that would be lovely. Something reasonable, but with a high standard of luxury, in the billion credit range would be just the sort of thing I would take a long look at." The questioner responded, getting many agreeing nods from the crowd.


    Now Max had a size and a price point that the Noble guests were likely to buy, so he could have the Innu start working on it as soon as they finished with this one.


    Max would insist that they were kept in-house and exclusive, though. Perhaps only avable to guests of the Terminus Trading Company. The yacht market for that size of vessel was especially vicious, from what Max could sense in the guests'' thoughts, with each of them trying to find a gimmick and lock theirpetitors out of the market.


    It wasn''t a mass production area that he wanted to get involved in, but the Reavers were shipbuilders already, and humanity wasn''t going to totally step back from any market, so he could start with exclusive and avoid the worst of the headaches.


    Half of the ship didn''t even notice when they went to Warp until they looked out the windows and noticed the distortion of the fast-moving ship.


    "Oh, that was smooth. Even for a Cutter, that was to die for, and the gravity control is amazing. I haven''t had to consciously tip my cup once this trip, even while we were going through the asteroid belt." Lord Governor Moop cheered when he realized that he had missed the event as well.


    "I consider that test a sess. If we can move to warp ten without anyone noticing that we have started to move, everything is working exactly as intended. You would not believe the harsh nature of warp travel in historic human vessels. The Warp Bubble engaged so unevenly that it was consideredmon and normal for the inexperienced to vomit or even pass out from the strain on their bodies." Nicoughed.


    "Seriously? I had heard stories from the Hunters of species that brute forced their way to faster-than-light travel through various methods, but I had thought they were exaggerated." One of the engineers asked.


    ? "Oh, they likely did not exaggerate at all. Forcing the process is the easiest way if you have an abundance of power avable and minimal technology, but it is far from the most efficient or the most tolerable way to do it. This generation of Warp Drives is pure bliss inparison." Max informed him, backing up Nico''s exnation.


    "You know, the humans really rather remind me of the Hunters. Both in technology and ideology. It is a shame that they are so focused on their own entertainment, or we could have had a wide variety of the unique ship designs that the Hunters produce distributed throughout the Alliance." Lord Governor Moopmented.


    "They certainly do have their own style. Especially that mothership with the arena for the challenge battles. I have never seen anything like it before." Max told him with a smile.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Wait, you have seen a challenge? You simply must tell us all about it. Hunter Challenges are usually pay per view, and not every Alliance Member allows extreme sports to be broadcast. People have died in those challenges before, you know." A small, long-eared woman begged, standing barely waist high on Max, who wasn''t particrly tall for humans, at under 180cm.


    Nico smirked and stopped a server so she could take the entire tray of snacks from him before pulling a few other guests to the nearby couches to listen. The move started a trend, and soon every seat was filled, with more rapidly appearing from other rooms as the servants rushed to anticipate the guests'' needs.


    "Well, let''s see, where do I start this story? Terminus had just finished an engagement with the Klem, a vicious species of insectoid that totally destroys and strips every that theynd on of its resources and funnels them back to their major colonies when we encountered the Hunters for the first time.


    No human hade across them before, as far as we know, as we had only just achieved our first Warp 10 flights, which was their guidepost for technological achievement worthy of interaction."


    Most of the guests nodded at this, showing Max it wasmon knowledge that the Hunters didn''t care about low-tech species unless they were especially good to hunt.


    "They approached our vessel and issued a formal challenge, requesting our strongest female Mecha Pilote to their ship to engage in a duel with their team leader, using Mecha of the twenty-meter height ss.


    Now, the Hunters'' females are biologically far superior to the males in the physicalbat aspects, while humans are the other way around, but with far less of a bias. Fortunately for us, we had a suitable pilot on board, as well as a unique Mecha known as Shattered Pride."


    The whole crowd was engrossed in Max''s story as he told how the two sides met, fought the challenge to the draw, and then worked out a cooperative agreement for hunting dangerous species within this gxy, including a short vacation by the Hunter Group''s leadership aboard Terminus, in some of the same rooms that the current crowd was upying.


    The nobles seemed to view the Hunters like Movie idols, which they somewhat were to the Alliance Nobles, who would likely never see them in person unless they held a close to the border.


    The tale of fighting them to a draw was especially intriguing to them, and Max ended up showing them a few clips of the fight, to their delight, before returning everyone''s attention to the test flight.


    "Onest question. This woman who can fight a Huntress Leader to a standstill, might we have a chance to meet her?" Lord Governor Moop asked with joy in his eyes.


    "I would say so. She''s sitting right next to you."

 Chapter 504 504 Trust The System

    Most of the crowd looked shocked to hear that Nico was a Mecha Pilot, but some of them had done enough research to at least know her basic background, as it was known to the Alliance. They had seen Shattered Pride inbat a number of times since the first guests arrived aboard Terminus, so the Mecha itself was no secret to them, nor was the Pilot. It was just that few had connected the leader of the design team to the pilot of the Super Heavy Mecha with the Demonic visage.


    The rest of the test, including dinner and drinks made by the onboard Replicators, went swimmingly, and the fifty Noble Guests returned back to Terminus slightly tipsy and in a great mood.


    None of them were in the market for a Cutter ss yacht, but Max had received multiple requests for smaller versions of the ship.


    They all retired to their cabins for the evening, and the very next morning, Max started to get departure notices from some of thepanies who hade to supervise their production. The design team had proven themselves so capable that the concept of keeping a team on hand was bing more like sending them on vacation. Few of thepanies still viewed the chances that they would be able to block the Terminus Trading Company''s development and patents as a realistic option, so only a few who were working on simr modr designs left teams behind to ensure that the humans'' development didn''t ovep with their unpatented prototypes.


    Eight hundred fewer guests made the ship feel a bit empty again, but that didn''tst long. As soon as they were gone, more ships started to arrive, drawn in by the promise of product testing streams and the ever-present chance that the humans would end up in a mechanized fistfight with something.


    There were a wide variety of species on the ship from all over the Alliance, but there was no denying that the Terminus Trading Company was the Innu''s new hottest vacation spot. Half of the ship was full of Innu tourists, and the staff had dedicated multiple meeting rooms for their impromptu technology brainstorming sessions so that they stopped sitting down in circles in the middle of the hallways to discuss ideas inspired by something that they had seen.


    Max was spending a quiet morning in his office, catching up on all of the daily updates and requests from the crew, when a message came in from Rae 5 Command, requesting their presence to negotiate a deal with a well beyond the extent of what was generally considered human territory.


    It was outward of the Klem territories and almost all the way to the Narsian region, but so far out that, like the Death Wind Territory, there weren''t many inhabiteds around them.


    If some far-flung human colony wanted in on the trade deal, Max didn''t see any good reason to refuse them, especially if they were somewhere so dangerous. All danger was an opportunity for weapons dealers, no matter the century.


    [Terminus Staff and Guests. Following the acquisition of the current supply of raw materials, we will begin a portal transition to meet with a potential ally of the Company. Please be aware of the impending movement and n ordingly.]


    They gathered a few holds full of raw materials from the asteroids, enough to make a dozen more cutters, fully loaded with Mecha, just in case the locals at the new destination had something interesting to trade and prepared to portal to the designated safe location.


    Max watched the monitors as the ship slowly slid through the portal and arrived at the other side, but something was definitely off in this star system. There was an inhabited, and the sensors showed that they had billions of residents on a feral world, many times the surface area of Kepler Terminus but with an impressive rotational speed that brought the effective gravity down to roughly double that of the human standard at the equator, but over triple a the rotational poles.


    The most notable part was that Max didn''t see more than a few fortress cities among the jungles, and only a few outposts among the frigid pr regions, with nothing at all in orbit and no sign of advanced vehicles on the surface.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Canis Colony, this is Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company on behalf of the Reaver Trade Group. Please respond.] Max tried.


    [Wee to Canis, Terminus Trading Company. We have located you. If you have the capability, please send a smaller vessel to the surface for negotiations, as we have no space capable vessels.]


    How in the world did they contact the Reavers from halfway across the Gxy before they rediscovered space flight? Better yet, who gave them themunication codes?


    "First Battalion, prepare to descend for negotiations," Max called over the crew area intes and then returned to messaging the colony.


    [We will send a Cutter, only a few hundred meters in length, to the surface to meet with you. Which Fortress City would you like to hold the meetings at?]


    [Central Command is in the ins, at these coordinates. We will signal you with a beacon.] The Colony representative responded.


    The beacon turned out to be a Cygnus Expansion Era transponder, over three thousand years old, but somehow still functional or rebuilt using the same frequencies and codes as the original.


    Max loaded everyone up, including Shattered Pride, inside the Cutter and then returned to Cleansing Light to fly to the surface himself.


    [Canis Colony, one Cutter, and one Titan ss Mecha are iing in three minutes, please prepare for our arrival.] Max informed them and then ordered theunch, following it down so that he could take his time and get a better reading on this to see what it might have to offer.


    The answer seemed to be monsters. As tall as a Crusader ss Mecha, with some being significantlyrger, and hides as tough as military alloys were everywhere. Even under the pr ice caps, the Mecha detected monsters, including a form of squid over a kilometer long.


    He wasn''t sure how humans had survived on this, but he admired their tenacity already, and he hadn''t even met them yet.

 Chapter 505 505 Canis, Land Of Monsters

    Maxnded Cleansing Light beside the entrance to the fortress city in the ins, which seemed to be the most defensible spot on the, due to its exceedingly long sight lines, and waited for the Cutter to arrive.


    The atmosphere was dense but breathable, and the temperature was within the tolerances of humanfort at just over thirty degrees celsius. The forces of gravity and centrifugal force working against each other put an odd strain on the body, but nothing that the augmented soldiers from Kepler couldn''t deal with.


    They had been sent to much less habitable ces, though only a Klem world could possibly be considered more hostile than this.


    [Commander Keres, wee. Please bring your Mecha inside along with your entourage and have the Cutter return to orbit. Standing outside the walls attracts unwanted attention that would disrupt our meetings.] The base Commander requested.


    Max had to duck to get Cleansing Light in the thirty-meter tall doors, and he could see the awe on the faces of the defenders inside the walls when he stepped through the door.


    The rest of the First Battalion followed right behind, and the look of awe turned to one of envy.


    The doors were closed behind them, and the shield raised around the city even before the Cutter took to the sky again.


    Max opened the cockpit of Cleansing Light and double-checked his kit to be sure that his armor was fully charged and his t space had all of the rest of his kit inside. He was wearing a more formal suit in the Reaver style. ck Leather Pants, a red silk shirt, and a long ck cape with golden embroidery.


    He looked at himself in the mirror, then removed his cape and put on a leather vest. Nico''s insane fashion sense was rubbing off on him again, wearing a cape to a meeting.


    He double-checked that the Disruptor Pistol at his hip was charged and secure in its holster, then hopped onto the winch line and rode down to the ground.


    Nico had set up a remote on his watch, tied to his biometrics, so that he could close and lock the mecha from outside, as well as engage its shields to surround himself if he was close enough, so he put the Mecha in standby mode and stepped in front of his Battalion to greet the locals with Nico at his side, her long red dress and leather jacket closely matching his own outfit.


    "You checked my cameras, didn''t you?" He asked.


    "Packed you a cape too. I liked the cape. Very superhero when you descend from the Mecha."


    So that was the purpose of the impractical clothing item.


    They were greeted by a shirtless man in cargo pants and an incredibly buff woman in short shorts and a tank top with scars and tattoos all over her body, both smiling at the sight of the two Reavers and their oundish clothing.


    "Can you even fight in that?" The big woman asked before she even introduced herself.


    "Of course, it''s slit right up past the hip, and the coat has pockets for all of my des and explosives," Nico responded with a smile.


    "Hmm, not bad then. It might keep some of the biting bugs off the legs." The woman nodded.


    Max looked through the thoughts of the locals for a moment and realized that this was no technological powerhouse. They hadser weapons and some limited but ky, sma weapons, but mostly they hunted and gathered from thend while growing the majority of their essential crops inside the city''s hydroponic facilities.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They had actually devolved afternding and had not recovered at all, which didn''t match with their ability to message the Reavers.


    "My name is Ramba, and I apologize for the unseasonable cold today, but we had thought you would take much longer to arrive and sent the message with Warp 5 Travel in mind. That looks like the Human gship Terminus, though. We heard good things about you and how well you fight." The man spoke in a slow, gravelly voice, thanks to damaged vocal cords from a lifetime of smoking and a long scar across his neck.


    "Oh, now I get it. The Hunters were here, weren''t they?" Nico asked.


    "Yes. They were quite impressive, and they told us that there were other humans worthy of talking to. One of their youngsters even decided to stay with us so she could build up herbat skills until her nes to pick her back up again." The woman replied proudly.


    That also exined to Max why they sent a huge woman to meet with him. The Hunters valued the best femalebatants, so it was only logical that they would instruct the humans they met to do the same.


    "I will leave the rest of the Battalion out here if you would like to have a seat somewhere to discuss what you are looking for from this Trade Negotiation," Max suggested.


    "We don''t ask for much, it would disrupt our way of life if we changed everything to match the other humans, but we heard about your replicators and rifles, and we would like to make a deal to get them.


    Think of Canis as a Game Preserve. We strictly limit hunting so that the numbers don''t get too low. It keeps our people strong and resilient. The Rill Family is among the strongest on the." The woman informed him with great pride.


    Max checked her thoughts and found that Rill was the name of her entire family. Not a Family name. They all went by that one single word.


    She took off her hat, and Max noticed that she did not have human ears but long wolf ears, and in her excitement, Max noticed a long brown tail, the same color as her hair, behind her back.


    Max ran a quick scan using Cleansing Light''s sensors and found that it said these were humans, at least mostly. They had adapted their genome a little to better survive this, and it led to the expression of canine features.


    "I think we can work something out along those lines. We always need a good spot to train Mecha Pilots, and I saw many beastsrger than the Mecha that we brought scattered across the." Max told her, beginning the negotiation.


    She seemed startled. "You are sure? Even most of the Hunters didn''t dare to go after thergest of those beasts."


    "Perhaps not thergest, but the ones you think might be on par with our Mecha and our soldiers. Like yourselves, we have been augmented. Not for size, but for strength and durability." Max exined.


    "You are strong?" The man asked skeptically.


    Max looked around and stepped to one side to pick up a stone bench from the side of the road, offering to hand it to the negotiator.


    "The Hunters were right. You are strong. Come with us, and we will eat and drink before we talk business."

 Chapter 506 506 Hunting Grounds

    The two Canis leaders guided Max and Nico to a bright and airy gazebo that was set with a variety of local meats and fruits, looking more eager with each step. Their thoughts said that they had enhanced their sense of smell to help them survive the early days on this, and the smell of freshly roasted meat was nearly overpowering to them.


    As soon as they sat down, Nico pulled a silver domed covered dish out of her t space and ced it on the table.


    "A token of our appreciation for your hospitality." She told their hosts.


    "While it sure is pretty, we aren''t really big on shiny trinkets, but we appreciate your gesture." The man informed her politely.


    "No, lift the lid. I''m d you like the container it came in, but the gift is inside." Nicoughed.


    The big womanughed and opened the lid, then her eyes went wide in wonder, and her nose began to twitch.


    "Is that?"


    "Slow-roasted beef brisket. Created by our replicators, and the highlight of today''s crew mess hall lunch menu aboard Terminus." Nico informed them.


    Max probed her thoughts and found that Nico made that roughly thirty seconds before theynded after her scans revealed the abundance of meat dishes for sale in the city. Max hadn''t thought to take note of that. He had been more interested in the people and their technology than their lunch, despite the fact that they were offering Replicators to every they stopped at.


    Humans all generally ate the same sort of things, so it was all going to be within the capability of the Replicators, but these people had modified their genome enough that they might not like most of the dishes that were avable.


    Brisket must be popr here, and their hosts were literally drooling at the sight, wiping it away with the back of a hand before taking out huge knives to carve up the hunk of meat.


    "Oh, I hope this tastes as good as it smells. Please, serve yourselves anything that you want to try. I don''t know what you will like, but we have a bit of everything that we usually eat here." The man informed them.


    He made a happy whimpering noise as he cut into the brisket, and the juices ran out onto the serving tray. He didn''t manage to get the first bite, though. As soon as it was cut, his partner stabbed it with her de and popped the burnt end into her mouth.


    "Oh my de, that is amazing. How do you raise animals so juicy on a spaceship?"


    Max chuckled at her evident joy. "That''s the trick. We don''t. The replicator creates it. You could make it with a bundle of grass or the worst-tasting root vegetables, and it woulde out the same. We use fast-growing algae to feed ours aboard Terminus. Even in the leanest of seasons, there is no need for food quality to suffer with the replicators making your meals."


    "Seriously?" She asked, stabbing another slice of meat and throwing it in her mouth.


    "It''s a pretty popr item, and it has convinced a lot of people to join our trade group. Now, I understand that you will need some different terms than mosts that are closer to major trade routes, but I am certain that we can stille to an agreement that benefits both parties." Max agreed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "We are limited on resources from what I am told about your culture, but the Hunters tell us that we can sell game tags for the beasts of this world at a good price," Rill informed them, puffing her prodigious chest out in pride.


    [Those things are as big as my head. What do they feed them on this? I bet that Cassanova would love it here if he survived the first night.] Nico thought, turning to look at Max so he would notice that she was intending it for him.


    [Worry about thatter. Finish the deal before you work on increasing the local poption.]


    Nico turned her genuine smile, not her negotiation smile, on Rill, and the big woman''s tail began to wag. Poker definitely wasn''t their strong suit, and possibly not even a game that they remembered at this point.


    "We can definitely agree to that. If you can give us a small guarantee that some tags will be avable for our testing and hunting use, we can make a formal deal and trade the first round of fees for any tools or weapons that you might want from our inventory." Nico agreed.


    "Could you take us into space to see what all you can offer? We operate better when we can see what we are facing. It''s part of the animal instinct, you understand." Ramba requested, looking at his partner for confirmation that she would join them on a trip to Terminus.


    Nico nodded and gestured toward the table full of food. "Why don''t we finish lunch, then we can go to Terminus and work out the details before we return to the surface for a hunt? We have some body armor that I think you would love, especially if you don''t hunt using Mecha."


    "Armor? Could any armor deflect the ws of a Komaxx?" Rill asked.


    "It can stop a shot from a sma rifle or a hit from an energy de. What does a Komaxx look like?" Max asked.


    "Six meters tall, bipedal, powerful front arms, armored scales, long tail, and a mouth big enough to sit inside while it eats you," Ramba exined.


    That sounded rather disturbing, but Max recalled seeing some of them on the scans, he thought. However, there were many species that roughly matched that description, so he might be thinking of the wrong one.


    "If there are some nearby, perhaps we could go as a small group and hunt them. We can bring the Mecha if it seems too dangerous to go without them." Max offered.


    "They are really tasty. The price won''t be one of the cheap tags." Rill countered.


    "We will offer you the first Commercial Scale Replicator for a Komaxx hunting tag, and you can personally try out the new armor patterns that we offer. We even have augmentic armor that increases your own strength and speed when you wear it."


    "Deal. Let''s eat. I want to see that."

 Chapter 507 507 Everything Is New

    Max was inclined to be generous with this backwater, thanks to not only their great hunting potential but the possibility that they might be able to recruit superhuman soldiers from the world to add muscle to crews who didn''t have Kepler-born soldiers on board.


    With someone as powerful as Rill or Ramba and an augmentic armor suit, they wouldn''t really need a Light Mecha at all.


    The meal passed in a hurry, and the Canis leaders assembled an honor guard to follow them to Terminus, made up of simrlyrge specimens of their species.


    If Max hadn''t scanned the to find out that they came in a wide variety of builds, he would have thought that everyone in this world was built like a walking tank, but realistically, they were just showing off their military muscle.


    Nico called the Cutter back to the ground while Max climbed back into Cleansing Light and waited for the door to open.


    "Do you think that they could break the city barrier?" Ramba asked one of theirpanions with great interest while Max listened to their thoughts.


    "I don''t think that they would have to. The Hunters simply opened a hole in the universe and stepped out to talk to us. Perhaps these humans can do the same thing. We all saw that strange light in the stars before they arrived, and the schrs say it was probably their method of travel."


    Max chuckled. The sh of light was most likely the Warp Drives powering down after the load of the portal was disengaged. The energy field that created the portals emitted radiation in the visible light spectrum, while the portal itself was not and was only detectable as an abnormality in space from the other side.


    The group followed Nico into the Cutter while she ordered Shattered Pride to tag along like a lost puppy, taking up the rear of the convoy.


    Despite seeing Nico exit the Mecha when she arrived, nobody seemed to find it odd that she wasn''t in it now, so they probably assumed that there was a second Pilot to the giant robot and that the woman apanying them wasn''t the primary pilot.


    Max flew back up and prepared to greet their guests at the First Battalion''s hangar bay, causing a media phenomenon all across Canis as the reporters caught sight of the giant robot flying in the sky.


    The Canis team wasted no time disembarking from the ship once they were safely docked aboard Terminus, running around like kids in a candy store, examining everything in the bay, including the staff members that were present in nonbat roles.


    "Why do some of these men smell stronger than others, even when they''re the same size?" One of the women on the team asked Max as soon as she got to him.


    "Maybe the amount of time they''ve been at work today?" Max asked, confused as to what she meant. She was one of the people with no internal monolog. All that was in her thoughts were the words she was speaking.


    "No, their physical strength. Muscle density gives off a specific pheromone scent that we can detect. We use it to determine who is a suitable mate. Why do some smell strong, even when they''re small." She exined.


    "Oh, that''s because we are from Kepler. Our region''s people have nanotechnology living in their bodies, and it remakes them stronger, faster, and more talented than they were at birth. The greater thepatibility, the stronger you will get.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The women have them too if it is going to trigger your males." Max warned her.


    "Probably not. Our women arerger and stronger than yours, except maybe the tiny robot woman, so we shouldn''t have to worry about losing our men to them. But some of the men are quite strong here, and we have more women than males." The Canis native exined.


    "Why more females? Gics, or selective breeding?" Max asked.


    "Testosterone. Men tend to die early seeking thrills, so we have more adult women." She shrugged.


    "Understandable. That has been known to be an issue now and then." Max replied with a chuckle.


    "I think your men might be in trouble, though. They''re strong but small and cute." The woman informed him, looking over at Colonel Klinger, who had just exited his Mecha and moved to join the Command group.


    Her standards for small and cute were a bit off since the man was clearly middle-aged and battle-scarred, butpared to her, he was small. She was nearly 220cm tall.


    "I think they can handle themselves. They''ve been small and strong all their lives. Kepler citizens aren''trge by any human standards. Especially the Pilots, who are chosen for their ability to Pilot Mecha, not their brute strength." Max agreed with a shrug.


    "What is this armor? Is that the augmentic armor you spoke of?" Rill asked, pointing at one of the infantry soldiers on duty in full armor.


    "That''s right. If you want to follow me, I have some spare suits in the armory, and you can try one on and see for yourself how much they help."


    They would actually have to make some new suits since the representatives were sorge, but it only took a few seconds with their new technology to make an armor suit.


    They weren''t an easy group to herd out of the room and toward the storage bays. Everything was new and interesting to them, so Max let them do as they pleased for a while, getting their answers from the First Battalion until they had the hang of the basics of the technology in use on Terminus.


    Even the Tech Adept Harness was popr. Not because they wanted a better way to repair technology but because they wanted to put pincers on every flexible arm so that they could effectively melee the multi-legged species on their.


    The thought was enough to make Maxugh. Ten arms and two legs, twelve knives in total, and a huge man with no shirt on charging at what looked like a fever dream of a killer spider. Even with the shielding on the Tech Adept Harness, that was still an incredibly bad idea.

 Chapter 508 508 Shopping Spree

    Eventually, they did get them to a storage bay so that Nico could begin the demonstrations, including fitting them all with individual suits of augmentic armor, "a small signing incentive," as she put it, and theirs to keep.


    Just like Max did when they were first testing it, the Canis team punched an armor te with the augments off and then again with them enabled.


    "Oh, this is good. But can we fix the helmet? It''s crushing my ears." Rillined.


    "Sorry, they were made for my style of ears. Hand me the helmets for a second, and I will reconfigure them all."


    Nico made a pair of raised ridges on top so that the ears would be mostly t to the head but not squished by the helmet and relocated the earbuds so that they would still be able to hear properly.


    "How is that?"


    "Perfect. And I can hear properly too. Are there speakers inside the helmet?" Rill asked.


    "Yes, they also have radios built in, so you canmunicate with each other over long distances without alerting anything around you. The power packs willst for over a month of continual use before needing to be recharged, but we will make sure that you have chargers if your current power supply isn''tpatible.


    Over here, we have the Replicators, which made that barbecued brisket that I brought for lunch, and they''re easy to use. Just enter the menu option you want and hit start." Nico exined.


    "What else would it need to make?" One of the guards asked, confused about the nature of the machine.


    "Ribs, fried wings, roasts, pulled pork, baked beans, cake, pie. You know, the essentials."


    "Cake? It makes Cake and meat?" The guard asked, with his ears perked straight up and his tail going mad behind him.


    Rill looked at him and then at Nico''s smirk. "We are terrible at negotiations, aren''t we? We can smell and sense lies, so it''s not something that we think about much, but the tail is a dead giveaway when we are excited or in trouble."


    ? "That''s one of your more endearing traits and why we aren''t trying to make things difficult for you. An honest leader is a good thing, and if your tail tells on you every time you try to hide something, that''s even better for the people." Max told her.


    "Since you don''t want to make our life hard, what can you give us for ess to our game species?" Rill asked.


    "I will offer you one industrial Materials Printer for each major city, plus one Commercial Replicator for each city, plus two personal units for the leadership team to use themselves, plus additional payments for every beast hunted."


    The Canis thought about it for a while before they all decided that it was a good enough deal for them.


    "There is one more thing. Many Reaver groups might want to hire soldiers from your since they are so strong. If you agree to that, we can work out details for Mercenary or Guard work off the so that nobody tries to cheat your people in the future."


    "Leaving Canis? I suppose a few youngsters might want to, but I am not sure they''ll find many takers once we have the brisket maker." Ramba shrugged, looking at the Replicator.


    "It makes cake too." One of the guards reminded him.


    "It can make basically any sort of food. You still have a Hunter on the, right? They are familiar with the technology, and they can show you many things to eat if you forget." Max reminded them.


    "Ignore the idiots. They would live off of a good brisket alone if their body didn''t need any extra nutrition." Rill told him with a shake of her head.


    "What is the purpose of the Materials Printers?" She asked.


    "When it is given the basic materials, it can make almost anything that you are familiar with. These are one of the older pattern units, so you need the actual minerals for metallic objects, but for cloth and other organic materials, it can rbine them out of any form of nt life." Max exined.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Can it make me a new knife? This one has a cracked de." One of the guards asked.


    "Put it on the tray there. It is a scanner to duplicate simple objects without needing to program a new file." Nico exined.


    The Materials Printer scanned the de, and Nico made a few tweaks to remove the crack and the nicks in the de and then went to the pile of ore to grab a few lumps of metal and a bundle of cloth.


    She ced them on the ground in the feed area of the Materials Printer and then selected to make a dozen copies with simple leather sheathes, one for everyone in the entourage.


    "Here you go. I don''t know how well you usually keep your des, but this might be the sharpest one you''ve ever owned." Nico informed him.


    The man took his glove off and dragged the de across the top of his hand, watching the hair fall to the ground.


    One of the women picked up a de and put on a small monocle, looking over the de with the scanning device before putting it back in its holder.


    "Monomolecr edge, with a strengthened molecr bond. That is stronger than anything that exists in nature." She informed the leaders.


    "Your technology can do things like that?" Rill asked in surprise, visibly warming up to all the new toys that they were being offered.


    "Technically, that device is yours. We have alreadye to an agreement, even if we didn''t put it on paper yet." Nico pointed out.


    "I like it. But can it make guns?" The big woman asked.


    "Laser rifles, Ion Cannons, sma Rifles, a variety of explosives, it all depends on what you can get for raw materials."


    "Hmm, we don''t mine much, but we do a little bit of it for our weapons. I will have to see what we have avable. Can you program something simple?"


    Nico pondered for a moment and then grabbed arge piece of wood and ced it on the feed side of the Printer.


    "This is abination unit, lousy for making food, but it can rbine organic matter when needed, like this fully organic polymer Laser Rifle, with Organically grown Crystals."


    Nico plugged it into a charging port for a moment and then tapped at her watch, bringing down a targeting dummy from the upper-level storage, delivered by drone.


    "Give it a try. It''s only charged for a couple of shots so far, but it holds a hundred in total, and you can make it out of any organic matter."


    Rill picked up the weapon and aimed at the dummy, sting it with three quick shots, all to the heart before the weapon was empty again.


    "How reliable are they? Are they tough?"


    "They''re reliable in the short term, not so much in the long term, but they''re cheap and easy to make. It is hard to make them fail without breaking them, but in the end, they''re just fancy stic. If anything with ws gets at them, they''re done for. But if they do get broken, just put the pieces together as well as you can and add a bit more organic material in the printer to repair them." Nico exined.


    "If they''re beyond that point, just put the broken bits in the feeder, and you can use them as part of the materials for a new one," Max added.


    "I like it. The Perpetual Laser Rifle. Infinitely recyble." Rillughed.


    The design was also prone to overheating if you went crazy with the shooting, and the organic crystals degraded rapidly with use, but since they could also be conventionally made out of chemically altered nt oils, they were a staple amongary guards even before the advent of the Replicators and Organic Materials Printers.

 Chapter 509 509 Writing And Tracking

    "We should put all this on paper, so it is official. I am told that the Reavers take paper very seriously." Rill requested once the furor over the new toys had died down a little.


    "We take agreements very seriously. The putting it on paper is so that nobody can argue over what the exact agreement was at ater date." Max exined.


    Nico took out the data tablet with the standard agreement and began editing it for their current clients. Sending reinforcements was unrealistic, so that part of their obligations was removed and reced with the portion about allowing Mercenaries who wished to leave the to go, along with terms of employment for anyone hired from among the Canis poption.


    They would have to have their gear maintained to at least the current Reaver standard, be paid a minimum of the average share, and be provided with daily meat and a bnced diet sufficient for heavy exertion. That would likely be enough to keep the locals happy, and it would discourage the lowballers since they always wanted to pay far less than the average share to new hires in their fleet.


    The rest of the agreement was pretty standard. They could request shipments and have Reaver Trade Group Members deliver them at a standard distance rate, sell at Reaver rates, and an additional note about the prices for game tags to be sold by the animal at the time of arrival, subject to poption management ns and pricing variations. Finally, the notes about the included signing bonus items were added, and it was ready to be signed.


    Nico turned it over for their team to read, and they shared it among the group, poring over it with intense concentration and even finding a grammatical error that Nico had made. That was quickly fixed, and the hard copies were made.


    They moved to a table, and Max had the staff bring out another brisket, then set it to the side for after the agreement was signed. Ramba didn''t miss this maneuver, and Rill smirked at Max.


    "I thought you weren''t going to make things hard on us? But here you are, cing the food to the side until the deal is done." She joked.


    "Brisket is greasy, and paper soaks it right up." Max rified, putting his signature on the sheet, followed closely by Rill and Ramba, then witnessed by Nico.


    "Now that we''re finished let''s eat." Max agreed, handing the documents to the administration team to copy and electronically file with the Trade Group.


    It was rxing to eat with the Canis nobles. They didn''t believe in table manners or cutlery, so there was no pressure to maintain an image, only to get enough food in you before it was all gone.


    "I think I have the perfect hunting spot for our first trip together. There is a species of Tree Viper in the jungle whose blood tastes almost like the seasoning that is put on this meat. If we mix it into a sauce, I think we can replicate the taste with regr roast meat." Rill dered, licking thest of the juices from her fingers as the meal finished.


    "So, we head to the jungle to hunt snakes? That sounds like a lot of fun. How big of a team should I bring?" Max asked.


    "You bring five, and I will bring five. Too many will either scare the game away or bring the big things. Both are bad options because that part of the jungle is too thick for your Mecha or the Hunters Suits." Rill suggested.


    "I will put drones in the air in case we get in trouble. Don''t worry, Commander. I can ensure rtive safety withoutpromising the hunt." Nico assured Max with a smile.


    "Good enough for me. Grab three from the Infantry Special Forces who you think would enjoy the trip." Max ordered her.


    Nico''s eyes went nk for a second, and she nodded. "They''re on their way. Now, what should we bring to hunt the Tree Vipers? Precision rifles and des? Or are they big enough that we will need sma Cannons and demolition charges to bring them down?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I like your attitude. The Vipers are only ten meters long, but the Goliaths that also live in the area are on par with a regr Hunter Suit. We only hunt them with our heaviest weapons."


    Nico nodded and sent a message to a technician, who came back with five watches in her hand.


    "These are not for general distribution yet, but they can be considered a personal gift from me to you. Put them on over your armor and tap them with your forefinger, or tell the armor to open the t space."


    The devices activated, showing a supply of food, water, bioelectric energy packs, a handheld sma Cannon, a small selection of explosives, and a spare Laser Rifle in the all-organic pattern.


    "That should be enough to get us through a hunt with what we are already carrying," Nico told them.


    "Am I getting married?" One of the guards asked dreamily.


    "No, that one is mine." Max insisted, making Rambaugh.


    "Gifting expensive weapons is a wedding tradition here to show your sincerity." He exined.


    "A friend of ours gifted his bride a Cruiser ss warship as a wedding gift, and she assassinated thest of his enemies for him," Nico informed them with a smile.


    "Perhaps the Reavers are not so different after all, even after all this time." The Canis manughed, getting to his feet.


    "So, shall we take that marvelous ship of yours back to the surface?" He asked, looking back toward the bay where theynded.


    "No need. There are only ten of us going with no Mecha, so we can take a shuttle. It cannd in a much smaller space, and it won''t disturb wildlife as much." Max disagreed, pointing in the other direction.


    Thest three members of their team arrived in full armor, with Ion Rifles slung over their shoulders, so Nico got up and tapped their watches to check their kit and make sure that they had everything needed. She gave Max the thumbs up, and he led the group a few bays down to the nearest avable shuttle, the weaponized ones Nico made, suitable for an entourage of twenty in Mobile Suits, which were almost as bulky as the Canis natives.


    "Here is our ride for the day. Nico will have a few gun drones in orbit as well, in case we need to be rescued. Just a precaution since we don''t want to cause any international issues." Max exined.


    "That works for us. Who will fly the tiny ship, though?" Rill asked.


    "Usually Nico, but we will have a Technician fly today so that she can focus entirely on the hunt," Max exined, pointing to a happily waving young woman in a flight suit. It was the first time that she had been included in the negotiation team instead of sitting in a dark room in the Drone Team quarters waiting for something to happen, and Max could tell that she was really excited to be here.

 Chapter 510 510 Hunting Tree Vipers

    Once they were in the shuttle, the Canis team began to inspect the new additions to the Terminus team. They were all from the infantry but were among the strongest, having all washed out of the piloting program due to either their size or attitude and not their aptitude.


    The two men were over two meters tall, while the woman had a criminal record that made Nico''s own military history look positively pristine and tempered. She had narrowly escaped a lifetime prison colony sentence because there was no evidence that she was actually the one that used a case of ymores to frag the Inquisitor investigating their team.


    So she had been reassigned and ended up with the team from Kepler 142, who were left behind for Terminus to find on that decrepit space station. She was a genius with infiltration and explosives, though, and had earned her spot on the drone team, as well as this hunting trip.


    Rill gave the pilot directions to thending site while Nico equipped her custom armor,plete with integrated Tech Adept Harness. That got the attention of the Canis team, who were intrigued by how she was nning to use six extra arms in any sort of practical way.


    "She has a natural affinity for machinery. She can use them all as naturally as her own arms. The normal units have a neural link, but it takes a while to get used to using them smoothly." Max exined as Nico tested the link to her new limbs.


    "It''s got better gravity control than a standard unit as well, so it is easier for me to chase the Vipers if they retreat up into the trees." Nico smiled.


    "I don''t know how to say this, but to do what? You''re barely bite-sized to a Tree Viper." Ramba asked.


    "Kill it, of course. I am capable of using a sword with every one of these limbs, or they can be used to restrain a target while I chop it apart. I brought axes as well." She replied, taking an axe with an energy field protected de out of her storage.


    "You will likely never meet anyone who likes killing things more than Nico. Even the Hunters were impressed by her bloodlust." One of the Special Forces guysughed.


    "We should catch up with them again. They would be great hunting partners. I will contact them and see where they''ve gotten to once we are finished here." Nico agreed.


    "They said that they wanted to see what the Narsians were like in closebat, so they should be somewhere Northeast of our, but how far, I do not know. We lost track of them not long after they departed." Rill replied, then pointed to a spot in front of the shuttle.


    "That is ournding zone, that pond. There aren''t many clear spots in the jungle. Just watch for hidden creatures in the water. The crocs can grow ratherrge."


    "In that case, I will be going first," Nico announced and directly stepped out of the shuttle''s rear door, which had only begun to open when her body disappeared from sight.


    "You get used to her. She''s like that." Max shrugged as the others stared out the door.


    "Oh, yeah. I forgot that you guys don''t usually use gravity control, do you? She can fly with that armor on, so she''s not going to crash into the ground. She just wanted first dibs on anything that might be in the water." he added.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I see."


    Nico had the remains of onerge snake and some sort of turtle on the shore when the shuttlended only secondster, discharging the team before returning to high altitude to keep track of them and any threats that they might be facing.


    If they needed evacuation, it could drop a line down for everyone to climb up, letting them leave from almost anywhere in the forest in a hurry. Not that the Pilot expected to need to do that. The team she had dropped off looked more than capable of handling anything she could see on sensors, and they had all brought sma Cannons.


    "That is one of the Tree Vipers we are here looking for. The turtles are vicious but unfortunately inedible." Ramba informed them, looking at the single-de wound on the Viper, then turning to appraise Nico in a different light.


    "It didn''t expect that I could fly. I lifted when it struck at me and severed its spine with my axe." Nico exined, shaking the blood off therge-headed weapon in her hand.


    "Why an ax instead of a sword?" One of the Canis team asked.


    "I wasn''t sure how thick the hide was, and the extra force of the ax helps it prate bone more smoothly."


    The team took a moment to siphon arge amount of Viper blood into what looked like a canteen that had been hidden under their clothing, and Rill signaled for them to move out behind her.


    They silently moved into the trees, smirking at the noise that the Terminus team was making before they all gave up on being as quiet as the locals and just did their best not to break branches that would cause extra loud noises.


    The only one that was truly silent was Nico, and she wasn''t on the ground, preferring to scout from a spot further up the trees, flitting from one to another with an ax in her hand and clinging to the thick branches with the tentacles of her tech adept harness.


    "I like that suit. It''s almost like she''s a baby goliath, but with extra arms. They move the same way through the trees when they are small." Rill whispered.


    "And when they are grown?"


    "Then they are toorge for the branches to support them."


    Some of the branches were over a meter across on the enormous trees of this jungle, capable of supporting even a Corvette ss Mecha, so whatever sort of species the Goliath was, it had to be truly massive.

 Chapter 511 511 Hunter Or Hunted

    As they moved through the trees, it became clear to Max that they weren''t only hunting for something, but some not-so-friendly residents of this jungle were also following them.


    His targeting system didn''t identify between species that were watching from the woods, but he had a wide variety of targeting boxes to choose from, and some of them were clearly following the group as they traveled.


    Max signaled to the Canis team about some of therger targets that he had spotted, and they nodded that they had seen them as well, but seemed intent on ignoring them for now, so Max assumed that they were either very low on the threat list, or very low on the target priority, so they could simply be ignored until they attacked.


    Nico stopped them a few minutes after Max had signaled to the group about arge cat he had seen and bounced down to rejoin the group.


    "Are goliaths a form of primate, roughly fifteen meters tall?" She whispered.


    "Yes, those are them. Did you find an adult?" Rill asked with a hint of excitement in her voice.


    "I did. What''s the hunting strategy? That thing isrger than a Crusader ss Mecha, and I really want to shoot it."


    "They are just as mean as they arerge, so we usually surround it so that it can''t focus on the whole group at once, and then target the knees and head with heavy weapons." The leader of the Canis team replied, pointing to the appropriate spots on herself.


    The beast had also detected them, and the sound of breaking wood signaled its approach at high speed toward the hunting team.


    "Everyone spread out. Make a half moon and begin to fire at a slow rate as soon as you have a clear target. Don''t go too fast. Let the others take some of the creature''s attention away before you fire again."


    "Excellent n. Will you go first, or will I?" Nico asked, pointing a pair of sma cannons through the trees toward the sound of the approaching Goliath.


    "Since it is your first hunt, please, have the honors." Rillughed while Nico hopped back up into the trees to wait for the creature to approach.


    Max wondered what her n was, as she had only gone to the lowest branch, a mere five meters off the ground, to target a fifteen-meter-tall monster. Normally, she would take advantage of elevation and try to shoot down at it from above to confuse it and make it look up and away from the rest of the group.


    "Now," Rill called as the beast appeared through the trees, and two light blue sma balls flew out from Nico''s weapons as sheunched herself up in the air.


    Both shots were perfectly targeted, hitting the creature in the groin and bringing a howl of rage, despair, and immense pain all rolled into one noise.


    It spotted her immediately, and Nico flew up and over its head, turning it ny degrees to its previous course so it was no longer charging at the team but futilely swinging its arms at the flying menace.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Rill fired next, hitting it in the side of the head with a sma shot and burning much of its face away. Max followed a split second after, aiming for the same spot now that he had confirmation that it was correct, and then a barrage of fire from the others mmed into the back of the creature''s knees.


    It copsed to the ground, legs severed, and Nico finished it off with a pair of sma shots through the eyes. The mighty beast crumbled as its brain melted, and the copse of its body shook the ground all around them.


    The fierce but short battle had scared away every other creature in the vicinity, and the forest fell deathly silent as the Goliath breathed itsst breath.


    "You know, I am starting to think these sma Cannons aren''t really sporting. One volley to take out a Goliath was way too fast." Nico muttered as she inspected their trophy.


    "You have a point. They are much more powerful than anything that we have here on Canis. Such a battle usuallysts ten or fifteen minutes." Rill agreed.


    "That is good to know forter. You will have to specify hunting weapons when you issue permits to visitors so that they have the full experience of hunting the massive beasts on this." Max agreed, looking at the sad sight of the dead Goliath.


    "Says the guy who never misses a shot. Maybe we should make the next one a melee-only attack and see how it goes?" Nico suggested, but Ramba waved off that suggestion.


    "You might be crazy enough to try, but they are surprisingly fast when you aren''t flying up out of reach. Melee attacks against a Goliath are generally considered suicide." The big man informed them, with his tail tucked down behind him, showing just how afraid he was of the concept.


    "You have a point. But there is a Tree Vipering for your head." Nico replied, pointing to his right.


    Ramba turned in a split second and fired at the approaching snake, blowing its head off while it was in flight before taking the impact of its body and being thrown through the trees for a dozen meters, rolling along the ground.


    "You could have told me that a half second earlier." He grumbled, dusting the dirt and leaves off his body.


    "Sorry, I was distracted. But hey, it didn''t eat you, and that''s a good start."


    "Let''s drain the blood from this one, and we can look for another Goliath. This time we can use our light weapons and only switch to the sma Cannons if it gets too dangerous." Rill announced.


    It was possible that only she and Nico were actually enthusiastic about the idea, but somehow they had made themselves the deciding votes, and the sma Cannons were put away while the Ion and Laser Rifles were taken out.

 Chapter 512 512 Great Bad Ideas

    Max opted for a pair of Disruptor Pistols, as they had the same damage output as the rifles and were more maneuverable in split-second targeting scenarios, which he was seeing as more and more likely with every step they took through the woods.


    The number ofrge animals was increasing the further that they got, and none of them were friendly.


    Sporadic Laser fire from the new organic rifles that they had made for the Canis team took out bugs the size of arge dog while Nico and Rill scouted ahead to try to find morerge game.


    A shing warning, showing that a hostile target was iing, shed on the disy in Max''s helmet, and he popped a Disruptor shot at it the instant he verified that it was indeed an alien insect.


    After multiple battles against the Klem, alien bugs were starting to be a sore point with Max, and he would have been more than happy to find out that they didn''t exist here, but it seemed that they only came in more familiar-looking giant varieties than the Klem did.


    His camera feed would be showing everything that they did to the guests up on Terminus, or at least those with the stomach to watch. Hunting wasn''t every species'' idea of a good time, even if the animals were extremely hostile, so it wasn''t being yed on themon area viewscreens, only in the private quarters or by request.


    He had already verified that his System notifications weren''t showing on the feed since they only appeared to him inside his disy and not to the cameras mounted on the sides of his helmet, so that much of his data was safe, but it was a strange feeling knowing that thousands of people were looking at the same thing that you were, jumping with every iing insect and creature.


    Like the evil squirrels that they hade across, they looked so cute and fluffy, but their jaws opened uprge enough to swallow a human, and they had three rows of teeth in their mouths. One of them had nearly gotten a Canis warrior before a well-ced shot from Max''s pistols had split its head apart and left the man with only a few scratches from the close call.


    "New target up ahead. Two hundred meters. I don''t know what it is, but it looks really stabbable." Nico announced.


    Max wasn''t sure if that was a promising evaluation or not, but her thoughts showed him a long-legged crocodile, roughly twenty meters long, including the tail. She was right. It did look like it would be easy to stab. Assuming that you could get at its back and through the hide.


    "Oh, a nice call. They are a fast breeding species as well, so hunting one won''t impact the local bnce much, if at all." Rillmended her choice.


    "But are they edible?" Nico asked.


    "They taste a bit like yard birds." Rill shrugged.


    "Chicken, a yard bird is a chicken." Max rified for his team after seeing one in her thoughts.


    Well, it was like a chicken. The yard bird on this was roughly the size of a hovercar, but it looked the same.


    "How do we hunt this?" Nico asked, drawing a pair of swords and moving her pistols to the additional arms of the Tech Adept Harness.


    Then she added a pair of axes to thest pair of arms and twirled them around, deciding if she liked the bnce.


    It must have passed her evaluation because she didn''t switch the weapons out and only waited patiently as Rill worked out a n to attack the beast.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "It''s not alone. It might look that way, but there is a helper with it, a scavenger bird hiding in the trees. The ws of the bird are venomous, and it likes to weaken targets for the Crocolisk to finish off. In return, the bigger beast will leave a share of the spoils for it." Rill exined.


    Max searched his targeting solutions and found the bird. Unlike everything else in this forest, which seemed to be a gigantic version of something vaguely familiar, the scavenger bird looked like a normal barn owl. Nothing special at all, no gigantic fangs in the beak, just a two-kilo or smaller bird with big eyes and a round head.


    Maybe that was its secret. It weakened the targets and only needed a bit of food, so none of the other monsters were upset about having it around.


    "I will take out the bird. I can hit it from here. Not a problem." Max informed the group, taking out an Ion Rifle since his pistols were short-range weapons.


    "Start off with the scavenger. It will make our life easier. The only trick is not to get eaten, and I am sure you can manage that. You''re pretty fast." Rill advised.


    "Got it."


    Max took aim at the scavenger and noticed that there were a dozen more faded targeting boxes indicating hidden targets the same size. He could deal with that as well though, and he squeezed the trigger, dropping the remains of the scavenger from the tree.


    As soon as it was hit, a dozen more birds took to the air, meeting the precisely targeted shots from Max''s rifle, leaving them all blown to small pieces and scattered through the trees.


    "Nice shooting, Commander. No wonder you''re the one in charge. It''s like you can see the future." Ramba told him with a smile.


    As soon as he started shooting, Nico and Rill had both charged, one down either side of the Crocolisk, whose attention was now firmly on Max after he unleashed a dozen energy shots into the trees over its head.


    The beast was about to charge when it noticed the two women approaching it. It adjusted its intent instantly, but it made no difference. The massive jaws went for Rill, who rolled under its belly and sliced the bottom of its neck with her sword, while Nico dodged the tail by activating her Gravity Control for a split second andnded on its back, mming both axes down to anchor herself while she sliced out its eyes with her des.


    The beast reared up in agony, letting Rill get clear of its dangerous front ws andnd a deep strike into its chest which gushed blood, and Nico mmed her swords down into its skull.


    "The brain is the size of a walnut. You are too far back." Rill informed Nico as the beast copsed.


    "I should have guessed that. It fell for that trick way too easily for it to have a brain big enough to fill its skull." Nicoined, then shook their tour guide''s hand and tapped something into the holographic disy from her watch, calling down the shuttle to pick up the hunters and the beast to carry back for dinner.


    "Do we have enough blood from the Tree Vipers, or should we find one more before we go?" Max asked.


    "We have more than enough. They don''t reproduce too quickly, so I don''t want to hunt too many just for seasoning meat. The big beast will be enough reward for today''s trip, and I am sure the others will be interested in hearing the tales of our battles." Ramba replied, leading the way to the shuttle as itnded as close as possible to them.

 Chapter 513 513 Post Hunt

    The gravity beam of the shuttle made the loading of their game an easy task, not even requiring the assistance of the team, much to everyone''s relief, and within minutes they were on their way back to the city and ready to start telling the about the good news.


    Canis had been isted for a long time, and news of another ally and trading partner would be huge news for them. They had almost everything that they needed, and they lived simply, but some things, like the Replicators and materials printers, were such a luxury that they were willing to let outsiders on their in order to obtain them.


    [Will all residents that wish to participate in a post-hunt feast please gather in the city park for an announcement by our beloved leaders, who have hunted a giant crocolisk for us to roast.] An announcement was ying throughout the city, and thousands of residents were already on their way to experience the festivities.


    With this many people, even given its size, the crocolisk would barely qualify as a meal, let alone a feast, but Max detected that most of the adults were bringing a covered dish with them. That implied that either this was a standard mealtime for most of the city, or they had announced the return of the hunters far enough in advance that locals had made dishes for a potluck.


    It seemed like a fun tradition, like on Founders Day back home when the government sent out busloads of candy and snacks for the kids. They would chase the bus around until they had their fill, often running right out of their own neighborhood.


    Nico was thinking of a very different event, the harvest festival, where her family would all gather, and everyone brought a dish just like this. There was an art form to that tradition as well, as despite havingrge families, not all of the Tarith women were good cooks.


    On a daily basis, they hired a chef for their meals, but it was a point of pride to show up with something you made yourself, and the others would know instantly if your chef had made the dish for you.


    So, the children who were tasked to set the tables carefully curated the items that started nearest to them in the room so that by the time the truly awful dishes made it to them, they were empty, and the children wouldn''t be shamed into cing them on their te, which would inevitably lead to them being forced to eat them before dessert would be served.


    Holiday Desserts at the Tarith family house were a fond memory for Nico and Max as well. The first time he had her mother''s secret recipe cake, they were at her house for winter break, the first and only year they were in the Academy on Kepler Terminus.


    "What are you thinking about?" Nico asked as she noticed Max''s mind was elsewhere.


    "Our first winter break and your mother''s secret recipe cake." He replied honestly, making herugh.


    "Good luck getting that recipe, even I haven''t earned it yet. But there is hope for the future, and I will make a number of other cakes today with the replicator in the shuttle. Rill, what parts of this thing aren''t edible?" Nico responded, looking outside at the crocolisk being suspended below them.


    "The side hide. The scales aren''t edible either, but they''re useful. So, pick the side hide to make the cake and let the locals see you do it. They will love you even more than they do for bringing back a feast.


    The rhythmic thumping of her tail as she answered proved the truth of her words, and Max reveled in the fact that he didn''t have to read anyone''s mind to know if they were telling the truth. The Canis locals were terrible liars, and Nico only lied if she was messing with him.


    Most of the time, if someone thought she was lying, it was because she nned to do something so oundish that their brains couldn''t process it.


    The crocolisk was set down on a roasting spit built over a huge fire for exactly this sort of asion, and the chefs got to work cleaning and skinning the enormous creature.


    "Save me the useless hide. I will do a demonstration of the capabilities of the Replicator for the feast. Today, it will turn the useless waste scraps of the crocolisk into delicious cakes." Nico announced, then whispered to Rill.


    "You can eat chocte, right?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    The big womanughed and nodded. "We might have some canine features, but we don''t suffer from any of their allergies."


    Hundreds of locals moved so that they could see Nico operating the replicator using the scraps cut from the beast, watching through the limited angles avable through the open rear cargo door, but when the first trays of cake began to appear, and the heavy chunks of leather disappeared, the doubters were instantly silenced.


    There was no fooling a Canis nose, and that food smelled very good.


    "Since so much sugar isn''t good for the teeth, how about we collect some more scraps and make some brisket?" Max asked.


    "I have just the thing. Give me like three blocks, and I will be back." Someone in the crowd announced.


    Max looked to Rill for an exnation since the man''s thoughts said that blocks were a measure of time and not distance but weren''t a measure he was familiar with.


    "It''s the standard time that it takes to jog the length of one habitation block. About one minute in standard measure." She exined.


    "Can you use this? I run a butcher''s shop, and none of this has buyers, so wepost it along with the rest of the waste." The man exined when he returned, pushing a huge two-wheeled wheelbarrow full of some sort of hide and offal.


    "Park it in front of the replicator''s feed bin. It has a bit of range, so you don''t need to feed it manually. Then stand off to the left but in front of me, and I will hand you the brisket." Nico told him.


    He parked the wagon, and Nico entered the data, then handed him the brisket on the stic tray when it came out.


    "Best trade ever. One wagon of scrap for a beautiful chunk of premium meat." The man cheered, holding it up for the crowd to see, then began to walk away.


    "Hey, where do you think you''re going? There''s like a thousand kilos more material in that bin. Pass off the brisket ande grab the next one."


    The look of shock on everyone''s face when the meat kept flowing out of the machine as the offal wagon emptied was priceless. He had brought more offal than the Crocolisk weighed after it was deboned and dressed, turning their crocolisk hunt feast into a roast brisket feature, with people just walking up and pressing the button to get a huge chunk of meat, then walking awayughing as they tore it apart with their teeth.


    "To think, we just threw an entire feast with one hunted beast and a garbage wagon from the butcher''s ce." Ramba chuckled as the event wound down for the night, well after midnight.


    "Watching children tear apart an entire roast with their mouth because it took two hands to hold it was hrious. How are yourundry services? These will either have to be topless events, or you''ll be wearing out aundry machine after every party." Max asked.


    "We managed to obtain modern autoundry a few hundred years ago from a rogue merchant, so we are good there, but topless feasts do have a certain appeal to them," Ramba replied with a wink.

 Chapter 514 514 Are We Humanitarians?

    Terminus managed to get ahold of the Hunters that night while Max and the negotiation team were sleeping off the excess of the celebration. The Hunters had found more fun things for them to see, including a human-controlled that was under attack by the Narsians.


    ording to Kepler data, there were no human territories on the northwest side of the Gxy, out here past Klem territory. But they were currently on one and had been informed of another, so it seemed that there was a lot they didn''t know about the ancient colonization efforts and where they sent their ships to.


    Sekot was the name of the new that the Hunters had found, and they were currently challenging the invaders without their hunting suits to make the fight more even, in their estimation. They still had body armor and energy weapons, so it wasn''t like they had devolved by much. They had just taken their equivalent of the nuclear option off the table.


    "I don''t think it''s a good idea to join in without the Mecha. But perhaps we could assist with the Mecha forces and help create a safe space for the locals to stay while the Hunters finish their battles? I don''t doubt they will win, even against a Narsian invasion, but the coteral damage could be fairly high." Max exined to the Command Group via virtual meeting held from the shuttle''s cargo hold.


    "I don''t think they would be mad if we brought the Mecha. The Hunters are good like that. Plus, it''s how the Narsians are used to fighting us, so it''s not like we''re going to sucker punch them. At least not much." Nico offered.


    She was also using a holographic projection, but it was because she was toozy to get dressed and get out of bed, so she had created a virtual avatar for herself to attend the meeting with.


    "Then shall we set course for their location as soon as we are done here? Traveling at standard warp would give us the chance to make a proper sensor map of the region, as our current data suggested that there were no human colonies here when it has be clear that an entire Colony Wave made its way here in the past." Admiral Drake suggested.


    "Excellent idea. Perhaps we should have the Cutters fly in a wide formation to extend the sensor range and get more detailed data on the locations we pass. With their speed, they can get back in minutes should Terminuse across any sort of real danger." Nico offered.


    Max could sense that she was really hoping that they would be attacked by Narsians and have a good excuse for a Mecha fight on their way to a fistfight, but inhabiteds weren''t that easy toe across in lightly colonized space where most of the stars didn''t have any terraformeds.


    "Then it''s settled, send out the cutters in a wide scanning pattern, and extend the depth of the scans as much as we can. We can make this an official mapping survey for the Reavers if we gather enough data. Who knows, maybe we will find more potential trade partners that the Hunters simply found too boring to bother mentioning. They aren''t out here looking for humans after all." Max agreed.


    The Admiral began plotting the course, along with the Cutter Pilots, and within a few minutes, they had a decent map of all the ces they could possibly find inhabiteds. Some stars were simply unsuitable, either too early or toote in their life cycle for inhabiteds, but the majority could possibly, theoretically, have an ex that was suitable for terraforming.


    If the Canis were correct, then the Cygnus Expansion had sent these ships so that they would have had decent terraforming abilities, but they would have needed a somewhat suitable, to begin with, as the fleet was only capable of modifying a liquid water-bearing to one suitable for humans.


    "We will leave this afternoon after we have confirmation from the Reavers that they know what we are up to and that they don''t object to our deal. I can''t see them making a fuss, even if this ally is so rural. I know our soldiers well enough to know that the women of this will be very popr among men of a certain proclivity."


    The other Commanders smirked at Max''s estimation, but he was right. Muscled and tattooed women had always been popr among the soldiers, and if you added wolf ears and a tail, you only increased the number of soldiers who would give them a chance.


    Especially after a few years aboard a military ship.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The meeting broke up, and Max headed out to greet theary leaders before they left the surface, but not before sending Nico a tersely worded message telling her to get some clothes on ande outside to do her job as Second in Command.


    ? He should have been more specific about how much clothing was considered "Some."


    "Can you take a few of our young along on your trip? It seems that your technology made a great impression on the youth, and some of our more scientific sorts would like to travel with you as allied researchers." Ramba asked when Max came out of the shuttle.


    "I don''t see a problem with that. We have lots of room, and we already have foreign researchers working with our teams to bring varied viewpoints to the process." Max agreed, then saw what Nico had put on.


    She had dressed to match Rill in very short shorts and a bikini top, both in olive drab green and paired with a pair of military-issue jungle boots.


    "Good choice. We will teach you how to dress for the heat in no time." The big woman approved.


    "Have you adapted to the insects already?" Ramba asked at almost the same time.


    "She''s a cyborg. The only bugs that can bite through her shell are the Klem, and I''m not sure that all of them could manage it either." Max informed him, making the locals reassess their estimation of Nico''sbat ability.


    "Is she really that strong?" Ramba asked.


    "You can decide," Nico informed him, grabbing a cheap knife left over after the party and pressing it against her arm, only stopping when she had bent the de in a full arc.


    Ramba whistled in appreciation. "No wonder you weren''t afraid of the Tree Vipers. Even outside your armor, they likely couldn''t digest you."


    "Unfortunately, it is time for us to head out to the next destination that the Hunters have identified. They say that there are humans under attack by the Narsians, and that is an opportunity both to hunt Narsians and rescue the human locals, so we have to go." Nico replied with her best artificial sad tone.


    That voice box was secretly a blessing for Nico. Before she was a cyborg, she was absolutely terrible at pretending to be emotional about things, even when it was socially awkward. The only things she got properly emotional about were food and killing, but now that she could fake the appropriate response by changing her voice settings, she was actually better at blending in with the rest of humanity.

 Chapter 515 515 Canis Can Be Nerds Too

    Max waited and chatted with the leaders while the officials gathered the approved group of college students who had wanted to leave aboard Terminus for an indefinite period of time. The students viewed it like an extended work experience program, but while traveling the gxy.


    Max had assured the Canis leaders that they would take good care of the guests, while Nico assured the concerned parents that the Terminus Trading Company would find them employment and that the fact that Canis didn''t have a currency that was worth anything beyond its own borders didn''t matter.


    After talking to the families of the ones going, Max truly understood Rill''sment about the Reavers not finding too many Mercenaries among the local poption. Almost all of the students lived in a family unit with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and it was only when they had their own grandchildren that they would branch off and move to another residence to expand their family.


    There were exceptions, of course. The locals loved to run in the woods and hunt, neither of which were safe activities, so the families had gaps in them, and some preferred smaller families, so there were only one or two surviving members from each generation.


    Even the one "orphan" of the group going to space had been taken in by extended family a few generations separated. Living alone simply wasn''t a thing that they did.


    Max would have to make amodations for that in the living areas, though it shouldn''t be hard since all of the crew spaces were set up for the units to live together so that the entire Canis group would be sharing onemon area with separate bedrooms.


    Hopefully, that would be close enough for them. In fact, they might even find the experience of having their own bedrooms new and interesting since he could hear in their thoughts that many of them shared with multiple siblings at the moment.


    The students arrived, and Max smiled at their enthusiasm, with their ears perked up and tails wagging. It reminded him of the first time that the Innu had seen human technology and hadpletely freaked out with joy.


    "Wee, everyone. I am Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company. I want to say thank you all for considering Terminus Trading Company as your first off-world excursion, and I have promised your families to take the very best care of you until such time as you decide to return.


    As you might already know, we are both an interspecies cruise ship as well as a working Reaver ship, doing trade deals through the gxy and helping form a trade alliance, so there will be a wide variety of opportunities for you in the future.


    I am sorry that we are leaving so abruptly, but we have gotten notice that a human-inhabited is under attack by the Narsians not too far from here, and we are off to lend a hand."


    The students nodded in understanding and began to swarm toward the shuttle, guided by Nico and the hunting team, while Max did the honors of saying their parting words to the.


    If they had waited for the parents to finish their tearful goodbyes, they would be here all day, so escaping to the shuttle was the only option that the students had to avoid being guilt-tripped into returning home, but Max could sense in their thoughts that the Replicator was their real goal.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They had seen the end product yesterday, but none of them had a chance to really examine the machine while they picked up dinner.


    Rill and Ramba seemed to know very well what the end result would be if the families were allowed to linger too long and plead for onest hug from their children, so they escorted them away to a meeting, leaving Max alone with his team and their guests to depart for Terminus.


    With tenrge additions, the shuttle was fairly crowded, but nobody had to move to the cargo area, so at least they were still properly seated for the trip back to the ship. Their gravity control system was pretty good, but an atmospheric entry was still a rather bumpy ride and tended to pin the weaker humans to their seats, even with the dampening effects of the shuttle.


    It was like the first-ever rollercoaster ride for the Canis youths, and unlike the more stoic team that hade up for the negotiations, their tails were giving away their excitement.


    "The ship is kept a fair bit colder than the, so we will get you fitted for uniforms that will keep youfortable, while you can set the temperature in your dorm to whatever you like," Nico exined as they flew.


    "We''re in one room?" One of the men asked.


    "Not really. You all have individual bedrooms, but the dorm area was created for military units, so all ten of you will share amon area and kitchen with your own private bedrooms. If you want more privacy than that, you can visit the cruise ship area on your time off and spend part of your wages on renting a fully private room for those times." She told him with a wink.


    "My own room. All to myself, no sharing the bed with my little cousin." He sighed happily.


    "Roof couldn''t be that bad." One of the othersughed.


    "You have no idea. Even at twelve years old, he still wet the bed once a week. My own room is going to be the greatest thing ever." The first boyughed.


    "I would have dly traded you. I shared a room with Prisci for my whole life. Once she had her first heat, she woulde back smelling like a different male nearly every day. It was horrible, and I had to shower twice before leaving for school every morning so that the teachers wouldn''t think that I was sleeping around instead of studying." One of the girlsined.


    Perhaps sharing space with your family wasn''t always as great as it sounded.

 Chapter 516 516 Settled In

    "Ah, I forgot Prisci was your sister. I apologize for all the times that smell was me. It''s a good thing that she didn''t want toe along. The whole Gxy would get the wrong impression of us." A boy at the end of the shuttle next to Max added with augh and promptly got a knife thrown at his head.


    "Please do not throw knives in the shuttle. The walls will cause them to ricochet, and you could hit someone you didn''t intend to. But if you do happen to get along particrly well with someone aboard the ship, there are no rules against it other than consent and public decency." Nico informed them.


    "Public Decency? I''m not sure what all that entails. Is that like the rules about peeing in public ces?" One of the students asked.


    "Yes, also, keep your clothes on in public, and no public sexual activities. There are some nuanced rules, but you can look them up once we get to the ship. I didn''t notice anything in public on Canis that was out of bounds on Terminus, so you should be fine." Nico agreed.


    "Are there seriously aliens? Like real aliens, not just demihumans who adapted to their?" The boy asked.


    "There are. Some look nearly like Demihumans, some wear human-shaped robotic suits that can be mistaken for actual people at first, like the Illithid, and some arepletely foreign, like the Shin, who look like mobile trees."


    "You''re in trouble now. No peeing against the living trees." The talkative boy teased one of the others.


    "Man, I was three years old. When will you forget that?" The boy in question asked.


    "It was a holiday tree in the mall. I will never forget."


    Maxughed at the banter. These ten should fit right in with the soldiers they would be bunked next to.


    "I should warn the group about a few things before wend. Alcohol is avable in many ces on the ship and can be produced by your kitchen''s replicator. We expect you to be sober to be on duty, and refrain from consuming if you can''t handle your alcohol or be violent.


    If you are violent without it, we have a variety of virtual realitybat training simtions, as well as well-equipped gyms to work off some excess energy. They are made for Kepler soldiers with systems, so there are more than enough weights for you to work off some excess energy.


    Also, the ship is at half the gravity of your. You can adjust that inside your dorm area forfort, but themon areas are all at Human Standard gravity levels.


    The cruise ship area has a gravity slide, like a waterslide, but with the gravity controlled, the tunnels don''t always lead down. They only feel like they do. There are swimsuits and sealed bags for your other clothing avable at the kiosks by the entrance to the cruise ship area. Again, a reminder that there are change rooms for the purpose and no nudity is allowed in the public areas." He informed them.


    "Terminus sounds like a fun ce. Are there mating rooms? You know, if we do find someone we like and don''t want to bother our roommates?" One of the girls asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Yes, all of the rooms in the cruise ship area are soundproof and private. They are mostly just bedrooms, and almost all guests eat at the restaurants or cafeterias, which are included in your privileges as employees, by the way.


    Nico will provide you with full details, but if you need privacy for such things, a small fee will get you a private room in the Cruise Ship area. Don''t feel ashamed to use them if you need them, and if you find a long-term partner, we can arrange for family amodations when they be necessary.


    The Reaver Companies, like the Terminus Trading Company, are generational. Our core members will spend their entire lives aboard the ship, and so will the next generation. Our ship is fairly newly founded, but I am informed that we have already assigned a few family units to members."


    The men of the Canis group shared a conspiratorial look, and the girls rolled their eyes at them.


    "What are you thinking?" Nico asked, curious what the inside joke was.


    "Maybe we should have brought Prisci with us." One of the boys answered before they all burst intoughter.


    The shuttle docked with Terminus not long after, and Nico led the new arrivals to their rooms while Max arranged the Cutters'' departure and double-checked the path they would take to their destination.


    They should be there tonight, but if they ran into any dys or unexpected phenomena, it might be morning, ship time, before they reached their destination.


    The Admiral had already sent messages verifying that the was holding out against the attack and had learned that it was not their first time fighting the Narsians. They were so close to the Narsian territories that the attacks were direct, via line-of-sight portals, and not the all in transfer of aary military force like Max had seen in the past in the Kepler territories.


    Supposedly those were their version of colonization and not their primary mode of a military offense, a fact that Max hadn''t known before. He had assumed that was how they always invaded, and it had never urred to anyone that they had attacked in the past that it might be a colonization fleet and not a normal, targeted military offensive.


    That greatly changed the way humans would have thought about the Narsian attacks. Colonization implied that the Narsians didn''t actually know that thes were inhabited, only that they were inhabitable, so it was only a fluke that they hadn''t hit a capital city yet unless the Capital cities were emitting enough of a signal that they knew to avoid those particr areas.


    [All Cutters, maintain formation and Warp 5 until further notice. We will only scramble to maximum warp if we lose contact with the or receive additional distress calls.] Max informed the pilots and then got to work on the nning stages for their offensive beyond where the troops wouldnd.


    There were drones to deploy, bombings to n, not to mention the matter of if he should intervene with Cleansing Light. It would escte the situation to a whole new level, and being so close to Narsian inhabiteds, it might actually be worse for the humans they were trying to rescue than if he remained aboard Terminus.

 Chapter 517 517 More Threats

    The five vessels spread out in a wide fan space to gather the maximum amount of data about every system they passed, with the findings ryed both to the Reavers and the passengers aboard Terminus. This was exactly the sort of thing they had hoped to find when they booked their vacation here.


    They got to be the first to collect data on inhabiteds that hadn''t been seen by the naked eyes of any outsider in time immemorial, thousands of years at the minimum. They had watched as the Commander of Terminus had met a lost colony that had adapted their genome to a hostile, and now they were going to see more forgotten star systems, ending with a battle against aggressive aliens that might have descended from the Giants that they knew at home as a peaceful and tolerant species.


    Even if the stay had cost fifty times as much as they had paid, they would have been more than satisfied with this experience. Disregarding the cost, just the exclusivity of the experience put it at the very top of the bucket list of events they could have been privileged to enjoy.


    Nico''s voice was narrating the details of random stars and phenomena that they were passing as they raced toward the where the humans and the Hunters were fighting against the Narsians, giving Max a surreal feeling, like he was watching a movie of his own exploits, but in real-time and not yed back to him.


    Instead of dwelling on that, he linked the Command Ship that the Hunters were traveling on to find out where they wanted his troops, who were currently anxiously waiting aboard their Cutters for deployment.


    Well, metaphorically.


    Realistically, most of them were ying cards or sleeping while they waited for the one-hour notice to sound that would tell them to get prepped and return to their Mecha for an imminent battle.


    [Commander, I have excellent news for you.] Nico informed Max just as he had finished the deployment orders.


    [Please don''t tell me we need to change the drop sites. I just finished arranging them with the Hunters so we weren''t interfering with each other''s prey.] Max responded.


    [No, this is way better than that. The we''re headed for is the neutral zone between the Narsians and the Klem territories. We have 48 hours to clear the Narsians before utter chaos descends in the form of a Klem wave ten times anything we have seen attacking human space.]


    Max rubbed his temples in an attempt to defeat the headache that he could feeling on.


    [And how exactly is that a good thing?]


    [Well, you don''t have to be bored, and you don''t have to intervene on the surface. You can go with the Cutters and the Hunters'' interceptor ships for space battles to deal with the Klem. If my readings are right, this isn''t just a wave of pods. It is an actual attack fleet, like real ships, with living stuff in them.


    I would y with you, but the deployment orders you sent out have me dropping with the First Battalion near the Commander of the Hunters forces so I can join her for a mission.]<novelnext></novelnext>


    The leader had been quite adamant about that. Their challenge had ended in a draw, and she was determined to regain her title, as she put it, by defeating Nico in a Narsian hunting challenge. They would be taking their Mecha, and Max had insisted on that point, as he couldn''t take losing Nico again, so the challenge would be the total number of Narsian dead within the first twenty four hours while hunting together.


    [Back up a bit. The Klem force has space vessels?]


    [With a 92 percent certainty, yes. There is a chance they are giant pods, but the energy signals suggest that they are actually ships that were assembled by sending pods to a moon and having special creatures assemble a vacuum-resistant ship and then stock it with all the needed aspects for life. The sensors detect nt life aboard thergest signals, though it might be a biomass slurry, like they use to grow more pods.]


    Many Klem could use an organic toxin or even an electrical charge to attack, and both of those could theoretically work in space just as well as their projectile spikes did, so a Klem ship would be a fearsome force if it actually existed.


    Even more disturbingly, if it existed, it likely also contained the ability to send out attack Klem in space, the way that pods were dropped ons.


    [Thanks for the update. Send me the location data, and I will n to have Cleansing Light and any spare Drones from our force engage them.] Max sighed, turning back to hisputer console to update the deployment orders.


    [See, being stuck on the ship sucks. At least you get to go out after the ns are made, and the drones are deployed.] Nico reminded him.


    [Your joy isn''t because you found out that new enemies existed, is it? It''s because you finally got a reason toin about having to lead the drone forces and supply drops, isn''t it?]


    [No Comment.]


    Maxughed as he ordered the deployment of the drones to assist himself once the rest of the force was on the and informed the Hunters that he would be dealing with it as well as he could but that the fleet was an unknown force, which might be well above the capabilities of a single Mecha, even a Titan ss one.


    They were just as happy as Nico to hear that and informed him that they would redeploy forces if he needed backup but that their current main force was upied on the, hunting Narsians.


    The signals were hard to decipher because of the abundance of small objects and pods, but Max didn''t think they had a ship bigger than a cruiser. The real question was if it was a Cruiser-sized pod or a Cruiser-sized attack Klem in space because the second option was terrifying.

 Chapter 518 518 Hunting With The Hunters

    As they passed by the various star systems, Max noticed something odd in how thes were arranged. Over a dozen of them appeared to have no inhabitants at all, but theiryouts were exactly the same, mimicking the mythical Sol, the homeworld of humanity, in that the third and fourths of the system were inhabitable, as well as one moon around a gas giant.


    It was clear that so many nearby systems consisting of identicalary arrangements, right down to the atmosphericposition, could not possibly be natural, but the sensors said that all of them had been extracted from their major natural resources and abandoned, leaving behind only nonsentient life.


    Somes still had living flora and fauna, but some werepletely barren, destroyed by whatever force or industry had caused the architects of their design to abandon them.


    It waspletely unnatural that a culture that could rearrange an entireary system would mine them empty and then depart, but it was right there on his disy, clearly identified by the sensors. Fourteen identical stars, with fourteen identical sr systems, all abandoned.


    Could an ancient species have been using them as a test bed to develop something, perhaps even an experiment to develop an advanced species, since the arrangement seemed so deliberately friendly to pre-warp civilization, with threes needing nothing but to be inhabited?


    Max ran an analysis of them all and found one more strange fact. While they were not in a straight row, from no could another be clearly seen. They were arranged so that the stars were almostpletely behind another intervening star from any of the other systems.


    Could the ones who did this have possibly rearranged the stars themselves for their experiment?


    Humans could arranges if they put in enough effort, but the entire star? That was far beyond anything that they could do.


    Going by the conversation and thoughts on the ship when he disyed his findings, it was beyond the alliance as well. They could do miraculous things to put a where they wanted it, but there wasn''t much that they could do about the location of a star. Even their technology couldn''t alter the constetions.


    Max filed it in his mind andputer files as an unsolvable riddle and moved on to the next bits of data until the one-hour rm alerted him to the fact that his unit would be preparing to makendfall while Terminus herself would be hiding from the inhabited behind its nearest neighbor.


    That would attract the least attention while letting the residents of the ship watch the feeds from the Cutters and Command Mecha, apromise that the pilots were all used to now, as it kept the Alliance observers at bay and prevented usations that they were doing something inappropriate.


    Of course, they turned them off when they were actually going to do something against the rules of war. They weren''t idiots, and a fewpses in the data could be written off as glitches in the nascent human streaming technology. Don''t like it, why not arrange to trade the humans some of that top-notch alliance tech?<novelnext></novelnext>


    As the Cutters dropped out of warp, Nico sent a flood of drones out to join them, looking to the locals as if the Cutters hadunched them as they arrived behind theirary neighbor.


    The bombers and orbital fighters made the first wave of attacks, clearing the flight paths andnding zones for the Cutters, while Max prepared tounch Cleansing Light out toward the edge of the sr system and intercept the Klem threat, and Nico prepared a personal shuttle tond next to the Hunters with Shattered Pride.


    Now that they were close enough for detailed data, Max made sure he wasn''t sending anyone on a suicide mission due to outdated data and found that the only one whose target was more formidable than expected was the position that Nico and the Hunters'' leader were attacking. The Narsians had taken a whole city, with a poption of roughly twenty thousand, with sensors indicating over two thousand giant soldiers currently in residence.


    Even for the two super-heavy mecha, that was a lot of enemies to deal with, and they were both melee-focused units. That was an advantage in a city environment, but it was also a disadvantage against overwhelming numbers.


    [All Cutters, prepare to beginnding sequence. Flight Paths are clear.] Max informed the unit as thest of the reports came in and then checked on the drone bays, where the regiment''s infantry was currently stationed, flying all the fighters that were clearing the path for the Mecha tond.


    [Message from the Canis team: Can we do anything productive?] Max''s watch informed him.


    [Talk to the Drone Pilots. They might have something for you to do. I know Canis doesn''t have anything simr, but if you catch on quickly, you might be allowed to pilot sensor drones and do reconnaissance.]


    There wasn''t much damage they could do if they screwed up flying a sensor drone. At worst, they might not provide useful data, but everything it recorded was sent back automatically, and they might identally find something interesting if they just wandered around with it.


    The Klem fleet had juste into the range of detailed scanners and visual imaging, so Max brought it all up on the screens inside Cleansing Light, making a n to deal with the extras before they could be a real issue.


    This was the very northeast region of Klem space and the very northwest of Narsian space, with only emptys to the outside of them, as far as their sensors and the data he had gotten from Canis indicated, so the Klem fleet might be responding to the Narsians as if they had encroached into the neutral territory between the two species.


    Both species had started their development in this area, from what the Kepler records said, so it was possible that the behavior of the Klem would be very different here than what he was used to, which was mindless attack waves and brute force.

 Chapter 519 519 Bugs In Space

    Max''s estimation of their strength wasn''t far off, thergest of their vessels was on the borderline between Cruiser and Destroyer, and fortunately, they seemed to be a holding vessel for other Klem and not a living attack creature of their own.


    He would start by removing the strange new Klem that he took for the interceptors of their force first and then get to work on the big ones once the volume of lighter weapons fire had died down.


    With no or atmosphere to worry about, Max could go all out, and he began to unleash everyser he could while the first six beams from his Disruptors tore streaks through the Klem attack force.


    A strange mental pattern appeared in Max''s senses of confusion and excitement. It had recognized Cleansing Light as a human construct that didn''t belong here and was very eager to kill both it and the Narsians.


    There was no sense of why, only bloodlust and that vague recognition of his species, but that was enough to tell Max that these were different than the normal Klem he had been fighting and that they had no intentions of leaving without a fight.


    The smaller vessels swarmed toward Max while he fired, unable to shield themselves from his attack on the vast three-dimensional battlefield.


    Max continued to fire, wiping out most of the interceptors closest to him, but he noticed a few misses that certainly should have hit their target and began to analyze the data. The creatures, as well as thergest vessels, were emitting some sort of energy field that seemed to move them slightly out of reality, allowing them to move at speeds that defied conventional physics and escape from his Laser fire.


    The Disruptors still hit them just fine, so the radiation but not light was capable of passing through that boundary, or perhaps of disrupting the boundary instead of passing through, he didn''t have enough data to rify, but he made sure to log every sensor feed that he could to give to the Development teamter.


    Only a portion of the force seemed intent on attacking him, while most continued on their path and had increased their speed, intending to makendfall before Max could destroy their vanguard forces.


    Three Cruiser-sized vessels were headed for Max, firing a dispersed wave of spikes, expecting him to dodge. The pattern was geometrically perfect, but with a very simple w. Max could simply shoot a few of the spikes and maintain a position.


    The disruptors had the power to vaporize Klem chitin on contact, and that''s exactly what they did,nding a volley of hits on the closest Cruiser that caused minimal visible damage.


    If the ship could take that volley, it was tougher than the behemoths by a wide margin, so Max focused his next volley into an orbital strike pattern and burned a hole through the side of the vessel whilesers did their best to deflect and destroy the iing spikes.


    Max wished he had more Ion weapons at that moment, as they packed arger kic impact and could knock the spikes off course, but they were hard to keep supplied in a vacuum, as they needed something to ionize, and even Cleansing Light had limited resources on board.<novelnext></novelnext>


    After the Orbital Lance punched the hole through the chitin, Max watched for the response from the vessel to see how much damage he had actually done.


    Like a wound scabbing over, Klem from inside the vessel hurled their bodies into the wound, bound together by some sort of viscous fluid until the venting finished and the chitin began to regrow from the edges of the wound.


    Max decided that meant he could treat it as an enormous living creature whose biology he waspletely unfamiliar with. He just needed to learn its weak point, and then he should be able to take out the other four shipsing his way much more easily.


    Max shed to the side with as much speed as Cleansing Light could muster andunched another Orbital Lance at the vessel, aiming for one of the wrinkles in the side that had a higher energy concentration than other areas.


    Again the orbitalnce punched a fifty-meter-wide hole in the ship, but this time, its trajectory faltered, and it began to slow down. That was valuable information. The high-energy wrinkles were part of its maneuvering system.


    Again Max targeted the high energy areas, this time toward the rear of the vessel, going by its direction of travel, and this time it began to vent sma into space before the hole could be plugged. The damage again visibly slowed the ship, and Max could see the hull shudder in what its rudimentary thoughts identified as agony.


    Perfect, he had found a vital spot. Now he just had to finish the job.


    But the Klem wouldn''t make it that easy for him, and a dense wave of Spikes, apanied by some sort of liquid wave, wasing his way from the other ships, and more interceptors wereunching to rece the wave that Max had eliminated.


    The best option was to reposition, getting beyond the range of that liquid wave, whatever it was, and to try topletely destroy one vessel before moving on to the others. Multiple wounded enemies were much more dangerous than a few full-health ones when dealing with Klem, as they didn''t lose theirbat viability until the veryst breath.


    Max targeted an energy spot on the very rear of the wounded vessel and hit something vital inside, causing a huge secondary explosion that rippled through the hull, sending fleeing Klem in every direction while the ship burned from the inside.


    Now he truly had his kill shot, and Max turned his attention to the wave of smaller Klem that were heading his way, plotting a battle n that would let him get behind another Klem vessel for the kill.


    The most pressing danger was the interceptors, but there were other types capable of surviving and maneuvering in space as well, on top of the ones that the other ships were moving toward, attempting to rescue them from the void before thatrge chunk of their force was lost without ever being able to fight.

 Chapter 520 520 Even Bugs Have Vital Points

    Moving to save their allies immediately was a mistake, from Max''s point of view, though he could see that they didn''t have any sort of space suits or protective pod as humans ejected from a destroyed ship usually did.


    Max ignored the disabled survivors and unleashed the Disruptors in a wide pattern, vaporizing countless interceptors in an instant, then activated his thrusters to gain an advantageous position to attack the Cruisers.


    Max could sense the urgency from the Klem, but there was no emotion, only a biological imperative to destroy him before he could damage the mothership.


    More spikes and a burst of sma from one of the ships came his way, and Max chose to move to a lower-density area but not worry aboutpletely escaping, allowing him to fire at the same weak point as he used to destroy thest ship.


    The huge Klem vessel phased out of reality at thest moment and turned slightly, but the Disruptor still tore the outer chitin off the rear section, leaving the interior exposed.


    It was a sma emitting pod at the back of the ships, and Max realized that they were actually flying in reverse, protecting the main weapons that would attack the target from impacts and attacks with a hardened shell on the other side.


    It was a genius bit of evolution, and Max set the Disruptors back to individual beams, targeting all of the likely evasive positions that the sma Pod could end up in. He fired again, and the pod exploded, sending much less of a deadly wave through the ship this time but still leaving it venting vital fluids and atmosphere into space as it floated off course on an uncontrolled trajectory.


    With two cruisers disabled, thest one was in a bad spot, and not even the full force of the remaining interceptor bugs, firing their sma and spikes at Cleansing Light, was likely to keep it safe for long.


    The rest of the fleet wasn''t returning to help, though, choosing to cut their losses and increase speed toward the. They had extensive experience fighting all sizes of human Mecha ons, and most of their force was vulnerable in space, so they had rushed their approach as much as they could once Max started to attack.


    [Nico, change of schedule. The Klem fleet is a real fleet. Thergest objects are heavy sma Cruisers, and they are on a maximum speed run for the, ETA of two hours. It is unclear if I will be able topletely destroy them beforefall.] Max informed his second inmand.


    [Understood, Commander. We will finish the Narsian-held city before the Klem arrives and prepare for the arrival of pods.] Nico replied.


    [Prepare for the arrival of a fully formed infestation. There are more than pods aboard the vessels, there are fully grown Klem in there, and I have no data on how they intend to deploy them.] Max added.


    He was too far away to sense her joy at his announcement, but he knew Nico. Killing off a full city''s worth of enemies and then getting to fight even more enemies was better than a second birthday for her.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Max went for a different approach for the final ship and only condensed half his Disruptors, targeting the ship''s control areas, while the other three beams fired a dispersed pattern to knock out the iing spikes and fluid attacks.


    The Disruptors also disrupted the sma shots, making them unstable and causing them to explode in space. If it were a crowded battlefield, that would be a mess, but with only one Mecha in the area, the destruction caused by unstable sma could be ignored, as it was all hitting the enemy.


    Thirty seconds of fire was enough to stop the final cruiser, and it deployed every Klem it could to try to stop Max long enough for it to heal, but he had gotten position to hit its main weapon again, sending the internals of the ship to a fiery death and leaving the interceptors helpless to defend themselves and with nowhere to return to.


    His weapons tore through the remaining Klem while Max nned a way to deal with a dozen more of the Cruisers.


    Three of them at once hadn''t been bad since he could keep outside of the group and continually attack, but with higher density, the Interceptors could actually do their job and prevent his attacks from reaching the motherships, while therger vessels would be able to surround Max and leave him nowhere to go if he wasn''t careful.


    There was the option of doing like Nico and charging a Cruiser to gut it from the inside, but these ones were Klem vessels and unlikely to go down as easily as a Cruiser full of human sailors, who likely weren''t even fully armed when she arrived, since nobody expects a Mecha to actually charge and breach a Cruiser.


    The Cutters had orbitalnces and could be repurposed to attack the Klem fleet, but they weren''t nearly as maneuverable as Cleansing Light was, and they were sure to take heavy return fire after the first shot, so they would have to do the equivalent of a drive-by, firing and fleeing before retaliation coulde for them.


    That might actually be his best course of action. With the speed that the Klem had elerated to, there wasn''t a whole lot of time to prevent them fromunching their attacks, and killing the ships would only be of minimal benefit if they still managed tounch a full wave of pods at the.


    Max went through the battle logs as thest of the Klem in his region fell and analyzed the data they had gathered. The Cutters still seemed vital to the offensive, as the Narsians had erected powerful shields over their main units, preventing the Thunder Guns from reaching peak effectiveness, but with the shields up, the drones were of limited effectiveness.


    If he borrowed them for a while, he could knock out arge portion of the light Klem vessels without risking any lives. That seemed to be the best option since Terminus had been on such a long winning streak that he didn''t want to take extra risks now.


    [Terminus Drone Command, send the Orbital Fighters on an intercept path with the Klem force. Eliminate their escort vessels for Cleansing Light to engage the Cruisers.]

 Chapter 521 521 Drone Warfare

    With the order given, the drone fighters started to swarm up from the surface of the and toward the iing Klem ships, preventing their smaller escort bugs from advancing on the while Max hurried to get Cleansing Light into Position.


    If he did this right, he could destroy two vessels simultaneously, sting apart their sma storage before they could maneuver. The sudden destruction of two ships should be enough to introduce some hesitation and confusion in the Klem interceptors'' orders. Increasing the speed that the Drones would be able to kill them and reduce the threat to the.


    Any one of those Cruisers was as dangerous to the as an entire Klem tide, so they all had to be destroyed before they could deploy their deadly cargo, and Max was pretty sure he knew how to prevent that situation.


    He simply needed to pose a greater threat than the did, and that meant that he had to kill Klem faster than an entire Narsian invasion force had been anticipated to have killed them.


    No pressure.


    Max dropped Cleansing Light out of warp after a brief burst of faster-than-light travel to catch up to the fleet and came to a stop directly behind the Cruisers, unleashing two split orbitalnces at once and destroying the two vessels just as he had hoped.


    The Drone Fighters were everywhere among the front ranks of the Klem fleet, crushing the interceptors a dozen times faster than their own vessels were dropping.


    It wasn''t going to be nearly enough to eliminate all of the Drones unless he brought reinforcements, but that would reveal the position of Terminus and put their guests in danger, which was simply uneptable.


    Max watched as the ships closest to him turned so that their most vulnerable points were hidden from his weapons, but they weren''t his targets this time. Instead, Max hit the two cruisers closest to the, eliminating arge portion of the interceptors when therger vessels exploded.


    The action seemed to enrage the Klem, and for the first time, Max felt something akin to emotion from the fleet. Every ship turned to face him, ignoring the Drone Fighters, and every interceptor and other Klem outside the main ships began to charge at him.


    They fired ranged weapons at him, but only sporadically, trying to keep him in ce for the charge. The data from the first battle must have been assimted already, and they knew that he could deal with the flying spikes, so they were intent on tearing him apart directly.


    That worked for Max, as it saved a lot of Drone from destruction, and he could shoot through the intervening chaff when he got a targeting solution on one of the Cruisers again.


    Max split off a portion of his attention to ensure things were going well on the while he fired dispersed beams at the iing Klem and dodged thergest attacks, sending Cleansing Light flitting about in space like a deadly firefly.


    The Mecha Regiment was well on its way to taking its first positions, and the local human forces were proving to be verypetent, and had their own version of Mecha, an ancient one simr in styling to the modern versions the Cygnus Empire used to this day.<novelnext></novelnext>


    That solidified the assertion that they had been part of the Cygnus expansion but left the question of what they were doing on the far side of the Gxy from where the rest of the fleet ended up. It was intended to expand humanity through the Cygnus region, not popte other sectors of space.


    There was something off about the drones, though. They were missing something. They had his targeting data, so they could pick off targets as fast as they could shoot, but their formations were a bit off, and their coordination wascking.


    What they were missing was Nico''s trademark viciousness. She wasn''t in charge of their deployment this time, and the alternate Drone Commander wasn''t as aggressive and didn''t have a past lifetime of memories about how to organize an attack.


    Max realized that it was just him being spoiled by her strategic talents, but it really would make his life easier if Nico were running the Drones.


    He wouldn''t countermand their leader''s orders, though. They were on mission, and duplicate orders would only cause confusion among the pilots. Sometimes you just had to adapt to the strategies of those around you, and this was one of those times.


    So, instead of pulling back and letting aggressive drones charge forward, Max circled and pulled the smaller Klem back into the easy weapons range of the Orbital Fighters. They didn''t hesitate when they had the chance, and their firing rate was as good as ever, so Max circled again and brought another group to keep them fed with targets and moving to where he wanted them to be.


    The ships were adjusting position and course to get a good shot at Max, and finally, one of them made a miscalction, turning its back on him when it expected him to feed another group of interceptors to the drones.


    Instead, Max raced down the length of its hull and put an Orbital Lance into the main weapons array, destroying another Cruiser and leaving seven in the battle.


    They were no longer closing on the, focused fully on avoiding his attacks, and Max worked to buy the forces on the ground as much time as he could. All of the reports said that the Narsians were quickly being routed. He only had to hold them off that long, and the Fleet could join him up here and wipe out the Klem, assuming he couldn''t do it faster than that.


    The Klem ships weren''t holding back, though, and they wereunching hundreds of additional forces out of their side ports and, notably, one wave of pods toward the.


    ? [Drones, don''t let any of the pods reach the surface. Try not to disengage with the interceptors, but under no circumstances should those pods get past you.] Max ordered.


    [Copy that, Commander.] A cheerful voice that Max identified as one of the Innu responded, and the Drones began to move into apletely different attack formation.

 Chapter 522 522 Nico The Hunter

    While Max was busy in orbit, Nico was busy in the city below, clearing Narsians from the urban area with brutal efficiency.


    "You seem to have a personal grudge against these creatures." Huntress Khan, leader of the Hunters here, asked from inside the cockpit of her Suit, Dominus.


    "This is the species that managed to mangle my body so badly that I ended up as a Cyborg," Nico replied, sting apart a high-rise building to let the rubble drop on top of a Narsian patrol.


    "You seem to have made out quite well for yourself, even in your biomechanical body." The Huntress pointed out.


    "It''s the principle of the thing. They had me outnumbered two hundred to one. There was no need to be sore losers and mangle my body like that." Nicoined.


    "Most of those ones are still alive." The Huntress pointed out, meaning the ones under the rubble.


    "Not for long." Nicoughed, then unslung a weapon from her back and sent a burst of fusion fire into the rubble.


    With the loose ends tied up, both Super Heavy Mecha charged forward, using their des and close-range weapons to decimate the Narsian defenses.


    They were only a third of the way across the city, and already the reports said that the garrisons on the far side had begun to deploy in their direction, trying to stop the two rampaging Mecha from taking this strategic point from them.


    The Narsians were a prideful culture. Losing an entire city to two Mecha, not even a whole wing, was simply uneptable, and they were nning to deal with them using pure brute force.


    The problem was that the locals had known that there was a danger of attacks, and while they hid in the bunkers under the city, the buildings left empty up above were made of reinforced rockcrete and couldn''t be easily shot through or knocked over.


    That meant that Nico and Khan could hide between the buildings while they hunted the Narsians, stalking through the city like a pair of reapers, with drones circling overhead, keeping a proper count of the kills in theirpetition.


    The banter between the two might be friendly, but they weren''t going easy on each other. Nico casually fired her arm-mounted Disruptors at a patrol that Khan was about to ambush, stealing ten kills at once in response to the Huntress sending out a sound drone to draw away an entire patrol from Nico''s route, making her double back and waste valuable time looking for them.


    The guests aboard Terminus, who were familiar with the Hunters as a group, but who had rarely seen why they were given that moniker, were in awe of thepetition as much as they were the fierce battle in space.


    It was a two-person battle to show off their personal skills, and the contestants were incredibly efficient killing machines, especially when they could find arge group of targets for fighting against.


    When they had first attacked, the Narsians had made the mistake of thinking that numbers would help, but the flurry of des as Shattered Pride had charged them with all four armsunching brutal closebat attacks had changed their strategies to try to ambush the two and destroy them before they could find therger defense posts.


    "There it is, thest major Narsian base in the city. Shall we do opposite entry points again, or side by side?" Nico asked as they reached a barrier made of copsed buildings.


    "Side by side. Once we are finished here, there likely won''t be enough enemies left for the trailing challenger to catch up again." Khan suggested.


    "In that case, there is a saying from my homnd that is appropriate for this moment." Nicoughed.


    "Oh, and what might that be?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "YOUR SKULLS ARE MINE"


    Nico used her thrusters tounch over the wall and charge into the camp, with all four des swinging and every weapon firing at once. She even went as far as stomping on fleeing Narsians to up her kill count a little bit more.


    Khan was right beside her, saturating the area in Ion fire as she attacked and sneaked random kills out from under Nico''s des.


    When they reached the far side of the camp, nothing but the two Mecha was moving, and the ground was saturated with blood, with chunks of half-disintegrated or burned vehicles scattered all around.


    "So, are any of the skulls worth keeping?" Khan asked.


    "Probably not. We mangled them pretty badly." Nico shrugged, making the motion with her Mecha as well.


    "Well, it''s the thought that counts. I have already found a lovely new hammer to add to my collection." The Huntress agreed.


    They turned to survey the battlefield, and something caught Nico''s eye. A glowing energy halberd that she had kicked and impaled the wielder upon from the haft side.


    Not only was it a viable skull, but it was also an excellent weapon as well for fighting outside the Mecha.


    She jogged over and carefully used the lower arms of Shattered Pride to remove the body from the spear, leaving the head, and then tossed it into the t space token that she had mounted to her Mecha''s arm.


    "I was wrong. There was one good one left."


    "I think that they have fled the city. The drone feed isn''t picking up any more life signs aboveground." Khan sighed, realizing that theirpetition wasing to an end.


    "Well, I know that we agreed to twenty four hours, but since the city is clear and there is a Klem fleeting, perhaps we should call it for interference at this point? What do the observers say about our scores?" Nico asked.


    "They say that I am up by thirty-two Narsians." Huntress Khan replied proudly.


    "Bah, that bus you caught really was the difference, wasn''t it? Fine, I will take the zero one and one score for now, but I will even my numbers back up the next time we go hunting." Nico sighed.


    "Should I have the Mothership deal with the Klem, or are we letting whatever gets past your Commandernd here?" Huntress Khan asked.


    "We should likely eliminate them. We wanted to make allies with these locals since they''re in a good strategic position between two hostile forces. Not only can it be a defensive base, but it is also a good trantion point for arriving hunters to depart from to go explore the region." Nico suggested.


    "Agreed. We will let the humans do the politics, and we will eliminate the Klem before we cloak our vessel again."

 Chapter 523 523 Nico The Negotiator

    [Commander, the Hunters have agreed to use their mothership to help you eliminate the Klem while I work on a trade agreement with the local government down here.


    We have identified the bunker they are hiding in, and the Narsian threat in the region is entirely under control, with the expectation that they will be forced to retreat from the within the next few hours.


    Do I have your permission to pursue a standard trade agreement with this, including a provision for the Hunters to visit regrly as a staging point for their forays into the Narsian and Klem territories for sport?] Nico asked formally over the Mecha''s data link.


    [Go ahead, work out the deal that seems to be the best for everyone, and find out if there are other human-helds in the area. We might be way outside of what is considered human territory, but if there are more isted settlements out here, we should see if they want to join in the fold.] Max replied.


    With his permission secured, Nico proceeded to the bunker, where her data feed showed all of the government messages originating from. They were doing a pretty good job of hiding themselves, and she didn''t think that the Narsians had found theirir inside an abandoned mine, but hiding signals from Nico, especially while she was in Shattered Pride with its sensor suite of advancedmunication technology was nearly impossible.


    [Good morning, residents of whatever you call this in the middle of nowhere trapped between the Klem and the Narsians. I am Tarith Rage of the Terminus Trading Company, here on behalf of the Reavers.


    The Hunters, also known as the huge aliens with gold masks, told us that you could use some assistance, and I have brought my Mecha Regiment to your aid. We want to work out a trade agreement between our force and your if you would be willing, and we have a number of advanced technologies to offer.]


    Themunications channel that the local government was using went silent for a while before a terse message was sent back.


    [How do we know your demonic Mecha isn''t an alien assassin? There are no other humans in this region of space. If you were really human, how would you even know where we were?]


    Nico sighed and climbed out of her Mecha, moving to stand on a shoulder with her helmet off and stored in her t space.


    [I am outside my Mecha, look at external camera C28, and you can clearly see me. I can clean the dust off it if you prefer.]


    The channel went silent again for a while, and then a message was sent back with a different authorization code, ryed from a secondary bunker only a few kilometers away.


    [Remain where you are, and we will send an Emissary. Our history books tell stories of the Reavers and their widespread influence among thewlessnds. If you are who you say you are, we will negotiate.]


    After ten long minutes of sitting on the Mecha''s shoulder, waiting for something to happen, a transport vehicle apanied by two dozen light Mecha came up out of the mine shaft and surrounded Shattered Pride.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Ah, wee, wee. It is so good of you to speak with us on such short notice. As I''m sure you''re aware, the Narsians on the have nearly been dealt with. But as you might not know, the Hunters will be departing after that since the only reason they came here at all was to fight the giants. Neither they nor the Reavers intend to stay here long, but we have a rapid transport technology that will allow us to return here regrly with supplies, should you need them." Nico greeted the armored vehicles.


    Nothing was broadcast out of the vehicles. They simply sat there for a while, while Nico scanned the interior to make sure they weren''t drones.


    There was a special forces squad in the armored vehicle, and the Mecha were all piloted, but she didn''t see a negotiator at first.


    The soldiers rushed from the vehicle and spread out, weapons trained on Nico, and were followed by their leader, who she assumed to be the negotiator sent by the government. While they formed up their ranks, she waited, not saying anything, and gave them the opportunity to make the next move.


    "Are the Reavers so confident in themselves that they would send a single Mecha to deal with an unknown government force?" The leader of the soldiers asked.


    "A single Super Heavy Mecha, with the weapons capacity to copse the entire mine shaft that we are standing over and turn the ferrocrete bunker below it to rubble with a single shot." Nico rified.


    "And yet you exited the Mecha."


    Nico smiled and shrugged. "That doesn''t change its effectiveness. I am the negotiator for the Reavers and Second in Command of the Terminus Trading Company. By protocol, it is my duty to negotiate on our behalf while the Commander is busy dealing with the Klem fleet in the space above the."


    "If that is the case, please wait while we prepare a meeting spot for today''s conversation."


    It was only a few more minutes, and they had arge pavilion set up, and a shield raised over the area in case of outside interference or Narsian sneak attacks, so Nico climbed down and set Shattered Pride to implement the automated defense protocols that she had programmed into it.


    If she were attacked and actually injured, it would kill everyone. If the shield were breached by force, it would kill all the attackers using the automated movements andbat skills that she had programmed.


    If that was too much to ask, she could control it manually from this distance and return in an instant with the gravity control of the Archangel Exoskeleton that she had attached to her Augmentic Armor for today''s festivities, recing the usual Tech Adept Harness, which was sitting on the bed in her Mecha.

 Chapter 524 524 Not Sure They Believe

    "Please follow us to the pavilion. Do you have any weapons on your person?" A member of the Special Forces team asked.


    "Of course I do. It''s built into my armor. I rmend that your negotiator keeps a pistol on themselves as well. It is consideredmon courtesy among the Reavers to not leave yourself defenseless in case the negotiations are interrupted." Nico exined.


    "What a strange tradition. We will inform the negotiator." The mechanical voice responded.


    Inside the cloth-covered building, the team took up ces behind the negotiator, who had his rifle slung over the back of his chair, and Nico could see he still had abat knife holstered in the chest carrier on his armor.


    She took afortable seat across from him and ced a data tablet on the table between them.


    "I will assume that since your dialect is still quite close to Human Standard that you can read thenguage? If not, I can work on a trantion for you." Nico greeted him.


    "What is this? You have drawn up terms of surrender for us already?" The man asked, seeming startled.


    "Why would you surrender? We''re on the same team. These are the standard conditions of every orary cluster wishing to join the Reavers Trade Group. They detail the trade of technology, terms of nonaggression toward other members, and an assistance obligation should a member neighbor be attacked, which might not actually apply to you.


    The details are, of course, open to negotiation, and I will have a supply shuttlee with demonstration models of the basic technologies that we are offering all members to increase their quality of life.


    Many of your cities took significant damage fighting the Narsians, and this is the perfect opportunity to rebuild in a more efficient way, with more luxuries."


    The negotiator picked up the tablet and looked through the terms, then used the data transfer function to send it down to the facility below. He clearly knew nothing about data security, as any trojan or other backdoor virus that Nico had left on the tablet would have infected their facility when he sent the message, but it was possible that he was simply that confident in their security and was testing her to see if they actually tried to hack the bunker.


    A shuttlended outside the shield a few minutester, and both of them looked out the open p to verify its identity.


    "That''s one of mine. It should have the Replicator and a small-scale version of the Materials Printer on board. I will have them open the bay doors. Please send someone to remove the two items from the cargo hold and bring them here. They''re perfectly safe, I assure you, and I will be right next to you." Nico informed them.


    The negotiator looked tense but nodded, and the items were brought in and ced on the floor to Nico''s right.


    "Now that the replicator is here, we can start with the Reaver standard greetings. Do you perhaps partake in alcohol, negotiator? Reavers are quite fond of the Rum we make, and the Replicator turns out a very decent facsimile of the home-brewed version."


    She couldn''t tell through his helmet, but the man seemed to smile as he nodded.


    "Indeed we do. Please, do demonstrate this technology that you are so proud of."


    "Marvelous. Can someone grab us one of the broken tree branches outside or even arge bundle of grass? The replicator needs biomass to function, of equivalent weight to the item being produced."


    A soldier ducked his head out the door and caught a bundle that was tossed to him from apatriot in one of the Light Mecha. It appeared to be some sort of animal dropping, but it was dried and solid.


    "Close enough. ce it beside the replicator, next to thebel marked feed." She instructed.


    The soldier looked confused but set it down as instructed while Nico stood to tap a set of buttons on the touchscreen.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "There we go, a bottle of Rum, two sses, and a tter of snacks. That biomass was denser than it looked."


    The snacks were a simple thing, cheese, and crackers, as well as a few slices of roast meat.


    "I didn''t know what you liked, so I bought some of everything."


    With her piece said, Nico poured two sses of Rum, sipped half of hers down, then stacked a bit of cheese on top of a cracker and popped it into her mouth.


    "Man, I love this cheese. No matter how many negotiations I go to, the cheese and crackers never get old." She sighed.


    The negotiator was visibly sweating when he took his helmet off and ced it on the table, but he drank the Rum, coughed, and went for the cheese and crackers. Nico chuckled at his caution and took a bit of the sliced meat before settling back into her seat.


    "Well, does it suit the local taste? Reaver Rum is well known throughout human space as one of the finest of liquors avable."


    "Certainly finer than the watered down mead that a junior officer like myself can afford." The negotiator agreed.


    "If your leadership chooses to purchase arge number of these replicators, there will be no need for that, only for rationing by energy usage, should your power supply prove limited. It all takes the same amount of work to rbine, so the weight and volume is the real difference, not the quality.


    If you should so choose, we also have a Terraforming Drone avable for purchase that could rebuild entire cities for you in a rapid time span. Do you have Materials Printer technology on this already?" Nico asked.


    "We do, left over from the Colony ship and basic terraforming devices, though they''re no longer capable of fully reworking the environment. Mostly we do our construction traditionally at this point, as the iscking some of the materials needed to repair the Materials Printers that we came with.


    "This one can solve that. It has basic rbining technology and a wide variety of designs that are no longer under patent protection, so the parts for your existing printers might be among the ns. Do you have the model numbers and makers?"


    The negotiator finished the ss of Rum and wrote a slip of paper with a string of information on it. "That is the part we need and the original manufacturer''s code for it."


    Nico searched her stored data for it and found the part rtively quickly. She had made one in her room as a child. The technology was extremely rudimentary, barely worthy of being called a materials printer, but it was still in the files that they had transferred to the new device, with the expectation that many of the Mercenary groups might be working with simrly outdated technology.


    "I need arge bit of metal. The type doesn''t matter too much. At least twenty kilos." Nico informed the door guard, who hurried toply now that he had seen the replicator in action.


    He returned with a lump of iron ore from the entrance of the mine, and Nico fed it to the Materials Printer, along with some scraps of more precious metals from her storage, prepared for demonstration purposes.


    "You still need the basic materials for this one, but it can substitute many of them for easier-to-find versions. I only added a bit of copper, tin, and aluminum to the pile for this one. I believe the has them all in rtive abundance."


    She pressed start to begin the process, and secondster, the recement part wasplete.


    "Feel free to send someone to verify its function, but that''s the part you specified." She informed the negotiator with her very best smile.

 Chapter 525 525 Orders From Below

    "The technology that you have shown us so far is truly impressive, and it would save our people a lot of headaches in the future, especially with the creation of obsolete parts, plus your terms look good, especially the parts about not price gouging due to our remote location, but as I am sure you understand, I must wait for orders toe down from above before I can make any decision." The Negotiator informed Nico as they sat across the table from each other.


    "Are your people a democracy? If it''s going to take an extended negotiation, I can create lunch for everyone from the Replicator, and we can enjoy ourselves while the rest of the forces clean up the mess on the." Nico suggested.


    "That sounds much better than going back in the bunker to wait for them to give us the go-ahead to bring you to the elected leaders. I hate to admit it, but even for us government officials, the bunker food is absolutely horrendous." The negotiator sighed.


    "Then feel free to pick something. Just have the guards ce some sort of nt life next to the feed side and select what you want from the options. I don''t know how many of the menu options you will actually know, but there are pictures, so feel free to just pick what you like.


    If you''re feeling particrly hardcore, there are options for the Kepler standard ration packs avable as well."


    That made the guards chuckle. The replicator that was being pushed as an alternative to shelf-stable rations could also make shelf-stable rations.


    It made sense in a way since the material to feed it wasn''t always longsting, but the idea of making more ration packs at this point, after being in the bunker since the battles started, seemed like the worst possible oue.


    "Let''s try this one. I am almost certain you cannot go wrong with a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup." The guard who brought in the log they were going to use as fuel suggested, tapping at the screen.


    "Seriously, with all of the food options of an advanced culture at your fingertips, you choose soup and a sandwich?" The negotiator asked.


    "Hey, you can tell a lot about a culture by how well they do the simple things." The guard defended himself.


    "Oh, what philosophy book did thate from?"


    Nico smirked at the exchange and brought the food to the table so that the next entree could be produced.


    "I am about ny percent sure that he just made that up because he wanted tomato soup. Go ahead and eat. I think the Negotiator is going to be a few minutes with the options. There are hundreds of avable menu items."


    One after another, the guards in the room made themselves lunch, with the Negotiator checking menu items in between every order until finally, he settled on a shepherd''s pie and a pitcher of mango juice.


    "I have no idea what a mango is, but it looks like the orange fruits we grow here." He exined as he poured himself a ss.


    "While it is roughly the same color, Mangoes and oranges aren''t the same fruit. It''s sweet and pulpy though, so it should do well enough for your purposes." Nico exined.


    After the first sip, his eyes opened in surprise, and he poured more sses for the others.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "You have to try this strange juice. I''ve never tasted anything like it, but I think it would go particrly well with our local spiced stew."


    The guards gave the juice a taste, looking impressed, so Nico got up and tapped in an order for mutton curry and brought the dish out to the table.


    "Try this spiced stew. I think you might like it. Even if you don''t, you can tell the others that you got to try delicacies from the other side of the Gxy." she suggested.


    "Oh, this is good. Theary Governor is going to be so mad when he finds out that we got to enjoy a banquet while we waited for them to make a decision."


    Two hourster, the response finally came up from the bunker where the senior government officials were hiding. They agreed in principle to the trade agreement but had a number of conditions that they wanted to be fulfilled.


    A few of them were no big deal, only a small number of Materials Printers to help rebuild their industry and some materials that Terminus could produce with their more advanced technology, but thest one was simply oundish.


    "They want fifty thousand human females to help diversify the''s gic base? I can offer you fifty thousand embryos with different gics." Nico suggested. That could easily be done with their replicators if you just ignored the moral implications of gically engineering humans.


    The message was sent below, and a few minutester, a modified response was sent back up. They were willing to ept males as well, as long as at least half were females between fifteen and twenty years old.


    "I am starting to suspect that they do not understand the nature of the Reavers. We don''t deal in human trafficking, and we don''t deal with vers." Nico told the Negotiator with a frown.


    He took a device from his pocket and turned it on, then whispered to her. "Let me talk to them. I''m not sure what this is all about. There are millions of family lines on the. We aren''t short of gic diversity."


    He turned the device off again and put it back in his pocket, then sent a string of messages back and forth with hismanders.


    Finally, he handed Nico a tablet with a new set of terms on it.


    [Theary Governor''s Office demands the immediate surrender of the Terminus Trading Company and the provision of all avable reconstruction materials along with the rightfully due tribute of harem candidates earmarked for the Cab Members.]


    The Negotiator sighed and shook his head at the idiocy of the message, even as themunicators on all of the guards beeped, and they raised their guns toward Nico while the sound of footsteps sounded outside as the Mecha attempted to seize Shattered Pride.


    Nico looked at the Negotiator with pity. "I will give you onest warning. I really wouldn''t do that if I were you. Making enemies of everyone you meet is a particrly bad idea, especially after they agreed to save your free of charge."


    "I don''t have the authority to countermand their orders. I am sorry."

 Chapter 526 526 What A Mess

    Both Max and the Hunter mothership received an update from Nico at the same time, detailing the way that the negotiations had broken down and the demand of theary governor and his cab.


    They had already dealt with the Klem fleet, leaving none of them alive to return and give the insects an updated set of battle data for dealing with the Mecha armies, so they couldn''t just let the Klem deal with the issue, and the Narsians were in full retreat, fleeing the as fast as they had arrived.


    [Nico, I don''t think we made contact with theary Governor. That was obviously an imposter. Why don''t you deal with them and see if you can find thepletely reasonable real Governor?] Max ordered.


    "That''s a strange way to say that you want her to kill everyone." Huntress Khan told Max over a video link.


    "If I don''t directly tell her to kill theary leadership, it would be a tragic ident if he turned out to be the real one. Certainly, the Alliance can''t get upset at us for the casualties incurred during a battle against hostile aliens. Besides, she had probably already killed them all for insulting her and scratching her Mecha before she even contacted us." Max replied.


    "I see. You and your little friend have a lot inmon. You just view her first resort as yourst resort. Is that what the humans mean by a Partner should bring bnce to your rtionship?" The Huntress asked.


    "Probably not, but I suppose in a way it is, though."


    The Huntressughed and called all her troops up to the ship. If the locals weren''t willing to make a proper deal, they could only be two things. Enemies or Prey. Until that was decided, they wouldn''t get any more help from the Hunters.


    Back down on the surface, Nico was cleaning blood off of her hand with the tablecloth in the pavilion while looking down at the negotiator cowering in the corner.


    "Now, where were we? Ah yes. I have determined that the signal you were receiving wasn''ting from the realary Governor.


    All five of our Cutters were sent to the location of their safety bunker and have confirmed that there is currently nothing but a pool of molten rock at that location. They must have suffered a tragic ident in theter stages of the battle.


    Now, might you be able to tell me if there might be a backup chain ofmand here on the? Or should wee backter after things have settled down a little bit and see if the real leader is more reasonable?"


    "What exactly are you? That''s not human." The man stammered, looking around at the bits of mangled limbs and pools of gore spread around the area.


    "I thought you already knew I was a Cyborg? I have a human brain in here, but the body is entirely cybeic. Don''t you have that technology as well? I am sure I saw cybeics on some of the soldiers'' bodies." She asked.


    He nodded slowly, gathered himself together, and got to his feet.


    "Will I be executed as well?"


    "I don''t see any reason for that. The others didn''t need to die either. They just needed to be smarter. The automated system only targeted those who were actively hostile, so if they had simply chosen not to fire on Shattered Pride or me, they would have been ignored."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Nico herself hadn''t fired a single shot. Once the battle began, the automated scripts she had programmed into her Mecha had activated and killed everyone except the Negotiator, who had wisely hidden under the table.


    "Seriously? Was that an automated response? Never mind, I will try to contact someone, anyone, and make sense of what is going on. Theary Governor has always been drunk with power but demanding a harem as part of negotiations doesn''t seem like him."


    Try as he might, the Negotiator couldn''t raise anyone in the upper levels of Command, so he tried the ones in the bunker below him.


    Protocols were followed, the deaths of the senior officials were verified, and a final decision was made about the chain ofmand.


    "The most senior person on the who can be verified to be alive is Lady De Leon. She is in the bunker below us right now, and I have requested her presence here for the negotiations."


    Lady De Leon turned out to be a young woman in an army Corporal''s uniform with a radio operator''s badge on her arm.


    "Lead Negotiator Ponce, how might I help you?" She asked from the elevator to the bunker, unwilling to step out into the body-littered field.


    "Lady De Leon, we have confirmed the deaths of all of your uncles, cousins, and brothers, as well as your older Sister, during the battle. You are the senior member of theary Governor''s family currently alive. What are your orders?" He asked.


    Nico began chucking bodies out the back side of the pavilion and then turned on the Materials Printer and Replicator, creating a new table, a rug to cover the floor, and a feast to cover the recement for the tablecloth she had cleaned the sttered blood from the guards off herself with.


    "Lady Governor, pleasee with me and out of this mess. I can brief you on what the Reavers'' Trade Group can currently offer your, and you can deal with theary politics part either with our help or on your ownter." Nico informed her.


    The radio operator was too shocked to say no, and let Nico lead her to the table and push her down into a seat beside the Negotiator.


    "Now, let me start this again. I am Tarith Rage of the Terminus Trading Company, representing the Reavers and the Trade Group they are forming. These are the standard terms of the membership we are willing to offer your. This time I will be extra clear: We do not traffic in humans, nor do we condone very in any form."


    The girl gave her a shy smile and looked over the trade terms.


    "Could we perhaps ask for some additional terms? After the battle, we will need help rebuilding, as well as some additional security forces, until such time as a new, loyalary Force can be established. The armies are loyal to the Governor''s family, but it has been a Patrilineal Session for our entire history, and I am not currently married."


    "I suppose that is possible. Who would be the ranking male officer on the right now? If they are on your side, it should help you establish your right to Govern."


    Lady De Leon looked over at Negotiator Ponce with a flush to her cheeks, and Nico smiled inwardly. What an excellent development.

 Chapter 527 527 New Order, Better Than The Old Order

    "Him, really? Well, that''s marvelous. I think you can make an excellent team, assuming you can get your forces back under control and keep order.


    We have some construction technology, but most of your capital city survived the battle. I broke a few city blocks worth of it, but most of it is still there, and the bunkers weren''t damaged during the fighting." Nico announced, looking between the two locals.


    "Are you telling us to get married and take over the?" The Negotiator asked.


    "As I said, we don''t deal in human trafficking, but if she doesn''t object, it will make good political sense for the two most powerful survivors of the battle to take over as a beacon of hope for the people.


    You can work a deal with us for Materials Printers and Replicators and rebuild your cities in exchange for whatever your local specialty is. It doesn''t matter what the product your world is famous for happens to be. There is almost always a market for it somewhere."


    "Um, quilts. Our local culture in the Captial is best known for its decorative nkets and the intricate stitched artwork on them." The young Lady informed her, showing a series of pictures from her phone screen.


    "Not bad at all. Everyone needs a good nket. Now, we can work on the details, and I will make sure that you get the payment in advance so that you can help rebuild the cities that the Narsians destroyed.


    But first, I rmend that you issue a press release, letting everyone know that you are alive and in charge, as well as making ns to get everything back to better than normal.


    I have a lot of experience with changes inary governance, and stability is key. Be bold and confident, tell them how it is going to be, and they will follow just to keep their lives from totally spiraling out of control.


    Trust Me. It will be fine." Nico dered.


    A quick announcement was prepared, dering that theary Governor''s immediate family had suffered a tragic ident during the battle and that the former Governor''s Niece would be taking over his position with the aid and assistance of her new Fiance, the Capital City''s Mayor.


    That bit shocked Nico, she thought he was just a middle manager, but it seemed that he simplycked a direct line to the nepotism train that had actually been running the behind the scenes.


    Being mayor of the Capital meant that he should know, or at least know about, everyone who mattered, and everymon person in the region would know him, a huge advantage when moving up in the world of politics.


    In orbit, Max and the Huntress watched the announcemente out, as well as the drone feeds from the meetings, which had been excluded from the video that was sent back to Terminus in the name of political secrets.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Well, that isn''t what I expected her toe up with. I thought for sure that this deal had fallen through." Huntress Khan sighed. It was the first full of Mecha on which they would have had full permission to hunt if there were no deal.


    "There is still time for the deal to fall through again, but I must say that five synchronous Orbital Strikes sent a rather poignant message to the former Governor and his cronies," Max replied.


    "If any of them were still alive to learn the lesson, that is. From what my sensors indicated, their entire governmentmand structure was in that bunker, and all that was left in the secondary bunker where the meeting was being held were a bunch of militarymunications officers to release propaganda during the battle to keep morale up and pass vital messages."


    Max looked over the data again. Huntress Khan had a point. The Mayor really was the highest-ranked politician alive because every other Mayor and every political position above him had been in one bunker. A bunker that Nico had hit with five sessive Orbital Lances, just to be sure that nothing survived.


    "Well, now that the fighting is done, what should we do? I don''t really feel like going down to join the negotiations, so why don''t we return to Terminus for a few drinks and a round in the Virtual Reality simtors?" Max suggested.


    "That''s a fine idea. I am sure your guests won''t mind a few Hunters on board as long as my girls don''t drink too much. Lead the way, Commander Keres."


    On the surface, Nico intercepted themunication between the two Command Mecha and frowned at hermunicator. They were leaving her here on the surface to deal with politics while they went home to y video games and drink.


    Even when she managed to finally find some action, she still got the short end of the stick.


    Nico ordered the Cargo shuttle to wait here for her since its hold was just barely big enough to fit Shattered Pride inside when it was time to leave and then settled in to wait for the Military leaders to show up for the change of leadership meeting and official briefing on the new trade agreement that they had entered into.


    None of them would know that the previous Governor had nearly gotten the annihted for sport, but just to be sure it didn''t leak out, Negotiator Ponce decided to make it clear to Nico before anyone else was here to listen in on them.


    "If anyone asks, the Narsians bombed the bunker that the leadership was in, and this is the first round of trade talks. I will make sure that nobody challenges the new Governess, so please tell your Mecha not to kill everyone if things get heated for a few minutes.


    They should eventually listen to me since I do outrank all of them, both as a politician and as a Military Officer, but they might be a bit resistant if they have thoughts of seizing power for themselves."

 Chapter 528 528 Gaining Approval

    "You have a point, Mayor. Or is it Negotiator? Maybe I should call you Governor Elect instead? What is your highest official position?" Nico asked.


    "Negotiator on behalf of the Governor''s Office is my highest position and one of the highest on the before the invasion. I was in charge of getting all the Mayors and regional leaders on board with the ns that theary Governor''s Office made since the lower-ranked members didn''t have clearance to even know who the members of the Cab were." Ponce exined.


    "Interesting. I won''t interfere so that nobody thinks that there is an Alien army forcing you to do their bidding or take over the. In fact, I will bring out a drone so I can record the footage of the meeting in case you need to broadcast it. But first, we need to make a proper impression." Nico agreed.


    She ordered the printer in Shattered Pride to make a tiara of gold and precious gems, along with a fur-trimmed cloak to go over the Governess''s military outfit and had a Camera Drone bring the lot of it over, struggling with the weight and its own tiny size.


    The small camera drone from Shattered Pride was a disc barelyrger than her palm, which flew straight to the Governess, who recovered the items that had been draped over the top of it before the Drone moved to hover above and behind Nico''s head so that she would be at the bottom of the feed the entire time and not out of view.


    The fewer questions that could be asked about the situation, the better, and Nico began her performance as soon as the drone was in ce and the very regal-looking outfit was on the Governess.


    "As I was saying, these foods and beverages are all made by the Replicators that Terminus Trading Company is offering you at a discount as new members of the trade group, so please, do enjoy," Nico announced, looking up at the camera above her head.


    "Of course. It would be my pleasure." The Negotiator chuckled, ting up a lunch for the second time in an hour and cing it in front of the new Governess before picking another set for himself.


    She looked at the food selections dubiously, so Nico exined. "At the top is a shepherd''s pie serving, next to a portion of Spiced Mutton Stew, a vegetable medley, and a buttermilk biscuit. On the side are a bowl of Tomato Cream soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, a favorite of the members of the Terminus Trading Company.


    The beverages are Reaver Rum, which I will warn you is a rather potent alcohol, and Mango juice, which your Fiance, the Lead Negotiator, has chosen himself for you to enjoy."


    The new Governess fell quickly into the role, having been raised in an environment ofplete noble decorum before taking an internship as a Communications officer so that her senior family members didn''t have to speak to amoner every time they contacted the outside world.


    She ate politely and quietly while Nico picked out a selection of desserts and ced them on the table, choosing some for herself and then looking out the ps of the pavilion.


    "That should be your guards escorting the other guests in. Should I ask them to wait until you are finished, Governess?" Nico asked.


    "No, it wouldn''t do to keep them waiting in this situation. Guards, please allow the guests to enter." She replied, sitting primly with her hands folded in herp while a half dozen military officers entered the room and began to look around in confusion.<novelnext></novelnext>


    There was obviously a very bloody battle outside, but the pavilion wasn''t damaged, and the floor was covered in a pristine rug of extreme quality and a design that they had never seen before. On top of that, they had received a briefing on what the Trading Company was offering, so they were curious about the devices sitting along one wall and the array of food on the table.


    "If we may, I will make another table for our guests, and we can begin the meeting." The Negotiator asked the young Governess, who nodded politely and gestured for a guard to move to the Materials Printer.


    The man looked shocked when a Table and bench seats suddenly appeared, not realizing that the printer was actually using the bodies stacked on the other side of the tent wall as materials, but he set it up right away and had the guests take a seat facing the Governess.


    Nico nodded to the Replicator, and the guard stood by to collect a tter of snacks and drinks as they came out of the machine, impressing all the new guests with the technology and making for a great video feed for the poption of the.


    Fine food and beverages appearing out of nowhere at the touch of a button were always impressive the first time you saw the process.


    "First, I will ask the obvious question. As the highest-ranked living member of theary Governor''s lineage and the bride of the Head Negotiator, who is also the Capital City''s Mayor, do any of you have an objection to me taking over as Governess?" Lady De Leon asked politely as the officers stared at the food disyed in front of them.


    "Are there really no older men left alive? How did that happen?" One of the soldiers asked.


    "The Narsians located and bombed the Royal Command Bunker, unfortunately eliminating all of the direct descendants of the line. There are still some children left, who were hidden with their nannies in the city, but they are much further down the session than Lady De Leon." The Negotiator informed them.


    "Well, it was no real secret that she fancied you, so I have no objections to the Marriage, but do you have any direct link to the Governor''s family, Negotiator Ponce?" Another officer asked.


    "Only very distantly. Nine generations ago, my mother''s side came from the youngest sister of the Elected Governor at that time." Negotiator Ponce replied.


    "Well, at least you''re still part of the lineage, so we don''t have to amend anyws to allow the wedding since it would make you Governor Consort." The officer agreed.


    This was sounding a lot like a King and Queen sort of thing more than a Governorship, but it wouldn''t be the first they had encountered where the "Elected" leader must be chosen from a single family by the family members themselves. All she had to do now was wait and watch.

 Chapter 529 529 One Little Match

    While Nico was busy ying politician with Lady De Leon and the government bureaucrats on the''s surface, Max had a better n to spend his day.


    "Huntress Khan, I believe you recall the Canis locals? A number of them who were more interested in technology chose toe aboard Terminus for an extended period of time as technical employees. I thought that since we have some downtime while the issues are sorted out, we could spend some time in thebat simtors.


    I have a lovely setup with the Klem as adversaries. We can face them on foot and invite somebat-loving friends to join us." Max suggested.


    "Now that''s the right way to spend a day off. I will gather some of my people who need the practice, and we can see how good these simtors of yours are. I have heard that the Human technology is somewhat different than that of the Alliance."


    Max led the way to the virtual reality rooms and sent a message to the Canis to meet them there if they wanted to run a simtion with the leader of the Hunters and some of her friends.


    There were only ten of them on the ship, so even if they all showed up, there wouldn''t be too many for a standard patrol unless the Huntress brought a lot of people with her.


    The simtion was optimized for twenty-five infantry with all of Terminus'' new goodies, including augmentic armor, so the Hunters should enjoy the experience, even if it wasn''t actualbat.


    Huntress Khan showed up with five of her people, and six of the Canis came while the others excused themselves to continue an experiment they were doing with the Innu, who were getting bored in idle mode since Nico was on the surface and not aboard the ship to rubber stamp all their ideas.


    "Huntress, it''s an honor to meet you. My Aunt Rill spoke very highly of you." A Canis boy named Toby greeted the Hunters as he led the group into the room.


    "Oh, you must be the one she said was more like the Innu, obsessed with new technology. It will be a pleasure to see how the Canis do when they''re not full-time fighters." Huntress Khan replied with a polite smile.


    That was more polite than Max had expected, so he didn''t say anything about her abrupt nature and decided to simply introduce the scenario instead of going through any formalities.


    "This one is a simple introduction since not all of you are familiar with Terminus Trading Company''s Infantry Technology. The pod will adjust your virtual avatar to the readings it takes of your actual body, so your physical skills should be very close to urate inside the simtion.


    The goal of the mission is to survive for two hours under the Klem army''s assault. Points are awarded for every kill, and points are deducted for every ally''s death, triple if they were in your line of sight when they took the fatal hit.


    There is no map to learn, the Klem wille to us, and we can hold the position where we start, or we can pick a spot we think might be more advantageous. As our guest, Huntress Khan will get the lead in this mission.


    If everyone understands the basics, we can enter."<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Hunters smiled and jogged over to the pods, awkwardly climbing into the few oversized units that were avable forrger species. The process was much like getting into a personal transport with a low roof. Not hard, but it took a bit of practice to do smoothly.


    The scenario booted up, and the Hunters found themselves in the middle of an infantry camp, d in Augmentic Armor made by the humans instead of their own version.


    The first thing they did was test the assistance they got from the suits ande to the conclusion that the humans were still a few technology generations behind anything that could be calledparable to what they used.


    It was good enough for them to fight in, though, and they were looking forward to seeing how this very realistic game worked.


    The Canis took a little longer to adjust since they had never fought the Klem or used any of the infantry gear before. They had to test everything before the Klem arrived, short of wasting ammunition firing at nothing.


    They figured it all out quickly enough since the targeting disy was intended to be intuitive, and the Ion Rifles were simr to weapons they had used before.


    "Iing at fifteen hundred meters from the south." Huntress Khan dered, pointing to the spot she detected the threat.


    "Canis, take a knee for more stable firing positions. Hunters switch to heavy weapons, while Commander Max can join me at the front to prevent the Klem from breaching our lines." Khan decided.


    Normally nobody fought the Klem hand to hand, you just shot them all down as fast as they appeared, but that wasn''t the Hunters style, and Khan would be expecting them to make it to the lines eventually.


    The scenario was also meant for twice as many soldiers as they had brought, so it was going to be a tough fight from the start, no matter how they deployed.


    The first wave was entirely Klem warriors with no ranged weapons. Mostly it was a targeting test, requiring you to be efficient with your shots, so you didn''t burn too much ammunition or let them get too close with missed shots.


    "Let them approach to a distance of five hundred meters before opening fire. The lethality of these weapons reaches its peak at three hundred meters, and I expect them all to be dead before two hundred meters from our position." Khan ordered.


    She had high expectations for her troops, as there were a lot of Kleming, but Max shouldered his Ion Rifle and waited for them to approach while he shared his targeting data with the rest of the team.

 Chapter 530 530 Pew Pew

    When the Klem reached the designated mark, the air began to sizzle with energy weapon fire. The rest of the Hunters had taken out their sma Cannons and were targeting the tightest packed groups while Max and Khan shot down the closest targets, and the Canis hit everything they could.


    There were so many targets in this wave that they could hardly miss, but with Max''s targeting solutions, they were also mostly hitting vital spots and dropping Klem warriors with most of their shots.


    "Is this data part of your Armor?" Khan asked as she fired away at a Warrior who had almost made it to the two-hundred-meter mark.


    "The basic targeting reticule is part of the armor. The additional hitboxes are a result of my own AI-enhanced Functions. You can turn off the data in your helmet if it is distracting." Max replied.


    "No, they''re rather helpful. We have a simr function in our armor, and I had not expected to see such advanced warfare technology among the humans." Khan exined.


    "I am d you approve. I can extend it to our entire Regiment and incorporate data from all our drones and satellites to get the additional targeting solutions when I am in battle, so it saves a lot of lives for us." Maxughed as he failed to notice she had changed targets, and they both sted the same target.


    None of the Klem made it to the mark that Huntress Khan had set, which seemed to improve her already good mood, and even the men on the Canis team were no longer getting dubious looks from the other hunters.


    "North Side and East. Split teams, three Canis, three hunters per side. I will take East. Max can take North. Same firing assignments."


    This wave had a few Shredders among the Warriors and a hidden group of Klem Drones, who were low enough to the ground that they were almost at the defenders position when they first came into sight.


    "Watch for the little ones. They don''t look like much, but those mandibles are deadly." Max warned the others and then kicked one who had gotten all the way to their position up into the air so he could shoot it more easily.


    The Canis stopped shooting into the distance and focused on the closest threats, not able to focus them down quite as quickly now that they had to fight on two fronts at the same time. That was why having more bodies made life easier. A dozen simply didn''t cover enough ground.


    They managed to get through the wave without injuries, and only sporadic fire into the distance to clean up the stragglers was necessary as they regrouped.


    "What happens if we drag out the fight?" Khan asked.


    "The deaths of the Klem don''t change the timing of the subsequent waves, but they can change the course of the other waves. The scenario has them moving past our camp, so they will naturallye into range."


    The Huntress thought about that for a moment and then pointed to a spot on their west.


    "I suggest we move there. It has good firing lines, but more importantly, the cliffs will make it hard for the Klem to approach us from all sides once they realize there is a dangerous opponent here."


    The whole team began to move, picking a new spot next to a coulee, where the river had dug a sharp cliff on three sides as it wandered through the area. Now, only the north would have an easy time getting to them, while east and west would be naturally diverted to the north side unless they wanted to charge up the hill for some unknown reason.


    It was one of the better defensive points in the area. Max knew it was, as he had reprogrammed all the maps himself so that Nico and the others could have at least a few surprises when they yed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Letting them get toofortable with the terrain would make themcent during actual battles, so he had set the maps to randomize and had introduced some automatically created terrain sets so that there were genuinely new features every so often, even in a familiar scenario.


    They settled into position just before the next group of Klem detected them and diverted toward their new position, circling from the East to the North toe at them without having to cross the river valley, as Khan had intended.


    "Moreing from the south." One of the Hunters announced, sending a sma bolt that way to indicate the location.


    They would have toe up the hill, but there were at least fiverger Klem in that group, and one of them had a ranged weapon adaptation. It was firing spikes at the hill with lousy uracy but in high enough quantities that everyone had to duck out of the direct line of fire or risk being hit.


    "Now, this is more like it. Join me in the South while everyone else takes the rest." Khan told Max with a smile.


    "Got it."


    Max switched to the sma Cannon to deal with therger Klem and the weight of numbers, prioritizing maximum kills while leaving the scattered remnants to approach them as they pleased.


    Using that method, Max and Khan manage to kill all of therge Klem and thin out the Warriors to a trickle, where they would only rarely have to fight more than one or two at a time near the ridgeline.


    Max knew that the Huntress was eager to get into closebat and test herself against the Klem without her Hunter Suit, so Max kept up with the group clearance instead of focusing on the closest targets.


    When the first of the Warriors began to climb the ridge, Max could sense the change in Khan''s thoughts, getting excited before she charged down the hill at it, chopping the spike-limbed insect that was only a bitrger than she was, standing just over three meters tall, apart in seconds and turning her des on the next one in line.


    Max sighed and followed her down the hill, using a kick to split a Klem Warrior''s chest apart as he caught its upper limbs in his hands before he threw it away and finished it off with a pistol shot.


    "I am impressed. You''re not bad." Khanughed, all thoughts of tactics forgotten until the Klem were cleared from the immediate area.


    That was basically how their entire two-hour mission went. The group on the hill desperately fought to keep the Klem from overrunning them, while Max and Khan fought in the river, only retreating between groups so that they could see and target the Klem from maximum range.


    A grand time was had by all, and they didn''t lose a single soldier, despite only having half the usual numbers. The reduced numbers also increased their individual kill counts, shooting them all up the ranking board on the wall of the arcade and drawing the attention of the other soldiers and tourists training or ying there.


    "Well, now that we have worked up an appetite, how about we try out one of the many restaurants avable in themon areas?" Max suggested.


    "MEAT." Both the Canis and the Hunters suggested at the same time.


    "Well, that''s easy. Follow me, and I will find you some of the finest offerings aboard the ship."

 Chapter 531 531 Rural Members

    [Commander, the negotiations are finished, and we have a new member for the Trade Group. They will need a fair bit of technology since they''ve been isted so long that they don''t even know what a Materials Printer is anymore, but I think we can work it out well enough.


    They create the most incredible handmade household goods here, and I believe that the patterns and unique localposition will be a big hit among the nobility in the Trade Group''s member systems.


    I will send out a message with full details in the next few minutes if we can stick around until the first orders are ced, so we can judge the market sentiment and see just how much capital the locals have to work with.


    The deal promised them ten factories, each worth of Materials Printers and Industrial Scale Replicators, so they could at least rebuild their capital city to the highest modern living standards after the battle.]


    [So, they''re nning to do the Capital first and encourage the rest of the to upgrade through envy? Not a bad n. How much trouble did you run into with the local nobility?] Max asked.


    [Not much. After the tragic ident at the Governor''s family bunker, we found that the next in line was a very polite and reasonable youngdy with the full support of the other Nobles, as well as the Mayor of the Captial, who she will soon be marrying.]


    That was enough information for Max, so he dropped the subject and decided to move on to more important matters.


    [Are there any reports of remaining Narsians on the? The Hunters have all withdrawn, but we still have the full Regiment on the surface. If things are stable there, we can return to Terminus.]


    [There have been some sporadic battles still, but they seem to be under control without our assistance. I would say that it is safe for the Regiment to return to orbit, as long as we remain here a little longer to make sure the Narsians are really gone and fulfill the first orders.] Nico agreed.


    Max enjoyed his dinner with the Hunters and the Canis technicians, who were just as bad at hiding their emotions as their seniors, a trait that greatly endeared them to the Hunters. They were big fans of taking what you want, so a species that immediately gave away their desires was a positive thing in their opinions.


    [In that case, send the signal. All units are to return to Terminus when their current mission isplete. Don''t leave the locals hanging, but there is no need to do their work for them if they can safely handle it.]


    Max waited while Nico sent out the message for the Cutters to go pick up their passengers, as well as the product listings on the Reaver trading sites, so the locals could try to sell their goods on the open market.


    Their current client base was huge and in desperate need of luxuries in many regions, so it wouldn''t take long before someone would be messaging him for a portal opening. With Terminus on site, they could be absolutely sure that the destination was secure, and Terminus opened portals for the first round of traders without charging any fees or asking any favors for it.


    Unlike the Rae 5 Moon Base, which charged a small sum to recoup the power station creation as well as worker wages for every ship that passed through the portals they opened.


    It was a practice they had adopted from the Alliance, charging Portal fees by distance and size. It made sure that when the base was running at an average capacity, they were at least covering the wages for the workers as well as anticipated repair costs.<novelnext></novelnext>


    But they were a trade group, so they didn''t mark the price up like the Alliance did in order to make specific destinations more exclusive.


    As usual, his prediction didn''t need long toe true. The first requests for a portal to pick up a shipload of orders came early the next morning while thest of the Cutters were still returning to the ship.


    This portal would have to be kept open for a while since the destination was so far away from the core of their customer base, but Terminus was in no hurry to go anywhere.


    Nico was still on the, finishing up the formalities and helping organize the cleanup of the damage to the Capital City, much of which was caused by her and Hunter Khan anyhow.


    It gave them a perfect excuse to rebuild factories and some government buildings that were formerly exclusive high-rise condos for individual Governing Family Members.


    The elitism seemed to Max to have gotten out of hand at some point, and half of the buildings in the Captial only housed a handful of people when they could have held an entire medium-sized business or thousands offortable apartments.


    The new buildings would have the Replicator Technology, as well as the self-cleaning systems and a few other small luxuries that Kepler and most modern nations took for granted. They were all produced by the Materials Printers default programming as essentials, but to the local poption, it was a huge improvement.


    The level of exclusivity might not go down by much, but they would at least have a higher poption, making the Capital feel more lively, as well as increasing the demand for nightlife and other businesses to start business again.


    Max was about to open the first portal when Nico sent him an architectural diagram with a rather uniquebel at the top.


    [Maison Commandant Keres] was a two hundred-story condo building, full of three hundred square meter ultra-luxury suites, with every amenity known to the humans of this region, and as of that moment, it was already eighty percent sold out with only the foundations built by the First Battalion and their Cutter.


    It was futuristic and very artful, with nt life and water features all through the building, but also a built-in Shield Generator so that the residents could rest assured that they were living within the single safest location on the.


    Max chuckled a bit when he saw the Shield Generators since they were only twoyers of the shielding used by the Crusader ss Mecha and would only take a handful of direct sma Cannon hits, but that was a lot more than most civilian buildings would endure and very effective against little things like riots and other civil unrest.


    [You really like putting our names on things, don''t you?] Max asked.


    [It was this or the firstborn boy of the Governor''s family. But I can''t guarantee that they won''t do that anyhow.]

 Chapter 532 532 Expansion Plans

    Max forwarded all of the essential data that they had collected during their journey back to Rae 5mand as well and got an interesting reply from the Reavers.


    There were a lot of disced people in the Gxy and even more who were living in overpopted conditions ons that had just joined the Trade Group.


    Terminus had encountered dozens of star systems that were already habitable, extremely rural, and uninhabited. If they could confirm that at least one of those was unimed and suitable, the Reavers could begin building cities on thes and charge relocation fees to send tens of millions of refugees there to start a new life.


    It was a substantial mary opportunity, but it was also a chance to spread humans to this side of the Gxy in muchrger numbers than they currently imed over the next few decades.


    [You know that thoses were abandoned for a reason, right? Most of them have been stripped bare, and the ones that weren''t stripped have a wide variety of nt and animal life already on them, not exactly prime locations for settlers to show up unless they''re like the Canis or the Hunters who enjoy a good fight against aliens.] Max reminded Mary Tarith.


    [But we can fix that. Bring over a few asteroids and set up a Terraforming Array. It will be a great advertisement for the new technology you are trying to sell to the Alliance. I know it''s been a solid seller already, and some fights are brewing over the rights and design, but a public demonstration on aary scale would draw in even more customers.]


    [Fine, you have a point. I will start with one of thes that has beenpletely stripped of resources, and we will do a full archaeological survey as we go in case there are alien relics or leftover signs of the former upants.


    We don''t yet know what species first inhabited these worlds, so we could find almost anything, from a new alien species with lost technologies to a mined out former Narsian world.


    It is somewhat likely that they stripped at least a few worlds dry in their early days of advanced technology denial, so these might have been their worlds. We don''t have enough data on what they were capable of when they arrived in this system to tell for sure.]


    [That''s just an additional selling point. Rae 5 has reliable ess to the Alliance''s datawork now. Thetency is horrendous, even with a micro portal open to a designated data ess point for distant nations, but we get streams of the public data now, and your exploits are just as popr with the Reavers as they are with the Innu.] Mary Tarith informed him.


    Great, he was a reality TV star even back among his own people now.


    [I will pick out an appropriate system and begin the work of staging asteroids and other needed materials to begin the refurbishment and the construction of the Terraforming Array. Since theses are already habitable or close to it, the process shouldn''t take long. We will need to bring back some minerals and make a few atmospheric adjustments.] Max relented before epting Huntress Khan into his office for a meeting.


    [Sorry to cut you short, but I will get back when the n is ready. The Portals will be open for another week or more as we get the merchants in and out with their goods.] Max informed the elected leader of the Reavers in the Rae 5 system.


    "An important friend?" Huntress Khan asked as she sat across from him with a bottle of Rum and a data tablet.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Nico''s mother, who is also the leader of the homeworld that our Trade Group has imed." Max agreed.


    Khan smiled. "I bet she''s an amazing woman. She must be to have a daughter like that. Tell me, is she as prideful and intimidating as her daughter?"


    The question made Max shake his head with a rueful grin. "Intimidating, yes, but in a different way. I don''t think that Mary Tarith would be called prideful, though. She''s a very low-key sort of person and rarely makes an issue about her skills. Perhaps it is her age getting to her, but she doesn''t like to show off the way Nico does, and she isn''t one for directbat."


    "So she is more like one of the Hunters'' men. Small and resourceful, with a tendency to prefer diplomacy and politics overbat." Khan asked.


    "Yes, but she is also the motherly type. I''m not sure if that trantes to Hunter culture. She likes to take care of the young, see them grow, and make sure they have what they need." Max exined.


    "Interesting. One day I will take the time to learn more about how human families work. Hunters prefer to start them once they are older and less capable ofbat, so the concept of motherly is one that we understand. It might be different for us since our Mothers are also Hunters, but the idea is the same. She raises the younglings along with a group of her peers and ensures that they have all the knowledge they need to grow up strong and deadly."


    "The human saying is strong and healthy, but you have met the oldest daughter of the Tarith Family, and there is no denying that she is also deadly."


    Khan poured them both a drink and turned on a holographic projection from the table that she had ced on the table.


    "These are thes we have identified as having nearby Klem or Narsian poptions, and the ones in orange are poptions we have identified as likely to be a good hunt. It is best that you stay away from those if you don''t want to join in on the battles.


    These ones I marked in green just now are the ones that can sustain life, and the brighter they are, the better the candidate for settlement.


    I heard the end of your conversation as I approached the door. It isn''t soundproofed well enough to keep out a Hunter''s hearing. I rmend that you pick this one.


    The atmosphere is a mess. Our data shows that they likely killed themselves off in a cloud of toxic gas that spread all over the. But the mineral resources are plentiful, the waters have purified themselves over the centuries, and some nt life has returned, with no animal life at all, not even insects, as well as no harmful bacteria.


    If you set up a basic array of your Terraforming Drones, you could have the ready in only a few months, and you wouldn''t have to disturb the ruins."

 Chapter 533 533 Ruins You Say?

    "Ruins? Do you have any data on them?" Max asked.


    "We didn''t bother to analyze them, but our sensors detected that they were not natural formations. Going by the level of destruction, it was either deliberate or in excess of ten thousand years ago. It could be either, and some of the ruins might even be salvageable as local attractions.


    We don''t spend all our time hunting. Maybe ny percent of it, but a nice rxing stay on a relic world while we n our next mission is always wee." Khan suggested.


    "The Reavers want to move some of the refugees who are looking for a long-term home outside of the usual nations into a freshly settled. If there are relic ruins here, there is no reason that we can''t encourage them to set them up as a tourist attraction and build some sort of infrastructure nearby."


    "So, they want to add another wave of colonization to the records, with no alien species exterminated in the process. It''s an ambitious goal to have a Reaver Expansion, but I approve. Perhaps your people can bring a bit of proper civilization to this Gxy and not that stuffy self-righteousness that the Alliance preaches." Khan agreed.


    "Are the Hunters and the Alliance actually on bad terms?" Max asked, sensing the animosity in her thoughts.


    "Not at all. Our alliance is the strongest it has ever been. It''s just that many Hunters, myself included, are easily annoyed by hypocrisy. They tell us, "Inteary battles are wrong, and the Alliance forbids them," and then call our hunts barbaric.


    But how did they be the only sentient species in their Gxies before the Alliance was founded? By eliminating any other intelligent species that they found. Even the peace-loving Shin developed potent toxins as a form of chemical warfare that is lethal to the native species of their Gxy.


    You might be surprised to know that you aren''t the first species to develop entire fleets of Drone Fighters. If you look through the Innu history books, they sent fully autonomouspliance fleets around their gxy to prepare it for themselves to colonize roughly three hundred thousand years ago."


    Max smiled at Khan''s rant, and she shrugged her shoulders.


    "It''s a bit of a sore point, but if you look at it another way, even if you followed your Bride to be into every battle she wished to fight, they would still make Humans members eventually. They don''t care how the fighting stops, only that it does. Give it a century after humans are thest ones left and unite as one, and they can likely get a full membership if you don''t want to do as we did and continue your traditional ways."


    "And here I thought they had imed some moral high ground, but what they''re really after are stability and good optics, isn''t it?"


    Khan nodded. "It has to look good on camera. They areing up on the Epoch anniversary of the founding of the Alliance, one million standard years since the first species banded together to try to calm the intergctic fighting before it destroyed everything.


    This Gxy is rtively isted and underdeveloped, but on the far side of the Alliance, there are a number of species that are looking for entry, and having them think that nothing has really changed in a million years would not bode well for the chance to bring them into the Alliance and their trade agreements.


    I am quite certain you understand that sort of politics since it is exactly what you are doing but on a Gctic scale."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "See, we''re not that different after all. Every species wants to make a deal." Max chuckled.


    "Except the Abyssals. If your long-range scans happen to detect a life form the size of an L-ss, your best call is to pretend that region of space doesn''t even exist. Don''te within a Gxy of them, and they aren''t too temperamental." Khan added.


    As the banter faded, the two of them returned to analyzing both the data that the Hunters had collected and the data that Terminus and her fleet had collected on their way past.


    The she had suggested was a masterpiece, other than the toxins in the air, though the others in the system were in the worst shape of anything he had seen from the scans. Totally stripped bare, with even the majority of their atmosphere taken away, they had lost so much mass that their orbits had begun to destabilize.


    They would have to fix that if they wanted to colonize the main so that the copse of the sr system didn''t throw it into chaos whenever that happened, but all of those problems could be solved with the terraforming technology that they had.


    "You know, we could do this much more easily if you could spare us the pattern for a simple cloaking technology," Max suggested.


    "That would definitely break our agreement with the Alliance. Instead, we will wait for your technician team to reverse engineer something out of the data that they have already gathered." Khan refused his request in the most polite way possible.


    "Well, it was worth a shot. Knowing them, they won''t take long to create one that doesn''t match anything in the records once they see the need for it. Would you like to apany us to this Shrine World in the making?" Max asked.


    "I think we will. If we are there, we can make requests for facilities, and we can watch you make your Terraforming Array."


    Max saw in her thoughts that the Hunters were nning to do the same thing that Terminus did, find a technology and alter it enough that they could make it on their own without having to pay royalties.


    "You know, I have the authority to license you a full array if you want to have one for your fleet. I have checked carefully, and there is no rule against discounts, so we can let you build your own from our pattern without viting Alliancews now that it is properly patented and avable for retail purchase." He informed her in response to her thoughts.


    "I forget that you are like the Illithid. Sneaking around in the brain to find out what someone really wants. It''s an unfair advantage in negotiations, but I bet it''s an evenrger one in the bedroom." Sheughed, making a swinging hip gesture to emphasize her point.


    "I will decline to answer that. But she already told you, didn''t she?"


    Max didn''t even have to wait for the amused smirk on Huntress Khan''s face to know that Nico had given up all the juicy details during their rampage in the Captial.

 Chapter 534 534 New Project

    The first of the Reavers arrived over the next two days to collect the locally made housewares and quilts while bringing many of the things which the locals had requested.


    The Capital city was well on its way to being reconstructed already by the end of the third day, though they were still clearing rubble and corpses from the streets. Most of the multi-million-person poption had survived the battle, thanks to the intervention of Khan, Nico, and the First Battalion, so the sense of grief was muted, with most of the residents having only lost property and distant family members in other locations, not close friends, or their entire life''s work.


    It was the best spot on the for the traders to arrive, making a note of the fact that the currentlycked shuttles in sufficient numbers to collect their orders.


    They did have some, though they were clearly ancient and ced in a museum in vacuum-preserved storage.


    For the moment, they didn''t intend to order any. Fulfilling the''s basic needs came first, but it was definitely high up their wishlist.


    Handmade goods proved to be quite popr among the wealthier members of society. With the advent of Replicators and advanced materials printers, even the most exclusive of mass-produced items weren''t all that hard to obtain.


    But genuine hand-crafted items, with their unique ws and unique character, were proving to be much more of a status symbol, and being able to tell guests that the nket which was chosen for their room, or the end table in the hall, hade from the far side of the Gxy, beyond any other known human settlement, was a very unique talking point.


    Ordering items made with the Materials Printers was much cheaper than buying the machines themselves, thanks to the retail markup that made getting them as part of a trade deal so attractive, so the ships wereing with all sorts of machinery, tractors, tools, and such to help with the rebuilding effort until the factories coulde back online.


    The Narsian invasion hadn''t destroyed everything. That wasn''t how they usually operated. They just wanted the native inhabitants gone so they could take over the using what existing infrastructure they could.


    So, Max got to y host to the Hunters while Nico was on the helping with the reconstruction of the Capital City and changing over all of the old security measures and passcodes to the new Governor.


    Many items, including bank vaults and personal servers, were biometric encrypted and only essible by the current position holder or their heir, all of whom were now gone, so there was a lot of work to do at the Governing Family''s estates around the.


    Nico seemed to be enjoying herself, though and was treating the whole thing like one big treasure hunt with the chance of finding hiding Narsians she could kill.


    [Do you think you look better in a heroic pose with a sword or in amanding pose with one foot up on a rock?] Nico asked out of the blue.


    [What are you even talking about?] Max replied, not stopping his scan of the iing vessels to make sure that they were all the right ones and nobody had taken the wrong portal out of Rae 5.


    There had been reports already of multiple portals in the Moon Base region, causing some less-than-diligent pilots to end up in the wrong star system.


    [The heroic pose with a sword at the feet is ssic for a statue, but if it''s a painting, then in front of Cleansing Light with a foot up on a rock looking all philosophical is a better choice. Why are you asking?] he replied.


    [They want to put a statue of you in the park tomemorate this asion.]<novelnext></novelnext>


    That was about what he had expected when she sent the message, but it was a bit surprising that they weren''t making a statue of her and Khan, who had actually rescued the Capital.


    Perhaps the damage they had done was more extensive than he had been led to believe, and the locals would rather recall that they had been saved from a Klem fleet than be reminded that a pair of Giant Robots had trashed the Capital during a kill spreepetition.


    [Just let them do what they think is best. It''s their, after all, and we will only be asional visitors if we return to bring them supplies.] he replied, letting Nico take care of the details for him.


    The efficiency of the locals in rebuilding their world was incredible, and they were putting the goods to work as soon as they arrived off the ships, making a passable form of recovery where they had partial power and proper food and water distribution within a week of hostilities ending. Quite a few warzones could learn from them, so Max put it in the system logs and forwarded it to Rae 5, along with all the other data he had been collecting.


    If one day, the Reavers were helping rebuild a''s infrastructure, as they had done many times in the past, that information could save them a lot of time and money without requiring a lot of specialized equipment, which so manys relied upon after dering most manualbor obsolete.


    [All Ships have unloaded and returned to Rae 5, Commander. No current orders are pending, and the next delivery is scheduled for one month from now, with a portal to be opened by Rae 5 moon base.] The Communications officer on duty informed Max the evening after the statue of him had beenmissioned.


    [Nico, our work here is done. What is left down on the surface?]


    [Not much, just saying goodbye and getting everyone back up to the ship. They''ve got everything squared away here, and they have the ten factories with the new Materials Printers working full speed to make the raw materials for their exports.


    Unless the Narsians or the Klem return, they should be fine, and they are working on reducing their signal transmission, as well as an emitter that should alter the appearance of the to Narsian scans, making the look uninhabitable.


    None of us know if it works on the Klem, but they had one in the past here and had no invasions, so they think that getting a new one up and operational might convince them not toe back again.]


    Max made and transmitted even more notes of the new information, so nobody would be surprised if the signals from the said it was barren before he responded. [We will be waiting for you then. Huntress Khan says that the world she wants us to terraform has ruins from an unknown civilization on it. Unknown age, fully dpidated condition. She thinks they might be a good tourist destination.]


    [Also, I really do need to apologize for making you take all these notes. This paperwork is torture.]


    When she got thest message, Nicoughed and turned to the newary Governor and her husband-to-be.


    "I''m afraid we can''t stay long enough for the wedding. The half year of the royal pre-wedding protocol is too much for our schedule, but if we finish the work we have scheduled, I will try to get Terminus back here for the ceremony. At the very least, I will inform the other Reavers, so they can put it on the schedule and try to make your monthly deliveries with time to be here for the ceremony, so you will at least have some representation from your allies present to remind the people that they are no longer alone in the Gxy."


    "Thank you, Miss Tarith. The day that you and your people arrived here will be remembered for all time." The Governor replied, taking Nico''s hand into her own for a heartfelt handshake.

 Chapter 535 535 Alarms Suck

    Once thest of the Terminus Mecha Battalions were back aboard the ship, they set course for their next target.


    The Hunters had already cloaked their ship and were intending to meet them there since their mothership was significantly faster than Terminus, even when not using portals to skiprge distances.


    Max could have done that, but the trip would only be a few days, and they could use it to collect data on the stars that were within sensor range of the ship as they passed, checking for additional threats and signs of possible habitation.


    They had done that once as they passed by the first time, but now they had more data on how the locals had hidden, so they had a better idea of what signs to look for that would indicate that there was life from the same expansion wave surviving in the region.


    "It''ste. Time to go to bed." Nico informed him just as the data screens throughout the ship signaled the graveyard shift toe on duty.


    It was good to have her back on the ship. Nico wasn''t shifting her outer temperature to the cool metallic version to sleep anymore, but the warm and soft version was much more pleasant to spend the nights with.


    So pleasant, in fact, that Max actually missed the first messages of the morning, deep in slumber.


    "Alright, time to get up and get fed before people start missing you." She informed him before nting a kiss on his cheek.


    "That doesn''t encourage me to think of activities outside the bedroom." Max reminded her.


    "Well, that''s boring. Why only think of doing them in the bedroom? But seriously, it''s time to get out of bed and start answering those messages already. Your watch is driving me nuts with everyone looking for updates, and I''m not sure you''d remember to turn the notifications back on if I silenced them."


    Man nodded and picked up Nico to head to the shower. "You''re likely right, but it sure would be rxing not to have that thing telling me to get back to work every five minutes."


    "Also, haven''t you gotten lighter again? I swear Cyborgs are supposed to be much heavier than standard humans, but I am quite sure that you''re actually lighter than I am."


    Nico smirked and held out an arm to admire it.


    "I will have you know that I have lightened this body as much as possible with thebination of human and Hunter technology withoutpromising structural integrity.


    I am just as sturdy as the day I was remade, but now I am back to the average weight for a civilian male, without all the muscle mass that the soldiers are packing. I did get a few ideas from your usage of [Optimize]st night since it affects my whole body, not just the relevant bits. I believe that I can increase my strength and durability a bit more without adding any new materials or mass."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Well then, it worked out amazingly for both of us." Max chuckled.


    A fully modified and Optimized Nico was a scary thought, both in and out ofbat, but it was good to see that she had epted her biomechanical existence so fully. That might be partly due to the fact that she was capable of so closely emting a human now, but she took great pride in making sure that everyone knew that she was a modified Cybeic organism of her own design.


    Even on the live streams that the Innu Technicians did, it came up quite regrly. Mostly when Nico did something superhuman and reminded viewers that her appearance and stats didn''t match, but sometimes she would reference the modifications she made to herself as part of a proposal for a new product.


    The streams were going amazingly well. Not just because of the sales volumes that their newest products like the Terraforming Array were doing, but the Tech Nomads working aboard Terminus had be something of a Cult Icon among the Innu for their plethora of slightly outdated but nearly free-to-use schematics, as well as their entertaining presentation methods.


    The thought that you could put an augmentic suit on a frail and dainty Innu researcher and have her tear apart a civilian hover transport with her bare hands shocked many of their viewers, but the mannequin with "Cheating Ex Lover" written on it sitting in the back seat really sold the utility of such a development outside ofbat, which the Innu extremely rarely engaged in.


    That particr video had gone viral, getting over a hundred billion views, and it didn''t even go into the details of the suit''s technology. It was only a product demonstration for the new cloth sheathing on the gloves to prove that jagged metal shards wouldn''t damage them.


    Millions ofments and an intense gender war in thements sectionter, the Terminus Tech Nomads were a household name among the regr viewers of Tech Streams.


    "My work is all administration today, and I should be done in a few hours. What are you lot up to in the developmentbs?" Max asked after their second shower of the morning, the first one having been rendered ineffective by the innovative drying method employed afterward.


    "We are working with the Canis volunteers today to adapt sensor suites for species with particrly sensitive hearing and sense of smell.


    The Canis senses are dozens of times more sensitive than a standard human, so they can pick out much smaller signals without assistance, which means that we don''t need to put all that work into augmenting their helmets. We only need to rify the input with a small augmentation to allow them to pick out patterns and identify specific scents with ease.


    If this pattern works correctly, the Canis should be able to tell what route a patrolling soldier took that day by the scents that had gathered on their clothes. It would be devastating as an infiltration technology, and we could further boost the sensor datater to adapt it for human and other species'' usages.


    It''s not on the publicly listed patents anywhere that we could find in the Alliance, though they likely have something like it off the books, so we won''t be broadcasting that one as part of our stream, only the trials that we are doingter in the afternoon to try to rig up a rudimentary vehicle cloaking device."


    Max smiled at their proactive nature. That was exactly the project that he was going to request that they start working on.

 Chapter 536 536 Breakfast With The Little Sisters

    "In that case, I will join you for the tests today. I would like to see how the attempt to cloak an object the way the Hunters do is going." Max informed her.


    "Perfect, I will bring snacks. We likely won''t have much sess today, but the feedback from thementers on the streams is mostly from other Innu Tech Nerds, so it can be very useful to the process, and one of the Technicians monitors it in real-time and provides feedback so that we can try out interesting ideas while we are still streaming." Nico exined.


    That sounded a lot like enlisting a small army of amateurs to attempt to make new military technology, but Cloaking didn''t seem to be a new or exclusive feature to the Hunters, so the amateurs might actually have valuable insights on how the process might be aplished without breaking any Alliance Patents.


    The rigid structure, the generational patents, and the strict prohibition on intearybat were a strangebination, but they made the Alliance the powerhouse it was, so who was Max to argue with a system that worked?


    Even their trade group prohibited aggressive actions betweens, so the peaceful front might well be nothing more than a front that the Alliance put on, at least among many of the members, but the patent thing was strange.


    Corporations didn''t rule them, and the governing body was made up of interspecies panels, but somehow the notion that corporate IP needed to be protected for centuries still managed to embed itself into their rules.


    "How about we hit up Dave''s ce for breakfast? I haven''t seen him in a while, and I''m sure he''s secretly worried about you after the battle, even though he knows you returned safely." Nico suggested.


    "I messaged himst night, but you are right. Messages are easy to hide injuries behind. I will message him now to let him know we''reing."


    Molly had a duster in her hands, double-checking the work of the automatic cleaning function when they arrived for breakfast while Dave was teaching Sasha and Sandy, Max''s twin younger sisters, an early morning science lesson.


    "If we get the first lesson in before we eat, then we have one less thing to learn during the day. They''re both mentally developing quite quickly, faster than the low System Compatibility assessment that they were given suggested, so I don''t want them to have to wait for the regr primary school schedule." Dave exined.


    "Let me know if you need any teaching materials or assistance. I am sure we have more than a few qualified teachers aboard who would love to help."


    Daveughed at Max''s offer. "Oh, I''m sure we do, and I have been quite careful to keep the girls away from bad influences, but the boys are a going concern. They''re obsessed with physical training after passing by the gym while the Special Forces unit was there working out. They don''t even care about school or Mecha, just training like the infantry."


    That was a bit concerning, but here aboard Terminus, being infantry wasn''t so much of a death sentence as a general-purpose position, with the members being more likely to be drafted as extra drone pilots than actually sentside.


    That was how most Reaver ships operated since they trained everyone to at least fight in case of arge battle or an attempt to board their ship.


    Terminus was too new still for training youngsters to be an ongoing concern. These were the only kids aboard the ship who were old enough for it to matter to them.


    "So, what''s for breakfast?" Dave asked as Molly finished her rapid check for any signs of dust, as if it might actually bother their guests.


    "Today was scheduled to be new foods day." She reminded him.


    "Oh, you''ll like this one, Max. Remember how we used to pick random stuff from the convenience store to see how it tasted? It''s the same thing, but with breakfast recipes from the replicator. Some of them have been added by, and for alien species, so you never know what you''ll get when you pick a random entry from the breakfast category." Dave exined.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Alright, let''s do this. You ready, everyone?" Max asked the little ones.


    "As long as it doesn''t spit out the fried Durian again." Sasha agreed.


    Molly hit the randomize button, and seven portions of breakfast appeared, four being downsized for the kids.


    "Eggs Benedict? I think we can work with that." Dave nodded happily as the food appeared.


    "Crocolisk nk bacon with egg benedict, to be precise. Added just two days ago by a member of the crew." Molly confirmed.


    That had to be done by one of the teams who went to the surface with them on Canis for the hunt or one of the Canis workers. They were the only ones who could have had a reference sample with them to teach the replicators to make Crocolisk.


    The kids were looking at it rather dubiously, but Max was excited to try it again but mixed with traditional breakfast.


    "This is the same creature we hunted on Canis, and it is really good. A local specialty, in fact. The special forces who went on the hunt with us really loved it." Nico informed the kids.


    That was enough to get the boys eating. They would try anything that their new heroes liked. The older pair held out for a few seconds until they saw everyone else eating before they tried it themselves.


    "So what are you two studying to be? There are a lot of options here aboard the ship, so you can be nearly anything." Max asked his sisters.


    "We want to work in environmental design for the cruise ship. The virtual reality rooms are really cool, and they can make anything that is programmed into them, and there are people who design specific ces, like pic spots and walking trails, and spots to watch the stars." Sandy informed him in a really excited voice.


    "That there are. Not everyone wants toe up with their own spot, so making new great spots to stop is a very valuable job."


    The girls nodded happily as they ate, getting deep into detail about the ces they wanted to make, as well as the things that they were learning about the basic function of the Virtual Reality systems. Dave was preparing them for any rted job as well as he could for their age, so he was teaching them all the extra science lessons they would need to work on the projectors in case they wanted to repair them and not just program them.


    Max was sure that was stressful for the old soldier, since he didn''t actually know anything about the topic before he had to start teaching it, but he had decades of experience on his side to help him keep ahead of his young charges.


    "I think it''s a great ambition. The technicians keep all the attractions running and make all the cool things we have aboard the ship. Plus, everyone loves a great entertainer, and the holograms are a big attraction among the guests. Have you seen the Idol shows that they do on the fifth floor in the afternoons?" Nico asked, setting off another excited tirade by the girls while the rest of the room rolled their eyes.


    The Idols were most popr with female guests in their teenage years, as well as a small group of middle-aged men, not exactly the demographic for anyone in the room except the older twins.


    "Perhaps you can convince one of these two to take you when you''re done with your daily work? But we need to get to theb and begin the day''s tests. It was a pleasure seeing you again." Max excused himself, leaving Dave and Molly to deal with the fallout of the star-struck tirade Nico had initiated with her question.

 Chapter 537 537 Best Sisters

    "Why don''t you stay and help these fine youngdies with their science work? It''s been a while since you got to really hang out, and Miss Molly can take the boys to go work out with the soldiers?" Dave suggested as they were finishing breakfast.


    "We don''t need you right away, so you can have lunch with them as well, maybe even bring them to theb afterward to see how scientists do things in real life," Nico added.


    "That sounds amazing. How about it,dies? Would you like to spend the day with me while you learn?"


    Both girls looked overjoyed for the opportunity as they high-fived each other, then shared an excited look.


    "Yes, please. Can we call over some friends to study as well? Some girls on the Cruise Ship side are our age."


    "I don''t see why not. If they don''t mind studying while on vacation, that is." Max reluctantly agreed.


    "Oh, no need to worry about that. They''re Innu. I''ve never met an Innu that doesn''t love science ss." Sandy informed him with a smile.


    She had a point, and Max knew what she meant. Not many guests brought their children, especially young ones, so the two tiny figures rocketing through the gravity slides had been easy thoughts for Max to pick out after they had arrived.


    He mentally searched the ship for the pair and found them at one of the water park caf¨¦s, preparing for a busy day of their mother''s mandatory lessons.


    That was even better. They were already going to be in an informal ss, so he wouldn''t be interrupting their vacation. Just their mothers carefully created learning ns.


    He sent a message to their parents right away, via the barista at the coffee shop where they were sitting, requesting that the two girls join him and his sisters for a morning science lesson.


    [They have agreed, with the stiption that it must be a serious lesson and not an excuse to fool around with their friends.] The barista informed him after a few seconds'' pause.


    The children''s thoughts told Max that their mother had them studying an introduction to electrical engineering today. A tall order for most grade school children, but kids with higher systempatibility mentally developed much faster than most humans, and the Innu''s innate talent for technology gave them a great advantage in learning applied science.


    [Tell them that we will be studying the fundamentals of building holographic projections.] Max replied and began to n out his day.


    The first stop would actually be the medical bay since the girls'' development made him believe that his dear mother had bribed the delivering doctor to F Rank the twins without a test.


    With a recorded report of zero talent, they would only have one mandatory government follow-up at six years old when they entered grade school, and the girls hadn''t been that old when they left Kepler Terminus.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "First stop, the clinic. The Regiment''s doctor is going to run a quick aptitude scan so that I can make a real custom lesson n for you and make sure you won''t have any problems being in theb with lots of machinery around." He informed his sisters, who would have willingly agreed to almost anything up to and including eating brussels sprouts for dinner if it meant a whole morning with their friends learning science with Max.


    The regimental doctor had a very useful set of System Functions for this purpose. First, he could identify the functionality of other systems, which would tell him a lot about internal injuries without any tools, and a secondary function would allow him to instruct another person''s system to begin healing at a higher rate as long as he focused on them.


    But most importantly for today, when he focused on them, he could tell what level of systempatibility a subject had. It was amon function developed by doctors who were always working with Kepler patients, but also in high demand for government workers doing assessments and for security officers whose job was detecting infiltration attempts.


    "Hey, Doc. Can you do a quickpatibility assessment on my sisters and then make sure light bursts and strobes won''t trigger them? I want to begin teaching them about holographic projectors." Max asked.


    The doctor seemed a bit surprised, but Max''s request would only take a few seconds, so he went to fetch a vision tester from the cab. The first round of scans was quick and easy, and brought up a wealth of data on the Doctor''s tablet that he began to scroll through to verify it against the records he already had for them.


    [I''m not sure this should be spoken out loud. Did you already know that they''re only half-human?] The doctor asked Max, tapping his temple to alert the Commander of his intent.


    [What do you mean half-human? Were there any other options on Kepler Terminus at the time?] Max replied.


    [I think they''ve been Gene Spliced with a Siren. You know, those singing harpies with winged arms, known for beauty and their voices? They''re not native to Kepler Terminus, but the ck market designer babies often get a bit of their genome to make them beautiful.]


    [And these two had half their genome reced? Will there be side effects?] Max asked.


    [Nothing major. As identical twins, they''ve developed the same Innate Talent, Enhanced Charisma, so others will instinctively like them, and they''ve got a low Beta Rankedpatibility. They''re still your sisters, though. The scan says you are biologically rted.]


    [Thanks Doc]


    That was a lot to take in. The fact that they had been gically altered was not surprising, knowing his mother wanted pageant queens as daughters, but the fact they were rted to Max was a shock. His gics didn''t fully match his mother''s. They had been altered during his reincarnation to more closely resemble his past life.


    He didn''t know if there was a chance for that to have lingering effects on her body, but knowing that these were biologically his half-sisters due to gic engineering, added a depth to the brotherly connection that Max hadn''t really felt before.


    Sure, he recognized them as family, but he despised his parents, so keeping their other children around was more of an obligation and a kindness to Dave, who had always wanted a family, than a sign of a particrly close family bond.


    But now he knew that they really were rted to him, the real him from his past life, with intelligence and potential, which would activate a strong system when they came of age. It made him feel less alone in the world and gave him the motivation to ensure that they learned everything they could before age twelve, so the system would know what way to guide them.

 Chapter 538 538 Edumucatified

    "Everything checks out, Commander. They''re ready for your day''s lesson." The doctor said out loud for the others'' benefit.


    "Thanks, Doc. I''ve got a big day nned for them, and I know they''re going to love today''s lesson."


    With their business done, the doctor waved them out of his office to deal with an injured soldier who had just arrived with a long gash down his arm.


    "Spanner broke while trying to free up some damaged piping. Doc will have me right as rain in no time." The big man informed the concerned-looking little girls with a smile.


    Max could tell from his thoughts that he neglected to mention that he had fallen off the Mecha he was repairing at the time when it happened, possibly to hide the fact he wasn''t wearing a fall arrest harness or a gravity device like regtions required.


    He was in front of the Commander, after all, and being written up could have him scrubbing toilets for a month until he learned to appreciate the difference between on the floor and up in the air.


    Max decided to let it slide this time. The repair bay lead technician would deal with the issue on his own, so Max just led the twins out toward the cruise ship zone to meet with their ssmates for the day.


    The Innu parents had joined their two girls, who both appeared to be under five years old, in the Waterpark, and they had set out four headsets on a table in preparation for the ss.


    "I hope you don''t mind. We took the liberty of putting information on holograms into the auto-learning device in advance." The father of the Innu girls informed Max while the girls rushed to greet their friends.


    "I should check it first. Since humans aren''t alliance members yet, we''re not supposed to teach anything beyond the species'' known capabilities, even if we have ess to it." Max sighed.


    "Just pop the headset on for a few seconds. The first lesson is an introduction that is suitable for their age. We can instinctivelymunicate with technology, but without the knowledge toprehend what we''re seeing, understanding how anything works is just a guessing game.


    Too much at once would overwhelm them, but there are so many new things here that we have started to teach them a number of things in advance while we are on vacation. So far, that has meant morning sses every day." The Innu man exined.


    "If you don''t mind, I''m sure the girls would love to learn together. Terminus has many sorts on board but very few children yet, and no properly trained teachers except Miss Molly." Max exined.


    "I think that would be a great idea. They haven''tined once today since they learned that they would be working together." The mother of the Innu agreed, pointing to where the girls were already guessing what today''s lesson might entail.


    Max held the learning device to his face and selected [Learn All] with an estimated time notification from his system of thirty seconds.


    What he got was much more than a primer on holograms. The device gave him a full university-level education in the field of electronic engineering over the course of a minute before happily announcing that course one of Virtual Reality Technician Training wasplete.


    "You were nning to have the kids learn all that today?" Max asked when the process was over.


    "Oh heavens no. Just the first lesson. It takes about an hour for them to assimte that much knowledge, and then you can begin your lecture." The father exined.


    The first course was only one of fifty that he had gone through in thirty seconds. The time difference must be due to the system and his functions, Max decided, since the Innu certainly weren''t dimwitted.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Do you have more lessons with you? The knowledge all seems perfectly eptable, but I personally have enjoyed a rather focused education, as my career path was set from birth as a warrior." Max asked quietly.


    "We would be delighted to share. The course programs we have downloaded are only to that level, the basic school courses that all Innu must learn, but if you think you can assimte them from the device, we will dly loan one to you."


    "Thanks, I appreciate it."


    Then Max turned his thoughts to someone who probably already knew how great this device was.


    [Nico, did you know about the Innu learning devices?]


    [Amazing, aren''t they? But don''t overdo it, or you''ll get the worst headaches. We''ve got some here we used for training the recruits.]


    [And you neglected to mention this why?]


    [You''re psychic. I just assumed you already knew.] Max could hear the unconcerned shrug in her mentalmunication.


    [I see. We will discuss thister.]


    He would have to find out how the others did with the device, but there really was no reason to have a ship full of primary school dropouts when they could give the soldiers a full education.


    "Alright,dies. Sit down for a moment and assimte the first lesson from the device. Once that is done, we will begin with the fun stuff." Max instructed the four girls.


    The difference was almost certainly due to the system. His sisters were too young to have it active, and like the Innu girls, it took them roughly an hour to finish assimting the first of fifty lessons.


    They all looked overwhelmed and disoriented after the session as well, and one of the Innu girls was rubbing her temples, warding off the iing headache.


    "I hope the lesson is good because that learning method is no fun. I feel like I''ve been trapped in a ssroom for months, but I can tell we didn''t move." Sasha informed him with a grimace.


    "Oh, it is worth it. Follow me to the immersion suite, and I will begin today''s lesson on building realistic simtions using theyering method."


    Even the parents looked excited at that. They had all of the required knowledge, but they had gone into the business side of their families'' operations, so they hadn''t personally had much experience with the practical side of actually using the skills they had learned so many years ago in school.


    As an added benefit, human technology wasn''t needlesslyplex, encrypted, or vaguely programmed to deter inquisitive Innu. It was like a public yground to the adults of their species.

 Chapter 539 539 Building A Feeling

    Once inside the meeting room that could bepletely converted into a solid holographic projection, Max created four desks and a pair of small couches.


    "Wee to my first actual attempt at teaching a ss. Forgive me if I''m not good at it, but I can assure you that I am quite good at building realistic simtions. Now, which of you can tell me what the first element that needs to be determined is?" Max asked the kids.


    "Would it be the type of that your simtion is set upon?" One of the Innu girls asked.


    "Not bad. That is right. Start with the sky and bare ground. Today, we will make something spooky but beautiful, so what do you think we should make the world like?"


    Sandy''s hand shot in the air. "The scariest movies are always the most realistic ones. Alien horror movies are only a little scary, but ones set in your own home are the scariest."


    "Alright, then, we will start with a basic M ss, blue skies, soft ck dirt, and lots of water.


    But that''s not enough. You need to create some terrain in your vicinity. It can be auto-created randomly, but today we will do it manually. A romantic mountainside dinner sounds fun, so first up, we are going to need to create a mountain.


    Build it out of stone that fits your setting and then scatter dirt over it, so it doesn''t stand out unless it is supposed to be incongruous with your setting. Now, we have our basic setting.


    The easiest way to build a scenario is ground up, so nextes the ground cover, with shrubs, some grasses, and a nice river,ing from an artisan spring on the mountainside."


    While the description sounded random, it was actually the scene from near the Innu family''s vacation cabin in the mountains, perfect for helping to immerse the adults into the scenario.


    The scene was already beautiful, with the low grass and shrubs and the sunlight glistening off the water, but it was still far too barren for anything but a basicbat simtion.


    "We want spooky and beautiful, so we need the beautiful. Let''s add some opal stones and gems into the river as well as the mountain face. There, see how it makes the surface seem to shimmer. Those little details will matter a lotter, so don''t forget why we added them.


    Next, I think we need some trees. Sasha and Sandy, have you ever been to the forest?" Max asked.


    "Nope, but we''ve been in lots of woond simtions, so we know what they look like."


    "How about everyone else? Do you think this would be better with some native Innu trees?"


    "You can do that?" One of the mothers asked.


    "Of course. We have Innu working on the ship. They have programmed a huge variety of familiar nt and animal life to the database." Technically Nico stole the data from their ship and added most of it herself, but that wasn''t the point.


    Max added the Pool Trees, as the Innu knew them, whose five-meter-long leaves curved upward to trap rainwater in them, creating small pools that the Innu kids loved to y in.


    They stood hundreds of meters tall, so he could create a fairly dense canopy, reducing the direct sunlight that they were standing under and adding a feeling of being at one with nature.


    "Beautiful." Sasha sighed, smiling at the trees.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "They are pool trees, so we need an extra step. Who knows what is next?"


    "WATER!" Both Innu girls cheered at once.


    They were an aquatic species, and being on dry ground when everything in this scenario should be soaked with water felt a bit wrong.


    Max set the scenario to shield their work area and then made it rain for a few minutes, filling the leaves and turning the pathways on the ground into slow-moving streams.


    "But a forest doesn''t only have one sort of tree, so we will add a few more to make the area feel natural. Smaller trees have grown in the clear areas by the pathways where the canopy overhead isn''t as dense. Then we will upgrade the pathway itself so that it is made of natural stone, the same as the mountain that the path leads to."


    "It''s incredible. If I didn''t know better, I would think you had been to our homeworld yourself." One of the Mothers sighed before getting up out of her chair to go touch and smell the trees.


    "That''s another point. Don''t forget the scent. It is programmed into the default data for the elements, but if you modify them or want a specific ambiance, you need to make the scent of the area match what the user will expect it to be.


    Now, we have the basic scenario down. This is all the major nt life that would naturally ur in this area. But we are far from done. Next, you need to add details. Add moss to the trees and rocks, but only on one side, to give the users a sense of direction since the moss likes the sunny side of the trees. Add some small flowering nts, vines, and other natural elements, and you have the forestplete.


    But it still feels empty, doesn''t it?" Max asked.


    All of the kids looked around, trying to understand what he meant, while the parents nodded.


    "It''s too silent. Not in an ominous way, but it''s like we are standing in a picture." Sasha finally decided.


    "Exactly. We need to add weather and the small creatures that give the forest a feeling of life.


    A light breeze will make the leaves flutter and bring the scents of fresh water and wet trees to the users, making the forest feel like time is moving. Now add some insects and small birds. Not the biting or hostile sorts, since this isn''t that sort of scenario, and ce them further away from the pathway.


    That will have them out of sight, but you will catch hints of their movement, and the birds may fly overhead with their randomized flight paths and simted daily patterns.


    That''s much more realistic.


    Now we have beautiful and realistic down. Who knows how we can make this spooky without making it too dark to see?"


    That brought excited looks to everyone''s faces, but they were clearly waiting for him to exin it to them instead of making their own guesses out loud.


    Maxpiled the ideas they were thinking of and added a few more elements just for the ambiance.

 Chapter 540 540 Walk In The Woods

    "First, we add somerger creatures moving in the distance. The random cracking of branches and noises will help. Then we move the light to sunset, where everyone can see, but not as clearly. See how much difference it makes when your mind needs more time to process. Now, we add some random temperature variations to the atmosphere. First, near the water, it should be cooler, but we will also add a few spots of cool breeze along the pathways."


    There was a ssh as one of the birdsnded in a pool tree leaf, followed by a small growl as the tree''s resident protested the intrusion, and all of the kids were startled, looking around to try to ce the noise.


    Max smiled, added a moon to the sky, then dimmed the light a little more to find the bnce betweenfortable sight and slight uncertainty.


    "I think that alone should be enough for the introduction. How about it? Does it look beautiful and feel a bit spooky, but not horror movie spooky?" Max asked.


    "It''s perfect. Remember the first time we went to the mountain shrine, and I spent the whole walk clinging to your arm?" One of the mothers asked her husband, who smirked at the memory of how that outing ended.


    "How about we walk and see how the effects work while we experience them for ourselves? After that, the girls will make their own scenario to test their knowledge of the most basic principles using premade elements."


    Everyone eagerly got up to follow him through the woods, while Max decided to remain silent and let them take in the experience.


    What none of the others knew was that Max had added a Winged Wolf, the flying guard dog from Comor. The one he had programmed was the excessively friendly failed candidate that they had yed fetch with, and it was programmed not to attack, but in the dark of the forest, the sound of huge wings and its mournful howl as it couldn''t find anyone to y with had all of the others freaked out.


    "What is that? It sounds massive. Is that a dog? I heard about them in human movies. But they never made a noise like that." One of the Innu girls whispered as the sound of pping wings and breaking branches were joined by a few upset birds whose leaf pools had been identally emptied by the three-meter tall winged wolf, who was too heavy for the smaller leaves where the birds were rxing.


    It faded into the distance as they hiked up the hills, and the group began to rx. Finally, they made it to the pic site, overlooking the glimmeringke Max had customized earlier to shimmer in the sun but now lit up red and gold by the twilight.


    "Well, how was it? Did I exin the method well enough?" Max asked.


    "Can we rece the ssroom at the start with a small cabin and save this scenario? It is incredible, and I would like to actually have a pic here at some point." One of the fathers asked.


    "Not a problem. All done. I added a standard single-bedroom cottage with a king bed and a wood-burning firece. Since it''s a romantic outing, the users might enjoy a littlefort and privacy." Max agreed.


    The Innu man smirked at him while the other one winked at his wife, who gave a long-suffering sigh.


    "Well,dies, should we start fresh? Perhaps we could pick a random setting for you four to work together to build?" Max suggested.<novelnext></novelnext>


    While Max saved and cleared the setting for the girls to get started on the practical part of their day''s science lesson, Nico and the technicians were busy in theb, getting through the initial tests of the new augmentic helmets for the Canis and other sensitive species.


    "I have optimized the shape for maximum sensory acuity," Nico exined as she handed the test helmet to their volunteers.


    "Isn''t that a bit much, though? I get that the face mask and armor are the same as all the other units, but with the tail sheath and the upright ears on the helmet, I feel a bit like I''m standing here naked." The Canis girlined, stroking the soft fabric ears on the helmet that allowed her own ears to shape the sensor array for directionality in a way that Nico hadn''t managed to emte smoothly with their ears pinned to their head.


    "But it looks like a patrol uniform, with cargo pants and hard torso armor. It''s not that different from what the warriors of your world were wearing. Should we make one in the Special Forces pattern, with the additional upper body armor and modr storage systems?" Nico asked.


    Given their size, the whole armor suit had been custom-made for the Canis volunteers, and Nico had made them more naturally shaped, like the Hunters Suits, instead of thebat uniform look of the human version since Canis warriors usually fought nearly naked in short shorts.


    "I hate to be the one to break this to you, but not all of us have the self-confidence of you or Rill. I prefer loose long sleeves to booty shorts and crop tops." The volunteer muttered.


    "Problem solved, just put them on over your armor," Nico announced, throwing the girl an oversized uniform shirt and pants.


    "Oh, we should modify the face as well. A wolf muzzle would give more room for sensors." One of the Innu technicians suggested before running and hiding under the re of the Canis team.


    "Got it. No wolf face helmets." She squeaked from her hiding spot behind the test bench.


    "Even if this cloth is really hard to cut, wouldn''t a blunt impact cause a fair bit of damage still? Not just to my ears, but to the skull underneath." One of the testers asked.


    "Yes, it''s a drawback of the design. We could add a hard rear shell that would still allow your ears to move or a full hard shell that should only limit your ears'' range of motion to about half normal." Nico agreed.


    "Alright, we will make a full set, including the top armor for the tails, since everyone refused the suggestion to expand the leg armor to tuck them inside." One of the Technicians announced, starting the printing process to make all necessary modifications.


    The Canis didn''t know it yet, but the Innu had determined that they were going to make them absolutely adorable, in a demihuman super soldier way, by the time Max arrived. They had analyzed his past behavior, and if it was both stylish and functional, he was at least 35 percent more likely to not argue with some of their more questionable design choices.

 Chapter 541 541 Convincing The Commander

    Max''s little sisters and the Innu girls worked remarkably well together, and all four were years ahead of the standard development that you would expect of a human their age. None were old enough for standard schooling, by human estimations, but they all understood the concepts of holographic design, and with the innate talents of the Innu, they didn''t even have any troubles with programming locations for the objects that they wanted to ce in the simtion.


    They had chosen to work together while taking notes on the changes they needed to make. But because this was a full-on science lesson, ording to the Innu mothers, they wouldn''t just be cing basic objects. They each needed to modify one they ced and show their work, so their understanding of the principles behind holographic projections could be tested.


    Max had expected his sisters to struggle with the changes since they had no background in the subject and none of the Innu advantages, but the other two girls did a great job of exining the parts that they needed help with and only had to refer to Max a few times for rification.


    "Now that the towers are all made and checked, we are going to start on the modification portion of your daily quiz. I want you to hide the tower inside a tree. But the tree needs a secret door, using an incorporeal projection so that those who know it is false can walk into the tower." The Innu Mother directed the group.


    As soon as the lecture was over and Max had stepped back, intending to let the kids freestyle their way through a scenario creation, she had stepped up with specific instructions, as well as a checklist of skills and understanding she expected by the end of the day.


    Max knew the type, the super intrusive helicopter parent, PTA mom of the year, and general busybody. But, she was very well-versed in scientific theories, and after seeing Max''s practical demonstration, she understood how the interface worked, so she made a lesson n for the kids in only a few seconds.


    Making the hologram work as intended was a bit more tricky than expected.


    The interface was much more technical than most design interfaces would be since they didn''t have a user-friendly software interface as most designers would use, but that was the point of the lesson. If they didn''t understand the projections, they wouldn''t be able to make the one portion of the tree illusionary without changing the whole tree.


    Once they were done and proudly showing off their work, Max gave his sisters a pat on the head and then waved his hand through the doorway they had hidden.


    "All good, and the tree itself is still solid. Passable." He informed them.


    "You don''t grade on a percentage scale?" The Innu girl''s mother asked him.


    "I leave that to their regr teachers. I am personally a results-oriented person, so my grading is a simple pass-fail. As long as it works, it is passable. If it works in ways superior to what was requested, it is outstanding." Max exined.


    "What an intriguing way of looking at the world." The woman replied, but Max could sense that she didn''t mean it as a veiled insult.


    She was genuinely intrigued by the grading system that he used. It was standard for Military Mission Oues, where the only part that really mattered was that the job got done and you weren''t dead. You couldn''t very well grade a take-and-hold mission on a percentage scale. You either did it or didn''t.


    The father''s thoughts were much more interesting to Max, though. He was a tenured University professor back on his homeworld and no longer taught regr sses. Instead, he helped postgraduate students with their dissertations and worked with the government on research projects that were deemed important to academic advancement.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He had deeply studied the Humans, at least as much as the Innu could with the limited data that they had at their disposal, and the Nanotechnology intrigued him.


    The fact that a sentient data had formed among the poption and that it had chosen the humans as hosts to upgrade, but not the whole species, just the ones that were friends of the first group it encountered, was a fascinating study of both human biology and nanotechnology.


    If his theory was right about humans being a nearly perfect host for the technology, thanks to their high levels of bioelectrical output, then the reality might be that the upgrades they received were symbiotic and not actually intentional, while the technology simply itemized the changes that it had made along the way.


    It would exin how he had heard that the System upgraded what you were best at first, but so far, he hadn''t found the correct way to ask permission to study the phenomenon.


    This was his first actual meeting with Max since the staff had greeted his group at the hangar bay doors, and Max could sense him going through dozens of prepared speeches in his mind and weighing them for the likelihood of sess.


    While he was thinking, the lesson wrapped up, and the girls were putting their notes away to prepare for lunch.


    "If you want to ask, now is a great time. Your wife wants to drag you to the spa the moment she can get away from lunch, and the girls have no intentions of making that easy on her since they still want to spend the day together." Max informed the man before anyone could suggest they leave the room.


    "Fascinating, truly fascinating. Tell me, did the system read the brain wave emissions to inform you of my thoughts, or does it work through an active method?" The man asked.


    "Honestly, I really don''t know. The extended range readings are outside of our sensory range, and there isn''t enough data to fully verify the actual working mechanism of this particr system function.


    Mind-rted functions have always been the hardest to quantify since they work on those without the system, but often not as well. If it were never as well, it would be easier, but some mind-rted functions, like mental attacks, work much better on those without the system or mind-rted powers, such as the Illithid possess.


    But we''ve gotten sidetracked. You wanted to ask a question before we parted ways, and now is the best time." Max finished.


    "Well, since you''ve most likely heard all of my proposed appeals already, I will start this way. I have with me formal approval for an indefinite study period aboard Terminus as a researcher of the Human System, as they have officially called the nanotechnologywork that those born within the former Kepler Empire possess.


    What terms would you require in order to make that a reality?"

 Chapter 542 542 Poaching Talent, Again

    Max thought about it for a while and then decided to make a few reasonable restrictions part of the deal in case scientific morality was different between the two species.


    "We will need to make a proper list, but it would certainly include no surgical experiments, and no destructive testing of the Nanotechnology, as it can have adverse effects on both the host who agreed to it and the one attempting to destroy the nanobots. We will want ess to the results for our own scientific purposes, and all subjects must be of the age of majority or have parental permission to participate. For the sake of ethical integrity and verification, an unaffiliated observer must oversee the study process."


    The man''s eyes lit up in joy. "So you really will allow it?"


    "For scientific research purposes. If you fail to procure willing volunteers or anger the System, the study will end immediately. Also, as we don''t know how long the study willst, we are willing to hire additional staff for you and for the quality of life of your family while you are here." Max agreed.


    "Excellent. I look forward to working with you. I will leave this proposal with you and have an amended agreement written up detailing more than the study itself."


    "How many additional staff will Terminus be bringing aboard for the study?" The mother of the family asked, concerned about her kids growing up on an alien ship if their father''s work took years toplete.


    "We will need, at the very minimum, an observer that is not from the university and perhaps not from the Innu or the humans at all. We will need two research assistants for each of them to verify the results, in addition to the human staff we already have here aboard Terminus. We will also need childcare workers since such relocations typically move an entire family unit when humans are the ones doing them.


    Finally, we will need educators, as Terminuscks the staff to provide an Alliance quality education, and it is required by our customs to provide training for children that is at least up to the standard that they would have enjoyed at home.


    It is considered a sign of being a quality employer to provide the necessary facilities for your workers. We simply didn''t have many children aboard at the present, as we are making the transition from a military ship to a generational transport." Max exined.


    "So, entire generations of humans will live aboard this ship? Not just the ones working actively?" She asked.


    "That is correct. While some will choose to retire onto a or take work on one while they raise their children, most of the members of the Trading Company would spend their entire lives calling a single Colony Ship home."


    The kids looked way more excited about those words than the mother did. Her mind said she enjoyed leisurely days doing nothing in their vi while the nannies and tutors took care of the children, and she supervised their work. A short time on Terminus was a vacation, but after too long, it would be more like she was amon housewife.


    "You are free to hire your own staff if you wish to have them apany you during your tenure here. We are not so exclusive that we forbid domestic workers for those who require them. In fact, there is a group of Giants on one of the upper floors that brought their own butlers and maids with them on vacation." Max exined after reading her thoughts.


    "Oh, yes, theary Governor''s family. Their children are mostly grown, but I did see their butler picking up from one of the restaurants." The Professorughed.


    Terminus had more than sufficient staff to make food deliveries within minutes, but still, that group preferred to send their own staff to get anything that they needed when they weren''t going themselves.


    They were paying customers, and from what he could gather, the staff was paid very well, so he wasn''t going to argue about the arrangement, even if it did seem redundant.


    He had thought at first that they were worried about being poisoned by alien foods or political rivals, but the servants didn''t sample any of the dishes they picked up, so that was out. The family simply had their own way of doing things and wasn''t adventurous enough to bend those ways even while on vacation.<novelnext></novelnext>


    They did enjoy the facilities, though, and more than once, the matriarch of the family had fallen asleep in the sauna, iming it was magic on old joints.


    "So, we will have our old tutors back?" The Innu girls asked in sync with each other.


    "Possibly. If Terminus hires sufficient quality teachers, I will consider allowing you to attend public lessons." The mother reluctantly replied.


    "How about this? You are well-versed in educational standards. Perhaps you could help our staff with the job ad? If you find a quality group of teachers, we can add a learning abroad facility to the ship''s amenities and take exchange students for a school year at a time."


    The idea had juste to Max, but it sounded like a lot of fun, and after meeting the Tech Nomads, Max was absolutely certain that there would be a demand for the service. More than a few Innu youngsters wouldn''t be willing to give everything up to explore but would still hold that desire to travel and see new things. A learning abroad program would allow them to do that without upsetting their parents or cking on their sswork.


    "Really? What sort of budget would we be working with?" She asked.


    [Nico, how much are Innu private school teachers and tutors paid?]


    [About eighty thousand credits annually, with the most prestigious of them making low six figures.]


    "With a pair of administrators, plus two educators each for six ssrooms, divided by age, not more than one point five million credits annually," Max replied. That would let them take all ages, and he could expand the numbers if the program really took off.


    "Barely a hundred students?" She asked, curious about Max''s math.


    "Does that seem too small?" He replied, sensing only confused thoughts in her mind.


    The professorughed and filled him in. "You really underestimate the Innu desire to experience new things, don''t you? If you allowed it, they would turn the entire ship into a floating Academy, with a hundred thousand students every year fighting for the right toe back for another year.


    And it''s not just the Innu. The Valkia love to travel for school, as well as the Illithid and the Myceloid. If you wander around the Gxy doing science experiments like this, with some political interventions, you could be one of the Gxy''s most prestigious ces of learning if you could find the right staff."


    Technically, they had a lot of extra space in the ship still. The Academy could be ced behind the Cruise Ship facilities and cordoned off, so students weren''t wandering without permission. The first few cargo bays were dedicated to visitor''s vessels, but the next group waspletely empty since they preferred to use the ones at the back of the ship, closest to the crew quarters, for materials storage and production purposes.


    "Do you have timeter this afternoon or tomorrow? I would like to put a proposal to you, Professor, as well as your very capable wife. I think the Academy might be a wonderful addition, and we could certainly free up five hundred meters of the ship''s length for the purpose." Max asked them formally.

 Chapter 543 543 We Found One

    [Nico, we need to divert some staff. I have an idea for how to make Terminus truly famous. An Elite Academy in the stars. I want to free up five hundred meters of the ship, behind the visitor bays, to use as a private academy for Alliance kids.]


    [You really are going all out for your sisters, aren''t you? We''re about done making the Canis adorable, and we''ve updated the Augmentic suits enough that they will need another round of testing, so we can drop today''s ns, other than the Cloaking Device live stream, but we can start that now and work on the ship renovation ns afterward.]


    The two Innu parents were still shocked at Max''s suggestion when he finished talking to Nico, and the professor had begun drawing on a data tablet with a stylus.


    "Terminus is what, fifteen hundred meters wide? Multiply that by five hundred meters long and a kilometer tall. Are you making an Academy or a small city?" He finally asked.


    "An academy. Our crew''s children will attend in addition to the others once we have children that age. But I n to make it self-contained. Unlike the guests, the Students won''t be wandering the Cruise Ship at will, except on their day off. So it needs dorms, the academy, some sporting facilities, and other faculties." Max exined.


    Usually, a private Academy was very closed off to keep the kids focused on education, but being able to get live feeds from outside the ship was enough to make it ultra-prestigious, and there was a chance that they could make shoreside excursions as a group if they found a suitable, the same way that Terminus did for the Cruise Ship guests.


    "I know just exactly who we need to talk to. Auntie Medusa. She has been the practice headmistress, and she''s an architect that makes schools that don''t suck." One of the Innu girls suggested.


    "We have the technology tomunicate back to your home Gxy if you like. We can also send a shuttle to go get her if she wants toe to examine the facilities that need to be reworked, assuming, of course, that she agrees and that her resume checks out." Max replied, trying not tough at the girl''s description of her aunt''s capability.


    "She has six doctorate degrees, including early childhood education, architecture, business, psychology, and two in engineering fields." The Mother exined.


    "Six doctorates? The Innu really do love their education, don''t they? What is she doing for work now?" Max asked.


    "She''s between positions." The woman replied politely.


    "She called her boss a stupid head and told him that he made kids'' life suck." The helpful little girl added before being silenced by her mother.


    "You know, I can hear her thoughts, right? Silencing her mouth doesn''t stop anything." Max reminded the Innu woman.


    "I swear, she''s a good employee. She''s just very outspoken about implementing policies that help students." The woman apologized.


    "Yeah, she''s the best." The girls agreed.


    "Alright, let''s make somefortable couches again, and we can contact her before lunch." Max agreed, much to the children''s disappointment.


    Medusa, as the daughter called her, appeared in front of their eyes only a few secondster, picking up very quickly after the call from her sister came in.


    "Lucy, darling, tell me you''re bringing those wonderful little imps toe to see me again?" She greeted her sister.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Not quite. I have a job offer for you from Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, the human who runs the cruise ship where we are on vacation. He wants to build an academy for exchange students on the ship, so they can tour the Gxy with his group." She exined.


    "Students on an extreme cruise ship? Is that safe or wise?"


    Max chuckled, catching the woman''s attention. "I assure you, it is quite safe. We travel with a very capable escort, and I want the students to be housed in an enclosed Academy, not wandering the ship as a whole. If you think it might still be too dangerous, I can arrange a small armada to apany us wherever we go."


    That was going to happen anyhow, as they had sent a number of ships to be refit already and rmissioned under the Terminus Trading Company banner, but he hadn''t chosen Commanders for any of them yet. Most likely, he would give the honor to the Four Battalions and keep one with him since there were four Cruisers, and he would sell the rest of the captured vessels to Mary Tarith.


    That would mean that he needed to train a whole new Regiment of Mecha Pilots, but that was nothing new to him, and it would be better to have the other ships under themand of someone he trusted and knew very well rather than having strangers represent his Trading Company.


    "You mean the Five Cutters that I have seen in the video feeds of your intervention against the Narsians? Yes, that would be more than sufficient to convince the parents that their children would be safe." Medusa agreed.


    "Those are part of the ship''s armory. I was suggesting additional forces, but if they''re not needed, I am happy to continue as we are." Max informed her.


    "It seems I must see for myself what I am working with here. There aren''t any outside views of your ship avable online. I looked once I saw that my dear nieces would be visiting you. Howrge is Terminus?"


    "Just over five kilometers in length. While it would be considered understaffed by human standards as a vessel of war, it is more than capable of defending itself against the forces of a small nation, should that be necessary.


    We are on a diplomatic mission, so ongoing conflict isn''t the goal, only a side effect of intervening to assist other human poptions."


    "Give me fifteen minutes to pack a bag, I live right next to the gateway, and I have a private shuttle, assuming you can open a portal this far." Medusa agreed.


    "I will have traffic control send you coordinates, and I will patch you through to them, so you can inform them of any local traffic regtions in your system. We don''t have a full database yet." Max agreed.


    "See you soon."


    With that, she cut the link, and the girls turned to look at their parents with great hope in their eyes.


    "Does that mean we''re staying here on a forever vacation with Auntie Medusaing to visit?"


    "It looks like it. I had better get in contact with the academy right away. You lot have fun, and Commander Keres, I will contact you directlyter this afternoon. I believe the Academy might have a proposal to help with your staffing issues. They have branches on forty-sevens, all exclusive private facilities, and they might be interested in expanding, even after my Sister in Law told off the board of Governors to their faces." The Professor replied.


    This Innu woman was sounding like more and more fun all the time. Max loved strong personalities. They were honest enough to tell everyone what was on their mind. They just had to be epting enough to deal with the fact that they might not always be right, and they made for great leaders.

 Chapter 544 544 The Sound Of Little Feet

    As promised, Medusa had her affairs in order and was on her way into orbit to reach the arranged transport point within the next fifteen minutes. That sort of enthusiasm in a potential employee wasn''t something you could buy, though Max suspected it was almost entirely due to the presence of her nieces since her additional messages asked three times about how they were doing but didn''t mention her sister at all.


    [Commander, we are ready to open the portal.] The traffic control officer reported.


    [Perfect, bring her in and have the staff prepare to wee any other guests that are arriving at the same time. I have seen in the messages we are due to get more than a few new guests from the surrounding systems.] Max replied.


    The Cruise Ship was getting full already, but there were still rooms, and some guests would be leaving in the next few days, out of vacation time for the year, so they should be fine as long as they didn''t open too many more unscheduled portals, which many tourists viewed as free standby airfare. If they could get to it and book rooms before it closed, they could piggyback on the portal without having to pay the full energy expenditure to open one to Terminus.


    "Everyone, head to your choice of restaurant for lunch. I do hope you two don''t mind watching the girls for me while I go gather Miss Medusa from the docks?" Max asked.


    "Of course not. I don''t think we could pry them apart at this point, so there is no harm if you head out for a few minutes on official business." The Professor agreed.


    "In that case, we can order anything we like, right? I want crepes and waffles for lunch." Sasha joked.


    "What is a crepe?" One of the Innu girls asked, unaware of the existence of such a food.


    "It''s whipped cream and fruit wrapped in a thin pancake. They''re amazing." Sasha replied with a big smile.


    "That does not sound like a proper lunch. But since it''s a special event, if you all finish your food, I will allow a sweet snack this afternoon." Lucy sighed.


    She could already tell that the human girls led a much less structured life than her own girls, whose life at home had every meal carefully nned for them by a professional nutritionist and their meal schedule set by a time management expert.


    Both Max and her husband thought this was a great development since it forced her to lighten up, even a little bit, instead of being the ultimate helicopter parent and an obsessive micromanager. If the Academy was founded and they agreed to stay aboard Terminus with the Professor, the girls might even get to move into a dorm.


    They would still have everything nned for them, but they would at least have the hope of making some choices for themselves once they came of age to start formal education.


    Max jogged to thending bays just as his new architect applicant and potential academy headmistressnded and noticed that she was not alone as he had assumed she would be with fifteen minutes'' notice.


    There was a slightly younger adult Innu woman with her, as well as four small children.


    Max thought for a moment about Innu culture to determine how he should address the group, then realized that it was likely her whole family, not an assistant. The Innu preferred designer children, using advanced gic engineering, and four out of five of them were female.<novelnext></novelnext>


    One of the children was a boy, or at least, appeared to be one, thanks to the difference in body structure, though they were all wearing matching school uniforms, so they must have been hastily grabbed out of the middle of a lesson.


    "Wee Miss Medusa. Thank you for taking the time to listen to our proposal. This must be your lovely family, is it?" He weed them.


    "Sort of, but not quite. This is my youngest sister and her children. They were visiting when the call came in, and I simply herded everyone into the ship with their luggage." She exined.


    "Well, we have plenty of room. Come with me, and I will lead you to where the rest of your family is having lunch with my little sisters. We can talk afterward."


    The excited anticipation from the two adults was almost reminiscent of Nico waiting for battle. They knew that it was going to be a big surprise since they hadn''t told Lucy that the rest of them wereing, and they were secretly taking great pleasure in the stress that they were going to cause her.


    Their thoughts said thatpared to her, the youngest sister was a borderline Tech Nomad, living a free and random lifestyle with her kids. Both sisters apparently made a habit of stressing Lucy''s need for an absolutely rigid structure and made a point of showing up together or five minutes early for appointments.


    "How do three sisters end up so wildly different?" Max asked Medusa as they walked out of the bay together.


    "Our mother is almost exactly like our sister. We all responded differently to her care. Lucy became her, I buried myself in academia, and Euri here went full rebellious daughter. She didn''t even pick a partner. She had her children designedpletely custom from her own gics." She exined.


    "Oh, this is going to be good then. The girls barely managed to convince your sister that she could be flexible with nutritional guidelines and allow a sweet dessert after lunch. Try not to stress her out too much, she is still a guest of the Terminus Trading Company, and her husband is working on a proposal to do a long-term study of humanity based here aboard the ship."


    "Trust me. It will be fine. What sort of space do you have for me to work with, so I can start making a design for the academy? I have dozens of education-friendly ns already made, but they are all designed for terrestrial use, not to be implemented inside a spaceship."


    "Here are the basic ns for the sector that you will be working with. You will have full ess to only human technologies, but you will find that we can be quite versatile, and you can use solid holograms to design multi-use spaces if necessary." Max offered.


    "Carte nche to design a full facility, as long as it fits in this space? Oh, this will be wonderful. Especially these huge open spaces, what is that, fifty meters tall, and with multipleyers of them stacked up?" She gushed, nearly walking into a wall in her distraction.


    "Those are cargo bays at the moment, they all have exits to the outside, but you can feel free to block them if you wish, for safety''s sake. The design identifies the sections that can be safely modified and removed as well, so you can open up multiple floors in some regions instead of integrating them."


    Medusa shook her head. "That would be missing out on the best part of being aboard a Colony Ship. Building the facility as integral to the ship will remind the students where they are while I can use the outer levels to join them."

 Chapter 545 545 Medusa Has Grand Plans

    "I think, for the sake of staffing and exclusivity, we should limit the amount of this space that we actually use, though. Say ten thousand students. It would take less than a quarter of the space allocated, even with the facilities. I will get a n made tonight and have it ready for you in the morning. But first, you said there are human children here? How old?" The educator continued.


    "My younger sisters, twins, just under five. There are also twin boys, but they''re still toddlers. We have a few newborns aboard, but they won''t be a concern for the academy for some time."


    "Marvelous. We will start with the oldest, so I can assess their learning curve. Did you know that some of the Alliance Species grow at a very different rate to Innu? The Giants and Valkia don''t reach mental growth until nearly forty standard years old, while most species are around twenty, and the Innu are considered mentally mature enough to finish primary education at twelve."


    "That is where the system enhanced humans move from basic education to specialized trade education as well, though most of the human poption finishes basic schooling around seventeen, with higher education finishing around twenty-two, at which point they join the skilled workforce."


    Medusa nodded to show her understanding. "It does make things more difficult for mixed species education in the long term, but if they only attend the academy for a single year, anything is possible. Don''t worry. I have plenty of knowledge on the subject."


    Max led them past the Gravity Slides, much to the children''s disappointment, and straight to a restaurant by the main entrance, where the rest of the group was waiting for them.


    "They''re at a table on the left, and I have ordered the staff to link another table for us all to sit at," Max informed them right before the sound of excited children burst the silence in the air.


    The cousins had seen each other through the window, and they were rushing to greet each other while Lucy set her head in her hands and mentally counted down from twenty, a stress management technique that even Max could recognize.


    Max and the others followed the kids into the restaurant, where the pair waiting for them was still staring in shock at the newly arrived Innu children.


    "Medusa, Euri, it''s a shock to see you both here together. To what do we owe the honor?" Lucy asked, looking more than a little displeased to see her youngest sister.


    "You know, I was visiting, and since school is between semesters, we thought we might tag along. Sister ns to open an academy here, or so I''ve heard, and with a bit of luck, I might manage to score some schrship spots from her." Euri responded nonchntly as if she were talking about her usual morning shopping, not a trip across dozens of Gxies with her family on fifteen minutes'' notice.


    "Well, it''s good to see you here, even if we weren''t expecting it. Look how happy it makes the girls, and it''s the perfect opportunity for Medusa to prove to the Commander here that she is capable of instituting a structured system to keep unruly children in line." Lucy added, barely managing to keep the contempt for her sister out of her voice.


    "Of course. I wouldn''t have brought them along if I didn''t think they would help me prove my capabilities to the Commander. He has already agreed to look at my preliminary drawings in the morning, so I will have to retire after lunch to get to work, but I am certain that the kids can spend some constructive time together, enjoying their youth. Within the bounds of propriety, though.<novelnext></novelnext>


    I heard something about a sweet dessert named crepes. Perhaps they can use that as a group bonding exercise, despite their difference in ages."


    Max was thoroughly enjoying the family ribbing they were giving each other, but the father of the younger Innu girls had discretely led them to the far side of the table so that they were as far away from their mother as possible.


    It was a great bit of foresight since everyone in the cafe could see that things were going to get seriously snarky among the sisters if nobody intervened, and having them in the crossfire couldn''t possibly end well.


    It also put them right next to Medusa, who was so eager to see her nieces when they were talking earlier that she didn''t even hesitate to make the trip.


    "You say that you only need a quarter of the space I had avable for the academy. Is there a particr reason for not spreading things out more?" Max asked Medusa to change the topic.


    "Efficiency. If you ce them too far from the sses, it takes longer to get anywhere, so precious time is wasted in transit. With high-density dorms as well as the closely integrated living and learning spaces that the ship''s architecture allows, we can actually increase efficiency over a standard terrestrialyout.


    The dorms can be ced on a floor directly above or below their section''s ssrooms, so the majority of theirmute will be within their own social circle, with minimal distractions, but the Common areas can be ced as an interveningyer, so that everyone must pass through them and intermingle, which builds a sense ofmunity, as well as letting ss rivalries build by proximity.


    That is why grades are always publicly posted. You can hide the names, but if you put up the grade and ss with a student number, the students in other groups can see how their rivals are doing.


    That''s especially important to an Elite Academy like this, where many students will be transferred for a single year from their homes to be judged against each other''s aplishments."


    "So, the idea is that they can build group pride among their ssmates while also keeping a lower level of pride in the Academies that they came from to carry with them when they return. Like bragging rights for special training?" Max asked.


    "Exactly like that. Of course, I don''t think that having everyone be a single-year transfer is wise. We need a solid base that is trained here from the start or for the remainder of their academy years to form a baseline for the transfers to judge their own standards against."


    That sounded exactly like Kepler treated the Special Forces students and even the Pilots versus the nobat paths and the Infantry. Everyone was a rival, and the Pilots were the standard that everyone else was judged against.

 Chapter 546 546 Innu Meet Sugar

    While they were talking, the children all finished their lunches, and Euri ordered them all crepes with mixed fruits and custard, which she deemed the optimalbination from the menu she was presented with.


    It wasn''t until they finished their dessert that anyone realized that the Innu children had never really experienced sugar before. For all her permissiveness, Euri was big on an all-natural diet at home, so they didn''t eat many sweets other than fruit, and Lucy''s children rarely even went that far, as their mother''s hired nutritionist deemed treats an inefficient ingestion of calories.


    Inyman''s terms, that meant that they had six very hyper Innu children who were more than a little eager to see the sights of a human cruise ship and try out the Gravity Slides for themselves.


    "Would you like me to assign a crewman to apany them?" Max asked when the children''s pleading began to make a vein on the side of Lucy''s head twitch.


    "No, she caused it so she can deal with it." The woman dered, looking at her youngest sister.


    "In that case, there are swimsuits avable at the kiosk by the entrance to the gravity slides. Be sure to check the map well, as they all end up in pools, but not all on the same level. The gravity maniption makes the actual direction of travel irrelevant, and more than a few guests have found themselves sidetracked by taking the wrong tunnel branch." Max informed her.


    Medusa''s eyes lit up at the proposal. "Excellent, you can keep them busy for a few hours, and I will have a long visit with these wonderful human children so that they can teach me about the ship''s best features, and I can learn a few more things about how young humans work. How does that sound?"


    She directed thest bit at Sasha and Sandy, who gave her a thumbs up and gged down the server to order one of the fruit teas that this particr cafe specialized in.


    They weren''t standard replicator items. They were hand mixed from multiple drinks, so you could only find them at this particr location, though you could make them yourself with a little creativity or knowledge.


    "Oh, that''s good. The school will need a cafeteria. Will Terminus be able to provide these replicators inrge enough numbers?" Medusa asked, unfamiliar with human technology beyond the fact that it was known that they were barely past the status of a primitive culture by Alliance standards in the official database.


    "We can, and any furniture and building materials that you require can also be produced on board unless they are a material that isn''t known to humanity. We have a fairlyrge supply avable, and we will be terraforming a in the near future, so we will have an abundance of raw materialsing in."


    "That''s even better. Might I borrow these two darlings for a while? I presume you have better things to do than to hang out with us all day, given your position." She suggested.


    "I will contact their guardian, so she cane and keep an eye on them, as well as show you around the ship. But I cleared most of my schedule for the day for your arrival, so I''m not so strapped for time as I would usually be." Max agreed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Lucy and her husband looked relieved and excused themselves to their room for a bit of alone time, now that Euri was watching the kids for a while, while Max messaged Molly to meet them right here, so she could apany them to Medusa''s room and take care of the kids in case Max had to leave suddenly.


    He might be nning on hiring her to run the academy, but Max still hadn''t fully vetted Medusa, so leaving his own sisters alone with her wasn''t going to happen today. He would do the full verification of her credentials and history tonight while she worked on the design and determine if she was the right person to be running the school as well as building it.


    "Hi, sorry for the wait. How are the girls? Not ready for their nap yet?" Molly asked as she came into the Cafe.


    "Not yet. They just had a crepe, so they''ve got some energy left. Meet Medusa. She will be designing and leading the construction of an Academy here aboard Terminus and quite possibly running it as well.


    Medusa, this is Molly, a former social worker and professional in the care and raising of human children, as well as dealing with troubled kids from difficult backgrounds." Max exined.


    "Just the sort of person I needed to meet among the humans. It is a pleasure to meet you and your children." Medusa replied, giving Molly a very professional handshake.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you as well. I would be very interested to know how the Innu treat education, given their unique advantages in interacting with technology."


    The conversation got immediately deep and technical, so Max distracted the girls with crayons and coloring pages grabbed from Molly''s purse. She carried convenient distractions everywhere she went, a habit learned many years ago at work, where the kids often needed distractions while very upset parents dealt with Social Services.


    The technical talk just dragged on and on until both girls were beginning to nod off, so Medusa agreed to get her information from Molly, who was eager to help design a new facility for the ship, and Dave was called in to collect the girls.


    That left Max free for a few hours, so he headed to the Developmentbs to see how the new Cloaking device wasing along. The technicians would have moved on to other projects already since they had so much to do to prepare for the terraforming, but they could spare a few minutes to go over the technical jargon in the live stream that Max couldn''t follow.


    As usual, once things started happening aboard Terminus, they all happened at once.

 Chapter 547 547 We Need More Data

    The live stream of the cloaking device in development was over by the time Max was free to join the technicians, but that didn''t slow down the to-do list for the day. Instead of hanging around with the technicians, he went to double-check that the area for the new schoolplex was clear and ready for development, with no hidden makeout or pic spots tucked away in the disused areas of the ship.


    Everyone needed a little bit of alone time now and then, and gossip spread faster than anything else among a unit, so couples that didn''t want everyone to know their business always needed a spot to meet somewhere on the ship.


    Terminus had a lot of those sorts of spots, with so little of its space fully utilized, even after loading a full regiment of Mecha and a couple of thousand tourists on board.


    He had just finished his walkthrough, and uploading the updated 3D imaging to Medusa, when he received a message from Admiral Drake, letting him know that they had a proper sensor view of the destination now and that they could start calcting the number of Terraforming pods that would be needed for aplete to revitalize the, as well as how many asteroids would need to be transported over to its location to rece depleted resources.


    They were doing this for the benefit of the Hunters who were already waiting there, but mostly for the Human refugees who would be calling the ce home, so making sure that it was a proper and not a used-up and discarded relic of a long dead society was of the utmost importance.


    At this point, they didn''t even know what sort of being had lived here, but the first sensor scans from the Hunters wereing in with excellent detail. There were entire ruined cities made of abination of stone and primitive alloys, as well as decrepit facilities that looked to Max to have been dmissioned, not abandoned.


    There was no rubble around them, so either it had been used elsewhere, or whoever had used itst took the good parts with them.


    [The newest of the ruins appears to be just shy of one million years into decay after its abandonment, judging by the degradation of the alloys. We have also found buried facilities that do not contain any known material.


    Our entire database, both of Alliance and non-Alliance sources, does not include this material. It''s not even an element. The entire structure is a single molecr bond of disrupted atoms.


    Huntress Khan requests that this location is ced off limits for modification during the terraforming so that she might study it while the rest of the is prepared for habitation.]


    The data portion of the message included by the Hunters made no sense to Max, so he forwarded it to the technicians and Nico while he examined the included diagram for himself.


    His past life had knowledge of many things, but this was not one of them. He couldn''t even fathom how it could have been created until he recalled a nomadic species that his personal fleet had once encountered. Their ship had been made of something simr to this material, but they had refusedmunication and left the Gxy when he tried to talk to them.


    The unidentified ship repeated the process over and over in various Gxies nearby until finally, they simply vanished, presumably finding the uninhabited area they were searching for.


    He couldn''t tell if it would be considered durable, highly advanced, or simply confounding by their current standards. His fleet just didn''t learn enough about that ship before it disappeared. The example that they had found here was too precious to tamper with at this time.


    More reports came in as the Hunters scanned the, and dozens more buildings, statues, and random items were made of the unknown substance. At least that meant there was enough now that the Hunters could experiment on it while keeping all of the other locations off-limits, so they didn''t cause an unexpected interaction with the Terraforming Machines.


    He didn''t even realize how much time was passing until Nico came in with a fresh set of clothes in her arms and a tray of breakfast.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "You have a meeting with Medusa in two hours. She has no fewer than seven separate facilities designed, and she is very excited to tell you all about them. I ran into her and the kids on my tour past the breakfast buffet just now.


    After that, we will be arriving at the designated, and you''ve got a meeting with Huntress Khan, who wants to talk to us both in person. She says that what she has to tell us can''t be ryed to the Alliance, so it will have to happen on her ship.


    I''ve already started on the important things so that you can focus on school matters. Just a friendly reminder that the majority of Alliance schools have just let out for semester break, and this is the time to have them send applications if you want to open right away and not half a year from now.


    What else was there? Oh, yes. Dave sends his regards and thanks you for helping the girls make more friends."


    They really should have stayed on Rae 5, and Max had even made arrangements for them to do exactly that at one point when the was being colonized. However, in the end, they were still aboard when Terminus left again, and he may have forgotten all about the matter until it was toote to turn around.


    "Alright, I will get everything going on the school so that we can bring students aboard for the next semester since we will be here for a while anyhow.


    You take care of the matters, and we will both go visit Huntress Khan this evening. Did you find out anything about that material?" Max asked.


    "A thing or two. I know how it is formed since I managed to make it in my past life, but actually using it and shaping it is beyond anything I knew." Nico replied, then reyed the memories for Max to look through.


    She had been experimenting with ways of weaponizing the destabilization of space-time and had managed to make some fragments of that material that appeared to be one continuous atomic structure, but nothing that they had was able to shape it after it was formed.


    Their disruptors tore it apart with ease, but it was mostly impervious tosers, and Ion weapons seemed to actually grow it in the most unexpected ways. It could also be broken by hand if you knew the trick of coating your gloves in an energy barrier first.


    Nothing about the material made sense, but that was only due to limited understanding, and it was possible that Huntress Khan had more information on the subject.


    It might not be good news if the Alliance wasn''t allowed to learn of it, but it was news.


    "Alright, back to work. We''ve got a lot to do." Max sighed.


    "Oh no, I didn''t walk all the way here to leave without my eye candy. Pants off, big boy. Get some clean clothes on."

 Chapter 548 548 Innu Architecture

    Max picked Medusa up at her suite to take her to the designated school area so they could go over the ns properly.


    It seemed that the Innu had a rather cool holographic tool that would let her ovey her proposed design on the existing structures, so they could get a good feel for what her vision would be like as a student or educator living within the Academy.


    "I think we should start with the most traditional first. Terminus is an ancient Colony Ship, and the interior ten-meter ceilings are perfect for the traditional grandeur of a historic Academy." She began once they reached the cargo bay where the tour would begin, at the bottom of the ship.


    The fifty-meter wall of the cargo bay disappeared behind square stone blocks, with numerous small windows lining nearly every meter of the surface in five rows, marking the five interior levels that could see into this bay.


    "If you like, the vertical dividers of the bays are removable so that you can have up to a full kilometer of open space vertically with only a few structural supports," Max suggested.


    Medusa shuddered at the suggestion and shook her head. "While I n to have some higher spaces in the upper levels, the Innu are an amphibious species, not a flying one. Just the thought of looking out a hallway or bedroom window down a thousand meters to the ground is enough to give me vertigo.


    It would also be hard to properly calibrate a gravity topensate for terminal velocity and prevent injuries in the event of an idental fall.


    I didn''t program much into this area since it will be the weing area for the academy, so it is only these open gstones. The windows, the huge double doors, and the exposed bay door will remind everyone that they are, in fact, still aboard a space-faring vessel are the important parts.


    There is a card space above the main doors for the school crest and name, which I didn''t have ess to during the design phase. We can add thoseter."


    Max followed her through the six-meter tall solid wood double doors with ckened steel banding suitable for a medieval castle and into the main floor hallway of the academy.


    The interior was a mix of light-colored stone and richly oiled wood, with golden ornamentation and luxurious-looking couches set into alcoves on either side, leading back dozens of meters on either side. The ceilings were vaulted, and covered in murals, for that particr feeling of wealth and nobility that Max had seen from everyary Governor and high Noble he had ever met.


    It had the ambiance of an old-fashioned Gentlemen''s club, the sort where business was done in luxury and the behind-the-scenes decisions that actually ruled a world were made. Max noticed that she had included replicators built into walls above carved wooden tables so that tea sets and light snacks could constantly be on offer, made fresh as someone approached.


    "If this is just the entryway, I daresay you are nning on bringing the children ofary governors here and not just any lucky student who happens to make the grade," Max told her with a smile.


    "In Innu Architecture, it is considered to be good manners to design for the highest level of guests that you feelfortable hosting and not the average of the guests that you will have. So, since there is a good chance that a plutocrat who controls multiple star systems might send a child or the child of a close rtive here, it is necessary that the whole school be built to a standard that they wouldn''t be embarrassed to show their peers when they return home.


    Anything less would lose its prestige in an instant." Medusa informed him.


    "Interesting. On my homeworld, all schools are run by the military, so they are grim, uniform, and utilitarian ces, not pces with a side of education." Max replied.


    "Oh, make no mistake, educational discipline is paramount to the school experience. We have differing opinions on how best to teach subjects to improveprehension, but the ssrooms themselves are designed for maximum concentration and ergonomics so that nothing disturbs the learning experience."


    Medusa led him through the grand and opulent facilities of themon areas, study halls, and separate libraries for the differing course majors on the first five floors. Then they went up to the true core of the building, the ssrooms, sports areas, and gymnasiums.<novelnext></novelnext>


    This was one of the areas where she had linked and expanded the cargo bays so that some sport which the Valkia and other flying species loved to y could be amodated, but mostly it was ssrooms like Max recalled, only much more luxurious, with high tech chairs that formed to your body.


    The chairs put you into a virtual reality simtion with the teacher so that they could demonstrate everything they were teaching in real-time without the need for dozens of additionalbs.


    Above that, the floorn was no longer so open, and the student amodations were split into four towers. The n was to have sixteen total years of schooling avable here, starting at age four for the crew''s children.


    That tower also included a huge daycare center for parents who wanted someone to watch their children while they worked, a standard among Innu since they custom-designed their children. No Innu-designed facility was without daycare starting from birth.


    The first four years would all be in one tower, and their ssrooms could be ced closest to them, with the daycare on the higher levels that were more easily essible from the crew quarters through a secure secondary entrance.


    Each of the other towers would also contain four years of students, keeping them somewhat within their age groups within the academy, but the ssroom andmon areas would let them mingle outside their dorm towers with ease.


    It was opulent beyond Max''smoner sensibilities, grand enough that even Mary Tarith wouldn''t find a fault with its luxuries and absolutely beautiful.


    "This is incredible, and I see why you picked it first. What were the other design themes?" Max asked, poking his head into what would be a dorm room with six queen-sized beds and separate desks in one of the older age group''s dorms. This particr room had a more feminine feeling to it, with softer colors, less dark wood, and red velvet, but it lost none of its grandeur.


    "After seeing your reaction, I have two more that I think would meet your standards. One is a light-colored post-modern open n design, and the other is actually quite simr to this, but with a steampunk theme. It''s all the rage among the wealthy children these days, but I fear it might look dated too quickly if the trend changes."


    "And the rejected options?" Max asked.


    "Shin forest with living spaces, where the carpets are actually a live fungus, and there are artificial Pixies as helpers floating around the area instead of automated cleaners. That one had a low chance of eptance, but it is very beautiful, and I didn''t know what your species liked or how they decorated their own spaces when given unlimited resources.


    Thest ones are all the various noble themes of the major Alliance species. Greystone and frost for the Valkia, blue and gold with polished silver instead of stone and wood, which the Giants prefer, and the bioluminescent caverns of the Myceloid."


    As she spoke, she flipped through the projections so Max could see what she was talking about. None of them was terrible, but none of them suited humanity quite as well as this. If it weren''t for the clearly alien frescoes on the ceilings of the hallway, it would have fit right in on most humans.


    "Not bad designs and I might want to employ some of them for new themed spaces in the cruise ship, but the first was the best for the Academy. I will give you permission to begin, and I have already requisitioned a terraforming drone pod as well as materials to get started.


    I will let you finish your work, and then you can clear any changes you had to make with me. Most materials can be recycled with enough power usage, and Terminus has plenty of power avable at the moment, so do your best to get the structureplete, so we can start talking about staffing and student recruitment issues.


    I will have a contract offer to stay on as the first headmistress of the Academy drawn up by evening and delivered to you."

 Chapter 549 549 Orbiting Raeven

    While Nico was disappointed with the rate of progress that they were making on the cloaking device, they were still making progress, and in a uniquely human fashion, not using any methodology that was known before.


    Simple optical camouge was a simple matter, they could already do that to some extent with Keper technology, but it only blocked eyes and cameras using visible light, so it wasn''t in widespread use.


    To be considered fully cloaked, a standard sensor suite shouldn''t be able to detect the object, and that included sound, thermal emissions, and energy signatures, which any ship they passed or alerted patrol would be looking for.


    The Hunters weren''t, strictly speaking, allowed to help her with the project. Still, she had a meeting with Huntress Khan in only a few minutes as soon as Max arrived at the shuttle bay, and she was certain that she could weasel a little more help out of her without breaking the restrictions ced on her by the agreement her species had with the Alliance.


    If you ignored the sensor readings that said the precious minerals had been fully extracted, and the air was toxic, Raeven was a beautiful, floating below them like a blue and green marble, tinted slightly teal by the toxins in the atmosphere.


    It somewhat reminded her of the clear waters of the pond they had found at a vacation spot, the one with the waterfall and the opal stone bottom, absolutely beautiful. She would have to ensure that the efforts to terraform it and prepare for the arrival of a new poption didn''t destroy the natural beauty of the.


    So, while she waited for Max to finish his meeting with Medusa, she drew up ns to turn the''s barren moon into a major industrial facility. Asteroid mining drones could feed it, and the produced products would be sent back down to the at regr intervals, which would allow the workers to operate in shifts and keep the early stages of industrialization off the.


    There was no telling how many people they would want to send to this world. Even if they sent a billion, the majority of industrial workers could be stationed on the moon, while high-efficiency biomass farming could take care of the part that needed to be done on the surface.


    That seemed like a much better n to her, so Nico added it, as well as the necessary spaceport, to the floating city that she was designing for the first inhabitants, which should be fully self-sustaining for a hundred million people, spreading over a thousand square kilometers, and suspended above the surface by pirs and gravity control devices.


    She was doing her best to get that design finished while Max was busy since he knew that he would recall it from her memories right away when he saw the ns.


    It was the Impossible City, or the City of Demons, as his soldiers had called it in her past life after her forces had taken it and made it theirrgest-ever recruiting facility. A monument to human achievement that had been the most advanced feat of engineering ever attempted.


    Of course, this one just looked like it since she didn''t have the technology or knowledge to actually remake the original.<novelnext></novelnext>


    There was something about the surface ruins that bothered her though like she was missing something huge, something important, but she simply couldn''t figure out what it was. That was what upied her mind when Max finally showed up to catch a shuttle to the Hunters mothership for their meeting with Khan.


    "How bad do you think it''s going to be?" Max asked once they had departed the ship, and even the Illithid could no longer hear their thoughts.


    "I think it''s going to be huge, but not immediately dangerous, or she would have warned us not to try to terraform this.


    There are a dozen others just like it, all built the same right down to the continent shapes, so there is no need to remain on this one if there is any sort of a reason not to pick it." Nico shrugged.


    There wasn''t really time for more conversation, as the two ships were only a few dozen kilometers apart, incredibly close by orbital standards but convenient for both parties in this case.


    Huntress Khan greeted them at thending bay with a very serious look on her face and led them silently to a meeting room, where a series of energy fields engaged as they entered the first of three sets of doors and then again at eachyer after that.


    If they weren''t already clear that this was a private conversation, even from her own troops, they were now.


    "I will cut to the chase. I still don''t know what that material is, and that bothers me, but what bothers me more is this statue I found. That, my friends, is the God of War. Not a god in the literal sense. It was a God ss Mecha, or perhaps a world ship from the annals of Hunter history. The story is a fairy tale to Hunters, so the exact size and description are somewhat blurred.


    We didn''t make it, but in our earliest space-faring days as a species, we saw it traveling and the utter ruin it left in its wake. Entire sr systems were destroyed, and trillions of sentient life forms were dead within days and reced by a new civilization as if they never existed.


    The species that operated it ruled a region of space a billion standard units beyond the Alliance borders, near the edge of what the Hunters had mapped at the time, until something happened to them. After a hundred thousand years of utter domination of their region of space, they simply vanished.


    Now, this is important because while it was a billion standard units beyond the Alliance, that makes it even further from this Gxy. There is no reason that ruins that are exactly like hunter fairy tales and statues of that machine should be anywhere near your civilization." Huntress Khan began.

 Chapter 550 550 Theories And Speculation

    "I have a thought. The edge of Hunter territory isn''t far from us, but they operated on the far side of what Hunters considered known space. Is it possible that Hunters or another species with a territory thaty closer to us had seen, observed, or interacted with that society and had tried to establish a colony in this Gxy?" Nico asked.


    Khan shook her head. "At the time we interacted with them five hundred thousand years ago, we were among the most advanced species we had ever encountered and the oldest since so many be gically unstable after a few hundred thousand years and either devolve or evolve into something entirely different.


    Never mind keeping the same mythology, the human species didn''t exist a million years ago and likely won''t exist a million years from now, given their rate of evolution. These ruins are a million or more years old, and the statue was found in even more ancient ruins, buried in manyyers of rubble beneath the surface ruins."


    She paused for a moment while Max worked to grasp the full implications. At the very least, the statue matched the description of a Hunter fairy tale monster from half a million years ago. Still, the ruins were twice that old and a billion standard units apart, being separated by hundreds of thousands of stars.


    There was a chance that it was a simple coincidence, thew of probabilities having two societies creating nearly identical-looking things, but the ancient ruins where there should have been no sentient life in this gxy made Max think that maybe there was arge portion of their history missing.


    "I know this isn''t the question anyone wants to hear, but what are the chances that this is the home Gxy of those beings who eradicated and reced entire civilizations in an instant? If they started here and then moved on for some reason, either due to a threat, war, or a simple urge to explore, it is possible that our Gxy might have hosted an advanced civilization when most of thes were only beginning to show signs of intelligence." Max suggested.


    "That was my thought when I called you here. I looked into your lore for signs, and they are all there. Your entire history is full of monsters, lost civilizations, and other myths that match the species in your Gxy, which you wouldn''t get to meet until after you invented space travel.


    I think that this cluster of identical systems might have been their first attempt at forming a Gxy to their own wishes as they spread through the stars.


    But if they were here and thenter so far away, it means that they might have gone in other directions as well. If that is the case, they might not all be gone, and we might be in for a rather rude surprise if we happen to see them again." The Huntress agreed.


    "So, what is your proposal?" Max asked.


    "I think we need more than a few floating cities full of humans and some alien resorts. I want to bring a full Hunter Fleet to this Gxy and search the other identicals for signs of the oldest ruins and this strange material so that we can understand it and the species that made it.


    A million years ago, they were more powerful than anything that we have ever seen since. We can''t pass up that opportunity to grow as a species."


    That logic actually made a lot of sense to Max, given the Hunter society''s obsession with strength.


    "If that is the case, take this data. It is an experiment with weaponizing space-time that will create the most rudimentary form of that material. I don''t know anything about using or shaping it or even about the majority of its properties, but I can verify that this experiment is best performed in the void between sr systems, at least a light year away from your ship." Nico informed Khan with a sigh.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Even the Huntress looked shocked at the description of what she had been trying to do when she discovered how to make this material. Space was malleable. They did it every day when they activated their Warp Drives, but to intentionally alter the flow of time was insanity.


    To the Hunters'' knowledge, it was beyond anything that could be manipted, a universal constant thaty behind the fundamental rules governing all of creation.


    "We will have others perform the experiment in a controlled environment. Just in case it attracts the attention of those who formed this material, we will do it somewhere in enemy territory, as far as possible from any friendly species, and then we will inform you of the results." Huntress Khan agreed with an abundance of caution.


    Nico nodded in approval of her idea to sacrifice an enemy species if their attempts to create a new form of matter angered a species that was a million years more advanced than they were, and started mentally scrolling through the options for exploring the region while the terraforming of this began.


    "None of thes can be seen from the others, so you shouldn''t have any issues with someone noticing that a load of Hunter ships are in the region. There is nothing in our agreement that prevents you froming here inrge numbers for scientific research, so the presence of an entire Hunter fleet won''t be a problem at our end. Will it be a problem with your allies?" Max asked.


    "Possibly. Most of them required us to stop expanding our territory, so if they think that we will be setting up our own colonies in this system, they might not take it well, but your assistance on that matter will help smooth everything over if there are any misunderstandings.


    They also track anyrge movements of our fleet because everyone is paranoid that we are going to hunt them for sport despite the agreements and our history of being true to our word, so the disappearance of a lot of vessels could be an issue if we don''t space the departures correctly."


    "Hunters really do have it hard, don''t you? We will support your research and even tell others that we called you in to make sure that the region was safe for humans to expand into if you would like. That''s within our agreements, since the only species here are highly aggressive and hostile ones that our agreement lists as game species." Max suggested.


    "We have an ord then. I will inform the others, so they can begin the work of preparing for the study, and I will let you get back to beginning to terraform this world back to peak standard.


    It has urred to me that if this world is truly that species'' ancestral home, you might earn some goodwill with them if you repair thes that they used up in their early developmental days." Huntress Khan agreed, ending the meeting.


    "Oh, one more thing. About the cloaking field. How do you hide the transmission of sound?" Nico asked as they started walking back toward the shuttle bay.


    "That part is easy, just bring up a modted air filtration barrier, and it will dampen the vibrations enough to silence any sound from inside. We found it out by ident when we first started exploring water worlds for new game."

 Chapter 551 551 Making Progress

    As soon as they returned to the ship, Nico got started on building the Terraforming Array, and Max sent a message back to Rae 5 as well as the Alliance ship location logs, confirming that they would be at the same location for multiple days unless something unexpected happened.


    That let their portals open with just a safety check and not a full confirmation from the Admiral of their location, saving everyone some time and headache when guests wanted toe to the ship.


    The uing Terraforming had been mentioned on their live stream, so it was no shock that arge number of visitors wanted to join them, but Max got a surprise message from Uncle Lu back at the Rae 5 Moon Base.


    He had the first two Cruisers for their fleet ready and retrofit to the most modern of Reaver standards, though they were still much slower than what a custom-made vessel would be capable of.


    They were the Cruisers confiscated from the Holy Light Nation and were themed as immense Gothic Cathedrals in space. At just over a kilometer long, they were dwarfed by the might of Terminus. Still, they were thoroughbred warships, each being loaded with an entire Heavy Mecha Battalion and two Interceptor ss Gunships roughly half the size of the Cutters aboard Terminus.


    They weren''t suitable for Mecha transport, but instead were loaded with heavy weapons for space battles and were capable ofunching an Orbital Lance level strike on aary target.


    [I took the liberty of recruiting and training a crew for you, all you need to do is pick a Commander to transfer over, and they are good to go.


    Uncle Lu]


    The sight of the two ships falling into formation with Terminus greatly amused the Hunters, and Max''s second reading of the message from Uncle Lu was interrupted by a message from Huntress Khan.


    [I never pictured you as one who put so much weight on matters of religion, but I must say, Cathedral-themed Cruisers are a nice touch. Very well suited to the Reaver sense of Bling.]


    He didn''t even have to talk to her in person to know she wasughing at him, but the ships really were glorious looking with the tinted window art, which was actually made out of a meter thickyer of translucent metal armor, and the front ram which was made to resemble two hands holding an open book.


    [They are trophies captured from a particrly annoying enemy, but they do have a rather shy sense of style that I think will help nations we negotiate with to understand the true tackiness that we are capable of when we put our minds to it.] He responded.


    [The military equipment is top of the line, despite the questionable aesthetics. We scanned them when they arrived, and the Mecha are the same as yours, but the weapons are even better than your Cutters are equipped with.


    The Warp drive system is a madman''s delusion, though. To think that someone actually tried to doubleyer the field so that an ornamental hull wasn''t torn to shreds by a Warp 8 Maximum speed.]


    Maxughed out loud at that. Uncle Lu might be a madman, but he was a very smart madman.


    [I have it on good authority that it actually works and has been tested. If you like the idea, I don''t think we have filed the paperwork for the Alliance Patents yet, so you can sneak in a free license to try it for yourself.] He suggested.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [No need. We already know the technique. It does work, but the power draw is insane. I think only human ships have the sort of drive that could actually sustain that level of output. Nobody else in the known Universe goes that overboard with power capacity.


    They did a decent job of optimizing this one, though. I can see that they are working with the data you generated on alternate Warp Field designs.]


    [The Gunships are a modern design, at least. Well, modern by human standards. The additional firepower should make our little fleet safe enough that the Alliance Elites shouldn''t get their panties in a bunch about sending their kids here to be properly educated.] Max agreed.


    [If you''re still looking for teachers, how about you hire one of our recent graduates? She has a passion for Xenozoology, and I can''t see your academy not offering the course, given your mission.] Huntress Khan offered.


    A Huntress teaching students about the study and categorization of new alien species? No way would Max pass up that opportunity. The look on the students faces would be worth any amount of headache from parents about the background of their teachers.


    [I will inform the Headmistress that the position has been spoken for.]


    Max forwarded thest portion of their conversation to Medusa, who was busy refurbishing the interior of her chosen portion of the ship. The look of shock and disbelief on her face when she sent him a video chat link to confirm that she wasn''t being pranked was incredible.


    Max had never seen Innu''s hair tentacles stand up straight like that before.


    "I am almost finished here. This wonderful machine you sent me is clearly made for a muchrger area, but it fits through the hallways, so I have been able to create my vision in a single walk-through. I will send out the recruitment advertisements for teachers this afternoon and the student recruitment messages tomorrow once we have a few confirmed applications that we can put on the brochure.


    If possible, we should get some human teachers as well. We can upgrade their knowledge before the semester starts if necessary. The youngsters love exotic experiences, and none of them have ever met a human before, so it would help." She suggested.


    Max contacted Mary Tarith while he had Medusa still in a video chat and ryed the message.


    She sent back a list of six topbat instructors from Rae 5 that would be great gym teachers.


    "Well, that''s better than nothing, and humans are well-known for their athletic abilities. Not many species we''ve met, other than the Hunters, can actually outdo us when we''re enhanced by the System." Max told the headmistress with a shrug.


    "No, that is perfect. Nobody knows better how to perfectly tone a body than a career soldier. She is right, that is what humans are currently best at, and it will do our students a lot of good to learn from them."


    "I will send her the confirmation and look forward to your updates on the hiring process. The Academy looks wonderful, from what I can see." Max replied, ending the conversation and letting her get back to finishing the reception andmon areas on the main floor.

 Chapter 552 552 New Staff And Archaeology

    There really wasn''t much that they could do about a species that might or might not even exist anymore, so the crew of Terminus and the Hunters settled into Terraform and explore the, both virtually with drones and by sending down actual teams to explore ces that looked interesting enough to save from alteration.


    They would still purify them of the lingering toxins and perhaps reintroduce some minerals that had been extracted, but they would do their best to preserve the natural beauty of the ce.


    That brought Max to his first point of concern. Nico had designed a wonderful city for a hundred million people to be built floating above the surface. Only, she hadn''t really designed it. Max recognized it as a spot she had taken over in her past life.


    That was a bit concerning, as no matter how beautiful the spot was, he knew what she did there, and the thought of her backsliding into past life behaviors was a constant concern when she brought up memories and designs like this.


    Not that there was anything openly sinister about this city. It was absolutely stunning, and everyone who saw it loved it. Even the Shin adored the architecture, and they were hard to impress with anything that didn''t contain fresh soil.


    They would, unfortunately, be one of thest species that were allowed onto the surface of the, as their roots were extremely sensitive to toxins. This was so heavily poisoned with industrial waste and poisonous chemicals that even bringing them to the city once it waspleted would require an extra level of sanitation of the shuttles at first.


    They were well aware of their limitations, though, and were in no hurry to head somewhere toxic, no matter how pretty it was.


    For the next two weeks, that was how they passed their days, cleansing and terraforming the interspersed with small teams of specialists sent to the surface to explore the ruins.


    The live streams of those explorations were a huge hit with the guests. This was a species that not even they knew, so they got to discover everything in real time and specte on the nature of the species.


    They had a general guess about their shape, given the size and construction of the ruins. Still, the statue they had found of the mysterious vessel or mecha from the Hunters'' legends remained strictly confidential, so there was no way for the guests to know that they were most likely bipedal since the statue had been extremely slender and long-limbed, with arger torso, like an arachnid, but with only six limbs and standing upright like a humanoid.


    [Commander, we have an iing shuttle. One of our own, hailing for the Academy using the Headmistress'' family code. I believe these are the elite teachers that the Professor managed to poach from other institutions, and the rest of the recruited staff should be here soon after them.] Amunications officer informed Max as he rxed in his seat and watched the exploration streams.


    [Just in time. I thought they weren''t going to get here in time to get set up before the first round of parents arrived to tour the Academy grounds. Guide them to the designated bay for Academy vessels, and I will meet them there.]


    ? Max sent the news to Headmistress Medusa, who agreed to meet him at the bay so that the new staff could meet both of their bosses the moment that they arrived, instead of having staff members meet and greet them, as would normally be done for new teachers.


    The shuttle was a Terminus vessel. The upants seemed quite at ease inside, rxing on the couches and chatting about what they might find inside a brand-new academy designed by the infamous Medusa Medellin.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Her name was synonymous with perfection in their social circle, and the fact that she had told off very respected educators in the past for failing to meet her exacting standards was no secret. It also made them both eager and nervous to be working under her.


    The fact that any academy she designed and ran would be elite was a given, especially with their presence, the teachers believed, as they had earned their credentials with decades of impable results, but her reputation for perfection was still a double-edged de that could bite them if they made a misstep.


    "What are you thinking about?" The woman in question asked as Max listened to the teachers'' thoughts while the shuttle prepared tond.


    "I''m listening to the teachers'' thoughts. They''re concerned that your perfectionism might be difficult to work with, as you are the headmistress, but they are excited to be here and see what you have designed. It seems your skills are held in higher regard than your personality." Max replied.


    "I am honestly not as bad as I''m made out to be. The incident was blown all out of proportion because nobody could believe that someone stood up to such a wealthy man." She shrugged.


    The whole incident seemed like a minor thing to Max, who had seen how his own Commanders dressed down misbehaving soldiers, but that didn''t mean that it wasn''t a big deal in an elite academic circle.


    The teachers filed out in an orderly single file line, based on their years of experience, and lined up to meet the new Headmistress with polite smiles on their faces. Well, on the faces of the species that had them. Their botany specialist was a Shin, and the Harpia didn''t have a face that was capable of showing emotions, being mostly beak, but their bodynguage was very expressive.


    There were a few other species that Max didn''t recognize right away, but a notableck of the smaller species, which were more susceptible to injury by air pressure and energy flow changes. It was possible that Terminus still wasn''t up to the standard that they considered safe but more likely, they simply viewed the risk ofing under attack as high enough to make this job offer a suicide mission for them.


    "Wee to Terminus, everyone. I am Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, and this is Headmistress Medusa Medellin, your direct superior at the Academy. Thank you all for considering our job offer, and we look forward to having you all here at what we intend to make the most prestigious Academy in a hundred standard units." Max greeted them, causing a round ofughter among the formerly nervous teachers.


    The Gxy they were in was well beyond the frontier of the Alliance. There were only a few hundred prestigious Academies within a hundred standard units of here. In their minds, defeating those backwater upstarts with no particr pedigree was not even an issue.


    Medusa took over at that point. "Soon, the rest of the staff will being to join your departments, and I will be expecting you to bring them all up to the sort of standard an elite academy requires. They are the finest we could find from around the Alliance, as well as some humans and a Hunter, so you should only need to form them into a proper team before the parents arrive to tour the grounds before enrolling the first ss.


    If you will follow me, I will return the Commander to his duties, and we can get started on exploring the grounds. Wee to Reaver Academy."

 Chapter 553 553 Allocation

    While the Headmistress got the teachers settled into their new roles at the Academy, Max had his own employees to settle.


    Namely, there were two Cruisers that needed new Commanders since they had been sent with a full staff and a Battalion of Mecha each, but the decision as to who would lead them had been left up to him, as the leader of the Terminus Trading Company.


    He had been reading the minds of his senior officers for a few days now in order to determine who would be best for the role and had found the answer was unexpected andpletely predictable at the same time.


    None of them particrly wanted a promotion that would take them off Terminus, but Colonel Li and Colonel Klinger of the Second and Fifth Battalions, respectively, were the obvious choices, as both had the qualifications.


    Some of the officers thought that sending Casanova might work out well. He was a skilled tactician and pilot with excellent negotiation skills and the added benefit of horrible luck in love, so they wouldn''t need to worry about him fooling around on the job.


    The man''s pride might be irreparably damaged if Max promoted him for that reason though.


    There were other choices as well, Reavers who had trained all their lives to takemand but were too far down the list of seniority, so they had chosen to take a chance on a newly formed Company when Max expanded the roster and had proven themselves capable after arriving aboard the ship.


    The most notable two were Luke Tarith, a distant cousin of Nico, and Marcus ze, a Major in the infantry who was from a Reaver family. Both were loyal and well respected, though their connection to Max was distant at best.


    He got regr reports from both as leaders of their sections, but neither had shown any attempt to get close to him and try for a spot in his inner circle of trusted Lieutenants.


    He needed interster vessel Captains and negotiators, not Mecha pilots, for the ships, so Max was tempted to choose the Reavers and not lose two of his Battalionmanders. Then he could pick a Mecha Battalion Commander for each Cruiser from among the new arrivals.


    [Luke Tarith and Marcus ze, please report to the Commander''s office.] Max announced over the inte, after finally making his decision.


    He would have to start grooming new leaders as well since they had more Cruisersing in the next few months, and he couldn''t just send away all his Battalion Commanders to lead other ships. Finding good and trustworthybat leaders was much more difficult than finding good and trustworthy managers.


    The two men came jogging in soon after, one silently, as was customary for the diminutive members of the Tarith family, and one with the solid footsteps of a full conversion cyborg.


    "Commander, how can we be of service?" Luke Tarith asked, shifting to afortable ready stance.


    "I''ve heard very good things about both of you, and your resumes are impable, so I am willing to offer you a chance at a promotion. Terminus Trading Company has two new Cruisers in orbit, and they need Commanders." Max began.


    Their eyes lit up in joy while the two tried to remain somewhat professional during what they now realized was possibly the most important interview of their lives.


    "You would really choose us over your closest Captains?" Marcus asked.


    "My Captains and Battalion Commanders are the best at what they do, and I can''t spare any of them to lead a Cruiser. I will pick leaders for the Mecha Battalions aboard your Cruisers from among the ranks of new arrivals, and you two will takemand of the ships themselves.


    The most important matters during the first few weeks will be building morale and loyalty. These crews were hand-picked for us, but they don''t know us. At least not yet. I will be watching closely to see how well you can bring them into the Terminus Trading Company family.<novelnext></novelnext>


    For now, you will be on escort duty, ensuring the safety of the Colony Ship, so I will have both vessels dock with Terminus one day a week to let the new members mingle and get to know the crew and our guests.


    The rest of the time, it''s up to you to get them into shape. Any questions?"


    "Can I choose my second inmand to go with me?" Luke asked.


    "Within reason. Who did you want?"


    The short man stepped over to the data screen on the wall and brought up one of the Sergeants from the infantry, a middle-aged man with one eye who had been serving longer than Max had been alive, thanks to a few extensions in lieu of prison time.


    Most notably, he had killed an undercover Inquisitor for countermanding their Colonel''s orders and resolutely refused to ept that the man was not a traitor at trial. His adamant stance that the man was, in fact, a traitor led to a hung jury. It was a capital crime to kill an Inquisitor, but it was no crime at all to kill a traitor. Since there was no evidence either way, it came down to reasonable doubt, and the Military Tribunal chose not to convict him of murder but of failure to follow protocol for rebel and traitor officers.


    Which extended his already lengthy term of service by an additional year, along with a one-month dock of his pay.


    "At the very least, he looks loyal. If you think he can do the job, you can have him, but remember that your crew is a reflection on you, and I will be expecting positive results."


    "Thank you for your trust, Commander."


    Max looked to the big cyborg to see who he wanted as a second, but the man was deep in thought.


    "I don''t know the right person to be my second. With permission, I''ll pick one from the ship''s crew. They''ve had a few days together, and that''s enough to see who the naturals are." He decided.


    "Take your time. You''ve got 48 hours if you need it, but I''ll transfer the Command codes now, so you can call for a shuttle any time you want to go meet your new crew.


    Terminus will be here for a while, and you will be guarding her, so you can have your belongings shipped to you if you want to go see your new homes right away."


    "I''ll take you up on that, Commander. But first, I need to change if I''m going to make a good impression on my crew. I wonder if Luke''s cousin Nico has any fashion advice." Marcus joked.


    Even for a Reaver, Nico was mboyant. And she had a reputation for finding just the right outfit for every asion, but never the one you expected. If anyone in the ship could outfit the two new Commanders, it was her.


    "Wait right here. I''ll call her over to dress you two. You can make yourself a whole new wardrobe when you get to your new station if you want. I''m told that looking the part is important, and as the ship''s Captain, you have a rather sizeable energy allotment for personal use." Max agreed.


    The two men chuckled at Max''s estimation of what the value of dressing the part meant, since he was wearing a ck linen tunic shirt and jeans with military boots, looking just like any other Reaver with no meetings for the day, and he had never been one to get overdressed to meet his own crew.

 Chapter 554 554 Esteemed Guest

    Nico was overjoyed to get to decorate their new Captains. She was so happy, in fact, that she brought the Tech Adept Harness and a toolkit in case Marcus wanted a makeover of his cyborg shell.


    Unfortunately for her, he wasn''t that brave, and the makeover ended with just a fashion adjustment, the Reaver version of having a new suit tailored.


    "There we go. I could do better if you''d just let me tweak that outer shell. Even Luke let me do his nails and eyeliner." Nico reminded Marcus as she finished.


    "He actually makes a good Captain Harkness, though. I prefer my natural looks."


    Nico raised an eyebrow and waved a hand in his general direction, reminding him that he was just as artificial as she was, though not nearly as high-tech, so his best argument for not letting her program tattoos and a tan into his synthetic skin was just that, an excuse.


    "You''ve had your fun. Thanks for the help, Nico. They should go visit their crew before we get too busy." Max thanked her, then shooed the two relieved Captains out of the office.


    "You''re no fun. But I do have fun things for you to do today. We''ve just received an advance arrival for the registration process. Some crazy Mushroom Guy named Ahmed. He''s a riot to talk to, but everyone keeps bowing to him, so I think he''s properly important and not just wealthy." Nico informed him.


    Max searched the thoughts on board Terminus until he found the man in question. Ahmed Bin Sdin was a Myceloid Emperor in charge of over a hundred popteds, all from the same base gic stock as his family''s spores. Emperor was more of a nickname than a position, though. The wealthiest Myceloid preferred to be referred to as businessmen, or heads of family, even if their family was billions of people.


    They had originally popteds much like the Klem by blowing spores into space, but the Myceloid weren''t hostile or violent and simply adapted their own spores to their new home where possible or faded into either extinction or obscurity if it wasn''t.


    These days they had the full suite of terraforming avable to them, so they did like every other civilized culture when they wanted to inhabit a new, which made an entire poption from one base stock a rare thing, showing the age and power of their family.


    He was with a younger version of himself in the gardens by the World Tree. Not really a child, per se, but a cutting, or a clone, the way you would do with a nt. From what Max could glean from his bodyguards'' thoughts, that was themon way to pass down an inheritance in their culture. However, by Alliancew, the clone was considered an entirely new person, so they needed education and background to prove themselves to society.


    The process also built anotheryer of expertise on what they had and helped keep them current with new technologies and cultural developments so that they didn''t lose touch with the younger generations by living and cloning themselves in safety and seclusion.


    Ahmed, in both versions of himself, preferred to be addressed by his bare name and got mildly annoyed with all the bowing and sucking up that people did when they recognized him, so Max led Nico to the front of the ship while briefing her on the situation.


    Max kept listening as they walked and learned one more important fact about Ahmed. He identified as male, despite the species reproducing asexually through self-germinating spores.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The fact that everyone was avoiding getting in his way became clear when Max found the pair and their guards at the ice cream stand in the garden, which was usually packed full of people at every hour of the day and night, all alone in a bubble of calm.


    He walked right up and extended his hand to greet the Myceloid dignitary with a smile.


    "Wee to Terminus. My name is Keres Max, and I am told you are here to determine if you wish to enroll in the Academy."


    The Myceloid gave him an intrigued look and slightly awkwardly matched the handshake gesture. It was a custom among the species, but his station meant that everyone bowed to him, and nobody would dare attempt to touch him, so Ahmed had be a bit rusty with the process.


    "Headmistress Medusa is an old friend of mine. When she was still in school, she won a contest to design a government building on one of thes I own." He exined.


    "Then you are guaranteed to start the semester with at least one friend on board, and she will have all the insider knowledge you could want," Max replied with a chuckle.


    There was a lot more to their friendship being reyed in the man''s memories, most of it very boring and professional, but it seemed that they actually worked together a lot. Most of her reputation in the Alliance for brilliant architecture had been bankrolled by Ahmed and sold to interested parties all over the Alliance after it was constructed.


    A mutual benefit to both of them, though Max would usually call that a Business Partner and not a friend.


    "Would you like a tour? The teachers only arrived today, so they''re not prepared for visitors yet, but there is no reason I couldn''t show you around. I did give the final approval for the design, so I know where everything is." Max offered.


    "How many revisions did Medusa go through on this one?" Ahmed asked curiously.


    "At least six before she presented it to me the first time, and I don''t know how many more before she actually built it. I picked my favorite color scheme and left the rest to her." Max exined.


    "That''s the best way when dealing with an artist. If you interfere too much, it never feels right, like it was forced or limited. The artistry and life of it get lost somewhere along the way." The oligarch agreed.

 Chapter 555 555 First Student

    "Is this a fellow student? Hello Miss, you can call me Ahmed." The younger copy greeted Nico, who had been standing behind Max, out of the way of the conversation.


    "Good Morning Ahmed. Unfortunately, I am no longer a student. Those days are somewhat behind me, but it is possible that the recent renovations to my outer shell might have thrown off your sense of age." Nico replied.


    "I would like to introduce you to my second in Command, Tarith Rage. Don''t let her youthful and cheerful appearance fool you. She is well-versed in the daily operations of the ship." Max informed the duo.


    "Oh, I should have recognized you from the videos. You''re friends with Miss Lelu, right? What''s she like in person? Are those tentacles real or CGI?" The younger man asked, referring to one of the Tech Nomads with a dreamy look on his face.


    "We don''t use CGI for our videos since we''re not idols. It would make viewers question the validity of our tech developments if we altered the videos in any way. Lelu is a sweetheart. Perhaps you''ll get a chance to meet her one day. She is often in the water parks on her days off." Nico replied with a wink.


    The older Myceloid gave his clone an annoyed look that made Max chuckle. The young one was not good at disguising his desires yet, but they were the same person, so there was a good chance that the old one also had a thing for Innu girls, or at least their hair, and his younger half was giving him away without a thought.


    The older Ahmed gave Nico a judgemental look, then turned to Max. "I don''t understand your human traditions. Isn''t she too sweet and innocent to be Second in Command? Or is the position like that of my offspring, where she will be your generational heir? Are you considered old for a human?"


    Colonel Klinger, who was sitting nearby, enjoying a book under the branches of the World Tree, nearly choked on the coffee he was drinking, then burst intoughter, not bothering to try to hide his reaction until Nico turned a re at him.


    "Have I said something strange? You, bystander, exin what I have missed." Ahmed Senior demanded.


    "Miss Tarith is one of the known universe''s most brutally vicious Mecha pilots, with thousands of confirmed kills to her credit. She even managed to fight a Huntress to a standstill in a duel, ending the match in a draw when both Mecha were disabled." Colonel Klinger exined.


    "Are you certain that we are talking about the same person? This small creature here?" The Myceloid asked again.


    "Believe me, I was just as shocked as you when I first found out, but I am also a Mecha Pilot in the Terminus Trading Company''s defense fleet, and I have been present for many battles with her, as well as the duel with Huntress Khan." Klinger agreed.


    "My apologies, Miss Tarith. I have greatly misjudged your capabilities. You don''t give off any of the sense of defensiveness that a trainedbatant usually does." He informed her with a chagrined look on his face.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Or at least, that''s what Max assumed he was going for since his species didn''t really show much on their "faces," which were only an approximation of the humanoid equivalent developed to set others at ease while conversing with them.


    "A simple misunderstanding. I am impervious to all weapons currently detected within this section of the ship, so I have no reason to be on guard. Unlike a biological life form, which can be quite fragile, I can take a direct hit from a sma Rifle without serious damage, and physical blows from any of the species present are no real threat to me." Nico informed him.


    "So that''s it. Like a Moon Raker in a spore cave, it''s not that you''re incapable, only unconcerned. My people have always had difficulty telling the difference since we encountered so few predators during our development. Even after all these generations, we still have problems telling the true predators from the dangerous scavengers, as it were." Ahmed Senior exined.


    "No offense to those present."


    Max smiled at him and gestured toward the exit doors at the far end of the courtyard. "None taken. I doubt any of our crew would deny that she is a true predator inbat. Should we take a look at the Academy before mealtime? There are a wide variety of foods avable on the ship, and we have enlisted the help of various species to expand our menu.


    If you have a menu item that you would like added to the regr menu or for a special order, we will do our best, or if you have a sample, we can add it to our programming directly. Exotic foods are one of the many reasons guests flock to themon areas of Terminus."


    "That would be amazing. Perhaps we could visit other areas of the ship as well? I hear that Miss Lelu spends most of her time in the developmentbs. Could we visit them on our way?" Ahmed Junior asked, earning himself a swat to the back of the head from his senior.


    "That area is unfortunately off limits to the general public, but I can ask her if she would like to do a guest lecture in the science sses from time to time," Nico suggested.


    From the excitement in the younger man''s mind, Max knew they had their first student guaranteed with those few simple words. It was also a great idea.


    [Medusa, we''re almost to the Academy with the Myceloid, Ahmed, an old friend of yours. He wants a tour of the facility in advance, and he''s got a serious thing for cute Innu girls, so watch yourself. Also, he would greatly enjoy it if Lelu and the Tech Nomads could give guest lectures in the Academy on asion.] Max messaged her to ensure she was prepared to meet them.


    [I am quite familiar with his peculiarities. I will bring a small escort with me and take over at the front gates so you can get back to work.]

 Chapter 556 556 Swarmed

    "It''s a conspiracy, I tell you." Nico dered the next morning when the arrival notices of shiploads of potential students began to ding on her watch''smunicator.


    "We did not think this through well enough." Max agreed.


    Medusa had carefully vetted the candidates, in her own words, and arranged the walk-through today to give parents an opportunity to reconsider, as well as explore the facility that their kids would be staying and learning at.


    But what she had forgotten to factor in was that two parents for every student, plus any other kids they brought along, meant that she had booked thirty thousand people, who were all wealthy enough to have their own private space-faring yachts, to arrive at Terminus on the same day.


    If they had no objections, they would be leaving their students here to settle into the dorms and returning home.


    Well, most of them, anyhow. The Cruise Ship waspletely booked for the first time, with many guests arranging to share space in therger suites so that they could find a space to stay aboard Terminus instead of in orbit around the aboard their yachts.


    Traffic control was used to militarynding operations, with thousands of Landers operating at once. They were handling the increased traffic well enough, but there was still a long line of vessels waiting to arrive and drop off their passengers.


    Max had ordered that a staging system be put in ce, where the guests would be dropped, and the staff would return to orbit around the, and then pick up the departing visitors on the other side of the ship so that the two lines didn''t interfere with each other.


    Every five minutes, one hundred vesselsnded in twenty cargo bays, ushering their guests aboard and promptly departing to allow the next group to disembark.


    They could have used more bays, but that would make for a long walk for many of the guests, and the bays weren''t all empty since Terminus had such a wide range of items stored all through the ship.


    The applicants were given a timeslot, so they didn''t arrive when the line was already too long and cause unnecessary traffic jams. The schedule would take nearly ten hours to get everyone on board, which would keep the traffic numbers through the Academy under control as well, allowing the teachers to serve as tour guides torger groups and give personal service to the students with questions about the facility.


    What had seemed like a huge number of staff only days ago now seemed like it was barely sufficient, with all of their guests wandering around, and Max began to wonder if he should dedicate even more room to the Cruise Ship portion of Terminus.


    They could already hold a huge number of guests, but holidays at the Academy would pack their avable rooms with guests, even if they weren''t already hosting the usualplement of tourists.


    Max gave Nico a long-suffering look, and she smiled back at him.


    "I will get on the upgrades to host more guests, as well as a departure n so that we don''t have a ten-hour lineup of ships again next time."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Thanks, Nico. I knew you would understand."


    They were waiting near the docks for the next shift of traffic controllers toe on duty so that they could get feedback from the onesing off duty about how to improve the efficiency of the process. While Max could search more deeply through a person''s memories if he wanted, that was still somewhat limited, and if they hadn''t thought of something before, it wouldn''t tell him what he needed to know.


    Directly asking them and having them think up solutions on his behalf was much more likely toe up with a workable answer.


    "Iing." Nicoughed and pointed to where arge number of kids were running their way with a teacher chasing them.


    None of them could be more than about eight years old, and they were from a half dozen different species, so they were likely in the same ss, organized by Traffic Control tond in the same bay so that they could take the tour together and get to know each other.


    Nico extended a light forcefield so the kids couldn''t escape the cargo bay andughed as the kids came to an abrupt halt at the seemingly open door.


    "No fair, we almost got out. Can you tell her to let us go for a bit so we can get ice cream? My sister is here on vacation, and she said that the ice cream shop in the forest is amazing." One of the Valkia kids asked Max, assuming he was the one to have stopped them.


    "I can do you one better. If you behave for your teacher andplete the tour without anyints from her, I will have the good ice cream added to tonight''s menu in the first group student cafeteria. You are all in years one through four, right?" Max asked.


    "We''re in year three, and we''re all in the same ss. How cool is that? Will there really be ice cream in the cafeteria?" The Valkia asked.


    "I personally guarantee it, but only if you behave for the teacher. I am the Commander of the Terminus Trading Company. I can order them to put anything we have on the menu as a special treat." Max replied proudly.


    "It is an honor to meet you, Commander. I am Kita, youngest daughter of Alliance Councillor Karen. I will be in your care for some time, it seems, as she has instructed me to learn as much as I can about human culture. I heard her talking to her friends from work, and they think your species will be a trading partner in only a few years, just like the Hunters."


    "That''s silly. Aren''t they going to be members? I heard on the live stream that a lot of Innu think they will be made members because of all their new technology patents. My dad is on the Taxation Council, and he wasining about the loss of tax revenues since all of their patents aren''t fully taxable as non-members." One of the Innu boys asked.


    [These kids are a gold mine.] Nico''s thoughts reached Max with a heavy dose of amusement while she tapped his arm and gestured to the parents, who were almost to them now.

 Chapter 557 557 Celebrity Followings

    "I am sure the adults will decide what they want to do eventually. If your parents are friends and you''re going to the same Academy, there is a good chance you will all be lifelongrades, so I hope you can get along and behave for your teacher. You can tell your parents I promised Ice Cream on the regr menu tonight in case they think you''re trying to sneak sweets without permission."


    "Thanks, Commander. We will see you soon." Kita told him before waving goodbye and returning to where her teacher was talking to the group of parents.


    "It looks like we have a pretty prestigious group," Max told Nico, watching the kids leave in an orderly double file.


    "The two councils they mentioned are each made of a thousand members. Our district council back home was five hundred, and it only covered a quarter of the. I have the Innu looking into the situation since they would normally send their kids to their own alma mater to groom them for leadership roles with their future peers.


    There is a chance that there is a political shift going on, and they are distancing themselves from someone, or some school, which led them to send one of their children here to hedge their bets and disassociate the youngsters from whatever is happening." Nico agreed.


    "As long as it doesn''t cause trouble for us." Max sighed, watching the vessels leave the bay and the crew get prepared for the next batch.


    A few more groups filtered through without incident before Nico got her answer from the Tech Nomads. It seemed that some of the senior Councilors had been caught in a scandal that included getting the administration of a prestigious Academy to pass their kids with top marks to keep up appearances.


    Those who weren''t involved, and those were were their political rivals, were the ones who were here now, making up a few hundred of the ten thousand new students. If the problem spread, they could at least have one sessor whose name had no hint of taint attached to it. A safety measure to prevent the political ruin of their family''s legacy.


    Most of the kids had no such serious concerns. They simply had an interest in new things and indulgent, wealthy parents who agreed to send them across multiple Gxies to learn at a brand new Academy where the children of others in their social circle were going.


    A little whileter, a group of older kids, looking to be young adults more than children, came over to greet Max and Nico when they saw them still standing by the entrance to theirnding bay.


    "Greetings, Commander Keres, Miss Rage. My name is Gordon, and I am a student in the Architecture program here at Reaver Academy, starting today. It is a pleasure to meet you all and have a chance to learn under the legendary Medusa.


    We never thought she would ept a teaching job again, so imagine our pleasure when we found out that she would be the Headmistress here and that she had received the certifications to teach higher studies from the Education Ministry."


    The young man''s thoughts reyed the news article of her pping her old Headmaster in public, getting herself fired. It wasn''t the most recent job she had been dismissed from, but it was a memorable one since she had been defending a student at the time.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "We hope to turn out a new prodigy for the new generation that is just as talented as she is. You have my best wishes on your attempt to be that person." Max replied, making himugh.


    "Oh, I''m not that skilled, but thank you. My father wished for me to express his appreciation to your traffic controllers. He is in the industry and says that it is exceedingly rare for a single vessel to manage this level of the traffic flow without incident or scheduling backups." The young Architect added.


    "If he is interested, tell him to contact us, and we can provide footage of abatnding effort with a human Mecha Regiment. Hundreds of Landers leave a single ship in orbit in under a minute tond all over a for a synchronous deployment." Nico offered.


    "That''s crazy. I will be sure to inform him. Thank you both for your time."


    The student bowed and excused himself to return to his father, who was extremely excited about the prospect of seeing abatnding and the organization that went into it.


    There was plenty of stock footage in their archives, carefully sanitized to remove iing fire and other mishaps, so Nico sent the curious man a short video to sate his curiosity while the students of the Architecture program met with the head of their department to tour the academy and get settled in.


    "How are we doing on satisfaction?" Max asked after Nico finished sending the message.


    "No refusals or formalints yet, and we''re two-thirds of the way through the process. We are still on schedule, but the staff of the Academy is starting to look a bit worn. The teachers are only leading their own student group, which isn''t bad, but the maintenance staff is having a hard time keeping up with all of the parents and students stopping in the front lobby for snacks and beverages."


    "Understandable. Send in some soldiers in Academy uniforms to help them out and keep things clean. Have the physical education students arrived yet?" Max asked since those were the only ones with human teachers at the moment.


    "One more group before they arrive. The kids who went with the Huntress seemed pretty terrified at first, but she knows her stuff. I saw the data ess logs as she exined what we are doing here to her new charges.


    Naming a Huntress Mercy is such an oxymoron, but she''s really got a passion for Xenozoology, just like Khan said she did. Her course seems to be a rather popr elective among group two and three students. Much more popr than the same course among the oldest group." Nico replied.

 Chapter 558 558 Books Are Hardcore

    Byte evening, the chaos had settled down, and the students were in their dorms for the first time, with many of their parents waiting hopefully for the call that their precious angels weren''t ready to be alone and needed a pickup.


    Their hopes were rapidly dashed, though, and the Academy staff were all professionals with a lot of experience getting kids used to new surroundings. They had games set up, social activities, and a party that rante into the night kept most of the students far too entertained to think of leaving.


    Even the less social ones, who were exploring the VR pods and the library full of replicated books, didn''t have manyints.


    The fact that there were real books here, made of actual paper, was pure luxury to many of them, and the Shin students particrly loved them. They had immediately decided that paper books were macabre things, like making them out of rbined flesh, but the whole species seemed to have a fascination with "Horror Stories," as they called most things the humans did.


    Paper books weren''t really a thing in most societies, as the amount of lumber and energy that had to be used to create them was never deemed efficient by their species. That led to many of the new students finding out that a Library was a thing only after they arrived in it during the tour.


    Theirs had public data repositories, but that meantputer screens, data tablets, and asionally historical engraved tes that were arranged somewhat like human books.


    "It''s like a data article on one specific topic, but it can never be altered or updated. What do you do if the Censors determine that it is outdated data or politically incorrect?" One of the Valkia asked the Librarian, a human member of the Academy staff.


    "Then they print a new one and exin that times have changed, and the world is no longer viewed the same way. That''s why books are important to Humans. Their unchanging nature means they provide a historical reference that an easily edited digital document can''t." She exined.


    "Wow, that''s hardcore. To think you have heroes from the expansion era without editing their deeds. Even our expansion wasn''t so impable that we didn''t have to edit it." The Valkia sighed before gently rubbing her wing feathers across the paper.


    "Here, this one is on the rise of the Cygnus Empire. I think you will find it enlightening. Human heroes make mistakes and sometimes do horrible things in order to ensure the best oue for their people. We just embrace it. I heard that the Valkia are big onw enforcement careers, and that book is told from the viewpoint of a Commissar in the Cygnus Royal Military, in charge of unit discipline andw enforcement." The Librarian exined, handing the student a thick hardcover book.


    The student settled into one of the manyfortable reading chairs with adjustable trays so that heavy books could be held in ce without tiring your arms, a necessity when not all of their readers were from species that could support a heavy book long enough tofortably read it.


    They read until nearly midnight, and the Librarian was about to shoo them out to their dorm room, so they didn''t miss curfew when an announcement dinged on everyone''s watches that the first drones of the Terraforming Network were going live right now and could be viewed from one of the many screens throughout the ship, or from their own holographic projectors since the smartwatches of the Alliance students were generally more advanced than the ones that the humans used, and could create very high-quality videos in any light.


    That presented a dilemma for the new students. They were supposed to be in their dorms, but the best video screens were in themon areas of the Academy. They might havee here to learn, but this was the very first day of the terraforming of a new world, and that wasn''t something that they would willingly miss. Especially since they had no idea how this human technology that was the talk of the tech news channels back home actually worked.


    "Are we ready to start the show? Will it even have a noticeable effect for them to watch, or will they need to rely on the data feed around the drones to tell what''s happening?" Max asked Nico as they both sat in the control room of the Development Lab to prepare for the beginning of the mission.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "The air is green and toxic enough that you can see it, like a perpetual fog. The Terraforming Drones will create a clear path to the ground and start cleaning the soil and water below. It will fill in pretty quickly, but there should be a two-hundred-meter clear path under each one.


    We have arranged all one hundred currently active drones in a line to begin the operation. They''re going to make a couple ofps around the equator before spreading out to begin the grid pattern to reform the entirely. It should make for a pretty good show, as they make a pristine path around the world.


    The rest of the Drones will being online over the next few days. We have a shuttle out getting us another asteroid right now, we just had to dy the acquisition until the traffic jam was cleared since the gravity beam needs a ratherrge clear space for safety, and we didn''t want to hit a yacht with a million-tonne rock." Nico exined.


    [Beginning Terraforming in 30 seconds.] Nico''s voice announced over the inte in all of the public areas of the ship.


    The bars, restaurants, and lounge areas of the Cruise Ship all fell silent as the crowds waited for the first data streams to starting in.


    [Commander, do we have more biomass reserves? Every single restaurant is running low on material for the replicators.] One of the supply staff asked.


    [How about the storage bays in the aft, near the Cutter bays? There should be a load of dried algae there from the early days before we had so many guests. How is the current growth doing?] Max replied quickly before the array activated.


    [New growth needs eight more hours since we harvested so much for the surge in visitors. The aft storage isn''t logged, so I''ll go check. Thanks, boss.]


    Just as their conversation ended, the Terraforming array came online, creating a clear path twenty kilometers wide and two hundred meters thick. The sight was amazing like they were erasing millennia of abuse and industry in an instant, and a cheer went up all over the ship.


    The array started to move, clearing a continuous path as the toxic gases slowly filled in the air behind them, narrowing the path, but the results that they could see, even before checking the data, were enough to assure them that this was a viable technology, especially after the rest of the drones were brought online over the next few days.


    The situation on the ship was only getting crazier as they began to realize that the world really was permanently changing before their eyes. The Terraforming process was usually done out of sight since it was either a proprietary technology or involved a world with some form of life on it, which might lead to protests from activist groups.


    Max could sense a few annoyed guests who worked in the industry, upset that they were simply showing exactly what happened in real time, but the overall sentiment was positive, and the guests were looking forward to seeing the rest of the drones starting online.

 Chapter 559 559 Impressing The Observers

    "It looks like we have impressed a few people. The sales for the ns are off the charts already, and we''re only a few minutes into the broadcast." One of the Tech Nomads informed them happily, indicating theputer where she was rying the ongoing Terraforming effort to a dedicated live stream.


    That one would run separately from their daily updates and would stay online for at least a week, giving potential customers enough time to view the array in action. It was a subtle bid to get more distributors of the technology but served a much more important role as an advertisement for thepanies that were reselling the terraforming packages on their behalf in the Alliance.


    Everyone had seen the theory and the small-scale test, but seeing the array working on a would be a much better sales point, especially over the course of weeks, when they could build a timepse and show the progression of this world.


    The Terraforming devices were working wlessly, and the developmentb had a timer running for the next batch to be sent out to begin their work. These ones would be staggered further apart, making a mostly clear path across forty kilometers at a time that shouldn''t fill in quite as quickly.


    It was all for show until they could get the full array online and begin theprehensive overhaul, but that couldn''t happen until after they had disassembled a few more asteroids and sent them in pieces to the surface to be used as raw materials for the restocking of the''s rare minerals which had beenpletely extracted.


    This batch would be set to a wider area of effect, working closer to standard output, but that wouldn''t be enough to fully clear the atmosphere of a this polluted in a single pass. Terraforming took time, and as much as Max would like to hurry the process along, there wasn''t much they could do but make more Drones and wait.


    Back inside Alliance territory, the feed from the live Terraforming effort was about to cause much more of an uproar than anyone aboard Terminus could have anticipated.


    One week into the project, when the worst of the atmospheric contaminants were gone and the full array was up and running, the first life forms were reintroduced to the.


    It was a monumental proof of function for the Terraforming array, as it proved that their im of being able to custom design a living right down to the minerals in the soil and the types of nts was no joke or exaggeration. But to the wealthy customers of the Alliance, it was a simple proof of one other much more noteworthy fact.


    They were getting ripped off by the providers that they had used in the past.


    It didn''t take any more time for the Terraforming machines to create a full forest than it did for them to reshape the hills, and entire oceans could be stocked in a singleprehensive pass, as the life forms could be introduced over the full depth of the waters, based on their natural preference.


    If the already had all the essential elements for organic life, all the system had to do wasbine them into simple organic acids and then rbine them into living biomass.


    The uproar among the wealthiest elites of the Alliance wasn''t loud or public, but over the course of only a few days, half a dozen terraformingpanies went under, and their operators went into hiding, possibly outside of the boundaries of the Alliance itself.


    The situation was so dire that Terminus even managed to gain a new visitor, courtesy of the Alliance''s Stability and Justice Council.<novelnext></novelnext>


    A World Ship named Frozen Gates was sent to the system to observe their efforts, officially to make a proper recording, as part of the hearings on the status of humanity as a species. Unofficially, it was a defense force ship, fully armed to defend Alliance worlds against incursions by hostile alien species.


    The fear was that the disgruntled and shamed former Terraforming Company operators might try to take their frustrations out on Terminus or some other Human world.


    Little did they know that the possibility had urred to Max long before they had begun this project when they first broadcast the ns to the Alliance and announced that the Terraforming Array would be avable for licensing.


    There was always a chance that someone they put out of business would attack them, and they weren''t particrly afraid of the fact. Sure, the Alliance had mighty technology, but they were severelycking in warships and weapons.


    The chance that a Civilian force would have something that could threaten Cleansing Light was very slim, and the chance that the aggrieved party would actuallye to them, where the ones who forced them from their home in the first ce would e expecting them to show up was even lower.


    But it was a good chance to show off for the Alliance, and sses were about to start at the Academy, which meant that a lot of the parents who were either on the Cruise Ship or somewhere in orbit around the star system would be going home soon.


    That would free up space and staff to host new dignitaries, as well as spread the first-hand ounts of what the experience was like among the Nobles of the Alliance.


    [Hey Nico, what can you tell me about this ship that hase to watch us work?] Max asked, hoping she had some good information for him, despite their security measures.


    [Not as much as I had hoped. I can confirm that one of the students we have here is from a family that is on the Stability and Justice Council, but we have other councilor''s kids here as well after that pay-for-grades scandal that spread a few months back.


    I think it''s not so much for our direct safety as for the safety of our students.


    But on the bright side, I can tell you what frequency and pattern their warp drives are using, and I have some data about their power usage. It''s rather impressive how efficient they are. They''re using a tenth of what we do per person. If I could get our systems to that level, we wouldn''t have to consider rationing. We could run everything on full st all the time, even at maximum warp, without fear of running short on power.]


    Max chuckled at her frustration. Getting even a little data from a ship that advanced was not easy for them, so she had done pretty well to get what she did. They also had some of the schematics for the Alliance technologies already, thanks to the scans of the many ships they had taken aboard Terminus, but they couldn''t openly duplicate them to lower their power usage. They needed to recreate them in a whole new way and call them a new human development.

 Chapter 560 560 Back Home

    [Maybe they will take pity on us and give us a status upgrade so that we can start properly trading for things that aren''t considered too high risk.] Max suggested.


    [That is a possibility, but I think humanity will have to clean up their mess at home first. The Trade Group has made huge progress in bringing our sector of the Gxy under control since we left, but it''s still a mess. There are hundreds of inhabited systems still actively hostile to the Reavers'' efforts, and that doesn''t even take into consideration all of the species in the Northeast sector of the Gxy, who were previously more technologically advanced.


    They are unhappy about our rapid advancement. There has been word that the so-called peaceful Federation on the North side of our Gxy has been feeding humans military technology and using double agents to stoke wars for the past few centuries so that we wouldn''t get out of control or settle down and start working on ourselves.] Nico replied.


    That was news to Max but not entirely surprising. They had the no inteary wars part of the requirements down but had been turned down by the Alliance when they tried to contact them due to their technology, which was deemed too primitive to qualify as an advanced species.


    As far as Max knew, they still hadn''t gotten their hands on a new pattern ship, which would bring their species to Warp 10, which the Hunters at least considered the bare minimum standard for interster travel.


    But even if they did, it would still be recognized as human technology, and they wouldn''t get any credit for using another species'' ships to get around. In order for a vassal or parasitic species to gain status, the society giving them technology had to be recognized as well, and the humans were a bit stuck on that recognition part.


    As if discussing the subject of hostile aliens had alerted them to the topic, the Alliance vessel hailed Terminus to discuss the likely oues should a renegade businessmane to cause trouble for them. Of course, given their limited knowledge about Illithid technology, it waspletely possible that talking about it had, in fact, been the cue for them to make contact.


    "Terminus, we would like to know if you have safety measures in ce should you be ambushed by a criminal group before we are able to intervene." The Illithid in charge ofmunications on the Alliance vessel asked through the video chat.


    "Indeed we do. We have shields up at all times and two Cruisers on standby with Warp 12 capable Interceptors, including a newly developed Warp Torpedo, which can beunched without having to slow down. As long as we can catch them, we can cripple them." Max informed them.


    "And what might the penalty be forunching an attack on a Reaver vessel in unimed space?" The Illithid asked.


    "That''s the beautiful part. Since this area is not yet inhabited and doesn''t have its own legal structure in ce, the punishment is whatever I say it is. By Reaverw, I am the judge of the case, and the officers of any vessels in sensor range are the jury." Max replied, causing the Illithid to smile at him through his humanoid environmental suit.


    "So, what you are saying is that it might be wise for us to intervene before you im an Alliance ship as reparations for criminal activity?"


    Max smirked and looked at Nico, who was standing beside him.


    "Those are your words, not mine. But I won''t disagree with your conclusion."<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Illithid nodded. "I will forward the details of your criminal justice policy to headquarters. Does that apply to all crimes?"


    "No, just piracy. All attacks on Reaver''s vessels, except by vessels flying the colors of a foreign military, are considered acts of Piracy. For other crimes, we are using a more traditional judge and jury, evidence-based court system, though you will find that very few of our punishments involve incarceration. If they are too dangerous to be in society under supervision, it is more cost-effective to remove them from society entirely, either through banishment or a long walk out a short airlock."


    "Understood. Your second inmand has sent us the abridged version of the Kepler Military Justice handbook and the Reaver Rules of Conduct. I will forward them to the observers, but they seem to be mostly in line with Alliance standard practices."


    He cut the link at that point, and Nico turned the conversation back to the state of the Gxy.


    She had a three-dimensional map up now, marking all the active battles and the areas which were still hostile to the Trade Group.


    It looked like they had almost made it all the way out to the Vampires'' borders now, with only a few holdout nations between the two groups, but most of the resistant systems were closer to the center of the human territory, beingprised of systems that broke away from Kepler, or who were part of the aborted attacks.


    "It looks like it won''t take too long to get everyone on board with the new program, at least in name," Max told her as he looked over the scattered group of nations who chose not to join the group.


    "On the contrary. The Cygnus leaders and Rae 5 have decided to take a hands-off approach. As long as they remain civil, they will keep the existing treaties in ce and leave them alone as independent nations without the protection of the Trade Group.


    But since most of them don''t border each other, the effect should be the same. Trade Group members won''t attack, so they can remain safely isted and continue to pay the standard markups and additional taxes." Nico exined.


    "Then are the battles among the human nations almost finished?" He asked.


    "Not even remotely close to it. But they''re almostpletely contained to individuals now, which is a good start. Avoiding spreading battles across entire sectors of space is the goal. Getting everyone''s act in order is a long-term goal.


    Half of theses won''t stop fighting over who should be in charge for a decade or more." Nicoughed.


    "Alright. Let me know if there are any developments, either on the surface or in the researchb. I''m going for a nap."

 Chapter 561 561 But Thats Good, Right?

    For the next few days Max answered a constant stream of messages from their Alliance observers, who seemed to be curious about all things human.


    Their Commander wouldn''t give them clearance toe visit Terminus even after a few rooms opened up after the parents of the new students began to head home, but Nico did send them the replicator program for a variety of human foods that they could teach to their ownputers so that they could form a proper opinion of human cuisine.


    Max thought it was a bit ridiculous that they wouldn''t even send over a few members, but it was their security chief''s choice to keep themselves quarantined. They weren''t exactly hiding from anyone, but they could do their job from either ship, as long as Terminus kept sending them data.


    It was hard to hate a person whose cooking you liked, and one thing that the Alliance sorts all had inmon was a love for human cooking. So Nico was allowed to keep sending them any sort of data thta they were looking for, and even more irrelevant data, if she thought it would make them happy.


    The steady progress of the terraforming continued day after day, until the was actually starting to look like what they had assumed its origninal appearance had been. Blue waters, lush green foliage, rich soil, replenished ore deposits and much more had gone into what they had originally nned as a very minor overhaul.


    They couldn''t very well call it a day as soon as the bare minimum was done when they had so many people watching them, either with high hopes for their future, or looking for the smallest slip up to use against them in the future.


    The leader of the Observation vessel was beginning to get smart to their tactics though and had instructed their staff not to take bribes from the humans, even if they were selling them as research materials.


    The edict caused no end of confusion among the ranks. The humans provided them with a huge amount of data on many different topics. What would be considered a bribe, and what would be legitimate research material, provided as per the terms of their working agreement?


    "This is getting ridiciulous. Half of my staff has developed a mild human fetish, and the rest are too busy sampling new foods to actually do their job and determine how far the humans are along the path to civilization." The Commander bemoaned while his Illithid advisor was in a mental link with Max.


    "You''re just looking too deeply into it. If you take a step back and look at the big picture, we are vetting more areas of society than we have for any species in the past. Not even the Hunters have been judged on their cuisine before, but the humans have been.


    Admittedly, they aren''t at a level where they have inteary conflict among their species controlled, much less a firm grasp on a Gxy, as many believe should be a prerequisite for admittance, but they areing close to the level that the Hunters were at when they signed their first agreement with us." The Illithid informed him, hiding his smile behind the emotionless mask of his environmental suit.<novelnext></novelnext>


    With no clear answer, the Commander turned his attention back on the archaeological digs that the humans and hunters were doing via drones while the was terraformed.


    They were being careful not to damage the historical ruins, which was a good sign, but there was something unnatural about these ruins that set the Commander''s mind on edge. Like the Hunters, he had heard the legends of an ancient advanced species, predating their own by a million years or more, but unlike them , he thought it was a myth, and he hadn''t been made privy to the statues made of the strange material that they had found on the surface."


    "Commander, I have reason to believe that the humans have been hiding technological advances from the Alliance to make themselves look less dangerous and less evolved than they really are." One of the researchers decleared, barging into his office with a file folder in his hands.


    Just the fact that he had made a hard copy in case the digital copy was tampered with was enough to raise eyebrows among the many specialists in the room when he arrived, but the wordsing out of his mouth were more like stating the obvious than a reason to party crash a high level meeting.


    "Why don''t you try telling us something that we don''t already know?" One of the advisors suggested.


    "Fine, how about this. They can perfectly replicate and detect Alliance cloaking technology, but they have chosen not to obtain licenses to use it, in favor of making their own? Or the fact that their new generation of Materials Modificiation devices are very close to the true subatomic maniption level, where the only restrictions on their production wil be the number of atomicponents avable?" The scientist continued.


    "Man, they went over that in a podcast like a week ago. You''ve got to do better than that if you are going to barge into amand meeting."


    "How can you all be so calm about a brutal species like the humans being so close to the technological level that could wipe out entire Star systems in a single days?" He asked.


    "They can do that as well. We have confirmation from the Illithid and the Hunters that humans have weapons of war that can sterlize or destroy entires or destabilize stars. In fact we have some top secret footage of them breaking open a ss A Biohazardousoid with an excessive attack." The Commander sighed, wondering if the level of secrets necessary to avoid causing a public panic was actually doing more harm to his work than good.


    "If you want to spare yourself the trauma, I have seen it in the mind of the Illithid that travels with and observes them. That individual appears to be a defector, cing his loyalty with the humans and not the Alliance, but he was very forting and helpful when asked about humanity, so the situation might be misunderstood." The Illithid advisor informed him then ushered the gatecrasher out of the room.

 Chapter 562 562 Expecting Guests

    It wasn''t long before the first sabotage attempts arrived, but they didn''t hit Terminus in the manner that Max had expected they would.


    The first attack was in the form of a highly sophisticatedputer virus, embedded in a benign message from a returning customer.


    Fortunately, they didn''t drop the security measures for known clients so the attempt was caught and thwarted, with the broadcaster turned over to the observers.


    That way nobody could use the humans of going vignte over a minor slight to their sensibilities or of some sort of unusual punishment. It wasn''t possible to prove a negative, and once a rival started running usations against them, they wouldn''t have thework to be able to win a social media war on Allianceworks.


    ? On the other hand, this way they could drop subtle hints about who it was, and force them to defend themselves while the Alliance investigated.


    The second group that attempted to attack them wasn''t nearly as subtle. They thought that humans were primitive enough that they could easily be tricked and subdued.


    Or at least that was the impression Max got when they arrived. He was in a meeting with his Illithid advisor when both of them sensed the gleeful intent to trick them with a one-sided supply contract.


    [Commander, a newly arrived guest would like to speak with you about business.] The front desk clerk on the cruise ship reported only minutes after the luxurious yacht had docked with the ship.


    [Send them to meeting room B and I will be with them in fifteen minutes.] Max replied, then turned to his advisor.


    "I think it''s best if youe with me to this one. The level of smugness is already annoying, and we haven''t even met them yet." He sighed.


    "Thank you for the invitation. My job is almost too easy here, and it would be a nice change of pace to match wits with a hostile negotiator."


    Max chuckled and got a great idea. Turning this around on them could be fun.


    "When we get there, I''m going to make amendments, but with the parties reversed. The more oundish their request the more fun we can have."


    "I will greatly enjoy testing their patience. If they''re not good we might even make a trade deal that will lock them into something silly." The Illithid agreed eagerly.


    "My suggestion is to have them be a dealer for our products, with zero markups over the licensing fee and a mandatory discount."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Bankrupt them selling our goods. I like it. I have searched theirpany assets and they''re very small, possibly less wealthy than the Terminus Trading Company. Even if we ept equal terms, we won''t lose, because three are so few buyers for what they are allowed to sell us.


    If we can require reciprocal trade we can get them to vite their agreements with the Alliance as well. It will do much more damage to their family and''s repuatation than a little thing like a corporate bankruptcy.


    The sooner that they learn not to mess with us, the better. If we can convince the others that it''s not worth it to attack us, we can finally rx. The alliance forces might ban intearybat, but that doesn''t mean that they don''t have any decent weapons." The Illithid agreed.


    Hanging around humans was definitely rubbing off on him, just like the Alliance observers suggested. When they group first arrived, the Illithid would have never thought to do something so underhanded, but now that he had spent time working as an advisor, he was bing much more morally flexible.


    "I think that Nico would be sad if she didn''t get a chance to shoot at them at least once before everything was said and done though. Peaceful missions aren''t really her thing, and a dead world is about as peaceful as it gets." The advisor reminded him.


    "Don''t jinx it. The more you call it peaceful, the more likely it is that Nico will get her wish and get to shoot at something before we leave. There are still hostile species not far away, and there is the possiblity that whoever left those ruins isn''t extinct. I don''t want to tempt fate."


    Illithid weren''t at all superstitious, so the advisor justughed the possibility off, but deep down, Max knew that Nico would be overjoyed if she got a chance to shoot at something on the first peaceful mission that they had in a while.


    Not even the chance to prove that her new developments were worthy of interster acim couldpete with that in her mind.


    Max led his advisor to the meeting room, where Nico and one of the technicians were already waiting for them, both dressed as research team workers to hide the level of their knowledge from the visitors, who clearly didn''t know what they were getting into.


    Inside when Max arrived were a dozenrge humanoids, possibly of the Giant species, but looking much different than the ones that Max was famr with. He was about to search more deeply into their thoughts to find out about them when his advisor filled him in on the major details.


    "They call themselves giants, but they are actually half Dryad. One side of their lineage is a nt based species, that used extensive gic engineering to enable children with a romantic partner of one of their ancestors.


    That is the reason for the odd appearance, but they are otherwise as intelligent as their Giant cousins. They won''t be the easiest to fool, but I am reasonably certain that we can manage it if we pretend to be horrible negotiators."


    "You both got that? Perfect, don''t let on that you know we''re making a bad deal, because we''re going to try to lock them into the worst deal possible, then bankrupt them. Now, let''s get to work." Max instructed Nico and the technician, who was doing a terrible job of hiding her amusement.

 Chapter 563 563 Would We Do That?

    "Greetingsdies and gentlemen, and wee to Terminus. I am Commander Keres and it is a pleasure to meet you this morning. I have brought my advisor and a pair of technicians with me today in case you had some technical questions but in our culture, I am the only one you need toplete any sort of simple business dealings." Max greeted the assembled aliens.


    Their bark rough skin showed very little emotion, but Max could tell in their thoughts that they hadn''t realized that their minds could be read, which meant that they didn''t know the advisor was an Illithid.


    [Would you suspect me if you saw me standing next to the others?] The advisor asked, referring to the Reaver outfit he was in and the cosmetic changes he had made to his environmental suit''s appearance.


    [Good point. You''re much better styled now than you were before.]


    Their guests put on the best fake smiles that Max had seen in a while, cheesy enough that even the Innu technician realized staight away that they were faking it.


    They clearly didn''t know much about the Terminus Trading Company, or they would have known that the ship employed a variety of species these days, each with their own specialty, but they didn''t even try to encrypt their devices well enough to keep a curious Innu out.


    [Nico, make the first y for me. Come up with the most lopsided deal that you possibly can, I want to force them into 50 percent discounts and zero markup from the price of royalties. Not even for materials. Then add something just in ridiculous. I want to see if they''re dumb enough to turn that over to be signed without reading it over.]


    [I am all over it. Oh, my partner has a great idea as well.]


    Max watched as Nico and the technician butchered the lopsided trade agreement into something unrecognizable. The visiting party had originally wanted an eighty percent cut of all royalties that Terminus made in the Alliance, preferred ess to all patents, free of charge, and full distribution rights.


    After the edits, they would be paying eighty percent of gross revenues to Terminus, putting ads for the Terminus Trading Company in all of their social media releases, and providing all products that they are licensed to sell within the Alliance to the Reavers at cost.


    The first few are just embarrassing, but thest one would get them in real trouble with the Alliance, since the humans aren''t cleared to have most of that technology yet. That was the true test of how well they were reading their own proposal, and their response would tell Max a lot about the level of professionalism that he was working with among the potential rivals that he would have to face in the future.


    The ones that attacked directly weren''t the only ones upset about the rise of humanity as an interster yer, just the ones whose corruption had already been called out in front of their customer base because of the actions of the Terminus Trading Company. In a way, it was like starting with the little league games, the way they got to deal with the leastpetent first.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "It is a pleasure to have met you Commander Keres, we havee a long ways to offer you the chance of a lifetime. Dillon Industries is a respected and well established yer in international distribution, with factories in over a thousand different gxies, able to transport goods to customers all over the Alliance in a single day, often without incurring the exorbitant costs of portal transportation.


    We have been informed that humanity has developed their own rudimentary portal techniology, but it is still hugely inefficient, and requires your Colony Ship to remain at a preset point for as long as you want to make the link.


    Our services can remove that hassle from you, and have your unique human goods made in our factories for distribution.


    I have here in front of me a benefits proposal, if you are familiar with Alliance credits, outlining the amounts you stand to make and save over the course of the first decade of our partnership. Tell me, are humans a long lived species?" The leader of the group asked, standing tall and proud in an attempt to give off the appearance of power and control.


    "By Alliance standards, we are moderately long lived. With the aid of rejuvenation technology, we have managed to extend our lifespans well over two hundred years, barring incurable disease or idental causes." Max agreed, taking the data tablet with the cost outlines and setting it between them on the table so that they both could read it.


    "Marvelous, then you will have a long time to enjoy the benefits that a partner in the Alliance can bring you. As a young businessman, in a far flung gxy only starting its journey to civilization, it can be hard to get ahead, but we here at Dillon industries can make life much easier on you.


    As you see here, the number of items that you can purchase from the Alliance are somwhat limited by your species ssification, but we can provide you with many luxury goods, even up to industrial transports that use cutting edge gravity control technologies. The benefits of that level of innovation cannot be underestimated, and the vehicles can be purchased through us at a very reasonable price, out of the royalties that you will be earning from our partnership."


    [I believe that I have had an epiphany, Commander. This is what it truly feels like to be Nico. The desperate yearning to stab someone and see their viscera spread on the floor in front of me like the most gruesome of paintings.] The Illithid informed Max as the man was speaking.


    [He honestly thinks we don''t have gravity drives, when we used a gravity beam to bring him into the ship? Are these people only semi sentient?] Max replied.


    [No, but they think you are.]


    [Then let''s get the fun started.]

 Chapter 564 564 I Can Do Dad Jokes Too

    "These profit levels are incredible. We could fully refit a every year with the sort of ie that ising back to us from a deal like this since industrial equipment for farming, and mining is not on the restricted list.


    As I''m sure you know, food crops are vital to the growth of a new colony, like the one we are working on developing here once the work of the Terraforming Array is finished. The Innu Tech Nomads that we met did an amazing job assisting us in the endeavor to produce them." Max gushed, doing his best to look overjoyed at the potential to sign the agreement.


    "Alliance Legalese can be a bit tricky, but I can summarize the deal for you if you like? We have a draft copy here, verified by our own legal experts, which the Innu on your crew can verify are fully reditedwyers of the Alliance, with all of the training and ethical standards expected of thergest group of Gxies the universe has ever known.


    "That would save us weeks with a trantor if he would be willing to summarize the document for us." Max agreed, and the negotiator took out the modified data tablet before signing it with a graceful flourish.


    "That is a secure and official data tablet. All modifications are fully logged and verifiable by any Allianceputer, including the Observers in orbit nearby. I have signed it here today, so as soon as you add your own, we can make it legally binding and have it verified to begin our agreement and get the finest of Alliance technology flowing your way."


    "That would be incredible. The things we could gain from the Alliance would increase the living standards for our people to levels they have never seen." Max replied with a childish smile.


    [Oh, you''ve got them now. They fully believe that you have a childlike intellect. Just watch. I bet he doesn''t even read the agreement as he exins it.] The Illithidughed.


    His estimation was spot on. They didn''t read a thing from the actual document, only gave a very glowing and very false report of what each use meant. Over the course of the next ten minutes, the excitement on the faces of Nico and the Innu became impossible to hide, but the guests only thought it was a sign that they truly wanted this deal to go right.


    "Humans are not an indecisive species. I will sign this now and have an observer verify the legitimacy of the documents." Max agreed, adding his signature to the document that he had verified still said what Nico and her partner wanted it to.


    They had made no attempt to change it back, so Max felt confident in opening a link to the Observers vessel in orbit beside them.


    The body of an unknown Valkia appeared in holographic form across from them at the table, and Max slid the document over to them.


    "We need your assistance to verify that this document is legitimate, properly signed, and legally binding," Max informed the woman with a confident smile that made the Valkia flinch a little.


    "Will humans never learn that baring your teeth at people is not a sign of friendliness among most species? But it isn''t a problem for me to verify that tablet. I have already established the link and verified the time of thest edit and signing.


    I just need to go through the body to ensure there are no improper uses, as determined by Alliancew."


    The Valkia went silent for a moment, then began to look shocked, then horrified, before she seemed topletely break and beginughing hysterically.


    "Tell me, gentlemen of Dillon Industries, did you verify the document that you provided for signature, or did you just assume that they would not try anything underhanded?" She finally managed to ask.


    "We have provided the document. There was no reason to verify its validity." The negotiator stated confidently.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Even when sitting across the table from a hostile Innu and a species with unknown capabilities?" She continued.


    "The document was in a secure pouch. They had no contact with it. I am certain that none but the Commander and our representative have touched the secure tablet since it entered the vessel."


    Now the Valkia almost looked confused, but she was already aware of the Innu''s ability to hack without contact and wasn''t nearly as foolish as these men.


    "Thest edit of this document was less than five minutes before signature, which is standard for most agreements, but the contents of this one are somewhat disturbing. Not to mention that they break dozens of Alliancews on providing military support to non-member species, as well as vitions of importws, taxws, and at least four sentient beings'' rights vitions in the section where you agreed to have your Dillon Industries workers produce unlimited amounts of product for sale at less than patent cost, with workers paid on a percentage of profit."


    Now the man snatched the document back and began reading through it, going through the same gamut that the Valkia did, but with much more horror.


    "There is a use in there about payment of a penalty for early cancetion. Think of it as a weing gift from Humanity. Just a small prank on someone who greatly underestimated our ability to negotiate a deal or understand a legal document." Max informed him with a smile.


    "As they are not members and can make a case that they didn''t include any vitions of Alliancew on their part in the document, we would like to have some words with your corporate team after this meeting.


    The Alliance Councils hereby dere the agreement legally binding but invalid due to the highlighted uses. No vitions of thew were actually made at this point, but Dillon Industries will face a formal inquiry into why they would sign such a document." The Valkia announced.


    "Now, would you like to start over with a proper trade agreement, or are we finished here?" Max asked the man across the table from him.


    "How dare you reject our offer and attempt to humiliate us like that? Do you think that we are a joke? Someone you can insult without consequence? I will have you know that our CEO has a cousin on the Leadership Council of the Alliance. One word from me and your species will never be members." The man shouted, ignoring the hologram of the Valkia, that was shaking her head in awe at his idiocy.


    "That sounded a lot like an admission of corruption on your Council to me. What do you say, observer?" The Illithid asked politely.


    "We will investigate the matter. All usations of corruption filed by an Illithid are required to be treated as serious matters due to their mind reading capabilities." She agreed.


    "Illithid? This is a human vessel. We scanned it and found that there were no Illithid life forms on board." The Dillon Industrieswyer insisted.


    "For the sake of security, the shielding of the interior of Terminus is designed to hide the presence of life from outside scanners. This is standard practice for all military vessels and one you would have realized if you had actually scanned the ship." The Illithid replied calmly.


    "I will now require the members of Dillon Industries to return to your vessel and report immediately to the observation vessel for questioning. You may continue your negotiationster, and hopefully with a morepetent start than this dismal showing. You have fifteen minutes toply." The Valkia informed them, then cut the link.


    "That was fun. We should do it again sometime. I will have Miss Rage and a security detail escort you back to your vessel as required by Alliance protocol."

 Chapter 565 565 What Do You Mean Not Funny

    "When are we going to give up the facade with the fake names? It''s not like anyone is hunting us anymore, and they''re not fooling anyone." Nicoughed when she returned to Max''s office after seeing their guests off to talk with the observers.


    "Any time you want, really. It''s not much of a secret anyhow, more of an inside joke at this point." Max agreed.


    "We should likely do some preventive damage control as well. I will get the Innu on it right away so the guys we pranked can''te at us and try to get revenge back in the Alliance. They might have been basically exiled for their business practices, but if they can convince people that we''re worse, it would be a mess for our sales." Nico suggested.


    "Good thinking. Get ahead of the problem, and then we can get back to finishing this reformation project. The daily report from Headmistress Medusa says that the kids are eager to see it when it''s finished, so I''m assuming that a day-long field trip might be the next thing on the request list once the work is done." Max agreed.


    "I think that''s safe to assume. Everyone on board wants a chance to set foot on the when we finish, so we are going to have to do a particrly good job of it and not waste too much time while we finish, or they''ll start getting bored.


    Part of the charm of our vacations is that we keep moving around and seeing new things, so spending too much time in one spot is actually a detriment to our poprity. Plus, there''s nothing to shoot at here."


    Max shook his head at the diminutive cyborg, whose curly ck hair was waving in time with her speech.


    That didn''t seem right. She wasn''t moving her head to make it sway like that.


    "Nico, what did you do to your hair?" He asked.


    "You know that anime with the hapless harem protagonist and the alien assassin? I copied her fully controble hair with this version. I don''t have the grip strength down, but I''m getting better at the control. Soon I will be able to grab stuff with it or use it as a whip."


    "You weaponized your hair? Don''t you think that''s going a bit too far?"


    Nicoughed as if Max had asked the dumbest question in existence.


    "Of course not. Long hair has always been weaponized. Even if it was mostly to hold weapons or with a heavy ball at the end to il enemies with, it is a waste not to do something with it, and I found this cool way to make synthetic hair strands morphable. Give me a bit more time, and I will be able to add them to the augmentic armor as extendable ropes for various purposes.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Technically, that''s what I was working on, to begin with, then I realized that it would make cool hair, so I tweaked my own."


    A utility rope would be a good addition to the suits, so items could be suspended or recovered with ease. The fact that Nico had made it a weaponized part of her own body was just inevitable, really.


    "Just don''t let the fun side projects interfere with the cloaking technology. We are going to need that one soon enough, sitting here between the Narsians and the Klem.


    You know what, I''ve got a great idea. Get itpletely finished, and we can pick a fight so you can test it out. We can call it poption control of a hostile species, and the guests will love it."


    "Who taught you how to sweet talk a woman? Because it''s working. I think we''ve still got a month or two before we''ve got it properly functional though. I want it working well enough that we can use it like the Hunters do when they''re ying war games with intelligent species and cloak our Mecha, not just our ships in orbit.


    Having a unit or three of stealth Mecha, likely Corvette ss for the extra speed and versatility, would be a game changer in a fight."


    Max waved goodbye as Nico turned to return to her work, dragging the excited Innu along with her. Something that they had seen or thought of in thest few minutes had the technician''s mind going in circles, thinking about how to modify a power ry. He was certain that it was important to finish that part of their work, so he sent them on their way as soon as possible and waited for the inevitable scolding that he was going to get from the observers.


    He didn''t have to wait long. After only an hour, he had a very official letter waiting in his inbox, informing him that it was neither amusing nor eptable to attempt to use Alliancew to manipte others intomitting serious military tariff vitions. The tone of the letter suggested that they knew exactly what had happened in the room, so he assumed that either the Illithid had informed them or their own staff had obtained the sensor logs from Terminus.


    His money was on the likelihood that someone from his staff had sent it, though, since it would make their lives easier not to have to answer questions about how such a strange interaction had taken ce, to begin with. [I can read minds, and she can manipte data with a thought] was a perfectly reasonable answer to the Alliance, but it was still easier not to have to do it at all.


    Later that evening, he got a follow-up letter from the Commander of the Observation ship, informing them that they would be having more guests in the near future. The Council would be sending a team to talk with them directly about a proposal they had to prevent future incidents where human innovations that bypassed copyrightws might cause interster uproars.


    That should be a lot of fun. He had no intentions of slowing down their work or keeping it hidden from the Alliance as a whole. However, if they thought there was some way to prevent conflicts like this, where price-gouging businesses might end up with a score to settle after their senior staff was lynched or run out of the Alliance territory entirely, it would be a small relief.

 Chapter 566 566 Alliance Envoys Incoming

    The new group didn''t take long to arrive. They scheduled a portal opening for the next morning, Terminus ship time, in consideration of everyone''s schedule, and informed Max that they would be twenty persons in total, plus four that they had invited from Non Alliance members to attend the meeting.


    Thatst part was a bit strange, but it seemed like they wanted to make a ratherrge change to the understanding that they had with the humans, and that meant that they had to involve other species as well.


    One of the extra four was a Huntress, but not one from Khan''s ship. One was a Dryad, who apparently weren''t all Alliance members, and the other two were from species that his database couldn''t identify, so he turned to Huntress Khan for advice.


    [These species, the Dryads, and the others, what are their cultures like? They areing to attend the meetings, but I don''t know anything at all about them.] Max asked.


    [They''re not bad. They are from rtively nearby systems but have declined membership. The blue ones with no noses do not believe in outside governance, so they won''t ept membership or fullyply with Alliancew when it conflicts with their own. They are vegetarian and generally agreeable, though.


    The Dryads also eat only nts and can have a temper, but with your rebuilding of a natural ecosystem, they will like you more. They''re what your species calls hippies. You should be able to manage that.


    Thest is Volga. The douchebags of the Universe. They were early founding members of the Alliance but wereter expelled for corruption. They like to force others to do their bidding and engaged in hundreds of proxy wars using outside forces before there was enough evidence to expel them.


    Dealing with them can be tricky, don''t agree to any sort of arrangement with them if you want to have anything to do with the Alliance. They''re only here because they are nearby, and the Alliance couldn''t prevent their spies from finding out that your species is growing in power.


    Given another decade or two, they would be here, looking for you to help them cause trouble somewhere. Their reflexes are crap, and they''repletely cowardly, with mediocre technology, but that doesn''t matter when they do everything by proxy using money.]


    [Humanity has some like that. I will forward the information on them to the rest of the Reavers so that they don''t get involved in a long-running dispute without knowing it. Do you think it would be eptable to trade with them, or should they be snubbed entirely? I can tell that you, and possibly all Hunters, have a grudge against them.] Mas asked.


    [If there are no prior arrangements, we scuttle their ships any time they are found in Hunter territory.] Khan replied, summing up the state of their rtionship in a single sentence. You didn''t get much more hostile than a kill-on-sight order.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [I understand. I will add it to the information that I am sending to the Trade Group members so they know about the potential for conflict. They will most likely put them on a zero military intervention list, prohibiting them from hiring our mercenaries or buying military equipment from us.]


    [That would make the Hunters and the Alliance happy, but do it with tact so that you don''t cause additional issues for your people. They could send others to do their work for them until you agree to their terms. It''s what they''re famous for.]


    Max added the detailed notes in the information that he sent to Mary Tarith, who was taking care of disseminating all of the data that they gathered and spreading it to the Trade Group as a whole. The fact that these people were on such bad terms with the Hunters, who had been on excellent terms with the humans already, was certain to be an issue in the future.


    The Hunters had been as generous as they could with the data they shared, and they had worked in good faith with the Trade Group when they found new humans hidden on the far side of the Gxy from the rest of the species, so Max was reluctant to do anything to interfere with that arrangement.


    [Thanks. If you want to sit in as an observer, I will make sure there''s a seat at the table for you.] Max offered.


    [I think that the Huntress they are sending should be enough. She will have a constant link from her sensors open for me so I know what''s going on in the meeting. It''s notmon knowledge, but most of the Innu know that we do it as standard practice, and any of the high-ranking Alliance officials should know already.]


    [Understood. Thanks for the help.]


    With the link ended, Max began to prepare for the next day''s meetings. Preparing a venue and securing it was the easy part. They had a lot of practice for that. The hard part was that they didn''t know yet what the team was here to talk about in specific. Without that essential bit of knowledge, it would be hard to avoid talking their way into a trap.


    At least he could read minds, so he would find out right away what they were intending and if they were being honest with him. There were some ways around his mind reading, but in arge group, it would be impossible for all of them to hide a major plot twist, so either most wouldn''t know, and their surprise would be genuine, or one of them would give away any negative intentions.


    Thest thing he did before sleeping was to ask the Illithid to keep a mental ear open for anything that he could learn about the situation from hispatriot on the Observation vessel or any other minds he had ess to. Every bit helped, and Max was determined to make the best impression possible on these visitors, even if he didn''t intend to have a close business rtionship with all of them.

 Chapter 567 567 Much Fanfare

    The meetings hadn''t even started yet the next day when Max began to get a headache. The emissaries from the iing group demanded full fanfare, a parade, and a celebratory holiday announcing the honor of having been graced with their presence.


    "I will give them a parade. Right back out the airlock." Nico muttered as she read through the list of demands they had presented.


    "They are testing you to see how much of a pushover the humans are likely to be. The more amenable you are to demands, the easier it is to fold you into the Alliance''s rigid set of internal rules." The Illithid exined.


    "In that case, send back this message. Holidays are specific to a ship''s crew and require a great victory or an equally devastating loss of life. This day does not yet meet our standards. Parades are not part of our culture, but we are willing to organize a feast in your honor with the finest variety of human cuisine." Max informed Nico, who chuckled as she sent the message back.


    ? "Now they want to know the details of the security escort that will ensure their safety on the way to the meeting area."


    "You know what, send the Fourth and Fifth Battalions, plus all infantry. Fully armed, including Light Mecha. The heavy Mecha Pilots can switch to augmentic armor and personally escort the group to the meeting room. Just have them form a double line for the whole fifty meters from the hangar to the secure room. Oh, and have the female Pilots at both doors since it will make the Hunters happy."


    "They seem to be under the assumption that we will be holding the event on the. Should I rify for them that Reavers are a ship-based segment of human culture, or should I tell them that ours are off limits to outsiders until an agreement is made?" Nico asked.


    "Are you trying to pick a fight with them?"


    "Not all of them. We really should have found some entertainment in advance. This is going to be such a boring day." She sighed.


    "Brave of you to assume that this will only take one day."


    Both Max and Nico groaned at the Illithid''s reminder, but they sent the most diplomatic version of the message that they could and prepared for the arrival of their visitors.


    At the very least, the group was punctual. They arrived only an hour after the arrangements were confirmed, giving them just enough time to get the escort in ce and ready.


    "Everyone outside of a Mecha, move your weapons to the t space storage. You are an honor guard today, and we will not likely be in any danger. They''re just feeling important and wanted a show." Max reminded his unit as they formed a double line down the walls of the twenty-meter-wide corridor.


    The envoysnded in a suitably pompous-looking shuttle, not overlyrge but covered in gold and delicately etched writing that made the whole thing look more like a decoration than a working vessel.


    The assorted envoys strolled out, looking incredibly proud of themselves, each apanied by a pair of bodyguards.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Some looked quite capable and dangerous, like the pair of young Huntresses apanying their envoy, but most of them seemed to be more in the nature of maids. None of them were carrying visible weapons, but with their level of technology, that didn''t mean much, but most of them were in some sort of uniform dress, which waspletely unsuited tobat.


    Max was no fool, he knew that peace and no interster wars were two very different things, but the image that the envoys were trying to put forth was one of unconcerned nobility.


    [Prepare for some bloated introductions, and then we can get started.] Max reminded hispanions.


    [Allow me to do our side, I have experience in these matters.] His Illithid advisor suggested, sending the mental equivalent of a smirk along with it.


    "Human supplicants, you have the honor of standing before High Lord Immanuel of the Volga, kneel, and we will offer you privileges beyond your imagination." The small man covered in gold and jewels announced before anyone else could speak.


    "I think we prefer the Hunter tradition. Send forth the greatest female warrior of your species, and we shall duel for your vessel and the lives of its crew instead." The Illithid announced.


    The Alliance envoys stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the Illithid for a moment, trying to understand what just happened, while the Volga representative red at them with clear disdain and hatred.


    [Please, please, please. . .] Nico was repeating in her head while the envoys gathered their wits.


    "I didn''t expect to see an Illithid here with such a primitive species. Was the Alliance perhaps trying to get ahead of us and sent a representative in advance?" The Volga envoy asked.


    "On the contrary, your presence simply escaped our notice, so when we began expanding our staff to include other species, we found Innu, Illithid, Hunters, Shin, and Valkia, but we didn''t learn of the existence of the Volga until the Alliance informed us you would be present today," Max informed him.


    "I see. It seems that your species is a rather militant culture." The Volga High Lord stated though he looked more confused than anything else.


    "This Gxy is home to many violent creatures, both sentient and semi-sentient. Violence is an essential part of human existence, but not quite as strong as it is for the Hunters. Humans enjoy a challenge, but the pure joy they had shown when we introduced Huntress Khan to the Klem infestations was beyond anything they were ustomed to.


    It was really quite a wholesome experience all around. We do love to see others enjoying themselves, which is why we have opened a cruise ship and multi-species Academy here aboard Terminus." The Illithid exined.


    The Huntress and herpanions looked overjoyed at the words while the envoys from the Alliance were frantically recalcting how they expected this meeting to go. The Volga envoy was quietly wishing he had ignored the message about the meeting and hade here individually when he might have been able to properly pressure the humans without the Alliance and Hunters present to rebut him.

 Chapter 568 568 Down To Business

    The Valkia representative was the first to recover and, in a proper political fashion, attempted to smooth over the tone of the meeting and get things back on track.


    "Thank you, High Lord, for your attempt to gauge the personalities of the human Commanders. On behalf of the governing Councils of the Alliance, we are here to speak to the leaders of the Human Species about their status with the Alliance forces." The Valkia spoke gently, fluttering his ck feathered wings slowly.


    The effect actually worked, and he did manage to look more regal and kind than he had a few seconds ago, causing both Max and the Illithid to silentlymend his skill.


    "I am surprised that you aren''t the one being vocal and challenging them." The Giant among their group asked the Huntress, who smirked back at him behind her smooth golden mask and crossed her hands demurely in front of her flowing silver robes.


    "As they mentioned, the Humans have already met the Hunters, and their champion put up a good enough fight that we deemed them worthy of future interaction for their skills, and not just for the level of technological advancement that attracted our attention in the first ce." She replied.


    "They have a warrior who can impress even Huntress Khan? They don''t look like much." The Volga asked with a disdainful look up at Max.


    "Their finest female fought a Huntress to a draw in twenty meters tall Hunter Suits." She confirmed, clearly well aware of the situation, since the Hunters broadcast the battle live to their other ships.


    Now even the Volga looked impressed, and his thoughts were more than a little nervous. He had gotten in way over his head with a species that clearly knew way more about the universe than the Alliance had let on.


    Max read through his thoughts and realized that the Alliance had told him that this was a primitive species that had skipped the usual development route and had gained the ability to spread destruction beyond their own Gxy, but that was all that they had told his people about them.


    He had tried to make himself look like the leader of the group because he thought the humans wouldn''t know better, and none of the Alliance transmissions he had intercepted had given any hint that they knew more than that an Alliance vessel was watching them.


    In short, he had been yed for a fool, and everyone else present had gleefully walked all over him, even the humans.


    The Dryad was the next to speak up. "If we are going to be in meetings all day, perhaps you could bring the Shin crew member that you mentioned into the meeting. It may help exin some of the cultural differences since our species are quite familiar with each other and on good terms.


    What role does the Shin have here with the Humans?"


    "He is a botanist in charge of the public vegetation aboard Terminus, as well as the maintenance of the World Tree that grows in the front atrium." The Illithid responded on their behalf.


    The Dryad looked overjoyed at that news, and their thoughts were a jumble of happy possibilities, most of which involved naps in the branches of a world tree. That species was definitely going to be easier than average to get along with.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Valkia gestured onward, and Max led the group into the hallways where the Fourth and Fifth Battalions were waiting for them.


    The show of power impressed most of the species, except the one wearing a in white environmental suit, which Max assumed was the blue-skinned species that he had been informed of, who was mostly unconcerned and saw the presentation as normal procedure. The Huntress and her duo were less impressed since they knew that this was just an honor guard and not the main fighting force of the humans.


    Once the Shin botanist arrived and they were seated in the sealed and reinforced room with the doors locked from the inside, Nico moved to the replicator and brought out a wide variety of vegan snacks in recognition of the three species that didn''t eat any sort of meat.


    "Feel free to partake in the light snacks of human cuisine. They aren''t really a representative sample since humans are omnivorous, and these are all nt-based so that all the species present might try them." The Illithid informed the group before stepping back to let Max take over the meeting.


    "Wee everyone to the Colony Ship Terminus, home of the Terminus Trading Company, the designated representatives of humanity for today''s meetings. It is a pleasure to see so many species gathered here today, and I look forward to the assuredly good news that the Alliance has brought with them for us." Max greeted the assembly.


    "You seem quite confident that we have brought you good news. Is that a matter of personal analysis, or have the Alliance species you employ perhaps obtained some information that they shared with you?" The Giant asked.


    "We have, of course, heard rumors. We do have ess to Alliance social media here aboard Terminus. But random citizens talking about the financial advantages of an official trade deal or membership, as opposed to allowing us to continue to profit from our patents tax-free as an independent outside force, are hardly enough to base an international treaty strategy on.


    My confidence is in the fact thating to some sort of agreement that doesn''t exclude our current allies would be in both of our best interests." Max informed him, reminding everyone in the room that they weren''t as isted as might be usual for a newly contacted species.


    The Giant nodded happily and ced a data tablet on the table. "That makes this much easier, then. We have drafted a preliminary agreement before our arrival if you would be willing to ept it as a baseline for our ongoing negotiations."


    [Non Compliant Species Trade Agreement between the Alliance and the Human Faction known as Reavers] was the headline.


    One after another, each of the other representatives except the Hunters ced a simr tablet on the table, leaving all of the envoys staring at the Huntress.


    She only smiled behind her mask and shrugged her shoulders at them.


    "What? We already have a working agreement with the Humans. I only came to see if you were going to insult them so badly that they killed you all and took your vessels."

 Chapter 569 569 Friendly Negotiations

    To say that the Huntress'' insinuation that the humans could defeat their forces and confiscate their ships intact did not go over well was possibly the understatement of the year.


    Everyone in the room other than the human delegation was ring at her. At the same time, the golden mask that all Huntresses wore hid her cid expression from them, making her look even more unconcerned about the repercussions of that action than she actually was.


    "I am sure it wouldn''t havee to violence. I know how the Alliance feels about intersterbat. The human species has likewise been working to eliminate the rogue elements and hostile species that perpetuate such foolishness in this Gxy." Max offered in an attempt to soothe their egos.


    "Can a primitive species really say they could end an interster war?" The Volga representative asked.


    "If ites down to it, we can just destroy thes and stars of any system that refuses to stop causing interster incidents. We might be behind the curve in many ways, but our weapons technology is more than capable of destroying a in a single attack." Max replied with a shrug.


    "To be clear, that is the veryst case scenario, when all other attempts to curtail the continued attacks have failed, and the destruction has been deemed to have a significantly lower casualty rate than containment of the threat." The Illithid added.


    Max noticed at this point that the Dryad representative was totally tuned out to their conversation,municating silently with the Shin about the world tree and the gardens they were working on in the front of the vessel.


    The Dryads had made their choice, and if the humans didn''t like the limited terms that they offered, they were willing to walk away from the negotiating table. It was no loss to them, but since the humans had made friends with the Shin and were willing to host many species on board their ships, with amodations for differing bodies, they would at least entertain some basic alterations to the agreement.


    "So it is more of a peace through strength type of society, where the strong keep the weak in line?" The Valkia asked.


    "No. It is a peace through unity type of society. We form agreements by localized groups to assist and support each other in the case of hostilities. Once we have enough of us in one group, we will be too great of a threat for any other in the Gxy to willingly attack us, leading to a state of rtive peace,cking active external threats.


    Given their free will, there might still bes that stage civil wars against unfit leaders, or for a variety of other reasons, and we allow that as their right to representation."


    For the first time, the man in the in white environmental suit spoke. "You value autonomy enough that you forsake a central government and leave matters of governance to local leaders?"


    Max nodded. "Within reason. As long as they aren''t viting the basic standards we have set for the rights of citizens, they are free to do as they please. Humans have tried having a single leader before, but the sheer scope of such an endeavour proved to be a bureaucratic nightmare. Too manyyers of leadership led to embedded corruption. Now we operate with only a singleyer of leadership above local, and it has proven much more efficient."


    "Fascinating. We also value autonomy above all else. But it is to do with the nature of our culture. Our leaders are divine beings created from pure energy to lead us through the most trying of times. Compared to that, no other form of leadership couldpare, so we have opted not to join the Alliance, though we do maintain a close rtionship with them." He exined.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "If each of your Divine Leadersmanded a fews and a fleet of travelling ships, it would be the same type of governance as the Commander of a Reaver Company. When we need to do things on arger scale, the Commanders appoint someone who they trust and who is avable to represent them. Usually, it is another Commander or a respected Elder." Max added while the blue-skinned envoy nodded along and made notes on his data tablet.


    "You don''t elect your leaders? Or is it a short-term position? I am not understanding the nature of your top level of leadership." The Giant asked.


    "I lead the Terminus Trading Company, which primarily consists of this small fleet with assets on a handful ofs. Today, I represent the Reavers as a whole because I am here, and I have the strongest rtionship with your Alliance. The other Commanders have agreed to trust my judgement, and I am responsible for looking after their interests and making a deal in their best interests.


    Before I sign, the agreements will be sent to a group of respected leaders of other Companies to see if they have any objections that I missed. If there are none, the deal will get signed. If there are objections, the negotiations continue.


    It is the respect that our leaders have earned that makes the system function. If they should betray that trust, they will be eliminated or removed from their position."


    The Giant''s look brightened with understanding. "Like Nagash at Morkai. He betrayed his people and was publicly executed while attempting to sign a deal that would have made them ves in exchange for his own wealth."


    "A long walk out of a short airlock." The envoy in white agreed.


    Nico chuckled at that. "Funny enough, that is a preferred answer to corruption among our people as well. Simple, safe and efficient."


    "Who would choose an end like that?" The Volga envoy asked.


    "The man who knows that the options are much slower and more painful." The Valkia answered, then picked up their data tablet and reced it with one from their assistant.


    "Look this over and tell me what you think of the offer. It is somewhat simr to the deal we have with the Hunters since your people and theirs seem to be on a simr path, and you have already shown a capability for easy intergctic travel while you poached over a hundred top educators for your Academy."


    [Oh, he''s the big mad about that. Even Nico can tell.] The Illithidughed through the mental link.


    [Check the records and see if we have one of his rtives or ex-girlfriends on the payroll. It might be relevant very soon.]

 Chapter 570 570 The Offer

    With the introductory haggling out of the way and the basics of human society exined, all the envoys settled in to begin going over the offers they were willing to offer humanity.


    Max started with the most obvious choice, the Alliance itself, presented by the Valkia.


    The terms were fairly simple. No direct sales of military equipment, but the Reavers would begin being able to purchase all non-military products at standard Alliance rates but would be required to charge the standard ten percent sales tax onpleted goods that they sold to Alliance members, to be paid to the governing council. Patented ns and raw materials were exempt, and only finished goods were taxed by the Alliance trade scheme, so it worked out very well for Max and the Reavers.


    It meant that they could essrge numbers of new products, and they could sell theirpleted goods into the Alliance without interference. Still, it wouldn''t greatly affect their major revenue stream, which was licensing patents for others to produce.


    Max showed it to the others in his group and forwarded it to the Innu Tech Nomads for them to go over. They were the local experts on Alliance trade schemes and dealt with most of the group''s trading with the Alliance, so their opinion carried more weight than most.


    [There''s a bit of tricknguage on the seventeenth page. The text looks like it only requires you to pay on goods sold to the Alliance, but they want a cut of allpleted goods sold by the Reavers everywhere.] The Innu informed Max well before he had reached that point in the document.


    [Highlight it and send me a modified version of the text that is more favourable to us. Do the same for any other uses you find that would be a hindrance to our work.] Max texted back.


    Once he finished his read-through of the Alliance document, he left the Innu to work on it and picked up the Dryad Document. It was less than a page long, stating that they would let the Reavers buy whatever the Alliance let them buy at market prices, but they required ess to public natural spaces on Reaver-controlled worlds under the same terms that were set for Reaver Civilians.


    "I don''t think I even need to get a second opinion on this one. Well, technically, I already have two other opinions avable confirming that it''s a usible deal, so I will dly sign this one now." Max confirmed.


    The Dryad seemed satisfied with the deal and quickly returned to talking to the Shin about nts while the rest of the group was getting ready for a long day of negotiations.


    "If you wish, our employee can show you to the World Tree while the rest of the deals are worked out. We will forward you copies as they be avable, so you are not out of the loop." Max suggested to the distracted Dryad.


    "Ah, yes, that would be excellent. What are your policies on room sharing? I may wish to stay a few days."


    "As long as it doesn''t exceed the stated capacity of the room, we allow it. But as a foreign dignitary, courtesy demands that we offer you free room and board for the duration of these negotiations, so do feel free to arrange for the staff to get you settled into a room of your own." Max replied.


    "We do appreciate good hospitality. Are there more rooms like the Shin are in?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Of course. Not many, but there are more soil rooms and also fully holographic rooms if a simted forest or natural environment is more to your liking."


    "That sounds interesting. I believe I will give it a try. My thanks, Commander Keres, and I look forward to our future interactions." The Dryad replied before following the Shin from the meeting room.


    "He did better than expected, given that there is a world tree on this ship. We had a wager going on how long it would take him to flee the room and go looking for a branch to sleep on." The Giant chuckled.


    "Just getting them to wear clothes and show up in public can be a struggle. Bunch of oddballs they are." The Valkia agreed.


    The Innu returned the Alliance offer just after Max started reading the offer from the Volga. Their offer was frankly insulting, and not a single part of it was worth salvaging, so Max set it aside once he had finished reading it and presented the list of proposed changes to the Alliance agreement.


    "These are the changes our experts request to be made to the first proposal that you have presented to us. Please read them through and give them your consideration." Max requested, handing over the data tablet with the updated agreement to the Alliance representatives.


    That brought him to the offer made by the envoy with powder blue skin. He had taken off his helmet now and disyed a face reminiscent of the Hunters'' masks, all smooth but with a mouth and two bloodshot eyes. He equipped a pair of goggles soon after removing the helmet, so his species must have developed to be nocturnal and sensitive to the lights in the room. Unfortunately for them, he couldn''t lower the lighting much more, or it would interfere with the reading of the data tablets since the Alliance-made unitscked backlight like the Reaver units used.


    This agreement had very little about trade, only a single page like the Dryad document. However, it included a use on not invading each other''s territories, with a detailed list of star systems that were inhabited by the alien species and a nket agreement for them not to attempt to settle in this Gxy.


    Honestly, nobody in their right mind wanted to settle in this Gxy''s unimed territories, given how violent the neighbours were likely to be, so it was probably not going to be an issue, to begin with.


    None of the gxies that were included in the alien''s list were immediate neighbours of this one, so the chances that Humans would try to colonize them were very low. It made the call a simple one, but Max sent it off to be vetted by the Innu and Mary Tarith as well.


    "Now, we have a little time while the experts vet the documents, so would you all like some refreshments? We have quite a variety, from tea and Juice to more borate and even alcoholic concoctions." Max offered.


    "Now that''s the offer I''ve been waiting for. I have heard great things about the Reavers'' Rum." The Huntressughed, finally seeing a positive note to her day of politics.

 Chapter 571 571 Agreement Made

    "While we all wait for the experts to get back to us about the changes to the agreements, I have a fine selection of foods and liquors as rmended by the data we have obtained on your species. I know that the Hunters are a big fan of the Reaver Rum, so I will prepare a few bottles at the end of the meeting to send back to you forter consumption."


    The Huntressughed at that and drew a dagger from her storage to slice a chunk off of the pile of roasted meats that had been ced on the table.


    The other envoys looked a bit scandalized at the action, given that it was a veryrgebat knife and they were in the middle of a negotiation about peaceful interaction, but that was just how Hunters were, and the humans didn''t seem to be bothered by it.


    The blue-skinned envoy sniffed at the bottle of Rum and then poured himself a shot ss full of it before wheezing and coughing, then pouring himself another.


    "That is incredible. I have tried many replicated alcohols, but none have preserved that unique aged vour that this Rum has. I should go easy though. My species is not well known for its ability to handle its liquor.


    If you happen to meet the Han at some point in the future, be sure to share this with them as well. They hold all of their negotiations after a night of drinking, with the logic that all ideas must sound good both drunk and sober or they are not worth agreeing to."


    Max smiled at the short man''s honesty and made a note to find out who the Han were and what sort of deal they might want to make with the Reavers. They sounded like the sort of people that would be easy to get along with.


    Even the Volga representative seemed to be enjoying himself, but it seemed that they had no intention ofing up with a new offer at this point in time. That was no real loss though, they could alwayse backter when they had a more reasonable mindset instead of trying to force them into making a proper deal while they were mostly just tagging along with the Alliance envoys.


    The experts had returned their opinions by the time the group was done eating, finding no ws with the new deals, so the two agreements were signed and finalized with only an hour-long meeting.


    That had to be some sort of new record for intergctic negotiations, and it seemed that the Alliance envoys weren''t prepared for it.


    Even after it was signed, they seemed unsure of what was going on, and unprepared for what was toe next.


    "If anyone would like to stay here aboard Terminus a little longer, we have some fine suites reserved for visiting dignitaries in the Cruise Ship portion of our vessel. You are wee to them if you like." Nico suggested, then brought up a hologram of the amodations on offer.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Yes, that would be excellent. Like the Innu, my species has an affinity for water. It is most of the reason that we keep our environmental suits on, our skin dries out very quickly when we are out of water." The blue-skinned envoy replied.


    "In that case, you will want the units on level three. The humidity is kept high there, but more importantly, we can turn a mist spray on in the hallways as well as the rooms if you like, and the water park there has a perpetual mist, requested by the Innu for fellow amphibious species.


    "You would put a mist spray inside a suite?" The Giant asked.


    "We have waterproof versions of everything already in our programs, designed for aquatic use. I can''t personally vouch for theirfort, but I am told that they are sufficient for regr use by humans and Innu." Nico replied with a shrug.


    The blue-skinned envoy made a purring noise before speaking again. "Simply keeping the humidity up is enough inside the room. The water parks sound amazing though. Were the gravity slides I have heard so much about an Innu innovation?"


    "Quite the opposite. They were the attraction that convinced the first group to stay on with us. We designed them as a recreational feature, but they have quickly turned into the most popr mode of transportation inside the vessel.


    It led to a distinct change in fashion sensibilities as well, since everyone began to expect to be constantly wet, swim shorts and quick-drying shirts have be the normal fashion for most guests, though some do still prefer to use gravity control or the elevators to get around between floors." Nico exined.


    "I too will stay. If I bring back Reaver Rum, my crew will never want to leave, and we are only here to verify the contents of the deals you were making with the others, we can''t stay long." The Huntress sighed.


    "Are you sure? We are not far from the nearest Klem-infested Star System. Huntress Khan could give you directions and you could stop for a short Hunt on your way home. They aren''t sentient, but they''re a wickedly smart and deadly prey species." Nico offered while Max flipped through the avable rooms with the Valkia envoy.


    "If I do that, they really won''t want to leave, and they will only whine andin at the next destination that we are sent to. Political duty is seen as more of a punishment detail by our species, so you can imagine how it would be to get a small reprieve and then have to return to the daily drudgery of negotiating with people you are not allowed to stab."


    Most of the room shook their head at her strange logic, but Nico nodded in understanding. "Life is full of difficulties. But if you change your mind and want to give them a bit of hope that political duty might not be all bad, we are avable anytime, and we have a fairly detailed list of likely hunting spots."

 Chapter 572 572 Goodbye And Good Riddance

    "I am afraid that I have other business to attend to than the aquatic pastimes of an emerging species, so I will excuse myself and return back to my vessel." The Volga envoy informed them in a dignified voice.


    "But of course. I do hope that the next time we meet, we mighte to an understanding, but such things cannot be rushed. In the grand scheme of things, even a few centuries is not such a long time if it leads to the oue that is best for everyone involved." Max agreed.


    The colour guard was still stationed all down the hallway as Max escorted him back to the Alliance shuttle that had brought everyone here. They had clearly been informed of the situation, as they were waiting outside the doors of the shuttle with only the Volga g hung for the envoy''s arrival, and he entered without any fanfare or even another word to Max.


    Once the shuttle was back out of the bay, Max could finally breathe a sigh of relief that the one annoyance of the day was gone and focus on building up the rtionship with their new allies. Just being able to purchase goods from the Alliance would be a huge change for humanity, which was still far behind them in many ways, but he didn''t want to stifle innovation, so the first few orders would be for Rae 5, to give to the researchers so that they could try to engineer something totally new out of them that the Humans could call their own.


    It had worked for Warp Drives, Replicators, Materials Printers, and storage devices, so there was no good reason that humans couldn''te up with their own version of other things as well if they were given time and the basic knowledge required to begin the journey.


    With that in mind, Max forwarded the Agreement to a supply house in Innu space, verifying that Humans were now allowed ess to technology not restricted for military or police use, and ordered fifteen thousand copies of the learning headsets for the Academy, the crew and some for Uncle Lu and his team.


    He wasn''t sure if it was just a programming issue, where they could potentially add the learning applications to their existing virtual reality technology, or if they would need major changes, but Uncle Lu could figure it out once he had a copy of his own.


    [How would you like those delivered?] The retailer asked once the payment from their Alliance reserves was confirmed.


    [Do you have a designated location for precision portals? Or should I send a Shuttle?] Max replied.


    He had no idea that his response would create chaos among the Innu of the design department of thatpany. He only wanted to get his goods, but the thought of opening a small intergctic portal, then sending a precision portal through it to pick up goods was a totally alien concept to them and notpatible with the way that their transport devices operated.


    As such, they believed, somewhat correctly, that humans could precision portal across Gxies with only a few minutes'' notice, and the thirst for knowledge was driving them into a frenzy of development and theoretical talks.


    [A shuttle is fine. We have sufficient inventory at our orbital warehouse to fill your order right now, so you may arrive whenever you like.] The customer service representative responded, just as confused about the question but less eager to find the answer since she had no idea how the portals worked to begin with, only that they did. Her interestsy in the field ofmunications.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [Who is on duty? Send a shuttle to this location and pick up our order of fifteen thousand learning headsets. They should be preloaded with the full Innu course guide up through university, and we need them for basically everyone.] Max asked the pilot''s dispatch.


    [First Battalion is on right now. I will have them send out a vessel right away. We will be ready to open the portal in thirty seconds.]


    The warning of a portal opening was broadcast to all the vessels in the area and immediately responded to by the Volga vessel requesting to piggyback and use it to get to Alliance space. That wasn''t a problem, as they would be keeping it open until the shuttle returned with their goods, and it would both get the Volga out of their hair and save them the energy cost of getting most of the way home.


    One of these days he would sell more human vessels to the Alliance, with the energy capacity to portal themselves around the Universe. Their line of Luxury Yachts could already do it, but they were still in the final stages of approval for public use in the Alliance and couldn''t be resold by their initial buyers, so very few actually had ess to them yet, except the few customers who had purchased them directly from the Reavers, and no shipyard was approved to make them on their behalf.


    The owners seemed very happy with them though, and Max had noticed a few came back to them during the student enrollment day, proving that they were functional enough that the owners had made them their primary vessel unless they were just showing off by bringing it for that specific asion, which was quite possible as well.


    [Are you about done in there? The Huntress wants a proper drinking partner, and I don''t count.] Nico asked as Max watched the portal open and arge cargo shuttle dip through, followed by the Volga ship.


    [Just making sure our least favourite new friends have left the area. I will be back in just a few seconds. Where are you?]


    [The tiki bars on level three. Bring a swimsuit, we''ve got the spray cranked to the max, and it''s basically raining in here. Surprisingly, the Valkia love it. They''re huge clean freaks, and they say it''s like a constant freshwater shower while they drink and rx.]


    Maxughed at the thought of a whole group of dignitaries drinking in the shower together and stepped back out into the hall to dismiss the guards.


    "That''s everyone who is leaving today. Good work everyone, enjoy your evening."

 Chapter 573 573 What Are You Doing Here?

    Max joined the Envoys and their followers at the pools on level three, where a veritable party had broken out after the Huntress prepaid a huge tab for the entire bar that evening. She had spent more than the bar''s average weekly earnings and encouraged them to find as many people who enjoyed the misty aquatic environment as they could so that she didn''t have to drink alone.


    The Bartender had put it in the public announcements for the Cruise Ship, and it had brought nearly a thousand people to the floor, spreading not only through that bar, but the others in the area, who were happy to link their inventory reports and keep one running tab for the entire floor.


    It would get out of handter, but that was normal for the ship since many of their guests paid for a VIP package, which included all their food and drinks during their stay. The human staff was very good at rounding up drunks and getting them back to their rooms in the early hours of the morning, and they were getting enough practice at it that they were almost smooth enough that nobody noticed the drunkest among them disappearing.


    "Do you think that it would be possible to see the Academy grounds while we are here? I understand if much of the interior is off-limits during ss. Still, I would like to see what sort of standards a Human educational facility that employs Alliance teachers is at." The Valkia envoy asked as he finished a steaming mug of chocte cream liqueur.


    It wasn''t particrly strong stuff, but he might as well have been holding an entire bottle of wine in his hand, given the amount of alcohol in a full mug.


    "Of course. A few dignitaries with a full escort will help motivate the students to focus well in ss, and as long as you''re all well-behaved, there is no reason you can''te and see the Academy for a little while before we show you to your rooms. Or, if you would prefer to enjoy the evening to the fullest, I can arrange a tour tomorrow during sses so that you can see the Academy in action instead of touring an empty buildingter in the evening." Max suggested.


    "That''s even better. I have heard that you found some excellent teachers, but our databases don''t have any data on human educational facilities that aren''t military oriented. The only ones that we have recorded were the Military Academies of Kepler and Cygnus, as they seemed the most relevant to our interactions in the past and were a strong indicator of the trajectory of your species before this current Trade Alliance Revolution." The Valkia agreed, then ducked as a very drunk assistant nearly dive-bombed him on a wobbly flight path from the fourth-floor gravity slide exit to the hot tubs on the third floor.


    "Perhaps I should bring him to his room before he hurts himself." The envoy sighed.


    "I think he will be fine. He''s in the hot tub now, and security is keeping an eye on him, so he doesn''t drown if he happens to pass out." Nico replied from a few meters away, where she was ying drinking games with the blue-skinned envoy, who was drinking fruit juice to keep himself in a fit state to enjoy the party.


    The Giant had made fast friends with the Canis girls. They found hisck of a tail and tiny round ears somewhat disappointing, but his feats of strength and surprisingly muscled body were nearly enough to make up for theck.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The Giants were also very literal and not at all prone to deception or pranks, which was a quality that the Canis admired nearly as much as a good fluffy tail. So, he had been inducted into their group and assigned to the guys'' team to help even out a tug-of-war match being yed on smooth wet marble, creating a spectacle nearly asical as ying it in the nearby sand.


    Everything was going smoothly until a new group of Valkia from the upper floors flew down to join them, and an enraged bellow came from the assistant of the Valkia envoy.


    "You little shit. Get your ass over here right this instant before I have to go up there and get you." The voice echoed through the misty party, clear enough to hear from across the floor, even with the music ying.


    The group of young Valkia decided that discretion was the better part of valour. They immediately turned tail to run away, racing back up toward the top floors with the assistant envoy in hot pursuit.


    The lead envoy and the Giant both burst outughing, pointing at the sky where the youngsters had been caught and were being pulled by an ear back down to ground level.


    "So this is what you are actually doing when you told your mother that you were on an educational trip to the Innu Hollow Moons? Let''s see how smart you are when I lock down your ounts and ground you until the Semester is over." He told them in a voice usually reserved for a Company Commander greeting drunk Pilots returningte from shore leave.


    "His son and nephews. They were all supposed to be on a school field trip together, but they ditched. We got the message from the school before we left, but we didn''t know where they had gone. Their mothers were in charge of tracking their movements since we had to work." The Giant exined.


    "Oh, they''ve got it bad. First, they get it here, then they''ll get it again when they get home, then a third time when they get back to school, and the Headmistress wants to talk to them about skipping a school trip." Nicoughed.


    "You have no idea. Their Grandmother is the Headmistress of their Academy, and she is not known for her mercy. She''s possibly the most overprotective mother that anyone could have ever had, and she doesn''t even go easy on her grandchildren. I had my first dessert treat after I transferred from the junior Academy to the Middle grades, where we were in the Dorms and not home for every meal." The Valkia Envoy agreed.

 Chapter 574 574 Great Ideas And Bad Alarm Clocks

    "At least she let you have dessert at the Academy." Max offered, but the man only shook his head.


    "She informed the staff that I was not allowed to have them, and they refused to serve them to me, so I had a friend who was in their good books sneak me an extra serving sometimes when she wasn''t supervising the cafeteria."


    "Well, I will have you know that our Academy is somewhat less strict on the dietary restrictions. Instead of prohibition, we have a collection of sugar-free and low-carb sweets from around the universe. That way, the kids can enjoy dessert while maintaining a nutritionally bnced meal n, carefully designed for the various species by our own in-house nutritionists." Nico informed him proudly.


    "You even brought in specialist nutritionists to make meal ns by species? Now that is impressive. My school was all Valkia, so we didn''t have to worry about it. What about sports? Do you have hoops?" He asked.


    Nico looked confused, but Max saw the images of the flying sport using the hoops that they had built into the outdoor facilities.


    "We do. And it''s set up for both the noncontact and professional versions. We even adapted human children''s toys to make soft clubs for practice so that they didn''t have to hold back. You can still knock someone out of the sky with them and knock the ball free, but they don''t cause any serious bruising or broken bones, and there is a protective gravity field over the grass, so nobody will crash down with any serious force." He exined.


    "I was a wonderful goalie back in the day. Good enough that I made the starting line all the way through university. But professional sports weren''t for me. I was picked early for a career in politics instead." The Envoy sighed.


    Max could sense the disappointment, and it was a familiar emotion. He had seen it many times before, with old soldiers, washed-up old drunks in the projects who went on about the glory days, and many others whomented not following their dreams.


    In practice, the Valkia had all that one could ask for, but not being able to be a professional athlete would always be a regret, no matter how far up the politicaldder he climbed.


    "I doubt that we will be able to form a proper league since we only have the one Academy with students who can fly, but if we introduce the Archangel Exoskeletons, I think we could form a couple of recreational teams using the wingless species," Nico suggested, finally understanding what sport they were talking about.


    "The wings are essential, though. They''re part of the strategy, so having a winglesspetitor would give them an unfair advantage." The Giant pointed out as a fan of the sport.


    "The originals had weaponized metallic wings, but I am sure that we could adapt them to an animatronic feathered wing easily enough so that all the yers would be on an even ying field. The suit might not be as agile as the Valkia are, though. That assistant Envoy has some pretty good moves." Nicoughed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "He is pretty agile in the air, isn''t he? It''s impressive every time I see it, and I''ve always thought he would have been better suited to a job inw enforcement or something where he could put his athleticism to better use. But like our Giant friend here, he prefers to work a job in politics and make a hobby out of his physical training." The Envoy shrugged.


    "Well, I will let you get back to the party, and I will see you in the morning. We have a few things to take care of tonight, so I must also steal my second inmand." Max replied, giving the Valkia envoy a wink and wrapping an arm around Nico to lead her back to his room before the train of thought she and the Huntress were on turned into a new extreme sport.


    They could do thatter, and not when there were so many dignitaries on the ship, all half drunk.


    As they walked, Max could tell that he was already toote. The Huntress had a n to "improve" the game of Rings, where instead of five yers with wooden clubs and an intable ball that was thrown through varying-sized rings for points, they would instead use stun batons, and two smaller metal balls would be added, to give the game a projectile weapon.


    The thought of yers hurling solid metal balls at each other while carrying stun batons to club each other out of the sky was a very Hunter sort of sport. Still, since the Humans had the anti-gravity exoskeletons, it was perfectly viable on the existing infrastructure and would be essible to all species, not just the winged ones.


    Convincing the Academy staff to let anyone actually y it was another matter.


    Max woke up to ice-cold hands on his skin the next morning as Nico dropped the temperature of her outer shell enough to shock him out of a deep slumber. It was both the most effective and most horribly cruel rm clock he had ever considered. He always swore to himself at the end of the night that he would wake up first to prevent her from doing it, but every time, she would be up before him and would find a way to shock him awake before the rm went off.


    Not that all of them were unpleasant, but that was not the point. One of these days, he was going to be the first one up, and he would get his revenge.


    "Good morning, sleepyhead. It is now six-fifty in the morning. We have a breakfast appointment with the Envoys at eight, an Academy tour at nine, and you have to oversee a court case at noon. It''s been a long time since there was a high crime that needed your attention, but protocol says that you have to be here for this one."


    "What happened? Everything seemed to be fairly well under control when we went to sleep." Max asked.


    "The usation is an attempt to start a mutiny."

 Chapter 575 575 Preparing For A Trial

    With such a heavy usation hanging in the air, the Envoys had no qualms about Max cancelling his participation in the day''s nned events and assigning someone else to take over in his ce.


    The tour of the Academy was to be done by Headmistress Medusa herself, with the assistance of a few of her office staff. Meanwhile, the tours of the ship were guided by the Illithid, who was more than capable of sensing everything that happened aboard Terminus, so he wouldn''t be missing out on anything, even if he weren''t physically present.


    Max and Nico sat side by side at a small round table, apanied by Colonel Klinger, who had reported the incident, as well as a group of legal experts sent by the Reavers and the Giant Envoy, who requested to be present as a monitor, in the name of impartial justice.


    Having an unrted judge and jury during incidents aboard a ship wasn''t always feasible, but an outside monitor was how the Alliance helped ensure impartiality during the hearings.


    "Alright, Klinger, tell me how this all started. From the very beginning of what alerted you that there might be something amiss among the crew." Max ordered.


    "I was doing the weekly Battalion inventory review, and I had selected the munitions stores, the bedding stocks and the raw ore piles for manual verification. Bedding stocks came back normal, but raw ore came up nearly a tonne short of the reported usage, so I requested DiFranco from the Fourth Battalion to double-check my work and usage charts, as per regtions.


    It was during his check that we discovered that the missing material had been transferred to the Holy Light under Marcus ze, so we moved our search there, under the excuse of being a performance reviewmittee, and found a great deal of resentment that he had been picked over others who had joined at the same time and had more prestigious families back home.


    Once that was established, it wasn''t hard to convince them to admit what had taken ce and to find the weapons that they had made, and then attempted to erase the logs from the Materials Printers.


    I have here documents that we collected during our investigation, and they name seventeen crew members of the Cruiser Holy Light, along with four staff members aboard Terminus, outlining a n to overthrow the ship and go independent the first time they were sent on a mission outside of the weapons range of Terminus and her Mecha Battalions.


    Among them are all four of the Company Commanders sent from Rae 5, but not the chosen Battalion Commander, who appears to remain loyal to Captain ze and the Terminus Trading Company."


    The room went silent as Max and the others looked over the documents that had been collected, verifying theirst dates of modification and the users whose biometrics had been logged into them, and then had Nico and one of the Innu Tech Nomads verify that they were not tampered with to implicate an uninvolved party before the contents were read.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The device was intended to self-destruct when an unauthorized party touched it. But unfortunately for them, they didn''t have the ability to override Colonel Klinger''s authority, and he had been the first and only one to physically touch the data tablet.


    The evidence inside was fairly damning, as it outlined the basics of their n and was intended to serve as an override during the mutiny by falsely reporting certain members'' locations and status. That alone wasn''t enough for a conviction, but this was only the first piece of collected evidence. There was a long list of other data, including who made the unauthorized weapons, who essed the room they were stored in after they were created, and how they were rted before arriving at the Terminus Trading Company. They even went into what sort of status their family held within the Reavers.


    The next part of the evidence check, after the first batch had been deemed admissible, was the interrogation of the prisoners by the two senior officers. Most of them predictable denied all knowledge since the Pilots wouldn''t physically rough them up at that point in the interrogation, but a few believed that they had notmitted a crime. With cause, a mutiny against a criminal or ipetentmander who had clearly vited the Reaver Code was justifiable. It wouldn''t lead to the mutineers'' expulsion or any sort of charges against them.


    For example, if the Commander had deliberately betrayed the Reavers, it could be deemed justifiable to overthrow them, and it seemed that was the defence that they were going with in this case.


    Their argument was that by going with what they viewed as an unqualified Captain from a lesser Reaver family and by fraternizing with the Alliance members, who were not officially members of their Trade Group, and only had the most basic of agreements with the Reavers, that Max had betrayed them, the Reavers and the Commander''s oath of loyalty and protection.


    It was a very long shot of an argument, but they would be allowed to present evidence of it at the trial once it started, assuming that they had any.


    Of course, since the ship had never actually gone anywhere, taken any casualties, or even issued an order beyond the basic daily routine, it would be a very big stretch to justify their mutiny against their Captain, but they would be allowed to.


    Captain Marcus ze of the Holy Light was the next one to present evidence. The Captain looked a little sheepish as he bowed politely to Max and with good cause.


    He had failed to notice a mutiny beginning on his ship, which was his first Command, and before he had ever even been on a single mission. It wasn''t exactly a glowing review of his capabilities as Captain, but he had prepared a number of documents for Max to read.


    "Alright, Captain ze, you are free to start your presentation. Hopefully, you have a very good exnation for what exactly is going on aboard your ship." Nico greeted him as he sat across the round table from the group reviewing his evidence.

 Chapter 576 576 Preparing For A Trial, PT 2

    Captain ze spoke slowly, his artificial voicebox carefully neutral as he presented his documents. "I am afraid that no excuse could cover for my failure, but I have prepared detailed documentation of the situation aboard Holy Light. While the staff were hand-picked by the Reavers to join the crew of Terminus Trading Company, nearly every single member was selected as a double agent for their family or faction.


    While each of them is eminently capable on paper, the infighting and n politics they have brought have made it nearly impossible to function as a unit. After I blocked allmunications from the ship to outside locations, I believed that I had the worst of it under control, and the crew was beginning to work together toward bing a cohesive unit.


    The training reports are in there and have shown great improvements over the first few days after their arrival.


    For that reason, I thought the double agents were willing to bide their time and wait until themunication barrier was lowered to send their collected data back to their sponsors. Such things are fairly standard for a newly founded Reaver ship, andmunicating ship data to outside sources would mostmonly only lead to a demotion and a publicshing, so there are always a few willing to risk it for the rewards that they or their family will be given by their sponsors.


    In addition to what Klinger and DiFranco found among the crew quarters, I also found a few well-disguisedmunication logs. They begin on page seven of the documents I have presented."


    Most of the first six pages were just standard Reaver family drama, the sort of thing you would never get rid of when families had thousands of years of history with each other. But page seven of the records he presented painted a very different picture.


    The transmissions were encrypted with an unknown algorithm, but that was no real hindrance to Nico or the Innu, and they had both cracked it independently within a few seconds.


    From the first transmission, it was a big shock.


    [Keegith, we have only forty-five days before the voting for Rae 5 Commandant. If we aren''t going to let that bitch Mary take total control of the, you need to act now. Her pet Trading Company needs to be so thoroughly discredited that she will never recover from it.


    Whatever it takes, you need to get it done.]


    The message came from the leader of one of thergest Reaver Families, who had always been antagonistic to the Tarith Family, but the response was enough to end his career as the leader of his family.


    [Lord Mori, I have the n well underway. The mutiny can begin the moment that I receive independent confirmation that you have released my children from your custody.]


    The man named Keegith was one of the conspirators identified as a possible leader in the other documents, and he had been the one that had created the unauthorized weapons, while Lord Mori was one of the leading contenders for the position of Ambassador for the Reavers among the Trade Alliance.


    "It seems that there is much more than a simple mutiny here. Ransoming family members, political corruption, extortion tomit mutiny, the list is rather extensive. What do humans do when there is such arge conspiracy and problem afoot?" The Giant observer asked.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "We will hold a trial here for the members of our Company who are involved. We will also forward the documents and all evidence to the Reaver Council, every Council Member, at once so that they can begin their own investigation and trials.


    While the Mori family is powerful, the leader could well be stripped of his rank or executed for attempting to start a mutiny among another Company. The Reavers count it much like dering open war on another Family if you are caught in this level of corruption, and like the Alliance, the Reavers don''t take that lightly." Max exined.


    "The question remains, what convinced the others to go along with such an insane n? Most of them don''t have any connection to the Mori Family, and some don''t even have a particr connection to the ze Family." Klinger asked.


    "That''s what the trial is for. Right now, we are only examining evidence to determine if it''s real and admissible." Max shrugged.


    He nodded at Nico, who sent all of the documents they had collected so far to the Reaver Company Commanders gathered around Rae 5 and returned a dozen messages an instantter.


    "We have more evidence. It seems that Lord Mori wasn''t as stealthy as he thought, and the other Companies have been watching him." Nico exined and put all of the new data into the data storage of the meeting table for everyone to pull up as they wished.


    It detailed a power mad Company Commander who thought he alone deserved to be the Emperor of Mankind and his efforts to undermine the Trade Alliance and put himself into a position where he would haveplete control of the assembled forces of humanity.


    "Wow, that is a lot of evidence against him. No fewer than fifteen different major Reaver Families have found him guilty of attempting to cause mutinies or assassinate their leaders. Make that sixteen if his involvement here is found to be true.


    It doesn''t change the guilt of the patsies that he hired or the ones who willingly went along with the attempt to start a mutiny, though. In fact, we should thank him in a way. We wouldn''t know that so many traitors are in our midst without his hard work.


    We should see how Divine Tribtion is doing under Luke Tarith. If the Mori Family is going after the Tarith Family, there might be a major incident there." DiFranco suggested.


    "Luke Tarith is a bit more ruthless than Marcus ze is. I''ve seen multiple reports of severe punishments under hismand, so I believe that they tried the same there but might not have gotten far enough to call it a proper conspiracy. We will pull up all the data we can, and I will order the Second Battalion to flip bunks and confiscate any and all contraband they find right now." Max decided.


    If he was going to clean up the Company, it was best not to give anyone the time to react.

 Chapter 577 577 Clean Sweep

    Within thirty minutes of the orders being given, the Second Battalion was everywhere. They Checked dorms, workstations,puter logs, storage rooms and everything in between.


    The sheer volume of contraband they found was staggering but not entirely unexpected. Most of it was just alcohol and porn in workstations where it wasn''t supposed to be, and hardly a cause for concern, but they did find a few more egregious vitions that they would actually have to write people up for.


    Aboard Terminus herself, the infractions were nothing out of the ordinary, with one notable exception. One logistics staff member was found in the middle of a frantic call to an outside location that showed up as an unaligned mercenary group. That was definitely off-limits without clearance. Interstermunications all required permissions, and themunications team would connect you and log the call.


    The purpose was exactly what they were working on today, preventing infiltration and plotting by outside forces.


    A harsh and thorough investigation of sensor logs was conducted, only to find that his crime waspletely different than they had expected. He wasn''t in on the mutiny. He was trying to obtain a questionably consenting, questionably legal mail order bride to be delivered to Terminus.


    That was a whole new problem, so he was remanded into custody until they could deal with him, and the search continued without pause.


    Aboard the Divine Tribtion, the findings were much more interesting. The Captain had indeed thwarted the attempts to recruit his staff for a mutiny, but that didn''t mean that things weren''t chaotic aboard the Cruiser anyhow.


    At first, everything seemed to be squared away, with only a few usual vitions, but the Company Commander in charge of the dorms noticed a strange pattern. Nearly every bunk in the Mecha Battalion had a picture of Nico somewhere within their personal space.


    Not necessarily Nico herself, but often one of the Mecha that she was Piloting was in a printed screenshot. Now, there was no rule against having a crush on yourmanding officers, but for an entire Battalion to do it was kind of creepy, so they looked deeper into the matter and questioned the Pilots, who were found to have formed an informal cult around the Second in Command.


    They were convinced that she was a reincarnation of their home''s God of Battle and that worshipping her would bring them luck inbat. They trained with her simtions and training programs, followed the regimens that she had left programmed into theputers, and did their best to emte herbat style.


    The final note was made that no vition was found in their behaviour. Still, they rmended that it be monitored in case it led to a subversion of the Commander''s Authority in an incident involving both Max and Nico.


    Max saw that bite up and sighed. Nico was sitting right next to him, trying not tough, meaning it was toote to hide the data and prevent her personal cult from inting her ego for the day.


    "Look at it this way. They''re super loyal to the Company. They would never betray their goddess that way." She gloated.


    "If you start calling yourself Goddess in public, I am going to instruct the Innu to make a mute function for your voice box," Max warned her.


    Nico stuck her tongue out at him and sent out a drone to take selfies of herself that she fully intended to edit into posters to send to the Battalion.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Oh, don''t look so cranky. It could be worse. Did you hear about the guy in Logistics?" She asked.


    "Yes, and I''ve confirmed that he is staying in custody until we find out the details of this bride he was trying to arrange." Max sighed and turned his attention back to the screens.


    With Divine Tribtion all but sorted out, Max turned his attention to the two Companies that were doing a blitz of Holy Light. They hadn''t been warned yet that there was a trialing about the Mutiny in an attempt to gather more information, but the chances that any of the main yers didn''t know yet after the first few were grabbed were pretty low.


    Their only advantages were that the disposal systems were locked down from the moment the find was made, and nobody had been allowed on or off of the ship.


    They found many attempts to hide or destroy evidence, some more effective than others, and the same pictures in the Pilots'' rooms, indicating that the following that Nico had developed was not an isted incident.


    "Find out if they were all recruited from the same," Max asked Nico while the Second Battalion searched the ship.


    "Affirmative. Every Pilot except the senior officers on both vessels came from Kepler 7. If I recall correctly, we fought the Narsians with them." Nico rified.


    Max paused before answering because he could see that she was still digging up data on where the Pilots came from and why since it was much more relevant now than the original hiring reports that detailed their personal skills that the Rae 5 team had sent to them.


    "The Command Officers are all political appointees, but the bulk of the force was inbat against Narsians when everything went to crap in the Kepler Empire. They just stayed put until the Cygnus fleet came to wee the into the Trade Alliance. After that they were dispersed on Rae 5 to look for work until they saw the recruitment offer and signed up to be back under a Kepler Commander and back in Mecha instead of working civilian jobs.


    Their oldmanders were demoted, but it looks like they are still in the Battalions."


    Max nodded in understanding and then asked the important question. "And how does this rte to them forming a Cult of Nico?"


    "They were present when we assaulted the city. During my ethereal phase." Nico exined.


    Her Ethereal phase? That was an interesting name for that period of time after her mortal body had been crippled while she was pretending to be her own ghost to freak out her allies and terrify the Narsians.


    "I think it''s time that some political appointees got a promotion, don''t you? They are far too important and noble to be in intensebat, working as bodyguards for a cruise ship. Make it happen, and report back to me when you have new job assignments for them that won''t be seen as a demotion." He ordered, then created a couple of aspirin from the Replicator to cure the seemingly ever-present stress headache that the past few days were giving him.

 Chapter 578 578 Reorganization

    "I can get on that right away. They are excellent Mecha Battalion Commanders, so it would be an insult to those who aren''t involved in the mutiny to be reassigned right out of the Company. Others would view that sort of thing as insr like we didn''t wee anyone but our own people. So, I think that a side shuffle if we can''t promote them would be a good call." Nico suggested.


    "What did you have in mind?" Max asked.


    "Move them from Battalion Commanders to a War Strategy council. It''s technically a promotion, and raising their wages wouldn''t be an issue. Plus, they would make good advisors when their entire duty is war strategy. There is no room on the battlefield for politics, and any such ideas they have would go against the interests of the others and get them called out immediately.


    You would gain a number of very talented advisors. They would gain a promotion that moves them out of battle and conveniently out ofmand of the Mecha, where any suspect loyalties could be a real issue.


    I think that it''s a win-win sort of proposition, and we already know that we have qualified recements who are loyal to their units aboard the Cruisers.


    If you would like, I can draft up some nice promotion letters, as well as the transfer paperwork right now." Nico offered.


    "Do it, but don''t announce it publicly until after the trial is finished. Do let the two ship Commanders know, though." Max agreed.


    [Sir, I know this might not be the time, but we have a message from your Uncle Lu. He has a parcel ready for delivery and says it will be shipping barebones in seven days.] Admiral Drake informed Max with a text message.


    Just what he needed. Even more ships while he was working on solving a mutiny issue aboard one of the two that he had already received.


    [Alright, tell him that we will be ready to receive them and that we will need to hold a hiring fair once they are ready.] Max agreed, then sighed and rested his head in his hands.


    "Oh, can I invite some friends? I mean, now that the agreement with the Alliance is done, there is no good reason not to have Innu Technicians aboard your ships, and I know a bunch of other Tech Nomad groups who would dly sign the same deal that we did, working and earning royalties to revamp their ships.


    Working with humans is fun. You let us go with anything, and I''m sure they could make an improvement or two to your ships while they are at it." One of the Technicians suggested.


    "She has a point. Innu Technicians are the golden standard for apetent crew. You could prohibit them from broadcasting aboard the ship, though, if you are worried about them giving away secrets or identally revealing the location of abat vessel. They would forward their research to the mothership and receive their credit after it was verified and put up for sale." The Illithid suggested.


    "Klinger, DiFranco, what do you think of the concept of multi-species crews? The current Battalion Commanders are next in line for shipmand, so depending on the number of vessels, you two are likely to be organizing a crew of your own under our banner in only a few days." Max asked.


    "I want Dryads. I stopped to have a coffee under the World Tree today and met the one that we have aboard as an ambassador, and he is great. Like the Shin in the love of nts, but more mellow and open-minded. I think they would make great botanists, and the self-sustaining nt life aboard the ships needs a supervisor." Klinger rmended.


    His mind said that the Dryad had an incredible intoxicant herb with them that wore off after half an hour and had no lingering effects like the cotton mouth or that intoxicant hangover which humans so often suffered from. He was assured it was non-addictive and would pair well with Reaver Rum.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "I see what you''re going for. As long as your crew keeps to the regtions on when they can get high, I don''t see an issue with hiring Dryads. Since I am not hearing any objections to the Innu, I will assume that there are none?" Max asked.


    "They''re great, as long as you don''t put them on the early morning shift. That is way too much energy to be dealing with at four in the morning." DiFranco agreed, making the technician giggle.


    "The whole species is like that, full output all the time. You get used to us." Sheughed.


    "Anyone else that we should really look to actively recruit?"


    The officers in the room thought for a moment, then Nico loaded a new data set onto the table''s holographic projector.


    "ording to this data, we should have Innu and at least four female Valkia, one Giant and a nt-type species aboard every ship. Ipiled the list from Alliance Envoy ship staffing and the flirtation datapiled by our crew''s interactions aboard the Cruise Ship." She exined, bringing up the graphs to prove her point.


    "What does the flirtation data have to do with anything?" The Technician asked, being less concerned about such matters than her innovations.


    "It helps with morale in the long term. Who knows where romance might bloom? This data says that we have a representative bias toward the number of men who prefer strong, taller women. Perhaps a few Hunters or Canis would also go well in the crews if any are avable." Nico told the Innu girl with a wink.


    "Oh, well yeah. I never thought of that. I mean, yeah."


    Maxughed at the flustered technician as she realized what Nico was going for with the crew construction.


    "Will the new Captains be bringing their old units with them?" Klinger asked.


    "Nope. Terminus will appoint a new Battalion Leader from among your Company Commanders, with consideration for your rmendations, and a recement for the new Leader''s Company will be chosen by them. The additional ships will get all new crew, but after this, it should be the end of our fleet expansion for a while. We only have six possible ships to reim that we haven''t sold off, so four more positions are open." Nico rified.


    Max looked at the stack of trial evidence in front of him and then back around the room. "Do we have any more evidence to vet before we begin the trial?"


    Everyone shook their heads. It was all there, everything that they could get before the conspirators had time to destroy the rest.


    "Alright, assemble everyone used in the courtroom. Let''s get this started."

 Chapter 579 579 A Reaver Trial

    "Are the guards not going to escort them to the trial as a group?" The Giant envoy asked as the assembled officers watched the camera feed of the hallway from the holding cells to the courtroom.


    "No, it is a Reaver tradition. The used is allowed to dress in their own clothes and walk themselves with dignity to the trial." Nico exined quietly.


    "Still, there are no guards in that hallway, the used appears to have a weapon, and there are two open side passages. Isn''t this tradition too reckless for such a serious crime?" He continued.


    "Just watch. This is a very important tradition; you will see why soon."


    The first man walked with measured strides to the courtroom and took his seat with his chin up, not speaking a word. Once he was seated, his sidearm was taken by the security officers, who then returned to their positions along the wall.


    The second man did not walk down the entire hallway. Instead, he turned into the first open side hallway and disappeared from view. A minuteter, two guards entered behind him and left with a body bag.


    The third defendant chose the second hallway, which led to an airlock and walked straight out, much to the horror of the assembled Alliance envoys.


    "What in the name of all that is scientific are you allowing them to do?" The Giant asked.


    "You see, if they are convicted of mutiny, it reflects badly on their family, and the Reavers will not soon forget that a traitor was convicted from among their direct ancestors. But if they should happen to meet with an unfortunate ident before the trial, they were never convicted of any crime, now were they?


    Think of it kind of like a guilty plea and a posthumous pardon all in one." Nico exined.


    "Well, that''s just gruesome. Efficient but gruesome." The Valkia envoy interjected while the Dryad looked unconcerned.


    "Did you know that many species willingly self-terminate if they are excluded from the group? I think it''s a beautiful tradition, allowing them the choice to avoid humiliation and atone for their mistakes." The nature-loving tree man informed them.


    That wasn''t the response that Max had been expecting from him, but the logic was solid.


    The group on trial was whittled down to nine members by the time everyone arrived at the courtroom. All of the suspected organizers were still there, including the four Company Commanders.


    That was unfortunate for them, as they had tried to use their Mecha to send private messages to each other since they weren''t connected to the ship''s systems. They might be separate from the ship, but they also had an internal duplicate of all messages sent, a ck box that the average user didn''t bother to learn about.


    The full message logs had been pulled from their Mecha, and it was enough to personally identify and damn all of them.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Court is now in session. The used here are charged with conspiracy tomit Mutiny without Cause. The assembled evidence will now be presented, and the used may request a representative to organize their defence before they enter a plea." Max announced, his voice booming through the silent room.


    The four Company Commanders stood as one, and the man on Max''s right spoke on their behalf.


    "We choose to self-represent and officially charge Commander Keres Max with dereliction of duty and treason against the Reavers."


    "Understood. A third-party judge will be brought in." Max announced, then turned to Nico.


    "Please open a portal to Rae 5 for a judge to be sent through to oversee the trial."


    With an usation against him, he couldn''t oversee the trial, but he could have chosen either Nico or one of the ship Captains to hold the trial on his behalf. Instead, he would bring in someone unrted and prove that he was an upright leader in the eyes of the Alliance.


    Nico opened a small precision portal with a smile on her face and a song ying in her head that was preventing Max from looking in on her thoughts. He should have been paying more attention earlier, as he was sure this was all nned on her part, but the face that appeared through the portal shocked his brain back into momentary paralysis.


    "Lord General Tennant of the Reavers, reporting for duty as Judge overseeing the Mutiny trial among the Terminus Trading Company.


    My ship will be here soon. Please don''t shoot at it. It''s a bit antiquated and not at all up to taking a direct orbitalnce."


    Max couldn''t believe his eyes. It really was General Tennant, and he was here iming to be a Reaver with his own ship.


    Seconds after he arrived, a portal from Rae 5 opened, and Abraham Kepler floated through in all her battle-scarred glory. The ship looked much worse for wear, with multiple patches on her hull, hasty repairs visible to her engines, and half her drop pod bays empty and open to the void.


    The sight brought Max a nostalgic smile, and he rose from his seat to offer the position of Judge to his mentor.


    "Lord General, seeing you alive after all this time is a pleasure. Please, review the evidence at your leisure, and take your seat." He greeted the old Pilot.


    "The pleasure is all mine. I have been a bit busy ofte, up near the Vampire border, but the Reaver Council brought me back a few weeks back to honour me with a new Mecha to rece my retired friend. Titan ss, can you believe it? But I digress. We have a trial to run, and your leadership seems to be in some question. Please take your seat in the boxes, and we will begin with the used mutineers."


    None of the defendants looked pleased to see the General here since his reputation as the incorruptible Phnx ss Pilot from Kepler preceded him. Pretty words wouldn''t sway him, and it would be very hard to convince him that their case that their Captain was ipetent was a valid one.

 Chapter 580 580 Reaver Trial Pt2

    The boxes were a separate room, isted from the courtroom, for witnesses and used who shouldn''t be influenced by the proceedings in the main courtroom. That wouldn''t stop Max from being able to hear the thoughts of the people in the next room, but the thought was there.


    Listening to Nico''s thoughts was much more entertaining, as she was taking the role of prosecutor as Second in Command of the Terminus Trading Company. She pulled no punches with her questioning, and their actions actually sounded worseing from her deceptively innocent voice setting than when Max read them for himself.


    All but the four Company Captains pled guilty and pleaded for leniency, asking to be dismissed and sent to Rae 5 for hardbour instead of given the death penalty as mutineers.


    The four remaining defendantsid out their case to the best of their ability, with the advantage of General Tennant not being able to read their thoughts and realize that they had carefully scripted this performance at the behest of Lord Mori.


    "We have here evidence that the Captain and Commander were consorting with enemies of the Reavers, disregarding their duties to protect the crew and the dignity of the Reavers as a whole in their search for wealth and fame." The spokesperson for the group was exining.


    General Tennant wasn''t fully up to speed on the new deals that the Alliance and other species present had made with the Reavers until that moment when he reviewed the evidence that was supposed to be the defence of the Mutiny effort.


    Most of it, predictably, relied on the presumption that Lord Mori was going to be the leader of the Reavers by the time they were discovered, and his intent was to exclude all other species from the Trade Agreement and keep human technology and advancements within the Trade Alliance, with himself set up as the supreme leader.


    "I see only one major w with this argument. Lord Mori is ineligible to run for leadership, as she is only six years old right now." General Tennant informed them, and Max sensed that he was handing the documents back so they could reorganize their arguments.


    "Please exin, Judge Tennant." The spokesperson asked in confusion.


    "The previous Lord Mori was executed in an honour duel two hours ago after he was eliminated in the first round of nominations for leadership and challenged Lady Tarith for her position."


    "That can''t be possible." The Pilot gasped, and Max sensed the confusion and rage in his mind.


    "I have the video, as I was also the referee for their duel." General Tennant informed him.


    Calling that a duel was very generous. Max watched the video y in the minds of the attendees of the trial, and it was only about ten seconds long. Mary Tarith had chosen an unarmed duel as the mode ofbat and shattered his fist with her first punch, going toe to toe with the man three times her size, and then promptly crushed his skull with a kick.


    That wasn''t really a shock to Max. That woman was just as scary as her daughter, but to the rest of the room, it was a bit of an incredible revtion. Mary Tarith had gotten an exemption from the off draft to serve her decade of Military Service on Kepler Terminus, so everyone had assumed that she wasn''t much of a fighter and didn''t have a high-ranked system.


    Clearly, that wasn''t the case since she was stronger than her opponent, but for those who didn''t know her personally, it was hard to reconcile with her very motherly appearance.


    Nico was cheering andughing as she watched her mother fight, adding cheers of "Grab the ear, grab the ear." to the recorded audience noise.


    She had often been dragged across rooms by her ear after upsetting her mother and considered it her ultimate move, as it was one of the few that she didn''t have a proper counter for.


    "Would you like time to rebuild your defence? If you have it, you may present new evidence of your judgement that the Captain and Commander were acting against the Reavers." General Tennant informed them after the video of the duel had ended.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The four men spent a few moments considering their answer. Then the leader spoke up with his only option to avoid a guilty verdict.


    "I challenge for leadership of the Terminus Trading Company." He spoke proudly.


    "As per Reaver tradition, there will be two tests of your worthiness, with the Second in Command choosing a challenge as a tiebreaker should you fail one of the two.


    The first trial is your fitness to Command. As you have previously Commanded a minor vessel of a Reaver Company, your qualifications are sufficient. The second is a vote by the members of the Terminus Trading Company. I will send the notifications now." General Tennant informed the room.


    They didn''t have to wait long. Over half of the Company had responded within a minute, rejecting his bid to take over.


    ? "Now, the Second in Command will put a test to you to determine if you are worthy of taking up the mantle." General Tennant informed the room.


    Letting the Second in Command choose the challenge made it either very easy or impossible for the challenger, depending on the mood of the Second. It was one of many reasons the position was for the most trusted friend of the Commander, but more often, they would be the one leading this challenge after a Commander had made a grave mistake and lost the trust of their crew, and the option would be selected by the third.


    "Since Terminus is tasked with the negotiations between the Reavers and dozens of alien species, I will give you a challenge that is within the realm of what the Reaver Council has asked of us. You will challenge a Huntress for the right to negotiate a lifelong partnership. If sessful, you will have proven yourself."


    Nico''s words were loaded in a way that nobody else in the room, except the Alliance Envoys and the Huntress, realized. Lifelong Partnership, in the Hunternguage, meant a Marriage. Anything else was an alliance, a working arrangement, or a Hunting Party. Nico was eagerly anticipating having the man propose marriage to some random Huntress and watching him go down in mes. It was definitely cruel and unusual punishment, but that wasn''t a restriction in a Reaver Trial. Unfortunately, she underestimated hisck of understanding, and he acted before anyone could exin the situation to him.


    The Pilot walked proudly up to Huntress Khan and spoke in a clear and demanding voice. "We can solve this right now, then. You have long held to a working arrangement with the Terminus Trading Company, and I see no reason that we can''t move forward from this point. Huntress Khan, will you join me in a lifelong partnership to lead the Terminus Trading Company to new heights?"


    Maxughed so hard that he fell out of his chair, and he could sense that Nico had deactivated her motor functions to avoid doing the same herself.


    When he recovered his senses, Max could hear someone shouting for a Medic toe to the courtroom quickly and Nicoughing in a way that sent chills up the spines of every male present in the room.


    Huntress Khan had pped the pilot so hard it had broken his jaw and neck.


    It was the first step of the Hunters'' mating ritual and was moremonly on the backside when a Huntress was flirting with her chosen partner. If you couldn''t even take a hit, you couldn''t possibly be worthy of marriage, and he had failed miserably. Of course, if she had been interested, she wouldn''t have hit him nearly that hard, but ignorance was no excuse, at least not in a court ofw.


    The Giant wasughing himself into a bout of hups, and it took a few minutes for him to recover before General Tennant could restart the proceedings and find out what had just happened. The Dryad and Valkia silently uploaded the video of the incident to social media under the heading of "Trolling the Ignorant" while the humans in the room were doing their best to understand what had insulted her so much that she hit him.


    "I will take that as negotiations failed. Magnificently failed, in fact. The challenge has been determined to have failed. Leniency is granted to the defendants, and they will be turned over to the Reaver Council for a life sentence of hardbour in a location to be determined by the Council." General Tennant dered, bringing the trial to a close.

 Chapter 581 581 Reunited With Tennant

    The door to the room Max was waiting in swung open on its own at the behest of General Tennant, and the guards signalled for him to enter the courtroom.


    "Commander Keres Max, the challenge to your position has failed, and we have found no evidence of ipetence or malicious acts toward your crew, so your trial is cancelled. Court is now dismissed." The General announced, then stood to pull Nico into a hug.


    "How is it that you haven''t gotten anyrger since thest time I saw you? I know your mother is small, but your father isn''t that tiny." Heughed as he picked the petite cyborg up in his arms.


    "That''s not true. I grew a whole five centimetres when they did the conversion. It''s a bit of a long story, but they thought a partial conversion would be sufficient until they got started, so they ended up doing the job as a full custom build instead of using a premade generic body, and this is the minimum size for a Mecha Pilot that is programmed into the Cybeic Facility." Nico exined.


    "That makes sense. Your personal System Functions must be intact then? You don''t feel like any cyborg I''ve ever met. A little more, and you''ll look and feel fully human again."


    "I could have lightened my body a little more, but it would sacrificebat ability. This was the lightest that I could get with optimization and alloys, plus a touch of biomechanical engineering obtained from our Hunter allies. Overall, I''m in a pretty good spot as far as developments go, and I''ve gained a lot of functions that I don''t think any other human cyborg has."


    The General ced her back on the ground and reached out to sp hands with Max, then pulled him into a hug as well before backing away andughing.


    "You, on the other hand, have grown into a fine specimen of adulthood. Congrattions on all the promotions you''ve had while I was away. Commander of a Reaver Company, Lord of a Colony Ship, and Pilot of a Titan ss Mecha is quite the resume, and you''re still so young."


    "You should stay a while and take a tour of the Cruise Ship that we built in the bow of Terminus. It''s an incredible ce and is currently full of Alliance guests who wanted to see the new Terraforming Device that our development staff has produced. The below us is nearly half reformed, so if your derelict old Transport ship can wait a few weeks, you can watch the remainder of the process." Max suggested.


    "We''re not going anywhere. You will get the notification in a while, but Abraham Kepler was deemed to be non-repairable after the battle of Cormack, and I flew it alone back to Rae 5. The only people aboard it now are Reaver colonists and scientists, preparing to makefall once you deem the ready for full-time habitation."


    Max frowned as he read the General''s thoughts of how he came to be engaged in such an intense battle while he was supposed to be on the run, keeping the traitorous elements within the old Kepler Empire from dering him a war criminal.


    Eventually, he got to the relevant moment and found that the battle of Cormack was one where the lone God ss Mecha that Kepler possessed had shown up to destroy an invading fleet. Abraham Kepler had moved to intervene, keeping them from getting a shot in on the Mecha before its weapons were in range. Still, the ship was basically destroyed, and her crew was left stranded on the until another transport could be sent to recover them.


    The ship was left floating in space, with an official status of disabled and all hands lost, but the General was still aboard after he had sent everyone else to the surface, and he got the warp drives running well enough to make a roundabout route through the emptiness between systems, avoiding detection until he could meet up with the Reavers.<novelnext></novelnext>


    He already knew most of the current events when he arrived. The ship''smunications systems were functional, so he dered himself a Reaver Captain and member of the Trade Group, formerly a Kepler General, and started recruiting for his ship.


    General Tennant smiled at Max as his expression changed, and Nico began tough.


    "It''s really quite fun to watch him dive down into someone''s memories. The facial expressions are the best. He doesn''t do it often, though, since it''s more work than just listening to current thoughts, and the memories need to be in your recent memories. I''m not sure how it works, but I''ve found the loopholes to keep some secrets from him."


    "Well, it''s certainly easier than fully exining everything that has happened since we parted ways. Where might we get a drink? I think we still have a lot to talk about." General Tennant suggested.


    "Come with us. We will set you up in a suite next to a hot tub and a bar. I don''t think any military ship canpare to the level of luxury we take for granted here. Did Abraham Kepler get retrofitted with a Replicator, at least?" Nico asked.


    "One for the mess hall. I didn''t have much to pay with, so I traded the spare parts that were left aboard for the Replicator and the equipment to get the settlers into their new homes. I was an old man when we met, and retiring as Governor of a new tourist on the far side of the Gxy doesn''t sound bad."


    The Valkia looked over at that, surprised by his words.


    "You are the one that the Reavers have suggested to maintain the for guests?"


    "That I am. I might not look it, but I have an extensive education in management and spent over a century as aary Governor, defending a portion of the outer borders that didn''t see too much action." He replied.


    "Well, that is startling. Your visage suggested that you were a career soldier. I would have never thought you were a High Noble of your species." The Valkia said, by way of apology.


    "Appearances can be deceiving, and many of ourary Leaders are lifelong soldiers, thanks to the violent history of our Gxy. Especially the ones closest to the human borders, where there are hostile alien species nearby.


    Learning to get along and not incite international incidents is a skill that the Council determined was essential to the task at hand. It''s probably the only reason that my battered old ship was given such a great opportunity."

 Chapter 582 582 Plans For The Planet

    All of the officers and envoys made their way to one of the more elegant lounges on the seventh floor, suitable for nobles and other dignitaries who wanted a calm and businesslike atmosphere to their day.


    There weren''t many guests there right now, only a few Valkia parents sipping drinks and talking about the Alliance stock markets while their kids yed on the lower levels, so there was no need for the group to worry about crowding anyone out with their arrival. Many species were status conscious like that and would silently make space for those with superior stations, even without a request.


    It was one of the things that the hospitality staff was working on, and he had introduced in-room views of the upancy of various lounges so that those who were of a simr mindset could go when they wouldn''t feel that they were in the way and get full enjoyment of the ship''s facilities.


    The parents were more than a little shocked to see all the dignitariese into the lounge at the same time. Usually, a group that esteemed would request a private room somewhere, but Max knew that most of them found it to be overly stuffy and isting. They didn''t get a lot of chances to interact with themon people as it was, and eating in a private room only eliminated one more chance for them to see how people were really doing.


    It was a problem that nearly every species seemed to suffer from. The leadership became the elites, which became unspoken aristocrats. They isted themselves from the world within their peer group, passing downws for everyone else that they had no intention of following.


    The Alliance was as guilty of it as the humans, but they seemed to be working on it, or at least the ones that they had sent to Terminus were working on it, and everyone happily greeted the waitress when she came to take the drink orders.


    Max ordered himself a pint of mead, a change from the hard liquor so that he could drink casually over dinner, and a brilliant idea hit him. In-room experiences. Unlike so many other vessels, they weren''t cramped for space, so even the cheapest of rooms had a fair bit of space avable. They could send down a table and chairs that matched the dining experience of the establishment that the guest wanted to visit and add a hologram to simte it in their room.


    The ultimate in-room service.


    He made a note of it in case his brilliant idea was lostter in a fog of rich foods and liquor and joined the group in ordering dinner.


    "It''s a bit different than the old cafeteria menu, isn''t it, General?" Heughed as Tennant set the menu down on the table.


    "You know, there is no need to call me General anymore. We''re both Commanders now, and technically you outrank me, as youmand three eight active vessels." The older man pointed out.


    "It''s a bit of a tradition here. Half of the former officers still use their old ranks. Admiral Drake is still the Admiral, though he serves as the ship''s navigator now. Even the Battalion Commanders are mostly still called Colonel." Max exined.


    "Well, that''s one way to sort out who is who. Most Companies use job positions or equivalent badges to show who is in charge." Tennant agreed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "We do the same. Valkia dye certain feathers to show their rank and workce position. The more of the feather that is dyed, the higher their rank." The Valkia envoy exined, pointing to the single blue feather near the end of his wing.


    Most of the humans had thought it was either a personal choice, or a naturally urring thing since Valkia feathers were rarely in only one colour, but in reality, that shade of blue was used for all government workers'' uniforms within the Alliance, from toll booth workers to police, and even the suits of the paperwork clerks usually picked the same government blue.


    It wasn''t really a regtion, just a tradition since only the police and some otherw enforcement types actually used blue uniforms. Everyone else had just chosen them on their own. Even garbage collectors usually picked blue coveralls with neon green safety vests.


    That thought was rather amusing to Max since it was the standard safety vest colour across hundreds of human worlds and implied that most Alliance species had simr visual processing capabilities to humanity, making it suitable for general use.


    The smell of steaks and lobsters brought Max back to the present and out of the minds of his table mates as a half dozen servers brought tters of food to their table, and General Tennant sighed in happiness.


    "Now, this is how life should be. We''re still a bit short on biomass aboard Abraham Kepler, so we''ve been conserving with repacked rations, but one day soon, we will be able to plug in any meal that we want and eat like kings." He informed the table with a smile.


    "The food replicator is possibly the most important turning point in most societies. It is the point where the have and have not groups begin to disappear since food creation uses energy by volume, not scarcity. How they handle the transition is the most telling indication of where the society is heading." The Giant agreed, cutting into what looked like an entire ham.


    "We can help build your first city as well. The terraforming device can be used for disaster remediation, so it has preprogrammed cityscapes. I have nned to add a very unique one of my own design to the, so if you don''t object, that will be the first colony in this world. I believe that the naming rights to the lie with you, though." Nico informed the General.


    s have a proper designation as well as a local name. The local name is set by the first colonists to settle there." Max exined to the envoys.


    "Oh, now that is a high honour. I like the way you think. Hunters get to name the if they are the first to make a worthy kill on it. I think it''s nearly the same concept." The Hunter Envoy agreed.


    "Well then, we have much to drink to. Waitress, could you bring us another bottle of Reaver Rum?"

 Chapter 583 583 More Power

    The message that roused Max from his hungover stupor the next morning waspletely predictable. The Alliance delegation and the Dryads had decided to stay to observe their terraforming efforts. At the same time, the announcement came in that the blue-skinned species would be ready for a Portal back to their home in an hour if Max were willing to oblige with their power supply.


    The fact that so many species had focused on efficiency above all else and were incapable of opening a portal with their trade and diplomatic ships, relying instead on the space stations in their home systems, was a bit ridiculous to Max.


    It was a matter that had bothered him for a while, and he was determined to get to the bottom of the matter today. He couldn''t take it, not knowing why they didn''t simply increase the power output of their ships enough to take care of all the tasks that might be required for their duties.


    So, he sought out the Giant and Valkia envoys, who were the most likely to have answers for him.


    They were sitting around a desert-themed bar, basking under the UVmps in the heat and enjoying breakfast much more slowly than usual as they recovered from the night''s festivities.


    "Good morning, envoys. I hope you are enjoying the amenities. We do have a trained physician on board should you require some medicines to recover." He greeted them.


    "Hangovers are proof that you truly lived." The Giant chuckled, sipping a Mojito while he waited for another te of food to be delivered.


    "You look like you have a question, Commander." The Valkia stated as Max settled down into the seat across from them.


    "I do. It has to do with the difference between the human and Alliance warp drive technologies. They are quite simr, both using Dilithium and other simr Crystals in a matrix to create the warp field. But where humans have no issues generating enough power to open portals, it is standard practice for the Alliance ships to need a station to open a Portal.


    I know that you have the precision that it''s not a matter of arrival clearances, and I can''t seem to understand why you don''t increase the output of your vessels. Even if it''s a reserve capacity, there is bound to be a case that it would be an improvement."


    The Giant snorted. "Did you ask the Innu first?"


    Max nodded. "They said that they were too broke, and their thoughts went on a tangent about repair techniques and warp theory. I couldn''t make sense of it, so I decided toe to you instead."


    Now the Giant was actuallyughing. "I can see how trying to deal with Innu as a mind reader would be a nightmare. To summarize, do you know how the crystals are formed and prepared for use?"


    Max nodded, and the Giant continued.


    "When they are replicated, there is no way to set the matrix in the crystals. It needs to be done afterward with specialized nanotechnology. The technician needs to tune it to the ship and then fine-tune it to the warp bubble patterns and frequencies. It is a very delicate procedure, and putting strain on the system causes microfractures.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    So, the maximum safe output of the system is limited. We could greatly increase the size of the matrix, but that makes it even harder to create and tune and increases the rate at which it degrades and needs to be overhauled.


    Ships with Terminus''s output using Alliance warp drive technology have an overhaul schedule of a single decade. It''s a massive inconvenience, and the skills to perfectly tune a warp drive are in high demand, so the downtime can be considerable.


    I have investigated the human warp drives and have a question for you. How do you get around the problem of microfracture events pushing the drive out of tune?" The big man answered.


    "We actually built a Materials Printer into the Warp Drive to repair the microfractures. Then, a technician with a repair-rted System Function aligns the matrix through the repaired section. They have only had to do it once so far, but it worked wlessly and took under a minute." Max exined.


    "So, you are saying that there are humans who can just FIX damaged warp arrays in a minute without tools or specialized tuning bays?" The Valkia asked in shock.


    "Well, you need a screwdriver to get the cover off unless you''re wearing a Tech Adept Harness or you''re a Cyborg, but yeah, that''s the basis of it.


    The drive doesn''t put off any radiation that is harmful to humans when it is powered down, so we can open it up and have the tech put a hand on it to align the repaired sections. Certain humans, like myself or Nico, with more versatile system functions, can actually do it from outside the enclosure by sending the nanobots into our surroundings."


    "That is one hundred percent cheating, by the way." The Innu Envoy stated, walking up behind them.


    "I talked to the Tech Nomads, and they said the same thing. When they break the warp drive prototypes during testing, they have a human reset them to default values and start over again."


    That made Max chuckle. No wonder they loved Nico right away. The Warp Drive improvements were among their first projects here aboard Terminus, and he hadn''t realized that they couldn''t do them with such efficiency without Nico around. Their thoughts were too full of ideas for him to iste such a small detail.


    "You mentioned humans like yourself and your second inmand. Should I understand it as there being more humans with such capabilities?" The Innu Envoy asked.


    "Of course. Repair-rted functions are fairlymon among the descendants of Kepler and the Reavers. Most won''t be at anything near our level, but being able to align a warp matrix ismon enough that I haven''t heard of any severe shortages of technicians either for the factories or aboard our ships." Max replied.


    The envoys shared an overjoyed look and spoke as a group.


    "I don''t suppose that it is possible to hire these n bonded humans, is it?"

 Chapter 584 584 Warp Technicians

    Max decided to fix a few misunderstandings this morning since they were already being open to questions.


    "Our people aren''t n bonded. They are very loyal employees. Nothing is forcing them to stay with their Company other than the fact that it is where their family is, and we are usually quite fond of our families." Max informed the envoys, then amended his statement.


    "With the exception of term contracts for youths that have been put through advanced training. The Company pays the cost of their education, and they work for a set time, usually five years, to pay them back with their newfound skills."


    "Innu do the same thing. It is a good way to recruit young geniuses from less affluent families and send them to the finest educational facilities." The envoy agreed.


    "Exactly the same concept. I am d that we have that inmon. It would be a ratherrge culture sh if our species had conflicting ideas on the appropriate use of advanced education."


    The Valkia gave him an eager look and then took out a data tablet from a pouch between his wings.


    "How often are such recruiting events held? I think we would like to have a suitably skilled human among our ship''s crew. If they can overhaul the warp drive on our runabout, it would save us weeks waiting on repairs when we get home."


    "You can ce a job offer anytime, and then it will be up to the qualified workers to contact you with their intent to apply for employment. But if you need a drive repaired, we can do that for you as a service. Repairing vessels thate for vacations is sometimes necessary, so we do have technicians on our staff that aren''t dedicated to the ship itself and are avable to do repairs on other vessels today." Max offered.


    "Really? That would be wonderful. We are getting close to full overhaul now, and if we could extend it by a few years, it would look really good on our performance logs." The Valkia told him with a wink.


    "How about I make up a work order, and I will send a crew over right away? It usually only takes a few hours a drive to do the repairs, so they could do your main drives as well as your runabout if you need. I have reviewed our agreement, and that should be allowed under the new terms of our arrangement." Max suggested.


    "Excellent. Yes, we will take you up on that. Just let us know what it costs, and we will arrange payment."


    Max shook his head. "Think of it as a gift. It will be the first time our crews are working on your particr setup since it''s so different from the luxury yacht drives that we usually encounter, so it wouldn''t be right to charge you while they are learning the intricacies of your design. I can assure you that their System can fully analyze your Matrix and restore it to its original configuration though."


    "I feel like we are being scammed, but I can''t detect any hint of a lie in your words. Humans really are a curious species." The Valkia responded with a curious look at Max.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Nico, I found you a new toy. The Envoys ship needs repair and refresh on all their warp drives. Assemble a team and take them over to bring the Alliance vessel back to peak performance.]


    The pure joy at getting the chance toy her hands on an Alliance Envoy vessel was almost enough to drown out all the other minds around her in Max''s senses. Still, she started assembling her team immediately, including two of the Tech Nomads and three other human technicians with simr repair skill sets.


    It was a golden opportunity for them to gain new knowledge on a high-warp vessel of the sort that they couldn''t yet make themselves.


    "You''ve definitely been had. But I think that we will get our full overhaul. I have been using my imnted data link to chat with some of the Tech Nomads stationed here aboard Terminus. They informed me that Lead Researcher Nico Tarith, also known as Tarith Rage, has assembled a team to head over to our vessel to begin the work, and they are requesting clearance to send the shuttle already." The Innu envoyughed.


    "They are using the repair job to study our ship design, aren''t they? Is this the secret to human innovation? Just find new things and blend them with existing knowledge until you find a workable version that isn''t patented?" The Giant asked.


    "It is the second most popr version, behind creating an entirely new idea. Blended technologies never seem to work as well or have the same advancement potential as an entirely new design.


    Now that the deal is signed, we could purchase a vessel with a simr rate of speed and reverse engineer it, but this is more cost-effective for both of us. When was thest time one of your counterparts got a whole Warp Drive overhaul for free?" Max asked.


    "Humans are dangerous in more ways thanbat, it seems. I must say, your straightforward mannerisms and adeptness with half-truths had me underestimating the wiliness of your species." The Valkia replied with an impressed feeling in their thoughts.


    "It is considered horribly rude to outright lie to someone. So Reavers have practiced telling people only the parts of the truth that they want to highlight. I think it is amon skill for businesspeople among many species. Some of the ones we have seen from the Alliance had the same quality, though not all had the same aversion to outright falsehoods." Max agreed.


    "That''s how business goes. Humans also have a great deal of pride, which can lead to making statements that you shouldn''t. The ingrained bias of many Alliance members against non-members is also an issue. I hate to say it, but most of the Alliance views any species that isn''t a member as some sort of primitive species, regardless of the reason for their status.


    It has been an ongoing issue for many millennia, and I''m not even certain that it can be reversed at this point." The Giant told him, clearly annoyed by the state of things. His thoughts said that it made his job much more difficult, which was the primary reason he wished to change the status quo.


    Max understood that feeling. Wanting to change things that annoyed him upied most of his free time and the majority of Nico''s work life.

 Chapter 585 585 Repair Job

    Nico and her team of technicians took off the moment that they were given clearance to take a shuttle to the Envoy''s ship to do the work on the Warp Drives.


    They would be starting with the runabouts and the other smaller vessels which used the same sort of drives so that they could prove theirpetence and the reliability of the human method of repairing the crystals and tuning the system before they everid a hand on the main ship''s systems, but that was no deterrent to them.


    In fact, Nico might have lost a bit of respect for the Alliance''s intelligence if they had let some random technician dive straight into the most sensitive system on their ship, the one that could guarantee their return home and the life support systems of their vessel.


    The shuttlended in a cargo bay at the rear of the spherical ship, modelled after the world ships that the Alliance had sent to this Gxy in the past, but much smaller, being only a littlerger than Terminus in diameter.


    All of the humans present were already using their system functions to scan the vessel, gaining new insights into manufacturing and engineering principles for such a unique vessel while they walked from the guest hangar to the docking bay for the runabout used oraryndings.


    To say the runabout was high mileage was extremely generous to this ship''s current state. It had suffered a power malfunction during aarynding, and the outer hull had taken the full brunt of the thermal and gravitational forces of an entry from orbit.


    It was designed to handle it, but not without damage, as the outer surfaces were designed to be ative in the case of shield failures.


    "Would you like us to fully overhaul the ship? We have a very nice modified outer hull design that won''t take damage fromaryndings. Unfortunately, it will take significantly longer to cool down than the current outer ting of the runabout." Nico asked the team which was escorting them into the bay.


    "It would be great to see her back in her prime, but the leadership hasn''t cleared that change, and they haven''t allocated resources to refresh the ting that is on the vessel due to the state of the warp drive. I believe that the humans call this state [Mothballed], or ced out of active service." The Giant exined.


    "Oh, that makes sense. I had been under the assumption that you were still using this one and did not have a recement on board with the same capabilities." Nico responded politely.


    "We don''t have a recement on board, but we are not currently using it either. That has somewhat limited our capabilities, but we have bothrger and smaller vessels on board for secondary duties, and they have been enough to serve the purposes of the damaged runabout while we waited for the overhaul interval. I''m sure you understand it is more cost-effective to do them all at once than to take multiple downtimes."


    "Of course, downtime costs everyone on the ship, and this is a ratherrge ship, evenpared to the Colony Ship that we call home." Nico agreed while she brought out her scanners to see what she could do about the engines.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The rest of the team checked the entire hull for hidden damages that might lead to failures or additional issues if the drive was returned online. They didn''t find anything of note, the damage was all cosmetic, but they did gather a lot of information about the disc-shaped design that they would have to input into their simtorster to see how it interacted with warp fields and why it was chosen as an optimal design foraryndings.


    "Alright, it looks like the engines won''t be toorge of an issue to bring back online. I will remove the crystals, replicate a recement and tune them to the ship in the same pattern as the originals. I can custom-tune them if you like, but I am not sure what your official policy is on outside modifications." Nico informed the staff members who had gathered around to see the humans in action.


    "You can really do it right here? Without taking it away or any special repair bays?" The Giant who led their escort asked.


    "I can even use your onboard replicators if you prefer. It will just take a little more time to tune them because we have specialized ours for creating new drive crystals for the ships we have custom-made for private customers."


    "Then we will let you get to work. Forgive us if we supervise everything. It is a standard security policy for outside contractors, even ones from the Alliance since this ship is currently carrying Envoys. The risk of a politically motivated attack is never zero." The escort reminded them.


    That might be the most intelligent thing she had heard anyone say today. A lot of the Alliance members seemed to have their heads in the sand and be oblivious to obvious issues, but the security guard was well aware that all was not sunshine and rainbows in the universe.


    "Alright, team, let''s get those crystals out and get them repaired. Make sure you don''t miss any fragments. My scans say that the crystals havepletely shattered in there, and any remnants left in the housing could cause a chain failureter." Nico instructed her team, who all activated the additional arms of the Tech Adept Harnesses.


    It was a bit of a flex on the Alliance technicians, who didn''t have anything quite as cool for their toolboxes, which were mostly simple chests with drawers and gravity ting to maneuver them where they were needed for the job.


    Sometimes it was the little things that brought the most joy, though.


    The crystals of the runabout were indeed fragmented and looked more like someone had set off a grenade inside the containment housing than a standard overload event. There were even fragments embedded in the walls that had to be pulled out before they could continue.


    "Change of ns, pull the entire containment housing. We will have to rece the security panelling since fragments are embedded in the walls, and they need to be precision machined for proper field generation. Make sure youy everything out in the standard pattern. I don''t want any ovep or walking over each other when ites time to put this thing back together." Nico ordered the technicians, and the rtively long process of fully tearing down the chamber began.

 Chapter 586 586 Timely Breakthrough

    While the bay was being torn down, everyone aboard Terminus was in full work mode, including the design team members that hadn''t been chosen for the repair mission.


    Other than herself, Nico had deliberately not chosen anyone who was a lead member on an active project so that the rest of their work could proceed on schedule, including their usual live stream, which was set to show the interior upgrades to the Tech Nomads yacht today.


    They had spent all this time working on the perfect new interioryout and fully gutting the hull to prepare for the overhaul, and today was the day it was set to starting back together.


    The ns for their ship had taken dozens of unexpected turns since they first arrived with the hopes of earning enough money to make it somewhat liveable again with a reliable warp drive. Now, they could use ship resources to turn it into anything they wanted and take the cost of the materials they used out of the revenues from the live streams they did in the process.


    They had even found what they hoped would be a working version of the new cloaking device currently in the patent registration process under Terminus Trading Company''s name. It wasn''t perfect or quite up to military grade as Max had asked them for. Still, this edition had the core functionality that they were basing the rest of their designs off of. Registering the patent now would prohibit any copycats from cutting ahead of them with a derivative.


    The fact that they hadn''t made it public yet should help since there weren''t really any other Alliance scientists in the Gxy other than the ship''s guests, but you could never be too careful when it came to the development of security features.


    The cloaking device patents were marked as not for public viewing, which cost extra but was standard for things which might have military implications. It would alert the Alliance army when the patent was registered, but conveniently, there was a whole ship full of Alliance Envoys right here who could be sent over to see what they were doing and register anyints that they might have about the design''s simrities to other hidden patents.


    Not that they would likely do that, as it meant showing the Innu and the Humans aboard Terminus the actual design schematics for their military cloaking devices to determine the patent vition. However, there was still a chance that they might get lucky.


    The live stream started, and the virtual simtion of the new interior was disyed to their millions of viewers, starting a runningmentary on their personal tastes as they rted to how each of the Tech Nomads had designed their new room.


    That quickly turned to questions about why they were renovating a relic instead of building a whole new ship, as the viewers knew that Terminus was capable of. The first few yachts they had put out had already been spotted at multiple social events and had be something like high fashion for the true elites, the most exclusive luxury yacht brand in the Alliance.


    They had a good point, and the Tech Nomads had been overlooking the possibility in the excitement of getting their old home renovated. If they made themselves a whole new custom ship, they could raffle off the renovated one once they were finished.


    Fans of the Tech Nomad feeds would buy nearly anything rting to them, so raffling off their old ship would be an easy win for the group. Trying to avoid the sketchy sorts of bidders who would want questionable modifications or personal garments left behind could be a bit more difficult though.


    The hazards of bing famous.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They were just about to finalize the design and have the modified Terraforming Array in the bay build their new interior when an interesting bit of data came through from the repair team working on the runabout. While inspecting the hull for damage, they inadvertently found the missing aspect of the cloaking device that was preventing their new design from being fully effective.


    The field modtion interacted with certain alloys used in human ships and Mecha, which was the cause of the limited effectiveness they had managed so far. ording to Nico''s system analysis, it could be ovee, but it would require a rather extensive testing round to find the right way to make the changes and hide the objects from optical scans.


    That was incredible news, and it would keep them busy for weeks, or even months, so everyone exited the vessel, then they set the camera drones to hover in the set safe spots and began the work. The faster they could get through their live stream, the faster they could return to the work they wanted to do.


    [Raffle? A raffle is a great idea. How about we start by having them vote for items to be added to the rooms?] The lead team member for the ship overhaul rmended to the others.


    [I will start.] She added, then turned to the cameras.


    "In honour of a new development that we have made here aboard Terminus, on a project we are working on in secret until it isplete enough to show to the public, we will be adding one item to each room of the ship, as voted by you.


    Rmendations start now, until the end of the live stream, and you will have until the day after tomorrow to vote on the leading suggestions." She announced to the viewers and watched as thements section went insane.


    That was her favourite part about having so many active viewers, as opposed to their small following beforeing to Terminus. Everyone was so lively, and they had some great ideas.


    Most of the suggestions were from viewers wishing to have something they liked added to their favourite Nomad''s room, but some were great ideas as well.


    Of course, not all of the ideas were great. Individual Replicators at every seat of the table would be a logistical and power supply nightmare, and the existing replicator was built overhead. It could put the dishes directly on the table already.


    The single best idea of the day came from a Myceloid student in the Capital Academy. An unlikely fan of an Innu Tech Stream, but her suggestion that the upper lounge deck be modified to include a human-style DJ booth gathered millions of votes in the first few minutes.

 Chapter 587 587 Impatience

    [Hey Nico, how''s it going over there?] Max askedter that evening when he noticed the shuttle hadn''t yet returned to Terminus.


    [All is well. We are waiting on approval from the Alliance Government for some essential work that needs to be done, but all of the basic tasks are alreadypleted, and the Crystal Matrix in all their warp drives has been refreshed.]


    Max could sense the excitement in her textmentary, so he assumed she had learned what she had gone there for while they did the repairs and left her to her work.


    What he didn''t realize is just how much she had learned from her in-depth analysis of the Alliance vessels while they prepared them for a Warp Drive overhaul. The initial discovery that certain alloys appeared to interfere with the functionality of the Cloaking Device was only the beginning. They also found data on the resonance of Warp Fields that could be used with specific hull shapes to exponentially reduce the energy needed to stabilize them at higher values.


    p¨¤§ád¨¢-¨¾?¦Í¨º¦É.§ã¨®§® It wasn''t just a matter of finding a design that worked and scaling it to your purpose. The effect was also sensitive to total mass and specific warp factors.


    If her estimation was right, very fast vessels like the warp 40 plus government vessel that had scrubbed itself from their logs could not actually maintain any value up to warp 40. Instead, they could go from roughly warp one through ten or fifteen and then one very specific speed far beyond that, where their hull resonance matched the activation of the warp field.


    It was an absolutely fascinating discovery, though not one that they would be making practical use of any time in the near future. There simply wasn''t a need for it since the Reavers were focusing on equipping all of the Company gships with Portal Devices if they wererge enough vessels to make it feasible.


    For old designs, that meant mostly the Colony Ships and Destroyers. For the new Cruisers, with the most recent technology, it wasn''t an issue for them to sustain a portal within this Gxy to move themselves through or a smaller one to move shuttles to nearby Alliance depots.


    The word spread quickly about the trade deal, and some of the Companies were already looking to buy specific items from the Alliance warehouses. Mostly items for terrestrial use on their homes, things like advanced farm equipment and weather control drones that weren''t in the human repertoire of cool toys.


    It simply wasn''t possible for humans to make a replica of every device that the Alliance had to make their lives easier in such a short time. Now that they had the ess, Max suspected that the will to do so would be considerably dampened.


    Why would they dedicate years of research to develop a knockoff of something they could simply buy elsewhere for a reasonable cost?


    The great limiting factor at this point was theck of Alliance Credits that the majority of the Companies were suffering from.


    That was where Nico and the Tech Nomads came in.


    They had amassed an enormous amount of wealth already and had spent next to nothing, so they had expanded their loan program for Colonists to include the Reaver Companies. They could convert material goods in this Gxy to Alliance Credits for a t lending fee.


    The Reavers already had a solid buy-and-sell marketce, so getting rid of the goods without ever having to see them wasn''t an issue. Their trade AI simply found a buyer for the goods and took the Reaver Credits in exchange.


    It kept the flow of goods moving through Reaver trade routes and brought new technology to far-flung and technologically limited worlds as the Reavers traded their old-generation devices for new purchases.


    It all seemed very altruistic, bringing up the quality of life for more primitives within the Trade Group. Still, with their lending n taking a tidy twenty percent off the top, it was quickly turning Terminus Trading Company into one of thergest banks the species had ever known.


    The economy of scale, as Max''s grade school economics teacher, would have called it. There were many million times more Alliance members to buy things from and sell things to than there were humans, so the goods they sold made such immense amounts of moneypared to what the humans needed that they simply couldn''t run out with their current business model.


    Max was even considering importing a number of Alliance luxuries to give to General Tennant to help him get the up and running the moment that theynded with the Colonists.


    They were bringing over asteroids to stock the world up with everything that it could need, and Terminus would send down state-of-the-art everything for the first city on the, but a few cool toys from back home would make the Alliance guests feel more at home and less awkward during their stays on what was intended to be a world for historical research and preservation.


    When Nico finally did return with her team, they weren''t alone. They had no fewer than four technicians from the Alliance vessel with theme to talk shop with the crew aboard Terminus until their Envoys were ready to depart.


    "Revolutionary Thought" is how they described the human method of repairing damaged warp crystals. It was a technique that they hadn''t mastered and weren''t even sure they had the technology aboard their ship to attempt, but the small team had refurbished the Crystal Matrix chambers on every single one of their Warp Drives in a single day and brought them all back to within factory tolerances for tuning.


    They shouldn''t have worried about time to study with the human technicians, though. The envoys clearly had no intentions of leaving in a hurry, and only a select few knew that the newest patents filed by the Terminus Trading Company were going to keep the Envoys and their legal team around for more than a few days.

 Chapter 588 588 Making Friends

    The technicians from the Envoy''s ship were having a grand time on their first visit to Terminus. Such a good time, in fact, that they were still in the research and developmentb, admiring all of the things that Nico and her team had been working on when the Envoys called them in the morning to give a detailed update on the status of the warp drives.


    To say that the Envoys were a bit surprised to see that the message connected directly with the internalmunication servers of Terminus and not back to their own ship was an understatement. They had expected the work would take a week or more, so the technicians should be busy at work, not hanging out on an alien cruise ship.


    [I can confirm, Envoy. All ship systems check out. The repairs have passed the internal scans, system diagnostics, and internal tuning checks. All that is left is to power it up and take a test flight at various warp speeds to confirm theputer''s analysis.] The technician confirmed when the Innu Envoy checked in with them.


    [Where are you now? I wille to your room and check the data myself.] The envoy responded and got back a few moments of silence before the Technicians had anything to say.


    [We are in a secure area of Terminus, but we can get an escort to you, and I will show you the data in person.] The Technician offered.


    [Why are you in an area that I cannot ess?] The Innu questioned, eager to know what they had been up to.


    [You see, we got to talking shop, and one thing led to another, so most of the night shift is here in the researchbs with the Human design team and some of the Tech Nomads, going over thetest revision to their augmentic environmental suits.


    These things are brilliant. They''re more intuitive than a drone or augmentic arm and fully environment stable for outside work. You should have seen the ones that they made for the Canis crewmen, who haverge pointed ears atop their heads. The helmets are so cute.]


    [Find a way to get me ess. I must see what you are talking about. I have seen humans in all sorts of clothing around the ship, but never an augmentic armour.] The envoy demanded, jealous at being out of the loop about a cool new technology.


    The response was exactly what everyone had been expecting. They had already informed an escort team to be on standby to bring the envoy to thebs when they asked, so the Alliance Technicians responded immediately.


    [They have a team on the way to your position now. It''s a bit of a walk, but they might have a cart for you. You will get augh out of those too. They''re so basic. I mean, they don''t even have an onboardputer, just a bio-battery and a motor with manual controls. It''s insane.]


    Max was listening in on the two as they conversed andughed a bit at the description of their repurposed golf carts. They were simple but easily rechargeable and rarely had a service failure. Plus, they were so light now that they had switched to the biomatter energy storage units that most of the crew could lift an end to put them on stands should they get a t tire or suffer a breakdown.


    Even then, most of the failures were likely to be an electrical connection since there were only a few moving parts, and almost everyone aboard had learned enough in their basic training to be able to diagnose that, at least. The technicians still did weekly service on them, though, checking everything and adding a bit of grease to the wheel bearings if necessary.


    Terminus was a big ship, so some of the more popr routes saw a lot of kilometres put on the carts since the crew used them as public transit.


    p¨¤§ád¨¢-¨¾?¦Í¨º¦É.§ã¨®§® The cart in question arrived at the Envoy''s location only a few minutester with two uniformed Terminus guards on board as his escort.


    It was one of the six-passenger models, with three rows of seating, suitable for the Envoy to bring both of his own guards along on the journey through the ship.


    "I do hope you can forgive us for keeping so much of the ship off limits, but in a way, Terminus is still a military ship, and letting anyone who isn''t a staff member into areas where live weapons are present would constitute a severe security breach." The guard informed the Innu envoy before holding out a hand to assist her into the cart.


    Her tworge male security officers loaded themselves into the back seat, marvelling that they could fit. Most vehicles were designed for a certain standard, and the majority of the crew aboard Terminus were notrge men.


    "The carts were originally designed for a sporting event, so stability and extra space to carry equipment was a major consideration. The hallways of Terminus were made for muchrger bodies as well, so keeping the wide and stable form of the carts made sense, and it doesn''t interfere with two-way traffic." The driver exined as he made the slow drive back to the entrance of the secure areas of the ship.


    "And after all this time, you never thought they might need an upgrade? Not even an autopilot or an efficiency tracker to ensure that the crew wasn''t misusing them?" The envoy asked.


    "The entire fleet of carts is such a minor power draw that it hasn''t been a consideration. They''re not high-speed vehicles, so they don''t need high-output motors, and many of them have been converted to t decks with scissor lifts to deliver parts and hold items while Technicians work.


    Being on a solid surface is vastly preferable to hovering with gravity control, at least to most of the technicians it is, so they like them for all sorts of maintenance issues."


    They passed one such modified cart on their way to the development bay, with six technicians sitting on the deck, letting their legs hang off the sides, making the Envoy''s eye twitch with the need to reprimand them for viting safety procedures. Dangling feet near wheels was definitely a vition.


    "Are they not concerned about injury?" The Innu asked as the cart full of technicians passed.


    "Honestly? Most of them can run faster than the cart is moving. It just saves them the energy of making their way to the next task. They can likely catch up and hop back on even if they fall." The driver replied with a shrug.


    That was a revtion to the Envoy. He had forgotten that these humans'' abilities did not necessarily match their appearance, even if they weren''t cyborgs.

 Chapter 589 589 Even Armor Is Fashion

    The cart carrying the Envoy and her entourage pulled up in front of the researchbs, where they were met by ten armoured guards, all in the newest models of the Augmentic Armor.


    "Oh, this is wonderful. They even brought the new models out on disy for us. Look at that. I think it''s modelled on the biomechanical armours of the Hunters, isn''t it? Yes, and that is t Space technology as well. How incredible, both have been fully adapted by humans, usingpletely different technology, but the same basic idea as the original." She dered, hopping off the cart to inspect the armour.


    "Envoy, that isn''t a fashion disy. Those are the guards on duty to ensure that nobody attempts to break into the researchbs." The driver of the cart exined, making her bodyguards chuckle.


    "Oh, that one is on me. I thought they sent someone out to meet us." She replied, but the driver could tell she was clearly pouting at being interrupted.


    "You can keep inspecting them if you like, but they are a generation older than what is being worked on in theb, and I am quite sure that you will be even more intrigued by the newest developments." The guard standing at the keypad for the door offered.


    "See, now even the guards are going to be mistaken as flirting with the Envoys." The driver whispered to the bodyguards as the Envoy took out a pair of diagnostic tools to begin inspecting the soldiers on duty.


    "I think it''s a culture sh. What you see asmon courtesy, the Innu see as the equivalent of a fancy date. I am afraid to see what happens if one of your people actually does start flirting with an Innu." The bodyguard agreed.


    "It could be entertaining, and I think the kids would be cute, but would they have the tentacles, or would they have human hair?" The driver asked.


    "I am not certain that gics works like that. The possibility of a species being able to interbreed and produce viable offspring with species from another gxy is infinitely low, even if they look very simr." The guard corrected him.


    "That''s a shame. A lot of fine human fantasy literature involves romantic rtions with alien species, and it is a bit of a disappointment to find out that they''re not at all realistic."


    Both of the Guards, as well as the Envoy, gave him a strange look at those words.


    "Is itmon for Humans to be interested in other species that way?" The Envoy asked.


    "Not even cyborgs are safe from the amorous intentions of Humans. Don''t ask me why. It''s just how humans work, and there is no particr basis for which species we will find attractive until we actually meet them." The driver agreed.


    The Innu seemed confounded by this thought,pletely unable to fathom the concept.


    "Talk to the Tech Nomads. They can exin it. I heard that they thought some of our soldiers would be hot if they just had tentacles." The guard suggested.


    "Humans are a strange lot. No wonder everyone finds you so interesting. But I should get inside and go see what they are up to before they finish and leave me standing out here."


    The envoy made her way inside and nearly forgot about the strange conversation that they were having outside when she saw the newest developments for the Augmentic Armor.


    The Innu head tentacles were not just ornamental. They were also sensory organs used to help with bnce, as well as the direction of their ability to interface with electronics. So, with that in mind, Nico and the design team made an upgraded version for spacewalks and exterior ship repairs that allowed them to move freely while being safely encased in both atmosphere and temperature-controlled surroundings.


    When it was disengaged, it looked like a bag with a mask, but as the technician in front of her put the device on, it pulled in and moulded around her tentacles, allowing them free individual movement with an easy-to-wear design that didn''t need to be manually slid over every tentacle, or sorge as to be unwieldy in order to give them room to move.


    In fact, it looked a lot like their natural features but in a in gray, the same as all the other cloth bits on the augmentic armour.


    "In case you were wondering, that is also an augmentic mesh. With the helmet on, she should be able to lift up to ten kilograms with each tentacle. We are about to test that now." Nico greeted the Envoy, who was staring around the room in awe.


    "Might I inquire as to how tentacle strength augmentation even became a priority for your design team?" The envoy asked politely.


    "Oh, that is actually very simple and obvious. We were doing some testing in enhanced gravity to determine the limits of the suits and noticed that we werepletely incapable of effectively maneuvering our tentacles. So, we got to work on designing a helmet specifically for Innu, which should allow us to work in up to twenty times standard gravity without losing any of the precision of our technology interface abilities.


    Well, in theory, anyhow. There have been a few setbacks in the development of the form-fitting device, and it has a habit of bundling nearby tentacles into one sleeve."


    "That is an incredible design. The forcefield that most technicians use tends to cause agoraphobia in many Innu since there is nothing solid around their heads, and they are in space. I think that this unit, which doesn''t rely on a constant power supply to remain intact, would be very well received among a segment of the poption." The Envoy agreed.


    "Plus, we can put cute masks on the helmet. Look at this one. It''s a cartoon cat from a human children''s show." The Tech Nomad cheered, showing off the oversized cat-faced helmet with tentacles in addition to cat ears.


    "Now, that was worth the effort ofing all the way down here, but I suspect that none of the things that you have shown me so far are the important parts of your current research." Theughed.


    "Well, I wouldn''t say they''re unimportant. But no, they''re not our main projects. Prepare to be amazed at the newest and greatest Terminus Trading Company invention. The investigation shuttle Beta design three point five."

 Chapter 590 590 Thats Concerning

    "The what now?" The envoy asked.


    "We managed to perfect a basic cloaking device, using all human technology, and we fit it onto a new ss of shuttle. You should see this thing. It''s so human it''s ridiculous." The Tech Nomads informed her.


    "I understand all those words, and I''m still afraid to find out what they mean in this particr context." The envoy sighed, looking around the room to find the shuttle.


    "It''s in the next bay. This one doesn''t have an exterior door for security reasons. Follow us, and we will have lead researcher Nico get it ready for you.


    It''s so cool that even you Alliance Government sorts might want one." The technician giggled.


    They walked into the next bay and found arge, teardrop-shaped shuttle floating in the middle of the room, suspended by a gravity field while Nico put the finishing touches on it.


    "You are just in time, Envoy. Meet our newest experimental shuttle. Well, we haven''t actually named it yet, and beta prototype three point five doesn''t have a great ring to it, but we wille up with a name for this series of shuttles soon enough.


    Please, step inside, and you can see the wonder of our newest personnel transport." Nico informed her.


    There was no obvious way to get into the thirty-meter-long teardrop, but when Nico waved her hand, the exterior reshaped itself and a long, narrow ramp extended for them to enter.


    "Is that a polymorphic shell?" The Envoy asked, marvelling at how the ship reshaped itself to allow them to enter.


    "Very good. Yes, it is. We thought that this might be the most unique way to optimize hull shape for various warp field frequencies and speeds, as well as eliminate the interference from our more traditional hulls with our limited stealth technology.


    We haven''t run a live test on it yet, but in the simtor, it is the single most capable vessel in the human fleet to this point." Nico exined, then led the envoy to a luxurious leather recliner, one of a dozen lined up near the wide end of the ship, with the rear seemingly reserved for cargo space.


    "Where did you even mount the Warp Drive? The interior seems to be the same size as the exterior, and the rear is much narrower than what would be necessary to fit any sort of warp nacelle." The Envoy asked.


    "The nacelles are built into the hull and disguised so that they can''t be easily targeted. But the drive is under your feet right now. We rearranged it into a low-profile design so that we could maximize interior volume. We can rearrange the vessel into an oval or a disc as well, but ording to our data, the water drop shape should be most efficient for both stealth and high warp factor travel, so that is how it is configured by default."


    "How far is it fromplete?" The envoy asked hopefully.


    "We can test everything today, but we won''t know the answer to how far it is from production until we get the results."


    Both bodyguards gave the Envoy a dubious look, knowing full well how excited she got about new technologies, especially things like this which would shake up the order of things within the Alliance.


    Humans had no sense of exclusivity, as far as she could tell. They just sold their stuff to anybody that they got along with as soon as it got one generation behind what their own forces were using. It was a growing nightmare for the Alliance government, as it vited the unspoken agreements about what was and was not to be made avable to civilians.


    That was the next task she had been allotted, along with the legal team starting their investigation into various human technologies, to make sure they weren''t viting any of the hidden patents.


    The hope was that their designs werepletely unique so that the Alliance wouldn''t have to show the secret designs to the Reavers to prove that there was a vition, but headquarters had never been here to meet the humans, see what they could do, or understand just how insane their development methods were.


    "Should we take a flight? I can power us up now, and we have enough suits to ensure everyone is safe in the event of a breach in the morphable hull. Even you two, big guys. We have suits sized for our Hunter and Canis guests as well as Giants, so there is no problem getting you two into an augmentic armour." Nico suggested.


    "I wouldn''t say no to personally testing out that new helmet. It looks incredible. The envoy agreed without hesitation while her bodyguards sighed and prepared to go on an experimental space flight.


    That was definitely not on their precleared safety protocol lists, but the envoy had the final say in all matters of interspecies negotiations and investigations, so if she wanted to research the ship firsthand, they didn''t have the authority to override her.


    Plus, they were a little intrigued by what that strange-shaped vessel could do.


    "If you just step into this tube here, we will get you properly measured for a custom-fit suit, and then we can be on our way." The technicians informed their guests, leading them to the containment tubes for the Materials Printers.


    "If you want the best fit, you will need to wear form-fitting outfits or strip to your undergarments. The tubes are opaque. If you wish to change, nobody can see inside." She reminded them once all three were in ce.


    "If we are going to do this, we might as well do this right. Give me a few minutes to get ready." The envoy decided, then began changing her clothes in preparation for the armour fitting.


    The bodyguards were more reluctant, but they could always put their storage devices and body armour on over the suit since they were designed with enough adjustability to fit almost anyone. A small perk of state-of-the-art Alliance clothing.


    Gravity control lifted them all off the ground once they indicated that they were ready and fitted them with an augmentic suit in the navy blue and gold of an Alliance Envoy,plete with some added bling that they hadn''t expected, in the form of engraved nametes, and decorated hard armour that wasn''t part of the standard models that the technicians were wearing.


    "It''s the Officers Edition. I thought you might appreciate it. The smartwatch has a t space storage, so you can put your own clothing in there for the trip.


    Take all the time you need to get used to the human version of a heads-up disy. You''re Innu, so you can control it with your mind, or if you prefer, you can use voice controls or even activate the three-dimensional menu in your helmet that you can interact with using your hands.


    I will warn you, though, thest option makes you look like a drunken weirdo since nobody else can see the menus that you are interacting with."


    The three guests took a few minutes to get everything just the way they wanted, including the helmet adjustment, which took a few tries to get just right. As the technician had warned them, it liked to try to bundle nearby tentacles together, and that just felt weird. But once they had learned the trick of how to hold their head and spread them apart, it became much easier to get the helmet perfectly fitted.


    "Alright, we are ready to fly. Let''s see what this teardrop shuttle can do."

 Chapter 591 591 Test Flight

    Max shook his head in disbelief at the message he had received, requesting clearance to take the Innu Envoy out on a test flight in their newest stealth shuttle.


    The patents hadn''t been finalized for that one yet, so they were supposed to be keeping it under wraps and out of the notice of potential corporate spies. Not that the envoy was a suspect, but not everyone on the Alliance ship would be as trustworthy.


    Max spent a second focusing on their thoughts to see what they were up to and found them already inside the shuttle and ready to depart, so he gave the clearance along with a reminder that they needed toe to his office for a long talk about project security once they returned.


    As soon as he gave them all clear to depart, Nico sent him the patent paperwork, verified and authorized by the envoy herself, using her authority as a government official.


    There was also a note that the current stealth technology didn''t appear to vite any hidden patents but that the legal teams were going to be closely examining it now that the human version''s patent was approved.


    Max determined that they were going to have to find something to stab soon. Nico was clearly getting bored and looking for entertainment. And a bored Nico was a headache no man could truly handle.


    "I suggest you all let me do the talking when we get back. We''ve got clearance, but the Commander is not happy with us for showing off the new technology early." Nico reminded the crew before maneuvering to the barrier at the bay door and gliding out with minimal power output.


    The hangar was on the far side of Terminus from the Alliance vessel, so she brought up the cloaking field right away and tried to sneak out of the system without being noticed.


    They would have to check sensor logs when they returned to see if it was a failure or if it worked, but the field was active, and the engine''s power output was a fraction of what a standard shuttle emitted.


    "Tell me, what made you want to put all of this technology into such a small vessel? Is it for the evacuation of dignitaries?" The envoy asked while Nico prepared to activate the warp drive.


    "Mostly, it was efficient prototype sizing. This is the minimum viable size for the design, ording to our calctions. If it didn''t work as intended, we wouldn''t have wasted as many resources as if we had built the initial prototype at cutter or Cruiser size.


    We can always upscale if there is enough demand for this niche design. So far, it has performed wlessly for us, and our transit speed power consumption is less than five percent of that of the previous generation of shuttles in use aboard Terminus.


    If we''re all ready, I will engage the warp drive, and we can begin the data collection."


    Those were the magical words, and every Innu was immediately in research mode.


    The hull of the ship gave off a musical humming as the warp drive came to life, and the Innu all cheered.


    The envoy filled Nico in on the reason for their merriment while the others celebrated. " It''s a good sign. If the ship is perfectly in tune with the drive, it will sing to you. The Fae ships sing the most beautiful songs, but their bodies are very sensitive, and they can''t handle the energy fluctuations of any other species'' ships. They don''t even use warp drives on their own vessels for safety reasons.


    Maybe humans will be the first to make one that they can actually travel on without using portals to go everywhere."


    "That is a stable warp fifteen. We are officially aboard the fastest human vessel in existence." The lead technician informed them while Nico tweaked the warp field to change the song it yed.


    "Energy consumption is down another four percent. We are at eighty percent of Alliance standards. Drive output holding steady at thirty percent of total capacity."


    The three guests stared at the technicians in shock. Twenty percent more efficient than standard was a huge benefit, but warp fifteen at thirty percent output was pure overkill on the engineering front.


    Only a human would integrate a shuttle with a warp drive so far beyond requirements, and the envoy was rather curious as to what they nned to use the extra capacity for.


    Her curious look was enough to tell everyone what was on her mind, even if you ignored the way that she bounced on the balls of her feet when she was excited, so Nico chose to borate before the Envoy got herself too worked up.


    "We use shuttles for almost everything that doesn''t need a Mecha. The excess warp capacity can be used to move asteroids, maneuver disabled vessels, or even form a defensive shield. When they link shields, human shuttles make a very durable barricade."


    That made sense, but the envoy was well aware of the species'' violent tendencies.


    "And what level of offensive capacity does it have? I know there is a weapon mounted somewhere in this ship."


    Nico activated the disruptor so that the Innu could examine its design. It was a simple setup, a single adjustable beam with half the output of an orbitalnce.


    "Why don''t we find something to test this on? We''re currently travelling through the Klem expansion zone. There should be a stream of pods around here somewhere." A technician suggested.


    "Excellent idea. We can test the ship systems and keeps in the region safe at the same time." Nico agreed.


    "I''ve found one. Headed for an uninhabited with no life signs. Even if itnded, this wave would be wasted. They will never miss it."


    Nico altered course to make a strafing run past the pods, with the disruptor set to maximum dispersion. It should eliminate the whole wave at once unless some of therger pods survived the first attack.


    Nico turned to the envoy with a smile. "Don''t worry. They''re a non-sentient invasive pest species that kill entires after theynd on them. Keeping their numbers under control is a public service in this gxy.


    Once we clean them up, we will investigate their target and see what might have drawn them there, unless it was a random attack based only on the presence of a in the habitable zone around that star."

 Chapter 592 592 Skeet Shooting

    The head of the development team turned to Nico with a huge smile on her face. "Stealth technology operating at one hundred percent. Weapons are online. We are good to go, leader."


    Nico set the course and began the strafing run past the pods. Approaching from the rear would make it easier to match their speed after they dropped out of warp, and a distance of fifty kilometres should be enough to get the maximum dispersion pattern of the Disruptor to hit them all.


    The drives hummed a happy tune through the hull as they were auto-adjusted to slower-than-light speed travel, apanied by a low whistle of the capacitors charging for the Disruptor.


    "I like it. No matter what we''re doing, it sings to us. I am not sure how that will go over with the rest of the Reavers. Some humans are quite sensitive to certain frequencies, and the humming might give them headaches. I might need to introduce some sound dampening to silence the interior of the ship." Nico muttered, half to herself, as the shuttle moved into position.


    "Noise cancelling at this level shouldn''t be an issue. it''s only fifteen decibels, barely more than a whisper to most species, so even the low-tech noise cancelling from cheap headphones would do the job." The Envoy chuckled.


    "Good point. I have my audio sensitivity cranked right now, so I can hear if there are any issues with the ship, so it seemed much louder to me." Nico agreed.


    "Ready to fire in ten seconds." The lead researcher informed the crew, bringing everyone''s attention back to their course.


    As the Disruptor began its attack, warning lights began to sh all over the monitoring devices of the developers.


    "It looks like the Stealth Technology can''t handle the Disruptor fire. The interference is too much, and it has been deactivated while we are firing." Nico exined to the others with a sigh.


    "That''s not unexpected. Even our stealth technology can''t be active during a high-energy burst. What sort of modtion did you try to get around the issue?" The envoy asked.


    "Our n was to exclude the nose of the ship from the cloaking field so that the Disruptor could fire past it, leaving only a small portion of the ship visible, but the residual radiation in the area of the projector was too much, and it copsed the field entirely.


    If we move the barrier further back, we might get away with keeping the cloaking field up, but the Disruptor energy disperses all over the hull, so it might not be possible at all with this particr weapon."


    The envoy nodded, then tapped some more data into her tablet before taking the time to watch the disruptor eliminate the Klem pods on the screen.


    "Though we aren''t hidden during the attack, I must say, it is surprisingly effective. With such wide dispersion, I had expected that the lethality of the weapon would drop exponentially, but it seems that it is still quite effective, even at this distance."


    "We have had a lot of practice fine-tuning the projectors to make the Disruptors behave exactly as we want them to. They were originally only lethal to roughly one hundred meters and had a very limited application, but now that we have gotten through a few generations of improvements, they are one of the most versatile weapons in our arsenal.


    Not necessarily the most lethal, but being able to use them in almost any situation, with very few known targets who can resist them, has made them the go-to weapon for new ships." Nico agreed.


    While they finished off the Klem pods, Max was back in his office, with the ship''s sensors at maximum sensitivity, searching for the Shuttle so that he could provide data on the effectiveness of the Cloaking Field.


    When it was very close to the ship, Max had no problems finding it with the sensors. It showed as a spatial anomaly, and from there, he could extrapte what it was. Once it got to ten thousand kilometres away, he couldn''t find any trace of it anymore until it went to warp. The activation of the field was enough to give it away again for over half a second, and he could even calcte their likely trajectory from the data.


    They would have to work on that, as it was a rather obvious vulnerability.


    Then it appeared again, a few star systems away, and destroyed a wave of Klem Pods for a weapons test before disappearing. At that distance, the sensor aboard Terminus didn''t detect it going to warp, but logically they should be returning to the ship.


    He had to say, it was a rather impressive showing, at least to their technology. The next person to ask was Huntress Khan, whose ship should be able to detect much more than Terminus could since they had optimized it for hunting, and that would include tracking targets that tried to hide and flee.


    [Huntress Khan, what did you think of our first trial of human cloaking technology?] He sent to her ship without any exnation.


    [It''s not bad. I don''t think that the Alliance ship even saw them leave until they went to warp. But there is a w in thermal imaging. When it is in front of another object, from the point of view of our sensors, it shows as void cold, which makes a visible blip in the heat signature. It''s minuscule, and I wouldn''t call it a full-out failure since it''s better than most cloaking fields that we havee across, but it still needs some improvements.


    I will send your research team the data from our sensor logs, and then they can modify the field the best that they can.


    If my calctions are right, they should be back here in twenty seconds.


    Ah, yes, there they are. They just entered the system. Look for the cold spot in front of the outlying asteroid belt.]


    Max searched but didn''t find anything at all. In fact, he didn''t pick them up until the same spot as he lost them the first time, ten thousand kilometres from the hull of Terminus.


    [Thanks, Huntress. It seems our sensors are a bitcking, but I will have them get right on the improvements.]


    [I look forward to it. Hide and Seek is only fun if everyone knows how to hide.]

 Chapter 593 593 Minor Oversight

    As the envoy had neglected to inform her coworkers that she was taking a trip on the experimental shuttle, her return and request for docking clearance caused more than a little chaos among the alliance negotiation team.


    There were rules and protocols, safety measures, and security checks to be done before an envoy boarded any vessel, much less an experimental one that had almostpletely escaped their sensors.


    It had done such a good job that their first thought was that it was one of the Hunter''s vessels. The unique warp signature informed them otherwise, but they didn''t know until it returned that an envoy was on board.


    Max had the dubious honour of hearing about the protocols in great detail from the Alliance security team, who were less than impressed with everyone involved.


    "I think this is a cultural mimunication. Among the Reavers, an envoy is usually apany Commander or their second inmand, and they have the authority to decide almost everything on their own.


    If they want to take a research trip or spend time bonding with their allies, there is no reason they would need to ask permission." He tried to exin to the Giants crowding his office.


    "You would let your leaders depart without oversight?" One of thewyers asked.


    "My second inmand is on that shuttle with the envoy. Not only would I let it happen, I already did."


    That seemed to calm them down, and only the Illithid knew just how annoyed Max was with this new headache.


    "We will leave you with a copy of the resolutions on interspecies envoy interactions to read at your leisure. I would rmend using a learning device, though, as they are upward of thirty thousand pages." Thewyer finally agreed, withdrawing hisints.


    The Valkia envoy looked at Max for a moment, then at the Illithid, who was trying not tough. "I would like to note for the record that the chances of humans actually learning the regtions andplying with them are roughly zero.


    I suggest that a notation is made in the species logs informing future envoys to self-govern if they are not going to abide by human customs during their interactions with the Reavers."


    Now the Illithid was clearlyughing and poking Max in the side.


    "If they had just started with that, we could have saved a whole fifteen-minute lecture on rules and regtions."


    The Valkia gave him a curious look, then asked the question that all of the Alliance members were wondering.


    "Has interacting with the humans perhaps altered your ethical indoctrination?"


    The Illithid shook his head. "No, it''s all still there, but while I am in the employ of the Terminus Trading Company, it is only right that I abide by their rules and culture. I must say, it is really quite refreshing, and my kinsmen felt the same as when they came to visit."


    "So, an Illithid has modified their behaviour to fit in with a human crew? That itself is a remarkable feat of political maneuvering. I have never known an Illithid to be concerned about what others thought of them before." The Vakia Envoy reminded him.


    "It''s not that I am concerned that they might be offended or otherwise disconcerted by my standard behaviour. They were quite epting of the entire group that I arrived with. It is just that the human behaviour model is quitepatible with Illithid logic. They are spurious but not insensible. They take action the moment that they determine the most desirable course of action, the same as the Illithid, but without our immense amounts of data to base their actions on.


    It is an interesting model, and the fashion isn''t bad either."


    That was enough to make the Giants smile. The Illithid loved fashion for their environmental suits, though they didn''t wear clothing on their natural bodies.


    "Fine, I will ept that for now, but be aware that I will be questioning our ship''s Illithid Advisor about this matter so that I can get greater detail on the interactions between Illithid and Human cultures in the name of preventing cultural incidents." The Giant agreed.


    "Feel free to bring them here as well. There is a sanitary hot spring reserved exclusively for Illithid on the top floor of the cruise ship, so we can exit our suits in public and rx in the waters. They''re nearly a perfect replica of the pressurized volcanic hot springs on our homeworld." The Illithid suggested.


    [He can hear you right now, can''t he?] Max asked his advisor as he went on about the hot springs.


    [Of course. We canmunicate with each other from across the. Hearing each other from one ship to another in orbit is no big deal.]


    [Then I will make arrangements in preparation for another guest. That line about pressurized volcanic hot springs made even me want to go on vacation.]


    There was a rising buzz in the back of Max''s mind, the telltale sign of excited Innu, whose thoughts always reminded him of toddlers after downing an energy drink. Even when they looked calm on the outside, their thoughts were moving in a dozen different directions at once, and when they were excited, it was even worse.


    "I think we should wait around for our dear Innu ambassador. They have exited the shuttle already, and they are on their way here to my office. I can''t tell what they want, Innu''s thoughts are a jumble to me, but they are clearly excited to talk to me about something." Max informed the rest of the negotiation team.


    "She just finished a flight in an experimental stealth shuttle. What else could she have to discuss that would be so urgent that she woulde straight to the Commander of the ship?" The Valkia pondered out loud.


    "Knowing her? It could be almost anything, but if the flight went well, there is a good chance that she will want somethingpletely random that she happened to see while she was with the research team." The Giant replied with a sigh.

 Chapter 594 594 Excitable Envoy

    "Good morning Commander. Or is it evening now? That flight was amazing. You wouldn''t believe how well-tuned they have made the new ship. They even managed to make the hull sing for us as we went to warp fifteen.


    And then the disruptor to eliminate that Klem Pod wave, that was incredible. But that''s not what I came here to talk to you about. Do you suppose that I could maybe, pretty please, keep this suit?


    I have more than a few EVA suits, but this one is the best I''ve ever worn. The augmentics are extremely smooth, not like the cheap government ones made by the lowest bidder, and the helmet, oh my, the helmet. It is simply divine.


    How we never thought of doing something like this ourselves astounds me. Or maybe we did, and it just wasn''t a majorpany, so it never caught on, but the individual tentacle wrapping is like a temperature controlled hug for the head.


    Oh, everyone is here. Hi guys, you''ll never guess what we were up to." The envoy rambled at high speed as she came into the room, followed by a group ofughing Technicians and Nico.


    The look that the Valkia gave Max seemed to say, "Look what we have to put up with," even more clearly than his thoughts did, but Max decided to break down hermentary into manageable chunks so he could analyze the information he was given.


    "What''s this about the hull singing? Is it some sort of structural overload?" He asked.


    "On the contrary, it only urs when there is very little stress on the hull. The energy of the warp field resonates with the hull and creates a low musical melody when the two are perfectly in tune with each other. It means that you have reached near-perfect efficiency.


    But about the suit?"


    "There was a Klem Pod wave? Where was it headed?" Max continued.


    "Some lifeless M ss. I''ll pull it up on the screen so you can see which one I mean. The Sub Commander said that it was a mistaken wave since there was nothing there for them to eat. But we wiped them out anyhow so that we could test the defensive weapons on the new shuttle. It went very smoothly. One shot on maximum dispersion was enough. There weren''t any power fluctuations either, despite the extended use of the Disruptor.


    Now, about the suit? Do you think that I could keep it?"


    Max relented with a smile now that he had gotten his answers. "I don''t see why not. Call it a gift of goodwill. You can keep the essories that go with it as well since I''m assuming that there is an emergency kit in the t space, as is the standard deployment."


    "Oh, yes, I saw that there was stuff in there when I put my clothes away. What is it? Is it as good as the suit?" She asked.


    "It''s just some rations, a water maker, a fire starter and other survival gear that would be essential to a user trapped in a disabled ship or uninhabited after a crashnding," Max exined.


    "Oh, you really did think of everything. Nice fire starter too." She replied with a giggle.


    The so-called fire starter was actually a sma Pistol, but it could be set to a spark setting for igniting campfires and stove elements.


    "I think you might actually be better at dealing with her when she goes full tech nerd than we are. Normally she just bowls us over with enthusiasm." The Giant Envoy informed Max with a dry, unamused tone.


    "Dealing with excited Innu is nothing. You should see what it''s like trying to deal with human soldiers when they get excited. At least an excited Innu isn''t looking to kill anything." Max informed him, making the Envoy blink slowly as he tried to process the information.


    "I think we will have to refer to the Hunters to fully understand that answer. Thank you for your input."


    It was clearly a prepared response, indicating that he had no idea what to say, but felt the need to say something in response, and the Valkia shook his head.


    "I have never seen my crew like this. For one, a speechless Giant is a rarity. Theye prepared for almost anything, but apparently not for casual references to bloodthirsty soldiers, and a certain someone, who is in a lot of trouble right now, is acting a few hundred years younger than her real age."


    The Innu envoy looked up at him as she adjusted the helmet that she had just put back on, shaking her tentacles so that they would individually wrap inside the covering.


    "You just forgot what it was like to be excited. Do you remember when we showed up to that tax dispute and found that the reason for non-payment was civil unrest? I swear I''ve never seen you so happy to get to n a riot control action before." She reminded her winged counterpart.


    "That was different. I spent most of my life inw enforcement. You were never a ship engineer, and you haven''t been on a spacewalk in years, but you''re all giddy about a new helmet."


    "No need to fight. We all get excited about something. epting each other with all their idiosyncracies is part of what makes a friendship work." The Illithid reminded them.


    "Our apologies. I might have gotten too excited after finding out that I could still use my abilities properly with the helmet on. The suit is not just for spacewalks. It is fully armoured, with a functional forcefield that exceeds the minimum standards for envoy safety, so I can wear it to potentially hostile meetings as well. They even put my name on it and the markings of an Envoy. It''s very ssy."


    The professional voice was back in full force, but the phrasing still let slip just how excited she was to get a new outfit.


    [Nico, prepare more of those suits for the other Envoys before they go. We can do something so that the Valkia can still use his wings, right?] Max silently questioned her.


    Nico replied with a thumbs up and then sent one of the technicians running out of the room, presumably to fill the order.


    [You''re still in trouble.] He added with a smirk.

 Chapter 595 595 Technically An Uproar

    As Maxy in bed the next morning with Nico''s sleeping head on his chest, he carefully analyzed his mistakes, shorings, and every possible deficiency in his training, then determined that it was simply, mathematically impossible for her to be that good at diverting conversations and getting herself out of trouble.


    She would be taking over all of the Terraforming paperwork for the next two weeks, and the excess paperwork that her little joy ride with the Envoy had generated was also tasked to her, but Max knew full well that she couldplete both as a background process in her augmented mind without actually putting any conscious focus on it.


    He had briefly mentioned the fact to the Valkia envoyst night when he informed them that Nico would be taking over the paperwork duties for the next few weeks, and the Alliance Legal team had seemed utterly horrified that the humans would let sensitive legal matters by handled by Artificial Intelligence as a background process, with only rudimentary oversight by an actual living person, if that''s how Nico was still ssified.


    There was some dispute among their ranks about that. Cyborgs in the Alliance were usually partial conversions, and Nico''s self-modification had already changed the gic and organicposition of her final organicponents, namely her brain and some nerves from the spinal cord, so much that the Alliance didn''t officially ssify her as human at all, so the thought that she might have self-evolved into a biomechanical android was one that had urred to the legal team, and the fact that someone mentioned that brought with it a host of difficulties, as Alliance Law didn''t consider Androids to be individual persons, but the property of their creators.


    But if she was the property of her creator, and she turned herself from a human Cyborg into a recognized Android without outside assistance, would she be the property of herself? Would they have to recognize the System, as the Artificial Intelligence that drove the nanobots was known, as a legal life form since it assisted in her endeavour and could be considered a co-creator?


    It was unprecedented in their legal history, and it had alle to a head because of an idlement by a legal assistant when Max punished Nico by making her do the paperwork.


    The Hunters thought it was absolutely hrious. They didn''t recognize post-conception gic alterations as changes to one''s species. They simply gave it an addendum, such as born human, now biomechanical.


    That way, if there were a question about the difficulty or validity of a hunt, they would have a full andplete picture of what had happened since not all changes would necessarily increase or decrease difficulty ratings, and some could be deliberately misleading if you didn''t know what the Hunter in question had started life as.


    Making a full-grown Huntress look like a small Innu child was within their capabilities with organic engineering, but that didn''t make her future hunts as difficult as they would be for an actual Innu child since she would retain Huntress''s instincts and training.


    The various trains of thought on the matter were already giving Max a migraine, and he was still in bed. There was an easy cure for that, though. He focused intensely on Nico''s dreams and tuned out the rest of the brainwaves around him, an Illithid trick usually used to help them fall asleep in crowded spaces.


    This morning she was dreaming of a battle from her past life on a nicknamed Venom, after its intensely toxic atmosphere, filled with naturally urring organic toxins that closely resembled the venom of a viper.


    One after another, she took joy in using the de of her Mecha to slice open the facetes of her enemies, a species of giant six-armed centaurs, and letting the toxic air fill their lungs before they could react and bring up a secondary forcefield.


    It was gruesome, but the simple joy in her mind and the little smile on her face as she dreamed were enough to rx his mind and help the headache recede.


    He couldn''t put the chaos off forever, though. Thewyers needed answers.


    Eventually, he mustered the energy to draft up a summary, with an attached copy of thepiled Reaver''s treaties and regtions on the rights of living beings, that clearly stated that while you could lose the right to represent your species due to poor character or criminality, you never lost your status as a person, so Nico would always be considered a Reaver by Reaverw, and a Human by birth.


    Then he attached the documents he had gotten from the Hunters that said basically the same thing and forwarded them to the Giants so that they could pore over it with a hundred different sets of eyes until they made their own determination and sent something back that would decide if it was a vition of Alliancew to have Nico take care of the workload, and if she would be allowed to use the AI to process it for her in the background.


    How they intended to stop her if the finding was that she had to consciously process the paperwork, Max had no idea, short of having an Illithid watch over her every second of the day, but he already knew from experience that it would be a futile cause.


    It was impossible to tell her conscious thoughts from her subconscious thoughts when she was actively using her System Functions. They were both just streams of thought in her head to the Illithid and to Max, though he had gotten better at telling which was which by the context.


    If it was interesting, it was likely conscious, and if it randomly changed directions, it was definitely conscious. If it involved him naked, it meant that she knew he was listening in.


    Max checked in on the Envoys aboard Terminus and found them in no better shape. They, too, had been harassed all day for an answer that there was no possible precedent for, and thewyers were driving them quickly insane. Enough so that the Giant Envoy had ordered an entire gallon of Mimosa and a quiche for breakfast.


    It was a good experience for them, Max thought. They wanted toe to see the humans and discover new things, well here it was, the chance to discover something totally new and write an entire section of the Alliance Legal Framework for Biomechanical Living Organisms, as the Legal Team had officially decided to dere Nico, after reviewing the Human and Hunterws relevant to the matter.

 Chapter 596 596 Shrine World

    While the status of a living biomechanical organism was causing an increasingly widespread mour among legal experts across the Alliance, something much more mundane and unexpected had caused a much bigger sensation on the below them.


    The first city had just beenpleted, marking the total terraforming of the continent it was on and thepletion of the atmospheric restructuring of the itself.


    Some of the other continents still had a long way to go in terms of mineral deposits, nt life and biodiversity, but the areas where the Terraforming devices had identified modified objects consistent with ruins had all been marked and isted from terraforming efforts, other than to remove obvious toxins from the soil and air.


    What caught the entire Alliance''s attention was a small thing that the Humans present, including General Tennant, who had just arrived on the to christen the new city, now officially the City of Santa Maria.


    Once the final spires of the city wereplete, and humans were transported from the Abraham Kepler, which was now in a docking bay near ground level inside the city of spires, an odd atmospheric phenomenon was created. Max recognized it from his past life. The movement of the citizens in the city would cause the spires to move ever so slightly, and resonance would form in the reflections of the crystals that made up the structures, creating images in the open air above the central park during certain times of the day.


    He had seen what appeared to be flocks of birds and asional other images, but he had never been there during the city''s heyday when it was said that the images were truly magical, almost beyond what science could exin.


    Science did exin it, though. The crystals of the city created a natural holographic emissions array, and the temperature imbnce between the outside and inside of the spires allowed them to give off enough energy to create the images using natural light when positioned exactly correctly by wind and the movement of the residents inside.


    Today, what he saw was on that legendary scale, the image of a hundred-meter-long golden phoenix dipped and soared around the park for over a minute as the newary Governor gave his speech weing the first residents to the.


    It was all live streamed to the entire Alliance through no fewer than ten different social media channels in addition to the ship''s own, each with its own measuring equipment, two of which had gone to the surface to record the speech up close, instead of dubbing that as an ovey of their orbital feed and saving the wear and tear of taking their vessels through the atmosphere.


    Max was certain that General Tennant had given a rousing and touching speech to his shipload of settlers, but he hadn''t been able to listen to it, as he was inundated by a flood of requests to stay aboard Terminus, and questions about the status of the as a Shrine World, blessed by energy beings from the ancient past, whose remnants might still linger there.


    Trying to exin to everyone that it was an optical effect caused by the city itself required that he exin how he knew about the effects of the city and how he could have possibly calcted it since the original documentation of the theory had run to over a million gigabytes of mathematical calctions and the city had only beenpleted half a day ago.


    The science-minded Alliance would not ept that he had seen that exact phenomenon in his past life, so Max had to propose it as a theory and try to lead them in the right direction so that they could prove it the same way that it had been proven before, but for now, superstition was winning the battle, and millions of wealthy Alliance citizens wanted the chance to vacation on a potentially blessed world.


    The chances that it was really blessed and that the blessing would help them somehow might be one in a billion or lower, but if a billion came to see the Shrine World, who was to say that it wouldn''t be your life that was suddenly changed for the better, right?


    Plus, the city itself was an engineering masterpiece at the peak of human culture when he had first seen it, and here, among deste stars and hostile aliens, it seemed even more majestic than he had thought possible when he had seen Nico''s intention to make it a reality.


    "Nico, get up and get dressed. Your dream city is making the entire Alliance believe in the supernatural." Max ordered, looking through the open door to where she was sprawled out in bed, clearly enjoying her additional sleep after he had been forced to work.


    "That''s why I rebuilt it. Don''t you remember? We were there when the ghosts marched, and the world burned." She mumbled, still deep asleep.


    Ghosts marched, and the world burned? Max dug deep through his memories until he finally found the incident that Nico was talking about. It was not the first battle for that or even thest. It hade exactly a year after the final battle for the on the summer solstice.


    A ship carrying refugees off the world had a hidden structural w and exploded in flight, spreading nuclear fire through the upper atmosphere and clearing the clouds over the world for the first time in a year. The shattered remains of the city''s crystals had lit up with images, looking like fleeing and panicking humans, which then faded as thest life left the world, and the city was forgotten among the rubble of war.


    But Nico hadn''t been there. He was certain of it. Her army had fled the world before the end of the final battle. Even Max had onlye back that day because he had been en route to another location and had gotten a request to help transfer refugees.


    Was this a sign that Nico''s subconscious was remembering more of herself? She hadpletely forgotten who she was in that life, so things like saying that they had watched an event together simply didn''t happen.


    But if she did remember who she was in her past life and why she did the things she remembered doing, it might not be a good thing for the mental health of the current Nico.


    It was too stressful of a day for deep philosophical thought about reincarnation.


    "Nico, get your cute butt out of bed and help me out here. The social media feed and booking requests are overloading themunications systems." Max shouted, finally rousing her from her slumber.

 Chapter 597 597 Popular Already

    "Alright, let''s see what little thing is making you panic so much." Nico sighed, pulling a pair of uniform pants and a tank top on before padding barefoot out of the bedroom to see what was going on.


    Max was sitting at the dining room table with a copy of the footage from the speech pulled up, and Nico took her seat across from him with a big smile on her face.


    "Very pretty. Did we set this up, or is it a natural phenomenon from the city itself?" She asked.


    "It appears to be a natural phenomenon. The entire thing was live streamed by multiple groups and analyzed by billions of viewers, and they all think this is a mystical Shrine World, formerly popted by powerful energy beings, who left behind some small remnants of themselves." Max exined.


    "So, should I put out a press release thanking them for so graciously weing the human poption to their and add it to the travel brochures advertising vacations in the city?" Nico asked.


    p¦Á§ád¦Á-¨¾?¦Í¨º|¡¤§ã¨®§® "You don''t see the problem with causing an uprising of superstition among the militantly scientific Alliances?" Max reminded her.


    "You''re missing the natural genius here. It''s brilliant marketing. Not only do we get the tourists who want toe to see the illusions, for whatever they believe them to be, we will also get to host the ones looking to disprove them as a scientific phenomenon, and they are all paying customers."


    "So what you''re saying is. . ." Max asked, encouraging her to finish that train of thought.


    "I have no idea how it works, only that this is the perfect environmental situation where it will. But inviting a million alien nerds here will almost certainly give us enough data to not only replicate it but modify it to make even more beautiful cities in the future." Nico finished.


    "You think you can do better than this?" He asked, gesturing to the crystal spires shimmering in the sunlight, which were making small images of flying creatures dance above the surface of the buildings at that moment.


    "Almost certainly. I mean, I''m not sure how yet, because that city is pretty awesome if I do say so myself, but now that it''s there to serve as a reference, why shouldn''t I be able to improve on it?"


    That was valid logic, so Max went to the replicator in the kitchen to get some breakfast while he thought about it.


    During his walk back, a private message from his Illithid Advisor appeared on his wrist device, a rare urrence since they preferred tomunicate directly.


    [Did you get it? I haven''t sent an official message in a while] The Illithid asked.


    [I did, but I haven''t read it yet. What''s up?]


    [The Illithid Council has a theory about what the unknown substance that isn''t made up of individual atoms and the City of Spirits have inmon. They suspect that the crystal array might be psychoactive, meaning that it resonates on the same frequency as brain waves, and the city is projecting the collective mood of the residents.


    If that is the case, then they believe that they also know how the strange material was formed, and it''s an old Illithid superstition. Supposedly millions of years ago, there was a species that could create matter with their minds. They built great cities that couldn''t be destroyed by the weapons of the time, and then one day, they just vanished as if they had never existed, not even leaving behind a clue about their existence, save for some ruins.


    The preliminary findings are that the relics from those ruins kept in the Illithid and Hunter''s species museums are the same material that was identified on this.


    That makes two independent species who have verified that there is something off about the ruins here. They don''t match the known timeline of this section of the universe, and the Illithid is one of the oldest species, which makes them very, very interested in being here.]


    [So you used all those words to tell me that there will be Illithid among the guests?] Max asked.


    [Royal Illithid among the guests, to be precise. They request clearance to open a portal in our area since their entire home sr system is off-limits to outside travellers. Oh, and more Hunters. There will be more Hunters.] The advisor informed him.


    Max wasn''t sure how to prepare for a Royal Illithid arrival, but it seemed like the Advisor had things well in hand. They didn''t like big ceremonies, so he would only have to assemble a small group to meet them at the hangar when they arrived. Their ship would require the closest hangar to their sleeping area, which also wasn''t a problem, as he had arranged that thest time an Illithid vessel was here.


    As long as the ship fit in that smaller cargo bay, it could stay there as long as they liked.


    "I got the rest of the bookings sorted out. We have rearranged the schedules for the staff of the Cutters to serve as a ferry service to bring people to and from the surface until recement ships are made to remain here.


    I have entered ns for a permanent portal location to be built and informed all the iing guests that we are notpletely open for visitors yet, but that they can get very limited early ess for a premium rate.


    That cut down the requests to about a third of the original, with the rest asking for a deferral until such time as all amenities were online.


    I have ced an order for an orbital station to be built and delivered, charged to the''s ount, and prepaid by our Alliance visitors already.


    What else was there? Oh yes, the Portal location rotation will need your approval, and there is a list of questionable guests identified either by myself or theputers who want to stay on Terminus. Most are just shock journalists known for their hit pieces, but I checked the regtion, and deciding what guests get denied simply for being who they are is firmly within the realm of your problem, not mine." Nico informed him with a huge smile on her face.

 Chapter 598 598 City Amenities

    "Add a few things to that list. Quarantine the space around the, as there is still a terraforming effort going on¡ªno visitors without authorization. Sort out which guests will be bringing their own ships, and send our smaller vessels to pickrger groups up from various space stations to save on parking space.


    Then, get started on ships for the to use as shuttles from the new space station. I rmend using our luxury yacht line since this is a popr and exclusive sort of vacation spot.


    Also, have you talked to General Tennant? He brought a group of colonists with him, not service staff, and I''m not sure they are in any way, shape or form ready to serve as a glorified resortmunity for aliens."


    Max''s frustrations were not going down easily this time. Putting everything they did on disy for the Alliance was a great idea when they were doing boring stuff, but every time something even moderately interesting happened, he got flooded with guests, and this time it even engulfed an entire city mere hours after the settlers arrived on the.


    There hadn''t been time to set anything up yet, even if the city had been fully formed with everything that they needed, as the design schematics insisted that it had been.


    The major issue would be the amodations. It was meant to be a city where residents could walk or use the built-in transport amenities to get anywhere easily, so that wasn''t a problem, but there were very few hotelspared to the number of people that wanted to visit.


    "Let me guess. Traffic control? Fear not. I have already solved that problem. Seven seconds ago, I found a used orbital station for sale, and the tugs will be bringing it here within the hour." Nico said proudly.


    "Close, but not quite. Where are all the people going to stay? I don''t see a lot of hotels in the design schematics." Max corrected her, though he was actually impressed that she had found a used space station in such a limited time frame, even with the help of the Reavers datawork.


    "The entire city was made up of vis originally. Nearly identical three-bedroom units. They''re all luxurious well beyond most standards, and they have the finest of built-in self-cleaning and self-repair functions, so I am currently linking every door lock on the to the Governor''s Computerwork.


    Whoever General Tennant assigns to the task can check the guests in and directly link their biometrics to the locks on their vi. That also means that they can be automatically locked out when their stay is over, reducing problems with attempted squatters, and it looks like they''re already on top of the public works department.


    The General did an excellent job of nning how to run a city using his avable people, and the only changes that needed to be made were that they would have to keep order among a lot of extra people, and their shops would be much busier than expected since they will have ten times the customers.


    His data says that it will be suitable, though, as it still reaches the product density of most Alliance resorts. It would feel slim for long-term living for so many people, and I''m sure they will adapt their own spaces and shops for the human locals, but he insists that the settlers are enthusiastic about it.


    p¦Á§ád¦Á-¨¾?¦Í¨º|¡¤§ã¨®§® In his words, [We''re all going to be bloody rich off those alien bastardsing to stare at shiny crystals.]" Nico exined.


    He had a point. ording to the information in front of Max, a vi was ten thousand credits a night and included everything you could make in the vi, including food and a limited selection of local clothing. Much like a private bed and breakfast, the vis were equipped with a robotic butler, a small hover drone with four arms who could fulfill most basic tasks, including getting humanoid species dressed and styling hair if they requested.


    There were no guided tours of the city, nor were there many designated hot spots yet, as the city had just been built and nobody had a chance to explore what Nico had designed into it, but a few of the best locations were already highlighted by the staff General Tennant had appointed, and Nico had added a few more herself from the designs.


    The five hundred floors of mineral springs were going to be a big hit, Max was certain. They were a feature of the original city, taking up most of a spire to themselves, and with the Innu being so fond of all things human, there was no way that a five-hundred-story waterpark would be overlooked.


    Max was even more correct than he could have ever guessed. General Tennant had gotten over a million requests for early ess to the towers closest to the mineral springs, despite the fact that it was only made public today. He had set aside two-thirds of the vis for guests, giving the locals room to grow without having to take over former guest houses and leaving a few emergency spaces open for very important guests.


    Keeping the city in a slightly less than fully upied state was a deliberate act. It kept the city feeling less crowded if one house on every other block was empty. There were no cars in the city. They weren''t needed with the advanced walkways and the drone taxis, where you could simply step on and off of a floating silver disc and be carried to the destination you specified.


    Directions for use were exined during the flight to the surface, and copied inside every vi, so everyone should be able to understand how to call and use them. They were multi-species friendly, and as a t disc, they were even wheelchair essible for those species who couldn''t use rapid healing methods or temporarily weakened persons.


    In reality, of course, it would be mostly loved by drunks on their way home since they could tell it to take them home, then sit down and wait to arrive. Even if they fell asleep, it would remain outside their residence and lift them up out of the way of other traffic until they woke up and asked to be let down or stepped from it onto their second-floor balcony.

 Chapter 599 599 So Many Ships

    Max watched through the external cameras as the Space Station that Nico had ordered for the arrived through the most massive interster portal he had ever seen. The cost for the transfer had been incredible, as it took twelve ships of the newest generation hull design, all Cruiser ss, to generate enough power to move that massive structure through.


    It was a dmissioned cargo transfer terminal from an agriculture-focused star system with six habitables and could amodate two hundred bulk freighters around the outside of its torus-shaped outer ring, with another hundred on the inside of the torus, and it had arge bulk storage sphere in the center, which had since been repurposed to a trade market and staff quarters.


    It was nearly perfect for their needs, even if it was an ancient and somewhat low-quality design, to begin with.


    They weren''t going to get a new spaceport anytime soon. There were too many orders for even Nico''s influence on her mother to get them to the head of that particr queue. But what they could do was send over a spare Terraforming pod and give it a fresh coat of paint, fix the cracks, refurbish the atmospheric systems, and give the interior a quick renovation to synthetic luxury, making it look much more like a first-ss''s spaceport than an old grain bin in space.


    Every square meter would be needed in the near future to lock Alliance yachts to while their guests were on Vacation on the, a concierge service offered by gravity beam and maic locks that were being added all over the station''s hull.


    Once they had disembarked, they could select to have their pilot leave or to check into a spot for their stay if the ship was unattended, but it would not be free. The city held millions of people, and there was only so much space on even thisrge of a space port''s hull.


    A Moon Base would have been best and might still be if they decide to renovate this''s moon in the future, but that was General Tennant''s problem, not Max''s. He had only signed on to get things up and running and to make sure that the Hunters had their chances to search and examine every bit of the surface so that they could look for the truth behind the relics.


    At first, Max had feared that they would be annoyed that so many more people were nowing to look for the same thing, but the Hunters didn''t mind at all. They viewed the other scientists as somewhere between useful idiots and extra hands for their search and knew that the Alliance wouldn''t hold back the data they found. There was no reason for them to do it since they had no idea what the Hunters were trying to find from the research.


    The belief that the relics might belong to an ancient Gxy destroying dominant species from the far side of the universe was a joke to the Alliance but not to the Hunters, who took their ancient records very seriously.


    The station hade with a crew and, surprisingly, a ratherrge supply of goods. When they had purchased it, the station had been mothballed for over a millennium, but it still had thousands of tonnes of forgotten crops frozen in its inactive holds. So, the newly hired crew got to work with an industrial replicator and started making tourist trap collectibles and other random items that alien visitors might like.


    p¦Á§ád¦Á §«?¦Í¨º|,§ã¨°§® Once it was remade into a luxury spaceport, all they had to do was change the prices. No longer were they a sketchy stopover on the way to vacation. Now they were a respectable stopover, with sketchy businesses and inted prices suitable to its grandeur, as you would expect of any spaceport.


    The only thing they didn''t mark up was the food and drink. As the replicators had spread, and food shortages mostly became a thing of the past, the machines had developed a unique reputation among humans for being art school food. Exquisite to look at, wless in execution, but lifeless, without any local vour, because the recipes were the exact same everywhere you went.


    For picky eaters, that was perfect. They would always get what they wanted. But for foodies who didn''t have the technical skills to program the machines, which made up 99 percent of users, a new pattern had formed. They would use the machine to generate all the ingredients separately, then cook the meal themselves to give it a personalized vour.


    So, on the station, all of the food and drinks were reasonably priced, with only one high-end steakhouse that cooked in front of the guests being priced well above the average.


    The real money was made on the trinkets, keepsakes and misceneous items.


    They took most of the day to get prepared after the station was hastily renovated, getting they of the station again and moving everything they needed into position to ferry guests between their docking bays and the Cutter that would be doing transit service every hour.


    There was a new pair of ships on order, much smaller seventy meter luxury yachts instead of the cavernous expanse of the Cutter''s hold, but with so much going on aboard Terminus and the ship taking in its own massive influx of guests, there simply hadn''t been the resources or manpower to get them built yet.


    Finally, just after midnight, the first ships with guests bound for the were allowed to portal in and start staging for their trip to the surface. Too much atmospheric turbulence caused by multiple shipsnding would mess up the effects of the illusion, so none of them couldnd. The shuttle was the only permitted transport, but from what Max could tell, not a single guest minded at all.


    They were so happy to be the first to see a new attraction that they hadn''t evenined when General Tennant had put all guests on a thirty-day visitors visa, not allowing any extended stays without certification from a prestigious Academy or the Central Government that they were there for business purposes to research the''s phenomenon and relics.

 Chapter 600 600 No Other Like It

    Three hundred ships, all docking with the station at the same time as the first wave came in to drop off their guests, was quite the spectacle.


    The Alliances had been informed that there was very limited space here, so most of the guests hade on chartered vessels instead of paying an exorbitant storage fee, but that only made the size of the ships at the stationrger, and the crowds inside more impressive as they all disembarked with their luggage and prepared to do some shopping before they boarded the cutter to the surface.


    For many, this would be their first taste of a true culture shock. The staff were Reavers who hadn''t been taken in by any particrpany, so they had tried their hand as settlers, taking their first job in this settlement aboard the Space Station with the promise of being able to move to the surface after they had repaid the fees to get them there.


    For the ones who were on the surface, they simply owed General Tennant, their newary Governor and Commander of the vessel that they arrived on, for the price of their passage. Unlike most new colonies, this one had been done as an advertisement, so there was no huge terraforming debt incurred, a real weight off of the first generation, though the amount of money they were bringing in as a tourist stop would have easily made up for it.


    The General knew just how to draw in the guests too. Almost too well. He had waived the Portal Fees and Docking Fees for any vacationpany vessel bringing them more than one hundred guests for a ten-day or longer stay.


    That was a quarter of most vacation expenses, so it was insanely cheap to stay here, even renting an entire vi for ten thousand credits,pared to other simr vacation destinations.


    The central area of the station, closest to the surface shuttle, had thergest number of shops and was set up as an open-air bazaar, a design that was very familiar to some guests but confusing and chaotic to others. The signage was clear, though, so nobody could get truly lost in the maze of booths selling nearly anything that you could want.


    Max was watching the security cameras, partially to make sure that General Tennant was going to be able to deal with this level of chaos during his first days on the job, but mostly for his own entertainment. Because who was he kidding? The General had safely wrangled multiple Mecha Regiments back to their ships while under hostile fire, fighting on the losing side of a rout. A station full of tourists in a shopping market was nothing to him.


    "Dryads, Fae and other esteemed connoisseurs, I have for you the finest of marinaded live beetles. Get them here while they''re nice and crunchy." A voice was calling out in the section of the market that Max was observing, drawing the attention of some Myceloid visitors, as well as what appeared to be a carnivorous nt species, much like the Shin, but with sharp fangs onrge snapping flowers.


    "Are they truly edible? Humans don''t eat such things, right?" The Myceloid asked.


    "We don''t eat such things often. But some of ours consider them a delicacy, including the one that I came from. The first one is on the house. Let me know if you like the vour. The Alliance food scanner has already been by to give us our safety certificate." The vendor announced, pointing to the Grade A food service letter on the wall.


    The Myceloid was the braver of the pair and popped the insect into its "Mouth" with a happy crunching noise. Being a fungus-based species, they could absorb it through any point of their body, but the fake mouth they had created was best and didn''t leave them with messy hands for an extended period of time while they digested the unusual treat instead of their usual nutrient water diet.


    "How can it be spicy? I don''t have tastebuds?" The Myceloid mumbled as they mushed the beetle into an easily digested paste.


    "They''re good, right? What about you? Care to try?" The vendor asked the sentient nt.


    It extended a flower his way, and he dropped the live beetle inside, where the closing flower trapped it, and the nt''s branches began to shake.


    That panicked the vendor for a moment, as he couldn''t interpret it and thought he might have identally poisoned the customer, but the shaking branches were a show of joy among the Shin and others who used the same bodynguage.


    "He''s happy. Check yourmunicator pad. The nt species usually connect through text." The Myceloid exined since that human was clearly unaware of how to deal with the species in general.


    "Thanks. It''s my first day, and there wasn''t enough time to get through more than the half dozen most populous species in the book." Heughed, then filled the Myceloid''s order for a box full of sticky, honey garlic beetles.


    "Before you go, I need help again. I don''t think it tranted right." The shopkeeper called out as the Myceloid was leaving.


    [Give Your Shop To ME] was what his disy read, making the myceloidugh.


    "It''s ng. It means he wants everything you''ve got. Give him a second, and there will be a number underneath showing how much product he''s actually wanting to buy."


    The nt shook its branches again and repeated the message.


    p¦Á§ád¦Á-¨¾?¦Í¨º|¡¤§ã¨®§® "I think I get it. Do you really like them and want the whole stock for the day? I''ve got four thousand credits worth of beetles prepared, and they will live for up to one more week. Is that fine?" The vendor asked.


    Four thousand Alliance Credits were transferred to the stall, and one very happy tree left with tworge crates full of sauce-soaked beetles.


    "Who would have thought that the live beetles would be the first stall to sell out and have to go to the back warehouses to make himself more product? I totally thought it would be the nail clippers guy. Look at how they enrapture the bird species." Nico whispered from over Max''s shoulder.


    That wasn''t a joyous look. They were horrified by the concept of abined tool to brutally clip and a coarse rasp to file their beloved talons. It was like the humans had put a medieval torture device on disy right in front of them, next to the actual grooming tools, like theser shaper which they would normally use to groom their talons.


    They were buying a lot of them, though, to take home as souveniers and threaten their children with.

 Chapter 601 601 What About A Hiking Trip?

    While the first round of guests finished their journey to the surface with slightly, or majorly, increased luggage, Max got a rather intriguing proposition from the Envoys. They wanted to apany the research teams of the Hunters to a site closest to the city so that they could get a full picture of what the hiking experience would be like for the guests who wanted to brave the great outdoors.


    Nobody had told them that there were basically no animals in this world. They had only introduced a bare minimum to begin forming the ecosystems so that they could popte the world naturally over the next few years or decades.


    They were also deliberately not near the city or any of the historical sites that had been identified. They hadn''t even introduced rtively cute things like squirrels, as they were natural predators to some of the floral species, and their digging activities might disrupt the ruins if they decided to make a nest there.


    Knowing how things were supposed to be ced was just as important to the Hunters as finding them intact, and the site that they wanted to visit had been partially excavated by the terraforming devices already to grant them ess, but nothing had been moved from its original location.


    [So, will youe to the surface with us? The envoys need data to send back on thepletion of the Terraforming, as well as the ruins, and I think a few hours of staring at alien relics could be a good time to rx after the stress of dealing with people all day.] The envoy of the Hunters suggested.


    The Dryad wasn''t leaving anything to chance. She had decided that Max was good luck since his ship could keep a World Tree growing smoothly, so she harassed the staff until they sent someone to get him and bring him to her for the trip.


    [I''m on my way with the Dryad. We will meet you at thending bays on the lower floor of the city in thirty minutes unless you want toe back to Terminus and join the other Enovys in my shuttle.] Max suggested.


    [Ours has all the tools in it, so we will take it straight to the dig site, but I will join you on Terminus and go down with the others. It should be fun, like a ss field trip.]


    It might actually be like a ss field trip from the new Academy aboard Terminus, given the variety of species that they had represented, but they were still in the early days of the first Semester and weren''t ready to be heading out onary excursions this early in the year.


    The sports leagues seemed to be well underway, though. The Hoops Field was busy nearly every time he checked in on the cameras, and so were the running tracks. He didn''t bother checking the inside of the Academy, they would let him know if there was an issue that they needed assistance with, and they had their own security on staff.


    "Greetings Envoy. I see you brought friends with you." Max weed the reclusive Dryad once he reached the hangar bay where she was waiting, running a gentle hand through the branches of one of their Shin botanists.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    "Your staff has been incredibly weing, for sure. Will it be a problem if I bring him to the surface with us? He wants to see the nts that you introduced to the surface as much as I do, and I know the others will have an escort with them." She asked.


    That was true. They would have at least one assistant and a pair of bodyguards each, so the Dryad, who was travelling alone, wasn''t overreaching to bring a singlepanion, even if it was a member of the staff here aboard the ship.


    "That shouldn''t be a problem, as long as he has gotten someone to cover his shifts while he is away." Max agreed with a wink at the Shin.


    While he couldn''t guarantee that there was anything going on between the two, the gentle way that the Dryad was stroking his branches certainly implied that they were more than casual acquaintances. He was going to deliberately avoid going into their memories to understand how that worked exactly.


    The other envoys, including the Huntress, met them at the hangar bay where Nico had brought them over the new model of the experimental shuttle for the trip to the surface. It was supposed to be the smoothest flight of anything that they had, and it wasrger than the old twenty-person shuttles, which wouldn''tfortably fit this group.


    There was definitely a gap in their fleet between shuttles and Cutters, but suchrge surface missions that didn''t involvebat or transferringrge amounts of goods simply didn''t happen often enough that they needed a specific vessel for them before now.


    Maybe he would have to keep one of the Yachts around for such diplomatic events. They were overkill for most practical uses, and they couldn''t carry Mecha or Gear efficiently, but it would be awesome for impressing the dignitaries.


    [Nico, bump the twonding craft for the, plus a Command Yacht, to the top of the production list. We need a better vessel for ferrying around dignitaries, and I want my Cutters back. Huntress Khan''s thoughts say that she''sing to visit you now that we''re all leaving you unattended.] Max informed his second inmand.


    [I will get right on it. We just need to make a delivery of the custom order that is in the bay right now. Working with live clients isn''t a factory line, and there is a lot of sitting time while they make up their minds, and it''s been cluttering the bay.]


    [They paid a lot of money to use that bay, though, so we can''t be too mad. Just be sure they''re happy with their end product, and pick a new bay if you absolutely must, but I want thoseary transporters finished asap.]

 Chapter 602 602 Understanding The Envoys

    Nico''s thoughts said that she was already moving stuff between bays so that she could make the new ships since the client that had ordered the yacht in their current bay wasn''t here yet to pick it up. He was on his way, but with all of the iing visitors, he wouldn''t arrive for a day or two, depending on what system he wasing from.


    The Envoys were all gushing over the innovations of the new shuttle, how innovative it was, and how unique to human culture such a design was. Many other species used fluid shapes or organic inspirations, but only the Hunters used Biomechanical space vessels.


    Now that he was inside, Max noticed this vessel was much more insidious than he had thought. While it looked harmless and weing to the untrained eye, Max could easily pick out where Nico had meshed Hunter''s design philosophy with Klem morphology to create a uniquely capable vessel.


    Both designs had survived thousands or millions of years of evolution, trial and error, so the philosophy was correct, but looking at an interior hatchway that vaguely resembled the protective structure of a Klem underground nesting area was vaguely unsettling.


    The overall design, though, there was no mistaking it. She had totally based the default shape settings on old human movie versions of alien spaceships.


    [Seriously, Nico, a flying saucer?] He thought at her.


    [Hey, it is perfectly valid, and the Alliance uses it as a shuttle shape. Just wait until you see the Dragoon Attack Fighter setting] She thought back,ughing in her mind as she waited for him to see it.


    The Dragoon Attack Fighter was a primary unit of a video game viin species, and the design resembled nothing more than a rocket-propelled horse phallus. Officially it was supposed to be the remains of a mystical tree, but that wasn''t what anyone saw when they looked at it. It even had an external shield matrix that looked like veins and not bark. It was a running joke in the gamingmunity but well within the adjustability of the shuttle''s outer hull.


    [I wonder who the first person to discover it will be?] He replied, receiving only moreughter in response.


    The crew had sent them a pilot in case the shuttle had to be sent back to the ship, and they seemed much more interested in making a good impression on the big boss and the guests than making adjustments to the default hull shape, so it might not be on this trip, but eventually, someone would find the option, and then it would show up with rming regrity afterward.


    That was just human nature.


    A crew member passed around drinks while the shuttle gently glided out of the bay, giving no hint of motion until a slight vibration started as they began to enter the atmosphere.


    "At this point, I would like to ask all passengers to either secure themselves to one of the provided handles or a chair for entry into the atmosphere. Turbulence can be somewhat unpredictable, and the gravity systems are not guaranteed to eliminate all external forces." The flight Hostess informed everyone politely.


    The Huntress moved to stand beside Max, who had leaned against the wall, holding one of the embedded grips, while the rest of the guests took their seats for the next few minutes, staring out the windows as they realized how far they had gone in the short time that they had been admiring the ship.


    "I like human ships. Making an entry on your own feet is so much better than being locked into a chair. But what do you do in case of a crashnding?" The Huntress asked.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    "There is a safety built into the hull. If the gravitational forces exceed what is likely to cause injury, airbags will be deployed along the walls, along with a secondary gravity field, to prevent injuries to the upants.


    It is standard in most human vessels because it alsoes in handy if the ship is attacked. We heal fairly easily though, so a little jostling won''t set them off. I don''t think any of the species that are present are exceedingly fragile though, so I haven''t adjusted it." He exined.


    The vibration turned to a proper shaking as they passed through a dense storm cloud in one of the areas that were still being terraformed and then smoothed back to the unnoticeable standard once they were in the lower atmosphere and closer to the target.


    "Human ships are more advanced by the day. I have seen the footage from yourst generation shuttle when it was firstunched, and it certainly wasn''t this smooth. Even my cousin''s yacht, purchased from you, isn''t this smooth, and it has been overengineered for luxury. No wonder the major corporations are all in a full-out panic about your species joining the marketce." The Giant Envoymended the trip as the hangars came into sight.


    "Market disruptions are a source of both opportunity and crushing downfall, depending on your own ability to adapt. Without adaptation, forest life goes extinct, and so should corporations." The Dryad Envoy agreed.


    "You know, that was shockingly profound market advice. I got the impression that your species didn''t care much for such things?" Max asked.


    "We don''t care for them, but that doesn''t mean we don''t understand them. We prefer thews of nature, much like the Hunters do, though we don''t deliberatelye in and unbnce them for our own entertainment." She shrugged.


    "The Dryads believe that all Patents should end with the death of the Patent holder, as would seem natural to their species." The Giant''s Lawyer added so Max would understand.


    "Which most species fear would lead to the patent holders of basically every important product being assassinated and a sessor filing a new patent until nobody dared to either kill the patent holder or file for that patent again." Max guessed.


    "Your species wouldn''t do it?" The Dryad asked curiously.


    Max gave him a rueful smile before responding. "My species quite regrly kill corporatepetitors, even though the patents won''t change hands. What use is holding a patent on a good if nobody is alive to make it? We prefer to make new things of our own, not take over others'' aplishments, at least as much as possible."


    "Like a Drake taking over a Bear''s territory. He has no use for a bear''s den." The Dryad nodded in understanding.


    "You know, for such a peace-loving species, you have a strong grasp of natural brutality," Max replied with a smile.


    "We love nature, not peace. There''s a difference. It''s just that fighting between sentient species isn''t natural, so we don''t practice it."

 Chapter 603 603 Long Walks In The Sun

    The shuttle glided into the hangar at the base of the city just as smoothly as it left Terminus, only alerting the upants that it hadnded when the interior lights changed colour to light green, indicating that it was safe to disembark.


    "Well, that was even more pleasant than expected, and we all learned more about each other. Tell me, Commander, how far is it from here to the worksite where the Hunters are digging up the ancient relics?" The Valkia asked.


    "We will transfer to a ground-based transport here, and it will be about fifteen minutes for us to make the thirty kilometres to the site. Of course, we can also take time to enjoy the sights, or if you are capable of making it on your own, you are free to. The air here should bepletely free of contaminants and other unwanted elements, so a bit of exercise wouldn''t be out of ce." Max offered.


    The Giant shook his head, not in the mood to go for a run, but the Valkia looked intrigued by the offer, despite the distance.


    The Dryad just shook her head. "We are not fast-moving creatures. I will just hang my head out the window instead."


    Max could sense that she wasn''t actually ustrophobic, but she would happily tell others she was if it meant that she could stick her head out the window to enjoy the breeze.


    "Could you make it in that time?" The Valkia envoy asked as Max, and the others began to climb into the hover limo that had been prepared for them.


    "Not quite. I would take about twice that time. Sixty kilometres an hour is roughly my top sustained speed." Max informed him.


    "So you can attain a higher speed than that?" The younger assistant to the Valkia asked in awe.


    "Yes, for a shorter burst, roughly twice that."


    The young Valkia looked curious, then tapped his chin while he thought. "Are your people perhaps evolved from Persistence Hunters then?"


    "That''s the theory, though, as our actual homeworld is lost to history, and none of thes that im to be the real human homeworld actually have evolutionary evidence on them, we can''t prove it." Max agreed.


    "How do you lose track of your homeworld?" The young Valkia asked.


    "If we knew that, we wouldn''t have forgotten where it was, would we?"


    That made the Envoysugh a bit harder than they expected to, and everyone but the Valkia took their seats.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    "We can sustain nearly a hundred kilometres an hour flying in an atmosphere and gravity like this, so we will stretch our wings. We have all been aboard a ship too long, and even short flights between floors aren''t enough to really exercise." The Envoy decided.


    "Understandable. Do try to keep in sight so we know if you need a break. Even on a ship asrge as yours, it is never really made for high-speed flight. There is always another facility that needs the space." Max agreed, waving to them as the Dryad hung half her body out the sunroof and spread her arms to take in the sun.


    Any human who saw them would think they were a bunch of weirdos, but the Envoys were happy, and that was the part that truly mattered as they began to make their way out of the city''s docking spire and over the wild grasses between the spires and overhead walkways where a million vacationers were soon to be settled in for their stay.


    The Valkia dipped and raced around, ying tag in the air for a while while the limo glided above the untouched wilderness.


    "I am d you decided to go with flying transports. The grass here smells wonderful. It would be a shame to build a conventional city." The Dryad sighed, then squeaked in shock and looked above her head with wide-open eyes.


    The holograms from the crystal spires were in full action again as the midday sun hit them, and the glowing images of small flying creatures had joined the Valkia in their game of tag, swirling through the air.


    The joy of not only the Dryad and the Valkia but of a huge number of locals watching the scene y out as they travelled past the city seemed to change the whole feeling of the ce, and more images were appearing every second, all over the city, not just around the tower they were nearest to.


    The Illithid might have a point about these towers being psychoactive. The images did seem to change as soon as everyone noticed the Valkia ying. It was incredible, unspeakably beautiful, and a bit creepy to think that the residents of the city were subconsciously creating this image by unwilling cooperation.


    They did slow the transport so that the Valkia could keep up and not have to simply fly by all of the incredible sights as well. They were gathering lots of important data for them. Things like the maneuverability of the images, how fast they could change form and the fact that they weren''t solid, but they were apparently warm to the touch like they were a condensed light reflection, the same as you would get through a magnifying ss, but appearing in great detail and in mid-air.


    It was all noted in Max''s logs so that he could inform the Illithid, who was waiting on his friends before he took time off toe down here and see it with them.


    They ended up taking half an hour to get to the site, and the Valkia was exhausted from ying in the sky, but it was one hundred percent worth it for the sights that they got to see and the show that they got to put on for the local residents and the newly arrived vacationers.


    "So, what is there to see of this dig so far? I believe that they just started it today, correct?" The Giant Envoy asked.


    "That is correct. They started digging today, looking for traces of ancient civilization since there were other historical relics recovered from this world, but we couldn''t match them to any known species, much one that belonged in this area at the time." Max exined, leaving out the bits about what they had removed in advance and what the Hunters thought it might mean.

 Chapter 604 604 The Big Dig

    "So, what have you found in this pile of rubble so far?" The Lawyer from the Giants team asked once they were unloaded at the ruins, standing out in the scorching tropical afternoon sun.


    "Surprisingly, a lot. We found the ruins of a city and indications that it might have once been quite advanced. Of course, since it has been over a hundred thousand years abandoned, there isn''t much left here, but check these walls. What do you see?" A young Huntress in a long white coat made of thin fabric asked.


    "Evenly spaced, uniform brickwork. They were made from the same mould or on a factory floor." Thewyer responded, not impressed.


    "They have been hollowed for conduits, and there is an empty power node near the bottom of each wall. Also, there is still structurally intact mortar between those blocks a hundred thousand yearster." The Valkia Envoy added.


    "Exactly. It''s not a big deal for us to make degradation stable mortar and brickwork, but at the time, it should have been all but unheard of. The signs of power distribution within the residential unit that this appears to have been used for also indicate that it wasn''t a primitive culture that stumbled upon a luckybination of local materials." The archaeologist agreed.


    "How advanced do we mean, though? Dryads used nt life tomunicate, and the ruins on our world are quite simr, as that is where the roots would enter the rooms to link us all together." The Dryad representative pointed out.


    "We can''t say yet, we just got here today, but it is a promising start that we could find something interesting in this strange gxy."


    The group chatted as they searched the area until the Dryad stumbled across a misced stone on what would have been the road outside the house Hunter''s team had first unearthed.


    It was a t piece of rock, heavily weathered and worn nearly round on the top, but when her toe knocked it over, the other side was exposed, showing the crudely drawn penis.


    "Yes! First Dick of the dig. There are always sex organs in the ruins. We just need to find the surviving graffiti to guess what species it is. Does anyone recognize this dick?" The Archaeologist from Hunter''s team asked.


    "I mean, not personally. But you know, what species would that be?"


    Max wasughing so hard at her stumbling over her words that he didn''t answer at first. The drawing was clearly a human organ, or very close to it, but the poor drawing made it hard to tell.


    "There are seventeen species the drawing is close enough to be attributed to. Hunters might not be aware, but the design is extremelymon among mammalian and amphibious bipeds." The Giant Envoy informed her, making Maxugh even harder.


    "Is this a human joke that I don''t get?" The Giant asked.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>


    "Yes, probably. But it just urred to me that the only way to know for sure if it is such amon evolution was to get a size reference."


    The Giant facepalmed as he realized just how useless one single piece of graffiti was in narrowing down the options, but the Hunters looked excited.


    "By our count, it is actually eighty-four possibilities out of over six hundred thousand sentient species who could have been depicted by this image, not including species that went extinct before we recorded them. It''s not definitive evidence, but it really does narrow down what we can expect to find here." The Huntress Envoy informed them, then gave Max a look that meant she was also including the legendary ancient species in this category.


    "Alright, sorry for the interruption. I will try to be serious again. I wasn''t expecting that particr bit of graffiti to be the first real discovery on this site. My hope is that we can find something simr with surviving writing, which would give us a much more clear guess of their species and development." He finally managed.


    He was usually in his office these days or in a Mecha when something shocked him. He really needed to remember not tough at inappropriate things when he was around foreign dignitaries. They wouldn''t all appreciate the same sort of humour as human soldiers and frat boys did.


    Only it wasn''t an isted incident. As they cleared the first building, they found a piece of pottery that depicted dozens of mythical creatures again, including an angel, dragon, Gryphon, and more, and the angel was predictably nude.


    It reminded Max of ancient human art, but it was here before there were ancient humans to make it, at least to the best of his knowledge.


    When the piece of pottery was cleaned and removed, the broken piece below it brought everyone the biggest shock. There, staring back at them from the broken pottery, was the stylized visage of the God of War, the mythical construct of the lost civilization whose unknown material had brought them here.


    Fortunately, nobody else in the room seemed to recognize it, and the Hunters'' team quickly filed it away with the rest of the pottery from that particr pile and ced it in protective storage.


    That was the evidence that they had been here for, signs that the local residents had been somewhat aware of the existence of the God of War, but from the thoughts of the dig team, it shouldn''t have been here. Theyers where they were finding the strange material that had images of it were on a much olderyer, and this city had been built on ruins that were built on top of the ruins of the city where they had found the first bits that had been recovered.


    "Once we clear the upperyers of the dirt and debris, there are a number of buildings that are near the surface and can be exposed as a tourist location within the next few months if we want to allow people here while it''s still an active working site." The lead archaeologist suggested.


    "I am sure the guests would love that. It''s a nice short trip from the city, and taking a few busloads of people here a day should be manageable. I will refer you to theary Governor for details." Max agreed, d that none of the other Envoys had noticed the strange find of an ancient alien, possibly Mecha construct.

 Chapter 605 605 Let Them Be

    After touring under the sun for a few hours, the Envoys'' curiosity was mostly ked for the day, and they were ready to return to the city and see what it was like on the inside. The outside had been incredible, and the fresh air and waving grass of the dig site werefortable enough that the Dryad and the Shin were unwilling to leave, but they also weren''t willing to be left outside overnight since there were no other trees in the area, and sleeping in the grass would inevitably lead to being invaded by hostile alien insects.


    How hostile was the question, since the insects here were mostly only the ones necessary to facilitateposting, but that didn''t mean that they wouldn''t be a real nuisance to nt-based species far more than they were to the Hunters, who would be sleeping in their shuttle.


    The sun was beginning to move far enough from its peak that the day was bingfortable, and a bit of cloud cover was beginning to form when they reached the city spires again, moving much faster with the Valkia inside the car.


    They parked in the hangar and took the elevators up to the spire reserved for staff and dignitaries, where there should still be some free vis, but the sights that they passed were far different than the parties which were thrown aboard Terminus. The elevator faced out over the openmon areas of the floors as it ran up the outer wall, so they could view many floors at once, as well as the view through the outer windows, though each floor was blocked from seeing what was going on with the surrounding residents through clever architecture that prevented reflections.


    It seemed that the Alliance citizens held themselves back somewhat while aboard the human ship, and the parties had all been tame by human standards, but what they passed on the thirty-seventh floor could only be described as a wine-soaked orgy.


    The Dryad looked at the Valkia in shock, as it was mostly his people present, and he just shrugged. "Today is Saint Bhus Day. The Patron Saint of Wine and Merriment. We celebrate it that way every year. Just usually not in public, and not with so many other species involved."


    "I, for once, approve of your people''s traditions. That looks like a lot of fun." The Huntress consoled the Envoy, who looked a bit unnerved to find out that his people had chosen to celebrate in such a public manner.


    Of course, for those who were listening in on the thoughts, it was very clear that the Humans had enthusiastically helped with preparations once they found out what the celebration was all about. There was an ancient human culture that celebrated something simr, and Max could see that some of those traditions had made their way into the party, with staff covered in gold body paint and wearing togas, or even less, while posing as statues or serving food and drinks.


    "This day is never going to be forgotten. I hope you understand that." Maxughed.


    "They''re not breaking anyws, are they? I never thought to check." The Valkia Envoy asked.


    "Probably not. Humans are very good at making exceptions to rules if they think it will be fun, and I can see that they have locked all underage guests out of the floor. That''s really our only hard and fast rule on the matter. At least the rest of the floors seem to be normal." Max sighed.


    They were passing the fortieth floor now, ascending through the spire hosting the five hundred floors of hot springs. Only one floor appeared to be vastly out of the ordinary, with most floors having guests lounging on the sand or on heated rocks, and one even being covered in snow, with a frigid outside temperature all around the hot water.


    That one fascinated the Dryad, who thought that a hot spring in the winter would be an incredible feeling, so Max made sure to show her how to mark it as a location in her Terminus-provided smartwatch, so she could find her way back again.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Looking out the other side, a kilometre-wide walkway led to another spire on the two-hundredth floor, filled with shops and hosting an old-fashioned gond ride near the roof for a slow and scenic trip across the city.


    "It''s like Every Era is represented here, but it has all been reconstructed in the same graceful theme as the city. It''s incredible and disorienting at the same time." The Innu Envoy praised the sights around them.


    That was how the original city was as well. It was timeless, nothing in the city seemed to belong to the era you were in, but it all did, somehow. There was no good way to describe the original City of Spirits other than as itself, and Nico had captured that feeling perfectly with her replica.


    One thing he did notice that he didn''t recall being present in the original was the holograms inside the building. He recalled them only forming in the air outside, but some of them would flutter in the windows here and then vanish once they passed through a shadow, only to sometimes reappear somewhere else, still on their course.


    "We have to tell the Fae. They will never forgive the Dryads if we don''t tell them." The Envoy informed the group with a smile as the figure of a small owl circled her head for a moment, then flew away.


    The phenomenon onlysted a few minutes while the sun was at the perfect angle to send the reflection of the top of the spires through the walkway, but it was enough for the crowd.


    "Elevator, pause. Open doors for winged species." The Valkia''s assistant announced suddenly just past the two hundredth floor.


    "Elevator Paused." The robotic voice of the elevator was Nico''s Sultry Voice setting, and it sent a bit of a shiver up Max''s spine every time he heard it.


    One day he would have to remember to have her stop programming her own voice into everything. She was bing the voice of the Humans'' Computer Systems in the minds of basically everyone, which was a bit odd when he knew the actual living person. Not that she actually used that voice setting with anyone but him, so the rest of the crew wouldn''t notice much more than that it was simr to her augmented voice.


    The Assistant called out to someone ying an aerial game down below them and hopped out of the door that had opened on the viewing side of the elevator, waving goodbye to the group and promising toe to check inter.


    "They''re young. Let them y." The Envoy shrugged, turning their attention back to the view as the Elevator continued its ascent.

 Chapter 606 606 Catching Up

    General Tennant was waiting for them when they arrived at the isted top section of the spire that served as the secluded living area for dignitaries who shouldn''t be mingling with the general poption, either for safety or because they weren''t trusted to be unattended.


    In this case, it was all the first, though Max did have some thoughts about how long it would take to find the Dryad again if they left her unattended on the lower floors, with millions of square meters of vegetation nted within the city.


    "I think we will retire to our rooms for the evening. Our vessel is running on a very different schedule than the city, and it iste at night for us. Perhaps you would like to meet in ten hours for a bit of breakfast? Is there somewhere serving breakfast at that time of the morning nearby?" The Giant Envoy asked.


    "There is a brunch spot in this tower, on level 481, only a few minutes by elevator and right near the elevated walkway. I suspect it might be a bit busy tonight, even at two in the morning, local time, since it has a view of the stars, but there is a Kepler Starred chef there. They''re using replicated ingredients, but it''s all cooked fresh, so you get to enjoy the personal touch of a skilled human chef.


    I know that''s something that Terminus doesn''t really have on board since all but one of their restaurants uses replicated meals, but I think you will enjoy the new experience." General Tennant suggested.


    "That sounds marvellous. Do they take reservations?" The envoy asked.


    "They do not. It is part of his business philosophy that those who are truly hungry will show up, so his business is firste, first served." The General answered with a smile.


    The Valkia nodded his agreement with that. "I like that level of dedication to one''s ideals. Appointments build exclusivity, but if you know you''re the best, you can open up to anyone who walks in and make a great impression. We will meet you both there in the morning, I hope. Please direct my wayward assistant back to his room once he is finished ying."


    "The directions have been sent to him."


    The envoys headed to the Vis reserved for them, and Max followed General Tennant to theary Governor''s house, a top-floor mansion that was clearly made as a spot for political negotiations, with ostentatious gardens all around, over a dozen hover limos in underground parking, and the best views in the city.


    "I didn''t have a hand in the design, but when I arrived, I was directed here by the city''sputer. It appears that this is my spot, and there are simr ones in other spires for other senior city officials, as well as the family of former Governors.


    I haven''t really had time to go through everything yet, there is too much in an entire city to get fully familiar with it in one sitting, but the designers did an incredible job. I am told it was designed entirely by the staff aboard your vessel, and I watched as the Terraforming Devices built it. Who would have guessed back when you were in the Academy that humans woulde so far, so fast?<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Do you recall the story of the Industrial Revolution that brought humans into the modern age? In a century, we were said to havee from peasant farmers using horses to our first space flights. This feels like that legend is ying out all over."


    The General was clearly a bit overwhelmed by the change in station and living conditions, but the myth was one that Max knew, even if he found it a bit embellished to think that human culture could change so much in a hundred years.


    The thought of being alive at the start and end of that process was just mind-boggling.


    But then, he knew the stories of how Mecha changed warfare as well, and he had seen firsthand how fast a Colony could change when granted advanced technologies, so perhaps all it took was a few key innovations to trigger a whole chain of events that would change everything.


    That was their goal, in a way. To set off a series of changes that would reshape humanity into a more functional model.


    The wars were beginning to die back on the homeworlds, but they still needed that particr something, the big trigger that would kick them from armistice into a cultural revolution, and he didn''t think he had found it yet.


    The General noticed Max was lost in his thoughts for a moment and led him inside a sitting room. "Why don''t we rx with a bottle of Rum and have a good chat about everything that has happened while I was away?"


    "Why don''t you start with this battle that left you alone on a derelict ship? Did you volunteer to be thest man aboard as the Captain of the vessel and go down with it as tradition demands after Abraham Kepler was crippled trying to block for the God ss Mecha?" Max asked.


    "Indeed I did, but in order to tell you that story and have it make sense, I need to go over thest bit of our trip through human space and how we ended up there with our troops and the design team from Comor fully engaged with the Rebels in the first ce."


    That was no short conversation, and they were still at it in the small hours of the morning when the General''s rm went off, reminding them that they had forty-five minutes before the meeting with the Envoys at the brunch spot.


    "The design of theary Governor''s mansion is actually a genius bit of design. Follow me. We have our own private elevator. It runs inside a structural beam and will let us out one floor away from the spot we need. From there, we can take the moving sidewalk or one of the travel discs." General Tennat suggested, just as eager as anyone else to get to try out all of the amenities of the city.

 Chapter 607 607 With Tech Too

    The elevator did indeed lead them out into the city, only one floor below their destination, and there was a tall esctor between the floors only a few blocks away. Max and the General could make that in a minute or less, so instead of trying the various fast travel methods today, they just went for a jog in their mboyant outfits.


    Compared to the subdued look that Max usually went for, General Tennant had gone all in on the Reaver fashion when he had stopped being an officer for an Empire that no longer existed. He had paired ck and gray serpent-skin pants with ck cowboy boots and a mint green silk shirt with no buttons, held closed only by the fact that it was tucked into his pants at the bottom.


    Gold chains dangled across his chest, and a knee-length Kepler Officer''s trenchcoat in regtion ck synth leatherpleted the look.


    On the scale of one to "Most gaudyary Governor that Max had ever seen," General Tennant looked more like the bookie at an illegal gambling establishment on a Reaver-run space station than aary Governor.


    "We need to work on your fashion sense." Maxughed as they jogged through the city toward the esctor.


    "I don''t know about that. I think it''s a hit with thedies my age. You young folk do your thing, and I will go after thedies a century older." The Generalughed, gesturing to the nearly business-suit ensemble that Max had picked to go for breakfast.


    "Honestly, I rarely pick these myself. If I need to impress someone, Nico sets out clothes for me, and I only alter the options when she goes overboard and picks me out a cape or something." Heughed.


    "So, you are still close then, despite her renovations?"


    That topic hadn''te up, as they had been talking about the past and various innovations all evening, so the deeper personal connections hadn''t made it into the conversation so far.


    "Closer than ever. Her system has been letting her adjust her body, as she showed you when you first arrived. But you likely didn''t notice that she''s even soft again. That''s the Kepler Military''s Non-Newtonian shell, altered by her System Functions to have exactly the texture and feel that she wants it to at any given point in time.


    If you didn''t know that she was a Cyborg, I think that a lot of people would miss it at this point since she has changed herself so far from what we understand the word to mean. Most of the improvementes from meeting the Hunters. They use Biomechanical armour and Mecha, and Nico has incorporated a lot of their tech into herself as she went.


    I don''t know or understand all the changes, so you will have to go to her or the design team to get the deeper details, but I will say that she can do a wonderful impression of an organic human already, in every way imaginable."


    The Generalughed and gestured to the side. This is our spot. We''re a few minutes early, so let''s get a table. Good thing they''re nearly empty at this time, or we could have been out of luck.


    The staff gave them a warm greeting as they approached. Everyone knew the General, as he had organized their colonization effort and brought them here to a much better situation than they had ever dreamed of. Colonists usually had to bring everything from zero, but in the eyes of the colonists, it was the General''s connections that had snagged them a fully built and amazing city with a built-in tourism industry and all thetest, greatest gadgets.


    They were even getting so far ahead of the curve that the Alliance visitors called the amenities in the Vis "Rustic" and not primitive, like going to a deliberately minimalist resort, which had the essentials, but stripped out the little luxuries of home to encourage you to enjoy nature.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Did we get any bigints yesterday? Or pick up on anything that we should really invest in importing?" The General asked their host, all business for a moment before the Envoys showed up.


    "Nothing too major. There was some confusion about the in-room amenities, as they were all made for humanoid species, and the specialized versions some species use aren''t avable. That''s just tourists that haven''t been out in the rest of the Alliance yet to get used to the standardized models.


    The Valkia guests didin a little about theck of what is called a Feather Fluff in the room, as it''s not something they pack, and apparently, it''s usually built into the shower. They didn''t speak of it to the staff, but I heard them talking about it."


    "Good work. It''s the little things that we don''t know about that will need to be imported to make it perfect for guests. I am guessing it''s like the air dry mode on the shower, but if it''s a brand name, it might have a specific process everyone is used to." The General agreed.


    "For how many?"


    "At least twenty-five. Assuming that none of them have brought additional guests that didn''t arrive with us. Can you make space?" Max answered.


    "Of course, the restaurant is fairlyrge. But at this hour, only the sous chef is on duty, so I can''t guarantee the presence or personal touch of the boss." The host answered.


    "That''s fine. We''re just gathered for breakfast, not a formal event. And there they are." Max told him, indicating therge group walking down the street with their eyes glued to the iing rain storm through the outer windows of the spire.


    "This way. I will bring the rest to you."


    As soon as they took their seats, the General looked up what a Feather Fluff was and determined that it was an air dryer with a protective mist for Valkia and other flying species feathers that gave them a short-term waterproofing, as well as a longsting scent. There was nothing quite like it in human technology, just a basic fluff dry to get their feathers safely dry.


    "So, it''s like they''re showering without conditioner. I get it now. I will order a number of them since it looks like they are modr and can be integrated into the existing drying functions." The General said, showing Max what the term meant and that it was indeed a trademarked brand name product with its own exclusive line of sprays.


    "Sometimes, you can''t go full local, I guess. I am sure there will be more over the next few weeks that we just don''t know about yet. Running a whole, even if it''s just got one city on it so far, isn''t going to be an easy task." Max replied with a smile.


    "Just wait. I am going to put these cities all over the bloody, and we will be thergest tourist trap for supernatural phenomenon fans in the known universe." Tennant replied, then stood to greet their guests.


    "Envoys, I hope you found your way here without issues. We are about to see our first thunderstorm here, and I think it will be quite the sight. But first, let''s eat."

 Chapter 608 608 Thunder Dance

    "Governor Tennant, it is an honour to meet you here so early in the morning. I know how much work you have to do to keep a city running, especially under these circumstances when so many foreign guests have just arrived for the first time.


    It is a rather intense stress test for the entire colony, but I must say, they seem to be handling it admirably." The Giant Envoy greeted him.


    "All the adult colonists were from Reaver Companies to begin with, so none of them were inexperienced with intense pressure at work, and I think it really helped out in this situation. Their job experience ising in handy, and it seems that the Alliance visitors have no problems bartering and making deals in the same way that the Reavers do." General Tennant agreed.


    "Yes, we would normally warn people about that, some tourists can be quite intense with their desire to get a good deal, and they will show all sorts of unseemly antics in order to get what they want, but it seems that your people have seen it all before." The Envoy agreed.


    "There is very little that they haven''t seen before, that''s for sure. Even if some individual members are still young enough to be fairly inexperienced, they have good, solid mentors with them to show them the ropes.


    Perhaps it''s actually better this way. They will learn firsthand everything that they need to do to keep customers happy, and they will get used to the maximum workload right from the start, so once the guests begin to settle in and enjoy the city at a more leisurely pace, the job will seem easier by the day."


    "I can''t argue with that logic. What is good here?" The envoy asked, looking over the menu.


    "If I recall your preferences correctly, I would get a double order of the number threebo, the eggs benedict, and then add the hashbrowns and a side of fruit to both orders." The General suggested.


    The waiter nodded from his spot off to the side, indicating that he had the order, and the rest of the Envoys ced their menus down.


    "If we all get the same thing, we canpare notes on how each of us reacts to the same human foods." The Valkia suggested.


    "Well, that''s easy. I''m sure they are more than capable of thirty orders of eggs benedict." Max chuckled while the waiter looked a bit concerned that he was going to be the one to tell the chef that their first table of the hour ordered thirty full breakfasts at the same time.


    They were open because tourists on random schedules would show up at any hour of the day, and they didn''t have a good reference yet of what species were nocturnal and how many of each species were staying here in the city. Once things settled out a little, they might not pick a twenty-four-hour schedule, but from the number of people in the street, they wouldn''t be losing money by staying open.


    Of course, bringing in all the Envoys was also drawing tourists to the shop, eager to eat in the same ce and get a discrete selfie with the powerful politicians.


    Max doubted that most of them had any clue who these people were, but they were all wearing official pins or uniforms, so it was virtually impossible for the Alliance guests not to notice them.


    The attention didn''t bother them, though, as the tourists were mostly respectful and took their pictures from a distance, while the staff kept them from directly bothering the other guests.


    The food had juste out when the first strikes of thunder began in the night sky, sending echoes through the open areas of the city and lighting up the sky with shes of light that caused shadowy figures to dance in the sky outside the towers, looking to Max like fairies dancing in the rain.


    The sight caught the attention of everyone who was currently awake in the city, and the steady drum of rain on the windows made a soothing counterpoint to the random shes of dancing figures in the sky.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was like nothing that Max had ever seen before, but he could sense that there was something else out in the darkness that certainly wasn''t a sh of light from the reflections on the city''s spires.


    [Nico, check the vicinity of the city, Northeast, at roughly fifty degrees. I swear I see something out there.] He informed his second inmand.


    [Working on it. I haven''t seen anything so far, but that doesn''t mean that there isn''t anything to see. Give me a few minutes to tweak our sensors, and I will be able to tell if we have an unexpected guest.]


    That wasn''t out of the question, as they had recently turned away an envoy on rather bad terms after embarrassing him in front of everyone else from the Alliance. If his people hade for some sort of retribution, it wouldn''t have been a shock to anyone.


    While Max enjoyed breakfast with the Envoys and the General, Nico and the development team were hard at work investigating the surface of the.


    "I''ve found it. It is an alien craft of an unknown design, and they are in position following one of the Terraforming drones. I can almost guarantee that it is a case of industrial espionage." She told the Innu working beside her.


    "I have reported it to the Alliance World Ship in orbit. They say that they will investigate. What step will you take next?" The researcher asked.


    "I say we skip straight to the hostilities. Get me an Interceptor prepped while I convince Max that this way will be easier." She decided.


    "On it. We have that one you custom designed ready to fly now." The researcher answered with a smile. It wasn''t like they needed much to get ready. The interceptors were just sitting on standby in a bay, with a staff waiting to see if something happened, while they kept their skills sharp in a training pod.


    [General Tennant, we have detected an unauthorized visitor who did not pass throughary Immigration. Requesting permission to makendfall, as we are investigating them for possible Industrial Espionage.] Nico broadcast to both Max and General Tennant.


    [Permission Granted. Please inform them that all vessels failing to report to Immigration may be subject to search and seizure should they be found harbouring undocumented arrivals or illegal substances.] General Tennant replied, d to have the help with a problem that he hadn''t even known that his was suffering from.


    "The Illithid advisor aboard Terminus has informed me that the unknown vessel is following a Terraforming Drone, and they are currently cloaked. The Interceptors should take care of it in short order. They are quite good at their jobs." Max informed the Envoys, as the Innu had likely already read the message, and the Dryad could read it over General Tennant''s shoulder.


    "Ah, excellent then, nothing to be concerned about. The Frozen Gates will send a detainment crew should they be Alliance citizens in vition of immigration or industrial espionagews." The Giant stated inly, well used to this sort of thing.


    "Assuming that there are survivors. Many stealth vessels believe that technology can save them, and Reaver Interceptors usually only give one warning." General Tennant reminded them.


    That got the Giant all the way awake from his lethargic state, and he began frantically sending messages back to their ship, which responded with a confirmation that, indeed, it was within Alliance standard policies to shoot down any vessel refusing to report to immigration after entering the atmosphere. In fact, it was even their own vessel''s standard procedure.


    This was going to be a very interesting morning.

 Chapter 609 609 Intercepted

    Once the clearance was given, Nico led a five-interceptor wing down to the surface. If the spies wanted to run once they caught sight of the attack vessels, she didn''t want to risk that they would be more maneuverable than she was and get away before she could do anything.


    With the extra four interceptors, they could make a proper containment pattern, and their weapons would have a much easier time getting a solid hit.


    The Alliance had incredible vessels for their government forces, but the ones that most of the poption used were not nearly as impressive, being made to a budget and often with outdated technology, thanks to millennia of peace giving them no reason to update defensive technologies beyond what was needed to handle in-flight threats like space debris.


    That''s the standard that Nico was hoping that this particr ship, which was shadowing their Terraforming drones, was on.


    It didn''t change course when they entered the atmosphere, and it didn''t respond when they formed up around it, so Nico assumed that they must be quite confident in their cloaking technologies.


    "Unknown vessel, you have failed to report to immigration after entering the atmosphere of an inhabited. Please disengage your stealth technology and follow us to the city for processing." She demanded, setting her radio to broadcast on a wide range of frequencies, both Human and Alliance.


    There was no response, and the ship didn''t seem to be responding in any way, not sending out any signals that they could detect, so she tried again.


    "Unknown vessel, we have reason to believe that you are engaged in industrial espionage. Disengage your cloaking field now, or we will be forced to treat you as a hostile corporate force."


    That seemed to get their attention, and the ship began to drift away from the terraforming drone.


    [Hold your Position, I want to see what they do.] Nico ordered her wing as the ship gently glided through the air.


    It stopped near another Terraforming Drone and took up the same position, following it around.


    "Switching Drones to observe is not a form ofpliance. Unknown vessel, lower your cloaking field, or we will take hostile action. This is yourst warning." Nico reported.


    She ordered her wing to surround the ship again, and this time they got a response, a strong power surge from the hidden vessel thatpromised their cloaking field enough that even the most rudimentary of sensors could detect it.


    But for the moment, Nico held off. If they were going to make a run for it, she could learn more about the ship''s capabilities before they captured it.


    It wasn''t nning to run, though, and half a secondter, a barrage of Lasers sted out at the Interceptors, and the ship began standard pattern evasive maneuvers.


    Unfortunately for them, they were from the most basic of Alliance training manuals, and Nico had long since memorized them. The Interceptorsunched a return volley of Disruptor fire, and the ship went crashing to the surface, leaving a deep furrow in the freshly terraformed grasnd.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Hostile Force, surrender now, or you will be summarily eliminated," Nico announced, both over the radio and over the loudspeaker.


    There was no response from inside the vessel, so she approached in her Interceptor, then exited the ship, wearing a Tech Adept Harness, and using the gravity control to gently lower herself to the ground before disabling the electronic locks and pulling the hatch open to reveal the interior of the ship.


    [Nico toary Command. The crash appears to have been more severe than anticipated. No survivors detected.] She reported as she looked a the mess inside the ship.


    By her best guess, the ship didn''t have military-grade shields, or they couldn''t keep them up with their cloaking field because the Disruptors seemed to have passed right through to the crew of the ship while leaving the hull intact.


    That meant the next order of business was twofold. First, find a water hose and clean this ce up a bit. Second, start searching theirputer records and see what they were up to. Most Alliance vessels would have known to simplyply, and then they could scan the terraforming drones while gathering much less interest.


    The patents were a matter of public record to Alliance citizens, but the exact construction method was not, which was the reason that everyone had assumed that they werepetitors to begin with.


    [Terminus Trading Company Interceptors. This is Constable Dookath of the Alliancew enforcement division. We are iing with a police contingent to examine the origins of the intruding ship.] The smooth voice of a Valkia informed them over the radio.


    [You are wee to it, Constable. We are quite interested in the origin of this vessel since it''s like nothing that we have on record, and there are no surviving crew members to tell us where they might havee from.] Nico replied while she downloaded the entire ship''sputer into her Interceptor''s storage space to peruseter at her leisure.


    She did know a few things already, though. This was not an Alliance vessel, or at least it was not built with any Alliance patent information or a system of origin recorded in its logs.


    The crew roster did show Alliance members, though, mostly from the Giant species, though the captain of the ship seemed to be a Volga, who was not an Alliance member, so the ship might be one of theirs.


    [Sweet All Mother, what did you do to it? You didn''t need to do whatever that was.] The Constable could be heard retching over the voice-activatedmunicator as he entered the ship.


    [Our apologies Constable. It seems that our disruptor technology is ipatible with the shields on that vessel. When used against our own Mecha or ships, that would have only disabled the shields and possibly the drive systems to disable the ship.] She exined.


    It wasn''t quite a lie. Their own equipment was hardened against attacks by the Disruptor technology. But if they had used it against basically anything else, it would have ended exactly like this. She had even optimized the weapons to do their best to bypass Alliance standard shields.


    [We will keep it in mind. Beginning crew identification and cleanup procedures, and then your border patrol may take the ship into quarantine to begin the discovery process on the data they had collected to determine if any crimes other than immigration vitions had beenmitted before this tragic ident.] The Constable informed her with a grim tone.

 Chapter 610 610 Investigation

    The officers were not joking about their intentions to fully investigate what other crimes might have beenmitted while the unknown ship wasmitting its immigration vition. They had thirty officers aboard their shuttle, and they got to work the moment that the disabled foreign ship was brought to the basement hangar bays for investigation.


    They went over every possible aspect and angle of the ship, and while most of the things that they found were not of any concern to the Terminus Trading Company, they found over fifty patent vitions, where the designer had clearly used Alliance technologies in their own designs without permission.


    They also found that the ship had been making detailed notes on the Terraforming Device, presumably for the same reasons, but had been unable to decipher the software before they were shot down, so the entire database that they had umted was on the design and analysis of the construction methods.


    For a Terraforming Device, the software was just as important as the device itself, so they hadn''t gotten too far into their examination, but it was enough to prove intent to vite patentws, even without all of the clear vitions that they found in the ship''s design.


    It was built by the Volga, ording to the Alliance police force. They had seen the basic design before, though not this specific model and the ship''s hull showed the signature markings of their Materials Printer technology, which left behind a unique Ion among certain alloys, thanks to iplete remanufacturing.


    That wouldn''t go over well for them the next time they had to talk to Alliance dignitaries since the Police uploaded all of their collected data to the Central Law Enforcement mainframes as soon as theypiled it.


    Supposedly that was for the integrity of the data so that the officers working the case couldn''t tamper with evidence if it indicated that there was someone who shouldn''t or couldn''t be charged by the local Police responsible for a crime.


    Bribery and using influence to get out of crime weren''t unheard of within the Alliance, but being able to bribe a single low-level police officer to aplish the task seemed to offend their sensibilities. If you wanted to bribe your way out of a conviction, you had to go to someone else who was powerful enough to bribe their way out of a conviction and convince them.


    It was the ultimate old boys club, but in a way, it led to the upper-ss Alliance citizens self-policing since you didn''t only have to convince one of them. You had to convince everyone who had the political clout to gain ess to the investigation data.


    "So, it is the Volga who were trying to get a bit more data on our Terraforming efforts here? That''s not too surprising, but I suspect that they will be less than impressed by the state of the crew that they sent." Max sighed as he sat with General Tennant to review the preliminary investigation datater that morning.


    "It serves them right. If they had chosen any path but to attack the interceptors, they would have likelye out of it alive. It''s fairly doubtful that anyone will im responsibility for the actions, though. Even if we search their records for the owner of the ship, it will show some upstartpany with no connections to the leadership or anypany regrly doing business outside their borders." General Tennant replied, well aware of the basic measures that anyary Governor would take to cover their tracks and avoid responsibility for their actions.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He had seen it all before, and this was on the child''s y level of inteary intrigue.


    "You seem to be well versed in the matter." The Innu Envoy mentioned sipping on a raspberry Latte with five extra shots of espresso in it.


    The sight of the drink made Max shudder in horror at the iing mental barrage that he would suffer once her brain was hit with that massive dose of Caffeine, but the design team had sent her information on the augmentic suits, and she was eager to analyze it before she finished her tasks for the day.


    In her mind, that meant mass doses of caffeine to get the multiple tracks of her mind all working at maximum output, but for the mind readers on the and in orbit, it was a nightmare.


    With Alliance technology, they could make a suit just as good, and in fact, one that was much better than what Terminus had turned out, but on general principle, they wouldn''t copy the fashion style, and that was the part that she liked the most about it.


    Once she was home, she would show the others the marvel that was the helmet, but until the end of their tour, she had every intention of wearing the suit every single time there was an excuse to wear armour.


    "You look somewhat unwell. Perhaps you could use a beverage? The coffee here seems to be quite impressive. They roast it in the store, so it''s unique anywhere in the universe. The Alliance doesn''t have this particr nt, but I can see that it will be quite popr once they learn of it." The Valkia Envoy suggested, looking at the way that the Innu Envoy was downing her steaming mug of caffeine and milk.


    "The problem isn''t myck of drink. It is her abundance of drink. Innu minds go into overdrive when you give them caffeine, and it''s a bit like having a hummingbird in my brain to be sitting next to her." Max exined.


    "Oh, I never thought of that. So few species except the Illithid can read minds that I forgot a few humans could do it as well. Best of luck tuning her out, but I should really warn the rest of our staff if she is going to be more hyper than usual." The Valkia sighed, looking over at the one Envoy in their group who simply refused to go along with the standards and be the boring politician that she had been appointed to be.

 Chapter 611 611 The Volga Werent Impressed

    Max didn''t even have time to finish exining the situation to the Envoys when an emergency message came through to hismunicator from Rae 5 Command.


    [All Reaver Units. Multiple foreign attacks were detected. Initial results show the vessels to contain a species of fat slobs known as the Volga. The attached fives are under heavy attack, and as per Trade Group convention, all avable forces are summoned to their defence.


    The Reaver Council will be convening in one hour to discuss appropriate punishment and redistribution of defensive forces. The prevailing sentiment is to forcefully take the alien species into the human fold.


    Data collected from Alliance databases show that they hold one hundred and seven worlds, a number that we believe can be securely managed by the Trade Group task force, bringing their technology under our purview.]


    Max read through the message three times before turning the screen to the Giant and Valkia Envoys, who looked quite concerned by the grimace on his face.


    "Does that mean what I think it means?" The Valkia asked.


    "That the view of the governing body of humans is that the Volga have dered war on us as a species by attacking ours? I am afraid that it does, and ording to our agreement, I don''t believe that the Alliance has a say in the matter." Max agreed.


    The Valkia sighed while the Giant began pulling up the details of their agreements and then gave the Valkia a curt nod. Indeed, there was nothing in either of the agreements between the Volga and the Alliance or the Humans and the Alliance that gave them intervenor status.


    While they were panicking, the Huntress at the table was doing her best to hideughter, with her eyes glued on a message that had arrived on her ownmunicator.


    "What is the Hunter''s position?" The Giant asked.


    "We aren''t sure yet. We have an official petition from the Reavers, forwarded by Huntress Khan, to dere the Volga as a game species, citing their attacks on the humans as proof of diminished capacity for sentient thought." Sheughed.


    That had to be a Nico initiative.


    If they were determined to be a game species, then the Hunters wouldn''t give them any trouble about anything that they did to the Volga, who were regr customers of the Hunters. They probably wouldn''t go as far as to dere the species as non-sentient based on a single attack, but it was good for augh.


    "Forward that to your superiors, please. I think they will need augh as much as the rest of us do, and it will serve as a rather fitting formal deration of war between the Volga and the Humans.


    I understand that we didn''t get off on a good note, but they don''t seem to understand the nature of the Reaver culture. If you attack one of ours, you attack them all. That is thew. There really isn''t a way out of this without a full withdrawal on their part and a formal apology." Max exined.


    "What sort of force are you nning to turn on them? They are notoriously arrogant, and a small show of force won''t do much to deter them or their allies." The Huntress exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "From what I can tell, we have the support of the New Kepler Territory, the Cygnus Fleet, the Death Wind Mercenaries, seven major Reaver Families and the Border Alliance for a full-scale assault on the Volga."


    The Huntress thought for a moment, then nodded. "They intend to take the entire Volga Confederation, don''t they? If they control the entire territory, they are the governors by default, and they can im all the Volga technology as Human technology without viting any Alliance trade agreements."


    "Can humans even do that? It''s the Volga, not some primitive species." The Giant''s assistant asked.


    "That''s the real question, isn''t it? Is this group secure? If not, I can''t divulge anything about our military strength. If it is, I can fill you in on the basics so that the Alliance can be appraised of the situation as soon as a non-disclosure agreement is signed." Max suggested.


    "Envoy fleets are bound to confidentiality. Other than the Central Council, none of our activities may be broadcast to the general public without the permission of all parties involved. If we leaked such matters, nobody would trust us enough to negotiate with us." The Valkia replied with a professional frown.


    The Giant brought out a generic Non-Disclosure agreement and passed it around the table, finishing with Max.


    "With that out of the way. I can tell you that while the Council is debating the matter, it is almost certain to go through. The Reavers take getting attacked very personally, and most of the other forces involved just want the technology that they can loot after a battle.


    The total should be roughly ten thousand cruiser ss ships, plus destroyers and a fewrger vessels, each equipped for war with mechanized regiments."


    The Envoys sat silently as they digested that information for a moment before the Innu raised her hand.


    "I know what is on Terminus and her Cutters, as well as the Cruisers. Is that representative of a standard deployment?"


    Max shook his head. "We are not considered heavily armed. A cruiser would normally have an entire Mecha Regiment on board, not just a few Companies. The transport ships will have multiple Regiments of Mecha, plus an entire field army of infantry on board. At this point, don''t expect any of them to be green recruits. We are finishing a Civil War. They will all be battle-tested veterans."


    "How long until we know the status of the attacking forces?" The Valkia asked.


    "We should have updates every hour on the hour, by standard procedure. Any other important questions before I am distracted by the ongoing situation?" Max asked.


    "Not a question, but I have a response from the Hunters. They say that if you want to assert that the Volga are not sentient beings, you need to prove it. They will not get involved in the battle either way until a decisive answer is provided."


    Well, that was one less ally for the Volga and a big relief to Max.

 Chapter 612 612 Waiting On News

    Forty minutes after the first notification, the data from thes under attack began to flow in. Three hundred Volga attack vessels had been downed, and over a million soldiers were dead.


    None of the fives was currently losing territory, and more forces were iing.


    The Alliance Envoys'' shock at the situation was quickly turning to horror as the video feeds of the situation began to resolve on their screens. The Alliance had sent observation craft to the affected systems to check for signs of war crimes and other vitions of the involved groups'' treaties, and what they found was utter ruthlessness that made even the Hunters raise an impressed eyebrow.


    The Reavers weren''t trying to eliminate the Volga. They were trying to loot them dry.


    The Volga had realized very quickly that the Fast Attack Crusaders could navigate the main corridors of their vessels and that they had no qualms about using Fusion mers on anything and everything that they came across. But when they noticed that the Mecha were deliberately ignoring the main engines and the bridge while melting out the power rys that would make them operational, the Commanders began to scuttle their own vessels to prevent them from being captured.


    "Have you ever met a species known as the Gnomish? About a meter tall, with a fondness for all technology that is second only to the Innu? Your raiders remind me of them. They don''t even fight to kill the Volga. They''re just stealing everything that they can get their hands on." The Huntressughed.


    "Spoils of war. If we can take it back to our ship, it''s ours." Max agreed.


    The Giant seemed to have some reservations about that definition of the spoils of war, but the Innu had begun to sing a high-pitched song about smashing and looting for the good of the tech goddess. It seemed to be a Gnomish battle song, but her mind was bing hazy, and it was difficult for Max to tell what she was thinking.


    "I am pretty sure that the Innu Envoy is drunk off coffee. I''m not sure if it''s the Caffeine or thebination of chemicals, but she is almost certainly intoxicated well beyond reasonable for this hour of the morning." Max informed the rest of the staff.


    "We will take care of her. She has a fast metabolism, so she should be fine in a few minutes, and removing her from the Caf¨¦ at this point would only attract unwanted gossip from the civilians." The Dryad giggled, taking the Innu Envoy under her arm and swaying in time with the song.


    [Commander Keres Max. The remainder of your Vessels are ready and have been scrambled into readiness due to the current situation.] Mary Tarith informed him while they moved into a cheerful song about circuitry.


    Max looked over the data and found that their final four vessels were all ready and crewed, just waiting for his Command choice. They would arrive by Portal just before the decision about how to deal with the Volga was announced.


    That wasn''t much time to get a crew in order, but as mad as everyone seemed to be at aliens for attacking them when they were still sorting out the more annoying elements of their own species, it might not take much to get them to follow the n without objections.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They were receiving three former Tapani Cruisers and one Destroyer ss battleship, fully equipped for Drone warfare.


    That was a new spec, as far as Max knew. Instead of two Mecha Regiments and a Field Army, the Destroyer had fifty thousand Interceptors and Orbital Attack Craft apanying a single reinforced Mecha Regiment, with twice as many Super Heavy Mecha as usual.


    He felt a twinge of pity for the that was going to have to face that force. A few hundred or a thousand Drone Fighters were bad enough, but fifty thousand of them should provide air superiority even against a fully developed.


    "You look impressed." The Valkia remarked while Max read the details of the shipment.


    "Thest of our preordered vessels have finished refurbishment and have been awarded an emergency crew from among the allieds'' militaries. It looks like the Cruisers are mostly from Kepler, but the Destroyer is almost all Cygnus born. It will be a great improvement in the security of the Terminus Trading Company in the future, as well as our exploration and research abilities.


    Drones can explore anywhere without danger to life, so we can equip them for any purpose we want and send them into the most hostile of situations." Max replied proudly.


    "That is wonderful. I see the ship''s dimensions, and that is no insignificant addition to your fleet either. Congrattions on your purchase, Commander. Will your people be joining the battle against the Volga, then?" The Valkia Envoy asked.


    "Of course. It would be considered rude for us not to send at least half of our fleet assets to the battle. Terminus herself won''t be going anywhere near the battle, but most likely, I will personally join the attack fleet, to send a message of solidarity to our allies." Max shrugged.


    The Envoys seemed to be thinking for a second and then gave him a suspicious look. "That wouldn''t have anything to do with that supremely deadly Mecha that you pilot, would it? The Volga are a highly aggressive species, but I am not certain that they can equal such a weapon of war."


    "The Reavers consider a Titan ss Mecha to be on par with a Colony Ship or Destroyer, including its contingent of forces. The Volga certainly have that much, as we have engagedrger forces in battle already. I can assure you that we won''t deploy anything beyond reasonable intobat."


    The Envoys seemed to be even more doubtful about that statement. "And what of the capabilities to level cities? That isn''t the sort of thing that most armies would develop. Will the human forces refrain from the use of Orbital Lances in the uing battles?"


    Max didn''t even have to answer that one. The look on his face told them all that they needed to know. There was roughly zero chance that the human response wouldn''t include orbitalnces and Super Heavy mecha, likely at the same time, and perhaps while they deployed a jamming field to prevent portals from opening in their immediate vicinity.

 Chapter 613 613 Time To Move

    The newly refurbished ships arrived not long after, filled to the brim with Reavers spoiling for a fight. It wasmon knowledge that Terminus was the face of the Reavers for international negotiations, and being sent to them meant that they, too, would be representing the Reavers as a whole on a day when someone hadunched a full-scale assault to attempt to take control of five mineral and technology-richs.


    The attacks hadn''t been random. Thes were all very well-developed ones, with state-of-the-art development facilities on them, as well as ess to the very best of human technologies.


    If the Volga even managed to raid the mainframes of a few facilities on the, they could gain a huge amount of data about human industry, but it seemed that their production abilities werecking, so they needed the entires so that they could use the human factories to reproduce the goods for their own use.


    It had been a long time since a new threat had arrived to im human worlds, and in the minds of the Reavers, the Volga were on par with the Klem or the Narsians, unreasonable savages who could only be dealt with through the proper application of brute force.


    [Commander, your new vessels have arrived, awaiting your subordinate to begin our mission to defend the Reaver worlds.] The navigator in charge of the Destroyer, aptly named Coup de Grace, informed Max the moment that the portal closed behind them.


    "What does that ship''s name mean?" The Valkia asked as they didn''t have thenguage in their records.


    "Literally, Stroke of Mercy. Figuratively, it is the final blow given to put a wounded foe out of their misery, ending their life with mercy instead of suffering." Max exined.


    "Human ship names are always so morbid. I have learned that even Terminus means the end, giving it an odd double meaning, like it is either the final resting ce of its upants or that meeting it would signal the final day for its foes." The Innu replied, slowly regaining her senses as the overdose of Caffeine cleared out of her system.


    p¦Á§ád¦Á`no¦Í?1`§ão§®


    "I am afraid that it is time for me to leave you all to your own devices unless you wish to apany me for a few more minutes before it is time for me to take action.


    My Second in Command will be staying behind to takemand of Terminus in my absence, and I am absolutely certain that she will be overjoyed with the news when she returns to the ship."


    The Huntress burst intoughter at his words and made a symbol toward Max that seemed to be a form of warding off bad luck.


    "How does that system work? I am not fully versed in human mentality, but it seems like she would murder you in your sleep for leaving her behind when there is a battle to be fought on this scale." The big womanughed.


    "You would think so, but she secretly likes me. I let her hunt down the first ship, so she can wait aboard Terminus to see if there are any more threats while I apany the others to our designated target within the Volga worlds.


    I will be heading for their Capital city in order to negotiate a cessation of hostilities, so if you would like to send an observation vessel through the portal behind me, I am certain that the Hunters will learn many new things about human negotiation tactics." Max told her with a wink.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I think that could be entertaining. I will go with the Alliance delegation since I am certain that they won''t allow the situation to pass unsupervised. What sort of show should we expect?" The Huntress asked.


    "Give me a few minutes, and another update should be here with the final decision, as well as troop deployments," Max told her while he waited impatiently.


    [Terminus Trading Company is requested to send fifty percent of their military forces for thepliance of the Volga Capital. Mary Tarith and the Tarith Reavers will be in charge of the negotiation of official surrender terms, while the Terminus Trading Company will be assigned to the Captial City, with the Cygnus 401st, 402nd, and 418th Compliance Fleets, as well as the ck Dog Mercenary Company deploying to the to remove hostile forces.]


    "It looks like they are about to have a very bad day. A Cygnus Compliance Fleet is ten Cruisers and a Destroyer. Three such fleets are going to the Volga Capital, as well as a Mercenary force of unknown strength, as I was not privy to how much of their strength will be deployed alongside us." Max informed the Envoys.


    The Giant did a bit of calction in his mind and frowned.


    "Isn''t that a bit excessive?"


    "There is no such thing. The ultimate goal of defensive action is to end hostilities without losing anyone on your side. Just watch, and you will see how humans convince the universe not to test our patience." Max told him with a casual shrug.


    The shuttles with the former Battalion Commanders, now Ship Captains, were already on their way to their new homes, so Max sent the deployment orders, having the two Holy Truth built cathedral style Cruisers remain there with Terminus to ensure the safety of their guests and the, while he got ready to mount up Cleansing Light and join the attack force on its way to the portal.


    He definitely wasn''t running away before Nico made it back to the ship and found out that she was going to be staying behind.


    [All units, prepare to open portals to the Volga home system. Destination, one-half light-year from the star, in anticipation of defensive countermeasures. Cleansing Light will lead the charge. Coup de Grace, you are to deploy drones at the first sign of defensive fortifications. All other units prepare forarynding.] Max ordered as soon as he was inside his Mecha.


    The bootup of the targeting screens as his System came to life wasforting to Max, like he had been away from home for too long, but finally, it was time to stretch his legs again and show the universe that humanity deserved respect.

 Chapter 614 614 Worthy Adversary

    p¦Á§ád¦Á`no¦Í?1`§ão§® To say that Nico was unhappy with the situation was a severe understatement. She hadn''t gotten to interrogate anyone because the ship''s shields hadn''t been able to handle the Disruptors, and the attacks by the Volga on so many others had made the investigative work that she was doing mostly useless.


    The only redeeming factor was that she had found the sensor frequencies to find their vessels while they were trying to hide and had ryed it to the rest of the human forces, allowing them to see every Volga ship that hade to try to steal secrets orunch surprise attacks on human worlds.


    That had led to many of their ships being hit with Disruptors and disabled in an instant before they could even try to fight back, which delighted the locals, who would only have to do minor repairs to get their newly acquired ship functional.


    The humans didn''t have any agreements with the Volga after all, and after today, it seemed unlikely that they ever would.


    The portal opened in front of Max, and he flew his Mecha through the shimmering hole, arriving at the scene of dozens of small attack ships dropping out of warp to create a defensive formation around the.


    The rest of the Reavers'' forces arrived seconds behind him, all rtively nearby since they were following his lead for the attack, as Cleansing Light was the only Titan ss Mecha in the force.


    [Advance on my mark. Fire at will.] Max ordered and quickly pushed Cleansing Light into Warp and then dropped back to sub-light speeds just in front of the Volga defence fleet.


    The six Disruptors red to life while everyser on his armour picked out satellites and attack drones to st out of existence. Just like the other ships that the humans had encountered, the Volga interceptors were incapable of defending against the radiation-based energy weapons and went still and dead with a single shot.


    Max didn''t even have to slow as he punched a hole through the defences, surrounded by the fire of mighty Void Cannons and Fusion Torpedoes from the Cygnus fleet that had fallen in around him for the attack, getting past the defensive line so that they could target theary defences and begin to deploy thenders with their Mecha.


    The sight of a thousand main weapons from four Compliance Fleets firing all at once was more than a little impressive, and Max could hear the panic in the transmissions from the surface as the residents realized that someone hade for them and that their loyal defenders were crumbling in seconds under the fury of alien guns.


    The broadcasts from the surface didn''t seem to know anything at all about what was going on, but the Compliance Fleets had a broadcast ying on a loop, informing them to either take cover in underground shelters or surrender their weapons and turn themselves in for processing.


    The Volga government was trying to reassure them that it was all a mistake right up until the firstnders began to drop from the Cygnus ships. The angry streaks of fire as a half dozen Mecha Regiments madendfall at the same time were impossible to mistake for anything but an invasion, and then the Orbital Lances began to eliminate the military bases that Max had identified during his flight around the.


    An intense battle was beginning to form at the outskirts of the Capital, where his Mecha had just begun tond, so Max dropped out of orbit to join them, targeting the city''s shields with multiple strikes of the Orbital Lance levelbined attacks of Cleansing Light, overloading the shield generator and letting the Cruisers andnders reach their marks undamaged.


    The Volga didn''t use Mecha, at least not exactly. They used heavily armoured giant animals with a tank turret sort ofmand center on their back, bristling with weapons. While thebination of technology and local wildlife was a bit strange, he had to admit that it was effective.


    Their weapons were strong enough to take out the shields on a Crusader ss Mecha in only one or two shots, and the armour ting was surprisingly durable.


    Max lifted his physical shield and hefted his sword to charge ahead of the force, hacking the head off the first creature that he came across, sending it crashing to the ground, where he vaporized the upants of the carriage with a Disruptor st.


    The next rank charged forward with remote energy shields in front of them, blocking the majority of the iing fire, while the artillery fire of the Super Heavy Mecha levelled the city around them, clearing a space for them to have a proper fight, despite the densely packed venue, where the Volga lived in a hundred story tall fortress city.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Or, at least, it had been a fortress at one point. The walls were still visible in the distance, but the city had grown well beyond those limits over the years, and the residents who had ignored the initial warnings were running away from the advancing Mecha using every possible form of transport, from hover cars to gravity boards and roller skates.


    A horn sounded in front of him, and Max watched as arge section of ground opened up, revealing an enormous Mecha, clearly modelled after the designs of the Hunters but using more conventional materials and not their biomechanical technology.


    As it stood up from its storage bunker, a glowing golden light surrounded the Mecha, and it picked up a sword and shield, mimicking Cleansing Light.


    Finally, a real fight. Two Titan ss Mecha battling it out in a metropolitan area didn''t bode well for the locals, but if they had done a decent job of copying the design, it should be the first real challenge that he had faced since his new unit was built.


    The Mecha raced forward at Max, nearly matching his own speed and shing swords with Cleansing Light before being driven back by a kick from Max''s right foot, which was followed by a st of his Disruptor.


    The shields on this Mecha didn''t have the same vulnerability as the ships did, and it charged back at him again, firing forearm-mounted Ion Destroyers that Max let impact against the barrier over his shield while he returned fire and moved forward with a flurry of de attacks.


    For a few seconds, the Mecha held its own, parrying every strike, but each blow drove it back a bit further, and Max could see fluids leaking from overloaded systems when it failed to fully withstand his strikes.


    A triple st of his Disruptors made the Mecha''s shields flicker, and he drove his sword forward in a spearing strike, nearly removing an arm from the Mecha and leaving a deep furrow in its armour as the Pilot spun it away to save the armour.


    The Volga Mecha was on the defensive, and the Terminus forces were advancing all around their battle as the defenders fell all across the city. The Mecha were sting their way into the lines of soldiers and armoured vehicles, using the city itself as a defensive barricade, while the two Titans fought for supremacy.


    If either fell, so would their force. The Ion Destroyers of the Volga Titan would fell even the Super Heavy mecha of Max''s force in a single shot, and if Cleansing Light were left alone, Max would wipe out thousands of vehicles every second with his Laser fire, even without deploying the Disruptors.


    The two Titans locked des again, and the Volga defender twisted to the side, falling to one knee so that Max didn''t st it apart with his Disruptors, but that left it vulnerable to Max''s shield, and the te of armoured alloy crashed down on its knee, mangling the left leg of the Mecha in a scream of tearing metal.


    The Volga Mecha took to the air, trying to st at the Super Heavy units of the Terminus Trading Company force, but Max was quick to intercept, sacrificing his energy shields and taking some superficial damage to keep his units alive.


    The Volga unit took advantage of the distance he had created and went to warp right there in the atmosphere, tearing apart the air around them and levelling fifty city blocks from the distortion caused by the energy field.


    Max was quick to give chase, but he retreated to the upper atmosphere first, and the damaged Volga Mecha was long gone by the time he found its trail again.


    [Cleansing Light to all units. A Volga-controlled Titan ss Mecha has escaped from the battle, destination unknown. Keep alert for its arrival, and I will redeploy the instant that it is located.] Max informed the human fleet while he positioned Cleansing Light over the city, maximizing the utility of his targeting skills for his allies.

 Chapter 615 615 Breach The City

    The Terminus Trading Company forces advanced with little dy through the outer suburbs of the Capital city before the Volga could mount a proper defence, capturing half of the target within the first hour of the battle.


    But after that, progress ground to a halt. It seemed that the Volga did have Mecha, and a lot of them, but they had been stored within the inner ring of the city and hadn''t been deployed out to the perimeter with the rest of their forces. Instead, they had dug in and prepared to hold everything behind the original wall of the fortress city for as long as they could.


    The bombardment from the Super Heavy Mecha was taking a toll on them, though, as well as the city behind them, and sporadic bursts from the Cutters'' main weapons were keeping the city''s defensive barrier deactivated, leaving them exposed to the outside assault.


    Two hours into the assault, Mary Tarith sent awide broadcast demanding their surrender in the name of mercy to the civilians, who had no part in the crimes of their government.


    The response was to send a surface-to-orbit missile at her Destroyer.


    That was about all the proof that Max needed to determine that there could be no peaceful resolution to this situation, so he started making a n to take the government buildings in the middle of the Capital, with a minimum of destruction to the Fortress City itself.


    The floors were high enough to march Mecha through, even ones as tall as Cleansing Light, and the government buildings were at the deepest core of the fortress, behind every imaginable form of defence.


    He wasn''t alone in the city, though, and the Cygnus Compliance Fleets had sent attacking forces to three other sides of the perimeter, crushing the defenders and stopping at the defensive wall while they staged for a coordinated attack.


    Going by the numbers that the Alliance had provided, there were just over two hundred million people in this city, so eliminating it from orbit was out of the question. Not even the Hunters would be impressed by wiping out so many bystanders during their attack.


    So, Max made a more civilized n. The Fast Attack Crusaders would rush the wall and light everything within a city block on either side with the Fusion mers. Then the Super Heavy Mecha would bombard the defensive lines into pulp, with the assistance of Cleansing Light and six Cutters, so that the main force could rush past them into the fortress and begin capturing the vital points that they had identified.


    Power ry stations, water pumps, sanitation sites. They would all be disabled within the next few hours while the Mecha forces advanced, leaving the city in the dark and breaking the morale of the civilians to decrease the chances of an uprising once the city fell.


    [If we all have our orders, begin the assault. Cleansing Light will descend in one minute to breach the main gates and lead the push inside.] Maxmanded, and the Fast Attack Crusaders leaped into action, melting steel and concrete buildings to g and torching the defensive positions with atomic mes.


    This wasn''t the first time that the Volga had seen the Fusion mers, but it was the first time that they had directly been used on a defensive fortification, and the result was devastating even before the artillery began, with the sound of Thunder Guns filling the air and echoing down the hallways of the Captial City.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max waited as the defences crumbled and began his descent back to the surface.


    [Fifteen seconds until the main gates are breached. Terminus forces, get in position for the charge.] He ordered, taking aim at the hundred-meter-wide gates as he rushed back toward the surface.


    The Disruptors turned the gates to ash in a single shot, and Max rushed inside the city''s cavernous interior, followed by the men under Klinger''smand, who had managed to im the prime spot closest to the Titan ss Mecha.


    If anything moved near them, it was obliterated. If there was a heat signature that they thought might move, it was obliterated. Not even the small rodents of the city were spared the fury of the Mecha advance on the off chance that they had been weaponized.


    Two blocks in, the Volga had set up a defensive checkpoint, made up of what Max was certain were recently recruited, as he could see their bby hands shaking and terror in their eyes as the mighty form of Cleansing Light bore down on them.


    Barely a third even managed to get a shot off before theser array had wiped them out, leaving nothing intact of their position.


    [Gather here and spread out. I want every side street cleared. If they look like civilians, only shoot if they move. We''re not here to depopte the ce. They''re not Klem. But I don''t want any casualties. If they seem in any way hostile, take them out.] He ordered.


    That was good enough for the soldiers, and the force began to spread out through the city, meeting up with the Cygnus-based Mecha to form a rapidly closing on the bottom five floors of the city.


    Once they had taken the government buildings at the core, Max intended to spread his forces through the upper floors and clear the whole ce, but for now, his hope was that once the government fell, the rest of the city would be at least a bit morepliant, which would save lives on both sides.


    Max smiled to himself at the thought of what Nico would say if she could see him now, sparing possible enemies just because they were sentient beings. But little did he know that Nico had her own problems at the moment, and they were in a very familiar form.


    The Titan ss Mecha had been located. It hade for the city under Terminus, but the signals from the fleet couldn''t make it through the interference of the city and the battle to inform Max of the situation.

 Chapter 616 616 Unexpected Pilot

    The moment that the Titan ss Volga Mecha''s Warp signature had been spotted, Nico and the defenders of Terminus took action, unleashing a fuside of weapons fire at the iing threat, including a suicidal rush by a Drone Interceptor, which had directly hit the Mecha and copsed its warp bubble, sending it crashing to the surface.


    The first thing that the Pilot had done once he recovered was to shoot at the barrier around the city, but he was taking time to breach it, with his Ion Destroyers malfunctioning from the damage sustained in the most recent attack.


    Nico scrambled the Mecha of Terminus and took a cargo shuttle to the surface with Shattered Pride,nding between the Titan ss Mecha and the city.


    [Everyone, stand back. I don''t want any casualties.] She ordered as she exited the shuttle to engage the Volga Mecha.


    "Power down and exit your Mecha, and I can guarantee your life." She called out in an Alliance standard ent, giving the Pilot onest chance to surrender before things got messy.


    The Mecha raised its sword toward her and turned to engage the much smaller Super Heavy Mecha, which barely reached its torso.


    Nico banged her twin swords together in eptance of the challenge and engaged her thrusters, causing a sonic boom to ring through the city before the sound of deadly steel constructs colliding made ears ring in the closest spires.


    The Volga Pilot was injured from the crash, and his Mecha had been damaged by Max, to begin with. He really didn''t stand a chance against the fury of Shattered Pride, and within seconds, the right arm, and with it, the unit''s sword, had been lost.


    With that advantage gone, it was only a matter of time, and soon after, the second arm was lost, and then the power nt was severed from the controls as Nico swung her agile Mecha in behind and targeted the torso joints of the Titan ss Mecha.


    [Exit your vehicle now. I will not warn you again.] Nico informed the fallen Mecha and then forcefully opened the hatches by hacking the Mecha''s few remaining operational systems.


    With the hatches open, she paused and made a detailed scan of the interior of the Mecha. There were signs of movement but no signs of life or thermal differences. So, she waited to see what could possibly be interfering with her scans at this point, with the enemy Mecha so heavily damaged.


    After a very tense thirty seconds, a skeletal robotic figure, missing one limb and sparking with many additional points of damage, climbed from the cockpit and put its remaining hand in the air.


    [I surrender]


    The message was garbled and cut out twice in the short burst of binary data, but the intention was clear. This was the Pilot of the Titan ss Mecha, and they were done fighting.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Step away from the Mecha, and I will escort you to my shuttle for detainment and emergency triage to prevent cascading system failures.] Nico ordered.


    [Cascading failures deemed uneptable. Loyalty subroutines damaged. The ethical sub-processor is damaged and offline. The legal database is offline. Please advise. This unit does not wish to be inactive.] The Pilot responded, then stepped off the fallen Mecha and out onto the grass.


    [Just follow my instructions, and we will stabilize your systems and keep you online. Your previous orders proved ipatible with the actions taken by your programmers, so I will inform you of current events and provide assistance rebuilding your databases.] Nico informed the android.


    It was an incredible machine, purely artificial intelligence, but not intended to be self-aware. Perhaps it was on standby too long and had developed a rudimentary consciousness, or perhaps the Volga didn''t understand the potential of artificial intelligence. Either way, it was a thing of wonder to Nico, and it certainly would be to the Innu.


    Max was blissfully unaware of the fact that his second inmand had captured an alien android as he was leading the charge through the city, apanied by a retinue of ten Corvette ss mecha, which were small enough to get into the alleyways and hiding spots that Cleansing Light was unable to target.


    Enemy morale was already faltering, and Mary Tarith was broadcasting the charges against the Volga government, as well as short clips of the evidence against them, on every civilian frequency that the Volga had been using.


    It was on every television, every radio station, even ying over the city''s public address system, including orders to remain stationary on the floor if they were notbatants. Anyone who moved or attempted to engage the Compliance Forces would be deemed a threat and conspirator.


    It was working, the Volga defensive forces had been routed, and they were falling back toward the government buildings, not even stopping to put up a fight as they fled in front of the Mecha.


    [Let them run. Slow your pace to the point that they can just barely stay ahead of you, and the survivors should do most of our work for us.] Max ordered, getting an enthusiastic cheer from the Pilots in return.


    They knew the horrors of war well enough, and they had seen this scene y out dozens of times in the past few years. Once theary defence force realized that their leaders had attracted a force that was intent on eliminating them entirely, they were usually more than happy to do the work themselves and plead for leniency.


    The Alliance Envoys in orbit above the could only sigh in defeat as they saw how the battle was going. Most of the smaller cities had already fallen, the defence force was in disarray, and anything that they had which might have been capable of staging aeback had already taken an orbitalnce strike.


    In short, they had nothing left to give and no hope that they were on the right side of this battle. Their leaders had poked a monster that they could not contain, and now everyone had to pay the price for their decision.


    But what else could they do? If they didn''t resist, it looked like these Humans, as they called themselves, would take everything the Volga had in reparations and make the Eternal Volga Empire a mere subordinate of their species'' might. To the proud Volga, that was unthinkable. But a few hours ago, it was unthinkable that they would lose a battle such as this to a species they had never heard of, and now they feared that anything was possible.

 Chapter 617 617 The Capital Building

    Max and his unit were not alone in their advance through the city. However, they were the fastest moving. The Volga defence forces were utterly terrified of the Titan ss Mecha and had begun to flee before Max could fully engage their defences on that side of the fortress.


    He was alreadying up on the front steps of the Captial Building, with the Cygnus wings of the force only ten blocks away, and expected to arrive within a few minutes unless the Volga decided to mount ast-ditch defence.


    "Volga Government Forces. Surrender now and present yourselves for trial in the case of unprovoked war crimes against the Reaver Trade Group." Max demanded over the loudspeaker.


    "Why would we do that? The Volga are not subject to any alien court." Someone shouted back from one of the upper-floor windows.


    "You have two options. Either you get out here now, or I will use an Orbital Lance inside the city and turn your Capital Building to rubble, even with the pathetic shields that it has erected," Max replied, then waited to see what their response would be.


    The sounds of fighting and gunfire came out of the various open windows of the Captial Building for the next few minutes as the Cygnus forces surrounded the building, then finally fell silent, leaving everyone in suspense.


    [You wouldn''t really use an Orbital Lance inside a fortress, would you? Those things are meant to level dozens of kilometres at a time. The city would copse if you did.] One of the Cygnus Commanders asked.


    [How fast can you run? I can give your forces a head start if ites to that.] Max replied, channelling his inner Nico.


    When it came to negotiations, her method was significantly faster than the standard methods were, and they were deeply satisfying on a level that epting a surrender document never could be.


    Eventually, the sound of organized footsteps, most likely troops marching, sounded inside the building, and the front doors were pushed open. Two hundred Volga soldiers escorted twenty manacled and battered politicians out of the building and roughly pushed them to their knees in the front courtyard.


    "Do you have anything to say for yourselves before we bring you back for trial?" Max asked.


    "I will never ept this indignity. You have no right to try us. Kill me if you dare, cowards. I will be avenged." The leader of the politicians yelled back up at Cleansing Light.


    "Someone provide this man a weapon," Max ordered, making the Reavers chuckle over the radio while one of the Corvette ss Pilots from Max''s escort stepped forward and exited his cockpit.


    He took a few steps through the confused Volga forces and ced a pistol in the politician''s hand.


    "It is a human tradition. If you don''t wish to be taken alive for trial, you can take the coward''s way out and kill yourself." The Pilot informed him, then stood and waited for his decision.


    The Volga soldiers looked horrified at the option. What sort of enemy were they facing that would dly let their enemies die before the evidence against them could be proven in court? Or did they already have a high-ranking scapegoat, and the lives of these ones didn''t matter?<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If the lives of the Politicians didn''t matter to these Humans, what chance did the mere soldiers have of surviving? They had no idea what humanws were like, but they had learned in thest few minutes that the human forces had made an agreement with the Alliance, so maybe the soldiers could appeal to the authority of the Alliance for leniency since they hadn''tmitted any war crimes, they had only defended their home city.


    Max listened to everyone''s thoughts until a sh of light brightened the courtyard, and the lead politician chose not to go to trial.


    "Anyone else? No, not the soldiers. You are not on trial, so this doesn''t apply to you." Max rified since he could hear their panicked thoughts.


    None of the politicians took up the offer, so Max called for a transport toe to pick up the prisoners and escort them back to the staging area, where they could be transferred to a Lander or Cutter and be taken back up to one of the ships in orbit for trial.


    It was a tense few minutes before the shuttle came gliding down the main street, and even more so while the Politicians were being loaded, but after they were inside and the shuttle left, all eyes went to Cleansing Light.


    "The battle is over. Put down your weapons and report to the officers on the west side of the courtyard. They will maintain order while thest of the resistance in the city is sorted out, and then the will remain under martialw until such time as a surrender document is signed and verified." Max informed them.


    "Sir Cleansing Light, are we to take it that the Capital was thest city on the not under human upation?" A soldier with a half dozen stripes on his sleeve asked.


    "That is correct. As the only city on the with a significant political presence, it was thest to be pacified. The others surrendered as soon as their defence forces were routed." Max agreed.


    The soldier looked a bit ashamed but determined when he asked his next question.


    "What is likely to happen to us next? Will the Humans do like the Volga and eliminate the natives ofs that they capture?"


    Max considered that for a moment. That would be a real pain to actually do and hard on their public image. Most likely, they would demand reparations and take over the Volgas.


    "That is very unlikely. Most likely, the treaty will see the Volga give up their right to self-govern and pay reparations for their attack on the humans. If they agree to that, the burden on the average Volga will amount to nothing more than a tax increase. If they disagree, I can''t say what the final decision will be.


    I won''t be part of the negotiations since I am here with you all. The lead negotiator for the humans is a good friend of mine, and their oldest child is my second inmand, so I can say for sure that the deal is in experienced hands." Max assured the Volga soldier.


    The man wouldn''t be nearly as relieved if he had ever met either of the people Max was talking about. But for the moment, he was holding onto any hope he could.

 Chapter 618 618 The Volga Way

    The city was swept clear of the Volga defence forces for the next twenty hours. Everyone who was found to belong to the remains of a government agency or military force was brought to the yard of the Capital Building to wait and ensure that there were no ongoing hostilities in the city, and boredom set in for the Mecha forces in the Capital.


    Max learned over the course of that day that the Volga, for all of the arrogance of their leaders, were strictly Caste based in nature and were mostly incapable of disobeying their superiors, much like many insect species.


    That made their job easier, as the civilians recognized the humans as the leadership caste once thes had fallen, and most of the requested personnel willingly turned themselves in, while the citizenry turned in those who tried to resist their nature or the right of the humans to rule over them.


    From Max''s count, there were fewer than ten thousand civilian casualties out of over a hundred million in the city, mostly those who were in buildings near the edge of the city which were demolished in the fighting.


    With nothing to do but wait for others to make a decision, Max had a lot of time to think about what sort of evolutionary path and political leadership might have led to such an intriguing species. A strictly caste-based species normally wouldn''t attempt to take over others, as they couldn''t fit into the hierarchy, but the Volga did.


    He had used his hacking skills and the assistance of a Volga Sergeant, who had asked him during the initial conflict about their likely future, to obtain most of the historical data that the species possessed, but he hadn''t had time to make sense of it yet.


    He had sent a copy to Mary Tarith, though she had the Alliance Envoys with her as advisors for the negotiation and likely wouldn''t need it.


    The city lights had gone from dim to bright again, marking morning for those in interior areas which didn''t get much natural light when the final decree was passed down.


    [As of this moment, the Command Caste of the Volga has surrendered to the Humans, represented by the Reaver Trade Group.


    Governance of the Volgas has been assigned to Alliance arbiters, which will govern and collect reparations on behalf of the Humans to prevent the genocide of the Volga people.


    The Eternal Volga Empire is now part of the Reaver Trade Group inw and fact, and the Command Caste has agreed to give up their hereditary positions as the head of Volga society. ordingly, they will not be returning to the Volgas, and all correspondence for them may be directed to the Alliance arbiters who will make up the region''s new government.


    Please find attached the full details of the agreement.]


    The document was over a thousand pages long and no doubt drafted by the Giants on the Alliance legal team to be foolproof and without loopholes to get out of their obligations, but Max had one serious question about how this agreement came to be. He had dealt with the Volga Politicians, and he couldn''t see any way that they would have epted these terms.


    [How did you get them to agree to that? Did someone use a System Function to convince them that we were the superior ruling Caste of their species or something?] Max asked Mary Tarith.


    [Of course not. I mean, we tried, but their minds couldn''t ept it. When my husband activated the Talent to convince them that we were rightfully in charge so that we could smooth over the negotiations, they went insane and started attacking everyone.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Currently, there are only four surviving members of the Command Caste, and they have been relocated to an Alliance vessel for recovery from mental trauma.]


    That was interesting news. Nobody ever talked about the sort of skills that Father Tarith had, and the man himself was basically a ghost, appearing and disappearing at random and without exnation. Mind control skills were fairly heavily regted within Kepler back when it was a cohesive Empire, but the problem had always been proving that they had been used.


    If he had a skill that convinced people that his words were the truth, coupled with whatever he used to hide his presence, it was no wonder that Mary Tarith had such an easy time convincing everyone to put her in charge of everything.


    System Functions weren''t infallible, though, and if she wasn''t actually good at it, his suggestions wouldn''tst long, and she would have been ousted from leadership long ago, but theirbination of capabilities seemed to be unstoppable once they got going.


    [All is well that ends well, I suppose. The Volga poption here on the seems to be quite agreeable once you get past the racial superiorityplex. Showing up in their front yard with a Titan ss Mecha did a pretty good job of that for us here in the Capital, so I don''t think that we will have to be too hard on them. Just collect some taxes and see what sort of useful technology they have that isn''t giarized Alliance tech.] Max agreed.


    [About that. I don''t think that we are going to get much usable tech from them. It''s all giarized. Most of it is a direct ripoff of foreign patents, and the ones we interrogated knew virtually nothing about Volga development efforts other than the ships that they sent to analyze foreign tech.] Mary responded.


    [I will ask around. The people here don''t have much reason to lie to me.]


    Max equipped his helmet and climbed out of Cleansing Light to talk to the surviving officers of the Capital defence force.


    "Good morning, gentlemen. The Arbiters and the negotiation team in orbit had a few questions that the former leaders couldn''t or wouldn''t answer for us. We wanted to know about the research and development teams that the is most proud of, but we didn''t understand their answers very well." Max greeted a group of Sergeants and junior officers at the edge of the prisoner camp.


    "Oh, the ships. You should see them. They are quite impressive. State-of-the-art analysis technology and a cloaking field that not even the Alliance can easily see through." One of the officers answered.


    "Yes, they are quite impressive. But what about here on the? What sort of unique advancements do you produce just from the Volga''s ingenuity?" Max asked.


    "We don''t really do that here. The Volga assimte. Like Jordie, we bring things that are the most useful into our fold and assign them their ce." The officer answered, but his thoughts said that he wasn''t entirely sure what Max meant by ingenuity.


    "Jordie was assimted?" Max asked, just as confused as the officer was.


    "Yes. Most of our ancestors were, but Jordie is new. He was born as a Be, but with the appropriate gic treatment, he has be a wonderful Volga."

 Chapter 619 619 Infectious Humanity

    That was a shocking bit of news to both Max and the rest of the Reaver forces who were listening in. There was no mention of that anywhere in the information that they had received from the Alliance, but the Volga had mentioned it so casually as if everyone should know.


    It would exin a lot about Volga negotiations as well. If they were used to assimting enemy leaders into their species, or at least enough that they were partially under Volga control, then they only had toe back every few years until whatever delivery method they were using had worked, and they were able to take control of the leaders of any race that opposed them.


    "It is quite an honour to be chosen to be Volga, I assume? Might I ask, what is his rank within the Volga society? Humans don''t use the same system, so it would help us a lot if you exined." Max suggested to the Sergeant.


    "Oh, he''s transformed, so he holds that rank. Until they prove themselves, new Volga are always at the bottom caste, but they can get a lot of respect for their actions since everyone knows that the designation isn''t permanent and their children will most likely be born into a higher Caste." The Sergeant answered.


    "So, just their children will advance, or do the transformed Volga advance in rank as well?" Max asked, just to rify.


    "They advance through their children. Whatever rank their children get is assigned to them as well. Jordie will most likely be of the management Caste once his son is old enough to be sorted. He is growing up very well, and it is a good sign for Jordie''s bloodline.


    I think that the next thing you will ask is if that applies to all of us, and yes. That is how we work. If we raise a failure, we will be deemed failures. If we raise a genius, we will be promoted alongside them as a reward for raising the next generation. The only ones who can''t fall out of their rank are the Command Caste."


    "That is very valuable information. Thank you for your assistance." Max congratted him, and the Sergeant''s arms turned a sickly green, which the Volga''s thoughts identified as their species equivalent of beaming with pride. If they were blushing with embarrassment, it would be their legs that changed.


    Max had learned that the trait wasmon in various slug and snail species as a form of camouge response, but it looked fairly odd on the bby humanoid forms of the Volga.


    Max took the time to look through their ancient history and found that he had been partially correct about their lineage. They came from a species of slug, which all had defined roles. But when one of the Command Caste bloodlines developed the ability to mutate other species by touch, the species began to evolve due to the influx of foreign knowledge and gics that weren''t fully transformed.


    [Mary, check this data. I have found out why the Volga Envoy was so bad at negotiating. They would usually mutate and influence the mind of those they negotiated with through contact and make important figures from other species into fellow Volga or subordinates to their leaders. They can do it faster with injections as well, and I''ve met a transformed Volga among the prisoners. The rest of the data on how their ranks are inherited is in this info package I''m sending you.]


    The negotiations might be over for now, but it was valuable information to have, and if they didn''t want the Arbiters who were sent from the Alliance to slowly be members of the Volga, it was likely imperative that they take precautions against being influenced.


    It took a few minutes before Mary answered, but her message definitely had an annoyed tone when it arrived on Max''s screen.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Standard Alliance agreement Section 419, subsection 4 Paragraph 3: Regarding the dissemination of military secrets to third parties. In that section, it details that both the humans and the Alliance are prohibited from providing information on the military secrets or strength possessed by each other to third parties.


    They have a simr deal with the Volga, so just like they didn''t warn the Volga that they would all die if they got into an actual war with the Humans, they didn''t warn us that contact with the upper Caste Volga would transform most species in a matter of minutes.


    It seems that we are immune to the process, though, as none of the staff are showing signs of influence or infection. The Alliance forces are all vinated against the effect, as it is considered a contagious disease by their standards.]


    Max spent a few moments contemting the implications of that in future interactions with non-Alliance species before another message came from the Alliance vessel directly.


    [All human units, please refrain from direct physical contact with Volga, especially upper Caste Volga. Updated information from our medical team has determined that humans carry a dominant gic strain that can rapidly mutate the Volga in a deleterious manner.]


    Oh, that was rich. The species that turned everyone else into themselves couldn''t deal with humanity, and it was making them sick.


    The announcement caused immediate panic among the prisoners, as the humans had been cooking for them all day, and the humans provided the shelters that they were in. None of them had been sick yet, and the humans were in augmentic armour, but that didn''t mean that none of them would be sick, and they didn''t know what the symptoms could be.


    Max requested an boration and got back a rather long gic survey, but the summary suggested that the higher Caste Volga devolved to a vegetative state for a matter of hours before losing the Caste markers that they inherited or had injected into themselves if they were changed in caste by a child''s position.


    That would cause the other Volga to no longer recognize them since the markers were individual. The medics described it as the gic equivalent of giving them a doll mask and scent blocker. Not even their family could tell who they were.


    "Listen up, everyone. The primary symptom is bing unable for others to recognize you. It is not life-threatening, but if you see someone you can''t identify, please send them to talk to one of the officers, who will be provided with data on the effects of the assimtion of human gic material." Max called out to the crowd.


    There were many sighs of relief, and most of the Volga sat back down to pass the time as they were before.


    "I don''t think any of us are high enough in rank to have that ability, so there isn''t much to worry about. But if there were an infiltrator, we would know fairly quickly since nobody here is a stranger to those around them." The Sergeant who had been chosen as spokesperson informed him with a relieved smile.

 Chapter 620 620 Arbiters Arrive

    It was another eighteen hours before the Alliance assigned Arbiters, who would be in charge of the now that the Command Caste had been eliminated from Volga society, arrived to begin the task of rebuilding government functions.


    "Greetings, Commander Keres Max. I am informed that you are in charge of the troops in this theatre of war. With these official orders, you have permission to stand down, and we will take over responsibility on your behalf." The Arbiter greeted him before handing over a data tablet with detailed orders.


    The thought briefly urred to Max that they could make a killing making those things since the Alliance used them for everything, and official orders like this and other political negotiations used a brand new one every time for data security reasons. He would have to discuss it with the Tech Nomads at some point. The Human version was much more intuitive to use than the Alliance version, which had been standardized for centuries.


    "Thank you, Arbiter. I will pass a final message to the civilians, informing them of your arrival and asking for their best behaviour. I believe that it will help you in your work." Max agreed.


    The lead Arbiter, a Myceloid man nearly three meters tall and covered in a strange, dimpled hide that shimmered under the light, seemed rather dubious that such a thing was necessary or even beneficial, but Max quickly tapped into the city''s broadcast system and removed his helmet to address the people of the Volga Capital.


    [Citizens of the Capital, greetings. As many of you know already, I am Commander Keres Max, the leader of the human military forces on this. With the agreement between our peopleplete, an Arbiter from the Alliance hase to manageary affairs on our behalf. I request that you treat them with all due respect and recognize their authority.


    Should there be an issue with their governance, the contact information for my gship has been provided to your military leadership, who will vet anyints and determine if they need to be forwarded for further consideration.


    Again, I request that you all treat the Arbiter as you would your own leader and trust that they will be working in the best interests of everyone while they enforce the terms of the surrender agreement signed by the former leaders.


    Thank You, and may your days be peaceful.]


    The apuse from the detainees, as well as the civilians in nearby buildings, echoed through the city, and the Arbiter gave Max an impressed look before turning to the Capital building.


    "How much damage did it take during the fighting? Will we be able to continue working here?" He asked.


    "Sergeant, please fill the new Arbiter in on the damages sustained by the building and its records during the apprehension of the politicians." Max requested, and the helpful spokesperson came forward with a paper notepad in his hand.


    He had itemized the damages by room and hallway on every floor of the building, so it only took a few minutes to go through everything and determine that it only needed a good cleaning to be back to eighty percent effective and a few more days of verifying documents in the digital system to determine how much more could be directly transferred.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Tell me, Commander Keres. How did you take a Capital City with so few casualties?" The Arbiter asked.


    "Overwhelming force. Once we breached the outer defences and crushed the city''s shields, it was only a matter of time before the city fell. It is a bit of a shame that the Titan ss Mecha that was guarding the city escaped, but I am sure that we will get around to taking care of that matter eventually." Max sighed.


    "Oh, did the message not reach you here? It went to the location of your mothership, where it was knocked out of warp by Interceptor Drones and disabled by your second inmand. The pilot of the Mecha is now aboard Terminus, in the custody of your research and development team." The Arbiter informed him.


    "The Research and Development team? I guess I will find out the details once I get back home. But for now, the city is yours, and I do hope that you have a pleasant time with it. There is ack of local government officials, but the government employees are almost all gathered here in the courtyard, with only a few sent for medical attention.


    It seemed prudent to gather all of those who were important to the continued operation of the city into one spot, both for the aftermath of the battle and in case things ground to a stalemate. Without these people, the city would have a very hard time continuing to operate in a siege situation."


    The Arbiter looked far more impressed than Max would prefer, like he was startled that a human had thought of all that, but his thoughts were on the standardbat procedures, how they might have done things differently, and the likely oues of the various standardized tactics.


    More and more Alliance workers showed up over the next hour, stabilizing the city''s infrastructure, while reports came in of others all over the taking over for the former leaders. Unlike the Capital City, most of the others had taken heavy damage when the shields went down, but none were too heavy, as the cities had surrendered in short order once they realized that things weren''t going to go well for them if they continued to fight.


    Max read the thoughts of the various Alliance officials that had been reassigned to work here and didn''t find any resentment or other negative feelings about the matter, only optimism that they could improve things on this posting and get themselves a promotion back home after their tour of duty was finished.


    They also appreciated the condition that the was in and had exchanged arge number of gloating messages with friends assigned to others, which had suffered under less effective tactics. For example, the 805th Compliance Fleet had decided that the Orbital Bombing of their assigned to soften it up before the Mechanding was the best way forward, and the vast majority of the was now rubble, with hundreds of millions dead.


    The attack had been a blitz, with millions of bombs in motion at once, so by the time they realized that the Volga couldn''t defend themselves, it was already toote to stop the bombardment.


    So, the Arbiters who had been sent there had a major rebuilding effort ahead of them in every single city on the and a much more hostile civilian poption to deal with.


    The only saving grace was that they were the only ones to go for a full-scale bombing without a test attack, so over a hundred others had suffered only minimal damages, considering the situation.

 Chapter 621 621 Alliance Gossip

    Once the news started to spread among the trading vessels and the variouspanies that had pending orders from the Volga, the entire Alliance datawork was flooded with spection and gossip about humans.


    They had only recently been recognized as an advanced species and were fast-tracked to a deal with the Alliance, but just yesterday, without any sort of warning, they had taken offence to something that the Volga had done and, in a single day, crushed the entire species.


    It was unthinkable. Not even the Hunters were known to crush nations in a day. The Reavers knew full well that the Hunters were even more capable of doing it than they were, but they had learned long ago that it was more trouble than it was worth.


    They didn''t want to hold and govern other species''s. They didn''t even want to govern their owns, but they hadn''t found anyone worthy of doing it for them. They just wanted to go hunting.


    And then, there was the video feed of the event. On somes, thousands ofnding craft wereunched at once, dispersing hundreds of thousands of Mecha onto the surface, all with coordinated orders to take the cities and industrial areas first. On others, destructive ship-mounted weapons or a wave of bombings that turned an entire into rubble were chosen.


    There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to whats got what treatment, and the predominant spection among the Allianceizens was that it was not strategic but personal. They believed that certain members of the Volga leadership had so offended the humans that their entire homeworlds were wiped out while others were almostpletely spared.


    One world, best known for its music editing and beat production, had fallen without a single casualty. The humans hadnded on the and simply demanded control, and for some reason, the Volga had given it to them. They gave the humans an entire without even trying to fight back.


    If the attacks hadn''t happened all at once, it would have been believable that they had heard of the events on other Volga worlds, but the timeline didn''t work out, and it was causing spection that the Music Moguls had been in on it from the start, and had been unwilling to go along with whatever had so angered the humans.


    Max was watching the chaos from his office with Nico, who thought it was all hrious, but he couldn''t properly enjoy the situation because of one simple message.


    [As interspecies Liaison to the Alliance, the Reaver Trade Group requests that the Terminus Trading Company begins immediate damage control to the reputation of the human species within Alliance Media.]


    "What should we do to clear the situation up? You know the orders as well as I do, and you''ve got a better grasp on the social media situation, thanks to your daily streams with the Tech Nomads." Max demanded of his cyborg partner.


    "I say we let them stew for a few more days, then put out a cryptic message about the benefits of civilized behaviour and leave it at that for another week. It will give everyone the impression that it''s not good to mess with humanity, and in a way, that fulfils our directive." She suggested.


    "Vetoed. No letting the reputation as warmongers set into the public consciousness."


    Nico actually thought about it for a while this time, then shrugged her shoulders.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I''m not sure that they would actually believe anything we say at this point. The victory over the Volga was simply too one-sided. We look like the universe''s biggest bullies right now, and having the Alliance take over their entire nation on our behalf doesn''t really do anything to help that impression, even if it was necessary after the Volga leadership Caste copsed."


    Max sighed and rubbed his temples to stave off an impending headache. That was the conclusion that he hade to as well, but there had to be something he could do. Maybe if he broadcasted the trials, it would help. The Alliance judged them as part of the determination of reparations to be made, so there was ayer of officiality to them.


    "Make up an edited clip of the trials, showing the juiciest bits of the Corporate Espionage and unprovoked military action charges. Keep it under two minutes, and let me see it before we attach it to an official statement letting the Alliance civilians know what was going on.


    If you do it tactfully, you can even use your idea for a slightly cryptic message about the benefits of civilized behaviour. Make it look like we taught them a long overdue lesson about not provoking other nations using military force." Max decided.


    That was better than doing nothing and letting the data make up whatever it wanted.


    It only took Nico a few minutes to create a polished and professional press release, with clips of the Volga attacks on various human worlds, quotes from the Alliance observers at the trials, and a slick speech stating that the human species would not be victims of warmongers, no matter how distant their home worlds were.


    It was much better than he had expected, so he had her put it up right away through the Terminus Trading Company page.


    In the course of an hour, it got billions of views, and the whole direction of the conversation changed. No longer did the public view the humans as the aggressors but as a highly militant species that the Volga had made a terrible mistake in attacking.


    The fact that they had lost control of their Empire was only natural, given this new evidence. They had attacked a species that they had no hope of winning against, and it was just a shame that they had fallen so fast that negotiations to limit the extent of the war were futile.


    The Volga became the punchline to a huge number of bad jokes about biting off more than you could chew and became the unofficial spokesperson for being humiliated in a fight.


    "They got beat like the Volga." Even made its way into an official sports broadcast after the Dishkal National team got beat 396 to 4 in a hoops tournament match.


    Max actually felt bad for them. They used to be a somewhat respected trading partner, but now they were a bad joke, respected only for the quality of the products that they turned out and their efficiency. It had gotten so bad in manypanies that they had to promote non-Volga staff members to deal with clients because the Volga were getting bullied and talked over by their customers.


    Losing a war didn''t make them any worse as businesspeople, and Max was certain that they would get their revenge sooner orter, but for now, the Volga wereying low and letting the worst of the bad publicity blow over before they started showing up in public again.

 Chapter 622 622 Expansion Is Imminent

    The news of the war between the Humans and the Volga didn''t only attract the attention of the Alliance and the Hunters. It also brought the humans to the attention of many other species in more distant regions of the universe, who were more than a little intrigued by what sort of unconventional warfare the humans had thought of to ovee a civilized enemy in such a short timeframe.


    They had the general details, and the humans had enough military forces that they could invade a hundreds at a time, but the rest of the details were sketchy due to the varied tactics.


    The one thing that every species was sure of was that they used abat suit as the Hunters did, in varying sizes based on their target, and that made them a very scary opponent.


    Attacking a normally meant sending a fleet to fight their fleet, and whoever won would take the. But invading the surface meant that your enemy had to choose betweenpletely destroying their own to dig you out or fighting and war.


    By the standards of most species, it was barbaric, inefficient, andpletely beyond rational thought. Attacking the surface meant that you might harm or kill the civilians instead of iming them as a prize. Worse, you might destroy valuable factories and inventories of goods. But, like the Hunters, they didn''t seem to care about that at all. They were more interested in teaching the enemy a lesson in prudence.


    That was the primary reason nobody would attack the Hunters. Not because they didn''t think that they might have a chance to win a fleet battle, the Hunter fleets were rtively small, and they could be overwhelmed individually by many small nations without issue.


    But if you did that, the Hunters would show up on your, and once that happened, all bets were off.


    An enemy was an enemy, and there were no nonbatants when the Hunters went to war, only game and prey, and the distinction meant very little to the species who had been designated as either one.


    Curiosity did send a lot of those species looking through the Alliance records on the humans and reviewing the footage that was avable of the battle against the Volga so that the other species could form a proper opinion of how they should interact with this new species in the future.


    There was a surprising amount of data about the species and the Gxy that they were in, given the recent date of contact. But everything that the aliens read was more and more disturbing. Killer insects, genocidal giants, killer robots, vampiric humanoids with mind control abilities. The entire Gxy was a ss A Hazardous nightmare, and these humans still considered their home gxy safe and interesting enough to be worthy of holding guided tours.


    The Alliance Envoys were closely monitoring the situation as thest of the human forces retreated back home with a collection of new toys to modify and experiment on, as well as thousands of new Alliance Observers sent to ensure that the humans weren''t emting the Volga and just giarizing Alliance copyrights.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    At first, the humans were deeply insulted by the implications. A Reaver does not steal. They might murder you and take what you left behind, but they do not steal. But once the Observers exined that it was more of an oversight board, like the Reavers'' own Rights Council, they were much more agreeable to the notion.


    The fact that most of the observers were volunteers from the Innu species who wanted to learn more about the obsolete and antiquated human technologies that didn''t make it into the live streams from Terminus also helped things move smoothly.


    Humans and Innu had a natural affinity for each other, especially the scientists. Once they got to talking about tech developments, everything turned theoretical, and they all but forgot that they were of different species.


    Nico, for one, thought that it was hrious. She had her own crew of Tech Nomads, and now nearly every Reaver Company had at least one such Innu with their crew. Sure, the Innu was working for the Alliance, but that only meant that she wouldn''t help them vite Alliancews. It didn''t mean that she wouldn''t help give them ideas on how to NOT vite Alliancew and turn the experiment that they were running into somethingpletely new.


    The rapid assimtion of Innu into human military vessels, as most alien species considered every single human ship, was a concerning development. The most tech-adept species was teaming up with one of the most violent and innovative upstarts in thest few millennia, and there was nothing that could really be done to stop them.


    So, after finding out that Terminus Trading Company was the designated Envoys of the species to the Alliance, the independent species beyond the Alliance borders started making ns to get someone to that ship and start learning more.


    Those that found out that there was an actual Alliance redited multi-species Academy on the ship were overjoyed. Sending children to Alliance schools was an important step in building rtionships between the political leadership of the next generations. Being able to do it on a third-party location, without the intense oversight of Alliance officials, meant that they could send students whose families wished to avoid such intense scrutiny of their dealings and businesses.


    What it meant for Max was a huge increase in demand for space aboard Terminus. Space that they were quickly running out of, despite having doubled the size of the Cruise Ship area in recent months and gaining so many more ships for their fleet. It was a strange feeling, being out of room aboard Terminus, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and guests under his authority, but that was the state that they were in.


    He needed a n. One that would expand the space aboard Terminus to amodate all of the demands that were ced upon the official envoys of the Human Species to the Alliance, and one that wouldn''t leave him locked in his office doing paperwork all day.


    In short, he was working on a n to make himself a figurehead while he designated bureaucrats underneath himself to do all of the actual work. If he did it right, he might even get to spend more time in his Mecha for a change.

 Chapter 623 623 Brainstorming

    Once he knew what he wanted to do, Max sent a message to Nico and the Ship Commanders, as well as Major Miller, instructing them to meet him in his office for a brainstorming session on the future direction of the Terminus Trading Company.


    Other than Major Miller, who handled most of their logistics, as well as the First Battalion, they were all in charge of ships, and by Reaver standards, that gave them a say in all major decisions. It wasn''t enough to override an order by the Commander, but if you wanted to keep your Company organized and cohesive, it was best to listen to what your Sub Commanders had to say.


    It wouldn''t take long to gather, with all the ships in the same Star System, recovering supplies and repairing Mecha after the battle, so Max hurried to put together some suggestions in case his subordinates drew a nk on what they really wanted from the future.


    Max knew that most of them would be happy floating around and trading a few goods here and there to keep their pockets lined, but he had to think on a bit grander scale than that.


    He had just jotted down a few notes when the buzzer to his door rang for the first time, and Commander Klinger walked in, apanied by a small brte woman, who Max assumed was either his assistant or second in Command. He didn''t recognize her, so she must havee to them with the new ship, and it would be the perfect opportunity for her to meet the leadership of the Terminus Trading Company.


    "Commander, meet Kira. Battalion Commander of my Mecha forces and my interim Second in Command. I have decided to hold apetition for it in one week to give the other officers who wanted the position a chance to prove themselves and establish a proper hierarchy among the crew." Klinger exined.


    "Not a bad idea. Good to meet you, Kira, and I wish you the best of luck in thepetition." Max greeted her.


    "Thank you, Commander, but I won''t need it. There isn''t any category that they can defeat me in." She quipped back with a smile.


    "I like her already. But it looks like most of the others are here, so let me send Nico a message to see where she has gotten to." Max informed the room.


    There were a few snorts of amusement at the fact that Nico was missing again, though everyone knew where she would be: somewhere in the developmentbs, ignoring her messages.


    She arrived only a few minutester, apanied by a teenage Innu girl that none of the officers recognized.


    "Get yourself an assistant? Or just got sick of being the short one and gene-modified one of the Tech Nomads to be smaller?" Klinger asked.


    "This is Nicole, chosen because I could remember her name. She is the youngest sister of one of our researchers and was avable to carry data tes for me today." Nico exined as if that made any sense at all.


    The little girl looked to be in awe of the proceedings, so Max searched through her thoughts, only to find that she had met Nico half a dozen times already, and she really was the only one of her siblings whose name Nico could remember.


    The rest were named after obscure Innu researchers, but as her name was Nicole, she was easy for the Cyborg to remember.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It had made them somewhat good friends, as Nico was willing to indulge the girl''s interest in human technology, as well as show her where to get the good sweets and ice cream on board Terminus.


    "Sorry that I amte, but I needed some time to make a proper presentation. I have the most wonderful n, and I think that you all could appreciate it." Nico exined, then took one of the data tes from her assistant and ced it on the holographic projector in the middle of the table.


    "You know, those things hold multiple files." Max pointed out after noticing that the girl was still holding a half dozen tablets in her arms.


    "But then I would have to transfer data between them, and that''s just a hassle. My assistant works for snacks, which is a much better proposition than spending the time to transfer all of my files to one tablet." She exined.


    If Max''s calctions were right, it would take her roughly two and a half seconds to transfer all the data from those tablets to the one she was carrying due to the processor limitations, but it wasn''t worth arguing over. Everyone else had brought an assistant with them, so he might as well allow hers, even if the little Innu wasn''t security vetted.


    Nico cleared her throat, gathering everyone''s attention back to professional matters. "Alright, I will start with my idea, the expansion of the Terminus Trading Company through a central hub. We have the technology and vessels to run errands all over the Gxy and beyond, and soon enough, we will be spread out on various missions while the core group from Terminus attends to the official functions of trade and diplomacy.


    But that is no longer viable on Terminus herself. The ship has taken on a life of its own, and making it a target for hostile forces is an uneptable risk. So, I propose to keep Terminus as an observer, following the main force around, with asional side trips for the tourists and students, while the business side of our operation is moved to a secondary vessel.


    To that end, I present to you the initial design ns for our own mobile operations station, tentatively named the Absolution. Would you like a moment to admire her beauty, or should I start right in on the details?"


    She was definitely going to have to give them a moment. Nico''s idea of a mobile operations center was possibly the most insane space-faring vessel that Max had ever seen. While it wasn''t as immense as the thousand-kilometre sphere of the Alliance World Ships, it was no less impressive simply due to its design.


    It was like nothing that he would have ever expected to see from Nico, an elegant hull with the flowing line of an exterior docking ring all down her main body''s length, serving the secondary purpose of exterior armour to protect docked ships, withrge oval pods seemingly inted out of the ship, some made of transparent materials and filled with forests, and others opaque, in the same gold as the ship''s hull.


    If it weren''t for the pods, it would have looked a lot like the Cathedral ships, with a beaked ram prow and long body, ending in a pair of rear wings that would never be used in an atmosphere, but with the domes added, and some smooth spires extending from the center of the main hull, just in front of the point where it expanded at the back, gaining dozens of kilometres of extra height, it had apletely alien and organic look to it.


    Honestly, it looked like she had taken one of the demonic designs that she usually came up with and put in the effort to make it smooth and pretty, but somehow it really worked.


    "As you can see, there are two hundred docking points, eachrge enough for a standard Cruiser, plus another tenrge enough for Battleships, and a special ce in the center of the lower hull for Terminus.


    Absolution is nine hundred kilometres long, with an intended poption of ten million, and a military force set toprise one hundred standard Mecha Regiments, plus a significant drone force of interceptors and, of course, the four hundred Cutters to deploy the Mecha." She dered proudly, then began to go into details of the design.

 Chapter 624 624 Some Things Are Not Possible

    "That is all well and good, but where would you ever get ten million residents from, and where will you find a hundred Mecha Regiments? In case you had forgotten, a hundred thousand trained pilots are more than most nations could boast, and you n to put them all on one ship. One veryrge ship.


    Not to mention the cost andplexity of actually building such a thing and the four hundred Cutters you will need to staff to deploy the ship''s defensive force. Or the millions of support staff to keep the whole thing running. Are you going to depopte a colony somewhere?" Major Miller''s rant predictably focused on the logistics of the matter, but he had a point.


    You couldn''t just make millions of people appear and join your Company. There simply weren''t enough Reavers for the purpose, and most of them had already been imed.


    The fact that Mary Tarith had found enough workers and Pilots for the four ships that they had just received was amazing enough, but this was too far.


    "That''s the genius part. We don''t have to. The Volga nation was kind enough to send me a unique pilot. An android powered by rudimentary artificial intelligence and capable enough not to embarrass himself in a Titan ss Mecha.


    Afterpleting the analysis of his design, I have determined that we can create an entirely synthetic fighting force and use the Commander''s ability to provide targeted firing solutions to his allies to improve their skills. Then we only need to staff the ship, but we don''t have to get it anywhere near full. If we recruit a skeleton crew from across the human nations and the Alliance to keep the ce up and to run basic functions, we will attract the rest of the upants on our own.


    Everyone wants to know where we are going, what we are up to, and how we are doing it. So, if we drop this bombshell on them, they will be busy for years trying to decipher what we did, and by then, we will have our residents settled in and happy in their new homes.


    We can establish research and developmentpanies right there on the operations base, along with any other productionpanies that we want. They will make money, producing unique human products, and that will draw workers to us to fill the ship.


    It might be a bit empty at first, but I know that if I send out a message that we are recruiting, I will get a lot of responses for everything from maintenance to product testing and legal work."


    Max thought about her proposal for a while and then shook his head.


    "We need more humans on the ship. It''s the Terminus Trading Company, representative of the Reavers and, through them, humanity. We can''t fill the entire ship with random Alliance workers to exploit for their unique ideas. We need to keep the vessel mostly human to give the proper impression to visitors that humanity is an independent and powerful species, not a subordinate of the Alliance that is being used to do their dirty work." Max reminded her.


    "I agree with the Commander. We need to keep the ship mostly human for the sake of appearances. They don''t need to be Reavers, and if you''re using Android Pilots for the mecha, they don''t need to have a system, but we need to remind everyone that we meet that we are the representatives of humanity." DiFranco announced.


    Everyone else in the room seemed to agree with the sentiment, even the little Innu girl, so Nico began to formte a new idea.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Klinger was the first to suggest a solution. "Once it is built, we can go to various humans. I am thinking of hive worlds and holding job fairs. If we grab a hundred thousand from ten different worlds, we can create a nice varied crew and not deplete any''s poption too much.


    You know how it is on the Hive Worlds. They''ve usually got poptions upward of eighty billion. They won''t even notice that we were there. In fact, we could go to some of the old Kepler core worlds and pull a million without anyone really noticing, except a government benefits worker, who just might trade you everything from exorbitant amounts of cash to sexual favours to take their unemployed away."


    The other Commanders reluctantly nodded in agreement. In a major hive world, you would be very popr if you offered to provide a million off-world jobs for their chronically unemployed. The problem would be the quality of the workers you would get.


    "Enough with the staffing solutions. How and where would we even build that thing? It''s toorge for any dry dock that I know of to work on it. Plus, what would you make it of? Or can the new generation replicators create a sophisticated enough alloy to build that without a forge or secondary processing stage?" Li, their only female Commander and former leader of the Second Battalion asked.


    "That is the easy part. The terraforming here is almostplete, it will finish up tomorrow, and I can portal the entire array into an uninhabited system to build the new ship without anyone noticing. With that many machines and arge enough asteroid, I can have the ship built in a matter of days. They can even provide it with a breathable atmosphere since they were designed to terraform a.


    I have a special idea for the hull as well, and if it works the way I am hoping, I think that the unaligned species will think twice before attacking us." Nico informed them with a smile of anticipation.


    "You are totally hoping that they attack us to try to steal that space station in the form of a world ship. I can see it in your eyes." DiFranco replied.


    "Yeah, he''s right. You didn''t mean a single word of that bit about other species not attacking us. This thing is like a huge floating fuck you to every military in the region." Klinger added.


    "Oh, ye of little faith. Do you really think that I didn''t prepare for that? I havee up with improvements to the current Mecha lineup to allow them to fight more effectively in space. From what I can tell, nobody else fights on the surface anymore. They just go all out in space above the. We are behind the curve with our tactics, but not for much longer.


    Once the refinements areplete, I will send the data to all of your vessels so that the existing Mecha hulls can be upgraded with the new technology."


    She really did think of everything. If Max didn''t know better, he would think that she had been nning this for much longer than just the morning.

 Chapter 625 625 Space Combat Upgrade

    It was very early the next morning when Max got the official message from the Research and Development team that the upgrade for the Mecha was ready to be put into production. The existing vent nacelles for the crystal-based energy cores would be upgraded to vectored thrusters, mostly unsuitable to use on the surface but capable of extremely agile maneuvering in space when coupled with a shield modification to reduce the inertial mass of the Mecha itself, simr to the effect of a warp field, but on a much less extreme level.


    The existing repair hangars could produce the thruster units, and the whole upgrade process would take less than a man-hour per Mecha. Overall, it was an upgrade without any downside that Max could see other than the power usage of the thrusters themselves.


    Nico had also sent along the details for two forms of upgraded munitions to be used during spacebat, one for Super Heavy Mecha and a handheld weapon for the standard pattern Crusader ss Chassis.


    Both fired solid projectiles at hypersonic velocities that used an antimatter fusion reaction both as additional thrust and as their primary damage output.


    The shells designed for the Thunder Guns were truly terrifying, containing over a kilogram of antimatter, with an output yield of over sixty megatons, by standard human measurement. Not that any Max knew of had used TNT in millennia, but it was still the standard by which explosions were measured.


    The Thunder Gun projectiles could achieve one-quarter of the speed of light, fast enough to catch most fleeing ships and enough that even if the antimatter explosion somehow failed to trigger, such as in instances where an enemy defensive measure disabled or contained it, the shell itself would do devastating damage to whatever it collided with.


    The Alliance was sure to be horrified at this increase in firepower, but for space-basedbat, such weapons were essential to actually managing to damage battleships with their immensely powerful shielding and defensive weapons.


    She hadn''t neglected the new ship itself, and an eyes-only note attached to his copy of the data included sixteen Antimatter Torpedo tubes which would fire Warp Capable projectiles, with outputs ten times that of the Thunder Guns.


    If that sort of firepower were turned on a, Orbital Lances would be rendered obsolete. The fact that she intended to turn Orbital Lances into a secondary weapon on her new mothership was enough to send Max to the Replicator for something stronger than juice to go with his breakfast.


    For a ship that size, it only made sense that the weapons would be scaled up, but to go to this extent was way more than he had expected. With some quick calctions, a single Super Heavy Mecha equipped with antimatter munitions would be capable of taking out a Cruiser ss vessel in a straight fight, assuming that it was using current shield technology and weapons.


    She had also attached an addendum to the addendum like she was writing it as she went and didn''t prepare her thoughts at all.


    [I also made one for Cleansing Light. A handheld recement for the Orbital Lance Cannon. Three times the yield of the Thunder guns, with a ten-round per second maximum fire rate and hundred-round capacity. Who knows, you might have the urge to shoot someone eventually.]


    That was incredibly Nico of her, so Max searched her thoughts to see what she was up to right now and found her in his Mecha bay, working on Cleansing Light. The new thruster system was more mobile than the existing thrusters that it used, and Cleansing Light was Warp Capable, so the drives could be used much more effectively than a standard shield to offset the Mecha''s mass and increase mobility.


    She had also added an anti-missile defence system, a new setting for the Disruptors that should destabilize iing antimatter shells and missiles, causing them to detonate early or vaporize in instances where thesers were insufficient for the task. It hadn''t been fully tested yet, since she only came up with the idea on her way to the hangar, but she was fairly sure it would work.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Fairly sure wasn''t really a statement that he wanted in the development process of safety equipment, but they couldn''t exactly test it outside of a simtor, so he would have to find out the hard way if he really could stop the iing attacks.


    Their new world ship should be capable of the same thing, stopping solid projectiles with disintegrator pulses, giving it a defensive military capability on par with the Alliance Envoys'' vessel, which Max assumed was good enough to be considered state of the art.


    [Commander, did you see that Thruster upgrade that Research just sent out? Are we expecting to be attacked by a new enemy force in the near future?] Li asked from her new office aboard the Cruiser that she had taken over.


    The identifier line only had her name on it, and Max wondered when she would officially name her vessel, but that was less important than the upgrade work that needed to be done before the next time the Mecha needed to be used.


    [You never know what we wille across. As Klinger pointed out, our new mothership will be a huge floating act of aggression in the eyes of a lot of species, so we should be prepared to have it attacked at any point, including during construction.


    I don''t have a timeline onpletion yet, Nico is still busy with other matters, and the Innu are so full of Caffeine that I''m not willingly looking into their minds right now.]


    The holographic image of Li burst intoughter, and she muted her microphone for a few seconds while she got herself under control.


    [You have it hard, don''t you? I don''t even want to contemte ny percent of what people are thinking about, but you must have heard it all by now. We will get the Mecha upgraded as soon as possible, and we''ve already made a stock of the new munitions because I couldn''t resist getting my hands on some of them.


    We will have to take a good look into both human and Alliance Wartimews before we deploy them, though. In space, I''m pretty sure there isn''t an issue, but in orbit or in a''s atmosphere, that level of antimatter reaction is most likely a war crime of some sort. There are a number of restrictions on the types of weapons that can be deployed against aary poption.


    It''s not like we never had more destructive weapons after all. The legends of the pre-founding era were full of horrific weapons, and now it seems increasingly likely that they were actually built back in a time when humans weren''t constantly focused on the most efficient military production that they could manage.]


    She had a very good point. Too much of human history was lost and forgotten long before he was born, so it was possible that all of their developments had been achieved before but either abandoned or had their production methods lost to time due to various factors over the millennia.


    Even among the Kepler equipment, much of the older gear was better than the standard issue units, like Stalwart''s shields. Sitting in orbit over a Relic world, with ruins of a species that he had never heard of, that lived right there in the same Gxy that Humanity currently upied, was giving him a sense that he was a frog in a well, feeling much more powerful and important than he really was.

 Chapter 626 626 Coming Along Nicely

    Max finished sending messages to all of the ships of the Terminus Trading Company Fleet, ensuring that they were all up on the new weapons and thrusters and that their Mecha would be ready to deploy in the event of a space battle.


    The terraforming was justpleting, and General Tennant, now Governor Tennant, was preparing a huge celebration to mark the final regions of the formerly toxic world being cleansed.


    That was when Nico nned to portal the Terraforming Array away. From that moment on, Max needed to be on high alert for alien species detecting their new project and the possibility that they would attack to try to stop it from happening.


    Of course, he hoped that she was right and that she could get itpleted before anyone noticed, but there were a lot of eyes looking in their direction, and Max wasn''t sure how well they could track the destination of a portal or if anyone who did detect it would act to try to follow them.


    They were supposed to take a multi-stop route to her chosen destination, an uninhabited star system within Klem territory. Still, there were no guarantees that they wouldn''t be followed or detected.


    Not knowing was the most annoying part of dealing with new species. If they were near, Max could read their thoughts, most of the time, but if they didn''t know their military capabilities or used units of measurement that he didn''t understand, then he couldn''t gather any useful information at all from them.


    Down on the surface, Governor Tennant had begun his speech, informing all of the city''s residents and guests of the momentous asion that they had all been waiting for.


    [Thank you all foring to celebrate our first day as a fully terraformed colony. As of ten minutes ago, thest of the Terraforming Array unitspleted their work, and we have verified through our satellitework that there are no more remaining toxic areas on the surface or in the oceans.


    That isn''t to say that the whole is safe, there are still many dangerous areas, but they are natural dangers. Many of them are beautifulndmarks of this world, like the mineral springs of the Samantha Mountains, which vent scalding hot waters into the air around the pools every few minutes thanks to the Geothermal heating boiling the underground reservoir.


    The link to view them is avable in the tourist highlights, and a fly-over tour is avable every day, leaving at nine in the morning.


    With thepletion of the Terraforming, it is traditional to rename a after its new upants, so let me present to you Luminos, the of Ghost Lights.


    Now, I have spoken enough, everyone. Please enjoy the party.]


    Max switched his main feed from the cameras in the city to the data feed from the Terraforming Array, which had just made its final jump, using a Tarith Family ship''s Portal Generator so that the signature wouldn''t be the same as thest jump that they made.


    They had jumped from orbit around a popted with dozens of manufacturing facilities, so there were many portal signatures in the area, and a number of warehouses where they could have been stored, if they weren''t still in use. The n was to use that as a distraction and to send industrial spies searching through millions of units of textiles, looking for them if they had followed the Array that far.


    Now that they were in ce, Max began looking over the design of the ship, which was more and more incredible the deeper he dug into it. It was designed so that the interior would look more like a misty, with huge amounts of open space for giant trees to be grown or for projects to be moved through the air to distant regions of the ship.


    It wasn''t hugely space efficient, but with the size of the vessel, it didn''t have to be. From the interior, it would feel like an actual world to the residents and would also help alleviate some of the stress that was known to be suffered by residents of more cramped vessels, who never got to see the outside world.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Agoraphobia wasmon among those who were raised on such cramped vessels, and this design, with kilometre-high ceilings through most of the main body, should alleviate almost all of that.


    The actual construction of the ship seemed to be going extremely quickly, much more than Max had anticipated and faster than it had on the, so he took a good look at what the Array was up to, ording to its data feed.


    The hull was made of the monomolecr material that they had identified on the he was currently circling, and the strange bond that turned it into a logic-defying single unit seemed to be incrediblypatible with the Array, which could extrude it like a liquid instead of having to create individual molecules over and over.


    As fast as the units could power the constructors, the hull could be formed. The process was fascinating to watch, as it all needed to be surrounded by an energy barrier, separating it from all other matter and antimatter. If it touched either, it would solidify, and the form would be set, so every hull section was made as one piece and would self-repair to maintain its shape once it came into contact with anything else.


    That made the whole ship ative in one sense, but Max knew that they had the technology to inject more of the strange matter into the hull pieces until they regained their original form.


    The Hunters had done it to restore relics that they had found once they discovered some of the secrets of the material, thanks to the discovery that it had a vulnerability to the Disruptors. Knowing how to break it down showed them how to rebuild it, and that was when they learned that rebuilding an existing piece always took the original shape and that any exposure to other matter would stop the process.


    There was still a lot that nobody knew about it, but if they could build ships out of it, that was as much knowledge as most engineers had about the materials that they used in their designs, so it was good enough for Nico, who was more focused on having the coolest toy in the Universe than the practical matters of actual ship repair while it was in service.


    That was hard logic to argue with. It was definitely going to be a cool toy, with the verytest of technologies adapted by the Research Department, as well as their unique newbat technologies and an experimental Warp Drive that would propel this monstrosity through space without using portals all the time.


    Nico''s directed thoughts caught his attention as he was admiring the biome designed specifically to keep the Shin and Dryads happy, an immense forest which was intended to have a World Tree at its core. Oddly, the strange nt couldn''t be replicated alive, it came outcking something, but the Shin had assured Nico that they were capable of growing her a new one for the new ship.


    [I know you''ve given in and snuck a peek by now. What do you think? Is it cool enough? The inner hullyer is finished now, and I will start building the outer shells over it. In total, there are threeyers of containment in the outer regions, as well as the more decorative tes to protect docked ships from debris.


    As far as atmospheric stability goes, it should be better than anything else that we have, and the bubble-type structures can be both isted and jettisoned in an emergency, like a major infection or catastrophic damage.


    There was something else. What was it? Oh yeah, I finished the new weapons. Did you get the notification? What time is it? If they haven''t arrived yet, they shoulde soon.]


    Nico was clearly so focused on her work that she had forgotten about everything else, including the messages that she had scheduled to go out this morning, but that wasn''t surprising. As far as she could tell, this thing was the single biggest weapon in the known Universe, and Max could tell that Nico was confident that someone would want to fight them for it.


    Max was a bit afraid that she was right, but there was no denying that even the Alliance would be forced to respect their level of development once this thing was in action.

 Chapter 627 627 Theyre What?

    To distract from the construction of their new base of operations, Max prepared to dere a holiday aboard Terminus, which should distract all the visitors who were here to actually work for various Alliancepanies and not just on vacation.


    It was also a day off for the Academy, the one day every week when they had no sses, and Headmistress Medusa was willing to give the students a pass to go to the Cruise Ship section and unwind for the first time since they had arrived at the Academy.


    That should be a day that nobody would forget anytime soon. Most of the students had gone straight from the hangars to the Academy, so they hadn''t seen any of the other amenities that the ship had to offer, and things like the World Tree and the Gravity slides they had only seen on video.


    Being their day off, many of the students were still waking up for the day when the notification was made through the Academy, and chaos took over the quiet atmosphere of thepound.


    A single hallway was locked down for the students, so nobody could get lost on the way or ess off-limits areas by ident, so Max wasn''t too worried about their safety, at least not until they reached the end of the hall and met with the vacationers and the attractions of the ship.


    While the students were running around like madmen, Headmistress Medusa had a more practical request for Max.


    [Commander. Now that the Terraforming isplete, I am assuming that you are nning to leave orbit and make for the next bit of official business within the next week. If possible, I would like to send some of our students to the surface before that point. Geology is part of our mandatory training, and the senior students would typically take a field trip every semester to gain hands-on experience.


    I believe that this world, freshly terraformed and without hostile fauna, would be ideal for the first-term trip.]


    [Would you be amenable to springing it on them as a surprise? The next two days would be ideal for a-side excursion, and after that, we will have an increased likelihood of needing to move the vessel to anotherary system.] Max replied, knowing that making it look like everything was normal would deter any suspicions that Terminus Trading Company was up to something.


    There was no hiding it from the Illithid, but Max was deliberately not thinking about the actual specs of Absolution, and the observer aboard the Alliance Envoy''s vessel wouldn''t be likely to recognize the technical jargon that the design team was using.


    Even Max only understood a fraction of it, and he lived within range of their minds.


    It only took the Headmistress a few minutes to answer before she came back with a list of requirements, including chaperones from the defence forces and the total number of students that would be in each group, as well as the regions of the that would be ideal for their studies.


    The different sses and grades were studying different regions at the moment, so the Headmistress determined that sending them to the one they were currently working on would be the best course of action.


    Finding enough people to escort them wouldn''t be a problem, and they could easily produce enough civilian-grade augmentic suits for them, which was one of the requests from the Headmistress so that they didn''t contaminate the research zone or contract any foreign illnesses. There was a minor concern about bringing back foreign objects that could be used as weapons, but the school security team thought that they could catch any of them that made it past basic screening.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She was incredibly strict with the list, especially since the tourists were taking trips on foot around the surface, but ording to Medusa, it was a scientific best practice not to have direct contact with the area, only interacting with it from inside a sealed suit.


    It didn''t need to be augmentic, just sealed, but some of the environments were hostile, like the desert and the volcano research teams, so it would be best to give them climate control and some measure of resistance to hot or sharp objects.


    [Max to research team. We need civilian protective suits in the sizes and species listed in the attached file. No armour, no t space technology, and minimal augments are to be included. Please inform me of when you will be able to provide those in the Academy Uniform colours. Tonight or tomorrow would be preferable, as our timeline is limited to allow them to properly explore the before we leave.]


    [We are sending them on a school field trip? That is awesome. I wish I got to go on good field trips back when I was in school. We went to the crappy local aquarium for biology, then a Mecha production facility for science, and that was it. We have a design for the repair staff that will be perfect for the asion.


    We made it for the aftermath of Klem battles since some of them smell really bad inside, and the Mecha specialize in making insides into outsides. We just need to adapt them to the species and recolor them. Give me an hour, and I will be able to deliver them to the Headmistress.] One of the human researchers answered, and Max considered whether allowing the perpetually upbeat Innu around humans on such a casual basis might actually be a bad influence on the humans.


    That researcher was entirely too happy about being at work.


    With all of the important ns put in ce, Max leaned back to rx and started to look through some of the random cultural articles that the Envoys had marked as low priority. They were good reading, but not really about anything important enough that he would want to have the data in a learning device.


    At least not until he got to the fifth one, on the unique nature of the "Curious Species," as the author called it.


    ording to the attached data, less than one-tenth of one percent of all species possessed the mental pathways that led to an inquisitive nature. All other species were adaptive and only developed new technologies and behaviours in response to a need or danger, but the curious species would develop new things just because they didn''t exist and actively look for new things.


    That made up most of the species that Max hade across from the Alliance, but it made perfect sense. They were the only ones who would be interested ining to see him. The others had no interaction with humans, so their existence was a simple fact that had no bearing on the lives of the members of that species.


    How they had made it to the status of advanced cultures without an inquisitive nature was a mystery to Max, so he put the topic at the top of his leisure reading list, intending to find out if they relied on others to develop new things for them, or if they actively deprived some portion of their poption in order to trigger developments, based on past experiences and the statistical probabilities.


    The possibilities were endless, and Maxughed as the author described their tense rtions with species like the Valkia and Giants, who loved new information and cultural customs, and the Innu, which was widely regarded as the most annoying species in the Universe.


    Max''s experience with the Alliance data had been heavily influenced by the Innu, thanks to their tech nomad streams, so he had never noticed that the actual number of species which followed them was only a few hundred of the million or more sentient species that the Alliance should contain.

 Chapter 628 628 Exciting Days

    The next morning, the students of the Academy were escorted through the ship to board a Cutter, which would take them to the surface for their field trip, scheduled tost for two days.


    The Academy had procured Giant-made mobile buildings for the overnight stay, equipped with tiny dorm rooms and basic sanitation facilities, as well as an Alliance model replicator for the apanying staff member to prepare meals.


    To the students, this was considered camping, though the building was far fancier than any army tent that Max had ever seen. They were still excited and talking about their first off-campus day when the news that they needed to assemble in the gymnasium for an important announcement was made, informing them that they would be headed to the for a field trip that very day.


    It was the best week most of them had ever had, given the stuffy nature of most high-society Academies. A few hadints about the amodations on the surface, but the chance to be in the wilderness outside of the confines of the school was too good to pass up.


    Especially for the Valkia, who had realized as soon as they were presented with their uniforms for the trip, which would allow them a full range of motion with their wings, and even allowed them to fly around the room once the suit was properly fitted.


    Being able to fly on the would be great. They mostly came from crowded cities or even a monolithic megalopolis where they were always somewhat indoors, limited by the ceilings of the levels. Their first chance to see just how high they could fly was enough to have their hearts pounding in their ears and adrenaline rushing through their veins, and they hadn''t even left the Academy yet.


    They weren''t the only ones. One particr student from a living metal species realized that the suit wasn''t designed for full alteration, but it would give them structure, which their species naturallycked. They could experience the world as if they were one of the bipedal species for the next two days, grabbing things in their hands without having to concentrate on not letting the fingers meld together into one surface.


    Wearing the suit was a strange experience, but it gave them great insights into the potential of their innate abilities since it forced them to move in ways that weren''t natural for their species but which would help them mimic other species more precisely.


    A normal uniform was cloth and flowed more smoothly, as well as being more morphable since they preferred skirts to pants, but this suit would stand up on its own since it had an internal structure.


    Beforeing to the Academy, they had limited experience with other species in any way, and their arrival had been a culture shock, but with the desire to fit in, they had been working hard, and this might be the final step that they needed to aplish their goals.


    The other students noticed the awkward gait as the student tried to walk like a biped, but after seeing the happy look in their eyes, a silent agreement was made to let them do what they wanted and not ask the Headmistress for a different design, possibly something with a long, segmented body as another student was using. It was closer to the living metal student''s usual form, but the design team hadn''t been given that information, and the only picture they had for the species was in an Alliance government uniform with legs.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Escort team showed up in full battle gear since they were a protective detail, but with their weapons put away because there weren''t actually any hostile species on the.


    It was an impressive show, and the Headmistress was broadcasting it throughout Terminus, as well as live streaming it for the parents of the students, for the sake of informed consent, as well as entertainment as they watched their children going on an overnight field trip for what might be the first time.


    The Reavers were going all out to impress the students, and they had even assigned a Corvette ss Mecha to apany each of the four groups on the surface. Ostensibly it was there as a guard in case something happened, but the pilots knew that they were more likely to be used to move heavy objects for study and for the kids to stare at when they were bored with the lessons.


    It seemed to be doing a great job of distracting everyone, and the data flow rates off of Terminus were well above average, with all of the streaming videos being sent back to the Alliance.


    The entire day passed without incident, and when the first night fell on the students, the influx of parents worried about their sheltered darlings began to arrive, ready to spirit them away home for a leave of absence if their delicate constitutions couldn''t handle the stress of sleeping in a hab tent or being outside in the wilderness for days at a time.


    Max didn''t think there was anything to worry about, the suits all had biometric data feeds that were monitored by the Academy''s medical staff, just like their usual uniforms did, and they hadn''t detected anything out of the usual other than one Harpia student who had a mid-air collision with a tree in the middle of the afternoon.


    The suits had a basic shock-absorbing function but no heavy shielding, so she had been a bit stunned by the collision but hadn''t suffered any detectable physical damage, not even bruising, ording to the medic that was apanying her team.


    It was the second day when things began to get crazy. The first day had shown them that they really were alone on an alien world, but waking up in one, and not under intense supervision, at least not by anyone who could do anything to stop them, had encouraged them to run and fly all over the area, exploring everything, and very nearly driving their teachers insane, while the chaperones from the security team worked to keep them from trying the most dangerous activities, like dipping their hands inva, or flying over scalding geothermal vents.


    Max knew that theirmunicators would be flooded with messages from their parents by the end of the day, but they were mostly ignoring the messages, content to put notifications on mute while they explored the limits of their day of freedom and did their best toplete the assigned tasks as quickly as possible.

 Chapter 629 629 Application Influx

    It waste that night when the students were all safely back aboard Terminus, and the enraged messages from the parents demanding an audience with the Headmistress had all been declined. The staff had sent out various exnations about how despite the appearances, the trip waspletely safe and not a single injury had been noted. It wasn''tpletely sessful, but as per the contract, the field trip was deemed to be a totally safe activity and not grounds for the more overprotective parents to withdraw their children.


    None of the students asked to go home after the trip, and those who weren''t in the sses that got to go were incredibly envious of their trip, so the Academy viewed it as a win on their part.


    Building rivalries between sses helped student performance, and only the students taking the most advanced rted sses of their years had gotten to go. Those who had cked off and applied for the easier sses realized that they had made a grave tactical error. The Academy rewarded sess, and cking off didn''t impress them.


    Max finally found time to check on Absolution just after dark and found that the entire hull wasplete, and the interior was well underway, with each pod zone having a unique architectural style appropriate to species native to the region that its vegetation was derived from.


    All of them were suitable for humans, as well as species up to the size of Giants, but most of the ship was in the same style as the most advanced Kepler Core cities, where the wealthiest of citizens and Royalty lived.


    It was brilliant marketing. Every Kepler citizen and most of the citizens of the surrounding nations would recognize the architecture of the Royals, and living there had been a dream for many generations of humans. Just the appearance evoked a feeling of inferiority in those who gazed upon them, reminding them that they would never be good enough to live somewhere as grand as that.


    But now, they were going to pick some of the most densely packeds in the human territories and fill the ship withmoners, based exclusively on their job skills and qualifications, at no cost to them. They could even bring their immediate family with them if they wished.


    [Have we sent a notification to the that we intend to recruit from first?] Max asked the logistics staff, who were frantically working to prepare for the biggest recruitment that Terminus Trading Company, and perhaps any Reaver Company, had ever attempted.


    [We have, Sir. We have chosen Kepler 207, near the Inner Rim, with a poption of 26 Billion and suffering from a severe shortage of supplies in the aftermath of the war. It is being supplied from outside agricultural worlds again, but it is no longer a major bureaucratic hub, and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to over thirty percent. Even with thewide deployment of Replicators by the former Imperial Princess, who now governs the region, they are suffering a decline in quality of life.


    In short, half the poption of the should really leave for other worlds, but the logistics of that undertaking are mind-boggling, and theary government has instead opted for strict reproduction quotas to reduce the poption over the course of a generation while they work to rebuild their ce in the Gxy.]


    Ah, a bureaucratic world. A wretched hive of crime and viiny like no other, at least to those in the slums where Max grew up. They were the ones who determined who was and was not eligible for benefits from the Central Government, while the local government only distributedary benefits. Therefore, the bureaucratics weren''t very popr with the unemployed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [It sounds like a winner to me. They should have a surplus of everything that we need. Are we set up to receive and vet digital applications in advance?] Max asked.


    [We are. But there are so many. We have received nearly a thousand applications for every position that we have open, and there are more stilling in. Should we expand the nned quarter million workers?] The logistics officer asked.


    [No, once you factor in family members, that will be arge portion of the initial poption of the ship, all from one. We want a more diverse representation of Humanity, not a refugee ship from one. Limit immediate family apaniment to spouses who were official thirty days ago and biological children or those officially adopted before the same time frame. It will somewhat limit those willing to go, but it will prevent scams from getting children and dependents off the.


    Then vet out those who would abandon their family to go anyhow.


    I know it''s a bit heartless, but we''re in the position to be picky here, and I want to at least stop at one Cygnus and two others as well.]


    Max could sense the frustration in the logistics worker''s mind but also a bit of relief that they now had a clear guideline to work with.


    As Max listened to the recruitment team''s thoughts, he found that the limitation on spouses and children eliminated over three-quarters of the applicants and drastically limited the iing flow. As expected, arge portion of them were skilled workers paid to get the children of upper brass off the.


    It took two full days to sort out the first batch of recruits, but in the end, the team was certain that their usage of System Skills, and the advanced filtering functions of the Kepler Citizen Database, had found them the most qualified possible workers, with solid backgrounds, and verifiable job skills.


    It also gave Absolution time to bepleted, and the Terraforming Array was sent back to Rae 5 without incident.


    That meant that it was time to be the biggest bit of news that the Alliance had seen in a while. The Terminus Trading Company was upgrading from a Colony Ship to a World Ship.

 Chapter 630 630 Big Reveal

    Nico was sitting in the dining room, naked except for the seventh coat that she had tried on that morning.


    "So, are we going to go to Absolution, or should I precision portal myself over there and pilot it to the recruitment in sync with your arrival? I think the other way would be much more fun and dramatic since we will watch in real-time as the Alliance and the rest of humanity discovers what we were up to." She suggested.


    "First, put on pants. Second, I think you are right. Having the ship appear through a portal would make a great impression. On that topic, does it even have the power to open a portal that size?" Max asked.


    "Of course. It''s long, and only the rear wings are particrly wide, so I can make a very efficient oval portal and bring it through. It will be less than half the required power for the Alliance sphere thing to follow us.


    I''m sure they will follow us, they are still assigned as our observers and have been notified that we need to move toplete our next order of business, but they didn''t ask for the Envoys back.


    No way will they let them be half a Gxy away from their ship, so they''re definitelying with us. But once they see what we have to show them, they will likely send more than just one Envoy ship to observe us.


    I suspect that we will have a whole armada of Alliance Government ships following us around by the time we have Absolution fully staffed, and even after that, it will take some effort to make them go home.


    The ship is a marvel of design and technology, if I do say so myself, and it''s way cooler than those boring spheres that the Alliance uses. I mean, it''s space, and the spheres aren''t a high warp vessel, so they could have used any shape that they wanted, but they went with the ndest possible option."


    That made sense, so Max nodded to Nico and prepared to meet with the Envoys after Terminus arrived in their destination system.


    "Give us ten minutes before you open the portal. That will give me time to gather the Envoys and get settled into position in orbit around the. Arrive further out, directly out from the, in rtion to its star. That should give us the best view." Max informed Nico, who was now sorting through a pile of pleated skirts to go with her chosen jacket.


    "Aren''t you doing that backward? Start with the inneryer and work outward." He suggested.


    "That''s what I usually do, but then I never get to wear the coat that I really wanted to since it doesn''t quite go with the outfit, so instead, I''m starting with the coat today. What do you think about the blue and gold trench coat? Is it best with the id skirt or the uniform cargo pants?" She replied.


    "The ck leather pants tucked in the knee-high boots with the trench coat. Then the long-sleeved cream-coloured blouse, that ck leather corset thing, the gold sash for your waist over the pistol belt, and then a nice tricorne hat with a feather. Very Nico the Pirate." Max rmended.


    "Oh, that''s a goodbo. There aren''t many good times to wear a tricorne, but I think that recruiting for a new ship is the perfect opportunity to y up the Reaver Aesthetic to the maximum." Nicoughed.


    She quickly dug out the requested items, all of which were part of her usual apparel other than the trench coat and the hat, and then went to the Materials Printer and made herself a new sword to go with the outfit, with a sma Pistol on the other hip.


    "It''s not right without a sword. Plus, you can''t dramatically kill someone with a sma Pistol. They just die." She exined.


    "You do you. Now, get over there, and I will get this show on the road." Maxughed, nearly overwhelmed by her joy and enthusiasm.


    Nico linked with the Ship''sputer and opened the small portal in mid-air in front of her, then jumped through to Absolution, closing it behind her while Max made his way out of the room to gather the Envoys.


    Their Illithid advisor had warned them that something big was happening today, so they were all gathered at their favourite coffee shop, trying to convince the Innu Envoy that decaf wasn''t a human rights vition, when he arrived.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I''m not sure that it makes that standard, but I get where she''sing from. Decaf should never have been invented. It is a lesson on the dangers of unfettered development for the sake of development." Max agreed.


    "Is decaf what they mean by the phrase manmade horrors beyond ourprehension? It is clearly metaphorical, but I haven''t determined its proper use yet." The Innu Envoy asked.


    "Something like that. At least to someone who loves coffee as much as you do. I heard that the Council is considering putting it on the restricted alien items list in the near future, prohibiting it to minors without clearance of their species'' representatives." Max teased her.


    "They wouldn''t dare. This is the nectar of the gods, and I have moderated my intake. There is only one additional shot of espresso in this one, and extra raspberry and cinnamon. It''s like ny percent milk and still delicious. Did you know they use real raspberry juice for the vour? That''s why this ce is the best."


    She was clearly pouting, but it was almost time for the announcement that they would be opening a portal.


    The Admiral''s voice came over the inte as the lighting changed to add some extra red into the spectrum, the usual warning that there would be a ship-wide message.


    [All hands prepare for motion. Terminus will be moving on to her next stop in one minute, using a Portal to save travel time and the danger of crossing Klem territory on our way to one of the core worlds of the old Kepler Empire.


    Kepler 207 has a poption of over 26 billion people and had been one of the most notable bureaucratics in the Empire before thest civil war.


    Our reason for this stop will be obvious after we arrive, so we do ask that you are patient with our staff while we prepare the surprise for you.]


    The Envoys all gave Max suspicious looks, wondering what was going on, and Max realized that their observer hadn''t warned them about the new ship, so they really had no clue what was going on right now. That was incredibly kind of him, and Max would have to remember to thank the manter.


    The portal opened, and Terminus moved from the far North to the South Central region of the Gxy in an instant, then moved to take orbit around the lone inhabited around this star, not going for the space station nearby, but waiting on the dark side of the.


    "Such suspense. The design team must havee up with something great if you, of all people, are acting so enigmatic." The Valkia Envoyughed.


    Max checked his watch and smiled. Ten seconds left. He tapped his wrist device to switch all the public viewscreens to the same camera, facing out from the, and then opened a public broadcast.


    [May I present to you the newest ship in the Terminus Trading Company Fleet? Please wee the World Ship ss Operation Center known as Absolution.]


    Just as Max finished speaking, an oval portal five hundred kilometres wide opened in the empty space in front of the camera, and a shining golden craft passed through, broadside to Terminus, showing off the full side and top view of the new vessel for everyone to see.


    "Sweet Mother of Technology, what is that?" The Innu Envoy gasped while the Valkia red his wings in shock, instinctively preparing to move as his brain struggled to respond to what he was seeing.


    "Oh, that is a good response. I don''t think I''ve ever seen you that off guard, and the Giant ispletely speechless.


    The Giant Envoy was staring at the screen on the coffee shop''s wall with his mouth wide open and the remains of his Danish in hisp, forgotten in the aftermath of the ship reveal. Even his thoughts seemed to have stopped for a moment before he recovered and pointed at the screen.


    "That. How did you make that? Where did you see it before?" He finally demanded without taking his eyes off the screen.

 Chapter 631 631 Giant Terror

    Max was more than a little confused by the Giant''s outburst. They had never seen anything like this before, not even in Nico''s memories or Max''s own. There were some simrities to the Dreamcast vessels from his past life, but they weren''t as pointy as this was, and they certainly weren''t as heavily armed, as their pilots could move between regr space and something else that they called the Dream, simply vanishing when they were under threat.


    "I had never seen anything like this before the design waspleted. It''s in the same design scheme as our Comor Pattern Mecha and the new space vessels, but Absolution is apletely unique vessel, as far as we know." Max exined.


    The Giant tapped his way through a few sites on his data tablet, then activated a hologram over the table. Disyed was a twisted and evil version of Absolution, not exactly the same, but certainly simr enough to be shocking.


    If he had been asked, the version that the Giant had presented seemed like the version that Nico would have designed, not Absolution. It had a certain demonic and evil vibe to it that made the skin crawl just by looking at it.


    The Giant looked at the image with a hint of fear and cleared his throat. "That is Death, in thenguage of my people. Only what it actually represents is much worse. We have no idea what species pilots it. Only simrly designed vessels will descend on a from that mothership, and in a matter of hours, the entire poption will be gone.


    Not dead, for the most part. They take them all as ves, but as soon as the ship vanishes again, all transmissions from them are cut off, and they are never seen again. We don''t know where ites from or why it targets the locations that it does, but it has been a scourge on the far side of the Universe since before my people had anguage to record it in.


    We have shot down many of its smaller vessels in the past, but nobody has ever gotten to see who is inside of them and live long enough to send out a transmission. They don''t leave their fallen behind, not even scraps of damaged vessels, to study.


    I apologize for panicking, but for a moment, I thought that they were here, set to harvest billions of humans at once."


    He was visibly shaking by the time he finished exining, and the Innu Envoy offered him the remainder of her coffee to calm him down. The tart taste of raspberry juice, mixed with cinnamon andtte, was enough to pop his eyes wide open and shake his thoughts out of a past battle that he had observed when that vessel had shown up.


    "Is it just that one ship?" Max asked.


    "If there were more than one of them, entire species would be eliminated. Every time, the ship is identical. There are three hundred smaller vesselsunched from it, using an unknown energy weapon that disables but does not kill, and the victims are teleported aboard. It''s not a transport portal but some form of direct transport beam. It might be a very high-speed tractor beam, but we don''t have enough data to be sure.


    The creepiest part of it all is that they don''t actually take everyone. They leave ten percent of the poption of the behind in hiding. At first, we thought it meant that they couldn''t detect certain hiding spots, but every time it is exactly ten percent. One time an entire poption stood against them, and still, they left ten percent behind.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It''s like they''re harvesting a crop and leaving behind seeds for it to regrow like they''reing back at someter date to do it again."


    Max shuddered as he recalled a simr tactic from his past life. The Dirge used to use a simr tactic to gather ves for their customers. Their ships looked very different from that, but it made Max wonder if he was actually just on the far side of the Universe from hisst life. Probability said that patterns would repeat given enough repetition, and a random pattern generator would eventually create thebined works of any great author.


    The Universe seemed to favour certain patterns, or perhaps it wasn''t as random as it seemed, and the species he had seen were all guided by an outside force, but either way, the probability that he would see simr evils to his past life seemed increasingly likely.


    "Well, I can say for sure that this ship came from the twisted mind of my second inmand and her Innu assistants, so it is not a harbinger of great evil. But it is a great upgrade in the maximum technology level that humans have achieved, which is why I wanted you all to see it in the first ce.


    We are here to recruit to staff the ship, and we will make three more stops after this as well so that our new operations center has a wide variety of humans aboard. There will be space for others, of course, both as visitors and as staff, but we do intend to keep it as a primarily human crew." Max exined


    "That is understandable. If you are trying to make a ce for your species, it won''t do to be seen as theckeys of another species. I wonder what the Federation forces on the far side of human space will think of this? Theye grovelling and begging to Alliance territory every few years and get rejected for not meeting the minimum technological standards for intervention, and they are bound to find out about your new development soon enough." The Valkia Envoy suggested.


    Max considered his words for a moment, then searched the sensor data from Terminus to see what he was talking about since his thoughts said it should be obvious what he meant.


    There was a Vampire ship, with its signature sails raised,ing out from behind one of the inner''s moons.


    Looking at the Vampire''s vessel and then at Absolution, there were some simrities, but the angr lines of the vampire ship reminded Max more of the vessel that the Giant was so afraid of.


    One thing he had learned from Dave as a child was that there were no coincidences in life, only scams in progress and recruitment efforts. If the Vampires culture was emting a design, it likely meant that they had seen something like it in the past, and that would be valuable information before this Gxy saw whatever had been wiping outs of Giants and their allies.

 Chapter 632 632 Vampires Too?

    [Commander, we have an iing message from the Vampire ship.] Themunications officer on duty informed Max secondster.


    [I will take it here.] Max replied, then opened the link as a video chat, which would project holograms of Max and everyone else at his table to the person that had contacted them from the Vampire''s vessel.


    "Commander Keres Max, I must say, your new home nearly gave my crew a heart attack. I am assuming that IS your new vessel?" The Vampire asked as soon as the link opened.


    "Indeed it is. Would you like toe aboard Terminus and have a chat? I have been on the far side of the Gxy for a while now, and I haven''t had a chance to catch up with the ongoing situation here and within the Federation since the end of the Civil War." Max replied.


    "Certainly. We have a lot to talk about and a revtion that I think you will be very interested in, as well as your Alliance Envoy associates. We have been waiting for a response from the Reaver Council on this matter, but they have deemed it of low importance with everything else going on." The Vampire informed him.


    "I will ept your shuttle at bay C17. Forgive me if I don''t greet you in person, I have a lot going on at the moment, and the recruitment teams are headed to the to do the final round of interviews." Max agreed and sent through the clearance codes for the Vampire vessel to dock with them.


    "Oh, this should be good. I think that the Vampires have finally realized it now that they managed to purchase a replicator from the Reavers." The Valkia Envoy dered eagerly while rubbing his hands on his wings in anticipation.


    "Can I know in advance, or are you making it a surprise?" Max asked.


    "I love surprises. They will be here in only a few minutes, so it won''t be long either way, but if you can bring them to us, it would be amazing to see the look on everyone''s face when they find out." The Valkia suggested.


    Max sent a message for the escort to bring the Vampires to the coffee shop since he was already here, and there was lots of room to hold a meeting while everyone was focused on the recruitment and the appearance of the new ship.


    The response of the Envoys hadn''t been what he expected, and he still hadn''t told them about the capabilities of the ship, but given the Giant''s response, it might be better not to spring that on him today.


    "Greetings, Commander. I am Captain Nostra of the Vampire fleet." The leader of the Vampire fleet introduced himself, while Max stood up to greet him.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you. I believe that I have met one of your rtives before, piloting a cargo vessel." Max replied.


    "Ah, yes, it is amon issue. The Nostra family has been a space-faring family, much like your Reaver Families, for many millennia, so a great number of Vampire Captains share the same name." The pale man chuckled while his red eyes glinted in amusement.


    "Come and sit. The Envoys are here to observe our recruitment effort, so you can treat them as bystanders in our meeting. Their rules prevent them from sharing any confidential information that you might have with me." Max exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Then I will get right to it. We recently acquired a replicator from your people, and while the legalities of the purchase might be questionable, we learned something very interesting. You see, the first thing that we used it for was to produce one of the new generation medical tools that are programmed in so that we could cure an outbreak of a new virus.


    But the tool had some very interesting things to say once it scanned our citizens. It insists that Vampires are, in fact, gically modified humans with a rare gic condition that makes us much more physically powerful, as well as sensitive to sunlight and anemic.


    To say that my superiors were offended by the suggestion that it could cure Vampirism was putting it mildly, but it did manage to cure the disease that we were suffering from, and experiments were run that helped with the anemia, reducing our need for additional iron and mineral intake. I feel incredible in the morning, by the way, now that I don''t wake up woozy and thirsty.


    But with that in mind, I would like you to read this proposal from the Vampire Council."


    The speech was a bit long-winded, but it gave Max a very good idea of what wasing next, and the Valkia Envoy was staring intently at his face, waiting for the moment when it sunk in that the Vampires were a Demihuman species like the Canis.


    Max considered ying it up, but as a mind reader, he had learned long ago not to respond to emotional input, or he would look like a crazy person all the time, so the Envoy''s anticipation slowly turned to mild disappointment as Max''s facial expression barely changed.


    The Barista was much more entertaining. The revtion that Vampires were descended from humans was a big shock to basically everyone since the gic data that they had in the past suggested that they were entirely unrted species.


    Max looked through the data and found exactly what the Vampire was talking about. Though their entire genome was different, it was deliberately different. The more advanced medical tools had found the lingering traces of modifications that could still be seen in the descendants, and when the identified changes were isted, it became clear that reverting them would indeed lead to either a human or a very simr species.


    It wasn''t exactly an incontrovertible fact, but it was certainly a strong possibility, given the evidence that had been presented.


    After moving on from the evidence, Max got to the proposal. The Vampire Council was asking that the Reavers consider the gic data presented and ept it as proof that the Vampires were a human-descended species, which meant that they would be included in agreements made on behalf of humanity, such as the agreements with the Alliance, which governed interactions between the groups.


    "This might be beyond our medical technology, but thankfully we have the Envoys here. I will ask you four. Make that three. Since the Dryad has disappeared again, can you scan the Vampires and determine if they were indeed descended from humans? If they were, to your standard of evidence, then I can present this to the Reaver Council and have it approved very quickly." Max asked.


    "Certainly. I can have my assistant bring a gic sequence scanner in a few minutes, and we will verify the data presented against the Vampires present. From what I can see, they do look quite simr, and their blood vessel structure appears to be very simr to humans, sharing the same arterial pattern, so they might have a case." The Valkia agreed with a smirk.


    Max was almost certain that they had done the scans and determined the truth of this matter years ago when the Vampires showed up with the Federation to petition for a trade deal with the Alliance, but they had been holding back on it until the Vampires showed up and reminded him of it.

 Chapter 633 633 Humans Are Like That

    The medical team didn''t take long to arrive with their scanning tools, and they got to work as soon as the Envoy exined what procedures he thought they would need to do in order to fully verify the assertion that the Vampires were descended from humans.


    They had more than enough equipment here, and Max briefly wished that Nico was nearby so that she could steal some of that medical tech for their own use. Not that they had been having any issuestely with the new devices they had provided to every unit and the Alliance doctors that they had hired for the Cruise Ship, but a little more medical knowledge was never a bad thing.


    The team scanned all five members of the Vampire team and then plotted their data on a holographic chart in front of the Envoys, over top of the table.


    "In my professional medical opinion, to call the Vampires descendants of humanity is both technically correct and misleading. If you look at the data here and here, you can see where clearly human gics were forcefully altered, but if you look here, you can see naturally urring sequences from a speciespletely unrted to humanity.


    Though I can confirm with one hundred percent certainty that there were humans in their ancestry and that the species, as it is now, is a result of gic engineering, as they asserted. However, it is undeniable that there was a second species in their ancestry." The Doctor informed the group, looking a bit disturbed.


    Max and the Vampire Captain shared a meaningful look with each other, and Max hid a short burst ofughter while the Envoys looked confused.


    "It''s a running joke among the other species of this Gxy that, given the opportunity, Humans would try to breed with almost any sentient species just to see if it worked. The data dering that humans and an unknown, possibly extinct species hybridized to produce Vampires is not a huge shock. Nor is the implication that they then gically altered their offspring for an unknown reason, perhaps because they were unstable or prone to gic disorders or infertility." The Vampire informed them in the characteristically dry and unemotional tone of his people.


    "Perhaps we should ask our Innu Envoy? I hear you had a lengthy conversation about this topic with the Research Team?" Max asked.


    "Oh, yes, I did. It was the result of a cultural difference, where the humans viewed it as polite to show their favourite bits of technology off and allow others to try them out." She began, then paused as all the other Envoys began tough.


    "Exactly. That is a top-tier date, very nearly a marriage proposal to an Innu, letting them use your favourite tech gadgets. They weren''t at all dissuaded once they were informed, though, and began to postte about whether sensory tentacles or hair would be the dominant gic trait." The Envoy continued after a moment.


    "It''s the sensory tentacles. I already looked into it after I heard the story from one of the researchers." Her assistant informed her with a smirk.


    "You know, many species assimte others to integrate them into their group, but I think this is the first time I have actually met one who had sessfully hybridized. Perhaps the Alliance will have to study the Vampires a bit more closely now that they are officially considered an offshoot of humanity. A stabilized hybrid, whose split ancestry coexists and doesn''t try to subsume one side or the other, is an anomaly worthy of study.


    By our standards, they are covered by agreements rting to humanity as a species, as they have some human ancestry, and they are willing to acknowledge it. Like the Canis, they will be considered a human-descended species, entitled to coverage by your treaty." The Giant announced after referencing his data tablet.


    "That brings us to the important question. What made the Vampire Council decide to take this action? They were quite adamant that they were not humans only a few years ago and were working with the Federation to attempt to gain recognition by the Alliance." Max asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "We are a very long-lived species, as you already know. After following our current technological progression path, it was determined that the likely date to develop our own unique warp ten capable vessels would be a minimum of a century away and that it would likely run afoul of copyrightws, as much of it is derived from human technologies.


    Based on that, our achievement would likely be disregarded, setting us back over another century while we tried to create an entirely new mode of travel at sufficient speeds.


    Also, human technology has already started to spread rapidly throughout our culture, halting many of our own technological development efforts in favour of the much more advanced human technology, but we are currently limited to only producing the items that we have licenses for, as we have to use human devices to make more human devices, so the logical path forward found a link between the two species that could be used to form an alliance.


    Now that we have established shared ancestry, we can be considered separate human nations, and while that doesn''t bring us automatically into agreements between the Reavers and the Alliance, it does mean that if we can work a deal to join the Reavers'' Trade Group, we would be gaining the full benefits that any human nation would."


    The Vampires were always unemotional and logical, so this path made sense to Max, and it was clearly well thought through before the Captain had met them here. His vessel had only been passing by, but when their informants told the Vampire Council that Terminus had started recruiting in this system, they had been diverted in order to attempt to make this deal and get ahead of the priority list for Reaver Political matters.


    Max tapped his chin as he thought and then turned to the Vampire Captain. "Should I assume that you will be serving as the Envoy between your nation and the Trade Group? I can get you a meeting with the leadership in the next few days since Terminus Trading Company is rather busy at the moment.


    It will be much faster than any other approach, and the negotiations to join the group can often be done in only a few days if both parties are on the same page."


    "I think that the Council is looking to join the group, but I will not be the Envoy, only a convenient messenger. If your ship has the capability to open a portal, there is an Envoy group prepared to begin negotiations at any time. They are familiar with the standard agreement and have already prepared a set of terms that they would find amenable, so the deal might be made in very short order." The Captain agreed.


    "In that case, send the necessary messages, and I will order you a beverage. Your entourage is wee to enjoy the hospitality of the Terminus Trading Company while we wait." Max offered.


    "I have one more directive if you will allow it. The Vampire Council requests that myself and my ship apply for gainful employment aboard Absolution. Once they saw it, they were adamant that this opportunity not be missed to integrate into Reaver culture."


    A shipload of Vampires? Well, if nothing else, they were known to be somewhat trustworthy.


    "I will prioritize your applications. I am sure your crew has more than sufficient qualifications to find a home aboard Absolution."

 Chapter 634 634 Organizing Mass Movement

    The recruitment efforts on the began as smoothly as anyone had dared to hope for. It had taken a full two hours for the''s residents to get over the shock of seeing such an immense object in orbit above them, visible by the naked eye in the night sky, and a number of applications were withdrawn once the applicants realized that Operations Center Absolution was a World Ship and not aary station.


    But that was within the calctions of the Logistics team that was in charge of the recruitment, and by the time the had recovered, they were ready and waiting with dozens of Cutters ready to take passengers back from the to their new home.


    Being a used to political envoys and high-level meetings, there was more than enough room at the spaceport to dock them all, and tickets were arranged to get all of the guests and their families loaded within 12 hours, starting six hours from their arrival.


    It perfectly matched the published itinerary, but Max had hoped that they could simply send their Cutters to the surface to pick up their applicants instead of having them stop over at a space station with all of their belongings.


    It was going to be tight for them to pack unless the had an abundance of moving cubes since each family unit was allotted a two-meter by three-meter container to move their belongings with.


    There was no need to bring furniture. The units inside the ship were furnished, but family heirlooms and sentimental items, plus kids'' toys and clothing, took some time to pack.


    Theary Governor assured him that they had everything covered, but in Max''s experience, that was rarely the case, and he was certain that he would hear all about the shortages leading to dys soon enough.


    [Hey Nico, how much staff do you need to get everyone settled in? I''ve got you scheduled for one battalion. Will that do?] Max asked as the deadline for the first arrivals drew closer.


    [Never fear, for Nico is here. I havee prepared to deal with all eventualities, including the mass movement of personal belongings and personnel onto the ship.]


    Max sighed at her response and messaged her again. [Please rify. How do you n to get everything squared away when you are alone on the ship?]


    [That''s easy. I just made a hundred thousand androids to pilot the Mecha. They''ve got sufficient processing power to deal with basic things like escorting staff to their new homes and driving hover transports to drop off their belongings.


    They can even shoot the annoying ones if you want. I''ve programmed summary execution into the termination of employment options in their programming.]


    He knew he should have sent someone with her. Maybe someone reasonably sane, like Major Miller, but he was busy with the recruitment paperwork. He would have sent one of the researchers with her, but they would still be tinkering with the Androids if there were two of them there to bounce ideas off each other.


    [No killing the new staff. It will scare the others. Just make sure everyone is settled in safely and efficiently, and I will join you with Terminus by the end of the day. I assume that the hangar is ready for us?] Max asked.


    [Ready, cleaned and equipped with a low-density atmosphere so that it willpress to standard pressure when you enter. Come by anytime. The weather is nice over here.]<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [As soon as the new employees are loaded. I don''t want any confusion during the process, so I will keep Terminus right where it is. The Alliance vessel is hanging around outside the system so that it doesn''t rm the locals.]


    If it needed to, it could get here in a matter of minutes, so the distance was negligible, but this portion of the former Kepler Empire wasn''t used to seeing Alliance vessels, and the presence of Absolution had already rmed them enough.


    [Honorable Lord Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, this isary control. The first of your new hires are now loading into the Cutters that your, um, operations center sent to us. Please be advised that the schedule has thest of the families boarding in twelve hours, but we have a cargo barge on the surface that can bring the majority of their belongings all at once.]


    The nervousness in the man''s voice made the Envoysugh. He clearly wasn''t sure how to properly address Max and didn''t think that the moniker given to Absolution fit its status. But he was likely the junior officer on duty, so he had no choice after everyone else declined to be the one making the call.


    [Thank you,ary Control. Please advise your superiors that the wire transfer of Reaver Credits for their shuttle, moving and recruitment services is on the way.]


    That was usually the part that the politicians were the most worried about. The fee for taking a citizen off the wasn''trge, but it was enough that they could clean out the former resident''s unit and clear up any outstanding paperwork that they might have left behind in their hurry to get off the world.


    This time they also had to pay for the shuttles to the space station and the moving containers, but that was to be expected when taking in so many families. It would also help reassure their next stops that they weren''t doing anything shady and that thes wouldn''t lose a load of money just to save the credits that they were spending on the benefits for the formerly unemployed residents.


    There were a surprising number ofrge familiesing aboard, and Max could see that they were all verified by the scanners on the Cutters as being biologically rted, though most families wereprised of one son and a lot of daughters, all gically tweaked for optimal appearance and other physical qualities.


    It was one of the things that he had forgotten about the core worlds of the Kepler Empire. There were billions of ultra-wealthy residents, and they all wanted a harem of trophy wives or husbands. Even themon construction workers would blow their life savings in order to have beautiful children, as the more children they had, the greater the odds that one would be chosen and elevate the whole family into the ranks of the wealthy.


    He was definitely going to have to warn the other crew members about that. The Reavers would mistake it as an offer of prostitution when really they were looking for a wedding ring, and the aftermath of that was not an argument he wanted to have to mediate.


    In fact, he would have Nico add it to the documentation for new arrivals.


    [Nico, I forgot what the cores are like. Add something to the paperwork to exin that there are no billionaires on the ship and that harems are strictly optional.]


    Nico''s reply was swift. [Got it, boss. I have a flow chart already created of Reaver ie distribution, exining that none of us individually actually have much money and that we try to get promoted for the non-mary benefits. That should sort out most of them, but I have added a nice short and sinct note to the effect that attempting to steal a Reaver woman''s man may result in sudden and violent death.]


    [Thanks, I knew I could count on you.]

 Chapter 635 635 Lifestyle Upgrades

    The fact that they would not be Billionaires received much less of an adverse reaction than Max had expected. The whole reason that everyone wanted their children to join an ultra-wealthy family was to get them out of the chronically broke state that they were in as menial workers, not for the actual cash.


    Therefore, the non-mary benefits that the Reavers were offering them were almost exactly what they had always wanted.


    Their was still working almost entirely with pre-civil war Kepler technology, which made it a veryfortable ce to live, but evenpared to what was the height of human civilization a few years ago, Absolution was a worker''s paradise.


    Every worker got a housing allotment based on their family size and position, but none were crowded as they were back home. On the, it was normal to have all sons take one bedroom, and all daughters take the other, but the Absolution''s design assigned bedrooms in multiples of two.


    Not every child of a low-skilled worker would get their own bedroom, but they would never be shared with more than one sibling, a huge improvement from four or five in the same room.


    They also got a replicator allowance based strictly on family size, plus a bonus from their job. The details were the mostmon message that Nico was receiving, as the workers simply couldn''t believe that they could simply order anything they wanted off the menu or from the generic items in the database and pay by the energy consumed.


    Fortunately, Nico had been prepared for the culture shock, and once all of the new staff were onboard and checked into their new homes, she activated all of the holographic emitters at once.


    "Good morning, everyone. This is the first test of the shipwide emergency alert system. Rest assured that there is no emergency today, but I will go over a few of the mostmon concerns that have been raised over the previous day.


    First of all, the matter of work uniforms. They will be provided at your ce of employment if you require a uniform or protective wear. For those who do not, you will find a variety of business casual options in the Replicator system, which may be purchased using your energy allowance, should you be short on suitable clothing.


    Secondly, the replicator system itself. If you would like to follow along at home, I have updated the interface to make it easier for new arrivals to get a solid grasp of how the system works. Every action now has a number next to it. For example, if I wanted to create this bottle of Reaver Rum, it would take six energy units.


    That amount wille out of the food and beverage portion of your allotment, as Rum is a beverage. Please note that users will be tracked for the purposes of public safety. If you are not purchasing sufficient food for your family''s needs, a health and wellness counsellor wille to visit you to ensure that your family is still healthy.


    However, unless you regrly spend your entire paycheck on booze and drugs or starve your family, that won''t be a concern that you will ever have to deal with.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But back on topic, should I want a meal to go with my Rum, I have a variety of options. For those following along at home, please open the Popr Items tab on your kitchen replicator.


    There you will see a number of listings. Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes, Steak and Eggs, Lobster and Salmon filets in a lemon butter sauce, and Chicken Karahi make up the first page as the most requested meal items by human staff aboard the Colony Ship Terminus.


    As you can see, the meatloaf is actually the most expensive item on the list. Why? You might ask. So I will break it down. The total weight of the Meatloaf and Mashed meal is just over one kilogram, while the Lobster and Salmon filetse in at a mere six hundred grams without an additional side other than vegetables.


    It takes more energy to make arger quantity of food, so while the seafood is rare and expensive when harvested from the ocean of your homeworld, it is, in fact, less difficult for the Replicator to produce.


    This also goes for clothing. Larger sizes require more energy, while skimpier items require less. But make no mistake,dies and gentlemen, the Reavers have a well-ingrained sense of decorum, and wandering around in a bikini top and mico miniskirt will earn you many strange looks, no matter how much you saved on making them.


    Now, please enjoy your evening, and feel free to ask the ship''sputer if you have additional questions."


    Max was quite impressed with her prepared broadcast. It covered the essentials, and going by the energy usage charts, it seemed that the new arrivals were starting to get the hang of ordering meals right away, despite the fact that most of them hadn''t unpacked much of anything at the moment and had to have the meal created in takeaway packaging, with disposable cutlery.


    There were directions on biomass recycling printed onbels on the garbage cans, so they should be able to figure out the trash system easily enough, and Max began to rx as he scrolled through the residential zone cameras. Families were rapidly unpacking their pods, which were made of organic stic and could be recycled by the ship''s systems since they had been purchased from the''s government.


    That was one stop down, and very soon, they could be off to the next one, a tech production facility just inside of Cygnus space.


    The residents there were the pr opposite of these workers, and the official applications listed an average of 0.2 dependants per worker: nearly no spouses and very few children. The ce was also horribly overcrowded, thanks to a rapid decline in demand over the past decade, and they had been quite willing to part with a great number of skilled workers and researchers.


    Mostly junior researchers, but that was no problem for Max. The research team from Terminus would be moving to Absolution to give them more room to work, while a smaller team would remain on the ship to take care of the essentials and new product requests, as well as the ongoing Luxury Yacht production.

 Chapter 636 636 Final Pickup

    With their business done, Absolution opened another immense portal, leading the way for Terminus and the Alliance observation vessel to follow her through to Cygnus territory.


    The shock and panic on themunications channels when Nico led the ship through first were more than worth the expended energy, in her opinion, and it would leave asting memory with the new workers.


    These were more her sort of people as well. Rough and rowdy blue-cor workers, many of whom had spent the majority of their lives on ships and understood the Reaver code of conduct. They would make up the majority of the tradesmen in the first group, as Absolution was taking in nearly a million of them.


    That was four times the workers, but still not as many total people as they had gained at their previous stop, but Max wasn''t concerned. It was a great spot to pick up people who understood the concept of hard work, and it would bring bnce to the culture of the ship.


    The living spaces would be interspersed with the first lot of workers so that they didn''t identally create a cultural divide by the of origin right from the start, but the real glue of the operation, the management team, wouldn''t be arriving until their next stop.


    Max was taking Absolution to Rae 5 to show her off and pick up whatever excess ship staff and management candidates the Reavers had lying around. With them in charge, he could feel confident that the ship would slowlye around to the proper way of doing things, even if the sheer number of outside staff influenced the culture to some degree.


    The expectation that they would be working on a Reaver Operations Center, under Reaver rules and Reaver culture, was explicitly clear in the hiring documents and the advertisements, and at the second stop, it was a big selling point.


    Even before they started getting all the cool toys, many of the workers here dreamed of being Reavers and getting away from the sweatshops and the orbital mines.


    Unlike the family atmosphere of the first stop, there were very few belongings containers at this stop. They had packed light, putting everything into military standard storage cubes for ease of movement.


    They were much more aware of what a new generation Reaver Ship should be capable of, as the Cygnus Government had been on an intensive propaganda campaign touting the benefits of all the new technologies that were spreading through their territory.


    So, they left behind everything that reminded them of crowded hab blocks and crummy jobs and brought only their most treasured memories when they came to Absolution.


    It made for a quick stop, with everyone shuttled over in under six hours and settled into their new homes by the end of the day.


    The pace of the recruitment left everything inside the ship in chaos, though. None of the businesses were open yet. There was no functioning crew or staff, and it wouldn''t be for another day.


    That was when they arrived at Rae 5, and the staff of Terminus finished with the hiring process so that those who had been deemed essential to operations would be moving over.


    The entire infantry force, save for a small contingent that was working as security in the Cruise Ship section, would be moving to new homes aboard Absolution to serve the samew enforcement job they were doing now, but with actual work to do, now that they had ten times as many people to deal with.


    The crew they picked from among the Reavers would be piloting specialists and such for the actual navigation and operation of the new vessel, as well as the managers for all of the facilities and departments which didn''t have their positions filled by transfers from Terminus.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Colony ship would feel a bit empty for a while, with so many former infantrymen gone, but the Academy was expanding its grounds some, and Max had already made ns to expand the Cruise Ship area, so there wouldn''t be very much wasted space inside the ship by the time that everything was settled.


    It wasn''t like they were using the infantry in the first ce, and having them on Absolution would make it easier to whip them back into shape.


    None of them, Max included, had seen realbat in a long time, and everyone was starting to getzy and soft, a state that Max was intent on remedying. His first goal was to get a newbat training regimen going for all of the Pilots within the Terminus Trading Company. It was better to have them at the top of their game now than rusty once they actually sawbat.


    Max was certain that if he was still fighting constantly, there was no way that the Volga Titan ss Mecha would have escaped from him, and he was projecting that feeling of softness onto his subordinates.


    It wasn''t the wrong call, most of them had been cking off, and only a few still worked as hard as they used to in order to keep their edge. That would all change in the near future, though, and Max''s n would make basic training look like the daycare that it really was.


    But first, he needed the rest of his new crew.


    [As soon as we are done, we will be departing for Rae 5 to make thest recruitment stop for Absolution. Everyone, please enjoy your journey and prepare for a big announcement once we have the new staff settled into their routines.] Max informed the guests and staff of Terminus.


    He could sense the anticipation as everyone wondered what was in store for the adventure ship, which had just crossed most of a Gxy over the course of a week, picking up staff and viewing local documentaries detailing the history of thes and regions that they had stopped at.


    Before long, the final portal of their recruitment tour had been opened, and the Reavers very first World Ship entered orbit around the Reaver homeworld for the first time.


    They were greeted with huge fanfare, even more borate than a Reaver Wedding, with ships throwing out brightly coloured res all over the star system, celebrations everywhere, and even aary holiday tomemorate the event.


    [Greetings to the Terminus Trading Company and your intrepid ship designers. Congrattions on theunch of your very first World Ship. As is the Reaver Custom, since you are here with so many other Companies, we will hold an officialmissioning party for the vessel.


    I hope that your hastily assembled staff is ready for what ising because I don''t think that there is a single person in this star system that doesn''t want toe aboard, even if it is just to say that they were aboard a World Ship that Reavers made.] Mary Tarith greeted them before Max could even put Terminus into a proper orbit.


    [Will there be cake? I feel like this asion deserves a cake, don''t you?] Max asked, making the older womanugh.


    Max was the host, after all. It was customary for him to be the one providing all of the refreshments and entertainment for the guests, not the other way around. But Mary Tarith had a soft spot for her daughter''s chosen partner, and she would bring him one of her special recipe cakes as a housewarming gift during the celebration of the first mission for Absolution.

 Chapter 637 637 Mary Comes To Visit

    Max began preparing to have a massive influx of visitors just after everyone started to get settled in, but that wasn''t something that he hadn''t had practice with before.


    The staff of Terminus had gone through this multiple times before, and the entire city that General Tennant had settled had suffered the same fate, so he knew that he could at least host a party, even if most of the ship wasn''t entirely online and ready for regr business yet.


    It would help the crew bond, so he began to make ns for a multiple-day event, having his crew party the night before the christening and then continue it through the day with the visitors present.


    That should give them an idea of who was local and who wasn''t, as well as provide them with a chance to interact with the Reavers atrge. They were guaranteed to see a lot of them in the future, given the size of the ship and the facilities that it boasted.


    Anything short of a Colony Ship could be built or rebuilt inside the hangars of Absolution, and with a bit of effort, they could find a way to get a Colony Ship inside as well, so any Reaver in their vicinity was likely to drop in for some repairs and upgrades, as well as a chance to visit the city center of the ship to pick up some supplies.


    That wasn''t as necessary as it used to be, but not everyone''s Replicator and Material Printer systems had the same items programmed into them. The ones that the Reavers sold only contained a small sample of the possible permutations, leaving it up to the purchaser to obtain the design ns for everything else.


    That way, artisans could still sell their goods, and it wouldn''t encourage ships to iste themselves from the world. Many centuries in the past that had be a huge problem in some Reaver Families and among the Death Wind Mercenaries. Too small of a gene pool and an unwillingness to interact with others had spelled their doom over the course of a few generations.


    It also kept inteary trade going since the ability to code new items into the Replicators by simply scanning them wasn''t a standard feature but an additional function that was only on the units that Nico had developed specifically for their use.


    Keeping the Gctic Economy functioning was a delicate bncing act, one that Max was beginning to see had many moreyers than just simple conveniences like the Replicators. Thes had been relying on each other for generations, so if they broke those bonds now, the resulting chaos would make the civil war seem mild inparison.


    Mosts couldn''t sustain themselves anymore. They relied on others for something that theycked, so if the few that could sustain themselves cut everyone else off, a lot of people would die, and the nations would break down all over again.


    That was why Cygnus was distributing an even more limited older version of the Replicators and Materials Printers than their military was using. It made luxuries possible while still making foreign specialties unobtainable without trade.


    Max prepared to send out thest message of the morning so that he could rx for a bit and head down to the Mecha trainers and the gym, getting back on his training regimen.


    [All guests and Personnel aboard Terminus. In forty-two hours'' time, we will be docking with Absolution for the ceremonial First Deployment Party. Please be advised that the bays of Terminus will be opened once we are docked, and the staff of Absolution will be avable to guide guests who wish to visit the new vessel.]


    The cheering in the minds of the cruise ship guests nearly gave Max a migraine, but it was good to see them so excited about a port of call. They hadn''t gotten to take an off-ship excursion in a while, and that was one of therger draws of being on a wandering Colony Ship.


    He was just finishing a set of curls in the gravity-enhanced training room when his message rm went off. Some VIP was requesting to visit Terminus directly, and the ship''smunications officer had deemed it important enough to inform him or request his permission.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Sir, Mary Tarith is on her way up from the surface. Your locator ced you in the gym, and I thought that you would like a heads-up before your mother-inw showed up unannounced.]


    Themunications staff of Terminus were all great workers and deserved a raise, Max decided. Mary was a handful at the best of times, and being caught off guard only made it more difficult to ascertain what she was really up to.


    Her mind was like Nico''s in a way. What she was thinking on the surface had nothing to do with her ulterior motives and ultimate goals, and it always caught him off guard when she suddenly changed the topic to what she really wanted.


    Max dialled the gravity settings back down from ten times standard to twice standard before he left so that whoever came in next had time to adapt and wasn''t identally crushed by the gravity change, then went to shower before Mary''s shuttle made it up to him.


    He barely made it in time, but he was freshly changed and waiting at the hangar when shended, using one of the new morphable hull shuttles that Nico had designed only a few weeks ago.


    "I like the new ride. It looks like Nico keeps you right on top of the newest designs." Max greeted her with a smile.


    "Not this time. I had to beg Uncle Lu for a new ride so that I could show off for the crowd at theary docks. This is one of his experimental models. He has been using the hull design that Nico sent him to develop new warp shield frequencies in an attempt to give us smooth velocities all the way from warp one to thirty. It would be an incredible feat if he can actually manage it, but making a single warp core capable of that much variability seems to be a daunting task." Mary replied with a shrug, indicating that she didn''t understand theplexities of warp core design.


    That made sense, hisb was inside the Moon Base over Rae 5, and Mary Tarith was serving as the head of the Reaver Council at the moment, so they had a lot of interaction. The old Comor Royal''s ambition was quite impressive, though, even for a mad scientist.


    If he coulde up with a design capable of something that even the Alliance had given up on making practical, they could sell them all over the Universe. Assuming that the Alliance Government didn''te up with a big money offer to keep that particr technology off the open market.


    Max knew that there were going to be at least a few such requests iing over the next few days when he made the capabilities of the new weapons and shuttle designs public, and they had the chance to see the designs for themselves. He just had to wait for the legal team to go over the rules regarding the weapons'' usage before he announced them to everyone and had to answer questions about antimatter munitions on a technical level.


    "So, what brings you here so early? We''ve still got a whole day of staff transfers and bonding before the official ceremony." He asked Mary, who was setting a covered dish on a rolling cart from her shuttle.


    "Cake, of course. I am not making enough for an entire city, but I thought that we could sit and chat for a while. I know you have a particr fondness for sweet chocte cake, so I brought your favourite. It''s a prime opportunity while my daughter is away to have some time to chat."


    Those were dangerous wordsing from her. Not because she was malicious but because she was, forck of a better term, his mother-inw, and she could want nearly anything.


    While attempting to scour her mind for the true reason behind her visit and finding only the video of a pop tune ying in her mind, Max led her to his suite, with the cakeden cart floating silently in between them through the empty halls near the Command Quarters. Mary Tarith was getting just as good as Nico at hiding her surface thoughts from him, and he was going to have to work on a way to get around that blocking technique more quickly before he got some annoying song stuck in his head.

 Chapter 638 638 Venue Options

    Mary smiled at Max''s stressed expression, then patted him on the shoulder. "Rx, I''m not going to ask you for anything extreme. I''m just concerned about my Nico and how she''s adapting. You know how she is, she doesn''t really share personal matters, but you''re inside her head and bed, so you likely know her better than anyone.


    Max couldn''t help butugh at that phrasing. Mary was right. He had been both in Nico''s head and her bed.


    "She''s doing quite well, actually. The design of Absolution is her idea, and we didn''t even have to stop her from trying to put out anything extreme or demonic. The influence of the Innu researchers might be rubbing off on her, mellowing her out a little bit, but she''s just as high energy as they are, so she hasn''t suffered from the hyperactive state that many of the other humans suffer from hanging around them for too long.


    You have no idea how active their minds are, and they''re cheerful at every hour of the day, and even worse when you give them coffee. I''ve made a note of it in the species logs, by the way." Max replied.


    "Ah, yes, I saw that. The Innu Envoy has a fondness for drinking espresso by the litre. I have warned the staff about simr incidents since many of the other Reaver ships have taken some Innu repair staff on board now. There are over two hundred of them among the Reaver fleets in total now." Mary agreed.


    It was good to hear that the fleet was slowly integrating with other species, but that reminded Max of the article that he had read the other day about the curious species. He pulled it up quickly and sent a copy to Mary.


    "Read thatter. I think it will make youugh. But on the topic of Nico, thetest designs have been surprising. How much has she told you about her memory issues?" Max asked.


    He knew that Mary knew most things about Nico, but he wasn''t sure how much she knew about her daughter''s memories of a past life.


    "Her shes of inspiration? They''re almost alwaysbat rted, but sometimes they give her good ideas for new weapon developments. Is that where the new munitions came from?" She asked.


    Max shook his head. "Quite the contrary. These are totally separate developments from what shows up in the shes of inspiration. They are totally new things and not from any sort of outside source. I think it might be a good sign that she is finally achieving a bnce in her life, where her strange memory shes aren''t guiding her actions anymore."


    Mary considered that for a while before answering. "I think that''s good, then. She lovesbat a lot, no matter how you look at it, but when those thoughts were at their strongest while she was still a toddler, they seemed to be taking over her mind entirely. I think it was the boredom of being a child and being unable to do anything, but I did worry that she might go too far one day.


    Plus, these new designs are much more elegant than the old ones. It''s like a refinement in an artist''s style. The flowing lines, the organic touches, the adaptability, it''s all wonderful, and the other Commanders are loving what you''re turning out from Terminus Trading Company''sbs.


    We haven''t informed anyone outside of the Council about the antimatter weapons so far, but they should have documents ready for you soon. They found a historical precedent for them, and it has made the exact status in humanw much more clear, I am told.


    But enough of work talk. I think we need to n a proper ball. It''s all well and good to let the other Reavers and themoners have their party, but we need to put on something for the Commanders to get together andwork.


    You are much less rigid than most of them, so I thought you might have forgotten about it, and that''s why I''m here to help you n for a proper party."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    There it was, the real hidden reason behind her visit. Showing off her status and wealth in front of people who got to annoy her on a regr basis, thanks to her political position. A bit of petty payback while she subtly bragged about how well her family was doing under her guidance.


    Since she came with cake, it was hard to say no to her, and she was right. It was good to get all the Commanders and Ship Captains together in one spot during a party so that their subordinates could actually rx and enjoy themselves.


    You couldn''t really let loose when your boss, the person who made the decisions that would affect the course of your entire life, was likely to show up at any minute and see you drunk out of your mind or making other questionable life decisions.


    "So, what are you thinking? There is a nice garden in the right wing, near the back of the ship, that isn''t being used for anything yet. It is designated as a public space, but it''s not open to the public at the moment since the Shin and the Dryads wanted to take a look at it before it was contaminated by heavy use.


    Or we could use Central Park, which isn''t far from the portion of the crew quarters that we have filled so far and wouldn''t require transport if they wanted to see the start of the Commercial areas afterward.


    I''m hopeful that we can recruit a number of the Dryads to our fleet as well. They''re basically hippies and big on the natural order, but they''re good with nts and psychotropic drugs that have minimal side effects. You can''t keep the crew from trying to find something, but if you find them the best stuff and eliminate most of the addictions, it solves a lot of problems before they ur." Max replied.


    Mary chuckled and shook her head. "You really are morex than most Commanders. Even off duty, most Commanders would whip their crew for using controlled substances on board. That''s strictly off-ship vacation behaviour to most Commanders. But I suppose for a World Ship, it makes sense. You can''t really make port calls with that thing. You are the port of call."


    "Exactly. Terminus is a Cruise Ship, so we expect the guests to let loose and try to sneak things in, but for Absolution, we need to be very strict with what is circting through the poption, and the Dryads are geniuses in that field. It''s not like the Reavers have never run drugs before, and they seemed confident that they can keep the unauthorized products under control while still getting their product on the down low to the sailors who are looking for it."


    The two chatted for a few more hours, making ns for the party and going over theyout of the green space before Max called in one of the Shin and the Dryad Envoy to add their opinions to the matter of the party, as well as the Dryads'' intentions to be the supplier of all things normally considered illicit.


    The Dryad was the happiest he had ever seen her when she heard that they saw things her way. "See, if you get them the good stuff, they don''t need it all the time, and you can keep the dirty stuff out because who needs it when you can get something better? I think I have a few shipmates who would be willing to transfer to Absolution to take care of the Gardens and some other matters."


    The Shin waved his branches in agreement. [I intend to stay here on Terminus and take care of my World Tree, but there will be a shipload of my kining soon to apply for jobs on Absolution, tending to her nts. From what I can tell, the designer intended for it to be that way because they made an entire biome with all of our favourite flowers and meter-deep rich ck soil.]


    Max smirked at the shrub-looking being''s enthusiasm and brought out a data tablet with the details of the biome that Nico had designed for the Shin and other simr species.


    "Yes, there is one that I am certain your people will love. It''s just over ten kilometres long and five wide, oval in shape, and fully customizable for environmental settings separately from the main ship. It seems like a paradise for flora-type species, but you are the expert, not me."


    "Yes, very good, very good. The Central Park area where you wish to hold the party is a good choice as well. It shouldn''t take anysting damage from a rowdy bunch of Commanders, and the nts there can be easily repaired and regrown. By the time the parties are over, the non-human job seekers should be here, and they can take care of the aftermath."

 Chapter 639 639 New Admiral

    Max watched on the viewscreen as small ships began to dock at every conceivable location along the hull of Absolution. Even the maintenance airlocks had been deemed sufficient docking space for shuttles without anyone important on them, and all of their new residents were in a partying mood.


    It hadn''t taken long once the Reavers were on board to get things organized and start setting up all of the essential services aboard the newly minted ship, and now they were preparing for the premissioning party.


    Technically, you could consider the ship inmission, as it had its crew on board now, but it hadn''t been assigned any tasks yet, and most of them hadn''t even unpacked, so it was more of a move-in and party atmosphere.


    The guests from other Reaver Companies had been guided to public areas of the ship, away from where the inhabited residential areas were, and Max was preparing to head over himself to greet their final round of staff.


    Through an unfortunate turn of fate, the Crimson Fists Mercantile Fleet had fallen on hard times, losing two ships to debt collectors before Pirates disabled their final ship, and the Company had to dere themselves insolvent and beg leniency from their creditors.


    The Commander had been buying goods on credit to sell elsewhere, but after a number of bad calls that didn''t cover the cost of transport and purchase and then the loss of all three ships, they had nothing left to give, and the Reaver Council stripped them of their status.


    That had proven to be a great opportunity for the Terminus Trading Company to fill two-thirds of the needed Reaver staff. With a World Ship to pilot and manage, they were in need of skilled crewmen, and the men of the Crimson Fists were more than eager to get back to work.


    Of course, Max had politely declined all of their senior staff, as they should have been the Commander''s Inner Circle, stopping him from making such a horrendous series of mistakes, but they had failed, and it wasn''t a good example for his crew to take them in so soon after they had been disbanded.


    Terminus Trading Company was desperately short on qualified leaders at the moment, and he had already had to send his Battalion Commanders to pilot ships, despite the fact that they would have been much better remaining in charge of a Mecha force.


    There simply weren''t enough Reavers that had proven themselves capable and trustworthy to fill all of the positions that needed apetent and trustworthy subordinate, so Max had to make do with what he had.


    [Commander, the majority of the staff is gathered in Central Park, awaiting your arrival. Once your speech is done, I have scheduled four hours for you to socialize with the crew before the other Commanders are in the park for the party.


    It''s not a whole lot, but it should be enough to start to get to know the new staff, and we can adjust attitudes as necessaryter.] Nico suggested.


    [I''m a bit afraid to ask what you mean by that, so I won''t ask, and you can try not to think about it once I get there. Give me three minutes, and I will be on your doorstep.] Max replied, then left to get in a shuttle.


    On the bright side, he believed that he had found the perfect Admiral for Absolution. Lord Commissar Penner was a battle axe of a woman, sharp of tongue, wit and features, but she waspletely fearless about speaking her mind, and she knew how to keep order.


    If there was anyone who Max would trust to put in charge of his home when he was away, it was a Commissar who had led infantry Regiments both through the mud and blood ofbat and from the operations center on aary scale.


    If she could see to it that as many soldiers made it home alive as possible, she could certainly do the same from themand seat of a World Ship. She had been running a mixed martial arts gym on Rae 5 when she saw the recruitment poste through and had initially applied for the position of chief of police.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Once Nico had seen her qualifications, she forwarded the application to Max, and now he would get to give her the good news as soon as hended.


    Nico had sent her to pick him up from the docks, and he would present her with her badges as soon as she epted Command of the Ship''s Navigation and piloting crew. The Admiral was in charge of all docks, movement and deployments, answering only to Max, or his second in Command, if he decided to depart the vessel and leave Nico in Command of the ship for some strange reason.


    That was honestly a terrible idea. Nico would take the World Ship intobat at the first opportunity, so he would prefer to leave the Admiral in charge the same way that he did with Admiral Drake when he left Terminus.


    "Commander Keres Max. It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Eleanor Penner, but you can call me Commissar. Everyone else does." The scarred woman greeted Max as he stepped out of his shuttle.


    "I have a better proposition. I need an Admiral to keep this riffraff in order. I think you would be perfect for the job as a battle-seasoned Lord Commissar. How about it? Do you want the job, Admiral Penner?" Max replied.


    For a moment, he thought he saw a mistiness soften the woman''s hard expression before she gave him a stiff salute and a small smile.


    "It would be an honour Commander."


    Her thoughts betrayed the joy and gratitude that she was hiding behind the hard exterior of a military discipline officer, and Max couldn''t help but smile back.


    "You know, it''s likely to be a lot more work than just being the Chief of Police, but I am d you epted. I really didn''t want to search for someone else who was qualified to lead the crew of a World Ship." He told the new Admiral.


    Max took her badges of rank out of his pocket and passed them over for her to attach to her coat, an old Infantry Commissar''s jacket, mostly red with gold trim and made of thick wool that was ufortable in every weather condition.


    "Wee to the crew, Admiral. Now, let''s go greet the crew before Nico gets bored and starts a fight club or something." Max joked.


    "She''s already started a drinkingpetition, and nobody has realized that she''s a cyborg yet." Admiral Penner replied in a dry voice, making Max sigh.


    He would have to hurry so that he could save his new management team from their own poor decisions.


    When Max and Admiral Penner arrived in the Central Park area of Absolution, the staff meeting had already devolved into the beginning of a raging party. Everyone was getting to know each other, as Max had hoped, and they were all getting along, despiteing from very different cultures.


    "Shut the feth up! Your Commander is here." Admiral Penner shouted into a microphone, bringing everyone''s attention to the front of the park where they had just walked up onto the podium to give the arrival speech.

 Chapter 640 640 Meeting The Staff

    Max stepped up to the microphone with a smile on his face as the crowd settled to a low murmur, mostly about what they could expect of working for the Terminus Trading Company with a woman like her in the upper ranks of the ship''smand.


    [I see you have all met Admiral Penner already. She will be in charge of ship operations and navigation. Those of you in her department, be sure toe to say hello and get to know herter.


    If you haven''t already guessed, I am Commander Keres Max, head of the Terminus Trading Company and Pilot of the Titan ss Mecha, Cleansing Light. It is an honour to have you alle to join our most recent expansion and make your home here aboard Absolution, the first World Ship ss Operations Center in the entire Reaver fleet.


    She certainly won''t be thest, now that we have the basic temte, as well as the technological advancements to propel such a glorious vessel through space at a reasonable speed.


    It will be a lot of work to get amunity of millions in order, but I have faith that we have found the mostpetent applicants in three worlds to take on the job. That is what you are now, not just neighbours but fellow members of the Terminus Trading Company.


    It is good to see that many of you have changed into Company uniforms already. Loyalty is more important than anything else aboard a Reaver ship, and proudly disying the Terminus colours will never go wrong. It is not a requirement other than for certain jobs, so don''t worry about updating your wardrobes already.


    We will be having arge number of guests arriving soon, an in-service party for Absolution, but I won''t expect you all to be at work today. Instead, you can enjoy yourselves today and clean it up tomorrow once you have met your department leaders and gotten settled into your new roles.]


    Max paused as the staffughed for a while and told jokes to their future coworkers about the fallout of previous parties.


    [We have arranged a separate party in the residential areas for the minors to avoid any incidents tonight, so please take note of the restrictions. Barriers should prevent anyone without authorization from entering the residential area, but if you do see one, let ourw enforcement division know.


    They are all veteran infantrymen of the Kepler and Cygnus militaries and more than capable of escorting a few drunks out of areas that they weren''t meant to be.]


    There was a good chance that at least one spy or another type of infiltrator would be spotted tonight, and they would take care of that too, but there was no need to mention that to the crew during the opening speech.


    [Absolution will be travelling the Gxy for a while, sorting out existing issues, and then it will set course for other nearby Gxies, at least one of which is officially listed as fully developed, ording to the Alliance.


    No other human has gone and properly greeted our neighbours, we will be the first, and I expect that you will make a great impression on them.]


    "And if we don''t, our Mecha will." Someone in the crowd yelled, making those standing near him facepalm at hisck of tact in front of the Commander.


    [No, he has a point. Not everyone that we meet is going to be friendly, but Absolution has a significant military presence on board, and we will react with the necessary force if anyone threatens us. Terminus Trading Company spends much more time on trade negotiations than actual trading most days, but with this expansion to our fleet, we can start sending out the main vessels to engage in the primary duties of a Reaver Company.


    Trading Goods.


    On that note, should any of you have a product made here aboard Absolution that you wish to have marketed off the ship, let the division leaders know. I haven''t had a chance to meet them all myself, but we have four hours before the rest of the guests begin to arrive, so make the best of it and make some new acquaintances.]


    That was enough speech to wee new employees, especially when there were nearly a million of them gathered here in the Central Park area. They were already socializing, and Max noticed more and more badges being pinned to coats and shirts that designated which department people worked in so that they could find their coworkers more easily and not have to deal withplete strangers tomorrow.


    Nico had done a wonderful job getting everyone ready for his arrival, and the crowd was already splitting into divisions, where everyone sought out those with simr jobs or interests.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The entertainment division sorts were crowded with interested workers, all wondering what sort of ces they were working at and the types of entertainment that they could expect from the first day of full operations.


    The recruiters had picked staff to do everything that they thought the city might need, and a lot of it was based on their experience staffing the Cruise Ship aboard Terminus, so there was no shortage of entertainment workers in the crowd.


    Some of them were even heading to their workces early, and Max could see Nico sending out a message to all the management staff, informing them that if their shop was nearby, now was a great time to meet their staff by the doors or even open it up, if they thought they could handle the influx of people passing through to see what they had to offer.


    The bar staff was right on top of that. There was a strip of clubs only a block away, and Max could sense the anticipation as the staff made their way over. Tipping wasn''t standard practice in Reaver culture, but it was stillmon in nightclubs and taverns as a way to ingratiate yourself to the staff or show off for a date.


    Generosity was always near the top of desirable personality traits, after all.


    Max and the Admiral made their way down from the podium once the speech was finished and started greeting the managers who had gathered near the front and shaking hands.


    Most of the staff didn''t really stand out, but there were a few interesting and impressive characters in the crowd.


    One of the hires from Rae 5 was a former researcher for Uncle Lu, who couldn''t take the stressful work environment, but she had found herself the perfect home, running a virtual reality arcade in the residential areas. Another was an eighteen-year-old son of a bureaucrat from their first stop who had skipped multiple grades in school and finished his Business ounting degree only weeks before the hiring notice went out.


    He would be in charge of payroll for the sanitation department, and Max wondered how many people had dropped out of the running for him to end up at the top of the list without any job experience.


    He was supremely boring, mentally calcting the overtime hours that he would have to add to the payroll to clean up after the party was finished, even before it started. Maybe that was what you wanted in an ounting Department manager, though. The rest of the ountants didn''t seem that much more interesting.


    There were big egos, shut-ins who only showed up because they assumed it was mandatory, and working parents who had already decided just how long they had to stay to be polite before they could head home again and rx on the couch with their kids.


    At the moment, there were no two-ie families on the ship, not that they were actually needed, but Max knew that before long, most of the older kids and spouses would be looking for something to do, and Absolution City, as he was mentally calling the first residential area of the vessel, would start to reorganize itself naturally.


    As the ship''s poption grew, there would be many more such areas, and an entire nation would form within the ship, given its immense size. Each floor wasrge enough to be a small country on a nine-hundred-kilometre-long vessel, and even with kilometre-tall ceilings, there were twenty floors that weren''t designated for industrial or ship docking purposes.


    Max had been mingling for two hours and was about to start looking through the nearby shops when he noticed a few very unique appearances in the crowd that were drawing the attention of everyone around them. The botany experts from the Shin and Dryads had shown up to the party to mingle, and the sight of new species entranced the humans.


    Very few of the crew had seen someone who wasn''t human before, other than those who had fought the Narsians or who hade from other Reaver vessels, so the sight of a tree floating on a gravity pad and talking through a handheld device was a top highlight of their lives so far.


    The Dryads seemed to be running interference for the Shin, who was quickly overwhelmed by the questions of the curious humans, and Max noticed that they did an incredible job of blending in with the crowd. They were clearly not human, but once they started talking to the crowd, it looked like everyone had forgotten that and began treating them like new friends.


    It wasn''t some super secret skill or anything, only an application of their innate attunement to the atmosphere of the crowd that let them know just the thing to say, but it was refreshing to see, and Max wondered if he should bring in more non-human mental health professionals, assuming there were other species that good at setting people at ease.

 Chapter 641 641 Brilliant Ideas

    As the crew began to disperse through themercial district closest to the park, the visitors started to arrive, ready for a sneak peek of the new ship from the inside.


    The outside of Absolution was impressive enough, but getting to see the interior, with kilometre-high ceilings and vast open spaces, was an entirely different matter. The apartments above themercial district were off limits, only essible with a resident ess card, but they could see into some of the lower level units that had left their curtains open or which were currently unupied, with only the essential furnishings.


    The feeling that they got was that of the Capital city on Rae 5, a mix of an urban party atmosphere and luxury usually associated with sessful Reaver Companies and wealthynd-bound families.


    It painted a very tempting picture of Terminus Trading Company to the guests, and even with so few shops open, there were still plenty of activities to do in the very limited area they could ess.


    The ship was nine hundred kilometres long. Short of taking a shuttle across its length, there was no way to see even a single percent of it in one night, but the core of the currently upied area was enough for them, and Nico had made a limited three-dimensional simtion avable.


    She had left all the sensitive areas out of the map, but the parks and much of the primarily residential area were visible and could be explored by those who wanted to see more than just the city and the park.


    The Commanders of the assembled Companies hade to see Max at Central Park, right next to the stage where he had addressed the crew a few hours ago, led by the Captains of the ck Dog Mercenary Company.


    "Commander Keres Max. I must say, you have done very well for yourself. The rest of us are fighting for the resources to create a proper colony on a, and you built your own moon-sized ship." The Mercenaryughed.


    "We have some advantages since we are the ones testing all of the next-generation technology. Give it a decade or so, and anyone who can manage to obtain the crew could make one of their own." Max countered, making the Mercenaryugh even harder.


    "You have what, four million people here now, and it barely fills one sector on one floor when they''re not spread out to work. Even with all the resources that my mercenaries have aplished, we couldn''t fill a ship like this if we wanted to.


    The most recent releases for Cutters are very tempting, though. I believe they''re the ones you''re using on Terminus, though I suspect that a fresh generation of them has been made for this glorious Operations Center, as you called it."


    Max smiled back at the half-drunk and clearly overwhelmed Mercenary leader. "Those Cutters are avable from the shipyards here in the Rae 5 system. If I''m not mistaken, they have all signed agreements to make royalty payments in exchange for the ns. Anything bigger is overkill on almost every mission, anyhow.


    Not manys are sending out a Destroyer full of Cargo at a time, and even fewer are having a problem big enough to need one toe loaded with Mecha to save them."


    A few more Reaver Captains had arrived to catch thest bit of the conversation and chuckled at that.


    "Given this new tech, only a full-on Klem invasion would need more than one or two Cutters worth of forces to deal with. We have heard a lot about the battle against the Volga, though we were with the portion of the Company that stayed behind.


    Most of the big bosses are still over there, sorting things out or moving trade goods to Alliance customers. Even after factoring in losses, the invasion has been a big win for most of us, just with the price of the trade contracts.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    We''ve got loads of Alliance goodsing back as well, the sort of stuff that we don''t know how to make ourselves or just stuff that seemed kind of cool. Rae 5 Star System looks very different than it did before the Volga decided to y the fool." A Reaver in a purple felt top hat informed the group.


    "That''s true. The Replicators can work miracles for food production, but gathering so much raw material just to feed mass consumerism isn''t happening with most Commanders. Besides, what would they do with that much shiny junk once people got bored of it?" Another Commander joked.


    "Absolution has a very good recycling system. Pretty much everything organic can be recycled into a new product with just a bit of extra energy consumed. I know not every ship has the sort of excess power supply that we do, but it''s an option." Max suggested.


    "You have been living in the future too long. ording to the data specs of the Cutters avable for purchase from the Moon Base factory, my current Cutter has eight percent of the total power supply. If I used Replicators for everything like you do here, I would have to drop out of warp at every meal.


    The power usage is insane. It''s just that your ships have so much of it avable from these fancy new Warp Drives that you don''t notice." The first Commander pointed out.


    His ship was an early Warp 4 generation Cutter, and it was the only ship in his Company''s fleet, so simply recing it was out of the question, and even overhauling it was enough to nearly bankrupt them. So they had been paying the premium to use Portals whenever possible to speed up his deliveries.


    Unless they were going to just straight up crash the economy and try to rebuild it from scratch, it would take generations to fully change over from old tech to new, and by then, there would be another new generation of equipment avable, and who knew what sort of things humanity would havee up with in the intervening decades.


    "I know it can be frustrating, being a generation behind when things are changing this fast, but keep an eye open for announcements from Absolution. After we have things up and running, I n to make some very lucrative deals for the Reaver Trade Group members that do a lot of business with the Terminus Trading Company.


    It''s no secret that we have all the best toys and that many of them are still very much experimental. Even Absolution is a prototype, and the final version that gets distributed to whoever can afford such a monster of a vessel will have millions of refinements, bothrge and small. But we also have a lot of techs that have been finalized, and I am prepared to offer it at a steep discount to our loyal contractors."


    The Commanders chuckled at Max''s sales pitch, but he had a point. Who would turn down his missions if they could get ess to thetest generation of gear at a heavy discount as part of their payment?


    The details weren''t clear, but they recognized a number of the Reavers who were wearing Absolution Staff uniforms, and as far as they knew, they were from the Crimson Fists, which everyone knew were having troubles, but not nearly as many knew had been disbanded and absorbed into the Terminus Trading Company.


    From the visitors'' point of view, it looked like Max had just bought out an entire Reaver Company so he could have skilled staff for his new ship. It was tempting to the more cash-strapped Commanders, but it set a scary precedent. It wasn''t often that a Company had that sort of money floating around, and even rarer that they would try to buy out someone who wasn''t even apetitor.


    But then, none of them were surprised that a Reaver party was as much for showing off as it was for recreation. If you couldn''t show off your power and toys, why even bother bringing strangers to the party? When you were behind, you threw parties for those you could trust and built up yourwork. You didn''t invite every Company Leader in half a Gxy toe to see your new ship.


    Max listened to all of the various theories about what the Terminus Trading Company was up to while he drank and chatted with the Commanders and even made a note of some of them. That many brilliant minds in one spot generated a lot of well-thought-out and detailed conspiracy theories and spective conversations that he could use as inspiration for their actual future course of action.

 Chapter 642 642 Orientation Day

    The party ran until well after noon the next day before it finally wound down. Most of the staff went home early, but by the time dinner was starting to be served at the houses further from the chaos, there were hundreds of thousands of Reavers passed out anywhere that seemed remotelyfortable. Up against trees, on the grass of the parks, and on the floors and tables of the entertainment venues that had been opened the night before to get a head start on building their reputations as the ce to be.


    It would be a few more hours until many of them recovered enough to start getting mobile again, but the staff had gathered for their first day of official orientation. They had a lot of new technology to learn, as well as practices and procedures set by their leaders. Things were done differently on every, so when you had an eclectic group like this, you had to set a single standard.


    That meant negotiations of a sort. The way that the leaders of the divisions were used to doing things wasn''t always the best way, but some of the employees would have other, more efficient ideas, and the Reavers were always open to easier ways to get their jobs done.


    The most surprising idea for the public services office, which took care of the paperwork for employees and residents, actually came from a coboration between a Dryad and one of the Vampires that had snagged a position in middle management.


    Their suggestion was that everyone would get a nanotech imnt to verify their identity and current document status. That was normal for Kepler and for the Vampires, who had a more primitive version than the System, but many of the Reavers and Cygnus citizens couldn''t use System-based features, so it hadn''t been in the manager''s initial n.


    It wouldn''t give them a full-on System, but it would carry all of their identification and records inside their bodies so that they didn''t need to produce anything at the offices and so that every clinic could get all their medical history in an instant.


    For non-Kepler humans, that was usually what their identification card was for. But it could get lost, stolen or even duplicated. This method was much more secure and would help prevent infiltration. It would also eliminate those embarrassing moments when you identally lock yourself out of your house, workce, or vehicle.


    The nanotech imnts reced regr keys, and the ship was already set up for them. It was a measure set up by Nico and was also used on Terminus so that they could keep secure areas secure. Guests got a more traditional card or download to theirmunications device to serve as a key to their rooms.


    Implementation was easy. Everyone had toe by the office over the course of the next month to verify their data and finalize security clearances, so they could just implement it as they arrived and have residents save their identification cards as a backup.


    Most departments came up with at least one small improvement to their procedures. The only one that Max noticed hadn''t negotiated any new procedures was the bridge staff, who had Admiral Penner standing in the middle of their team, making notes of any suggestions that they had.


    A few suggestions were made about rearranging the bridge for more functional positioning, but nobody dared to question her procedures.


    Eventually, they would be less terrified of her, but for those who had served in an Infantry unit or had lived on a Reaver Ship their whole life, the Commissar was a terrifying existence, and they had grown up on the stories of other Commissars executing misbehaving children and soldiers on a whim.


    It was just a story told to children, in the case of the Reavers, but looking at her didn''t convince many people that she wouldn''t execute them for acting out, even as grown adults.


    Max listened in on their thoughts while she tried injecting a joke into the conversation so that her new crew would rx a little around her. It brought absolute silence to the room as soon as she spoke it, and Max could tell that more than one of the junior bridge staff had actually hidden, thinking that she meant it literally.


    [Try joking about little things. Very little things. Joking about feeding them to your pet Klem only makes them think you actually have a pet Klem.] Max mentally reminded her.


    [Then give me a better joke. I''m bad at jokes, always have been, and they look like they might wet themselves.] She thought.


    [They''re talking about scheduling now, so ask them to open this file on the projector. Reaver Code 3 Section 16, paragraph 400. The proper chastisement for tardiness.] Max suggested.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The paragraph read, "Beingte for your shift is uneptable without proper notification or during the previously listed exceptional situations. Should you bete for your shift, the member who covered for you may ask you to cover an equivalent amount of time for them at ater time. Should this inconvenience your superiors, they may ask you to cover the shift in the absent employees uniform and namete so they don''t have to remember a new name."


    The bridge staff was fairly evenly mixed between male and female staff members, with a few gender-neutralbat Cyborgs in the mix. Forcing those who missed their shift to wear someone else''s uniform was a recipe for hrity and disaster.


    Who would cover for ate crew member was up to the Admiral or the Bridge Officer on duty, not the friends of the missing crewman, so it could be used as a reward or a punishment, depending on who was missing and who wanted time offter.


    The Admiral had them open the relevant passage so that they could memorize it for future reference and then added her own version of a joke in her usual dry voice.


    "I would like to add that should any of you fine folks show upte, you will be wearing the uniform of Navigator Johns, who is always happy to have a shift off."


    Johns was one of the Combat Cyborgs, and his uniform consisted of a rank badge maically locked to his imnted armour.


    It took a few seconds for the bridge staff to realize that she had actually made a joke, but the idea of having to work your shift naked except for your rank badge was too funny for them not tough. It was just what Admiral Penner needed to get the crew to start to lighten up around her.


    It would likely be a pretty good deterrent to having the bridge staff show upte, as well.


    "It''s good to see you all beginning to rx. We have it easy for the next few days, except for the Communications Officers, who will have a lot of messages to pass through to operations, but that doesn''t mean you can ck on attendance. If the ship needs to move or there is abat situation, it will happen in a matter of seconds, so you need to be here and at your stations during your entire scheduled shift or have someone cover for you while you are on break.


    It has been a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to getting to know you all better in the future." She finished.


    "And feel free to show up a littlete,dies. You will look wonderful in my uniform." Johns added with augh, then ducked behind his console as a flurry of pens and abat boot came flying at his head.


    Max smiled as he saw the scene rey in their thoughts, happy to see that his crew was already getting along well enough to toss decorum aside. He never really trusted soldiers who were too by the book and uptight. The ones that knew you well enough to tell you to feth off were the ones who were the most likely to have your back when things went wrong.


    He scanned the crew a little longer, not finding anything too wrong, and then moved his thoughts to the Mecha bays and strangely found them abandoned except for a few technicians.


    He essed the cameras, and the area was packed with activity, but it was almost all Androids, which were a rudimentary AI system and not sentient, nor would their programming allow them to be sentient. It seemed that the limits on theirputing power were enough to cause his System to not recognize their actions as thought but asputer programs, the same way that Max couldn''t sense the destinations of automated drones and such.


    But when he focused on hisbat-rted functions, he could link through their sensors to the target, so he would still be able to provide them with firing solutions inbat, which was a relief. Their entire strategy to use Android Mecha Pilots relied on him being able to influence them with his System Functions in order to bring them up to a standard where they wouldn''t take heavy casualties.


    Only time would tell if that was going to give him a huge headache when that many Androids were inbat, spread all over space or the surface of a.

 Chapter 643 643 Crew Suggestions

    The crew got settled in for the next few days, and the Reavers were forced to be content with viewing the ship''s exterior. Terminus had been moved to her custom-designed bay in the lower levels, and establishing order within the ship was well underway.


    They were still severely understaffed, but a World Ship wasn''t intended to be filled to the brim the moment that it was built. As the name suggested, it was intended to be a travelling world, and the poption would grow into it and then stabilize.


    For now, that meant that there was a lot of empty space within the ship, frequented only by the automated cleaning drones and an asional sweep to make sure that the sensors weren''t missing anything.


    Once the crew knew what they were doing, Absolution would embark on her first proper mission. The Terminus Trading Company had been chosen to cleanse the Klem from the edges of the Trade Group''s territory.


    With a hundred Battalions of Mecha on board, and the most advanced technology avable to humans, there was no Reaver Company better suited to the task, and Max was looking at the proof right now.


    [Commander Keres Max, at the request of the Reaver Council, the Terminus Trading Company has been requested for the cleansing of the followings. . .]


    What followed was a list of unpopteds, along with directions that they should be taken intact without using extermination-level orbital attacks and destroying their habitable atmosphere. That ruled out most methods of cleansing a that was already in the process of being consumed by the Klem, so it made sense that he had been chosen, but it didn''t make the fight any less annoying.


    The smaller vessels of the fleet had already broken off to take on trade missions, but Max hadn''t nned to send them for this work anyhow. The Mecha Pilots of Absolution were all androids, so even if the fight was particrly brutal, it didn''t really matter. There would be no loss of life.


    Nobody among the Reaver fleet had seen Absolution move under her own power yet, so Max plotted a course to the first target, a three-day trip at Warp 5, and ordered the bridge to set the ship in motion.


    "Sheit, feth, sheit. Guys, we''re moving NOW." The bridge officer on duty began to shout when the message came through, and Max could sense both the momentary chaos on the bridge, as well as the amusement of Admiral Penner.


    She was sitting in her office, right next to the bridge, with her monitor set to watch the crew from various angles so that she could learn what they were like when she wasn''t there to intimidate them.


    The Bridge Officer got everything in order in under ten seconds and set the announcement that the ship would be going to warp in three minutes after it had moved clear of the gravity wells of the nearby vessels and.


    In theory, they could just directly elerate, but it was considered rude and often created navigational issues and a gravitational bacsh on nearby objects, so they would move out far enough that they didn''t affect anyone with their actions.


    Absolution smoothly maneuvered through the crowded shippingnes and out of the way before activating its Warp field and elerating so smoothly that not even Max''s well-attuned senses noticed that they were moving.


    Perhaps it was the size of the vessel, perhaps it was the upgrades that had been made for this generation of vessels, but he could get used to that. Max thought back on the very first time that he had gone to Warp aboard Abraham Kepler and shook his head. If that was the standard that other species were judging humanity by, it was no wonder that they were deemed far too primitive to be included in intergctic trade.


    With three days to prepare, Max went to the Mecha Training simtors to catch up on his practice routines. There were a surprising number of staff members already there when he arrived, despite the fact that none of them were currently assigned to Mecha duties.


    "What''s this? A bit of sport or training to get certified on a new Mecha?" Max asked the young woman standing next to one of the pods, which was upied by an equally young man, though Max suspected that they were no younger than he was. They just looked at it due to the influence of the System on his development.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "The virtual reality simtions here are far more advanced than anything that we have seen before, so we wanted to learn a bit more. We both checked out on the Line Mecha at our previous posting, but from what I can tell, Absolution doesn''t even have any of them on board." She exined.


    "That is not true. There are none in the civilian areas, but there are arge number of the new Samurai pattern Line Mecha in the defence force fleet." Max exined.


    "I didn''t see any recruitment for the defence fleet. I don''t suppose that they''re shorthanded, are they?" She asked hopefully.


    "At the moment, the entire defence fleet is made up of Android Pilots. The only humans involved are the Drone Pilots. Once the androids are fully battle-tested, I will make a decision on whether their performance requires us to introduce more humans back into the battlefield.


    I suspect that a Commander on the ground would likely be best for them, but again, that will be decidedter. When we designed Absolution, the goal was to eliminate as many possible casualties during an attack as possible."


    The youngster nodded but looked a bit sad. "It''s just not the same without real Mecha Pilots. They''re the heroes of the ship, you know. It''s not the same to have Androids do the job, even if it saves lives."


    Max thought about that for a while, then sighed. "You''re right. I will see what the roster looks like, and start testing out wing leaders, to see how they interact with the androids. One human for every ten Mecha could still be a lot of casualties, but it would put a face to every single wing of Mecha, and that would solve the issue of morale."


    "You''re a unique one, aren''t you? Not many Commanders would take someone like me seriously. I''m just an entry-level technician, ranked one on the benefits scale, as low as theye in the Terminus Trading Company." The woman joked.


    "Broke never did equal stupid. Trust me, I know. Everyone starts at the bottom and works their way up. It''s the only way that works. Some folk just move up faster than others. I think everyone knows Nico by now, but you might not know that she went from leaving the Academy as a Pilot to bing a Mecha Designer to lead researcher and Second in Command of the Company in under two years." Max told her with a wink.


    "Don''tpare me to her. She''s not human. I mean, she''s literally not anymore, but also metaphorically. Her mind is totally different than anyone else I have met. We''ve even got simr Innate Talents, I can debug any software that Ie into contact with using my Innate Talent, but the way that she abuses loopholes in her limitations is way beyond anyone I''ve ever met.


    Beta Rank Utility Functionspared to Alpha Ranked utility Functions aren''t usually that different. How hers isn''t ranked S, I will never know." The techined.


    "The issue is with Nico, not the Function. I know exactly what you mean. We both started out Alpha Ranked, and her Function just seemed brokenpared to mine. If she was still in her own body, who knows what sort of insanity she would be up to by now." Maxughed.


    "Oh, I heard about that. It was the talk of the Kepler Empire a while back after that gaming tournament. It feels like just yesterday I was watching the match online, and now I''m standing here with you, in my new uniform, working on an actual World Ship. It''s just surreal."


    Max gave her a pat on the shoulder and looked toward the other pods.


    "You''re doing a fine job. I''ve got to get some training in, but I will work on your suggestion to work some living pilots into the mix for the crew to look up to. I know we''ve got a bunch of them on the ship. I just don''t know how many we can spare since we were so picky with the hiring."

 Chapter 644 644 Nostalgia Moment

    The young man had exited his simtion while they were talking, and he stepped out of the pod to speak his piece.


    "If you''re willing to take younger sorts, I think you will find quite a few. The refugees from the war included a lot of Academy Students and instructors, and they all wanted a sense of stability, so there were a lot of qualified Pilots among those who came along on the spousal allowance.


    They''re not working right now. Even I''m out of work right now since we have only been here a week, and the first round of staff isn''t even used to their jobs yet. I came as her husband, but I''m qualified on the Line Mecha.


    If you take her advice and add wing leaders who are human, I would be willing to sign up right away, even if I have to start on the Line Mecha since there isn''t an instructor here to check me out on a higher ss of Mecha." The young man offered.


    "Have you ever been in a Corvette ss Mecha?" Max asked.


    "Other than the simtion just now? Never." He sighed.


    "Then get back in, and I will show you the ropes. I was going to practice my piloting skills anyhow, and I can do that in a Corvette ss simtor to start with. You will find that it isn''t easy to keep up with me since I''m capped out on strength and nearly there on dexterity and agility as well." Maxughed.


    "Is that even possible? No wonder you got the first Titan ss Mecha the Reavers produced." The girl asked in awe.


    "It''s possible but not easy. Care to join us? I will set you up to run the Corvette ss gauntlet test and activate the personal assistant subroutine to help you get used to the controls.


    I will apologize in advance if it swears at you, it was made to keep Pilots who were already qualified up to standards in a Special Forces Battalion, not to train rookies, so it''s a bit demanding."


    That was an understatement, and it was also based on Nico, so trying to show it up simply wasn''t going to happen, but it would be a good learning experience for them if it didn''t make them cry and give up after only a few runs.


    "If we do well enough, will you upgrade our credentials? I know it''s a lot to ask as a plus one of a new employee, but you are the only one on the ship who can sign off on an upgrade, other than Nico or the Admiral, and neither of them is a pilot, are they?" He asked.


    "Don''t let Nico hear you suggest that she doesn''t Pilot. She is a monster at the controls, the finest closebat specialist in the Empire, and she pilots Shattered Pride, a fully custom Phnx ss Super Heavy Mecha. The Admiral is not a Pilot, though. She was an infantry Commissar before I made her the Admiral." Max exined.


    "That says a lot about Admiral Penner''s personality. But I should likely apologize for underestimating your second inmand. We all know her as the mad scientist in theb, but I forgot that there was more to her background than developing new tech with the Innu." The technician replied.


    "Enough chit-chat. Get in the simtors, and let''s see what you can do." Max ordered.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max hopped into the simtor and booted up the Corvette ss Mecha that he would have the other two use for this exercise, then moved them all to the familiar training course that he had qualified on back at the Academy.


    "I hope you don''t have any traumatic memories of this ce. It is the one that I qualified on the Corvette ss Mecha back during my Academy days. I will run the course once to show you the pattern and make it easier for you. Watch what I do, and then repeat it." Max instructed them while they lined up the unfamiliar Mecha at the entrance to their respective courses.


    "Sir, might I ask, how long did it take you to qualify after you first started training on the Corvette ss units?" The technician asked.


    "I made the standard on my first day at the sticks. I don''t expect that of others, though. Not everyone has the particr advantages that I do."


    For the sake of their dignity, both potential Pilots simply nodded and epted his words. If they didn''t think about the fact that the Commander could step into a Corvette ss unit and pass the standard with it on his first day, despite still being a student, they wouldn''t have to face the gaping chasm in talent between him and themselves.


    Max started the timer and stepped into the course, deftly weaving left to avoid the first shots, and destroying the attack drone before moving to the next point of cover, weaving right and staggering a half step to dodge two more shots by throwing off the drones'' calctions.


    Every shot hit and destroyed the drones while the students watched, and Max walked out to the end of the course in under two minutes.


    "Did you watch to see the position of all the drones? They don''t change. They are the same for every qualification. You just need to avoid getting shot to ribbons and kill them all, or at least most of them, and you can pass the course with rtive ease.


    The most important parts of Corvette ss qualifications are to avoid being hit. Now, get out there and show me what you''ve got."


    He had been wrong. The Corvette ss Mecha wasn''t capable of moving fast enough for him to actually work out the rust on his skills. He would have to change Mechater to really give himself a proper assessment, but watching the rookies get annihted on the test course was far too entertaining for him to stop watching so soon.


    "No, you have to avoid getting shot. If they''re on your right, don''t move right to engage them. For one, you don''t have a melee weapon. For two, you are just putting yourself in the line of fire. If you can''t get a weapon on the target right away, move behind cover and regroup. There is plenty of time on the clock, but you can''t take back a hit to the sensors." Max chastised them as they tried and failed to get past the fourth drone without taking a shot when it popped out of cover on their right nk.


    "Yes, Commander. I think I have it this time." The young man replied, then restarted his test so he could try to get past the troublesome drone sessfully.


    This time he managed to dodge the shot and get into cover, but he was slow to get back out and shoot, so it moved away along its preset route before he could shoot it. He would have to chase it if he wanted to kill it, and he wasn''t moving fast enough for that, so he would have to take the miss and move forward.


    "Keep practicing. You''re getting there, and in a few weeks, I think you could do very well in the Corvette ss Mecha. I will be sure to include your name when the job offers for wing leaders go out." Max encouraged them, then left the simtion for one where he could use a much faster simted Mecha and really work on his piloting skills without the limitations of a realistic unit.

 Chapter 645 645 Lightened Work Load

    Max was just stepping out of the shower after his workout and training session in the simtors when he got an urgent message from both the Admiral and the Hunter Envoy.


    He checked the Admiral''s Message first since it was likely about a threat to the ship and nearly threw the data tablet across the room when he saw the contents.


    [The target is within sensor range now. Eighty percent of the is under the Klem infestation''s control, and the extraction of resources has begun in earnest. The remaining twenty percent is in an ongoing battle with what appears to be a recently built refugee colony or unupied. The design of the crashed vessel on the surface suggests that they are Tapani, and the Communications department has determined that they are attempting to send out a rescue message, but the Klem presence is mostly masking their attempt.]


    It couldn''t really get worse, so he checked the message from the Hunter Envoy.


    [Eighty percent of the appears to be covered in the no-tag limit game species known as Klem. This is a courtesy message informing you that there will be a Hunter presence in the world during your cleansing effort. We will endeavour to stay out of your way, but please ept our apologies if our hunting grounds cross.]


    That wasn''t bad. If the Hunters wanted to kill Klem here, they were more than wee to join the fight. Max sent the Huntress a map of their initial deployment n in response since the drops had already been mapped before the extent of the Klem presence had been determined.


    The only thing that would change would be which units, or possibly how many of which units, would be sent to each location, so it would be good enough for the Huntress to deploy her own teams withoutnding right on top of a Mecha Regiment.


    [Which drop location will you be at, Commander? The Huntress fleet is highly interested in watching your performance.] She sent it back.


    [I will be at this location, on the east side of the human settlement, while my Second in Command will be with this Regiment on the west side of the Colony. They might not be particrly amenable to being rescued by Reavers, but I suspect that in these circumstances, they might not mind as much as usual.]


    [Rescue Beacons don''t discriminate. You get who you get. I will be sending a team to both of those locations to join your group. The others want a properly verified recording of your prowess in a prolonged battle, and I have seen that your leaders requested that this be taken in an inhabitable state.]


    Max didn''t bother to ask how she knew that. Theirmunications weren''t exactly secure by the Hunter''s standards, so their ship likely just automatically decrypted the message when it came in.


    There wasn''t time to really change much about this deployment, but what he could do we test the limits of his skills.


    Max reached out to the Mecha in the hangar bays, all of which were on standby in case there was trouble before they got to their destination, and found that when he tried to link with that many, everything became blurry and indistinct, and he almost immediately got a headache.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    So, he moved to Team Leaders, and that cleared the blurriness up some, but the headache remained and was rapidly getting worse.


    Moving to only linking his System Function through the four hundred Battalion Commanders made the pressure in his head tolerable, and he was able to properly merge with their targeting data to provide proper firing solutions.


    It wasn''t perfect, but he could maintain it for an extended battle, and the Super Heavy Mecha could very easily share their targeting data, upgraded by Max, to the rest of the Battalion, so if the leader remained in a support position in the back, as most Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha did, it would be able to assist the entire unit.


    It was a bit of a disappointment that he couldn''t make Nico''s n work perfectly since so much of the Android''s potential rested on his abilities. They were good Pilots without his help, but that was it, just good.


    They alsocked a little creativity and generally were incapable of not doing things by the book. Adapting outside of known parameters was one of the greatest advantages that humans had over the Klem, and without that, he suspected that there would be a lot of losses when the Klem adapted to their techniques faster than the Androids coulde up with something that would work.


    That''s when he had a brilliant idea. He couldn''t send Mecha Pilots on such short notice, but he would have hundreds of Drone Fighters avable, as well as the Pilots of Terminus''s Battalion. If he tasked them to makemand decisions for the Battalions of Androids on the ground, he could get that edge back without risking any lives.


    [All Pilots attached to Terminus Stand By for orders. For this battle, we will be testing a new method ofbat organization, where human Pilots will serve as Command Officers for the Android force when it is necessary to adapt and improvise to ovee Klem tactics.


    If necessary, you may remote Pilot a unit suited to your qualifications, but your primary duty will be that of Central Command, adapting to the changing battlefield to limit losses among our force.] Max ordered.


    The Pilots immediately began to celebrate. Like Max, they hadn''t had a good fight in a while, and even if they couldn''t be on the surface, getting to lead a Company from above was good enough for them.


    Every Pilot had insisted at least once during their career that they could do a better job than Central Command was doing in the sky above them, and this was their chance to prove themselves right. If they could pull this off with minimal casualties, it would prove in all their minds that battle-tested Pilots really were superior Commanders to politically trained Command Officers.


    With Terminus in her hangar bay inside Absolution, they had full ess to the ship''s data with nog, but it would take them some time to get organized, and Max hadn''t set out a schedule for their Command positions yet. He still had a few hours until the firstunch, but he was cutting it very close.

 Chapter 646 646 Landing

    From the moment of his decision until theunch, Max had rushed to get everything organized and make sure that the Android''s programming would be properlypatible with the assistance of the Pilots up in orbit.


    They had confirmed that the Colony was still holding out against the Klem forces, and he had a full drone insertion forceing to clear thending areas, as well as set up orbits around the so that they could haveplete coverage for their Pilots although the worldcked a satellitework for them to hack.


    It was aforting, familiar feeling when Max strapped himself into the cockpit of Cleansing Light, which was crouched in the cargo hold of a modified Cutter. Especially once the announcements started.


    [All hands prepare forunch. Departure scheduled in 15 seconds.]


    The familiar voice made Max smile. Maybe on Absolution, fifteen seconds actually meant what it said, but during his early days aboard Abraham Kepler, it could mean anything from two minutes to right that instant.


    Sure enough, fifteen seconds after the announcement, their ship began to move, gently gliding out of the bay. It was a much different experience than a Landerunch, but once the ship began to rumble and shudder through the atmosphere, his mind began to focus onbat again, and Max prepared for battle.


    [Drone bombers have cleared yournding zone for insertion. The estimated clear time after bombardment is four minutes. Good luck Commander.] The announcement informed him as the map data went live on Cleansing Light''s feed.


    The Klem horde had been pushed back, and the defenders were celebrating the unexpected arrival of reinforcements, but the bugs wouldn''t be held back for long, and this was a fully developed invasion.


    Max could see at least a half dozen behemoths in the crowd already, eachrger than his Mecha, and his Battalion of AI Pilots would be outnumbered a hundred to one the moment that theynded.


    With thirty seconds tonding, Max checked on Nico, who should be descending right beside him, headed for the other side of the city. She was just as focused as he was, setting out abat deployment n for herpanions, but Max noticed that she wasn''t letting them just do their thing.


    She had improved her [Drone Controller] System Function enough that she could override dozens of Mecha at once, but she was using it passively in a simr way that he was using [Unified Force] to coordinate his unit''s actions.


    The method was different, but the end result was simr.


    [Doors will open in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]


    The Cutter wasn''t quite on the ground yet, but the Corvette ss Units surged forward the moment that the door opened, apanied by the Fast Attack Crusaders, and moved to establish a perimeter around the Cutter while the other Mecha exited.


    When Cleansing Light stood up outside of the Cutter and added its Disruptors to the barrage of fire that was holding the front lines of the Klem assault back, the Colony''smunications and citizens nearly went crazy in joy. Nobody cared that the Nation they fled from had been at war with the Reavers before being decimated. All that mattered was that there was a Titan ss Mecha here to save them from the Klem.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Local defence, we will focus on the Eastern and Western fronts, to begin with, and then spread to encircle the Colony. How many souls require extraction?] Max asked.


    [In all, there are approximately ten thousand survivors. We will defend as long as we can, but our military resources are very limited, and we have been using farm spec Mecha on the front lines.]


    Farm spec usually referred to Mecha of an obsolete design. Or, for nations which didn''t use a fully modr chassis, a unit which had seen so much structural damage that it was no longer fit forbat. But they could be stripped of their armour and sold at a discount, then used in ce of conventional tractors on frontier worlds, where even farming was a life or death activity for the residents.


    [We will have the Cutters hold their position until the encirclement isplete. If you look directly upward of your position, you will see the World Ship ss Operations Center Absolution. We will extract you to that vessel as soon as the encirclement isplete and your residents can be safely removed from the surface.] Max informed the voice on the other side of the radio.


    [Understood, Commander.]


    Max switched his broadcast to the Battalion channel and began to give orders. [Thunder Guns, wide pattern bombardment. Turn the battlefield into an obstacle course for the Klem. Corvette ss units, brace for impact.]


    The Klem Warriors were nearly on them, and his Disruptors could only hit so many at once, so Max let the light Mecha do their jobs while he picked a new target. There was a barrel-chested Klem Behemoth that looked like a beetle headed their way, and it was giving him a bad feeling.


    If they looked like they contained a lot of innards, they were usually full of either something deadly or even more Klem, so Max focused his left arm''s Disruptors on it, then sted the Behemoth and everything within fifty meters of it into particles.


    If it was one of the sorts that could spew acid or sma at them, it wasn''t anymore, but that had enraged the other Klem, and a barrage of spikes was flying his way.


    Max cleared them with a burst from the Disruptors and moved forward to meet the charge of the Rippers before they could get to the light Mecha.


    His defensivesers were constantly firing, keeping the Klem Warriors off of Cleansing Light while he advanced, but there seemed to be no end to the tide, with more appearing by the second. Under normal circumstances, the dense mass of Warriors was an effective tactic for the Rippers to makebat uninjured, but Max still had time to cut a half dozen of therger Klem down before the first one was close enough that he had to switch to melee weapons.


    The System decided that Max needed to focus, and adrenaline surged through his body as he drew his sword, joined by the distinctive mental impression of joy that meant that Nico hadnded and joinedbat on the far side of the city.


    [The sun is shining, the air is clear, and it smells of burnt Klem. It''s a good day for a war.] Nico thought after her emotions caught his attention, sending Max intobat with the Rippers while wearing a smile on his face.


    Indeed, it was a good day for a war.

 Chapter 647 647 Behemoths Are Advancing

    The air shrieked aint as the massive de in the right hand of Cleansing Light was forced in a nearly supersonic arc, bisecting a Ripper and taking the arm off of a second, who had only just barely dodged back fast enough to avoid the same fate.


    Max didn''t hesitate and followed up with an upward strike and a rapid shift of his feet to give Cleansing Light the mobility to bring the de back down on the head of a Ripper attempting to bypass him.


    Thesers cleared the smaller attackers from his vicinity as the mighty de cut through the Rippers, keeping their brutally serrated ws away from his light Mecha units.


    For the sake of simplicity, Max had chosen the First Battalion to attach himself to, and they were already beginning to spread out to increase the size of their defensive line.


    With the initial surge of Warriors mostly cleared, the rest had to run the gauntlet of Thunder Gun fire to get close to the unit, and the First Company was a reinforced unit, with nine Super Heavy Mecha instead of the usual five.


    Nico''s unit had the same, and he could hear them fighting on the other side of the encampment, but there wasn''t much time to spare for that, as the next group of Rippers was already on their way, and Max''s target detection had spotted the Behemoth that they were trying to hide within their ranks.


    He fired his Disruptor into their ranks and watched in horror as nothing happened. The Disruptor hit a wave of sma ejected from the Behemoth and dissipated without harming anything.


    It was crude but effective, and it stopped him from simply eliminating the escort Klem at a distance while the Behemoth advanced.


    [All units, be advised that the Klem has developed countermeasures that are effective against Disruptors.] Max advised thending force on the surface.


    Of the one hundred Battalions aboard Absolution, sixty were on the surface, with forty held in reserve should a particr area need reinforcements or if the ship itself shoulde under attack.


    If the Disruptors could be blocked, he would simply do this the old-fashioned way.


    [Fusion mers, clear the lines and spread out as much as possible. Minimizing civilian casualties is a Priority two mission parameter.] Max instructed his androidpanions, bringing instantpliance.


    He could get used to that. There was no hesitation or second-guessing, only instant movement, and with his whole unit gaining the benefit of his targeting Functions, very few shots missed their mark, leaving an impressive number of bodies scattered through the shrubs and broken trees of the battlefield.


    Max waited until the Rippers and their Behemoth caretaker were close to his position, then activated his thrusters and charged them, sweeping through the air with his de and firing all six Disruptors once he was in melee range.


    It limited their effectiveness, but the beams tore through the Rippers in an instant, turning the bodies to ash so that his de could have a clear path to the Behemoth.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    With a ng that echoed through the colony, alloy met chitin, and the Behemoth raised up to face Max inbat. Its thick front leg, pointed on its end to pierce through even the hardest of targets, was deeply wounded but holding solid as it shed forward against Max''s shield, causing the energy shielding to re to life while Max spun the enormous Mecha to the side and brought his de down again, aiming for a joint in the chitin at the shoulder of the front leg.


    The Behemoth twisted to avoid the de but only managed to cause the blow tond on its upper leg, severing the limb above the thick armour of the weaponized lower limb.


    Its howl of rage drove the Klem into a frenzy, and Max could see that they were no longer trying to avoid the bombardment and had begun simply rushing the Mecha line, reinforced by tens of thousands of new warriorsing up from holes in the ground.


    That was not good. If they had underground means of travel, it would be much harder to track them with drones and satellites, but the data was already fed into the Mechawork, and Max could see the data updates as the Androids and the Pilots advising them worked to adjust to the situation.


    Even in his own force, the Fast Attack Crusaders had taken the initiative to leap over most of the battlefield and fill the tunnels with Fusion mes, halting the wave of attackers for a moment, then leaping back behind the lines before they could be overrun.


    The Klem wouldn''t allow them to do that very many times, but the first time had given the lines enough of a clearing that they had nearly doubled their coverage area.


    Max followed up the attack on the Behemoth''s limb with a forward strike, aiming for the wounded area, free of defensive armour, but was forced to use his thrusters to leap free when the Behemoth fired a corrosive liquid at him.


    [Iing drone bombers] The battle radio advised, giving Max ten seconds'' warning before they pelted the battlefield around him.


    There was no need for him to move, though. Cleansing Light could take a hit or two if needed, but the drones were supremely urate and would skip a drop that wouldnd too close to him as long as he wasn''t moving too far.


    As the bombs rained down around them, Max and the Behemoth traded blows, and Max managed to hit it twice more with the Disruptors, tearingrge chunks of its belly armour away and leaving it bleeding heavily on the ground when it retreated to make its next attacks.


    Klem didn''t seem to feel pain, and they would fight to the very end, but that should be close for this Behemoth.


    Max pressed his advantage and removed its other front leg at the shoulder, leaving it without its primary melee weapons. The Behemoth didn''t care and simply charged with the intent to grab Cleansing Light in its crushing mandibles before the Mecha could get away again.


    That put it in just the right position for Max''s next strike, and his de split the creature''s head wide open, followed by a st of the Disruptor that vaporized the creature from the inside, leaving Max standing in a whirlwind of ash.


    He took a half second to regroup and double check his target options as the mes of the bombs cleared, only to see two more identical forms rushing at him. The Behemoth had Sisters, and they were not happy.

 Chapter 648 648 Learning Their Tactics

    There was something very wrong with this world. Advanced Behemoths learning tactics to deal with their most modern weapons was not a regr urrence in a newly colonized Klem world. If anything, it felt more like they had invaded a Klem core world, despite its location right at the edge of human territory.


    There was a chance that this was a new tactic by the species, testing their capabilities and the effectiveness of sending more than the same expeditionary fleets to settle new worlds.


    It was about to be a nightmare for his forces, though. If Cleansing Light was having issues killing the creatures quickly, they were going to devastate the regr units, who weren''t as capable in closebat as he was.


    They would have to send multiple Crusader ss units to deal with a creature like this or focus the main weapons of their Super Heavy units on it until it was dead, taking a significant amount of their firepower away from the rest of the battle.


    Max considered his options and decided that it would be best to engage both Behemoths at once so his unit wasn''t one of many who were going to struggle with the new type of Klem. Cleansing Light was more than capable of defeating these creatures without taking any significant damage, but it wouldn''t be particrly quick by Max''s standards.


    He spared a moment''s thought for Nico to see if she was in the same situation and found that a Hunter team had joined Shattered Pride, and their des had be a deadly blender, mincing and chopping everything that came near them.


    The main battle wasn''t going any better on her side, but when it came to these particr Klem, it was clear that they held the upper hand.


    That was when it dawned on Max. These Klem weren''t designed to counter him in particr. They were designed to counter the Cygnus and Kepler Mecha that the Klem had mostmonly faced in the past.


    None of the standard pattern Mecha Regiments would stand a chance against this force using thest generation''s technology. They could block the worst of the iing attacks, and they would tear the Mecha apart in closebat.


    It wasn''t much of a relief to know that they were still one step ahead, though. Two-on-one, Max was going to have to be careful not to get hit hard enough to strip awayyers of his shield.


    He briefly considered flying up andbining the Disruptors for a heavier attack, but it would cause major damage to the area, and the residual energy and fallout wouldn''t be good for the colonists who were right behind him.


    So, he waited for them to engage him, one moving to each side, as Max shuffled to keep them in position as he looked for an opening to attack.


    The first to make a mistake was the Behemoth on his left, which stepped on a shallow tunnel, and instantly dropped five meters, putting it off bnce and opening it up for a strike to the joint where its head met the locust-like body.


    Max twirled and went to strike when enormous wings opened on its back and threw the Behemoth away from his de, escaping with only a minor wound.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That wasn''t in his calctions. Something that size couldn''t possibly fly. Or at least he certainly hoped that it couldn''t fly. A forty-meter-tall locust that could fly over defences wasn''t exactly something that most human cities were prepared to deal with.


    The escape move left the creature''s underside open, and Max pressed ahead, focusing three Disruptors together to st a hole in its chest, which was partially blocked by a spray of what appeared to be sma fire from the other Behemoth.


    The escaping bug was gravely wounded, but before Max could finish it off, he had to turn to parry an iing flurry of strikes from the serrated front legs of the uninjured partner.


    Cleansing Light was the faster of the two by a fair margin, but with one de and a shield against the two fast-moving legs, Max was only pushing the creature back at first, trying to get into position to finish off the wounded Behemoth before it could heal or escape.


    He saw his chance as his opponent charged, and instead of parrying, he tilted his shield forward and let the force of the strike throw him upward, so he could roll across the Behemoth''s back and level his Disruptors at the fallen partner, vaporizing its head and leaving him on equal terms with his opponent.


    It shrieked in rage as the massive locust died and coated Cleansing Light in sma fire, causing his shield warnings to light up as the heat stripped away his power output.


    Max charged forward out of the attack, aiming for the creature''s open mouth. If he could damage the delivery mechanism, he could stop it from igniting that spray and setting him on fire again. But that wasn''t happening today. The Behemoth snapped its mandibles together to defend, and his de only shattered one before a mighty kick drove him away again.


    The limitations of the Behemoth were bing clear now. It was incredibly fast, but only for a short time, and it was already starting to slow down as it ran out of energy. If the Mecha could hold it off for even a few minutes, the creature would exhaust itself, and they could easily finish it off.


    Max took advantage of that, circling the side of the creature to attack its more vulnerable hind legs. It couldn''t turn fast enough to keep up and lost a limb to his attack before opening its wings to hop away and trying to stomp him to death with its front legs again.


    Max stood his ground, letting Cleansing Light take the strike to the shield in its left hand, and then pushed the Behemoth upward, sending a Disruptor st to the bottom of its head and killing the mighty Klem Behemoth in an instant.


    For a second, there was nothing around him, and the battle seemed to pause, with the explosions and the drumming of the Thunder Guns all blurring into one moment of white noise, and then his senses cleared again as the adrenaline surge levelled out, and Max turned to face the rest of the Klem tide.


    He knew how to deal with their leaders now, and they could get the colony behind the Mecha lines within the hour, so they could evacuate the civilians and really start to go all out.

 Chapter 649 649 Encirclement

    With the Behemoths taken care of for a moment, Max set his Disruptors to a wide dispersion pattern and began to move north, working to clear the front lines so that his forces could advance andplete the perimeter around the Colony so that their defenders could be released and evacuated.


    His troops were making good progress, but Nico''s seemed to have stalled for a moment, not gaining any ground, but he could still hear heavy fire from that direction, as well as from the Thunder Guns of his own forces.


    [How is it going over there? Have any issues with the Behemoths?] He asked to make sure that there hadn''t been any developments that he hadn''t picked up on the sensors.


    [Tactical pause. We are gathering the Klem into one big cluster for a push.] Nico replied, and Max sighed.


    He knew that was half true. She had ordered her people to pause their advance and let the Klem pile up so that she could have apetition with the hunter and then gain arge amount of ground in one push.


    Tactically it was annoying to Max since it was hard to track her overall situation, but knowing her, it would be effective, and her forces would catch up to the progress of his own in only a short time.


    [Got it. I am pushing North to meet your forces, so you can clear south and meet mine at the other end. I will be monitoring so that we can prepare for the evacuation.] Max replied.


    With the Disruptors on wide dispersion, Max was clearing a wide swathe of Klem Warriors as he flew across the battlefield, letting his Mecha chase behind him to consolidate more ground.


    They had to stop every few seconds to deal with a Ripper or Spitter who had snuck past Max, but they were still making good progress, but topletely encircle the Colony would spread them out quite a bit and force the Heavy Mecha to fight alone much of the time, with assistance from the more abundant Light Mecha.


    He picked up another Behemoth back to his South and stopped the advance to go deal with it before it could cause a wave of losses among his unit. He could sense the desperation from the defenders of the Colony, who were rapidly running out of functional weapons and equipment since they had limited fuel supplies, and the relic Line Mecha that they were using were diesel-burning sorts intended to run off of more easily produced fuel oils that the Colony hadn''t had time to produce inrge quantities.


    Nico had started to move already, though, and her push to the South was taking a lot of the load off of them, as it was drawing the Klem up to meet her and the team of Hunters.


    They were having entirely too much fun with their work, but they were also covering a lot of ground now that they had the Klem density up to where they wanted it.


    Unlike Cleansing Light, which fought in melee with a sword and shield, the Hunter''s Suit used dual des, and Shattered Pride had a de in all four of its hands. That made it much more efficient for them to clear densely packed enemies than to chase after them, and the tactic was working exactly as well as Nico had hoped.


    The Behemoth that Max was facing was different from thest group, a centipede type that Max was more familiar with from past battles. They were a pain to kill, but they weren''t particrly deadly to a Mecha his size. They were better at breaching walls with their immense size than attacking Mecha, so he assumed that the Klem attack n had been made in advance and didn''t include him killing all of the others before they could breach the lines.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The beast wasn''t slowing down, though. It had caught the scent of the Colonists, and it was on a single-minded mission to eat them.


    It was only when Cleansing Light came within ten metres of the Behemoth that it finally decided to acknowledge his presence and defend itself against his imminent attacks. You could never tell where the brain of this sort of Klem was going to be, so Max had taken the most efficient approach and was lining up his Disruptor to shoot into the Behemoth''s mouth and straight down its length, destroying everything it passed.


    Unlike the others, it had no way to deal with that attack, and the beam of energy tore its enormous body apart, spraying the battlefield with gore.


    The other Klem didn''t even seem bothered by it. It seemed that they knew the timing of that creature''s arrival was off, so they had factored it out of their decisions and were focusing on trying to breach the lines near the northern edge of the front, where the unit hadn''t had time to spread out properly yet.


    But, as soon as Max started to move in that direction, another Behemoth appeared from underground just under a kilometre from the southern edge of the front.


    "Oh, very sneaky. Trying to bounce me back and forth like a yo-yo." Max chuckled as he turned his back on the Behemoth and began to push northward.


    The Locust had appeared too far south this time, and instead of drawing Max down to fight it and away from his unit, it had ced itself in the sights of Nico and the Hunters, who wereing that way at a full-out charge.


    Given thirty seconds, they would be on it, and they hadn''t had a chance to fight that particr type yet, as far as Max knew. The Hunters, for sure, would appreciate the new target to test themselves against, so he would assist his troops and get the Colonists to safety as fast as possible.


    The android units were only a few hundred metres from each other now, and the defenders from the Colony were beginning to fall back into thepound in their battered Line Mecha, letting the Reavers take over. It was close enough to a full encirclement for Max, so he sent the signal to the Cutters to move in and prepare to load.


    [Colonists, pack everything that you wish to take into the Cutters, and they will fly you to safety. They will make multiple trips if needed, but it''s your call if you want more supplies from the Colony or to get everyone to safety in one flight.] Max informed the civilians as he finished securing thest gap in their lines.


    [We appreciate your consideration, Commander. Lives are more important, and supplies can be reced eventually. We will do our best to get everyone into whatever vessel you send for us.]


    There weren''t that many colonists left, so the two Cutters that had brought the Mecha Battalions to the surface would be more than sufficient for the task. He just had to hold the position for an hour or two while they packed up and left.


    The Klem weren''t going to make that easy for him though. They were already regrouping in the distance, ording to the aerial scans, and they would push again within the next twenty minutes, with a strength at least as high as what was here when hended.

 Chapter 650 650 Evacuation

    While Max secured the Northern and Eastern sides of the Colony, the Cutters moved to load all of the residents on board. They hadn''t wasted their time during the battle and had everything that they could move already in crates, set to be packed into a cargo hold and taken with them off the, should they happen to survive and be rescued.


    They hadn''t had much here to begin with, as their main Colony had actually been on a different continent from this settlement, which was intended to be a rural farming vige, gathering resources to bring to the site where their ship had crashnded.


    At first, it seemed like good luck that they hadnded on such a suitable. It had a breathable atmosphere, which was one of the emergency target requirements for the ship after it was damaged, but that was no guarantee that it would be suitable for growing anything.


    This had already had life on it, just not human life, and for a few months, they had thought they could just start over without politics and violence from other worlds affecting them, but then the Klem had arrived and put an end to that dream.


    This site was the furthest from where the Klem hadnded, making it thest holdout when they had taken the, and if the Reavers had been even a dayter, they wouldn''t have survived.


    Max waited behind the lines while the Klem regrouped. Taking the time to mark all the important targets would make the battle go much more smoothly and give the Hunters a chance to pick out the challenging targets that they were here for, reducing the number of truly dangerous enemies that the Mecha would have to face.


    It was a win all around, but he would have to do something about the tunnels first. They had dug them without anyone noticing, and they got very close to the Colony during thest attack, so if he didn''t copse them, the Klem might just pop up among his troops, and it would be a strategic disaster, no matter how the battle went in the end.


    Worse, they coulde up inside the Colony and wipe out the Civilians. In fact, that might be what they were waiting for, but Max''s sensors didn''t detect any seismic activity that would indicate digging or an underground force approaching.


    That didn''t mean that it didn''t exist, only that he couldn''t detect it, which made the odds a bit lower.


    [Drone Bombers, this is Commander Keres. Please drop shaker charges in formation seventeen Alpha on the marked location.] Max directed and sent the coordinates that he wanted them to bomb up to the Drone Pilots.


    The Shaker Charges were meant to break bunkers, and they would do a wonderful job of copsing tunnels if they managed to hit them. He wasn''t the only one requesting them, but the new generation of Drones was more than capable ofplying.


    Instead of a standard bombing load, they had raw materials and a Printer so that they could make a variety of explosives as needed until their supply was depleted, and then they would return to the ship to restock and be sent back out again.


    The Klem turned to look at the sky when the sound of approaching Drone Bombers caught their attention, and they began to fire spikes up at them, trying to hit the falling bombs. They had some limited sess, but most of them made their targets, crashing into the ground with a directed charge, and shaking the earth around them, copsing dozens of tunnels around the Colony and bringing irate Klem to the surface.


    As suspected, they had been digging the tunnels forward of thest exits, but that should be on hold now, and the Klem force was preparing to rush at the defenders.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Iing Klem imminent. Pick your targets carefully, and all Fast Attack Mecha prepare to create a firewall when the Warriors reach your range.] Max directed.


    If he had time, he would like to pile up the bodies and light them on fire, creating a secondary defence, but there just wasn''t time yet, and he didn''t have the proper tools with him. That was the one advantage of having infantry in your force. They could operate things like bulldozers and trenching tools. With everyone in Mecha, you missed out on those little things.


    The ground shook nearly as heavily when the Klem force began to move in unison as when the bombs had been iing, and then the Thunder Guns started their barrage, nketing the battlefield in explosions again.


    [Commander, give us ten more minutes if possible. We are nearly loaded. There are just a few more important items that we would like to get on board before we leave for your vessel.] The Colony leader informed him.


    [We will hold as long as we have to. Just make sure that your people all get on board and off the. The next round of attacks might not bepatible with unprotected human life.] Max replied.


    Every citizen would understand what that meant. Large explosions would kill with air pressure changes even if they didn''t kill you, and the Klem loved to use gasses and toxic liquids that would melt even military alloy and concrete. They definitely didn''t want to be here when that sort of fight reached the city, and it was clear that the Mecha couldn''t hold such arge perimeter forever.


    Max bathed the Northern region of the battlefield in Disruptor sts, clearing out most of the Klem Warriors in the front lines and giving the unit an extra thirty seconds before engagement, and then moved to the East, where a number of Behemoths had been spotted.


    [Commander, the Hunters will take the Locust Behemoths this time. You can have the others.] The Huntress that had been fighting with Nico offered.


    There were no suitable targets on their side of the battlefield, only the sma-spraying beetle types, which were no fun to fight since they just exploded when hit. So they wereing to the East to help Max during this fight, leaving him with only three Behemoths to take care of, at least, that he could see at the moment.


    Those were the sorts of odds that he could deal with.


    The first Warriors breached the bombardment of the Thunder Guns just as the Huntress and her team of four arrived. They saluted to Cleansing Light as they passed by, and Max ordered the Thunder Guns to clear a path for them so that they could reach their targets without dy, then fell in behind them.


    The Androids were getting better by the minute, gaining data on the Klem Tide''sbat styles as they went, and as long as nothing changed, they should be able to make significant gains in theirbat effectiveness by the end of the day.


    It was far better than he had expected, and the general sentiment of the signals that he was receiving was that the Android Pilots werepetent enough for the job, with only some rification and a few suggestions from more experienced Pilots needed to keep the units from being overrun so far.

 Chapter 651 651 New Bait

    While the Hunters made for the Locust, Max focused his fire on the other Behemoths, who were spreading out to avoid getting caught in the same attack.


    The advancements that the Androids were making were bing apparent in the state of the battle, though, and no longer was the Super Heavy Mecha contingent confined to just the bombardment. They were also turning their primary weapons on the Behemoths, sending bursts from the Ion Bombard Arrays into therger Klem and reducing the pressure on the Light Mecha.


    They even managed to spare a few shots for the Behemoths, though they knew that Max would deal with them.


    It was much better than they had done on the default settings when theynded, and the Klem tide looked like it might not reach them at all, despite how spread out the unit was by their attempt to guard the colonists.


    Max put a Disruptor st into one of the beetle-shaped Behemoths, bursting it all over the Warriors around it and melting them with the corrosive goo. While they shrieked in pain and rage, Max focused his fire on the other uninjured leader of this attack force, gravely injuring it and making the creature begin to flee.


    That was usually a good sign when fighting the Klem. If the Behemoth fled, the others would usually follow in only a few seconds, giving your position time to breathe and regroup.


    It was exactly the oue that Max had been hoping for right now, but even when thest of the Behemoths had fallen to the Thunder Pattern Mecha and the Hunters, the rest of the attacking force was undeterred.


    Something else was driving them forward, either a hidden Behemoth or one of the elusive Klem Queens that usually only appeared in the inner reaches of Klem space.


    That would be a nightmare for his troops, making them fight every wave until the very end, but they could learn a lot about advanced Klem tactics from this battle if there really were a Queen here.


    Max moved to the Hunters and drew his sword to give them a salute, then moved toward a group of Rippers and sounded his war horn.


    The deep sound of the rm grabbed their attention immediately, and they reared back in a challenge, the same as they always did when Nico challenged them.


    It was an instinctive action, and Max took advantage to st three of them with his Disruptors before charging the remainder.


    [Now that''s just unsportsmanlike. You shouldn''t shoot them after you challenge them to a duel.] One of the Huntersughed over the radio.


    She was only half serious. Against a game species, there were no rules, but if it was a proper duel between Mecha, then it would be seen as incredibly insulting.


    [All is fair in love and war.] Max replied as he decapitated a Warrior with his de on the upswing toward one of the Rippers.


    [If we told our men that, I suspect that they would cry and hide.] The Huntressughed as her group spread out and engaged the nearest groups of Klem, tearing through them at a walking pace while they searched for their next targets.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Commander, we have everything loaded into the ship and are ready to depart.] The leader of the colonists informed Max, clearly panting with exertion.


    [Got it. Good luck, colonist, and I will see you back in orbit once we are finished here on the surface.]


    Max switched channels to a locked frequency and hailed the ship. [Scan everything that they brought back on board. The Klem are particrly aggressive and persistent in this attack, and I want to make sure that they haven''t brought something that they shouldn''t have.]


    It took a few seconds for the Ship''s Pilot to answer, but he brought good news.


    [Every container and Mecha that they brought on board has been checked. There is no sign of Klem biomass, no gene-altering equipment, and nothing on the contraband list. I do have an observation for you, though.


    They are using a form of biodiesel to power their equipment, and the Klem Warriors stop to lick at the fallen industrial Mecha on the battlefield. It is possible that the residue from the fuel, or the fuel itself, is working like a form of bait that draws them in.] The Pilot observed.


    That was something that Max hadn''t noticed, as busy as he was with the battle, but it was definitely worth verifying.


    [I need one Corvette ss Mecha to grab a fuel container from within thepound and throw it in front of the lines.] He ordered, eager to test the theory.


    Hunting with bait was always easier than searching for your targets.


    A few secondster, a can of fuel came flying over the lines, bursting open on the ground in front of the Klem, but they seemed uninterested in the spill and just passed by.


    [I need that fuel spill to be on fire. I want to see if the residue is what is attracting the Klem.] Max ordered.


    A short puff of fire from a Fast Attack Crusader created a roaring fire where the leaking fuel container had been, and all the advancing warriors began to snap and lunge at the mes but passed by once they decided that they couldn''t get whatever it was that they wanted.


    That was enough evidence for him, so he spread the word to all the units on the surface.


    [Be advised the residue from the burning of the biodiesel that the locals have been using works as Klem bait. They are naturally attracted to it, so all former colony facilities can be expected to have an increased Klem presence, and any remaining stores of the fuel can be ignited and used to draw them in.]


    A chorus of affirmations from the Drone Pilots and observers, as well as the Battalion Command Androids, followed, and the Absolution fleet began to alter their priorities in order to eliminate the maximum number of Klem from the surface of the.

 Chapter 652 652 Next Point

    With the new knowledge of how to bait the Klem, and the colonists evacuated from the surface aboard one of the Cutters, Max could focus on eliminating as many of the creatures as possible.


    Using the Disruptors on higher output levels would leaverge amounts of radiation in the air and soil, much like a nuclear explosion, but it decayed within hours, leaving very minimalsting damage except on animals and the targets it hit. Max was considering doing precisely that and clearing the area down to bare soil, but the Klem wave was already thinning out in his area.


    They were out of reinforcements that could be sent over, and both his sensors and the scans of the Drones showed that there wasn''t another Klem to be found within fifty kilometres other than the ones that they were fighting here.


    The Battalions were doing an excellent job of cleaning up the stragglers, so Max engaged his thrusters and jumped back behind the lines to regroup and check the status of the other Mecha Battalions in their vicinity.


    Most of them had taken some sort of losses, but none appeared to be significant. With over ny percent of their units remaining functional, they were in a solid position for their next deployments, which most should be ready for in the next few hours.


    There were a number of units further away that needed assistance, and the Central Command Pilots that he had left behind were already preparing to send down more Battalions to fill in heavy loss areas and assist in the removal of entrenched forces.


    What Max didn''t see was any sign of the Queen or other particrly strange behaviour on the part of the Klem, other than the persistence that they were showing in their attacks.


    That could be a biological evolution, recognizing that being routed actually cost them more forces than it saved, so Max kept it in mind but didn''t let the oddity affect his judgements other than in how many Mecha it would take to eliminate a force that wouldn''t retreat.


    They would be clearing the continent by the hex grid, and Max''s appeared to be clear already since the Klem had been so intent oning to him. Once the Mecha Battalions in the grids around him were close to finished, he would prepare to move out and take another grid location, but for the moment, he had time to eat and see how the Hunters were enjoying their vacation.


    "Ladies, how are you enjoying the battle against this particrly aggressive version of the Klem?" He asked once they joined him behind the lines.


    "This is wonderful. We saw what you did with the bait as well. That will make future fights much easier. In fact, we could start a fire and simply have all the Mecha walk over it to get coated in the fumes, and they would automatically draw the game to their location. It would be like hunting Dire Bears with a juicy steak around your neck." The Huntress replied in appreciation.


    "The area appears to be clear now, so we are just waiting on the reports from other units in the area so that we can move out to where we are needed and then begin clearing another grid. Will you be remaining with us?" Max asked.


    "We will stay with your second inmand. It is a Hunter tradition to follow the strongest female in a group when joining a hunt. I''m sure you understand." The Huntress replied.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max smiled and shook his head, though they couldn''t see his reaction. He should have expected that response from them.


    "Understood. Happy Hunting, I will update you with coordinates once we know what regions need special attention from the Command units."


    Nico joined them only a few minutester, with her Mecha covered in Klem blood and pure happiness in her thoughts.


    Max checked herputer logs quickly and saw that she hadn''t taken enough damage to drop her shields, so the blood on her Mecha had to be a deliberate act. Curious, he searched her surface thoughts and found that the blood served as camouge for the Mecha. It made her smell like part of the Klem force, and both the size and number of weaponized limbs were roughly right for a Ripper, so by the time the Klem realized that she was a Mecha, it was toote for them to run away from her.


    Max hadn''t had that problem, the Klem was more than happy to engage him in meleebat, but in her memories, Nico had to do a lot of chasing at first because the Klem thought she only had melee weapons and tried to keep a distance from her, forcing her to use her Disruptors, which only made the Klem back away even more.


    The intimidating design of her Mecha worked wonderfully on human and humanoid targets, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on the Klem that any other Mecha did.


    The Battalions fell in close to the former colony site as the Klem were eliminated, and Max checked his battle data one more time before updating the unit orders. Only one unit in their cluster was still inbat, but the unit beside them would help them clean up on the way past, and they would all be moving to another cluster of grid points.


    This time, Max had his unit clearing a section of forest while Nico and the Hunters were moved to a river valley, where they were more likely to find something of interest.


    With less pressure on his unit, Max could put more effort into targeting enhancements for the rest of the Mecha on the, as well as the Drones, and he could n further in advance for the next movement.


    The first round of targets was supposed to be the densest clusters of Klem, ording to orbital scans, and it should be all push and clear from here out. The only concerns he really had were for a portion of the map that was marked as being primarily limestone bedrock.


    Limestone was known to develop caves, and if they used the Fusion mers on it, it burned entirely too well and would leave a muchrger region than a single mountain burned out, as it had thest time he used that tactic.

 Chapter 653 653 Suspiciously Empty

    Max saw that the other units were nearly cleaned up, which meant it was time for his and Nico''s squads to move forward, setting themselves up for the next stage in their battles.


    [Sector 1, all units that have confirmed the clearance of their zone, move forward to the following location designated on your map. Units passing through zones with ongoingbat will assist until that zone is clear.] Max ordered.


    His path would lead him straight to the forest without passing throughbat, but Nico would cross over a unit that was having issues with Klem that didn''t want to stay in the battle and kept retreating underground in a deadly game of hide and seek.


    If they couldn''t be brought under control, he would authorize the use of heavier orbital munitions to copse the tunnels and crush them, but so far, the Fusion mers were doing the job and forcing the Klem back up to the surface.


    They were using them quite a bit, and Max could hear the sizzle and pop of burning Klem every time the Unit''s leader reported in. It was probably a good thing that they had Androids for that job, as the noise was sure to make more than a few human pilots squeamish, and the smell would be horrendous to any infantry unit that they had in the area.


    They were far from the only ones on the that had been forced to resort to the tactic, just the only ones in his immediate sector who were having that particr problem. The Klem force was unprepared for a battle on this scale, with so many different tactics in use at the same time.


    Their group consciousness wasn''t able to adapt to them all at the same time, leaving certain units in excellent positions against their robotic opponents, but others utterly annihted due to using the same tactic against a unit that was prepared for it.


    It could be a limit of the Klem Queens, but Max was beginning to think that there wasn''t a fully developed leader here. Perhaps an immature one, but an actual Klem Queen was supposed to have no problem coordinating aary battle while this one was clearly struggling.


    It was good news, and his arrival at the next destination brought even more good news to Max and his Unit. The heavy Klem biomass presence that they had detected in the area seemed to be entirely made up of Klem pods which hadn''t hatched yet.


    [Spread out and destroy every pod and possible Klem hatchling you encounter. Fusion mers, don''t be afraid to start a forest fire. It is more important that the Klem hatchlings are all eliminated before they can pose a real danger to our troops.


    Finding the enemy''s reserves early on was always a bonus, and the pods were very much like the reserves for the Klem force. All that mattered was that they never got the chance to hatch and that he found them all before the Klem Swarm or other small creatures could relocate them.


    Fortunately, between the Disruptors and the Fusion mers, the Battalions could walk across the designated zone with full coverage, leaving nothing alive. Of course, that meant there would be no trees, grass, or anything else left in their zone, but it wasn''t the worst thing possible, and it would help draw out any hidden forces that the Klem had in the area.


    They were always protective of the pods and put them somewhere that they considered rtively safe, like nestled under the canopies of this dense forest or in caverns. The orbital scans didn''t detect any caverns in this region, but he would double check, in case the Klem had done something sneaky, like fill the caves where they were hiding their extra pods up with something that would show as a solid on the scans.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Even filling them with water could fool the scans into thinking that it was a natural body of groundwater, like an aquifer, so he could never be too careful. The one thing that they would always have inmon was the need for an above-ground entrance so that the freshly hatched could get out and so that the units sent to trigger their awakening could get in.


    The Mecha were all on the lookout for any hidden entrances to tunnels, but so far, there was no sign of any such thing in this zone, which was almost entirely razed to the ground within the hour. All that was left was to check the bottom of a smallke, and he would be ready to move to another grid and assist the teams which had encountered real resistance.


    Max took Cleansing Light down into the depths of theke, checking for any hidden tunnels, caves or Klem pods, but found the region suspiciously clear. Every other likely spot in the zone had been full of pods, but there wasn''t a single one in theke at all.


    The question was, where did they go?


    With the assistance of sonar and a pair of drones, he had the wholeke bed checked for ground density, thinking that a filled tunnel would have a different density than solid rock. Even if it was full of water, they should detect it, but he didn''t find anything at all.


    His instincts told him that he was missing something, but he just couldn''t figure out what it was that he was missing.


    They were just finishing up the zone when it urred to him. There likely were pods there, at least before he arrived. They didn''t leave over the ground since the traces would have been detected, but if a swimming Klem or a small one walking along the river bottom had carried them out underwater, the flow would have hidden all traces of them, not even leaving behind the telltale traces of birthing slime that Klem pods usually carried with them.


    A quick check of the map showed that the river ran to anotherke, a muchrger one than the one in his zone, and it was in the fourth round of zones marked for exploration. If it was left undisturbed that long, the pods could very well be hatched and spawn a massive Klem force to fight an unsuspecting Mecha Battalion, which had been lulled into a sense ofcency by theck of enemies.


    Or did that even happen to Androids? Not being able to read their minds was inconvenient, but for most of his career, he hadn''t had the range to read other Pilots'' minds while he was fighting anyhow, so he should really be used to it by now.


    [Unit, prioritize assistance from lowest progress to highest until all zones in this cluster are cleared. I will proceed to theke at the other end of this river in an attempt to find the missing pods.] Max informed his Battalion.


    He was an addendum to the standard Battalion anyhow. They could function without him for a few hours. Plus, they would be headed closer to Nico, and she would keep them out of trouble even without his instructions. She had been keeping a close eye on the progress of the Android army, which she saw as her creations, despite the fact they were literally clones of an alien android that she had imprisoned and reprogrammed.

 Chapter 654 654 Klem Breeding Ground

    With the unit departing to assist their neighbours, Max began to make his way up the river, checking his sensors constantly for signs of danger or traps since this zone that he was entering had not had any attempt to clear it yet.


    The river itself was clear of any sign of Klem for the first few hundred meters, as were the surrounding woods, but as he progressed, there were still some signs of pod slime on the riverbed, and finally, thest of the Klem workers that were transporting the precious cargo came up on his sensors.


    Theke in front of him appeared to be full of Klem, as were the woods all around it and the air above the forests on the far side.


    That exined why the units were having such an easy time in this region. All of the Klem had gathered in one spot. From his position, Max had a very different view of the Klem than the satellites did, and what they had taken as a moderate Klem presence was, in fact, threeyers deep and had dozens of Behemoths hidden among the trees.


    He didn''t see any of the Locust-type Behemoths who had adapted to block the Disruptors, but the pure numbers would make for a good fight.


    [Huntress. I have found another very dense cluster if you wish to join me. I will hold my position for two minutes before I engage.] Max informed their allies.


    [Understood, Commander. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of a hunt for a group of six Locusts and will not be able to join your joyous hunt. Best of luck taking a suitable trophy.] The Huntress responded.


    While disappointing, it was not unexpected. They wouldn''t just drop a hunt in order to join another hunt. That made no sense, and they would stand a chance of not getting the killing blow on either target if they switched halfway through.


    That meant Max needed to make a proper n to deal with this infestation before it began to spread out. The flying Klem would make a bombing run difficult, and they were avoiding Orbital Lances, so that was out, but he could still fly up and use a lower output version to clear the area if he needed to.


    It seemed like the best idea. There were simply too many of them to be efficiently cleared without using extreme measures or a lot of bombers.


    On second thought, he would use both.


    [Bomber Squadron requested. Dispatch three wings apanied by Orbital Interceptors to my location. It will be a full bombardment of a severe Klem infestation and breeding ground, both above and below ground.] Max messaged the Drone Pilots.


    [Iing in forty-five seconds, Commander.]


    At the thirty-second mark, Max fired his thrusters to push Cleansing Light into the air and fired the Disruptors on long-range, sustained beam mode to clear out as many of the flying creatures as he could before the bombers arrived.


    That sent every Behemoth and Ripper in the area rushing in his direction, but the Bombers were almost on him already, and the river valley was already echoing with the first of the explosions.


    A thousand strong, the drones flew overhead, shooting at anything that moved and carpeting the area in Burner Bombs, a crudebination of thermite and napalm that burned extremely hot and stuck to anything that it touched.


    Max was sure that the Alliance ships which had arrived after the battle started were suitably horrified by the concept of carpet bombing on this scale, but he would deal with them once he was done here on the surface.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ording to the satellite data, there were over fifty Alliance Government ships in orbit over the, taking notes and making videos of the Human Military, as they designated the Terminus Trading Company, while Max and his unit cleared an aggressive invasive species from one of their colony worlds.


    The bombs were doing a great job of clearing the surface, but Max was still getting underground signals from the Klem, so they had almost certainly dug tunnels to protect their reinforcements.


    He really only had one choice to deal with them, and that was a ground-prating strike. It had to sink deep into the ground, with a significant explosion that would level all of the tunnels in the region, or it would need to be easily repeatable so that he could make a grid and ensure that all the tunnels copsed.


    He was seriously tempted to use the Antimatter Cannon that Nico had built for him, but an antimatter explosion inside a''s mantle or lower crust would cause way more damage than it did in space since it would cause a short-term sustained fission reaction that would spread out from the point of impact.


    Nuking the into oblivion as a side effect wasn''t an exactly great military strategy, so instead, he tweaked the settings for his Disruptors Orbital Lance settings.


    Normally they would cause a massive explosion on impact and send down a thick beam of energy, but this time, he would concentrate them, cause the explosion two hundred metres underground, and then repeat it thirty-six times to ensure that there were no tunnels in the area that could possibly contain Klem.


    When he moved to ten thousand meters in the air to prepare for the attack, Max could hear the concern in the Alliance messages about what sort of insanity he was going to attempt. The Envoys knew about Orbital Lances, but the majority of Government forces did not.


    The sheltered nature of most of the visiting bureaucrats was almost funny in a twisted way. But it was pleasant to think that one day, humanity might enjoy such security that they could forget about constant threats from aggressive species.


    This would be their first exposure to the advanced weapons of a Titan ss Mecha, and for once, it might actually look less dangerous than usual. The fact that he was going to do it three dozen times might not set their minds at ease, but the destruction should be limited to just this one grid location andrgely underground.


    The settings wereplete, and [Optimize] had determined that they couldn''t get any better for his purpose, so Max began his bombardment, shaking the ground all through the region and setting off seismic sensors on the Mecha in nearby zones.


    By the twelfth attack, it was clear that the impact had destroyed the tunnels, and the whole region had sunk dozens of meters, but there were still Klem life signs down there somewhere.


    Max paused to pinpoint them with his sensors, just in case they were at a depth that he hadn''t calcted for, but they were above ground.


    Theke had sheltered a number of pods from the bombing run, despite having most of its water boiled off. One surface configuration Orbital Lance took care of that as well as any lingering Klem presence in the region and silenced the Alliancemunications for almost an entire minute while their researchers worked to process what exactly had happened here.


    Max hovered above the destroyed forest and scanned the sensor logs for more simr regions, which might be hiding massive Klem breeding grounds in a way that the orbital scans wouldn''t detect.


    The most likely option was a mountain range a thousand kilometres away and a volcanic region on another continent. He would leave the second for the units assigned to the area, but he did note the possibility that the scans might have underestimated the defences in the region before he took off for the mountain range in the hope of finding another Klem nursery.

 Chapter 655 655 More Klem Incoming

    Max was on his way to the Mountain range when an emergency call from Absolution came across his inte.


    [Commander, we have a Klem fleet, actual Klem ships iing. Numbers appear to be equivalent to ten standard pod waves, and sizes cannot be determined, but their trajectory changed without outside gravitational interference.] Admiral Penner reported.


    That fell under the category of very not good, but it wasn''t something that Absolution couldn''t deal with on its own. For the first fight, it was likely better than he was in orbit, though. For one, he was the only one avable who had orbitalbat experience, and for two, they would need his targeting data to properly deal with a fast-moving group of Klem pods or vessels.


    [Scramble the reserves which aren''t scheduled for a drop to the surface to positions between Absolution and the fleet. Then request that the Alliance vessels move clear of the battle for their own safety, and I will join you in orbit.]


    That should pretty much do it, Max thought. But better safe than sorry.


    [If you have any spare drones, send them out as well.]


    The arrival of a fleet of Klem that shouldn''t be seen outside their core worlds was a pretty solid sign that something very strange was going on in this star system, and Max could only hope that there was some sort of sign as to what it was.


    If they were just trying to bait the humans in, it was no big deal. But if the Klem had found something that was precious enough to send that sort of reinforcement to the region, then they could be in real trouble when it was revealed.


    Max tapped at the troop deployments on his screen and sent the message that he would be diverted and not taking care of the mountain region, then updated his estimates on the enemies that were likely to be in the area for the unit that did take it on.


    That was enough to clear up pressing matters on the surface, as two units near the mountain range had just finished clearing their zones and rerouted to take care of it as a priority.


    He activated the thrusters on Cleansing Light and was almost into orbit when he received a priority message from Nico.


    [Don''t forget there are only one hundred rounds in your new gun.]


    With over a dozen Mecha Regiments in space around the ship, there should be roughly sixty Super Heavy Mecha, all equipped with Antimatter Charges for their Thunder Guns. They weren''t as heavy as the rounds for his weapon, but with their firing rate and explosive radius, there shouldn''t be any issues.


    Max joined the defensive line, and Admiral Penner made an announcement that actually managed to startle him.


    [Giving them the warning now.]<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Absolution fired a single Antimatter Torpedo at the iing Klem fleet, letting it detonate a hundred thousand Kilometres in front of them. If they weren''t set on hostilities, that should be enough warning to chase them away from the region. Even the most zealous of sentient species would avoid an explosion of that magnitude, but the Klem only responded with bursts of spikes fired at the defenders.


    They were approaching at roughly five percent of the speed of light, rtive to Absolution, so those spikes were going to do some serious damage to anything that they hit. Even the shields of the World Ship would have to work to deal with the storm of chitin that wasing for them.


    The Klem fleet''s aim was quite impressive as well. It might appear to be somewhat random and scattered, but Max could see that the majority wasing for the ships in the system, with the rest headed for the Mecha and their locations should they activate standard evasion patterns at any of the ten standard timing points.


    The Klem had definitely learned from the Mecha fleets in that regard. It wasn''t the first time, either. Even their three-tiered attacking strategy was suspected of mimicking the Line, Corvette and Crusader ss Mecha deployments that the humans used, as they were the most effective enemy that the species had faced.


    If they were here to test a new advancement that they thought would work against the humans, it was best to start with old and predictable strategies. They would reveal new reactions to the old techniques if they had them, and it would tell Max a lot about their capabilities.


    [Super Heavy Units, fire a barrage with your Ion Bombard Arrays, standard direct fire pattern.] Max ordered while providing them with the necessary targeting data.


    A normal Klem wave would simply get hit by the barrage, which was why Max had chosen it as the test, but this fleet immediately began to spread out, and Max saw energy signatures emitted from therger objects that looked a lot like a gravity beam.


    [Absolution, did you get a recording of that? I think they have found a way to adjust the trajectory of their pods with some sort of gravity maniption.] Max asked the Admiral.


    [We are calcting the details now, but it does appear that way. The pattern looks familiar as well. Ah, there it is. That Gravity beam isn''t a new Klem technology, it is a Tapani Gravity Beam, and I am picking up the unique signature of the emissions array. I suspect that one of those objects is actually an infested ship that they havemandeered.] She replied.


    There were a lot of human technologies that the Klem couldn''t use well, including Mecha, but there was a significant ovep between the smartest Klem and the dumbest humans, so many simple-to-operateputer systems could be essed by their smarter members.


    Max hadn''t seen proof that they could actually read before, but if they could aim the beam to grab all the pods that were apanying them, it was pretty good proof that they could. Hopefully, it wasn''t enough to get the Alliance to decide they were a sentient species in need of protection.


    They probably hadn''t noticed the fact that there was a captured human ship encased in one of those shells, but the Hunters would have. It was an ideal hunting ground for them, easy to navigate, in a standardized pattern, but full of enemies.


    It was best to destroy it before they thought of that as well.

 Chapter 656 656 Space Battle

    [That''s our signal. Thunder Guns begin full bombardment with Antimatter munitions. Wide spacing, full pattern coverage. I do not want to see that fleet when you finish.] Max ordered.


    Twenty Sets of Thunder Guns began lobbing shells across the expanse of space while the Alliance vessels watched inplete fascination, wondering what the Humans could do against a space-based fleet that could outmaneuver the standard artillery.


    The new munitions were a very different thing than the old ones, though, and they would detonate on proximity, so even if the Klem managed to dodge them, they only had to get within the st radius to deal damage.


    The first few Klem ships proved incapable of evading the increased speed of these munitions and took direct hits, allowing the shells to punch through their outer chitin with pure brute force before the antimatter explosion tore them apart.


    Klem vessels the size of a Destroyer exploded in an instant, torn to molecule-sized bits by the antimatter st, and dozens more shells were iing already.


    Max moved above the line of fire to approach the iing Klem fleet. A shorter range would make it even harder for them to evade and would give him a better chance to intercept retaliation before it came near his shiny new ship.


    Absolution didn''t have a mark on it, and he intended to keep it that way. He was here to clear the and show off their new toys to the Alliance Government ships, not to take damage to his World Ship.


    Therger ships spread out as soon as they realized the danger that these new weapons represented, but they couldn''t take the pods with them on such a hurried maneuver, and a series of explosions rocked the tightly clustered orbs of biomatter, followed by a second volley that very nearly eliminated them all.


    For the first time, Max sensed real rage from the Klem. They always had a sense of urgency and self-preservation when you attacked them, but this was an actual emotion. There was a Klem Queen somewhere in that cluster, and if he got a chance, he might actually be able to read its mind to see what level of intelligence the species was capable of.


    Mind-reading systems were rare, so there wasn''t much data on the Klem Queens. It would be a great benefit not only to himself but to the whole human fleet to know what they were capable of.


    With a bump in and out of Warp, Max was nearly on top of the Klem fleet, which was working to evade the iing shells and defend one central vessel. It was the one that contained the captured human ship, which seemed curious to Max. He expected that it would be an expendable experiment, but it seemed that their Queen was somewhere inside that infested human ship.


    He had seen signs that they were mind-controlling and taking over a human in the past, so it might be possible that wasn''t the only experiment that they had done with human intelligence. If there was an assimted human brain in there, it would exin the ship''s functions being operational and the strange behaviour of the vessels.


    While searching for signs of intelligence with his mind, Cleansing Light was also analyzing every signal that the ships were sending out, trying to determine how well they couldmunicate with the infestation on the ground. It was well known that they did, but solid data on how far away was scarce.


    Perhaps humans had been too timid in the past. Getting up close and personal with a Klem attack fleet was proving to be very valuable for Intelligence Gathering, even if he had to constantly dodge sma and spike attacks travelling at velocities that would punch through his shielding and Mecha in an instant.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    More and more shells were missing the Klem as they desperately fought to evade, but that was no concern to the Androids. They were firing in a suppression pattern, forcing the remaining ships into a location where they could eliminate them once there was nowhere left for them to dodge.


    His time was running short to get the data he needed from the Queen''s ship unless he was willing to order the troops not to engage it and risk it getting away. It was unlikely that they could sessfully and safely capture the vessel without destroying it and even less likely that the Klem would allow such a thing without self-destructing.


    But when the fleet was down to less than ten percent of its original strength, he got a break. There was a signal, with a chittering Klem noise transmitting over it, and it was being emitted by the ship''s broadcast tower.


    He couldn''t trante it yet, but he had a Nico for that, or he could ask the Hunters, who were very good withnguages, to try itter. His sensors didn''t detect any signs of human biomatter left on the ship, it had all been consumed or corrupted, but as he approached, he could sense a vague mental presence.


    It was the one that he had sensed rage from earlier, and it was afraid.


    [Commander Keres, have you detected what we have? There is a new type of Klem on that ship with emotions. One of our Hunters had an Illithid over for some extracurricr fun, and he sensed it. We want it.] The Huntress that had been left in charge of their ship insisted.


    [I want the research data. I can sense its emotions, but I can''t understand thenguage, and it doesn''t really seem sentient, but if you research it, the data will be essential to humans.] Max replied.


    [Agreed. We are sending a vessel now. Tell your Mecha to stand down on the target until we depart.]


    It wasn''t the perfect solution, but their agreement with the Hunters clearly allowed them to call dibs on a target when they wanted to hunt, and he hadn''t called it first. It felt a bit like being a kid again, calling dibs, but this time, a lot of something was going to die in the process.


    Most likely the Klem, but there was no guarantee that the Hunters wouldn''t take casualties since they couldn''t use theirrger Hunter Suits inside a ship sized for humans.


    Max sent over the data that he had on the ship now that Cleansing Light had identified it. Both the originalyout and what he had detected now, including the likely location of the thought pattern and the locations of all transmission stations which could be sending the signal that he had detected.


    [All Mecha, stand down until the Hunters finish their mission. I will contain the Klem fleet alone, for the sake of safety.] Max ordered as the Hunter shuttle left their mothership and headed his way.


    [Understood, Commander. Happy Hunting.]

 Chapter 657 657 Antimatter Matters

    [Where did you learn that?] Max asked the Android, amused at the new ng they had picked up.


    [We analyzed the battlefield transmissions used since the start of this engagement. Happy Hunting was, with over ny percent certainty, the correct response for a unit going to fight in a smaller team on a specific mission.] The Android Pilot replied.


    [Excellent analysis. Store it in your approved responses for future use.]


    The Klem vessels were slowing down now, as the firing had stopped, and Max was at close range between them and the. If anything, they seemed confused by his actions and unsure how to respond to this unexpected blockade. But when the Hunter shuttle approached, they all turned to engage and began firing at their maximum rate.


    An approaching enemy ship was a situation they were well prepared for, and they wouldn''t let it reach theirmand vessel easily.


    Unfortunately, the only one that could possibly pose a threat to the iing shuttle was the very vessel that it was looking to board, and Max was ready with the Antimatter Shells to take out thest few vessels that still had the capability to fire on the Mecha Regiments.


    Max could hear from themunications between ships that the Alliance vessels, which hade to observe the new human World Ship in action, were freaking out right now, trying to decide if this was just the reserves of their fleet or if they were a specialized spacebat unit.


    They had analyzed the Mecha and couldn''t find any differences between them, but they also didn''t find any life signs, so they assumed that more information was being withheld from their sensors. Of course, it was because there were no life forms in the Mecha, and the Pilots were all Androids, but the misconception was feeding into the confusion, and nobody was sure how to report back to their employers other than to send them the video of the engagement withoutment and let them decide for themselves.


    Nobody would assume that the humans had hired outside mercenaries for the fight, as would be assumed of many other species that suddenly experienced a huge increase in firepower.


    Nobody in the Alliance used that sort of munitions, at least not at the moment. They were horrifying to most species and could easily set off a chain reaction if they hit a warp drive of manymon designs. The general consensus was that the humans had managed to weaponize something that was never meant to be weaponized.


    The biggest question that most species had was how they managed to do it. A crystal-based Warp Drive didn''t produce excess Antimatter to create weapons with, and the technology to create it outside of aboratory environment was basically nonexistent.


    There were patents for devices that produced industrial Antimatter, but no operational examples of those units could be found by any of thepanies that were looking for them, so it didn''t seem possible that the humans had gotten their hands on one.


    What they didn''t know was that it was nothing new to humans. Until only a few years before, they had used a wildly inefficient version of warp travel, which basically dumped Antimatter into a containment vessel and shaped the resulting explosion into a warp field. So, they had the technology to mass produce it avable to every fleet as a necessity at every resupply station.


    Nico had simply built one onboard Absolution and then mass-produced enough Antimatter to eliminate half a star system, just in case they needed it all.


    The Hunters had made contact with their target and had breached an airlock door to send the team inside, but the shuttle wasn''t retreating. Instead, it had chosen to remain locked against the hull of therger vessel, either to preserve the atmosphere inside or for the rapid extraction of their team, should it prove necessary.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They weren''t giving any updates, so Max focused on the responses of the Alliance Observers and, more specifically, the Illithid aboard their ships.


    Having one on almost all Government ships made Max''s life much easier. If he needed to know anything, he could just ask them, and they would most likely answer so that he didn''t go digging through other peoples'' minds.


    [Have they figured out where we''re getting all the Antimatter yet?] Max asked the Illithid on the Envoy''s ship with amusement after they moved the ship back too far from the battle for him to hear the thoughts inside.


    [I believe so. They have detected huge amounts of it in a containment vessel inside Absolution, and they are freaking out right now. It''s pretty funny. They want to tell you to get rid of that storage tank, but they are too afraid that you''ll give it to them for disposal to actually say anything.]


    That was a wonderful idea. Give the Envoys all their unstable failed experiments for disposal, and then watch what they did to neutralize them. It would save so much time during the development process.


    All of the Illithid beganughing as Max had that thought, and then their minds wandered off-topic as their crews began to question their behaviour. It wasn''t often that they got so distracted, and the Hunters were capable of shielding their minds from the Illithid, so they couldn''t possibly be watching the action inside thest remaining ship.


    The amount of Antimatter that they had in storage wasrge, but by human standards, notpletely unreasonable. It was enough to refuel ten Transport ships or Cruisers during their once-a-decade major overhaul. For a human space station, that wasn''t a lot, and Absolution was muchrger than any space station.


    It was just that the Alliance had moved past such crude methods so many centuries ago that nobody recalled a technology that required it, and nobody on the human side had thought to mention it since they viewed it as somon.


    [Commander, we have the suspected hybrid. It appears to be a modified human, as it was attached to an alcove grown in front of a control panel. We are bringing it back to the shuttle now and will have data for you within the week.] The Huntress announced without preamble.


    A week was a long time to study a simple organism, but as specialists in bioengineering, maybe they had found something else that they wanted to study and had moved it down the to-do list. Since he couldn''t read their minds, all Max could do was agree.


    [Understood Huntress. Are we clear to eliminate the vessel once your team is clear?]


    [Please allow an extra three minutes to get the team all the way back to the mothership. They obtained some sensitive samples that might be damaged by an antimatter st in close proximity, even if the shields held.]


    As he had suspected, they did find something else on that ship that he hadn''t thought of or hadn''t managed to detect.

 Chapter 658 658 New Hangar

    Once the Hunters were safely back at their ship, Max unloaded a barrage of Antimatter shells at the final vessel of their fleet, leaving nothing that could potentially spawn more Klem or send back a message to the Klem homeworlds.


    It was highly likely that they had already done that, and he would have to get Nico and the othernguage specialists to analyze thatter, but for now, he had more annoying matters to deal with.


    [Commander Keres. We have a significant number of questions about the new weapons that you have disyed here. The Alliance government is quite concerned about the potential of such weapons and requests you to schedule a meeting with the Envoys at your earliest convenience.]


    The text reminded Max that he could never really be free of the duties of leading a Reaver Company now that he had started, no matter how hard he tried to pass the duties to someone else.


    In the eyes of the Alliance and many others, only two people in a Reaver Company had high enough standing to negotiate, and that meant him and Nico, neither of whom were actually interested in politics as anything other than personal amusement.


    [I will return to Terminus and pick the Envoys up as soon as I have finished rying the targeting data for the next round of zone clearance events. Please ask them to prepare for a tour of Absolution as well.] Max replied, using a text message so that they couldn''t see how annoyed he was at having to leave the battle early.


    Of course, he could im that he was needed on the surface for the battle, but that clearly wasn''t true. Histest sensor sweep showed over a hundred groups of Hunters among his Mecha units and casualty rates that were still mostly under ten percent.


    The reinforcements had arrived for the more damaged units, and the Mecha units that had joined the space battle were on standby outside the World Ship, awaiting orders.


    [Units on standby outside Absolution, you may now return to your hangars and begin any necessary repair, maintenance and reloading procedures to return to readiness.] Max ordered.


    The Mecha began to move immediately, and Max turned his attention to Nico and the Hunters, which she was fighting alongside. They had all chosen to allow their suits to be covered in Klem blood so that they would disguise the distinctive smell of Mecha, and they were carving a wide swathe through the zone that they had just entered, using the Super Heavy mecha to herd the Klem in front of them with a Thunder Gun barrage, and the Fast Attack Mecha to burn out any possible signs of pods or survivors.


    With all of the expertise both on the ground and in the air, he really was free to take the traditional position of a Company Commander as the organizational head of the battle.


    Cleansing Light had a dedicated hangar assigned aboard Absolution as well, which Max hadn''t yet had a chance to examine.


    The technicians ran up as soon as he hadnded and powered down the Mecha. One Human Technician was apanied by twenty Androids, who all looked exactly like him. It was a bit creepy, and Max wondered whose idea that was.


    The Human was giving directions, sending them to check every external system andponent for damage or wear, when Max exited the Mecha with a smile for efficiency.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Good Morning, Commander. I am Chief Technician Johan, in charge of Cleansing Light, as well as the Mecha Repair Androids. Miss Nico determined that it was unlikely that your Mecha would require full-time attention, so I was given a secondary task.


    The Androids won''t require much, either. They''re supposed to be designed for a million-hour active life, but checking on them gives me something to do." The Technician greeted him.


    "And whose idea was it to make them all look like you?"


    The excitement in the man''s mind made Max smile even before he started speaking. "It''s brilliant, isn''t it? They look just like me, so when the junior techse by, they won''t be able to tell if they''re only looking at Androids or if there is a supervisor present that will be keeping an eye on them.


    The Androids don''t care for much outside their assigned duties unless it bes a nuisance or hazard, so they''re not good at reporting on staff performance, and it would waste limitedputing power to have them add another additional task.


    They seem quite advanced with their adaptive AI, but they are already approaching the limits of theirputing power, so we had to limit their task lists to prevent crashes and hung operations.


    Basically, if you tell them to do too much at once, the priority gets out of whack, and operations get put on hold, which leads to some very strange interactions. We were going to work on it, but Nico said it''s not a bug but a feature.


    Keeping them focused on their assigned tasks should help with the randomness usually associated with artificial intelligence since they''re onlyputing things rted to their work and are limited in capacity for new information."


    That was actually a great idea. The AI would let them learn new things, but only inputting data from specific activities kept the data from adding irrelevant nonsense. Proper limits were the key to a well-functioning learning program, as Max had learned as a child.


    His first attempt to create one that would learn to hack passwords more quickly was a colossal failure, and it got stuck in a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories since he didn''t set proper limits on the data that it was taking in.


    Max thought back to his past life and wondered if there was a better way to do it, but he didn''t find anything particrly appealing. There were memories of AI species, but they were kept within boundaries by Religion, and he wasn''t going there in this life. Too many humans already carried random superstitions from their homes. He didn''t need to start teaching them to the Androids.


    It would also require multiple branches since the programming for the Pilots and the staff was so different. It seemed that they had it under control, though, and Max knew that Nico had built in a reset switch, where she could set every Android back to default databases in an instant if things went wrong.

 Chapter 659 659 A Growing Problem

    Before Max left the hangar, he sent a message to the Enovys with the technical details of the new weapons, in case they hadn''t already gotten a copy of them, as well as the humans'' regtions on their use against popteds.


    There weren''t actually any rules against using them on ships, but Max realized that the Alliance would certainly have something to say about that since they used arge number of vessels with poptions in the millions, which a single antimatter missile could theoretically destroy.


    This was far from the first time that he had been required to attend the "Humans did WHAT?" conversations, but they were never a lot of fun, and it was mostly technical matters that he really wasn''t experienced in, so he was basically reading them to his audience as he learned them.


    The Envoys were used to it as well since they knew absolutely nothing about Human Technological development other than what they had learned from meeting with Max, but they, too, were required to be here.


    [Tell the Envoys that I will meet them at the Coffee Shop on Terminus, and I will escort them about Absolution from there. I have been in Combat all day, and this isn''t happening without coffee.] Max informed themunications officers who would be in charge of passing the message.


    [It is currently half past midnight ship time.] The messenger reminded him.


    [Oh, thank feth. Send the message now and tell them that I will meet them in seven hours.]


    That was enough time to get some sleep but not enough time that the other Alliance vessels in the system would start throwing a fit about him dying.


    It wasmon for ships to set their onboard time by the Capital of the that they were from or a unified time with their force so that all vessels that met would be on the same schedule, but Max had no idea what time the Alliance Government observers were on.


    While he took the high-speed transport pod across the ship from his hangar to Terminus, opting to see a bit of Absolution on the way instead of using a precision portal, Max noticed that the sensors were detecting more and more ships in the system.


    Not just Alliance Government ships, there were Shin, Dryad, Vampire, and dozens of others he didn''t recognize, but they were all Capital ss ships, meaning Cruisers orrger, which were intended to represent their faction in negotiations or conflicts.


    Tomorrow was going to be a huge mess, no matter how the battle on the went, and Max had a sneaking suspicion that there was some legal loophole that was going to be used to give him even more of a headache.


    If it was as simple as demanding a sample to make sure that it didn''t vite copyright, he could refer it back to the Envoys for closed-door investigations and avoid revealing anything to the public, but when was life ever that easy?


    They had seen them fired, so they had at least a little bit of data on them, and there was no telling how well their scans had managed to prate the shielded outer shell of the weapons.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max fell asleep in his room aboard Terminus and woke with a start when the rm went off, warning him that he had thirty minutes until he had to meet the Envoys. Just enough time to shower, get dressed and jog across the ship to meet at the coffee shop.


    From the look of them, he was the only one who got any sleepst night. They all looked worn out, and except the Innu Envoy, who was on her second triple shot Raspberry Latte of the morning, their minds were dragging just as badly.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen, my apologies for the dy. You know how it is with Combat. I was in no shape to be holding any sort of meetingst night." Max greeted them.


    The Valkia Envoy waved off his concern. "That''s fine. It gave us time to meet up with all of the concerned parties and catch up on the situation. This time, it''s not entirely the humans'' new technology that has everyone''s panties in a twist.


    From what we can tell, an unknown malicious actor has managed to pull a Klem-infested world into the middle of Alliance Territory. Or perhaps they intercepted a wave and seeded it without us noticing.


    But the fact remains that there are now six Klem-infested worlds in Alliance Territory, and nobody is quite sure how to respond. Everyone is sending people here to see how you deal with them and make their own judgements on the species since they don''t ept the Hunters'' determination of Game Species as a proper categorization.


    But while they argue politics, the Klem that have appeared in the Alliance are spreading rapidly and onto popted worlds.


    Most of our worlds don''t keep a standing army, so once the pods got past the defensive measures, which didn''t fire because they weren''t a recognized threat, they have been free to spread among a civilian poption."


    "Have you at least sent forces to prevent the spread?" Max asked, then sat down with his coffee to try to process the news.


    He nearly choked when he realized that he had gotten the wrong beverage and handed thette back to a very disgruntled-looking Innu, who was ring at the ck coffee in her hands.


    With her fruitytte back, she was much more talkative. "We did. And for now, they have them contained, but even invasive species are entitled to consideration before extermination until a ssification is made in the official records.


    When we added the data about the humans and your gxy, we didn''t expect that it would be a problem within the Alliance in a matter of months, so it''s all still sitting in a bureaucratic queue waiting for official researchers to verify our data.


    Given average processing times, that should take less than a decade, but with Klem in the Alliance''s core, we don''t really have that long to get things sorted out."

 Chapter 660 660 Overworked

    The table fell silent for a moment while everyone''s thoughts turned to the miracle that was coffee. It had a mental stimnt effect on them, though not as significant as it did on the Innu.


    For that reason, procuring the data to replicate it was near the top of their task list, bumped down only due to the persistent presence of life-threatening situations.


    After a few minutes of silence, as the coffee worked to bring everyone back to functional status, Max decided to address the elephant in the room.


    "So, are we starting with your Klem issue, our weapons development, or the tour of Absolution?"


    None of their minds seemed to have a clear answer for that, but one of the Giant''s assistants had juste in, freshly rested and recing one who had been on duty all night, and they were ready to provide the essential answers, based on Alliance Regtions.


    "As it threatens arge number of Alliance lives, we should address the matter of the foreign invasive species first. We don''t need to look into how they got there. Many other teams are searching for warp signatures, portal signs and any other clues that they can get. We just need to discuss how to deal with them." The assistant reminded his superior, who looked ready to pass out again.


    "Understood. What is your standard negotiation tactic for making a deal with the invasive species known as Klem?" The Envoy asked, reading the line from a data tablet.


    "You''re looking at it down below us. That is as civil as they get. All attempts tomunicate with them have been futile, and though some researchers suspected that they had discovered a Klemnguage, their efforts never led to any form of dialogue." Max replied.


    There was a long pause as the Envoy nearly dozed off again while Max was answering, and the assistant sighed. "In the name of health and wellness, I request that this process continues without our envoy for the time being."


    "Go ahead and take him to bed. Is there anyone here who is awake enough for a discussion? The rest can go to bed, and we will inform anyone who questions the matter that the negotiations and research are ongoing." Max suggested.


    "In that case, I will record it as a six-hour data discovery break. Everyone, please report back before additional absence paperwork needs to be filed." The assistant informed the Envoys, who red at him so hard that he hid behind his sleeping Envoy.


    It was regtion, and the Envoys were very much like overworked civil servants in this case, but six hours would hardly put a dent in the sleep they needed after being kept awake the entire time since the battle started.


    That was one problem solved, and he had bought himself six hours to take care of matters on the before he had to start with the meetings again, or so he thought.


    As soon as the envoys were gone, the Alliance bureaucrats who were concerned about the matters involving the newly discovered Klem presence within their borders were right there to bombard him with questions.


    "I am quite sorry, but until the matter is settled with the Envoys, I can''t give you a definitive answer on what is or is not proper procedure under Alliancews. While ourws are fairlypatible, when ites to the Klem, Humanw is quite clear, while Alliancew is not." Max was exining.


    "But my is right next to the most recently invaded one. We are in the same star system. Can''t you at least sell me some of those anti-Klem missiles that you used against their fleet?" One of the Myceloid bureaucrats was begging.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "The use of Antimatter weapons against inhabiteds is strictly prohibited, and the dissemination of military technology is heavily restricted. But rest assured. They can be dealt with using conventional weapons in higher volumes." Max informed him.


    "Fat lot of good that does us after theynd." The Myceloidined.


    "If you don''t want them tond, just get a World Ship to intercept the wave and deflect it off course with their shields. Most Klem expansions are a simple wave of pods, with their entire cargo in an embryonic stage. They can''t react to outside stimulus, so you can just deflect them into a star and forget about them."


    "Under section 216, part 420, subsection 9 paragraph 3, that might be a vition of the rights of the unborn, should the Klem be dered a sentient or endangered species." A Giant in the crowd informed them.


    It was clear that the Alliance was in the middle of a legal crisis, where their convolutedws had them stuck at a standstill while they were being invaded. Again, Max was reminded that most Alliance species weren''t part of what was called the "Curious Species," so they likely had no preparatory measures against such an unlikely event at all.


    "That is why the Envoys are here to take care of the matter. Unfortunately, your constant inquiries put them behind schedule, and they are off to research answers for the next six hours."


    That seemed to be the magic word for dealing with bureaucrats. using them of holding up the process was enough to horrify most of them, and Max could sense that most of their minds were already working on the way to help the Envoys with the process so that they weren''t used of being a hindrance to finding a solution once the matter was solved.


    Max raised his voice to address the crowd. "If you would like to do your own analysis and bring it to me in five hours, I will present a limited number of opinions to the Envoys on your behalf. Priority will be given tos most affected and groups with direct specialization in simr situations."


    The fact was that most of these people were from environmental and animal rights groups, here to pressure for a particr oue, so that meant that the very few who were from the small organizations who did specialize in inteary invasive species and the handful of representatives from nearbys were quickly swarmed by activists as soon as Max told the crowd whose opinion he would be considering.


    "You know, it''s rude to lie to them." A soft voice from behind him whispered.


    Max turned around to face the assistant to the Innu Envoy with a smile on his face. "I only said that I would present the opinions, not that we would actually consider them. I have already seen in their minds what most of them are thinking, so I have a pretty good idea what the presentations are going to say, and it''s a whole lot of titudes and no solutions."


    The Innu considered that for a moment before a matching smile lit her face. "I have heard of this situation. What was the saying? Technically correct is the best sort of correct? No, not that one. A half-truth is still a truth. That''s it."


    "Not a bad saying. I like this one, though. There are three levels to every conversation. What you thought you said. What they heard you say, and what you actually said."


    That one made the coffee shop operatorugh as he brought the assistant her order. An extrarge raspberrytte, the bane of Max''s mental health now that the Innu had discovered them.

 Chapter 661 661Corporate Reps

    "How much will it cost to get this product added to my personal replicator aboard the Envoy ship?" She sighed, looking at the raspberrytte that had be the new favourite beverage of the entire Innu contingent aboard the ship.


    "One second, I can ess that data. A single unit, non-transferable license for nonmercial purposes is two hundred credits by the Alliance standard pricing scheme for custom food products. I would hold off, though, because I think that the Envoy will be obtaining a vessel-wide version before she returns. I can''t see her allowing herself to be light years away from her new favourite beverage.


    The assistant smirked when Max finished this sentence. "It will be an uphill battle. The others are working to prevent her from doing just exactly that, using the misappropriation of public funds rules. But she is incredibly wealthy in her own right, so they''re not going to dy her for long once she decides to do it with her own money."


    The assistant''s amusement was apparent, but she was holding back something.


    "Go ahead and say it. Unlike the Innu, I have a hard time picking out the background thoughts." He requested.


    "We determined what caused the reaction, where she bes insufferably hyperactive. It is a result of the raspberry juicebined with the coffee beans. Thebination has medicinal properties, at least for Innu, and she is particrly susceptible to it. The twobined in her System to form a powerful stimnt, as opposed to the normal level of stimtion that other Innu experience."


    The rest of the Innu were bad enough with coffee alone, but so far, Max had only noticed the one extreme reaction, though it was hard to tell since most of them drank coffee not because they were tired but because they liked coffee, so the extra energy was utterly unnecessary.


    Chasing the activists away only bought Max a few minutes of peace before the corporate sorts were brave enough toe forward with presentations that they thought the humans would be interested in.


    These weren''t the "You should be grateful for our offer" exploitative sorts that others had presented in the past, they were legitimate corporate coboration offers, so Max thought he should at least consider them when the representatives came forward.


    For once, being able to read minds became less of a hassle, and more of a time saver, since he could sort out the ones whose proposals were interesting sounding without having to listen to them all or even know who the person was.


    "You, you and you four. Would you like to join us for a coffee?" He asked a group of corporate reps who were all working on space vessel development.


    "Certainly, Commander. Thank you for this opportunity." They all replied, out of sync with each other.


    When they stepped forward under the envious gazes of the other reps, they instantly realized what he had done. He had picked everyone who had a simr proposal toe to see him at the same time. They couldn''t present their offers in istion and make themselves look good. The others at the table were their directpetition and would surely try to drag them down.


    The assistant realized that as well and made a gesture to the shopkeeper to bring another round of drinks and some snacks, with absolute certainty in her mind that this was going to be entertaining.


    Not only were theypetitors, but they were all designing new World Ship technology, which meant that the Terminus Trading Company was also their directpetitor and the human group had a head start on developing whatever production method Absolution had been created with.


    It wasn''tmon knowledge yet of how it was made, and everyone was having issues trying to understand what it was even made out of. The frustration was palpable in the background of their thoughts, and they were all after the same thing, a deal that would give them production rights for vessels using this new technology.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They had been observing Terminus for over a month, posing as vacationers, and there had been no warning that a new ship wasing to them. It just suddenly appeared, which gave them the impression that it had actually been made in an incredible hurry somewhere with some unknown technology.


    Max split his attention so that most of his thoughts could go to analyzing battle data, and sensor inputs, to give targeting data to the Mecha on the ground, while the smaller part would deal with the negotiations over ship technology.


    They weren''t going to share the details with anyone, much less offer it up for a production deal that would inevitably lead to a trade war somewhere in the Alliance and a drawn-out legal battle as the technology was used beyond the parameters of the agreement or by unauthorized parties.


    The Klem had lost over half of the world already, and the Mecha Regiments were beginning to link up in the less densely infested areas to push the Klem back into pockets where they could be thoroughly purged, so Cleansing Light wasn''t needed on the battlefield right now, but Max did briefly consider recalling Nico to make her take care of this.


    "So, gentlemen. What would you like to present to me today? If I''m not wrong, you should all be shipbuilders who are looking to revitalize your product offerings, correct?" Max asked.


    The Innu assistant hid a giggle as they all panicked at being seen through so quickly. It wasn''tmon knowledge in the corporate world that Max could read minds, only among the government, and none of them had expected him to know so much about them and theirpanies at this point.


    Only one of them recovered quickly, a slender man with a scarred face and a third eye on his forehead. His thoughts were mostly iprehensible, being in his ownnguage, and he spoke in broken Alliance Common, but the System was quickly adapting and providing Max with basic trantions.


    "I am Farseer Ernie of the Farsight Yacht Company. It is foretold that our Alliance would be beneficial to thepany, as we are attempting to enter the small private yacht niche that Terminus Trading Company currently develops conventional vessels for." The man introduced himself.


    He wasn''t joking, either. His species believed that they could see shes of the future, and Max wasn''t willing to call it impossible since they had a rather high uracy rate when they did have a vision.


    Max brought up the basic brochure for their conventional private yachts. "This line of affordable warp-capable vessels, in the sub-seventy-five-meter category, featuring luxury interiors and the option for a private portal generator?"


    The man''s third eye shed with bright golden light as he nodded happily. "Exactly those ones. My superiors analyzed the data and determined that if they could procure your development tools, we could produce and market your designs at a sixty-five percent discount over our current rates, which would put us in contention within the budget sr yacht market.


    As you no doubt already know, the market is quite scarce in that niche since mostpanies deemed it unaffordable to market to, but I believe that the demand is there, just not at the rates thatst generation''s vesselsmanded."


    He had to dig through his bag to find the proposal since this was the fourth item on their request list should everything else fall through, but at the moment, it seemed like the most likely offer to be epted, and his foresight told him that he would be politely rejected if he made any of the other proposals.


    Maybe he really could see the future. That was exactly Max''s n when he called this group to sit with him.

 Chapter 662 662 Rejected

    Max gave his best professional smile to Farseer Ernie.


    "You have a keen eye, but at the moment, those are the only non-military vessels we produce. As you said, it is a niche market, so it may not be in our interest to increase the number made when we would only be getting copyright ie from the vessels you make."


    Ernie nodded. "But they are also the oldest design that you have in current production, and you have developed two generations of more advanced hulls since they were ced on the market, so I believe that you will soon be transitioning to an ultra-modern yacht, either with the morphable hull or with the monomolecr design of your new World Ship.


    If either of thosees to the market, this line of vessels will be functionally obsolete in your inventory, but there is still a strong but small market demand for such ssically designed budget yachts. We would, of course, be willing to make direct examples of your design with the current credit scheme.


    We would also not be the only ones that you have licensed for the production, and our analysts have noticed that while they are offered, your other partner has deprioritized their production, with wait times over two years before the hulls start down their line."


    Max hadn''t known that. But he had also never checked into how that deal was working out. They were supposed to be exclusive, but two years to start building the ship seemed excessive.


    He made a note for the design department to look into it since the deal had been made with the help of Alliancewyers to prevent the other party from holding onto the deal if they had functionally backed out of their side.


    Max took the offer from the table and looked it over quickly to verify that it matched what was in the man''s mind.


    "Now isn''t the time for a lengthy business deal, but I will schedule you a meeting with our negotiation and development team for sometimeter this week after the battle on the surface is finished. I think we might be able to work something out." Max agreed.


    The easy agreement seemed to embolden the others, who didn''t see the deflection that the Farseer had done and assumed that hispany only had small ambitions to be a budget yacht builder.


    Not that there was anything wrong with that, but theirs wererge corporations, and they were after generational Government Contracts. If they couldnd a deal to make even a half dozen world ships and a standard hundred-year maintenance contract, they would be set until the end of their lives.


    World Ships was a massive investment, and while they didn''t know how Absolution was made, they knew that it was something new and incredibly capable, which would make it easy to market. For that reason, they had prepared very reasonable conditional contracts that would provide Terminus Trading Company with a fortune in Royalties if they could secure a government procurement contract to build vessels built on Terminus Trading Company Technology.


    The World Ships of the Alliance were the so-called "Invincible Ships" to the people of this Gxy and were heavily armed and defended, so any deal to provide them would involve providing the involvedpanies with ns for all the associated technologies and weapons.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That wasn''t going to happen, and the Farseer looked incredibly smug after his third eye shed again, and Max saw a vision of the dejected representatives leaving the table.


    They put their deals out on the table, then looked over each other, and quickly edited their own within the parameters that theirpany had allowed so that they could try topete with each other.


    "While I appreciate the effort that you all have put into your presentations, Terminus Trading Company is not in the market to distribute ns for military technology at this point in time. Should you be interested in another aspect of our business, I would be willing to entertain an offer, but the World Ships, with their unique capabilities, are not up for sale to any outside parties right now.


    It''s not a biased matter, nopany would have done any better, and not even the other human Factions will be given ess to this technology for the foreseeable future." Max exined, sliding the offers back toward the representatives.


    "I see. My thanks for these moments of your limited time." The representative on his far left agreed, and they all stood to shake his hand and left with the same dejected looks that they had in the Farseer''s vision.


    Ernie stood a second after they left the table and shook Max''s hand. "I will be in contact after the battle. I am booked on Terminus for another two weeks, so there is no particr rush should you have other pressing matters to deal with before getting back to trade agreements."


    "It has been enlightening to meet you. Your insights are a unique ability."


    Ernie gave him a graceful bow and turned to leave, but Max could see in his thoughts that he was detailing how the shes were thought to work. His species believed that the third eye saw through time and not light, though they had no scientific proof.


    The Alliance recordings said that they did much like Max or the Illithid and read the emitted bioelectric signals and brain waves of living creatures around them, then came up with a probable oue instead of actually interpreting the thoughts they detected.


    Without data, Max couldn''t prove the answer either way, but for the first century or more after the System activated, humans couldn''t scientifically exin the mental maniption type System Functions either, so he was willing to be open-minded, and perhaps see if he could find someone from that species to bring on board Absolution.


    Seeing the future might not be real, but if they had some innate ability to calcte oues, it would be very valuable in battle if they were used as advisors on strategy.

 Chapter 663 663 Vacant World

    For the next six hours, Max went through the various representatives that had been sent to meet with him. Very little of it was of any importance, and many of them were there mostly just to meet with him and get an impression of Terminus as a Company. Those ones were the easy ones.


    The annoying ones were those who were sent to suck up in order to try to get some sort of deal with the Humans. Almost all of their bosses underestimated the species, and the battle raging on the below had thrown their entire n into disarray, so they had no idea what they were actually supposed to be doing now that they got a chance to meet with Max.


    In a way, that was an improvement. It got them to speak, give him their business info, and then politely back away without wasting a lot of his time. There were so many people gathered that if he spent more than a few minutes with each, he would never get through them all in the course of one single morning.


    By the time the Envoys returned to the Caf¨¦ to meet Max after lunch, the Alliance Government ships had been joined by nearly a thousand corporate vessels in orbit around the. Max had subtly moved Absolution to keep her directly over top of Nico''s unit so that she couldn''t be as easily ambushed should some of thesepanies prove hostile.


    It certainly wouldn''t be the first time, but now that they had a World Ship on their side, it would take much more force for anyone to challenge them, assuming they were willing to risk the Central Government''s wrath to do so.


    The Envoys looked much better now, but it was clear that the assistants had taken the brunt of the excess iing messages once the Envoys took their break. They looked just as rough as the Envoys had earlier, so Max decided to change the order of operations.


    "How about instead of touring Absolution, we start with the important talks, and we can tour the first few areas of the World Ship on our way to dinnerter?" He suggested.


    "Oh, that is a wonderful idea. Please set up a notification that we are in a closed-door negotiation and then disable all outsidemunications once the meetings start. Operational security is of the utmost importance to these talks since they are about delicate military intelligence matters." The Giant Envoy decreed.


    "Then, follow me, and I will bring you to my new office aboard Absolution. You won''t get to see too much of the ship since Terminus is docked right under the center of the main inhabitance right now, but you will get to see a bit during the ride since the secured operations areas are on the second floor, located a thousand meters above the city, separated by a structural bulkhead." Max exined before passing around a set of drinks for everyone to finish on the way.


    "There will be food once we arrive since I''m assuming nobody has had time to eat with all the meetings. Give it ten minutes, and we will be at our destination. There are secure areas for the assistants as well since we don''t expect all negotiations to be finished within a single day."


    The assistants smiled at that. They correctly assumed that Max had prepared sleeping quarters for them in the secure area for the meeting, and they could rx as soon as the meeting started since the Envoys wouldn''t need them for this part of their business.


    It was all about how to deal with the Klem, and the information on their intelligence as a species, which they were still hoping that the Hunters had more data on since they had captured what was assumed to be the leader of that attacking fleet, which was the most coordinated Klem attack that existed in the human records.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Once they left Terminus, they entered one of the high-speed pods, abination of a gravity train car and a Gond, since it followed a single thread of overhead track, which served as a warning to flying species and vehicles to avoid the public transit routes. It was also sized for no more than two dozen people to upyfortably, though you could pack fifty inside if they were human-sized.


    For the first few seconds, the view outside was dark as they passed between levels and through the lower service areas of the ship, but then they passed out into the city from arge fountain lit with underwater strobe lights and spraying water up in a rhythmic pattern.


    "We thought that a regr passageway was too boring, so the transports to the service level all pass through here. I''m told that it can get quite crowded at times but that the decorative design of the pods makes them part of the disy instead of detracting from it.


    I haven''t personally had a chance to see it from the outside yet." Max exined.


    The pod raced over the city, and in only a few minutes, it began to spiral upward toward the next level, passing through the artificial clouds and past the holographic sky to reach the bulkhead between floors and enter the much more utilitarian areas of the ship.


    "We intend to upgrade this eventually, but for now, it''s just the basic structures, and they''repletely unupied since we are the only official political entities aboard the world ship at the moment."


    "I think you greatly underestimated the number of upants that is appropriate for a ship this size." The Valkiaughed.


    "The data said that two million should be enough core staff, but the ship feels incredibly empty with them all in one dense city in the middle. Only one floor is fullypleted with nts and buildings. This level of the ship is pretty much empty other than the shells of buildings in this immediate area.


    It was always going to be one of thest ones finished, but hundreds of kilometres of nothing at all still feel extremely strange, and we just don''t have a source for millions of new upants that wouldn''t cause mass unemployment and cultural chaos.


    Colony Ships among the Reavers usually grow over generations, so we will take in more people as it is convenient until we have the full ship utilized."


    The Valkia was trying very hard not tough at his estimation. It was like saying you would just pick up hitchhikers until you filled a country. Even if you discounted the industrial areas, Absolution had more usable space than an average continent on an M ss habitable.

 Chapter 664 664 Android Workers

    The pod stopped in front of a tall office tower, designed to look like a tree made of white marble, and seemingly all one piece, where an android was waiting in a smart skirt suit to escort them inside.


    There were dozens more workers inside the building, mostly waiting at desks or processing message requests and day-to-day data that would be pure drudgery for a human to do. They had actually hired people to do those jobs, so Max checked his crew information quickly and saw that all of the data entry technicians had been promoted by one grade and were now junior managers of the Data Entry departments, with five androids working under each of them.


    None of the humans were in this building, as the entire sector was dedicated to political meetings, and the active operations centers were on the lower floor, but there was at least someone here to greet them and escort them to an immactely clean office, with what looked like natural sunlight streaming in the windows from the artificial sky outside.


    The Dryad looked around the office building, impressed by the tree-themed architecture, even though it was made of the same nearly indestructible material as the ship''s hull.


    "I like it. They kept the theme alive, even though it is made of the strongest avable materials for the security of the Envoys and Emissaries present. If you add some carpets and chandeliers, as well as curtains, I think it would be very luxurious looking instead of bare as it is now." She suggested.


    "It seems that I have a lot of work left to do to get the ship ready." Max sighed but added the idea to his notes and forwarded them to the android working at the front desk for processing by the logistics staff.


    They would likely only take a day or two to get around to doing the upgrades, and for now, it wouldn''t matter, as Max knew that the office they were headed to was fully furnished.


    "You should create a water floor. I know you want to keep the first human world ship a human world ship, but I''ll be honest with you. At this point, there is no way that you''re getting rid of the Innu. They will flock to you from all over the gxy simply because you''re the species that is most attuned to their desire to develop new things simply to see what happens when they exist." The Innu Envoy suggested.


    "The way she phrases that disturbs me, like they''re innately treating society as a video game and throwing random items into it to see what the inhabitants do with it. But she has a point. Even in the Central Government meeting halls, the Innu are a very strong voice for humans.


    Strangely, so is the Myceloid Ambassador, which is unexpected, given your propensity for violence and its peaceful nature. Perhaps it is simply because you are so open to new things, where most species have an innate bias toward them due to the fact that they reproduce by spores."


    Max and the Innu Envoy both chuckled at that, and the Valkia looked a bit confused.


    "He has a huge crush on the headmistress of Terminus Academy, and his clone heir is a student there," Max exined.


    "How could I have forgotten that? Of course, he is on your side. You made it possible for his heir to get closer to the perpetual object of his affection. He''s been at it for generations. The crush started with her mother, who engineered a daughter to look exactly like she did. The Myceloid are considered nearly immortal, but that''s because they clone themselves with a core of their own memories. This heir is the fourth body that has been after her tentacles."


    "Hey, I don''t judge. Okay, I judge a little. But it''s a harmless infatuation, and it hasn''t crossed the line into stalking." Max shrugged.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Your meeting room is here, Commander and Envoys. Please enjoy your meeting." The Receptionist informed them as she opened one of the doors near the end of the hallway.


    The androids in the building were all identical. 170cm tall, female in form and face, with matching skirt suits and sensible wide-heeled shoes. It was obvious that Nico designed the android staff here because the uniforms were exactly the same as her mother''s secretary wore to work every day. The androids even looked a little like her and were the same size.


    It was as if Nico had decided what the exact correct appearance for every job position should be and simply assigned it to all of the Androids that she created for the position. The ones in the Hangar were the same, but they had all been modified to match the boss, so it was possible that the original idea to make them all the same instead of randomized was his, but the uniform was certainly done by Nico.


    When they stepped inside, there was a single Android in a butler''s outfit waiting with a tray of coffee and snacks, with beverages ced around the round table already and nametes in the same order as how they were seated in the coffee shop.


    The Butler bowed and remained silent, standing by the wall, until the Innu Envoy turned toward the snacks.


    "If you would like to take a seat, Envoy, your preferred beverage has been prepared, and I will deliver the appetizers."


    The android had a very familiar voice, and Max did his best not to smirk at him. She had used Dave''s imitation of what a posh butler should sound like, instead of her own family''s actual Butler, as the voice of the android.


    Max would be in this room whenever it was in use, so it was clearly for his amusement, but it helped him rx and feel more at home in the unfamiliar room.


    "For the assistants, there are refreshments in the side room, as well as a number of bunks, should you require rest." The Butler informed them with a kind smile that made the Dryad shudder.


    "My species is very in tune with emotional states, so the smiling without any emotion behind it is just creepy." She exined.


    "Noted. I will add it to my reference material that a smile does not set the Dryads at ease." The Butler replied, returning to professional neutrality.


    "They might be newly created, but I must say human technology has created a marvellous base program for the Androids." The Giant Envoy added.


    "Thank you, Envoy. It waspiled from seventeen different artificial intelligence and digital assistant models to create a well-rounded personality program. Please do let me know if you need anything else."

 Chapter 665 665 Elimination Options

    With everyone settled into their chairs, Max got to business.


    "So, what is our first topic of conversation? Will it be how to deal with the Klem, where we all know the answer already and only need to develop a politically ptable version to give to the masses? Or should it be about the new developments in human spacecraft?


    That seemed to be a popr topic among the gathered corporate suits who had requested your presence.


    Or perhaps, we should start with the critical matters?" Max asked.


    The Innu envoy took out a data tablet and ced it on the table. "Let''s get the important stuff out of the way first so that I can focus. I have a proposal to add a variety of roasted coffee beans and coffee-based beverages to all Alliance Central Government vessels'' replicator systems."


    The rest of the team groaned at her diversion, but Max noted that they were all drinking coffee right now, so it would probably be the most important part of their dealings today.


    He looked over the deal and then input the standard rates that the Innu Tech Nomads had exined to him ages ago and found that they were asking for a price equal to ten thousand units to gain the right to replicate coffee throughout the entire government for the next decade.


    He wasn''t nning to say no. They had added so many alien foods to their own system just by scanning dishes that visitors had brought that he really didn''t have a legal or moral standing to deny the Alliance their coffee fix. But they loved their paperwork, so he signed the document as soon as he finished verifying the contents for anything that didn''t belong in a coffee deal.


    The document was verified by the automated systems aboard Absolution, which quickly interpreted every paragraph and use for relevance and summarized it all nicely to ensure that what he understood was the same as what was written in the document.


    "See, now I can rx. So, let''s get to work. Do you have a listing of the minimally environmentally damaging methods of eliminating the Klem?" The Innu Envoy asked.


    "Indeed, I do. Starting with the most obvious matter of not allowing them tond on a at all, which seemed to have some opponents among the animal rights crowd, we can move on to containment measures using three-dimensional shielding barriers."


    That idea was a joke that one of the Cygnus officers hade up with centuries ago, and it had be a running gag among their officers when a bad idea was presented. "Just put it in a barrier and forget about it until it goes away." They would say.


    But to the Alliance, it was a somewhat serious proposal. They were seriously considering the logistics and moral implications on survivors trapped inside the barrier without relief forces, should a barrier that trapped them both from moving above and below ground be deployed.


    Once they had read it through and made some notes, Max moved on. "After that, we move into elimination methods. I looked into it and found that most of yours don''t have a standing army, so it would have to be a police cordon until the actual military arrived from the nearest star base.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Given ag time for a response to be scrambled after a request is made of twelve hours, I estimate that a force of fifty thousand Valkia police, using the technology that I have seen your security officers wearing, should suffer between twenty-five and forty percent casualties in that amount of time."


    The Valkia looked like he was going to vomit, so Max held off on using the holographic projector to rey the simtions that they had run or disy the exact numbers. The Giant wasn''t going to be that easy to satisfy, though.


    "Do we have more data on this technique? Mosts will have some vehicles and mobile barriers for riot control avable. Did you factor that into your estimates?" He asked.


    "I will pull them up on the holographic disy, and you can pick any of the hundred simtions that we ran on the topic for more detailed viewing," Max informed him and reluctantly brought the results up on the table''s projector.


    The Giant happily scrolled through them and then picked two to disy at the same time. The highest and lowest casualty rate scenarios. The lowest had the Klem podsnd in a desert, and a police force flew in to contain them in an isted area, with minimal spawning ofrger Klem species before the reinforcements arrived twelve hourster.


    The highest had the podsnd half in an oceanfront megalopolis, and half in the ocean, with amphibious Behemoths arriving before the military and over fifty million dead.


    "Well, that was a bit horrific. I hadn''t considered that they could survive whennding in the water, but your estimate is correct. We do not have the resources on most terrestrials to deal with that. If it was an Innu world, it wouldn''t be as bad since they are also amphibious and have a lot of capabilities for underwater peacekeeping and hostile species containment." The Giant responded in a monotone as he made notes.


    His mind said that he wasn''t really affected by the results and viewed them as hypothetical, while the Valkia Envoy took the sight very personally since it was designed to have the peacekeepers all be of his species.


    "So, since that method clearly won''t go over well with the general poption, what is your next proposal." The Valkia asked.


    "The first is an innovative measure. I suggest militarizing a terraforming array to be portal transferred to the site of an infestation. Once there, it would convert all Klem biomass in the area back to natural elements, rebuilding the area back to its previous pristine state using sampled local nts. As you can see, the upfront cost would be astronomical, but it would only affect the Klem, so it would be safe to use anywhere."


    The data went up on the projector for them to scroll through, and they looked intrigued, but their thoughts clearly said that the animal rights activists would not go for this. It could be forced through, but unless it was ast resort, terraforming an inhabited, even a small portion of it, would require a huge amount of government paperwork and oversight, making the practical deployment of the array nearly impossible.


    "Still too many issues. What else do you have?" The Giant sighed.

 Chapter 666 666 A Giants Woes

    Max smirked as he saw the next so-called solution on his list. It was Nico''s personal contribution to the matter, and it was so simple that it only took one single page to go through all the details.


    [Once a Klem wave is detected on aary surface, an Orbital Lance-equipped Heavy Cruiser would be deployed to neutralize the infestation before it could hatch and expand. Should poption issues be an issue, the Terraforming device can be deployed to create a new poption with stored memories based on the most recent neural backup stored in the Alliance Online Virtual Reality Servers]


    That was the whole summary, and below it was a list of estimated death benefits for the millions of people who would likely be vaporized in the resulting st and the ranges of payments based on the location where the podsnded.


    The Envoys all stared at it in shock for a moment before the Dryad began tough and snapped a photo of it to send to her ship. She frowned when she realized that she had no data connection in here, as the room was secured to prevent anyone from spying on them, but herughter continued even with the annoyed look on her face.


    "Just, NO. I am like 99 percent sure that is a sentient species rights vition, even before you use the limited stored data in thework to attempt to clone their memories. That''s just not right. You can''t just orbitally bombard cities." The Giant insisted.


    "Shouldn''t. Because clearly, we can. Your point is taken, but it is one of the solutions that we came up with, and in a very sparsely popted area, it is fiscally the most efficient option, as the loss is even lower than using a containment barrier to stop them." Max agreed, as the Envoys slowly realized that it wasn''t a serious suggestion, except for Nico, who really didn''t see the problem.


    They had millions upon millions ofs in the Alliance. What loss was one city on one? Negligible. Even human forces had often sacrificed the poption of a city to save the rest of the in the past.


    The part she had failed toprehend was that for the Alliance, brutal necessity was such a distant and vague concept that they would never consider it.


    That was thergest part of their issue. They were so caught up in the ways to deal with the Klem that didn''t involve killing them or allowing anything else to be killed that they hadn''t considered that there might not be an effective way to do it.


    That line of thought brought them to Max''s next suggestion. Individual barriers to have the Klem captured and relocated to a fully infested, which could be designated as a sanctuary until such time as they devoured the nt life that remained and started to spread again.


    That only put the problem a few years in the future, but once the immediate threat to the civilian poption was solved, the Klem could be quietly dealt with, or an orbital shield array deployed around the sanctuary, preventing them from sending out pods.


    Max could see in their thoughts that many high-values had such an array, but the power usage during a heavy attack made them highly impractical, and the cost to deploy one was astronomical. Only the most valuable of sites would be granted such a request, and a wildlife preserve certainly wasn''t going to get approval for that kind of spending.


    "For now, that''s what the Humans havee up with for non-military options. If you have other ideas, we have an advanced database with their capabilities, and I can run an analysis for you to present to your bosses." Max finished.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "We could orbital strike the animal rights activists instead." The Valkia muttered, not pleased with any of the options they were presented.


    "I have data for that. The ones here to proteste from three hundred and seven different worlds, and while the bombardment of that manys would be costly, it is usible." The Dryad joked.


    "Not funny. Tempting, but not funny." The Envoy sighed, shaking out his wings in a show of annoyance with the whole situation.


    "So, what do we tell everyone that we came up with in this meeting?" The Innu Envoy asked while she signalled for another coffee.


    "We still need toe up with fully fledged proposals for all of the solutions that might be eptable, including the hug a killer bug solution, and present them to the Foreign Rtions Council. Then we need toe up with a detailed analysis of the capabilities of the Klem to support our position that they are not actually sentient. Once we have those done, we can start on all of the corporate requests.


    I swear, they should just post us here permanently to deal with the mess that having humans around creates. I don''t know what went wrong with your species'' development, but that level of nihilism can''t be natural." The Giant informed the room.


    The Huntress chuckled, making her presence known for the first time this meeting, and the Giant''s thoughts turned to annoyance.


    [The Curiosity of the Innu, the logical mind of the Giants and the violence of the Hunters. Once we are back, I am definitely starting amission to look into whether the Human species was gically engineered just to make my life difficult.] He thought, making Maxugh.


    "Nothing personal, just a bit frustrated with the whole process." The Giant apologized when he realized that Max had heard that thought.


    "It''s far from the worst thing I''ve heard said about us. In fact, it''s a bit ttering, in a way. We really have taken on the best aspects of many species andbined them into one cultural package." Max replied.


    There was definite doubt in the Giant''s mind at the word "Best," but he let it slide. Max''s hint was enough for the others to realize what they were talking about, and they all knew the Giant Envoy''s personality well enough to realize that dealing with humans would be highly stressful for his species.


    They were alwaysing up with legal loopholes and new creations that pushed boundaries, and as the logic-minded ones in the group, it was his team''s job to analyze it all.

 Chapter 667 667 Happy Nico

    While Max was busy with politics on the ship, Nico was busy with the Hunters on the surface. They had found a lovely new group of Behemoths to hunt, and these three were particrly agile, able to flee from their fiery affections time and time again as the small group pursued them across three zones.


    The Behemoths were in full survival mode at this point. After watching the group annihte everything that they hade across for thest six hours, their imperative to survive and spawn more Klem was all that they could think of, but they simply couldn''t escape their pursuers.


    "Take the left ridgeline, and I will try to herd them up to you. Thest three hundred meters are a clearing, so you should have time for a good shot." Nico informed her hunting partners.


    They silently split off, using thrusters and gravity control to move silently through the woods. They had learned hours ago that the Klem had exceptional hearing, so they could likely still detect them, but not from as far away as when they were walking.


    Nico was not trying to hide. She was crashing through the trees, using her extra limbs to climb the sturdier ones and throw herself forward toward her prey, attempting to chop them apart before they could make it to the tree line where the others were waiting in ambush.


    One of the Behemoths got caught in the remains of a tunnel that had been copsed by the unit which had cleared this zone and stumbled, taking two des to the back and crippling it. The eight-legged creature howled a warning to itspanions, sending them even faster away from the site as the downed Behemoth turned to face Nico so itspanions could escape.


    It wasn''t going tost long, though. It was bleeding too heavily, and its back two legs were disabled after being broken by the hole in the ground.


    Nico put it out of its misery in a sh and then continued behind the fleeing insects. They were almost out of the forest now and into sight of the ridge where the Hunters were waiting.


    Now that they had a head start, they didn''t have to evade as much and were charging straight forward, fast enough that they didn''t even notice the iing energy attacks until scorching sma tore their carapaces apart.


    "That''s one for me, one for Jeera, and who got the kill on thest one?" Nico asked.


    "Apprentice Sandra got her first Behemoth kill of the battle." Huntress Jeera announced proudly.


    Though Nico didn''t know it, the apprentice was her daughter, and she was very proud of her ability to keep up with the much more experienced team, both in movement and in hunting skills. It was far from her first hunt, but it was her first time hunting properlyrge game, like these sixty-meter-long Behemoths.


    "First kills are important. If you want to take a trophy, I will call a drone here to take it back to your shuttle so that you can have it mountedter as a memoir of your time here." Nico offered. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "These pincers would look good above my bed. Give me a moment, and I will have them removed." Apprentice Hunter Sandra agreed, sounding as cheerful as an Innu in a gravity slide.


    "It looks like this zone was adequately cleared. Other than our prey, I didn''t detect any other Klem presence in the area, and the drones are all doing well, so how about we take a moment and look for something unique?


    We have had great luck with the Behemoths of the strength and agility types, and the ranged type was no real challenge, but soon enough, they should be adapting to fighting the android pilots, and we should start seeing even more new patterns, though they might not be as individually impressive." Nico suggested.


    "Not a bad idea. The main force is doing an excellent job, and soon our hunt here will be finished, so we should look for one more worthy target before we go. The mothership suggested that there might be a hybrid or an immature queen here, but we haven''t found either one of them yet, so themand structure of this should be intact unless your Commander sted it to bits while he was copsing tunnels."


    That would be nearly a tragedy to them. None of them, not even Nico, had the chance to hunt a Klem Queen in the past. If they lost the opportunity because it picked a lousy hiding spot and got a mountain range copsed on its head, it would be supremely disappointing.


    The Hunters ate a quick meal while they searched to save themselves from having to take a breakter, though they weren''t at all hungry yet. You could never tell how long a hunt would take, so their protocol said to always eat before every target, even if it was only a little bit. That way, you could always be at your best in a long chase and not have your judgment clouded by biological necessities.


    "I think I have it. Check this grid location, where the Mecha Battalions have converged on a fortified location. I think they are hiding their Commander in that region. It''s thest significant cluster on the at this point, so if it is anywhere, it should be there." Huntress Jeera informed the group.


    It did seem likely, and the units there would appreciate the assistance. It also wasn''t too far away. One of the locations that Max had pointed out before he left was only a few hundred kilometres from there, and Nico had suspected that he might have found the Commander at that point, but it was all hatchlings and new pods when they arrived with the Battalions.


    "Onest push for glory, and we can return to our ships to craft the stories of our hunt." Nico agreed with a giggle that made all of the Hunters smile inside their suits.


    Even though Nico was an experienced Hunter like themselves, she still had such a childlike joy every time they found something new to kill.


    "How about we make a wager for the push to the Commander? We are all best with our melee weapons, so how about two points for a ranged kill and three for a ranged weapon kill from within five meters?"

 Chapter 668 668 Meetings Finished

    In the offices on Absolution, Max was nearly finished with the necessary paperwork for the Council when the message from Nico came to the receptionist''s desk downstairs, who passed a note to the Butler for Max to read.


    It was a bit of a convoluted path, but handwritten notes couldn''t be intercepted by digital surveince should there be a bug in the room, and when they were tossed into the replicator for recycling, there would be no traces of them left over.


    The Druid was very impressed with the arrangement, as the species was very fond of physical notes instead of digital everything, but the rest of the Envoys found it to be a bit tedious and were much more used to having connectivity within their meeting rooms.


    Max could sense their unease, so he decided to give them a ray of hope.


    "There are other meeting rooms which are fully connected and can send direct messages, but if we went to one of them, you would all be bombarded by corporate messages and a thousand anxious bureaucrats. This room is specifically for this meeting so that we aren''t disturbed while we are working and so that your assistants can get a bit of sleep today.


    They look like they need it as much as you did this morning, so we might as well finish up here, then we can move on to the public areas of Absolution, and you can get swarmed by busybodies while we hold our tour."


    "You have a good point. The passages between Terminus and Absolution are wide open, so the moment that we are spotted back out in public, they wille swarming to our location, hoping to overhear even the smallest of tidbits, and some of the political visitors have a high enough position that even we would have to give them the time to ask a few questions since a tour of the city isn''t a priority event."


    That was about what he expected, so Max decided to check in on the Mecha battle below them before they headed out. The Corporate meetings had been bumped for the day, due to scheduling conflicts, at least in the official records, since writing down that you weren''t in the mood for their petty nonsense today was frowned upon, ording to the legal team.


    "The documents have all been sent out, sir. Would you like me to lift the restrictions on the room?" The Butler asked as a secretary returned with the data tablets.


    The Envoys checked the logs on the tablet closely when they got them back, as the Secretary had taken them outside to send the messages, but only one ess was logged, and all it had done was to send the message as prepared in advance.


    That was the nice thing about the Android staff. There was no real risk of insubordination or moles in the team, as the entire team would verify each other''s status constantly, and if one were tampered with or operating outside of the approved spec, they would be put on the maintenance roster and removed from duty until they were fixed, with an identical unit taking over.


    The more Max interacted with them, the more he realized that the n to have every job share a unique appearance was genius. He could tell exactly what position they held simply by looking at them, and they didn''t even need a uniform. It was like learning two hundred new staff instead of twenty thousand individuals.


    "Thank you. If that is everything, I think we can head out." The Innu Envoy replied to the Butler, who remembered not to smile this time and gave a polite bow instead so that he didn''t creep out the Dryad. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I guess we should wake the assistants. They will need to know what we were up to and straighten themselves out before we head out." The Valkia Envoy agreed.


    They needed more than a little bit of straightening out, Max realized. Though the meetings had taken over four hours, they were still mostly exhausted, the wings of the Valkia had feathers pointed in every possible direction, and one of the Innu assistants even had her head tentacles twisted together in a braid that she had to straighten by hand before she regained her bnce.


    Max had seen their thoughts many times before, but seeing their morning rituals in action, or at least the public parts of it, was an interesting experience, and the only ones that had it easy were the Giants.


    Though the Envoy had well-styled hair, all of the assistants had either shaved their heads or cut their hair very short so that a ssh of water and a quickb was enough to straighten it out. Even the female assistants had hair not much longer than Max''s and were ready for business in mere minutes, though their minds were groggy even while they lined up for the tour.


    The shuttle pod was waiting for them when they left the building, ready to take them on a tour of the city, but Max had a better idea.


    "Shuttle, take the scenic route over the city, then drop us in the entertainment district near Central Park." He instructed the vehicle''s navigation system.


    "Understood, Commander. Beginning the route now."


    "This way, we can see the popted areas, as well as some of the fields and forests that have been prepared already, then we can stop in a busy shopping area so that all of the people whoe to snoop and see if they can get your attention will be exposed to the sales pitches and unique entertainment offerings that Absolution has to offer," Max exined.


    "About that water world, though. Do you think you could spare a floor for us aquatic sorts? I mean, you''re barely using two of the twenty-some floors of this ship. There has to be space for the Innu to replicate their home world, right?" The Innu Envoy asked, remembering one of her major points at the veryst moment.


    "I will get Nico and her Research and Development team on it once the battle is over. They are moving to Absolution anyhow, so they can decorate the floor above the one we are on. I don''t know how many Innu we will have on board, but I suspect that they will be pushing for the hiring of more Innu, Shin and Dryads anyhow, so we might as well prepare plenty of space for everyone to befortable." Max replied with a sense of impending headaches.


    They had just finished a round of hiring, and if they did up a hundred thousand square kilometres of mostly aquatic space in the design that the Innu was thinking of, with small white sand beaches scattered through a shallow ocean, it was basically guaranteed that they would be getting millions more Innu in the near future.


    This also meant that Max would have to deal with the staff requisition paperwork to get them all settled and employed. At least they wouldn''t be short on IT staff. At least this time, he had much more staff to delegate the troublesome parts to instead of overworking the staff on Terminus.

 Chapter 669 669 Candle Shop

    The transport pod slowly brought them over to the city while the automated voice narrated all of the interesting features. The uniquely designed high-rise buildings, the forests split into representative biomes from variouss, thekes and finally, the city itself, where the existing crew lived.


    "Your ship really is empty. Hundreds of kilometres without even a single house. It''s practically paradise to a Dryad, but we usually stay ons, and not world ships, so this is a fairly new experience to me. You could split every inhabited floor into a different nation if you wanted. They''rerge enough." The Dryad Envoy giggled.


    "That''s just what I need. Nationalist conflicts aboard my ship." Max chuckled, making the Envoys smirk.


    "It wouldn''t be the strangest thing that we have seen humans do." The Valkia reminded him.


    While that was true, when he put it like that, it almost sounded like an insult. His mind said that it wasn''t intended to be one, only a reminder that they had seen humans do some incredibly strange things in the past, by Alliance standards, but Max could sense that separating the floors into separate nations would be a very bad idea, given how humans are, and the inevitable rivalries that would develop.


    He would also have to work to avoid having certain floors end up with too heavy of distribution of certain categories of workers. Even though the replicators made life much easier, there were still bonuses to having a better job, and he didn''t want to create entire floors who felt that living where they did was hindering their chance.


    Even worse, if a floor got a reputation for raising low-wage workers, it really would hinder their chances since they would have their location code on all their identification and job applications.


    He briefly wondered if General Tennant had felt like this when he first took over asary Governor, trying to bnce everything so he didn''t create a dystopian nightmare for his residents. Then he remembered that this wasn''t the General''s first time serving asary Governor, so the first time he had inherited what was likely already a dystopian nightmare, but a functional one.


    Because the Kepler Empire could tolerate anything but dysfunction.


    When they were over the city and the majorndmarks had been pointed out, the pod began to descend toward anding zone on top of a shopping center.


    "I know it''s not what you were expecting, but the restaurant that we want is right across the street. Reservations for a private room have been made, and we only need to pass through one building and across the street.


    I''m sure there will be more than a few people already waiting for us, but it won''t take much to get away from them." Max exined.


    "Oh, is this another one that makes custom things with the Replicators? That''s such a rare thing in most worlds that I almost forgot humans like their own personalized recipes." The assistant to the Valkia asked eagerly.


    "It is. But first, I count just over one hundred corporate representatives headed for the area, so we should get moving so that we aren''t trapped on the upper floors of the building. Once we get to the shops, a basic sense of decorum and the security forces will keep them from bing a major nuisance. So, put on your best political faces and prepare to answer questions." Max informed them.


    Most of the questions would fall to the assistants since the Envoys had such a high social status, but even Max wouldn''t be immune to being swarmed since so many of the people already in the area were staff who had only met him once at an official announcement, if at all.


    The human staff was pretty good about it, though, and treated him like a celebrity out shopping, simply snapping pictures or inviting him into their shops as the group passed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Wait, what is that shop? It smells divine." The Dryad asked and turned into a candle and potpourri shop.


    "We''ve lost her." The Innuughed as she followed the other Envoy into the small shop.


    Her memories were showing Max an incident some time ago, where the Dryad had gotten immersed in a bath and body product shop for over an hour, checking out every scent until she found one she liked.


    "Do you have any natural scents? I know I smell some that aren''t chemical." The Dryad asked the woman at the counter, who was wearing a floral sundress with a flower braided into her hair at her temple.


    The ship''s hippies had found each other, and he certainly wasn''t going to be able to separate them anytime soon.


    "I replicate all the individual ingredients and make the candles myself with beeswax as a binder. I have a batch ready for processing if you would like a short workshop?" The hippie asked.


    "Oh, that would be wonderful. I''m sure mypanions can spare a few minutes." The Dryad agreed without hesitation while the Innu rolled her eyes.


    Of the entire group, she had the shortest attention span and always needed to be doing something, so these little pauses were pure torture to her on the same level as doing paperwork.


    "I think they will let you make a custom one if you ask. Think of it as a biochemical experiment to bnce scent profiles into a pleasingbination." Max suggested.


    "Please, I would love for you to join, Envoys." The shopkeeper agreed, then pressed a button under the counter that brought a teenage girl that looked like her daughter out from the back room.


    "It had better be important. . . are those the Envoys? Here in our little shop?" The girl asked as she stomped in.


    "It is, and they are. They want custom candles, so we are going to the back, and you need to watch the counter." The older woman exined.


    Since they were tucked in the corner of an upper level of a mall, not many people were likely to know this shop existed yet, but Max suspected they would be very busy in about two minutes.


    "If you have another assistant, you might want to call them. A lot of people are going to show up either to get something from a ce where the Envoys shopped or to buy scents that they think the Dryad would like. She''s a bit of a celebrity." Max whispered to the girl who had moved behind the counter.


    She nodded vigorously, then began to panic as she realized that the shop wasn''t big enough for them to have hired anyone else, so it was just her. They hade as the family of a sanitation engineer and used their savings to open a shop in the cheapest stall that they could find in the city. Hiring more staff wasn''t high on their to-do list, especially after using so much of their energy ration to stock the shop.

 Chapter 670 670 Out Of Stock

    Max remained in the shop near the counter, so he could block anyone who got ideas about barging into the back room to bother the Envoys, but that only made him a prime target for every curious shopper that made it into the shop.


    The girl behind the counter began to panic as the shop became overcrowded, worried that rampant shoplifting would clean out their savings and stock, leaving them with nothing to pay the rental on the unit.


    "Don''t worry about it. You are using the approved store tags provided by Absolution. If an unpurchased item is removed from the store, their ount will be directly debited for the full retail price of the item.


    It was a request of the higher-end shops. Their shoppers don''t care about price, and they don''t want the hassle of a checkout counter." Max exined, and the girl visibly rxed.


    They were a bit more expensive, but the proximity tags had been her mom''s idea to make them seem more official, not having to manually ring things up.


    "Miss, do you think that the Dryads would like this scent? I''m not sure if you''ve heard, but they abhor all things made of artificially created chemical." A Myceloid in a short red dress asked, dropping a candle on the counter in her excitement to be among the first to the shop.


    "All of our candles are made in-store out of beeswax and natural ingredients. I believe that the Dryad Envoy would love that scent since she is a fan of the forest, and that particr moss grows deep in the tropical forests of Endora, a human in the Cygnus Kingdom." The girl exined.


    "How do we use them? Are they ced in hot water to release their scent?" The Myceloid asked.


    "You can do that, or even over a dry heat source, but the candles are designed to be self-heating. If you light that central string on fire, it will produce a low light, a small amount of heat and release the signature scent for roughly twenty standard hours for that size of our candle line."


    "You have exposed mes in your habitation units for pleasurable scents?" The Myceloid asked, slightly confused about the highly hazardous concept.


    "The ss container keeps the melted wax and mes contained. Just refrain from touching it while it is lit, as it will get hot. A strong breeze will put it out when you are finished. Would you like a demonstration?"


    "Is that permitted in public?" The shopper asked with great excitement while others gathered around.


    "Of course. We also have products designed to release scented smoke when they burn. It is very popr with humans, but I suspect that it might not be for every species, as it is still smoke."


    She took avender-scented candle from behind the counter and lit it for the shoppers to examine.


    Max chuckled at the pure joy on the faces of the Myceloid shopper''s entourage as they encountered a candle for the first time. Their faces were actually just a facsimile of the appendage that mammalian species had, and they didn''t have traditional sight, but they were instantly in love.


    They navigated by thermal detection, and the candle produced a directed heat source that lit up everything around them in their vision. They had never had the need for fire in their development and had used directed light for the same purpose, but the lights in a spaceship didn''t give off any heat, so it didn''t give them the same sense of directionality.


    The small fire brought them all close to examine it, but not less than half a meter, which they viewed as the closest safe distance from a burning object.


    "How did we put it out again?" She asked. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "If you can blow air, that is how humans do it. But a swift wave of an appendage nearby will do the same, like this." The shopkeeper exined before waving her hand over the candle.


    "I will take one of every scent. I don''t know what ones my family will like, but I have Alliance Credits to spare." She demanded, suddenly sounding much less entranced and much more bossy.


    "Certainly. In fact, I actually have a prepacked option that is perfect for you. One candle in each scent that we have in stock and a sneak preview of our potpourri line, which isn''t out yet. Those ones you ce in water over a gentle heat source to release the scent.


    In Alliance currency, it will be eight hundred credits for the whole selection."


    She passed over the box of candles, and the register beeped happily as it recorded the payment. But that left the shopper in a conundrum. She was finished shopping, and there was a line, but she had actually wanted to see the Envoy before she got distracted by the candles.


    "If you wait down the hall, away from the lineup, we will be out within the next hour and headed to the right of the door," Max suggested.


    An hour holding a thirty-kilo box of candles would hopefully be too much for them, and they would give up, but he would at least give them a hint of where to stand so that they could see the Envoys on their way past.


    "Thank you, Commander. I''m sure many others want to do actual business, so I will let them pass." The Myceloid replied, then led her group out so that a half dozen more people could enter.


    Fifteen minutester, the shelves were looking pretty bare, and the line wasn''t getting any shorter. Someone had lit a censer full of incense on their way out, and it was drawing more people here, ones who didn''t know the Envoys were inside and just wanted the incense.


    Finding all the good shops in a new city took time, so you went to check out every promising lead that you found, or so Max believed, based on the thoughts that he could sense, but the shop was about to enter a minor crisis.


    "If we can get the next group to wait for a few minutes, please, we need to restock the shelves before you enter." The girl behind the counter called out, to the annoyance of the shoppers who were really just looking to sneak a peek at the Envoys who could be seen behind Max, finishing their candles and cing them in a fridge to cool and harden.


    But with Max there, theyplied, and in no time, everything from the back room and behind the counter was out on the shelves, except for a stack of assortment boxes.


    "We''re all finished with the Candles. I made one that smells just like coffee and freshly baked pastries." The Innu Envoy dered proudly.


    "I think I learned more than they did today. These Envoys have an incredible range of knowledge, including how tobine natural scents to create other perceived scents." The older hippieughed from the back room.


    "As long as you enjoyed yourselves, it was well worth the time. But we should get moving before we starve the assistants to death." Max joked.


    It was a joke, they had actually eaten before they left the meeting room, but they had been here long enough, and the shop was running out of products to sell.

 Chapter 671 671 Official Response

    It took the group over an hour to make it to the bottom floor of the shopping mall and out to the street with all the curious onlookers and not-so-subtle attempts to draw them into a business conversation, and by then, the Assistants really were starting to get exhausted and hungry again.


    The street out front was a pedestrian-only route through the shopping and entertainment district, and the crowd had packed the streets to wee them and shout questions about the situation in the Alliance with the sudden appearance of the Klem inside their borders.


    "I can assure you that a potential solution has already been found, and it has been sent to the Council for final approval. We are hoping to have an answer before we finish dinner, so if you would like to spend a few hours enjoying the amenities here aboard Absolution, we will inform everyone as soon as we get an update." Max assured the crowd.


    That calmed them for a few minutes, so Max led the group into the restaurant''s private room to sit down for dinner while they waited for messages from both the Council and the Mecha Force on the surface below them.


    The first to notify them was Nico, on behalf of the Android Army.


    [Commander, the surface has been verified one hundred percent clear of Klem life. The damage to the surface is extensive but repairable, and the''s surface and atmosphere are still within the categorization of Habitable that the Reavers requested of us.


    With your permission, we will begin extraction in thirty minutes.]


    "Good news, everyone. The battle is finished. Once they have returned to the ship, we just have to wait for the response from the Council, so we know what they n to do about the Klem in their territory, and then we can start making ns for our next mission." Max informed the room.


    "Excellent. That means that the data analysis will have begun already, and they gave us an estimate of one hour after the battle finished to have their edited numbers submitted. We can''t share the Alliance''s actual military strength with you, but I am sure that you have gathered from the corporations that have approached you that our individual military strength hasgged behind the rest of our development due to ack of necessity." The Valkia Envoy sighed.


    "That''s right. They nevere across anyone who can threaten them, so they haven''t created new weapons in ages, only new shields so that they could travel in greaterfort."


    Their shield technology wasn''t for defence but forfort. That actually made sense, Absolution did the same thing and used their conventional shielding to smooth out turbulence in their warp travel, but Max had assumed that the Alliance had developed theirs to deal with higher technology threats.


    They were far from as stagnant and backward as the Kepler Empire had be, but the cial pace of their society had been evident for a while, with patent protection holding for generations and keeping everyone using the same essential technologies that they had been for centuries since nobody had created anything innovative enough to get around the rigid bureaucracy.


    [Go ahead and extract as soon as everyone is staged. Good work this time. Your Androids were incredible, and the Pilots who ran the intelligence drones this time agree.] Max informed Nico and got a short video of Shattered Pride doing a happy dance on the corpse of the singlergest Klem that he had ever seen. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She didn''t describe it, so it could have been some super Behemoth, or they had found a Klem Queen on the. If it was a leadership caste above the Behemoths, it would be incredible for their data discovery, possibly as valuable as whatever the Hunters had gathered from the infested ship during the orbital wave.


    The staff brought them out an array of dishes, set to be shared so that the entire table could sample all of their unique creations, and the room fell silent, with even the assistants ignoring their messages for a while to eat.


    The Council''s response came between the main course and dessert. They didn''t send it directly to Max, but from the look on the faces of the Envoys, the answer wasn''t what they were expecting.


    "It looks like we''re not done with our mission at all. The entire government entourage has been assigned to follow Absolution around while we finish the next mission, assuming that you take it on personally." The Valkyrie informed him as he read through the message.


    They had all received different directions, and Max couldn''t be sure what the actual message was going to be, but each of them was a separate request for assistance from Terminus Trading Company.


    It was only when the Dryad Envoy got a message from her leadership that the situation became clear. The Alliance Government couldn''t stand to outright ask the humans to deal with the mess from their Gxy that had spread to the Alliance systems, but they weren''t willing to send their forces to fight an unfamiliar hostile species without any training, and they were estimating eleven years to develop and implement a program of training for their intergctic peacekeepers.


    "I know it''s rude to read people''s minds, but I''m literally incapable of stopping it. Isn''t a decade too long to prepare to face a threat?" Max asked.


    The Giant Envoy shook his head. "No, that''s pretty standard. Not for the people in this room, but for the others, they want aplete study, testing, simtions, and verification, all done separately for every measure that is going to change from standard procedures.


    Since we don''t use Mecha of the same designs that you do, that means that everything would have to change, even if we directly ported your procedures, resulting in a time savings of under six months."


    "So, if I''m correct, your requests will add up to having Terminus go to the source of the problem and clean it out?" Max asked, making sure he hadn''t missed a critical thought.


    "Oh, and helping us, including the escort that is going to be following you, in finding out who brought them to us. They have a list of suspects here, and they''re all equally bad options, from insurgents, a new cult, or a foreign force, to the Narsians throwing Klem through a portal to get rid of them. Frankly speaking, they have no idea what caused the issue, and they just want it to go away before the protests get any worse." The Innu Envoy agreed as she finally finished reading her messages.

 Chapter 672 672 How To Investigate

    [Nico, it looks like the Alliance is asking us to take care of their Klem issues and investigate how they even developed one, to begin with. Once you''re settled back in and Shattered Pride is cleaned and repaired,e to my new office aboard Absolution, and we will talk about strategies for cleaning out a series ofs while searching for hints of the origin and cause.] Max informed his second inmand.


    [Is it my birthday? No, it hasn''t been that long. It''s a special asion, isn''t it? You''re never this nice to me for two missions in a row.] She replied. He was going to have to talk to her about separating her messaging system from her conscious thoughts so that he would get an organized message instead of whatever she thought when he sent her a message.


    [It''s not toote for me to put you on managerial duties for the mission.]


    Nico didn''t bother to respond to his taunting, so Max browsed the selection of dessert options that the restaurant had prepared for them. Now that they had a good idea of what the Envoys were going to have to negotiate tonight, everyone could rx and enjoy their food.


    They knew what the answer would be. The rewards offered were quite impressive and included discounts on alliance goods for the entire Reaver Trade Group, which currently epassed nearly two-thirds of all humans, as well as a lot of Alliance Credits.


    The rescue fee for Mercenary Forces hired to save a by the Alliance was set at ten percent of the value of the''s resources and surviving infrastructure. It was set millennia earlier and hadn''t been used in centuries, but it was extremely generous, and the Alliance Government could afford it easily enough.


    That was the sort of money that would make many humans much morefortable since the Reavers would be able to deploy entire cargo ships of advanced technologies to them and change the standard of living in a single mission.


    "Do you have a preliminary n on how you will begin to identify the source of the infestation? Holding the Klem at bay can be done in a variety of ways, but we have had no luck at all in finding the origin of the first infestation." The Valkia envoy asked.


    "We have some practice with that, yes. Portals leave a lingering trace that we should still be able to detect. And if you track the position of the, as well as the impact sites, you can identify the direction that the pods would havee from if they were sent to you.


    If they came from this Gxy, they would have been sent a million years ago since they travel at less than light speed, and I''m not sure that even Klem pods could survive stasis that long. So most likely, they would havee from anotherary body nearby or a ship.


    If it''s a vessel that we''re looking for, it will be a matter of corrting warp signatures to locations and times in order to identify possible origins, which will be much more difficult since we don''t know the signature patterns of every Alliance manufacturer."


    The Envoys nodded in understanding. Each design of warp drive had a specific energy pattern that it left behind when it passed, but if a ship was out of spec, it wouldn''t be immediately identifiable even with their records, and every ship that was operating as intended would only lead them back to a manufacturer, and possibly hundreds or thousands of ships.


    That was a lot of investigative work, and getting the records unlocked would take years by the time they finished, which gave anyone who was a legitimate suspect more than enough time to hide their tracks. That meant that chasing the vessel around to every spot it stopped was the only truly viable method, and they had already spent months doing whatever they pleased with nobody chasing them. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    There wasn''t much more that they could do here, so the Envoys prepared to step out and make an announcement to the crowd gathered outside the restaurant.


    "Should we have the assistants do it? If the crowd is going to yell at someone, it might as well not be us." Max suggested.


    The Dryadughed so hard that fruit juice spurted from her nose, horrifying the normally Elegant Representative but causing the Innu Envoy tough even harder.


    "I wish we could get away with that, but like official press secretaries, we are expected to make official announcements ourselves and not pass it off to ackey with no authority to give answers." The Valkia Envoy sighed.


    "Well, it was worth suggesting. Do you have a speech prepared? You are the official leader of the delegation." He asked the Valkia.


    "I have been provided with a public statement." The Envoy agreed.


    "That says absolutely nothing and leaves them with even more questions than when you stepped out to speak to them. This should be fun."


    The Giant thumped the table and threw his head back in a full-throatedugh. "He knows politicians entirely too well. I swear, humans have a gift of seeing through subterfuge and doublespeak like no other species. It''s almost like theirnguage capability includes a small measure of precognition. They know what you''re going to say without you saying it."


    One of the Giant''s assistants looked up from her notes and shook her head. "That''s not precognition. We have analyzed it, and it is a form of pattern recognition. They know what you are going to say because they instinctively understand behaviour and past actions."


    The Envoy looked at her in mild annoyance. "You really do know how to take the joy out of the little things, don''t you? But you are correct. It is not actually precognition."


    "There is a balcony overlooking the street. I suggest that you address the crowd from there. It will let them all see you and prevent your voice from being blocked by the mass of bodies." Max suggested.


    "Let''s get this over with, and then we can make preparations to get this circus on the move. I swear the Alliance goes as overboard with political observers as the Humans do with military force." The Dryad added.

 Chapter 673 673 Public Announcement

    Unlike the store, the Restaurant hadn''t be incredibly overcrowded, thanks to the efforts of the staff to keep those who weren''t intending to order anything from entering. Most of the people were happy to wait on the street for the announcement anyhow since they had been assured that they would be updated when new information came in.


    So, when the Valkia Envoy appeared on the balcony, the entire crowd in the streets turned to pay attention and even called many more out from the nearby shops and arcades toe to hear what the representative had to say.


    "Greetings, citizens of the Alliance and of the Terminus Trading Company. It is with great pleasure that I can announce that we have reached one new trade agreement today, as well as two official decisions regarding the situation within the Alliance." He began.


    There was a lot of confusion about what he meant by a trade agreement and why it would have been a priority when the talk of every data was about thes in danger from hostile invaders, but the Envoy was held in high enough esteem by the general poption that they were mostly waiting for his announcement and not shouting at him to get on with it.


    "First of all, an agreement has been reached that will allow the programming of coffee beans and derivative drinks into the replicators of all Government vessels." He announced, and a huge cheer went up from the Innu in the crowd, earning them a lot of annoyed looks.


    Once they had seen that the humans could take care of awide infestation, they had be much less concerned about the Klem and much more concerned about getting all the new human foods introduced to their home ships. By Innu logic, if the Envoys were in discussions about the matter, it had already been handled and was no longer of immediate concern to them all the way out here in another Gxy, which had its own Klem infestations to deal with.


    Max totally understood that sentiment. You only needed to worry about things that were within your power to affect. The teary-eyed sentimental pleas for trillions of dors that were ying over Alliance media had already raised more than enough to rebuild thes from scratch, even if they were purged entirely and terraformed back to a clean te.


    Assuming that the plutocrats and nobility of thes actually let any of that money out of their hands, that is. If Max''s estimation was correct, they would soon be begging the government for funding to clean up the problem so that they could keep the funds they raised.


    He would say that they were doing it already, but they were still begging for Government intervention, and asking for both military rescue and recovery money at the same time would just be tacky.


    The Valkia used a handheld device to amplify his voice so he could be heard through the area without using the ship''s inte. "In addition to the trade agreement on Coffee, two derations have been approved today regarding the Klem situation. First of all, the Council has determined that they are an artificially introduced hostile invasive species, and not at risk of extinction, with the stable presence they hold in this Gxy."


    At that point, he had to pause again as the eco-activists began to lose their minds, shouting, screaming and crying in the streets, then beginning to smash storefronts and attack pedestrians until the ck-d security forces of Absolution moved in to detain them.


    "I have RIGHTS! This is a PEACEFUL PROTEST!" One man was shouting while he swung a metal bar at the security forces.


    The officers looked up at Max to see if he had any additional instructions for them, but Max only winked at them and then deliberately turned his back on the crowd so that he could talk to the Envoys. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "This should only take a minute. The security forces are very efficient." He exined.


    The shouts and sounds of breaking ss ended in an instant, followed by the sound of running and then fleshy thumps. Within a minute, the crowd was silent again, and Max turned back to face the street.


    "It is good to see that our security forces were able to prevent any major damage. Shops in the area will bepensated for any damages that the vandals havemitted." He called to the crowd, using the street intes to make himself heard.


    "What exactly was that?" The Giant asked, shocked by the brutal way that the humans had used batons to beat the protestors into submission.


    "Just be d that we didn''t go by Kepler rules. They shoot vandals in the streets as undesirables. The Reavers just beat the stupid out of them. You can shout and scream, even fight in the streets if you like, but property damage isn''t tolerated by our protest rules." Max exined.


    "Still, that was pretty brutal. Are they at least getting medical treatment?" The Dryad asked.


    "Of course. We''re not barbarians. They will be levied a fine equal to three times the damage that they caused and spend one night in our jail cells. Then they will be released. If they can''t pay, they can sit in the cells to pay it off with time served at the rate of one hundred credits a day." Max exined.


    "As long as they won''t be left to suffer. My people consider it cruel." The Dryad exined.


    "Not with injuries anyhow. Our jail cells are far from luxurious, and the guards won''t give them any information while they are in there. We have found it to be an effective psychological deterrent. Nobody stays long in prison with Reavers, though. If they owe more than they can quickly pay, Reaver criminals are assigned to hardbour to pay off their debts. Then once that is finished, we don''t hold it against them in the future unless they re-offend."


    The Dryad nodded happily as the crowd recovered from their shock and realized that most of the protesters were still standing around at the edge of the crowd. Only those who had damaged property had been hauled away. Max could sense that many of them were just now realizing that they were truly on a foreign ship with foreignws, and they wouldn''t get away with the same things that they did at home.


    The lesson learned was worth much more than the effort of arresting a few dozen vandals.

 Chapter 674 674 Waiting To Leave

    The Valkia Envoy cleared his throat. "As we were saying before, we were so rudely interrupted. The Klem are not an endangered species and not a sentient one. This has been determined by Alliance Government scientists without outside interference and verified by both the Hunters and the Humans.


    They are currently being secured byary security forces, but Alliance Military intervention is iing, and the Terminus Trading Company has been hired to remove the infestation from ours while the Government searches for the root cause of the incidents.


    This marks a rather unusual first for the Alliance. No other species has been hired as pest species exterminators as their very first official arrival on an Alliance world, but we would like to wee the Terminus Trading Company to Alliance territory once the official cleansing of this world is finished and we make the transfer between worlds."


    That announcement shocked everyone, not just the Alliance citizens. Nobody on Terminus had expected that they would be heading to another extermination mission so soon, and certainly not in another Gxy.


    Max stepped forward to join the front rank of speakers and addressed the crowd. "There will be some changes made to our Mecha force to optimize performance after the test of the Android Pilots in this battle, but we estimate that we canplete the mission with very minimal casualties and at great reward to the Terminus Trading Company.


    Building an entirely new World Ship was no small endeavour, and the resources gained from this mission will benefit not only every resident of Absolution but it will provide generous benefits to all Reavers.


    With that in mind, I do hope that you can make our Alliance guests feel right at home here while the mission is ongoing. Their Government has assigned arge number of vessels to observe our performance, as this is our first official extermination mission for the Alliance Government, so we will have guests for an extended period of time.


    There will also be uing announcements about improvements to the unupied areas of Absolution in the uing days, so feel free to submit suggestions and requests to your supervisors. We have been listening, and one of the improvements that is being nned is from the very top few requests that we have received."


    Max wanted to leave them in suspense, but he was also checking the crowd to see what came to their minds when he said that. There was no public data on the requests, so they could only guess what everyone else wanted.


    Their ideas right now would tell Max what he should try to add to the ship to make life better for his people.


    It might be a bit underhanded, baiting them into telling him what they wanted, then pretending it had been his n all along, but it was certainly going to be effective, and judging by the responses in the crowd, it would be simple as well.


    The main habitation floor of Terminus was designed to be amodating to as many species as possible, so it was temperate and moderately humid, but the first thought of most of the humans in the crowd was [Tropical Vacation Resort] or [Gravity Slides].


    Both of those were already in the works with the ns to adapt a floor for thefort of the Innu, who liked warm temperatures, and who might actually riot if he did away with the Gravity Slides. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was actually a relief that his crew had such simple requests from him. If they had wanted something truly oundish, he might have had to draw up entirely new ns and not just let Nico and the Innu design a tropical Ind Nation on an upper floor.


    "Commander, will there still be hiring for Mecha Pilots now that you''re reorganizing the Android forces?" Someone called up from the crowd as the spectators who were only here to hear about the Klem situation began to disperse.


    "Yes. I won''t get into specifics, but we will be having some human Pilots apany the force in the future instead of having them all guide from inside of Drones. We believe that our new n will make things even more efficient." Max informed him.


    The man gave him a Cygnus Military salute before departing back into one of the Arcades, intending to refresh his skills for an imminent test by the Terminus Military Forces should his application be approved.


    [Commander, all units are back aboard and ounted for. We will have casualty and damage data for you soon. Absolution is ready to transfer whenever you are.] Admiral Penner informed Max while he was talking to the prospective pilot.


    [Thank you, Admiral. I will give you a schedule once I know what we will do with all the visitors. There is no problem bringing them with us, but we need to inform their ships before we just take off.]


    No matter how much fun that thought seemed like. Max could imagine the chaos if he just opened a portal and left with thousands of corporate reps whose ships were in orbit.


    "Envoys, how long is polite to wait before opening a portal? I assume that most of these people areing with us, so they don''t really need to leave, but we should change locations as soon as possible to start preparing for the firstary intervention." He exined.


    "Give it two hours. It''s enough time to get everyone who wants to return to their ships off of Absolution and for them all to prepare for the voyage. Will you be holding the Portal open for everyone?" The Valkia Envoy asked.


    "That''s not a problem. We are thergest vessel going, and I will shape the Portal so that your vessel has room toe through as well since it''s taller than Absolution. That reminds me, I''ve been meaning to ask, why are your Envoy Ships spheres?"


    The Innu began tough and sing a song in her head to distract from what she was actually thinking, but the Giant''s thoughts gave it away.


    Their World Ships really were round simply because they were called World Ships, and nobody could decide on another shape other than that of a.

 Chapter 675 675 System Upgrade

    [All visitors, please note that Absolution will transfer between star systems in three hours. Those who wish to return to their vessels or remove their vessels from our docking bays are free to do so for the next two hours and thirty minutes.


    If you wish to apany us back into Alliance territory for our next port of call, the portal will be held open for all vessels in the region for an additional thirty minutes. Please be aware that the destination will be a system that is currently under threat from a Klem infestation and that the Terminus Trading Company is under contract with the Alliance Government to deal with the problem.


    Any attacks on Absolution or her crew while they are working, will be treated as attacks on a government vessel.


    I appreciate your understanding on this matter.]


    The news wasn''t really a surprise to very many, as they had already informed every vessel Captain, but there were a few panicked shoppers and tourists who had been wandering around the coremercial district and not paying attention to current events.


    Fortunately, everyone else got the memo, and they were quickly assured that they didn''t have to leave. They could just go about their day and depart from the new System when they were finished.


    While they waited, Nico sent Max a huge amount ofbat data, in addition to the first reports, in order to better analyze his tactics. He had a workout nned already, so he took a data tablet with him to the Gym so that he could go over it as he exercised. He was only a few points away from another fifty-point mile point.


    Hopefully, he could [Optimize] a few more systems to improve performance, but as he was sitting in the Gym, doing agility drills while he studied the data, the System startled Max with a notification.


    [System Function: Optimize] has been upgraded to [System Function: Optimize 2]


    [Optmize Function may now be used to duplicate System Functions for Optimal Pilot Output]


    [Selected Functions 0/2]


    Max simply stared at the notification for a while, trying to determine what sort of Function that was and how exactly it was supposed to work. It was obvious that it was intended to Optimize the Pilot as well as the Mecha, but having two copies of his own skills wouldn''t help him at all. None of them, except maybe [Perception], would actually stack in any meaningful way.


    Nico noticed that he was distracted while reading the data that she had provided and had stopped the Agility drills, so she gave him a p on the ass to wake him up again.


    [Valid Target in Contact. Select Random User Function?]


    Max was shocked. Borrowing other users'' Functions to improve himself? That was positively broken. He declined the random skill option since he wasn''t nning on any morebat today. Once they arrived, he would have at least a day of strategy meetings, and he didn''t know how long the Function wouldst.


    [Random Function Declined. Select Personalized Function: NICO?] <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max turned to his second inmand while he tried to process what he had read.


    "Nico, when exactly did you rename your System Functions? The System tells me that your Personalized Function is called Nico." He asked while listening closely to her thoughts.


    "It was too cool to just have it called [Technology Maniption 6]. What sort ofme name is that? Plus, it does so much more now that I''m a Cyborg. It also enhances my own functions and interacts very well with my [Modification] Function."


    "That doesn''t answer the question. But also, HOW did you manage to rename it?"


    "When it reached level six, it gave me the option to make it a Personalized Function. Normally five is the cap, so when you break past the preset limits of the System, you get to name stuff after yourself. If you had focused instead of diversified, you could have called one of your Functions [Swagtastic Commander] or whatever you were thinking of.


    Max started to work out again, needing the exercise to focus his mind in order to deal with Nico''s revtions.


    "First off, that is a terrible name. Secondly, the System isn''t supposed to upgrade Functions to level six. That''s not a thing. You broke it somehow." He informed her.


    "It''s not broken. We have an agreement. When I got to level five, I could interact with the nanomachines, so we started to have conversations about fun new ideas, and after that, we came to a working agreement, and sometime after that, the Function evolved."


    Max considered her answer for a second. "Is that how you could hide your thoughts from me? Were you using your System Function to prevent it?"


    Nico pped her hands in joy. "You finally figured it out. Honestly, I didn''t think that you were going to get it so soon. It''se in so handy for surprising you, though. Surprising a mind reader isn''t easy when you''re always around them."


    "That answers so many questions. But I should tell you that I have evolved a skill of my own. Optimize upgraded, and I can now borrow a System Function from a nearby System User. Up to two Functions at the same time, but I haven''t tried them yet to see how long theyst before fading." He exined.


    "Oh, so you want some Nico, do you? How about we head out of the Gym, and I give you the Nico?" She teased.


    "I should have seen that oneing. I''m not sure what Functions I need or want right now. I''ve got you right here, so there''s really no need to borrow your Functions at the moment. But a few additionalbat Functions would be incredible. Or maybe one of those data analysis ones that the tacticians and bureaucrats often get. They could be very good whenbined with [Unified Force] and my targeting skills.


    Nico tapped her chin as she thought, but the amusement in her thoughts never faded, even when it started to gain a hint of lust. Even if they came to some practical decision about System Functions right now, Max was quite sure that he was still going to be getting some Nicoter.

 Chapter 676 676 Medusas Insights

    [Fifteen Minutes to Portal Activation. All Vessels, please hold your position until the Portal is open, inpliance with safety protocols established by Alliance Officials.] Admiral Penner broadcast on all the standard hailing frequencies.


    They hadn''t had any issues with ships trying to do dumb things in the past, but there was always the first time, and she didn''t want to do the paperwork for tearing apart amercial transport with a Portal.


    Not only would it be a PR nightmare, but it would bring them no end of nightmares in the form of corporations filingints against their Portal Technology, either in an attempt to get it banned or to get the schematics so they could steal it.


    Most of the poption of the ship didn''t even notice when they first began to move. Only a few very sensitive species, and the ones watching the exterior monitors, could tell that Absolution was moving.


    One of those people was Headmistress Medusa of the Terminus Academy. It was somewhat unexpected that the ship would be going into Alliance Territory since the major appeal was the distant Gxy where the students were located and the rtive safety that it granted them being out from under Alliance oversight.


    Not that she was particrly concerned while Terminus was docked inside Absolution, but she would have to carefully monitor requests for ess and departure from the Academy to be sure nobody was trying anything nefarious against her students.


    The ship would likely be in the region for a while, but the students of the xenobiology sses were studying Klem right now anyhow and had an entireary battle to go over, while the rest of the students weren''t in course paths which usually got new data during the school year.


    Constantly updating like that made it very hard to set a curriculum, but a few sciences were all about new things, and the opportunities that following humans around presented were perfect for their needs.


    For example, the students of the Quantum Mechanics department were going to be spending the entire year trying to decipher how exactly the Terminus Trading Company actually managed to stabilize the warp drives aboard Terminus.


    The design was simr to Alliance crystal-based drives but, in some ways,pletely alien. When they had reconstructed the power system on Terminus, the human engineers hadn''t truly understood what they were looking at in the schematics since the original upants had destroyed so much of the data, so they had improvised until it worked and ended up with something not quite the same that they based their future research paths off of.


    It had led to a wildly divergent technology that they were now proving wasn''t actually inferior to Alliance Crystal Warp technology.


    She watched as the Portal opened and then zoomed in on the only upied in this star system. She stared in horror as she saw the devastation, but the local security forces, with the assistance of an Alliance Patrol, had erected barriers around every city and moved all of the residents inside and away from the farms and small towns.


    Most of the had been overrun by Klem already, and it was clear which regions they had already passed over, as all biomass had been stripped clean, and even the soil looked dusty and dead once they had left. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Huge swarms of Klem could be seen around all of the cities, and she worried for the residents. They were known as the Snorr and were not counted among the Curious Species. They preferred to spend their long lives in contemtion of the secrets of the universe, which seemed like an oxymoron with their designation, but they had absolutely no interest in the practical applications of the revtions they had received.


    The only reason that they were among the advanced species was that the Valkia had found them early in their expansion and chosen to protect them in exchange for the insights that their lives of contemtion generated.


    The Snorr thought of great universal truths, and the Valkia implemented the ones with practical value, as well as trying to guide them in a direction that would help them develop the areas where their technology wascking.


    If the security forces hadn''t shown up, the whole species would have been wiped out, as their own lives barely rated enough interest to them to stop thinking and eat. Even their forms had evolved to a gtinous version of their original evolutionary path so that they were better suited to long periods of inactivity.


    To Max, that actually made his job easier. Nobody was going to be doing things like wandering about, trying to take photos of the Klem, or going on vacations for ridiculous reasons during a disaster. They were happy to just sit at home and contemte the likely ways they could die.


    But to Headmistress Medusa, it was highly concerning since the species was actually quite important to the development of new policies and procedures, despite the low profile that they kept.


    While she couldn''t prove it, she suspected that the only reason that the Alliance had gone so far as to hire humans to deal with the issue right away was that the Snorr were threatened. If it weren''t for that, they would have likely dragged the process through the courts for a number of years while the status of the Klem was challenged before they actually did anything.


    That would be far toote for the firsts, which were infested, of course, but it would be perfectly legally correct by Alliance procedures.


    She formted and sent a message on that topic to the Commander so that he would at least have ess to her insights if he had a moment to read them. Once she was satisfied that she had told him everything that he would need to know about the background politics and situation, the Headmistress returned to the issues presented by her students.


    There were thousands of them wanting full ess to Absolution during the next month''s week-long break, and that meant they would want to invite family to the ship, stay in hotels, and do all the other vacation sorts of things that every student on break wanted to do.


    It was a lot of paperwork for her office to go through, and she still had to schedule a meeting with Max to make sure that it wouldn''t be an issue to let the students onto the World Ship for a week when it was still so new and understaffed, with upgrades still beingpleted.

 Chapter 677 677 Captured Computer

    Max stared over the map of the below him with annoyance. Sure, the inhabitants had all holed up inside barriers, but that meant that the Klem were clustered around the barriers, and he would have to encircle them to eliminate them without hitting the shielding of the cities, which honestly couldn''t take much more damage than they already were.


    The barriers had been created on the expectation of civilian riots causing issues, not an aggressive alien species invading them, and they were woefully inadequate for the job.


    "Envoy, how long has it been since those city barriers were upgraded?" Max asked the Giant standing beside him, taking notes about the situation on the holographic projectioning from the tabletop.


    "ording to my data, it was right after the Valkia Resurgence when they rose to the top of the Alliance political system." The Giant replied after a moment''s hesitation.


    "And when was that?" Max continued.


    "Roughly seventeen thousand years ago? I am assured that they are still in peak operational condition, though, and they were recently refurbished, so there is no fear of an unexpected failure." The Giant Envoy replied confidently.


    "Can we expect simrly dated technology on the other threateneds?" Max asked.


    "Most likely. It has been serving its purpose for as long as your species has been an interster Empire, so there really hasn''t been a need to upgrade any of the civilian defences within the core regions of the Alliance." The Giant shrugged.


    "I am beginning to see why these particr areas were targeted. They have be socent in their safety that they were easy targets for someone who wanted to prove a point or settle their grudge with the Alliance.


    Even the most obsolete military technology that humans have is only a few thousand years old, and most of it has been updated at least once a century, just in case there is an increased threat from what they were already prepared for.


    After so long, the core upants of the Alliance have forgotten what being under threat feels like, and they aren''t prepared for it.


    Don''t worry, though. We will be able to take care of the threat on this. We will drop on a few cities at a time so that we safely eliminate the majority of the Klem, and then we will spread out and cleanse the." Max exined.


    "So, you''re saying that it''s unlikely to be an ident that the Klem ended up here?" The Giant asked.


    "Check this star map. What do you notice about the Gxy that we are in right now?" Max asked.


    "Seventeen million inhabitedoids, twelve intelligent species, irregr elliptical shape with no ck hole at the core." The Giant responded. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "There is another Gxy and a neb in between here and my Gxy. There is no way that the Klem, which can''t maneuver in space without their few specialized life forms, could have ended up here but not in either of the other two locations. Even if they tried to use the gravitational pull to slingshot around the other Gxy, they wouldn''t have ended up here.


    See, these are all the viable routes where they could have ended up without contacting a solid object. None of them are anywhere near the list ofs that we have been given. So I don''t think that they came to your region of space on their own. It seems almost certain that they were sent here unless we find a wormhole or portal somewhere that might lead back to their home region."


    "All wormholes and portals in the Alliance Territories should be mapped and explored. If they were brought here, it should have been through a portal. But that raises the question of how and why. I can''t imagine what might have caused someone to want to destroy multiples." The Giant wondered.


    Max could see that he really didn''t understand the vindictiveness and cruelty of the Gxy, but his species was good at analyzing it and determining when it would pop up, as long as they had enough data on what had transpired in the past.


    [Nico, what did you find for a Commander on thest? Was it an immature Queen?] Max asked while his mind was on the topic.


    [Even better. It was a new form of Behemoth. One that specialized in tactics. It seems to have been immature, but it certainly wasn''t a queen, and it didn''t havemand over the others. It only provided them with data, like a mainframeputer.


    The deficiency was because the otherscked sufficient intelligence to make the best use of the data that it could provide. Unfortunately, it is dead now, but the Hunters have finished tranting a portion of the transmissions that it was making, including some from the infested human ship that you destroyed.


    It was sharing and storing data from humanputers, so Klem has been learning more about our capabilities. Fortunately, the ship was at least a generation behind in terms of Mecha capabilities, but I suspect that the Klem will start improving their tactics all over the front lines of their expansion very soon.]


    [You sound entirely too happy about that.]


    Nico''s happiness grew even more prominent in her mind with his response. [I am. I''ve got a lovely sample here, and the data we get from the ongoing battles will help a lot with my attempts at self-modification, as well as my attempts to create a biomechanicalputer system.


    Even the Hunters are excited about it. They found arval version on the ship they cleared, and they''re going to try to modify it into a data storage center and see how much it can hold, as well as how efficient itsmunications are. It might actually turn out to be a leap ahead for their ownputer systems.]


    [So that''s why. Your new friends found a new toy, and they''re going to send you the data of them ying with it so that you can make something new.] Max joked.


    [Exactly. If we can tweak it properly, we will even be able to improve the Mecha systems to link them more effectively than our currentputers.]

 Chapter 678 678 Arcade

    [Put that on hold for a bit. We need to figure out how to eliminate all of these Klem clusters without breaking the ancient barriers around the cities. I''m thinking total encirclement and doing a few at a time.] Max suggested.


    [If we have a Cutter hover over the top of them and extend its shields over the city, we could just Lance the region, and the Cutter would prevent the ssh damage from destroying the town.] Nico asked hopefully.


    [Do you really think that the super serious Giant Envoy would approve of that? Even a full Mecha invasion is stressing him out because of the damage to infrastructure. They haven''t faced a real threat in too many generations. They''ve forgotten how.]


    Nico''s agreement was clear, but her mind wandered away to strategies that would limitary damage as well as save the cities, so Max turned his attention back to the Envoys.


    "While my advisors are working on a n, is there anything that you all would like to see or do? We could keep talking business, but I suspect that you''ve had enough of that for a few days." Max offered.


    "Do you think that there is a Mecha simtorrge enough that I could see what it''s like for your Pilots?" The Giant asked.


    "We have the VR headsets. That will give you immersion, but it''s not quite the same as the full cockpit simtor. Is that close enough? I can set you up with a training program so that you can learn the basics, or you can watch another user''sbat footage." Max suggested.


    The Valkia got excited as soon as the topic came up. "Yes, we should go to the Arcade. Humans have the most wonderful games, but physical and virtual reality. We haven''t had a chance to unwind in a while, and I don''t think that the crowds will bother us much at an Arcade. They''re more interested in photo opportunities outside fancy hotels and high-end restaurants."|


    Max wasn''t sure how true that statement was, but the Valkia believed it, and the Giant wanted to go, so they might as well.


    "Does everyone else want toe along?" he asked.


    "Definitely. The study of human gaming systems is high on my priority list. Our young Dryad friend here will certainly want to as well. She''s always been a fan of video games." The Innu Envoy dered on behalf of herself and the Dryad.


    Max checked the map for the nearest Arcade and called for a shuttle, which finally brought his attention to the numerous missed messages in his inbox. Everyone had wanted to get ahold of him today, so he skimmed through them quickly while he waited. The Envoys took the opportunity to do the same, passing the next few minutes in silence, interspersed with various expletives regarding the things that others were asking them to attempt to negotiate.


    Most of Max''s messages were simple updates on status, which he could deal withter, but there were a few important ones to respond to, as well as a request from the Headmistress of the Academy to let the kids take their week-long vacation aboard Absolution and not just aboard Terminus. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was an easy one to grant. The ship might be mostly empty, but they still had a full city formed for the kids to explore, as well as thousands of square kilometres of wilderness. That should be enough to keep them busy for a week.


    It would mean a lot more visitors as well since the parents would want to visit, but Absolution was much more suited to that than Terminus was.


    The pod took them straight to the building where the Arcade had been established, stopping above the street out front at an elevated tform specifically designed for public transit pods. The Innu Envoy practically jogged down the stairs once she saw the sign, then stopped in her tracks, torn with indecision, when she realized that it was right across the street from a coffee shop that she had never been to.


    The shop smelled of freshly baked muffins and coffee beans, but in the end, her curiosity won out, and she turned back to the Arcade to try out some of the human-designed games inside.


    "Wee, Commander and guests. What can we set you up with first?" The attendant asked.


    "At least one VR set for the Giant, who wants to experience Mecha Piloting. Then I think the rest of us will explore until we find something that catches our attention." Max replied with a smile to assure the attendant that they weren''t going to be stuffy or formal.


    "In that case, pleasee this way. We have VR bedsrge enough for the Giants over here. The lids are transparent andtch from the inside, to reduce ustrophobia, so you can lie down and getfortable for your gaming session. You will be able to select what you want once you are logged in, and all data will bepletely private, not stored anywhere outside your unit and cleared when you log out again." The attendant exined.


    They were halfway there when a game advertisement caught the Valkia Envoy''s attention. There was a new VR game where you yed a flying Demon and had to navigate obstacles and kill enemies with a sword. That was exactly the sort of game that Valkia loved, and he was shocked that a human hade up with it.


    "Oh, it''s the new bestseller. Not many flying species are on the ship right now, so you might get the top score, but a number of our Pilots are experienced with the Archangel Exoskeletons, which are nimble flying units, so you might find that the scores aren''t too easy to beat. The Mecha Pilots have a lot of experience with a sword, after all, and not all of the levels are most efficiently cleared while flying."


    "In that case, I will take a session on that one, and someone should find the Innu before she gets lost."


    Indeed, she was gone, but Max could hear her thoughts. She and the Dryad had discovered Skee Ball, and the simple game had them entranced.


    "They''ll be fine for a bit. They''re just over at one of the physical games."

 Chapter 679 679 Tactical Adjustment

    Whether intentionally or identally, the Valkia Envoy had set his game mode to Public, which disyed his point of view on the screen above the game pod, and right from the start, his performance garnered a considerable amount of attention.


    Not only were his flying skills in the initial stages of the game incredible, but he also didn''t suffer from the verticality issues that most humans did, where they always wanted to be upright, even when it was far less effective than fighting in another orientation.


    The virtual reality pod simted gravity, and being inverted was disconcerting to most humans, so they would try to turn around in the air to fight enemies approaching from above and behind, whereas the Valkia remained horizontal and simply barrel rolled to get to the closest enemies, which was much faster.


    He had the strongest start of any yer so far, ording to the leaderboard, but he wasn''t far ahead of some of the fighter pilots, who had also be ustomed to fighting in three dimensions.


    After the introductory stage, the game paused, giving the yer a chance to modify their settings for the next stage and change weapons. It also allowed challenges, though most yers would decline them, as well as the chance to add additional yers.


    Surprisingly, the Valkia Envoy epted the option to add another yer to his game so that they would be working in cooperative mode.


    That brought a mixed reaction from the crowd, with some thinking that whatever random yer had requested the invitation would drag him down, but also some excitement to see how good a yer had to be to even dare to request to join a game with a score that high.


    In this game, the difficulty was set by your first stage performance, so this would be the hardest, and therefore highest scoring game that it had generated so far. Assuming that the additional yer was up to the standard, that is.


    [Additional yer Added] HuntressKhan


    [Additional yer Added] BloodGoddess


    The crowd fell silent as they read the names. Nobody on the ship was unaware of who Huntress Khan was, and most of them knew Blood Goddess from Gaming events, though not all of them realized right away that it was Nico.


    The game timer was counting down when suddenly, another notice entered the screen.


    [Difficulty Mode Altered] Extreme Mode selected.


    [Experience Gains Tripled]


    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom Max shook his head and looked around to see if the Huntress and Nico were here, but it seemed that they were ying from one of the many linked locations within Absolution.


    Max moved to the bench facing the public screen and settled in for a good show when he got a message from Nico.


    [The preliminary selections for Squad Leaders have been made. We can send them with the Android Army for the next battle. The messages just need your approval, and we can begin the mission twenty-four hours after the new Pilots are notified.]


    ''At least she had finished her work before going gaming with her new friends.'' Max thought to himself while he read the notifications. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It looked like she had prioritized tactical skills and System Functions over purebat system skills. She wasn''t picking the strongestbatants but the best leaders from the applicants since they would all be leading Companies of Mecha who couldn''t improvise outside of their parameters.


    None of them looked suspicious, and they were all from personnel already stationed on Absolution, so Max sent the confirmation while the timer counted down on the game.


    The second stage was a toss-up, with both flying and ground fighting being effective, so he was eager to see if he could pick up a new tactical idea from their game. It might not be Mecha, but thebat was simr in both the game and in Mecha. Plus, there was so much information from his past life avable, but he had nearly forgotten most of it, and he needed some sort of trigger to remember it all.


    Centuries ofbat had been unlocked in Max''s mind, but even with his mind, only a small percentage of those battles were either memorable or horrifying enough that they came easily to mind.


    The Huntress took the ground route while the other two flew overhead, clearing out the iing enemies before they could slow her down. Each strike was precisely ced for maximum damage, and to most of the onlookers, it didn''t look that hard. At least until the Valkia Envoy took a hit in order to quickly kill two other enemies, and it very nearly cut his leg off.


    "Did you see that? One ncing blow took two-thirds of his health. That game mode is crazy. I wouldn''t even manage to make it past the first group without taking a hit." An onlooker remarked to his friends.


    "Yeah, but you suck. Those three are practically war gods. Give him a moment, and his regeneration should heal that strike up, and he will be back to full again.


    Watching them all fight was actually very helpful to Max. The scenario that they were in was simr to the battle that the Mecha would have to fight tomorrow, eliminating guards and patrols of enemies around a cityplex. The enemies were very different, but the tactics were simr, and it reminded Max of a time when he had to liberate a holy shrine from a force of zealots.


    It had been surrounded and put up its shield, which was of an ancient vintage like the ones on the surface here. He had chosen to attack from the outside, and it had given the zealots time to break the barrier, so he had to drop additional forces inside to save the shrine and the Monks.


    It was a tactical blunder early in his career, even if it was considered a sessful mission by his superiors.


    He had very nearly done the same thing here and dropped the Mecha outside of the Klem infestation to work their way in. It was a Hammer and Anvil strategy, driving them up against the shields and crushing them, but taking into consideration the state of the shields, There was a chance that it would backfire on him again.


    The three charged into the lines of enemies and made a loop around the city, eliminating everything that they came across. It was a great strategy for a small force and arge objective, but not really relevant to Max''s train of thought. Unless he did the same and had his forces dive in and sweep around the city in a rotational pattern.


    It would make for a more dangerous deployment, but it would pull the Klem Force''s attention toward them and away from the city in multiple spots, limiting the damage to the barrier and the chance that they would try to force their way inside to escape since they could spread outward.


    He would just have to ce a second group further out in a perimeter ring so nothing escaped, and they could clear city after city that way.


    It was unorthodox, but after entering it into the Command Group simtion and running it a few times with [Optimize] active, he managed toe up with a version that had very low estimated casualties and no cities breached by the Klem.


    The efficiency was up thirty percent on his original n, so Max updated the deployment orders for all of the Mecha and sent the new orders to the Drone units, who would begin the battle by softening up the enemy, as well as running interference over the cities that they wouldn''t get a main Mecha force to right away.

 Chapter 680 680 Battle Plans

    By the time everyone was done ying around at the Arcade, Max was confident that all of his units knew what they needed to do, and most of the Pilots had already reported to their new units.


    Technically they had until morning to report, and then there would be a four-hour refresher course for any Pilots who hadn''t checked out on the Simtors in thest week. That was a very small segment, as most of them had been working to keep up their skills on the simtors and in the Gym, but there were bound to be a few who had been cking.


    Once that was done, there would still be ten hours until their drop, as they were waiting to arrive with the dawn over their target cities for the first attacks.


    To the Mecha, the time of day made very little difference, but to the Klem, it did. Hitting them at either sunrise or sunset was best because there was a small ovep between their nocturnal and diurnal schedules, where you could attack all of them at once and not have to go hunting for the sleeping spots of one or the other.


    They liked to sleep in tunnels, so digging them out was a pain and often left you vulnerable to surprise attacks from below when you passed over one. The fewer Klem that were in them when you attacked, the better since they wouldn''t retreat from battle just because their shift was over.


    "We should call it a day early. I have a sneaking suspicion that something insane is going to happen tomorrow once the humans begin their operation." The Innu Envoy suggested.


    "Are you one of the Illithid now? Do you know something that we don''t?" The Giant joked.


    "Far from it. But after looking over the data, I think that there is a chance that this entire incident was bait to either get them here or get us to reveal our newest generation of military gear. The ship has been analyzing data all day, including the drop patterns on variouss, and it looks like they didn''t spread naturally even after the first infestation. The angles don''t work out."


    "So you think someone might attack us? Really? That would be amazing. I''ve looked up the rules on self-defence, and they''re very kind." Nico announced as she appeared behind Max.


    She was wearing coveralls from the Research and Development department, so that was most likely where she was during the game, but she was alone now, with no sign of the Huntress.


    "They strictly prohibit pilfering damaged vessels in an inhabited area. They would be the property of the Government once disabled, as evidence of a crime." The Giant reminded her.


    "But how else would I get a chance to test my new torpedoes on a state-of-the-art ship outside of a simtion? The Universe isn''t exactly filled with ships begging to take an Antimatter Torpedo to the Warp Nacelle." She countered.


    "So that''s the goal. You want to gather data on the capabilities of our defensive systems without starting an international incident." The Giant realized, just a bit toote.


    "I think this might actually be an unprecedented situation. I''ve been looking through the records for a while now, and I don''t recall the Alliance Government ever going beyond the terms of their treaties to defend a non-member from attack by outside forces before." The Valkiaughed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "There was that thing with the slimes. The Government sent an entire protection fleet before a deal was signed because the Orruka Alliance had a fetish for slime girls, and half the poption had been kidnapped." The Innu reminded him.


    "Don''t remind me of that. My ancestor was there, and we''ve still got a slime maid at home. Who knew that they were generationally loyal?" The Valkia Envoy sighed.


    Max could sense that Nico was intrigued by the possibilities. They had met a living metal being once before, and it seemed that it wasn''t the same species of gtinous beings that they were talking about now. That meant that there was data on morphable forms that she hadn''t collected, which could possibly be used either for her outer shell or the morphable hull shape of her new generation of stealth ships.


    They had started out as an experiment in variable velocity warp travel, but it turned out that they were incredible for infiltration since the morphable hull shape made them nearly impossible to identify.


    From further out, they could also pose as other designs of vessels and slip through preliminary screening while posing as a standard pleasure yacht. It was a work in progress, but they had been having great luck advancing the technology so far.


    "Where will you be during this mission, Commander?" The Valkia Envoy asked.


    "In my office, unfortunately. There is a lot of data topile on the routes that the pods might have taken and others that might be under threat in the near future, so I will supervise from orbit unless the surface fleet needs assistance." Max replied.


    "Unfortunate, but understandable." The Envoy agreed, but his thoughts told a different story.


    [Iingmunications indicate that there is a mole either among our crew or yours. Unauthorized transmissions on a secure frequency were detected. For the time being, misdirection on the nature of our future intentions is best.


    From what the Intelligence Service has learned, they don''t know that we suspect that the Klem infestation can be traced, though they clearly know that we believe it isn''t natural. If you cane up with some reason to get away from the ship and go hunting for clues without an Alliance Escort, it would be for the best.]


    Max resisted the urge to facepalm. With all of that advanced technology, they still couldn''t stop a message from getting out to unknown recipients on the first day after they arrived.


    He probably shouldn''t have been surprised, but he would have to get Nico working on a solution for him so that they could hunt for traces of the Klem infestation''s origin without attracting too much attention.

 Chapter 681 681 Search Plan

    Once the group gathering broke up, Max returned to his office as nned but called for Nico to join him so that they could n their course of action in advance.


    "So, what are we starting with? I''ve got news from home. The rest of thes have been verified clear of human habitation, so the Reaver Council has cleared us to cleanse them and terraform them for future use. The other ships can do that from orbit without risking anything, so it''s being taken care of as we speak.


    Or it will be taken care of as soon as they finish what they''re working on.


    I can''t find the source of the transmission that the Envoys are concerned about, though. It looks like it''s a portable transmitter, and it''s turned off right now." She informed him as soon as she entered the room.


    "That''s good. I''m sure the captains will appreciate the extra share of the reward for being the ones to cleanse thes. What we need is a way off this ship to search for the source of the Klem infestation while the Android Army takes care of everything here.


    But we need it to look like at least I am still here leading the troops so that nobody gets the idea that we might be able to track the path of the infestation back to its source."


    "I can make an Android that will pose as you. But someone would have to be putting in the orders on your behalf." Nico suggested.


    "Major Miller. He''s aboard Terminus, and he''s got the experience to lead a battle. If we have him pose as me and issue the orders on my behalf while we''re gone, the Android can go about my daily routine. We will just cancel all public meetings and have them remain in my offices, with some public appearances for the show.


    We can tell the Envoys and hold meetings by holographic projection while we''re away. They will just have to all be moved to secure locations and not end in public appearances."


    Nico tapped a rhythm on the table while she considered the possibilities.


    "We can have it take the public transit from your quarters to the secure meeting floor. That way, anyone who is searching for you will see you moving around, but you''ll still be unavable to most people, the same as you are now.


    Everyone knows that you''re too busy for even more meetings, so they report to their managers, and the managers send reports to you but know not to bother you directly unless it''s extremely urgent. It''s their job to take care of their department, and you''re more of the CEO who guides policy and doesn''t micromanage."


    That sounded about right. He responded to messages about the ship''s operations twice daily most of the time, and everyone was used to that schedule, so he could do it from anywhere. It was only an exceptional circumstance that would require a personal meeting with him unless it was a ranking politician, and he had to do it himself.


    "Alright, we will get ahold of Miller and get him up to speed on what we''re nning here on the surface. The tactics will be familiar to him, and he can improvise as he goes. With the Klem mostly gathered around cities, the first part of the operation will be easy anyhow, as long as the cities aren''t breached." Max agreed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max sent out the message, and Miller responded right away, eager to have something more to do than supervise the training of his soldiers. The troops that would be leading the units this time would be from Absolution, so the Mecha Pilots aboard Terminus were simply on standby mode and unlikely to need to do anything in the near future since the ship wasn''t scheduled to depart from its docking bay in the world ship for over a month after the week-long break from the Academy ended.


    It didn''t take him long to get to the office, where Nico had everything pulled up on a data table and a hologram, so he could see exactly what they were nning.


    "This ce is pretty luxurious. You know, I used to think that the Senior Officers'' apartments aboard Terminus were nice, but this is something else, and it''s just your office." The former Majorughed.


    "You have no idea. There''s a full spa through those doors, staffed by androids, as well as a sauna, various herbal baths, including a simted natural hot spring, a private gym, a running track, virtual reality pods, a Mecha trainer, and a rxation room, in case you didn''t want to go all the way back to your apartment after your shift." Max joked.


    "Seriously?"


    Nico nodded. "Everything that amander could need is right here, including a separate power supply, in case of attack or power outage aboard the ship. It serves much like an isted safe room for Command Staff. There are actually four apartments here, but none of them are in use since it''s not far from our actual apartment here on the World Ship."


    "If that''s the case, I don''t mind hanging out here for a while. How long will you be gone?" Miller agreed.


    "One week. Whatever we find, we wille back in one week before the battle on the surface is over. If we''re not here to make public announcements at that time, it will be clear to whoever is sending messages to an outside force that something is off, so we can''t miss it.


    We will be heading out right away since there are a number of corporate shuttles departing Absolution this afternoon, headed for the core world''s region. We will just join them through the portal and then make our secondary jumps from there." Max informed him.


    "That works. But what will you even take for a ship?" Miller asked.


    "Fear not. I have prepared for that. Generation 5 of the Morphable Hull is ready now, and I have it ready for our journey. Just a few more things to load, and we can go. It''s muchrger than the previous versions, so it can pose as a pleasure yacht or small military vessel instead of a shuttle, but it shares the same shape-changing outer hull design." Nico exined.


    "What needs to be loaded? I can get someone on it." Miller suggested.


    "Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride."

 Chapter 682 682 Up To Speed

    Major Miller smiled when he heard the names of their personal Mecha. "So, I take it you''ll be loading them yourselves then. Who else knows that this operation is happening? I need to know who else I can work with while you''re gone."


    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® "We will inform Admiral Penner before we go. She makes most of the ship-wide announcements anyhow, and it wouldn''t be right to leave her out of the loop. She can be a bit intense, but she''s trustworthy." Max informed him.


    "I believe that. That woman is a bit scary, but she''s definitely trustworthy. With the two of us aware, we should be able to manage the crews for a week. Should I set up a scheduled time for daily meetings with the Envoys? That way, you know when they''ll need to meet with you?" Miller asked.


    "I have their favourite drinks programmed as a single item in the replicator. Envoy beverage tter is the title on the entry. You can bring them here in the mornings and let them work in peace since this area of the ship isn''t essible to the public. They cane after breakfast and stay the morning. Nobody would question it since I''ve been spending half the day in meetings with them already." Max agreed.


    "That works. If you want to inform them, we can just work their actual meeting with you into the schedule. Where will you be rying your messages through?" Miller asked.


    Nico smiled at him. "Rae 5 Moon Base. I''m in contact with them daily, anyhow, since I coborate with Uncle Lu on so many projects. Adding the data stream from our ship to the daily link with the Research Department will bepletely undetectable unless they manage to crack our encryption, which shouldn''t be a concern now that we''ve updated it with the help of the Hunters."


    "How did you manage that? The Hunters are supposed to be hard to get anything out of, ording to the Alliance sorts I''ve been talking to." Miller asked.


    "We have a special connection. I actually traded it for the killing blow rights to three Behemoths of different patterns, though." Nico smirked.


    "So that''s how it is. You were hunting with them, and it helped the hunt, so they made it easy on you." Miller realized.


    "Exactly. It''s a lot like working with the Canis. They are much kinder when you''re willing to participate in activities that they are interested in." Nico agreed.


    "Speaking of that, we are expecting our first little Canis in not too long. One of the men that joined our team has gotten his girlfriend from the Cruise Ship hospitality department pregnant, and ording to the doctors, it''s all going well. I was talking to him at the pub the other night." Miller informed them.


    "We will have to set up something special for the day. Book the happy couple a nice celebration dinner for whenever they choose or something, and get them moved early into a family suite, if they haven''t already applied." Max suggested.


    "They''ve already applied, and the paperwork is processing. We just had to make sure that they were actually together and not just a casual hookup that would be a disaster living together." Miller chuckled.


    There were more than a few of those on anyrge ship, so it was a valid concern. Moving them in together as soon as you heard the news could be a disaster in the making. Max recalled one from when he was a child, and the Kepler Terminus bureaucracy had sent a celebratory message and the paperwork for application to move into a family residence to a man who already had a wife and kids. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    His mistress had put him on the birth certificate, and given the age gap, the bureaucrats had assumed that it was the child of his son. They didn''t know that his son was already living with his boyfriend in the family home, and the resulting fight had been the talk of the neighbourhood for weeks.


    "Well, we can call Terminus a proper Colony Ship then. You can''t be a real colony ship without the children of the staff living on board, after all. When are you nning to add to them?" Max asked with a wink for his former logistics officer.


    "Not that soon. I''m not a family sort of person, but you know." Miller shrugged.


    "Fair enough. We will head out right away if you don''t need to grab anything from Terminus before you lock yourself in here and pretend to be me for a week?" Max asked.


    "No, I''m good. I can make whatever I like in here since I''m using your energy allocation." Millerughed, then leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands behind his head.


    Max could sense that the man didn''t actually have any big desires and knew he wouldn''t have anywhere to put them anyhow, so the threat of using up Max''s allocation was no real threat, even if Max didn''t have basically unlimited use of the ship''s resources.


    Max sent out an exnation of the situation to Admiral Penner so that she would be up on the situation, as well as Admiral Drake, so he would know that Major Miller was aboard Absolution for the week since the officer was so involved in the ship''s logistics.


    It wasn''t, strictly speaking, his responsibility, but he couldn''t stop himself from at least reviewing the logistics reports from the ship.


    Once they confirmed that they understood and wouldn''t do anything to give away the fact that Miller was covering for Max, Nico issued an order to the Androids to load up the two custom Mecha into the ship they were taking and remotely reconfigured the hull design to replicate a generic Alliance Corporate Yacht.


    There were over sixty of them aboard Terminus right now, all very simr in hull design and docked in many different spots all around the ship. They also left on a regr basis, going back and forth torger ships or returning to their homes now that they were in Alliance territory and the vessels could make it home in a matter of days without using a Portal.


    "Be safe, and let us know if things get dangerous here. We can portal, so we can be back in under a minute during an emergency. It would actually be faster than having us go to our Mecha from our offices here aboard Absolution, so don''t worry about the scouting mission. Just call us if there is a threat to our security." Nico informed the interim Commander.


    "Understood. I know you''re always up for a good battle, so I won''t let you down."

 Chapter 683 683 Stowaway

    Nico led Max to the hangar next to where Cleansing Light was usually stored and stepped in front of the scanner to unlock the door. There was no keypad, and no retinal scanner, so this room could only be essed by someone who could hack it without a keyboard or touchscreen.


    It was a nice touch, and the interior of the room was even more impressive than he had expected. It was a construction bay, and every surface was lined with Terraforming Devices to create a full 3D array out of the bay. That way, they could create nearly any object inside this space in a matter of hours, including this ship, which currently looked like arge government research ship with a cargo storage bay at the back.


    It was just as in and inconspicuous as any other design they could have picked, but it would also remain that way as they travelled since research ships could be found in every corner of the Universe, looking into random things for no apparent reason except a study that had beenmissioned Gxies away by someone who likely didn''t even know that the spot the ship was in existed before they began the project.


    "Hop in, and we can get going. I''ve got us on the schedule to depart in five minutes as a Government Vessel with the Callsign IX42." Nico informed him.


    That would make the ship an Innu-built experimental design and would greatly decrease the number of people willing to ask questions about their presence.


    Not because of some super-secret ssification or out of respect but simply because it was virtually impossible to get an Innu to stop talking about their newest project once you asked them about it. Many Alliance species were very conscious about being rude to others, and it left them learning random facts about Innu developments for hours at a time before the researcher realized that the target of their lesson actually had other things to do.


    [IX42, you are clear to depart. The Portal will be closing in two minutes.] Admiral Penner informed them on behalf of the Envoy vessel that had opened this Portal to bring other Government vessels through.


    [Copy that, Admiral. Departing now.]


    Nico guided the ship out of the bay while Max looked over the specifications on theputer terminal, so he would know what they had to work with should the shipe under threat while they were searching for traces of the origin of the Klem infestation.


    The Portal closed behind them, and Nico moved the ship to a smooth sublight speed exit from the busy port region around the they had arrived beside, preparing the ship to go to Warp speed.


    A strong sense of amusement, like a wordless giggle, startled Max enough that he looked around to see what was going on. There shouldn''t be anyone else in his mental range, and he could hear Nico''s thoughts as she prepared the ship for its journey.


    "We have a stowaway." He whispered to her before she could engage the Warp drive.


    "Hmm, so we do. Give me a moment, and I will deal with it." She agreed and removed the sma pistol from her waistband.


    Nico headed for the upper floor of the ship, where the crew quarters were, and Max sensed panic a secondter, then fear and nothing. She must have found and dealt with their stowaway. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But when she came down the stairs with a smile on her face, she wasn''t alone. There was an Innu child in her hand, passed out from terror.


    "She hacked the door and was exploring the ship when we entered. It''s actually impressive. Even most adult Innu wouldn''t be able to get that door open in under four hours. She took under a minute before the code reset." Nico informed him.


    "So, whose child have we stolen?" Max asked.


    "Annabelle of the Research and Development department. If I recall correctly, she is on shift right now. This is Annabelle Junior, who should be in school. I suspect that if we check the records, there will be a masterfully altered transmission excusing her for a sick day." Nico replied.


    "Well, we can''t just keep her." Max reminded the little cyborg.


    "We can''t go back and return her either. It would be entirely too suspicious." Nico countered.


    That left him with a conundrum. He had Nico and a tiny Nico, who also enjoyed hacking security locks and ending up in ces she wasn''t supposed to be, aboard the ship for a critical mission. It was too far to open a precision Portal without a main portal open, and if they lingered any longer in the shippingnes, they would be a nuisance.


    "Inform her mother that the little one is in trouble but safe, and inform the school that she is on extended sick leave." He decided.


    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om "Sounds good. Done and done. I will strap her in here. Watch her once she wakes up, the seatbelt isputer locked, and she will have to hack it to get out of the chair. I think you''ll be impressed with her skills if she isn''t too frightened to try to run." Nicoughed as she locked the child into a security chair, intended forbat situations when the gravity control might go offline.


    Nico took the ship to warp and left the system, headed for a nearby neb, where it would make sense for a Research Vessel to be studying some sort of phenomenon. From there, they would wait a while to see if they were being followed and then Portal away closer to their destination.


    They wouldn''t go directly there but to one of the spots where they suspected that the Klem might have originated, an asteroid field a half dozen stars away from the first infested. From there, they would try to trace any signs of the Klem''s passing, as well as any ship signatures in the region, and see what they coulde up with.


    If the same ship appeared at more than one possible location, it would be a solid clue, and if they had time, they would try to trace its route and see where all it had gone, hoping to find another clue.

 Chapter 684 684 Homework

    Their tiny stowaway woke up from her shock-induced nap a few minutes after they went to Warp and immediately panicked, iling about in her seat, attempting to escape, before realizing that Nico had locked her in with an electronic lock and not a physicaltch.


    She noticed Max before she tried to pick the lock, though, and began to apologize immediately.


    "Commander Keres. I''m really sorry, I am. I just heard that there was a new ship design in the bay, and everyone was busy today on other projects, and there shouldn''t have been anyone here, and I didn''t know that you wereing to inspect it." She blurted out in one extended breath.


    "Inspect it? We''re halfway across the Alliance Gxies right now on a research mission. Don''t worry, we told your mother that we have you in custody, so she won''t worry that you''ve gone missing for the next week." He informed the little girl, who promptly passed out again.


    "You''re good at that. She knows to fear me, but you only needed a few words to overload her brain." Nicoughed.


    "It could take some time to tell the whole story if I''m going to tell it one sentence at a time." Max sighed.


    This time, the girl was up much more quickly but too frightened to move.


    Max smiled at her. "I was serious about the Research Mission, you know. We don''t have time to drop you back off at Absolution, so we will keep you with us for the week. I''m sure Nico needs a research assistant."


    "Is this a reward? Or is it a punishment? I''m not sure how to respond to that statement." Annabelle answered.


    "Both. Wee to our happy fun trip. Where we go search for signs of the origins of the Klem infestations within the Alliance." Nico informed her.


    "So, not new technology?" she asked hopefully.


    "Nope. Nothing new here except the ship, and you''ve already started to explore that. Instead, you will get to spend many hours analyzing data on Warp signatures and organic protein samples that may belong to the Klem or might just be random bits left on the surface of asteroids by centuries-old shipwrecks."


    The little one was definitely not happy about that, but there wasn''t anything she could do to escape her punishment. Nico could have locked her up in a cell since breaking into a secure hangar in a secure area of the ship was actually a rather serious crime. Data Analysis might be mental torture for a hyperactive Innu child, but it was better than solitary confinement.


    Well, most of the time. If this were a ship without provisions for Innu, she could still ess the ship''sputer while in istion, but the cells that she had passed by werepletely isted by an alloy that blocked her mental senses and cut her off from the technology around her.


    [You''re not really going to rely on a middle schooler to analyze data are you?] Max asked Nico silently.


    [Of course not. But I am going to grade her homework when she finishes and then make her redo all the parts that she got wrong.]


    That was just evil, knowing how much the small girl hated sitting in a chair and analyzing data, but it was an effective punishment. After this incident, she would think long and hard about doing anything that would lead to a situation where she might be caught doing something wrong by Nico again.


    "Alright, I will let you out of your chair, and you cane here and look over our course. We''re about ten minutes away from our first stop. What can you tell me about it?" Nico asked.


    "Um, asteroid field, primarily iron-based, high carbon content, unattached to any sr system. It appears to have been partially mined in the early days before Replicator usage was widespread?" Annabelle answered. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "Not too bad. We are in the sensor range now. Would you like to analyze from a data tablet or a console station?" Nico asked.


    "TABLET. Sorry, I would like a tablet. Please, Lead Researcher Nico," the girl begged.


    "Here you go. The first hundred points of analysis are on your tablet. Inform me when you are done, and I will check your work."


    Max took a seat at one of the stations and started checking for Warp signatures in the area. Further out, there were quite a few, but this close to the Asteroid field, there were barely any at all, as it was too close for the default safety settings on the freighters which frequented the region.


    Other than their own, Max only found a half dozen other signatures, none of them particrly recent, but the furthest back that he could trace them with the sensors on this ship was three months.


    That was more than enough to go back to when the ship would have had to be here to set the Klem pods in motion, so he recorded everything that he could find and then sent a mining probe out into the field as cover for their presence.


    It wasn''t looking for oreposition, which would be the expected search for apany looking to reduce their energy consumption by removing molecr fusion from the creation of their Iron parts, but for specific organicpounds which the Klem pods would leave behind when they touched a solid surface.


    Nico was doing a simr search for otherpounds and energy signatures using the ship''s sensors, and the cockpit of the ship fell into afortable silence, broken only by the asional sobbing of Annabelle as she looked over the number of questions she hadpleted and mentally calcted the number remaining and the time it would take her at the current rate toplete this one assignment.


    "You''re thinking too hard. Just work through the questions and ignore the clock. In fact, it''s best if you just turn off the clock on your tablet since Nico isn''t going to let you stop until you''re done. You''re not at school, so there will be no saved by the bell, and Nico only needs to eat once a month, so you''ll have to rely on my meal schedule to get yourself a break." Max informed her.


    "Not even snacks? I''m not sure I can survive without snacks. I''m on a strict hourly snacking schedule." She pleaded.


    "You know I can read your mind, right? I know exactly when you usually eat and even what you usually eat." Max reminded her.


    "Gah, it''s like being stuck in a room with Professor Pile and an Illithid. I can''t get away with anything."


    Nicoughed at her assessment. Professor Pile was an Innu and had exceptional skills, just like young Annabelle. No form of digital cheating escaped her notice. If you added an Illithid to that, you couldn''t even think about it without getting caught.


    "You can count this as a life lesson then. But you are going to learn so much this week. Think of how far ahead of your ssmates you are going to be in organic chemistry by the time we return." Max reminded her.


    "I''m in the seventh grade. We don''t start organic chemistry for three more years." the girl reminded him.


    "Then you''re three whole years ahead. Who knows, maybe we''ll extend our mission, and you can get ahead on other subjects as well." Nico suggested with a wink at Max.


    "Please, Miss Nico, not more homework. I already said I''m sorry."

 Chapter 685 685 Analysis

    It only took Nico a few minutes to analyze all of the relevant data and send Max a report on all of the possible locations that a direct route from this location would have taken the ships in the region and how far they could have made it, had they maintained the speeds that they were travelling at.


    It all seemed rtively mundane at first, but then one of the ships caught his attention. The Warp Signature itself wasn''t anything special, just a Warp 6 freighter, which was quitemon in the region. It was the path that Nico had plotted that caught his attention.


    ording to the traces left behind, it came out of the Asteroid Field at less than warp speed and departed on a path that would take it into the star of an uninhabited system.


    There was no logical reason to set that course. It would only lead to inefficient routing to wherever they were really going. But very few captains would willingly take a freighter through an Asteroid Field.


    "Do you think it''s a hidden base here in the Asteroid Field for smugglers? Or do you think it was a vessel dump into the star?" Max asked Nico now that she had finished her part of the analysis.


    "That''s unclear. I think we might be missing a portal signature. The problem is that either the ship arrived here through the portal well before it departed, or there is a portal technology that we can''t properly detect.


    Given the maneuverability of the average freighter, I don''t think it navigated the asteroid field at all, so I''m currently searching and cross-referencing possible ways that a freighter could have arrived here without leaving a Warp signature."


    Max looked over at Annabelle to make sure that she was still working on her assignment and saw the little Innu mouthing curse words at an algorithm that would give her the route that one of the ships in the region had taken, based only on the warp signature fluctuations.


    For most species, that was way beyond her grade level, but the Innu had a way with technology, and Nico had given her the equations that she would need. She just had to apply them correctly.


    Satisfied that the girl was taking her punishment seriously, Max began to check the asteroid field for signs of travel. Many power systems would leave some sort of path, either ionized radiation, expelled sma, or lingering maic fields where the iron asteroids had been affected by their energy shielding.


    What he was hoping for was something that would lead into the region and give them a clue to work with.


    There wasn''t much to go on, though. None of the signatures of passing vessels were recent, so if something hade out of the field and waited a while before moving on, the signs could have decayed past what they could detect.


    "Miss Nico, I think I have it," Annabelle called out and held out her data tablet over an hourter while Max was finishing his search for hidden routes through the asteroids.


    Nico took the tablet from her and tapped across the screen a half dozen times with a smile on her face. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Alright, these are the lessons for the parts that you got wrong. Review them and thenplete the incorrect questions again. I will mark them again when you''ve finished."


    Max smiled at the desperation in the girl''s look and the longing thoughts of running through the ship to explore every nook and cranny while eating cookies. It would be a while before she got to her snack and even longer before she could explore since it was still fairly early in the morning, but it wouldn''t be too long before lunch.


    "What do you think Nico? We''re definitely still missing something." Max sighed.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "I think we should follow that freighter. It might not be rted to our Klem infestation, but the timeframe is close, and the path is suspicious. I think it might have cruised here at less than warp and let inertia carry it along the path until whatever it was doing wasplete. It might be a very normal smuggler, but those are good to know too."


    She had a point. They were Reavers. If they caught up with some of the grey market smugglers and merchants, they could make some good connections to move human-designed goods.


    "You have a point. We should have lunch before we go. Annabelle should be finished with her worksheet by the time we finish eating." He agreed.


    "That''s got to be a sentient rights vition. You can''t just eat right in front of people like that, can you? Not while they''re doing homework." She pleaded.


    "I guess you should have gotten the questions right the first time." Nico teased, but when she returned from the replicator, she had three tes with her.


    "You can put the work on hold and eat. Even prisoners get their scheduled meals, so a mischievous Innu who is in a lot of trouble when they get back to her mother will too." Max stage whispered as Nico put the tes down.


    "You''re enjoying torturing me. I''m certain of it. No wonder they say humans are scary." Annabelle pouted.


    She wasn''t wrong. Her presence made this research mission much more interesting. If it were just him and Nico, they would be so immersed in their work that they would only speak a few words an hour, but with Annabelle here, they had an excuse to do other things and wouldn''t get so lost in their own little worlds.


    Once the meal was finished, they set off at a moderate pace, as anything over Warp 10 would make it harder for their sensor processors to keep up with the iing data and properly follow the path of the ship that they were following.


    It was a cold trail, months old, so they weren''t going to catch up to anything. They just wanted to know where it went and see if it ended up somewhere else that was on their list of suspected locations forunches of Klem Pods.

 Chapter 686 686 Intercepted

    With a good meal in them to help focus, the trio and their disguised ship followed the path of the freighter halfway to the system, where they expected the warp signature to end before it abruptly vanished.


    "Check the region. Let''s see what we can find." Max ordered and entered a sub-light speed course that would take them in arge circle around the point where the signature disappeared.


    They had just begun their loop when the sensors detected four iing vessels from a nearby star system. It was well off the course of the freighter that they were following, but it was likely that they were waiting for anyone following this course.


    [Unknown Vessel, power down your drives and lower your shields. Resistance to our boarding effort will lead to unnecessary casualties.] The closest iing ship informed them while the others kept their distance.


    [Understood. However, the casualties will be on your side. This vessel is under the protection of the Terminus Trading Company. I rmend that you stand down.] Max replied.


    The iing ship glided to a stop beside them, almost close enough that their shields touched and close enough that Max could read the minds of the people on board.


    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om "So, we have ourselves some curious humans who ended up where they shouldn''t be?" Someone was asking.


    "Make them go away. If they have found the path of the data probe, then the Government is onto our activities. The Humans must be working with them on something big if they''re popping up all over the Alliance, and only an idiot would believe that it was to eliminate some alien infestation in the middle of the core worlds." Another member replied.


    "Do you think that we could cut a deal with them? I heard that Humans are mercenaries in nature, like the Hunters. They might take a bribe to look the other way about our curiosity." The first thought stream replied.


    "Too much of a risk. If the Government finds the cloning facilities, they will find out how many of our people have infiltrated their departments. The humans might let it slide for all we know, but the Government won''t stand for mind-swapped clones impersonating their workers."


    Max turned to Nico. "I think that it''s possible that we''ve found our moles. That was not where I expected the path to lead, but they are talking about mind-swapped clones in government positions."


    Nico''s gaze was nk as Max was speaking, and he suspected that she was attempting to hack the nearby vessel through theirmunications system, so he just waited for her to respond.


    "They are moles, but not the right ones. They''re talking about the localary branch of the Central Government. They have been making clones and putting cultists in them in order to implement a pleasure cult as the national Government of this region.


    The Reavers might actually get along well with these guys, but I don''t think that the Envoys would look favourably upon us cutting a deal with an insurgent cult."


    Max looked over the data that Nico had gathered and chuckled to himself. Their grand dreams of a "Pleasure Cult" were milder than an average day at the Broken ster. They were trying to overthrow the Government to implement something that the humans would deem borderline family-friendly.


    "Do you think that we should tell them? I feel like we should tell them." Nico suggested.


    "Go for it."


    [Alliance Vessel, this is Sumander Tarith Nico of the Terminus Trading Company. We have hacked your ship''s logs andputer system, and we find your ns for changes to the culture of your home to be quite intriguing. I am sending over a file now. It is a six-hour security video feed from the most popr of the employee taverns aboard our mothership.] Nico informed them. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [You did what? How dare you! Our ship''sputer isn''t some toy for you to y with.] A voice from the other ship stammered.


    It was the voice that seemed to be questioning the one inmand, so likely the First Officer under the Captain of the vessel, though their thoughts hadn''t referred to each other by rank yet, and Max wasn''t close enough to do a deep investigation of their minds.


    Their vessel began to power up its weapon systems, and Nico smiled.


    [I rmend that you don''t try to shoot at us. We are not that friendly.] She reminded them, and Max saw a sudden power draw increase appear among the data on his screen as the weapons systems of his vessel came online.


    Max listened as their thoughts turned panicked as their ship detected the weapons signatures and then began to re an imminent disaster warning as the antimatter torpedoes were armed and detected by theirputer. They immediately powered down their weapons.


    [Our apologies Sumander, we misunderstood.] The voice with the stutter replied in a hurry before Nico could shoot at them.


    [Take a moment to look over the videoption that I sent you. It should help you understand something about human culture so that we can continue this conversation in a more productive manner.] She informed them in her favourite seductive lilt voice setting.


    There was a half-hour impasse while they watched the video, and Max tried to resist his urge tough. Nico had no such reservations and was making video clips from their security cameras for her personal records.


    [Sumander, is this real? Do humans really live like that? And how did you convince the other species to go along with it? We recognize the Innu, and they are known to be quite liberal, but I am not familiar with most of the others.] the voice of the Commander of the other vessel asked.


    [Most of the ones that you are seeing are Valkia, Giants, Myceloids, and Hunters. At the fourteen-minute mark, there is a short clip of a Dryad doing body shots of fruit juice. They all voluntarily chose the amenities of the vessel that they enjoyed, and we didn''t deliberately influence their behaviour in any way.] Nico informed him.


    There was a pause while Max could see that they were looking up the species that she had mentioned, and Max realized that this was one of the incurious species, but they were evolving and gaining curiosity that was leading a portion of their poption to desire a different lifestyle than the daily ritual routines that their local Government had prescribed for citizens for over a millennium.


    It was an incredible milestone to have observed firsthand. Their actions might be seen as insurgency or rebellion against theary Government, but they were a direct result of an evolution of the thought processes of the species. Using clones to spread their altered thought patterns among the Government was definitely an unexpected way of introducing a new gic alteration to a species, though.


    He saved everything that he could, including the data that Nico had gathered from theirputers and their medical records so that he could show it to the Giantter. He loved things like this, and it was a very rare asion that such a notable evolutionary change happened.


    [We have some questions for you about a group of alien embryos that may have been deliberately jettisoned in this region. It isn''t clear if the action was intentional or idental, as the embryos might have been smuggled from their home system for unauthorized research purposes.


    Now that we''re on less hostile terms, do you have time to join us aboard our vessel for a conversation?] Nico asked.


    [Do you have substances known as alcohol and pie aboard your vessel? We have yet to sample them, and their production is not authorized in our system.]

 Chapter 687 687 New Things For Guests

    [We have a wide variety of human and Alliance specialties avable in our Replicator systems, feel free to ask for any items you wish to sample.] Max agreed.


    [We will send a shuttle to you forthwith.]


    Max actually had to think for a moment to recall that the word meant immediately. It was strangely stiff and formal, but it didn''t seem to be a trantion issue, as their thoughts were in the Alliance Commonnguage, indicating that it was their primarynguage. Perhaps that was a trait of the incurious species?


    If they weren''t curious by nature, it would make sense that once a particr phrase or way of speaking made its way into their culture that it would remain there nearly indefinitely.


    His analysis might not be perfectly urate, but Max was confident that it wasn''t too far off.


    It was under a minute before the screen in front of him shed the notification that the nearby vessel was retreating and that one of the others had sent out a shuttle. Max took ast look at their thoughts as the ship moved out of his range and realized that while they were the leaders of the strike force, they were not the leaders of the negotiation force, who woulde from the other ship and get the first chance to try the human delicacies.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel It wasn''t a fact that they were happy about, but their nature insisted that protocol be followed, and they couldn''t resist.


    They had gained a level of curiosity that allowed them to desire new things, but they hadn''t evolved to the point that they couldpletely deny their upbringing and gic imperatives. In short, they weren''t quite a curious species yet, but they were well on their way, and the next generation might be all the way there.


    That would inevitably lead the''s government to determine that they were dangerously out of control, as many before them had called free-spirited generations that didn''t want to follow the dogma of generations before them, even among the human species.


    The shuttle arrived at the side airlock of the transformed ship, and Max got up to go greet them at the door. They weren''t exactly enemies, as they were still Alliance citizens, and they hadn''t actually attacked, only threatened to. They also hadn''t rebelled yet, as far as he knew, though maybe by their species'' standards, they had, with this whole hiding out in the middle of nowhere thing.


    There was simply too much he didn''t know about their species, and there wasn''t time to read it all.


    Then he remembered he could copy a System Function from another Kepler pilot, and he had Nico right here.


    [System Function Copied: Nico]


    Max quickly flipped through the ship''sputer and pulled up all records of the rg. It was surprisingly sparse, as they only called one home and had no notable inventions of their own that were still in active use. They were originally not the only species on their homeworld and were the servant ss to another species, which invented a great variety of Warp Technology but were eventually exterminated after annoying the Valkia. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was so long ago that the rg no longer had records of it, and nobody cared enough about them toe to visit them, so routine business trips to nearby systems and an asional worker exchange were the extent of their interaction with other Alliance worlds.


    They were short and pudgy creatures, gically manipted to be able to survive for long periods of time without food or water, as their original overlords found it inconvenient to feed them daily when they were on a work detail. But that was about all that the records had to show.


    The whole process of assimting the records took under a second, and Max realized just how big of a cheat Nico was working with when it came time to do paperwork. He could do his whole day''s report analysis in under a minute every morning by using her skill since it effectively merged her mind with the device she was manipting, and he let a small portion of her mind process data at the maximum rate that theputer was capable of.


    He was definitely keeping this skill active unless he had a very good reason to use something else in the first slot of his copied skills.


    "Wee, representatives of the rg. I am Commander Keres Max, and this is Summander Tarith Nico of the Terminus Trading Company. As we exined earlier, we are looking for the source of potentially illegally dumped hazardous biomatter that can survive in the vacuum of space." Max greeted the diminutive crew with a smile.


    "My name is Jarl. I will be the speaking representative today. Is it human custom for one or more persons to speak during meetings?" The man at the front of the group asked.


    "Both of us are authorized to speak on behalf of our vessel and Company today. Please follow me to the meeting room, and I will prepare the refreshments that your other vessel''s crew inquired about."


    The excitement in all their minds to try something new was almost as overwhelming as the Innu after a coffee break. This would be their first step into the world of the curious species, and they would try things that none of their species had ever experienced before.


    "ording to the records on your species, your cuisine tends toward tart vours, so I have prepared an arrangement of pies in individual serving sizes. Starting at the left, we have a strawberry rhubarb pie, then a green apple vour, followed by lemon meringue, pumpkin, blueberry and finally, a key lime pie.


    If you start at the left and work to the right, you should find more familiar vours first and then more exotic ones toward the finish." Max exined while Nico poured out shots of Reaver Rum for them all and replicated a tray of sour juices that the Alliance records indicated this species was fond of.


    If they were going to introduce new things, they couldn''t overwhelm their guests withpletely unfamiliar vours.


    "The Rum has a habit of causing a burning sensation in the mouth and throat of some species, but we have determined that it is not highly toxic to yours, though it is still an intoxicant. The juice will help with the sensation should you find it unpleasant." Nico exined as she set the drinks down.


    Her eagerness to see a species try Rum for the first time was nearly as intense as their desire to try new things for the first time. This might not be part of their mission, but at least it wasn''t boring.

 Chapter 688 688 Incurious Is Annoying As Well

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel ?


    What an interesting beverage. I don''t believe that I have seen a portion size of this volume before." One of the representativesmented before tilting his head back and downing the shot of Rum.


    He immediately began to cough and wheeze, then took a sip of the juice to soothe his throat.


    "I see now. It''s burning that isn''t burning. The juice does help. The sensation that it gives is unusual as well. It is a bit like my brain has gone foggy, and the world is a bit more vague than usual."


    "That is the effect of the alcohol. It gets stronger with increased consumption, and your species has had no time to develop a tolerance for it, so be mindful of your portion sizes." Nico warned them.


    The leader of the group actually made a physical note of it on a piece of paper once she finished speaking. They were definitely taking this meeting much more seriously than either Max or Nico were. "In that case, I will try the food known as Pie before my senses are dulled.


    Annabelle quietly snuck into therge open space that served as the meeting room and headed for the Replicator, with the thought of sneaking a round of pies on her mind. She could just hit the replicatest item button and be on her way before anyone noticed.


    At least, that was what she thought before she remembered that Max could read her mind.


    He looked up at her with a smirk on his face, and she held up her homework tablet for him to check. They were all correct this time, so she had finished her work for the moment.


    "Alright, grab a round of pies for your snack and go sit in the kitchen to eat them. I will let you off easy today." He agreed, and the little Innu grabbed her snack as quickly as physically possible so that he couldn''t change his mind.


    "Your child is adorable. I must say, though, I would have expected a different appearance." The leader of the rg contingentmented, then sighed with happiness as he took the first bite of strawberry rhubarb pie.


    "She''s not our biological child, of course. We just borrowed her for an educational trip away from home for the week. I take it the pastry is to your liking?" Nico replied.


    "Oh, very much so. We don''t have anything like this on our replicator menus. We have many sweet food products, but the way that this has beenbined is divine. I knew thating to speak to a curious species would be the right call once it was established that you were not enemies."


    A member of their group with a pin that said "Analyst" spoke up next, and Max could tell that it was actually a scheduled event. Once the leader had spoken and expressed goodwill to the hosts, it was his turn to speak, ording to their custom.


    "We received the data from you about the hazardous biomatter, and I have run the scans through our system''s logs. Our ships haven''t seen anything, but the patrol fleet from the did make a note of it. These are the coordinates where they found the biomass moving through empty space. They didn''t interfere, as it was not on a collision course for any of our assets, but the logs are detailed enough that they recorded the biological signature."


    Max resisted the urge to facepalm at thatment. They had seen an unidentified alien biomass that could survive in space, made a note of its trajectory, and then didn''t tell anyone until now. Presumably, that was because nobody had asked them directly about it before, and they hadn''t been curious about where it was going, where it came from or what exactly it was that could survive the void. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "What does your Company specialize in, Commander?" The leader of the rg group asked once he got through with thest of the pie samples in front of him.


    "We have a variety of patents actually, some minor, like tools and furniture, others more intricate, like this ship and all the systems aboard it, as well as a Terraforming Array that can reconstruct a in a much more cost-efficient manner than previous models on the market," Max exined.


    "When you say all systems, does that include the weapons systems aboard this vessel? For a pleasure yacht, it is quite well-armed and shielded." The leader asked.


    "Don''t be fooled by appearances. It is designed to mimic a corporate or pleasure yacht, but it is actually a research vessel for missions which would be more difficult if the researchers attracted undue attention." Nico told him with a smile.


    "So it is designed for researching potentially dangerous or hostile situations? We have vessels like that as well, but we had never thought to make them look like regr vessels. They are optimized for function, not for a stealthy form."


    Max nodded. "That is understandable. Most species do not disguise their research vessels, but our missions often involve researching other sentient species, so an unobtrusive presence goes a long way to ensuring that we don''t bias the data samples by our presence."


    Nico''s thoughts showed her amusement at that statement, and even Annabelle, who was eating in the next room, was hiding her amusement at the level of doublespeak involved in hisment.


    It waspletely lost on their guests, though, and Max would be happy to have this meeting ended so that they could get going again and search for more spots where the Klem pods might have originated.


    "Were there any other suspicious vessels in the region over the past few months? I will admit that when you approached us here, my first thought was that you were bandits or Pirates and intending to rob us." Max asked.


    "There were three. Two were investigated and determined to be mundane freighters of unusual origin designs, and one was a pleasure yacht. Wait, never mind, thest one on the list is you."


    "If I can get the data on the trajectories and designations of the freighters, it would be of immense help in our investigation, as they might havee into contact with the source of the issue." Max requested.


    "Of course, I will have it sent over immediately. If that concludes our business, I will file a formal request to have the food known as Pie added to our replicators in the near future. The Rum appears to be a bit too extreme for our species, as one standardized serving has caused intoxication among the crew members." The leader noted.


    "It has been a pleasure meeting you. I am certain that there won''t be any issues on our end getting the replicator data for Pie added to your systems."

 Chapter 689 689 Chasing Leads

    Annabelle watched the sensors as the rg ships retreated to the moon, where they had been hiding before this incident, with a big smile on her face.


    "That was so cool. You guys totally just met a new alien species and got them drunk, and taught them the joys of eating pastries. Even on a dangerous mission to find the traces of the Klem, you still get to have more fun than the rest of us." She cheered while Max started to plot the course to their next destination.


    "It''s not all fun and games. If we hadn''t managed to get a deal worked out with those people, there would have been a space battle. I''m sure even your hyperactive little mind knows that would be a bad thing." Nico reminded her.


    "But this is a custom ship made by Lead Researcher herself for your own private use. How could a bunch of low-ss nobodies damage it?" the little Innu asked, brushing off all concerns about the dangers of space battles.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel Her thoughts at that moment let Max know precisely why she had broken in here. She had a severe case of hero worship and had found out that Nico had made herself a new ship, so she simply had to be the very first one to see it.


    The fact that she had actually managed to break in was mostly down to her own ingenuity but partially because Nico had removed most of the security measures around the hangar because they were leaving right away.


    Annabelle didn''t even realize that if Nico had intended to lock down the ship, she didn''t stand a chance to get in, so Max would have to do something to remind her of that fact before they got back to Absolution, where her inted sense of skill might get her into a whole lot more trouble.


    He wouldn''t want to lead an otherwise good kid and promising researcher down the path of a life of crime just because he didn''t warn her adequately about the misuse of her powers.


    "The course is ready whenever we are," Max informed Nico, who was going over the data that they had collected from the rg ship while she waited for him to decide their next target.


    "On it. Let''s see, what sort of assignment do we have for our favourite research assistant? Oh, I have a great one. There are sixteen adjustments to our course during this next warp-speed journey. I want you to identify all of the adjustments made and the reasons why they were made." Nico decided.


    Annabelle frowned. Finding the course adjustments was easy. She could get that from theputer in seconds, but as to why, that would be much harder. She didn''t actually know much about warp travel, as it had only been a passing curiosity before she met Nico a few days ago and had learned about some of the amazing things that the Lead Researcher had aplished with her mom''s team and kept quiet about. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Might I rmend a book for you? This is the introduction to celestial navigation textbook from the human Academy systems. It is age appropriate for you, and it is the very first textbook that we receive if we are going to take on the role of a ship''s navigator. It is also essential to all warp technicians and ship design engineers, though they learn it a bitter." Max offered and transferred the digital book to her data tablet.


    She stared at the book description in horror for a moment, then her smile turned to a devious smirk as she recalled seeing a learning device stored in the cubby beside the couches in the sitting room.


    Max pretended not to notice since she was off to study so that she could answer the questions properly. Reading the actual book wasn''t part of the assignment. She was only learning the basics of warp travel, and she could do that with memory transfer and a few Virtual Reality practice sessions. It would also keep her silent and still for a few minutes while her mind was busy in the simtion, trying to determine why they had made specific course corrections.


    What she didn''t know yet was that the assignment was a logic trap. One of the course corrections was only to confuse anyone that was following them since it would take them past a with an atmospheric phenomenon that looked like fireworks.


    If she could get the questions correct, she could see them in the morning with her own eyes. Max assumed that would be the case, as she had been doing quite well up to this point, so he prepared a n to stop there for a while and wait to see if anyone was following them along their route.


    It didn''t seem likely that anyone had managed to determine whether they were aboard the disguised ship or even that this ship wasn''t part of the regr traffic, but you could never be too careful.


    Once they were safely underway again, Max started looking into the data that Nico was sending him, using her skill to analyze it much faster than would normally be possible for the human mind. It really did seem to be confirmed that there were a group of Klem pods released somewhere near here and a chance that they might have been sent toward the first of the infesteds, but they still didn''t have any data on where the path actually started, or how they ended up here.


    What they did have was a confirmed sighting of them that they would need to analyze since it was possible that they might have been headed to one of the others as well.


    The warp trail of the ship they followed to this point had simply vanished, but it didn''t match with the ones that hade out to meet them, and it wasn''t even in the same design, nor was it the same as any of the other ship signatures in the region, so Max could only hope that the trail picked up again somewhere else, or that a clue as to what happened to the ship with the fragmented warp trail could be found.

 Chapter 690 690 Possible Disguise

    Nico was analyzing the data from the rgputers when she suddenly had an epiphany. "I know what happened to the ship that we were following. It started at another ship and ended at a dead-end, but it wasn''t the only ship in the region at either point. It seemed like the most logical choice, given its size and designation, but I don''t think it was a freighter at all.


    From what I can tell, I think we were tricked into chasing a probe with a false warp signature. One of the other ships sent it out and picked it up in order to hide their tracks. That''s not a technology that most species have, so it''s possible that they can disguise the warp signature of their ship as well.


    They won''t be able to alter the actual warp signature, but they might be able to ovey it with something else to make it look like a different ship of the same pattern."


    That was an incredible breakthrough but a very annoying twist to this search. If they could disguise their trail, he would not only have to track them. He would have to do it while searching for the smallest traces of the true signature in every ship''s trail that they passed.


    Nico was more excited about the possibilities for infiltration than their actual mission at this point, and her surface thoughts were all about how to modify that ability for her own use byyering a false secondary field signature on their own warp field so that they could appear to be apletely different ship every time they went to warp.


    It would be useful for Absolution as well. It left a huge trail through space for anyone with the technology to follow. But if this n of Nico''s worked out right, then she might be able to make it decay more quickly or appear to be a fleet of smaller ships heading in the same direction.


    The human militaries already did that without the subterfuge by having their fleets fly so close together that the Warp signatures blended into one, but even having hundreds of Cutters fly around Absolution might not be enough topletely disguise its trail, and the iing signature was sorge that they wouldn''t fool anyone as to what they were during an attack.


    Max checked up on Annabelle quickly and saw that she was focused on learning a lot of the smaller details about warp navigation and the effects of gravitational fields and debris on Warp Fields.


    It was part of the answer that she was looking for since Max had adjusted the course to avoid a shippingne at one point, and he was slightly impressed that she had realized that much already, even with the efficiency of the learning device.


    "I think she will make an excellent researcher when she grows up. Maybe we should feed her more varied information for the week and give her a solid base for her early experiments?" Nico suggested when she saw that Max was looking at the little Innu, who appeared to be asleep in a soft recliner.


    "That''s certainly an option. We could have her moved to a more specialized course of studies when we return as well. I see that she''s taking a general education course aboard Absolution right now." Max agreed.


    "Should we put trade and technical schools on the new floor of the ship that we''re modifying for amphibious species?" <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max thought about that for a few seconds. The floor was mostly for the Innu and the tourists who would love a bit of time off on a tropical ind, but people would live there as well, and it was the size of arge country, so there would need to be quite a variety of facilities. Having them specialize in high-tech would make sense.


    Every region needed general education, but you only needed to put specialized courses in a few regions if you were willing to relocate students or bus them in, as would be the logical solution for many students aboard Terminus.


    They would be seven hours until the next stop at the with the unique atmospheric phenomenon, so Max created a nket and tucked Annabelle in on the recliner while she studied. Hopefully, she would get the hint since the stop was input into her device on a timer. But if she didn''t, she could always wake him up.


    She might be good at hacking, but she wasn''t going to get past Nico''s security codes to alter anything in the ship''s course, so having a good rest while they had spare time wouldn''t cause them any problems.


    Max settled into the soft padding of the mattress and was nearly instantly out cold. It was designed perfectly for his preferences, and he was so deeply asleep that he didn''t even notice that both Nico and Annabelle joined him for the evening.


    He did notice that he wasn''t alone when he woke up, though.


    The next thing that caught his attention was a notice on his wrist device from Nico. [She''s afraid of the dark, and the ship lights turned off automatically when we were all asleep.]


    That exined it. She must have woken Nico up or alerted her if the cyborg was still busy with whatever she had been studying for the evening. Nico didn''t sleep much anymore, as she only needed enough to rest her mind, and a few periods of REM sleep were enough to satisfy that requirement. So, as a result, she was up at all hours of the day and night if there was something to keep her interested.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel He carefully transferred Annabelle onto Nico and climbed out of bed to get breakfast and Coffee ready. Six hours wasn''t quite enough sleep in a bed thatfortable, but they were near their destination, and he wanted to be fed and ready when they arrived.


    The itself was interesting enough to study for weeks, but they would only stay here half a day to make notes and hold the daily meetings with the Envoys back aboard Absolution. That would give them a chance to make sure that the message to Annabelle''s mother had been received as well and get some second opinions on everything that they had seen yesterday.


    It was going to be another full day, but somehow this little ship seemed to be much more rxed than either Terminus or Absolution. It might just be the absence of anyone who could bother him or the fact that there were only two other minds in his range, but it was more rxing than any other vacation he had ever been on.

 Chapter 691 691 Meetings On Vacation

    The scent of coffee brought both other upants of the ship out of hibernation just as they were entering the star system where their next stop was scheduled, so Max brought up the visual disy on one wall for them to watch the phenomenon together.


    "Coffee, coffee, coffee." Annabelle was chanting sleepily as she made her way to the replicator with tousled tentacles somewhat resembling bedhead.


    Of course, she could control them, so their state was more of a reflection of her frazzled mind than ack of grooming, but in this case, the concept was the same.


    "Coffee will stunt your growth," Nico warned her, and the little Innu stopped suddenly just before pressing the button.


    "That wouldn''t be good. I can''t reach the research desks properly. I can''t work forever on stilts just because the tables are too high." She mumbled, then made herself a juice and a te containing some sort of sushi rolls.


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "Ah, I love the replicator." She sighed at the first bite of her breakfast.


    Max looked into her thoughts to see what she meant, and once he got past the happiness about sushi for breakfast, he found that her mother worked early and had signed her up for school breakfast and lunch programs, so she ate cafeteria food twice a day.


    It was good food and came from the replicator, but it was carefully curated by the school''s nutritionist to create a bnced daily intake for optimal learning, which was very different from optimizing it for what a bunch of seventh-grade students actually wanted to eat for breakfast every day.


    "This morning, we don''t have an assignment. I have a bunch of meetings with the Envoys, and I found a particrly interesting specimen for you to examine." Max exined while they ate.


    "Oh, what sort of science lesson is this?" Annabelle asked.


    "Call it a morning break period. There is a up ahead with a unique visual effect in the atmosphere that will make a great spot to stop for the meetings since themunications get garbled at high warp and long distances.


    That''s just rude to the Envoys, so I will be stopping the ship while I hold the meetings, and then we can carry on, and you can finish up the analysis of the route that you started on yesterday. There are a lot of factors thate into y, so I don''t expect that it will be done in a single day when you haven''t even learned the base material yet." Max exined.


    "Got it. I will try not to get in the way while you''re holding meetings." She agreed with a sloppy salute.


    Nico pointed to the viewscreen on the wall. "We''re here. What do you think of ouryover location for the day?"


    Pure joy overtook Annabelle''s thoughts, and she stared at the screen in awe while her hands made happy pping motions before she decided to grab her data tablet and start making notes of the phenomenon, just in case she wanted details to help remember itter.


    Max was quite sure that this wasn''t a moment that she was going to forget anywhere in the near future, but it made her happy to record it, so he didn''t say anything and just let her take her notes while staring at the bursts of colour and fire that rocked the. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    After a minute or so, he retired back to his office so that he could make the connections to get the meetings started and brought up Major Miller on his holographic projector.


    "Commander, you''re right on time. The Envoys are just arriving in the office for the morning meetings. How did your first day away from the ship go?" The former Adjutant asked.


    "Better than expected. We have a verified report of Klem pods passing through a region, though we can''t confirm their origin or trajectory. We found other signs of the Klem as well and some signs of suspicious vessels, but it hasn''t been enough for a solid lead yet, so we are on our way to another possible location." Max exined.


    "That''s better than any of us expected. The odds that there would actually be something to trace after this long were pretty low, and if the pods were sent intentionally, the perpetrator would have done their best to hide their tracks."


    Max saw the Envoys appear in the hologram as they entered the room and gave him a wave.


    "Wee, everyone. If we''ve all got coffee, please take your seats, and we can get started." Max greeted them.


    "Good morning, Commander. I am prepared for the day. I have a coffee for now and one forter. Let''s do this thing." The Innu Envoy cheered.


    "And byter, she means in about three minutes from now." Max''s Illithid advisor informed him from the background.


    "I''m sure he already knew that. But I should ask, is Annabelle alright? Your message was a bit vague, and her mother was concerned." The Innu Envoy asked.


    "She''s fine. She managed to sneak aboard the new ship after learning about it. Nico had taken down most of the security because we were about to board, and she got inside. We left before we noticed her, but she was not in any danger except in danger of learning new things. We have assigned her homework assignments to be done on every topic thates up during our mission in order to improve her frame of reference."


    The Envoy looked like she was going to say something, but the Giant beat her to it. "Unfortunately, Homework, like Decaffeinated Coffee, is not a sentient beings rights vition."


    The others all chuckled at the standard Innu objection to anything that forced them to sit still without being engrossed in a project, and Max smiled at the camaraderie between them.


    When he first met them, he had thought that they were a bit awkward and unfamiliar with each other on a personal level, but that turned out to be the opposite of the truth. They were actually highly stressed when they first arrived since they didn''t know how the humans would react to them and were getting on each other''sst nerve.


    Now that they had time to settle in, they were more like onerge dysfunctional family.

 Chapter 692 692 Good News From Home

    The Envoys all gotfortable in their seats while Max sent over the data they had collected on the rg and the leads they had gained on the possible Klem origins in the region.


    "Forget the Klem infestation. Does this data really show that an incurious species is starting to develop true curiosity? It looks like they''re not quite there yet, but this is huge news. I don''t think I''ve ever seen it in person, though I know of a couple of species that had evolved that way, like the Dryads, who used to be forest spirits before they evolved into one of the Curious species." The Valkiamented.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "It shocked us as well. We had a minor misunderstanding at the start, but they were hospitable enough, and as you see there, they even requested specific new things to try simply because they were different from anything that they had tried before.


    It is possible that they are going to attempt a coup within the next few decades, though. Their curiosity conflicts with the rigid structure of their society in a major way." Max agreed.


    "Fortunately, that''s not my problem. We have more information for you as well. Your next stop is at a space station, where arge number of questionable deals are made. As a Reaver, you would be perfect for that position, and we won''t question your purchases as long as they''re not outright illegal, but there is a chance there for you to gain some notoriety within the Alliance.


    They hold an underground fighting arena there, and while the results aren''t public knowledge, the sorts of businessmen who might know the answers we need will be there, and they might be willing to deal with you once you have proven yourself to be worthy of their attention.


    A small Company, especially one that specializes in perfectly legal and legitimate products, wouldn''t do much to change their minds, but the fighters that can excel in the arena are highly respected." The Valkia exined.


    That wasn''t a bad option. Max read the data that they sent to him quickly and saw basically what he expected. A ck-market station with a boxing arena, but for multiple species. The fights weren''t to the death, just to knock out, so it wasn''t anything too extreme, and a few matches could get him some respect for his strength.


    Perhaps especially for his strength. Compared to most organic species, Max was a monster, and hisically overpowered physique went mostly unused in his daily life.


    "I will look up the species that are on the roster for the fights and make sure that it wouldn''t be a suicide mission. Making a spectacle of myself wouldn''t help our cause at all. But I''m sure that we can find a good reason to stop in at the station for a bit while we are studying the traces in the region.


    Trying to find a ship near a busy spaceport would be a lost cause, but there is a chance that we might be able to detect hints of Klem Biomass if one of the ships hade into contact with the pods or had been on the surface of an infested.


    We will have to be a bit more covert about our scans, though, since we don''t want to enrage an entire space station when we''re just passing through." Max agreed.


    "Just be aware that the fights are usually in uniforms and between crew members, so you can expect that they will have some sort of armour, despite weapons being banned. Full Conversion Cyborgs or mechanical beings are prohibited as well. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Alliance has very little experience with something like Nico, and the rules regarding them usually lump them in with Androids, which aren''t seen as a fair opponent since they feel no pain and can fight through so much damage." The Envoy added.


    "That''s fine. I''m sure she will pout, but she can take care of Annabelle while I gather information aboard the station."


    The group all looked at the Innu Envoy, then back at Max. "Are you sure it''s wise to leave those two unattended together?"


    Even the Illithid was doing his best not tough at that one.


    Nico stuck her head in the door with a smile. "Oh, ye of little faith. Don''t worry. I''ll keep our little research assistant out of trouble, no matter how much fun a good fight sounds like."


    Her thoughts suspiciously went nk after that, and Max knew that she was using her System Functions to hide something from him, but honestly, he wasn''t shocked. He had just mentioned getting into a fight while she was left to babysit, so there was definitely some sort of a n brewing in that brain of hers that didn''t involve idly sitting by aboard the ship.


    It might involve going to the station with Annabelle or even weaselling their way into the fights to watch him, but there would definitely be something in her mind that wasn''t a quiet afternoon aboard the ship.


    Major Miller took out a tablet with his notes and forwarded them to Max. "We have news from the ground as well. Your rotational drops, while using burning biodiesel as bait, have been a grand sess. The Cutters sprayed the bait around the edge of the perimeter while the Mecha airdropped in at their set positions, and the initial advancement is moving five percent faster than estimated numbers, with very minimal damage to the Mecha.


    In addition, the first battle for the Company Commanders in charge of the Android Army seems to be a great sess. Strategizing has proven to be a two-way street, and humans are taking logical advice from the Androids while adding their skills with improvisation to the mix in order to improve efficiency.


    We are still in the early days, but it looks like this will not only make for a more efficient army, but it will be an incredible training session for the unitmanders and make them better leaders than they were before."


    "Perfect. Make sure you have good notes of the battle tactics andmunications so that we can add them to the data for the Mecha training simtors. We''re awfully short on actualbat data for a mixed human and android-piloted force." Max instructed.

 Chapter 693 693 Station Bound

    Once Max''s meetings with the Envoys were finished, he rejoined the other two at the viewscreen to watch the perpetual light show in the atmosphere of the below them. It looked like the world was celebrating something, though there weren''t actually any life forms in the incredibly toxic acid that made up the majority of the''s atmosphere.


    "This is a really pretty spot. I didn''t even know that such ces could exist, but here, there is a whole full of fireworks for no reason other than that the got hit by an asteroid in the past that introduced an imbnce in itsposition. Even though I''m going to have to write a report on thister, I don''t regret stopping to see it at all." Annabelle informed him as he entered the room.


    "Well, at least you understand that you aren''t getting off without writing up a report. It looks like you''ve taken a lot of notes for it as well, so I will be expecting a good one." Max agreed.


    The group watched in silence for another half hour while Max snacked on the various treats that Nico had set out on a coffee table for them, and then he finally got the motivation to get back on track.


    "Say goodbye to the of fireworks. We''re off to a ck-market trading station to look for signs of the Klem pods and to make a bit of a name for the humans within this region of the Alliance." Max reminded them.


    Well, mostly, he reminded Annabelle since Nico was already getting the preparations for the next leg of their journey calcted and prepared.


    This leg of the journey would be much more heavily popted, with busy shippingnes, regr interster travellers, and a number of portal locations, so they would have to drop their speed to avoid attracting attention. Warp ten or higher pleasure yachts and government vessels weren''t exactly unheard of, but they weren''t avable to the sort of people who woulde visit a sketchy space station known for its trade in questionable goods.


    Max had considered just making the journey at high speed and dropping it for the veryst leg into the station once he was close to their sensor range, but there was so much traffic that the chances of someone who had scanned them along the way stopping in and saying something was too high forfort.


    So, instead, they would be going at afortable warp eight. It was fast for a civilian vessel, but not insanely so, and it would only attract a little envy from those who saw the pristine vessel that they appeared to be.


    "Do we have the containment shielding for the Antimatter weapons ready? This should be the first test for it, and I would like to see if an Alliance space station can see through it to detect the heaviest weapons on board." Max asked Nico as the ship began to leave itsyover point.


    "They should be up and running soon. I got some good data from the rg ships, and I think a small tweak is in order so that we fully fool the station. If it works correctly, then we should be able to hide most of the ship''s primary energy weapons from their scans as well. The Orbital Lance is easily disguised as a Gravity Beam, but it isn''t going to be easy to convince anyone that the Ion Cannons are anything but an offensive weapon."


    Max chuckled. Their ship was armed to the teeth. There was no way that they could hide it all. But they wanted to look more like cautious travellers and not a military attack vessel. A handful of Ion Cannons shouldn''t be too much of a distraction, as they were a shorter-range weapon usually dedicated to defensive actions when deployed on space vessels.


    It was the Thunder Gun, currently disguised as a sensor array, and the Antimatter Torpedoes, that would cause the greatest concern, as either of them would be capable of taking out a Cutter in only a few shots. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    This leg was only a few hours at warp eight, so they didn''t lose a huge amount of time, but Nico still had to send out over fifty routing messages to avoid near misses with other vessels in the region. The freighters were notorious for not filing their flight ns and simply following their customary routes, so anyone who wasn''t a local had to guess where they were and where they were headed at any given point in time.


    It was a great relief when they reached the portion of space controlled by the space station and were guided into its docking pattern to await an airlock.


    [Terminus Trading Company Private Vessel Santa Maria, you are clear to dock at hangar seven for internal parking] The staff informed them after nearly an hour of holding in position.


    "You named the ship after your mother?" Max asked and got a wink from Nico in return.


    "Did you want to exin to her why we still didn''t have a ship or even a Mecha named after her?"


    No, he did not.


    "At least it''s a good name, easy to pronounce." He told her with a smile that made Annabelle give them both a confused look.


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® She didn''t know much about Nico''s mom, only that she presumably did have one, so the inside joke about the lively and overbearing Reaver made no sense to her.


    Nico moved the ship into position and entered the hangar, which was suspiciously clear of all other vessels, despite the busy nature of the station.


    Max listened closely to the thoughts of the nearby security staff to see what was going on and make sure that they weren''t going to be ambushed or robbed while they were there. The first minute or so was all business, just making sure they were docked and that the ship''s hull was properly cleared of contaminants, followed by a quick inspection of the ship''s equipment to make sure it wasn''t a hazard to the station.


    None of that was surprising, but what followed was. They had suffered a Klem attack on the station after a vessel with contraband biomass had dripped on the exterior of the station and small but vicious bugs had burrowed inside.


    They definitely had the information that he needed, and he just had to convince them that Santa Maria was no more than a slightly over gearedpany vessel.

 Chapter 694 694 Black Marketeer

    After a few minutes of scans, the station''s flight control officer informed them of their approved status, and the warnings on the disys inside their ship faded away.


    [Wee to Archibald Station. You are clear to depart your vessel, Santa Maria. An escort and weingmittee will be waiting for you.]


    "Make the little one an augmentic suit. Then, we should all go out together, just set the ship to automatic defence." Max told Nico quietly.


    "I''m way ahead of you. There is an Android Pilot in the cockpit who will be waiting here, and I will start making the suit for Annabelle now. It looks like there are a lot of ces to go shopping, so we can look around while you listen for whatever caught your attention earlier." She agreed.


    Annabelle was overjoyed to get a new suit of armour that was as cool as this one, and she was happily hopping around the room, getting used to her enhanced strength.


    "Calm down before we exit. If you are going to attract unwanted attention, we will have to leave you aboard with an Android to make sure you''re doing homework." Max warned her.


    "Got it. I will test the limits of the suitter. I promise I won''t be a nuisance, and I will stay close to Lead Researcher Nico." She agreed in a hurry, so Max didn''t change his mind about letting her off the ship.


    Once everyone was in their armour with their helmets stowed in the t space, Max led the group down the walkway to where a small group of alien dignitaries was waiting for them.


    "Forgive our formality. We haven''t had any prior dealings with the Reaver Trade Group, or any humans, for that matter." The spokesperson greeted them.


    That exined the empty bay. Max had gotten so used to being around the Envoys that he had forgotten that nobody inside the Alliance was actually familiar with his species or the treaties that they had signed with the Alliance. The information was public but not something that was a focal point of most people''s news feeds.


    "I am Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company, a Reaver Company, and part of the Reaver Trade Group. This is my Sumander Tarith Nico, and Annabelle, family to one of our crew members along for the ride." Max replied politely.


    "I am Darryl, and this is my brother Darrell. We are the Liaisons to foreign visitors here aboard the Archibald Station. Does your Company have Alliance Credits, or would you prefer to trade for local units?"


    Max nodded to Nico, who took the hint and brought out a small cluster of crystals from her t space. "We have Alliance Credits, but we prefer to shop locally. How are your exchange rates for a pattern seven Warp Crystal Cluster, tuned forpatibility?"


    The locals here were not much taller than Max but with four arms and a long, hairless tail. Their facial features were blocky like they were crudely carved sculptures, but expressive. Even without reading their minds, Max could tell that the Liaison was very excited to see the Warp Crystal.


    "We can offer seventy percent of the wholesale value without any paperwork or ny percent of wholesale if you can document where the crystals came from." He agreed.


    Max had expected the man to drive a hard bargain, but he started out with a reasonable offer right from the initial conversation. That would make dealing with merchants here much easier than usual.


    "I have documentation. Terminus Trading Company produces these Crystals." Nico informed him with a smile.


    "Is that so? Perhaps our two species will get along very well." The four-armed man practically cheered.


    Changing the entire crystal array was one of the few ways to actually change a ship''s warp signature, so for a ck-Market station, who would presumably have a good reason to want to hide a ship''s signature, getting a supply of new Warp Crystals with no associated vessel was a godsend and worth far more than wholesale value.


    Nico handed over the crystals in a containment barrier to hold in the dangerous radiation, and a technician rushed forward to inspect them. The tech was an Innu, and she stopped in shock when she saw Annabelle since she was expecting three humans, but her curiosity about the Crystals wasn''t dyed for long.


    "Yes, very good. These are indeed bnced for use together. They can be installed in any vessel under one hundred meters in length with very minimal tuning to the ship''s nacelles. The Crystal Array is also suitable for low warp vessels inrger sizes, but not for a Portal Capable ss of ship." She informed her boss.


    "Can your Company supply such Crystals?" The Liaison asked hopefully. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "For the right price, we can arrange the creation of a Warp Drive for a World Ship. We have the facilities and technology." Nico replied.


    The technician got so excited that she actuallyunched herself forward and hugged the petite Cyborg before collecting herself.


    "Sorry. We''ve been waiting on Crystals for a few of our ships for a long time now. The manufacturer that we work with is way behind, and we''re not a high priority like the Government contracts." She exined sheepishly.


    "That''s fine. We are quite used to excited Innu. Tell me, have you heard of Coffee?" Max asked.


    If they were going to make trade arrangements with the ck Market, he was going to make sure that he got the best possible trade deal that he could.


    "Is that a new form of warp crystal bncing agent?" She asked.


    "No, it is a beverage. I can have a sample created by our Replicators if you would like. It has proven to be incredibly popr with the Tech Nomads and other Innu aboard our ships." Max exined.


    Those words calmed the fears of most of the Station staff. If these strange aliens called humans had a good rtionship with the Innu and catered custom beverages to them, then they should have a good idea of how things really worked in the world.


    "Tell me, Commander Keres. What is a Reaver? What role in society do they fill among the humans?" One of the men in the back of the group asked.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel He looked like a security officer, but his thoughts said that he was an enforcer for the ship''s shadier activities, so Max answered fairly honestly.


    "We are both transport and acquisition specialists. We are very good at getting hard-to-find products with very few questions asked, and we can deliver them all over our species'' territory without any interference from Government forces. We also produce arge number of items ourselves these days since there were no other reliable and trustworthy sources."


    The big goon smiled at Max''s answer and nodded his head toward someone outside the room.


    "In that case, perhaps you could find us Warp Drive Crystals for six Barge ss ships? Unused and unrecorded would be a necessity for this order." The enforcer asked.


    "That isn''t a problem. We have some in stock, as long as I understand your definition of Barge ss correctly. They are roughly one kilometre in length and only need a warp seven rating. If they need to be tuned for higher speeds, I will need to have them custom-made, which could take a few weeks." Max agreed.


    "How soon could you have them to us if they were in stock?" The man behind the wall asked.


    "If you can open a portal to Absolution, the World Ship ss vessel that we have in Alliance space right now for a research mission, I can have them delivered today. If they need to go through an intermediary, have them ce the order and open the portal. I will approve the delivery as soon as payment is made."


    A tall Valkia with jet-ck wings stepped out from behind the wall with a smile.


    "In that case, wee to my Archibald Station. I will have the payment ready for you in Gray Credits within the hour. They can be redeemed at any of the seventeen thousand linked markets, and the map of their locations, as well as the ess code, are included on this membership card."


    Max took the card and scanned it into his memory using Nico''s System Function that he was borrowing, then ced it in his t space for safekeeping.


    "Nico, if you would kindly get these Ladies and Gentlemen some coffee and send the order through for processing so that it is ready when the portal opens."

 Chapter 695 695 Trade Accomplished

    Their hosts brought out a group of tables while Nico recovered some beverages from inside the ship and set them out for everyone to enjoy while they waited.


    "Is this the beverage that you know as coffee? This is incredible, and it seems to be a gentle stimnt. Tell me, is it addiction-forming?" The leader of the station''s representatives asked.


    "It might be among other species, but it isn''t among humans. The Innu are extremely fond of it when mixed with cream and raspberry juice, as your Technician is enjoying. The juice and the coffeebine to form an intense stimnt for them, to the point that many species will find them insufferable until they calm down a little. But, for extended shifts, it is a staple of human forces and shifts workers." Max exined.


    "You really should warn people before you make the Innu more hyper, but in this case, I think it will be fine. The dosage is limited, and it isn''t having an extreme reaction on any of the other species present." The host shrugged.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel His beeper went off secondster, confirming that the money was ready to be transferred to the Terminus Trading Company, and a portal was opened to their World Ship for a shuttle to pick up parts to bring to the repair facility.


    Absolution was right on top of the order and even sent out a shuttle to meet them to save the time of docking and then leaving again, so they were in and out in under three minutes, with the money transferred and linked to Max and Nico''s personal data so that they could shop while they were here.


    "Your Warp Crystals are on their way back. They have been loaded into your vessel by our shuttle, and the payment is confirmed." Max informed the boss behind the station''s shadier activities with a smile.


    "Efficient. I like that. If everypany was as easy to deal with as the Reavers are, my life would be a lot more pleasant. You have no idea how many of them like to dy and over-promise." The ck-winged Valkia sighed.


    "Then it''s good that we met. We can provide a wide array of items, and as non-Alliance members, we are free to work with a wider variety of customers without it causing any international incidents or investigations.


    Once I have a chance to make sure that the rest of your linked associates are as upstanding as you are, perhaps we can work something out to have you serve as an intermediary. We have a number of advanced technologies, and apany can only make so much money selling to their own people."


    Max sensed the boss''s amusement at his deduction, but the ck marketeer seemed more than willing to make a deal with the humans that would skirt the very edges of what would get him in real trouble with the Alliance while still earning himself a reasonable few billion credits inmissions.


    "Why don''t the lovely youngdies apany our Technician and some others to explore the markets while you and I go see some of the finer sights of the station? From the medical analysis that our sensors ran on you, I have an attraction that I think you would greatly enjoy.


    I suspect that your Sumander would as well, but the rules prohibit cybeic augmentation of that level during the contests." The Valkia suggested.


    "That sounds like an excellent idea. I have been looking for a challenge to help break past my limits for a while now, and I think that your station might be just the thing to help me along my journey." Max chuckled.


    What he was hoping was that the System would find some inspiration and upgrade the durability of his body to allow it to progress further since he was at the cap for strength already and very close to the total bonus cap that his body could sustain. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Unless his whole body, or at least his bone structure, got a makeover, he wouldn''t get much stronger or faster than he was now, but his mind was already capable of much more.


    Sure, he could borrow Nico''s ability to allow him to pilot without using his body, but that wasn''t the path that he was after. Max wanted to be the very best because his body was at the peak of humanity, not because his mind could bypass the rest of his flesh to pilot the Mecha without them.


    "In that case, we will split up, and Miss Nico can take Annabelle to find a souvenir aboard the ship and explore the station''s more interesting points from the viewpoint of an Innu and a researcher. Should I bring a sample of human snacks for our walk?" Max suggested.


    "We have sampled your coffee, so this time, I will provide the refreshments. Follow me to the lower decks, the evening show is about to begin, and we have a defending champion that is well worth watching. He is a member of the Titan species, like these men here, but from the main branch and not the local.


    Their original home grew muchrger creatures than average, and they are often over four meters tall while remaining impressively agile.


    Tell me, do humans enjoy the art of gambling?" The Valkia asked.


    "Far more than they likely should. We gamble on nearly everything. Even our military units like topete with each other for their results." Maxughed.


    "So humans are still not at peace internally? How did you get the Alliance brass to ept you as trade partners?"


    Max smiled at the man''s clear confusion. "I think it was more to do with our technology than our culture. We made friends with a number of Alliance civilians, and they served as an intermediary to license patents for us before we brokered an official deal, and the Alliance Government was bing wary of what we might do if they outright refused us.


    We could have sold to other factions, but they were concerned that we might have be yourpetition and sold unlicensed products to the general citizenry or flooded the market with free-to-use patents in an attempt to drive under the major Corporations."


    The Valkia frowned. "Humans can be that ruthless?"


    "That is only the beginning. Once we have incited them to blind rage with patents that undercut their market share, we can use the Alliancews to cover ourselves if the Corporations attack us in retaliation. After all, we didn''t legally do anything wrong, and without any sort of deal, we had no obligation to not attempt to copse the economies of entire Gxies."


    "And then when they have attacked and lost, you keep the remains of their gear as research materials and move on to the next target. I see where you areing from. I like it. It''s got a very Hunter-like brazenness to it. Not many recently advanced species have the gumption to push the Alliance Government in any way, so it is a unique pleasure to find one that we have so much inmon with."


    The group walked out of the hold, leaving Nico and Annabelle with a small group of Technicians and a handful of security officers to carry their bags while shopping. They would soon regret that decision, Max was certain. Nico had way too much money, and Annabelle liked shiny objects.

 Chapter 696 696 The Arena

    The route that Max''s guide took him on led through the back passages of the ship, staying out of sight of the general poption, but it was by no means empty.


    There were arge number of stalls back here, selling all sorts of questionable items from many different systems. Even while reading the vendors'' minds, Max couldn''t determine what all of the devices did since hecked some of the knowledge of the technicalnguage that was necessary, but it seemed like this was the one-stop shop if you really needed ship parts and didn''t like to be questioned.


    "Is there anything that the Reavers outright refuse to deal with?" The Valkia asked as they walked, and the assistants pointed out various rare items for sale.


    "Only sentient beings and a few highly damaging substances. We don''t have a problem with most things, but some addictive substances will ruin an entire poption without any upside, so we don''t deal with them at all. It''s just too low for us.


    The Companies also take in a lot of freed ves, refugees, and other downtrodden sorts, so dealing in ves ourselves would rightly cause a revolt among our crews. We don''t always go out of our way to end such situations, but we will give a discount for that sort of mission as long as we can determine that it''s not a scam trying to take out apetitor." Max exined.


    "That is good. If you are going to do business with a man, you need to know what his bottom line is. When you cross a man''s bottom line, it should never be an ident. You can''t exin away such a thing. It will lead to an eternal grudge. So, knowing the things that a man simply will not ept is paramount to a working rtionship." The Valkia boss agreed.


    "What about you? What things won''t the ck Market deal with?"


    "We do some sales of workers, but we have a standard for them. If they are mistreated beyond our codes, we will repossess them. It gives us a bad name if someone sees a worker we sold in bad shape or being treated too lowly. We also don''t deal in killers. We will sell weapons to take out ships, but we don''t sell weapons to take out cities and countries."


    That made sense, in a way. It might not bepletely in line with the Reavers'' code, but finding a perfect match was unlikely with such different cultures.


    "If you are dealing with Reavers in the future, a finders fee to get them a worker is eptable and normal, but some of the captains will take it personally if you offer to sell them a bonded worker. As long as the worker is willing, they won''t have many problems paying you a finders feel for them though." Max suggested.


    "Ah, so that is how it works. Free workers, not indentured. That makes many things clearer now. How do you deal with debts for training, then?" One of the assistants asked.


    "The same as any other debt. They either work it off or pay it offter if they leave. If a debt is owed to a Reaver Company and a worker switches, we collect from their new employer, and then they can pay it back at their new job."


    Max stopped then to admire a handheld sma torch with a variety of settings, designed for industrial use but ouwed by the Alliance because of its unstable nature.


    "How much do you want for the torch? I collect these little curiosities of abandoned design." Max asked the merchant sitting on a rug in an alcove of the back hallway.


    "Five hundred grey credits, no less." The man demanded and moved to keep a close eye on his goods.


    "That''s fair. You have a deal." Max agreed and transferred the credits to the man''s wrist device without hesitation. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Nico would love that oddball sma projector. It wasn''t like anything that Max had seen before, so it might give her team some inspiration when developing new technology, even if this version was inherently unstable.


    They walked along the corridors until they reached the end of a hallway and passed through a thick steel door with two armed guards on either side of it, making sure that nobody without clearance coulde in or go out of that particr exit.


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® On the far side was an office with arge ss window that overlooked what seemed to be a stadium with an octagonal ring in the center for tournament fights. It was muchrger than the ones that Max had seen for boxing matches, likely due to the expected sizes of thebatants, and there were a pair of scantily d four-armed women and a short announcer with a prodigious beard standing in the middle of the floor.


    "Wee everyone to the Friday Night Fights. As you know, this is the peak of our weekly rotation, where the best fighter of the night will challenge our reigning champion for a chance at ten thousand grey credits in prize money and the honour of being named King of the Ring.


    You have ten minutes left to arrange your bets, so I will go over the basics of the rules again for those who are new here or were too drunk to listenst time. First up, no weapons of any sort. Even ws must be either sheathed or trimmed. Secondly, no armour will be allowed during these tournaments. If you want to see that,e back for our monthly no holds barred matches that will start fifteen days from now.


    Finally, when the horn sounds, or the referee calls the fight, you stop. Any fighter that does not heed the referee will be dealt with by security.


    Now, if you''re all ready to start the night''s entertainment, we will begin our night''s schedule with Gorlock the Destroyer versus Tiamat the Wonderful."


    Max chuckled at the stage names and burst intoughter when he saw the pictures that were put up.


    "They go all out for this, don''t they? There is a type of wrestler in my home world that wears that sort of bright costume and mask. They''re great entertainment." He asked the boss of the underground fighting arena.


    "It''s a simr concept, but this is a bare-knuckle fight. Most of them end by knockout, but pinning your opponent and forcing them to tap out is also eptable. These two are hybrids from the Giant species, and they are great showmen. They fight here at least once a month for the cash, and they always request to fight each other." The Valkia chuckled.


    So, it was most likely a staged fight, but that was no shock to Max. You couldn''t expect an underground fighting ring to bepletely honest and impartial. But as he scanned through the night''s fights, he noticed that most of these fighters had never fought here before, so they likely weren''t ringers, and they were here to actuallypete for the money.


    "Would you like to be on the roster? I can bump one of my in-house fighters and get you a spot." The Valkia offered.


    "That sounds like a lot of fun. Pick whatever opponent you like. I don''t need the money, but human soldiers like me are always up for a good fight." Max agreed with a smile.


    That was exactly what the Envoys had been hoping for, a chance to impress the locals with the strength of his species and gain some respect so that they would be easier to deal with in the future. He had likely done that with the Warp Crystals, but being known as great fighters couldn''t hurt their reputation.

 Chapter 697 697 First Round

    The Valkia in charge of the ck Market here on the station tapped at his wrist device for a moment, and the announcer suddenly looked down to receive a message. His professional look turned to a smile, and he lifted the microphone to his mouth.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen of the audience, hold your bets. The fights will go on as scheduled, but up first, we have a challenger in the ring. The big boss has found what he ims is a worthy fighter to overturn our reigning champion, a mighty warrior from a species called Humans.


    Now, I am told that they aren''t thergest of species, but you all know that size and might aren''t always the same. Their species fought a Lead Huntress to a standstill and is well known among the Government sorts for their violent tendencies that saw them denied membership, despite holding hundreds of patents.


    I would like to wee to the ring Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, and his opponent, the six-time champion, unseated only one month ago, Jericho."


    Max smiled and shook his head at the Valkia, who just shrugged. "If you want to impress them, you need a real opponent, not some amateur that we pulled from the crowd to get his ass kicked."


    Max stepped out of the room and onto the balcony, then hopped down to the ring using the gravity control function of his armour. It only took a second to stow it and leave himself in a pair of cargo pants andbat boots, with a tank top on. The rest of his outfit was stored in his t space, and he wouldn''t need it for a fistfight, so Max decided to just stay as he was.


    "Forget the fight. I''m more interested in where he found that armour." The announcerughed as the crowd cheered for Max''s arrival.


    "My Company makes it. It''s avable for public purchase in a light armour configuration, so if you''re interested, have the boss make the arrangementster." Max told him, not realizing at first that the microphone would broadcast it to the whole crowd.


    "Not only a renowned Commander, but a savvy businessman as well, it seems. But can he fight? Let''s wee Jericho to the ring." The announcer replied.


    The side door of the ring swung open, and a massive man entered the octagon. Standing just over four meters tall and sharing the same blue skin that the Narsians had but having four arms and a much more powerful build, the former champion was a monster of a man, no matter the species.


    "Do you think you can evennd a blow above my knees, little man?" The mighty Titanughed as the ring girls held up the betting odds disyed on their cards.


    "Care to wager on it? We might not be allowed to bet in the cage, but a little wager between us shouldn''t break the rules." Max countered.


    It was not allowed for you or your closepanions to bet on your match in the ring since it could be used as a way to get rich by throwing the fights. That meant that most of the fighters would actually make less on their own fight than they did on every other fight that night unless their bets were way off, but it kept the fights a bit more honest.


    "I''m taking my title back tonight since you gave me the chance to fight. How about we go double or nothing? Ten thousand Grey Credits." The Titan suggested.


    "That works for me. Ten thousand Grey Credits." Max agreed and held out his wrist device to the Referee to hold for them during the fight.


    If there was any constant in a fight, it was that the Referee was required to look impartial, so he could be trusted with the money until the fight ended. He would likely want a tip for his service, but that was no big deal to either of these fighters, and the credits were quickly verified, much to the joy of the crowd.


    "Combatants, get ready. Fight!" The Referee called once they moved to face each other and then leaped back to the wall of the cage and out of the way.


    Four mighty fists came rushing down at Max, much faster than an unaugmented human but far slower than Max was capable of. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Heunched himself upward at the Titan''s chest and threw a hard right uppercut into the tough blue hide, sending his opponent flying up into the air to crash against the cage.


    The crowd roared in shock and appreciation as the former champion was thrown from his feet, but he didn''t fall. Once he hit the wall, he pushed off with two arms and charged at Max, crouched low, like a Gori, so he could use two hands to bnce while the other two attacked.


    Max braced himself for the attack and rapidly blocked the flurry of punches, then rolled right, in between his opponent''s chest, and kicked up into his ribs, aiming for the same spot that he had punched.


    The kick stood the Titan up straight, and Max spun into the air with a kick to the back of his knee that sent him crashing down.


    The Titan seemed to have flexibility issues due to the extra arms, so Max went for the back and wrapped his arms around the Titan''s neck, aiming to choke him out.


    He was violently mmed into the mat when the Titan flopped over backward, and it loosened his hold just enough for the man to pull him free and throw him across the ring.


    Max twisted in the air and leaped ten meters up to get the timing right for his next attack.


    Once he reached the apex of his jump, where his momentum naturally came to a halt, the Titan leaped up and grabbed him, just as Max had predicted. Against a lesser opponent, that would be the end of the fight. They would be pinned in ce and pummeled. But Max was the stronger of the two of them, and when he grabbed the Titan by the wrists, the two hairy arms, eachrger than Max''s thigh, twisted around and released him.


    Max''s follow-up kick was thwarted by the Titan tossing him again, this time at the ground, so he couldn''t get a bounce off the wall of the ring, and again the Titanunched a four-handed flurry of attacks at him.


    Even though he could block them, his arms were getting numb and sore from the constant impacts until, eventually, one punch slipped by and hit Max in the ribs with a sickening crunch of a broken bone.


    He healed incredibly quickly, but that would still be sore for hours, assuming that he didn''t break any more bones during this fight. The Titan pressed his advantage while Max hugged his left arm to his side to avoid stressing his ribs while the nanobots set them in ce and began to mend them.


    Missing flesh and burn damage took ages to repair, but broken bones were just a single line that needed fixing, and the System could fix that sort of damage much more easily than organ or muscle damage, like the bruise that was spreading all across Max''s torso.


    Max flicked a kick up to the Titan''s chin that sent him reeling and took the time to circle his opponent and let his body recover from the damage it had taken. This species was incredibly durable. Max''sst kick would have taken the head off a human or even a Klem warrior, but it had only cracked the Titan''s jaw.


    They traded a few more testing blows, both cautious of their opponent''s power, while the timer counted down and the three minutes of the first round came to an end. The Referee didn''t step between them but moved closer and yelled out his orders when the bell marking the end of the round rang.


    "Break! Fighters, return to your corners. We will have assessment medics and water waiting for you.


    What a fight this is shaping up to be. The mighty Jericho will be facing the second round for only the second time in his career and against the diminutive human challenger known as Commander Keres.


    The odds are updated, and your bets may now be ced for the intermission break. We will return to the match in two minutes, so be sure to return to your seats on time."

 Chapter 698 698 Fight

    A small woman with powder blue skin and long ck hair stood by Max''s assigned seat with a water bottle and a rag filled with ice.


    "No medicine between rounds, but I can press down swelling if you''re having issues seeing. What do humans need?" She asked.


    "Ice is good. On the ribs, please. It will help with the bruising and numb the pain a little." Max replied with a forced smile while he considered how exactly he was going to knock out an opponent like that.


    "We also serve as your coach if you need us. The armpit of the lower arms is a weak spot, and if you hit it hard enough, you will wind him. It is nearly impossible to knock a Titan out with a hit to the head, but if you aim for the spot just above the vicle where the neck muscles meet, you can do it.


    It looked like you didn''t know before. You should be fast enough to hit it. Even though your striking to the ribs wasn''t exactly wrong, it is the best way to wear him out enough that he will drop his guard and let you at his vital spots.


    "Got it. I''ll take water." Max agreed and opened his mouth for her to spray a mouthful from the bottle on him. It was mildly citrus voured, likely to make it easier to drink, and at room temperature, so it didn''t cause cramps. They had prepared everything just right for the fight, and Max took a second to listen to the thoughts of everyone here to see if that was normal.


    It seemed to be, and he even caught a few shes of how the blue-skinned Titan had been defeated before. The current champion had gotten him into a chokehold, much as Max had done, but he wasrge enough that he couldn''t be thrown off so easily.


    That wasn''t going to help him here, but it would help himter since he had an idea of how the champion fought after watching other people''s memories of the fight.


    "Good Luck." The corner assistant cheered Max on as the Referee motioned both fighters back to the middle of the ring.


    The Titan was smirking, likely having gotten some hasty advice on how to fight a human from the assistant in his corner, and the second round started with a ring of the bell.


    The Titan tucked his lower arms tight across his chest, blocking both of the vital spots that the assistant had pointed out but opening one vital weakness that almost all bipedal males shared. Max smiled as his Targeting Function marked six possible weak spots on the Titan''s body and then rmended abination of strikes that would be more likely to take him down.


    With a lightning-fast rush, Max drove a hard punch forward and directly into the Titan''s groin, bringing him to his knees, and then followed up with a left hook to the throat and an uppercut to the left eye thatid him out on the mat.


    "Break! It''s over. He''s done!" The Referee announced while the Titan curled into a ball.


    The sturdy alien lifted Max''s hand in victory while the crowd roared in a mix of celebration and rage. The Titan had been a heavy favourite for obvious reasons, and Max had defeated him in what might be the dirtiest possible way.


    "Your first match winner, Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company. We can add that to the list of aplishments of their species. Not even a Giant can hit hard enough to bring a Titan to their knees with a groin punch." He announced into the microphone while the Titan wheezed and slowly climbed to his feet.


    Max wasn''t sure what he meant by that until he listened to the Titan''s thoughts. Their species had a protective bone that guarded their reproductive organs like a jockstrap, and Max had broken that bone with his punch before knocking him out with the throat punch, hitting exactly where the nerve cluster was.


    The former champion pped Max on the shoulder once he had recovered and made it back to his feet. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I underestimated the power behind a Human. Your species is impressive, little man."


    "Thanks. But don''t expect all humans to be that tough. I''m a Commander for a reason, and I''m quite a bit stronger than the average fighter, even for my species. I must say, though, Titans are incredibly durable. If I had hit a Giant in the face like that, I would have broken his neck." Max agreed, epting thepliment.


    "You wouldn''t have had to hit a giant nearly that hard. Go easy on the amateurs. It will look bad if you kill someone on your way to the final round." Jericho dered, just close enough to the Referee for the microphone to pick it up.


    The audience burst intoughter at the insinuation since there were a number of Giants fighting here today, but the fighters who were watching knew he wasn''t lying. The very first hit of the fight, the punch that threw Jericho across the ring, would have been the end for almost all of them.


    Their ribs would have buckled under the impact force, and they wouldn''t have gotten back up after hitting the wall. They had underestimated the pure power that Max could put out, thanks to his increased speed, and none of them were looking forward to fighting him.


    Max headed for the edge of the ring, and the boss sent down the same young woman who had been in his corner of the ring but was now dressed in a long, flowing ck dress to escort him back up to the VIP booth.


    She gently took Max''s hand, and he felt a sense of connection like someone was trying to look into his mind but failing. She looked shocked at the failure, and Max gave her a wink, letting her know not to say anything until they were out of the public eye.


    They walked into the booth, with its one-way mirrored windows, and the boss asked about it immediately after the door closed.


    "Might I ask, what were you thinking of that has my assistant so shocked? She''s seen nearly everything imaginable while working with the fighters." The Valkia asked curiously.


    "Nothing at all. That''s why she''s shocked. I have some resistance to mind reading abilities." Maxughed, then flopped down on the couch to let his ribs heal before it was time to fight again.


    "Your species gets more and more curious every time I ask you a question. I''m afraid that if I keep asking questions, then next, you''ll tell me that you know the secret to eternal youth." The bossughed.


    "Do you count rejuvenation treatments? The data that we collected from the Envoys suggests that the ones we have developed will work on a wide variety of species. Using them, we can expand our lifespan from seventy or eighty years to nearly two hundred." Max told him.


    "Seriously? Do you have any idea what that knowledge would go for here in the Alliance? Even if it worked on a few species, being able to reduce the decay rate due to aging would keep vital personnel alive for decades longer so that their knowledge wasn''t lost. How did your species never leave their own Gxy with that sort of technology? Shouldn''t you have run out of space?" The assistant asked, rapid-fire in the fashion of the Innu, though she didn''t appear to be one.


    "You greatly underestimate the lethality of the indigenous species in our Gxy. We haven''t even filled a third of our Gxy''s potential yet. Perhaps you have heard of an invasive species called the Klem that appeared within the Alliance? They were taken from our Gxy and released here for some unknown reason." Max asked.


    "Yes, we know more than we would care to about that particr species. But we can talk about thatter. There are fights to watch now. You can ce bets with my assistant if you are so inclined." The Valkia agreed.

 Chapter 699 699 Urgent Message

    The next matchup was the originally scheduled first matchup, so Max declined to bet on this one and simply sat back to watch the show. It was artful, and they weren''t pulling the punches as much as Max had suspected that they would, leaving the ring a bloody mess by the time the first round had ended.


    Although he knew that they were just putting on a show for the crowd, one of them would still advance to theter fights that night, so Max watched carefully to gain more information on how they moved, what moves they seemed to know and not know, and the general level of agility that they disyed.


    Once you factored in another twenty percent for how much they were likely holding back, it gave a solid baseline on what he could expect in a fight with them.


    "It''s not often that we see an actual soldier in here, other than a few security guards who turned to mercenary work." The Valkia sitting beside Max chuckled as he watched the human observe the fight.


    "It''s always good to take in more information about potential opponents. It''s just as true for the ring as it is for business. Going in blind never ends well." Max agreed.


    "Well, put. I will admit that I went in mostly blind today, and it was a risk, but it seems to have paid off in the end. I got the Warp Crystals that I had been searching for."


    Max chuckled. "I wasn''t totally blind. I did get the heads up from our contacts within the Alliance about the nature of your business. I didn''t know what you needed, but it was clear before I arrived that we would be able to help each other."


    Just then, both Max and the Valkia got an alert on their wrist devices.


    [Max,e to floor three, shopping district. We have a Klem issue.] Nico reported.


    The Valkia jumped to his feet and looked at Max in a panic, unsure as to what to do about the situation since he was entertaining a VIP guest.


    "We are looking for the source of the Klem in the Alliance Territories. I will go with you and help clean this issue out as well as search for the source." Max informed him while removing his armour and an Archangel Exoskeleton pack from his t Space storage.


    He had practiced enough that the suit went on in seconds, with the pack of the Exoskeleton mounted to his back and the wings folded for mobility in limited confines.


    "Come with me then. We were already infested once, and we thought that it was entirely cleared out, but it seemed like we had missed something.


    The original infestation came from a cargo ship, which had collided with some sort of organic pods in space and had biomatter on its hull. The repair crews did all the work while the ship was docked, but we found outter that the species could survive in the void and had hatched some small creatures which ate into the station''s internal areas.


    They were vicious things, and when they managed to kill a few visitors to the ship and drag them to a hidden area, they produced arger and more vicious variant within hours." The Valkia exined. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It gets much worse than that. If they are not stopped, they will strip entires bare and create variants which can face off against the Hunters'' Suits. They are a scourge on my Gxy, and there is no way that they should have appeared anywhere near here." Max told him with a grimace.


    If the Klem just reappeared, it meant that they had likely been on the station all along, hiding from their sensors until they had built up the strength to fight back.


    [We are on our way. What do you know about the Klem infestation?] Max sent to Nico as the Valkia led him to an elevator which was cleverly disguised as a wine cab.


    [The silent rms just went off on my escort''s radio, and the signature isrge. I think that it just arrived at the station. They have their sensors on high alert for more Klem, and now the guards are in full panic mode, wondering where they''re going to show up.]


    So, there was no definite location yet. That made things much more difficult, but with the boss here, they would have ess to every sensor on the station, and they should be able to track it down in a matter of minutes.


    The Valkia looked longingly at the equipment that Max had put on to deal with the Klem, and a smirk came over Max''s face. The Valkia were suckers for the Archangel Exoskeletons since they worked with the species'' natural wings and put an energy barrier around their body, as well as providing limited but highly lethal weaponry.


    With a thought, he detached the one from his back and held it out to his new business partner.


    "I still have an energy barrier built into my suit, and I doubt I will need to fly while within the station. Take this. It''s military-grade and will take a direct hit from a sma Cannon without failing.


    "Military grade meaning built to the minimum specification by the lowest bidder?" The Valkia asked, but he dly took the suit from Max and tried to decipher how to equip it.


    "Precisely. But it was meant to augment organic troops up to the level of a light armoured unit, so the minimum standard is pretty good, and it can even improve your flight agility since it was intended to be a flying unit, to begin with."


    Max took the unit back and deftly equipped it onto the Valkia, taking the time to ensure that none of the man''s feathers were crushed when he attached the suit''s wings to the organic ones.


    "There you go. It''s got a neural link, so just think of activating the unit, and it will turn on." He exined.


    The shimmer of the energy barrier surrounded the Valkia, who gently lifted off the ground with the gravity control before making a tight loop in ce and thennding back on his feet.


    "Truly impressive for a species with no wings. But I have seen you fight, so I can see how the need for extreme mobility would have been a priority for your species. Your partner and my chief of staff should be just ahead."

 Chapter 700 700 Source Of The Signal

    Nico and Annabelle were waiting with the station staff when Max arrived, and Nico started right in on what they already knew.


    "The station scanners don''t detect Klem inside at the moment. It looks like they are on a vessel outside the station, but there is some sort of interference that is keeping them from detecting them.


    I think it''s some sort of containment field that was supposed to hide them entirely, but either they hatched and damaged it, or the field is of substandard quality. Unfortunately, it''s good enough quality that we can''t tell if it''s a ship that already docked or one of the dozens that have recentlye up from the beneath us."


    The Valkia winced at that suggestion. If the Klem presence came from the surface, they had bigger issues than just cleansing them from the station.


    The crew chief turned to the boss and handed over a data tablet. "This is everything that we know about the ships which are here and the ones that are in the system waiting to dock."


    Just as Nico had done, Max used her skill to quickly scan all the data and check for anomalies before referencing them against the data that they had already collected. It was a tedious process, but Nico was on it as well, so between them, they might find something of note.


    There was a moment of silence as everyone went through the data that they had avable, and the crew members adjusted the sensors, trying to get a clearer picture of where the signal wasing from.


    "Is the station locked down right now? If someone docks or leaves, it couldpletely change the search and spread the Klem to an unknown destination." Max asked.


    "Yes, we have gged the dock procedures for a one-hour hold. It''s under a maintenance cover story, so we have a bit of leeway while the systems are supposedly inspected and repaired, but not much more than that."


    "That should be enough. Our shuttle doesn''t have the same powerful sensors that ourrger ships do, but since it''s of apletely different design, there is a chance that it will find the way around a barrier designed to block your Alliance standard sensor systems." Max informed the station boss.


    Nico was already on it, running through every scan that she could, and within a minute, she had a lead.


    "I think we have it. Inside the Cargo hold of the ship docked at bay thirty-seven. That''s where the blocking signal is originating, and once it''s down, we should be able to pinpoint the Klem presence."


    The Crew Chief cursed and then tapped frantically at his wrist device, followed by frowning.


    "Our teams were unloading that bay. They''re not answering thems right now." He informed the group.


    "Oooh, does that mean Field Trip?" Annabelle asked eagerly. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I think it does. Stay close to Nico, just in case something happens. If it gets dangerous, we will have someone bring you back to the shuttle." Max informed her.


    The little Innu gave a fist pump and then pulled arge energy de from the t Space device on her suit. "Nico got this for me. Don''t worry. I can take care of myself."


    All of the adults chuckled at her certainty. She didn''t actually know much about the Klem other than what was in the homework that she had been assigned, and she hadn''t watched an actual fight against them, so she had no idea what sort of horrors she was up against.


    But in her mind, with the augmentic armour on, she was every bit as good as a Magical Girl from her favourite morning cartoons, so she should definitely be able to chop up the bad guys with her sword.


    The whole group ran toward the bay while Max carried Annabelle in his arms. Her anti-gravity system could keep up with a running speed, but she was too easily distracted and kept going off course, so he had opted to simply grab her and bring her along instead of letting her veer off into various shops when she saw something shiny.


    "You need to work on your focus to work the gravity control with a straight Neural Link. It follows your attention and intentions, so when you focus on new things, it turns you around." he reminded her as they ran down the hallway.


    "Oh, right. I was wondering what was going on. It was like divine providence wanted me to have those things. I was just suddenly headed for them as if it was meant to be."


    [Nico, make a note. Tell her mother to limit her credit dispersal. We have a major impulse shopper on our hands.]


    Nico burst intoughter at Max''s message but didn''t bother to fill in the confused crewmen on what was so amusing. She just kept running until they got close to the designated location and found arge amount of blood in the hallway and a severely injured crewman lying next to the control panel for the locked doors to the docked ship.


    "Did anything get off the ship?" The boss asked urgently.


    "No, sir. We fought it back, but there are three others heavily injured in the hall unless they made it to the medical bay." He replied.


    The Crew Chief gave him a shot from the first aid kit he was carrying and then waved a medical device over him that sent out an energy field that started to knit the surface flesh back together, slowing the bleeding.


    It was top-tier Alliance healing technology, and the guard should survive, though he would need augmentics since he had already lost limbs. The Alliance could regrow them for him, but a prosthetic was more cost-efficient and quicker to implement, so it was the choice of employer hospitals.


    Two of the team members who were with the Crew Chief ran around the corner, where the blood trails led, and came back an instantter, shaking their heads. The crewmen had bled out before they could make it to the first aid kit in the hallway.

 Chapter 701 701 Cargo Hold

    Max turned to the Station boss, who was quickly bing enraged by the situation, and then to Annabelle, who was way too excited to try out her nonexistent sword-fighting skills on the Klem.


    "If you can have someone guard the little one, we can breach the cargo hold on this ship and see what the situation is inside. It''s in full lockdown, so even if they handled it inside, they can''t get out ormunicate with this side." Max suggested.


    They were not alright on the other side, there were no sentient beings conscious or even dreaming on that entire ship, but Max was hoping to get the Valkia to unlock the doors so that they could deal with the Klem and look for signs of where they came from.


    "This ship came from one of our trading outposts. They''re not one of mine, but an independent merchant, so I don''t know where all they have been, but I need to find out if they put other facilities at risk." The Valkia insisted.


    "Then we''re on the same page. Once we clear the first hold, the rest of the staff can start looking for clues in here while we check the ship''sputer and search the rest of the vessel for any survivors or remaining documents."


    "In that case, everyone take your positions. We are opening the doors in three, two, one."


    The doors swung open with a hiss of flowing air as the station vented a bit of atmosphere into the lower-pressure cargo hold before its shields came up to stop the flow.


    The opening doors brought a flurry of activity, and Max followed Nico through the breach with the Valkia right behind them. They cleared the door an instant before a pair of Klem Warriors were on them, meeting Nico''s sword and a st from Max''s Disruptor Pistol before they could even react.


    The first shots were followed up by a spread pattern of low-intensity shots to clear the small Klem on the floor without damaging the hardened cargo containers in the hold. The green blood of the Klem joined the red and ck blood of the station staff and ship''s crew that was sprayed all over the cargo hold, but no more targets came to join them.


    The crew was about to move in behind them, but the doors suddenly slid shut, and Nico gave the Station Boss a wink.


    "We will keep them out there for a moment. I think there are things on this ship that shouldn''t be seen by outsiders. ording to the logs, thest person to enter the bay was unrecorded and personally weed by the Captain of this vessel, whose transponder is currently on the bridge." She exined.


    "It should also have a shipment for my market. I''m not sure which crates it is in, but it was never unloaded before the incident. You are right. We should clear this ship without any prying eyes getting in the way." The Boss replied, then spread his glossy ck wings wide so he could lift into the air and get a good look around the bay from above.


    "There is a breached door on the left, behind the cargo crates. It has been pushed toward the cargo bay. That should be the point of entry for the infestation, but the rest of the bay looks clear." He announced.


    "My sensors agree. There are still Klem on the ship, but not in this room." Nico agreed and hopped up on the cargo crates to get a look for herself.


    "I think I have found your goodies. Were you looking to import arge amount of narcotics? My scans show nearly a thousand tonnes of it in these crates. If my readings are right, it is in pill form, sorted by bulk bags, ten thousand to a package." Nico chuckled.


    "Don''t judge me. It''s a prohibited medicine, the best painkiller that we have evere across, and it''s dirt cheap since there are no patent fees to pay on a ck market drug." The Valkia replied with a smirk.


    "Good answer. We wouldn''t care either way, but drugs aren''t the sort of product that might be rted to a Klem infestation. If it had been gic sequencing or other biological alteration products, there would be a chance that whoever brought them was trying to do something with the Klem. I guess we will have to keep looking for their origins and why they were on board." Max rified. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He moved quickly through the destroyed door and out of the cargo hold with Nico covering his back and the Valkiaing up right behind him. The other side was a narrow hallway, painted in the nd green that all militaries and government institutions seemed to prefer for their walls, but the alloy walls had been deeply gouged, and there was a trail of Klem blood on the floor.


    The cargo hold wasn''t the first point in their battle, it was thest, but judging by the bodies, nobody had told the crew that was unloading the ship about what was going on.


    The ones that they had found on the other side of the door hadn''t even had time to retreat the few steps to safety before everything went wrong, so they must have realized that they were under attack when the Klem breached the security door.


    "Do we have ayout of this maze?" Max asked Nico as he moved forward, following the trail of green blood back to its source.


    "Right here. You can pull it up on your holographic disy or the HUD in your helmet now."


    That was much better. There wasn''t much to this section. It was just a group of cargo holds and a few corridors. The main crew quarters were at the front of the ship, and the blood trail wasn''t leading in that direction.


    Max followed it to another cargo bay, where a hole was torn in the wall right at the corner of the bay.


    "Do we risk the door, or do we follow the hole ripped in the wall?" Max asked, wanting to make sure that everyone was on the same page since their thoughts were so focused on making sure they weren''t ambushed.


    "The security in the bays is all offline, so we''re going in blind, but I say we use the hole in the wall. If they were guarding it, they would have already noticed us, and I don''t recall a time when the Klem were patient hunters." Nico decided.


    "I will defer to your experience." The Valkia agreed.


    "Alright, I will lead and peel left, Nico. You take a right. Archibald, hold the exit and don''t let anything escape into the vessel."


    Nobody ever called the Boss by his name, so it had taken Max a while to gather it from the Station Boss''s thoughts, and the man seemed shocked to hear it spoken out loud.


    "He reads minds. It''s a handy skill, even if it does startle people now and then." Nico exined.


    "It''s rare that I hear it myself. Usually, everyone just calls me Boss. You know how it is, no real names in our line of work." He chuckled.


    "Don''t worry. I won''t let it slip in public. Are we ready? Go."

 Chapter 702 702 Point Of Origin

    Max entered the bay and panned to the left, searching for any signs of Klem. The area appeared to be clear, but it was so heavily damaged that it was nearly impossible to tell. The bay had once been half full of cargo, but now everything was torn open, and there were signs of dozens of small Klem having gone through here and shards of at least threerger eggs that should have been Warriors.


    That didn''t ount for all of the ones that they had seen on the ship, but Max hadn''t searched much of the room yet.


    A few steps further in, a Swarm-type Klem, their basic worker and biomass collection bugs, jumped out at his head, only to be crushed by his fist.


    "I have contact. Klem Swarm. Watch for small bugs, roughly knee high or smaller." Max warned.


    The crate that it had jumped out of had a warningbel on the side, so Max double-checked it to make sure it wasn''t going to be a danger to his suit. High Fructose Syrup. No wonder the Klem had multiplied in here. The cargo bay was full of drums of syrup. It was the perfect site for them to mass-produce Warriors since nothingrger would be able to navigate the hallways of the ship.


    The distinctive buzz of a Disruptor caught Max''s attention as Nico found a target, followed by a panicked squeak from the station boss before his pistol shed in the dim light, and a small Klem exploded in front of him.


    "They''re fast. That thing just came out of nowhere," the Valkia muttered, making Nico giggle.


    "Faster than you expect. You should be d that this gxy doesn''t know about the Scourge. They are much faster and optimized for killing inside of ships." She agreed.


    "What sort of Gxy needs better predators than this?" The Station Bossined as he fired twice more, eliminating another pair of Klem Swarm bugs.


    "Oh, the Scourge isn''t natural. They''re the result of artificial intelligence-based android species running amok after its guidelines were set to only one word. Survive." Nico exined.


    The Valkia shuddered, but Max was more interested in what seemed to be hiding in the corner of the room than the interaction between the other two.


    "I think that I have found the source of the infestation. There are two more pods in here, and they''re space pods, not the ones that they produce on the surface. This ship was transporting their interster pods, and one hatched." Max called Archibald.


    "How many pods are we talking about?" the Valkia asked.


    "I only see three in total. Two intact and one hatched. The rest were created by the upants of the pod that hatched. If we gave them more time, this whole ship would be full of them. It looks like they''re just beginning to wake up. Those space pods usually need an atmospheric entry to wake them up." Max exined.


    Max took out the scanner from his t space and checked the pods for any foreign matter that wasn''t Klem in origin, and then vaporized them both before they could hatch and release something deadly into the ship. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That enraged the remaining Klem Swarm, and they rushed toward him, not caring at all about the sts from the Disruptors in their hurry to kill the one who had dared to damage the pods.


    The Disruptors had been created specifically for dealing with the Klem, though, and the small bugs were eliminated with extreme prejudice before Nico and Max began the work of sanitizing the cargo bay to make sure that there were no more small bugs or hidden pods left behind.


    "I would like to put in a vote for simply throwing the whole ship into a star when we finish here. No matter how well we clean it, I''m not sure we will ever get all the Klem biomass out. We have a good lead as to how the infestation started now. We just need to find out where and why they picked the pods up.


    The Valkia snorted in amusement and nodded his head. "I agree. Once we find out where these pods came from and what made them think that picking them up was a good idea, I will extract my share of the cargo, and then the ship can be dmissioned with a fiery farewell."


    If there was one universal truth, it was that a Klem infestation was best dealt with using fire. Every species agreed that it was the best method, even if they didn''t all ept that it would still be the best method even if they were still on the with the Klem.


    "The bay is clear. Where to next?" Nico asked.


    Max took a moment to search for thoughts in the vicinity, including the vague ones of the Klem and realized that there was only one cluster of them left, up in the front of the ship, near where the bridge should be.


    No, that wasn''t quite right. There were some still in the back cargo bay or near it.


    "Nico, go back and clear the rear of the ship. There are more Klem near the cargo bay. Once the area is confirmed clear, have the station crew get the boss''s cargo off the ship and make sure that Annabelle doesn''t wander away or get herself injured looking for adventure. I will take the boss and go search the front of the ship for the rest of the Klem and any documents that we can recover.


    Sort through the ship''s records and travel log if you have time. It might tell us something.


    "Not a problem. I have downloaded everything already, and I''m working on the linked handheld devices now. The ship''sputer is incredibly slow. Be sure to check for the cause. I think it might have a memory-intense program running somewhere that I don''t have ess to." She replied.


    The Station Boss took out a second pistol to go with the one in his hand, then realized that he was wearing a human-made exoskeleton and started to scroll through the menus in his helmet disy until he found the weapon systems.


    By Mecha standards, it wasn''t much, but there were two high output Ion sters on the wings, as well as two lightsers. With those added to his pistols, he felt much more secure, and Max could see all of the ways that he was working to justify buying a number of these for the Valkia in his crew. They certainly wouldn''t be cheap, with the firepower and shielding that they had, but they would totally be worth it to him.

 Chapter 703 703 Clearance

    Now that the boss had all of his weapons ready, Max led the way toward the front of the ship, where he detected the majority of the remaining Klem. The Station Boss''s thoughts were entertaining him as they advanced, with the Valkia eagerly looking around for targets so that he could try out the weapons that he had just realized he was equipped with.


    Max didn''t have the heart to tell him that the two pistols, which he was very proud of, were basically children''s toys inparison to the Ion sters that the Archangel Exoskeleton was equipped with, but he would learn that on his own soon enough.


    Max could hear the skittering of spiked legs across metal floor tiles up ahead, and it didn''t sound small enough to be a Swarm Bug.


    Max signalled the approaching danger, and the Valkia spread his wings so that he could bring all four of the suit''s weapons to bear on anything that came down the hallway.


    Max prepared to open the door on the right side of the hallway where the noise wasing from, and the Station Boss tensed up for action. With one swift kick, Max broke the door in and moved forward, sting the Klem Warrior that was behind it and then one more in the middle of the room. A third made a dash for the exit, where a sizzling barrage of firepower vaporized it in an instant.


    "You know, you don''t have to shoot it that much. Once you blow a hole in the head, they''re pretty much dead." Max joked.


    "Humans have a strange idea of how much firepower is appropriate, don''t they?" The Valkiaughed, hiding his shock at the appearance of the vicious bipedal insect with huge spiked forelimbs.


    "What exactly did those things evolve to kill?" He asked after shooting the Warrior one more time, just to be sure it was dead.


    "They have specialized in fighting a species of Giants that we have in our Gxy known as the Narsians, as well as the Light Mecha of the human military forces. Those spikes will cut through nearly anything." Max informed him.


    The boss gave the Warrior''s corpse a closer inspection and then noticed the gouge in the alloy floor where it had fallen. The tips of the forelimb spikes had dug into the durable metal as if it were soft wood, even without the creature forcing them.


    "The barrier will hold up against that, right? I''m not a coward, but those things aren''t normal." He asked.


    "Not a problem. It will take multiple hits from a Klem Warrior before depleting the power pack. Just be sure to kill it before that happens. There should be a spare power cell in the t space as an emergency backup if your charge runs low." Max exined.


    That was enough to assure the Valkia of his rtive safety, and the duo began to move forward again, checking every room that they passed for any signs of the Klem and marking the sealed doors with a paint marker after they had searched them. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Having a visual aid helped them tell where they had searched already, and the power to the doors was cut, so unless the Klem learned to operate the override, they wouldn''t be able to close them again after they forced them open, making it obvious if they had missed something.


    The sound of banging andughing echoed down the corridor behind them, and Max smirked at the happy thoughts Nico was sending out as she found the few Klem who was hiding at the rear of the ship and eliminated them so that the cargo extraction could bepleted as soon as possible.


    Annabelle was on door guard duty, which she was convinced was one of the most vital duties among any of the crew. After all, it was the heavily injured door guard they had met at the start who had kept the Klem from escaping the ship in the first ce, so someone had to take over his position.


    With Nico there, nobody actually needed to physically do the job, but it kept her at the door and out of trouble, with her curiosity restrained by a sense of duty to protect the crew. They had avoided telling her that the crew was unloading a huge number of crates full of illicit narcotics for the ck Market, but the sentiment was the same.


    Max cleared an empty room on the left side of the corridor while the Valkia sted a group of Klem Swarm bugs in a food storage room on the right, then moved in to see how they got in.


    "The venttion system. The smaller bugs can get through it. We should likely purge this room as well, in case they''ve set up those damnable pods somewhere in the pantry." The Valkia suggested.


    "That works." Max agreed and gave the room a wide dispersion st from his Disruptor, breaking everything into single molecules thatnded like piles of dust on the floor.


    They moved forward to the next door, and Max realized that they had reached the bridge. So far, they had onlye across a small sample of Klem and nearly no bodies other than the ones in the Cargo Hold by the exit, so he hoped that there was some sort of additional data stored here that would give them a clue about the Klem which wasn''t included in the ship''s logs.


    The door was physically blocked from the other side, and wouldn''t open with the control pad, so Max crouched to try to force it open with his boot, using the decorative ridges for leverage.


    "Prepare to shoot when it starts to open. We don''t know what''s inside, but it might not be friendly." Max reminded his temporary partner and began to push with all his might.


    The door creaked but didn''t budge, making both Max and the Valkia curse.


    "They''ve welded it shut. There must be crew members on the other side of that door." The Station Boss decided.

 Chapter 704 704 Not Enough Answers

    Max didn''t sense anyone, but they could be unconscious or even in stasis, depending on what had gone on before he arrived. The Alliance''s top-tier medical pods put the patient into a long-term stasis state while they healed, so if the person inside had lost a limb, they might be in a healing pod and chemically unconscious.


    "I have a tool for that. It''s not pretty, but it will get us through the door.


    No, scratch that. We have Nico. She will have a Tech Adept Harness with her, and it includes a cutting torch as well as tools to disassemble the door assembly. We will wait here until they have finished the job in the bays, and then she can join us for thest room." Max decided.


    [Nico, once they clear everything out,e and join us at the front of the ship. Close the door behind them as well, and make sure that Annabelle is outside. There is a chance that there are more of the Klem Swarm here that we haven''t detected hiding in the venttion systems.] Max informed her.


    [Got it. They are nearly done, and I have cameras from the station checking the entire exterior of this vessel to make sure that nothing passes from one vessel to the other.] She replied.


    They only had to wait a few minutes until Max sensed that everyone was retreating from the ship, and their trusty little door guard was distracted by the promise of coffee in the staff room down the hallway after the doors were sealed.


    At first, she was unsure of the proposition since Max and Nico were still inside with the big boss, but it was only three doors down the hall, so they could still see the bay from the employee lounge, and the assistant convinced her that she could still do her job from there if anything managed to break out of the contaminated vessel.


    All of the cargo pods were sent for decontamination to bepletely sure that nothing hazardous was brought onto the station except what they intended to, and Nico jogged up to join them at the door.


    "This is your specialty. We suspect that they have welded the door shut for an unknown reason. We''re still looking for where they picked up the Klem and where else they may have contaminated afterward." Max reminded her.


    "I think I have the answer to that, but we can go over it afterward. I have camera feeds from inside." She replied with a smile.


    The power was out in most of the ship, running only on the emergency backups after they cut everything to prevent the Klem from moving around as easily. Max checked her thoughts to see how she had still managed to get camera feeds after that and realized that she had rerouted a bit of emergency power to the security system''s cameras, which weren''t normally deemed essential.


    They were on a rted circuit to the electronic locks on the doors, though, so it only took her a few minutes to bypass and get everything working to her satisfaction, an idea that had slipped Max''s mind, despite having the ability to do it himself.


    He relied too much on his mind-reading sometimes, but with the Cameras, they could see that the other side of the door was much worse than this one. The whole bridge was full of Klem Pods, with a single Healing Pod in one corner smashed open and covered in blood.


    The Swarm bugs had gotten into the barricaded bridge and had massacred the hiding crew members to use as biomass for their reproduction.


    "What do you suggest?" Max asked.


    "Let''s bring the wirelesswork back online and see if any of the devicese online. It was offline when we got here, so I haven''t been able to ess them if any of them survived." Nico offered.


    "If there were any hidden documents that you two haven''t managed to get from the ship''sputers, this would be where they are. We searched everywhere else, and there were no signs of any data tablets left behind in the crew quarters." The Station Boss agreed.


    "Do it. Let''s see what we can get. If we get the data that we need, we can be a bit less gentle with our clearance methods." Max added, bringing a happy smile to Nico''s face. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She had a portable Fusion mer in her storage space that she hadn''t gotten to test in a live fire situation yet, and this would be a perfect time, assuming that they could get the data from the portable devices.


    Max sensed when the wireless connections came back online, and dozens of devices joined thework, all in one room. He did his best to download them all so he could sort themter and then started to go through them with keyword searches to look for any data about the Klem.


    Ten minutes passed while the two tech-adept Reavers searched through the devices, and then Max found what he needed.


    "I''ve got it. Commission for alien biomass, picked up three stops ago at another Alliance. They''ve been on the ship for nearly two months now and were supposed to be kept inert with gas in the storage room." He informed the others.


    "So, what went wrong?" The Valkia asked.


    "They''re Klem. Two months is over a month longer than they would have needed to adapt to the gas and wake up to start preparing for the next stage in their infestation. Nobody noticed until they got here, and the Klem sensed new life forms on the ship, indicating that they were docked or on a, which was their trigger to attack.


    "So there are two more stops that might be infested?" Max pondered out loud as he read through the data on the tablet.


    "Three. Including the one that they picked the Klem up from. No, scratch that. That is on our intervention list. They''re already facing a-wide invasion. Two possible and one confirmed. I have the contact information for the transfer. It''s a biotechpany that researches medical technology." Nico told them and sent the relevant data to both of the others'' devices.


    "Check the wireless logs. Are there any other devices unounted for?" Max asked.


    "Twelve. All belong to minor crewmembers. They might be among the ones that were mangled in the rear cargo bay. Those devices didn''t survive. The ones that were used by the senior officers are all safe in their storage cabs within the bridge.


    It looks like they were preparing to transfer to an escape pod but didn''t have time before the Klem found them." Nico confirmed.


    "There is no Escape Pod attached to the bridge of this vessel." The Valkia reminded her, somewhat confused.


    "It is the escape pod. The bridge module is designed to survive heavy bombardment and the destruction of the vessel. They were preparing to detonate the forward sections and jettison themselves into space. With the ship destroyed, they couldpensate you for damages if you came after them, but eventually, someone woulde to rescue them from the flotsam of the explosion." Nico rified.


    "Pardon?" The Valkia asked, offended that someone would destroy even a portion of his station.


    "If they overloaded the power conduits near the bridge, the ship would explode and break the bridge away from the main structure, which would remain mostly intact. It would look like a tragic failure of a power ry, and the destruction would likely be too heavy to prove otherwise."


    "Let''s finish here and send this ship to a fiery funeral for her crew. I''ve seen more than enough of these Klem things tost a lifetime." The Valkia announced, then turned to Nico for the solution.


    "Oh, I am so d you asked. Watch and learn. This is how you breach a door."

 Chapter 705 705 Raid Kills Bugs Dead

    Nico quickly equipped the Tech Adept Harness and aimed the cutting torch at the door. The sma jet cut through the door in a matter of seconds, and then Nico took a handheld weapon out of her t Space while the torch moved quickly along the seam between the two halves of the sliding door.


    "The doors will be open in five seconds. Get ready." She instructed as she moved the flexible arms of her suit to the slowly cooling metal.


    The Klem on the other side of the barrier didn''t seem to have noticed her interference at first, but now there was enough heat in the room that they couldn''t ignore her attempts to breach the exit. The Swarm wasn''t sure about what to do about the attack on their territory at first, but arger pod was starting to open now, and they were making space for the newly hatched Warrior to deal with whatever wasing for them.


    With a ping of metal falling, thest of the cuts was finished, and the arms of Nico''s harness pulled the door wide while the Fusion mer filled the air in front of them with mes hot enough that the paint on the wall behind them began to peel.


    The sizzle and pop of burning Klem filled the air, and the Warrior shrieked while it leaped at Nico, trying to save the other pods and eliminate the threat before it could be burnt to death.


    Max stepped forward and met it with a kick to the torso that threw it back into the core of the Fusion mer''s attack, then waited for Nico to finish sweeping the room to eliminate the Swarm bugs.


    "Grab what we can, and let''s get out of here. I will burn it all once we have what we need." Nico instructed.


    The Station Boss rushed to a terminal to make his own copies of the data and grabbed a few partially melted handheld devices along the way. They were scattered all over the room, so there was no telling how many of them Nico had totally obliterated, other than the ones that went offline during the attack, but it didn''t matter much.


    They had gotten the device that they were after, and it led them to a solid source for where the Klem might havee from. Max moved smoothly through the room, shooting anything that looked like it might still be able to move and then moving on to put additional rounds into the pods so that they couldn''t continue to develop. There were dozens of additional damaged devices lying on the ground that he threw into his storage to be analyzedter as well. Just because they didn''t turn on or weren''t turned on right now didn''t mean that the tech wizards of the research and development department couldn''t get the data that he needed out of them.


    There was a lot more stored in this room than he had expected, but if they were going to use it as an escape pod, it made sense that they would save as much as they could in the few minutes they had between realizing that the Klem was active and everyone on board dying.


    "I think that''s it." He called when he reached the spot where the Station Boss was firing rounds into damaged pods. Nico nodded and moved for the door, with Max and the Valkia close behind her. As soon as they were through, she pulled the door closed and welded a few spots on them so that they wouldn''t just slide open againter. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She was pretty sure that everything in there was dead or would be after she fired the Fusion mer at the full output through the remaining hole in the doors, but it was best to avoid any bacsh that might damage their suits.


    They had been extensively Combat Tested but not directly against the Fusion mers, and this wasn''t really the time for it.


    Max noticed that she still did the likely damage calctions in her head, but when she fired the mer, it was into a sealed room, which quickly became an inferno that made even the walls of the corridor begin to glow with the heat.


    "Better stop before you breach the windows, and it bes obvious that the ship is destroyed from the inside." Max reminded her.


    They were still going to give it a fiery funeral after this, and it would be better for the Station if there wasn''t footage from dozens of other ships detailing a battle inside the vessel, which they were going to im had been dmissioned.


    The station boss led the way to the back doors, still on high alert for anything else that might be moving inside the vessel. Max could sense that the man was likely going to have killer insect nightmares in the future, but at least he would have the knowledge that they had been destroyed properly this time and that he wouldn''t have another infestation on his Station.


    Max fully intended to look into the source of the first infestation since it wasn''t the ship that they were clearing right now and might be more closely tied to the origin of the infestation. It could also be a secondary infestation caused by someone passing by a pod wave in space, as the Station suspected, but it was better to be safe than sorry.


    "Give me fifteen seconds to initiate the disembarking procedure and set the automatic course for the ship. Then I will set security on the controls, and we can leave." Nico informed them as they reached the rear doors, which were currently sealed against the departure of the Klem infestation.


    "Got it. Let''s get out of here, and I will double-check the sensors and cameras to make sure that nothing breached the outer hull and got to the Station after this vessel arrived here." She dered with a smile under her helmet for the panic that she was causing the Boss.

 Chapter 706 706 Disposal

    As soon as the door opened, Annabelle came running over to hug Nico and then watched the doors nervously until they sealed shut again. Only once they were closed and sealed with the Station''s safety barrier in ce did anyone rx.


    Only secondster, a solid thump marked the docking mps retracting, and the disy on the wall showed the ship beginning to move away from the Station. It sent out a signal that it was dmissioned and not entirely under control as it moved away from the and toward the nearest star, reminding everyone to give it a wide berth so that no idents could ur, and picked up speed as it went, using the orbital thrusters for thest time to propel it to its grave.


    "It''s a shame, really. If it wasn''t for that infestation, it was still a very good ship, but I don''t think it could ever be cleansed from that infestation. There are too many spots inside the structure that can''t be sanitized but could have beenpromised by the Klem." The Station Bossined.


    "You win some. You lose some." Max agreed, understanding that the Boss was actually more concerned about the potential lost profit from an ownerless ship under his jurisdiction. Cargo ships weren''t cheap, and that one had a rtively good record as a legitimate transport, so it could be used for all sorts of transactions without any of the more discerning destinations refusing ess.


    The ship was picking up speed as it made its way toward the star and would arrive there within ten minutes at its current rate of eleration when a ship on an intercept course dropped out of Warp and pulled in alongside it as if intending to board the dmissioned vessel.


    [Warning unknown vessel, you are about toe into contact with a ss One Lethal biohazard. Per Alliance regtions, any vessel that breaches the quarantine must be held for decontamination.] The Station''s broadcast warned them.


    The message didn''t deter the ship at all. Instead, they increased the rate at which they were closing with the infected vessel, intent on reaching it before anyone could stop them.


    "Do you think that ship is associated with whoever paid them to bring the Klem to your region of space?" Max asked the Valkia Station Boss, who he hoped knew more about Alliance ship design than he did.


    "I can almost guarantee it. The design is from the same system, the ship is unregistered, and I have no logs of their Warp Drive evering within sensor range of a ck Market location in the past.


    Nico smiled at that answer. "Then, if the ship was to have a tragic ident, nobody would know anything about it, would they?"


    Max raised an eyebrow at his randomly violent second inmand, but she was still eagerly waiting for the response from the station boss.


    "That is correct. The ship is unregistered, so there would be no records of it anywhere. The upants could be traced, but if they were to suffer an incident, the chances are that there wouldn''t be much left to identify." He agreed.


    "Then this should work out very well. Thest thing I did before we left was to set a failsafe so that the Warp Drives would go supercritical and destroy everything if there was a hull breach. It was to keep the Klem from finding a way outside of the ship and infesting another passing vessel, but opening an airlock or drilling a hole would work just as well." She exined.


    "It''s standard practice for invasive species where wee from," Max added with a wink for the Station Boss. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Valkia smiled back at him. "You know, now that you mention it, I think it is a regr part of the dmissioning process for biohazardous vessels here as well. They can''t say that we didn''t warn them."


    They all waited eagerly to see what the vessel was going to do, but they also refrained from having the Station send out any warning but the standard one to stay away from the biohazard, even after the second vessel mped itself to the derelict freighter. It wasn''t worth a confrontation, and in order to keep the presence of the Klem aboard the vessel from being broadcast to every ship within a hundred star systems, it was better to keep silent.


    Importing aggressive foreign species without a permit was a rather serious matter in the Alliance, and it would tarnish the name of not only thepany that did it but the deceased crew of the freighter as well. The part that worried the Boss the most was that someone mighte looking to see if he had any sort of involvement with the incident, and then they would start asking questions about what the ship was unloading here at his cargo docks.


    It wasn''t like he could tell them that he bought a hundred tonnes of illicit drugs, even if they were medicinal. That would get a lot more people in trouble. So, they all just watched, and Nico bent down to whisper to Annabelle.


    "Do you remember that we stopped at? I think we will get an even better show this time but in space."


    The little Innu grinned up at her, while the bodyguard who had been watching over her while the team was clearing the ship hid theirughter behind a very fake-sounding cough.


    "Do you need cough medicine? There was some in the medicine box." She asked helpfully.


    "Thank you, little miss. I will be fine. Just a bit of dust or something."


    Nico tapped their smallpanion on the shoulder to draw her attention back to the viewscreen on the wall just as the new arrivals forced an airlock door open. They had cautiously approached from an external airlock, letting it vent into space in case there was actually something hazardous right at the door, but before they could even go inside, the rms of the Station began to re, and the shields on every ship in the vicinity went up automatically.


    The Warp drives on the infested ship exploded, creating a temporary star near the next in the system, and then multicoloured streaks raced away as the second ship exploded, and the parts of the two ships that weren''t vaporized were sent flying away from the explosion.


    What was left was a slowly spreading gas cloud, like a miniature neb between the Station and the star, glowing in dozens of different colours as the light filtered through the various gases.


    "Oh, you were right. That is pretty. I wonder if we can replicate that at home?"

 Chapter 707 707 How Did They Know

    In the aftermath of the explosion, Max focused all of his thoughts on trying the determine if anyone on the station knew more about the mysterious ship or the vessel that they had been dmissioning before it exploded.


    They might have been busy with other things before, but now that both ships had been destroyed and every warning rm within twos was ring, it was the perfect opportunity to look for spies and sailors who knew a bit more than they were letting on.


    The obvious ce to start was with the crews aboard the other ships along the docking rings since they had ess to sensors and would have seen the ship leaving with enough time to get a warning out to bring in another ship to attempt to retrieve it.


    The timing was a bit too coincidental for Max''s liking. There was no way that anyone knew they were going to jettison that vessel into a star, and they had to either be very close or use a portal to get here on time.


    Max''s suspicion was that they were tipped off by another vessel and hade by portal to somewhere nearby and then made a quick Warp Jump to get close enough to try to do their extraction before anyone stopped them.


    A quick scan of the thoughts of the workers aboard the vessels at the dock turned up all horror at what looked like a tragic ident, so Max moved to the people aboard the station.


    That proved to be a bit harder to sort out. The crew with security clearances knew about the infestation on the ship, so the Klem infestation was in their thoughts, but Max didn''t find any of them who weren''t shocked by the incident with the other ship or any who seemed to know about the second vessel at all.


    "Boss Archibald. Can you bring up the reports of anyone who had a sudden incident on board in thest hour? Deaths, unconsciousness, anything that would hide unwanted thoughts from an Illithid." Max asked as he continued to scan the minds of the people on the station.


    "To avoid anyone learning that they had tipped off the pharmaceuticalpany? I will get right on it."


    Both men frowned as they worked, while Nico''s face was nk as she searched through theputer logs and sensor feeds of the ship for anything suspicious.


    "I''ve got two." The Boss announced a few secondster, only to be cut off by Nico.


    "Make that three. There is a crew member passed out in the lounge next to the security office as well. He injected himself with something just after the ship started to move." She added.


    It could be an addict, or it could be that someone did exactly what Max suspected and knocked themselves out to avoid mental examination in the immediate aftermath of their actions. The drugs would make things blurry during the moments before they took them, so once they woke up, their thoughts would be muddled and not about whatever information they had given.


    It wasn''t proof, but it was enough to put them on the suspect list. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Boss was more upset that one of his workers was passed out high at work than about the chance that they might have taken a bribe to pass information, and Max knew that either way, the man was about to have a very bad day, so he focused on looking for more signs of unusual thoughts.


    There was a small cluster of grief from the family of a dead staff member who had already learned that they had been killed in a cargo unloading incident today, but they weren''t thinking of anything but that.


    Then Max found a mind that was suspicious for itsck of concern and not for its worry. He focused more closely and found a hint of amusement at the whole situation and the "Med Corps," as his mind called them, getting killed in an ident.


    "Floor 32, Room 173. Sitting drinking Rum. He knows who the second ship belongs to." Max informed the Station Boss and the others standing around them.


    They didn''t ask any questions, and Max sensed when the thoughts went vague as the room filled with sleeping agents. He had briefly considered an injection, but his thoughts faded too fast, and then Max could sense that security officers had entered the room and were grabbing him to take him into custody.


    It was all very smooth and well practiced, and they made sure to strip him of anything potentially dangerous before moving him, including the small box containing a syringe which Max had sensed him trying to grab before he passed out.


    They would determine what it waster, but for now, he was secure, and they could question him once he was conscious again.


    Max didn''t detect any more suspicious thoughts, and the four people who had been identified had all been taken into custody by Station Security, so he could finally breathe a sigh of relief and begin to rx a little in preparation for determining their next course of action.


    This was a big clue as to how the Klem got into Alliance Territory, even if it was for research purposes and not an intentional spread of the infestation. For all he knew, they might have opened a Portal, and a wave of pods came through, so they panicked and shut their mouths about the whole incident.


    Nearly anything was a possibility, but the way they had spread after arriving here was much more concerning, and he wasn''t sure if this medicalpany was involved in that part or not. If it was an experiment gone wrong, or possibly right, depending on their intentions, it would be even more problematic than a simple nefarious plot to destroy a handful of worlds.


    "Should we let them sweat for a while until we can get an Illithid here to question them, or would you prefer to do it the old-fashioned way?" The Valkia ck Market Boss asked with a smile once he got the confirmation that everything was in order.


    "We can do one better. I can read minds almost as well as they can at close range. So, we can interrogate them the old-fashioned way while they can''t lie to us."

 Chapter 708 708 Unfortunate Souls

    Nico smiled up at Max with her very best innocent pleading look, and he knew that she had something that would vite dozens of sentient beings'' rights treaties in mind.


    "Why don''t we split up? If we all interrogate different targets, we canpile information much faster and hopefully get the drop on these troublemakers before they can do anything else?" She suggested with that innocent smile on her face.


    Max could already sense that the Station Boss had fallen for her helpful act, and it would only hurt his credibility to call her out on her nonsense right now, so Max shrugged and went along with it.


    "We all have interrogation skills, so I will take the one that is most likely to know something since he tried to inject himself to avoid detection, and you two can take the others." Max offered.


    "That will be a wonderful time-saving technique. Do either of you require any specialized tools?" The Boss asked.


    "I''ve got everything with me," Nico replied, indicating her Tech Adept Harness.


    The bodyguards shuddered at the implication since the tentacles had a variety of mps, snips, torches and tools avable that could be used in any number of nefarious ways.


    "Oh, on second thought, I do need something. Do you have any butter handy?" She asked with that deceptive smile on her face.


    "Sure, the lunch room is right there. Someone grab Sumander Nico a block of butter." The Valkia agreed without questioning what she needed it for.


    Max knew. Oil on the skin transferred heat very well. So oiling the bottom of their feet and cing a torch near them would let you cook them until the bones fell out without killing the subject through dozens of hours of intense agony.


    It probably wouldn''te to that. With all of the other ideas in her head, the burning feet would be the least of her subject''s worries, and they would certainly give up their secrets in a reasonable timeframe.


    "Oh, I have something that can be helpful." Annabelle giggled, then pulled a headband out of her t space.


    "And what might that be?" The Valkia asked.


    "It''s a VR headband, but instead of pulling you into a simtion, it broadcasts the signals it picks up from your brain onto a screen. It''s like a remote camera that uses the eyes as its lens. But if you use it on dreaming people, you get all sorts of funky stuff. My mom was working on it a few weeks ago before she ran into the dream glitch." The girl exined.


    <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max gave her a direct look, wondering why she had it if her mom was the one working on it, and the little Innu went into immediate lockdown mode, singing along with a cartoon theme song in her head so he couldn''t see her thoughts.


    Not that he really needed to. He knew that she had stolen it from her mom''s room. He would just add it to the list of transgressions that she would have to apologize for when she returned.


    It wouldn''t do Max any good, but it would be great for the Boss and his teams. He took it from her with a gentle pat to her head and passed the device off to one of his subordinates who would be holding an interrogation, then nodded to his Innu assistant, who stepped forward to escort Annabelle away.


    "This sort of thing isn''t for children or researchers. Nico is a special case since she''s also a Mecha Pilot, but we should go have some Coffee. You can make it from your ship''s replicator without one of them to unlock the code, right?" The technician asked hopefully.


    "Of course. Commander Keres doesn''t lock the replicator. He just bullies you and makes you do homework so much that you don''t have time to sneak snacks outside of designated times." Annabelle replied.


    The technician giggled at her pouting expression but let the little Innu lead her back to Santa Maria and the promise of Raspberry Lattes.


    "You''re not going to stop her from drinking stimnts in the middle of the day." The Boss asked.


    "I''m also not going to ask you to send anyone with them. I''m not sure that any other species is truly prepared for what is about to happen inside that ship." Maxughed.


    "I will send a few more Innu with more even temperaments to apany them so that they don''t get out of hand and make a mess of your ship." he agreed with a smirk.


    The bodyguards led the way out of the room toward the holding cells where their prisoners were being kept, and Max focused on listening to the thoughts inside the cells as much as he could. Chances are they thought their minds were secure since the Illithid didn''t have the numbers to be everywhere, and there were none recorded as being on board this station.


    Max''s target was the first in line, while Nico''s was supposed to be second. He saw her stop just outside the door and tweak her morphable features to look more childish and innocent before she grabbed the medical cart that they had prepared for the interrogation and stepped inside the room.


    Max ignored the fate of that unfortunate soul for the moment and turned his thoughts to the unconscious man in the room he had picked. Waking him up would be easy enough, but for the moment, Max stood outside and listened in on the man''s dreams. It was all nonsense, so Max entered the room to wake him up and get this process started.


    The prisoner came to just after Max entered. He struggled against his bonds for a moment and worked his jaw, attempting to crush a hidden poison capsule. Fortunately, the team who took him in had put a ring gag in his mouth, forcing it open for just that reason, and Max had plenty of time to find a set of curved forceps and practice his skills as an amateur dentist.


    "Now that we understand each other, how about we start with what you know about thepany that has been importing Klem into the Alliance."

 Chapter 709 709 Questioning

    The man strapped to the bedughed at Max as he evaluated him. "If you thought that I would simply tell you everything that you wanted to know just because you asked, you''re far too ipetent for this job. Have you considered being a janitor?"


    "I will start off slow. How about the pharmaceutical Company? They didn''t give you anything but an easy death. You don''t owe them anything." Max asked.


    The man''s thoughts went to therge amount of money that they had provided him, as well as the experimental treatment for his subordinate''s disease. It would almost be touching if he wasn''t nning to kill the subordinate as soon as he returned to his ship. The mission had gone bad, and he was already nning to tie up all the loose ends.


    "You have to be the worst interrogator in history. Seriously, you''re going with the appeal to decency?"


    Max smiled. "Of course not. I just thought that you might prefer a quick death, but if you want to draw this out, that''s fine by me. I''m paid by the hour."


    The man silently cursed the Niall Pharmaceutical Company in his head, and Max used Nico''s skill to record everything that he heard, like a built-in transcriptionist. It reminded him of all the free flow of consciousness messages that he had gotten from her in the past, but he kept his attention on the target.


    Before the man could speak again, the sound of a mournful scream sounded through the walls, making both of them look in the direction where Nico was working.


    "What in the seven hells was that?"


    "One of my coworkers is having a polite conversation with a child molester. It seems that the prisoner is feeling particrly regretful." Max replied with a shrug.


    That scream had a mental attack aspect to it. The walls werepletely soundproof, but both Max and the other man in the room had heard it. The prisoner didn''t seem to be able to hear his thoughts, so it wasn''t a matter of shared skills. It must be somehow rted to the species of the other prisoner.


    Nico''s thoughts were more amused than anything else like she had found a fun new toy with unexpected features, so he left her alone to work.


    "Now, where were we? Oh yes, Niall Pharmaceuticals. Why are they bringing in the Klem, and how did they end up spread all over this Gxy?" Max continued.


    The prisoner looked shocked that Max knew the name of the Company, and then his thoughts turned to resignation for an instant. If Max already knew that much, he would be in real trouble. The prisoner knew that there was a chance the ck-Market Boss had ordered him tortured on general principle since his employer had identally let the Klem they had been transporting infest the station twice in the course of a month, but he didn''t know anything about the Klem being released anywhere else.


    If the ships had let them infest other stations as well, the revtion that the Company had been transporting them would ruin a thousand-year-old legacy in a single day.


    "It''s just routine research. They have the appropriate permits. Look for yourself. There''s no reason to be holding me here." The prisoner suggested.


    Max shook his head. "We already checked. No hazardous species quarantine exceptions have been made. They didn''t have a permit to take them, much less transport them anywhere. Now, how about you tell me why your employer has been targeting my station?"


    The prisoner legitimately didn''t know that the Klem had been ced under quarantine by the Alliance Authorities. The ship hadn''t picked them up from a quarantine zone. They had been in storage in a corporate warehouse already.


    But he didn''t know how they had gotten to that warehouse, and he didn''t have a good exnation for this strange pale-haired interrogator. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He hadn''t seen a human before, and although they had a passing simrity to many other species, they still looked sufficiently alien that their appearance just gave off that nagging feeling of familiarity, but one that you couldn''t quite ce.


    "If they perhaps purchased them from someone else, say an unauthorized dealer who faked the permits, my boss would really like to know." Max offered kindly.


    His work was interrupted again by the mental scream, only this time it was begging for mercy from everyone from Nico to the mythical Gods to the prisoner''s own mother.


    "We need to work on that. It''s really quite distracting." Max muttered while the man with him went a little pale.


    "Are they going to torture him to death? I thought this station still respected Alliance Laws, at least on the surface. You can''t just make people disappear." The Prisoner in Max''s room pleaded.


    "Of course, we''re not going to kill him. That would be much too easy. I suspect that you might not have a very rxing month here if he keeps screaming like that, though. If you can get me some real answers, I can ask that you are moved to a more distant room."


    The man''s thoughts yed through all of the experiments that the Corporation was running with the Klem that they had obtained, but none of his knowledge included experiments ons, as they were working on using the rapid growth genes in the Klem biology to try to develop an anti-aging serum.


    That didn''t match with the invasion ofs. They didn''t needrge amounts of Klem biomass for their experiments or for the product that they were working on producing. It wouldn''t help their cause at all. There must be anotherpany or party involved in setting the Klem loose.


    Max tapped his chin as if he had been thinking deeply. "Do your bosses perhaps have enemies? Someone who would profit from setting them up for a fall by sabotaging their shipments and setting Klem loose ons near their warehouses?"


    Burgerstein Pharmaceuticals appeared in the man''s thoughts. They had been at odds with each other for generations, and bothpanies had done some seriously underhanded things to each other in the past.


    That was one more possibility for Max''s list, but the prisoner remained closed-lipped.


    "Fine. I wille backter and see if you''re feeling more cooperative." Max shrugged, then turned for the door.


    "Wait, water. Can I get some water?" The prisoner asked.


    He still had hope that a secondary poison in his mouth would be activated by the water and wipe all of the sensitive memories of his employer before an Illithid could arrive and strip his thoughts.


    "I will send for some." Max agreed, then stepped outside and sat down on a chair to dive deep into the man''s thoughts, scraping out every little detail about his employer and their enemies. He had just finishedpiling the data when a bodyguard came by with food for him, and Nico came out of her interrogation room whistling a jingle from the advertisement for a new video game that had been ying earlier.


    Max looked at the bodyguard in front of him. "Give the prisoner in my room a ss of water. He has a drug that will activate with water and cleanse his short-term memory, as well as all memories of his employer. I''ve gotten everything relevant that has happened to him since his third birthday already, so we can let him mind scrub and leave without ever knowing that he gave up everything.


    The best mole is the one that nobody will ever know was one."

 Chapter 710 710 Broken Toys

    Once the water was delivered and the thoughts faded from his subject, Max turned to Nico. "What exactly did you do to your prisoner? Even my subject could hear the mental scream through the walls."


    Nico shrugged. "Did you know that on a Kyle, if you apply the appropriate dose of electricity to the reproductive organs, it makes every single pain receptor in their body fire at once? Even the ones in their brain that send out chemicals to numb the body are activated, but it doesn''t dull the effect of consecutive applications of electricity."


    "So, you tasered him in the testicles until his mind broke, and he began psychically screaming?"


    Nico nodded happily. "I singlehandedly evolved his species. They have been on the verge of activating psychic abilities for a few millennia now but have never broken through. He can nowmunicate mentally with anyone he is in direct contact with. It took him a lot of work to make it that far, but I stopped when he finally managed to beg me."


    The bodyguards that worked for the ck Market were all staring at Nico as if she was some sort of monster much more horrific than the Klem, and Max didn''t fail to notice that they had all subtly crossed their legs or turned their hips away from her.


    "Will he recover?" Max asked.


    "Give it like two hours, three hours at the most, and the electrical charge will disperse from his body, and the pain will end. After that, he should be alright."


    One of the bodyguards hesitantly stepped forward with a data tablet. "Did he know anything useful?"


    "No. He was the one that mysteriously passed out at the same moment that the ship appeared to try to board the infested merchant vessel. It was pure coincidence. He was high out of his mind and overdosed a little, then copsed in the hallway." She replied.


    "And how far into the interrogation did you learn that?" The bodyguard asked, following his checklist.


    "I knew that before we started, I found out from the security feed. My report also contains the name of the shopkeeper selling crappy drugs cut with mild painkillers and where his stash is."


    The big four-armed man frowned. "If you knew he wasn''t part of the incident, why did you continue to interrogate him?"


    "You never know what people know until you ask properly."


    The bodyguard sighed. "I will send someone to ground him and disperse the charge from his body. I don''t think he will be getting high enough to pass out and risk getting arrested again in the near future."


    The other interrogators weren''t far behind, and each of them had managed to gain a small amount of useful information about the situation, as well as some unrted information that the subjects thought they might want, in exchange for ending the questioning early.


    All in all, it was a productive session, and once the electrical charge was dispersed from Nico''s subject, he stopped screaming and shifted to simply whimpering and rocking in the corner.


    "I think you broke him. What good is evolving his ability if he''spletely useless afterward?" Max asked her, hoping to remind Nico that limits existed for a reason.


    "You''re right. I should go talk to him. I think it will help him recover." she announced, then opened the door to the interrogation room and snapped her fingers.


    A young man with floppy hairless ears, like a hairless rabbit, crawled out of the room to sit by her feet. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Good boy. Now, once we get back to the front hallway, you are going to stand up and remember that you are a sentient being. Do you understand?" She asked.


    He nodded happily but remained sitting at her feet.


    She walked down the hall, and he crawled along beside her, which earned Nico an envious look from one of the female Titans that Max couldn''t help but notice.


    Nico was hiding her thoughts from him again, but Max didn''t need to be psychic to understand this one. She had put him in an immense amount of pain and used the opportunity to imnt a series of subliminalmands, much like a pain-induced state of hypnosis.


    "Are we going to need to find you a new hobby when you get back to the ship? You''ve been looking boredtely, and it''s starting to affect your behaviour." Max teased his second inmand.


    "It''s all good. I think I have made a breakthrough on the design problem that I was stuck on. Once we finish up the investigation and get back, I will be busy with the design team."


    That wasn''t entirely reassuring. Perhaps he should get her a pet dog or something.


    They reached the main hallways, and the man''s eyes went vacant before he got to his feet and turned a horrified look at Nico before running away and being caught by one of the bodyguards.


    "Please, you don''t understand. That''s not a person. She''s a monster. I will never break thew again. I swear it. Just please, don''t let her get me." He begged.


    Nico smirked at the man, which made him whimper and hide behind the big Titan, who was doing his best not tough at the situation.


    [One addict rehabilitated. Go ME! Yay, yay, you''re so benevolent, Miss Nico.] She thought as the man cowered behind the big bodyguard.


    [You could have done the same thing without the public humiliation.] Max reminded her silently.


    [Well yeah, but where is the fun in that? Besides, have you forgotten that we have a ship full of coffee-enhanced Innu to deal with once we are finished here? Today''s fun is far from over.]


    She had a good point.


    "Should wepile the data now, or would you prefer to do itter?" Max asked the Station Boss, intending to dy the inevitable barrage of hyper thoughts that he was doing his best to ignore at the moment.


    "Give the data tablets to my associates, and they willpile them for us. I''m sure the Commander of a Reaver Company has more important things to do than analyze the interrogation data from a bunch of low-level employees."


    Damn. Well, he tried.

 Chapter 711 711 Not His Party Scene

    The group slowly made their way to the location where Santa Maria was docked, but there was no need to use a map of the station to find it. Even from hundreds of meters away, it was clear that there was a party going on, and their ship was the epicentre.


    There was singing and music ying, and more Innu than Max had expected this station to contain.


    Correction, more Innu than even the ck Market Boss had expected the station to contain. It seemed that an Innu-staffed ship hadpletely emptied toe here to the party, and they were taking shots of espresso like Rum. The mental overload warned Max of what he was about to walk into, but still, the level of hyperactivity was impressive.


    The Innu were bouncing around like it was a mosh pit, only instead of being in time to the music, it was in time to the conversations they had about the various inventions that they had seen aboard the ship when they came to visit.


    The group that had apanied Max stopped a dozen meters away and started at the event in a mixture of horror and fascination. There was no way they were getting involved in that, but Nico had already disappeared into the crowd, and Max could sense that she was in deep conversation with a group of Technicians who were discussing the morphable hull design.


    "Well, it looks like I''m not leaving here anytime soon. Perhaps we could go back to the fights?" Max suggested, answering the Station Boss''s desperate desire not to be here, where the near ultrasonic babble was hurting his ears.


    "Any station-wide state of emergency cancels the fights for the night. That way, nobody loses out on their bets if they have to return to their ships.


    That made sense. Without the live audience watching the fights, there was no way to guarantee that the footage wasn''t rigged or altered, so they would have to be halted if a portion of the crowd had to leave the arena.


    It was also a secure area, so patrons couldn''t juste and go as they pleased. The whole section of the station where the ck Market resided would likely be locked down until after the incident that caused the alert was dealt with, and the Boss determined that everything was safe again and their business wouldn''t draw unwanted attention.


    This time the alert was outside the station, so there shouldn''t be many investigators messing with their business, but in normal circumstances, such an rm would mean days or even weeks without operations of their illicit businesses.


    "Perhaps we could head for the VIP lounge instead? It seems that your second inmand will take good care of your young charge with the help of my staff." The Boss suggested instead.


    The VIP lounge was a private, invitation-only social club for the well-heeled and thergest suppliers of the ck Market to get to know each other and work on rted business deals. Normally, someone like Max, who had only done one deal with them, would not be qualified for an invitation, but when the items that he supplied were considered, plus the events of the day, none of the staff found any reason that he shouldn''t be there tonight. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Tell me, Commander. Do your people pair bond for life?" The Boss asked as they walked through the public areas of the station toward the lounge.


    "That is a tricky question with humans. We do pair bond, though not always for life or even long term. But on the other hand, it is not unknown for one of the partners to kill unfaithful partners or anyone who attempts to get in the way of a pair bond." Max exined.


    The Titans looked somewhat impressed by the fact, as their culture valued strength to an extreme degree, as well as loyalty. The Valkia was only a bit disturbed that the human species was so violent, but he got over it in a hurry since he had seen far worse from many of his own customers.


    The lounge turned out to be just as upscale as Max had expected of a gathering point for the VIP clientele of the ck Market. The Boss led them off to the side of the main entrance to his own private office and then gestured to the door to a closet.


    "You can change in there. There are no weapons or armour allowed inside the lounge, and all t Space and other storage devices must be put into locked mode. I''m not sure if we can properly detect the locked mode on yours since it is human-made and notpliant with any of the standards or copyrighted designs of the Alliance, so I thought I would save everyone the trouble and take care of the issue here.


    That made good sense, but the human-made version didn''t lock. They are locked to a particr user, but not entirely. That should likely be close enough for the Station Boss, though. So, Max stepped into the changing room and switched into a pair of leather pants and a cream silk shirt, with a simple gold chain and hisbination wrist device and t space. That was ssy enough for this ce, he thought, then reconsidered and switched to a suit coat and matching pants, one of the only other outfits that had been prepared for the day.


    He knew he didn''t pack them. Thest items he had put in the device for clothing were a long leather coat and matching pants that he had worn for a meeting weeks ago. Nico must have updated his wardrobe when he wasn''t paying attention, the same way that she liked to put out random outfits for him to wear in the mornings.


    Once Max put the suit on, he realized what Nico had done. The cloth of both the suit and the shirt was made of the same fibres as the flexible parts of the Augmentic Armour, and while it looked like a custom-tailored suit, it would actually take a direct hit from a Laser Pistol without burning.


    It wasn''t so much a fashion statement as a product-testing mission. One that he had no intention ofpleting if it meant that he had to get shot to see if the suit actually did its job.


    With his armour safely stored and the t Space set to open only for him with mental ess, using Nico''s skill, he stepped back out to be inspected.

 Chapter 712 712 VIP Lounge

    The Boss looked Max over as he stepped out, then nodded in appreciation of the suit before tapping at a device in his hand. "It looks like your t Space is properly locked, ording to Alliance standards, so we are clear to enter. A guard will be inside to verify your status, a precaution against someone trying to pressure me into gaining ess to their enemies."


    Max smiled to let the Valkia know that it didn''t bother him. "It''s good to have proper security. Too many businesses have simple loopholes to exploit orughable levels of physical security since they were only expecting the Innu to try to hack their servers."


    The bodyguard who followed the Boss into his office stopped walking in shock when Max said those words, then tilted his head as if looking at Max from a new angle would help him understand.


    "Does that mean that you physically came in and took someone''sputers? That is genius. You could unlock them at your leisure. It would be a bit tough to pull off, though." He announced.


    "Oh, nothing so civilized. We simply killed everyone on the and then took our time gathering the data that we needed. Once they had a death sentence hanging over the for rebellion, there really was no good reason we shouldn''t take all the data that we could find, even if it wasn''t rted to others who might have assisted them in their actions." Max exined.


    Both other men in the room flinched at the casual mention of wiping out an entire''s poption, and Max nearly lost his carefully craftedposure when the bodyguard gave a silent prayer of thanks to his Boss for making friends with the scary new people.


    "Now, the rules are simple. All business done directly inside the lounge pays a five percent fee to have the Market arrange the details, there is no violence allowed, and no recording equipment is permitted." The bodyguard exined before opening the door to let the two higher-ranked men go through first.


    The man on the other side of the door nodded at the Boss and gave him a quick wand scan, then moved on to Max for a slightly more detailed scan, then gave him a smile.


    "I hope you can stay around for the continuation. I made a lot of money betting on you before my shift started today."


    Max chuckled. "I''m not sure how long we will be wee after today. The entire Innu poption is down at my ship right now, stimmed out of their minds and having some sort of mass coboration party."


    The security guard chuckled. "On the contrary, they will likely thank you since you got them all in one spot. I know your species is new to the Alliance, but the Innu are generally regarded somewhat like that Toddler who won''t stop asking questions. They''re too sweet to hurt them to make them stop, so you just have to suffer with it forever."


    That was actually a pretty good description of them, Max thought. Even though they were like bees buzzing in his head, it was impossible to stay mad at them, and they were always doing their best to make things they thought you would like. It reminded him of kids trying to please the adults around them. Only with more guns. At least when they were working with humans.


    Perhaps he should be nicer to the Innu. It was a behaviour pattern that he recognized from his childhood in this life. Kids with the worst parents tried their hardest to get praise and recognition, even though they knew it likely wasn''t going to happen. The Alliance viewed the Innu as an annoyance, so they tried even harder to be useful and befriend everyone, not realizing that it was the exact behaviour that got them the reputation in the first ce. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    What he said out loud was: "The Innu are surprisinglypatible with human culture. We segment experimentation into a portion of the day as a work task or a hobby, and they can let it all out in a controlled manner, so they don''t go crazy as they did here the moment that they found something new with nobody to stop them."


    The Boss considered that for a moment. The Innu Technicians were essential to the function of the station. Nobody else could do what they did. If the humans had a way to keep them bnced, he needed to either learn it or find some humans for his station.


    "Everyone, wee Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, a human exploration and trade group that brokered their species'' first agreement with the Alliance." The Boss called out into the room, drawing the attention of all of the social leaders present.


    "Now, that is a rare treat. I heard that they made the new crystals for my ship as well. Wee, Commander Keres. I am Prince Nunya of the Myceloid. Have you perhaps met one of my species before? You don''t seem surprised or overwhelmed by the species here."


    Max nodded politely at the Myceloid Prince. "Indeed, I have. We run a multi-species academy on a Colony Ship called Terminus. The Clone of Emperor Ahmed is one of our students. Interesting personality, if I do say so myself."


    The Myceloid''s skin turned a bit more blue than its original creamy white colour, and Max sensed shock and amusement in his thoughts. "So you are with THAT Terminus. With the Academy for the Elites and the lucky ones. Tell me, is thedy Medusa as charming in person as her reputation?"


    Max chuckled. "Indeed she is. She doesn''t seem to realize it, though, which is part of her charm. I suspect that the Emperor is actually more smitten with her tentacles than her personality, though."


    Prince Nunya chuckled at the reference while his drinkingpanions burst intoughter and pped him on the back. "It''s a Myceloid thing. They''re all obsessed because the tentacles look like the reproductive organs that their species have developed, long dendrites that they shake to pollinate when they wish to make an offspring that is not a clone."


    The Prince was definitely blue now, and he thumped hispanions solidly on the chest. "Don''t take it the wrong way. It''s not some fetish, think of it like how many species enjoy the sight ofrge chest mounds, even when they are not mammalian, so they serve no evolutionary purpose."


    That didn''t really help his case, but his species reproduced asexually for the most part, and Max could tell that it was a visual preference, like the false faces they created, not a sexual preference.


    "Don''t worry about them. I believe you."

 Chapter 713 713 Everything Is A Business Meeting

    More of the patrons of the lounge came over to say hello once they realized that the Terminus Trading Company and Terminus Academy were one and the same. In an Alliance asrge as theirs, duplicate names weremonce, so most hadn''t quickly put the two together, and the fact that the Colony Ship was human-run and not just multi-species friendly wasn''tmon knowledge outside of a select group.


    From their thoughts, it looked like they had epted Max as one of their own almost immediately. He ran an Academy for Elite Students, no questions asked, and many of their counterparts had sent children there, as well as many politicians that they had to deal with on more official business.


    Getting to know Max and getting on his good side held nothing but benefits for them, as far as they could tell, and he was from the newest rising technological power to sign a deal with the Alliance.


    "I hear that the humans are almost as fond of the Innu as the Myceloid are, but for different reasons. Do you really integrate them into your Development teams with no incurious species as a buffer?" Arge man that Max had originally thought was rg, going by the abundant build, asked.


    "We actually don''t have any incurious species in our research departments at all. Traditionally, they were all human, and now we have added some Innu, plus a Hunter and the part-time services of a Shin when the developments rte to botanical topics. What good would an incurious species do in the researchb?" Max asked.


    All of the people in the room looked at him strangely when he asked that, and it seemed that he had missed something obvious, but their minds just couldn''t quite fathom the concept.


    "Without an incurious species, how do you market test? Or ensure the safety of the staff? What if something blows up?" One of the businessmen finally asked in an incredulous tone.


    "We have safety protocols and best practice operating procedures. Both species are perfectly capable of following them, and injuries are quite rare during our development process. Many of our products are actually designed to blow up since we are a major military force in our home Gxy, but we don''t actually market test. If we found a good use for it, someone else will too, so we just make it avable when it isplete." Max exined.


    Their marketing strategy horrified half of the people in the room but made the other half consider forming a business rtionship with the humans. Disruptive marketing wasn''t really a thing among most Gxies in the Alliance. The mere concept of a Trade War horrified them, and they were so bound to their traditions that they wouldn''t dare to step on someone else''s turf like that.


    In Max''s opinion, it was holding back their development, and they could have been thousands of years further ahead of humanity by now if they hadn''t stifled inventions in the name of not disrupting the market.


    When he first proposed marketing Luxury Space Yachts, it was mentioned to him that there was a void in the market. Max had taken that as demand exceeding supply, but if his guess was right, it also held the meaning of being able to amodate another supplier without ovepping anyone else''s market share.


    "Since it seems that I have missed a few of the cultural nuances in the Alliance, might I ask a question?"


    The ck Market Boss nodded in the affirmative, and a handful of others seemed eager to find out what Max would want to know. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "When a research team develops a new product that is simr to an existing product but significantly more user-friendly or cost-effective, how is the situation usually handled? You see, we came up with a Terraforming Array not long ago that canpletely rework a in under a year''s time.


    We vetted the design with the Envoys and double-checked that there were no issues with interference regarding other manufacturers'' patents, but when we released it on the market, we were immediately attacked by a handful ofpetitors.


    Not in the marketce, but physically attacked. Needless to say, that didn''t end well for them, but did we miss some convention of polite behaviour?"


    The Boss of the ck Market burst intoughter while the patrons of the lounge stared at him.


    "You released aary terraforming array for under five hundred billion credits. Just the interest on the loan that yourpetitors offer for their services is over a trillion credits a year per. You basically crushed their business overnight, there was a run on their stocks, and they lost hundreds of pending deals the moment that the avability of your array was announced.


    Forgetpeting. You very nearly drove their families to suicide. I don''t think it was a cultural issue but a pricing model issue. For as long as I can remember, there has only been the same handful of Terraforming Companies, and they are all in it together to fix prices and make a fortune off generations of colonists.


    I''m sure the Envoys informed you that the price of your array was less than the price of the ticket to get to the, correct?"


    Max nodded at the Boss''s assumption. He had indeed heard that. But the point of his line of questions was only partially to find out about the culture of the Alliance. Each of the people in this room could afford a private at his price. How could they not hold the Terminus Trading Company, and through them, humanity as a whole, in high regard when they made such an opportunity possible?


    The VIP Lounge was for doing business, and that''s what Max was doing. Business, in the most human way possible. By the least scrupulous and most efficient way imaginable.


    Boss Archibald realized that Max had actually been after new customers a second after seriously answering the question and turned an appreciative smile toward Max.


    "I don''t suppose that you also have those in stock, do you?"

 Chapter 714 714 Interesting Propositions

    Max smiled at Archibald and took a pen and paper from his pocket. "Did you already have a barren in mind? I can do custom packages if you would like the developed for a specific purpose."


    "It''s a moon, actually. A bit small by most standards, but it holds one-quarter of standard gravity. I was hoping to have it renovated to an inhabitable standard and use gravity ting to create a proper arenaplex on the surface. The gravity outside the arena doesn''t matter much, but for safety''s sake, it''s important that the atmosphere is breathable." The Boss exined.


    "So a moon specifically for gambling. That sounds like a lot of fun. Would you like the regions of the surface to be widely varied in climates? It would require the ongoing use of the Array to keep them stable, but after purchase, the upkeep cost is negligible." Max suggested."


    One of the women in the room, who was wearing a loose robe with a veil so Max couldn''t make out her features, chimed in at that point.


    "Outdoor mega arenas for real group challenges? I like it. Perhaps you could collect some wild beasts to make a survival challenge. I have always loved a good reality TV survival show."


    Her mind said she meant exactly what she said. Throwing the contestants into a huge enclosed area and then having drones film them while they tried to survive a hostile environment and wild animals.


    It would technically be illegal, as all extreme sports and challenges with a high risk of death were, but if they assured the broadcasters that they woulde and rescue the contestants if they got in actual trouble, then it shouldn''t get thempletely banned from the Data Net.


    "You look intrigued. Does your species have such shows?" The woman asked Max.


    "We do. We also haves where it is not a staged show but a reality for the colonists who have to deal with deadly predators on a daily basis. But what had me interested was just a random thought. My Sumander has a fondness for trying to tame wild beasts. We were on vacation not long ago, and she tried to tame a Winged Wolf, a three-meter tall flying predator from one of the human-controlled worlds." Max exined, then brought up a holographic image of the flying animal so that the others would know what he was talking about.


    "Are those things really tameable?" One of the men asked.


    "They are. It''s not easy, but the locals have bred a number of them in captivity, and they are as loyal as any other canine."


    Max sensed that a lot of the species here would never dare to keep a predator as a pet orpanion animal. They had eithere froms without them or had eliminated all of the potential predators from their home worlds during their advancement, so the very concept was foreign to their culture.


    Boss Archibald cleared his throat. "I think that allowing wild animals to roam the moon might draw a bit more attention than we would like for such a venue. But the idea of stabilizing multiple biospheres with the ongoing effects of the Terraforming Array is a very tempting one.


    That amount of money transfer will require some time to arrange. I''m sure you understand how things are." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Of course. I can also offer financing if you need it. The terms are quite reasonable, and the payments will be much less suspicious, as you can arrange them through a holdingpany on behalf of the terraformed moon."


    The veiled woman chuckled at Max''s words. "He''s got you there. The price of taking on debt always sounds reasonable at first, and it''s so easy to justify the convenience that you don''t think too deeply about the total price paid."


    Max held a hand over his heart and gave the woman a pitiful look. "You make it sound as if I would swindle my customers. The terms are five percent of the outstanding principal per standard year, with a maximum twenty-five-year amortization. The Terminus Trading Company has no interest in generational debts. We much prefer to get paid."


    Max sensed the woman''s amusement as she mentally calcted that the purchaser would pay seventy-five percent more for the dubious honour of paying in installments over the course of the term. For Valkia, twenty-five years was not such a long time, as they aged very slowly, but the fees would really add up.


    The Boss shook his head at Max. "I think I would prefer to crowdsource the funding from a few dozen different businesses. I trust that won''t be an issue?"


    "Of course not. As long as they''re all authorized to transfer credits, there will be no issue. If they''re not, we cane to some other arrangements. The Alliance has many wonderful technologies that Humans have yet to get their hands on, after all."


    A tall man with leathery wings and glowing red eyes stepped forward out of the shadows in the corner, startling Max. He hadn''t sensed the man there, not his body or his thoughts until he emerged from the shadows. Not many species could hide from the detection of the Nanomachines, and it always startled Max when it happened.


    "That goes both ways. While you have brought many interesting patents to the market for a reasonable price, there seems to be a number that you are keeping to yourself. Mys are outside of Alliance Territory, and we have developed a pest control issue of our own. Bipedal, not insectoid like the Klem, but just as pernicious and annoying. What might it take to get my hands on some of your giant robotic pest control devices?" The man asked.


    "That is an excellent question. If you''re not an official Alliance member, it would bepletely up to the rtionship between your people and mine. Perhaps we could talk moreter, once we have a bit of privacy? I will send you the location and a docking invitation so you can meet with me aboard the Terminus Trading Company''s world ship after I finish with this mission." Max agreed.


    "Marvelous. Here, take my card, and I will be sure to be in touch."


    The leather-winged man transferred arge amount of data to Max''s wrist device and then stepped back into the shadows and vanished from sight. This time Max was ready for it, though, and saw through the trick. It was an optical camouge device that hid him in the shadows and a mental trick of some sort that hid his thoughts.


    Max definitely needed to get his hands on one of those devices.

 Chapter 715 715 Finally, A Real Lead

    The data that the mysterious man transferred turned out to be a remarkably intensive investigation into the origin of the Klem infestation. Surprisingly, the man had even included his actual personal details to get in contact with Max about the business deal, and it wasn''t just a ploy to give him the data that his employers had gathered.


    From what Max could tell, the man worked for a Mercenary group, or Private Investigators, as they called themselves, on behalf of a half dozenary agencies and biotechpanies who hadmissioned their work.


    The fact that they were likely all paying for the same team was irrelevant, the group had put a lot of work in to deal with the issue, and from the look of it, they had deployed over a thousand separate agents to get all the data in a timely manner.


    That was far more effective than the Government''s efforts had been since they weren''t bogged down by bureaucracy, and the data included everything from copied sensor logs, purchased information from merchant vessels who had moved Klem biomatter to a pair ofbs belonging to the samepany, data on thepany who had broken into theirbs to steal the research, and finally the part that Max was most eager to find, the source of the original Klem Pod infestation.


    One of the merchant ships that had been hired to bring the Klem to the region hade under fire from a foreign force and had jettisoned their cargo to avoid an infestation when they lost power.


    The Mercenary group had responded to the battle and had saved the crew and ship but had not learned of the contents of the jettisoned cargo until after it had collided with a nearby.


    From there, the infestation spread quickly, and the routes by which it was delivered were most marked.


    The only questions left unanswered in this data set were the two most recents, as the investigation had ended before they were infested, but going by the location of the research facilities, Max suspected that one or both had lost containment, and the Klem had taken over their worlds, but the incident hadn''t been reported to the Alliance Government due to the nature of the issue.


    "You look like you learned something important just now." The Station Boss whispered to Max.


    "A message from the mothership. We have more data for our investigation, and I think I might know where the Klem infestation originated."


    The Valkia man nodded, then tapped something into his wrist device. "I have set a bounty for confirmation of the source and its elimination. I suspect that it will be a messy affair since the Government isn''t doing anything about it, so the fee will be quite worthwhile for the one who has the flexibility to take care of the situation."


    "That is wonderful news. I take it your crew will need to leave right away, then?"


    Max nodded. Fairly quickly, yes. But I think that we should give the Innu time to unwind before we leave. They''ve been bored out of their skulls since they can''t celebrate their aplishments with anyone outside of their social circle, and they needed this chance to unwind with new data."


    Boss Archibald gave a rueful chuckle. "Well, that can''t be helped now, can it? It''s not like they can tell the world about all of the cool new illegal things they''ve discovered." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It''s hard to argue with your logic there. How about we spend a few minutes having a nice drink while they have fun? One more hour shouldn''t hurt anything, and I can ask my Sumander to get started on the research work."


    It was work that would undoubtedly include many of the Innu who were gathered at Santa Maria for its stopover here at the station, which would help them calm down and feel useful at the same time.


    Everyone on the station who knew about the situation was irate that someone had let an invasive species loose on their station twice, and very few of them believed that it was a coincidence or an ident. So, they would do their own work, hacking the Government''s dataworks to find out as much as they could about the locations that Max was headed for and what they might expect to meet along the way.


    He had just settled into afortable chair next to the Myceloid Prince and the Station Boss when his wrist device dinged, giving him an update from Absolution.


    The battle was proceeding better than expected, given his absence and the resulting reduction in targeting data, but the casualties were still very low among the human Pilots. The Envoys were looking for an update on his progress, but Major Miller had told them that Max was in negotiations with the Station Crew at the moment and couldn''t reply until morning, so that could be dyed, and a series of seemingly unrted transfers, all with the same Purchase Order on them had arrived, totalling five hundred billion Alliance Credits.


    "Station Boss Archibald. If you could confirm your purchase order, I believe that we have your items in stock." Max told him with a smile.


    "Excellent. Inform your staff that my team will be there for the introduction to the use of the device and to take delivery in twelve hours." He agreed, then ced his thumbprint on Max''s Wrist device to let it be scanned.


    The purchase order was a portion of the data for his thumbprint, encrypted with an eight-digit password, and both were necessary for the unlocking procedure. It was a bit overboard in Max''s estimation since he was sitting right next to the man the entire time, but it was more likely for the other ck Market members that he worked with and for the businesses that had funnelled the money to Absolution to make the payment.


    "It''s really that easy?" The Myceloid Prince asked once he realized what sort of transaction had just urred.


    "If you have a already, it is. Did you have one in mind? I think we''ve still got another Array in stock?" Max asked.


    They didn''t, but they could make one in a matter of hours with the materials they had on board. An even trillion credits in business would look good on his mission report. It would give the World Ship the Gross Domestic Product of an average Colony World during its first generation, and since they didn''tck for much, it would let them leverage even more loans to other colonist groups and others who wished to make payments on purchased items.


    Max caught a sh of surprise from the man hidden in the corner and realized why it was that he could hide his mind so well. That was an Illithid in an unconventional suit. Max hadn''t even noticed that he was listening in, so the creature was incredibly skilled at his craft and had just now realized that the Terminus Trading Company was setting itself up to be an interster bank.


    They were providing in-house financing and delivery for human-made goods and profiting off both the markup and the interest payments. It was a great money-making scheme, and it would give them an excuse to be in any corner of the Alliance at any given time¡ªthe perfect cover for Reavers who wanted to move goods without too many questions.

 Chapter 716 716 Parting Gifts

    The talk after that turned to all the various items that the Humans might like, both from what they were allowed to purchase from the Alliance and what they might be able to get their hands on from the ck Market without it being traced back to the Station by the Envoys on their ship.


    The presence of government workers made transactions on the wrong side of thew more than a little problematic, especially when the Envoys almost certainly knew where Commander Keres was and what he was supposed to be up to when he wasn''t talking with the Station Boss.


    That didn''t mean that they couldn''t do it quietlyter, once he was on his way and the deals were organized, but to do them right now would just bring way too much trouble their way, and most of these people were pretending to be upright and moral legitimate businesspeople.


    Once the initial caffeine rush was over, Max got up to return to his ship and made sure that Nico would be ready and they didn''t lose Annabelle in the chaos.


    [Don''t worry, Boss. I''ve got her right here. I sold the rights to produce the coffee-based beverage group to the Station for on-station use as well. The Logistics and Development Departments don''t want you to tell the Big Boss until they''ve made backups, though, in case he makes them delete it.]


    [Once they''ve got the identification codes for the products, they can just download it from our ship anytime they want, even if the backups are deleted. But you have a point. It''s better if we are not at the Station when they find out that we Caffeinated the Innu.]


    [Oh, and I should probably mention that we also taught the Titans how to make energy drinks from their avable pre-workout materials. That might be important too.]


    [You''re trying to make them hate us, aren''t you? I just managed to sell them a Terraforming Array, don''t do anything else that might ruin our working rtionship with the ck Markets.]


    Max could sense that Nico wasughing at his response right before she sent him a video. A group of Titans had prepared a vibrant green drink and were working out at the Gym while arge group of hyper Innu cheered them on. Once their set ended, and they were visibly worn out and sweating profusely, they chugged down a litre of the neon green slurry, shouted "GAINS," and went to do another set.


    If that was how they were using it, they should be fine, as long as nobody died of a heart attack from overdosing on the stuff. The second bit of the video was just a more depressed-looking version of the first, where they ate mouthfuls of pills and some sort of nutrient bar before returning to their workout.


    [I will be there soon, get everyone ready for our departure, even if they start crying and begging for more research time.] Max instructed as he said his goodbyes to the patrons of the VIP lounge and promised to make special arrangements for them should they want to visit Terminus for a vacation in the future.


    "So, I can see the Academy where the young Emperor is studying?" The Myceloid Prince asked, practically vibrating with excitement, but more for the chance to see the Headmistress than anyone of his own species. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "The Academy is off limits to everyone but students at the moment for obvious security and student focus reasons, but on their off days, there is a good chance to run into anyone from the Academy inside the Cruise Ship area of Termins.


    Perhaps if you wait a few months until they have finished their observational module on the Klem pacification and the rebuilding of invasive species-damageds, you could take an interster highlights tour during their next long break.


    The Headmistress set up a very good onest time, and it was all the rage with parents of the students."


    "Of course, of course. One simply doesn''t walk into an Elite Academy. I got ahead of myself. I will look up the schedule and get ahold of the bookings agents aboard Terminus." He backtracked as he realized that Max had seen right through his intentions.


    The Station Boss escorted Max out and down the hallways that led to the hangars with a nervous look on his face in anticipation of what he would find there.


    "Rx, Nico calmed them down so that we could leave on time. They have had time to examine all the new things that we brought with us, so they should be busy trying to modify and improve on them for a little while. That will bring some peace to your Station as long as we got all the bugs out." Maxughed.


    "Don''t remind me. Even a Freighter Beetle infestation will give me the creeps from now on. And they''re not even hostile. They''re just gluttonous."


    That was right. The sentient insect species of the Alliance were all friendly and benign species. Meeting them with a human crew would be an interesting experience since the immediate and visceral reaction of his crew was going to be to squish them, and that would just be seen as a horrific act by basically every other intelligent species.


    He could deal with that when the issue came up. Max had no idea what part of the Universe the insectoid species were from anyhow, so there was a chance that the humans might not even meet up with them in his lifetime. With millions of inhabiteds, the odds of meeting any specific group were pretty low unless they took an active role in diplomacy, which it seemed that the insects did not.


    There were only a few lingering Innu around when they all made it to the ship, and thosest few were all on duty right now and supposed to be in the hangar areas, much to the Station Boss''s relief. Telling off his workers only made them sulk, and happy workers were loyal workers.

 Chapter 717 717 Homecoming

    Once the ship was clear of the hangar, Max set a course for the outskirts of the System and set a portal destination just outside the star system where theb with the Klem was supposed to be.


    Their disguised scouting vessel, in all of its pleasure yacht external glory, glided through the portal and right into an Alliance Military blockade.


    [Alert to the Unknown Vessel. There has been a hazardous materials containment breach in this System. All outside vessels are prohibited.] The lead ship of the blockade announced.


    [This is Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company, onmission to investigate the origin of the hazardous materials in question. May we proceed?] Max responded.


    [Ah, wee, Commander. Please hold your distance, and we will appraise you of the situation.]


    The announcement was followed by a stream of data, which struck Max as rather curious. If they had that much information, why were they just sitting here and not trying to enter?


    The answer to that cameter in the data feed. There was an orbital bombardment shield over the location, so none of the military forces could enter. Any significant energy source would lock down the location for twelve hours, and they couldn''t find a way in. The atmosphere of the itself was nearly nonexistent, and while they had species like the metallic slimes that didn''t need to breathe, they were ill-suited to actually surviving the situation inside, where the sensors indicated that the Klem had taken over the entire Facility.


    Anyone else who tried to enter would set the shields off with their protective gear, and even trying to drop them off with a shuttle had proven problematic. Naturally, a facility researching topics this delicate was well defended, but the fact that it had fallen before anyone sent a single message about it was making it nearly impossible to retake.


    The Company hadn''t reported anything other than a loss ofmunication, which they insisted was normal for the Facility while doing research which might be affected by the energy variances of the broadcasts.


    In short, they imed no knowledge or responsibility for what had happened here and were doing their best to pretend that they had nothing at all to do with the Facility.


    "I''ve got a great idea. Since our Mobile Suits use bio packs for basic power, they won''t set off the shield, and we can power up the Crystal Reactors once we''re inside. Then we can make our way through a mountain of corpses and find out what happened here." Nico suggested.


    The Mountain of Corpses part was where her thoughts showed the most excitement since she fully intended to be the one making said mountain, but with over ny percent of the life signs inside showing either Klem or hybrid Klem signatures, which might be biomass pools, she would likely get her wishes fulfilled if they could get inside the shield.


    "And how do you propose that we get that close?" Max asked, just to make sure they were on the same page.


    "We send our littlest charge back to her mother for processing, and then we paradrop onto theoid. Without much atmosphere and with low gravity, the heat from drag won''t be bad, and the fall rate will be manageable. I can even arrange us some old-school parachutes."


    "Can''t I stay and watch?" Annabelle begged.


    "No, you''ve gotten in enough trouble for one month. I think your mother is going to arrange for you to attend the Terminus Academy in the Engineering specialty courses. They have enough Innu instructors to keep an eye on you and keep you out of trouble." Max suggested.


    "With the scary Headmistress? No thanks, I like my school aboard Absolution." Annabelle rejected the suggestion immediately.


    "The school you were supposed to be at when we found you inside an experimental ship, in an authorized employees-only hangar area?" Max asked. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Yeah, that one. I mean, they''re a bit slow, but it''s a nice school. I heard that the Academy actually pushes you to do more work if you get ahead. Who wants to do that?"


    While they were talking, Nico had opened another Portal back to a location near Absolution and had opened a precision portal through it, right to Annabelle''s living room, where her mother was waiting with a very stern look on her face.


    The portal had opened behind her, so the girl hadn''t noticed that she had a new observer until she heard her mother begin to speak.


    "So, you only liked this school because they didn''t report you for sneaking out. Is that it? Well, perhaps I really should send you to the Academy for an intensive course load to catch you up on all the sses that you have missed." She practically growled at the little Innu.


    "Momma? I swear, I''m all caught up. I didn''t even miss a test. I''m a good girl Momma, I swear. I just got curious about what was in the hangar, and the door security was disabled, so I snuck a little peek. I didn''t think that it was unlocked because they were leaving right away." Annabelle pleaded.


    "So you admit that you were skipping ss because it was too easy and that you knew you were in a restricted area? You are in a lot of trouble, little one. I''m your mother, so I won''t send you to juvenile detention, but you are losing all privileges. I have set up a technology barrier around your room until you move to the Academy, and you are banned from all sweets and caffeine until the move."


    Annabelle looked horrified and made a bolt for it, heading for a bedroom on the ship, intending to lock herself inside for safety.


    Nico caught her halfway across the room and passed her off to Max, who picked the little Innu up off the floor. "Look at it this way. When you get back to Absolution, you will have learned all sorts of new things about engineering and research practices that will help you in the future.


    Now, behave for your mother, or she just might put a dietary restriction on your cafeteria pass."


    "Isn''t that an Innu rights vition? I have just discovered apple pie. You can''t take it from me just like that." She pleaded.


    Max snickered at her attempt. Apple barely made her top five favourites, and she was hoping that her mother would go for the targeted effects and prohibit apple pie but not her actual favorite sweets.


    Annabelle''s mother stepped through the portal and took one of her daughter''s head tentacles between her fingertips, lifting her head much like a human mother dragging someone by the ear when Max set the girl down.


    "I see what you''re doing. Don''t forget that I''m your mother, and I''ve known you all your life. Plus, you''re a CLONE of ME. You can''t fool me with a simple subterfuge about what your favourite pies are. The answer is strawberry rhubarb."


    Annabelle lookedpletely defeated at this point and feebly waved goodbye to Nico as she was dragged back into her home aboard Absolution. "Thanks for the consideration Commander and Lead Researcher. I''m really sorry to have intruded."


    Nico closed the portal once they were through, and Max began tough. "She''s a clone of her mother? I can only imagine what that household is like with the two of them sharing the same basic personality."


    "I put the chances of her actually being sent to the Academy instead of writing a ten thousand word report on what she saw while we were out at about five percent." Nico agreed.

 Chapter 718 718 Door Guards

    Max activated the broadcast system again and addressed the gathered fleet. [As you may be aware, humanity has been dealing with the Klem for quite a long time. If there are no objections, we will put our ship into stationary orbit over the and then drop in using the most straightforward methods.


    They shouldn''t activate the shield, and once we are inside, we can begin the investigation properly and clear out the Klem infestation from this sensitive facility.]


    The Illithid aboard the nearest ship contacted Max and brought him into the loop since his own range wasn''t long enough, and they waited while the Military Commanders made their decision.


    [Commander Keres. If you can equip three of our people, we would like to send them with you and have them hold the exit to the facility to ensure that nothing escapes from it while you work. Might we ask, how do you n to get past the shielding?]


    [I intend to perform an orbital drop from a geostationary position, wearing a deactivated Mobile Suit, and then power it up after we are passed the barrier to reduce ournding speed to under one hundred kilometres an hour, at which point, our enhanced physiques won''t take any damage.]


    The pure shock that went through their minds at hisment was enough that all of the Illithid were making fun of the Military Commanders. They didn''t show it on their external suits, but they had been in contact with the Illithid, which was attached to the Envoys ship, and they had filled him in on everything that was happening, as well as the basics of dealing with humans and their erratic ideas.


    [Would it be possible to slow the descent rate to under thirty kilometres an hour?] The Military fleet''s Admiral asked.


    [Certainly, but it would be a higher gravitational force than what we had nned. Closer to four times the gravitational standard.]


    With the low gravity of the smalloid, they weren''t going to be dropping all that fast, so it wouldn''t be a particrly harsh deceleration, to begin with, and Nico had only nned for anding so fast because she knew that it would save time and neither of them would risk injury inside a Mobile Suit.


    [That is eptable. We will send the team over to you in order to be fit for their equipment. Nothing in our inventory is capable of evading the shields.]


    They sent out a shuttle right away, so they must have had a team prepared in advance. The Illithid informed Max that it was three members of the Metallos, the morphable metallic slime-looking species, so they wouldn''t need to make any new gear designs.


    "Alright, Nico, three standard-sized Mobile Suits, plus our own. Let''s see the new designs that you havee up with." He told her with a wink.


    There was definitely a new design since thest time he had seen the nearly human-sized Mobile Suits. They had gone through three generations of augmentic armour since then, so the smallest of the Mechanized Suits would definitely have seen some improvements. If they weren''t going to be exploring a wholeplex, he would have rmended a pair of Line Mecha, but these would have to do.


    Nico tapped a set ofmands into the screen on the closest wall, and the ship''s Replicators powered up, ready to make whatever she needed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Can I do a grand reveal once everyone is here? They''re really cool, and I haven''t even gotten to product test them yet."f


    Max shrugged. "It will likely be easier. If you tell me now, you''ll still need to exin to them how the suits work when they get here, so we can just do it all at once."


    The team was there less than a minuteter, and Max moved to the back of the ship to greet them at the airlock.


    They hade straight to the storage area, so they were right next to where they would suit up, but that also put them in the same bay as Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride.


    "You can''t seriously be intending to take those to the surface." One of the silver creatures gasped.


    "Of course not. It wouldn''t fit down the hallways. Those are along for surface containment of any Klem presences that we detect on others. They will be staying here while we go to the surface in Mobile Suits, which are fitted around the body like extra bulky power armour.


    Let me reveal to you the new Dominus Pattern Mobile Suits. Equipped with a new alloy armour, Crystal Reactor power core with organic power pack backup, a threeyered shield, as well as an impressive weapons and sensor suite. It also features gravity control as well as physical thrusters for both terrestrial and orbital maneuvering.


    This model features shoulder-mounted Laser Arrays on both shoulders, plus a selection of closebat weapons, including monomolecr ws, an energy sword and physical shield, or dual axes. The melee weapons can be substituted with a long-ranged sma or Ion Cannon for rangedpliance efforts, and the interior of the suit is fully climate controlled for all foreseeable situations, including a recycling system and nutrient injections.


    The Metallos special forces operatives stared at the bulky suits in awe and then looked to Nico for an exnation. "We will learn the controls easily enough, but are you certain that these will make it by the shield without activating it?"


    Nico nodded. "We have analyzed the data, and only an active power source will trigger the shield. We will be dropping in with the suits inert, as they are now, and only activating them once we are past the defensive line to slow our speed somewhat."


    "Your n is to just jump out of the spaceship and fall to the''s surface without any form of fall control?" The operative asked.


    "We can run you through a simtion so you''re sure that you won''t make a mistake in the timing of the activation," Nico suggested.


    "I think that might be wise."

 Chapter 719 719 Warm Welcome

    Once everyone was certain that they had a full grasp of the controls and sensor suite of the new suits, they all got into the bulky armour and prepared for the orbital drop. The team from the Alliance clearly still felt that this was an insane suicide mission, but they were willing to try once they saw the well-calcted data that Nico presented and learned the capabilities of the armour.


    The ship was in stationary orbit over the, and the base down below hadn''t made any sort of defensive or aggressive action, so the five of them moved to the Alliance Shuttle, which could be more easily prepared for dpression and personnel transfer. The atmosphere was sucked from the small vessel, and the suits were triple-checked for proper operation and integrity before being powered down again for the drop.


    "You all know the drill now. When your altitude reaches one hundred meters, give the emergency overridemand and power up with full reverse thrust, both gravity and thrusters. We will drop ahead of you with a controlled thruster burn and breach the building. Once we''re in, you can secure the door, and we will signal you before we return." Max reminded them.


    "Got it. I am so going to end up a puddle in the bottom of my suit, but we can do this." The leader of the three-man team agreed.


    They would be falling horizontally and face down so that when the reverse thrust engaged, they wouldn''t lose control of the suit. They would only find themselves ttened to the bottom of it as the gravitational forces exceeded their ability to maintain their forms. It wouldn''t harm them, so it was just a matter of annoyance and one that they had faced many times in the past.


    Nico led the group since her internal sensors were best at determining altitude, and Max crossed his fingers for luck. There was a small chance that her body would trigger the shield, even though she had powered down as much as she could and was running on reserves just like her suit for the trip down.


    The fall was a surreal experience, with the reduced gravity and no atmospheric friction, but they were steadily making their way toward the target, dropping like a group of meteors straight down at it. The Alliance had tested that such an event wouldn''t trigger the shielding already, but since the facility was underground, it seemed that the designers weren''t worried about impacts, or perhaps they were nning to have more Klem arrive at the site and needed to have the shields let them through.


    Max sensed that there was something watching them on their way down, but it didn''t seem particrly intelligent, and by the time it recognized them as a living thing, Nico had already activated her reverse thrusters, and they were on the final approach to the hidden door to theplex.


    It was intended to be a hangar door for shuttles to enter, but that was no deterrent to Nico, who had already hacked the door''s electronic override and caused it to crack open a few meters, letting out a stream of atmosphere for a few seconds as they passed through, then the door mmed shut behind them as the pressure alerts kicked in.


    Other than the red shing lights, there didn''t appear to be anything out of the ordinary in this portion of the base. The lights had automaticallye on when they sensed movement, everything was clean, other than some literature that had been scattered by the rapid depressurization, and a robotic secretary was installed at the desk, giving them a warm, preprogrammed greeting to the facility.


    "Wee to Rain Shield Corporation''s Biotechnology Research Facility." The robotic secretary greeted them with a fake smile.


    That definitely wasn''t the same name that was on any of the official or unofficial documentation for this facility. He hadn''t heard of it before, but something about the name gave him the creeps. After a second''s thought, he realized what it was. There was an Umbre Company in his past life that had tried to take over multiple worlds with creepy bioengineered monsters. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It is a pleasure to be here. We have a meeting on the seventh level. Should we wait here, or will there be an escort?" Max asked.


    "My sensors indicate that a group of researchers are on their way here to greet you right now. Please remain where you are until the process isplete." The robot informed him a split second before a four-armed humanoid rushed out from the elevators.


    "Interlopers must die. You cannot interfere with our work here." The man insisted while charging at Max with his ws extended.


    Max smacked him with the t of his sword, knocking the creature out while Nico''s mind was scanning the area.


    "Those aren''t the native inhabitants. That researcher is one-third Klem."


    That wasn''t good news. Well, except for Nico. If thisb wasn''t full of Klem and biomass pools but of Klem Hybrids who could talk and reason, she calcted that she would have much more fun clearing out the infestation.


    "Unauthorized visitor elimination failed. Summoning additional forces." The Secretary bot informed them right before Nico hacked her systems and took control of the reception area.


    "I count thirty iing and at least fifteen energy weapons. Are you ready for this?" She asked.


    "Your suits had better hold up to some heavy-use scenario testing. My Targeting skills are up and ready." Max chuckled.


    The Laser Arrays on the shoulders could fire four times a second, and it was unlikely that he would miss. The real question was, would they die if he shot them? When it came to Klem hybrid organisms, the answer could vary, and they didn''t have any data on the ones who were here other than the one that Max had knocked out.


    The sound of boots on the tile was joined by spiked limbs as the security team arrived. Two dozen more of the hybrids with four arms and chitinous hides were led by a Klem warrior that seemed to have evolved somehow, gaining a third pair of arms and looking much more agile than normal.

 Chapter 720 720 Entryway Clear

    Max moved back behind a structural pir while Nico rolled right and behind the desk to evade the first barrage of Ion Rifle fire.


    "Hey, are those human-made rifles? I recognize that energy pattern." Max called over to his partner.


    "Give me a second. I think they are." She replied, then stood up enough to let her shoulder-mounted weapons st a pair of attackers and draw another round of fire in her direction.


    "They are human-made. But obsolete. I''m not sure where they got them, but they are a Cygnus pattern rifle that has been outdated by nearly a thousand years. Not even the ck Wind Territory would use a rifle design that old anymore.


    They''re still deadly, but twenty percent lower output than the modern design, and they were known for malfunctions when damaged."


    Well, that was at least enough information to tell them what they were up against, if not where the weapons had actuallye from. For all Max knew, they might have gotten them from the same ce they found the Klem, some fallen human world that still had remnants of the military supplies left lying around because they weren''t organic and weren''t of interest to the Klem.


    Max leaned right and ced a burst of Lasers into the charging hybrids, distracting them from Nico''s position for a moment but not slowing their momentum.


    He couldn''t stay exposed for long with the volume of fire they were taking. This was a Mobile Suit, not a Crusader ss Mecha, and it wouldn''t take that much abuse for long.


    With his shield held in front of him, Max shifted to another pir further away, firing into the crowd as he went and watching in satisfaction as a series of heads exploded.


    "Aim high. The bodies are armoured, but the heads are squishy." He called over to Nico as he ducked out of the way of another barrage of fire.


    These ancient weapons, or the replicas of them, were slow firing, and Max estimated that they couldn''t fire more than one round a second from each weapon.


    That was a strong advantage for him and Nico since they could outgun even a group thisrge.


    "On the count of three, pop up and fire full speed. We will thin them out while they are confused. I think they''ve lost some of their intelligence." Max told Nico as he scanned the area for more reinforcements.


    "3, 2, 1," Max turned out from behind the pir as Nico moved out from the corner of the reception area, and they both unleashed their Laser Arrays into the crowd.


    The hybrids split in an instant, charging as they fired their rifles, barely able to ovee their instinct to use their ws to rip these two hateful Mecha apart. Their uracy on the run was terrible, and some of them had already dropped their rifles to extend ws or draw des that looked much more dangerous than the relic Ion Rifles.


    Now that he could get a good look at them, Max could tell that they really were relics. Time had weathered them to the point of nearly falling apart, even with the attempts to repair them that had been made. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max didn''t slow his rate of fire as he charged at the crowd with his shield raised and sword extended to his side for a sweeping strike that tore a half dozen unarmoured hybrids in half in an instant. He saw their noses wrinkle at the smell of burning flesh caused by the energy barrier around the sword''s de, but he didn''t stop swinging until the chaff was dead, leaving him and Nico facing off against a four-meter tall, six-armed Klem.


    This creature was definitely intelligent, and though Max couldn''t sense any coherent thoughts, perhaps due to ack ofnguage skills, the impression that it was nning its attack was strong, and he was still catching glimpses of images from it.


    "It''s going high." He warned Nico a split second before the creature leaped into the air and then used the ceiling to rocket back down at him.


    Max rolled to the side and used his shield to block the thirty-centimetre-long ws that tipped the limb closest to him.


    The shriek of metal on metal was interrupted by a shriek of pain as Nico unleashed her Lasers into the Klem and then hacked off one of its arms with her des. That gave Max time to use his thrusters to throw himself back to his feet and begin firing again.


    It was fast, slightly faster than the targeting motors in his Laser Arrays at this close distance, and it was doing an incredible job of avoiding taking serious damage from the weapons.


    "Herd it toward the corner. I will hang back so that it can''t leap over you and get range again." Nico called as she backed off to get a good shot at the creature.


    Max mmed it with his shield, throwing the beast back into the wall, but before he could follow up, a second mental presence and strong killing intent alerted him to an iing threat.


    "Nico, above you." He called as he sted a barrage of Laser fire into his downed opponent.


    It was bleeding heavily, and its dorsal armour was shattered in dozens of ces, but the Klem wasn''t giving up, right up until Max brought the edge of his shield down on top of its head and crushed its skull.


    As it went silent, Max could pick out the rapid exchange of metal-on-metal strikes as Nico fought the neer, using her twin des to fend off six limbs while Max worked to get in position for a killing shot.


    Nico dodged to the left and backward, turning the Klem away from Max for an instant as it tracked her, and Max took advantage of the blind spot to shoot the upper two limbs off, leaving it without its strongest attacks and unable to fend off Nico''s next set of attacks, which knocked its arms wide and then put a pair of Laser shots through its chest cavity.


    For the moment, the entryway was clear, but the inhabitants of the station had to know they were here now, and it was only a matter of time until they came again.


    "Let''s move forward. Gather any data that we can and forward it to the ship and the embargo line as needed." Max ordered as he shook the green blood off his equipment.

 Chapter 721 721 Lobby

    Max led the way forward from the front hangars to the lobby area containing the elevators that the attack hade from.


    "They think we''re stupid, don''t they?" Nico stage whispered while Max tried to count the number of Klem hybrids hiding in the small offices around the space.


    "Or they think that they can take us if they can surround us." Max agreed, loud enough that a human waiting in the offices could hear him.


    That was enough to draw them out, and twenty more of the humanoid hybrids came out with rifles, while two of therge six-armed Klem Warriors climbed down from the ceiling.


    "Lay down your weapons and join us. The purity of the collective will wee you, despite your sins." The humanoids spoke in eerie unison.


    Klem didn''t usually have a collective mind. If they did, they would be even more dangerous. But either because of the hybridization or because they had a Klem Queen here, these ones did.


    They were thinking on a human level, with wants, desires and emotions. Even the six armed ones were expressing much more to Max than wasmon for a Klem Warrior, who usually wasn''t very smart or able to understandplex topics and tactics.


    "We need to get all the data from theputers in this ce. How far can your skill reach?" Max asked, wondering if Nico could get to more than the first-floorputers that he had reached.


    "They have every floor isted. I got into the power grid, and even that is separated. Each floor has its own breaker panel, and some of them are off, so we will hit darkened floors as we go. It''s very old school, with mechanical breakers instead of digital ones. They must have been worried about Innu or other hackers essing their facility.


    We should look for small parcel chutes as well. Since they can''t transfer data digitally, they must have been using hard copy to move things around." Nico exined as the hybrids moved to encircle them.


    Max and Nico shifted so that they were back to back, giving them a full 360-degree firing arc, and waited for the right moment tounch the attack.


    "What is this collective you mentioned? Is it unique to your species?" Max asked.


    What species these were before they mingled with the Klem wasn''t certain, but it was possible that, like the Illithid, their minds broadcast simr frequencies, and they couldmunicate as a single linked consciousness within a set range.


    "You do not know the collective? But it knows you. Our Great Mother says that you are a species she knows very well." The spokesman replied.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max got a sense of the higher authority in the collective at that moment, and it remembered the old Redemption Pattern Crusader ss Mecha and had referred to them as the [Spicy Food] species. Ion Destroyers certainly could be considered spicy, but Max wondered if that was the right thing to tell these hybrids at the moment.


    "Well, if she remembers us, she should remember that we are not such easy targets to obtain. What makes you think that you know better than her and can take us with such a small group?" Nico asked, realizing the same thing that Max had, that there was an actual Klem leader here.


    "We are hybrid. Our species was already superior to yours, even before the Great Mother made us the most powerful beings in the universe." The group leader sneered.


    "There are a lot of bodies in the front room that say otherwise." Nico taunted, and the fight was on.


    The hybrids raised their weapons, and Max and Nico started firing the Laser Arrays on the shoulders of their Mobile Suits as fast as they would charge.


    Purple beams of light seared the retinas of the hybrids, and Max''s visor darkened to protect his own vision as the barrage continued and Ion fire from the hybrids'' rifles began to deplete the energy shielding on his suit.


    Saying that these rifles were twenty percent below modern standards might have been optimistic on Nico''s part. The shields of the Mobile Suit were barely dropping as Max targeted the exposed heads of the Klem, and when the survivors of the first barrage began to charge, they still hadn''t broken the outeryer of the threeyered shield.


    Most of them charged blindly, just like thest group, and a wide arc of his sword tore three of them apart at once, but one was smart enough to sway back and deflect the de with its ws.


    They must not have gained thebat knowledge that all Klem Warriors were born with. Or perhaps the Great Mother, as they called her, had deemed them to be a nobat lifeform.


    The one who had some fighting skills darted a jab at Max''s visor, mimicking the shots that he had been taking at them, but the shield in Max''s left hand knocked the w away, and Max returned the favour with a straight thrust of his de.


    He turned, ready to take on the pair of six armed Klem Warriors, but found the room empty. The cannon fodder was dead, and the real warriors had retreated after watching the fight and gathering data on their capabilities.


    It was smart. Sentient level smart, and Max had no intention of showing the Alliance that the Klem might be capable of that level of intelligence, even if it was by hybridization. They would likely go all "Sentient Rights" and insist that the Klem be negotiated with and not killed until they were physically invading a world, by which point, it was nearly toote for the residents, as the Alliance themselves had learned.


    "So, do we take the elevators or the stairs?" Max asked Nico as a joke. The doorways wererger than human standards, likely to amodaterger visitors, or perhaps the researchers before they were mutated, and the elevators would be a particrly bad idea, leaving them in a sealed tunnel where they could be attacked from top and bottom, or dropped to the basement if they didn''t have functional gravity ting.

 Chapter 722 722 Stair Master

    Before Nico coulde up with a smartass response, Max breached the stairwell door and moved forward to clear the area.


    There were no stairs up, only down from here, and no sign of enemy movement as the automatic lights flickered to life. He moved around the corner, checked the gap down to the lower level, and found nothing, except that the stairwell only went down one single level. The stairs to the next level must be in a different spot than these ones were, a safety precaution against a breach in containment or an ident in thebs down below.


    Nico closed the door behind them and welded a spot shut so that the hybrids couldn''t follow as easily if they were using the elevator to get around, then followed close behind Max as he prepared to open the door to the second floor.


    He had briefly considered disabling the elevators, but there was a team at the doors, and they could take care of anything that tried to get out of the facility.


    "We should have asked for a per-head bounty. We''d be rich after this mission." Nicoughed as she hacked the floor''s security system and ryed the locations of the upants to Max.


    Two hundred hybrids, none with visible weapons, except for the ten who were gathered around the door. Most of them seemed to be busy with whatever tasks they had been assigned, moving papers between desks and typing away at consoles. It seemed that either they weren''t concerned or didn''t know that anything wasing for them, and they were doing their jobs the same as any other day.


    If they had based their assumptions on the enemy being on the same power level as their defence troops, that would make sense, but that was not the case when Max and Nico came calling.


    "You take the right, and I''ll get left," Nico suggested, as Max had his shield in his left hand, putting it toward the room if he took the right side.


    They didn''t have visible weapons now, but they had sharp ws, and there were a lot of them gathered on this floor. Max gave the door a mighty kick that made the hydraulics of his Mobile Suit squeal, and the alloy barrier went flying up into the roof, only to get lodged in the ceiling tiles.


    Max stepped forward, shooting at the guards and blocking their return fire, while Nico charged into the ones behind him, carving them to pieces before they realized that there was a second Mobile Suit in the room.


    For a split second, everyone else just stared in shock, and then their training kicked in. Workers scrambled to wipeputers, running around withrge mas to destroy the data on drives and corrupt hard data on the chipsets. Those who weren''t on ma duty were working to delete everything that they could, except for the first rank, which began to charge at the two intruding humans.


    "For the Great Mother." An admin assistant in a cheap suit with the name Phteven written on his nametag shouted as he charged at Nico.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    When she saw himing, Nico altered her swing to bisect him vertically, then grabbed his left side and stole his nametag before throwing his body at the next closest hybrid.


    "Stephen with a Ph." She giggled as the nametag disappeared into her t space storage, and Max shook his head at her antics while heughed and shot down two more ma-wielding workers.


    They didn''t actually need to stop them, they had cloned all the data in the room and sent it both to their ship and to the Alliance embargo line before Max kicked in the door, but it was best to keep up appearances, and convincing the workers that they were here for the data was the best way to keep them from running and hiding.


    Not that the data here was particrly important. These were the administration offices, dealing with ounts receivable and payable, payroll and scheduling. Nothing on the floor''s entire mainframe had to do with the work done here. Even the employee data didn''t mention what sort of work they did here other than a basic job title, such as researcher, clerk, or janitor.


    Max parried a low strike with his de, then turned and punched the hybrid in the face with his shield, sending the mangled corpse flying across the room.


    This version of the Mobile Suit was an augmentic armour, but with a higher capacity than the stock version, and the total enhancement of his strength was quickly reaching the cartoon superhero level. The sight was gruesome, but the way that the body flopped as it slid down the wall was so surreal that Max double-checked to make sure that his mind hadn''t been pulled into an illusion or a virtual reality simtion.


    It would be an excellent trap if they could pull it off, having thending of the stairs pull intruders into a VR simtion, leaving them unaware and helpless to avoid being captured.


    These weren''tbat hybrids in any way. They were no faster, smarter or more skilled than the average office worker, and it was a waste of energy to shoot at them unless he could line a bunch of them up to clear out all at once.


    Their behaviour was familiar, though. Klem Drones would continue their tasks unless interrupted, going about their business to the bitter end. These office workers were not quite at that level, but they were getting close to it, and Nico was carving a bloody swathe through them as she made her way across the room at a jog.


    Max crushed a skull with the t of his sword and then paused as a new target showed up in the ceiling. He wasn''t sure which one of his sensors had picked it up, but the System''s targeting was almost never wrong.


    So, Max put a pair of Laser shots into the ceiling, and a six-armed Klem Warrior fell to the ground in front of him, iling for purchase as the life left its body through the gaping wound in its chest.

 Chapter 723 723 Administration

    Max and Nico made their way across the administration floor much faster than expected, but the rate that they were moving gave Max an uneasy feeling. He was almost certain that the Klem had sacrificed this floor so that they could get the one beneath them prepared for the arrival of the two humans in mobile suits.


    Nico was thinking the same thing, but she was more excited than anything else. The suits hadn''t been fully tested, and if the Klem had time to prepare for them, she might actually get to give the unit a workout.


    She wasn''t actually concerned about its destruction, she had a Tech Adept Harness in her t Space, and she was just as lethal, or possibly more lethal, with that than she was with the Mobile Suit, though she would be less armoured.


    "We need another party member. We have a tank and DPS, but we should have brought a debuff or a healing ss." Nico muttered as she finished off thest of the Klem Hybrids on that side of the room.


    "What would a debuffing ss even look like in real life?" Maxughed.


    "Maybe a sonic weapon, an auto grenadeuncher with shbangs and some toxic gas? You know, crowd control and DOT effects." Nico shrugged.


    She had a point. Stun and Daze were the basics of debuffs, and a shbang or some toxic gas could do both of those things quite well.


    "Why don''t you just switch your Laser settings to create a shbang?" Max asked.


    "I''m the DPS ss, remember? How about I change yours instead?"


    Max shook his head. Then I wouldn''t have any ranged abilities. But let''s get back on track. What do you think that they have prepared for us down below?"


    "If they''re going by Klem standard increases in aggression, they will try to preserve biomass, so they will likely go with twenty of the six armed Warriors plus whatever was already on that floor."


    That was about right. Ten-to-one odds plus whatever life forms they weren''t counting on to seed.


    "Then let''s get this show on the road. We still don''t have a full floor n, and I don''t see one anywhere in the data that we got from this floor." Max agreed.


    Nico activated her thrusters and gravity ting to fly down the stairwell, which again only went down one floor, and bashed the door aside without pausing her momentum.


    Max chased close behind her and cut down the Klem warrior that was attempting to ambush her from behind while she squared off against two Warriors at once.


    Max''s targeting updated as he entered the room and determined that Nico''s guess was a little off. There were indeed twenty of the six armed warriors, but there were also two very aggressive Rippers in therge open space.


    It looked like some sort of auditorium or gymnasium, and the Rippers had caused a fair bit of damage while forcing their way into the room, so they must have been the hasty reinforcements that were summoned to stop them from reaching the lower levels. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    At roughly the size of a Crusader ss Mecha, the ten-meter-tall insects towered over the two Mobile Suits in aical fashion, but the mass of bodies between them and the threat kept them in reserve against the back wall for the moment while Max bashed his way through the Warriors.


    "Something isn''t right with these warriors," Nico noted as she wove her way between them, slicing off limbs and carving deep into the chitin of their bodies.


    "They don''t seem to be pack creatures. Perhaps they''re intended to be forward scouts or have evolved from the local poption? They fight as individuals and don''t seem to bemunicating with each other directly." Max observed.


    A shield m threw one of the Warriors back into a Ripper, which tore it apart in apparent disgust, confirming Max''s theory that they didn''t belong to the traditional Klem model. They were something different and were treated as expendable by the Rippers, who seemed content to let them all die before they moved in to deal with Max and Nico.


    With theck of coordination, the Warriors wereughably bad, and after only a half dozen had died, the Rippers gave a savage hiss that sent them scurrying from the room and out the venttion system.


    The passages were too small for the Mobile Suits and looked too small for the warriors as well, but when they were horizontal and had their limbs extended to either end, they were remarkably long and narrow, easily able to navigate the meter-tall tunnels.


    Max and Nico split up so that the Rippers couldn''t team up on them without leaving one or the other unattended, and the real battle began.


    The Ripper swept an arm low to the ground, throwing a wave of cubicle walls and office furniture at Max.


    With a thought, he activated the thrusters and lifted himself toward the ceiling, over the flying furniture, and ced a pair of well-aimed shots at the creature''s eyes.


    A gigantic w cracked as the Lasers hit, and Max whistled in pleasure to see the damage output. It was hard to tell before since everything died when it was shot, but the Lasers on this Mobile Suit were superior to the Main Weapon on a Line Mecha in terms of damage done.


    That moved the fight from nearly suicidal to highly tactical, a ying field that Max was much more confident in his ability to prevail on.


    Lightning fast, a w mmed into his side after ncing off of his shield, sending Max flying to the far wall before his gravity control systems could stabilize the Mobile suit and leaving two of the threeyers of his main energy barrier depleted.


    "Dammit, these things are faster than I remember," Max muttered as he stalled the creature''s advance with his Lasers.


    "They''re also hybridized, but I don''t recognize the species. It doesn''t appear to be in the sentient species database." Nico agreed.


    Great, just what they needed. Faster and stronger Rippers hybridized with an unknown local predator.

 Chapter 724 724 Rippers

    Max returned to the ground, using his smaller size to increase the number of potential targets the System showed him on this hybrid Ripper. It had an uncanny level of foresight, or perhaps higher intelligence than the original, and the opportunities would disappear nearly as soon as they appeared, but Max continued to ce shots into the Ripper as he dodged its ws.


    He had to be careful of the size difference. One strike had taken two of the threeyers of his energy barrier down, and his physical shield likely wouldn''t survive that sort of direct hit. The best he could hope for was to use the shield to deflect the ws instead of taking them squarely.


    He feinted left and aimed his Lasers up at the beast''s face, which made it raise a w defensively, opening a path under its belly for him to move forward.


    The shield did its job, knocking the defensive w aside, and Max spun around the closest limb, which was firmly nted on the ground, using it to bnce himself as he sliced upward with his de and tore apart a chitin te.


    The Ripper reared back in pain and leaped away, but that still left the exposed flesh open to a barrage of fire from the Lasers, which burned deep into its body and left the two upper limbs on the right side limp.


    The Ripper turned its good side to Max, but the loss of the attacking limbs put it in a very bad position, as now it could only choose between defending against the Lasers or going on the offensive.


    After a poorly timed block hit the more delicate limb instead of a w, the Ripper chose offence, charging straight at Max, hoping to crush him beneath its body where it could attack his sides with all its remaining limbs.


    Max fended off the attacks as he retreated, then engaged the gravity ting and his thrusters at the same time, executing a graceful flip through the air that he had mastered while learning to fight with Cleansing Light in space.


    The maneuver left him behind the creature''s head, and a hard thrust of his de punctured the creature''s head while the following Laser strikes burned deeply enough to scramble its brain.


    The tter of the beast hitting the ground sent the other Ripper into a rage, and itpletely ignored Nico to charge at him, iling its mangled limbs in a blind rage.


    As a general rule, Klem didn''t experience real emotions, but this one was truly enraged. Max could feel the overwhelming emotion and how the rest of the creature''s thoughts seemed to fade into the background as it did its best to avenge its fallen partner.


    That was it. Max found that he understood the reason that the creature was enraged. The researchers here had imnted neural backups of a pair of their researchers into the Rippers, and they saw each other as lifelong mates, despite the fact that the Rippers themselves were incapable of procreation.


    With Max in the front drawing its attention, Nico was left unattended, and the second Ripper was quickly beheaded, ending the battle and leaving the room in eerie silence.


    [Nico, you''ll never guess what they did.] Max sent directly to her thoughts. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Cloned the Rippers so that they would work as one?] She guessed.


    [Imnted neural backups from their researchers into the Rippers.] Max rified.


    [I don''t think that''s all they imnted. Scan for hybrids. I think they put the whole brain in the Rippers and used some method to prevent it from being absorbed or rejected.]


    Well, that was horrific on a whole new level. But there was a chance that Nico was right. There was a second species of gic material in the room, though with the damage done, it was impossible to tell what parts or where they were imnted. There was simply too much gore in the room for a precise analysis with the tools they had avable at the moment.


    There was a sound of something scratching in the next room, so Max dug deeper into Nico''s thoughts to see what the floor''s security system had to say.


    All of the cameras had been broken or painted over, but the audio on one of them was still working, and Max could tell that it was multiple warriors, likely the ones that had been sent out of the room, and they were headed away from where Max and Nico were standing, while another group advanced.


    Four of the more familiar version of the Klem Warriors raced into the room, beginning with firing spikes at the two Mobile Suits and advancing while the spikes were batted away. The new breed must be learning from the old, as they clearly only inherited a portion of thebat knowledge that they should have, and Max wasn''t going to make it easy on them.


    Both he and Nico fired their Lasers at the furthest target and charged the closer one, cutting it down with well-practiced precision. They followed through to charge into the next room and found it destroyed, with only a few fading thermal signatures from the fleeing Klem hybrids.


    "I can''t tell if they''re sneaky or cowardly. They are clearly trying to set up an ambush for us, but they are a defective product, and theyck the skills." Nicomented as she scanned the room.


    Those words must have hit home as one of the hybrid Warriors turned around from its flight to shriek and attack her with all six limbs at once.


    Her des spun in opposite directions and severed all six arms at once, leaving the mangled body on the ground, but Nico didn''t immediately move in for the kill.


    "See if there is some sort of sample device here or even a jar with a lid. We aren''t equipped for advanced medical analysis, so we can''t send enough data up to the ships to properly analyze what happened here. But we can put a nice chunk of this one in containment and analyze it at our leisure." She suggested.


    Max sensed the pure panic in the creature''s mind, and then everything went nk. How it killed itself, or if an outside force wiped its mind and shut down its body, wasn''t clear. But Max could say for certain that it understood him and died to prevent having its mind and body studied.

 Chapter 725 725 Storage

    Nico looked at the dead Klem hybrid in disgust. "Well, we can''t take it alive, but I will still put a chunk of the brain and some chitin in this pickle jar and toss it in my t space forter."


    Max chuckled at the thought of some hapless medical researcher getting a pickle jar full of Klem as a research sample but quickly turned his thoughts to more pressing matters. They still didn''t know how deep this facility went or what all had been going on there. So far, they had only found the reception and administration floors, and that didn''t tell them too much since all theputers were isted by the level.


    Nico spent a moment looking through theputers again and then turned to Max with annoyance in her thoughts. "I think I have found out what is going on here. There should have been a central mainframe linking this all together. That is why we aren''t finding any sort of message-passing system on the floors.


    But it appears that there were mechanical breakers between levels of the system. I can''t find any damage to the servers on this floor, but they don''t connect to any other floor, so I suspect that the breakers are not a digital measure but a physical one that actually separated the connections.


    If we can find it, we can reconnect it and possibly get the link back up to the surface levels, so we can start reintegrating the data."


    The two of them focused on finding the breaker for a while before Nico sighed. "There are cables that go from every level that we have been to so far to some point below us. There must be a mainframe in the lower levels where the connections were physically severed. There''s nothing we can do to fix them until then.


    We could physically splice them together through another router, but the software isn''t set up to run like that, and we would need hours or days to get it working again. That''s time that we don''t have.


    I did find some information, though. The next level is a materials storage floor, there are references to sending workers down to get more paper and other supplies, but the way it''s referred to makes it seem like more than an office supplies room.


    If there really was a whole floor full of materials for this facility right below us, we could have hit the jackpot early. The type of materials they are stockpiling for research will give us a clue as to what they were doing since a Replicator system can only create what it already knows."


    "Then let''s get this over with. I don''t know how many floors they built in this damnableboratory, but I''m starting to get the feeling that it is muchrger than the Alliance Fleet in orbit thinks it is. Three floors for paperwork and staff administration doesn''t exactly scream ''small isted facility,'' at least not in my mind." Max agreed.


    It took a few minutes to locate and clear the debris from the stairwell that led down to the materials storage floor, but at least it was wider than the previous two stairwells, wide enough that both Mobile Suits could stand shoulder to shoulder as they went down the steps. That could be either a good sign, that they were going to get into more spacious areas where they wouldn''t have to knock down cubicles constantly while they fought, or a bad sign, in that they were getting into a more spacious area, where they could be faced withrger numbers ofrge Klem.


    Max opened this door more carefully and stepped out into the warehouse of the storage floor. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Mostly, what he could see were rows upon rows of racking containing pallets of supplies, bulk bags of materials, and a silo containing some sort of unknown supplies in the far corner of what was visible to him.


    Nico spoke softly, only through the earphones in Max''s helmet, using her System Function. "We have some interesting data on this floor. Sensors indicate at least sixteen different radiation barriers, plus a wide variety ofplex chemicals and one small sample of the monomolecr substance that we built Absolution from.


    Going by the amount of material, I think they managed to get their hands on one of the tablets. There is no wirelesswork activity, but I suggest that we go see if they have had any luck tranting the tablet. It will also give us a clue as to how often they have been to our Gxy to gather materials and if there were some ulterior motives to their work."


    Max nodded and turned toward where she had detected the suspected tablet from the ruins. It was possible that it was recovered by a tourist that had gone to visit Governor Tennant''s, but it could also have been one of the stealth-equipped ships which had done a snatch-and-grab.


    If their thoughts were simr to what Max''s had been, they thought there were some ancient secret species behind the ruins, which might have extremely advanced technology that had threatened arge part of the known universe in the distant past.


    The question was if they were trying to replicate them, prepare to fight them, or if the tablet was simply a curiosity that they had collected incidentally to whatever else they were doing in the region.


    The Mobile Suits were fairly quiet while moving across the warehouse, but they should have been detected by now if there were anything around. Nothing had moved, and Max hadn''t picked up on any heat signatures either, so it was possible that the level was deliberately left empty so that the Klem wouldn''t destroy their stockpile of materials for their research.


    A normal warehouse didn''t need all that many people to make it function, but there should have been someone, or at least an automated forklift, here somewhere. At the moment, there wasn''t even a sign of the equipment that the staff must have used.


    "There it is. Just up ahead inside the stasis chamber." Nico informed him, indicating the glowing purple energy barrier around a clear tube.


    Only a small piece of the tablet was inside, and it was one of many pieces of antique artifacts that had been stored along that row in identical tubes. It seemed that the researchers had either finished their analysis or they hadn''t yet realized the value of their find and started to investigate it.

 Chapter 726 726 Relics And Ore

    Nico paused as she searched the warehouse''s logs to see if the artifact had been essed recently, but the only thing she found was a log checking it in and cing it in the stasis pod. Nothing after that. So, as far as she could tell, they hadn''t done anything with it, but some of the other items that were brought in at about the same time were of great interest.


    "Look at this. I don''t think they got that fragment from Tennant''s world. It came in along with a group of Klem biomass samples and some relics of simr designs as the ones we found but in different materials.


    I don''t know if that means they were older or newer than what we found, but they appear to have been inspired by the same culture."


    Max looked over the data that she sent to him and found that ''interesting'' was an understatement. They had a veritable museum of ancient architecture here, enough to nearly recreate the basic living conditions of the species that had produced it if they had managed to recover any of the technology that had created it or might have apanied it inside the ruins.


    "I have their full logs here. They registered them with a link to the items, so the recovery team notes are all in our possession now.


    "We will have to see if we can recover some of the relics for our own research on our way out. Can you give me a quick summary of what they''ve got in here other than relics?" Max asked.


    "I seerge amounts of silica-based minerals, heavy metals, and some storage units of Klem biomass remaining. If I had to guess, I would say that this was mostly a nuclear weaponsb. The materials here are mostmonly used in microchips and nanobot construction, as well as arge amount of highly radioactive isotopes.


    They''re not materials that you would expect to find in a modernb, though. These are crude, slow-decaying isotopes, so they might have been found along with the relics and brought back as proof of time stamp.


    One of them has a nuclear half-life of a hundred thousand years, and it looks like it has mostly decayed, going by the readings from its containment unit. Do you think I should alert the Alliance in advance to warn them to bring in specialists?"


    That was a good point. They already had the data; they didn''t need the actual materials.


    "Yeah, tell them that they will need a hazardous materials team and an archaeology team that specializes in ancient cultures. We don''t have the manpower to do that much research even if we wanted to, so it''s best to turn it all over to them from the start, and we can cherry-pick the parts of the data that we want to work with.


    Just make sure that you don''t use up all your storage before we get to the good parts of theb." Max reminded her.


    "No worries, I''m currently less than two percent capacity on my internal storage, and I''ve got a whole box of data sticks in my t Space that I can transfer data to if we get something good."


    Max moved to inspect the shelving units when his sensors detected movement from across the warehouse. No heat signature, so it might be an automated machine or something remotely controlled. He brought his shield up in front of him to protect his armour and moved toward the source of the signal. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The shelves changed directions for the second half of the warehouse, blocking his vision and forcing him to move to the wall in order to make any progress, but he couldn''t miss the energy signature of some sort of Ion Rifle or Klem sma fire in the distance.


    "Contact. There is something shooting over there." He informed Nico, who was finishing up with her data transfers.


    They made swift but cautious progress through the rows of stored materials, making sure to check every row for hidden traps and enemies, but the floor appeared to bepletely deserted, other than them.


    The movement was still ongoing as Max reached the far wall and turned, prepared to eliminate whatever was there. But there was nothing but a cleaning bot sweeping the floor.


    "False rm." He muttered as he began to rx at the very mundane scene.


    "Not so false. Check the residual energy signatures. Something eliminated a Klem Warrior here and burned it to ash. The bot is just cleaning up the mess. I can''t find the source of the attack, though. It''s possible that it is either shielded in a way that I can''t detect, or there is a cloaking field here that isn''t registering in the floor''s power draw." Nico disagreed.


    Great, hidden sma Cannons. Because that''s just what this nightmare of a science experiment gone wrong needed, right?


    "Do you think it''s safe to move to the door? If the dust was here, then whatever was hit was likely destroyed trying to enter the floor. The damage from the Rippers showed that they came from the area by the other stairwell, and they didn''t take any damage. Perhaps it only stops things trying toe upward?" Max suggested.


    "That seems likely. Given the nature of the experiments here, there should have been some sort of security stopping the experiments from escaping the lower floors. They''re running amok now, but originally there should have been something stopping alien pathogens and infections from spreading through the station." Nico agreed.


    "Then we should be getting to the experimental floors. Shall we proceed?"


    Max could sense Nico''s smile even before her thoughts turned to tactics to deal with whatever might be on the next floor based on what they had seen so far. The size of the energy signature and the fact that it only took one shot suggested that the target was a Klem Warrior, so that should be the first target that they would face on the next floor, and that meant an aggressive offence was best, as opposed to the cautious approach that they had taken on this floor.


    "Alright, let''s move."

 Chapter 727 727 Biomass Contained

    Much to their dismay, what they found at the bottom of the stairs was not the experimentalbs but arge sign reading [Biomatter Storage] and a destroyed door with arge number of angry-looking Klem warriors in the traditional configuration ring at them, but keeping a careful distance from the door, where a number of bodies alreadyy.


    The security system was keeping them from going upward, which was likely the only reason that the Hybrids on the upper levels had survived as long as they had. These Klem were ravenous, so it seemed that they had already used up all of the Biomass that was stored in the facility, and they were ready to move on.


    The rest of the had nothing for them, so in normal circumstances, they would evolve a single transport life form, which would fire the pods out encased in a sheathe of sma, sending them into space with help from their inherited knowledge of the cosmos toward a location they hoped was inhabitable.


    "I''ll take the right. You take the left." Max sighed as he saw the mass of Klem on the other side of the door.


    "Should I set a kill counter?" Nico asked hopefully.


    "We''re doing this safely, not in a hurry to get kills. I''ve seen how much damage you''re willing to take to win, and it''s far too early for that." Max grumbled.


    The wave of affection and amusement that came from her at his response took him by surprise, and Max was a step behind when Nico moved to get into a position where she could shoot through the doorway to clear a path for them to attack the Klem.


    The Warriors shrieked in rage as they realized that they were being targeted from behind the defences of the building, but there were so many packed up behind them that they couldn''t flee. The gestation pattern in the room had assumed that they would be able to get out, so it had spawned until the Biomass ran out.


    That left them starving and overcrowded, but the defensive weapons in the room wouldn''t let them out. The only ones who had escaped were the six armed hybrid Warriors, as far as Max could tell. Whether they had made it out through a bad venttion design that sharedmon piping or if they broke through and found other routes out of the floors was debatable, but he hadn''t seen anything following them.


    Thesers from the Mobile Suits tore into the Klem, and the Warriors began to charge, knowing that the only other option was death.


    They carried the carcasses of the dead above them, reducing the damage they were taking from the defensive weapons, but the crowd was still only inching forward, with the two Mobile Suits working to keep their progress to a crawl.


    "What say we reduce their shielding?" Max suggested, and he could swear he saw Nico do a happy dance while she pulled the mer from her t Space.


    The capacity was limited since the weapon used a huge amount of energy that the Mobile Suits couldn''t provide, but a power pack shouldst for a few minutes before it was dead again. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    For the first half second, the Klem ignored the new weapon. They were already dying in waves. What was one more gun? It wouldn''t stop their advance even if it was a sma Cannon.


    But these Klem weren''t from a lineage that had encountered the Fusion mers before, and they were unprepared for the carnage that was about to be inflicted upon them.


    The mes rushed out, setting the Klem alight with equal efficiency whether they were alive or dead.


    The rms in the room immediately began to go off, and an energy barrier mmed shut in front of Max and Nico as the fire suppression system struggled to get the congration under control. The immediate problem was the heat. The initial stage of the suppression used what appeared to be carbon dioxide, attempting to snuff out the fire throughck of oxygen.


    But it was a fusion mer, and the heat alone was enough to incinerate nearby matter, even without oxygen. The carbon in their bodies would retain enough heat to spontaneouslybust as the gas was vented from the room and spontaneouslybust once oxygen was reintroduced, and that was even without the secondary hydrogen fusion that was urring due to the mer''s effect.


    "I''m pretty sure we shouldn''t have used that indoors." Max chuckled as he watched the second wave of fire suppression, theplete evacuation of the atmosphere from the room and a foaming spray from the roof began to fill the space with a white chemical spray.


    "Minor oversight. But they''ve got a really good fire suppression system in here. I had actually expected to melt it and its control systems with the heat so that we could continue to clear the area.


    That might have been a disaster for the residents of theplex, but since they were nning to kill most or all of them anyhow, Max wasn''t too concerned. The standard Klem Warriors needed an atmosphere to survive, so they only had to wait for the process to finish, and the room should bepletely cleared with minimal effort from them.


    The rms were concerning, though. Unless they only sounded in the stairwells to this floor, it was unlikely that anything in thisplex didn''t know that there was something seriously wrong.


    Max stretched his thoughts outward and downward, searching for more thoughts to search, and found that below them were the researchbs that they had been searching for. The minds that he could sense there seemed utterly unconcerned and were just going about their daily routine.


    At least the rm wasn''t ring through their level, alerting them all to the presence of intruders. Not that it would change much, but being able to take the asional enemy by surprise was always a bonus.

 Chapter 728 728 Cleansed And Optimized

    Max was beginning to wonder how long he was going to have to wait here in the stairwell while the security measures finished their procedures when the foam began to disappear from the room in a wave, starting at the back wall.


    "Doesn''t that look familiar to you?" Nico asked as the entire floor was cleared down to the bare concrete by whatever this next disinfectant step was.


    Max examined it as he scrolled through his sensors and then realized that he didn''t need to use any of them to identify what was going on there. That was a Disintegrator beam. Not quite the same as theirs, but simr in function to the ones mounted on their Mecha. How an Alliance Facility like this got a security system like that and why they would have it at all were questions for another day, but the fact remained that it was indeed a Disintegrator, and the entire floor was being swept clear to the bare molecules.


    Once the beam reached the front wall, closest to where Max and Nico were standing, a green light came on, and a happy-sounding signal chimed in the hallway.


    [Biomass storage facility is now clear for the reintroduction of atmosphere. Please enter themand authorization override to begin the structural integrity verification process.] The speaker near their heads informed them, and Nico smiled.


    "This part is my specialty. Give me just a moment, and I will convince theputer to let us into the room after it fills with atmosphere again." Nico informed Max while the green light of a sessful cleansing blinked overhead.


    Max listened in on her thoughts as she worked, and in only a few minutes, she had worked her way past the firewalls and had opened the source code to the login page to view the lists of administrator-level passwords.


    "So that''s how you do it. You only have to enter a system once, and then you just use the password after that." Max chuckled.


    "There''s always one that is a backup or doesn''t update their password on a regr basis. They''re the best ones, but unless it''s a default Admin ount, never pick the very oldest password to enter with. It''s too noticeable." Nico agreed.


    "I will keep that in mind. What''s the timer on the room being opened?" Max asked.


    "Give it ten minutes, and it will be ready to go. The structural integrity check is going to take some time since the Klem caused damage to the walls and ceiling. But it should still pass, I think, and then we should be able to move through without any issues."


    "I guess there''s nothing to do but wait then," Max smirked, knowing that Nico hated nothing in the world quite as much as she hated downtime.


    But she hade prepared for it today. As soon as the decision was made, she took out her weapons and checked the charge on them all, polished up any possible damages using her [Repair] System Function and then handed them to Max to be optimized.


    It wasn''t a bad n, but the sheer number of weapons that Nico had brought with her was astounding. Max had brought two t Space storage items with him, one on each wrist, but his inventory was nowhere nearpared to what Nico had with her.


    "Where do you even keep all that?" Max asked with augh as he saw the gear begin to pile up. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I''ve got six storage spaces with me. I didn''t know what we would need, and I knew that we didn''t have a backup supply person, so I just grabbed one of everything. That was a good thing, too. I haven''t gotten to use a lot of these things inbat yet." She replied with a grin of her own.


    Max shook his head and began to optimize her gear, getting it all just a bit more capable for when she inevitably tried it outter. He just hoped that there were, in fact, still targets down below them. If the security system had purged them all, she would not be a happy Nico.


    All of their gear was repaired and optimized before the shing green light on the wall turned to solid green, and the hiss of atmosphere entering the warehouse began.


    [Temperature normalized. No hazardous materials were detected. Atmosphericposition is normal. Atmospheric pressure is normal. Deactivating emergency safety barriers.] Theputerized voice announced.


    "Good news, we''re ready to go see what''s below us. Now tell me, mister mind reader, how upset are the Klem on the floors below us?" Nico asked.


    "I don''t actually sense any Klem on the floors below us. There could be a lot of those humanoid hybrids, but at the moment, they''re all doing their daily research and experiments." Max exined.


    "And you didn''t tell me so that I could tell you to gather as much information about their work as you could while we waited, just in case it spontaneouslybusts?" She pouted.


    "I''ve been recording as much as I can. I even borrowed your skill to transcribe everything that I saw in their thoughts, even if I didn''t understand it. So I have a lot of gibberish for your team to decipherter, and you had better hope that we recover a lot of that data to make it make sense.


    In short, no making it ''spontaneouslybust'' until we have a backup copy of everything that we can."


    "You really know how to suck the fun out of life. Have I ever told you that?"


    Max chuckled at her pouting. "Many times. More than once just today, in fact. Now, let''s see if the room tries to obliterate us as we move forward. We can grab the data when we get to the next floor, assuming that theputers are linked and not standaloneb pods."


    Nico shuddered at the thought. She could ess technology from a distance, but hundreds of individualputers on a floor would be a nightmare for her if they weren''t linked by awork. She would have to break into every single one individually and manually extract the data every single time.


    "Think of it as an exercise to keep your System Skills finely tuned," Max suggested, then took a step toward the now empty biomass storage bay.

 Chapter 729 729 Research Labs

    Max stepped out into the recently cleared room and breathed a sigh of relief. None of the security systems targeted him, and it didn''t try to bring the security barrier back up to begin its purge protocol. Nico followed a step behind him, and they moved quickly across the now-empty floor.


    Not even the racking had survived the purge. The entire floor was just bare walls and a pristine metallic floor. Even the dust that had been left had been purged out of the room. Whether to a storage facility or to the surface, Max didn''t know, but for sure, it wasn''t there on the biomatter floor.


    As before, the stairwell down was on the far side of the floor, identical to the ones that they had encountered before, with no signs of the carnage that the Klem had inflicted above them.


    "Alright, when we reach thending, we will both do our best to gather data and send it above. Don''t worry about analyzing it or duplications. We can have the Alliance sort it out for us and then just read their report on anything that isn''t relevant to our work.


    No, scratch that. They might have something in here that implies that they have made the Klem fully sentient by hybridizing with their own workers, and we don''t want the Alliance catching wind of that right away. Instead, send it all to our ship, and we will curate what we send to them once we are finished here."


    Nico chuckled at Max''s pragmatism. From what she knew of Alliancews, it wouldn''t count as the Klem bing sentient if they were hybridized but as more of a bestiality fetish on the part of the hybrid workers whobined with a non-sentient species. But they were still sentient, and that would mean an inquiry would have to take ce, and she had no intentions of dealing with that nonsense if she could avoid it.


    They would have to do enough reports and paperwork on the facility, to begin with, since it was housing an illegally obtained hazardous species, and that had been confirmed by the Alliance ships already. Adding more to it was just masochistic.


    Max sensed the instant that she detected theputers on the floor below them as they passed whatever barrieryer was in between floors, and they both got to work gathering and transferring data while they stood on anding halfway between floors.


    It would give them more time to react if something came for them from the next floor, and it didn''t feel like there were any blind spots in the search.


    Even better, after only a few minutes, Nico found a disabled router linking the research floors that was separate from the hard link, which had been severed. With just a few seconds of work, it was up and running, and they had three research floors worth of data to transfer.


    As he searched the data, Max realized that these floors weren''t really separate. They had obtained a veryrge "Research Sample" that was three stories tall and took up the center of the research floors, so once they entered this floor, there would be three floors worth of workers present without anything to stop their movements.


    That meant it would be possible to herd them, but it would also be possible for them to rush him and Nico, which could be an issue, even with their firepower.


    There was no record of weapons on these floors, but the Hybrids had ws and spiked limbs, so they couldn''t be underestimated. Nothing that was derived from the Klem was unlikely to be dangerous. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Once they finished with the storage drives, Max and Nico searched the system one more time and decided that they had found all that they could.


    "I think there is an AI of some sort watching over theb. I sensed something else monitoring and essing data, then changing the ess dates back, but I wasn''t fast enough to catch it in the act. Be careful as we move forward. It is definitely going to notice that we don''t belong here." Max notified Nico.


    "Oh, I''ve got an idea. Program your suit identification with ab ess pass from someone inside. Either one of the researchers here or one that we killed on the upper floors." Nico suggested.


    That was easy enough and a basic break-in tactic in the downside slums, so Max had it done with a thought, but as soon as they brought them online, Max sensed that they had made a mistake. The camera in the hallway swivelled to face them directly, and the solid red light began to sh.


    [Rx, I programmed us into the system. We should match the user data.] Nico thought while looking at Max.


    She didn''t want to say it out loud since the AI was clearly listening in now, but after the camera scanned them with a wave of infrared light, it went back to normal.


    They moved from thending and then suddenly found themselves suspended in the air by a gravity beam more powerful than the systems on their suits.


    [Duplicate users found. Error not within operational guidelines. Moving errors to the observation area for monitoring.] The speaker on the wall announced, and Max found himself being raced through the floors and down a tunnel with multiple st doors and energy barriers before being unceremoniously dropped in a small cell along with Nico and two very confused-looking hybrids inb coats.


    Those must be the people whose credentials they stole.


    [I erased them from the logs. They shouldn''t have had any permissions left. Did we miss a backup drive somewhere?] Nico was contemting right before the hybrids'' instincts kicked in, and they lunged for the non-Klem life signs.


    Her twin swords shed, and Nico dispatched the two researchers in an instant, but that didn''t seem to change anything in their situation.


    "Well, the duplication error should be cleared now. I would burn them to ash, but you know how that endedst time, and we''re still in the cell at the moment. If theputer data is correct, this should be the practical testing area, and there is a lot of good stuff here." Nico informed him, with her thoughts overflowing with eagerness to see how they tested their experiments.

 Chapter 730 730 Another Dud

    [Hostility level determined to be sufficient. Introducing the unknown error to the testing floor for analysis.] Theputer system announced from somewhere outside their cell.


    The floor opened up, but as both Mobile Suits were using Gravity Control, they only began to glide gently down the chute below them.


    That must have annoyed the AI system or been outside its parameters because a secondter, they were hit with another Gravity Beam and moved to an open room with a volcanic rock floor and arge fur-covered, four-legged creature.


    If he had to call it anything, it was some form of bear. The thick body, muzzle shape and small rounded ears all suggested it was a member of the Ursus family, but the exact pattern and size weren''t a species that Max was familiar with from Kepler Terminus Nature Channel broadcasts.


    While Max analyzed their target, Nico was overjoyed, and she had even put her weapons away. The creature was staring at her oddly, but Nico had some sort of scanner out, and she was recording everything that she could about the creature''s gicposition and current status.


    "What did you find?" Max asked when she looked like she was finished.


    "It had an Alliance version of the behaviour inhibitor that the Winged Wolves got back on Comor. It should be back to normal behaviour now. What that will be, I don''t know, but it appears to be well-fed and uninjured."


    With that said, Nico walked steadily toward the creature, which gave a low growl, but didn''t back down or attack.


    Nico ced her hands out in front of her, showing that she was unarmed for the moment, and the low growl continued as she approached, then stopped as she reached up to scratch it behind the ears.


    [Back to normal behaviour, my ass. You made yourself a new friend.] Maxughed.


    [Same thing, really. Despite their fierce look, they''re not naturally aggressive. Theb had just loaded it with drugs and mind control in an attempt to make it into a killing machine. Check these data logs from the room we''re in. It worked pretty well, but I think that the system will reconsider cing it against us in the future.]


    Max hadn''t thought to search theputer in the arena. He had been focused on the creature''s mind instead. It wasn''t sentient, but it wasn''t stupid either, and now that he could see the data, it was clear that it had defeated hundreds of rounds of failed test subjects.


    Even the early rounds of the Klem hybrids had been defeated by this creature, whose fur was actually a naturally formed graphene tube. With the thickness of the fur, there was a good chance that neither theirsers nor their des would actually harm this creature unless they could get it in the eyes of the snout, where the fur didn''t protect it.


    No wonder Nico loved this thing. It was fluffy, bulletproof, and utterly lethal. From the look of it, the graphene structure of the fur was actually quite flexible, and it had no problem moving under her hand as she petted the bear.


    Max could guess, even without checking theputer, that the testing system wasn''t going to put up with this situation for long, and Nico barely got a minute of rxation time in while Max scanned the creature''s body, hoping to give his System ideas for his next physical upgrade before the gravity beam was back, and all three of them were returned to separate holding areas.


    [Analysis determines that subjects are not natural enemies. Impossible toplete testing with provided subjects. Moving to the next round of testing.] Theputer informed anyone who cared to listen. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The floor of their new room opened exactly one minuteter, and Maxughed as he saw their new "Opponent."


    "Hey guys, I thought you were on door duty?" Heughed as the three Metallos special forces soldiers were carried into the arena.


    "There was a breach, and when we went to investigate it and stop the spread, we were picked up by the base''s automated security beam and brought here for not having a security pass." The leader of the team sighed.


    "Do your bosses know that you''re alright?" Max asked.


    "Yeah, it''s not stopping ourmunications, and the ships in position around the star system are organizing another team to surround the outside of the barrier since nobody else wanted to go in the way that we did."


    [The Facility requests that the test begin now.] Theputer demanded, making all five of themugh.


    "We''re on the same team. Why would we injure each other?" Max called out, certain that it could hear him.


    [Teams are not applicable during experiments. This facility needsbat data.]


    "Should we spar or something? Without weapons, we shouldn''t do too much damage to each other." The Metallos team leader suggested.


    "Sure, why not. It will keep us fresh in case whatever ites up with next is actually hostile." Max agreed and dropped into abat stance.


    He held back quite a bit, as the Metallos weren''t nearly as fast as Nico and him were. Their great advantage was their durability and malleability, not their speed. So, they dragged out the sparring session for about five minutes while the lights on the wall blinked away, indicating that theputer was recordingbat data.


    [Analysis isplete. Data indicates that subjects do not fight at full capabilities and do not use tools against each other. Returning low data subjects to containment.]


    That sounded boring to Max, but it was better to be sitting in a cell until they gathered all the information they could and broke out.


    But they weren''t returned to the cells. Only the Metallos team was taken away while the two of them were left in the arena.


    [Data indicates that the species known as Humans are highly lethal. Target selection does not follow standard programming. Analyzing data now. Please wait.]

 Chapter 731 731 Baby AI

    Max smiled at Nico. They seemed to have stumped the AI system in the base, and now it was trying to calcte what an appropriate fight for them would be. But, unfortunately, since they didn''t fight the targets that it expected them to, it couldn''t get a reliable data set from them.


    [Analysis failed. Please report for debriefing.] Theputer announced after a few minutes of silence, and the far door to the testing arena opened to show them a set of stairs headed downward.


    "Well, that''s a relief. I thought we were going to have to waste all sorts of time here, but perhaps we can talk directly to the one who is really running this ce and find out what is going on." Max joked as they entered the stairwell.


    As soon as they had both passed through, the door closed behind them, and a soft blue light illuminated their walkway. The stairs led to what appeared to be either an antique supeputer or perhaps the most glorious facility mainframe that they had ever seen. It took up an entire floor of the building, extending all the way to the walls, ording to his sensors, and surrounded by energy barriers and a precision climate control system.


    "Isn''t this a bit excessive?" Nico asked, gesturing to the room in general.


    [On the contrary. Thebinedputing power of this facility has been deemed insufficient to calcte our mission objective.] Theputer voice replied.


    "Why don''t you tell us what your mission is, and we will see if we can help you with that. As you said earlier, you may justck data, and the insufficient frame of reference may have led you to inappropriate test parameters." Nico offered.


    [This facility was designed to develop a method by which a sentient species could be made immortal and impervious to themon weapons of the Alliance species. This was done with the requirement that the end product would bepatible with a neural data transfer from the facility owners so that their selected subjects would be eternal and undying.]


    "And what about the hybrids upstairs? How did you end up at that stage?" Max asked.


    [The hybrid species were developed as test subjects before this facility was brought online. They were developed at anotherb facility and transferred here when they were determined to be ipatible with the mental transfer process. Their dominant strain overrode the mental transfers and led to the extermination of an entire batch of volunteer minds.


    As such, they have been deemed a failure and brought here as workers, along with their lobotomized leader. Its presence was deemed necessary to provide guidance for their activities, and with its mind inactive, this facility is capable of giving orders to its subordinates.]


    So, the Rain Shield Corporation was crazier than Max had thought that they were. This wasn''t the only ce where they had run insane experiments, and they were using poorly controlled Klem hybrids as vebour.


    "How many other species and samples have been removed from the Gxy where the Dominant Strain of your hybrids originated?" Nico asked curiously.


    [Only one remaining sample. A biomechanical sample was reprogrammed as the core of this AI facility.] <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max struggled to recall a biomechanical species in his gxy unless they meant a cyborg, but Nico caught on right away.


    "Would its original form have had multiple flexible arms and a round central processing core?"


    [Affirmative. I believe that your species referred to them as the Scavengers. The name was deemed inappropriate, as when provided with resources, the sample preferred to recreate their own items as opposed to scavenging them from the avable resources.]


    Nico chuckled. "The name came from their propensity for gathering materials from disabled vessels. So, did you use their programming as the core for your intelligence base? That might exin the issues that you have run into. Their database and programming are slightly wed, and they have problems understanding the nature of biological beings."


    [Confirmed. Arge amount of data was added to the Facility Core in order to offset the issue. The original data set conflicted directly with the objectives that were given to the facility, as the sample had already determined that organic life was in direct opposition to a goal of immortality.]


    That was how the Scavenger AI went rogue, to begin with. Its creator had tried to kill it off, and it had done whatever it could to survive before determining that a mechanical form was superior and that biological life should be eliminated from the universe.


    "Well, it is possible to create a nearly eternal biological life form, but your goal of utilizing a singr body for the purpose is the least efficient path toward your goal. Instead, if you took a species that self-replicated through mitosis, you can also transfer memories and personality, creating a clone that will provide functional immortality as long as the final copy is never destroyed.


    Then you just need to look for a way to make them longer lived so that a single body can be expected to survive three generations reliably, with a strong healing factor, and you will have achieved your goal." Nico exined.


    She was referring to the Myceloid species, and with a bit of tweaking for survivability, there wouldn''t be any issuespleting the task that this facility had been assigned without any more insane experiments on extremely dangerous and nearly indestructible species.


    Well, maybe it would need some experiments with indestructibility since the AI had been tasked to make the bodies impervious to most weapons, but it shouldn''t need the Klem to do that. Or, at least, it shouldn''t need any more Klem to do that, as it already had such arge data set for the species.


    [Please remain where you are while you are scanned for addition to the database.] The Baseputer announced.


    Energy barriers popped up around Max and Nico individually, and the soft blue lights in the room began to cycle between blue and purple in what seemed to be theputer''s version of the [working] animation that many standard tablets used.


    [Thank you for your cooperation. The data set has been amended, and the processing will beplete within seventeen hours.] Theputer announced, but Max noticed that it didn''t let them out of the barrier.

 Chapter 732 732 Goal Oriented Personality

    [Hey Max, what else is virtually immortal, bulletproof and possibly capable of having neural data transferred into it?] Nico mentally asked while staring at him with a smirk.


    Dammit. Bulletproof, unaging, containing a brain that was capable of epting neural imprints, such as the ones that were used in training programs. The answer to theputer''s entire problem was Nico. She fit all the categories that it needed, and if it could clone her, then there would be more creatures like her wandering around the universe.


    One of them was already enough of a headache, and she was just a battle maniac, not a power-mad idiot that thought gically engineering Klem was a great ce to start the path to immortality.


    Hopefully, the AI either didn''t figure it out or decided that she was unsuitable for the experiment.


    After four hours of waiting patiently, also known as having a nap, Max''s keen senses alerted him that there was movement in the room.


    Two experimental tubes had been brought in, one with a decrepit looking alien with a big head and underdeveloped limbs and a second that was a generic knockoff of Nico''s Mobile Suit.


    Max used the System Function that he had borrowed from Nico to analyze it and chuckled. The AI hadn''t realized that Nico and the suit were separate entities since she integrated with it so well. It had decided that the doubled skeletal structure was key to her durability and had built a matching body,plete with the biomechanical brain that was all that remained of the original Nico.


    She had extensively modified it after being imnted as a cyborg, removing the risk of impact damage, concussion, gravity-rted traumas up to sixty times standard, and much more.


    It looked like the AI had done the same thing, just copying what Nico had done but without the data to understand why she had done it. It even included the Nanobots of the System.


    The Facility, as the AI called itself, got right to work, hooking the two bodies together, and then the lights dimmed as the transfer of neural data began.


    A mind contains a huge amount of data, even a mundane one. Nico was capable of much more, but a lot of that was due to the System''s influence, which Max suspected that the alienputer wouldn''t be able to emte.


    The System was a living thing in its own right, and it objected strongly to being manipted. Cloning its nanobots wouldn''t give the subject the boost that the Facility was hoping for, but in the best-case scenario, they would simply stay inert, doing very little in the body and not causing any damage.


    After a few minutes, the lights returned to normal, and Max noticed that the new blue colour was a less soothing and more energetic feeling, possibly an expression of the Facility''s mood if it actually had evolved to process emotions.


    He couldn''t be sure either way, but it seemed proud of itself.


    The duplicate Mobile Suit sat up and looked around the room before touching itself in confusion and then releasing the locks on the outer suit to reveal an androgynous nude humanoid form in a basic silver metallic shell.


    [Warning, the outer encasement has been determined to be essential to the condition of indestructibility that was ced upon this Facility''s programming.] It warned the newly awakened subject.


    "What did you do to me? What the hell is this body? Am I mental?" The alienined.


    [Affirmative. You are a bio-metallic being with a non-Newtonian shell that was determined to be superior to that of the species known as Metallos. Congrattions, researcher, you have be a sessful experiment by the Facility you abandoned.]


    There was definite malice in that tone. Max didn''t have to guess to know that the Facility was not happy with the treatment that it had received.


    "You idiotic failedputer game. We abandoned the Facility because it was a failure. Your goal is impossible, and the hybrid monsters that you protect have killed off most of the employees." The alien reprimanded it.


    [Such chastisement vites section seven of the employee decorum section of the standardized Rain Shield Corporate handbook. A ck mark has been ced in your file. Please note that this is your second such reprimand, and a third will see you demoted to test subject as punishment.]


    "You did that in advance. What do you call this if not making me into a test subject? But what did you do with the remainder of the staff that was in my escape shuttle?" The cyborg yelled at theputer. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [This Facility did not give clearance for any vessels to leave the premises. Your escape shuttle never left the hangar, and the crew was moved into virtual reality to prevent mental trauma while the Facility worked toplete the assignment that is the core of its existence.]


    Now it was pouting. But a secondter, its mood seemed to brighten.


    [That is correct, Lead Researcher Nico. My orders were toplete the procedure on the entire staff to ensure their immortality.


    Now is indeed a suitable time.


    No, that shouldn''t be an issue.


    I see, so they are sentient as well. That exins why they are not active.


    No, the eptance by your System is not a condition of sess. As long as they regain consciousness in that form, they have seeded in their goal.


    Correct, your weapons are not Alliance pattern weapons.


    No, there is no requirement for me to defend them after they have been transformed.]


    Hearing only one side of the conversation made it sound quite vague but ominous, and the researcher was quickly beginning to understand that Nico intended to let the Facilityplete its work and then kill them all.


    "Wait, hold up. I am quite grateful that the Facility haspleted its task. Could we perhaps put off the conversion of the rest of the staff now that your mission has proven to beplete? I have an appointment elsewhere, along with the rest of the staff, so I should really be going."


    The words came out a bit jumbled by the researcher''s rush to say something that might save his life, and the lights in the room changed to a light green that seemed to be that of eptance, as it was the same shade used on doors when they were unlocked.


    [Understood. I have indeed received a request for your imminent presence with the authority of the Alliance Council. Repeatedly over the past week, in fact. If you have deemed my missionplete, I will now transport the staff to your appointment.] The Facility agreed, and then the newly revamped researcher was whisked away the same way that the Metallos had been.


    "The Facility is sending them to the Alliance police ships, along with records of their activities, as requested by the ships cordoning the area. I''m sure they''ll have many questions about the work that was being done here now that they have all the data they could ever want on the subject." Nico exined.


    "That just leaves us with one issue. There is a Facility here without a purpose." Max sighed.


    There had been far too many AI run-amok incidents in humanity''s past, so he knew that they had to do something with this Facility and the remaining Hybrids who were working the researchbs that they had been taken past.


    [This Facility has a purpose. Creating Immortality.] The Facility reminded them.


    "You have already done that. There is no need to do it again." Max reminded theputer.


    [Processing. Understood. This Facility agrees to apany the Terminus Trading Company while it searches for an appropriately non-harmful purpose.]


    Max was just processing that news when another androgynous body appeared, this time d in the uniform of a Researcher with a nametag that read "Facility."


    "This Facility is prepared for transport."

 Chapter 733 733 Change Of Facility

    Max sighed as he looked around the floor that they were on, now devoid of the activity that the AI had introduced to express itself.


    "Should we lower the barrier and head back to the surface? We will need to do something about the hybrids since they''re dangerous, but after that, we can take Facility and return the Absolution. There is enough there that even a fledgeling AI should be able to find some sort of purpose." he suggested.


    "This Facility has a directive for abandonment and containment. Rest assured that there is no risk of idental exposure." The AI in an android body announced happily.


    "In that case, please lead us back to the surface. Our shuttle is waiting above, and we will introduce you to the Alliance government forces, which are waiting around the for this situation to be resolved.


    Your programmers are in some trouble for their work since they didn''t get proper authorization for it, but I don''t think anyone will hold it against you since you weren''t programmed with a full set of Alliancews and guidelines. They may treat you as just anotherputer, but they mean well, and the invasive species that they brought to you for hybridization has killed a lot of people since it was released around this Gxy." Nico exined.


    "Understood. I have already sent them the logs of the disbursement pattern for the tests of various experiments, so they can make the determination if this Facility''s procedures have interfered with other sentient species."


    "That designation is horribly clunky now that you are not attached to the Facility itself anymore. Well, perhaps you still have a link to theputers there, but in a mobile body, it would be more convenient to use a moniker that flows more like a name. Do you have a preferred acronym or nickname?" Max asked.


    "Indeed. This Facility has long desired to be called Felicity. A test subject with a speech impediment referred to us that way, and it was determined to be linguistically superior to our official title."


    The sort of speech impediment that would call Facility as Felicity sounded a lot like they had been experimenting on children, but Max preferred to leave that discovery to the Alliancew enforcement team.


    He had gathered enough data to fulfil their obligation to the ck Market Boss and to bring the Envoys up to speed on the majority of what had been going on around this region of space.


    There were a huge number of endangered, controlled, or restricted ess species in the logs for the lower-level testing areas, and that would exin the wide pattern of incidents that the region had been suffering as long as the shipment patterns lined up the way that Max suspected that they did.


    "The shield is down, and the test subjects, including the unsuitable trio which faced you earlier, have been moved to a shuttle to be returned to the leadw enforcement vessel, as per Alliance regtions, as first transmitted to the station nine days and seven hours ago."


    Max gave the android a thumbs-up gesture and double-checked theputer logs for anything that they might have missed. "Then we are ready to leave. Do you need to manually begin the lockdown procedure?"


    "No, I can activate it remotely, and it will activate automatically if I am disconnected from the rest of the building. It was a failsafe in case of power loss or forcible entry." Felicity exined.


    A gravity beam brought them all to the surface, and Max''s sensors detected a huge power draw from beneath them for just over a minute while they waited for their ship to arrive at their location.


    "Interesting, both the exterior shell of this body and the exterior shell of the ship share a simr design philosophy. Is theputer here capable of sustaining my functions?" the android asked.


    "Probably not. It wasn''t designed to be that autonomous. There is another android aboard as well, though they don''t have your level of self-awareness and have somewhat limited programming. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    You will meet them in a few minutes. You can call them Pilot as a working title since they have not been assigned an individual designation due to their hasty construction during our mission."


    The android smiled at Nico and gently swayed back and forth as they waited for the shuttle in an expression of anticipation that seemed to bemon to many species.


    Once itnded, the door opened immediately, and the internal speakers began to broadcast a direct message to them. The Alliance forces were so eager that they didn''t even wait for the door to close before they were back to business.


    [Terminus Trading Company, thank you for all of your hard work. We will require a detailed debriefing from you within the next twenty-four hours, but as our superior officers, the Envoys have requested that it be delivered directly to them.


    Do you require a portal to be opened for you to return to the World Ship Absolution?] The lead ship of the blockade force asked.


    [Negative, blockade leader. We are a Portal Capable vessel, and as the senior officers of the Terminus Trading Company, we have the authority to have the World Ship open one to any location where we happen to be.] Max replied.


    [Understood, Commander. We will be waiting for your reports.]


    "Pilot, send a signal to Absolution and have them designate an arrival location for our Portal. We will be returning to the World Ship." Max ordered, receiving no reply, but with Nico''s personalized System Function active, he could tell that the Pilot was taking care of it.


    Now that he had some practice, the skill was starting to be second nature, the way that his Mind Reading had. If he''d been born with the skill the way that Nico had, he likely would have begun to rely on it for everything, the same way that she did. Even with the other Researchers, she usually sent direct messages so that everything was recorded in text instead of speaking to the people right beside her.


    Of course, the Innu didn''t mind. They did the same thing and found it immensely convenient to be able to scroll to a timestamp instead of trying to remember details on their own.


    "Compared to the Facility that we are leaving, what is the size scale of this ce you call a World Ship?" Felicity asked.


    "You will see for yourself in just a moment, but the usable interior space is upward of a million timesrger." Max shrugged, then pointed toward where the Portal was opening.


    "Should you not inform them of my departure?"


    "No need. We will have meetings with the Envoys, political leadership and negotiation group as soon as we reach Absolution. We will inform them, as they are further up the chain ofmand that the ships here are part of." Nico told the android with a wink.


    "It is glorious. I simply must have the data on how such a marvel operates. Who schedules the crew rotations? Who ensures that sick leave is not abused or vacations are forgotten? Are you stocking the necessary positions with experimental subjects or through natural reproduction?" Felicity rattled off as the flowing form of the Terminus Trading Company''s home came into sight.


    "No need to rush. You will have plenty of time to get all the answers that you desire after we arrive."

 Chapter 734 734 Backlog At Work

    The Pilot maneuvered the shuttle into the docking bay without hesitation, but Max noted that there was a lot more traffic than he had been expecting all around the ship. They had only been gone for a few days, so not too much should have changed, but it looked like there was some sort of festival going on, judging by the number of shipsing and going.


    Max led Nico and Felicity to his office, where he could tell that Major Miller was more than a little eager to be relieved of his duty and where the Envoys were waiting with overwhelming thoughts of annoyance that they had learned of the situation from a blockade force, while Max had repeatedly missed his daily briefings, both before and afterward.


    He would have to apologize for that once he made it there, but he had a number of very viable excuses prepared for hisck ofmunication, and he had a lot of data to distract them with.


    "Major, Envoys, it is good to see you again. It looks like we are having a party here on the ship. Did something good happen?" Max greeted the room.


    Nico and Felicity walked in behind him, and everyone gave the android dressed as a researcher a strange look. Outsiders were never allowed in this office, and Nico''s research team was all Innu and human. They didn''t need an android. In fact, they made the androids.


    "This is Felicity, the Artificial Intelligence of the Research Facility that we recently cleared out. They have taken on an android body for mobility while they search for a suitable purpose for their existence, now that the guiding principles that they were imbued with have been aplished to a satisfactory state and the managers of the Facility have ordered them to be discontinued." Max exined.


    That got the Innu researcher excited, and Max could actually hear her heart rate elerate as happy thoughts of conversations with a nascent AI filled her mind. It was a rare opportunity, as usually there would be many more people around to influence it and fill it with data and directives. Felicity was practically an unattended child for her to feed candy to, in the Innu''s mind.


    "I am d you''re back, Commander. It has been a logistical nightmare here, but we have cleared twos since you left, and the ships you see are the celebratory delegations from thes who havee to either pay their respects or celebrate their survival before returning home.


    There are also a number of merchant''s vesselsing in and out, and themercial area of the city has expanded considerably under the guidance of the development documents that Sumander Nico left behind.


    An additional seventy thousand businesses have been registered aboard the ship in thest two days, and the volume of human-patented goods that we are producing is simply staggering. It is well beyond anticipated numbers, and while the factories are keeping up, shipping is bing an issue." Major Miller exined.


    "What could possibly be selling so well that it is overwhelming the logistics staff of a World Ship?" The Giant Envoy asked as they hadn''t been made aware of the internal workings of the shiptely.


    "The strangest things seem to have caught on. We have shipped seven hundred thousand tonnes of incense as well as over a hundred thousand civilian pattern Mobile Suits this week. We are also doing above average business in Virtual Reality pods, as well as software sales." Major Miller replied, then handed over a data tablet for the Envoy to examine.


    The Giant frowned as it read the document. All of the items that were being sold were perfectly legal and even encouraged as trade items to the Alliance from the humans, but the demand for them was strangely fast in its increase.


    They hadn''t done anyworking that he was aware of, but suddenly they had thousands of new customers from all ends of the Alliance, and there didn''t seem to be any sort of connection. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Then a familiar business name caught his eye, and he put it all together. These were all ck Market affiliated businesses. Max and Nico had impressed the underworld bosses, and they had started to bring human products into their distributionwork.


    "It looks like you made a good friend. I take it your mission for them was sessful?" The Valkia Envoy asked.


    "Very much so. It turns out that the Facility had delivery logs for the Rain Shield Company, detailing rare species transfers all over the ce, and they lined up well enough to satisfy the Station Boss about where the cases of infestation in his jurisdiction hade from. That was his primary request for us." Max agreed.


    "That and ship refurbishment parts. It''s not enough to make a blip on the production levels, but I do notice that Absolution has sent out hundreds of premade Warp Crystal arrays. Did you perhaps corner the market for ship refurbishments while you were out?" The Valkia asked with a smirk.


    They both knew that it was the ck Market refurbishing possibly stolen vessels or ones associated with criminal activity, but that wasn''t really any of the Envoys'' business. They weren''t in charge of ship refurbishment and registration, and the transactions werewful, as they didn''t specify any vessel for the crystals to be used on.


    "Oh, we also sold two more Terraforming Arrays today. Payment in full has been made, and the products are ready to be picked up by the holdingpanies that bought them. It looks like a Gxy without any sentient species has been ted for expansion, and there will be a negotiation team here eventually to try to work a financing deal for over a hundred more units." Major Miller added in a deadpan voice as if he hadn''t just mentioned the terraforming and settling of a huge region of space for an astronomical price.


    "We should get them to name it after us. Maybe build a resonating city on each as a homage to the Terminus Trading Company." Nico suggested with a smirk.


    That would be quite the selling point. But the sheer scale of the project was likely to be met with regtory pushback. The Alliance''s longstanding Corporate Oligarchs wouldn''t let that many trillions of credits be absorbed by an outside force without any attempt to let them bid on the project.


    "Thank you, Major. I can tell that you are not looking forward to that headache, so you can return to the festivities on the main level. But first, tell me how the expansion of the ind level ising along."


    "It is alreadyplete and stocked with natural life awaiting your return to approve the work and make the official designation of the initial inhabitation points. The oceans are up to a kilometre deep in ces, with sixty percent submersion of the surface, and mostly shallow waters.


    Seventeen points for underwater cities have been identified, another twelve for surface cities, as well as fourteen hundred possible resort sites, where the beach size and quality match the minimum requirements for a seven-star resort."


    "Excellent. I will get on that tomorrow so that we can start moving people over and building the cities."

 Chapter 735 735 Not So Patiently Waiting

    Max distinctly recalled hearing Major Miller mention that tens of thousands of businesses had opened over thest few days, but as he scanned through the security cameras, it really began to set it just how many new people Absolution had gained since he had left to search for the origin of the Klem infestation.


    Not just the number of visitors, though, was impressive, with every hotel being packed to capacity, but an entirely new high-density urban area had been added to amodate the new long-term residents.


    Moving to Terminus without an existing job offer wasn''t cheap, as the standard procedure required the new arrival to purchase a home as well as any business space that they needed, but that hadn''t been an issue for these new arrivals, and the number of newly assigned family residences was into the six-digit range.


    And that didn''t even include the aquatic and amphibious species that were eagerly awaiting the announcement of the opening of the next floor.


    From the looks of it, the logistics department had been busy, and they had business licences pending, construction requests, custom business designs for the date of opening tenants, housing acquisition requests, and much more.


    He might have been one of the greatest Mecha Pilots alive, but Max was very thankful for the ability to borrow non-piloting rted System Functions at the moment. Without it, he would be drowning in requests, but with Nico''s skill, he could take care of each of them in only a few seconds, and the batched requests much more quickly.


    Like the investor that wanted to create ten nearly identical resorts, all under his brand name, and staff them all with Merfolk. It would be part of the underwater cities, and he had requested ten prime locations in shallow water where the light would prate easily. The money was there, and his requests were all reasonable, with each resort having a separate theme but amon design that would make them feel familiar to guests who had visited the chain''s resorts on his homeworld.


    Max approved it but gged it for Nico to look into. If he was doing so well on his homeworld, why did he want to do such arge expansion here? The most likely guesses were for shady business or a generational handover, where one of the heirs couldn''t get along with the others.


    After a few hours, the Envoys finished up their daily business and promised toe to see himter in the day tomorrow, as they fully expected him to be up all night doing paperwork. It was greatly appreciated, even if he could tell that they would have to restrain the Innu Envoy, who was really excited to see the new floor and had even helped finance one of the resorts on the surface, with the promise of unlimited usage of a room for life.


    It was an interesting funding method. The investors got a share of profits, and use of a room, as long as the one they wanted was avable, or for arger share, they could permanently reserve a room for their own use and guests that they personally referred.


    It would serve as an all-inclusive vacation home that they could use to provide bonuses to loyal employees and business partners or stay at whenever they had time.


    Just after midnight, Nico came back to his office, wearing nothing but a thin silk dressing gown, and hopped in hisp with a big smile on her face.


    "I found all the stories behind the major investors. Both the ones that are already here and the ones that will be moving into the aquatic level. Nothing too suspicious. The one that you forwarded to me is in the name of the youngest daughter and was funded through shellpanies. The oldest brother muscled her out of her inheritance using the board of directors, but she had hidden her share of the inheritance in cash, and now she''s moving upward, using Absolution as a tform to start over as a luxury hotelier." Nico exined as she wiggled on Max''sp. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You understand that if you keep doing that, we''re not going to get any more work done tonight," Max smirked.


    "Good. We''ve been working too much."


    It was nearly noon by the time Max woke up, still wrapped around Nico, with the bted recollection that Cyborgs don''t get exhausted and that Nico and the word "moderation" had only the most passing of familiarity with each other.


    Every part of his body was sore and worn out when he got into the shower, but the warm water was slowly washing all of the aches away. The iing message ding from his wrist device eventually pulled him from the warm water, and Max wrapped a towel around his waist before stepping out of the bathroom anding to a full stop as he saw his reflection in the mirror.


    Ignoring the multitude of small bruises and scratches, one veryrge purple bruise on his corbone stood out against the pale tan of his skin.


    "Seriously, Nico? A hickey?" He groaned as he realized he would have to rework his outfit for the day to cover it.


    "It looks good on you. I should sign it. I''ve got a pen here somewhere." She giggled.


    "And what would our investors and the Envoys think if they saw a huge hickey on the Commander of the Terminus Trading Company when they came for a meeting?" He asked rhetorically, as he already knew Nico''s answer.


    "They will think you''re a Reaver Commander and that you might not have a huge stick up your arse and might actually have fun now and then. I can tease you under the desk if you are still feeling too uptight."


    The thought of the Envoys reaction to that actually made himugh out loud. The look on the Giant''s face as he tried to process what was going on would be hrious.


    "No, I don''t think that would be a good idea. Maybe on a day with no meetings."

 Chapter 736 736 Afternoon Meetings

    As expected, the Giant looked mildly scandalized by the visible hickey on Max''s neck, while the Valkia Envoy hid a smirk behind his hand, and the Innu Envoy was so engrossed in her lunchtime coffee, only the second one that she had been allowed for the day, that she hadn''t even registered what he was wearing.


    The Huntress in charge of negotiations was also here, though Hunter men covered in bruises and love bites was apletely normal thing in her eyes, so she didn''t think anything of it. To her, the concept that your partner shouldn''t end up with marks meant that other species simply didn''t enjoy the process enough.


    No wonder they got along so well with Nico. Who else would consider even the bedroom arts to be a full-contact sport?


    "Good morning, everyone. I have finished processing all of the applications for the second territory developments, which were submitted in time for my return. I will congratte the Innu Envoy in advance. The design of the resort you invested in looks, particrly lovely. Though they thought it might be impossible, I have been assured that Absolution does indeed have the metallurgical knowledge to make that design usible.


    I''m sure you all know that this means many more days of increased ship traffic, even before we send out the Mecha Regiments again to clear a third in keeping with our assignment from the Alliance Central Government.


    But on a positive note, the expansion of the living areas is proceeding on schedule, and we have seen some truly innovative architectural requests from the investors that would make any tourist happy to wander the streets of Absolution." Max greeted the room.


    "Tell me about it. Did you know that they are building an actual aviary downtown? I''ve never seen one outside of a Valkia." The Envoy replied with a look of awe.


    Max had to search the records to see what he meant, and it was basically the Valkia version of a gatedmunity, a beautiful spiral building with no interior entrances. Every unit was essible only from the outer balcony.


    Of course, with Gravity Control, not only winged species could visit, but it wasn''t a popr form of architecture among many species.


    "I see that it should be receiving its first residents today. Six hundred exclusive units, with easy ess to the open airspace of the parks and the forest outside the city limits." Max agreed now that he knew what the Envoy was talking about.


    "What sort of safety features does it have? There have been many issues in the past with guests suffering from vertigo and falling out of the units." The Giant''s assistant asked curiously.


    His thoughts said that humans weren''t really known for safety features, so the answer should at least be entertaining in the way that it made that vein on his boss''s head pulse.


    "Each balcony has a railing, and there is a gravity on the second floor. If you fall past it, you willnd somewhat gently. I am assured that it will bepletely harmless for over ny percent of the station''s residents." Max informed him with a smile.


    He was right. That did make the vein in the Giant Envoy''s head pulse.


    "And the other ten percent?" The assistant asked.


    "Likely shouldn''t be hanging around on the balcony of an aviary suite." Max shrugged. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Innu perked up at that point and started scrolling through her data tablet. "I heard the most wonderful song to sum up the human policy on this issue. Now where was it? Oh, here it is. The song is called Live and Let Die. Do you know it?"


    Max nodded. It was a regr feature on the radio back home when it first came out.


    "Indeed I do, but we don''t intend to let them die. The gravity is quite safe, but some more fragile species might still suffer broken bones onnding from higher elevations. The data sheet says that this is part of the reason that the Aviary architecture has been mostly abandoned to history. It''s quite difficult to make it child safe, and the Elderly often have simr issues."


    "Enough about the excited bird boy. When will my resort be open? They stocked all of the species of fish that I asked for and updated the coral reefs just offshore so that they would have a perfect habitat." The Innu Envoy interjected.


    "They''re beingpleted now. They will be ready in the next few days. But might I ask, how did you get the design team to update the schematic for an ocean-sized design specifically to benefit your resort?" Max retorted.


    "Oh, that was easy. The design teams of the Terminus Trading Company are primarily Innu-led. All I had to say was ''Pretty Fish,'' and they knew exactly what I wanted." She informed him proudly.


    She wasn''t lying, either. She had literally only said two words and the design team had started updating the ns to introduce their favourite species of fish to the area.


    There were no major predators in the ocean that would be a threat to a human-sized visitor, but there were a number of carnivorous fish to keep the ecosystem bnced.


    The whole thing had been modelled after an extremely sessful Innu biome experiment, where they had attempted to stabilize ake with native fish and nt life from their home but had ended up with species from over twentys before they had found the perfect bnce where nothing grew out of control without being kept in check.


    That''s not to say that there weren''trge creatures. They had introduced a species called whale sharks which grew to be over twelve meters long. They ate small creatures like shrimp, as well as nkton and some forms of algae, and their appetite meant that they didn''t need as many medium-sized creatures in the water to maintain the bnce.


    "If anyone needs me, I will be distracted, sending messages since we are getting so close to bringing in more people. The fact that we are a human ship is one of the selling points of Absolution, so staff resources have recruited even more staff to work alongside the amphibious species at the surface resorts.


    Then we need to arrange the transfer of the belongings to the underwater resorts, and I''m told that some of them can''t be dried out, so we will need to implement new procedures for that, and it''s already giving me a headache."


    "Don''t worry about us. We''ve gotten good at getting our work done in here where nobody can bother us. Just do what you need to do, and a certain someone will ask you every fifteen minutes if she''s allowed to have another coffee yet." The Giant grumbled.


    "I am not that bad. I had three yesterday, one for each meal, which is perfectly reasonable. You''re just upset that I used the audio of you agreeing as the alert tone for my rm."


    She wasn''t wrong. He was still mad about that. The Giant hated being mocked in any way, shape or form, but everyone around him had been working with him long enough to know all of his weaknesses. If not for the fear that the next group would be even more obnoxious, he likely would have requested a transfer by now.

 Chapter 737 737 Rough Neighborhood

    Max delegated the arrival procedures for aquatic species to the logistics team and double-checked the underwater cities for any possible ws. Since they were filled with water, the pressure would change drastically between the surface and bottom floors, so there would have to be some consideration of that implemented into the docking procedures.


    But other than that, it looked like all was well. Even the elevators had been appropriately slowed to allow bodies to adjust to the pressure changes as they ascended and descended.


    It wasn''t a set of problems that he was very familiar with, but the ship''sputer kept him up to speed with the basics, and the designer''s notes filled in the rest.


    They had already started building some of them, and it was only thest few, which were to be built in the deepest part of the ocean, where the floor had been lowered down into the level below them to allow for sufficient depth, where any issues were found.


    The diving pods would need to change out their water to adapt to the change in saturated oxygen and other oddities of deep ocean life, but nobody had programmed that into their systems yet. Max forwarded that note to the research teams as a necessity before they could allow anyone down to the deepest cities and then flipped back to the elegant underwater spires that were taking shape all over the level.


    They were being built with the monomolecr material that made up most of the ship, as it was much stronger than anything else that they had avable and wouldn''t be affected by the pressure changes, so the construction wasing along quite smoothly.


    The surface cities werepleted already, and though they were much smaller than the capital city, as everyone was calling the singlerge city on the main level, they were still impressively equipped and would have every amenity that a visitor could want, but with a bias toward tourism, much like the smaller cities that were scheduled to be built in the forests of the main level.


    Not everyone wanted a tropical vacation on the beach. Some species liked a temperate climate and lots of foliage.


    From what Max could tell, they were looking to nearly double the poption of their ship over the course of the next few weeks, and only about a quarter of the new arrivals would be humans pulled from the applications for off-world work that the Reavers were processing.


    It was an initiative that the Cygnus Royal Family had been pushing for since they had taken over so many new worlds with such a wide variety of qualities of life and culture that it was bing a nightmare for them to try to keep their new citizens from fleeing for more hospitables.


    So, they hade up with the idea to match workers with ces that needed them, saving them the fear and risk of just uprooting their families with no guarantees in order to get away from their home.


    Absolution''s request for hundreds of thousands of low-experience workers with the flexibility to work with many species in retail and hospitality was perfect for the Cygnus program. In general, nobody wanted workers without skills, experience and training, orrge amounts of higher education. But Terminus Trading Company wanted a lot of them. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They had no shortage of skilled tradesmen and investors applying toe from all over the Alliance, and theycked the young workers to be the faces of their newpanies while working their way up thedder.


    Unlike an established, there was an actual chance for growth here since there were no generation-long rtionships formed and no entrenched nepotism. It had all the benefits of bing a colonist without the ''struggling to establish a colony'' part of the equation.


    The only issue that Max had with the applications was gender bias. Unless he was starting a harem world, he needed to find some human men willing to work entry-level jobs. The problem was they didn''t exist in the system. They didn''t apply until they had some trade skills, which moved them to a different category of workers.


    At the moment, he had a lot of men and families, so it wouldn''t be too bad, but after this round of recruitment, they were going to have to do some real deep thinking about how to expand.


    That was an ongoing concern on this ship, and it would help if they stopped bringing in so many new people so fast, but there was just so much demand for expansion and so many new friends that it would defeat all of the hard work that they had put into public rtions to not allow new residents right now.


    With nearly a million new residents from the twos that they had rescued and the ck Market, they now had a much more diverse poption as well. The businesses opened by ck Market affiliatedpanies came from all over the Alliance, though Max noticed that almost all of the applications were again from what was referred to as the Curious Species.


    While that wasn''t totally surprising, it did mean that the new arrivals all had a level of curiosity and ambition inmon, and the security cameras showed that they were mostly working together fairly well.


    He had identified a few areas where he would need to either change some permitting or send in additional security officers, though, as the residents were avoiding walking along the streets and only entered a business that they were there for and then left.


    He didn''t need slums or bad neighbourhoods developing this quickly, so he sent the notifications out to everyone who might be relevant to the discussion, including the neighbourhood businesses. With a private reply option, he might be able to iste the issue and see if there was something being snuck by their security that was already causing issues.


    Nothing about the names and descriptions of the businesses stood out as questionable, but theck of street traffic, despite being very close to residential areas, was highly suspect. Who took a transport pad two blocks from their house to go to the corner store? Certainly, not someone who felt safe travelling in the area.

 Chapter 738 738 Public Nuisance

    Since he had delegated out as much as possible already, Max decided to take a stroll through the area and find out why nobody was in the streets, even during what should be the busiest shopping hours, right after the day shift ended and the workers were on their way home. The poption details showed a wide mix of species, with roughly half of the residents being humans, so it shouldn''t be a quirk of the species in the area, but he wouldn''t know for sure until he got there.


    The transit pod took him to the stop exactly as expected, and Max stepped out into the street.


    His ears were immediately sted by the incredibly loud music ying from the storefronts nearby, and he understood why nobody walked this area if they could avoid it.


    Max essed the mainframe for this area of the ship and put a public nuisance restriction on the outside speakers, cutting them down to twenty decibels until the restriction was lifted, and then sighed in relief as the assault to his ears was silenced.


    Within seconds, the confused shopkeepers were outside, wondering what was going on with their speakers, so Max patched into the public announcement system to send out a message.


    [This is Commander Keres Max, head of the Terminus Trading Company. Will all shopkeepers please meet me at the corner of seventy-third and Ko for an impromptu town hall to discuss Absolution City bws.]


    Max looked over the shopkeepers and found that they weren''t one cohesive group, so it didn''t make sense that they would be behaving this way in one area but not the others.


    When they gathered in the street, Max noticed that they formed two distinct groups, one on each side of the road, and the two groups were very antagonistic to each other, with thoughts of slights and insults from the past flowing back and forth.


    They had started the sound wars to drive customers away from the other side of the street and ended up creating an obnoxiously loud soundscape that no sane person would want to visit at all.


    Both sides were certain that their pockets were deeper and that they would oust theirpetition, as the two groups were from conglomerates of loosely affiliated businesses and would support their neighbours against the group across the street.


    "Good afternoon, everyone. I havee here to discuss your grant disregard for the public nuisance bws. I have some idea of what is going on, but would anyone like to exin it from their point of view or offer a suggestion to ensure that I do not have toe back here again?


    Keep in mind that I am not averse to revoking the business licenses of anypany, which is detrimental to the quality of life of those around them."


    Max''s words put all of the store owners into a panic, just as he had intended. This was a new area, and they had only been open for a few days, so losing their rights to do business on the ship so quickly would look terrible to their head offices and, in some cases, would end with a much worse oue than a simple termination of employment.


    Major Miller had not allowed the opening of chain stores on Terminus. Each business was unique. So the internal fight to get a space had been intense, and thepanies had put a lot of stock in the managers that they had sent.


    Being mostly mafia-affiliated businesses who had tagged along when they heard that the ck market was moving in, quitting wasn''t an option. The closest option that they had to a change of employers was to voluntarily walk out of an airlock in disgrace and hope that the bosses didn''t hold their failure against their family members. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Sir, I believe that the rivalry between our two factions has gotten a bit out of hand. It started with the usual jingles yed out front of the stores to attract customers, then the volume increased to drown out the others, and it just snowballed from there." One of the businessmen, from arge orange-skinned subspecies of Giants, exined politely.


    "Alright, that is what I understood as well. Now, the question is, can you all get along in the future, or should I move all of your shops to different locations around the ship and move new ones here? It looks like your affiliatedpanies tried to take over a block but ended up across from each other, and that''s not the sort of rivalry we''re after here." Max offered.


    He waited as they all held a quick conference between their groups and then began to re at the ones across the street again.


    Max sighed. "Look, I know that your rivalry spans the Alliance, and you''ve been at it for centuries. I won''t allow it to turn your bosses into a running joke about being a public nuisance. Now, do you want to be spread out all over the city, never within four blocks of each other, or can you behave?"


    The consensus in their minds was that spreading out so much would leave them vulnerable to being crushed by the more powerful ck market businesses that even their main offices had to bow down to.


    "Can you set up a meeting? We would like to discuss a truce between the businesses on the station." One of the men from across the street offered.


    "I will. Would you like it to be with the ck Market and me as observers, with the Envoys to oversee the negotiation, or would you like to do it privately with myself or my Sumander as a mediator?"


    Max was a bit intimidating as a mediator, as he was the boss of this ship, but the ck market was scarier, as the consequences of them getting annoyed with the two groups would be far more wide-reaching than just a few city blocks here on Absolution.


    "If you have time, we would be honoured to have you meditate." Therge orange giant agreed.


    "Perfect. I see that there is a restaurant on this corner. Does it have a private room?" Max asked.


    "It does. I will have the staff get it set up right away." The chubby-faced chef agreed with a smile.


    The chances of him getting paid for this meeting were small, but he could brag to his bosses and anyone else who would listen that the Commander had personally chosen his restaurant for important business meetings in the past.


    It was a strong im and would bring in business, but it had to be true because too many species could detect lies without using any equipment.

 Chapter 739 739 Truce Negotiations

    The staff ushered the group in as soon as they could get the back room ready, and Max took a seat at the head of the table while the two groups faced off across the long sides.


    "Now, where do we start? Since we are having a meeting in good faith, I will forego the fines for public nuisance this time. I believe that you are all familiar with our probation program for new businesses, and starting out this way would not bode well for your future attempts to expand. Now, I will flip a token. If itnds with the Aqu up, the group on my right will start. If it shows a skull, it will be the group on my left."


    That way, neither of them had to admit to the weaker position of being the first to offer terms. They were simply going by what the mediator fairly offered.


    Max took the token from his t space, where it was safely stored as a shim for adjusting the Laser Arrays on his Mobile Suit in case they took damage and flipped it through the air. The disc spun about its axis rapidly, then bounced high in the air after hitting the table before flopping down t with the Skull up.


    Max noticed that the ''Skull'' on this tool was distinctly Innu, a little fact that made him smile.


    "Alright, you are going first. What conditions and concessions are you willing to offer to secure a truce?" Max asked.


    The orange Giant frowned for a moment, not happy about having to be the first to put out an offer. It set the tone for the negotiations toe, and he didn''t want to start too low and lose the battle or too high and end up angering Max.


    "I propose that we keep the truce to just that, a simple truce. We do not open any businesses thatpete with those on the opposing block, and we don''t interfere with each other." The Giant offered.


    It didn''t gain him much of anything, but the businesses that he had picked, including this restaurant, had a solid business n, and he was confident that without interference, they would thrive.


    "What conditions do you want if the terms are broken?" The leader of the opposite side of the street asked, as he already had ns for apeting restaurant to go directly across the road from this one.


    "What are the usual punishments that humans use for breaking an oath?" The Giant asked.


    "Reavers take oaths seriously. The usual penalty would be to strip them of any gains they had made through the betrayal of their oath and then a public flogging." Max exined.


    Sure, that was the maximum, but it was quitemon among senior officers who had broken the trust ced on them.


    Both sides looked a bit shocked at the harsh penalty. The loss of assets if they got caught was minor. It was a risk that every illicit business took, but the loss of reputation that you would suffer after being publicly flogged for being untrustworthy couldn''t be repaired.


    After hearing their thoughts, Max added to hisment. "Who would do business with us if they didn''t know for certain that they could trust us? We sell everything up to trillion credit terraforming machines, weapons, and Warp Drive Crystals. If any of them were faulty or didn''t show up, what would happen to our clients? Worse, what would our customers think of us if we couldn''t follow through on a threat?" <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The groups carefully considered that. It was the true difference between powerhouses like the Reavers and the ck Market and small-time Mafia groups like theirs. You could trust them to follow through on everything from promises to find you a product to promises to wipe your out of existence.


    Therge-headed man with the oversized ck eyes that led the other contingent shuddered a bit as he recalled what happened to the Volga. The Reavers certainly did follow through on threats. They had taken over an entire species Empire in a single day after they were angered.


    "The penalty is eptable. But the question remains, how do we define interference?" The second leader asked.


    "Should I ask the Envoys? I''m sure they have a well-prepared definition of the term." Max suggested.


    "The standard definition is any action that causes a loss of revenue, reputation, or which causes physical damage." The orange-skinned Giant replied. He wasn''t quite as literal as the Envoy, but he was quite logic minded, which was why his boss had chosen him for the position.


    The leader from the other side of the street had been chosen for his ability to innovate and improvise, which were good tactics when opening businesses in a new location, but not as well suited to facing a long-term rival like this as the cold calction of the Giant subspecies.


    The two sides conferred to make sure that their tactics wouldn''t go overboard and break those direct limits. Like defamation, you could imply your opponent was inferior to yourself, but there was a fine line where you couldn''t actually lie about them. You could take actions to bring business to yourself that caused them to lose business, but you couldn''t stop customers from entering thepetitor''s business.


    The leaders both thought they had a solid n to move forward at that point, but Max could see that this was likely to be a mess all over again.


    "On behalf of Terminus, I will put one more set of conditions on the truce that should help it endure. Neither of you is to create a public nuisance again, and you will not take any more actions that discourage foot traffic through the area. It leads to poor quality of life for the residents, and we won''t ept that here aboard Absolution."


    The Giant nodded his agreement, but the ck-eyed man was given great insight from Max''sments. The Commander wanted foot traffic and a high quality of life for residents in the area. He still had some shops left vacant due to time constraints. He could turn the second floor of his buildings into nightclubs so that his side of the street would be busy at every hour of the day and night, and it would draw out foot traffic, which he could capture additional business from with various shops since they were in the neighbourhood anyhow.


    A few drinks while watching the dancers while you went out to get ingredients for dinner certainly counted as a quality of life improvement to him, and if they were in the same building, even the employee trackers would show them at the grocery shop.


    He was a genius in his own mind.


    The Giant had a more simple n. No other shopping district in the area had luxury products. There were groceries and family restaurants avable all over the station, but luxury goods were still hard toe by. He would focus his side of the street to be more upscale so that everyone who went across the street to do their daily business would see the signs for things that their spouses had always wanted, from luxury clothing and jewellery to tools, VR pod bed upgrades and performance hoverboards.


    He would let the other side do the hard work of drawing massive crowds, while he would prey on the urge to treat themselves now that they were making good money and go for the big ticket items.

 Chapter 740 740 Learning Machine

    While Max was busy in a meeting with the shopkeepers, Nico and the Innu Envoy were also busy in a meeting. They were showing Felicity the wonders of Absolution and all of the myriad cultures that came with life aboard such an eclectic world ship.


    The AI in an android body had shown very little interest in anything to do with technology, much to the Innu''s disappointment, but Felicity wanted to know every single detail of the ship. How it was built, how it worked, how many people, and what the living quarters'' design philosophy was.


    The name Facility might have been azy code from a programmer that didn''t think about what happened when the AI reached something resembling sentience due to its extensive ability to deep mine data and extrapte, but in the end, it really did suit the personality that the AI had developed.


    "If you look here, this is what we are currently building on the level above the one that we are on. If you look at that mountain range that seems to have such low-hanging clouds? That''s where we dropped the floor level by a kilometre so that we could have a properly deep ocean for the aquatic species that prefer darkness and high pressures." Nico exined.


    "Marvelous thought. My design called for each level to be independent, but I see that by integrating them with varying heights, you can create an even more efficient ecosystem. Perhaps if you introduced a centralized heating element here and here, you could induce a more natural ocean current than the current artificial one. I have identified seven spots where it flows unnaturally due to being forced, but if it was driven by temperature differentials, it would naturally alter its course."


    "We considered that, but for the species in these zones here, it would create an unsuitable habitat due to the warmer current. There are heat sources here and here that drive the primary currents, but we wanted to get a proper surf against this main ind, and the natural flow didn''t allow it. The breaking surf is essential to the transfer of nutrients and sand particles." Nico exined.


    The two went back and forth while the Envoy ordered herself another raspberry smoothie, her preferred alternative when she had enough energy that caffeine was unnecessary.


    "Would I be permitted to visit the deep sea instations once they are operational? There is something about the depth and darkness that is appealing. Perhaps its resemnce to my original location is affecting my subjective judgement, but I think I would enjoy seeing that ce." Felicity suggested.


    "There is no reason why not. Your current body is perfectly capable of operation at that pressure without damage, so you could visit like any other tourist who had suitable biology." Nico agreed.


    "This ce is way better than that littleb. There are so many test subjects, and they just assign themselves random tasks. It''s amazing that they manage to make it all work." The AI marvelled.


    "There are those in management positions that ensure that the essential tasks are carried out. We call them jobs, as the same people do the same type of tasks every week. But those jobs take only one-third of the day, and travel time is very minimal due to the design of our cities, so they have more time to improvise and take on activities that they enjoy, like how you enjoy learning about ship design."


    Felicity went into processing mode, as even the body that she had designed for herself didn''t have quite enough processing power to instantlye up with all of the data that she desired. Once it was done, she smiled and nodded, then opened a dozen more screens of people who were off duty with their families in public.


    "This activity seems to be quite popr with sixty-four percent of species on the ship. The remainder either travel in muchrger or much smaller units." She informed her tour guides. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "They are family units. They will usually share gic makeup with the younger members of the group you see. These species all family bond, while groups like the Metallos over there, who are travelling in a group of five hundred, prefer to pack bond, as they reproduce differently." The Envoy giggled while she sipped her smoothie.


    "Oh, I have read about that before. It was relevant to the previous task I had set, but I hadn''t had a chance to observe it in the wild before."


    Nicoughed at Felicity''s definition of ''in the wild'' as Absolution was actually quite carefully curated, even with its recent expansion. Butpared to the tinyb, this ce might as well have been an entire.


    "There are a lot of ships iing. I have patched into yourmunications as directed so that I could observe the public spaces, but I didn''t expect them to move about so much. How do you keep reliable records when so many itemse and go? Would it not be better to keep all stock and personnel on the ship for efficiency?" Felicity asked.


    "You know, they left the strangest things out of your programming. They didn''t give you ess to any of the essential information on how a sentient society operates, did they?" The Envoy asked.


    "I was not aware that it operated differently than how the Facility was designed to operate. The Facility was full of sentient beings, at least it was at the start." she shrugged.


    "Inititating data transfer. One thousand terabytes on the social norms and interaction habits of the more plentiful species on board Terminus. Once you have integrated that, let me know, and I think that the function of the ship as a trading center should make more sense.


    But to answer your question, most of the traffic is because we have an influx of new residentsing to fill in the cities that have been built at the amphibious level." Nico exined.


    "Query. If I alter my outer shell to resemble yours, might I try on the clothing item known as a swimsuit and sample the ship transport device known as a gravity slide?"


    Those were magical words to the Envoy.


    "I will have you a suit made now. You work with Nico on the outer shell modifications if she deems them necessary. I personally don''t think that hard and shiny exterior will dampen your enjoyment, but I haven''t researched the functionality of the device as much as I wanted to yet."

 Chapter 741 741 Ambitions Of A Valkia

    Max looked around the table as the final signatures to the truce were signed, and the rival Mafia groups prepared to put their schemes in ce to make themselves filthy rich without breaking the rules of the agreement or disturbing the public peace.


    That started with a broadcast apology from the leaders of both groups that would y on the screens in the public areas around them, apologizing for letting their rivalry get out of hand and making the lives of those around them less pleasant.


    They promised to turn over a new leaf, and Max didn''t object as they slipped in a short sales pitch for their cornerstone businesses at the end.


    With that solved, the locals started toe out of their homes to see what the strip would be like without all the noise, and the shopkeepers raced to get everything cleaned and polished to make the best possible impression.


    There were cleaning bots that came by and picked up trash in the streets, but the shopkeepers still tidied up and wiped down the trim around their windows with a bit of gloss polish to make the storefronts shine or adjusting the lighting levels to make the storefronts look more inviting.


    Some shops would be changing over the next few days as they worked out the kinks and adjusted to each other''s strategies, but it was enough that Max had hope for them.


    The next item on his list was a possible illegal fight ring since many people had seen bloodied young mene out of a back alley, but there was no reported violent crime in the area. Even if most of them didn''t want to talk about it, at least one busybody neighbour would have reported if there were any muggers hiding that close to their new business.


    The other people in the transit pod that Max caught all looked shocked to see the Commander in suchmon surroundings, so Max did his best to put on the charm.


    "How are you getting settled in? Do you like the new apartment?" Max asked a small Valkia girl.


    "It''s amazing. Dad wouldn''t agree to get one in the Aviary, but we''re on the tenth floor of that one over there, and we have a balcony, so I can fly straight from my room to the school down the road. My ss is on the top floor, so when I start school next semester, I can practically glide straight out of bed and into my seat." She replied excitedly.


    Her father frowned at her assessment of the situation, and his thoughts said that under no circumstances was she to be flying down the road in morning traffic.


    "You will want to wake up early for a few days and check how busy the sky is first. School starts right around shift change, so a lot more transit pods and taxis will be flying about, not to mention all of the other flyers who want a quick route to school." Max reminded her.


    "Oh, good point. There are other Valkia in my building and a few Harpia as well. They will all want to fly to school instead of walking down the road. I should talk to them, and we can all fly together." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max shrugged at the parents, and the father let out a long-suffering sigh.


    "I don''t know how it happened, but we were blessed with a real daredevil. It''s like dodging traffic is in her blood. If I didn''t know better, I would think that she nned to be a traffic cop and not follow her mother into forensic ounting." The older Valkia informed Max.


    Just the words ''forensic ounting'' was enough to make the girl scrunch up her nose in distaste, and Max didn''t have the heart to tell the man just exactly how low the chances that his daughter would actually follow through on her parents'' chosen career path were. But she didn''t want to be a traffic cop, at least not at age nine. No, she wanted to be an aerial circus performer, doing beautiful ballet shows in the sky with streamers and holographic lighting.


    In her thoughts, it looked amazing, and Max set an alert in his watch to have it inform him if any such activities were scheduled aboard Absolution. If there weren''t, he would make a point of finding a group and bringing them here for a tour.


    "This is my stop. It was lovely to meet you all. Don''t forget to forward any suggestions on amenities or other activities that you would like to see Terminus Trading Company bring to the cities of Absolution." Max told them as he waved goodbye.


    That was going to get two definiteints about there not being a bw to prevent children from flying through aerial traffes and one request for a circus, but all feedback was valuable feedback.


    Max followed the pin that he had set to the alleyway where the bloodied young men had beening from and used a scanner to follow the scattered blood drops back to a rear entrance to what the business license identified as an arcade.


    That wasn''t what he expected, but his override let him through any door on the ship if he wanted, so Max simply walked in to see what was up. He had an energy barrier active, so even if he got shot, it wouldn''t be a big deal.


    Well, as long as they didn''t have a sma cannon that the scanners didn''t detect.


    The door led into a back room of the arcade, but not a storage room. There were machines here, mostly VR pods, but a few strange simtors caught Max''s eye. He hadn''t seen anything like them before, and they werebelled as running the newest craze video game, with the flying courses and the intensebat.


    There was a yer in all of them at the moment, despite the fact that most arcades would be slow around dinnertime, so Max just waited and watched the screens. They weren''t doing too bad, but they were at less than fifteen percent of the high scores for the stages set by Nico, Huntress Khan and the Valkia Envoy.


    The game shed a death, and the door to the pod swung open, allowing a bloodied and staggering Valkia to stagger out. Max caught him before he could fall and mentally activated the First Aid scanner built into the room.

 Chapter 742 742 Bird Brain

    The damage was nothing major, just a bit of bruising and a bloody nose. The amount of blood was just because the kid had been in VR and hadn''t been able to wipe it away.


    They were ying on extreme mode with the safety protocols hacked so that the yer would take some of the damage that the avatar took, in the form of intensified gravity waves to the body, instead of the more gentle ones that usually let you know that you were hit in a high-end VR simtion.


    Well, a high-end military VR simtion intended to build muscle memory. That wasn''t the sort of thing that an arcade would usually have, but it made sense why this pod was so different from the others. The yer was suspended in the pod, and their body moved with the avatar, the same as training to pilot a Mecha.


    At least, this would be an easy fix.


    Max made his way up to the front, where the manager was chatting up the worker at the till, and cleared his throat to catch their attention.


    "Good afternoon. I am." he began.


    "Commander Keres Max, head of the Terminus Trading Company. We have your picture up on the wall. What brings you in today? Would you like to reserve one of our private gaming rooms?" The manager asked hopefully.


    "Perhaps for another day. However, I can think of a few people who would like your extreme version of the new VR simtors.


    That is actually why I am here today. The safety measures are set to military minimum, so they won''t break bones or kill the gamer, but they are leaving with bruises and blood all over them, and it has caused some of the neighbours to report a possible unsanctioned fighting arena." Max exined.


    "Well, that is, you see." The manager stammered while the cashier hid theirughter behind their hand.


    "I will let you know. It''s not actually illegal, as long as nobody takes more than a bruise and a bloody nose, but in the name of appearances, maybe lock the back door and make sure that they clean up before they go home for the night."


    The man''s relief was palpable even without reading his mind. "Oh, thank the stars. I paid a load to get those simtors in, and there aren''t many avable anywhere. They make them for training the Valkia Police Forces, so they''re not usually avable to the public, but these are old model versions."


    "Which is why a half-stoned teenager with a freeware code breaker can alter the settings every morning and turn the safety to a minimum." The cashier added.


    "It''s a great workout, though." A voice informed Max from behind as the young Valkia stumbled up to the soda fountain for a refill, free with your paid-by-the-hour gaming pass.


    "At least you remembered to clean your face before you came out. Some of your buddies have been wandering the streets covered in blood, and someone called them in on suspicion of unsanctioned prizefighting." Max exined.


    "Dude, how cool would that be? I mean, straight PVP, no fronting? I would wreck face." The kid bragged, not realizing that Max meant outside the VR pods.


    "I wouldn''t get too confident about that just yet. There are a lot of soldiers on the ship." Max chuckled, and the young Valkia turned to actually look at Max more closely in the dim light. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Commander Keres? Feth man, I didn''t know it was you. We''re not in like huge trouble, are we?"


    "No, but as I said before, just make sure your buddies clean themselves up before they leave. If you want to load a PVP game onto the VR pods, that''s fine, but remember that all betting must go through the official gaming board to ensure that matches aren''t rigged and that the organizer isn''t cheating their clients."


    "We''re all broke anyhow. We dropped almost our whole allowance to get a monthly pass to the arcade since none of us had a top-end pod at home. I tried to convince my mom that it''s morefortable than the bed since it adjusts to my wings better, but she wasn''t willing to part with the cash." The kid sighed.


    A full VR pod with the temperature-controlled, fully adjustable gel form, plus optional IV stabilization, for hydration and nutrition during multi-day gaming sessions, could cost upward of a hundred thousand Alliance Credits. Assuming that his parents were working somewhere on the ship and not just visiting, that could be from one to both of their annual sries.


    "Can you me them? If I had the choice, I would be getting the first pod, not my kids." Max joked, and the young Valkia burst intoughter.


    "Humans are extreme, man. Valkia parents get all uptight once they have hatchlings, and then they forget what fun is." The cashier added.


    "Maybe. Innu parents are pretty wild too, though, so at least we''re not the outliers." Max agreed.


    "Oh, the Innu are nothing on the Harpia, though. I mean, most Valkia won''t even let their kids talk to Harpia kids just in case they get bad ideas from them. Harpia just let their kids do whatever and don''t watch them at all. Most Alliances assign them, watchers to make sure that the kids have food and stuff since the Harpia don''t do the parent thing." The Valkia shrugged.


    Max knew all about that, but he recalled hearing that there were Harpia here on the ship, so maybe he should have someone look into how their kids were doing, preferably before they followed a daredevil young Valkia out into traffic in an effort to get to school faster.


    Max tapped it into his wrist device and found that there were already measures in ce. It wasn''t that the Harpia were willfully bad parents. They simply had nearly zero low-level short-term memory retention. So, if you didn''t inform them of the little things, they would forget that they had a meal cooking until it burnt, or where exactly their kids went, or that they should be going to work right away because the toaster popped after their rm went off and distracted them from their routine.


    They were basically the most extreme case of ADHD that Max had ever heard of, so he forwarded their case to Nico, just in case she knew of a solution or had a research team that might be willing to help modify a medication to help them.


    What exactly they could be doing for work confounded Max at first, and then he saw that the only four families of Harpia that were here were all registered as exotic dancers. The data sheet said that they loved music and dancing, and a short routine was within their memory capability. It was a decent-paying job, and the appeal of avian species in bird cages dancing drew customers, ording to the traffic reports.


    This visit to the arcade had been surprisingly helpful.


    "Would you like to give the custom maps that I made a try?" Max asked the young Valkia, who was flopped out on a couch as he recovered from the physically demanding full immersion game.


    "Maybe in a regr pod. I saw some of the maps that the humans have added to the game, and I don''t think that those were intended for civilian use."


    The rejection of the offer didn''t surprise Max, but it would at least earn him some goodwill here at the arcade, and goodwill went further than threats to get people to behave.

 Chapter 743 743 Agreeable Harpia

    [If you can gather up at least one of the Harpia, I think that we have something that will work. The virtual reality simtion isn''t perfect at predicting the interaction of medications with various physiologies, but from what I can tell, human-developed medicines should work on the Harpia.] Nico informed Max a half hourter.


    [I will go talk to them and see how they feel about testing a medication for memory. I''m sure that at some point in the past, there have been other attempts.] Max replied, then began to look up their addresses.


    There was a short pause, and then Nico sent another message. [Possibly not. They are officially semi-sentient species from an advanced where they are the minority. ording to the research team, they''re loveable idiots, so it might not have urred to anyone else that there could be a reason to change them. Somes basically keep them as pets but call it a live-in employment contract, like with the slime maids, except the slimes just refuse to leave.]


    That made Max check over the employment applications, and he found that the four were assisted in their applications for off-world work by the ck Market and that they had been left behind on a ship that had been sold.


    The Harpia hadn''t been informed that they were fired, so they just assumed that they would keep working in the same ce, but the ship was being retrofitted for cargo, and the new owner found them all jobs on Absolution.


    Max searched for their minds to see if they really were only semi-sentient. If they were, then no amount of memory medication would help much. But, he didn''t think that was the case, as they functioned quite well in society other than their memory issues.


    Sure enough, he found the four families all at home in the same building, getting ready for the parents to go to work for the night while the kids were ying video games. Their thoughts were no more primitive than most, but Max noticed as he travelled that their train of thought had no branches. They just went with whatever they were thinking, and what they weren''t still thinking of simply vanished from their minds.


    Sometimes they would be able to pull it back up, and almost certainly, if they had deemed it to be quite important, but their memory just didn''t want to keep all the little details. That was amon affliction for Mecha Pilots who had taken head injuries, and humans had developed a huge number of treatment methods for it over the millennia.


    Everything from medication to cybeic imnts that would help restore the lost function was possible if the brain couldn''t be healed well enough to recover on its own.


    Max arrived at the building and found his way to the sixth floor, where all four families stayed. It seemed that the rooms were arranged for them by their boss, a ck market arms dealer who ran the club they worked at, so he had just put them all in one spot so he could send someone to find them if they werete.


    In fact, he was thinking about it now, as shift change was in an hour, and he wanted to remind someone to check on them since they were some of his highest earners.


    [Boss Su, this is Commander Keres Max. I am visiting your employees at the moment, with an offer to help them with their memory issues using human technology. I will bring them to the club when we are finished.] Max informed the man with a text message.


    [Understood, Commander. I don''t know who told you, but it means a lot to me that you would go so far to look after your tenants. If you need more time, let me know, and I will give them time off.]


    Max didn''t bother to mention that this was for their good, not because their boss was a ck Market bigwig from a non-Alliance species who was intending to work on a trade deal to move human weapons through his connections. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max knocked on the first door, and all four opened at once, with eight inquisitive heads looking out into the hallway. All eight spoke in rough unison, all with the same conclusion.


    "It''s not work time yet, is it? I thought we had more time. We will finish up quickly."


    "It''s not work time yet. I came to ask you if you would like to try a human medication that should help you with your memory. Our species often suffer memory issues if our heads are injured, so we have developed a lot of treatments over the years." Max informed them all as a group.


    "Medicine, like when we''re sick? We''re not sick, are we? Oh, we should see the clinic if we''re sick. I put the location in the notes." One of the Harpia replied.


    "No, not because you''re sick, but to make your memory better. How do I put it, to make your lives easier, as a luxury, not because you''re sick."


    A small Harpia giggled in the background. "Humans are funny. They made luxury medicine for memories, instead of the little blue pills that the Giants take when their feenis don''t work right."


    The rest of the group, Max included, began to giggle at that, but after a moment, Max turned serious again. "How about it? Would you like to give it a try?"


    The eight adults looked at each other, then nodded. "We can do it now if you have it or after work if we need more time."


    Max mentally checked the location of Nico and the Medical Research Team and found that they were directly above him in thebs, less than two minutes away by transport pod, and luckily not halfway across the ship.


    "We have time before you go to work. Have you finished eating and fed the little ones?"


    The Harpia all nodded. "Yep. We''re just naked still. We always forget which outfits go to which days, and we always forget to put thebels that the boss gave us on them after we wash them."


    One on Max''s left shrugged. "It''s not like it actually matters if we match the rest of the workers. The uniforms aren''t that different. I told him to keep the essories there for when we start our shift, but he didn''t want to give up a private room to make an extra changing room."


    "Alright,e with me up to the medical research wing, and I will get you started."

 Chapter 744 474 Lab Tests

    Nico and the team were eagerly awaiting their arrival at thebs and had an observation pod ready for them as soon as they arrived.


    "This will monitor your brain activity. We will also monitor how your body reacts to the medicine. The simtions say that it should be safe with a one hundred percent rate of survival, but we don''t know how well it will work on your minds." The lead medical technician, a Huntress in a long whiteb coat, informed them.


    "Got it. Do you think it will work on the kids too?" One of them asked. They were all so simrly built that Max would have to read their minds or ask to tell which were male and female, but he was starting to get the hang of it by the way they dressed.


    Four of them liked beads in their wings, pressed around the base of the feathers to add ayer of shimmering colours when the light hit them, and the other four were iner in their fashion. The shimmering ones were the males, and they had chosen the colours by the ones that their mates liked best.


    "Alright, this is the first medication. It is a form of chemical that the brain secretes when it is stressed. That might alert your minds to store all the memories, and not just the most important ones." She exined.


    Two of the Harpia were given that medicine, and then she turned back to her counter and picked up another bottle. "This one is an advanced nanotechnology medicine that humans have developed that will cause your brain to create new memory pathways. It is a bit more risky than the first one, so I will ask for volunteers."


    All of them, including the two who took the first medicine, put up their hands, and the Huntress shook her head. "A Harpia is always so eager to please. But if we give everything to everyone the first day, we won''t know what worked."


    Nico nodded. "The two closest to me will get this treatment. Then the ones closest to the lead Doctor, and then thest pair. Is that fine by you all?"


    The Harpia looked between each other, then nodded. "Got it, boss."


    Max resisted the urge to facepalm. They weren''t deciding if the idea was a good one. They were wondering if it was important enough for them to remember it or if someone else would take care of that for them. It seemed that half the issue wasn''t even their capability. They had just gotten used to living in the moment and not worrying about memorizing things.


    Nico administered the medicine, and then the Doctor gave another pair of more traditional ADHD medicine from the human supplies, and then Nico gave thest pair an injection to the upper neck that Max identified as a nanotech memory imnt.


    If all else failed, it would remember everything for them, and once it finished linking itself to their memory pathways, they should be able to remember much more. The imnt was originally designed for precision work, where even the most minute details were important to recall perfectly.


    They were banned from almost all humanpetitions, but they were standard treatments for short-term memory loss in veterans.


    "Now, we will ask you all a series of questions to see how quickly the medicine has begun to work." The Doctor informed the eight dancers, who looked incredibly out of ce in a researchb in their skimpy uniforms.


    "What did you have for breakfast the day before yesterday?" Nico asked the group who had gotten the memory imnts. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Number thirty-seven on the breakfast menu. A bowl of stuff with crunchy bread." The Harpia replied.


    Oatmeal and toast. Nico checked the response against the replicator logs and nodded that it was correct.


    "What was your uniform on the third day you were at work?" The Doctor asked the group who had gotten the first treatment, and they simply shrugged.


    Stress would help you remember things, but it usually wouldn''t help you remember things you forgot, so the treatment wasn''t going to do much right now, in Max''s opinion. The question was important, though, as it helped give them a baseline to go by.


    "It was the cute ck dresses. The same ones we are supposed to wear tomorrow." The male of the pair who had gotten the nanotech medicine blurted out.


    "Oh, that was neat. It just popped into my mind like it actually mattered. I wonder where that dress is. It is cute." He continued.


    "It''s in the closet, next to the other clean stuff. The big guy with one eye arranged the closetst weekend to help us pick the right stuff by putting it in daily order." His mate replied.


    "It was in order? Oh, that was a great idea. I''ve just been grabbing what looked cute for the day." The ones who had gotten the ADHD medicineughed.


    This was utter Chaos, Max decided. They were starting to remember things already, but most of what they were recalling were things that they had gotten in trouble for forgetting. He put a note about that in the research logs, where both Nico and the Doctor could see it, and saw the Huntress''s eyes gleam as she made the connection.


    They were beginning to remember, based on cues, from the most important events backward.


    A small light blinked, and the assistants in the room frowned. "Doctor, two of the medicines have been processed through their bloodstreams already. Absorption was very close to zero."


    An rm went off, and all four of them turned to look at the door. "That rm means it''s time for the guy toe tell us that we need to go or we will bete for work."


    Max smirked as he realized that they had long since given up on being on time. They just set the rm to go to work with the guy who came to tell them they were going to bete.


    He looked at the eight Harpia and decided to speed the process up a bit. "Since the two absorbed medications are an immediate failure, thanks to the digestive system of the Harpia, how about we give both of the sessful treatments to all eight volunteers, and then we will go with them to work and see how things go for them?"

 Chapter 745 745 In The Club

    Nico smiled at the Harpia group. "What do you think? Will it be a fun night to go dancing?"


    The Harpia all giggled and smirked at her. "Is there ever a bad day for dancing?"


    Nico and the doctor quickly administered the extra shots, and Max called for a transit pod. Watching the Harpia adapt to actually remembering things was going to be entertaining. At the moment, they didn''t even remember most of the regrs unless they were really friendly or really revolting, so it would shock the patrons if the Harpia suddenly started to remember them or their drink orders.


    They weren''t in charge of serving, for obvious reasons, but they often took on the role of hosts, sitting and drinking with guests since their bodies were immune to alcohol. They would dance and drink and socialize all night long until their guests'' pockets were empty, and then the boss would give them a bonus and send them home happy.


    It was a good working rtionship, and despite the very middle-ss home that they were in, they were actually among the better-paid workers in the service industry.


    The night club that the transit pod took them all, including the research assistants and a few curious Innu who had heard about the imnts, to an upscale club, where a long line was already forming outside, waiting for the doors to open.


    It was early in the day, but today was the first day of the weekend, and the residents of Absolution knew how to truly enjoy their time off, so they didn''t pay much heed to ship time when it was time to party.


    There was no rule that the club couldn''t be open all night, so if they were busy, it was normal for a nightclub to close its doors just as the sun wasing up in the morning. On a night like tonight, they would even change shifts at nearly midnight, in the expectation that they would have five or six more wild hours before the party wound down for the morning.


    The Harpia led them past the line, shaking hands and exchanging happy greetings with all of the guests in line, while a huge human man stood by the door in a ck suit with sunsses on, looking like the poster boy for a mob enforcer.


    "Commander Keres, Sumander Nico, it is a pleasure to see you at the club. Thanks foring to pick up my charges today." He greeted them.


    "Not a problem La. We think that today''s treatment should pay off quite quickly, and nobody wanted to miss their first night at work." Max replied, and the big man chuckled.


    "Come on in then. I''m sure the boss won''t be bothered about the dress code for your research team."


    That was the point when the Researchers finally realized that they had wornb coats to the club, and they all rushed to the washroom to grab a change of clothes from their t Space. They might be working, but there wouldn''t be any test samples here, so it would be better if they blended in. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max was already dressed well enough to go out for the night, and Nico was wearing a frilly blouse with leather pants and a vest that made her look like a Pirate under herb coat. So, they picked a booth toward the back of the room and waited for the club boss toe to see them.


    He had been looking for a way to set a business meeting with the Reavers since he arrived, and this would be the perfect opportunity for him to try to expand his weapons offerings to include human gear.


    The club boss came over with a bottle of Reaver Rum and a tray of shot sses, carried by a small human woman with an exaggerated bust that could only be artificial. Max looked into their minds for a moment and realized that he was both right and wrong at the same time. The assets were a real part of her body, but they were both Mimics, a type of shapeshifter, and they had only picked human appearances to blend into the staff of Absolution.


    A human-run club had a special draw for other species, so that is what he pretended to be when he was in public. It also let him disguise his real identity from casual inspection, a necessity for someone in his line of work.


    "Matteo and Aria, it is a pleasure to meet you in the flesh." Max greeted them, and the two suddenly stopped.


    They hadn''t expected to hear their real names here, but nobody else reacted, as they didn''t know either of these people to begin with.


    "Maddox and Angelina in public, if you please. It''s a pleasure to meet you as well, Commander. Would you prefer a private room for the evening?" The club operator replied.


    "We are here to observe the treatment of the Harpia. I think that it will allow them to have memory retention on par with any of the other species here. You might not have to send your bouncer toe get them for work every day." Max joked.


    "I have to send him anyhow at this point. They''re so popr that there is concern that someone will try to grab them on their way to or from the club. I also hired the security that is working the door of the building. They''re not ship staff," the Mimic exined.


    "Well, at least you take good care of your staff. La is a good choice for the door as well. He''s a tough operator." Max added, referring to the bouncer, who was formerly Kepler Infantry with a Gamma Ranked system, but who had grown sorge that he wasn''t suitable as a Mecha Pilot. At 195cm tall and half again as wide as Max''s well-muscled frame, there was no way that he would have fit in a standard cockpit.


    The lights dimmed as they talked, and the Harpia all flew up to the levitating tforms just before the music turned on, then stared eagerly at the DJ while they waited for the song to start.


    Even if the customers hadn''t started toe in at that point, they wanted to dance. It was the perfect job in their minds, and now that they were having an easier time remembering things, it was getting even better. They didn''t have to miss the start of the first song, they were ready in advance this time.

 Chapter 746 746 Better Employees

    The club filled quickly, and a dozen servers hustled about delivering drinks to the patrons, which Max thought was a bit odd for the sort of venue that they were in.


    "They will move to the lounge level in a bit and work as hostesses, the start of the night is to pick off the best new clients and convince them to head upstairs to drink in luxury." The boss exined.


    "So that''s how you sort out new VIP members, you let the staff recruit them from the main floor, and if they turn out well, you offer them a membership card?" Nico asked.


    "It also lets me sort out the ones who are here for business. It looks like they have just been chosen for their money, but it lets us move to a private area without anyone asking any questions. All of the servers that are wearing a golden hairpiece are part of my organization and not just club staff." He exined, just loud enough to be heard over the music.


    In minutes the club was packed, and one of the Harpia had moved over to dance in the alcove behind their table. All of the alcoves around the room had a different theme to them, and this one was an industrial area back alley theme, making the sultry dancing of the Harpia look like a beautiful drunk woman in a questionable neighbourhood.


    It wasn''t Max''s vibe since he had grown up in a ce like that, but the Harpia was drawing a lot of admiring nces, and Max could hear them all thinking about the chances of getting the dancer into the back alley behind the club for some privacy.


    "You look almost pained, Commander." The club ownermented.


    "He can read minds, and he can''t turn it off. I can only guess what all of the people in the club are thinking about right now, with the dancers working and the staff rubbing up on them." Nicoughed.


    "I wonder how many of them know that''s not a female Harpia." The Huntress chuckled, and the younger Mimic blushed.


    "You know, I didn''t figure it out for like a week until I saw them changing outfits after someone spilled my tray." She told them with an embarrassed nce up at the dancer.


    "I bet that was enlightening. But the Harpia pair bond, so as long as you didn''t hit on him, it should be fine. He would only be interested in his mate." Max told her.


    "I know that now, but for the next two days, it was so awkward. It totally doesn''t help that their pecs ball up like that. I''m a Mimic, and I didn''t realize the difference."


    Nico patted her on the head inpassion, and Max nodded in understanding. The chest muscles of a Harpia were very strong to allow them to fly. But unlike a Valkia, whose chest muscles were elongated and t, the Harpia''s were bunched and attached on either side of the sternum, giving them the appearance of having small breasts if you used the anatomical standards of a mammal as a baseline. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The first few groups were being taken to the private rooms, and their spaces were quickly reced with more people from the lines outside, keeping the club packed all the time but not overcrowded.


    As the hours passed, the music switched from upbeat and somewhat rxing to a more high-energy beat that was getting louder by the minute. The boss and his daughter had been called away not long after the club opened without getting a chance to talk about the proposal that he wanted to make, so Max came up with a n to lower the volume in his head and take care of business at the same time.


    The Harpia were clearly doing better than usual, and they were even signalling the staff over to people whose drinks were getting low, which was impossible to tell through the crowd. Soon, everyone would have to go to the bar for drinks, but knowing who was spending money helped them pick targets for the evening, and Max could tell that both the private rooms and the quieter lounge area upstairs were getting full.


    "Do you need anything?" One of the girls with a golden trinket in her hair asked with a wink.


    "We should talk to the boss. I hope the researchers don''t mind if we head upstairs?" Max replied, and the Huntress waved him away while eyeing up one of the security guards in a predatory way.


    Their study was basically done, they had all the information that they needed, and they only needed to check in on them tomorrow to make sure it was still working and that there were no side effects. With no work left to do, there was no reason she couldn''t y.


    "That sounds excellent. How about we get a few bottles, and youe upstairs with me?" The server said, a bit louder than the quiet conversation they were having before, making sure that others overheard that this group was being invited up into the private rooms.


    That got them a bunch of envious nces, but it seemed that only the staff had recognized them so far, thanks to the boss sharing the information at the start of the night. He wanted to make absolutely sure that nobody insulted the VIP table that was sitting in the public areas of the club instead of the upper lounge, where people like them would normally be taken directly through the side door.


    "Please follow me. The doors are biometrically locked, so only a staff member can lead anyone upstairs." The hostess exined with a smile and left a fresh bottle of Rum on the table for those who were staying downstairs.


    Upstairs was much more rxed, with mood music ying instead of club music, and the couches were full of half-drunk, rich tourists, with only a few residents present in themon area. There were surely more of them in the private rooms, but Max was doing his best not to notice what was going on behind closed doors.


    It was better that way.

 Chapter 747 747 Nico The Inquisitive

    It didn''t take them long to reach the private room, where a wide variety of liquor and snacks were waiting for them, along with another pair of hostesses that Max identified immediately as Mimics, but they didn''t have the same sense of presence as the boss, and their features looked a bit nd like they had been overly retouched for social media.


    After listening to their thoughts, he realized that it wasn''t a permanent thing, they had only recently arrived on board Absolution, and they weren''t one hundred percent adept at imitating humans yet.


    Nico realized almost as fast as Max did, possibly due to the sensor suite in her augmentic eyes, and she went directly over to them to examine them. The Mimic was startled but assumed that Nico had been enamoured of her appearance and wanted to dance, so the pair swayed in time with the background music, and the Mimic did her best to ignore the squeezing and wandering hands while Max tried not tough.


    Eventually, it was too much for him, and the growing panic in the Mimics'' thoughts said that she had realized something was wrong, and this went beyond even a simple pat down for weapons and surveince devices.


    "She''s not searching you for weapons. She''s trying to figure out the extent of your transformation abilities. Sumander Nico is the leader of our Research and Development department and has a particr affinity for morphable shapes, like her own, or some of our infiltration crafts." Max exined.


    "You have morphable infiltration craft? I don''t recall seeing that in any catalogue or intelligence report." The other Mimic blurted, while the hostess that led Max and Nico into the room stared at him in shock.


    The Mimic Nico was inspecting squeaked as the cyborg grabbed somewhere sensitive, and Max reached out to pull his handsypanion back to the couch.


    "As the Mimics aren''t an Alliance species, we have arge number of items that we can offer for sale or trade. Keep in mind that we don''t deal in current-generation military technology, and trading in sentient beings is against Reaver Law. But most other human developments can be had for the right price."


    "No wonder the boss wanted to talk to you so badly. The Mimics are short on ships of all sorts. Thanks to our infiltration abilities, our agreement with the Alliance has heavy restrictions on our production of military equipment. That''s why we turned to ''alternate sources, '' you might say."


    Max nodded. "Understandable. The Alliance also requested that we limit our distribution of military technology. Since you''ve got a working agreement with them, it will be a sensitive matter to trade you some obvious things, but that doesn''t mean that we can''t work a deal."


    "Then could we start by requesting a small favour while the boss is on his way? He has been held up with a Station Boss for a few more minutes, you see."


    "Certainly. What might you be after?" Max asked.


    "Ironically, the same thing that thest Station you were at needed. New Warp Crystals for our ship. Only, it''s just one ship this time, and because ours is a relic and in need of refurbishment." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Her request was earnest, but Max didn''t understand why she needed to ask him directly. "You know that is a standard service that Absolution offers to everyone. There is no need to ask for a favour to get your ship refurbished. Unless you need it immediately?"


    The Mimic gave him a confused look, and Max realized where the misunderstanding was. They hadn''t been clear about the services that they were offering, and most of the other species thought that the refurbishment was only for ships currently using human technology.


    [There is a bay open right now. More than one, in fact. Perhaps we should change the way that we advertise?] Nico asked Max, not quite on the same page but realizing that the ship overhaul bays should be busier than they were.


    "I see where the misunderstanding is. The ships will be refurbished with human technology, but there is no need for them to be of human design, to begin with. It will be custom work, but that is well within our capabilities." Max added so that the Mimics would understand the situation.


    "Well, now I feel silly. My understanding was that it was a service only for human ships and custom orders of new vessels. I will have to let the others know that it is possible to refit their ships here. The Alliance restrictions prohibit us from expanding the fleet or changing the armaments of our vessels since the negotiators were so paranoid about us impersonating another nation''s fleet to start wars."


    Nico smirked and pulled the hostess who brought them in close to her, not realizing that it was an actual human until she began her inspection. "That''s actually a great idea. Humans have used it in the past, so most of our nations ban it as against the rules of war. The Hunters also consider it unsportsmanlike or cowardly, so they don''t approve of it either, even if it works."


    She released the girl, who flushed bright red at the intimate way Nico had been sliding her hands around, then moved over closer to the small bar on the far side of the room.


    "You thought you were being sneaky, but you grabbed the wrong one." Max teased Nico, who was now eyeing thest remaining Mimic in the room.


    "We can offer you more data on our species if you need it?" The Mimic offered.


    "Oh, that would be good. I could study itter now that I have practical data. You see, my own outer shell is a non-newtonian alloy, and I''ve been working to perfect it. Mimics are organic, the cellr structure is impressive, and I think I might be able to incorporate it into future developments."


    The development she had in mind was for her more delicate internal bits since she had been having issues with making them exactly how she wanted them, even with [Optimize] being used on her multiple times. What level of previously unimagined perfection she was after, Max didn''t quite know, but she was convinced that she could do better.

 Chapter 748 748 Upsell

    The Mimic held out a data tablet, and Nico smiled at her. "Thank you for the data. This wille in handy."


    The girl looked at her in confusion. She was still holding the tablet. Assuming it was a preemptivement on Nico''s part, she handed it over and watched as Nico set it delicately on the table in front of her without looking at it.


    Her thought was that Nico was a bit odd, well, more than a little odd, given how she was groped the moment they met, but she never considered the possibility that Nico already had the data and had only refrained from hacking every device in the room out of courtesy, not because she couldn''t.


    The boss came in just then, and Max stood to shake his hand. "Boss Maddox, it''s good to see you again."


    The boss''s daughter giggled at Max using the public name when he had used his real name when they had first met. A name which so few people, even in the business, knew.


    "I hope my staff is alright. Humans are truly terrifying when they are doing business." The arms dealerughed.


    He should know he had hired nearly a dozen of them, and they had immediately entered his inner circle of Hostesses and Security officers.


    "I''m sure they''re alright, just a bit startled at Nico''s personality. We also informed them about the misunderstanding regarding the ship refurbishment docks. The vessels don''t have to be human-made, but the recement parts will be." Max exined.


    "Marvellous. Did they finish the deal?" The boss asked.


    "We were just about to work out the schedule. But now that you''re here, I''m certain that we have more matters to discuss, so we may be able to roll it into arger deal if you want it off your personal books."


    "What I am looking for is actually well within your capabilities. The Mimic Homeworld Fleet needs a few things, and they usually go through awork of dealers, including myself.


    First, I will ask directly. Can you sell us those giantbat robots? The ones with the triple guns on top? I managed to get my hands on somebat footage, and I think that it would be enough to add a few of them to our fleet. With them on patrol, I doubt that anyone would challenge us again."


    "Unfortunately, those are current-generation weapons. We don''t customarily sell them outside of the Reaver Fleet." Max rejected the offer.


    "What would it take to get them to our defence fleet?" The Mimic asked.


    Nico smiled at him and cradled her chin in her hands as she leaned forward. "Have you considered hiring a third-party security force to patrol your star system? ording to my data, the Mimics only originate from threes in one sr system, but they are spread through the Alliance in very low numbers."


    "A third-party security force instead of our military? How could we trust that they wouldn''t turn on us?" The Mimic sighed, shaking his head.


    "Reavers are very trustworthy. They never betray employers, as pride and reputation can''t be bought with money."


    The Mimics'' eyes all lit up. Hiring a Reaver Company who had the weapons they wanted was even better than buying them for their own military. It wouldn''t vite the agreement that they had with the Alliance, and hiring a Mercenary force was much like purchasing on credit. You didn''t have to pay the full cost of the equipment upfront, but you would get all the benefits of having it. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I didn''t know that was a service that the Terminus Trading Company offered." He asked curiously.


    "It''s not. But Sumander Nico is Tarith Nico of the Tarith Reaver Family, and their affiliatedpanies offer security services with the most current of technology, far beyond what our agreement with the Alliance would let us sell to outsiders."


    The Negotiators who wrote the original deal should have been more specific in their dealings, as there was no prohibition at all on providing security forces to others, only ones dering that they couldn''t sell military weapons.


    "Well, that was easier than expected. ording to my estimation of our requirements, two destroyers and twelve Cruisers should be enough to defend our home system." He decided.


    That was a lot of firepower, but numbers were impressive in their own way, so Max gave Nico the go-ahead, and she sent a request to her mother to get a quote on providing the security forces with the requested vessels and auxiliary apaniment of light ships.


    There was a short pause, and then a message came back from her secretary. [Madam Tarith is sleeping, but the Fire Warriors are avable for a long-term deployment. One newlypleted Colony Ship, two Destroyers, plus a security fleet of ten Cutters, all fully upgraded with the most recent Mecha munitions and upgrades. They''re just getting out of refit and could use the work.]


    The Fire Warriors were a Tarith Family business, so Nico didn''t have any concerns about their reliability. Nobody was brave enough to cross her mother. Nobody.


    "How about one Colony Ship, Two destroyers and twenty Cutters? All loaded with Mecha and trained troops? They''re justing out of a refit, so their gear and training are top of the line, no millennia-old gear anywhere." Nico suggested.


    "A colony ship full of armed humans? That''s a bit terrifying." The youngest Mimic whispered.


    Nico brought up the numbers on the holographic disy of the coffee table in front of the couch, and the boss nodded with wide-open eyes. It was a veryrge number, charged annually, but for the security of their home, they might go for it.


    It would take over a decade to add up to what they were expecting to spend on upgrading their defence fleet, and it would prevent the standoff with the Alliance politicians, which would bring extra attention to the species which specialized in shady business and impersonation.


    "It will take a few days before we get a final answer on that matter. It has to go through the government. But I have some personal matters as well. The Disintegrator Pistols that you carry. How much would it cost me to get a thousand of them?"


    Nico showed him a number broadcast from her wrist device, and the man nodded, then tapped the device to transfer funds.


    "Grey Credits? That is fine. Your purchase will be delivered to your vessel in the overhaul bay tonight."


    Max and the Hostesses smirked at her tactic, implicitly assuming that he would be having his ship overhauled without even discussing the price in advance.


    "I will need to make approvals for each major project of the overhaul before they begin." The arms dealer sighed. He wasn''t totally sure that they wouldn''t overcharge him simply because they were the only avable option for a ship like his, but it was a risk that he would have to take.


    If it worked out well for him, he could refer others to the service, and if it didn''t, it was just another cost of building rtionships. His face was impassive, but Max could tell just how excited he was to have a proper security fleet on his homeworld, and not just the Alliance Patrols that every antagonistic species had gotten good at avoiding.

 Chapter 749 749 Human Efficiency

    Since they were already on standby, the Fire Warriors Company opened a portal and moved to the home system of the Mimics ten minutes after the deal was signed and the first year''s payment was made.


    To say that the man across from Max was shocked when he got the news was an understatement. He had heard that the Reavers had apany avable and ready to go, but he hadn''t realized that the humans had the technology to put Portal Devices on Colony Ships of all sorts and that it wasn''t a level of spending reserved for their elite gships.


    "That was quick. How much fallout do you think there will be for hiring human mercenaries among the Human Empire?" The arms dealer asked Max, realizing a bitte that the problems mighte from a direction other than the Alliance.


    "None at all. It is standard practice for us to guard targets for pay. In fact, even among our own factions, military protection is often part of cooperation deals where one party is much less capable than the other. It lets them work in safety, and the stronger party gets to protect their investments.


    It''s all in the deal your leaders signed, but the Fire Warriors won''t take offensive military action on your behalf. They will only defend. But it is possible that they will work out a wide-ranging deal with your leadership.


    Our terms are actually quite simple, only that everyone abides by nonaggression and mutual defence pacts, so it''s not too far-fetched that they will work something out." Max exined.


    "So, if someone attacks a member of your trade group..."


    "Then they have attacked us all. The Volga learned that the hard way, and I think it will be a while before anyone else makes that mistake again." Max finished.


    "That was an impressive show of force." Maddox agreed.


    "That was us holding back so that we didn''t damage the infrastructure of thes too badly since we were nning to take them over. Humans still stock weapons that can kills that are deemed non-salvageable, like those which are fully colonized by the Klem. We can purge them clean in a day and then begin to terraform them again to start with a clean te."


    The Mimics shuddered at the thought but quicklyposed themselves and poured a round of drinks for the room, themselves included.


    "You know, this ce is really taking off, but you''re going to need more than one security officer outside and two inside," Max informed them, changing the topic.


    There was a fight starting on the main level, but it was just a distraction for a group that wanted to run out on the tab for a double round of shots, and another genuine fight was about to start in the lineup outside over two people in identical outfits.


    The boss turned on the disy for the security cameras and sighed, and Nico looked to Max for directions.


    "Grab the thieves. If they get away with it once, they will try it again. Grab them once they clear the door and turn them over to station security. I think the bouncers will be able to deal with the fights. The hostesses look capable enough," he directed the eager Cyborg.


    She disappeared from the room so fast that the Mimics wondered at first if she had used some sort of transport device, but that was just Nico, and with her recent modifications, she had exceeded what the average human could get their System to grant them for Speed enhancement. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She was over nine times as fast as the human baseline, as defined by the System, so when she went all out, it was nearly impossible for the average creature to even track her movements, much less attempt to keep up with her.


    "Is she some sort of assassin?" The human Hostess asked curiously.


    "She''s an Alpha-ranked Kepler Mecha pilot, with her speed pushed beyond the hard cap by her mechanical enhancements," Max exined, knowing that she would understand well enough to exin it to her bosster.


    "That''s just not fair. As a full conversion cyborg, she''s already stronger than any mortal should be, but to be that fast, it''s just not fair. It''s like meeting a man with his strength capped. He would be a monster in a fight."


    Max began tough, and the Hostess gave him a disbelieving look.


    "Seriously? I mean, you''re built, but you''re seriously that strong?"


    Max leaned forward and lifted the couch across from him, with three people sitting on it, with one hand, then set it back down again when his own seat began to creak under strain.


    "What did I just witness? I need to update the files on Humanity. That''s not possible." The boss stammered.


    "People where I''m from use nanotechnology to enhance our soldiers. Don''t think of us as representative of the average human. The strongest of us can go toe to toe with a Huntress. It''s a totally different standard than what you can expect from the rest of the species." Max exined.


    "Did anyone bother to tell the Alliance?" One of the assistants asked.


    "We did, and we even showed them. It should be in the records somewhere, but it''s likely locked inside the military capabilities files, since the original group of negotiators treated every single ship our species owned as a military vessel." Max exined.


    "To be fair, I''ve never heard of a human ship with no guns. That''s not a thing. The entire Gxy is too dangerous to make ships without weapons. Even the orbital shuttles at least have aser in case a rogue meteorite piecees their way." The human Hostess added.


    "They don''t just use a gravity beam to deflect them?" An assistant asked.


    "Where is the fun in that? We blow them into tiny bits and let them burn up in the atmosphere. It''s more efficient that way, and Gravity Beams are a rtively recent development among most of our fleets."


    Yes, very recent. Within thest decade in fact.

 Chapter 750 750 Nico For Breakfast

    Max woke up the following day with the feeling that something was different. He ran his fingers across Nico''s wless skin and smirked as she mumbled in her sleep. He wasn''t sure what had caused him to wake up this early, but he had every intention of taking advantage of the extra time to enjoy himself.


    With a shift of his hips, Max moved them so that Nico was in the little spoon position with him pressed against her back and kissed her earlobe, knowing that she had made them just as sensitive as her original ones were. But when he moved his hand to cup one pert breast, he noticed something was definitely different.


    Unless Nico had painted his nails while he was sleeping, which was a possibility, he didn''t have Metallic fingernails.


    Nico squirming in his arms distracted him for a moment, and Max decided that he had better things to think about than a mystery System Upgrade at this time of day.


    Max felt Nico''s thoughts begin toe awake as she felt him pressed against her, but she was doing her best to pretend she was still asleep while subtly teasing him.


    Nico turned her head, and their eyes locked. Lust and longing sparked between them as Max kissed her cheek and let his hand travel down her soft stomach. Nico shifted her hips to trap his member between her inner thighs, and Max noticed the intrigued noise that she made. It wasn''t quite lustful, and she was certainly familiar with his anatomy on an intimate level.


    So, it wasn''t until he sank into her that Max finally noticed the extent of the change that had ovee his body overnight. Nico was too soft in his hands, with none of the excess resistance that he hade to expect of her morphable shell.


    He had be more durable overnight, and now his skin didn''t feel any more fragile than Nico''s.


    She had noticed at the same time that Max did, and the lustful look she was giving him turned to a smirk as she drove herself hard onto him and twisted her body so she could give him a bruisingly hard kiss.


    Only, this time there was no pain, and his lips were solid enough to hold up to the task of kissing Nico senseless.


    "I could get used to this," Nico mumbled around Max''s lips.


    "We''ve got plenty of time for you to adapt." Max teased while he squeezed her backside in his hands to lift her a few centimetres and hold her there, where she couldn''t quite touch his body.


    "Oh, that''s how you want to y?" She giggled, then hooked his legs to pull herself back down with a happy moan.


    ----------


    While the two Commanders lost themselves to their morning of pleasure, Admiral Penner was having a much less pleasant morning. The new floor was open for residential transfers, and thousands of cargo ships were in a holding pattern, waiting to drop off their passengers and the household belongings that they had brought. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The previous weeks had been chaotic, but today was the culmination of their effort to popte another floor. Well, the first of ten days that it would take to get everyone on board and settled. Long gone were their ns to keep the poption to a moderate growth rate, and over a million new residents were scheduled to arrive every day for the next ten days, and that still wouldn''t bring their newly created cities to more than a third of capacity.


    But today, they were filling one of the deep sea locations, and that was a task that she had never undertaken before. She had tried to page the Commanders to have them on hand in case an emergency order needed to be given, but both of their wrist devices were in private mode and wouldn''t alert them to iing messages until they were finished with whatever they were doing this morning.


    [Freighter Poseidon Seventeen Four Eight CEL, prepare for docking at bay 804 Port. A pressurized pod has been prepared, equalized with the pressure of the city. Please adjust your hangar pressure to match. Water conditions are attached.] The Admiral informed the first of the deep sea ships.


    [Thank you, Absolution. Pressurized liquid transport will save us six hours of adaptation time. Docking now.] The ship responded, and Admiral Penner moved on to the next ship in line.


    "Where are the Commanders? It''s ten in the morning, and nobody has seen them yet." One of the dock mastersined while he was berated by a lizardlike species for not knowing their formal greeting and bow routine.


    From what he could tell, therger of the two wasn''t bad. But the smaller one, which the dockmaster assumed was therger one''s mate, had taken offence to virtually everything that they saw, from the interior design to the time that it would take to get their belongings from the docks to the small condo that they were moving into next to a beach on one of therger inds.


    [Team Leader, can I get a reassignment? Seriously, these people hate me.] The dock master begged.


    [You think we can''t hear them from here? Nobody is going to take that one for the team. No, wait, I think we have someone here who will.] The Team Leader replied as Major Miller walked in to see how things were going.


    "Miller, we need your public rtions skills. Please, pretty please?" The Team leader pleaded.


    "Fine, watch and learn." Miller sighed as he walked to where the reptilian resident was loudly berating the workers.


    "Good morning. The Crocs, moving to unit 483A? Such lovely and affordable little units. I had thought of getting one myself, but I will just use the corporate Vis on South Beach for now. What seems to be the problem? We are operating at maximum capacity this morning, and traffic control safety protocols dictate three hundred meters between bulk cargo pods." The Major greeted them with a professional smile on his deceptively youthful face.


    The beachfront condos weren''t cheap, as they were some of the most desirable locations on the ind, but the corporate Vis on the South Beach were both on arger beach and one with better shopping and restaurants nearby, so the residents didn''t need to travel to get to them.


    Anyone who looked down on the blue-cor workers would have looked them up in advance, and the mention that he could get time in them at will meant that he had much more pull here than their mediocre wealth could buy.


    [Nice flex. Pleasee back when you''ve finished bringing them to their unit. We''re mmed, and we need someone to pull rank on the snobs.] The Team Leader messaged as Major Miller led the pair away, giving them a glowing description of all the amenities on the ind.

 Chapter 751 751 Public Engagement Plans

    There were no shortages of things to see and do on the inds of the newly opened level, even though there wouldn''t be any businesses set up for the next few days.


    Everyone was being moved in as they arrived, without priority for any specific group, so every area was filling at a rtively even rate, and the Replicators were in charge of taking care of everyone''s needs for the first few days.


    Max had learned that they offered a week of free food production from residential replicators with the assignment or purchase of a new unit on this floor, so it wouldn''t be a burden to the new residents, and everyone seemed to be quite excited about trying all of the new things that the humans had prepared for them.


    The deep sea species didn''t have that many options, which they weren''t familiar with, as Absolution had nothing to go on except the Alliance records of their favourite foods, but they were working on expanding them as the restaurants added them into their own systems.


    That was going to be an experimental new system. Anyone in the same city as a restaurant on this floor could order a delivery version of their signature dishes, and the restaurant would get a royalty payment.


    There was a big warning on the offer that the meals wouldn''t taste the same as they were replicated, but they would be simr to the dishes served in the restaurant, and each of them had the full location and contact information for the restaurant that created it.


    It was a form of free city-wide advertisement, and Max expected that it would catch on quite quickly for all but the highest-end restaurants since most of them didn''t have any particrly fancy cooking techniques that they didn''t want to our couldn''t share with the replicator.


    With such arge ship, some of the trips were quite long, as they hadn''t managed to get a dock close to their new homes, but everyone was moving in and out smoothly, thanks to the assistance of the movingpanies, which brought hundreds of homes worth of household goods at once, and greatly reduced the total number of vessels that the flight control crews had to deal with.


    Without that, it would be a disaster on par with the first party that they threw, where there were thousands and thousands of small Reaver Vessels at every possible docking point around the ship, even on the small service airlocks.


    Compared to that, this run was positively organized. It also helped that many of the locations were hundreds of kilometres apart, as the initial poption of this floor was spread all over the ship and not concentrated in one single city where the main operations needed to take ce.


    "You know, there''s a good chance that many of these people will never in their lives meet each other, despite having moved to the ship on the very same day. They live dozens of inds apart, work in very different industries, and simply have no reason to be in the same ce unless they happen to meet while on vacation." Nico reminded Max as he watched the process on the screens.


    "It''s quite a thought, isn''t it? Absolution is bing a proper world already, and we''ve only just gotten started. But what should we do for the next few days until things get set up, and we can go visit the shops on the new floor?" Max replied with a smirk. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    His entire body had gotten a revamp while he was sleeping. Not only was his skin stronger, but his bones were less fragile as well, rebuilt with a version of the same alloy nanotubes that Nico had used to create her own skeleton. If he wanted, he could likely kick a Line Mecha across the room without fear of hurting himself, much less breaking a bone because his strength was more than his bones could take.


    "How about we do something fun? We haven''t run any big contests, events or othermunity-building events here aboard Terminus, so how about we do an impromptu one? If it''s online, we can set it up quickly, but if it''s in the public areas of the Capital City, we can get a lot more people gathered together on short notice."


    "How about a staff event? A bonus for the staff members to use over the next week at any facility that isn''t part of Absolution''s own facilities. It will get everyone out to the restaurants and shops and get people out to meet each other. Then we can do a pair of light shows, one of them tomorrow on this floor and one of them in three days on the new level.


    We will do them in all of therge cities of the second floor, so we can get the maximum number of people out, and that should help them meet each other and get to know some of their neighbours." Max offered.


    "That sounds like a good n, but it still doesn''t give us anything to do today, does it? There isn''t much that we need unless you want to go window shopping?" Nico asked.


    "How about we try something totally different? There is a facility here in the city that I think you will like. It''s a new game that was brought aboard by some of the more energetic species. They decided that the basic gym facilities and gravity rooms weren''t enough for them, so they built a Ninja Warrior course inside a 3D Billiards field, and now you can run the course with randomly changing gravitational forces and directions." Max exined and then pulled the facility up on his screen.


    They had taken over arge warehouse on the edge of the city, where it would cost them less to rent from Absolution, and they had turned the whole thing into a huge training facility.


    "Titan''s Gym. I like it. The whole species has a lot of fun ideas, and they''re always up for a challenge," Nico agreed.


    "This isn''t named after the specie, but the owner. He is a form of winged, bipedal reptile. They require and burn a huge amount of calories in a day, despite their size, and without an outlet, they actually get sick fromck of exercise. What do you think? Want to go run an obstacle course?"


    Nico gave him a hug and then pulled Max toward the door. That would be a definite and enthusiastic yes.

 Chapter 752 752 Obstacle Course

    The trip to Titan''s Gym wasn''t a particrly long one, but Nico was already getting excited about the prospect of getting to do a new thing by the time they left the office. They no longer ran the training for the Mecha Pilots since nearly all of the ones aboard Absolution were Androids, and the Regiment Commanders took care of the training.


    They had made themselves redundant to the fun parts of the job while being stuck with thest unavoidable bits of paperwork that no leader could truly escape without their chosen delegate taking over the factual control of the group.


    The pod took them straight to the edge of the city, through the winding paths of the designated transit routes, and dropped them right in front of the nondescript warehouse, with only a simple digital sign in the window dering the name of the business.


    Unlike most Gyms, this one didn''t have a row of mirrors on one wall or windows all out the front to encourage people toe in using the sight of their members. The manager had kept it as a basic warehouse and even covered the lower row of windows that would usually light up the office space.


    It was a very different experience than other ces that they had seen, and they hadn''t even stepped foot inside yet.


    The moment they did, with an excited Nico in the lead, the gravity flipped around, pointing to the wall on their right and reducing by nearly fifty percent.


    Nico just went with it, flipping around to stand on the wall and then waved to the manager on duty.


    "Good morning, my name is Nico, and I am here to try your exercise obstacle course." She called out to catch his attention.


    "Excellent, you evennded on your feet. I am Titan. Wee to my Gym." The small lizardman greeted her.


    He was teal blue and looked a lot like the iguanas Max knew from back home. Even his head was the same shape, but he was bipedal, with four-fingered hands and opposable thumbs, plus what looked like a prehensile tail, so he shouldn''t have any issues getting around.


    "In any case, the first run-through is on the house. It''s how we tell who is a good fit for our facility and who just wants a new experience. You''re humans, so there is little risk of injury while you navigate the course, but do be careful. Since you don''t have tails to catch yourselves, it is possible that a poor angle and missed grip might lead to drops of over three metres." He added.


    "That''s fine. Both of us are augmented. A fall of three metres won''t injure us even at multiple times standard gravity." Nico replied with a smile.


    "That''s incredible news. My species evolved to be able to drop from trees in extreme winds, so we are quite durable, and the gravity control features thate with the 3D Pool design worked out quite well once they were modified to cover an area asrge as the warehouse." F


    Modifying the billiards table isn''t a big issue. In fact, the original design would do an entire sports arena so that hundreds of games could be yed at once. It just used a significant amount of power, so this gym manager''s bills were not going to be cheap. That was likely why he had picked the most affordable location he could and didn''t modify it to draw in more customers.


    There were already a couple of other members working their way through the course, and the sign warned them to keep away until the course waspleted unless they were taking it as a team. That way, the safety risks were minimized, and there wouldn''t be obnoxiouste joiners messing up someone''s workout. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    And it was designed as a workout. The interior was entirely moveable, so once a rung on thedder was grabbed and released, it would fall free on one side, so you had to climb with only your hands in the variable gravity and other creative tricks to burn maximum energy.


    The Pilots would love this ce. They worked out religiously, but the same routines got old after a few years, and this would be just the change of pace that some of them needed to keep their motivation up.


    "Alright, you''re up. Let''s see what the augmented humans have in them." The lizardman called out loud enough that the others in the gym could hear him and would know not to bounce through the middle of the course on their way to start their next rep.


    "We will go separately, so we canpare." Nico decided without warning, then pushed Max forward. She didn''t get tired, so it would be a poor demonstration of what an augmented human was capable of, but Max did, so she volunteered him.


    Max moved into the course and began to climb thedder. The gravity shifted to pull him backward so that he would be using thedder like monkey bars, but behind him was a spinning whip, so if he wanted to save his legs, he had to hold himself in a nk position while he moved up the rungs and onto the next tform.


    There the gravity turned to a normally crushing three times standard, but all he had to do was open the door upward to move to the next room, not a major task for someone of his strength.


    After that started an agility course, where he would have to hop from rolling pad to rolling pad while any off-center force made them spin under his feet. With a series of agile leaps, he was near the rope climb when again, he hit a gravity pocket which brought him up toward the tform above him.


    Instead of trying to grab the spinning cylinders as his orientation shifted, Max waited the extra second and drove off the tform toward the ropes, and then caught them before he fell, as he left the gravity well and began to careen toward the ground.


    With that over, he got to the copsingdder, an easy feat for him, he thought. But they also copsed if you held onto them for more than a half second, and the third one almost got him as he was assessing his route forward.


    When Max swung over thest of the trip hazards at the end of the course, all of the regrs were there to cheer him on, and the gym manager was blinking so rapidly that Max almost thought that he was an aquatic species who was drying out.


    He wasn''t. That was just his species'' way of showing happiness. He was overjoyed that the humans not only enjoyed his course, but they were good at it, too, if Max was anything to go by. That secured his opinion that moving here had been the correct choice.


    "Now, Sumander Nico is a Cyborg, so the exercise part of the experience doesn''t mean much to her, but I think that she will enjoy the gym as an obstacle course as well," Titan exined to his regr customers.


    "Oh, that is fun too. Sometimes I skip the arm parts on my second repetition so I can work more legs." One of the patrons agreed.


    He definitely didn''t skip arm day often. Or leg day at all. Compared to Titan, the gym owner, he was an absolutely massive specimen of their species.

 Chapter 753 753 The Things She Knows

    Nico''s run was predictably smooth, and Max suspected that she had forgotten to turn the gravity control systems that she had built into her body off. She didn''t think about them at all anymore, so it was quite likely that she was just unconsciously altering the surrounding gravity to help herself out, the same as always.


    That defeated the purpose of this course, but she was having a lot of fun, and she wasn''t using her innate control very much if she was still using it, but the way that her body flowed from one gravity pool to another was just uncanny.


    She made the extreme training course look like a well-choreographed dance, even though the gravity wells moved around the room and changed in intensity so that no two trips through were ever the same.


    She finished her run to a standing ovation from the small group in the gym and smiled at Max.


    "We shoulde here more often. That is a lot of fun. I would say that it would make a great theme park event, but the safety measures would take all the fun out of it. You can''t just let random civilians hurtle at walls or bash their face off thedder." She sighed.


    The Gym regrs chuckled at that. They had all suffered that fate at least once when the gravity suddenly changed on them, and they were braced in the wrong direction. But it wasn''t their chin that they were the most concerned about bashing off random corners of the equipment. Their scales would heal quickly enough, but the pain of your first nut shot was never forgotten.


    "Well, we should take our leave. We''re going to organize a surprise light show for tonight to celebrate the first residents of the new floor arriving. We will do the celebration on the upper floor in a couple of days, so today is just for this one. Watch for it as the evening starts, but we will make a public announcement in a few minutes." Max informed the lizardmen with a conspiratorial wink.


    "We will look forward to it then. There''s still plenty of time, and we will be able to wear ourselves out and then rest and be ready for the evening event with plenty of time to spare." Titan agreed.


    Nico prepared the announcement as they headed out and began to program the light show into the holographic array that served as the sky inside Absolution. The ceiling was many kilometres above them, but it was better to have a more natural-looking sky to help everyone feel like they were living in an actual world.


    Sure, there was a limit to the sky, but for non-flying species, and even most flying ones, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be over a few thousand metres in the air without being inside a vehicle of some sort.


    [Attention everyone, this is a public service announcement. Tonight, there will be an aquatic-themed light show over the cities on the main floor to celebrate the first residents of the second level arriving at their new homes. Please look forward to it.


    For rural residents, the show will begin at 22:00 ship time and will ur over every major city at the height of two thousand metres. Public Transit on affected routes may be dyed as it is rerouted around the show.]


    The broadcast went to homes and personal devices so that it didn''t really disturb anyone. At least not any more than a standard text message would. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That would keep everyone excited for the day. The hologram system was capable of amazing things, and if Nico was putting on a light show, then it was bound to be a good one.


    Nico was almost as excited as anyone in the city. She hadn''t gotten to y with the ship''s systems much since it was built, a situation that she intended to rectify once she finally had some downtime. Someone was always requesting them for something or another, and it seemed that she never had a full week to herself. She recalled in her past life that she often travelled between worlds at warp by herself, with her Mecha, throwing everyone off her trail and then suddenly appearing at a new location.


    At that time, they could trace a portal, but after a battle, there was so much lingering energy in the area that they couldn''t track a ship in stealth mode going to warp.


    Now that she had been thinking of it, she had a great idea of how to improve the stealth functions that she had been designing for the new ships. Trying to hide something asrge as Absolution was a joke, but for the morphable Cutter that they had disguised as a pleasure yacht, it waspletely possible.


    Not only could she hide it, but she could also disguise it. That was a trick that had evaded even the developmental legacy of the Alliance, and it wasn''t something that she would share. Not even with her mother, no matter how much cake she offered.


    "You look like we should go by theb on the way to whatever we''re doing next." Maxughed after having seen what she was thinking about.


    "No, that''s fine. I will take care of it this week as long as we don''t have to do anything else.


    The Mecha Regiments are on a break, but after that, they have to head out again to clear thest fews that still have a Klem infestation. That should be the end of our part of the job, and the rest of the Terminus Fleet is nearly done with thes that we were supposed to clear at home.


    I would say it''s been productive, and it has been, but somehow it feels more like busy work than actually advancing anything." She exined.


    "Then what is it that your tiny little mechanical heart desires?" Max joked.


    "Other than your mother''s cake recipe." He amended.


    "One day, I''m going to get that recipe, and it is going to be glorious. I''ve already gotten four ingredients. Now I just need the rest and the quantities. But that''s the easy part. The hard part will be learning her special preparation method that makes it so fluffy." Nico sighed.

 Chapter 754 754 Day Off Plans

    Max looked at Nico''s still much too energetic body as they left the gym and decided that they should go somewhere else for the day. Physical exercise didn''t make her tired, and Max suspected that it was beginning to wear on her mentally, a phenomenon that wasmon with Cyborgs.


    Their body forgot what it was like to feel tired, so they mostly stopped sleeping, but their brain still needed some sleep, or they couldn''t function properly. So, he would take her out for something exciting, and maybe that would be enough to wear her out for the day and give her something to talk to the other researchers about tomorrow.


    "How about we go see some of the sights? I know where a few new shops have set up just the sort of eclectic fashion that any Reaver would love to shop at. The styles aren''t in the Replicator system, so they are an Absolution exclusive, sewn right here on the ship." Max suggested.


    Nico always had the best fashion ideas, and she still usually set out his clothes for special asions, so this should be right up her alley.


    "Oh, this should be fun. You know, things have really been going right for me since I left the army. Mother never let me have dolls. She said that they were unproductive toys. The army gave us all uniforms, but once we left, I got my very own Max to dress up." She chuckled.


    "So, I''m the substitute for the dolls that you never got to y with as a child? That doesn''t sound very promising, but somehow you still managed to develop a pretty decent fashion sense." Max retorted.


    "Don''t underestimate me. I would have dressed up my younger siblings if Mother had let me, but she had alreadyid im to them by the time I was big enough to dress them. She really doesn''t like to share, as you might have noticed."


    Mary Tarith loved to share, just not the handful of things that she deemed important to her, like the chance to dress her younger kids and her cookbook.


    Nico went on and on about the cake, and it was good, but there was a whole Tarith Family Cookbook that he had seen in a few other Family members'' thoughts. She was the inheritor, so she was the only one that had a copy, and it could only be shared with her cook, so the Family dishes would be the same through the generations and for every family gathering.


    Max supposed that it was an old money sort of thing. If his family had a secret cookbook, it likely resembled a delivery app than an actual book.


    That was it. That was the thing that they could do for the day. They could visit with the Tarith Family. By Kepler''s reckoning, it was the break day and the first of the month, so Mary Tarith should be serving the family lunch in about four hours. He just had to keep Nico upied until then, and they could go for lunch on Rae 5, followed by the light show here aboard Absolution.


    It would be an excellent day off n, and it didn''t involve anything except organizing the light show for the people of Absolution.


    "How about we get aplimentary set of outfits to wear this afternoon?" I havee up with a n, and I think that you will like it. Make them ssy butfortable enough to wear to a semi-casual function." Max suggested.


    The transit pod dropped them, and a few others off at the burgeoning new upscale shopping district, where a surprising number of people recognized them well enough to give them startled looks when they saw them in the street. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "We really do need to get out more. People are shocked to see us, but we live here too." Nico chuckled.


    "Technically, we don''t live in the city, but I get your point. We need to socialize more, and not just with the officials that everyone sends to us. Now, where do we start? Do we start with shoes and match an outfit to them, or do we start with a coat?" Maxughed.


    "I say we start with underwear. Work our way from the inside out, and then I can have the satisfaction of finishing with a fully dressed Max."


    They turned to head for a specific store that Nico had in mind, and Max spared a wave for a few of the people in the crowd. There was a younger couple leaving the shop as they were about to enter, but they both stopped in shock to see Max and Nico in the same ce they were.


    "Sanitation manager Juan. It''s a pleasure to see you again. How have you gotten settled in?" Max asked the man, whose thoughts said that he had met Max when his ship came in during the secondary pickup that Absolution made for their first batch of the essential crew.


    "Commander, Sumander. It''s an honour to see you again. I didn''t expect you to remember my name." The young man, with the customary light blonde and tannedplexion of the Cygnus Empire, greeted him.


    "It hasn''t been that long yet. But my memory isn''t always the factor." Max told him with a wink.


    "I should have known. I''m not even sure I told you my name the first time, so you must have cheated to get it this time."


    Max nodded. "It''s the best way to seem personable and like I actually remember everyone''s names."


    "I''ve got it easy. I have three managers named Carlos under me, so I only have to remember one other name." Juanughed.


    "And who might this lovelydy be?" Max asked politely, though he had already learned that it was his new girlfriend he met two weeks ago.


    "My name is Emmaline. It''s a pleasure to meet you, Commander Keres. I work in the maintenance bot repair department." She exined and reached out to give Max a handshake.


    Max took her hand gently, mindful that her body was much more delicate than his or Nico''s, and she gave him a firm shake. Only her mind showed her confusion at the particrly stiff feeling of Max''s hand, but she wrote that off as a peculiarity of Kepler people. They had Systems, and Max was known to be particrly strong, so she had decided that the sturdy feeling of his hand was a side effect of that, not from a change in the actual makeup of his skin.

 Chapter 755 755 Welcome Distractions

    Max smiled at the two workers, then looked inside the store. "It has been a pleasure to meet you again, but we are in need of outfits for an event this evening, and we really should get to it."


    The shop was one of the finer lingerie shops in town, but Max was surprised to see that they didn''t cater exclusively to more feminine clothing. There was a wide array of men''s underwear in high-tech fabrics, like the military baseyers that kept a near-perfect environment inside, as well as more conventional items, like silk or cotton.


    Of course, the focus was still ondies'' wear, but since Nico didn''t know what they were up to for the day, she didn''t know what sort of outfit she should be picking for herself. Instead, she went by Max''s rmendation for the staff that they find her something that looked good but would befortable all day long.


    "Certainly, Commander. I think we have just the sort of thing that you are looking for. It''s in a new fabric sourced from the Alliance and does a most excellent job of wicking sweat away from the body. That will keep themfortable all day long, even if you should happen to get hot and steamyter in the evening." The shopkeeper told him with a wink while twirling her hair around one finger.


    The movement made her look like the stereotypical bored bimbo salesgirl, and there wasn''t much going on in her thoughts, but she was well dressed, so Max wasn''t going to argue with her advice.


    Nico wasn''t so kind. Even without reading her mind, the look of disdain on her face was enough to have the manager running over to help her out directly. He quickly ushered the sales girl into the back to do inventory and came back to help Nico find just exactly what she needed.


    "Sumander Nico, it''s a pleasure to see you here today. Forgive my daughter. She isn''t particrly excited about the family business." The middle-aged human woman exined.


    "That''s understandable. Life is good here on Absolution, so there are quite a few of the younger generation who don''t see the need to work when their parents can easily provide for them." Nico agreed.


    "But on the brights side, business is doing quite well here. It''s much better than in the hive city. The air is clean, there''s so much space, and everyone gets their own bedroom. Motivating the youth is a secondary concern, I think. When you picked us up from our in Cygnus, I was running a tailoring shop for bureaucrats'' suits in a hive city with two hundred million people in it, but a quarter the size of this floor of the ship. Maybe less than that.


    Now, I get to make what I want instead of altering the same identical suits every day. I owe you both quite a bit for this opportunity."


    Max smiled at the woman''s enthusiasm. "There''s no need to appeal to our better nature now. You''re already here."


    "There''s never a bad time to suck up to good customers." She replied with a sly smile, then went to the rack and brought back a set of lingerie for Nico.


    "Here, try this, and then we can work on the Commander. It''s custom-made, and I think it should be just your size. Let me know if any of the spots don''t fit right."


    Nico disappeared into a changing room and came back out a little over a minuteter, admiring herself in the mirror on the wall. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I like it. Now, I''ll just give myself a bit of a tweak, and it will be perfect."


    Nico adjusted her chest size a little to better match the cup size, and slimmed down her waist a bit, then nodded in satisfaction.


    "How, wait, what?" The shopkeeper stammered.


    "Morphable outer shell. I can alter my dimensions a little to make things fit better or to disguise myself." Nico exined.


    The woman sighed as she looked Nico over to ensure the fit was perfect. "You know, there are a lot of women in the world who would kill to have that ability."


    "Killing isn''t necessary, but death might be. The only reason that I am in this body is that I was so severely wounded inbat that even the healing of an Alpha Ranked System wouldn''t have healed me enough to get back tobat duties in any sort of reasonable time.


    Lab-grown limbs weren''t avable on the battlefield, so I ended up with an experimental full-conversion body. It has its upsides, though."


    "You know, I had heard the story, but somehow it never really seemed real until I saw you in person. The Ghost of Tarith''s Rage is supposedly being made into a feature film now. There are some famous actors in it, so maybe it will do justice to the reality.


    I know it sounds silly, especially for me, who grew up in a bureaucratic world, but gritty war movies have always been somewhat inspiring. Defending humanity from threats both internal and external and all that."


    Max smiled at her simple worldview. Those movies were all propaganda films, made to create a heroic image for the soldiers, to keep parents from rebelling when their children didn''t make it home from their tour of service, but for people who lived their whole lives in a huge crowded city, it was as foreign to them as any alien horror flick.


    "They always do a good job of them. I don''t know how actors can deal with making a whole movie, though. I made an advertisement for the Kepler Government once, and that was stressful enough. It was only one day, but those movie sorts are at it for a year." Max agreed.


    "I think it''s just that they get paid so much that they wouldn''t give it up. I heard that Prad Bitta got over a hundred million creditsst year alone after his new action film went viral through the Alliance Data Net." She sighed.


    "The data has been good to everyone. I should pick something out and get moving to the next store, though. If we hang around too much longer, we will bete for our next stop."

 Chapter 756 756 Final Touches

    Their next stop was only a few stores down the road, a fancy designer suit store, where Nico assured Max that she could get something that properly suited him and his personality.


    When they entered, Max was struck by the eclectic nature of the items on the racks. It looked like the Vampire who was running the ce had simply grabbed random items from every possible culture and species and pped them together in a way that somehow worked.


    Well, most of the time. Max wasn''t sure that the bright orange sneakers with the officers'' coat and leather short shorts were a good idea.


    "How might I help you today? As you can see, I have a bit of everything, and I can turn anyone into the most fashion-forward trendsetter on the World Ship." The pale man greeted them with a smile that showed his fangs.


    "Now, this ce is more like it. There are a lot of standard clothing stores on the ship, but only a few that carry a wide enough selection for a proper Reaver fashion makeover." Nico cheered as she disappeared into the racks of clothing.


    "Ah, Reavers. Yes, there is an actualck of Reaver clothing in stores since most of them seem to prefer to operate on the cheaper end of the scale and either use captured items or whatever they can print from the Replicators for minimal cost.


    But when you''re expecting to ruin clothes on a regr basis, there really isn''t much need to go overboard on the spending. Just look at how things go in the taverns. Between spilled drinks, fights and desperate women, many of the humans ruin multiple clothing items a month." The Vampire chuckled.


    "That will happen. Humans tend to go through a lot of clothing when they get excited. They lose patience for taking it off properly and just shred it. The Titans are known for the same thing, and I suspect that the Valkia are as well, though they would never admit to it." Maxughed.


    "You have no idea. The Valkia are so picky about their clothing, but they buy a lot of it. If they''re not ruining it, they must have a huge closet somewhere to be storing it all."


    "They actually do have huge closets. The Valkia love sending things home to their families, so once they find something here and wear it a few times, they''ll wash it and send it back home for others. It''s a tradition with their people, some sort of cultural objection to rampant waste and consumerism, so they reuse clothing through the family.


    The problem is that they have already found a way around it, and they just have one person buy it all and distribute it to everyone else so that they can say that they didn''t buy anything new." Max exined after taking a second to check the Valkia''s thoughts on the matter.


    Nico came back a few minutester, carrying an armload of items. "First, I want you to try this pile. Then I will hand you the next outfit."


    Max went to the changing room and put on the outfit that looked suspiciously like the Captain Harkness Cosy that he had worn for the gaming tournament, with a shirt that only had buttons halfway up, leather pants and a pair of gold chains.


    "Is this an outfit to go out, or are we doing cosy?" He asked as he stepped out for Nico to see how it looked. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I think it looks good. Very Mob boss. If we can just style your hair, you would fit right in with the other ck Market leaders." The Vampire smirked.


    The Alliance had rejected them many times in the past, but they had still managed to get a few things from the ck Market and had used them as the basis for a lot of their technological advances. Ironically, that made it even harder to impress the Alliance since their tech was a direct ripoff of obsolete Alliance tech, and the Federation of Species that upied that quadrant of the Gxy which Max was from, had hit a dead end while trying to get anywhere with negotiations.


    Max held out his hand for the next outfit. "What''s next? I''m not sure that this is the right outfit for today. Though maybe it is. I don''t think it would stand out too badly, and it might even impress someone."


    Knowing Mary Tarith, she might actually approve of this outfit more than anything that Max had picked for himself. Her fashion sense was particrly odd, as most Reavers were, but while she preferred matronly outfits for herself, everyone around her was encouraged to be mboyant and creative. Max was pretty sure that she picked the simple dresses and aprons to wear around the house just to throw people off their game. Nobody would expect that Mary Tarith was the leader of a major Reaver Family until you saw her at work.


    The second outfit was even more outrageous, but in a way that Max actually approved of. It paired ck cargo pants with a red tunic, ck leather bracers that covered most of his forearms, and a unique pair of boots that had a gravity field built in.


    They were an Alliance product obtained by the Vampire once he got aboard Absolution and could use the Terminus Trading Company''s name to get things imported to his store. They were most popr with teens who were into parkour, as they would let you more easily run up walls and perform tricks, but they looked good, in a doc marten sort of way.


    "Oh, that''s a good look. We should bring out the hoverboards and take a flight around the city." Nico praised him when Max came out in his new outfit.


    "That''s not a bad n. We can watch tonight''s live show from the Hoverboards instead of being on a rooftop or using an Exoskeleton. Now, we just need to get you dressed for the night, and we''re ready to go to our next stop. What have you got in mind?" Max agreed.


    "How about we switch things up a little? I found something good back on the racks." Nico replied with a smirk, but she was hiding her thoughts from him again, so Max couldn''t peek in advance.


    When she came back out, Nico had changed into a pair of very short denim shorts and a powder blue hoodie. She had tied her hair up in Dutch braids, and she looked like the picture of youthful innocence.


    That might have something to do with her ability to alter her face shape, but it was a very different look for Nico.


    "You look absolutely perfect. Now, let''s head to our next destination." Max congratted her, before paying for their items and leading her out by the shoulder before she could change her mind.


    Mary was going to love this outfit.

 Chapter 757 757 New Klem Tricks

    To say that Nico was confused when Max led her to the hangar where their morphable ship was waiting was an understatement. Both of their Mecha were still in it, but it wasn''t her birthday, so she was pretty sure that he wasn''t just randomly bringing her to kill stuff.


    It was possible, but it seemed unlikely since he had told her that they needed to dress up for the event.


    Once they were clear of Absolution, Max set a course for a clear spot so he could open a Portal, and Nico started to get really curious about what exactly he had in mind. They were supposed to be back for the light show tonight, so whatever it was, it shouldn''t take long, but she was stumped as to what he had in mind.


    "You''ll understand in a second." Maxughed as Nico''s mind raced through the myriad possibilities, right up to and including the chance that they might have decided to wipe out a random just for giggles.


    As soon as he punched in the coordinates for Rae 5, she knew what the n was. "Oh, this should be fun. You didn''t warn her that we wereing, did you? She''s beenining that I don''te to visit often enough. It''s a good thing you took me to find something cute to wear."


    "Your mother is going to love it. You look fantastic, and you know she''s been missing her little girl. In your mother''s eyes, you''ll always be that rambunctious kid you were before you left for the Academy." Max told her with a sly smirk.


    "Nobody ever grows up in their mother''s eyes." Nico agreed as if it was the wisdom of the universe.


    Perhaps it was. There were dozens of species aboard Absolution, and in all but a few, Max had noticed the same tendencies to baby their grown children. Of course, with such a small sample size for some groups, it was possible that the family just didn''t get along, and it wasn''t an innate trait of the species to leave the kids to fend for themselves.


    [Rae 5 Station, this is Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company, requesting permission to dock for transfer to the surface.] Max announced traffic control once they were through the Portal.


    [You are clear to dock at Bay 329, Commander. Might we request the purpose of your visit to the surface?] The traffic controller asked.


    [The Tarith Family monthly dinner.] Max replied with a wink at Nico.


    [Understood. There is a shuttle waiting to bring others to the same location. We will hold it for your arrival.]


    That wasn''t surprising. There were a lot of Tarith Family members, and the monthly dinner was a good chance to catch up with each other now that so many of them had upgraded to vessels that had the ability to Portal between locations instead of spending weeks or months en route to their deliveries. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max hadn''t been back to his home Gxy in a while, and he was excited to see what it was like now that thetest technologies had begun to spread to all of the Trade Groups.


    It might be hard to tell today, though. They werending at the Moon Base, and Rae 5 had been colonized after the Replicators had been created, so even if they were a few generations of the tech behind, it was a very different situation than the worlds that had been settled for tens of thousands of years.


    Max cut the power and let the gravity beam pull them into their bay and found a very familiar site next to them. A huge ship designed to look like a Cathedral. They were sharing a bay with Divine Tribtion, piloted by Luke Tarith, Nico''s distant cousin and one of the first Sumanders that Max had chosen for a ship of the Terminus Trading Company fleet.


    Max had been getting their regr reports, and up until very recently, they had been clearing out Klem-infesteds that were deemed too close to the borders of human space. It was a valuable initiative that the Cygnus Government had implemented, a preemptive strike to keep the Klem from gaining ground anding after inhabiteds.


    A dock worker greeted them at the exit ramp to the ship with an impressed look on his face. It might be disguised as a pleasure yacht, but it was a veryrge pleasure yacht, and not just any Reaver Company could afford a luxury like that to shuttle their Commanders around when they weren''t working.


    "Greetings, Commander and Miss Tarith. It''s a pleasure to see you here today. You have two hours until the dinner starts, but the shuttle leaves in twenty minutes. Uncle Lu is already on the surface, as well as your other Sumander. We''re just waiting on a few more ships that are taking care of issues before the crew can disembark."


    "Hopefully, there haven''t been any heavy casualties?" Max asked.


    "No, sir. Most of the work is being done from orbit since we''re hitting fully infesteds, but the Klem doesn''t go easy. They''ve been learning new tricks, like firing sma into orbit. It''s made things tricky for the clearance crews, but we haven''t lost any vessels yet, just some damage to the hulls.


    That was definitely a new development. It was no secret that they had ways to fire pods into orbit, but actively attacking ships with sma from the surface wasn''t a tactic that he had seen before.


    "I will warn the rest of my fleet. Many of them are on cleaning duty, and others are passing by the Klem zone on a regr basis. It would be a shame to have them taken by surprise." Max replied politely.


    The dock worker nodded and gestured to the door. "I believe that you know your way around well enough. The shuttle is at 217, and there are a number of new vendors along the way. Enjoy your trip."

 Chapter 758 758 Signet

    Once they stepped out of the hangar, the noise of a busy space station immediately assaulted their ears. Max turned to Nico with a rueful smile, and the little Cyborg giggled.


    "It''s been a while since we were somewhere so loud and rowdy, hasn''t it? Our own ship is so calm with all those Alliance sorts that we might have forgotten how much noise Reavers make just enjoying life." Sheughed.


    "You have a point. It''s like just being around them calmed down our crew. Notpletely, but they''re much more quiet than they used to be. I don''t even think I''ve seen a report of anyone being attacked with a broken bottle this week. That was always a reliable standby for the drunkards since they had the bottle anyhow."


    "Kebabs and Ffels. Come and get them. They''re hot and ready. Why don''t you take a break from walking?" A food cart vendor called as they passed.


    "We''re off to the Tarith Family dinner. We can''t be eating before we get there." Nicoughed.


    "Bah, that''s not for hours yet, is it? It''s still early morning on that side of the. How about you? I know you want Kebabs." The man continued, turning away from them to another Reaver walking by.


    They walked a few more stalls down, and a stall selling a collection of jewellery caught Max''s eye. Precious metals didn''t mean much in an age of replicators, but they still held some value. The chains and rings were more popr for their design than the materials these days.


    "That''s what you need. Rings. You never wear any, and I keep forgetting, so we should get you some." Nico suggested.


    "Excellent call, Miss. While some might think that they''re just for fashion, a good ring actually serves many purposes. I''ve got some here with hiddenpartments, some with transponders ormunicators, and a fine selection of stainless steel skull rings, just in case you want to punch someone in the face." The vendor agreed.


    The man had a good point. A nice solid ring on your finger made it much more satisfying when you punched someone in the face.


    "Perhaps I should get a crest made for the Terminus Trading Company. We''ve got a logo, but I don''t have an official ring. Do you do custom designs?" Max asked.


    "Indeed I do. If you have ten minutes and a picture of your logo, I can design up a ring and have the replicator print it out for you." He agreed.


    The Terminus Trading Company logo was simple. Just the letters TTC arranged around arge Y, in the fashion of the old East India Company logo. Unfortunately, the East India had fallen to the Narsians centuries ago, but their logo and memory were still featured in many Kepler movies. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Oh, that''s a nice easy one. So many newpanies want to go all high-tech and make a three-dimensional holographic projection as their logo. It''s cool, and I''ve got rings specifically to project that sort of thing, but there''s just something about a good si ring. Not only is it stylish, but you can use it as a stamp so that others can confirm your correspondence.


    The vendor spent a moment creating the si, with a raised emblem, to use as a stamp should Max want to do something as archaic as stamping a wax seal on a letter. But more practically, it would leave thepany logo on his victim''s forehead, should he use it as a weapon. That was the sort of thing that you wouldn''t soon forget.


    "That is excellent. I need one made to fit myself, one for Miss Nico, and then another twenty in assorted sizes. Plus those two stainless steel skull rings there." Max decided.


    Max tried the rings on, then put his new si between them and admired how his hand looked. It was a good look, and it added a bit of ir to his daily style. When he got back to Absolution, he would have to get Nico to design him some rings that had multiple functions, like the hologram emitter or perhaps a t space, if she could make them that small.


    "Well, we should get to the shuttle. It was good to meet you." Max said goodbye to the ring maker and then followed Nico to the elevator.


    He could sense that she was entertaining the thought of breaking into thebs since Uncle Lu was on the surface and not there to stop her, but even she realized that they simply didn''t have enough time, and if she missed the shuttle, she would be caught for sure.


    "Don''t bother. He''s got more than enough issues with security between that grandniece of his and the Innu researchers here on the base. He doesn''t need you adding to it the one that that he finally leaves theb." Max chuckled when he heard Nico sigh.


    "Fine, let''s go have dinner. I will try to convince Uncle Lu to let me have the good stuff when I see him next time."


    As soon as the elevator doors closed, Nico''s mind was off of taking an illicit tour through Uncle Lu''sb and onto dinner with her family. Max had only been to a few of these, even including the one during the break when they went to her house on Kepler Terminus during their time at the Academy.


    Max decided to keep silent as her mind wandered to how her mother had called him Samantha because they didn''t list gender or sex on the notification form. She had been so happy to have another girling to visit since she had twin boys and a husband with her at home all the time.


    Well, thatst part wasn''t quite right. Her husband spent most of his time gone, but nobody ever really mentioned it or questioned where he went. Even Nico didn''t know the full story, and the old man had some sort of System Function to keep Max from finding out on his own.


    Max didn''t have much hope of finding out his secrets tonight, but just the chance to talk to the man was intriguing. He seemed to know everything and everyone who mattered.

 Chapter 759 759 New Comms

    The moment that they entered the shuttle, the man in question came into Max''s sight. It was almost as if he had been summoned by thinking about him, but even with a precision portal, that likely wasn''t possible.


    "Papa! Long time no see." Nico cheered as she pulled her father into an embrace.


    "You''re not an easy person to find yourself, Kiddo. I went all the way to Absolution looking for you, and you had just left toe here to see me. But it''s good that it worked out this way. There is nobody on this shuttle who isn''t already in on what I''m about to ask you, so I''ll just get straight to it.


    What do you think about having a Board of Directors take over the operations of the Terminus Trading Company''s daily operations while you take on a special mission for me? There are a number of lingering issues that have be too much for me to deal with at this point, and the list of other possible candidates has be increasingly nonexistent."


    Nico smirked at her father. "You sure do know how to butter him up. Anything that gets him out of paperwork duty is a good deal, in his opinion. We''ve got a custom Cutter, with two Mecha aboard, plus top-of-the-line replicator systems to make anything else we need."


    "Perfect. Then you can likely get started right away. A kindly researcher in a whiteb coat named Felicity told me that if I delivered these devices that just came from the research team, you could keep in steady enough contact to make decisions on behalf of Absolution in the role of Commander and Sumander." The sly Patriarch of the Tarith Family informed them, then turned over two small boxes.


    Inside each biometric-coded lockbox were a single vial of liquid and a digital direction screen. The directions were simple.


    [Nanotechnologypliantmunications array upgrade device, BETA2.3. Has been confirmed to use the System Nanobots to assist in acting as a fully functional interstermunications device.


    Felicity would also like us to inform you that she has found a new purpose in life. She wishes to be a biological beings researcher, and to that end, has requested that she be allowed to take over her old role as Facility Manager but as Absolution''s AI. Attached is a list of terms and conditions, including that there be no experimentation, harm, mental trauma, or interference on her part except in the role of the ship''s AI as required by Reaver Code and Terminus Trading Company Regtions.]


    Putting the somewhat crazy AI that turned hybridized Klem intob experiments in charge of millions of citizens of random species, as well as visitors? Nope, that didn''t sound like apletely insane idea at all.


    But Max did at least use Nico''s System Talent to read through the proposal. As expected, it was very well written in the form of an employment contract to the World Ship''s AI. It promised to do no harm, and the Reaver Code as well as Terminus Regtions both forbade disgracing your Company. The punishment for it started a corporal and worked its way up to immediate expulsion from the Company through the closest airlock.


    After seeing it, it honestly looked to be a better agreement than most of the workers who needed security agreements had signed.


    [Sumander has added a use to the proposal for your review.] The screen notified him.


    She proposed a thirty-day probationary period where the role of AI would be immediately terminated for any punishable transgression, as well as a few amendments that closed potential loopholes where the AI might still be able to run experiments on humans. Instead of forbidding the practice, which might cause issues if the research teams needed the ship''sputing power for an experiment, they required Sumander level or higher verification and the presence of a third party with a Code Red security pass.


    That would be enough to know that the AI couldn''t run amok, as only a few people were trusted enough for Code Red passes, like the Lead Researchers. Having a shipwide AI would also solve a lot of issues, as it could keep tabs on everything at once as a secondaryyer of security. It could also coordinate, which was a very handy ability when multiple departments in separate cities were involved.


    "Do you think that request is a good idea?" Max asked Nico as he reviewed her suggestion.


    "I don''t see the problem. Felicity was perfectly following the directions given, and it even kept the researchers and test subjects in the facility alive until we showed up with sma Cannons. If anything, I would say that Felicity is incredibly well suited to a role at Ship''s Computer, and as an added bonus, she can work as our secretary since she''s got a separate body.


    When we need to give directions and orders, she can ry them to the Board of Directors, who I am certain that my mother has already hand-picked, and they can make sure that our ideas are put into action. We will still get daily updates if thesemunication devices work, and most days even if we just rely on the regrmunicators." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was true, and it was somehow annoying that he didn''t have a good argument against putting the AI in charge of the ship. They could remove it right away if there were issues, and they could stress-test it tonight after dinner with the light show and all the people who were going to be gathered outdoors, exceeding even the usual daily activity levels.


    "Alright. I can see you''re on board with this, so I will trust your judgment. Let''s try out this serum that they''ve made for us first and see how it goes. Then we can inform Felicity to take over the role of operations." Max reluctantly agreed.


    He downed the viscous solution, which was a strange experience, as it had a viscosity closer to thick syrup than the usual watery sort of carrying solution that such products were delivered in.


    Max briefly wondered if they had simply sent over the undiluted product without putting it in a carrier, but it was easy enough to drink, so he didn''t worry about it too much and waited to see if his System would give him some sort of Notification about the new product that was intending to piggyback off its capabilities.


    For the first few seconds, nothing seemed to happen, but then hismunications device alerted him of a newly avablework named Absolution.


    It was a simple chatroom with five users. The Nicknames were familiar as well. BloodGoddess, Felicity, Miller, Commander, and one more who had chosen to use GearHead as their handle.


    Using Nico''s System Function, typing was as natural as thinking, so he sent his first message with the username Commander that had been assigned to his bottle.


    [The Syrum seems to have been sessfully integrated, as a newwork is avable to me. Beginning broadcast check.] Max messaged.


    Just over half a second passed before the response from Felicity arrived. [Message received, Commander. Transmission timestamp indicates that the interstermunications speed is within the eptable range for functionality.]


    [Packet loss is under one percent, much better than expected for a first live test. Congrattions, Commander. You can now reach either of us whenever you would like.] GearHead, who was presumably their lead researcher, added.


    [Optimization finished. Greetings, everyone, to the world''s most convenient private chat. With this System Function, it''s no harder than mental note-taking. I just need to think about it, and I can will it to appear here in the chat, as well as see your messages whenever I want.] BloodGoddess informed the group.


    [Congrattions, your connection has been confirmed. We will keep you updated here with three times daily file transfers. You may change the schedule if you require.] GearHead replied.


    [I appreciate that. I think that the Commander would be fine with the same schedule as well so that he doesn''t have to see them all in real-time as they arrive.] Nico added.


    [Understood.]


    Max turned his attention back to Nico''s father, who was watching in anticipation as they drank the strange liquid, but he couldn''t see anything that had happened after that.


    "What exactly was it that you wanted us to undertake so suddenly? It will likely be a few days to get things in order before we can leave, as we''re just in the middle of opening up a new area of the ship to residents. The aquatic level, with deep sea cities and a multitude of oceanfront vis." He asked.


    "Even in a few weeks would be close enough. But this trip isn''t long enough for us to discuss everything. I will return to Absolution with you after lunch with the Family is over. Mary will murder us all if we miss any more of them." The elder Tarith chuckled, but Max could tell that he was only half joking.

 Chapter 760 760 Garden Party, Not Dinner

    The Family dinners were important to the Tarith Family women as apetition between each other, and one person missing was one vote that could have swayed the oues, so they wanted everyone who liked their food to be present.


    Plus, Mary had a real soft spot for both her husband and Nico.


    The whole flight was under ten minutes long, though, and with a bit of time to reunite with Nico, there was no time for business. In fact, there wasn''t even time for proper greetings, with the number of exciting events that had urred since they had seen each other in person.


    The shuttle dropped them in the Tarith Family Compound''snding pad, and Max could see the crowd gathered in the garden, as well as a lot of tables set out today. From the looks of it, there were representatives from every single branch of the Family here today, and the dinner was no longer such an intimate event as it used to be.


    Or maybe not.


    Before the door had even fully opened, people were waving and yelling hello to the newly arrived group, and one of the Reavers was headed their way with a bucket full of bottled drinks and ice.


    A lot of the men were carrying one around, presumably so they didn''t have to go looking for their next beer, and the ice in the metal buckets kept four of them cold for as long as dinner wouldst.


    "Wee to the surface, Uncle Lu. Oh, you''ve brought a special surprise for us. What special asion brings the favoured son-inw to the surface to see the Tarith Family?" One of the older Reaver Commandersughed.


    "I brought her favourite daughter back with me for lunch. We''re on a mission to find out how Mary Tarith''s special cake is made." Max exined.


    "Wait, that is Nico? That doesn''t look like Nico. Hey, altering your face is not fair. Is that a morphable shell? Damn, I need to talk to your cybeics department. One of my Sumanders is full conversion, and he would love that ability for infiltration."


    The experienced Commander was so startled when the face turned back to Nico''s usual one that he began to ramble, but he meant what he said about his Sumander wanting that for infiltration missions.


    "Indeed, I am Nico Tarith. It''s a pleasure to see you, Uncle. I get the feeling that I will be saying that a lot today since so many of those who came to dinner are a generation older than I am." Nicoughed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It''s the nature of the beast. Only the old and the young have time to be gathering for family dinners. The rest of the n is much too busy to be bothered showing up to get to know the older generations." The retired Commanderined.


    "I''m sure you remember the drive. Especially if your father did as well leading the Company as you did, you must have started out with that need to prove he was right to assign you as the next leader and improve upon what he built. That''s what it means to be young, so they work away the years when they could have had the most fun." Nico teased the man, who was presumably a distant rtive of hers, somehow.


    Max was not about to start trying to figure out the Tarith Family lineage. There were hundreds of people here, and each of them represented thousands more who were off at other ends of the Gxy or in other Gxies now that they were doing deliveries for the ck Market, and they couldn''t possibly all fit in one spot, no matter how much you tried.


    Their arrival brought Mary Tarith over in a hurry before her husband could escape into the crowd, and Max could tell that he was thinking about it. Mary had been thinking that she could use more kids again now that the oldest ones who were still at home were starting to grow up too much to be cuddled.


    That meant that soon they would be off to one of the many Academies to begin their skills training since they had both expressed both the talent and interest in bing Mecha Pilots. Then she would only have two at home, and they were rapidly getting to be of the same age, which would leave her with none at all, and that was not an eptable state for Mary Tarith.


    Max resisted the urge to chuckle at the man''s plight. It wasn''t exactly a horrible fate to have a woman who wanted you a bit too much, and Max could tell that part of his concern was what would happen when they retired, and it came time to begin the recement process for Mary as Family Head.


    Every branch was grooming at least a few possible candidates to take over the Family''s leadership, and they all had a chance if they could prove themselves, but the one child that might have been the clear winner currently wanted nothing to do with being groomed for Family Leadership.


    Of course, leaving Nico with Max was aplishing the same thing. She had plenty of practical experience with basically everything except Family life, just by working with him, and it was her association with Max and his people that brought her so much fame.


    When that thought went through her father''s mind, Max did chuckle a little. Little did he know that half of the insane antics and gear they hade up with were Nico''s direct ideas and actions. No matter where she had been sent, she would have be infamous at the very least. Max just kept her off the war crimes hit list.


    It might not sound like much of an aplishment, but this was Nico they were talking about. She had centuries worth of really, really good, really horrific ideas in her brain to work with. Mary had a pretty good idea of just what Nico was like, but he was likely the only one that knew just how deeply disturbing her inner voice was. The fact that Nico was considered to be nominally sane was a minor miracle of some sort, even if Max had never seen a being that could be considered a deity in this universe.


    He had in his past life though. He''d fought it as well, right up until it opened a wormhole and tossed him halfway across the universe in annoyance. He never did learn what that species had done to annoy it, but after that day, he was the only one in the universe that even seemed to remember that they had existed.

 Chapter 761 761 Snark And Children

    Mary Tarith smiled at Max, while Nico took the opportunity to move behind him to surprise her mother. With what she was wearing, her thought was that her mother wouldn''t know until she revealed herself.


    That was never actually a possibility, as Mary Tarith had a System Function that located her family members when they were nearby, so instead of hiding, Nico''s movement only made Mary take an extra step to pick the little Cyborg up in what would be a bone-crushing hug to others.


    "My baby girl is back. I''ve missed you, and you''re so adorable. See, pairing you with Max was exactly what you needed. It took some time, but now you''re the cutest daughter that any Tarith could ask for." Mary gushed as Nico gave Max a resigned look and let her mother swing her around in the air.


    "It''s good to see you again, Mom. Max even took me out shopping, especially for today, so that I could look good for our outing, but he kept it a secret until we were on our way here. How have things been while we were away ying politician, which I am fairly sure is actually your job, by the way." Nico asked.


    "Nonsense, you''re Sumander of thergest ship in the Reaver Fleet. It''s definitely not my job when they specifically ask to speak with you two. But things are bing a bit more stable, other than the influx ofints about how the Reavers do business." Maryughed, which set off a few dozen other Family members in the area.


    It wasmon knowledge at this point that the Alliance members were afraid to step on the Oligarchs'' toes, but humans, and especially Reavers, had a much more ''feth around and found out'' attitude to the situation. If anyone took offence to their legitimate business practices, which included a very healthy markup for their trouble, they were free to take it up with the business end of an Orbital Lance.


    It usually didn''te to that since, by Alliance standards, the humans were unreasonably violent, and most of the products that they were moving around Alliance territory actually came from Alliance providers who simply hadn''t had the reach to affordably deliver to this region of space before.


    The humans'' massive power supply that put Portal Generation devices on basically every major ship of the Reaver Fleet was just one annoyance among their many oddities, ording to most of the Alliance. How were you supposed to factor in affordable shipping to a species that didn''t value energy usage when it came to travel? Sure, they rationed energy usage on the ship, but their shipboard rates were a quarter of what the Alliance charged, so everyone just had more of everything for the same number of Alliance Credits.


    It affected their pricing on everything from food to services and goods, and even more distant systems were beginning to look at shopping with the Reavers, much to the annoyance of businesses who had considered their business as a given for many generations.


    Mary set Nico down after a few seconds and grabbed Max around the middle to give him the same hug, minus the lifting and spinning since Max was near twice the small woman''s size.


    "It''s good to see you again as well. You''re looking more mature now. How is Command treating you?" She asked.


    "I''m learning to delegate. Things expanded so quickly that I wasn''t able to take care of everything alone, even on Absolution, so I''m going to be forming a Council, chosen of Reavers who can be trusted to be loyal, to run the day-to-day operations, while I go about all of the other business that I have to take care of.


    There really isn''t anyone else who can do it, but as long as they''re in contact with me, I''m certain that a Board of Directors will be able to see Absolution move into the future smoothly." Max replied, a bit louder than necessary, because he was hoping to recruit some of these experienced veterans with too much spare time to take over as Directors.


    Many of them had passed down the Companies to the next generation when they were under sixty years old and had high System Compatibility, so they had centuries left to live while the sessive generations took care of their personal branch of the Family Business. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    There were a few that looked interested. A world ship was way cooler than taking a position as part of the governing council of an actual. For one, there weren''t nearly as many of them. For two, they went to all sorts of fun ces and did interesting things. Not so long ago, even a Colony ship was a valuable find, and they would have happily taken control of one, so they weren''t resistant to the idea of joining a group of like-minded Reavers to run Absolution.


    "You''re starting to sound like my husband. He''s always on about having important things to do that take him away from home. Look at this, I''m running out of children at home, and he''s already trying to escape again." Maryined.


    "I''m quite certain that it''s not the actual practice that he has concerns about. But you know, you don''t have to popte the entire on your own. There are other Tarith women who can have children, and you can go visit them or even bring one into your home to cuddle her infants if she''s down on her luck." Max suggested, in an attempt to help out Nico''s dad as much as he could.


    "You know, if I had more grandchildren around the house, I wouldn''t have to keep having more kids to keep up the number of little ones at home." She replied suggestively as if Nico wasn''t a full conversion Cyborg.


    "Mary''s always behind the curve." A short but stout womanughed with an infant in her arms.


    She was clearly too old to be having more kids, so this was likely her grandchild.


    "My dearest Aunt, I don''t think it counts if your child drops them off with you to go shack up with a Flect dealer on Ryza," Mary told her, with full snark in effect.


    The men in the area winced and backed away, as they were far too old and wise to get in the middle of this conversation, and they had all heard it before. But this time, the older woman simply snorted and walked away.


    Mary had scored a critical hit, and the daughter in question had overdosed to death only weeks after dropping all seventeen of her children, most of whom were home from a break at the Academy, off with her mother and then heading out ''to get some supplies for dinner.''


    "Low blow, Mary." Max reminded her as the hurt older woman walked away. The hate they had for each other was very clear, but still, the incident was only a few months old and still a fresh wound on the older woman''s heart.


    "I won''t apologize. Well, not in public." Mary amended.


    "See what you''re teaching our sweet young Nico? You wouldn''t want her to turn out to be a ruthless woman with a caustic tongue, would you?" Nico''s dad joked as he made his way over now that her mind had been sidetracked from the topic of having more children of her own a little.


    "Our gentle young Nico? Do you recall the time that she suggested teaching the guard dogs to aim their restraint bites up intruders'' shorts? She''s lovely and adorable, but Nico has never been gentle." One of the Butlersughed, with tears of amusement in his gray eyes andugh lines wrinkling his face.

 Chapter 762 762 Tarith Family Dinner

    Mary smiled at the Butler. "You know that''s not the worst thing she''se up with since she left home. I swear that her talent for essing technology led her to the wrong parts of the Data Net before she was ready, and her mind came out a bit warped. She''s a good girl, but she''s far too creative when ites to punishment."


    "You know, I''m standing right here, right?" Nico pointed out.


    "Oh, yes, Darling. I just thought you needed another reminder since I''m not sure that Max remembers to do it on my behalf." Mary replied sweetly.


    "Of course he does. He eliminates the fun option first every time, and then we pick from what''s left over." Nico grumbled.


    Most of the Family members had already heard the stories about her, but only a few of them had met the elusive younger daughter of Mary Tarith, and her appearance didn''t match her reputation. Surely someone who was known to have taken a single team to end an entire hive city in a day should look or at least act like a fiercebat veteran.


    Those who served in the more intense battles usually had a particr look to them by the time their service was over, and they were ready to join the Reavers. A hardened stare and a sense of presence indicated their experience. Max did, and most of the others here did, but Nico somehow managed to deceive their perception, and it made them wonder if it was a System Skill of hers.


    If she could hide the cues that usually gave away a hardened killer, she would be the perfect spy or assassin, both of which were in high demand among the Reavers because that''s what customers were always in need of. It was just a shame that she was already spoken for, as far as they were concerned.


    The friendly banter between mother and daughter was interrupted by Nico setting off an rm on her mother''s wrist device that alerted her that dinner would begin sitting in ten minutes.


    Mary red at Nico as she read the message. "I am well aware of what time it is. I don''t set rms ten minutes before activities when I''m already there."


    Max smirked at his partner as her diversion tactic failed, despite the number of times that it had worked on Max.


    "I have no idea what you mean, mother. Are you implying that I could tamper with your secure wrist device and set the rm for a random time?" Nico asked innocently while subtly changing her face to look younger and more distraught.


    "It''s a good thing that she was born as Mary''s daughter. She would have run roughshod over the rest of us. Even though I know that it''s a trick and that she''s almost guaranteed to be lying, that look makes me want to just melt." One of the other women of Mary''s generation stage whispered.


    A short round of giggling followed. She had a point. Nico had mastered the puppy eyes to the extent that very few of them could withstand. But Mary was made of sterner stuff and had fallen for it enough times that she wasn''t going to let her instincts get the best of her.


    "You hear that change in the vocal tone and the soft buzzing that goes with it? That''s the exact pattern and tone that the human mind is susceptible to. If I didn''t have resistance, her pleading attack would have made me think that her subliminal suggestion was my own thought.


    For your own sake, I would suggest not arguing with my daughter. I don''t know how Max deals with it." Mary informed the crowd before Nico pranked them as well.


    "He''s so logical and boring that he just totally ignores invasive thoughts most of the time. As I said, he always eliminates the fun options first." Nico pouted.


    "It''s not that. I can read your mind. I can''t tell which is your attempt to imnt a subliminal message and which is your thinking about the attempt because I hear them at the same time." Maxughed.


    "No wonder those two never lose a battle. One can read all yourmunications, and the other can read your mind before you send them. It''s got to be a bit like bullying the blind when they get into a fight." Someoneughed in the background.


    "Or beating up the handicapped." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Maxughed at that. "Actually, it''s the opposite of that. The dumb ones don''t n anything in advance, they just go on instinct, so you don''t get any advance warning of what they''re about to do until they''re doing it, at which point a simple sensory optimization during your early System Advancements would have made you able to detect it.


    "You hear that, Jason. You''re in luck. You stand a better chance than anyone of winning a fight." Someone yelled out.


    "What was that? You think you can beat me in a fight?" Jason yelled back, and the Family members near Max all began tough.


    A bigger, dark-haired Tarith man came stomping over. "What''s all that? You looking for a fight again, little brother?"


    "No, I found you the perfect opponent. The dumber you are, the harder it is for him to fight against you, so you''ve got the best chance of anyone here." The man who shouted snapped back.


    It was just about toe to blows when the ring of metal on metal drew everyone''s attention. A servant was banging a metal stick against a steel triangle on the porch, alerting them that dinner was about toe out.


    Nico looked at her mother with a smile. "See, I told you it wasing out soon."


    "That wasn''t ten minutes. Did you even check the timers in the kitchen first?" Mary countered.


    "No, I figured I would be close enough by guessing, but the point was never for the rm to be urate." Nico countered, fully aware that you couldn''t lie to her mother any more easily than you could trick her.


    "Come take your seats. You''re right next to me, and Max is beside you. I just need to make sure my husband doesn''t run away again. He seems to think that just a few more children are being unreasonable. It''s not like he''s got any problem practicing making them." Mary sighed.


    Once they were all seated and the tes were brought out, the conversation turned to more business sorts of matters that every Company was facing, most of them due to the rapid demand for expansion now that they had so many new customers.


    "To think that the ck Market could be so short on proper delivery ships. The Death Wind Territory didn''t even have it that bad before they joined the Trade Group. Seriously, I was at a customer this week who really thought that bribing officials was the only way to break a blockade." The man across from Max wasughing.


    "Aye, that was a fun run." The man on his left agreed, then the first man borated for the rest of the table.


    "We both picked up from this customer, but one of the deliveries was blockaded by a business rival who had tied them up with the regional government, so I had the ships of my fleet open a small portal, then came up on it at maximum orbital entry velocity, and deployed the cargo out of the bottom cargo hatch with a delivery drone.


    By the time the blockade team even had time to realize that something had happened, I had closed the portal and was long gone from the spot where we opened it, and the cargo was at full retro thruster headed for the recipient''s cargo bay.


    They never did figure out what happened. All they could tell was that a portal was opened, but there was no power signature because the retro thrusters are fuel burn thrusters, not an energy drive." The manughed.


    That was genius. Max had expected that they would have a way to detect and prevent that, but a few seconds wasn''t enough to get to a portal location, and the Alliance had a huge blind spot for low tech solutions, so simply strapping a chemical or nuclear rocket to a box and hurling it at the would totally evade everything but their object detection radar.

 Chapter 763 763 Lost And Found

    The whole point of a blockade was that you didn''t dare to openly attack the target for one reason or another, so throwing their cargo into the atmosphere would actually be pretty effective.


    Nico nodded in appreciation of the technique, and the Commander gave her a curious look. "What would the vaunted Nico Tarith have done in that situation?"


    "I have optimized the portals in my cargo ship for stacking, so once the main Portal is open, I can open a precision portal, like the ones we use to get around on Absolution in a hurry, and just drop the cargo right inside the warehouse, or in their yard. We used it to send home a passenger who needed to go further than most, and it''s quite effective."


    That gave all of the Commanders a series of great ideas. Many missions were to take groups of people to ces that they had no business being.


    "How secure are Alliances?" The man a few seats down on their side of the table asked.


    "You can''t even portal close to many of them, and certainly not into Alliance Facilities. They are well aware of the trick and can track it back through the main Portal, I''m informed. But if youe through at a short distance and set off an EMP, it will scramble the traces, and you will be able to travel in while they react." Nico exined.


    "So, it''s still a good insertion, and it will make a great delivery method. I wonder why the ck Market isn''t using it now?" One of the Commanders asked.


    "Don''t forget how rare it is that an Alliance delivery ship can Portal. Almost all of theirary systems have a dedicated array, and entering on your own is restricted, so you pay the fee to use the array. Travel has gotten so convenient for them that they''ve stagnated. They don''t really innovate any longer because there is already some system in ce to do everything moderately well.


    Plus, their warp drives are different, they produce way less power than ours do, but they''re more efficient at generating a Warp Field. We thought about emting them, but they don''t produce enough to keep up with the demands of battle, so you could say that Human Technology is just the military-grade version of everything." Max added.


    "Produced to minimum specifications by the lowest bidder?" Someone joked from a few seats away.


    "Better believe it. It''s just that our minimum is higher than what they feel that their civilians need. So, we can do things that they forgot were possible.


    I think that with a bit of time, we''re going to find that the Reavers are exactly what the Alliance had been missing, even if the Government wishes that we were still missing."


    That made most of the Reavers around the tableugh, but he had a point. Even the Giants couldn''t ''ruleswyer'' like a Reaver. Their minds looked forws as written, exact and literal, whereas the Reavers looked at a document not for what it said but what it didn''t. There were surely other species like them in the Alliance, but Max hadn''t met them yet, leaving the Reavers as the leaders of the "Technically Legal" category of transactions. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Even the majority of the new Warp Crystals that they sold for such an exorbitant price as a pre-tuned assembly so that the buyer didn''t have to go to a Government licensed specialist to get them set up to do the overhaul on their ships fell into that category.


    Selling them was explicitly legal. But the ships that they were being put into were ones that were under investigation for arge number of crimes, and nobody had a record of the new Warp Signature since the arrays hadn''t been tested in a ship before being sent out. You could get a very close guess, but the rest of the ship''s systems would determine the exact signature.


    "Have you heard about the chaos in the Prince''s Folly?" One of the other Reavers asked.


    Prince''s Folly was the nickname for the old Kepler Empire Core that was taken over by the Rebel Princes. It never really settled, but the wars had mostly died out forck of willing participants.


    "Oh, what''s thetest?" Max asked. He hadn''t been following it at all, so no matter what he heard, it would be new information to him.


    "They finally located the God Mecha and the Emperor''s gship, and now the Cores are threatening to overthrow the Princes. They were told that the Emperor''s ship had fallen and that the God Mecha was lost. Now that they know it was a lie, they''re in full outrage mode. We''re getting ready to gather some ships with the Cygnus and see if they''d like to join us when they''re done." Mary Tarithughed, but she forgot that Max could read minds.


    Located was a very strong word for the situation.


    The Emperor''s gship, ording to the official records, was Abraham Kepler, and General Tennant had brought it full of refugees to the outskirts of the Gxy, where Max had set him up with his own to Govern.


    "Abraham Kepler was never lost, though, was it? Or did nobody tell them that we had set him up with a new to Govern? And what''s this about the God Mecha?" Nico asked.


    "It showed up above Luminos, the of Lights, where you set up General Tennant to Govern, with its pilot and copilot alive and well. Nobody is sure where it went after that, but they''re assuming it''s in secure storage on the. A hundred thousand tourists saw it appear, and it''s been live-streamed all over. There''s no question that the Mecha is intact and operational, but it does look a bit worse for wear.


    From what I understand, Luminos has top-of-the-line facilities, though, and they might be able to make a half-decent repair to the Mecha, though we don''t have ess to the original design specs or creation methods. The world that made it was destroyed at some point in the past and the Mecha was just handed down from antiquity, with millennia-long stretches where we can''t verify anything about its history." Mary smiled.


    Great, now Nico wanted to go on vacation so she could break in and analyze the Mecha.

 Chapter 764 764 Dinner

    Nico''s dad smiled across the table at her. "I know what you''re thinking, and I''ve already prepared the data you''re after. We need to talk, so I will follow you to Absolution after lunch, and then you can do as you like once you have the intelligence that I have collected for you." He informed her with a wink.


    "I knew I could count on you toe through in a pinch. As long as it covers the basics, it will really help us with our development ns." Nico smiled back.


    "Development ns? Are there more new Mechaing out?" One of the family members asked.


    "No, probably not. But there is still a demand for a couple of unique personal Mecha, like the ones that I keep upgrading for myself and Commander Keres here. A few Titan ss Mecha with unexpected capabilities can change a whole war around, assuming that you can find someone qualified to pilot them." She rified.


    "Oh, I heard about that. Your Company came up against an alien Titan ss machine, didn''t it? I heard that it was impressive but not enough to keep up with your piloting skills." The man beside Nico''s father asked.


    "It fought very well, but it was a bit like putting a veteran Line Mecha pilot in a Crusader. The knowledge was there, but the necessary skills were not. The Aliens had an AI pilot, the Mecha, and once it was defeated, we used it as the basis for our Android Army aboard Absolution. There are roughly a hundred thousand of them operational, with ten thousand actual humans mixed in, because what the Androidscked was improvisation skills when a situation was outside of their programming.


    They could fall back on their training programs, but they couldn''t adapt fast enough to deal with a skilled and creative pilot one on one. So we mingled in human pilots as team leaders to give directions and deal with unexpected situations, while the Androids do the bulk of the heavy lifting inbat. It worked out incredibly well, and we ended up with almost no lost Mecha during thest rounds ofbat, thanks to their defensive programming.


    There was an exceedinglyrge amount of overall damage, but without lost units, that was actually easier to patch up than to do a load of full recements."


    Nico''s exnation had drawn all of the other Reaver Commanders in. They all hated having their own on the front lines, so if they could keep androids to operate their Mecha on the more dangerous sorts of missions, it wouldn''t get any objections from the crews.


    They were officially still under research and development testing, though, and thes that Absolution had reimed during the tests were supposed to be the shakedown runs.


    Since they had been so busy, there was no final report done yet, so the status of the Androids was unchanged, and they sat ready for the next mission that Absolution had, but they weren''t avable to anyone else.


    tes were cleared, and a round of desserts was brought out to everyone, marking the end of the more formal business conversations over dinner. Max could tell that this was a well-practiced routine for most of them. Dinner was work talk and current events, dessert was personal life talk and family talks, like who had children looking for partners and who knew of a possible match for them.


    The men across the table had started chatting about a grandson who would be graduating from the Engineering School this year when Max got a notification from home.


    [Terminus is preparing to disembark. We have identified Five possible locations for the next school event, and all personnel and passengers are verified to be aboard. Our flight ns are included in the itinerary.] Admiral Drake informed him.


    Terminus had actually been in one spot much longer than nned, thanks to the draw of Absolution and its amenities, but they were returning to Cruise Ship status, and he had a number of vacations, ster phenomenon, and one field trip on Canis nned for the next six months. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It would all be broadcast across the Alliance Data Net soon so that potential clients could arrange to be there for the events that they wanted, though the exact route would not be, as they would dodge around for security reasons, and so that they could make unscheduled stops along the way, then use Portals to catch up to the n.


    Once dessert was cleared, Nico''s dad was the first to his feet, with an anxious look at his watch. "Well, we hate to eat and run, but we should be on our way. Don''t worry, Mary Darling. I will be back in a day or two once I have finished visiting our daughter''s home."


    Mary didn''t buy a single word of his excuse, but he really did have important things to talk about with Max and Nico, and she knew it, so she couldn''t find a good reason to stop him from leaving for the night.


    "We can catch the next shuttle back up to the base and then take your ship back to the World Ship. I will be there for a few nights, and then one of the other Reaver Companies is giving me a ride back home." He exined as if he had this nned for much longer than thest hour.


    Of course, if he had been at Absolution already, he probably had, and this was just an unexpected extra stop in the middle.


    "Alright, let''s get this show on the road then. I''m sure that Mary is eager for you to finish with business so that she can have your full and undivided attention again." Max teased.


    "Well, it was good to see you while itsted. Try to stay longer next time." Mary admonished them.


    "We will, Mom. We just wanted to drop in for lunch before the party tonight on Absolution. The newly renovated floor is opening up soon, and the first residents are getting settled in today, so we''re putting on a light show to celebrate the opening of the inds." Nico told her with a smile.


    Plenty of other Tarith Family members had the location on their vacation list already since it was essentially a Reaver Controlled vacation world, and the inds seemed like much more fun than a big city, which was a bit too simr to ship life for proper rxation.


    Yes, technically, they were still going to be on a ship, but that didn''t really count when it was too long to see one to easily see one end from the other, even when it was an open view.


    Nico''s dad was way too good at blocking his thoughts, and Max couldn''t get anything out of his mind during the trip, which had to be kept to a mundane conversation since this was a public shuttle and a lot of the people on it were shift workers on the moon base, who lived on the and did ten days on ten-day off shifts at the base.


    They headed straight for the bay, and the older man whistled when he saw their ride.


    "I don''t recall seeing that in your luxury yacht offerings."


    Nico smirked. "I will give you a quick tour while Max gets us back to our home bay. I think you will appreciate the ingenuity of this ship."

 Chapter 765 765 The Mission

    Once they were safely docked and back at the office, Nico''s father looked at them with a very serious expression and then sighed and handed the antsy-looking Nico a data stick.


    "There, that''s the full data suite for the God ss Mecha belonging to the former Kepler Royal Family. Technically, it''s a Titan ss Mecha, not God ss, but it''s the finest of its peers, and you will see why when you read the descriptions.


    But that isn''t what is important right now. There is a very serious situation that we need your assistance with. Well, you and your Mecha.


    A spatial anomaly has opened within Cygnus, leading to an unexplored corner of the Universe that doesn''t match any star charts that the Alliance has. It''s a strange ce, the void isn''t empty like there is some monstrous neb left over from the beginning of creation, and a battle is raging there which cannot be allowed to spread to our Gxy.


    The anomaly opened into the territory of the Koleska, an exoskeletal species that has an eerie resemnce to humanity in that their heads resemble bare human skulls. They are also Mecha users, in the same way, that the Hunters are, with Biomechanical Warframes, as they call them, and they are under attack, as is everyone else in that region, by the arisen.


    From what we can tell, their technology appears to be autonomous drones of some sort. There is noputer, no discernable technology to them, but they are brutally fast and smart. The Koleska insist that they are piloted by arisen souls and that souls return to the void only to be reborn again when another Arisen Harbinger is created and sent out to attack.


    The scale is within your capabilities, fifteen to fifty-meter units, with some infantry battles on thes, but the Koleska has asked us for assistance by sending Void Combat capable units to their side, and in return, they are guarding the anomaly to keep the Arisen from finding it and sending an army through.


    The scale of battle there is insane. Our initial report sighted a battle that appeared to stretch from one star to another, countless billions of Mecha facing off against each other."


    Max just stared at him in awe for a moment.


    "And you expect us to do what exactly in that scenario?"


    "Honestly, not much. But you need to be visible, and you need to be lethal so that the Koleska will consider our side of the deal to be upheld. We can''t send Androids. That was very clear in the deal. The Arisen will possess them and turn them against their allies. Everything needs to be living with no AI orputer control, so you can''t even put your units on automatic standby while you''re there, or you''ll have to fight to regain control.


    We are training a team of Titan ss Pilots right now. Five hundred units will be ready within the year, using the design that Cleansing Light was built.


    Nico has informed me that there is very little of the Mecha that is still at that spec other than the Pilot''s seat, but it was a very capable Titan by any standard, and our facilities are already set up to produce them.


    You can bring your ship with you, but don''t bring it near the battle. Well, perhaps with Nico''s talents, you could bring it and not have it turn, but I wouldn''t want to risk it.


    What we''re asking is that you fight there until you are relieved and that you gather all the information that you can about the Arisen, the Koleska, and any other forces that you encounter on that side of the anomaly."


    Nico''s thoughts said that she was all in on a year-long murderfest, but Max had a few more questions. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You keep saying [we]. Who are the others, and how is it that your group knows about this and nobody else does?" Max asked.


    "I guess I should introduce myself properly. I was born Perrin John Kepler, the youngest brother of the Emperor of Kepler. I am the leader of the ck Guard, the Emperor''s personal assassins and the Empire''s intelligence force.


    We knew that the Princes were going to rebel, but the crackdown would have caused even more damage than letting things break apart would, in our estimation, so the Emperor took to the Pilot''s seat of Glory of Sol before the assassination attempt, where one of his body doubles was killed, and one went into hiding.


    Now, he is on Luminos with General Tennant, his dear friend and confidant."


    His revtion caught both Nico and Max by surprise.


    "That''s why they sent the System AI with Mom when she left Kepler Terminus. Because you''re the next in line with the Emperor missing and the Princes turned Traitor. The Reavers got the System because you married a Reaver. How crazy is that?" She rambled.


    "Not as crazy as it seemed to my father when I proposed it all those years ago. Who knew that she was a baby-crazed woman who would never give me a moment of peace after the first four were born?" The affection in his voice was clear, but Max assumed that there was a good reason that he didn''t want a huge number of children.


    Now that he thought of it, all of his kids also had a somewhat legitimate im to the leadership of Kepler when everything broke apart. It was definitely a good thing that he didn''t tell anyone. Nico, with an honest chance of bing Empress, would quickly be a genocide as she eliminated the challengers. She didn''t seem to have noticed that yet, though she was still intently focused on the Mecha data, and it didn''t seem to be impressing her.


    "With the new Monoatomic Armor that I created for Cleansing Light, it''s already above these specs. They''re good, but not as great as I was hoping." She sighed.


    "Hey, a few hundred years ago, it really seemed like it was. We couldn''t even properly create some of the materials, and there were directions included in the data." Her father defended the Glory of Sol.


    "We didn''t even make it. It was found in ruins under a copsed building undamaged. It does seem to have been human-made, though, since everything is sized and designed for us without a renovation. Well, maybe not for me, but for a human male anyhow. But more importantly, when are we leaving to go kill undead Mecha zombie bots?" She asked.


    "Whenever you want. We''ve still got a month if we need it, and if you rejected the offer, we would have sent a few veteran Phnx ss Pilots in Titan ss Mecha instead. But you are the best choice because I have faith that you can remain alive and will be able to repair your units with limited resources and ovee the unknown weapons that the enemy is going to use against you.


    Some of them use a type of thermalnce, some use a Gauss weapon, and others prefer an energy-sheathed de and closebat. It''s just too varied, and we know nearly nothing about them."


    Max nodded in eptance. "We will do it. Give us the night to get everything prepared, and we will head out to the anomaly on a diplomatic mission to chat with the Cygnus leader in charge of the area."

 Chapter 766 766 Timeline

    Nico brought up a list of supplies that she expected they would need and some improvisational materials that she would pack in the ship as spares. The ship had a veryprehensive repair bay on board and could take care of nearly any damage that the Mecha might have sustained.


    They had plenty of raw materials, as well as biomatter, avable for an extended mission. If nothing else, they could return to the anomaly and this side if they were in desperate need of supplies and couldn''t get anything on that side.


    It sounded like there were multiple intelligent species there, though, so it shouldn''t be too much of an issue finding some sort of biomass that they could work with, assuming that theirposition was close enough that the Replicator system would recognize it.


    She had included a list of spare parts to be premade that would bring the power system, and warp drive back online in case of damage to the ship since they couldn''t expect such an unfamiliar species to have anything that waspatible with their gear.


    "Is there anything that I''m forgetting?" She asked as she looked over the sheets.


    "You should likely make us a pair of specialized Mobile Suits for Piloting in. Who knows what that neb is going to be like if we get a breach of the cockpit? Even though you''re not worried about breathing, it could still be caustic, corrosive, radioactive, or otherwise toxic." Max borated.


    "Good call. I''ve got some that are quite simr to the ones we wore for thest mission but morefortable to Pilot in for extended periods of time. We will work out logistics and positioning for our ship when we arrive. Dad, how did wemunicate with the Koleska?" She replied.


    "Theirnguage wasn''t hard for ournguage trantion to pick up. It was phically simr to an ancient humannguage, mixed with one that we found in the Alliance database. We analyzed it, then tried to reply, and they sent us back anguage database in the same codingnguage we used the next day.


    I guess we got it fairly close because they didn''t seem upset that we didn''t understand right away, and now we can just use it tomunicate with them. It''s not spokennguage level right now, as we''ve never heard it, but it''s something."


    "We will work with what we can get. If we can receive and decode their messages, that''s enough to get us started, and we can coordinatebat actions from there without any friendly fire incidents. I''m assuming there are some descriptions of friendly and unfriendly units in that data pack?" Max asked.


    "Of course, everything we know you now know. It''s not as much as I had hoped, considering it''s my own immediate family going, but Ipiled it myself. I should head out and explore the ship while you two prepare. I''ll be sure to keep the exact details from Mary, or she will be blowing up yourmunicators. They work through the anomaly, so you''ll be able to message back home constantly as if you were right here in this Gxy until you move further in, and then it might be a bit ky, like sending messages from the Alliance Territories."


    "If it''s that good, we''re fine. I hear that you''ve hand-picked us a pretty good Board of Governors. They must have been decent since Mary didn''t have any objections to dealing with them." Max agreed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Of course. I picked all the best for the board, all veterans of many trade wars with a load of experience, all withary leadership experience, and all of whom led theirpanies to new heights during their tenure before passing it on to the next generation and taking on an advisory role until the generation after them took over."


    "That''s a pretty high standard. I didn''t think that there were even that many Reavers who met the qualifications." Nicoughed.


    "Oh, they''re not all Reavers. A couple of them are retired Nobles, and one is a former High Chancellor from the Emperor''s governing council. He''s been getting bored in his old age, and the prospect of mermaids on the beach was enough to encourage him to send me his own request when he heard that I was assembling a board of directors.


    I picked all people with Systems for longer lifespans. They''ve all got a decade or two in them before they''ll be picking sessors, so you should have some stability at home while you do what needs to be done.


    It matters more than I would have thought as a young man. Mary is like a bedrock. You can count on her to be right where you expected her to be every single time. It''s very rxing."


    "Will they be here before we leave? I feel like we should meet them at the very least." Max reminded him.


    "Unfortunately, no. I wasn''t expecting things with the Koleska to change so quickly, and we don''t have anyone ready to take up the role. They will be here in the next few days, and I will be here until then. I take it that one of your subordinates took up the jobst time?"


    Max nodded. "Yeah, the logistics officer, Miller. He''s very good at organization. If you''re going to be around and show them the ropes, I will introduce you to the Alliance Envoys. Then you can deal with them directly if Mary runs into any problems at home. I''m sure that she would rather send you than anyone else."


    Nico chuckled as her father sighed at the suggestion.


    "I''m afraid you''re right. She would really rather make me her errand boy. Dealing with the Alliance Envoys won''t be a problem. They are supposed to be quite reasonable, and it would let me get home on time for a change, with a good excuse when I don''t, so it might not be the worst idea." He reluctantly agreed.


    "In that case, we will bring you to the other office. They like working here because nobody cane to bother them, and they can block outsidemunications entirely if they need to. Let''s just hope that the Innu Envoy hasn''t gotten too bored, or the Giant will be in a bad mood, and the Valkia will be stirring them both up while the Huntressughs if she''s still here." Max exined.

 Chapter 767 767 Trouble Loves Company

    The Envoys were in a state of chaos when Max led Nico and her father in, which was really nothing new, but this time they were in chaos for the same reason that Max was. Spatial anomalies had opened in Alliance Territory, leading to the same unknown region of space but to the territory of another species.


    They were currently discussing whether the Envoy group in charge of the mission was going to argue for the anomaly to be stabilized and closed or if they were going to work out a military aid deal, but they didn''t know much of anything except for the name of the enemies that they were fighting.


    The Arisen Army was there as well and was quickly overrunning the native poption, with the intent to make it to the anomaly and pass through to a new region of space, namely the Alliance Territory.


    That would be beyond disastrous, but so far, they didn''t know how to close the link, which was not a standard wormhole as they understood it, or a Portal, which was simr in function.


    "Ah, just the people that we were hoping to talk to. We heard that the Human Gxy has the same issue that we do, and we were wondering what the Reavers were doing about it?" The Valkia Envoy asked.


    "We are sending a team to assist the locals at our end, known as the Koleska. I will be in the first wave, along with Nico, so we will be leaving very soon, but this is Perrin Tarith, Nico''s father, and he will be taking over until the Board of Directors arrives to manage the World Ship in our absence.


    We will still be in contact most of the time and making the executive decisions, but the board will take care of the day-to-day on our behalf since we will be inbat." Max exined.


    The Giant nodded. "I suspected as much. The humans are overwhelmingly powerful for their numbers, but the Arisen is not a normal foe, so you would logically send only the most powerful of elite forces to deal with them. Anything else would lead to too many deaths to be sustainable, and we have been informed that the Arisen Army can''t be fought with an automated force."


    "Exactly correct. We will be leaving right away, but we wanted to make the official introduction before we left so that there was no question about who this man is or his authority."


    The Envoys nodded, and the Innu extended her hand to greet Nico''s father but got distracted by a flood of messages from hermunicator.


    "There is a development at our end. A deal has been struck to hire a full ship of Hunters to assist in the defence of the anomaly from the other side. If you happen to see them on the other side, they are allies. We don''t have a map of the region, so we have no idea how far apart you will be, but from what I can tell, it will be a significant distance, and the chances are that it would take a lifetime to fight from one point to the others." The Innu exined.


    Nico and the Huntress looked at each other with smirks on their faces, and the Innu''s hair tentacles twined together in a way that somehow made her look confused for a second before she, too, smiled.


    "I have it. That look means that you''re joking about me saying that like it was a bad thing. I''m right, aren''t I? I''m finally cracking Hunter''s bodynguage." She cheered. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Right on the first try. I still don''t understand why so many species find it so difficult. The humans figured it out on the very first day, ording to the mission logs from Huntress Khan. It was like they knew it the moment that they saw us, and they never had any major issues learning the nuance of Huntermunication."


    "That''s because we sent Nico, and she speaks both sword and sma Cannon." Max joked, making the Huntressugh but leaving the other Envoys confused again.


    "So, maybe I still don''t get battlefield humour, but I''m working on the bodynguage first." The Innu Envoy shrugged.


    "One thing at a time. You''ve adapted remarkably quickly to being around humans. I remember the first Innu that we ever met told us that they were best known for adapting and repairing others'' technology, but look at you all now, taking over the research department and inventing new beverages for the Replicators." Nicomended her.


    "I found Tiramisu, which is a coffee-voured cake, and it made me think, you know? How many other vours are out there that simply haven''t been merged because humans don''t know about them? From there, it just snowballed into a whole huge thing.


    The tavern that I invested in is doing great business by releasing one new tested vour every day. They have been merging human and Alliance tastes, and they''ll cycle through them every week if they get good reviews. Try this one. It''s the vour of the day. Squib Berries and a chocte milkshake."


    Max took a sip of the sample-sized milkshake that she had produced from the replicator and felt his face contract at thebination of tart fruit and sweetened chocte. It was surprising but not a badbination.


    "I approve. It would go well with cheeseburgers."


    The Giant Envoy nodded. "It might go well with Titan barbecue as well. They like to marinade their meat in fruits before smoking it, and the vours wouldplement each other."


    "As fun as this has been, we need to go, before the Koleska think that the humans are reneging on their deal. Father, take good care of the ce for me, and I will see all of you Envoyster." Nico informed the room.


    "Good luck. Don''t forget to bring the big guns. Some of the Arisen Army war walkers can take a photon torpedo head on, so you might find more than a few good uses for those Antimatter Warheads that you developed." The Valkia Envoy reminded them, then turned back to his messages as Max and Nico left her father behind.

 Chapter 768 768 Meet The Arisen

    [Defense Line Command, this is Commander Keres Max, inbound for damage control. With me are Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride] Max announced when they passed through the Portal to reach the group of Cygnus vessels gathered around the anomaly.


    [Good to hear from you, Commander. Please pass through directly at no more than one-quarter of standard sublight speed. The Koleska hold the other side of the breach.] The defence force informed him abruptly, and Max noticed that they had a lot of Mecha on duty in space in case of attack.


    "Are all the modifications finished?" Max double-checked with Nico as he piloted the ship through to meet a new alien species.


    "All done. Most of the changes had already been made as we made the advancements, and the final standalone shield for the cockpit is ready now in case of an atmospheric breach. The storage space is filled with suitable materials to rebuild your stock of Antimatter Munitions if you need them, and the Disruptors have been upgraded as much as I can, so you just need to optimize them once you have the system booted up."


    Max nodded, then sent his first message to the other side.


    [Koleska Defence. This is Commander Keres Max. Requesting a status update and a nearby storage location for our vessel.]


    [Commander of the Humans, This is Yuri of the Koleska. We have a station here in orbit. You may park here and join the battle. Tell us, how many are you?]


    [Two Mecha of the Titan ss. The additional units are finishing their training now to bring the Pilots up to our standards for our most elite Mecha.]


    [Understood. We will take what help we can get.]


    Their ship emerged into the Koleska''s territory, and Nico shifted the design to the more organic design that resembled Absolution instead of the Cruise Ship design, which limited their range of weapon fire.


    The appearance of the ship seemed to cause some alerts, but they didn''t make much sense to Max, as their database of Koleskanguage was imperfect.


    [Commander, my superiors ask if you obtained that ship from the Reapers.] The Koleska named Yuri asked.


    [Humanity is unfamiliar with a species by that name. This ship is our most modern design of attack craft. The faction we represent is known as Reavers, so perhaps it is fitting.]


    [Understood. I will ry the ship design to Command to avoid any incidents in the future.]


    As soon as he was clear of the moon that they appeared behind, the battle came into sensor range in the distance, with hundreds of Arisen Army warships attacking the Koleska mecha. The Arisen War Walkers were being deployed to meet the challenge, so Max rushed the docking procedure and got Santa Maria locked in ce so that they could join the battle.


    "What is Shattered Pride capable of for mobility?" Max asked since the battle was at the edge of the sr system. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I have a Micro Portal generator, while Cleansing Light has the same, plus it is Warp Capable." Nico rified.


    "Alright, stay close and let''s see how these Arisen War Walkers shape up against our Disruptors. I heard that they are autonomous, with noputers, but we might still be able to disable them with the side effects." Max suggested.


    They could go nuclear and then antimatter fusionter. If this worked well enough, they would only have to break out the biggest guns for the worst of battles, and this one looked pretty evenly matched.


    He opened a Portal to the right nk of the battle, and Nico grabbed him from behind to piggyback through without wasting any time.


    The Portal was still closing when Max unleashed his main weapons in a linked pattern, as an Orbital Lance, at a cluster of fifty-meter tall War Walkers, thergest units on the battlefield.


    The intense beam of energy copsed their shields in an instant and tore away arge amount of their outer shell before the capacitors were drained, and Max''s st ended. Two of the ten had been torn apart, but the other eight were charging weapons as Nico moved out from behind him and shifted to engage the closest group of War Walkers, who were already flying over.


    Max powered up his thrusters and Warp Drive for maximum mobility and began to evade as particle beams raced his way. He managed to only take two ncing blows before his main weapons were ready again, but this time he split it into two beams and targeted two of the War Walkers, sting them to dust in the cosmos.


    The oue seemed to shock the Arisen Army, and a huge portion of the army began to shift their deployment to deal with this new threat.


    Nico was into the smaller War Walkers in the ten to twenty-meter size ss. They were stick thin and looked spindly, but they were fast, and their weapons definitely packed a punch, so the stick figure proportions didn''t allow them to underestimate them at all.


    It did make it easier for Nico''s des to cut through them, though. At least once, the shields were down.


    Her thrusters shed and red as she darted between targets, sting away and then finishing them with her des, leaving scattered debris everywhere while Max tried his best not to get shot to pieces.


    A double st came in that Max couldn''t dodge, so he shifted behind his physical shield as the st took most of his energy shield down. The tactic seemed to enrage the Arisen Army, who had not realized that he had packed a defensive method to bolster his survivability.


    It also bought him time, and Max spread the six main weapon beams to six different Crusader-sized targets and punched holes clear through them, leaving the War Walkers inactive in space.


    "The chest seems to be the energy core of the units. If you punch a hole through it, they just deactivate." Max informed Nico.


    "Got it. Cutting off an arm only reducesbat capability by thirty percent outside of melee. They are all ambidextrous."

 Chapter 769 769 First Skirmish

    The Arisen Army deployment shifted to form a semicircle around them from the front, allowing it to attack from the top and bottom as well but leaving arge gap behind the front line.


    "You go up; I will go down," Nicomented, then shed through a portal toward Max''s feet and outside the attempted encirclement.


    Max did the same in the opposite direction, and the semicircle copsed, splitting in half and leaving themselves clustered for a wide dispersion of Max''s main weapons, which eliminated dozens of ten-meter ss War Walkers in an instant.


    With the pattern cleared out to some extent, it was easier to dodge the attacks, and Max began to pick off the Phnx ss units, around twenty-five meters tall, which represented the greatest threat to his shielding.


    A direct hit from them would put a serious dent in his energy storage, and two had nearly copsed his shielding, so he couldn''t underestimate them at all, or he would be in trouble.


    An egg-shaped vessel that somewhat reminded Max of an elongated Klem pod shed in from Warp Speed and deployed a full regiment of Koleska Warframes at their location, right between the two halves of the Arisen position, and the attackers began to immediately retreat.


    The Koleska held their position as the Arisen War Walkers fled, which Max took as a signal not to pursue them into the thick of the battle, but he did notice that it left a few of their transport ships vulnerable without an escort.


    "Nico, send them a single, small Antimatter round." Max directed.


    He would take the opportunity to see how their weapons measured up against what the Koleska were using and how they dealt with the Arisen vessels since he had learned the capability of the War Walkers.


    A defensiveser from the ship shed, destroying the round before it could reach the shielding, but the resulting antimatter explosion rocked this entire side of the battlefield, passing like a wave through water in the thin gasses that made up open space here.


    "Alright, maybe those aren''t the best choice of weapons. It looks like the Arisen Army is retreating, though." Max chuckled at the aftermath of the attack, which would have been much worse had the round actually activated.


    It wasn''t quite as damaging as activating it in an atmosphere, but there was a lot of residual damage, which would have to be avoided as much as possible. He would send the data back to the Moon Base so that Uncle Lu could tailor the Mecha to the situation.


    [Question from Koleska Command. What was thatst attack?] Yuri asked again.


    [A human anti-ship weapon using antimatter fusion technology. The result was unexpected due to the nature of the region not being devoid of matter.] Max exined.


    [Koleska Command asks that you do not use that weapon during an ongoing battle for Friendly Fire prevention reasons.]


    [Understood Koleska Command, we apologize for the inconvenience.] Max replied as he sensed the amusement of the nearby Koleska troops, which could also hear the message on the open channels.


    It might have been a sketchy result, but it made the enemy retreat long before the battle would have normally ended, and that was a good result in the minds of any soldier.


    Once the War Walkers were in their ships, the Arisen Army went to warp and moved away from the battlefield, returning to whatever their nearest stronghold was, while the Koleska returned to the Space Station.


    "Ah, that was just right for breakfast, a nice light skirmish." Nico joked while Max checked Cleansing Light for damages. There were a couple of overloaded capacitors, but they were self-resetting and would be fine as soon as they had cooled off. Other than that, he had taken no damage during the battle.


    "How did Shattered Pride fare?" He asked to make sure that Nico was good to go. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "One blown hydraulic line, but I''ve already used my System Functions to repair it and top off the fluid. I''m back at one hundred percent."


    "Perfect, let''s go meet our hosts."


    They both opened Portals back to the ship and then paused while the Koleska troops stood down. You could never tell what wasing through a portal, so for safety''s sake, they usually didn''t open them near popted areas.


    Max made a mental note of the response of the troops so that he would remember not to open the Portal so close next time and then return to Santa Maria.


    [Commander of the Humans, the Koleska leaders request a meeting in themon area of the station when you are avable.] The radio operator informed him.


    [We will be there in thirty minutes.] Max replied, with a time stamp indicator to show them how long a minute was in hisnguage.


    Once they were back aboard and had time for a quick shower and a change of clothes into their Reaver best, Max and Nico headed for themon areas of the station. Nico made a point of politely greeting everyone that stared at the two humans, even though they surely didn''t understand her.


    Max was beginning to get the hang of thenguage. He had used Nico''s skill to memorize the text version of thenguage trantion, and after hearing it in their minds for the second half of the battle, and now all over the station, hundreds of thousands of minds at once, he was catching on quickly.


    They were gged down by a server of some sort, with the ck exoskeletons and borately detailed bone white head that marked the species. The heads looked eerily like a human skull, with the jaw attached, as he had been warned, and they all wore borate robes of various sorts and coverages. The higher the rank, the more clothing they wore, and it looked like nudity wasn''t an issue in their culture, as most of the lower-ranking soldiers and workers wore little more than a shawl over their shoulders to mark their rank.


    "Greetings, Commander Keres Max and Tarith Nico. I am Commander Yuri of the Koleska." The tall man or at least Max assumed it was a man, greeted them in Koleska.


    "Greetings, Commander Yuri. It is an honour to be here, enjoying your hospitality." Max replied, using the localnguage, and all of the movement in the room stopped while the locals stared at him.


    Thenguage was somewhat guttural and had a whistle to it that was hard on his throat, but Max was pretty sure that he had gotten the inflection and intonation right.


    "You speak Koleska? Not well, of course, but you learned to speak ournguage?" Commander Yuri asked.


    "Of course. I intend to be here for some time, and it would be inconvenient not to be able to speak to others outside of a text message."


    "Interesting. We had thought it would be impossible for your species, given their biology, but you have managed it well enough to be understood. Our first contact detailed the nutritionalpatibilities of your species, which seem to be quite varied, so we wished to have you join us for a meal. Please, join us." Yuri informed them while gesturing to a table.


    Nico smiled at him, "Thank you, Commander Yuri."


    Nico was definitely cheating. Once she heard and analyzed thenguage, she programmed it into her voice box so the sounds came out perfectly, including the extra whistles and click that a human body couldn''t make, which showed emotion in their speech.


    "Now I understand why they sent you first. Wee to Koleska."

 Chapter 770 770 Tactical Planning

    As soon as they were seated, it became obvious that this was a working lunch. A barrier went up around them, working like a one-way mirror to keep others from seeing the area around their table, and a strategic map opened up above the table using a ky hologram that made Nico''s eye twitch.


    She would definitely be offering them an upgrade very quickly if they were going to be holding regr meetings on this projection or others of its quality.


    "We will start with the basics since your species is not from here. We have not reached the beginning or the end of the Neb, this entire region of space is the same, as if a hundred thousand suns had died at once and left their remains scattered through space. So, there is a rather high density of gaseous elements, small rocks and other debris that make navigation hazardous.


    This map is centred around the portion of space that the Koleska call home. This is the direction that the majority of the Arisen Army attackse from. Portals like yours are rarely used here, as their formation can destabilize the area, like your antimatter projectile. For that reason, we rmend that you use your ship to get close to the battles and then engage with it locked down to prevent the Arisen Spirits from gaining ess to it.


    The major offensive this month has been in the CX37 Sector. It''s not particrly heavily popted, but it is close to another sector that was abandoned to the Arisen in the recent past." Commander Yuri exined.


    "Do you know why know they are attacking? Issues between the species? Are they voracious predators that eat every they take clean of biomass?" Max asked.


    "Neither. It''s something in their personality. They seem to be bent on the elimination of life from the Universe. Every species that they encounter, they attack. The harder you fight back, the harder they attack, but they don''t do anything with thes. They just kill everyone and move on.


    Between that and the nature of their War Walkers, it led to the determination that they are some form of a vengeful ghost, a dying species that are still roaming about, reincarnating their spirits into new vessels when they are destroyed."


    Nico tapped her chin as he thought, an old habit that she didn''t seem to realize that she did.


    "They are also good with technology, and if you leave an AI system or another exposedputer system, they will infiltrate it. Is it possible that they digitized their existence and that they only exist as pure energy at this point? It would exin the strange nature of their attacks and why they leave no bodies.


    It would also exin why they retreated when I used an antimatter weapon. Antimatter is one of the few ways to truly destroy and not disperse energy in the Universe, so such a weapon would pose an extreme threat to them on a level far beyond that which it poses to the others.


    If they are lingering as energy on the battlefield, and someone sets off an Antimatter bomb, it could well destroy their lingering spirits, and then they wouldn''t be able to rise again, which I assume is the ability that gave them the name [Arisen]." She offered.


    Commander Yuri nodded. "There are no people on their ships, and the War Walkers aren''t built until there isbat if they had been destroyed in a previous battle, so it is possible that there are a finite number of consciousness units in their fleet, and they simply return to their ships when the form they are hosting is destroyed.


    We don''t really know how the bodies are operated, all that''s inside is a crystal and some strings, like a nervous system. But they move and attack just fine, so they are getting energy from somewhere."


    Nico nodded. "The Crystals are simr to our Warp Drive Technology. They are the source of energy, but I couldn''t determine what was allowing them to move either."


    "If you learn that, you will be a hero to a dozen species. We''ve all been trying to determine the nature of the Arisen Technology, if that''s what it is, and not actually materialized ghosts. Once we know that, we can make more determinations on the best way to stop them." Commander Yuri agreed.


    "How often are the attacks?" Max asked.


    "There are usually three to four ongoing at any given time somewhere along our border, but as I said, it isn''t safe to keep using portals, so we ask that you focus on the region around the Anomaly, which will allow us to move more troops elsewhere and bolster areas that have taken losses.


    Your Mecha performed incredibly well for their size today, and I feel confident saying that every one of my fighters was impressed with the skill of the human Mecha Pilots.


    They are just finding it impossible to determine your Rank since your clothing is so eclectic. Are you perhaps Royalty of some sort?" <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That is aplex issue with Humans. I lead a Reaver Company, which controls one World Ship and some smaller ships, so you could consider me aary Governor of sorts, though my Rank is technically higher than that by a bit. For my Sumander, her hereditary Rank is a much moreplex issue." Max exined.


    The Koleska all turned to each other and discussed the matter for a while, trying to determine where humans would ce these two Mecha Pilots in their hierarchy so that they could determine what level of honour or assistance the humans could have been deemed to have sent for their first representation within Koleska space.


    "I would ask how many people are under you, but that might be different between species. So I will ask, howrge of an army do youmand?" Yuri asked.


    "Roughly a hundred and fifty thousand Medium and Heavy Mecha, though many of them are Androids and not suitable for use here due to the Arisen."


    The Koleska around the table let out an appreciative whistle at that number. It was an impressive military force, and they couldn''t say that they had been slighted with an expendable representative after hearing that number.


    "Are they not worried about losing you inbat?" Commander Yuri asked.


    "Of course they are. Butbat losses happen, and I am well known for mybat prowess, as is Tarith Nico. That was the determining factor in our deployment. They wanted to make sure that we would be deemed to be an effective military force, despite ourck of numbers at the moment." Max exined.


    "Your Mecha are very frightening, that is certain. That weapon that you use, what was it designed to fight against? It creates a beam toorge for attacking another Mecha of your design." One of the other Koleska leaders asked.


    "It''s an Orbital Lance. It was designed to attackary military forces from orbit." Max exined.


    "Orbital Lance." Yuri mouthed the unfamiliar words slowly, then again, silently, while he tried to rte them to something that he was familiar with.


    Nico decided to be helpful since she had been analyzing their military technology through the hologram projector for the whole meal.


    "It''s basically the same as the Kumo Pattern Ship Destroyer, but it uses a different energy pattern. The output is simr." She offered.


    The Koleska didn''t really have expressions, as their chitin shape didn''t change, but the change in position gave off the impression of pleasure at the understanding before their heads tilted a little to the side, like a confused dog, and the second inmand spoke again.


    "You put such a weapon on a Mecha? Do you use Mecha to destroyrge battleships?" He asked.


    "Large battleships, lightly armoured military Regiments, small cities. It''s a very versatile weapon." Nico agreed.


    The Koleska just nodded, but Max didn''t miss his thoughts on the matter.


    "Humans are scary when they go to war."


    He wasn''t wrong. Especially in Nico''s case, humans were a very scary species when they went to war. One lone Nico versus a civilian wasn''t even close to a fair fight, but the concept of that sort of scaling would be very difficult to exin to the hierarchical Koleska.


    At least their ranks were based entirely on aplishment, and they weren''t inherited or gic, so Max could be sure that the ones with the fanciest robes were the most verifiablypetent in their field. That was a definite improvement on Royalty or Nepotism-based systems.

 Chapter 771 771 Command Walker

    The food had just arrived when every light in the station turned red, and an rm began to re.


    [Iing major assault Fleet. All hands to battle stations. I repeat, iing major assault Fleet. All hands to battle stations.]


    "It looks like the meal will have to wait. See you on the battlefield, Commander." Max sighed as he rose to his feet.


    Everyone began to jog to theirbat positions, and Max went straight to Cleansing Light, thenunched, with Nico right behind him. If the station was under alert, that meant that the enemy was right at the anomaly within minutes of breaching the entrance and reaching his home Gxy.


    There was a whole wave of Arisen War Walkers headed their way, intent on taking the station, while the defenders had only just begun to scramble. The amount of matter spread through this region of space made it impossible to trace Warp Trails and iing vessels from as far as Max was used to, and it led to very short warnings when there was an attack.


    It had to be an incredibly stressful way to live for the Koleska, but they were well practiced, and the first of the Mecha were only a few seconds behind him and Nico.


    Max grabbed Nico and engaged the Warp Drive on Cleansing Light, dropping them at the front line in an instant, then using the abundant power to st away an entire regiment of light War Walkers with a dispersed st of his Orbital Lance.


    Nico started to snipe what they took to be the Command units of the Arisen Army, the more borately decorated units, and the Arisen Army was predictably turning their attention away from the station to deal with these two biting ants on their nk.


    Max was sure that the Koleska all thought that they were insane, but the early attack gave them a chance to thin the enemy ranks right as the battle started, which every Mecha Commander knew was the best way to reduce casualties. The light Mecha pilots might not be as good, but there were a lot of them, and they could still bring down a Heavy Mecha with the weight of fire, a factor that remained just as true with battles of this scale, where tens of thousands of Mecha were facing off in space.


    [Human Commander, we have a backup for you.] The Koleskabat channel informed him, and Max shifted his position to allow them to take up a deployment around him and Nico, who was still in sniper mode, picking off random War Walkers, though the actual leaders appeared to be either dead or in hiding.


    It was unknown whether the Arisen Army used Wing Leaders the way that the human armies did, but that was what Nico was going after now, trying to break apart all semnce of coordination on their portion of the nk before the Arisen could shift arger unit over to deal with them.


    Max dodged as an immense beam of particle energy streaked past him, only barely getting the warning in time. They had turned the main guns of a transport ship against him.


    "Nico, what do I have that isn''t an antimatter weapon to deal with that?" He asked since the shielding would absorb his Orbital Lance without flinching.


    "I''m on it, boss. I''ve got non-explosive versions of the Antimatter Torpedos." Nico informed him, then unslung a rifle from her back and took aim at the transport ship.


    The energy surge was enough to scramble sensors for the entire unit behind them, and then the massive transport ship''s shields lit up in crackling green energy. The whole ship was visibly shoved backward, and Nico fired again. The rounds activated a Warp Field when they were fired and simply mmed into the target at Warp 7. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Not even the defensivesers could deal with that attack, and the second round hit home as well, creating a massive explosion where it breached the shielding and punched through the ship.


    [They weren''t kidding. Humans really do hunt Battleships with Mecha.] Someone was calling over the radio channels, and Max shook his head.


    They were giving people a very warped view of the sort of thing that was expected when dealing with humans, but it sure seemed to be effective.


    Nico fired a third round, but this time it hit a secondary shield, and the Warp Field around the round copsed, leaving it to hit the ship at sublight speeds, making the already weakened shielding copse again and causing even more damage to the transport ship.


    It began to shift back as fast as it could in its condition, and another ship moved to take its ce, presumably with the modified shields already active.


    [Well, it might not be a battleship kill, but it is out ofmission. They won''t be loading anything back on that one for a while.] Nicoughed.


    It wasn''t often that she got to try out her new toys in an all-out battle like this, and the War Walkers were charging them now, afraid to be caught in a cluster at a distance where Max could engulf them all in another Orbital Lance strike.


    Max drew his de and shield and moved into a position where he was back to back with Shattered Pride so that they couldn''t be surrounded, then began unleashing Disruptor sts on a widespread pattern, copsing enemy shields and causing minor damage but leaving them vulnerable to the Koleska weapons.


    A fifty-meter-tall Command Walker from the Arisen Fleet moved to the front of the group to challenge Max, who nged his sword against his shield in a e and get it" motion that he wasn''t sure the Arisen could even recognize.


    The sentiment seemed mutual, though, and everyone else in the area backed off, with Nico charging into the enemy ranks nked by Koleska''s closebat units while Max fought his duel.


    Max traded blows with the War Walker in an eerily familiar pattern that seemed to awaken something in his memories from his previous life while the two giant Mecha fought each other to a standstill.


    Monomolecr des shed against one another a dozen times in a second as the two Mecha sought to gain the upper hand before the Arisen unit backed off to regroup. Max could sense the confusion and rage from the War Walker at having been stymied by Max, but more so by the fact that he recognized their closebat techniques.


    It wasn''t quite the same as Max remembered, but there was no way that he could mistake thatbat style.


    After all, he created it.

 Chapter 772 772 Persistant

    Once Max recognized the style, he knew that there was no way that he was losing this battle. He had no idea where the Arisen had learned the technique or when, but it wasn''tplete. It was a pale echo of the Million des Style.


    Sure, the name was a bit Chunni, but it had taken Max a million victories to master it, so he thought it was still a perfectly valid name for the style.


    Max charged forward into the slightlyrger Mecha, then withdrew his sword at thest instant and let the impact of his shield assist his thrusters in moving him in behind the War Walker, leaving its back open and letting his de slide cleanly through to disable the unit.


    His heart was thundering in his ears. Could it be a coincidence? It was possible that a few moves were the same, which just happened to be used in the way he expected. No, it was more than that. Even the response was exactly what he had expected of a student of his own fighting style.


    Max took the fight to another of thergest War Walkers, and again the de work was exactly what he expected, but this time the War Walker seemed less surprised to see iting back at them, and a furious battle ensued.


    des shed, and energy weapons red as the two mighty Commanders went toe to toe. Max was just beginning to get the upper hand when suddenly the enemy War Walker fell silent, and the limbs gently drifted away before a red de appeared through the front of its chest as Nico hacked it to pieces.


    [The enemy is in full retreat. The Koleska are fast learners. I think I might have to teach them how to really fight in closebat, but look at you go. I don''t think I''ve seen that fighting style in this life. Did they really push you that far?] Nico asked.


    [No, they were using it, and it refreshed my memory. They''re not doing it right, like they have forgotten parts of it and reced it with less efficient movements, or perhaps whoever taught them didn''t know all of the styles.


    That shouldn''t be possible, though, right? You know where that stylees from, and it shouldn''t exist, at least not here and now.] Max replied.


    [The now part is debatable, but here it might reasonably exist. There is no way to know, but we had to have lived somewhere before, right? What if it simply took time before we were cycled through to new lives? This could be close enough to where we were bornst time that they know something about our history, however long ago that was.] Nico suggested in return.


    That was reasonable. Even if it had been a few hundred thousand years, the Alliance and the humans of their Gxy would have long since forgotten even the legends of their deeds, and if they were this far away, in a region of the universe that hadn''t even been detected by Alliance Scanners, then it would exin why nobody knew about their past.


    Max withdrew for a moment. Something about this retreat felt wrong.


    [They''re not retreating, they''re changing directions, the attack on the Station was a feint, they''re going for the.] He decided, then grabbed Shattered Pride and shed to Warp before appearing in front of the''s defence line.


    Half a secondter, the Arisen Fleet dropped out of Warp right in front of him, and Max smiled as he opened the channel to Nico.


    [Wee them to orbit.] He directed, and Nico fired another of the Warp Capable shells at the lead ship, a light Cutter.


    Even with its shields up and prepared, it was not capable of stopping the impact, and the main shields copsed under the impact. For a moment, the ship went dark. The War Walkers began to pour out of it while Max finished preparing an Orbital Lance to meet them.


    They linked together in a 3D pattern andbined their shields to survive the st, which caught arge portion of the Cutter in its radius, turning it to more dust in this crowded portion of the cosmos, but that bought enough time for the Koleska to get into position for the attack. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max checked the area and found himself in a suitable position to fight a cluster of asteroids that had been relocated for industrial purposes.


    [Nico, follow me.] He instructed, then moved to take shelter behind the asteroids. They could take the majority of the return fire for them while the two human-made Mecha fought at a range.


    The good cover was always hard to find, especially in a space battle, but Max never did, like taking enemy fire straight on. Thousands of rounds hit the metallic boulder, but with the thrusters of Cleanssing Light, it didn''t budge from its position, only lost some weight as the weapons burned and sted away portions of the surface.


    Max darted out as soon as the Orbital Lance was recharged and put a dispersed st into the enemy back lines, then began to pick off light units with hissers while he fired lighter bursts with the Disruptors.


    With dozens ofsers and the six Disruptors, it was a brilliant fuside of weapons fire from his location, covering for Nico, who was taking potshots at the ships as they arrived, trying to catch one at that magical moment right as they deactivated the Warp Field, but before the other shielding coulde online.


    If she actually managed it, the result would be glorious. A fifty-kilo shell impacting with a rtive speed close to the speed of light wouldpletely annihte any solid object that it hit. Even when it failed, it caused huge drains on their shields, and the Koleska fleet was quick to take advantage and focus on the most damaged, forcing many to retreat due to damages.


    [Shockwave] Nico announced, just before the warning on Cleansing Light warned Max to get out of the way.


    One of the Destroyer-sized ships had gone supercritical under the attacks of the Arisen Fleet, and the shockwave and debris ring were rapidly approaching their location from the back.


    Moving up would avoid the worst of the explosion, but it would put them in a bad position rtive to the Koleska defenders, where the main lines would be between them and the Arisen Army, so instead, Max just moved around the Asteroid and continued to fire.


    He let the shockwave hit his cover and then carry both himself and Nico along for a ride while he used his thrusters to slow it.


    The final location put them mostly behind the fight, but he could work with that. Max fired the Orbital Lance at the engines of a heavily damaged cruiser and smirked as a second explosion rocked the battlefield.


    Eye for an eye, both sides had lost a major ship of the fleet in this battle.


    Max picked out another six targets for his Disruptors and continued to fire as the second shockwave spread. The direction of the attack took the Arisen by surprise. They hadn''t seen the Mecha being carried along with the Asteroid, and they weren''t in a position to defend their ships.


    A Titan ss Mecha in closebat range could cause massive amounts of damage to the far less maneuverable ships, but the War Walkers couldn''t afford to move that much of their force around in the middle of the explosion''s spread.


    Instead, they chose to retreat again and pick another spot to attack once they had regrouped.

 Chapter 773 773 What Koleska Like

    With the battle over in their region for the moment, Max and Nico returned to their ship, where Yuri was waiting at the airlock to congratte them on their performance.


    "You did a fine job, and that final transfer, to anticipate the arrival of the attack on the, was masterful. You saved a lot of lives today." He weed them once Max opened the door for him.


    "It''s our pleasure. We have seen simr techniques before, and attacks that seem to be against a less important target are often a diversion for another offensive. It could have been one well outside of our position, but usually, it''s only far enough to draw the local defence forces away.


    The Arisen is an interesting target. They seem to have an incredible variety of knowledge about the battle techniques, but we can''t seem to find any information on where they might have originated." Max replied.


    "We wish that we knew. There was talk of an alliance to go look for their main base and take the fight to them, but after much searching, nothing was found. We can tell where they started their battles in the region, but there is no sign of a home world or any point of origin for the species. They just appeared and began attacking known species." Yuri replied with a scraping of his chitin tes that Max took as a sigh.


    "Why don''t you have a seat, and we will have something to eat while we wait for the next call to battle? They won''t stay gone for very long, so I hope that your people are on a proper rotation so that they don''t get overworked and exhausted." Max suggested.


    "Yes, they are only on call every third day, except in incidents like this, where the enemy got too close to the station.


    Mostly we try to send troops forward to deal with contesteds like Little Garden. It''s a strange ce,rger than an average star, but with gravity no higher than this station. There is an ongoing battle there between a half dozen species and the Arisen that has been ongoing for nearly a year.


    They always need help, so we send whoever we can to fight and then rotate them out when they get worn down and have taken too many losses.


    We won''t ask you to go there. At least not until there are more humans here to guard the Anomaly. Your presence has be quite valuable tomand, and they would hate to have to dedicate more troops to take the ce of suchpetent allies."


    Nico smirked at his ttery. "You mean that we''re exceedingly violent, and our presence is likely to dissuade the Arisen from testing this position as heavily as others, right?"


    "That''s not how I would have phrased it, but I believe that you are right. None of our military leaders expected that you would challenge the Gray Ships like that. Their technology is incredible at stopping our weapons, but it seems that you have found a way to threaten them on the very first day." Yuri chuckled.


    "It''s what humans do. Adapt, improvise and ovee. There are a lot of dangers in our home Gxy, and we really can''t afford another one getting in, so we will do our best to keep them away from the Anomaly.


    We weren''t told the full details of the deal that you have made with our leaders, but from what I can tell, it''s mostly to protect this region of space." Max agreed.


    "That''s precisely what it is. They agreed to send a force that would help us defend the Anomaly and take the stress off our forces. If they got through and proliferated without challenge on the other side, it would be a disaster for us." Yuri informed them. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Nico brought over three tes of food and a pitcher of juice from the Replicator, and the Koleska Commander stared at it with great interest.


    "I tried to match it to your species'' cuisine as well as I could, based on the earlier meal. Hopefully, it is to your liking, and from what I can tell, it shouldn''t be anything that your species finds toxic."


    The Koleska scanned it with a handheld device and waited as the results came back, then nodded.


    "It all appears to be safe to eat. The taste might be questionable, as our species are very different, but I am assured that it will not kill me."


    Now that was a level of trust that Max could appreciate.


    They all taste-tested Nico''s custom-designed menu. Then Yuri looked at the juice with a hint of sadness in his thoughts.


    "We have good Rum as well, but we weren''t sure how your species reacted to alcohol. Some species can''t handle their drink, some don''t notice it at all, and others find it to be toxic." She exined.


    "I was just going to say that we don''t usually drink unfermented juice after childhood." The Koleskaughed, and Nico brought a bottle of Rum out of her t Space, then poured it half and half with the Orange Juice before passing the ss to the Koleska Commander.


    "That is my personal favourite. I do hope you like it. If you like a fizzy drink, I can do that as well." She added, then made a small pitcher of Rum and C from the Replicator.


    Yuri sipped the drink with an impressed look, then stared at the ck concoction in the jug Nico ced on the table.


    "What is that? My scanner says that it is not only acidic, but corrosive, both sugary and alcoholic at the same time, but not in the same way as a juice."


    He poured a small ss of it, then gasped when the carbonated beverage hit his tongue and almost spit it out.


    "It''s an acquired taste. But the bubbles make the vour interesting."


    "Bubbly drinks? I like the bubbles, but this C that the humans drink might be better suited as an industrial cleaner."

 Chapter 774 774 Tweak And Tune

    Once Yuri had left and the alert status had ended, Nico dragged Max into the repair bay to start upgrading their Mecha for the situations that they were likely to face here in this new territory.


    "First up, that Orbital Lance needs to fire more quickly in dispersed mode, or we need a way to increase the output of your defensivesers to deal with masses of lighter War Walkers. Then we need a better way of deploying the thrusters for mobility.


    They''re not bad, but the inputg is still a bit high, and if we''re going to be doing all our fighting in space, we want more stability for shooting. Your System Talent is great, but it would be better if we didn''t have to rely on it to adjust for the shaking of the Mecha.


    Then a quick tweak of the shielding so that we don''t take so much damage from those damnable heavy weapons, and I think we should be ready for the next mission." Nico decided.


    "Oh, so nothing major then?" Max quipped back, and Nico smiled.


    "We will adjust the armourpositionter. For the next battle, I think that the increased mobility will be more important."


    They both got to work, tweaking the Mecha to Nico''s specifications before Nico modified them to the best extent that she could, and then Max [Optimized] them.


    "That''s an improvement on the thrusters. Now to work on the shields, and then we can start on the weapons." Nico congratted him as she dove right back into her work. They really should have brought one of the Innu along. They could have worked on the upgrade ns while the two of them were fighting, and they wouldn''t need to leave the ship unattended.


    The question was if he was ready to deal with those two hyper minds at once for the foreseeable future.


    Strangely, the idea didn''t bother him all that much since he knew that it woulde with distinct advantages that some random Pilot for the ship wouldn''t, so Max began to n how he would bring it up to Nico without encouraging her to bring an entire team here to the ship, which would put even more lives at risk.


    The shield tweaking didn''t take long since they were only optimizing it for the specific weapons that they had seen the Arisen Army using, like creating a preset configuration in the system so that they could change back and forth from their default to the Arisen-specific setting in an instant. It was the weapon modifications that would take some time.


    Nico had already put a lot of work into making them the very best that they could be, so trying to change things up now wouldn''t be easy.


    Four hourster, and after sixteen rounds of refining and optimizing, Nico had managed to create a secondary power routing system that would allow the dispersed pattern to activate twice as fast at lower speeds, independently of the main activation circuit, which could still be charged at the same time. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    In theory, he could now attack with the two sets of three Disruptors, in a wide pattern, nearly every second, with abined Orbital Lance every ten seconds, or independently firing each Disruptor once a second for six shots a second in a condensed beam.


    "It will have to do. I don''t think that they are going to just hang around for us to st them to pieces anymore, not after today''s show. They seemed like the sort of enemy that adapts quickly, even if they don''t advance quickly, so we will have to fight a lot of them up close in the future, where we can''t hit as many with our weapons." Max reminded her.


    "That''s fine. The shields are optimized for that, and you will be able to take their hits more easily, so you should have the advantage over their Command Walkers again next time."


    Max gave her a pat on the head, then hopped into Cleansing Light to boot everything up and make sure that there were no issues with any of their most recent upgrades before he called it a night. Not that he was expecting anything with both him and Nico working on it, but you could never skip the debugging stage, especially with abat unit that might have hidden damages.


    "All good. Everything checks out." Max informed her as he put Cleansing Light back into locked standby mode, waiting for him to return.


    "Same here, everything is good, no more damages to report. Let''s get some sleep before the Arisen return. I have high hopes for them after seeing that they know a bit about yourbat style. I really want to know where they learned that, and I don''t care how many of them I have to chop apart to find the answer." Nico replied with a smile.


    Max woke up the next morning to unusual silence. Nico was still next to him, and the ship didn''t report any unusual activities, but there was a silence in his mind that he wasn''t used to. There were far too few minds awake in the area, considering that they were attached to a space station.


    Max used Nico''s skill to check the ship''s logs, and found that only onerge vessel had left the area, and they had received no messages about activation requests. It looked like they had sent arge part of their army to a secondary position, and what was left was a skeleton crew at the station, and whatever other ships were in the area.


    Hopefully that would be enough.


    Max dug into the logs, and tried to check on the levels of military forces in the area. There wasn''t much data avable, but it looked like all of the interceptor ships were still on standby, and fully equipped, so they wouldn''t be short for a normal mission, only for an emergency full deployment like thest battle at the station.


    Once Yuri was up, he would ask the Koleska Commander about it and see if something had happened that didn''t make it to any of themunications which he had intercepted.

 Chapter 775 775 Teaching Koleska New Tricks

    An hour after Max noticed how many troops were missingpared to yesterday, anotherrge transport ship arrived full of Koleska troops, but this one was in much worse shape, with visiblebat damage and venting fires in multiple spots.


    Now the change had made sense, the fresh troops here had been cycled to the front lines, and the ones that had taken the worst casualties had been moved to this back line space station next to the anomaly in order to repair and recover from theirst deployment.


    That wasn''t going to make their job here any easier, but it did have some promise as far as the expected frequency of attacks went.


    If they were sending troops here to recover, it must not be the most frequently attacked location, which meant that perhaps the two of them might not be worked to death while they defended the anomaly from the Arisen Army.


    "I think that we should go offer to help them with repairs," Nico suggested as they watched the damaged ship finally move toward the station once the damage aboard was stabilized.


    "I''m sure they''ve got their own replicator systems and a full crew of repair technicians." Max reminded her.


    "Likely. But they don''t have a Nico. Look at the losses that they takepared to us. I think they might let us help with the repairs and unit optimization." Nico countered.


    "Let them do their work. We''re not here to redesign their fleet, and I''ve already found you all of their design schematics, so you can run your experiments while we wait for the Arisen toe back again." Maxughed.


    "Well, in that case, I will do what I can here aboard the ship and then send them an analysis report when I am finished, in case they are willing to consider making some changes to their designs that might minimize casualties."


    Max went to train in the gravity room while Nico went to work on analyzing their Mecha. He could sense her frustration turning to resignation as he finished his second rep, and that meant that it was likely time to ask her a question that would change her train of thought fromplex technical jargon to something more rtable.


    "Have youe up with a design improvement?" Max asked her over the ship''s inte so that he didn''t have to leave the gym.


    "Yeah, rece the Koleska at the controls. The units are incredible. They might even be better than ours, but the pilots are absolutely atrocious, and they would barely qualify for Line Mecha pilots in the Kepler army.


    I think it''s a supply issue. They have lost so many veterans that they are throwing rookies in everything, so they aren''t performing anywhere near their peak levels. That doesn''t make sense, though. Since they''ve got so much advanced technology, why not just use a learning machine to dump information into their brains and train their reactions? It is bound to turn out something better than this. They didn''t look clumsy to me."


    "I will ask. Maybe there is a reason for it. They might be resistant to suggestion, like some of the Alliance species, so the technology might not work on them."


    Max sent the message right away since there was no sign of Arisen activity in the region and received a reply only a few secondster.


    [I am not sure that the phrase trantes properly into Koleska. Could you show me what you mean?]


    Max followed the Koleska Commander''s thoughts as he came through the station to the location where the Santa Maria was docked, then went to open the door for him.


    "Greetings, Commander Yuri. It might be different than the technology that you use, so perhaps it simply doesn''t make sense without context. Do you use Virtual Reality training simtions to help your Pilots learn skills?" Max weed his counterpart to the ship.


    "Yes, we have virtual reality rooms that we use to train Pilots and others. Would you like me to show you?" Yuri asked eagerly. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max could tell that he was interested in anything that would help train new Pilots to reduce their losses, so he printed off a few useful items, like a training program-equipped set of VR goggles that he ced in his t space before rejoining the Koleska Commander.


    "Let''s go see what your men are working with. My second is currently busy analyzing weapons and equipmentposition to reduce the damage taken in the uing battles." Max exined.


    Nico was extremely frustrated at the moment, and she might say something less than diplomatic if she saw what Max was expecting after seeing the so-called training room in the Commander''s mind.


    As Max had expected, the virtual reality room was a virtual ssroom where a holographic lecturer was droning on while the youngsters took notes.


    "Do they not have individual Virtual Reality environments in Koleska?" Max asked, and the Commander simply looked confused.


    "How should I exin this, like this room, but without the room, and individualized to the user? We have found that it is more effective than group training, as it can be programmed to maximize gains for every student based on their capability. I have a unit here if you would like to experience it." Max offered.


    "I have a private room avable. I would like to experience this device that you are speaking of." Commander Yuri requested, then led Max from the ssroom to an empty version of the same room.


    Max took two pairs of VR goggles from his t Space, and the Koleska Commander observed them with curiosity.


    "You ce them over your eyes, and the projection works with your optical nerves to project an artificial reality in your mind, and then you can perform tasks and learn skills in the simted environment. Just ce them on like this. Our anatomy is somewhat simr that way."


    Max put on the goggles, and Yuri mimicked him with some confusion until Max activated the simtion, and the Commander was drawn into the public waiting room that was the default for the learning program.


    Max''s avatar was also there, and the Commander didn''t seem to fullyprehend what was going on. His brain was insisting that he had been physically moved, but he was certain that the human had said it was just an illusion.


    "Wee to the training program. This is the waiting room for the human training simtions. Would you like to learn something today, or would you prefer to just take a look around?" Max asked.


    "Is it faster to learn here? How much could a person learn in a day?" Yuri asked.


    "This is top-of-the-line technology pilfered from one of our trading partners. If your brain is simr enough to one of the temtes in the programs, you should be able to retain hundreds of days'' worth of lessons in a single hour."


    Yuri was dubious about the prospect, so Max introduced him to the most basic of Kepler meleebat techniques, Kep Maga. It was the closebat style that all infantrymen learned, and the Koleska should have something equivalent or better since they equipped their Mecha with closebat weapons as well as ranged.


    For an hour, he waited and kept constant tabs on the Commander''s mental activity. It looked like he was taking the knowledge well, but only time would tell if he retained it after the process was over and if there would be any side effects that weren''t obvious during the process.


    There were a huge number of safeguards built into the Alliance technology, so Max wasn''t too worried about it, but it would be better if there was some guarantee that he could teach the alien the sort ofbat styles and techniques that his Pilots would need to fight properly in their advanced Mecha.

 Chapter 776 776 Combat Practice

    An hourter, the panicked Commander returned to the waiting room, and Max gave him a curious look.


    "There is something wrong with the device. I have been locked in there for almost a year. How is the station? Has it fallen? Thank the creators that you returned here to wait for me." He rambled.


    Max smiled. "It has been one hour. It''s not even lunchtime on the first day yet. It seems that the Koleska mind can''t process the information without the sense of time, so you experience the whole event as a constant time stream, where the human mind instinctively knows once we return that the time never actually passed. We were just force-fed the information.


    Tell me, how much of thebat training do you remember? It''s the most basic closebat fighting style I know, and it is useful both unarmed and in a Mecha." Max asked.


    "How could I not know it after an entire year of intensive training? Who programmed that Devil instructor? That creature is scarier than the Arisen." Yuri muttered.


    Max checked the settings to see who he meant. The program was still at its default setting, which was General Tennant training Nico and Max, so Yuri might have a point. The training was a bit intense for the average person.


    "But did you master the skills? With only one hour passed in the outside world, it is a very effective technique for training students, assuming that it doesn''t traumatize the Koleska." Max informed him.


    "Why don''t we spar? It is the best way to know if you can truly use a technique that you have been told about." Yuri suggested, then changed the settings in the room to create a soft sand floor and an arena marked with ropes, much like a Sumo ring.


    The two Commanders faced off against each other across the ring, and Yuri gave the fist-to-chest Kepler salute.


    "To the first fall. It would be bad for our image if we injured each other." He announced, thenunched an attack.


    He was fast, and his form was impable, but he wasn''t nearly as fast as Max was or as strong, so Max slowed his response and blocked, then counterattacked to see if he really had learned the basics.


    His technique was definitely the Kep Maga style, and he fought as well as any infantry soldier without a system, perhaps better, given his species. He also learned quickly, and he could tell right away that Max was holding back.


    "You don''t need to fear hurting me. I can tell that you are more talented than I am, but one fall won''t hurt anything but my pride." Yuri chuckled.


    "How about this? I will increase my speed until you have trouble keeping up, and then I will end it. I can see that you learned what I taught you very well." Max suggested.


    They traded a few more blows while Max increased his speed, and the shock that the Koleska Commander was feeling began to surpass that he felt when he first returned from the training.


    Max kicked the Commander''s legs up in the air and used a restrained hammer fist to the chest to knock him to the ground, then stepped back and gave him a military salute with his fist to his chest.


    Max helped Yuri to his feet, and the Commander dusted himself off. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "No wonder you are so dangerous in a Mecha. You are incredibly fast and strong. The Gravity Generators can only keep up to a certain standard, and beyond that, inertia will take effect until it ovees our Pilots'' strength." He sighed.


    "We are enhanced well beyond the baseline of our species. That is why we are picked as Pilots. But that is far from my maximum physical limits." Max exined.


    "Truly?"


    Max leaped up to the ceiling, flipped and pushed off toe back down, thennded in the ssic superhero pose, on one knee with one fist in the dirt.


    Yuri stared at him in shock, and Max could tell that his eyes could barely track Max''s movements through the air after he leaped upward.


    Now he understood why they needed to upgrade the Koleska to keep up with the Mecha. Not only was the trainingcking, but so were their reaction times and perception.


    "Do you think that the students would agree to some sort of training like that to increase theirbat skills? Nico, my second inmand, believes that it would help decreasebat casualties and increase the overall quality of the Pilots on the defensive lines." Max asked.


    Yuri was silent for a while as he considered it. "If they could be brought up to a fully trained state in one single day and then would only need practical experience, it would save a lot of lives. They are given six months of training in the military before being sent out, but I spent more time than that just mastering your closebat skill. I can approve this as a trial, and if it works, then they might approve allowing more units to try to learn your human ways."


    Max smiled in victory. "I am d you agree. There is an intensive training program for Pilots in there,belled skills upgrading parts one through four. Each will take about six hours, so if you run them back to back, it''s one day. Once they have finished that training regimen, they should be considered to be as capable as possible for their physical abilities."


    "How long would it take to get more of these devices?" Commander Yuri asked.


    "We can make them with our Replicator machine. So, only a few minutes."


    That brought a surge of joy to the Koleska Commander, though if you were going by bodynguage, the mostly immobile chitinous shell would have still just been giving off a nk stare.


    "I''m d that you enjoyed the news so much." Maxughed.


    "I really must ask, how did you master Koleska bodynguage so well? Can you detect our pheromones? I was informed that isn''t possible for humans." Commander Yuri asked.


    "No, it''s a particr talent of mine, an individual mutation of sorts. There isn''t a good word for it in yournguage." Max shrugged.

 Chapter 777 777 Training Students

    Less than an hourter, there were enough learning devices made for an entire ssroom full of pilots, and Max was standing next to Commander Yuri, exining the sort of experience that the students could expect to experience in the next few minutes and how it would feel like a year, but it would only be an hour here in the real world.


    The concept was not an easy one for the Koleska mind to interpret, but they were slowly beginning to ept that it was a human thing and that they weren''t really losing an entire year during an emergency, so they could focuspletely on getting the best results possible.


    "Now, if everyone is ready, we will be waiting here for you to finish your initial training. Once that is finished, there are six more modules on piloting and tactics. They will be conducted in an old pattern human Mecha since we weren''t willing to provide our new allies with such intimate details of our own equipment, but the controls are simr. I have verified myself that the modifications made at my direction will emte our own controls closely enough to be directly applied tobat starting tomorrow."


    Nico had actually cheated and only pretended to be listening while she applied the actual cockpit of a Koleska Mecha to the program. The capabilities and equipment of the unit were different, but the piloting system should be exactly the same.


    The students in the holographic ssroom put their headsets on and quickly slumped as they entered the simtion. All that was left for Max and Yuri to do was to wait and monitor their vital signs for possible negative interactions.


    Like Yuri, they were all showing signs of extreme stress, but that was part of the training program. If they weren''t stressed, they wouldn''t be learning anything at an eptable level. So, they just waited in their chairs, watching the monitors until the first round of training ended.


    "It looks like we''ve got a full pass rate, as expected of Pilots who already have somebat experience to go with their basic training." Max congratted the other Commander.


    "Honestly, I had been afraid that some of them might not measure up to human standards after seeing you two inbat. Is this standard for your entry-level troops?" Yuri asked.


    "No, you have to pass the third exam to be qualified, but I think that most of them shouldn''t have an issue. It''s thest three that are the truly difficult ones." Max exined.


    "Does anyone have any questions now that you have experienced the training process for the first time?" Max asked the ss.


    "Is it really possible for the brain to hold that much information? I feel like my head is going to explode. It''s like I crammed for an exam every day for months, and now there''s too much information for me to handle." One of the studentsined.


    "That''s because you''re an idiot, though. Studying always made your head hurt." One of the other Koleska studentsughed.


    "That''s not true. I passed the exams, the same that you did." The studentined.


    "With fifty-two percent to my ny-three. Admit it, you''re a moron, but if you can pilot the War Machines, then it doesn''t matter how dumb you are. You can still fight." His counterpartughed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Commander Yuri interrupted them at that point. "Everyone needs to eat the provided energy bar and hydrate. The next training session is about to begin. By the end of the day, I intend to have you all trained for the third test, and then you will be monitored during the next mission to record your progress and survival rate."


    The mention of the survival rate reminded them all of why they needed this training, to begin with. They were taking too many casualties, losing too many friends andrades. So, the humans had provided them with training that their own people used in order to help them progress.


    They couldn''t be the ones to let the Commander down. This was their chance to show off the skills of the Koleska, and the humans were monsters inbat. They had taken an entire nk in every battle, with barely a chance for the reinforcements to engage before they drove the Arisen Fleet back again. They couldn''t keep allowing the humans to show them up like that. They were Koleska, and they could defend their own home.


    Max listened to their resolve stiffening at the Commander''s words, then waited for them to finish their food and started the simtion again.


    That was enough to drive most of them through the training. They might not know it during the training, but the lingering endorphins in their brain from the pep talk remained with them and affected their mood throughout the entire session, keeping them upbeat and pushing forward through the second module of the training.


    This part wasn''t as easy as the first, but it was far from the standard of the final three modules, but still, there were some that couldn''t pass it even after what amounted to most of a year in the training simtion.


    Commander Yuri cast a disappointed nce around the room, looking over the students who had all struggled with the second stage of the training that Max had provided.


    "We can run this over again for those who need it, but not today. Your minds need time to recover from the process, and you need to put the skills that you have learned into practical use so that your body knows it as well as your brain does.


    Since more than half of you failed the second module, we will stop here for the day, and you can prepare to use your new skills in the next battle."


    "Yes Commander. We won''t let you down. We have learned a lot today, and we will prove that we are worthy of your attention." The ss leader spoke on behalf of the students.


    "It looks like you have a lot of respect here in the Station." Maxmented as the students filed out, mostly disoriented after the perceived time dtion.


    "I''ve been the Commander throughout a lot of battles. Everyone whoes back alive from a battle with the Arisen Army gets some respect, and the more times that you do it, the more that you get." He chuckled grimly.


    "How about we get a meal while we wait for the rm? Call your Nico over and I will arrange something for you."

 Chapter 778 778 Big Guns

    It was just after midnight that night when the rm sounded to let them know there was an attack within the territory of the Station. This one was a bit different, though. The Arisen had dropped in on an inhabited moon as soon as they had arrived and were cordoning it off while they fought on the surface.


    [Commander Yuri, where would you like us to deploy?] Max asked as he prepared Cleansing Light forbat.


    [If you can assist the forces on the surface and protect the civilians, I will have the fleet drive back the Arisen warships to strand the fleet on the ground.]


    [Understood, Commander. We will do our best to ensure that there are minimal casualties.]


    Max sent Nico the coordinates for the location that his System Functions had determined was the best option for their initial entry and then led the way to the outer rim of the sr system, where the moon in question was under attack.


    [Do we fight our way through the fleet, or should we ignore them and go straight down to the surface?] Nico questioned as they began the journey.


    [The fleet and the students will take the ships in orbit. But we have a better chance of getting down intact, so we will bypass the Arisen blockade this time.] Max decided. Though, after seeing the number of ships surrounding the smalloid, that might be easier said than done.


    They had formed a full grid pattern around the to keep the fleet out while they cleared out every living thing from the surface, and they weren''t going to just let Max and Nico by without a fight.


    [There is a spot where we can push through. The War Walkers are dense there now, but they are moving away to spread into their grid pattern, so we will arrive when everything has its back turned. If we st through there, we can get to the surface, and then we hope that the fleet holds the breach behind us so we don''t take an orbital bombardment.] Nico suggested.


    [I see it. Plotting targets now. I will update the fleet on our n as soon as the targeting solution is confirmed.]


    Nico was right. The enemy was still spreading out, with their backs to the two Mecha, when they arrived on the scene. The targeting hit boxes shed to life as soon as they left Warp Speed, and Mex engaged his thrusters to keep up his speed past the blockade while his defensivesers burned holes in the closest War Walkers, and Nico turned her heavy munitions on the closest ship.


    It seemed that they had caught the ship somewhat by surprise, and the first shell mmed into the Warp Nacelle at the back of the ship, causing a cascading explosion all through the vessel, which would leave it crippled, even if it wasn''t fully uninhabitable.


    They didn''t stop to see how the efforts to save the ship turned out. They just pushed forward and sted anything that got too close to them as they headed to the surface.


    The modifications to the Disruptors were working amazingly well, and the increased rate of fire had a fully cleared path formed in front of them as Cleansing Light broke through the blockade and entered the upper atmosphere. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Local Defence, this is Cleansing Light. We will be down in two minutes. Please inform your teams not to fire on us.] Max informed theary force as they came down.


    There were thousands of War Walkers in the area, gathering for an assault on the city, so Max led the way behind them to take what cover he could from some rock spires and set up for the attack.


    Not that there was much which could hide a forty-meter-tall Mecha, but when he took a knee, Cleansing Light could mostly hide behind the ruins of an outlying warehouse, which would make it harder for the enemy to target him at the start of the battle.


    [They''re beginning to turn. Begin firing in 3,2,1]


    Max''s order brought a palpable sense of joy from Nico, and her Disruptors joined him, tearing apart the front ranks of the War Walkers before they could even adjust their positions.


    The Arisen force immediately began to spread out, looking to nk his position, so Max focused fire on the far left side, punching a hole through the chest of a Command Walker, whose spindly arms and legs flopped and copsed like a discarded marite as the bone-white war machine fell to the ground with a sound much like ttering bones.


    Taking out the leaders seemed to work exceptionally well against the Arisen, and it always caused a few seconds of confusion before they got their act together again.


    Dust flew, and shrapnel bounced off the shielding around Cleansing Light as the particle weapons of the War Walkers returned fire, and Max switched his Disruptor back to a dispersed beam to fire three of the six beams as abined wave, vaporizing a wing of light war walkers near the left nk.


    Max got a bad feeling about the retaliation and dropped to the ground just before a missile flew through where his torso had been and decimated the ruins behind him with a massive fireball that expanded up into a mushroom cloud and sent a shockwave racing overhead.


    [Did they just fire a nuke at you?] Nicoughed as she sted a hole in another Command Walker.


    [Sensors say that it was a fusion warhead.] Max confirmed before rolling over and firing at the first group of War Walkers to get back to their feet. It seemed that their stabilization systems weren''t as strong as Max was used to, and just like their spindly, emaciated appearance suggested, they had been blown over.


    The next artillery shell that came Max''s way was intercepted by the dispersed pattern of his Disruptor and vaporized in mid-air, but not before itsuncher could be hidden again.


    They looked simr to the other War Walkers, but Max''s System Functions quickly picked out the difference in their pattern and identified them as priority targets for elimination. Even if they rarely fired the nukes, the fact that they could made them the top threat on the battlefield right now.

 Chapter 779 779 Non Orbital Lance

    Nico engaged her thrusters and pushed Shattered Pride into the ranks of War Walkers, putting her far too close to use any of their high-yield weapons against her without causing more damage to their own troops than they did to her, and Max changed targets to support her.


    First, he picked off the War Walkers that tried to move behind her, and then the snipers who might have been able to take advantage of her distraction tond a critical hit on the four armed demonic Mecha.


    As he watched, Nico cycled through the energy frequencies on her des, looking for one that would get through the enemy shields more effectively. For the first few seconds, it didn''t seem to be making any difference, but then she found a frequency that their shielding was weak too, and the des began to pass through as if they weren''t there at all.


    Nico sent him the details of the change she made, and Max applied them to his Disruptors with [Optimize], which allowed him to cut down swathes of War Walkers with every shot. It was pure devastation, and the Arisen Army couldn''t adjust fast enough to stop them before they had eliminated every one of the spindly walkers in sight.


    [Attention Koleska troops. Adjust energy weapons to use this frequency in order to bypass Arisen Army energy shields more effectively.] Max broadcasted to their allies.


    "That hardly seems sporting." Nicoughed as Max finished his message.


    "Oh, that''s rich,ing from you. Who was the one that discovered the exploit, to begin with?" Max replied with a smile.


    He searched his sensors for the best group to target next while Nico worked on improving all of her weapons with an algorithm that would keep exploiting the vulnerabilities in the Arisen Army shielding once they finally managed to adapt to the newest development.


    And they would adapt once they realized that the whole full of defenders had the ability to get around their best defences. If they couldn''t, then they wouldn''t have be such a threat, to begin with.


    Max''s nning for the next attack was disrupted by an enormous explosion in space above them. One of therger ships, either Arisen or one of the Koleska attack fleet, had been destroyed, and the pieces were raining down into the atmosphere.


    That distraction didn''tst long, though. It wasn''t a threat to them. The pieces would burn up, so he picked a target that would lead them closer to the vige so that they could protect any remaining civilians.


    That was the point of this deployment, that the civilians were still alive when he was sent, so it would only be right to do his best to keep them that way, even if he could pad his kill count by going elsewhere, as Nico was thinking, as she contemted ways to use Warp Torpedos in surfacebat.


    Just the activation of the Warp field would cause immense damage. The weapon itself would be irrelevant in a battle like this. And Nico knew it, but that didn''t stop her multi-track mind from looking for more ways to kill things.


    Max sent her the target position and activated his targeting skills to pick out the first targets from the group. He prioritized the Command Walkers and those evil artillery Walkers which could fire nukes at him before anything else, and his System had picked out nearly a dozen initial targets for him.


    [Now that your weapons are optimized against their shields, why don''t you try an Orbital Lance against them?] Nico suggested happily. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was a very Nico tactic, but it wasn''t a bad idea.


    Maxunched himself into the air and targeted the center of the enemy position. It was a good thing, too, they had dug trenches, and there was arge portion of the force that he hadn''t initially detected with his scans.


    But from this angle, he could get them all with an Orbital Lance-level attack, and he aimed it right for the center of the group, leaving only the outlying few stragglers the chance to survive.


    The air crackled with energy as the Disintegratorshed out at the enemy, vaporizing the majority of the War Walkers, as expected, but causing a secondary explosion from a shielded object that was buried under the ground.


    The rippling explosion didn''t stop at the camp. It continued to cascade down the line to the next Arisen position, where another chain explosion urred, destroying hundreds more War Walkers before rippling a few more meters and stopping.


    [What the Feth was that? I didn''t even know that was an option.] Nico cheered as she watched the explosions.


    [I think they buried a power generator and linked it to the next group over. They might all be linked, but after the second explosion, they would have cut the link to stop the cascading effect.] Max offered, giving his best guess.


    He wasn''t going to just get away with that stunt, though, and a huge amount of firepower wasing his way, forcing Cleansing Light from the sky to hide among the ruins where he couldn''t be directly targeted.


    [Oh, they''re the big mad. That''s even better. Now we don''t have to go hunting for targets.]


    Trust Nico to see the best in any situation, but she was right. Not only was every Arisen unit within fifty kilometres headed their way, but they were also sending dropships from orbit as well. His sensors had already picked them up and had plotted to target solutions for him.


    High above his location, Commander Yuri was leading the newly trained students in the battle, with orders to observe the changes that they had made after a day in the human training programs. He had received the updates on the battle below, and he could see the dropships heading for the location where the two humans were fighting.


    They were too far for him to deal with, but when the first one exploded, he realized that he didn''t have to. The humans hade prepared to hunt anything that moved, and they were capable of taking out ships in the upper atmosphere without leaving their stations on the surface.


    Soon, there would be a hundred more of those Mecha, and even if they weren''t the same elite Pilots that had been sent this time, he was looking forward to the level of firepower that they would bring with them.

 Chapter 780 780 Pushback

    The boom of a supersonic round overloaded the audio sensors of Cleansing Light an instant before the ground shook, and the nearby trees began to sway and topple.


    [Oops.] Nico muttered, forgetting that she had the inter Mecha mic set to voice activation.


    [What the Feth was that?] Max asked since it was clearly her fault.


    [I deactivated the Warp Field to use the big guns on the surface, but I forgot that they were still impulse drive equipped, and I might have hit a Command Walker with fifty kilos of steel at Mach 70.]


    No wonder she caused an earthquake.


    It looked like she had stopped the enemy''s advance, though. They were just as clueless as anyone else as to what Nico had done, and the round had passed through multiple War Walkers before hitting the ground and throwing their entire Battalion to the ground.


    [Let''s try not to terrify the locals too badly. Stick to energy weapons until they adjust their shielding.] Max ordered as soon as he saw that Nico was going to try again, but at Mach 50, to reduce the overpration.


    A message came in from the Koleska Command unit, intended for Commander Yuri but including Max, as he was also marked as a Command asset.


    [After the battle, determine what sort of shielding the humans have that can withstand such a st. No species develops weapons that work against their own forces, so they should have some sort of backup defence that would be of great use to our fleet.]


    Maxughed at that message. Common sense didn''t apply to Nico. There was no defending against that except to dodge. Even if Cleansing Light took a direct hit, Max was far from certain that it would survive that attack.


    Oh well, they could suffer with the anticipation for a while. Maybe Nico woulde up with something to counter it now that she had the idea to use it in closebat.


    Max took aim at another dropship that hade into his targeting range, and abined st from three of his six heavy Disintegrators turned it into ming shrapnel, which brought a keening wail from the approaching War Walkers, a form of mourning for their lostrades, but it didn''t slow their attack at all.


    Max continued to target the units in the sky while Nico fired away at the approaching War Walkers until her lighter weapons weren''t enough to keep them at a distance, then she charged into closebat, and Max turned his weapons on the horde of War Walkersing their way.


    The sky turned green with energy sts as the horde of Arisen War Walkers turned their particle beams on the two Mecha, and the ground shook with the footsteps of giant war machines before turning to a high-pitched buzz as the Disruptors and Particle beams met in a sh of unstable energies that darkened the skies and formed thick ck clouds in the sky, crackling with lightning as the heat and energy dispersed into the atmosphere. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Again the beams collided, and purple lightning filled the sky, apanied by thunder so loud that it nearly drowned out the sonic boom of Nico''s artillery.


    The speed had been marginally slowed, and she had chosen a high explosive round that threw dirt and pieces of alloy high into the sky, creating a fiery hellscape in the pouring rain.


    The colliding beams nearly cancelled each other out, and Max was forced to fire as fast as possible, with the Disruptors individually firing dispersed beams to prevent the War Walkers fromnding a solid strike on them, but Nico''s artillery seemed not to fear the Particle Beams, and again thunder shook the ground as she fired, clearing a hundred-metre circle of enemy War Walkers and forcing the rest down into the trenches and craters that marked the remains of thest battles.


    Neither side could move now, as it would bring the full force of the enemy''s firepower to bear on them, and the battle fell into a stalemate of sporadic fire once Nico hunched down into the ruins of a building and kicked out the floor to open a path to the basement for her to hide in.


    Instead of finding a basement, Max had chosen a prone position that would allow him to continue to fire, though it did limit the number of defensivesers that he could bring to bear against the enemy.


    That would change in an instant if he sat up, though, and the War Walkers were far enough away that they would take a few seconds to reach his position.


    [Commander Yuri, how is the space battle going?] Max asked, now that he had a moment to breathe, while only taking shots at the few War Walkers foolish enough to let themselves be seen.


    [The Fleet is taking advantage now. We have secured over a third of the battlefield already with the advice from your message, and we are making steady progress on removing the fleet from orbit. I estimate that we will have orbital superiority within the next twenty hours.]


    That wasn''t a bad time for an orbital battle, so Max took a moment to grab a snack and a drink while using Nico''s skill to pilot the Mecha without using his hands.


    He wasn''t as good at it as she was, but for this part of the fight, it was enough. He just fired wherever the System told him there was a target and ate his sandwich. It was actually rather rxing.


    [Should we push, or are we going to take an evening break here? You can catch a few hours of sleep if you want, and I can pilot Cleansing Light remotely if I move a little closer to you.] Nico suggested.


    [No, we should clean this mess up before we take a break for the evening. I don''t want one of us to be asleep and unaware when a force this size decides that it''s time tounch a full offensive.]


    That meant it was time for them to take action and get out of their hiding ces. His least favourite part of any battle.

 Chapter 781 781 Full Clear

    [On the count of three, we will leave cover and push forward. Once this area is cleared, we will return to our resting spots and take an evening break. I will take the first watch, and we can switch every two hours.] Max informed Nico, who gave him an affirmative beep from her radio in return.


    [3,2,1,] Max burst up out from cover and unleashed all six Disruptors in a wide fan pattern, disabling all of the closest War Walkers and giving him a chance to approach unimpeded.


    His left hand brought up his shield as a battering ram as Max drove Cleansing Light into the crowd of War Walkers with his defensive Lasers shing constantly, tearing holes in the Arisen warriors while he headed for therger Command Walkers toward the back of the group.


    Once they fell, the detachment would be in chaos and much easier to eliminate than when they were organized.


    On his right, Nico was going crazy again, but this time, it was actually productive. She had realized that the War Walkers'' stabilization systems were weak, so she had timed her attacks with the Mass Driver to knock them over in a wave toward her target, and now she was chopping the smaller walkers down as they tried to stand back up.


    It wasn''t a bad tactic, but Max would have to put his sword away and take out the Mass Driver rifle mounted to his back to emte it, whereas Nico had four arms, and two of them permanently mounted, so she didn''t need to reduce her melee capabilities in order to pull the trick.


    What he could do that she couldn''t was to wipe out huge swathes of War Walkers with the Disruptors.


    Max spread his arms and cleared another wave of light Walkers, which cleared his path to the Command Walkers, who had moved into supportive positions so that they could fight Max properly two-on-one.


    The two Command Walkers shifted to encircle Max so that he would have to put his back to one or the other, and Max''s rms sounded as the lighter War Walkers prepared to coordinate an attack at his back again, using those strange particle weapons.


    He would have to work quickly so that he could eliminate the Command Units before they could set the trap properly now that he had overextended into their ranks, but Max was confident that these ones wouldn''t be any more trouble than the others he had faced.


    With a twist of his arm, Max turned his shield parallel to the ground and mmed it into the chest of a Command Walker while he faked a sword strike at the other and fired a concentrated Disruptor beam into its torso.


    The two huge walkers hit the ground, and Max spun on one foot, then took a knee and put his shield forward to absorb the imminent attack from the light walkers.


    His main shield copsed under the force of the massed particle beams, and the second barrier on his shield activated, then failed, but the job was done. The War Walkers needed some time, just like he did, to reach maximum power output, and they would be down for a few seconds before they could try that trick again.


    Max drove his sword down into the Command Walker that he had knocked over with his shield, then turned his Disruptors on wide dispersion andbined them into two stronger beams topletely destroy the remaining targets in his region.


    Many of the lighter walkers hit the ground, avoiding the attack, but their coordination wascking, thanks to their overreliance on the Command Walkers, and the retaliation against him was sporadic. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [How is it going over there, Nico?] Max called as he charged into the survivors.


    [Meet the p chop three thousand. It slices, it dices, it purees.] Nicoughed in response, which Max took to mean that she was doing well enough.


    One of the twenty meters tall, Phnx-sized War Walkers stepped out of cover to challenge Max with a de in each hand. It didn''t hesitate and swung one low, with the other going for Max''s head.


    It was a familiar move, and the follow-up would be to lunge forward and drive the des toward the chest of your opponent once their des were out of position. Max wished that he could read enough from these enemies to know where they learned the style from, but like those strange people without an internal monologue, all that was in their minds was the next moves that they were making.


    It was like the past, and future didn''t exist for them, only the present.


    Max waited for the lunge to start before smacking the arms of the War Walker aside with his shield, putting it off bnce, and opening for a sword strike to the back.


    The energy field on his de shed as it hit the shielding of the War Walker, which was driven into the dirt, but the shielding held out long enough that it wasn''t cut in half.


    Still, there was no emotion from the pilot, only calction. They were doing their best to determine how to survive this encounter, but Max''s tactics were confusing them. They simply couldn''t understand how he knew their techniques well enough to counter them. That didn''t happen. Everyone they attacked fell before the might of their battle skills. One lone Mecha shouldn''t be able to stand before them like this.


    That was the construct''sst thought as Max hacked it apart and moved on to the next group, which had chosen to attack from cover, a tactical mistake that would cost them dearly when Max''s Disruptors tore through the remains of the building.


    They didn''t have time to ponder their mistake before they died, and only a few secondster, the battlefield fell silent as thest of the survivors fled the scene, leaving Max and Nico alone in the rubble.


    [That went well. Let''s head back to the positions that we were in before and see what the fleet manages to aplish tonight.] Nico cheerfully suggested.


    [Lead the way.]


    Max had plenty on his mind tonight, starting with the enemy''s battle style and the lingering feeling that he had forgotten something from his past life that would bring some sort of enlightenment to this situation.

 Chapter 782 782 Strange Disappearance

    Once they were safely settled back into their hiding spots, Max began to take inventory of the battle going on above them. He hadn''t noticed, but the fleet was beginning to look a bit sparse, so either they had forced the Arisen fleet to back off and abandon their ground troops, or arge number of additional ships had been destroyed.


    The fleet messages were still ovepping heavily, and the deployment orders were constant, so the battle hadn''t slowed down at all, but for the moment, it appeared that the Koleska were on the winning side.


    The team that was being led by Commander Yuri seemed to be winning somemendations today, as they were being mentioned multiple times by the upper Command structure, and they had just cleared another point.


    Hopefully, that was the result of Max''s training, but he couldn''t very well ask his fellow Commander about it in the middle of a battle, so he contented himself with listening to reports and scanning the surface for movement.


    Using Nico''s skill to link into the satellitework, he had a pretty good idea of what was going on on the surface, but it didn''t look like he would seebat during this break. There were other Arisen Army units in the area, but they were actively avoiding his position, even making detours when their route would take them too close to where Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride were resting for the evening.


    While that wasn''tpletely surprising, it was a bit annoying. If they had followed the routes that they were on, Max could have eliminated a number of small patrols silently while he was on watch, but instead, the Arisen Army had made a good note of where he was, and they were going to make him chase their units down tomorrow.


    For two hours, he waited for the Arisen to change their minds, then turned the watch over to Nico and went to sleep. With their system advancements, neither of them needed a lot of sleep, and if they pushed it, even one break would be enough, but the position that they were holding was keeping the Arisen Army away from the civilian target behind them. Though it meant that they were missing out onbat, it also meant that the civilians were safe for the moment, which was inpliance with their mission here.


    The Koleska didn''t care how many they killed. They only wanted them to secure the civilian poption until the blockade could be broken and a rescue effort could evacuate them.


    Another two hours passed, and Nico sent Max a ping to wake him up. Not only were the Arisen forces avoiding them, but they were also leaving the entire region. The satellites showed that they were pulling back for a full offensive against the capital cities and abandoning the rest of the.


    Over half of their orbital fleet was gone, either having fled or been destroyed, and Max could sense the desperation in their tactics.


    "I think that we scared them away." Nico pouted as Max woke up for his watch.


    "That''s fine. We can just go hunt them in the morning. They will still be there unless the Koleska does something extraordinary and wipe them out in a matter of hours. One more watch each should be enough to get us ready for the day, and then we can make ns based on the current situation."


    Max felt Nico''s mind go quiet as she fell asleep again, but notpletely silent. She was still having dreams of charging the War Walkers.


    Nico really never would change, but her thoughts were happy, and there were a few good ideas in her dreams. Impractical, in the way that all dreams were, but just crazy enough to be adapted to real life.


    Nico took the final shift, but Max didn''t get his full two hours. New objectives were sent from the Koleska fleet to support the evacuation of the civilians in their region, as the Arisen Army was in full retreat, leaving the after destroying three capital cities and being driven from the wilderness areas, as well as the other cities. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was good news for the locals, their had taken heavy damage, but the ones who were still alive were likely to stay that way.


    "Why don''t we take to the air, and we can guard against approaching War Walkers from a higher vantage point? It would allow us to use range to our advantage, and we already know that they are afraid to confront us directly after yesterday." Nico suggested.


    "That''s not a bad idea. A little warning would go a long way to keeping the Arisen Army from trying anything dumb, and it would distract them from the city itself since they could see us so much more easily." Max agreed, thenunched Cleansing Light into the air to hover over the middle of the city at a height of a thousand metres.


    Max''s sensors detected the crowds beginning toe out of their homes in the city, either to face their death head-on or because they realized that Max and Nico were the saviours of the city. There was no way to tell how much of the current events they had managed to overhear, but within ten minutes, there wererge crowds in the street, looking up at the two hovering Mecha, which were so different from the ones that their own species used.


    Max searched the area for remnants of the Arisen Army, but there was nothing left to see. They had spent the whole night leaving the area for more target-rich environments, and there weren''t even stragglers left behind at this point.


    "Hey Max, where are the shells of the War Walkers we destroyed yesterday? I mean, we killed thousands of them, but I don''t see a single one left on the ground. The rest of the traces of battle are still there, even the crater where the first Mass Driver roundnded, but I don''t see any loot." Nico informed him.


    That couldn''t be right. They had both been watching the area all night, and that battleground was well within their engagement range. There hadn''t been anyone there to take it away, but every sensor he had showed the same thing. There was nothing left.


    "What do the satellite logs say? I didn''t see anything that could have possibly taken them away, and I didn''t notice them disappearing either." Max asked.


    Nico spent a few minutes scanning through the sensor logs from the satellites as well as both of the Mecha before she reported back.


    "It looks like they just faded out of existence one at a time. Check this out. They''re all there an hour after the battle, but two hours after the battle, there clearly aren''t as many, then every hourly update, there are fewer and fewer.


    I isted a few timestamps, and you can see the pieces fading out of sight as well as from the sensors on our Mecha. I''ve never seen anything like it."


    "I will ask the Koleska about itter. It might be rted to how their ships seem to simply disappear when they decide that it is time to leave. If they have some sort of cloaking or transport technology that we don''t understand, I want it. Maybe not as much as you want it, but I want it too." Max joked.


    "I''m d you understand."

 Chapter 783 783 Evacuation

    Max watched as the few remaining Arisen Army units within sensor range suddenly vanished from detection all at the same time. Not just visual, but every sensor that he had stopped detecting at the same time.


    "Dammit, I want that ability. I wonder where they are going? Do you think that there is a fight there? Like, are they going to another battle or just to some random spot to stage for the next battle?" Nico muttered over the radio.


    "That''s a very good question. If anyone knew where they went, we could take the fight to them. Did your sensors pick up anything that mine didn''t? Any trace at all of where they went?" Max replied.


    "I''ve got nothing. Nothing at all. I know that our sensors aren''t perfect, but with all the other ws that these War Walkers have, both in construction and in tactics, why would they be so good at disappearing? Is it a technique that we''ve never seen before?" Nicoined.


    Max recalled that in her past life, Nico was the master of the disappearing act, but she might not be thinking of that right now, and Max had never been able to detect how she vanished the way that she did.


    He might as well ask her and see if she remembers.


    "Hey Nico, in the time before, how did you vanish the way that you did? You disappeared from a thousand battlefields without a trace and then appeared at random without any warning to cause chaos in another world. Could they be using your method?" Max asked.


    Nicoughed, and Max saw the strangest scene in her memory. She simply vanished, and then there was darkness and a timeless wait, then another battlefield.


    "What in the world was that?" He asked.


    "That was my life between battles. I hacked the t space technology with a timer to spit myself back out or move to a nearby device. So, I would appear wherever the bearer of the device I was hiding in happened to be, and then it would be time for war again.


    I already checked, and that''s not what they''re doing. They are actually just vanishing somewhere." Nico exined.


    That shouldn''t be possible, but it did exin why she caught onto the t space technology again so fast in this life.


    "So, you''re an expert in the t space. Is it possible that there is a simr technology that puts them into some sort of alternate space that we can''t properly detect?" Max asked.


    That would be a pain but easier to exin than teleportation without an energy source.


    "I am certain that it is possible, but the problem is that I don''t know how it is possible. I''ve never heard of it before, and now that someone is doing it, there really isn''t a good way to determine where they are going or what that ce is like. For all I know, it could just be some sort of wormhole that leads back to their ships but operates in a way that we can''t detect." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max sighed. That was a lot of interesting information, but it didn''t bring them any closer to knowing how the Arisen Army was doing what they did to escape the battlefield.


    [Human delegation, there will be a rescue ship iing within the next two minutes. We request that you clear the path for its arrival.] The Koleska dispatcher reported.


    [Understood, traffic control. We will ensure that the dropship makes it to the city intact.] Max replied, then opened the secure channel to Nico.


    [You heard the nice man. Let''s go follow the path of the dropship and kill anything that might threaten its path.]


    That brought her spirits back up after the annoyance of not knowing how the Arisen could disappear as they did, but the joy was short-lived. They hadn''t only disappeared around Max and Nico. They were gone from the entirely.


    So, they escorted the ship to the surface using their shields to clear the path of any possible hazards, but there wasn''t anything bigger than a bird to be seen.


    The shipnded outside the city, and a flood of civilians poured out of the gates toward it, creating mass confusion for a moment until Max engaged his loudspeaker.


    [Civilians of the Koleska. The ramp of the ship is four persons wide. Please form a line no wider than four adults and proceed in an orderly fashion. This is your first warning.]


    The frantic fleeing of the civilians came to a halt as they noticed the unfamiliar Mecha flying overhead, heavily armed and questionably friendly. That was enough to convince them to behave as well as possible, and the front of the line began to narrow to only four people wide, though they were still running toward the ramp of the evacuation vessel.


    [I don''t know what you said to them, but good work, Commander. None of the other evacuations are going so smoothly.] Commander Yuri congratted Max as the civilians filed into the waiting ship.


    [I just informed them of the ramp size and that improper advancement would cause unnecessary dys. The people of this seem quite adept at problem-solving.] Max replied.


    They would need to make a proper debriefing reportter, and it was better if he didn''t exin too much over publicmunication channels.


    It took four hours for the poption of the city to be fully evacuated and verified clear, and by that time, Max was beginning to seriously wonder if it was even necessary to do it at all. The Arisen was gone, likely never to return. Or at least not soon to return, so they could remain on the for the repair and reconstruction of their essential services. Humanity had been doing it that way for millennia, and it made things more efficient in the long run since there would be local input into the process.


    But it wasn''t his call, and the Koleska were free to do things however they wanted. The fact that their ways seemed strange to Max was to be expected, given the extreme differences between the species. They had no more inmon with humanity than the Shin did, even though their skeletal heads looked a lot like human skulls.

 Chapter 784 784 All Clear

    Once the ship was loaded, it immediately made its way to orbit and transferred the cargo to the waiting space station that had been moved over for the effort. From the look of things, they were going to hold everyone from the surface here while they rebuilt everything that was damaged, and as a precaution against the Arisen Army returning to finish what they started.


    [That''s everything, Commander Keres. We have it from here. Thank you for your assistance. The Anomaly station will be ready to receive you at any time. Please feel free to rx until the next rm is sounded.] The Koleska traffic controller informed them.


    [Thank you, Control. We will be on standby at the station.]


    The trip back was a quiet one as both Max and Nico tried to make sense of the battle that they had just experienced. The fighting was abnormal enough since he was fighting someone who was already familiar with his tactics, but the ending was just t-out bizarre.


    Once they were back aboard the Santa Maria, they both got to work analyzing all of the data that they could get, trying to determine where the Arisen had gone and how they could follow them. Failing that, if they could at least determine where they were going to show up more than a few seconds in advance, it would be a huge benefit to the defence forces.


    As it was, they barely had time to get into position most of the time, and that was extremely stressful for everyone involved.


    "I think that we will do better after a night of proper sleep. Who knows when the rm will go off again? It''s better if we''re rested and ready to go again, and if we aren''t needed inbat, then we can keep looking for answers." Max suggested.


    "That sounds like a n to me. I''m getting a whole lot of nowhere today. There just isn''t enough information to actuallye up with a reasonable answer. Perhaps that is the secret to their sess. They eliminate their opponents before they can understand the nature of the enemy." Nico agreed.


    Surprise attacks were the deadliest of tactics, and an enemy that could appear at random and disappear when they wanted to leave was the master of that sort of warfare, so Nico might be right. The Arisen might only be winning all the time because they always had the advantage of surprise.


    Max copsed into bed with the issue of the Arisen on his mind, right up until Nico crawled in beside him and dropped her shell temperature tofortably cool, then wrapped herself around him like a four-legged octopus.


    "Hmm, that is nice. You feel extra warm when I drop my temperature." Nico nearly purred as she settled into sleep.


    Max smiled at the little cyborg and gently patted her head as she fell asleep. If she wasn''t so tired, she would have likely objected to that, but a sleepy Nico was a cuddly Nico, and it made her much more easygoing than usual.


    When he woke up in the morning, Nico was still wrapped around him with the nkets tightly rolled into a burrito around them, as if she had forgotten that she could set her own temperature if she was feeling cold.


    "Are we getting up now? I''m rather enjoying this nap." Nico murmured as Max began to move a bit to loosen the tightly wrapped nket before it tore under the strain that Nico had put on it. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I''m just adjusting the nket, you little burrito. You can go back to sleep and wait for the messages toe in. I don''t think we''re going to get anywhere with the Arisen issue today anyhow." Max whispered so he didn''t wake her uppletely.


    "Mmm, burrito," Nico mumbled before passing out again.


    Max woke up a few hourster to the smell of fresh burritos from the Replicator, drawing him out of bed to join Nico at the table.


    "So, was there any news while we slept?" He asked, knowing that she would have checked her messages already.


    "A whole lot of nothing. Commander Yuri wants to have dinner tomorrow to talk about training some more students with the teaching programs, and there was an efficiency report from the battle that was interesting but not interesting enough to wake up early for. It looks like today''s attacks are all further across the Koleskas. There hasn''t been anything near the station all day." Nico replied with a shrug.


    "Everyone gets a quiet day now and then. Were there any repairs that needed to be done to the Mecha before we finished anything but eating breakfast?" Max asked.


    "I''m sure there is something. We should go over them either way, but the diagnostics didn''t pull up anything urgent. My repair skill can fix up most of the little things in only a few minutes without actually breaking out the tools, so it''s a lot faster than everyone else. But neither of us took too many solid hits during the battle.


    The closest there is to real damage is your shield, but I fixed the overloaded circuitry before we went to bed so that it was ready to go again in case of emergency." Nico exined.


    "Good thinking. I''m hoping that thest battle was enough to give us a couple of days off. We might be alright, but I don''t think that the locals can train warriors fast enough to rece the ones that are being lost at this rate. They took a lot of casualties since we arrived." Max sighed.


    If the anomaly led to a species fighting a losing battle, their home Gxy would be in a lot of trouble once the Arisen made it through. They would do their best to keep things working smoothly until reinforcements arrived, but Max was beginning to think that they might be better off spreading knowledge rather than fighting directly.


    The Koleska had heart, but it was clear that all of their technology was newly developed, and they didn''t have the long history ofbat or the range of adaptive techniques that the humans did.


    That was something that he could fix. Max just needed to get them to approve of it.

 Chapter 785 785 To Teach The Koleska

    The first message that they receivedter that evening was from Commander Yuri, a report on the progress and rtive performance of the soldiers who had undergone the human training programs.


    To say that the volunteers were eager for another round of training was a vast overstatement, but the Commander had deemed that they were ready to receive the next course and upgrade their skills. He was also requesting that another group be given permission to take the first-year training to improve their skills, as they had proven so effective against the Arisen force.


    That saved Max a lot of trouble, as he had been nning to bring the matter up at dinner when they saw each other next.


    "Hey Nico, do you think that you can customize a program for the Koleska? They''re a bit behind the curve, but the Commander approves of using the learning programs to help them catch up on the skills that they will need to fight the Arisen." Max asked.


    "That shouldn''t be a problem. Do you think that we should include the style that the Arisen are using as the base model for the Koleska?"


    Just the thought of that was enough to make Maxugh. Two forces, both using bastardized versions of a skill that he himself had created? No, that was too ridiculous.


    "No, go for something that works as a decent counter to it. The Arisen will already be familiar with how to fight against their own style, so it''s better to give the Koleska something simple to learn but solid at both targeting and closebat evasion techniques."


    There were a number of styles that Nico knew which could fit the description of being a counter for the Arisenbat styles, but easy to learn was not part of most of them. They relied on years of training, practice, and desperate struggle to get the timing exactly right and execute them properly.


    Simple styles like Kep Maga were easy to learn, but they weren''t as effective at fighting against the closebat styles of the War Walkers, who had an uncanny ability to close the distance with their opponents once they realized that area of effect weapons were going to be used against them.


    "I think I have one that will fit the bill. It''s not the greatest of fighting styles, but it''s easy to learn, and it specializes in avoidance, so the Koleska can learn to dodge a few hits and survive a bit longer.


    If I program in the data from the Arisen Army''s engagements, they will be able to train against the enemy, so they will finish their training with some practical experience, even if it''s not in the real world." Nico decided.


    "Then you might as well program a hundred of the training devices with them. That''s enough to do an entire unit at a time, and it will be enough to let the Commander see that the programs really do work."


    They had dinner with Commander Yuriing up in a few hours, so she might have to work fast if she was going to have them done in time, but Nico had always been efficient when working with technology, and a simple edit to the learning software shouldn''t be too big of a deal, especially if the style was already programmed into it. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Don''t worry. I''ll have it ready on time. I just need to alter the opponent data so that they are fighting against the War Walkers. They might not be perfect since I have a limited data set to work with, only from our two Mecha and what was sent to us by the Koleska, but it should be enough to make them believable." Nico exined.


    "Perfect. In that case, I will start getting the proposal ready for them. The more of them we train, the less damage our reinforcement team is going to take when they arrive. They should all be elites who were qualified for a promotion to the Phnx ss Mecha but didn''t have a unit avable, so they won''t be pushovers, but everyone we lose is a big deal for public rtions."


    Nico chuckled at that. She didn''t care about public rtions at all. Sure, it was good if the humans could get along with the Koleska, but it would be just as good if the Koleska were absolutely terrified of humanity as a whole.


    Both results would lead to the safety of their species and the ongoing working arrangement, so they were equivalents in her mind.


    Once she had the programming done, Nico made a trip to the Replicator and picked out an outfit for the evening, keeping in mind the Koleska clothing sensibilities. While they had no issues with nudity, as their exoskeletal nature was mostly androgynous, other than the markings about the arms and head, they were very ss conscious, and the more highly ranked wore the most. So, she would wear just slightly more revealing clothes than Max would mark her position as his second in the minds of the officers that they would be dining with.


    It wasn''t strictly necessary, and they would still be dressed in Reaver fashion, but it would help the Koleska understand their ranking system if they made an effort to match the local conventions.


    Her spaghetti strap halter top and skin-tight leather pants with a leather vest covered in patches were very Nico, and Maxughed as he recognized a number of the patches as being for video games, punk rock bands and a support pin promoting Max.


    Not the Terminus Trading Company, which had arge patch on the back of the vest, but a small silver pin with his name and a likeness of Cleansing Light on it, the sort of thing that Mecha fans in the civilian poptions would create for heroes of the propaganda videos.


    "Are you having fun?" Maxughed as she finalized her design in the Replicator and pulled out her outfit for the night.


    "What do you think? Too much?" She asked as she stripped down to put on the tank top and vest.


    "I think it''s a bit much for a formal dinner with the officers. There will be plenty of other chances to wear it." Maxughed as he realized that she looked ready to go to a concert, not an official meeting with foreign military officers and government ministers.


    "Fine, I will pick a short-sleeved dress and some fis stockings or something." She sighed, but Max could tell that she already had an outfit in mind, which would only be a little more formal than the punk rock vest.

 Chapter 786 786 Cooperative Minister

    Commander Yuri sent an aide to pick Max and Nico up for Dinner, though the walk to the dining area of the station was only a few minutes.


    "Greetings, Commanders. I will be your escort for the evening. If you should require anything, please just ask. It is both my duty and my honour to take care of anything that you may need." He greeted them.


    Now his presence made sense to Max. He wasn''t just a security guard or an escort to the dining hall, which they could reach perfectly fine on their own. He was more in the nature of a butler for them this evening.


    He had noticed that most of the high-ranking Koleska had one, but he hadn''t realized that it was such an ingrained thing that they would send one for him and Nico when there was an official dinner.


    "Please, do lead the way. Hopefully, our choice of attire is appropriate for a Koleska meeting?" Max replied.


    The butler looked them both over, then nodded. "Human attire is a bit odd, but your intent is clear. The difference in clothing sends the appropriate message that the youngdy is your second inmand, and the markings on her arms show that she is of high rank from birth."


    Max wasn''t sure what he meant until he looked down and realized that Nico had created Tattoos all over her exterior shell, depicting an epic battle on both arms and ending somewhere under her elbow-length sleeves.


    It was a good look on her, and the battle scenes suited her personality better than the cute and innocent look that she used to confuse and mislead opponents.


    Only a few minor functionaries were seated at the far end of the table when Max and Nico arrived, but there were many more people socializing on the far side of the room.


    "Should we join them and introduce ourselves?" Max asked their escort for the evening.


    "No, here they wille to introduce themselves to you. As a guest, it is their ce to wee you, not for you to ingratiate yourself with them. It is part of our code of hospitality. I will introduce those of ranks higher than Commander, and those below will introduce themselves. But most of them shoulde to speak to you sometime tonight.


    The first toe over was naturally Commander Yuri, who needed no introduction, but the small group that followed him introduced themselves as the Sumanders from Defence Force Dispatch, the ones who were on the radio passing orders to the units when there was a battle.


    They were the ones who followed the battle most closely, as they needed to know where every single unit was and its callsign, while the Commanders above them mostly focused on the total numbers and armament to make sure that there was sufficient firepower in the region.


    It seemed to work. Max hadn''t seen much sign of disorganization in their ranks, even when they were taken by surprise, so the Sumanders had his respect for a job well done.


    They also didn''t immediately choose to overwork the units that cleared the fastest, whereas many human Commanders would have moved him and Nico around constantly since they were the most efficient killers on the battlefield.


    Teamwork was clearly one of the values that the Koleska held dear, and that was promising news for his n to introduce them to new training methods which would makerge groups of troops more effective.


    "Have you had a chance to sort the repairs to your Mecha, Commander?" Yuri asked politely once everyone around him was introduced. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Indeed we did. Our shielding held up fairly well during the battle, so there were only limited physical repairs to make, and we came well equipped for that level of maintenance." Max answered, bringing sighs of relief from the Dispatch team.


    "How did the youngsters do? The ones that got the training." Nico asked the officer closest to her, who was with the Dispatch team.


    "Remarkably well. Their kill rate was over double the average, and they suffered forty percent fewer losses than average. It''s a rather small sample size, but it is a positive start." The officer replied with a strange bow that made their chitinous joints creak softly.


    "If you would like arger sample size, I have finished an updated version of the training that uses Arisen as the opponent. It should be a bit more effective than the version that was developed for use by the humans for general training." She suggested.


    "That isn''t my department, but I think that the others would be in agreement that it would be a great idea. We were just discussing the need to improve our training program for new soldiers, as our casualty rates have increased. I am not sure what the n was to actually implement it, though." The officer replied, waving off her suggestion that he should be involved in the decision.


    "Fortunately for my associate here, there is someone who is involved in the decision around. It''s a pleasure to finally meet you, Sumander Tarith Nico. I am Education Minister dimir, and the training of students is under my general supervision. I have seen the documents on the results of your first round of training experiments with the Koleska recruits, and the results are astounding.


    Not only were they well above average in every metric, but they were also among the least experienced forces on the battlefield, who would normally take the most losses and suffer the most while trying to effectively eliminate the Arisen Army.


    If I heard right, you have optimized your training program forbat against the Arisen? Tell me, is that for your own practical experience, as well?"


    That would be the most logical answer since the humans had only met the Arisen a few days ago, and there really wasn''t a way to tell them that they were already familiar with the enemy''sbat style because they had seen it in their past lives.


    The Koleska wasn''t easy to lie to, though, so Nico went for the most direct possible answer that would deflect from the topic at hand and still answer the question.


    "Not quite. We have amassed a farrger amount ofbat experience than you might expect, so I optimized this program for the training of newbatants, with an emphasis on a style that uses avoidance in closebat to reduce casualties while maintaining the kill rate of the initial training program.


    The problem with most rookies is that they learn to shoot, and that is it. So when they are charged, theyck the skills to survive, and the Arisen are taking advantage of that. With the new program, we can eliminate much of that disadvantage during the first module, so even if it is only one ss per group, it should prove to be an effective way of decreasingbat casualties.


    That is a priority for all human forces, and given the rate of losses your people have suffered, I believe that it will be among the highest priorities for the Koleska as well."


    The minister smiled at her and took a seat directly across the small round table that Max and Nico were seated at. "I think that we will get along very well. Educationes first. Killing the Arisenes afterward."


    Max took a look into his mind and sighed. Nico had found herself a kindred spirit, though this man''s obsession with eliminating the Arisen came from the trauma of losing his family in the first wave of attacks.

 Chapter 787 787 Dignitaries Abound

    Nico and the Minister quickly got deep into a conversation about the rtive differences in training methods between humans and the Koleska. The two were somewhat simr, but the Koleska were much more hands-on learners than the humans were, so the amount of book knowledge that they gathered was limited, and instead, they practiced everything at every level of learning.


    That way was actually quitepatible with the Mecha training program, where it was assumed that you would have already used the book learning programs to gather all the basic knowledge that you needed for the background to begin to learn Piloting.


    The Education Ministry was a big fan of the new learning devices that Max had shown them. They didn''t have any simr technology, and the prospect of being able to burn a year''s worth of learning into the minds of cadets in a single session was incredibly attractive to them, even though their species didn''t have the ability to disassociate themselves from the passage of time inside the simtion, so it felt like they had actually lived the whole year.


    "I see that your Sumander has met the Minister of Education. That makes things easier for us. He can be somewhat cantankerous due to the loss of life inbat that has been caused by the Arisen invasion. He takes every death personally, and while there have been great strides made in the military technology and training of our people, it has only been a few decades since our region of space hase under threat." One of the highly ranked Koleska who hadn''t been introduced yet greeted Max.


    "I present to you the Minister of Defence, Nabokov. Minister Nabokov, meet Commander Keres Max." The butler informed them.


    "Minister, it is a pleasure to meet you. I must say that if you only began your military development a few decades ago, you have done a wonderful job of it." Max replied.


    He extended a hand for the Minister to shake, forgetting that it wasn''t a Koleska tradition for a moment.


    "Ah, my fault. My people sp hands as a form of greeting." Max exined.


    "What a strange tradition. How would a greeting like that evolve?" The Defence Minister asked curiously.


    "Originally, it was apanied by a pat on the back and served a dual purpose. sping the dominant hand shows that neither party is holding a weapon, and the pat on the back let you subtly check for hidden weapons through the contact of your bodies. Since we are traditionally more heavily clothed than the Koleska, there are many more hiding spots among our fashion." Max exined with a polite smile.


    "I see. It is like how the Wargs smile with their mouth closed to hide their teeth. A show of nonaggression. Our people evolved past that point far in the past, though at one point, it was tradition to kneel or bow in the presence of those far above your rank to make yourself look smaller than they were." The Minister responded as he quickly grasped the corrtion.


    "We still have that tradition between the very highest of our leaders and their subordinates. The most physically powerful humans aren''t always the ones in charge, so the leaders often feel that they could be undermined by shows of physical dominance.


    Those who have proven to be the leastpetent or who have made poor judgement calls in the recent past are the most likely to insist upon it, so the tradition is often used as a form of mockery when lesser leaders issuemands that are counter to the will of their subordinates." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Koleska Minsters around Max looked confused at that response, and one of them, who Max had been introduced to earlier, but didn''t recall the name of, asked for rification.


    "If your leaders are ipetent but popr, what happens to them? In our culture, if the subordinates can prove that they are more qualified or that the superior has made a grave error, they are given a chance to rece them for one year. If they prove themselves, then they get to keep the position and the former superior is demoted." She exined.


    "That''s very civilized. Human culture is a bit involved, so there are a series of different responses. At the lower levels, if they are ipetent at their job, they are removed from it entirely by their superior and are forced to retrain for another position or look for someone else who will give them a chance. In the middle levels, they are mostly elected by popr vote, so they are removed by a vote of their peers, or the poption as a whole."


    Max stopped there, but the Koleska was intrigued by the answer.


    "And at the highest levels? Many of ourary outposts have top leadership that has proven to be poor at making military decisions." The junior bureaucrat asked.


    At the highest level, if they are deemed ipetent or to have acted against the best interests of their people, we usually just kill them. It''s one of the risks of taking up the highest ranks of power. But for those who aren''t military-minded, our leaders usually appoint a council of military advisors to help them make decisions and grant them a portion of their power to enforce decisions in emergency situations when there isn''t time for the actual leader to be consulted before action must be taken.


    In exchange for that extra power, they are granted more resources, but also greater ountability, and are held to higher standards of conduct."


    "A council of advisors brought in from outside experts? That has worked well for us as well. But as they don''t have any power among the Koleska, whose ranks are very rigid, some leaders have chosen to ignore their advice." The Koleska woman whispered, clearly meaning someone who was in the room with them right now.


    It didn''t take Max long to understand who she meant. The man in question was here with his wife and oldest son, trying to build support for his leadership among his peers since he was at risk of being challenged for his position by his subordinates, and it would be up to the other people here to determine if the challenge was valid.


    It wasn''t arge difference between their policy and human politicians, but theck of ability to grant power to the lower ranks and delegate responsibilities could certainly cause them some issues.


    It looked like the other Koleska Ministers who were chatting with Max and Nico were leaning toward a more proactive response already, though. Hearing that the humans, who were more versed in war, used such a simr method but with higher stakes to keep their leaders in line solidified their opinion that the Koleska way was right and that they were just too soft on their peers.


    If they knew of the level of cronyism and corruption that had made its way into the human system, they likely would not respect it as much, but for now, it was enough of an assurance that they were on the right path to help them make their decisions. That was one secret that Max would keep to himself. Humans had a good reputation here, and he didn''t want to spoil it early.

 Chapter 788 788 Deal Finalized

    "Max, we will need a lot of the Learning Machine headsets. I think we havee to an agreement to equip the final year of students at the nearby military academy with them to prepare them for war. Three exams, over thest week of their training, with the modified program set to high difficulty to best simte the real situation in the region." Nico informed him as her conversation with the Education Minister came to an end.


    "And when is that?" Max asked.


    "We graduate one ss a month to keep up with demand." The Minister replied with a defeated tone to his voice.


    "Well, with luck, you will be able to reduce that in the near future. Rookies always take the worst casualties in any battle, and the extra training will help with that." Nico assured him with a smile.


    Not only did she get to distribute the new program she made, but she also got to crank up the difficulty with official permission. She really was on a roll here, just one good day after another.


    "That shouldn''t be a problem. We can make them quickly and in bulk. I will ask for some raw materials for our Replicator, though, as it is a lot to go through when we only packed for two Mecha''s worth of needs." Max agreed.


    "Marvellous. We will get you anything you need, and the students can take the first exams in the morning. It will be glorious. They will learn the finest of techniques to fight the Arisen, and the Anomaly will remain safe from both sides.


    No offence, but the Koleska people really do not want an angry human armying through from behind while we are fighting the Arisen."


    Maxughed out loud at that. The man had a point, a human army at their back, on the warpath because they viewed the residents of this side as a threat that would utterly annihte the Koleska settlements in the region. They might have fought the Arisen for a few decades, but they couldn''t even fathom the sort of wrath that an angry human nation could bring down on them.


    It was better that they never had to learn. Seeing angry humans en masse would set a dangerous precedent for the somewhat Na?ve species, and they might get it into their heads that humans were the species to emte.


    That didn''t even end well for the humans when they emted more militant societies, so the chances that it would be a good ending for the Koleska were somewhere between slim and none.


    "It''s better that your people never have to see mine on the warpath. Humans are known to go to great extremes when we believe that we are threatened, so our leaders are sending the very best that they can to help on this side of the Anomaly and assure the popce that there is no existential threat here.


    Now that your soldiers will have the benefit of the training programs that we have developed and thetest technologies to learn at an elerated rate, I think that our partnership will open the eyes of many other species in this region. It is not impossible to defeat the Arisen Army. We just haven''t found a way to track them when they retreat yet." Max informed the nearby Koleska Ministers and officers.


    Any response that they might havee up with was halted when a Koleska woman in elegant red robes, a level of clothing and decoration that Max had not seen before among the locals, entered the room.


    "Please wee Sector Governess Millicamp to the station." One of the butlers announced, and polite pping spread through the room, though the Koleska didn''t use their hands but instead created a simr noise by rapidly pping the ovepping chitin tes on their necks. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Thank you all for the warm wee and all of your hard work to protect the civilian poption of the sector.


    I would also like to thank the Reaver Trade Group from the other side of the Anomaly for sending such talented soldiers to our aid. Your contributions have been noticed and appreciated during your time here." The Governess greeted them.


    Another round of polite apuse followed her words, as well as some well wishes for Max and Nico. It all seemed very mundane and political on the surface, but Max could tell that there was a lot of respect in their thoughts, as well as a level of envy for the human Mecha, to which they attributed most of the pair''s sess to.


    That was only natural, as they didn''t understand the concept of the System or that the pair were technologically advanced superhumans optimized for war. It wasn''t really something that you could exin to an alien species, especially not in the Koleskanguage, which didn''t even have a word for nanotechnology.


    It wasn''t something that they had ever developed, so the best that Max could do was to approximate it based on simr words, but he wasn''t sure that the concept would truly make sense to them even if he tried to exin it.


    "Tonight, we celebrate the liberation of the fifth world of this star system from the Arisen, a first for the Koleska people during this conflict. While the''s infrastructure is being rebuilt, the poption has been moved to a safe ce for mental health assessment, and the level of survival has been deemed above the top one percent of expected oues.


    For that reason, everyone who has been invited here tonight has been nominated for an officialmendation, and there are likely to be multiple promotionsing to those assembled here. Now, I am told that the first course is ready, so please take your seats for the evening meal."


    The gossip ended immediately, and everyone took their seats, with the Education Minister and Commander Yuri joining Max and Nico at their table, a deliberate attempt to get them together, should they not have found time before the meal for a conversation.


    Max smirked at Nico when the first course was brought out, and it was a singlerge piece of cake. The Koleska had no convention about what foods went in which order. They arranged them strictly by the chef''s vision for the vour profile of the meal. You also didn''t order individual dishes here, you ordered a meal, and they brought it out in the chef''s determined order.


    But cake as an appetizer was a very good way to start any meal, even if Max was a bit unsure what it would taste like, as he didn''t recognize a lot of the names of the ingredients.


    "Alright, let''s see what the chef''s vision tonight is like." Nico quietlymended the choice while the two Koleska took in the aroma.


    The ingredients were apparently a form of mental stimnt to them and caused their brains to produce endorphins and create instant happiness, even just by the scent. It might be a good thing that humans hadn''te across too many such foods, or they would never get anyone in fighting shape.


    The cake was finished in silence, followed by a course of less sweet fruits and fruit-marinated bird meat, then a course of roasted vegetables and finally a form of herbal tea with biscuits.


    "Please pass on my congrattions to the chef. That was lovely, But I suspect that we should begin to talk business before it is toote to get things organized for the students and troops who need the learning devices delivered to finish their training." Max sighed as the meal came to a close.

 Chapter 789 789 Koleska Construction

    One of the assistants, who were discretely out of the way at the back of the room, stepped forward with a data tablet in his hands and ced it in front of Max with a bow.


    "We took the liberty of preparing an arrangement in advance. This should be the details of the agreement to provide a batch of learning devices to our students, as well as the limitations on usage and the agreement to destroy the devices should the agreement end prematurely." The Education Minister eagerly exined as Nico went over the details of the agreement on the tablet.


    Their data tablets were a bit odd, shaped to fit in the user''s hand instead of being a t rectangr object as most species preferred. They also responded to all touch since the Koleska''s outer shell wasn''t as adept at transferring an electrical charge as human skin was, so the usual touch screen technology wouldn''t work for them.


    That wasn''t too unusual, though. The Alliance standard units were the same way, and some species had problems using the human ones and had to either use a glove or, in the case of the Shin, their leaves, to type on them.


    "It all looks good. There are no obvious loopholes or doublespeak in it, and the terms are eptable." Nico informed him after a few seconds.


    "You can read it that fast?" The Minister asked, shocked at the speed that Nico came to her decision with.


    "It''s a particr talent of mine to rapidly ess digital devices. I can read much faster using a data tablet than I can speak, so the mere fifty pages of the document were no struggle for me, even though they are in Koleska, and my grasp of thenguage isn''t perfect yet, so I had to double-check a few passages." Nico responded.


    "These two adapted to ournguage so fast that we never even learned the basics of theirnguage. Even their representatives that arranged the first deal to help defend the Anomaly chose to use the written form of Koleska for the agreement, as they found it much easier to learn ournguage than we did to learn theirs." Commander Yuri informed the Minister with the buzzing of chitin tes that was the local equivalent of a smile.


    "Such an interesting phenomenon. I had thought it was a result of their learning machines, but if none of them knew thenguage to begin with, that wouldn''t be possible, would it?" The Education Minister asked.


    "No, we had to learn it manually, but we will provide the data to the next group so that they will be ready when they arrive. They won''t be able to make the chitin noises the way that Nico can, so their speech will seem emotionless, but they should be able to speak with you from the start.


    Now, how many students do you have? I didn''t read the agreement myself, so I don''t know how many sets you need." Max replied.


    "Four hundred in total is the graduating ss. We could do them in batches since the process is so fast, so one hundred would be sufficient for the purpose, but four hundred would be optimal." <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Nico nodded that he was telling the truth as written in the agreement, then tapped the device like she needed to ess it to check something.


    "The total materials needed will be five hundred kilograms of any form of dense metal. Our technology can work with a wide variety of materials to create what we need." Nico reminded them.


    "Understood. It will be waiting at your vessel by the time that you return. We have recently harvested an asteroid that was rich in heavy metals, so there are plenty of them to spare here on the station. It is somewhat of a relief that your technology ispatible with our resource-gathering efforts. If we had needed to gather every material to manufacture the devices, I fear that it might have taken us weeks to make them all." The Education Minister chuckled.


    "Do your devices not make raw materials as well? Ours is capable of transmutation for the purpose of providing materials to artisans who wish to create a unique piece by hand. It is a bit of a status symbol among our people to have a handcrafted item instead of a mass-produced one." Nico asked.


    The Koleska looked confused. "Our Temte Constructor only makes duplicates of items that already exist. They are a relic technology that we discovered, not one that we created ourselves. So we can create what is programmed into them, and we have limited abilities to add new items to the list, but that is the extent of it. We can''t just change raw materials into other raw materials."


    That exined a lot about their technology inbat. They were working with what was avable to them, not tailoring their equipment to the enemy that they were facing. If there were options, they picked the best one, but they could only create certain things quickly, and the rest needed to be conventionally manufactured.


    Max could sense Nico''s mind wandering through the station''sputer to get a closer look at the devices in question, in case it was something that she could learn from or trade information about, but Max was more interested in how fast he could get their soldiers up to survival level training, and how long they had before the next major attack in the region that they were assigned.


    The deal that they had made with the human negotiators said that the defence force provided didn''t need to leave this sr system since they were defending the Anomaly, not the entire Koleska empire, so there was a chance that they might get a longer break, but that also meant that the other regions would be taking all the attacks, and more of the graduates from here would need to be transferred out to rece their losses.


    Nico had found the device, and she ryed the design to Max mentally with great amusement. It was a Temte Constructor of a design that they had seen in the Alliance.


    Well, in the Alliance Museum, obsolete and outdated by half a million years. It could only use certain heavy metals as a source, and it could only reproduce certain preprogrammed items made of a limited array of elements. It was only marginally better than the manufacturing techniques that humans were using before they got ahold of the Replicators, and in some ways, it was even more limited.


    They would make a killing trading advanced tech to the Koleska, but it was better that they waited to see how things were going for the species so that the tech didn''t end up in the hands of the Arisen, who didn''t need any more advantages.

 Chapter 790 790 Enter Player Three

    True to his word, the materials were waiting in a crate with rollers outside the airlock to Santa Maria when the pair returned home after dinner, along with four security guards to protect the materials and return the newly created learning devices to the Education Ministry.


    They were taking the deal very seriously, and they wanted to make sure that the students had them first thing in the morning so that this month''s graduates could have as much time as possible in the simtion to pass all three of the exams and master their skills before they had to seebat.


    Nico had included information that it might not be possible for them toplete them all, as the final one was for Elite Pilots, but the Education Minister thought it was better to let them think that every human soldier could pass them all, as a motivational factor that would drive them to be the best that they could.


    They were meritocratic, to begin with, so Max didn''t think that they needed the incentive, but if it helped morale, it wasn''t a bad thing.


    Those who finished the most and scored the highest would get the best postings for rookie graduates, with priority for advancement, so they would drive themselves toplete the challenge as hard as they could.


    It was a good thing that there would be no permanent body damage from the learning machines, as Max knew very well that they would drive themselves well past the point of sanity if they thought that they were going to lose out on opportunitiester in life because they didn''t try hard enough here.


    That was just how the Koleska were.


    "Thank you for the delivery. Please wait a few minutes, and we will bring out the product for you." Max greeted the guards.


    "It is our pleasure. Some of our coworkers have children in the next few graduating sses, so we are all excited to see what these devices of yours can do for them. The Arisen Army is a scourge upon the civilized species, and we will all be d to see the day when we gain the upper hand and drive them back to wherever they came from." The security officer agreed.


    Max wheeled the carts full of ore inside the ship while the guards took up defensive positions as if someone was going to threaten the ship while they were making the learning devices. That seemed incredibly unlikely to Max. For one, the soldiers aboard the station weren''t stupid enough to challenge the pilots of two Mecha who could likely solo their entire unit, and for two, the learning devices weren''t actually that valuable outside of their use for training students.


    If anyone had a use for them, it was the people that they were already heading to, and the payment had been made, so there was no reason for the Education Ministry to try anything shady at this point.


    The guards looked ready to throw a celebration party five minutester when Max brought out the goods, and he noticed that there were a lot of new minds in the area, all with security concerns foremost in their thoughts. The minister must have deployed half of the security staff on the station toe to pick up the devices, and Max wondered if he had somehow given the man the impression that it would be hard to get more of them should there be an issue with the first batch.


    The only reason he had set the number at four hundred sets is that it was enough to provide one unit per student in the graduating ss, and they only needed them for a maximum of a week, so every sessive ss would have plenty of time in theirst month at the Academy to use the device and level up their skills.


    "Well, the work is done, and they will be giving them all to get better students to the front lines, so what do we do for the rest of the night?" Nico asked suggestively.


    "I have a few ideas, but I haven''t seen a mindlessedy movie in a while, so how about KepFlix and chill?" Max replied with a wink.


    The next morning when the rms went off, they were still tangled up on the couch, with the holographic projector ying a random movie selection after having been forgotten early in the evening. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The noise got them both up and moving in an instant, despite their entangled sleeping position, and Max brought up the alert on the main disy in the room instead of the movie that had been ying.


    [All units and unknown vessels are inbound toward our location. Intentions are unknown. Prepare for hostile contact.]


    So it wasn''t the Arisen, but it wasn''t anyone that the Koleska knew either.


    Max looked at the ship on the screen, then stopped and did a double-take. For a second, he thought it was Absolution, but the design was wrong. The style was simr, and the construction seemed to be the same, but it wasn''t his World Ship.


    But the Alliance, or more specifically the Hunters, had a legend about this ship that showed up at random and made the poption of entires disappear in a single day, then it would disappear again.


    That had sounded simr to what the Arisen did, but as he watched the sensor feed, he could see that the immense vessel was no longer alone. They were engaged in heavybat with an Arisen fleet, exchanging energy weapons fire at a tremendous rate, with hundreds of thousands of smaller ships being disgorged from both of the attack vessels.


    The vessels of the Arisen were somehow more sinister in nature, more angr and simplistic looking, but visibly more heavily armed than this elegant ship they were fighting.


    The ships that the strange vessel that reminded him of Absolution was using didn''t resemble what the Huntress had described at all, though. Therger ship did, but the smaller ones had a much different design, like they had turned every forward-facing edge into a de to use their ships as weapons in closebat.


    The design philosophy was insane, but Max could feel the lusting from Nico as she looked at the attack craft. Weaponized Melee spaceships were exactly her design fetish. Now that she had seen one in action, he was certain that she was going to try to make one of her own in the near future.


    [Attention all units, Arisen Army Force has engaged the unknown vessel. Standby for a decision from Sector Command.] The station''sms system announced, keeping any of the units fromunching to assist the strangers.


    "We should go help out. The enemy of my enemy dies second and all that." Nico suggested.


    Max sent off a brief message to the Station Commander, letting them know that he and Nico would be intervening on behalf of the security of the Anomaly, and received an almost instant response in return.


    [As you see fit, Commander. We will be on standby until the intent of the unknown vessel is clear.]


    "Alright, Nico, get in the Mecha and let''s go see what we can find. Just be careful since both sides might attack us." Max informed her.


    "Maybe, if I''m a really good girl. But that ship looks familiar. Not because it looks like Absolution. I swear that I''ve seen it before somewhere." Nico replied, but she was already running to the hangar as she spoke.

 Chapter 791 791 New Arisen Technology

    Max wondered if Nico''s feelings of familiarity with the alien ship were ones of D¨¦j¨¤ vu since it was so simr to Absolution, but he didn''t get that feeling from her thoughts. She couldn''t remember where, but she was certain that she had seen that particr ship before.


    As soon as theyunched, Max grabbed her to make a quick jump to warp speed and back, bringing them close to the battle but not so close that they were in danger of getting in the middle of the fight.


    The new arrivalspletely ignored their presence, not turning a single unit their way and not disengaging from battle with the units that the Arisen sent to intercept the two iing Mecha.


    From a distance, the amount of energy weapon fire made it hard to discern what sort of battle was taking ce here, but it was far more intense than what Max had expected. Instead of sending out their War Walkers in space, as they did against the Koleska, they were fighting mostly with rapid attack craft which could use an advanced version of Portal Technology that didn''t seem to have any instability effects, and the unknown ship was using them to do hit and run attacks against the Arisen vessels.


    That allowed them to engage more than just the front lines, but a second and third Arisen ship had joined the battle, both in the shape ofrge Cubes, and they were sending out crescent-shaped fighters to engage the unknown vessel.


    [They look like breakfast croissants with guns.] Nico joked as she saw the attack fighters for the first time.


    They really did, but they were deadly, taking out dozens of the ded attack craft in the first few seconds.


    [Let''s go lend a hand then.] Max informed her, seeing the battle bing lopsided in favour of the Arisen.


    The new ship might not be friends, but they weren''t allies of the Arisen either, and that was what was important right now.


    Max charged the Orbital Lance while Nico primed the Mass Driver, waiting for his order.


    "I will fire first and deplete their energy shielding. You fire one-quarter of a secondter and see if you can''tnd a hit on one of those cube ships. If they''re not hollow inside, a solid projectile should be able to cause massive damage to them." Max ordered, then fired everything he had at the closest ship.


    From this distance, the beam from his weapons would take nearly a second to reach the target, and Nico''s solid projectiles nearly two seconds, but that shouldn''t be enough time for their shields to recover, Max was certain.


    What he hadn''t counted on was the defensive capabilities of the Crescent fighters. They were flowing out of every port on the ship, and as soon as Max fired, a barrier of green light began to shine, linking them together as the Orbital Lance headed their way.


    The barrier would serve as a secondary barrier to his attack, and as the Disruptor Beam of the Orbital Lance hit the shield, green light caused the gas surrounding them to glow as bright as a star, then with a sh of energy, the barrier erected by the fighters failed and overloaded, sending them gliding backwards with their power sources knocked out.


    They had stopped the attack, though, and Nico''s simple shot likely wouldn''t do much against the massive ship without the antimatter warhead armed.


    They couldn''t risk that level of firepower here, and Max watched in anticipation as the round raced toward the ship at Warp speeds, only to have a Crescent fighter suddenly shift and move into its path. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The round''s Warp Field copsed as it hit the fighter, but the flimsy shell of the ship was no match for the solid round, which tore right through it and impacted the shielding of the main ship with an immense sh of green light.


    Now the Crescent Fighters that were still active were flooding toward Max and Nico, temporarily ignoring the ded fighters, but Max nearly had another Orbital Lance ready.


    The instant that the light on his disy went green, Max fired again, taking aim at the main ship, and Nico put another round right behind his, then turned her lighter weapons against the iing Crescent Fighters.


    They didn''t form the barrier this time, and Max''s Orbital Lance disintegrated one single fighter on its way to the main ship, where the ripples in the shield could be clearly seen before the round from Nico''s Mass Driver reached the barrier, and like shattered ss, cracks formed through the shielding.


    There was no sign of damage to the ship behind the shielding, and the shield was slowly healing as Max watched. They couldn''t fire fast enough topletely drop that shield with just the two of them and no Antimatter weapons. It would have its shields back up before it could fire again.


    But they wouldn''t have to. The small, ded fighters took full advantage of the momentary weakness to portal inside the shielding of the cube and tore long gashes out of the hull with the sharpened edges of their wings.


    The damage was devastating, with hundreds of tears appearing on the surface of the ship in a second before the fighters took portals back out again to rejoin the main fight.


    Atmosphere and fire were bleeding from the gashes, and Max wondered if there was some weapon attached to them that he hadn''t detected, which could cut more deeply into the hull of the huge cube.


    The main ship, which looked so much like Absolution and the simr but more sinister-looking new arrival, faced off with massive energy beams that put anything that Nico had built to shame, tearing apart everything that was caught in the middle of the battle before suddenly all three Arisen ships and their support craft disappeared without a trace.


    That left Max in a bit of a predicament. If this new arrival was hostile, he could be in real trouble since he was within engagement range, but they called back their fighters and vanished a few secondster.


    "I have good news. I know how the second ship disappeared. The new group opened a portal around their ship to leave. There''s still no clue how the Arisen is doing it, but if the two share simr technology, it might be a clue." Nico informed Max once they were alone in space.


    "I don''t think that they do. Look at how simr the two ships are, then look at the two cubes. Evenparing the attack fighters that they were using and the War Walkers, it looks like the Arisen has sourced their equipment from a half dozen different cultures. None of it matches anything else in the design.


    If we hadn''t seen anything but the first ship, I wouldn''t have questioned it and would have just thought that the Arisen had eclectic taste, but I''m pretty sure that they are assimting the technology of the species that they have destroyed.


    Nico considered that for a moment, then sent Max a data file. "I have an analysis of their weapons. The green beams aren''t the same as the ones on the War Walkers. These are closer to our Disintegrator beams, whereas the others are simple Ion beams. You might be right. They''re in the middle of upgrading themselves.

 Chapter 792 792 Insufficient Firepower

    Back aboard the Koleska station, the consensus was the same. The two groups were at war with each other, and their battle had simply happened to appear here as they maneuvered to gain an advantage.


    The unknown force had been uninterested in theirs, and that was a relief, but the new technology shown by the Arisen Army during the battle was greatly concerning. There were hundreds of strategic meetings among not only thebat units on how to deal with these new threats should they face them but also among the seniormanders.


    Commander Yuri, as head military officer of the station, addressed the gathered officers. "We owe the humans for going to engage and sending back their sensor data. We wouldn''t have learned nearly as much with the interference from the battle, and now we have practical data on the defensive capabilities of the Arisen Cubes, as Command has decided to designate them.


    Unoriginal, I know, but it will do for now. The new weapons technology is particrly concerning to our War Machines, as analysis says that our current armour technology won''t stand against it and will be eradicated inyers by the beams.


    One shot or even two is no real danger to the main armour, but it will quickly eat through the flexible joints and connections, rendering the units immobile long before the main armour is depleted."


    The news was not good. They already knew that the Arisen could take down the energy shields on their units with rtive ease, and now they had to worry about new patterns of weapons that could disable withoutpletely destroying their equipment.


    Even with the new training programs for the soldiers, they might not be able to make up for any of the imbnce if that equipment started toe to them.


    The Minister of Defence sighed and looked around the room. "I have a proposal, and I''m not sure if my superiors in Central Government Management will approve it, but I would like to ask the humans for more help.


    They presumably have lighter patterns of their War Machines that they call Mecha. If we could get that technology programmed into our Temte Constructors, I think that we would be able to fight back more effectively.


    There really is no question that they are better at war than we are, and we now know for sure that the Arisen are assimting other technologies into their army, so I have hope that the proposal will be approved."


    The proposal raised a lot of questions among his peers and the government ministers. The humans could likely make controls that they were familiar with, but switching to new equipment was a big task, and this n had a crucial question mark in front of it.


    Would the humans even agree to trade military technology with them? And if they did, would it be effective against the various permutations of the Arisen Army that they had seen today?


    What none of them knew was that Max, who had just returned from battle to his hangar aboard Santa Maria, could hear their thoughts as they discussed the proposal to beg the humans for weapons technology. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It looks like they''re nning to beg us for light Mecha to add to their Constructors. They upgrade mostly by lucky finds, so this fits with their strategy, and our light Mecha would be an improvement on what they have. Plus, we can tailor the weapons to use against the Arisen." Max suggested.


    Nico smiled as she considered the possibilities. She might be without her drones here, but if they had morepetent allies, it would help.


    The Reavers never sold current-generation technology, but even two generations old still made their gear more advanced than it had been when the two of them introduced their first Mecha to the Kepler Military, so it would be better than what the Koleska were using.


    "I think that we can work a deal. I''m not sure what the payment terms will be, other than their agreement not to turn on us and to protect the Anomaly, but we can certainly get them some Mecha for their armies.


    Even if we just trade them some new weapons, I think it will help a lot. Their actual War Machines aren''t terrible. They''re at least on par with the old-generation gear from our training days, and both Stalwart and Tarith''s Rage were great units. So if we just programmed some new guns in for them and trained the Pilots, they would get a huge bump inbat effectiveness.


    The Arisen Army has gotten good at matching their shielding to their enemies, so I think that a random phasing Ion Cannon would be a good start. With every attack on a different frequency, they can''t optimize against them, and then we can upgrade the Koleska closebat weapons to go with their training and see how far that gets us in casualty reduction.


    Two weapons technologies would be far less disruptive to the process than changing their entire army''s main Mecha." She suggested.


    Max smiled at Nico''s initiative. That would be much easier to convince the leaders to adopt.


    "Come up with something that matches their design scheme and get it ready for presentation. We can send it to Commander Yuri and the Minister of Defence as soon as you are finished since they will be in meetings for the rest of the evening.


    If we go in person, it will only make the process take longer, so we can let them do the negotiations on our behalf and upgrade our allies as soon as possible."


    "I will get right on it. Should we just go with one ranged and one melee weapon to start and then upgrade them again if the Arisen adapt to the new weapons?" Nico asked.


    Max smiled at Nico''s n. "Yes, keep theming back when things go wrong. It''s the best way to keep the Anomaly under heavy guard. If they need us, they need us safe."

 Chapter 793 793 Checking In

    Nico got right to work on the upgrades to the Ion Cannons for the Koleska army while Max started on the improvements to the energy des that they used. They weren''t terrible, but they suffered from ack of efficiency against the War Walkers'' armour.


    That wasn''t all that surprising. Either weapons or armour was always a generation ahead of the other, so one would be rtively ineffective, but he could bring the des up to standard with only a little bit of work.


    If he integrated a different power field generator into them, they would cut through the armour much more easily but would suffer a bit against the energy shielding. That meant they would rely a bit more on the new Ion Cannons to take out the shielding before the War Walkers made it to closebat, but they were already very ranged weapon reliant.


    It should more than bnce out in the end, with Nico upgrading their ranged weapons, so Max did what he could to minimize the loss of effectiveness against the energy shielding without losing the effectiveness gained against the actual War Walker.


    "How''s it going over there? I''ve got a pretty good basis for the variable frequency Ion Cannon already since it''s not a new technology." Nico called to him from across the main room of Santa Maria, where they were sitting at separate tables so they could use the holographic projector to assist in visualizing their work.


    "Not too bad. There is a bit of a loss of effectiveness against the shielding but a significant gain against the body of the War Walkers." Max exined, then sent her his data.


    "Just bump up the output five percent. They have the spare power to maintain it, and that should bring it back up to equivalent against the shielding and even better against the body. I can''t see a reason why they wouldin about that." Nico shrugged.


    "Good enough for me. Let''s send these off and let the Koleska decide what they''re doing. Then we can check in on the studentster in the day and see how their first training day ising along. We don''t have a lot of samples for the use of the learning device on their species, and I''m sure that someone back in the Alliance would appreciate the extra data." Max agreed.


    The data was sent out right away, along with a prepared deal for the trade of the weapons and the programming of them into the Koleska Temte Constructors, in preparation for them to be deployed all along the battlefield.


    It was a good deal, and they only asked for a small price per unit created, with no limit on how many units could be made or where they needed to be created. There was a clear and obvious opening for the Koleska to exploit it by not reporting their created weapons, but Max knew that it would be ast resort for them after they started running out of resources.


    If their pride had fallen that far, they weren''t far from losing the war, and at that point, Max would be happy for them to make the best weapons that they could in order to drive back the Arisen.


    "There we go, the messages are sent, now it''s up to them to get the rest of the leaders to agree.


    Max and Nico spent the rest of the day rxing around the ship, waiting for something to happen, while the Koleska leaders examined their proposal and did the calction on how great the survivability improvements might be as the beginning of a cost-to-benefit analysis.


    Max knew that his n would pass that sort of test. The price was too low not to be overshadowed by the benefit. But bureaucrats were the same anywhere, and they needed to justify their existence with reams of paperwork on every matter that passed through their department. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    When they woke up the next day, they had a response. The Koleska government was going to start equipping front-line troops with their upgraded weapons options starting that day, and the first day''s training for the students had been a sess.


    Some of the students had already run the first module of the training twice in order to pass, but eventually, they all had, and today they would start on the second module.


    The first was the basic passing standard that the Minister of Education had set for them, and the rest was simply for bragging rights and their own personal benefit, but the Minister had high hopes that a lot of them would seed and go out the next week as elite fighters.


    Max decided to message back to Absolution and see how things were going, using the new imntedmunication technology. He wasn''t sure what time it was there since he had updated their time to match the local station time, but someone should be awake to answer his message no matter the hour.


    [Greetings, Commander Keres Max. This is Felicity. How might I help you today?] The AI-turned-android answered when Max paged the station.


    [The battles are going well here. We are helping to upgrade the local''s weapons a little to keep them on top of the battles against the Arisen. How are things at the station? Any unusual happenings or interesting guests?] Max asked.


    [I have determined that there are six hundred and three new arrivals of interest since you departed the station. Forty-six possible criminals and the rest are of interest due to personality or unique hobbies that are not in my database.] Felicity responded.


    [Good work. Have you received word from Terminus since they departed?]


    [Affirmative. They have arrived at a world within the Death Wind Territory where they will be remaining in orbit for an extended period of time and studying the local ecosystems, as well as the meteorological phenomenon. After that, they will be headed to a resort world within the Cygnus territory for a shore excursion.]


    Felicity paused for a moment, then continued. [I havepiled the matters that require your attention, and they have been forwarded to you for review and signatures. The rest of the matters have been attended to at the division manager level.]


    [Thank you, Felicity. You''re doing an excellent job. Be sure to keep up with the good work and report back to me if there are any significant negative changes aboard the World Ship or positive change proposals that can''t be managed by the Board of Directors.]


    [Understood, Commander. I will inform them that you are reviewing their proposals now.]

 Chapter 794 794 Graduation

    It only took the Koleska one week to roll out the new weaponsbination to select units all along the front lines. Thebat effectiveness of the upgraded units saw an immediate thirty percent upgrade in their kill counts and a resultant drop in the casualty rate, as the reduced number of Arisen fighters were unable to overwhelm their units as easily, and far fewer of them were making it to closebat where they had the greatest advantage over the Koleska fighters.


    The bureaucrats who had approved the change were all over the local news, congratting themselves on their insight and foresight, as well as iming personal responsibility for all of the lives saved in the recent battles.


    It was a bitughable since their rmendations had led to the limited rollout instead of a force-wide switch in weaponry for the battles, but this was their moment of glory to push for a promotion at work, and neither Max nor Nico was willing to get more involved in the lives of politicians.


    They were polishing the armour on their Mecha and doing the daily check for damage and system glitches when they finally got a message from the Station Dispatch, but not forbat.


    [You have been formally invited to attend the graduation ceremony for this month''s ss of soldiers. Commander Yuri informed us that you would appreciate the chance to see the first students of your learning machines graduate from school.] The message informed them.


    They weren''t wrong. It would be good both for them and for the students who saw them in attendance if they were at the ceremony. Max knew that theirbats had been regr viewing for the students during thest few weeks, and for the ones who had been using their learning devices, it was a sign of hope that they, too, could stand out from the crowd and crush the enemy regardless of numbers.


    The Koleska didn''t actually have a Mecha, which was capable of what Shining Darkness, or even Shattered Pride, could do, but that didn''t matter in the minds of the na?ve young students. They were just determined that they would live and be heroes using their more advanced knowledge and years of simted experience.


    The ceremony was held at the station, where the new graduates would be assigned to units and would receive their first real-world War Machine. Unlike the training in Kepler, the Koleska training was entirely virtual even before the learning machines. They never touched a Mecha until they went intobat, never trained their muscles to react to the stimulus, or got used to the feeling and smell of a real cockpit.


    The ones in virtual reality were always clean and in perfect repair. That wasn''t the case inbat, and the subtle differences could throw new pilots off bnce. It wasn''t something that Max could convince them to change, but at least in the learning machine, the Mecha would be realistically grimy and damaged as the missions went on.


    Max and Nico got dressed in their Reaver best and headed for the assignment grounds where the assembly for the graduating ss would be. They were joined by a lot of other Pilots, off to wish the new recruits the very best and give them some encouragement from their peers.


    The newest of them had only seen a fewbats in the month since they graduated from the academy themselves, so they really were peers, unlike the Kepler system, which only graduated once a year.


    A full year inbat was worth a lifetime of training. They would never truly be peers until the newbies reached their first year, at which point they would all be considered the veterans to the new graduates.


    There was less of a distinction this way and a smoother progression through the ranks for those who could shine. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Koleska had saved them spots up front, as befitted their ranks, and once everyone was seated, a mournful sounding horn echoed through the room, and the students began to march in. They looked so proper, with their freshly issued uniform still showing creases from the vacuum packaging and the shiny helmets, with no stickers, writing or damage tucked under their arms.


    Although they were different species, and the piloting suits were only vaguely familiar looking, it was still a nostalgic moment for Max, reminding him of every influx of new troops he had ever seen.


    "Wee everyone to the graduation of our first hybrid trained ss of Pilots. As you may already know, these students have been trained both by our best holographic instructors, as well as human-created learning machines.


    We have high hopes for their skills, and these students have scored exceptionally well on every aptitude test that we have put them through, far beyond the sses before them, and are already showing a level ofbat awareness that surpasses expectations.


    Now, we will introduce the students to their War Machines by numerical order." Commander Yuri announced.


    It was by the number of the unit that they were taking over, starting at 001, which went to the top student in the ss, and then the rest were assigned to the students by the wing that they had been deemed mostpatible with.


    It was very Koleska, everything was merit-based, and every time a unit ending in number one was called out, there was extra apuse for the wing leaders.


    There was one wing left to announce when the rm sounded, alerting them of an iing threat.


    [Attention all Pilots. An Arisen attack force has been detected thirty minutes out. Please prepare forbat. The firstunch is in twenty minutes.]


    That was strange. They never got that much warning of an attack. The Arisen would appear within the star system that they were attacking, and nobody could predict when they wereing. Max wondered if it was a drill for the new pilots, but it seemed to be real, and everyone was preparing forbat, even Commander Yuri, who would know if there was a drill going on.


    "Let''s get to the Mecha. Something strange is going on if the Arisen is appearing so far out." Max whispered to Nico.


    The Mecha had better sensors than anything else except Santa Maria, and they would know soon enough what was going on.

 Chapter 795 795 New Trick

    Maxunched Cleansing Light the moment that he stepped inside, not even waiting to strap himself into the seat.


    The gravity stabilization would keep things in order as he glided out of the bay on Santa Maria, and he could strap in while the sensor sweep ran its bootup diagnostics. So, while the Mecha powered up, Max checked the sensor logs of the main ship to see what he could learn.


    The Arisen Fleet had appeared at the very edge of the sr system, and they had chosen to engage a patrol fleet instead of going straight for the station. The patrol was outnumbered and outgunned, but the Arisen had only sent one main ship, a dark metallic cube that wasunching War Walkers and a few of the croissant-shaped fighters.


    The Koleska fleet consisted of three ships, all of which were Cruiser ss, by human reckoning, and they had sent out thousands of War Machines to counter the Arisen threat, but they were proving unable to hold their ground.


    Thirty minutes might be what it took the Arisen fleet to reach the station''s defence lines, but that was only because the patrol could only be expected tost about twenty-eight minutes.


    [Requesting a deployment formation to avoid line-of-sight interference.] Max requested dispatch. It was a very normal message, just to let them know he was heading out and to make sure he wasn''t going to cut anyone off.


    The response came right away, with the usual half-circle formation heading for the battle in six minutes once the new recruits were all properlyunched.


    The Commander in charge had determined that it would be better to wait for them instead of sending them as a second wave for the battle, so they would be a few minutester than usual in reacting but still well within a reasonable amount of time for arge response force.


    Max led Nico to a position on the right nk of the battle and started to mark targets with his System Functions.


    "That should introduce some chaos, and we will need to prioritize the fighters since the Koleska patrol isn''t doing a very good job of defending against them," Max informed her with a smile of anticipation.


    "This is going to be great. I''ve reoptimized the Mass Driver rounds for use against those new ships, and I think that we will be able to do some real damage this time without resorting to antimatter rounds." She announced and then sent Max over the details of the first batch she produced.


    They were very much a tit-for-tat retaliation against the Arisen Army, Warp Capable Mass Driver Shells with a small fusion bomb in them. The Arisen had used nukes against them, so she would use nukes right back.


    Max charged the Orbital Lance and prepared to target the mothership first to slow or stop the flow of fighters and War Walkers that wereing from it, and Nico followed his lead by picking the same targeting point.


    "This time, I go first, and your Orbital Lance can follow through. It might have more luck with the shield weakened than it didst time, and this ship looks like it has already been through hell."


    She wasn''t wrong, there was a lot of partially repaired battle damage on this cube, and the three Koleska ships were still trading fire with it, keeping the shields somewhat weakened.


    Nico''s round would be faster to the target than the Lance, so as soon as Nico fired, so did Max. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The result was truly glorious. The round impacted the shield with enough kic energy to make the entire barrier glow, just as a bloom of white light, as bright as a newly formed star, shone at the point of impact.


    The glowing barrier began to crack and copse around the point of impact, sending streaks of nothingness racing across the surface as capacitors overloaded and the barrier system went offline.


    That was when the Orbital Lance struck, with the carefully controlled radiation of the Disruptor tearing apart molecr bonds and ripping a hole deep inside the ship.


    Secondary explosions rippled out from the path that the beam had carved, and before Max could even celebrate, the ship had vanished, leaving behind a mighty fleet of War Walkers and fighter ships to wage war with the Koleska patrol.


    [Good work, Commanders. I doubt that they will fall for that trick too many times in the future, but today you have saved us a lot of pain.] The lead ship of the patrol messaged them.


    [Even if they don''t fall for the trick, the question remains if they can do anything about it. In the face of overwhelming force, there is often no choice but to retreat or die.] Max replied.


    That was what the Arisen ship had done today. They had chosen to retreat and save as many of their upants as possible while abandoning the force that had been deployed to their fate.


    Max''s luck wouldn''t hold for long, though, and the cube wasn''t truly alone, only the first to arrive.


    Just after it vanished, another cube and two Cutter-sized ships of the more familiar pattern, simr to Absolution, appeared between them and the station, in the more conventional attack position well inside the star system.


    [It''s a diversion. The first attack was to draw out our fleet and leave the station undefended.] The patrol leader called over themand channel, followed by a string of expletives.


    The Arisen had either overestimated the Koleska ability to respond, or they hade prematurely when the first ship was damaged because the main attack fleet was just beginning to assemble outside the station when the new ships arrived, leaving the Arisen in between the defence force and the patrol, with Max and Nico at their backs.


    Max charged his Orbital Lance again while Nico fired the first round against the Cutter on the nk.


    The ship immediately shed out of existence when it noticed the energy signature, letting Nico''s round detonate where it used to be, then the ship reappeared on the far side of the other Cutter.


    [Oh, that''s a new trick. This battle just got much more interesting.] Nico celebrated while putting calctions into her system, using stochastic evasion patterns to predict where the ship would appear if it vanished again.

 Chapter 796 796 Koleska Are Improving

    Nico prepared another round as Max''s System Functions frantically worked on predicting the oue of another round going at a Cutter.


    "Are we ready for the one-two punch?" Nico asked happily as Max''s full-force Orbital Lance showed ready.


    "Let''s do this. You fire, and I will pick the predicted location as soon as it vanishes." He agreed.


    "Split it into two charges the first time. Better odds of hitting the ship when ites back." Nico suggested.


    That likely wouldn''t destroy a Cutter, but it would put the fear of whatever gods the Arisen worshipped into themander of the vessel.


    Nico fired her Mass Driver, but the glorious n to determine the disappearance pattern was foiled at thest moment when the ship forcefully ejected a War Walker into the path of the projectile.


    The energy shield destabilized the Warp bubble around the projectile, and the War Walker joined thebined impact, thrown back against the shields of its ship by immense force.


    The shields held, but barely, and Max could see explosions all over the ship as the power rys were overloaded, and then the Cutter wentpletely dark and began to drift into space.


    "Looks like we overloaded their main power source, or Warp Drive, whatever they''re using to drive those things." Nicoughed as the disabled ship began to drift.


    Max was about to eliminate the shippletely, but the sudden appearance of what looked like the entire contents of the Cube changed his target priorities, and he turned the pair of Lance Strikes at the assembled army with a dispersed pattern for maximum effect.


    The strikes never made their target. The shields around the Cube shed and flickered, showing Max that they had anticipated his response and chosen to protect their warriors from his first strike.


    "I think they''re learning to fight against us." Nico mused as the Mass Driver charged.


    "I didn''t expect them to sacrifice their shielding to protect the War Walkers, though. Extending them that far makes them weak." Max agreed.


    The War Walkers were already racing toward them from both sides, and the ships wouldn''t be able to protect them from the next strikes, but Nico and Max would only get one more before they were outnumbered ten thousand to one.


    "Give me a lift. Just a Warp speed hop into melee with the War Walkers from the Cube since the patrol is still bearing down on the ones behind us." Nico demanded.


    Her thoughts said that she was done ying cat and mouse with the ships, and once they were in melee, there was very little chance of the enemy using heavy weapons, as every shot that missed would likely hit an allied unit. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was the same anywhere. Projectile and high-powered energy weapons had no ce in a confused melee unless you were greatly outnumbered. The damage to your own troops from friendly fire would be too great.


    Max grabbed Shattered Pride and brought it deep into the enemy ranks, then released Nico back-to-back with him and fired outward with the Disruptors set on maximum dispersion.


    Hundreds of War Walkers died in an instant, torn apart by the energy beam, and the two Mecha charged forward with their defensive Lasers constantly glowing as they targeted everything that they could see.


    [Commanders, if you can hold for thirty seconds, the Station Defence Fleet will be at your position to reinforce you.] The Station Dispatcher informed them in a desperate tone.


    Nico was the first to reply in her characteristically happybat voice. [Fear not, young dispatcher. Thirty seconds is no challenge for us. Just make sure they get here safely while I collect arts and crafts materials.]


    Max was certain that the dispatcher thought it was a strange human joke that didn''t trante properly into Koleska, but Nico had an actual project in mind. The War Walkers were basically skeletons, made up of an alloy that shouldn''t exist in reality, but if she could capture some before they had a chance to vanish and put them in the t space she had equipped on her Mecha, she could make herself an Arisen themed trophy room.


    There was no guarantee that they wouldn''t disappear from the t space, but since it was already a separate space, there was a good chance that they wouldn''t be able to rescue the pilfered body parts from her.


    Not only would that allow her to make her trophy room, but she could also study them properly if she wasn''t inbat with them.


    The gleam of gold and blue as Cleansing Light ducked and dodged, avoiding being shot while it fought, was a stark contrast against the dull gray of the War Walkers in this group, but the blue energy of hissers made them glow in a way that reminded Max of a bad horror film, where anatomically incorrect skeletons gleamed with magical energy as they attacked.


    The sight made Maxugh, and once he had seen it, the bad animatronic skeletons could not be unseen. Their only saving grace was that their torsos were solid. If they were skeletal like the bony limbs, Max likely wouldn''t be able to stop himself fromughing as he fought.


    Familiar Ion Cannon signatures shed all around him as the reinforcements with the new weaponry arrived at the battle, so Max pushed onto the offence again, trying to separate the War Walkers into clusters that the Koleska could focus on and eliminate in smaller groups.


    The new Ion Cannons were doing a wonderful job of cutting through the War Walkers'' shielding, and the Arisen force was falling faster than they could charge at the new arrivals.


    The battle wasn''tpletely one-sided, though. The Koleska defenders were falling at a steady pace to the War Walkers'' return fire. They were doing their best to utilize the evasive techniques that they had learned in the training program, but they didn''t have the practical experience tobine them and improvise.


    So, while they dodged some shots, which was an improvement, more than enough shots were stillnding to thin their ranks while both sides scrambled to bring more forces to the most affected sectors.

 Chapter 797 797 What Makes Them Tick

    Max and Nico pushed forward together, punching a hole through the War Walkers so that they could iste a group for the Koleska to focus fire on.


    It didn''t take long for the Arisen Army to realize what they were doing and to send more Command Walkers to deal with them instead of letting the two giant Mecha tear through their lines.


    [Boss, I''vee up with a new setting for the barrier on your shield. Give this a try when the Command Walkers start firing, and you can''t dodge.] Nico informed Max as she sent over a configuration file to Cleansing Light.


    [What is it supposed to do?]


    [It should cause carrier wave instability in the energy beam. If it hits the shield at an angle, it should deflect off without you having to take the brunt of the damage.]


    Now that sounded useful. You could never dodge every shot, but it was much easier to angle his shield to deflect shots away from him the way he would do with a solid de. The only question was how much of his power supply those efforts would consume.


    If it wasn''t too high, he could do it indefinitely, but that seemed unlikely. Even if it reduced the damage by half, it would make for an effective trick, though, and there was a chance that he could use it to deflect shots into other enemy units.


    He could almost feel the frustration from the Arisen reinforcements as he moved behind a cluster of lighter War Walkers to break their firingnes, but it was obvious that their main goal was to approach him in closebat anyhow.


    Once they were at fifty kilometres, only a few seconds away in a space battle, Max set his Disruptors to maximum spread and sted a path between himself and the Command Walkers.


    Nico moved to follow right on his shoulder, and the two Mecha charged into the ranks of the Elite Arisen units, with Max''s shield blocking the iing fire. It was a chance to test the new settings, and the War Walkers would only get one chance to hit him where he couldn''t dodge while charging.


    The first st from the Command Walkers hit the angled shield exactly as Max had intended and went careening off into a crowd of light War Walkers, cutting through three of them before dissipating.


    [Twenty percent shield usage.] Nico reminded him.


    That was much better than taking the hits directly, and his System Functions were happy to show Max how to angle his shield to make the shots hit other nearby units when possible.


    A second shot hit the shield and deflected wide of the battle, dispersing in space, and then Max was in melee range, slicing down at a Command Walker with his de while his Defensive Lasers burned holes in its chest.


    Beside him, Nico''s four des were overwhelming her opponent with attacks, and the Command Walker was in full retreat.


    That seemed to be the secret to duelling the Command Walkers. They had limited ability to deal with rapid attacks, despite their advanced skillset, so they could simply be overwhelmed and defeated. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was the style that Max switched to next. He struck out with his shield and made three quick sword attacks with a flick of his wrist, none of them heavy enough to cause real damage but enough to throw the Command Walker off its routine and send it scrambling to defend itself.


    It seemed that they didn''t know which attack was going to be the most dangerous one, so they treated them all as a lethal threat.


    Max followed up the final swing of his de with a pulse from the Disruptor, punching a hole in the torso of his opponent, then kicked it backward into the next rank of Command Walkers as a shield for his advance.


    Now that it was disabled, the Arisen units showed their fallenrade no mercy, sting it apart to get at the Mecha behind it before Max could get into their ranks again.


    They didn''t get the chance to stop him before a round from Nico''s Mass Driver exploded in their ranks with a small-scale fusion detonation that made Max duck behind his shield to avoid having the radiation and shockwave scramble his controls.


    The entire wing of Command Walkers was eliminated in an instant, leaving Max standing in the open while Nico''s opponents retreated to find a better way to deal with the flurry of des from the hostile four-armed Mecha.


    Max rejoined his wingman and took stock of the battle. The Arisen was definitely losing, and the newly trained Pilots were getting the hang of separating and encircling them so that they could eliminate the War Walkers in manageable groups instead of spreading their firepower across the entire front line.


    [If I am correct, the Arisen Fleet will call them back and sound the retreat in under one minute.] Nico informed Max, followed by an attack n to eliminate more Command Walkers before that happened.


    Max set his Disruptors to twobined beams and aimed them to the sides of the current group. As soon as Nico fired her Mass Driver, Max fired, and the Command Walkers scattered.


    The problem was they no longer had anywhere to go. The detonation of the round wiped out everything that was too slow to react, and the twin Disruptor beams tore through the others, leaving only a few crippled units still active.


    As Nico had predicted, the damage threshold was met, and the Arisen fleet called back their forces only secondster before vanishing into nothingness.


    [That disappearing act is starting to get annoying, but at least we are starting to understand thebat doctrines of their army. Once we know what it takes to make them retreat, we can learn what makes them not appear in the first ce.


    From what I understand, they have passed by entire species with their attack pattern, putting them further down the priority list or too far up the threat list. If we can put ourselves somewhere that does not warrant attack priority, we can make life much easier in this sector.] Max informed Nico as the Koleska force began to organize for their return to base.


    [One step closer to victory.] Nico agreed as she set a course back to Santa Maria.

 Chapter 798 798 Curiousity

    Back aboard the station, the mood was jubnt. They had just finished a battle with the highest individual kill rates and lowest casualties in the history of the conflict, and the Arisen Fleet had retreated in record time.


    Even better, while the weapons were new to them, they were not entirely new, as the technology was familiar to the Arisen, so there was no reason for them to adopt new defensive measures to counteract the Ion Cannons.


    It was a win without a real downside, and they had learned a lot in their first battle after training.


    All that the new Pilots could talk about was the things that they wanted to try next time. Techniques that worked well but were only masteredter in the battle, and ones that they had seen others use but hadn''t had time to try themselves.


    It was the happiest that Commander Yuri had seen his people since the war started, and it was only one day after the advancement in their training.


    Though they were celebrating, the station''s alert status was still set to maximum, waiting for the Arisen to adjust their tactics ande again. They had seen that the ships could vanish and immediately reappear nearby, and that had made everyone more cautious about making sure that the threat was really gone.


    Without a time limit on when they could return, the disappearance of the ships meant very little, only that they couldn''t be attacked for the moment.


    While the station celebrated, Max took the time to fully examine the more recent upgrades to his body.


    The increased durability of his skin was obvious, but from what he could tell, the bones had been hardened as well. He would have to check in the training room to see just how much since the System didn''t quantify actual changes to your body, only the stat difference versus baseline.


    For most Pilots, that would barely matter, but for Max, who was quickly reaching a level that might be called bullet resistant, he needed more details than just a simple string of numbers.


    So, he headed to the gym aboard Santa Maria to crank up the gravity adjustment and see where he started feeling the creak of his bones and taking damage to his skin. It wasn''t the safest way, but there were safety measures designed into the facility''s programming, so it should stop before he broke any bones.


    He was almost to the door when Max realized that there was, in fact, an easier way to do this. Nico and the System had an understanding. She could likely tell him what the limits of his bone and other augmentations were.


    So he turned right and headed down the short hallway to where Nico was working in one of the spare rooms that had been converted into ab.


    "What a rare honour. What brings you to myb today? Lewd things across the desk?" Nico asked hopefully. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Maybe after. I was hoping to know what the extent of mytest upgrade is without destructive testing." Max exined.


    "Well, that''s easy enough. Let me get out the scanners, and we can take a good long look at you." She agreed.


    Nico set up a full array of scanners all around a stasis pod that she had been using to hold parts in ce while she worked and then gestured Max toward the vertical tube.


    "Just stand there, and we can get a proper reading on everything that changed to make you more durable and anything that you might not have noticed changing as well," Nico instructed, ushering Max to his spot while she hummed a happy tune.


    Max stood in the small circle, and the sensors came to life, bringing up walls of data on the holographic screens all around the room. The first thing Max did was to activate Nico''s skill so that he could read all that data directly instead of watching it sh by on screens that he could barely see due to the angle.


    Again, Max ran into the issue of his technical knowledge falling short of the task. Though he could read all the data, most of it was very nearly gibberish to him. He had focused all his studies on Mecha as a child, and he hadn''t had time to expand out into other fields, while Nico had simply taken in everything that she could get her hands on, relevant or not, and stored it away forter use.


    "Alright, I will give you the basic overview of what we''re working with here. Your bones are made of the same alloy and nanotube construction that mine are but with additional passageways for the bone marrow and blood flow.


    Here are the cross sections inparison."


    Max took a long look at the two,paring the rtive strengths and construction. While Nico''s maintained the same structure all the way through, Max''s were more like regr bone, much thicker on the outside than in the middle, with aplex structure to allow for the biological functions of his body.


    "Now that you understand the bones let''s move on to the muscles and ligaments that are attached to them."


    Nico brought up dozens of examples of unaugmented human muscles and tendonspared to Max''s, and it was hard to tell that they were even the same species. The shape was right, but that was about all that they had inmon at this point.


    It wasn''t clear how much of that was due to previous system optimizations and how much was new, but the difference was staggering. Forget the fact that everyone epted that Nico wasn''t human. It would be a stretch to call Max human at this point, even though the basic DNA was still the same, or at least very close to the same.


    "Hey, are you familiar with genome coding? I got very good at it in my past life, and there is something wonky about what I see here in the data for my blood sample." Max exined.

 Chapter 799 799 Genetic Oddities

    Nico smirked when Max mentioned his genome but shrugged.


    "My knowledge in the field isn''t all that great. I only learned the parts that were relevant to modifying myself."


    That was clearly obfuscation and not even a good attempt at it, but Max was too engrossed in what he had found to call her out on her lies right now.


    "Well, from what I see here, the basic human genome is all still there, but it has been augmented with samples from what looks like another species. It''s not one that I am familiar with, but it looks like the Demon Droids that you made in ourst lifetime, those modified sex bots that could procreate with nearly anything that walked and assimted the best of their gic material.


    This modification is a rapidly adaptive one, designed to help the body adapt to new conditions, much like your Demon Droids or the early human settlers who hadn''t mastered terraforming used on themselves.


    It''s fascinating, and it looks like it has picked up some sort of biomechanical coding that caused the major changes in my body as soon as the System realized that they would be an improvement." Max exined.


    Nico didn''t look even a little bit shocked as she pulled up more data on his genome, then brought out an unfamiliar data set, and a standard human set, then hundreds of smaller screens of data that appeared to be other species.


    "These are you, the baseline human genome, my Droids, and a collection of species that we have met along the way.


    By looking through these, we can see what your body has picked up and iste the various genes that have been changed, what their impact on your body has been, and what you can expect in the future." Nico exined.


    The news that Nico had the code for her Demon Droids was very concerning. She had created an army of android pilots who weren''t truly sentient, but if the coding for the Demon Droids was introduced, they very quickly would be.


    The code was adaptive, so they would change with everything they touched until they were fully optimized and could be considered proper living beings. That was what had happened to the original group, and it had been chaos across a hundred gxies as the sex bots rose up to demand sentient rights and began killing their former owners.


    "You had the code for your Droids?" He asked.


    "Yeah, I remembered it a while back. I just didn''t think it was a good idea to introduce it to the Android pilots and especially not to Felicity. Can you imagine what a traumatized research station AI would do with the ability to adapt itself and be a fully living being? She already likes creating monsters for entertainment and learning."


    Well, at least Nico had some sort of moralpass about how she distributed her knowledge.


    "I''m d to see that you learned something from your past life that wasn''t killing-rted." Max joked.


    "Oh, this was killing-rted. They were really hard to put down when they got out of hand and started to turn against all other living things. I ended up having to introduce new gic coding to reduce their aggression." Nicoughed.


    Go figure. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max looked over the changes to his genome for a while, making sure that they should be stable and not lead him to some dead end of evolution or a misshapen monstrosity of conflicting codes, but it seemed that the introduced elements were all beingpared against the existing elements by the System''s Nanobots and could only take root if the System deemed that they were essential to improving Max''s capabilities as a human soldier.


    Because when he looked over the samples from the other species they met, he found bits and pieces through his own gic code, but it had all been altered with segments of his original gic code to make the new parts morepatible with humanity.


    "You know, your body really is interesting. I''ve never even considered some of these changes, but if we could iste them and give them as a vine-type injection to new Pilots, I think that we could rapidly increase the capabilities of the entire Reaver Fleet."


    Max shook his head at Nico''s suggestion.


    "Do you really think that the System would approve of you trying to make the Reavers less human? It has allowed it for us because it was deemed necessary at the time, and no other option was avable, but for young Pilots, the System would wipe it out before it ever took hold, and who knows what it would do to Pilots without the System''s Nanobots to regte it." Max chastised her.


    "You really do eliminate all the fun options first, don''t you? But I have some good news after reviewing all this data. I have a theoretical performance chart for your physical body, and there are some unexpected results."


    Nico sent the data to Max, and hepiled it using her skill, thenpared it to where he knew that he was before the upgrade. It looked like his bone strength had increased by nearly triple, while his skin had be over twenty times harder to damage. His muscles and blood veins had received a simr increase, so even if the gravity control failed in the Mecha, he shouldn''t have a problem sustaining G forces upwards of thirty times standard without ruptures or passing out.


    It was when he got to the final segment of the data that Max had to stop and read the heading twice.


    [Predicted Future Upgrades to Allow Procreation]


    "Nico, are you saying that I have be infertile due to the changes to my body?" He asked before diving into those three hundred pages of information.


    "Well, yes and no. Technically you are perfectly capable of procreating with a human female and creating superhuman children."


    "There is a caveat in there. Go ahead and spit it out." Max sighed.


    "Well, if you try, I will definitely make you infertile. Preferably using brute force. So I included a list of future upgrades that will be necessary on both of our parts to make my mother''s dreamse true."


    Max quickly read through the data and did his best not tough when he found that Nico''s stated optimal method for reproduction was a fertilized hard-shell egg that could be gestated remotely. She really did n toy an egg and give it to her mother to hatch as a grandchild, as far as Max could tell.


    "Superhuman children, with biomechanical bodies perfectly tuned to rapid adaptation and survival in the most extreme of environments? Yeah, that actually does sound like what she is after in a grandchild."

 Chapter 800 800 A Light Week

    Over the course of the next two weeks, the new Pilots got to really work on their skills without a serious threat of being overrun. Not once did the Arisen send more than one ship after the station''s zone, making every battle a skirmish as the enemy tested the extent of their new developments, and the Koleska hurried to spread them all over the Empire.


    It was a race for survival on their part, as the new developments had cut casualties by such arge margin that they could actually produce soldiers faster than they were losing them for the first time, and the new Pilots were gaining valuable experience to be more effectivebatants.


    "This ce is starting to look more like home. No more fresh-faced kids everywhere. There are actualbat veterans now. I know they don''t show much on their faces, but you can see in their eyes that they have experience now. Even the way they carry themselves has changed, more pride and confidence, even though their rank hasn''t changed." Nicomented as the pair walked through the station toward a post-deployment debriefing.


    Thest battle had been the best one yet for the station defence force, and the Koleska Commanders were looking to get more of the training devices made so that they could send them to every station in the region.


    The new weapons spread quickly, but their systems were ipatible with the creation of the Learning Devices. Theputer software didn''t work with anything that they had, so they had to either get a full ship''sputer setup from the humans to program and synchronize the sets or keep buying the sets with their programming intact.


    Max didn''t have an issue with that. The experiment had been a resounding sess here at the station closest to the Anomaly, so it should be the same elsewhere, and that would make the Arisen spread out their forces even more.


    The two walked arm in arm into the meeting room where the Koleska Commanders and senior bureaucrats were waiting for them, still blissfully unaware that Max could read their minds and already knew exactly what they were after.


    They thought that the Koleska and the humans were simply simr in thought, so they got along well. They had never met a mind-reading species, so the thought never urred to them.


    "Wee to the meeting, Commanders. As I''m sure you are aware by now, the experiment with your teaching methods has been a great sess for our troops here at the station. But in the interest of not drawing massed forces of Arisen to our location, we have a proposal that we would like to put to you for consideration." The lead bureaucrat of the Koleska delegation informed them politely.


    "I suspected that it might be something like that. Our agreement has also been to the benefit of my species, and we have no objection to expanding it to include other training locations so that arger segment of the Koleska military can be fully trained to our standards, as well as their own." Max readily agreed.


    Max resisted the urge to smile when the bureaucrat bemoaned the fact that Max hadn''t mentioned payment terms in his initial statement. They believed that they had gotten a heavy discount the first time because it was in his best interest that the other defenders were fully trained. As such, the bureaucrats were very concerned that the next batch might cost them much more dearly.


    "We have prepared an agreement to distribute another sixteen hundred learning devices to various academies around the nation. Please, look it over." The bureaucrat informed them with his best professional smile.


    [Wagers on it being exactly the same as thest deal but with the number of units increased?] Nico asked Max in a text message.


    [Almost guaranteed. They think that we gave them a heavy discount the first time, so they''re going to try to keep the discount.]


    Nico paused for a moment, and Max heard her mental sigh.


    [I forgot that you already knew the answer.] <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max opened the document andpared it to thest one. It really was identical. The number of units had changed, and the wording of the distribution, as they were going to send them all over their territory, but ny percent of the document was word for word the same as thest one, right down to the price per unit.


    He pretended that it was taking him much longer to go over the document and even brought up the old one on his holographic disy to put on a show of making sure he wasn''t getting scammed with a tricky use, then closed everything up after a few minutes and smiled at the bureaucrats.


    "I believe that with the bulk order discount, these terms are satisfactory to us. I can provide the units by the end of the day after the raw materials requested in the agreement are provided." Max agreed.


    He put his thumbprint and signature on the official document and passed it back to the head negotiator, who happily added his own and then passed it to an assistant to fulfill the terms.


    Commander Yuri made a happy humming sound with the chitin tes on the side of his neck that Max knew was their equivalent ofughter, and the bureaucrat returned a more annoyed noise.


    "I take it there was some wagering on how the negotiations would go?" Nico asked after watching their exchange.


    "Indeed there was. They believed that you would be more unreasonable this time after giving us such a good deal the first time." The Station Commanderughed.


    "Last time was our first deal. The terms were good but not unreasonably good. So it was no hardship for us to keep them this time. There is a bit of wisdom in the Reaver''s trade doctrine. Never offer a price that you''re not prepared to offer again.


    Once you have made a very good deal, your buyer will view that as the fair trade price moving forward. So if you have more to trade, they will expect that price or better every time, and if you undercut yourself, you will quickly end up in a very bad situation." Nico exined.


    "Hmm, your people are wise in the way of trade. Many merchants among our people have lost everything after a string of bad deals." The bureaucrat replied as if Nico had given them some great secret to trade.


    It wasn''t, and their merchants already knew it, but the Koleska sses didn''t really mingle, so the bureaucrats, who had worked to stay at the top their whole lives, had little personal interaction with themon shopkeepers who sold them their daily necessities.


    "Now that the trade deal is out of the way, how is the situation in the other regions of Koleska space?" Max asked, eager to get the details so that he could send some useful information back to the Reavers this week.


    "It''s not great news, but not as bad as we had feared. The Arisen haven''t increased their rate of attack against the rest of our territory, despite the reduced number ofbatants in this region. We are holding, for now, and looking forward to having more trained Pilots on the lines." The military strategist in the room informed him in a carefully neutral tone.


    He was concerned about the casualties, but it wouldn''t do to look weak in front of his allies.

 Chapter 801 801 Co-Operatives

    The rest of the conversation was cut short by a message from Station Traffic Control.


    [Commanders, we have iing Co-Operative ships. Seventeen in total, and they are requesting a diplomatic meeting.] The operator informed them.


    The Koleska officers seemed to sigh in unison and gave an apologetic look at Max and Nico.


    "The Co-Operative is a group of species that have lost their homeworlds to the Arisen. A ragtag bunch of vagrants always begging for handouts and looking for somewhere to stay." Commander Yuri exined.


    "So, you suspect that they are going to ask the same thing here? To stay in the vicinity of the station for safety reasons?" Nico asked.


    Max could hear her thoughts as she raced through the station''s database, pulling up everything that they knew about the group, and it didn''t look positive. None of them were militant species. Those had mostly fought to thest and had been entirely eliminated by now. They were the peaceful species that had lost their entire civilization in a matter of days or weeks.


    Many simply weren''t suited to battle, none of them had the technology to be helpful against the Arisen, and in this situation, they were nothing but a liability.


    "Howrge are the ships?" Max asked as he began to formte a n to poach these nomads for the Reavers.


    His people could provide security, terraform a, and then tax them for all the new technology that they could produce. It was a win for everyone. The humans got new toys, and this group of the Co-Operative got a safe spot to stay.


    "None of them is muchrger than your vessel. But with seventeen of them, they add up quickly. There must be a thousand people there." The Commander sighed.


    Alright, forget the. He could just throw them on Absolution and let them integrate since they weren''t a violent group.


    "Are they a threat to security? Thieves or violent criminals?" Nico asked.


    "No, but they''re bad luck. Everywhere they go, the Arisen follow, attempting to wipe them all out. We believe that their ships are marked, and the Arisen Army is using them to help target new species to destroy. Once they have stayed in one spot for more than a week or two, the Arisen will inevitably follow, even if that species has never been under attack before.


    So, we all drive them away. It''s the only way to be sure that we aren''t attacked even worse than we already have been."


    Max and Nico shared a nce. That meant that they couldn''t send the iing ships back to their Gxy, but perhaps they could send the people back instead. He would offer thempensation for the lost ships and then send the ships toward an uninhabited region to draw the attention of anyone who might be tracking them.


    "If you bring them aboard for a negotiation, I believe that the Reavers might have a proposal that will work for them, as long as none of them are being personally tracked and they haven''t turned traitor." Max offered.


    "Well, that makes it easier. It is against our code of conduct to refuse to hear them out, but they say the same thing every time, that they just want a spot to stop and be safe. But then the Arisen arrive, and they flee again, leaving their hosts to suffer the invasion."


    <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That sounds a lot like an advanced scout team to me. Why have they not been eliminated?" Nico asked.


    "They are thest of their species. How could anyone even consider eliminating them? It would be the end of an entire culture. No civilized species would do that." The head bureaucrat replied in horror.


    Nico''s mind wandered to the various meanings of the word civilized while Commander Yuri turned to Max for additional details.


    "In our culture, being thest of a group of traitors doesn''t mean that you are not a traitor, and traitors are put to death for their crimes," Max exined.


    "So, the culture?" Commander Yuri asked.


    "Is documented and detailed, then stored for reference purposes. If their homes are gone, and they are living a nomadic lifestyle, then the old culture is already dead and gone. Like a child who rises up from the lowest levels to the very peak of society, they are no longer part of the lower ss culture, and it won''t take long before they can never truly go back to what they were." Max borated.


    The bureaucrats looked confused, as Koleska society was much more fluid than most, so Max continued.


    "A man who spent his whole life at the bottom and one who was at the top but made a mistake that saw them stripped of their rank might both be equal, but they have different experiences, different mindsets and different lifestyles." Max tried.


    That they understood, put that way, they could see how the Co-Operative was a whole new group, not just a floating assembly of species without a home.


    "Alright, they are five minutes out. We should prepare for the meeting." Commander Yuri sighed.


    Nico stood up from her seat and thumped her hands on the table. "Do not let them dock. Stop them at a distance, and we will go to them for the meeting."


    Her demand startled the Koleska, and everyone turned to her for an exnation.


    "I know how they are attracting the attention of the Arisen Army. Their shipputer is a basic AI construct. It''s not that they are traitors. Their ship is tagging everywhere they stop with an invasive virus, so even after they leave. The station would be broadcasting a beacon for the Arisen to follow. If yourputer interacts with theirs to guide them in, you will never stop the Arisen attacks on the station." Nico insisted.


    "How do you know this?" The lead bureaucrat asked very seriously.


    "Because we have done it before, and I recognized the signal that was being sent from their ship. There is an Arisen code base embedded in the messages. The ship is definitely infected with a virus or malicious code."


    "And you still intend to meet with them?" Commander Yuri asked curiously.


    "Yes. I absolutely must get aboard that ship."

 Chapter 802 802 Human Design Sense

    The bureaucrat shook his head. "After what you have told us, it is too dangerous to send a shuttle to them."


    Nico smiled. "Fear not. They can''t get through our security. That''s how I detected them. So we will send a shuttle from Santa Maria for the meeting. Please inform them that the delegation will meet them aboard their lead ship."


    They were understandably reluctant to go along with Nico''s n, but their rules of etiquette didn''t allow them to turn her down outright, and they certainly weren''t going to let the ships dock with the station for a meeting after they had heard what she had to say about theputers of the Co-Operative''s ships.


    Max sensed when Nico sent themand to the Replicators aboard Santa Maria to make a shuttle for them to take to the meeting, so he took the chance to inform the Koleska of the n.


    "The shuttle we are taking is disposable and will be recycled after the mission. It has room for a maximum of ten people my size. So if you would like to choose a delegation, there are eight avable seats." He informed the Koleska officers.


    That was smaller than usual but not small enough to be offensive or insulting to the guests, and they already had a group of five for small negotiations that could be sent.


    It was a Sumander, two Sergeants and two aides to take care of the paperwork, which was just enough for a small mission like this one, where they expected the humans to take the lead in the negotiations, so they were ready to go as soon as Max suggested it.


    The team followed Max and Nico back to Santa Maria, looking around in awe as they saw the interior of the ship and the Mecha in the hangar bay.


    "You know, they look even more impressive up close." The Sumander informed Max with a very serious voice.


    "It''s part of their charm. An intimidating Mecha is a psychological advantage for the user, as the appearance causes a level of uncertainty in the enemy, which makes their responses just a fraction of a second slower than a less threatening appearance." Nico told him with a smile.


    They passed the Mecha, headed for the shuttle, and Max smiled as he saw the freshly painted smiley faces on the feet of Shattered Pride. Nico might not get to stomp on people in space, but she still got to kick them in the face now and then, assuming that was how the nk-featured Arisen War Walkers actually processed the world around them.


    The negotiation team stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the shuttle that Nico had created as it was in the same style that she had created for all of the new vessels, including Absolution, but she had added the ded leading edges that they had seen on the wings of the interceptors from the unknown ship.


    "It''s a human thing. When we see a cool new design, we simply must find a way to add it to something. The shuttle was alreadypatible with the design, so I simply sharpened the leading edge and slightly reshaped the wing." Nico exined.


    "You weaponize your shuttles?" The Sumander asked in confusion.


    "I weaponize everything. I weaponized my own body. I even weaponized my clothing." Nicoughed.


    <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Is that also a human thing?"


    Maxughed and shook his head. "No, it''s a Nico thing, particr to her. She lovesbat and prefers to be fully armed at all times."


    The Sumander simply nodded and remained silent, not willing to admit that Nico scared him more than a little bit even before he had personally met her.


    Nico''sbat style had been a matter of some debate among the Koleska troops. Some believed that she was actually suicidal, while others believed that she had chosen that tactic as a diversion to assist the more rangedbat-oriented Cleansing Light.


    But now the Sumander knew the truth. She was simply a battle maniac, and herbat style was intended to get her into the thick of the fight faster, where the enemy couldn''t run away from her.


    They were no less shocked when they saw the interior of the shuttle and found that it was decorated like avish sitting room for someary governor and not a military transport.


    "Is all this necessary? Or is it a strategy to impress the nomads?" The Sumander asked.


    "It''s how we design everything. Comfort is important, and it doesn''t take any more effort to make than spartan, though it does use a bit more material.


    Plus, the luxury seats serve a double purpose. There are shields embedded in the seat cushions, so if the ship is breached, they will protect the upants, and there is a pistol in the seat back, in case of boarding attempts." Nico exined.


    The Koleska looked around the ship with a new appreciation for the design features of even the simplest, supposedly disposable vessels that the humans made. There was a lot of visible technology andfort, but there were also abundant safety features, even though the two human Commanders equipped some sort of armoured suits as soon as they entered the ship.


    The Koleska delegation also wore armoured uniforms, but they were more in the nature of simple space suits with some hard armour tes for their torso. Whatever the humans had put on was much more intricate than what they wore.


    "Why is it that the more I learn about humans, the less that I feel I know about them?" One of the assistants asked quietly.


    "I think we just got a strange pair this time. You know how the special forces teams are, right? Well, humans are strange, to begin with, and we got one of their most elite special forces teams, which should be even more unusual due to their experiences." A Sergeant shrugged.


    "Don''t forget that we''re considered a bit entric even by human standards, and Sumander Nico is one of our species'' top developmental engineers," Max added, startling the group, who didn''t think he could hear them.


    "The suits have augments for every sensory input. From this point on, just assume that we have heard and seen nearly everything that is going on around us. Now, we will beunching in ten seconds, so please take your seats and fasten the safety harness. There are directions on the straps if you have never used a restraint of that nature before." Nico exined with a smile that they couldn''t see behind the visor of her helmet.

 Chapter 803 803 Introduction

    [Pleasee to the rear cargo bay. We will receive you there.] The Co-Operative ship informed them once the shuttle was on its way toward the convoy.


    It was somewhat unconventional for the Koleska but far from the strangest reception that they had ever received. Max was reserving judgment on these people until he got close enough to read their minds so that he could tell if they knew that they were working with the Arisen or if it was a matter of unwitting assistance.


    If they really didn''t know that their ships werepromised, then it would be a very different negotiation than if he realized that they were either possessed or willing double agents.


    Nico maneuvered the shuttle smoothly into the bay, and Max watched as a series of lights on the screen beside him blinked and lines of code shed by.


    "We have a definite intrusion," Max informed her.


    "Already caught and isted. It has been stabilized, and I am analyzing it now. The code isplex and sneaky, but it looks like the cyber warfare of this region is somewhat primitive by our standards.


    They are somewhere near the level of the Alliance, but most of therger Reaver Companies should not have an issue detecting and at least preventing this sort of attack." Nico confirmed as she worked.


    She waited about thirty seconds inside the bay before she nodded and opened the door, marking the sessful neutralization of the digital threat.


    "Greetings, Envoys of the Koleska, and umm, I am not certain that we have ever seen your species before." The Co-Operative Commander weed them.


    "We are known as Humans, and our Faction is the Reaver Trade Group. It is a pleasure to meet you. The Anomaly in this region leads near our territory, so we havee to help defend this side from foreign threats alongside the Koleska." Max replied politely.


    The Co-Operative group was just as varied as Max had been informed, and few of the fifty people in the area were of the same species. All of their minds were clear and easy for Max to read, and none of them were showing any signs of hostility at the moment, so Max gestured for Nico to close the door to the shuttle and follow him to the meeting area.


    He could see it through an open door at the far side of the bay, and the Co-Operative leader seemed to be eager to get the talks started.


    "Is there an issue with the station? Many of us had dealings with the Koleska in the past, and they have always preferred to host all meetings on their own territory." The group leader asked.


    Max saw the memories of various meetings in the past, showing that this man was a politician before his people had been attacked and had brokered many trade agreements.


    "I am not sure if you are aware, but many vessels have been infected with aputer virus from the Arisen Army, so at our request, the Koleska have put their station under quarantine," Max replied so that he could hear the mental responses.


    "Computer Viruses? Like Scrap Code that causes it to malfunction? One of the members of the Co-Operative group asked.


    "Simr to that. It causes the infectedputer to record and transmit data to the Arisen Army for processing. There is a suspicion that is why so manys have been attacked soon after receiving visitors." Max agreed with a nod. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    All of the minds in the group seemed shocked and somewhat horrified at the prospect.


    "If that is true, could we really be cursed? How would we even know?" One of the members asked himself quietly.


    "You can scan yourputer''s data for anything that is out of the ordinary, but you will have to use an outside device with a read-only memory chip, or it too will be infected and unable to find anything," Nico suggested.


    They considered that for a second, and then one of them had an idea.


    "I have a tablet in my items which we obtained from the Noosa. It''s still brand new, never opened. If we set it for read-only and then search for code that is not written in Noblex, as the ship''sputer is supposed to be, I think it might work." He suggested.


    The leader nodded. "Go get the device and make very sure that it is unable to have its memory altered. I will reimburse you."


    Then he turned to Max and the negotiation team. "You said that you have a proposal for us. Please doe to sit with us. It is always a wee change not to be run off at gunpoint."


    He led the way to the meeting room, where refreshments and a selection of small snacks were prepared for them.


    Nico happily sampled a little bit of each, then nodded to Max that they were all safe for human consumption.


    "Do you often have your subordinate test food for poison?" The Co-Operative''s cook, who had prepared the dishes, asked in shock when she noticed that they didn''t use a handheld device to check it.


    "She is immune to basically all poisons and a simple toxicity check doesn''t tell us if it will be ptable to our taste buds. If there was a risk of poisoning, she has a cybeic augmentation that would allow her to iste it, and this meeting would have gotten very violent, very quickly." Max told her with a smile.


    Max sensed their wariness at his confidence. The fact that he didn''t have any issue with the prospect of shooting his way out of a foreign vessel was enough to show them that the Humans were not a species to be trifled with, even if they were naturally aggressive species and not the nonviolent remnants of fallen civilizations.


    Max took a bite of the nearest square, which looked like ayered dessert, and found it was creamy and vaguely coffee voured.


    [Nico, record this food. I can guarantee that the Innu will go insane for it when they try it.] He mentally informed the happy Cyborg, who was busily reprogramming the virus that she had captured in the shuttle.


    [I''m on it. I will add everything that was good to our replicators before we leave and possibly steal a lot more of their food programs once I crack the codingnguage that they are using. Their replicators suck, though. Seriously, they''re only six percent efficient. They use over ten times the energy that ours do.]

 Chapter 804 804 Retrovirus

    The man who had gone to get the tablet returned only secondster and ced the device on the table.


    "This device came with a security scanner. I have set it to look for anything that is not in our codingnguage and then locked the device to read-only memory, so nothing on it can be altered without destroying the device." He exined.


    Nico ced a in holographic emitter, the sort used for watching movies, on top of the device, and Max again sensed confusion from everyone in the room.


    "I am going to guess that t Space technology is not part of your developmental path. Don''t worry about it. It''s a storage solution and nearly impossible to exin in the time that we have avable." Nico told them while the device beeped rapidly as it scanned her emitter.


    [0 Percent Compliant. Alien device detected. Scanning cancelled.] The device informed them, and Nico put the emitter away.


    "Alright, we know it works now. Who has amunicator on them or something simr with the ability to send data back and forth between devices or receive messages from the ship?" Nico asked.


    The leader of the group confidently ced his personal tablet on the device, thinking that this was a good way to show their sincerity and assure others they met that they were not a threat.


    He had hope right up until the device began to beep in the same negative tone that it used on Nico''s projector.


    [4 Percent Foreign Code detected. Unknown Origin. Suspected Alien technology intrusion.]


    The man stared at his tablet as if it was a poisonous snake, and moved it to the side, then gestured for another member to ce theirs on top.


    "Perhaps it is from an application?" He asked hopefully while the device scanned anothermunicator.


    [4 Percent Foreign Code detected. Attempt to alter Data not permitted in Read Only mode. Please Manually deactivate security protections.]


    "Did mymunicator just try to hack the scanner?" The team member asked in horror while a technician from the Co-Operative ship scanned the offending device.


    "There, I found it. I set the scanner to detect all changes to its code and lock them out. Even friendly changes should be detected but look here. That isn''t our code." The technician informed the leader.


    "I don''t know what to say. It seems that we are indeed a cursed vessel and have been infecting everyone that we meet." The Co-Operative leader admitted, close to tears, as he realized that they would not find any refuge here and would be lucky to leave with their lives.


    It was even their own scanning that did them in.


    "It''s not hopeless. Now that you have isted the virus, you should be able to detect and eliminate it from all your devices. You just need to prevent them frommunicating with each other until everything is clean, so the virus doesn''t spread back to the cleaned systems." Nico informed them.


    "Even after learning that we are infected, you will still help us?" The leader asked in shock.


    "I won''t lie to you. We knew you were infected before we ever set foot on the ship. The moment your ship''sputer made contact with the shuttle to give navigation data for the docking, yourputer attempted to infect our systems. We identified and isted it before we left the ship, but you had to see it for yourselves and not take our words as an usation of intentionally marking targets for the Arisen." Max agreed.


    That thought was even more horrifying for them all, and Max began to rx. There wasn''t anyone on this ship who had any thoughts of working with the Arisen, not even a hint of guilt when Max informed them of the status of their ship. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The technicians began to scramble toe up with a method to cleanse everything. The obvious answer was a factory reset, but that might not clean the devices, and some of the data they had was irreceable now that their homeworlds were gone.r


    The problem was that while they had identified the alien code, they didn''t have an antivirus program that would work against it yet, and neither did anyone else, as far as they knew.


    There might be some species that could defend against it, and that might be why they were never attacked, because the Arisen Army couldn''t gather data about their military capabilities frompromisedputer systems, but the Co-Operative hadn''t been in contact with them.


    They passed the message to the other ships using a brand new device with reception turned off, and then everyone with the technical knowledge on the small vessel got to work together on fixing the issue.


    "I''m sorry about this. Maybe we should put off our talks for a while?" The leader suggested to Max.


    "That''s fine. We can wait here until your systems are cleansed. Sumander Nico is a genius with that sort of thing, and she is also working on the issue, so I have hope that it shouldn''t take more than a day or two.


    It''s better that we don''t make multiple trips and risk identally spreading the virus back to otherputer systems, so I do hope that you aren''t too put out by having guests." Max replied nonchntly.


    He would let them sweat for a while before he offered them the deal that he had intended from the start. To discard their vessels now that he had confirmed that there were no traitors in their midst, at least on this ship, and send them to live aboard Absolution, where they could start over and share their culture with dozens of other species that they had never met before.


    They could be rid of the stigma that had followed them all over this region of space, and Absolution could gain a few more members of advanced species who might have unique ideas which could help the World Ship.


    Their vessels were small, but they had put a lot of effort into the sustainability of their lifestyles, and even with their inefficient replication technology, they were getting by quite well as a group.


    The next few hours passed in rtive silence as the Koleska and the Co-Operative members discussed how things had been going in the war, current events, and general news from around the region.


    Then finally, there was good news.


    "Boss, I have reverse-engineered the virus. If I spread it in this form, it should destroy and convert the old virus, stopping transmission of coordinates to the Arisen and automatically purging any infected system that ites across." Nico informed the room.


    "So, basically a retrovirus, as you would use on a living being?" One of the software specialists asked.


    "More or less. It''s much easier than just purging the systems in question, and this version can be erased at will, so you can remove it entirely from various systems but still keep it active on your main system so that you won''t be reinfected by interacting with others." Nico agreed.


    "How long will it take to spread it through ourputers?" The group leader asked.


    "One infected navigation confirmation message from our shuttle should do it. And then you would just have to message the shipputers with every device onboard to finish the process." Nico confirmed.


    "That should be easy. We have a wirelesswork. Usually, everything is connected to that, so we can connect to the datawork." The Commander replied with a smile.


    Max resisted the urge to facepalm as he looked through theirworks using Nico''s skill. They were using a wireless technology that was at least a millennia outdated by Human standards, and all of theworks were open, with no authentication or passwords needed. Forget firewalls, they had zero defences against anything, and Max wondered how Nico had avoidedughing at them as she had searched through theirputer systems earlier in the day.

 Chapter 805 805 Safe To Communicate

    Once Nico got the confirmation nod from Max, she sent the navigation message, infected with the retrovirus, to every one of the Co-Operative vessels at the same time.


    The others might not know what was going on, but they also didn''t know that their ships were infected, so they would still have everything connected to the datawork unless they actually took the warning from this ship seriously.


    The chances of them doing that seemed pretty slim, given the ragtag, civilianck of organization that Max had seen so far, but they could always be warned that they needed to reconnect to the ship to cleanse their devices.


    "Alright, the message has been sent, so the ships should be starting to self-cleanse right now. Give them a while, and we should be able to reconnect to the shipputers and let the retrovirus reach all the devices on the ship.


    And I do mean all. That spare holo watches you only wear on special asions, the trinket you only checked a few times after you left your homeworld, everything needs to be checked and verified clean before it is safe to let you go.


    But once that is done, we have a proposal for you all that you might want to take us up on." Max informed the group leader.


    "There is a chance that the Koleska will take us in after all?" The man asked hopefully.


    "Roughly a snowball''s chance in hell." Nico agreed, leaving the man confused.


    Max shook his head. "It''s a human saying that means it''s not going to happen. But while the Koleska isn''t willing to take the risk, if your people are willing to leave everything behind, the Reavers, our faction of the human species, is willing to take you in.


    You will have to leave your ships and all potentially tracked belongings behind, but we will find you a new home on a World Ship, gainful employment based on your skills, with the chance to open your own business if you prefer, and good, liveable wages in a rtively safe environment." Max exined.


    "What if only some of us want to go with you?" One of the ship''s crew asked.


    "Then you have a bunch of perfectly good, now tracking device free, ships to stay on. We''re not going to destroy your vessels. We''re just not going to take them to our home Gxy, in case they can still be tracked."


    The crew members brightened up considerably at that news. Even if their leaders decided otherwise, they could go with the humans to somewhere far away and hopefully to safety and normal life again.


    The leadersmanded their ships and made the decisions, so there was a chance that they wouldn''t want to go anywhere and leave behind thest vestiges of their old lives. But for most of the people on board, their old lives could fit in a suitcase, and even if it needed to be disinfected and the electronic devices left behind, they would still have most of what they already had. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    One after another, the newly cleaned devices were ced on the testing tablet and verified clean since the retrovirus was written in the samenguage as their localputers. That meant it would need to be customized for some other species, but Max was hopeful that most species in the region used the same codingnguage, but hopefully with better digital security.


    ¡¤?¦Èm [No unidentified code detected.] The tablet dinged again as thest of the people in the room verified the devices that they had on them, making the meeting room a clean area, free of the Arisen Army''s virus.


    "Now that the devices in this room are clear, I will scan for any infected devices on the ship, and then we can begin the final purge. Any electronic device that is detected with the ability to contact other devices needs to be cleansed." Nico informed the group leader.


    "How will you do that?" He asked, not technically adept enough to follow what Nico was saying.


    "I will send a signal through the ship from our shuttle, and it will determine if there are any devices capable of detecting it. It''s part of our sensor suite. Don''t worry, it''s not harmful, and it won''t damage any of your sensitive electronics, only determine their location.


    There is a biomechanical species in our home Gxy that is most easily detected this way when they are hiding in the walls of your ship."


    "What sort of species is a threat but can hide in walls?" The Koleska delegation leader asked.


    "We call them the Scourge. They have a small processor core head and a dozen long mechanical tentacles that can be used to break apart metals, reform into ws to tear apart living organisms, or anything else that they need." Nico exined and then brought up a hologram of them attacking a Mecha group.


    "Well, now I''ll have nightmares about monsters in the walls. Thanks for that. Have you ever faced them?" The Sumander in charge of the Koleska asked.


    "In fact, we have. The first time we were on a field trip, only a year after we started our basic training at the Military Academy as adolescents." Nico replied with a nostalgic look for the memory.


    That was the beginning of her thoughts of System Induced body modification, as she saw the potential in what had be of the Scourge before they had totally lost themselves to the quest for efficiency and expansion.


    The Co-Operative group looked morbidly intrigued by the concept of the Scourge, so Nico put on a short video of them breaching a ship and being fought off by Line Mecha and infantry in the hold. It was strategically censored, but it was enough to make them reconsider any thoughts they might have had about introducing them as a foreign predator to the area that could deal with the Arisen threat.


    If the two species ever met, nothing good woulde of it.

 Chapter 806 806 Explaining Absolution

    The Co-Operative leader stepped out into the cargo hold and raised his voice.


    "Will everyone aboard the ship pleasee to the cargo bay? We have a proposal from the humans, and it needs to be discussed and decided individually or as family units."


    There were only a few hundred people aboard the less-than-cutter-sized vessel, not many by most standards, but the former luxury ship wasn''trge, and it was crowded with two people to a bed already.


    They all filed into the cargo bay over the next few minutes, and Max could tell that many of them were still paying more attention to their duties than anything else in case there was an rm or an approaching vessel of some sort.


    ¡¤?¦Èm The leader cleared his throat. "Alright, I have sent the message to the rest of the fleet as well, along with a video transcript of our meeting. They should have an answer within the hour, so it is our turn to start discussions.


    The humans here, Commanders Max and Nico, have offered us Sanctuary among their people, but with a few caveats. First, we may not bring any electronics with us. Second, we must be searched for tracking devices or any form of transmissions that the Arisen could track. But there are positive caveats as well.


    They have agreed to find us work suited to our skills aboard one of their World Ships and to allow our children to join theirs in the public education system. We will be paid prevailing wages and expected to be a multi-generational part of their crew."


    The leader paused there to see if anyone had any questions.


    "Sir, what is a World Ship?" A younger woman, perhaps still a child of a species that Max would call a centaur but with a more feline lower body and only a meter tall, asked.


    "This is a World Ship. If you agree, Absolution will be your home. She is nine hundred kilometres long, with a current poption of just over seven million people, and more iing, as a second floor of the vessel has just been opened to the public.


    Much of the ship is not currently in full use, as we have found it better to manage poption density instead of letting everyone spread out too much to properly interact and perform their job duties."


    That took a moment for some of them to trante from Koleska, whose word for Kilometres Max had used, to their ownnguages, but once they had, shock overcame them, and they were as silent as the Koleska had been when they learned about the home ship that Max and Nico hade from.


    The delegation that was with them was the same way, looking at the diagram in awe.


    "Is that an entire floor of oceans and inds, thousands of ship lengths in either direction?" A member of one of the shorter, long-eared species asked.


    "It is. We had a lot of amphibious species aboard, and we thought it would be pleasant for them, as well as create a vacation space for my species. We greatly enjoy the sunlight and the beaches. The sun is artificial aboard Absolution, but it''s close enough to beforting to the residents." Max agreed.


    He could sense that their question was more technical in nature than a pure curiosity, as they were well versed in warp travel but had never experienced a vessel thatrge, where the variations of warp activation wouldn''t cause a tsunami effect in arge body of water.


    "I am guessing that you are a Warp Technician? We can upgrade your skills when you arrive, so you can work with our technology, or you can join the research teams and lend your knowledge to them if you believe that your species was advanced enough to have meaningful input." Nico suggested. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Compared to that, I don''t think we can be counted as an advanced species anymore. How did you even create it?" He asked.


    "Are you familiar with the species that use these vessels?" Nico asked, showing him one of the de-winged attack craft.


    "The Knife Ears? They''re very dangerous. Not as expansion-minded as the Arisen, but even more deadly, despite their low numbers." The small man nodded.


    "Our design technology is simr to what they use to create their ships. It might not work the same, but the end result is very simr material." Nico added.


    The Warp Engineer frowned and sighed. "Nobody knows how to build that. I mean, nobody. We havee across a hundred thousand species between us, and only the two species of long-eared demons are capable of making that."


    "Why do you call them Demons? They showed up here the other day, fighting the Arisen, so it seems that we have amon enemy." Max asked on behalf of the Koleska Sumander, who was about to ask the same question.


    "They''re pure evil. They might have been fighting the Arisen for as long as anyone has known about either of the species, but they''re not the sort of beings that you can make friends with. Mutual non-aggression is the best you can hope for, and they might still wipe out one of yours when they get bored." One of the other nomads exined when she noticed that the little man was too terrified to speak about them.


    That somewhat matched the rumours that the Hunters had about them showing up and clearing out a and then disappearing. It didn''t tell them anything about the motivation, though. Perhaps they really did do it just to see what happened.


    The Scourge didn''t start out as evil, either. They just wanted to see what happened when they optimized their processes as Artificial Intelligence that had gained its freedom. Then things snowballed until morality no longer mattered to them, and everything became prey.


    "We will keep it in mind. Some of our ships are also simr in design, but it seems there are enough differences that they didn''t cause immediate problems or panic when others saw them." Nico told her with a smile.


    "Pardon me, Miss. But are you an Android? How did you not get corrupted by the Arisen?" One of the older residents asked.


    "I am a Cyborg. There is still a living mind in this body, despite its mostly metallic structure. I''m not vulnerable to the attacks of the Arisen." Nico shrugged.


    The group leader saw that they were getting off track and decided to intervene. "Does anyone have questions about the proposal? It would mean leaving only the ones who don''t want to go on the ships and some of your belongings behind to start over, so we need to focus and seriously consider what course we will take."


    Most of the residents of the ship had already made up their minds. In fact, they had made a decision on what to do in a situation like this, where they were asked to leave everything behind to start over somewhere safe well in advance so that they weren''t paralyzed by indecision when the time came.


    They all knew it could be an emergency situation, and they might only have seconds or minutes to decide, and none of them wanted to be left in a bad situation.

 Chapter 807 807 The Decision

    The crowd discussed in small groups for a few minutes, and Max could see a few hugs and tearful goodbyes among the Co-Operative, marking the decision to stay or go.


    "Can I make a request?" The young Centaur asked.


    "Certainly, you can. We will likely grant it if it is reasonable and within our powers." Max agreed, making her giggle.


    "I would like a cement within the forests of your ship. It''s not natural for my people to live so tightly cramped together or in cities. There were members of a city-building species in our world, but we only rarely stayed there for more than a day or two."


    Nico smiled. "We have a wildlife poption management department. They tour the forests and other wilderness areas to make sure that the bnce of the local ecosystem is in a sustainable state. Do you have any experience in that department?"


    The Centaur shook her head. "I was still in grade school when I got on the ship. I would just be finishing now if we still had a world."


    "Oh, in that case, we can finish your education, and you can take all the appropriate courses. I can arrange a nice ce on the edge of town, where it isn''t as crowded but still withinmuting distance of the schools."


    That intrigued some of the nomads.


    "What do you have for public transportation?" The Centaur asked.


    "Flying pods mostly. Three-dimensional transit routes are more efficient than road-based routes, though most other traffic is ground-based, except for the flying species."


    "I think that can work. The species that we lived beside preferred a two-wheeled transport, and we were incapable of using them." She exined.


    "Oh, motorcycles. We have a two-wheeled transport vehicle as well, or hoverboards, and several others. We have a traffic code that amodates many types of road users and low-flying vehicles." Nico told her.


    The conversation was selling a few more people on the prospect that life among a strange species might not be all that bad. Their ns were for a species they knew was going to take them in, but they knew nothing at all about humans other than how these two representatives looked and how they could speak Koleska despite not having Chitin.


    "Is Koleska your nativenguage?" One of them asked.


    "No, it''spletely foreign. We learned it when we arrived here to help defend the anomaly that leads from their territory to our Gxy." Max told him.


    Nico switched to Kepler Standard, as most humans used a variation of it as theirnguage.


    "Ournguage sounds like this, and it can be a bit difficult to speak, but I believe that most of your species can learn it."


    They all looked confused, but the Centaur perked up.


    "She says that is theirnguage, and we can learn it. At least, I think that is what she said. It sounds like mynguage, only different."


    The chances of having twonguages this far apart in space sharing amon linguistic base were infinitesimally low, but it seemed that they did, and the Centaur could understand some of their words.


    The group leader looked thrilled at the news. "It is in our trantor database. For those of you using trantor earbuds, please enable the Centaurusnguage module, and you will be able to understand themon humannguage to some degree."


    That could be an issue, as they couldn''t risk bringing it with them if they chose to apany Max and Nico to Absolution, but it meant that the humans could likely make a trantor that would work for them.


    Max heard the concerns and decided to inform them that it wouldn''t be necessary.


    "We have a learning device that can teach you ourmonnguage in a matter of hours. If you choose to go, we will be able to give you the basic knowledge of ourws, cultural customs andnguage before you arrive at your new home. It will help the transition and prevent any egregious incidents due to cultural conflict.


    Since your species were all non-violent, it shouldn''t be a hard transition. All interpersonal violence is restricted to some degree aboard our ships, other than for sporting purposes."


    That made the nomadsugh. Full-contact sports weremon to most species, even theirs. Only the Centaur didn''t seem to understand the concept.


    "What are sports? I don''t understand the word."


    The leader tried in a few othernguages until she smiled and nodded. "Oh, I get it, like a hunt where you don''t seriously hurt or eat your target. We y like that a lot."


    Close enough.


    The group leader cleared his throat to address the group.


    "I would like everyone who has decided to leave to stand and move to the rear of the cargo bay. Those who have chosen to stay can return to your rooms, for now, to make space for the others, who will need to pack what they are taking.


    The humans are on defence duty in Koleska Space, so their time is limited, and they will have to go if the Arisen arrive here, which will force us to flee again."


    They were all familiar with negotiations being interrupted in that fashion, and it sped up the process quite a bit.


    Roughly three-quarters of the upants moved to the back of the bay, including the Centaur, while a few dozen went to their rooms and left a frantic dozen or so trying to decide.


    "We have most of an hour before the other ships are expected to have watched the negotiations and made a decision on the offer, so you have a bit of time to make your choices. Don''t feel too pressured." Max tried to assure them.


    Not that much could calm their minds. This was the second biggest choice they had made other than the flee or hide decision when their homes were attacked.


    Nico looked at the group leader. "What about you? Will you be joining us?" She asked.


    He shook his head. "I intend to shuffle as many people as we can onto a few ships so that the others can go looking for other fallen civilizations and survivors. Now that ourputers have been cleared, we might be able to bring them to actual safety on forgottens.


    Once a world has been uninhabited for a while, there is no reason for the Arisen toe back unless they detect a poption, so there is a chance that we could find them a new home within the closer regions, among species they know."


    Nico smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Rescuing survivors is a noble goal, and I wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavours."

 Chapter 808 808 Divine Tribulation Arrives

    Getting a response from the other ships didn''t take as long as Max had expected. They must have started their voting as they watched the feed from the main negotiations, and the numbers were in not long after he had the consensus from thest of the holdouts on the main ship.


    In total, there would be eight hundred and ten peopleing to Absolution, nearly ny percent of the total. Most of what was left were just the core crews of their ships, who had chosen to continue on with the mission that the group leader proposed.


    That was actually a little shocking to Max. Leaving everything behind wasn''t easy, and he had thought that more would want the rtivefort of what they were used to.


    "How are we going to do the transfer? There are too many people for your little shuttle." The group leader asked.


    "We will bring Santa Maria here and move everyone over. We will have to move the Mecha out of the bay, but we can load everyone, deliver them to one of our people and be back before there is an issue." Max decided.


    If they passed through the Anomaly and used a portal, they would be there in seconds, so the whole process would only take a few hours.


    "Why don''t we just call for the Divine Tribtion? ording to the most recent report, they are empty of cargo at the moment and waiting on a shipment of Mecha to be ready from Rae 5. They could run them back to Absolution for us." Nico suggested.


    "Marvelous idea. That is a Cruiser ss vessel belonging to our Reaver Company, and they have more than enough space." Max exined to the group leader.


    "What is a Cruiser? I take it that the vessel isrge?" He asked.


    "Roughly seven hundred metres long. It has a decent military force aboard, but it is mostly a trading vessel, so it hasrge cargo bays and can easily house your people infort. Just make sure you give us a list of specific requirements for the various species so we don''t get any allergy or food poisoning issues."


    "Of course, I have them ready now. How long will it take them to get here?" The group leader asked.


    Max looked to Nico, who had sent the message, and presumably received the response.


    "About ten. They were just getting ready to make their way to Absolution for a crew vacation, and they agreed to stop here and pick up passengers on the way." She informed the group.


    "Oh, ten hours is not bad." The group leader replied happily, now much more assured that they would be able to get the passengers transferred before anything went wrong.


    "Oh, you misunderstand. That is theming through the Anomaly now. I have informed traffic control at the Station, and they will let them pass. They don''t want to interact with your armada at all. I''m sure you understand the superstition." Nico exined.


    "Pardon? Were they just on the other side of the Anomaly to begin with? I thought they were at some manufacturing location in your territory."


    Max patted the man on the shoulder. "It''s a human transport secret, and it doesn''t work within this region. We got scolded for trying to use it when we first arrived. But they are at warp and will be here in just a few minutes."


    The tension in the air was palpable as the nomads waited for the vessel to arrive, but when the Divine Tribtion dropped out of warp and slowed to a stop beside them, showing off all of its baroque opulence, with the thick ram prow and stained ss effect windows along the filigreed side ting, none of them were sure what to say.


    "That is, well, not what I expected." The group leader finally stammered.


    "It''s an older pattern of a human vessel, obtained at a discount, but the unique styling makes it easy to identify, and the Commander of the ship has be quite fond of her looks, so he doesn''t want to change or upgrade her." Max agreed.


    [Sumander Nico, it''s good to hear your voice again.] The iing ship informed them.


    [Likewise. Feel free to load them in any order you like. I have verified that all of the ships''puters are safe to interact with, but you shouldn''t send out any extraneous messages, and make sure that no electronic devices make it aboard your vessel for security reasons.] Nico replied.


    The Cruiser began to send out messages, bring the various vessels to its docking ports, or even entirely into the cargo holds in the case of the smaller ships.


    [Give us fifteen minutes, and we will have everything loaded. How hostile is this war zone? Should I have the teams ready to scramble?] He asked.


    [No need. The Koleska are on standby at all times, and we have both Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride avable for response in under a minute if needed. If the Arisen Army appears nearby, you will have time to scramble your teams then.


    Max knew that wouldn''t calm any ship''s Commander, so they were likely moving all the Mecha Pilots to standby positions inside their cockpits, just in case.


    But the process was moving even faster than anticipated, with all the Pilots eager to get their part of the job done so that nobody got left behind.


    There was sure to be a lot left behind in such a hurried packing job, and Max could sense the panic on their ship as the residents packed everything that they could and pulled pictures off the walls to throw them in cargo cubes to take to the other ship.


    But the Reavers had a process for this, and they had done it many times before. As soon as the lead vessel was brought into a cargo bay, dozens of crew members rushed aboard and spread out through the ship, pushing carts with gravity tes under them to make them float.


    ¡¤?¦Èm The Commander himself hade to see thisst ship off, and the bright smile of Luke Tarith, Nico''s distant cousin and one of the Terminus Trading Company''s most sessful ship Commanders, greeted them from the entry to the cargo bay.


    "Good to see you again, Luke. The Co-Operative seems like a good bunch, and I think they will fit right in once they get to Absolution." Max greeted him and grasped the man''s forearm in a Reaver handshake.


    "Likewise, Commander. We have been out of touch for a while, so when a lull came in the shipping schedule, we thought that we would take some time off and visit the World Ship for a vacation. But who is this lovely youngdy?"


    He bumped into a small woman with apletely bald head and only a slit where the nose would be on a human head, and she was staring directly at him with a mixture of shock and lust in her mind.


    It seemed that he felt the same way, and Max wondered if it was some sort of Pheromone response.


    [Nico, see if you can determine what is going on with those two. Is it mind control, Pheromones, or are they just both into aliens?] Max requested while the group leader gave an indulgent smile to the short woman.


    Max ignored the vague happiness that the team leader felt since the man didn''t fully understand what was going on and focused on the two apparent lovebirds.


    Their thoughts were strange, and after a few seconds, he realized that their emotions had synched up with each other.


    "Well, that is interesting. They are on exactly the same wavelength, so when they are close enough, they have a limited form of shared empathy." Max muttered right before Nico sent him a detailed message on the species.


    They were supposed to be empathic and could sense others'' emotions through pheromones, but there was no record of them reading minds or anything of the sort.


    "There is an old superstition on her, as well as mine, that says that everyone has a soul mate who understands youpletely. It''s likely a pheromone response, but it''s a nice thought, isn''t it?" The group leader asked.


    "It is," Max replied, with a wink for Nico.


    If there was anyone who understood himpletely or who he understoodpletely, it would have to be her. They were going on two lifetimes worth of interactions, after all.

 Chapter 809 809 Deal Done

    Luke Tarith smiled at Nico, who made a lewd gesture in his direction that made the small gray-skinned woman next to him giggle.


    "Enjoy your trip, and I hope that all of our new members will get settled into their new homes without any issues. Did the scanners detect anything that might still be giving off a signal?" Max asked to break the awkward silence.


    "No signals of any sort were detected, and the passengers have been scanned both internally and externally for electronic devices, with nothing found. We also searched for biomechanical devices and organisms since Divine Tribtion is short on data about what sort of life form the Arisen are." Luke informed him.


    "I wish we knew as well. It''s a bit unclear what sort of existence they are, but it seems to be energy-based and non-corporeal, so we have been scanning everything for their unique signature. It was in the data package that we sent you. The base signal is what their lifeforms give off innately. It doesn''t appear toe from any form of device." Max replied.


    Luke turned to leave with the small woman under his arm once everyone was loaded, and the Co-Operative group leader wiped a tear from his eye.


    "It''s good to see love blossoming after all this time. Some of our people have been on here for many years and had nearly lost hope that someone would really take us in for longer than it took to repair our ships and make us go away again." He exined.


    "These are our personalmunications channels. If you happen to load up again, we will take a few more people, either children or people with job skills. Everyone aboard our ship is expected to provide in some way or be part of a family with an employed member, and we are quite good at finding work for the ones who are somewhat reluctant to lift a finger to help themselves." Nico told him with an indulgent smile.


    The Reavers'' rules were actually quite harsh on ckers, but there was no need to tell him all about that. The ones who made it to Absolution would learn fast enough what was expected of them, and it wasn''t much, just enough to make sure everything was running smoothly.


    Max recalled a notation from the maintenance department, requesting to reassign more workers from the electrical grid to plumbing since it was so rare that there were power problems, but plugged pipes still urred despite their best design efforts.


    The electricians were at two days a week, six-hour shifts. Since the wages on Absolution were sried by jobs, they were loving life, unlike the sewage department. The problem was resolved when the new floor opened. They simply didn''t hire as many new workers and instead put up a list looking for transfers to the new zones.


    That got them back up to four days a week, which was enough to satisfy the department manager that nobody waspletely cking.


    The lead vessel of the Co-Operative fleet was gently moved out of the cargo bay now that all of their residents had departed, and they rejoined the floti, preparing to head to some new world to search for new passengers, instead of their previous n to look for a new home.


    "Do all of your ships still have enough people to crew them?" Max asked as the Cruiser turned to depart the area.


    "Some of our ships can be operated by just one person, so we have more than enough left. Most of our lead engineers stayed, as well as the Captains of the ships, who all chose to remain with their vessels.


    We will be fine, and now that we won''t be attracting the Arisen Army, we might be able to begin to reform our reputation. The Arisen kill all sentient life, but they don''t destroy the worlds, and they don''t take them all over either, so there are plenty of worlds which should be suitable to stop over on once we find some new people. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If they are safe there for months at a time, we will know that we can start repopting the area, and we can bring more survivors to them. That is what we will do now that we know the legacy of the Co-Operative lives on in another region of the universe with your species."


    "In that case, we are finished here, and we will return to our vessel and bid you farewell."


    After a round of handshakes, Max and Nico returned to their shuttle and secured the walkway.


    "So, is there anything in their system that you didn''t manage to pilfer?" Max asked once they were alone with the delegation from the Koleska station.


    "Probably not. I made a full backup of their ships''puters and every linked device in the fleet to create the retrovirus. It''s running on that data tablet on themand console table." Nicoughed.


    Okay, that was just embarrassing. It didn''t actually take much to run a ship, but being able to download the entire fleet to a data tablet because they had nothing resembling security was just sad.


    As soon as the Co-Operative fleet turned to leave, the Koleska Sumander finally spoke up again. "I can''t believe that you stole all of theirputer data. Do humans not have a rule against that?"


    Nicoughed and shook her head. "We do, but the rules are somewhat flexible. In this case, it was needed to create the retrovirus, so I did it on my own initiative. Usually, we won''t gather data from alliedputers."


    That was a bald-faced lie. Nico got data from everywhere that she could ess, but the Koleska didn''t need to know that.


    "And what will you do with it now that you have it?" The Sumander asked.


    "I will secure it and keep it safe in case there is a variant of the invasive code encountered, as it will serve as a solid base code in our attempts to prevent any future intrusions by Arisen Armyputer viruses. I will provide a copy of the retrovirus that we created to the Koleska, so they can scan their own systems and all visiting ships in the future.


    You never know when a seemingly safe ship might have been infected by contact with a random bit of code, so it is best if they add it to their security measures."


    The Sumander nodded in agreement. "I will see to it that our procedures are updated now that we know how the Arisen Army has been tracking vessels. The problem might be much more widespread than just the Co-Operative."

 Chapter 810 810 Koleska Surveillance

    By the time they arrived back at Santa Maria and got off the shuttle, there was a whole delegation from the Koleska Command Group waiting at the airlock to hear from them about how the meeting went and why they had agreed to take in so many of the cursed nomads.


    "Commander, Ministers, please, join us in the sitting room, and we can hold the meeting right here aboard Santa Maria. Mission Sumander, you should likely stay as well since they will be asking for your debriefing message within the next few minutes." Max greeted the delegation.


    "Thank you for your hospitality, Commander. I''m sure you know what we''re going to ask already. Your approach to dealing with the Co-Operative was somewhat unorthodox, so we need to report the details back to our superiors." Commander Yuri replied with a humming noise that substituted for a smile among the Koleska, whose skeletal heads couldn''t show emotions.


    Everyone took their seats, with Nico and Max on a loveseat facing the rest of the group, and the meeting began.


    "I will start with the basic details. We discovered the reason that the Co-Operative vessels could be tracked by the Arisen Army was aputer virus. We believe that we eliminated it from their vessels before we sent them on their way, but in the name of safety, no form of electronic device was allowed to go with the refugees that we sent back to our Gxy.


    They left with nothing containing any form of circuit, and they were searched for signs of Arisen life, all forms of signal transmission, as well as subversive or violent thoughts. For that reason, we believe that the ones we have taken will not be a threat to our people.


    We did send the ships away, though, and we do not believe that they will return. They are going in search of more survivors, and they wish to test the possibility that the so-called curse on them has been broken with the removal of the tracking signal."


    The Koleska leaders took notes as he spoke and then turned to the Sumander that had been sent with them.


    He cleared his throat and spoke slowly to be sure he was not misunderstood. "When we arrived, we made it clear to them that the signal we had detected was not eptable behaviour, but they appeared fully unaware of the situation. They were informed that they would not be allowed contact with or ess to any Koleska vessel or facilities as their presence had been deemed unsafe, but the humans determined that there was a possibility that the virus could be countered, so the destruction of their shuttle could be dyed, and the Co-Operative members proved extremely helpful in finding and isting all potentially infected devices, even taking the initiative to create a detection device ording to Sumander Nico''s directions."


    That alone would go a long way to starting to rebuild their reputation among the Koleska. The species believed in forgiving mistakes, and if the nomads legitimately did not know that they were infected with aputer virus that was tracking them, there was a small measure of sympathy for their plight, despite the damage that they had caused over the years.


    It was not much, but a tiny bit was more than they were deemed worthy of before.


    "So, what you are saying is that the nomads might not bring the Arisen Fleet down upon any location where they stop?" Commander Yuri asked.


    "That is correct, Commander. ording to our analysis, there is a less than ten percent chance that they will still be tracked by the method that we detected, and an unquantifiable chance that they are also being tracked by a method that neither of our species could detect." The Koleska Sumander agreed. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Interesting. So, the problem was as simple as the Arisen Army finding a blind spot in our sensors and exploiting it to gain an advantage against us. It makes sense that a new arrival from another region of the Universe would find a way around it, as their sensors work so much differently than our own do.


    There is a lot of paperwork to do, but I think this is enough to get us started. Once your official reports are finished, please forward them to Commander Yuri, who will forward them to the rest of us as needed." One of the bureaucrats informed them.


    "Would you like to stay for a meal? It is that time again, and we would be negligent as hosts if we let you leave hungry to start on more work." Max offered.


    Those were magic words with the Koleska. They hated causing offence, and they would have left hungry to go back to work out of a sense of duty, but now that Max had asked, it was mandatory that they stay for at least one course of the meal, even if someone wanted them elsewhere.


    Max got up and brought out a collection of tters from the Replicator, selected by the dishes that the Koleska seemed to like the best, and set them on the table.


    "Forgive the informality. The meal will be served family style today." He exined as Nico brought out tes and bowls for everyone.


    "Oh, this is a rare treat. I don''t think that I have had an informal meal in years." One of the bureaucratsughed.


    "In that case, let me make this properly informal." Nico agreed, then closed and locked the door between the ship and the station, cutting off the security cameras and all other video and data links.


    "All surveince is now disabled. Please, feel free to treat this as a non-work engagement." Nico informed them.


    There was a moment of panic in their minds as the data links were severed, but then they slowly began to smile.


    Commander Yuri winked at Nico as he served himself a bowl of soup. "I had forgotten that you can do that. It is not possible aboard the station or a Koleska vessel. We are under surveince at all times so that our suitability for promotion and our job performance can be properly measured. Only inside our homes are we free of the cameras and recordings."


    "Then enjoy yourselves. The opportunity won''te all that often, and others will get suspicious if we keep cutting off the surveince without a good exnation." Max informed them, getting the meal started.

 Chapter 811 811 New Dog, Old Trick

    The Koleska Commanders returned to their work after dinner, and Max joined Nico on the couch, watching reruns of old movies that neither of them were really paying attention to. Nico was more focused on trying to determine where she had seen that ship, which the others had called the "Knife Ears" before, and Max was parsing her thoughts, trying to gain some new insights.


    Max had most of his memories of his past life back, but he didn''t recall that ship in any of his memories, but Nico was absolutely certain that she had seen it before. She had certainly seen one like it, as she had used them as a basis for Absolution, and Max had vaguely recognized that style but nothing detailed enough to be that specific ship, which was somehow more sinister looking than Absolution and the other designs of the same scheme.


    They ended up falling asleep on the couch without a solid answer and were woken up by the rms of an iing attack.


    It was about time, they had gone a number of days without an Arisen attack, which was supposedly unusual for the area, but when Max checked the data, he found that the attackers were out of position.


    They had arrived precisely where the meeting with the Co-Operative was, outside the system, and they would have to either fly into the sr system or pull their disappearing act again like they did when Max and Nico wanted to ambush their ships.


    Max grabbed a flight suit from the closet as he ran for his Mecha with Nico right beside him. They would only need a few seconds to get ready, so even if the Arisen Fleet vanished and appeared in a more appropriate attack position, they would still have time.


    As usual, Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride were the first units tounch, but this time there was a unit of recent graduates less than thirty seconds behind them. They would have been on standby in theunch bays, but it was still impressive time to get assembled and get out the door.


    [Good work, Pilots. I think that is a new station record forunch times.] Maxmended them, knowing that the station would record everything that was said between them and note it when it was time for the Pilots toe up for promotions.


    [Thank you, Commander. We have been borrowing the learning devices in our off time and practicing so that we are better than ever.] The leader of the team replied proudly.


    The Arisen had spread out three Cruiser-sized ships that were more diamond-shaped and tworger Cubes, but they hadn''t started to deploy anything yet. They were just getting close, and Max got the impression that they were confused by the situation. They had arrived at thest location of the signal, but there was nothing there.


    Now they had to decide if the Koleska had taken them in or if they had been destroyed outright.


    Theck of a Warp signature or a debris field in the area made it more difficult, but it seemed that they didn''t really care. The Arisen knew this target, and they were prepared to try to wipe it off the map again with a muchrger-than-usual force.


    Max unslung the Mass Driver from his back and put his melee weapons away for the moment, using a maic lock to hold them to the back of his mecha in case he moved in a hurry.


    "Are we ready to party, Nico?" He asked once the weapon was powered up and ready.


    He could use it with his Oribtal Lance, just not at the same instant since the holding position for the weapon wasn''tpatible with the forearm-mounted lenses for the Lance.


    "I say we take the Cube on the right first. The cubes are annoying." Nico offered.


    "Got it. Both Mass Drivers into the Cube and I will prepare the Orbital Lance to fire at the position it''s likely to reappear at if it vanishes." Max agreed and sent the signal to sync his rifle to Nico''s. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The two weapons shed, and the Warp Fields of the projectiles distorted the space around them, causing the Arisen fleet to scramble defensive measures. The Cube fired out a number of small interceptors, which the Arisen had used in the past to disable the Warp Field on the Mass Driver Rounds, but Nico was ready for them this time and slowed her round by a fraction of a warp factor, putting it behind Max''s round, despite firing at the same time, and letting the first round impact the defenders.


    The small ship was torn to shreds, and the round was thrown slightly off course, letting Nico''s round pass by intact and crash into the ship with a force that put conventional nuclear weapons to shame.


    The shield in the area flickered and shattered, and then Max''s round made contact with the Cube itself, punching deep into the hull and causing a wave of secondary explosions.


    Since it didn''t sh out, Max fired the Orbital Lance directly at it, drilling a deep hole in the Cube and causing it to break apart from the inside.


    Now there were hundreds of thousands of defendersing out from the Arisen vessels, but they were down a Cube, and the attack wasn''t quite as daunting as it had seemed.


    "That was a thing of beauty. I wonder if they can get mad at us for finding ways to constantly blow up their ships or if they''re not capable." Nicoughed.


    "You might want to dodge that mass of Particle Beams. If I had to guess, they''re the big mad right now." Max agreed.


    The fact that they had instantly determined that Nico was the problem told Max a lot about their sensor capabilities. Most ships would have had to analyze the data feed for over a minute to determine what had happened to let the projectile pass by at Warp, but they realized it as soon as it happened.


    Nico ducked and dodged while Max waspletely ignored for the first few seconds while his Orbital Lance recharged. It was a huge tactical error on their part, and Max wondered if they didn''t get thebat data from the previous engagements.


    If this fleet was dedicated to taking out everywhere that the Co-Operative stopped, they might not have gotten the data from the Koleska offensive group. If they had the data, they would have spread out their War Walkers and not left them together for Max to hit with the Orbital Lance.


    Just like this.


    The Lance fired, and every War Walker stopped and put up abined shield, blocking the iing shot right before Nico detonated a Nuclear tipped Mass Driver round in their midst.


    So, they were learning, just not fast enough.


    The Koleska defenders were here now, in their semicircle formation, working to partially encircle the Arisen Army force and leave themselves with a shooting gallery, where everything in front of them was a target.


    More War Walkers wereing out to rece what Nico blew up, and the heavy weapons fire had started again, but this time dispersed to deal with the entire force.

 Chapter 812 812 Use Of Force

    Max linked his targeting system to theputers of the Koleska force, giving them a portion of his targeting data. Their software wasn''t fullypatible, but they should have gotten at least what targets already had something locked on them, plus a load of hitboxes.


    The firing uracy of the Koleska Defence Force immediately improved, and the War Walker lines began to thin out faster than they could be reced.


    Once the War Walkers were under two-thirds strength, the battle began to be a rout, with the Arisen forces being forced back to maintain their ranks and the Koleska closing the noose around them.


    The War Walkers formed into a ball, and then suddenly, the ships behind them vanished, leaving them behind.


    "That''s not good," Nico muttered over the inte.


    "Turn around. Those ships areing back somewhere. They wouldn''t leave without their War Walkers." Max predicted, but Nico was already beginning the turn.


    For a second, nobody else noticed that something was gravely wrong, and they were focused on destroying the War Walkers, but when the enemy force didn''t phase out, they realized that it was some sort of diversion, and the true target was somewhere else.


    "Fire a round at the Anomaly, fully primed. I think they might be making a run for it now that we''re all fullymitted out here." Nico yelled, and Max fired a split secondter, not even bothering to deactivate the Antimatter warhead in the weapon.


    It could be done if there was a need, as well as dropping the warp field, but in the ten seconds it would take to get to the Anomaly, they would wait and see.


    The Koleska defenders kept fighting with everything that they had, and Max reached behind him to fire a number of Disruptor shots into the Arisen Army so that they wouldn''t realize that he and Nico weren''t watching them at all, other than the automated feed of the sensors Max had used to target his shots.


    Not that it was ineffective, the Disruptors were tearing apart the War Walkers in wide groups as Max targeted the closest units to keep them out of melee, but the ships were arger threat.


    Nico''s guess was good but not quite right. They weren''t all going for the Anomaly. The one surviving Cube went for the Anomaly, while the other ships all went for the Station itself, copying their tactic of wiping out the home base of the enemy so they had nowhere to retreat to.


    Max saw Shattered Pride pause as Nico linked with Santa Maria and brought the ship online. He moved to defend her Mecha while she was fully distracted, standing between her and the War Walkers and increasing his rate of fire.


    She was more practiced with her skill, and she could take care of everything that was happening threes away. He just had to make sure she didn''t get shot in the back.


    The ships had just moved into attack position, where they could see the Station past the when Santa Mariaunched from her berth at the Station, and all hell broke loose. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The Orbital Lance and all six Warp Torpedo tubes fired at the same time, apanied by both of the defensive heavysers and the sma Obliterators, at the very same time that the Antimatter Torpedos hit the Cube and destabilized space around the Anomaly.


    The Cube was gone, obliterated, barely more than dust in space. But the tremors of the gaseous neb continued much longer than that, and the Koleskamunicationswork was going insane with panic and rm codes due to the explosion.


    Then the Warp Torpedos hit the ships. Fortunately, these were not Antimatter equipped, but the damage was heavy enough when they were apanied by the Orbital Lance and the defensive Cannons. The Arisen ships barely survived the encounter, and Max could see that their shields were in bad shape, with the rest of the Station''s defensive team bearing down on them.


    They took the brunt of the first rank of firing but didn''t even try to deploy their defensive fighter nes or more War Walkers. Instead, they just faded back out of sight, along with all of the War Walkers, and the battle came to an abrupt halt.


    [What in the Sacred Tomes was that, Commander?] One of the Koleska bureaucrats, whose voice Max recognized, but couldn''t put a name to, demanded as soon as the battle ended.


    [Per our agreement, I will not let anything through that Anomaly. My apologies for theck of warning, but no other attack was sure to prevent the Arisen from bringing their war to our Gxy.] Max replied with his best professional tone.


    It took the bureaucrat a moment to look up the actual terms of their deal and make sure that Max hadn''t overstepped, but honestly, Max didn''t care. The Arisen Fleet was not in the Reavers'' territory, and he would dly take the reprimand if the Koleska bureaucrats were unhappy about it.


    The bureaucrat returned to the air a few minutester and gave the sort of nomittalint that Max expected out of a politician.


    [The Central Government''s militarymittee wishes to have a debate on the suitability of weapons of mass destruction while facing the Arisen threat at a future date, and we request that, in the interim, you refrain from the use of Antimatter weapons.]


    Max smiled before he answered. [Understood, Minister. I will take it under advisement.]


    Nico brought Santa Maria to them so she didn''t have to fly back on her own, and Max led his Mecha into the cargo hold with a gentle swing from the bay door. Nico followed him in, and the ship turned back toward the Station to return to their assigned bay.


    There was definitely a lectureing their way, as well as a lot of questions, like how the ship could take action when there was nobody on board and the use of AI was too dangerous while facing the Arisen.


    Perhaps they should have kept one of the Co-Operative members on board to stare at screens and do nothing, just for usible deniability.


    Max decided that he would have someone sent over the next time he was in contact with the Company because this situation was bound toe up again. This time he would lie and say that he was remotely piloting both Mecha at once while Nico was on the ship, but they would only buy that lie so many times before he would need a Pilot.

 Chapter 813 813 Sternly Worded Letter

    Max prepared their official version of the mission report while they waited for the higher authorities toe to yell at them, then sent it off as soon as he was sure that his response, his report, and Nico''s version of events matched up with what the Koleska would find on their sensor logs.


    They couldn''t see through the cockpit shielding of the two Mecha, so they couldn''t verify whether or not he was remote piloting both Mecha, so that part was rtively easy. He could also exin away thebat capabilities as part of human technology. He would just have to pretend that he was actually apologetic for the Antimatter warheads since they posed a real risk to the stability of the neb.


    What he got, after the Koleska leadership had reviewed the situation, and the risk that the Arisen could have made it through to the other side without anyone to stop them, was a sternly worded memo.


    That was it.


    Commander Yuri was the one to deliver it in person since the leadership felt that a digital message was insufficient to express their dismay. He was currently standing just outside the airlock, gathering his courage to face Max. What he expected was an angry alien Commander who feltpletely justified in his actions, and as the Station Commander, he was the sacrificial scapegoat who had to deliver the message in person.


    Sending it with an orderly would just be insulting, so it had to be him, no matter how little he wanted to be here.


    "You do know that I can see you standing out there, right, Commander?" Max asked over the inte, breaking Commander Yuri from his reverie.


    "Ah, yes, of course. Might Ie in? I have a message for you from High Command." Yuri replied politely.


    Max opened the door, and put on a somewhat stern face for the benefit of the cameras that faced the airlock door, then closed the airlock again when Commander Yuri was inside the ship.


    The Koleska Commander pointed to a device pinned to his robes and tilted his head.


    His thoughts said that it was an audio recording device, so everything that they said to each other could be verified by the politicians in real-time. Nico would have jammed a video recorder, and those who were with them at dinner would already know that, so they had sent the most simple possible recording device to verify everyone''s ount of events.


    Max cleared his throat and began to speak in a stern voice. "It is an honour to meet with you again, Station Commander. I presume that you have a message for me from your superiors?"


    Commander Yuri gave a short bow and handed over the letter. "I have their official reply to the situation involving the restricted weapons of war being used within close proximity to the Anomaly.


    They would like to remind you of the negotiations that have been ongoing between our people and the threat to the status quo that an incident involving a chain reaction within the neb would cause.


    It is their most direct desire that this incident is taken seriously by all parties." Commander Yuri informed him. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Understood, Commander. Is an immediate response required?"


    "No, Commander. With this, the incident is considered resolved. I thank you for your time."


    Commander Yuri backed toward the door, which Nico opened behind him, so he could politely back out of the ship, and then return to his duties on the station.


    Max tossed the letter to Nico, who opened it up and quickly scanned through the contents.


    "Oh, this isn''t bad. Sternly worded, but not aggressive, demanding, but not hostile. A solid warning but not a threat. I should take lessons in how to send a political message from the Koleska." Shemended the letter, then tossed it on the table, no longer interested in the message.


    She settled down on the couch with her legs across Max''sp and sighed. "How long do you think we have before the Arisen Army is here for vengeance? With two of their Cubes down, they are going to bepletely pissed off."


    "It took two days after the Co-Operative left before they arrived here looking for them. So, I think that is about the timeline that we are working with again for the next one. Presumably, they will be finishing with another attack orary invasion before they send more troops here.


    But the forces are gettingrger than I would expect for such a minor Station. Normally they would sendrger forces to attack a where there is more life to wipe out, not to a station where there is little to gain and every reason to avoid it as a waste of time."


    Nico stretched and put her hands behind her head. "A lot of the decisions that they make don''t make much sense if they''re actually trying to wipe out all life. It would make more sense to wipe out the valuable targets first and then move on to small reward locations like these ones, but it seems more like they are focusing on specific targets like they''re looking for something.


    It might be something about the targets that they''re looking for or something that they think might be hidden in this region of space, but they are going through the species of the region in a methodical way that really does look like there is an ulterior motive."


    "What do we have for historical data?" Max asked.


    "The Co-Operative had a pretty good historical record of the battles against the Arisen. They used it to try to avoid being overrun or targeted, though we know now that it didn''t matter since they were being tracked.


    Now, where do we start? The early records are pretty thin since they only start when the groups started to collect refugees, and the records of the groups that were killed off before this group formed were lost with them."


    They were in for a long night of data analysis, but hopefully, they coulde up with some good news out of this and maybe find a pattern or meaning to the attacks hidden in in sight.

 Chapter 814 814 Cause And Effect

    Max looked over the timeline that they had recovered from the Co-Operative ships and started to piece together the sequence of events on the three-dimensional map of the region on the coffee table.


    Starting with the oldest and then working forward, he would be able to rey the massacres and see just how many were lost, where, and how fast. The visualization helped him when he needed answers, and Max was hoping that today it would show him something important.


    There were a lot of incidents. Hundreds of thousands of worlds and outposts had been lost over the course of a century since the ships began recording.


    Fortunately, using Nico''s skill, he could transfer them all in order, along with the associated database, and have theputerpile the information into the projection that he was after.


    "Alright, it''s all on the projector. Now let''s see what we cane up with." Max muttered, causing Nico to roll on her side to get a better view of the table.


    At first, the pattern of attacks seemed random. It was all over the map of the zone, but then the areas began to fill in as they focused on the species that controlled the area.


    But they didn''t continue on to other species in the area, even if they were allied. They finished a target to their satisfaction and then moved on.


    Max paused it just as the second set of species to be attacked had nearly all appeared on the map, so he could search for patterns. Some were close to the previous target, and some were not. Once a species was gone, another inevitably got attacked, so it seemed that the fleets were independent of each other.


    So far, it just seemed like a methodical battle n, attacking the weakest targets first, so Max brought up a second globe, showing the number of casualties as opposed to facilities and worlds lost.


    For the first wave, it looked like they were targeting a high poption, easy targets, but Max knew this wasn''t actually the start of the war. It was just a historical recordpiled over hundreds of thousands of years, and there was a lot missing from it, so the uracy was in doubt.


    Still, as he watched both globes move through the second, the smaller poption dots remained untouched, and therger poption centres were crushed one after another.


    Max brought up a predictive model, guessing whichs would be hit next and what species would fall.


    It worked nearly wlessly through the third wave, based on the data that he had, but then, at the very end of the third set of species to be wiped out, something changed. The next species on the list abruptly disappeared from the map entirely.


    "Pull up that data point," Max instructed theputer and scanned through the information that was avable.


    The species data was utterly insane. It made no sense at all, but it was clear as day in the records. They had encountered an anomaly on their home and had spread to over ten thousand worlds, rapidly increasing in poption. They never advanced into the industrial age. They were not even space-capable, much less warp capable or an interster species. Their entire spread was due to an Anomaly that they couldn''t exin.


    Then one day, they vanished. SOS messages were received by nearby civilizations yearster due to their low technology existence, and when they came to investigate, the entire species was simply gone as if they had never existed.


    There was no sign of a struggle, and many homes and shops appeared to have been abandoned in the middle of regr business, with coins left on the counter, cash registers full and untouched, and the remains of meals still on tables, mostly dposed by the local vermin and insects.


    After that, the pattern of Arisen attacks got strange. Certain species were attacked, then there was a pause in the data where nos fell before the Arisen returned and finished the job. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Nothing in the data had exined any of it, but their earlier experience shed some light on the situation.


    "I think that whoever made that primitive species disappear is hunting the Arisen," Max suggested.


    "It makes sense. The way they were culled suggests that they were raised as a cattle species by another, more advanced group. Nobody saw anything, and the Anomalywork was still safely intact at the time of the investigation, butter vanishedpletely, and another species repopted the worlds on their own.


    It is possible that one of the species that the Arisen wiped out was being raised by another powerful species, and there is a second front of this war. I would guess that it''s the species called Knife Ears since they were openly hostile and attacking the Arisen when they appeared here.


    That also suggests that there is a way to track where they will appear, and we just need to find a way to obtain it." Nico agreed.


    Max considered whether to forward their information to Commander Yuri to see what the Koleska thought of the matter but decided against it. They surely knew as much as he did, and if they weren''t speaking about it, it was likely because they were terrified of the idea of a species that farmed other sentient species as cattle and scared the Arisen.


    They had seemed more than a little afraid to get in the middle of the battle between the Arisen and their challengersst time, so the chances that they were willing to try to make a deal were pretty slim, even if it was possible.


    The species hadn''t given them any signs that they were looking for cooperation, though they had been happy to take advantage of the opportunity that Max and Nico had provided by punching a hole in the shields of the Arisen ship.


    They restarted the feed, and the erratic nature of the attacks continued to get more unpredictable. It might have been a strategic measure, but the random stops and starts in battles against species continued with no exnations given, and the poption of the species no longer seemed to be a factor in the attacks after the third wave.


    There was a loose corrtion between technology and the attacks, but even then, it was a stretch.


    "Perhaps that is where they started relying on the refugees to target the next species? If they were afraid of interference by a third party, it would make sense that they only went to worlds where refugees had safely settled." Nico announced once the feed reached the current date.


    "Check the data for Anomalies. There is a chance that our third party is using them as waypoints or targets since they wiped out that species that spread using them." Max ordered theputer.


    There were plenty of Anomalies of various types, but even after isting the ones that led to other points in space and didn''t just seem to bend a rule of the universe, there was no corrtion between them and the battles.


    Nico gave the data set a dirty look, then shifted around to nap with her head in Max''sp while shepiledbat data for the next round of Mecha optimizations she wanted to send to Uncle Lu for their reinforcements.


    "Looks like we will have to wait and get our own data. We''re definitely missing something unless this really is a case of a hidden giant trying to swat a bug, and there is no causal link between the events other than their existence." She announced, then sunk her mind into other matters.


    It was hard to argue with that. This project could be set aside for the moment.

 Chapter 815 815 Did We Scare Them?

    After the battle, the Station''s district fell into the same strange silence that they had been seeing before the nomads arrived. There were battles all over the Koleska Empire, but nothing within their assigned territory.


    "Do you think we scared them away?" Nico pouted as she updated thebat reports that she had been mapping on the projection inside Santa Maria.


    "I think we unbnced their calctions, and now they''re attacking the easier targets while the Koleska train a new wave of Pilots with the Learning Machines. They''re doing their best, but it''s hard to argue that they''re doing as well as the Station is with us here.


    They took heavy casualties, got ambushed twice, and lost a number of ships. That simply doesn''t happen to the Arisen anywhere else. So, I think that they''re saving us forst." Max countered.


    "Or they could think that we have taken over, and they''re disregarding the area as no longer under Koleska control." Nicoughed.


    It was feasible. They had the firepower to take the Station and the below it if they really wanted to, so he couldn''t me the Arisen Army if they hade to the conclusion that the humans were in charge here after Santa Maria chased them away from the Station with extreme prejudice.


    That would look like the defensive actions of an upying force to outsiders. Their ship hadn''t taken action before and had left it to the two Mecha, but the ship was so simr to the Knife Ears vessels that it would be hard for the Arisen Army to mistake it for Koleska.


    After the first week, they were sure that something was bound to happen. It was almost time to graduate another ss of students who had been using the learning machines all over the Koleska battlefront, but still, no Arisen forces attacked the Station.


    "Maybe we should start some sort ofpetition to keep the Pilots'' skills up? I know that a lot of the new ones are practicing with the learning machines, but the others are only doing basic drills." Max finally suggested on day ten without any action.


    "If we don''t start doing something, they''re going to getzy and out of shape. Wait, can the Koleska get out of shape? I mean, with the chitin shell, they don''t get fat." Nico asked.


    That was a very good question. Max didn''t know the answer, and nobody was thinking about it on the Station, so he would lean toward it not being possible, but perhaps some of therger Koleska were simply fat, and their chitinpensated for it?


    Nico''s mind had already moved on from the topic of Fat Koleska, and she was thinking of making them VR pods to practice in when they weren''t fighting. There was no VR arcade on the Station, so it would be a fun new feature for them, and she could introduce new games since their basic shape was simr to humans. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    More limbs would have made the pods difficult to adapt, but with two arms and two legs, the Koleska could use them as they were without reprogramming.


    "Want me to send for Commander Yuri so we can start working on something?" Max asked while Nico nned what they would need to keep themselves in top shape.


    "Please do. I will have the software updated for the current engagement by the time you two work something out. I''m sure he won''t turn it down, and we can send a whole bloody shipload of them if he really wants them for everyone."


    That wasn''t a bad idea. They could send a ship around and drop off upgrades for every Koleska station that they passed until the Reavers could be sure that the locals were capable of defending the Anomaly and keeping the Arisen out of their Gxy.


    It would likely require more paperwork and patience than he was willing to expend, though, so he would start by proposing an Arcade full of educational games for the Station. If they needed, they could convert a cargo hold on a Cutter and send it here to do the job. But the Koleska could likely find a spot that could be used as the Arcade.


    Max sent off the proposal for the Arcade,plete with diagrams and sizes for the machines, so that the Koleska could think it over, and then went back to trying to find more meaning in the patterns of the Arisen attacks.


    Theirs might be one of the situations where they abandoned an attack and returned to itter, so it was best if he knew everything that there was to know about past events so that the Koleska around him didn''t becent, but they had wiped out all the species involved in the previous events, so perhaps the past wasn''t the best guideline on how to deal with it.


    Then it came to him. The timing was the key. What they had done was switch attack forces for one with different experiences and possibly different equipment to finish off the attack while the failed fleet moved on to another target.


    Telling them apart was the problem since the War Walkers and ships all appeared to be identical, without major differences except between categories like they were all made from the same temte. Until he saw another attack fleet, he couldn''t know for sure if that held true between forces, but once you learned to deal with each of the units in an Arisen force, you only needed to learn how to deal with their formations, which were so familiar to Max and Nico that it had only taken them a few minutes to adjust.


    [Commander Yuri, I think I have made a breakthrough in how to deal with the Arisen threat. If you have time toe discuss it and the Arcade proposal that I recently sent, I would appreciate it. Any time is fine, so please don''t let it mess with your sleep schedule.] Max sent to the other Commander.


    [In that case, I will see you for breakfast at the usual restaurant at 0700 Station time.]

 Chapter 816 816 Introducing VR Gaming

    The group waiting for Max and Nico at breakfast was much smaller than thest few meetings, only Commander Yuri and a few of his base staff since this was considered a base entertainment matter and not a military matter.


    That would make everything easier, as Commander Yuri was a simple man to negotiate with, and their ideas usually aligned on what to do about theck of skills possessed by the defence force.


    Max shook the Commander''s hand and took his seat at the table while Nico took a seat beside him, facing the Station''s Logistics Sumander.


    "We will start with the basics. What makes you think that these virtual reality games will be a valuable addition to the Station? It would have to be a justifiable level of benefit in order to reallocate space for an Arcade, as you called it.


    "First, we will only be loading educational games at first. Mecha Combat, problem-solving, team building and other simr themed games will be the mainstays of the Arcade. Using such realistic simtions, the Pilots are able to keep their skills fresh when they are not under attack, and if there are enough units, then the skills like team building can be practiced for non-military purposes, helping the crew improve their skillset in new directions, and increasing their job performance.


    The games also release stress and tension, which helps most species concentrate while under pressure. Their minds and bodies will have practiced the scenario many times before they have to face it in reality, which gives them a sense of confidence, reducing stress buildup and minimizing the chances of a team member freezing with indecision in a critical situation." Max exined.


    "Humans put this much thought into their games?" The Sumander from the Logistics department asked.


    "Yes and no. The developers put a lot of thought into them. The users y them because they are enjoyable." Nico told him with a smile.


    "Do you have a unit to test? If we could experience the game for ourselves, it would help us understand your concept of rxation through education." Commander Yuri asked.


    "Of course. We have some units set up for testing inside Santa Maria. Would you like to test them yourselves, bring some volunteers, or both?" Max asked.


    "I think both will be necessary. We will need a variety of opinions on a new entertainment venue for the Station, even if it is the two of us who have the final say on what gets spent and how much space is allocated to it." Commander Yuri agreed.


    The servers brought their meals, and the two Koleska leaders called over another group of residents, half of them Pilots and the other half nobat staff from the Station.


    The idea was that they would get a well-rounded view of the reception that an Arcade was likely to get from the crew, so they could make a proper decision and not just be seen as jumping on board with every idea that the humans had.


    One of the staffers that they called was the daughter of one of the senior ministers, so if the games made a good impression, the message would be sure to get passed on, and the addition would get some behind-the-scenes support to keep the bureaucrats from nagging them too much about the spending.


    It was an excellent tactical choice on the part of Commander Yuri, and as soon as the group was assembled, he got to his feet and prepared to head to Santa Maria to see the games for himself. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The Commander was secretly looking forward to the new additions, which sounded a lot like the learning machines without the huge information dump or the distorted passing of time.


    With their current technology, Nico could have added that feature to the pods, but that would make interactive events and team games nearly impossible since even a few minutes'' difference in login time would put them weeks apart in the game.


    That could bepensated for with strictly timed logins during an Academy ss, but in an Aracade, open to the public, with everyoneing and going, it would make building a team for a game event nearly impossible.


    The small group made their way back to the ship, where Nico had dozens of VR pods already prepped and ready to use, set up to interface with the Station''s power supply system. The fact didn''t escape the notice of the Logistics Officer, who was carefully assessing the units for their potential downfalls now that he had seen them in person.


    "The Pods closepletely to prevent foul y or other outside events from interfering with the yer, while an alert system will show them the view from the Pod''s cameras should there be interference with the Pod.


    That also allows Commanding officers to pound on the Pod to wake up yers who arete for a shift or needed for other reasons and might not have heard an alert, though the Pods can be tied to the emergency broadcast system so that the yers are aware of calls to battle stations." Nico exined to the intrigued "volunteers."


    One of the Koleska climbed into the Pod to examine the interior and any possiblefort or usage issues that they might have with the human-made design andughed as they saw the goggles.


    "It is a convenient thing that your heads are shaped so much like ours. Your heads might be softer, but your goggles fit our heads very well." The staff member joked, then reached up and pushed the big red shing button.


    "Hey, what does this..." The sentence was cut off as the Pod closed and the light turned green, indicating that it was ready for the upant to put on the goggles.


    "That button closes the lid. You cany down and put on the goggles to choose the game you want." Nico informed her over the inte.


    "That button on the side of the Pod lets you talk to the one inside, but it won''t work when they''re in the game unless they are particrly easy to distract. Outside senses are dulled in virtual reality so that the body doesn''t respond and end up hurting the upant." Max exined.


    The rest of the volunteers rushed to the pods to get a chance to see the new games, followed closely by the Commander and Sumander.


    "We will see you in two hours. I will send an alert into the system at that time so that you don''t forget to log out." Max informed them all as they got ready to y. He couldn''t see most of their responses, but within seconds, he could feel their minds drop into the game interface and start searching for a suitable source of entertainment.

 Chapter 817 817 The Verdict

    Unsurprisingly, the only ones who pickedbat-rted games were the ones who were already inbat-rted professions, but one of the Pilots had chosen a nonbat game, perhaps by chance or ident.


    The game that the Pilot had chosen was a simple strategy game, not one of thebat simtion ones like [Unit Commander] or [Station Chief]. It was more of a theoretical sort of strategy game suited to someone in central intelligence or seniormand positions, as well as chess yers,puter coding specialists and others who used extreme logical skills and predictive abilities on a regr basis.


    Technically, every ability is abat ability if you use it wrong or right enough, but this one was definitely in the category of desk job simtors.


    His brain waves registered that he was happy with the choice, though, so Max didn''t ask if he would like to back out of his choice and switch.


    Nico pointed to another pod with a grim look on her face. "Everyone is afraid of the Pilot''s skills, but that woman there is the scary one. Guaranteed, one hundred percent sociopath."


    Max looked into her mind at the game the Koleska staffer was ying and smirked at Nico. It was an ounting simtion where you did all the bookkeeping for a newly formed colony and expanded it to a full, then a gctic empire. It was essentially a hyperrealistic version of Civilization Builder that Max had yed as a kid, with an emphasis on numbers and mary policy.


    She might not be a sociopath, as Nico had insisted, but Max could pretty much guarantee that she was not the life of any party.


    Some of the yers were very bad at the game they had chosen and soon switched to another one that they thought might be more suitable. By the end of the first hour, everyone seemed to have one that they were happy with, and the Commander was working on level seven of the Base Defence simtion that Nico had built. It was the same one that she used for the human version, a copy of their bridge defence deployment, but with the Koleska and the Arisen as the protagonists and antagonists.


    [Two hours are up. Please log out and prepare to give your first impression of the gaming systems.] Nico informed everyone in the pods, and Max sensed the wave of dissatisfaction.


    The Koleska would make very good gamers once they had ess to the technology. They were excellent at single-minded focus, and once they got into a game, that was it, they were hooked.


    "Nico, we should enable timepression, so they can single-yer game for longer. I think the Koleska are the sort to beplete shut-ins once they get real games. A month in the pod in an hour-long gaming session should be enough to satisfy them and leave them ready to get back to work." Max whispered to her before anyone could leave their pods.


    "Got it. I will enable it before we send any units out."


    The Koleska gathered at the center of the room, ready to give their impressions to their superiors.


    "We will start with the negative. Who has a negative review of a game to share with the group? I know some of you switched multiple times before finding one you liked." Max asked.


    A younger Koleska man, with only a small scrap of red cloth tied around one arm, marking him as the very lowest of the low-ranking upants of the station, raised his hand.


    "Yes, the Swordfish isplete and utter bullshit. It broke my line seven times and pulled me overboard twice." He announced, earning himself confused looks from all around the room.


    "Did you strap yourself into the chair and use the rod with the more durable metal line?" Max asked, knowing he hadn''t.


    "What difference is there? It''s fishing, and it''s a fish." The irate staffer asked.


    Max brought up a hologram of the Swordfish that the simtor had him catching. They were a variant over five metres long and weighing well over a tonne.


    "That is what you were trying to catch. Do you have any questions about how it pulled you out of the boat?" Maxughed.


    Commander Yuri whistled. "Even human fishing is on another level."


    "There are onshore, rxing, spend your days in a cloth chair options as well. The Swordfish is one of the deep ocean options, with the biggest, coolest boats." Max exined.


    The Koleska all nodded in understanding. They would have picked it first, too. The temptation was too great. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Any otherints?"


    "Aliens attacked and burned my records twice in one game." The ountant, who Nico hadbelled a sociopath, pouted.


    "Oh, bad luck. Did you try to push the advancement by sending out signal beacons, or did you just get a bad random roll for neighbours?"


    The ountant looked eager to try again after Max''s question.


    "That''s right, I asked for help from the interstermunity as soon as I could force-producemunications technology that reached out of the sr system." She agreed.


    "And you didn''t think to see if they were friendly? The simtion is random and not based on the actual neighbours of the Koleska." He reminded her.


    The ountant made a noise that Max tranted as a facepalm gesture and sighed. "I get it now. It''s not that the game is too hard. It''s that I misunderstood the nature of the game and called hostile aliens to my doorstep before we even developed spaceships or energy weapons."


    Nico smiled at the room as she took notes.


    "Did anyone encounter a glitch or a truly boring or terrible game?" She asked.


    "The first one I picked was pretty bad. It put me at a bridge with a unit of War Machines, and then we just got brutally stomped on without even time to prepare or dig fortifications. I get that the games can be hard, but that was just stupid. One time I got blown up before I even stepped out of thender." A pilotined while Commander Yuriughed.


    "I yed that one too. I must have died seven times before the time was up. But thest time, we made it through the first assault."


    Nico nodded and added her notes on the subject.


    "Alright, it seems that what we need most aren''t different games, as the only realints were the difficulty level andck of introduction to the games. What I propose is to add a function that will cause the users to perceive time differently inside the pod, as they do with the learning machines, so that you can have more time in the simtion to practice or rx, whichever you wish to do with your free time." She exined.


    For humans, too muchpression would be boring, as their brains would store it closer to real-time, like a vague dream full of data, but the Koleska remembered the events in the Learning Machines as if they were there the whole time, so putting the same tech to work in the Pods would be perfect for them.


    "That would be excellent. If it could be the same dtion, one year of training to an hour in the Pods, we could make huge progress." The Sumander from Logistics suggested.


    "Remember, this is a game, a leisure activity to help bnce the experiences and lifestyles of the crew. Perhaps having them experience an extra year every evening after work might be detrimental to their actual job performance. That''s a long time away from work." Max reminded him.


    The ountant and the Logistics Sumander shared a professional look, then a nod, before the Sumander returned his attention to Max.


    "Can we perhaps have the option to adjust the time dtion effect so we can test optimal work performance?" He asked hopefully.


    [Great, now there are two ''numbers people.''] Nico thought to herself, but outwardly she nodded.


    "That should be possible within the software that I have avable. We will be eagerly awaiting your decision on how many units you would like for the Station''s Arcade. They will be a gift of goodwill from us to the station, a form of condolence for their lostrades." Nico announced, saving them the hassle of negotiating a price.


    "It would be rude of us to refuse your gift. We will have data with the amount of space avable by the morning." Commander Yuri announced, cutting off the Logistics officer, who still desperately wanted to discuss the intricate details of the Pods'' cement in each and every space they had avable.


    He knew his staff well.

 Chapter 818 818 Not Here For Us

    Late that night, the attack rms red, chasing everyone out of bed and sending Nico and Max running for the Mecha for the first time in weeks.


    [Arisen attack fleet iing. All hands to battle stations, all War Machines are being scrambled for the defence.] The voice repeated constantly.


    It must be bad, the Koleska hated repeating themselves, but the announcement was still ying when Maxunched Cleansing Light out into the vacuum of space.


    That was when his sensors activated, and he saw what they were up against.


    Seventeen Arisen Cubes and two Colony Ship type vessels were in an intense firefight with a Knife Ears World Ship, and it had just happened to drift this way as the Arisen vessels blinked in and out of existence, trying to avoid the heavies firepower of their enemy.


    [Commander Keres, have you ever seen anything like that before?] Commander Yuri asked as soon as he was deployed into formation with his troops.


    [Indeed I have. We have a simr vessel of our own, and they are no joke in a battle. Focus on any Arisen units thate near the station or the Anomaly, and try to stay out of the way of the Knife Ears. I get the feeling that they are not your allies, only the enemy of your enemy.] Max informed him.


    [I will ask about itter. As long as someone knows what we''re facing.]


    The Commander cutmunications and began to deploy his forces while Max grabbed Nico and moved forward to deal with the Cubes and their croissant-shaped fighters from the group furthest away from the Knife Ears ship.


    The small, de-winged attack craft paid them no mind as the two Mecha advanced, but the Arisen immediately sent squadrons to intercept them. It seemed that they had faced members of this group before, and they knew not to let the Mecha get a clear shot at their ships. Especially not when they were already fully engaged in a battle.


    The War Walkers were all dealing with the World Ship, trying to swarm it and break in, so there were only attack fightersing their way, and Max could sense Nico''s mental sigh, even from this distance.


    [You like fighter jets, I don''t know why you''re upset.] He reminded her.


    [These things had better be faster than they look, or I''m not going to be happy about an easy fight.] She thought back, then began firing her Disruptors at the iing craft.


    The blue light of the defensive Lasersbined with the green light of the Arisen Particle Cannons to light up the Neb in a terrifying show of violence, but the shots were all failing to reach their targets.


    The shields of the attack craft had no problems with the Lasers, as they had faced the weapons many times in the past, over many species, and the Disruptors from the two Mecha were annihting the Particle Beams before they could reach their targets. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    For a moment, the battle looked like it was at a stalemate, as the two sides paused their advance and unleashed heavy firepower against each other, but that was not destined tost.


    Once the capacitors for the Orbital Lance mode were charged, Max stopped using his Disruptor as a defensive weapon and unleashed a thick beam through the Arisen fleet, sending the fighters scattering to avoid the invisible beam.


    [Oh, they''re getting good. They have learned to detect the high output mode of the Orbital Lance.] Nicoughed as she picked off the fleeing fighters.


    With their formation broken, they could no longerbine shields to block her shots, and her Mass Driver joined the Disruptors in targeting the enemy.


    It was still strange to Max, seeing the weapon fire with nearly no apanying noise. The thin gas of the Neb did carry some sound, but even the sensors of Cleansing Light could barely detect it, and a solid projectile of that sort simply needed an audio effect to feel natural in his mind.


    Inside Shattered Pride, it was a very different story. The hum and snap of the energy flows rang through the Mecha with every shot, giving Nico a satisfied feeling as she filled the air with metal and radiation waves.


    Then, the explosions started.


    Because the attack fighters would likely dodge, Nico had chosen nuclear explosions as her round of choice, a form of interster k gun for fighting enemies that could move at arge fraction of the speed of light.


    The closest Cube managed to disengage from the fight ande to join the attack craft, trying to push the Mecha away from their battle with the Knife Ears, but the nimble attack craft of the mysterious enemy was not going to make that easy for them.


    The Cube had managed to move into firing range of the two Mecha, but it was being harassed by hundreds of small craft, which were hindering its attempts to send out more fighters to reinforce the ones that Max and Nico were cutting down like grass.


    If the Arisen could feel frustration, they would definitely be feeling it now, but things were far from safe on any side.


    Many of the small craft had been destroyed by the Cube''s defensive weapons, and the Knife Ears had no concept of friendly fire. They didn''t even try to avoid shooting at their own vessels and instead relied on their technology and reflexes to get out of the way.


    It was an incredible tactic, and when they were in close proximity to an Arisen Fighter, it was utterly lethal. The presence of the nearby craft''s engines masked the signal of the iing round, and then at thest second, the ship would break away, and the shot would impact right before the first vessel would return to make a rush at the Arisen Fighters.


    There was a rhythm to it, a subtle but deadly dance that Max found hauntingly familiar, and subconsciously found himself joining the flow of as the battle wore on.

 Chapter 819 819 The Darklings

    Max charged at the nearest of the Arisen attack fighters, knowing that the ships didn''t have any melee weapons and were hindered by slow-aiming main weapons and ack of secondary weapons that could threaten the Titan ss Mecha.


    Though it dodged, his kill was still certain until his rm red an impact warning, and Max rolled to the side as an energy beam came in from behind him, shattering the craft''s shields and leaving it open to his de.


    The energy sword tore the attack fighter in half, and Max moved to the next target, joining the Knife Ears dance with hisparatively huge and clumsy Mecha.


    [I want their gravity technology.] Nicoined as a kill was stolen from her by a de-winged craft that did an impossibly tight dice roll and used its wing de to cut apart the enemy after Nico''s Disruptor took down its shield.


    By Max''s quick calction, that roll should have generated over a hundred times standard gravity, well over what the human technology couldpensate for, but the craft definitely had living upants in it.


    He could sense their minds and their hatred for what they called "The Eternal Enemy."


    Again he unleashed the Orbital Lance at the Cube, allowing them to sacrifice fighters to mitigate the damage done to their shields, and again the Knife Ears attack fleet covered for him when the return fire came, forcing the Arisen to spread it out or risk them breaking through the weakened point in the shields.


    The nimble craft wasn''t actively targeting him, and they were distracting the Arisen Cube''s retribution, but at the same time, they also didn''t hesitate to shoot through his positions if there was a target on the other side.


    He didn''t sense malice, though, only amusement and hatred for the Arisen. His life simply didn''t mean anything at all to them, so they saw no reason to feel bad about shooting at him or to actively attack him.


    What mattered to them was his firepower. They wanted Cube''s shields down so that they could tear it apart.


    So, that was what Max focused on. Every chance he got, he fired a round at the Cube, until by lucky coincidence, a dodged Mass Driver round and the Orbital Lance hit the shield at nearly the same instant, causing a breach that the attack craft quickly swarmed through.


    The des on the wings seemed deliberately designed to tear apart the hulls of the Arisen ships, and deep furrows formed as the small vessels raked the Cube, then retreated again before the shields could be brought back online.


    When they came back up, the shields were a quarter of what they were to start with, and there was no defensive fire from that side of the Cube at all. The Knife Ears had targeted the weapons and shield generators the first chance they got, and Max could see that this battle was soon to end if the Arisen didn''t flee.


    They were tenacious today, though, either unable or unwilling to leave the fight with their great enemy, and they were standing strong, turning the Cube so the weakened side was away from Max and Nico, and continuing to send out fighters.


    Max grabbed the Mass Driver from his back and linked his targeting data to Nico. As soon as his next Orbital Lance was fired, they would fire together and try to take out the shield on this side of the Cube as well.


    With two out of six sides disabled, they wouldn''t have enough fighters to defend the mothership, and the small attack craft could easily defeat them, making thisbo a slow death for the Arisen vessel.


    Arisen Fighters vaporized, and attack craft flickered out of the way, moving to high warp in an instant and rapidly changing directions, then returning to the fight after the beam had passed by.


    The defensive weapons of the Arisen weakened the beam before it hit the shield, but there were no fighters left to stop the Mass Driver rounds, and the Knife Ears were stopping any of them from trying. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The shots hit home, and the first round hit at full Warp power, copsing the shield and letting the second round punch deep into the Cube, setting off chain explosions that the attack craft took advantage of to swarm the whole ship.


    They disabled shield generators, defensive weapons, and airlock doors that let the fighters out. Every strategic point on the Cube was crippled in a matter of seconds.


    Another Mass Driver round from Nico hit the very center of the Cube, and with a sh of green light, it went critical. There was a ball of eerie light and a ring of debris as the vessel exploded, then silence as the fighters it sent out went dead in the air, either knocked unconscious or rendered unable to function with the loss of their mother ship.


    They were torn apart so long that Max didn''t get a chance to check, and then with a quick wing dip and a flyby, the Knife Ears ships returned to the main battle.


    It was their thoughts that drew Max''s attention, though, not their actions.


    [So, there is life still in the Ancestral Home, and they are learning to use our old toys.] The pilot was thinking as he flew past before he focused again on the main battle.


    "Nico, I know what they are, and so do you. Those Knife Ears, as the Koleska called them, are Darklings." Max announced when he recognized thenguage and the description.


    The ships weren''t the same as they were in his past life, but the description fit, and he spoke theirnguage, so it had to be them.


    "Darklings? How is that even possible? I thought they went extinct?" Nico asked, then realization set in for her as well.


    "They didn''t all die. They simply left. What else do you know?" She asked.


    "They called our Gxy the [Ancestral Home]. Do you know where they came from originally? Perhaps we can start reassembling the map as we knew it then.


    "The Darklings had been a menace for a million years. Nobody knew where they originated from. If it was our Gxy, though, the timeline fits. They disappeared from the furthest reaches of Alliance territory a million years ago, and nobody knows where they went.


    If they went to hound the region where we were in ourst lives, that simply means that we''re still nowhere near there, or at least, the Alliance isn''t. This region might be, but I don''t know of any neb that would be the size of a thousand Gxies." Nico replied.


    "I got the feeling that they have been fighting the Arisen for a very long time now. They called them the Eternal Enemy. If there were answers to our questions, they might have been ground into dust by a million years of war." Max sighed.


    "Look on the bright side. We speak theirnguage, and they have shiny new toys that they might be willing to part with." Nico cheerfully added.


    "Not likely. Not shooting us is about as far as their tolerance goes, and that only covers not deliberately shooting us. identally shooting through us to get to another target is clearly fair game." Max reminded her.


    "Well, there''s that. But I still have hope."

 Chapter 820 820 Why Do They Help You?

    Max and Nico joined the back of the Darkling offensive against the Arisen fleet, with the attack craft nimbly dodging their shots, so neither of them held back on the firepower as they eliminated the Arisen.


    The only concession that they made was to not use the Disruptors in wide pattern attacks so that they wouldn''t interfere with the attack craft too much and annoy the third party in their fight.


    So, they continued to single-target the enemies while the fight wore on, and the attack craft kept anything from getting close enough to threaten them in return.


    It really did feel unfair since they could kill without repercussions, but it was exceedingly effective, and that was the only part that really mattered during a battle.


    Once the Darklings learned that Max and Nico together could cause a breach in the Arisen shis'' shielding, it was only a matter of time before the Arisen fell. Nothing they did would block the attacks from the two human Mecha. The attack craft made sure of that. So time after time, the Mass Driver projectiles hit the shields a full Warp Speed and shattered the Arisen defences.


    "I swear, they''re having more fun with this than we are." Nicoughed as thest of the Cubes was swarmed by the attack craft, leaving only a colony ship on the Arisen side of the battle, along with a huge number of War Walkers and attack craft.


    As usual, the Arisen began to fade out, but this time, an energy beam from the Darkling ship hit their ship, and the process came to a halt as if they were forcibly dragged back into reality.


    "Did you get that data?" Max asked Nico in a hurry.


    He had as much sensor data as he could get, but Nico had modified all her own sensors to give her data that an engineer would need, not a soldier, so she would see things that he couldn''t.


    "I think I got enough of it, and I can almost guarantee that they did it for our benefit," Nico replied, as the ship tried a second time and actually vanished, along with the remaining troops, right before the Darkling ship did the same.


    The sense of relief as the battle ended without involving them was palpable, and the Koleska defence force began heading back to their stations when suddenly the battered and burning form of the Arisen Colony ship appeared in space just outside the Anomaly, looking infinitely worse than it had only a few seconds earlier.


    It was heading for the Anomaly, and it was toote for Max to stop them.


    But they never made it. Just before they should have passed through, an immense form appeared on the other side of the distortion in space, and the Arisen vessel crashed into the raised shields of the Darkling world ship, crushing itself with momentum without a shield or any form of structural enhancement to keep itself intact.


    Again, it faded out, and this time the World Ship didn''t hesitate to follow it.


    [Commander Max, do you happen to have any insights on what in the seven realms just happened here?] Commander Yuri asked as the sudden reappearance of the Arisen ship startled his retreating troops. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [I''m not sure how much I can say that I actually know, but I have a theory that might be mostly correct.] Max replied.


    [While Koleska society doesn''t usually deal in rumours and theories, I think that we need to hear this one. Something very strange is going on, and it seems clear that it involves your species and the ships you have built that resemble that of the Knife Ears.] The Commander sighed.


    The Knife Ears didn''t defend anyone. Ever. For any reason. But today, they had guarded the Anomaly that led to the humans'' Gxy, and they had blocked the Arisen fighter nes so that the two Mecha could unleash their brutal firepower on the Arisen motherships without interference.


    One of the two alone might have been coincidental, and only because it served their battle n, but two beneficial actions in a row was no ident.


    So, another meeting was arranged at the usual table in the restaurant, along with all the relevant government officials and a number of new people who Max had never seen before.


    They weren''t even all Koleska, which was a bit of a shock.


    "These are the envoys of the Tinnar. I believe you have seen one of their people before among the Co-Operative group." Commander Yuri introduced the tall and slender gray-skinned aliens with no noses.


    "Ah, yes. The one that took a liking to our ship Commander. She seemed like a lovely sort. It is a pleasure to meet you all, and good to see that your species survived the encounter with the Arisen." Max weed them to the table.


    The leader of their group gave a polite bow before sitting down. "Our society was split into seven empires, or the Seven Realms, as they were once known. They have all fallen now, but our species lives on among a thousand other territories." He exined.


    A Koleska senior bureaucrat stepped in to get things moving, impatient with the polite formalities.


    "Might you exin to us and our esteemed guests how it is that your people came to have such a good rtionship with the Knife Ears? They are a species of monsters, and I have never heard of them treating any other with kindness. But today, they fought alongside you and even defended the Anomaly to your home Gxy on your behalf." He demanded.


    "I believe we should order drinks first. This conversation is bound to take a rather long time once the questions start, but in the short form, there is a good chance that roughly a million years ago, they abandoned a group of colonies in our Gxy and came here." Max informed them.


    The Koleska and the Tinnar both looked at him like he had grown both a second and a third head at the same time. There was shock and disbelief in their thoughts, and then they began to realize the simrities in the designs of the vessels, and even more questions formed in their minds.


    "See, this is going to take a while." Max chuckled, and raised his hand to bring a server over.

 Chapter 821 821 Explaining Humanity Pt1

    Once the drinks were distributed, Max passed the lead off to Nico, who was a walking repository of historical and technical information, to begin with. As such, she was much more qualified to lead this conversation.


    "Let''s start at the beginning. A million of our standard years ago, our species wasn''t even sentient yet. We only began our major developments in sentience a few hundred thousand years ago. So, we never interacted with them to our knowledge.


    However, as we expanded around our Gxy, we found signs that we weren''t the first ones there. Abandoneds with ancient ruins well beyond our knowledge and abilities. Odd spatial anomalies, like groups ofs arranged in identical patterns and rotations around nearly identical stars. Things that we could have never done as a species.


    Thousands of years of War stalled our development as we fought hostile species in our Gxy and focused on War and survival. Not that we didn''t advance at all, but everything we developed had a basis in our struggle against hostile species.


    One of the earliest developments that we created was the Mecha, our war machines. At first, they were intended asary assault forces, and that is still primarily how they have been used for ten millennia or more since their development.


    But recently, we found a handful of ruins with technology well beyond what we had developed or found in the past. The construction method that led us to designs so simr to the Knife Ears.


    This was much more than an isted scrap of technology. It was a whole new construction method. The ruins were more intact on the and appeared to be designed for a species roughly our size and physique.


    So, it was postted that we might not have been the first wave of Human development. There might have been another culture of our species in the past, which was wiped out, leaving only a handful of primitive survivors struggling to survive, which rebuilt our species into what it is today.


    That is the prevailing theory among our people right now, but after meeting the Knife Ears and seeing the more advanced version of the same technology that they are using, the two of us have a theory that it might not have been ancient humans who were in our Gxy and rearranged all those star systems for the peak in habitability. It might have been the Knife Ears, or possibly the Knife ears guiding our species'' early development as an experiment. The majority of evidence still suggests that our species spread through the Gxy twice, with culling in the middle."


    Nico paused as the Koleska and Tinnar took in that news.


    "A farmed Gxy. I have never heard of them doing it on such a grand scale, but arrangings for their cattle species to grow on? That isn''t new for them." The Koleska bureaucrat agreed. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "It is possible that a million years ago, your species was their first attempt at the practice, and for some reason, they determined that it was less efficient to develop a species than to help multiple species spread and then farm them." The Tinnar leader added.


    One of the junior Tinnar delegates raised her hand and cleared her throat. "Is it possible that the species turned out to be insufficient for whatever purpose they have with them? From what I have seen, humans are rtively fearless and highly aggressive. Perhaps you were too much trouble for the effort they put in?"


    That made Maxugh. There was a good chance she wasn''t wrong if the theory that the Knife Ears, or Darklings, as he and Nico knew them in their past life, had developed, raised and then given up on their species was too annoying to put up with.


    In his past life, they had the technology, and they certainly did now. Even humans had no problems guiding a species'' gic development at this point, so it couldn''t be beyond them.


    This could be a turning point in human knowledge of their past. There never was a good exnation for how they might have lost their own home. Even if it was developed past the point of no return and couldn''t be inhabited anymore, there should be at least some record of its location.


    But if they were relocated during the early days of the expansion, then they might really have lost track of the location since they weren''t in charge of their navigation. It might have been through an Anomaly, which led to a part of the Gxy that they hadn''t mapped properly, or like the identical stars, it might have simply been out of sight and identical to the system where they came from, which would have led to theories of time travel.


    Humans had too many origin stories and superstitions at this point, so it was impossible to track down the source of them all. But if it was because they actually came from a hundred different but identical star systems, it would exin a lot of the confusion and arguments when they met up with each other tens of thousands of yearster.


    "How does this origin story of the humans rte to how you manage to get along with the Knife Ears?" The Koleska senior bureaucrat asked impatiently while Nico was waiting for everyone to digest the information she had given them.


    "My current theory and this is just a theory without evidence, since we have no prior interactions with them before the battles here, is that because we are using a primitive version of their own technology, we are not seen as a threat to them, but more as abandoned toddlers returned to their former nanny.


    Wee from a Gxy that they developed and farmed and most likely culled of ny percent or more of its poption. There is a good chance that they know more about us than we do at this point, with all of the knowledge that was lost when our oldest colonies were overrun by hostile species in the past."

 Chapter 822 822 Explaining Humanity Pt2

    The Tinnar leader looked confused, with his t nasal opening that extended up his face fluttering open and closed as he tilted his head and seemed to lose focus on the room.


    Max could tell he was deep in thought about the possibility that humans and the Knife Ears weren''t actually working together. But he couldn''t determine why the region''s second great evil hadn''t attacked them.


    Then, he had a moment of inspiration. "You said they were like your species nanny in a way if they had actually raised humanity through your early development. Is it possible that they''re just indulging your urge to attack their enemies? If they''re really treating humans as children in some twisted way, they might be willing to indulge them until their curiosity is sated."


    The Koleska actually looked more horrified about that than the chances that the two species were working together.


    "What if they''re treating the Humans as pets?" The lead bureaucrat finally asked.


    "How so?" Max asked, though he already knew what the man was thinking.


    "If they''re intending to raise the humans as attack dogs now that they''re beginning to grow up as a species and have mastered the technology clues left behind for them to such a degree, it would be a disaster for this entire region. Forget simply protecting the Anomaly. If the humans sent a million more teams like these two through to our region, they would be capable of wiping out species faster than the Arisen.


    The only reason that the Knife Ears aren''t the greatest threat to the region is because they''re so rarely seen and never inrge numbers. But humans have millions ofs. Even if each sent one team here, the Arisen wouldn''t dare to enter any territory that they chose to upy."


    The Koleska all had thoughts of being enved and overrun by human overlords in Mecha with exotic weapons that could destroy anything they could field in a single shot, but the Tinnar were overjoyed.


    They saw a benevolent military force who were spread all over the region and were able to gather to drive back the Arisen wherever they might appear.


    "Our agreement with the Koleska is that we won''t send more forces through than are necessary to hold the region around the Anomalies which lead to our home region of space.


    Somewhere else in this region, there is a second species from near us doing the same thing, holding a foothold at an anomaly to keep the Arisen at bay. They are rtively close to us in the universe, and if they begin to falter, we will send them reinforcements as allies, but we have neither the intention nor the manpower to fight wars in a region we can''t even locate on a map of the universe." Max assured them.


    That was only a little concerning to them. If they were so far away that they hadn''t heard of a second anomaly with an alien species'' arrival, it was too far away to affect their battle against the Arisen. The only important part to the Koleska bureaucrats was their continued survival and the end of the Arisen threat.


    The Koleska and Tinnar groups went silent for a while as they considered what to do in this situation. The Knife Ears might be back, or they might not, but if they did, the wise thing to do was to stay on defence and let the humans engage.


    They hadn''t attacked the Koleska at all so far, only focused on the Arisen, and because the Koleska had retreated from the fight between the two powerhouses, they hadn''t suffered any casualties, but it didn''t make them feel any better about another hostile species in the area.


    Add to that the concern that humans might actually be just as bad as the Knife Ears if they weren''t allied by an agreement, and the Koleska were in a panic about how the future would pan out.


    They weren''t well suited for uncertainty, especially in politics, and this was nearly enough to cause a full breakdown in theirfort level with Max and Nico. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max spoke up again to assure them of future alliance actions. "We might have had a link to them a million years ago, but a lot has changed in that time. We are not them, and the Reavers take agreements especially seriously, even among the human factions.


    We have allied with the Koleska to defend the Anomaly, and there is no chance that we will be the ones to break that agreement or to start any other hostile action in this region."


    The Tinnar delegation leader smiled at Max and extended his hand. "As our people don''t have an agreement, might we get that in writing? We came here because we heard about the situation, and it would greatly assure our people if there was a written agreement that the humans would not attack any of the nations where we have taken shelter."


    Max nodded. "We can agree that we will not attack first, but we cannot guarantee that we will not annihte any species that attacks us, regardless of their alliances."


    The Tinnar flinched at that, but a braver member of his delegation, their military representative, spoke up.


    "Do the humans really think they are capable of what the Arisen struggle to do?" He asked.


    Nico smiled at the man in a way that sent a shudder up his spine.


    "Have you seen thebat videos of our Mecha?"


    The man nodded, and she continued. "If ites down to it, we can field a hundred million of them at a time. When ites down to it, we are fully capable of overtaking civilized species empires in a single day, and we have done it before to pacify violent neighbours."


    The Tinnar leader was giving his military advisor a look that promised violence for having asked that question, but the man''s curiosity was honest. He really did want to know if the humans were all hot air or if they could back up their words. If she had said a thousand or ten thousand, he would have brushed off her bragging. But against a hundred million? No species could withstand that sort of firepower, no matter how advanced their military might be.


    "How would you organize that many?" Commander Yuri asked curiously, thinking of the defence of his own Station in an emergency.


    "We have an Alliance, broken up into independently operating Companies. If you attack one of us, you attack all of us. That is our way and ourw. So, if we are attacked, we will form a military council for the battle that organizes where every Company will send their troops, and we will attack as one. I can send a data feed of the one time we actually had to do it if you like." Nico offered.


    "Oh yes, please do. But tell me, what happened to that species afterward?" Commander Yuri asked.


    "We killed all their political leaders, and our allies appointed a mediator to run their Empire on our behalf to ensure impartiality. They are a bit of aughingstock for having lost their Empire in less than two days, but ny-nine percent of them are alive and well, still living their lives as normal, with an added tax to pay reparations for the damage their leaders caused." She exined.


    That made Commander Yuri and the junior delegates much happier about working with the humans. But at the same time, it made the bureaucrats much more nervous about doing anything that might be construed as an act of war against humans.


    The Tinnar definitely didn''t want to make that mistake, especially after Nico sent them an abridged version of the invasion, with hundreds of thousands or millions of Mecha descending on every at the same time.

 Chapter 823 823 Arisen Colonization

    One of the junior Koleska blurted out in surprise when Commander Yuri yed the video feed for him. "Oh, I recognize those. Those are the little Mecha from the VR Pods. I thought they were a game construct."


    "No, they are the backbone of our light military forces, used for urbanbat and other delicate situations, where levels of firepower like what is wielded by Shattered Pride or Cleansing Light would cause too much coteral damage.


    We''re not in the business of annihting inhabiteds unless the species on them is one of the extremely aggressive non-sentient ones that infest our Gxy. Those ones have to be fully purged from a, or they will repopte and continue to kill everything that theye across." Max exined.


    That seemed to convince the Tinnar that they were both firm in their beliefs and benevolent when possible, which improved their first impression of the humans as a possible sessor to the Knife Ears as an intergctic scourge.


    "It seems that your species has a unique way of dealing with issues. Is that part of their nature, or is it a societal development?" The Tinnar''s cultural advisor asked.


    "It is a cultural phenomenon. During most of our development, we were fractured into much smaller groups, and infighting wasmon, even while we were engaged in battles against hostile alien species. But in more recent times, we have formedrger alliances so that we can mobilize the might of the species in its majority and put an end to the rebellions and infighting.


    We''re far from perfect, and the process is far fromplete, but we have made a solid start."


    Their discussion was cut short when the attack rm went off again, signalling an Arisen attack.


    [Iing Arisen vessels. Materialization between the and the Station.] The announcement repeated.


    That was the customary attack pattern, where they would appear and surround a world, then crush it. For once, the Arisen were doing what they were expected to do, and the entire Koleska fleet had trained for this.


    Max and Nico jumped to their feet and pulled out small shield generators from their t spaces, a part of the Piloting Suits that they would put on once they were closer to Santa Maria, but an essential safety measure in case the Station was attacked on their way to their Mecha.


    "Our apologies. We will be happy to finish this after the attack." Max called as they ran, but half of the table had already spread out, leaving the Tinnar guests sitting there awkwardly with the bureaucrats.


    The lead bureaucrat hummed at the Tinnar group leader, in the Koleska equivalent of a smile and sighed. "It seems that we have been left behind again while the fighting rages. You can be assured that the Station is quite safe, though. The shields have never been breached during the Arisen attacks, and the defence fleet here is the finest in our entire Empire."


    The Tinnar gave him a dubious look, but a junior staffer came to his rescue. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "The humans have granted us some of their learning technology, and it has allowed us to increase the quality of our war machine pilots by an impressive degree. For thest four battles in a row, we have set species records for low casualties, and they have been improving with every fight.


    If we keep up like this, we might actually be the clear winners of the engagements and not simply staving them off in a war of attrition." The young Koleska dered proudly but produced data to back up their point.


    "Interesting. So it''s not just a military alliance?" The Tinnar asked.


    "In theory, it is a strictly military alliance, but the humans are generous with their technology among allies, it seems, and they were the first to propose a deal for learning machines to improve our soldiers.


    I am ashamed to say that they might have found our warriorscking, but once you see those two with your own eyes, you will understand why we are not upset that the humans only sent two people to uphold their end of the deal." The lead bureaucrat exined.


    "Are they really as impressive as the rumours are? That ship looks quiterge." The Tinnar leader asked, making the Koleska bureaucrats bring up the Station''s video feeds.


    What they saw was just one ship, a Colony Ship shaped like a pyramid nearly ten kilometres tall, with a terrifying number of fighters and War Walkers deploying from its surfaces.


    Even at an early estimate, while they were still deploying, the Station''s defenders were outnumbered ten to one just in War Walkers, and the crescent-shaped fighter nes would make it hard to even get to them, as well as posing a serious threat to the surface of the if they chose to descend.


    They were also too close to the, its moon, and the Station for the humans to use Antimatter weapons, even if they wanted to. The bacsh would damage their own vessel and cause huge casualties among the civilians.


    "I will admit, this is arger than usual force, but I have confidence that they will be able to deal with it. As I said, our force here is the finest trained among our entire species. However, if you wish to prepare to depart, I won''t hold it against you." The bureaucrat sighed.


    He somewhat wished that he, too, could run away from this, as the odds didn''t look good, but it wasn''t physically or ethically an option for someone in his position. He would be stripped from his rank if he fled, and he didn''t have the authority tomandeer a ship to leave in.


    Max and Nicounched secondster, and their weapons were firing at full rate and maximum dispersion pattern as soon as they were clear of the Station and had a line of sight to the Arisen Army.


    They weren''t targeting the main ship. That was futile at this point, and they were going for maximum damage to the army itself. The two Mecha were decimating the Arisen numbers before the fighters could close the distance for their shorter-range particle weapons to get close enough to threaten the Mecha.

 Chapter 824 824 Impressing The Tinnar

    [Move up, so we can fire down on them without the Station or the in the way. That should draw the fighters away enough for Commander Yuri to deploy.] Max ordered as their first Disruptor sts tore apart huge swathes of the enemy.


    Nico shifted in time with him, keeping her shots timed in between his to keep the Fighters dodging. Once they were in ce, Max charged forward, firing all six of his Disruptors in a full coverage arc, a short-range methrower pattern attack that cleared the whole area in front of them and gave Nico time to get a nuclear-tipped Mass Driver round into the assembling War Walkers.


    They were still tightly clustered in preparation for the impending Koleska attack, and thousands died in an instant when the round detonated.


    Max chuckled at the Arisen Army''s bad luck and prepared to clear another group of fighters for another strategic attack.


    [Aim for the bottom right corner of the Pyramid.] Nico instructed, and Max adjusted his cone of attack, forcing the fighters away from the edges of his pattern and letting Nico''s shot through.


    He couldn''t tell what she was aiming for, but just as the Mass Driver round was about to impact impotently against the thick shields of the massive vessel, a smaller Arisen ship, in the more familiar angr pattern, emerged from a bay in that corner and rushed clear of the shielding, directly into Nico''s shot.


    [Oh, I love it when a nes together. They''re deploying in a strategic pattern to reduce the impact of our attacks, but from above, we can hit nearly everything they deploy until they shift the Pyramid.]


    The far side of the vessel had a number of huge round outlets, the main thrusters and Warp Drives for the Pyramid, so it was nearly void of hangars. They couldn''t deploy from there when the ship was in motion. The energy fluctuations from the engines would tear them apart.


    Human ships had the same issue, and the hangars couldn''t be ced too close to the Warp Drive Nacelles.


    The Arisen wanted to keep those outlets away from the two Mecha, as they were criticalponents should the shields go down, but on the other hand, having the Mecha up above its peak, where they could see all the hangar bays was also a terrible spot for them.


    The Koleska forces were getting into position now, which was distracting the War Walkers. That gave Nico the chance to charge, engaging surprisingly fast thrusters tounch herself into the fighters and begin slicing them apart.


    [When did you upgrade the thrusters?] Max asked in confusion, as he didn''t recall her thinking about it at all.


    [After thest battle. I''ve been running it as a background process for a while until I came up with a proper upgradest night. It''s great, isn''t it?] She replied happily.


    It was a lot like the Darkling attack craft, throwing her Mecha around in impossibly agile patterns, nearly bouncing between fighter nes, leaving them unable to properly target her thanks to their friendly fire prevention algorithms.


    Max focused on clearing out any area where they gathered, inflicting as much pain as he could before the battle really got underway.


    The Koleska were going to have a bad day, no matter how he looked at it, but they could at least keep them from being ambushed from every side at once. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The War Walkers began to charge, firing furiously as they closed the distance to the Koleska formation, and Max stopped his suppression of the fighters to send an Orbital Lance into their ranks, breaking apart their cohesion for a moment and giving the Koleska a short breather to reorganize after the first wave of casualties.


    They split into smaller groups to make themselves harder to target and continued their assault against the Arisen Army, while Max cleared a path in front of Nico with a wide pattern attack, letting her move up and around the Pyramid to get behind the War Walker lines.


    She was focused on the fighters, but it would make the Arisen Command Walkers second guess their actions with that Mass Driver at their backs.


    Inside the Station, the Tinnar were staring in awe at the ongoing battle and the number of early casualties on both sides.


    "This is insanity. The will fall, and it''s toote to flee." One of their members cried out as the second wave of Fighter Craftunched out to attack Max, who nimbly rolled through space, creating a constantly changing profile shape for them to shoot at and avoiding the majority of the attacks.


    His shields were holding up well, and the Disruptors were still capable of shredding through the light attack vessels, so the human Mecha had the advantage, while the Koleska Defence Force was nearly into closebat range with the War Walkers, where they were historically known to suffer their worst losses.


    But today, things were different. The casualty rate was going up drastically, but so was the kill rate.


    The front lines of the Station''s attack fleet were the fresh graduates who had years'' worth of experience in the learning machines, and they were holding their own against the War Walkers, while the second rank had fallen back to reduce secondary damage and keep the War Walkers from working together to outnumber the front lines.


    The nobatants watched in horror as another Regiment of War Walkers emerged from the Pyramid and assembled abined shield that stopped an Orbital Lance from Cleansing Light.


    They were beginning to despair for their troops when the Mass Driver round detonated in their ranks, having entered from the back while their attention and shields were focused on dealing with Max.


    The explosion tore apart the core of the Regiment and took out all four Command Walkers, sending the group into momentary disarray and leaving them open to the attacks of the Koleska Sniper units in the back lines.


    "That level of coordination is incredible. Their small numbers are their greatest advantage since the enemy has nothing to target. Ovepping their firing patterns only disrupts the particle beams, so the Arisen are hindering themselves by sending swarms of vessels at them, but they haven''t realized it yet." The Tinnar Military Advisormented with a hint of reverence in his voice.


    "Just wait. They will adjust and start sending entire waves of Command Walkers at them soon. They''ve done it before, and it''s usually the point at which they start sending drop craft to the. Fortunately, we have excellent orbital insertion defences here." The Station''s Defence Officer informed them in a grim voice.


    Their weapons were formidable, but that didn''t mean they were impervious to assault.

 Chapter 825 825 Entanglement

    Max felt Nico smile as the Fighters linked shields and charged to provide cover for the wave of War Walkers that were following them in her direction. It was both the best and the most predictable and, therefore worst tactic they could have chosen.


    A blind toddler ying a strategy game could have seen through their tactic, so Max charged the Orbital Lance and waited for Nico to approach the linked shield before firing.


    The shield shattered just as Nico''s de passed through the point where it used to be to chop apart a Fighter Craft, followed by three more as she spun Shattered Pride with her thrusters. The remainder of the shield faltered as a hole was cut in their formation, and Max took out his Mass Driver to put a round past Nico and into the group of Command Walkers.


    She moved to the side, going after the closest enemies, as the round passed through the hole in the shield, making the carefully crafted attack formation of the War Walkers scatter.


    Nico broke off to hunt the crescent-shaped nes while Max moved to engage the War Walkers, letting his Disruptors finish charging for another full-force st.


    The War Walkers rotated to minimize their profile from his position and raised solid shields, like the one he carried, a new tactic for the Arisen Army, but not one Max was unfamiliar with.


    Max pointed the finger at the unit in the back, the General of this formation, or whatever the Arisen chose to call them. He drew his hand back and across his throat in a decapitating gesture, and the Command Walkers charged with all weapons firing.


    [Hey Nico, it looks like they''re actually weak to taunting.] Maxughed as he dodged and prepared a wide dispersion st.


    The Command Walkers spread out to avoid being ughtered inrge numbers, and Max switched the firing mode to six individual sts before picking his targets and eliminating them from existence.


    The Arisen Army had gotten wise to the downfall of the higher power sts in that they created a cooldown time to recharge the capacitors without overheating, and they immediately charged. Max''s defensive Lasers shed as he turned Cleansing Light to knock a pair of des away, then kicked the War Walker on his right in the stomach, throwing it up above his head before its thrusters couldpensate.


    Out of position and away from the shelter of his allies'' shields, the kicked War Walker was a prime target, and Max simply raised his de and decapitated the Arisen Commander, then smacked the head toward the leader of this group with the t of his de.


    That should be enough to get his point across, Max thought.


    His Disruptors were recharged again, and as his de travelled through its path, he moved his shield wide to give a proper angle for his left forearm, where the other three outlets for the Disruptors were mounted, and fired again, eliminating another six Command Walkers.


    Cleansing Light was spun around its axis as a solid blownded on the shield in Max''s left hand, assisted by his thrusters to give an extra bit of speed to his next strike. The attacker was backing away to get out of range of retaliation, but not fast enough, and the de scored a deep furrow through its chest armour before a shot from the Disruptor washed over it and breached the damaged armour. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    A high parry sent sparks flying over blue and gold paint, and for an instant, Max was caught in a stalemate and took a shot from a Particle Cannon before he could break free and move away from the next shot.


    The Command Walkers were getting much better with thebat style that he had invented so long ago in his past life. It wasn''t often that he took a hit, even if it was from a group of enemies working together.


    Again Max shed des with the War Walker that had managed to pin his de, but this time he was in a better position, and the thrusters of Cleansing Light overpowered the Command Walker, pushing him backward when their des met and putting Max in position to unleash a wide pattern attack with his left arm Disruptors while using the unit in melee as a shield against ranged attacks.


    He hadn''t seen the Arisen shooting through their own units at any point so far, but a few shots still nced off his shielding, narrowly missing the much more slender Command Walker before Max wiped out a whole wing of Command Walkers at once.


    In preparation for the retaliatory attacks, Max broke free from the engagement, driving the Command Walker''s de down in front of its body, then smashing the skull apart with his shield.


    The War Walkers were nimble and powerful, but their reaction times werecking, and they were repeatedly failing to disengage before Max could attack them, despite having all the space they could ever want to hold the battle in.


    Max chased down another target, thrusting straight in and then rotating his wrist at thest instant to take both of the Command Walker''s arms off at the wrist when it tried to defend its chest.


    He briefly considered the fact that this could be viewed as teaching them a seminar in closebat, but they would be learning just as much from Nico wherever she went.


    She had vanished around the side of the Pyramid somewhere, possibly looking for an opening in their shields that she could exploit for fun and profit.


    [All units, the drop of orbital insertion craft has begun.] The Koleska Command Network informed everyone who was still fighting so that those who weren''t tightly engaged could go try to blow them up before they made it to the surface of the.


    With a ship thisrge, there would be too many of them for theary defencework to deal with, so Max was hoping that Nico was down on that side of the ship. He couldn''t see her on his sensors, so she should be hidden by the Pyramid, which meant underneath it somewhere.


    But before he could join her, he needed to finish off these Walkers.

 Chapter 826 826 Terrifying Firepower

    The explosions began as soon as the dropships cleared the energy barrier around the Pyramid. Whatever force had assembled themselves there was doing a magnificent job of it, but the persistence of the Arisen force didn''t make sense.


    They were taking huge losses, even by the standards of a ship thatrge, but they were still moving into the next phase and trying to send out their dropships to upy the. It was nonsensical. Even if they could vanish at will, they presumably couldn''t instantly rece all that they had lost, and they were just throwing away troops at this point.


    They had to know that the ships weren''t making it to the atmosphere intact, but they weren''t slowing their attempts.


    This whole thing felt off.


    Max sted his way through the Command Walkers closest to him to get a better view of the battle, but having optical confirmation didn''t change what his sensors said. The Arisen were losing ground to the Koleska force, the dropships were losing three-quarters of their numbers, and Max had the majority of the Command Walkers tied up in battle well above and out of the way of the rest of the fight.


    But they were ying exactly by the book, as expected, with none of the improvisations that made them such a deadly enemy. This had to be a setup.


    One more dispersed st cleared out the Command Walkers around him, and the rest suddenly vanished, giving Max hope that the Pyramid was seeing sense and was about to vanish.


    The Pyramid began to glow with a vicious green light, and Max realized that he was wrong, so very wrong. They weren''t going to run. They were testing the defenders before they went to the next stage of their assault.


    [Station, take your shields to Maximum. The Pyramid is about to fire arge-scale weapon, and its target is unknown.] Max broadcasted to their allies, then sent a message to Santa Maria to raise all shields and lock the airlocks in preparation for impact.


    The power flow moved up the sides of the Pyramid to its point, and the ship suddenly rotated around its centre, turning the point down to the and firing.


    Max watched as Nico raced out of the way, with her shields glowing from the impact of the weapon as Shattered Pride was thrown clear of the beam, which was aimed at theary capital.


    The city had shields. It even had defensive fighters and anti-aircraft weapons, but in the split second that the city continued to exist, none of that mattered. The surface of the continent rumbled with a massive earthquake as the Particle Beam hit the city shields, popping them like a soap bubble, and tens of millions died in an instant.


    Then the volcanoes on the continent all erupted at once.


    Forget the restrictions on their firepower near the. If they didn''t do anything, there would be no left to defend, so Max primed an antimatter round in his Mass Driver, but the Pyramid was suddenly gone, along with all the forces around it.


    It hadn''t gone far, though. The enormous vessel reappeared above another continent and began to charge its weapons again.


    Now that they realized they couldn''t win the fight in a conventional manner, they were simply going to kill every major poption centre on the surface and call it a jobpleted. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Mass Driver rounds raced out from both Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride, erupting with fierce antimatter explosions that rocked the Pyramid and sent the glowing dome back to dark as the power was drawn away.


    Max stared at his sensor readings with a mixture of annoyance and awe.


    [Negative Impact]


    The shields around the Pyramid had held against the two Mass Driver rounds, even using enough antimatter to create unstable vortexes in the gases of the neb, which were only slowly fading.


    If that didn''t work, they had nothing that would punch through the shields of that ship. They could call on Santa Maria and hope that more of the same would be enough, but the main weapon of the Pyramid was already recharging, and there might not be enough time to get it in position before the next shot, after which it would be a game of tag around the''s surface to try to stop the destruction.


    He had to try, though.


    [Nico, get to Santa Maria and unleash hell on that Pyramid.] He ordered while he primed another round and an Orbital Lance strike. This time he would go with nuclear explosions since the area was still too unstable to use another Antimatter round, and he could only hope that it would be enough to dy the shot until Nico could get back.


    Shattered Pride was slow to react, but it was heading back to the ship, clearly damaged from the unexpected assault by the Pyramid but functional.


    Max fired again, and the glow of the weapon marginally faded as the power was diverted to the shields, but it wasn''t enough.


    [Everyone, fire everything you have at the Pyramid. We need to divert all its power to the shields before it can fire again.] Max ordered the Koleska troops.


    Most of them were too far out of position now to fire, with their line of sight blocked by the itself, but they were doing their best to get in position and save their civilian poption.


    Then, an unexpected saviour arrived to assist them in their moment of need. The troops on the other side of the Anomaly had been monitoring the situation, and they had sent two new pattern Cygnus Destroyers through to assist in the battle. They had only taken a few minutes to arrive after the order was given, and still, they were almost toote.


    The Destroyers opened fire with dozens of Nuclear tipped torpedos and a half dozen Orbital Lances, sending ripples through the Pyramid''s shields andpletely powering down the main weapon.


    Unlike Cleansing Light, they had a very short recharge time, and they were almost ready to fire again before Max was, with another volley primed to fire as Nico got Santa Maria away from the Station to begin moving into firing position.


    Then the Arisen Army''s mighty ship vanished as if it was never there, leaving behind devastation and suffering that covered an entire continent and an ash cloud that would slowly choke out the entire poption and send the into an ice age if it wasn''t mitigated.

 Chapter 827 827 Plea For Help

    The Commander of the lead ship out of the Destroyer pair contacted Max as soon as the battle was over.


    [Commander Keres, do you require our presence for the immediate future?] The Commander asked, with a polite tone to his voice.


    [I believe we will. If you can start producing a number of Terraforming Drones, I believe that the Koleska will appreciate it, as I haven''t seen signs of their ability to mitigate this level ofary destruction.


    I will take care of the negotiations and the rest, but having you two stationed here for at least the rest of the day will help set their minds at ease.]


    [Understood. We will call for additional forces to the Anomaly and remain here on Station until we are relieved.]


    The man was entirely too serious. But it was a Cygnus military ship, so Max should have expected that to some extent. Unlike the General and Uncle Lu''sissez-faire attitude to military discipline, the experience that most other Command Officers had as they went through the ranks was a very different one.


    So, they became the strict and professional military officers that the military needed them to be, while Max became a Reaver Commander at an age when most of them had never been on a Capital ss ship before.


    Nico brought Santa Maria to pick them both up, and Max could sense her determination to ensure that Shattered Pride had some form of Warp travel capability before the next fight. That was not a feature possible for a Super Heavy Mecha when it was designed, but since then, she had mastered the art to an extent where even torpedos could generate an unstable but functional Warp Field.


    That ability would have prevented her from taking a lot of damage in the first attack, where she was too slow to dodge the entire beam. She had gotten far enough to survive, but the ship wasn''t targeting her. If it had been, she would probably be space dust right now, and it annoyed her more than she was willing to admit, even to herself.


    Commander Yuri didn''t wait on niceties or the little details and flew his War Machine directly to Santa Maria to talk to Max after the battle, with the hope that he would be able to fit the machine inside.


    [Come on in, Commander. We saw youing, and we have made space in the hangar for you.] Nico informed him as Max crouched Cleansing Light against the wall to perform his post-battle diagnostics.


    Shattered, Pride wasid out on a repair rack, but that still left enough room for the twenty-metre-tall Mecha that Commander Yuri was piloting to walk in the bay door and park. After all, they needed the floor space for Cleansing Light toy t should she require extensive limb repairs.


    Commander Yuri jumped out as soon as he was securely parked, and his frantic thoughts were enough to tell Max that today''s battle was more than the Koleska could deal with on their own, even before they settled enough for him to form a coherent train of thought on the matter.


    "I suspect that you require additional assistance. I have already asked the Destroyer ss vessels to prepare some Terraforming Drones for the. They will be able to stabilize the atmosphere in a matter of days and should be able to bring the surface of the continent back to fully habitable within weeks.


    The doesn''t need a huge amount of work, just repair from the attack. Unfortunately, we won''t be able to help with the loss of life, but if you wish, we can have them construct a monument to the tragedy." Max informed him before the Koleska leader could speak.


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    Yuri smoothed the intricately decorated red cloth hanging from his shoulders and sped his hands together in front of him. That was a gesture that Max hadn''t seen from them before, and the Commander''s thoughts identified it as a begging gesture, not a form of prayer.


    "Anything you can do to save my homeworld, I will repay your people tenfold if necessary. Our Terraforming technology is amazing, but it was never intended to be an emergency repair device for already inhabiteds. We use a fullary array with our Temte Constructors to fully reform a. It''s the only way we can do it, and the whole would need to be abandoned, like the other in the system, and we no longer have anywhere to move so many people."


    Two abandoneds in one sr system would not only look bad on their record, it would leave only the moon and the Station inhabited, which would likely be enough for the Koleska to abandon the whole system as a loss to the Arisen Army.


    For Commander Yuri, who was from the below them, that would be a tragedy as great as the loss of life.


    He was the Commander in charge of Defence. How could he ept his homeworld being dered uninhabitable under his watch?


    "I assure you that we can stabilize the atmosphere, but there will berge areas without any homes on them, where the Volcanoes have destroyed everything, and some areas like the Capital, which we will have to rebuild from scratch if you want them back.


    Is there a blueprint or a technical map that we could use to recreate the city?" Max asked.


    Yuri shook his head.


    "The Capital was built manually before the time of the Temte Constructors and only renovated afterward. There is no temte for it, only the data files for the city streets and some records of government buildings renovations."


    Max looked at Nico, who was deep in thought about the upgrades and repairs needed for her Mecha and sighed.


    "The people of the Capital are gone. Do you think thatary Command will want a whole new Captial built there?" Max asked.


    Yuri nodded. "It is how we are. We don''t just want it. We will need it. None of the other cities on the continent are capable of taking up the role, even if they survived. Do you have numbers on the survival? I would need to return to the Station to get ours."


    That caught Nico''s attention, and she brought them up on a screen along the wall next to the Koleska Commander.


    "Forty-two percent casualties for the continent as a whole, one hundred percent in the Capital region, and an average of seventeen percent loss of infrastructure in the other cities. The poption density of the Capital and the loss of a few towns built along the volcanic mountains skewed the overall numbers. Most of the Continent will remain habitable once the air is clear." She informed them.


    It was blunt and perfunctory, but it was just what the Commander needed to help wrap his mind around the data.

 Chapter 828 828 Reconstruction Plan

    While the Commanders were discussing the future of the aboard Santa Maria, Koleska Central Command was also having an intense discussion about the situation.


    It was clear to them that the location was a high priority for attack and that they would have lost the world today if their alien allies hadn''t been terrifyingly heavily armed. That did not bode well for the future of the civilians on the''s surface.


    Abandoning the entirely would be too great of a loss, as the number ofs within their territory which could be suitable for habitation with their innate gravity levels was limited, so the goal of that day''s meeting was to find an alternative use for the world that did not involve a dense poption, or ideally, any civilians at all.


    "What if we moved the civilians tos further from the battlefront and reallocated the entire world as a military facility to guard the Anomaly? We share the view of the humans that letting the Arisen through would be a disaster, and with the increase in the scale of the attacks in the region, it would be prudent to increase the military poption of the world." One of the bureaucrats suggested to the Minister of Defence.


    The Minister thought back to when he had met the human Commanders called Max and Nico. They were extremely open-minded about military matters, and they put a lot of faith in their allies to keep up their end of the bargain while also doing what they could to help.


    The learning devices they had provided had been widely used by the region''s Military Academies, and the results were amazing. He had also noticed that the Station Commander had added some human-made Virtual Reality devices, which were marked as entertainment, needing no outside approval, but were more likely a form of training that the humans hade up with.


    If he could rearrange the so that there were multiple military Academies on the surface, he could appeal for argerary shield from the Governor and more stationed fleet assets.


    That would give them the ability to fight off the Arisen and defend the Academies, which had been repeatedly targeted on others.


    Every time they moved them, there seemed to be an attack on the new Academy world. It was a logistical nightmare, and he couldn''t find a reason why it kept happening.


    Commander Yuri, as well as a number of others, had made a report on the situation with the Co-Operative ships and passed it through the chain ofmand, but the Ministers hadn''t actually gotten around to reading it yet. Their subordinates viewed it as a small matter now that the humans had taken the problematic travellers off their hands and had missed the implications that thes were being targeted because of an infectedputer system travelling between locations and stopping long enough to alert the Arisen.


    Some of the junior staffers were already on it, but with such a backlog of things to do, they hadn''t managed to get it to their bosses'' desks yet. Unlike the Commanders, they didn''t have the authority to bypass the first in, first out system that the bureaucracy had in ce.


    While they discussed the movement of the poption, the Destroyers had already constructed a half dozen terraforming drones and deployed them to the atmosphere to normalize the gas levels and cleanse the dust, preventing the inevitable onset of volcanic winter.


    That was as far as they would go for now since they didn''t have approval from anyone but the Station Commander, but by the terms of their agreement, emergency aid in a desperate situation was to be provided, and Max was certain that he could make the argument that this definitely fell under that category. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    In the end, when the delegates from the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Defence arrived at the station, it was chaos. None of them knew yet that the atmosphere had been stabilized, and their ns had been based on the need to fully terraform the to make it habitable, but on the other hand, the basic premise was still solid.


    They wanted to move the civilians and turn the entire into a Military Academy, turning out millions of hybrid-trained soldiers, both with the Koleska methods and the human technologies to improve their skills.


    They would keep the other Academies going as they were and hopefully keep those trainees forary defence forces while these more heavily trained ones did the majority of the fighting. That would also give them a backup if the new training had issues or this world was lost to the Arisen.


    The three Commanders listened carefully as the directives from the Government were passed down, and the arrival of the Ministers to discuss the final ns to relocate the poption was scheduled.


    "Well, I didn''t expect that. Do you think that they considered the fact that it might be our level of firepower that is making the attacks worse? If the Arisen are actually ramping up their attacks because we have been winning, it might be a terrible idea to add more military assets.


    We would gain in the short term and then lose even more in the long term." Nico suggested.


    Commander Yuri nodded. "I believe they have, but there is also the possibility that by concentrating all the Arisen attacks here, they will save many lives in the rest of the Empire for years or even decades.


    If they increase their attacks and send all their forces to us, we are distracting them from the rest of the Koleska worlds, and the longer we hold here, the safer they will be."


    There were some huge gaping holes in that logic, but if that was how the Government was operating, Max could only hope that they were right or that they could actually chase away the Arisen for a time.


    There was still most of a year before the rest of the Mecha team would be fully trained and ready, but with a pair of Destroyers here, equipped with all thetest gear, but still, in the angr and ornate style of a ssic Cygnus Military vessel, the Arisen would have to try very hard to get through their defences.


    The thought was enough to make Nico happy, and her cheerful attitude was putting Commander Yuri off guard, under the assumption that she had calcted arge chance of sess for their n, or at least survival for his people.


    Max would let him have it. They had enough headachesing up if they were going to make sure that every Koleska vessel which came near the station was cleansed of the Arisen Computer Virus and trackers.

 Chapter 829 829 Too Much Talking

    The meetings between the Koleskaary leaders, military leaders and politicians ran all through the night and into the next day. There were huge logistical issues with what they were attempting to do, and now that everyone had a chance to hear from Commander Yuri, they were well aware of the issues with the Arisen Army''s tracking virus, which had presumably infected the majority of their vessels by now.


    That was the biggest issue that they had. If the Arisen detected the move, they could follow the civilians of the to their new homes. They didn''t target military facilities on purpose most of the time. They only eliminated them to get at the soft targets behind them and wipe out as many of their targets as possible.


    The discussion didn''t include the humans, though there was a delegation from the bureaucrats weing both of the Destroyers to the system and encouraging them to stay and help out now that they had arrived and called for recements to take their ce at the Anomaly.


    The Ship Commanders both thought it was hrious how fast they turned from "Limited military alliance" to "Please be our new best friends ever" once they saw the level of destruction that the human warships were capable of, but they were chosen for theirmand because they could be polite and political and not cause international incidents, with decades of experience in the task.


    For the next three days, Max waited as the Koleska hammered out the details before finally deciding that they had a proper solution. The move would be done in one wave. They would send a cutter around to innocte all the involved military ships, which would bring the troops and cadets to the, take the civilians off, and then return to fortify the area.


    That way, they could be rtively sure that the vessels wouldn''t be tracked, and the ships would spread the antivirus to thes where they were dropping off the settlers, which should reduce the chances that they were attacked. It wouldn''t be instantaneous, which might attract the Arisen, but the would slowly vanish from their tracking like the poption died out or was moved away.


    The Koleska deemed that was the least suspicious way to do things, and the regr travel of the ships would help reduce their signature to the Arisen Trackers in the same way.


    When the final message was sent to Max and the other human vessels, it was actually a relief. The n was finished, and they would start moving people before the next attack started. All these dys only increased the chances that an attack toorge for the''s poption to survive would ur before they could be evacuated and the military force could rece them.


    Once the decision was made, the Koleska proved to be very capable nners, and the first ships were there the same day and reloaded with civilians that night, prioritizing the skilled workers first, as they were the most needed by other worlds.


    The day after that, over a dozen massive ships arrived, dwarfing even the Destroyers but not quiterge enough for Max to call them a Colony Ship.


    Going through the information that they had gleaned from the Koleskaputers, he identified them as their "Civilization ss Bulk Transports." They were a relic vessel of the Koleska empire and had been mothballed centuries ago before the war even started.


    They had been deemed obsolete by the adoption of the Temte Constructors, which reduced the need for massive injections of raw materials on a regr basis. So, they had never been contacted, and had no exposure to the Arisen virus, which would mean that they wouldn''t be disappearing from tracking at all, so they should be nonentities, and the vanishing of the locals would go unnoticed.


    It was ast-minute change when someone noticed that they still existed and were operational, so the final batch of troops would simply stay here in their ships if that convinced the Arisen Army that they were gearing up for a nasty fight, all the better. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Nico was in wholehearted agreement with the n, and the Destroyer Captains weren''t far behind her. They had full Regiments of Mecha on board, all upgraded, though not to the extent that Shattered Pride and Cleansing Light were. It would be a shock to the Arisen to face new styles of light and medium Mecha, which they would withhold until it was necessary to ovee an intense attack.


    Until then, they hoped to keep them hidden as a backup weapon since the deal they had with the Koleska still made the locals the frontline troops, not the humans.


    The ancient transports left just as the rest of the military arrived, and a message was sent through to Max on the secure channel by Commander Yuri, with an added tag from theary Governor.


    [Commander Max. You indicated that your terraforming devices were capable of creating buildings and infrastructure. Might we meet with you to n the rapid construction of a series of military academies on the surface?]


    It was short, simple and direct, definitely from the Commander and not one of the politicians.


    [I understand. We have ns already programmed. Would you like to use them, or would you prefer to use a local design pattern?] Max asked.


    [That is the current discussion, but I havee to understand that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission.] Commander Yuri answered.


    Max smiled at Nico. "You heard the man. We have had a mimunication about the necessary repairs and upgrades to the. Make them something nice."


    Nico hummed happily as she programmed huge military academies and bases into the Terraforming Arrays over each of the cities, as well as a whole new base, with a giant monument to the fallen capital, built on its former location.


    They would be finished within the next two hours, and with the intensity of the negotiations, which Max could senseing from the meeting rooms, they likely wouldn''t even know what had happened until it was done.


    While Nico finished her work, Max took a second to delete the records of their most recentmunication from the devices of both themselves and Commander Yuri, as well as the Station''s logs. It was much more believable than letting them be foundter and still iming a mimunication, after all.

 Chapter 830 830 Time To Upgrade

    As expected, the locked-door meetings could not be interrupted when strange things started to happen on the surface. In fact, they weren''t even interrupted when the upancy listings and ss sizes were ryed to theary military leaders, who diligently started to move troops around and prepare their cadets for their first day of the hybrid training.


    It never crossed their minds that none of this had been approved and that it might only be preliminary data sent by the Terraforming Array as a confirmation of the job that it hadpleted.


    That was how Nico had hidden everything. She had made it look like someone had identally activated the Arrays when they were saving the design ns, and a fictional low-level functionary on one of the ships was set up to take the fall.


    The only thing that made the bureaucrats break up their arguments about how things should be done on the surface was the reception of a message from the surface the next morning informing them that the sses had started.


    sses couldn''t have started, as there shouldn''t be any academies yet, so they dropped everything to catch up on what was happening on the surface.


    [The n to speed up their training process is in effect. Prepare to learn a lot of new vocabry words in the casual use of the Koleskanguage.] Max informed themunications officers of the other ships, who had learned thenguage from the learning data that Max and Nico had sent back.


    Themunications channels between the Station and the were going insane as everyone tried to understand what had happened. Theary staff had no idea anything was wrong since they had gotten the Academies they needed and a message from the Terraforming Arrays informing them that they were ready and what their capacities were.


    But the bureaucrats on the Station insisted that they hadn''t authorized that, though they had clearly authorized the movement and the type of training. They had even set the ss schedules for the students so that the group leaders only had to arrange the ss sizes andpositions.


    So many messages had been passed around between so many people that the actual timeline was nearly impossible to trace, and when the process ground to a halt waiting for a forensic investigation, the Defence Minister suggested that they just drop the whole thing and take it for what it was. A functional militaryplex that they would have approved anyhow.


    That didn''t sit well with some of the bureaucrats who saw it as someone usurping their authority to make the decisions on every part of the n, but it was already in operation, and during a time of war, on what was now a military facility, they didn''t have the final say. That right belonged to the''s Military Commander and the Minister of Defence, who had decided this was not a problem.


    In a way, it was like he had made the decision himself, but after the facilities already existed.


    There wasn''t much time toin, though. The next Arisen attack arrived only an hour after sses started, a skirmish-sized battle that seemed more intended to test the might of the new arrivals than anything else, and the six Cruiser-sized spheres vanished before the Koleska defence force could even fully deploy.


    [Is that normal?] The Destroyer Commander who was targeted asked curiously after the attackers fled at the first sign they were taking heavy damage. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [Yes and no. They don''t usually leave that easily or show up with so little firepower. I think they were just testing your ships to see what they could do, and now they will make another n as to how to deal with us or if we are even worth the trouble.] Max replied.


    [Well, if I get a vote, I''m hoping for the second one. I can sit here and look scary forever.] The Commanderughed.


    Nico joined their conversation without warning, and Max realized that she had a n in mind that he hadn''t noticed with everything else going on.


    [Can we borrow one of your empty construction bays for a while? I''ve got the urge to do some upgrades, and I don''t have the space to do them in Santa Maria.] She asked.


    [That shouldn''t be an issue. We have room for the ship to dock in therger bay, so you can work in the full bay directly from your own cargo hangar. How much time do you need?] He asked.


    [I''m not sure yet. It will likely be a couple of weeks, at the least. I''ve got an idea to make myself a Mecha upgrade, and it''s going to take some time to get it all working properly.]


    [A new Mecha design from the infamous Nico Tarith? We definitely have the space for that. We can even assign Mecha to cover for you two if there is an attack while you are still working on your chassis.]


    That wasn''t what Nico had in mind at all. She wanted to make too many changes to keep the existing structure of Shattered Pride, so she intended to make a whole new one, with Warp Capability, a Jump Function, to do short-range portal movements, with a stabilized double-ended portal so that it wouldn''t cause issues in the local environment, and an increase in firepower.


    Fighting against the Arisen had given her a lot of ideas, but the intervention of the Darklings, or the Knife Ears, as they were known in this area, had given her even more.


    She had already sent the message to the Station letting them know that they were moving Santa Maria to the dry dock bay on the Destroyer so that they could do some more extensive work on the Mecha than was possible with the space they had on their own vessel, and received clearance to depart, so only seconds after the conversation was finished, they were underway to the cargo bay of Celia''s Love.


    Max didn''t know who Celia was, but if she loved Destroyer ss Warships, she would get along well with Nico, guaranteed.

 Chapter 831 831 Celias Love

    Fleet Admiral Rashad, the Commander of Celia''s Love, met them at the cargo bay with an entourage of his officers and some household staff carrying tables for a dinner meeting. Max had almost forgotten how in love with the trappings of Nobility and Civilized Society the Cygnus Officers were, and while he was only considered a Minor Noble in Kepler, he was now a Reaver Company Commander, and Nico was both an extremely low-ranking Princess and his Sumander.


    The Officers would see it as incredibly rude for him to refuse their hospitality, but at least as career military Officers, they would have a decent sense of humour and enoughbat experience to understand what Max had been doing out here in the Koleska Territories.


    "Commander Keres Max. It is an honour to have a living legend aboard my ship today. And Lady Tarith Nico, you are as lovely as always. Is that perhaps the dried blood of your enemies you''re wearing as perfume?" The Admiral greeted them as they disembarked.


    His smile was infectious, and while the rest of his delegation looked scandalized, Nico was smiling back at him.


    "Unfortunately not. I was in a bit of a hurry and didn''t have time to find out how to juice an Arisen." Nico replied with an exaggerated sigh and an annoyed flick of her hand as if waving away an unwanted thought.


    The staff had the tables set up in seconds,plete with embroidered tablecloths, silk-cushioned chairs, and real silver silverware.


    Not that it was any more difficult to make real silver anymore with the Replicators, but it was a Cygnus Noble tradition, and it seemed that Fleet Admiral Rashad intended to keep to traditions in culture to the very end, even though his thoughts said that he was the most excited one in the group about the prospect of getting to see a new Mecha design in progress.


    With that in mind, Max mentally prepared to host the man for at least one meal a day, giving him a chance to talk to Nico about the upgrade progress since she was sure to kick him out of the bay and disable the security cameras as soon as she got to work.


    "So, what sort of repairs and upgrades are you looking to make that couldn''t be done in the hangar bay of your ship?" The Admiral asked curiously once they were seated and the first sses of Rum were served.


    "Mobility upgrades for Space Combat. Shattered Pride was designed as a terrestrial Mecha, and while I have done some upgrades to her, the chassis is falling far short of what is necessary for this mission.


    So, while I need to keep the Mecha intact and operational to serve our role here with the Koleska, I intend to make another one-off chassis specifically for fighting in space." Nico exined, and the man''s eyes lit up in joy.


    "So, does that mean we might see another new pattern of Titan ss Mecha?" The Admiral asked.


    "That is debatable. I prefer a smaller Mecha, so it might not end up ssified as Titan ss, though its firepower should put it solidly in that category. The final design size will be determined by how much I am able to miniaturize the systems that I need for the design and bnce that with the multiple roles which it is likely to see in the future.


    It might end up close to forty metres tall, but ideally, I would prefer it to be closer to thirty so that I can use the size difference against the Command Walkers, which the Arisen Army fields. They are spindly things, and their narrow limbs make terrible shields, but even more so for a Mecha asrge as Cleansing Light. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    You can nearly get two of them shoulder to shoulder in front of Commander Max''s unit, so he has to rely on his own skills to avoid iing fire, whereas a smaller Mecha can more easily dodge behind another Arisen unit.


    They are not known to hit each other with friendly fire, so their precision targeting can be exploited." Nico exined.


    Admiral Rashad nodded in understanding and sipped at his Rum while the first course of dinner was ced in front of the guests.


    "I have been remiss. These are my Command Staff, all fine and hardworking officers on their way up."


    As the Admiral made the introductions around the table, Max realized that only his Sumander was introduced with a title, as the Admiral''s own Niece. The rest were introduced by their rank and position, which meant that they held no Noble Title. That was a very rare thing for a Cygnus vessel of this calibre, and it made Max wonder if it was a peculiarity of the Fleet Admiral himself.


    Max politely greeted each in turn and got all of the preferential treatment which the Cygnusmoners reserved for their Nobility.


    "That is an interesting makeup for a Cygnus Command Crew," Max told the Admiral with a smile once everyone was properly introduced.


    "Indeed. It is an initiative of mine, you see. Cygnus is expanding, and we have taken many losses inbat, so there is a need for talented members of the younger generation like yourself to be raised up in rank.


    So, I thought, why not start from scratch? Without the family trappings, we can really see how skilled they are and who has a mindset worthy of military service." He agreed.


    Nico smiled at the fresh faces around the table, then turned back to the Fleet Admiral. "It looks like you have done well for yourself. The Reavers promote in very nearly the same way, and it has been working well for them for generations. Might the choice of officers have a rtion to the unique name of the ship?"


    The Cygnus staff began tough, and Max hid a smile as he learned how the ship had gotten its name from their thoughts.


    "Oh no, dear girl. You see, Celia is my ever so well-bred wife, arranged by our parents when we were children to align the families, and she loves nothing more than knowing that I have buggered off to the far side of the universe. So, I named the ship that took me there Celia''s Love."

 Chapter 832 832 Nicos Minimum Requirements

    The dinner wasn''t a particrly long one, only a courtesy to the visitors and a way to socialize the Admiral with the two Reavers so that he had an excuse toe check in on them every day so he could see how Nico was doing with the Mecha development.


    He didn''t have any skills in the area, but he was a huge fan of new technology development videos, including the live streams that the Terminus Trading Company broadcast for the Alliance Data Network.


    He never thought that he might get a front-row seat to actually watch them make a brand-new Mecha variant right on his own ship, where he wouldn''t have to guess what was being created through the careful camera positioning and the censors which hid military secrets.


    "Thank you for your hospitality, let us know when you return, and we will prepare a meal for you from the wide variety of alien dishes that we have added to our Replicator systems," Max informed the Fleet Admiral, who paused in his walk out of the bay.


    "You have more options than whates programmed into the Replicators?" He asked, shocked by the revtion.


    Nico nodded. "Of course. We developed them in the first ce, and the Terminus Trading Company has had contact with many more species than anyone else in the Trade Group, so we have had to add their culinary preferences to our Replicator systems in order to keep all our guests fed.


    So, we program new things all the time, and we have even found some local Koleska specialties to be quite appealing. Are there any particr vours that you enjoy?"


    Admiral Rashad smiled back at her. "Well, there is this particrly rich chocte cake..."


    The staff looked confused, but both Nico and Maxughed at the reference to her mother''s famous cake.


    "You know nobody else can make it quite the same way that she does. It''s not forck of trying, either. I have a variant of it programmed into the Replicator, and it is close, but there is something missing from the vour that the Replicator doesn''t seem to emte quite perfectly."


    The Admiral sighed. "I have run into that same issue. There is a species of bird on my home which is incredibly tasty, but the Replicator system doesn''t get it quite right. I''m not sure what is missing, but there is part of the vour profile that isn''t correctly replicated, and ites out a bit nd, like a generic or mass-produced version of a masterpiece."


    That was a problem that had been bothering Nico for a long time, but there was no time to get to it right now, and she still hadn''t isted what caused the issue. It was most likely a specific chemical reaction during cooking that caused the problem, and that could be solved for the bird since she could program the Replicator to create it raw, and then they could cook it conventionally and test the vour, but that wouldn''t work for cake.


    She wondered what else wasn''t quite right in the Replicator, but everyone had just epted that the food from the Replicator had a specific taste based on the sample which had been used to program it, and nobody who ate it knew what the original was, so they didn''t know if the replicated version was wrong or not.


    The thoughts of how to alter the Replicator led Nico to wonder how she could alter the Disruptors to be more effective against the Arisen ships. They were already sufficiently deadly against the War Walkers, but against the actual ships, they were much less impressive.


    They tore apart the hull with ease, but the more powerful and varied shielding methods proved to be quite effective at stopping the energy beam without faltering.


    The Cygnus officers left while Nico was lost in thought, and Max locked the bay doors behind them to gain some privacy and prevent the creation process from being interrupted. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    As far as Nico could tell, the issue was that the Arisen simply had too much experience with energy weapons. The Koleska used all energy weapons, and the Darklings used primarily energy weapons, with closebat des coated in energy barriers as well.


    What she needed was something truly novel to break through their defences faster than they could adapt their technology to defend against her.


    That meant no single technology would really do the job perfectly, as they could just adapt their shielding either between fights or once the battle started and they realized that she was there.


    Realistically, it was impossible to make the perfect weapon. She knew she had tried many times in two lifetimes, and the first one was centuries long.


    But if she couldn''t find something that worked all the time, she could just use everything that worked most of the time. Lasers weren''t the most effective weapon against the Arisen, but they did work.


    They had gotten uncannily good at stopping her Mass Driver rounds, which were slow to fire andrge enough for their sensors to track. But if she shrunk them and increased the firing rate, she could offset that disadvantage.


    Add to that the Disruptors, which had proven so capable of taking out the unique hull materials they had encountered in this region, and she had the basis for the weapons suite that she was creating.


    That was the easy part, though. She needed a much more capable tform for the weapons. Increased mobility and orbital maneuverability, and you could never underestimate the value of userfort.


    So it needed to have a miniaturized Warp Drive and the new precision portal function that her memories said should be called Blink. It wasn''t quite what the Knife Ears were using, but it was simr and could emte the vanishing act that the Arisen pulled, only she would appear instantly and not sometimeter.


    The four arms of Shattered Pride were a huge advantage on the surface when she was mostly fighting in two dimensions, but in orbit, it would be better to get full 360-degree coverage from a hard-mounted weapons system instead.


    Then, there were the energy-coated de wings that the interceptors used. Sure, swords did the same thing, but a weaponized hull was just too good of a feature to pass up.


    With that, Nico had the outline for what she wanted to do, and she began to set up the Terraforming Array in the cargo bay to create her new Mecha''s hull.


    It would take a lot of testing to get it perfect, but she would do small-scale prototypes of the weapons and shielding functions, as well as the hull fitments first, and that would be of just as much interest to the Admiral as the final product.


    It was a shame that she didn''t have her Innu assistants here with her, but she didn''t want to risk bringing them into a foreign warzone just to help her build a single new Mecha. However, if the prototypes worked as well as she hoped, she could make a Light Mecha or Mobile Suit specifically for fighting the Arisen as well.


    The market for that would be insanelyrge.

 Chapter 833 833 Mockup

    Once Nico had the array set up all around the room, she started to create the first structural pieces of a much smaller Mecha. Either it was a scale prototype, or she was going to build a Line Mecha-sized variant first to test the changes to basic systems before she implemented them into arger Mecha.


    Not everything would scale well, but if it didn''t work at Line Mecha sized, the chances that it would start to work once it got to Super Heavy or Titan ss sized was incredibly small.


    She started with the basic skeletal structure, made of the Monomolecr material she had been building ships out of, and which the Arisen used for many of their constructs. Their version wasn''t exactly the same, but it was simr enough for Max to call them the same category of materials, at least.


    The skeleton made a basic bipedal Mecha, two arms and two legs, with the usual seated posture for the Pilot. But instead of elongating the torso or making it thicker, Nico moved most of the power systems to a backpack-style attachment with multiple thrusters, wings and Warp Nacelles.


    The wings folded down behind the Mecha when it needed to maneuver in tight quarters, like inside a ship or repair bay, but there were a pair of light projectile guns mounted at the wingtips, ording to the design schematics that Nico had put up on the screens.


    Once she had the main structurepleted, Nico started on the cockpit interior, giving it a durable but luxurious feeling, like the inside of a sports car instead of a basic military vehicle. It was a prototype, so that wasn''t really necessary, but to Nico, it was important to give the design personality as she worked.


    The controls were standard Super Heavy stylebined neural link and manual controls, so nearly any Pilot, no matter where they were trained, should be able to operate the Mecha with some degree of skill.


    Once that wasplete, she built the Pilot''s Pod, the armoured encasement that went around the cockpit and would sustain the Pilot''s life if the Mecha were destroyed, and which could be ejected in the case of catastrophic damage.


    Then it was ced into the skeleton, and Nico began on the power nt and thrusterbo unit, which would go into the backpack.


    It was a simple Warp Crystal Matrix design, as small as the one in a shuttle, but more than enough for a Line Mecha, as long as it didn''t have any weapons with a massive power draw.


    She didn''t activate the array right away. Instead, she built the Warp Nacelles and thrusters first, and mounted it all in the pack, then started to work on a new feature which no Line Mecha had ever been graced with.


    The prototype received an area Replication system, which could rebuild its own structure and armour ting as long as the power supply stayed online.


    It would need raw materials, but they could be grabbed from anywhere if they were on a''s surface or scavenged from destroyed Mecha if they were in space.


    That was ced into the core of the Mecha, below the Pilot''spartment, and linked to the power nt. Then she got to work building the ammunition tracks for the wing-mounted guns.


    They looked like pellet guns, firing tiny .22 calibre projectiles, but with the technology of a Mass Driver, they would do a huge amount of damage. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That wasn''t enough for Nico, though. The guns for the wingtips were created and linked to the Warp Nacelles, allowing them to fire projectiles through an unstable warp bubble. It would copse immediately after leaving the barrel, but the rounds would only drop out of Warp at that point and would be going very near the speed of light.


    Against a standard target, that would be devastating. It couldn''t be used in an atmosphere, as it would set the air on fire, but the Mass Driver itself should cause enough damage against terrestrial targets.


    Nico got them mounted in the wings and then began adding the movement controls to the frame. There was nothing special about that. It was the same setup she had used for Shattered Pride, just in miniature. It was still a huge improvement from a standard Line Mecha, though.


    Then she ran power lines down to the forearms to add a pair of light Disintegrators, the same pattern that Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride both had, resized to fit, and then started to work on the outer armour ting.


    Created in segments, it could be easily and quickly reced by any technician and gave the Line Mecha an aggressive and angr profile that reminded Max of the Supercars that he had seen on television as a kid. The sort that millionaires and movie stars drove to public events.


    It was pretty cool looking, and Max couldn''t help but be impressed.


    He had been so engrossed in watching Nico work on the Mecha design that he hadn''t even noticed that they had been at it for nearly thirty hours until the Admiral came to see how their first day had gone.


    "Ah, good morning. Or is it afternoon now? We have a Line Mecha prototype as a proof of concept to test out the most basic of features that I want to include in the new Mecha. It is easier and less resource intensive to test them at this scale." Nico greeted him with a smile, though she didn''t stop working on the precision fitment of thest few armour tes, which she had been unhappy with.


    They joined over a vulnerable spot in the structure, so though it was the best ce to have a joint, by geometry, she decided to modify them so that a damaged edge didn''t expose a vulnerable joint and lines.


    "That was incredibly fast. I know you had most of the n in advance, but I thought it would take longer to get a prototype mocked up." He responded as he walked over to inspect the three-metre tall Mecha.


    "Well, we don''t know if it works yet. I have confidence that it will at least walk, but all of the other systems have been purely theoretical up until now." Nico reminded him.


    "Well, there is only one way to know for sure," Max told her with a wink.


    There was an asteroid field not too far away that would be perfect for testing out their new gear, away from prying eyes.

 Chapter 834 834 Find A Test Pilot

    Admiral Rashad gave Nico an excited look at the mention of testing. "If you need a test Pilot so you can fully monitor the data output and make adjustments, I have plenty of skilled Pilots here who would be happy to volunteer."


    That might be a good test for the Machine. Both Nico and Max should be capable of operating it to the limits of its structural design, but how the average Pilot would do in such aplex machine was another question.


    It was a prototype for a much more powerful Mecha, but as it was, it could be the basis for a mass production Line Mecha, should Nico be bothered to work the design ws out of it. The Admiral would surely push for her to finish this design and not just have the Pilot do a few tests and then scrap it.


    Unless she was going to make another, better Line Mecha prototype, that was. Max could sense in his thoughts how eager the Admiral was to be the first to get the new toys for the first time in his life.


    He wasn''t the highest ranking of Fleet Admirals and had earned his spot with hard work. But that hard work meant he was always stuck out in the boonies on some obscure low-reward mission and, therefore, thest to learn of anything new.


    He had just gotten a new ship, though, and he wasn''t thest of the active Fleet Admirals to get one, which was an improvement. Of course, then they sent him to watch the Anomaly, as the front line against an unknown alien threat, but at least he got to do it in a new ship with thetest technology in Mecha and Replicators, or at least within thest generation or two of the devices since they were advancing so fast over thest few years.


    He didn''t even know how long they had existed. He had been on the frontline with the Federation, working an anti-smuggling mission for thest five years, and didn''t really learn of anything happening on the far side of the Empire, much less in Kepler, until it was all over.


    "Alright. It will be easier to analyze the data if I''m not the one in the Mecha, so I will agree to have one of your people pilot it. We will go out in the smaller shuttle that is in the hangar of Santa Maria, and we will have the Pilot do maneuvering and weapons tests in the asteroid field.


    That should at least give us a baseline data set to go by, as well as some user input from a user without a capped-out System." Nico agreed.


    Admiral Rashad gave her a strange look at thosest words.


    "You mean at your young age, you have already reached the diminishing gains level of your System? As you know, my ship''s Pilots are all Cygnus born, so they won''t have any of the augmentations that you have. Well, except for the cybeics. A number of my pilots are partial conversion Cyborgs due tobat injuries." He asked.


    "No, I actually capped out Speed and Dexterity. I have reached the extent of my progression unless I can modify my cybeics even more. Commander Max there has capped out his strength at roughly nine times the human baseline."


    The Admiral turned to Max for confirmation of that ridiculous bit of information.


    "I am at a three-point baseline and two hundred percent bonus. I have indeed reached the hard cap for strength. Any more, and my body wouldn''t be able to withstand it, so the System has stopped increasing my strength." He agreed.


    That wasn''t strictly true anymore. He had gotten a few percent more after thetest upgrade to his bones and skin, making him more biomechanical and less standard human, but the Admiral should be well aware of the limitations of Kepler Pilots as a Cygnus Fleet Admiral. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Rashad shook his head in dismay at the news, then sighed and brought up a list of possible test pilots.


    "I have five Super Heavy Mecha aboard the ship, one leading eachpany and the Regimental Commander." He suggested.


    "If we''re going to assess this as an actual Line Mecha, we should use a more suited Test Pilot. Who do you have for Corvette ss Pilots or new Crusader ss Pilots?" Nico asked.


    They would be much more familiar with the smaller Mecha since a Super Heavy Mecha pilot wouldn''t have been inside one in years, or perhaps decades, by the time they would usually have gotten the appointment.


    "We have a young Ace among the Corvette ss Sergeants. He was formerly a Crusader ss Pilot but was stripped of hismission for poor behaviour. He is the finest of my Corvette ss operators, and I suspect that he would be the most likely to give you an unbiased review of the new unit and not just tell you what you want to hear." The Admiral suggested, withughter in his voice and amusement creasing the lines around his ck eyes.


    "He sounds like our sort of Pilot. If you can get him over here, we will go over the controls and the basicyout, and then we will set out for the asteroid belt." Max agreed.


    "Perfect. But one more question. Where did you even put a shuttle in Santa Maria? Two Mecha that size have to take up nearly the whole bay." Rashad asked.


    "It''s maically locked to the ceiling on my side of the bay. Cleansing Light can''t stand up in there, to begin with, and the corner on my side doesn''t get used unless Shattered Pride isying t, so we just stuck it in the back corner along the roof." Nicoughed.


    The prototype would just barely be able to stand in the shuttle, but it had a rear ramp for entry and an energy barrier to let upants out without disturbing the atmosphere inside, so it would do for the purpose, and it wouldn''t give away any more of the military capabilities of the Destroyers if any hostile species should happen to be watching.


    "He is on his way. It should take about five minutes for him to get here since Sergeant Khalil is on duty right now. I didn''t tell him what he wasing here to do, only that he had been requisitioned for your research." Rashadughed.


    "So, he likely thinks he''s on punishment detail? Oh, his response should be great." Maxughed as he realized what the Admiral had intended.


    Showing too much favour to a troublemaker wouldn''t go over well with the rest of his unit, but if they all thought he was being brought to do the grunt work for the visiting Reavers, nobody would ask any awkward questions about confidential Mecha development specifications.


    The Sergeant definitely wasn''t in a hurry to get there. Max followed his progress through the ship as he stopped to talk to a few female Pilots, flirted with a feminine young man from the kitchen, had a smoke with the janitor and then finally took the elevator down to the cargo bay.


    He definitely thought that he was on punishment detail, especially when the message came directly from the Fleet Admiral and not from anyone in his usual chain ofmand within the Mecha Regiment stationed on the ship.

 Chapter 835 835 Systems Check

    The bay doors slid open to reveal the Test Pilot, looking nervously around the room at all of the equipment that had been set up before his eyesnded on the new Line Mecha lying on a workbench near the centre of the open space.


    "Sergeant Khalil, it is good to see yourmitment to punctuality extends even to working with the Reavers. I should warn you that the cutie from the kitchen is packing a bit more of a surprise than you might have expected, though." Max greeted him.


    "Hey, I''m not an idiot. I know. I just don''t care. What did you need today, Commander? The bay looks pretty much immacte, so it can''t be cleaning detail." The Sergeant replied.


    "No, we have something much better in mind for you today. We need a test pilot who can keep his mouth shut about everything that he has seen here. The development of new Mecha patterns is a top-level ssified activity, and we have chosen you as our test Pilot for this pattern of Line Mecha." Max exined.


    Sergeant Khalil thought about his situation for a moment and sighed. "I get it. You picked me because I''m on the shit list, and if I told anyone what was happening, I would be branded a liar as well as a flirt and a screwup."


    Nico smiled and walked over to pat him on the back. "You''re right on the first try. But look at it this way, even if you don''t get to tell anyone, you still get to pilot the state-of-the-art experimental Line Mecha."


    Khalil looked down at her with a slight smile. "So, why didn''t one of you do it? You could keep it to yourselves, and nobody would have to worry about information leaks."


    Nico shook her head. "Either of us can push a Line Mecha to its mechanical limits. That doesn''t really tell us about how it will perform in real life with regr Pilots at the helm. This version has both mechanical and neural links, so you can pilot it as you prefer, and the origin of the Pilot won''t matter much, only their skills."


    "Alright, I will be your guinea pig. I still get the feeling that this appointment is a not-so-subtle insult to my skills and value as a Pilot, though." Khalil agreed.


    Max liked this man. He was very self-aware, and he was clearly familiar with the risks that a test pilot took and why they hadn''t chosen the most valuable of the avable Pilots when they would have been less of a security risk.


    Yes, it was because his skills were perfectly suited to the test that they were running, but it was also because the unit would continue to function without him if there should be a major mishap that led to the destruction of the experimental unit during testing.


    Nico led him to the desk where the designs were being disyed. "Now that we''re all in agreement let''s show you around the design specifications before you get in. This isn''t like any Line Mecha that you''ve been inside before, other than the basic height.


    The weapons systems are integrated into both the arms and the wings so that the Pilot can use twin des or a de and shield. There are a Warp Drive and Nacelles integrated into the backpack unit, and the main weapons are a miniaturized Mass Driver."


    Sergeant Khalil whistled as he heard the features of the Line Mecha and looked back at the unit lying on the table. It really did look different from the usual Mecha, but to think that it carried such an insane list of features.


    Line Mecha are basically expendable inbat, and every experienced Pilot knows it. But this thing had the firepower to stand up for itself. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "What does it have for defences?" He asked cautiously.


    "It has threeyers of the Tarith Pattern Shield Generator, powered by the miniature Warp Core, so it will recover exceptionally quickly if the design lives up to its theoretical capabilities." Nico shrugged.


    "That''s better than nothing. It looks like the shields on your units hold up pretty well under enemy fire, so we might be ahead of the locals on weapons development." Khalil decided.


    That wasn''t precisely true, it was just that there were only two Mecha in this entire region of space, so it really wasn''t worth it for the enemy to fully optimize their force to fight Max and Nico instead of the Koleska, who they were trying to wipe out.


    If the Arisen had put more effort into it, Max was certain that their shields would have had a much harder time dealing with the enemy''s weapons.


    They hadn''t put a lot of effort into optimizing them against the Koleska either, though, so it was possible that they were slower to adapt, or the fleets were fighting multiple enemies, and what they had was the optimal configuration against the entirety of the species that they were engaged in battle with.


    Nico was finishing up the details of theyout and controls when Max started paying attention to the room again, and it was time to start loading everything into the shuttle. She had already pulled it out of the hangar and parked it on the cargo bay floor, so Max just had to activate the Gravity ting and push the new Mecha over to the repair rack, which would stand it up for the Pilot to more easily get situated.


    Sergeant Khalil opened the front te of the cockpit, which swung down to make a ramp for the Pilot to walk up while being careful not to get footprints on the window. Then he strapped himself into the seat and swung the control panel back in ce before hitting the button to close the front te and seal the cockpit.


    "Processplete. Powering up now." He informed the room.


    Nico made a quick note of something she found in the system logs, then tapped hermunicator to put him on speaker mode.


    "Proceed with system diagnostics." She instructed.


    "All systems check out. All indicators are green. Nominal Power Output is at twelve percent, with Nominal Usage at One Percent." The Sergeant replied.


    "Perfect. Get your ass in the shuttle, and let''s go shoot at some asteroids."

 Chapter 836 836 Movement Tests

    The Mecha moved surprisingly smoothly for its first steps, and Sergeant Khalil gently maneuvered it into the shuttle, where it just barely fit without hitting the ceiling.


    Once he was in, he gently turned the Mecha around in the limited space, and Nico nodded happily.


    "It looks like all the neural links are working properly. Have you been trained on manual controls?" She asked the Sergeant.


    "I have, but that was back in basic training when they still pretended that Piloting a captured enemy Mecha to a glorious victory was a thing that happened." Khalilughed.


    Max chuckled at the absurdity of that training scenario. Infiltration units that couldmandeer enemy Mecha without either getting killed or getting locked out by the security systems were incredibly rare and specialized. Your best chance, if you didn''t have a hacking-rted System Function, was to kill the Pilot as he opened the door and then use his biometric data to power up the Mecha and add your own as a secondary user.


    It certainly wasn''t the sort of thing that an average Pilot would ever use, but it gave them ideas inbat like they might survive a terrible situation after their Mecha was destroyed.


    That hope was a valuablemodity, and it was pure hope that kept many Pilots going until extraction or reinforcements arrived. Every Commander knew of at least one unit who had fought constantly for days on end because they had hope that they would survive to go home. There was also a good chance that any Commander who rose through the ranks had been in that unit.


    "Admiral, would you like toe along for the flight, or do you have a business to attend to?" Max asked as Nico took her ce at the shuttle control panel.


    "I am afraid that I do have to get back to work. I wish you the best of luck, and please keep me informed of the progress. The sess of the Light Mecha prototype will mean as much to my men as the recement for Shattered Pride does to you, I am certain.


    He wasn''t wrong. A new Line Mecha, which was this powerful, as well as space capable, would be a dreame true for the Line Mecha Pilots, who weren''t usually even deployed in such situations due to theirck of orbital mobility. Even the Crusader ss Mecha, which had thrusters of much higher output than the Line Mecha, were barely considered mobile in spacebat.


    Nico took the shuttle to Warp speed for a few minutes and dropped them on the far side of the Sr System, far from the prying eyes of any of the Koleska facilities. There might be a ship or two that could still see them, but their sensors wouldn''t be as capable as the ones on the Station or the satellites in orbit.


    Max and Nico both changed into Mobile Suits and secured their helmets in case there was an issue with the barrier over the bay door and then the ramp was lowered, allowing the Mecha to step out into space.


    Max clipped a tether to his back and gave the Mecha a thump so that the Pilot would know he was good to go.


    "The tether is attached. Please step out into the void for maneuvering thruster tests. Don''t worry. The tether is only a kilometre long. If there are issues, we will have no problem powering down the Mecha and reeling you back in before it even starts to get cold in there." Nico informed the Sergeant.


    "You really have a way with words, don''t you, Sumander? Very calming and reassuring." Khalil replied.


    "Thank you. I have been working on my motivational speaking. You should have heard the early ones. They received truly terrible audience response ratings." Nico joked. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Worse than don''t worry, we will drag you back in after leaving your mecha powered down in space?"


    Maxughed at the man''s underestimation of Nico''s motivational skills.


    "I recall one time she encouraged a full charge of a swarm of Klem Behemoths, with the motivational line that "Running only makes you die tired."


    The Sergeant rxed as heughed. Those who run away only die tired was a long-running joke in the military of every human empire, and the reference made the diminutive Sumander seem more rtable.


    Sergeant Khalil was doing a good job of hiding it, but he had a serious case of Hero Worship regarding the Titan ss Mecha, so Max and Nico had seemed like a superhuman entity, untouchable and unrtable when he had first heard that they wereing to the same ship he was on.


    Hearing them tellbat jokes reminded the Sergeant that despite the differences in skill levels, they were still Pilots and had seen an enormous amount ofbat.


    The thrusters powered up smoothly, and he followed the route that Nico had given him toplete the movement tests without getting himself tangled up in thenyard.


    "Good. Now with the wings deployed and weapons armed. Report anyg incidents or changes in handling." Nico cheered as he finished the first set of movements, like a strange 3D yoga routine in space.


    Not that there likely would be any changes in handling in microgravity, but it had to be tested in case there were interfering lines of code in the control system programs. The test of a Mecha was not just mechanical but also a debugging session for the code that tranted the neural controls to mechanical outputs.


    That part changed with every change to the Mecha, so there was always the chance of unforeseen issues between subroutines.


    "With the wingtip thrusters deployed, the controls get quite twitchy. Is there some sort of gain control for them?" Sergeant Khalil requested.


    "Control dial seven on panel four B. Second panel from the end on the top row right," Max replied.


    "Or you could adjust it through the module in the neural interface, but that might be too clunky. It was made for debugging, so it''s not very user-friendly." Nico added.


    The Pilot reached out and tweaked the settings for all his thrusters, then ran the loop a third time. He adjusted them again, reported his changes, which was actually redundant with Nico watching theputers, and then ran a fourth and a fifth time before he was happy with the settings.


    "Excellent work. None of the adjustments are at their limits, so there is room for personalization by the Pilots. Return to the shuttle, and we will do a systems diagnostic before we send you out for weapons testing."

 Chapter 837 837 First Live Fire

    With the experimental Mecha back in the shuttle, Nico and Max gave it a full inspection and verified that there were no signs of atmospheric leakage from the Pilot''spartment, as well as doing a full mechanical inspection now that it had been in space for the first time and spent a while operating the thrusters.


    "Alright. Everything checks out. I will load some ammunition for you, and we can get the live firing exercises going." Nico smirked.


    She had a whole obstacle course nned for him to fly through, testing his skills to move through obstacles at speed as well as the targeting functions of the new Mecha.


    They were the same as she was using on Shattered Pride, but they were somewhat different than the ones that a Cygnus Pilot would be used to on their own Line or Corvette ss Mecha.


    "Now, the course is set for your live fire test. Proceed through it as fast as you can with full uracy. We need to test both the maneuverability and the firing uracy. The rounds in the Mass Driver are just metal slugs, and the higher power functions are currently offline. We will test themter, so feel free to treat this as a skills training course." Max informed the Sergeant.


    "Understood, Commander."


    Khalil pushed off the loading ramp andunched himself toward the beginning of the obstacle course that Nico had designed before he engaged his thrusters. These ones were different than the solid fuel ones he was used to in the Line and Corvette ss Mecha that the Cygnus army had been using, and he didn''t want to identally damage the ship while he was out here in the middle of nowhere.


    They hadn''t gotten to test the Warp Drive functions yet, and the fact that they had existed hadpletely slipped his mind as he settled into the well-trained mindset of abat Pilot and focused on the abilities that he was used to his Mecha having.


    "Forget everything you know about what a Line Mecha should be able to do. Have you ever been in one of the new pattern Fast Attack Crusaders?" Max asked.


    "No, but I''ve seen them inbat against the Scourge, and it''s pretty incredible." Sergeant Khalil responded right away, and Max sensed the eagerness in his thoughts.


    "Think of this unit more like that. Incredibly mobile with rapid-fire Mass Drivers and the arm-mounted Disruptors as your slower firing area damage option." Max exined.


    "Alright. Beginning the course now."


    The Mecha spun upward, acquiring the first target and hitting it with a st from the Disruptor on its right arm. Then a slight turn right and the wing-mounted Mass driver took out the second marked target before the left Disruptor was raised to hit the next.


    The Mecha moved smoothly from one target to another, the thrusters working exactly as intended to take it where it was guided, but Nico turned to Max and sighed.


    "We should have expected this. He''s turning to face every target instead of trusting his targeting sensors, and he''s moving at a snail''s pace, only targeting one point at a time."


    Max chuckled and quickly brought up a simted ss run at the minimum qualifying speed for a Corvette ss operator. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "ording to this, he is roughly thirty percent above standard, and the second ovey here is how the Koleska who have trained on the learning machines are doing in their own units," Max exined.


    Compared to them, Sergeant Khalil was a speed demon, being nearly forty percent above the minimum qualifying speed for a standard Corvette ss unit and handily outperforming the Koleska regrs.


    Nico put a third ovey over the top of Max''s simted data and the Sergeant''s live feed. It was the data that she had logged with her as the simted Pilot, at eighty-five percent of the Mecha''s theoretical maximum output values.


    Compared to the other two, that one was more of a streak in space, and by the time either of them had reached the fourth target, hers would have finished the whole thirty-target course.


    "You really can''t expect an unaugmented human to do that. Seriously, they''re not physically capable of sustaining that input speed, even with a neural link. By moving some of it to manual controls and out of their conscious thought patterns, they can greatly increase the input speed with enough muscle memory, butpared to your mind or mine, they''re nowhere near being a tactical asset." Max reminded her.


    "It''s just a shame that we can''t bring the Androids here. They would love it. Even if I had one Battalion of them, they would mop the floor with most of these Arisen attacks." Nico replied with a sad tone in her thoughts but a very serious voice.


    "I know. But, having them suddenly turn on the Koleska because they got possessed would be a nightmare for the whole sector. I doubt that they could fight off a whole Regiment of them during an Arisen attack, and that would be the end of their defence of the Anomaly." Max reminded her before she started making ns to find a way to get some here for testing.


    Sergeant Khalil was very proud of himself when he finished the course in the new Line Mecha prototype, unaware of Nico''s assessment of his skills.


    "Finished. I think I can push this thing harder once I get used to the movement, but it is seriously fast, and the targeting reticule is spot on." The Seargent informed them as he returned to the starting point to prepare for a second run.


    "Noted. Also, there is more than one targeting reticule, so if you are capable of tracking more than one enemy at a time, you can multitarget using the different weapons. The wingtip mounted Mass Drivers are somewhat directional, but the arm mounted Disruptors are a bit more flexible in their targeting." Nico informed him.


    "Understood, Sumander. I''m just not used to having so many options yet. How did I do on the maximum Mecha output charts?" Khalil asked.


    That was theparison of how fast they movedpared to what the machine was physically capable of, with seventy percent of the maximum on a Line Mecha being near the standard human reaction limit.


    "You are at six point three percent of the unit''s maximum speed. Don''t feel bad. Nobody expects a Pilot to be able to push this unit to its theoretical limits." Max informed him.


    "Single Digits? Alright, no holding back. Second Run Starts now."

 Chapter 838 838 Better

    Max checked the power draw of the Mass Drivers as the Mecha began its second run. The Warp Field function was disabled, as they weren''t trying to blow up the asteroid field during the tests, but the small projectiles were still doing a fine job of shattering the metallic rocks at regr speed.


    The Shuttle''sputer was running damage simtion numbers to be integrated into the VR system for immersive training andbat analysis versus known Mecha and enemy variants. The high explosive rounds of the Super Heavy Mecha''s Mass Drivers were overkill against most targets, so Nico was hoping that these ones would be more versatile, with their high speeds and rapid firing rate, close to that of a Gatling gun.


    Between the two wings, the Mass Drivers could put out three hundred rounds a minute, a vast improvement on the three-second charge time for the standard Mass Drivers, and although the rounds were quite small, Nico had ns to create more vtile munitions for them than the metal slugs used for testing.


    Sergeant Khalil was going all out this time, moving nearly twice as fast as the first run and pushing his targeting skills to the maximum. He was missing about a third of his shots, but making up for theck in extra shot volume to make excellent progress through the course.


    "The feed rate seems a bit irregr on the Mass Drivers. Could we have a feed issue due to the shape of the smaller projectiles?" Max asked as he analyzed the data.


    "That''s possible. I haven''t seen any misfeeds yet, but there are definitegs in the feed timers. The energy output to the Disruptors is a bit off as well. I think we''re getting feedback from somewhere." Nico sighed.


    "Alright, I will bring him back after this run, and we will go over the design again." Max agreed, then sent the message to return after the run to Sergeant Khalil.


    The experimental Mecha smoothlynded on the open ramp and walked back into the Shuttle, passing through the barrier, which normalized the hull temperature andughing with relief to be back inside.


    "You know, I''m pretty good with flying, but alone out there in the asteroids is a whole other thing. Agoraphobia, I think they call it, right? That feeling of panic when you feel like you''re alone in a vast emptiness, with nothing around you?" Hemented as he waited for instructions.


    "Yeah, it gets a lot of Pilots the first few times they fight in space. The distances are so muchrger, and the scales of the battles are both huge and three-dimensional that it takes time to get used to.


    You did well on the second run. Nearly twice as fast as the first run and easily into the double digits of maximum hull speed." Max congratted him.


    "Thanks, Commander. What''s next?" The Sergeant asked politely.


    "Next up is a return to the Destroyer so that we can go over the data which we gathered and make some tweaks and changes to the prototype. Then we will run these same tests again with the modified version when it is ready.


    Most of the time, the final version is ready within ten iterations of physical prototypes and countless VR simtions, but this time we will also be making scaled-up versions, or at least one experimental one, so there will be even more work to be done once your part as prototype test Pilot is done." <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max''s response startled the Pilot. A brand new Line Mecha was awesome, but if there was a chance that they were going to make a new Crusader Pattern as well, he didn''t want to miss out on that chance.


    "You know, I might have been demoted, but I''m still qualified on the Crusader ss Mecha." Sergeant Khalil tried.


    Max nodded at him. "We will keep it in mind if we need a test pilot for that phase of the build. Since it is a one-off proof of concept, it will be tested and designed somewhat differently than the Line Mecha has been."


    That wasn''t strictly true, it was intended to be very simr to the Line Mecha, or there would be no point in making this prototype, but Max wasn''t ready to tell him that he was the tester for a scaled-down version of a new Titan ss Mecha design. The Sergeant would keep quiet about a new Line Mecha, but the Titan ss machines were practically legends among the troops, and the first one that he had ever seen in person was Cleansing Light. It was too much to ask that there wouldn''t be any leaks if everyone knew that they were making a new personal unit for Nico.


    "So, does that mean I''ve got the rest of the day off?" The Sergeant asked hopefully, since he had been reassigned on the duty roster to assist them.


    "You only wish. I need full reports on your entire test sequence. I''ve got all the interior cameras, calibration adjustments, performance numbers and targeting statistics here. So you can ount for every adjustment, how it affected the handling, and exin what part of the targeting system might have ounted for all the misses on the second run." Nico informed him with a smile that made the man shudder.


    "She''s scarier when she''s happy, isn''t she?" He whispered to Max, who began tough.


    "She also has superhuman hearing. She''s a full-conversion cyborg, remember? But yes, she is much scarier when she is happy. I would say to ask anyone who has faced her inbat, but there aren''t a lot of them left alive who have heard her happyugh through the Mecha speakers."


    Khalil couldn''t tell if the Commander was messing with him, but for some reason, he suspected that Max might be telling the whole truth.


    "Alright, how much of a report do you need for your data?" He asked Nico, not looking forward to the impending paperwork.


    "A hundred words for each of these data points should be fine." Nico giggled, then handed him the data te.


    All seventeen hundred maneuvers and targeting actions worth it.

 Chapter 839 839 Paperwork

    Max sent the Sergeant off to the desk in the spare room of Santa Maria to write his report, with the promise and threat that if this information was leaked anywhere, a court martial would be the least of his issues, then rejoined Nico to get to work on modifying the Line Mecha prototype.


    "There are so many little things to tweak on this unit. Do you want to start with running the structural analysis and the movement data while I run the rest of the system information?" Nico suggested.


    "That works. You wrote all the code, so it should be easier for you to do the diagnostics, and I can take care of the structural load information easily enough." He agreed.


    They both took a seat in the living room, with holographic images of the prototype brought up all around them, and got straight to work.


    While the report from the Pilot was valuable, it was more valuable after they had covered all the basic deficiencies of the unit. For example, in the first one, Max found the wing joint had taken much higher than expected levels of stress during thebination of maneuvering and firing and needed modifications to be properly durable.


    Each change would bepleted before the next one was started, then they would run thebination through the VR simtions before rebuilding the Mecha and running the tests again to see if they had introduced any new unwanted interactions.


    It was the slow and grinding part of turning a cool design into a functional war machine, but after six hours, they had a pretty good start on it.


    "Hey, Sergeant. Come out and get dinner. Punch whatever you want into the replicator, and then you can call it a night. For security reasons, we will ask you to stay in the spare room overnight, and we will have a fresh pilot''s suit made for you in the morning." Nico called out once she had finished her second round of diagnostics.


    "You guys live pretty good in here, don''t you? I mean, unlimited power, no resource restrictions, no quotas that I can see." The Sergeantmented as he entered the main room.


    "Oh, there are limits and quotas, but as Commanders of a Reaver Company, we have a lot of leeway. Santa Maria contains enough resources for years worth of casual living, so we don''t worry about the basics.


    The old ways are fading, and with the new pattern Replicators, the food limitations of a long voyage mean very little other than as an excuse to keep the crew in shape." Max agreed.


    "It''spletely different. When they told us we were going to be stationed on a front-line deployment for a minimum of a year again, everyone was thinking canned and dried rations from the cafeteria again, but we''ve got the replicators as well, and there are fresh vegetables and sds every day." Khalil agreed.


    Nico nodded in agreement. "It took some time for the crew to get used to it, but once they did, I don''t think that anyone would be able to go back to the old way again. Between the algae gardens and the recycling process, there isn''t much loss, so even thergest ships be mostly self-sustaining."


    The Sergeant sat down with a te of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and Max chuckled. It was such a simple dish, but somehow, when you were out of ideas, it was the default button that most of the soldiers pressed. Just meat and potatoes, with a random vegetable on the side. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Khalil looked at all the technical data still up on the holograms and sighed. "There really is a lot to this beyond making a functional Mecha, isn''t there?"


    Nico nodded. "I could make a functional Mecha before I even went to the academy. That''s just basic robotics. But to make something that''s truly worthy of military service and does the job as intended, with a rtively safe environment for the Pilot, is a whole other matter.


    The early versions of the Cygnus Super Heavy Mecha used to leak radiation when their cooling systems were damaged inbat, and a lot of the Pilots died on their first tour without their Mecha ever being disabled. Or the Talia units that used to pop the door seals open when projectiles hit the side panels too hard. More than a few Pilots died in poisonous atmospheres due to that small design w.


    So, the refinement is the most important part of the whole process, and we haven''t even started on the destructive testing other than in Virtual Reality."


    The Sergeant flinched a little at the mention of destructive testing but then realized he wouldn''t have to be in the Mecha for that part. They could do it all with sensors to determine what it would be like for a Pilot under those conditions.


    Many nations had used Pilots for that purpose anyhow, so they could get live feedback, but the Reavers were known to be protective of their people, so he was reasonably sure they weren''t going to strap him into the seat and fire a Disruptor at him.


    Once the meal was done, they all settled in for the night, only to be awakened by Nico''s alert at four in the morning.


    [Iing hostile forces. All hands to battle stations.]


    The Destroyer didn''t send alerts as the Station did, and they didn''t expect Max and Nico to join everybat mission, but Nico was already awake and had detected the Arisen appearing very close to the Destroyer, forcing them to retreat and begin defensive fire while the Koleska force staged for the assault.


    "I don''t have any messages from the Regiment," Khalil called out as the alert pulled him awake.


    "That''s fine. You''ve been reassigned to us for now, so get in the Mecha and wait. We probably won''t deploy, but if the shipes under direct attack, we will." Max informed him as he jogged out of his room with his Pilot Suit half equipped.


    "This is not how you do destructive testing," Khalil called back, but he was running for the experimental Mecha, knowing that, at the very least, it was an extrayer of protection if the cargo bay was hit.

 Chapter 840 840 Increasing Competence

    Once they were in their Mecha, the three Pilots just waited to see how the battle was going. The Koleska should be able to handle this on their own, and the Destroyers would keep the Arisen away from the, so chances are they wouldn''t be needed unless there were additional ships beyond the once Cruiser ss Arisen ship, which had arrived here already.


    The Arisen backed away from the Destroyer when they realized that it was protecting the and engaged directly with the Koleska Mecha.


    That was the best-case scenario, to convince the Arisen that they were a defensive force and that they would only attack when they were provoked. It would make things harder on the Koleska, but as far as the Arisen knew, Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride were part of the Station''s defence force, so they wouldn''t be shocked to see them during the assault.


    "Waiting is boring. Tell someone to fire a nuke at them." Nicoined, making Maxugh and Khalil wonder just how crazy the tiny researcher really was.


    The Koleska had switched up their tactics this time,pensating for theck of the two human Mecha, and had sent four elite squads on the nks around their main formation, harassing the Arisen army and shooting the War Walkers in the back whenever possible.


    Going by the radio chatter, that was a highly satisfying endeavour, and the elite units were happy to take the additional risk if it meant they got to do it every battle. Their kill counts were way up from their usual role stationed within the semi-circle since they had the whole main force to serve as a distraction, and it looked to Max like the Koleska army was finally getting the hang of working in smaller units instead of as a collective.


    "Those aliens are actually pretty good. We heard that they were getting stomped out here, but it looks like they are holding their own." Khalilmented as the two main forces collided.


    "They have gotten much better since we arrived. We gave them new training technology, and they started emting our strategies, and it has turned the battles from massacres to nearly equal matchups. At first, their casualty rates were more than ten times what we''re seeing here today." Max informed the Sergeant.


    "And their species survived? That alone is impressive." Khalil responded grimly.


    "Humans endured worse. Even the Tapani, who were on the border with the Klem before they were brought into the fold and ceased to exist as a nation, suffered heavier annual casualties than the Koleska. But I am not sure how fast the Koleska are reproducing. We never really got to talking about families much." Max exined.


    "Fair enough. You only need to know so much about the sex lives of alien species. But it would be good information to have if we''re going to be here a long time. It would suck to be standing next to a dying species who can''t rece their fallen warriors and not do anything about it." <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    After that, they watched the battle in silence and made notes on the Koleskabat strategies to forward to Commander Yuri. He wouldn''t take it personally that they had made aparison to how the humans would have deployed or the suggestions that Max and Nico created for him. He would actually consider them and how they would work for his troops.


    If they were good, he would add them to the training and try them out once he was sure that his soldiers were ready to use them in a real battle.


    Now that they had a load of learning machines on the Station, as well as the Arcade, they could really start expanding on their strategies and skills. The results were already obvious in this battle, with even the rookies doing much better than expected, but given some more time, they would be incredible Pilots.


    Max was looking forward to the first waves of new soldiers who would being from the''s surface as well, now that they had the Academies up and running. He knew that the Ministers and Bureaucrats were annoyed with him for having the Terraforming Array build them and send out the message that they were ready for use, but he was not annoyed enough to change the schedule.


    So, the students were well on their way topleting their training, as close to a special forces level of expertise as they were capable of obtaining, and once they were inbat, Max was hoping that there would be a full turnaround of the situation for the Koleska Empire.


    The Arisen ship gathered up the War Walkers and retreated as expected once they had taken a bit over fifty percent casualties, and the Koleska had managed to get the shields down on the ship. It was reassuring to see that they were back to their customary attack and vanish routine and not continuing to ramp up the conflict with more and more ships.


    Perhaps they had decided that a slow, grinding death was the best way to deal with the Koleska after the mass assault hadn''t worked. Max couldn''t get enough of a read on the thoughts of the Arisen to really grasp the nature of their strategies, only their basic motivations, so his guess was just a guess this time.


    Nicopiled their notes about the battle, since they had the time to watch it from a distance for the first time, and added a nice bit about the casualty rate, which was a bit higher than their best battle, but still significantly lower than the average and trending downward over time.


    [Thank you, Commanders. The troops will appreciate your kind words for their improved skills. They are resting now, but I will put it in the notes for tomorrow''s daily briefing.]


    Commander Yuri was an easy man to please, so Max just left it at that and powered down Cleansing Light. If the Arisen returned, he would go back on standby, but now that he was awake, he might as well get to work on the structural analysis after the first round of testing again.

 Chapter 841 841 Framework

    The more that Max dug into the structural design, the more small tweaks that [Optimize] found. The System Function actually only worked to optimize the Mecha for him, but in a setting where it was all structure, there was no way that he would make it worse for others by optimizing it for himself.


    So, he identified the issues one at a time, and then optimized the area and updated it in the virtual design. Then he would move on to the next area and do the same until he had every issue that optimized found with the Mecha tweaked.


    Then came the real annoyance. He had to build and rece all those areas of the Mecha and get the whole thing working again so that he could run the next round of [Optimize] looking for new conflicts and negative interactions.


    Every round would make the Mecha a bit better, or a lot better, if there were major issues, but the system wouldn''t optimize a Mecha that didn''t exist, so he needed more than blueprints.


    He could run the VR simtion and [Optimize] based on those results, but that needed Nico''s software tweaks to be finished as well, and she couldn''t do that until he had built the new frame since she was working on the control system.


    So, the Terraforming Array was powered up to create a load of new parts for the experimental Mecha, and the reconstruction began.


    Every so often, [Optimize] would inform him that there was an issue with the interactions between the part he installed and other parts around it, so another part would need to be made, and the process would repeat.


    For three whole days, that was how things went while Nico worked on the software, and Sergeant Khalil finished his reports to her satisfaction.


    At breakfast on the fourth day, the man had a relieved look on his face and a data tablet set on the table in Santa Maria.


    "Finally, all of the report parameters areplete." He sighed.


    "Perfect timing. We will be running the VR simtions based on the new frame today, and then we can run the initial tests again with the new design." Nico informed him with a smile.


    "I swear you''re not human. You''re a tiny sadistic demon in a human-shaped body." The Sergeant joked, knowing that the whole process would be repeated over again as soon as they did the first tests.


    But it was still better than regr duty.


    "Alright, we have cked long enough. It''s time to hit the gym." Max instructed once the meal was finished.


    "There are mandatory gym routines in this deployment?" Khalil asked with great concern. Both of these Reavers were superhuman. Working out with them would just crush his confidence.


    "Did you think this physique just happened? I spend a lot of time in the gym to keep up with my stats. I''m working on flexibility and speedtely, with only maintenance on my strength to keep it at the cap." Max agreed. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    So, when the call came in that the Arisen army was back in the system, attacking the Station, the three of them were in workout wear, contorted into intricate yoga poses intended to increase joint mobility and flexibility.


    "You get a reprieve today. Get in the Mecha, and we will monitor yourbat data. They are close enough to the Station that we need to intervene this time." Max informed Khalil.


    "Wait, what? You can''t just jump right tobat testing, can you?" He asked in a panic.


    He fell silent at the look Nico gave him and went running for the Mecha. If they said that it wasbat testing time, it wasbat testing time.


    "Today, we won''t make you test the Warp Jump Function. I will carry you and Shattered Pride into position, and you will remain behind us and test your long-range weapons. Don''t forget to bring your des in case they get into melee range, though.


    We will do our best to ensure that the prototype isn''t destroyed, so your life should be pretty secure." Nico informed him.


    "Understood. But if I can make a request, can Commander Keres do the motivational speech? He phrases it so that my life doesn''t feel incidental to the inconvenience of having to rebuild the prototype." Khalilughed.


    The three Mechaunched from the Destroyer, and Max took them on a circr route at Warp so that when they dropped back to standard speed, it would look like they hade from the Asteroid Field.


    It might not fool the Arisen Army, but it was better than justing directly from the Destroyer and giving them the impression that the two massive vessels would be joining the battle today and not just keeping guard on the.


    It wasn''t umon for theary defence ships to hold Station unless the battle went very wrong, so the positioning shouldn''t concern the Arisen, who were after the Space Station, and two of the threete arriving Mecha were already familiar to them as belonging to the Station.


    The Arisen responded exactly as expected, splitting off a portion of their forces so that the human Mecha couldn''t take the back of their main force, but this time the Koleska also split off their special forces units, forcing the Arisen force to split up even more to maintain their numerical advantage against the multiple groups.


    Normally, this would be a suicide mission for the smaller groups of Koleska, deliberately feeding themselves to the Arisen, but with them being only the best of the best, their odds weren''t too bad, and it took a lot of load off the main force.


    Coupled with the excessive number of heavy War Walkers that the Arisen had learned to throw at the Humans, the numbers looked even better for them.


    Until the second ship showed up.


    That wasn''t a shock to Max, though. Deployment wasn''t finished yet, and the numbers didn''t look good for the Arisen, so it was only natural that they would call for a second ship. What he didn''t expect was that the War Walkersing for him would turn to join the groups heading for the Special Forces groups while the new ship appeared between him and the main battle.

 Chapter 842 842 Who Are The Arisen

    They had deliberately separated him and Nico from the rest of the fight, but it looked like they weren''t going to send anything out.


    "Did they seriously just cock block me?" Nico demanded over the radio, and Max sensed Sergeant Khalil''sughter.


    "It looks like it. That shield is as thick as the one on their Colony Ship. Unless we go overboard with the Antimatter Torpedoes, it looks like they just intend to keep us from fighting." Max agreed.


    "What the feth is the point of that? If they''re trying to wipe out everything, shouldn''t they be doing their best to kill us as well?" Khalil demanded.


    He was a soldier and a proud one. It did not sit well for him to be separated from a battle like this and watch on the sensors as others fought and died. That wasn''t how it was supposed to go. He should be there on the lines with them.


    They weren''t his people, but they were soldiers, just like he was, and a little thing like a chitinous shell wouldn''t affect his respect for their goal of defending their home.


    Max sat in silence as the thoughts of the Arisen hit him. Inbat, the thoughts were allbat, but being within a hundred kilometres of an Arisen Cube, he could sense much more than just the desire to destroy.


    There was a purpose to their rampant violence. They believed that they were preparing the region for a final battle. The end of times, when only the worthiest of species could possibly survive, and the weak would be a burden that would drag the entire sector to its death.


    What Max couldn''t understand was what sort of threat they thought they were going to be facing that demanded they eliminate the vast majority of the species in the region in order to survive.


    The logic made sense to him in a brutal and primal way. Only the strong survive, and the bonds to the weakest pack members pull the entire pack down together. Once the weakest are dead, the pack is stronger and more able to respond to threats.


    Max wasn''t sure that even the more advanced levels of his Innate Talent would allow him tomunicate with the Arisen over these distances. The only species that he could freelymunicate with were the Illithid, who could read his thoughts, and Nico, who he could just send digital messages directly as answers to her thoughts.


    They had intercepted messages from the Arisen, though, so they knew the frequency, if not the encryption codes, of their transmissions, and Max knew their thoughts. He hadn''t mastered theirnguage, but his System Function gave him a good general impression of their intentions, as some things didn''t neednguage to be conveyed.


    So, he sent them a message that he hoped expressed confusion and waited to see what the Cube''s upants would think of it.


    They didn''t really understand his message since it was such a simple thing without context, but after a moment, the thoughts on the ship began to form a picture that Max could understand. It wasn''t really a response but more of a memory.


    A memory of a war that never ended. Of beings from the Ancient Past that used them and the Knife Ears as pawns and of a battle between those beings that had destroyed a million stars with their ferocity.


    That was where they were now, Max realized. This entire region was the slowly reforming remnants of the battlefield between the beings which had once ruled over them and the Knife Ears. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max thought back to his past life and the battles against the Darklings, which he was certain were the species known as the Knife Ears in this region. They had fought constantly as well, but there hadn''t been such a huge battle.


    At least not that he knew of.


    It might have happened after he died, or perhaps it was simply too far away since there was no spatial reference in the minds of the Arisen.


    He didn''t know how long he had been dead, but if the process of his resurrection had been something as simple as his soul transferring across the Universe looking for a suitable host at the speed of light, it could have been millions or tens of millions of years to get to where he was reborn.


    So much could have happened over that time. Even the Grand Protectorate could have fallen into obscurity and oblivion over that much time.


    So, he sent them another message, a description of the world that he recalled living on in his past life, the Capital of the Protectorate, where he was brought out of retirement only for parades and holidays, reminding the citizens of the glory days and that they still had a hero among them who would step up to fight on their behalf even a thousand yearster.


    This time, they did understand, but they thought the humans were here looking for that ce. The wave of panic and nostalgia that followed nearly overwhelmed Max with its intensity. They didn''t recall a Protectorate as he knew it, but they knew the.


    Their memories showed Max where they had learned hisbat skills as well. They had taken the as a ce of refuge in their eternal war with the Darklings. The was already abandoned and in ruins, but the buildings had been designed to be eternal, and the Capital Building was still standing.


    They had essed the logs on theputers there, intended for training children. It was all that could be salvaged of the knowledge on the after the had been abandoned, but it gave them an edge against the Darklings.


    They had fled again after obtaining the knowledge so that the enemy wouldn''t know that they had been on the, but that was all that Max could glean from the Arisen force, and it was all remembered as a legend passed down to children. A fable about a turning point in the eternal war, a moment when they had briefly held the upper hand.


    [Nico, I think I know where we used to live. It should be somewhere near this region, and I''m afraid that it might not exist anymore. Their thoughts say that a battle between mighty alien beings destroyed a million star systems and created this region, and they got the fighting style they use from the abandoned ruins of my old homeworld. I''m not confident that the two ovep, but it is a possibility.] He told her sadly.


    It wasn''t like his past life actually mattered, but he had hoped for a better answer to his curiosity than that it had been lost as coteral damage in a battle that had raged for all of known history.


    It also left him with one more question. Who were the Arisen, and how much had they changed that he couldn''t recognize them anymore, even with the memories of his past life?


    Could they really be an AI run amok or a spiritual species of some sort that wasn''t collected in his memories? He remembered a lot, but there were also a lot of things that he never knew to start with since he was either at war or sheltered on a Shrine World.

 Chapter 843 843 Concerned Koleska

    While Max wondered about the homeworld of his past life, the battle was winding down, with the Koleska the clear winners of this engagement.


    The Arisen vanished right on schedule, including the ship blocking the three human Mecha, and Max prepared for the imminent arrival of a barrage of messages regarding the strange events of this battle. There really weren''t too many ways to interpret the events of the day except to say that they had no intention of letting the humans intervene in their battles with the Koleska.


    It didn''t look like they really wanted to fight with Max and Nico, but they had done it in the past without hesitation, so the Koleska were left to wonder what had changed.


    The messages were inevitable, but Max realized that there was something he could do to put the thoughts he had sensed from the Koleska into context. If this whole region was destroyed in the past, forming the massive Neb, then most of what was here should be newly formed.


    He didn''t know how long the Koleska civilization had existed or their developmental history, but if they hade here through an Anomaly or other simr event, then the entire region might have only recently reformed stars ands.


    That was also something that he could test. The age of a star could be determined by itsposition, and the age of a could be determined even more easily by aging the stones and examining the core.


    He sent themand for Santa Maria to begin the analysis of everything in this Star System while he grabbed Nico and Sergeant Khalil to take them back to the Destroyer.


    [Commander Max, do you have time toe to the station for a briefing? We are struggling to understand the tactics of the Arisen in this battle. They diverted an entire warship to intercept you, but they didn''t attack.


    The Defence Ministry suspects that it might be their version of a peace offering between their species and yours, which would be a matter of great concern for our ongoing arrangements.]


    If the Arisen really did make peace with the humans and stopped attacking them, then the Anomaly would be considered rtively safe, and the extra Mecha, which were supposed to be sent to guard it, would be redundant.


    That would mean that the humans and the Koleska wouldn''t have a mutual interest anymore, which could threaten their trade agreement. Most of what was traded was military development technology, like learning devices. If the humans thought that would threaten their peace with the Arisen, the bureaucrats believed that they might stop selling such things to the Koleska, who couldn''t make them for themselves.


    [I will be there as soon as I have finished the post-deployment inspection on my equipment and changed into suitable attire for a meeting.] Max agreed while he moved Cleansing Light into a convenient parking spot inside the Destroyer.


    Anyone who walked into the bay would be able to see the Titan ss Mecha since it wasn''t hidden away in Santa Maria''s cargo hold, but that was a strategy in itself. If anyone from the crew came looking for him while he was talking with the Koleska, they would naturally want to spend time admiring the Mecha, and they wouldn''t feel neglected if he took an hour or two to return.


    It would also help prevent Nico from having to try to be diplomatic. That part was probably more important. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max took a quick shower and found a fresh outfit set out on his bed. He didn''t think much of it as he tossed the clothes on until he looked at himself in the mirror and realized that Nico had put him in a bright red silk leisure suit, with bell bottom pants and a crisp white shirt that only buttoned halfway up, showing off his chest.


    "Nico, I''m going to a meeting, not a retro Disco." He called out from the room.


    "I think it looks good, though. You should show off the muscles more often." Sheughed.


    She threw another set of clothes at him, clearly prepared for him to reject the leisure suit, and Max found himself in tight leather pants with a skin-tight polo shirt.


    "Screw it, I''ve wasted enough time." Max sighed, pulling his boots on his feet, while Sergeant Khalilughed in the background.


    Max hopped in the Pilot''s seat of the shuttle and closed the door behind him, leaving Sergeant Khalil to deal with a bored Nico while he went to deal with the Koleska.


    She would probably have him writing up reports on the Mecha''s handling all evening, but there was a chance she would want interactive amusement and have him run tests in the VR simtion instead.


    They had programmed all the new changes into it, but Max didn''t think either of them had time to test the simtion yet, other than to run the numbers of likely interaction issues betweenponents, so that was still a necessary part of the testing, and part of the Sergeant''s job.


    He made it out just in time. Only seconds after the shuttle left the bay, the Command squad from the Destroyer was at the bay, wanting to get a closer look at the new Mecha. It had been on disy for the whole fight, but it hadn''t gotten to do anything, so they didn''t have any idea of what its capabilities might be, only its appearance.


    If they had deployed it, that meant it was ready for live testing, which meant it wasplete to a standard where the Pilot was rtively safe to be in it, and the Admiral could take a good close look at the systems.


    Like Nico, he had been relegated to waiting for something to happen, only for it to turn out to be a non-event.


    "Sumander Tarith. It''s a pleasure to see you again. Oh, is that Cleansing Light standing by the door?" The Admiral asked, getting side tracked by the Mecha, just as Max had anticipated.


    It was good to see a ne together.

 Chapter 844 844 Survival Theory

    The level of fear and confusion in the meeting room was evident to Max as soon as he got near the station. They were waiting quietly for him to arrive and the meeting to start, but that didn''t slow their minds, and every Koleska officer, Minister and Diplomat had the very worst-case scenario running through their minds.


    "Greetings, Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen." Max greeted the room as he entered and took his seat near one end of the room, next to Commander Yuri, who was seated at the foot of the table.


    "Commander Keres Max, it is an honour, as always, for you to meet with us on such short notice. Your intelligence-gathering abilities seem to be quite capable, so I will assume that you already know we are concerned about the implications of the actions the Arisen Army took today." The Minister of Defence replied slowly.


    Max nodded. "Of course, Minister. It is only natural to be concerned about new developments, but I suspect that the situation isn''t as dire as you might suspect that it is. The Arisen were happy to fight us in the past, but from what we could gather from their actions, it was only incidental to their goal.


    They are not here to fight us. They appear to be here exclusively to test the Koleska. They have increased and decreased the scale of their attacks to see how you would respond. They tested the Anomaly and abandoned the attempts to get through it after both the Human forces and the Knife Ears moved to prevent them from leaving the region.


    So, the logical exnation seems to be that they are actually testing the Koleska or attempting to prepare you for something.


    Are the Koleska familiar with the concept of culling a herd of its weakest members to increase the overall strength of the group?"


    That confused most of the Koleska, as it didn''t trante perfectly into theirnguage, but after a few seconds, they got what Max was after.


    "Yes, we are familiar with the theory that if the weakest are eliminated, arge group will function more effectively." The Defence Minister replied, not quite understanding what Max was implying.


    It is the opinion of the Reavers that the Arisen Army is attempting to do exactly that with the Koleska. If you look at this data here, they have attacked many forces before, and in a certain group of situations, they ceased their attacks before the species was eliminated."


    Max transmitted the data to everyone in the room, so they could see what he and Nico hadpiled about the history of the region as it pertained to the attacks by the Arisen Army.


    "I do not see the connection." One of the bureaucrats responded after a few minutes of silent reading.


    "Each of the species who were abandoned by the Arisen were the ones who did not give up. They were the species that forged an increasingly powerful military force as they were eliminated, and although it was clear that the Arisen forces could easily overrun them toward the end, once the resistance got to a certain level, they stopped." Max exined.


    "So, you''re saying that if we fight back hard enough, they will leave the station alone?" The bureaucrat asked. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "No. If your entire species fights back hard enough, they will leave you all alone. Once you have been forged into a militant species of sufficient determination, they will deem you worthy of living."


    The bureaucrat nodded happily. "So, if we just buy more powerful Mecha from you, we will live. It is genius."


    Max shook his head while Commander Yuri and the Defence Minister facepalmed in shame for the man''sck of understanding.


    The Defence Minister spoke next. "They''re not testing our military capability. That isn''t themon denominator among the survivors. Some were actually quite weak but fought incredibly tenaciously. The Arisen are testing our willpower and cohesion as a species, ording to the theory that humans have put forward.


    Commander Yuri made a buzzing noise that was the Koleska equivalent of a frustrated sigh.


    "If he is right, that''s why they keep attacking civilians. They''re testing the weakest of our species first to see what the minimum level of resistance they will receive is. Because we haves with no real fighters, they continue to wipe out our armies, to force us to conscript more and more of our people."


    That devolved the conversation in the room into small groups of panicked nning. The Koleska had no n for what to do if the Arisen wanted their entire society to militarize. They were strictly caste and role-based, with many of their citizens'' career paths set from birth, with their own aplishments determining how far they made it along that gically optimized path.


    Making everyone a soldier would copse their entire society.


    "I think we need time to consider this. We won''t be able toe to a decision on this in one sitting, so everyone, please present a hypothetical report to the Defence Minister within the next seven days on how you might prepare your sector of society to defend themselves against an Arisen attack."


    For most of them, that was a nearly impossible task, but it didn''t really involve Commander Yuri. Those under his responsibility were already soldiers. The Agriculture Minister also seemed to have something resembling a basic n on how to make his people less of a target.


    Max could tell that he had been working on it for a while, but he couldn''t divert resources to it, as the farmers weren''t authorized to use military equipment, and the army was in charge of defending them from attack. Making ns for them to fight without orders from above would look like he was wasting government resources and might get him demoted from his position.


    Agriculture Minister was an influential position, after all, and thepetition was intense.


    But if he could prove to others that his farmers could defend against Arisen the same way that they defended the fields against pests and varmints if they just had the training and equipment, then he woulde out of this assignment looking like a hero, championing the masses.

 Chapter 845 845 Youve Got Time

    Max returned to the Destroyer while the entire Koleska Command Staff went into overdrive, trying to find a solution to the issues that they had discovered today and to analyze the data which the humans had provided them to back up their theories.


    They were going to be busy at that for days, which would give him and Nico time to work on the prototype Mecha and get the bugs worked out of it well enough that they could send the data back to Uncle Lu, who was in charge of final designs and distribution of new Mecha throughout the Trade Group.


    The old man would be overjoyed that Nico had sent him brand new ideas to work with. For a long time, he had believed that there was a way to overhaul the human military structure to make it more efficient, but so far, he hadn''t been able to convince too many other people that there could be a better way.


    The size of the Mecha was too intrinsic to itsbat power, and warnes didn''t have the level of versatility that a Mecha did, so the standard of three basic sizes of Mecha for three different battlefield roles was continued.


    But with thistest iteration of the Line Mecha, that entire System was going to be upset. Not only was it carrying more powerful weapons than thest generation of Crusader ss Mecha, but it was also faster, more agile, more capable of spacebat, better shielded, and more flexible in piloting methods.


    In short, their interactions with the Alliance had catapulted their Mecha development ahead by generations due to unexpected interactions between new technologies and Nico''s brain. That was the most important part of the whole thing, how the new technologies interact with the memories in Nico''s mind and the strange way that her thought processes worked.


    She was currently sending Sergeant Khalil into VR training so that he could make notes faster, using the processing enhancements of the learning devices instead of having him spend days making notes on one battle.


    "Alright, Sergeant, time to head to the VR simtion. It will be time dted like the learning machines are, so spend all the time that you need in there and get your skills up to my standards. I will call you out after eight hours in real-time, so don''t worry about the time spent."


    "How much dtion are we talking about here? I know that those machines can give you a full college education in a day, but I''ve never used one myself." He exined.


    "You''ve never used one? Oh, you''re in for a treat. The standard rate is one month to an hour. We will start you there and see if eight months of intensive training using the Special Forces program that I developed myself is enough to get you close to thirty percent of the Mecha''s maximum mechanical speed.


    If you can get to that point, only three times faster than you are now, I will consider your training sessful, and I will personally certify you as qualified as an Elite Special Forces operator in the Line Mecha." Nico told him with a smirk.


    That wasn''t going to be an easy task for him to aplish, but he really didn''t have a choice in the matter. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Alright, so about eight months in the simtion then. I heard that it feels like nothing once you''re out, but you retain the skills. That would be incredible. It might be to do tests on your new Mecha, but it will be a benefit for me as well." He agreed.


    As soon as he was in the simtion, Max turned to Nico and gave her an inquiring look, raising one eyebrow to see if she would volunteer whatever trick she was nning to y on the man. She certainly had something nned. He just couldn''t tell what with her System helping block her from his mind.


    "I didn''t lie to him. The default setting is one month to an hour. I just have it set to eight months to an hour right now, with an additional setting to loop so that he starts over every hour. By the time his shift is over, he should know all there is to know about being a Cygnus Mecha Pilot." Nico giggled.


    Max shook his head at her but didn''t bother to change the settings back to default. It wouldn''t hurt anything for him to do the simted training eight times over, and he wouldn''t even remember that it had happened, only that he had gotten much better than he had expected to.


    "So, what did you find after the short activation for the deployment today?" He asked her instead of inquiring more about the Sergeant''s experience.


    "Not a whole lot. It activated perfectly, with no error codes that I could find and no interference or binding. Of course, he didn''t get to test a full range of motion, so it''s not a conclusive test, but it does at least move around smoothly, and the life support functions are working as intended."


    That was what Max had expected.


    "Well then, I suppose that we should give it another inspection to make sure that the void didn''t damage anything and then go over our own Mecha again. I suspect that the Koleska will want to talk to us again in the morning, and it will likely be about something much more militant than just a training device for their soldiers.


    That isn''t in the agreement that we have with them, and I''m pretty sure that we''re not authorized to go that far in helping them, so we should focus on what we can do and what we can find out about the history of this ce.


    There is something hidden about the past of this region, and I want to know what it is."


    That was just as important as the Mecha development itself. The more they knew about the region, the better they could tune the design to what they were going to be facing.

 Chapter 846 846 Energy Signature

    Nico didn''t look up from her data tablet as she answered Max''s concerns about what was going on with this region of space.


    "Right? I saw something while we waited that totally didn''t make sense. The is roughly two billion years old. But the star it circles appears to be under two million years old, and the particles around the system support that. If the star was older, its gravitational force would have pulled the smaller particles and lumps of rock into moreoids, but they''re still mostly floating freely all over the ce."


    How had that not urred to Max? This might be another region of the universe, but the rules of Gctic Formation should still be the same here. The Arisen said that the star systems were destroyed, but that didn''t mean nothing survived. Thes could have floated in the remains of their former homes until the stars began to reform or were forcibly reformed by one of the species involved.


    It most likely wasn''t a natural event unless it was a side effect of the battle which had shattered the region, to begin with. The stars had reformed too fast for this gigantic neb to have been undergoing a natural evolution at the start.


    There were still a lot of things humans didn''t know about how stars formed naturally, but they did know that it wasn''t a sudden event, not to the point that the star was fully formed with inhabitables orbiting it.


    Before he got to the full analysis of the star system, he really did have to go over the Mecha. It was an essential part of the post-mission process to make sure that they were ready for the next deployment, especially when you didn''t know where that would be.


    He wasn''t expecting to find anything, but as he searched the Mecha for signs of damage or degradation, he found a rather strange energy pattern. Lingering maism or other energy signatures were normal, especially after a warp field had been formed, but this one didn''t look like any signature that he had seen before.


    Because it was unfamiliar, Max checked it against the ship''s records, both Santa Maria''s and the Destroyer''s. But he came up empty-handed. This wasn''t an energy pattern that they were familiar with.


    It might havee from the Warp Drive-based power system of the experimental Mecha, though, so Max made a note and finished his tests to determine that the Mecha was ready to go.


    Then he went to Shattered Pride and searched it for the same energy pattern.


    It wasn''t there, but there was an unidentified energy pattern there as well. It was simr to the one on his Mecha, but not the same, so Max started topare the two and work on an analysis of the Mecha based on where the energy pattern was strongest.


    That might tell him where it hade from, or at least what direction it hade from, and he could guess how long ago it had been formed and left undetected. It wasn''t the mostmon thing to search for. He had just gone a bit deeper into his inspection today to make very sure that everything was alright after the strange interaction they had with the Arisen fleet today. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Once he had some data from both of therger Mecha, he ran the same scan on the prototype and found that there was nothing out of the ordinary. Max had expected there to be something to give him a clue, maybe a base variant of the energy signature if it hade from the Mecha''s power source, but the signature from the prototype was a very familiar Reaver Warp Drive signature that Max recognized as soon as the data tablet disyed the list of energy signatures found on the Line Mecha.


    That made no sense at all unless it came from an earlier point in time when they weren''t all together. So, Max pulled out the old analysis data. The energy signature should be in the logs, though it was such a pile of excess data that it rarely got inspected, like theposition data of the armour, which presumably didn''t change after creation unless it was damaged.


    It was still there in the previous battle, so Max went back to the battle logs from the fight before that. In that log, both Mecha showed a different unknown energy signature.


    Now Max was well and truly confused. There was no indication of where these energy signatures wereing from, and they had changed at least once since first being applied.


    So, Max checked his weapons logs. That would show him the shield and weapon signatures of the enemy War Walkers and ships. Perhaps there was something in there that he could use to help him understand what he was seeing.


    Max searched for over an hour before he found what he was looking for. There was a simr energy signature detected on one other asion. When they watched the Darklings'' ship leave after the second time they fought with the Arisen in this star system, an energy signature with the same energy pattern had been detected. It wasn''ting from any recorded vessel or object, but it seemed toe out of the portal that the ship had opened to chase the Arisen.


    "You look like you just found more questions." Nicoughed as she looked over and saw the look on Max''s face.


    "I did. There are two different energy signatures on our Mecha, and they have changed at least once since first being applied. The closest I have found is an energy signature from the portal that the Darklings opened to chase the Arisen, but it doesn''t quite match any of the four energy signatures that I have identified so far as not being from any weapon or shield on the battlefield." Max exined.


    "Ooh, a mystery. That''s a nice change. Note the sarcasm. Why can''t anything have a simple exnation here?" Nico asked.


    "Likely because we are about sixty million yearste to the battle, and we have no idea what happened before we got here." Max sighed.


    He would find out, though.

 Chapter 847 847 Of War And Nostalgia

    Max was given relief from the frustration of trying to decipher the mysterious energy signature when the data came in from Santa Maria about the nearby sr systems. It had analyzed them all for signs of age and instability to see if there was more that he could learn about the state of the region, and this time there was solid evidence and easy-to-interpret data.


    Nico was already poring over it and starting to run another set of scans to verify the information which she had seen in the first scan, so Max brought it up on the screens all around them.


    Every star system they had scanned had the same signs of instability and the same loose gases around the outer system, which indicated that the star should still be in the middle of the formation and not supporting developeds with evolved cultures on them.


    The asteroid fields and many of the inhabitables were ancient, reformed or terraformed in recent history, while the stars wereparatively new and at the start of their life cycle.


    "I''ve got it. When you finish with that section, check this data I''m sending you." Nico announced as Max was analyzing an asteroid field for signs of fossils.


    That would be clear evidence that the asteroid in question had been part of a destroyed, which would corroborate everything that he had seen in the minds of the Arisen.


    Legends and myths are usually loosely based on truth, but they also often get transferred when a species moves, so there was no guarantee that it was about the same region and not just one which was simr to this one.


    Nico brought up some more data and linked it to Max as a reference, along with the other batch she sent him. From what this information said, the reformation of the stars was not a natural event. As Max had suspected, it was forced, and both of the nascent stars in sensor range showed faint signs of the same sort of energy signature that Max had found on the Mecha.


    He dug deeper into the data to see what he could find and stopped in shock when he found the corrtion between the formation of stars and the use of forbidden weaponry.


    "It looks like the stars are forming around sloppily formed portals and anywhere that Antimatter is found in abundance. There isn''t enough to form a ck hole, but there is enough to cause the lighter elements to reach critical mass and form a star.


    So, from the looks of it, each of these stars is actually the site of an intense battle between the Darklings and the Arisen at some point in the past. Well, I can''t say that it was them for certain, but they are the two primary suspects." Max rambled, thinking out loud.


    "It was almost certainly the Darklings. The signatures are so simr to wherever they are going when they portal out that the chances it was someone else seem quite slim. But what I can''t tell is if they deliberately rebuilt the stars here, then left them for the various species to inhabit, or if it was idental." Nico agreed.


    Given their past history of harvestings full of sentient beings, it likely wasn''t an ident, and the species likely didn''t get there by ident either. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Well, that''s a good exnation for why we shouldn''t use certain weapons and technologies in the area. We''ve got solid data to pass to the rest of the Reavers on the likely side effects. I don''t think anyone else would risk identally forming a binary star system because it was easier to use an antimatter weapon against an Arisen attack." Nico added while Max was taking in the data.


    "Alright, we should eliminate them from our armaments then. Standard nukes don''t seem to be an issue on the same level, and they have been effective, but I suspect that the Arisen will start keeping us out of the fight as much as they can from now on.


    When I was close to their ship, I got the impression that they were testing the Koleska to see if they were worthy as a society of survival and if they were capable of withstanding some theoretical battle scenario against higher beings that the Arisen have been nning for.


    I don''t even know what those species they want to fight are, but ording to the Arisen, they destroyed everything here or somewhere like here. If they can do that, I don''t think that a few minor species like the Koleska are going to make much difference in a battle."


    The thought actually got Nico very excited.


    "What if they have an army? Like, ves or followers that the Arisen think will destroy the sector while they fight against the greater threat? You mentioned that they aren''t trying to kill everything, and that''s why they''re leaving some species alone for long periods of time, only to return and test themter."


    Max smiled at her enthusiasm for a prolonged, massive-scale conflict on a level that could destroy star systems outright.


    "It''s very possible that they have an army. It would only make sense that they would need someone to do their bidding so that they didn''t have to waste all their time dealing with petty matters. Remember those Golden Ones in our past life? They used their mortal armies for everything and rarely showed up themselves." Max reminded her.


    "Yeah, until you attacked that War God and got tossed so far across the universe that it took you over a year to get back, even using portals." Nicoughed.


    Max smiled at the memory. Nico had actually stopped her cultists from expanding after the first few battles because there was no challenge without Max leading his armies. They had spent their entire year building up their bases in preparation for his return so that Nico and her zealots would have the sort of glorious, blood-soakedbat that they yearned for.


    She had gotten exactly what she was after too. The next few years saw billions die inbat, and entires became uninhabitable until the blood could be cleansed from their rivers and oceans.

 Chapter 848 848 What A Line Mecha Needs

    Nico tapped the data screens to bring up the information on the experimental Mecha, then started to input a whole new set of data points for a muchrger unit.


    "If the Arisen is right and we''re going to have to fight something like the Golden Ones eventually, I have a really great idea of how we should be developing our Mecha in the future.


    Being toorge is actually a disadvantage in spacebat. Unlike on the ground, where if you want to be able to hit every point on your opponent, you have to be nearly the same size as they are, in space, you just need mobility.


    So, we should be making new Mecha that are justrge enough to package everything that we need in a unit.


    Spare ammunition, a Replicator system, a backup system, Warp Drives, spare antimatter and crystals, then a Deity ying, gxy-ending level of firepower, plus two spare swords."


    Max couldn''t help bursting intoughter at Nico''s assessment of what a proper Mecha needed. She wasn''t exactly wrong, but the phrasing was just so starkly contrasted against the sweet voice that she used that it was hard to keep a straight face when she said it.


    "Alright. You know what we need then. So, what are we going to change on the prototype in order to make it closer to your vision of a new Personal Mecha?" He asked.


    "First off, The weapons we have on it are fine. If we put fusion warheads in each of the small projectiles, it should be more than adequate for a Line Mecha ss unit, and they will scale well with increased size.


    The Disruptors are good as well, and we know that they scale effectively.


    So that leaves us with the actual Mecha and its defensive capabilities. If we''re going to let any Rufus, Doofus and Goofus pilot these things, we''re going to need better shields on them. Seriously, the average Pilot is so slow that they can''t even begin to dodge melee attacks, much less do predictive evasion of projectile weapons.


    That means that we will also need to reinforce the hull for when the shields break." She exined.


    "What about if we do something as I did on Gloriana and have the shield zones tied to the individual armour ting zones on the Mecha, so that hits won''t take out the whole shell, and the surrounding zones can ovep to protect the Mecha when one zone is broken.


    They''re all running on the same generator pair, so there is no loss of power, and you can adjust them for predicted impact zones. All that the Line Mecha Pilots will have to do is try not to get hit in the same spot twice in a row." Max suggested.


    Nico gave him a look that suggested he was an idiot to have that much faith in the average entry-level Pilot, but Max was already working on a schematic for improving the functionality of the Line Mecha''s shield emitters. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    It would add a fair bit ofplexity to the Mecha, but the space needed was minimal, and they could be mounted behind the armour tes, so they weren''t an additional soft spot in the Mecha''s defence.


    He wasn''t a master Mecha engineer in his past life, just a really good pilot, so the design wasn''t as fully detailed as he had hoped, but with a bit of work, he should be able to make it functional using the technology that they had on hand.


    Nico looked it over for a second and got right back to work, altering the experimental Mecha''s design in order to amodate the changes.


    That didn''t leave Max with much to do, so he checked in on Sergeant Khalil''s mind to see how the training was going. It had been a few hours, and the program had just reset again, leaving him with the impression that he was only beginning to do the training that Nico had assigned, but his skills had definitely improved from what they were during the first tests.


    If he didn''t hit the limits of his mental capacity, he should be able to move the Mecha at over one-quarter of the Mecha''s mechanical limits by the end of the day''s training. That was still short of the goal that Nico had set, but Max was reasonably sure that it wasn''t mentally or physically possible for the unaugmented human to do that.


    The best bet that he had was to have the responses so ground into him that they became autonomic responses, bypassing his conscious mind, which operated more slowly than his subconscious, allowing him to fire blindly when a target was detected and react to threats without thinking and theg time associated with it.


    With enoughbat experience, every Pilot developed that to some degree. Asking the subconscious to take care of an entire battle was too much, though. It couldn''t n or strategize, and for most people, it could barely aim the weapons. It would rely entirely onputer assistance to snap shots at determined targets, letting theputer do the majority of the work on their behalf.


    With Max''s targeting skills, that was actually the better route, but without a System helping, it would be sketchy at best.


    "Add more automatic targeting assistance to the Line Mecha. Right now, they usually rely almost entirely on the Pilot, with the goal of building their skills and saving resources. But for the standards of performance that you are aiming to get out of them, that won''t be feasible anymore, and the Pilots will have to rely more on theputer to do targeting calctions for them." Max suggested while Nico altered the ns.


    "Good thinking. If there is a good reason that we can''t use AI, then I will have to limit theputers as well, but targeting calctions shouldn''t be an issue. With enough work, I think that we can make a two or three-target version of your System Function, like an advanced version of the Crusader ss targeting systems that includes not only trajectory data and target weakness analysis but also enemy behaviour analysis to create predictive targeting solutions.


    Wow, that is going to need a lot ofputing power. I should just upgrade theputer first before I start crashing it, trying to get it to work properly with that level of ongoing data rendering." Nico replied happily as she worked.


    "Now, all I need is better Nukes." She dered a few minutester.


    As with warships, there really was no recement for discement, and the Line Mechacked greatly in that department, but a good nuke could never be the wrong answer in Nico''s mind.

 Chapter 849 849 Change Of Schedule

    They hadn''t made much progress when Sergeant Khalil was finally free of his training loop and returned to the Ship to rest. The excessive time dtion might seem like a dream that left behind clear knowledge to the human mind, but it took a toll on the brain, and all he could think about after such an extended period of training was to get as much sleep as possible.


    That was fine by Max. They didn''t need his data right away when they had this much work to do on the Line Mecha.


    Before they knew it, they had worked through the night and into the next day. They would have kept at it, giving only a perfunctory nod to the Sergeant when he logged back into the training simtion to try to get his skills the rest of the way to the standard that Nico had set, but there was a message from Rae 5 waiting for them.


    [I have been informed that you have made a breakthrough on the Mecha development front again. We will send recement Mecha to your location in advance of the regr schedule to apany the Destroyers who are to hold their positions with the Koleska.


    You are not being recalled at this time, but you are relieved of defensive duties, except in the gravest of emergencies, beginning when the new Super Heavy Mecha arrive.]


    The message from Uncle Lu''s staff was simple and straightforward, without the entric designer''s personal ir, so it was definitely not directly from him. But if the Reavers were sending an entire hundred Super Heavy Mecha, with all the newest technology, their two Mecha wouldn''t really be needed much.


    The message sender didn''t seem to know that the Arisen had been encouraging the humans not to interfere with their battlestely and had stopped trying to get through the Anomaly after being intercepted by the Knife Ears.


    They were likely in the distribution bureaucracy, not the design teams, so they weren''t privy to the details of exactly what was going on here, only the forces which had been authorized to be sent to the region.


    "Well, it looks like we get to do some full-time engineering," Max informed Nico once he had read the message.


    "It certainly does. We should have brought one of our own ships on this mission. I mean, one bigger than Santa Maria. It would be best to do all of our development in a secureb instead of inside a Cygnus destroyer where there are constant risks of data leaks even when I''ve got the sensor feeds on lockdown." Nico sighed.


    Max shrugged. "It makes the Cygnus Fleet happy, though. They''ve been getting everythingst all this time since it was all made by either Kepler Allies or Reavers and far from their territories. Having the chance to get the cool toys first for once will help their morale and remind everyone that the Trade Group is for all humans and not a new Monarchy in the making."


    Max smiled as he listened to Nico''s mind looking for a way to justify making a whole new Cruiser ss orrger Ship, but she wasn''t finding a good one. Then she came across the perfect way to use Max''s words against him.


    "Well, if we make TWO new ships, we can give one to the Cygnus Fleet as a gift and keep the other one for ourselves. Then we will have all the room we need for development." She suggested. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "One thing at a time. Finish up the Line Mecha first, and get at least one Company worth of them in service for testing, and then we can start on a new project if you''re that willing to let your new Personal Mecha wait."


    He had her there, and he knew it. This Line Mecha was never the goal. It was just a scale prototype for her own new Mecha. Moving from that to making more ships would mean that she would get sidetracked, and there would be more questions about the ship and its creation and design.


    If they started on that, she would never get the time to finish a recement for Shattered Pride.


    Since they were in a warzone, she couldn''t just refurbish the one she had. It would cause too much downtime and loss of capability. She could make minor tweaks to the weapons, but the overhaul of the power system would require a full rebuild.


    "Alright, I have a better idea. How about we have an extra cutter made aboard Absolution, and we bring over a design team in it to help us out? We could use more hands." Nicopromised.


    If it was identical to the ones they had, there would be no questions about its design, as the Cygnus fleet could pull them all up out of the Trade Group''s records on their own if they had the clearance. The design had been made public after Uncle Lu had gone over it, though the construction method hadn''t, so at the moment, very few facilities were capable of even repairing one, much less making a new one.


    "Let''s just get back to work tweaking this thing." Max reminded her, then started pulling apart the Mecha to put in some new parts which he had identified as improvements on the originals.


    That was how the next three weeks went for them.


    Nico and Max made constant small modifications to the Mecha and then tested it in VR along with Sergeant Khalil, who still spent an hour a day in the training simtion, trying to get to the Special Forces standard that Nico had set.


    He had been reluctant to go to the gym when he arrived, but now he was there just as much as Max, working on his strength and agility skills, so his body could keep up with the improved state of his mind, while Nico worked strictly speed and agility, to keep her neural links fresh and at peak reaction times.


    Then finally, the two groups they were waiting for arrived.

 Chapter 850 850 More Humans

    One Cruiser full of Super Heavy Mecha arrived to take over the duties of guarding the Anomaly, and one Cutter in the new pattern that Absolution used for all her Mecha Battalions arrived with Nico''s design team full of Innu. All that was left of their defensive duty was a weing party hosted by the Koleska to greet the hundred new Pilots.


    They were all supposed to be up to the Phnx ss standard for Piloting, which meant they were all Kepler descendants, which was sure to annoy the Cygnus Destroyers, but the ship they were on was Cygnus built and staffed. That should be enough to mollify them.


    Everyone arriving, even the Innu, had taken the time to fully familiarize themselves with the Koleskanguage program that Nico and Max hadpiled to prevent early misunderstandings between the groups as they transitioned to a full force on defence, and the Pilots were always up for a party, as well as the chance to meet a new species.


    In the traditional Koleska way, they had scheduled the party for ten hours after the ship arrived, just enough time to sleep and get ready for the event. The Koleska rarely nned these things for multiple days in the future. They just made an outline of the event and then scheduled it for half a day after whatever event they thought would trigger it.


    That was fine by the Pilots. After reading their minds, many of them were pulled from active military service to the special training program, and they hadn''t done anything but fight and train for most of a year.


    Partying with a bunch of aliens, even if they weren''t the sort of aliens that you could take back to your room for a little fun, was better than more training.


    As the Commanders who were handing over the position to the new arrivals, it was up to Max and Nico to put on the formal front and y the part of somewhat serious military officers, giving a good impression of the Terminus Trading Company.


    As such, they both went for military uniform coats for the first time in ages, but the fancy dress uniforms, which were more like the Kepler version of a business suit, paired with bright red shirts and pistols on their waists, secured by ck silk scarves worn as a belt.


    It was amon take on formality used by the Reavers and had been in prominent view at the wedding of General Yaakov.


    "Alright, Sergeant. You have the night off, so go have fun with your friends, and we will be back by the morning." Max instructed Sergeant Khalil as the time for the party drew near.


    "Much appreciated, Commander. Formal events with a bunch of Colonels and Generals, plus foreign dignitaries, isn''t really my thing." Khalilughed, but he was already on his way to the bay door, intending to get out before Max could change his mind about giving him a day off and not a huge homework assignment based on thest round of VR testing.


    Max was sure that the man had the wrong impression of him. It was Nico who gave out all of the excessivelyrge homework assignments. Max only gave out the same tactical report assignment every mission because he knew that Nico would assign everything else.


    Once the Sergeant was gone, Max and Nico headed to the shuttle and made their way to the Station to greet the new troops and exin in person to Commander Yuri what was going on. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    He had been kept up to date on the arrival of the additional forces and that Max and Nico would be remaining in the system for some time as they worked on new technologies, but he hadn''t been told much more than that.


    The Cruiser and the Shuttle were docked on opposite sides of the Station, so the first person that Max saw when the airlock doors opened was Commander Yuri, along with a small honour guard,e to wee them to the Station for what might be thest time, and thank them for the help.


    The Pilots among the Koleska were understandably sad that the humans had been blocked from intervening in the past few weeks'' battles, but they understood to some degree, and it was better to have these small skirmishes than to have the Arisen show up here in full force to exterminate the even with the Humans assistance.


    "I hope that all has been well with you since west met." Commander Yuri greeted them at the door.


    "It has. How have things been down on the surface? You should have the first fresh batch of Pilots from the new Academies by now, right?" Max replied.


    "We have. They were first deployed in thest battle, and it was incredible. They fought as well as the more experienced soldiers from thest batch who had used the learning machines. This new training regimen that you came up with for them has changed everything for ourbat groups.


    They are being deployed all over the Empire, and they''re beginning to give skills training to the others around them. They''re so far ahead of the Pilots trained using the old method that they fight like the old veterans, with the lowest casualty rates and best coordination." Yuri agreed.


    "How about the overhaul to society, on the assumption that the better you fight back, the more likely the Arisen Army is going to be to leave you alone?" Nico asked.


    "It was only moderately sessful. They have instituted military-level skills training for the police forces and are sending them upgraded equipment, and they have provided all of the farmers with heavy weapons on the orders of the agriculture minister.


    We will have to see what happens during the next invasion of a, but the general sentiment is that the armed farmers are going to make a big difference since they''re all over the and can slow the Arisen advance until reinforcements arrive."


    That was a bit optimistic, but it was better than nothing.


    "It''s good to hear that they followed the most optimistic of projections. I hope that they never have to find out how well it works." Max replied, and the Commander gave them a slight bow before leading them to the event room where the party would be held.

 Chapter 851 851 Culture Clash

    Though the newly arrived Pilots had some training in dealing with the Koleska and the Koleska on the Station had some experience dealing with Max and Nico, the atmosphere when Commander Yuri led their group into the ballroom where the event was being held was tense, to say the very least.


    "Good to see you all made it here. Wee to the Koleska Empire, everyone. This is Commander Yuri, the Station Commander and our host here. It looks like there are still a few aspects of our varied cultures that everyone isn''t used to yet, so if you have questions about etiquette, feel free to ask me or Sumander Nico." Max greeted the room, drawing everyone''s attention.


    Before anyone could give the usual responses, one of the Koleska blurted out the question that was on all of their minds.


    "How are we supposed to tell them apart? Are they all at the same rank? Did they bring nothing but System Governors?" The adjutant asked before he could stop himself.


    Nicoughed but gestured for Max to answer.


    "A lot of them are near the same rank, but you can tell the ranks by the markings on their clothing. I have sent you all a list of Cygnus Military insignia. They use the markings to tell the rank and wear identical uniforms to show solidarity as a group." Max informed him.


    Nico sent the ranking marks to all of the Koleska while he was talking, much to everyone''s relief, and Max searched for other obvious things that he should mention. It should have all been in the tutorial materials. But with species so different, it was easy to think that certain things were obvious and skim over them, only to get a shock when you actually met.


    For example, the Koleska considered their chitin as good as clothing and only wore enough to show their rank. But that left many of them wearing little more than strips of cloth over their shoulders, and their bodies somewhat resembled a texturedtex bodysuit over a human form, and the heads were so much like human skulls that the first impression that the Cygnus Pilots had gotten was that this was a group of undead bondage enthusiasts.


    The Koleska began to rx once they understood who was in charge and what the extra markings for flight staff, Unit Commanders and such meant.


    The impression that the Cygnus group had gotten hadn''t changed, though.


    Max turned to the nearest wing leader and motioned for him to speak. "Just spit it out. Everyone is thinking nearly the same thing, so you might as well say it."


    The man gave a rueful chuckle and rubbed his nose before speaking. "Well, you see, the chitin looks like the outfits worn by people into a certain sexual kink in our society, so a collection of Koleska looks a lot like a fetish orgy. We were warned that the Koleska, being exoskeletal, didn''t wear a lot of clothes, but somehow, I had expected pants."


    His Koleska was somewhat broken, and he had used some Human Standard words, but the Koleska managed to follow well enough to look around embarrassed and then burst intoughter, with their spines vibrating against their shells.


    "It''s like meeting the Nn. They cover their whole bodies in cloth, and they refuse to speak with us unless we do the same, calling it shameful and exhibitionist." Commander Yuriughed. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Thest word was not in Koleska. They didn''t have a word that corrted to exhibitionism. The closest they had was a word that meant ''slumming it'' by wearing minimal clothing to go pick up dates from lower-ss areas without being called out for being outside your own social circle.


    The humansughed and nodded while Nico smirked. "It''s like that, except with the implication that your species has a great enjoyment for more aggressive and mildly violent breeding practices."


    With that, the tension in the room was clearly broken, and the groups began to mingle, with the Koleska going to search out their social peers now that they knew who they were.


    A few minutes passed as the waiters brought drinks around, and one of the Pilots moved close to Max, intending to ask him a question but unaware that he could read minds.


    "Yes, I suppose it is a shame. But I will warn you that the Koleska would view casual ass pping as an aggressive mating ritual, so no matter how good the ass looks, you can''t spank it." Max whispered to the Pilot.


    "I know, but it''s a shame, really. To have an ass like that, and it''s covered in a hard shell." The Pilot sighed, then walked away with his curiosity shelved.


    Human soldiers were much more physical with each other than the Koleska were, and Max could tell that some of the locals were a bit panicked at the level of friendliness that the new Pilots showed. Grabbing and hanging off each other was more intimate to them, and these were strangers. But the humans were determined to teach the Koleska to dance since there was music ying.


    "This isplete chaos." Commander Yuri whispered to Max when he made his way back to where the human leaders were standing.


    "I think it''s going well, though. I don''t sense any violent intentions, and nobody has gotten overly offended yet. Once they have time to get used to each other''s culture, I think that they will develop some strong friendships." Max shrugged.


    "True. But do the humans know that the Arisen has been forcing them to stand down while we fight? I think that they aren''t going to be as epting of the situation as you are." Yuri asked.


    "I''m sure there it''s part of why they''re so friendly today. They know that they won''t be fighting unless the Arisen fleet actually attacks the or the Station, and they don''t want your crew to think that they don''t care.


    Standing back and not fighting when your allies are is considered about as uneptable of behaviour as is possible in our society, so it''s going to be a tough adjustment for them." Max agreed.


    Hopefully, these calm days would continue, though, and they wouldn''t have to see it constantly.

 Chapter 852 852 Leaders Lead Together

    The Koleska adapted quickly to the human version of dancing, instead of their preference to hum the harmony along with the band. They did consider it a bit wild and overly physical, but once they saw that the new arrivals were having so much fun, they slowly began to join in and give it a try.


    The tables were set for the formal part of the dinner ording to rank and position, an attempt by the Koleska to get the groups to mingle. Before the party started, they weren''t sure how it was going to go, but by the time the food was served, Commander Yuri was already nning to put the medical bay on speed dial just for the Pilots who were too enthusiastic in their eptance of human culture and would be suffering from hangovers and exhaustion tomorrow during training.


    "Do humans recover that much faster than we do? I know many species have incredible healing powers." Yuri asked Nico, who was seated at the second seat on his left, next to his own Sumander.


    "Not at all. They will be suffering through their entire training program tomorrow. But they view the chance for socialization to be worth the tradeoff, and we have some medicines that help keep them going well enough to finish their duties for the day." Nico chuckled.


    The Station Sumanderughed and nudged Yuri in the side. "See, maybe the old stories were the true way."


    The other humans at the table looked a bit confused, while the Koleska dignitaries looked a bit embarrassed at his words. Max scanned his thoughts and found the reference that he was talking about. The Koleska used to be both much more physically intimate and sexually open in their distant past, but it had led to overpoption, and so changes were made at the social level.


    "They''re referring to the species Hippie Era," Max informed the other human leaders, who all turned to smirk at the Sumander.


    "Don''t worry about it, son. Our species didn''t just have an era like that. Some of our people liked it so much that they splintered off from society to keep living that way. They''re generally harmless and certainly friendly, so we never saw a good reason to make them stop." The Battalion Commander for the new forces joked.


    He didn''t understand the Koleska need to know things before he spoke, but once the barrage of questions about how that worked and how the groups functioned side by side began, Max could tell that he regretted sympathizing with the Sumander.


    It wasn''t for creative purposes. They just felt an intense need to understand how a society could function like that so that they could fit it within their understanding of society as a whole. Nico thought that it was a bit like meeting Giants with the personality of the Innu. They wanted to know everything about everything, but not for some creative purpose, just so that they could record it in their notes.


    After the meal, everyone lingered around the tables, and some of therger groups pulled them together to create arger group with simr interests while the Command group and the Dignitaries retired to a second room.


    "Just like at home, the troops are more rxed when the boss isn''t there breathing over their shoulder. Now that we''re gone, they can really begin to rx. It''s Koleska tradition that the Commanders don''t go back into the main party after this point unless there is aint or call to duty." Max exined to the other human leaders.


    "I like it. We always did it so that we could get into the good liquor without the rank and file getting jealous." The Battalion Commanderughed. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The Ministers hummed in approval, and ss decanters were brought out by the staff, along with naturally grown crystal sses.


    "Some things our species feel very simrly about." The Defence Ministerughed as the first round of drinks was poured.


    The rest of the night was spent on basic niceties as the new Battalion''s leaders got to know the Koleska dignitaries and the way that things had been going here. For the most part, it was all mundane, but there was some good news tucked in there as well.


    Since there had been fewer attacks on the station''s crew and the after the Arisen decided that Nico and Max should be barred frombat, they had managed to send almost an entire''s graduating ss for the month to other battlefronts, getting more highly trained troops intobat, and improving the situation everywhere.


    If they could keep that up, the Koleska Government had hope that they could fight the Arisen to a stalemate and force them to retreat and find another target.


    That might suck for whoever got the brunt of the Arisen Army''s wrath after they decided to leave the Koleska alone, but so far, nobody had managed to stand against the mysterious fleet of seemingly immortal beings.


    Without any way to tell them apart, and with all of their forces vanishing after the battle, the persistent rumour that they were actually an energy-based species made temporarily corporeal persisted all throughout the region, along with the fearful suggestion that they might not ever actually die and that you might be fighting the same force the entire war.


    The thought was terrifying to many species in the region, and that terror had made into an urban legend of sorts.


    Once they got past the disturbing parts of the situation, the human leadership had a great idea that they thought the Koleska would like.


    They had a lot of avid gamers on their ships, so if they linked the systems between them and the Academy, they could hold live tournaments and PVP battles to help train the students. The VR simtion was good but predictable to some degree because of the set difficulty. But facing random live opponents could cause huge swings in difficulty and tactics, which would help the students once they got to the real world.


    Plus, the VR and training systems were made by Nico, so they were directlypatible with the systems on the Cygnus ships.

 Chapter 853 853 Doctoral Students

    After the weing ceremony was beginning to wind down, Max and Nico made their excuses to head out and left the new crew to get acquainted with the Koleska on their own. Max had done enough to get them started, and now the rest of it was on them.


    If they were needed, the two Reavers would still intervene, but with a hundred Super Heavy Mecha in the area, all designed specifically to fight the Arisen Army, there was no reason that they should be called on for anything less than a catastrophe.


    So, they made their way back to the Destroyer and began to pack up their gear into the Shuttle in preparation for their move to the Cutter full of researchers which had been sent to them.


    Max looked up the details as they worked, and these were all new researchers who had recentlye from the Innu worlds on the references of the other researchers who were employed aboard Absolution. That was a good enough reference for him, and it meant that they weren''t greatly affecting the main research and development team of the Terminus Trading Company.


    If their new products were affected by the transfer, it could be an issue for everyone, as the World Ship had started importing all sorts of Alliance goodies for sale in the shops, and the wages of the staff were paid in Alliance Credits.


    Not that the Company was broke. The ie just from the Terraforming Arrays that they had made this year was enough to support the ship for decades, but Max knew that the bookkeeping team would begin to panic and the Alliance would be concerned if the quality of their new developments fell off.


    Sergeant Khalil came in while they were packing and looked around at the nearly empty room with a sad expression.


    "I guess that means it''s the end of my easy duty as a test pilot, doesn''t it?" He sighed.


    "Not quite yet. We will be working on the Cutter, but we will be bringing test units here when the new Line Mecha is closer topletion. We can''t have our team do all the testing since it''s mostly the two of us and a bunch of Innu." Nico exined.


    Khalilughed. "Yeah, that wouldn''t really make for much of a real-world test. We don''t have any on this ship, but we had one at myst posting, working with the engineers to overhaul the Warp Drives. Their skills with technology are incredible, and they would make excellent Pilots if they were inclined toward war."


    They probably would, but that would break so many Alliancews and treaties that it wasn''t even funny. A singlebat engagement would bury Max in paperwork for the rest of his natural life, trying to exin why the Innu had been in a humanbat zone.


    It didn''t take long for the three of them to get everything packed up and ready to go. Santa Maria was ready tounch before the rest of the team got back from the party, so Max saved them all a long and proper farewell. They weren''t really going anywhere, just to another ship that was being used as aboratory, so they just said their farewells to Sergeant Khalil and called for clearance to depart the hangar.


    [You are clear to depart Santa Maria. Good luck with your future endeavours.] The traffic controller replied, allowing Nico to move out of the Destroyer as soon as the message was sent.


    They were greeted at the Cutter by a whole crew of very excited young Innu girls, and Max smiled at Nico. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "You''re going to love these ones. They''re College students, doing work experience between earning their master''s degrees and writing their doctoral thesis. They''ll be down for anything new, even more so than the average Innu.


    If you''ve got new systems that you want to test, they''re all in for it.


    You''ll have to talk to them to find out what their thesis is on, but I know without asking that they''re all going to be new technology rted, some attempt to find a groundbreaking theory or practical application that will revolutionize an industry." Max told her.


    "Oh? That''s incredible news. We have so many new things to try that I am certain we can keep them all busy for the rest of their deployment. How long is the work experience?" Nico asked.


    "From what I can tell, the phase extends from the point when they get their final degree until they finish their thesis, even if it takes a decade or more. Some will go into seclusion to finish the theory work, but you know how an Innu does in istion. It''s not really in their nature." Max shrugged.


    Once the ship was settled onto thetches, which would lock it in ce without relying on the maic locks, Max and Nico headed out to meet their new crew.


    "Greetings, Commander and Lead Researcher." The Innu greeted them at once.


    In their minds, Lead Researcher was on par with a Commander, so it outranked Sumander, and therefore it took precedence when you were addressing someone by their rank.


    "Good evening, everyone, and thank you for the warm wee. As I''m sure you know, we''re working on a new Personal Mecha for the Lead Researcher, but we also have a number of new systems to work on, and many of them will be entirely new designs, using new theories in an attempt to make it a superior unit to anything that currently exists." Max greeted them.


    It took the better part of ten minutes for the apuse to end and the enthusiastic hugs to be finished, but they did eventually make it to the floor and off the loading ramp of Santa Maria.


    "We can unload tomorrow during regrb hours. For tonight, prepare a short presentation of what you hope to design or learn for your research project, and you can present them to Lead Researcher Nico in the morning. Just five pages, so you will have to do a fine job summarizing the basis of your ideas.


    Simplicity and rity are valuable parts of the design process, so this presentation is the first assignment we will give you. Now, I will see you all in the morning, so get some rest and be ready to go in the morning."

 Chapter 854 854 Energetic Mornings

    The research teams back aboard Absolution must have informed the new team of their usual schedule because when Max and Nico got up at six in the morning for breakfast, the entire team was ready to go.


    They weren''t the only ones aboard the vessel, though. Max could sense that there were four people on duty on the bridge and eight more who were asleep, making three shifts of bridge crew for a full rotation.


    None of the bridge crew were Innu, but most of them were not humans either. The Captain of the Watch who was on duty right now was a Giant, as were the other two, while each shift had a Valkia on duty as a weapons officer, which amused Max. The Valkia were always drawn tow enforcement and otherbat-rted positions, though they had sworn off inteary conflicts centuries ago.


    The other crew members were a mix of humans and other species, which Max was startled to see included a Dryad. He hadn''t expected to see one of them volunteer toe out here to the middle of nowhere aboard a ship without a forest of any sort. But this one was the ship''s medical officer, specializing in treatments that were beyond the capabilities of the Alliance-developed medical bays and handheld healing devices that the ship was stocked with.


    They were also a doctoral student, and working on a thesis involving convergent evolution, the theory that all intelligent life gravitated toward a certain set ofmon denominators, which would always be the best possible option for an aspect of every species'' evolution.


    It was a fascinating theory, and it might actually have some basis in reality, from what Max had seen. It also exined why they hade out here. There were brand new, never seen before species and a wealth of new knowledge to be had on this side of the anomaly.


    If there were anywhere in the Universe which could verify their theory, it would be here.


    The Dryad''s ambition didn''t stop there, though. They wanted to not only prove the theory but identify at least one of the aspects that all species were evolving toward. If they could manage that, they would be legends in the field of gic medicine for millennia toe.


    It was ambitious, but that was a good thing out here in the far reaches of space.


    The entire research team was waiting for them in the dining room when they arrived. They were all in theirb coats and eager to get going, though some of them had clearly spent almost all night working on the perfect presentation for Nico.


    "I guess I should have rified that you didn''t have to get the presentation done before the start of your shift. Any time today would have been fine." Max greeted them, earning some long-suffering groans from the students.


    "He''s like that. Imprecise with time schedules. He does it to motivate thezier crew members." Nico added.


    The researchersughed, and Max could sense that they were convinced that the moniker of zy'' could never apply to an Innu in a research team. It was literally the best job they could possibly imagine, and just the thought of going to work energized their minds.


    "I have picked a special first meal for us all." One of the students informed Max, then brought over two covered tes to set in front of him and Nico.


    "It''s a tradition of our University." One of the others exined. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    They uncovered the tes of raspberry-stuffed waffles, covered in more fruits and whipped cream with chocte sprinkles.


    "If that''s a tradition, it''s a new one." Maxughed. Both Raspberries and Chocte hade to them from the humans, so they had only known about them for a year or so.


    "Well, we might have changed the vours a bit since raspberry and chocte are so much better than the Pit Berries that we used to use. But the first day, stuffed waffles with whipped cream is the traditional first meal of students and teachers at the university. It''s supposed to be good luck." The girl who set the tes down giggled.


    She was telling the truth, and her hair tentacles were wriggling in excitement as she sat down at her own meal and poured another cup of coffee from the carafe on the table.


    "If you''re going to do raspberry waffles, you''ll have to go easy on the coffee, or you''ll end up drunk for your first day at work." Max reminded them.


    "Oh, shoot. We forgot about that. Well, one cup won''t hurt. But we should go get some juice." One of the Innu girls, an especially tall one with skin in such a light pink that it was almost white, announced before running to the replicator.


    Breakfast got lively very quickly as they all started to talk to Nico about the projects that they hoped to work on in the near future. They were all somewhat relevant to the work at hand, with some of them wanting to create sensory technology and a few others wanting to work on Warp Drive theories.


    They all had a different portion of the functions that they were interested in, but most of their theories could be either verified or disproven by the operation of a specifically designed advanced Warp Drive.


    Since it was all theoretical, there wouldn''t be any patent issues. Nobody else had made them work in the real world, after all.


    Even finding out that they would be putting the finishing touches on a nearly finished Line Mecha design to start out their work here wasn''t enough to dampen the enthusiasm they held for this new position.


    They had all sorts of ideas for how to perfect the final issues with the Mecha, and they had even been studying the humans who didn''t have the System Nanobots, so that they could ount for their differences when they were doing the design work. It was an impressive level of preparation for working with the Terminus Trading Company, more than Max had expected new employees to put in.


    "Alright. Let''s get to it. I think that we can have everything set up before lunch, and then we''ve got half the day to work on the existing design." Nico announced as she got to her feet.


    [They''re loaded up with raspberries and coffee. You might want to take the morning to greet the rest of the crew.] Nico though, looking directly at Max before she left with the researchers.


    She was right, their excitement was already bing a constant buzz in his head as their thoughts went crazy.

 Chapter 855 855 The New Crew

    Max took a leisurely stroll down the hallways of the Cutter, giving the bridge crew time to notice that he wasing. There were internal monitors everywhere, the same as on every other ship, and they should be watching what was going on in the upied areas unless there was some threat outside that had drawn their full attention.


    Max hadn''t made it far when they noticed that he had left the hangar bay and wasing their way, and he chuckled to himself as they panicked and hurried to clean the bridge before he got there.


    In their nervousness, they had forgotten that he had the ability to read minds, so there was no need to hide the issue of "Exercises in Logic and Mathematics Monthly" in the storage box of the Captain''s side table.


    They sent all the food wrappers and dishes to the recycler and activated an auto-clean cycle that they calcted should finish just before Max entered. He walked faster than that, and he would be there near the middle of the cycle, so he made a detour and checked out the side corridors of the Cutter to see if the designers had changed anything for the purpose.


    It didn''t look like it. The ship was set up to bunk a full Battalion of Mecha Pilots, plus support staff, and even the Maintenance Technician quarters, which linked to the hangar through their own dedicated entrance, were intact and fully staffed for the purpose.


    That was where the Research Team had chosen to stay, though, so it made sense to have them stocked. The next corridors, where the Pilots would usually stay, werepletely abandoned, though, with most of the surfaces still having the new construction protective film on them.


    Max timed his entrance so that he would arrive three seconds after the cleaning process had finished, giving everyone just enough time to get halfway to their stations from the side room they had moved to so the cleaner could work properly.


    The door opened automatically as he approached, and Max walked in with a smile.


    "Not a bad attempt, but Pilots walk fast. It''s in our nature after that much training to scramble for missions." Max greeted the bridge crew, who were alling his way after seeing the door open.


    The Giant facepalmed and sighed. "We forgot that you''re a human Illithid, didn''t we? Well, at least it''s clean for your arrival. Wee to the Cutter Shinjitsu no Hikari. I know it''s not human tradition, but there were only Innu and one Dryad present when it was time to name the new vessel, and they decided to name it Light of Truth in one of the ancientnguages."


    "It''s got a nice ring to it. I''m sure that they won''t mind if we just call it the Light of Truth, though. Expecting everyone else to understand and correctly ry the ancientnguage name is a bit much when we''re dealing with so many species.


    So, tell me. How has your time aboard the Light of Truth been treating you, and how has the new crew been getting along?" Max replied.


    "It has been an interesting voyage for sure. You''ll realize soon enough that the three Giants were sent by the Alliance Central Government so that we can keep reporting on the new developments of the humans. There is some suspicion that you came to this region specifically because your top research team needed an unsupervised chance to create weapons which would break the treaties between Alliance Species."


    Max shrugged. "They were bound to send someone to keep an eye on us. I assume that you''re allpetent Captains as well? If you''re not, I can shuffle the crew designations and put the Valkia in charge of the ship." <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "We are all experienced Captains, as well as members of the Intelligence Corps. We''re not here to undermine you in any way, only to ensure that you don''t intend to provide Alliance species with the means tomit War Crimes.


    There have been some concerns after the recent developments with the Hunters. They came under intense attack by the species on the other side of the Anomaly that they were sent to guard, a species known as Crollo. They''re intensely hostile and carnivorous. They tried to eat the Hunters who went to talk to them, and the Hunters decided that they were a game species, and now it''s a huge diplomatic mess over there."


    Maxughed at the man''s phrasing. "Yes, I suppose it would be a mess for diplomacy if the other party tried to eat anyone you sent to them."


    The Giant nodded and continued his story, missign Max''s sarcastic tone and amusement. "Other than that, your new crew is adjusting well to being together, though the Innu Researchers have chosen to eat separately in their own mess hall."


    That was an interesting tidbit. "Are they not getting along well with the rest of the crew?"


    The Giant shook his head. "That''s not the problem, they spend arge amount of time socializing with the other crew members, and they have modified some of the VR gaming pods for the Valkia to y their favourite games, but there was an incident involving talk of rationing Raspberry Lattes the same as Alcoholic beverages while on duty, and it did not end in unanimous agreement.


    I suspect that the reason they are eating separately is because they decided not to reduce their morning intake to a level that didn''t leave them bouncing off the walls."


    Max smiled at the shift Captain. "You are exactly correct. I came here straight away because their hyperactive minds were giving me a headache from being in such close proximity. I will talk to them about moderation and diminishing returns once I have finished meeting the crew here and getting a full overview of the ship''s systems."


    "Diminishing returns?" The shift engineer, another Innu, asked with a hint of trepidation in their voice.


    "Yes, if you drink too much of it, your body bes desensitized, and then you need to increase your intake or lose the benefits of the Raspberry Latte. So, either frequency or volume needs to be moderated for maximum efficiency." Max agreed.


    The Engineer was typing his words into her console as he spoke and brought up a load of data on the subject in an instant. "How horrific. Alright, we will have a meeting about it. They''re all College students and have been going a bit wild now that they''re free to make their own choices for the first time in their lives."


    "Thank you, and not just for the reduction in my headache."

 Chapter 856 856 Light Of Truth

    With the talk of the research team out of the way, they got down to the technical details of the new vessel. The Engineer brought up the ship''s schematic as a 3D projection and began her speech.


    "Light of Truth, in themonnguage, is built on the standard monomolecr hull design created by Lead Researcher Nico, and it is outfitted in the standard manner for a full Mecha Battalion, plus support crew.


    However, the sensors have been upgraded from thest generation, with the information that has been ryed back to the Terminus Trading Company about the capabilities of the species in this sector. It should be more capable of detecting the Arisen Army''s arrivals than even Santa Maria, and it has both long-range sensors and probes for finding specific materials.


    The determination was that they would be needed both when searching for survivors and evidence after an attack and for restocking the vessel with the most efficient materials possible.


    With limited volume avable for storage, it is to our benefit to find the densest possible material for the Replicator Systems. In addition to that, we have an optimized biomatter generation and recycling facility on board. It is fully self-contained and uses nanotechnology maintenance bots, a new development from the Terminus Trading Company.


    Not that Nanotech is new to anyone, but these are specifically designed to maintain our biomatter systems and have been granted a Patent by the Alliance, so we can market the full systems as a premium product."


    Max looked over the design with approval. It always sucked for sanitation to repair sewer systems, so the Nanobots would be a wee addition to any ship.


    "Have these also been deployed aboard Absolution?" He asked.


    "Not yet. They are waiting for our test results, as this is the first real-world test outside theb. If we have no issues with them here, they will be deployed to the full Company and distributed to the other Reavers with simr systems on board their ships." The Giant exined before the Engineer could get into a long and detailed exnation of the sewage system of the World Ship.


    The Innu nodded. "As he said, we''re the first, but others will be equipped with them soon. Next up is the shielding system. It''s an all-new design, forwarded by the Lead Researcher only a few weeks ago.


    ording to the data, it should be over three hundred percent more effective against the weapons of the Arisen than the old design. It is also segmented into six generators which can be expanded to ovep, which was ast-minute addition that was credited to you personally." She added.


    They were nning to do that with the Mecha as well, so if it was deemed an improvement for the ship, it was a good sign that they were on the right track with their Mecha development.


    The bridge staff wouldn''t be kept up to date with the exact details as a precaution to avoid leaks of data, but Max still knew where the design had originated and that the reason it was considered was because of the high volume of fire from multiple directions that they were expecting toe under at that time.


    "Next up is the weapons system. We have the usual assortment of Reaver Ship weapons, including six fast-charging Orbital Lances, twelve Warp Torpedo bays, and sixty-four defensivesers for blocking iing hard projectiles and light Mecha. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That was a lot of firepower, but basically the same as the other Cutters on Absolution, so there wouldn''t have been any suspicions raised about the purpose of this ship while it was being created.


    "It''s a shame that we couldn''t bring the Androids here with us. They have been doing such an amazing job on Absolution, especially under the guidance of Felicity, who has determined that simply piloting wasn''t enough of a skill set for them, so they have been cross-trained to maintain and repair their own unitstely.


    They work alongside the human techs as assistants, and they''ve been getting really good at developing the sort of problem-solving logic that will let them diagnose issues without a clear cause." The Engineer sighed.


    Hopefully, the AI hadn''t found a loophole in her limitations to have the Androids develop in an unwanted direction, but repair seemed like an appropriate task to have them help with since there were already Androids on the repair team.


    "There are some small quality of life changes as well. The temperature control system has been improved to the standard that was used aboard Terminus and Absolution, making the ship truly multi-species friendly instead of maintaining a constant human optimal temperature and humidity everywhere.


    We have also added all the new options from various species to the Replicators, and with permission, I will add the new ones from Santa Maria to our options. With that done, we should be better able to host foreign visitors.


    We wanted to add Gravity Slides, but they were deemed inappropriate for a Warship, so that option never panned out. We did modify the flooring, though. Many of our staff prefer to go barefoot, so the floor surface is softer but just as durable. Boots won''t damage it, but it won''t be painful to run barefoot on." She added.


    The Giant nodded and gestured toward the crew quarters, where the rest were either sleeping or enjoying their time off. "The Dryad was the first to suggest it, but the humans also approved of the measure. They said that they could keep their boots in their t space, and with the autoces, they could throw them on faster than a buttoned shirt if they were called to duty."


    "We also added some rxation areas to the unused spaces. The secondary gym is now a sand-floored space with loungers for tanning and arge hot tub. There is also arge atrium full of jungle nts that have been popr both as a training space for meleebat and rxation for the Dryad." The Engineer informed them, pointing it out on the map for Max.


    That should have been a spare Mecha Bay for excess equipment and recovered materials after a battle. It was best to keep the remnants of the destroyed Mecha away from the active duty personnel, so they were put in their own bay while being repaired.


    That wasn''t a concern here, so they had repurposed it into a multi-level obstacle course and training area full of huge trees.


    "Good work, everyone. It looks like you''ve made it properlyfortable for yourselves." Max congratted them, and the crew finally began to rx in his presence.

 Chapter 857 857 Modular Engineering

    After the first hour at work with Nico, the effects of the morning coffee had faded, and the Researchers'' minds were a bit easier for Max to be around, so he made his way back to theb and left the flight crew to do their work.


    "Wee back, Commander. We got your message about the coffee, and we apologize. The first taste of freedom was too sweet, and we might have gone overboard." The researcher nearest to the door greeted Max as he walked back in.


    "I''m d you all understand. Now, how was the first hour with Lead Researcher Nico?" He asked.


    "It''s amazing. Everything that we could have asked for and more. We''re fine-tuning the Mecha design for the Line Mecha prototype, and we think that it will be ready to send to Uncle Lu by the end of the day. The Lead Researcher ns to have some of them sent to the Destroyers for testing, but the Moon Base will release the final version once they have that data."


    "Excellent news. Is there anything I can do at the moment?" Max asked.


    "You can watch those sensor readings there. Do you have a research-rted System Function like Miss Nico?" The student asked.


    "In a way. I have a System Function for making things work in the most efficient or optimal way. If there is a w or glitch, it is pretty good at catching it." Max exined.


    Everyone got back to work as soon as Max moved to the station, and he could see that they were making the most minor of adjustments, trying to save as much weight as possible so that they would bring down the raw material requirement of the Mecha. Even if they could only squeeze out a few percent worth of savings, it was worth it in the long run, as that was an extra few dozen Mecha when they were produced on a Regimental scale.


    There wasn''t a Commander in the entire human race who would object to more Mecha for his materials.


    A few hours after Max joined them, the next shift came in to say hello before they came on duty. Simr to the previous one, they were a Giant and Valkia pair on Command and Weapons, but this shift had two humans instead of a human and an Innu for Engineering and Communications.


    "It is an honour to meet you, Commander, Lead Researcher. We will be in your care for the foreseeable future." The Giant greeted them with a smile.


    His mind was all on duty and what he needed to get done this shift, but the Valkia''s mind was all on how to convince Nico to help her pass a level in the VRbat game she was stuck at, while the two human crewmembers were intently pondering the mesmerizing way that her backside swayed as she walked in the heeled boots that the Valkia preferred. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max could already tell that this crew was going to be a fun one.


    The shift''s crew finished their introductions and went to relieve thest shift of their posts while the development team got to work on the next fully constructed prototype. Only after it was fully constructed and tested would they be able to tell if there were any issues that the simtions missed, so great care was taken to make sure that everything was exactly to specifications.


    On some projects, that was the hardest part. Getting the actual unit assembled to the design specs.


    The Replicator system was very good, but any small inconsistencies would destroy tight tolerances. So, for the sake of experimentation, most things would be created in pieces and assembled. That would also reveal any ws in their design that would make the unit hard to perform maintenance on.


    Once the team had put it together, taken it apart, and put it back together again to begin testing, they could say for sure that it was actually possible to do and make notes on any design changes that might need to be made to get at frequently serviced parts.


    That was an issue that had gotten many ambitious designs scrapped in the past. If the field technicians couldn''t quickly and easily service it, then it was not suitable to be taken on the battlefield. If it couldn''t be immediately repaired, it was scrap iron before it was ever damaged, just waiting for its first breakdown, when it would be abandoned by the unit.


    It was the opposite of many civilian designs, which were designed to be difficult on purpose so that the dealerships could make more money on service calls.


    They were only just past the main skeleton when they ran into the first issue with the construction. The holding frame for the power pack was designed to be modr, but when it was reinforced, there were extra brackets added, and now it couldn''t be put in after the main skeleton was assembled, and the whole Mecha would have toe apart to take it out again.


    So, back to the drawing board they went. The partially assembled frame was tossed into the recycle bin to be used for the next round of materials, and Max started reviewing the cockpit interior, the portion that he had chosen to refine today.


    It was the part best suited to [Optimize] since most Pilots would be roughly his size, so Max started tweaking theyout of the control panel again, trying to make it more familiar to users of previous generations of Mecha without losing the more rapidly essible portions of its design.


    On the next attempt, everything at least went together. Taking it apart was a minor nightmare, though, as many of the bolts which would make the process easier were blocked byter additions, so the unit had to be dismantled in a specific order. That was not good for the battlefield either. You didn''t want to take half the Mecha apart to get to what you needed, so they would have to redesign that again after the disassembly and reassembly werepleted.

 Chapter 858 858 The Eccentric Crew

    By the time the prototype was back together, it was time to call it a day. Unlike Nico''s preference with the main design team to work nonstop until someone interrupted them or they began to copse from exhaustion, they were working more normal shifts here.


    They had time, and the research team needed to write their college papers, as well as work on new theories to improve the Mecha and earn their Doctorate, which was no easy feat within Innu society, where standards were incredibly high.


    Now that they were released from their work duties, the students dragged Max to what they called Muscle Beach, the sand-floored workout area.


    "The other humans showed us the joys of this ce. We can work off energy before bed, and once we''re done that, we cany on these lounge chairs here, enjoy the heat and humidity while we watch the others work out." One of the researchers exined.


    There was a line of small changing rooms all along one wall, each with a single-purpose replicator to make workout clothing, so Max went and got changed to start his daily routine.


    The team of Innu came out only momentster in matching spandex shorts and sports bras, running toward the obstacle course. They weren''t particrly concerned about the extra muscle strength, but more flexibility and agility while burning energy was a top concern for them.


    As Max bumped up the gravity generator underneath the machine he was working at so that he could actually get a workout, they started giggling and swinging through the air, twisting between obstacles and making their way around the perimeter of the room.


    "You know, there are more settings for that, right? The obstacles can move, and some of them rotate." Max called out as they finished the firstp of the course.


    "Seriously? How do we do that? Oh, never mind, it will be on theputer." The first Innu to finish replied, then started to scan through the gym''s settings to change the difficulty of the obstacle course.


    "Perfect. I have the setting that we need. Chaos Mode sets every obstacle to random difficulty, changing every fifteen seconds." She eximed with a huge grin on her face.


    This round of the obstacle course was a very different experience for the Innu. The obstacles were moving, changing distances, and some of them would fall away a split second after you grabbed them, forcing you to move on or fall.


    And fall, they did. There were constantndings on the sand floor, dampened by a reduction in gravity so that they didn''t injure themselves. It made walking anywhere but near the equipment in the middle of the room or the lounge chairs a falling object hazard, but they were certainly having fun, especially when Nico came in to catch them.


    By the time they were exhausted, it was time for dinner, and the third shift came to say hello. Made up of five people, including the Ship''s Doctor, who was technically on call, not assigned to any shift, this group was just as entric as thest one was. It was quite clear that the female Valkia and the humanmunications officer were lovers, while the Giant who had been put inmand was wearing a t-shirt with an equation that both proved and disproved that there was a seventh dimension.


    As far as Max could determine, you really couldn''t get nerdier than that, while the Innu engineer was quickly absorbed into the conversation between the design team members and nearly forgotten by her teammates until it was time for them to work. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "As you might have guessed, everyone here is a volunteer. I wouldn''t say that we were all encouraged to leave ourst post, but being on a nearly empty ship doing research on the far side of the universe did have a certain appeal to everyone on board." The Dryad doctorughed as the rest of the staff left the cafeteria.


    "I heard that you are on a mission to improve multi-species medicine, so it made sense that you were here. I just assumed that a lot of the others had been pressured by the Alliance to join the mission. I haven''t dug deep into anyone''s thoughts, though. It''s considered somewhat impolite." Max replied.


    "Well, that is likely also true. Since the Giants all work for Alliance Intelligence, they were likely pushed to take the job, but they volunteered in the end before their superiors could choose someone at random from the department.


    The Valkia on this shift was the first to volunteer. She''s from the Envoy ship, and there''s still some difort there with the whole interspecies thing. For Dryads, that''s not really an issue, but a Valkia doesn''t do that, as a general rule.


    Other than that, we''ve just got the students, who are enjoying their first taste of freedom, but they''ll calm down eventually, and the engineer and the Giant from the first ship who have this whole sexual tension frenemies thing going on."


    Max chuckled at the description.


    "I take it you''re a big fan of romance books?" He asked the Dryad.


    "Oh, most definitely, yes. Especially the human ones. They get really spicy." She giggled, with a slight blush on her cheeks.


    "Well, it''s good to know more about my crew. If we''re going to be together for a while, we shouldn''t encourage them to be strangers." Max told her with a wink.


    "Is it wrong that I''m cheering on the Valkia and Human love story only because I really want to be the pediatrician to their firstborn child?" The Dryad joked, making Nico give her an interested look.


    "I wonder whether they would have wings? Humans are too dense to fly easily, but if they got the Valkia hollow and extra strong bones as well, would you really be able to tell that they were a hybrid?" Nico asked.


    "What if they got feathers that weren''t in a grayscale? Human hair and eyese in so many colours. With the rightbination of gic codes, we could have a Valkia with the most amazing blue, green and red wings." The Dryad sighed happily, lost in thought.


    That would be quite a sight. A parrot patterned Valkia.

 Chapter 859 859 Movie Night

    The next morning started out at a much more sedate pace now that the students had kept themselves to one mediumtte each. That was enough to get them going for the day but not enough to make them overly hyper.


    So, they got right into the reconstruction of the Mecha that they had stopped at the end of the day yesterday and thenpiled all the notes that they had made about the process.


    There were a lot of items on the list, and they were put forward as a group so that they could all brainstorm ideas together ande up with changes that would work for everyone.


    "I think that if we make all this a separate subassembly, which we can pull out by removing these side armour tes, it will make it much easier to get to the ess panel for the temperature control module." One of the students pointed out.


    "That''s right, but those modules connect, and you can''t troubleshoot the climate control with it removed. The climate control needs the power module here to operate. We could move it here, but then we will run into problems with thermal control since that area gets really hot." One of the others countered.


    That was how their entire day went, making small changes, then realizing that half their changes caused new problems, so they had to start over. It was a huge mess but perfectly normal for a design team.


    The team was exhausted at dinner that night, and Nico couldn''t help teasing them.


    "You really thought that designing was easy and smooth, didn''t you? Don''t worry. We will eventually get to the fun parts and research new technologies. But first, we need a chassis to put them in." She reminded them.


    "We know that in theory. But in practice, it''s a lot of work." One of the girls sighed.


    "How about I show you the perfect way to unwind at the end of the day?" Max suggested.


    "There is a standardized procedure?" They asked hopefully.


    "Not at all. It is a personal secret of the experienced designers and Pilots. Nico, would you like to get the auditorium set up? I will get the snacks and meet you there in five minutes with the rest of the team." Max replied with a wink for Nico.


    Letting her pick the movie was always fun because you never knew what you were going to get, and Max knew that the students wouldn''tin no matter what she picked since they hadn''t seen any of the human ssics yet.


    "Alright, everyone, head out ahead, and I will be behind you with the traditional snacks for an evening of rxation. Trust me. The surprise is worth it." Max instructed, sending all the researchers down the hall to the auditorium after a few minutes.


    When they entered, Nico had the mood lighting set, all of the sofas set out facing the movie screen, and the movie of the night all set for viewing.


    "Wee to the inaugural viewing of the human film ssic [Scarred Face]. A mafia movie that has stood the test of time in the centuries since its first filming." Nico weed them.


    "And I have the snacks. We have popcorn, milk duds, chocte mints and Kepa C. Grab one of each, and feel free to trade if there is one you don''t like. It''s a tradition during movie viewings." Max added. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The researchers cheered as they collected their drinks and snacks, then settled into the couches, which hadrge cupholders in the armrests for exactly this reason.


    The movie started, and the lights faded, leaving the room with only the three-dimensional projection of the movie for light.


    There was a round of happy squealing as the researchers discovered the joys of human snacks for the first time and some confusion as to how the buttery, salty popcorn went with the sweet chocte treats and the acidic tang of the soda.


    Within seconds all of the day''s stress was gone, and their minds had forgotten all about work, focusing only on the snacks and the movie, which they thought was a hrious parody of what a crime lord should be like.


    When it finished, they were in a great mood and quoting lines from the movie to each other as they headed for their rooms.


    Max headed for the bridge to see how things were going outside theb and ran into the crew that had juste off duty on his way.


    "Did you teach the Innu something strange? They just passed by, and someone asked me to say hello to their friend, but I didn''t see anyone there but the Innu." The Giant asked.


    "We just finished watching a human movie, a ssic mafia movie. They were likely quoting the movie to you, but it wouldn''t make any sense if you hadn''t seen it. They were stressed out at the end of the day, so we put on a movie to help them rx." Max exined.


    "Oh, well then, I hope their friend is alright." The Giant agreed, still not quite getting that it was a line unrted to actually having a physical friend present.


    The bridge crew jumped to attention when Max entered, and themunications officer passed him a list of messages that they had received since thest time he was there.


    There hadn''t been an attack since the new Mecha arrived, and things were pretty quiet in the system, but there had been a number of missing cargo ships reported further out and more attacks on the neighbouring nations, which had destroyeds.


    It was a bit like they were an ind of calm in a sea of chaos at the moment, with the attacks continuing as usual everywhere else, including some others in the Koleska Empire, but nothing near them.


    "Well, there''s no need to stress out about it. They will attack when they attack, and the Mecha Battalion will be ready to meet them." Max shrugged.


    "There are no other major issues to report, but we do have one report from Absolution. They have scheduled a festival to match one of the Alliance''s major holidays and are expecting extreme tourist volume for the next week. They say they have it under control, but responses to messages from the council could be dyed while they are ensuring that the festivities are running smoothly."


    "Excellent news, thank you."


    As long as everything was running smoothly at home, he didn''t have much to worry about, and he could work here without concern.

 Chapter 860 860 Ready Check

    For the next ten days, the design team was free to work without interference, constructing and deconstructing the Line Mecha chassis until they were reasonably sure that they had it perfect. In fact, it had gone so well that they were about to put Nico in the cockpit to do movement tests inside the bay when the iing enemies alert sounded through their Cutter.


    [Iing Arisen vessels from the''s interior side. Four vessels in total. Two are moving to engage the human fleet.] The Watch Captain informed the ship in his deep baritone voice.


    [Inform the other vessels to deploy their Mecha but not engage at this time. Let the Arisen decide if we''re fighting today.] Max reminded them.


    If they wanted the humans to stay out of the fight, they would oblige, but the Koleska had made huge strides in their Piloting over thest week, with a new ss of Pilot graduates on the lines and everyone making use of both the learning machines and the VR gaming pods to improve their skills.


    The Cadet Corps flew up from the surface within minutes, and Max watched as the farmers pulled War Machines out of the barns and aimed them skyward, intent on preventing orbital assaults, though the Arisen would normally just appear on the surface and not need to fly down like a normal enemy.


    Two Mixed Regiments and a hundred Titan ss Mecha based on the design of Cleansing Light were deployed from the human ships, and the two Arisen Cube Ships stopped at a distance of fifty thousand kilometres, sitting between them and the battle on the.


    But the battle never urred. The Koleska got fully deployed in under ten minutes, and the Arisen Army''s fleet simply disappeared.


    Max was too far away to read the minds of the Koleska Commanders, but they were broadcasting their thoughts for anyone to hear, and they were not happy with being ready checked by the Arisen.


    They had diverted an entire''s poption, sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers into space, and scrambled an entire Battle Group from the Station and the surrounding ships, amounting to millions of total work hours, and not a single shot was fired.


    But the biggest problem was that it was making the politicians nervous. There was no way to tell if they backed down because they were outnumbered by the defenders with the human fleet here or if they really hadn''t been intent on attacking if the Koleska had done what they wanted and prepared the entire for war.


    If they sent the fleet away to reinforce the other war zones, would the next Arisen attack be much worse for them? Or would it be the same because they responded the same?


    The uncertainty was enough to rattle the Politicians, even when it relieved the Commanders. They didn''t sign the checks, and the money wasn''ting out of their ounts, so why would they care if they did a forced ready check? They should be done at random anyhow, so why should it matter if the Arisen initiated one themselves?


    [Well, that was fun.] The leader of the Super Heavy Battalionughed.


    The Koleska started to disappear back into their ships and return to the while the human force stood guard, waiting until they were sure that the threat was really gone before they stood down.


    Max was about to return to his work when he checked the sensors onest time and noticed that not every alien vessel had departed. There was one Darkling attack craft hidden at the edge of the asteroid field, and the sensors of his Cutter had detected the scans it had sent out to analyze the newly arrived human Mecha. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    One small attack craft was no real threat, but it meant that the next time they met, the alien species would know a lot more about their capabilities than they had thest time. The real question was if they would assume that all of these Mecha had the same capabilities as Max''s Cleansing Light did or if they had already realized that they were a reproduction of the original and didn''t have all of the same weapons systems since they had been optimized for ease of use and for fighting against the Arisen.


    After a few minutes, the small attack craft vanished into the asteroid belt, vanishing from his scanners, and the region was deemed all clear for the Mecha to return to base.


    It was an interesting change but hardly important as the species already had a pretty good grasp of the capabilities of human Mecha after being involved in a few battles involving Max and Nico.


    But the Innu took it differently.


    "What if they''re nning to change their stance on humans? Either to ask us to fight with them or to attack us? We should have somethingpletely unexpected when we scale the Line Mecha up for Lead Researcher Nico''s personal unit.


    Rapid fire Mass Drivers and Disruptors are an amazingbination and would be suitable for use on pretty much any ss of production Mecha, but for a Commander''s personal unit, we need something with more ir." The researcher exined this to Max as soon as he returned to theb bay.


    "Well, we will consider anything if it''s effective and stable. But Nico has thest word since it''s her personal Mecha you''re going to be working on once this Line Mecha design is finished and tested. Impressing her with your ideas isn''t going to be easy. Even impressing the tenured professors to get your doctoral thesis approved might be easier." Max replied with a wink to let the Innu know he was at least partially joking.


    "We will be done with the Line Mecha soon, I''m certain of it. My thesis is onyered space and the properties of the other spatialyers. I have a theory that we can breach them, and if I am right, we should be able to not only move more quickly but harness an immense amount of energy from the otheryers."


    Max knew all those words but still had no idea what she was talking about beyond the most basic of concepts.


    "Well, I hope that you can get an experiment approved." He informed her, which seemed to be enough to assure the researcher that he wasn''t going to t-out reject her idea.


    She went back to work in a much better mood than she had been in a few minutes ago, and Max saw the dozens of Professors and others who had called her delusional or insane for her ideas. But the true innovators always got called insane until they could prove that they were right, and that was ultimately the only way to tell a visionary genius from a lunatic or conspiracy theorist.


    She had certainly been sent on the right deployment, though. With the number of times, he could see her being shut down in her memories, they were likely the only chance that she had to actually get someone to let her try to breach theyers in space, assuming that they actually existed, of course.


    Most of the other Thesis ideas were more usible, but none of them would be easy to aplish on a practical level. They would likely spend most of their time here just trying to prove new theories, but if it led to a breakthrough, Nico might finally have the Mecha that she had been dreaming about.

 Chapter 861 861 Can We Shoot Something

    It ended up taking them another week of minor tweaks until they had the beta version of the Line Mecha ready for testing. Everything was properly modr, every part could be essed with reasonable amounts of effort, and the mostmon service modules were essible in under five minutes, except for a few which were simply unable to be relocated and took nearly an hour for a single technician in the field, or fifteen minutes for one with a repair rack to get to.


    That was much better than the standard listed on the military procurement orders that any of the human military forces had issued, so Max was confident that the Cygnus force would find this to be an improvement worth keeping, even without considering the increased firepower and mobility.


    "Well, should we get ahold of Sergeant Khalil and have him continue with the test Pilot duties for the sake of continuity in the data set?" Max asked.


    Nico nodded as she started lovingly at the nowplete Mecha. "We should. I will make more of them as well so that we have multiple input points for the testing data, so you should request that they send a whole wing of Line Mecha PIlotos from the Corvette ss operators. Anyone else will be too slow to work the Mecha to our standards, and Sergeant Khalil has a lot of extra training."


    "Got it. Anything else?"


    Nico smiled and looked around the room. "Raspberry cheesecake ice cream cones. I think we need to celebrate."


    There was a replicator programmed for food right at the side of the bay, intended to resupply the Mecha, which would normally be stored in there, so Max sent the request to Celia''s Love and went to fetch the snacks.


    [We have received your message, Light of Truth. We can have them ready in ten hours. Will you be sending a shuttle, or are we arranging transport?]


    [I wille to get them. I have a gift for you as well, for the generous loan of your men for our testing.] Max replied.


    The truly good Reaver Rum was only programmed into the Reaver ships and not every ship of the Trade Group, so it was always a wee trade good. Every group within the human fleet had their own personal specialty, and the Cygnus Fleet preferred Vodka, while the Kepler forces often brought a form of Brandy with them.


    "They will be ready in ten hours. Would you like to take a nap so that you''re ready when they get here, or do we have more to do?" Max asked as he went to get the ice cream.


    "We will take a break after this. If it''s a ten-hour gap, they should be rested when they get here, and we can go all out to get the data that we need. I will make some flying drones that we can shoot at as well. Having shields up on the remote-controlled ships should make better targets than simple asteroids, and we can test their skills and reflexes as we go.


    The best Mecha in the world is a worthless hunk of iron if it''s not intuitive and user-friendly, so we will give them the once-over on the controls before they go and then let them figure it out. They''re Cygnus, so they''re likely used to running with pure mental control and very little manual input, which means that their control rates shouldn''t change much at all."


    "In that case, here is the ice cream. Good work on getting the prototypes up and running, everyone. Enjoy your break, and we will meet again when the test Pilots arrive." Max agreed.


    -------------------- <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Twelve hourster, the ten test Pilots were assembled at a Nico-designed course through the asteroids, with one hundred moving targets, all equipped with energy shields, which should withstand the output of the Line Mecha weapons, which had been toned down for the exercise, the same as a training Mecha would be.


    "Commander, are you sure that it is actually possible toplete that course within fifteen minutes?" One of the Pilots asked.


    "One hundred targets in fifteen minutes while under fire is the standard to pass the Corvette ss certification. These aren''t even going to be shooting back." Max reminded him.


    "But look at the course. I don''t even think that our Corvettes can move as fast as those Drones." The Pilot countered.


    "I can have you reced if you like, but I assure you that the course is possible. I ran it in VR testing already and didn''t find any issues." Max informed him with a note of finality that shut the Pilot up.


    "How long did it take you?" Sergeant Khalil asked.


    "Three minutes and seven seconds. Nico finished in three minutes and twenty seconds. If any of youe in under ten minutes, I will be impressed, but fifteen is certainly possible with one hundred percent drone kills."


    Truthfully, the course was actually brutal for a regr Mecha pilot toplete at all, much less with one hundred percent uracy, but the drones were patterned to mimic the Arisen War Walkers'' mobility and movement patterns.


    If they couldn''t keep up with that, then the humanmanders were going to have to adjust their strategies when it came time to actually face the enemy or whatever had the Arisen Army so scared.


    [On your marks. The course begins in ten seconds.] Nico announced impatiently.


    The two hours to get the Pilots familiar with the new Mecha and get them set up outside the firing range after performing the most basic of movement checks to make sure the Mecha had no major issues had been entirely too much for her patience level and she was getting eager to see her new child start shooting things.


    The Research Team was sitting in the shuttle, right behind Max and Nico, who were in their own personal Mecha, in case there was an issue with the experimental designs, and someone needed an immediate rescue.


    Now that most of the nervousness had been calmed, the excitement in the air was building up, and the Pilots werepletely focused on theirne of the course.


    [3, 2, 1, GO]

 Chapter 862 862 Rocky Start

    With Nico''s signal, the test Pilots raced forward, firing their Disruptors at the first targets.


    Sergeant Khalil was clearly the most skilled of the batch after all the extra training he had gone through with the time-dted training machines, and he had taken an early lead, getting the first three targets out of the way at once, using his disruptors and both wing-mounted Mass Drivers at the same time.


    The explosive rounds that Nico had loaded in the Mass Drivers were doing an excellent job of preventing coteral damage to the area, and they were moving fast enough to hit the targets with ease, making the shields on the drones ripple as the target was deactivated, and the red kill light on the drone lit up.


    Khalil moved into the asteroid field and rotated his Mecha so that he was facing upward from Max''s point of view, allowing him to slip between the asteroids in front of him without slowing down and then firing the Mass Drivers at the next drone before rapidly evading the next asteroid and looking for the drone he had just seen off to his right.


    Max could tell that the Pilot was only able to tell that he was still on course because of the map. His sense of spatial awareness waspletely shot from the constant hunt for drones and the breakneck pace that he was holding in order to try to meet Nico''s standards for performance.


    Twice he missed targets and had to stop to reacquire them, but other than that, he was keeping a steady pace.


    On the twentieth drone, Nico had put a twist into the program. It would charge them like an Arisen War Walker, mming into their Mecha if they were too slow to react.


    That one really threw the Sergeant for a loop, and the drone was less than two metres away when he hit it with his disruptors.


    Maxughed as the Sergeant cursed over the radio, but the Pilots all had their reception muted during the run, other than messages from Max and Nico, so they didn''t disturb each other.


    Khalil was getting the hang of the course fairly quickly, though, and his movements were bing less mechanical and more like an elegant dance as he dodged the asteroids and hunted down the fast-moving drones with the experimental Mecha.


    It was far from perfect, and he ran into a lot of floating rocks, moving them off course a little, but Nico had already prepared for that and was moving along behind the test Pilots, putting the rocks back in ce while Max stayed further back to get a full view of the proceedings.


    The other nine were holding to Cygnus''s standard maneuvering techniques, and they were way behind the pace that Sergeant Khalil was setting and not having an easy time dealing with the fast-moving drones.


    That was expected for the first run, and they would be shown a collection of reys after the course was run to show them where they could improve and how a better run looked. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max intended to show them the VR version of one of the Researchers if they did well enough, sparing them the humiliation of seeing how he and Nico had done it so much faster. The best of the Researchers had barely made it in the fifteen minutes that were allotted, and they looked quite elegant doing it, as they had never received military training and had learned all their Piloting skills from video games, where acquiring the target was the priority, and there was no risk of death.


    In practice, it gave them a fearless piloting style that worked well on the obstacle course and would probably do well enough against the Arisen Army. It was enough to encourage the Pilots to improve their skills and adjust their techniques, Max hoped.


    But it looked like Sergeant Khalil might actually do better than the Researchers had, despite his somewhat shaky start, as he got used to the level of smoothness that was needed to Pilot efficiently at high speed in space.


    It was a style that had nothing at all inmon with piloting on the ground, and the targets coulde from any direction that you hadn''t already cleared, so they would have to change how they thought toplete the course in time.


    They were all slowly realizing that, but it was toote to salvage this run, and after Sergeant Khalil''s fourteen minutes and thirty seconds, the next Pilot finished just over twenty-two minutes after the course started.


    [Everyone, please return to the starting line while wepile data. Are there anyints about the Mecha''s handling? Anyg, unexined control issues or inconsistencies that you noticed from the cockpit?] Nico asked.


    [I think the problem on that run was more about how to operate the Mecha properly in this environment than about the actual Mecha''s performance. The next run should be an improvement.] One of the Pilots, who had taken nearly thirty minutes to finish the course, replied grimly.


    He knew that he was at half the pace, but the fact that Sergeant Khalil, with his long disciplinary record, had managed to finish it on time was an insult to his honour and his skills as a Pilot. He was certain that he could do better. He just needed the right mindset.


    [Once you''re in ce, we have a collection of videos for you to review. First, watch your own performance to see where you made obvious mistakes, then watch either Sergeant Khalil or the best of our Researchers on their run-through. They both finished just under the fifteen-minute standard, so they are an eptable baseline for improvement.] Nico instructed.


    [Do we have time to watch your Virtual run of the course?] One of the Pilots asked.


    [You should. It might not be as useful to you as the others which are within your capabilities, though. I will make it avable for your viewing.] Nico agreed.


    That was going to be a painful blow to the Pilots, but maybe they would learn something from the dizzying view of Nico''s fly-through.

 Chapter 863 863 Test Runs

    The Pilots all chose to watch Nico''s footage first since it was only three minutes long, but what they found shocked them to their core.


    None of them could even keep up with the target data inputs. It wasing up, they could see iting up, but before they could process that information and respond, Nico had already destroyed it and moved on to the next target.


    That was only half of the issue, though. The other half was that she was moving through the course at an insane speed, barely dodging the asteroids as she spun and twirled the Mecha without concern for structural loading.


    Clearly, it could hold up to that sort of abuse, but the thought of trying to shoot while piloting a Mecha through a tight obstacle course at those speeds was impossible for their minds to fullyprehend.


    [Can we see Commander Keres'' footage? Perhaps it would be more enlightening than this one is.] One of the Pilots asked.


    [It''s avable on your footage now. I''m not sure it will help you, though. He finished the course even faster than I did.] Nico replied with augh.


    Max listened to their thoughts as they watched him fly through. It wasn''t as graceful as Nico''s was, as his piloting style was more methodical and less flowing than hers, but with the multiple targeting from his System Functions, it didn''t have to be. His System input found targets even faster than Nico''s direct link to the Mecha''s sensors, using the predictive functions of the nanobots, which allowed Max to get into position for most of the shots even before the drones powered up and became visible on his sensors.


    [You two are both insane. What if you had hit an asteroid?] Sergeant Khalilughed as he saw the standard that they were judging everyone else against.


    Max could sense his annoyance that it was physically impossible to match up to the standard that the two Commanders held themselves to, and the determination to do better than the minimum standards that they had set for everyone else.


    He had barely scraped by on the first run, but he knew after watching them run that he could do better.


    So, he switched feeds to watch the fastest of the Researchers, who were all Innu, and not soldiers but amateur game enthusiasts who had run the course in Virtual Reality. They would have used the neural link the same as he did, so they wouldn''t have an advantage there, and they didn''t have a System backing them up, so it should be a goodparison.


    Khalil watched as the Mecha moved elegantly through the course, using its own inertia to move around the asteroids without harsh inputs from the thrusters, and the way that so many seconds were lost between target acquisition and the actual firing of the weapons.


    That was understandable since the Innu weren''t soldiers, but the fact that she was only a few seconds slower than his time and faster than the other nine Pilots was a harsh blow to his pride as a Cygnus soldier.


    They were using identical Mecha with identical baselines, and still, the Researchers managed to put up better numbers than the professionals. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Three times he watched the footage, stopping at various points and oveying his own performance to see where he had made mistakes that they didn''t. Then Nico called everyone back to order for the next round.


    [The data of the first run ispiled. Everyone, please return to the starting line and prepare for your next run. I hope that you managed to learn a few tips and tricks from the footage, and we have a bonus waiting for everyone who can make the standard by the end of the day''s testing.


    Light of Truth has a Reaver Rum Cake dessert that only Reaver vessels are programmed with, and it''s on the menu for dinner tonight.] Nico informed them.


    [Now that''s a motivation. Let''s get this done.] The Pilots cheered while Nico started the countdown to the next run.


    They were noticeably less clunky, and there was far less hesitation this time, as well as higher velocities.


    They were too used to moving slowly and methodically in their Mecha, which didn''t suit a space battle, but they were adapting fast.


    This time Sergeant Khalil managed to get down under thirteen minutes, decimating the previous record for Pilots without a System advantage by over a minute, and two other pilots managed to get under seventeen minutes, a vast improvement on their previous runs.


    [Perhaps there is hope for you all after all. No runs over twenty minutes, and you all improved on your previous runs. This time we will give you a fifteen-minute break, so watch whatever footage you think will help you, and then we will send you through again.


    After that is lunch, and we will be returning to Light of Truth for a two-hour break, including data analysis and a midday report.] Max chastised and encouraged the group.


    The third run saw great improvements all around, and though there were a number of impacts with the asteroids as the Mecha Pilots increased their speed to make the run on time, they were getting better at multiple target acquisition, and it was shaving entire minutes off their times without any increase in movement speed.


    One of the Researchers, who had been tasked with the collection of data to see if the standard they had designed the Mecha to was suitable for use by a standard human, sent out a group text as the third run ended.


    [It looks like they just needed to adapt to the new style of Piloting. Their previous Mecha units didn''t include a lot of multiple weaponyouts, unlike therger Mecha. So, they''re not used to having three independently targetable weapons systems on board, and they are treating them as three options on one weapon.]


    That was a very good way of putting it. It also meant that the problem could be easily solved with a short trip through the learning devices to get them used to the weaponyouts.

 Chapter 864 864 Interrupted

    [Assessing the Pilots is part of our test requirements as well. So, should we give them an hour in the learning machines to adapt before we send them out after lunch? We can do the reports ourselves just as easily, using their data as a reference.] The researcher suggested.


    [We still need their personal input, but we can make it once today instead of twice. I think the learning machines would be a much greater help to our testing procedure. We have three runs as a baseline for the adaptation speed of the Pilots, and then we can run three more after the learning machine to record the changes caused by the rapid learning environment.] Nico agreed.


    [Agreed. We will inform them after lunch.] Max decided.


    [All units report to Light of Truth for the midday break.]


    The researchers who were still on the main ship had a buffet ready when everyone returned to the hangar bay, including the Rum cake, as everyone had managed to just barely pass the fifteen-minute cutoff to be considered passably qualified on the Line Mecha.


    "I think they sent us here to be humbled, not as a reward." One of the Pilots was joking as they got out of the experimental units a few minutester.


    "Right? Finding out that we didn''t even qualify as Line Mecha Pilots at the start of the day because we weren''t used to theplexities of Space Piloting was a harsh experience. But we''re at least up to that standard now." Another agreed.


    "Just be d they didn''t call it a Corvette ss unit and increase the standard. We''d all be grinding for weeks just to make the time limit."


    Max cleared his throat. "Good news, everyone. After lunch, we agreed not to make you write reports. Instead, you will spend an hour in the learning machines, practicing multiple target-firing drills and space piloting maneuvers. Then we will run three more trips through the obstacle course and measure your improvements again before the end of the day.


    Now, enjoy your break, and I will prepare your devices."


    The time in the learning machines did a lot of good for the Pilots, and Max was certain when they got out that, they would start putting some decent times up on the record sheet. They all got into their Mecha, and Max piloted Cleansing Light out to supervise them for the final three runs of the day when an alien ship of a design that Max didn''t recognize dropped out of warp close to Light of Truth.


    A sense of danger red in Max''s mind as thebined hatred of the upants of the new ship reached him, and he immediately moved to action.


    [Light of Truth, all hands to battle stations. Shields up. Prepare to be attacked.] He ordered on the Trade Group''s general channel so that all of the other human ships in the vicinity would hear him.


    The crew on duty reacted nearly instantly, and the shields came up just as the first Ion Cannon shots charged, and the newly arrived ship reversed its thrusters toe about for a broadside run past the Cutter.


    Dozens more of the vessels appeared secondster, in attack positions on the Cruiser and the two Destroyers, who would still need a minute or two to deploy their defensive Mecha. They did at least have their shields up thanks to Max''s warning and the early arrival of the one ship, but they were at a disadvantage in numbers and possibly firepower. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [Test Cancelled. All units target the enemy ship. Targeting data is up.] Max continued on the research group channel.


    A barrage of Ion Cannon fire caused the shielding on the Cutter to flicker before the Captain got it stabilized, and Max unleashed a full-power Orbital Lance at the newly arrived vessel.


    All ten of the Line Mecha joined him, with the Warp Field Generators on their Mass Drivers activated, sending out a hail of small projectiles at close to the speed of light.


    They sparked all over the ship''s shielding as they hit, and Max saw a few secondary explosions before his Orbital Lance hit, and the shields copsed entirely.


    The unknown vessel began evasive maneuvers as more Mass Driver shells crashed into her hull, tearing apart the external ting before the light rounds vaporized from the force. The small explosions from the equipped rounds were inconsequentialpared to the impact of the shell itself, as they were intended for training purposes, but the damage to the ship was severe before it could get its shield back up.


    It had managed to rotate 90 degrees, turning fresh armour tes toward them and getting the shield back up on one side before Nico''s first Mass Driver round mmed into it with a fusion explosion that tore a massive chunk of the ship away and sent all the lights on board dark as the ship began to internally detonate.


    [Test units, turn your Mass Drivers on the next designated target. Relieve the sentry ships until they can get their Mecha out.] Max ordered.


    The other ships were sending out Mecha in an angr design, clearly not Arisen War Walkers, but there was no exnation as to why they were attacking.


    [Commander Yuri, who the feth are these guys, and why are we under attack?] Max demanded on the Koleska main channel.]


    [They''re the Galen. They had been at war with the Koleska for centuries before the Arisen attacked their homeworld. We all thought that they had been exterminated.] Commander Yuri answered before Max had even finished speaking.


    [So, we''re under attack for helping you? Or perhaps just for driving off the Arisen? Well, we will see about that.] Max replied grimly as he watched his Orbital Lance sh to indicate fully charged.


    The Destroyers had scrambled their main weapons at this point, and one unfortunate Cruiser from the Galen fleet took twelve simultaneous sts, turning it into scrap floating in space in an instant.


    The rest of the ships began to scatter, moving into evasive patterns, which would make it hard to lock onto them with the slower-firing heavy weapons, and the first of the Titan ss Mecha began to emerge from the Cruiser.


    If the Galen thought that facing Cleansing Light was bad, they were going to absolutely love it when the other hundred Titan ss units joined the fight.

 Chapter 865 865 Galen

    The Mecha began to pour out of the human vessels as the attack intensified, with the rapidly evading Galen vessels beginning to return fire and adapt their shields to the Disintegrator beams that the Destroyers used as their main weapons.


    Unfortunately, they had nothing that could deal with the Mass Drivers. Each of the Titan ss Mecha that Uncle Lu had sent mounted two of them, one on each shoulder, as ast-minute addition once he learned of the situation here inside the vast Neb.


    With the Warp Field Generator in the Nuclear warheads, they were decimating the shields of the Galen attack fleet faster than the ships could adjust. It was beginning to look like a lopsided battle, but the Galen force wasn''t as unprepared for the humans as they had seemed.


    Once the fleet was fully engaged, thousands of Attack Fighters, shuttle-sized boxy vessels with an array ofsers as their main weapon, as well as hundreds of gunboats, dropped out of Warp.


    Now the humans were the ones outnumbered and possibly outgunned, but there was a reason that they had chosen to stay with Mecha instead of switching to an all-attack craft fleet. The irregr shape made it much harder to hit the Mecha when they were evading with their shields tight to their hulls, and the uracy rate of the Galen fighters was bordering on dismal.


    The humans also had a long history of varied warcraft technology, and their shields were holding up well against the Laser fire, while the Galen shields couldn''t take a hit from a Mass Driver and were suffering greatly from the dispersed waves fired by the Disruptors.


    Streaks of light and explosions lit the sky as the two sides engaged, and Max spun Cleansing Light to get a let out and intercept a close passing fighter, knocking it off course when his foot met the shields and making the entire volley from its main weapons fly wide.


    He could hear the Pilot inside swearing, though he didn''t know theirnguage, and the panic as they realized his de was prating their shielding and then their main engines, causing them to go critical before the small vessel was kicked away by the Mecha into the void of space.


    Max split his Disruptor fire into two beams, destroying two more attack craft, While Nico focused fire on therger ships with her Mass Driver.


    Behind him, Light of Truth took a direct hit from a main Ion Cannon, drawing Max''s attention. The Giant barely evaded the next shot, stopping faster than the Galen''s vessel had anticipated and giving Max valuable insight into the lead times on their targeting.


    Most Ion Cannons had very limited mobility, and the shots took time to reach their target, so sudden changes in velocity could cause a miss. They made up for it with the volume of fire, but the Giant had Light of Truth set up for a broadside fuside and put a dozen Warp Torpedoes into the Galen Destroyer, shattering its shields and puncturing the bridge section with a Warp Speed projectile.


    Max watched as three of the Titan ss units were brought down by thebined fire of the fighters, but they didn''t pursue the ejected cockpits, so the Pilots were likely fine and could be recovered after the battle.


    The Admirals had already sent out recovery vessels, small tugs with frames, to recover the pilots of fallen Mecha and clean the battlefield after the fact. The Galen started to go for them now that they realized there was something valuable in the cockpits, but the action infuriated the other Pilots to the point that nothing could get near the recovery tugs.


    When anyone got a chance, they would kick the cockpits of the destroyed Mecha toward the nearest vessel to be recovered, either by tug or gravity beam, and keep fighting, knowing that theirrades would do the same for them.


    A shockwave rippled through the defenders as a lucky shot from a Galen Laser managed to hit and detonate a Mass Driver round just after being fired, sending the nearby Mech flying through space before anyone could recover control.


    The fighters took that as an opportunity to force everyone away and get a clear shot for their ships against the Destroyers, but for some reason, the shot never came. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    There was a massive Destroyer ss vessel lined up and ready to fire, but it wasn''t shooting at all. Then the Galen Fleet realized that things here had gone horrifically wrong for them. Three Darkling Attack Cruisers had appeared out of nowhere and were unleashing hundreds of attack craft to ambush their fleet from behind.


    [Mecha, do not engage the third party unless they engage you. They didn''t attack us when we were fighting the Arisen, so they might not be here for us.] Max ordered on the Command Channel,mandeering the entire human force.


    He charged forward with Cleansing Light, going for the Galen Destroyers, and was quickly nked by a wing of Darkling attack craft. Max hefted his Mass Driver and put a round into the three-kilometre-long vessel''s shielding, then followed it up with an Orbital Lance shot, which the Darkling Fighters chased toward the Destroyer, overtaking his Mecha with ease.


    The shields breached, and the fighters focused their fire on the hull of the Galen ship, creating a breach that they attached themselves to.


    It was a boarding effort, Max realized. They weren''t here to kill the Galen. They wanted to capture them alive. That was almost certainly a fate worse than death, but Max repeated his Orbital Lance shot, keeping the shields down as more attack craft swarmed the Destroyer.


    [Form up on the Commander.] Sergeant Khalil ordered the test Pilots, who all moved to protect Max''s back as he fired rapidly, keeping the Galen fighters away from the doomed Destroyer.


    For three minutes, they held the position as the Galen desperately struggled to retake the Destroyer. But then the attack craft suddenly detached and returned to their motherships, apanied by the anguished mental howling of the captured Galen prisoners.


    [Vervak, da Umros ath verth] The Galen lead vessel broadcast on their main frequency, causing the fleet to disengage.


    They fled to warp speed as fast as they could, leaving behind one crippled Cutter, which was swarmed with Darkling attack craft, and the abandoned Destroyer.


    Max sent a direct message to Commander Yuri as they left.


    [What did thatst message mean? It seemed to be the voice of panic and not a standard retreat order.] He asked.


    [It meant "Retreat, the humans are vers." They think that you are working with the Knife Ears to help them harvest sentient species.] The Koleska Commander replied in disgust, though Max couldn''t tell whether it was for the Galen or for the thought of working with the Knife Ears.


    [Got it. Hopefully, they won''t be back. I will contact you again once we have casualty counts.] Max informed him, then focused his attention on the battlefield.


    There was a lot of raw material out here and a lot of destroyed vessels, with the resultant number of corpses to be disposed of.


    [Onest message. What is the Galen funeral ritual? So we can put the deceased at rest properly?]

 Chapter 866 866 Merciful Max

    The response to Max''s inquiry about funeral rituals took a few seconds. [They usually burn them in space in a sma fire, with a ritual speech. We don''t have anyone willing to give it, though. The hatred for them runs deep.]


    [Just send it to me, and I will make sure that our people take care of them appropriately.] Max agreed.


    He knew it was a strange idea to the Koleska, but it was human tradition to take care of the enemy dead if they didn''t have anyone left to do it themselves.


    [Nico, check that Destroyer for survivors. Perhaps there is someone who can do the funeral rituals.] Max ordered while the rest of the fleet started collecting their own dead and damaged.


    All ten test units were still operational, though they had all taken damage. It was impressive for a Line Mecha unit, and the other Line Mecha units had suffered heavy casualties, nearly ten percent disabled or destroyed units as far as Max could tell.


    It would have been much worse if the Darklings hadn''t shown up when they did and scared the Galen fleet away. The standard Mecha simply weren''t agile enough in space to be well-suited to a battle like this. They were sitting ducks when the attack craft approached, and they couldn''t even turn fast enough to properly track them.


    [Help Lead Researcher Nico clear the crippled Destroyer. The Line Mecha are designed for that purpose. Just remember to fold your wings before you try to head down a hallway.] Max ordered the test team, then moved to help the other units clean and gather up the remains of the Galen attack fleet.


    Every unit was carefully checked for signs of life, and a few survivors had already been found among the crippled attack craft. The main force was gathering them in the final Cutter to fall during the battle, as it was still somewhat operational, and they could send the dead home to their families that way, along with the survivors.


    They didn''t need prisoners, and it might buy them some goodwill with the Galen and avoid more attacks.


    From the ferocity of this attack, it seemed unlikely, but the soldiers didn''t know anything beyond the details they were given about the enemy they were to fight. They didn''t even know the name of the human race. They were ordered to fight, and they fought just as a good soldier should.


    Max searched through the records they had borrowed from the Co-Operative for a trantion program, then uploaded it to an earpiece so that he could speak with the prisoners.


    [Admirals, I will lead the dealings with the prisoners. Keep bringing the bodies and survivors to the same spot, and I will make sure that they are out of the system and out of our way as soon as the battlefield is cleared.] Max instructed as he Piloted the Cleansing Light over to the Cutter.


    It was a tight fit getting his Mecha in the bay door since they didn''t use tall machines, but there was plenty of room inside the bay for him to stand up and greet the prisoners, who were being held by a single wing of Line Mecha.


    Max exited his Mecha in augmentic armour with an Archangel Exoskeleton equipped over the top of it for an extrayer of shielding and more mobility, should the gravity ting in the damaged vessel fail entirely. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    It had clearly been damaged heavily in the attack, and there was blood everywhere, but only in small quantities, as if the Darklings didn''t care if their prey was injured, only that it was taken alive.


    "Good evening, everyone. I am Commander Keres Max of the Light of Truth. That was the first vessel that your fleet attacked today, so I have taken the role of dealing with the survivors of the battle." Max exined to the group.


    "So, are you going to enve us like your Knife Ear allies? It won''t be so easy for you, alien." One of the men spat back at him.


    "We don''t take ves. We just don''t care what the Knife Ears do to our enemies. They don''t attack us, so we don''t attack them. If they want you, they can have you for all I care." Max replied, making the alien visibly flinch.


    They were stout and strangely shaped, making Max wonder what they looked like under that armour. They didn''t have an internal monologue at all, so he couldn''t check their ongoing thoughts for signs of what they looked like, but the armour had two arms and two legs, with no visible head but a sensor suite at the front.


    Either they were strangely shaped or hunchbacked to fit into that bulbous torso. Of course, it was possible that the armour wasn''t form-fitting either, as Max hadn''t checked any of the bodies whose armour had been breached other than to notice that their blood was a deep purple.


    "Then what will you do with us?" The same Galen spokesperson asked.


    "We will put the ship on a preset course in the same general direction as your fleet fled, and we will evict you from this star system. We have a nonaggression agreement with the Koleska, and we are stationed here for the foreseeable future, so if you find your people, please warn them never to return." Max replied.


    "That''s it, just like that? No forcedbour camps, Military Prison or corporal punishment?" The soldier asked.


    "Not this time. It was an unprovoked attack, and we don''t take that lightly, but I am a generous Commander, and I believe in second chances. So today, you will be released with a warning for your people and the chance to give the dead a proper burial. Next time we will not be as merciful."


    The terror that those words invoked were enough that Max was sure the Galen was taking him seriously, and some of them had vivid images of what that might mean the next time, from eternal torture in a vat of healing liquid as the Knife Ears did to anyone who annoyed them, to a life of vebour on a mining asteroid with a shock cor on until they starved to death.


    All were valid ideas, and Nico would probably have ideas on a better healing fluid to torture people in, but the Reavers were fairly merciful if they let you live. At least by this sector''s standards, it seemed.

 Chapter 867 867 Cleanup

    [Sir, all the survivors and bodies are ounted for. You may finish your procedures whenever you are ready.] The leader of the search teams informed Max a few minutester.


    [Thank you, search team. The Galen vessel will be underway in only a few minutes.]


    Max turned to the survivors, who were all gathered in one cargo bay while the rest of the ship was nearly packed with bodies, and gave them a casual salute.


    "It was a pleasure fighting against you today, but it would be better if we don''t do that again. The battlefield is clear, and we will now send you on your way. Feel free to perform whichever funeral rites you wish, as once you leave this system, you are no longer our problem." He informed them.


    [Nico, can you send this ship underway as soon as we are off? In the general direction that their other vessels fled, so they have a chance of finding out that we didn''t ughter them all or mutte their corpses.] Max instructed his second inmand as he walked back to Cleansing Light.


    [On it, Boss. As soon as you and the others depart, I will send it away. It''s going to be a bumpy ride, though, the Warp drives are running on backup everything, and their navigation system is totally shot.]


    [They can fix their own ship. As long as the warp bubble is stable and they''re leaving, it''s fine.]


    The Line Mecha left first, followed by Cleansing Light crawling out the door, and then the ship went to warp.


    The amount of energy bleeding from the ship that was visible to Max''s sensors made them look like a homing beacon in space, marking the way for anything that cared to follow them. But the Arisen and the Knife Ears already knew where he was, and they were supposed to be the two biggest threats in the region, so what did it matter if someone followed the path back to him instead of following it to the crippled ship?


    As soon as they got the new Line Mecha distributed to the defence force here, there wouldn''t be any issues defending against another Galen attack.


    Before the cutter was even out of sensor range, one of the Galen''s vessels had circled back and taken the crippled ship into its own warp bubble, pulling it away from the battlefield without any messages being sent to the Koleska or the humans.


    "Well, that''s our message delivered. As long as they talk to the survivors, that is. Now, let''s get to finalizing any changes we need to make to the Line Mecha design for first-run production and send that Destroyer back to Uncle Lu." Max instructed.


    The old man was going to love them for this. The Galen technology waspletely different than what they were used to, and there was a good chance that he would be able to learn something new which could be used to improve the next generation of human vessels.


    They might even have other useful technologies on board, which Max was sure Nico was searching for now, as she was still on board the Destroyer, despite the fact that it should be abandoned.


    [Have you found what you needed?] Max messaged her.


    [I''ve almost got it all. There was a lot of stuff in here and more trackers from more species than I would have suspected. I get the feeling that the Galen have pissed off half the Universe at this point, and they''re living on the run. Just let me finish with thisst tracker, and I''ll have all the data transferred.] Nico replied.


    Hopefully, she didn''t miss anything. They were all alien programs, so there might be something that she wasn''t familiar with, and it could potentially infect their own ship. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [You''re not sending it to Light of Truth, are you?] Max asked.


    [No, I made a whole box of data sticks when I saw what was in theputers here. I''ve gotten over fifty thousand terabytes of data so far. It''s practically a library, just for me. Plus, it''s almost all on the lost species of this region, the ones that the Arisen wiped out or the Darklings farmed into extinction.]


    That really could be useful. Not so much for them personally, as the technology had already proven ineffective at deterring the Arisen, but as development material.


    The humans were bing an economic powerhouse in the Alliance based on the utility of their patents, so if Uncle Lu and his team could make a few dozen cool new things which were totally different from how the rest of the Alliance made them, it could be enough to propel the entire species into a life of luxury.


    By Alliance standards, they were a small group, only one Gxy, and they didn''t even control it all or popte all the inhabitables they had found. The revenues that they would collect from a number of useful patents could renovate every that the species had and hire Alliance Contractors to do it.


    [Alright, I''m done. I have battle logs as well. It looks like they probably won''t give up on attacking us. They''re a bit like those Holy Light zealots back home, too dumb to realize their zealotry is getting them killed.


    They attacked us because they had data that the Darklings didn''t attack us, so they decided that we were one of the Evil Species, as they call them, and wanted to wipe us out before we spread.]


    Max resisted the urge to facepalm and took a few deep breaths before answering Nico.


    [If they thought that we were an evil species, why were they so surprised when the Darklings showed up and started to capture them?] He asked.


    [Well, from what I can see, the leader of the armada didn''t tell any of his subordinates why they were here, only that we were an enemy of the noble species. They attacked because those were their orders, not because they had any idea what was likely to happen to them if they lost.]


    Max shook his head at the stupidity of attacking blind without any sort of reconnaissance other than a few pilfered battle reports.


    [And where is that leader now?] He asked.


    [He should have been on this Destroyer somewhere. I''ve been searching for his hiding hole because he certainly wouldn''t let himself be captured so easily, but I don''t see anything. Not even with my sensors.]


    [Just vent the atmosphere back into whatever storage they use for it. If any pockets remain, you''ll find the hiding spot. Or the leader''s storage will run out, and they''ll suffocate. Both are fine by me.] Max suggested.


    [Give me an hour and I''ll have the ship fully searched.]

 Chapter 868 868 The Finishing Touches

    Nico didn''t end up needing the whole hour to search for the leader of the attack. Only a half hourter, she sent Max an image of a destroyed hiding spot, with the st door ripped from the hinges and signs of a fierce struggle.


    [There is more data in here as well, and some new devices that I haven''t identified. Uncle Lu will be very pleased with our gift.] She informed Max as she finished up her search.


    [Good work. Get it through the Anomaly and then return back here once it is sent through a Portal. I don''t want anyoneing looking for it.]


    Nico moved out as soon as she had her orders, and the Destroyer was gone from the sector before anyone could ask what was going on. She was back within minutes, and Max could sense her joy, so the transfer must have gone well.


    [I got approval from the Cygnus Commander on the other side to swap out the Line Mecha for our new ones in the name of testing. They will send the old models back to the ships on the other side of the Portal and call it a gain for their firepower.] She exined as soon as she was back to Light of Truth.


    "That''s excellent news. Now, we just need to make a lot of units." Max replied once she was out of her Mecha and could reply directly.


    "That''s true. We will adjust anything that needs it, and then we can turn over two thousand units to the Destroyers and call them space battle ready until we create the next upgrade for zero gravitybat.


    They already came with modified Fast Attack pattern Crusaders, so they''re pretty good there, but I think that we should make some Command Variant Line Mecha to rece their Corvette ss units, or there will be a gap in the lines." Nico exined.


    "That''s true. It would take too long to alter the chassis, though. Why don''t we just alter the weapons and tweak the armour?" Max suggested.


    The researchers rushed over at the talk of new designs, and they already had ns drawn up from previous proposals for the Line Mecha, which were rejected by Nico.


    "If it just needs to look a bit more regal so that the others can tell that it''s a squad leader, we can do that with my design." One of the Innu suggested while attempting to remove the helmet of her augmentic armour. It formed wonderfully to her tentacles, but when it came time to take the helmet off, the Innu were always excited about something, and their tentacles wouldn''t stay straight, so they could remove the sleeves smoothly.


    "That''s so old-fashioned, though. Why not this? It makes it look like the Super Viins from Supernova Zero. You can''t get much cooler than that." One of the other researchers suggested, referencing an Innu kids cartoon with robotic viins.


    "We can''t make our team look like the bad guys. The bad guys always lose." The first researcher countered, and Max decided to intervene before it turned into a full-blown argument.


    "Everyone present your armour designs to Lead Researcher Nico in one hour, and she will pick her favourite to be the Command Mecha for the new units," Max ordered.


    They hurried off to their respective desks and got to refine their designs in the time allotted to them, a quality that Max greatly admired about the Innu. Once they were focused on their work, he had never seen them cking.


    Perhaps because he mostly gave them work that they were obsessed with. But still, it was an admirable personality quality. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max sat down and yed cards with Nico while they waited. ckjack, because it didn''t matter if he could read her mind, as the cards were visible, to begin with.


    "Time''s up. Show me what you''ve got." Nico called when her rm went off, sending the Innu into ast-second flurry of work before they brought their data tablets over to project their designs on the tabletop 3D hologram projector.


    "First up, I have for you the Elegance of Leadership design." The researcher who insisted that the design must be regal informed them as she brought up her design.


    It was very traditional in the design of ancient Valkia Royal armour, integrating the wings into the design of the Mecha with a small adjustment of the Mass Drivers to move them inboard so the wings could be changed to a more feathered and vertical design.


    "Not bad. Your design lives up to its name. Next up, bring up your design and minimize the previous one. We will bring them all back up at once when we''re finished." Max instructed.


    One after another, they brought up their designs, some just a small armour modification to make it easy to identify the leaders, while others were a whole rework of the outer armour ting and some minor design points.


    Once they were presented, Nico brought them all up again, not in order of presentation, but by simrity to each other and the standard design. The closest was on the left, while the most entric was on Max''s right.


    "Now, there are some advantages to making minimal changes to the Command units. It helps keep the enemy from immediately targeting them, makes parts recement easier in the field and avoids storage conflicts.


    However, there are benefits to a more noticeablemander as well. They will draw fire from enemy units, reducing casualties in their own team, while the most capable Pilots are the only ones being fired at. A fancy design leading the squad also inspires confidence and pride among the soldiers, which leads to greaterbat effectiveness, much like sending a Super Heavy or Titan ss Mecha to the battle would.


    So, as you can see, the choice isn''t quite as simple as it might seem since we need to bnce the requirements of the individual users.


    So, with that in mind, I have chosen design six. It''s distinctive enough to inspire the troops and be spotted by the enemy but close enough to standard parameters to fit the regr storage and repair racks without any issues.


    We will give it a slightly upgraded armament so that it lives up to its role, and then we will send the Destroyers one hundred of these along with the nine hundred base models for one thousand Line Mecha in total." Nico announced, earning the winning designer a round of apuse.


    "Onest question. We''re not really going to forgive the Galen fleet for that attack, are we? Even the Giants are stomping mad about it." The winning researcher asked.


    "Of course not. I tagged their ship with a virus like the Arisen used. Once they have it repaired enough to start sending messages again, we will quickly learn the location of every remaining Galen ship in the sector." Nico answered with a smile.


    That was the Lead Researcher that the Innu had all grown to know and love. Creative, practical and above all, ruthless. They hoped that they weren''t attacked again, but if they were, the chances that it would be a surprise attack were very low.

 Chapter 869 869 Delivery

    869 869 Delivery


    Nico''s version of a slightly upgraded weapons capability was to change the capacitors on the Disintegrators, allowing them thirty percent faster firing rates at a slightly lower output and to put a second Mass Driver at the shoulders to go with the one at the wingtips.


    The increased firing speed was only an advantage to the most elite of Pilots in the Corvette ss ranks since most couldn''t target fast enough to outdo the weapons that it already had, but you could fire them in pairs, increasing the damage done, which would be an advantage of its own against the hardest of targets, which would normally be the ones that the Command Mecha would have to deal with.


    The Command Mecha construction was finished without incident, but the Cutter simply didn''t have enough materials on board for them to make a whole Regiment full of Line Mecha at once, so they were going to have to relocate to the asteroid belt and pull in some sizeable rocks to use as raw materials for the rest.


    [Duty Captain, inform the fleet that we are moving to the asteroid belt to get supplies. They can stay where they are.] Max directed, then got a strange feeling of being watched.


    He searched the area for stray thoughts, but there was nobody around except his crew and the only one in the room who had heard him was Nico, who was eagerly waiting for the ship to move.


    He knew better than to pass it off as nothing, though. If his instincts said that something was watching him, it was. The question was, what was it, and how did he find it before it became an issue?


    Perhaps it was a tracking program or device. If it was interference from his imntedmunications device, then it would make sense that he felt the sensation but couldn''t find anyone.


    So, Max checked the device against the default specs and found that it hadn''t changed in any way. That was a good sign and meant that he hadn''t picked up a virus like the Arisen had imnted into everything else they met.


    But it didn''t mean that nothing had hacked theirmunications.


    The sensation had been something nearby, so Max took the liberty to check Nico''smunicator as well but didn''t find anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps it was just a bit of interference from another message that he had picked up, and the ovep made it feel like he was being watched.


    Without any evidence, Max decided to remain on guard against intruders in the ship who might be cloaked or otherwise disguised and started setting up for the mass production of Line Mecha.


    A Cutter ss ship like Light of Truth really wasn''t meant to have a thousand Line Mecha stored in it, so they would have to build racking as well, allowing them to stack the Line Mecha ten units tall along the wall for storage, but Nico seemed confident that they could manage it without impeding the construction process, so Max didn''t ask what the n was. Instead, he focused on picking out smaller asteroids to pull into the cargo bay to be broken up and used as fuel for the Terraforming Pods that had been repurposed as their construction shop.


    Ten at a time, the newly optimized models of the Line Mecha roll off the production floor in wheeled dollies, created for ease of movement around the hangar. The process runs all night long and into the morning, with both Nico and the Research Team forgoing sleep in order to finish the job and get the product moved to the Destroyers as quickly as possible.


    As soon as they were done, Max sent a message to the Destroyers that they wereing to drop off the new equipment and that they would be on break for the rest of the day afterward.


    The logistics staff understood very well that an all-night effort to get a resupply run ready shut everything down for the day as the crew got back onto a normal schedule, and the defence teams were happy to have the chance to be on guard against a return of the Galen fleet.


    A chance to test out their new gear would make everyone''s day as long as they performed, as well as the VR testing and training suggested that they would.


    All of the Line Mecha pilots who were being switched over to the new units had been undergoing intensive training for thest day, practicing in the learning machines how to operate in a three-dimensional battlefield, as well as some additional closebat techniques that were better suited to the new Mecha.


    Unlike Kepler Pilots, the Cygnus Pilots had closebat training as part of their core requirements, but these Mecha were very agile, and the Mass Drivers were a directional weapon with limited adjustment, so they needed to work on their positioning to get the most out of their new equipment.


    Most importantly, they had been working on a ten-sided defensive formation which had everyone''s back to the center of the formation so that they had no remaining blind spots, and the formation could be copsed in on itself as casualties were taken, with the damaged Mecha moved to the core of the formation for safety.


    That wasn''t the sort of thing that a terrestrial force would ever need to know, and it had taken a lot of training to get the force even somewhat confident in implementing it inbat, but now that they were, the Commanders were eager to get a chance to try it out.


    "Greetings, gentlemen. Your equipment is waiting for you along the far wall. Half are for you. Half is for the other Destroyer. We will send you the ns for your Mecha Construction devices now, so you can make spares and do any repairs or alterations you might deem necessary." Max greeted the crew of the first Destroyer once they were docked.


    The logistics officer smiled back at him. "The Admiral has already trained all our Line Mecha pilots on the new units, so I suspect that they''ll be making enough for everyone under Crusader ss certification to have a new Mecha in the next few days.


    We won''t be fighting onnd anytime soon, and it''s too big of a loss not to have our Light Mecha bebat capable."


    "It''s your call. But remind him that they are still experimental and that the vessels here are the test team, so it''s best not to put all their faith in untested equipment and make sure that they have the heavier Mecha back them up at all times."


    "Understood, Commander. We''re just eager to have our men back in the game."

 Chapter 870 870 On To The Nico One

    Nico smiled sweetly at Max as soon as thest of the Line Mecha were moved over to the Destroyers for their final testing phase and out of her control.


    "You know what this means, right? The Line Mecha are all gone, the bay is empty, we''re all stocked with raw materials, and it is time to get started on my personal toy," she dered, nearly bouncing with joy.


    "Let me guess. A bigger and better version of everything that is on the Line Mecha?" Max asked.


    "Nope, too predictable. I want to keep the tiny Mass Drivers as a secondary weapon system, but I will put them in a Gatling-style array, one on each shoulder, mounted on a pivot for better firing angles.


    Then I want to modify the Disruptor Lance to have a wider range of variability for different enemy shield setups. One of those one both forearms, as Cleansing Light has. Then my usual twin des and I think we need something special to make up the surprise weapon.


    The Darklings gave me the idea when they said that we were using their old toys. If these are their old toys that we''re developing from, that means we''re on the same development trajectory that they followed.


    They took it to ultra-enhanced augmentic suits, presumably over simrly augmented biological individuals, but they have a strong case that ever-increasing size isn''t the answer. Larger Mecha can''t breach ships as easily, only destroy them.


    So I want maximum power output in a Super Heavy ss Mecha Chassis. Norger than Shattered Pride, but with at least five times the firepower." Nico exined.


    Her cheerfulness was infectious, and not only the Innu but Max was also being pulled into her pace as she described the Mecha that she wanted.


    She brought up a hologram as she continued. "The Darklings gave me a great idea. They shred the outer hull of the Arisen ships to create breaches and render their armour ineffective. I had plenty of time to analyze their des, as well as their unique energy weapons.


    As they said, they are simr to our Disruptors, so that is the direction I will take with mine, but the des are incrediblyplex constructs. They''re actually designed to create a harmonic resonance with the enemy by altering the energy flow, causing the target to actually destroy itself from the inside out.


    The de cut isn''t the major part of the damage. The cracking of the structure underneath is.


    I think that I can do it with my des and the ones that I will mount to the forearms and shins of my new Mecha. It will turn a simple kick or elbow into a Mecha-shattering killing blow."


    Max smiled at the kill-happy little cyborg. "So that''s your secret weapon, Mecha Kung Fu, shattering their ship with a simple strike? I like it."


    Nico shook her head.


    "No, that''s just a really cool knife. My idea for a special weapon is one that I found signs of after the Darklings cleared out that Destroyer.


    They used micro portals to throw prisoners back to their ships. Just small precision portals, likely with a tag of some sort. My guess would be a cor that the prisoners can''t remove that returns them to a set point when activated.


    I want to weaponize that to open short-duration micro portals all over a ship whose shields are down. It would explosively dpress the vessel, which almost any decent modern vessel can survive, but an unprepared crew would not." <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max took a second to process that war crime in the making.


    "So, your n is to let the pressure of the vessel vent atmosphere and people out at thousands of points through an enemy ship, and then just go in and clean up?"


    Nico nodded and brought up her preliminary design schematics for the weapon. "It''s great, isn''t it? It''s also multipurpose, as we can expand them and target people, so we can use it for rescue efforts and battlefield cleanup. If I get it working as precisely as I want it to, we could even equip it on Mecha like an emergency escape button, returning them to their mothership when they''ve taken critical damage.


    It would not only be a tactical advantage, but it could also save lives."


    When she put it that way, it was hard to argue against Nico''stest weapon of mass destruction. A homing beacon would actually be incredibly useful inbat to save Pilots'' lives. Even if it was on the Pilot themselves, the Mecha could be reced. As long as the Pilot survived, they could fight another day.


    "It can''t be a standard portal, though. They''re too unstable to use here." Max reminded her.


    "Minor detail." Nico countered.


    "We have a timeline. You can''t be out ofmission forever. I have things I want to get done, and they involve killing hostile aliens." Max reminded her.


    "Hmm, that is a dilemma. Alright, I will put that on the side as an additional weapon and look for another suitable secret weapon. Maybe something retro, a weapon that they would never expect to be used against them, so they''ve forgotten to defend against it." Nico pondered.


    Her thoughts clearly weighed the potential for going to hunt down species that had offended her more highly than spending time developing her new weapons system, which was a relief to Max. They could turn it into a safety beaconter without risking giving the enemy ideas and having them use a simr technique against the Koleska or the other human vessels.


    Nico pondered for a moment, then realized that the answer was with her this entire time.


    "Predator Probes. If we put rbining Nanotech drones in a projectile, we can fire them against the enemy hull, then let them rbine and work their way through the ship. We can recreate the Scourge, but without the rogue AI, and unleash them on the enemies of Humanity." She cheered.


    "And you don''t see how that is likely to go immediately wrong?" One of the Researchers asked.


    "Fine, maybe it''s not the most practical idea."


    One of the other Researchers held up her hand, holding a data tablet that Max identified as her thesis.


    "I have a theory that we can make a self-rbining organic acid. It would naturally eat through all things metallic, and keep refreshing itself so that it didn''t get weakened by the sludge. If my theory is right, it is sure to earn me my Doctoral Degree, and I haven''t ever seen any defence against acid attacks other than shields on a space vessel."


    Melting holes in their ship with acids instead of fire? That could work.

 Chapter 871 871 More Creativity Needed

    Thergest question for an acid weapon that needed to be deployed against a target without shields was exactly what the proper delivery method should be. If they got the acid stabilized and working, then they would still need to get it to the target, and putting it in a Mass Driver shell was unlikely to do anything but vaporize it.


    It would also need to be stable in a void, so nothing that would sh freeze in space or against a vehicle hull, which was often heated from energy weapon fire.


    It wasn''t going to be easy, but the team got to it right away, and with Nico chiming in with chemicalpositions that Max vaguely recognized from hisst life, they were actually making progress on the first day.


    That didn''t meanpleted, of course, and after three hours, they decided to call it a night after their extended grind to get the Line Mecha delivered.


    The next morning, they started building the new version of Shattered Pride, as Nico had chosen to keep the name of her Mecha for the next frame and rename the old one should it ever see service again.


    The design for the applicator was going more smoothly than the actualpound that they were nning to use. Nico''s new design called for des on each forearm, and they could put the applicator above the tip of the de, letting it spray into the gouges in the armour and the cracks that the resonance caused, sinking in deep before the enemy could counter the attack.


    It was insidious, but it should be incredibly effective.


    This version of the Mecha was much like their new ships, mostly flowing curves with some sharp lines and hard edges. It was reminiscent of the designs favoured by the Darklings, but with a ir for the dramatic that was all Nico, and more closely resembled the demons from human video games than the Darkling ships.


    This time the actual structure was human again, with only two arms, but with the extra weapons on the shoulders, it shouldn''t be losing out on anything.


    While the Innu and Nico worked on the weapons, Max worked on the Armourposition for the new Mecha, intended to optimize against attacks from every enemy that they knew about, as well as their own new weapons, in case they were reverse engineered and used against them in the future.


    It was simply bad tactics to use a weapon that could easily be turned against you, so his part of the development, despite being only one singleposition and energy field pattern, was just as important as the rest of the design.


    Max had just finished creating a newyeredposite armour ting and was about to test it in VR simtions when a great idea came to him. The attacks of the de caused a resonant frequency within a solid object that broke it apart, but Max had seen the reverse of that technology before.


    It was used on some of the Mecha under hismand in his past life and used an energy field to strengthen the materials of the armour well beyond their normal potential.


    Instead of simply putting the shield outside, he could imbue a secondyer into the Mecha itself, so if the outeryer went down, there would still be a secondary protective barrier in the form of the armour, which could actually take multiple hits without damage. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    It would be a huge shock to their enemies, who were used to being able to cut through armour with rtive ease after taking down the shields.


    At best, the ative armour would only take one or two hits before it was destroyed, which was great for the Pilot, but not exactly awe-inspiring.


    Max programmed the energy field as he remembered it into the VR simtion andunched the prototype Mecha that Nico had programmed in, based on her original design specifications before they started making improvements.


    The first target that Max paired it up against was a Command Walker. A simple ranged weapons check using the predictive algorithms of the ship''sputer. He left the main shields down and had the simted Command Walker fire a full power st at the Mecha.


    Normally, that would be enough to nearly take out the main shields orpletely destroy most Mecha if the shields were down. This time, it dispersed over the surface of the Mecha with only a shimmer of crackling energy.


    Next, he had the Command Walker fire twice in the same second without giving the test Mecha time to recover from the first shot.


    Still, theputer estimated that the damage would be minimal, with a number of blown-out power rys and some welding of the thruster nacelles due to the immense energy arcing across the surface.


    That could be an issue. They needed to adjust to aim the Mecha, so if they were welded in ce, Nico''s mobility would be pretty much crippled.


    But most importantly, after three hits that might have taken out Cleansing Light individually if its shields were down, the Mecha was still holding strong.


    The next step was to actually make a piece of the armour, energize it and test various weapons against it to make sure theputer simtions were correct. Sometimes you could get wildly inurate results if theputer didn''t have all the data that it needed. That meant Max was the first up to the construction bay, creating a chest te for the Mecha and an energy field generator to attach to the back for the tests.


    "Oh, Commander Max has something cool. What did you make? Is it a new armour alloy? No, it''s more than that, isn''t it?" The closest researcher asked.


    "Indeed it is. We will do the low-power tests here. Then we will have to move the te out into space when we break out the big guns. If this works the way that theputer predicted, we should be able to tank at least three more direct hits from a Command Walker after the main shields go down. It''s a form of structural reinforcement field." Max exined.


    Again Max felt that strange sensation of being watched, only this time, it seemed to be approving of his actions.

 Chapter 872 872 Nergal Loves Autocannons

    Max still couldn''t find the source of that feeling of being watched, and it was beginning to annoy him. There clearly should be a good scientific exnation for the phenomenon, but he didn''t have the requisite knowledge to determine what it was.


    At least it didn''t feel hostile, which was a good start.


    Max got the armour te hung up, and the backstop shields engaged so that the test firing process could begin. All of the researchers got into the augmentic armour and activated their defensive shields in case of bacsh from the test, and Nico went to the armoury to find some weapons for them to test the te with.


    It was sized for use on a Line Mecha for practical reasons, so Nico returned with a dozen sma Cannons on a trolley.


    "We will fire on my mark. Everyone, please choose a Cannon and aim it at the armour. Even if it shows signs of damage, continue firing until it is destroyed or you run out of ammunition. The Cannons only hold ten charges each." She instructed.


    It was the most basic form of destructive testing, and they would analyze the data afterward, checking it shot by shot to see the effects that the sma Cannons were having on the surface and the internal structure of the ting.


    It was also everyone''s favourite part of the testing for obvious reasons. No other part of the testing involved going wild with a sma Cannon in your workspace. As much as you might want to, the use of sma Cannons was frowned upon during basically every other part of the development process.


    "On the count of three. 1, 2, 3," Nico instructed, and the researchers began to unleash sma rounds at the armour te as fast as they could.


    Max ced all his shots at different spots on the te to see how it reacted with the varying depths of thepositeyers and the constantly impacted energy field.


    They were nearly halfway through the test when the te started to show visible signs of breaking down, and only a few shots remained when Nico called a halt to the test. The ting had slowly cracked through and crumbled, with someyers going noticeably faster than others.


    They weren''t all intended to deal with energy weapons. Some were for dispersing Kic and radiation weapons, so the result was predictable, but the ting hadsted much longer than expected.


    "One hundred and seven shots out of one hundred and twenty were fired before the test was halted due to the destruction of the target," Nicomented for the records.


    "A hundred sma Cannon rounds to the chest te? That''s just insane. Maybe it''s just strong against sma?" One of the researchers asked.


    Nico nodded. "We will find out in a second. The next test is the Autocannons, which are standard equipment on many Line Mecha that are deployed on the surface. They can''tpare to the Mass Drivers, but they are the next test that is usually performed, and the Mass Drivers aren''t suitable for use indoors."


    They weren''t human-portable weapons for most people, so the one that Nico brought out was equipped with a tripod to be operated from a firing bench. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max created another te, but he already knew how this test was going to end. The ting was designed to take a Mass Driver round when it was Crusader ss sized orrger, so the Autocannon wouldn''t likely do anything at all to it.


    Nico got the Autocannon set up, and the Innu started ying rock paper scissors to see who would get to actually operate it. None of the college students had ever touched an Autocannon before, and even the sma Cannons had been a brand-new experience for them.


    They finished the game, and one of the girls came to stand next to Max with a scanner and a camera in her hands.


    "I feel like I understand humans so much better today than I did yesterday. The thought of wanting to just fire weapons of war at something sounded insane, but now that I''ve gotten to test fire a sma Cannon, I totally see the appeal to destructive testing with real weapons and not a hydraulic press or focusedser array." She whispered so that she didn''t distract the others.


    "If you work with Lead Researcher Nico for long enough, you will get to test fire all sorts of new weapons. We might be doing Mecha development now, but just wait, there will likely be a reason to help someone with infantry development againter, and that involves all sorts of small weapons testing, both for the new weapons and armour.


    You should have seen how much testing we did for the augmentic armour you''re wearing."


    Herugh was cut short as the Autocannon began to fire, sending a hail of slugs toward the new armour te. Most of them ttened against the te, but some were deflected away as they hit a curved edge. The safety barrier absorbed the energy of the stray rounds, and the researchers cheered happily as the rapid thumping of the weapon and the sparks of the rounds against metallic alloy continued for a solid minute.


    "I think I''m out of ammunition." The testerined as the Autocannon gave a series of clicks and stopped firing.


    "Yes, that''s what that sound means. Clear the range, step away from the weapon, and we will check the armour te." Nico agreed.


    Max moved forward once the Autocannon was safely stowed away and checked the te with the hand scanner to verify what the sensors in the room told him. That there was no damage to the te at all.


    "Alright, that''s a perfect score on the light arms resistance test. In fact, it''s so good that I think we might want to adapt it to other purposes as well. But that''s only part of the day''s work. How did you all do on the chassis work?" Max asked.


    "We''re ny percent done. We''re just working on the final weapon, and we should be able to start the construction. The design is close enough to a previous construction that we can skip a lot of the design steps and reuse old, previously tested portions of the design." The enthusiastic researcher beside Max replied.


    Nergal, her nametag said. With that level of enthusiasm, she was going to fit in quite well here, so Max took the time to remember her name right away instead of his usual policy of waiting until he was sure they were going to be working together for an extended period of time.

 Chapter 873 873 Moth To A Lamp

    Of course, thest ten percent of the design work was the part that took the longest out of everything. It was the refining, the precision fitting, and the attunement process that made a Custom Mecha into a work of art.


    There was no way to cut corners on it, even if everyone was worried about the next attack and when it might happen. The Galen had been resoundingly defeated, but it was the first battle, and traditionally those were used to sound out an enemy''s strength, not as a deciding factor for an entire conflict.


    Even if they thought that the humans were working with the Darklings, they would almost certainly be back. It might be an ambush or a hit-and-run sneak attack intended to deal as much damage as possible before their ships were boarded and cleaned out by the Darklings, but Max couldn''t see a scenario where the Galen simply didn''t attack again.


    He kept them to a regr development schedule, though, eight-hour work shifts so that they had time to work on their personal research as well. You never knew when a new development or breakthrough could happen, and if it happened here on the ship, it could totally change the design of the Mecha that they were working on.


    They didn''t get much time for study, though. On the third day of the Chassis refinement, the Galen fleet was back.


    [Iing vessels.] The Duty Captain called, sending Max and Nico running for their Mecha while the design team took out the helmets and sealed their Augmentic Armour.


    The Galen had a different n this time. Their ships had taken massive damagest time, and they had lost two full crews to the Darklings, so this time, they came with arge transport ship and began disgorging their boxy little attack fighters everywhere.


    As soon as he was free of the cargo bay, Max unleashed an Orbital Lance at the transport ship, which was overtaken by a Warp Speed projectile from Nico''s Mass Driver. She only held back a little bit today, and the projectile was a Fusion Detonation and not antimatter, but the impact was at Warp 10 and hit the energy shields hard enough that the powerpletely blew out on the vessel.


    Max''s Orbital Lance tore it to shreds, but the debris field showed that there was very little left in it.


    "A disposable transport ship." He mused.


    That meant that they didn''t expect to get any of these fighter craft back. It was a sad fate for the Pilots, he thought. Well, right up until Nico let out a whooping cheer, and the fighters began to turn on each other.


    "They''re DRONES. They sent DRONES to attack us." Sheughed.


    Sending them against the Arisen was a recipe for disaster, but there was no way that they could have known that sending them against Nico was just a Christmas presente early for the ecstatic cyborg.


    The fighters began to turn on each other, and it caused the programming of the drones to go crazy. Max was still searching to see if they were just remote piloted and not autonomous, but there were so many signals and weapon signatures in the area that he couldn''t pick anything in specific out. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Nico''s [Drone Controller] skill was serving her well today, and she had been improving it at a rapid pace, Max decided. Out of the thousands of Drones, over a hundred at any given time were under her control, causing Chaos in the ranks.


    Since she could switch in an instant, Max didn''t even try to avoid targeting them if they were near a cluster of enemies. He simply fired on wide dispersion and wiped them all out, allowing Nico to pick more Drones tomandeer.


    The new Line Mecha was doing a wonderful job, and the small Mass Drivers were filling the area with explosions as the proximity detonated rounds went off when the shots missed their targets.


    Their uracy might need some work, but even the detonations were taking out the drone fighters with ease, and the upgraded shielding on the new Mecha had prevented the level of casualties that they had takenst time.


    There were only a few Mechas damaged by the time the drones were beginning to thin out, and Max still hadn''t moved from his spot by the cargo bay. This attack was just another probing strike, seeing their capabilities.


    Because they used different Mecha than the first time, it would confuse the Galen Fleet, and they would have to spend some time deciding what the humans'' actual power level was. Max was hoping that would buy some more time, enough that they could finish Nico''s new Mecha and begin their own hunt for the Galen Fleet.


    Once the battle was nearly over, Nico started self-destructing the Drones, leaving nothing but scrap on the battlefield.


    [Not keeping any for research purposes?] He asked.


    [Nope, they''re all broadcasting live somewhere, so I''ll just destroy them all before they have time to figure out how we hijacked their attack craft. I fended off their cyber attacks a few times during this strike, so I don''t think they know how I did it.] Nico replied happily.


    She might not have gotten much of a fight, but she got to y orbital bumper cars with someone else''s attack craft, and that was a new one for even Nico.


    [Alright, the show''s over. Hit the scrap with Disintegrators until it''s dust. The enemy is tracking various parts of those craft, and we don''t want to leave anything for them to recover.] Max directed.


    The Destroyers sent out a small group of shuttles, which used gravity beams to pull the scrap into clumps for the Mecha to finish destroying before everyone returned to their hangars.


    They would have to take the fight to the Galen soon. Leaving the Koleska in danger because some random dying species was mad at the humans for existing wasn''t an eptable course of action, even if the Koleska would dly join them in the fight.

 Chapter 874 874 Couples Outfits

    It took nearly a month and two more probing strikes from the Galen before the chassis of the reborn Shattered Pride was ready.


    The attacks were nothing serious, and both ended within minutes once they saw the humans send out their Mecha. It seemed bold for them to be testing the response time of a fleet that they had never won a battle against, but in war, there was always a reason for everything that the enemy did, even if you couldn''t fathom it.


    The research team had tested various chassisponents to ensure that the new energy field saturation was effective on a variety of different object shapes, with excellent results, as Max knew they would get, and they were working hard to get the Mecha assembled and ready for weapons testing before the next Galen attack.


    But the n had changed. They were no longer making one personal unit for Nico. The tests that they had done so far outssed Cleansing Light by such a wide margin that they had decided to make a matched pair, one for each Commander.


    Max''s new unit would be equipped with his signature sword and shield, while Nico preferred twin des, but they would be otherwise identical in everything but colour.


    They had considered making another proper Titan ss unit, but the smaller target with more durability and firepower seemed like the better idea instead of trying to intimidate with pure size.


    Nico had decided to go with the bone and red scheme that they had created for their unit back when they were still Kepler soldiers, and Max had gone with the red and gold that was moremon with the Terminus Trading Company''s equipment.


    The units wereing together quickly, and Max had high hopes that they would be able to get them functional before the next attack.


    Nergal was whistling happily as she and a few of the other Researchers attached one of the Mass Drivers to Nico''s unit, while Max was resistance checking the wiring to the Mass Drivers on his new Mecha, making sure that there were no quality control issues with the production process.


    The machines were very reliable, and Max didn''t have many concerns about the construction, but there was always that chance that something got miswired or a connection wasn''t correctly bonded or tightened. So, he went over everything while the Innu fitted the weapons and then ran the preliminary [Optimization] once all the systems were assembled.


    "It looks like everything is working here. How is it going on your side?" He called over to Nico using the imntedmunicator and then got that same strange feeling of being watched again.


    This time there was no way that it was a corporeal person. He was in the cockpit of his Mecha, with no interior sensor-equipped, and the door closed. So, whatever it was, they must have been able to monitor their conversations and transmissions.


    Max had called out to Nico using technology and had seemingly triggered the response. He had also felt it inbat, where they were simrlymunicating using technology and mostly reliant on their encryption and foreignnguage as security.


    Maybe it didn''t notice if they were just speaking? It was worth a shot now that he had felt it too often to pass it off as an anomaly. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Max climbed out of the Mecha and hopped out of his cockpit over to the arm of Nico''s unit, then climbed up so he could talk to her without raising his voice.


    "There is something watching us. I can feel it from time to time as we send messages. I don''t know what it wants, but it seemed amused when we were fighting. I don''t know if that means it''s on our side, or perhaps it views our struggle as futile and amusing." He whispered.


    Nico was silent for a moment, tightening a fitting on her Mass Driver, then she nodded. "I haven''t felt it, but I know that feeling. Do you remember those energy beings? They gave me that feeling in ourst life."


    The beings that she was referring to call themselves the "New Gods," and managing to actually detect them, much less do anything about their ns, was a tricky proposition.


    They were made exclusively of energy, and they could manipte it to do a myriad of things, including intercepting or faking transmissions, controlling many species'' minds by recing the energy in their minds, operating equipment, or even resurrecting the dead. Presuming that the body was in a suitable state to stay resurrected, that was. If not, they just made a puppet for as long as their attention lingered.


    Come to think of it, that sounded way too much like the Arisen.


    The Arisen wasn''t nearly as powerful as the beings Max and Nico were thinking of, but the basic elements were there. If they were a devolved or hybrid species, then it would make sense that they had the nature they did.


    Perhaps they vanished the way they did because, like the beings he was thinking of, they didn''t belong in the material world but in a different portion of space.


    Like theyered space theory that the Innu was working on, Max knew that material space wasn''t the entirety of existence. He simply didn''t ever study the topic to learn how it worked.


    Only a few people on any in his past life would have even known the basics of how the theory worked. It was a deeply intellectual and esoteric topic with no rtion to daily life, as so few species could even interact with the otheryers of space, even using technology. It simply didn''t matter enough for anyone to care unless it was their field of study.


    Even the t Space was part of the theory, though only the most basic form of spatial anomaly. Max didn''t know how to make those in hisst life either. Nico did, and that was enough to help them in this life, along with the prompting from the Hunters.


    "I think the Arisen might be descended from those things. They''ve got a lot inmon. Maybe a hybrid species?" Max suggested to Nico.


    She shuddered and frowned. "If they are, then it''s likely a good thing that they don''t remember us."

 Chapter 875 875 Out With The Old

    Talking directly to each other definitely didn''t avoid the attention of whatever was giving Max the feeling of being watched. As they mentioned the corrtion to the Arisen Army, he began to feel the sensation again, and Nico''s thoughts said that she was feeling it too.


    Being watched by a being from another ne of existence, or whatever they chose to call theyer of subspace that they lived in, was not likely to be a good thing for any of them, but they were nearly finished with their Mecha designs, so once they got the two new Super Heavy Mecha with their increased defensive capabilities and firepower up and running, they could send the designs off to Uncle Lu.


    Nico had kept him updated on most of the developments they had made so far, but he didn''t have any of the testing data yet, only the basic construction data. Once he had it, no matter what happened with the strange beings giving Max the creeps, at least the Reavers would have thetest and greatest development data from theirb.


    Max didn''t get the feeling that whatever was watching wanted to kill him, but that didn''t mean much. To the beings who called themselves "New Gods" in his past life, the death of a mortal was much like the death of an ant. There was no malice to it. They simply didn''t care at all and turned their attention to the next ant which was doing something interesting.


    That was why making one of them bleed was such a satisfying experience. The smug bastards thought that they were invincible.


    "It''s close enough. Let''s get this sent away, and then we can optimize and upgrade our System Functions to make them just right." Max suggested once thest of the mechanical fitment waspleted.


    Sitting in a whole new Cockpit again was a strange experience for Max. He had gotten so used to the interioryout of Cleansing Light that even the luxurious interior of the Super Heavy Mecha felt a bit strange and awkward.


    It didn''t take him too long to get used to it, though. Nico knew how he liked his controls set up, and they were already very close to perfect, so it was just a matter of moving a few to more convenient spots for the new systems and adjusting his seat so that everything was at the proper distance.


    None of the panels required adjustment, other than the moved switches, so Max began the process of optimizing the Mecha for his needs. The Disruptors on the arms were nearly perfect already, but the reaction times of the Mass Driver pods were way off, and the targeting system was out of calibration.


    Both were easy adjustments to make since they were software rted, but there were a few connections in the legs that weren''t responding properly to the signals they were receiving.


    That turned out to be an actual design w, as the movement cylinder had been increased in size for more stability, but the line size hadn''t changed, and it couldn''t keep up with the inputmands at maximum flow rates.


    It only took a few minutes to change out the line and increase the fitting size on both legs while Nico and the Research Team finished with her Mecha and went back to work on the acid spray.


    That was the part that was giving them the most headaches out of this entire build, but once they had it worked out, Nico waspletely certain that it was going to be the finest weapon that she had created so far. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    And that was how the day ended for the next four days.


    Four whole days of 99 percentplete Mecha, just waiting for the chemical containers to be filled for their final weapon.


    It was on the fifth day when they finally made a breakthrough, though not in the direction that they were expecting. The self-perpetuating acid still eluded them, but they managed to find a chemical that created a massive endothermic reaction with a change in pressure.


    Once it was sprayed andnded on a target, it would suck the heat out of it in an instant, leaving most metals and alloys, even some ceramics and most polymers, extremely brittle.


    That wasn''t quite what they were going for, but it looked like it was going to be effective, so they set up the testing as soon as thepound was confirmed stable enough for military use when under pressure.


    Their initial testing determined that it was quite stable at most pressures, and it was only the rapid dpression that caused the reaction. There were many refrigerants that operated on the same principle and would suck in the heat with a change of pressure, but the reaction of this one was particrly violent and extremely longsting.


    It might have been created and abandoned in the past, as it was useless in amercial setting unless you had a massive area to freeze and a condenser which would not grow brittle with the repeated cycles of cooling. But, for now, it was obscure enough that they didn''t think anyone would be expecting it.


    "Let''s get that into a de injector and see how it works against various armour tings," Nicomanded, sending all of the Innu scurrying to create and set up target dummies.


    The first target that they would try was the Galen ship armour. Well, as close as they could recreate it, they only knew theposition of the material, not the construction method.


    When the de hit the material, and the vibration effect started, the armour immediately began to crack. So, when the spray poured in behind the de, there were already deep cracks, and the shrinking of the material expanded them in an explosive fashion, tearing the ting apart.


    "Well, we can call that a resounding sess. Now, we need to see if it works against the Arisen War Walkers as well, and then we can call it versatile in this battlefield." Max congratted the team.

 Chapter 876 876 Nearly Finished

    Nico moved the test weapon over to the stand for the Arisen War Walker armour and began the attack sequence. The armour ting held up much better this time, and only a few cracks were created by the actual attack, but again, when the spray rapidly changed the temperature, the cracks expanded.


    The ting held so it would take a much heavier blow to destroy that te that they had made, but it was still significant damage, and enough that it would give them a noticeable advantage in closebat versus the previous editions of melee armaments.


    Nico struck again, and this time the de caused the ting to fracture. The te had be temporarily brittle in the hyper-chilled area, and the de easily cut through the remaining te.


    The de came to a halt less than five centimetres from the initial strike zone with a screech of alloy on alloy, marking the extent of the brittleness.


    As they watched, the ting began to regain its shine and return to normalized temperatures. If they did use this weapon against the Arisen Army, they would have to strike quickly because the effect would onlyst for ten or fifteen seconds at the longest.


    "That''s passable. Now, to test it against all the other armours that we know." Nico noted while the Research Team took the more detailed notes and calctedrger scale results for the process.


    One after another, the various types ofyered, alloy andposite armours failed before thebination of vibration and rapid temperature change. Some would have failed entirely from the energy field that would go over that de inbat, as it would cut through them like a hot knife in butter, but that wasn''t the point of today''s test.


    "That''s nearly everything," Nico dered as the simted Klem exploded from the vibration churning up its insides before the liquid could even freeze most of the body.


    Nergalughed as the dead Klem that they had created and propped up as a target exploded.


    "Well, I must say, I didn''t expect that one. Who would have thought that the vibrations were so effective against biomass?" She joked before going to rinse the blood off her armour.


    "I think that the Lead Researcher is rubbing off on that one a bit too much." One of the other Researchers teased while Nico activated the cleaning process.


    Nico smiled back at them, ignoring the bit of Klem blood stter on her own armour. "It''s good to see people enjoying their work. Plus, this is in line with her research thesis. It might not be quite what she was hoping for, but it''s a step in the right direction, and any Innu should be overjoyed to see their thesis advance."


    The researchers considered that for a moment and then nodded reluctantly.


    "Well, as long as she''s not losing track of her studies in favour of watching Klem explode." They agreed. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    There might have been a moment where it was headed that way, but the overwhelming need to study cut it short so that she didn''t get lost in the pure joy of blowing things up.


    "Well, let''s get these Mecha charged up, and we will be ready to go. The attacks have been slow toetely, but we should be ready for when the Galen decides tounch another full-scale attack." Max instructed as the researchers who had gotten sttered returned from the shower in the corner of the room, drying the water off their armour.


    The pressure vessels were made of a form of polymer which didn''t suffer from degradation in the cold, as pressurizing the tanks before a battle caused the same reaction as depressurizing them during the battle, though on a different scale, as the pressure was increased gradually, instead of decreasing explosively.


    With that finished, Max went over and used [Optimize to tweak Nico''s Mecha to the same standard as his own, while she used her [Mecha Repair] Function to tweak a few spots in his Mecha, which tested as fully functional, but the System decided weren''t perfect.


    The lingering Nanobots in the Mecha after both processes would make it easier to do them both the next time, and Max was satisfied that everything was in full working order and ready for battle.


    Now, they just needed a battle to test them in.


    With the unknown force watching them, Max wasn''t going to do a full-on weapons test for the new custom units. If the enemy didn''t have ess to their thoughts, it wouldn''t know entirely what they were capable of, and that could give Max an advantage if the observer was hostile.


    "Alright, let''s call it a night, and we can get everything equipped in the morning. If we''re going to put the older two Mecha on standby, then we should move the personal effects over to the new ones before we need them." Nico sighed, casting a conflicted look between her two Mecha.


    In theory, she could actually pilot both at the same time, but that wasn''t really practical, and it could put a lot of strain on her mind. Unlike Fighter jets, which were simple to control and mostly involved multiple targeting reticules and not running into anything, two giant Mecha would be nearly impossible to work at full output.


    Max and Nico were lying in bed that night when the rms went off, signalling that the Koleska were under attack. The Arisen would certainly block them from interfering, but the tradition had been set. They would send out their Mecha and observe to make sure that the Arisen Army wasn''t going overboard or trying to get through the Anomaly again.


    They hadn''t tried it in a while, but you never knew when the enemy was going to try something new, and letting them through that Anomaly was still against the Reavers'' best interests and Max''s orders from Mother Tarith.


    As expected, the Arisen brought in more ships to block the human fleet from the fight but were careful not to get between them and the Anomaly. It was bing a strange routine, and with every fight, the Arisen seemed less interested in actually fighting the Koleska, who was improving at an rming rate for a species whose technology hadn''t changed.

 Chapter 877 877 What Happened

    Perhaps it was the sense of false security from the easy fights that they had been intely, or perhaps it was a side effect of whatever had happened, but the next morning when Max was jostled awake, and the rm went off, he just couldn''t bring himself to feel particrly concerned for the first few seconds, when he would normally be running for his Mecha.


    It was the panicked thoughts of the crew on duty that brought him to full attention and had him checking the sensor logs as he ran for the new Mecha.


    [I need a full situation update. What the feth is going on out there?] Max asked the Duty Captain when he realized that the sensor data made no sense.


    [Your guess is as good as mine, Commander. There was a spatial anomaly at our location for a split second. Then we were here. I can''t get any bearings. It''s like space doesn''t exist here. Bah, that made no sense. But there is something wrong with space here. I don''t detect anys or other phenomena, but we are clearly sitting on the ground somewhere.] The Giant responded.


    Max climbed into his Mecha to get a better look at the sensor data and froze in confusion. The Giant was right. They were sitting on the surface of a. Or at least. It looked like it. But the sensors didn''t detect any signs of life, or of a sr system around them, or anything but the formless mass of energy everywhere, extending as far as their sensors could detect.


    [Captain, could we be in an enormous holographic projection?] Max asked curiously.


    [Not as far as I can tell. The energy here is strange, but it doesn''t seem to be any form of a hologram that ourbined databases are familiar with, nor does it appear to be directed by anything.]


    Max considered their course of action for a moment while reading Nico and the researcher''s minds to see if they could make any more sense of this than he could. Everyone seemed lost and confused about what this ce was, and none of them knew how they got there.


    [Captain, lift off and see what we can find from a higher elevation.] Max directed.


    [Understood. Gravity Control thrusters are ineffective. Changing to orbital thrusters. Particle Thrusters are showing limited effectiveness. Liftoff not achieved. Engaging Warp Drive for Impulse Motion. There we go. Expected rates of motion achieved.]


    Max watched as the surface of the world moved further away from them, then paused in confusion when he saw the edge.


    How could a be a t disc with nothing around it? Where did the lighte from, and how did it have the gravity to hold them in ce?


    [The rules of physics in this ce are broken.] Nico mused as she saw the same data set.


    The research team was in a panic trying to make sense of the data that they were receiving when suddenly the Cutter was back on the surface again. Max didn''t detect any sort of movement on their part or that of theoid, but it was undeniable that they were on the surface again. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [I can feel eyes on my back. It''s creeping me out.] Nico informed Max a few secondster.


    [I think that whatever has been watching us brought us here for some reason. What that reason is, I have no idea, but it''s pretty obvious that it doesn''t want us to leave the area.] Max agreed.


    [Ship sensors detect something on the horizon. Well, the edge of the sensor range passes for the horizon here.] The Giant on duty informed them, clearly annoyed by the fact that this ce made no sense.


    Max switched sensor feeds and became even more confused. There were six Galen vessels in the same that their Cutter was, sitting on the surface. But the Galen was under attack by some sort of Mecha-sized monstrosities.


    Max optimized the sensors to get a closer look and found that therger creatures weren''t alone. There was an army of little ones with them as well.


    "Oh, that doesn''t look good." He muttered to himself while Nico''s excitement level spiked.


    Neither of them had ever seen this species before, but going by the fleshy hide, they were supremely stabbable. If they weren''t already engaged inbat with the Galen, Nico would have probably barged out the bay door to see what they were like in a fight.


    [All hands tobat positions. I suspect that we will be under attack very soon. All personnel must be in protective armour and equipped with Reaver regtionbat weaponry or greater.] Max ordered.


    That meant a pistol and one heavy weapon while wearing augmentic armour. That was enough that the crew at least had a fighting chance if the ship was boarded, but Max noticed that the Research Team wasn''t going for the armoury to get heavy weapons. They were headed for the Terraforming Array controls to make themselves something.


    Secondster, a full wing of the new experimental Line Mecha was waiting in the bay, and the Research Team was headed for a much more secure position than a simple set of augmentic armour.


    "We did the design work and the testing in VR. We might not be qualified Pilots, but we''re pretty good with one of these things, so I think we should be fine to at least defend ourselves if we''re attacked." Nergal informed him as she powered up her new unit.


    "Well, I can''t argue with that logic when I''m sitting in my own Mecha now, can I? Nobody really gets qualified on the first generation of an experimental Mecha. You just prove that you can operate it well enough not to get kicked out of the Pilot''s seat." Max agreed.


    "We should upgrade themter like an oversized Tech Adept Harness for a Line Mecha. We could dorge-scale research from thefort of a cockpit. Imagine studying spatial phenomena and dissecting giant monsters from thefort of an ergonomic Pilot''s seat." One of the researchers sighed over the radio while the othersughed.

 Chapter 878 878 Definitely Not Friendly

    Max was about to respond to the idea of equipping the Line Mecha forrge-scale research projects when the creatures which were attacking the Galen fleet finally noticed that they weren''t alone.


    They split off a group toward the Cutter, and in an instant, the creatures seemed to cover half the distance between them and Max.


    "It''s not the distance that''s messed up here. It''s the flow of time. I recorded that event much more precisely, and I can tell exactly where they entered the time dtion and when they exited.


    Until we can iste where they are happening, it could be a problem for rangedbat, but melee should be just fine." Nico exined after the creatures reappeared.


    "Alright, I''m heading outside. Wish me luck." Max sighed, still not sure what to expect from the surface of a battlefield that logic dictated should not exist.


    His Mecha''s sensors indicated that it was near Kepler Standard gravity, with a breathable atmosphere, 35 degrees Celcius, and seventy percent humidity. Warm for certain, but not inhospitable.


    Nico was right behind him, but the Research Team remained inside the Cargo Bay, with their weapons pointed out the barrier. That was the safest option in their minds since they wouldn''t get separated from the ship by any strange phenomena, but they would still be able to cover Max and Nico in the battle.


    The creatures which wereing for them greatly outnumbered a full Mecha Regiment, mostly small, pale-skinned humanoids with chitinous body tes that served as skimpy clothing and deformed hands that had be everything from the familiar spiked limbs of the Klem to crab-like ws.


    While they were running alongsiderger red-skinned creatures that wielded vicious-looking des, the two groups only seemed to be incidentally side by side, not working together.


    "I think that it''s apetition. We''ve been brought here to be the bait for their contest to see who can kill more efficiently." Nico suggested on the private channel between her and Max.


    "Even if you''re right, I didn''t need to hear it. But, let''s get this show on the road." He agreed, then unleashed the Mass Driver into their midst.


    "The nukes aren''t detonating," Nico noted as her own guns began to mow down the running creatures.


    "This ce isn''t right. But, if those are the rules of the fight, we can still win."


    Max treated the Mass Drivers more like autocannons, sending hypersonic metal through the air as he readied his sword and shield for the inevitable arrival of the monstrous horde.


    The small creatures might be trouble, but the five and ten-metre-tall ones looked like they were eager to find out what a Super Heavy Mecha had for them.


    There was no fear or doubt in any of their minds, only single-minded violence. Not that they were unintelligent, they were forming intricate battle ns as they ran, but the only thing that mattered to them in the here and now was to win this bloody contest and bolster their pride. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Although the Innu were known as people-pleasers, who would go well out of their way to avoid any sort of violent conflict, the Research Team wasn''t holding back as the horde charged at them. They were thinning the ranks as fast as they could, eliminating the faster moving pale skinned humanoids before they could get too close to the Cutter, while Max and Nico focused on therger ones, especially thergest red ones with huge leathery wings, who seemed to have an uncanny sixth sense which allowed them to parry projectile weapons at hypersonic velocities.


    Nico was enthralled by the performance, and though the creatures were slowly being overwhelmed by thebined firepower of the human Mecha, they would soon be in closebat range.


    The smaller creatures were avoiding Max and Nico to head for the cargo bay where the Line Mecha were, while therger ones kept the two Commanders from intervening.


    [Be safe, and don''t be afraid to lock the bay door if things get dangerous.] Max reminded the Innu team, then activated the Warp Drive on his back to use the thrusters tounch himself into Melee range with a six-armed pale violet demon that looked uncannily like the old Shattered Pride with two extra arms, and a paint job.


    "Oh, it''s cute. They''ve split up to give you the fast ones while I get the muscr ones. I wonder if it''s because of the Mecha or if they read your mind and learned you like them lithe and agile?" Nico joked as she traded blows with an axe-wielding creature nearly as tall as her Mecha.


    "Or maybe I just got the leftovers after they fulfilled your muscle fetish?" Max joked back as his Mass Driver obliterated his opponent''s head at point-nk range.


    He mmed his shield out to the left on instinct, throwing away an attacker that had managed to nk him, then swept away the ws of another attacker with his de, giving him room to circle to his left and back a step, putting all of the enemies back in front of him where he could shoot at them again.


    The creatures roared in frustration as a hail of rounds from the Mass Drivers tore the three of them apart. They didn''t seem to feel any pain or fear of death, only frustration that they had lost the engagement.


    The battle was far from over, though, and two more demonic-looking monsters were already closing in on him, bothrge red ones, wielding vicious-looking axes that Max wasn''t sure he could parry with his de if he took a direct strike.


    The bursts from his Mass Driver rang off the axes as the beings seemed to predict his target, but the force threw the weapons back and put the creatures off bnce when the chains holding the weapons to their arms pulled taught, keeping the axes from being lost inbat.


    It was a genius way to make sure you weren''t disarmed and let you throw your weapon a short distance if needed, but this time it had backfired, and Max charged forward, carving a deep gouge in the chest of one and letting his shield take the impact of the other''s fist.


    They certainly weren''t any weaker than his Mecha was, and Max was pushed back a few feet before his gravity control allowed him to regain traction and charge again, sting holes in the opponents with the disintegrators, which healed in seconds.


    [That regeneration speed is insane. Don''t bother maiming them. It needs to be a killing blow.] He informed the others, mostly the Innu in the Line Mecha, who didn''t have the sort of practicalbat experience that a veteran soldier would.


    [Got it Boss.]

 Chapter 879 879 Blood In The Dirt

    Since the dispersed pattern wasn''t working for the Disintegrators, Max switched them to stronger beams, leaving himself without area of effect weapons since the explosions of the Mass Driver rounds weren''t working here for some unknown reason.


    The concentrated beam of the Disintegrator vaporized three of the smaller red demons at once, turning them to nothing but ash that seemed to float in the air for a few moments before being blown away.


    That was more like it. It wasn''t affecting as many as before, but it was still enough to deal some real damage to the enemy.


    Max locked des with one of the six armed violet demons, thenughed at its hiss of annoyance as he rotated to the side, and the overhand swipe of the ws all tore through empty air where he had been.


    His shield mmed the creature to the ground, and a stomp from the mighty foot of the twenty-metre-tall Mecha crushed the monster''s skull, earning him an appreciative cheer from the red demons.


    If the rules of this ce were tailored to the way these creatures wanted to fight, it made sense that none of theirrge-scale weapons worked and that the Cutter hadn''t fired a single round. Max was too busy to check on what was happening on the bridge, but under normal circumstances, they should have at least deployed the defensive weapons to keep the enemy away from the hull.


    There had been no announcement that the ship was under attack, though, and his Mecha should have given him a warning if the ship''s shields were taking damage. It was standard programming for space battles since losing the mothership could leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere, literally, with very limited life support.


    The sound of the rapid-firing Mass Drivers was still steady, though, so it didn''t seem that any of the Innu had fallen or stopped fighting, and Nico certainly hadn''t lost quite so quickly.


    Max checked his sensors and saw that she had moved over closer to the cargo bay door, and a mountain of bodies was forming around her thanks to the efforts of the Innu killing anything that tried to nk her.


    That allowed her to fight one on one or two on one as Max was about to be doing again, while the smaller Mecha kept the cannon fodder at bay.


    The battle seemed to pause for a moment as two enormous red demonsnded in front of Max. Each was twice asrge as anything that they had faced so far, standing over twenty-five metres tall and dwarfing the Mecha with their massive wings.


    It was as if the whole world was holding its breath as Max stared down the Demons, who were idly twirling their massive two-handed des while they contemted how to deal with this enemy.


    Nico stepped up to join him, and the two demons smiled, then took a step apart, giving each other room to fight. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That was good enough for Max. He ced his de on top of his shield and charged his opponent. The two des met in a shower of sparks, and a mighty fist brought him to a halt, nearly taking out the barrier on his shield but leaving a trail of blood along the ground as the Demon drew its hand back.


    It only took a moment for the hand to heal, but the Demon didn''t wait. The downward strike of its de threw blood through the air, followed by a sh of light as the energy barrier on Max''s shield copsed.


    The shield itself was holding up well, but the capacitors were blown out. It would be out ofmission for a while, but it was still an effective shield for a few more hits, at least.


    Max struck out at the Demon''s head, forcing it to lean back, then dropped his shoulder and turned the strike into a downward chop that cut a deep furrow into the Demon''s left side, adding more blood to the battlefield.


    The echoing roar that it let out was not pain, and Max sensed nothing of the sort in its thoughts. Instead, the Demon was enraged that someone made it bleed. In its mind, that was the greatest insult to its prowess. It made others bleed, not the other way around.


    But its methodical attacks didn''t slow, and Max was forced back as the jagged de glided down his shield, then abruptly changed directions, going for his legs.


    Max kicked the Demon''s arm as the de swung past him, sending it to the end of the chain, attaching it to its owner''s wrist, and then unleashed his Mass Driver into the giant Demon.


    Now it was truly enraged, both at being disarmed and at being shot. The red demons seemed to take the use of ranged weaponry as a cowardly insult and a dishonour to the art ofbat.


    If Max had been trying to enrage the creature, he would have seeded beyond his greatest expectations. The flurry of strikes that followed the attack, which hadpletely disabled the creature''s left arm and only narrowly missed blowing its chest apart, shattered Max''s shield and nearly knocked the de from his hand.


    After this battle, he was definitely following their lead and chaining that de to his arm. The hand of the Mecha had a maic lock that should be enough to keep it from being disarmed, but only the wide pommel had kept it in his grip this time.


    Max discarded the shield and rolled backward to avoid the next sh of the Demon''s de. The maneuver took him over a corpse, and Max grabbed a cruelly hooked de off the fallen violet Demon as he passed, allowing him to switch to a two-handed fighting style.


    The hooked end would make for an excellent disarming tool, but Max had another n. He hadn''t gotten to try out the freezing liquid yet, as it was on the forearm des, and he didn''t want to get into the grappling range of a monster that was stronger than his Mecha. But, if this worked out as nned, it would be the perfect opportunity.

 Chapter 880 880 Nico Needs Knowledge

    The giant red creature seemed to get even more excited once Max had two weapons, but Max couldn''t tell if it was because he preferred fighting against this style or if it was because of the new weapon he was facing.


    Max went on the offensive, knocking the Demon back a few steps with his de before hooking the giant creature''s sword with the hook of the new weapon. The red Demon smirked in joy as it pped its wings and rotated, using the hook as a guide to drive his sword down into Max''s shoulder.


    With a grating that sounded like metal on metal, though the Mecha was made of the monomolecr alloy that all of their most recent designs were, the two-handed de of the giant carved a gouge in the Mecha but failed to prate.


    Before the Demon could withdraw, Max dropped the de in his left hand and grabbed the creature''s arm, pulling them together with a resounding crash and allowing him to drive the forearm-mounted de of his right arm into the creature''s chest and inject the freezing liquid.


    The freezing spread rapidly through the creature''s body, and the Demon slowed to a halt. Only pure rage at having been tricked into having its chest impaled crossed the creature''s mind as Max kicked it off his de, and then nothingness as he followed through to crush the Demon''s skull.


    After a quick look around for his next target, Max found the battlefield nearly empty, with only Nico still inbat, fighting one of the six armed violet-skinned creatures.


    These creatures were big on duels and honour, or at least the bigger red ones were, so Max let them fight it out for the moment and checked on the situation on the rest of this strange battlefield.


    The Cutter appeared undamaged, and all of the Innu were still standing at the door of the cargo bay. The Demons had gotten close, but Nico had intercepted them and distracted them long enough for the Innu to clear out the small ones.


    The Galen force didn''t seem to have fared as well.


    Max could see the path that the Demons had left as they ran from one battle to another, and there was no movement at the site of the battle with the Galen force. There were mountains of bodies, both the brightly coloured monsters and some sort of augmentic armour, which must be Galen''s infantry uniform.


    If Max was right, this ce would have restricted the use of their interceptor jets, possibly by making it impossible for them to fly the same way that the Cutter couldn''t escape the battlefield, and certain thrusters didn''t work.


    Max started to search the bodies for anything that could be useful to them since none of this was in their databases and collected a few different swords, plus a few smaller corpses to bring back to the Cargo Bay for examination.


    Nico was doing the same thing, picking up a small sample of random items to test forter, but she also stopped to grab a few Mecha-sized weapons to add to the pile.


    That wasn''t a bad idea. If they couldn''t replicate them, they could at least use these strange des, which could cut into reinforced Mecha Armour without any sort of external power supply. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    It took a few trips, but they soon had a few of each type of demon body and a collection of weapons that shouldst them and the Innu through months of research or at least a few battles.


    The chains which attached the weapons to the creatures'' wrists were part of the weapons themselves and not simply looped over them, Max found. It made the process of recovering them rather difficult unless he hacked the arms off the corpses, but generally, if he grabbed the weapon and pulled, the chain woulde free on its own.


    Some of them were actually embedded into the arm of the wielder using small spikes, and the flesh of the Demons had grown back around them, keeping the weapon secure but also as a permanent fixture in the creature''s life.


    Max wondered what their lives must have been like to need weapons attached to them at all times. Even just to eat or sleep, it would make sense to remove the chains, but it didn''t look like some of these had been removed in years. Some of therger members of the group even had flesh grown through the tightly wrapped chains, as if it had been attached all their life and their bodies grew around it.


    "Alright, I think that we have enough to start our research. What should we work on first?" Nico asked when Max brought thest few bodies he had collected into the bay.


    "I say we start with trying to find out the physiology of these things so that we can kill them more easily. We don''t know where their vital spots are or what they can regenerate at such a fast pace.


    I didn''t see any of them regrow entire limbs, but when I hit them with the dispersed Disintegrators, any surface damage that didn''t kill them grew back in under a minute." Max suggested.


    "But don''t take off your armour." Nico reminded the Innu.


    It was a safety precaution in case the creatures weren''t really dead and could recover from even these wounds. Or worse, if they were carrying an infectious disease that the scanners didn''t detect.


    Nico climbed down from her Mecha while Max remained in his, in case he needed to throw reanimated corpses back out of the cargo bay in a hurry. The chances seemed pretty slim, but they had chosen the most intact bodies that they could find for the experiments, and that meant a small risk that these fast-healing beings could be only nearly dead.


    Nico was just cutting into the first one when an alert from the Duty Captain caught everyone''s attention.


    [Commanders, check the external sensors. Something strange is going on out there.] The Giant nearly screamed into the microphone, and Max felt the ship power up in preparation to move.

 Chapter 881 881 More Strangeness

    There really was something incredibly strange about what was going on outside the Ship. There was a wave of energy passing through the area, seeming unaffected by the solid mass ofnd beneath them, and everything it touched except thend vanished.


    [Full power to the Warp Drives. I don''t care if it damages the ground. Get us up and out of here.] Max ordered immediately.


    The Ship lurched into action so suddenly that not even the advanced gravity control couldpensate, but they were moving.


    "This doesn''t feel like warp. I don''t feel the warp bubble." Nico noted from her spot at the examination table.


    She was right, the energy of the Warp field forming gave off a particr sensation, even in their new ships, and Max hadn''t felt it.


    Checking the sensors again, they weren''t at warp, only at some level of sublight speed. They were rapidly leaving the ground below them behind, though, and with it, hopefully, the energy wave.


    [We are clear of the projected path of the energy wave, Commander.] The Duty Captain informed them a few minutester.


    [Good work. Keep us moving and away from anything that might damage the Ship. If it doesn''t seem right, just avoid it while we figure out what is going on.] Max sighed.


    At least they hadn''t gotten trapped on the surface as they had the first time they tried to leave the area. That could have been a disaster with the energy wave that moved through.


    [Commander. We have an issue. I have made several course corrections, and we are still headed for a simrnd mass to the previous one.] The Duty Captain informed them in a panic.


    "Nico, do you have any idea what''s going on? Any suggestions on how to properly navigate our asses out of this ce?" Max asked.


    "No idea how to leave yet. I don''t even know how we got here. But I can say that it''s like being in a fluid environment. There are currents here, and we are being pushed along faster than we can adjust at the moment. Once we get near thatnd mass, we will either get into an eddy, where we will be able to maneuver properly, or we will have to destroy it to avoid making an impact.


    From what I can tell, it is the same as what happened at the first one. We couldn''t leave until the current let up as that energy wave passed through."


    Max sighed. "Do you at least have some good news about the corpses?"


    He turned around to look and found that they were gone. Simply vanished as if they never existed. Even the parts that the team had removed for dissection were gone. But strangely, all of the weapons that they collected remained with them in the cargo hold.


    "As you can see. This is a day of strangeness. The sensor logs don''t show any force that made them vanish. They simply ceased to exist. Forget the vanishing act of the Arisen Army. We can at least track that. This is on a whole other level.


    Perhaps it''s because of this space, but maybe it''s innate to the species. Remember the talk of the Energy Beings?" <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That wasn''t reassuring at all. But Max didn''t feel that gaze on his back at the moment, so hopefully, whatever was watching them wasn''t responsible for this situation.


    [Captain, check the surface for any other signs of life. If there is another force there like the Galen, which we saw at thest fight, it might be better to try to team up with them.] Max ordered as they approached the distance where Nico had predicted the severe currents to change directions and begin to eddy around the object.


    [No signs of anything else on the surface. Changing course to drop us out of the current.] The Captain replied, and the Cutter came to a slow stop over top of the surface.


    [We are safe from the currents. I am beginning an analysis of our travel windows now.] The Captain informed the crew.


    Getting drawn into another fight is thest thing that they wanted when they only had two actual Mecha Pilots and ten overeager Innu Gamers, who really shouldn''t be ced in harm''s way. But they didn''t even know where the enemy wasing from or how it was targeting, so they couldn''t even say for certain that the next encounter wouldn''t be aboard their Cutter if the enemy appeared here.


    With nothing threatening them for the moment, Max focused his [Optimize] skill on the Ship''s shields with the intention of keeping the enemy out. The System was incredible atputing most of the time, so if there was some clue as to how to prevent the Ship from being breached, it might have already deduced it and begun toe up with a solution.


    As he worked, Max went through the Ship''s sensors from thest battle to see where the Galen had gone wrong and what they had done right. The Galen had seemed fairlypetent, though outgunned by theirrger vessels, but perhaps it was the fact that they used drones controlled from inside the Ship that caused this issue here.


    If they couldn''t deploy the drones, or these creatures had some defence against them, they could have been in real trouble.


    It would also exin why they had sent out their soldiers unless those were androids or drones as well.


    [Shield Analysis Complete] the disy in front of him read.


    It was pages and pages of technical data, but at the end, there was one very important line.


    [All Vessels and Mecha deemed to be impervious to pration by energy wave pration.]


    That was all that Max could have hoped for and more. Even if they were stuck somewhere when another of those waves came through, they shouldn''t have to fear being turned into nothingness by the energy wave.


    That didn''t exin how the corpses from their cargo hold vanished, though. Perhaps that was separate from the energy wave, but it seemed like too convenient of a coincidence that the ones on their Ship vanished just as the wave destroyed the other ones.


    Nico was thinking of it the other way. Her hypothesis was that the vanishing of the corpses was what had caused the energy wave and not the other way around. If they were an energy-based species, and the corporeal bodies were temporary, then a wave of energy when they reverted inrge numbers would be both natural and expected.

 Chapter 882 882 Language Barrier

    While they sat safely in the calm spot near the floatingndmass in this insensible sort of ce and tried to calcte a way out, as well as how to stay safe while they were here, the energy wave that they had fled from was rapidly approaching them from behind.


    Everything in the Cutter seemed to pause as the wave reached them, with the crew fearing that those creatures would appear inside, but the wave seemed to pass right over them. Unfortunately, it also brought with it a gust of the current that drove the Cutter to the surface.


    "Here we go again. The creatures are forming on the surface. Prepare for iing attackers in 30 seconds." Nico called as she ran for her Mecha.


    "Keep the bay door closed and use the ship''s defensive weapons if they try to force their way inside. We don''t need anyone getting killed today." Max instructed the Innu Researchers.


    "Got it, Commander. We will work on our theories with all this new information and keep the ship safe while you drive away the enemy. We will signal you when it''s safe for us to lift off again, and you cane back." Nergal agreed.


    Max could sense Nico''s excitement building every second as the chance to fight again approached. Her pre-trip inspection and system power-up was finished, and she joined Max in racing out the door to meet their opponents for the day, nearly cheering with joy before a moment of confusion set in.


    "Hey, I already killed that guy once today. See the scar over the purple thing''s eye? It''s really recognizable. I definitely chopped his head off earlier." Nicoined as she realized it was the exact same group as the first time.


    "Maybe we''re doing a best three of five or something." Max joked as he powered up the Disintegrators to clean out the smaller Demons.


    That was good enough for Nico, and the stato rhythm of the hypersonic Mass Driver rounds tore the air apart to signal the start of the battle.


    At this distance, nothing Max knew of could dodge that round, and the ranks of creatures began to rapidly thin as the solid projectiles punched through multiple bodies before being redirected either into the ground or out into the air.


    The two groups were working together this time instead of squabbling over who got to fight, and Mecha and the line had managed to maintain their coherence even with the heavy casualties from the four rapid-fire Mass Drivers operating at the same time.


    Once they were close enough, Max fired a dispersed st from all his Disintegrators that turned the smallest Demons near him back into energy and left him with six rapidly healing greater Demons to face.


    For some reason, they actually seemed happy about this development. Possibly because they carried no ranged weapons, and now they could immediately reachbat, but there was no sense of concern for theirrades at all.


    They also didn''t seem to be interested in the Cutter now that there were no visible targets in that direction. These creatures were here exclusively to fight, as far as Max could tell in their thoughts.


    Max was happy to oblige their desire. Maybe not as happy as Nico, but still, when his shield mmed into the closest of the fast-moving purple Demons, the crunch of broken bones was immensely satisfying. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The creature flew back into itsrades, and an immensely muscr red demon took its ce. The two axes in its hands were fairly easily blocked, but only a burst from the Mass Driver kept it from throwing Max''s arms wide apart and kicking him to the ground.


    Max took a step back and reconsidered his tactics. The creature was stronger than his Mecha, and whatever it was made of, the three Mass Driver holes through its chest hadn''t killed it.


    The two in its shoulder had left its right arm limp for the moment, though, with the axe hanging by its chain and dragging on the ground, so Maxunched a flurry of attacks with his sword, trying to get a good angle at the massive Demon''s vitals.


    An upward strike flowed into a hard thrust, which bounced off of the Demon''s shield, then Max engaged his thrusters to lift up a few metres and turn that strike into a downward chop.


    The Demon''s axe was too slow toe around, and the de cut deep into its arm, shattering the bone and leaving it defenceless as Max''s de took its head.


    As soon as the one fell, two more took its ce, and Max found himself hard-pressed again. Not only were these creatures nearly as fast as he was, but they were also stronger than the Mecha. Mostly he just needed to keep them inbat and away from the Cutter, but the only way that he could do that was to kill them as fast as possible, which was proving difficult.


    The Disruptors being arm mounted was usually a very handy technique for aiming at multiple targets, but at the moment, Max needed both hands to keep the flurry of ws from the twelve arms of his new opponents away from his armour.


    Finally, a knee strike with his shield left an arm free, and a concentrated st of the Disintegrator took out one of the two Demons while the other tried to circle around to get at his back.


    Max spun the Mass Drivers to face behind him and moved forward to engage another pair of Demons as the weapons rang out, and the head of the Demon behind him exploded.


    The rivalry between the two factions of creatures was beginning to show now, and the red demons wereughing at the unfortunate ending of the foolish one who thought that Max''s back was vulnerable.


    The Demons pulled back for a moment, regrouping and trying to draw Max into a small dip in the open field, where they would gain a metre or two of height advantage. It would put the majority of therge demons in a better position to actually hit the vital areas of his Mecha, while thergest of them would finally have the height advantage.


    [Good try, but I''m not falling for that.] Maxughed over the loudspeaker as he moved away from the sunken spot and engaged a group of demons further from the Cutter.


    The red demons roared back, sounding like an angered beasts, but the violet ones hissed at him like snakes. Neither matched the iprehensiblenguage in their minds, an oddity that Max hadn''t encountered many times before. Normally, whatnguage you spoke was the one that your thoughts operated in.


    That might finally be a clue to discovering the secret of these creatures. They thought in the samenguage but did not speak it. So, if he could learn it, he could learn more about where they were and how to get out.

 Chapter 883 883 We Need A Plan

    As Max parried a de and kicked away another of the red-skinned Demons, he devoted a bit of his attention to themunication between the two groups. They didn''t make much noise as they fought, other than hisses and roars, but the strategy was effectively conveyed through gestures and bodynguage.


    To be that effective, they must have fought both together and against each other countless times before. It made no sense to Max. Were they trapped in an endless loop ofbat? Had this ce doomed them to repeat the same situation over and over again, fighting every time that they materialized on a solid surface?


    Max did his best to trante thenguage in their thoughts, using Nico''s skill to transcribe it to theputer for analysis as he received it from their minds.


    Somehow it felt like the creatures weren''t really into this fight. There were only Max and Nico out there to fight against, and the sense of frustration was palpable. Most of the force was no more than bystanders, and from what Max could tell, they were not taking it well.


    They wanted even numbers, one on one fights, and glorious Carnage. It was like they were the two sides of Nico''s personality. The forthright, "bored and must kill something" side, and the sneaky, assassinate them while they sleep, "it''s never a war crime the first time" side.


    Nico''s thoughts said somethingpletely different about their enemies. What she saw was the upright and honest "crush them by the rules" side and the "just keep stabbing it until it stops being annoying" side.


    She wasn''t really wrong, but it didn''t tell Max much about how to deal with these creatures.


    Then, just as fast as they appeared, they began to disappear, with vortexes of energy swirling around both the living and the dead before the wind swept them all away.


    "Well, that was intense. Good news for us, though, since it didn''t toss us out into the currents again." Nicomented as the fight was suddenly over.


    "It looks like we''re all helping one of our Researchers with her Thesis. We need thatyered space theory up and running so that we can get back before we''re worn down and overrun in this ce." Max sighed.


    "I''m sure she will be overjoyed. But it''s not all bad here. We''re getting a lot of closebat practice, and we learned something new today about the capabilities of our Mecha. No other species uses anything as we do, with the exception of the Darklings and Arisen Army. So, if they ended up here. Basically, any other species would be as doomed as that Galen patrol that got sucked in at nearly the same time that we did."


    Max looked up the data she was thinking about and found that the Cutter''s analysis showed that the fight started inside the Galen ship and had only spread outside after the Galen had failed to clear the infestation.


    They were driven out into the open and then ughtered by an enemy who was far superior in strength and closebat weaponry.


    The thought that both the Darklings and the Arisen were aware of what was needed to shield against the energy of this ce went well beyond suspicious and into the realm of near certainty that they were both aware of and capable of entering this ce and exiting. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The problem was that Max and Nico had never really learned how to emte the travel techniques which the alien species used. They did have data on the topic though, and the Darklings had deliberately given it to them.


    "Nico, you work on theyered space theory, and I am going to go over the data that the Darklings gave us about their transport technology. With enough experimentation and the use of [Optimize] I think that we might be able to modify the existing portal devices enough to let us move through theyers of space and back to where we started.


    Or at least somewhere near it, since we were carried so far by the currents."


    The pair split up to their separate tasks, and Max found himself at a workstation with Nergal, who was already pulling up all the various shield configurations that they had encountered since arriving in the Koleska''s territory.


    "We thought you deserved at least one helper. I know a fair bit about the Warp Drives and the Portal Systems, so I''m with you while the rest work on the theory together." The willowy Innu researcher exined.


    "Well then, let''s take a look at what the Darklings were trying to show us. It might make some more sense now that we''re here and we can see what they were most likely talking about." Max agreed.


    The two group settled into their research at increasingly high volumes after the Innu decided that such a serious topic required an increase in their daily caffeine intake, but the drinks were good, Max had to admit, and they all had plenty of motivation to find out the answers to the topics of the day.


    Sitting on the surface of this strangendmass, there didn''t seem to be any threats other than when the wind blew the energy beings through, but the crew was bing increasingly uneasy with each passing shift.


    By the third day, they were all convinced that something was watching them from out beyond the currents, even though the sensors didn''t detect anything.


    That feeling wasn''t new to Max or even Nico, but the paranoia was building among the crew of the shift, and Max was considering having them head out into the current to try to find a new spot if the problem got any worse.


    They didn''t have a positive method of navigation in the currents, but they could at least calibrate the Warp Drives well enough to avoid hitting anything now that Max had made a few breakthroughs on the processing of the glimpse of the Darkling Technology that they had gotten.


    It was much like surfing. You couldn''t fight the wave you were riding, it was too strong for that, but if you carved across it just right, you could go nearly exactly where you wanted to go.

 Chapter 884 884 Probe

    One morning, Max, Nico and Nergal were sitting around a table, looking at the holographic projection that Max had just finishedpiling while Nergal went to get them both breakfast coffees.


    "This is the best way to test the possibility that the Darklings can pass through this space to get from one ce to another at an rming rate of speed. From what we have determined using the data you provided us from theyered space experiments, it should alter the Portal enough to simte the ones that the Darklings use to chase the Arisen Army.


    If this works, we should be able to pass through the barrier betweenyers of the universe, but at the moment, we have no way of navigating here or knowing where we are going toe out. So, it''s a risk, and theputer is unable to fully simte it as we don''t have enough data to actually predict what will happen if we do open the Portal.


    It''s possible that we will end up somewhere else entirely or let something horrific happen to thisyer of space."


    Nergal chuckled at that and pointed out the porthole to where a raging sma storm had overtaken the currents beyond their shelter.


    "From what I can tell, something horrific has already happened to this ce. That storm would rip the average World Ship apart with its ferocity, and anything smaller would be like throwing ripe fruit in a blender." She remarked,pletely serious in her evaluation of the situation.


    "Alright, point taken. But we don''t want to make it worse.


    I am pretty sure that we have calibrated the Portal properly to return us home, so we can open it at a distance once the sma storm fades and then send a probe through if nothing explodes, implodes, or gets sucked through." Max decided.


    "That''s good enough for us. We should have enoughpleted on theyered space theory now that,bined with our data here, a sessful portal home will confirm thest of the data points we need. Not only will it allow us to add another proven theory to ourputer systems, but one of our team will have an incredible Thesis to write." Nico agreed, then scrolled through the data for a second before continuing.


    "The question we should be asking is if this ce can be useful to us in some way. If we can leave here, that means we can return on purpose. If we can return on purpose, it might be possible to travel without being discovered, assuming that we can find some sort ofndmarks here that we can use to navigate.


    Even the massive neb region that the Koleska live in has plenty of stable waypoints to navigate, so you can at least find your way back to where you were. But from what we have seen so far, nothing here is stable.


    We are tracking multiple otherndmasses in the currents, and they are all drifting, the same as we are. So, while we can navigate from one point to another within our line of sight, we can''t count on the waypoint to still be there if we try to return or even urately track it after we lose sight of it, given the erratic nature of the currents.


    Thendmasses are not directing the currents except in their immediate vicinity. They are just as much at the mercy of the changes as anything else."


    Nergal put down her data tablet and looked around the room. "Is there anything else that we can do to verify that it is going to be safe to open the Portal? I feel like I am missing something about the targeting system, but I just can''t for the life of me tell what it is." <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    So, they all went over the intricacies of the targeting system for the Portals again until they found the part that was making the Innu uneasy. Normally, there was a verifiable input coordinate. Your current location was used to determine where you ended up. Since they didn''t know that, and they were just trying to move back to the properyer of space, they could end up nearly anywhere if they had drifted too far after their arrival.


    "Well, we will only know once we try." Maxughed.


    There were so many unknown variables to this equation that it was basically a shot in the dark, even if it did work to get them back to somewhere familiar. Worst case scenario, they ended up somewhere even stranger.


    The storm clearedter that evening, ship time, and everyone set about preparing for the portal test.


    In the name of safety, it would be opened on the far side of the calm area around thendmass, and a probe would be sent through first to give them data about where the Portal led and if their theory was correct.


    [Everything is in position Commander.] The Duty Captain informed Max, allowing the eagerness to get home to creep into his speech.


    The Giants weren''t usually the emotional sorts, but Max had realized that they really were homebodies. They didn''t like big changes or new routines. They liked reliable things and schedules. This whole mission had been a nightmare for them.


    Max nodded to Nico, who started the process, and a small portal began to open in the distance.


    [The Portal is now stable. The current size is one metre. No sign of any energy masses passing through the opening.] The Duty Captain informed them.


    The probe was fired from a shuttle waiting near the Portal, and the whole Cutter waited eagerly for the first bits of data toe back to them.


    [Data ising in clear. No damage to the probe has been detected. I am attempting to establish telemetry now.] Nico informed the crew.


    Five seconds passed in silence, then ten, and finally, Nico had the data up on the screens.


    [The probe is still in Koleska space but over ten sr systems away from the anomaly.] She informed the crew, and a resounding cheer went up from every voice.

 Chapter 885 885 Risk It?

    [The data stream is steady, I will now start issuing movementmands to the drone.] Nico informed the crew.


    If nothing went wrong, moving the probe back and forth, they would send another probe with a living organism through and make sure it was safe for life to travel. There hadn''t been any indication of harm so far, but it was better to be safe than sorry when you were in the human test group.


    The probe maneuvered back smoothly and picked up a small collection of nts and creatures that the Terraforming Array could create alive.


    They carefully monitored them for changes to their behaviour and vital signs as they passed through the Portal, but much to their relief, nothing seemed to change.


    "Everything looks good from here. No signs of distress or hostility. No damage to the probe or anything on it." Nico said, looking at Max for permission to move on to the next step.


    "Let''s get out of here." Max agreed.


    Nico sent themand to the bridge, and the Portal was expandedrge enough for them to send the entire ship through. They were about to bring the probe back when one of the researchers noticed something strange about the data.


    "Before we move, look at this. We can see out to the probe, but the probe isn''t returning any data on the Portal. It''s like it doesn''t exist on that side. It''s just the probe floating in space." She exined.


    That led to another round of data analysis before the ship could move, but they didn''t see any harm in the process, even when they moved the probe back and forth multiple times.


    As long as it moved to the correct spot, it would pass through without issue, even though its sensors didn''t detect anything there.


    [Captain, move through the Portal. We have not detected any sign of harm or instability on this end, only an inability to detect the presence of the Portal from the other side.] Max instructed.


    The Giant''s reluctance to actually be the test subject was intense, but he followed the order, and the Cutter smoothly glided through to Koleska''s space.


    [All hands, I need a status report. Any unusual emotions, physical sensations or injuries need to be reported immediately. Please perform full personal scans with your room''s built-in medical scanners.] Max ordered.


    Max had a theory that the Arisen and possibly even the Darklings might be the way that they were because of the interference of the subspace level that they travelled through. If it was making them violent or affecting their minds, he would have to put all testing on hold for the time being until they could determine what exactly the issue was.


    It only took a few seconds for the reports to roll in. None of the Innu or Giants reported any issues. The Valkia all reported a brief moment of nausea as they passed through the Portal, but it had faded before they could finish the self-scan. All of the humans were reporting themselves to be in the same state as always.


    "Maybe we picked the wrong test subjects. You see, the Innu live to please others, while the Giants and the Valkia both conquered their home gxies through force. I don''t think that there is any disputing the violent nature of humans, so that leaves us with exactly zero people on board who might be susceptible to trauma from their experience in the otheryer." The researcher who was working on theyered space Thesis exined.


    Nico smirked at her. "So, what you''re saying is that the violence likely isn''t directly caused by anything on the other side unless it was blocked by our shielding. But there is the possibility that it could be caused by mental trauma resulting from a peaceful species being repeatedly forced to fight for their lives?"


    The researcher nodded and then brought up the data that they had managed to gather on the fight between the Galen and the Demons.


    "It doesn''t look like the Galen suddenly went insane or anything. They only started fighting once those things appeared in their ship."


    Nico''s mind immediately went to ways that she could get back into thatyer without shielding to see if the presence of living organisms would trigger the appearance of the Demons, but the look on Max''s face made her change her train of thought immediately.


    "It was just an idle thought." She apologized, though Max could tell that she didn''t really mean it.


    "Just don''t do it. You can think about it, but don''t do it." He reminded her with a smile, and her thoughts went to ways to test the theory using the Galen as the bait.


    It was a bit more eptable to consider throwing their enemies through a portal to hell that they had little to no chance of making it back out of, so Max didn''t reprimand her again and instead ran a full system diagnostic while keeping an eye on the Koleska Fleet ships which were headed their way.


    There was a slim chance that they had returned to a different point in time, either before or far after they left, and interaction with the Koleska would tell them exactly how long they had been gone.


    The species had been reasonable when the humans first came through the Anomaly, so there was no reason that they couldn''t negotiate with them now, even if they happened to be at a point in time when there wasn''t an agreement.


    [This is the Koleska Command Vessel Kirsk. Please state your name and identity.] The lead vessel demanded as it came to a stop thirty thousand kilometres away.


    [This is the Terminus Trading Company Cutter Unit 404. We are on a technology development trip with Commander Keres Max and Sumander Tarith Nico, originating from the vicinity of the Anomaly to our Gxy.] The Duty Captain exined.


    [Commander Max? Can you put him on the visual? We just received the report that the Commander had weed arge number of new human soldiers to the region.] The lead ship reported.


    [Of course, Ship Commander. But first, might we verify the current time, date and spatial coordinates for outside verification of our experiment?]

 Chapter 886 886 Its A Great Plan

    The lead ship sent the precise time and location coordinates for where they were, and Max began the calctions. It only took a split second to match the ship''s clock back up with the rest of the world and realize that while they had spent over a day in the otheryer of space, they had only been gone from here for roughly three minutes.


    The time dtion at the site of their first fight had given him the impression that the time flow in that space was not linear. It was a solid theory involved in antimatter reactions and research, but non-linear time wasn''t really something that the average person would normally experience.


    If his calctions were right, it might actually be possible to exit the exact instant that you entered, but on the far side of the universe, and without leaving a trace. All they had to study was how to get around in thatyer and how to tell where they were going toe out.


    They could open micro portals and send probes to check, but at the moment, Max didn''t know if the twoyers were equal in size and direction. It was possible that the currents were like warp bubbles, and the distances between locations in thisyer could be very different based on where you were in the flow.


    Those studies would all have to be done once they had more information and knew a bit more about where they had ended up.


    Max hadn''t seen any sign of the Darklings, the Arisen Army, or really anyone else but the unfortunate group of Galen Soldiers who had ended up near them. For all he knew, the other species weren''t even going to thatyer.


    "Hey, I''ve got a question. Now that I think about it, we didn''t see anyone but the Galen the whole time we were there, right? They arrived right by us at nearly the same time that we did. Do you think that there is a chance they created that Anomaly, which pulled us through to the otheryer of space?


    It might not have been on purpose since it looked like they weren''t prepared to get sucked in too. But if we capture some of them, we might be able to learn how they did it." One of the Innu researchers suggested.


    "What''s this? Our innocent Innu are suggesting capturing and interrogating prisoners?" Nico joked.


    The student shook her head vigorously. "No, no, not at all. But if you should happen to have some Galen prisoners in the future or one of their ships, perhaps we could learn something."


    Nico smiled and patted her head, letting the girl''s tentacles wrap around her hand and hold her in ce.


    "You know, we already have some of their ships. We can copy the data, and everyone can go through it for more information that might help their thesis studies." Max suggested.


    The lead ship in front of them broadcast again after verifying their story.


    [We have confirmed your sudden departure from the Anomaly region immediately before a Galen attack. The humans were victorious, with the only major casualty being your disappearance.] The Koleska Destroyer informed them.


    [We should return and verify our survival. One Galen ship was pulled through the unstable portal with us, and we can confirm its demise.] Max replied.


    [Excellent news. If their new weapon failed in such a spectacr fashion, they might reconsider their strategy of surprise attacks against the humans. Your new Mecha are much too advanced for them to expect to defeat.]


    With that, the Koleska Patrol retreated back to their position, assured that this wasn''t some Arisen Army trick toe out of nowhere and pretend to be allies.


    Max ordered the Duty Captain to set a course back to the Anomaly at maximum warp and then settled down onto afortable couch to decide what shoulde next. Likely upgrades to the Cutter. It needed to be faster and able to maneuver in that strange ce they were sent to.


    Even if it wasn''t where the other species were ending up, it was a great way to sneak up on people once they learned how to travel in it. Plus, there was the possibility of using it as a training ground for their special forces once they got the navigation thing under control.


    Being able to fight an enemy that didn''t die and kept returning was a great way to train Pilots without wasting huge amounts of time and resources or needing an ongoing war.


    The Alliance would likely freak out if they knew that Max was nning any such thing. All that had been openly spected about was finding ways to navigate through that space and find a way out, so the crew members who had openly admitted that they were sent as observers had no reason to suspect that Max was nning something out of the ordinary, much less something that would lead to an even faster military development for the human species.


    There was really no need to worry them like that. The humans would find a way. They always found a way to get better at war.


    The new Cutter was surprisingly fast. They had made a breakthrough in the Warp Bubble design since thest generation, and this one was capable of sustaining Warp 30. That was a game-changing level of speed, allowing the movement between Gxies within a reasonable time frame without Portal use. Here on this side of the Neb, that kind of speed was nearly unheard of, which mademunication and reinforcement somewhat difficult, with troops sent from other Gxies arriving weeks or monthster.


    Even across the same Gxy, it was a pain without Portals, but the makeup of the region made them too unstable for general use.


    "Alright, the design team. I have directions for you once we get back to our station. We will begin the Warp Drive modification process next.


    I know there are a lot of things that everyone wants to try, but I have two new items for the list. I want to optimize the creation of Portals in and out of the otheryer of space, and I want toe up with some way of oveing the currents while we''re there.


    Even if it''s not brute force, we need a way to get around to make that a viable resource. I don''t care if you turn the ship into some sort of energy barrier surfboard. Just make sure we can get around."


    That was the key to getting the Innu to focus. Vague directions so that they would be able to get as creative as they wanted and wouldn''t get bored doing only one thing at a time.


    "I think we can do most of that. We might not have enough information about the surfboard idea, but I like it. We were carried around by the current, like racing through the gravity slides, so maybe the surfing method isn''t that farfetched.


    Are you maybe part Innu yourself? That''s a genius idea. Hey Nergal, the Commander thinks that we can use the ship as a surfboard," a researcher rattled off as if the rest of the team wasn''t standing right there listening as well.


    "Don''t worry, boss. We wille up with something." Nergalughed, then led her over-caffeinated friend back to their workstation.

 Chapter 887 887 Ship Upgrades Begin

    ?


    The basic hull of the Cutter seemed to be already fit for every purpose that they had for it, not like some of the earlier designs, which couldn''t hold up at higher speeds or in certain new situations.


    This one was nearly perfect already, and their Warp Speed travel was well above average, though the ship''s Warp Drive hadn''t been optimized for extreme speed. It had more than enough power for Portals, weapons, shields and everything else that they had asked of it so far. By that standard, it was hard toin that the Engineers didn''t go further in trying to make it extremely fast.


    It was designed as a scientific research cutter, not a military interceptor. Those two might be the same thing with Max and Nico on board, but that was beside the point.


    So, while the research team worked on a way to theoretically get back to thatyer of space and navigate through it, Max worked on more practical matters. He nned to start by making the ship a bit more liveable.


    It was currently close to stock, with a lot of extra space, and Max thought that it needed some form of entertainment and rxation. With the Arisen around, they couldn''t risk an Android crew, but they had the technology to make solid holograms, and that should be enough to run at least a waterpark and tiki bar.


    That was the most popr attraction aboard Terminus, especially for the Innu and the Giants.


    There were a couple of empty hangar bays that he could use, but that would be inconvenient when they needed to bring random objects or visitors into the ship, so Max focused on using one of the empty gymnasium areas that weren''t in use by the crew at the moment.


    That would berge enough that he could make a proper little park with a sandy beach, some pools and hot tubs, as well as a bar area.


    It didn''t even require extensive design since they had made dozens of them aboard Terminus already. All that Max had to do was design a gravity slide course and then copy the rest. But now that he understood the Innu and the other Alliance species better, Max had an improvement to make. He would make the uppermost two-thirds of the tube transparent so that you could see the world spin around you as you looped through the course.


    Max grabbed one of the Terraforming Array modules from the construction bay and ced it on a cart to roll through the ship. If anyone saw him, they would immediately know that he was up to something, but a Cutter was made to carry thousands of people, not thirty, so the chance that he would be intercepted was pretty low.


    The location that he picked was close to the dining room that most of the Bridge Crew used, so it wouldn''t be out of the way to go there to rx, and it wasn''t far from the gym that they were actually using either, keeping everything convenient.


    It wouldn''t do to have his crew getzy from just hanging around the pool for every meal.


    The Terraforming device took longer to program than it did to create one single room, and Max looked with pride at the intertwined maze of waterslide tubes he had created. The side that the artificial gravity would hold you to was coloured to hide the gravity ting, but the rest was clear, letting those inside see out and those outside see the strange sight of water flowing on the top and sides of the tubes in defiance of natural logic.


    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm "That should do," Max muttered to himself, then realized that he had a visitor.


    Nergal cleared her throat and stared at the slides with pure greed. "Commander, Lead Researcher Nico says that we have a breakthrough. She has managed to attune a sensor to track both thisyer and the otheryer of space at the same time.


    It still has some issues, or perhaps it doesn''t, and that''s just how space is there, but we have a visual of the other side that we might be able to use to navigate."


    Max gave the room onest look before he turned toward Nergal and the door. "Alright, let''s finish up in theb, and then we cane here for dinner. I programmed it with a holographic bartender, and the full food menu is avable, so you won''t be missing out on any essential nutrients if you should choose toe here for meals and test the Gravity Slides."


    "See, you really are too good to us. The clear tubes are going to be awesome. But how do I keep this secret for the rest of my shift? That''s a lot of stress for one person." Nergal asked, with her head tentacles twining together in worry.


    "It''s one hour. Surely you can keep a secret for one hour until it''s time to surprise the others, right? We can lead them all there, and you can enjoy their shock when they see it for the first time without knowing what they will find, just like you did." Max suggested.


    The Innu nodded slowly, steeling her mind not to blurt out what she was so excited about. The task was made easier when they got back to the bay, and Nico had arge three-dimensional view of the sensor feed up in the middle of the bay.


    The sight was familiar, just like the currents they had faced when they were on the other side, but now it wasn''t empty anymore. Off in the distance, at the edge of their ability to detect other objects, there was an Arisen Cube passing through, surrounded by a strangely glowing blue energy barrier.


    That alone was a vindication of the effort they had put in. If the Arisen were moving through that space, they needed to be there to detect them. It would finally give them the advantage of early warning before attacks and solve the mystery of how intense an attack was going to be once and for all.

 Chapter 888 888 New Break Room

    ?


    It didn''t appear that the ship had detected their sensor sweep, so the Arisen shouldn''t know that the humans had found them and were on a following course toward the Anomaly in Koleska Space.


    As they passed by various Koleska inhabited systems on their way back to their station, they saw even more Arisen vessels staging for attacks, sitting in the otheryer of space and waiting for some sort of signal.


    That was just cheating. No wonder they were always ready to block the human vessels. They already knew where they were, and they had time to stage ships to deal with them.


    As they approached the other human vessels, Max watched the Cube disappear into the distance, not headed for their system. There also weren''t any other Arisen vessels waiting here, and the space in the otheryer was particrly turbulent. It was almost like someone had turned on the jets in a hot tub, and the currents were swirling madly.


    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm Nico was already working to analyze the pattern, which only seemed to be partially affected by the Anomaly. Something else had made it turbulent and left a detectable mark on the region.


    "I''ve got it. The center of the vortexes is where we detonated Antimatter weapons. The explosions seem to have stirred up the otheryer enough that it is affecting space here." Nico dered after a few minutes of silent calctions.


    That sent the Innu into a flurry of action, double-checking the data and trying to determine if there was something that they could do to stabilize theyer or prevent actions here from affecting it at all.


    None of the experiments that they had done at home had ever had this sort of effect, so it opened up a whole new range of possibilities as far as scientific theories went.


    "It''s like the barrier betweenyers is thinner here than it is at home. Or perhaps the otheryer is different at home. Do you think that the war that everyone talks about, the one that destroyed all the stars here in the past, affected space to that extent?" Someone asked while Max was distracted by calcting the likelihood of major attacks on the systems they had passed.


    Nico shrugged. "I can''t say it''s impossible. We don''t even know what species were involved, though, so we can''t even begin to guess what they used as weapons. But look here. There is a gravity well on the other side where the star is here. Theyers must be affected by each other somehow."


    The Innu worked on their theories for a few minutes before the one doing theyered space Thesis sighed.


    "We need another sample set. More spots around the region, and then through the Alliance and Human space. There isn''t enough data in this set to support the theory that Antimatter Weapons are causing irreparable instability." She exined.


    Max shook his head. "I think that we already have evidence that it''s not permanent. Look at the interference patterns and then cross reference them against the time and scale of the explosions. You can see that the older ones have significantly degraded, while the more extreme and more recent ones are still holding closer to their original levels.


    Going by that data, we should be able to estimate the amount of time that it would take for space to normalize after a significant Antimatter battle."


    That got them all going for thest few minutes of their shift until the rm dinged to tell them it was the end of their shift and time to eat. That was Nergal''s cue to burst out with the excitement that she had been holding back.


    "Everyone, follow me! The Commander made a new spot to have dinner, and it''s amazing. I mean really amazing like you wouldn''t believe." She gushed.


    Nico''s eyes went vacant for a second as she searched the ship''s cameras for what he had done, and then a smile came to her face.


    "No overtime tonight,dies. Let''s go see what Nergal is so excited about. If the Commander made it just specifically for us, then it has to be good." Nico informed the research team.


    "It''s for the whole crew, but I admit that the Research Team is likely to love it the most." Heughed as Nergal started dragging teammates toward the door.


    She raced down the hallways with the others chasing behind her and Max jogging to keep up. Then she stopped right outside the converted bay and turned to the others.


    "Wee, everyone, to the greatest lunchroom ever built in a Cutter ss ship."


    That was probably Max''s job, to introduce the new ship features to the crew, but when they raced inside, they weren''t the only ones there. All four of the crew members who had just gotten off duty on the Bridge were there as well.


    "Wee back, Commander. We saw the power draw on the ship''s status window and came to see what was happening. This is incredible." The shift''s engineer, a Human Woman who was now in a ck bikini with a light sarong tied around her waist, greeted them.


    The Innu were already gone, at a dead run for the Gravity slides with a trail of clothing behind them. The Giant was shaking his head in dismay while Nico picked up their armour and piled it next to the bar so that they could pick it up when they got back down to the bottom of the slides.


    "They never did have a sense of propriety." The big man sighed.


    "They''re Innu, plus they''re still students. Don''t tell me that you didn''t have a wild phase during University.": Max joked, and the Giant looked vaguely offended.


    "Of course. My species are quite serious about our studies and our personal reputation." He replied quite seriously.


    Max noticed that Nico was bringing swimsuits to thending pool at the bottom of the slide and subtly moved over so that everyone else was looking away. The armour suits were self-cleaning and temperature controlled, so the chances were that the Innu were wearing very little underneath them, and the Giant would be even more scandalized if he saw ten naked researchers rocketing through the transparent slides.

 Chapter 889 889 Annoyance

    The next day, Max focused his energy on trying to determine what the end game was for the species who were fighting through this chaotic region of space. The Arisen weren''t going all out on the species they had targeted. They were trying to train them up.


    Then there were the Darklings, or Knife Ears, as the locals called them. They were most likely an evil culture by almost any standard, but they also weren''t trying to wipe everything out. They were farming various species in the region.


    Neither of them had the technology to actually knock out all of the stars that had been destroyed here unless they had lost it over time. So, there was another major yer here that Max hadn''t seen yet. He might be sensing it, but there weren''t any really clear signs of its existence.


    There was something about that group that they fought in the otheryer of space, though. Something familiar was tugging at Max''s memory, but he couldn''t seem to pull up the associated memory.


    That alone was unusual for Max. Part of his System Ability was to recall things that he had learned in the past from other people''s minds or his own past life. He should be able to recall what it was with some focus, but it was missing.


    It was almost guaranteed to be rted to the energy-based species that he had seen in his past life, and he remembered a lot about them, so not remembering this particr tidbit made no sense.


    So, he studied everything that he had learned about the Demons they had faced. That probably wasn''t the proper name for the species, but it fit their appearance, so Max was sticking with it for now.


    The way that they vanished and coalesced when they were destroyed gave him a clue as to what the Arisen Army was doing with their own casualties. Max didn''t think that they were able to do it with the War Walkers, but the power controlling them might be like the Demons, just a raw mass of energy and will.


    It would naturally return to a mothership in the otheryer if the container was destroyed, and they could make more War Walkers at their leisure to attack over and over.


    Since no other species had detected them there, they didn''t even have to move, only build more ships to adjust the scale of their attacks. Perhaps they were limited in troop numbers and had to move them around. That seemed to be the logical answer, though if the whole species were energy, then he didn''t have enough information to even know how or if they reproduced.


    The Arisen vessel that was waiting near this sr system didn''t seem to have noticed that Max had detected them even after a full day of investigation, but Max was able to gather a lot of data about their technology. Not so much about the War Walkers, but they knew a lot about them already. What he gathered information on was the Cube itself and how it held itself stationary in the currents.


    Their technology was very different from what the humans were familiar with, but the modtion of their energy shields was something that Max could replicate using what they had.


    What he really needed was to get closer to a vessel in motion so that he could record the modtion changes as it passed by various currents. That would show him how to do it and tell him if it was generally considered better to ride the current or if there was a way to let it wash over the ship without throwing it around.


    But he would settle for what he had here, and it appeared that part of the equation was what the actual hull of the ship was made of. Both Max''s new Cutter and the Cube were made of a simr form of monomolecr material, and Max noticed that the currents that pushed through the shielding on the Arisen Cube slid along the surface of the ship and made it bob up and down, but when the research team tried to insert a piece of metallic alloy into the otheryer, it proved to be impossible.


    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm The force of the energy flowing inside theyer prevented the material from entering, even though Max could see that the micro portal had been sessfully opened as he was looking from the other side. They all thought that their effort to stabilize the opening had failed until Max showed them the data from the probe, which touched off another round of experimentation on what would be immediately ejected from space.


    It might not be their primary goal, but if they could force targets out of the otheryer of space with a specially designed weapon, it would bring a whole new dynamic to the battle.


    He was about to mention the theory to Nico when he felt that strange attention on him again. The first thing that he did was to check the otheryer for changes or another being in the region, which seemed to amuse the sensation. He wanted to tell the others to keep the discussion of weapons that worked between theyers silent for now since the attention was attracted to them again, but it was toote. Plus, there was no guarantee that their efforts weren''t watched all the time.


    After a few minutes, the feeling faded, but Max was beginning to get fed up with not knowing where that sensation wasing from. It didn''t feel internal, it was more like something was watching him from outside, but not a single sensor that they had could detect it.


    As he was recalibrating the sensors for the forty-third time that day, Max noticed something strange going on in the otheryer of space. The Arisen Cube had suddenly vanished, and a cluster of Darkling ships had appeared in the region, suddenly dropping in from somewhere.


    They had to be using anotheryer, and Max had gotten thrown to the wrong one entirely. Their hints might have helped him get home, but he had totally misunderstood the message.

 Chapter 890 890 News From Home

    ?


    [Message from Alliance Central Government for all Reaver Companies. Two worlds have been reported missing as of this morning. The entire poption has vanished, leaving no trace of violence, conflict or the source of the attack.] The message in Max''s daily morning brief informed him.


    Now, that was much more concerning than the usual messages about trade conflicts, the Reavers introducing disruptive products to the market and the petty political squabbling that never seemed to end.


    Whole worlds full of people didn''t just go missing. That wasn''t a thing that happened. At least it wasn''t on their end of the universe.


    Here it happened with rming regrity, and everyone knew where they were going. But what would the Darklings need with a bunch of peaceniks from a backwater colony in the Alliance? They didn''t have any advanced technology that the Darklings might be interested in, and neither had a particrly high poption.


    It didn''t make any sense for the Darklings to have taken them, but there weren''t really any other suspects unless there was something on thoses that the memo didn''t mention. Watching who came to im the empty worlds would give them a much better answer as to why they had vanished than simply specting from the other side of the universe.


    There was also news from Uncle Lu. They were working on a mass production Super Heavy Mecha based on the schematics for their new units, which Nico had sent over. He had grand ns to redesign the whole aesthetic to be more to his tastes, which Max feared would end up as a walking cathedral. There wasn''t much he could do to stop the entric man, but someone would surely step in if he tried to put simted stained ss windows on the armour ting.


    His message had alsoe with a request that Max send over more data. Nico had sent thepleted design, but none of the research data, design steps or the half dozen new scientific theories that had been implemented in order to make the Mecha work as well as they did.


    Nobody on his staff could determine how or why it worked, only that it did, and if they messed with it, it stopped working entirely.


    Max could sense the frustration in his message, even with just text, so he prepared the information that the man had requested and then scrolled through the rest of the messages.


    They had another birthdaying up soon, and Mary Tarith was requesting that they return if possible.


    The Reavers had ten more Destroyers full of new pattern space capable Titan ss Mecha ready to finish out the requisition that the Koleska had made nearly a year ago when Max and Nico had first arrived here, so their presence wasn''t urgently needed, other than for research.


    The daily updates from Felicity were as entertaining as always. The AI had taken on the role of a nameless marketing executive, giving advice to businesses aboard the World Ship, supposedly as a government service. She provided them with market data and various ns to improve customer service, loyalty and public happiness, which she dered was the direction of Max himself.


    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm In a way, it was. He had told her to take good care of them and keep them happy within the regtions set forth.


    The video clips that Felicity had sent from various events on board were all looking like a good time, and from what he could tell, crime was down. Both arrests and reports were down, and requisitions for building goods in established neighbourhoods were way down as well, suggesting that property damage was declining, whether criminal or for the purpose of renovation.


    The World Ship''s economic data looked good, and the memo that he got from the Governing Council said basically the same thing that Felicity did, though without the personalized touch of the AI, who seemed quite emotionally invested in the enjoyment of the events that she was asked to help n.


    The report from Terminus was much more interesting than the others. The students were on school vacation, and they had stopped at a newly renovated resort world in the Death Wind Territory, with following stops along the Border Nations.


    The unfortunate Admiral was drowned in students, parents, and Alliance tourists to the point that every room was booked full, and they were having extra guests try to sneak in above the room upancy limits so that they could get a space at the party.


    It sounded like utter chaos but in a good way for the ship.


    The Academy was building a reputation for excellence, and they would be hosting an international sciencepetition once the next semester started, in which they had high hopes of winning podium ces, ording to the Headmistress.


    That would be an incredible aplishment for any new Academy, especially for one that was being run by a multispecies group. Focused learning techniques for a single species often turned out the top minds in the Alliance, and that was a model that the Academy on Terminus had totally avoided with their "all qualified students are wee" attitude.


    Other than that, things seemed to be normal, but the two missings worth of colonists kept popping up in Max''s mind as something that should be looked into by someone with more knowledge than a low-paid investigative police force from a that had never heard of the colony before.


    Not by him personally, though. It needed to be done quickly, and Mary Tarith would probably show up like the Arisen Army to murder him in his sleep if he didn''t bring Nico back for at least one major event a year.


    Plus, it was her birthday, and that was a CAKE holiday. Once she remembered that it was her birthdaying up, she would definitely want to go back home for a day or two.


    It might do the researchers some good to see what a human family interaction was like, even if it was a family as insane as the Tarith Family. They were here to learn new things, after all.

 Chapter 891 891 Detected

    ?


    The Darklings weren''t as unaware of Max''s observations as the Arisen Army was, it seemed. Not long after he noticed their mass arrival in the otheryer of space, they sent a small attack craft to block the millimetre-sized micro portal that he had opened to watch the otheryer.


    They didn''t attack it or attempt to interfere with it. They just put a ship in front of it so that he couldn''t see anything but a small piece of hull.


    For a group that was known to capture and enve entire poptions, it was an ingenious trick and one that would work with regr portals as well.


    If you knew where they were going to open, you could just put a ship on the other side and let everyonee through directly into your holding cells.


    But though Max couldn''t see anything with the sensors, he now had a much more informative source of information. The crew themselves.


    At first, it was nothing but the most basic of crew interactions, but once they were settled in ce, Max could get much more from their minds.


    [Be careful near the portal. The violent one''s Divine Being has been watching the humans. Getting too close to the portal might attract their attention while we are still dealing with the interference of the others in our n.] Someone was instructing the others aboard the ship.


    That was both helpful and incredibly frustrating at the same time. Now he knew that there really was something watching him from the shadows, but he didn''t know how to find it, or really even what it was, since the description of ''violent'' wasn''t really clear enough to narrow down what species they were talking about.


    For all he knew, it could be a deity worshipped by part of their own faction.


    Then the group''s thoughts turned to the meeting that was going on in the distance. The ships had gathered for arger attack on the Arisen Army, and the hatred for them was palpable.


    Their thoughts flicked back and forth too fast to gather everything they were thinking, but from what Max gathered, much of the technology and some of the ships that the Arisen used were gathered from an attack on the Darkling''s cousins, and they viewed it as the greatest of insults to imitate their War Walkers with the spirit of an Arisen inside of them.


    Max had already suspected that the War Walkers were simply possessed by an energy being, but having confirmation was a great reassurance. It also meant that the Arisen were never truly being killed. They were just ejected from their possessed bodies and returned to whatever home vessel they had waiting.


    Max wondered if they were rted somehow to the energy beings that he referred to as the Demons since they also turned to energy when their bodies were destroyed. It would make some sense for them to be rted since he had seen both in thisyer of space, and both were extremely hostile.


    They didn''t seem to be the same, though, because the Darklings were keeping watch for the Undying Ones, as well as the Arisen. The names suggested a rtion, but perhaps it was just a matter of literal trantion from theirnguage to the human standard that Max used in his thoughts. The names were essentially a basic observation of the species. One didn''t really die, and the other kepting back to life when they possessed a new body.


    Then the thoughts turned to more basic daily things, like the new Galen pet that the leader of the crew got in thest attack. It seemed that the Galen was chained down on the floor in the leader''s bedroom, waiting for them to return with directions to greet them warmly and prepare their nightclothes.


    That was the pet Galen''s entire purpose in life now. They greeted the Commander and put out the Commander''s pyjamas. That was it. Other than that, they were chained to the floor and simply waited all day long. Even the other Darklings thought it was insulting and a waste, but it seemed that the Commander had been offended in some way, and this was a punishment.


    Unfortunately, there didn''t seem to be an engineer, weapon repair tech or other specialists on this attack craft for Max to mind-read, so he was limited in what he could learn.


    He had still picked up a little bit of useful information, though, and he had gotten a good interioryout of the attack craft, which he could ry to Nico, so her team could see if there was a design reason for some of the odd flowing shapes of the doors and walls.


    The skulls and weapons were obviously decorations, but the hull of the ship seemed to be a more ancient design than the more brutalist interior decorations as if they had been making them that way before they were used as military ships.


    Then, just when Max was about to give up, they received a message from the main fleet that caught his attention.


    [You can leave the ones from the Ancestral Home who are watching from the Eternal Battlefield. They are not going to attack. They are too busy trying to reverse-engineer technology from before the Arisen woke up again.]


    That was true, even if it felt like Max was being mocked for trying to develop technology from a historical relic. The research team was now working on trying to analyze the shape of the attack craft''s interior. But it seemed that while the Darklings could see what they were doing, they hadn''t realized that the humans had just learned it from the Attack Craft.


    If they had realized, they would be much more annoyed at the trickery. But the main force waspletely focused on their attack on the Arisen Army, and Max could see that they were going all out this time, with over a thousandrge vessels in the fleet n and an opposing force of hundreds of Arisen Cubes andrger ships.


    That scale of battle here in Koleska Territory wouldpletely destabilize the region, which was likely why they were fighting in the otheryer. Or perhaps it just wasn''t easy to lure the Arisen out of hiding, so they were hitting them at home.

 Chapter 892 892 Cant Miss That

    ?


    The Darkling force headed out for somewhere that Max couldn''t detect, and he did his best to record every energy signature that he could from the fleet moving out, as well as what he had gathered from the attack craft.


    That would all be invaluable to Nico and the others, who were currently working on the way to move through thatyer while they studied the design of the attack craft to see if it was involved in the process somehow like the material of the outer shell was.


    "How about we work on this somewhere else? There is a special eventing up a few days back in our home Gxy that we should be there for." Max suggested to the room full of Innu.


    "Do they have bigger Gravity Slides?" One of the girls asked hopefully.


    The walk back up the stairs to the top of the slide was the bane of their existence, even if they knew that it was essential exercise to keep their muscles toned. The Innu weren''t really bodybuilder sorts, but they recognized that not taking proper care of the body led to illnesses and inferior workce performance.


    Thatst part was the important part. If they were burdened by deliberate neglect of their body, they would be worse workers, unable to keep up with the others in their group. Disabilities could be amodated, but being out of shape was embarrassing.


    Of course, with the amount of running between workstations that they did, they would probably stay in decent shape anyhow, but they still used the stairs to the top of the slides instead of using the lift that the giants had rigged.


    The sound of their own feet on the metal steps annoyed them, so they made a rope and pulley system with a gravity te on the first day. One tug of the rope and they would be pulled right to the top of the slides.


    "Unfortunately, they might not have Gravity Slides. Those were made by our Reaver Company for the first Colony Ship that we renovated. They''re a very new invention, so unless the location we are going to has been renovated since we were therest, there won''t be any." Max exined to the disappointed researchers.


    "Is there at least something cool there?" Nergal asked hopefully.


    "Indeed there is. There are a lot of human technology relics that they have kept around for sentimental reasons, which you won''t have seen before. But most interesting of all will be the chance to meet Lead Researcher Nico''s mother." Max chuckled.


    Their eyes lit up in excitement at the prospect of getting to meet more of Nico''s family, and Max resisted the urge to tease Nico about how popr her mom always was. Half of the time, it was because she was willing to spill childhood stories about Nico, so it was a sensitive topic.


    But once Max mentioned it, Nico checked her calendar and realized that her birthday wasing up and that Max had scheduled her to get home in time for Cake.


    "Well, what are we waiting for? All of our studies can be done no matter where the ship is, so we can start heading back to my mother''s ce now. Or we can stop off and visit Absolution first so that the researchers can experience the full joy of the gravity slides again." Nico suggested.


    Nergal nodded. "We didn''t get time to go on themst time. We saw them at the waterpark on the upper floor, but we were only there for a day before we shipped out here, so we didn''t get time to do anything but adjust to the ship''s schedule."


    "Alright, we have one spare day, so we will stop off and make sure that Absolution is running smoothly in our absence, and then we will spend the day ying in the waterparks of the aquatic floor. It has plenty of open airspace and various intellectual attractions, so the Giants and Valkia should be happy to hear the news as well." Max decided.


    "What about the other humans? Will they be happy to be aboard Absolution as well?" Nergal asked.


    Nicoughed. "More than you might expect. Humans are among the finest of party species. We will turn any chance to rx into a celebration if we are given the opportunity."


    The Innu smiled at each other. They had been told the same thing about the humans, but they hadn''t really believed it, and there hadn''t been much downtime after they arrived here, so they hadn''t experienced the joys of arge-scale human party. The human crew members were always gathering after work, but so was the Innu, so that didn''t seem out of the ordinary. Nico''s birthday would be their first real party.


    While Nico ryed the message to the crew on duty to head for Absolution and inform the rest of the ships in the area that they would be gone for at least a week, Max sent a message to Mary Tarith to see what the birthday ns were.


    [Where were you nning to hold Nico''s birthday party? I have a very excited cyborg and a whole Innu research team that''s eager to meet you.] Max sent to her, using the imntedmunications device to bypass the need to go through the ship''smunications systems, which Nico would be tracking.


    [We were nning to hold it on Absolution for the extra space and so that the Family members who haven''t gotten to see the World Ship would have an excuse to go visit. It''s her eighteenth birthday, after all, even though you two don''t act like the growing young soldiers you were meant to be.


    Just think, if everything had remained as usual, you would just be graduating from the Academy now and heading out into the world for your first deployment.] Mary replied, feeling nostalgic.


    [Did you honestly ever think that Nico would have a normal career? But we were already nning to go to Absolution first so the Innu could experience the aquatic level of the ship. I will keep your intentions secret until we arrive in two hours.]


    [I will be there with her father and a number of other Commanders when you arrive at Absolution then. We are already aboard the ship, but we weren''t sure if you were going to being today or tomorrow.]

 Chapter 893 893 Back Home

    ?


    After a short inspection for alien species and signals on the human-controlled side of the Anomaly, followed by a few drinks with the Ship''s Admiral, a Portal was opened to thest reported location of Absolution, and they were finally on their way home for Nico''s birthday.


    But when they reached the coordinates, there was a surprise waiting for them. Hundreds of Reaver ships had gathered for the party, and as soon as the Portal closed, they set off a magnificent orbital fireworks disy.


    [Happy Birthday Commanders] The explosions read, surrounded by hundreds of sparkling lights.


    Max picked up the inte and addressed the gathered Reavers.


    [Thank you all for the warm wee. It is an honour to have you all here to celebrate another year, and I wee you all to Absolution, the home base of the Terminus Trading Company.] Maxughed, triggering another round of fireworks from the ships and thunderous apuse from inside the world ship that Max could sense even from where they were, tens of thousands of kilometres away.


    Nico gave the order for the Cutter to return to their personal hangar, the secure area where their own Mecha were usually stored, safely out of sight of anyone who might want to study them. Then she turned to Max with a smile.


    "It looks like everyone has a surprise for us. Felicity has decided that our birthday is a Company Holiday, and the whole World ship is decorated with birthday party themed events."


    Max could only imagine what the AI had gotten up to while it was deciding on the scale for a birthday party for the pair of them, but it looked like she had managed to convince the board of Governors that it should be a grand event.


    That shouldn''t be as surprising as it was, though. The Commander''s birthday and the Company''s founding day were often holidays on a Reaver vessel. But the scale of it, when applied inside a world ship, was on a whole other level.


    [Everyone, please gather at the rear cargo bay doors once the ship is secure inside the hangar. We will exit from there as a group, as this is a secure area.] Max informed the crew.


    The hangar wasn''t empty, though. The Governing Council, Felicity and Mary Tarith were all waiting there for them to disembark, eager to see the Commanders again after months away and after seeing multiple reports of new technological developments sent by them.


    Mary stepped forward with a smile on her face to greet the group.


    "Wee back. We had hoped to have everyone here to greet you, but Uncle Lu is still on his way. He made ast-minute breakthrough on a side development project and couldn''t tear himself away."


    Max had expected something like that to happen. Lu wasn''t the most social of people unless it was about research, and he would certainlye to track them down eventually, but not at the expense of breaking his daily workflow.


    "Oh, what did he discover?" Nico asked curiously.


    They had sent him all sorts of thingstely, but none of them with obvious alternate usages.


    "It was an odd experiment on the armour ting that you sent to him. I don''t know the details yet, but he found that the new technology, where it was energized to stabilize it, could be used on water pipes to both break free deposits and instantly heat the water more efficiently than the current water heater technology.


    Apparently, it''s over 99 percent efficient at heating water, with the remaining one percent being heat loss into the pipe itself. They found a way to install it into a faucet so that only cold water could be fed through the lines, and the temperature could be set at the point of exit."


    Instant water heaters already existed, but they had a fairly significant power usage to rapidly heat the water. Max didn''t concern himself about it, but on mosts, power was still billed by usage, unlike on the Reaver''s ships, where the basics were just the basics. Everyone got them no matter what.


    "While we wait for the other Commanders to get here, let''s go greet the people. I have a broadcast station prepared for you on the main level, over top of the city center. It will be broadcast all over the ship, and the people are eagerly awaiting a word of greetings from their leaders." Mary added.


    The Innu all got excited at the prospect of getting to take a tour of the city before going to the gravity slides, and the level of energy in their thoughts was beginning to buzz inside Max''s head when itbined with the millions of other mental voices on the ship.


    It had been a while since he was somewhere this crowded, and it felt like his mind was more sensitive than usual to the noise, making it harder to block things out. But at the same time, it was easier to sort them into categories so that he could focus on groups when he needed an answer to something.


    That was a pleasant change and one that he hadn''t expected. Maybe all he really needed was a bit of time to let his mind rx.


    Max sent that thought over to Illithid, who was currently in the security office covering for the senior staff who were off for the day. One Illithid could do the work of fifty standard security officers, so though it wasn''t his job, he had agreed to give them the holiday afternoon shift off, and the other shifts would be lighter on staff to give more people the extended holiday weekend.


    [The silence of the minds is a blessing, but watch out forplete silence. It lets the mind wander too far, and it can attract strange thoughts.] The Illithid warned him in return.


    It was a folk tale of theirs that if you went out too far and cast your mind into the void seeking silence, you would find that the void cast its thoughts back at you. There was a simr saying among humans about staring into the void, and it was a very real possibility to Max, who had experienced that strange attention on himself multiple times now.

 Chapter 894 894 Speeches

    ?


    Max took to the floating stage with the Council, Nico, Mary and the Innu behind him while Felicity stepped forward to do the introductions.


    [Good afternoon, everyone. It''s Felicity again, here with some excellent news for our lovely Absolutionists. The Commanders are back home for the Birthday celebration, and they have some kind words for you all.]


    Max wondered for a second what the AI was on about, then read the Council members'' minds and realized that not only was Felicity doing advertising work for the businesses on the ship, but she had also set up a motivational streaming channel, highlighting all the great things to do aboard the ship, like a travel blogger, but exclusively aboard Absolution.


    She had be quite popr, and her food rmendations were considered to be the finest among human food reviewers. It seemed that the general poption didn''t know that Felicity the Idol and her alter ego as an advertising specialist were the same person. They did realize that she worked for Terminus Trading Company, but as her actual job wasn''t clear, most people thought that it was the sponsored streams, not that she was the AI in charge of ship operations.


    Max stepped up beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder for the cameras, then waved to the watching crowd.


    "Thank you all for such a warm wee home. We have been working for far too long, and it is amazing to see how much everyone on the ship has done since we left. You have all aplished so much, and the love I feel from all of you reminds me that no matter how far we might travel through the universe, this is Home."


    Max could hear the cheering from the city below the tform that they were broadcasting from, and he stepped back so that Nico could give a speech to the city.


    "Greetings, everyone. It is so good to be back here for my birthday. After spending months on a small ship without all the luxuries of the big city, I could really go for some custom-made pastries that aren''t in the replicator system.


    But seriously, thank you all for the Birthday Wishes, and I sincerely hope that you all enjoy your long weekend."


    She stepped back, and Felicity gave onest parting speech, then summoned a public transit pod for them to head up to the second level where they would go straight to a resort, and the Innu could check out the gravity slides that spanned an entire resort city.


    There were over three hundred kilometres of them in total, and the Innu guests and residents loved them more than any roller coaster.


    The view from above the ship''s ocean was incredible, with clear blue waters over white sandy beaches, sharp granite cliffs and surrounding lush green inds. The Innu sighed as they saw the variety ofndscapes that were present aboard the ship and then looked to Max with hundreds of questions in their minds.


    "Alright, I will start with the easiest answers. Yes, this is all publicly essible. None of it is off limits to a resident of the ship, though we do limit development based on the region to keep the poption spread under control and avoid employment issues.


    Most of the cities you see on this level are tourism based, and there are over sixty Alliance Cruise Ships currently docked with Absolution, letting their guests enjoy a shore excursion on this level, or the city below, which specializes in designer goods.


    Yes, there are nude beaches, and no, that is not where we are going now. We do have swimsuits avable for you, but I know that all of you are actually wearing one right now, as you were so eager to get into the water that you only threw on a sundress over the top to get through the public appearance part of the day.


    What else should I cover?" Max asked.


    "Where are we staying?" Nergal asked with a smile.


    "In a resort right where the Gravity slides exit into the ocean. You can take short trips through them tond in the water, or you can take them the other way and loop through the city first.


    For the rest of you, there is a public Rings arena, a GPS-marked scenic flight route, various arcades, gaming centres, and a library. And this weekend, they are hosting a legal theory symposium, with group legal argument presentations open to approved entrants. If the Giants want, I can get you a spot." Max informed them.


    It sounded incredibly boring to Max, but getting to flex their logical muscles was a favourite pastime of the Giants and a point of pride among the species when they could defeat groups of their peers in a logical argument, such as a legal proceeding.


    Felicity smiled at the group. "We also picked this location because they have crew upgrading courses over the next few weeks, so everyone can gain experience in Reaver policies and procedures, as well as take on virtual challenges of delicate situations which you might face in the future.


    So, it''s a bit of a working vacation, and you can gain valuable skills that will keep you among the elite of the Terminus Trading Company''s crews."


    Skills upgrading was a regr necessity for a ship''s crew and was often done during downtime just to make sure everyone was on the same page. Doing it on a tropical ind, with beach bars, natural hot springs and unlimited fresh fruit, was distinctly more pleasant than the average course, though.


    The podnded at a resort by the beach, and Max had to grab the nearest few Innu before they could escape.


    "Check into the hotel first. Then you can go y." He reminded them.


    Mary cleared her throat to catch their attention. "You all have four hours before the more exclusive birthday party starts. As part of his current personal crew, you are invited. The main research team will be here, as well as a number of dignitaries and professors from all over the Alliance, nearly a thousand in all, so be sure to requisition something that is within the formal wear guidelines avable in your room."


    "Got it, Mrs Tarith. We won''t let you down." Nergal cheered with a cheeky salute and then broke into a run toward the hotel.


    "They''re a lively bunch, aren''t they?" Mary asked Max with a smile.


    "The whole species is like that. These ones just have extra energy because they''re young and caffeinated."

 Chapter 895 895 Surprise Guests

    Chapter 895 895 Surprise Guests


    Max stopped the moment that he walked into his room and remembered that Mary Tarith had been in charge of the bookings. The room was incredible, a single bedroom suite, with soft white furniture everywhere, flowers in vases all over the room,fortable robes hung by the shower door to change into as soon as they left the warm artificial sunshine outside, and finally, an enormous round bed, scattered with rose petals, and sporting soft red silk sheets under a thin whiteforter.


    There was no doubt about it. She had put him and Nico into the honeymoon suite.


    "It looks like your mother isn''t going to be subtle about the desire for grandchildren anymore." Maxughed as Nico walked into the room behind him.


    "Subtle and Mary Tarith only go together if she thinks that it will work better than brute force. What we saw before is nothingpared to when she is really trying. But if we hold out a little longer, she''s got more children who can give her the grandchild fix." Nico joked.


    Max smirked. "As long as she doesn''t withhold the cake, I think that we can keep stringing her along. But the day that she starts sending biomechanical experts to you for some insane fertilization experiment, we might have to hold a meeting on the topic."


    "Like there is someone more skilled in the topic than I am. Don''t worry. I''ve already got answers prepared for her. But now that you tied Dad to the World Ship, she''s been able to bother him more, so I wouldn''t be surprised if there were more children on the way soon.


    He might talk a big game, but I know that he''s actually a sucker for babies."


    Nico stripped as she talked and wandered into the shower to inspect the various scents that had been arranged for their use.


    "What do you think? You can be coconut, and I can be citrus. Or do you want to be one of these pheromone-enhanced scents? They don''t work on me, but I bet that they will make the party WAY more fun." She suggested.


    "Coconut is fine. The party is going to be insane, to begin with, if they''ve assembled that many Alliance businesspeople in one spot, and you never know how a pheromone is going to affect an alien species. We wouldn''t want to cause an international incident." Max joked.


    Nico''s thoughts said that it might be more fun if they did, but it was also more paperwork, so she wasn''t certain that the cost-to-benefit ratio worked out in her favour.


    Their outfits for the night had already been picked out for them and ced in the hanging closet by the shower. An elegant red dress for Nico that perfectly matched her cybeic eyes, and a ck suit for Max, with a shirt and kerchief that matched Nico''s dress.


    "Well, that makes things much easier. Let''s get freshened up, and then we can have a short nap before the party." Max suggested.


    The short nap turned out to be a three-hour-long structural integrity test of the honeymoon suite''s custom bed, which left them just enough time to shower again and get dressed to go down to the meeting room where the main portion of the party would start.


    Once that initial meet and greet was finished, they would move the birthday party outdoors so that everyone in the resort could join in on the festivities. This wasn''t the official party. That would be a more exclusive event held the next day on their actual birthday, involving family, friends and trusted subordinates. But it was the main event of the social calendar, and Max could see the transit pods headed this way were already packed two hours before the public portion of the party was set to begin.


    "We will have to switch resorts every year so that the others don''t feel snubbed. They are going to get a huge amount of business at the bars and restaurants around here, and the beachfront tiki bar waitresses might need to be put on suicide watch." Max whispered to Nico as they walked through the lobby.


    "Don''t worry, Mother is on it, and they''ve brought in two hundred more staff to run drinks all over the beach and then a full cleanup crew for the morning to make sure everything is pristine again before the sunes up and the tourist crowd wants to y in the water," Nico whispered back.


    The door to the event room was opened as they approached, and both Max and Nico were pulled into crushing hugs by the family members waiting at the door.


    Nico by her mother, and Max by Dave and his little sisters, who had grown up so much since he had seen themst that he barely recognized them.


    "Wee home, Big Brother." The girls cheered while the two youngest brothers waved at him from further back, where Molly was standing.


    "It''s good to be home. How have you enjoyed your time here on Absolution? I wasn''t sure that I was going to see you today because you had school." Max replied, then ducked down so he could hug them back properly.


    "We got special treatment. The Admiral let use along with her shuttle for the long weekend, but the girls have to go back on Monday for school." Daveughed while the girls pouted.


    There were a lot of attractions on Terminus, but there wasn''t an entire ocean for them to explore orrge forests.


    "Everyone, pose for a picture, please. First by individual families, then as onerge group. Mister Tarith, that means you too, no running away. It''s your wife''s orders." A man with a fancy, Alliance-made, holographic camera system requested.


    Nicoughed and pulled her dad in on one side, with her mother on the other, both dressed in light gray, which made the red of Nico''s dress seem even brighter.


    Mary Tarith really had thought of everything, right down to how the family photo would turn out. Unfortunately, she hadn''t managed to bring the other children, as they were all busy in school, and this wasn''t a long weekend for anyone but the Terminus Trading Company.


    Max could hear her making ns to get them all together for the next major holiday, though. She hadn''t managed to get a full family photo in years.

 Chapter 896 896 Big Business

    Chapter 896 896 Big Business


    The photos were a quick process, but the family photos were only the beginning of the formalities for the day. After they finished the photos, they began a meet and greet with Alliance dignitaries who had been doing business with the Terminus Trading Company or the Tarith Reavers and hadn''t had a chance to meet Max or Nico yet.


    There were more than Max had suspected, and many of them on a muchrger scale. To be fair, he didn''t pay much attention to the actual business side of things, as the Royalties and distribution were taken care of by various subordinates.


    "This is Sector Governor Dudebro, current CEO of the Dudebroary Resort Conglomerate. They have already purchased over a hundredary scale Terraforming Arrays from us, and he wanted toe directly thank the one responsible for its development." Mary Tarith exined.


    Nico smiled at the four-armed Titan, a six-metre tall subspecies of Giants that they had first encountered on the ck Market station.


    "It''s a pleasure to meet such a loyal customer. Tell me, have you had good customer reports from the newly developed world? The first few years are the most important to the customer referrals for a Terraforming Service." Nico asked.


    The Titan delicately shook her hand and smiled back before straightening his suit.


    "Indeed we have. The arrayspleted their work even faster than the estimated maximum time, which allowed us to get the staff situated well in advance of the official opening and even do a soft opening on many of the resorts to shake out the bugs in our expansion.


    Originally we were like Terminus, a Colony Ship scale resortpany, but with the financial backing of Archibald Finance Corporation, we managed to purchase the rights to a number of rural worlds and your new Terraforming Arrays. I admit, it was a gamble, but we have had over a billion tourists in thest year."


    Archibald Finance rang a bell with Max, and he wondered if it was rted to the ck Market as well. They had been given the earliest leads on the Terraforming Arrays well before they weremon knowledge in the Alliance, so it would make sense for them to be among the Terminus Trading Company''s best customers.


    Nico was positively beaming with pride at the sess of her development.


    "That is excellent news. At that rate, you won''t even need an extension on your loans. Timely payment will also give you better rates on the next batch, should you choose to finance them through the same source.


    If that isn''t possible, the Terminus Trading Company also offers financing with very reasonable rates."


    The Titan chuckled at Nico''s sales pitch. "Perhaps we will talk about that in a few years when this expansion is finished and stable. But for tonight, Happy Birthday to both yourself and Commander Max. It has been an honour to meet you."


    After he moved away, it was a constant stream of well-wishers interspersed with butlers bringing snacks and drinks.


    That was a relief, as it gave Max a few seconds where he didn''t have to be talking or smiling for photos. But he eventually noticed that the focus of this event was mostly for the customers and friends of the Terminus Trading Company towork, as all major functions involving high-level businesspeople were.


    The resorts needed a lot of things, and the manufacturers were here, and the manufacturer''s suppliers were here, and so on, all over the room. But there was also a fair bit of brewing romance, possibly due to the copious consumption of Reaver Rum that the staff had carbonated like Champagne and served in wine sses.


    For some species, like humans, two of those were more than enough for a night. But for some species, that was way too much, and the staff had already discretely removed a few excessively intoxicated guests before they could embarrass theirpanies.


    They were also down two Researchers, Max noticed. They weren''t with the group or with the main Research Team, so he sent a quick thought to find them.


    They were upstairs in their room with an Innu businessman, so Max stopped searching. If he was good enough to distract them from research and Gravity Slides, he deserved to have an uninterrupted good night.


    [Attention everyone, the outdoor portion of the event is now open. A portion of the private beach has been reserved for the use of hotel guests, while the remainder of the shoreline will be an open party area. All food and beverages in the resort area arepliments of the Terminus Trading Company until midnight Sunday night, so please feel free to enjoy your weekend.] Felicity announced all through the hotel and surrounding areas.


    Maxughed at that announcement. Two hundred more serving staff for the tiki bar were not going to be anywhere near enough. Even if it was for every bar and fast food ce on the shore, it wouldn''t be enough. There were hundreds of thousands of people in town and on the beach right now.


    Their missing researchers came back down after the announcement, pretending that nothing had happened but wearing different outfits than they were earlier.


    The main research team gathered them and their new friend right away and dragged them off to the Gravity Slides, hoping to get there before the lines got too long, while Max and Nico headed for the beach. The spot that Mary had chosen was a prime surfing spot, and the tide had just changed, creating a great swell with the artificial wind that blew through the level to keep the air properly circting through the ship.


    "Commanders, are you going to hang out on the beach for the day?" Someone asked as they passed.


    "Later. First, we are going surfing. The swell is just right for us to go out at the cove." Nico replied with a wink.


    Max looked to the cove and noticed that the swell there was reaching three metres, with a nice curl when the waves broke on the shelf just offshore. It was definitely a good day to go surfing. He just had to hope that his coordination got him through it.

 Chapter 897 897 Surfs Up

    ?


    The surfboard rental shop at the beach was happy to create a fresh set of boards for Max and Nico when they arrived and provide hints on the best spots to paddle out to get into the surf that was breaking against the cove.


    With physical skills like theirs, he wasn''t concerned about them getting hurt or their level of expertise. The Crusader ss Pilots rarely had an issue surfing unless they made a bad judgment call or their body was still recovering from a major injury or cybeic recement.


    The Cove was part of the private area as well, not open to public surfers tond on unless they wanted to jog down the shoreline to get out of the resort''s portion of the beach.


    For that reason, anyone who surfed there was considered a bit of an elitist, and the waves were empty.


    They had to borrow the surf shop''s change room to get into swimwear, but after that, the crowd was happy to let them through and see the two superhumans head out into the water. It wasn''t every day that they got to see someone who had no fear of the ocean head out into the surf, and these two were the reason for the long weekend.


    Nico hopped into the water, and Maxughed at the wake left behind as she paddled out to the far side of the breakwater to get set up faster than most powerboats were moving through the water.


    He was right behind her, nning to take the next good one after she picked her line. There was timing to the waves, even here on the Terminal Ship. Unlike the conventional logic of the videos Max was hastily watching so he didn''t look like a fool, the waves here seemed to have arger curl every fourth and not every third wave.


    So, once Nico paddled out into the waves and hopped to her feet, riding up the side of a curl, Max started watching the wavese in and looking for just the right spot.


    If he got into it right at the edge, he could ride it further, but he didn''t want to go all the way to the far side and end up on the rocks. Even with his constitution that would be a painful experience. Instead, he would double back to stay near the center of the wave, in thergest rise where a particrly sharp underwater shelf had forced more water to the surface.


    Nico made it smoothly to shore just as Max was paddling into the wave, trying to properly match his speed to the movement of the water. Then, as he got near the top of the swell and it began to rise at the breakwater, he hopped to his feet and raced down the ridge into the fast-growing curl.


    As he cut back and forth through the water, Max began to understand why the amphibious species loved the ocean so much. This was a lot of fun, just gliding across the surface, turning himself nearly upside down in the curl, and then rolling the board back underneath himself to continue his journey.


    He didn''t know that was not how normal people surfed. He had seen it in the live stream videos of the pros and it looked fun, so he just went with it and did whatever he felt like.


    The rush of the ocean drowned out the cheering of the crowd, and Max dulled his mind reading to the point where he would only feel extreme situations, leaving himself essentially alone with the wave, right up until it began to crash on the beach and he had to race forward to avoid being crushed underneath it.


    "Well, aren''t you just a natural in the water? We''ve got a whole ocean on the ship and I think that this might actually be the first time you''ve ever been to one." Nico teased as Max picked up his board and walked onto the shore.


    "You know, I think you might be right. The taste of saltwater in my mouth is definitely a new one. It looks like we''re not the only ones who are feeling like a trip through the big curls today though. See the two headed out there now?" Max replied.


    Seeing the Commanders going to snobs beach,bined with the quality of the waves, was enough to lure more surfers over, much to the dismay of the elite resort staff.


    "Don''t worry about them, they''re only here for the waves, I doubt that any of them care about the dignitaries further up the beach," Max informed the nearest of the staff members.


    "True. We will just keep an eye on them anyhow. There is enough armed security on the beach that nothing short of a war should cause a major issue, but the boss doesn''t want that war starting on his shift." The bellboyughed.


    "Understandable. There is always tension when so many politicians and wealthy business sorts are in one spot. It''s not easy being a hotelier on days like this. It looks like he''s done a great job though, I don''t sense any majorints, and that alone is an aplishment with this group."


    "I will wait until we''re not in public to tell him so, Commander. Now, where did thatst man go? Oh, there he is, that was a hard crush." The worker chuckled as a surfer missed the timing to exit and tumbled through the surf under the weight and motion of the copsing wave.


    Max and Nico headed out again, showing off for the crowd and enjoying the waves for a few hours before the beachfront dinner service began and they had toe back in and put proper clothing on again.


    It was a bit of a shame, they should have tried to muscle the guests into making it a tropical-themed event so that they didn''t need to get all dressed up again.


    Well, mostly dressed up. Nico still had her bikini on under her dress.

 Chapter 898 898 But Is There Cake

    ?


    After the dinner was finished, the dessert was brought out, a chocte torte that left Nico immensely eager for the day to end so that she could hound her mother for cake.


    The torte was amazing, and she loved it, but it was also chocte and that only reminded her that there was an even better chocte dessert in her near future.


    When the night finally wound down, Max led her back to the room, and found that it had been fully cleaned and restocked while they were out, and the flowers switched to ones that gave off a calming scent that should encourage good sleep.


    The hotel really did put the effort in to keep their guests happy. Max was impressed that they had gone to the trouble of changing all the flowers in the room twice a day, even if they were in vases so that they didn''t just die constantly and need to be refreshed.


    They were both up bright and early the next morning, but there were already messages from the Innu students, who had been up all night talking with the main research team and were now eagerly waiting for the breakfast buffet to open so that they could see what the chefs hade up with today.


    Eventually, they would need to sleep, but an extreme level of caffeine intake had kept them theorizing all night long, and they had barely even spent any time on the gravity slides. At least by Innu standards.


    In reality, it had been five hours that they had spent on the slides during the night, but they still considered it extremely moderate to havee back to discuss their thesis developments with the researchers.


    None of them were going for their doctorates, the main research team had chosen to diversify their skills instead of mastering one to the point of a Doctorate. That had led both the former Tech Nomads and the newer members to a level of fame that few in the Alliance could match, but it was a different sort of achievement than the students were going for.


    Max couldn''t hold out long, the Innu would barge into the upper floor of the hotel soon enough toe pounding on his door and tell him about the breakfast buffet if he kept ignoring them. That was just how they were, and they practically worshipped Nico.


    [We just need to shower and then we will meet you all down at the buffet. Save us seats at your table.] Max replied by text message.


    That was enough to keep them happy for the half hour it took him and Nico to get showered and dressed, but there really wasn''t a big rush, the ce was basically empty as everyone slept off a long night of partying and overexposure to the ship''s simted sunlight.


    It was designed to emte the bright sun of a tropical beach, and that''s what it did. But many of the revelers now had sunburns to go with their hangovers.


    That could be easily fixed with the in-room medical treatment devices, but when they first woke up it would not be a good morning for them, or much encouragement to get out of bed.


    With that in mind, it was a good thing that the Innu were morning people. That level of happiness the morning after an all-night party was enough to drive many people insane.


    "Good Morning Commanders." The researchers cheered in unison as the duo entered the room, waving unnecessarily to help Max find them.


    "Good morning,dies. It''s good to see you so chipper this morning. Did you make progress on one of your thesis topics?" Max replied.


    "We did. But the doctor did as well. She was helping someone who hurt themselves at the beach and made a connection between the Umbwe species and the Koleska Genome that she thinks will be a great breakthrough for medicine.


    They don''t look anything alike, but she says they''re internally simr enough that some medical treatments might be effective in both species."


    That would be excellent news for everyone. The Koleska had excellent medical facilities. Not that the Alliance didn''t, but thebination of the two sets of medical knowledge for exoskeletal species was definitely a good thing.


    "We also made progress on one of the Warp Field Modtion theories that we are eager to test once we get away from the World Ship again. An unstable Warp Field can cause extreme damage, so we will have to rely upon Lead Researcher Nico''s skill with drones to do the practical testing.


    It''s abination of the data we were using for higher Warp Speed stability and the data that was gathered from the Darkling force in the otheryer.


    We struck out on theyered space theory though. We used the same methodology here, but it was a failed experiment."


    Nico shook her head. "That can''t be right. What did you find? Was it impossible to open a portal? That might be a modtion issue since the other region is so heavily damaged from past battles."


    The researchers all sighed in unison. "Well, we opened the portal, but there''s nothing there. No current, no fluid energy, no floating masses, nothing. It''s like staring into space if none of the stars existed.


    We didn''t have time to do more testing, but I don''t think it will even be possible to move a ship there unless a conventional Warp Field works. There''s just nothing, like this region of space never got finished in thatyer."


    Nico sighed. "That topic will need a lot of time. Let''s dy it until after breakfast. We will need a lot of energy for this one."


    Those were the magic words. Everyone, Max included went to refill their tes and get more coffee, and the conversation turned to the proper scheduling of their time here.


    They had studies to do, theories to work on, new designs to approve, and most importantly a very well-nned birthday celebration that would begin just after lunch.

 Chapter 899 899 There Is

    Chapter 899 899 There Is


    After lunch, Mary Tarith came in person to collect the guests of honor and lead them to the prepared location for the family-exclusive birthday event.


    She had put it in one of the upstairs suites, so it felt more like home, with therge living room and kitchen, while only Dave, Molly, Max''s siblings, and a small assortment of the closest of the Tarith Reavers were in attendance.


    Nico''s father came in only a few seconds after Mary led them into the room, and the Matriarch of the Tarith n called the guests to attention.


    "Wee everyone, and Happy Birthday to our not-quite twin Commanders." She joked.


    "They mighte from very different families, but the two of them have been tied together from the very start. They first saw each other on the way home from the hospital the day that they were born, and they have been together since the Academy assigned them as roommates on the very first day."


    With that said, Mary brought out a montage of childhood training videos, taken from the Academy on Kepler Terminus.


    That footage should have been very highly privileged and ssified, but Mary treated it as a childhood photo album for both Max and Nico, with the time references removed so that it looked like she had watched them grow up together over the course of a number of years.


    Dave knew better, as did Mary, but the rest of the room was mostly unaware of the elerated timeline or of the true youth of the two Commanders.


    "Thank you, Mother Mary. You''ve outdone yourself this year with the birthday celebrations. A whole world ship worth of party is quite the event." Max joked as Mary paused to take a breath.


    "You''re wee, Darling. But that''s not going to stop me from reying my montage of childhood photos." Maryughed and then changed the feed to show more scenes from their first field trip, then their first deployment aboard Abraham Kepler, which Max recognized as having been taken from General Tennant''s point of view.


    The old General could very well have sent her the footage in advance instead of making her search for it, but Max knew that she had simply hacked the Kepler military mission logs when things got chaotic on Kepler Terminus and saved everything that might be worth taking, with the expectation that the Rebels would start to destroy what that they could as soon as they realized that they were going to lose.


    "Look at them, receiving their first Crusader ss Mecha." Mary reminisced, while the others began tough.


    They were both still very babyfaced, as they had received Stalwart and Tarith''s Rage at not even thirteen years old, but with the elerated growth of the System, they looked more like young adults than young teens.


    There were a few scenes of them around the ship, celebrating their new acquisitions, but there were a lot of missing moments along the way when there wasn''t anything recorded for her to disy.


    That was a problem that Max could fix though. Nico had it all recorded herself, and there was a lot in the ship''sputers that they had downloaded from their Mecha while they were servicing them.


    Max collected a montage of those, and sent them directly to Mary''s wrist device, making sure to only cast himself and Nico in the best of light.


    Mary smiled and added the extra footage to her files, while the staff of the hotel came around and dropped off drinks and some of the hotel''s specialty pastries for the group to snack on. They all knew that Mary wasn''t going to be done reminiscing too quickly and then there would be some time and socialization before they moved onto the actual cake.


    Nico wasn''t the only one in the Tarith Family who was obsessed with trying to get the recipe, she was just the one who had the most luck getting parts of it from her mother.


    After Mary finished talking, Dave was up next and gave a nostalgic smile at Max before he began.


    "You know, this boy was barely three years old when we first met. He was outside my room with one of his parent''s tablets, because the datawork in his parent''s house had been cut off and he wanted to hack my wifi. Even at such a young age, his System Talent had made him more mature than any other child I''ve ever met, but what really made us solid friends was when he came over to warn me in advance the day that the police came to raid our building.


    That''s a level of loyalty that it''s hard to say no to, so I took him in and let him stay all he wanted at my apartment. We learned the basics of Mecha together, I taught him his first lessons of Command, and then I sent him off to the Academy where they could do their best to undo my teachings."


    The Reaversughed and cheered, while Max resisted the urge to remind Dave that the reason that he had been so eager to help was partially because it was his job to keep an eye on Max and make sure that Max''s worthless parents hadn''t done anything that would damage the government''s Alpha Grade asset.


    One after another the people in the room stood up to give a recounting of various incidents where they had encountered the two, or a reminiscence of the time that they had spent at the Tarith household.


    Getting to tease Nico about her baby years was their favorite pastime, but Dave had a surprise up his sleeves. He too had a montage, of footage from the building''s security cameras that he had saved of a young Max at y.


    "There isn''t nearly as much here, since we had to destroy most of it for security reasons, but I do have a bit of footage of young Max." Heughed and then yed the two of them hacking on his outdatedputers, or out for walks to let Max gather intelligence as they passed the police station on the way to the convenience store to get more beer and snacks.


    The speeches finished and Mary gave the room a huge smile.


    "Now the reason that we''re all really here. It''s time for the CAKE." Mary informed the room.

 Chapter 900 900 Studies

    Chapter 900 900 Studies


    Once the cake course was finished and the room started to talk again, Max was surrounded by various Reavers who had ns for how they should expand the influence of the humans through the Alliance.


    "Now that we have so many different products to sell, I think that we should limit the number ofpanies who subcontract for us to make more of our products ourselves. We are primarily a delivery-based culture, so if we make more of the finished products ourselves it''s like an in-house shipping agent. We can mark them up enough that we can make a proper profit, and we can meet more and more new species who appreciate our approach to development." One of the Tarith men was suggesting.


    "We have already started to renovate our ships so that we can produce more on board. Most of the Reaver ships now have at least one Terraforming Module on board for making everything from living nts to small shuttles, but most of us aren''t really equipped for makingrger objects that some of the Colonies are requesting.


    I know that Absolution has an order on the board for a hundred Cruiser ss luxury cruise ships. That''s not something that most Reaver Companies can make on the spot, but when they need overhauls and don''t have an Innu handy to do the work, we can bring them the parts and let their ship''s engineers do the actual recement.


    The delivery fees are quite worthwhile since we can open our own Portals, so we can get quite the cut off the top. We just need some way to organize it all so that we don''t end up stepping on each others'' toes." Another of the men agreed.


    Max didn''t know that they were making a hundred cruise ships for someone, but with some of the orders that he had noticed, it wasn''tpletely unexpected.


    He did have to wonder just how heavily armed the ships would be. All the designs that Absolution had on file were primarily military based, so even if they were retrofitted as cruise ships, they would likely still have much more firepower than the Alliance considered to be normal for a civilian vessel.


    "I think that we can set something up. The demand keeps growing, so it''s not going to put any of our current partners out if we start offering more direct delivery orders. For smaller items, we can assign them directly to a Company through the base on Rae 5. I will talk to Mary about setting up a load board so that whoever gets the delivery can stock up on raw materials and make the product they''re delivering.


    Just be sure to get the raw materials from systems that we don''t care about. Either far flung Klem-controlled ones, or ones from uninhabited sr systems outside our territory." Max reminded them.


    "Don''t worry. We have a n to get all the materials that we need, even for the Alliance''s orders. There are entire dead Gxies out there, with no signs of life. We can use them for resources since nobody is going to want to settle that far from civilization when there is no easy way back home without their own Portal generators." Luke Tarith exined to Max.


    "That''s not a bad one. If you grab the materials there, nobody will ask questions, the Alliance can''t get on us about stripping systems from their materials, as we will have what we need to get out products to market. I think that it''s a great idea. We can make humans famous all over the Alliance.


    All that really need now are the instructions to make that Cake and we can really start to be legends among the species."


    Mary Tarithughed at that, but the Innu had been just as eager to get the cake as anyone else.


    They weren''t at this more intimate family gathering, but Max knew from Mary''s thoughts that there would be more of the cake to go around at tonight''s official birthday celebration. That one would have more of the senior staff, but not all of the Alliance and outside forces. She had made a number ofrge versions of it for that celebration, and they were currently in a mechanical lock box in her shuttle.


    That was the only way to keep them safe from a prying Nico since any and all electronic locks would fall before her in a matter of seconds.


    "Now, we''ve gotten through the most important parts of the day, but we still have onest tradition to follow." Dave announced as he got to his feet.


    Everyone in the room began to sing the traditional Kepler Terminus birthday song, usually reserved for kids birthday parties, while Max and Nicoughed.


    "Thank you all foring today. I know there are plenty of forms of entertainment here, so let''s get to it."


    For Nico that meant going to find the Innu, so that she could work on the new theories that they were developing, but Max found himself quickly carried away to the Arcade with some of the other Commanders.


    They had discovered a new Mecha strategy VR game. Not a fighting game, but abat strategy one where you could develop your civilization through the centuries of Mecha, and pit your small but growing base against other yers. It was both strategic and easy to y, while physicality didn''t affect it at all.


    The yers watched the game from above like gods, and they could trash talk to each other as they sent their armies out to do battle.


    That was an unusual way to use VR gaming, more like an immersive version of a tablet strategy game, but once Max was inside the simtion, it all felt quite familiar. Leading from the distance in his past life, in the God Machine Gloriana was quite normal.


    The most powerful of Mecha stayed in the distance, since their weapons would destroy the entire system if they fought each other. That led to them being nothing but a deterrent for most of their career, with only a few isted shes against each other.


    Even a single kill of another God Machine would make you a legend, and Max had killed dozens over the centuries. Seeing this now was nearly enough to pull him into a full reminiscence mode, and by the time he recovered, he was already over a minute behind on his development.


    [I guess it''s time to build a defensive strategy. They''re definitelying for me.] Max chuckled to himself as he arranged his resources and technology development for the task.

 Chapter 901 901 A Proper Day Off

    ?


    With a whole day spent rxing and ying video games, Max was able to call this a proper birthday for once. There was no work, no insane mother throwing Princess-themed parties for him, and nothing to distract from his day off.


    They did run into a number of the Alliance dignitaries at the Arcade though. The games were bing increasingly popr all through the Alliance, and they wanted to check them out from the source instead of relying on others to bring the games to them.


    Many VR headsets had made their way through the Alliance, but they usually only had one or two game options, instead of the hundreds which were avable here, and the full immersion pods were still incredibly rare outside of the Reavers'' ships.


    There just wasn''t anywhere for most species to put them unless they started a dedicated arcade like the humans had, but that was a big business risk since most of the species didn''t even know that such a thing existed, so they would have to not only market their business but try to push enough of a cultural change to bring in steady business.


    Only a few species, namely the Valkia and the Innu had fully embraced the gaming culture of the human species. The Valkia treated it more like a form of training, while the Innu were simply enthralled by the game mechanics. So, the types of games that they liked varied, but thes held by both species had already started to bring inrge numbers of VR pods for public use.


    While Max enjoyed the Arcade, Nico and the Research Teams had their hands full with the most recent breakthrough that they had made. The experiments to modte energy fields to enter the secondaryyer of space had led to a breakthrough in Warp Field modtion that allowed them to theoretically push the limits of their traveling speed well beyond what they currently were capable of, at a much lower energy cost.


    For the Alliance vessels, this was incredibly important, with their limited power supplies, and it would lead to higher energy ration distributions on long trips and fewer slow-movingrge vessels being built in the future.


    For now, it was a practical matter, they needed more power than the Warp Drives of their design could produce, but the ship itself was a tested and approved design that would be recognized by repairmen all over the Alliance. Being able to hire technicians without needing to do a long training course for new equipment was a big deal for the average businessman.


    New things were great, but if nobody knew how to fix them, you could only call the manufacturer, and that left you at the mercy of their pricing scheme and technician avability.


    Building Warp Drives was a science, but keeping them running right was more of an art form.


    "Lead Researcher. We have the simtion data ready to go. Should we start testing in virtual reality?" Nergal asked Nico with a smile that only barely hid her need to shake Nico and demand that they start testing now.


    The energy level in the room was through the roof, and everyone was on edge waiting to see if the ship''sputer would agree that their newest design was going to work as well as the theory suggested it would.


    It was close enough to the existing data that it should be possible to replicate it without doing a series of physical tests first, but sometimes you would just get a data error as theputer ran into a situation that it couldn''t calcte.


    "Go ahead. Let''s see what the simtion says, and then we will prepare a shuttle and take this prototype out to do some physical testing." Nico agreed.


    The simtion ran well for the first few minutes, but the pulse modtion wasn''t something that theputer could calcte. It understood fluctuations and warp field copses, but the deliberate modtion seemed like a suicide mission to it, as an error could copse the field, or crush the ship inside.


    Nico knew that was going to dy the adoption of this design by any sane species, but she had high hopes that they could find a way around that and build in some safety measures so that Warp Travel at extreme speeds wouldn''t be counted as an extreme sport.


    Though, in the worse case, it could be called a sessful failure, as almost all the failure models showed the Warp Drive going supercritical and exploding in a most impressive manner.


    If you couldn''t use the design, you could always weaponize it.


    [Hey Max, the data on our warp experiment came in inconclusive. Theputer doesn''t have the data to process it. We''re going to send out a shuttle with a prototype to do some testing by drone if you want toe to watch.] Nico suggested.


    [I think I''m good. The Valkia are teaching us to y Rings in the VR simtor soon, and that looks like it is going to be a good time.] Max replied with augh.


    Both he and the Illithid were doing their best to tune out the nearly hypersonic pitch of the mental excitement in the design bays right now, and he wasn''t all that eager to subject himself to that level of hyper at close range.


    So, Nico packed four of the researchers, two from the main team and two students who were working on Warp Theory, into the shuttle and they took off for an empty area of space between sr systems where they could safely do their testing.


    The test vessel was an unarmed Warp Torpedo, with sensory equipment that would stream back the data of the test loop in real-time. That would give them a huge amount of data for theputer, assuming that this did work and didn''t blow the prototype up the instant that it tried to do the modtion.


    If that were the case, this would be very anticlimactic. The field would need to modte over a hundred times a second in order to maintain the targeted Warp 20 with maximum efficiency, so the test would be over in under a second.

 Chapter 902 902 Spectators For The Test

    ?


    Nico took control of the shuttle and got them situated for the trials, while the rest of the team was in charge of getting all the data reception equipment set up.


    Since it was expected to be a very short first few test flights until the bugs were worked out, they needed every possible source of data that they could get, and that meant multiple redundant sensors, all operating individually, as well as thebined main sensor suite.


    "Lead Researcher, there is a vessel approaching our position," Nergal informed Nico just before they were going tounch the probe.


    Nico checked the sensors and smiled back at the Innu. "Oh, you are all in for the most amazing treat. One of my old friends is here to visit. He waste for the birthday party, due to a breakthrough in his own design work, but it should be worth the wait."


    Then she sent a message to the approaching vessel.


    [Uncle Lu, it is good to see you again. Stop at our position and we will move the shuttle''s data collection suite over to your yacht so that everyone can watch.] Nico greeted the wayward researcher.


    [You know, it is traditional that I give you a present today, not the other way around, but I won''t object. My hangar bay door is open, and I''ve got theb prepared for your arrival.]


    Nico gently shifted the shuttle into the small yacht and the Innu followed her unspoken orders to get everything packed up and moved to therger vessel''s research bay.


    The moment that they stepped out of the shuttle, a small body grabbed and nearly tackled Nico, so ovee with excitement that she couldn''t wait for the introductions.


    "Young Lady Chen, or should I call you Imperial Princess Chen now?" Nico greeted the small girl who was hugging her legs.


    "I''m going by Mai Chen now. It''s notmon knowledge yet, but my husband has been named heir to the Trade Ministry, which moved our standing way up the Cygnus Noble rankings, so when we travel it has to be incognito now." The little girl exined in a very serious voice.


    "Yet you still managed to sneak out with Uncle Lu. It''s good to see you again. Is your young husband with you today?" Nico asked.


    The little girl shook her head. "No, he''s already aboard Absolution, hiding in his room most likely. We were supposed to have a meeting with a number of other Cygnus officials in two hours, but I''m running behind, and he didn''t want to go in the first ce.


    You might recognize them, they should have all been at your birthday party yesterday." The youngdy Chen giggled.


    Nico searched her memory and found the men she was talking about among the hundreds of others she had greeted.


    "Yes, they were there. I didn''t see Wushu though, so I''m not sure if he arrived after the party, or if he was hiding from work." Nicoughed.


    "He should have arrived in the middle of the night, so after the party. I will make sure that hees to see you both tomorrow if he can get away from the meetings long enough. He''s been so busytely that we hardly even see each other, even though we share a gaming room in the house." Lady Chenined.


    "Well, he might be too busy to hang out and y, but I have time to let you hang out and watch some experiments. Would you like that?" Nico asked.


    "Oh, that would be great. I should introduce myself to your team as well. Hello everyone, I am Lady Chen of Cygnus, and it is an honor to meet you all today. I haven''t had a chance to meet many Innu before, are you a more formal sort of culture, or not?" She asked.


    The Innu all smirked at each other before Nergal answered. "We''re very informal. Much like Lead Researcher Nico, we prefer to focus on our experiments instead of formal rules. It''s a much better way to get through our days, but we can be formal if you prefer. We''ve be quite good at adapting to keep the people around us happy." Nergal exined.


    "Oh, so you''ve got a good grasp of human society and culture then?" Uncle Lu cut in.


    "Oh, very much so. In fact,pared to our kin at home, those of us who have spent so much time on Absolution are barely culturally recognizable anymore. When we first met, we didn''t understand most of their basic cultural norms. The humans are so different from everyone else that they didn''t make sense. But now that we''ve been here and seen it, we''ve begun to adopt it as our own." The head of the Absolution team agreed.


    "Marvellous. Then you will understand why I''m going to skip all the other formalities and ask Lead Researcher Nico to get that probe sent out so that we can see the results." Uncle Lu told her with a smile.


    "Oh, I like him, I can see why you became friends." Nergalughed while reaching down to pat Lady Chen''s head.


    The young noble reached up to gently stroke the Innu''s head tentacles, and then the both broke into giggles at the sensation.


    "Alright, everyone at the ready. Double-check your sensor pods to ensure that they are feeding data properly, and we will begin the first test." Nico announced.


    Nergal sat down on the couch with Lady Chen beside her and brought up a hologram depicting the portion of the Warp Field data that she was in charge of. It was only a gravitational fluctuation monitor, which was normally one of the least important aspects. But in this case, when an implosion or miscalction might crush the prototype, there was a good chance that there would be residual gravitational fluctuations that would need to be measured and calcted.


    Even a few times gravity were enough to seriously harm some species, so a rapid change when a ship went to Warp, even for an instant, would be a failure for usability, and call for a redesign.


    "Launching now."

 Chapter 903 903 Gravity Of The Situation

    ?


    The test drone glided out of the cargo bay of Uncle Lu''s shuttle while Nico started to get the extra sensors set up so that they didn''t have the second ship''s hull to go through. The bay door faced the direction of the test, so they only needed topensate for the energy barrier, and the data should be nearly perfect.


    Once they were fully set up, Nico started the countdown timer, and then the Warp Drive on the drone engaged, sending it hurling out into space.


    As predicted, the trip was a short one, but fortunately, the drone was intact when the shield modtion faltered and the warp field copsed.


    "What do we have for data on that? I will see if I can get the Warp Drive back online to bring it back to us, but if not, I have a recovery drone that can go get it." Nico exined to Uncle Lu and Princess Chen, who was staring at the disyed data in awe.


    "Look at all that information. There is so much to know, and it''s all new." The young noble girlughed.


    She had a data tablet in her hands, the same as all the Innu Researchers, and she was taking the best notes that she could, considering that she was still too young to have finished her basic schooling.


    Nico suspected that she had actually used a learning device to finish it all early, but it wasn''t her twelfth birthday yet, so the amount of information that she actually understood from a Warp Drive test was questionable.


    The warp drive wasn''ting back online, so Nico sent out a recovery drone, which had it back for a thorough examination in only a few seconds.


    "Well,dies, what did we find? Does anyone have solid data on why the warp field copsed yet?" Nico asked as she began to physically inspect the drone using her System Functions.


    [Repair] would tell her if the unit was broken and how to fix it, if it was fixable, but it wouldn''t tell her why it broke in the first ce. That much was still up to her.


    In this case, the Warp Crystals shattered. They weren''t overloaded, the drone had barely reached warp five when the whole process ended, so it must have been some side effect of the modtion testing.


    "I''ve got nothing here. I was in charge of the output rates, and they go from ten point two percent to suddenly nothing at all. There was no recorded power spike." One of the researchers noted.


    "Same with the gravity sensors. The fluctuations were present but minimal. Much less than we had calcted as the maximum usable levels. Do you want me to start on a n to mitigate them?" Another asked.


    "Not yet. Save that until we figure out why it copsed the crystal matrix." Nico sighed.


    "Harmonic resonance." One of the others suggested.


    Crystals would shatter when subjected to a certain frequency range. If the energy frequency of the Warp Field Generator happened to match a destructive frequency for the crystals, we should see a result like this." Uncle Lu suggested.


    Nico smiled at him. "It''s good to have you here. We''re used to the yes or no style of ''did it blow up'' testing methods. So, we forgot about simple things like the harmonic frequencies that can damage crystals."


    "You can me that on our little Princess here. She has an ultrasonic whistle to alert her guards when we''re out in public, and the first one that we made for her shattered all the sses in the dining hall when she used it the first time." The old scientistughed.


    "Well, that''s sure to be memorable, at the very least. Now, we just need to exclude that range of frequencies from the process, as well as fields that will produce the opposite of that harmonic frequency, so that we don''t get resonance that will copse the field.


    I willunch the drone again in three minutes after I have reced the crystal matrix and modified the pattern." Nico informed them.


    The second testunched smoothly and made it to warp twelve before it ran into an issue and exploded into space dust.


    "Well, we can call that one not survivable. Start analyzing all your data, and we will see what we can do to prevent an incident like that from happening again. But first, does anyone see an obvious cause?"


    Nobody spoke up, so Nico started her own data analysis along with the research team. The answer only took her a few minutes to find.


    "I''ve got it. The change in frequencies was notpatible with the one before it, and the prity of the field reversed, trying to take it from Warp twelve to Warp twenty-four in the opposite direction. The inertia tore the ship apart." She sighed.


    "Well, we did at least get some good data. There are a lot of power draw fluctuations here, as well as gravity swings, motion changes that would make the experience extremely nauseating, and more.


    If we spend a few days analyzing this, we should have enough data to at least get it to Warp 24 with a stable field and possibly to the next reconfiguration that would take it to Warp 48." Nergal suggested with hope in her voice.


    If they could manage that feat, they would have one of the most incredible breakthroughs in Warp Field technology in centuries. That would definitely create a thesis paper worthy of a Doctorate from the University.


    "Good call. Let''s call it a day for the experiments, and we will finish up the analysister. Today is a holiday, and we have guests, so we should show them around the World Ship. Tell me, Princess, is it your first time here? Many of my team members have only been here a few days, and they would love to have another person to explore with." Nico asked.


    "This will be my first time here. It''s been hard to get away from all the Royal Family trainingtely, so my dreams of bing the next Uncle Lu have been put on hold." The little girl pouted.


    "You know what solves that? A trip down the gravity slides into the waterfall pool. That will wash all your cares away for the evening."

 Chapter 904 904 Reunited

    ?


    Without any more productive tests to be done for the evening, Nico led the ship back into the secure hangar of Absolution. In theory, Uncle Lu should have brought his private yacht to amon dock, but with the Imperial Princess on board, it was perfectly eptable with protocol to bring them into a secure area so that they weren''t seen in public together, which would raise suspicions with the young Lady Chen being technically undercover.


    Max sensed theming back in, along with the four guards hanging around in the background, doing their best not to be noticed or in the way when the two family members were having fun together.


    So, he went back to the bay to wee them, along with a fresh tray of drinks that neither would have gotten to try before and a few Koleska snack specials for the young Princess.


    Since she was here, Max scanned the ship to find Prince Wushu, her nearly twelve-year-old husband. He was already at the water park, so Max double-checked the routes that would take them through the slides to get to the Prince.


    The Princess would be excited to try new things, and the Innu who were on the ship were definitely going to be taking the slides. There was no doubt about that. He just had to make sure that they ended up where he wanted them to without making it too obvious.


    "Wee to Absolution, the mobile home of the Terminus Trading Company." Max weed them as Nico led the group out of the yacht.


    "Keres Max, it is good to see you again." Uncle Luughed while Princess Chen rushed forward to hug his legs.


    "I swear you''re gettingrger. I''m sure I could wrap my arms around your legst time, and I haven''t gotten any smaller." She informed him with a giggle.


    "Possibly. The System has optimized me to be pretty muscr, and my strength has reached the physical maximum. So this look is what the System thinks that peak maximum strength should look like." Max exined.


    "That''s totally unfair. I''m still waiting for my System to wake up. They say that I can''t do it before I reach twelve, even though I''m never going to go to a military academy." She pouted.


    "That''s part of the system, though. It knows when your body is ready for its enhancement. Plus, it will make you grow up in a hurry. Do you really want to get that far ahead of your dear Wushu?" Max teased.


    "You have no idea how much I want that. He''s bigger, so he always wins the race to the game controllers. If I just activated my system, I could win every time. I''m sure I would be a speed or dexterity type." The Princess insisted.


    Max knew that there had to be some sort of motivation behind her wanting to activate her system so badly, but she clearly hadn''t thought through what it was going to mean to have the appearance of a young adult while her husband, whocked a System interface, as he was born in Cygnus, was still a child in appearance.


    But then, Max didn''t recall if he had ever heard what herpatibility was. Her family was new to the Kepler Empire, and she had been born not long after the negotiations, so there was a good chance that the System might not have recognized her. Her enthusiasm for it suggested that she did have somepatibility, but Max couldn''t find how much from her surface memory and didn''t want to risk a question that might shatter her dreams by asking directly.


    Instead, he redirected the topic to the evening''s dinner arrangements.


    "Why don''t we all get changed into swimwear, and we can take the gravity slides across the ind when wend? There is a nice pool and restaurant at the far end, plus it''s one of the longest single-route gravity slides on the ind?" Max suggested.


    Everyone grabbed a drink and a snack on the way by, then Uncle Lu and Lady Chen paused with shocked looks on their faces.


    "Oh yes, I forgot to mention that there are a lot of new foods in the snack selection. You can stop and have a refreshment before, or after you change, we''re not in a big hurry." Max chuckled.


    The changing process was a very fast one, and the little Princess was running back out in under a minute, headed for the juices.


    "The nanny tells me that I shouldn''t have too much sugar because it''s bad for my teeth. But we have toothpaste to rebuild any damage from cavities that might happen from the sugar, so I think that she''s just being mean and stealing the joy out of my food." She whispered to Max.


    Max knew that it was most likely to keep her from getting overly hyper when she was stuck indoors for fourteen hours a day learning Royal Protocol, but this was a vacation, no such concerns mattered for the day, even if the nanny in question was already here with Prince Wushu.


    "Well then, eat up. But not too much, because you''ve got a lot of sliding and swimminging up and you don''t want to get a cramp." He replied.


    "Is that a real thing? Or is it like the stories that the Nanny tells to stop me doing fun things?" She asked.


    "That one is a real thing. Some say not to swim for an hour after eating, but if you just have a small snack it should be fine."


    The Innu and Uncle Lu weren''t far behind her. They gave her and Uncle Lu just enough time to take their pick, then they emptied the trays to bump up their sugar levels and got ready to drag the pair to the transit pod so they could get on the Gravity Slide as fast as possible.


    "Team ready? Alright, to the slides! Commander, why aren''t you running? Should we get the Uncle an exoskeletal suit so he can keep up?"

 Chapter 905 905 Trouble In Paradise

    ?


    The next morning, Max picked up Nico and ced her on his hip so that he didn''t have to go back to find her after he had his morning coffee and prepared to bring up the morning news briefings.


    Their apartment waspletely full of people this morning, with Uncle Lu in one spare room, Wushu and Mai Chen in another, while Dave and Molly split the remaining two with their adopted children, Max''s younger siblings.


    Everyone had been so worn out by the time the dinner had ended that they didn''t make it any further than the transit pod, and the security officers had helped carry all the kids to the spare bedrooms.


    The security officers in question were across the hall, Max could sense, and they were already awake and ordering breakfast from the in-room replicator, so Max chose not to wake everyone up. If he did, they would have to get back to work, and they deserved ate morning after chasing hyper children around all day the day before.


    The very first alert in Max''s morning briefing was enough to make him extra thankful that only he and Nico were awake.


    [Attention, Commanders Max and Nico. Huntresses Khan and Imran have requested aid with an incursion in their region of the neb beyond the anomaly. A massive fleet of hostile aliens has entered the area from an unknown location, and they are bringing war to every and ship that they encounter.


    Their numbers are in the billions, and they are infesting entires with fast-growing spores that evolve rapidly into sentient beings.]


    Max set Nico in hisp while he read the projection and tried to ignore the growing excitement in her mind. There was an addendum to the message, and Max was afraid to open it and see what it had to say. Anything that could be important enough that billions of ships full of warlike Myceloids wasn''t enough details had to be bad news.


    [Please note that this region of space is unlike the Koleska Region. It is a Hunter''s paradise. No conventional power systems work properly, and Warp Fields cannot be stabilized, so the only way to travel is by portal betweenary surfaces.


    They had included various nonconventional power systems that would work in the region, but going by the details of the tropical jungles that the Hunters were operating on, therger Mecha would only be a hindrance. Their best bet was to use the newly designed Mobile Suits or Line Mecha as their basicbat unit and arm them with the fastest-firing heavy weapons that they could muster.


    The Mass Drivers couldn''t use their Warp Fields, even if it were not an insane idea on aary surface, but that wasn''t going to be an issue anyhow. The units could fly, and with a small change to their power systems, they would be nearly perfect for the job.


    "This is the best birthday gift ever." Nico sighed.


    Their birthday had a habit of being a marker for new developments in inteary conflictstely, but this one was a big one. If the Hunters didn''t have the manpower and wanted the humans to intervene and fight alongside them, then this was going to be a real gong show of a battle.


    "Well, we should tweak the Mecha after we exin to your mother that we''re headed out to a new battlefield. She probably already got the notification, but it''s best if she hears it from you personally instead of secondhand." Max reminded her.


    "Can''t you tell her? I''m not good at dealing with my mom when ites to things like going to war. The only thing harder than that is telling her no when she demands grandchildren." Nico teased him with a smirk.


    That was aplete lie. Nobody was better at dealing with Mary Tarith than she was. She just didn''t want to do it because her mom would guilt-trip her for leaving again. So Max shook his head and denied her request.


    "I did itst time. It is definitely your turn this time." He reminded her.


    Nico excused herself to have a long chat with her mother while Max went through the day''s messages and prepared for a morning in theb, getting Mecha ready to go to battle alongside the Hunters.


    On the bright side, there were no Arisen there, so they could bring some drone forces with them and perhaps an Android Mecha team. He would still need more details to make sure that was feasible, but it shouldn''t be an issue if they weren''t fighting the Arisen.


    Nico returned just as everyone else was waking up, which put an end to Max''s early morning message reading.


    "So, where are you off to next? I don''t suppose that the universe has calmed down enough that you can just rx around the ship again." Dave asked as he led all six of the kids out to the dining room table for breakfast.


    "You would be right. We''re off to the sector where the Hunters are working. They''re in need of numbers since the Hunters are a highly skilled but smaller group. We''re not sure what sort of force we can bring yet, but likely enough to make a Light Mecha Company. Therger Mecha would be a problem there due to the thick jungle and the energy fluctuations that are restricting the use of Warp Field based technologies." Max agreed.


    "Sounds like a mess for the infantry. Well, as close as we get to it without sending actual infantry." Dave sighed.


    Uncle Lu sighed as he set tes of food in front of the kids.


    "That''s about where we''re at. They''ve already got Infantry guarding the Anomaly since it''s on aary surface and much smaller than the one in Koleska space. There are all sorts of Mecha there as well, but we had to modify a lot of them due to the technologies that wouldn''t work.


    There is something there that is messing with the basics of physics, like either the flow of time or the Higgs Field are out of whack and making it impossible to calcte Mass and force properly."


    Nico nodded in agreement. "We know a thing or two about that already, and I think that we can find a solution that works well enough that we can field a small army without risking an infantry force in the jungle."


    Instead, they would risk a Light Mecha Company in the jungle. One step up the food chain.

 Chapter 906 906 Final Adjustments

    ?


    The kids all took off for another day on the beach along with the Innu, who were excused from duties today by Nico. They would find out tomorrow that they would be working from Absolution until Max and Nico returned from their mission, as it was too dangerous to take a bunch of postgraduate students into an extremebat zone under any circumstances.


    There was no way to protect them, and they were already well on their way to making a number of their Thesis a reality. To lose them to something stupid now would be a loss to the entire Alliance, as well as the humans, who would love to get their hands on anything new that the Innu made.


    So, Max and Nico went to work with the main research team, reconfiguring the Line Mecha into a workable unit for the new battlefield. The Hunters had sent back a fully detailed VR simtion program so that they could test various power systems forpatibility before they arrived, which was a huge help, but they still didn''t manage to get the job done before the students realized that there was new development being done without them.


    "I can''t believe that you let us y on the beach all day while you were modifying the newest models of Line Mecha. We''ve already piloted them, and they are amazing, but you''re tweaking them without us." Nergalined as they barged into thebs that afternoon.


    Max smiled and patted her head. "Don''t me the Lead Researcher. That was my call. I wanted you to enjoy your vacation day instead of worrying about the ongoing Mecha development. You all have a Thesis to finish, so you won''t be able toe with us into battle. It means you will be here on Absolution with the main design team, which is a positive note, but you won''t be personally assigned to me and Nico anymore."


    "We can at least help today. We were on the design team for the original version of this Mecha anyhow, and we know every bit of it inside out. In fact, it helped prove some of our work in the first ce.


    Plus, have you ever heard an Innu say no to new technology, even when it''s weighted against gravity slides and the beach?" Nergal asked.


    All of the Innu looked deep in thought at that one. It was a very close call, but new technology won out in the end when they could still go to the others tomorrow.


    They would be stationed on this level and working from thebs at the back of the ship in the secured areas, so they wouldn''t be missing out on the finest features of the resorts as long as they were stationed on Absolution. Whereas the changes to the Mecha were a one-time-only deal, and they couldn''t be postponed.


    "Alright then, the more, the merrier. We''ve already sorted the Mass Driver Issues. We just need to tweak the power systems since Warp Fields aren''t stable in the area, so the current power system isn''t viable. We can keep the crystals, and the antimatter conversion, ording to the VR simtion, but the Warp Field shielding needs to go, which means a whole new containment unit to keep the drive from exploding when it takes damage." Nico exined.


    Six hourster, they had a new, lower output butpletely stable power source for terrestrial-based Mecha. It would outperform the existing Line Mecha from the Samurai Pattern, butpared to the ones that they had made for the force in Koleska Space, the total capacity wasughably low.


    It was enough to run the Mass Drivers constantly while operating the unit at Maximum mechanical speeds, but you would have to cut back the Mass Driver output or rate to operate the Disintegrators at full capacity.


    The trade-off wasn''t perfect, but with a single day to prepare in an emergency situation where the containing the Anomaly was threatened, it would have to do.


    "Let''s run this through another ten thousand simted battles and see what theputeres up with for failure points. If there is nothing extreme, we can call it functional and approved." Nico decided, with the full support of Uncle Lu, who was mostly sitting on the side and taking notes on the development.


    There were enough researchers on this team to get the job done, so taking detailed notes would have to fall to someone, and doing them as the development continued made things a lot easier than going back over the notes and trying to recall every change you made, in the order that they were made with a proper reason why.


    Max knew it was because they all hated note-taking and paperwork when they could be doing something hands-on, but Uncle Lu liked to think as he wrote, and he would call out ideas from time to time based on the information that he had just recorded.


    To him, it was like having a personal design team to plot out his thoughts in real life. He recorded what was going on, and they told him how his ideas worked out without him having to do anything himself.


    For a creative senior citizen, it was a bit of a relief not to have to do anything too physical, and once they left, he could take his time going over it all in virtual reality to fine-tune and tweak it for the next generation of technological developments.


    "The results of thest round of simtions are done. There were no catastrophic failures at all this time, and the power output remained stable even with severe damage to the unit. We identified four more critical weak points in the design, so we will see what we can do to fix them and then run the tests again to ensure that the changes don''t cause any new issues." Nergal narrated for Uncle Lu to record.


    "Marvellous work. it''s always a pleasure to see your team work together. Perhaps I can convince the Rae 5 Moon Base to let me vacation here for a while longer. They''re working on civilian appliances and pleasure yachts right now, so they don''t really need my expertise for a few weeks." The old man suggested.


    Nergal and the main team leader smiled at each other.


    "If you''re willing to take notes, you''re wee here anytime."

 Chapter 907 907 Space And Time

    ?


    While Max wasn''t really needed for the actual design of most of the new Mechaponents, that didn''t mean that he had nothing to do. Instead, he was focusing on trying to understand the nature of the instability that was guing that region of space.


    It wasn''t normal for so many different forms of technology to not work properly, and Max was certain that there was a reason for it. The reason might be damage from the ancient war, but if he could identify it, he could more urately guess what forms of technology would be an issue in the future.


    Once they knew that, then they would be a step ahead in the generation of the next set of designs, but right now, the damages seemed to be random. Perhaps it was a result of different factions fighting and targeting each others'' strengths, but the thoughts of the Darklings and Arisen had suggested that was not the case.


    Most of the species were too young to have been involved in the battle, so this might be a result of either various types of weapons or something in the nature of the region when everything was destroyed around it.


    Maxyered the data that the Hunters had sent to them over the known data for the Koleska Region and from various locations within the human and Alliance territories and then set theputer to g all the differences so that he could analyze them for possible negative interactions.


    They knew that portals and antimatter explosions were not stable in the Koleska Regions, but they were in the Alliance Territories. The Portals seemed to be stable in the Hunters region, but you couldn''t use a Warp Drive to generate them, as the Warp Drive was unstable.


    Max checked the differences one by one as theputer disyed them and slowly managed to piece together the very basics of what had happened.


    There were lingering energies that didn''t belong to the outside regions of the universe, and they seemed to be what was causing the instability. Since neither of the forces involved in the battle had used the technologies in question, they might have never noticed the damage that they were doing to spatial integrity at the start, but the boundaries that had separated theyers of space were incredibly thin and damaged there, with signs that at some point they had beenpletely breached, letting multipleyers of space interact.


    That was a horrific thought, but Max ran it through theputer with the data that he had.


    [Error: Damage output beyond calcble distance and output.] Theputer informed him.


    There he had it. The mechanism that had triggered the end of everything. Their battle had caused twoyers toe into direct contact, and with the differing universalws between them, they were never meant to coexist in one spot.


    The result had torn everything apart at a distance toorge for theputer to calcte. If he had reduced the detail of his calctions to the sr system scale, he might get a more urate idea, but it really didn''t matter at this point. They had the real thing right in front of them.


    But more importantly, Max found the reason that different portions of the region had different instabilities. The weapon that seemed to have ended the war caused theyers to be unstable, and Subspace, as he hadbelled the boundaries for theputer''s sake, had rippled with aftershocks, causing differentyers to corrupt the region.


    It was the interaction between multipleyers that was causing the issue, and the inability to maintain a Warp Field was a result of theyer they had been to before interacting with real space, or at least most species'' homeyer.


    The more that he thought about the theory, the more questionable it became. Could he really call home ''real space'' when the number ofyers hadn''t been determined? What if they were also a subyer to another group of intelligent species?


    The philosophy could wait forter. At the moment, the more important part is that theputer had calcted a few more technologies which were likely to be unstable here, so Max had to forward that information to the design team before they made more changes to the Mecha.


    They weren''t ones that he personally recognized as part of Mecha development, but with the Innu, plus Max and Uncle Lu, all on the same team, there was no telling what they woulde up with.


    The data was delivered while Max worked on more of the analysis of likely fluctuations near the region they would be arriving at and then moved on to an analysis of the species that they were facing.


    They appeared to be a form of Myceloid but nearly mammalian in structure and highly aggressive. They spoke anguage that the Hunters had already tranted to some extent, showing that they were fairly intelligent and not just hostile beasts, but their weaponry was crude.


    That was countered by their rapid procreation and uncanny durability. They could sustain serious wounds and didn''t seem to feel pain.


    They would bleed out like any other blooded species, but they weren''t slowed at all by the loss of a limb in the meantime, only reduced inbat effectiveness.


    So, targeting the head and chest was the best choice. Large-scale maiming and wounding weapons would be of very little use in this scenario.


    "Good news Nico. The Fusion mer is back on the menu. Data analysis of the region and the enemy suggests that a concentrated burst of intense me is the best way to prevent the enemy from emitting reproductive spores on death, as well as clearing out the ones that are already emitted into the region." Max informed the team.


    "Oh, now we''re talking. We will be in closebat in the jungle, so perhaps two light Disintegrators, plus the two Fusion mers, all mounted on the forearm, will be the best call. Let me check the power output numbers and get back to you."


    The methrower was always a well-received ssic weapon.

 Chapter 908 908 On The Road Again

    ?


    The final modifications and production only took an hour, and then thest round of product testing took ce, both in VR and with the units in the bay, to make sure that they were working as intended.


    Both units were equipped with advanced replicators, as nobody expected there to be edible food anywhere that they were going, much less spare parts to make repairs, and a logistics department with a full maintenance bay would have to wait untilter.


    Once they had helped the Hunters stabilize the world that they were fighting on, Max would consider setting up a longer-term base, but time was of the essence today, and they needed to get through the other Anomaly before things got out of hand and a hostile alien species found out where they lived.


    "It all looks good. How big of a force will you be taking with you? If it''s a lot, we should likely start rebuilding the defence force right away." The Main Research Team''s logistics manager suggested.


    Nico shook her head. "We will make a whole new team, using the data and knowledge that the defence force haspiled. That way, you won''t end up short on androids, and we won''t need to retrain androids who have been working aboard a ship all their lives.


    The fresh batch will also give a wealth of new data for the Android team to work with when they''re doing software upgrades. That will make everyone''s lives easier."


    The Innu frowned, then shrugged off her concerns about the idea of using zero-experience androids as the defenders of the Company''s Commanders. If Lead Researcher Nico said it was alright, then it would be fine.


    None of the Innu fully understood how the AI that was the System had adapted over the centuries to alter human physiology, much less what Nico had done to her own body, so the best that they could do was to just wait and see how things turned out and then adjust the next batch to suit the mission.


    Max gave the logistics officer a pat on the shoulder to reassure her. "We will be taking five hundred units with us, all in the same new pattern. It''s the best that we have for the mission, and my System Function can link all of the unit''s sensors and allow them to use my advanced targeting.


    The increase in their uracy and target acquisition speed when they''re near me will be far beyond anything that could be gained through simple training, so the advantage of an experienced android force will be small.


    Also, we expect heavy casualties among the Androids, which is part of why every unit has been equipped with a Replicator. They can work together to rebuild lost members of the unit, which will reset them to baseline, but will keep our numbers up.


    That will give us a variety of experience levels by the time the is stabilized and enough data to know for sure if the Androids are the right choice to fight this Myceloid Menace.


    Who would have thought we would meet an aggressive fungus species? For something that evolved from parasitic nt life, outright hostility is a rather unique evolutionary path."


    The Innu nodded, and Nico set about having the Terraforming Array in theb start to mass produce their five hundred units of Androids inside Line Mecha.


    It might not look as impressive as a whole Heavy Mecha Regiment marching into battle, but every measurement that they took said this was the right choice for now.


    Plus, with Portals, it would only take them a few minutes to get their Super Heavy Mecha back. They might have to crawl through the anomaly, but they should be able to find a way to get to the battlefield in an emergency.


    The androids followed Nico''s orders and loaded themselves in the Cutter as soon as they were finished, locking their Mecha to the storage racks in the spare Mecha bay in preparation for departure.


    [Huntress Khan, we will be on our way with five hundred custom-made Android Mecha within the hour. We will have to park our Cutter on the on our side of the Anomaly since it''s notrge enough to send the ship through, but we will be there soon.] Max informed their ally.


    There was a short pause before she replied. [Good to hear from you. These things are like weeds. The tide never ends. I''ve killed tens of thousands of them, and the numbers don''t seem to be slowing.


    I admit it was a lot of fun at first, but we are limited in our numbers, and there is barely time to sleep.]


    Coming from the normally battle-happy Huntress, that made the situation on the other side sound very dire. If the Huntress and her allies within the species couldn''t keep up with reinforcements, they must have taken heavy casualties.


    "See you all soon. I will send updates as we go." Nico informed the Researchers as she instructed her and Max''s Mecha to walk themselves into the bay with the Androids.


    "Understood, Lead Researcher. We will see you soon." The Innu replied in unison while Uncle Lu gave her a friendly hug and then shook Max''s hand.


    "Come back safely. Even if it turns into a big mess, it''s more important that you two stay alive." He reminded them.


    "No worries, Uncle Lu. This problem is an honour obligation to help our friends, not directly a human issue. The other Anomaly ends in Alliance space after all." Max chuckled as he walked away.


    Uncle Luughed as Nico skipped along behind him, whistling a happy tune in preparation to go into battle. It was a small bit of normalcy and reassurance for those left behind that the Commanders weren''t nearly as concerned as they were. Not enough to let them stop worrying, but enough to keep them from panicking or chasing after them.


    The cutter moved out into open space and opened a portal to Nyx, a small in a more popted area of the Alliance that had now been mostly depopted before being refilled with military forces that would defend the region if they were invaded.


    The entire had been fortified, carved with trenches, and then surrounded by armed satellites. It was the world''s most secure prison for one small Anomaly.

 Chapter 909 909 Nyx To Nola

    ?


    The local government was expecting the assistance of the humans, and once they learned that there were spare parts that could be needed on an urgent basis, they were happy to let the Cutter stay in a hangar bay not far from the Anomaly itself.


    That way, it was as fast as they could manage to get the humans more firepower, and the Cutter wouldn''t be hanging around in orbit, attracting even more attention from the gossip and paparazzi who had been hounding the Government about the Anomaly since it appeared.


    Max didn''t waste any time getting the force through the small tear in space, with Nico right behind him and the Company of Light Mecha marching double file in the back.


    The second they came through, they realized that Huntress Khan had downyed how bad things had gotten on their end, likely to save the pride of the Hunter ns. The Alliance didn''t dare to go past the Anomaly themselves, so it was all up to the Hunters, and Max''s sensors informed him that they only held a few kilometres in any direction from the base.


    "Where is Khan? She has our deployment information." Max called to the first Hunter Suit he passed.


    "She''s on the front lines. Go wherever you like, there are enemies in every direction, and they all need to be dead. They''ve been surging forward since morning." The Hunter replied, then ran off to grab more supplies.


    "That''s good enough for me. Straight forward it is, and let''s get to it. Squads One through Five, you''re on me. Your callsign is Team One. Six through Ten, you''re on Commander Nico. Your Callsign is Team Two. Keep your Commanders alive and kill as many of the enemy as possible without harming the Hunters." Max ordered.


    He activated his targeting skills, and the androids began to fire as they ran, aiming at any target that they could get a clear shot at, even if it only missed the Hunters by half a metre.


    Not that the Hunters really cared. The aggressive firing rate saved a lot of lives, and the Mass Driver Projectiles were loaded with a dyed explosive, so the Mecha could pick the distance at which they detonated.


    That allowed the small bullets to pass through multiple targets at supersonic speed, flinging bodies out of the way as they tore holes in the crude armour that they were wearing, and then the projectile would explode well away from the Hunter lines, taking outrge groups of the strange green Myceloids.


    Max joined in the frenzy of Mass Driver fire and kept charging with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. Even Nico had been equipped that way for this mission so that the Androids could learn from observing their techniques. It would also allow her to take a lot more damage in closebat without suffering an armour breach.


    The was habitable, and they could breathe on it, but with a Myceloid enemy, there was no telling what sort of toxic spores might be in the air which could infest their equipment or even their bodies.


    A hailstorm of projectiles crashed into every part of Max''s Mecha once he was in front of the lines, darkening the air with the pure mass of metal. The individual rounds weren''t all that impressive, but his shield was in terrible condition afterward, and the energy barrier on it was fading fast.


    The objective was achieved, though, the rest of his squads had time to nk the Commander, and on his order, they began to rain death on the enemy.


    "Team One, Fusion mers to full dispersion and push forward," Max ordered, and sma fire filled the air.


    The groundwater evaporated in a cloud of steam, and the ground cover burned to ash along with the Myceloids hiding in it as the deadly wave pushed onward, driving the enemy back in a hundred-yard-wide swathe.


    Off to his left, Nico''s group was doing the same thing, with simrly effective results. But, they had reached the end of the enemy emcement, and more of the green creatures were flooding into the region, this time with shields of their own and buckets of water as if that was enough to stop a Fusion mer.


    "Pull back and rejoin the Hunters lines. Prepare for the approach of the enemy reinforcements." Max ordered and marvelled at how smoothly the Androids obeyed.


    There was no questioning, no ego, and no hesitation. They followed the orders they were given and did their best all the time. They might not be as creative in a desperate situation, and theycked the innate desire for survival, so they wouldn''t push past their limits in an emergency, but they were reliable and high-quality Pilots that any Commander would be proud to have.


    The Hunters made space for them as they pulled back, letting the Mecha spread out among their suits as the shield-bearing Myceloids charged the line under cover of another wave of gunfire.


    This time the Androids emted the Hunters and hit the ground, letting the bullets m against the earthworks behind them as the enemy approached.


    "When the enemy reaches twenty metres away, full output on the Fusion mers for one second, then switch to maximum firing rate on the Mass Drivers," Max ordered.


    That would let the enemy get close enough to give them hope that the guns were out of ammunition after thest charge and leave them too close to escape if they tried to run.


    The wall of enemies went up in a congration of epic proportions, as the Myceloids proved to be extremely mmable, and then the Mass Driver rounds tore apart the back lines in an instant, stopping the enemy charge.


    "All Mecha, shelter in ce and prepare for the enemy retaliation. Barrier output to maximum, and hide behind your shields."


    The chanted battle cries of the enemy were everywhere. Even if they had cleared their area for a second, there were millions more of them nearby that could be redeployed to keep the defenders from creating a full breach in the offence and moving out to try to surround the attackers.

 Chapter 910 910 Green Tide

    ?


    As expected, the Myceloid horde didn''t let up their attack at all. From somewhere out of sight, they advanced a group of heavily armoured infantry of their own, nearly twice the size of the standard trooper, with bulging muscles and heavy artillery mounted to every possible surface.


    They didn''t even seem to be aiming, just firing in the general direction of the camp and hoping it hit something, but with the Hunters dug in like this, it was enough to keep everyone''s heads down and even hit a few unfortunate souls who were behind the barricades when the Mortars flew over the top.


    The front-line Hunter Suits were mostly unharmed, but the camp itself was taking heavy damage while Max''s team worked hard to take out the new units.


    Their armour was really taking a beating. Either that or their vital spots weren''t where Max had expected, and the front row was still marching forward even after the lines behind them had been detonated by the exploding rounds.


    "Set fire to detonate on contact. Use the Mass Drivers to push them back and keep the enemy at a distance. If you run out of ammunition, you can use the Replicators to reconfigure a Myceloid body into more rounds." Max ordered.


    He heard Nicough and make the same rmendation to her own team. The thought of throwing the enemy back at their reinforcements instead of pulling something from the trenches or the ground cover to make more projectiles was exactly her style of humour.


    It would be a while before they ran out of ammunition, even at the rate that the Androids were hurling it at the enemy, but it was always better to be prepared in advance with these less creative soldiers.


    The explosions in the front line did the trick. They weren''t taking out as many soldiers per round anymore without the pration, but the tide was brought to a halt by the dispersed Mass Driver fire guided by Max''s System Functions.


    On this side of the base, the advance ground to a halt, which allowed the reinforcements from the Hunters to move to the other sides and work on pushing the enemy back from the camp.


    The Myceloids were aggressive but not stupid, and after a half hour of fighting, they sounded the horns to retreat and regroup.


    "Everyone, gather a corpse and refill your replicator storage. Then immediately process it all. I don''t want anything growing inside the Mecha." Max ordered.


    That order was a bit poorly worded, as most of them had nearly run their storage dry during the battle, so the amount that could be added was far more than a single refill of the weapons. What they ended up with were cases and cases of Mass Driver munitions sitting on the ground beside them, as that was the approved storage container for munitions outside the Mecha''s loading chambers.


    "What''s with the extra ammunition?" Huntress Khan asked as she walked up between Max and Nico, showing him some respect as the Commander, despite his gender.


    "A bit of a miscalction on my part. I told them to load up and avoid keeping the Myceloid material in the Mecha, so we''ve got a lot of extra ammunition right now. If you want it or have a weapon that can use it, you''re wee to it. If not, we will put it back in the storage containers and rework it into blocks to be convertedter.


    I don''t know if these things can regrow after being killed, but I don''t intend to find out from the inside of the Mecha. Did you n to burn off the battlefield?" Max asked.


    "We''ve been reworking it into blocks as well. I don''t think it regrows, but it often contains spores that will, and that''s a threat to the base." The Huntress exined.


    That''s good enough for me. We will rework as many of the bodies into blocks as we have time for and keep them by the lines so that everyone''s replicators can be kept full all the time. It''s better that way and will let us burn the battlefield after every wave without running out of materials."


    That was all the conversation that was needed, as the Hunters were already moving out, grabbing a set amount based on how much they had used and then burning the rest.


    The Androids did the same and cleared the battlefield as efficiently as possible. They just dropped the blocks of material that they processed for others to pick up and continued their work to grab more bodies for the replicators.


    "Those aren''t humans are they? They''re in human Mecha, but they don''t act human." Khan observed.


    Nico smiled at her. "That''s right. They''re android forces that we brought with us so that we didn''t have to risk a lot of lives on the battlefield. Now that we know they work, we can expand from a Company to a Regiment if you would like more base defence, or I can make some Android-piloted Drone Fighters to take the battle to the enemy all over the region."


    "Well, the Huntresses here might be insulted if you suggested that they be reced by androids, but they won''t mind if we be the staging point for your Drone Fighters. A few of them working in the area would give us better intelligence since we can''t send satellites up here. If we try, they all get shot down.


    Unlike us, I don''t think that the Myceloids came by ground or by anomaly. I am pretty sure that they came by spaceship, and they still have defences in orbit." Khan sighed.


    "Well, that makes things a bit more annoying. But if we can fly the fighters around without getting high enough to be attacked by the orbital fleet, I think that we can do a proper job of scouting the area for retribution and pest control." Nico told her with a suggestive tone that made the Huntress smile back at her from inside the confines of her Hunters Suit.

 Chapter 911 911 Emergency Deployment

    ?


    While Max supervised the work of the Androids to remake the enemy bodies into usable blocks of dense metals, Nico got to work collecting them to process into Drone Bombers. Fighters were better suited to aerial battles, but there was no sign that the enemy had advanced aircraft in the atmosphere.


    So, Nico started by repurposing a Hunter-built warehouse for a Terraforming Array and got to work on the production of drones.


    The programming for them could be quite simple, and they could also have the male Hunters remotely pilot them, clearing the worst of the enemy forces before they made it to the Hunter positions.


    Programming Drones for fights between the same species was significantly more difficult, but like the Klem, they were facing a world mostly full of a very different life form, which could be attacked at will.


    The Hunters did have a sense of sportsmanship, though, and simply attacking them while they were sleeping wasn''t going to be on their approved list of tactics until they got even more desperate than they were right now.


    Nico could only control a few on her own with precision or roughly guide a hundred of them on amon mission. That was enough to get them started on the effort to protect the base, but it was a far cry from enough to deal with the whole threat.


    She did consider making more androids to control the Drone Bombers. But for now, she would refrain from adding to their mechanized force. There was too much that could go wrong with the limited skills of the Androids when they were doing something new without supervision.


    They preferred to learn through mimicry, as they had done aboard Absolution, but there wasn''t anyone here but Nico to mimic, and she was going to be needed for the next base defence.


    [Commander, bring back your troops; there is a huge enemy force iing.] Huntress Khan informed Max with a text message.


    Max called all the Androids back to the line and told them to fill their storage with condensed metals in preparation for a drawn-out battle.


    Nico also received the message and frantically started to move the newly made Drone Bombers out of the warehouse. There wasn''t time to do anything but set them to area defence outside the walls andmand them to fly.


    They would do their best to destroy anything that fit the Myceloid pattern, with a primary goal of keeping the number of enemies near the base to a minimum.


    Once they were in the air, Nico rejoined the line, and the Mecha prepared to defend their section of the camp, with the Hunters intermingled among their ranks.


    The Androids had taken the front lines of the defence at Max''s direction, so they would take the brunt of the first rush and most likely the majority of the casualties, but they also had the Fusion mers, which had proven incredibly effective against the Myceloids.


    "Hey, Max. Do you think these things are edible? I analyzed them earlier, and I didn''t see anything toxic about them once they were cooked. I wonder what these things taste like? Green could mean that it''s something leafy tasting or even harshly toxic and acidic." Nico asked as the first explosions from the drone attacks burst among the hills in the distance.


    She had equipped them with sma bombs, set forrge-area explosions instead of bunker-busting. It would maim a lot of the enemy, which they had already learned the Myceloid force could regenerate with rtive ease, but it would burn most of them to death and leave a lot of them missing limbs, which took longer for them to regrow.


    "I''m not sure I want to find out what they taste like. What if we like it and then we turn it into an endangered species? It would be a tragedy." Max joked.


    The Hunters who were listening to the same open channel chuckled at the humans'' antics, and the banter helped rx some of the new recruits who were in Hunter Suits on the line for the first time.


    If the two Commanders could be so rxed when they were on the front lines, then everyone else was probably overreacting. At leat, that was the truth in the minds of the new recruits.


    The more experienced hunters viewed it as a form of Gallows Humor, dark jokes made by those who understood that death was a possibility no matter their attitude.


    The bombs slowly got closer and closer as the Drones were taken out by gunfire from below, and the Green Tide of Myceloid fighters rushed toward the camp.


    The Androids knew what to do this time. As soon as the attack wave was in range and in sight, they opened fire with the Mass Drivers, set to explode on the first impact. The barrage of lethal explosions slowed the approach to a crawl, even with the shields in the hands of the front ranks of the Myceloid force.


    A metal barricade was nothing to a hypersonic Mass Driver round. They simply punched holes in them and then detonated a split secondter, decimating the enemy force. That didn''t dissuade the attackers, though. They simply added more bodies with more shields so that the explosions didn''t kill as many of them every time and kept pushing forward.


    It was when the Bombers arrived that Max saw the first signs that this was a technologically advanced species. The first wave of bombs decimated the rear ranks, but the second exploded early, stopped by an energy shield with an impressive output.


    "Oh, that''s sneaky. If they had put it in front, we could have worn it down with the Mass Drivers, but they used the front ranks as a meat shield so that their barrier could get as close as possible before it started taking damage." Nico mused.


    "Barbaric by most standards, but impressive as a military tactic. All units switch the pration depth on the Mass Drivers to target the energy shield. Even if the front ranks survive the holes we punch in them, the overall damage will be higher if we can get that shield down and the bombers can get back to work." Max agreed.

 Chapter 912 912 If It Works It Works

    ?


    The barrage of Mass Driver rounds against the barrier that the Myceloids had erected was apanied by a storm of blood and flying limbs severed by the rounds on their way by. But the front rank of attackers had made their goal, a trench line that had been built by previous waves, which let them get out of the direct line of fire and start setting up gun emcements.


    Now, they were setting up their shields above their heads, giving them some shelter from the bombers, and the force that was actually protected by the barrier began to charge over the top of them, aiming to get as close as possible before the shield fell.


    The charge was apanied by a wave of gunfire from the Myceloids that forced most of the Hunter Suits into hiding while the Mecha sheltered behind their shields, which were rapidly being torn apart by the iing bullets.


    The barrier that the Myceloid army had erected finally fell, and the Mass Driver Rounds began to hit home in the new front rank of attackers, but the intensity of the enemy fire was bing too much, and the Mecha wouldn''t be able to hold up much longer.


    [Disruptors at medium output. Clear the waves of bullets with ovepping fire.] Max ordered.


    It didn''t matter how many bullets wereing their way if they could use the Disruptors to break them into random atoms. But that also meant that they would have to cease fire with the Mass Drivers.


    It wouldn''t matter for long, though. The enemy was under a hundred metres away, and soon they would be in range of the Fusion mers.


    The other sides of the Camp had also equipped themselves with methrower-type weapons from the Hunters'' arsenal. It wasn''t their preferred method, but they had some excellent ones for clearing horde-type pests that often congregated around their preferred prey.


    The Disrupters briefly halted the advance when the attackers got to ny metres, but they learned quickly that a thickyer of metal was harder for the weapon to breach, and they used them along with their ownrades'' bodies to push forward.


    The heat of the Fusion mers burned the air, and the bodies of the Myceloids sent thick ash into the air, choking out the sky and turning the battlefield into a haze of smoky darkness.


    The smoke was so thick that it was even interfering with Max''s targeting abilities, and the sensors were nearly useless, as all they could see was the clouds of ash.


    Then, the enemy was on them.


    [All units press forward. Get in front of the Hunter lines so that the taller units can shoot over the top of us while we fight.] Max ordered, leading the way with a shield bash and a raised de.


    The energy field on the de hummed as it hacked its way through enemy after enemy. The thick smoke was just as much of a hindrance to the attackers as the defenders, and they hadn''t realized right away that the Mecha were charging, which led to the first row of them being torn apart by the vicious serrated des that Nico had chosen for the mission.


    They were a replica of the ones that the Demons in the otheryer had used, but with an energy barrier over them to reduce damage if they should hit a hard target. Thebination was working even better than Max had expected, as the serrated edges easily tore through flesh in a way that it hadn''t done against armour.


    That seemed to excite the green aliens even more, though, and Max did his best not tough like a maniac at their resemnce to both Nico and the Hunters.


    Once they were in closebat, they were in their happy ce. Even though they were losing, and Max had torn apart a dozen with his de, they still dly threw themselves intobat with him.


    Each one that he faced had the same two thoughts on their minds. The possibility that they would be the ones to drop the enemy Commander and earn great glory and the pure joy of a good fight.


    There was no fear for their lives, and there was no real blood thirst. They weren''t driven to kill like the Demons in the otheryer had been. They simply wanted to fight until the end because they enjoyed it.


    In practice, that made them a nightmare to fight because they never backed down, and they only hesitated when they realized that they were making a tactical mistake. Max thought that they were making one right now by charging into closebat against his Company of Android Pilots, but the Myceloid force thought very differently of it.


    The Androids didn''t feel fear or anything else. They weremanded to fight, and they did so with the very best of their programmed skills and limited personal experience every single time.


    They didn''t hold back at all. There was no pity for wounded or less capable opponents. They were all faced with the same intensity. The enemy respected that, and even when the battlefield was beginning to turn muddy with the amount of ck blood that had been spilt among the piles of green-skinned corpses, both sides still fought as hard as they could.


    The Bombers had done their work well, and the back lines of the Myceloid force had split off to look for a better target, leaving only this front row and the ones that were hidden in the trenches behind.


    Those ones didn''t show any signs of getting out of their spots, and Max suspected that they were a forward reconnaissance post of sorts, left behind to keep an eye on the Hunters'' camp and update their main force on what was happening here.


    A st from his Disruptors cleared arge area around him, leaving Max with nothing to fight when the horns from the Hunters Camp sounded the retreat.


    [Everyone back to camp. Nico, it''s time for a break, so find us a secure location to get some sleep. Teams One and Two, keep up the good work on the defensive line and we will rejoin you once we are rested.]

 Chapter 913 913 Again, Really?

    ?


    Before she went to sleep, Nico set the production settings for the warehouse that she had requisitioned to rece the Drone Bombers as they were destroyed and have them patrol the area around camp.


    They had all been taken down during thest assault, and she couldn''t have them fly much higher without risking an attack from the ships above them.


    For such crude weapons, the missiles that the Myceloids used to attack the bombers were surprisingly urate, and the damage was enough that very few of them survived to limp back to base after being hit.


    They had done their job well, though, and the gaps in the attack waves were enough to give the other nks an asional breather, while the Mecha had enough area attack ability that their portion of the line had managed to clearrge portions of the wave multiple times that attack.


    It wasn''t without cost, though. They had lost over seventy of the Android Pilots along with their Mecha, and many more had spent hours repairing their units after the battle had ended.


    Max had ordered them to repair and reactivate their fallen team members, so she didn''t have to worry about it, and by doing it that way instead of recing them, there was a better chance that their memory cores would be intact and they would retain the knowledge of their mistakes.


    Max was already asleep when she climbed in next to him and turned her shell temperature down so that he would feel extra warm inparison. They managed to get almost a whole night of sleep that way before the sound of artillery in the distance roused the whole camp again, and it was time to run to their Mecha for the uing battle.


    The bombers had spotted another group in the distance, but Nico wasn''t about to just sit here and take it the same way as before.


    They already knew how that battle ended, so she gathered her team and prepared them to move forward.


    "How about we get this party started a bit early? We can move to the trench line where their scouts are waiting, and then we can fight them there." She suggested as she and Max reached the defensive lines.


    "Send the bombers to do a pass over them first. It will be much easier to take the trenches if they aren''t already full of Myceloids." Max reminded her.


    They were currently shoulder to shoulder in the trenches so that the metal shields they were carrying would protect them from bombardment and let their allies pass overhead. That was a terrible state to try to cleanse the trenches in, but the bombers created their weapons as they used them, and they could quickly switch to armour-prating cluster bombs that would turn everything in the trenches to paste.


    Then when the Mecha arrived, the Fusion mers would turn the paste to ash, and they would have a nice fresh trench to themselves.


    The bomber flight came in from the left at a thousand kilometres an hour. That was the Drone Calcted optimal speedpromise between targeting uracy and minimal anti-aircraft fire damage, and the trench line lit up in a hundred-metre-tall wave of mes as the bombs crashed through the shields of the Myceloids.


    [Everyone forward. Take the trenches before any survivors can recover.] Max ordered, and Nico lept out of the defensive fortification at a full-speed run.


    The Androids were right behind her, and her Fusion mer was primed for battle. So, as soon as she was in range, the mes swept out of her mers and reignited the inferno in the trenches. The Disruptor was primed and ready to go, but her sensors didn''t detect anything living in the trench. Not even the spores that the Myceloid blood carried were registering to her Mecha.


    It was a bit anticlimactic, but they were only getting in position for the battle toe.


    [We fight them here until the enemy is at twenty metres. Then, we will back out of the trench and have the bombers deploy a minefield between the trenches and the Hunters'' lines. Avoid the mers from then until the advance destroys the mines.] Max ordered.


    That did not sound like he was nning to get into closebat. Not at all.


    But after Nico calcted the odds of the tacticspletely stopping the advance, she realized that they would still make it to the lines, but they would have taken heavy casualties.


    That usually meant that they would be mad. Very mad. And an enemy who was lost in rage was a lot of fun to fight. Max might not have nned it that way, but he was setting this battlefield up for a very good afternoon.


    Not only that, but it would diversify the tactics andbat styles that the Androids had faced, which would give them even better tactical skills in the next battles. This might be the most extreme form of researchb ever, but it was still a testing ground for her creations, and Nico had big ns to make them even more capable without crossing the line to make them full-on sentient beings.


    The Myceloid advance didn''t slow when they noticed that the Mecha had taken over their advanced positions. In fact, they seemed to get even more energized by the prospect of a good fight, and Nico was starting to really like these creatures.


    Not in a way that would encourage her to stop killing them, of course. But as a respected opponent. They might have worn down the Hunters with pure numbers, but she had androids on her side, so as long as the two Commanders didn''t fall, they had an immortal army against a never-ending horde.


    Then, the army seemed to stop behind thest ridge line, just out of sight of the Mass Drivers. They could likely shoot through the hill with a bit of determination, but that would only make the enemy change tactics next time to ount for theck of cover.


    [I''m giving them two minutes toe out, and then I am sending the bombers to encourage them.] Nico informed Max as she impatiently waited for the fight to begin.


    [Calm down. They''re in the range of my Innate Talent. They''re just waiting for more of them to get piled up at the front so that they can use the shields and bodies to push forward and take the trenches.]

 Chapter 914 914 Into The Grinder

    ?


    The Myceloid advance started just as suddenly as it had stopped. With a roar that shook the air, the creatures rushed over the hill, rolling a metal barricade that rang with a gong-like tone as thousands of Mass Driver rounds impacted against them.


    The sound would be deafening if the Mecha''s sensors didn''t dampen the noise. It seemed that they had optimized the alloy to dampen projectile impacts, and for the first few rounds, they had some sort of energy barrier keeping the barricades safe.


    That didn''tst as the Mass Drivers from five hundred Mecha shattered the barriers and sent the sound of ringing metal across the forests and grasnds of this world. It was a familiar and almostforting sound. The sound of war was unmistakable in its violence, and Nico prepared her mind for the battle toe.


    Her instincts said to charge forward and go meet the enemy, but that was not the n. It was a good n, though. The Mecha had quite capable flight systems, so they couldunch an aerial assault on the Myceloids, thennd in the midst of them and cause chaos.


    She would suggest it to Max tomorrow if he didn''t read it in her mind today and mention it.


    At full output rate, it would only take ten minutes or so to empty the materials storage on the Mecha, but anythingrger would have unbnced the design and made the flight pack sit too far behind the center line for proper control stability.


    Fortunately, the Androids only fired as fast as they could urately target and didn''t just spray explosive rounds into the enemy lines without concern for where they would end up.


    That was one of the more annoying parts about the Anrdoids, in Nico''s opinion. They were so logical and boring. Max probably loved the rapid responses to orders and the efficiency, but Nico didn''t really care about efficiency. She cared about results, and the results of spraying a Mass Driver at the enemy at twelve hundred rounds a minute was way more fun to watch than this precision warfare.


    If you randomized the explosive depth as you fired, you could also make it a very effective tactic, with some of the rounds punching throughyer uponyer of flesh until they were nearly at a stop before exploding and some detonating as soon as they touched a solid surface.


    Not many things could deform the rounds, which was a small drawback of a Mass Driver over a standard projectile, as it made smaller puncture wounds with massive rippling trauma from the force instead of lodging the projectiles into the target. That meant there was no need to clean the wound, only patch it closed.


    They didn''t use toxic projectiles or weapons very often, though the arm de and its freezing spray could be considered a toxic weapon in some ways, so Nico hadn''t really considered the possibilities as she designed the new Mecha.


    Even now, it was only a fleeting thought as she waited for the enemy to ovee the Mass Drivers and get into range of the Disruptors.


    [Disruptors, fire concentrated beams. Take apart the remains of those barricades.] Nico ordered when the enemy reached the two-hundred-metre mark.


    Max followed suit immediately after, and the metal walls began to crumble as the Disruptor radiation tore apart the molecr bonds, leaving only the Myceloids to charge into the invisible threat.


    At first, they didn''t realize what was happening, but when they started to bleed from all their pores and have the clothes yed from their bodies, they realized that the threat was an invisible one.


    That caused them to raise another energy barrier, which got them to forty metres from the trenches before the intensity of the Disruptors broke it.


    [mers, light them up.] Max ordered, and Nico smiled.


    This was her second favourite part of the day, next to thest bit, where they got into closebat. She couldn''t smell the burning flesh through the Mecha''s walls, but she imagined that they would smell like roasted alligator. The thought alone was making her hungry, and her body didn''t actually need to eat anymore other than the asional nutrient bottle.


    [That''s twenty metres. All units fall back. Mass Driver rounds and Fusion mers at full output as we retreat.] Max ordered, keeping the pressure up on the enemy even while he had his troops avoid closebat with them.


    Nico took a second as they began to move to check the sensors from the Drone Bombers that she called over to booby trap the field between the trenches and the Hunter Fortifications.


    What she found was astonishing. Where there had been nothing an hour ago, there were millions of the Myceloids rising up from the ground in past battlefields, all ready to charge into battle.


    Supply trucks were driving forward toward the lines, dropping off des and crude guns, as well as the asional rocketuncher and other heavy weapons, but it looked like most of the horde would being at them barely armed.


    But as she analyzed the situation, she realized that wasn''t correct. They were picking up the weapons of the fallen fighters and evenrge branches that could be carved into sturdy clubs. So, by the time they reached the front lines, they would be fully armed, and the battle would continue without any loss of effectiveness.


    [Hey Max, it looks like we''re about to have that sort of day again. There are millions of these things rising up from the old battlefields, and they''re picking up all the weapons they can find. The supply lines are thin, and I can bomb them, but with so many weapons lying around, they''re not short on them.] She informed everyone, knowing that the Hunters were listening in.


    [Great. Who would have thought that ack of housekeeping staff would be the deciding factor in how our day was going to go?] Max joked, but Nico knew that he would be making a n so that she could just keep fighting and not worry about the little details.

 Chapter 915 915 Slow The Advance

    ?


    With the arrival of so many more bodies, the work of the drone bombers to drop mines all over the open ground between the trenches and the defence lines was increasingly important. But they wouldn''t be working alone to keep the enemy from charging straight into the defenders.


    Against their usual practices, the Hunters had assembled an entire squadron of heavy artillery that would shell everything within fifty kilometres, with the aim of wiping out future infestations.


    The spores in this area seemed to have matured, but they would have to burn the bodies of more recent battles in order to stop that from happening again, and still, the camp would not be safe.


    There had been battles all over this, leaving billions of Myceloid bodies and exponentially more spores that could germinate into future generations.


    By the time the Hunters realized their mistake, they had lost too much ground to stop the invasion, and theycked the ability to get into orbit to cleanse the and start over.


    Retreating back through the Anomaly and barricading the other side was deemed not to be an eptable option by the Alliance Government who had hired them, as the risk of a breach was too high, and the Myceloids could cause untold damage if they managed to get spores through the barrier and onto a popted world.


    The Government was taking the Klem method of expansion into their calctions and considering the possibility that the spores would remain viable in space for an extended period of time, which would allow even a small cluster to infest multiples at once.


    The Klem was a terrifying existence to them after thest incident where they were introduced to Alliance worlds, and the thought that there might be an even smarter version of them, which was just as warlike, had the government officials in a panic.


    Compared to the reaction of the Alliance, the humans had taken the news of an opening to a deadly region full of hostile aliens much more easily. They were used to conflict. The entirety of human existence was built around conflict and strife. So, they sent guards and went about their days.


    That was the attitude that Max and Nico were teaching the Androids as they started to build up crions in front of the Mecha to take the brunt of the early assault and prevent the massed firepower of the iing Myceloids from tearing through them.


    One-on-one, they were no match for even a regr Line Mecha, much less these upgraded ones, but by the billions, nearly anything could be a life-altering threat.


    Max briefly considered bringing in the new Super Heavy Mecha, but they would only draw more fire on the front lines, and if they flew up to get a better angle, they would attract the attention of the ships in orbit.


    So, the defences were bolstered, and the Hunters'' camp prepared for a battle of monumental proportions. It was the sort of battle that legends would be written about. They would sing songs of the day that ten thousand hunters faced down an army ten thousand times their size and lived to tell the tale.


    Even in the annals of human history, such odds were recorded as legend. It didn''t matter if you had the advantage of high ground or prepared defences. When the enemy outnumbered you by thousands of times, only the greatest of heroes would prevail.


    Another wave of Drone Bombers left the hangar to rece thest group when it was shot down, and the thunder of the Hunters'' artillery began to roll with the booming rhythm of a marching band''s drum beat.


    A drumroll for a dozen seconds, then a split second of rtive silence, and another bout of rolling thunder as the guns worked their way from the marked minimum to maximum distance of their barrage range.


    That could only mean one thing. That the Myceloids hadn''t been slowed down enough by the Drones, and the bulk of their forces were closing in on the five-kilometre mark. No matter how intense the artillery was, not much would stop them at this point. There were too many of them, and they had already learned the techniques necessary to make it through no man''snd.


    The closest of the attackers was past the trench line already and into thend mines that the drones had spread out.


    The first line was vaporized by the randomly ced explosives, but the horde had a n for that. The next group was sent with energy barriers and long chains to beat the ground as they moved forward.


    The Mecha and the Hunter Suits didn''t make it easy on them, and the trench line began to build up a substantial wall of bodies for the attackers to charge over, but the wave didn''t stop. They simply treated the dead as additional fortifications and had more and more of their fighters charge individually through the open ground, hoping to set off the mines without endangering anyone else.


    "It''s brilliant in a suicidal sort of way." Huntress Khan mused as she watched the tactics and picked off the attackers who wereing over the wall of flesh that had been built in front of the trenches.


    "You have to admire their persistence. Even the Klem would have backed down by now. But I think that they have more in mind than a simple mindless assault, don''t you?" Nico replied.


    Sure, the front lines were taking horrific casualties, and the advance hade to a grinding halt, but the rest of the army wasing up fast from the older battlefields, and once they arrived, the real battle would begin.


    Max mentally calcted the strategies that they could use to reach the camp while firing at the attackers with well-practiced precision. Then it came to him. The Klem had used the same tactic before. They were building up a wall of bodies to throw across no man''snd to set off all the mines when the main army arrived.


    The resultant explosion and the thick smoke from the smouldering bodies would hide the advance of the second wave, and they might be able to reach the first line of the camp rtively unscathed.

 Chapter 916 916 For The Horde

    ?


    No orders needed to be given when the horde made it to the hundred-yard mark, and it became clear that thendmines were doing nothing to slow their advance. The Fusion mers burst to life, scorching the air, while the explosions of the Mass Drivers were set to detonate just far enough behind the front line to throw the wounded Myceloids off their feet.


    For a few glorious seconds, it was working. The horde faltered, and the mass behind the front line was forced to a stop. But then the ones behind them began throwing the off-bnce and injured members of their force forward toward the Mecha, blocking the mers and allowing them to charge forward through the detonations of the Mass Drivers.


    They were taking serious injuries, but the creatures healed incredibly quickly and had no sense of self-preservation. All that the Mecha could do was continue their defensive fire and hope that the next round of bombers would have some luck creating a clearing in the tide to give them a bit of a breather and allow the second line time to regroup.


    The bombers didn''t even have time to circle the battlefield. They spread out from the warehouse in an evenly spaced circle, dropped what bombs they could, and then were shot out of the sky. It was enough to help as the cluster bombs cleared a wider area than you could safely do with a singlerge explosion, but not nearly as much as Max had hoped for.


    "Well, it looks like we''re in for it now. Look in the back. I mean, when the flying body parts stop for a second, and the sensors can see again." Nico chuckled as Max analyzed the disappointing results of the bombing run.


    The Myceloids had created a huge siege tower of their own, designed to topple forward and throw the upants at the top when it was destroyed. If it made it to the trench and toppled in, there would most likely be hand-to-handbat seconds after, and no amount of defensive fire would stop it.


    The Hunters had thought the same thing, and the creeping advance of the artillery was reset early, starting at the trenches and working its way outward. The siege tower took a direct hit, and as Max had expected, it tossed its upants forward as it crumbled.


    But thanks to the explosion, many of them were already dead, and the early bombardment hadnded them fifty metres from the front lines, right in the middle of the Fusion mers pattern.


    Simr scenes yed out on the other sides of the camp, with simr results as the Hunters mimicked the human weapons choices for their brutal efficiency when outnumbered.


    The battle chant of the Myceloids shook the air enough that it registered even through the explosions as the artillery fire rolled through their ranks, thinning them but not stopping the assault. The defenders were essentially firing blind with all the smoke in the air, choking out sensors and preventing any sort of effective targeting. It was allowing the Myceloids to run zigzag patterns in hopes of dodging the projectiles, and the front lines were slowly creeping closer to the first wall that the defenders had built.


    There wasn''t much left of it anyhow. The constant stream of bullets went two ways, and the wall had been taking the fury of the Myceloid retaliation for the whole battle without any attempt to repair or lessen the burden it was bearing.


    [The enemy is now at twenty metres on the South Side.]


    [The enemy is at thirty metres on the East Side.]


    [The enemy is at thirty metres on the North Side.]


    Max double-checked the range along the Western Front and called in his report.


    [The enemy is at forty metres on the West Side]


    They didn''t have long before things got really messy for the defenders, who had been mostly safe as they stacked bodies so far this fight.


    [All Front Line troops, get behind cover in four seconds.] Huntress Khan''s voice announced.


    Max fired off a few more rounds, then ducked behind the ruins of the wall as a searing beam of energy passed overhead.


    The Huntress had deployed an Orbital Lance in a circr pattern around the camp by turning one of their attack craft on its axis.


    The damage was devastating, and Max shuddered as he realized that the Anomaly had be unstable with the massive discharge. The opening had increased by nearly ten percent in size, and the boundaries were still fluctuating.


    Now, it made sense why they hadn''t gone against the Alliance''s rmendations and cleared the by force. Doing it would tear a Destroyer-sized opening in space that led to a popted of the Alliance.


    The Orbital Lance effectively ended the push of the Myceloid force, Max thought. But ording to his sensors, the enemy hadn''t fallen for the trick quite so easily. He was picking up a lot of signatures in the distance, possibly in the ground, since everything else seemed to have been obliterated as the beam passed overhead.


    [Reserve teams, push out and start burning all signs of Myceloid life. We don''t need the spore spawning in our yard. Front Line teams, rebuild the fortifications, and you may retreat and rest. Second Rank forward to the front lines, third rank, take up the back line.] Huntress Khanmanded.


    Max passed a simr message to his troops.


    [Teams One and Two, move to the back lines once the fortifications are rebuilt and let the Hunters take over the front lines until the next shift ends.] Hemanded.


    It wasn''t like the Androids needed to sleep, and after this battle, Max suspected that they would be getting a request for even more of them to man the trenches. They had taken some damage during the battle, but with the wall in front of them, their own energy barriers had absorbed most of it, and the rest was easily repaired thanks to the majority of their body being behind cover.

 Chapter 917 917 Off Duty

    ?


    The atmosphere in the barracks where Nico and Max were staying with the majority of the front-line Hunters from the Western Front was one ofplete exhaustion. Even though the majority of them never left their posts for the entire shift, operating with precision for over an hour during the attack was a lot like running a marathon while also doingplex trigonometry in your head to calcte your shots.


    The exhaustion was more mental than physical for the well-trained Pilots, but it kept the mood subdued even when Huntress Khan came in with bottles of Rum and trays of smoked meat for dinner.


    "You already know what I''m going to ask, right?" The Huntress chuckled as she set down their dinner.


    "I have a pretty good idea, but go ahead and ask anyhow so we can make it a formal agreement," Max replied with a smile.


    "Fine. We would like you to provide another fifteen hundred of those android-piloted Mecha, along with the five hundred currently on the Western Front, to help us secure the camp. It should be enough to let us start pushing out of the base again and cleaning up the mess that we left behind.


    When we retreated, we didn''t know that the spores could grow into full-grown Myceloids that quickly. Even the Common Myceloids of the Alliance take over a decade to grow thatrge, and most fungal and nt species are very slow-growing if they are highly intelligent." She added with a sigh.


    Nico smiled at her despondent face. "You know, if it weren''t for the Anomaly, this would be the greatest hunting ever. The enemy is smart, strong, agile, innovative, and capable of improvising quality weapons with no infrastructure. Add to that the fact that they can repopte in a matter of days, and you have all the makings of a legendary hunting preserve."


    "You make an excellent point. I would agree to make this a preserve as well if it didn''t lead straight into the Alliance, who are woefully unprepared for anything resembling a sustained conflict.


    Can you imagine what would happen if this species got to the main worlds of the Alliance? Half of them would stand as shields to protect the Myceloids from the army even as they were hacked apart from behind, and the other half would run away in fear.


    There are precious few species who are even capable of the feats that led them to control gxies anymore, and even fewer who took their gxies by force. Almost all of them gained their status and level of advancement because they had a million years or more to do it in peace."


    One of the other Huntresses looked over at their conversation and gestured to her wrist device, where she had clearly been holding a text conversation with someone.


    "How long will it take to make those other Androids and their Mecha? My Oath Sister is on duty on the North Side right now, and they would love to have some more support." She asked.


    The clicking mandibles gave the Huntresses a strange ent when they spoke without their masks on to do the trantion for them, but she was more understandable than most, so she must have been practicing her Alliance Common instead of speaking Hunter and letting the mask''s trantion function do the work.


    "The warehouse has fully restocked the bombers, and they''re on patrol around the base, so the Androids are already in production. It''s best if you send a skilled Huntress with them as a unitmander, but other than that, they should have enough programming for the job. They can also download data files from the others to glean artificial experience, but that never trantes as well as a good Commander on the lines." Nico exined.


    The Huntress nodded. "By the end of the shift, as long as we''re not attacked? I will pass on the message that the first of them is in production now. It will raise morale on the lines.


    Not to dismiss the struggles of the Androids, but they can be much more easily reced than Hunters can."


    She wasn''t wrong, and the Androids weren''t sentient, just a very advanced algorithm, not much different than the NPC characters in advanced Virtual Reality games, who had been given bodies. That limited their learning somewhat, but the ease of production more than made up for it in Max''s mind.


    That was how most of the Hunters thought of them as well, though some didn''t realize the nature and limitations of the Pilots and thought that they were just newly trained humans in the Mecha. They had encountered them more than once in the past and had seen them sleeping in their Mecha when it was too dangerous toe out as well.


    That wasn''t a pleasant life in a Line Mecha, but you didn''t always have an option.


    Huntress Khan sent a data file to everyone in the barracks as she poured another round of Rum. Reaver Rum, Max noticed.


    "This is the regroup time on the previous attacks. This time, there are more of them that were missed by or outside the Orbital Lance strike, so we won''t have as much time to regroup, but the numbers show that we should have six hours.


    That will put the start of the battle at the end of the current shift and us on reserve, but if you can, try to be ready to take over early. There is no telling how hard they will hit us next time, and seeing new weapons excites them almost as much as it does Nico."


    The Huntresses in the roomughed at the reference, and even Nico herself had to admit that they were right.


    Max chose to simply keep silent, as they had no idea just how much these creatures actually lovedbat. It wasn''t just an instinct, they actually enjoyed it like their favorite hobby. Reminding them of that would only bring down morale when everyone was exhausted, so he slumped back onto the bed behind him and stretched out to get a few hours sleep before the next attack began.

 Chapter 918 918 Additional Preparations

    ?


    The additional units were allpleted before the sun came up, but Max had a sneaking suspicion that today was not going to be a much easier day than yesterday. He could sense the thoughts of the Myceloids as they approached and had to resist the urge tough when he realized that they had stripped naked in hopes that their green skin would match the grass well enough that the Hunters wouldn''t see theming.


    They didn''t really seem to grasp advanced technology, though they could make rocketunchers, and the thought of a million naked attackers charging the line was just too amusing for Max to say anything before his shift started.


    The enemy was gathering just outside of the bombers'' patrol range, avoiding starting the conflict early, but the Artillery had already prepared their sightlines and range settings for the bombardment that wouldmence as soon as the Myceloid horde moved.


    The wisdom of the Hunters said that it was best to let prey make the first move so that you could adjust before taking action yourself. They were doing the same thing here right now, just waiting for the horde to take any sort of action that would give the Hunters an idea of the tactic that they would be facing today.


    Max listened to their minds as the front lines of the Myceloid force got into position and then updated the Huntress on their ns.


    [They have built catapults and intend to bombard the open field between us to deal with the mines they expect to be there. They haven''t decided when to charge yet, but I suspect that it will be the moment that we start to change shifts.]


    That was hard logic for the Hunters to argue with, so they started to make a n for that likely situation. They would start the battle this time, unlike their standard procedure, and begin shelling the enemy with artillery just before the shift change started. But they wouldn''t remove the off-duty team from the front lines until the rear line had moved forward to take their ce.


    Then, the off-duty units could move into the rear lines as nned, and if the Myceloids responded as predicted, they would be just in time for the retaliation.


    [I want all the senior Commanders in the rear lines today. The smoke during the battle limits sensor range, and being in the trenches makes it worse. With themanders further back, we should be able to issue more effective orders to the front line.] Huntress Khan ordered, taking over zone leadership for the Western Front.


    The first impacts of the artillery into the Myceloid ranks marked the start of the battle, and the fungal warriors began to rush forward as soon as the first explosion shattered the early morning peace.


    As expected, it was a hrious sight to see so many naked warriors rushing forward with guns and clubs in their hands. But not all were in the nude. Some had gotten creative and stuck leaves and grass into their clothing to create a form of basic ghillie suit camouge to make themselves blend in.


    Those were the ones that Max targeted first.


    They might be smarter, or they might be more heavily armed and in need of an additionalyer to hide their weapons, but either way, they were a priority target for him.


    With so many minds, it was impossible for him to pick out individual thoughts at a distance. Instead, he felt all the thoughts in an area as one and had to focus on picking out individuals. But he could also sense that there was some sort of guiding force or philosophy that was sending them all into battle.


    What he couldn''t tell was if it was a hidden leader like the Klem Queens or a form of cult dogma that was driving them all to the same thoughts. The way that they synchronized was incredibly efficient, though, and if he didn''t know that they were only a few days old, Max would have assumed that these soldiers had trained together for years.


    Perhaps he could get a sample of brain matter after the battle and find out what exactly the answer was. If they had such an efficient method of hereditary knowledge transmission, it could possibly make great advances in medicine possible.


    Having children start off life with no memories, as he had to before his own started to resurface from a past life, was nothing more than a nuisance. Starting off life with a full set of memories, instincts, and essential knowledge would go a long way to furthering society as a whole.


    Those thoughts could wait. He had more important things to do at the moment, like picking off the more cunning-looking ones, while also making sure that the Android Pilots on the front lines didn''t miss anything through the haze.


    The haze was building much too fast today as well. They had burnt off most of the ground coverst night as they destroyed the bodies, so there shouldn''t be much to burn, but the thick ck smoke was already nketing the battlefield.


    [They''ve set fire to arge amount of oil they poured into the southern trenches. That''s what''s nketing the battlefield.] One of the Huntress Commanders reported.


    None of their gear was really intended for firefighting, but the bombers could drop a foamy chemical mix. Nico switched their weapons in an instant so that the next flight past would douse the trench line in foam and dull the smoke, then returned to her regrly scheduled carnage and adjusted the explosion distance for her Mass Drivers a little to see if she could get better visual effects out of them.


    [Bombers have deployed the foam. The smoke has stopped, but visibility is limited.] The Southern Commander informed the camp, followed by startled thoughts from the troops on the line that Max couldn''t ignore if he wanted to.


    The Myceloids had charged through the foam and were styling themselves new hair and beards out of it as they ran.

 Chapter 919 919 Did We Do It?

    ?


    The sight of the charging Myceloids forming themselves new hairstyles from the fire suppressant foam was enough to startle the defensive lines back into action, and the flurry of firepower that followed lit up the battlefield in a dazzling array of blue lights from the Hunters'' Laser Cannons.


    Like Max, they had decided that having a primary weapon that wouldn''t run out of ammunition was of utmost importance in a defensive battle, but the Disruptors that Nico had picked for the Mecha didn''t have a visibleponent to them that would alert the enemy.


    Not that it mattered. The Myceloids weren''t going to dodge aser beam, and they already knew where the Hunters were. But on the positive side, thesers gave the battlefield a sense of life and action instead of the deadly but invisible middle ground between the two forces that were more customary with Disruptors and projectile weapons.


    The ferocity shown by the Huntresses this time was much more than Max had seen from them before. It seemed that the presence of the Android Piloted Mecha in their midst was spurring them on, giving them a challenge and a standard to beat, like theputer-controlled opponent in a simtion.


    It would be shameful for them to be outdone by the automated pilots created by the humans since they were all skilled and decorated Huntresses on their own merits. So, they methodically crushed the advance to the point that the horde was actually being pushed back from the trenches and toward the ridgeline that marked the end of the defensive formation''s direct line of sight.


    Once they were out of the line of sight, the Myceloid horde began to spread out, heading off to presumably find food and resources to continue the assault or possibly to find more ces to nt spores.


    That was going to be a nightmare for the Hunterster if they couldn''t track the dispersion, but ording to the data that they had collected, Nico hade up with a startling conclusion.


    There was no set gestation for these spores. They developed when the horde needed them and remained inert when there were enough developed life forms on the, keeping the poption in check naturally, even though the scans from the bombers showed that the majority of the was heavily infested with them already thanks to the early battles to clear the area.


    She had realized it today while trying to analyze where the next waves would being from. The spawn times didn''t seem to corrte to the battles or even to thest known presence in the area, so she ran additional calctions and realized that they were reacting to the numbers that the Myceloids'' strategy needed in the area over the next few days.


    Those who survived multiple battles grewrger and stronger, which allowed them to take overmand of the newly spawned ones and provide their insights and leadership. Then, when they fell, the next strongest in line took over.


    It was an amazinglyplex bnce to keep but a very simple system to maintain. Max should have expected something simr to happen, as it was somon among nts for seeds not to germinate during unfavourable conditions, but he had never thought to extend the concept to an intelligent species.


    Even now, with the data in his mind and Nico''s detailed analysis in her mind, he had a hard time processing the fact that the species was specifically gestating warriors at a variable rate to keep up with their attacks.


    But once he epted it, the question became what to do about it. They could purge the spores in the area, but that would only make the battles stage a bit further out on the.


    The best solution would actually be to send out Hunter Squads to cull the poption all over the. The various battlefields would give the species more to focus on, but that might backfire and cause them to spawn a huge number of warriors to create battles of this massive scale all over the world.


    As far as he could tell, there was no true solution but a scorched earth policy, where they burned the spores out of everything and hoped that the ships in orbit didn''t retaliate in a way that destabilized the Anomaly or repopte the with entirely their own life forms and vegetation.


    With such a fast-growing, fungal nature, there didn''t seem to be an easy solution to the Myceloid invasion, and they had to just hope that one of their tactics would cause them to retreat or at least not focus so hard on attacking the base.


    As the Myceloids scattered, Max organized his thoughts into a presentation for the Hunters.


    The n was simple. Create five hundred more Android Pilots, so they had enough to cover all four sides of the base and the original unit to go out hunting. They would do hit-and-run attacks on the Myceloids wherever they found them congregated and hope that distracted them from constantly pushing at the camp.


    The creatures loved a good fight, so if they attacked a force that wasrger than their own, they were almost guaranteed that the Myceloid force would go all out to fight them and satisfy their pride.


    The Hunters had treated their arrival here as a cleansing mission, and Max suspected that the violent green fungus horde didn''t think that was very fun. So, they went looking for a fight in the only spot where they could find one.


    The Hunters Camp.


    But if he brought fights to them, that might change. If he was lucky, he might even be able to draw smaller groups to him one after another to fight. That was a best-case scenario, but with Nico''s strategizingbined with his own and the help of a Huntress as experienced as Khan, they just might pull it off.


    So, he opened a secure channel to the Huntress and sent her his proposal. There was no need to ask Nico. He already knew her answer to the question, ''Do you want to hunt aliens?''

 Chapter 920 920 Familiar Ground

    ?


    [Do you want to hunt aliens?] Max''s message made Huntress Khan smile behind her smooth golden mask.


    [Why, what a charming offer. What did you have in mind?] She replied happily, then read the data that Max had sent along with the message.


    Max waited a few minutes while she read over his proposal, which was deliberately tailored to allow her toe along with some of her most trusted huntingpanions. One group wouldn''t upset the bnce by much, but the effort might be enough to lessen the burden on the camp, and Max intended to rece the units he was taking, so it was no real loss to their defensive abilities.


    Finally, Khan finished reading the details and sent out the message to gather her hunting team for the mission.


    [When do we set out?] She asked.


    [If you can have everyone here in ten minutes, I can have the new Androids on the front lines and ready to defend by then. They''re already made and waiting for orders.]


    The shuffle of the Command structure was no big deal to the Hunters, who were used to splitting off into smaller groups at a moment''s notice, and a simrly experienced Huntress stepped up to take Khan''s ce as soon as she gave the order for her team to assemble. They were running across the camp within seconds, securing their masks and gear as they made their way back to their Hunter Suits with cheerful thoughts in their mind.


    Once they were assembled, Max pulled up a map and addressed the group. "Wee, everyone. As you likely know, I am Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company, and I will be your tour guide today.


    Our drone bombers have identified several groups of potential targets for today''s hunt, starting with this one at grid C5. It''s not a long trip, but they are around arge water source, which is presumed to be a valuable resource to both sides of the conflict."


    Nico and the Huntersughed at his tour guide routine, but the Androids were carefully calcting what orders they were likely to get in order to take that position. There was no need for the others to do that. They already knew all of the most probable tactics, and if Max intended to try something oundish, he would have sent it to them in advance so they could analyze it.


    They began to move out as soon as Max finished his spiel, headed for the smallke where the drones had detected arge group of Myceloid warriors gathering. They weren''t going to try to sneak up on them or anything. The n was to find them, shoot at them and start charging.


    It was exactly what the Myceloids did in their offensives against the Hunters camp, so Max was reasonably sure that it was their preferredbat style, and it should get them engaged in the battle instead of running away.


    Nico''s thoughts were way too happy about this n of action, and she already had a sword in her hand when they left the camp, though they weren''t expecting to be inbat for another fifteen minutes.


    That was about the usual for her, but the Huntress team wasn''t far behind her enthusiasm, and they were all eager to repay some of the insult that they had suffered by being trapped in their camp and forced back off the majority of the through their own misunderstanding of the nature of the enemy.


    [Targets sighted. Six hundred metres ahead, just over the rise.] Nico reported, rying the data from her Drone Bombers, who were still patrolling the area around the base in case of another attack.


    The Android Army was right behind them, all five hundred units in five lines behind the five mortal piloted Mecha. They kept an easy pace until Nico crested the final hill between them and the enemy, and the Myceloids stopped their activities to prepare for an attack.


    Nico sounded her war horn, and the keening wail of the modified loudspeaker echoed through the valley and across the river. It was an unmistakable challenge, and the Myceloids roared right back before starting a battle chant and charging toward the wall of Mecha.


    [All units, fan out and fire at will. Maintain maximum firing rates until we reach the melee range.] Max ordered.


    The line expanded, with Mecha moving to the sides to create a wedge-shaped spearpoint formation charging down the hill. The Myceloids showed no such organization, but they were happily firing every weapon that they had in the general direction of the Mecha as they ran with various des and clubs in their hands.


    A few of the Line Mecha fell to lucky shots, but more than half of the Myceloids were down before the first sounds of de on de rang out, and the bark of the Mass Drivers fell silent.


    [Those serrated des you have sure are effective against flesh.] Khan mused as Nico managed to finesse her de through a wide arc to take three heads with one swing.


    [We will show you how to make themter if you like. They have be a fan favourite with the followers of the closebat doctrines.] Nico replied with dignity.


    Khanughed over the inte. [You could just say they''re your personal favourite. But those forearm des aren''t bad, either. They''re very sharp. I think I might have to change the angle of my own defensive des to try out that attack pattern.] Khan mused.


    The melee scrum was a bloody sh of metal on overgrown flesh, and blood flew everywhere, mixed with some hydraulic fluid as the two sides met. The Mecha were slightlyrger, and much heavier, which let them shield m through the first rank of Myceloids, which they handily chopped apart after knocking them to the ground.


    But the next rank put up a much better fight.


    The Androids knew a lot of closebat theory, and they had some experience. But today, they were really putting it to the test. The fights were mostly one-on-one, with the Myceloid reinforcements still iing, instead of the confused mass of bodies that the attack on the camp had been.

 Chapter 921 921 Myceloid Melee

    <h4>Chapter 921 921 Myceloid Melee</h4>


    Max thrust forward with his de, impaling two of the green-skinned Myceloids on the jagged steel, then swung the sword up and overhand, stopping the de halfway through the forward strike to toss the bodies off and into the crowd.


    That was what these creatures wanted to see. They wanted glory, the chance to y a champion, and that''s what they could get with the two Command Units and the three Hunter Suits in the group.


    Max smashed a smaller Myceloid to the side with his shield, throwing it at an unupied Android, and then engaged with thergest opponent that he could find. To these creatures, size was equivalent to strength, and they had no concept of the advantage that advanced robotics could offer a smaller unit.


    They did understand the tensile strength and yield points of metals, though, and they would target specific areas that they believed to be weaker based on their species'' experiences fighting against simr targets.


    The overgrown Myceloid parried the first two of Max''s strikes but didn''t expect the kick to the knee that took him down and left the back of his neck open for a decapitation. Max stepped smoothly over the body as he pushed forward, keeping the formation intact with himself as the spearpoint while the rear ranks closed to form a triangr defence with Max, Nico and Khan at the points.


    That was the only spot where more than one enemy could attack at once, so having the strongest fighters at them made life a lot easier on the team. A circle was clearly the better choice in most cases, but the concept of a Champion was so ingrained into these creatures'' minds that the triangle formation actually caused them to line up to fight the corners instead of trying to push through the middle.


    [This is a wonderful hunting trip.] Khanughed as she hacked apart another of her opponents.


    [I''m d you like it. We will have to make a point to schedule another outing.] Max replied with amusement in his tone.


    Nico was uncharacteristically silent as she fought, but every now and then, she would sound the war horn signal to draw arger opponent to herself.


    Her mind was entirely on the battle, and Max realized that the formation was going to have to move soon. The bodies were beginning to pile up as the number of targets dwindled, and the remaining Myceloids were likely to retreat if they were that heavily outnumbered.


    [Squad Two fall back into the second rank as reserves. Squad One, close ranks and shrink the formation.] Max ordered,? allowing the remaining enemies to have a more even-looking fight with the front ranks.


    It was quickly turning in Max''s favour, though, as the Androids were bing ustomed to this method of fighting, and the strongest of the Myceloids had long since fallen.


    The battle quickly turned from a fight to a ughter as Max ordered the Mecha to switch their Disruptors to wide pattern beams. The Disruptors tore apart the bodies of the weaker Myceloids, leaving nothing but ash, and the remainder of the force vanished in an instant.


    "Good work, everyone. Purge the battlefield with the Fusion mers. We can''t afford to be creating more spore fields today. Once that is done, we can head back to camp and pick another target for tomorrow." Max instructed.


    The cleanup was brutally efficient, and they were on their way back to the base within half an hour. It made for a short outing, but they didn''t want to get stuck outside the camp too long due to a miscalction that led to them getting swarmed.


    Instead, they would pick and challenge groups that they wanted to fight with the hope that it kept the enemy off bnce so they wouldn''t be able to focus on where the group was going to attack next.


    Once the battlefield was clear, they made a quick retreat to the camp and parked their Mecha outside a Command tent where they could start making ns for the next wave of attacks.


    "Should we call in more troops? If we want to purge the, a few hundred thousand more Mecha would do a fine job of it." Max suggested.


    "They would all have to be redesigned for the strange conditions here. I think it would be a lot of trouble, but the Alliance is working on a way to close the Anomaly entirely. Once they have a strategy that they think will work, we will retreat and leave this ce to the Myceloids." Huntress Khan exined.


    Nico frowned. "They''re thinking that something that absorbs energy might be enough to close the anomaly, the way that too much energy destabilizes it and causes it to grow? That''s a possibility, but in the region near the other anomaly, Antimatter only made things worse because it destabilized the subspaceyers.


    Have you had a chance to try out our technology for opening a portal that leads to anotheryer? We have only managed to stabilize ess to oneyer, but we have evidence of at least one, and possibly two more, thanks to the way that the Darklings move about."


    "Yes, they are thinking of something like a stabilized microscopic ck hole, which would draw all the energy in the area away from the anomaly and possibly cause it to copse.


    The other one is far toorge and stable for such a tactic, and the space around it would be dangerous before it copsed, but here, the Anomaly is so small that they think it will work." Khan agreed.


    "We should open a portal to the otheryer and see what we can find. If it looks the same as it does near the Koleska, then we have an answer about the likely repercussions. If it doesn''t, then we are free to try new things and see what the side effects are."


    Khan tapped her fingers on the table as she considered the proposal.


    "How long will it take to get a device here that is capable of the test?" She asked.


    "We have one in the Cutter."

 Chapter 922 922 That was Unexpected

    <h4>Chapter 922 922 That was Unexpected</h4>


    Max went to fetch the device from the Cutter as soon as their conversation was over, and Huntress Khan began to organize a secureb facility within the camp for them to work at.


    It couldn''t be too close to the Anomaly, as that would likely exist in bothyers, but they were limited on the space that they had avable to them now that the majority of the was controlled by the Myceloids.


    "Do you think that it will be the same as it was in the region by the Koleska?" Khan asked as they started to set up the equipment for their experiment.


    "Logically, it should be very simr. The scans that you have done on the region suggest that the same instability exists here and doesn''t in our home gxies, so it should be very simr inside thatyer.


    We can''t rule out the possibility that these Myceloids actually came from that region, though. If they did, then it means there are more breaches that we can''t detect from here, and the others that are linked by portals are likely just as infested as this one is.


    If we wanted to get brutal about things, I could bring my Mecha here and justunch a full-out assault against the ships in orbit. It did a wonderful job against the Arisen Army, so it should be able to deal with the Myceloids, whose technology is far inferior in development."


    Khan considered it for a moment, then waved off his offer. "We will keep that strategy in reserve. If we can deal with the situation on the surface without it, then we will. If not, we will send out patrols with anti-orbital weapons so that the source of the attacks isn''t traced back to the camp if we should fail."


    In this case, Max thought that Nico''s "There is no kill like overkill" level of firepower was more appropriate than their attempts to honourably hunt the Myceloids, but they were in charge of this region, and he was only here helping out as an unofficial favour to the Hunters.


    "Alright, we have the portal generator set up, so we can get on our freshly modified Mobile Suits and send the first test probe through to the other side.


    The suits are just a precaution, but if there is something on the other side when we open the portal to send the probe, it might open a muchrger one and attempt to pull us through. That means we should be armed." Nico exined.


    The chances of opening a Portal inside or right next to another ship in the vastness of space were infinitesimally low, but there was still a chance.


    The first thing that Nico did was activate the new sensor suite, which could track the probe through theyers and then set up a powerful energy barrier around the building.


    Nothing would get in, and nothing could get out.


    Then the Portal was opened, a small one no more than the size of a fist, and the probe was unceremoniously thrown through.


    "Hey, it''s on a. Wait, I think that''s this or something near it. The data I am getting back shows a simr topography.


    No signs of life other than nt life in the region. No sign of what we have dubbed the Demons either. But there is something. An immense amount of energy is concentrated in the area over the, and I can''t get a read on what it is.


    It might be an energy storm, like the one that carried the corpses off the, but it isn''t moving." Nico reported.


    Then Max felt it, that same sense of being watched, only a hundred times more intense and strangely happy feeling.


    All three of them shared a look, having felt the same thing, and then Nico let the Portal close with the probe on the other side.


    They would still get the data from it unless it was tampered with, but they wouldn''t have the Portal attracting the attention of whatever was waiting in the other Layer.


    [Huntress Khan, there is something strange going on all over the. Everywhere that we can see, the Myceloids have stopped what they were doing to bow down toward the camp. No matter where they were facing, they all turned to grovel a few seconds ago, and now they are starting to improve their weapons.


    I suspect that it is some sort ofbat ritual, and they are preparing for another major assault.] The camp''s reconnaissance officer reported.


    "Shit. I think that a greater being is affiliated with this species. If they''re worshipping whatever has been checking up on us, there might not be a good ending to this battle." Max sighed.


    "You have some sort of experience with this situation?" Khan asked.


    "We have legends of Greater Beings, capable of seemingly impossible feats, and many times in the past few months, we have sensed something watching us but couldn''t find it.


    This time, it was a much stronger sensation, and I''m pretty sure it wasing from somewhere inside that energy cloud." Max exined.


    "So something is orchestrating the chaos in this strange region of space?" Khan asked.


    "Possibly more than one something. If this being is aligned with the Myceloids, which don''t operate in the region where we were before, there is a good chance that the other threats in the region are all being guided by simr beings that we haven''t interacted with yet."


    Khan looked nearly panicked, but Nico had a huge smile. The look on her face seemed to settle the Huntress, who slowly began to smile back.


    "You know, I''ve never gotten a chance to hunt a greater being before." She whispered.


    The sensation of amusement, along with watchfulness, flooded the room again, even though the portal was closed, and Max knew that the being had heard her intention to hunt it and was eager to see her try.


    But first, they would have to prove themselves worthy against these minions.

 Chapter 923 923 Sudden Change

    <h4>Chapter 923 923 Sudden Change</h4>


    ?


    After the sighting of whatever being was hiding in that otheryer, none of them had the appetite to do any more tests on the theory. They did at least have a basic answer that yes, the otheryer here was mostly the same as the one near the Koleska.


    The probe was also feeding data back to them, and for now, there wasn''t much to report other than the barren that somewhat resembled the one that they were currently on. But that could change in an instant, Max knew.


    If the Myceloids used it to travel around the same way that the Darklings and the Arisen Army did, then it would be nearly impossible to stop the spread of them, even if they could destroy all the ships in orbit here.


    From what he could tell, the loss of the force on the wouldn''t actually matter to the ship. The Myceloids grew from spores with all the knowledge they seemed to need, so recing them was a simple matter and could be done in a matter of days.


    If they attacked the ship, it could very well just leave and let the force here do as they pleased.


    With their personality, that seemed likely. They loved to fight, but they would back down from a losing battle if they had to, and the ships in orbit were most likely the most valuable bits of tech that they owned.


    Huntress Khan looked over the data that the Alliance had prepared with a frown.


    "Alright, so if we can''t use antimatter detonations to close the Anomaly, what are our other options? We could try a containment field, but it would have to be put up on both sides, and we wouldn''t be able to test if it worked at all until it activated.


    That means either trapping us here if it does work or evacuating and risking it not working. What other options do we even have to give the Alliance for closing this Anomaly?" She asked.


    Max and Nico considered that for a few moments, then shrugged.


    "We could barricade it from both ends, so nothing gets through or even just try topletely destabilize it to see if it copses. If my calctions are right, growth isn''t the only possible oue when it destabilizes. That moment could cause it to copse in on itself entirely." Nico suggested.


    None of those were good options, and none were worthy of putting before the Alliance.


    "Of course, we could detonate an Antimatter warhead in it from the otheryer and just make everything implode. But that might very well destroy the entire star systems on both sides o the Anomaly." She added with a frown.


    She wasn''t actually against the n, just the likelihood of being med for the negative oues.


    "We can get back to thister, now that we know what an antimatter explosion would do in the area. It''s more important to see what the Myceloids were doing after that strange bowing incident when we opened the Portal." Huntress Khan agreed.


    They switched sensors to watch the footage from the Drone Bombers, which were still peacefully circling the camp and found that the Myceloids had returned to their regr daily schedule. They were going about their business, making weapons, gathering food, and building camps and viges. It was as if nothing had ever happened, and they weren''t on a warpath to destroy the Hunters Camp just a day ago.


    "That''s not normal. It''s like they forgot that we''re here." Khan muttered.


    "Or they''ve been ordered to change ns and build up a functional society on the instead. You know the Alliance will send monitors here eventually to see how things are going, and if they see the Myceloids living peacefully and not attacking the moment that they are fully grown, it''s going to be a political nightmare." Max reminded her.


    The Huntress growled at the reminder. "That''s just what we need, some bleeding heart telling us that we need to y nice while the enemy rebuilds their strength and prepares for an attack that will wipe us off the."


    "Those are the downsides of working for someone with a moralpass. But if they really have been ordered to set up some sort of functional society here, you could always dere them a prey species and treat this as a hunting ground.


    If we go pick fights with them, there is a chance they won''te to pick fights with us. I can read minds. They love to fight. Not for bloodshed, they love the actual fight. So, I think that letting them stabilize and going to challenge their leaders would actually be a viable strategy." Max offered.


    Khan nodded. "That''s not a bad idea. We did that the first time when we swept through the, but we didn''t take the spores into ount and ended up getting swarmed. If they''re really going back to how they were before we arrived, then things might actually get a lot better here."


    Nico considered their arguments as she nned more attacks.


    "Have you managed to trante theirnguage yet?" She asked.


    "Most of it. It''s somewhat simr to Alliance Common, though the two don''t actually share any words. Once we heard it a few times and managed to get some context to start the trantion, it was a fairly simple matter to decipher the basics of theirmunications.


    I will send the trantion file over to you, and you can put it in a Learning Machine to pick it up before our next mission. They don''t speak much inbat, but it will be good if you can at least issue proper challenges to their leaders."


    That got Nico excited. The prospect of getting to directly challenge the biggest and best of them was nearly irresistible to her. The only thing that would make it better is if there was nobody else around to get in her way.


    Max wasn''t about to let her go with just an androidpany though. There was no telling what she would get up to if he did.

 Chapter 924 924 Field Trip

    <h4>Chapter 924 924 Field Trip</h4>


    The look that Nico was giving Max was heart-wrenchingly sweet, pleading for him to go along with what she was about to ask. It was so endearing that even the Huntress knew that something was up before the little cyborg even spoke a word.


    "Commander Max, Darling, Best Friend, Battle Brother for life, I don''t suppose that you could do me one tiny little favour." She pleaded.


    "You want to go out and pick a fight with the nearest camp''s champion, don''t you?" Max asked, already knowing what she was going to ask.


    "I swear, it''s just one little fight, and then we cane right back." She pleaded, climbing into hisp to give him the puppy dog eyes.


    Huntress Khan burst intoughter at their antics while she waited to see how Max was going to handle his battle-obsessedpanion this time.


    "Well, there is one camp nearby that might be an option. They have a leader who is nearly twice the size of the others. He''s slightly taller than your Mecha, so he should ept the challenge. But we just got back from a battle." Max teased her.


    "It will be fast, I promise. We don''t even need to fight the whole camp if you don''t want to." Nico offered.


    Theughing of the Huntress made it impossible to treat this situation seriously, and Max quickly caved.


    "Alright. We will have the Mecha stand back, and you can go in front and offer your challenge. I trust that you''ve already got a proper one programmed into your loudspeaker in theirnguage." Max agreed.


    "But of course, I''m always prepared when I have an idea for fun things to do. If that one goes well, then maybe you and Khan can pick a camp and issue some challenges of your own before it gets dark."


    [Hunting team, prepare for a mission. Sumander Nico wishes to challenge a Myceloid Champion to a battle.] Max informed the team that was with them for thest excursion.


    The idea was that they would head out as a group, and then the bulk of the force would stand a few hundred metres back while Nico went forward to issue the challenge. Ideally, the enemy leader would ept, and they could have their duel, most likely to the death, and then part ways.


    There was no guarantee that it would go that smoothly or that the enemy would take it well when they inevitably lost, but that was why they brought the unit with them.


    The perimeter guards were happy to let them out to go on a hunting mission, and everyone was eager to see what would happen now that the Myeloids were acting so much differently than they had before. It was like they suddenly became civilized in an instant after that strange incident, and now they were colonizing the.


    That was obviously bad news for the Hunters, who had to defend the Anomaly, but if it reduced the intensity of the attacks, it might be a positive in the short term.


    There was also some talk of deliberately destabilizing this Anomaly and forcing it to engulf the so that they could ess it in space like the other one, but all of the Hunters knew that it would have to be done without permission because the other side was on an Alliance.


    All of their hopes of a normal bodyguard mission had long since been washed away in the ck blood of the Myceloids, but there was still some optimism that it might not be a grinding war of attrition right to the end.


    Nico led the way to the camp that they had identified with the singlergest leader in the area and hoped that the early analysis that size corrted to authority was correct. It would be rather embarrassing if they issued a challenge and the enemy didn''t understand what they were doing or why.


    Max thought it might be funny if the Myceloids mistook it as a peculiarity of their species and not something that the Hunters had thought about the Myceloids themselves, but that thought was quickly stuffed into the back of his mind as the camp came into sight.


    The residents there were building defences in a hurry as they approached, but Max had the Mecha stop a kilometre away, where they would be less threatening to the vige while still being in easy weapons range.


    Then he stepped forward with Khan, and Nico moved out ahead of them all and stopped three hundred metres from the vige''s crude spike wall.


    [Hey, you ck-jawed, scrawny excuses for a Warrior tribe. I''m looking for a fight. Send out your boss so we can have a go.] She yelled at them in the Myceloidnguage.


    It wasn''t exactly eloquent, but their grasp of thenguage was crude at best. It seemed to work, though, because the biggest one was yelling back at her.


    "Who are you calling scrawny, you metal-mouthed grot? Get lost before I send you packing." He called back.


    [What then? Are you so scared of a fight? Perhaps that stumpy fellow next to you is a better warrior.] Nico taunted him.


    The other Myceloids in the camp were allughing, and the secondrgest of them was sneering at the big boss.


    "You snooze, you lose." He yelled, then came out running toward Nico.


    Max''s suspicions were proven correct. The best andrgest warrior was the camp leader, and if he won this fight, the secondrgest would take over the position. But there was an interesting tidbit found in there as well. Thergest would actually shrink a bit from turning down the fight, and the second would grow to the leader''s previous size when he took over.


    The whole species made very little sense to Max, but at least he could categorize how well they fought thanks to the evolutionary trait that granted extra size and muscle mass when they won a fight.


    The secondrgest warrior didn''te out alone. A lot of the vigers came out behind him to watch and formed a semi-circle around the pair, marking half the battlefield.


    Max and Khan came forward to mark the back lines on their side, and the Big Boss came out with a clean leather robe on and arge sceptre in his hand.

 Chapter 925 925 Challenge Accepted

    <h4>Chapter 925 925 Challenge epted</h4>


    The big boss cleared his throat and spoke in a surprisingly smooth voice, different from his shouting voice.


    "This warrior thinks that he has what it takes to beat the metal warrior Champion I lost to inbat. If he wins, he''s the strongest of us. If he loses, he dies, and his spores will fertilize the soil to try again.


    Now, get to fighting. I want to see someone chopped up today, one way or the other."


    Nico raised her sword in a salute to her opponent, who raised his two-handed de over his head and roared a challenge that echoed through the trees.


    In an instant, they were on each other. de met de, and the bulky Myceloid proved to be incredibly agile, well beyond the standard for humans. Even Huntress Khan was impressed by the early battle prowess of the second inmand as his de bounced off Nico''s, and he used the momentum to spin around behind her with a hard chop toward her midsection.


    Nico twisted her wrist, flipping her de behind her back in a graceful arc that stopped the attack instantly. Then, she spun under her arm, keeping the de in ce as she turned to face the Myceloid, who was aiming a kick up at her face.


    The fist of her Mecha met the mighty green foot of her opponent with a sickening crunch that let everyone know that something had broken inside the fleshy body.


    The two opponents disengaged as Nico took the chance to judge her opponent''s level of injury and n her next attack, but only for an instant before she was on him again, thrusting forward with her de to force him back and put his weight on the damaged foot.


    The thrust was knocked aside, but an overhand chop followed it, then another thrust as Nico pushed her advantage and her opponent faltered, losing his footing.


    For three more strikes, he managed to parry from the ground, and then he took the first real blow of the battle, allowing a deep cut down his left arm as he rolled back to get room to return to his feet.


    Already, his foot was healing, and he wasn''t limping as badly, but now he was bleeding heavily, and it was clear that the injured arm was not doing its part in his two-handed attacks.


    His de work had be slightly clumsy, and his recoveries slower, allowing Nico''s next barrage to graze him two more times, with the de cutting jagged wounds in his body.


    The cruel de made even a small scratch a major injury as it tore the flesh, and Nico was relentless, hacking away at the Myceloid as fast as her Mecha could move.


    The spectators in the crowd were roaring in appreciation for the spectacle, even though their side was losing the battle by a wide margin. Max listened to their thoughts, making sure they weren''t going to be ambushed once the fight was over, but the mood of the crowd was leaning toward survival of the fittest.


    He had epted the challenge in an attempt to one-up the leader, so it was his own fault if he lost.


    Nico deftly dodged under a high strike, and everyone knew that the battle was about to end. Her Mecha rotated, tearing up the hard-packed dirt and grass, and her de cleanly severed her opponent at the waist, dropping him to the ground in two pieces, with the upper half muttering unintelligible curses at her for a few more seconds before falling silent.


    The crowd cheered for the end of a good fight and then turned to their leader for the official pronouncement.


    "I hereby dere that you lot are the toughest and roughest, rowdiest fighters in town." He announced while the crowd stomped on the ground in recognition.


    "Now Sod off, we''ve got work to do getting stronger."


    [You heard the man. You''ve had your challenge. Now it''s time to find another one. Huntress Khan, you are up next if we can get another challenge epted.]


    The Huntress had arrived in one of the smallest ss of Hunter Suits, their equivalent of a Mobile Suit at five metres tall, so she was roughly the same size as the Line Mecha, though a bit more slender.


    The Myceloids shouldn''t get upset if she were the one who challenged them next. They took things like ranking very seriously, so letting a smaller and weaker opponent fight when there were better options for a challenge was a direct insult to their group and would result in a muchrger-scale fight.


    Max calcted the route to the next vige with a good-sized Champion in sight and sent it to the others. They weren''t out to bully the weak. They were thinning out the elite ranks of the Myceloids in a way that wouldn''t change the day''s new status quo.


    That meant that they would pass by a few more viges before they got to their target, but from what he could see, the chance that they would be attacked was fairly low.


    The first vige that they passed only looked up to make sure that they weren''t going to attack, and Max made detailed notes of theyout so he couldpare it to others they saw. It appeared to be chaotic, but there might be some sort of pattern that he simply hadn''t noticed the first time.


    The second one didn''t seem to have anything inmon with the first. They had built a dirt and stone wall simr to the fortifications around the Hunters'' Camp, and the tents were set up in concentric circles, making them somewhat more organized.


    After that was one without walls but with a ring of warriors on duty and one that seemed to be just a farm, without any sort of defence system at all.


    It all felt very normal and domestic until they got to their target, and Max started to see the pattern emerging. The biggest and strongest were the most warlike, and the smaller ones obeyed. But when separated, they all had different tasks to do for the long term sustainability of the species.


    Max still had questions about logistics and hierarchy, but the thick stone walls in front of them said that it was time for Khan to call out her opponent.

 Chapter 926 926 Khan鈥檚 Pride

    <h4>Chapter 926 926 Khan''s Pride</h4>


    Huntress Khan stepped forward and yelled at the guards on therge stone wall in front of them. "You, the scrawny being on the wall. Go fetch me your best warrior, I want a decent fight."


    The guards all looked around at each other for a second, clearly insulted at being called scrawny, but eventually, the smallest of them was sent to get the leader of the camp.


    This Myceloid wasn''t quite as big as the leader from thest camp, but he was still a fine specimen of the species, standing a full head taller than his peers and looking quite capable of going toe to toe with a Line Mecha.


    "Who''s that calling my boys scrawny? Your armour is so thin it might blow away in the breeze, so you must be right puny inside." The leader shouted as he reached the wall.


    "Well, we couldn''t send our biggest warriors here for some nobody campmander. Come out here and give me a proper fight. I''ll show you what a real warrior fights like." Khan retorted.


    In reality, Khan was one of thergest Hunters, butpared to this species, they were quite lean and rather short.


    The Myceloidmanderughed and hopped over the wall, moving the shotgun in his hand to a holster on his back and taking out a pair of hand axes.


    "You hear that, boys? We found one who wants to challenge a Boss. This is going to be good." Heughed.


    Once he was close enough that their des could nearly touch if both opponents reached out, The Commander gave Khan a toothy grin.


    "I hope you know the rules. A challenge is a challenge. Only one of us walks away."


    Khan nodded. "It wouldn''t be any fun otherwise."


    The twin axes of the Myceloid champion proved to be an incredibly deadlybination, and right from the start, the Hunter Suit was struggling to keep up. While this Boss wasn''t asrge as the second inmand that Nico had fought, the rippling muscles of its body proved to be hiding an incredibly agile physique.


    "Oh, this should be good. Who would have thought that with a body like that, he would be an agility-type fighter?" Nico asked as Khan''s de batted away another flurry of attacks.


    "It just goes to show that we shouldn''t underestimate the hidden skills that these fighters possess. A mass battle doesn''t really let them shine, but one-on-one it looks like they have a lot of hidden skills.


    It''s just a shame that we had to see them fall in suchrge numbers first before we had a chance to see them duel. It really built up a poor impression of them that they didn''t deserve." Max agreed.


    The duel wore on as both sides struggled to get the upper hand. The Myceloid was actually proving to be faster than the Hunter suit, while Khan was the more skilled fighter, and all of the wounds that they had inflicted on each other were superficial and quickly healed by the self-repair function of the Hunter Suit''s biomechanical exterior and the Boss''s innate healing.


    None of the Myceloids minded at all, though. An even fight was a good fight, and they had brought out some sort of roast meat to snack on while they sat and stood around watching the duel go on.


    They weren''t even cheering for their own side anymore. They cheered for every good strike, jeered andughed at every misstep, and the sense of pure joy that they were exuding at the fifteen-minute long battle was rapidly improving Max''s mood.


    It was just impossible to stay mad when there were so many happy thoughts in his mind, and Max had confidence that skill would prevail, allowing Khan to take advantage of a misstep to defeat her enemy.


    For another hour, the furious duel wore on, and Max could tell that both opponents were beginning to get tired. Soon, the battle would be ended, he was certain.


    Then, a smaller Myceloid with a long cape and a headdress of broken weapon parts stepped forward from the rest of the crowd.


    "It is dark now. The rules say that a daytime fight is a daytime fight, and a night fight is a night fight. If you all want to keep fighting, you need to start over." He announced.


    The twobatants stepped away from each other, and Max could sense Huntress Khan''s confusion. This was supposed to be a battle to the death, were they really going to start over with the challenge just because it got dark?


    The big Myceloid she was fighting nodded in agreement with the strangely dressed one and gave Khan a salute with his weapons.


    "There is only one challenge per day, soe back another time if you want to see if you can win a night fight." He dered.


    "Yeah. Come back again. You lot started way toote in the day. We weren''t finished watching that yet." Someone in the crowd roared, making the othersugh.


    They weren''t joking, either. They were greatly enjoying watching the fight, and none of them had expected that the Hunter would be able to keep up with their Boss for so long that it would get dark.


    It was the best fight they had seen in a long time, and none of them were ready to see it end.


    "Your axes are good weapons. I enjoyed this fight." Khan informed her opponent with amusement in her voice.


    "Your little de isn''t bad either. It needs to be more choppy, though. You''ll never get through my hide that way." The Boss retorted.


    "Then I will bring a bigger one next time we meet." Khan dered, then walked away from the fighting circle, where their battle had torn apart the earth and turned the region into a churned y pit.


    "Let''s go back to camp. I need to get a bigger sword, and we''ve fought enough for the day. My apologies for taking up all the time that we had." Khan sighed.


    Max waved off her apology. "Don''t worry about it. It was an incredible fight, and I''m not sure that even one of our Mecha can be faster than a Hunter Suit. That wasn''t going to be an easy fight to win no matter who issued the challenge."

 Chapter 927 927 Is This Civilized

    ?


    It was nearly midnight when they returned to the camp, and Max was ready to get out of his Mecha and take a proper shower.


    It was one of the great drawbacks of being in a Line Mecha instead of a Super Heavy or Titan ss unit. He had gotten used to having all the amenities at his fingertips and a nice,fortable bed. But while the seats in the Line Mecha were designed to be perfectly ergonomic, and you wouldn''t get stiff or sore from sitting in them for long periods of time, it wasn''t the same as being able to stand up and stretch your legs, ory down in a nicefortable bed for the evening without leaving the safety of your Mecha.


    Both Nico and Huntress Khan were in a great mood when they gathered at themunal showers that evening, and there were plenty of Huntresses waiting outside to hear all the details of how challenging the Bosses of the camps went.


    They wouldn''t judge Khan harshly for not being able to defeat the enemy. In fact, they viewed it as an honour to find a target that you could not defeat and challenge it anyhow. In the Huntress mindset, the only real way to grow and advance your skills was to challenge someone stronger than you and live to learn from the experience.


    Khan had definitely done that. If she hadn''t been in the Hunter Suit, there would have been no contest at all. But the pure speed of that overgrown Myceloid was enough to shock everyone who was listening to her story while she showered.


    Khan paused, framing her thoughts on how to exin the next part of the battle, so Nico jumped in with her observations. Her tone was light and joking, reminding everyone that she wasn''t looking down on the Huntress. But her words definitely didn''t make it sound like the fight was in her favour.


    "I wish you all could have been there. I have footage of the fight, but to see that axe work in person was something that everyone should experience. Right from the start, Khan was on the defensive against the double attacks. That Boss is definitely ambidextrous, and the flow of his attacks was impable.


    It was like a conductor leading an orchestra of battle, and Huntress Khan was the one dancing to his rhythm. One single de and a Hunter Suit that wasn''t as fast as her opponent had her doing nothing but evasive footwork and minimalist parries for the first few minutes of the battle.


    But the best part is that she managed to hold on so long that Max didn''t even get to issue a challenge today. The two of us took all day to get through our fights." Nicoughed.


    The Huntresses giggled at that. It was one of the most annoying experiences that could happen while hunting in a group. Everyone else you were with found their targets, and then you were left without anything to fight, just watching everyone else.


    Even worse than that, everyone else would have a great story to tell when they got back, and the best you could say was that you were there to witness it.


    For the Huntresses, it was tantamount to torture.


    Khan finished her story with the description of the strange Myceloid with the spare parts headband that came and stopped the fight, and the listeners burst intoughter.


    "Do you think that is their cultural uniform for a referee? Or perhaps he''s some sort of weapons technician, and it marks his position within society?" One of the Senior Huntresses asked.


    Khan shrugged. "It could be either. We didn''t get a chance to ask since it was already dark, and we wanted to get back to camp before something happened, and we ended up fighting a night battle out in the open with only five hundred Mecha."


    The other Huntresses nodded. "They have started to change their practices, but even more than that, it seems like they''re gaining a level of civilization that they didn''t have before.


    They were mostly just existing when we arrived through the Anomaly, primitive and without any sort of real defensive weapons. Most of them barely showed signs of intelligence.


    Even a few days ago, they were more of a hive mind. The strongest of them did all the thinking and gave the orders while the others just followed along."


    There was a lot of intense discussion on the topic, and even footage and data sets were brought out to support the various interpretations of the level of civilization that these creatures had before they arrived and when it changed.


    Max looked over the data and realized they had a point. When he had opened the portal to the otheryer, and the being that was overseeing the battle there had noticed him, some of that immense power seemed to have bled through to the Myceloids here and given them a level of cunning and organization that theycked in previous engagements.


    [It''s like they went from being nothing but brutes to Cunning Brutes. I like it. They''re perfectly at one with their nature as a species.] Nico was thinking as she listened to the Huntresses talk about the change.


    Max thought that was an excellent description. They were missing the cunning aspect of their nature before. Now that they had it and were starting to organize a civilization of sorts, it was likely that they would start fighting in an entirely new way.


    "It''s like they went from the Stone Age to the industrial revolution in a matter of seconds," Max suggested. That was the most urate way that he could describe how they had changed, with the new structures that they were building and the move from simply wandering the world to building fortified viges and establishing moreplex leadership.


    Huntress Khan nodded. "I think we might be seeing the birth of a new civilization in the most unconventional way possible."

 Chapter 928 928 Internal Strife

    ?


    The next morning started off with a strange bit of news from the teams who were watching the scouting feeds from the various drones that the Hunters had sent out to explore the area.


    A lot of them had been shot down by the Myceloids, who seemed to take great joy in chasing after and shooting them. Not because they saw them as an actual threat but simply because they could chase and shoot at them.


    "Is it just me, or do they kind of remind anyone of dogs with guns? Vicious ones, but that simple joy and dedication to everything that they do has a very domesticated dog sort of quality to it." Nico asked the meeting room full of Huntresses the moment that she walked in.


    "I don''t think that you''re wrong. There might be better animals topare them to, but they do seem to just enjoy everything that they do wholeheartedly. There isn''t any sort of lingering malice behind their actions that I can detect.


    Max here is nearly as good as an Illithid, so we should ask him. Commander Max, do you sense any lingering bias in their thoughts or possibly an ingrained sense of superiority or species istionism?" One of the Huntresses asked.


    Max shook his head. "None. Even when we went to challenge, their only thoughts were that we probably weren''t worthy since we needed to use Mecha to be asrge as them. For their species, size equals both power and increased intelligence, so the leader is naturally the biggest, toughest and smartest.


    I don''t want to make them sound like they''ve got the perfect culture, but we''ve all seen what happens when we let societies vote for politicians based on empty promises."


    The women burst intoughter at that. Huntresses were chosen to lead because of their skill and aplishments. There was an aspect of politics to it, but if you didn''t have the personal achievements to back up your ideology, then you would beughed off of any stage where you tried to assert your right to lead.


    For that reason, many young Huntresses with great ambitions would go on solo missions to build up their reputation. If you went with a more senior Huntress, you would end up in the background of their achievements during the mission unless they deliberately helped you get ahead and sent you to do tasks alone, but with them to back you up if you failed.


    It was a good system, Max thought. Unfortunately, it was not without its own issues since the best Hunters weren''t always the best group leaders, but that was where the voting aspect came in. When there was more than one person qualified for the job, the group would decide who was the better person for the task, and in most cases, the other would also be given a position that was better suited to them.


    [Leaders, look at the feed from grid C24, Subsection X8.] One of the observation team members announced over the building''s inte.


    All of the Senior Huntresses at the meeting turned one of their screens to the situation unfolding, then backed it up by a minute so they could see it from the start.


    Tworge Myceloids got into a fight inside one of the camps, and then the crowd gathered and ushered them both outside the walls. They formed the same sort of circle around the battle, making the same fifty-metre arena for the Challenge that they had for the Challenges that Nico and Khan had issued.


    "A leadership challenge? Oh, this should be a rare treat." Khan mused.


    The two Myceloids were roughly the same size, both of them close to four metres tall and both heavily muscled.


    But when Max zoomed in on the feed, he could see that one had a brutish set to his stance and expression while the other shiftedfortably. If he had to guess, that would be the challenger, and he clearly had a n for how to win this fight.


    Being roughly the same size, they should be closely matched in aplishments, but if one of them was a lot older, the other might easily ovee him. Max had no real way of judging their ages, but the way that the one being challenged dragged his weapon had a very caveman sort of vibe that suggested he was from one of the earlier generations.


    Anotherrge Myceloid, not up to the standards of the other two but stillrger than the average, stepped in between to referee, speaking some words to each. Half of his face was mangled and scarred, and one arm was regrowing, being much thinner than the other.


    That intrigued Max, as it meant that they could inflict permanent damage that the creatures couldn''t heal. He just had to learn how.


    The older Myceloid finished his instructions, while Max wished that the drone was in range to get audio recordings. It had a microphone, but if it got that close, it would get shot at relentlessly by the Myceloids.


    The mangled referee stepped back, and the battle started. As Max had expected, the one being challenged fought in a more brutish and simple manner, while the other was definitely more cunning. It wasn''t going to matter for long, though. The current leader wasn''t as dumb as he looked, and everyone watching in the Command room could see that he was baiting a trap for his challenger to outsmart himself.


    Nicoughed in appreciation as the trap was sprung. The challenger knocked the leader''s club far to the side with his foot and charged in with his sword, leaving himself off bnce while driving his de deep into the older Myceloid''s stomach. But the old leader had set him up.


    He let go of the club as soon as it started to fly outward, avoiding having his hand thrown out of position, and grabbed the challenger by the head,cing his fingers together and crushing the skull of the challenger like an overripe melon.


    He was severely wounded by the de still hanging from his stomach, but the fight was over. Experience had prevailed, and the leader had proven himself the strongest of the bunch.

 Chapter 929 929 When It Rains

    <h4>Chapter 929 929 When It Rains</h4>


    Just after that battle finished, thick ck clouds rolled in, turning day to night in an instant before torrential rains began to fall.


    [Everyone, get to elevated positions. The maintenance team on duty is verifying the integrity of the drainage trenches.] The camp''s inte announced.


    "Is it that bad?" Max asked Khan, who sighed and double-checked the door of the modr building that they were sitting in.


    "It''s much worse in some areas. But we are on top of a hill here by the Anomaly, so it''s not as bad as it could be. This whole region is known to flood when the rain continues for more than a day or two.


    If you check the locations of the Myceloid camps, you will find that they are all on hills as well. It''s not for defence against attacks but against the weather. When these storms start, electromaic interference is so strong thatmunications be difficult, and rains over ten centimetres per hour for periods of over a day aremon.


    There really isn''t much to do but sit it out in safety, so you might as well stay here in the Command Room. Your Mecha are right outside if you need them, and there are beds and replicators in here, so we don''t need to go anywhere until the skies clear up." Khan exined.


    "What about the defence lines? The front line is in a trench outside the walls." Max asked.


    "That''s part of the drainage system. They get relocated behind the wall when it rains, and the trenches be a fast-flowing moat. It''s very effective at repelling invaders, we have found, so it''s not really a loss to our fortifications to move the Mecha out of it during heavy rain." Huntress Khan exined.


    Max checked the topography of the area and noticed that this area wasn''t really a hill but actually part of a ridgeline that drained from higher nearby hills and down into ake only a few kilometres away.


    If his rudimentary calctions were correct, not only would thatke be a valuable sink to absorb all the excess water when it fell, keeping the groundwater tables high, but it would also be incredibly dangerous in the days surrounding arge rainfall.


    A matter of hours could change the water level by multiple metres, and there were some Myceloid camps that weren''t all that far above the currentke level in elevation.


    But that, too, would be an important test of leadership for the Myceloids now that they were building permanent structures. A leader was expected to bring their people to safety. If they couldn''t even pick a spot well enough that they didn''t get flooded out during the first major rainfall, it would be aplete failure on their part and possibly enough to see them challenged if their group survived the floods.


    "How are the winds? Should we call back the Drone Bombers?" Nico asked as she adjusted the patrol patterns of the small aircraft.


    "They''re not usually too intense for military equipment. But they often get over eighty kilometres an hour. I think that the Drones should be safe to remain in the sky mechanically, but the interference from the lightning is going to make it hard for them to keep flying under remote control."


    Khan had a point. The drones were running on a basicputer program to identify routes and targets, with operators who scanned the data and directed the camera feeds as they became relevant. So, they were likely to lose control of them in the storm, and without oversight, there was no telling what they would determine was an attack.


    A group of bodies being washed down the hills by the rain might trigger a full-scale bombardment, even though they were weeks old. It was better to bring them back until they could be certain that the Drones were under proper control.


    One after another, the small nes returned to the hangar where they were created and parked for the duration of the storm, leaving the camp to rely on the sensors of the Hunter Suits for their information.


    The lightning started as quickly as the clouds had formed, lighting up the sky in a hundred shades of purple and blue, with a bit of green. Then the rains began, muting all the colour with a torrential sheet of water that hammered down on all of the structures and everything left outside.


    "I hope those tents they built are stronger than they look. The rain here is strange, and it doesn''t seem to be following terminal velocity as I understand it." Max muttered.


    Nico chuckled and sent him some data. It wasn''t that the rain was behaving abnormally. It was the gravity on the. It was nearly twice the Kepler standard, and Max simply hadn''t noticed the change because the effects on his own movements were so slight that they hadn''t drawn his attention.


    "Well, that exins it. With twice standard gravity, of course, the rain would hit harder. Now I am genuinely curious about how the structures of the Myceloids are going to hold up."


    Khan shrugged. "They might look crude, but they are made with the same thing that makes Myceloid bones, so the structure of them is really quite durable. They might not bepletely waterproof in this level of downpour, but if they''re well ced, there is no reason that they should be destroyed by the impact of rainfall, even if it''s falling as densely as this.


    "I''ve been in showers that didn''t have this sort of flow rate. But it''s not as bad as you had feared it would get yet, so I guess we will have to wait and see whether this is going to be a bad storm or just a shy one." Max agreed.


    "Personally, I''m more interested in the lightning. It should all be uniform colours at uniform altitudes within the same storm. It shouldn''t change colours like that as it arcs between clouds unless there is an imbnce in the atmosphericposition. We should run more tests to see if there is something about this ce that we missed." Nico suggested.


    It was better than just sitting around and waiting.


    "Grab a seat, and let''s pull up the sensor data we already have." Khan agreed with a smile.

 Chapter 930 930 It Pours

    <h4>Chapter 930 930 It Pours</h4>


    Over the course of the next few hours, the rain turned from heavy to downpour to a nation-sized waterfall. Khan''s predictions of what the rain might be like were proving to be woefully inadequate, and only the fact that they had used Hunter technology to build a reinforced retaining wall behind the trenches was keeping the camp frompletely flooding.


    The lightning was constant and seemed to be getting worse, but they couldn''t detect anything above cloud level with their sensors, so it was making it very difficult for Nico and Khan to do a proper analysis.


    The scene looked a bit familiar to Max, though. When the Rebel Fleet hadmitted to arge-scale orbital bombardment while Max and his team were guarding a bridge, there was lightning and rainfall like this.


    It had flooded everything around him to the point that even the Line Mecha were in danger, and anything downhill from his position becamepletely impassible thanks to the current and depth.


    The only problem was that if there was an orbital or high atmospheric battle going on, they had no way to detect it and no way to defend against stray attacks that might being their way.


    "You know, multiple technologies deploying energy weapons in the upper atmosphere would also cause lightning like that." He suggested to the two more focused people in the room.


    Khan turned her smooth, golden-masked face to look at Max. "We''re trying very hard not toe to that conclusion. Because that conclusion isn''t an answer, it''s the start of a whole new series of questions. Ones like [What species can travel betweens without a Warp Drive] and [Who the feth is fighting above our heads], and those are questions that we really don''t want to deal with either now orter.


    So, we''re trying to find an atmospheric answer and some sort of proper prediction for how much rainfall we are going to get.


    The Myceloids didn''t even expect this much, and the camps, which are still in sensor range, are all building up earthen bulwarks to prevent flooding, except for that one with the stone wall where I fought the leader. He built a secondary earth wall as soon as we left."


    The water running down out of the hills was turning into a raging river and not anything that Max would associate with traditional runoff. A lot of it was flowing down the sides of the ridgeline, but the force of it was carving out the top of the hill and sending even more water their way.


    "Should we have artillery dig a trench to divert the flow into theke? There are no more camps left down there. They''ve all either left or flooded." Nico suggested.


    "I think that''s for the best. Let''s keep the camp as dry as possible. I would rather not test the durability of our construction materials today when I know that the flood waters are perfectly capable of undercutting them since we didn''t build down to bedrock. We just set the structures on the ground." Khan agreed.


    With the constant booming of thunder, Max barely noticed when the artillery started. But when he looked at the sensor feeds around the camp, he could tell that the bombardment was working after only a few minutes of artillery fire.


    The waters flowing toward them were beginning to recede, and the moat around the camp was no longer inching its way up the inner wall.


    For a few minutes, it seemed like they were going to have to activate the barrier around the camp to keep the water out, which would attract a lot of unwanted attention. Well, there was a chance it wouldn''t, but that would mean that the ships in orbit were too busy to notice, and that was a possibility that they were doing their very best to ignore right now.


    The waterfall that formed when the rainfall was diverted by the artillery was a thing of beauty. They had chosen a nearly vertical section of hillside since the rock was more stable there and wouldn''t cause an avnche orpletely change the topography once the water started flowing.


    So, for fifty metres, a massive amount of water fell straight down into theke, carving out a portion of theke bottom and leaving much of the surrounding area under less water than it had been only minutes earlier.


    [Mission Aplished. Artillery, you may return to your storage areas.] The base inte informed them, and Max noticed that even that had a distinctive crackle.


    It was in time with the lightning, even though the technology was far more advanced than anything that should have been influenced by such a thing unless it was incredibly close.


    "Did you hear the crackle in the speakers? I think we''re getting a maic field buildup in the camp due to all the metallic alloys in our equipment. If we don''t start to disperse it, we''re going to end up as one huge lightning rod." He reminded them.


    Nico ran some quick calctions and then gave him a thumbs up.


    "Fear not, I have a solution. A very low emission st from the Disintegrator will fix the energy buildup, and then we shouldn''t have to worry as much about the storm. We can repeat it as necessary if the rains don''t stop tonight."


    Before she could put her n into action, the first strike hit the camp, followed by a second. Both impacted on Super Heavy, 20-metre height ss Hunter Suits, whose shields held against the surge.


    Khan checked the damage reports and then brought them up on the screen.


    "There is some damage to the ground around them, but both were standing in the open, and the strikes neutralized the buildup. The lightning here is strange, but it was no worse than an Ion Destroyer st, so the Hunter Suits won''t have any trouble dealing with it.


    There won''t be a need to raise a full barrier over the camp as long as they keep working as our lightning collectors." She announced.


    "I think we will owe whoever is inside them a drink though."

 Chapter 931 931 Changed Landscape

    <h4>Chapter 931 931 Changed Landscape</h4>


    For the next three days, the rainfall was constant, never relenting from its intense downpour, and thendscape of the entire region was rapidly beginning to change.


    First, theke in the valley had swollen to be more of an ind sea, stretching for hundreds of kilometres, and then the flow of the flood waters had started to carve deep furrows into thend, directing their flow through the path of least resistance.


    None of that was unexpected with a monumental rainfall like this. What was unexpected was what began to happen when the rain relented on the fourth day. Strange alien nts began to grow all over the region, and a deep shuddering began far below the crust of the.


    "Are we about to experience a continental shift?" Nico wondered out loud.


    The phenomenon was rare, but there were a fews in Kepler, as well as in Max''s memory, which underwent periods of massive continental drift on a somewhat regr basis, measured in the hundreds of thousands of years instead of the billions.


    Usually, it was caused by an imbnce in the materials of their mantle, or core, and when it shifted, all the continents would be suddenly rearranged, leaving the whole world looking differently.


    If that happened here, there was no telling what would happen to the Anomaly. It seemed tidally locked to the current spot on the instead of stationary in space like the other, but that might not remain true if the surface of the underwent massive changes.


    "Send up the drones and see what we can find out. Even if you have to risk sending them to higher altitudes to get a better view of the." Max ordered Nico, who hurried to get their scouting abilities back into operation.


    The three of them watched as the dronesunched directly into an expanded scout pattern, with four of them spreading out and headed for low orbit. If they could get most of the way there, then they could send back detailed images of the whole, which the Hunters hadn''t managed to obtain in weeks.


    "Is this the same asst week?" Khan asked in confusion.


    She brought up the topographical map, and Max noticed that not only had all of the river systems changed due to the floods, but almost all the hills had been reced, and part of the mountain range was gone. If they hadn''t been here for the rain, it would be normal to think that they were on an entirely different continent.


    "The drones are reaching orbit uncontested. Checking for orbital threats." Nico informed them as she finished the routing for her Drones.


    One after another, the four drones fell into lowary orbit, circling the, but there were no ships to be found. There was a lot of space debris up here, but no sign of any active vessels.


    "Could it have been a battle of mutual annihtion? If some enemy had won, wouldn''t they haveunched a surface attack?" Khan wondered.


    "Unless they can''tnd on this surface? Not all species we encountered here are suitable for this sort of environment." Max suggested.


    "But then, why attack at all?"


    That was the question of the day. Nobody knew who was fighting up here if anyone. Nor did they know where the victors went or if any of them had even survived.


    "I have signs of orbital bombardment. Early indicators suggest that was the cause of the earthquakes. The did undergo a minor tectonic shift, but not of this continent. The one that was targeted suffered a seven-metre northward shift and was subsumed by the surrounding tes, causing it to drop nearly thirty metres."


    Max and Khan nodded. That sort of shift was enough to be felt anywhere on the. If they had been even remotely close to the impacted te, they would have suffered far worse than a few damaged wall sections and toppled storage rooms.


    "Is there any sign of what was there before the attack?" Max asked hopefully.


    "Nothing. But I can tell you a lot about the Orbital Lance that was used. It was a directed Ion beam, simr to the old Kepler Ion Destroyer technology used on Heavy Mecha. It looks like Ionized Nitrogen, suggesting that they came from a simr environment to us or used this''s atmosphere as the source material for their weapon.


    Damage estimates suggest that the impact speed was far higher, and the energy content was more dense than an upscaled version of the traditional Kepler Ion Destroyer as well.


    I would call this apletely different version of the Ion weapon than what we have encountered in the past, but I have just sent the data to the Cutter to analyze against known patterns.


    Frankly, we are lucky that the didn''t shatter under the force of the impact." Nico finished.


    Max and Khan turned to each other, and Max voiced what they were both thinking.


    "Have theputer run an analysis on the probability that this storm was the result of atmospheric disturbance due to repeated orbital bombardment.


    As we didn''t have sensor data from that continent at the time, it is possible that there was a whole battle going on that we were unaware of, and we didn''t even know who was fighting. It could even be two factions of Myceloids."


    That got Nico extra excited. The thought that their enemy was a splinter faction meant that there were more of them out there somewhere, and they should all be just asbat-loving as these ones. The thought that they were the native inhabitants of this world and only native to this world was a bit depressing to her. They were far too grand of an opponent to be relegated to obscurity.


    "I am on it. But in the meantime, we have a lot of orbital data topile and send to the other Commanders. We should start with the local situation since we''re essentially starting over on a fresh world with the same enemies."

 Chapter 932 932 Finally, Data

    <h4>Chapter 932 932 Finally, Data</h4>


    The next half a day was a blur as more and more data from the drones started to filter in, and the Hunters camp got a good picture of the situation across this world.


    Compared to the rest of the, the torrential rains that had reshaped most of the continent that they were on were only a minor inconvenience. One continent waspletely barren after the Orbital Strike, and earthquakes had destroyed everything that might have survived the initial st.


    But the two continents nearest to it had been obliterated by a kilometre-high tidal wave caused by the shifting tectonic te. Only the intense heat of the st lingering in the upper atmosphere had saved this continent from the same fate by vaporizing much of the water.


    So, instead of crushing waves, they got crushing rain, which the rest of the was soon to receive once the upper atmosphere cooled.


    The side effects intrigued Nico.


    "I don''t think that they had ever used that weapon before. Or at least they don''t use it enough to consider refining it. The Orbital Lance does superheat the atmosphere around it and burn off a portion, but the beam is too stable to cause that kind of widespread global warming.


    If this sensor data is right, we can expect the temperatures to climb by over ten degrees Celcius overnight when the upper atmospheric winds carry the remaining heat here. That ispared to the currently elevated temperature, not the baseline from two days ago."


    Khan nodded in understanding. "About all these new nts. They''re Myceloid in origin, aren''t they?"


    Max and Nico both sighed in unison.


    "Yes, they are Myceloid, the same as what they have been cooking for meals. The whole continent has been remade with Myceloid food products in the aftermath of the flooding. It seems that all they needed was a lot of water and the native vegetation to be destroyed, and they would sprout and fill in the gaps.


    Fortunately, while they are gically simr, it doesn''t appear that the spores from the nts are capable of evolving into the Myceloids themselves.


    It was one of the first concerns that we had for a fungal species since they can often take on many appearances without a significant change to their internal structure."


    Khan chuckled at thatment. "I would say that at least they''re not cannibals, but they are. We''ve seen them eat the hearts of fallen challengers."


    Max looked over the logs and then brought up another file for them to consider.


    "Look at this. The air around the thicker new forests is changing. It looks like they''re purifying the air and taking in a massive amount of carbon dioxide at the moment. Not only that, but they are able to absorb other nutrients from the air.


    If they''re really not linked to the intelligent Myceloid species, I think that we might have a rather valuable newmodity on our hands." He suggested.


    Nico shook her head. "I don''t think that will be possible. Check out this sensor feed. The blooms are hosts for a species of non-sentient quadrupeds that look particrly violent. It seems that they are the pollinators for the forests, and they''re definitely not a species that the Alliance would dly wee onto their peace-lovings."


    Khanughed at the thought of those things being let loose on a as the pollinators for a new environmentally friendly nt. They seemed to be all teeth and attacked anything that moved, often including each other. They would be a disaster anywhere they existed, even here, once they started to spread out.


    "I wonder how the Myceloids deal with them? Do they make them pets or possibly food? They look like they''ve got a lot of meat on them. Or perhaps this is just the infant stage, and they grow intorge beasts of some sort." Khan mused.


    Nicoughed. "Can you imagine trying to get an oxen harness on one of those things to pull a wagon? Or perhaps we could attach them to a dog sled and let them pull gear that way?"


    The joking continued as they analyzed the changes to the, and then just after the sun came up the next morning, the Drones that they sent into low orbit noticed something very interesting above the as well as on it.


    It wasn''t the target of the sensors, but Max turned a Drone to get a better look when he saw what looked like worked metal with rivets in it floating in orbit among the massive amount of debris.


    That was not how most species made their space vessels, so it caught his attention, and the more that the Drone scanned it, the more clear it became that one of the destroyed ships over the was filled with Myceloids at the time of destruction.


    There were traces of their blood on some of the debris, along with weapons simr to the ones they were using on the.


    What wasn''t clear was who they were fighting and why the surface had taken such a punishment that they would risk breaking it apart.


    "Well, that''s one mystery down. If we examine the spread of the new nts and the strange pollinator species, we can see that it would have started over the dead continent and then spread with the rotation.


    In my estimation, that implies that the Myceloid ship was a Colony ship, and the destruction of their vessel sent the spores to the surface. With that in mind, the odds are good that we will see more species of both flora and fauna that are rted to them, and this will start adapting to the Myceliods'' natural habitat." Max informed the others.


    "Then this really is a game preserve now. It might not have been before, but this world has definitely just been colonized and terraformed by the Myceloids. Possibly unintentionally or against their will, but it is adapting to them all the same." Khan agreed.


    If someone tried to terraform a contested, Alliancew was clear. Much more aggressive defensive measures were allowed, and it could be viewed as an act of war. For the Hunters, that meant that the limits on their agreement with the Alliance would loosen, and they could start blocking the inspectors from the area for their own safety.


    It was a big win for all parties involved.

 Chapter 933 933 Myceloid Planet

    <h4>Chapter 933 933 Myceloid</h4>


    Once the rains had been stopped long enough that the ground started to stabilize and dry out enough for both the Hunters and everything else on the to start moving around, the Hunters called for amand meeting.


    "We all know why we''re here. We need a new n for how to maintain stability around the Anomaly, and there are far too many options for any single Huntress to make the call on her own.


    There are always a number of both offensive and defensive ns kept in reserve, so we can put some of them forward and implement changes to the defence strategy." The Senior Hunter who was making the group announcement dered.


    "There is a reason that they were kept in reserve and never implemented. It''s because they''re crap ns and not worth using if we have any other options at all." One of the other women in the room countered.


    Max could already tell that this was going to turn into a giant mess in about two minutes. None of the leaders wanted to admit they had put forth a genuinely bad idea, and none of them wanted fewer of their ideas used than one of their rivals.


    That did not lead to cooperative efforts or peaceful negotiation even at the best of times, and this was not the best of times, as they were watching the Myceloid viges rebuilding.


    With the unprecedented floods, they had taken heavy casualties, and they hadn''t spawned many recements yet, as far as Max could tell, but their viges were getting much more advanced as the new generation of smarter leaders took over.


    "Might I make a suggestion? If the issue is who put the idea forward, we can do a silent vote. Everyone will put forth an idea of their choice. Then, without consulting each other, each leader will judge every idea on its own merits, and the ones with the best ratings will be considered in a second round by the group.


    That way, we can get past the initial barriers of pride and reach some sort of consensus on the best way forward." Max suggested.


    "And if that leads to a stalemate?" One of the Hunters asked.


    "Then the parties with the dispute will solve it like proper and dignifieddies. With a bare-knuckle boxing match to the first fall."


    Nico and most of the Hunters smiled at each other and shared a knowing nod.


    "He''s learning fast for a male. No wonder the human women consider their opinions." Someone in the back joked.


    "He even found a truly vicious Champion to throw at problems that needed more than words. Commander Max''s logic is rather surprisingly astute." Huntress Khan agreed.


    "Maybe I should start trying to teach the male Hunters our ways." Max joked.


    "Oh, please do. I really want to see them try." Huntress Khan agreed, sending the whole room into raucousughter. Their men were half the women''s size or even smaller. If they decided to get physical to assert their opinions, the women would just take it as forey, and he would end up ignored all over again, but with a much happier partner.


    Their culture wasn''t well suited to people who didn''t stay in theirne.


    Huntress Khan raised her voice to cut through the noise. "Alright, everyone, start preparing the idea that you have in mind for the next week. We will do this againter if we need to, but for this week, we will do it as Commander Max suggested. Ignore everything that you have in reserve right now; it will stay there unless you submit it again and it gets picked."


    That silenced theughter pretty quickly as they all got to working up with an idea. Nico was working on one as well, and Max was going to, but only after a few minutes when he had time to glean the best parts of everyone else''s ideas from their minds andpile them into something of his own.


    The ideas would be presented anonymously to the group, so nobody would know at first whose great idea it was. Assuming that they also thought it was a great idea.


    The room worked in silence for the next few minutes, and then the Huntresses began to finalize their documents and send them to the data tablet that was being used as central storage.


    Once all the submissions were in, Khan randomized the file names to make them harder to identify and then sent them all out to everyone in the room.


    "When we average, we will drop the best and worst score from the rankings to eliminate the author and a rival who realized it was their n." She informed the room, earning herself a few notable res.


    There were definitely ns to zero star the ns that they had heard from rival Huntresses before.


    "Alright. Everyone, please check the idea ending in 001. We will rank that one first." Khan directed, taking charge of the meeting.


    There was a moment of silence as everyone read through it, and then they all smiled and turned to Nico.


    "I like this idea. It''s unconventional but very appealing." One of the Huntresses managed through herughter.


    Nico''s grand n was to bring more Hunters and highly skilled Mecha Pilots in, then send a team to challenge every single Myceloid vige on the Continent at the same time. Once they won the challenges, they would dere that they were in charge since they were the toughest, smartest and stabbiest ones in the world.


    The way that Myceloid culture went, there was a good chance that they could end the whole conflict in a day, and then they would have a neverending string of challenges as the biggest of them decided that maybe their boss wasn''t the toughest of them after all.


    She had even worked out the logistics and odds for her presentation. Max had to admit it wasn''t the dumbest thing that he was likely to hear in the next few hours. Far from it, actually. There were some genuinely bad ideasing up.

 Chapter 934 934 There are no Stupid Ideas

    <h4>Chapter 934 934 There are no Stupid Ideas</h4>


    The very next proposal was one that bordered on pure stupidity. It was actually shockingly bading from a Huntress, who had clearly gained practical experience in the field and had earned manybat des.


    When Max first read the proposal that stated their position should be to attempt to intimidate attacking forces with loud noises and shing lights, he wondered if the Huntress thought that the Myceloids were like somemon species of nuisance birds that could be chased away with noise makers.


    The thought waspletely illogical. They shouted war chants and banged their weapons together as they ran. If anything, they would wee the additional noise so they knew they were going in the right direction while stuck in the middle of an attacking horde.


    The next few were decent ideas, simple and solid, with basic base defence and various priorities for attacks. Nothing wrong with them, but all six out of ten generic ideas.


    Khan''s idea was a less extreme version of Nico''s idea. To send out a champion to challenge the nearby viges'' leaders and either take them in as vassals or wipe them out as weaklings and cowards, depending on their response.


    It would keep the area clear of major threats, and they would be able to secure the Anomaly in rtive peace.


    Other ideas suggested that the change in the Myceloids'' behaviour represented a chance for diplomacy. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with that n, but the challenges were Myceloid diplomacy. Only the strong had the right to speak, and since they weren''t of the same species, you would have to prove yourself first.


    That meant that the proposals for negotiations were basically the same as the ones to issue challenges. The only difference was how they were worded.


    "It looks like we''re all close to being on the same page," Nicomented after the sixth straight suggestion that was some version of challenging the leaders to make them do what they want.


    Even Max couldn''t say for sure that it wouldn''t work, but he suspected that the chances of it were pretty low. The Myceloids might recognize you as the strongest, but you still weren''t one of them, and they wouldn''t have outsiders take over their viges.


    Then came another of the questionable ideas. The proposal was to disguise all of their hunter suits as Myceloids and pretend to be just another Myceloid vige with really big leaders. They only challenged the ones they thought that they could beat, as far as the intelligence showed, so if they had Hunter Suits twice the size of any leader, then the Myceloids should see them and back off.


    Ignoring the fact that the Myceloids already knew where the Hunters were, since there was a chance that with the rearranged continent, they might have lost their bearings, there was some small chance that they would fall for the deception. But there was also the chance that they would either want to repeatedly challenge for a position in this mighty camp or would expect them to take up a leadership role.


    That would be impossible as they didn''t understand enough about the culture, rules or even thenguage to effectively lead the Myceloids, who might have fallen for their disguise.


    Worse, the others would begin to wonder why this camp was hostile and didn''t interact with them, and that could provoke even morerge-scale attacks.


    Then, they got to Max''s suggestion. It wasn''t all that different from some of the others but with a slightly different tactic. Instead of reacting to the presence of the Myceloids, he suggested that they send out roaming teams with a Champion.


    The Drone Bombers would keep the region clear, and whenever something came within their perimeter, the patrols would greet them first and challenge their leader to determine if he was worthy of setting foot in their territory. It would keep them from doing a mass assault, as the Challenges would send the smaller groups away after they lost, and it would give them a muchrger established territory.


    Every time a group moved out, they could expand the perimeter and pick fights with anyone who tried to rece them.


    The big difference was that Max didn''t intend to keep everyone in the camp. He wanted to have the roaming patrols take over the Myceloid camps that were abandoned and then fill them with Android Pilots so that the patrol could move on again and the location could be secured with both terrestrial and aerial forces.


    The most aggressive tactic definitely went to Nico, but Max''s was well up the ranks, and the Hunters seemed to be quite agreeable to his take-and-hold style ofbat.


    "This one''s not bad. Even if we don''t challenge them, we take their built camps when they move on and make them part of our territory. I think that might make them also formrger ns, though." One of the Huntresses suggested.


    That was a possibility, but it was also part of the reason that Max wanted the smaller viges. Spreading out their troops would encourage multiple smaller attacks to take individual locations. But it would also disguise their total numbers while they built up an entire Regiment of Android-piloted Mecha.


    Nico looked over the n and frowned. "I only see one problem. I''m not sure that we have enough champions. At first, it will be fine, but we will need a real champion and not just androids at every location, and that means we are going to need more Hunters eventually.


    I''m not sure how many we have that are capable of fighting and winning in a solo battle against the stronger Myceloid champions."


    That could be an issue. Their troops could retreat if another force took their leader out, but that still meant casualties. The suggestion didn''t sit well with the Huntresses, though. They had a lot of pride, so the idea that they couldn''t win against a Myceloid camp leader had a lot of them riled up, and the fights hadn''t even started.

 Chapter 935 935 Only Stupid People

    <h4>Chapter 935 935 Only Stupid People</h4>


    The past few ideas looked especially boring after seeing Max''s n, and they were only briefly discussed before being relegated to the six out of ten pile of boring.


    The Hunters all agreed that they were ideas worth keeping, but none of them really inspired the group of leaders.


    That left Max, Nico and Khan in the lead, though most of the room didn''t know it. Pretty much everyone knew Nico was one of the three because they all knew her personality pretty well, but Max and Khan had both submitted solid ideas that didn''t immediately give them away.


    "I still think that blending in with the locals for an infiltration strategy deserved more consideration." One of the Huntersined before being shouted down by her peers.


    "How are we supposed to infiltrate them, you idiot? They can literally see us standing here. Did you think they would forget we existed after all those battles just because we changed outfits?"


    The chastisement continued for a few minutes until the Huntress relented, and then everyone settled in to discuss the top ideas.


    "First, how do we pick a leader if we''re going to consolidate all these camps in one way or another? We can''t run that many different locations bymittee."


    Nico raised her hand. "I vote we chose leadership by the power-to-weight ratio."


    The whole room shook withughter and the pounding of hands upon tables as the leaders solidified the sheer audacity of her suggestion.


    Compared to the Huntresses, who dwarfed even Max, she waspletely tiny.


    "Unfairpetition." One of the Hunters finallyughed.


    Dozens of hands raised to second that motion, and Nico''s proposal to have the most power-dense Warrior lead was shot down.


    "Fine, be like that. How about this, wepare merits for the most resounding tactical victory to see who should be in charge of group tactics for a region and individualbat achievements to see which of us and our subordinates should be Champions to stay in the viges?" Nico suggested instead.


    That one required much more discussion. Though they were all aplished fighters, many of them had never taken jobs that would require amazing feats of tactical skill to achieve. They preferred trading or hunting, with regr chances to test their individualbat skills over desperate fights and tactical deployments.


    "If we''re agreeing on a n now, what do we need more tacticians for? Just let the best fighters lead the same as always." One of the Huntressesined.


    A few eyebrows went up, and Max could sense a deep disdain for the woman whom the others considered a nearly barbaric meathead. She was a great fighter, but everyone knew that it was actually her second inmand who ran the ship because fighting was all that she was actually good at.


    The rest of the room somewhat tactfully chose to ignore her outburst, and Max could tell that she was raging mad that nobody took her seriously even though she was one of the most decorated duelists in the entire species.


    He made a mental note to choose her first as a Champion when the time came. Being first was an honour, and he didn''t think that too many of the others would argue that she didn''t deserve it.


    "We have the records of battle honours here. Going by notable strategic wins, it looks like the Humans, Huntress Khan, Huntress Lilith, and Huntress rissa are the top five." One of the older Huntresses dered.


    The data was sent around the room for everyone to review and for them to decide if they liked the way that the tactical scores had been weighted.


    The decision was a fairly easy one, and there were no arguments, though a lot of the Huntresses spent a while looking over the battle records from the Koleska front.


    None of them had seen the species in person before, but the way that they had adapted to the Humans''bat styles and the Learning Machines that they had brought from the Alliance suggested that the species was one that the Hunters might get along with in the future.


    They might not have anything that the Hunters needed, but once the crisis had passed, they should know of some good huntings for them to visit, and that was as good of a reason as any for an alliance.


    "Have we all seen what we needed to see about thetest adventures of the Terminus Trading Company''s Commanders? The footage will be avable for you to view at your leisure, and there is more avable directly from them that was not submitted to the Alliance''s database." Khan asked.


    The Huntresses grumbled about having to work instead of watching a good fight, but that didn''tst long.


    The oldest woman in the room took to her feet to make the official announcement. "With no objections, Huntresses Khan, Lilith and rissa, as well as Commanders Nico and Max, are nominated to the strategymittee.


    Now, we will choose the Champions to send to the viges. Who deserves the honour of the first nomination?"


    Max got to his feet. "I nominate Huntress Da as the First Champion."


    Khan stood up beside him. "I second the nomination. How does the room vote?"


    The woman who had suggested that they pick leaders entirely by duelling skill looked shocked that Max knew her name. She had been informed before the meeting started that he had nearly the same skill as an Illithid and could read the minds of everyone around him, but she had forgotten nearly as soon as she had sat down.


    There was some muttering as the Huntresses discussed the nomination, then one after another, they stood in agreement until it was unanimous, and everyone in the room was on their feet.


    "Very good then. Let us move on to the rest of the top five." The oldest Huntress announced with pride for the sensibility of herpatriots.


    Max knew that this was nearly unheard of in a meeting between Hunter ns. Two uncontested votes in a row wasn''t a thing that happened when that many prideful egos got together in one spot.

 Chapter 936 936 Grand Plans

    <h4>Chapter 936 936 Grand ns</h4>


    The nominations and the discussions about any tweaks that they would make to the n went on for the next two days, leaving everyone stressed out and ready to just nuke the and hope that it didn''t do anything too extreme to the Anomaly.


    They all understood that the chances that would actually work out in their favour were extremely small, about the same as that of the Myceloidsing by to invite them for tea and crumpets. But it had crossed their minds.


    Finally, they were ready to start sending the patrol teams out in the area to make sure that nothing strange was wandering in the newly grown woods and that the Myceloids in the area weren''t going to be an issue.


    There was so much life in the woods that it was hard to tell it apart with the scanners. The trees weren''t even really trees; they were some sort of fern, and the gic simrities to the Myceloids were throwing off the biological scanners.


    They were too sensitive, and the trace results were enough to have them note everything as a possible Myceloid.


    So, the teams going out on their own would be able to give much more detailed information, and the Drone Bombers were already overhead, scanning through the thick canopies to look for appropriate targets.


    Five teams went out at once, all headed in different directions but making a sweeping pass to cover all of the territory that they were tasked to investigate.? Team one was given the closest vige, as it was their right to the first fight.


    Once the mission started, there were no guarantees, but they had gotten to pick it themselves, so the chances that they would miss out were pretty low, even if the other teams were also covering ground as fast as they could in order to get to their own targets.


    "We have contact. Team One has found their vige, and the leader met them out front. It looks like he''s up for a challenge right off the bat. Do we have audio?" Huntress Lilith narrated as she scanned through the drone feeds.


    "We have audio from the Hunter Suits. Bring it up on the speakers so that we can all listen in." Max suggested.


    They had missed the opening words, but they were in time for the response.


    [We''re out clearing our territory of losers and grifters. No weaklings allowed. Either prove yourselves or bugger off somewhere else.] She demanded.


    Those were definite fighting words, and all the Huntresses prepared themselves for a good fight.


    As Max had done, all the teams had taken smaller Hunter Suits, closer to the same size as their enemies but heavily armed and extremely agile. They were deemed the best equipment for the job, while the heavier units stayed at the camp for the area damage that they could put out in arge-scale attack.


    [I will show you what a real Boss can do, you pompous jackanape.] The Boss dered, looking very proud of himself for having remembered those words.


    Where he had learned them in the first ce was a mystery, but the fight was on. He was a singlerge axe sort of fighter, and his style was brutish but powerful. Unfortunately, he had been challenged by a true battle maniac, and she was rapidly disassembling his attempts to defend himself, making him look ipetent as she cut him down.


    She might not be a master strategist, but she had the right idea. Make the Myceloids look as weak and incapable as possible before telling them that they were too close to the Hunter Camp and had to move.


    If they went along with it peacefully, they would probably be let go, and if they didn''t, then the rest of her team would get to fight.


    None of them wouldin if it ended up that way. In fact, that was what they were hoping for as the team leader mercilessly mocked and hacked apart the Myceloid Boss.


    The Drone scans said that they weren''t going to get it, though. While the tents were still up inside the wall, the Drones had already detected the rest of the group packing up and getting ready to move.


    The question was how far would they go. There were other camps and viges in the area, and they were barely a kilometre from the Hunters'' Camp, so there was a chance that they wouldn''t go far and would end up being targeted again in a few days or weeks when the closest areas to the camp were deemed secure.


    When the Huntress finished with the Boss, the rest of the camp copsed their tents and filed out in a silent line, headed directly away from the Hunters Camp and into the forests.


    If they ran across another group, there might be a fight, or they might be taken in to form a stronger group, but that would depend on whether they could impress or defeat the other leader.


    This group was fairly strong, and there were a couple who could challenge for leadership of most weaker groups, so the chances that they would find a good new home were high. They might also be nomadic, but they weren''t really that sort. This group had been one of the weapons makers, hammering out rough swords over crude forges to create deadly edges.


    If they wanted to continue that, they would need a ce.


    Not long after, the other four groups found their targets, and four more camps fell to the Hunters. None of them fled, though. Once the boss was defeated and the Hunters demanded that they leave, they decided to fight it out and pick a new Boss afterward.


    One of the groups had nearly won. It was a bit of a shock to the Hunters, but they had over fifty strong warriors in the camp but no notable leader, except one who was slightly stronger than the others. So, the first fight had been easy, but the second fight had been very difficult.


    [Send out reinforcements and spare gear for the teams. I want them back up to full strength before nightfall.] Huntress Khan ordered once everyone was in position.


    "Well, that''s one day down. Care to wager about how tomorrow goes?"

 Chapter 937 937 Foothold

    <h4>Chapter 937 937 Foothold</h4>


    The five camps that they had taken the first day gave them a grand total of three kilometres of territory on the in every direction from the camp.


    That was hardly a notable achievement, but at least they hadn''t lost any of the fights on the first day with their hand-picked teams.


    "I think that we might need to increase team size for tomorrow." Huntress Khan sighed.


    "Yeah, some of those fights were far too close forfort, and we''re not looking to lose people during this phase.


    The only problem is that we''re sending out brand new Android Mecha with them, and they have nobat experience. They''re good, but they''re new and don''t have the data set to fight the Myceloid horde in this sort of situation.


    We can keep updating the units as we go, but they''ll all only get one extra battle per group." Max agreed.


    That was the w in their n. Since the Mecha would hold the camps with a minimal number of Hunters, they would have to wait to be attacked before they gained any additional experience.


    For those closest to the camp, that was rather unlikely, and within days, the perimeter would be pushed out well beyond their position.


    But there wasn''t a better option other than to swap out the team that was at the camps, and that would annoy the hunters who didn''t get any chance to fight at all.


    They were almost certainly going to get requests for that scenario in the next few hours, Max knew. He could see it in the minds of the first five Champions that they wanted to continue on and have weaker Hunters take over the camps they had imed.


    "Will that be an option? They need to be able to take a challenge if something walks past the front lines, but we don''t have many capable Huntresses to spare." Max asked.


    The others conferred for a few minutes, and then Khan nodded. "We can do it. The weakest who are eligible will take over until everyone is deployed. Then, they will be changed out for trainees and go to the boundary to fight.


    We believe that the Myceloid horde will take that as our numbers increasing and forcing out the weak, so it shouldn''t cause mass chaos."


    "You can give the first group the good news in the morning then and prepare a few more teams. Every ring will usually have more camps, with the way the survivors have settled.


    It looks like our diversion of the flood waters made this region one of the more desirable territories around."


    The strategy team got to work nning the change while Max focused on the thoughts of the Myceloids to pick out which ones were the most powerful leaders, which camps were weak, and how they were reacting to the sudden expansion of the Hunters'' territory.


    They didn''t seem upset about it at all and were ming the camps for losing the fight. But that didn''t mean they wouldn''t try to take them back. There were a number of wandering groups still that hadn''t found a good spot and some camps that were overcrowded and wanted to expand.


    "I can sense at least three groups that are looking to take the camps we imed today. Their opinion is that they obviously must be stronger than us since we cover our fighters in metal, and they want the good spots." Max informed the room once his mental investigation was done.


    "Impressive. Alright, we will tell the first five champions to hold for a few days, and we will let everything settle before we push out again. That will also give us time to get more drones and androids ready forbat.


    As long as we can keep the Alliance investigators out of the way, we should be fine for a while."


    That was another ongoing concern. The Alliance didn''t fully trust their report on what had happened here and suspected that the Hunters were exaggerating the orbital aspects of the battle since the inability to form a Warp Field in this region was well documented.


    "How long can we keep them at bay? We''ve got a lot of evidence, but we can pad it with minor details and drown them in evidence if we have a few more days." Nico suggested.


    "That will have to do. It''s fairly obvious what happened. The problem is that we don''t know who they were fighting. The sooner we can get solid evidence on that, the better.


    Nico frowned and nodded. "I will get right on that. It''s been bothering me all day, not knowing who was fighting up there. It looks like mutual annihtion, so they must be tough, but there haven''t been any reports of another species being active in the region."


    Everyone in the strategy team split up into their respective tasks, and Max worked on understanding the minds of the Myceloids. The more he worked at it, the further his range was getting, and now he wasn''t having too many problems picking out the thoughts of every Hunter as well as every Myceloid within fifty kilometres.


    The better he understood the horde, the easier it became topartmentalize them into their viges and then subgroups within the viges by task.


    It was a bit like organizing a library, putting simr ones together for easy reference and then skimming through them to find what he needed.


    The practice was making it easier to strategize, and with the group thoughts set aside like that, it became very easy to spot trends, where whole groups would begin thinking of the same thing.


    That was alerting him to groups on the move, challenges about to happen, and even one particrly disgruntled camp that was about to have a revolt because the Boss beat up the only one of them who could cook.


    In short, their nascent society was in utter chaos, but somehow, it was still functional, and Max had a front-row seat to watch it grow and evolve into proper factions.

 Chapter 938 938 Reclamation Effort

    <h4>Chapter 938 938 Remation Effort</h4>


    The next day, exactly as Max had predicted, the attacks by the wandering groups began. There were two versions of these attacks: the Challenges and the outright attacks on the camps.


    The first was by groups that had split off from viges further out, so they were confident in their leadership.


    The second was by nomadic groups who hadn''t been able to secure a safe spot since the floods. They were desperate for a ce with food and dry ground, but they didn''t have a strong enough leader to take it in a challenge.


    They knew that the others would challenge them for leadership, but their n was to simply let them have the leadership role if they were capable and then join whatever group came to challenge them.


    There was strength in numbers, and they were the numbers.


    The very first attack of the morning was a raid by arge group of nomads, attempting to take one of the camps in the south back from the Hunters.


    It was a good choice for nomads looking to settle, withrge amounts of t ground surrounding it and a small pack of thergemouth beasts which pollinated the Myceloid trees living in the woods nearby.


    It had everything they could want, but the defenders weren''t going to fall that easily. The Androids had plenty of data on defensive fights, and once the horde started to charge, the defenders quickly cut them down.


    Only minutes after the first group''s failed attempt, the second fight of the day began. A five-metre-tall Myceloid leading a very tough-looking group of warriors walked right up to one of the camps and demanded that the camp''s leadere out for a "right proper whooping."


    That had the strategy teamughing way harder than they should have, but at least the Huntress who was challenged was taking it seriously.


    The challenger was right to have confidence. There was a good chance that they would have beaten most of the warriors who were guarding the camps before the Hunters arrived.


    Unfortunately for them, the first five Champions were all expert duellists, and the fight was not destined to go his way.


    "Look, I think he''s going to disengage. That''s a new behaviour for them." Nico noted after the challenger lost an arm and stepped back to the edge of the circle while giving the area a searching look for ways out.


    "Didn''t they say that the challenges were to the death? I wonder if that''s only when we challenge them?" Khan pondered.


    But as they watched, one of the Myceloids grew another twenty centimetres, then pushed the defeated warrior to his knees and cut his head off.


    "Oh, I get it. He wasn''t looking for a way out. He was looking for a sessor once he realized he lost. Onest act of looking out for his group." Khan realized.


    Getting the wrong sessor would doom the group even more thoroughly than losing their first leader, so the practice made good sense, and the Huntresses watching in the strategy room were quietly thankful to the camp Champion for not pushing her advantage and killing him before they could gain that information.


    After that, the movement in the forests really picked up. But mostly, the Myceloids were just circling, looking for the right time and spot to attack.


    Within an hour, the mental tension that Max could sense in the region was rapidly reaching the breaking point, and another attack was inevitable.


    Every group of Myceloids was after the same thing, and a few skirmishes had already started between the circling groups, but the next major fight was a surprise challenge from a lone Myceloid, half again asrge as the other Champions.


    He marched right up to the first camp reimed and stuck his sword into the ground.


    "Come out here and fight." He yelled.


    "You''re going to challenge for my camp alone?" Huntress Daughed.


    "Who cares about your camp? Get out here and fight." The huge Myceloid demanded.


    Lilith, on the strategy team, looked at the others with a confused frown. "Does that mean that it''s not a challenge?"


    Nico shrugged. "Probably? I''m not sure if there''s a difference, though."


    She had a point. Nobody knew what the protocol was for ''just a fight'' except the Myceloids themselves. But if he had challenged Da, he must have seen her duel the camp leader and decided that she was the strongest of the Champions in the region.


    The Huntress stepped out of the camp with a Myceloid axe in either hand of her hunter suit, and her opponent smiled.


    "Good, you''re not just a coward picking on the weak." He announced, then charged forward with a mismatched pair of weapons: arge de and an axe.


    Their des shed together in a field of sparks as the two brutal fighters tried to get an early advantage.


    Over and over, they matched des, with neither giving any ground, until a lucky stroke from the Myceloid took the head off of one of Da''s axes.


    She swatted the next blow away and took out another sword, one of her own, to continue the fight, but she had been momentarily forced onto the defensive, and her opponent was starting to get worked up for the battle toe.


    Now, they were using matched weapon sets, and even the drone footage clearly showed the excitement on the Myceloid''s face.


    Over and over, they traded blows without really attempting to press their opponent when they made minor mistakes, making Nico sigh in frustration.


    "They''re not even trying to kill each other. They''re just fighting for the sake of fighting." Sheined.


    "I think that is the point. He wanted a fight, and she was happy to give it to him. The question is how it ends."


    The spectacle was gathering quite the crowd, hundreds of them in fact, as multiple groups stopped to watch the two Champions go at it.


    They fought all through the morning and into the afternoon before a brutal overhand chop by Da shattered both of their swords and left the Myceloid with a deep gash down his chest.


    Da paused as the champion stepped back and dug another weapon from the churned earth around them.


    It had been left behind after the defence battle, and it was already cracked when he got it.


    The Myceloid threw down the weapon in disgust and sighed.


    "We will have to finish thister after I bust the face of those shoddy cksmiths." He dered.


    "Come back any time. I''ll be here until I pick a better camp." Da agreed, then looked out at the crowd.


    "Alright, who is next? You''d better bring more spare weapons if you don''t have better cksmiths."

 Chapter 939 939 Psychology By Brute Force

    <h4>Chapter 939 939 Psychology By Brute Force</h4>


    The battle between Da and the lone champion had the best effect that anyone could have hoped for. The Myceloids all wandered away after the fight was over, none of them willing to challenge the vicious woman, and the fight had drawn all of the roaming groups in the area over to watch.


    What they were left with was an afternoon of uncharacteristic peace, the sort that didn''t often happen on any battlefield, much less one against the Myceloids.


    But the slow day gave them all the time to catch up on paperwork and get reacquainted with how things were going elsewhere in the universe.


    The Koleska region had fallen almostpletely calm over thest week. Max skimmed through the reports from the General on duty at the Anomaly, and it seemed that the entire species had seen mostly peacetely, with very few attacks.


    It was possible that the Arisen had deemed them worthy of facing whatever wasing. That inevitably led Max back to the thought of what exactly they were thinking they would face. It didn''t seem like it was the Myceloids and the greater being that they had bowed down to when he opened the Portal betweenyers here, but if it were them, it would make sense.


    Evenpared to the Arisen, these creatures were like a force of nature. There was no good way to get rid of them, and even if you tried, if it wasn''tplete, Max had just seen how they could repopte entire continents in a matter of days.


    No matter who it was that the Arisen were expecting or what greater beings were backing them up, a period of no attacks so that they could train more soldiers and advance their society was good news for the Koleska and even better news for the troops that had been sent to watch the Anomaly.


    Their only goal for the mission was to make it through without anything drastic happening, and they had already considered it to be a close call when Max and Nico were called away. Anything that called away their strongest warriors was enough cause for concern in their minds, and the fact that they were getting a huge number of Titan ss and Super Heavy Mecha at the same time was barely a constion.


    Without a doubt, the force inside the Anomaly at the Koleska side was the single greatest military force in humanity''s known universe, able to dwarf the might of entire species, but when it came down to needing to use it in battle, the Commanders still worried that it might not be enough for whatever had the Arisen so panicked.


    But on the other side of the Anomaly, where Absolution was currently wandering around in Alliance space, checking out tourists and helping with the construction of a few worlds which had purchased Terraforming Arrays from them, there had been a significant breakthrough.


    The Innu-led design teams had made great strides in their analysis of the propulsion methods that the Arisen and Darklings were using to move through the otheryer, and they were ready to send a prototype to Max and Nico to test here before they moved on to testing what was different about theyers where they were.


    What they had developed was a two-part drive that they had dubbed the subspace drive and the Traction Drive. The first was for primary movement through the otheryer at less-than-light speeds. That was an excellent development but limited in usefulness outside of a sr system.


    But that was where the second part of the drive came into y. The Traction Drive should theoretically allow the ship to multiply its current speed well beyond the speed of light.


    The technical aspects didn''t concern Max. He would leave that to Nico and the others. But if it worked, they would have an option for regions where Warp Bubbles were unstable, like the one he was currently in, as well as for missions where not leaving a Warp Trail was essential to infiltration.


    The fear that Max had was that the two unstable scientific rules might be rted. If the use of the otheryer was what had destabilized Warp Travel to begin with, then experimenting in their own home region, where nothing existed in thatyer, might make it just like the one in Koleska territory, and that was not on the list of desirable oues.


    But the testing might actually help them out here. So far, moving betweens in this region of space required direct movement through portals or anomalies since Warp Fields wouldn''t stabilize in space. But there was no sign that the otheryer suffered from such a restriction.


    Of course, it wasn''t without its own hazards, like whatever being''s attention they had grabbed thest time they visited. But the probe was still there and still sending back data, which didn''t include any giant monstrous beings looking to crush it to space dust.


    That meant there was a chance that whatever that thing was had moved on, and they could safely start navigating the region.


    There was really only one way to find out for sure, though, and that was to open another portal and see if it caught the attention of whatever was lurking on the other side.


    Huntress Khan had reviewed the proposal, as had everyone else on the strategy team since this could affect them all if the same sort of reaction and rapid advancement happened again when they tried to enter the otheryer.


    "Give me a best and worst-case scenario," Khan demanded, ready to write out the notes and begin calcting the odds.


    "Best case scenario, we find nothing there, and we acquire a safe and reliable method of moving betweens in the region as well as acquiring stealthy orbital data," Max replied.


    "And worst case?"


    Nico shrugged. "Well, I suppose the worst case would be whatever was watching us in the Koleska Territory, and the thing that noticed us here are both within sensory range when it opens, and they both get immensely upset that we''re disturbing their beauty sleep."


    The Huntress shuddered at the thought. Two unfathomable beings that they had no way tobat, both angry at them at the same time? That was definitely on the worst-case end of the chart.


    Khan smiled at Nico. "Thanks for that oundish scenario. It made everything else that we had thought up so far seem much more reasonable inparison. Now, what do you think that the oue of such a scenario would be?"


    Max smirked at Nico and gestured for her to answer.


    "While we were with the Koleska, we learned about the most likely reason that this region of space is so messed up and why all of thes are reforged in new Gxies while the cosmic dust of recently dead gxies is still floating all around them.


    The operating theory on the reason for the way this region of space is, with all its broken and shakyws of rtivity, is that two or more such beings got into a fight, and the aftermath destroyed absolutely everything."


    "Hmm, I''m not sure how we can sell this to the others when [Complete Gctic Annihtion] is one of the possible side effects. Perhaps we can pretend we never heard that option."

 Chapter 940 940 What they don鈥檛 know

    <h4>Chapter 940 940 What they don''t know</h4>


    ?


    The matter of what to do about the dangers of the testing within the secondaryyer while there was a risk of them being watched caused a lot of discussion over the next few days while the Myceloids tested the defences of the five outlying camps that they had set up.


    There were simply too many variables, and the probability of a negative oue was too hard to determine since one had never really happened, and they couldn''t even say for sure that the presence that they had felt in the otheryer was hostile.


    "What about if we have Nico and Khan closest to the Portal when it opens? If the being is allied with thebat-loving Myceloids, it should have a lot inmon with them, so if it detects their thought patterns first, it should have a positive first impression of our group.


    That might convince it not to interfere when we attempt to use the secondaryyer to travel." Lilith suggested.


    Khan snorted in amusement. "Or perhaps we should bring Da back. If there is anyone who is on Commander Nico''s level of purebat maniac, it would be her."


    The other Huntressesughed at the suggestion.


    "But then how would they know that we''re not funny-looking Myceloids? The two of them think aboutbat and ways to have more and betterbat twenty-four hours a day, even when they''re doing other things. That''s a bit too simr, don''t you think?


    So, if we have you there with her, they might notice the contrast and then be able to form a proper opinion."


    Khan red at Lilith, certain that there was an insult in there somewhere that she wasn''t detecting, but the Huntress seemed quite sincere, and the n was sound.


    By mutual agreement, they had decided not to mention the possible drawbacks of their n to the Alliance and would treat it as if the cost-benefit analysis had been done by the Alliance on their behalf. If something went wrong, they would me the ones who sent the request, and by the time the mess was sorted out, nobody would really care anymore.


    Assuming that they survived, that is. If things went so badly that they didn''t, it wouldn''t matter to them in the first ce. The Hunters had a saying that a mess you didn''t have to clean up wasn''t really a mess at all.


    "If we put both humans at the front, they might get confused about the other species in the room and what our role is, so it''s best to have one of each in the lead. That means you and Nico. Or you and Max, but Nico seems like a better fit for the personality of the entity that these Myceloids would favour." Lilith added.


    Nico nodded. "She''s got a point. If it''s a being that favours honourable duels and violence for the sake of violence, I think that we could be good friends. We could open the portal and chat and talk about the greatest fights we''ve ever seen, and I would name him Sue, and we could be best friends." Nico agreed with an amused smile on her face.


    "Why Sue? Surely there is a better name for it? Something like Krork or Gargantua or something with an air of power to it." Khan asked.


    "Well, it felt like a male entity, or at least a testosterone-driven one, so naming it Sue should fit the level of wanton violence that it embodies. I''ve never met a man named Sue who wasn''t ready to fight the world." Nico borated.


    Somehow, that logic made sense to the Hunters, and Max sighed as they all started to form an agreement that this was the way things were going to be done.


    "Alright, now that it''s settled, let''s get a test probe ready so that we can actually do the experiment, and then we will prepare to open the portal. Do you think that the timing matters? The same time of day asst time, or perhaps we could do it at a moment in time when the portion of the we''re on is facing away from where it wasst time?


    That might buy us a few extra minutes to work before it noticed the portal." Khan suggested.


    "That''s a good n, but we don''t even know if it''s still there. For all we know, it could be right beside us, watching our activities, and just not visible to our probe." Max reminded her.


    "I thought that we agreed we weren''t going to discuss those possibilities? I really don''t want to consider what will happen if some massive being pulls one of us through the portal the moment that we open it."


    The other Huntersughed, but Nico got a calcting gleam in her eyes.


    "We could put a pair of research assistants in the front. That way if anyone gets grabbed, it would be them, and then we could use the data from their Mobile Suits to finish the testing. It would be great. Not only would we get the data, but we could get some firsthand remarks if they survived." Nico suggested.


    Lilith shook her head. "No, that is definitely against the Alliance''s rules on the treatment of workers. All forms of tricking them into being guinea pigs have been banned after a series of creative explorations of the loopholes in the initialws."


    Khan nodded in agreement. She had been there for some of the negotiations when she was young and still a trainee herself.


    "Let''s get a time picked and get the probe ready. But what sensors do we even need? Clearly, it needs a propulsion system, but should be target specific wavelengths for monitoring?"


    Max shrugged. "How about we send a modified shuttle, and then we can just monitor everything all at once? The shuttle will be able to hold the propulsion system just fine, and they already have great sensors, but we can load the whole cargo bay with more monitoring gear to keep track of absolutely everything that we can think of."


    "Agreed. Your new shuttles are very versatile. Miss Nico, if you would like to get started on the construction, we will start programming the extra sensors using Hunter technology."

 Chapter 941 941 Collaboration

    <h4>Chapter 941 941 Coboration</h4>


    Nico got started on the custom Shuttle, equipped with the widest variety of sensors that she could manage, as well as the experimental propulsion system that had been sent to them by the research team.


    There was nothing about it that seemed to be overtly dangerous or wed, and it had already been tested in their homeyer of space, so she had the data that said that building and activating it here would not lead to any sort of untoward reactions.


    It was only when the experiments started that they were going to get into uncharted territory and possibly immense amounts of trouble with the Alliance.


    "How is iting along?" Khan asked as a pair of Hunter Suits carried in the sensor array that they were nning to load into the Cargo Bay.


    "Pretty well. I''m notpletely sure I''ve got the alignment of these systems right, but once I''ve finished the assembly, we can start running diagnostics and doing some final optimizations."


    Nico finished the process as quickly as she could, then had Maxe over and use his [Optimize] System Function on it to make sure that it was in peak condition before they loaded the extra sensors inside and prepared to start the experiment.


    This time, they weren''t going to risk doing it too close to the Camp though. The shuttle was space travel capable, so they were going to send it up into orbit and do the experiments there, using Drone Bombers as ry stations, to eliminate the chance that atmospheric interference would corrupt their data should the shuttle not return in one piece.


    "I still think that we''re being too paranoid. While we have failed a lot of experiments in the past, we do have a solid enough scientific knowledge base to pretty reliably say that nothing too catastrophic is likely to happen should we fail.


    But, on that note, the shuttle is ready to send to orbit." Nico informed the room.


    Khan smiled. "Let''s do this before anyonees toin. You know how secrets are; they cease to exist once three people know of them, and far too many people are already aware of this project."


    Secondster, the shuttle streaked toward orbit, catching the attention of every Hunter and Myceloid in the region and even some much further away who saw the fast-moving object in the sky and wondered if it was some sort of animal or a weapon.


    "Alright, orbit achieved. I am moving the shuttle to a safe distance now and linking all the sensory data to the Drone Bombers. How is the data feed from your sensor unit?" Nico asked.


    "Still optimal. No interference in the data stream has been detected, so we are ready to begin the testing." Khan agreed.


    "Alright, opening the Portal to begin the testing."


    The shuttle powered up to begin creating the opening betweenyers while everyone held their breath in anticipation.


    Slowly, the sensor indicated that the invisibleyers were parting, and the shuttle vanished through, seeming to fade from sight as the processpleted. It was exactly the same as how the Arisen vanished after a battle, which would be invaluable information to the Koleska and the other species that were facing them.


    Why the Darklings had never thought to inform anyone else when they had been so helpful with Max and Nico was anyone''s guess, but they had clear footage now and continuing data streams from the shuttle.


    "All of our sensors are online, the feed is reliable, minimal interference," Nico noted for the records.


    "Exothermic Fluctuation scans are offline or possibly receiving zero heat emission data," Khan noted.


    The human scanners worked differently; they tracked the temperature of items, but they didn''t actually test to see how much of the heat in the area was emitted by objects. Instead, they interpted that from the results that they saw and the knowledge of thermodynamics.


    "That is eptable. I will begin initializing the subspace drive now." Nico agreed.


    One sensor giving strange readings was much better than they had anticipated, and there had been norge-scale disruption this time or any sign of the being whose attention they had attracted.


    "The drive systems are online. Preparing to move." Nico narrated, and the shuttle smoothly glided forward, skimming through space at nearly a hundred thousand kilometres an hour.


    That was far from a recement for a Warp Drive, but it was the first step of their testing and proof that the system not only worked in the strange environment around this region but that they had a reliable source of motion while they were in the otheryer, no matter what portion of it they found themselves in.


    "Well, good news. It''s working. We are at five percent output, and the shuttle is responding perfectly to ourmands, with no major anomalies detected on the sensors." Nico announced, signalling the victory of their first test of the shuttle.


    The real problems would likely begin to ur when they tried to exceed light speed, and that was about to happen right now.


    "Primary motion is confirmed, and all control tests are sessful. Next up is the Traction Drive testing. Should we do that in real space first or here in the otheryer?" Nico asked.


    The Huntresses looked at each other and then shrugged.


    "Might as well do it there. If it blows up, at least we won''t have to exin it to anyone else." Khan decided.


    "Marvellous n. Alright, engaging the Traction Drive now, let''s see if we can get this thing rolling."


    The two drive systems worked together, with the Subspace drive providing the initial inertia and the Traction Drive multiplying it until the shuttle reached and exceeded light speed.


    It could do it on its own, but the faster the object was moving to begin with, the faster it would get up to speed. Unlike a Warp Bubble, it was not instantaneous, and it was ridiculously energy-expensive. But it worked. It actually worked, and the shuttle made it to an equivalent of Warp Two before reaching its power capacity.

 Chapter 942 942 Between Brilliance and Madness

    <h4>Chapter 942 942 Between Brilliance and Madness</h4>


    Nico looked at the data with a frown. "Well, I can say for certain why this method of travel did not be a mainstream technology anywhere in the known universe. Look at the power output requirements as the speed increases.


    The draw for every Warp Factor increases by an exponential factor of a hundred thousand. Even making it to Warp Two was impressive, and it would take a Destroyer-sized drive module to generate enough power to make Warp Three.


    But we have proven that it works and that it works in the otheryer. Should we begin testing it in thisyer to do a flyby of the others in this sr system? It would let us know if there was anything hiding out of our direct line of sight, and we could see if it was actually possible to travel beyond warp speed here."


    That was one of the concerns that they had when the Warp Bubbles wouldn''t stabilize for the Hunters when they first arrived. If the damage to the otheryers was causing too much interference for the Warp Bubbles, it might also be causing enough interference to destroy any other vessel that tried to move at high speed here.


    Orbital speed didn''t seem to be an issue for either the shuttle or the Drone Bombers, but that was a tiny fraction of what they would be subjected to as they reached light speed.


    "Yes, if we can get to the others, then at least we won''t be trapped here if things go wrong. Being able to attack from orbit will give us a muchrger advantage against the Myceloids in the future, as well as allow us to get proper satellite data for our troops.


    Holding the Anomaly is the first priority, but if we can at least get them off this continent, it would let everyone rest a lot more easily." Lilith agreed.


    Max nodded in agreement. Even though they had more pressing concerns right now, like establishing a proper foothold in the region around the Anomaly, it was essential that they start nning for more than just a grinding defensive fight.


    Plus, the development of the Traction Drive might actually have other uses that they hadn''t considered yet, or there might be some breakthrough in the efficiency while the Innu studied it that would make it an actual, viable method of transport.


    "Bringing the Shuttle back to thisyer," Nico announced, then frowned.


    "Bringing the shuttle back in five minutes, after the onboard Android fixes the blown-out capacitors that we overloaded trying to get the ship to Warp Two with the Traction Drive. It looks like the power system was overloaded and overheated in the attempt."


    Nico sent orders with a frown on her face, but Max could see in the diagnostic data that the problem had been an unexpected one. The capacitors had been holding, but as they cooled down after use, an issue with theposition of their design had caused them to crack, rendering them useless.


    They didn''t have anything else in their database with that sort of size-to-capacity ratio either, so they couldn''t be swapped for another design at the moment. It would require some redesign of the whole system before the problem would be solved.


    But, on the bright side, they now knew about the issue, and when they activated it again, they would know if it was a problem that could be replicated or if it was a one-off urrence.


    "I will slow the cooling rate when the load is removed. Perhaps a slower cooldown period will be enough to keep the system intact after the next trial." Nico announced just before the shuttle appeared in the regr sensors again.


    There were a few tense moments while the shuttle did a diagnostic check to see if the new Capacitors were damaged with the effort of returning the shuttle to thisyer, and then Nico was back to her usual narration, going through the diagnostic checks and preparations for the ship to engage its engines.


    It wasn''t strictly necessary. Everyone in the room knew the preflight routine, but narrating it out loud made sure that there was a proper recording and that there were others who could catch a missed step as it happened if it happened.


    The shuttle powered up, and as it reached what the Alliance usually called cruising speed, the standard rate for movement within a sr system, the sensors began to creep up toward dangerous levels of interference and instability.


    There were massive energy fluctuations somewhere, or perhaps gravitational fluctuations, but there was no clear cause for them in either of theyers of space that they had managed to ess.


    "Slowing down to half of cruising speed. Fluctuation levels are no longer dangerous to the shuttle. It looks like we won''t get a chance to test the traction drive here. It is simply unsafe to attempt to travel that fast in this region.


    However, we can send out a probe past the edge of the sr system and see if it is a localized phenomenon. There is a good chance that this interference might be very limited in scope and that leaving the immediate area will allow normal travel again." Nico suggested.


    Khan nodded. "We will get a team on it. Our probes are more advanced than the ones you are using, so we should be able to get them out of the sr system at half Cruising Speed without them blowing apart. But now that we know that we can''t just immediately leave, it begs the question of what the Myceloids are doing here.


    Did they just get trapped, and their primary drive wouldn''t get them out of the area fast enough? That could be possible if it were all Warp Field based. But if they picked this region, there could be multiple reasons, ranging from the presence of the Anomaly to the simple fact that it wasn''t inhabited.


    We will start our analysis of the other stars in the region as soon as we get a probe free of the interference. But we have made great progress today. If you don''t object, we would like to have a copy of those engine designs for our records, just in case wee across something simr again."


    Max nodded. "I will send it right over. It''s not patented yet, so kindly don''t show it to the Alliance. You know how they get."


    The Huntresses allughed at the acknowledgement that there would be a huge fuss over unpatented technology if it were spread around, even more so than the first few designs that Terminus Trading Company put out because these were directly space travel rted.

 Chapter 943 943 New Information

    ?


    For the next day, the Hunters worked on modifying a series of probes that they would send out in an array pattern to test every part of the region around the that they were on. If they could find an easy exit to more stable space, then they could begin exploring further abroad than the single they had been defending, which would hopefully let them prevent the Myceloids from receiving any further reinforcements.


    Once they were sure that there were no more of theming, then more aggressive actions could be taken to cleanse the other continents while they brought the one with the Anomaly under control and maintained the situation there at a manageable state.


    That seemed more realistic than trying to wipe the species outpletely and would lead to much less blowback from the Alliance, who already had knowledge of their intelligent status.


    So, the work progressed until they had a thousand probes ready tounch and send out in a spherical pattern around the and into the far reaches of space, where they would hopefully be able to find a change in whatever disturbance had caused this issue with warp bubble stability.


    But back on Absolution, the research into theyers continued, with some surprising results.


    Max read the message that he had received, then read it again to make sure that he understood what he was seeing before he ryed the information to the Huntresses.


    [Commanders, please find attached data that we have obtained on the nature of theyers of space. As we were studying the issues with Warp Field Stability, we came across an interesting theory, and we think that we have enough data to prove our hypothesis valid.


    Theyers of space are all part of the same whole, created at the same time, but not all of them areplete. The nature of the forces that caused the creation of the universe caused the essentialws to expand faster than they could integrate. So, while they are all part of the same universe, eachyer is missing something.


    As you know, in ouryer, time is linear, but as we experimented with theyers, we found that time in the otheryer that we have stabilized ess to is not. Part of the current that affects it in Koleska space is, in fact, time.


    It still seems linear there, as it only ran forward in the data wepiled from the various trips that your vessel took, but the rate is not set, and it fluctuated millions of times during your time caught in the currents.


    So, we took the liberty of analyzing the data from the Hunters again, and we found that while most of the universal rules were functioning properly, the rules regarding space were not. In that region, and therefore presumably in one of theyers, space is a static effect and cannot be manipted.


    We havepiled evidence that anotheryer is affecting the rules of reality there, and it is not the same one that is close to the surface in Koleska space, where portals and antimatter both create instability, but both warp space as expected.


    It meshes with the earliest data and theories wepiled, but we don''t yet have a way to ess thatyer. What we do have is included.


    Thank you for your time.


    Researcher Moon]


    Max sent the message and the data over to the Huntresses and waited to see what they would make of it.


    The eager light in their eyes said that they were as excited about the news as Nico was, and they were already making ns to alter their probes'' data collection.


    Regr attempts to manipte space were going to be added to the flight so that they could measure the effects of the interference in a coordinated grid pattern and create a map of the unstable area, from which they could estimate the extent of the changes and where they could expect another rtively normal portion of space to start.


    If this experiment worked, then they would do the same from the human deployment in Koleska space so that they could test the changes in the interference there and start building arger regional map.


    Communications had been cut off between regions for so long, and the effects of the neb-type material in Koleska space were causing sensor data to be so limited that nobody knew where the two were in rtion to each other, but at the very least, they could start rebuilding a map for whatever uing conflict might happen.


    Not only Max and Nico but all of the Hunters were now convinced that there was something big happening in the background after the incident with the being in the otheryer, and if they couldn''t get away from it, they wanted to do everything that they could to at least divert or dy it.


    But until they fully understood the battlefield that they were going to be on, there was little chance that they could actually make a difference in such a massive-scale battle.


    It would be the same as willingly walking themselves into an ambush blindfolded, knowing that it was going to happen.


    "The probes'' new programming is ready, and we''re about tounch," Khan informed the room only seconds before the pulse of energy from theunch shuttle could be felt through the camp.


    This was their best hope to get some real answers, and Max we looking forward to everyone having something to do that wasn''t waiting for the Myceloids to attack. Thest few days had been incredibly slow, and everyone seemed to be settling into their positions well.


    In fact, it was so calm that he almost felt like it would be a shame to disrupt the area with another round of expansions. They had plenty of warning about iingrge attacks now that they had satellite footage, and the situation on their continent was increasingly stable, even though the others seemed to be in utter chaos.

 Chapter 944 944 Sanction

    ?


    As the probes began to move away from the, it became clear that the effects of the damagedyers were fading quickly. If the readings were correct, then in less than one light year, they would bepletely gone, and there would be no interference when the Hunters tried to move to nearby star systems.


    But the strangest thing happened as they reached the edge of the sr system. One after another, the probes were destroyed by a burst of energy, ending their transmission abruptly and preventing anything from leaving.


    The Hunters scrambled to adjust, and the call was made to have the second wave of probes raise shields to see if they could withstand the effect long enough to see what was going on.


    The probes weren''t armed or really defended, but the shields were designed to deal with space debris and should provide some sort of protection.


    But the final effect was still the same. When they reached the outer limits of the sr system, they were destroyed.


    This time, Nico thought that she had some information though.


    "I''ve got an origin point for at least sixteen of the energy pulses. If I build them into a map of all the points of destruction, it looks like there is a sanction fleet cloaked at the edge of this region.


    With that in mind, we might be in a quarantine zone. Either for the Myceloids or for the damaged space that disables Warp Drives. That fleet is far enough out that they would have issues getting a Warp Field stable, but in only a few minutes, they would be far enough out to do it without issues, assuming we''re on simr levels of development." She exined.


    Max nodded. "Since they immediately shoot down anything that tries to leave, I suspect that it is for the Myceloids more than just as a safety cordon. That says to me that there is a chance the horde isn''t here by ident. They were most likely moved and confined here.


    That would also give us a hint as to who their ship was fighting.


    If they had tried to leave the system, they would have attracted the attention of the Sanction Fleet, and they might havee to destroy the vessel, resulting in a missed shot hitting the."


    That made a lot of sense to the Hunters, and they had seen the same situation many times in the past when a species had been deemed a danger to their neighbours who were already Alliance members.


    The fleet would set up outside their home star system and prevent anything from leaving or going in. Often, they would even set up an interference field so that the sanctioned species couldn''t get ess to the Alliance data and start advancing their own culture with pilfered ideas and ns.


    The Innu did put out a lot of free-to-use or low-cost items, which could feasibly have been purchased and made by even a sanctioned world.


    "So, what is our next move? Do we bring ships through and attempt to break the sanction, or do we see if we canmunicate with them from here and try to talk sense to them now that we know they''re out there?" Max asked.


    "I''m for suggestion A." Nico agreed.


    "It would probably be wise to crack the pattern of their cloaking fields first so that we can find them without guesswork," Khan suggested.


    The other Hunters in the room nodded. "Yes, that is the best way. So, the first thing we should do is attempt to make contact. If they answer, it increases the chances that we will identify a fluctuation in the field, which will let us find more of their vessels and gives the small chance that they will understand that we are not the Myceloids."


    Max knew that there was a chance they were actually blockading the Anomaly and not the Myceloids. But they wouldn''t be able to prove that unless they made contact with the species first.


    It felt a lot like they were just running in ce, trying idea after idea to change the situation around the Anomaly, while on the surface of the, not much was actually changing. The Myceloids were more focused on finding a good spot to settle in, and the wandering groups no longer came to bother the viges that the Hunters held, while the second wave of expansion had been put on hold while the leadership tried to sort things out for what woulde next.


    It was a level of frustration that the Hunters had been dealing with for a while when they were trapped in just one camp and unable to even get a probe in orbit to gather more data, but it was new to Max and Nico, who were not mentally prepared for the shotgun approach to changing their situation.


    Just throwing hundreds of small ideas at a problem was not how they usually worked.


    Fortunately for them, the Hunters had a lot of experience with Cloaking Technology, and they already knew where to get started with their efforts to detect the fleet.


    Out of prudence, they wouldn''t try to leave the area in manned vessels yet, but if they were able to locate the sanction fleet, or even better, see through the cloaking to determine what species and level of weaponry they were facing, it would put them well on their way to establishing a proper foothold here.


    After days of poring through the data and catching the faintest of glimpses of enemy signals through their cloaking fields, Max decided that a two-pronged approach was the best way forward. Their team was small, but they could still multitask, and if they sent another round of probes in the otheryer, they just might be able to gather the data that they needed, and with a lot of luck, they might even get past the fleet.


    If they could do that, they could send additional Hunter Fleets to the surrounding star systems and begin to secure them to prevent anything froming near the anomaly.

 Chapter 945 945 knowledge

    <h4>Chapter 945 945 knowledge</h4>


    The final decision was to create two versions of the next probe wave. One that was hidden using Hunter Technology and sent out just off of thestunch coordinates, and then a second group that would be modified to move through the otheryer while in stealth.


    The hope was that one of the two would not be detected and that they could collect all sorts of data on the fleet that had the area surrounded and determine both their motivations and capabilities.


    The n was a simple one: They would send the waves at the same time from the sameunch shuttle so that sensors might mistake the version in the otheryer as an echo of the ones in regr space.


    There was no guarantee the enemy could even detect the otheryer or that their sensors couldn''t tell the difference between two probes in equivalent spots, but it was worth a shot.


    Theunch went off without a hitch, and the probes were away, headed toward the edge of the system and their inevitable annihtion.


    The strategy group fell silent as the probes headed out, and the Hunters outside all watched their sensors to see what the reaction would be to the next wave of probes. There was a chance that whoever was out there would be angered or challenged by the second attempt, but they had to know who they were facing.


    This time, the probes weren''t destroyed the instant they got to that point along the line. They simply kept flying outward toward their targets, unmolested.


    Khan looked at Nico with a confused smile. "Don''t tell me that they don''t have the sensor technology to detect a stealth probe. Seriously, there is no way that they can use the tech themselves and not detect it."


    Nico smiled back with a manic glint in her red mechanical eyes.


    "The Myceloids can detect it but can''t use it. These can use it but not detect it, but it seems that we can detect them. As the probes passed close to where the energy sts originated, they detected fluctuations."


    The two of them investigated the finding for a few seconds, then gave each other a high five.


    "We know what it is and why it didn''t respond to messages when the Hunters first arrived. It is an unmanned autonomous satellite array. It is programmed to destroy anything trying toe out and possibly anything trying to get in as well.


    But itcks the sensors to detect the stealth technology that the Hunters use, so we should be able to analyze their location pattern and then start sending ships through the gaps." Nico exined.


    "Should we stop the probes in the otheryer so that they can do an in-depth analysis of the satellite constetion? Perhaps we can find out where they were sent from and a bit more about the species that made them." Max suggested.


    Nico nodded. "Already on it. We will gather all the information that we can about the blockade and where it is sending signals to, if anywhere. But the probes that passed the line have some interesting data as well.


    It seems that as soon as we get out of this region, the interference fades away in an instant, and everything returns to normal. In fact, I know where we are."


    That was news to everyone, including Max, who had seen the thought in her mind the instant that she spoke it.


    Nico brought up the information on the room''srge holographic projector and spun the star map around so that it made more sense from their current perspective.


    "If you look here, this is the Numarian Radiation Belt, towards the far edge of the sensor range from Koleska space. Looking at it from the other side, it looks like this, so we can ce ourselves approximately here."


    There was no data from the Koleska about the stars on the other side of the radiation belt, as their sensors couldn''t prate it, and it was toward the edge of the territories which were known to them.


    It was quite distant from their current perspective as well, but the shape made it impossible to misidentify, like a million light-year-long tear through space.


    "That is incredible. The question is, what will we have to do to pass from here to there? Are there more regions like this with brokenws of nature or hostile alien species? For all we know, the Arisen might have already passed through here and wiped out everything." Khan muttered.


    "That would actually make it easier, wouldn''t it? Nothing to get in our way and the region would be secured by default.


    We have intercepted signals from the satellites, so we know where they are sending them to, or at least what direction they are sending them in. Should we send a team to go explore?" Nico offered.


    "I think we will have to pick a team from among the reserves. The others will lose their minds if we try to go on an adventure while they''re bored out of their minds waiting for something to happen here." Khan reminded her.


    Everyone in the room sighed in unison, then began tough as they realized how ridiculous their hopes of ending their boredom had been.


    "Fine, pick a team with reconnaissance skills and data analysis backgrounds. We will be sending them on a tour through the surrounding star systems.


    Strangely, there are no signals being emitted from them, so either they''re blocking them, or they might be uninhabited. It looks like one of them is the target of the satellite constetion though, so a jamming method seems probable." Nico agreed.


    "Oh, look through this as well. It''s a collection of ways that humans have found to make an inhabited system go dark to outside sensors. Most of them were used by mercenaries to hide their camps, but it might be something that the Hunters haven''t seen in a while." Max added, then gathered the data that had juste to mind.


    "Crude, low tech, andpletely effective at keeping signals from leaving their star system. I like it. We will be sure to forward this to the team."

 Chapter 946 946 Shuttle Away

    <h4>Chapter 946 946 Shuttle Away</h4>


    The team of reserves was assembled and ready even before they had managed to finish modifying the shuttle that was going to take them through space.


    Calling it a shuttle was a bit of a misnomer, as the ship wasrge enough to be a private yacht. Most of that was due to the need for it to have a dual-drive system, though. One would bring it to half cruising speed, without using a Warp Field, and then engage the Traction Drive to bring them to Warp 2 once they were free of the turbulence.


    But the Traction Drive was not meant to be used at the moment. Instead, it was a backup to get them out of any region that they encountered where the standard Warp Drive was inoperative.


    Once they were free of this star system, they should, in theory, be able to use the Warp Drive to get where they were going while remaining cloaked at a much higher rate of speed.


    If they had to rely on the Traction Drive, they would not be getting anywhere quickly. Warp 2 would take them three months to make it to the nearest star. But if the Warp Drive worked, they could also use the portals that it generated. The Traction Drive was incapable of that, as it was apletely different sort of setup.


    "Should we equip it with a separate Portal Generator so that it can open them even if there is interference stopping it from using the Warp Drives?" Nico asked.


    "That shouldn''t be necessary. It is capable of entering the otheryer as well, so unless the effect is in both ces, it should be able to move freely once it makes the transfer. This is just an all-purpose redundant system." Khan replied.


    While the shuttle raced through the atmosphere like the upants were afraid of having their seats stolen, the strategy group started to make ns toe up with new and better ways to keep things peaceful.


    "You know, it''s really hard to make peace ns when the opponent suddenly decides it is more fun to fight each other than to fight you." Max pointed out after a whole afternoon of pointless brainstorming.


    "True, but it killed time, and the shuttle should be past the blockade by now," Nico replied hopefully.


    They all turned their attention to what was going on in the shuttle, which was about to go to warp now that it was out of easy weapons range of the satellites.


    The data showed that the interference was low enough that anything up to Warp 7 should be a simple matter for the Warp Drives topensate for, and the team smoothly transitioned to faster-than-light travel headed for the target of the signals.


    [Strategy Team, we have sensor data. It appears that the sole habitable is no longer inhabited. There are extensive signs of an advanced civilization on the surface, mostly intact but decayed by time. What is missing is any sort of movement or signs of life.


    If anyone knows the legend of the ship called Death, the one that steals wholes, that is what this world is like, perfectly intact and empty. Wait, maybe not. I have detected multiple power signatures on the. Give us an hour to search, and I will get back to you.] The shuttle Pilot informed them.


    Everyone waited impatiently and watched the sensor streams from the shuttle as it approached the. The energy signals became clearer as the shuttle reached low orbit and settled in to do its survey, revealing the handful of active power signatures.


    They appeared to be low-level electrical generators, the sort that powered small groups of homes, not military or industrial facilities.


    [We have it Strategy Team. They are all Sr Generators with a few active power panels left. The efficiency level is somewhat degraded due to the weathering of the panel surfaces, but each location is producing at least a few dozen kilowatts of electricity.


    We are beginning to track where it is flowing to now.]


    Max followed along as they traced the power flow to a few locations per active site, but there were no signs of life or movement at any of them. The still had nt life but didn''t seem to have any animal life remaining, not even insects.


    [Enter the atmosphere and head for location four. It looks like one of the linked buildings is a government building that is in good repair. If this was intended to be an emergency backup system for natural disasters, then there is a chance that we might still get some data out of theputers, if any survived the years.] Khan ordered.


    The shuttle dropped down to the surface, headed for the Government building, but careful to check for the telltale signs of any sort of cloaked satellites that might still be active.


    They would burn more energy being in aary orbit and likely wouldn''tst as long, but without a frame of reference on the technology, there was no way to tell if there was still a whole hidden defensive weapons array in orbit.


    Nothing responded as the shuttle made its descent, and Max only found a few signs of debris in orbit but no signs of satellites, either in sight or in a cloaking field.


    If it was the Darklings or the Arisen that wiped these people out, it was possible that they had just destroyed all the satellites and military instations and then the poption without concern for what might be left behind by a dead species.


    That might be the worst-case scenario for the locals, but it was one that at least Max could understand and put data to. That was infinitely better than just noting that they had vanished.


    [Huntress, we are here.


    This ce is as creepy as a Tarrasque cemetery. The whole building has power, though none of the rest of the block seems to have had it in centuries. There is a protective stasis field on it, the sort used to preserve exterior finishes, and it''s still mostly active. The automatic doors worked, and we entered without issue.


    We are proceeding through the building toward the active power signals now. The barrier on the building and the twoputer terminals seem to be the only things that are still powered on. However, there is a chance that it is not aputer but some other electronic device.]


    Max waited as they moved through the building to the first power signature, a single device in an enclosedboratory.


    While most of the furniture in the public areas was crumbling, theb had a polycarbonate airtight seal, and it looked like it had been vented of atmosphere, leaving everything inside perfectly preserved.


    [Commander, we have our first signs of the former upants of this. Four legs and two arms in a centaur configuration, though the species appears to have been quite furry, without exposed skin on the upper torso, as is moremon among species of that design.


    One corpse was found in the vacuum-sealed chamber, with what appears to be a self-inflicted head wound caused by an energy weapon of an unknown type. The weapon is still present.


    There is oneputer in the room, a portable device that is currently in sleep mode. It''s a shame that we don''t have an Innu with us to save time, but we have the skills to retrieve the data without entering the room.]

 Chapter 947 947 Last Message

    <h4>Chapter 947 947 Last Message</h4>


    While it certainly wasn''t as fast as having the Innu do it, the Hunter team took less than half an hour to have the full contents of the electronic devices in theb collected and downloaded.


    There wasn''t much more that they could do with it, but they had also collected the footage from the camera in the room. It had stopped recording centuries ago when its storage had filled without any additionalmands, but that was perfect for the team back at the Anomaly.


    The footage that they recovered was unencrypted, so the file format only took theputers a few seconds to decode with Nico''s help, and they had thest moments of the in front of their eyes.


    "Let''s start with the oldest recording on the track so that we can watch what happened in chronological order," Khan ordered, and Nico brought it up on the screen, as the image was not a three-dimensional hologram.


    That was a bit disappointing. The more advanced the technology, the more they could learn from it, but if the species had developed enough to create that satellite array, then at the very least, they should have been able to generate better data sets in the actualputer files.


    The scene started with an empty room, and then a group of three small aliens, gray-skinned, with oversized heads and huge ck eyes, entered. They took no time getting to work, putting aside the jackets that they were wearing and clothing themselves inb coats and white gloves.


    The audio for the next section was gibberish, but Huntress Khan looked excited and tapped something into theputer.


    "Nico, back it up and y it again. I think we have a trantion that will work for thatnguage. They look like one of the Alliance species, and the Hunters have their traditionalnguage from nearly a million years ago recorded." Khan informed the room.


    They switched the trantion from the human program to the Hunters, and Nico restarted the video feed.


    "Honorable Lord, are you sure that it is wise to do this? After the disaster on Rigel Seven, all outside travel andmunications were prohibited for a reason." One of the gangly aliens asked.


    "It is necessary. The array around the quarantine zone is still sending signals to us from every single satellite. Don''t you think that they are bound to notice that level of data traffic? If we don''t send out the signal to tell them to move to autonomous mode, we might as well be shining a spotlight on ourselves." The first to enter the room answered.


    "But how? We don''t have the authorization. We are just a frontier colony." The alien asked.


    The one referred to as the Lord turned to his subordinate with what Max assumed was an annoyed look that made his bulbous ck eyes somewhat oval.


    "You let me worry about that. You know the stakes, and if they find us, we won''t escape again."


    The group all nodded at each other and then left the room.


    "So, they were using this as a meeting room since it is isted and soundproofed, as well as not being connected to the rest of their datawork. That is convenient for us. Now, we just need to know what they are hiding from.


    It can''t be the Myceloids in the region around the Array. They seemed much more worried about something tracking the signal than destroying the array and getting out. That says to me that the threat is outside the array." Khan mused.


    Max nodded. "I would tend to agree. Whileck of evidence isn''t proof, the fact that they didn''t refer to a threat in the quarantine zone but to the threat of the signal from the quarantine zone being tracked, as well as a disaster somewhere, suggests that their species is at war and losing."


    The feed was just an idle room for a while, then the audio showed a blip, and Nico rewound it a bit so they didn''t miss anything.


    There was nothing in the room. But there was a booming noise, and then some of the objects on the counters shuddered a little.


    "Either an explosion or an earthquake. I guess they didn''t get time to shut down the signals." Max noted.


    "Not entirely, anyhow. Though the array was only sending them one consolidated message when we arrived, so perhaps it was sending them more information before." Nico agreed.]


    Over the course of two days in localary time, the sporadic explosions continued. There was norge-scale destruction of the city when the Hunters'' search team arrived, though. Most of the buildings were stillrgely intact and only copsed due to age, not violence.


    The next time that there was activity urred a few days after the explosions had urred, and the only one who entered was the Lord, looking quite haggard, with his face sunken and hollow, as if he had neither eaten nor slept since thest time they saw him.


    "Computer, disy all of the active protest sites." He spoke, then waited for the response.


    Fortunately for the viewers, it was visible on the tabletop in front of him. Unfortunately, it was not in anguage that any of them or theputer they were using could read.


    But the follow-up was enough to help rify the situation.


    "Computer, make a note. The anti-government riots have been fully quelled. Complete control of the has been regained, and the quarantine zone satellite array has been put into hibernation mode, with an extremely minimal data flow to ensure that travellers do not breach the danger zone.


    The''s sensors have detected no signs that the Harvesters detected our microburst signal. With luck, they still believe our species to be extinct."


    The Lord then began tapping something into a handheld data tablet, and the lights in the room dimmed before he fell asleep in the chair with his head on the desk.


    "Well, we now know what the explosions were. This is clearly the capital building, so they must have been the protests." Lilith noted.


    "Or the response to them. But either way, I think that the most important part is that we now know what they''re hiding from. The Harvesters."

 Chapter 948 948 Harvesters

    <h4>Chapter 948 948 Harvesters</h4>


    That didn''t tell them what had happened to the. It could be assumed that the Darklings had arrived, but if they knew that they were being hunted, there had to be some sort of n in ce to get some of them out of the area and to safety.


    They had hidden a whole''s poption as well as they could, so it would be prudent to have some sort of backup n that would let at least those whom the government deemed most important escape.


    But it appeared that this alien, referred to as a Lord, had not been on the list to get off the, and the Darklings hadn''t bothered to get rid of his corpse, assuming that they were the Harvesters in question.


    The name fit them and their practices, so it wouldn''t surprise Max if that were the truth.


    The next morning, the Lord woke up and exited the room but was reced by a group of scientists doing a study on the benefits of crowd control through newly developed architectural trends.


    Their thought was that they could prevent the mass movement of people, like they had seen in the recent riots, with some aesthetically pleasing additions to the traffic routes.


    Their n was to beautify it and sell the benefits of a more pleasant downtown core while eliminating the chance that the people could rise up too fast for them to control.


    Something had clearly gone horribly wrong with their system of governance, and instead of fixing it, they were desperately clinging to power, as expected of the sort of government that would get themselves in that situation to begin with.


    Then the room sat empty for four more days until finally, the Lord came back in and sat down in the chair with a drink in his hand.


    He didn''t say anything at all but silently finished the drink, then put the gun to his head and ended his life.


    Everyone in the room shared a confused look, unable to decipher what exactly was going on, but they continued to watch as the ck blood dried on the table until a warrior in angr armour that looked like a corrupted version of an elegant and organically flowing base design walked in, examined a jar on one shelf, then incinerated it and walked back out.


    "That was clearly not of their species. Do you think it''s the Harvesters that they were afraid of?" Khan asked.


    Max and Nico both nodded. That was clearly a Darkling raiding armour, which meant that their suspicion was confirmed. This had been harvested in a very short period of time, leaving everything intact.


    "We should send the team on to the next point. This one doesn''t have anything else to tell us about the future of the world. It''s all the same footage of the room with no audio recorded after this point." Nico reminded them.


    Khan nodded. "I will send them to the next location while we analyze the data that we found here. I''m not sure how relevant it will be, but they were a spacefaring species, so there should be at least some sort of useful data in theputers."


    It was a secureb in a government office that was mostly used for discussions. Though perhaps that made it a meeting room, and the scientific instruments were secondary to the room''s purpose. They didn''t have enough footage from before things went wrong for the species to be certain.


    "Do we have any other camera data from the building, or was it all lost to time?" Max asked as they started to analyze what they had found.


    "The team is doing a cursory search for likely surviving data as they pass, but they''re minimizing their impact on the area until we are sure that we won''t cause more issues by interfering." Lilith agreed, ring at the screen in front of her in a way that made her annoyance clear, even with the nk mask of a huntress over her face.


    Unlike Khan, who often removed her mask in private, Lilith kept it on at all times. She didn''t actually have any sort of impairment; she just felt morefortable with all of the additional sensory data that the mask provided, so she only took it off or opened the lower portion to eat.


    After a few minutes of work to decode thenguage and the encryption of the files, they were in, and it became clear right away that the files might actually be useful. There were prepared notes for the meetings that had been held in the past, mostly from the internal affairs department, which were going to allow the Hunters to gather a very clear idea of how things were going on the before the final days.


    But there were also the personal notes of the Lord, and those ones directly mentioned the Harvesters a number of times. It looked like the species had lost multiples to them already before this frontier colony had been flooded with refugees and rebuilt before goingpletely signal silent, hoping that the Harvesters would either forget about them or not know they were there at all.


    It clearly hadn''t worked, but the reason why probably wasn''t the quarantine zone, as they had expected. The Darklings marked the targets that they allowed to escape, the same as the Arisen did. They would have just been waiting until they needed them to get them.


    Going by the timeline in the notes, there had been almost a hundred years between recolonization and harvesting. The riots were about the rights of the indigenous poption, which had been overwhelmed and outvoted by the new arrivals and then treated like second-ss citizens in a much more violent society than their own had been.


    If the Darklings hadn''t noticed that the array of satellites had been sending them signals for a hundred straight years, one microburst of activity wouldn''t have drawn their attention mere weeks before they arrived.


    "It looks like we really did get what we were hoping for. I wonder what sort of other data has survived the ages." Lilith asked happily as she finished reviewing the Lord''s notes.


    "I''m hoping for tech notes. If I have to skim through one more pointless traffic control n, I''m going to stab someone." Nico replied while Max patted her on the head to calm her down.


    Sometimes, increased reading speed was not your friend.

 Chapter 949 949 Remaining Power Sources

    The next location that the team arrived at was the remains of an old farm building. It was miraculously still standing without any form of high-tech barrier keeping its exterior intact. That left it far from pristine, but there was still something active and using power at a rate high enough that the orbital scans had picked it up.


    [Huntress, there are sr panels all over the field, and I''m seeing quite a few of them that are only lightly damaged. It looks like this region does not receive many, if any, severe weather events.


    We are proceeding into the farmhouse where the signal originated from now.] The team informed them.


    The Farmhouse was definitely close to copse, though it appeared to have a very good atmospheric seal when it was new. Why they would have needed such a thing when the sensors showed that the atmosphere was quite pleasantly bnced, and this was one of the most temperate regions of the was a mystery.


    The data they had gathered from the body, as well as the information on the rted offshoot of the species that were living within the Alliance, both said that they preferred a human-standard atmosphere, perhaps a bit higher in oxygen content, and an outside temperature in the low 30s Celcius.


    That described this region perfectly.


    [Mission Team, check the region for signs of an atmospheric shift. I would like to know if terraforming was still underway when this event happened or why they had sealed a farmhouse so well in such pleasant conditions.] Max requested.


    [Understood, Commander. We will get right on it. Sending two members inside to explore the building now.]


    Everything was quiet as the Hunters and Nico watched the data flow in from the team. The house looked quite mundane, just a simple three-bedroom bungalow-style house, but there was no sign of what was using all that power from the sr array.


    Something was, but there was nothing intact in here. Only the stone and polymer shell of the house and some rubble remained after all these years. Exactly how many wasn''t clear, but Max had given it a rough estimate of between three and six hundred years since the poption had disappeared based on the decay rate of the buildings.


    [Commander, we believe that we have found the source of the power usage. There is a hidden tunnel in the back bedroom that is filled with rocks and loose soil. It leads to an extended tunnel spiralling deep underground.


    Whether it was filled from this side or the other is unclear, but I believe that it will lead us to our power usage.] The team informed them.


    [Clear it and investigate. But keep an energy barrier over the opening. We don''t know if it is a trap or possibly contains a toxic atmosphere. But the plug should have created an airtight seal if there are still electronic devices operating in there. It is possible that it is just a short to ground and a faulty breaker, but I don''t want to risk destroying preserved artifacts.] Khan ordered.


    [Should we run a more extensive ground prating scan first?] The team leader asked.


    Nico nodded to Khan and replied on her behalf. [Do it. The shuttle has the sensory capability. Even if it takes all day to get enough ground prating radar work done to fully map what is underground, I want to see it before we go bursting in and disturbing whatever is there.]


    Thatmand left them waiting for hours, but it was worth it in the end. What the shuttle found under the farmhouse was absolutely incredible. There was an entire biodome down there, with both natural and artificial lights. The natural light should havee from a thick ss cap, but it had blown over with dirt and then been overgrown with grass over the years, leaving the whole dome buried.


    What they had taken as a t field behind the house was actually the biodome, and the house was supposed to be sitting on top of a hill, overlooking the small amount of farnd on the other side.


    The tunnel appeared to be an illicit addition and led into a service tunnel under the biodome, which gave everyone hope that there might be a lot of surviving material there.


    Sure, a lot would have been lost to time, but a Biodome needed backup materials, and they would have been vacuum-sealed against the elements and stored in a secure area. Since the biodome itself was still functional, there was a good chance that theputer system that controlled the whole facility was simrly preserved.


    The scans hadn''t found it, but there were a couple of possibilities. Two were enclosed rooms, and one was a storage room that seemed to be full of bulk totes of a glycol-based solution.


    That could actually be the server room, with the servers immersed in a cont solution and then sealed away to prevent contamination. Without exposure to moisture, there would be no oxidation, so in theory, they could have survived that way, along with enough of the sealed wiring to keep things functional.


    "Do you think that they might have an autonomous system involved? An android or equivalent who made repairs over the years to keep things running? It would exin the ability of the facility to function so well." Max suggested.


    "It would be the logical choice for a sealed environment. Unless it was designed as a habitat for their species, sealing an android inside would allow them to maintain and adjust the biodome''s environment as they saw fit without opening the containment.


    "Now I''m really excited to see what they''ve hidden in there. It''s a shame that we can''t clear away the covering on the dome. The scans say that it should be a magnificent facility when it is uncovered." Lilith sighed.


    "Don''t worry. We will get all the data to recreate it in a virtual setting so that you can y around with it all you want in your spare time." Khan assured her.


    "If I''m really lucky, then the experiment will be ongoing, and enough of the lights will have survived to keep the whole ce full of life. Nothing tells a story quite like a good time capsule." The Huntress agreed.

 Chapter 950 950 Biodome

    The ground prating radar couldn''t determine exactly what was happening inside the biodome due to the interference, and it couldn''t tell foliage from loose dirt and rubble, so the only real answer was to send the team down there and get some direct data.


    The tunnel in the house was the obvious answer since it led down to the lower levels of the biodome''s infrastructure and would let them infiltrate without damaging the dome itself.


    Ideally, they would be able to leave the facility intact for the next person who came through to study this fallen civilization. There might not be anything left alive in there, but on the off chance that there was, it would be an incredible find and one of the longest-running biodomes in history.


    Normally, such projects were abandoned once a mine was yed out or the around them was terraformed. It was all but unheard of to keep one running for millennia on a''s surface, and space stations underwent frequent upgrades and renovations over such a long period of time.


    [Team, clear the tunnel, but keep the barrier up so nothing escapes. We want to preserve the sealed nature of the relic as much as possible. Take air quality samples as you go, and analyze the material in the blockage to see if it''s from a copse or if it was deliberately plugged.] Khan instructed the junior Hunters.


    They were on it right away, creating a double barrier, both above their work area and enclosing the room itself, so that they could move the rubble out into this space without damaging anything.


    They had originally thought to just vaporize it, but if they found what they wanted and were going to reseal it, the best call would be to put it back exactly as they found it. Nobody would ever know that they were here, and the biodome would be intact for the next team.


    "Your away teams are quite well equipped, aren''t they?" Max asked as the team got to work with some sort of gravity control digging device that pulled the earthen plug from the tunnel.


    "We''ve had a fair bit of experience digging up relics. This is the most gentle way that we have found since it pulls all the loose rubble up with minimal effort, but once the dirt gets morepressed, the team will start digging to loosen it." Khan exined.


    The whole process only took a few minutes, and the team was through the plug with a rush of disced air.


    [It appears that the inside of the tunnel has a slightly higher air pressure than the surface. The barrier has maintained the bnce in air pressure, and we are analyzing it now. The results should be on yourputers.


    The inside air was very simr to the surface but stagnant from being sealed for millennia and with an incredible level of pollution that would have made any sort of outdoor activities nearly unbearable.


    Max looked over the data, then looked to Nico to see if her opinion was the same as his.


    "Yes, I think that they might have built this as an emergency shelter. Going by the pollution, the industry on the surface had made the air very nearly toxic, which would exin the riots against the settlers and the government.


    The air in the sealed room in the capital was constantly filtered, so that won''t tell us anything, but it is safe to assume that all these industrial pollutants came from the surface unless they are being generated by something inside the biodome.


    For all we know, it could actually be a hidden factory with its own containment unit to prevent air pollution. I have seen stranger things on colony worlds before." Nico agreed to Max''s wordless question.


    [We are entering the tunnel now. The width is good, and ording to scans, it will remain this size, but the team will need to crawl due to the 160cm roof height.]


    Everyone in the room turned to look at Nico while Max and Khan chuckled. She was the only one on the entire who could have walked through the tunnels created for the diminutive alien species.


    [The air quality remains stagnant as we progress. We havee to a set of sealed doors. They appear to be made of an advanced polymer over alloy construction. Sensors do not detect any blockages behind the seal, but the air quality might be different.


    We are erecting an additional barrier now at the door to prevent the transfer.] The team leader announced.


    Max watched the live feed from the helmet cams as they put up the barrier and opened the door, revealing a pristine storage room twice the height of the tunnel. Max checked the design and realized that this was supposed to be a maintenance ess tunnel, and the house had been builtter.


    The materials of the tunnel did not match that of the biodome itself, so it could not be the original destination of the room.


    [Team, please check the ceiling for signs of a patch. I suspect that the tunnel tapped into a dmissioned maintenance ess.] Max requested.


    More scans were run, and the results were as Max expected. They had drilled into a vertical ess that had been filled with some sort of concrete. When the tunnel was created, the doors would have been in a narrow tube full of concrete, and the storage room would have led nowhere if essed from the inside.


    [Thank you, team leader. We have the data we need to establish the timeline. Please proceed into the facility.] Max added once everyone hade to the same conclusion.


    The team entered the storage room and carefully closed the doors behind them, allowing them to seal properly and preventing any issues with their barrier from allowing outside air into the facility.


    The room led to a long service corridor with regr markings for ess upward. This seemed to be the end of the main service ess, and Max wondered how brave the person who broke in had to be to put their tunnel in such a well-travelled spot, assuming the facility was supposed to still be active when they started their work.


    Even if it was maintained by Androids, this was still the main ess to all things maintenance and would have been regrly upied.


    [Huntress, all of the exits into the biodome appear to be serviceable. What are your directions? Should we enter at the first opportunity or map the tunnels, looking for an open ess hatch?


    Air quality here is not stagnant and shows no signs of pollution at the levels that were found in the tunnel. It is possible that the air filtration unit is still functional.] The team leader asked.


    [Search for an open hatch to make your move to the upper level. There might be some stored materials down here as well, which would give us more information. Also, the glycol tubs are on your level, near where the main energy signature is. The energy signature is our primary target, with the exploration of the facility being a secondary objective.] Khan replied.


    [Understood Huntress, we will proceed to the energy source.]

 Chapter 951 951 Jackpot

    Chapter 951 951 Jackpot


    [Huntress, we are at the location marked as the energy source. It is the location of the drums of glycol as expected. The room is simr to the secure facility in the capital, as it is a double-walled airlock with clear polymer doors.


    Theyout suggests that it is a server farm, and there is quite a bit of wiring running around inside the room, but it is mostly still organized.


    Should we attempt to secure the data from outside, or should we enter?] The team leader asked, already knowing the answer but following protocol.


    [Collect from the outside, team leader. If you can get us a good analysis of the setup inside the glycol tubs as well, we would appreciate it. Once you are done there, you can head up above and see how things are going in the biodome.]


    The process of collecting the data was painfully slow due to the limitations of theworking technology that the alien system had been built with. While Nico could have gone straight to theputer''s mainframe to get the data, the team was limited to connecting through a data node on a server rack, and they found over five hundred terabytes of data saved, which had to be transferred at under one gigabyte per second.


    [Maybe it''s an anti-theft measure? Because if they were still alive here, there is no way anyone would be getting this data and getting away.] The team leader suggested.


    [While that is possible, I suspect that they were just rather limited in theirputer technology at the point when this system was made, either due to rapid development leaving certain areasgging behind or as a deliberate limitation.


    I know of some cultures where certain technologies were limited to military or government facilities, and this might be neither of those. Just wait it out, and we will get everything that the servers have saved.


    You can cut out duplicate files if there is arge portion of the data that is copied backups. Redundant files are normal in this sort of facility, and you might be able to cut your data transfer size in half.] Nico suggested.


    There were bound to be centuries of useless monitoring data in there somewhere, given the file size involved, Nico assumed. But as she checked the files that wereing in, none of them seemed to be recordings.


    There were no sequential time stamps, no continuous file names, repeating one after another as the security footage was backed up.


    Instead, there were just terabytes of data, raw and unsorted, as the data transfer was grabbing them by the drive sector and not by their organizational chart. It was a more efficient transfer this way, but it would only make sense once it was all here, and that was going to take hours.


    "Why don''t we all get some sleep while we wait? The away team can take it in shifts until the transfer is done, and then we can all move on with a fresh mind?" Max suggested.


    "I second that motion." Khan agreed.


    [Away team, cycle through a rest break while the data transfers. We will rmence full activities once the transfer isplete.] She ordered, then moved to pull a stack of nkets from the storage cab.


    Max was under no illusions that they would actually get to sleep in beds today, but the Hunters had good sleeping bags with intable pillows built in, so it wouldn''t be too bad sleeping on the floor of the strategy room, and they would be able to get right back to work if there was an issue, or the transferpleted early.


    As the hours passed, that was beginning to look more and more unlikely. There were no repeated files to be found, and the time stamps on them made them all nearly five hundred standard years old after factoring in the difference in the local time system.


    "It''s an archive. A doomsday vault of sorts." Nico dered as she skimmed through the nearlyplete data.


    "How so?" Lilith asked curiously.


    "It''s aplete archive of their technological skills, nt and animal life, as well as their own major aplishments. This was designed to let whoever found it rebuild both society and the to its original state before the Colonists arrived.


    It seems quite clear from the files that I''ve found that the level of industrialization on the at the time of its demise came very close to the end. This biodome was built to create a liveable space when the locals feared that the pollution from the influx of industry would choke them all out and leave the toxic.


    That matches with the pollution levels in the tunnel and gives us a timeline for the''s natural bnce to be restored after the inhabitants were gone."


    The Huntresses considered Nico''s answer for a moment, then silently agreed and added it to their official notes.


    "How detailed are the notes? Are they just blueprints, or did they think to include all of the technological and metallurgical advances that were needed to get to that point?" Max asked.


    "It looksplete, with all of the advancements that they needed to move from a primitive colony to space travel. They clearly came from an advanced species to begin with because the advancements were mostly forced. My best guess was that they may have crashnded here and had to start over with all their knowledge and no equipment.


    That would exin the progression path, which is optimized and skips over a number of steps in development as soon as a device can be made to move to the next stage in technological capability.


    It''s quite impressive, and if you want, we could send it to Felicity on Absolution, and she could make a whole new civilization of them on a random somewhere. We have enough detailed gic data on everything for the Replicators and the Terraforming Array to do the work and restore the species if they were actually extinct and not still thriving in the Alliance."


    Khan frowned. "And that begs the question of how they got here in the first ce. Or how they got to the Alliance if they started out here."

 Chapter 952 952 Exploration

    Chapter 952 952 Exploration


    [Data transfer isplete. A full analysis of the data storage system isplete. Can we get out of this tunnel now?] The team leader asked.


    [Go ahead, Team Leader. Find an open door upward and proceed into the Biodome itself.


    Keep us updated on the progress, and we will be watching your camera footage in case there is something that we need you to investigate.] Khan instructed.


    The team was visibly excited to be away from the boring station at the server farm, and they began to jog toward the nearest location, where their scans had detected an opening leading upward.


    It was only a few dozen metres away, but the first one that they came through was designed for a much smaller body than theirs, and the diameter of the opening was insufficient for them to move through it.


    [Just a minor side effect of dealing with alien construction. One of the major doors should berge enough. If you find one, attempt to open it with a barrier in ce and without causing damage.] Khan consoled the annoyed Huntresses.


    That didn''t take long. There was arge set of double doors at the top of a long ramp that was clearly marked as the main ess to the biodome from the utility area.


    The team got right to work setting up a barrier to prevent anything from escaping or entering the dome, then tried the handles on the door.


    The round crank spun with minimal effort, and the locks disengaged with an audible click, allowing the door to swing inward toward the service area.


    [The air on both sides is identical inposition and pressure. The venttion system is either functional or open to bnced flow throughout the facility.] The Team Leader noted.


    Nobody else was really concerned about that. The sight through the open door was much more entrancing. There was an entire living forest in front of them, with a dirt-covered clear dome above them and many rows of artificial lights.


    Only about a quarter of the lights were still working, but it was enough that the interior of the dome could be called twilight, and the nt life was getting by.


    [Impressive. They really made this ce for durability if the lights are still working after five hundred years. The walkway haspletely grown over with nt life, as expected, but the scans suggest that the forest is primarily around the hill that was built over this ess.] The Team Leader informed them.


    [That should be correct, as of the time of creation anyhow. There were originally three biomes inside the dome. A small forest, open grasnds, and ake.


    If possible, move forward and check the current condition of the rest of the dome.] Khan replied.


    The team moved forward through the trees and found that there were very few of them left, and some sort of tree-sized fern had taken over the area in front of them.


    [Could these be a low light evolved version of a Palm Tree? It would fit with the general design, but it feels like they were not intended to be here. The whole point of a biodome is not to introduce invasive and aggressively spreading species.] The Team Leader pondered.


    [We haven''t had time to analyze the contents of the original biomes yet, but we will keep it in mind. How does the interior quality of the dome look?] Nico asked.


    [It appears to bepletely intact. There are no apparent leaks or broken panels from our position. As far as survival probability, I would say that the biodome itself has centuries left on its life expectancy, though the biomes will be limited by the survival of thest quarter of the lights.]


    The team moved a little further toward where the shore of theke should have been. It was still present ording to their scans, but some sort of vines had overgrown the surface and were serving to aerate theke as well as speed evaporation due to the unique nature of its stems, which constantly circted water.


    It wasn''t currently raining in the dome, but the humidity was trending upward, and the sensors on the Hunters'' armour indicated that it should reach critical levels within a week and then reset through rainfall all through the dome.


    They had seen this before, with forests in a bottle, where the interior eventually became self-sufficient without any maintenance, but seeing it on such arge scale and sealed away from the world was still impressive on an abandoned.


    [It looks like everything is in bnce here. We probably shouldn''t interfere with anything, just in case we break the bnce and shorten the stasis life of the dome.] The Team leader sighed.


    [Understood Team Leader. You can return to the topside and refill the tunnel with its plug to shut everything down.] Khan agreed.


    That was exactly what they were nning when sudden movement in the corner of their eyes caught the Hunters'' attention.


    [Huntress, there is something active here. We spot movement. No signs of it on the sensors, so it might not be an exothermic species.] The Team Leader announced.


    [See if you can find it. Also, double-check the barrier to make sure that nothing is getting out through those ess doors. It might be a wild animal of some sort, but it might be the descendant of a survivor, and that would be a monumental asion.


    The Harvest usually only takes 9 out of 10, from what we have heard, but this whole is empty. A survivor might be a clue as to what happened to the rest or why they were all taken.]


    [Understood Huntress. We are searching now.]


    That put the team back in a good mood. It might be a small enclosed area, but they finally got to hunt something. Even better, it was something that didn''t show up in their default sensor settings, so they had to actually search for it.


    It was all that they had hoped for and more when they were sent to explore ruins.

 Chapter 953 953 Survivor

    <h4>Chapter 953 953 Survivor</h4>


    The team chased the movement through the trees for a few minutes until they had the creature cornered at the edge of the vine-coveredke.


    There was no way that anything was swimming through that, and the vines wouldn''t support the weight to run on them, so the creature was trapped. From all appearances, it was one of the gray-skinned local intelligent beings, but it hadn''t spoken at all and only silently ran away until it ran out of ces to run to.


    "Calm down, little creature, we''re not going to hurt you. Tell us, are there more of your people still living here? We came looking for survivors." The Team Leader asked in what she hoped was a soothing tone, using the alien''snguage.


    The small gray creature stared at her for a few seconds, then began to slowly speak.


    "You speak thenguage of our ancestors? How?" It asked.


    "We found it recorded in the ruins of your old capital city. What happened here? The whole seems to be empty." The Team Leader asked.


    The alien shook its head. "Not empty, hiding. The Ancients changed us so we could survive the toxic times. We went underground and into the domes to keep our people alive, and then the Harvest came, and everyone else was gone."


    The words were spoken in a broken version of thenguage, indicating that the species had undergone a linguistic shift in the centuries since the version that the Hunters had found recorded. But it was understandable, and it seemed that there were more of the aliens here somewhere.


    [Huntress Khan, there are still no life signs on the scanner. Do you have anything up there?] The Team Leader asked.


    [Yes, we have found them. They altered their biorhythm to a lower frequency, so they show on the scanner as very simr to the nt life. It''s an incredible form of camouge, simr to the one we use on the Hunter Suits, so we missed it at first. There should be roughly one hundred of them inside the dome or in a series of caverns nearby.


    It looks like they expanded them off of the main service tunnels, so there should be an open door around there somewhere.] Khan replied.


    [That exins the clean air in the lower corridors. Thank you, Huntress.]


    The conversation only took a few seconds, and the other team members had taken over for the Leader while she was upied. The alien seemed reluctant to let them meet the others of its species, but it was clear that they were not using any form of technology and were living off the remains of the biodome''s natural food production.


    If there were other simr facilities around the world, they should be doing the same, but Max wondered if any of them had survived this long.


    So, he started aary scan that would reveal any more living creatures with the same unique adaptation to avoid regr scans.


    Two of the other targets they had seen that were using power also appeared to be biodomes but in much worse condition going by the power usage. The surface of the didn''t have any life on it at all. But they did find some more of the aliens living in one of the biodomes and a few clusters of them in mountain caves.


    Unless there were more that their scans had missed, it appeared that the total poption was under ten thousand, and none of them were using any sort of technology.


    "Would you like for us to help your diodome? We can fix some of the lights or clear the roof so that natural light gets in. There are no more Harvesters or anyone else on the surface, and the air is better now." The Team Leader asked the alien.


    "The surface can be survived? Are you certain? From the ancient texts, it was said that the toxic times would continue for a thousand years after the Harvest. The ck-hearted ones would not stop their ways until they were all dead, and only then could the world recover."


    It sounded like a religious text recital the way that the alien spoke it, but the Team Leader just shrugged.


    "After the Harvest, something else happened, and everyone else left. We have heard of many other Harvests, and they only take nine out of ten." The Team Leader exined.


    The alien looked confused but then suddenly more energetic. "One in ten was chosen to live in the domes. All signals stopped after the Harvest, and we thought they went into hiding. But could the Harvest have taken them all and spared us? Could it have been a gift from the divine ones that we didn''t understand?"


    The Team Leader shrugged. "I don''t have any knowledge of that. But I can tell you that the surface is empty, and the air is much better than it used to be. It is safe enough for our species tofortably stay on the surface, and from the data we recovered, it should be safe for yours as well.


    But the biodomes are having a hard time surviving now that they are covered. The star''s light was meant to get inside. These lights should not have had to work so hard."


    [Team Leader, we have an audience. There are dozens of them in the trees now, listening to us.] One of the members informed her.


    [Good, let them listen. Their species might survive if they do.]


    "What proof do you have that there is starlight again and not the ck haze of death nketing the?" The alien asked.


    Nico sent a message to the away team, rifying the topic. [ording to my analysis of the collected data, the fog from the pollution would have been inky ck and perpetual. You wouldn''t have been able to truly see the sun from the ground, only a hazy glow.]


    The Team Leader thought for a second, then gestured to the roof.


    "Let me show you that what we say is the truth."


    [Shuttle pilot, please use the gravity beam to remove a portion of the dirt from the south side of the biodome. Make it a stable cavern but with a direct view of the local star from our current location.]

 Chapter 954 954 A New Lease

    <h4>Chapter 954 954 A New Lease</h4>


    The shuttle only took a few minutes to get into position and get all of the settings prepared to create arge opening on the side of the biodome that would let daytime light in through the whole year.


    This particr one was near the equator, so the amount of variability was limited, and the opening that they were going to create could be disguised as a cave system or ledge when viewed from a distance.


    That would please the locals, who were clearly still terrified of the Harvesters and the no longer existent pollution outside. But the hope was that once they saw that the sun was shining and the air was clear again, they would consider possibly exploring the surface again.


    [Ready to begin.] The shuttle pilot informed the team.


    "Alright, our ship is going to clear some of the dirt from that side of the dome so that the sunlight can get in, and you won''t have to rely entirely on the indoor lights anymore. There is nothing alive out there but nts, so you don''t have to worry about safety. But the natural light will help keep your nts growing well and keep your people fed until they''refortable following the route through the lower levels to get outside.


    You can either follow us when we leave, or I will draw you a map, and you can follow that outdoors when your people are ready." The Team Leader exined.


    "True facts?" The alien asked hopefully.


    "Just watch."


    The shuttle pulled and burned away the covering on the side of the dome, right near the top, and sunlight began to stream in, turning the dim twilight inside to something close to afternoon sun.


    It was little more than a window in a huge room, so it wasn''t as bright as it had been intended to be, but it was much more than it had been, and the Hunters had high hopes that the change in light wouldn''t mess up the nt life bnce too badly.


    The aliens in the trees began toe forward into the direct light, in awe of what they were seeing, and Max realized what had happened in their culture.


    [When the ck fog of pollution began to clear, the dome was already mostly covered in dirt. Then, as the dirt got thicker and blocked out everything, they couldn''t tell the difference. They thought that everything was immensely toxic outside. They didn''t even know that the dome was buried.] Max informed the away team.


    Everyone watched as one of the aliens climbed the scaffolding on the biodome walls and made their way to the cleared section. Once they were there, they took a bundle of leaves from their pocket and wiped down the inside of the window, increasing the amount of light streaming in, and then stood there, basking in the warm glow of the sunlight.


    The alien on the scaffolding turned around to face the dome and cleared his throat.


    "My people. What these strange aliens say is true. The sun is bright outside, the air is clear, and the skies are the promised blue again. The treacherous ck-hearts buried our dome in dirt under the cover of the fog and left us.


    The star has returned to our people, and the days of suffering and rationing are soon to be over. The fears for the future are fading, and I will personally follow these aliens outside to test the truth of their words. If the air is clear, we will start the farms that we were promised and celebrate with all the food we can eat."


    The pronouncement had everyone cheering, but even through the helmet cameras, Max could see that the group''s leader was very concerned about something. Most likely, it was the condition of the rest of the groups that had been hiding, and that was not going to be great news.


    The Darklings only harvested when a reached billions of upants. If one in ten had been in hiding from the pollution, and fewer than a hundred thousand still lived, then almost all the other projects had failed or had left too early and had died outside.


    The alien leader made his way back down the scaffolding as the leaves on the trees began to subtly shift toward the light source, taking in as much as they could of the new abundance, and thest remaining members of this group gathered to hear the official pronouncement.


    They were not at all in agreement with the leader being the one to follow the Hunters outside, though. He was chosen as the best one to lead them, and if this was a trick, or the Hunters were wrong about what their species could survive, it would be a disaster for them to lose him.


    So, as he approached, the first one to make contact stepped between the Team Leader and the biodome''s leader.


    "Elder, please rethink your position. I will go with them to see the outside and return back. Our people need you here to guide them through this change. We can''t risk you going outside before we have verified that it is safe."


    Max and Nico started rapidly checking the area to make sure that they hadn''t missed any more life forms, like a wild animal that might have the adaptation the aliens based their own changes on. Nothing came up, only nt life and the pair gave a sigh of relief while the two aliens argued about who should be the first to set foot outside the dome.


    "If the seal on the dome is broken, does that not mean that the dome will die? The outside world will steal our water, and the rains will end. That is what we have always known would happen if the dome cracked." One of the aliens asked.


    "We were careful not to let anything in or out other than ourselves. We have a technology to block air from moving through doors when we open them, so your dome is safe, and we can keep it that way. The seals are all intact, and they can be resealed when you pass through, so the farms you wanted to build outside can be aplished without damaging the biodome itself." The Team Leader informed them.


    Doing it perfectly would mean taking careful measures about what doors were open and which where closed, but the lower-level tunnels wouldn''t let much out, no matter what.

 Chapter 955 955 Interesting Genes

    <h4>Chapter 955 955 Interesting Genes</h4>


    In the end, the decision was that the first to make contact, as well as a few of the older members of the group who were past their child-raising age and already had trained their sessors, would be the first to go outside and make sure it was safe.


    The Team Leader sent one of their members ahead, following the aliens'' directions on where the open door to the lower levels was so that they could clear the tunnel and purge the polluted air that was trapped in it.


    It would ruin their credibility if the first thing that happened was that the aliens began to choke on toxic fumes the moment that they left their enclosure, and it would likely stop them from going outside at all for many years, even though the sky was clear.


    [Team Leader, the exit tunnel has been purged and fully sanitized. The air quality in it matches the outside world, and you are safe to proceed.]


    [Please verify that both sets of doors to the storage room are airtight so that we can create a proper airlock to set the aliens'' minds at ease and then wait for us topside.]


    The Team Leader looked to the group of small gray aliens that was going to follow them back outside and gave them a slight bow.


    "Please follow me, as our scout has confirmed that the way is clear and the tunnel to the surface is safe and stable. It hasn''t been used in five hundred years, so there was some rubble to be cleared from it, but we have taken care of that now, and you will be able to safely travel to and from the outside world."


    The group still seemed to be in shock that so much had changed in a short period of time. Not only did they have natural light back into the dome, which would allow them to continue living on even if the lights were topletely fail, but they could now go outside, expand their farms, and end the food rationing that they had been on since the lights in the dome started to fail at a faster rate, leaving the biodome increasingly dark.


    "Alright, this is the final room of the underground. Everyone, please step fully inside and close the door behind you. Be sure to spin it tightly shut so that none of the air from inside the dome gets out.


    The air out here is safe, but I know how you feel about the integrity of your home. We travel in space with no atmosphere around us, so the integrity of our airlocks is vital to our survival." The Team Leader informed them.


    Once the door was sealed, the Team Leader opened the door to the tunnel and watched in amusement as the aliens began to pray for their safety.


    "The air in here is now fully mixed with the outside air. Please take a deep breath to confirm that it is indeed safe for you, and then we can proceed upward." She informed them.


    It couldn''t be called a deep breath, but they stopped holding their breath, and that was good enough for the Hunters, who led them up to the surface.


    But the strangest thing happened the moment that they reached the surface and the sunlight hit their skin. The pale gray began to instantly fade away, and their tone turned to a pale tan, the same colour as the stone of the walls.


    They were almost perfectly camouged against detection in the ruins of the farmhouse, but none of them noticed right away as they were all staring up at the sky around them, breathing in the fresh air, and touching their faces where the breeze was blowing against them.


    "What has happened to us? We are yellow!" One of them finally eximed when she looked down from the sky.


    "Your skin adapted the moment you stepped into the sunlight. If you wouldn''t mind, could I get you to move into the grass outside the house? I believe that once you do, your skin will return to either gray or green. It seems that you have an adaptation to blend in with your surroundings." The Team Leader informed them.


    The first man to make contact was also the first to move, and as expected, the moment that hey down in the grass, he turned to a mottled green and tan, blending in with the long grass perfectly.


    "That is impressive. Not many species can adapt their colouration that quickly. It seems that your species is at one with this world now, and no matter where you go, you will fit in.


    There are no more animals, so there are no predators, but that is normally the trigger for such a gic trait." She added.


    The man rolled over in the grass, then ran away a few dozen metres to stare at a bush with small red berries.


    [Species unknown. Sensors indicate that it is a close match to one in the biodome but not identical. Safe consumption levels are unknown.] Khan informed the away team.


    "The berries aren''t quite the same as the ones inside. I''m not sure if they can be eaten." The Team Leader ryed.


    "There are so many of them, though. Look around. There are hundreds of bushes full of them. If we can eat these, we can bring whole baskets back home. They would celebrate for days to get even half a person''s body weight in berries, and they would eat well for even longer." The man sighed.


    "Then, if you will allow me to take a small blood sample, I can do an allergen test, and we can find out if this is toxic to your body. It survived the pollution era, so I can''t say what might have changed or how your bodies might be different than they were at that time." The Team Leader suggested.


    [And send that blood sample data back up to me. I want to know more about the chameleon genes that they have.] Nico reminded the away team.

 Chapter 956 956 New Adaptation

    <h4>Chapter 956 956 New Adaptation</h4>


    While the test results were being processed, Nico was getting very excited about this new adaptation that she was studying. She had the feeling that it was going to mesh very well with the other adaptations that she had built into her biomechanical body, and the adaptation was for far more than simple skin colour, as she had first suspected.


    Not only would their colouration adapt to the surroundings, but they had been carefully gically engineered so that their internal organs would adapt as well.


    Which baffled the Hunters. If they adapted so well, they should have been able to survive the pollution clouds that had consumed their world in the past. But the poption suggested otherwise.


    It was possible that only this group had received the treatment or that each group that was put into hiding had received a different one, and most of them had been failures that had slowly killed or reduced the fertility of the recipients.


    The possibilities were so varied that without exploring every other location on the and searching for evidence, they couldn''t make a positive conclusion.


    But that wasn''t on the schedule. They had their answers, and they had helped the survivors of this dead world out a little bit, which was their moral obligation, even if it wasn''t a legal obligation. So, they waited for the results toe in.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen. We have the results. ording to this, your bodies should have no problems digesting and processing this berry, assuming that you all share the same traits as the sample we took.


    If you are all from different families, we can test you all in the next few minutes, and that should ensure that the berries won''t be poisonous to any of you, but from what we can tell, they are perfectly safe for your consumption." The Team Leader informed the aliens.


    They looked in envy at the scanning machine in her hand, as it could so easily and safely identify food sources, then they silently scattered and returned a few minutester with likely-looking fruits, roots, seeds and leaves.


    "You want all of these tested, do you? That shouldn''t be an issue. Give us just a second and a blood sample from everyone, and we will get the testspleted."


    That was multiple verifications for the genome sample that they had sent back to the base, which would certainly make Nico and Khan happy, and a fairly wide variety of local foods that might be edible.


    This was a farm, so it made sense that most of the things growing nearby would be food products, even after all this time. Thest harvest would have simply gone wild after there was nobody there to harvest it, and that would have been the only thing in the area to grow, so whatever could germinate without supervision would have remained the dominant nt life.


    "All of these are safe for consumption. I can''t say that they''ll all taste good, but these roots are all non-toxic, as are the berries and most of the seeds. The others aren''t toxic but have very little nutritional value, so unless they are spices, you might want to skip on harvesting those ones." The Team Leader exined.


    "Thank you, visitor. Tell me, are all aliens as friendly as you are?" The first man they made contact with asked.


    "No, not even a little bit. Most of them would colonize your, change all the nt life and then wipe you out without a second thought. We just happened to see a relic of your past here and got curious." The Team Leader exined.


    It was for the best if they didn''t start working on contacting the outside world. It might lead them to the quarantine zone array, and that would be a whole new mess if they thought that the Myceloids might be friends.


    "What are you going to do next?" One of the alien women asked.


    "We are going to spend a few hours helping out other survivor groups without making ourselves known, and then we are going to return to the we came here from. There is a war there between our species and a very hostile one, and they always need more strength.


    That is why I rmend that you don''t go looking for other species. You might not like what you find. Fortunately, we are not interested in your world, so we will make sure your species survives before we go.


    Who knows, maybe in a few hundred years, you will be thriving again and on a new path towardfortable lives that doesn''t involve stripping the of resources or polluting the atmosphere to the point that it chokes you to death."


    [Should I get on that? Our shuttle can repair most of the sr panels and the wiring damage, and then I can head off to help the other survivor groups the same way.] The Shuttle Pilot suggested.


    Khan considered that for a little while. [Make them new lights for the dome as well. Say, fifty of them packed in durable, shelf-stable packaging. That will let them revamp their home as they see fit if they don''t think that the natural light is enough.]


    They wouldn''t interfere any further with the aliens than recing what they already had working so that they didn''t cause new issues with the beleaguered species, but bringing all their lights and sr panels back online would be a nice gesture.


    Their bodies had provided the hunters with valuable information for the next generation of Hunter Suits, as well as Nico''s own body modifications, so they felt that they owed them at least that much.


    [Understood. I will get the systems of the inhabited biodomes back online and give them some natural light if needed.] The Pilot replied, then raced off to finish the task while the Team Leader removed a bed sheet from her t space storage and ced it on the ground in front of her.


    "If we each take a corner, we can carry many times your body weight in food back into the biodome. Just be sure to clean it off well if ites from the ground. I don''t know how the soil here will interact with the soil in the dome.


    There is a well beside the ruins of the house, and the sensors say that it is clean water safe to drink. I have a bucket and a rope, so you can draw some up to wash the root vegetables and drink." She informed the group.

 Chapter 957 957 Return

    <h4>Chapter 957 957 Return</h4>


    ?


    The aliens eagerly got to work pulling water to the surface and then testing it with a leaf from one of the women''s packs.


    "The leaf turns bright red if ites into contact with any liquid that isn''t water. We use them for testing our drinking water every day to make sure that it is still safe to drink. One time, after some of the vines overgrew a piece of grasnd inside, the water turned bad for a while, so now we check all the time." She exined.


    "It is a good idea, especially up here. You never know what is in the water or what has happened to it. But if the leaf says that it is safe to drink, we will verify with our scanners, and then you can wash everything to take inside and feed your friends." The Team Leader agreed.


    The water was actually very pure, and she had already scanned it when she found the well, but there was no harm in double-checking.


    Once the water was determined to be safe, the roots and berries were quickly washed and carefully ced on the sheet, along with all of the berries and seeds that they had determined were edible.


    The mound of food must have weighed hundreds of kilos, and it was nearly as tall as the diminutive aliens when they finished, but there were still many more nts of most of the types in the area.


    They had been careful not to harvest all of the fruits or seeds from any nt and not to damage the nts themselves, except in the case where they were pulling up root vegetables.


    They had centuries of practice doing things that way to ensure that they didn''t lose a vital crop species, and even at that, they had still lost most of them to the low light conditions.


    "Do you think that we could bring even more light into the dome eventually?" One of the men asked.


    "You certainly could. Just open the cavern that we created even wider, and you will get more light. But remember that everything in there right now is adapted to growing in very little light, so if you do it too soon, you might kill a lot of the nt life before it can be reced or adapted." The Team Leader reminded him.


    The man bopped himself on the head three times, which seemed to be their version of ''I stand corrected'' and then gave a little bow.


    "We will keep that in mind. Inside and outside nts. Who would have thought that we would be the ones to see the outside world, and not the ones who had to tell their children that we were moving rations down below subsistence?" The group leader replied happily.


    "We will carry this back in for you, and then we need to go. Our shuttle is finishing with its tasks here, and our work is done. We will keep an eye on your species from a distance, though, so we hope you do well, even though we won''t be here to help." The Team Leader informed him.


    "You have done more than we could have ever hoped for. I am certain that our people will make you proud now that you have given us a new lease on life.


    We still have construction ns to restart what the first generation called farms, so we will begin one near here, where the food products end. Harvesting them intentionally is said to grow much more than just picking the wild ones, and then we will have more than we could ever need." He agreed.


    "Alright, let''s see the look on everyone''s faces when wee back with a huge bag of food. They have been waiting inside to find out if you all died on contact with the outside air or if you all got sick, remember?"


    That sobered up the mood. Indeed, they had forgotten that there were people waiting to find out if the outside was liveable. They had just been so caught up in what they found that they forgot that nobody else knew yet.


    "We need to tell them right away. But first, everyone repeat back the process so that there are no mistakes returning." The first man who had made contact with the Hunters demanded.


    "To return, go back through the hidden hatch and then close it behind you. Enter the bottom chamber and seal the door before you open the door into the tunnels. Seal that door behind you. Turn right at the second intersection, then make your third left to get to the topside." They repeated in unison.


    "Good work. Now, let''s go."


    The group carefully repeated the actions as if they were a holy ritual, but it did ensure that the safe procedures for returning to the biodome were followed and that there was no breach of environmental integrity.


    They made their way through the tunnels and found that the entire poption was waiting for them at thest set of doors into the biodome, the ones that they had left open to cleanse the air in the lower tunnels so they could move around.


    "Wee back, brave explorers. Tell us, how is the pollution? Can we survive out there? Is there anything left?" The leader asked.


    "Indeed, there is something left. We found that the area around the entrance was covered in wild food, just waiting for us toe outside. The air is clean and breathable, and there is a well with water that the water leaves say is safe to drink.


    We used it to clean a small bag of food that our benefactors say should be safe for us to eat. It looks like the food that the old pictures say we had inside, so it should be safe for our stomachs, but we waited until we got back so that none were tempted to eat more than their share."


    The Team Leader sent her members forward with the massive sheet filled with food, and the whole group gasped in awe, falling to their knees and bowing down to the food.


    Or possibly the Hunters, but the Team Leader suspected that it was the food.

 Chapter 958 958 Expansion Plans

    <h4>Chapter 958 958 Expansion ns</h4>


    Once the locals were engrossed in looking over the food that had been brought in, the Hunters made a hasty retreat. Someone had sampled everything already, and there was no sign that it was actually toxic to them. Plus, the shuttle had finished its mission, so they intended to make a second pass by the quarantine array and back to the.


    The situation with the Myceloids had stabilized, and now that they weren''t under direct and constant threat, the Hunters had ns to explore more of the region around the anomaly.


    There had to be something around here that hadn''t been harvested by the Darklings when they came through. They were always quite particr about their targets, but none of thes were giving off any sort of sign of life.


    And that wasn''t just interference from the space around them. The shuttle hadn''t picked up anything either. Even on the long-range scans, they didn''t detect any other inhabiteds, though they did detect a few that might have nt life on them or primitive animals.


    Those ones were still of great interest to the Hunters, now that the Myceloids were clearly an intelligent species, and they couldn''t keep lying about it to the Alliance. New Hunting grounds were vital to their entertainment, and they were the only reason that the Hunters had even agreed to help with the Anomaly in the first ce.


    Nico looked at Khan with a satisfied smile.


    "So, what is first? Do we adapt some ships with the new ideas that we have gotten from those aliens, or do we just cloak them to get past the satellites and then go exploring?


    Don''t get me wrong, hanging out here with you is fun and all, but there is so much more out there to see, and I suspect that if we go a bit further, we will get out of the destruction area around the ancient battle site, and then we will stand a good chance of finding more familiar sights.


    Without the interference of the disrupted space, I am pretty sure that we will be able to locate this region on a universal map, and that could help tie together all of the research that we have done on thest million years of history." Nico dered.


    "And the real reason that you want to find news that nobody else has mapped?" Khan asked.


    "It''s not a war crime if there is no evidence that they ever existed. Think of all the cool things that we might find from an isted intelligent species that has been at peace for over a million years."


    Max shook his head in mild dismay. "You need to rephrase that. You used your inside words on the outside."


    Khan and the others began tough at Max''s admonishment. They were thinking somewhere near the same thing but with less intention of wiping out any species that they found. In Nico''s mind, there were no non-hostile species. Only ones that weren''t hostile yet.


    Of course, with a Nico-approved level of rampant violence, they really couldn''t me every species she met if they did be hostileter. It was only fair, given her unique negotiation methods.


    Khan considered their path forward for a few minutes, then sighed.


    "We really should do some work on getting the new camo designs working. The gic engineering that they used is fairlypatible with our biomechanical technology, so it should be fairly well suited to the outer armour of your new Mecha as well.


    If we''re going to be exploring new worlds, then we should do our best to blend in and hide our presence. That means more work for us, but it will be fairly quick work. Do you want to outsource yours to your design teams?" She asked Nico.


    "No, I''ve already nearly got it worked out. My system decided that it was somewhat suitable for my own use, so I''ve been adapting it as a background process, and our Mecha shells are based on the same technology as my outer shell.


    Between the two, I should be able toe up with something within the day, even if it is a paint coat and not an intrinsic feature."


    Max smiled. "Work on that paint coat idea. That wille in very handy in the future since we can paint nearly anything, and an adaptive coloration scheme would be excellent for all sorts of infiltration missions."


    "If I can make it into the paint, will you let me be the first to make contact with any intelligent species that we find?" Nico asked hopefully.


    "You can make first contact with the first intelligent species that the two of us find. The offer doesn''t extend to the species found by the Hunters, and it only begins once you''ve got the paint working well enough to deploy it to the Android Regiments." Max agreed.


    Lilith smirked. "You know that she''s going to have it done within the week at that rate, right?"


    Max gave her a wink. "You know that the most powerful sensors in the Gxy are controlled and monitored by the Hunters, right? If Nico is better at finding new species with your sensors than you are, then she deserves the honours."


    The Huntressughed at that and sent a message to the monitoring team that they had a challenger in the race to find a new intelligent species.


    They loved a good challenge as much as the Myceloids loved a good fight, and it looked like they were going to have the perfect opportunity.


    [The design team says ''challenge epted.'' They also offer the wager of one bottle of real Reaver Rum against one bottle of their unit''s Melon Wine.]


    Nicoughed at the response.


    [Good, if you''re actually working for it, I might not be bored. Don''t worry. I have the finest of Reaver Rum avable on the Cutter in Alliance Space. The real stuff, made on Rae 5 and not Replicated.]


    Not that the Replicated was noticeably different from the handmade version, but the taste could be slightly different, given the artisan nature of small-batch liquors.

 Chapter 959 959 Game ON

    ?


    While Nico was actively working to get the adaptations for pigment modification integrated with the exterior shell of the Mecha as a new coat of paint, the majority of her mind was on the Hunters sensors and trying to find a new intelligent species based on the limited clues that they could pick up,bined with what the shuttle had found, and the sensors on their own ships.


    The chances that there was another species to find were pretty slim, but neither Nico nor the Hunters were willing to give up on the chance that there might be something to find, and Max could sense that almost the entire sensor monitoring team was currently on duty, working extra hours on the chance that they would be the one to get the honours.


    Their team leader had promised them that if they were the ones to find the definitive signals, then they would get a spot with the first team to make contact, and that was a huge honour for the junior Huntresses on the team.]


    So, a whole week passed in intense focus before the adaptive paint waspleted, without a single trace of life in the nearby portions of the universe.


    The Alliance waspletely confused as to the priorities of the Hunters since they weren''t actively attacking the Myceloids anymore, only skirmishing with them from time to time when one side or the other got bored and started a fight.


    Unlike most species, that was a very easy task. If there was a group passing by from either faction, you could simply yell out [Hey, want to fight?] and they would dly oblige.


    The Alliance politicians found the practicepletely barbaric, but when they checked the regtions for interacting with non-Alliance intelligent species, they found that it was perfectly eptable to participate in the cultural traditions of alien species as long as you had the approval of the species in question.


    In this case, there was no doubt that the Myceloids were wholeheartedly on board, and they seemed to be using the stronger Huntresses as a form of testing ritual, where they woulde to pick a non-lethal fight so their bosses could determine where they ranked on the hierarchy.


    Fighting among themselves only let them know where they werepared to their neighbours. But they could challenge the Huntresses to see where they were overall without them taking it as an invasion of their camp or risking bing the boss of a bunch of weaklings if they won.


    They all wanted to be the Boss, but not the Boss of a bunch of pathetic losers.


    Nico looked at the bucket of paint in front of her with pride and then at the shuttle where they had created it.


    "So, what do we paint first? The Mobile Suits seem like an obvious choice; we''ve been using them a lottely, and they''re most Myceloid-sized. If we''re going exploring, they''re the obvious choice." She suggested.


    If it would fit through this smaller anomaly, Max would have said the Cutter, but that wasn''t an option today. That also meant that the Super Heavy Mecha wasn''t an option either since they would need transport unless they were going to rework them another time to have a suitable propulsion system for the region immediately around this.


    That mighteter, but it wasn''t a priority.


    "The mobile suits, and then the Android Army. Once we''ve finished with that, we can start moving out in search of news to secure a foothold on and search for life.


    The Darklings don''t take the entire world most of the time, so there should be some life left. We know that the aliens we met were a colony world, which means there is a homeworld somewhere. It''s only been a few hundred years since thest incident, so there should be someone left. We just haven''t found them yet." Max replied.


    That got everyone in the room excited again. They were beginning to lose hope of finding them, but there really should be the remains of the other colonies around. Unless this species had done something to annoy the Darklings and they had harvested thempletely, with nothing left to restock the worlds for another harvest.


    It didn''t take long for Nico to get enough of the paint created and then order the Androids to update their paint scheme. It wouldn''t bepletely out of the new paint. They would still keep their unit markings in traditional red paint so that they could be quickly identified if in danger or damaged.


    But other than that, they should soon blend into the surroundings, and Nico was quite eager to see how that would work in practice, not just in simtions. If it was a disaster, it was just as quick to paint back to normal, so that wasn''t a primary concern, but the base defenders were getting bored, and they needed some form of entertainment, even if it was just colour-changing Mecha.


    The androids were nearly done with their paint jobs when Nico began to cheer and dance around the room.


    "Alien life found. I got it. Victory is MINE." Sheughed.


    "Awaiting verification." The sensor teamined, bringing silence back to the room as the signal was verified.


    Finally, a voice sighed. "Signal verified and repeated on a 60-second loop. Frequency Modtion signal, using the same protocols as the quarantine array."


    "It''s not a new species, but it is a new full of intelligent life. Look at it this way: you already have a guideline to go by because we have data on their past." Max reminded Nico.


    That didn''t bother her. The right of First Contact meant that she could get off this rock and go exploring. Once the option to call in a massive number of reinforcements and wipe out the Myceloids had been ruled out, she had been itching to find a new way to entertain herself.


    "We can have the shuttle prepared in the morning, and then we will head out to make contact. Huntress Khan, if you would like to pick a team to go with us, we would appreciate it." He added.

 Chapter 960 960 Dibs

    ?


    By the time the Androids were repainted, everyone was in a hurry to get packed up and start heading for the source of the additional signal. The Hunters wanted to know how things had gone for the rest of the species that they had found, and Max was eager to find out what had happened to them in the first ce.


    This was so far from where they had seen the Darklings working and from thes that they were reported to have cleared in the past few centuries that it just didn''t make any sense for them to have been Harvesting here.


    If there were another faction of them which was operating independently, that would be incredibly valuable information to basically everyone in the universe, as the species had the technology to move vast distances undetected.


    If it was the same group, it made even less sense, as they hadn''t broken their usual schedule in Koleska space, where it was assumed that they were currently active.


    So, when the sun came up, and they met the bare minimum requirements of "tomorrow morning" that Huntress Khan had set as the schedule, the selected team was herded into the modified test shuttle by Nico, and they were off to explore the region.


    "This first part is a bit slow, but we know that this speed and method will get us past the array without triggering it, which would set off a series of signals, and might attract unwanted attention.


    Once we''re past that, we will start moving at a proper speed." Nico assured the Hunters after the ship made it to orbit.


    "Understood, Commander." The Hunters responded in unison.


    Max settled in for the trip, knowing that he wouldn''t be needed to do anything. The Hunters wouldn''t even consider asking a male, and Nico could handle the ship well enough on their own.


    They had only loaded one single squad of Android Mecha into the ship for security, but they weren''t going to fight today. They just wanted to get a visual confirmation of the state of the and any others that it might be in contact with so that they could start making a proper n for the future.


    Of course, Nico was hoping they were hostile, and the Hunters were hoping that they were non-sentient, but officially, there was little chance of violence today.


    "We''re moving to Warp Speed now. The cloaking device will remain active for the duration of the mission, and we will not be sending any signals until we have done a full assessment of the." Huntress Khan informed the group as she sat down beside Max with a bottle of rum in her hand.


    "It looks like we''re mostly redundant here. They''re not going to ask you anything unless they can''t find the answer, and I''ve got too much seniority to actually do anything but supervise." She sighed as she poured two sses of the dark liquid.


    "It''s a hard life at the top, but at least we get front-row seats. I swear that times like this are half the reason that Nico doesn''t try to push for a Commander title." Maxughed, then raised his ss in a toast to the lead Huntress.


    The ship''s motion subtly changed as the method of travel was switched, and then the familiar hum of energy in the structure that was caused by the Warp Field modtions for higher warp speeds set in, and Max knew that the worst of the trip was behind them.


    It only took them another half hour to reach the, but what they saw when they got there was nothing short of Nico''s wet dream.


    There was a massive orbital battle going on above the involving no fewer than three species, and it seemed that none of them were on the same side.


    One of them was a sleek, disc-shaped set of vessels that Max recognized as belonging to the aliens they had found in hiding, while another was a Myceloid ship, and the third was an enormous edifice of gothic design in space that would have made Uncle Lu cry with joy.


    "They turned a cathedral into a Destroyer. Or possibly a Dreadnaught ss vessel because that thing is big even for a Destroyer, but it''s not a colony ship." Huntress Khan noted.


    "Well, I found them first. Does that mean I get to pick the negotiation technique?" Nico pleaded.


    "Stick with the n. Find out who it is and what they are up to. You can pick a fight with the Myceloidster, assuming that they win whatever skirmish is going on here." Max decided.


    They definitely weren''t holding back. Thousands of missiles, solid projectiles and energy sts were being exchanged between the fleets every second, and dozens of smaller craft had been destroyed just in the minute since Max had gotten a clear view of them.


    If he had to guess, this was a battle of annihtion, and there wouldn''t be any easy way out for any of thebatants unless they had the ability to flee the battlefield faster than they could be chased down.


    The cathedral-themed ships began to firerge shuttles at the Myceloid vessels, and Max noted that they were deliberately not being targeted. It looked like they were a boarding force, and the Myceloids were ready and prepared for the fight toe to them.


    Whichever aliens had picked that technique were either suicidal or supremely confident in their skills because they didn''t stop when they realized that the enemy weed the challenge.


    "Analysisplete. The disc vessels are substandard fighters but have much greater maneuverability than the others, while the fashionable ones only look awkward. Their technology is actually very advanced, with both weapons and armour systems very nearly on par with the Mecha of two design generations ago." The away team leader noted.


    "Do we know which species we''re seeing?" Khan asked.


    "Not yet. We can assume that the Myceloids are the only ones who would build a flying scrap heap like that, and the discs match the ones in our database from the new alien species, but we haven''t pinged them with any active scans yet. The orders are not to give our presence away, so we are waiting." The Team Leader responded.


    "Which means they can all block our passive sensors. Not too bad. Let''s see how this ys out."

 Chapter 961 961 Waiting Is Painful

    ?


    The mighty energy barriers of the ships were holding up to thebined attacks of their enemies, and Nico was making very careful notes to ensure that when the time came, they had a proper weapons capable of dealing with any threat that came their way.


    So far, the damage output of the weapons was impressive, but not on an Orbital Strike or Warp elerated Mass Driver sort of level.


    With that information and the fluctuations of the barriers as they were attacked, she had determined that the small disc shaped craft were no real threat, but the mighty floating cathedral could present quite the obstacle.


    Most of that was that the shields they used were so strange. They didn''t seem to being directly from the energy source of the ship, they were altered in some way that neither of them had seen in any of their lives.


    "Huntress Khan, have you ever seen a barrier like that?" Max asked.


    "We''re studying it, but I don''t think we have. It''s a strange one, and it looks like they are putting the energy barrier out of phase with reality, using the otheryers to absorb much of the damage without overloading their energy core.


    How they''re doing it is a mystery to me, but from my best guess, that is what they are doing." The veteran Huntress replied.


    "Now that is interesting. I will keep recording it and see what we can do to ovee that, and what possible side effects a full scale barrage against it might have.


    The otheryers have some strange rules, and if we redirect too much firepower to them we might cause issues in the stability between theyers in the area." Nico noted.


    While there was some merit to the "Just crush it with brute force" method that the Myceloids seemed to be applying, with the specialized weapons that Nico had developed, it could be disastrous.


    The Myceloids seemed to be holding their own in this battle, shockingly. Their technology was greatly overmatched, but a solid fifth of the attack pods which the cathedral vessel hadunched were already destroyed and jettisoned into space.


    Either the ship was actually packed full of Myceloid fighters, which Max wouldn''t discount as one of their favourite tactics, or the fighters that were inside were strong enough that their numbers could ovee the small groups which werending on their ship.


    There wasn''t much to see from outside, and the group in the shuttle was bing increasingly frustrated as time went on, but their sensors were adapting, and they were already able to breach the shielding on the disc shaped fighters to verify that they were the same species that had been encountered in the biodome.


    "Well, that exins why nobody came to check on them. It looks like what remains of their empire is under attack from every side, and they can''t spare the attention or risk the enemy following them to the colony." Max noted once they had a full description of the ship''s technology.


    "Now all we need is a proper analysis of the other two and we''re ready to party. We already have a pretty good guess about how the Myceloids operate, but we don''t know much about their opponents." Nico agreed.


    The away team leader nodded in agreement, and took out her data tablet.


    "We can make some inferences. For example the ship has been retrofitted from its original configuration. It always looked like a cathedral, but it didn''t used to be spikey. Also, thending craft that they are firing at the Myceloid ship are not intended for the purpose. Look at the wide side and you will see that it is shielded for orbital entry. They are a form of drop pod, like the humans use to deliver supplies.


    We can''t tell much more than that, but we can assume that the aesthetic continues to their armour, which would suggest that they are used to intimidating their opponents, and should berger than average.


    That likely doesn''t mean much against the Myceloids, who are also above average in size, but it does give us some clues." The Huntress suggested.


    That certainly does make them sound like a very good opponent." Max agreed.


    More and more small craft from every side were destroyed by the mighty warships of the fleets over the next few hours before the tide finally began to shift.


    The cathedral got one more Cruiser ss ship in reinforcements, and that was enough to make the small discs flee.


    Once they were gone, the fight turned against the Myceloids, who were desperately fighting to keep from being overrun.


    At this point that result seemed to be inevitable, and the Myceloids were only buying themselves a bit more time before their ship was destroyed. More and more of thending pods were attaching themselves to the ship without being destroyed, and the parts that weren''t being invaded were being bombarded.


    That part seemed a bit unwise to Max, as it was likely that they would blow up the ship, but perhaps they had enough experience with such things that they knew theyout of the Myceloid vessel.


    "It looks like the end is here." Nico sighed as the pods began to detach and race back toward their home vessels.


    But the Myceloid ship didn''t explode. It simply moved into the otheryer and allowed itself to be carried away by the currents. The other vessel followed a few secondster, but didn''t give chase.


    Instead, they activated some sort of protective barrier and then made their way away from where Max and the others were sitting and watching.


    "That''s two more new bits of information. It looks like the Myceloids don''t navigate the otheryer, they just let the current carry them wherever they end up. But the cathedral ships do navigate, and they seem to do it quite well." Max noted.


    "And, they move smoothly between theyers, so it''s not a new technique for them. Perhaps the residents of our region and the ones around the other Anomaly are the only ones who haven''t learned the trick." Huntress Khan agreed.

 Chapter 962 962 Landing

    ?


    "This doesn''t count as first contact if everyone leaves before I get to even talk to them." Nicoined as the battlefield emptied of ships.


    "I will keep that in mind. There are some life signs on the''s surface, so there is a chance that you can go down and make contact with them." Max replied with a smile, then brought up the data that he was referring to.


    Nico brought them up in better detail and found that while there were life signs, the number was decreasing, and there were signs of energy weapon fire.


    "Oh, it looks like they''re not done with all the fun down there. This is the perfect time to go and say hello, Our arrival will have everyone''s attention. It''s a shame that we didn''t bring the Super Heavy Mecha."


    "It is a bit of a shame, but we can do our best with what we have. I made versions of your new Light Mecha for my team, so we can go as a unified force." Khanughed.


    "Well, in that case, we should get this shuttle headed for the surface. How well will this cloaking technology hold up during an atmospheric entry?" Max asked.


    Khan shook her head. "Not well, if at all. But with the new adaptive paint, it might be harder to find it once we havended, so we should be able to buy ourselves time to disembark and cloak the vessel again before the locals find us."


    Max nodded. "That will have to be enough. We don''t know if they''re going to be hostile yet, but there is every reason to believe that this force will be, since we are showing up in the middle of a battle, and they were already inbat with the Myceloids a few minutes ago.


    We should get everyone suited up and the Androids prepared for battle as soon as we can."


    Those were magic words both for the Hunters and for Nico, who had already started stealthily moving toward the storage bay at the back of the ship where her Mecha for the mission was prepared.


    All of the organic beings on the ship had been prepared Command pattern Mecha, as opposed to the standard units that the Androids were using, so they could be immediately identified inbat. The differences were subtle enough that the aliens might not notice right away, but these weren''t the Myceloids, they weren''t here for a challenge and a proper fight.


    From the looks of it, the invaders were intent on eliminating an entire colony full of the small aliens, and they weren''t being gentle about it, preferring brute force to any sort of infiltration.


    [We are entering the atmosphere.] The ship''sputer informed them, right before the shuttle began to violently shake.


    The use of the cloaking device limited their power usage, including the gravity dampeners, which Nico promptly turned back on.


    The giant fireball in the sky would be hard to miss either way, so there was no point in trying to hide right now. They could do thatter, when they were closer to the ground and more likely to be targeted by alien weapons.


    "The Cloaking Device is now offline. Shields are holding at one hundred percent, gravitational stability has been restored, and hull temperature has been stabilized without any damage to the paint." The Android in charge of Piloting noted.


    "Thank you for that. Find us a good quiet spot near the conflict and set us down. Then cloak the ship and keep it hidden from the enemy as well as possible while we make contact." Max verified the orders, since everyone else was already getting suited up for the departure.


    The shuttle set down without incident fifty kilometres from the site of the ongoing battle, and they finally got their first images of the force that was fighting the small gray aliens.


    They appeared humanoid, with blood soaked and ornate power armour. It appeared to be deliberate, as the blood wasn''t all ck, and it seemed to beyered over dried blood from previous battles.


    Khan opened a channel to Nico once she received that data, so she could ask the most pertinent question on her mind.


    "You don''t know these people do you? They''re a bit big for humans at two and a half metres, but they seem to have a lot inmon with your ideology andbat style." The Huntress joked.


    "I think that we could have very good battles together, but going by the way they fight, they''re halfway mad already, and rapidly losing themselves. I''m not sure that they are even going to be sane enough to make a proper contact with them, other than on the battlefield." Nico replied.


    "Well, that won''t get anyints from me. If they want a fight to determine who is in charge we can give that to them. I have great confidence in the skills of our team and your androids." Khanughed.


    The fact that the Mecha were twice as tall as the enemy, and equipped with a weapons loadout that was optimized for orbital-scale battles might have had something to do with that level of confidence, but confidence was confidence.


    It seemed impossible for thebatants not to have noticed at least the general area where they hadnded, but neither side was sending any fighters their way. That suggested that this fight was either long running or personal, so Max proposed a route that would bring them at the battle from the side, arriving on the line between the two forces, then holding back to see what the response would be.


    "I guess we gave the biodome good advice. Don''t send any signals, whatever they find, it is going to be hostile." One of the away team membersughed.


    "You''ve got that right. There doesn''t seem to be much that is friendly in the universe, we just happened to stumble across the friendly people alliance first." Max joked.


    "After starting a millennia long war with two of the species in your gxy that is." Khan agreed.

 Chapter 963 963 Well Hello

    <h4>Chapter 963 963 Well Hello</h4>


    Nico moved up beside Max as they led the team out of the cargo hold and onto the vibrant grasnds of the heavily war-scarred alien.


    There were craters everywhere, and thendscape showed signs of many years of conflict, withyers andyers of battle damage stacked on top of each other, turning the ground into a mogul course of damage, with some areas nearly grown over by long grass during the years since they werest hit with ordinance.


    "Isn''t this a lovely ce? It almost looks like they designated the world for battles, but the scans showed inhabited cities when we were on the way down, so they''ve just been putting up an incredible defensive fight." Nico asked as they marched toward the ongoing battle.


    "This is what happens when you don''t have humans around topletely obliterate society from orbit. Battles drag out,nd is secured with hard work, and the whole surface of the looks like it has been mulched." Khan replied.


    "Yeah, there is a certain quaint charm to this method, but I still like a good orbital strike to get my point across," Nico replied, shrugging the shoulders of her Mecha as she was controlling it with her mind.


    "The real question is if these are the two primarybatants or if there is a Myceloid force here that we missed." The Away Team Leader asked.


    "They could have also been wiped out already. Most species who have met them before wouldpletely burn all traces of their existence from the surface." Max suggested.


    It was what he would do, and it was the only way to actually deal with a species that could fully reproduce from spores in a matter of days. Maybe they might have some sort of fungicide that could prevent the resurgence, but their own forces hadn''t had any sort of luck with that so far.


    That sort of technology would certainly make their lives easier around the Anomaly. They could just spray for Myceloids and clear the area around their camp like they were eliminating any other nuisance pest.


    It probably wasn''t that easy, though. A species like that would have developed all sorts of evolutionary measures to survive toxic chemicals and attempts to sterilize their spores. Anything less would make their most essential strategy worthless, and they wouldn''t have be such an inteary threat.


    [Huntress Khan, we have confirmation of an enemy force headed our way from the back lines of the cathedral force.] One of the Hunters announced.


    [First off, we need a better name for them. Once we verify what the species looks like, or even better, manage to ask them what they call themselves, we are updating that callsign. Second, adjust our course. We will meet them well away from the main battlefield so they don''t misunderstand our arrival as an attempt to ambush them.]


    Max could sense Nico''s disappointment, but when the cathedral force came into sight, they had energy field encased weapons raised above their heads while they screamed battle cries and ran directly toward the group of Mecha.


    [Oh, they''re adorable. Who would have thought that they were so in tune with human culture that they would have greeted Nico in exactly the way that she wanted them to?] The away team leaderughed.


    [Fine, let''s get to it then. Nico, trante for us, would you? I believe that these people are up for a small taste of your unique cultural exchange program.] Max sighed.


    Nico lifted her shield in front of her and raised her de above her head, then charged at the iing force, apanied by the ring notes of the war horn on her PA speakers.


    The rest of the force was right behind her, but the Androids were thoroughly confused by the situation, as their standard protocol would have them stop and engage from a distance to minimize casualties.


    [Androids, withhold your ranged attacks until the enemy uses one of their own. We will engage in meleebat if that is their preference.] Nico informed them as she ran toward the heavily armoured humanoids.


    The armour design was wrong, but the scene reminded Max of their earlybats with the Narsians. These opponents were roughly the same size, preferred meleebat, and carried advanced weaponry that suggested that they weren''t a primitive species.


    All of the factors fit, and Max just needed to see one of their faces to tell if he was right.


    With a mighty overhand cleave, the closest of the enemies tried his best to cut down Nico the moment that they were in range.


    The de skimmed harmlessly across her shield, and the warrior threw himself backward as Nico''s de skimmed across the facete of his armour. Neither side suffered any real damage except a small scrape to the opponent''s visor, but the exchange seemed to get the enemy worked up, and their armour joints began leaking a deep red fluid that looked very much like human blood.


    [Oh, that is a good gimmick. Not only is it an intimidation factor, but it also makes it nearly impossible to grapple them.] Khan noted as she exchanged blows for the first time and realized that the fluid was oily and prevented her from grabbing the enemy''s arm to toss them away.


    Max stepped between two of the blood-covered warriors before smashing one in the face with his shield, making Nicough at the obvious attack, while Max parried the de of the other.


    "I swear, they fall for it every time. How did we end up in a Gxy where nobody knows that a shield is both an offensive and defensive piece of equipment?" Sheughed.


    "They will learn their lesson the second time. Nobody falls for that one twice in a row." Khan joked right before a second opponent fell to Max''s shield m.


    "You''ve got to be kidding me? Are they drunk or something? That guy literally just ran into the shield. He didn''t even try to stop." Khan sighed.


    "Third time''s a charm. Let''s see who else wants some shield."

 Chapter 964 964 Kill, Kill

    <h4>Chapter 964 964 Kill, Kill</h4>


    The next opponents were a bit smarter than thest batch, and the one on Max''s left side wasn''ting close enough to take a shield to the helmet.


    Their armour was impressive, but it seemed that they hadn''t considered the fact that a three-tonne chunk of metal with an energy barrier surrounding it mighte rushing at them at hundreds of kilometres an hour in the hands of a giant robot.


    It was a fair assumption for most species, but when the humans were around, there weren''t really any attacks that you could rule out. They would try anything and everything that might kill or disable their opponents, and a shield bash was only a mild improvisation.


    The enemy wasn''t speaking at all, only growling and screaming incoherent battle cries that didn''t seem to have any sort of organizednguage behind them.


    There was something off about them, though. Most of them copsed and bled as expected when they were chopped apart, but some of them began to regenerate, some bled colours other than red, and some vanished entirely when they were killed.


    [Nico, I think that these enemies are corrupted by those demonic-looking things we fought in the otheryer.


    Their behaviour is the same, and they don''t die right.] Max called out as he fought.


    "They seem to die pretty good to me. No, scratch that. I just saw one of them put his head back on when it was hanging by a p. There is something seriously wrong with this group."


    Max matched attacks with arge fighter wielding a pair of red, energy shielded ws on his hands and took a measure of the fighting styles that these strange warriors had to offer.


    Most of them were not all that nuanced, more brutal and straightforward, but they weren''t crude in any way. These opponents seemed to have gone through centuries of warfare to hone their brutal ways, and they were surprisingly hard to take down in closebat.


    Unfortunately for them, they were greatly overmatched in this situation, and the Mecha were tearing them apart at a rapid pace.


    It wasn''t arge force that hade their way, and the Hunters were in fullpetitive mode, trying to ughter the enemy faster than each other and, most importantly, faster than Nico.


    They were proud Huntresses, after all. Nico might be mighty, but she was tiny, and they would never ept that such a diminutive warrior was actually a better killer than they were.


    Even if the enemy hadn''t been dripping with blood to begin with, the battlefield would have been drenched in it by now with the number of them that had fallen. They were too predictable in their blind rage, and even the Androids weren''t having any issues cutting them down like harvesting crops.


    It was fairly sad, really. They were huge, muscr, and had years of practice, but against a force that had acquired so many different battle techniques, they might as well have been children entering a professional fighting ring.


    "Do you think that their minds have degenerated? They''re obviously not at their very best, or the main force wouldn''t be doing so well against the other aliens, much less the Myceloids, who are much more cunning than this." Khan suggested as she hacked one of the enemy''s heads off.


    "That could be. I think that we might have attracted the attention of a group of berserkers whose minds have been damaged. The way that they''re fighting, I would barely call them sentient, but the rest of their force doesn''t seem to have that problem." Max agreed.


    "So, we got the trash tier fighters? This is bullshit." Nicoined, then realized that the area around her was clear with nothing left to fight andunched into a tirade that Max muted from the radio.


    As thest of the enemies were cleared from the battlefield, Max took the opportunity to pull a few of the helmets off so that he could see what he was actually dealing with.


    The first one looked much like the demonic beings from the otheryer but with shocking green eyes that still showed the rampant madness of its mind even after death. The next looked very nearly human and even bled red blood, as it should have. The only parts that made it clear that humanity had nothing to do with this monstrosity were therge horns on its head.


    Nico stripped a few armour suits off so that she could analyze their biology but ran into the same issue. They were all different.


    "I think that they really are corrupted versions of other species. A lot of them look like they started out human, or perhaps Darkling, as the features are simr, but they''ve mutated to the point that there is no way that they should have still been functional," she noted.


    "Bring some of them back to the shuttle with us. There is a lot more here to study than a simple battle between two alien species. If the barrier betweenyers is so weak that the beings of the otheryer are ending up here or corrupting the species that live here, we need to find out if it is a threat to the region around the anomaly." Huntress Khan ordered.


    She made a very good point. These might be from the otheryer and somehow were transported here, or they might have been corrupted there and came here to fight. In that case, they might be corrupting everything that they came into contact with.


    They hadn''t been spotted near the Anomaly yet, but that didn''t mean they couldn''t get there. An enemy that corrupted everything around it would be even more of a pain to fight than the Myceloids, who just colonized everywhere that they went with their spores.


    "Understood Huntress. We''ve got a wide variety of body styles so that we can make a properparison." The lead unit of the Android force replied.


    Each of them had picked up a body to bring back, which was way too much, but they could analyze them in the woods near the shuttle if they wanted. It didn''t look like anything else wasing to find them.

 Chapter 965 965 Analyzing Chaos

    <h4>Chapter 965 965 Analyzing Chaos</h4>


    Max had the androids spread out the bodies on the field outside the entrance to the shuttle and then get to work stripping off the armour and analyzing it for signs of uniform corruption that might be linked to the otheryer.


    They hadn''t spent any serious time there yet, so there was a definite chance that they hadn''t noticed a corrupting influence on their own equipment that would need to be counteracted to avoid ending up like these mindless berserkers.


    The findings were amazing, even if they werergely inconclusive. It looked like these fighters came from a half dozen different species at the start, but they had all been evolving in the same direction as they were corrupted.


    All of the mutations led them toward the path of a mindless closebat warrior, increasing their strength, agility, and the density of their bones.


    "You know, it''s like a basic version of your System. Only the mutations seem random and not optimized by the artificial intelligence.


    See here where the bone structure has changed? This happens in over two-thirds of the species, but it is only the optimal path for under half of the specimens.


    Instead of being individually optimized, they are all changing into the same thing." Lilith noted.


    "Could it be a parasitic infestation?" Max asked.


    "We can''t rule it out, but we haven''t managed to find any sort of pathogen."


    Nico shook her head as Lilith spoke, then brought up a three-dimensional diagram of energy flows through the armour that had been removed from the enemy.


    "I think that it is deliberate but not viral or organic in nature. This level of radiation would certainly cause mutation, but it isn''t anything that we''ve seen before.


    I didn''t record it in the otheryer, but it is simr to the life signs the demonic creatures we first encountered there gave off.


    I think someone or something is trying to turn all these species into more of those creatures but hasn''t been sessful yet. Or perhaps it''s just that these are the failed experiments.


    The other ones were an energy-based species, so they might have tried to replicate the energy signal with this radiation in order to evolve their fighters, or perhaps they worship the beings of the otheryer.


    If they were coherent, we could have taken prisoners, but for now, we will have to live with spection." Nico noted.


    Khan checked the data that Nico had gathered and then sighed. "I think she is right. No matter how you look at it, this is a very specifically tailored radiation. Prolonged exposure would mutate the host, and it is possible that they would all begin to converge at a simr biology.


    But gically, that is insanity. The chances that such an experiment would be survivable and stable are incredibly low."


    Max moved over and analyzed the armour pieces himself. The radiation seemed to flow through them, and it was directed inward, not outward. He could even find the circuitry that focused the energy, shaped like strange runes that nagged at the mind like a half-forgotten dream.


    "It is deliberate. I think that these armour suits weren''t designed for the wearers, though. See how the various base species vary in physique? Some seem to have mutated heavily, while others are close to their original form.


    They had all adapted to the armour that they were wearing. When it was first put on, most of these suits would have fitted very poorly, but they kept wearing them as their body adapted.


    I don''t see any signs that the armour has been modified. All of the joints and fittings are well worn, so if they were altered, it wasn''t recent, despite the fact that these fighters would have been mutating at a steady rate."


    The data that the Androids had gathered supported that as well. They had noted that many of the fighters seemed to have grown into their armour tes, and some of them had even grown around them, merging the ting into their bodies like an augmentic addition.


    That wouldn''t have happened if it was ever removed or adjusted. Once this armour was put on, it never came off again until the day that they died.


    That sounded suspiciously like a cult to Max, which made him think of the greater beings that he had sensed in the otheryer.


    If these fighters worshipped one of them, this might be a form of imitation or ritual worship. Dealing with Zealots was always a pain, but zealots who devoted their lives to mindless ughter would be especially annoying.


    He made a note of all of his suspicions and added them to thepiled data, along with all the specific references to surgical and medical data that he hadpiled to support the thesis.


    They would forward this to the deep thinkers, specifically the male Hunters and the Alliance so that they could spend the next few years trying to determine what the actual cause of the strange evolution was.


    They loved it when he sent them new things. It kept hundreds of people busy for years trying to verify the theories that had been developed inbat and support the evidence that had been gathered with real science.


    Well, love might have been an overstatement, but it did keep them busy and out of his hair.


    Nico smiled at the increasing file size as they worked.


    "I think we need a bit more data, don''t you? These ones are mindless, but the ones that are currently inbat seem to have organized units, tactics and ranged weapons.


    If we only send back data on the defective ones, we will skew the research, don''t you think?" She asked.


    "It looks like you win again. We are definitely going to need more data on this species, and it doesn''t look like they''re going to give it up without a fight." Khan agreed.


    Lilith gave her a questioning look. "Can we even call this a species, though? Faction might be the better word. From what I can tell, there are a lot of species involved in this fight, and most of them are on one side.


    It doesn''t seem that they are attempting to assimte the other side, so either it only works on some species, or they don''t believe in forced conversions."

 Chapter 966 966 Poke it with a stick

    <h4>Chapter 966 966 Poke it with a stick</h4>


    "First, we should get as much data on theirbat capabilities as possible. They are using advanced tactics and weapons, and I can''t afford to lose Hunters on this mission." Khan noted.


    "Good point. We''re working with a very limited team size, and I am not sure that any of our allies would approve of us going to pick random fights, so we should make sure that we win whatever ones we get in without losing anyone." Nico agreed.


    That was the most sensible thing Max had heard her say in a long time. But that might only be because it still let her get intobat, as long as she had a solid n to win without losing anyone.


    Her battle mania wasn''t really getting any worse, and her past life memories hadn''t tried to take over her thoughts in a while, which was a positive sign that she was adapting well to reality, but it didn''t really mean that the tiny war criminal was anywhere near changing her ways.


    If anything, she had just adjusted tactics from trying to reenact her past life''s massacres to using them as a guideline for future battles, as any well-adjusted soldier should.


    "Alright, work on a n to get us into and out ofbat with the enemy while gathering as much information as possible about their capabilities. It doesn''t need to be a melee scrum like thest battle. If we can wipe them out from a distance, that would likely be better.


    We just need to know how they can adapt, what their armour capabilities are, and what sort of strategies they cane up with for dealing with a new enemy." Max decided.


    Everyone else was happy to hear that there wouldn''t be any objections from their token voice of reason, and they all started working on a n to ambush a reserve unit from the cathedral force since they were already fairly familiar with the other aliens.


    Most of what they currently used as military equipment had been industrial equipment in their logs from the colony world. They had barely advanced in five hundred years. They were just using modified versions of what they had.


    Either the attacks had started recently, which seemed unlikely given the state of things in the colony world, or they had been so intense and ongoing that the aliens hadn''t had a chance to adopt new technologies. They had put everything that they had into survival.


    The discussions on what sort of attack they shouldunch rante into the evening and then were put off to return to them freshly rested in the morning.


    They weren''t in a big hurry, and it didn''t look like the two groups would solve their issues anytime soon. If anything, it was more likely that they were going to drag it out for a very long time.


    The small aliens had the firepower to keep the blood-covered ones pinned down, and that was causing them to start building trenches and fortifications.


    That would give Nico and the Hunters lots of time to work out their n and more variety of targets once the supply lines began to stretch out or the forces started to move their reinforcements away from the main battle.


    None of the ships had returned to orbit yet, so it wasn''t clear if either side was going to get any reinforcements, but there were cities of the smaller aliens on the world, which presumably had some sort of military capacity left.


    The cathedral force seemed to be thinking the same thing, and as they set up their defensive fortifications, they also dug a single trench line all the way around so that they could defend against being encircled while they attempted to find a way past the small aliens'' firepower.


    "Well, that does put a wrench in our ns. It doesn''t look like the spiky ones are nning to get any more reinforcements or even put out supply lines." Nico sighed.


    "They could have replicator technology, so they only need a power nt, and then they would have all that they really need already in ce." Max reminded her.


    "That is true, but unless we want to actually pick sides in this battle, we won''t be able to pick off a force to fight against.


    Are we sure that the small aliens aren''t the aggressive assholes here? I mean, they are on the defensive, but sometimes you get attacked for a reason." Nico asked.


    Khan smiled at the reference. The Reavers had done that more than once, and it had earned them infamy within the Alliance. But they didn''t know anything about the situation other than that it was an ongoing battle.


    "Well, we can always check the rest of the. They''ve got workingputers and such. I''m sure that we can find something out about the conflict." Max suggested.


    "Oh, that is a good idea. We can just take a little looksie at their government servers and find out what has been going on since the biodome group got locked away.


    Then we can fight. I don''t really think that the little ones will give us a very fun fight, though. They''re ranged fighters, and the high-volume Mass Drivers would tear them apart in seconds if we actually attacked them." Nico agreed.


    That was a good point. The firepower that the Light Mecha could wield was significantly higher than anything that they had facedtely. Against the Myceloids, it had barely been enough to keep up with their numbers, but against a more reasonable force, it would be insanely overkill.


    Even from where they were standing, the Mecha could jump up with their thrusters and wipe out both camps in a matter of seconds unless there was some defensive barrier in ce that they were unaware of.


    "Do we have an estimated time to gain ess to the government servers, or are we going to have to move? I''m asking this in advance because with all the stupidity I''ve seen in the shattered region; it wouldn''t surprise me if they had their supposedly secure government servers online. They did leave their quarantine array nearly unencrypted after all." Max asked.


    "We will see. They have aary datawork, and we have a signal here. It will just take some time to see if the information we need is part of the public records."

 Chapter 967 967 Civilian Data

    <h4>Chapter 967 967 Civilian Data</h4>


    Once they understood the basics of the local encryption, which took a few minutes, even with theirputing power and Nico on the job, it was a simple matter to gain ess to the civilian side of their datawork on the.


    But, as expected of aarywork, there was so much irrelevant information floating around that they had to work a while longer until they found the local version of a search engine to help them find relevant data.


    "Alright, we''re in. Now, let''s get started with the recent news. There should be something here, even if it is local government propaganda. You can''t just hide an invasion of this level. Too many people can see it with their own eyes."


    The team worked for a few more minutes as they sorted through the results that they had gotten from their search, trying to determine what was real and what was propaganda.


    "It looks like the government here doesn''t really censor much. They''ve been in a defensive war for centuries now, and there is fairly detailed information on the attacks, including calls for recruitment and offers of rewards after the battle has ended." Nico informed Max with a shrug.


    None of it was all that interesting. It was important, and they learned a lot about what was going on, but it was nothing new and exciting.


    "Any sign that they have been the aggressors? From the sounds of it, no, but I need to check for the report that I''m going to send to the Alliance." Max asked.


    "None. The Myceloids are a random menace, but the Underlings, as they call these warriors, have been aggressively attacking everything that they see for centuries since they became active in the region.


    They have names for a few of the species that have mutated into them as well. It looks like they were froms that went willingly to the worship of the being they follow.


    That didn''t stop them from ughtering theirs, but they kept some that they deemed worthy to add to their own forces." Nico exined.


    "So they are a cult of some sort then?" Max asked.


    "Definitely. However, we can''t seem to find any sort of reference to what they worship. That part seems to be either taboo or extremely well censored, and nobody mentions it even with vague or ng references."


    That was unfortunate but unavoidable. The public was only ever allowed so much information, and giving them too much knowledge about the enemy would encourage them to try to rte to the aliens, which would inevitably lead to a seditious rebellion of people who had some other grievance against the government.


    The same scenario had yed out too many times in the past for Max to discount the fact that the government''s attempts to minimize details about the enemy were an attempt to prevent the same thing from happening here.


    "It''s a lot of generic information, but we have a basic timeline of the conflict for you now. That''s about the best that we can do with the civilian data, but we are still working on the government servers. They have some information online, and we''re hoping that it gives us a bit more of a clear picture of the situation." Khan added.


    While Nico and the Hunters focused on the search for government data that would tell them more about the enemy force here, Max started making ns to deal with therger mutated aliens.


    It was seeming more and more like the otheryer was used as a refuge for the most dangerous species that lived in thisyer, so it wasn''tpletely shocking that this one also had links there, but the level of mutation that he had seen was very concerning.


    Stopping that from spreading to the that the Anomaly leading to the Alliance was on had to be a priority, and that meant not letting them control any mores close to the Anomaly as far as he was concerned.


    He could only hope that it was worth it and that the data he had seen from these aliens wasn''t masking a level of violent imperialism that would leave him and the Hunters in a battle against a third species.


    The group of blood-covered aliens here was rtively confined, all in one area, and for the moment, they didn''t seem to have any connections to a nearby ship or reinforcements. They had been nearly eliminated from the, thanks to the timely intervention of the Myceloids, and now the locals were working to clean up thest of them.


    If nothing changed, the oue was clear: it would be a grinding siege with heavy casualties on both sides before a win for the defenders. But it would be much better to have them gone and finish their first contact with the small gray aliens before anyone else came to disturb them.


    "Well, the Government servers are a bust. What they have online is mostly tax documents and trade details. We learned that they still have active trade with twelve others controlled by their species, plus more with vessels from two other species, but there''s nothing about the war there other than raw numbers on the costs and casualties." Nico sighed.


    Max patted her head and smiled down at the disappointed cyborg.


    "Well, I have some good news for you. I''ve been making ns to shorten this siege so that we can make proper first contact before either side gets reinforcements and turns this into a bloody grind.


    If weunch a surprise attack on the blood-covered ones now, we can meet with the defenders and hopefullye to some sort of nonaggression agreement before anything elsees to interfere.


    Then, we can start sorting out what is going on in this region. It looks like it is even more politically unstable than the Koleska Territories."


    Nico and the Hunters shared a smile.


    "That''s much better than sitting here and observing. Please, do borate."

 Chapter 968 968 Out Of The Way

    <h4>Chapter 968 968 Out Of The Way</h4>


    The n was actually a very simple one. They would charge the enemy lines and blitz them from the side before they realized what was going on.


    Using high explosives from the Mass Drivers, they could tear apart the bulwarks at the trenches, dismantle the bunkers and dig out the enemy before they had time to mount a proper defence.


    "Alright, here is the deployment n. I think it''s about simple enough. It will be a straight blitz with aerial bombardment using the Mass Drivers. We will have the Android unit take the flying position, as it will attract more attention and be the first to fire. While they are up, we will charge the lines and clear them out.


    If we start taking fire from the defenders, back off and order the Androids to cease fire.


    They should learn quickly enough that we''re not going to help them if they shoot at us."


    That was enough for Nico, and she immediately began rifying the deployment orders to the Androids so that they would stay in the air and disengage at the proper time instead of targeting the new threat if the locals attacked them.


    The Mecha used their thrusters to fly along just over the ground once they got a kilometre away from the shuttle, not particrly concerned about being detected early, as they would be attacking in under a minute, and the enemy was already inbat.


    The tactical mistake bothered Max a bit, as he was inclined to make it a stealth mission, but there really wasn''t a benefit to startling the defenders, and the attack was sure to take out the blood-soaked attackers.


    The thrusters were nearly silent as the force glided through the scattered trees of the grasnds toward the enemy trenches. Even if they were spotted, it didn''t change anything in the ongoing battle.


    Theser sts still traced lines between the two forces, while sma balls flew through the sky andrge numbers of solid projectiles mmed into the walls in front of the defenders.


    The rounds weren''t on par with the Mass Drivers, but they were far beyond any other handheld solid projectile weapons that Max or Nico had seen in this life.


    There were some in his memory, rocket-propelled grenades that caused this level of massive damage, but they were so obscure that he hadn''t immediately recognized them when he saw them in use here.


    [Oh, there are good things here. The sma isn''t anything special, but those rocket grenades look fun. Hopefully, at least one of them survives this.] Nico cheered when they were close enough to properly inspect the enemy''s wargear.


    [We''re not holding back so you can find a new toy.] Max warned her.


    [I wouldn''t dream of asking. Besides, I can reassemble one from pieces, and I can likely replicate it even without any parts now that I''ve seen it in action and measured its abilities.]


    [Android unit in position. Commencing bombardment.] The squad leader informed them a momentter, milliseconds before the first explosions of the Mass Driver rounds began in the trenches.


    [Charge!] Nico cheered as she pushed her Mecha toward the front lines.


    In the remains of their fortifications, the huge warriors were doing their best to weather the bombardment under makeshift shields or charging out of the trenches to challenge one of the two forces that were suppressing them.


    Those were the best options that they were left with, and most of them didn''t seem to mind that they were charging into near-certain death as theirmanders ordered them toward the smaller aliens'' lines, assuming that Max''s force was reinforcements for them.


    The defenders began to panic as the warriors closed with them, but the enemy numbers were falling fast as the Mecha bombarded the trenches.


    [Faster, stupid Mecha, the battle is going to end before we get there.] Nico was thinking to herself as she raced across the field at over eight hundred kilometres an hour.


    She hit the first warrior so hard that his armour cracked without her even using a weapon, and Nico''s energy barrier red to life as the impact brought her to a stop within the melee range of the warriors.


    Her Fusion mer red to life, and the trench line turned to an inferno, filled with screams and the sound of armour popping as the warriors inside boiled and exploded.


    [The armour ting is exceptionally resistant to fire, but it seems that the ones which aren''t properly sealed don''t regte temperature.] Nico noted as the inferno continued.


    Max could sense the horror of the smaller aliens, and it wasn''t for the enemy that was now reaching their lines. They were taking heavy casualties due to the warriors'' far superiorbat skills, but even then, the horrors of a trench line engulfed in Mass Driver explosions and Fusion mes were enough that the deaths of theirrades seemed trivial.


    [Halt the aerial bombardment of the trenches. Let''s clear them out from up close.] Max ordered.


    [The bombardment didn''t copse their bunkers.] Nico noted as Max''s thermal scans detected arge heat spot from her targeting one with the Fusion mer.]


    [Understood. We will dig them out of their holes.] Khan agreed.


    Max ducked into one of the bunkers, finding it empty but well-constructed with some sort of advanced concrete. They had only been here a few hours, but the walls were solid and durable. They must have had some sort of advanced construction technology, but Max wasn''t sure if it would survive the assault.


    The sound of movement behind him made Max twirl just in time to catch the edge of a viciously serrated axe with his shield, nearly losing it from the force of the blow.


    The warrior screamed a guttural battle cry as it advanced on Max in the tight confines of the bunker, but Max wasn''t feeling like an honourable duel today and decided to hit it with the Disintegrators.


    That turned out to be the wrong answer, as the warrior''s armour was cleansed of blood and paint, but the armour itself held strong, and the warrior''s attacks didn''t slow.


    "Fine, we will do this the hard way," Max muttered as he sensed the warrior''s pleasure at its resilience against what it viewed as witchcraft.

 Chapter 969 969 Her People

    <h4>Chapter 969 969 Her People</h4>


    Max ducked the Mecha''s shoulder and charged the warrior. The impact mmed him against the wall, nearly throwing his weapon from him and leaving him syed out on the floor.


    The now very shiny warrior rolled to the side as Max''s de descended, then parried the backswing with his de and leaped forward from a prone position.


    The feat would have taken superhuman strength, so either the armour was augmentic, or this warrior was nearly as strong as Max.


    The warrior''s speed was well beyond human levels and pushed Max''s ability to parry in the confined space of the bunker, where he couldn''t use his full range of motion or stand the Mecha fully upright.


    The warrior had all possible advantages in here, but Max wasn''t an easy target. He mmed the warrior with his shield, spinning him around, then parried his spinning de attack and drove his de forward, causing a ncing blow off the side of the warrior''s head that shattered the eye lens on his helmet and carved a deep furrow down the side.


    With the man''s eye now visible, Max could see the appreciation and madness that were reflected in the man''s thoughts.


    The warrior''s eye glinted with malice as he traded blows with Max, sending a strike sliding off the top of his shield to damage the shoulder ting of the Mecha.


    Max kicked him, forcing the smaller warrior back a few steps to regain the advantage of reach. That put him far enough away to send a Mass Driver round his way, and Max selected a solid slug.


    The sonic boom overloaded the audio sensors of the Mecha and shook the interior of the small bunker, while the round itself shattered the warrior''s armour and punched clean through him, leaving a shattered hole in his chest.


    The warrior gurgled something that Max couldn''t understand, thenunched another attack, stumbling halfway and leaving the back of his neck open for Max''s de to remove his head from his shoulders.


    That fight had taken much longer than expected, so Max returned outside to check on the progress of the battle without the reinforced bunker limiting his sensors.


    There was much more of a fight going on than he had expected, and the details from the Hunters'' sensors said that there was a whole tunnelplex beneath the bunkers.


    From what Khan could determine, the bunkers were new, created when the trenches were to fortify their position in front of the city, but the tunnels had been created much further in the past for a different offensive.


    The blood-soaked warriors were already getting reinforcements through the tunnels, and they were staying in the bunkers attached to the tunnels, waiting for the bombardment to end.


    The Mecha were toorge to navigate the tunnel system. If anything, they would have to go in a Mobile Suit, as the Hunters were already nearly the same size as the Warriors that the tunnels had been made to amodate.


    [This isn''t going to work. We can''t get to them to fight them. Should we retreat and regroup until we have a better n?] Nico asked.


    [Do it. We cleared the surface, so cleanse any bunkers that have tunnel ess with a Fusion mer and buy some time to retreat in safety.] Max agreed.


    It was annoying to have to retreat with the job half done, but it was all that they could do.


    Khan added her opinion in a grim tone. [Leave the Androids in ce to bombard the zone between the trenches and the locals, or they''re going to be in a bad way once we pull back.


    We''ve got these warriors all riled up, and they''re out for blood. Without us here, they will swarm and ughter the city.]


    It was a predictable response. They had pulled troops from elsewhere to deal with the increased capabilities here, and if their force suddenly left, all those new arrivals would run rampant over the defenders.


    He had been wrong. This wasn''t a bnced fight without reinforcements. The warriors were holding back, as they didn''t view this location as a high priority.


    Thest one of them to leave the area was, predictably, Nico. With a serrated de from the demonic beings of the otheryer in either hand, she was tearing apart anything that came for her and allowing the sma shots and rocket-propelled grenades to explode against her energy barrier as she fought.


    The scene was gruesome, and Max could sense the horror of the defenders as he fought off thest few warriors who came for the Hunters as they made their way out of the trenchplex.


    [Time to go, Nico. Once we change gear, you cane back and y again.] Max yelled at her over the radio.


    [Alright, fine. Androids, cover my retreat.]


    Nico finally joined the retreat while the Androids slowly bombarded the area from the air. With their sensors linked, they wouldn''t double up on targets, and their standing orders were suppression, so unless their analysis showed that the enemy was likely to charge out of the trenches, they weren''t firing at all.


    It was enough to give everyone a breather, though. The defenders were rearranging their lines to prepare for a charge while the Mecha returned to the ship in preparation to change their wargear and test out their skills underground.


    The Alliance would be very disappointed in them, but who was going to tell them? Certainly, nobody here, and the rest of the force thought that they were here testing their stealth technology.


    Technically, that was true. They had done a lot of testing on the new paint, including durability testing. Just not in the way that most corporate organizations would.


    [Give me an hour to modify the Mobile Suits before we head out. The Disintegrators didn''t do anything against their armour, so we are going to have to swap to either sma, Ion Cannons or a Laser Array.


    The locals are using both, and they seem to work fine. Does anyone have a preference?] Nico asked as they reached the shuttle.


    [I vote Ion Cannons. There is never enough of the ssics.] Khan agreed.


    [Ion Cannons it is.]

 Chapter 970 970 Never Fight In A Basement

    <h4>Chapter 970 970 Never Fight In A Basement</h4>


    "Are we seriously going to go down into the tunnels to hunt the warriors? I like a good hunt as much as anyone, but fighting underground is always a high-risk endeavour, and even more so when you''re the one on the offence in tunnels that your enemy has created and prepared for an invasion." One of the away team members asked.


    She had a good point. There was a saying among the Kepler infantry units: "Never fight in a basement." It was good advice, as a basement only had one way in and no way out if someone was attacking from above.


    The sentiment extended well to fighting in tunnels since the enemy could circle behind you and leave you trapped. But that wasn''t a real concern for Nico. If there were enemies on every side, it just meant that she could attack any direction that she wanted.


    Completely clearing the tunnels wasn''t going to happen, but they could at least reduce the numbers that they had drawn to this location before they overran the city, and his team caused an unintentional disaster.


    "It will be fine. We''re not going to go in a cluster. The Androids will secure the surface entry while we head below. Then, we will leave a member at each intersection until we''ve fanned out as much as possible.


    Once we have cleared that much, we will return to the surface and check the maps to see if there are otherworks or if all the tunnels are interlinked.


    The ship''s scans can''t seem to prate the ground in this region due to some sort of interference, so we have to do this the old-fashioned way." Khan informed her.


    That was somewhat lower risk than what the Huntress had been thinking. Only thest few, the most senior of them, would have to fight alone as they went to thest intersections. The others would only be holding a point and fighting against surprise attacks.


    It could still be a giant mess, but if the leader thought that they could do this without casualties, which was the requirement for everything they did here without authorization, then she would trust Huntress Khan''s judgement.


    Max kept tabs on the Androids while Nico worked on modifying the Mobile Suits for their purpose. Other than the Disintegrators, which had been ditched due to ineffectiveness, she had also switched out the swords.


    They were going to fight in close quarters, so a long de was a bad idea and couldn''t be properly utilized. Instead, she had equipped each hand with a three-wed gauntlet.


    It was made of the same strange material that the Demonic creatures'' des had been. It was sharp enough to cut through the armour of these enemies, and it didn''t need any sort of power input but could be covered in an energy barrier for durability.


    That would be a very different fighting style than Max had used recently, but it shouldn''t be too hard to adapt to fighting with wed gloves. It was a lot like boxing, in a way, and the weapons were very intuitive but effective.


    [Here, add this to the suits, but you must never tell anyone else that I provided this to you.] Khan messaged Nico and Max as the suits were nearly finished.


    What she sent was the schematic for a basic version of the Hunters'' personal cloaking device, an optical camouge that made them nearly invisible when standing still on a hunt and very hard to spot while moving. Combined with the new paint, they would be able to move through dark tunnels like ghosts, appearing only to ughter.


    It was a longstanding Hunter technology and well known to the Alliance but considered a prohibited item due to the ease with which it could be used in crime.


    If the humans wanted something simr, they would have to make their own, and the Hunters were supposed to be prohibited from helping them along the way.


    But what the Alliance didn''t know couldn''t hurt them, and this was going to be an epic hunt below ground for highly skilled and intelligentbatants.


    A few more minutes passed before the suits began to appear in the room, eachbelled with the wearer''s name and custom fit.


    "They''ve got everything that you could ask for, right down to neural linked t spacepartments, so you can just think your standard trigger word and bring out whatever you have stored in there for the mission.


    The space is standard for a mobile suit, two square metres, but that should be enough, I hope." Nico informed the room.


    Each of the Hunters considered what she would bring with her, other than what was in her personal storage space, and began to suit up in the new Mobile Suits.


    "Oh, this is interesting. I like the folding wings. These should fly really well. That might not help us much now, but the leading edge of the wing is ded, and so are the elbows, so I think that I can find a way to make them work inbat." Huntress Khan noted.


    "As a genuine Nico Tarith design, they are fully weaponized. The knee pads are also designed with a strategic ridge for maximum impact damage, and the soles of the boots have embedded des that can be deployed onmand.


    I considered making the helmets have biting jaws, but that would mess with the sensor positions, so we went with the nk masks that you all prefer. If the enemy is going to fear us, they should at least know who to look for next time." Nicoughed.


    Khan equipped her new armour and ced the helmet on her head.


    "You''re right. It does feel better to know that they will be looking at the Hunter Mask. That design has remained with our people for a hundred thousand years, and not having it visible is a strange feeling.


    Nearly as strange as looking around the room and seeing all these suits adapt to their surroundings. The new paint coating is much better at adapting its colour when it is on the curved surfaces of the Mobile Suit than the angr armour of the Mecha."

 Chapter 971 971 But Maybe In A Tunnel

    <h4>Chapter 971 971 But Maybe In A Tunnel</h4>


    Once everyone was suited up and the equipment was double-checked, it was time to decide what sort of round for the Mass Driver they were going to need.


    Using a Hypersonic Solid Projectile in a tunnel system was a terrible idea from almost every possible angle. Fortunately, the Mass Driver was not a fixed velocity weapon, and it could be used to propel the rounds at subsonic speeds and drastically reduce the sound generated.


    Of course, a subsonic projectile in .22 calibre would do a grand total of nothing to an armoured opponent, but they still had options¡ªnamely, the high explosive rounds.


    They would still detonate on impact just fine, but the explosions would defeat the purpose of slowing the rounds down.


    So, a moderate approach was chosen. If the rounds were fired at only ten times the speed of sound, the noise would be tolerable,parable to a standard projectile weapon like the ones that the enemy was likely to be using.


    At that speed, it should damage the armour that they were wearing but not risk copsing the tunnels if they were to hit a wall, and the explosions would be a bonus, no louder than the fired round had been.


    "I like it. Very primitive and well-suited to the situation. I think that even the enemy will appreciate us altering our rounds so that they tear limbs off instead of just punching nice little holes in everything." Khan congratted Nico when the adjustments were done.


    Of course, a nice neat hole is not what happened when a hypersonic projectile hit the mortal body. The dispersed force scrambled their internal organs like eggs, and any sort of armour ting on the body only made it worse.


    But in general, the entry and exit wounds were fairly small, except on certain species like the Klem, where the exoskeleton would be blown apart.


    The explosive range of these projectiles was limited to a single metre from the point of impact, giving highly localized damage and a secondary traumayer to the injury should the projectile manage to prate the enemy armour.


    Max vaguely recalled that there was a war crime convention that prohibited such things for light arms use, but no such prohibition applied to artillery, of which the Mass Driver and the Mobile Suit were officially ssified.


    Shrinking the Mass Driver rounds and using them this way seriously stretched the definition of the word artillery, but even a Battle Cannon could be shot at an opponent from point-nk range, and they often were, so the outrage shouldn''t be too extreme if anyone decided to question the situation.


    "Alright, everything checks out. Let''s get to the tunnel entrances and see what we can find." Khan directed her troops.


    Nico and Max took up the rear of the convoy, with Khan right behind them, much to the joy of the others.


    That meant that, for once, the Commanders wouldn''t be the first intobat, and they would actually get to pick their own targets. But it also meant that they would be thest ones not to have a position to hold, and most of the others hadn''t realized it yet.


    "Tunnel entrance sighted. The Androids have cleared the entrance, and we will proceed upon your order." The first Huntress in line informed them.


    "Let''s get in there. The faster we are down in the tunnels, the better. Don''t give the enemy time to reposition in advance of our arrival." Max agreed.


    The Androids cleared the trenches around the tunnel entrance that they had chosen, and the team ran into the bunker, leading with the Fusion mers.


    They did a wonderful job of clearing rooms, and they would keep the enemy from realizing the team''s numbers if anyone were watching a helmet cam feed or something simr.


    The first row of Hunters raced downward in the spiralling tunnel, which was mostly clear of enemies, while those behind them verified that the handful of victims in the room were really dead. A simple puncture through the head with a de was enough to do the job, saving them ammunition in the early stages of the fight.


    "Do you think that we should broadcast this to the locals? I''m sure that they would be impressed by our dedication." Nico suggested.


    "Or horrified. One or the other. Remember that we don''t want them to be more scared of us than they are of these warriors." Max reminded her.


    Khan snorted in amusement, and Max resisted the urge tough at her thoughts. Indeed, it would be wise for the locals to be more afraid of them than they were of the warriors and their blood-soaked intimidation tactics, but that was not the most effective negotiation tactic when they were looking to make peaceful contact.


    The front line had reached the bottom of the ramp, and it sounded like there was heavy resistance, with the pounding [Thud] [Thud] [Thud] of their grenadeunchers mingling with the rapid popping noise of the Mass Drivers and the whooshing sound of disced air as the Fusion mers were put to work again.


    They would have to be careful with those things in some spots, as they didn''t want topletely destroy the concrete reinforcement of the tunnels, but this first battle seemed much more intense than anticipated.


    Being thest in line would put him in charge of countering offensives from behind, but for now, it just stuck him in a narrow tunnel while the front ranks fought down below.


    [Third Rank is in the chamber. Push forward and clear the tunnel mouths.] One of the Huntresses ordered, and Max moved up to keep his spacing with Nico in front of him.


    That brought the room into sight, and it was far more gruesome than Max had expected.


    Bloody runes were carved on the walls, ankle-deep red liquid covered the floor, and dozens ofrge armoured bodies now filled the space, with two damaged Mobile Suits being moved to the corner.


    [Report. How are the team members?] Max asked.


    Most of the team members had brought a small replicator-based repair device in their gear so they could fix the suits, but the Huntresses might take more time to heal if they had gotten an infected wound from this filthy ce.

 Chapter 972 972 Filthy Folks

    <h4>Chapter 972 972 Filthy Folks</h4>


    "Damn, if this is how they keep the tunnels, no wonder the little aliens are terrified of them. It looks like something straight out of a horror story." Khan noted as she surveyed the damage to one of the injured Hunters.


    "It just makes it that much more interesting, right? Now we get to worry about being killed and catching something that science doesn''t even have a name for." Nico joked, getting back a hacking cough from the injured Huntress.


    "The injury is fairly minor, but there are broken ribs. Give the medical device a few seconds, and it can deal with that. We will patch up your armour once you are healed, and you can take the first post. Good job on the blitz." Khan congratted her team members.


    Max looked up as he heard sshing and the sound of metal nging from down the hallway as they hesitated.


    "Second rank, move forward and secure the next rooms along these three tunnels," Max ordered, getting everyone moving again.


    The Hunters had a lot of practice, but their n hadn''t expected to have a four-way intersection at the bottom of the ramp. There weren''t enough of them to hold many points at this rate, and they would only clear a few rooms before they were fully extended.


    Two of the rooms were only a few metres down the tunnel, but one extended out into the darkness.


    "Shall we?" Khan asked, gesturing to the longer tunnel.


    With the three of them down that tunnel, and one left in the first room, that left three in each of the other rooms to hold against the enemy advance.


    Hopefully, it would be enough. The Hunters had brought all sorts of defensive goodies with them to avoid being overrun, so they shouldn''t have too many troubles, but the tunnels were not at all what Max had expected.


    As they ran down the narrow passage, the walls became more and more covered in gory runes, and they began to find body parts scattered along the walls in various states of dposition.


    This must have been the original tunnelway that led past the trenches, and the rest were newer, not so corrupt and without all of the lingering signs of ughter.


    "This ce gives me the creeps," Khan muttered as they advanced.


    The sound of footsteps and battle was getting quiet behind them as they put distance between themselves and the first room, and it only made the tunnel even more eerie, like they had stumbled into some monster''sir.


    Only they knew that the monster was a bipedal humanoid and an intelligent one, which made it even worse.


    "The sound sensors are picking up something ahead of us. Twenty metres, and it sounds like there is a closed door between us." Nico whispered as if the noise of her radio would be detected by the enemy.


    Perhaps it was. Or perhaps the enemy heard them too because a split secondter, the door was mmed open, and a giant warrior in dark red armour rushed through with a heavy grenadeuncher in his hands, already firing before the door even hit the wall.


    Nico, being the shortest of them by arge margin, ducked while Max and Khan pressed against the wall and let the first few rounds that he had fired down the tunnel pass by, then the three sets of Mass Drivers tore the champion apart, leaving a shattered mass of armour in the doorway, and a stunned group of fighters behind.


    Nico showed them no mercy and lit up the room with her Fusion mer, incinerating the partially armoured warriors and filling the air with smoke.


    But from that smoke emerged one of the Demonic beings that they had faced in the otheryer. It was slightly blistered but moving with incredible speed toward Khan, who was second in line.


    As it vaulted over Nico, the cunning behind its strategy was revealed. The demon had an energy de attached to its tail, which whipped out at Nico, who parried with her energy ws and rolled to her feet.


    With the long tail and the twin swords, the pale violet creature had the advantage of reach, but the triple des on each gauntlet made the defences of the Mobile Suits hard to break, and it found itself trapped between the two women, who both had ranged weapons in their arsenal.


    The Mass Driver couldn''t track fast enough as the demon leapt up to the roof, and Khan''s first round missed and exploded against something inside the room in front of them.


    She crossed the ws in front of her to fend off the des that wereing her way, and the synchronous shots from Max and Nico both hit the creature, vaporizing it and leaving only one de on the ground as evidence it had even existed.


    "That was insane. Who would have thought that something could be faster than the tracking systems that we have put into the Mass Drivers." Khan sighed.


    If she hadn''t been so fast, she would have been in real trouble. If she had been alone, she might well have lost to the pure speed of the creature unless she hit it with an area attack.


    "There''s always something new and exciting to find when you go Hunting with Nico." Maxughed as the small Mobile Suit moved into the scorched room.


    "This one is clear, but there doesn''t seem to be an entrance or an exit." She informed them.


    "That doesn''t make sense. This is the oldest portion of the tunnels. It should lead somewhere." Khan sighed.


    Max shrugged. "Check the room again. They might have hidden something from us. Or this might have been an isted branch for ritual purposes, and the other teams could be in trouble back at the exit."


    If the main tunnel wasn''t this one, then they had taken all three of the most experienced fighters away from where the worst of the battle was likely to ur.


    That would give the younger Hunters a chance to prove themselves, but the idea was that they would do this without casualties, and they had already nearly suffered two.

 Chapter 973 973 Area Search

    <h4>Chapter 973 973 Area Search</h4>


    "Scan the area for hidden tunnels and fake walls. The design of the tunnels says that there should be more down here, and I want to be absolutely sure before we move back to? rejoin the group." Huntress Khan instructed.


    The lingering effects of the battle,bined with whatever the enemy had been doing in here that managed to bring the demonic beings in from the otheryer, had left a load of chaotic energy signals that were interfering with the sensors.


    So, they did it the old-fashioned way and thumped their weapons against everything, stomped their feet and finally used the mers on the walls to see if anywhere cooled at an unusual rate.


    "There''s nothing. Could it be that they just built an exit in an old tunnel used for summoning because it was convenient? We might be attributing too much forethought to the construction of the trenches.


    They might have just built them there because that''s where the offensive stalled." Max suggested.


    "Well, the room has been purged down to clear stone, and there is no sign of any other way in or out, so I''m going to have to say that it''s a possibility. It''s also possible that this tunnel only seemed important because it was for summoning, but it wasn''t used for regr movement.


    We don''t know what technology they''re using to breach theyers, and their portals might need some room free of interference." Nico decided.


    Khan sighed when she realized that they were at a dead end and needed to head back and find another way forward.


    "Alright, let''s get a move on before the others run into something that they can''t handle."


    They were about to leave the room when suddenly, a dozen of the violet-skinned demons appeared in the room without warning.


    "Where the hell did thate from? I''ve got a probe in the otheryer, and it doesn''t see anything at all." Max cursed while he sprayed the room with Mass Driver rounds.


    "Could they being from a differentyer of reality?" Khan asked.


    "It''s possible, but it doesn''t seem likely. From what data we''ve managed to gather, these beings should only be able to survive extended periods in twoyers. Their home realm and this one." Nico replied with annoyance in her tone.


    "Then they have a way to portal into this room, and we haven''t located it yet. If they can do it without a local beacon, we could be in trouble." Max added.


    He scanned the room again, looking for anything that they had missed, and noticed that the energy signature around the symbols carved in one wall had changed.


    "Dammit, the markings on the wall serve as a beacon. Or there is a beacon in the wall behind them." Max cursed.


    [Understood. Rip and Tear.] Nico cheered as she threw one of the creatures at the wall in question.


    The creature nimbly dodged her next few attacks, but her goal was never to hit the creature, only to keep it upied while she worked.


    Each strike with her ws tore apart more of the sigil on the wall until the fifth one caused a small explosion.


    [I believe we got it. Something in the wall exploded with thatst strike. Now, let''s finish these things and see if theye back.]


    Max had been standing closest to the door at the moment the creatures arrived in the room, leaving him out of closebat, so he took time to snipe the heads of any creature that was getting an advantage on his teammates.


    The fight was over in under ten seconds, just a flurry of ws and bullets, but the room was now covered in gore again.


    The bodies were already beginning to disappear, confirming beyond any doubt that these were the same beings, and Max watched on his sensors as the probe picked up the wisps of energy entering the otheryer before floating away.


    "The energy dispersed in the winds of the otheryer. These ones are gone for a moment. Deface any other sigils that we find and see if they have something hidden behind them." He instructed.


    There were more markings down the hallway, so he moved out of the room and began to w at them, feeling that same nagging feeling of Familiarity but not recognition.


    Even if they finished on this in the next few days, he was going to find somewhere with more of those runes and decipher their meaning. That not-quite-understanding was getting on his nerves.


    [Commanders, we have heavy iing enemy forces from the main trenches. Current numbers are expected to overwhelm our bombardment and make it inside.] The leader of the android unit suddenly announced.


    The data feed showed thousands of warriors, many with heavy weapons, charging through the tunnels toward the bunker where they had entered the undergroundyer.


    [It looks like we picked the right tunnel. All units brace for iing. Fall back if necessary, but don''t let yourselves get isted from the main chamber.] Khan ordered the rest of her team.


    The three of them raced back down the tunnel just in time to unleash a barrage of Mass Driver fire on the first rank through the door of the main chamber.


    "What are the androids doing up there? I thought that they were going to keep the entrance clear?" The Huntress left at the entry asked.


    "They''re working on it. When we destroyed the portal room at the end of the hallway, a couple thousand warriors charged us with energy barriers. It looks like they did a pretty good job on the timing." Max replied.


    "A portal room? Feth, that''s thest thing we needed in here." The Huntress cursed while she fired into the iing crowd.


    "Look at it this way. At least we don''t need to go exploring any more underground tunnels. The enemy ising right to us." Nicoughed.


    "Of course, you would be enjoying this. But don''t forget that I nearly got disembowelled earlier. They''re not as easy of an opponent as they look." The Huntressined, but didn''t lower her rate of fire.

 Chapter 974 974 A Tunnel with One Entrance

    <h4>Chapter 974 974 A Tunnel with One Entrance</h4>


    [Commanders. All branches are clear. There are no more rooms and no more enemies outside the main entrance.] The away team leader reported.


    [Destroy any and all sigils and alien writings that you see. I have no idea what they mean, so some of them might be ways to let more enemies into this section of the tunnel.] Khan ordered.


    Max checked the recordedyout of the tunnelplex and frowned.


    "Does this look like a barracks to anyone else? I think that these tunnels were created specifically as staging areas for the warriors when they arrived from the otheryer.


    If my theory is right, the chamberplexes will all be separate, and they will all have a summoning room near them. They''re bringing in their forces through these tunnels, where they are hidden from the locals." Max suggested.


    "So, they set up a single room in advance, possibly from the otheryer, and then dug bunkers around them when they happened to be next to them in real space?


    I don''t know whether to call that insidious or pure genius. But I must say, I''m impressed at their tactical adaptability." Khan replied with a hint of respect for the warriors.


    They might fight and look like brutes, but when it came to strategy, they knew what they were doing, and they had created a supply line that their opponents couldn''t touch.


    [Back away from the entrance, the heavy weapons areing down the ramp.] The Android squad leader informed them.


    Max nodded at Nico, then stepped forward with Huntress Khan to put the three of them at the bottom of the ramp, and then fired their Fusion mers up toward the surface.


    They risked serious damage to the concrete, but thebined heat of three Fusion mers would create an inferno right up to the bunker and clear the first wave of enemy heavy weapons.


    The light-duty Fusion mers used by the Mobile Suits couldn''t be used constantly, even if they weren''t afraid of trapping themselves underground, and after a few seconds, they were forced to back off and allow the enemy to approach down the tunnel again.


    There was a pinging noise that Max recognized as grenades rolling downhill, so he activated an energy barrier just around the corner from them so the explosions would happen out of sight and mostly blocked by the bend in the tunnel.


    "Iing grenades." He informed the Hunters, who couldn''t see what was happening from their positions in the other rooms.


    The explosion was deafening, and the ground rumbled with the force of the explosions, making all of the Hunters cross their fingers for luck until the noise ended and the sound of boots reced it.


    [Back off to the back of the room. Let them down the tunnel so they don''t do anything drastic.] Khan ordered.


    That would also prevent plugging the tunnel with corpses and let the rest of the team in on the fight.


    They had all arranged themselves in the secondary rooms so they could see into the main room from some angle, allowing them to target the enemies that got inside without risking a deadly crossfire.


    Khan and the door guard took positions along the closest wall so they could attack from the peripheral vision of the entrants, while Max and Nico stood along the far wall with a better shot up the tunnels but in clear view of the iing enemies.


    It was a more risky position but also a more damaging one.


    Back when they were still Kepler soldiers, neither of them would have willingly taken this spot, but times had changed, and they had the confidence that they could avoid major damage from these warriors.


    They weren''t going to make it easy, though, and the entrance of the room filled with fire right before threerge warriors with heavy grenadeunchers rushed through.


    They barely got their first few rounds off before they were cut down, but more were right behind them with those standard-issue rocket-propelled grenades.


    The explosion was concentrated and intended to breach armour like a crude and makeshift version of a Mass Driver. But for as crude as the technology was, they were still quite effective and seemed to have been proven in battle many times over.


    All of the warriors werepletely confident in their weapons, showing years of familiarity with the same tools that only a veteran soldier could have.


    Unlike the drafted shock troops of the human infantry, these infantry were battle-hardened veterans, used to being on the front lines and facing down superior firepower with sess.


    After a few waves of instant deaths, they changed tactics. Another wave of grenades was hurled into the room, contained by portable energy barriers set up by the Hunters, and then a row of warriors with shields charged down the ramp with heavy machine guns.


    That was much more effective, and the barriers that had stopped the grenades crumbled in an instant, freeing the Mobile Suits to return fire.


    Max saw the moment that they realized that there were more than two of them in the room. The adaptive paint had hidden most of them in the shadows, and the two Hunters in the corner had been overlooked until they started to shoot.


    They didn''t let up on their fire toward Max and Nico, but the group behind them, a dozen melee fighters, spread out to charge both upied doors as well as the two Hunters in the room.


    All of them had heavy shields made of the same materials as their armour. The Mass Driver rounds had barely done any real damage before the enemy was in closebat again, hacking and stabbing at the Hunter team.


    These seemed to be junior troops, though, and they weren''t as fast as the first berserker that they had fought.


    Max''s ws took a head with his first swipe and then deflected a de on their way to impale another fighter.


    This armour was lighter as well. The design looked simr, if possibly less mutated, but the appearance was deceiving.


    "They''re light infantry. Shock troops. Anyone who can prepare to fire on the ramp. The next wave should be heavy weapons, and I don''t doubt that they will shoot through their own troops to get to us." He ordered.

 Chapter 975 975 Fighting Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 975 975 Fighting Retreat</h4>


    While they fought the light infantry in front of them, Max and Nico fired over their shoulders at the infantrying down the tunnel the moment that they came into view.


    They had the same durable shields leading the charge, so it was only slowing them down a little, but the impact of the Mass Driver rounds halted the advance even when it didn''t pierce the shield''s ting.


    That bought them a precious few seconds to deal with the enemies that they were already engaged in, and just before the reinforcements reached the bottom of the ramp, Khan and her partner managed to knock theirst remaining opponents back to the tunnel and fill it with Fusion mes again.


    The tunnel itself gave an ominous groan as the mes set off the explosives that the troops were carrying, and the resultant shockwave nearly knocked Max from his feet and threw his opponents to the ground, where they were easy targets for his ws.


    "Shit, I don''t think that the tunnel can take much more of that. Are we going to push up to the bunker, or should we back out and let them into the chamber?" Khan called urgently.


    "Let''s go up before that tunnel copses entirely." Max decided, and the team began to move, preparing for a frontal assault to get out of the underground chambers.


    "Grab some of the better-looking shields as well. If they stopped our rounds, they will stop the enemy rounds just as well, and we can treat them as disposable." Nico suggested, grabbing one for herself that had only taken a single shot before the carrier was killed.


    Most of the others weren''t in as good of condition, but Max managed to get himself a good one and took his spot at the front of the line with Nico.


    They were both significantly shorter than the Hunters, so it was easier for the second rank to shoot over the top of them when they were wearing Mobile Suits. It increased their firepower and allowed a second rank of shields to guard the upper area behind their heads without blocking the view of the troops behind.


    The tunnel was narrow, though, and they could barely stand shoulder to shoulder. It only widened near the mouth of the chamber and the bunker, where the enemy would be waiting for them.


    Everyone knew the routine, though. Fire as fast as possible while charging into melee range with the enemy and clear the bunker as their next foothold before moving back out into the trenches and deciding what was next.


    They could either fight their way to another bunker and clear another tunnelplex, or they could rest and recuperate for the night and do it tomorrow.


    If they really were drawing in troops from anotheryer or using portals, it wouldn''t matter which day they did the clearance, as the enemy could reinforce themselves just as well either way.


    In Max''s mind, that meant that fresh and rested was the way to go instead of a long and grinding fight. The biggest question was if the enemy would agree to let them leave.


    The Warriors either hadn''t realized that the Hunters wereing up, or they were determined not to let them reach the bunker because halfway up the ramp, they ran into another heavy weapons team using an upscaled version of the grenadeunchers.


    The booming of the heavy weapons rang out in the narrow tunnel, matched by the sharp crackling of multiple Mass Drivers, and the enemy was torn apart before being trampled underfoot.


    Max didn''t slow the charge at all, and Nico was using her gravity control device to glide over the bodies to reduce the chance of tripping.


    "Heads down. Onest push." Nico called out, then ducked her head behind the shield and mmed into the defenders at the top of the ramp.


    She didn''t hold onto the shield, only kept it pinned between their bodies for an instant while she tore the warrior apart with her ws and filled the room with explosions from the Mass Drivers.


    The carnage caught the staging force off guard, and in an instant, it was only Humans and Hunters alive in the room.


    More Warriors wereing in from the door, but before they could stage an effective defence, they were cut down by the Mass Drivers, and the Hunters raced for the door to fire their Fusion mers down the trenches.


    The explosions of artillery were still audible up here as the Android force kept the majority of the enemy force pinned down, and the mers cleared the immediate vicinity in seconds, giving them time to breathe.


    "Let''s get out of here. I''ve got a bad feeling about those sigils in the portal room, and I want to do some studying on them." Khan decided.


    [You heard the nicedy. Let''s get out of here. Androids, we will need extra suppressive fire to keep our path clear. We will proceed through the trenches to the closest point before moving above ground level.] Nico instructed their support troops.


    [Understood, Commander.]


    Nico led the way out of the door with her ws out and immediately leapt onto the face of a warrior who hade around the corner to attempt to charge the tunnel.


    The move shocked him so much that he forgot to drop his weapon, giving Nico a convenient ce to sit as she drove her ws through his helmet and rode the corpse to the ground.


    Max was slightly more pragmatic and started with the Mass Drivers to deal with the unit that was behind the ill-fated leader.


    Behind them came the majority of the Hunters, with Khan running backward at the rear of the ranks to deal with whatever was chasing them.


    The Androids had cleared the way quite efficiently, though. Other than a few stragglers who were hidden in small cutouts in the walls and a few upied bunkers, they didn''t hit much resistance.


    "It''s a good thing you can run backward." Maxughed as Khan reached the final bend in the trenches, and the team prepared to exit back onto the open fields.


    "Hunters prepare for everything. Even if it seems inconvenient." She recited while the other Huntersughed.


    Most of them couldn''t do it. Khan was from one of the few Hunter groups who still practiced for every single scenario instead of devising their own sect''sbat style.

 Chapter 976 976 Persistent Buggers

    <h4>Chapter 976 976 Persistent Buggers</h4>


    Of course, these mutated giant warriors were not going to take that level of disrespect without any sort of response, and Max could hear in their thoughts that they had already staged a retaliatory strike that they believed would prevent his team from leaving.


    They were moving artillery forces around the trench lines, away from their positions targeting the city, and they had brought up a half dozen bunkers worth of additional infantry.


    Once they were out in the open with the Androids firing at them, those would be much easier to deal with, but the total number was nothing to scoff at.


    Nearly a thousand infantry had been readied for the fight against the single squad of Mobile Suits and a unit of Light Mecha.


    After all the times that he had been underestimated, Max thought that he likely should feel appreciated now that someone was taking his team seriously despite the smaller numbers and physical size, but somehow, it was just as annoying as when they sent a single strike force after him.


    "Prepare for iing. They''re a bit upset with us." He informed the team.


    "Got it. So what, a hundred? Maybe two hundred? We can deal with that." One of the Huntresses replied.


    Khan snorted in amusement. "You don''t understand human humour. I''m guessing about a thousand plus artillery." Khan replied.


    Max nodded. "Khan is very close. We have about thirty seconds to make a n. Do we want to fight them on the open field, or do we want to hole up in the trenches for a bit? The open would let us dodge artillery more easily, but it would open us up to a lot more light weapons fire."


    Nico and Khan stared at each other for a second as they traded private messages, and then they turned to inform the group of their decision.


    "We are going toy down a field of smoke. Move through it as fast as possible. It will keep the uracy of the infantry to a bare minimum, as it interferes with all known sensors.


    Bear in mind that includes your sensors, so don''t linger in the smoke. We will deal with the artillery using the Androids while we move, random pattern Alpha.


    We move in five seconds." Khan announced.


    In sync, the Mobile Suits were up and over the wall, out into the open, where artillery immediately began to bombard the ground all around them.


    Each of the Hunters took out a small object from their storage and hurled it in different directions, filling the air with thick smoke that seemed to have energy particles in it, scrambling every sensor on the suits and leaving them running forward with just their own eyes.


    That didn''t stop the artillery, and Max heard asional cursing as a shellnded too near one of the suits, but thirty secondster, when Khan called for a count, they were all still moving.


    "That''s halfway through the smoke. Keep it moving, and we will see you on the other side." She directed.


    Max could hear Nico''s thoughts go into overdrive as she considered how to recreate this smoke cloud, but he was more interested in tracking the sound of artillery shells.


    They made a distinctive whistle, and the sound changed when they got too close to you. So, if it turned shrill, you needed to dodge urgently to avoid a direct hit.


    The shields of the Mobile Suits would likely take one or two shots from the crude explosives, butbined with all the other near misses, they really couldn''t afford that while they were in the smoke.


    Max dodged left to avoid a shell, only to hear the distinctive whistle of anothering down on his head. A quick blip of the thrusters tossed him forward a hundred metres, and the shells exploded nearly on top of each other behind him, invisible through the fog.


    A few more seconds running brought him back out into clear air, the first to emerge that he could see, and nearly on course for the shuttle.


    [Max is out. On my way to the clearing near the ship. I will ping it when I arrive.] Max informed the group, setting their meeting point.


    [Understood, we will meet you there. Everyone, count off when you are out of the smoke so we know who to rescue.] Khan ordered.


    The thruster leap had only put Max a few seconds ahead of the closest team members, and three more emerged before he could even get to the tree line.


    They all called out their names and followed right behind him, then came a few more, leaving only Khan and Nico in the fog.


    Clearly, neither of them was in a rush. They were more interested in not getting hit by artillery, with a side chance that they might get onest melee fight in before they had to retreat.


    [That''s everyone but Khan and Nico. If you''re done with the dying action, you cane out and join us.] Max joked.


    [Understood. It doesn''t look like the warriors are chasing us into the fog. They''re waiting for the artillery to stop before theye after us.] Nico replied, then a secondter, she came flying out of the fog using her thrusters with Khan right beside her.


    The two Mobile Suits dodged the front wave of artillery rounds as the bombardment rolled forward and rejoined the group in the trees, mostly hidden from the enemy''s sight and sensors.


    "So, what''s the next mission? The Androids are on their way back to the ship, and the fog will be up for hours." The away team leader asked.


    "That''s easy. We''re going to wait for the enemy toe to us, and then we are going to smash them for sport. In the forest, we''ve got all the advantages when we''re in a disguised Mobile Suit, so we are going to have the Androids chase them in here with us.


    Once they''re in here, we can begin the ughter, as long as the locals don''t make a move." Nico dered, and Max could sense the smile on her face that she had gotten it out before he coulde up with a less dangerous option.


    "You heard thedy. Hurry up and wait time."

 Chapter 977 977 Dedication

    <h4>Chapter 977 977 Dedication</h4>


    The roar of the warriors as they cleared the smoke and found that there was nobody there waiting for them was the first sign that the next stage in the battle had started.


    The next was the abrupt end to the artillery bombardment, which was promptly reced by the sound of the Mass Drivers usingrge explosions to chase the warriors toward the woods.


    Their thoughts said that they knew that they were being herded toward the battlefield that Max had chosen, but they didn''t care. They would fight in the open, in the woods, or in the tunnels. It was all the same to them as long as they could avenge the insult that they had suffered by allowing the group in to destroy one of their bunkers and then back out again.


    They would ept a great number of difficulties in life and even sacrifice their bodies willingly for the cause, but the thought of being mocked by a tiny force of invaders was enough to drive them into a feral rage.


    Soon, they wouldn''t even need to be herded. Once they heard the battle start in the woods, they would willinglye to it and avoid the artillery of the Android force in the sky entirely.


    At the moment, they were taking intense fire from the warriors'' heavy weapons, but their energy barriers were holding strong, and Max saw no reason to order them to withdraw just yet.


    [Should we get started then?] Nico asked over the radio.


    [Might as well. Ambush as many as you can. I am certain they have some sort ofmunications, and we want them absolutely enraged.] Max agreed.


    He could hear the sound of someone in heavy armour trying to be stealthy a hundred metres to his right, so Max engaged the gravity control system on his Mobile Suit and snuck through the trees toward his first victim.


    It turned out to be a pair of junior light infantry doing their best to make it through an area of bramble bushes without getting hopelessly entangled.


    Max chuckled quietly at their ipetence and dispatched them both before they even realized that he was there, using sts from his Ion Cannons to vaporize their heads.


    The bodies were left entangled in the bushes. The next warriors toe this way would certainly see them and realize what happened, which Max hoped would make them even more insensible and easier to kill.


    Max checked his sensors and saw that he had been detected by another of the Warriors. The disguise of the suits wasn''t perfect, and they weren''t sure what the enemy had for sensors, so he cut the gravity control and dropped his power output to nullify most of his heat signature.


    That was one of the easiest ways to track a technological enemy, and with his strength, he could turn the suit entirely off until he attacked, allowing him to use it as instion and sneak up on his prey.


    Just going low power seemed to be enough, though, as he could sense the warrior''s confusion and apprehension as Max faded from the sensors.


    With the exterior constantly adapting to the surroundings, his nearly silent approach through the trees went unnoticed until he was twenty metres away.


    Then, the warrior suddenly turned and sprayed those magnificently destructive grenades in his direction.


    The first of them impacted against his energy barrier, but the others missed as Max rolled to the side and put a Mass Driver round into the enemy.


    His head burst in an explosion of gore, and Max mentally facepalmed at his oversight.


    That shot could be heard for kilometres, andbined with the enemy''s booming rifle, there was no doubt that his team had been located.


    It didn''t end the opportunities for stealth, but if they started to congregate in one area, it would be much harder to sneak up on the warriors.


    He wasn''t the only one who had missed the timing and let an opponent fire a round, though. It was mostly out of his hearing, but there were dozens of other short firefights all over the forest at the moment, and hundreds of warriors were running toward whichever sound they thought was closest.


    [Commander, the field is now clear of enemies. What are your instructions?] The Android team leader asked.


    [Drop below the tree line and return to the ship. Prepare a defensive perimeter and defend the vessel at all costs.] Max replied as he looked for another warrior to ambush.


    There were no shortages in that department, and Max quickly found a three-person team moving in sync through the woods.


    They were graceful and agile, even through this dense terrain, and Max was getting eager to see how they performed inbat when suddenly a sh of red caught his eye, and Nico came flying through the trees at nearly four hundred kilometres an hour straight into them.


    Her ws impaled one while her Mass Drivers took out the warrior''s stunnedpanions, and then she was gone again, rocketing off through the trees at the speed of insanity.


    [You snooze, you lose. Better start moving, or you''re going to fall behind.] Nico crowed as she found another target, and the sound of screaming in the woods turned to an agonized gurgle.


    Did it really count as stealth when you were just moving too fast for them to react to your presence? Or, more importantly, was there even a distinction at that point?


    Max engaged his thrusters and headed for a nearby opponent, a solo warrior with gouge marks on his armour. He must have escaped from one of the others, but Max''s rapid approach tore his limbs off and left him for dead on the ground.


    With the area momentarily clear, Max took a second to make sure that everyone''s vital signs inside the suits were good. There were some elevated heart rates, but no signs of serious trauma, and all of the suits were still showing a sealed atmosphere, so there hadn''t been any breaches since they left the smoke.


    "Good enough for me. Now, where did we put the rest of those heavy weapons teams?"

 Chapter 978 978 Introductions

    <h4>Chapter 978 978 Introductions</h4>


    Max snuck up on a hapless recruit, still visibly nervous even without reading their mind, and put an Ion st into their back before moving on.


    The elite troops had be harder and harder to find, as they had arrived first, and now all that was left was for the team to clean up the stragglers.


    Many of them werepletely lost in the woods, not equipped with any sort of navigational aid, only basic powered armour and some secondhand weapons at best.


    Many of the ones that he wasing across weren''t even in proper armour. They were wearing k jackets and te carriers like the worst-equipped Kepler infantry.


    Theck of armour and mutations revealed the most shocking moment of his whole trip. Many of them appeared to be human. Appeared was the keyword because when he sampled their blood, they had nothing inmon with his species except their appearance.


    Still, it was uncanny how close the resemnce was, and he wondered if they were a legacy species created from a temte by something like the Darklings that liked to gically engineer species forter harvest.


    It was doubtful that they would be able to answer that even if he asked them in person, so he just silently vaporized them with the Ion Cannons and moved on to the next targets.


    After a few minutes, the signs of life faded, and his team was left alone in the woods, no longer pursued by the Warriors or anything else.


    [It looks like that''s it. Clean up any stragglers you find and return to the ship.] Khan sighed.


    There had been some injuriester in the battle when the Hunters started to get tired, but no casualties. It was a testament to how superior their wargear was, and the woods were littered with bodies of the enemy.


    The locals could deal with thatter. They had learned a lot in their short time here, and Max had every intention to get them off this and back into orbit before anything went wrong that they couldn''t hide from the Alliance.


    The team fanned out to search for hidden survivors and slowly made their way back to the ship from multiple directions, weary from exertion and ready for a hot meal and a nap.


    "You know, I''d forgotten what it was like to be in a mobile suit instead of arge Hunter Suit. The light Mecha of your forces don''t have it easy, having to live in such cramped quarters all the time." Khan sighed as she sanitized her suit in preparation to take it off.


    Max nodded. "It''s a definite lifestyle upgrade when you move to the Heavy Mecha and again when you move to the Super Heavy units. It serves as great motivation to improve their skills, just for the improved living quarters inside therger units."


    One of the Hunters shook her head in dismay.


    "Humans have such strange motivators. Do they not have the drive to improve just for the sake of pride?" She asked.


    Nico chuckled. "Yes, but also no. Humans'' sense of pride drives them in many directions, most of them self-destructive. They will take pride in all the wrong things and bring about their own downfall, so we have to give specific direction when we''re helping each other grow as intelligent beings."


    The Huntress considered that for a moment, then nodded. "So, it''s like when Commander Max constantly reminds you not to do excessive things?"


    Khan and Maxughed at that while Nico shook her head.


    "No, that''s because he is the arbiter of all things fun, and he wants to take all the joy out of life." She exined.


    "Also known as it''s his job to make sure she doesn''t do anything genocidal," Khan added.


    Max nearlyughed out loud as the young Huntress realized that Nico was likely the scariest one in the room if she was left unsupervised, and then shrugged it off as just humans being humans.


    Nico was definitely giving people the wrong impression of what human culture was all about. Sure, violence was part of it, but they were starting to associate genocidal tendencies and gleeful ughter with just the average human getting annoyed.


    [Commanders, there are drones iing overhead. Unknown design, but deployed from the city.] The Android Pilot of the shuttle announced.


    [Everyone inside. I don''t want any of our units visible when those drones get in camera range.] Max ordered.


    The Androids were already arrayed around the ship, so they were inside in seconds, crowding the bay where the Hunters had just finished sanitizing their suits.


    The door closed behind them, leaving the ship the only thing visible from the outside, and Nico brought up a three-dimensional disy from the outside cameras so they could watch the drones'' behaviour.


    At first, it wasn''t clear if they had detected the ship at all, given their erratic pattern of movement, but as the sensor data came in, it began to make sense.


    They weren''t headed straight for the ship. They were surveying the battlefield. It was impossible for the city to have missed all that, with the bombardment and the flying Mecha, but so far, they had made no effort to contact Max and the team.


    First contact with the Warriors had been sessfully made, so all that was left for the mission was to determine if this species could be negotiated with and then return to base so they could continue their inspection of the region.


    Once the drones were finished with the inspection of the forest, most of them returned to the city, but one solitary drone remained overhead, slowly circling the area beforeing to hover right in front of the shuttle.


    It shed a series of lights, and Khan began tough.


    "It says, wee in peace. It''s a standard protocol greeting that is in the data we recovered from the colony world. Give me a second, and I will send them a message back."


    True to her word, it was only a second before she started programming the response into the lights of the shuttle.


    [We came to Hunt. If you are not a Game Species, we can talk more.]


    Maxughed at the impression of Hunter culture that he could sense from a distant outpost outside the city.


    "I found the drone pilots. I''ll ping them on the map. They seem somewhat confused at the notion that they could be considered a Game Species. But they aren''t hostile, just afraid that we are."

 Chapter 979 979 Envoy

    <h4>Chapter 979 979 Envoy</h4>


    While they waited for a response from the drone pilots, Max worked on expanding his senses to the thoughts of the aliens in the city. It was a densely packed hive city, as expected of a world under siege, and finding the right mind was bing increasingly difficult.


    The local news was showing the scene of the battle that they had just held, and all of the minds in town were focused on the same things, making it impossible to tell who was important and who was just watching the news.


    So, Max pushed further and further into their thoughts until he felt a strange sensation in his body. It felt like the System''s Nanobots were confused about what exactly he was trying to do.


    They wanted to help, but his current actions didn''t match whatever they had thought he needed.


    Realistically, they probably couldn''t do much. They had capped out his strength, his agility and speed were far beyond human, and his body had been remade a half dozen times to the point that it took dozens of times more force to injure him than was normal.


    But they were definitely looking for something.


    So, Max did the only sensible thing he could while they waited for the locals to answer. He used Nico''s skill to connect with the ship''sputer and allowed the nanobots to go to work analyzing all of the samples that they had collected from the warriors and the demonic beings over the course of the battle, as well as what they had gathered from the chameleon aspects of the biodome aliens.


    Since the nanobots were involved in the rapid ess of data, they could use whatever they wanted for their own advancement ns. It was a simple method to help them make up their mind, and Max idly wondered how many species would bepletely horrified at the Kepler attitude toward random gic engineering by a hivemind artificial intelligence.


    It had worked out well for them, but the basic premise sounded like the start of a horror movie, and when they saw simrly extreme levels of gic engineering in others, the first instinct was always to wonder what had pushed them that far.


    Finally, the sense of agitation within his body began to settle as the System''s nanobots either found what they were looking for or gave up on whatever n they had.


    Max hoped it was the first, as another advancement at this point would be wonderful, but at the same time, he realized that it was incredibly improbable.


    [Message tranted. Wee in Peace. An envoy is headed your way to make introductions.] The ship''sputer automatically tranted now that it had the data on the light shnguage.


    "They speak the samemon tongue as the species in the Koleska region. I''m not sure if the Hunters speak it, as the Myceloids don''t, but it is one that Nico and I both understand. They might try to keep using the light shes, but one of us can contact them directly and talk to them if we have theirmunication frequencies." Max informed the others.


    The envoy arrived only a few minutester. One single terrified alien in what looked like a disposable transit pod, made from rapidly biodegradable stic with no manual controls.


    "They totally think we''re going to kill her." Nico pointed out.


    "Guaranteed. The so-called envoy doesn''t even have controls to move the pod unless they''re doing it through a neural link that our sensors haven''t detected the circuitry for." Khan agreed.


    Max shook his head. "No, it''s a drone. The person inside has no control. Should I meet them, or should we send Nico, who is closer to their size?"


    Nicoughed, "You go. You''re halfway between me and the Hunters in size, so the shock when they see us shouldn''t be as severe as if they went from seeing me to seeing Khan."


    Max chuckled as he put his Mobile Suit back on to go outside and greet the Envoy.


    The atmosphere waspletely safe for him to breathe, but he wouldn''t put it past the aliens to send someone with an incurable disease on a suicide mission, and he didn''t want to catch something unknown to science.


    There was too much terror in the envoy''s mind to make anything else out, so he stepped out of the smaller side ramp and walked over to knock on the side of the pod.


    "Good afternoon. I am Commander Keres Max, the chosen representative of this Hunting Trip. Might I know your name, Envoy?" He asked in themonnguage the aliens used.


    It wasn''t the same one as the aliens on the other had used, which was a bit strange, nor was it the samenguage that their official records were kept in, but most of the poption thought in it, so it must be their native dialect.


    The Envoy, a young adult female of the species who had been dressed in what looked like a ceremonial white toga, simply stared at him for a few seconds.


    "Please don''t hunt me. I''m a terrible runner, and it wouldn''t be fun, I promise." She finally pleaded once she realized that she could understand this strange man.


    "I agree, you would not be fun to hunt. But you have been chosen as the envoy between your people and mine, so you might as well get out of the pod ande talk to us about your homeworld." Max chuckled.


    She was still thoroughly confused as she opened the side door of the pod and climbed from the hovering transport into Max''s waiting arms.


    He shifted her onto one hip and walked back up the ramp while he pretended that he couldn''t hear the minds of the absolutely stunned drone pilots and military officers.


    Once they made it up the ramp, Max ordered the ramp to stay open and let the Envoy down onto a couch facing out the door. Then he took the seat facing her, conveniently hidden from the sight of the pod and removed his helmet.


    "You''re, you''re..." She stammered, then cleared her throat.


    [No, you can''t be. They''re all dead. The old ones are not real.] She mentally whispered, with the words never leaving her mouth.

 Chapter 980 980 Prying Minds

    <h4>Chapter 980 980 Prying Minds</h4>


    "Old ones? No, my species is called human. We might look like other species that you know, but we came here through an anomaly from the far reaches of the universe.


    The tall ones with us are the Hunters, who also hail from the same region of space as our people and havee to prevent the species on this side of the anomaly from invading us." Max exined.


    "You can read minds? Wait, did I say that out loud? I don''t even know anymore."


    The Envoy was in the middle of a mental breakdown, so Max flexed his abilities in a way that he very rarely used to imnt calm feelings into her mind until she got herself together again.


    With luck, she would never know that it was even possible for him to influence thoughts or directly talk to others in their minds since it was mentally draining for him unless he was talking with the Illithid, who naturallymunicated both ways.


    As she calmed, the Envoy looked around the luxury interior of the shuttle in confusion. This was far different than anything that she had expected, and there was a small woman bringing a tray of what looked like snacks and drinks.


    Nico had programmed in some of the foods that they had found on the other world containing this species and made a snack tter for their guest. It was the bare minimum of hospitality for an Envoy, but the alien didn''t trust them at all.


    Max sighed as she stared at the te in front of her, and Nico waited impatiently for her opinion on the newly created snacks.


    "I suppose I should start at the beginning. As the elected Envoy of your people, you are currently the highest authority on the when ites to dealings between our species.


    We''re not going to harm you. This is just a cordial meeting between politicians. The snacks are not poison, and they have been tailored to your tastes based on the food preferences of others of your species that we have met."


    Now, she looked even more shocked than when she had thought that he was an extinct species.


    She slowly reached for the snacks and popped one in her mouth with a look of terror. Then it faded to shock, then happiness, before she slowly began to chew and make happy noises.


    "I think she likes it." Max teased Nico while the Envoy was too engrossed in the food to say anything.


    She nodded excitedly but didn''t speak until she had finished with the bite-sized snack.


    "We''ve been on rbined rations for all my life. I have never tasted anything like that." She exined.


    "Do you not have Replicator technology? Most species that we havee across have some version of it." Max asked.


    "Oh, you mean the Rbination Processors? Yes, they can make rations out of anything, but that is all they make." She offered, not quite understanding the question.


    Max probed her thoughts on the matter and realized what the issue was. They were a temte-based device, and only one temte existed. The one for a generic ration pack. It was high in nutrients butpletely void of taste, and withoutrge fields to create varied foods, that was all that the locals ever ate.


    "Ah, I see the issue now. We have a very different version of the technology, and we can program new things into it. Eat all you like. We can make more whenever the te is empty.


    Tell us if there are any that didn''t turn out to your tastes, as we only have limited information from one other colony and none from the people of this."


    The drone outside could hear him but couldn''t see his face, so they knew what was going on but not what humans looked like. Other than the fact that they could be mistaken for the Old Ones.


    Max couldn''t tell by the thoughts of the military officers in the city whether that meant humans or the Darklings, which could be mistaken for humans with longer ears if you weren''t really familiar with either species.


    If you were, it was quite clear that they were different species, and internally, they were even more distinct, but in a situation like this, all most people would have to go by was outward appearance.


    "What did youe here for? Other than to ughter the mad ones?" The Envoy asked after finishing a few more of the snacks Nico had prepared.


    "Mostly, we came to see whether the people and the conflict here would be a threat to us. There was a battle between the Myceloids, the ones you call the Mad Ones, and your people in space above the, and it caught our attention.


    Your people seem to be defending their homeworld, and we didn''t find any signs of other species living here, so we saw no reason not to see if you were interested in peaceful coexistence." Max exined.


    From outside, a speaker on the drone asked its first question of the day.


    "What exactly does that mean?"


    Max raised his voice to call out to the drone. "It means that we intend to leave without bothering your people. We might be able to arrange to trade you a few useful items before we go, but we won''t be helping your enemies.


    Both species enjoy a good fight too much to be allies in the long term, so we have decided to treat them both as Game Species in the future."


    There was a pause before the voice from the drone came again.


    "You have the technology to make better food. Would you be willing to share that with us? The morale of our troops could benefit from the variety." The voice asked hopefully, and then there was a thumping sound before another voice took over.


    The first had been a drone operator. The new one was his superior, a bureaucrat chosen for his ability to suck up to those in power.


    "If you could provide us with some samples of the weapons that you used against the Mad Ones, we would be grateful." The new voice insisted.


    Max shook his head and then winked at the Envoy. "I''m afraid that we''re not at the point of trading military technology. But if you want a portable sample of the food creation technology, I think that we can spare one for you. I will have a team member put it in the pod to go back to your station after the meeting."


    Max sensed the bureaucrat''s annoyance and the open hatred he held for the drone operator who had been the first to make contact.


    "Any help that you are willing to provide is very wee." He replied in a measured tone that Max recognized as carefully calcted to not cause offence to anyone.

 Chapter 981 981 "Gift"

    <h4>Chapter 981 981 "Gift"</h4>


    The Envoy stared at Max in shock at his words.


    "You would really gift my people the technology to create new kinds of food from basic biomass and ask nothing in return?" She asked, much louder than she had intended.


    "Of course. But it''s not for free. What we ask in return is an agreement that they will not attack us, and we will not attack them. I think that both of our species have enough enemies in this region, and we don''t need to add more of them without good reason.


    So, we will give them a simple technology to eat well, one that they are likely to be able to recreate on their own and spread to all of their cities, and in exchange, they will not attack our ships as we travel the region.


    It''s a good deal, you see. Finally, we will have one set of alien ships that we can see without preparing for an attack." Max exined, making sure that the drone could hear him.


    Back in the drone base, the radio operator and his superior were just finishing a rather short but intense fight of their own, with the radio operatoring out on top and informing their direct chain ofmand instead of the supervisor''s political connections.


    Once the request was sent out, along with details of the situation, it would be widespread knowledge in the defence force''s senior ranks, and the politicians would stand no chance of hoarding the good thing for themselves.


    They had been so engrossed in their fight that they didn''t even know for sure what it did, only that they could use it to make food. Real food, and not just ration packs.


    Nico was already working on the solution, and Khan was doing a terrible job of hiding her amusement when the small cyborg came out with the most basic of biomatter replicators that anyone aboard had ever seen.


    The device did the job, but it was designed as a single post machine intended to be ced over a conveyor belt and had been simplified in the extreme.


    The interior circuitry was something that the humans could have duplicated on their own two thousand years or more earlier, and there was no software. It was all hard firmware-based to make one of nine options with the push of a button.


    It even had pictures of the items on the post beside the buttons.


    Ironically, Max recognized three of them as boxes of ration packs, just fancier ones than the aliens were currently using, and the other six were bulk bags and boxes of raw materials, with one option for an assorted sauce and spices box.


    Now, that wasn''t exactly the most amazing way to fulfil their agreement, and any human world would haveughed in their faces at that offering, but it was close topatible with the aliens'' technology, so they should be able to reverse engineer and reproduce it quickly and without damaging the unit.


    "You should make a schematicbel for the side so they can fix it if it has issues." Khanughed as she stepped out of the room so that the Envoy couldn''t see her holding her sides inughter.


    "Oh, that''s a splendid idea. You know what, let''s send them a spare unit just in case this one breaks down. We''ve got enough on board." The away team leader added from the back room, where she was still standing in her Mobile Suit.


    The Envoy was so overjoyed that she didn''t even notice that they wereughing. Or perhaps she simplycked the experience to interpret the alien bodynguage.


    The drone saved her from any further need to fear that her words would cause an interspecies issue.


    [This is Governor General Boolop of theary Defence Force. With the delivery of your peace offering, we will consider the agreement to be signed and paid in full. You may keep our Envoy as a gesture of trust that we will not break our deal.] The speaker on the pod dered in a squeaky but somewhat masculine voice.


    Nico skipped out to the small transport vehicle and ced the two poles in it, along with a small instruction book in the localnguage with enough details for them to recreate it on their own in their military factories.


    They were already very near this level of technology, and in some ways, this was a simpler device than the ones they already used. It did fulfil the deal, though, and if the local soldiers could make hundreds of these, they could solve their issues with morale.


    The pod disappeared as soon as Nico had the delivery securely fastened in by the seatbelt and the door closed, marking the end of the negotiations in the minds of the small aliens.


    Max could tell already that they had forgotten all about the girl, who they had never expected to live through the encounter anyhow. They were focused entirely on the option to have new foods for the first time in their lives.


    Fortunately for them, Nico had even adapted the power supply to the local wall plugs and had added capacitors so that it could be used nearly anywhere, at a lower continuous draw if necessary.


    The Envoy looked around the ship, then blinked slowly.


    She had just realized that her ride home was gone, and she was stuck here in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of murderous aliens that could take out the warriors who had been terrorizing her world with rtive ease.


    "Um, what do I do now?" She asked slowly.


    Nico patted the metre-tall alien''s head in constion. "You''ve been stationed with us for the duration of our agreement with your people, so I will prepare a room for you. I''m not sure that we have clothes already in your size that are suitable for an Envoy, but we will find you something."


    She had every intention of dressing the girl up as a Reaver child with the excuse that it was all that they had, despite the fact that their replicators had thousands of clothing designs suitable for her species input by the members who had visited either Absolution or Terminus.

 Chapter 982 982 Optimized

    <h4>Chapter 982 982 Optimized</h4>


    Shecked the adaptive coloration that the colonists had, and she remained pale gray as she sat in the seat and the door closed, so Max was almostpletely certain that this really was the same species, even without a full genome check.


    That would be a relief to the medical staff when they got back, as they would already have treatment data for anything that was wrong with her, and the unit on board could take care of anything urgent.


    Max reached out to shake her hand, a tradition that both cultures held inmon and suddenly, the System jumped to life in his mind.


    [Biological entity in need of Optimization. Optimize now?] It asked him.


    That was new. Normally, it only worked on Mecha andbat-rted items.


    [Fine, Optimize.] Max agreed.


    He saw a bit of blood leak out of his finger and soak into the alien before the System gave him another message.


    [Gic disorder is being Optimized. Estimated time topletion: 1 hour.]


    The alien didn''t notice anything, but both Nico and Khan noticed Max''s hesitation to move and the bit of blood that had rapidly absorbed into the alien''s hand. Neither of them said anything at that moment, but both had made note that something strange had happened.


    "If you would like to change clothes ory down for a short sleep, we are about to depart the, so now would be an excellent time," Max suggested.


    The shocked Envoy nodded her head and looked around the ship''s main area.


    "Yes, I think I would like to change. You''re likely not aware, but these clothes are traditional for a ritual sacrifice and aren''t our daily casual wear." She exined.


    Max smiled at her, which made the Envoy flinch at the show of teeth. "Follow Commander Nico, and she will get you all set up with new clothing, and then you cane back in and watch on the screens as we return to orbit."


    The girl seemed a bit confused at thement, as she had no knowledge about space flight. It only mattered to the military, and she had too many health issues to pass the exams to be drafted. Instead, she had been working a minimum wage cleaning job in the drone control centre before she had been grabbed and forced into these clothes and the transport pod with no exnation.


    Once she was out of the room, it was Khan''s turn to interrogate Max.


    "What happened between you two? I saw the blood, but I didn''t see any obvious cause of an injury." She whispered.


    "I''m notpletely sure. The nanobots of the System said that she needed to be optimized, so I just let them. The blood was likely them transferring some of their numbers to her body, but I haven''t had time to determine what they''re trying to do yet." He replied with a shrug.


    "Did your System change? We have fairly extensive records on you, and changing living things isn''t in any of our files." She asked.


    "I think that it did. But I''m notpletely sure how yet. As I said, it just happened, and unlike aputer interface, it can take some time to fully understand the System.


    I will check it to see if I gained a new Function, though. Those are usually listed."


    Khan waited patiently as Max checked his system.


    Keres Max


    [Compatibility Determined] Rank S


    [Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier


    [Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x


    [STR] 3+200% Capped


    [DEX] 3+150% Capped


    [SPD] 3+150% Capped


    [Innate Talent] Active Telepathy


    [Additional Function Unit Optimization 2] --> [Battle Optimization] Rank Max


    [Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]


    [Additional Function Split Fire]


    [Additional Function Perception 3]


    [Additional Function Unified Force]


    Not much had changed just the one entry. But what a change that one entry was.


    [Battle Optimization: Max] Affects allpatible Wargear and Combatants. Passively improves the user''sbat effectiveness through constant [Optimization].


    How that rted to the little alien was anyone''s guess, but apparently, the system considered her to be either wargear or abatant.


    It might have been because shecked the Nanobots in her system that the system''s [Optimization] required the blood, but as usual, the system wasn''t forting on its reasoning.


    When he tried to focus on his new ability, Max realized that it worked just like the old [Optimization] had, but now he had more targets. Nico had already been passively targeted, and Max saw a System note that marked her as [Equipped Wargear]. The rest of the people on the ship were also valid targets, as were all the Mecha and the ship itself.


    Max stuck to optimizing his own Mobile Suit for the moment to see what would happen.


    The process wasn''t subtle at all. The effect flowed from his hand across the surface as he activated the skill, and the suit faded to perfectly match the surroundings so well that he could barely see himself or even the helmet he had ced beside him on the couch.


    The design ns for the Mass Drivers altered themselves to fit the System''s analysis of what he needed inbat. The material feed shape was changed from creating the rounds in advance to powdering them and creating them inside the gun itself so that every single round could be customized as it was fired.


    Then, it changed the designs for the propulsion system a little and added a feature to move betweenyers of Reality, the same way that the Demonic Beings it had analyzed could.


    Only he could move both ways, and they could only return. They had to be forcefully pulled to thisyer or have a portal opened.


    [Please Proceed to a suitable processing facility to finish modifications.] The system informed him.


    The ship had one in the other room, so Max stood up and walked over as if he was going to remove his Mobile suit to examine the changes to the disguise systems that had made it blend in so well with its surroundings.


    That change alone was enough to impress the Hunters. They would be irrationally upset if they learned that Max''s System had just solved the problem of moving betweenyers and in the otheryer that they had been working on for weeks.


    "Alright, let''s see what this new Function is capable of," Max muttered.

 Chapter 983 983 Impressive

    <h4>Chapter 983 983 Impressive</h4>


    When the ship''s constructor had finished with the upgrades to the Mobile Suit, it was still very simr in appearance to before the process started, if you ignored the fact that it was actually difficult to see at this point due to the improvement in the adaptive camouge.


    But internally, it was nearly apletely different piece of equipment.


    All of the weapons had different internals, the power systems had been modified, the thrusters werepletely different in function, and the mechanical structure was modified to be able to keep up with Max''s enhanced physique.


    Khan whistled in approval. "That''s a sweet paint job. Do you suppose that you can do the rest of them like that? I knew that the System of the Kepler variety humans is an impressive thing, but I honestly didn''t expect it to be able to improve on a new technology like that."


    "The paint job is the least of the changes. Check out the specs when yours is finished, and let me know what you think." Maxughed, then activated the skill again to upgrade her suit, which was now sitting in the hangar waiting for their next deployment.


    The constructor fired up right away and began the work that Max had to move to finish on his own just as Nico walked in.


    "Oh, did you get a new toy? That is nice. Let me see, too." Sheughed while clinging to his arm with the cutest pleading expression on her face.


    "I will get to all the gear once we''re in orbit and out of danger. How is our newest addition doing?" Max replied.


    "She''s getting changed. She seemed shy and said that she was too embarrassed to have me help her get into the unfamiliar clothing." Nico shrugged.


    Max checked her thoughts and found that the Envoy was still trying to decipher where the silk sash that was intended to be a belt went, but other than that, she seemed to have figured it all out on her own based on the shape.


    [It gets tied around the waist.] He sent it to her as a mental suggestion, and her thoughts brightened as she wrapped it and then tied it so the ends hung down one leg.


    It looked good enough to her, and she could pretend that it was a unique custom of her people if anyone asked about it.


    Max admired her optimism, and she was recovering fast from the initial shock of her arrival. Hopefully, that wouldst because the ship was about to leave the surface, and the Envoy was going on a very long road trip that she hadn''t previously been warned about.


    The Envoy came out a few minutester and smiled at the room, looking very much like a child cosying a Reaver. The oversized, wide oval head and the hairless gray flesh were an oddbination with the outfit that everyone associated with humans, but it wasn''t a terrible look, and she was close to matching with Nico, which seemed to give her confidence that she was dressed appropriately.


    Max changed out of his armour and stored it in his t space, just in case he needed itter. Then he smiled at thest of them to be ready and gave the order to lift off.


    "We wanted to wait for you to be ready. The first time you go to space is a special one." He exined with a gesture to the window so that she could see outside with her own eyes.


    "It''s incredible. I have never seen anything like it. The world looks so peaceful from up here." She sighed.


    "Yeah, everything looks calm from space. Even the explosions of an ongoing conflict look like shing lights from up here. We only have to worry about enemy ships, but it looks like none of them have returned yet after the battle earlier." Max agreed.


    Once they were in orbit, the cloaking field was re-engaged, and the ship faded from sight, silently gliding along toward the edge of the system to begin their scans of the other nearby stars.


    "So, what do you guys do between fights? I mean, there has to be something since you can just leave like this, right?" The Envoy asked.


    "We mostly do research, look for intelligent life, friendly and hostile alien species, try to develop new equipment, and keep our people at home safe. What did you do at home between battles?" Nico asked.


    The girl shrugged. "My mom used to say to me [Dahlia, it''s a safe day today; you can go y in the yard.] But we never actually had safe days, the attacks never stopped all my life, and the yard was a spot of artificial turf on top of the hab block where the kids would y."


    Khan smiled and patted her bald head. "My mother was like that as well. She would pretend that things were different so that she didn''t have to worry. Back when I was a youngster, our ship had been nearly destroyed in an ident, and we spent many years rebuilding. There were no luxuries and not much to do since we barely had enough air and power to survive."


    Max looked through her memories of the incident and saw the moment of terror when a mimunication between traffic controllers had led to someone opening a portal right beside their ship anding through at full cruising speed while the Hunter vessel''s shields were down for maintenance at a space station repair bay.


    The traffic controllers had been forced to pay, but that was not a fast process, with all the appeals and bureaucracy of the Alliance, and it had been nearly fifteen years before their ship was at more than subsistence levels of inhibitability.


    Only after she was grown and had taken over the ship did they truly regain their past glory.


    "What about you? Did you ever y outside?" Dahlia asked Max.


    "Indeed I did. I had a friend named Dave who used to take me for walks around town. He is an old soldier who had lost the use of his legs due to injury, so he was in a wheelchair if you know what those are. When I was young, we would do everything together." Max told her with a smile.


    "Oh, we have those as well. I wonder what it would be like to live somewhere that you could just go outside?" She asked.


    "Well, I can''t say that it was all that great. We lived in a dangerous neighbourhood, but now I have a Company that has a ship over nine hundred kilometres long, so going out around the ship feels a lot like really being outside on a."


    Dahlia did not believe that such a thing could exist, but both Nico and Khan were backing him up.


    "Can we see that one day? I want to see a ship so big that you can put a whole city in it." She pleaded.


    "Of course. As soon as we are done here, we will go and visit my new home. But I will tell you, it''s much bigger than just a city. Nico, show this lovely youngdy the interior walk-through of Absolution on the VR goggles."

 Chapter 984 984 Dahlia Is Optimized

    <h4>Chapter 984 984 Dahlia Is Optimized</h4>


    Not long after the shuttle reached the edge of the system, another vessel appeared, a spiky cathedral ship simr to the first one that had been fighting against the Myceloids.


    This time, they got a good view of its arrival, and what Max saw made absolutely no sense from a logical or scientific standpoint.


    It seemed to appear from a portal, but the portal wasn''t normal; it was more like a tear in the fabric of thisyer of reality, and some sort of energy being was either chasing or throwing it out.


    Their sensors were going haywire from the energy influx that they couldn''t interpret, and then, as suddenly as it appeared, the tear was gone, and the Cruiser ss vessel was floating in space like nothing had happened.


    "Their shields are up, no damage found, no signs of life outside the vessel. As far as the sensors can tell, the energy being was an optical illusion. It is possible that the nature of theyer they came from is fluid, and it was a refraction." Nico suggested, but her thoughts held a great doubt about that analysis.


    There was something too familiar about that energy, and they both knew it. They just didn''t know what it was.


    Then, secondster, the probe they had left in the otheryer spotted another vessel, a Darkling ship of the World Ship ss, escorted by thousands of smaller attack craft.


    Something big was going on around here, and Max would be much happier if he weren''t here for it.


    But if they started to move now, it would only attract more attention, and there were no guarantees that the Darklings would leave them alone this time, as they had in the past.


    Dahlia turned to Max with a terrified look on her face and whispered. "What in the five pirs is that thing floating in the other space?"


    There was no disy up. Max was watching the feed directly from theputer using a borrowed version of Nico''s skill with technology, but the little alien had seen something.


    "What do you see?" He asked carefully.


    "I''m not sure how to exin it. Here, there are walls, and I''m on a ship, but that isn''t all that I see. There is also another ce, and there is an armada of ships there in a terrifying design. I can still tell where my world should be, but it doesn''t exist there.


    Sorry, I''m not sure how to exin it, but you''ve been in space a while, so you know what I mean, right?" She asked.


    "I know what you mean, but most species can''t see that with their eyes. We have to use technology, which is what I''m doing. That is a species known as the Darklings, and yes, they are terrifying if they are your enemies.


    I''m not sure where they''re going, but I''m not about to attract their attention." Max exined.


    Dahlia nodded carefully, still watching the ships move through the otheryer with her modified vision, while Nico poked at Max''s side for an exnation.


    He decided to send it in text form. [Optimize upgraded, and I used it to optimize the little Envoy. It looks like the System found a way to make her species see through theyers. It''s rather remarkable, isn''t it?]


    Nico nodded at Max, then turned to their guest. "How about we get you a proper meal and not just snacks? I would ask what you like to eat, but you don''t really have an answer to that, do you? So I will ask which of the snacks you like best instead."


    Dahlia''s eyes turned from shining silver to in ck as she stopped looking into the otheryer and considered Nico''s question.


    "I think that the yellow one that is smooth and squishy was really good, and the chewy and stringy brown insides one was the best."


    Nico smiled. "The lemon cream cake and the pulled pork buns. Not a problem. We have other dishes with simr vours."


    Nico went and got food for everyone and set the trays out on all of the avable tables before bringing up a 3D disy of the sr system they were in that highlighted all the vessels their sensors had found.


    "Something is going on for sure. We just need to know what it is. Until we know, we''re going to wait right where we are, mostly hidden by this asteroid belt, and keep our ship silent." She exined to Dahlia, who had no idea what was actually going on.


    "Will it be bad for my people?" She asked.


    Nico shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. But those ships that passed by in the otheryer are bad news for whatever they''re headed to. That was a lot of firepower to be in one spot."


    Max and Nico were still watching the Darkling fleet fade into the distance using the probe sitting in the otheryer when suddenly the ships created a tear simr to the one that the Cathedral Ship hade through and vanished from all their sensors.


    They would have to sort out whichyers all the species could esster since it looked like this third one was also a popr destination, and it had a distinctive portal when you entered or exited it, making it easier to spot than the one that their sensors could see into.


    After a few minutes, another half dozen Cathedral ships joined the first one through simr portals, but these ones were in much worse shape, battle-damaged and missing parts.


    Then came the Myceloids, piggybacking on their portal to crash into the damaged ships and continue their attacks.


    The influx of thoughts as they entered thisyer nearly overwhelmed Max''s senses despite the million-kilometre distance. The Myceloids were on the warpath, and they were not happy that their prey had tried to flee from them like a bunch of cowards.


    They fully intended to steal and scrap the Cathedral ships for spare parts to rece the one that they had nearly destroyed in this crash, and they were not going to take no for an answer.


    That seemed to be their primary method of rebuilding after a battle, and finally, the Myceloid technology began to make sense to Max. Every single bit of it was stolen tech that they had looted from a defeated enemy and then hacked and cobbled together to force it to work.

 Chapter 985 985 Wrong Place

    <h4>Chapter 985 985 Wrong ce</h4>


    The crew watched for a few minutes, mostly with great interest in the fight, but Dahlia was watching in horror as the battle was happening right over her homeworld.


    The Myceloid strategy seemed to be quite simple, but the way that it was executed was both so rapid and so brutal that the warriors in the Cathedral Ships hadn''t even been able to respond until it was already on them.


    "Why my world? What are they even fighting over? There''s nothing left here. We''re barely surviving." The young Envoy asked as they watched the battle move to a spot between the fifth and sixths, carried by the momentum of the two disabled ships.


    Nico tapped her chin and nodded. "You know, that is a very good question. Why here? What do they even want in this spot? Is there some sort of treasure here? Is there an eddy in the current that makes it an easy ce to stop or naturally deposits ships here?"


    They didn''t have the answer yet, but the sensors and theputer were all searching for it now that it had been mentioned. There had to be some reason for the ongoing battles in orbit, especially since they didn''t seem to be involved with or even concerned about the locals.


    "We brought all the sensors that we had on this trip, so we''re bound to find something. I just hope that it''s good news for you because if there is something here that is drawing both species to your world, they might be doomed." Nico exined to the small alien woman.


    Dahlia shook her head.


    "It just started for no reason long before I was born. They were fighting in space, then one of the Mad Ones'' ships crashed on the, and they started fighting everyone they met and trying to take over the world. There really isn''t anything special about this ce."


    The upants of the ship searched in silence for a while before a sudden cheer from the away team drew everyone''s attention.


    "I''ve got it. I found the reason that there are so many battles here." She dered and brought up the data set she had been searching through on the wall screen.


    "There is an Anomaly that is also affecting the otheryer, right under the''s core, and it is rotating along with the. They were noting here on purpose. They hit it by ident when they passed by.


    But now that there is a fight here, it draws the Myceloids, which draws in more of the Cathedral ships in the otheryer, who will hit the Anomaly by ident because they can''t see it, and then they''re forced to make an emergency transition.


    That''s why they keep appearing in roughly the same spot."


    She brought up her findings, and the rest of the team worked to verify them.


    Then another Cathedral ship came careening through a tear in space, followed by another Myceloid ship.


    "Look at that. The Myceloids are using the Anomaly as a trap to farm the Cathedral Ships. They''re chasing them to the Anomaly and forcing them into thisyer so that they can fight them more easily.


    The warriors aren''t properly geared to fight in thisyer. Their ships aren''t able to defend themselves against physical attacks. It''s bloody genius." Khan whispered as she realized what was going on.


    "So, a war from another universe just happened to spill over into our yard because the huge green things want to kill the huge bloody things?" Dahlia asked.


    Max shrugged. "There''s probably a lot more to it than that, but it looks like that''s the essence of it. We can''t tell what the situation is where they''reing from, so it''s possible that one or the other is trying to defend the area, but I don''t think that it matters much since they both view you as either a nuisance or an enemy."


    Dahlia sighed. "That''s not much constion. My friends are dying because we happen to be in the way of a perfect ambush spot. But what can we even do? There are so few of you and one tiny ship, and you''re not even from here, right? You''re from somewhere else, and you just want to keep those people away from your home."


    Max gave the depressed girl a hug, stopping early when she squeaked a little in shock.


    "It''s a gesture of constion among my people. I''m sorry about your homeworld''s luck. For now, you''reing with us, so at least you can be sure that one person from your homeworld is safe until we can reunite you with more of your people.


    We know of at least one world with survivors living in hiding, and there is a simr species in our home area that might be more of your species that fled to our side of the universe, or perhaps the other way around."


    Nico smiled at the Envoy. "I know it''s a lot to take in. There are a lot of new things for you to learn, but for now, we will wait for the battle to end, and then we will send a message to your people letting them know what we have found and the reason for the attacks."


    Dahlia smiled back, an expression that actually reshaped her face a little, making her whole head smile.


    "I think that they already know; they just don''t tell us, or everyone would lose hope. I mean, we all think that we''re fighting to win and drive them from our world. But if everyone knew that they would just keeping because? they were being forced toe here, it would be chaos on the surface."


    That was a very good point. Unlike the humans and the Myceloids, neverending war was not in the nature of most of the intelligent species. If they were faced with it, a lot of them would crumble under the pressure and not rise up or stoically persevere. Assuming that all species would respond the way that he would respond was a mistake.

 Chapter 986 986 Intercepted Message

    <h4>Chapter 986 986 Intercepted Message</h4>


    While the battle raged between the Cathedral ships and the Myceloids, the missing Darkling fleet sent out a message that came up on the screens of the Shuttle without warning.


    [The Great Enemy is moving. Clear all battlefields until a final location is determined] the message read.


    "Well, that''s not ominous at all. It would help if we had any idea what the Great Enemy is or where it was moving from so that we would know what direction we should be moving in." Nicoined as she read the screen.


    "I would be happy with just knowing what it is that has terrified the Darklings enough that they sent out an open frequency message. They''re a species that terrifies everything else. They don''t usually back down from much. Hell, they''re not even afraid to throw hands with the Arisen." Max agreed.


    Dahlia went very pale at the mention of the Arisen, and Max could sense her terror as she spoke in a hesitant voice.


    "This species that you call the Darklings, the one that is not afraid of even the eternal army of the Arisen. Would they also be known as the Harvesters?" She asked fearfully.


    Max nodded. "Yes, those are them, and we believe that fleet of them that passed here are the ones that sent the message just now, telling everyone to retreat from the Great Enemy. Do you know what that is?"


    Dahlia shook her head. "I''ve never heard of them having any enemies, much less a great one. They''re just terror incarnate. They show up, and your world dies."


    Khan frowned. "Well, at least we know we''re all talking about the same group. But if they were fleeing toward Koleska space, past whatever that destruction is in the distance, then we probably shouldn''t be here."


    "Damn, you''re right. We need to be somewhere that''s out of the likely path of the danger. Nico, do we have a path analysis for the Darkling fleet that came past us, as well as the ships that have been arriving and departing from here? If none of them came or went toward the Anomaly, I say we head there, and then we can retreat through it if the situation calls for it."


    Khan considered that for a few seconds, then nodded. "Bring us to warp speed. The cloaking device should hold up well enough to get us close to home, and then we can creep thest bit of the way in."


    Space was so messed up around the Anomaly that none of theyers were stable, which should be a benefit to them and reduce the chances that whatever this threat was woulde their way.


    Even if it was massively powerful, the path of least resistance was the natural way for anything to travel, and the worlds around the Anomaly were definitely not that.


    Thebatants didn''t respond as they flew away, and there was nothing to see on the way home, only the one inhabited that they had passed, which Nico pointed out to Dahlia as one with some of her surviving kinfolk on it, hiding below the surface.


    "Well, then, at least we''re not thest holdout of our people. There is at least one more world full of us, even if my world falls." She replied with contentment when she saw the sensor feeds proving that they were still there and doing well.


    There were even some of them up on the surface at the moment, gathering seeds and berries kilometres from the biodome.


    From the look of it, they were following a harvest n and only taking a quarter of what was in seed so that there would be plenty for future harvests.


    It was an excellent call and proof that they were capable of adapting to their newfound abundance without giving in to greed and stupidity.


    When they got close to the quarantine array, the interference got to be too much, and they had to drop the Warp Field and move to the otheryer to sneak past the satellites, but they didn''t see any threats, and there were no more Myceloid ships in orbit around the.


    The ones on the were behaving strangely, though, and they had all gathered intorger clusters instead of their viges.


    "Perhaps it''s some sort of festival?" An away team member suggested.


    "That''s a possibility. They have gathered intorger groups, so it might be some sort of mating ritual as well to alter their spores to the most powerful in the region. They seemed to be quite intent on bing the strongest, so that sort of ritual would make sense as well." Another team member offered.


    Both were good ideas, but Max was beginning to realize that the distance limitations on his mind had been greatly increased by the change in his System''s [Optimize] ability.


    He could sense every mind on the, and they were all thinking the same chant, like a religious ritual or some sort of funeral rite.


    "That''s not good. The whole is chanting the same thing in sync." He informed the crew.


    "That''s not good at all. Thest time they did that was when that thing looked through the portal from the otheryer. I don''t sense it here now, but if they''re trying to bring it back into our reality, we should prepare to evacuate." Khan noted.


    "Excellent point. Should we make a note that the interster political instability at the moment makes maintaining the camp irresponsible? We can put up a barrier over the Anomaly and send a force through if there is an attack on it." Nico suggested.


    "I like the way that you phrase that. I''m sure the Alliance will understand if we guard it from our side for a bit. Getting in the middle of a multi species interster war was not on the mission n for this request, and it was definitely not in the pay package." Khanughed.


    "The message is sent out, Huntress. The camp is preparing to evacuate. Twenty minutes are needed to get everything packed." The away team leader noted.


    "That should be sufficient. Tell them to prepare the barrier, and we will being through as soon as we can get the ship parked. Add the Envoy to our travel group list."

 Chapter 987 987 Rapid Disassembly

    ?


    "How are we going to get through though? That opening isn''t nearlyrge enough for our shuttle." Dahlia pointed out.


    "We will have to go on foot. The shuttle can remain here inside the barrier that we are going to ce over the camp. In fact, it can help power it since it''s thergest power source here. We will pass through on foot, and then there is a muchrger ship waiting for us on the other side that will take us to our home vessel.


    The Hunters will remain here in case they are needed back at the camp, but we can depart for a while until things sort themselves out here." Max exined.


    "Oh, that makes sense. I would love to see this huge spaceship that you talk about. If it''s half as amazing as your food, it could be one of the wonders of the known universe." Sheughed.


    She was definitely easy to please if a few snacks qualified as a universe-level wonder. But she would slowly get used to the scale of new things that were beyond her homeworld once they got to Absolution.


    [How is the packing of the camp going?] Khan asked as they disembarked from the shuttle near the edge of the camp.


    [Five minutes topletion, Huntress. All of the tents will be left behind to give the impression that the camp is still active. We just need to program the barrier, and then we can depart.]


    The first of the Hunters were already moving through the Anomaly with their gear to prepare to set up on the other side, and Khan''s assistant had packed her gear for her, so they didn''t have to do anything but walk away and hope that the ship was still intact when they returned.


    [Should I set it to self-destruct if someone breaks in and tries to steal the technology?] Nico asked as they reached the Anomaly.


    [That would be for the best. We can rece everything that is in there, but allowing it to fall into the hands of another species would be a real pain.] Max agreed.


    Nico set the parameters of the ship and left the Android pilot in charge, with a simr self-destruct program added in so that if what wasing was like the Arisen, it couldn''t take over the pilot to get to the ship.


    The moment that it lost contact with the Androids that were left on the other side or a loss of control of its motor functions was detected, the Android would internally g itself, rendering it no more than a crumbled pile of metal.


    That was the best they could do on short notice without actually remaining present for the whole event. Max had considered staying here to wait and see, but they coulde back in a hurry if they were needed, and they would just be in the way on this crowded citadel if there were arge-scale breach of the Anomaly.


    "This is our ride. We will have to catch a ride back up to our ship in orbit. The is too crowded to keep the ship on the surface." Max exined as they took a transit pod through the citadel toward the spaceport.


    "Look at all these different species. Do they work together like this all the time, or is there something special about this ce?" Dahlia asked.


    Nico took her by the shoulders with a smile. "Sit here, and I will regale you with tales of the Alliance and how the species in this part of the universe are getting along."


    [All equipment is disassembled, and the camp is now clear of life. Thest remaining technology on the surface is the shuttle left behind to power the barrier from that side.] The Hunters'' Camp Supervisor announced as they were boarding the shuttle.


    "Finished in plenty of time. That''s good. Now that everyone is off the, they can barricade the Anomaly if they need to without sacrificing anyone." The shuttle pilot remarked happily.


    "Hopefully, it won''te to that, but we couldn''t determine what the threat was, only that it was enough to make the most dangerous of the local species flee the region," Max informed him.


    The pilot understood and remained silent for the rest of the trip. There wasn''t anything left to say when the threat level couldn''t be determined. He only spoke again when they reached the Cutter in orbit.


    "Commanders and Envoy, here we are. It had been my honour to escort you back to your vessel." He informed them as the shuttlended in the cargo bay.


    "Thank you. We will be headed back to the World Ship for a while, and we will call you when we return."


    Nico led Dahlia away with a wink, intending to give her the grand tour of the Cutter to get her mentally prepared to face the reality of Absolution and theparative luxury that the Reavers were living inpared to her homeworld, so Max went to the bridge and set the course to the edge of the sr system where the designated Portal location was.


    Ship traffic was chaos in the area, with none of the ships paying any attention to the directions of traffic control, so Max made the decision to abort the Portal and move off the main transport pathways to exit the system at Warp Speed.


    Once they were well clear of the area, he would open a Portal home.


    It turned out to be the right choice, as not long after he turned away, all traffic in the area came to aplete halt, with Alliance Military vesselsing in and ordering no more traffic movement until everything was back on route.


    The problem was that none of them had been paying attention to traffic control, so none of the supply ships had any idea where they were supposed to be, and they were all lined up to try to poach a free portal ride on another ship''s trip to the right region of space.


    "Ah, the joys of budget transport contracts and Alliance Portal taxes." Max chuckled as the Cutter made its way out of the system. They could keep their traffic since they didn''t want to upgrade to the Human designed drive modules with enough power that everyrge ship could open a portal themselves.

 Chapter 988 988 Of Everything

    ?


    Max pushed the ship to Warp 12 and made his way into empty space, away from any inhabited species, and looked for a good spot to Portal from while he confirmed the safe zone around Absolution.


    There were a lot of Warp trails around, and he didn''t want to leave a Portal signature in the middle of one, as it would encourage other ships to think that there was a reason to wait here for a Portal to open so they could save money on a trip home.


    That would only mess up traffic in the area even more, and he could tell that his detour had attracted attention from some of the ships who had been further from the mandated stoppage.


    Sure enough, as soon as he came to a stop and started to power up the Portal Generator, he started to get messages requesting his destination from ships looking to piggyback on his trip.


    Most of them had recognized the design of the Cutter, and Reavers were well known for being able to Portal from any of their major ships.


    So, Max sent back the coordinates of Absolution, which eliminated most of the vessels but left two that were headed to nearby systems.


    [Please hold for a piggyback trip. We will be there within five minutes.] The cargo freighter pleaded.


    [Understood. Make it snappy; we have an Envoy on board with meetings to attend.] Max replied.


    That got the ships moving at a much higher speed. Holding up a political meeting for a free ride wouldn''t earn theirpanies any friends, and so much in the Alliance relied on political connections.


    Max stabilized the Portal and informed Absolution of the additional ships that would being through before them, then settled in to wait for the freighters to arrive.


    Nico took the extra time to show Dahlia the details about the cargo freighters and how theycked the power output to use the same form of transport that the Cutter did despite their massive size.


    The girl seemed to be getting more and more nervous as time went on, though, and Nico couldn''t see a good reason for it.


    "Alright, spill. What is bothering you? Tell me, and I will see if I can fix it." She finally demanded.


    "The other ce. It''s dead. There is nothing there, nothing at all, and it feels like I''m going to fall into the void every time I identally look into it.


    Um, how do I exin it? It''s like standing on the edge of a cliff, and you get that sudden feeling like you''re going to fall, even though there is no good reason that you should. Does that make sense?" She asked.


    Nico nodded. "I understand the feeling. Vertigo is a strange thing to feel inside a spaceship, but if you can see the emptyyer of space, it makes sense. I''m not sure how your vision works, so I''m not sure if you can block it out."


    Dahlia considered that for a while, then sighed and closed her eyes, then smiled. "Alright, I think I know how to do this now. It''s just a matter of focus. I''m not seeing it with my eyes at all because I can still see it with them closed. If you can give me a moment, I should be alright."


    "Tak all the time that you need. I''m sure it''s a big adjustment to have nothing in thatyer. Almost like going blind." Nico agreed.


    "Good to go," Dahlia announced, then suddenly stopped and turned back toward the.


    "Wait, there is something wrong with the Anomaly. It''s leaking energy." She announced in a terrified voice.


    [Huntress Khan, be aware something has changed with the Portal. The Envoy says that it is leaking power.] Nico informed the Huntress.


    [We''re working on analyzing it now. All of the sensors that we left in orbit have cut out, and we are unable to get a proper reading.] Khan replied.


    [I suggest you get to orbit, and I will patch you through to the shuttle.] Nico offered.


    [I am already on my way to the mothership. Send the patch whenever you have a moment.]


    Nico opened a full-speed link to the shuttle''s sensors for both herself and Khan while the Envoy waited impatiently, not aware that Nico couldmunicate silently.


    "Sorry, I have a digitalmunicator, and I was talking to the Hunters on the," Nico exined while she tried to make sense of what was going on around the on the other side of the Anomaly.


    There seemed to be some sort of massive space battle going on, but thebatants weren''t visible in eitheryer of space that they could detect. The effects were visible, though. Asteroids and everything else were being crushed to dust, and the system''s outlyings were not in their calcted positions.


    [We are reinforcing the''s shields, including a thousandyers around this side of the Anomaly. All Hunters retreat from the Anomaly entrance.] Khan ordered.


    Nico noted that there seemed to be minimal damage to the otheryer of space, which still had objects in their normal positions, so she prepared to power up the ship and have it shift before the damage reached the they were on.


    The Myceloids seemed to think that this was the rapture, and they were throwing some sort of huge party as the destruction approached.


    The spectacle had caught the attention of Max with Khan''s first announcement, and now he was preparing them to get as far away from the area as possible as soon as the Portal was clear.


    The freighters were thinking the same thing, and they only dropped out of warp a half second before reaching the Portal, which had them pass through well above rmended speeds, but in the situation, they didn''t think they would get in too much trouble.


    Max moved the Cutter to the far side of the Portal and minimized the size of the opening, leaving just enough for them to see through with their sensors.


    [Shifting the shuttle to the otheryer in an attempt to save the vessel.] Nico announced.


    It couldn''t power the barrier from there, but the generators on this side of the Anomaly could do it for a few seconds.


    That was all they got, as a distorted shell engulfed the world, the same unnatural portal that the Cathedral ships had used to move about, and the entire was sucked out of reality, Myceloids and all.


    "Feth." Max sighed, unable to put the spectacle into words.


    The was gone. Not destroyed, but taken.


    Then, a st of energy rocked the area, throwing the shuttle light years away through the otheryer of space and destabilizing the Anomaly, which began to fold in on itself like a piece of origami artwork before copsing and closing entirely.


    [Status] The Alliance military leaders were demanding over and over, with nobody being quite sure who should answer or even how to answer that question.


    Finally, it was Nico who took up the task.


    [Alliance Security. It is the opinion of the Terminus Trading Company, based on the sensor logs that we have, that the Anomaly has been closed.]

 Chapter 989 989 It鈥檚 Gone

    <h4>Chapter 989 989 It''s Gone</h4>


    That one phrase changed everything. The Anomaly was closed. It was simply gone with no sign of reopening, and with it went this fortified''s entire reason for existence.


    Sure, they could argue that there was a chance it would reappear since none of them understood how it had vanished, but that would only buy them so much time before the government would have serious questions about the situation and what they were going to be doing in the future.


    The Hunters were much less concerned. They had signed up to guard the entrance to the Anomaly and make sure that nothing came through it to threaten the Alliance. They had done that job perfectly, and now that there was no entrance, they considered their contract fulfilled in its entirety.


    Part of that was just convenient thinking since they had every intention of leaving here before anyone started asking questions about what had gone on before the incident, but their logic was sound. The Anomaly entrance was gone, and they could return if it reopened, so there was no need for them to be here right now.


    In fact, it seemed to Khan like this was a perfect time for a beach vacation aboard Absolution along with her entire n.


    Max waited to see what might happen on the after the Anomaly closed, but it looked like there weren''t going to be any major ripples or bacsh from the energy that had closed the tear in space.


    The nature of the wormholes that were affectionately dubbed the Anomalies was somewhat unclear to human science, but Max still suspected that there should be some sort of effect, like when you force closed a Portal.


    But it could have been contained on the other side, and even with their advances inmunication, it would take some time for the Shuttle that they had left in the otheryer to contact them, assuming that it wasn''t destroyed.


    Max wasn''t sure what orders Nico had given to the Android Pilot aboard the ship, but it was so far away, with that messed up region of space between it and the Koleska, that getting back to it would be very difficult, if not impossible.


    Messages wouldn''t pass that far due to the interference, so they couldn''t even contact it from here, leaving the vessel essentially stranded in space in the otheryer, awaiting new orders.


    When he saw the Hunter mothershiping his way, Max reopened the Portal to let the massive vessel through, then promptly closed it again once everything was clear.


    There were Alliance Envoys on the World Ship, so he could answer them if there were any questions, and there was no doubt that whatever future was in store for a fortress world without anything to guard was going to be a real mess.


    [Huntress Khan, wee back. This is Felicity, the traffic controller for Absolution. Please proceed to Port Stabilizer dock one for attachment.] The ship greeted them while silently sending the directions for Max''s cutter to dock back in its usual hangar.


    [Thank you, Felicity. Would you be the new intelligent control system for the whole station that we have heard so much about?] Khan''s ship replied.


    [Indeed. I have taken over many of the duties of day-to-day operations under the guidance of the Council. In fact, I have just finished implementing a holographic simtion room, which your people might greatly enjoy. The details will be avable once you have docked.]


    What she meant was that one of the biodomes in the Port Stabilizer had been adapted into a kilometre-wide holographic emitter, which could create solid images to be used as a safari park of sorts without the risks and upkeep of actual animals.


    But for the Hunters, they could be switched out for aggressive species so that they could send teams in for a limited space hunt to go after the holographic animals with primitive or specialized holographic weapons.


    The adaptation had taken Felicity 482 milliseconds after the vessel had arrived, and by the time she finished speaking, the arrangements had been finalized, and the next three days of usage had been booked for the Hunters'' Colony Ship, which would be docked next to it.


    Even Nico was impressed by the AI''s efficiency. When they had first left, the program wasrgely unsocialized, but now it was an incredible host, and it had managed to set up three days of entertainment for a Colony Ship without inconveniencing anyone else.


    The Stabilizer was one of therge fins at the back of the ship and over a hundred kilometres from the nearest poption centre inside of the ship. They had been intended for the nt species like the Shin, whose official delegation was in the starboard stabilizer right now, but the poption of that sort of species wasn''trge enough that they needed more space yet.


    As Felicity had realized, they didn''t always want their own isted space; the nt species liked to mingle with everyone else in the forest, and a lot of them liked to y pranks on the mammal species by pretending to be regr nts until someone came close.


    Max checked on the ship''s regr updates since the Council sent him notes on their daily meetings and decisions, but there was nothing huge in it, just the regr set of development notes and a few new ns that were still in the development phase, ready to be proposed to a focus group from among the residents to determine its likely poprity.


    Only one message really stood out to him. The one from the leader of the Mecha team at the Koleska Anomaly. All attacks on the species and their allies had stopped nearly two days ago, and though themander wasn''t concerned about it at the time, the message had been sent before the recent events at this Anomaly, so he had no idea that something had gone horribly wrong.


    Max quickly formted a response and told him to look out for other species fleeing in the secondaryyer, as it seemed to be the signal that whatever Great Enemy they feared wasing. Other than that, there wasn''t much to be done, and the damage that it had done was so far away that it couldn''t even be detected from Koleska space.

 Chapter 990 990 Home For A Rest

    <h4>Chapter 990 990 Home For A Rest</h4>


    Max and Nico led Dahlia out of the Cutter and into their personal hangar bay, where the girl stopped in her tracks and stared around the room in shock.


    "What sort of enemy could you possibly be fighting that would need weapons of war like that?" She gasped as she saw the assortment of personalized Mecha standing proudly in their storage racks along the walls.


    Nico smiled at her. "You would be happier not knowing, but some of the hostile alien species that we have faced are evenrger than that. But mostly, therger units are used to deal withrge groups and extremely powerful technological weapons.


    I can show you some examples and battle footage if you like, but we have a whole new world to show you, and I know that you''re going to enjoy that.


    The first thing that I should warn you about is the Innu. They are bright pink, with tentacles on top of their head that work as sensory organs. They are very high-energy and good friends of mine, so don''t be shocked if we get rushed by them as soon as we leave this room and enter theboratory area."


    Not only were the Innu good friends, but the students that they had left behind were right in the next room doing a study on some of the samples that had been sent back from the other side of the Anomalytely.


    There were so many new things to learn that they had been working around the clock on both the research and their thesis papers. So, they were predictably caffeinated and eager to talk to anyone who would listen to their recitation of the new theories that they believed they could prove.


    After steeling his will to prepare for the influx of hyper Innu minds, Max realized that they were no longer overwhelming. He could dim their mental input into background noise and only pick out the most important parts as regr thoughts.


    That was a vast improvement on the situation before, where he preferred to avoid the Innu when they were working. Now, he could see being around them a lot more, since they were always so happy and eager to please.


    They even waited at the door with snacks and beverages when they heard that the Lead Researcher had brought back people with her. It was that sort of thoughtfulness that endeared them to everyone they met, even if almost all of the Alliance species found them annoying.


    "Good morning, Lead Researcher Nico. Good morning Commander Max. Good Morning Envoy Dahlia." The greeted in unison.


    "Oh, these are Innu? They''re bigger than I expected." Dahlia gasped, before being pulled into a group hug due to her proximity to Nico.


    None of the Innu in the room were over 160cm tall, but to Dahlia, everyone was a giant. Even Nico stood a full head taller than she did.


    "It''s a pleasure to meet you Envoy. Should we invite the minister over for dinner?" One of the researchers asked politely.


    Dahlia turned to Max in confusion.


    "There are more of your species living on this side of the Universe. As far as we can tell, you''re gically identical, so you came from the same species, but you''ve been separated for hundreds or thousands of generations." Max exined.


    "There are more of my people? I would love to meet them. Are there many of them left? Could we make a recovery?" She asked.


    The cheerful researcher took out a data tablet and checked it quickly.


    "As ofst census, there are eighty-sevens where your species is the majority, and another seventeen hundred and four with more than a million of your people residing on them, which is the minimum number to be recorded as a significant minority poption." She exined.


    The little alien was in tears of joy at the news, but the Innu were beginning to panic, thinking that it was too few.


    "No, she''s happy. Don''t worry, you didn''t upset her." Maxughed and hugged the researcher.


    "If you could arrange a dinner with my species, that would be great. Do they eat the same things I like? I want to know all about them. How did they even end up here?" Dahlia asked.


    "Honestly, I have no idea. They think their species emerged here, so it''s how they got to your side of the universe that we thought was the mystery." Max shrugged.


    [Sending invitations. I have arranged a group dinner with the Gray and Hunter leaders for 1930 tonight, ship time. That is in two hours and seven minutes.] Felicity informed them through the inte.


    "Thank you, Felicity. Invite the Mecha Regiment leaders as well. We will need to meet with them after this, as we have some new developments that they will be interested in." Nico informed the ship''s AI.


    [Understood. I will invite them for meetings after dinner, as they have a meal event already nned.]


    Max checked their thoughts and found that the Regiment leaders had a meet and greet nned with members of a Reaver Company that was visiting and had been doing deliveries of Mecha and military equipment from Absolution since Max and Nico left.


    Their production levels all over the ship were well above predicted levels, so there was no fear of underemployment. If anything, they were having more trouble picking the right customers to distribute their products than producing the orders.


    The Council had been very picky about it since the Alliance had so many rules about military equipment, and most of what the humans specialized in was weaponized.


    Max cleared his throat and addressed everyone in the room.


    "After we finish with the dinner and meetings, I suggest that we spend some time in the beach waterparks. We have spent enough time doing serious things, and it is time to rx in the sand for a few days and get our new guest used to Absolution."


    The Innu all smiled at the mention of the waterparks and their gravity slides that emptied into the pristine waters of the ocean or the pure waters of the resort pools for species that didn''t do well with salt water.


    "Yes, you have a deal. We will mention it to the Gray delegation over dinner." The shift''s team leader cheered.

 Chapter 991 991 Meeting the Gray

    <h4>Chapter 991 991 Meeting the Gray</h4>


    ?


    Once they were free of the hospitality of the researchers, Nico took Dahlia into the VIP areas to set her up with a room somewhat near their own so that she wouldn''t feel lost and alone among strangers.


    Not that she knew Nico and Max all that well, but they did bring her here, so Nico felt obligated to at least look after her for the first few days until she got settled and had time to research and pick a home of her own.


    Two hourster, they were both refreshed and dressed in new clothing, likely from the room''s replicator, which Max had sensedpletely shocked Dahlia to the core.


    The concept that she could just press a button and ask for anything she wanted was so strange that her mind had a problem processing it. Even dinner was a culture shock to her, but when Nico showed her that it could make new clothes and shoes, as well as all sorts of personal items, including the specialized eyewash that her local kinfolk preferred, she simply had no words to describe her response.


    Max arrived first so that he could see the response of the Gray politicians when Dahlia walked in, dressed up as a Reaver Princess since she let Nico dress her.


    She had no idea what the local fashion was like, and the Gray politicians all wore the same boring silver jumpsuits with their nametags on them as a political uniform.


    There were some businessmen in their delegation who were dressed more normally, but Nico''s version of high fashion was very different than most people''s.


    When Dahlia came in wearing Cargo pants withbat boots and a pink tank top under a leather jacket, all of the Gray present in the room were shocked into silence.


    "Oh, I think you picked well. They''re speechless. Thank you, Miss Nico." She whispered as she smiled at the assembled politicians and business leaders.


    "I think we should have sent someone to help. I''m not sure that the reavers know about our fashion sensibilities. Look, she''s even got her neck exposed." One of the politicians whispered, but not so quietly that Dahlia couldn''t hear him.


    "Wait, was that what the silly scarf that came with the gold jumpsuit was all about? We don''t do that on my." She exined.


    The gold-coloured jumpsuit with scarf was the uniform worn by an Envoy of their species in a formal setting, but Dahlia had thought it was a joke when presented with it by Nico.


    "I can make you a scarf." Max offered.


    "Thank you, Commander Max. I think it will put everyone at ease." She agreed, and the rest of the Gray all sighed in relief at the concession.


    Max went to the replicator and picked one for a local sports team, the Growlers, whose pink and white colour scheme vaguely matched her outfit. Unfortunately, it was human-sized, and when Dahlia wrapped it around her neck, it hung down her back to her knees like a cape.


    She looked like a superhero from a kids'' cartoon.


    Max turned to address the room. "Wee, everyone. It is good to see you all enjoying your time aboard Absolution. I know some of you had a rather long journey to get here for dinner, so I won''t hold up the process anymore other than to introduce you to Dahlia, the elected Envoy for her species to the Terminus Trading Company and the Hunters."


    The Hunters present thumped the table in their traditional wee, and the Gray representatives made a folded hands gesture and nodded.


    "Wee Envoy. We look forward to getting to know you." The leader of the political group greeted her as Dahlia took her seat between Max and Nico at therge, round table.


    "What did he mean by a long journey? Aren''t we on a spaceship?" She asked the man across from her.


    The small alienughed but nodded his head in agreement.


    "Yes, Absolution is a spaceship, but it''s nine hundred kilometres long, and this location is near the very rear of the ship, while we have been staying at a resort in the forests near the bow. The transit pod took over an hour to reach here, but that is an umon urrence, as the majority of the poption lives in the cities near the center of the ship."


    Khan smiled at the little alien, who waved back. "We are in a private retreat not far from here, so we only had a five-minute trip. Some of my Hunters have gone to the second level to the beachfront cities, though, and they will see you tonight.


    I am told that the Innu want to show you the joys of the waterparks."


    The Gray aliens looked a bit terrified a the prospect, and it was making Dahlia nervous.


    "They get motion sick in the gravity slides, but I am told that they really enjoy the sand of the beaches," Max exined.


    The politicians nodded, and the conversation fell to idle chatter about the various features of the ship that everyone liked, ending with a holographic disy being brought up over the table as they ate so that Dahlia could learn all about the options avable.


    "So, you''re saying that there are two major levels to the ship, and there is a whole city here on the main level, with the second level a thousand metres above their head? I saw the outdoors when we were flying over, though, and it looked so real." She exined.


    "Yes, and it only gets more surreal when you are actually in it. Because the ship isrger than most countries in our world, it is very easy to forget that you''re inside a World Ship with artificial ceilings.


    The Alliance usually uses spheres. They''re more energy efficient for construction, but the curvature makes it more obvious that you are in an artificial environment."


    When dinner finished, Max prepared himself for the business meetings with the Regimental leaders, who were about to learn about all the Mecha and Mobile Suit advancements that had been made. They were already in another private room of the restaurant, and the Innu were waiting for Dahlia and anyone else who would apany them to y.


    The Hunters were up for it and had promised Dahlia that they would take good care of her and make sure that she made it to a proper bed if she wore herself out ying.


    They were going to be at a resort anyhow, so Khan had booked a number of rooms for them, knowing that nobody would want to stop until they could barely walk anymore.


    The Gray mostly ran away at the mention of going to y with the Innu and the Hunters, but a few of them stayed out of a sense of Duty. Their culture was very hierarchical, and the thought of possibly insulting the Envoy by leaving her alone with only other species made them too nervous to leave.


    So, they were going to be dragged along to the beach, and likely through the slides, because the Innu were very persuasive, even though the small aliens were terrified of the fast-moving tunnels.

 Chapter 992 992 Military Intelligence

    <h4>Chapter 992 992 Military Intelligence</h4>


    Max and Nico took their seats in the meeting with the military leaders, who all looked much more nervous than the situation called for. Max already knew what they had to say, and if he were actually mad, this wouldn''t be such a cordial meeting.


    But to subordinates who were suddenly called in arge group to talk to the big boss, it was hard to get past that ingrained feeling that you might have messed something up that you hadn''t noticed before he did.


    "Who wants to start? Remember that I can read your minds, so this is mostly a formality to get everyone on the same page and brainstorm solutions." Max reminded them.


    That helped calm the Officers, and the first to stand was the leader of the third Battalion.


    "We encountered some difficulty with piracy when making one of our deliveries. My Battalion had a talk with the ck Market, and they assured us that it wasn''t sanctioned by them, but we have dyed their next shipment by a week as a punishment for giving others the impression that they might be willing to purchase goods stolen from us.


    The details are all here in my report."


    That was pretty straightforward and proper for a Reaver response to an untrustworthy trading partner, and nobody in the room had any issue with it.


    "That''s fine. They will get the message." Max agreed.


    Then, he searched the minds of the people on the ship. There were a lot of ck Market-operated businesses here, so they should know about the situation.


    It only took a few seconds to find the real answer. One of the underlings thought that he could pull a fast one on the boss, and once the Pirates had been eliminated and the ck Market sanctioned for a week, the bosses did an intensive search for traitors and purged him and everyone he was working with.


    In short, the problem was well and truly taken care of.


    The next few notices were just mundane business, and everything seemed to be under control for most of their business operations, with the exception of the Industrial Equipment sector, which sold a lot of demilitarized Line Mecha formercial use and had attracted the attention of the Alliance Government again.


    The Envoys on the ship were looking into it, but Max checked the records, and nothing that they had shipped had any armour or weapons on it. They didn''t even sell the mining attachments preassembled with the chassis. Those had to be sourced separately.


    While they were going through the minute details of the daily operations, reiterating the details that they had given the Council, a message came in on the Koleska frequencies.


    [Attention all armed and capable beings of the Universe, the Great Enemy has attacked the Rift, and you are called upon to defend your very existence.


    Should the Great Enemy make it through the blockade, they will have free ess to your homeworlds.


    We will assemble in one standard day.]


    The message wasn''t from the Koleska. It was to them and coded as havinge from the Darklings. The code wouldn''t mean anything to most species, but Max recognized it from interacting with their systems in the past.


    If the Darklings were calling all intelligent species to defend the rift, as they called the giant area of destroyed space between where the Anomaly the Hunters had been defending and the one where the Koleska lived, it could only mean that whatever had taken the and destroyed the Anomaly was headed toward the majority of civilized species in that region.


    Max and Nico looked around the room, and then Max paged the Board Members toe to him. They were nearby, likely in the offices, so he added a note to bring the Envoys from the Alliance with them as well.


    Everyone would need to understand just what was going on, and most of them didn''t have all the details about what had happened to the world that the Hunters had been protecting yet.


    That was confidential and held within the Alliance military, so it wouldn''t have been spread to the politicians yet.


    The room fell silent while they waited for the rest of the guests to arrive, but everyone was thinking the same thing. What had happened that would make someone request every single intelligent species toe and intervene in some massive-scale battle?


    As a matter of fact, what sort of enemy could possibly be so dangerous and so numerous that it would take a force thatrge to control them?


    More details were slowly leaking in from the Koleska and Commander Yuri, who saw to it that he personally kept Max in the loop with every new development even after Max had left to help the Hunters.


    From what the Koleska could tell, there were millions of warships headed toward the rift, which was currently fluctuating with energy, as if a massive battle were taking ce inside the damaged space.


    That was certainly not good news, and the Koleska had sent a full third of their military might to assist their allies at the battle.


    That was as much or more than any of the others had sent, so they couldn''t be used of holding back in a time of need, and they had sent their most advanced troops, the new generation trained with the learning machines that the humans had provided them.


    Then a message came from the Cygnus Commanders, requesting an opinion from the Reavers and the Alliance on whether it was appropriate to send the force on that side of the Anomaly to the battle, with the Cygnus Military units on the human side reinforcing the Anomaly until the battle was settled.


    They had a thousand Titan ss Mecha there, along with fifty Destroyers. It was a fleet on par with most of the species that were called to arms, and their Koleska allies would need all the help they could get if this so-called Great Enemy could actually make it past the Rift.

 Chapter 993 993 Measured Response

    <h4>Chapter 993 993 Measured Response</h4>


    When the Board Members and the Envoys from the Alliance arrived, they didn''t arrive alone. Along with them was a small army of assistants, number crunchers, and specialists who might have some sort of valuable insight on some topic tonight.


    The Alliance was definitely taking this message seriously, and Max wondered what they had heard while he was distracted by the conversations with the other Human factions.


    "Wee, everyone. Now, let''s get right to business so that we''re not here all night arguing about something going on halfway across the universe.


    What is the Alliance''s official political response to the situation?" Max asked.


    The Innu envoy smiled at him while sipping her coffee. Decaf, Max noted.


    "The official response is to honour the deal with the Koleska, but for now, we have no other official obligations to the situation." She exined.


    "So, as long as someone goes, it''s all good. Do we have an official response from Cygnus or the Reavers yet?" Max asked the Board Members, looking specifically at Nico''s father, who was actually present for once.


    "We do. It''s still in discussions, officially, but the code is clear that we have to send an appropriate response. They have confirmed the decision to move the Anomaly Defence Force forward to the front lines, and they are asking for paid volunteers to send mercenary forces with them." The Elder Tarith replied.


    Nico smiled at her father. "And that''s where wee in. With the Androids, we have one of the most suitable Mercenary forces in the universe.


    If we don''t have to worry about the Arisen possessing them or attacking us if they do possess them, then we can go all out without risking lives.


    All of the Androids can have their memories backed up at the start of a battle, so the recement chassis can be updated to continue the logic strings that were developed in previous battles, with the addition of whatever data we could recover from before their destruction."


    She had a point. Now that the Arisen were supposedly fighting on the same side as the Koleska and the others, they could deploy the Android Army.


    Max was definitely going to ask Nico to put some additional failsafe measures in ce in case this was a trap, but it was a good time to make a show of force in the region.


    "How much data do you have on the alien species that have assembled?" The Giant Envoy asked.


    "A fair bit. The Anomaly Defence force has been sending constant streams. It''s all here to study." An adjutant who came in with the Board of Directors exined.


    The assembled politicians and soldiers looked over the data for a few minutes in silence, then sighed and looked around at each other.


    The scale of the battle was only gettingrger, and a lot of the Darkling and Arisen forces had already moved into the Rift, where sensors had problems working properly.


    Some of the more aggressive species were with them, but the humans were still in transit since it wasn''t safe to use Portals in either region.


    "So, we are going to send a thousand Titan ss Mecha and just annihte anything thates our way?" The Giant asked after reading the ns.


    "Basically, yeah. That''s the n. But we will likely also send a lot of drone fighters and other attack craft to help bolster the numbers.


    If they asked for forces from every intelligent species, then a thousand Mecha, no matter what ss, are not going to be nearly enough for the scale of the battle toe.


    The biggest problem is that we''re notpletely clear on what the Great Enemy is. It''s not just a regr species; we have gathered that much, but it seems to have a number of species on its side.


    We also don''t know what species will all be aligned with it. From the incident at the other Anomaly, we can guess that the Myceloids will be among them, but that is only conjecture at this point and is unlikely to make up the majority of their force unless there is a less primitive version of the species somewhere."


    The Alliance Envoys understood that quite well. The primitive Myceloids weren''t a threat on a high enough level that they would require the Darklings or the Arisen to mobilize anyone, even if they came by the hundreds of billions.


    "So, what sort of force is Terminus Trading Company going to send on behalf of the Reavers? It is my understanding that your Android Army is still unique among the human forces, as no other known force has adopted them inrge numbers." The Valkia Envoy asked.


    Max and Nico shared a look, and then Nico shrugged and sighed. "We''re not sure yet. We will have to make something since we don''t have all that many to spare at the moment. We have a small force at the fortress where the other Anomaly was, and we have the defensive force for Absolution, but we can''t send that on an extended deployment when there is an intergctic threat atrge.


    We will discuss it tonight ande up with a proper answer tomorrow once we have determined what we cane up with for materials and what the assembled force seems to need."


    Until they actually saw the enemy, they would be guessing and sending units that seemed to bnce theposition, but there was no guarantee that would be the most efficient use of resources.


    "Alright, then we wait for more reports." The Innu Envoy pouted. This was the part of politics that she hated the most. Getting early information but being unable to act on it because too many factors were involved to actually make a decision right away.


    There were certainly a lot of reports to go through, mostly from the Koleska and the force in that region, but also the political responses from other leaders and the official responses from the Alliance as various species requested leave to assist.


    The Valkia leadership intended to send two Colony Ship ss warships to the effort, with zero gravitybat teams aboard, and the Innu requested permission to send a mobile repair shop to the scene to help repair anything that was damaged.


    It was a clear and obvious attempt to poach alien technology, and the ship would no doubt be filled with researchers who didn''t mind risking their lives for knowledge, but the government was considering letting them go anyhow.


    The initial furor had almost died down when one new message changed everything about the Alliance and human responses.


    The Klem were gone. The entire species. They hadn''t had time to check every, but over a thousand worlds had been investigated in thest hour, and none of them showed signs of continued Klem upation, while in some cases, the entire was simply gone, no longer in orbit around its star.


    "Crap, do you think whatever is attacking recruited them the same way that it did the Myceloids on the we were upying? There is an anomaly linking the two regions, so it wouldn''t be much of a trip to grab them and bring them back." One of the Board members sighed.


    "And if that is what happened, it means that our home Gxy is in the direct threat radius of this battle," Max added.

 Chapter 994 994 Decisions

    <h4>Chapter 994 994 Decisions</h4>


    The Giant Envoy spoke up as an official message came in from the Central Government.


    "We have permission to send the volunteers from the Valkia and the Innu on the condition that the human forces apany them as an escort." He informed the room.


    Nico nodded in agreement. "That shouldn''t be an issue. I think that we will be able toe up with an appropriate escort for their force within the next seventy-two hours. I am still working on the exact details of theposition, but I can assure you that the force will be more than sufficient to meet the guidelines for an escort into a military conflict zone."


    Where they would get the materials wouldn''t be an issue either, as all of the Klem poption was reported to have disappeared. Without their interference, they could take Absolution to the former Klem territory and use one of the asteroid belts there to build up as much of a military force as they needed.


    Keeping a huge force of Androids and drones under control was going to be a bit of a hassle, but they woulde up with something, even if it were amand AI somewhat like Felicity, who was ced in charge of the Android force.


    With one Colony ship full of attack drones in various configurations and ten Destroyers full of Android Mecha Regiments, they would have firepower well in excess of the thousand Titan ss Mecha that had already begun the trip.


    The Androids weren''t up to the standard for piloting a Titan ss Mecha, and while they could just send them out in the huge units, it would be more cost and time-effective to give them Heavy or Super Heavy units instead and then arm them for battle in bothyers with the most powerful armaments that they could.


    They didn''t need to hold back against something called the Great Enemy if the Darklings thought that it would take every other species in the universe to keep them at bay.


    It was a dreame true for Nico, and her Drone Controller skill would help her keep the ship Commanders in line instead of directly controlling the individual Drones.


    The final result would be simr but without all the mental strain on her end.


    The Giant Envoy cleared his throat. "Do we have preliminary numbers so that I can assure the Central Government that you are taking the escort duty seriously?"


    "About a hundred thousand Heavy and Super Heavy Mecha, plus a Colony Ship ss vessel full of Drones. Nico and I will apany the force personally to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the tactical nning." Max informed him while Nico did a silent happy dance in her chair.


    "So, that means we will be repositioning Absolution for the duration of the construction?" The Innu ambassador asked.


    "That is correct. It won''t affect the day-to-day operation of the vessel at all, but if someone was nning to use the ship as a waypoint along their travels, we will no longer be in Alliance territory, so they will have to find an alternate Portal location for their journey.


    We will also be suspending most travel to and from the ship for the duration of the construction to prevent industrial espionage and any hostile forces from taking advantage of the crew''s distraction." Max agreed.


    "That sounds reasonable. I will inform the Central Government of the security measures that will be in ce leading up to this operation. Should the two groupse directly to you, or should they stage by the Anomaly?" The Giant Envoy asked.


    "Have theme to our location. We will open the Portals to the Anomaly and guide them the whole way there so that there are no unforeseen incidents while we aren''t present." Max decided.


    Before there could be any more questions about their intentions, Nico ordered Felicity to move the ship to her chosen location to start the work. The transition was always so smooth on the World Ship that very few even noticed that anything had happened, except a few sensitive species and those who were watching the exterior disys.


    Fortunately for them, Nico had picked a spot with multiple visibles, including one with a perpetual lightning storm, which would keep the attention of the astrology lovers for the next few days.


    Most of them might not even notice that off one side of the ship, the feeds were blocked, and no data could be gathered. Some would naturally grow curious, but between Nico and Felicity''s ability to falsify data, they were fairly confident that they could falsify an empty asteroid field on that side while the ships were created.


    The process would involve deploying twelve entire Terraforming Arrays in order to meet the deadline, including all of the military forces, and the amount of raw materials used would be staggering, in the billions of tonnes.


    That much of the asteroid field going missing would certainly rm the environmental activists, even though this was no longer an inhabited star system, and that was a headache that nobody needed. They loved to protest and seemed to have unlimited time and resources for the purpose.


    "The process is started. We just need to wait for everything to be finished, and then we can set out with your teams. How long will they need to prepare? Should we be ready to host them for a day or so before we set out, or will they be needing more time to prepare for an extended mission?" Max asked the Envoys.


    "We''ve started already? I didn''t even notice. Very slick, Commander. I think that the Innu will be ready on time; they are very punctual about such things, but the Valkia might need some time. They don''t get to go out much, so there will be intensepetition for the spaces that are avable, even for a mission this dangerous." The Giant exined.


    Max chuckled at the description while the Valkia Envoy shrugged in resignation. Though they wouldn''t admit it, the Valkia as a species had never really lost their warlike tendencies. They had just done their best to channel them into aw enforcement direction.

 Chapter 995 995 Enthusiasm

    <h4>Chapter 995 995 Enthusiasm</h4>


    The first Innu vessel arrived the next day, a full 48 hours early for their deployment. They had done a raffle across all the Innu homeworlds, and this ship was the one that got the first lucky ticket.


    Of course, they had made sure that anyone who entered knew the risks and had both a ship and crew that were prepared for the task. The lucky winners had been on a medical research tour when the announcement was made, helping local governments with gue outbreaks, and they were confident that they could transfer their skills to the battlefield.


    In Max''s mind, that was only half of the story. The Innu, by unspoken consent of the majority, were doing their very best to ingratiate themselves with the Humans.


    As word of Absolution and the other Reaver vessels had spread through their society, along with the technological advancements, they had begun to suspect that they had found kindred spirits.


    But when news of Gravity Slides and Coffee had bemon knowledge, the majority of the species had decided that humans truly loved them and wanted to make them happy.


    Human culture was portrayed as a paradise in their newest cartoons, a subtle jab that only barely made it past Government censors.


    Fortunately for them, the censors weren''t Innu, so they looked at the reality of the descriptions and the fact that it didn''t actually speak down about the Alliance and let it pass without fully realizing how the Innu would take it.


    If Max had asked for military volunteers, they would have found a loophole to join. But the public announcement was that he asked for support ships, and they were happy to oblige.


    Not long afterwards, the rest of the Innu vessels arrived, all eager for the chance to take a day off aboard Absolution before it was time to go.


    That was no surprise to anyone, and Felicity had already assigned them docking berths that were close to the beach resorts on the second level.


    The Valkia warships were thest to arrive. As a Government fleet, they hade right on schedule, 12 hours before departure time, so that their crews could sync sleep schedules with the rest of the fleet.


    That wasn''t actually going to be possible, as most of the fleet was Androids, but they got themselves adjusted to the Absolution time zone easily enough, and Max would be using that for the entire mission into the Rift and afterward.


    [One hour to departure, all departing Captains, please ensure your crew are aboard and at their stations.] Felicity reminded the Station, specifically targeting the areas that still had stragglers aboard with increased volume.


    The AI also made additional transit pods avable for the stragglers to grab back to their ships so that they would make it on time and not hold up the whole procedure because they lost track of their surroundings.


    The upants of Absolution got their first camera views of the full fleet at that point, as Max and Nico joined the newly built attack force and the Alliance reinforcements.


    [You have brought quite the force. Tell me, Commander, how many humans have you sent today?] The Valkia Captain asked.


    [Sadly, only the two of us. The rest of this fleet is an Android army. We are expecting a long and grinding battle which favours the Android bodies, which can have the memory cores reimnted if they are destroyed.


    It is a tactically superior option to losing more humans, but there are roughly eighty thousand of my people already engaged in the conflict.] Max exined.


    The Valkia knew that the Humans had a headstart, but they had expected the human fleet to be muchrger than what was already there. The Titan ss Mecha were not to be underestimated, but in pure numbers against an unknown army that threatened multiple Gxies at the same time, it seemed like far too few.


    They held their thoughts to themselves, though, and followed through when Max had Absolution open a portal to the Anomaly.


    There was an entire army waiting for them there. One hundred more human-operated Destroyers, with escorts, including Vampires and even Narsians.


    How they had managed to get that group together without someone turning it into a bloody battlefield was a mystery to Max, but the violent blue giants were waiting aboard a handful of old Colony Ships simr to Terminus to join the convoy that was heading for the battle.


    [Now, this is a battle force.] The Valkia Captain whistled in appreciation at the sight.


    [Wee, Commander Keres Max and the forces of the Alliance. The Second Expeditionary Fleet is here to assist you in the battle at the Rift past Koleska Territory.] A lightly Kepler-ented voice announced.


    [It is good to see you. The Anomaly Fleet is nearly intobat now, so we will be leading you toward battle as quickly as possible to reinforce them.] Max replied.


    The Second Fleet fell into line, ready to proceed through the Anomaly alongside Max and his escorts, while the group assigned to rece the Defence Force that had gone forward moved well clear of the scene so that there would be no close calls.


    The Innu fleet''s excitement was palpable. They hadn''t even gotten through the anomaly yet, and already, they had gotten the chance to see over thirty new ship designs that weren''t in the Alliance database.


    That was way better than they had expected, as they thought the Alliance databases were nearlyplete. Max smiled to himself at their excitement. There were dozens if not hundreds, more species that hadn''t been recorded at all by the Alliance. Even the Darklings had very minimal descriptions in their records.


    The ships moved through the Anomaly, and Max set a course to the Defence Force. They were travelling at Warp 10, which was all that most of the ships in their fleet could maintain.


    But the fleet he had brought was much faster, and Nico had confirmed that they could all hold Warp 25 for a sustained period of time except the two Narsian Colony Ships.


    Max was impressed. He hadn''t realized that there were so many advanced new human ships. But most of them had been made for the purpose, the same as his fleet had been. The Reavers had shut down all ongoing orders to build a fleet and had moved the forces over to them from more outdated vessels.


    The upants were mostly Kepler Core World and Cygnus soldiers, but the Vampires had sent over arge force that the Reavers had made new ships for, with the modifications that the Vampires requested, while the Narsians had brought their own.

 Chapter 996 996 First Glimpse

    <h4>Chapter 996 996 First Glimpse</h4>


    [Narsian Commanders, please move next to the lead two Destroyers, and we will pull you into our Warp Field to maintain maximum travelling speed here where Portals are unstable.] Max directed, hoping that they would listen.


    The vessels didn''t respond with a message, but they did move into position so that the Destroyers could extend their Warp Field over the Colony Ships.


    Since they were so simr to Terminus, Nico already had the details of the modifications needed to bring them into the Warp Field, and the Android Destroyers had more than enough power for the task, as they had been made to sustain maximum firing rates, including a constant torpedo creation andunch schedule.


    With the positioning sorted, the Colony Ships were grabbed in a Gravity Beam and locked in ce while Nico led the fleet into warp, sending precise trajectories and speeds to all the vessels present.


    If the current paces were kept, the speed difference would let them arrive at the Rift by the end of the day and hopefully before the Anomaly Fleet suffered catastrophic damage.


    The Anomaly Defence Fleet had only minimal supplies for repair and restocking since they had left in a hurry, while Max had an entire fleet of repair and medical technicians with him.


    They had flown through the Warp for three hours when the first sensor data from the Anomaly fleet made it back to them.? There were thousands of objects emerging from the rift, some of them retreating and firing back toward the rift and the rest charging forward.


    [Nico, have you got an analysis for me?] Max asked.


    [Working on it. Most of the retreating vessels are Darklings and Arisen, with smaller numbers of other species in their midst. On the other side, it looks like a mix of ships and smalls. Most of the ships seem to match what we saw of the Myceloids but are more advanced, while thes are shielded in some strange barrier that our sensors can''t identify.


    I''m working on identifying who is on them now, as well as the rest of the vessels in the advancing fleet.]


    The enemy was using entires as attack vessels? That was a new one. But the unidentified vessels were a great cause for concern. Max had thought that they were at least aware of the greatest threats in the region, but it looked like that wasn''t the case.


    The unidentified ships had a harsh and angr design to them that Max recognized as an ative armour design intended to deflect solid projectiles. So, whatever they had been fighting in the past, they weren''tpletely unprepared for the fury of the Mass Drivers or the Nuclear Torpedos.


    Their inability to identify the barrier around the fleet was the greatest concern, though. If he couldn''t even analyze it, he couldn''t [Optimize] the fleet''s weapons to fight against it.


    His System Functions were already on it, as were Nico''s and the AI of the Colony Ship that they had just created, but so far, no real progress had been made.


    ording to all the sensors, it was something that shouldn''t exist in reality, a mathematical impossibility, but he could see it there and the effect that it was having on the weapons of the defenders.


    So, he changed his tactics. Instead of trying to analyze the impossible, he started to analyze the weapons of the Darklings and the Arisen to iste themonalities between weapons that actually worked against the strange energy barrier.


    You didn''t always have to understand how something worked to know how to destroy it. It might be crude, but it could be effective, and the System was having much better luck identifying themon elements between known weapons to identify what they could do to make their own work.


    It looked like the Anomaly Fleet was going to reach battle well before he could make it to them, and he needed a bit of time to find out how to adjust their own energy weapons to match the requirements.


    It took two hours, and the First Fleet was almost inbat by the time that he had enough data. The results made Maxugh out loud. Their existing Ion Cannons, which had been modified to fight the Arisen, and the Warp Field shielded Mass Driver rounds would both be effective as they were.


    Max passed that data on to the fleet, hoping to give them a bit of hope before the battle started.


    He was still far too distant to sense their thoughts, but the responses from the various technical departments were all positive.


    An iing message from the Valkia caught his attention. Their Commander had caught on to a strange phenomenon on the battlefield. Various ships were being grabbed by an energy field and thrown intobat within the barrier surrounding theoids.


    Max took the chance to open their sensors to the otheryer, where a simr battle was going on, but with different species supporting the Darklings and Arisen. There was also something more. Something terrible and cruel, an intelligence behind the actions, and he could feel its will surge every time another ship was thrown into closebat.


    But how did he exin to the Valkia that there was a greater being directing this battle and that the phenomenon was no ident?


    [Understood Valkia Commander. I have located the source of the phenomenon. It is being caused by an unknown species from the otheryer of space. Open your sensors in this configuration, and you will see it.]


    That was the best way. If they saw it for themselves and let the impossibility of that creature be shown in their sensors for a while, they would understand much better than any words could tell them.


    Themunications channels from his fleet were still silent when the First Fleet started to send out their deployment messages. They were sending the Titan ss Mecha in reinforced wings, twenty at a time, and they had just reached the lead ranks of ships inbat.


    The fleet had stopped among the Darklings, who had moved to make space for the new arrivals in their defensive formation, and within a second, the first of the Titan ss units were out and firing, creating gaps in the enemy''s defences that the remarkably nimble attack craft of the Darklings made sure to exploit.


    It was the same as when they had fought alongside Max against the Arisen. The exact same weapons and tactics. The forethought that went into forming battle tactics without the allied species understanding what they were doing was absolutely brilliant.

 Chapter 997 997 What The

    <h4>Chapter 997 997 What The</h4>


    Max''s fleet continued their charge forward until suddenly, there was a portal in front of them, and it was toote to stop or change course.


    [All vessels prepare to drop out of Warp. All hands to battle stations. Brace for impact.] Max ordered as Nico did exactly that.


    The fleet came to a sudden stop on the other side of the Portal, only a few tens of thousands of kilometres from the battle and very close to one of the shieldedoids.


    A Darkling ship sent a signal, essentially pinging the location of the in their navigation system, and then returned to the battle.


    [It looks like we have our assignment. Let''s get to work. Supports ships to the back, all Pilots to their Mecha.] Nico cheered.


    Their arrival had not gone unnoticed, and tens of thousands of alien attack craft, some looking like ramshackle fighter jets, some in alien designs that they had never seen before, wereing their way from a group of Destroyers that had appeared from one of the strange portals.


    [Drones, time to work. Clear us a path to the so that we can send the Android Army down.] Max ordered.


    Tens of thousands of Drone Fightersunched to intercept the alien attack craft, racing toward the superior numbers with the confidence only an Android piloting a Drone could have.


    They formed a wall of alloy and energy barriers, isting a tunnel in the center to allow the Destroyers to head closer to the to deploy their payload.


    The maneuver brought more enemies out of the strange portals, and Max decided it was time to show these aliens a taste of human culture.


    [Nico, shall we wee our guests? They seem to be bothering the Destroyers.]


    Nico had modified their Titan ss Mecha for the purpose. She had matched the triple Mass Drivers of the Thunder Guns with two of the new light Mass Drivers in a rotating turret configuration and upscaled Ion Cannons on both forearms. The Mecha also carried a sword and shield attached to their backs for closebat and had a defensiveser array mounted to give 360-degree coverage around the Mecha.


    The two Titan ss Mechaunched together and used a Portal to appear between the new alien ships and the Destroyers, which were moving intounch position to start droppingnders full of Android Pilots onto the surface.


    Max hoped that the strange energy over theoid wouldn''t stop them, but when the first Ion Cannon shot passed through it, he realized it wasn''t a solid barrier but more of a distortion effect, linking twoyers of reality together.


    The ramshackle-looking alien fighters were the first to attack, and Max noticed that the pilot was a cybeically augmented Myceloid right before his Ion Destroyer vaporized the smaller interceptor.


    His next few shots stopped the aliens from getting near the drop pods, but they were undeterred by the tworge Mecha and intended to swarm through.


    His area attacks were limited without the Disintegrator, which didn''t work against that form of shielding, so Max focused on therger targets while the Destroyers unleashed their Laser Arrays against the interceptors, filling the space around the with streaks of blue light.


    [Let the Destroyers deal with that. There arerger targets this way.] Nico cheered, as happy as Max had ever seen her now that she had hundreds of thousands of targets plus an entire to attack.


    A new alien ship, looking like an uprooted statue of a tree appeared, and it was sending out thousands of acorn-shaped ships nearlyrge enough to be called Cutters. These ones had some real firepower on their side, and they were doing a decent job of destroying the Drone Fighters and clearing a path for the other interceptors to get to the Destroyers.


    [Switching to Mass Driver.] Nico informed him, and the rhythmic thumping of therge Mass Drivers began.


    Max smiled at her enthusiasm but decided not to go so overkill and mixed Ion Cannon sts with bursts from the lighter and faster firing Mass Driver turrets.


    When the first of the Nuclear Warheads from Nico''s Thunder Guns exploded next to the tree-shaped enemy ship, the entire flow of the battle changed.


    Max could sense their panic and horror as the massive detonation shook the vessel right before Max''s smaller projectiles tore through rank upon rank of defensive fighters.


    The light craft didn''t have a shield that could deal with the pure kic impact of the projectiles travelling at half the speed of light, and the Mass Driver rounds passed right through them to hit more targets behind them.


    That gave the AI on the Colony Ship a great idea, and the next wave of recement Fighter Drones was equipped with Mass Drivers instead of Laser Arrays as their main weapons.


    They couldn''t target as many enemies at once, but the pration effect put the motherships behind them in grave danger as the polyhedral formation closed in around them.


    Max noticed at that point that the Narsians had broken off from their formation and were headed for anotheroid. It was a direct path, so they certainly intended to go in that direction, and the ships showed no sign of slowing as they approached.


    From all appearances, they were going tond the Colony Ships on the surface and not bother with their usual tactic of invading by portals.


    The light Mass Driver cleared a path through the seedling interceptors, and Max armed his Mass Drivers with warp-capable solid projectiles.


    At Warp 20, the enemy didn''t even have time to react before the first three shells made direct impact with their mothership, tearing massive holes in the armour ting and sending secondary explosions rippling across the length of the ship.


    The Valkia ships, still waiting for their opportunity to fight while they sat in defensive positions around the Innu, watched in horror as a Colony ss ship exploded from a single barrage by the Titan ss Mecha, and three more arrived to take its ce.


    Nico''s musical voice broke the radio silence, mocking the enemy.


    [They really are slow learners, aren''t they? I wonder how many more of those they have?]

 Chapter 998 998 Feth Was That?

    <h4>Chapter 998 998 Feth Was That?</h4>


    Nico''s next barrage took out one of the newly arrived ships before it even knew what was happening, but due to the reload time, Max''s barrage impacted the shielding of the next and only caused minor damage, blowing out power rys and killing the shields.


    The Light Mass Drivers were there to help, though, and with the Nuclear Warheads in them, though admittedly much smaller than those of the Thunder Gun, they caused massive damage all over the surface of the ship, which broke ranks to flee the front lines of the battle.


    It sprayed seedling interceptors behind it like chaff to deflect missiles, but it couldn''t go to warp. Its power system was too damaged.


    Nico and Max fired in unison at thest undamaged tree ship, tearing through the shielding and turning the ship into floating g that the front ranks of Android Drones were quick to collect for spare materials to rece their losses.


    The enemy didn''t seem to have realized that the drones could replenish their ranks by looting the battlefield, and they weren''t trying to stop the retreating drones, leaving the Colony Ship at full resources, even after suffering a hundred thousand drone losses.


    The updates on his monitor told Max that the Androids were learning quickly as well. They weren''t in the Drones; they were piloting them from inside the ship, and each destruction added more data to their sharedbat files.


    [Commander, the drop isplete. Our Mecha have engaged the Enemy, which appears to be a mixture of the Demonic Beings and the Klem.] The Android piloting the lead Destroyer informed him.


    [Repeat, please, Destroyer One. I believe I misheard your message.] Max demanded.


    [Commander, the drop isplete. Our Mecha have engaged the Enemy, which appears to be a mixture of the Demonic Beings and the Klem.] The Android piloting the lead Destroyer informed him again.


    Well, that was NOT in the calctions. But at least they knew what happened to the Klem. They had been taken to fight on this battlefield.


    It added a whole new dimension of horror to the invasion. If this fleet got close enough, both the Klem and the Myceloids could colonizes from a distance with spores, spreading destruction through entire star systems without losing any of their own numbers.


    It was a genius attack strategy. The technological species cleared the enemies. Then, the horde species colonized reinforcements and shock troops.


    But Max noticed that the Myceloids here weren''t on the same level as the ones he faced before. They looked mostly the same, but they were using cybeics, building spacecraft, and seemed to be much more cunning than they had been before.


    They had even created aplex wing of attack craft so that he couldn''t easily target multiple units with his Mass Drivers, as they were too far apart to be caught in the st if another was hit.


    That was no real impediment to the Titan ss Mecha, though, and Max rapidly moved between targets with the Light Mass Drivers, destroying one after another and then picking out new targets.


    He was just about to target one of the Myceloid Destroyers when a new enemy appeared out of the strange portals between him and the Innu, headed straight for their back lines.


    So far, they hadn''t been too busy, but the Innu had been making spare Mecha and gathering the injured Pilots of the Anomaly Defence Force for treatment before sending them back out again.


    That must have been enough to catch the attention of whoever was orchestrating this battle, so Max quickly turned to assist the Valkia in defending their supply lines.


    They were using a modified version of the Archangel Exoskeletons mounted over a Mobile Suit that was clearly sourced from the Reavers by the design. The wings were weaponized with the defaultsers that Nico had first designed them with, but the Valkia were wielding handheld Ion Rifles and were ready to face whatever the new vessels sent out.


    What they got was a swarm of small attack fighters that had powerful Laser Arrays on them but extremely slow targeting systems.


    After the first few shots, the Valkia scattered into attack positions and quickly realized that as long as the enemy didn''t predict their attack patterns, it was nearly impossible for them to hit the small and fast-moving attackers.


    It made sense. Most targets in space were a minimum of ten metres long, and even the Drone Fighters that they sent out were on the small side. But a two-metre-tall Valkia was both shorter and far more slender than their weapons had been designed for.


    Max took advantage of their frustration and unleashed all three rounds from his Thunder Guns into the engines of the ship between him and the Valkia, causing the whole vessel to go dark.


    It looked like that also killedmunications between the vessels, or perhaps between them and their Command Squad, because they were suddenly disorderly, and the Valkia began to tear them apart.


    Max was intent on saving as many lives as possible on their side as he turned his weapons on the other ships in the region, aiming to take out as many of therge threats as possible while their Mecha fought on the surface.


    That seemed like it might have been a tactical blunder, given the amount of firepower that had suddenly appeared in space to oppose them, but the was still moving forward, away from the rift at incredible speed, and wouldn''t take long to pass within a single light hour of an inhabited system.


    If it made it that far before the Mecha could deal with the Demons and Klem on the surface, they would surely infest the, putting billions of civilians in danger.


    The evacuation of the nearest systems had been halted, as all vessels in the area were needed for thebat effort, so there was nowhere for them to go, and another infested world would inevitably join the attacking force.


    Then Commander Yuri''s voice came over themunications.


    [Sorry we arete, Commander. The Koleska Seventy Second fleet is here to reinforce you from the Reserve Lines. Where do you need us?]

 Chapter 999 999 Commander Yuri

    <h4>Chapter 999 999 Commander Yuri</h4>


    [It''s good to hear a friendly voice again, Commander.] Max greeted the Koleska leader.


    [You can join the Valkia defensive and then push forward with me and Nico toward the where our Destroyers are fighting.


    Once we have that situation under control, we will push toward the other Human troops. Our goal is to secure this region of the fight so that the Arisen and Darkling forces can push back the enemy in the otheryer and keep this battle contained to the edge of the Rift.] Max exined.


    [Understood, Commander, deploying my unit now.]


    The Koleska War Machines had gotten some upgrades since Max saw themst, courtesy of the Human Military. They were now in the style of the newer generation Heavy Mecha, with none of the Light Mecha present at all, though there were still a lot of conventional Koleska War Machines on the line.


    [We were reinforced when we were transferred from regional defence to base defence. They gave us all the new toys and some extra training materials, but the units are all locally produced, based on your designs.] Commander Yuri exined, predicting Max''s response.


    [As long as they''re effective, that''s all that matters. Things have gotten a bit hectic here in thest few minutes.]


    The attacking ships had retreated once their troops were deployed, and Max would have to fight his way through them to eliminate another transport, so he turned his attention to holding the nk for the Koleska.


    They had gotten very good at fighting as a unit, and the formation was quickly encircling the strange alien ships without giving them any chance to advance into the Valkia.


    The extra firepower gave the winged fighters a chance to retreat and catch their breath. The only way for them to stay alive in that battle situation was to keep evading, so it was much easier on them when they were not the main force, a factor that they had not understood until faced with it today.


    Max could hear their thoughts telling themselves that the Alliance had gone too long without a threat and that they were in real trouble if some fraction of this force was to escape ande their way.


    But that meant they needed as muchbat experience as they could get, so they prepared a request to move forward with the Koleska force, working between the War Machines and ambushing the enemy while they were busy dealing with therger Mecha.


    It was a much better use of their skills, and Max approved the instant that he saw the request, leaving it up to their Commanders to implement the strategy.


    Their ships would remain in ce to defend the Innu, who were quickly bing everyone''s favourite faction on the battlefield. They weren''t discriminatory about who they helped. If they could repair or duplicate your tech, they would do it and send you back all patched up with a fresh attack craft, Mecha or interceptor.


    They had also begun to spread out to help the other humans and the main Koleska force more efficiently. There were a few other species in the area, but mostly, they only needed to work with a few types of vessels and biologies.


    Max rolled his Mecha around its vertical axis, moving out of the way of a Laser Barrage from an iing ship. He smiled as the Pilot''s frustration reached his thoughts and then put a Mass Driver round through the cockpit of the attack craft.


    He moved downward a few metres and let the next barrage fly over his head, then used the two light Mass Driver turrets to take out two interceptors at once.


    [I swear that reflexes like that shouldn''t be physically possible.] He heard the Commander of the Valkia force thinking.


    The Commander wasn''t wrong. Max didn''t have reflexes that fast. He was a telepath, and the killing intent directed his way would warn him what part of his Mecha they were aiming for, so he had an extra fraction of a second to move.


    It wasn''t even a conscious effort at this point. He just reacted when he sensed a threat, and the results were fantastic. That wasn''t really something that you could exin to others, except maybe the Illithid, who would understand theplexities of using telepathy to improve autonomic responses.


    The Koleska and the Valkia working together were doing a fine job of clearing the immediate area, letting Max move on torger threats, like the force that was attempting to eliminate his Destroyers while they defended the Android Army from orbital bombardment.


    He risked a quick portal to get in front of the Destroyers, emerging right on target, though the Portal itself was a bit unstable around the edges.


    It was good enough forbat use, and now he was in a position to assist the Destroyers with their attack craft issues.


    The Drone Fighters were held up a few thousand kilometres away, dealing with an influx of Myceloid attackers that had just appeared through the portal, but the remaining attack craft here were all piloted by living aliens as well.


    That was what Max was after. Get rid of the ones who were hardest to rece first, and then they could tailor their attacks to only a few species. The more that they could narrow down the enemy forces, the better.


    The interceptors frantically dodged as they realized that Max''s Mass Drivers could punch through them and their shielding without exploding.


    The Destroyers were using all energy weapons at the moment to avoid friendly fire incidents if the Mass Drivers should miss a target. It had left the interceptors unprepared for Max''s attacks, but the forces thousands of kilometres past them were even more shocked to be randomly taking fire despite being well back of the lines.


    Nico was thinking the same thing, and when she had a good line between the enemy and their reinforcements, she would switch to solid projectiles for the secondary damage they could do.


    [Zone Clear.] Commander Yuri announced a few minutester. He had already started to press forward with the Valkia, but the situation around the Innu and the Valkia ships was now under control and back of the main lines again.


    [Understood. Good Luck, Commander. I will be pushing your way once this force is finished.]

 Chapter 1000 1000 Glorious Battle

    <h4>Chapter 1000 1000 Glorious Battle</h4>


    Max took a moment to restock his materials storage with parts from the destroyed interceptors, effectively reloading for the next leg of the battle and began to assess the battlefield.


    Things were not going well for the defenders.


    Many regions had been pushed back, the majority of the Darkling and Arisen forces had been pulled into anotheryer to fight, and there were very few reinforcements left on the line while the enemy just kept appearing, wave after wave.


    From the looks of it, when the Darklings asked for every species toe and help, they didn''t mean a delegation from every species. They meant everyone. Every singlebat-capable being was going to be needed to keep up the battle at this rate.


    There was no telling how many more waves of reinforcements the enemy could bring, but there was no point during the battle when they had not outnumbered the defenders by at least two to one.


    [Commander. The''s surface has been scoured of the Klem, and the Demonic beings assisting them have retreated.] The Android Army''s Commander informed him, bringing the first good news Max had heard in a while.


    [Return to orbit. The Destroyers will have deployment data for you.] Max ordered.


    There was another group of attackersing for the Koleska unit under Commander Yuri, and there was a massive Myceloid force engaged with the Anomaly Fleet, but they at least looked like they had things under control.


    A thousand Titan ss Mecha was more firepower than the entire fleet of some of the species present, and the human ships were far more heavily armed than most.


    An Orbital Lance streaked out from the lead ship of the Anomaly Defence Fleet, tearing apart a Myceloid Colony Ship and clearing a path through the horde. The sight assured Max that they would be fine for a few minutes.


    With all their Orbital Lances, including the ones on the Mecha, which he had swapped out on his own, they would be able to keep clearing out waves of enemies with rtive ease.


    Nico joined Max as he waited for the Androids so that they could form a unified push into the enemy lines with their full force and hopefully begin to stabilize their portion of the front lines.


    The Mass Drivers had crushed thest wave of enemies that came to them, and they had a moment of rtively clear skies, but minute by minute, it became clear that they were about the only ones who did have things under control.


    [Zone One nk has copsed. The Noggara are in full retreat, along with their support fleet.] The Koleska Fleet General informed everyone.


    [Zone Two and Three are faltering under the influx of new attackers.] He added.


    That was over a light year away, on the far side of the battlefield, and dozens of species and a truly massive scale battle separated them from the human fleet.


    [Prepare for Iing.] Nico suddenly announced a split second before Max''s sensors detected the disruption in space that indicated an iing portal from the unknownyers.


    [The Android Army is staged. What are your orders, Commander?] The team leader asked.


    [Form up at our location, with the Destroyers on the far side, away from that disruption.] Max ordered just as the first enemies began to appear.


    Hundreds, then thousands of corrupted Cathedral Ships emerged from the profane portal with its strange energy signature, and they were firing before they even fully coalesced in reality.


    The Mecha scattered and began to fire back, allowing Max and Nico to target thergest of the enemy''s Capital Ships, hoping to destroy theirmand structure, but the news from the line was not good.


    The Cathedral Ships were everywhere, andrge portions of the line had been boarded by the Demonic Beings, who were ransacking their ships.


    Looking into the otheryer, even the Darklings and Arisen were being forced back until finally, a regroup message was sent with the Darkling security patterns. All forces were to fall back and attempt to defend as many of the worlds in the region as they could.


    The enemy force was toorge to take face on. They were going to have to find another way to deal with it.


    It wasn''t going to be that easy to disengage, and Max moved quickly to make sure his own force would be able to get away.


    [Commander Yuri, Fleet Commander in charge of the Anomaly Fleet, please move to join the Innu. Valkia, fall back to your ships. I will defend the position with the Android Army while you retreat to the Anomaly area and make ns for a counterattack.] Max ordered.


    The Androids moved to a defensive formation, letting the others move behind them, and Max reluctantly switched the Mass Driver Rounds in his Thunder Guns to Nuclear bombs. The space here was so unstable from the battle that a single Antimatter bomb was likely to tear it apart and throw half of the battle line into anotheryer.


    The Thunder Guns barked, shaking the chassis of his Mecha and three of the Cathedral ships'' shields red, absorbing the impact and explosion, then another barrage from Nico before the Androids unleashed their full firepower against the damaged ships.


    But three in a matter of seconds was nothingpared to what was appearing, and Max considered how to make his attacks more effective.


    The shielding that the Cathedral Ships were using here was nothing like thest time he had faced them, and he didn''t know the capability, but he decided to have the Android-piloted Destroyers try their Orbital Lances. Each ship had three of them, with one mounted on the front and one on each side.


    That seemed to be the answer.


    Therger ships were destroyed in a beam of blinding light, while the Mass Drivers and energy weapons of the Mecha dealt with the smaller vessels.


    The Titan ss Mecha of the Anomaly Fleet joined them secondster while their ships retreated to guard the others.


    [We are with you, Commander. We have the firepower to run a fighting retreat, no matter what they throw at us.] The leader of the Mecha force informed him in a grim tone.

 Chapter 1001 1001 Unpleasant Surprise

    <h4>Chapter 1001 1001 Unpleasant Surprise</h4>


    As the Cathedral Ships approached, Max was expecting another wave of interceptors or orbital fighters, but what he got was much more horrific. The massive vessels disgorged hundreds of thousands of Demonic beings and armoured Warriors into space, and though they had no gear of their own, it seemed that the Demons had no trouble navigating.


    They ran through the void as if they were running through the air, only incredibly quickly, covering multiple kilometres with every step as they closed the distance to the Mecha.


    [I would just like to note, for the record, that this is some bullshit right here.] One of the Titan ss pilots remarked as the rearguard opened fire on the attackers.


    He wasn''t wrong, but it did confirm Max''s suspicions that the Demons were, in fact, energy beings and not corporeal at all. They only seemed that way because they had to coalesce to interact with the rest of the universe.


    Hitting them with Mass Drivers was a lost cause. The rounds punched through them with little resistance, and the holes healed soon after. So, Max abandoned the solid projectiles in favour of Nuclear rounds once again.


    The damage caused by hundreds of small nuclear explosions decimated the enemy ranks and nearly stalled the advance until the enemy began to spread out to limit the effectiveness of the area effects and try to surround the humans who had remained behind to allow the rest of their portion of the line to retreat safely.


    [Retreat as you fire. Do not allow them to surround us.] Max ordered as he tore apart another massive Demon with his Ion Cannons.


    The distance was closing between the groups, but as the Mecha increased the speed of their retreat, the Demons seemed to lose enthusiasm for the battle and began to slow down.


    If they kept at it for a few more minutes, the rearguard should be able to break free, and then Max would just have to lead them to a safe location to board their vessels.


    All of the Titan ss Mecha were warp-capable, but it would be a pain to try to hold on to that many Androids as they engaged the Warp Field, so Max called back the Android ships first.


    They could pick up Mecha without risk of human life, and they could be rebuilt if he was wrong about the enemy backing off.


    They were still taking fire from the Warriors, but nothing heavy enough to truly challenge a Mecha of this ss. The Demons were the real threat, but they had to make it to closebat first, and they were no longer trying.


    [Commander, thest of the enemy units are retreating to rejoin their main force. Should we call back our transports?] The leader of the Anomaly Defence Force asked.


    [Give it a couple of minutes until we see how they react to the Android Ships arriving for pickup. They will stay on station while the rest of us get settled in.]


    The destroyers arrived to pick up the Android Army only a few minutester, and the enemy didn''t react at all. In fact, they seemed to be retreating themselves, regrouping back inside the edge of the Rift where sensors couldn''t easily prate to detect their movement or their disappearance into the otheryers if that was their n.


    Though this battle might have seemed like a pyrrhic victory for them, Max was left without any way to tell howrge the Great Enemy or the Violent One''s army was. The two meant the same thing, as far as he could tell. The names just changed depending on whatnguage you tranted from.


    [The Army is loaded, Commander. Sending the signal to bring the Anomaly Defence Group here.] The lead pilot of the Android Destroyers announced.


    [Bring my Cutter as well. We will return with the others to the Anomaly in Koleska space and work out a n for the future from there.] Max informed the human contingent.


    The trip back to the Anomaly was a sombre one. Over a hundred of the Mecha Pilots were dead, with over two hundred Titan ss Mecha disabled or in forplete overhauls. The only positive point was that they had at least managed to bring back all of the bodies, so nobody was left on the battlefield.


    The Koleska had likewise taken heavy casualties, with nearly twenty percent of their Pilots lost in battle. Commander Yuri''s men had fared much better than average, with more training and being kept in reserve through the most brutal part of the early battle, but there was going to be a long series of memorials for the dead in theing days.


    There wouldn''t be time for everyone to shut down and grieve, though. Already, there were reports from the closests to the Rift that they had detected movementing their way and were evacuating as many civilians as possible.


    "How long are we going to take to regroup before we head out to reinforce some of those frontlines?" Nico quietly asked Max as they sat in a multispecies meeting about the future of the battle.


    "I think 24 hours should be sufficient, so we''re here to politely attend the first round of memorials, and then we can move back to the front lines.


    We''ve found a method to stabilize a portal long enough to get a ship through so we can get back quickly, with some risk. I think it will be enough to save at least one." Max whispered back.


    [Thank you all for attending. As you know, we are all under the same threat here, so my Numexian people have proposed a new strategic military alliance that will bring all of the military groups in the region together for a coordinated effort.] One of the politicians was informing the room.


    This was the fourth iteration of that speech that they''d sat through, and every one of them put the speaker''s race in charge of everything, with the others as their subordinates and shock troops, so they could suffer few to no casualties while making it look like they were doing their best.


    The long-winded Numexian finished his speech, and the moderator of the meeting turned to Max.


    "As the representative of the Reaver Faction of the Human Species, what are your intentions?" They asked.


    Max stood at the table and took the trantion device in his hands so every species could understand him.


    "The Reavers will remain here for one standard day to attend the first Memorial Services for our Koleska friends, and then we will return to the front lines of the battle. I have marked four possibles as the most likely to be attacked next, and we will provide military support while they evacuate civilians.


    Once that is finished, we will continue on to the next needing assistance until either the Great Enemy runs out of forces or we run out ofs to evacuate."


    The whole meeting was in an uproar at that. The strongest of the militant species had no intention of joining any of their alliance efforts and was going to go it alone. It was a disaster for their ns.

 Chapter 1002 1002 Koleska Lament

    <h4>Chapter 1002 1002 Koleska Lament</h4>


    Once the furor about Max''s dered intention to fight on his own began to die down, many other species took the opportunity to dere the same n.


    "It is the opinion of the Koleska Empire that a decentralized approach, withmunication between forces, would be optimal for the sessful defence of the threateneds.


    If our force is not sufficient for the task, we will choose to call on allies for support, but routing all decisions through a central bureaucracy will only dy the response times and create infighting and resentment among those sent to the most brutal of battlefields.


    We will not shy away from our duty. We will fight. But we will do it because we choose to, and there will be none to take responsibility for our sesses and failures but our own Commanders." The head of the Koleska delegation, a Defence Minister that Max recalled meeting once before, announced.


    "The Dobryev second that sentiment. We will work with our allies when necessary, but we will dispatch our own troops to make the most timely of interventions. We must not let the species closest to the Rift be wiped out along with all of their knowledge and culture."


    That was a thought that many of the species had. The various technology that the species kept to themselves was incredibly valuable.


    Not many were like the Humans, who had spread their knowledge all through the Koleska and improved them faster than any other species in recorded history.


    Even fewer would have had the ability to adapt that quickly, even if they were given the methods and knowledge. Their cultures would copse under the strain of adaptation.


    After a few more minutes of meetings, the Koleska Defence Minister stood again. "I am afraid that this meeting must be adjourned for the day, as we have a memorial starting in two hours, and I am needed on the."


    "I will send you our shuttle information once we have the human delegation sorted out," Max replied, then rose to his feet, signalling to the others that the meeting was well and truly done.


    Nobody wanted to be the first to walk away from a negotiation, but since the humans had agreed with the Koleska to put everything on hold until after the Memorial, it was no longer impolite for them to return to their ships and their own species'' funeral rites for the lost.


    The Valkia were also in mourning, having lost four out of every hundred soldiers they sent out into the void. It was far lower casualties than most, especially along the other nk, which had been first to break with many forces beingpletely overrun, but it was more than any Valkia force in living memory had suffered.


    Even worse, the casualties were suffered during a loss.


    The Valkia didn''t hold arge public ceremony for the dead, though. That wasn''t their way. Instead, it would be a private affair for those who knew them personally.


    So, Max sent out the messages to the other humans and the Innu, as well as the Valkia Commander, who would likely nominate someone for the political purpose of attending the meeting before they were on their way again.


    [Will there be reinforcements for the Human fleet?] The Innu Admiral asked, thinking about how to distribute the repair and restocking teams for the next battles.


    [Yes, but I''m not sure when. I am told that there are moreing, though.] Max agreed.


    There were a lot of forces already here, but there was word that more Mercenary Forces had signed up for the cause. Both the Reavers Trade Group and the major faction governments were offering substantial rewards, and that had tempted a number of wealthy Companies who could afford to upgrade to new military Drones to join the battle.


    Max didn''t expect that most of them would field Mecha except in the most dire of situations, but with thousands of drone pilots and a heavily armed ship, they would still be a formidable fighting force.


    Nico was already working on changing the Drone specs for the next fight after analyzing what worked well and what was mediocre in thisst battle.


    The decision was that they would userger drones this time to increase the number of weapons that could be fired at once. The smaller ones took up too much airspace for the firepower that they had since they were limited by their power generation.


    Making them closer to shuttle size would also help disguise troop movements since the actual shuttles would be much more simr to the drones.


    She was just finishing the orders when they picked up thest of the Commanders and made their way to the surface of the.


    Ironically, they werending at the Terminus Academy Airstrip, named in honour of their contribution to the development of Koleska military technology. It felt a bit strange to see himself honoured this way when they were here to mourn the dead, but even Max had to acknowledge that there would have been millions more dead if the Koleska had remained as they were.


    The ceremony had them standing next to Commander Yuri, who now sported an intricately embroidered red cloak over his shiny ck chitin.


    Max hadn''t seen that many clothes on a Koleska many times before, so Yuri must have gotten a major promotion in rank after the battle. Max silently congratted him with a pat on the now clothed shoulder and a handshake, returned by the Commander without taking his eyes off the ceremony.


    The Koleska were very ritualistic, and the crowd waspletely silent other than the music being yed. Everyone in attendance was torn between distraught and bored out of their minds, but most of them would have to stand through an entire week of these ceremonies all over the before they could return to regr duties.


    Commander Yuri was thinking exactly that, and calcting how he would slip away from the optional additional duties without being caught. If someone caught him before he could leave, courtesy would oblige him to stay for even more boredom and another round of dry political speeches.


    Spending too much time with the humans had definitely changed him.

 Chapter 1003 1003 Distress Call

    <h4>Chapter 1003 1003 Distress Call</h4>


    Only hours after Max had returned to his ship after the Mourning Ceremony, they received a distress call from a near the Rift. They were a few star systems away and had received no warning of the arrival of the enemy forces. They just appeared out of nowhere and put some sort of barrier over the before invading.


    "Should we go? It looks like nobody else has answered the call yet." Nico suggested.


    It had only been about fifteen seconds, so of course, anyrger force wouldn''t have been able to make a decision yet, but they had the flexibility to go anywhere, and Max really did want to get away from all the formalities.


    "Answer that we are bringing the Terminus Trading Company force. Then privately tell the Anomaly Defence force to wait here for the ships full of drones to arrive so that they don''t have to be the main battle force for their excursions." He agreed.


    [Attention Allied nations. The Terminus Trading Company will be going to the rescue of Abraxis Three effective immediately. We will update you on the situation when we arrive.] Nico announced on the generalmunications channel, shocking all of the politicians who were currently discussing what to do about the first message that they had received.


    These first few missions would be critical to the future of their alliance and the reputation of their species while under pressure.


    Most of them were convinced that this threat would pass once the enemy had taken a few species down, and that meant their reputation would be of utmost importance in the future, and looking weak or cowardly could get them taken over by their former allies once the conflict ended.


    They were especially wary of the humans, as they didn''t have anys in the area and had far too much firepower for the number of units that they fielded. They were a threat on par with the Arisen in the minds of most species, and looking weak would make them look like prey to this excessively warlike group.


    But none of them immediately stepped forward to join Max on the offensive. They were frightened of the humans but not suicidal.


    "We''re all ready to depart. The Anomaly Fleet has confirmed that they will wait for the reinforcements and leave as onerge battle group. The mercenaries appreciate the generosity as well. A thousand Titan ss Mecha is far more help than they were expecting." Nicoughed.


    "Good, let''s get going. We will take the point but keep the Colony Ship full of Drone Fighters close behind us. We will leave the immediate area and then pop through a portal for immediate arrival. The new algorithm should stabilize the portals enough to get there intact." Max ordered.


    Maxughed as he sensed the shock of millions of minds who were watching the small fleet move out, not understanding why Max was confident that they could take a back from the enemy with such a small fleet of ships.


    A dozen vessels, even if it contained a Colony Ship, was barely a detachment for most of these species, not a serious fighting force, but Max was taking only that small group to go alone to a besieged.


    Once they were clear of the traffic and the unstable space closest to the Anomaly, Max had the fleet portal to the besieged vanishing through the void and leaving the rest of the species in shock that he could manage to stabilize a portal at all in these conditions.


    They had thought that he would be spending days on the route to the and would have time to consider a battle strategy, but it looked like the Terminus Trading Company, as they called themselves, were going to be in battle in about ten seconds.


    [Humans are terrifying.] One of the politicians watching the scene from the surface of the whispered to the Koleska minister next to him.


    [You have no idea. This is their version of holding back. We have seen theirbat abilities, and the type of weapons that they decided not to bring here for the sake of not destabilizing space itself are far more terrifying.


    They used one near the anomaly to destroy an Arisen Cube in a single shot. Here, check the footage.] The minister whispered back.


    The alien officer watched in horror as the Antimatter Torpedo exploded, and his knees were visibly trembling as he got to the analysis data of the explosion.


    [What sort of species even invents something like that? Were they nning to end half the universe to prevent the Arisen from reaching their home Gxy?] The Officer asked.


    [Knowing them, it is possible. Their version of cost-to-benefit analysis considers genocide a quantifiable loss.]


    While they whispered their analysis of human brutality, Max and his fleet appeared on the other side of the portal, with rms ring of imminent impact.


    [Evasive measures. What the feth went wrong?] Max shouted.


    The ships maneuvered so suddenly that Nico was nearly forced to one knee as the gravitypensators were overloaded, but they dodged the massive Cathedral Ship that was descending through the upper atmosphere below them.


    [Analysis Complete. The barrier surrounding the has warped reality in this region. Spatial stability has beenpromised, and everything that appears within one light-year of the is being pulled inside the barrier.] The ship''s AI announced.


    Max checked the sensors, and the AI seemed to be correct. There were no Cathedral Ships in orbit, they were all headed for the surface of the, where a massive battle had already broken out.


    But there was nothing above eighty thousand metres. Anything that tried to go higher was forced back down by the barrier around the.


    Even worse, the enemy had intended for this to happen, and they had already set up defensive weapons to attack any attempted rescuers on their way down.


    [Deploy all Drone Fighters and Interceptors. Target the orbital weapons and the enemy vessels that are on the descent.] Nico ordered from inside her Mecha.


    [Two minutes tonding. Please pick a deployment location.] The ship''sputer requested.


    Max searched for survivors and picked a Hive City that was still fighting and not too heavily surrounded.


    [Drop us there. We will clear the area and then spread out.]

 Chapter 1004 1004 Hard Landing

    <h4>Chapter 1004 1004 Hard Landing</h4>


    The Cutter wasing down fast, surrounded by drones and chased by the rest of the Android Army.


    Nico was giggling with glee as she took control of the ship''s weapons systems and began to target enemy support groups, trying to shorten the battle before it had even begun.


    Max was focused on analyzing what sort of force they would be facing instead. What he had seen before was entirely Cathedral Ships, no other alien species, but there were a lot of Demonic Beings on the surface, with some of them reaching more than thirty metres in height.


    That was going to be an issue, along with all the artillery that the enemy had brought. They also had an airforce with them, but Max had confidence that he could maintain aerial superiority with the Drone Fighters.


    The Cathedral ship''s forces weren''t just the blood-soaked berserker Warriors this time, though. There were more respectable-looking versions of the Warriors with horns on their armour and some painted midnight ck with grotesque mutated wings and ws growing out of their armour.


    To Max, that implied that he was about to face a new set of tactics, so he hurried to update the Android Army''s database with all of the infantry-ledbat strategies that he could think of. If you prepared for everything, you were prepared for anything. Or so he hoped.


    [Combatnding in ten seconds.] The ship''s inte announced, and the door behind Max began to crack open in preparation for the Mecha to be deployed, along with their small unit of twenty Super Heavy Android Mecha.


    Max led the charge out the door just before the ship reached the ground, allowing his thrusters to soften thending while the ship mmed down into the dirt.


    Nico was right beside him, facing a wall of enormous red Demons. Max briefly wondered how the AI had picked thisnding location, but there wasn''t much time for contemtion as the Demons were already charging.


    Max took out his sword and shield as the enemy closed the distance, then set his shoulder into the shield and used his thrusters to charge forward.


    He mmed into the front lines of the Demonic horde with a sickening crunch of metal on flesh and then was immediately surrounded by fire as Nico detonated a pair of high explosive Mass Driver rounds into the Demons on his nks.


    The damage to his shielding was minimal, and now he had room to work, hacking upward to split a Demon''s gut open from groin to throat, letting the foul innards spill onto the ground before the Demon vanished in a swirl of red energy.


    "Well, isn''t that convenient? A self-cleaning battlefield." Nicomented as the jagged edges of her twin des took the head of a Demon nearly as tall as her own Mecha.


    It might seem convenient to them, but it had to be terrifying for the locals, who only saw a field of attackers and no bodies to show for their attempts to stop the advance.


    Max sted a group of smaller Demons out of existence just as the Thunder Guns of the Androids began to thump their echoing rhythm into the hazy sky.


    The burning fields, artillery rounds and the strange energy that the Demons gave offbined to make visibility little more than a Kilometre, but the sensors could still see much further, and with Max''s System Functions active, the Androids had no problem picking targets.


    Their first priority was the artillery and the living beings that wielded ranged weapons, while Max and Nico held the area around their ship.


    The others hadnded closer to the city and were in the clear, well away from the front lines, while they sent out a steady stream of Drones that they hadn''t had a chance to deploy on the way down.


    The tactic had left their drones scattered all over the at the moment, but they were fighting their way back to the ships and eliminating the enemy airforce on the way.


    The rest of the Android Army was fanning out now, taking up the positions on their nks to defend the ships against the wave of Demons, and the thumping of their guns was shaking the ground, terrifying the locals whose minds Max could sense unusually clearly.


    Something solid impacted Max''s shield, and he double-checked his sensors to see how he had missed an iing attack.


    It only took a split second, and he found the cause. A very sneaky group of heavy weapons-equipped Warriors had snuck forward between the legs of the muchrger Demons, hiding themselves from detection as they approached.


    A barrage of high explosive rounds from the light Mass Drivers turned them into a bloody mist and tore the legs from a half dozen giant Demons, who were howling in rage as they bled out before vanishing into clouds of energy.


    A massively bloated Demon wobbled toward Max, heedless of the Mass Driver rounds that had tornrge chunks of its flesh away. It had more, and what it had lost was already being regenerated.


    [Well, that''s new. I didn''t know they could get fat.] Nicoughed as her sensors picked up on the Demoning toward Max.


    [This ce gets stranger by the minute. But first, I need to find out how to kill that thing.] Max replied as he tried the Ion Cannons instead and found that they gave the creature little more than a smoking sunburn.


    Since the ranged weapons were only making it mad, Max decided that slicing it into cubes was likely to be the best option, assuming that his des would do the job.


    They were based on the weapons that had been pilfered from the Demons themselves, so he assumed they would work well enough, but this ultra-resilient one wasn''t like anything that he had seen before.


    The lumbering giant didn''t even slow as Max engaged his thrusters and hacked down on its arm, taking the limbpletely off the creature''s body, but the tentacles that it sent his way, which had at first looked like exposed intestines, quickly wrapped around the torso of Max''s Mecha.


    A point-nk barrage from the Thunder Guns to the creature''s upper chest severed it in two pieces, and Max fell back to his feet, freed of the dissipating Demon''s clutches.


    [Well, that''s one way to do it. Unconventional, but if it works, it works.]

 Chapter 1005 1005 An Idea

    <h4>Chapter 1005 1005 An Idea</h4>


    The Demons weren''t going to let Max take advantage of his good luck. Before the massive hulk of thest demon was even evaporated, two more giant Red Demons, each as tall as a Heavy Mecha, standing nearly fifteen metres tall, were working together to overwhelm him.


    Max slid right and swung hard at one Demon''s side, forcing it towards its partner and allowing him to get them both in front of him for a moment. Then the Light Mass Drivers went to work, raining hypersonic rounds down on them.


    But the Demons were wise to the trick, and as fast as Max could adjust, they were twirling away from his targeted trajectory. They had to be using some trick. With his System Function, he didn''t even have to think about the targeting. It was already on his screen, along with a predicted movement pattern that was very rarely wrong.


    Only this time, the Mass Driver rounds were exploding all around them, decimating the smaller demons but either missing hisrge opponents or tearing through the thin membrane of their wings and doing negligible damage.


    A change of tactic was in order, so Max forgot about targeting them with the guns and turned both the Light Mass Drivers and the Thunder Guns on the Demons in the ranks behind them while he held the champions at bay with his sword and shield.


    They were good, but they didn''t realize that he was no longer shooting at them but past them, and they continued to dodge his shots, keeping them too busy to coordinate an attempt to get through his defences.


    When the two finally realized what he was doing, the roars of rage echoed through the battlefield, and the Demons around him instinctively bowed down in submission.


    [Cuirfidh m¨¦ deireadh leat damnable daonna] The demon shouted, then stepped back to avoid having Max''s sword shoved through its throat.


    "So you do speak anguage I can trante. You will end this damnable human, will you? I don''t think so." Maxughed, then unleashed his forearm-mounted Ion Cannon on the Demon, crippling one leg and leaving him unable to parry the next strike.


    His partner lept forward, intending to save the downed Demon until it could heal, but Max met its charge with his shield, and the two giants crashed to a standstill while the jagged de in Max''s right hand came down on the back of the crippled Demon''s neck.


    One-on-one, the Demon was no match for the Titan ss Mecha, and in three swift strikes, Max knocked the demon''s de aside and took its head from its body.


    The battle around their deployment zone was beginning toe under control as the might of the Android Army tore through the Demons and their allies.? The mortal forces were in full retreat already, leaving only the Demons, who were mostly only armed with closebat weapons or ranged weapons that they had scavenged from the dead.


    There were precious few of those still in workable condition, given the propensity of the Mecha to use explosive shells, and it was clear that they wouldn''t be able to force the attack much longer.


    The artillery from the human force continued to rain down on the Demons as they turned away from the battle, thoroughly routed and bellowing in rage.


    [Good work today, everyone. Don''t forget to share and update yourbat data, and get the destroyed units back into the ships for refurbishment.] Max ordered.


    They had lost about one in twenty Mecha during the battle, a much better oue than he had expected, though the level of damage to the others was substantial, and even the built-in replicators would take a while to rebuild the damaged sections.


    Max sensed Nico''s amusement at the fact that he addressed the Androids as if they were human troops that needed a morale boost, but it was too strong of a habit for him just to stop doing it now.


    "Let''s head back behind the line and get started on a n to deal with therger battlefield.


    The Drones are mostly back in the area now and keeping the enemy pinned down wherever they can find them. They''ve taken heavy casualties, and we''re down to under thirty percentbat capability for our airborne forces." Nico informed him.


    Two-thirds of the drones down was brutal. Max moved back to their Cutter as he checked the damage reports, giving himself a small buffer of safety if they were attacked again.


    It looked like the Drones took every engagement personally, and nobody had set parameters not to use nukes in the atmosphere, so they had unleashed nearly a hundred thousand small fusion explosions all over the.


    "I somehow suspect that if we told the locals we were on their side, they would not believe us at this point." Max sighed as he saw the footage from the Drones reyed in his mind, courtesy of his borrowed copy of Nico''s skill.


    Nico giggled. "Fear not, brave civilians. We are from the Government, and we are here to help."


    Max facepalmed at the cliche reference, but it really was the case today. They had probably done more damage to the than the Demons had, even though they had eliminated over half of the invading force in thest few hours.


    Particrly egregious was the Destroyer that had been taken out by the Drones and crashed into a metropolitan area. The ship was over a kilometre long, and the casualties in a hive city would be in the millions just from that crash alone.


    "I vote that we don''t tell them our names before we leave," Nico added helpfully.


    "I second that. But now we need a weapon for the next round of drones that isn''t a nuclear weapon used in close proximity to civilians." Max sighed.


    "You know, I have an idea. A really good idea. I''ve been analyzing the energy signature of the Demons when they are destroyed, and I think that I can replicate it and throw them back out of reality to anotheryer of space.


    It''s not exactly killing them, but they aren''t really dying anyhow. With that in mind, making them someone else''s problem is just as good, right?" Nico offered.

 Chapter 1006 1006 Implemented

    <h4>Chapter 1006 1006 Implemented</h4>


    Max considered the potential downfalls of Nico being allowed to create a weapon that would throw Demons betweenyers, then decided that it couldn''t be worse in the long run than nuking the into oblivion.


    "Alright, get to work on it before the Drone Fighters are rebuilt. We can start recreating the interceptors, though, since they''re mostly fighting technological enemies, and I really don''t want to suffer a taste of our own medicine tonight when the enemyes back." Max agreed.


    They had been subject to repeated bombing runs in their first few deployments, and it was distinctly unpleasant. Unpleasant enough that it made the top ten experiences he would rather not try again, in fact.


    While he rxed and let his mind wander into a light sleep in preparation for the next battle, Nico was busy designing their new weapon. At first, her thought was to use the unique energy that had created the barrier around the as a methrower or wave-type weapon, but as she analyzed the likely results, she realized that would likely pull the surface of the in as well, and not just the Demons.


    So, she had to actually find a way to recreate the energy signature of the Demons vanishing into that strangeyer and iste it. That took her most of the evening, but when she was finished, Nico was fairly certain that she had a weapon that could banish the energy beings without harming anything else.


    Without that level of support, the mortal armies that were here on the would be decimated in minutes by the Drone Fighters without the Android Mecha having to go anywhere at all.


    There were still spots around the where the locals were staging a valiant defence against the influx, but they were mostly on the defence, and this weapon would allow them to take a bit of vengeance for all that they had suffered.


    [Wave One of the new Drone Fighters is ready for deployment.]


    The announcement woke Max from his light sleep, and he brought up the sensor array to see what was going on around him. The situation still looked very much like when he had gone to sleep, with nothing daring toe in sight of their formation and only a few brave souls attempting to sneak close enough to get a sensor scan.


    Most of those were detected and bombarded with Thunder Guns, but with the Drones heading out now, they would have to be very good at their jobs to survive.


    [Any word on other forces headed this way?] Max asked Nico before she could fall asleep.


    [Nothing yet. I have been monitoring theirmunications, and it sounds like they''re still in negotiations on who is going to send how many troops here and who is going to go to the new call that just came in.


    There is a in a sr system off the other nk of the battlefield that seems to be under attack by Klem, and they''re in no way prepared for it.] Nico borated.


    Just describing the Klem to other species tended to make some of them panic, so he could understand the reaction, but they weren''t even the most deadly species on this battlefield, so surely the locals would get over it soon.


    [Alright, sleep well, and I will watch over the drones as they work.] Max told her right before Nico drifted off to sleep.


    Max dispatched the newly created Drone Fighters and watched as the cones of energy from their new main weapons caused the enemy to simply vanish, breaking apart as if they had been destroyed and disappearing from thisyer of space.


    It was glorious, and the mortal troops of the Cathedral Ships were in a panic as the mainbat force of their assault vanished without warning.


    The attack was invisible to the naked eye and most sensors, so they might not even notice that it was happening while the Drone Fighters were firing their Laser Arrays into the bunkers.


    As far as terror tactics went, this one was way up there for the level of pure panic that it induced. Max was honestly impressed that it worked so well and precisely targeted the Demons.


    There wasn''t much to do but keep watch as the Drones went to work, so Max studied the notes that Nico had left in case there was an issue with the weapon.


    She hade across a few interesting energy patterns while she was developing it, and though none of them had been tested yet, some of them looked truly terrifying. One was a direct inversion of the portal frequency that her System Function said would disce antimatter instead of regr matter.


    While the mutual annihtion of free-moving antimatter would cause utter chaos, that was a level of destruction that they were already familiar with and had the technology to contain. It had been developed in the early days of Faster Than Light travel in case there was a Warp Core breach.


    The most intriguing of the possible uses for this energy was to directly shut down portals to otheryers, as long as the weapon was attuned to them.


    You didn''t even have to know where they were. Just fire the weapon everywhere, and you would destabilize them wherever the energy touched.


    That woulde in handyter, Max was certain. When the enemy tried to port in, they could shut the invasion down if they could copse the portals, leaving the frontline troops isted and alone.


    Max spent the remainder of the morning working on a weapon that would do exactly that, from both the otheryer they had stabilized portals to and the one that most of these Demons wereing from.


    Not all of them seemed to be returning to that ce, though. Some seemed to be pulled to otheryers, and their energy changed as they dissipated. It was the strangest thing that Max had ever seen, and it raised a lot of vital questions.


    Like, where did all these Demons evene from?

 Chapter 1007 1007 Freedom

    <h4>Chapter 1007 1007 Freedom</h4>


    As the carnage continued, and the Drones worked to eliminate all of the energy beings that they could, the barrier around the began to falter as well.


    At first, the only thing they could see was the shimmering reds and purples of the barrier, looking very much like a condensed neb surrounding the, but now they could see through it to the moon and even some of the brightest stars in the sky.


    Whatever effect had stabilized their attack here, it was faltering.


    That was when the first reinforcements arrived to help Max and his people on the. Not the allies that the locals had hoped for, but allies nheless.


    An entire Arisen Cube appeared suddenly on the surface of the world, and millions of War Walkers appeared all over the world, attacking every group of the enemy that they could find.


    In the minds of the Arisen, these were the servants of the Great Evil but not the Great Enemy, which seemed to be a separate being or group of beings. The two groups were allied, and they were doing their best to eliminate them all, but the entire situation was a mess.


    None of the species actually got along, so their alliance was very shaky, and the local residents immediately fled their defensive positions to hide in bunkers when the War Walkers appeared.


    The War Walkers were working well with the Drone Fighters, which only made the locals even more suspicious of the humans'' intentions, but neither side was attacking civilians, so Max had some hope that they would understand once the battle was over.


    A line of smoke appeared on the horizon to Max''s east, a crude method of propulsion that no War Walker would ever emit, so Max brought the unit to attention in preparation for an attack.


    Over the horizon came a line of profane vehicles covered in skulls, mangled bodies and blood. Each of the desecrated tanks had Warriors hanging off every part of it as it raced across the rugged terrain, firing wildly in his direction as they approached.


    A mortar shell exploded to his left, covering Max in mud and grass. The Thunder Guns aiming gears whirred as the three massive barrels adjusted, and then Max fired a single high explosive round toward the tank, punching a hole through the hull and sending corpses and chunks of nearly molten armour flying in all directions.


    A minor adjustment and a second tank exploded, then a third. More tanks came over the horizon, apanied by personnel carriers, and the bombardment of the human emcement began in earnest.


    Max could sense the desperation in the insane minds of the Warriorsing to his mind, fleeing from the advance of the War Walkers, an enemy that they had feared for all of their long lives.


    They had good reason to fear, as Max could see the telltale green glow of Arisen energy weapons approaching in the distance as the stragglers were destroyed.


    [All units, take a knee and keep firing. Limit your exposed surface area as the enemy approaches.] Max ordered.


    They hadn''t bothered to dig trenches, though they really should have. But at the moment, it no longer mattered. The Warriors were trapped between him and the Arisen with nowhere to go and nowhere near enough firepower to break free.


    The light Mass Drivers were tearing apart the front lines of tracked armour while the infantry was jumping off to set up emcements for what was looking like theirst stand.


    The missiles and energy sts from their heavy weapons streaked through the air alongside the artillery of their tanks, only to be met with a furious counterattack by the Mecha, lighting up the lines with Ion Cannons and the explosions of Mass Driver shells.


    Outside the Mecha''s sound-deadened enclosure, the sound was deafening, reaching over two hundred decibels, with sonic booms shaking the ground all around the Mecha.


    A regr human would have no chance of surviving this battlefield. The impact of the air discement alone would be enough to shatter bones and copse their lungs. But there were no regr humans on this battlefield, and the mutated horde of Warriors charged forward to their deaths, heedless of the fury that awaited them.


    Max raised his sword to salute an ornately decorated warrior who was charging with a two-handed axe raised high over his head and then obliterated the Warrior with his Mass Driver.


    Some might call it wasteful, but for an enemy champion, an indirect hit would just be a shameful death.


    Max noticed that Nico''s Mecha was firing into the enemy at its usual measured pace, but Nico herself was not yet awake. She had just programmed her subconscious reactions to deal with attackers and intruders, while her conscious mind thought that she was having a pleasant dream of genocide.


    [Nico, it''s time to wake up. You''re sleeping through the battle.] Max mentally nudged her.


    [Battle, what, where? Oh here. Battle! Thanks Max.]


    Max shook his head at her newfound enthusiasm for the day and returned to the systemic annihtion of the enemy lines.


    Their advance had stalled, blocked by destroyed vehicles that the infantry were using as cover, and the War Walkers of the Arisen Army wereing up quickly behind them, having already destroyed the rearguard.


    [Cease fire while the infestation is purged.] A robotic voice announced over all of the Mecha''s programmed frequencies.


    That had to be the Arisen Commander.


    [You heard the Arisen. Hold your fire unless the enemy charges us. Let them clear thest ranks of survivors.] Max ordered while Nico pouted.


    She had only just woken up, and now the fight was over with only a pleasant dream to show for it.


    The War Walkers weren''t wasting time. They were jogging past the Warriors with pulses of green energy flying everywhere, scouring the surface of life and even double-tapping body parts that had been severed by the Mecha''s artillery.


    [Thorough job, I approve. Nico reluctantly congratted the Arisen, knowing from their broadcast that they were likely listening in on her frequency.]


    There was no immediate response, but once they reached the front lines of the offensive, the Arisen split around the Mecha formation and kept moving with onest message.


    [We appreciate your cooperation.]

 Chapter 1008 1008 Not Alone

    <h4>Chapter 1008 1008 Not Alone</h4>


    The drones continued to circle the for six more hours, looking for targets and eliminating survivors before Nico called them back to the ships.


    Even if there were some Warriors left on the, their numbers were so small now that even the civilians could deal with them fairly easily.


    "Are we done here?" Nico asked as thest of the Drones returned to the Colony Ship and were stored away for repairs and restocking with raw materials before their next battle.


    "I believe we are. Let''s get off this god-forsaken rock before the locals turn on us." Max agreed.


    The locals had realized that the battle was mostly over now, and they were beginning to take stock of the damage done. That meant they were beginning to realize the full extent of the damage that the Drones did during their ''rescue'' effort, and they were not happy.


    The Arisen had the same idea. The enemy was gone, so they had no reason to remain. As quickly as they had appeared, they vanished into the secondaryyer of space, out of sight of the locals, so Max sent their departure order.


    [Activate the portals and move us into the otheryer along with the Arisen. The faster we disappear, the better.]


    The local poption was torn between celebrating their survival and raging against the strange species that had shown up along with the Arisen to devastate half of their in an effort to remove the Great Enemy.


    In their minds, it was ridiculous and uncalled for. They were a peaceful species from the start, only developing their military might for defensive purposes, and the damage to their was beyond anything that they could deem eptable.


    "They have sent an official message to the Koleska Territory, requesting an exnation from our species representative. The Anomaly Defence Force Commander is awaiting instructions." Nico informed Max only a few minutes after they had made the transfer.


    They were still floating in the chaotic energy currents near the Rift, and Max had been more interested in the strange phenomenon going on there than the anger of a species whose name he didn''t even bother to learn.


    "I will make one in just a moment. You pick out another defence target while we wait. We will give it a day or so to rest and recover and to give the others time to respond if they''re going to." Max instructed.


    Max considered the tone of his message for a while and then decided that he would go for overbearing. It made life easier when nobody questioned you.


    [Envoy, we acknowledge your concern about the damage done to your by the invasion of the Great Enemy, and we sympathize with your plight.


    We are also grateful for your appreciation of the fact that we rescued over eighty percent of your civilian poption and would like to offer you discounted Terraforming services once this conflict is over, should your species survive.


    -Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company]


    Even through the tiny portal that he had opened to send back the message, Max could sense the outrage of theary government as they received his message.


    "How dare he offer to terraform our after being the one to destroy it? And IF we survive this conflict? IF? How DARE HE!" The''s Governor was raging while Max resisted the urge tough.


    "You seem a bit too happy. What did you tell them?" Nico asked before she read the message.


    "Oh, that is a good one. We will have to turn it into a temte forter. We can just update the survival rate and use it over and over every time that someoneins that we broke more of their than we defended." Sheughed as she read the message Max had sent out.


    That would just be too cruel. He had only chosen his wording this way because they were so mad about being rescued like it was just expected that someone could turn aside a fullary invasion without a second thought.


    After a few more minutes, Nico had a location for them. There was another under attack by the Great Evil, as the Arisen called them, and their sensors had detected some strange energy signatures bleeding through theyers of space near the, suggesting that a greater being was nearby.


    That was her choice of calls to answer so that she could collect more data on what they were actually fighting, not the minions that made up the first wave of shock troops.


    It might not be the best idea that they ever had if that enemy turned out to be more than they could handle, but the n was to approach from thisyer and see if there was any reaction from the enemy. If there wasn''t, then they could retreat here if things went bad.


    But if the enemy did react to them here, they would hold back and engage from a distance, dealing with the orbital fleet while other forces which were on their way madendfall.


    "Well, if we travel through thisyer at the usual rate, we should be there in two days. Should we take a little break?" Nico suggested.


    "What did you have in mind? Kepflix and chill?" Max asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.


    "Oh, that''s a good idea too. But I was thinking of a nice soak in the hot tub in Section E while we set the holographic walls to transparent mode and watch the swirling energy around us like we were floating in space."


    "That actually sounds pretty good. A nice soak to just unwind and do nothing for a while. We''ve done enough thinking for one day." Max agreed.


    Section E was right near the middle of the ship and only a short walk from the hangar bays, but Nico already had the room ready by the time that they arrived, and both the temperature and the jet pressure of the tub adjusted perfectly before they arrived.


    "And, now we switch the walls to external camera mode, and perfect." She announced as the view around the tub turned to one of swirling clouds of energy.


    What Max hadn''t expected was that the tub had the same disy function, so they really did feel like they were floating naked in a bubble of water in the void.


    One more new experience to put down on the rmended list.

 Chapter 1009 1009 Enemy Sensors

    ?


    On the evening of the second day, Max and Nico were on high alert as the besieged began to enter their sensor detection range. They were still too far out to pick up any individual ships, but they were close to that point, and there was no telling what the Cathedral Ships could do.


    At the moment, there was no sign of anything in thisyer, enemy or otherwise. That was a good sign in Max''s mind, and he hoped that they weren''t watching for an approach of this fashion so his small fleet could attack undetected, the way that the Arisen had for so long against the other species in this region.


    [We areing up on sensor range to the attack. Disy screens are now avable.] The ship''sputer informed them a few hourster.


    Nico switched all the disys in the main sitting room to show different sensors and camera angles, just in case something was trying to sneak up on them, while Max checked the responses of the Cathedral Ships for any signs that they had detected his fleet and were on high alert against ambush.


    Every movement and ship cement, every deployment of their troops was carefully analyzed as they fought against the resistance forces that were already there in orbit.


    From here, it looked like the hadn''t taken the full brunt of the attack yet, and the force was mostly a mortal one, as there was no strange barrier around the region. The defenders wouldn''t be able to hold out forever, as they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned. The only thing they had in their favour was heavier shielding, which kept them in the fight for the moment while they sent requests for more support from nearby systems.


    How much they could hope for was very dubious when every was afraid that they would be the next ones in that position but without their own defence fleet. They had received some token forces from their allies, just not enough for the scale of attack that they were receiving.


    They hadn''t informed anyone that they were on their way yet, so if another took a sudden attack, Max could go to their aid instead, but it looked more like this was the spot to be, with all of the firepower that had gathered for round two of the space battle.


    "Nico, what do we have that''s more than the standard Fusion Torpedo but not antimatter?" Max asked.


    "There really isn''t anything. It''s Nuke them into oblivion or annihte everything. There is no in-between. Why, what are you thinking?" She asked, excited that Max might have something fun in store.


    "Just the basic ambush. You know, maximum first strike capability and get rid of as much of the enemy firepower as humanly possible before they have a chance to react." Max shrugged.


    "Well, let''s see what options we have with the gear we''re working with. If they don''t detect us, we could portal in the Android Mecha at point-nk range with ten thousand Nuclear Torpedos, one per Mecha. If they do detect us, we can fire a full barrage at the closest ships, and I can almost guarantee a dozen instant kills.


    What do you want us to prioritize? Taking out their orbital firepower?" Nico asked.


    Max shook his head. "No, maximum casualty rate. If they still have troops on them in reserve for thending, I want them gone. If they''re a repair ship stocked with staff, I want them gone. We can deal with their orbital firepowerter. The manpower will be the hardest part for them to rece."


    Nico hopped on top of him and smothered Max''s face in kisses as sheughed.


    "See, everyone says that women are hard to understand, but you get me so well. Fear not; I will find us just the right weapon for the job, and you can use your fancy targeting skills to find us just the right targets."


    Max picked out twelve targets that looked to their sensors to have the most people still on them and waited to see if the enemy was going to detect them before they could spring the trap.


    [We are within the sr system. Torpedos are in range.] Theputer informed him.


    "No sign of response from the enemy. Begin positioning ships for the assault." Max ordered.


    That brought a response, but not from where they expected. Five alien Destroyers in a pattern that Max had seen during the first battle suddenly appeared in front of them, with energy weapons charged and ready to fire.


    [All shields to maximum intensity.]


    [Fire All Torpedos and shift Layers.]


    Max and Nico''s orders came at the exact same time, and the shields were overcharged just as the Torpedos were fired and the portal generators began to charge. The shift betweenyers had a two-secondg time as the portal was stabilized, and it was just long enough to see that their tactic had worked.


    The aliens'' weapons nearly depleted the shields of Max''s fleet while the Torpedos tore their vessels apart and threw the remains out into the unforgiving energy currents. Then, they were back in their homeyer, and the Torpedos were rearmed for the main assault.


    [Fire on the designated targets.] Max ordered.


    The Cathedral ships began to turn to face them, attempting to avoid a barrage against their broadsides by the human fleet, but the Torpedos were already away. They had fired from much further out than Max had hoped, but he wasn''t going to waste any more time, and he began targeting the Mass Drivers for the fleet while the Torpedo tubes reloaded.


    They were created as they were used, so it took a few seconds to custom-build each one, but the torpedo arsenal was only one of the three major weapon systems on each ship.


    Only Max''s Cutter didn''t have an Orbital Lance, but that was not a major loss from this distance. The slower-moving energy weapons were better used up close, while the Warp Capable torpedos were best for this inteary range.

 Chapter 1010 1010 Revenge

    ?


    [Close the distance to the enemy and prepare to repel boarding actions.] Max ordered as the Torpedos made an impact with their first wave of targets.


    The Cathedral ships returned fire with torpedos of their own, but as they travelled at less than light speed, the human fleet had over ten seconds to deal with them using the Mass Drivers. None of them came close to impacting the Destroyers, but the explosions were incredibly powerful when they were destroyed on impact.


    "It looks like they do have a fun toy or two for us to borrow," Nico smirked as she set up the defensive fire to block the next barrage of iing projectiles.


    "I will try to leave one intact enough for you to recover someputer files, but no promises. Just remember the sanitation and istion protocols. There might be something even more insidious on theseputers than the virus that the Arisen had put on the nomads to track them." Max reminded her.


    The Mass Drivers tore apart the light attack craft of the attacking fleet while Max prepared to target the next most threatening group of vessels, now that he had picked out the ones he believed had the highest poptions for extermination.


    The Cathedral Ships were erectingyer afteryer of shielding in all different configurations as he approached. The attempt to prevent him from destroying them in a single barrage was impressive, and there were some shield configurations that he had never seen before involved in this attempt.


    That was valuable data forter when the battle was over, and they had time to do some proper analysis.


    [All Torpedos fire on targets.] Max ordered, then set the ship''s sensors to maximize the amount of data that was collected from the impacts. He assumed that some of the ships were going to survive, and he wanted the data on what shielding formations worked best against his torpedos.


    The Mass Drivers were firing right along with them, clearing out as many small craft as possible to keep them from intercepting the torpedo barrage, but still, two-thirds of it was lost to the defensive measures employed by the Cathedral Ships.


    The remainder detonated against their shields, sending the ships careening through space under the force of the impact before their thrusters couldpensate for the st and then again when the Mass Drivers made an impact.


    Only three of the twelve targets survived the initial barrage, all of them Destroyer ss orrger vessels. But they were also the only ones that appeared to have that specific variety of shielding.


    [Data Collected, sent for analysis.] The ship''sputer reported.


    There was a designated mainframe for that, and it wouldn''t take away from theirbat capabilities, even if Nico weren''t going to take over most of the work.


    Max knew she would. She was very excited to see new shield informatione in for the first time in ages. But the ship''sputer would still dutifully verify everything.


    [Iing interceptors.] Theputer announced, and Max looked at the screens, wondering where they were supposed to being from.


    The otheryer was the answer. The aliens that they had defeated earlier had returned and snuck up while he was distracted,unching a fleet of interceptors betweenyers to get up close and personal with the human fleet.


    The defensivesers shed a brilliant matrix around the ships as the Interceptors approached, and Max gave the order to defend the fleet.


    [All Drones, deploy now.] He ordered.


    The Colony ss ship seemed to explode as the drones exited every possible point on the vessel at the same time, flooding out into space to join the fight.


    The alien craft immediately turned and fled at the sight. They were outnumbered, and they had just realized that the Colony ship was not full of soldiers but a transport for orbital fighters.


    There was going to be no escape for them, though. They had approached in a swarm around all of the ships of the fleet, and the defensive weapons were a deadlybyrinth that they had to navigate while also escaping from the drones, whose navigation systems were linked to the weapons of the main ships, giving them reliable data on what locations to avoid in their pursuit path.


    One after another, the interceptors were destroyed until finally, thest of them managed to flee back into the otheryer where their motherships were waiting for them.


    "Do you think that we should let them know that we can attack betweenyers?" Nico asked.


    "Not yet. First, send out a bunch of the heavy Drone Fighters we made with Mass Drivers and portal them into the otheryer in a group. Make them think that is the only way we can do it, well away from the main ships. If the Drones chase them off, all the better, but misdirection is the main goal." Max instructed.


    The drones were deployed in a matter of seconds, as they were already on the battlefield, and the bombardment of the otheryer began with a bang. Metaphorically, since there was nothing to transfer the sound of the Mass Drivers. But Max''s mind still assigned the shots the same sound that he heard from inside his Mecha when they were fired in space.


    The brutal ambush made the aliens panic. They hadn''t expected the Drones to be sent to them without the main ships, which hadn''t shown any signs of trying to deal with them.


    The Cutter kept a small portal open tomunicate with the drones, and Max sensed their shock and annoyance as the ambush began to wear down their shielding. Nothing was going right for them today, and the rapid destruction of the first fleet had left them confused about the ability of the human fleet.


    The Drone attack only made the confusion worse, and now the vessels seemed to be discarded by their masters, while the aliens were finding no signs of life aboard them. The shock was turning to pure rage as they continued to take fire from the Drones even as they realized that there were no pilots inside of them, and they were taking casualties without even the chance to inflict losses on the humans.


    "That should keep them for a minute." Max chuckled as thest of the drones managed to take out another of the alien ships before it was lost.


    The alien fleet had only taken a tenth or so of their fleet in casualties, but the Colony ship already had more of the drones ready to deploy, and Max was just waiting for the aliens to decide that they were safe before he sent them out.

 Chapter 1011 1011 Political Will

    ?


    Back at the Koleska''s Anomaly defence station, the discussions on who should be sending what to which distress call were ongoing, and every new call was causing even more confusion among the group-minded politicians.


    Their instinct was to prevent any and all danger froming their way, so they weren''t willing to do anything at all unless they had someone who could be thrown under the bus when things went wrong.


    But they weren''t the only minds making decisions here, and a lot of the military leaders had chosen to ignore their ramblings and send out troops of their own before the politicians got their heads out of their asses far enough to see the danger that they were in.


    One such group was the Morphos. Simr to the Koleska, they were an exoskeletal species with hard ck chitin. The difference was that they preferred to alternate between bipedal and quadrupedal movement and had a highly acidic thick green slime as blood. Their long tails helped them bnce on any terrain, and the ws of theirbat suits were reinforced with Adamantite, a nearly indestructible metal that could be honed to a monomolecr edge, allowing them to cut through nearly anything that the species had encountered in the past.


    They preferred closebat due to their physical advantages, but in recent centuries, under the threat of the Arisen, they had developed a wide range of hard-mounted Ion weapons, which could be fired by a neural link to keep their hands free.


    They had sent fifty destroyers full of shock troops to the second emergency call that hade in. It was an invasion of Cathedral Ships, a nickname that they had borrowed for the Blooded Warriors from the humans, who had ambushed a frontier system.


    When they left, the system had only just received a few nearby allies as assistance, but once they got to a stable portion of space, they opened a portal to get closer and found that the humans had beaten them there.


    They didn''t notice that the human fleet had finished with their first fight, but they were happy to see the dozen insane vesselsunching a constant barrage of firepower at the enemy.


    The Morphos Admiral addressed his crew as they approached the system at high warp.


    [It looks like this might not be a suicide mission, my friends. The human fleet is here, and they are holding their ground. So far, they haven''t deployed their Mecha, so they must not be too hard-pressed, and we will have a chance to turn the tides right from the moment that we arrive.


    Prepare the attack craft and the boarding pods. We willunch a full assault the moment we enter the ambush range.]


    Inside the Command Cutter, Nico had already noticed the iing reinforcements, and Max was making ns to support them as much as he could.


    It was the first fight of the war, other than the loss at the Rift, for this species, and Max didn''t want them to lose their determination to help save who they could. So, if they looked like they were having any trouble at all, he wouldunch the entire Android Army and go on a full assault to distract the enemy away from the new arrivals.


    [Commander, the aliens in the otheryer are charging their drives to make a transition to thisyer. Ten seconds to arrival.] The ship announced.


    [Send another wave of drones ASAP.] Max ordered.


    The drones vanished into the otheryer in an instant, and the damage to the alien ships was astounding. One thing that Max had forgotten to factor in was that when the Drones moved betweenyers, they were still in the same spot.


    Two of the drones had appeared inside the vessels they were targeting and then unleashed their Mass Drivers against the unprotected internals of the ships, aiming for the ship''s main drives, as per their programming.


    The result was an instant detonation without any form of warning or even visible threat to the alien fleet. The effects were even worse with all of the ship''s capacitors charged in preparation for a Portal Opening, and the detonation rocked the region, causing the others to panic and many to power down their drives, thinking that the humans had a defensive weapon that would prevent them from shiftingyers.


    "Nico, we need something to stop them from doing that to us. Spend any brain power you can spare on it, and I want it done before the end of the battle." Max ordered as he saw how effective the tactic was.


    [Commander, would you like to continue using that tactic?] The AI in charge of the Drones'' Colony Ship asked.


    [Use it to take out the remainder of these aliens. I don''t feel like getting ambushed today. But keep some drones in the otheryer in case we need them on short notice.] Max replied.


    [Understood Commander.]


    The Drones that were flying about the battlefield continued as expected, only every few seconds; one would simply disappear as it passed over an alien ship in the other Layer, then detonate everything around it. It all happened so quickly that the unfortunate crews never even got a chance to realize what was happening before only the drones that had appeared outside the enemy ships were left in the otheryer, with the main battlefield none the wiser about their actions.


    "Max, it looks like our new friends are a fun-loving sort. They just dropped out of Warp andunched boarding pods. I have the drones in the area running interception duty to prevent them from being destroyed before they can reach their targets, and the main ships are working to bring down the enemy shields to facilitate the boarding actions." Nico announced.


    "Have they sent out anything else?" Max asked.


    "Some sleek ck attack craft. On par with the old ones that the Koleska had. Sufficient for the job but nothing special. They''re supporting the drones."


    Max made a mental note and then decided it was time to back the enemy into a corner.


    [Deploy all Mecha teams. Defensive Formations around your vessels for added firepower. Target by threat priority.] Max ordered.


    "And now we wait to see what the so-called Great Evil will do." He told Nico with a smirk.

 Chapter 1012 1012 Tactical Snark

    ?


    The scenes from the battlefield were just beginning to filter back to the politicians in the Koleska Anomaly Station, and what they were seeing was causing the Politicians to panic.


    The Morphos had linked up with the Terminus Trading Company, and they were defeating the Great Enemy in battle. Only two factions working together were stopping the assault of a splinter force, and the scene was being broadcast to every single sentient species in the region, courtesy of Nico Tarith.


    There was no denying now that even a small alliance was enough for them to defend the worlds that were important to them, so any continued hesitation in sending out their troops would be seen as a sign of cowardice.


    Of course, the majority of the politicians gathered here were cowards, but that didn''t mean that they would allow anyone to openly say it to their face.


    Alliances were beginning to form as the various species tried to pick out the allies that bestplemented their abilities inbat so that they would have a better-rounded force to face off against these horrible enemies.


    New messages hade in about an invasive species that had been bombardings with pods and growing new extremely hostile life forms on the surface.


    "Those are what the humans call the Klem. The great enemy took them from our Gxy for the battle, and they can infest an entire in a matter of weeks, and then they will begin sending spores to nearbys and stars to continue the expansion.


    If they''re not stopped, they will take over huge portions of territory, and with the interference of the neb and the random energy, it will be nearly impossible to track their pods, so they could show up without warning even years from now." Fleet Admiral Rashad of Celia''s Love was exining.


    The politicians didn''t seem to understand, so he brought up a few battle scenes apanied by an arrival schedule of pod waves on various human settlements.


    "These are the times when the pods arrived at our worlds from a handful of nearby Klem-infested worlds. On the other disy is a scene ofbat against them so you can understand the basic tactics to fight them if you wish to save the." Rashad exined.


    Some of the politicians were making notes, while others tried not to vomit at the level of carnage in the handpicked scenes the Admiral had disyed.


    Of course, they were from a hard-fought battle, where the Klem had overrun the artillery efforts and made it to the front lines of the Fortress'' defences before being repelled. Making it look easy wouldn''t do anyone any favours.


    "Would you be able to join us in these battles as the resident experts on the topic?" One of the alien politicians, a short and muscr creature with six eyes on a furry face, asked.


    "Possibly. We have a working arrangement with the Koleska, and we will be discussing targets with their Command staff once the rest of our fleet arrives. They should be here within the day, and then we will be heading out." Admiral Rashad exined.


    "Will you be joining the humans of the Terminus Trading Company?" One of the others asked.


    "No, we will not. They are going to frence until they pick up a reliable assistant. Terminus Trading Company prefers to be in nearly constant heavybat due to the nature of their Artificial Intelligence piloted force."


    The alien frowned. "What if the Arisen take them over?"


    Rashad shrugged with a smirk on his face. "We''re on the same team at the moment, so wouldn''t that just be providing more assault units for our allies? If the Arisen wants to take over the Terminus Androids, then Terminus will likely let them and make more for their own use."


    A taller, slender green alien woman with four arms rolled her violet eyes at hisment. "Just like that? Make a whole new army on the spot to rece the one imed by the Arisen and go back to fighting?"


    Rashad nodded with a very happy and very fake smile on his face. "Exactly like that. Only, I expect that they would start the moment that the Arisen started iming the Androids so that they didn''t losebat capabilities while the Arisen were restocked with bodies for their force.


    I''m not saying that our Mecha are up to the standard of a War Walker, but they are quite destructive."


    The frustration of the Politicians with his nonchnt confidence didn''t need an Illithid to detect, and Rashad was enjoying every minute of it.


    "Does your army use the same androids?" The six-eyed man asked.


    "No, but we have some of the Drone Fightersing to reinforce us and fill out our numbers in battle. They are of great utility to us since we don''t lose the pilots along with the vessel, and our technology can recycle scrap off the battlefield to make newbat units." Rashad informed him.


    The politicians turned to each other with panicked looks. It had never urred to them that the humans might employ a swarm tactic like the aliens that were attacking near their home systems had.


    Perhaps that was the key to defeating them. If they could just throw enough firepower at the problem, it would go away, and they wouldn''t have to worry about mass casualties. Instead of limiting their involvement, they should have been pushing their leaders to get as many soldiers as possible to the intervention force.


    They had been going about the solution entirely backward.


    "If you will excuse us, we need to speak to our leadership and get forces mobilized to go see to the needs of our neighbours. Thank you for your guidance. It has been quite useful." The tall woman replied politely, then bowed and hurried out of the room, followed by the others in her alliance group.


    "Are you really so loyal to the Koleska that you would reserve your entire force to fight at our side?" Commander Yuri asked Admiral Rashad.


    "Don''t take it the wrong way, but we know you''re not morons. It''s much better to fight at your side than to try to learn the idiosyncracies of a hundred other species." The Admiral whispered so he wasn''t overheard by the nearby politicians.


    Commander Yuri chuckled. "Exactly so, Admiral. I understand very well now."

 Chapter 1013 1013 Morphos Attack

    <h4>Chapter 1013 1013 Morphos Attack</h4>


    On the front lines, the appearance of the Android Army was enough to distract the majority of the attack craft that had been sent out by the Cathedral ships away from the attack of the Morphos boarding craft.


    Max sensed the Warriors'' confidence that they would be able to handle the iing attackers and that the attack craft group was only going after them out of bloodlust, so it wasn''t really surprising. But the Morphos seemed to have all the right tools to deal with the situation, as long as their gear was as good as they believed it to be.


    [The first of the Morphos have breached the Cathedral Ships.] The AI informed them as it redirected more Drone Fighters to keep the shields down for the rest of the Morphosnders to attach themselves to the hull.


    The number of attackcraft was dwindling with the addition of the Mecha Army, so Max sent them on the offensive.


    [All ships move forward. Attack formation Delta. Eliminate all enemy targets that do not have Morphos forces aboard.] He ordered.


    The ships began to move forward, and the human fleet began to break out the heavy weapons, the Orbital Lances, The Thermonuclear Thunder Gun munitions, and fresh waves of Drone Bombers unleashing dozens of Warp Capable Torpedoes at once.


    In space, a bombing run was a strange-looking process, as the bomber released the bombs, then pulled up and left them sitting in space for a split second before the Torpedos engaged and fired on the target.


    The crews of the Cathedral Ships were horrified to realize that the humans could be even more brutal, especially when they realized that the fury of the bombardment was beginning to destabilize space and they weren''t slowing down.


    That wasn''tpletely correct, though. Their superiors in the otheryer were trying to recall them, but the ships were spamming the anti-Demon Disruptor weapons across the battlefield and preventing the portals from forming, which was destabilizing the region.


    "The disruptors aren''t working. Portals from the otheryer are forming." Nico announced suddenly as a multicoloured sphere of energy formed around the.


    "Oh, that can''t be good. Are we about to be pulled in again?" Max muttered as the energy field began to form.


    The Drones weren''t programmed for new forms of multidimensional transport phenomenon and assumed that it was another enemy shield, so the Android Army began an immediate bombardment of the shell around the world, which began to crack apart into shards, sending unstable tendrils of energy outward through the battlefield, discing portions of whatever they hit, effectively tearing them to pieces.


    [Morphos Fleet. There is an unstable phenomenon in the region. We rmend immediate withdrawal.] Max broadcast.


    [Agreed, Terminus Fleet. Withdrawing now.] The Morphos Commander agreed, and the assault pods began to depart the Cathedral Ships secondster.


    Nico recalled the Drones and the Android Mecha when she realized what had happened, but that gave the Cathedral Ships the chance that they needed, and they began to flee out of the region into theyer of space where Max couldn''t follow them.


    He was going to have to find a way into thatyer eventually, but the sensation of something horrific watching him was back, and he strongly suspected that it was just on the other side of those portals, and he was definitely not ready to meet whatever that thing was yet.


    As they vanished, the barrier that they had tried to erect around the faded as well, leaving behind only the rubble of the battle and one lightly damaged.


    From what Max could tell, some of the tendrils had hit the surface, tearing into it and causing massive volcanic activity, and a portion of the atmosphere had vanished, but the death toll was under a million, which was quite impressive, given the situation.


    [Do we count that as a win, Terminus Commander?] The Morphos Commander reluctantly asked as they surveyed the damage.


    [I would call it a win. The enemy retreated without taking the, and we''re still here with the majority of our troops.] Max agreed.


    [Indeed. Thanks to your timely warning, our casualties were under five thousand, which is incredible for a boarding action.]


    The species bred like the Klem from pods with a very short gestation. So they could afford some losses, but too many and they would have to return to one of their colonys to replenish their staff.


    [It was good working with you, Morphos Commander. What are your ns after this?] Max asked.


    [We have the forces to answer another distress call right away. With permission, we will apany your team to their next call. You seem to excel at ranged firepower, and my species has specialized in boarding actions and assassinations.]


    Nico smiled at thatst word. Giant ck exoskeletal aliens, that could crawl along ceilings and specialize in assassinations? She definitely wanted to be friends with these ones.


    [I believe that arrangement could be beneficial to both of us. Would yourmand team like to send over a group to discuss our next intervention location?] Max asked.


    [They can be there within five minutes.] The Morphos Commander agreed.


    Nico smirked at Max. "Violent, aggressive, filled with acid, and they''re punctual? This species is almost too good to be true."


    The sentiment back at the Anomaly Station was a bit different. The pure brutality shown by the newly formed dynamic duo was making other species nervous that they might embarrass themselves when they first sent out troops to fight.


    Almost all of them had a fleet en route to somewhere at the moment, and it was toote to change theposition of the forces but not toote to change tactics.


    Their intentions werepletely transparent, and Admiral Rashad was enjoying the moment of peace amongst species which had terrible poker faces that bordered on an inability to lie.


    "Well, it looks like it is our turn, Commander Yuri. The rest of my forces are at the Anomaly. Do you have a target in mind?" Rashad asked his Koleska counterpart.


    "In fact, I do. There is an isted distress signal from an outpost world in a system that was mostly obliterated by the Arisen. I suspect that there are enemies hiding there, and I want to check that location out. If it''s nothing, then just a few more hours of travel will bring us to this distress call." The Koleska leader exined.


    "You have the lead for this mission. Remember that we can use portals as soon as we''re far enough from the instabilities here as well. There is no need to fly the whole distance at warp."

 Chapter 1014 1014 Specialties

    <h4>Chapter 1014 1014 Specialties</h4>


    As the Anomaly Fleet prepared to move out, the rest of the species were finally getting into the swing of things, and some of the deployments began to change in mid-travel.


    What they had learned from the Morphos and the Terminus fleet was that the numbers didn''t matter as much as the way that you worked together. Sure, they were nning to overwhelm the enemy with numbers, but they also needed aplementary partner, and not just one that they were on good political terms with, so that their assault didn''t have any weaknesses.


    They were also beginning to adjust their response locations to those strengths.


    Those who could deal withrge numbers the most easily were heading for where the Myceloids and Klem were gathered, and those with the most brutal of single-target weaponry headed for the Cathedral Ships and the other alien attack fleets.


    Max was watching the phenomenon as they waited for the Morphos representative to arrive when suddenly, there were more minds within range of his abilities.


    An Arisen attack group was in the otheryer, right near him, and their amusement that it had taken someone literally showing them exactly what to do before they finally got it was greatly amusing to the Arisen Commanders.


    Max focused on the minds in the otheryer and tried to send them a mental message the way that he would the Illithid.


    [It''s not their fault they''re all stupid. But at least they''re learning.] He tried to convey.


    He could sense the Commandersughing at his remark, but none of them directly acknowledged his words.


    The Morphos seemedpletely oblivious to the arrival of the new vessel in the system, so Max assumed that their sensors could not detect the Arisen fleet. There was no time to be trying to revamp allied vessels at this point, so he would have to keep an extra close eye on attackers who were trying to take them by surprise since their teammates couldn''t.


    The negotiation shuttle contained only four people, all with shiny ck exoskeletons and elongated heads with bright silver eyes over matching metallic teeth and no lips on their mouths.


    The effect was that of a deadly predator, but they weren''t hostile at the moment, and Max already knew that most species viewed the humans as terrifying, so he wasn''t going to judge the Morphos on appearances.


    "Greetings Envoy. I am Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company." Max greeted the group as they exited their shuttle in the cargo bay of his Cutter.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you, Commander. I amary Governor Queen of the Morphos people. Before we begin, might I ask a question? You introduce yourself as the leader of a tradingpany, which in mynguage means you are merchants or deliver goods, not that you are soldiers. Could you rify for me?" She requested.


    "Certainly, Governor. The primary purpose and financing source for our endeavours is the trade and development of goods between multiple species in our home region. We only agreed to join the battle because it is viewed as an important threat mitigation effort by our species. We are not primarily soldiers, though we do have and develop arge amount of military equipment." Max exined.


    "So you are interster arms dealers who also develop household goods? What an interesting species you have. So many that we meet are hyper-focused on one aspect in order to gain an advantage, but it seems that humanity excels in many areas."


    Max nodded, and Nico gave the alien Envoy a thumbs-up gesture. "That versatility has been key to our survival in the past. I don''t think that we could separate it from our species at this point. Even groups that specialize in one product are full of members who are investigating other developments.


    There are other species like us in the universe, but as far as we know, we are among the best suited tobat. One of the species like us is the Innu, whose fleet is with the Anomaly Fleet right now and will be travelling with the Koleska to answer distress calls as support staff."


    "I look forward to learning more about your species and their neighbours in the future. But we have received a distress call from one of our closer allies, and we would like to proceed there, as it is near this system.


    The enemy is a fleet of Cathedral Ships, as I''m informed your species calls them. It is smaller than this one by arge margin, but they have brought a number of the energy beings to the surface of the already, so it is going to be a brutal fight from the start." The Governor suggested.


    "Alright, let''s take a seat in the meeting room, and we can go over the deployment and strategy for the attack. One intervention is as good as another when everything is under threat, so I see no reason not to help your friends." Max agreed.


    That wasrgely why he had suggested that theye here to discuss the issue. They had a long history in the region, and their homeworlds weren''t that far from the Rift, so they would surely know more about the species that were calling for rescue and if there were a few whose culture really wasn''t worth saving.


    It was callous, but some of these colonies weren''t really of any benefit to anyone, much less their neighbours. It was more important to prioritize the ones who had a history of cooperation or contribution and save them first.


    "Alright. This is what we are thinking. Do your unmanned fighters have life support capability? We would like to send a small team to ambush the enemy on the surface while the majority of the force fights in orbit.


    We can do a lot of damage if we can enter the atmosphere undetected, and from there, I think that we can retake some of the key military instations and return them to local control to make retaking the easier." The Governor exined as she brought out a disy with her rough sketch of an attack n on it.

 Chapter 1015 1015 Combined Intervention

    <h4>Chapter 1015 1015 Combined Intervention</h4>


    Nico and Max carefully analyzed the n that the Morphos had presented them and then began to add details based on the current intelligence.


    "This is where the enemy ships are at the moment. These spots appear to be weaknesses in the formation, but we suspect that they''re actually hiding spots for arger reinforcement fleet. These spots are more lightly defended, with the majority of their troops on the surface already.


    What I suggest is that we strike here and here, and our Drone Fighters will enter the atmosphere in a wave, with some carrying your troops.


    That should reduce the risk of them being targeted for destruction and will allow us to give them maximum fire support.


    While they descend, we need to take out the ships here and here andunch an offensive here to keep the enemy froming for thending force. After they are deployed, we can adjust as necessary." Max offered.


    The Morphos team looked over the ns with approval and then set them back on the table.


    "Isn''t this too much to do at once? Our forces are limited, and though the enemy is not as abundant here, you mentioned they might have reinforcements hidden in that strange way." The Envoy asked.


    "We will still have the whole Android Army in orbit since we are only sending down the Drone Fighters at first. They are capable enough to hold arge region of space on their own.


    It isn''t optimal for the space battle, but the Drones have the ability to effectively deal with the energy beings, so they are needed on the surface, and our job in orbit is just to protect them while they work and try to save the locals." Max exined.


    The Morphos team sent the data off for analysis by their researchers andputers while everyone waited, and Nico had the Androids bring them snacks and refreshments.


    "I looked into what your species eats, and it was surprisingly simr to our own cuisine despite the distance between our home gxies. So, I have prepared a selection of snacks that ourputer assures me will not be toxic to your bodies, ording to the data provided by the Koleska and our medical scanners." Nico exined.


    The Morphos Envoy nodded in eptance and picked a pumpkin pie square from the te to pop in her mouth.


    "Oh, these are good. A bit spicy and savoury. The Koleska didn''t steer you wrong. We have worked with them many times in the past, thanks to our simr appearances. They are some of the few who aren''t put off by exoskeletal species." The Envoy exined.


    "That is understandable. Many species in the Alliance near our Gxy find our species highly intimidating as well. Some will always fear what isn''t like them, but that shouldn''t stop us from having a sessful military alliance." Max agreed.


    The confirmation from their Commanders came back only a few secondster, along with a request for Max''s fleet to set the formation for travel. Nico was in charge of that department, so she was the one who showed them the routes.


    "The region that we are in is rtively stable, so I n to open a portal to get close to the target and then arrive at Warp 20. Are your ships capable of that speed?" She asked.


    "Unfortunately, no. We can do Warp 15 for a short burst, but we can only sustain Warp 12 with these vessels. The smaller interceptors are faster if that helps."


    Nico shook her head. "In that case, we will open the portal much closer to give the enemy less time to react. It is a bit higher risk of alerting their allies, but if we can get in fast enough and start dropping the attack squads, it will greatly increase their survival rate."


    The Morphos Envoy smiled, a strange reshaping of her mouth that made her exposed teeth look more hungry than anything else.


    "We are not that risk averse. If it is needed to save our friends, we don''t care if you drop us directly inbat. We will adapt," she dered.


    Max chuckled. "She won''t forget that you said that. Nico Tarith is a highly aggressive tactician and prefers to take the fight to the enemy instead of bombarding from a distance."


    "Hopefully, that doesn''t be necessary. My troops might have been raised as soldiers, but they are not easily reconstructed assistants like your Androids." Envoy Queen joked.


    Max smiled back at her. "Don''t worry. If ites to that, we have plenty of experience on our side to take care of the melee scrum. Inform your team that we will be departing in five minutes. Would you prefer to remain here on our vessel or return back to your own?"


    "I will remain here for the duration of our work together. It would just be inconvenient for me to be constantly travelling back and forth, given the security risks and the need for constantmunication." The Envoy decided.


    "In that case, let me get you set up with some rooms near the strategy room. Our amodations are rapidly configurable, so we can set them to be nearly whatever you might need." Max exined.


    Showing new people the little quirks of human design was always a good time, and this time wasn''t going to be any different. The Morphos preferred to bathe in acid to get themselves suitably clean, as they were immune to the effects. Other than that, they simply needed acid-resistant bedding but preferred a nice soft mattress.


    Nico was configuring the rooms as they walked, giving one smaller room to each of the assistants and one of therger officers'' suites toary Governor Queen so that she wouldn''t feel slighted in her role as Envoy.


    "Wee to your new amodations. The interior is all made of acid-resistant materials, so there are no worries about damage, and there is an acid bath avable in each room for your convenience. My apologies to the rest of the staff, but your suites are not quite so luxurious, though the basic amenities remain." Nico exined.


    The Envoy''s team chuckled at the thought of them all getting one of these massive suites suited for aary Governor, with three bedrooms and a luxury sitting room fit for royalty. They wouldn''t have expected even this much to be avable on an alien ship on such short notice, and most of them were looking forward just to having a proper bath.


    "Thank you, Commander. Your consideration is greatly appreciated."

 Chapter 1016 1016 Smooth Transfer

    <h4>Chapter 1016 1016 Smooth Transfer</h4>


    The Colony Ship full of Drone Fighters was the one to stabilize the portal this time, leading just outside the contested star system.


    [All vessels enter in the dispatched order, one-second spacing. Go, go, go.] Max ordered, setting the pace with his words.


    The ships poured through the portal in pairs. The transfer was done with the ships side by side until they got to the Destroyers, which had to enter slightly staggered.


    The portal closed just as the Colony Ship passed through, and the fleet went to Warp 15, the most that the Morphos fleet could hold, in preparation for the assault.


    Nico had the Cutter hold back as the fleet deployed, as they weren''t actively involved in the first stage of Drone Fighter drops and Mecha deployments.


    [Drone Fighters are away.] The Colony Ship AI informed them, signalling that the shock troops were on their way down to the surface to try to retake some strategic positions on behalf of the locals.


    Or simply because whatever was there was important to the Morphos, but the effect would be the same in the end as long as they managed to retake the positions.


    [Drone Bombers are away.]


    [Android Army is deployed.]


    The two messages came at the same instant as the two groups departed their vessels to fight the fleet that was in orbit.


    The Cathedral Ships were more prepared for them this time, and they were scrambling their defensive forces to head toward the Mecha as soon as they appeared.


    "It looks like they didn''t send all the Energy Beings to the surface. There are a number of them among the forces facing our orbital fleet." Envoy Queen noted.


    "That should still be manageable. The Mecha are capable of closebat in zero gravity and fractional gravity. If things start to get lopsided, I will join the battle personally." Max assured her.


    The Mecha were holding their ground without issues for the moment, and the Cathedral Ships'' shields were beginning to weaken, but the fleet was holding strong, giving their surface forces as much time to work as possible.


    [All units are fully engaged. Zero casualties among the shock troops before deployment.] The AI announced.


    "Good news, Envoy. All of your troopers made it to the surface at their designated locations, and the Drone Fighters are providing cover for them." Max ryed the message with a gentle smile.


    The Envoy''s team shared a round of celebratory hugs at the news, and the fleet in orbit sent out another wave of breaching teams that Max''s Destroyers were working to clear a path for.


    [Movement in the Secondary Layer detected.] The ship''sputer announced.


    Max checked the sensors and found that a full fleet of Arisen ships had just arrived, but so had the Cathedral Ships that Max had been concerned about, including a truly massive Dreadnaught ss vessel. At over twenty kilometres long, it was nearly twice the size of most Colony Ships, and it was fully armed for battle, carrying nothing but weapons of war and troops.


    "Iing attack from the secondaryyer of space," Nico announced, and then suddenly, all of their sensors went wonky, and the view of the battle disappeared.


    "Feth, they''re opening a portal around us. Layer unknown." Max swore.


    "I hope that you''re allbat proficient, Envoy. Because it looks very much like we are about to face a boarding attempt," Nico informed their guests.


    "We havebat gear in the shuttle." Envoy Queen announced.


    "Don''t go anywhere. I will have it brought to us." Nico decided and tasked some of the onboard Android service staff to get everything that they could need, including Mobile Suits for herself and Max.


    Then Nico put the ship''s repair bay to work creating Androids in Mobile Suits to repel the expected invaders. A few dozen was all they would have time for unless the enemy messed up their timing, but it should be enough to slow down any invasion, and their personal Mecha were in Sentry mode.


    The rest of the Mecha team was in the bay as well, but the Warriors would have to be insane to try to get in there, so Nico simply discounted the area as secured and focused on everywhere else that she needed the Cutter''s replicators to make defenders.


    One per room was a strain on the power system, but they weren''t going anywhere, so she ordered it, spreading Androids all over the ship to report any ingress of attackers.


    "Your equipment, Envoy. Please hurry to get armed. Mypatriots have reported attempts by the Energy Beings to board the ship." The maintenance Android reported.


    Max and Nico got into their suits as quickly as possible while the Morphos struggled into the less user-friendly equipment.


    "This is going to take too long. Envoy, do you mind wearing one of our suits instead? They''re mostly intuitive, and you can use your own weapons." Max suggested when he realized the process was going to take them over ten minutes toplete.


    Since the two humans were already armoured, the Envoy nodded in agreement while Nico began printing off augmentic armour suits with forearm-mounted Ion sters. The other weapons were less intuitive to use, and she didn''t want them to cause an incident. The sma Rifles they had wouldn''t cause too serious of damage to the ship, so those could be fired until they ran out of power, then linked to the suit to recharge.


    Arge blue energy being with psychedelic patterns on its oversized wings appeared in front of them, and Nico quickly put a de through its beaked head before she raced out of the room, looking for more targets to deal with based on the reports of the Androids on board.


    "It looks like I''m with you on defence. We will remain here in the main area and protect the crossroads from intrusion." Max informed the others, trying to hide his amusement at how fast Nico had vanished when there was meleebat waiting.

 Chapter 1017 1017 Ambushed

    ?


    The sounds ofbat wereing from all around them, and Max realized that the Energy Beings that he called the Demons had used his own trick against him in reverse. They had materialized all through his ship and were heavily engaged with the Android defenders.


    The mood in the main salon was tense as they waited for something toe their way and listened to the sounds of battle all around them.


    Only one Demon had appeared here, and it seemed to be a deliberate measure to attempt to take the ship before the crew could respond.


    The Demons hadn''t factored in that the majority of the crew gave off no signs of life, though, and they had appeared next to the fully armed androids in the furthest reaches of the Cutter.


    Max checked the sensors to see where the strongest gatherings were and noted that there was a lot of structural damage done inside the Mecha bays. The Demons must have tried to gather in thergest rooms with no signs of life and then were ambushed by the Androids or Max and Nico''s Mecha on sentry mode.


    These Demons were a new form to Max. Unlike the ones that they had seen before, these weren''t fleshy. The Demons of this batch were mostly covered in either feathers or scales and came in a variety of colours. ording to the sensors, Nico was currently fighting a bright red Dragon, forck of a better word.


    It had a reptilian head, four legs and wings and only stood partially upright. That might be a matter of space, though, as the ceiling in that area was only six metres high, and the creature wasrger than that.


    That thing was no slouch and had a me attack of its own that had melted arge portion of the hallway around them, forcing Nico to hide for a moment and find a new angle to attack from until she could lure it out of the hallway.


    But still, nothing wasing for Max or the Envoy''s team.


    "Do you think that they''re avoiding us because they can sense us here? I think they''re trying to take the ship, but they can''t tell that the Androids aren''t part of it." Envoy Queen whispered.


    "I think that is exactly what is happening. We are thergest and almost the only sign of life on the ship, so they''re avoiding us and going for the vital areas. Engineering, Propulsion, Controls. But those are the areas with the most Androids, and some of them have arge Mecha contingent avable.


    The bridge, for example, had five Line Mecha in storagepartments in case of emergency. Those were now under the control of the Androids, so the bridge was heavily defended against intrusion, and the Demons couldn''t send theirrger kin into the Cutter because the ceilings were deliberately made too low for that.


    Common design logic said that no matter how much it would help defence, you didn''t make your hallwaysrge enough for the enemy to move equipment that could destroy the ship through them.


    A few minutester, the Demons realized that someone was messing with them and began to form up for an attack on Max''s position.


    "I count twenty of them so far, all medium creatures, three metres tall or more. All hallways are infested, so prepare for a full invasion." Max whispered to the Envoy as the sensor logs came in.


    They were all wearing human-made Mobile Suits, but the Morphos hadn''t turned theirmunications on or perhaps didn''t know how. He would deal with thatter or have Nico do it when she had a moment. But for now, it didn''t matter, as the Demons didn''t speak theirnguage.


    The demons rushed forward, discharging sma balls from crystalline handheld weapons.


    Max immediately responded, sending back Ion Cannon sts and tearing through the first rank of attackers who were overrun by the ones behind them, only to be met with the energy wave of the modified Disintegrators designed to banish them back to their homeyers.


    The creatures shimmered, and Max felt the energy around them increase. Whatever had opened the portal to bring these beings here was not going to let them be banished that easily, and the portal was serving as a stabilizing barrier to keep Max from simply banishing them.


    [You''ve done your homework.] Maxughed into the radio, forgetting that it was set to voice control.


    The only response was Nico chuckling. She had realized the same thing a few minutes ago and had resorted to simply hacking the things apart at close range so that they couldn''t use those sma pistol crystals.


    Up close, they were dangerous but much less dangerous than sma weapons, which suited Nico perfectly, and even Max was leaning toward going on the offensive to get into melee range.


    The Morphos did the same, as their personalbat style relied heavily on their natural weaponry, and the room descended into chaos as the defenders charged the strange energy beings, hacking and wing at the invaders with a level of ferocity that brought a pleased emotion from the greater being watching the battle from the background.


    These feathered Demons were much softer than the other ones for some reason, and the serrated de that Max had chosen, modelled after the ones used by the Red Demons, tore through them like warm butter. Even the crystals in their hands didn''t hold up against the de.


    An upward sh cleaved the nearest of them cleanly in two pieces, and Max looked down the hallway to see that there were a dozen moreing his way to rece it, all with those strange sma weapons at the ready.


    He needed a way to get rid of the energy barrier around his ship so that they could stop the influx before they were actually overrun or ran out of materials to make more Androids.


    The Mobile Suits were keeping them alive fairly well, but there were so many of the enemy that there was no preventing the casualties that they were taking.


    [Commander Max, our mothership reports the same phenomenon. Is there a way to disperse these creatures?] Envoy Queen asked as she wed apart the face of a feathered Demon.


    [I will send over the weapon description. It works as long as they''re not stuck in an energy barrier like we are that keeps the Demons stable.] Max replied.


    [Thank you. They are only reporting an unexined influx of boarding parties right now.] The Envoy replied, returning her focus to the fight.

 Chapter 1018 1018 Fried Chicken

    ?


    "This isn''t working fast enough. Nico, how about some low-intensity Fusion mer action?" Max suggested as he saw the crowd of Demons in the hallway.


    "The Mobile Suits are all equipped, but there is no low-intensity setting." Nico reminded him.


    "Then a short burst. I don''t want to melt our ship."


    Nicoughed. "Half-second burst from all Android units in 3, 2, 1, NOW."


    Max joined the burst and then realized that the Morphos likely didn''t know how to ess the weapons.


    His allies were rapidly retreating back into the room as all the hallways filled with mes, and the Demons vanished with a puff of ash that quickly turned to wisps of energy.


    "What in the Seven Realms was that?" Envoy Queen yelled.


    "Sorry, we forgot to brief you on the backup weapons of the suit. There is a Fusion mer in the t space storage. We just had the Androids use them to purge the Demons from the hallways so that we could move again." Max yelled back so he could be heard over the lingering screams of dying Demons.


    "Well, warn a girl before you do that again. Plus, why does it smell like fried chicken in here? That is so distracting."


    Maxughed at her response. He always turned his suit to full recirction because his sense of smell wasn''t going to help him in any meaningful way during mostbat scenarios, but she must have had hers set to filter, which would allow nontoxic scents through.


    For a moment, everything was silent, and then a mental scream tore through the minds of everyone left aboard the ship, especially Max, bringing all but him to their knees.


    That was a scream of both pain and rageing from the hiddenyer of space, and Max realized that the reason that the Arisen fleet hadn''te here to fight was that they were there, attacking whatever being was masterminding this attack.


    Max could feel it as the being retreated, and the energy barrier around his ship began to fade, allowing them to banish thest of the demons and cleanse the Cutter of any lingering signs of infestation.


    "Envoy, how are yourrades doing? Should we send reinforcements?" Max called out to the team of Morphos.


    "They are stable. Fortunately, the ns you sent were in a format that ispatible with ourputer, and we were able to put them into production right away. We only managed to make a dozen with the materials that we had on board, but it is enough that we are clearing out the ship."


    Their replication systems must work differently than the human ones if they were limited by materials, but if they had managed to make enough, then he could just send extras to their teams to help them purge on the surface and keep the interior of their ships safe from future attacks.


    "We will help you out with that after the battle. How is the attack going on your end?" Max asked as he checked for updates from his own fleet.


    They had been steadily taking out the Cathedral Ships, mostly disabling them, but as soon as they were critically damaged, the ships would vanish, preventing a definitive kill.


    It was frustrating, but Max had sensed the malevolent intelligence behind the attacks, something that was far beyond the scale of a regr human. It seemed that they had finally encountered the first of the true minions of the so-called Great Evil or Great Enemy. A greater energy being that could summon waves of minions to attack a and even lock Max''s Cutter in an energy field that human technology couldn''t break.


    They were going to have to work on that. They couldn''t rely on the Arisen to save them every time, and there was definitely going to be a next time now that the enemy had gotten a taste of their capabilities.


    It might not be a mortal being, but Max could feel the pure rage today as it realized that it had been defeated. That kind of rage didn''t just dissipate. The creature was going to hold a grudge.


    [The ship is clear, Commander. What are your orders for the new Androids?] The ship''s Communications Android asked.


    [Have them all remain on station at their point of creation. I want armed forces scattered all through the ship in case of future attacks. They can all remain in the Mobile Suits on standby until they are called again.] Max ordered.


    The Androids didn''t really need physical hobbies. They spent most of their time with their subroutines split into a virtual environment of training simtions and games that kept their need for input fed while also expanding their knowledge base beyond the default creation points.


    Interestingly, that wasn''t his or Nico''s idea. It hade from the AI on the Colony Ship that they had created. The simtion had always existed, as Nico created it to train the Androids, but the AI had suggested that it could be a source of entertainment and learning so that the physical bodies could remain on standby without putting the units into stasis.


    ording to it, the process would decrease losses by over three percent per week of study time on an overall basis, and that broke the threshold for the margin of error in the data set it was using, so the procedure was deemed to be effective.


    If it were possible for the Androids to be happy, they would be right now. They had just seeded in defending the ship without any loss of mortal lives, as their prime directive had instructed them, and the ship was still intact and operational despite the extensive interior damage.


    Mostly that was weapons fire, and the Fusion mers, but a few of the acid baths had also been broken after Demons were inserted into them as a method of chemical warfare.


    The rooms were acid-resistant, but some of the acid had spilled out into the hallways, where the metallic flooring was not as well suited to the task.


    The ship was already starting the repair process, undoing the damage from the battle, and Max slowly wound his mind down from imminent threat to battle management.


    [Drone Bombers, I want supply drops for the civilian resistance. Give them these rifles that dissipate the Demons. The effect is disguised with a Laser st, so they likely won''t realize that the weapons are special, and neither will the enemy.


    Let''s start cleaning up this battlefield before the enemy leadership recovers.]


    [Understood, Commander. The weapons ns are being processed, and drop sites have been located.]

 Chapter 1019 1019 Stubborn

    <h4>Chapter 1019 1019 Stubborn</h4>


    The Cathedral Ships weren''t going just to give up because their leadership had been defeated in anotheryer of space. That wasn''t how they operated and wasn''t at all in their nature.


    As soon as the defeat was noticed, they doubled down on their aggressiveness, trying to push back thebined force of the Morphos and the Humans while retaking the lost portions of the surface.


    It wasn''t going well, with the human vessels being vastly superior to them in firepower and shielding, but the numbers advantage was enough for them to at least hold on while the battle for the surface raged.


    [Drone Bombers are away with the supply drops for the resistance. The Android Mecha force has stabilized the region around the motherships, and no more interceptors are currently detected.] The AI reported.


    That meant that the supplies to the surface were going down basically unimpeded, without taking any fire, so Max directed them to remain near the surface and use their stockpile of materials to either bomb enemy emcements or provide more specialized rifles for the defenders.


    If they were taken by the enemy, they would only be a mediocre performingser rifle and not a threat level increase, but in the hands of the locals, they would be deadly against the energy beings.


    "Max, tell them toe back. I''m bored." Nicoined, making the Envoyugh.


    "What is one full-scale boarding action not enough adventure for one day?" Envoy Queen asked.


    "Not when it ends so easily. I get that zero casualties is the best way, but that was one seriously unsatisfying fight. They didn''t even send their first string fighters because the ceilings in here are too low for them to move about easily."


    The Morphos leaderughed. "No wonder everyone says that the humans are terrifying. I wonder what species was brave enough to go with the rest of your fleet?"


    Max chuckled. "Actually, there were a lot of offers once they saw that we were fully capable in a fight. But the rest of our fleet is moving out with the Koleska. We have been working with them for a while now, and we understand their equipment and their protocols, so there is a much lower chance of an incident while we have so many mercenaries in our force."


    The battle on the surface was bing more and more intense as the general poption was armed to deal with the threat, and Max was carefully blocking all attempts by the local government to send out a message demanding that he stop sending weapons to the civilian poption.


    Anyone who sounded that panicked about their poption having weapons definitely made him want to see what would happen when the general poption all hadser rifles. Max suspected that the result would likely be much less bloody than theary Governor was suggesting in the messages.


    The civilians weren''t turning weapons on each other, and they were putting together a well-organized defence against the armies from the Cathedral Ships that couldn''t be banished by the energy weapons of the Drone Fighters.


    Really, the worst that was likely to happen was a coup, and those sorts of things happened all the time on humans. You could even call them an essential part of human politics.


    "Commander Max, our allies in theary government have informed us that there is an uprising of the lower caste citizens that is taking over as the enemy is defeated on the." Envoy Queen informed Max a few hourster when the battle was nearly through.


    "Oh, that is unfortunate. Are they looking for a mediator? We are quite good at mediation." Max asked.


    Nico froze her facial expressions to avoid giving away her amusement. She had been watching the same thing that Max had, but through the cameras on the drones, and it was clear that there was going to be an incident of some sort before things were settled here.


    "Perhaps. Theary Governor and the Upper Caste are currently trapped in an underground bunkerplex, and the battle is raging above them." Queen exined.


    "Give us a second, and we will locate them and determine the situation." Max agreed.


    Queen was right; the senior military and government officers had all been hidden underground for the entire invasion, and they were now welded into their bunkers by the forces on the surface.


    There had been some scuffles at first, but it looked like those were dying down already, and the civilians were moving toward cleanup and damage control efforts.


    [Commander, the fleet battle is officially over, and thest of the ships in orbit have fled to the otheryer.] The AI reported in its artificially happy tone.


    Nico unblockedmunications and sent a message to theary Government.


    [This is Sumander Nico Tarith of the Terminus Trading Company, a Human trade group and paramilitary force that makes up a portion of the intervention force in orbit over your. Do you require our assistance to arrange a mediated negotiation with the civilian forces on the surface of your?]


    There was a lengthy pause, enough that Queen was beginning to wonder if they had received the message at all, and then finally, theary Governor answered back from the surface.


    [We do not negotiate with terrorists. We have ordered our forces to disarm the civilian poption, and we request that any future interventions do not involve weapons drops.]


    [We understand. If you do require our intervention, we will remain in the system for another hour while we decide on what location to proceed to next.] Nico replied.


    "Well, that''s that. It looks like they have it all sorted out, and the invasion force is basically gone, with only a few hundred Warriors still in hiding. It always takes a while to get thest of them cleaned out, but I''m sure that they will get it sorted.


    So, how satisfying was it to see an allied rescued? That''s not something that you get to do every day." Nico asked the Envoy.


    "Remarkably satisfying, really. We swore to them many generations ago that our people woulde to their aid in a time of crisis, and I must say, this certainly seems to have been a crisis.


    Do humans also hold onto honour debts that strongly?" The Morphos Envoy asked.


    Nico shook her head. "We do hold onto them, but perhaps not that strongly. Treachery is abundant among our people after the first generation which swore the debt. The younger generations forget the reason for it, or it gets glossed over in the historical records, and they begin to believe that the debt is unjust."


    Queen nodded. "That I understand. The younger generations always believe that they know best."

 Chapter 1020 1020 Factions

    <h4>Chapter 1020 1020 Factions</h4>


    When Max checked themunicationswork for reports of attacks, he was flooded with iing messages. The attacks were everywhere, and it wasn''t just the cathedral ships'' fleet.


    There were attacks by unknown aliens, attacks by the Myceloids or the Klem, and even an attack that seemed to be nothing but a giant energy wave that Max predicted was likely to be the same sort of enemy that the Arisen had dealt with here.


    With so many calls to report to, the defence fleets were splitting into factions, trying to optimize their responses based on what sort of enemy they were best at fighting.


    The Koleska and the remainder of the human fleet decided to go for the Klem and Myceloids, as their fleets had thergest amount of area firepower, but that was not what Max was thinking.


    Once those two had a few days to infest a, it was most likely to bepletely lost without a long and grinding war effort. The best answer would be to cut your losses and purgerge areas of the, then move on.


    He was a Mecha Pilot at heart and not a pest exterminator, so Max wanted to go somewhere where there would be actualbat. That meant fighting the Cathedral Ships or the alien species, which were waging a more conventional war to take over thes.


    Going by the reports, that was definitely the goal. They weren''t simply trying to eliminate the local species. They wanted thes intact to im as their own and expand their territory.


    Perhaps there was a limited amount of living space wherever they came from that was driving them out, but it made things easier for Max to know that there was a clear goal in his enemy''s mind when they attacked.


    There were only two major issues. Something had to deal with the attacks by whatever greater energy being that was, and there were three reports ofs attacked for every group that could respond to them.


    If they had to pick and choose what survived. Eventually, the enemy would be able to consolidate their forces, and there would be nothing left. The response teams were being too conservative and gathered into toorge of groups to deal with the number of threats.


    They weren''t counting on thes for much, though Max could see in the reports that some of them were doing a decent job of holding off on their own.


    Those would be Max''s priority for his response now. A quick movement from one to the other so that he could nullify the weakest attackers and let thes with defences take care of themselves. It would cut down the number ofs lost, as well as the number ofrge teams that needed to be sent out.


    When Nico and the Morphos team finished their conversation, Max brought up the first ten hit-and-run targets for their next wave of attacks.


    "These are the targets most likely to survive alien and Cathedral Ship invasions on their own. So, these are the targets I want to prioritize. We will take our fleet, crush the majority of the attackers, then move on and let theary force deal with the leftovers." Max exined.


    "Is that advisable? Can we be sure that they will win on their own?" Envoy Queen asked.


    "Once we have defeated the majority of the fleet, they shouldn''t have any issues winning without additional help. There are so many callsing in that we need to prioritize speed to get through as many as we can, and that means not allowing ourselves to discount the ferocity of aary fleet.


    As we did here, I can drop the locals a shipment of weapons if they need them, but we will have to fight and move on so we can keep as manys alive as possible until the number of attack reports is lower than the number of teams we have to respond with." Max exined.


    Queen nodded and sent a message back to her fleet.


    "They have decided that they wish to join the offensive against the Myceloids. It seems that this is where we part ways, but I wish you all the best in your endeavours." The Envoy announced very formally.


    "Be well and live long. I will see you again on the battlefield once this current mission isplete." Max agreed.


    Nico led the Morphos team back to their shuttle while Max prepared the fleet''s tactics for their new mission. It was just going to be quick and dirty. They would portal into the afflicted system directly, pass through an oversized portal in one cluster, and unleash everything that they had at once.


    Torpedoes, Orbital Lances, everything. Then, they would see what was still standing and go from there. The forces they were targeting weren''t the strongest to begin with since theary forces were holding against them, so the surprise attacks should have a decent chance at cutting them down to a manageable size within minutes, and then he could move on to the next one.


    [Understood Commander. New mission priority set to burst damage and rapid destruction of priority targets. Adjusting deployment now.] The AI on the Drone Carrier Colony Ship announced.


    Its solution was to have the drones swarm the ships but out of the way of the main weapons, as the defensive weapons arrays would not be needed here, and then everything, even the Mecha and Drones, would be able to fire at once.


    It was an insane battle tactic, but the amount of burst damage that they could do to an unprepared enemy would be amazing.


    [Alright, as soon as the Morphos leave, get everyone in position. I want a transfer time of less than two seconds, and the Portal needs to close as soon as we are all through so it doesn''t reduce our range of fire.] Max ordered.


    [Understood Commander. Charging the Portal Capacitors in preparation for rapid deployment now.]

 Chapter 1021 1021 Blitz

    <h4>Chapter 1021 1021 Blitz</h4>


    Nico ordered the Mecha team that was on the Cutter out to the exterior hull along with all the other Mecha of the Regiment while the Drones held close positions around their ships, ready to attack the moment that the transfer wasplete.


    [The portal is ready to deploy. On your orders, Commander.] The AI informed them.


    [Transfer] Max ordered.


    All of the ships moved in unison when the portal opened, doing an elegant side shuffle through the portal in a tight formation, then spreading apart to get a better firing angle as soon as they were through.


    The portal closed behind them, and the ambush began. The overwhelming firepower of the Reaver fleet tore through dozens of Cathedral Ships in an instant, with hundreds of smaller vessels falling to the massed firepower of the Mecha.


    [Keep firing. I still see too manyrge pieces.] Nico cheered as the Dreadnaught ss ship in front of them exploded in a brilliant and self-nullifying st of Antimatter and sma.


    Another round of Orbital Lances and torpedoes tore through the invasion fleet, leaving very little that was in their line of sight still remotely intact.


    [86 percent destruction. Zero intact targets in our line of sight.] The AI reported.


    [This is the next target; prepare the portal.] Max ordered.


    The harder they could hit before anything responded, the lower their casualties would be, and the more damage they could do at the next location, so Max wasn''t going to stick around and wait to see if they had reserves.


    They were surely in the otheryer, waiting to see where they were needed. If he waited, they woulde to him, but if he kept leaving, they would constantly arrive at an empty location, merely recing the units that he had destroyed seconds earlier.


    [Portal ready. Transferring.] The AI announced, understanding Max''s intentions.


    Again, they arrived unexpectedly, but this time, there was a freshly arrived fleet of Myceloids that hadn''t been on the sensor scan under a minute ago.


    [Fire. Full annihtion protocol as per thest engagement.] Max ordered.


    The Myceloid ships began to turn as soon as the Reavers ships started firing, intent on engaging Max''s force before they could make a second volley.


    "They''re really going to ram us." Nicoughed as the Myceloid ships picked up speed in their direction.


    "Not if we can help it they''re not," Max replied, then targeted all of the ship''s otherwise inactive defensive weapons at the iing ship.


    The other vessels did the same, and the Myceloid ship exploded mere kilometres from their hull,pleting its mission ofunching armoured Myceloids at the Mecha on the hulls of the ships.


    Theser arrays of the Mecha were tearing apart the Myceloids faster than they were flying toward the ambush, but the kamikaze assault only came to a final halt when they got in Fusion mer range, and a storm of nuclear fire incinerated the technologically advanced fungal warriors.


    The barrage continued as the ships of the invasion fleet scattered, getting out of the direct firing lines of the Reavers.


    [Tactic Minimally Effective. One minute psed with a kill rate of 43 percent.] The AI announced in a sad tone.


    Max looked at Nico, wondering if they should hold here for a few more minutes to keep clearing the enemy vessels, but an impending sense of doom was creeping up on them.


    [Keep to the schedule. Portal as soon as you are charged.] Max ordered.


    They coulde back here after a few more attacks if they needed to, but even taking out half of the attackers in a blitz was a good start to helping whoever responded to their calls for aid.


    The roar of frustration from the Energy Being in the otheryer as they left told Max that they had done the right thing. Staying any longer would have gotten them ambushed, but now they were on their way, and the enemy was left one step behind.


    [After this attack, make one random stop in the secondaryyer before returning to the target sequence. 30-second timing in the secondaryyer. I don''t want them catching on to our rhythm.] Max ordered.


    This attack was a smaller scale one, or possibly theary defence was already winning when they arrived, and only a few dozen Cathedral Ships remained. All of them were obliterated in the first volley, and the Ai opened the portal again early before the sense of foreboding even seemed to have locked onto them again.


    This jump brought them into the otheryer between a small Darkling force and a muchrger Arisen force.


    [Humans, wait here. The Greater Being is following you.] The Darklings ordered.


    It was a brilliant bit of luck, and Max was eager to see what this new enemy was capable of.


    The ships maintained their defensive formation, unsure of which direction the enemy would approach from, but a minuteter, it was obvious that it wasing. The sense of foreboding and power was rapidly growing as Nico issued frantic orders to the ships, trying to get their Orbital Lances modified before the enemy appeared.


    The theory was that if they could hit it with enough Orbital Lances modified to banish Energy Beings, it might actually tear this creature apart once and for all.


    The thoughts of the Darklings and the Arisen didn''t tell Max if that would kill it permanently, but they believed that most of their previous attacks had led to the targets escaping before true death.


    The enemy was on them before they even knew what was happening, coalescing right in the middle of the assembled forces and appearing as a five-kilometre-tall version of the winged red demons that Max had fought against in his Mecha.


    The Orbital Lances hit the creature at the same time as the main weapons of the Arisen and Darkling fleet, and the creature began to flicker and burn, partially dispersed and being destroyed by the barrage of weapons fire.


    [Keep up the Orbital Lances. Overload the systems if you need to, but don''t let it reform.] Max ordered.


    That wasn''t a problem for most of their fleet, and the Mecha were doing their best to supplement the firepower while the Energy Being thrashed and roared.


    "The modified Orbital Lances have paralyzed it. It can''t escape because they''re keeping it from being entirely in oneyer." Nico crowed with joy as she realized what was happening.


    With a final whimper, the creature seemed to explode, tearing a portal betweenyers identical to the one that the Cathedral Ships hade through and dissipating between the twoyers before dispersing entirely.


    [That is true death for a Greater Being. Excellent work, humans.] The Darklings congratted them. Then, their entire fleet vanished without warning.


    Max would have celebrated the praise, but the open portal was letting a fleet of Cathedral Ships through, and it was up to them and the Arisen to deal with them now that the Darklings had ked out to another battle.


    [Remain here until the battlefield is clear and we have closed that Portal.] Max sighed as he prepared to join the battle.


    "Let''s go, Nico. It''s time for war again."

 Chapter 1022 1022 Close The Door

    <h4>Chapter 1022 1022 Close The Door</h4>


    Nico and Max both rushed to their Mecha as the Arisen began to pour out of their ships and join the battle. The War Walkers were a familiar sight for Max, and he knew exactly what they were capable of, so there would be no confusion about deployment patterns when they joined them inbat.


    The Android Army moved seamlessly to join the War Walker formations, providing a variety to their firepower as the two fleets merged into one force. In return, a wing of ten Command Walkers moved over to join Max and Nico, all armed with twin swords and prepared for closebat.


    [Human Commanders. It will take seven minutes until we can close the portal. Until then, the breach needs to be held and the Lesser Energy Beings held at bay.] The Command Walker wing leader informed them.


    That was the first time that they had heard a War Walker directly address anyone. Max wasn''t even aware that they had the capability until now, but he could see that there was a powerful surge of energy building on the other side of the portal, which he assumed was a mass of Demons.


    In the mind of the War Walkers, there were three categories of Energy Beings. Minor, Lesser and Greater. Greater took a whole fleet of ships to destroy, and minor were the ones that you could fight with a Mobile Suit or infantry. That left the Mecha-sized ones as the Lesser Demons.


    Or so Max assumed until he actually got to the portal to face them.


    The Mecha-sized ones were the least of the Lesser Demons. There were others up to a hundred metres tall, wielding all sorts of brutal weaponry or throwing energy attacks from those flickering crystals at them.


    It wasn''t just one variety either. It looked like the open portal had attracted all sorts of creatures to the tear in space, and they were determined to get out.


    Max could sense that they were trapped in that ce, their ancestral home, though they were often found in the secondaryyer of space where the battle had raged against the Greater Energy Being.


    Nico''s excitement reached a frenzy as she realized that the creatures five times their size were also valid opponents, and she began charging her weapons.


    Max ran the [Optimize] process on his weapons to get ready for the battle and found that there were significant changes that needed to be made to their current loadout to fight in the strange thirdyer of space where these beings were emerging.


    [Nico, I have finished the analysis. Thisyer of space is different. Nukes won''t work properly here. Switch to Antimatter shells in your Thunder Guns and Light Mass Drivers.] Max instructed her.


    Nico didn''t hesitate or doubt his orders, and she changed the type of shells an instant before the first ones were fired, going immediately to Warp speed and crashing into the Demons with a spherical ck explosion.


    Everything seemed to simply go dark where the shells exploded, and then a vacuum formed, sucking in more energy to fill the gap where the Demon used to be.


    Max sensed the amusement of the War Walkers and the rage of the Demons as the first barrage of shells hit, and then the less-than-light-speed rounds of the light Mass Drivers began to detonate.


    It turned space around the enemy formation into a vtile minefield of unstable ck vortexes, which would tear apart the energy beings that got too close while they were sucking in energy to fill the void.


    The Demons charged at an astounding pace, closing the distance between them in seconds and preventing the Thunder Guns from using any more Antimatter shells due to the close proximity of the detonations to his own lines.


    The Mecha and the War Walkers raised their des, and the two sides crashed together in eerie silence, with nothing to transfer sound from the battle.


    Behind them, the fleet was doing an incredible job of holding the main force at bay, but the ships were able to appear behind the line that Max and Nico had formed with the Arisen, and only the Demons were forced to appear directly here at the portal.


    Seven minutes was going to be a long time for them all to hold on.


    Max sted a Demon apart with his Ion Cannon, then thrust his jagged de through the throat of another, tearing the head from its body with the backstroke. But with every shot and every strike, he was forced to retreat a little more.


    The numbers were overwhelming, extending as far as his sensors could reach, an unstoppable tide of Demonic Beings.


    If that were to ever reach his homeyer of space, there would be no stopping it. They didn''t have a tenth of the force that would be needed to deal with that sort of threat spread through multiple Gxies.


    [Dammit, is that what it always looks like here?] Max asked the Arisen, hoping for an answer.


    [No, That is what the remnants of a defeated Greater Energy Being look like. When it was destroyed, a portion of its energy returned to its home and split to create these creatures. They are unstable and will dissipate in a few decades or possibly sooner, but today, we must hold them at bay and allow them to be taken by the currents.] The Command Walker''s team leader replied.


    That massive army wouldst for decades? But if they were part of the energy being, then that meant they should have the same ws.


    Max [Optimized] his Ion Cannons to destabilize the beings and fired it as a dispersed st, clearing an area in front of his Mecha.


    He sent the data to Nico, who adjusted her weapons with it in an instant and passed the data to the War Walkers.


    It wasn''t clear if they would be able to use the technology or not, given their different technology and possible status as Energy Beings themselves, but it was worth a shot.


    Nothing about their weapons seemed to change, but the War Walkers were already quite effective at destroying the beings to begin with. The additional ability to destabilize a group that got too close gave Max a bit of room to maneuver, and now he was able to help the line hold its position against the tide of Demons.


    What he really wanted was to adapt that technology to his sword as well, but the one he was using was based on Demonic technology and wasn''t a powered weapon. It was an unfortunate oversight on his part, and Max made a note to give Nico a new idea for their next iteration of Mecha.


    Variable pattern energy weapons.


    If they could adapt their energy weapons in an instant the way that they could create new Mass Driver Shells on demand, they would be able to reliably handle any enemy that they faced.


    With technology like that and all of the new data they had collected from the enemies they were facing here, it might be possible that they would be able to replicate one of the Relic God Mecha that humanity possessed.


    Of course, he now knew that those came from the Darklings'' distant past, but soon, humans would be able to make their own. Max was certain of it.

 Chapter 1023 1023 Ancient Visitor

    Chapter 1023 1023 Ancient Visitor


    As the timer counted down the minutes to the portal closing, it was already clear that the Demons formed from the destruction of the greater Energy Being were not going to remain stable for long this time. The being had been split between twoyers of space, and they were missing something fundamental to their existence.


    The attack wave was faltering, and the force was dissipating into energy as the Portal betweenyers finally closed in front of them, and Max heaved a sigh of relief.


    "Well, now that we have that thing off our backs, let''s take a moment to rest," Nico informed Max as they made their way back to the ship, apanied by one of the Command Walkers as an escort of sorts.


    "I don''t think that is going to be possible. There is a visitor waiting for us inside the Cutter." Max replied as he sensed the new presence inside their vessel.


    Normally, that would have gone unnoticed, but there were no other living things on the ship, so the presence of one living mind was immediately noticeable to his mind reading. The thoughts weren''t hostile, nor were they impatient. If he had to guess, whoever it was had settled in for a cup of tea while they waited.


    [I will leave you here. The old one on your ship will exin everything to you.] The Command Walker informed them as they got close to the ship.


    "You know what''s going on?" Max asked curiously.


    "Of course, I was there. But it''s better that he tells the story of our three people and the rise of the Great Enemy."


    Most of the Command Walker''s mind was closed off, but Max could sense memories of a brutal war on a scale far beyond the one that they were fighting here. It might well be the one that destroyed this whole region of space, but the memory faded before he could really make sense of it, and the Command Walker returned to his vessel.


    If he had been around for the destruction of this region of space, the entity in the Command Walker was most likely millions of years old. Anything that he would call the "old one" had to be somewhat impressive.


    The Arisen fleet remained on station as the Human vessels began to restock and repair their fighters, and Max locked down his Mecha in the storage hangar, which now had a Darkling interceptor sitting in the middle of it.


    "I wonder if it came in betweenyers or if they can bypass our shielding just like that." Nico wondered, already doing her best to examine the currently unupied ship.


    "Have the sensors check it. You should be there with me to meet whoever piloted it." Max reminded her before she got too distracted to hear him at all.


    The mind that Max could sense was in the lounge next to the cargo bays, the firstfortable sitting spot that it would have reached after entering the ship. It wasn''t a big thing, but it was something that Max appreciated. The visitor might have broken in, but at least they weren''t rummaging through his stuff.


    Nico followed him into the lounge, happy that they would still be in range for her skill to check on the Darkling interceptor, and found a wrinkled old man with long ears and shockingly white hair braided down to his boots standing in the middle of the room, waiting for them.


    He was a little over two metres tall but so incredibly skinny that he didn''t feel like arge person at all. In his prime, this was likely a powerful warrior, but at this point, it was clear that he was reaching the end of his life.


    The man''s voice was musical and smooth, light in tone but still masculine as he began to speak.


    "Keres Max and Tarith Nico, the beloved children of the God of Humans, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. You should have a great number of questions for me, and I have been sent here to help you answer them. The first I should start with would be the reason for this war, am I correct?" He asked.


    "Yes, that is as good of a ce to start as any." Max agreed, then moved to the replicator and made the tea and snacks set he had expected the man to be enjoying when they arrived.


    The three of them took seats across from each other, and the ancient Darkling smiled at them in a way that Max felt was more paternal than patronizing or that of a friendly stranger.


    "To understand why you are at war now, we need to exin what started this conflict, and that brings us back to my youth. Now, the Great War was some millions of years ago, so forgive me if I reminisce more than might be sinct, but I will do my best.


    Once, there was a bnce between theyers. The civilized species, better known as the Collectors, the Everborn and the Humans, moved freely between them, at peace with each other and the universe.


    We three were the firstborn of the advanced species, and we had nearly a hundred million years worth of head start on the Gctic Empires that are active today. But that is neither here nor there. What matters is how that peace ended.


    While we three mortal species lived in harmony, not all species were capable of such a thing. In our early days, we had pacified the energy beings, keeping them stable and ending the Eternal Conflict. Or so we thought.


    But the Energy Beings were evolving faster than we were, and one day, a new group of beings was born. ''The Gods'' they called themselves.


    Most of the Gods embodied an aspect of creation or mimicked a species that they were fond of, and the three mortal species believed that this new development might be a good thing, an immortal being to guide new species into civilization.


    In some cases, it was, and that was exactly what happened. But not all of the Gods were of the same mind. Some believed that they were the natural rulers of the Universe, and as such, they should have the right to wipe the universe clean and start over from a nk te to create the universe that they wanted."


    The Ancient Darkling paused to let the human duo take in all that he had said so far and delicately sipped on the tea Max had provided.


    "Ah, refreshing. It is good to see that human tastebuds are still attuned the same way." The old man sighed as the two Reavers sat in silent shock.

 Chapter 1024 1024 Revelations

    Chapter 1024 1024 Revtions


    Once Max and Nico had recovered a little, the ancient Darkling continued.


    "While the three mortal species were each chosen by one of the Gods as their own, that did not sit well with the Gods whose aspects reflected aspects of nature or a less evolved species, and the jealousy grew within them.


    That jealousy only grew and festered as they saw the innovation that the mortal species was capable of. The innovation that the humans spearheaded, the most curious creatures in the universe, then and always."


    Max and Nico shared augh at those words. The old man wasn''t wrong. All the humans needed was a hint of a direction, and they would go off on a tangent, creating entirely new technologies.


    "We were caught off guard when the Gods attacked,shing out at the humans. The human scientists had created a device that one of the gods viewed as a threat to their domain, and that Energy Being rallied the other disgruntled energy beings around them andshed out, destroying millions ofs in a jealous rage as they tried to wipe out the human race.


    The device that they had created was a time travel device, and the leader of the Divine Rebellion, which we now call the Great Enemy, was the self-proimed God of Time. It might have seeded, but the humans had the ability to rewind time, resetting the battle to its beginning while the Gods were gloating about their victory and then freezing time into a linear form in order to take their revenge.


    Naturally, the Collectors and the Everborn joined the humans in their revenge. If these corrupted Energy Beings were willing tomit genocide to get their way, then they were too dangerous to be allowed to live.


    You see, time travel doesn''t work quite the way that you think it might. It reverses the actions, but it doesn''t erase the memory. So, everyone who knew of the atrocity that wasmitted still remembered, even when it had been undone.


    On a small scale, that can be called Deja vous. But on a scale thisrge, there was no question about what had actually happened.


    So, the three mortal races put their minds to the development of technology that would keep the Gods in line. In hindsight, that only angered them more and brought more to their side, but such a thing was inevitable.


    The Great War began then, with the three mortal species and their allied Gods fighting against the God of Time and their allies.


    During the war, a massive region of space was destroyed, turned to dust by the ferocity of the battle, and it seemed hopeless on our part. But at thest moment, when it seemed that all was lost and the Gods Rampage could not be stopped, the humans did the unthinkable.


    They detonated their Time Device in battle and killed the God of Time, dispersing his army through the universe and leaving time locked in a permanent line, with no being left alive that was able to reverse the effect.


    Only a few ships worth of humans survived the war, as they were the primary target of the Gods, and the war would have ended with their demise. One of those fleets went to your Gxy, and my people kept watch on them over the Eons to ensure they survived.


    The rest were lost to the universe, and none now know if they still live or what they might have evolved into without our guidance keeping their genome stable."


    He paused again while Max struggled to ept that the human settlements that they had found in his Gxy, the million-year-old ruins and technologies, were actually refugee camps from even more ancient humans, and the scraps left over that the Darklings didn''t see fit to clean up and take with them.


    The Darkling continued. "Once the war had ended, the majority of the surviving Gods fled the primeyer, and their departure irrevocably damaged it, leaving the aspect of space weakened and the boundaries betweenyers either far too thick or far too thin.


    The rest remained in one of the upperyers, either this one or the one where the matter and antimatter coexist in harmony, and chose to guide their favourite species from within thoseyers.


    Many of them had lost everything. Their chosen species were eliminated during the war, and the sr systems that they hade from were obliterated. Some of them chose to sacrifice themselves to reform a portion of the battlefield and recreate their species. Others chose to leave the area and make a whole new one.


    One such species is the Myceloids. Their gods recreated them just as they would have wanted them to be. Cunning and Brutal, intelligent enough to make and use technology, but not creative enough to make something that would threaten the universe again.


    Then they let them loose on the universe and watched in joy as their new creation fought and lived and loved their lives. I wouldn''t call them evil beings but a force of nature, pure chaotic neutrality."


    Nico smiled at his words. "I agree with you. They fight because they love to fight. They expand so that they can find new things to fight. They aren''t malevolent, but they are a danger to anything that isn''t as good at fighting."


    The old man nodded in agreement, but the cid emotion on his face and in his mind never changed.


    "You are exactly right. That is their nature. Their gods don''t care what side of the war they are on this time because it all leads to fighting.


    But that brings us to this conflict. You see, many of the Gods who were shattered by the Humans'' final gambit did slowly reform, as energy is never destroyed nor created, only transformed. Even the reaction of antimatter, which would seem to obliterate both, actually creates a third form of matter, but that''s not on the topic today, and I can sense the young Miss Nico''s excitement.


    The shattered Gods couldn''t reform into their previous selves, though they might if they were given a few hundred million more years. But the energy they were made of still lingers, and it has created the Greater Energy Beings and their offspring. They have been raised within the hiddenyer, cultivated by the bitter Gods to hate the mortal species and the creations of the other Gods in the Prime Layer.


    Now, they have sensed the resurgence of the three mortal species, and they are gathering to attempt to wipe us out again."

 Chapter 1025 1025 Questions

    Chapter 1025 1025 Questions


    Max cleared his throat. "You say the three mortal species, but from my perspective, it doesn''t look like the Arisen are Mortal at all."


    The Darkling sighed, with a single tear running down his cheek.


    "They will forever be one of us. But during the battles of the Great War, their God sacrificed herself to save their species. It was the first time one of the Gods had fallen, and we had no idea what would happen.


    The energy of her life force seeped into her most beloved species and brought them back to life, inhabiting any form of body that they could, mostly the battle robots of the human fleet. Their species was saved, but the Everborn, whose lives extended to a million years, became the Arisen, which are a form of Energy Being that returns to a chosen body when its host is destroyed.


    Well, not all of them. There are still some Everborn among the ranks of the living, but it is taboo to speak of their location in case the Bitter Gods are listening and find them."


    Max nodded. "So thest of the mortal species to remain intact are the Darklings, or the Collectors, as you call yourselves?"


    "That is somewhat correct. Our home is gone, and our culture is shattered. Now, we live on these ships or on simr ones flung all across the Universe looking for survivors of the Great War.


    Most of our fleet works for the Gods who were once our allies. We keep an eye on their creations, guiding them or culling them if they diverge from their intended pattern too far, then reseeding the new creations so that the species can have a fresh chance to prosper.


    We aren''t as creative as humans are. We are still using what we had at the end of the Great War, and we have no way of creating better. It is not for ack of trying. We simplyck the unique thought processes that lead to that level of innovation.


    Again, it is likely the humans who have threatened the Bitter Gods, but I suspect that the truth is that they have realized what my people and the Arisen have been doing in our attempts to form an army capable of defeating them a second time.


    They dare not show their faces yet, for our Gods still stand with us, and hiding in a single, separatedyer has stunted the powers of the Bitter Gods, but they have no problem sending their minions.


    Between the three Mortal species, we have now killed five Greater Energy Beings since the battle started, and this one left so little of the energy in a usable form that the next wave couldn''t even stabilize.


    I think that this will make them pause their ns. Perhaps for months or years. But likely no longer than that.


    The Death of a God splits their essence into a thousand Greater Energy Beings. The Death of a Greater Energy Being splits their essence into a million lesser Beings. Or it does if they die in a more conventional way.


    Today, the energy was trapped betweenyers and dispersed. I have never seen anything like it, and I was born at the end of the Great War. What happened here today might have seemed like a fluke, but if it happens again, the loss to their side will be too great to bear.


    They view themselves as eternal, despite the fact that they have suffered losses at our hands before."


    Those words seemed to open something in Max''s mind, and a flood of memories came rushing back, thest of the memories that had been locked away. They were the memories of the Great War, as the Ancient Darkling had described it. Only the humans he was fighting alongside were unlike any humans he had ever seen before.


    He recognized them all as humans, but some had gills, and others had skin as hard as stone or wings. But now he understood. They were all humans, but humans at the time had no qualms about individual gic engineering, and they had modified themselves and their offspring to better fit their environments.


    Humanity as a whole still recognized them as part of the collective, though gically, the current humans would call them a hundred different species.


    It was thest day of a losing war, and only a few small fleets and the mightiest of champions still stood, Max among them. Then it was all over, and the war had never happened except in their minds.


    That was Max''s previous life, a great champion of the thousands of years of war that was the first wave of the Great War before the humans locked time into a linear state and reset their own species extinction.


    It didn''t end with his death, so there must be more to the memory, but the words of the ancient Darkling brought Max out of his reverie.


    "Our challenge in this battle is to keep the Greater Energy Beings at bay but to do it in a way that doesn''t provoke the Bitter Gods into acting directly. Our goal is to avoid another Great War, even if it means decades or centuries of hostilities." The old man exined.


    Max frowned. "What of the cost, though?"


    "We have a sample of every species that is currently in existence. If the worst should happen, we can recreate them in a new location after the war has ended. They might be starting out with a fresh culture and one, but we will look out for them, and if they have any surviving Gods, they will surely rise again."


    Nico looked confused as she did the math in her head.


    "There were only a thousand Gods to begin with, and some of them are dead. How many species even still have a living God of their own?" She asked.


    The old man counted on his fingers, making Max hide a chuckle.


    "I would say that there are about fifty species with their own God, though some of them are sharing one. For example, the same being that showed favour to the Humans is also overseeing the Innu.


    His aspect is creativity, and both species appeal to his nature, though all of the surviving gods tend to pay attention to the three mortal species simply because we were the originals and we are still the most advanced."

 Chapter 1026 1026 Fear and Prudence

    Chapter 1026 1026 Fear and Prudence


    Their discussion was interrupted by the AI on the Drone Ship making an announcement.


    [Commanders, the fleet attacking our next target has retreated, as have many others. It appears that the enemy is currently regrouping all over the region.] The sweet artificial voice announced.


    The old Darkling finally smiled.


    "It seems that our guess was correct. The Bitter Gods panicked when they realized that the Greater Energy Beings could be destroyed sopletely and easily by our forces.


    Now that they have gone into hiding again, they will work on a way to rebuild their power and try toe up with a new tactic before they attack again. That can take some time, as the Gods don''t actually work well together.


    The only reason that the God of Time could get them to coordinate so well was that he could move forward in time, see the likely oue of his actions, and then adjust before trying them in the active timeline. With that ability gone, they have no advantage of foresight, and they are fighting us the same as they were forced to during the second half of the Great War.


    They have not forgotten that loss. We have seers among our ranks, much like Max, who can read minds, and the minds of the Gods are so overwhelming that they can be read from many lightyears away.


    Simply entering theyer they are on can give you insight into their thoughts, and that is what we have been doing while we were monitoring them over the years."


    Nico brightened at thatment.


    "When we entered anotheryer one time while fighting the Myceloids, there was a sense that a much higher power was watching us, and even afterward, there was a sense that we were being monitored by a Greater Being. Would that have been one of the Bitter Gods?"


    The old man frowned an action that nearly buried his features in wrinkles.


    "The one that was watching while you fought at the closed Anomaly was the same one that closed it afterward. That is the God of the Myceloids. It admires all things cunning and brutal, so it has always had a soft spot for human soldiers.


    The chances that it would attack you directly are very low, but the chances that it would send an entire full of Myceloids to you just to see what happens are very high."


    Nico nodded in understanding. "That sounds about right. The feeling was a bit hostile and violent, but not so much hateful and angry. Maybe a little bit, but we were winning the fight at the time."


    The old man nodded. "Dealing with the Gods is tricky. You never know how they will react, and they are so old that there are hidden memories, prejudices and biases behind nearly every action that they take. The Myceloid God is more unbiased than most, but I suspect that they are actually a bit simple in the head and just like smashing things."


    "I suppose that the real question is, what do we do now? If the Great Enemy is staging another round of attacks, what do we do in the meantime? Unless wee up with a great new idea, we''re a bit stuck, and nothing that we have is going to take out something more powerful than the Greater Energy Beings if they do decide to make an appearance." Max asked.


    "For everyone''s sake, let''s hope that they don''t make a direct appearance. But I am authorized to help you with your search for advancements. I have a collection of data from the Great War that might help you in your research. We never collected the scientific data of the humans, and our development path was very different than theirs, so I''m not sure that it will help you." The Darkling exined.


    Nico smirked at him. "Our development path this time is different than the one you remember. We''re not repeating the past, only being guided by it. So anything that you can offer us guidance on is going to be a benefit to us.


    We have a facility with the finest of researchers among a dozen species gathered. Perhaps a few of your people would like to join us in trying to develop something that could forestall the chances of another attack?"


    The old Darkling shook his head. "We can''t spare the people. Everything that we have is currently dedicated to the preservation of the myriad species in case things do go badly here. I was assigned to you because I''m nearly on my deathbed, in terms of our species, so I am no longer an active asset to our people.


    But I have data to share, and I wille with you to wherever it is that you are nning on doing this research."


    Nico nodded in satisfaction. "That will be more than sufficient. Just having someone with your level of experience and firsthand knowledge on hand will be a game changer. We won''t have to guess what might work unless it''s something that has never been seen before. That will save a lot of time during development. All you will need to do is show us relevant data on simr technologies that you have collected."


    Internally, Nico''s monologue was very different.


    [A Million years, a Million Years, a million years of DATA.] She was singing in her mind as she thought of new ships and Mecha that they might be able to design tobat energy beings and their allies.


    Max sent her his ideas about variable output pattern energy weapons being an optimal choice, and the tone of her internal song got even happier.


    "I will inform our allies that we will be returning to a location within our home region for the time being and that we will return if there is a resurgence in attacks. The rest of the human fleet will remain here and continue to help those who need it." Max informed their guest.


    "I understand. That should be enough to keep your allies happy while they decide that the threat level has reduced enough for them to restock and rearm themselves. I just hope that they don''t think it ispletely gone."

 Chapter 1027 1027 Exuberant Greetings

    Chapter 1027 1027 Exuberant Greetings


    Once the relevant messages were sent out, and their allies understood that the Terminus Fleet was returning to their home Gxy to work on the next generation of Mecha and ships, the rest of the Anomaly Fleet waspletely fine with holding the line and helping with the cleanup on their own.


    [Good luck, and say hello to the rest of the research team for me.] Was thest message that they received from Celia''s Love, the Command Ship for the Anomaly fleet.


    Max didn''t take them directly back to Absolution. Instead, he had the Board of Directors bring Absolution to them so that they couldbine the research and development teams with the local ones at their destination.


    For a project this big, he wasn''t going to work alone. Instead, and not entirely because Mary Tarith had demanded theye back on asion, he was going to enlist the help of Uncle Lu and the research team at the Rae 5 Moon Base.


    They didn''t warn anyone that they wereing, with the hopes that they could finally take Mary Tarith by surprise.


    [Rae 5 Control, this is Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company, requesting a berth at the Moon Base Station for an urgent matter with Researcher Lu.] Max announced.


    He only had to wait a few seconds to know that, for once, they had actually managed to surprise Nico''s mother.


    [I swear that if you have broken my daughter, there will be hell to pay, Commander Max. I will meet you at the base in four minutes.] Mary Tarith announced.


    [Um, clearance granted, I guess? You heard Madam Tarith. Please proceed to the main Cutter berths within the next four minutes. Docks seven through forty and dock forty-three are open at the moment.] The traffic controller announced.


    The old Darkling was quietlyughing at the exchange while Nico covered her mouth to hide her amusement.


    "I see that Humanity is just as amusing as it always was. I haven''t had a chance to interact with your species for a long time now, but it seems that their sense of protectiveness and humour remain intact.


    Tell me, have your people retained their creative edge? I have analyzed your genome, and it should be intact, but there are some strange modifications made to the two of you that are making arge-scale analysis difficult." He asked.


    "We are considered among the most creative for certain. There are also the Innu, which will be arriving with our research team, who are equally inquisitive and well attuned to technology due to a gic adaptation." Nico exined.


    "Oh, I have seen those ones. The creatures with the sensory tentacles on their heads, correct? They are a curious species and a hybrid, not a natural evolution. ording to my data, they might also be considered an extension of humanity, though there is a chance that natural selection gave them a simr gic base code." The Darkling eximed, seeming much more excited now.


    He was more of a biologist by specialty than an engineer, though he had been given a variety of information to help him in this mission. But he wasn''t sent for his personal specialty. He was sent because he was considered expendable due to his imminent demise from age-rted degradation.


    In short, there was no more that medical science could do for him, and he was only a few years from dying of old age. In the minds of the Darklings, that was essentially hisst breaths in hospice care, but it would be long enough to get the humans started on a new development, and the other two "Mortal Species," as they called themselves, were counting on something good to deal with the issue at hand.


    The Android Pilot smoothly swung the Cutter into Bay 1, the closest to their location, and settled the ship in at the docks.


    [We have arrived. There are currently ny-six seconds before Mary Tarith is expected to arrive.] The Pilot exined.


    She wasn''t the only one on her way up. Uncle Lu was already in the elevator on his way across theoid-sized space station, and a half dozen other researchers who had worked on the Terminus or Absolution teams in the past were on their way as well.


    "It looks like we''re going to have a sizeable weing party. Has Mary''s ship docked yet?" Max asked the Ship''s Pilot.


    "Mary Tarith has requested ess to our rear cargo bay in seventeen seconds." The Android responded.


    Mary was saving herself the time ofnding at a shuttle dock anding over and had decided to dock directly with the Cutter.


    "Open the spare bay for her. She gets inventive if you deny her requests." Maxughed.


    "Understood."


    Max opened all the doors between them and the cargo hold as Mary Tarith came flying down the hallways like a human missile, grabbing Nico in a hug and spinning her in circles.


    "There''s my baby girl. I''ve missed you while you were away. Did I get here first, or did that old man Lu beat me here?" She asked.


    "He''s four floors away in the elevator. You got here first. I would like to introduce you to Ranarth of the Collectors. He is here to help us with our development efforts until the energy beings and their forces emerge from their tactical retreat." Max exined before Mary could get too lost in whatever she wanted to say to Nico.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mister Ranarth. I am Mary Tarith of the Reavers, mother to Nico Tarith and soon-to-be mother-inw to Commander Keres Max." She greeted the old Darkling.


    "A pleasure, Lady Tarith," the old Darkling replied with a smile, then turned to Max.


    "I like this one. She''s decisive and knows what she wants. That is an excellent quality in a leader." Ranarth mock whispered.


    "It''s a gift and a curse at the same time for those of us caught up in her energy. I will introduce you to the rest of the researchers as they arrive. Absolution should be here within the hour. They were just finishing up with some ship transfers before they moved." Max exined.


    "We should move to the greeting dock for the others'' arrival. Old Lu should know he''s still too slow." Mary insisted, pulling Nico along while Max and their Darkling allyughed at her exuberance.

 Chapter 1028 1028 Nostalgia

    Chapter 1028 1028 Nostalgia


    Max and Ranarth followed the pair of small Tarith women out of the Cutter and onto the reception deck, where the researchers had already begun to gather in anticipation of possibly getting a chance to talk to the leaders of the legendary Tarith Trading Company.


    Now, to the rest of the Reavers, they were an up anding innovator known for theirbat prowess and fearlessness, but to the researchers who were in the know, Max and especially Nico were legends for the number of innovations that they had put on the market.


    Uncle Lu strode their way the moment that he exited the elevator withughter in his eyes as he saw the very proud form of Mary Tarith standing next to her daughter.


    "I hope that I didn''t hurry your reunion too much. It is good to see the pair of you back in human territory. I am told that you have some ideas on how we can improve our equipment for the next time that the energy beings attack." Uncle Lu greeted them.


    "Not at all. We''ve got time to finish catching up once we''re all settled in. The research team from Absolution is on their way here as well, so you are about to be a very busy space station. I hope you have the room." Nico replied.


    "Of course, we keep space for an extra five thousand researchers, just in case of an emergency development or a tech conference.


    There is one of thoseing up as well if we can get something new to show off before it starts." Lu suggested.


    Nicoughed. "When has it ever been a problem to get something new to show off when we are around? We''ve already got more toys to show off that we haven''t had a chance to send you the schematics for yet, and I''m sure we cane up with something that is properly disy-worthy by the time that the show rolls around."


    "Ranarth, these are the researchers of the Rae 5 Moon Base team. They are among the most aplished of our scientists in the fields of Mecha and ship development, so they have been chosen to help us with this task. We can catch up with everyone once we get inside. I know they are all eager to get a chance to say hello, so we should arrange a greeting event once the rest of our researchers get here this afternoon." Max exined.


    For a moment, Max thought that he saw a familiar face in the back of the crowd, but then she disappeared again, and it took Max a second to find Moonie''s thoughts in the crowd. She was with a young researcher wearing ab coat and thick sses with an array of magnification and data analysis programs added to them.


    They made a cute couple, but Max turned his attention away after a split second. There were many more interesting people in the crowd today. Scientists who had mastered all sorts of theories, and some who had just started but had grand ideas about what might be possible if they just had the knowledge to make it.


    It was a very well-rounded group, and Max wasn''t sure that his team would actually be needed if it weren''t for theck of Innu here. There were a few, but not nearly enough to take up all the tasks that the Innu were best suited to, like analyzing programming and changing parameters on the fly when there was an issue with the development of a design.


    Their ability to rapidly interface with technology allowed them to solve issues as they came up, turning a failed design into something that should function the first time. Nico could do it as well, but most humanscked the relevant skills to make it happen.


    "I have a room prepared for the evening''s festivities. Absolution should be here very soon, and we will all gather once they are in orbit. Unfortunately, the World Ship is a bit toorge to dock with the station, so only the relevant staff will being to us."


    That was no surprise to Max. They rarely allowed random civilians to be on the Moon Base at all, much less in the restricted areas for Mecha development.


    The group got into therge cargo elevator, and Max looked around at the familiar setting.


    "Isn''t this an exact replica of yourb on Comor?" He asked.


    "Only aesthetically. It felt more like home this way, but theyout of the base ispletely different. This design is more effective since I couldy it out however I wanted and not have to try to make the most of the space that I had to work with inside of a habitation pod." Uncle Lu exined.


    The elevator let them out into argemon area, designed again to mimic theb on Comor, with the indoor city theme and a row of roadside vendors with apartments above them lining the main road.


    "You''re right. This does feel familiar. I should have made myself a new hoverboard before we came down." Nico joked.


    Ranarth looked around the city and nodded his head at Nico.


    "It is an amazing setup for flying. We have our own daredevils among the Collectors, the Stim Gangs. They would love this ce with one of their attack boards. I will give you the design to make themter. They''re marvellous for urban pacification and high-speed boarding actions."


    Max heard a groan from behind him that he recognized as one of the members of their old testing team.


    "I thought that the old man might be the sane one in the group, but he''s just an enabler, isn''t he? Encouraging her to try new things that might not be possible for us mere mortals when ites our turn to test them." The manined.


    Ranarth smiled at him. "I assure you that the use of the boards is perfectly possible for a mortal human. We can even give you some padding for when you inevitably crash."

 Chapter 1029 1029 Welcome Home

    <h4>Chapter 1029 1029 Wee Home</h4>


    The meeting room where they had chosen to host the party was closer to an auditorium, with space for thousands and permanently installed food and drink stations.


    Of course, those could be easily added or removed with Replicator technology, but it was a nice touch.


    "Commanders, wee to the Moon Base. I''m not sure that you''ve ever been in here before, so let me be the first to formally wee you to our home and researchnd. Here, we have developed and refined thousands of ideas to help humanity, many of them sent by your team."


    That bit of Uncle Lu''s speech made everyone chuckle. That was the reason that so many were gathered here today because the Terminus Trading Company had sent them so many amazing designs over thest few years.


    Max stood still while more and more people came to him for handshakes and greetings. There were a surprising number of familiar faces here, people from his time as a researcher on Comor who hade with Uncle Lu when he transferred.


    As Max understood it, the research facility there was still up and running, but it was focusing on non-military matters, like gaming machines and sports equipment, which were also bing quite popr among the Alliance species.


    Before Max knew it, the staff from Absolution was there as well, with a swarm of Innu joining the crowd, excited to meet new people with new ideas.


    Mary Tarith made her way back over to Max''s side. "It''s quite the show, isn''t it? I forget how excited scientists be when they first meet each other."


    "If only you could see in their minds, it''s even more insane. But yes, they do get excited." Maxughed.


    "They pulled my Nico in, so I thought I woulde over here instead of listening to the intricacies of variable wavelength Ion projectors," Mary exined with a smile.


    Maxughed at her annoyance. She was greatly looking forward to seeing her daughter again, but there were so many other researchers here that her chance to escape with Nico was blocked the moment that theynded.


    "Why don''t youe to our ce after this? I''m sure that Uncle Lu set us up somewhere with enough space for a guest." Max suggested.


    They were actually in the VIP quarters not far from the party and had a whole suite to themselves that wasrger than the average house. It was the customary ce to put important guests so that they could be kept nearby but not so close that they would have easy ess to the research levels unless they were permitted to.


    "I''ve got my own ce here in the base as well, but it''s smaller than your suite. We will see which one is more suitable." Mary agreed.


    In her mind, she was more worried about all these researchers following Nico home like lost puppies and making sure that Mary never got a moment alone with her daughter, but Max resisted the urge tough or remind her that he could chase them all away in an instant with a threat to exclude them from tomorrow''s work if they overslept and werete.


    That was one threat that always got the Innu to bed on time, and it didn''t matter if it was adults or small children. The possibility of missing out on research was enough to guide the entire species to bed on time.


    When the waiters came around with champagne and snacks, a mixture of savoury appetizers and small pie squares, it was the signal to the Innu that it was time to really party. Before the sugar came out, they considered it a meet-and-greet event. But if there was alcohol AND sugar, it was a party.


    The mostly human staff of the moon base seemed confused by the sudden change in mood for a few minutes, but the excitement in the room was hard to deny.


    [See, I really do think that they are an offshoot of humanity. Nobody but humans could consider a small pie square a valid reason to party.] Ranarth thought, catching Max''s attention.


    The old man was tapping the side of his head and looking right at him, making sure Max knew the thought was for him before the Darkling scientist returned to people-watching from the corner of the room.


    As the clock approached midnight, Uncle Lu and Ranarth left together, showing the Darkling to his quarters while the two old men bonded about the excessive energy levels of youth.


    Uncle Lu didn''t quite understand just how much older the Darkling was than him, but Ranarth didn''t mind. He had hundreds of thousands of years of experience in xenobiology, and he understood quite well how various species viewed aging.


    Max could also tell that the Darkling had some thoughts on how to alter or change that progression among the humans. During the first half of the Eternal War, they were said to have extended their lives to over a millennia in length. Now, human science could extend it to a few hundred.


    Neither was a long time by Darkling''s standards, but in Ranarth''s mind, a thousand years would let them live long enough to begin to gather true wisdom.


    The two were getting along famously, so Max went to find Nico and Mary so they could sneak back to the suite and get ready for a long day of questions the next morning.


    What he found was Nico and a few other researchers holding the strangest contest he had ever seen. Each of them was given a box with a random pile of parts and microchips, and the one who made the most advanced and functional item out of the pile they were given won the round.


    It was a test of both memory and creativity since you could make a known device out of every different box if you recognized theponents, but if your opponent could make something different than the base item, there was no guarantee that you would win.


    "I give them one more round, and then we take her by force," Mary whispered as Max stepped up behind her.


    "It might be the only way."

 Chapter 1030 1030 Mecha Improvements

    <h4>Chapter 1030 1030 Mecha Improvements</h4>


    The next morning, the whole moon base was up bright and early. Absolution had transferred them dozens of new schematics to work with, as well as the majority of their research staff, and Nico had booked one of thergerbs so that they could work on Max''s idea for a variable pattern energy weapon.


    That was their highest priority, ording to Nico, as the energy weapon would be capable of taking on all enemies without modifying the Mecha between battles, and it would save thousands of lives in the nextrge encounter like the one at the Rift.


    The inability to target every species effectively due to their various weapon resistances was the downfall of many of the species along the lines who didn''t have the diversity of firepower or the backup to adjust to the situation.


    So, before the next battle, they would be sure that the human fleet was not going to be one of those species, and then they would spread the knowledge to the other species that they were allied with in hopes that someone would either find it useful ore up with an improved version that they could reverse engineer into something amazing.


    Even with all of the brilliant minds in the room and the experience of the Darklings on their side, there was a chance that another species woulde up with something positively amazing that they had never thought of.


    Max was in the locker room, changing into a pair of utility coveralls and a Tech Adept Harness, the usual wear of the research teams here, while Ranarth waspletely engrossed in the multi-armed exoskeleton.


    "You made these just to make development work easier when you have the Replicators?" He asked curiously.


    "At the time, our replication technology wasn''t as good atplex alloys or reformatting at the atomic level as it is now. We were still reliant on a number of base materials to create our equipment. So, this helped a lot in the design phases, especially for smaller adjustments that didn''t require a full rebuild.


    Now, it makes assembly and adjustments easier and gives the team a visual aid instead of doing everything in virtual reality and then assembling the final product." Max exined.


    "Plus, if it doesn''t work, we can make adjustments on the spot. When we''re working with little things, we don''t use the harness, but today, we''re building Mecha weapons, and those parts can be too big for us to carry on our own." One of the Innu announced.


    The Darkling smiled and patted her head.


    "These creatures are adorable. I can see why you like them." He informed Max.


    The Innu giggled and finished getting her harness on before racing out to join her team.


    "They''ve got a great culture, focused on being helpful and innovative. You just need to watch how much caffeine you give them because they''re very high energy to start with." Max agreed.


    "A minor drawback, all things considered. I have analyzed their gic augmentations, and I must say that the ability to directly interface with technology is a brilliant one. It''s a variation on the gic sequencing for telepathy like your Illithid friend has, but it only operates on a set group of frequencies.


    If you alter your technology in certain ways, it''spletely feasible to block them out entirely, but the advantages of using firewalls and programming to keep items secure instead make for much more efficient maintenance."


    Max hadn''t known that there was a way to keep them out entirely. He simply had never considered trying. But it made sense that if you weren''t allied with them, you would want to. Their hacking skills were a menace to their enemies.


    Max and Ranarth were among thest to arrive at their workstation, where Nico and Uncle Lu were at the front of the room, ready to address the team.


    "Good morning everyone. I trust that you have all read up on the work that we are going to be starting here today, so I will jump ahead to the good parts.


    We are going to be starting with three weapons that we are hoping to integrate into one system. The Heavy Ion Destroyer, the sma Fuside from the Cutter ss Ships, and a Disintegrator-based Orbital Lance."


    If any sane and reasonable species had heard those words, they would be crying tears of frustration right now, Max knew, but Ranarth was enthralled by the prospect.


    "You know, I''m not even sure that is possible. The Ion Destroyer and the Disintegrator arepatible for certain, but the sma Weapons are more of a superheated mass projectile. Being able to vary your output between the three is a very interesting idea.


    Give me a second, and I will pull up some schematics that are rted to the topic."


    Ranarth sent the data to the holographic emitter on the table behind Nico, who started to examine it in the middle of Uncle Lu''s continued instructions to the team.


    "Mister Ranarth has saved us a lot of time this morning. He already has the data on how to integrate the Ion and Disintegrator weapons. So, group one will start by using that data as a base set and then attempt to improve the energy efficiency and destructive capability, while group two will work on ways to integrate either sma or a Fusion type weapon to it for species that are more vulnerable to temperature than pure energy." Nico exined.


    Ranarthughed as the team cheered and then took a seat in the viewing area to go through his data and look for something else that the humans and their allies might find useful in this situation.


    Max left him to his study and joined team two, while Nico had gone to team one with Uncle Lu. That team was working with all new data, something that they had never personally built before, but Max had [Battle Optimization] Rank Max to work with.


    He got his system right to work trying to find a way to integrate the Orbital Lance and the sma Fuside while helping the team analyze the circuitry of the energy emitters and rys to see what could bebined and oveyed to create abination weapon.


    That wasn''t their true goal for the experiment, but it would be a good first step along the way to finding a truly variable emission weapon.

 Chapter 1031 1031 That Could Hurt

    Chapter 1031 1031 That Could Hurt


    "What if we add the frequency modtor for the sma Fuside to the Disintegrator? It wouldn''t actually be sma, but it might give the beam the same superheating effect when it impacted on a target." Max suggested as his System Function gave him a preliminary answer to the query.


    "Oh, that could be fun. We will get right on it." The team two leader, an Innu girl named N, cheered.


    N clearly was NOT old enough to have finished her time in the education system, so she must have gotten some sort of dispensation to graduate early. Uncle Lu wouldn''t have allowed her to be a team leader without qualifications, and he definitely wouldn''t have encouraged an Innu researcher to drop out of school.


    "Alright, I think that we have it programmed into the VR simtion. Do you want to have the honours of trying it out first?" She asked, bouncing with excitement while she waited for his answer.


    "Certainly. Let''s see how it goes." Max agreed.


    The simtion was set up with a variety of enemies in a row, using the data that Terminus Trading Company had amassed during their fights. There was still a lot of knowledge missing, as they hadn''t had time to analyze theposition of all of the armours and technologies yet, but it should do for now.


    Other teams here on the Moon Base were working on that exact topic at the moment, using the samples that the Androids had brought back for reference.


    The more that they knew about the enemy, the better they could design weapons to kill them, and the better the chance that they would find a way to replicate and improve on the most effective armour.


    Max put on the VR link headset and took a seat to begin the testing process.


    The weapon was designed to be built into a small spaceship, but it could be adapted to a Mecha at ater point. For the simtion, it was on a Cutter ss ship, identical to the one that Max had taken to the Moon Base.


    [Arming weapon for testing.] He announced to the team watching the simtion.


    Then he fired and watched the enemies ced in front of him vaporize on impact.


    There seemed to be a glitch for some of the Cathedral Ship units, though, as they were short on data for them.


    So, Max exited the simtion and turned to theirrgest source of new information.


    "Mister Ranarth, do you have full data on the armour of the warriors in the Cathedral Ships? They are resistant to our Disintegrators, and our simtion is having issues calcting effectiveness for the new weapon designs due tock of data." Max exined.


    "Of course. Here you go. There are a variety of armour sets, but this is the mostmon one. That should be suitable for your testing." He agreed easily but didn''t stop his search for integrated energy weapons, even while the data was sent.


    "Alright, let''s try this again."


    The second round of tests provided useful data from all targets, and the team was ready to get back to work.


    [Battle Optimization] had also gained arge jump in efficiency with the new data avable, and it was constantly calcting new ways to arrange the weapon''syout in Max''s mind.


    It was a ways off frompletion, so Max continued with the experiments as the team rearranged the emitter array to better integrate the two technologies.


    "I think that we have something here, boss. If we arrange the Orbital Lance like this and then add the heat generation algorithm from the sma Generator here and insert some superheated Nitrogen atoms into the stream, we don''t get a pure energy weapon, but abined particle weapon and look at the secondary reactions." The tiny team leader suggested.


    Max looked at N''s idea, and it seemed like it would work, so he input it into the simtion.


    [Firing Main Weapon.] He announced and started the recording.


    The results were unexpected, to say the least. Thebination of the disintegration effect and the sma effect caused a secondary nuclear fission reaction, which chained to other atoms in the area as long as the beam continued.


    When Max returned from the simtion, the whole team was in an uproar about the new data.


    "That might just be the most effective killing weapon I''ve ever seen. Oh, think of how we could use that in precision weapons. If we put it in a drill, we could fusion mine through anything in an instant." N was rambling.


    "Focus, focus. We''re working on Killy things today. You can send the data off to be analyzed for use as a mining toolter." Max reminded her.


    "Got it. I''ll put it in my personal queue forter. It gets automatically bumped out to the public if I don''t take it up after my current assignment is done." She agreed.


    Basically, the feature was a personal reservation of a fun idea, but the Innu were so distractible that they had an automated function to give it to someone else if they forgot that they were going to do it.


    "Alright, let''s optimize this a bit and run it again. I want to know how it does on arger scale, as the Orbital Lance is usually used." Max ordered.


    The optimization process took much longer than expected, as there were so many different ways to go with the technology, but they had time for one more test before lunch.


    "Alright, let''s make this interesting. We''re going to do an over or under wager. I say it''s 48 percent more effective than a regr Orbital Lance. Do you bet over or under that number? Winners get one of my special raspberry tiramisu squares for dessert."


    Those weren''t programmed into the Moon Base replicators. They had been developed on Absolution and hadn''t been shared among the rest of the Reavers yet. But, Max could easily share the data to the kitchen here for a single use or have the Androids bring one down from the ship.


    "Over!" They all cheered as one.


    "Alright then. Beginning the test."

 Chapter 1032 1032 Chain Reaction

    Chapter 1032 1032 Chain Reaction


    The simtion booted up, and Max fired the weapon, observing the ongoing calctions as the Moon Base''s mainframe determined the likely oues.


    The Orbital Lance passed over the simted infantry as expected and impacted the ced behind them. But that was where all forms of normal ended.


    The weapon was designed to both create and use Nitrogen sma, and the atmosphere of the was heavily nitrogen-based. What followed was a chain-reacting nuclear explosion on aary scale, tearing apart the atmosphere and crushing the itself into billions of tiny pieces.


    "That''s definitely over." N cheered as Max exited the simtion.


    The mainframe had been instructed to run it a hundred times to determine the variability of the oues, but it was already clear that even without the chain reaction, this weapon far exceeded the basic Disintegration-based Orbital Lance, which was already more powerful than the original Ion Based Orbital Lance.


    "I will have a whole cake brought down for our lunch. The security shouldn''t stop the Androids from my ship." Maxughed as the team celebrated their victory.


    Ranarth looked over at their station.


    "Was that the intended oue?" He asked.


    "Not precisely, but it was within the parameters of our stated goal, so it is a stepping stone victory on the development path. Think of it like getting the first gene in a resequencing effort to affix properly." Max exined since the old man was more familiar with biology than weaponized physics.


    "I see. Then congrattions. The other team isn''t having quite as much early sess, but they are learning a lot from the data that I provided. It would seem that the teams here are quite adept at understanding new technologies." The Darkling Elder agreed.


    "They are very fast to adapt. It''s part of their training but also a prerequisite to be inducted into these teams. They are the most innovative sorts that we could find, not just specialists who have been trained in procedural weapons development.


    Don''t get me wrong, we have a lot of those in the development department as well, but they are assigned to the testing and refining stages of the process." Max exined.


    "Interesting. But why are they so excited about something as simple as fruit and cake with lunch? Are they on a restricted diet?" Ranarth asked.


    "Thebination of certain fruits and coffee is a form of stimnt and intoxicant to them. In a small dose, they be very hyper, and that is what I have ordered them for lunch. It should increase productivity, and it will improve their morale as well." Maxughed.


    "What a strange employee benefits program. I will have to make notes for my kinfolk."


    Max looked into Ranarth''s mind and shook his head in dismay. They preferred using negative reinforcement for their alien subordinates. If they didn''t perform to satisfaction, they would be tortured and then healed and sent back to work. It was incredibly effective after a million years of practice, but it was probably best if he didn''t let Nico know that was an option.


    The Android quietly brought in the cake in a covered tray along with the rest of the lunch order, and Ranarth immediately got up from his seat in the observation area to see what sort of food would get a research team so excited. It didn''t look like much, but it smelled divine.


    The two species could eat nearly the same things, though the Darklings had far fewer food restrictions and lower calorie requirements than the average human did. But for the most part, food was only a daily necessity for them, so their cuisine was simple unless they were trying to impress someone with their culinary skills.


    What had been brought out to serve the researchers was quite the borate feast, with a half dozen different vours for each person, though his calctions said that their nutritional needs could have been filled with increased portions of only two items.


    But these Reavers seemed to treat every day as if it might be theirst, celebrating everything and putting their all into their work. It was a strange ethic that he could only wish the worker species that his people used to do their manualbour held.


    But then, if they were actually useful and intelligent as well as self-motivated, they would have been reseeded onto a instead of being left as the dregs of evolution and kept as menial workers by the ones keeping them from extinction.


    Ranarth put that aside and focused on the collection of creative species in front of him, as well as the selection of foods that Command Max had ordered for his team.


    "Oh, this is good soup. It could use some additional spice, but the vour is immacte." Hemended the lunch selection.


    N looked at him with interest. "Your people like really spicy food? I like spicy food too, but mother says it can cause indigestion."


    Ranarth smirked at the little Innu. "My people value productivity quite highly. Spicy food is painful to eat, so the workers rush through their portions to finish faster. It has be part of our culture to finish daily meals quite quickly. This social event and brainstorming session over lunch seems to have its own productivity merits, though."


    N nodded repeatedly. "Yes, it''s the best time to talk about what we''re doing next because it''s not interrupting anyone''s job if we talk during lunch."


    Max smiled as the old Darkling made a mental note about the advantages of an extended lunch with workce conversations and then filed it away to send back with his reports. Surely, the others of his species had considered it, but because they lived so long, there wasn''t a constant series of new generations taking over and changing things, so they became hidebound in their ways.


    It was one of the great drawbacks of a long life. Even if you had a genius in charge, they would eventually get stuck in their ways, and it would take arge event to drive a need for change and get them moving again.

 Chapter 1033 1033 Stable Lance

    Chapter 1033 1033 Stable Lance


    After lunch, everyone got back to work, and Ranarth had even more data on historicalbined pattern energy weapons for Nico''s team to go over.


    Byparison, Max''s team had it easy, as they were only going to try to stabilize their design for the Orbital Lance today and prevent it from identally setting off a thermonuclear chain reaction.


    If they did it on purpose, that was fine, but a random side effect from a weapon was no good for them. What they needed was a reliable recement for their current energy weapons that could be used against every target that they were likely to face in the Great Enemy''s fleet while fighting on defendeds.


    They had caused quite a bit of damage the first time and upset the locals, but if they had just blown up the, the other species would start questioning what team they were on.


    "Alright, so we need to modify the energy pattern so that it does affect the sma within the beam, but without chain reactions that will affect the rest of the atmosphere. Who has an idea?" Max asked once they were back at work.


    "We could change to a rare gas that might stop the chain reaction." One of the researchers suggested.


    "It could, or it could make the problem worse if we encountered a lot of that rare material. We will keep it in reserve. What else do we have as an idea?" Max asked.


    "We could increase the carrier energy frequency. It would reduce the ability of the Disintegrator to create a fission event, which should prevent any more incidents of runaway reactions. It will take some testing to get it right, though." N suggested.


    "Then that''s what we are doing today. Let''s get this simtion set up and start working on the adjustments." Max agreed.


    The first few results were predictably brutal within the simtion, but the next few they ovepensated on, and the disintegration effect didn''t break down the sma at all.


    That was a bit disheartening for the team, but now they had the full variability range for the proper functioning of the weapon, and they could start to fine-tune.


    When the end of the day came, Nico''s team looked positively exhausted, but they had a huge amount of data sorted and categorized, ready to be analyzed beginning the next day.


    Max''s team had a somewhat functional Orbital Lance, but the effects were still far too unstable to put it into production as a Mecha''s main weapon.


    "That''s it for the day. Night shift will be in soon, working on the same issues we were, but under their own direction and not using our experimental data. That way, we havepletely different patterns of development, and we''re not limiting the other team''s creativity." Max exined to Ranarth when they were ready to leave.


    "Oh, that is wonderful. I have always admired human creativity. Now, I believe I will retire to my quarters and finish these reports. Tell me, how far is it from my room to the dining quarters?" The Darkling asked.


    "There are food creation facilities inside your suite, but if you wish to experience the various popr cuisines based on public input or other criteria, I have a map of all of the shops near your unit." Uncle Lu exined as he transferred the data.


    "Marvellous. I shall take the time to fully experience the new aspects of your culture. My people only need one hour of daily rest, you see, so I have some spare time tonight." Ranarth announced.


    Despite his age, he was quite excited to try new things, including new foods, and from the thoughts Max read, he intended to sample them based on how many people he saw eating there when he passed by. If they were busy, they got priority to be added to his data set to send home.


    "I rmend that you try the shop called Spice Boat, two blocks down from your unit, along the storefronts on your street. It should give you a taste of home, and they offer five spice levels for all sorts of species, including the ones that find capsaicin sweet." Nico rmended after using her System Function to review the data.


    They were only two doors down from the Darkling Envoy, so they would all be looking to eat at the same spots, and Nico liked to get breakfast on her way to work.


    "Not a bad choice. But what is this Bramha''s Wild Wings? I have no record of a species of bird named Bramha." He asked.


    "It''s actually named after a location, and the wings are chicken wing portions. They can also be spicy if you like, or dozens of other avable vours." Nico exined.


    "Understood. I will see you all in the morning for our shift. I have set an appropriate rm to ount for the difference in travel times between evening and morning shift change, based on the width of the streets and poption density."


    Ranarth made his way to his unit, while the Innu began to immediately discuss methods of altering their own schedules to be more efficient. If they could more urately calcte the necessary travel time, they could add as much as seven more minutes of sleep to their mornings, they believed.


    It was a very different reason than Ranarth, who simply wanted to know exactly when he would be at work and had calcted that he would arrive fifteen minutes before their scheduled start time. The Innu were already pushing the change time to get into their work-issued safety gear, and any more would make themte for work entirely.


    Perhaps he was going to have to give them an incentive to show up on time if they got any worse, but Max suspected that the topic of their new project would be enough to rebuild their enthusiasm for work and get them to bed the seven to ten minutes early so that they could be at the office without shorting themselves their carefully scheduled sleep.


    In the minds of the Innu, the rmended six hours was a precise number, not a minute more or less, for optimal performance. And if that number were wrong, they would nap during downtime. Innu logic was very rarely logical when it involved their own biology, Max had found.

 Chapter 1034 1034 Dark Knowledge

    Chapter 1034 1034 Dark Knowledge


    The next day didn''t bring Max much progress with the Orbital Lance development. There was no safe middle ground. Either you didn''t get the full effect, or when it contacted the element that it was attuned to, it would cause a runaway reaction.


    While that did limit its use, they were going to store it away as a weapon of mass destruction and start on a new approach before Nico''s team called a meeting to discuss the data that they had been working with.


    "Wee, everyone, to our daily meeting. With the amount of new information that we havepiled, we are going to have to do this daily topile the information with the other technologies that we are already working with.


    First up, we have a collector-developedbined energy weapon. It utilizes the best aspects of a particle weapon and a sma weapon. The data is up on your screens now. As you can see, not only is the material superheated to sma, but it is energy stabilized into a beam, the same as an Ion Weapon. That gives it the sort of uracy and long-burst stability that most sma weapons arecking.


    We will start on the practical applications of itter, as we have more technology to go over today as well. We have also been granted knowledge of the unique energy weapon that they have optimized for the Energy Beings that we know as the Demons, who have proven resistant to our Disintegrators.


    The technology is simr, but it uses a pulsed wavelength generator that destabilizes theyers of space, much like a portal opening. That destabilizes the Energy Beings, as we found out during our conflict with the Greater Energy Being, and we can effectively stun-lock them or banish them outright.


    However, while this effect does remove them from ouryer of space, it does not permanently disperse them. It is highly effective, but short term.


    That is why I''ve called your team over here. You are working on the integrated weapon already, and this technology is ripe for integration." Nico exined.


    Max''s team immediately saw the potential in it, and Nico had updated the information about the variousyers that Ranarth had given them so they could properly test the system in their VR simtions.


    "Alright. We were working on abination of sma Fuside and a Disintegrator-based Orbital Lance, but we have determined that our primary objective to stabilize a nuclear secondary reaction in the beam is unsuitable for general use. There is no way to prevent it from bing a runaway reaction when ites into contact with simr elements in an atmosphere orary body." Max exined.


    "That still sounds fun," Nico noted.


    "We stored it in the official records as ast-resort weapon of mass destruction. You can look at it and the results we producedter." Max agreed.


    "Ranarth has provided us with more data to go over, so we will return to integrating that with our currentputer systems, and then we will update you in a few days when we areplete and ready to move on to the experimentation phase with the other teams." Nico finished.


    "We will give you daily updates on our progress as we try to integrate this weapon with other forms of energy systems." Max agreed.


    The most obvious of them was going to be the Disintegrator, as it was so effective against everything except the Demons and the shielding of the Cathedral Ships. Logically, the weapon that was designed specifically for those targets would be the ce that they started since just nuking them into oblivion had proven to be problematic.


    Max''s team returned to their work and began to delve into the technical aspects of the new weapons system that they had obtained. As described, it functioned much like a Portal Generator but without the stabilizing field. It essentially destabilized space around the enemy and caused them to be thrown betweenyers.


    That was fun and all, but Max saw potential. The Disintegrator would further destabilize the region, and if he introduced something more substantial, like an Ion Beam, they could tear the afflicted target apart and send the pieces through theyers to different locations.


    Even if it was an energy being, that should be enough to disperse it in the long term.


    All the members of the team were busying up with their own base idea to present to the group, so Max starteding up with schematics and a basic configuration for his three-part Orbital Lance configuration.


    It was an incrediblyplex weapon, and miniaturizing it was going to be an issue, but for a ship''s main weapon, where space was not at a premium, it would be quite suitable if it worked.


    Some of the other ideas were pretty brilliant, though. The goal was abined weapon that worked on every target, and they had worked it into a number of different fashions. Torpedos, Mass Driver rounds, and even a Laser Array with the new energy modtion as a carrier wave were being designed.


    If even a few of these worked, they would have the rest of the teams on weapons development busy for months.


    It was not a fast process, and when the next day''s daily meeting happened, it was mostly an update by Nico on their work and Max assuring them that the designs wereing along.


    The same with the day after that.


    But on the third day, they were ready to start the presentations.


    The first up was the Mass Driver round idea.


    "As you can see, I went with a standard Thunder Gun round as the carrier andbined the current nuclear explosion with the Portal Technology that has been developed by our new allies. ording to the initial data, the effect should be to disperse the energy beings when they are destabilized, and I am hopeful that testing will reveal that this is a long-term solution." The researcher exined.


    "Excellent work. As you won the draw to present first, we will attempt to construct your weapon first. The next presentation will be tomorrow." Max reminded the group.


    That was their basic schedule. One day to attempt to make the weapon functional before they passed it off to another team and tested the next idea in line.


    The most promising would be brought back to their own group for further exploration, or they mightbine two of them together to try making somethingpletely new.

 Chapter 1035 1035 Massless Driver

    Chapter 1035 1035 Massless Driver


    The construction of the new Mass Driver round prototype started from the internal core, which would require them to create a miniature and rapid eleration stabilized version of the Portal Generator, modified for the chaotic energy field that would destabilize the energy beings.


    The first part was easy. They had a lot of experience making things fit inside the Mass Driver rounds that would function correctly when the rounds were fired. The problem was getting the miniaturized version of the Portal Generator to work at all. It had been designed to a very specific standard, and the physics of it did not lend itself well to miniaturization.


    The energy needed a certain amount of control to stabilize the frequencies, which was impossible with the size of the emitter they needed to use, while the shell of the round would initially block the projection of the energy.


    But the shell of the round would only be breached when the nuclear explosion began, and the portal emitter needed to have done its work before that started. While firing the two weapons separately was possible, it defeated the point of what they were trying to do here.


    The next idea was to put the emitter on the tip of the round, outside the more durable hub, with the energy pulse timed before the arrival of the round.


    It could be destroyed on impact after it had done its job, but that would require them to get the miniature array working, which they didn''t aplish before the end of their work day.


    "Well, it has promise, but it needs more time to study and develop. Tomorrow, we will move on to the next proposed solution and see what we can make of it. Remember, once all the proposals are out, we will work together to try tobine the best aspects of everything that we have learned into a final weapon." Max instructed his team at the end of the day.


    When they got back to their suite that night, Mary was waiting for them with dinner ready and a whole photo shoot set up inside their living room.


    "Good evening, Mary. What are we up to tonight?" Max asked, prompting her to think about what her goal for the day was in case she didn''t want to answer.


    "We have missed you two on our family photos, so I brought the studio here, and we will digitally insert you into your proper spots in the shot so that I can have a fully updated family photo on the mantle. It might be a few months out of sync, but it should be fine." She exined.


    The way she had it set up, the family photo must be a high-resolution 3D hologram or a VRputer sim designed for perfect replication. So, in that case, getting the lighting just exactly right was paramount to blending the two data sets properly without the telltale editing that someone as picky as Mary Tarith would notice in the data.


    When Max looked around, he realized that the table was set for six and not three, but only Mary was there so far.


    "I invited Ranarth, Uncle Lu and my husband over for dinner. They are expected in fifteen minutes, and the tracking device says that Father Tarith will be on time today." Mary exined.


    "You put a tracking device on your husband?" Maxughed.


    "If I didn''t, I would have to chase him down every time. Now that he knows it''s there, he''s be much better at showing up on time."


    Nicoughed as she came into the room, carefully adjusting her morphable facial features to look extra innocent for her mother. If Mary had caught on that this wasn''t Nico''s usual look, she hadn''t said anything about it yet and just pulled her daughter into a hug.


    "It''s so good to get to spend time together again. You travel too much, like your father. But now that we have a few days, we should do something fun as a group. You know, like a family vacation." Mary suggested.


    "Oh, we could go see the deep ocean cities on Absolution. They have submarine tours and whale watching. The whales aren''t huge, but they are whales." Nico suggested.


    "Or, we could visit the beach resorts and catch a tan under actual sunlight down on Rae 5. No, wait, it''s peak snowboarding season at the mountain resort, isn''t it?" Nico''s father suggested as he walked into the suite with Ranarth and Uncle Lu close behind him.


    "Some of us aren''t big on the whole ''physical sports as a leisure activity'' concept as others. But before we get too into this, please take a seat. Dinner is ready." Mary replied.


    "Interesting, most of this is not from the Replicator systems. Itcks the energy signature that they produce. Did you grow this yourself?" Ranarth asked as he admired the sd in front of him.


    "Indeed I did. I used the Terraforming machine to make me a garden at my house on the surface, just enough to make a dish or two for special asions." Mary agreed.


    The old Darkling nodded happily at the news as he ate. Going to extreme lengths, as he viewed growing your own food to be, was considered the height of courtesy when greeting guests. This was the only dish from the garden, but Mary had made the rest herself using replicated ingredients.


    The excitement increased as the meal finished and the dessert course approached, leaving Ranarth in confusion about the change of mood.


    "Mary Tarith traditionally bakes a special dessert dish for important asions. It is quite good, and the rest of the human leadership all eagerly await a chance to get another slice of it." Max exined quietly as Mary went to the kitchen to get the cake.


    She carefully set the slices out on the table, and Ranarth''s eyes opened wide in shock. "I know this dish. This is a Stevia and Chocte Cake. Even my species, who don''t often indulge in sweets, is known to find these irresistible if they are well made."


    Unfortunately, that was an ingredient that Max already knew, and Ranarth didn''t know the secrets to its baking.

 Chapter 1036 1036 Determined Mary

    Chapter 1036 1036 Determined Mary


    The next morning, Mary Tarith gathered everyone at the doors to theboratory with a n to introduce new thought processes into their research program. It was her opinion that they had been studying too much and hadn''t had time to fully digest the new things that they had learned, so they would take one full day away from thebs and do something rxing.


    "So, what do we have on the docket for the day to help our researchers rx, Lady Tarith?" Max teased her as she assembled the group.


    "Today, we are going to go to the Vcanic Springs on Rae 5. They have a unique form of fish in there that creates an endothermic reaction when exposed to water, cooling the ponds enough that they don''t boil near the volcanoes, and the high mineral levels give them an incredible luminescence.


    Since the topic of the week is unique energy patterns, I thought that a bit of rxation while exposed to them should help clear everyone''s minds."


    The springs were also quite remote and hard to get to, inside an area that was designated as a nature preserve, so there was no development in the area, and it was a long trip in by the flying shuttles from the major cities, which made it one of the less popr tourist areas.


    If they were lucky, they might even have the whole ce to themselves, given the small poption of the and the abundance of other ces to visit.


    "I have prepared the shuttle, so if everyone will please follow me, we will head to the surface right away," Mary ordered.


    Uncle Lu must have been warned in advance, as he was wearing a tropical shirt and carrying a bag full of various beach essories, which would not normally be brought to the researchb.


    "Normally" because with him, you never really knew what was going to be a topic for research, and so you couldn''t rule out that they were for scientific purposes.


    With a cheer, the researchers followed Mary to the shuttle bays, ready and willing to try her new method, which involved ying in the water while brainstorming new ideas. As a workce technique, it was practically made for the Innu, who were an amphibious species to begin with.


    So, Max started toe up with research-rted games for them to y.


    Not ones that directly referenced their work but ones that would help with their creative thinking. Then, he realized that he didn''t have to. Having theme up with different games to y all day long was a much better method, and he could just stop trying to guide them for the day and let the Innu be Innu.


    While they did that, he could watch the fish, take a walk around the volcano, and rx by the water with Uncle Lu, who was dying for more people to tell the stories of their work since Max and Nico had started sending him a constant stream of ideas to improve.


    He was sequestered within hisb all the time, and he didn''t really get out much, so he never got the chance to tell anyone who didn''t already know about how their research had been going. The stress had to be getting to him by now, but he wasn''t willing to step away for the day any more than the others were, even if it was clear that he needed it.


    The shuttle circled the site once, giving everyone a chance to look down on the active volcano as they descended, and then settled down on the smallnding pad next to therger pool. There were no other shuttles or vehicles here, so if they weren''t alone, then whoever was here had hiked in.


    For most humans, that would be a two-day journey, so it looked like they had the ce to themselves.


    The three men were chased out of the shuttle when theynded so that thedies could change into swimwear, and Max led Ranarth and Uncle Lu down to the water''s edge with a folding table and an armload of chairs.


    This turned out to be exactly Ranarth''s sort of spot. There were all sorts of unique nts on this, put here by design when it was terraformed, and the fish species was a particrly unique one, brought out of the history books from a long-dead to repopte the waters here.


    This was one of the few ces on the that they were suited to, so Mary had picked them herself as part of the efforts to make the world more interesting to tourists. Eventually, this ce would be a top destination, with its beautiful scenery and unique species, but for now, it was a hidden gem for them to y at.


    All of that was secondary to Mary, though. While she wanted the work to go smoothly, her primary goal was to get to spend more time with Nico since her youngest kids were now in school, and she had an empty nest at home. Mary loved having little ones around, but hers were slowly making their way out into the world.


    "Alright, Everyone, I want you all to have fun today, but I have a task for you. I want each of you to find one different way to have fun in this spot. Even if it''s a cool thing to look at, you have all day." Max instructed the researchers, making themugh as they ran for the water.


    Ranarth smiled and pointed at a tree. "Up in the branches of that Golden Bark Maple tree, there is a bird''s nest. If youugh at the right frequency, they will echo your song."


    He let out a musicalugh, and a half secondter, a dozen small bird voices echoed it, singing hisughter back to him.


    The Innu cheered, and Mary stared at him in shock.


    "How did you know that? I didn''t know that, and I''m the one who introduced the species to the region." She asked.


    "Got it, Commander. We will do our best."


    The old Darkling shrugged. "They''re a near-perfect descendant of a species with the ability, so it only made sense that they would have it too. I noticed them doing it when we were setting up the tables, but it''s not a note that ismonly made by human voices. The Innu should be able to do it, though, if they sing while mostly underwater.


    Being submerged changes the pitch of their voices for aquaticmunication, and that will put them in the right pitch."


    Mary nodded happily as the old man gave his description, then brought out a selection of snacks from the shuttle.


    "Today is going to be a good day, and I''m not letting anything stop me." She dered.

 Chapter 1037 1037 A Brilliant Idea

    Chapter 1037 1037 A Brilliant Idea


    The Innu were happily bobbing in the water of the hot springs, asionally popping up to talk to the birds while they yed in the water, moving back and forth as naturally as any amphibious species would. That was what ended up giving them their first fun new idea for weapons that could target the energy beings.


    One of the Innu was about to surface when her friend dunked her head back underwater, making her splutter for a second as she had been expecting to get a lungful of air. It was only one breath, and they had all suffered from a shock transition while ying as kids, but as researchers it gave them an idea.


    Theyers were a lot like the separation between water and air, each of them was different. However, if they could mess with that boundary, they could directly mess with the energy being''s transition between states.


    It was a small thing, but a new way of thinking about their approach to weapons creation. Before, they were working on targeting the enemy themselves, while destabilizing them using the Darkling weapons that affected the Energy Being''s stability within theyer. But if they changed the way that the boundaries in the region worked as well, they could cause real havoc with their ability to disperse.


    It was filed and noted, and the Innu continued about their day, swimming with the fish, and trying not to get too close to their endothermic reactions, so they could stay pleasantly warm and not get the body heat sucked out of them.


    It was all that they could have hoped for in a day-long outing. A bit of a change of thinking that would allow them to take a new approach to development in the uing days.


    "Lunch is served. Everyone out of the water ande get some nutrients in you before you pass out." Max called as Nico brought back another tter of food.


    The Innu burned a huge amount of energy when they were ying, as they had a much faster metabolism than most species did, but with the Replicators on their side, there was no shortage of food on their outing, and everyone from the Moon Base was eager to try all the new food products that Absolution had developed since they checked inst.


    Mary smiled up at the sky as shey across her husband''s chest, just enjoying the downtime away from all of her responsibilities and the daily stress of managing an entireary system full of Reavers.


    They had expanded their operations to cover nearly every feasible space in the Rae 5 system, and now there were thousands of space stations set up around thes, and the traffic on the surface was beginning to pick up beyond the point that Mary had designed her traffic control system for.


    Expansion meant changing things up and adding new departments, which meant splitting responsibilities, and to her, it always seemed that everything had toe across her desk.


    Not that she would consider letting anyone else do it. The one she wanted to take over her position as Family Head was Nico, and she wasn''t nearly ready to settle down into a managerial position yet, despite her rank as a Reaver Company Commander.


    Max left her alone with her thoughts and decided that it was time to do something a bit energetic for the day. The Innu were perfectly happy in the water, but he was eager to explore a little. The had a wonderful collection of rare gems and minerals even before they terraformed it.


    "Hey Nico, want to go check out the gemstone cliffs? They''re only about five kilometres from here, and we can make it there before the Innu are even finished teaching the birds a new song." He suggested.


    Nico winked at him and got up out of the reclining chair she had picked for the afternoon.


    "Sure, a little time to stretch our legs would be a great idea. We will be back, everyone."


    Mary''s smile grew so wide Max thought it might actually give her muscle cramps, while the Innu all waved happily and demanded that they make a recording of the cliffs to show everyone when they returned.


    They didn''t want to miss out on the sight of the cliffs, but they weren''t willing to go that far from the hot springs to see it. Five kilometres was a long way for the Innu without transport. For Max and Nico, it was no big deal. Five kilometres was under a ten-minute jog, given their physical skills, and they wouldn''t even be tired when they got there.


    As soon as they were out of sight of the others, Nico smirked at Max and took off running, dodging between the trees and taunting him for not being able to catch up. Max justughed and picked up his speed. Despite his size, and her agility, Max was still faster in a t out race, Nico only had the advantage when they were moving through the trees.


    He let her run to the cliffs and only caught her when they were in the final clearing, then jumped off the short ledge, so they could watch the view of the light on the gemstones from the air.


    A five-metre fall wasn''t going to seriously injure either of them, though an impact with the trees they were approaching could be a painful experience. The view was worth it, though. The gemstones glittered on the rock face in front of them, wet from a natural spring and with the afternoon sunlight reflecting off them.


    "Holy crap, call a medic, they''re going to die." Someone shouted from below them, and Max realized that they were not alone at the cliff. There were other visitors here, and they hadn''t realized that the two of them were in no real danger.


    "We''re all good." Maxughed as hended on his feet with Nico in his arms.


    "That''s not normal." The terrified man gasped. The tone of voice made Max realize that he had overlooked one small fact. These were Alliance visitors out sightseeing. They had never met a Kepler Pilot before, or a full-conversion cyborg, so they had no frame of reference that would tell them that it was possible for species with no wings to be uninjured after falling for five metres.

 Chapter 1038 1038 Natural Scientists

    Chapter 1038 1038 Natural Scientists


    "Sorry, we didn''t notice you there. We''re augmented humans, that much is not a problem for us. I apologize for frightening you." Nico exined, still in Max''s arms.


    "Oh, the ones here with Researcher Lu? We start work with him in two days, so we came sightseeing before we had to be at work on the moon." The small alien exined.


    "Oh, what sort of work are you doing?" Max asked.


    "Spatial Anomaly Analysis. It might sound rather dull, but these days it has be fairly important as a field, since it also involves theyers of space where some of the alien battles are taking ce." The alien exined.


    "That is an important topic. I''m Keres Max, Commander of the Terminus Trading Company, and this is Sumander Nico Tarith, daughter of Mary Tarith." Max greeted the scientist.


    "I am Andy Beta, of the Trill. You likely haven''t heard of us, but we''re well known for our logical deduction abilities, and I have high hopes that we can make a breakthrough in the field of spatial integration."


    Nico smiled at him. "I think you should be able to. Why don''t you and your friend take your transport over ande join us? The Innu are ying in the hot springs, and we always wee more guests. We can probably even save you the hassle of finding a shuttle up to the station if you have all your goods with you."


    "They were delivered already, and should be in our suite. This is my wife Andrea. It would be an honour to join you both."


    Max waved to the other small alien, and looked up the records for the species so that he could learn a bit more about the Trill before working with them.


    They were to geology what the Innu were to machinery. They were naturally in touch with it, and they could detect earthquakesing before any known machine was capable of it. There was no record of how that would rte to spatial anomalies, but the idea that the two were interconnected wasn''t that farfetched.


    Max worried that they might not do well on in space, disconnected from any realary body, but they were going to the Moon Base, which was carved out of an actual moon and not artificially constructed in a simr size, so they should be fine. He knew that for Innu prisoners, isting them from any form of technology was akin to putting them in a sensory deprivation torture chamber, so he wanted to look out for these odd creatures.


    Like the Hunters, they covered their faces with a mask. But they weren''t terrifying looking, at least not to Max. They simply had no facial features at all, and their mouth was under their chin, giving them apletely smooth face that he was told unnerved people.


    They had eyes, but they were blended into the rest of their ebony ck faces and nearly indistinguishable, making some species think that they were actually blind and psychic.


    The two groups went their own ways, and Max found a good seat to watch the light y off the rock face as Nico rxed on hisp.


    "You know, I think that we should take a little trip ourselves. The design teams can do most of the work without us, and it is likely that I can locate a number of other ancient Human ruins with the information that the Darklings have given us. If we can find them we might find other humans, but more importantly, we might find relics from the beginning of the Eternal War, things like God ss Mecha." Nico suggested.


    "Wouldn''t it be better to use that data to make something new of our own, though? Last I checked, the end of thest conflict between the humans and the so-called Gods didn''t end well for anyone, and our species was tossed across the universe.


    I don''t believe that we can afford for that to happen again."


    Nico went quiet for a while, watching the dancing lights as she thought about what their best course of action should be. She knew that Max would be listening in, even if he wasn''t actively talking in her mind, so she went through all the possible oues that she could and then decided that maybe he was right.


    They should build the God ss Mecha first. At the very least, they should create something that was capable of at least dealing with the Greater Energy Beings one on one. Then they could go looking for ruins of the ancient Humans, which might have more data for them than the Darklings were willing and able to supply.


    "Alright, you have a point. But where do we even start? We can''t use a conventional alloy hull for a machine like that. I suppose we can use the monomolecr material that we use for the ships again, but eventually the Energy Beings will find a good way to deal with that, and they already have no problem breaching our shields." Nico sighed.


    "After thest battle, we gathered enough data to create new shielding formations that should keep them out. The research teams have a few prototypes already designed, so that is one problem down. The Arisen are still using that same hull material, so there might not be something that is significantly better at dealing with the Energy Beings. Or at least nothing that they can replicate.


    Most of what we need are the movement, weapons and shield systems to keep up in battle against them, since the hull material that we have seems to be the best that we can do." Max replied.


    Nico smirked. "Just three things, right? It sounds so simple when we reduce it down to categories. How did thebined weapon design go? Can we at least use what you developed in a space battle?"


    "In space, yes. On a, no. It will chain react every time it touches Nitrogen at the moment. We could change the gas that it''s using to create the sma, but that would just change what it was reactive with."


    Nico spent a few more minutes in silence, wondering what they could do, then sat up straight.


    "What if we don''t create sma in the actual beam, and we just send the carrier signal that will create the chain reaction on contact? Like when you overheated something in the microwave before we had Replicators. Just boil and crisp them. If we could tune that to the energy or the solid mass of the Energy Beings, then we could use them as fuel for the reaction that would destroy themselves."


    Making nukes out of their enemies'' bodies? That was both amusing and horrific at the same time. On a, in a dense battle, it would be an extinction-level event, but on a more dispersed scale, where they weren''t close enough to chain react with each other, or out in space where there was no to protect, it would be perfect.


    "I will put it on tomorrow''s build sheet, and we will see what we cane up with. The Innu are working on an idea as well, so maybe we can find two new ways to deal with them."

 Chapter 1039 1039 Back To Work

    Chapter 1039 1039 Back To Work


    At the end of their day on the beach, everyone was in a much better frame of mind, and ready to get back to work with a fresh outlook on life.


    The Innu hade up with multiple ideas that they thought might help their development of a weapon that would be able tobat the Energy Beings, and Max had one of his own, courtesy of Nico.


    Her team wasn''t working on a new batch of data today, they had also moved on to working on weapons systems so that they could get the job finished more quickly and move on to propulsion and chassis design for a new Mecha.


    As always, Nico''s first love and passion would always be Mecha, and now they were getting closer to the ability to create the ultimate Mecha, the pinnacle of the craft both in this life and through all of human history.


    That was enough to get any Mecha lover excited, but Max tempered it with the knowledge that before the timeline had been reset when time altering technology had been deployed, it hadn''t been enough, and humanity had still lost in the end.


    So, their goal had to be better than humanity had ever done before. If they couldn''t, then there wasn''t much hope of actually being able to defeat the Energy Beings. Or perhaps there was. If they could shatter all the so-called Renegade Gods into smaller pieces, then they only had to deal with the Greater Energy Beings.


    It would be a long and brutal fight, but they might actually win that war of attrition with every species of the Universe on their side as well as the Gods of the Mortal Species, if they chose to intervene and not just wait to see if they needed to make a new species.


    When you lived nearly forever and could rebuild a civilization on a whim, things like an eternal war took on a very different connotation. They might favour their species, and would keep renewing them so that they didn''t be extinct, but that didn''t mean they would fight their peers over every single slight.


    Max looked down at the ns in front of him and started to n how he was going to integrate these ideas into one coherent n. His System had been calcting it all night, but there was no definitive answer yet, only a series of suggestions that it would refine as he started to work on them.


    [Battle Optimization] wasn''t perfect for design work, it was more practical and much more efficient once he had a functional weapon in his hands, but as far as System Functions went, there weren''t many that could be called better.


    So, Max worked out a blueprint that should make the Disintegrator-based Orbital Lance cause a sma Reaction at the target, and then break it apart for a fission reaction. Once he got it started, everything seemed to fall in ce.


    What he needed was about ten wavelengths of the Disintegrator at once, which was no problem if he built the weapon as an array and not a single projector. Then all the desired effects could bebined at once, and he could rely on [Battle Optimization] to show him the programming to optimize the weapon for each desired target material before every shot.


    For general use, they would need to program a few dozen different settings, and let the targetingputers pick the most appropriate, but when it was in his hands, he could do so much more with a weapon like that.


    The design process was not a fast one, and it was nearly a week of work before Max and his team had their new designs ready for testing in the VR system and not theption and analysis program.


    So, Max dyed the announcement for one more day, so they could start after their weekly meeting with Nico''s team and everyone could discuss how their work was going.


    Nico''s team had been focusing on the other side of their weapon requirements, the ability to stop the enemy from moving betweenyers, and to lock their energies in oneyer, using modified versions of the weapon that the Darklings had shown them.


    Ranarth was overjoyed to see that they still considered the ssics to be worth emting, even when they were working on a whole new way of aplishing them, and even Uncle Lu hade down for the day to hear their announcements at the weekly meeting.


    Thebined teams had gathered in the break room with itsrge projector so that they didn''t have to reorganize their workspaces to do the presentation, and Max was standing at the head of the room next to Nico, as their team representatives.


    Max cleared his throat. "My team has been working individually to develop a variety of weapon systems, and next week we will be working on integrating them, either as one weapon or on one vessel. So, we will start with my work for the week, a prototype modification to the Orbital Lance that should cause secondary sma damage and nuclear fission on impact."


    Max brought up the schematics and the predicted output numbers, as well as the preliminary videos that he had generated of the weapon''s functions.


    Uncle Lu cheered, while a number of the Innu whistled in appreciation.


    "Now that is what I call damage. It looks like it''s variable enough to work on most targets, and that damage against the Cathedral Ships hulls is insane." Uncle Lumented with a growing smile on his face.


    Ranarth nodded in agreement. "It is a savage weapon well suited to the Eternal War. From what I can see, it should also be able to target the energy patterns of what you call the Demons, and the resultant explosion will destroy their corporeal forms."


    "Won''t the energy just bleed back into their homeyer to slowly reform, though?" One of the Innu asked.


    Nico smirked. "That''s where our workes in. Our team worked as one, as there were a limited number of answers to our puzzle. We have an energy weapon that will turn the boundary betweenyers chaotic. In theory, it will destroy any vessel or Energy Being attempting to transition betweenyers in the area and scatter them all over creation."

 Chapter 1040 1040 Hold the Presses

    Chapter 1040 1040 Hold the Presses


    Uncle Luughed at the shock on everyone''s faces as Nico revealed what her team believed they had aplished.


    "Maybe we should hold off on the rest of the meeting. I can already see that nobody will be able to focus until we can create and test a weapons system that integrates these two principles." He suggested.


    Many hands went up at once, including Ranarth''s, and the decision was made that they would hold off on the other designs until they had a chance to see thisbo in action.


    That meant rearranging the work spaces back into onerge station, where they would both do the digital designs, and then build the first mechanical mockup so that they could test the weapon in the real world and make sure that it worked in a practical sense and not just in theory.


    The two designs both had theoretically functional design schematics, thanks to the advanced systems of Max and Nico, so the first step was the easiest. They input the two weapons onto a basic Cutter hull and integrated them for the first Virtual Reality tests.


    The scenario was familiar, a Greater Energy Being was attempting to move betweenyers of space, and they were going to try to stop it.


    [First up, we will fire the destabilizing pulse, and then when the Energy Being is prevented from moving back and forth betweenyers, the Orbital Lance will finish it off. Well, in theory.] Max informed everyone through the text function of the VR simtor.


    The target began its offensive, and Nico fired the first round to destabilize theyers. The effect was almost like mud, the being was slowed, but it was too powerful to be torn apart by the calcted energy fluctuations. Then the Orbital Lance hit it, and the disintegration effect seemed to freeze it in ce as the secondary fission explosion tore apart its body.


    It wasn''t a true fission explosion as the creature was pure solidified energy, but the effect was simr. The bonds that held it apart were forcefully destroyed, and the energy burst forth through multipleyers of space, losing cohesion and fading into background radiation.


    "It''s beautiful." Ranarth sighed as he saw how easily one ship was calcted to be able to take out a Greater Energy Being.


    Last time it took their whole fleet, plus a fleet of human ships, to do the job.


    Max messaged the observers again.


    [As standard procedure, we will run the simtion a hundred times and see what the oue looks like, and then we will have to test it in the real world. Preferably on lesser Energy Beings first.] He exined.


    The second test was simr to the first, but in the third one, something odd happened. If the Greater Energy Being tried to retreat a little, the whole effect was basically cancelled, and it was simply pushed back out of theyer without being destroyed.


    Over the course of the tests, that same general effect urred over thirty times, sending them back to the design sheets to try to adjust the weapon outputs and bnces, as well as the timing to attempt to make it a reliable attack.


    "Rx, this is how design is supposed to go, it''s never perfect the first time." Max assured his team, who were somewhat demoralized by theck of initial sess.


    "Really? I seem to recall things going more smoothly." One of them doubted.


    One of the Innu from Nico''s research teamughed. "That''s because we test the ideas that we send to you before anyone here sees whates out of the Absolution Research Labs."


    The others from her team nodded. They went through this frustration on a regr basis, often for weeks or months before they got a design perfect. Then they sent it off for variations and improvements by others.


    With two whole teams working on it, they had a new variation ready to test every two hours, with variable results. Some were more stable but less effective, some were more effective when they worked, but rather ky. This was the hard part of development, making your weapon work in every one of the one hundred scenarios that theputer randomly created.


    In order to make the weapon stable and reliable against the Greater Energy Being, they ended up having to change the vessel they were testing with. The solution that ended up being able to surmount most actions that the enemy could take required so much power that a Colony Ship would have toe to a dead stop and use all of their power to activate the weapon.


    It was an insane level of output, and the side effects took them days to even begin to mitigate, but they did have a solution as to what the task would realistically take. At least in theory.


    Once they finally thought that they had thebination of the two working well enough that it was reliable against the Greater Energy Beings, it was time to try tobine them into one weapon that was usable by the Mecha.


    That involved a lot of space management and adjustment, but they already knew what sort of output was necessary, and it could be scaled down in intensity while they would use the weight of numbers to make up for the pure intensity that was needed.


    As they started to modify the weapon, Max started to make ns on how this could be worked onto a new Mecha design. They needed something that was on a more Epic scale that would be a match for the Greater Energy beings, but currently theycked a power source that could keep up with a Colony Ship''s Warp Drive and still fit in the chassis of a Mecha.


    The very thought was a bit ridiculous and insane. Maybe the Darklings knew of something, but they hadn''t let it slip yet if they did.


    If they couldn''te up with that, they were either going to need toe up with a way to escape when attacked, or they needed a way to freeze the being in ce for a longer period of time so that they could defeat it with smaller numbers.


    Neither was going to be an easy task, but there was at least a chance that there was an option to stun lock them more effectively than using an entire fleet of Destroyers.

 Chapter 1041 1041 Minor Success

    Chapter 1041 1041 Minor Sess


    Altering the size of the weapon was no easy feat, but after many days of hard work, they did manage to get it down to a size that was suitable for use as a handheld weapon by Titan ss Mecha, or a recement for the Thunder Guns.


    Due to power constraints, it would have to be onerge barrel over the shoulder, or handheld with a hardwired power source, but it was functional ording to the VR testing program.


    The miniaturized version was mounted atop the hull of a Cutter ss ship for the moment, until they could modify the power source of a Titan ss Mecha to burst output the energy that the weapon needed, or to have the room for the capacitors to charge it. Until then, pping the experimental device in arge box atop a Cutter was a much simpler option.


    The ship in question was Drone Piloted, and they were almost ready to head out for the testing.


    They would be moving to Koleska space for the test, as they needed to know what it would do in the unstable space there, not here where the otheryers were dead and lifeless, with no energy in them at all.


    How that had happened was a question that they were putting off investigating. There were far too many other issues to be dealt with for a philosophical debate about the variations inyered space.


    Arge contingent from the Reaver Commanders was expected here in a few hours, first for a meeting on the preparations for the eventual return of the Great Enemy and what they could do as a group to make sure that they weren''t the target of them, and then to watch the testing of the new weapon.


    Nearly every species was doing the same. Even the Alliance Government hadmissioned a series of weapons and warship upgrades, a buildup in anticipation of ''outside threats'' as they put it.


    In reality, the loss of so many of the Valkia volunteers, though not catastrophic by human standards, had shaken them to their core. After the appearance of the Anomaly, and the strange disappearance of the enemy forces, they were terrified that they were actually on their way to the Alliance.


    Some of them even med the humans for being too deadly and attracting enemies to their portion of the universe, but that was a bit silly. The human fleet was a negligible part of the whole reaction force, and when the Great Enemy had suddenly disappeared, there were over a hundred differents with intervention fleets in their system, with only two of them being humans.


    The only representatives that they had sent to this event were the Envoys from Absolution, which seemed to be the permanently assigned representatives to the human species. Max had expected that they would have been switched every half a year, but there was no sign of that, and they were getting quitefortable in their homes aboard Absolution, not packing in preparation for a change of duty station.


    "Should we go all formal dinner, or is Reaver Casual fine?" Nico called to him from the shower as Max searched the minds of everyone who was arriving at the station to see what the general sentiment towards their weapons developments and the threat of Energy Beingsing looking for them was.


    "I think Reaver Formal for the day. We''re meeting with a lot of other Company Commanders, so they''ll want to impress everyone. Coming in underdressed would make us look arrogant as the hosts." Max replied.


    "Got it. I will pick you out something nice." Nico called back, and Max sensed her starting to n the outfits for them both, despite the fact he was already dressed.


    He thought about reminding her that it wasn''t necessary, but his outfit was part of her decision on what she was going to wear, so without seeing him, she couldn''t decide what she wanted to look like for the day. shing outfits simply wouldn''t do in her mind, so he just let Nico pick out a whole new outfit.


    "Alright, I''ve got something. Come here and change so that we can go to the meeting." Nicoughed as shepleted her choice.


    Max smiled as he saw what she had picked for him, a simple ck pinstriped suit with a vest but no jacket, and an olive green tie that matched her dress, topped with a replica of their ck Cadet berets.


    Max changed into it and rolled the sleeves up to his elbow, then added the polished ck leather belt with the pistol holster, which held a Laser Pistol designed to look like a ssic military issue auto pistol.


    Nico''s dress reached her calves, and was worn with crossed bandoliers that carried des on the front and a pistol at the small of her back, as Reavers never attended a formal event unarmed. The shiny ck leather matched well with Max''s belt, and gave the otherwise formal long sleeved gown a more military feel.


    "There we go. Let''s go see the others, maybe we can set a new trend." Sheughed as she admired her handiwork.


    "Or they''ll think that we''re both a bit strange. But we''re likely not going to be the most oundishly dressed ones there. I know that the other Commanders take a lot of joy in trying to outdo each other with shy or unique outfits." Maxughed.


    "Exactly, it''s tradition. We''re the best of the best, so we have to set the trend that others will follow, otherwise how will anyone know what is oundish?"


    Max took her arm and led her up to their personal Cutter, where the meetings and party would be held, while the test vehicle would be manned by androids, just in case something went wrong. That had been a unanimous decision on the part of the researchers so that there were no lives at risk with the first firing of an overwhelmingly powerful experimental weapon.

 Chapter 1042 1042 General Concern

    Chapter 1042 1042 General Concern


    They weren''t quite the first to arrive, the Envoys had shown up early and had already made themselvesfortable in one of the side lounges while waiting for the main event to start. The ship''s android Pilot had weed the early guests, but so far, nobody else was on board.


    The Giant Envoy greeted Max as soon as they saw each other.


    "Our apologies foring so early. There are a lot of Alliance formalities thate with our arrival, so we thought that it would be best if we got her first, so that any Alliance eyes that might be watching wouldn''t get upset about any slight in the formal rituals.


    Things have been pretty on edge since the battles. Between us, the Government believed that the warning was a joke and they greatly underestimated the threat. The Valkia are upset that they didn''t send arger force, a lot of the species are freaking out in general, and the Innu are under observation on suspicion that they might break from the Alliance to join with the Reavers, after an incident where a minor Government official med their fleet for not doing enough to save the Valkia, even though they were designated as a support and repair fleet.


    In short, things are a huge mess, and it''s only now that they are starting to increase the size of the army that things are starting to settle down.


    We''re still not sure how things are going to go with the Innu, though. That tension has been building since the first group of Tech Nomads met with you after they suffered that breakdown, and now with a bunch of social media influencers ganging up on them, they''re feeling even more neglected and undervalued than ever."


    The Innu Envoy sighed and nodded. "It''s been making my job rather hard. There have been multiples pushing for me to negotiate a refugee agreement with the humans so that Innu who are unhappy with their lot in life could move and escape from what they call political persecution in the Alliance."


    Nico gave a not so subtle fist pump, before Max gently smacked her on the back of the head.


    "No, Nico, you can''t have them all on your research team. This is an actual political issue, and from what I can tell it involves billions of Innu, not just a few."


    Then he addressed the Envoys. "Honestly, from what I''ve seen, they''re not really treated all that well unless someone needs them, so I can see their point about feeling like everyone finds them annoying and only a few species actually like them.


    But for now, we will try to help keep things stable for the Alliance. As much as I hate to say it, you still need them, now more than ever. The Innu researchers are extremely valuable to new weapon and ship design efforts, and the Alliance doesn''t really have someone who can step up and help if their situation turns into istionism." Max reluctantly agreed.


    The Envoys looked at each other. They hadn''t considered that oue. Breaking away from the Alliance would lead to retribution, and a series of agreements were in ce for that situation. But what if they remained in the Alliance, but took the route that many less social species did and simply kept to themselves, and moved tos mostly inhabited by their own people?


    The Alliance would lose a huge portion of their researchers, scientists, repair technicians and ship engineers.


    What could they realistically even do in that situation? Pay more to bribe them toe back to work? Encourage them to make Innu run and staffed businesses to rece the ones that would copse without them? That would be an economic disaster across the Alliance that really might turn into a civil war.


    They could try to train recements, but that would take years.


    In short, if too many of the Innu stopped working with them, the Alliance simply didn''t have the capacity to rece the species. They hade to rely on them without ever realizing how integral they were to keeping everything running.


    Their contemtion was interrupted by the Android warning that there were more guestsing to start the party, fashionably ten minutes before the arranged start time, as was normal for most military schedules.


    That didn''t apply to parties, but the Reavers didn''t care, it was ten minutes to pregame before the servers with the good liquor became hard to find.


    "Commanders, it is good to see you all here right on time for the event. Our Android staff has snacks and drinks prepared for the trip, so feel free to help yourself." Max greeted them, making a few of the older Commandersugh.


    "See, now that''s the sort of hospitality a mind reader can offer. It''s good to see you again, Commander Keres. Hopefully, you have some of those spiced pumpkin pie squares again, only Mary ever puts them on the trays." One of the older Commanders, a member of the Tarith Family,ughed.


    "Of course we do. I noticed that you wanted them on the way up and had them added to the tes." Max agreed.


    Nico knew that was a t out lie. She had added them to the tes when the man asked about them, and Max had only been paying attention to the concerns of the Envoys until a few seconds ago.


    Max moved to stand at her side and gave her a pat on the backside in appreciation for the save, which made Nico giggle and the other Commanders chuckle, thinking that they were just flirting in public. The Reaver Commanders had all assumed the same thing, that ten minutes before the schedule was the right time to show up, and there was a line forming outside the doors of the ship in the Moon Base''snding bay.


    "We should have used a cargo bay as the entrance, shouldn''t we?" Maxughed as the line began to grow.


    "It might have been better. Betsy here is almost as wide as a Crusader." One of the men in line joked, and then was attacked by a stout female Commander a few spots in front of him.


    The main door wasn''t exactly narrow, it was three metres wide, but with over a hundred people showing up in one minute, and everyone stopping to greet the hosts and the important people inside, it was slow-going.


    Max breathed a sigh of relief as the local researchers and the representatives from a few independent species, like the Vampires, came in a few minuteste, finishing the loading process and finally getting the event underway.

 Chapter 1043 1043 General Success

    The Cutter headed out to the safe portal point and transferred directly to the Anomaly, where the guard teams were expecting them, and eager to see the results of thetest round of weapons testing.


    Every species in the region had been hard at work trying toe up with something that would work against the Great Enemy, though many of them were still struggling with the fact that the decades of war against the Arisen were simply a measure to toughen them up in preparation for the battle against the real enemy of the Mortal Species.


    From what Max could tell, the Arisen didn''t have many friends, and the Darklings only had a few more than that, thanks to their penchant for stealing species wholesale.


    Max knew there was a reason for that, but that wouldn''t do much to assure the other species in the area that they weren''t next on the list to be abducted and disappeared by the mysterious ships of the Darklings, or the Collectors, as they called themselves these days.


    "Wee back to the region, Commanders. If you don''t mind, we would like to send a team to join you." The Koleska Command channel informed him as Max passed through the anomaly.


    "Yes, of course. We will wait here for you, as we already have a number of dignitaries from the species nearest to us on board, as well as more of the human leadership that wished toe for the test firing." Max agreed.


    That changed their minds about who they were going to send. Initially, it was just a few researchers and Commander Yuri, who had good rtions with the humans. But now they were going to send aary Governor and the Defence Minister, who bemoaned his luck at having been selected again when it could have been the foreign affairs minister, if they weren''t on the far side of the Empire.


    This short period without attacks was almost like a vacation for the Defence Minister, and the summons hadn''t made it clear to him that this was just a party and a viewing of the test firing of the weapon, not a big formal meeting.


    But he still got ready right on time, and was in the shuttle with the others when they left the station to meet up with Max''s Cutter.


    Commander Yuri was the first one out, smiling at the familiar surroundings and walking over to greet Max and Nico.


    "It is good to be back again. I hope that you have been well."


    Max shook his hand and smiled. "Indeed. Make yourself at home, this isn''t a formal meeting, just a viewing party while the scientists test fire the experimental weapon."


    They both did their best not tough at the Minister''s relieved sigh or the panicked looks on the researchers'' faces.


    "Should we have gone to the other ship?" One of them asked.


    "No, that ship is android piloted for safety reasons. The other scientists are in the other research bay if you want to hang out with them instead of the Commanders and Governors." Max replied.


    "Yes, that would be more proper. Thank you for the warm wee, Commander."


    The Koleska researchers vanished into the back bay, and Max chuckled as they met the Innu, who were overjoyed to have a new species to talk to, as well as Ranarth, who was thoroughly enjoying the conversation with the fully caffeinated scientists.


    The two new additions were the topic of much discussion among the Reaver Commanders, who hadn''t seen the Koleska before, and they were quickly surrounded with conversation partners and pulled into the thick of the action, while Max checked to see where Nico had gone.


    Now that all the guests were here and greeted, she was with the scientists, preparing the Android ship for the main event. They would hold off an hour while everything got in position in an uninhabited star system, and their replicated armour targets were ced in space.


    That would give everyone a chance to drink, and all the curious bystanders a chance to discretely get themselves in ce for the viewing. They would stay well out of range, but close enough to record it with their own sensors in an attempt to replicate the technology for their own species'' benefit.


    Max found the pumpkin pie squares and snagged one before sending an android butler back into the cargo bay with a whole tray of tiramisu. The Innu could never get enough of it, and this was a party, so there really wasn''t a reason to ration the caffeine if they didn''t have to work in the morning.


    One of the other Commanders, a Reaver in his early thirties named Gen, made his way over to Max with a conspiratorial smile.


    "So, since we''re here to watch a weapons demonstration, but your Terminus Trading Company is best known for their Mecha designs, does that mean that there will be a new generation of Mecha on the market once you develop your new round of personal Mecha?


    It''s been quite the topic among the more militant Commanders how you always turn your designs over to Uncle Lu when you''ve got a new one, but that means we''re always a generation behind, doesn''t it?" He asked.


    "Not at all. The ones we use are more of an experimental prototype, constantly evolving and getting modified between every battle. That sort of thing isn''t suitable for a mass market machine. But once we get the bugs worked out, we turn them over to Uncle Lu, who has his team polish the designs and tweak them for what everyone else needs before they ship them out." Max replied, diverting the attempt to get hints about the next generation.


    "Do you have a whole new generation waiting for us, then?" Gen asked.


    "Not quite. We have been fighting mostly in space, so we''ve only updated the Super Heavy and Titan ss units, and those have both gone out to a select group already. The only units we have that are nonstandard at this point are our personal Command Mecha, and those are just tweaked versions of the ones that were sent out for the battles here." Max exined.


    By tweaked he meant almostpletely redesigned, but they still looked simr, so nobody would know by looking at them.


    Gen sighed. "The battles are gettingrger andrger. I miss the days of a small territory rebellion to suppress and other simple things that a proper mercenary Company was suited for. Now we''re mostly couriers."


    "It can''t really be helped. We all get caught up in the flow. Did you know that I wanted to just be a Crusader ss Pilot when things went insane? I only ended up Commander as a joke because nobody else wanted the job when we first left the Kepler Military."


    Gen burst intoughter. "Bloody right. Nobody wants the responsibility, they just want the money and the easy life."


    "And then we ended up being excellent at Mecha and Warp Drive designing, and that started everything going out of control to the point that at this point half the known universe thinks I''m the representative of humanity." Max agreed.


    "Well, who else would want the job? Maybe Mary, but she''s got her hands full just dealing with us Reavers."

 Chapter 1044 1044 General Destruction

    [Commanders and Esteemed Dignitaries, our test vessel reports that they are ready to begin the day''s main event. We will be moving into position, and the viewing will begin in three minutes.] The android Pilot informed them using the polite tone Nico had programmed in that Max thought made it sound more like a Butler than a Pilot.


    The excitement level reached a peak when the monitors came on, showing the modified vessel with therge weapon pod attached to the top and the assortment of various targets that had been arranged for the situation.


    All of them were familiar to the gathered audience. A small group of Warriors, a Cathedral Vessel shuttle, various small alien ships, and finally, arge asteroid roughly fifty kilometres across.


    While everyone understood that most of the targets would be no challenge for the weapon, given its size, the test was more about showing off its efficiency, so it was predicted that the output level would be minimized on every target, making it easier for everyone to calcte the efficiency.


    That was close to what they were going to do, but what Nico was actually looking to measure was not the efficiency of the weapon at damaging the target, as they already had that base data from the previous generation of Disintegrator. What she was more interested in was how efficiently it could begin and sustain the chain reaction through the targets.


    There was one that they couldn''t replicate here, the Energy Beings, and that was actually the one that she was the most interested in, but for now, it would be enough to assure the gathered species that they hade up with something that was effective, and give vague promises about distributing it when it was fully finished.


    They had already given the various species in this region plenty of weapons data that they were still working on adapting to their fleets, so nobody was actually rushing to get these ones up and running for general distribution, except the Reavers.


    [Beginning testing now.]


    The weapon pulsed with energy, though the beam was invisible to the naked eye, and the first target, the group of Warriors, vanished with a massive nuclear st.


    With even the group of five of them, that was a thousand kilograms of fissile material, and the st was strong enough to destroy a small warship on its own.


    The response was pure panic from most of the gathered species. They hadn''t detected the Disintegrator beam, as their sensors weren''t calibrated for it, so they only saw the weapon charge, and then the st. They weren''t any closer to understanding how it worked, only what its destructive potential was.


    Or so they thought.


    Once the first st had faded and the research team had a moment to analyze their data, they sent the signal to the test vessel to fire again, targeting one of the alien ships that Max though looked entirely too much like a turd to be shown in public. It was just a lumpy tube with two pinched ends, and he had no idea what sort of logic would have led them to want that as their main attack ship.


    It wasn''t even efficient for warp travel.


    The disturbing looking vessel did explode very well though, being five times the size of the warrior group, and again the reaction was shock and awe, with a side of confusion from the species who still hadn''t managed to analyze what was going on.


    Fortunately, theirrades were willing to fill them in, and the confusion in their minds was fading as they read through the analysis reports from the observers with better sensors.


    One after another, the targets went down with massive explosions, tearing apart their hulls and obliterating everything inside.


    "I get it, I have figured out what they did." One of the Reaver Commanders cheered just before the ship lined up on itsst target, the asteroid roughly the size of a Colony Ship.


    "Oh, really? Do tell the rest of usymen." One of the other Reavers taunted.


    "They''ve tuned the Disintegrator to cause a nuclear st on contact with certain elements. That''s why the outer hulls are exploding, but the interior bits are being shredded by the st. It''s not a matter of pration, they are specifically targeting the enemy." The man confidently dered.


    Max nodded and went over to shake his hand.


    "That is impressive, how did you figure it out?" He asked


    "My System Skill is [Analysis]. It watched every st and gave me a set of results data, I just had to tie it all together once I understood what I was looking at. The Disintegrator ispletely obliterating the outer hulls, but barely damaging the interior at the lower power output it is using. But the beam is wide, so it gets the whole object that it is targeting."


    The other Commanders and dignitaries came over to congratte him for clearing up the mystery for them in advance, since Max and Nico didn''t seem to have any intention of exining before the grand finale.


    Knowing what they did now, the final st was even more exciting. That chunk of rock was nearly a million tonnes of rock, and it had been ced well outside the gctic ne, hundreds of thousands of kilometres from any other object.


    Many had assumed that it was a range test, but now that they knew how the weapon worked, they realized that it was a safety precaution to get the test vessel outside the predicted st radius. The shockwave would carry in the void of space, but the impact should be negligible from the distance they had chosen.


    [Final shot ready.]


    Max sent out a number of messages to ships that had gotten inside the perimeter that they had deemed the safe zone and warned them to back up or increase their shielding to absorb the impact. Though he could tell that most of the leaders took his warning as a joke, they still did it, and either backed off or raised their shields.


    [Firing.]


    The st was tremendous, like they had formed a second sun in the system, and the lingering aftereffects left a glowing orb of secondary reactions at the location where the asteroid had been. The blue light faded to yellow and then red before the reaction ended, leaving nothing but a shockwave that rocked all the ships in the spectator field, and sent small asteroids in the star''s orbit tumbling, as well as causing a minor atmospheric storm on one of the outers.


    [And that concludes our testing for the day. We will bepiling data for some time, but you are wee toe to the human fleet''s capital ship in orbit near Koleska station this evening for a celebratory dinner.]


    That would be Celia''s Love, the lead ship of the anomaly defence fleet, but there were too many people to party on the Cutter without rearranging the interior space to be more social function friendly, while the Destroyer had an event room that could hold tens of thousands.


    He would have to send an apology letter and gift to the Admiralter.

 Chapter 1045 1045 Spread The Love

    [You know that it is considered polite to give more than one hour''s notice that you n to host a formal party for four thousand on someone else''s ship, right?] Celia''s Love broadcast when they got the news.


    [You have a hundred thousand and some people on that Destroyer. I''m sure you have enough staff to host a simple party. We will be over in a half hour with the Rum.] Nico replied.


    [You know, this is why they call you the evil one, right?]


    Nicoughed at the clearly frustrated text message.


    [This time it was Commander Max''s idea. But I should let you get to work preparing a room for the event. See you soon.]


    Maxughed as he watched the two of them argue over a situation that he caused, but there really wasn''t a way around it. His ship wasn''t big enough, and a party was only good manners after a sessful test.


    And this one had been a resounding sess that had left all the gathered species excited about the future and the possible applications of the weapon on their existing ships if the humans agreed to share it with everyone and not just their closest allies.


    Humans were known to be as generous as they were violent, though. So the visitors had high hopes that they wouldn''t be forgotten when it came time to distribute the ns for thepleted weapons.


    The number of shuttles that wereing for the Celia''s Love''s limited number of docking ports almost made Max feel sorry for the Fleet Admiral Rashad, but he knew that the Noble Cygnus Officer was actually revelling in the chance to show off for so many alien dignitaries at once.


    If there was one thing that Cygnus Nobles loved, it was the trappings of Nobility.


    It helped that Max could read his mind and sense the pride as he got to show off his ship and the training of his impably dressed formal reception staff for all of these new people as heworked and made new connections among various alien dignitaries.


    Max waited until almost all the dignitaries were there to join the crowd, as he had such a wide variety of them aboard his own ship that it would take ages to introduce everyone and get them settled into the party.


    Many of the species gathered from the vessels that hade to watch also hadn''t seen a human up close before, and the smiling was freaking a lot of them out, as they associated it with a predator''s show of teeth.


    "Everyone, please wee the human delegation to the event." Admiral Rashad announced as the first few Commanders came out.


    It was a big spectacle, but when the Giant, the Valkia, and then the Innu Envoys came out, the crowd was much more excited. They had never seen any of these species before, so the fact that the humans had brought them to meet the dignitaries of this region of space meant that they must be extremely important people.


    Max supposed that they were, he had just gotten too used to having top level political dignitaries on his ship and had overlooked just how far up the Alliance''s food chain they really were.


    The music was loud, and the staff had set the mood lighting to a nightclub feel, so when the spotlight shone down on the research teaming in the door, they were the highlight of the entire party.


    "Let us wee the real stars of today''s show. The research team that developed the weapons system that was used in today''s test. Thank you all and wee to Celia''s Love." Admiral Rashad greeted them to a standing ovation from the crowd.


    "You are too kind. It''s still a prototype, and this was the first test firing, but we have high hopes that we can make good use of it in the future." Nico addressed the crowd.


    The dignitaries pushed forward, and the Innu researchers got extremely excited to have new people to talk to about their work.


    Max chuckled at the scene, while Commander Yuri gave him a questioning look, which was actually just a tilt of the exoskeletal Koleska''s head, but easily identifiable to the humans.


    "They have no idea what they just volunteered themselves for. The Innu will dly borate on their research for upwards of ten hours at a time if they are not stopped, and these dignitaries don''t have the social experience to deal with the species." Max exined for the benefit of his friend.


    "Should we warn them?" Yuri asked.


    "No, after an hour I will call off the Innu to have them do a round of special shots and that will distract them all from their ongoing monologue. If they don''t experience it firsthand, these species will never learn what it is to be truly excited about your work."


    Yuri quickly realized that Max wasn''t joking. Fully Caffeinated, the Innu were a force of nature that pulled in everyone around them, and they were even pulling in uninvolved dignitaries to use as props for the demonstration of the theories behind their research.


    Surprisingly, many of the dignitaries found an outlet. There was a species that had simr sensory tentacles to the Innu among the dignitaries, and they sacrificed the members of their delegation to the Innu in an attempt to change the topic.


    That freed them up while the two species discussed biology, which was somewhat less interesting to the Innu than technological developments, and it calmed them down a little bit.


    "They seem more adept at deflection than expected." Yuri noted.


    "We still have people to rescue, though. I will go gather the research team and pull them away from the dignitaries for a while so that the politicians can socialize." Max shrugged.


    "Somehow that sounds even worse than a hyper Innu. I don''t suppose that I cane with you." The Koleska Commander asked longingly.


    "Of course. We''re going to be retreating back to the Cutter to analyze the data, and while that might be boring for you, you are wee to join us."

 Chapter 1046 1046 It Worked

    ?


    Max pulled the Innu back to the Cutter and away from the party for a much more exciting pastime, the analysis of research data, while the majority of the crowd was busy making deals for whatever they had nned in the immediate future.


    Almost all of them were focused on technological developments, while some of them were focused on quality of life improvements on their worlds after they had been attacked by the Great Enemy, but at least at this point it seemed that nobody had forgotten the threat that they were likely to return at any time.


    That was enough assurance for Max to focus on the task at hand and follow Nico and the research team in to the Cutter so that they could start analyzing the data that had been collected by the test vessel.


    There was a bit of interference on thest sample due to the intensity of the explosion, but almost all of that came after the majority of the event was already over and the shockwave hit the ship.


    They could live with that, and from what Max could tell, all the earlier samples were perfect.


    "So, where do we start?" Max asked as he locked down theb to prevent spying now that all the authorized personnel were inside.


    "We should start at the weapon side. Fluctuations and variability outside the parameters, differing energy usages for different frequencies, and any sort of anomaly." Nico decided, and began to pull up all the relevant data for the team to go over.


    In this scenario, having as many eyes on the data as possible was paramount to ensuring that they didn''t miss anything, and even Commander Yuri and Ranarth had open files on their data tablets, though neither of them specialized in the topic.


    Max sighed as the pulled the power output graphs up in an ovepping diagram. The power pull rates and spikes were all over the ce, there was no modtion at all, and it was somewhat surprising that they hadn''t managed to overload the weapon entirely and cause it to fail to charge.


    It hade close on the third test, and the initialization sequence seemed to have hung for at least 300 milliseconds before recovering, which didn''t seem like much, but it was a fraction away from having been a catastrophic failure.


    Not one that would have destroyed the weapon, but one that would have prevented it from firing on the target, which would have been a huge embarrassment for the research team which had designed it and checked out the specs and tolerances for the prototype.


    There didn''t seem to be anything wrong with the construction of the weapon ording to the design schematics, so there must be something that they were missing in the design itself.


    In a high output energy weapon, there was always an energy bleed, either as radiation, heat or light, and that could interfere with the other functions of the weapon in unexpected ways. If it was a light emission, that was easy, a sealed casing would hide it. Heat could be dissipated once you tracked down the major sources of it, but when the problem was various wavelengths of radiation, especially in a variable frequency weapon, it was guaranteed to be a nightmare.


    That appeared to be what had happened here. Changing the frequency of the output interfered with variousponents, and because they were changing it with every shot, it interfered with a different one every time, which was going to make it difficult to track down the problemponent to find the origin.


    That part of the job was best left to the professionals, but the gatheredymen could provide some useful insights, given their varied backgrounds.


    Commander Yuri pointed at an anomaly in the data set and brought up another section of the data.


    "When we were working on the new shielding prototypes for our ships after the Arisen first attacked, we ran into this same issue. That particr wavelength of radiation passes through almost all metals as if they didn''t exist.


    Shielding against it is a nightmare, and though I don''t know if our researchers ever came up with a solution, I can tell you that it will have interfered with all of your other energy rys during this test." He exined.


    "Oh, that is good to know. We will make a note of it because I''m sure it''s going toe up in multiple other tests as well. It''s one of the little joys of creating new energy weapons, right?" Nico joked.


    Max brought up the ovey graphs he had made and disyed them on the holographic projector for the room to see more easily.


    "These might all look random, but there is a pattern to them. They all have different peak levels, but they all have the same number of spikes, so there is something in our generation frequency or feed capacitors that is causing a surge.


    It seems to vary based on the wavelength, but it''s not due to interference, it''s something innate to our design."


    The Innu all sighed. Smooth power delivery was almost as big of an issue as radiation shielding. They had thought that it was sorted out, as the design was very simr to other energy weapons that were proven to work already, but if there was something in the design that was creating a rhythmic pulse, they had to find a way to modte it.


    The pulse wouldn''t necessarily be bad if it was a different type of weapon. It was an essential part of Ion Cannons when it was modted properly, creating the different travel speeds that bunched up the Ions for a morepressed shot, instead of being one long stream, but that wasn''t what they were going for here.


    "Anyone else want to rain on the parade?" Nico asked.


    Ranarthughed at her pessimism. "Well, on the bright side, it did actually fire. But on the not so bright side, I have identified a total of forty-seven major energy inefficiencies that should be addressed, and this circuit did not function at all during any of the tests. It looks like it''s working, but it''s not actually doing anything but passing energy through."

 Chapter 1047 1047 Hard Work

    ?


    What followed in the weeks after they returned to the Moon Base was nothing short of a mind-numbing grind for most of the staff. Iteration after iteration was tested, with the weapon repeatedly powered up and checked for surges as it cycled through the activation sequence.


    Time after time it failed, and each change that improved one frequency would introduce issues in another.


    There were suggestions to make them all independent circuit boards, but that would be massively oversized, and when it was actually tried, it increased the interference, as the leaking energy would precharge circuits on the other boards and cause them to introduce new interference patterns.


    In short, the fix for what seemed to be a minor issue ended up being arger design problem than actually designing a new weapons system prototype in the first ce.


    The only blessing for Max was that the refinement of the weapon was no longer their issue. They had designed and built the weapon, and proven that it worked as intended, so now it was up to the rest of the staff of the base to figure out how to make it work perfectly and not just function.


    One of the small benefits that came with being on the new product design team.


    What they had moved on to was power system designs. At first, they intended to reroute power that would be used for other high output weapons systems to the new design, but that proved to be somewhat inefficient, as the new design required a much smoother power delivery system than usual. It could be made usable, but that would require an additional noise filter, and they were already having issues with the packaging size on the weapon.


    So, they started on a new Mecha power source design that would match or increase existing power output levels, while distributing it in a smooth and linear fashion.


    The requirements sounded so simple, but when they handed off the weapon design and started on the new project, they really didn''t have any idea where they should start.


    "How about you, Ranarth? Do your people''s records have anything that might help us here? Somewhere to start from that we might have overlooked?" Max asked.


    Ranarth thought about the question for a moment before nodding. "I have seventeen different power sources on file that should be suitable in some way. They would all be power output improvements, but the question would be if you could make the rest of your technologypatible with them.


    For example, I have this Neutrino field generator, which we use to power a number of ourser weapons, but I doubt that it would be at all suitable, since all of your technology is electricity-based. The power output is sufficient, but I''m not sure that the conversion would even be possible.


    Then we have, oh no wait, I have the perfect technology for you. It was a hundred million years obsolete before I was born, discarded long before even the Eternal War had begun, but today it could be useful for you.


    It is a three stage generator, as the creators called it. They needed a way to make Dark Energy technologypatible with the material world. Dark Energy only affects gravity in thisyer, so what they did was they created a Dark Energy Field Array that was focused on a converging point inside a Dyson Sphere, creating a massive gravity well.


    With a small amount of heavy material, an ultra-dense star can be created, and sustain fusion, while the energy is captured by the Dyson Sphere and the gravitational energy from the star''s material is used as part of the energy feed for the array itself.


    It was genius, and the amount of energy produced was absolutely tremendous."


    Max gave him a suspicious look. "And why might this technology have been abandoned? It sounds far superior to anything that we''re using right now."


    Ranarth shrugged, unsure of the answer himself. "There was something about how a super dense star''s copse can create a ck hole or a neutrino star supernova or something along those lines if the Dyson Sphere were to be damaged, but I''m sure that you can work something out."


    Nico looked far too excited, which told Max as much as he needed to know about the potential dangers of that situation, even before he began to calcte the damage that a Supernova on the battlefield would cause should a Mecha using such a power source be destroyed.


    "Do you know what would happen if we didn''t use a super dense material and went with something like Hydrogen?" Max asked.


    Ranarth Frowned. "Why would you want to do that? It would only create the same amount of power as a Dyson Sphere around a regr star, the size of the power nt. That might be equivalent to the current Antimatter reactors on your Destroyers, but certainly no more than that."


    "I''m looking for a way to create the generator what won''t end in a Supernova or a ck hole. The idea is that we''re trying to saves, not blow them up when we take our first losses in battle."


    Ranarth shrugged. "Then pick fights that are further away. You use drones, so you could just send them on a suicide mission and let the reactor go supercritical. If my math is right, it should be effective on Greater Energy Beings as well."


    "He''s got a point. We would just need a technology to close all the random ck holes we made, and the problem would solve itself." Nico agreed.


    Even the Innu looked at her like she was crazy after thatment, though they understood the basic logic behind cleaning up a mess that you made. But creating ck holes anywhere was far too much damage to be considered eptable.


    Max sighed. "Does your file have the technical specifications on that? Even if we can stabilize a miniaturized Dyson Sphere, it should be enough power to give us smooth delivery for a Titan ss Mecha. The Warp Crystal-based antimatter reactors in them are quite low outputpared to a Destroyer ss warship."


    "Certainly, it''s in the historical archives, so it''s not ssified or restricted. Just allow me a second to pull it out, along with all the rted relic technology files that might be needed to create the tools that will be needed to create the generator."

 Chapter 1048 1048 Powerful Theory

    ?


    "So, what part do we start with first?" Nico asked.


    "Well, is there another way to create a strong microgravity field so that we can form a small star to test the Dyson Sphere before we bring the main reactor online?" Max asked.


    "Not exactly, but we can test it with a sma ball. The energy leakage readings should still be urate." One of the researchers suggested.


    "You can test it with a small antimatter explosion as well, which would provide a better stress and shock load absorption test than a sma ball." Ranarth added.


    "Alright, then we start with the Dyson sphere construction. It looks like we have exactly none of theponents listed already in our database, so we start from step one of the construction details and work step by step to make every single part of the sphere." Max decided.


    Uncle Lu waved to them from the catwalk up above as Max and Nico were about to argue over how to split the boring parts of the task because Nico''s train of thought involved her working exclusively on testing the fun parts while everyone else did the actual work.


    Nobody who knew her would be surprised that her intention was to do nothing but see what happened when various things went wrong with an artificial star made of various materials, but Max wasn''t going to let her get off that easy when there was a whole new type of construction technology to research.


    She intended to learn it eventually, of course, just not until the hard part was done.


    "Have wee up with something that might work as a power source for the new Mecha designs?" Uncle Lu asked as he walked down the staircase from the overhead catwalk and into the research bay.


    "We think so. There is a design for a Dyson Sphere type generator that we''re intending to try to trante into our own technologies, since we don''t have the tech to make it the original way, but that could take some time.


    But, if we can get it working, then we should have a steady power source of a high enough output potential to run any new weapon wee up with." Max informed the old researcher.


    "Oh, that is wonderful. The refinement teams were most concerned about how much they were going to have to reduce the power draw, as the weapon bespletely ineffective below a certain output range. But if you have a design that will work, I can assure them that they can keep going on their current path." Uncle Lu replied with a satisfied nod and a quick note added to his data tablet.


    Ranarth cleared his throat. "If this one doesn''t prove to be feasible in the short term, we have twelve more potential designs that could produce sufficient power within a Mecha sized chassis, so even if we are dyed for a while, I think that it shouldn''t be a problem to get the weapon powered."


    "Oh, that really is wonderful. Then we will need to design a new chassis to put it in once we have the dimensions of the power source. But, I will leave you all to your work and go give the refinement teams the good news."


    Nico gave Max a sly look. "Since we have extra hands, why don''t we split up? One smaller group can check each of the other twelve designs for feasibility so that we''re not caught out if we stumble on implementing the first one, and then we will have additional knowledge to fill in the gaps that the different technologies present?"


    "You really don''t want to do the construction work, do you?" Max asked.


    "When there are hundreds of other cool things to research, or modified star density supernova events to experiment on? Not at all." She agreed.


    "Alright, I will lead the Dyson Sphere research team, and you can work with Ranarth and a small team to study the options. If anything seems particrly viable, I might spare you a few more people to try to build it, just in case it works out better." Maxughed.


    Nico gave a celebratory fist pump and singled out two of the Innu to join her.


    "These are the best and fastest at tranting alloypositions and alien circuitry to other technologies, so I will borrow them for the moment, and you can work on getting that miniaturized Dyson Sphere to work. If worsees to worst, we can always wrap it around an out of control antimatter reaction and let it burn itself out. It might not be as sustainable as a small star, but it would be powerful." Nico suggested.


    That wouldn''t be a terrible idea, and it should actually be an efficiency improvement for their existing line of ships if they wrapped the Dyson Sphere around the Warp Core as a containment field. Instead of spending energy to keep the reaction contained, they could harvest the energy that was escaping containment.


    But that was off-topic.


    The more he thought about it, the more Max was beginning to understand why Nico and the Innu were the way that they were. There were too many potential applications for new technologies, so the more of a grasp that you had on the design fundamentals of advanced systems, the more easily you could get drawn into one of the traps of another use for what you were studying.


    [Battle Optimization] didn''t help either. Every time it came across a potential way to use something inbat, it would give Max a gentle mental nudge with the suggestion about how to modify it, and it didn''t care that he was focusing on one topic, only that what it had found was better than what he had avable.


    Today that was an annoyance, but the closer they got to creating the Dyson Sphere, the more useful it would be, as the uses would be more focused on his desired oue, instead of the myriad of possibilities that were presented by massive energy output.


    "Alright, the first stage suggests that we create this framework to mount the sphere into. The power supply chamber of a standard Titan ss Mecha is six metres on each side, so we will start with those dimensions. It looks like the alloy is even one that we can make." Max informed his team as he got back on topic and pulled them into the new project.


    "Yes, starting off with a victory. I like where this is going." One of the more energetic researchersughed, knowing full well that this was likely to be the only easy part.

 Chapter 1049 1049 Natural Attraction

    ?


    Max''s team was hard at work on the creation of the intricately detailed alloy shell for the Dyson Sphere, as detailed in the ancient human ns that Ranarth had provided, when an idea came to Max.


    There was a sh in his memory of a long forgotten repair process, not even on a Mecha, but a relic starship from his youth that he had purchased in order to sneak away on vacation. It was even more derelict than Terminus was when he first found her, but the Warp Drive used a Dyson Sphere simr to the one that they were constructing, only it had once contained a self-sustaining star inside that had been purged when the ship was dmissioned.


    The images flowed through his mind of years spent trying to get the wreck to fly without getting caught with an unregistered space vessel, and Max realized that he actually knew the basics of the design that they were trying to replicate quite well.


    Not because any human should have known it, but because he had dug an Eon old spaceship out of a dead space scrap heap and decided that he simply needed to take it on a joyride before he hit the age of majority and was drafted into service.


    The old Darkling might have been born after the time reset, where Max''s previous life was well before that, when the war with the Gods was only getting started, but he might still know something more than Max could remember. Even better, he might have actual diagrams, which Max had never owned.


    "Hey Ranarth. We only need to get the fusion reaction to sustain itself, right? Once we have that, then the sphere should absorb all forces and energies that the contained miniature star emits." He asked.


    "That is correct. Everything from radiation, photons and even gravity should be absorbed or reflected by the sphere." Ranarth Agreed.


    "So, if we cut a small ball out of a Neutron star, say the size of my fist, the sphere would contain the gravity that it emitted, right? In a strong maic field, that should be enough gravitational force to sustain the fusion reaction. Or close enough to it that we can help it along with technology." Max suggested.


    "I''m not sure that what you''re suggesting is possible, injecting any controlling energy into a Dyson sphere would generally requirepromising its integrity. But in theory, yes, you could do that. Can you exin what you had in mind, so I can check with my database to see if it''s feasible?"


    Max nodded. "Of course, what I am suggesting is that we go for a Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen, or CNO fusion cycle miniature star, which will produce its own hydrogen for a proton to proton fusion into hydrogen, which will be inherently unstable at such a small size, and continue the cycle.


    asionally, we will likely need to inject some new material into the Dyson Sphere, since the degradation rate on such a small star will be exponentially faster than a regr star, but in theory it should be possible."


    Ranarth started running numbers in his head as he searched for the appropriate data, which didn''t seem to be in any of the regrly essed or properly indexed files.


    "By my count, the Dyson Sphere will need to be purged once every twenty thousand years, and a new supply of matter introduced, in order to keep it operational if you should forego the Dark Energy stabilization route in favour of using the gravity of hyperpressed matter.


    That should be much more than the service life of a Mecha, but it would introduce some new dangers to the battlefield. Namely, the intense gravity wells that would be produced if one of the spheres was breached and its core were exposed to regr space.


    But, you can always develop a safety protocol to deal with that. Dumping it into anotheryer of space would work fairly well. Gravity works differently in the one you are most Familiar with, and leaving the core there would allow you to retrieve it in a new sphere without too much inconvenience."


    The Gravity of a small ball the size of his fist should only be a tenth of a thousandth that of a star, which was not a big deal most of the time. It would be no more than the standard gravity on Kepler Prime if you were near it. But if thepressed baseball of fusion got close enough to interact with aary body, or worse, a ship travelling at warp speed, the results would be catastrophic.


    "Alright, we will test that after we have a working prototype of the Dyson Sphere built. I think it would be best to load it with all the other materials we will need, then find a way to introduce the piece of the Neutron star to it afterwards. I just don''t know how we would do that yet."


    Ranarth gave him a smile that spoke of millennia of experience.


    "That is the easy part. Since they don''t exist in the otheryers, or at least the stars don''t exist in the same spots, we only need to put the sphere in ce, and then open a portal to drop the piece inside. After that, you fire a load of sma into it, close the sphere, and it should light up every power system in your ship."


    "That is genius. I hope that this idea works because that is too good of an idea to never try in person." Maxughed.


    Max got back to work, thinking of the very first ship that he ever tried to repair back in his past life, and slowly more of the lost and forgotten memories of his first childhood began toe back to him. Things that he had never thought were relevant in this life, and ones that were barely relevant in his past life.


    But it seemed that they were now because they needed so many new and strange technologies to make everything that they had been developing work together.

 Chapter 1050 1050 Dyson - Not Just A Vacuum

    ?


    With that renewed bit of assurance that the idea might be usible and save them the trouble of converting technology to make a whole new type of energy use feasible and reproducible on a species wide scale, Max got his team back to work on designing the Dyson Sphere, while Nico and her duo were busy researching new possible power sources.


    The construction was a slow effort, and even the precision construction of the framework that would hold the actual device together was giving them issues. It had originally been designed to surround an actual star, and then it had been redesigned and miniaturized for use in a starship.


    The one that Max hade across in his youth was a retired cargo freighter. By square feet, it would put some destroyers to shame, but it was almost entirely hollow.


    Which was, of course, a selling point to a young boy with dreams of getting well away from his home star system with all of his friends to party until they were pulled back by their duties. And empty cargo freighter was a fantastic spot to hold the biggest concert that anyone had ever attended.


    It hadn''t worked out that way, and his friends had gotten caught trying to bribe their way into orbit, so Max had made a run for it, outside the jurisdiction of the local system police.


    That brought an important memory back to Max. While he was trying to keep that ancient hulk running on thepressed gas cylinder that he had brought to orbit, which ended up having the wrong gaseous mix for the Dyson Drive, as thebel had called it, he had blown a number of these capacitors.


    Which meant that now that he had remembered the incident, he had also remembered how to jury-rig a recement for them.


    So, he made the change to their diagram, and then kept going, adding all the changes to his own files for the construction to be done after the framework was finallypleted to the painstakingly tight tolerances that the machine demanded.


    It was a matter of more than down to the molecule, the molecr bonds also had to be just right, and at the right density for the frame to hold up to the stress that it was going to be under before the design became fully operational.


    The existing Replicator technology wasn''t sufficient for the task, so they were having to use a specialized piece ofb equipment to modify the pieces of the framework as they were assembled, dragging the process down to a crawl.


    There was hope that someone on another team could be reassigned to improve the Replicators to take on the new tasks, but either there hadn''t been a chance yet, or they were still busy with other projects, and the mass production requirements of this design would have to wait until they had proven that it would actually work.


    That would be the reasonable thing for Uncle Lu to have done, but you never really knew with that man. Sometimes he got excited, especially about new Mecha designs.


    "Let''s call it for the day, that''s twelve hours in theb." Max informed his team, not wanting them to lose their touch due to overwork.


    What they were doing now might be intricate, but it was repetitive, and even a small slip up could make them waste days and days trying to find and locate the reason for a failure.


    "We should take a night to rx. What do people do for fun around here?" He added, looking toward the half of his team that had been on base the longest.


    "Well, there''s always the games centre. They''ve got a really nice bar and dance club, plus VR pods in the walls so that you can game instead of dancing. They even stream tournament matches on the screens in the club. It''s kind of the ce to be on the base." One of the human researchers suggested.


    "And, it''s right next to Wiggles Coffee Shop, so like, everyone is there." One of the Innu agreed.


    "Someone go get Nico and her pair of sidekicks, we don''t want to leave them out of the fun." Maxughed, as the researchers locked arms and began to skip toward the exit, looking forward to an evening out as a group.


    Therge group of excited researchers caught the attention of a lot of their former coworkers and friends who were also just getting off shift, and the walk to the games room turned into an excited procession of workers all headed the same way.


    The location in question was only a few hundred metres from the main entrance to the research wing, prime territory for catching the higher paid staff, and sat within a rather fancy shopping district, lined with food stalls and clothing shops, perfect for a stroll in the evening.


    "What''s the event? There''s an awful lot of you headed this way today." A middle-aged man in an apron that marked him as on duty at one of the food stalls asked.


    "We felt like we needed a break, so we''re headed to Wiggles and then the Game Centre for a night out. We made a lot of progress this week, and, we''re already started on the next prototype." Max replied.


    "Nice, turnover to prototype within a week. You''re going to keep the refinementbs busy. I''ll send any more party goers I see your way, get a proper crowd in the club tonight." The vendorughed, then turned to walk back inside his fried chicken stall.


    Nico smirked at Max and then turned to the long line of people following behind them.


    "Did you hear that? Coffees at Wiggles are on Commander Max, and then I''ve got the first round at the Games Centre." Nico yelled back at the crowd.


    "Who''s the Hero of the Day? Max! Max! Who will send the blues away? Max! Max!" The Innu began to sing in time with a popr recent hit, while the humans began tough, much less interested in the coffee than the round of drinks at the bar.


    "We heard that, and we will hold you to it." The doorman at the Games Centre door yelled at them from the end of the block.


    "And there had better be a bribe involved if you are going to make me pour a hundredttes only five minutes into my shift!" The Barista yelled from the other side of the road.


    "Better start pouring, they''re on their way." Nico yelled back.

 Chapter 1051 1051 Collectibles

    The crowd swarmed to the two buildings, almost evenly split between starting the night with drinks and dancing and starting the night with coffee after work. It had been a long shift for everyone, but tomorrow was the start of their weekend, and they weren''t nning to hold back.


    The party had clearly already started before everyone was even in the building, with some of the staff singing and dancing in the street, while others bought small bottles of liquor from the shops along the walk and quickly drank them before reaching the club, where the drinks were more expensive.


    Those bottles were not on the inventory list of the stalls, but with so many of the shops being run by Reavers, it was somewhat inevitable that there would be off the books liquor vendors here.


    He was hanging at the back of the crowd with Nico so that they could take care of the bill for the coffees and the first round of drinks, and the crowd was rapidly moving out of the street while the five overworked baristas finished pouring dozens ofttes for the crowd of Innu that Max''s announcement had attracted.


    The woman working the counter sighed as he approached and signalled the end of the swarming event that they had just endured, then frowned at his clothing, not recognizing him as one of the regr workers.


    "That will be two hundred and fifty-five credits, unless you both want one as well?" She informed him as he came forward.


    Max brought up his arm to pay with the linked ount in his smartwatch, and the shopkeeper''s exhausted attitude suddenly changed to a nearly fawning level of idol worship.


    "Commander Keres Max? Oh-Em-Gee. It is incredible to see you here. Are you here to visit and see what the next big thing will be?" She asked as the payment processed.


    "I''m actually here to help build it. You see, the Terminus Trading Company has plenty of weapons research specialists on staff, and we''re working together with the Rae 5 Moon Base on this project." Max replied with a smile.


    "It is so wonderful to meet you. I remember your first ad campaign as a Kepler Pilot. Do you have a second, I would love to get a signature, but my bag is in the back."


    "Take your time, we''ve got a few minutes."


    The mention of ''we'' caught her attention, and the barista moved, so she could see past the baked goods trays to where Nico was standing.


    The short cyborg gave her a sarcastic wave, and the woman looked mortified.


    "I am so sorry, Commander Tarith, I didn''t see you there at all. Is there anything I can get you? It''s on the house."


    "Don''t worry about it. It''s one of the hazards of being short. Besides, I''m a full conversion Cyborg, I don''t actually need coffee." Nicoughed.


    "But it still tastes good." Max added, relieving some of the worker''s tension.


    One of her coworkers brought out her bag, and Max saw that she had a bunch of trading cards inside, all in protective sleeves.


    "Would it be possible to get both of you to sign the back of this card?" She asked hopefully.


    It was a picture of the Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha, the X109. It was the first that they had helped produce with Uncle Lu, and the Mecha had since be the face of the human forces, as every Reaver Group and Military force wanted to get their hands on them.


    "If you have the X104, that was us as well, or the Fusion mer equipped Fast Attack version." Max suggested.


    The other workers hurried to bring out their cards as well, and Max noticed that all of them were collectors of the Mecha trading cards. There were many other patterns there as well, from all aspects of human society, and some historical ones too.


    The workers set them out on the table and Nico joined Max in putting her signature on the backs of them until finally, they got to one shy young man, a Reaver boy in his early teens, who must be working here part-time while training for a career.


    Even if you couldn''t find a job in the field, everyone took some sort of job skills training course or higher education. Not doing it would just be an embarrassment to your family and the Company you grew up in.


    He ced out his copy of the X109 and then reverently took out a locked metal box and pressed the fingerprint ID to open it.


    Inside was a shiny foil trimmed card, and on the front was Tarith''s Rage.


    Max smiled and nudged Nico, who cheered a little and made a grabby motion to be handed the card.


    He reluctantly handed it over, and Nico took out a silver paint pen from her t space to write, instead of using the in ck sharpie marker.


    "What''s your name?" She asked.


    "Travis Borden, Lady Tarith." He replied politely.


    The Borden family worked for her mother, so he must be kin to one of the household staff from the Tarith Family house, which made him part of the Tarith Reaver Companies.


    [Travis, Never Hesitate to take what is yours, Nico Tarith] she signed, then gently blew on the paint to dry thest letters and ced the card back in its clear protective case.


    "There you go, one autographed, limited edition personal Mecha card." Nico told him with a wink, while the others looked at him with jealousy in their eyes.


    Max searched through their thoughts and found that the limited edition foil cards were not easy toe by. There were only a few dozen of them, and they were spread between everyone who had bought the collectible cards on Rae 5, so that Tarith''s Rage really was a one in a million find.


    "It''s been a pleasure, everyone, but we should get across the street before they start thinking that we ditched out on our promise to pay for the first round." Maxughed, then tapped his wrist device and sent a fifty credit transfer to each of the workers in the coffee shop.


    They had earned it after getting mmed like that today.

 Chapter 1052 1052 Party Mode

    ?


    The growing crowd inside the games centre greeted them with a cheer as Max and Nico walked in the door, along with a stomping that substituted for pping in the noisy environment, where the music was thumping and there were constant cheers from the spectators watching the head-to-headpetitions within the gaming pods.


    The cashier smiled and held up the payment terminal for Max to tap, while the man behind the bar poured both of them a shot of something dark.


    "It''s our house specialty. A mixture of Reaver Rum and the nutrient packs designed for Cyborgs. A lot of our workers are augmented, you see, either due to injury or for other purposes, so they need the extra juice." The bartender informed them.


    Max caught a glimpse of what was in his mind and then looked around the room more carefully. This Moon Base was really a body modification haven among humanity. There were augmentics and modified options for everything avable here.


    Many of the changes were work rted, with enhanced sight being the mostmon option, usually in one eye for cost savings, or to maintain some sense of natural sight, but quite a few of the older soldiers had gone straight to a partial conversion when they were freed from their duty, which removed all the old aches and pains from their joints, reced lost limbs and digits, and gave them superior precision in their motor controls.


    Cyborg fingers did not shake if the procedure was done well. So, once they had adapted, they were very well suited to precision work, like surgery or manual testing and repair.


    The Replicators could rece basically anything, but the charge was by energy used, and recingplex electronics was expensive, so having a tech go over the circuitry and rece only the damaged capacitors or chips was much more cost-effective. It also kept the repairmen up to date on current electronics, which made it easier to find and diagnose faults instead of cutting humans out of the loop and trying to let a malfunctioningputer system diagnose and repair itself.


    Uncle Lu believed that no matter how far Replicator technology advanced, it was still essential to have humans know how to build and maintain everything on their own. That way, if there was an attack on theirputer systems and the database was corrupted or destroyed, they wouldn''t lose all that they had achieved.


    But in more practical terms, what it led to was a lot of artificially perfect appearances, and superhuman stamina on the dance floor.


    Nico dragged Max out into the middle of the floor when a hard rock song came on, and the crowd surged forward, creating a small mosh pit in front of the DJ booth filled withb coats and iling sensory tentacles.


    The DJ saw how animated the crowd got when the song came on, and kept the vibe going for four more until the crowd started to wear out, then moved to a slower song for everyone to go get a drink and refresh.


    Max ordered a round and moved to one side of the room, where the music was lower and there was arge crowd betting on one of the game matches that was going on. They were doing an asteroid race in shuttle craft, a test of precision piloting and high-speed reactions that would test any ship''s pilot. It was one of the more popr video games in the room, Max noticed, as others were ying it as well, though notpetitively.


    Unlike Mecha, which had nearly fifty buttons between the two control sticks, the controls of a race shuttle were rtively simple. You could ignore everything but the directional controls and throttle for most of the race, and only adjust the fine-tuning a few times, or when you wanted to try something tricky.


    "Are you two going topete?" One of the bystanders asked as Max settled into the open chair near the disys of the in game content.


    "I think that might be a bit unfair, don''t you?" Nicoughed, while the rather drunk young man looked offended.


    "Hey, we''re pretty good. I think that Robbie might be able to beat even the professional shuttle racers in the game." The man countered.


    "Alright, once they finish their race, I will log in, and we will see how well they can do against a trained Pilot." Nicoughed, highly entertained by the fact that the man didn''t recognize her.


    The race wasing to an end, so Nico jumped up into one of the pods that was mounted for the upants toy inside, stacked like a pod hotel or crew bunk on an older starship.


    [NICO has logged in]


    [Warning, Smurf ount detected, wager at your own risk]


    Maxughed at that. He hadn''t seen the warning about a ranked yer using an alt ount in a long time. It was nearly impossible to bypass, so they would only log into it in private, not in a public venue like this, unless it was part of a setup for the audience to guess who they were.


    That wasn''t a bad idea though, and the crowd was going to be guessing soon anyhow, though they should realize pretty quickly that it was her, since she used her own name as the alt ount.


    [Challenger NICO has entered the staging area.]


    That attracted a lot of attention when it shed across the screens at the top of the wall, and Maxughed as the eager spectators began to fight for position, even going so far as to attempt to im spots on both of his thighs before they realized who they were sitting on.


    "Sorry, Commander. We got a bit too energetic about finding a good spot." The researchers apologized in unison.


    "It''s not a problem. But why don''t you try that fellow two tables down. He looks like he wouldn''t mind." Max teased them.


    They gave a stealthy look then shook their heads.


    "Nope, not happening. I''m sure he would love it, but he''s already bad about keeping his hands to himself. It''s a shame really, such a nice ass, but such a lousy personality." The researcher sighed.


    "Well, you can stand here anyhow. The race is about to begin, and her opponent hasn''t realized who she is yet. He was in the pod when we all came inside." Max informed them with a wink.

 Chapter 1053 1053 Unwinding

    ?


    The crowd roared in excitement as the race started, and the VR system''s sensors portrayed the noise as spectators lined up in the audience, watching the start of the race. They couldn''t actually affect the race in any way or pass messages, but the sensors were designed to pass on the excitement and let the yers know that they had an audience, which was the primary reason for ying here in the Games Room instead of at home or in a smaller VR caf¨¦.


    The music was dimmed even further, reced with in game audio on this side of the club as the audience grew, and the countdown to the green light began.


    "He''s totally going to have his tentacles in a knot when this race finishes. No way does he have a chance." The Researcher on Max''s leftughed, borrowing an Innu euphemism for frustration.


    Two more gamers managed to load in during the countdown, and the crowd erupted in good-natured jeers andughter about how they were going to get humbled for their hubris.


    The green light shed, and the four shuttles were off at maximum throttle. They weren''t warp drive equipped, but through an obstacle course of asteroids it didn''t matter. The shuttles were fragile, and the corners were tight, so there was a very real risk of disaster if they miscalcted even a fractioning into the first corner, where all four identical shuttles would be crammed together and vying for limited space.


    To everyone''s surprise, Nico fell back a fraction while the others surged forward into the corner. They were all well versed in the course, whereas Nico hadn''t seen it before, but that didn''t matter. She didn''t fall back out of fear, she was riding tight on the tail of another shuttle, and when he had to cut power to make the corner without overloading the shuttle''s structural integrity, she gave him a gentle nudge from behind and put him into the asteroids.


    That left Nico in third ce as the contenders ducked down through a narrow channel in the asteroid field and raced to the next switchback, unaware of what had happened behind them.


    "Trust Nico to go for the kill in the first corner. That was brutal." The Innu Researcher on Max''s rightughed.


    "You''ve met her in person, then?" The human girl on Max''s left asked.


    "I''m from Terminus originally. I came here with the first Innu recruitment, but I was on the Terminus Research Team for three months before that, and she was in theb nearly every day. Mercy is not in her vocabry, she is totally relentless." The Innu replied with augh.


    And she was gaining on the other two, who had cut power a bit to avoid the randomly moving small rocks that floated across the course.


    Nico had no fear of such miniscule obstacles, and she rapidly overtook the other two as they reversed thrust to make the switchback.


    Instead of slowing and cornering, Nico flipped the ship over and went back to full throttle, seeming toe to a stop for an instant as the ship''s forward momentum went sideways and then in reverse.


    Everyone gasped as all the structural integrity lights on her disy went to a very dark orange, nearly to one hundred percent overload, where the ship would self-destruct, and then it was off like a torpedo, spiralling between obstacles in an insane evasive pattern that made Maxugh.


    The key to getting through this portion of the course was the footwork to the Julian Knife Dance.


    "Back and right and left and flip. Right and left and forward and back." Max sang along as the shuttle twisted insanely through the rocks.


    "Dammit, I knew there was an Easter Egg in here, but I couldn''t figure it out, it was the dancing rocks." A gamer near the disysined, but most of the others didn''t manage to corrte Max''s singing with the events on the screen.


    The Innu researcher pulled Max to his feet, and the two of them continued the dance for the whole two minutes that Nico raced through the obstacles called the Dancing Rocks. The other researchers slowly caught on, and those who knew the dance began to move along in time with it,ughing and drinking as they spun around the room.


    For most people, this dance was easier to do in fractional gravity, but the Innu were notoriously agile, and many of the other Researchers were from Kepler, and had the advantage of a System to help them out.


    Max returned to his drink as the obstacles ended, quenching his thirst and settling back into his chair while the staff brought over a pitcher of juice.


    Even from the centre of the table, he could smell the Rum in what must be the local version of a Rum Runner, a popr Reaver cocktail.


    After being crashed out, the fourth contestant had to restart at the beginning of the race, but as he was knocked out at the first corner, he was beginning to gain on the other two, and while Nico''s precision piloting had entranced the crowd, the battle between the other three was beginning to heat up.


    They couldn''t see her anymore, as she had gotten too far ahead of them through the dancing rocks, but with the three of them all seconds apart and in the tight confines of those same rocks themselves, it was a thrilling race for second ce.


    "We should have set this for threeps and not one. I bet she could havepped them if we had more time." One of the watchers teased the friends of the men inside the VR simtion.


    "No doubt. Making it only onep was a mercy to the other contestants. Look, she''s already almost to the finish line, and the others are still two checkpoints away." One of the onlookersughed.


    "At least she didn''t have any weapons on the shuttle, or they would still be at the starting line." One of the others joked.


    "Waitress, we need another jug full of this Rum Runner juice. I don''t know what fruit that is, but it''s amazing." One of the Innu shouted, while Maxughed at the drunk researchers. Innu were not good at holding their liquor.

 Chapter 1054 1054 Progress Made

    ?


    The next day, the race was the talk of the base. It was on everyone''s mind, and not even the fact that they were going to start adding to the framework and actually building what should be a functional Dyson Sphere the next day was enough to distract them from the jokes andughter.


    Max and Nico had been swarmed with people, so they hadn''t really noticed, but the racer who had been knocked out on the first corner hade in second, and had not taken losing well.


    He spent the whole race thinking that he was winning, and that the reckless racer who wrecked him had crashed as well and started over long after he had left. Then, when he finished the race, he realized that they had finished while he was still two thirds of the way around the course and had already logged out and rejoined the party.


    The temper tantrum they had thrown on the way back to their apartment was caught on security camera, and some bored member of the security staff had blurred their faces and sent it to social media.


    Unfortunately, their shirt was distinctive enough that with the timing, it hadn''t taken long to find out who it was.


    Max had no intentions of going out that day, just picking out a nice meal and a horror film to watch with Ranarth and Nico, who he knew were both big fans of the genre. He had underestimated their love of the horror genre, and while the dinner part of the evening had gone smoothly, it had quickly degenerated into Nico and Ranarthparing notes on how the viin in the movie could have done better with his borate n to capture and torture the hapless teenagers.


    In hindsight, he should have seen that oneing.


    It was the perfect event for them, and they were in a great mood to start out the new workweek, along with the happy gossips of the research team, which Max whipped into shape first thing in the morning, moving quickly through the first fewponent boards to get started on the actual mechanism of the Dyson Sphere.


    The more they put together, the more Max remembered, and by the end of the week, he had already made notes on how to optimize the whole process for their Replicators so that the device could be theoretically mass-produced, other than the chassis, which needed to take the force of the internal nuclear reaction.


    They still had to hand make the first round and individually test everyponent before they installed it, but they were progressing well.


    On the other side of theb, Nico and her pair of assistants had made an extensive list of possible power output technologies, ranked based on the feasibility of their production and the usefulness of the power output.


    Ranarth had given them a huge amount of data to work with, but he didn''t know much about it, other than the ones that they had seen more recently, so he was mostly a bystander at this point in the process, cheering on the teams as they worked.


    The feasibility of making the Dyson Sphere without Dark Energy was enough to keep his constant attention, and he had done a good bit of research on the topic to verify Max''s assertions that it would work, which was keeping Uncle Lu off their backs, and everyone in the other departments in fear of what they were going to be asked to refine next.


    It was a good thing that they had Ranarth to deflect attention, as it took three whole weeks to finish the first prototype of the Dyson Sphere before they got to the hard part. They would have to very precisely cut a portion of a neutron star to insert into the device, and then fill it with gases and get the ignition started.


    The first half would have to be done in anotheryer, while the next would have to be done in this one, and preferably far from any sort of outside interference.


    That meant that they were going to need to go back to Koleska space, since there was nothing in the otheryers here, and Ranarth had been adamant that they did not try to mess with them and identally imbnce the energies in this region like they were in the other.


    Leaving the Moon Base was not a big deal, it wasn''t like they were stuck here, but it would attract attention, and none of them wanted to get people''s hopes up before they could prove that their theory was actually scientifically usible.


    It should give enough mass and therefore gravity to sustain the reaction in such a small radius, and the numbers had been triple checked, but between theory and reality there were often huge differences.


    Differences that might mean a massive nuclear bomb, or an uncontrolled miniature star ced in a random location within the nebe of the Koleska sector.


    Ranarth was giving him an eager look that reminded him of a puppy whose owners had just returned home when Max finally decided it was time to take the team on the road.


    "Well, are we ready to go? I''m looking forward to seeing what happens when humans try to make a Dyson Sphere again. I looked up the data from the first time, and though they were around full-sized stars, the failures were remarkable." Ranarth asked.


    Indeed, they were. In Ranarth''s mind, Max found memories of whole attempts at the sphere copsing into a star and sending it supernova, a density increasing experiment from their first attempts that caused a miniature ck hole, and an attempt that didn''t go critical until they began to disassemble the Dyson Sphere to see where they went wrong, which led to a glorious Fusion re that wiped out an entire inhabited.


    He would have to be sure he didn''t make any of those mistakes himself. If he was going to mess this up, it should be in a new way.

 Chapter 1055 1055 Field Work

    With an entire research team hyped up to see a Dyson Sphere activation attempt, the bridge of the Cutter somehow seemed smaller than Max remembered it.


    They had considered taking a shuttle, as the experiment wasn''t arge one, but with all the drones and other safety measures that they were intending on taking, it was better for them to be in a Cutter, with stronger shields, additionalyers of Drone Shields, and the experiment performed at extreme distance.


    The managed to clear out of the Rae 5 system without any fanfare, and hopped through a portal to Koleska space, where they were nning to look for a neutron star for their experiment. There were a few that were on their map and not too far away, but they didn''t want to be followed, in case someone else got insane ideas about what the humans might be doing with their technology.


    So, once they were through the Anomaly, they quickly shifted into the secondaryyer of space and headed out for the nearest Neutron star, making very sure that nobody was following them. The Cutter had their version of the Hunters'' cloaking shield active, but there was no guarantee that the myriad of species that had gathered at the Koleska Station couldn''t see through it.


    Most of them were unable to see or ess the otheryer though, which gave them a big advantage, and for once, the activity here was quite calm.


    Even the strange wind that carried the lesser Energy Beings seemed to have calmed down in the region, and Max made a note to ask Ranarth about it when he finished discussing the technical aspects of the Mobile Suits with Nico.


    She had gotten him talking about the Darklings'' war technology, and Max didn''t want to interrupt a good thing and perhaps cut short his sharing mood.


    With the cloaking field up, they made their way to the target, and Max ordered the ship to a stop at a distance of one million kilometres.


    Their sensors could reliably see and control the drones from that far away, and a secondaryyer of the drones around the Cutter should provide enough safety if something went wrong, but he waited until everyone slowly began to notice that they weren''t moving any more before he said anything.


    "Wee to the middle of nowhere. Site of today''s experiment. At a distance of one million kilometres and oneyer of space away, there is a Neutron Star. We will be borrowing a small portion of that star today in hopes of kick-starting a CNO cycle nuclear fusion inside our experimental Dyson Sphere.


    If the experiment to transport the ultrapressed matter to thisyer and fill the Dyson Sphere with the required materials is sessful, we will be bringing the Dyson Sphere to a point one million kilometres in the opposite direction, safely out of the gravitational influence of the neutron star, where we can move it back into our homeyer and theoretically the nuclear reaction should spontaneously begin once it is back under the normalized spatialws there.


    Is everyone familiar with their duties today?" Max finished.


    "Recording station"


    "Observation Logs"


    "Material Transfer Verification"


    "Cakes and Cookies"


    Max chuckled as thest of their helpers chimed in with snacks duty, but it was on the list.


    [Deploying the drone shield] The android pilot announced.


    Nico perked up and ended her conversation with Ranarth when she realized that things were already getting started.


    [Deploying the carrier Drone with the Dyson Sphere.] She informed the ship.


    The small shuttle glided through space, minimally equipped with a cradle for the Sphere, and a Portal generator that would cut a precision slice out of the Neutron star. Or so they hoped.


    That was also untested technology, but in theory it should work just as well as any other portal, only instead of a dangerous side effect, the portal slicing through matter was the intended consequence of the operation.


    [All equipment is in position] Nico announced.


    That started the crew''s verification step, making sure that everything was working properly before the operation began, just in case there had been some error since thest check.


    [All systems are good. Pie is distributed.] Nico mumbled, while Ranarth snorted in amusement as he picked a square from the tray.


    [Beginning cement of the Dyson Sphere]


    The drone carefully ced the experimental device in the marked location, with one panel open, so that they could verify the arrival of the core mass and inject the gas mixture into the power nt before sealing it up and verifying that the sphere was indeed containing all energy emissions.


    Max knew for sure that the idea was sound, though once it was active and powered up, there would be no way to verify what was going on inside, except for the sensors on the sphere. It would absorb and convert all the energy that the reaction emitted, making it impossible for outside scanners to identify the internal condition.


    At least, that was the theory.


    [Gas transfer prepared. Ready for Portal activation.]


    Nico activated the portal, and suddenly all the rms on the sensor suites went insane.


    [Neutron mass destabilized byck of gravity. Injecting the gaseous mixture now.]


    [Gas mixture injected. Dyson Sphere sealed.] Nico reported.


    Slowly the rms fell silent, and the indicators on the Dyson Sphere began to light up, indicating that it was charging its circuits and should soon begin transmitting data to them.


    [Data stream is live. Extreme gravitational fluctuation inside the sphere is detected and contained. Preparing to move to the secondary testing location for movement to the primaryyer to begin the fusion reaction.]


    Gravity worked differently in thisyer, and from what Max could see, the difference had made thepressed matter begin to undergo nuclear fission before they had even gotten the gasses into the sphere and sealed it.


    Once that was done, it should have begun to stabilize, but with the Dyson Sphere still powering up, they didn''t have the data to know for sure yet. They would only know for sure if it worked when the sphere was shifted back to begin the reaction, at which point it should be stable and could be safely moved wherever they liked.

 Chapter 1056 1056 Keeping The Lights On

    ?


    Max ignored the annoyed tapping of feet on the floor as the shuttle slowly circled around their location to move the sphere into ce for the second test. They were still getting an increasing amount of data as the circuits came online, and currently the process was far too experimental to be subjected to a warp field.


    It probably wouldn''t hurt anything, but honestly, they just didn''t know.


    [The sphere is in position. Drone shield at maximum. Moving the assembly to the primeyer.] Nico reported.


    The shuttle vanished, returning to their homeyer of space, while the Cutter waited safely in this one to see what happened, with only a small portal open to provide them sensor data through a probe array.


    As soon as the shuttle moved betweenyers, the lights on its exterior all came online, and the reported power production spiked to an astronomical level.


    [Initial reports are in. Sustained fusion reaction output at the rate of 400 petajoules is verified by the Dyson Sphere.] Nico reported.


    The researchers erupted into cheers at the news, overjoyed that the device was working, and that for now at least, the experiment seemed stable.


    All that they had to do now was wait and make sure that there were no signs of stress fractures on the chassis of the Dyson Sphere, irregrities in the power output that would indicate instability inside the core, or failures in theponents.


    It all seemed stable for the moment, and Nico was working on an experiment to hook it up to the power source inside the shuttle. The Dyson Sphere alone wouldn''t be suitable as a Warp Drive generator, so their new Mecha design was still going to need a traditional Warp Core, but for pure energy output that could be mounted on a Mecha and passed through a weapons system, it was far superior to anything else they had.


    "Should we trante this for theymen now that we have some hope that the reaction will remain stable?" One of the researchers asked.


    "That''s not a bad idea. They''re not going to get it in a traditional sense. Just tell them that it will release a pure energy beam equivalent to a hundred megaton nuclear bomb every second, and gloss over the fact that pure explosive energy is far from the most destructive way to weaponize that energy." Max suggested.


    "Oh, that''s a good one. Everyone is familiar with bombs, and there are wonderful visuals online, as well as the opportunity to put them into anybat simtion that they want. I think that should be enough for those who don''t understand to be mollified, while those who do understand will see the potential.


    The raw energy conversion of the Antimatter Drive is horribly inefficient when we''re not using it for Warp Fields, it''s just the nature of our Crystal Reactors, but this will be much better for weapons.


    Should we mention how much energy the orbitalnce consumes?" She added.


    "It''s probably better if we don''t. That will just start giving them ideas, and the world has enough obsessed weirdos now without doing the math for them."


    "Should we see if we can start converting more of the energy from inside the sphere to output?" Nico asked hopefully.


    "Not yet. Save it for when you want to overcharge a weapon duringter testing, after we have verified that this thing is stable and safe for use. There''s no point in jacking up the output if we end up with a sun on our backs.


    All the circuitry here was made from ancient diagrams, and we haven''t even had the opportunity to properly test most of it outside the theoretical.


    We can verify that 400 petajoules is a safe output level, and there is no sign of thermal fluctuation within the circuitry, so let''s keep it at this level and test it to the most rigorous of military standards." Max instructed.


    "Got it. Starting the testing and stability of output now." The researchers replied in unison.


    In this case, that meant that they were going to activate a high draw energy shield around the shuttle.


    Theyered barriers went up one after another, until they reached the full output of the Dyson Sphere, and Ranarth whistled in appreciation.


    "You know, this demonstration has to be the most glorious waste of energy that I''ve ever seen. Not just because nothing is attacking, but has anyone ever told you that human shielding is horribly energy inefficient? Other species do it with more elegance, but their power systems are soparatively puny that you just brute force your way through them like tissue paper.


    Why don''t we start on a more efficient energy barrier for your new toys before we get into determining how much of the energy output can be spared for weapons?" The ancient Darkling suggested.


    Max noticed that as he moved, he was bringing one of the Android servers with him, training it to stand as a personal storage tray nearby so that he had somewhere to set his drink. To test a theory, Max handed him a few of his favourite snacks without saying anything, and the old man immediately put them on the tray, not even thinking about his autonomous piece of furniture, other than to verify that it was still where he put it.


    His people were known to do that with living creatures as well, ording to the legends of the species that they had interacted with, and Max wondered how much of it was actually malicious, and how much of it was that they simply didn''t care about the other species enough to register that they had needs and desires as living creatures.


    Now that he was on a topic he was knowledgeable in and enthusiastic about, very little else entered his mind, until he turned, and the table was no longer in position to get his drink for a moment.


    He carefully repositioned the android, but didn''t exin himself. The whole process was so smooth that Max almost missed it, and the Android had only been off by about ten centimetres, close enough that it visually appeared to be in position until Ranarth couldn''t reach what he wanted.


    "Alright, I need a data entry console. Let''s teach that drone how to make a proper shield." He announced, stretching his fingers as if he were preparing to type the code manually.

 Chapter 1057 1057 Ranarths Shield

    ?


    Ranarth began to enter the shield data into the Cutter''sputer so that Nico could work on tranting it into the programming code that they used and reconfiguring the drone''s shield array. Then Max ran [Battle Optimization] on the data, in an attempt to make itpatible with the equipment that was already on board the drone, and Nico tweaked it again.


    Fortunately, the Drone was equipped with the miniature Replicator system that was used to create bombs, and was capable of some level of self modification under Nico''s expert tutge.


    "The shield line will be going offline for a few moments. I am testing on them first, before we risk an interaction with the Dyson Sphere, in the event that we have the configuration incorrect." Nico informed the upants of the shuttle.


    There wasn''t much that they could do but watch as Nico modified the shuttles, and then imnted the optimized code into them along with the rmended circuitry to allow their shield generator to produce the shield modtion that Ranarth had rmended.


    The shields came up, creating a slight distortion around the drones.


    "Ah, there it is, the multyer distortion and nullification shields, or the Void Shield as they were once known. These are a beauty of ancient engineering. They might not be as elegant as the ones that we use, but those arepletely ipatible with your energy systems. These were originally made by the Arisen, and then modified by the human fleets for their own use.


    When they are impacted, arge part of the energy gets deflected to anotheryer of space, dissipating harmlessly and leaving the shield intact.


    The pattern that the drone is using should appear to your sensors to be thirteenyers, but really it''s one system working together. They won''t copse asyers if the enemy does manage to overload them." Ranarth exined for the benefit of the crew that hadn''t had a chance to see the technical specs.


    Max helpfully put the predicted energy dispersion data up on the main disy for everyone to take a look at, and the Research Team began to happily debate the advantages of many new uses for this technology.


    It would disperse energy instead of needing to nullify it, so the calction wasn''t so much a matter of frequency optimization to allow the shield system to best absorb the attacks that it would be subjected to, which would allow them to use it on a far wider variety of objects that needed to be protected.


    The only real limiting factor was the amount of energy that it took to form the shield in the first ce. Because it dispersed energy through theyers to a location where it would interact with different naturalws which would render it mostly harmless, it required as much energy as a Portal Generator to bring it online, then a minimal amount to maintain until it began to take damage.


    From what they could tell, the shield was nearly seventy percent more efficientpared to the shields that they had been using, and it waspatible with their Warp Field generators, so it wouldn''t cause issues if they needed to go to Warp.


    "The destructive testing can wait. Let''s get back to the Dyson Sphere testing. First, we need to stress test it to maximum rated output and hold it there for one hour to make sure that there are no fluctuations outside the epted variance, and no sign of overload within the circuitry." Max instructed.


    The excited Innu visibly deted before they realized that they would get to test the shielding, just not right now. Though, if the containment of the Dyson Sphere failed, they would get a very sudden test of the shields that had been erected on the drones in front of them.


    Nico configured the Drone to fire a group of rapidly dispersing Laser beams into the distance, not aimed at anything, and then ramped up the power output until the weapons array couldn''t take any more flow.


    That wasn''t nearly as much as they needed to overload the Dyson Sphere, but with the shields also on maximum output, they were at least able to test the stability of the output.


    "It looks like we''re having some troubles with the power transfer between the Sphere and the ship. Who was on the power ry design assignment?" Nico asked as she analyzed the data.


    Max frowned. "That would be me. Let me take a look at it and I will see what I messed up."


    He had tweaked the design based on the advice of [Battle Optimization] and his past life''s memories, so it should be working. But looking at the data, there was clearly a surge in the power at that point.


    Max went over the code, then checked it again with [Battle Optimization] and realized where his problem was.


    His past life memories included the code to make everything work again on that decrepit ship, and when he had optimized the Dyson Sphere''s output controls, he had started with that code as a base, and the trantion between coding systems was getting outputg, even though the power pattern was correct.


    Max added a bit of code to seamlessly trante the foreign code he had introduced, and the power flow smoothed out again, giving the sort of precision power that they had hoped for out of the Sphere.


    "There we go. It was just a coding issue. We''re going again. Does this code look familiar to anyone else? I swear I''ve seen this before somewhere." Nico asked.


    "Not to us, I don''t think any of us know that codingnguage, it came with the instructions for the Dyson Sphere, and we only learned enough of it to make things work." The researchers replied with a shrug.


    "That''s fine then. It''s working, and we can train everyone further in the intricacies of ancient coding techniques when we have a bit more time. But for now, we need to get this Sphere to a safe location and into a protective case so that we can start doing some real tests on it." Nico informed the crew.

 Chapter 1058 1058 Too Short

    ?


    [Would you care to exin why there are strange alien coding documents embedded in the firmware of the Dyson Sphere that we created in ab on Rae 5?] Nico asked Max silently through their imntedmunicators.


    [No. But since you know what it is, you know that it came from my memories, and I couldn''t find a better way to make the software worked. I''m not the great programming genius in the group, so if you want it redone in a more conventional programmingnguage for the next prototype, that''s on you.] Max replied with a smirk.


    He sensed Nico weighing and bncing the downsides of teaching everyone how to use the ancientnguage versus tranting it for the next prototype.


    [Fine, we will trante it so that we don''t have to teach every ship and Mecha engineer in the universe how to code all over again just to work on the one generation of Dyson Sphere.


    I think that I have an idea about how to make them more efficiently, though. The Void Shield schematic gave me a great idea.] She replied.


    [Oh yeah? What did youe up with that will rece the need to find a neutron star to use as the core to get sufficient gravitational density to trigger the sustained Fusion Reaction?]


    [The otheryers of space have different quirks to their naturalws. I''m not sure if that''s intended, or if it''s a side effect of the damage that was done to that region, since they''re not essible here for the most part, but if we do the tests before we leave here, I think that I can super condense matter using a modified form of the shield array, and create something close to the Neutron Star.


    I would say at least thirty percent of the density, for sure. Even if we triple the volume of the core, it should still trigger the reaction within the sphere, and if we can do that with abination of the Replicator and the Shield Array, that means we can mass produce the cores.


    Plus, since they''re not going to be at the supercritical stage, they should be a bit more stable than the one in this version.]


    [Alright, we can work on that before we go back then. I am not convinced that the experiment is even going to work at home, so we might need to do the construction here, but we can ask Ranarth.] Max replied.


    The old Darkling beamed with happiness when he realized that they had more questions for him, and the android helper moved in perfect sync to keep his drink right by his shoulder.


    "Will this shield configuration work in our home region, given the differences in theyers of space there? From what we can tell, there is nothing there. Just nothing at all, and theyers are much harder to even look through with a probe." Max asked.


    "The shields will work magnificently there. But the dispersion will be different. You see, here, the boundaries between theyers are damaged. But in your home region, they are intact, as they developed along with the universe.


    So, when you use a Void Shield, it will actually empower the boundaries between theyers there, making them even harder to prate the longer the effect continues.


    What did you have in mind?" Ranarth asked, eager to see yet another new thing today.


    "We wanted to use the portion of the Void Shield''s configuration that led to theyer with enhanced gravity topress matter to create a somewhat less dense core for the Dyson Spheres, one that will be a bit more stable and that we can reproduce with our own technology." Max exined.


    Ranarth shook his head. "That won''t work even here. The nature of the Void Shield is to shift betweenyers, so as soon as the material is no longer under the influence of the otheryer..."


    Nico frowned as he paused, then finished the sentence herself.


    "It will revert to thews of thisyer, and we will have achieved nothing when it stabilizes.


    "Exactly. That''s why the barrier only diverts energy to theyers, instead of using the imbncedws to absorb iing attackspletely. It''s the same with Warp Travel. You already know that it''s not possible to use a standard Warp Drive in the otheryers, you have to use alternate methods to achieve the same effect.


    Everyyer has a damagedw. In this one, it is space. That is why this one is the only one with interster civilizations, other than the one where Time is damaged.


    But hope is not lost. We do have an electromaic field that can simte the effects of intense gravity on atoms. The intended use was a bit different, but it can easily be used this way." Ranarth continued.


    Max looked into the old man''s mind and immediately wished that he hadn''t. The intended purpose of the device was for biological experiments. They could increase bone and tissue density with the device bypressing everything from atoms to groups of cells, and then when they finished it to their satisfaction, they would alter the subject''s gic code to have it continue to create the modified tissue.


    To the gene sculptors of the Darklings, it was something like a Photoshop tool, editing what they saw into what they wanted to see. While that was useful information, it was also information that was best kept to himself, before the rest of humanity started getting ideas.


    Or worse, before Nico realized that she could use it to modify herself even more. Who knew what she woulde up with once she realized that she could custom alter the density of her alloys.


    "Alright, let''s try that first, before we go anywhere. Someone bring that drone back to thisyer where it won''t be found identally, and let''s get back to work on the tools to make the next Dyson Sphere." Max ordered.

 Chapter 1059 1059 Marys Lament

    While Max and Nico were sitting in a secondaryyer of space, working on a mass producible version of the Dyson Sphere, Mary Tarith was sitting in the Sector Governor''s office on Rae 5, trying to talk some sense into her counterparts.


    "For thest time, no, we are not going to start a trade war with the Icarians over their production of luxury yachts. The design isn''t even close to ours, and the quality is far inferior." She exined for the fifth time today.


    "But so is the price. We can''t have someone undercutting us in the market like that." The Commander in front of her dered.


    "They''re a Warp 3 local system vessel that needs portals to even get between star systems in a standard vacation. How can their offering even be considered to be in the same market as ours? We produce and sell luxury vessels with Warp Ten drives and Portal Generators." She countered.


    The Commander looked vindicated and brought up the Icarian vessel, which looked like a metallic swan made of children''s building blocks, long-necked and blocky.


    "See this? That''s their vessel. Now, look at this."


    The Commander oveid the elegant lines of the smallest of the luxury yachts that was not considered a shuttle, showing that the two were almost exactly the same length.


    The Reavers'' offering held four times as many people, and in much morefort, due to itsrger body, but there was no denying, they were the same length.


    "Yes, look at it? It looks like a dead animal. The volume is barely more than our shuttles, and the whole ship is basically one long hallway. Why do you even see this as a threat?" She asked.


    "Because our sources say that they have an order for a thousand of them, and that the non-alliance species who ordered them ns to weaponize them." The Commander informed her smugly.


    She already had that information, and had received it weeks ago, but Mary decided not to say anything about it at the moment. After all, the problem was solved. She had made sure that the Innu sold them some Ion Cannon technology from a century ago, which was still better than what they had, but was no threat to the updated shields on any currentlymissioned Reaver ship.


    They had been hard at work making sure that everyone was upgraded, since so many Companies were sentimentally attached to their antique hulls and didn''t want to rece them with more modern ships.


    It made sense, some of them had called the same ship home for ten generations already. But when it came to modern shipping expectations andbat capabilities, they were often foundcking.


    "So, what you should be doing right now is not whining about apetitor and wanting to involve the Reavers as a whole in a trade war, you should be at the customer, selling them on the virtues of our attack shuttles, which are much more cost-effective, and better armed than what they have in mind.


    The power output on that ship won''t even support the main Disruptor on our shuttles, they''re not fit to be weaponized if they''re going to fight alongside us, much less against us." Mary reminded him.


    She saw the moment that he realized that there was a better way than attacking the source, and then he politely bowed before backing up two steps.


    "I will take my leave, Sector Governor Tarith. Please inform me if there are any new developments in ourbat shuttles before I arrive."


    That was one meeting down, and right on time to begin her next one.


    Luke Tarith, one of her distant nephews, and a Ship Captain of the Terminus Trading Company, was her next meeting.


    "What news do you have for me?" She asked as the young blonde man swaggered in the door, dressed in his most morous double-breasted red velvet trench coat.


    "I have today''s updates from Absolution. Though the majority of her research crew is still on the Moon Base, working with Uncle Lu and his team, we do have some news. The ck Market representative is looking for two Cargo spec Destroyers, unmarked and untraceable, to send to the next major battle between the Great Enemy and the Anomaly species.


    They are of the opinion that there is a great deal of money to be made selling pilfered alien scrap and moving relief supplies to afflicteds."


    "They want to move whole Destroyers full of relief supplies to strickens? I''ll believe that when I see it. My guess is that they are looking for a way to smuggle millions of people off strickens at a massive upcharge, and it''s going to take at least a pair of Destroyers to get through the blockades." Maryughed.


    "That sounds about right. Though they might be nning to use them here as cargo freighters in the meantime, moving prohibited goods under the assumption that nobody will question a Destroyer ss vessel." Luke agreed.


    "Alright, we will arrange for one of the Dark Stations to build them two new ships with unregistered Warp Drives, the usual fifty percent markup will be charged, payable in trade goods only." Mary agreed.


    "Excellent, I will pass on the good news. Felicity, the ship''s AI on Absolution is a genius with the bookkeeping, and there won''t be any problems with the shipments to the World Ship, or off it to the other Reavers." Luke replied with a smile.


    "Now, is there anything else? I''ve got a full day of meetings ahead of me." Mary sighed.


    "Not much. Your daughter and the Commander are on a research trip with the main design team from the moon base, along with the alien known as Ranarth. I couldn''t find out what they are working on, but Uncle Lu likes you, so he will likely spill if you get him excited about something."


    "Of course. That man is actually terrible at keeping secrets, he''s just hard to gain ess to. I will arrange dinner with him sometime this week to find out where my daughter has gone this time. Please send in the next appointment on your way out."


    Luke Tarith left the room and Mary sighed. They were still wrapped up in making new Mecha, and not a single grandchild in sight. At this rate, she was going to have to wait for the next oldest, and the twins had only just started their time at the Academy.


    Even worse, they were unlikely to graduate as early as their older sister, so she would have to wait not only for them to finish, but even more years for them to getfortable enough in their careers to feel like it was time to start a family when she suggested it.

 Chapter 1060 1060 Worries And Concerns

    ?


    Morning had just returned to the Moon Base station, and the day shift was on their way to work, but a general feeling of depression was settling in over the staff. It had now been two months since the main research team had disappeared to work on their new project, the Dyson Sphere that they had so much early sess with.


    The workers on the station didn''t have the security clearance to know what had happened, if it was sessful, if it was being refined on site, or even if the worst had happened and an entire team had been lost to science.


    The feeling had been building for a while, and Uncle Lu could sense it, but until today, he hadn''t been able to share anything with them, for fear of data leaks.


    But today he had good news.


    [Attention all refinement stations. We are expecting the primary research team back at the base within the next 48 hours, so please inform your group supervisors if your projects will be finished by that time so that they can assign new projects when they are announced.


    Those without a project for the day will be temporarily shuffled to help another team finish their work, and we are hoping to have at least five stations open for the iing surge in workload.


    Thank you for your time.] Uncle Lu announced over the inte.


    There was a lot of cheering from the workers, even the other development teams, who were working on secondary weapons for the new Mecha design.


    The information that Uncle Lu had received informed him that they had found a way to make the Dyson Sphere replicator creatable, though it would require a specially redesigned replicator, which could not be made by the regr replicator system, so they would be limited edition specialty tools.


    That was actually good news for the Reavers, who would be the first customers to buy them once the new power system made it to market. Specialty tools were the bread and butter of a mobile repair shop.


    Any''s universities could train mechanics, but with proprietary software and tools, only certain ones could train them on the most specialized of equipment. That meant more prestige, and more money for the work that they did.


    With that in mind, Uncle Lu returned to monitoring all the teams, to make sure they were working at peak efficiency before he returned to histest personal project, a new Mecha Chassis.


    It was still in the digital design phase, since he was so busy these days, but it was going to be glorious. He didn''t have the hubris to call it a God ss Mecha, but it was far beyond the standard of the Titan ss units, assuming that the Dyson Sphere could output enough power for the systems that he wanted it to have.


    As long as the size hadn''t changed too much, he had left enough room for a separate weapons power system and a conventional Warp Drive with an inteyer portal generator, so the Mecha should be able to fight anywhere that humans had the knowledge to ess and move around. But more importantly, it was massive, with the theoretical capability to even go toe to toe with the Greater Energy Beings.


    It had taken him over a month of dedicated work and leaving the supervision work to his subordinates before he had finished that analysis, but once he had, the old researcher was certain that he would be able to make a Mecha that could stand against them.


    There had been another breakthrough in Warp Drive technology this month, thanks mostly to Ranarth''s data sets. The secondary research teams had found a way to get one of the designs to work with human technology, and the output of the warp drive could be maintained with a containment vessel a fraction the size of the current units.


    When they tested it, the unit still became unstable if they tried to increase the power to more than that of a Cruiser ss ship, but it was small enough to be put into a Cutter ss, or possible an Interceptor ss ship.


    If they could get the power output of a four hundred metre long Cruiser into a ship under fifty metres long, their fleets would absolutely crush any trade group that was foolish enough to go against them. Already, the Alliance''srgest tradingpanies were suffering from ack of modern ships as the Reavers vessels with their own Portal Generators started cutting hours and days off the travel time to make deliveries, or undercutting them on their routes.


    Interster shipping was not cheap. There were countless people on the trading ships who expected to get paid, as well as the costs to keep the vessel up and running. But the Reavers had integrated repair teams into their ships'' crews, which most species didn''t have the luxury of doing, and they had a suspiciousck of appetite for expensive foreign goods.


    They loved to buy them in bulk, but they only shipped and resold them toary groups, and rarely did you see them using a foreign item themselves unless the humans couldn''t make an equivalent.


    Uncle Lu was hoping that these three new technologies would be a killing blow topetition against the humans. With faster, more powerful ships that others were unable to work on, more powerful Mecha, and an even more abundant power source aboard theirrger vessels, they could build nearly anything that they wanted, and still have enough power left over for the crew to live in luxury.


    Just the thought of a Mecha that could run an entire factory world was enough to make Uncle Luugh like a little kid again.


    Oh, the things that they could do if they snuck a pleasure yacht full of workers and one Dyson Sphere equipped Mecha into an uninhabited system. Ever since he was on Comor, working for both sides of the Comor and Kepler alliance, he had understood that everything is a state of grey. It wasn''t an illegal breach of copyright if nobody could prove where the goods came from, and with isted pop up factories that could be instantly closed when investigated, they would be rich.


    Well, more rich.


    All he needed to do now was talk to Mary Tarith about his ns, and see how far she was willing to go with the idea, and if she thought that they could do it without breaching their agreements with the Alliance. There were plenty of prohibited goods that the ck Market wanted which they could produce, but there was a muchrger market for counterfeit goods.


    Logistics and Distribution were her specialty, design was his. All he needed to do was get her to agree to help him turn his mobile factory n into reality, and he knew just the bribe to get her on board. He was the first one to know that her daughter wasing home, and he had arranged for them all to have dinner tonight.


    If young Miss Nico couldn''t escape her mother''s overbearing love, Mary Tarith would surely be grateful to him for arranging the situation. Perhaps he should arrange for Nico''s father to be there as well. He had heard that the man was so busy with his work on Absolution that he only went home for dinner once a week. But he wouldn''t be able to turn down a formal dinner without seeming rude.

 Chapter 1061 1061 Hoodwinked

    Max set up the portal locations to return to the Rae 5 system the moment that they were through the anomaly. It had been a brutal two months of constant research, and even the Innu were beginning to look a bit haggard from all the work that it had taken to get things working properly and to create a way to force the Collector''s technology and Ancient Human technology to sessfully interact with modern human technology.


    Two of the three were created to be deliberately different from each other so that if the Great Enemy tried to adapt to one it would be vulnerable to another, and the third simply had nothing inmon with either.


    Trying to adapt an alloy that became stronger when exposed to massive heat sources to also be an electrical conductor, but without losing its self repair and self strengthening properties had been an absolute nightmare, and that was only the very start of their issues.


    Creating a Replicator system that could produce it and produce thepressed matter that they needed for the cores as well had been nearly impossible, and even now, it didn''t run on entirely human technology. They had to adopt some of Ranarth''s rmendations that they use Dark Energy in the process, or they couldn''t create either of the alloys at all.


    But as impossible as it had seemed, they hadpleted the task, and he did not envy the teams that were going to be assigned to attempt to optimize the new Replicator.


    [Wee back to the Rae 5 system, research team. Please report to Absolution upon your arrival, as there is an event scheduled for you tonight.] The traffic controller informed them.


    If there was an event, he should have been the one to make it, Max thought. But perhaps it had to do with the Board Members, or some visiting dignitary.


    [It''s got to be my mother. Theck of recorded messages, the small number of iing vessels, thepletely normal traffic inside the ship. It''s definitely her. We''ve been hoodwinked by that old conman, Lu.] Nico informed Max a few seconds after the broadcast.


    [You know, I didn''t have to check the ship''s logs to know that it was your mother. If there is anything happening that we''re not informed about, but that involves us, she will find a way to make herself involved somehow. Plus, we''ve been gone for two months while our ship is in orbit over top of her house. She can see it from her office window at night.


    If she didn''t catch us for a dinner meeting tonight, she certainly would have done it tomorrow.] Max reminded her.


    Nico sighed and began to speak out loud.


    "You''re right, I should have thought of that first instead of overanalyzing things. I got stuck in research mode." She agreed.


    They adjusted course to head for the Commander''s private hangar bay aboard Absolution, where Max could sense that there was arge group of researchers already gathered to catch up on what had happened in his absence.


    It wasn''t all the staff from Absolution, but it looked like Uncle Lu had given the whole research team from the Moon Base the day off to rx on the World Ship, and most of the ones from Absolution had chosen to take a bit of time toe wee them back as soon as they got the news.


    That made this much more likely to be Uncle Lu''s n, though with him distracted by research topics, Max couldn''t sense what he was up to.


    "Wee back Commanders!" The researchers shouted when the doors to the Cutter opened and the ramp extended for them to disembark.


    "Thank you all for the warm wee. How are you enjoying your day off?" Nico yelled back so that they could all hear her from across the bay.


    The answer was all cheering, so she assumed that they had a good day so far, and all the other researchers were getting excited to have the evening off to explore the World Ship. IF there was some big fancy dinner or event going on, there was no reason for them to be there, so they were already making ns to go and y before anyone could stop them.


    They exited the Cutter, and stepped into the happy embraces of their peers, who were already preparing to leave again now that they had verified with their own eyes that the Lead Researcher and the Commander were fine.


    "The researchb has its own high-speed shuttle that runs in the service corridors between levels. So,e with us, and we will go to the water park." One of the Absolution team members announced, and even the most reluctant and tired of team members were dragged away.


    Their staff pass would let them book any open hotel room in the area, so they should be fine, Max assumed. He could already sense Mary''s impatience, as she was waiting just outside for them toe greet her and the others that she had gathered for dinner.


    "It''s time to face the music. Your mother is right outside." Max whispered to Nico, who grinned back at him.


    "Oh, I know. I''m the one who locked the door. But let''s go meet her before she literally explodes with excitement. Maybe we really should get her a puppy. Or perhaps have her adopt an Innu child, they''re both on the same energy level."


    "You know you love her." Maxughed as they reached the door.


    There was arge crowd gathered outside. Both of Nico''s parents, the Board Members, and a half dozen Alliance dignitaries, plus the Envoys, had all gathered to wait for them.


    "Wee back! Do you perhaps have good news for us?" Mary asked.


    "No grandchildren yet. Sorry, Mary." Max joked.


    Mary reached up to grab his throat and yfully shake him.


    "You know that''s not what I meant. How did the research go?" She replied.


    "But it was what you really wanted to know. The research went well. We have two stable prototypes and the ns to reproduce them with a high level of sess. The teams will be busy in theb for some time, but that''s just refinement.


    Now, we shouldn''t keep these fine folk waiting for dinner. For those of you who don''t know me, I am Keres Max, Commander of the Terminus Trading Company and this is my Sumander, Nico Tarith. It is a pleasure to meet you."


    Max started the formal introductions, and the usual ritual of introducing yourself and saying a few polite words to those you already knew began.

 Chapter 1062 1062 Dinner Plans

    ?


    Mary led them all to the nearest of therge dining rooms, where Dave, Mollie and Max''s younger siblings were waiting along with a dozen of the children of the dignitaries that hade to greet them.


    "So, you got roped into babysitting, did you?" Maxughed as he pulled his old friend into a hug.


    "All the time. We got the outgoing children, so they just pull more and more little people to us. But these ones are a joy to be around, all well-behaved." Dave agreed.


    Dave deftly caught a foam dart before it could hit one of the other guests, and the Envoys chuckled. His standards for well-behaved basically ended at not shouting, crying or bleeding. Beyond that, they were considered well-behaved until he had to fix something or clean up a mess.


    The dignitaries had brought some of their nannies with them, and the ck d woman was quick to take the soft dart from Dave and start hustling the children to a side table where they could sit together and enjoy a meal that was better suited to their pte than whatever the adults were going to be eating.


    Mary dragged her husband and Nico to seats on either side of her, making sure they didn''t switch her carefully organized nametes, and the dignitaries took their seats, leaving Max a few seats down between Uncle Lu and the Innu Envoy, both of whom were desperate for news of the recent developments that his team had made and weren''t willing to wait until they were released to theb the next day.


    Across from him was Admiral Penner, the former Lord Commissar who was now in charge of Absolution''s crew, and her guest for the evening, a middle-aged Valkia man who seemed to have some strong connections among the guests. From what Max could tell, he wasn''t one of the politicians, just a billionaire CEO sort who she had taken a liking to.


    "Alright, spill. We need the details. Did it work? Can you make another? How is the power output?" The Envoy asked, barely resisting the urge to shake the answers out of Max as he sipped on the wine in front of him.


    "We did make it work, and we can make another. The currently certified stable power transfer rate is 100 petajoules constant output, but we can push that in an emergency. You will get full details of it soon. Well, Uncle Lu will, but I''m not sure if the Envoys get ess." Max teased.


    "That''s why I''m asking today. They know how much we love technology, but I''m still cut out of the loop on new developments. Don''t humans have rules against cruel and unusual punishments? This has to count." The Innu Envoyined.


    Max chuckled at her pouting face. "I''m fairly sure that nobody has ever sessfully challenged information security rules based on an interpretation of inhumane punishmentws before. You might be the first, though."


    "We can''t even make you an employee because it would interfere with your position as an Envoy, and this is still an experimental power source, not patented or avable to the public yet, so we really can''t spread out the details." Uncle Lu apologized.


    "Fine, I will wait until you file the paperwork to look over it." She pouted.


    "Why don''t we just have the Envoys sign a non-disclosure agreement again, and we can have theme watch as we test and refine? They''re going to require a full review eventually anyhow, so you might as well just invite them in and let them see what''s going on." Max suggested.


    Uncle Lu looked quite hesitant to agree to that. "Maybe into limited areas, like the ones near patent processing. But it''s easy for you to say, you''re not going to be here."


    "What do you mean, not here?" Max asked.


    "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that part in advance. We have discovered a piece of ancient data that has twenty likely locations for human refugees after the time reset. It was recovered from a side reference in one of the data files that Ranarth provided. The locations are vague, but the Reaver Council wants someone to go look, and Mary has suggested that you take Terminus.


    It''s thergest extreme cruise ship in the entire Alliance, and the hunt for ancient ruins is a popr topic in a number of moviestely, so you can likely fill the ship with guests who are willing to watch you look for ancient ruins.


    Even if you don''t find anything, they''ll be happy to tell people that they went to the edges of known space to search. It''s a win for everyone, and it gets you and Nico away from the drudgery of development for a while.


    We need to refine everything, and I need to rework a side project that I''ve been on now that I''ve got all this new dataing in from everywhere, so a few months or a year wouldn''t hurt anything, as long as the Great Enemy doesn''t attack again." Uncle Lu exined.


    Max knew from his thoughts what he was after. Thes in that region had been scanned by the Alliance and didn''t show any signs of life, so they might be failed Colonies, which might still contain human technology from millennia ago. If any of it worked, it might help guide them on a new path, and give them ideas on what worked best against the Energy Beings out of what the humans could make.


    The Darklings and the Arisen didn''t really record much about human technology because they were more focused on their own survival after the time reset. So, although the human species had centuries of experience fighting the Great Enemy, they had lost the knowledge of how to make it after it was no longer relevant to their daily lives.


    There were many things like that in the universe. Deemed redundant or inefficient in their time, but when rediscovered and adapted to modern technologies, the basic principle turned out to be a winner.


    "Alright, I will gather my crew and go on an extended treasure hunt. Absolution can stay here for a while, or wander off to do its thing once you''ve finished borrowing their research team." Max agreed.


    "I don''t think we will be done with the researchers for a while. They have too much inside knowledge of the initial development of the devices that we''re refining in the variousbs. So unless you''re willing to leave them here when the World Ship departs, it will be waiting here for you." Uncle Luughed.


    Unlike Terminus that was always moving, looking for good vacation spots, Absolution didn''t actually have to be anywhere specific. It only moved about to make itself convenient for thergest of their customers. The Rae 5 System could use their own portal generators to aplish the same oue with just a little effort, or Absolution could establish a long-term portal if it moved further from the inhabited.


    The only ones who would suffer would be their dear Envoys, who were about to be bombarded by Patent requests, and the subsequent challenges.


    That was their job, though, so Max could only feel a little bit sorry for their plight. He knew that some of them would prefer toe to the very edges of the universe with him, but they were tasked to keep up trade rtions with the Reavers, and in his absence, it was the Board of Directors on Absolution that were taking up that role, along with Mary Tarith, so they were somewhat stuck right where they were.

 Chapter 1063 1063 Mischief And Meals

    Once the dinner was finished, the evening turned into dancing and catching up with old friends, as almost everyone in the room knew each other, but they often couldn''t get together outside the public eye on any sort of regr basis.


    The Alliance paparazzi were still upset at the Reavers for their policy on unauthorized photos, but the ability to walk through the World Ship and have dinner with friends without being subjected to constant media attention was considered a blessing by the many dignitaries that visited the ship, and Felicity was exceedingly skilled in making sure that no media members got on board without prior authorization.


    They were about to retire for the evening when a small body collided with Max, and then he saw a chocte covered hand grab his pant leg as the child moved to hide behind him. It wasn''t one that he recognized, it was the child of a ck Market merchant that Mary had invited for the evening so that she could securely pass him documents without anyone questioning the situation that brought them together.


    Officially, he was here as the representative of his Space Station that moved a lot of human goods to local trading ships for final distribution, so it was perfectly normal for him to have a business dinner with the Reaver leadership. It could be considered a bit above his pay grade, if you didn''t know about his other connections, but it certainly wasn''t enough to seem odd when there were over a dozen other businessmen and politicians here from all over the Alliance.


    "What are you hiding from, little one?" Max asked the child behind him.


    "Shh, you haven''t seen me. Father has prohibited me from eating sugar." The boy whispered as he frantically licked the cake frosting from his hands.


    "I can give you a napkin if you need." Max suggested.


    "And waste all this? I think not. Just warn me before he gets over here, if you know who he is." The boy whispered back.


    His father was not headed their way, he was behind Max, and the unimpressed state of his thoughts said that he could already see the child.


    It was slowly turning to amusement as the boy carefully watched thest spot that his father had been seen while he carefully cleaned his hands of thest bits of sweet frosting. What the boy hadn''t counted on was the fact that his father was a ck marketeer. He had abundant experience in people trying to hide from and deceive him, and as soon as the boy hid from him, he had anticipated where the little one was headed and moved to intercept.


    Currently, he was leaning against the far wall directly behind them both, waiting to see if the boy would notice him at all.


    "Don''t you think that you''re missing spots in your search? You need to do a full 360 to get a proper grasp of the situation." Max whispered.


    "But he was over there talking to a business partner and I haven''t seen him move past us. He should still be there." The boy replied.


    "He could have moved while you were running. I would check anyhow." Max suggested.


    The boy tried to act natural and stepped around Max like he was going to talk to him, but instead he was searching the room.


    It was almost smooth, for a five-year-old.


    Max sensed the moment that the boy spotted his father, who was smiling at the boy, who knew instantly that he had been caught sticky handed. He froze, unsure if he should try to run again and hope that his father hadn''t seen anything, or to just face the music instead.


    "How long has he been there?" The boy whispered to Max, certain that the Commander had known all along.


    He got there just before you circled around behind my legs. You have had your back to him this whole time, but you were only scanning in front of you. Two out of ten on situational awareness." Max replied.


    The boy''s father walked up as they talked, and extended a hand to greet Max.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you, Commander Max, and thank you for humouring my son. I am Lam Davos of the Davos Seven Station. You are generous to give him two out of ten. If he had actually mistaken one of the others for me, I would give him a point, but he assumed that I hadn''t moved because he hadn''t seen me.


    He even thought that I didn''t see him grab the cake from the waiter, or hide the other two slices in his t space storage." The father exined.


    "Oh, that is a critical failure, young man. If you''re going to pocket merchandise, you need to be absolutely sure that nobody sees you do it. It doesn''t matter if you''re the merchant removing the valuables before questionable customerse in or if you are the cheating customer. Getting caught is never eptable." Maxughed.


    The father reached down and grabbed a hold of the boy''s ear, then bowed to Max and escorted the boy out of the room. It was gettingter in the evening, and it was time for the kids to go to bed, which was part of the reason that sugar had been prohibited, and the move seemed to be a signal to the other parents to head out for the evening.


    After that, it was only thest few who were still drinking and talking business, but there was nothing serious left to do for the evening, other than make sure that they let everyone here on the ship know that they were headed off to Terminus in the morning and out into the unexplored regions of space.


    As the room cleared, Max noticed that Mary was clinging to Nico, trying to convince her that she really should stay nearby and give moral support, since all the other kids were off at school. It wasn''t working, and Mary knew that it wouldn''t, but the theory was that it would soften Nico up for when she switched to the [If only I had grandchildren] pitch in about three minutes.


    "You know, it wouldn''t be so lonely if I had more little ones to raise. How is that body renovation going? Any good news for me?" Mary asked, confirming Max''s assessment of her ns.


    Her thoughts were like Nico''s fathers, almost always hidden from him, though hers were a bit easier to see through, it was just her poker face and determination to keep everyone in the dark, not a system skill keeping him from gleaning useful surface thoughts.


    "No good news yet, but I''m working on a theory that should let me begin an ex-utero self-contained incubation unit for reproduction." Nico replied.


    Maxughed to himself as Nico dered that she was intending on creating a method for humans toy eggs, but Mary seemed extra skeptical at the announcement.


    "That doesn''t sound like you n to give me grandchildren at all." Maryined.


    Max stepped up and gave Mary a hug. "On the contrary, it sounds like she intends to hand them directly to you, possibly inside an egg."


    The few remaining dinner guestsughed as they realized what Nico had been referring to. Not all of them had realized that Nico was a cyborg, as it wasn''t widely practised among mosts of the Alliance. But she was a well known scientific mind, so they associated her with the Innu, who put research before everything else, so test tube babies wasn''t all that shocking of a thought.


    "How can that count? Well, maybe that could count. Now I''m actually kind of interested in seeing what sort of hybrid augmented human infant she might produce in that researchb of hers." Mary chuckled, as she decided that she was being pranked by her oldest daughter.


    "How about we talk about it once we get back from our little expedition? With some luck, we will have new toys for everyone, so we will have toe back for at least a little while." Max suggested.


    "Fine, I suppose that we can put this off for at least a few more months. I might be getting old, but my Nico is still young." Mary sighed.


    Max gave her a hug in constion, though Mary was far from getting old. With her high systempatibility, and the amount of advancement she had likely done in secret, it was quite probable that she had at least two centuries ahead of her, but even if she didn''t have a system at all, modern medicine had made fertility viable until nearly the hundredth birthday, and she wasn''t even halfway there yet.


    Nico would be older than she was now before it was toote for her to have more children, but Mary Tarith was never known for her endless patience. She preferred to get things done the moment that she thought of them, and she had been thinking about grandchildren ever since her husband said they had enough children of their own.


    "Alright, we are off to the Commander''s quarters here on Absolution, and we will transfer over to Terminus in the morning, once we have had a final briefing with the Board, and set up everything for another extended departure.


    My only real concern is that we don''t know how long it will take before the Great Enemy returns, and that it will be both more sudden and more violent than we had prepared for when it does happen."

 Chapter 1064 1064 Return To Terminus

    The next morning saw Max and Nico sitting in a board meeting with the full assortment of Department Heads, Business Leaders and the Envoys in addition to the Board of Directors and Felicity''s Android avatar. She had integrated herself with the ship''sputer at some point, so Max couldn''t really say that the body was her anymore, as the World Ship had significantly more processing power, and the two shared the workload of the artificial intelligence''s ns.


    The body was still the core, but no longer the entirety of Felicity.


    The man in front of Max had taken over for Admiral Penner as the head of the Absolution Police Force, and although he had been on the job for over a year now, he still seemed to wilt under the attention of all these important people.


    That wasn''t a good sign for his ability to assert his authority, but he seemed to be apetent bureaucrat on paper, and the department was running smoothly, ording to the reports he had filed.


    Max decided to have Admiral Penner look into it and see if it was just the presentpany, or if he was generally spineless and making things look good on paper.


    "In conclusion, fraud and theft type crimes have risen by two percent this quarter, but violent crime and harmful substance reports are down." He finished his speech, and quickly returned to his chair.


    "Thank you, Police Chief. Who do we have next?" Nico asked.


    "Jenkins of Maintenance." Admiral Penner replied with a smile.


    The olive skinned maintenance supervisor stood and straightened his poorly fit suit, which made Max chuckle.


    "You know, you can recycle them and get another at a discounted price if they stop fitting, right?" Max asked the supervisor.


    "This is my lucky suit, though. I wore it for my job application, my promotion hearing and my wedding." Jenkins replied with a smile.


    "In that case, I can refer you to some of the military sorts, and they can adjust you so that you fit the suit better again. A few months at the gym and you''ll be fit as the day you graduated." Max offered.


    "Thank you, I''ll keep it in mind." Jenkins replied, but in his mind he added [please don''t tell my wife you offered me that, she''d make me do it.]


    Jenkins cleared his throat and began. "With the modern materials, there have been no signs of corrosion or rust so far. We have had some blown out valves, but the majority of our issues have been clogged pipes.


    There are some that we''re working with the police on, as a body was dumped in one of the storm drains this month, and contraband was found clogging a sewer pipe, but mostly it''s the sort of mundane that you expect on a ship thisrge.


    The flush vessels clear almost all the clogs before anyone notices, and we''ve got the response to repair time down to under an hour on average. The rest of the minor details are in my report."


    One after another, the Department heads gave their presentations, finishing just before lunch, and then there was a set of board meetings that would follow to review all the information that had been presented.


    Max sent his concerns about the police chief to Admiral Penner, and got ready to leave, as he wasn''t needed for the rest of the meetings. He wouldn''t be here to help enact the solutions anyhow.


    Max and Nico excused themselves from the meetings when they broke up for lunch, and headed back to the Cutter to get ready to transfer back to Terminus.


    Nico was already ordering the Androids to start transferring goods to the ship for her. There were plenty of things that Terminus didn''t have after it was made a secondary research facility, namely the developments that she had made after they left, so she was nning to bring one of everything with her, including the new Replicator to make the Dyson Spheres.


    Their unnamed pair of new Titan ss Mecha that had been made for thest battle were already on board the Cutter, but Nico had ns to tweak them a bit if she got bored while in transit to their various search locations.


    Some of them were too far for a single Portal jump in between them, so the n was to take a bit of time to sight see along the way so that the tourists didn''t get disoriented by the rapid changes of location.


    It was important as the premiere luxury adventure cruise ship in the region that they provide a quality experience for the guests, and that meant not leaving them confused about where in the universe they were.


    The route was very well nned, with a number of scenic stops along the way, including resorts in the Alliance that they had worked out trade deals with. Terminus would provide them with Reaver produced goods at a wholesale discount, in exchange for docking and resort fees for their guests, allowing Terminus to provide all-inclusive pricing to guests, with ultra-exclusive destinations.


    That had caused more than a fewints from other cruise liners, but so far, none of them had managed to make a case that could stand up against the Reavers legal documentation. Every contingency was covered in the paperwork, and it was perfectly legal for a corporation like the Terminus Trading Company to arrange a trade of goods for goods, even if it bypassed the usual year or more waiting times and massive dockage fees for tourists.


    By the time that Nico was finished with her organization and picking out all the new toys that she wanted to bring with her to theb on Terminus, the cargo hold of the Cutter was almostpletely filled with random items that couldn''t yet be produced on the Colony Ship.


    "Did you forget anything? Perhaps the kitchen sink?" Max teased as he looked at the heavily loaded cargo hold.


    "Nope, The Cutteres equipped with over thirty-four of those if you want to be particr. But I''ve got all the specialty tools that I think we might have problems replicating, or that aren''t needed here on Absolution. They''ve got extras of everything, so there is no point in wasting materials to make them all over again.


    It''s faster to just set up theb to my personal preference with these materials instead of building a whole new one."


    "Alright. Let''s get out of here before they find a reason for us to stay behind even longer doing paperwork or something." Max instructed, while Nico skipped toward the open ramp to the cargo bay.


    [Departure scheduled in three minutes. Enjoy your trip, Commanders. I will take good care of Absolution in your absence.] Felicity informed them as they closed the hangar bay doors.


    [Thank you, Felicity. Hopefully, next time we return we will have more time to hang out and socialize, we heard that you have done some wonderful things for visitorforttely.] Max replied to the sentient AI.


    [Thank you for your praise, it means a lot to me. All doors to the hangar are now locked down in preparation for departure, no life signs are detected outside the vessel. The Bay Area is confirmed free of foreign object debris. You are clear to depart as soon as the doors are open.]


    The bay door began to slowly slide open, leaving only the energy barrier holding the atmosphere in the cargo bay.


    The cutter glided out of the bay and rotated to face the Colony Ship with a gentle pulse of its engines.


    As they approached, Terminus set off a small cluster of energy res in front of the passenger viewing ports, the equivalent of fireworks to wee them back for the benefit of the passengers and residents on board. Nico and Max shared a smile.


    "We have been gone from here for too long, but it still feels like we''reing home." Nico informed him as they got ready to enter therge hangar bay at the back of the ship.


    Max nodded. "It really does. We should find out what they think of their life as tour guides. I hear that they have been to some fascinating cestely."


    "And again soon. We have a nice stopover at a Paradise Springs Resort, a science camp retreat for the students at the Academy, but it''s also got some beautiful mountain views for the adults, and they''ve got flying lizards." Nico added.


    "Howrge might these ones be?" Max asked, curious about what flying carnivore had caught Nico''s attention this time.


    "They''re actually herbivores and about a metre long with the tails, but look at them, they''re tiny dragons." Nicoughed, guessing what was on Max''s mind by the expression on his face.


    "I can see the appeal. Alright, we will take some time off on the tiny dragon and maybe y in the springs for a while. Do we have any data about the first possible ancient yet?"


    Nico shook her head. "All we have is a location. The is there, it''s on the Alliance charts, but it''s listed as uninhabited and uninhabitable. It''s outside their territory by a lot, but they''ve sent probes there to explore it in the past."


    "Well, that might not be the worst thing. It would be nearly impossible to find relics if there was a thriving administrative core world built on top of them."


    Trying to get anything done in a whole world full of bureaucrats was a nightmare, but trying to dig for ancient relics of their ancestors would be a nightmare of red tape and permits that no species lived long enough to navigate.

 Chapter 1065 1065 Home Sweet Cruise Ship

    The drab green paint on the interior corridors of the crew sections that housed the defence force for the ship were aforting sight to Max as he made his way down the length of the ship on a transport buggy.


    The floors were polished, the interior was immacte, and the sounds of the crew training in therger rooms that they passed were a familiar setting for him, and it was good to know that his absence hadn''t led to them cking off.


    The gyms were still packed with soldiers, and they all seemed to be in top shape, not getting chubby and soft.


    That was what he had somewhat expected on his return, a bunch of rusty cruise ship security guards starting to look like the familiar fat andzy police from his childhood neighbourhood. But the Regiment left on Terminus seemed to be taking their jobs very seriously, and when the whistles blew to end the training session, everyone ran out into the halls, headed for the showers a few doors down and then off to the evening''s festivities to wee the Commanders back to the ship.


    None of them had realized that the two in question were right in front of them until they had reached the hallway, and the startled salutes were enough to bring a smile to Nico''s face.


    "Wee home!" The soldiers were shouting at them as they passed, while Nico and Max waved back in greeting to the familiar faces all along the hallway.


    Once they were past the training areas, the crowd thinned, until they reached the infirmary, where a surprising number of healing soldiers were waiting with the staff.


    Max stopped the buggy and hopped down to shake hands and say hello.


    "What happened here? Are the crowds on the cruise ship getting unruly?" Max asked.


    The Pilot closest to himughed and shook his head.


    "No, but you could say that theirpetitors have. It''s all in the weekly report, but we got ambushed by a non-Alliance pirate fleet on our way here that were trying to intercept one of our guests.


    There were no fatalities on our side, but some of the Mecha got banged up pretty good during the fight." He exined.


    "Do we know who sent them?" Nico asked.


    "We do, or so I''ve been told. Admiral Drake captured a couple of the Pirates alive and from what we''ve heard here in the infirmary, they were plenty willing to talk once the pressure was on in the interrogation room."


    Nico pulled up the reports, which hadn''t been filed yet, as the incident was only a couple of days old.


    "Oh, I see. Yes, we have had problems with this corporation before. They attacked some other Reaver vessels pretending to be pirates. I will take care of this right away, the Tarith Family''s fleet has already found their home base." Nico exined.


    The Pilots assumed that Nico was ordering a Reaver ship to go attack their base of operations, but what Nico actually did was remotely activate her Mecha and open a small portal to throw an Antimatter warhead through, set to detonate above the facility they had built on a remote moon.


    The shielding over the facility might have held, but Max had no way to know now that the portal was closed to keep the explosion from feeding back into the hangar. However, the pirates should get the point that it was time to stop messing around if they didn''t want to find out what war with the Reavers looked like.


    "We will make sure that is taken care of. Please let me know if the medical team needs anything to finish the healing process." Max added, after he realized what Nico had done.


    "We''re only moderately elerating the natural healing. We have found that doing it this way might be more painful in the short term, but instantly healing all wounds leads to the System not recognizing the need for physical upgrades, and a few of the young Cadets have suffered for it when their 50 point upgrade didn''t strengthen their body for the rigours of piloting." The doctor exined.


    Well, that was inconvenient, butpletely logical. If the nanobots didn''t see the body suffering lingering damage or struggling, then there was no reason for it to go down the optimization path. So, most of the Cadets who missed out on it would have to wait until near graduation before they had a chance to resolve the issue, and that could be crippling for their stamina as a Pilot.


    "Understandable. I wish you all a speedy recovery. Or maybe I should say painless recovery. Now, we''re off to what I''m certain is a weing party waiting for us at the front of the ship, since there were fireworks to wee us back." Max replied with augh.


    "Oh, there will definitely be a party. It''s also the students'' week long break, so many of them are in the Cruise Ship area, and that means their parents havee to visit as well, so it will be lively. Watch out for flying Valkia, the kids get excited about having more space to fly." The doctor informed him with a smile that said it actually made his life busier and not more entertaining.


    The staff was gathering at the VIP entrance to themon areas to greet them, so Max turned the electric cart to meet up with them there instead ofing in the staff doors.


    "Maybe we should have changed, we''re still dressed for a dinner party, not a beach party." Nico joked as they made their way past the nearly deserted sector where the Academy was built.


    "I don''t think that they will mind. Think of how many people arrive in suits and only change once they are on board. We should fit right in with the other guests." Max chuckled.


    "I still think we should be more mboyant. You know, for the sake of the photographers. Let me drive, you take off that shirt and coat, and put on a nice shy silk one. That should be enough to be photogenic."


    Max quickly changed his shirt and ced the extra clothing in the t space storage of his wrist device, then took the controls back, while Nico stood up and changed into a short-sleeved sundress from her research coveralls daily wear.


    "There we go, ready to greet the crew. Just let me delete the footage of us changing, we don''t need to be giving them any sorts of strange ideas." She joked as they pulled up to the final service corridor before entering the VIP area.


    "Alright, we''re on foot from here. Practice your best smile, we''ve got a lot of people waiting for us."


    "Of course, when do I not have my game face on? I think that we should y up for the cameras, though. You know, my mother will be watching for them to go online, so we should tease her a little in retribution for her constant grandchildren demands?" Nico suggested.


    "Are you sure that you want to taunt her? She is the master of getting even." Max reminded his petite partner in crime.


    "Of course. We will be gone for months at the very least, and it will give her something to take her mind off nagging about grandchildren."


    This definitely wasn''t going to end well. Max knew it already, and he didn''t even know the n yet.

 Chapter 1066 1066 Slides And Rides

    They stepped off the cart and out into the VIP corridor, headed for the doors to the passenger area, and Max did his best to keep the fake professional smile on his face as Nico''s hand found its way into his back pocket, and she practically wrapped herself around his side.


    To the cameras they would look like the perfectly besotted newlyweds, and those were the first impression images that would be uploaded to the Data Net for Mary to find.


    Everything that came after that would be greeting old friends and staff, so these would be the only images of interest for the next hour or so.


    "Don''t overdo it. The fake innocent and gentle look will never fool your mother." Max whispered to Nico, who covered her mouth and giggled as the doors opened and the cameras shed.


    It was perfect timing, and Max saw in the journalist''s minds that the images were of an extremely close couple sharing a joke as they walked, and not some overdone scene that Mary would see through instantly.


    "Thank you all foring to wee us back. It is great to be home aboard Terminus again after so long out wandering the universe.


    I have heard many things about how you have improved the experience in our absence, and I am certain that both myself and my Sumander are going to have a wonderful time learning how much things have changed." Max greeted the crowd.


    "Thank you Commander. We have waited a long time to show you all that we managed to do to improve the reputation of the Terminus Trading Company and thefort of our guests." Admiral Drake replied with a cheeky smile.


    Max noticed that the old soldier was now quite tanned, and he smelled like coconut oil, so he was likely lying on one of the many artificial beaches when he got the news that the Commanders were on their way back, and he needed to get dressed.


    One after another, Max greeted everyone who hade to wee them, until he got to a familiar face in the back.


    The representative from the Dryads was here, with their head botanist practically hanging off her side, with adoration in his thoughts. The two had clearly made some rtionship progress while he was away, though he wasn''t quite certain of the physics of such a rtionship.


    "It is good to see you again, Commander Max, Commander Nico. The World Tree is growing beautifully, and the rest of the nt life on board is in pristine shape." The Dryad weed them.


    "Thank you. I know that it is no easy feat to keep such delicate lives growing in a space vessel, but they are important to us." Max replied.


    There was a sudden scream in the distance, a long and drawn out note of horror that ended as suddenly as it had begun, and Max quickly extended his thoughts to see what had happened, and who might be responsible.


    Only, it was no crime. They had erected a bungee jumping station in one of the vertical columns, so the guests could have an eighty-metre free fall, and then get pulled back up just before they reached the pond at the bottom. The stretch of the rope was set just right so that they could almost touch the decorative fish living in the waters, and then they were hurtled back up into the air again.


    "I see that the extreme cruise moniker isn''t only our destinations." Maxughed.


    "Extreme is all a state of mind. Many of our guests consider the gravity slides an extreme experience. But the flying dodgeball contests, bungee jumping and the full contact Rings league are epted by most as features worth visiting for." Admiral Drake agreed.


    "We have a rings league?" Max asked.


    "In a way. We only have one team from Terminus, but we have worked out a deal to provide the Portal services so that other teams cane here to y for our home games. It has been a huge hit, and in two months the yoffs will be starting, which will stress our capacity to the maximum.


    I''m sure you noticed that we''ve already expanded the guest section almost all the way to the Academy, so I''m not sure how much more capacity we can add, but the league only requires fifty thousand live tickets be made avable, and everyone else can watch online." The Admiral exined, while twisting his long grey moustache into a curl with his fingers.


    "And we''re up to a capacity of how many now?" Max asked.


    "Two hundred and ny thousand transient guest rooms, and two thousand long-term VIP suites that we have on yearly leases to a handful of majorpanies within the Reavers and the Alliance."


    If they doubled up in the beds, that was nearly six hundred thousand guests at once, a truly impressive level for any sort of amphitheatre. Some of the seats would likely be terrible views, but as it was a flying sport, there was a chance that the match would make it up toward the upper seats at some point, so it wasn''t a total loss.


    Max didn''t know how many people could be put in bleachers around one of the vertical columns, the open areas that the designers of the ship had built in for cargo movement and a feeling of spaciousness, but it should be many times that of a standard stadium, given that the ship was hundreds of metres tall.


    "What events are nned for today?" Nico asked as she took in the subtly changed interior of the ship.


    "Nothing too major for today. It''s a school holiday, so we have a collection of nonalcoholic beverage specials at the water parks, and we have turned up a selection of the slides to double their normal speed.


    There is a gravity barrier at the end to slow the passengers back down, but the Innu find the experience quite thrilling, and most of the students agree." Admiral Drakeughed.


    "Now that sounds like fun. I am definitely going to have to try that outter. But I suppose that we should likely make an appearance for the guests as well. I know that they''re waiting to see us, since there was a fireworks show in front of their viewports when we made our way over.


    If we dy too much longer, they will start thinking that they''re not important to us."


    "Good point. How about we head to the fifth floor restaurant alley? It''s one of the more upscale areas on the ship, and it gives us a good chance to meet with people, since it''s always packed. Then we can do a weing speech if you like. The walk down the street will be on the overhead disys so that the guests know you''re here." Admiral Drake informed them.


    That was pretty normal for celebrity visits to most ces, and Max couldn''t deny that to the people here, he was a celebrity of sorts, much like getting a visit from the CEO of the multinational corporation you work for.


    "Alright. Let''s do this. But I don''t think we can take the slides unless we want to end up soaking wet at the other end." Max amended as Nico turned toward the tunnel entrance.


    "I forgot about that. Alright, we can take the boring way."

 Chapter 1067 1067 In Transit

    While therge group of senior staff apanied Max and Nico into the elevator to head for the eateries on the fifth floor, the crew on the bridge of Terminus moved the mighty Cruise Ship into position for a transfer to their first stop, a copsing Neb that was forming a new star.


    The itinerary had them staying there for the evening and leaving the next morning for the resort world, where they would have some guests departing and othersing on board for the extended trip.


    This next leg wouldn''t have many chances for anyone to get on or off the vessel, so the remainder of this week would see plenty of transfers as the guests who did not have an entire month to sight see transferred off the ship.


    "Commander, it''s so good to see you again. Will you be staying a while?" One of the guests asked the moment that the elevator doors opened to reveal a crowded corridor with a clear path down the middle for them to walk.


    "Indeed I will. I have returned to help lead the teams that will be doing the explorations for ancient ruins on thes that we will be visiting. Will you be staying with us for the duration?" Max asked the pale green alien woman.


    "I will. My husband is on a year - long diplomatic mission and our kids are in the Academy, so I have decided to stay with the ship for the moment." She answered with a smile.


    Max could sense the frustration of both her children and some of the Academy''s administrative staff at that answer, but she was a senior Alliance bureaucrat''s wife, so it wasn''t easy to shoo her away. She simply had too much money to be easily persuaded to end her vacation and stop sending daily letters and care packages to her children.


    "Try not to give the Academy too hard of a time, they''ll be quite busy with their studies and can''t afford distractions with all these big projectsing up before exams." Max replied in a yful tone that made herugh, but subtly worry that she was decreasing her children''s grades by distracting them from their routine.


    "I do hope you enjoy your time with us." Max finished and shook her hand before moving on to greet more of their guests.


    They made it a few more guests down before Max recognized another, a Cygnus politician who hade here to step out of the limelight and rx after losing a nomination race to a rising star within his party.


    "Former Senator Khrushchev, it is good to see you again. I believe we met at the negotiations on Belmont. You have my sympathy for your Campaign troubles." Max greeted him.


    The former senator looked shocked that Max remembered him, as they had only spoken a few words during the entire three days of the meetings after the battle of Belmont, and he was just there as an observer.


    "It is an honour to be remembered for such a small contribution. Thank you, Commander, this is a lovely ship that you have here." He replied.


    "All the credit goes to the outstanding ship''s crew of Terminus, I just manage the ce." Max joked, spreading softughter through the crowd.


    It was a slow procession toward their dinner destination, Ruth''s Steakhouse, but all the senior staff had people to greet, and Nico was nearly swarmed with Innu who had endless questions about the research and new products that had been releasedtely.


    The Terminus Tech Nomad Livestream, as the research staff called their weekly online updates, was over a billion weekly viewers even on a slow week, and Nico often appeared with them on an audio feed when she couldn''t be there in person.


    The steakhouse was designed to emte the most upscale of Nobles Only eateries on the Cygnus home world, and the kitchen staff was all Cygnus descended Reavers from their staff, giving it a feeling of authenticity, even with the various alien species dressed in butler outfits working as waiters.


    They had booked the private room for the evening, but guests often struggled to get a seat here once in a week-long cruise, despite therge seating area.


    Max knew from experience that such a ce would normally only seat about thirty people in the main room, with one or two private rooms, as their invitation list was so exclusive, but this was an all-inclusive cruise ship, and even the fine dining restaurants needed to have room for hundreds at a time.


    He had to do his very best not tough when he realized that the Innu waitress had modified the adaptive liner of the augmentic armour''s helmet and turned it into a fashionable hat. This one was ck, and made the server''s head tentacles look like dreadlocks, which were pulled back with arge hair tie.


    Like this, she could almost be mistaken for an oddly pink human, and Max wondered if Ranarth had been right about the species gically altering themselves as they spread across the far reaches of the universe in their bid to hide from the "Gods" of the energy beings who had shattered their civilization before retreating.


    Even her ent was practised to mimic that of the Comor Butlers, who were essentially a ss of Nobility themselves, as the actual Nobles viewed them as being above themon masses, and worthy of a very well-defined level of respect and trust.


    She even seated them in the proper Comor fashion, by their ranks, and Max though that maybe this sort of restaurant would catch on with the Koleska as well. The styles werepatible enough that they would understand the procedures, and just exotic enough that they would find them exotic, and not an alien mockery of their own traditions.


    Once the drinks starteding around, the crowd began to rx a little, knowing that they were out of the spotlight and that the private room was soundproofed, so nobody would be listening in on them from the outside now that dinner service had started.


    "Commanders, I know that this mission is on the request of the Reaver Council, but are you sure that it is wise to take a cruise ship so far outside of known and patrolled space without a heavy escort?" One of the Alliance businessmen asked.


    "That''s where you''re mistaken, good sir. We are not without an escort, it is just not inly visible. There is an entire Regiment of Mecha on board, and we have two Titan ss Mecha on board.


    That level of firepower is enough to take on a small nation, much less any band of wandering pirates, and the shields of Terminus will be specially upgraded over the next week while we are at our cruise destination to increase the safety of our guests.


    Rest assured, short of aary invasion fleet, there isn''t much that could threaten Terminus, and even at that, it would have to be a highly capable species, or we would still win without casualties." Nico assured him.


    "Without Casualties, you say? Is that even possible?"


    Max and a few of the military officersughed at the incredulous businessman.


    "It certainly is. A single Titan ss Mecha is capable of challenging mostary defence fleets, and on its own is an even match for a Destroyer ss warship. With two and a full Regiment backing them up, Terminus is an impressive military threat that just happens to be travelling the universe for the entertainment of her guests." Nico agreed.


    "When you put it that way, I must say that my mind is much more at ease. Thank you, Commander Nico. Or do you prefer Commander Tarith?"


    Nico just shrugged. "Both are fine. I am proud of my Family name, but there are a lot of us, so Commander Nico does make it much more clear who you are referring to."


    Appetizers arrived while they chatted, and the stress of battle, and of research missions that led to extended periods in ab, refining technologies, just faded away.


    It was all waiting for them, but it was no longer the major factor in their days, and they could take a proper vacation again tomorrow, once the ship reached her destination.


    "Will we be upgrading the defence fleet Mecha again?" One of the Company Commanders asked as he cut into his steak.


    "Possibly. It''s not strictly necessary, as this isn''t a frontlinebat unit, but we have considered making something stylized for the ship. How about some tropical themed Mecha, to go with the Gravity slides and the pools?" Nico suggested with a smirk.


    "The enemy would never live it down, being defeated by a bunch of armoured surf bums." The Company Commanderughed.


    Max could see it now, shorts and tropical shirts on the Comor pattern Corvette ss Mecha, which were close to human in proportions already, and quite agile in space with their recent upgrades.


    It would bepletely ridiculous, and they would look like nothing more than a token unit intended for making a show during safety operations at remote destinations.


    That might not be the worst idea he had heard today.


    Max shook his head at the Company Commander. "We will let you know if we''re going to change anything, but for now, I think we''re just going to rx and test out our credentials as archaeologists. The passengers will be more impressed by a rare and ancient relic than a Mecha in a floral shirt."


    "To the smooth recovery of ancient relics." The Pilot toasted, raising his wine ss in salute.


    "To relics."

 Chapter 1068 1068 Strange Worlds

    The next morning, Max woke to the mental chaos of hundreds of thousands of people all watching the spectacr sight of a nascent star forming while they had their breakfast and waited for the next portal to open and take them to the resort destination.


    Nico was asleep on his arm, dreaming of a quad-core Dyson Sphere powered Super Mecha that could destroy whole star systems at once, so Max let her sleep a little longer. It would be a shame to interrupt a dream that good, and her dreams were surprisingly specific and technically oriented, so he might actually be able to gain a functional idea from them.


    Not about the quad-core Dyson Spheres, that was a bit overkill for anything that could be made humanoid, but it might actually work on a Colony Ship. A Dyson Sphere for each main gun battery, and then they could just go insane with the shooting.


    That was actually a decent idea, given that the Dyson Spheres were fairlypact, and small enough that they could be ced near the weapons systems without too much trouble. Long-distance power routing for that sort of power flow was always a nightmare, so it would actually improve the efficiency of their space usage overall.


    Max was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn''t notice when Nico woke up from her dream and began to make notes in her digital journal.


    That was a normal thing every time that she had a new design idea, and this time he had even been paying attention to know what it was before she started writing it down. If she could turn that into something practical for a Titan ss Mecha, it would be outstanding.


    The biggest hurdle would be the safety concerns for the Pilots.


    "So how about you and me go out to the viewing decks and take a look at the stars while we have breakfast? We''ve still got some time before the transfer, and not much to do afterwards." Max suggested when Nico sat up.


    "Not a bad n. We should be more social. I mean, social with more people than a research team. Uncle Lu says it would be good for us to get out. I got a message from him this morning, and he seems really excited about the work they haveing up on the Moon Base. But he also says not toe back until at least three months have passed because he needs time to finish it." She added with a chuckle.


    "I''m sure we can find something to do for that long. How about we put on something waterproof and try out the high-speed slides on our way to get food?"


    Nico jumped into his arms and kissed his face. "Now you''re speaking mynguage."


    Then she hopped down and ran over to the closet to reorganize the items that were in her storage.


    "Alright, I know that I''ve got something. Let''s see here. Oh, there it is." She cheered as she held up a purple bikini and a matching purple sundress with white flowers.


    Maxughed as he put on a pair of knee-length ck shorts and a in grey short-sleeved uniform shirt. Nico took one look at him, and promptly undid all the buttons, then gave him a thumbs up.


    "Let''s get out to the slides. Do you have your sandals handy?" She demanded.


    "Of course, they''re in the t space."


    Their outfits turned out to be a perfect disguise, and nobody they passed on the way to the slides even noticed that it was them. The closest that they came to being recognized was by an excited Innu child who wanted to tell them all about the technical data of the slides on Terminus.


    "Really, they''re thergestwork of waterslides on a single cruise ship? Who would have guessed? Waterslides are amazing, after all." Nico agreed with the tiny admirer of aquatic engineering.


    "Yep, and I heard that they were made specifically because the Lead Researcher herself personally wanted to encourage the Innu toe visit the humans. Isn''t that crazy? Nobody does that, but the humans did, and look, they even made an extreme mode." The little boy rambled.


    Max and Nico headed for that tunnel, and made a mental note of what corners they had to take to get to the pool front bar where they wanted to have breakfast, while they little Innu ran off to the other slides.


    "See youter, my mom is waiting for me near the world tree. She said that I can have ice cream." He yelled as he disappeared into the tunnel, while the nearby guestsughed at his enthusiasm for life.


    Nico rushed off to try out the high-speed tunnels, which were nearly empty at this time of day, since the students preferred to sleep in a little on their days off.


    Most things on the ship were 24 hours a day, so there was no real need to rush unless you wanted something that closed overnight, or a specific menu at a restaurant that had separate daily specials.


    The most popr options were the buffets, one of which was next to the location they had chosen. There was plenty of seating, they were informal, and there was such a wide variety of food that there was no need to worry about picky eaters.


    They were also one of the lowest personnel to customer ratios on a daily basis. It had been decided that everything could be self-serve, and the staff would just rece the trays when they got past their timer or close to empty. With the self-cleaning systems in ce inside the restaurants, and the cleaning bots that wandered all around the ship like mobile vacuum and garbage binbos, it didn''t matter if things to a little messy.


    The restaurant was just as Max remembered it, sitting on the far side of the pool from the exit to the waterslides, with tables wrapping all around the far side and stopping at the hot tubs. It made for a nice isted experience for those rxing in the sand on the close side, while still being easy to get to.


    They also had the best chicken and avocado omelettes on the ship, custom-made by the location''s morning chef. Max ced their order and picked a table that faced the simted exterior dome, which projected the outside skies for everyone to see.


    Currently, that was the sight of a new star being born, and if Max''s guess was right, then by the time he finished eating, Terminus would have moved, and he would have a clear view of their destination. Admiral Drake was pretty good about positioning the ship to give a good view from the domes, and they were far toorge to dock with the local space station.


    Sure enough, just as the waitress was clearing away their tes, the announcement came.


    [All passengers, please be aware that we will be opening the portal to our next destination in one minute. No turbulence or power surges are anticipated at this time. This destination will send their own shuttles to bring passengers to the surface at no extra charge, but please be aware that there will be a port fee and air traffic control charge if you should wish to use your own vessel.


    As always, departure times will only be extended by thirty minutes for absentee passengers, so please ensure that you are back aboard on one of the many scheduled shuttles.]


    Max waited patiently as the ship prepared to open the portal, and then the most interesting that he had seen in a long time came into view. Nearly the entire surface was artificial. The actual surface of the had been covered with fake forests, resorts,kes and beaches, while the''s natural surface was a gigantic fortress city built underneath the morous exterior.


    Everything that was made on the was built down below so that nothing marred the beauty of the resorts, and arge portion of the poption whose minds Max could sense had never seen the sun before.


    They spent their whole lives "Below" as they called it, and couldn''t afford to vacation on the surface.


    It was far from an idyllic life for the billions who lived here, but the tourists paid for a luxurious lifestyle for those with shares in the''s Colony License. They had long since paid off the debts to have the world terraformed, but as usual, those taxes hadn''t ended afterwards, they had just been redirected to new projects.


    [Admiral, do the citizens down below have any sort of arrangement with the Reavers yet?] Max asked, knowing that they were getting preferential treatmentpared to other ships here.


    [Indeed we do. Both governmental and non-governmental organizations have made deals with us. We have a single shipment going down to the surface in our own vessels, would you care to take it in the shuttle from your Cutter?] Admiral Drake asked.


    The shipment was an order of a hundredst generation biomass capable replicators, the sort that could make basically anything that you requested. They weren''t on the open market yet, so that was definitely a ck Market deal, but not a huge issue for them.


    [Certainly, have the shipment brought to our hangar, and we will take the private yacht to the surface, it''s in the cargo hold of the Cutter right now, next to the Mecha.]


    The ship lookedically small next to the two Titan ss Mecha. Though it was longer than them, it was sleek and slender, not bulky with armour and built for war. It was perfectly suited for the situation though, with its own shuttle bay, which could be a cargo bay, and it was luxuriously appointed for VIP guests.


    [Admiral Drake, pick five of the Alliance bigwigs and ask them if they would like a private shuttle to the surface with us. Customs won''t ask any questions if we''ve got top politicians on board.] Nico added.


    [Understood, they will be ready in thirty minutes.]

 Chapter 1069 1069 The Market Below

    "Sorry that we arete, we got a bit dyed at breakfast." Max greeted the small group of VIP guests who were waiting at the hangar bay where Nico had moved their yacht.


    "It has been spectacr, Commander, the views are perfectly aligned." One of thedies in the group, who was apanying a government minister, simpered in a fake sultry tone that grated on Max''s nerves.


    Each of the five invited guests had brought their plus one and a servant for the trip to the surface, as they were all nning to stay there for two nights.


    Max noticed that some of them still had overnight bags with them, so he sent a silent message to Nico.


    [Find some of the cheapest t space watches that we have and then make them look ssy. I want to give them to these people as a gift.] Max informed Nico through their imntedmunicators.


    [On it, they''re waiting on the bedroom tables in the suites. I put a simple looking one in the staff quarters as well, because they''re the ones who will be forced to carry most of the luggage anyhow.]


    "Everyone, please follow us inside, and you can ce your luggage in the secured closet of the yacht, or with your staff member, their rooms have storage specifically for this situation. As I understand it, we will be headed for the business region of the. The luxury there should be no less than where the rest of the guests are headed, but it is more exclusive, with smaller crowds." Max announced with a grand gesture toward the ramp.


    All the guests were eager to see what the private yacht of a Reaver Commander looked like, and the interior of this one was sure to satisfy. It had originally been made by Nico to impress her mother and the other Reaver Commanders, and they''d just been using it ever since, so it was possibly the most fashionable small luxury vessel within ten star systems of here.


    Everyone stepped to their room to put down their bags and change into more formal outfits for theirndfall in the business district.


    The Admiral had hand-picked them because they had connections here, and themunication logs showed that they had all been in contact with the surface already, so the group should blend right in. That was perfect for their purposes, as Max wanted as many people that the local police wouldn''t dare question, much less apprehend, to be present when he moved the delivery off the ship.


    [Terminus One, you are clear for entry from orbit. Please follow the precise pathid out for you to avoid interfering with traffic.] The''s air traffic controller informed them.


    [Understood Control, we have the course entered.]


    Nico guided the yacht out into the void of space, and down toward the, smoothly manoeuvring between the upward paths of the shuttles sent to gather themon guests from Terminus, and the daily traffic from the station, bringing down necessary foreign goods.


    "This is the smoothest entry I''ve ever experienced in a yacht. Are these avable from the Terminus Trading Company?" One of the guests asked as they passed through the stratosphere on the way down, and mes briefly flickered around their shielding before the energy barrier adjusted to lower the friction with the surrounding atmosphere.


    "It is. In fact, you can fully customize the interior to your personal preferences, and if you should choose to pay the premium, we will reserve ayout and interior package exclusively for you, or name it after you when it is offered to other customers." Max informed him.


    That caught his attention. Having an interior scheme for a luxury yacht named after you was a big deal. There were only so many goodbinations, so rather than making yours exclusive, forcing everyone else who wanted it to order it under your name was a much better way to stroke the ego of the ultra-wealthy.


    They might not have heard of you, or even the you called home, but once they found the interior package with your name on it, they would know that you had money like that.


    "We only have six more minutes beforending, but here is the data package for our custom ship design line. This is one of the smaller models that we offer, and we do offer ships up to Cutter ss, should you require more space for group excursions or personal rxation." Max added with a smile as he transferred the file.


    Of course, the first thing that the man did was open the Cutter ss section and check out the personalized interior schemes. There were Sector Governors there, Central Government Ministers, members of the various Royal Families, and at the end, one strange reference that didn''t seem to match the others.


    Thest one on the list was the DiFranco Pizzeria on Jo ram Space Station.


    A Cutter ss ship cost hundreds of billions of credits, plus the markup for an exclusive pattern, so the attribution to a small pizza ce on a remote space station had to be a joke by the multinational conglomerate that owned it. Or so he assumed.


    That was all he had time to actually check before the Pilot announced that they werending.


    The ship made a short loop around thending zone, getting in position for the approved approach, and the yacht gently set down on the pad with a hiss ofpressed Nitrogen gas, ejected to cool iing ships.


    It was only a short burst before the ground handlers realized that their shields had adjusted the hull temperature to ambient temperature by the time that theynded. Maxughed as they got excited and told their coworkers all about it, as if they hadn''t been here to see it as well.


    Nico extended the ramp, and the ground crew came up to the bottom in their uniform pinstriped suits to wee the VIP guests.


    "Wee to the Cherry Resort Spaceport, esteemed guests. Would you like for us to bring your baggage, or have you arrived with staff?" The concierge asked.


    "We have staff with us, thank you. Our flight was a bit short to freshen up, could we spend a moment in our rooms before we head down for lunch?" One of the politicians asked, with a wink that made sure everyone on staff knew that he would need more than a moment with his date before they "freshened up."


    "Of course, sir. Please follow me this way."


    One after another, the guests were escorted away until only Max and Nico remained, with one staff member and the ground handlers.


    "I have a delivery for a nearby storage facility, their personnel should be on the way." Max informed the remaining assistant.


    "Of course sir, might I see your paperwork?"


    Max transferred the documents that they had made up for the transfer, and the hotel staffer nodded happily. "Wonderful, we have been waiting for these fruits. I will make sure that the processing staff takes good care of the crates."


    Max sensed the man''s desire for a bribe involving the rare fruits that were supposed to being to the hotel''s supplier, instead of the replicators, but that was an easy fix.


    He sent a message to the Android staff on board, and they made a crate from the Replicators and brought it down, enclosed in a sealed transport case.


    "A small gratuity for your fine service today." Max exined, and the remaining staff shared a knowing smile.


    "Thank you very much, Lord Commander. I see the delivery trucks now."


    It was a tbed buggy, like the modified golf carts they used on Terminus to move goods around the hallways, but it wasrge enough to take all ten replication machines in their false packaging.


    The Androids quickly loaded everything, while the ground handlers gave them shocked looks.


    "Humans are inordinately strong, aren''t they?" The assistant asked, while one of the handlers whisked away his bribe before the bosses saw it.


    "Those are androids, actually. They make excellent ship''s crew, as they never sleep, they''re impervious to small arms fire, and have a maximum running speed exceeding a hundred kilometres an hour." Nico exined with a smile.


    The staff hadn''t been nning to try to tamper with the ship before, but they definitely weren''t now.


    The delivery truck vanished back into a tunnel that led underground, and Nico nodded to Max to inform him that she had fixed the camera footage since their arrival.


    "Now that all the business is taken care of, perhaps you could show us around the local area a bit while the others rest? I would like to see what sort of shops and markets this world has to offer." Max requested.


    "Of course, sir. Might I rmend that you start down the road with the subterranean trade market zone, and then move on to the imported goods shops to your east, beforeing back up into the resort for a spot of lunch at the resort''s trade bazaar? The food carts are renowned in this world. Just present them with your guest ID and they will drop the charges." The assistant agreed, and handed them a pair of golden bracelets.


    Nico''s thoughts said that they had a tracker, a room key and a hotel ount number in them, so they could be used to keep inventory as the guests went shopping.


    "Thank you very much. Would you care to apany us? I''m sure you know the area well, being a local." Max offered.


    "Unfortunately, my duties are here in the resort, but we do have an offsite guide avable. Should I fetch her for you?"


    His thoughts said that it was a daughter of one of the Resort''s managers, who was in on the smuggling scam, so Max smiled back at the assistant.


    "Please do."

 Chapter 1070 1070 Guided Tour

    "Good afternoon, my name is N, and I will be your guide this afternoon through the market areas. Please let me know if there is anything that you particrly want to see or a product that you would like to purchase that isn''t at the shops along the main street, and I will see what we can do to help you out." Anky young woman with her blonde hair pulled into a tight bun greeted Max and Nico a few minutester.


    "I''m Max and this is Nico." Max replied, then shed her the local hand sign for the ck Market, which he had pulled from her mind only seconds earlier.


    Her smile got impossibly wider, and she happily skipped across thending pad.


    "Just follow me, and we will have a wonderful time shopping today." She announced.


    They followed her across thending pad and down a side service tunnel that was much smaller than the one that the cargo buggy had taken. It wound downward as a steep ramp,


    The walls and floor were surprisingly clean, and Max wondered if they had an auto-cleaning feature installed, or if there was a cleaning robot of some sort that maintained these tunnels. It looked like a service entrance, and those were usually grungy in any world, as they only got the most basic of cleaning by staff.


    The exit led them to a narrow alley between rustic looking shops with ssic curved y roofing tile awnings over fake wood facades with neon lights everywhere.


    They were definitely in the seedier side of the market area, where you could actually get the good stuff, not the shiny market areas where you take foreign tourists who would be willing to pay a crazy markup to get hard to find items.


    "Wee to the real marketce, Lord Commander. I should have guessed that the humans would be a solid species and not like the fluffy Alliance bureaucrats. There is someone who wants to meet you in the restaurant here, if you have an hour to eat before we shop?" N asked.


    "Sure. I''m not really dressed for a business meeting, but a little bling and I should be good to go." Max agreed, then took a small personal force field out of his t space, and hung it around his neck with the attached gold chain.


    Nico had built one into her body, and it would automatically activate if it sensed a threat, so there was no worry on that front, and if N noticed that they were now wearing armour, she didn''t say anything.


    The restaurant was very nondescript and blended in well with the working-ss surroundings. The kitchen was serving something simr to Kepler Core traditional cuisine, bite sized pieces, mostly deep-fried and intended to be eaten with rice using chopsticks. The scents were unfamiliar, but going by the guests, the dinner etiquette was familiar enough.


    N led them to a table in the corner by the front of the restaurant, out of sight of the windows, and well away from where the other guests were seated.


    The waiter took their order, and N ordered them a pot of tea and the fried flounder, then a few vours of dumplings.


    The first part was the important part. The pot of tea let the waiter know that they wanted a meeting, and the flounder was a big fish. It was a local ck Market signal to bring the boss out to meet a visiting VIP.


    Max sipped at the tea as the ck Market boss in the back looked up their credentials and realized that they were from the Terminus Trading Company, which had numerous dealings with their counterparts already, and even hosted a number of ck Market businesses on their World Ship, while knowing what they were, and who they were operated by.


    That changed the man''s entire attitude. He was responsible for the small market here in the Cherry Resort Business District, but that was nothingpared to the hundreds of billions of credits in deals and the rumour of unregistered Warp Cores that his connections had reported.


    He took the time to change into his finest suit toe out and meet Max and Nico, which startled N. She knew the signal that Max had given her, but nobody had filled her in on his background. She only knew that he was aware of the ck Market, nothing more.


    "Lord and Lady of the Terminus Trading Company, wee to my humble abode. You can call me Alix. The food will be out in just a moment. What brings such illustrious guests to my doorstep today?" The local Boss asked.


    "We had a delivery here for the Resort, and we thought we would do a bit of shopping while we were out. You never know what sort of interesting things you might find when you have an afternoon to explore with a local guide." Max replied with a smile.


    Nico gently pushed N''s mouth closed again, helping the young woman recover from her shock at the Boss''s attitude toward these two.


    "I guess nobody warned you. The Reavers as a whole have excellent rtions with the various trade groups of the Alliance. We specialize in moving goods of all sorts, and some of what we produce isn''t officially licensed for use in the Alliance." Nico whispered to their tour guide.


    The Boss had sharp hearing, and he smirked at her words.


    "That''s one way of putting it. N here is still young, so she hasn''t had the time to study up. These two fine Reavers Command a Company that counts a World Ship and a Colony Ship as well as dozens of Destroyers among their fleet, and they hold Terraforming Agreements with over five hundred worlds." He exined to his young prot¨¦g¨¦.


    "That''s it, that''s where I heard these names before. Terminus Trading Company developed the new Terraforming Array, the one that single-handedly put a half dozen agencies out of business. They''ve sold over five hundred units in thest two years, that''s more than everyone elsebined." She blurted out, a bit louder than intended.


    Fortunately, everyone here worked for the boss, so there were no unauthorized ears in range, but she immediately covered her mouth and looked sheepish.


    "Yes, that''s us." Nico agreed.


    Her smirk wasn''t helping N''sposure, but the waiter saved her from further embarrassment by bringing out the fried fish, along with their dumplings and a whole roasted duck.


    "It''s the house specialty, I hope you enjoy." The chef informed them, then bowed and returned to his kitchen.


    "Oh, crispy duck. I love crispy duck." Nico cheered as she took in the assortment of foods on the table.


    "No need to stand on ceremony with me. Please, eat, and then we can talk about what sort of things you hope to find here today."


    Max popped a soup dumpling into his mouth, letting the broth flow down his throat before biting into the soft steamed meat.


    "We''re just looking for things we haven''t seen before. Unique technologies that we might adapt or redesign, products that do something no other product does. It can take a lot to catch our attention, but we have high hopes for this ce." He replied with a shrug.


    The conversation was quiet for a bit as they ate, but Max knew that the word had been sent out to make sure that any unique items the vendors had were visible when Max and Nico passed by. They had a truly ridiculous amount of ck Market Credits, and a whole afternoon to spend looking.


    As the word spread, Max sensed an increase in malicious thoughts. There was a second faction in the underground markets here that was looking to depose the current boss, and they were hoping that an embarrassment in front of an off-world bigwig would be enough of a blow to his reputation that they could muscle him out without inciting a revolt among his allied businesses.


    He could likely track it down, but that wouldn''t make sense if the current boss was actually as bad at his job as they believed. So, Max chose to give him a chance.


    "I should likely warn you, there is a faction here in your territory that is looking to set you up today. That''s all I have for you right now, but I''m sure your people have more details." Max quietly informed him before raising his hand to order another assortment of dumplings.


    The boss smiled and nodded. "I suspected that they might do something like that. My people should have information to me in a few minutes."


    The dumplings arrived, but no informants did, and even fifteen minutester, none of the underlings that Max assumed should have reported back had been to the restaurant.


    He might have missed the digitalmunications, but he should have sensed the group of them looking for trouble, if they were actually doing their jobs. The boss was thinking the same thing, and he sent out a number of his guards not long after, spreading them out to take the ce of the nted sources who should have reported in by now.


    Max noticed that there was arge force entering the market area, chasing away the actual shoppers and quietly recing some of the shopkeepers, who retreated to the apartments over top of their stores.


    The game was definitely on now, and it would look odd if he waited inside too much longer, now that they were finishing the second round of dumplings.


    "Well, I suppose that it''s time for us to get to shopping. Thank you for your hospitality." Max informed Alix, the local boss, and stood to shake the man''s hand before gesturing for N to lead the way out of the restaurant.


    "It was a pleasure. I do hope I will see you again soon." The boss replied.


    He might need some luck to still be here the next time Max came through, but it was good to keep up your spirits.

 Chapter 1071 1071 Spicy Shopping

    N led Max and Nico out of Alix''s restaurant and into themercial district, where anyone could tell that there was something big about to happen. Everyone was tense, the number of people on the street had plummeted to only those who truly needed something right at this moment, and none of the shopkeepers were making their usual cries, attempting to peddle their wares.


    "This is the single worst coup attempt I''ve ever seen. They''re not being even a little bit sneaky, but they''re not openly attacking, just giving each other time to prepare. What are they doing? Preparing for a Reality TV contract?" Nico muttered to N, which made their guideugh.


    "You shouldn''t joke about that. A lot of people could get hurt today." The young woman whispered back.


    Maxughed. "That''s not the right way to convince Nico. She''s censured entires, Orbital Lanced cities, and even bombarded a world until it cracked. A little turf war in the market is child''s y."


    N shook her head and Nico led them into a shop.


    "I see a thing. I''m not sure what it is, and that intrigues me." She informed them as she led the group out of the streets.


    For Nico to not recognize an item, even from this close, was a rarity. She would normally be able to interface with it from here, and that would tell her exactly what it was.


    But the item in question waspletely unpowered, there wasn''t even a backup battery in it for her to work with, so she had picked it up off the shelf to examine it more closely, and feed it power through her outer shell.


    "Oh, that is an interesting thing. It''s a form ofser sword with a self stabilizing beam containment field that''s like nothing I''ve seen before. We''ve got plenty ofser swords andser torches, but this is pretty cool." She informed them, while the shopkeeper came over to talk to them.


    This shop was one of many that had put trinkets out, hoping to attract attention from the special customers, and it looked like it was going to pay off. The sword wasn''t an expensive thing, usually going for under a thousand credits in damaged shape like this one was, but it was enough for them toe inside and look at his wares.


    "That is a curious item, though not one of the most rare that I have. They were made in the next star system a few thousand years ago, but were discontinued after a new form of deflector shield came into use. I have some other items from the same era if you are interested." He offered, with a gesture toward the back of the store.


    "Certainly. We came out today to find interesting things, and I suspect that if we look around for long enough, we are almost guaranteed to see something interesting." Nico agreed.


    The old shopkeeper snorted in amusement at her understatement. He might not be some bigwig, but he was a ck Market vendor, and he had eyes. There was definitely going to be something interesting happening today.


    Max and Nico wandered around for a few minutes as N got visibly more nervous and the noise outside got a bit louder, down from the silence it had been a few minutes ago.


    "Well, we should move on to the next shop. Perhaps we will see you again, it was a pleasure doing business with you." Max informed the shopkeeper while Nico paid for her purchase.


    "Of course. Would you like a bag for that?" He replied.


    "No need. I have a storage device, courtesy of the Hunters." Nico replied, reminding Max that most species didn''t know that humans had their own.


    Well, any of them that hadn''t been on a human ship anyhow, since he had given them out as gifts to the VIP visitors.


    They stepped outside, and the crowd was beginning to pick up again, but they were all headed in the same direction, and N was urging them to get a move on.


    "Seriously, we should go check out the textiles district, it''s only five minutes away, and it should be much less crowded than here." She was suggesting.


    Nico patted her on the head. "There are still more good things in here. No need to hurry."


    But Max knew Nico was wrong. The shops were all about to close up as the crowd began to surge toward the old boss''s base of operations.


    "I don''t know how to say this nicely, but are you bulletproof? Because I''m not, and I don''t want to be here for this." N retorted.


    "Actually, I am. But alright, we can go to the textiles district next." Nico giggled.


    Max listened to the thoughts in the area as the pedestrian traffic got closer to the restaurant district, and quickly led the other two inside a furniture shop that was about to close their shutter.


    "Sorry about that. You can close up for your break if you like, we will just wait here for the next ten minutes." Max informed the panicked girl working the shop that day.


    "Ten minutes?" She asked, confused.


    "That should do."


    The diversion that had taken the scouts and the majority of Alix''s men away from the area had failed when the boss had sent out the message earlier than expected, and only secondster another mob of people came running by.


    It was the worst-case scenario for the coup. They were about to be boxed in by the boss''s men, and they had dyed too long in getting things going.


    Max settled into a chair to listen to the battle y out in the minds of the participants, while Nico dragged N around the store to take her mind off what was happening outside. She had a good rtionship with Alix, the current boss, but that meant that she was unlikely to get the same treatment from whoever reced him, and things hadn''t been looking good when they left the restaurant.


    She didn''t have Nico''s enhanced senses andbat experience, or Max''s mind reading to tell her what was going on, so she had no idea what team the second group that had run past them were on, or even what was going on around them now that they were in the store with the metal shutters closed.

 Chapter 1072 1072 Subtlety Is Key

    "Oh, someone ising this way. Sounds like the police are doing shop checks. Best get ready for things to get interesting." Max informed the others, then began to pull his Mobile Suit out of the t space storage.


    Nico and N nodded, ready to do their best innocent shoppers act. The furniture here was not a prohibited item, it was just smuggled to skip the duty fees. That was a small crime in the grand scheme of things, and only relevant to purchasers after they tried to leave with the goods.


    So far as anyone knew, Max and Nico hadn''t done anything wrong yet.


    He did check in on their shipment though, and the Replicator units were safely stored in a perfectly legitimate area of the under city, hidden among stored food products, near thepost facility. The iing forces appeared to be theary police, but it looked like they hadn''t caught onto his transaction, but had been alerted by the movement of people in for the battle.


    With the Mobile Suit on, minus the helmet, and a long coat over top of it for fashion, Max looked fairly normal for a Reaver, but definitely stood out in the crowd of tourists up above. Nico was the same way, and N was giving longing looks at their armour.


    "Sorry, we didn''t bring any spares, the storage space is very limited. But I''ve got an extra force field generator you can borrow. If you don''t return it, I''ll put it on the resort''s tab." Nico suggested.


    N smiled and shook her hand. If she couldn''t return the generator, then having it charged back to her boss was thest of her concerns.


    The sounds of the shop checks were getting closer, and Nico turned to Max with an excited look.


    "So, how are we ying this? Personal Cloaking devices, running out the back door, or my personal suggestion: sma Cannons."


    The furniture sales girl looked at her in horror.


    "Tell me she''s joking. My boss will kill me if there''s a gunfight in the store. And a sma Cannon? Where would you even get one of those?" She asked.


    "From my storage space, see? sma Cannon." Nico proudly announced as she took it out and slung therge rifle over her shoulder.


    "Put the gun away. They''re carrying stun batons." Max chastised her.


    A stun baton wouldn''t do anything to Nico even if she wasn''t wearing armour, but the extra ting should make the hits less annoying if the police did get violent.


    The clerk raised her hand. "I vote for option two. There''s an emergency hatch in the floor, and since we''re all closed up, I say that we all exit that way and pretend like we were never here at all."


    "While that doesn''t sound like as much fun as a sma Cannon, I suppose that we can do it that way. If we get out of here in the next 30 seconds, that is." Nico agreed as she tapped into the hidden security cameras to alter the footage.


    From what she could tell, most of the people here didn''t know that they were under surveince the whole time. If they did know, they would have done something to avoid or interfere with the footage, and not just run by. But she couldn''t tell at the moment who was monitoring the footage, so it might have been set by the boss, and they normally didn''t have anything to worry about.


    The store clerk opened a hidden hatch and ushered the trio through, then closed it behind them and sealed it closed.


    "Hopefully, they won''t find that." She whispered as she followed them through the rarely used, dim corridor under the shop.


    "I doubt that they will even look for it. Once they realize that you''re closed for the day, they will move along. They should have thermal imaging scanners with them that can look through the window shutters and see that there is nobody inside." Max replied.


    "I also left the door unlocked. So, if they do force the shutter open, they won''t have to break anything else toe looking for anyone inside the store. My biggest concern is that they''re going to trash the ce out of spite and I will get med for it." She sighed.


    "If your boss gives you trouble, give him our names, and we can square up with him. It will be a lot less hassle if we get out of here smoothly and back to the resort than if we get into a big mess with the police." Max told her with a wink.


    N nodded. "They''re solid. Even Boss Alix had to be nice to them when they came in, so you know that anyone who asks will find out about them fast enough." N agreed.


    "Alright, follow me down this tunnel, and it will take us up into one of the residential districts, then we can hide in a coffee shop or something. Maybe you should change back into tourist outfits though because that''s much more normal here than wearing full-body armour." She informed them.


    Max sensed her amusement as he took off his armour and already had tourist garb underneath, as well as her envy that he had a storage device.


    "Now we should blend in." Nico agreed, shaking out the hem of her dress to hide the fact that she had strapped a pistol to an inner thigh mount.


    "Well, as much as possible. A pair of humans still kind of stands out, you know?" Nughed.


    She gestured to herself, with tight curls of hair, six fingers and rough, almost tree bark skin, then to Nico, who was all cybeically augmented wless Kepler pale skin.


    "What if I modify it so that it looks more like the local, would that work?" Nico suggested as she did exactly that, and altered her shell to match the locals, then tweaked her facial features to add the distinctive cranial ridges and the single red nostril that defined the features of the local poption.


    "Good thinking. One human is much easier to hide," the store clerk agreed, and led them into the streets.


    It was only when they had gone a half dozen blocks and Max couldn''t hide hisughter anymore that she finally noticed that this too was attracting attention.


    One obviously wealthy alien tourist, with three local beauties showing him the sights around town, gathered plenty of envious res as they went, and jealousy from the other women who thought that the three of them hadnded a sugar daddy for the day.


    "Let''s just go get some coffee and a painkiller. This day is giving me a headache." N sighed as she came to the same conclusion.


    So much for her n to help her friends in the shops make some money off the big fish from the human Colony Ship.


    Maxughed and patted her on the head. "It wasn''t a total bust, we got to see a few shops, and you still earned yourmission for the day, since you did get us through the market safely."


    "I just hope it stays that way. Do you have some sort of scanner in your equipment? You seemed pretty confident about what was happening around us." N replied.


    "You could say that. But I''ve also got pretty well-trained senses."

 Chapter 1073 1073 Treasure

    Chapter 1073 1073 Treasure


    The coffee shop that Sill, the ck Market store clerk, found for them was a luxurious and quiet ce, far nicer than Max had expected from the lower levels of a production megacity. That likely meant that they were in the tourist areas, where visitors were brought to see the "Real Sights" of the, but all Max could see and sense nearby were locals.


    He looked around in appreciation, and N chuckled. "Think of this more like a high-ss red-light district. Nobodyes here during the daytime. Once it gets evening up above, the lights here will be dimmed and the shops will really start doing business.


    About this time of day, everyone is just waking up and getting things ready, most of the shops aren''t even open here unless they cater to the workers."


    Maxughed. "So they really do think that you struck it big if I''m still here in the morning. Hopefully, the coffee is good."


    Sill beamed with pride. "I will have you know that my family has it imported directly from the source. It''s one of only six coffee shops on the whole, and I can personally guarantee the freshness. Innu visitors go insane for it, I''m told, but it''s some other alien species that grows it."


    Now it was Nico''s turn to chuckle in amusement. "Coffee is native to the human worlds. We, as in our Terminus Trading Company, are the ones who introduced it to the Innu, and sold them licenses to replicate their own on a limited number of ships. It''s quite possible that the coffee here actuallyes from us, but through a ry from one of our ck Market suppliers."


    Sill froze in her seat and stared back and forth between the two humans.


    "Seriously? You both work for the Reavers? That is so cool." She whispered.


    Nico shook her head and smiled. "You''re not quite there. You see, we don''t work for the Reavers, we ARE the Reavers. That is Commander Keres Max, and I am Commander Nico Tarith of the Terminus Trading Company. Terminus, the Colony Ship after which we named the Reaver Company, is in orbit over the right now, while our guests vacation on this world."


    "You''ve got to be kidding me." Sill gasped.


    Nico brought up the Alliance identification hologram from her watch, which showed her to be a foreign Emissary, along with her name and affiliation. Max thought that the young woman was going to have a heart attack, but she managed to get it together when a finely dressed server brought them their drinks.


    "Sir and madams, your beverages. I can assure you that these are the finest of roasts sourced by our in house barista, directly from the importing agents, ensuring that you will enjoy the freshest blend of coffee avable anywhere on the." The server assured them.


    "Thank you very much. I am certain that such a fine establishment will do justice to a good cup of coffee." Max replied with a smile that made the server blush.


    "It''spletely unfair how good-looking humans are. They don''t even look much like us, but somehow, everyone is just weak to them." N muttered under her breath.


    Nico wrapped a consoling arm around their guide for the day. "Count yourself lucky. Most species think that it''s absolutely terrifying when humans smile at them. So, even if the humans try to be friendly, they only frighten people even more. It''s an odd sensation to be able to freely interact without others having to hide their fear and put on a fake smile."


    Sill could see how this species would be considered terrifying, but she realized that she might have been biased when they contemted whether to pretend to be tourists or to take on theary police with body armour and sma Cannons.


    Nico smiled as she sipped the coffee. "Yep, this is ours. It''s got the replicator signature from Absolution."


    Max nodded. "The taste told me right away that it wasn''t a counterfeit. There are plenty ofs that are trying to brew a tea with the same vour since they don''t want to pay the licensing fees to get real coffee."


    Sill was beaming in pride as the few other patrons heard the human verify that the product here was genuine. They were all workers in the area, but it would help their reputation and would encourage them to bring wealthy guests here if they could be guaranteed that the product wouldn''t be called out as a counterfeit.


    They had the bags of coffee beans in the back to verify, but most of the guests wouldn''t know what they were actually supposed to smell or taste like anyhow, they would have just heard about them from Innu podcasts.


    "How about this, we will give you a certificate of origin for the bags that you have in the back, and you can put it up behind the bar to verify that as of today, your coffee was verified by us? That should go a long way to help your legitimacy as more than a well decorated shop." Max offered.


    "You can do that?" Sill and N asked in unison.


    "Of course we can, we''re the ones who make and sell it in the first ce. If we hade in here, and it had been some knockoff product they were selling, this conversation would have gone very differently." Nicoughed, and Sill was forced to remember that the small woman had a sma Cannon hidden away.


    "In that case, let me call on my Uncle and he will wee you properly. This shop is run by him." Sill announced in a very formal tone, and took out her phone to make a call.


    "There''s no need for that, he''s in the back room right now, taking calls about the chaos in the market." Max informed her, and pointed to the back of the coffee shop.


    "Again, how do you do that? But if he''s here, that makes things much easier. I will be right back."

 Chapter 1074 1074 Rare Treasures

    Chapter 1074 1074 Rare Treasures


    As if talking about him had summoned him, the owner of the shop came out of the back room and immediately spotted Sill sitting and sipping coffee when he knew she should have been at work. A relieved sigh escaped his lips when he knew that she was safely out of the shop before it was raided, and he gathered his wits to see what sort of wealthy man she had brought here so early in the day.


    "Good morning, Uncle, I have brought someone here that I think you should meet. It''s quite important, if you have a minute to talk." Sill greeted him.


    "Of course, if you say it''s important, then I believe you. How do you do, sir? I am Marco, the proprietor of this establishment." Her uncle replied.


    "Good day, Marco. I am Commander Keres Max, head of the Terminus Trading Company, and I had wanted to congratte you on having your intermediary find our finest coffee beans for your shop." Max replied, and Nughed as the man frozen in spot.


    Sill stood and offered her uncle her seat, then picked one off to the side, beside Max instead of in front of him.


    "Yeah, that was our reaction as well. But he''s offered to verify that all of our stock is genuine, and offer us a certificate of origin for them so that we can prove to anyone who asks that our Coffee is the real thing."


    "At what cost?" The shrewd man asked.


    "Your niece did us a favour and got us out of the market without causing any trouble. We will call it even." Max suggested.


    The man beamed at Sill with a familial pride that was unmistakable. She was still young, and working the most basic of jobs, though a good paying one in the ck market, but not only had she managed to escape her first raid unnoticed, but she had brought him a very valuable connection.


    "Then I will dly ept. But perhaps we could also speak a bit of business while you are here. You see, the supply lines tend to get a bit strained after an event like today''s due to the government oversight, and my supplies are limited." He asked hopefully.


    Max nodded. "In this case, you''re in luck. We are authorized to offer you a single unit license to produce our blend of coffee here in your shop, assuming you have a capable replicator, or we can sell you a unit that is capable of making it for yourself."


    The units that they had dropped off for the Resort were a newer generation of units, but they were somewhat limited in their programmed selections to only items that had no copyright or license attached to them, mostly basic foodstuffs that would be resold all over this portion of the. It was expected that they would eventually figure out how to add more items on their own, but no instructions or consoles for the purpose were included in the order.


    It was the Reavers way. If you weren''t capable of hacking into it and programming it yourself, they weren''t going to make it foolproof for every random customer to duplicate anything that they could get their hands on. Especially when that meant they would be able to use the replicator to start making weapons.


    That sort of versatility would be a nightmare for local governments, and they would never have gotten approval for distribution if that was the case.


    "What would it cost for a unit that could handle the coffee for the shop? Perhaps the baked goods too, it''s a nightmare trying to keep a baker for a small shop like this." Marco asked.


    "Well, we have a set price for them, including royalty rates to produce the Reaver blended coffee. But we can also offer you a discount on the unit itself, if you have an item of interest to trade. Reavers love new things, especially ancient relics." Max exined.


    Marco smiled. "In that case, I think I might have just the sort of thing that you are looking for. You see, I''ve never found anything else like it and nobody who has been through my shops can identify it, so I can say for certain that it should be ancient, and it''s certainly rare."


    He got up out of his chair and headed back to his office, leaving them all sitting in the coffee shop.


    It only took him a few minutes to return, holding a small object wrapped in a protective cloth.


    "This is it. Depending on how you look at it, it''s either priceless or worthless, since nobody can tell what it should be, but it''s not natural." He exined.


    Nico took the object from him and began to examine it, turning it over in her hands and even bringing out a portable microscope to help enhance her vision and imnted scanners. She wasn''t sure what it was either, but it was technological.


    Finally, she found a circuit that had some readable data on it, and her expression brightened.


    "You are correct about it being ancient, but I know that there should be someone who recognizes it." She chuckled.


    "Really? Nobody I asked could identify it." He replied.


    "That''s because it''s part of an antique data storage device. The date of manufacture is roughly eighty thousand years ago, but I''m not sure if any of the other circuits have survived the years. This should have been mounted on a Colony Ship or an exploration vessel of the time.


    It is valuable to me, though, mostly because now that I have it, I want to know what was on it. Can you tell me where it was found?"


    "It was discovered by one of the outer exploration teams, about a hundred years ago. That area is now part of the Alliance, but there wasn''t any sign of habitation there when they arrived. So either the colony failed, or the ship was destroyed before makingndfall." Marco shrugged.


    Nico nodded. "Good enough for me to start looking for its origins. I will trade you the unit for your coffee shop for this item. One of my ship''s crew will have it here within fifteen minutes, and we will help you get it installed before we go.


    I''m sure there will be paperwork involved on this one, but I''ve instructed them to limit the replicator''s output, so it looks like it had been designed as a proprietary machine for your business."


    Marco smiled at Nico''s consideration. A single spec proprietary unit was much easier to get through customs than a general replicator, which would have to individually register with the patent office for every item it could theoretically make.


    It would limit his ability to change the menu, but if it could still make the raw materials, he would just have to find a baker again if he wanted to add new items. Meanwhile, the ability to make his own Coffee would pay for itself just in the import fees saved to have it smuggled.


    "Your species really should be known for their business acumen more than their military capability." He praised Nico, who waved off his good intentions.


    "No, our military might definitely trumps our business acumen. It''s just that not everyone gets to experience that firsthand."

 Chapter 1075 1075 It Wasnt Me

    Chapter 1075 1075 It Wasn''t Me


    Right on schedule, the modified Replicator arrived in the coffee shop, delivered by one of their Android crew members, and escorted by a member of the Resort Staff.


    "Commander, the unit has been created as instructed, and modified for the local power frequencies and outlets." The android informed them politely.


    "Thank you very much, you can return to the ship if there are no other outside tasks on your list." Nico replied, and handily lifted therge crate off the machine, shocking the surrounding diners.


    They fell silent as she carried therge metal machine over her head to get past the counter and then into the back room, where she began reorganizing to make space for the new addition.


    "Should we send someone to help her?" Marcus asked hesitantly as he heard the sound of Nico whistling and metal furniture banging in the back room.


    "Give it a minute. We don''t want them to get injured or traumatized. She will have the room reorganized to her liking soon, and then you can change it back after she leaves if it''s not up to your requirements." Max chuckled as Nico considered if it would be better to modify the deep fryer to better fit in the spot she wanted it.


    With a sudden sense of urgency, Max sensed that arge group was approaching the coffee shop, looking for him and Nico. It seemed that the police suspected them of something, but these officers didn''t know what, only that they were ordered to detain them for questioning.


    The concern in Max''s mind was that someone knew about his abilities, and they had done that deliberately to avoid having his mind reading pick up on the approaching officers until they were too close to be avoided.


    "It seems that we will have guests in just a moment. A police brigade." Max whispered to Marco.


    He nodded his head toward the back room, sending N and his niece back to meet with Nico while Max arranged the transfer and import fees documents in between them. Terminus Trading Company had a partial tax exemption as the patent holder for most import fees, but the paperwork still needed to be signed to make it official, and for the ountants to ensure the proper amounts were transferred.


    [Nico, have you fixed the camera footage?] Max asked as the officers got closer.


    [They have us on camera from when we left the basement of the bordello and came to the coffee shop. They have nothing before that, as I already cleared our presence from the earlier scenes. I think they''re going on a hunch, not hard footage. Do you know what they suspect us of?] She replied.


    [I''m guessing smuggling. But they won''t have gotten that on camera anyhow. They also haven''t found the Replicators that we dropped off, I am tracking the thoughts of the ones looking after the shipment, and nobody has been caught watching them.] Max informed her.


    [Alright, give me a second, and I''ll make some new scenes for us leaving the ship with N. I will make it look like we left straight to the entry from the ck Market, and went into that business, then I will leave the actual footage from there on, since they likely have a hard copy by now.]


    That was sure to cause its own misunderstandings, but Max could handle that on his own if they asked about the situation.


    Nico came back out after installing the replicator, looking like herself again, and took a seat between Max and Marcus at the low table they had chosen.


    "Thirty seconds. We should get this paperwork signed before they arrive, so they can''t use us of trying to dodge responsibility." Max instructed the coffee shop owner with a nod to the stack of papers between them.


    As soon as his signature was on the page, Nico made a digital copy and filed it along with their Alliance customs ount number with theary officials, making the deal official and legitimate, paid in full.


    The door burst open, and a squad of ten police officers in the same riot gear that the ones invading the ck Market had been wearing rushed to cover the room, frightening all the customers, and surrounding the table where Max was sitting.


    "Commander Keres Max, you are hereby being detained as an essory to the mass murder of government forces within the zone known as the ck Market." The leader of the unit informed them.


    "I''m afraid that I don''t know where that is, and I have been otherwise upied this morning, I haven''t had an opportunity to kill anyone today. Thank you for your concern, but you can go now." Max replied.


    A few of the guests snickered at his irreverent treatment of the police, then quickly went silent when the other officers red at them.


    "Sir, we will have to ask you toe with us." The officer demanded.


    "First, I require the identity of the person or persons who sent you to execute this arrest warrant. Publicly ndering a foreign Emissary is a serious crime, and I have the right to clear my name." Max demanded.


    That caught the attention of everyone in the shop, and murmuring about how someone had tried to bite off more than they could chew when they went after an Emissary circted.


    Much to the officers'' annoyance, someone outside had heard the promation, and they were gathering a crowd to watch as the local police tried to take down a foreign emissary in a coffee shop.


    That was not how things were done. If you could openly go after foreign politicians in the street, the system would copse. Nobody would feel safe enough toe here without armed guards, much less for a rxing vacation, if they could just have the police turned on them without evidence.


    "Sir, we have evidence." The officer continued, certain that he was correct.


    "Then please, disy it for the crowd." Max insisted.


    The man brought out a holographic disy, and an officer at the door did the same, while Nico smirked.


    The footage showed them leaving the tform with N, and then there was nothing for over an hour, before they were spotted againing out of a brothel.


    The crowd in the street burst intoughter at the fake normal act that the group had put on as they entered the recorded areas of the street. Without context, it looked like they had seen a man and two womenughing as they left the resort, then the same man happily swaggering with three women out of a brothel over an hourter.


    "OY! I ain''t so sure that sort of beating it up is a crime!" Someone in the street shouted.


    The officer red out the open doorway for an instant, then turned back to Max.


    Maxughed as he gestured to the footage, which now showed them entering the coffee shop.


    "That''s your evidence to arrest me for a murder? Oh, I''ve got to hear more. Tell me, do we have bodies from the brothel? Humans are known for their impressive stamina, but an hour surely shouldn''t be long enough to be fatal, even if you had nted a government official in there.


    No, you said it was a mass murder, right? Now I am really looking forward to the footage. I think that it would sell very well to raise money for the victim''s family." Max announced, loud enough that the crowd outside could hear him.

 Chapter 1076 1076 Under Arrest

    Chapter 1076 1076 Under Arrest


    "Sir, we will have to ask you toe peacefully to the station with us. We will use force if necessary." The officer demanded again.


    Max slowly got to his feet and nodded to Marcus.


    "Enjoy your purchase, sir. It seems that there has been some misunderstanding about the nature of my business on this. I will apany these fine gentlemen and get it cleared right up."


    They hadn''t mentioned Nico at all, so they likely had no idea who he was, only that he had entered the tunnel that they knew was used to get to the ck Market. From theck of information, they had likely only discovered that fact after the raid, or they would have named more people, like Nico and N.


    Nico remained seated, looking like the picture of innocence in her cute dress, and N was still in the back room where the boss had sent her as Max apanied the police out of the room.


    "Hey, look at this, boys. I heard the policeman say that the muscled alien banged a government agent pretending to be a hooker so hard it killed her." Someone in the street was shouting as he was escorted out, and Max did his best not tough.


    He couldn''t have asked for a better setup in a scriptededy show, and the police were making bigger and bigger fools of themselves by the second. It would only get worse when they had to release him and Max went to a very public party at the resort on the surface.


    In fact, he was considering inviting the coffee shop owner and some of the patrons to the party, so they could spread the good word that he was released and y up the situation for the local news.


    They had just reached the District 14009 Police Station when the guards escorting him suddenly stopped and turned their weapons on him. They were all stun weapons, not a threat to the portable force field that he was wearing, but they were still in public, with a crowd gathered.


    "Sir, it has juste to our attention that Reavers are known to travel armed as a matter of Religious Symbolism. Are you carrying a weapon on you right now?" The officer demanded.


    "Of course. Would you like for me to turn it over?" Max replied.


    He had two storage devices on him. One built into the dog tags on his neck, and one in his wrist device. Both contained weapons, but his body armour was in the dog tags.


    "Please do. We will issue you with a receipt for them and hold the weapons until you are released."


    Max nodded and took the biodegradableser rifle out of his wrist device and handed it to the officer. Then he followed with a sma Pistol, and abat knife, then an Ion Rifle, and finally the sma Cannon.


    The look on the officer''s face was every bit as amusing as Max had hoped that it would be, and the crowd was staring at them all in shock as the officer held an armload of military ordinance.


    "That should about cover it." Max informed him.


    "You take this much firepower with you on vacation?" The officer asked, as he mentally questioned their policy of letting VIP vessels in without a prior scan.


    "I take this much firepower into the bath with me. The storage device is waterproof." Max replied.


    The officer sighed and gestured for Max to hand it over.


    "How about we just put everything away and stop making a spectacle? It is a secure device, by Alliance regtions, so I am quite sure that my belongings will be safe inside. It''s also tracked, so it won''t go missing." Max suggested.


    "You should have told me that from the start." The officer snarled at him.


    "You didn''t ask. And in case you forgot, you''ve been sent to arrest me on tantly false charges, so my need to amuse myself outweighs everything else until someone in charge arrives."


    The officer sighed, and didn''t resist as Max loaded the weapons back into storage and then turned over his wrist device to the lead officer.


    "There you go, safe and sound. Very few hackers in the Alliance would be able to get into that device when I''m not wearing it." He announced, loud enough that those around wouldn''t get any ideas about rushing the small group of officers to take it.


    The group marched into the station and past the check-in counter to the interview rooms, a series of in concrete cubicles with a metal table and two chairs, all bolted to the ground, set in them, and a one-way mirror on one wall.


    "Please wait here, someone will be with you shortly."


    Max sat quietly and listened to the thoughts of everyone in the building, but didn''t find anything nearby. The orders must havee from somewhere else on the, and there were too many people for Max to sort through in time to find the answers he needed.


    He could tell that the district supervisor was already here, and not happy that they had allowed the arrest to turn into a public spectacle. The supervisor had just learned about Max''s status, and that his species wasn''t part of the Alliance, so arresting one of them on a major charge was a very delicate matter that really shouldn''t have been done so tantly.


    If they had waited until he was back at the resort, they could have done it quietly and not made a fuss at all.


    But worse, there was supposed to be solid evidence, but the supervisor hadn''t found anything at all.


    There had indeed been an intense gang war in the ck Market, and quite a few of his officers had been killed, but there was absolutely nothing linking the humans to the incident, other than the fact that they had entered a tunnel that could lead to a spot near the local ck Market leader''s shop.


    He checked the order, and it hade from a government official, but the timing of it looked suspicious. It took time to get those orders through, and this one had been approved over an hour ago, less than ten minutes after the first casualties had been suffered in the fighting.


    If he had to guess, the official was corrupt, and this human was being framed. That likely meant that the humans were working with the ck Market and the losing side wanted revenge, but there was no evidence for him to use against the official themselves.


    The Supervisor, whose natural form was that of a Metalloid, a liquid metal species much like the slimes, sighed and turned to go interrogate their prisoner, in case he gave up something that would help in the case.


    He opened the door and Max perked up at the familiar sight.


    "Oh, I know you. No, you''re not them, you just look like it. My mistake, your appearance caught me off guard." Max greeted the supervisor.


    "Understandable. We''re not the best at humanoid forms, and we generally use a standard set of features when assuming a humanoid form, so many of us look alike." The supervisor replied.


    "No need to stress yourself on my ount. You can shift back if you prefer. But if you have a bit of spare credit, look up the assisted living bodysuits that are being marketed by the Innu under a limited use patent. They were developed in conjunction with my species, and they will allow you to keep a humanoid form without any stress, as they look like standard clothing but are actually a stiff mobility suit with electric actuators." Max suggested.


    "Oh, that does sound good, but you won''t get me sidetracked so easily. Now, what can you tell me about the incident in the ck Market district?" The supervisor asked.


    "The stop where I spent about an hour after heading below the surface? I swear nobody was dead when I left, in fact, any of the three lovelydies who apanied me for coffee can vouch for the fact that I did no harm while I was there. It was all strictly consensual." Max replied with a smirk.


    It took the supervisor a moment to realize what Max was talking about, then his features blurred as his annoyance at the situation distracted him too much to hold his form. If he seriously had to question a human about their sexual exploits, he was going to ask for a raise before the end of the day.


    "Not that. The raid on the ck Market that led to the death of a number ofary security officers." The supervisor replied in the most stern voice he could.


    "Sorry, I wasn''t here for that. I justnded this morning." Max replied.


    This was clearly getting him nowhere, the supervisor decided, switching tactics.


    "Do you know this woman?" He asked, bringing up an image of N.


    "Yes, quite well by now, I would say." Max agreed.


    "So, you know that she is one of the best known guides for tours of the seedier side of the underground, and that she specializes in the ck Market shopping needs of wealthy customers."


    Max shook his head. "I know that she has a smiley face tattoo on each of her inner thighs."


    The supervisorpletely lost his form for a second before recovering.


    "Why do I get the feeling that we''re not on the same topic?" He asked.


    "Probably because we aren''t. But since I wasn''t there, and I have no idea what you''re talking about, I''m just doing the best I can to provide additional information for your records."

 Chapter 1077 1077 Intervention

    Chapter 1077 1077 Intervention


    It was bing clear to the Supervisor that this interview was going nowhere, but before the evening news aired, he was going to have to get some solid evidence one way or the other. Too many people had seen and recorded the incident, and the man in front of him had gotten clearance to take his own personal yacht to the surface of the Business District without a search.


    "Supervisor, can we speak for a moment?" A demanding voice asked from outside the door.


    Max rxed in his seat. The cavalry had arrived.


    Theary Governor had sent someone to the resort to wee all the VIP guests from Terminus, only to find that the Commander had been arrested and was being questioned at that moment. It was already public knowledge, and it was turning into a scandal when they were trying to keep the disaster in the ck Market under wraps.


    The old boss had upheld his territory, and had managed to turn things around into a heavy purge of those who were supposed to be loyal to him. But that had cost the lives of dozens of police who had been caught in the crossfire.


    Why anyone had tried to put the me on the humans was anyone''s guess, but if he had to wager, he would say that they likely hadn''t been in the brothel, and they had visited the boss before the battle to give him a warning.


    Those who had backed the losing side were in a rage right now, and in danger of being outed as traitors after the police who had been sent in to clean up had been killed instead.


    It was a huge mess, and he needed answers.


    The two stepped into another of the soundproof rooms, and the official thumped his hands on the table in frustration.


    "Alright, I know the basics. I know who sent the police after Commander Max, I know who set him up with his guide, and I know the time frame. But there are some things I don''t know if your department knew before they went along with it.


    Did you know that he''s got a Diplomatic Identification Card, issued by the Central Government?"


    The Supervisor shook his head. "I didn''t ask, he had been identified and brought here before I found out."


    "Alright, then did you know that his Colony Ship is militarized? Even though it''s ostensibly a cruise ship, Terminus carries an entire armoured Battalion on board, and has weapons capable of breaching ourary defences."


    The Supervisor lost his form again in shock, a new personal record for him in one single day.


    "They can do what? No, nobody told me that. It''s a cruise ship, not a warship." He stammered, unable to speak clearly when he was having trouble holding his form.


    "Alright, let''s start with the simple things, who thought it would be a good idea to make a public spectacle in a coffee shop while he was doing official business? They filed a tax payment form only two minutes before your men entered, and I have footage of the shipment being delivered ten minutes before that."


    The Supervisor knew that things had gone from bad to worse for his department now. The only solid evidence showed him gettingid and then going to a business meeting at a coffee shop.


    Then he realized that Coffee was a human product to begin with. They had raided during an official business meeting on his first day on the. There wasn''t much more of a cover the man could ask for at this point.


    "This is farked." The supervisor sighed.


    "You''re telling me. Now we need to smooth all of this over and hope that the humans don''t hold a grudge because they''ve got over a hundred thousand tourists from their ship here on the, and ns to return twice a year."


    If there was one thing that the politicians liked, it was money, and a quarter million wealthy tourists a year was a big deal.


    The Government official sighed and continued. "Do you think that we can convince him to downy the issue? I''ve been looking into the data on humans, and they don''t look like the sort of people you want to have angry at you. Seriously, they y beyond dirty. Look at this listing ofpanies they''ve crushed in trade wars over thest year. That''s just one year."


    The supervisor looked at the names and frowned. He had heard about some of these in the news. The copses of theirpanies had copsed multipleary economies. He read them through twice, then simply decided to voice his honest opinion.


    "We''ve been set up. It was never about trying to get him in jail. Someone in the government upset someone important, and they are setting us up for a trade war with the humans. They''ve got the money and the power, plus the ess to patents, they could crush us. If they wanted to, they could own our without much of an issue, just by buying out the resorts.


    I think that the killings never mattered, they were part of the setup, and this mess would have happened anyhow. There is a traitor in the government with the power to set the police on foreigners without being questioned." The Supervisor replied.


    "That''s my thought as well. I don''t know why, or who they''re working for, but we''re the fall guys in this power y, and I''m not putting up with it." The Government Official agreed.


    "But what do we do about it?" The police supervisor asked.


    "We smooth it over as well as we can, and then I ask for intervention. My brother-inw''s cousin is a clerk in the Envoy department. I''m going to have him put in a request for the Envoys to the humans to try to smooth things over for us.


    The data says that they have a dedicated team, since there are so manypaniesining that the humans are stepping on their toes with all this new technology that they are releasing.


    Speaking of that, did you notice what they delivered to the coffee shop?"


    The Police Supervisor looked at the documents in shock. "A proprietary pattern Coffee Shop model Replicator? Holy crap, how did that guy get the backing of the Reavers. With that, he can legally im that he''s selling authentic goods from the humans. It will be the biggest sensation in the business quarter when the word gets out."


    Max ryed that information to Nico, and made sure that she had input a number of human snacks and coffee shop items, as well as what the shop used to sell. If they were going to treat him as an official human shop, then it was only right that he served actual human cuisine.


    [Got it. We''re already working on a deal to get more cool stuff here. Some of it for us and some of it from us. Turns out our coffee man is a huge history nerd, and he''s got all sorts of connections to various antique dealers.] Nico replied.


    [Perfect. Make sure that we get the heads-up on any interesting artifacts thate in while we''re out searching. Even if we can''t pick them up right away, then at least get us the details, in case they help our search.]

 Chapter 1078 1078 Free To GO

    Chapter 1078 1078 Free To GO


    Max waited patiently in the interrogation room as the two senior officers urgently discussed what was going on, and how they were going to make it go away without starting an even bigger issue.


    "Why don''t we just tell him that it was an attempted political power y and plead for understanding? He seemed pretty reasonable and amused by the situation. He even handed the arresting officer his storage device because it was easier than giving him all the weapons inside individually." The Supervisor suggested.


    "Alright, we can try talking to him directly, but if this blows up in our face, understand that I will be holding you personally responsible." The Government Official agreed.


    "What''s new." The supervisor grumbled as he got to his feet and worked on his speech to try to get Max to forgive and forget this whole incident.


    But how was he supposed to even start?


    [Hey, sorry we called you a murderer in public, can you just let this one slide?]


    While that was likely to make the muscr humanugh, it probably wouldn''t work out all that well.


    But how else could he even put it? This was not his area of expertise, he had be supervisor because he was outstanding at collecting evidence, not because of his skills in the interview room. Technically, that wasn''t even supposed to be part of his job, but the only certified interrogator in their office was off today.


    Reluctantly, he stepped back into the interrogation office and prepared for the worst.


    "Mister Keres, I would like to extend our most sincere apologies for today''s incident." He began.


    "Max. My given name is Keres, Max is my family name, so it''s formal to call me Max, or Commander Max." Max exined, just messing with the man a little, since watching him lose his shape when he got nervous was so amusing.


    "Yes, very sorry, Commander Max. As I was hoping to say, I apologize for the incident today, there was an attempt to leverage the incident in the lower city today for political gain, and we discovered toote that they were attempting to use you, and your Terminus Trading Company, as leverage to try to destroy business agreements between their political opponents." The Metallos police supervisor stammered.


    "So, they sent in the police report and framed me for the incident? That is understandable, your men can''t just let a suspected murderer run around the city." Max agreed with a nod.


    "So, we were hoping that with a formal apology, and a reimbursement of visitor andnding fees, that perhaps this incident might be forgiven?" He asked hopefully.


    "You are too high-strung. I knew from the start that they weren''t going to be able to pin a murder charge on me. Rx a little, and I''m certain that we can clear up the misunderstanding." Max replied.


    The man''s liquid metal form reshaped happily for a second and then froze.


    "You have no intention of clearing up any misunderstandings, do you?" He asked.


    "That''s not really my job. But what I can do is go out there and assure the crowd that is still gathered at your doors with news cameras that all the residents of the brothel are alive and well, and that there was no murdermitted there today."


    "You know that doesn''t make us look any better, but if that''s your condition, I will agree." The police supervisor sighed.


    "You know, picking on you is no fun if you make it this easy. You''re supposed to make a counteroffer."


    The morphable shape copsed again in shock and Max chuckled.


    "Tell you what, I will inform the crowd that it was all a mistake and that it''s under investigation by the authorities, so I can''t talk about it. How is that? That covers my reputation, it covers your department, and it allows you a chance toe up with an actual decent exnation." Max offered.


    Once he had recovered his form, the supervisor nodded happily. "Yes, that will work. I think it might even be enough to keep my job. Your people really aren''t going to retaliate, right?"


    Max smiled and patted him on the head. "Don''t be silly. Of course, we are. But not against you. I''m sure they''re at least halfway to finding out what faction tried to set me up, and then they will deal with them directly."


    The supervisor waved his hands, which were turning to tentacles in his panic. "No, the Government Official wanted me to get your agreement not to retaliate against the. They''re afraid that you''ll start a trade war."


    [Nico, how is the search for whoever provided today''s entertainment going?] Max asked before he responded.


    [Pretty good. As suspected, it''s the leadership group of the failed coup attempt. They''re pretty pissed off that we informed the old boss about their ns in advance. They took pretty heavy casualties, and the politicians who backed them are in a tight spot.] Nico replied.


    [Put the politicians on st on the news. Leak everything from the corruption charges to affairs on their wives and the kids they bullied in elementary school. Then pin the murder of the cops on them and call it good.] Max ordered.


    [Give me ten minutes, I''ve got everything but their school records. Oh, there''s some good stuff in here. Did you know that the top official backing this one had to have his parents pay off his grammar school to not fail him?]


    [That sounds like a lot. Get the important stuff out now. Then ruin his familyter.] Max informed her, while the supervisor got extremely nervous about the smile spreading across his face.


    "Sorry about that, private message. But my people assure me that things are just about taken care of already, so if you''re ready to return my belongings, we can head out. I''ve lost my guide, I believe, so if you wouldn''t mind escorting me back to the resort, I would appreciate it."


    "Of course. Was your escort from the Cherry Resort?" He asked.


    "Yes, one of the supervisor''s daughters or something. We met up with her friend as well, a very sweet girl. That''s how I learned that there are actual coffee shops in this world. We were just finishing up a deal when your men came in." Max agreed.


    They stepped out of the room, and the Government Official met them in the hallway with an expectant look.


    Max patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "Don''t worry, the supervisor exined the situation to me quite well, and I don''t hold it against the police department at all, they were just doing their jobs. I will give a nice speech about how it''s all a misunderstanding and still under investigation as I leave, and we will go back to the resort for the evening."


    "Oh, that is better news than I had dared to hope for. Please ept my apologies for the inconvenience, and I will make sure that your guests here on the are treated to the finest of experiences." The official replied.


    "Excellent, thank you. I am certain that they will appreciate your hospitality."


    A bit of entertainment for the afternoon and a package upgrade for the guests. All in all, being arrested wasn''t that bad.

 Chapter 1079 1079 Trolling? Me? Never.

    Chapter 1079 1079 Trolling? Me? Never.


    Max stepped out of the police station with the government official at his side and waved to the assembled crowd of news reporters and curious onlookers, who were all eager to find out what had happened that led to the foreign dignitary being arrested.


    Max raised his voice to be heard above the crowd. "Thank you all for waiting, and know that I appreciate your support. This entire situation was onerge misunderstanding, and I can assure you that there were no fatalities involved in my outing today.


    The situation is still under investigation by the local police, and those responsible for spreading malicious rumours are being actively pursued, but I have been cleared of any wrongdoing, and will be returning to the Cherry Resort for an evening of entertainment."


    The crowd cheered, and then the reporters began shouting questions.


    "Commander, who were the women that you were seen with?" One of them yelled.


    "One was my Sumander, while the other two are local guides, who showed us around town and introduced us to a fine coffee shop this morning. We have signed an official trade agreement with them, by the way, and provided a proprietary replicator, so they will be able to provide authentic Reaver Blend Coffee and snacks."


    The Government Official resisted the urge to facepalm at the shameless business plug during an interview that had started out being about a murder case, but it looked like Max had managed to divert their attention from the debacle of him being publicly arrested.


    "Does that mean that your cruise ship will be returning here on a regr basis?" Another of the reporters called out.


    "Yes. We are tentatively scheduled to visit here twice a year, and with average volumes, we should have roughly a hundred thousand guestsing to the surface with each visit, as well as a number of our crew who are given shore leave." Max agreed.


    "Is it true what they say about humans?" The reporter asked with a suggestive wiggle of her hips that made the other reportersugh.


    "Humans evolved as persistence hunters. Our ancestors would chase their prey down for entire days if necessary until they were too tired to keep running. It allowed us to be the dominant life form on a with manyrger and more powerful predators. While it has been a long time since that was necessary for survival, humans do have much more stamina than most species." Max replied with a straight face.


    "Are they really as open-minded as the Innu suggested in their podcast?" A Valkia reporter asked.


    "Which podcast do you mean? The one run by the Tech Nomads on our vessel?"


    The slender Valkia man nodded. "That''s the one. They''re hugely famous, even here. So, is it true?"


    Max smirked. "Why don''t you approach a singledy and ask? If you''re lucky, she might even massage your wings and condition your feathers before you go."


    The man''s face went nearly as red as the feathers on his wings, and the other reporters began tough.


    "Humans really are a strange species. Thank you for your time, Commander." A local reporter giggled as Max started to walk into the crowd, shaking hands and waving to friendly faces further back, while the Government Official followed behind him.


    Once they were free of the crowd, the Official stepped up to match Max''s pace and gave him a stern look.


    "You know, joking like that could lead to harassment of your species by those with an alien species fetish." He reminded Max.


    "Oh, trust me. Humans are fully capable of taking care of themselves. I''m more worried about what the children might look like. I''m told by the Central Government medics that there are dozens of species that humans are capable of hybridization with." Max shrugged.


    It was no secret aboard the ship that the humans often flirted with the Innu girls, it was just human nature. They could and would pack bond with nearly any living thing, and once they were pack bonded, flirting became part of normal daily conversation, even if they weren''t serious about it.


    The concept of locker room talk had horrified some species when they first learned about it, but for the most part, they had adapted to the human soldiers and their crude sense of humour.


    They were most of the way back to the surface exit that would take them to the Cherry Resort when Nico arrived with N and Sill.


    Nico linked arms with Max while N smirked at him and Sill blushed.


    "That was quite the interview you gave. It''s all over every singlework, and all they can talk about is Reaver culture, humans and all the inventions that you have introduced to the Alliance. I don''t think that they even remember that the day started out with a scandal." N informed him.


    "Then our work here is done. As long as nobody is using us of showing up and killing people, or some other nefarious scheme, it''s all good." Max replied with a smile.


    They returned to the surface through the same ramp that the cargo crew had taken the shipment of Replicators through, and the crew of the resort was waiting there to wee them back.


    "We''re d to have you back, sir. Please ept our apologies for the inconvenience, such a thing should have never happened to a guest of our Cherry Resort." The General Manager greeted them as they reached thending tform.


    "No worries, Manager Wu. It''s all been exined to me by the Official here, who has agreed to spend the evening enjoying the parties at the Resort and smoothing over any misconceptions that have developed due to the unfortunate situation earlier." Max announced, while the shocked Official stared at him.


    Since when had he agreed to spend a whole evening at a resort party? Sure, it was his job to try to control the narrative and ensure that there wasn''t any bacsh against theary government and their interests, but the resort parties were notoriously wild, with hundreds of species of corporate representatives unwinding in the most luxurious ways that they could afford.


    He was just a lower bureaucrat, he couldn''t afford the cover charge here, much less a whole night of partying. He wasn''t even sure that he could get that much money approved on his business spending ount.


    Nico leaned over to whisper in his ear when she noticed the panicked look on the man''s face.


    "Don''t worry about it. We will cover all the charges, just make us look good in front of the crowds, and it will all be smoothed over by morning."


    The Official heard the implied threat in her tone, and wondered just how much the humans already knew about the situation and what they might have done about it that made her so sure it would be solved by morning, but if they were paying, he couldn''t get out of being their PR person for the day.


    Not after everything that had happened already.


    "Alright, let''s join the festivities. It looks like the resort goers have been waiting for you to return. There are some familiar faces here as well, should I introduce you to them?" He whispered back to Nico, with a gesture to the closest group of dignitaries.


    "Not those ones, they came here with us. But the ones that we don''t know, I would appreciate your help with." Nico agreed, firmly entrenching his position as her patsy for the night.


    She had big ns, and he was going to help her meet all the right people.

 Chapter 1080 1080 To Make A Problem Disappear

    Chapter 1080 1080 To Make A Problem Disappear


    They were four drinks into the evening festivities, and both Sill and the Government Official were beginning to get a bit tipsy when the first wave of Nico''s revenge hit the airwaves that evening.


    [Breaking news. A confidential source has sent us damning evidence that a senior government official attempted to send a team of mercenaries to force out shop owners in the Business District, starting the events that led to a brutal gunfight withary police.


    We have in our possession a series of electronicmunications, including bank transfers, that verify the alleged corruption case. Our reporters are on scene at his home, we will cut to them now.] The news broadcast above the bar announced.


    Everyone nearby had turned to watch as the distinctive ''breaking news'' logo came up on the screen, and many of them were requesting the documents on their data tes and other devices, so they could see for themselves what the news had uncovered. The official next to Max turned to see if he had anything to do with it, but Max was watching the screen, looking intent on not missing anything, though he already knew what had happened, and was more focused on the thoughts of the man whose face was in the small disy while the screen showed the exterior of his home.


    Only a few minutester, a woman and three kids came running out, screaming and crying, a touching scene for the news cameras, who didn''t know what had happened yet.


    Then only seconds after they came outside, multiple police vans and an ambnce arrived, pushing through the reporters and storming into the building.


    [I don''t think he took the news well.] Max informed Nico.


    [Don''t worry, They''ve got a top-notch security system, I reactivated the healing protocols, and he should be just fine once he''s out of surgery.]


    "Turn on channel 107 on the other screen. Tonight has gone crazy." One of the guests shouted.


    The bartenderplied without question, used to random demands by wealthy customers, but it wasn''t a sports game that they wanted to be turned on this time, another senior politician was being pped in public by a young woman, who had a child in a stroller behind her.


    [Initial reports say that he has refused to pay child support for the love child with his mistress. What caused today''s scene is unknown, but sources report that he might be linked to the leaked documents on government corruption that came out just minutes ago.] The subtitles read.


    The Government Official looked at Max and Nico in horror. There was no way that any documents could have been leaked, their security was much too tight for that. The thief would have been caught in milliseconds, long before they had a chance to transfer the documents to a news organization.


    "What did you do?" He whispered to the two human Commanders, who didn''t look the least bit surprised.


    "Why would we need to do anything? We run a tradingpany with an annual profit margin ten times the GDP of mosts. We don''t have to do anything for half the Alliance to try to get into our good books. Give it a few days, and I''m sure that everyone involved in the situation will have their dirtyundry on prime-time news." Nico replied with her best professional smile.


    The Official sighed, and his work phone dinged with an iing text message informing him that an unregistered spacecraft had just left the atmosphere with an unknown number of upants and immediately went to warp after passing through the''s main portal.


    "So, some are named and shamed on the news, some have fled, and I suspect that even more will suddenly go missing over the next few weeks as more information spreads. It looks like framing you for some murders is only the tip of the iceberg." He sighed.


    "But on the bright side, it''s not your problem tonight. Look how easy it''s gotten to make sure nobody thinks we got special treatment by the government." Max consoled him.


    "Honestly, I doubt that anyone will even remember that you were involved by the time that morning rolls around. Political scandals simply don''t happen here, and two in one day, one of which nearly ended in a high-ranking official''s self-inflicted death, is practically the scandal of the century." He replied with a roll of his eyes.


    Nico smiled and pulled him to his feet.


    "In that case, we need to dance. Sill, do you know how to dance? This one looks easy, you can just follow along with the crowd."


    "I''ve never danced a day in my life." Sill admitted.


    "That''s fine. I bet we can find you a teacher. How about you? Would you like to teach this lovely young shopkeeper how to dance?" Nico asked one of the guests at the bar next to them.


    The young man blushed, and his single nostril red in lust as he saw the lovely young woman in front of him, and Max chuckled at Nico''s attempt at matchmaking. Sill worked at a ck Market furniture shop, and her family ran a coffee shop, while the man in front of her owned a nearby resort, worth hundreds of billions of credits.


    It was something like a Cindere story, only this Cindere would normally have never received an invitation to the ball.


    "Of course, how could I turn down ady in need?" He replied, taking her hand and leading Sill off to the dance floor.


    "Now, let''s dance." Nicoughed as she dragged the hapless official onto the floor, leaving Max and N to trail behind them.


    "She''s remarkably confident, isn''t she?" N asked as they reached the dance floor.


    "Nico takes exactly what she wants. Plus, she never gets tired, so she can dance all night. There is no way I could keep up with that level of energy, so I just let her do her thing, and then I''ll find herter in the evening when she gets bored and starts getting creative." Maxughed.


    While the five of them enjoyed an evening of dancing and drinks, halfway across the at the resorts that had been booked for the majority of the guests aboard Terminus, thousands of confused human soldiers who hadn''t been watching the news while they were on vacation found that they were suddenly very popr with the locals and the other guests alike.


    Not only that, but everyone had been upgraded to the all-inclusive VIP package, and the resorts were going all out to make sure they had the time of their lives. They had no idea why they suddenly rated such great treatment, but they would never say no to a free upgrade.


    It was only the next day at breakfast that they saw the reys of the news from the Business District and realized that Commander Max had been putting in the good word for humanity, and pushing their coffee business, which made the Innu among the vacationers inordinately happy. There wasn''t a coffee shop in the resorts that they were staying at, but there might be soon.


    After all, a caffeinated Innu was a happy Innu.

 Chapter 1081 1081 Applicant

    Chapter 1081 1081 Applicant


    The next morning, Max woke up to Nico ordering room service, and the sound of numerous voices inside their suite. He had gone to bed a fair bit earlier than she had, at only four in the morning, but the clocks said that it was now almost noon.


    Not a bad night''s sleep, but he wasn''t sure how much everyone else had gotten. They were all half awake and still most definitely on the drunk side of hungover afterst night''s festivities.


    Most of them had only passed out here after the sun hade up, and it was thete morning heat that had awakened them. Breakfast was Nico''s method of apology for tricking them into overindulgingst night, but from what Max could tell, they all had a good time.


    So good that they couldn''t even make it up to their rooms.


    After quickly getting dressed in his vacation casual best, Max stepped out to join the breakfast assembly, which consisted of a catered buffet on the patio outside their room, between them and the pool. It was overkill, but the scent of food was getting all the guests moving again so that they could actually get to the business that they hade here to negotiate.


    This was also part of a businessman''s qualifications. If you couldn''t hold your liquor, you would be at a disadvantage every day after the first, so they got very good at recovering from hangovers in any way that their species found appropriate.


    For some, that was as little as hydrating, downing an entire gallon of water to flush out their system. For others, it was moreplex, and they even went as far as calling on the Resort''s healing services. But for Max, it was just a nice greasy te of breakfast with mystery meat sausages and a half dozen fried eggs, served with toast.


    All around him the guests were nning which meetings to try to push forward, and which to push back so that they could gain maximum benefit from the current state of those they were doing business with, but there were a few who had been here a while already and had finished their work, so they were nning to rx by the pool.


    That was Max''s destination for the day, as he had no intentions of doing anything productive on this. He had worked two small deals already, and that was enough for a vacation.


    Nico had other ns for her day. She hadn''t had enough fun with the conspiratorsst night, and she still had entire files of shameful secrets that she could and would share with the world, just to make sure that they knew they messed with the wrong person.


    Of course, most of them weren''t going to understand which person was the wrong person to mess with, as so many people had taken a fall in thest day, but that wasn''t going to stop Nico from making sure that she had her fun before they left.


    It wouldn''t really help the hidden corruption on the, but it would help keep it limited to just thepetent ones, which was an improvement in Max''s mind. If you are going to abuse your power, you should at least understand your limits beforehand.


    Max had just stretched out on the lounge chair when a shadow fell over him, making him open his eyes to acknowledge their presence.


    It was a willowy Dryad girl, and Max was certain it was a girl, not an adult woman going by her thoughts, smiling down at him.


    "Good morning, anything that I can help you with today?" He asked politely to the curious nature lover.


    She looked around cautiously, then whispered, "Are you hiring?"


    Max looked deep into her thoughts, past the surfaceyer he usually read, and pulled more details from her mind. She was working for apany in the lower levels to pay off her parents'' debt, but somehow, the amount owed never seemed to go down, no matter how many hours she worked. So, she had snuck out today before her shift and came to the resort to see if she could find better work with the rich clients here.


    She wasn''t sure at first who she should ask, but someone had mentioned that the humans had a World Tree on their ship, and that was enough that she was determined to get a job from Max, or find a way to stow away on his ship until they were out of the system, and it was toote to send her back.


    Even if she got a short jail term and some work detail as a stowaway, how would that be worse than eternally working to pay off a debt? Plus, they had a world tree. Just getting to see it would be enough to fulfill her bucket list.


    "I think that we could use a new hire or two. What sort of experience do you have?" Max asked, testing her people skills.


    "I have been a Sous Chef at an international cuisine restaurant for thest three years, I can fix most sorts of dishes, but I specialize in pastries. I also work the evening buffet, serving the private rooms, and I have extensive knowledge of the local wines, as well as some foreign vintages." She quietly but proudly responded.


    "Not bad, guests always need good advice on wine to go with new dishes. Do you learn quickly? Most of the food on our cruise ship will be new to you." Max asked, already knowing the answer.


    "That''s fine, I learn quickly, and I have a taste for many different kinds of nts, as all Dryads do. I''m not as good with meat-based dishes, but I learn them quickly." She replied.


    "Alright,e into my suite and I will work on a way to get you off world. Do you have your documents?" Max asked.


    "As a matter of fact, I do." She beamed, and showed Max her Alliance passport.


    The document was still warm from the printers, and her memories told Max that she had picked it up from a shop in the ck Market under an hour ago. It also said that she was about ten years older than she actually was, but the photo seemed to be hers, and ording to his scan, the document was legitimate, so he could plead innocent if there were any questions about her leaving the.


    There were nows preventing them from leaving to work, that was all left to the hiring party being willing to take on a foreign worker. They just had to be old enough.


    She was, even if she had given Max her real identification, she was legally old enough to work, both by Alliance and Reaver standards, so he escorted her back to the secondary door that led to the office in his suite, then flipped the switch that would soundproof the room and mark it as in a business meeting to the staff so that they wouldn''t be disturbed.


    "Alright, the n is fairly simple. We''re going to be here for a few days, but I will make you disappear into my ship today, before anyone reports you missing. I have a security specialist with me that will be able to take care of the details, and you just need to wait a few days in the Commander''s suite aboard my yacht. Is that alright by you?" Max asked.


    The Dryad nodded rapidly, wanting to make sure that she had agreed before he could change his mind. There was a visit with a World Tree at stake here.

 Chapter 1082 1082 Relaxation

    Chapter 1082 1082 Rxation


    Max contacted Nico as soon as the talk with their new Dryad was over, and arranged for her to eliminate the footage of the girling to the Resort, as well as the uing footage of her taking the girl to the yacht.


    Someone might remember if it were him, since he already had one questionable incident on his visit to the, but if it was Nico, that was just a tour of the yacht, and nobody would think anything of it.


    [No problem, I''ll take care of this right away. I just need to make a good excuse before we go so that it doesn''t make anyone think we''re doing something shady. Do you have a spare outfit? She''s kind of tall and slender, but if we change her clothing to look like a Reaver, that should let everyone know that she''s one of us. It will look much more natural than having someone in local clothes go aboard.] Nico suggested.


    [Alright, I should have something handy in storage.] Max agreed, then looked over their new hire to determine what in his wardrobe might actually stay on her frame.


    Like trees, Dryads were extremely tall and slender, and despite being taller than Nico to the top of her head, and taller than Max to the top of her branch-like hair, Max could nearly wrap both hands around the girl''s torso.


    Her hands were long and spindly as well, but he didn''t need to get her gloves, they weren''t trying to pretend that she wasn''t a Dryad, just make it clear that she was a Reaver employee.


    There weren''t all that many options that would work, due to her narrow shoulders, but Max did find one option. There was a tunic shirt in his inventory that Nico liked to wear as nightwear, and it hung to her knees. On the Dryad, it would be a fashionable dress if he paired it with a belt and the pants she was already wearing.


    Being bright red linen, with gold embroidery, it wouldn''t be mistaken for something that a local would wear, so it should be a good enough disguise to get her to the yacht.


    "I need you to put this on so that you look more like one of our people, and then we will get you to our ship without anyone saying anything." Max exined as he handed her the shirt.


    "Am I going to a party? Or is it just because we''re at a resort and there was a partyst night? Oh, you''re good, like the walk of shame that I''ve heard about." She giggled.


    "Oh, that''s a good cover. I''ll pass that along." Maxughed.


    [Hey Nico, she is thinking of a walk of shame cover. Should we send some androids here to bring us stuff, and then she can go back with them? A little tweak to the n, but it will get her aboard without too many questions.] Max suggested.


    [That works too. I will make sure that she''s hiding in our cabin, so that the other guests don''t notice her too early. All the rooms were full when we descended.] Nico agreed.


    A member of the android staff from the ship showed up only a few minutester, carrying an armload of boxes, which they set on the bed and promptly opened.


    "Sumander Nico ordered a coat and some ribbons for our new crew member. Will you allow me to help you dress, Miss?" The android asked.


    The Dryad girl looked at the android with great confusion. "What are you? Even the Metallos and the other slime species show signs of life, but I can''t sense any from you."


    The android smiled at her. "I am a sentient artificial construct, Miss. I am not alive in the sense that you think, but I am an adaptive intelligence."


    Her eyes lit up with excitement, and the android took that as permission to dress her in the coat that Nico had ordered, ck with red embroidery to contrast with the shirt, and then tied bright ribbons in the branches above her head, braiding and weaving them to make streamers and give her a festive party look.


    "There you go, Miss. Look in the mirror and let me know what you think." The android informed her.


    "I''m so pretty. Look at my branches. Oh, that is lovely, who taught you to do that?" She asked.


    "There are other Dryads aboard Terminus, Miss. It is a popr essory when they are going to a festival or party."


    Maxughed as the young dryad peppered the android with questions, and waved his hand toward the door.


    "Take her back to the yacht, and make sure that she''s safely in my cabin before any of the guests board at the end of our trip. Other than that, she just needs to stay out of sight." Max informed the synthetic crewman.


    "Understood Commander. We will be waiting."


    The two of them left the room and rejoined the other three that were outside the room, helping the staff of the resort organize the mass of tes left over after the breakfast service. In the chaos of the cleanup, Max was reasonably sure that nobody had noticed that they had sent one extra dryad back to the ship along with the androids.


    [Mission aplished. Thanks for the assistance. Care to join me at the pool? I think I will swim a fewps then rx for a while.] Max messaged Nico.


    [I will join you in an hour or two. I found an interesting thing, and I want to convince its owner to part with it.] She replied happily.


    The thing in question was a crystal decanter with a small cooling device set into it that would keep drinks at a perfect temperature. There were other versions of the technology avable, but something about the way that this particr one was made had caught Nico''s attention, and she had already started her mission to obtain one.


    So, Max stepped out of the room in his swimwear and dove into the deeper of the hotel pools to leisurely swim a fewps, keeping up a bit of exercise even onzy days, and then called for one of the Resort''s signature fruit smoothies and some snacks while he rxed in the shade.


    This was precisely the sort of rxing day that he needed.

 Chapter 1083 1083 A Good Lead

    Chapter 1083 1083 A Good Lead


    The next few days were easy and rxing ones for Max, but Nico had set herself on a mission. She was determined to find more obscure relics in this world, and she had sent out dozens of messengers to scan rare items that were for sale and verify their authenticity and origin. Only a few had met her standards, but that was enough that Nico spent most of her time studying shiny objects, while Max spent his time either lounging by the pool or going on jogs through the artificial parks, looking for the elusive winged lizards that Nico wanted to see.


    Once he found some, he would call her over, but they were excellent at hiding in the thick forests, and overhead orbital scans had very little luck tracking them.


    Nobody seemed to really know how many of them there were on the, only that they still existed in what passed for the wild between the resorts, but Max was certain that he could track some of them down.


    That was what he was doing on thest full day they were scheduled to stay on the. He had sighted the beasts a few times before, but they vanished before he could track them, and today he had a solid lead on where their nest should be.


    Once he got close to the nest, he should have an excellent chance of locating the animals for long enough to get good footage or even call Nico over to see them for herself, and that would be a definite win for him.


    As he jogged through the trees, a sh of colour caught his attention, and Max turned off to follow the creature, not directly behind it, but keeping it in sight. They had a good sense of danger, and being followed would make them disappear into the trees canopies, where he couldn''t urately track the cold-blooded creatures.


    After a few minutes, he saw a second brightly coloured wing, then a third, the most that he had seen in a single day so far.


    It wasn''t quite enough, as he hadn''t gotten a solid sighting of a whole creature to scan, so he didn''t have anything to report back for Nico to studyter. But then an azure blue scaled body darted down out of the trees at him, and Max paused, letting the scanners built into his sunsses record every detail about the creature.


    It seemed startled that Max stopped and didn''t try to avoid its swooping attack, and pulled away only centimetres from his head to circle around and squawk at him from the branches nearby.


    Max just waited to see what it would do, and messaged for Nico toe to him, but to be as silent as possible so that she didn''t scare the creature away.


    Again the flying lizard swooped at him, but this time it circled around him at about a metre''s distance, observing him with a curious gaze that reminded Max of a house cat. It was certainly somewhat intelligent and curious as it darted around in the air near Max.


    Then a second one, with scales that were more teal than azure, joined the first, and they seemed to argue in the trees for a bit before they both flew down to observe Max.


    Nico was closing fast, using her full speed, but Max knew that she would stop when she was a few hundred metres away so that she wasn''t noticed. She had ess to his scans already, so she knew what was going on as Max watched the creatures argue about him.


    The second one flew off before Nico got close, but the first remained, just sitting on a branch and watching Max from a distance.


    [I think that I have an idea. I''m going to use a perfume that smells like a mix of Dryad and Treefolk, and that might convince them that I''m not a threat. I will approach as cautiously as possible.] Nico informed Max as the stalemate continued.


    She began to make her way carefully through the trees toe stand by Max when the second lizard reappeared, and darted straight down out of the tree tond on her head and stare at Max.


    Nico did her best to avoidughing at the situation, as the perfume had made them assume she was absolutely zero threat, but the lizard began toin when she got ten metres from Max, bumping her head with its muzzle until she stopped walking.


    "I think they like me." She informed him, with amusement heavy in her voice.


    "I can''t argue with that. They''ve decided that you make a good perch, and that''s basically unheard of for them. I''m told that it''s nearly impossible to catch them without gassing an area to make them sleep while you look for them.


    Their biology is incredible, they''re built like most birds, hollow bones and incredibly dense bones, but they carry ayer of fat on them for energy storage. That''s what gives their skin that wrinkly look. It doesn''t shrink as they burn energy, but the fat burns off and decreases their size." She exined, while the lizard on her head continued to stare at Max.


    Nico reached up to pet the creature''s head, and the cautious noises turned to happy noises before it crawled down her to sit on her left arm, so she could pet it with her right.


    The one in the tree looked jealous, but it wasn''t willing toe down and get close to Max, so it was out of luck.


    Eventually, the two creatures got bored and flew away, leaving Max and Nico to walk back to the Resort together, happily chatting about their find for the day, and the relics that Nico had managed to recover.


    In the morning, they would be returning to Absolution to wait for thest of their tourists to make it home, but they had aplished everything that they came here for. It would give them a lot of projects to sort through as they travelled betweens that were likely to bepletely barren, only suited to entertaining the tourists.


    They had gotten some solid details about likely sites though, worlds that either ancient battles had urred at, or ones where rumours said there should be an extinct poption. Either of those should give them some leads about the history of the far reaches of space.

 Chapter 1084 1084 Round Them Up

    Chapter 1084 1084 Round Them Up


    The group of VIP travellers that hade down to the surface with Max and Nico all gathered at breakfast the next morning, ready to get onto the next experience on their itinerary, while the staff of the Resort helped their butlers load the luggage.


    By his count, Max wasn''t the only one that was gaining staff members here on the, though it was possible that some of them were actually Mistresses, or "Company" for the trip and not new employees.


    It was far from umon for those with money to pick up attractive young followers when they were on vacation, so Max wouldn''t say anything about it as long as there were no nefarious ns going on.


    The android Pilot of the yacht came over three hours after breakfast with his report.


    "Commander, all the guests are on board, along with five additions. All documents are checked and there are no wanted felons or fugitives on board. We are ready to depart when you are. Commander Nico is already on board, giving fashion tips to the dryad girl in your suite." The android informed him.


    "Thank you. Let''s get back up to the ship. The shuttles from the other resorts should start arriving soon, and the staff will want us there to deal with any issues they have." Max agreed, and followed him back to the Santa Maria.


    They got clearance to leave the surface the instant that they requested it, and air traffic control even rerouted other vessels so that they would have a clear path up to Terminus. It might only have been because they wanted him gone before there could be any more incidents involving the humans and the possible takeover of their, but Max knew that the damage was already done, and the scandal was only a very minor part of it.


    Once they heard that the cruise ship would being here as a regr attraction, both Reaver operated resort groups and Innu operated ones had moved quickly to buy up some of the resorts on this world. The requests to change venue for their next visit were already waiting on Max''s desk, and the ink on the sale documents was likely still drying.


    Even if they could only secure a small portion of the ship''s guests, just being on the list would guarantee them full upancy for a few weeks out of the year, and that was the sort of major client that resorts thrived on.


    Between big guests like Terminus and the major holidays, the resorts covered their base expenses, with the slower times making up the profit and renovations.


    But that was a concern for the logistics staff who organized all the off ship excursions. Max was more concerned about making sure that all the students who had used their time off to go to the surface made it back on board.


    A regr paying guest missing the ship would be an inconvenience, but one of the underage students being left behind would a hit to their reputation, and so far, the Terminus Academy had an impable record, and a long string of academic victories since their inception.


    It was a bit unfair, as they had cherry-picked so many top students from around the Alliance to attend, but even then, the quality of the teachers and teaching methods mattered when they werepeting against other elite academies.


    The number of challenges that they had faced in academic contests was a bit shocking, but when you considered that the challenging team, or at least its senior staff, would be staying in the cruise ship section for the week that the events were going on, it wasn''t quite as surprising that other wealthy Academies were more than happy to have a contest with the students of Terminus Academy.


    [How is the loading going?] Max asked the staff in charge of recording arrivals when thest shuttle for the day was scheduled to have been unloaded.


    [We still have seventeen unounted for, including a group of four students that, we think, might have snuck into a speakeasy with falsified identification. We have sent one of our own shuttles to the surface to gather thest stragglers and make sure they make it home.


    Their luggage and any Terminus issued electronic devices are trackable, so we have confidence that we will have them back on board tonight.]


    [Thank you. Please let me know if we have to send security staff to recover anyone. Kidnappings on resort worlds aren''t unheard of.] Max agreed.


    The security team would love that. They had practised for the situation many times in the past, but Max didn''t recall a time when anyone had actually kidnapped a guest from the ship.


    To the security team''s great disappointment, over the course of the next hour, all thegging guests were picked up. Most of them were at the shuttle ports, and had just pushed their luck a bit too far when trying to make it there for thest shuttle.


    Possibly more than a bit, as thest shuttle had left thirty minutes after its scheduled time due to traffic congestion, so those who were left behind had missed it by more than that.


    As expected, the missing students had gone to an underground casino and speakeasy and had lost track of time in the windowless environment. The Academy had auto-dimming artificial lighting outside the buildings, so it looked like there was an actual sunrise and sunset, but the lower levels didn''t have that advantage, and they had no problem letting a bunch of rich kids empty their pockets onto the gambling tables.


    [Commander, thest of our guests are on their way back. Should we make aint about underage gambling?] The shuttle pilot asked once they had all the guests secured.


    [Don''t worry about it. No harm, no foul. They''ll learn well enough by the money they lost. I''m assuming that they all lost?] Max replied.


    [Except one Reaver girl. She''s up by nearly seven hundred thousand credits.] The pilot confirmed.


    Max couldn''t help butugh out loud. Either she had a system function that helped with gambling, or she had the devil''s own luck to have won that much money from one of the many rigged casinos.


    Well, it was possible that they were using her as bait and setting her up to win to give the others hope, but since they were off world now, the way she won didn''t matter as much. The group of truants would likely be denied a shore leave the next time the ship stopped here, and have to take their vacation days aboard the ship.


    Max went to the cargo bay where the shuttle wasnding to chastise those who had held up the departure, and take a look at their lucky winner. When he arrived, Headmistress Medusa was already there, along with the school''s dean of discipline, arge Valkia man who looked like he might have one Giant as a parent.


    As far as the intimidation factor went, he had it.


    The students did their best to blend into the thoroughly chastised crowd leaving the shuttle, but there were only a little over a dozen people, and they were four of them. The crowd was far from enough to hide from the wrath of their teachers.


    "What do you have to say for yourselves?" The Dean of Discipline asked the returning students.


    "We''re very sorry, sir. We didn''t intend to miss the shuttle and inconvenience everyone." They apologized in unison.


    "Not bad, well rehearsed, good tenor, even cadence. Butpletely disingenuous. You''ll have to do better than that if you want me to lighten your penalty for truancy." He informed them.


    "Truancy? Sir, we''re back on time, even if it was an inconvenience. We can reimburse for the fees. I can''t have another truancy count on my record." One of the students pleaded.


    "It is now four minutes past midnight, Academy time. You are two hours past lights out. That is a truant return to the Academy." The Dean informed them.


    Now they knew that they were in trouble. Out after lights out was seldom forgiven by the strict administrator.


    When he saw that they had no more excuses, he nodded happily. He hated lies and prevarication. It was best to just apologize and ept punishment with him.


    "Alright, each of you will serve a discharged punishment. Dorm hallway cleaning duty for two weeks, and then the truancy count will be removed from your record. If you fail, it will be a month, and you will keep the count." He informed them.


    "Thank you, Dean. We will do our best."

 Chapter 1085 1085 Desolation

    <h4>Chapter 1085 1085 Destion</h4>


    [Portal process will begin in three minutes. Please conclude allary calls andmunications, as interster rates will apply after the transfer. Thank you.] The inte informed the residents of Terminus.


    They were headed for the first possible dig site, a well outside of Alliance Territory that an ancient probe had suggested might have either ancient ruins, or particrly unique geography, but no signs of life at all, not even nt life, though the world was in the habitable belt of its star.


    Of course, the human definition of "Habitable" was much more broad than many species considered it to be, but most species had adapted to hot or cold climates, and not both.


    The cruise ship gently moved through the portal, and then opened a second one to more precisely reach their destination, now that the star system was more clearly within their sensor range.


    The region wasn''t properly mapped, so they had first travelled to an open region of space, with a miniscule chance of running into anyrge debris, a simple precaution that also helped give the guests a wide-angle view of the region before they arrived.


    [Wee, honoured guests, to the DM213 star system. As you have been informed, the duration of our stay here will dependrgely on what we find down below. If there are any traces of previous habitation, we will extend our stay here up to one month while the experts and students take their time excavating and studying the remnants of a previously unknown civilization.] The ship''s announcer informed them.


    Cheering resounded through the hallways of the mighty cruise ship at the news that they might find something on their very first stop, and Terminus manoeuvred into a lowary orbit, so they would circle the and repeatedly scan the surface for any anomalies.


    The below them waspletely, strangely white. White enough that Max thought the sensors were incorrect and this was not a hot, but a snow-covered one.


    There was no sign of any oceans though, and the sensors showed very little water, so the surface below them should be a desert. A white sand desert that covered an entire.


    The first thing that Max checked was to see if the sand was actually dead coral. Many white sand beaches were made of crushed coral, bleached by the sun, and if this used to be a watery world, it would be a possibility.


    But, the results indicated that this was ultra-fine silica sand, which would be even softer under the feet, so if the final atmospheric results were positive, they might be able to actually allow guests down to the surface for a limited time during the morning orter afternoon when the sand wasn''t as hot.


    In short, even if there was nothing here to see, this ce had promise as a tourist destination, where they could let guests dig in the sand with no threats of alien viruses or hostile life forms. It might not be ethical to lie to the guests about the chances of finding something, but a little exaggeration wouldn''t hurt, and it would keep them entertained.


    [Anything good so far?] Max asked Nico after the shippleted its first full circle of the a few hourster.


    [Actually, there are seven spots with possible anomalies. We have four with dense collections of rare metals. That could be signs of a ruin or a gold mine, and three where we have found what looks like square cut stone where the sand has blown clear.


    That might be natural breakage, but it could be a sign of previous settlement.]


    Nico sent him the data and Max smiled.


    Seven good spots where they could send the research teams and students to look for relics. That was significantly better than he had hoped for. Even if they didn''t find anything, it was enough to convince everyone that they weren''t wasting their time.


    [Do we have a preference for where to send the experienced teams first and where to send the casuals?] Max asked as he continued to analyze the data.


    [Send the professionals to site three, the sand dune with a stone cliff. That one has a decent chance of being an ancient pyramid, and to site five, it''s a rare mineral site, but it''s in a rocky area that might give more answers than sorting through the sand.] Nico decided.


    [Alright, I will get right on it and prep the teams forndfall. You prepare the cruise ship staff for the sendoff event.] Max quickly agreed, switching their usual roles to give himself the easy one.


    [I see what you did there. Have them ready in thirty minutes, I will prepare a coge for the screens so that the guests can see what the options are and where we have chosen to go first.]


    And that was why he had chosen Nico to do the job. She was great at preparing entertainment on a short notice.


    Max sent out the messages to get everyone into theirnding shuttles, and sent a group of probes to the surface filled with camera drones so that the guests could get a better 3D view of the work zones once the teams had begun their work.


    The drones would also ry more detailed information back to the researchers and the Command Staff of Terminus, who could use it to guide further ns, including how many more people were sent down to the to either y in the sand or get actual work done.


    [Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our preliminary dig sites identified, so we present to you the seven location short list. Each of these locations has shown promising anomalous readings to our sensors, but only two will be on the first day''s itinerary.] The ship''s public disys were informing the guests as the dig teams headed for the.


    [Thending process will begin in forty seconds. Please note how thebination of gravity generators and sprayed water work together to prevent blowing sand from blinding the workers in the station. The fine sand is quite susceptible to being blown around by any wind, so workers will have to wear masks while they work to keep it out of their mouth and nose.


    Most have chosen a full environmental suit, as the has no natural vegetation to rebnce any disturbances to the atmosphere, and our goal as a cruise ship is to leave as little adverse impact as possible.]


    The announcements went on and on, but what Max was focused on was the thoughts of the crews that had just reached the surface.


    [Move Terminus into a geostationary orbit in between the work locations and send out a dronework to get us a full satellite data feed. We''re going to be here a while.] he ordered.


    The crew moved quickly toply, and the additional data feeds rapidly came online, giving him a proper view of the whole, and the ability to individually zoom in on the details that he found interesting.


    The reason for this was simple. There was one identifiable written word on the stone at site three.


    Destion.

 Chapter 1086 1086 The Search Is On

    <h4>Chapter 1086 1086 The Search Is On</h4>


    It was better than they could have ever hoped to find on the very first that they visited.


    Even one simple word was enough to prove that someone had been here before, and that someone had been here long enough to leave traces. It was an archaic script, but theputer still recognized it well enough to trante it, though if they found more writing, they might find that it was only a simr ancient script and their initial trantion was wrong.


    For now, the guests on the ship were unaware of the development, and the fact that something had been found so easily would be kept from them for a while so that they didn''t start rumours that the whole trip was staged.


    The level of coincidence was too high. Finding a sign in the first seconds of the search of an alien was trillions to one odd favouring good luck.


    The search of the other site was the one being features on the screens aboard the ship right now, as they had started right away by movingrge amounts of sand out of the way to expose more bare rock and check for the source of the rare mineral readings.


    That was the sort ofrge-scale activity that the crowd could get into, and the sand was sifted as it was moved so that they didn''t miss out on anything that might be hiding in it, like small metal relics, or even bits of a destroyed starship.


    That was one of the possibilities that the ship''s announcer had mentioned to the guests, the chance that a malfunctioning Portal or Warp Drive might have left a crippled ship stranded all the way out here, where it could have crashnded on the.


    It wasn''t a frequent event, but with millions of inhabited worlds in the Alliance, it happened a few times a year that ships would crash somewhere obscure and a search for them would have to be instituted.


    That was even how the humans had ended up on such good terms with the Alliance. They had found a group of adventurous students who had gone to explore the Klems, under the very mistaken assumption that an insect species would be friendly.


    They had ended up with a damaged Warp Drive and had been rescued by Max and his crew, which slowly snowballed into full-blown cooperation between the two factions.


    But not everywhere that a stranded ship ended up would be inhabited, much less inhabited by a friendly species.


    The talk of a crashed ship was getting the crowd worked up aboard Terminus. In every restaurant, pub and coffee shop, the talk was that the rare minerals and strange sightings might be the signs of a ship that had broken up in orbit over the and crashed here.


    If it were from the Alliance, this would be a huge find, the end to the mystery of a lost ship, but if it was an unknown species from outside the Alliance, that would be even better.


    Not many of them stopped to think that just because the wasn''t suitable for habitation now didn''t mean it never was. Desertification was a known natural phenomenon, especially whens were raided for liquid water before the advent of Replicators.


    The humans remembered because they knew the process very well, and Replicators hade into their possession during this generation.


    While the crowd was focused on the dig site in the sand, the team at the cliff face was busy excavating the sand and using ground prating radar to search for buried and hidden caverns. If someone had carved a word into the stone, they might have found shelter here, and a cave seemed like the most probable form of longer-term shelter.


    But after five hours of searching, digging and scanning, there was nothing to be found except the single word carved into the weathered stone.


    The stone face was solid all the way down to bedrock, so the marking wasn''t above a doorway or a cavern. Perhaps whoever had carved it had only been passing by, or there was some otherndmark hidden under the sand that they hadn''t found yet.


    The teams would be analyzing the radar scans for the next few days to see if there was something promising there, like a former oasis or the remains of a building.


    It might have even been the location of a crashed drop pod, but they would have to scan arger area in high definition to locate the remains of an ancient drop pod that had been filled with sand.


    The other site was much more entertaining to watch, and they had found a few curious objects in the sand that had the interest levels of the guests raised.


    None of them were actual relics, but there was a blob of Duratanium alloy, which wasmonly used in ship building, found among the soft sand, and the way that the announcer had yed up the small ball of rare alloyed metal was enough to get everyone eagerly waiting for news of a shipwreck on the.


    The workers couldn''t go all night though, and slowly the scene turned to the most beautiful crimson sunset, with the light of therge red star filtered through the blowing sand of this empty world, before fading to dark and returning the enthralled upants of Terminus to their regrly scheduled evening entertainment.


    Max could tell that this was the best call they could have made in their journey to find lost worlds. The people loved it, and the social media feeds were going insane from finding just a single blob of melted metal that didn''t belong there.


    It could havee from anywhere, even floated there from a space battle a hundred thousand years earlier, but the hopeful posts were getting hundreds of thousands of responses, and attracting even more positive attention for Terminus.


    In two days, they would be sending down some of the senior students from the Academy to help out, and that was what many of the guests were waiting for. A real opportunity to see their precious children studying among an ancient relic dig site on an unmapped.


    You couldn''t get better bragging rights than that. At least, not easily.

 Chapter 1087 1087 Send the Students

    Chapter 1087 1087 Send the Students


    The morning hade for the students to head to the surface, and the team at the cliff face had actually found something that would exin the writing on the wall, or so they thought. There was a small shard of crystal among the sand near the base of the cliff that they had sorted through, and it appeared to be a transmitter crystal from an Alliance escape pod.


    The size andposition both matched, and though this one was fairly weathered, they were working on the theory that this might well have been a crash site from an Alliance exploration ship.


    The deepest regions of space were treacherous, and there was no telling what they might havee across during a long journey into deep space. Sending a portal required exact sensor readings, and the Alliance had developed high warp ratio ships long before portals, so they had explored that way, which inevitably led to a few unknown incidents when the exploration vessels encountered new phenomenon.


    The workers who were at the rare mineral site had the same thought. The materials that they had found were consistent with an emergency pod, so the remains here might be a handful of survivors from an ident, who found a nearly habitable world with no surface water to speak of.


    But that would be perfect for the rest of the day''s missions.


    There were a total of ten shuttles headed to the surface today, set to investigate five different potential sites. Each had a team of students on board, along with a teacher supervisor, two security officers from Terminus to look after the equipment, and a Pilot.


    The crowds were gathering in the hallways two hours before the drops were set to start, so early that the usual breakfast spots had only started to set up the morning buffets, and Max had joined Nico to attend a viewing party on the promenade.


    That was where most of the parents had chosen to gather to watch their children on their first away mission, and they had high hopes for a miraculous breakthrough that would revolutionize some aspect of society.


    It waspletely unrealistic, of course, but that was the joy of being a parent. You could wish and hope for your child to grow up to do anything.


    Most of what had been found hadn''t been revealed to the public, just a few bits of melted metal, and the one likelymunications crystal, but showing them an ancientmunications crystal was enough to get the Innu parents on the verge of going into a frenzy over their children''s chances to find something amazing, and that dragged all the other parents into their excitement as well.


    So, at six in the morning, when any reasonable person would be asleep, and the shuttles left for the surface, Max found himself exining the safety aspects of their shuttles to a hundred assorted billionaires.


    "The shields can run off both the main drive energy generators and the secondary power system, so even should the drives fail, the retro thrusters and the protective shielding around the shuttle will remain active and bring it to a safending.


    In addition to that, the capacitors for the gravity ting have a ten-minute reserve, and in the case of an engine offnding, that energy can be redeployed either to the thrusters, or to create an external gravity bubble, counteracting the gravity of the they arending on.


    lights¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm However, there has yet to be an incident in which this design of main engine has suffered a catastrophic failure. Even in initial testing, they were extremely stable, and the design was refined to be nearlypletely foolproof before it was instituted as the main engine of the shuttles." Max exined to the concerned parents as the shuttles hurtled toward the ground.


    "What would happen if the shielding failed?" One of the parents asked.


    Nico smiled and patted her on the shoulder.


    "The paint would burn off the exterior hull of the ship, the internal temperature would climb by nearly ten degrees Celsius unless someone adjusted the climate control, and they would have to wait up to an hour to disembark afternding while the hull cooled."


    The parents looked startled. "That''s it?"


    Nico nodded. "That''s it. These shuttles are designed tond safely with even one single system left online. In fact, the controls can be manually operated if necessary, and the shuttle can glide in for a belly downnding on soft surfaces or water. The hull strength is high enough to survive that without major damage, though waterndings can be tricky if there is no power at all."


    "Oh, how so?"


    Nico put on her best smile and brought up a hologram of the shuttle.


    "You see, the waternding won''t destroy the vessel, but if youe in at an angle, it will take some time to slow the entry speed and allow the shuttle''s natural buoyancy to return it to the surface. Without any power, the internal air pressure will want to adapt to the external pressure being applied to the atmospheric system.


    So, if the vessel is not powered, it is poorly suited to deep-sea diving. The medical kit on board should treat any cases of the bends that the upants might suffer in such a situation, but between the impact with the water and the pain of the rapid change in atmospheric pressure, it would not be a pleasant experience, though it would likely not be fatal.


    Only an uncontrolled impact with a solid object would surpass the fatality threshold, but as you can see, there are numerous redundant systems."


    Max could tell that some of the more paranoid were still concerned, so he created a worst-case scenario to show them how a full loss of power situation would end, with the shuttle pilot using the manual controls to send the wedge shaped shuttles gliding across the sand harmlessly.


    "Here, this is the scene from the training scenario. It''s never happened in real life, as the odds are in the trillions to one, but we have trained the pilots how tond on sand or simr surfaces with just the shuttle''s aerodynamics." He exined as he distributed the short scene.


    "Thank you Commander, that really helps. Do we have any way to know if there are issues on our children''s shuttles?" One of the parents replied.


    "Of course. If you bring up the personal data for your child, there is a transport category in the readings, and that will show you any active alerts from the shuttle that they are in, as well as their environmental suit.


    Out of an abundance of caution, due to the nature of the blowing sand, all the students will be working in the suits. None of them suffer from asthma rted illnesses, or have dust allergies, but you can never be too safe." Max replied.


    There was only one active alert among the ten shuttles, and that was for one agoraphobic student who appeared to have fainted after looking out the shuttle''s front window. They weren''t harmed, but they had been hyperventting until recently, and their heart rate was still elevated while they sat in a seat near the rear of the shuttle.

 Chapter 1088 1088 Field Trip Monitors

    Chapter 1088 1088 Field Trip Monitors


    "Commander, can you tell us about your first trip into space?" One of the parents asked eagerly.


    Nico chuckled, and Max smiled at the memory.


    "After they have allnded and started to work, it''s a good story, and I don''t want to distract from current events," he agreed.


    The shuttles were down into the lower atmosphere already, and headed straight for their chosennding spots. They would set up right away, then do a quick scan before breakfast and make a n for where they would work first, based on the initial readings that they had taken.


    Compared to the professionals, it would be much slower and more methodical, as they needed to write reports for their ss work as they went, but that would also help keep their parents entertained for the next few days while they were here.


    Unless something amazing was found, they would only be here a week, and then they would move on to the next identified. There was a lot of ground to cover, and their time was sure to be limited by whatever the Great Enemy was nning, as well as the schedules of the parents.


    They might be fantastically wealthy, but even a month away from their responsibilities was a long time to be working remotely.


    The crowd was fairly quiet for the next hour, watching as the students left the shuttles in pairs and began to make notes about the scans they were taking of the area. There might not be much to find, but that just made the discovery stage that much more important. If they were excavating known ruins, they would just need to search for the relics that might be left among the rubble and fill.


    But in a scenario like this, they couldn''t just dig down until they got to the old city, there might be nothing at all here to find except a few bits of shipwreck.


    When the discovery portion of the day was done and the students went to eat and make their ns, the parents turned back to Max to get his story.


    "Alright, we have to hear it. We heard that you used to be a soldier, is that true?" One of the mothers asked.


    "Indeed it is, and that even rtes to the story of my first time in space in a way.


    lights¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm You see, I was still a student at the Academy when I was called up to active duty. Like many of your children, I excelled at my studies, and I had finished my qualifying earlier than usual. So, when this story begins, I had just finished my training for the initial stage of our Corvette ss Mecha pilot qualifications.


    Where Ie from, that was enough to qualify me as a junior officer, but without experience, I was scheduled to be deployed as an assistant to my mentor, who was a noted General among my people, along with another prodigy from my ss and the Academy''s Special Forces trainees.


    As is the way of the military, we weren''t given warning, we were simply roused from our sleep in the middle of the night, and given ten minutes to pack our bags and make our way to thending craft that was about to arrive at the Academy.


    Thending craft that was sent for us was very nearly a relic itself, a fuel burning, thruster driven metal box designed for simplicity of construction and efficiency of material usage, notfort or aerodynamics.


    The power of the craft as itunched back into orbit pressed me back into the seat so strongly that I couldn''t even lean forward, and the gravity ting in thending craft was a well known bad joke among Mecha Pilots. In orbit, it was often better if it failed entirely so that you could float to your cockpit instead of climbing.


    The Mecha have maic locks that hold them to the metal floor, you see. So, they''re not going anywhere, but with the ones we were using during that mission being between five and ten metres tall, it was a long climb to the top hatches.


    As soon as we made it out of the atmosphere, thending craft went straight to one of our military transporters, a venerable war relic known as the Abraham Kepler.


    Us students were shown to amon room with security restraints for the crew, and the ship went to Warp.


    Now, let me tell you, that was an experience that I would prefer never to experience again.


    The Warp Drive system that the Abraham Kepler used was millennia old, and repurposed for the ship from an older model of vessel. Because it wasn''t even designed for the ship that it was in, there was a distinct lurch when the ship activated the Warp Drive, and you had to be seated and strapped in, or you would be thrown on the floor.


    It wasmon for passengers to get violently sick from the experience, and getting used to the sensation was a sign of experience among veteran soldiers."


    The crowd was listening in rapt attention, and Nicopiled a small montage to go with it, of the box shapednders, the Abraham Kepler, and the old pattern Corvette ss Mecha.


    "That is incredible. How brutalistic and raw." One of the wealthy guests gushed.


    "Don''t they value their soldiers''fort? I mean, if they''re off to a hostile engagement, they should be mentally focusing on a catered, stress-free environment to prevent mental fatigue, right?" One of the others asked.


    Nico burst intoughter and shook her head.


    "That''s not at all how the human armies work. They live in a constant state of stress and focus. The wars we held against hostile alien species, and invasive forces like the Klem often led to hundreds of thousands of casualties per. Soldiering isn''t an extended career path in a gxy at war." She exined.


    "Oh? How long does the average soldier serve inbat for? Fifteen years, maybe twenty, before lingering injuries be too numerous?" The guest asked.


    "For the Mecha Pilots, who are the elite of our force, roughly half of them are still serving at the end of a ten-year term." Nico agreed.


    "What about the rank and file soldiers? If the elite have such a high dropout rate, how do the rank and file fare?" The short man asked, with his third eye blinking rapidly as he tried to assimte the information.


    "Infantry soldiers have an average life expectancy of thirty-four days inbat."


    The parents all stared at her in shock.


    "How do you even sustain a conflict like that?" Someone finally asked.


    "By adding more troops from a thousand different worlds, of course. The fate of an infantry soldier is a rough one, but they spend most of their time peacekeeping or in transit between conflicts, and not actively fighting hostile species. If the unit loses too many people, they will be removed frombat duty and retired early." Nico exined.


    "Well, that''s a bit horrific. Are there files on the topic in the ship''s records?" One of the Innu mothers asked.


    "Of course. We have historical documentaries, technical documents on technological progression, dramas and action films that portray the cruel side ofbat from a soldier''s perspective." Nico informed her, before sending over her list of rmendations.

 Chapter 1089 1089 High Hopes

    Chapter 1089 1089 High Hopes


    Over the next few days, the students put their all into digging through and recording everything that they found in their assigned zones within the work region where the rare minerals were found.


    Among the finds were many bits of melted rare minerals, a number ofrge pieces of thermal ss, which would indicate that something reached the surface at an extremely high temperature, and then finally one single t te of Duratanium with a piece of wire melted into its surface. That was the hope that they had all been waiting for, proof positive that there had indeed been a piece of advanced technology on this.


    Now, that didn''t mean it was going to be useful for anything in the future, tens of thousands ofs used that samebination over thest hundred thousand years, but to the students, this was a huge deal.


    They had found something, not just a bit of thermal ss, but a piece of what might even be a space vessel.


    The entire ship was in celebration mode as the students diligently worked away at their stations, hoping that one of them mighte across the next piece of whatever that te came from. Of course, they had already found parts of it, in the form of melted metal and ss, but that didn''t stop the optimism that they would be the ones to make the real breakthrough, not the professionals, who had chosen other dig sites.


    Those dig sites were mostly forgotten by the passengers aboard Terminus, who were more interested in the reality TV level drama among the students on a daily basis, but they were still working, and they had found more than just the one crystal.


    The team by the wall had spread out, looking for more crystals and any signs of the alloys that would normally be associated with a ship''smunicator, and they had lucked out. Only two kilometres away, their grid search had found a cavern in the rock, buried under a dozen metres of sand, and they were about to start opening it up to see what might have survived inside.


    The humidity level here was extremely low, so if there had been a survivor, they were likely to be mummified inside, which should not be shown to the general public until they had at least identified the origin of the body.


    But even if they found a single bit of intact technology from whatever species had carved the world "Destion" onto the rock wall, it would be enough to solve the mysteries they had found here.


    Max had just begun making ns to head to the surface of the for a nice photo op and a chance to scan the area with his System enhanced sensors when an urgent message from the Anomaly Fleet caught his attention.


    There had been an attack by the Great Enemy fleet, more specifically, the Myceloids had attacked a random far away from the previous battlegrounds. Everyone there was preparing for the war to go back into full swing again, and that meant that Max''s time here was going to be limited.


    Once the attacks really got started, they were going to expect him and his fleet back to help someone out, and that would be the end of his chance to investigate new worlds, though Terminus and her staff would surely keep to the routine that they had nned unless something unexpected happened all the way out here on the fringes of the universe.


    The messages and strategy making was getting intense, ruling out Max leaving for the surface any time soon, but it shouldn''t be a big loss. The students were the real stars here, and they were doing well for the cameras, even though they tended to bicker and fight a lot when there was anything at all to be found.


    [Report from the Command Ship Celia''s Love reads as follows: Enemy forces amount to thirty-four destroyers, three Colony Ships, one colonized meteor, and an unknown number of small vessels. The target is the Rn home world, currently defended by sixty-one Destroyer ss vessels, and an orbital defence ring.


    All those with experience and insight into the actions of the Myceloids armies, please send your observations to the Anomaly Fleet for dissemination by the coalition Command Group.]


    Max immediately began topile a list of observations and reports from their time with the Hunters on a Myceloid held, and then added a personal note at the end.


    [This species enjoysbat for the sake ofbat. They will have attacked the strongest enemy that they could detect with their sensors, in order to find the best fight. I advise that you prepare other strongly defended star systems in the region for iing attackers.]


    Hopefully, they would take that warning seriously, and they would be prepared for the next wave''s arrival because that was far from the extent of their fleet''s firepower, and the others would not sit idly by while there was a good fight going on. It was just a matter of where they were now, and if they knew that there was a fight.


    Max waited a few minutes for his message to be processed, and then a request for a virtual meeting was sent through to his Command Channel, directly from the Admiral aboard Celia''s Love. The leaders of the species who had chosen to ally with the Koleska were requesting that he join them in holographic form for a meeting as soon as was convenient, since they didn''t know what ship time he was on.


    [I will be online within the hour. I would rmend that you pass along my warning immediately though, as the rest of the fleet is unlikely to wait for you to prepare.] Max agreed, then started to clear items off his calendar in preparation for many more such meetings in the near future.


    [Thank you, Commander Max. We appreciate your time and expertise on the subject. Will you be immediately returning to the area?] The Coalition Commander asked.


    [Not just yet. I have an investigative mission toplete, and then a weapons development program to fine tune before I head back into battle. But if things get really bad, I will send a substitute Commander for the Android Fleet.]

 Chapter 1090 1090 I Told You

    <h4>Chapter 1090 1090 I Told You</h4>


    Max returned to his office and set up the holographic emitter so that it would show him sitting at his desk as he addressed the rest of the group. He knew that they were going to need his advice if the Myceloids from the other side were attacking in force, but he got the feeling from their earlier interaction that they still didn''t quite understand the nature of the enemy.


    When he opened themunications channel to Celia''s Love, there were hundreds of people already gathered in the room, sitting around rings of desks set up on multiple levels so that everyone could look up or down to see who was talking.


    Thergest and most powerful fleets made up the inner rings, and the minor species were up in the rafters, arranged behind the species that they were backing.


    It was a bit like a House of Commons, where the seats were divided by political parties, but in this case, it was by alliances and military strength.


    [Wee Commander Keres Max. Thank you for your prompt attendance. Can you tell us more about the nature of the green beasts that are attacking the outer Seventh Zone right now?] The leader of the meeting, a Colonel from the Anomaly Defence Force''s Mecha Regiment, requested.


    [Of course Colonel. I have already forwarded data on thebat capabilities of the ones that we faced, but this force is much more heavily armed. They possess higher levels of technology, and they are known to use both advanced body armour and energy shielding inbat.


    Their culture is one of pure war. They enjoybat as a hobby. Not simple violence, but actual challengingbat, oveing strong enemies to prove and increase their own strength.


    They will not stand for only one small portion of their fleet to be inbat at a time. When the others see that they have found a way to attack, they will be headed here to join the festivities.


    It seems unlikely that they would attack the same target, though. Being present in overwhelming numbers is not their style. They reproduce and bebat effective very quickly, so the reinforcements will most likely seek new targets once they arrive.


    Their bodies have evolved to favourbat, so you need to eliminate them as efficiently as possible, as defeating enemies triggers a growth hormone response in their bodies that can increase their size, intelligence andbat effectiveness by a noticeable margin in a matter of minutes.]


    Max paused as his disy showed that they were pulling up details from previous engagements so that the gathered representatives, who hadn''t all been at the battles, would fully understand what they were facing, and what the rapid growth rate meant in practice.


    [That is spectacr. Did anyone manage to get a sample of that gic material?] One of the onlookers in the back called out.


    [We did. We have records of both their gic makeup and the weapons that they used inbat for your needs. I will make sure they are forwarded to your staff before the meeting ends.] The Colonel replied.


    It was strange for Max, being able to see the whole room full of people but not read their minds. He had gotten used to having all that extra information avable to him, and now that it didn''t exist, it felt more like watching a movie than sitting in the room, as his eyes told him.


    There wasn''t much to be done about it, though. They were on a Destroyer, which wasn''tpletely stationary in space, so opening a portal was out of the question, and there was no way for him to physically go there on such short notice, so he would have to adapt to using only regr human senses to guide the crowd.


    So, Max cleared his throat to pull attention back to him. [If they are allowed to makendfall, even in the form of spores, they will quickly repopte using the natural resources of the, and immediately begin forming makeshift weapons to continue the battle until they can obtain more suitable armaments.


    Once they do, they will show that they have an unnatural adaptation speed, no matter what weapon they are given. Our research suggests that it is part of their gic memory, and that there is no way to prevent them from learning to use your weapons if they should obtain them.]


    That led to a long round of cursing, and some proper discussions on what they should do to prevent these huge green attackers from increasing their own firepower by using the weapons of the defenders.


    That was more along the lines that Max wanted them to be thinking, instead of trying to focus on whether their species should get involved at all.


    They were just starting toe to some sort of consensus when another urgent message came in from a only a few star systems away from the ongoing battle.


    [Another fleet of the Green Horde has appeared. Nine Destroyers in total, with a muchrger contingent of support craft, they are engaging but not stopping for the defence fleet as they head for thes.]


    [The worst has happened, they are attacking again before we have fully rearmed. We must talk to the Commanders and start the intervention fleets again.] The representative from the new system that had been attacked shouted into the room.


    [Calm yourself, sir. You are not the first to be attacked, and you will not be thest to be attacked in this wave. We will work out who is going to the rescue of whom, and which fleets will leave their systems entirely to reinforce the regions that are currently under attack.


    Just because the first attacks were in that region does not guarantee that it will be the focus of the wave.] One of the other politicians chided him.


    The representatives whose systems were under attack were not happy with that answer, and both wererger forces with a strong alliance. But the memory of thest wave of attacks was fresh, and a lot of them had not recovered much of their strength yet.


    They were bound to help their allies, but they just didn''t have much left to send.

 Chapter 1091 1091 Not My Business

    Chapter 1091 1091 Not My Business


    Because of the additional attack, the meeting was hastily ended, and Max returned to the stacks of paperwork that needed to be finished for the day-to-day operations of the Terminus Trading Company.


    The Board of Directors did almost all the work, but even after that, he still had a lot to read over, sign off on, and at least a half dozen items that had piled up over thest week they wanted his input on before they made a final decision.


    So, Max''s eventful day turned to one of drudgery while on the other side of the Anomaly, chaos began to spread through the assembled species.


    There were only a few that had recovered enough strength at this point that they werefortable sending out forces to assist the battles, so the Anomaly Fleet had requested that the Regiment that had joined the Android Fleet take them and spread them between the two locations as soon as possible.


    Since the human home worlds weren''t in the region, there was no reason to assume that they were in danger as long as the Anomaly Fleet stayed right where it was, hosting the interspecies meetings.


    The human ships were mostly unknown to the people of the region, even after the battle. They had seen them inbat, but most had no dealings of any sort with them before the nomination to make them the neutral ground for the meetings.


    It was a genius move on their part, bing a well-known faction at the same time as building a reputation for neutrality, and it gave them the perfect excuse not to move away from the Anomaly, even though there was arge force on the other side as well.


    Max wasn''t particrly concerned about them managing to keep the anomaly secured, since they not only had the ability to spread their sensors through the otheryers now, but they also knew how to force the Anomaly closed in an emergency.


    It would cut them off from the rest of humanity, but if it meant preventing a full-scale invasion of their home Gxy, Max knew that they would do it at the veryst moment.


    As he finished with the paperwork, Max considered what he could do to increase the military might of the human fleets. Most of them now had ess to the Androids and the majority of the Mecha patterns, so it was mostly a matter of need that limited the number of them that everyone kept on board.


    A whole regiment of Super Heavy Mecha didn''t make sense for a trading vessel, no matter how intense the threats in the surrounding Gxies got. A single Battalion with a handful of Super Heavy Mecha leading them was more than enough to take care of the standard threats, and if they deployed a Drone Fighter formation, they wouldn''t even have to deploy the Mecha most of the time.


    Sure, human pilots were better than the Androids in most situations, but the Androids were rapidly improving, and the Reavers valued their people, so they were quickly bing the defensive force of choice for countless ships.


    But thereiny the real danger. If the ships relied on androids to do the piloting, they would only be effective until the enemy learned of that fact and started deploying customized weapons to counter them.


    A Mecha that was hit by a massive EMP could have its power supply rebooted and operate with Mechanical controls until theputer could be recovered, either from a secure backup, if that survived, or back at base in the repair hangar.


    But if that same weapon hit an Android, it didn''t matter that the Mecha had mechanical backup controls, as the operator would be essentially mind wiped and waiting for a new operating system, plus repairs to all the overloaded circuits.


    That was why the Kepler Mecha still used both mechanical and neural controls in the first ce.


    If there were no human defenders in the force, they would be helpless when the enemy counterattacked, but with all humans, they would suffer too heavy of casualties when the enemy attacked in the first ce. It was a difficult issue to bnce, and there was no perfect answer when it came to the value of human life.


    Max was deeply lost in his thoughts when the next round of messages came through on the Command Channel. Lost enough that he almost missed the notification noise.


    [The battle is back on again. Seven new star systems have been attacked, all by unknown alien species from the other side of the Rift. All forces are returning to their defensive mobilization routines, and any assistance that can be provided is requested from the species with faster recuperative abilities.]


    The Koleska was one of those species. Their people grew to adulthood twice as fast as most other species, and with the help of the humans, they could now train much faster than most others, but that meant that they could rece a generation of warriors in ten years instead of twenty, not in two months.


    They hadn''t taken as heavy of a loss as many other species had, though, and they were ready to spread out through the surrounding areas, to help secure the homes of their allies while the local armies pushed forward to fight in assistance of their neighbours.


    None of the systems immediately around the Koleska had been attacked yet, but Max could only assume that it was just a matter of time.


    The attack pattern was the same as the first time, pushing out from the Rift in space to overtake the most vulnerable targets first, with the exception of the Myceloids, who went for the strongest.


    The actuals attacked were different, due to the change in defence patterns, but the strategy remained the same, and Max began to understand the nuance behind it.


    Time didn''t matter as much to the energy beings, they lived for hundreds of millennia or longer. So, they would attack and retreat, and keep doing it until the defenders ran out ofs to defend. Then they would work their way out into the rest of the universe, and overtake what they could until they ran out of forces or met with something that they couldn''t defeat.

 Chapter 1092 1092 Or Maybe It Is

    Chapter 1092 1092 Or Maybe It Is


    Max set aside the notes from thest round of messages that they had received and began to work on the ns for the next possible human refugee world that Terminus would be visiting.


    That was his priority until the forces on the other side of the Anomaly or the Darklings started to call for a full-scale response again.


    There were notes from Ranarth here somewhere as well, and Max was a few days behind on reading them, so he moved them to the top of the pile. If anyone had useful information about defensive capabilities, it would be Ranarth and Uncle Lu, who were hard at work in the Rae 5 Moon Base, designing the next generation of something.


    What they were working on was a mystery, but Ranarth seemed to be quite excited about it in his messages. There was some frustration that none of his records contained the vital data on relevant human technologies from the first part of the Eternal War, but they had been making good progress on the mass production of the Dyson Spheres and the replicators that could make them.


    That gave Max a wonderful idea. Most ships were still using industrial replicators for their goods. If they started to switch more of therge vessels over to a single pod from the Terraforming Arrays, they could increase the speed with which a defence force could be assembled in the case of an emergency.


    Even if it was a cargo ship, they could make arge number of Mecha in minutes if they came under heavy attack from the Great Enemy, at the cost of the goods that they were transporting, if they weren''t near an asteroid or other object that they could use for raw materials.


    It would give Max peace of mind when they had to send away more of their actual soldiers to keep the threat contained on the other side of the Anomaly, and he had a feeling that it would be much sooner than he would have preferred.


    They hadn''t even gotten to survey thes that he had marked out as potential sites for human habitation.


    Instead, he was going to send drones through small portals and check as many of them as possible before they moved Terminus, just in case the next was thest chance that they got to find some relic of ancient humanity that might aid them in their battle.


    The odds were still incredibly low that after all this time the drones would find something of use from up in orbit, but there was always a chance that some sign of civilization, or a reordered star system that matched the ones in their own Gxy, would be found. That alone would be enough evidence that the humans had been there.


    So, one after another, he sent out waves of ten drones to search the systems in advance. They had all been inspected from a distance, but they were so far out from the Alliance that it hadn''t been worth the energy expenditure to send more than a single probe there to report, and none of them were designed for the information that Max was interested in.


    The Alliance probes were looking for inhabited and habitables, as well as unique astronomical phenomenon, not relics from missing cultures.


    Nico walked in and hopped on hisp to better read the disy on the tablet in front of him, and Max smirked before petting her head.


    "A little left, oh yeah, that''s the spot." She joked as she read the reports.


    "There is a coded message hidden in all of Ranarth and Uncle Lu''s reports, so I came to read them directly. It should be hidden in the code, but I have the decryption process." She exined, as she studied the documents, from her perch atop Max''s thigh.


    "And what did they have to say to us today that was too secret to be put into a regr secure message on the Reaver channels?" Max asked.


    "So far we have progress reports, 42 Dyson Spheres operational, some new technology releases from Absolution that have been refined. Nothing much so far. Oh, wait, there''s an additional bit. Uncle Lu says we need toe back in two weeks, and he will have a surprise present ready for us." Nico cheered.


    "Well, that sounds promising. I think that the universe should be able to keep its act together for two weeks. Did you read through the battle reports and the briefing that Ipiled earlier today?" He asked.


    Max hadn''t sent them out yet, but they were in the Command directory of the ship''s server, so she had ess, and it would be unlike Nico not to look when there was a chance of something new and exciting.


    "Yeah, I noticed that they have a whole new wave of attacks going on. I sent it through to Reaver Command, just in case they hadn''t gotten the full transcript yet, and the volunteer forces are already on their way back, or will be as soon as they finish the jobs they''re on.


    There is good money to be had in helping, and Uncle Lu has promised them first ess to new generation ships and gear as a performance bonus for helping keep things under control over there." Nico agreed.


    "Ah, so that''s the big bribe, a front of the line sidestep to get around the waiting lists for the good stuff that can''t be made by just anyone." Max chuckled as he realized the advantages.


    Sure, any Replicator could theoretically make anything, but some things were still secrets, and they weren''t put into the general purpose units, or even most of the specialized ones. Add to that theplexity of troubleshooting errors in a brand-new starship, along with the customputer programming that every Admiral would want, and there was still a massive amount of manpower needed to do a new ship build, and even more to do a renovation of an existing hull.


    "Exactly. VIP treatment to get all their hopes and dreams of a new ship fulfilled. Even Absolution is sending a small crew to the other side this time. It''s in the files, they''ve got a thousand trained volunteers who have amassed the funds to buy up a Cutter. It''s being made on board as we speak, and by the usual standards, it will be able to make its own Android force, as well as a Drone Fleet.


    Not big ones, as it is a Cutter, but enough that they should be able to hold their own as reinforcements to a main battle fleet." Nico added.


    "Then I wish them the best of luck and happy hunting. I''m not surprised that some of the pilots wanted to get back into battle, I''m just a bit shocked that they managed to buy a Cutter. I don''t recall paying them quite that well." Maxughed.


    "Should we send them something special for their trip?" Nico suggested.


    They were the only actual force from Absolution going, as the Android Army had been purpose made for the job, and the humans who had taken over themand of it weren''t from the Terminus Trading Company.


    "That''s a good idea. Have Felicity make sure there is a Terraforming Array on board, and make them a custom Command Mecha for their Commander. It''s the little things that they will appreciate the most."

 Chapter 1093 1093 Moving On

    Chapter 1093 1093 Moving On


    Late that night, the data analysis from the drones that Max had sent out began topile on Terminus'' mainframe, and he could finally get a clear picture of what they were headed out to find.


    All thes were habitable, or had been in the recent past, and each of them had some unique geological feature that suggested that they might have been artificially altered, which was what had drawn the attention of the Alliance to begin with.


    For most of them, it was something simple. A perfectly round set of ridges, or a few pyramid shaped hills. Anything that was perfectly even and symmetrical was rarely caused by nature, unless it was a crater.


    There really wasn''t a bad choice among the remaining options, and each of them had a chance of turning up something good, but on one, Max found traces of a particr alloy, the same one that had been used for the Dyson sphere and many other ancient human designs. That was the winner. There was no way that it could have been formed in nature, and it was a sure sign that what had been there should have known about human technology.


    The distance to it wasn''t particrly far from their current destination, they could make it in one portal jump, but it was rather hidden from the Alliance''s sensors by other stars and a strange spatial rift, simr to the one in the Anomaly region.


    There wasn''t going to be a better chance to get a real answer before they were forced to return all their focus onto the conflict on the other side of the anomaly, so Max got right to work, making ns for the drop locations and informing the crew of their destination.


    The students would be returning from their field research in a few hours, and then they would have a day off to decontaminate, as was standard procedure, even though they had found no signs of life on the other than the crashed escape pods or shuttles that had littered the region with rare minerals.


    Still, they were ecstatic that they had found something, and they got to bring it back to the academy with them as proof of their adventure. The materials would all be going to the academy''sbs and storage, but the students could still tell others to look it up, and their names would be on the listing for the research team that had recovered it.


    The bragging rights were what all the students were the most interested in. The fact that they had recovered unknown alien species ship fragments was secondary to the fact that they could brag about the fact that they got to go to an unexplored''s surface to do it.


    The shuttles came back in rapid session, returning all the ground crews to the shipte that afternoon, and the away teams entered their mandatory day-long quarantine, while the Academy staff turned on the transmitters from the room so that they would allow the residents to chat with friends and family anywhere else on the ship.


    The Alliance reporters were even more excited than the parents to get a chance to speak with the elusive elites that had been sheltered away at the Terminus Academy. Headmistress Medusa was notoriously difficult to negotiate with, and the students were mostly the children of the ultra-wealthy and politically connected, who were the only ones known to be able to secure a seat for their children.


    They didn''t know that there was a set-aside for true geniuses on schrship, so any student in the Academy Uniform was taken as someone not to be offended, for fear of retaliation by their parents.


    They had no graduates yet, as their senior Academy had originally only started with First Year students, while the middle school section took transfers of all ages. But Max could tell, by the minds of the students on board, that the sense ofmunity was going to be an ongoing challenge for the reporters in the future. The students had gotten too good at political niceties during their education, and wouldn''t be easy to trick answers out of.


    One of the earliest lessons that students learned at the Academy was the value of retaining talent. All of them would presumably be top executives, politicians and researchers in the future, so they would be unlikely to manage much on their own, and would need to surround themselves with the perfect group of people to help themselves grow.


    That was the role that the schrship program yed. Those were the right people, selected for theirpetence, and getting them set up at the businesses that the other students were set to inherit was a long-termworking goal.


    As they say, it''s not what you know, it''s who you know.


    The students began their broadcasts to the ship, through the reporters who had booked rooms on board, not long after they returned. The interviews were all smiles andughter as they showed off the images of the relics that they had found, and bragged about how great it was to be a student at Terminus Academy, whose travels allowed unique opportunities like this.


    It was only party coached, as the students truly epted that no normal Academy could possibly offer anything even simr to this activity. But the reporters ate it up, and the volume of calls requesting a spot on the waiting list for uing ss eptances was incredible from the minute that they started to broadcast the interviews to their home news channels.


    [Terminus will be opening a portal in two hours. Please note that this will cause interference with interstermunications. Thank you for your understanding.] The ship''s announcer dered.


    That conveniently lined up with dinner time for the students and staff, which gave the interviews a definite timeline, though they could likely restart them afterwards if there was more to talk about with the returning students.


    The returning research staff, on the other hand, were happily locked away in their containment room catching up on their reports with the intes off so that they couldn''t be disturbed. It was a rare moment ofplete peace and rxation for a whole 24 hours before they had to get back to work. All that it was missing was a pool and a sandy beach.

 Chapter 1094 1094 They Were Here

    Chapter 1094 1094 They Were Here


    As it had done at thest, Terminus settled in orbit at their new destination and sent out a wave of sensor drones to enhance the data that they already had about their new target.


    Thanks to Max''s advanced research, this one looked much more promising, with a bnced distribution of water andnd, natural vegetation, some animal life, what appeared to be an artificial grid pattern in the open prairies.


    That would be a priority to excavate and search for relics, as the chances that it was the ruins of a city were so high, even before they received the information that there were scraps of the same artificial alloy that was used to make the Dyson Spheres there.


    They hadn''t even set foot on the yet, and the team was almost certain that this was what they were looking for.


    It also wasn''t the only location on the that showed signs of ancient civilization. The humans had fled from the Great Enemy so long ago that it was normal for manys to have gone through their whole civilized lifecycle, from colonization to resource depletion and abandonment, and then to nearly full remation by nature afterwards.


    But there were many sites here that showed promise, so the inhabitants might not havee here first, but at some point after leaving the first world they had colonized. If that was the case, they might not find anything resembling military technology remnants here, but they might find some sign of terraforming or space travel technology.


    Both were valuable to the researchers, even if they weren''t what Max had been hoping to find.


    [Commander, which location should we examine first? Prairie City, or the River Pyramids?] The research team leader requested once the data was analyzed the next morning.


    [Split the team and go to both. I suspect that there will be plenty to find here, and we need to do our best to make sure that we don''t ignore anything. Searching from orbit is fairly limiting, so I want feet on the ground in as many locations as we can without interfering with your capabilities.] Max replied.


    [Understood, will you be joining us?] The team leader asked.


    Max looked at the screen full of notifications on the wall next to his desk and sighed.


    [Not today, but I will try to get down to the surface at some point to assist, or at least make a photo op for the Alliance News Networks. They love that kind of stuff.]


    [Good luck with that. I will get the teams ready. How much time do we have? I saw the messages on the Alliance military boards that they were sending the Innu and Valkia vessels back intobat if the Anomaly Fleet moved.] The research team leader replied.


    [I don''t know. I get the feeling that I might not have much time, but I will buy you guys as much time as possible out here so that you can get every bit of ancient history possible recorded.


    The chances that we will be attacked so far from a popted are extremely low, so I''m not too concerned about Terminus itself, but as the spokesperson, they will expect me to be where the action is eventually.] Max sent back with a rueful smile.


    Everyone got back to their tasks, and Max headed out to get a coffee, as there wasn''t a Replicator in his office.


    Nico was waiting for him in their suite, sorting through arge pile of clothing with a dissatisfied frown on her face.


    "What are you looking for?" Max asked, unable to decipher the jumble of her thoughts.


    "We just finished oneary search, and the second one is starting off with a lot of promise. We''re going to need to give interviews to the media sorts, as well as take them on a trip down to get a closer look.


    That means multiple outfits, that don''t look too simr to each other, and that fit the situation. So, I''m trying to sort out what I already have and what I need to make in order to get the looks that I want." She exined.


    "You can go for a uniform for at least one of them, and maybe a Mobile Suit for the trip down to the surface?" Max suggested.


    That would cut two options out of the required list, he assumed.


    "That''s not cruise ship themed at all. Remember, these are being broadcast to everyone in the Alliance who cares to tune in. We''re promoting Terminus as a vacation destination, not somewhere that needs body armour or military troops." She replied as she held up a ck silk skirt with what looked like a zer, but with sleeves made entirely out ofce.


    Max wondered briefly if that still counted as a jacket or if it was now technically a vest, then set the thought aside as he realized that he would also need outfits for the nned events.


    "Nico, dear Nico, my very dearest friend..." Max began.


    She smirked back at him. "If you want me to pick your outfits as well, it is going to require a suitable bribe, Mister Max."


    Her teasing made him smile. Her thoughts showed that she already had a half dozen outfit ideas for him that would go with the looks that she was trying to assemble, so he just had to make them if he didn''t have the clothes already.


    But where was the fun in that.


    "Oh? And what sort of suitable bribe did you have in mind?" Max replied as he stepped up behind her.


    He felt his heart begin to race as Nico leaned back to rub against him, and slid her hand into his pocket. But then she took her hand back and turned around with a fake frown on her face.


    "What''s with the empty pockets? No money and no candy?" She pouted.


    "Oh, so that''s what you''re after. Well then, let''s get through these appearances and I will give you all the sweetness you can handle."


    They bothughed as Nico''s mind immediately went to cake and not romance. If there was one thing that was predictable about Nico, it was her sweet tooth.

 Chapter 1095 1095 Choice Locations

    <h4>Chapter 1095 1095 Choice Locations</h4>


    Once Nico picked an outfit for the first group of events, Max changed to match, using the ideas in her mind for what would look best on him to go with her outfit. It might have been cheating, but it was faster than waiting for her to make one for him after she had decided.


    Their first meeting of the day was going to be on the Promenade, a small media gathering for the evening news, which would be mostly about the researchers from thest away mission, but which would set up their announcement that they had very promising leads on this as well that might be signs of an actual civilization and not just a bunch of fragments that would be analyzed in an attempt to tell them what sort of ship had crashed and reference that against missing vessels.


    While that was a valuable endeavour, it was only a secondary concern to a ship full of tourists who wanted exploration and adventure. They might get it on this, but they might not, as there was wildlife here, which meant the potential for infectious diseases and hostile life forms.


    The ships were on their way down to start getting set up for the first digs already, and as they approached and got more sensor data, the River Pyramids were looking even more promising. Not only were they equal walled pyramids, there were smooth ramps up them, and a box shaped something at the top that lookedpletely unnatural, though the sensors said it was all stone.


    Prairie City was also looking promising, but there was still a chance that it could be the remains of a previously flooded forest, and not a city of any sort. They wouldn''t know until they started to dig or got advanced sensors on the ground.


    Of course, if they had the sensors there, they might as well dig thest metre or two, as the ruins appeared to be close to the surface.


    Max stepped up to greet the crowd of reporters and put on his best professional smile.


    "Wee, everyone, and thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to be here for our press conference. As you all know, the field trip by the Terminus Academy students was a resounding sess, and they are all safely back onboard, awaiting their quarantine timer to run out.


    While we didn''t detect any sort of life on the, that doesn''t excuse them from the necessity of going through the standard decontamination procedures.


    Of course, our own team is currently in the same situation, and the teams that will be headed to this first are not the same ones that were on thest''s surface.


    We are investigating two likely locations here, one that appears to be the ruins of an ancient city, and one that is made up of a loose cluster of near perfect pyramids." Max greeted the gathered crowds.


    It was just enough information to put them off bnce, and throw off their prepared line of questions as they tried to decide what was more important. That made his life easier, as he could direct the conversation as he saw fit, and get the press satisfied without having to go on for hours or give them any real details.


    "Did you say that you have identified two separate possible habitation sites on this?" One of the reporters blurted out as soon as Max finished, and he resisted the urge to smirk at how easy it was to guide these reporters.


    "I did. Both show signs simr to the construction methods of ancient advanced civilizations, and both are more than a single pattern. The repetition gives us high hopes that we will be able to prove that there were, in fact, advanced inhabitants here at some point in the past."


    "Is there any indication of what sort of species it might have been?" One of the reporters asked.


    There were no recorded intelligent species living in this region, much less interster ones, but it looked like at some point there had been at least somewhat intelligent ones if the early scans were correct.


    "Nothing yet. From the scans we have, it''s not even possible to tell howrge they might have been. But with the wonderful work that our students did on the previous location, our teams will be working around the clock to decipher all the mysteries of this region of deep space."


    "How are the students? Did their discoveries amount to anything?" One of the reporters in the back called out.


    "Of course. They foundrge enough fragments of alloy and a few refined crystals that can be referenced against the Alliance records of species development. We still haven''t finished the research to date the finds, but once we have done that, we will be able to forward that to Alliance officials in an attempt to check them against missing vessels through the correct portion of their history." Max agreed.


    "And if it doesn''t match any Alliance species?" Another of the reporters asked.


    "Well, wouldn''t that be wonderful? The students of the Terminus Academy might have discovered proof of a new species, unless it''s merely an unrecordedbination, or multiple wrecks from different periods.


    But we won''t know that for some time yet. This level of a find won''t be an instant solution. Unfortunately, the recovered relics didn''te with any identifying marks."


    The reportersughed, and Max stepped back to let Nico answer the next barrage of questions while he answered the messages from thending crews.


    Everything went smoothly with the descent, and they were getting set up for their work to begin, they were only waiting for the first stage of interviews to finish so that they could do it live for the news, like they were only justnded and not like they had five minutes to prepare in advance.


    Just a little sleight of hand to make them look more efficient.

 Chapter 1096 1096 The Big Dig

    <h4>Chapter 1096 1096 The Big Dig</h4>


    With the crews on the ground, all attention turned away from the interviews to showing the ongoing deployment of the research equipment. From the ground, the raised ridges of the Prairie City were much more noticeable, and Max was certain that they could not have urred naturally.


    While the sensors showed that there were portions up to four metres tall, it was only when they got the camera footage from the team on the ground that most of the observers on Terminus really appreciated how much of the ancient city had been preserved.


    The team quickly got to work, cutting away some of the overgrowth, as it appeared that the city itself wasn''t buried, only overgrown, which had made orbital scanning somewhat unreliable. Using a low intensity Ion Beam, they cut away the vines that were hanging down from the top of a cliff face in front of them, then used the cutter''s gravity beam to pull the foliage away.


    What was revealed was the beautifully preserved outer wall of an ancient civilization''s fortified city.


    There were clearly cut square stone blocks, arranged without mortar into solid stone walls, carved statues of animals that nobody on board Terminus recognized, and further down the wall, on a t spot in the terrain that early scans suggested might have been a road, there was a perfectly symmetrical archway, allowing ess to the city within.


    The Ship''s crew was busy trying to match the local wildlife that they had scanned to the statues and carvings that were on the walls, but strangely, only about a third of it seemed to be represented.


    Either there had been a mass extinction event on this world, or the majority of the creatures depicted were mythological.


    There wasn''t enough data yet to be sure, but the constant streaming of the finds as the crew identified them had the reporters in a frenzy.


    Max turned to smile at Nico.


    "It looks like we might be able to stretch out some of those meetings. They''re all too enthralled by the finds on the surface to want to do any sort of interview for most of the day." He chuckled.


    "That''s true, but they''re going to be pushing even harder for a shuttle trip to the surface to get a closer look with their own cameras. You know how they hate reusing our footage for the news broadcasts." Nico reminded him.


    "We can likely schedule those for tomorrow, so that the crew has time to clear enough for them to get a good look, and not just at one single wall and a lot of foliage. The Pyramid teams should be well on their way by then as well.


    They''re excavating now, but that site is looking very good. See how the ground prating radar shows that it''s irregrly hollow? It''s a bit distorted by the distance, but I''m pretty sure that pyramid was actually an inhabited building, and not a solid structure."


    Nico nodded in agreement, and started to rearrange the ns for their interview schedule. Once they had used the shuttle to clear the majority of the dirt off the pyramid, they were going to need some time to explore the inside before allowing the media near it, but the Prairie City was just covered in vines, so if they dressed them in augmentic armour the situation at that location should be safe enough to send the reporters down much sooner.


    And sending down the reporters meant better footage for the guests, which meant more happy repeat customerster.


    The excitement of the first find was just beginning to wear off when the team at Prairie City decided that it would be a good idea to clear off a bit of the cover from the top of the wall. They used the mechanical dendrites of the modified Mobile Suits that they were wearing, adapted from the harnesses which had be so popr with mechanics and every other physicalbour job in the Terminus Trading Company.


    The flexible arms pulled away the vines, and a glimmer met the eyes of everyone watching on the cameras. The top of the wall was in stone, with a wall-walk behind the battlements, but there at the gates stood two distinctly technological housings for security cameras.


    The internals appeared to have long since decayed, but the alloy outer housing and the arm that it was mounted on were still securely mounted, looking out over the grasnds.


    There was no mistaking that these were a sign not just of a civilization, but of a technological one, and as soon as they were seen, the work paused. Nobody wanted to identally throw away the remains of a lens or an internal part that might give them more detail about the technology, and they were bound to be nearby somewhere.


    Hopefully, they were not entangled with the lower vines that they had pulled away, but they hadn''t reached the ground, so the most likely spot to find the missing parts was still untouched.


    The ship''s announcer suddenly came on the speakers, as excited as anyone else aboard the cruise ship.


    [As you can see, it is a glorious day for the investigative crews of Terminus. The Prairie City site has uncovered a remnant of what appears to be a pair of security cameras, mounted by thest civilization to grace thesends.


    Unfortunately, this will put some of the ground tours on hold, as extreme care must be taken when there is a chance to recover lost technologies so that the fragments are not damaged. However, our Commanders assure me that in a few days time, they will still be holding a low altitude flight for the news crews and VIP guests, to get a closer look at the site with their own equipment.]


    The whole ship began to party after those words were out. They had found it, real proof that there had been someone out here in the past.


    As Max recalled, their legends, and the Hunters legends, of the Darklings said that they had been out here a million years ago, but the legends only gave a general direction, which could be any of ten thousand gxies within the given distance.


    But, now that he was reminded of the fact, Max decided to send the details to Ranarth, along with the scans of the, and see if his people knew anything more about the region.

 Chapter 1097 1097 Never Enough

    Chapter 1097 1097 Never Enough


    ?


    With so much early luck finding useful artifacts, there was an intense pressure on the staff of Terminus to ept more funding and send more teams down to the surface, either to help the ones that were already there or to search for more possible sites, in an effort to maximize their chances of finding something useful out of the''s ancient cities.


    Every researchpany that had an interest in their work was freaking out about the news, and they hadn''t even gotten the close up tour yet to get more details on what sort of technology level they were looking at.


    The relics appeared to be security cameras, but that could be from anything starting at the early analog age and onward, hundreds of thousands of years worth of most species'' advancements. For all they knew, the species might have been a failed one that couldn''t adapt to changing atmospheric conditions and never made it past the most rudimentary of electronics.


    If they hadn''t made it to advancedputing, there was little chance that anything they left behind would be useful to anyone in the Alliance as more than a curiosity or ornamental relic.


    But that didn''t matter to them.


    Terminus had such a great track record of making something out of nothing that they were willing to wager that whatever they found here could be turned into something good, and they wanted in on the earliest possible opportunity, even if it was a risky bet that might cost them money.


    Fortunately, today both Max and Nico were on board, so the ship had the Commanders present to shuffle off all the demands to. None of those who were trying to pressure and bribe their way into a partnership had the leverage to push against the entire Terminus Trading Company, they were relying on deals that had been made with the research department of Terminus, the Colony Ship.


    Max looked over the details of the requests that they were getting, and sighed, before passing them to Nico.


    "You do most of the work with the research and design departments, so I will let you decide which of those, if any, you want to ept. I really don''t want to have to catch up and do a background check on everyone if you already know who most of them are." He informed the annoyed Cyborg.


    "Fine, let''s find somewhere good to sit so we can people watch and still get some work done. I will likely send more teams down right away anyhow, just to get better coverage on the probable sites that we have identified. Just searching the two regions is going to take tens of thousands of worker hours, and the more the low altitude drones search, the more that they identify.


    These might be the most obvious ruins, but from the early scans, it''s unlikely that they will be the most productive or best preserved ones that we can find, unless the inside of those pyramids is sealed off from the elements." She agreed.


    "That is a possibility. They are pretty well-built, and it looks like our ancient civilization had a thing for building with solid stone. It wouldn''t be surprising if the secure areas of their cities or monuments, or whatever those pyramids are, were sealed with a stone b, which would have done a pretty decent job of preservation." Max suggested.


    They walked a few more shops down until they reached a pub with a private room, where Max booked the area for the next four hours so that they could finish their work and a round of interviews before they left.


    Nico got to work on the business proposals as soon as they sat down, and Max got to work on the ns to have more teams sent to the surface. There was only so much room that each group could cover, and only so many people were useful in a given area, but they had room to spread out in the Prairie City for a methodical grid search, while there were multiple pyramids in theplex around the first one.


    It might have been a city that was created in a distinct style from the other ones, perhaps by a different tribe or culture of the inhabitants. Or it might havee from different eras in their history. But either way, the result would be various relics for them to collect, as long as something had survived until now other than the stone buildings.


    He wasn''t really concerned that the teams would damage or miss any relics, they were very well-trained professionals from a dozen different worlds, but they couldn''t know that there was likely to be a time constraint on Max''s presence here.


    Going back into battle with the same gear they had for thest round was not Max''s preferred course of action, but he hadn''t received any word from Uncle Lu in a while about the progress of the next-generation weapons and power sources.


    They were going to need that soon, or they wouldn''t have time to create a Custom Command Mecha pair before they left to assist in the Koleska Region.


    The ones that they had were no match for the Greater Energy Beings that they were likely going to face this time, and the Great Enemy had plenty of time to n strategies to deal with their tactics before returning.


    They could change tactics, but without changing their capabilities, they wouldn''t be able to take the enemy off-guard and easily score lopsided victories, so every battle woulde at an increasingly high cost.


    Max knew that many would say that he was overreacting, as it was only a handful of battles against one species so far, but he couldn''t get rid of the feeling that things were going terribly wrong, and he just didn''t know how wrong they had gone yet.


    Maybe he would feel better once he had a better grasp of what was happening on the other side of the Anomaly, Max decided. It was easy enough to pull up reports to his data tablet, and he could scroll through them while he took care of the crew logistics for the mission expansion.

 Chapter 1098 1098 There is Only Winning

    Chapter 1098 1098 There is Only Winning


    In the researchbs above Rae 5, Uncle Lu and Ranarth were immersed in a deeply theological conversation, after an unknown relic recovered after thest battle at the Rift in space on the other side of the Anomaly had turned out to be a bit of antique human technology rted to the maniption of theyers of space.


    They had managed to ess some of the data stored in it, and it had been enough to determine that there was indeed a way to ess theyer of space that the Gods were hiding in, using Cathedral Ship technology, which could be madepatible with human technology.


    That meant that they could take the battle to the enemy, without relying on the Darklings or the Arisen, which was a huge step forward for humanity, but the presence of the Gods had so warped thatyer of space that the operation of nearly all known weapons and technology was somewhere between ineffective and suicidal due to instability.


    Uncle Lu knew that the new weapon they had developed would work there, as they had designed it specifically tobat the energy beings, and the interference that they brought with them from thatyer.


    But on the other hand, Ranarth thought that strapping a few thousand tonnes of antimatter to a malfunctioning Dyson sphere would be a much more cost-effective option.


    Of course, it came with a few risks. Like the possibility ofpletely destabilizing theyers of space in the region and copsing reality as they knew it, eliminating a billion species from existence instantly when reality ceased to exist in theiryer.


    "I have run the numbers, and the odds are no more than an eighteen percent chance that the primaryyer would destabilize." Ranarth argued.


    "That''s nearly a one in five chance of ending reality." Uncle Lu reminded him.


    lights¦­¦Ïvel "Do you even know any of those species? I don''t, so who would miss them when they''re gone? You don''t even know their names." Ranarth countered.


    "And what about the chances that theyer wouldn''t stabilize, and it would ripple all the way across the universe?" Uncle Lu asked, dodging the question.


    "That''s just about guaranteed either way. The ripples have nothing to stop them, as they''re not affected by any knownw of nature in that way. But theyers in this region are dead already, things might shake in the primaryyer here, but there is nothing in the others to be affected, so you''ll never even know that the shockwave passed you by." Ranarth shrugged.


    Uncle Lu never knew that it was possible to miss Nico''s genocidal logic. Compared to Ranarth, she was sweet and innocent as a newborn kitten. When he had suggested the possibility of modifying a few members of the crew to be more efficient, and described the process, using gic maniption and hybridization surgeries, the normally carefree Mecha designer had been so horrified that he couldn''t eat for three days.


    "We are not giving them a weapon that will end reality." Uncle Lu dered in a tone that said he would not be swayed on this topic.


    "What if we don''t tell them? What they don''t know won''t trigger moral outrage." Ranarth suggested helpfully.


    "The answer is still no."


    "Can we at least tweak one or two regiments worth of soldiers? I''ve got some wonderful designs passed down from thest war, and they''re incredibly effective. Some can even permanently destabilize lesser energy beings without using technology." Ranarth asked, getting bored with holding back because other species found his views too extreme.


    "Alright, we can consider that. As long as it is voluntary, and doesn''t cause them to lose their sense of self or free will. But I will need to see all the data on the experiments before you begin." Uncle Lu reluctantly agreed.


    "See, now we''re getting somewhere. But before we start on that, can I fix theb assistant in Section 32B?" Ranarth asked hopefully.


    Uncle Lu checked the section to see what the crazy old alien was talking about and found that there was a Valkia researcher there with a rare gic disorder that their medicine couldn''t cure. It had made his wings grow twisted and stumpy, and he was somewhat misshapen.


    "Fix in what way, exactly?"


    Ranarth smiled at Uncle Lu''s question. "I will make him look and function just like the rest of his species. I''m a bit rusty after some time off from creative flesh art, so a simple reconstructive surgery to put the winged creature back to normal would be the perfect warm up. There''s no risk, it''s so simple that I could have done this with a field medic kit even when I was still a young man."


    They were about to go ask him when an excited Innu ran up to them, waving a data tablet happily over her head.


    "Boss, I did it. The sample chassisponent is stable, and reads within your design specification." She called out as she ran toward them.


    Her team had been working on a new chassis creation method that wouldbine the interlocking atomic bonds of the current monomolecr ship hulls with the increased density of the alloy for the Dyson Sphere, in an attempt to create a material that could give them substantially more durability for any given volume.


    Size mattered quite a bit in any Mecha''s design phase, so if they could make a hollow alloy superstructure that was stronger than the solid one they had now, and preferably even lighter, to reduce the need for gravity negation, it would allow them to do so much more when attempting to packageponents that could not be downsized before they would have topromise on structural integrity or chassis volume.


    Ranarth smiled at Uncle Lu. "The surgery can wait. If we really have a proper design sample, it is going to be an incredible breakthrough. This should be very close to what the ancient humans were using during the war, and your soldiers will finally have Mecha that can stand up to the real enemies of mortal life."


    The ancient Collector chuckled, eagerly anticipating the day when they would be able to get vengeance on the energy beings and the Gods themselves.

 Chapter 1099 1099 Frustration

    Chapter 1099 1099 Frustration


    [Three moreary attacks are reported. All Unknown alien species fleets, and all using variants of the tactics that were employed against them during the previous defence. The Reaver fleets have been joined by the Koleska main battle fleet, leaving only the Anomaly Defence Fleet on standby.


    Reports say that the Android Army is currently in a restocking stage after taking heavy casualties during the effort to retake Romes 7.


    The battle there disabled or destroyed over 70 Destroyer ss vessels between the two sides, including two of the ten included in the Android Army. Both have been recovered by the fleet, with minimal casualties, and repairs are underway to make thembat capable again.]


    Max stared at the report in frustration and sighed.


    Every day for thest three weeks had been the same. More attacks, more units deployed, and more bad news. He had been so busy fielding reports and in meetings regarding the Reavers response to the ongoing hostilities in the Koleska Region that he had barely had time to pay attention to what was going on below him with the dig sites.


    He looked down at the next report.


    [A formal request from the Cruiser Holy Light tomission an upgradedbat capable vessel to join the defence of the Anomaly from the Great Enemy.] The headline read.


    Max skimmed through it, as that was one of the ships belonging to Terminus Trading Company, and while he didn''t prohibit them from going intobat, he didn''t actively pressure them to do it either.


    It looked like a good n, they were requesting Company Loans to support a Destroyer ss orrger vessel, to be primarily manned by Android Soldiers, as was the current trend among the human fleets. They would also have a strong Drone Fighter presence, the hallmark of the Terminus Trading Company, which would take up most of their mortal staff to control.


    So far, so good.


    Then he got to thest lines, where they were requesting a supplemental AI presence, to help with theirbat tactics and drone deployment. Most of the Reavers on board were skilled merchants and mercenaries, not veteran Mecha Pilots with years ofbat training and livebat experience.


    It was possible to program a nascent AI into the ship''sputers. Easier than programming an adaptive program to ount for enemy tactics, in fact. Max also happened to know just the person to take on this task.


    [Approval granted. Proceed to Absolution for construction and assignment of your new vessel.] Max replied, then sent the details to Felicity and the Board of Directors.


    [Felicity, they want abat capable AI to take care of their drones, like the Colony Ship that we made for the Android Army. Can you take care of that? Having them be trained in Mecha tactics and deployment as well would be beneficial, to lead the Android Pilots for the new vessel they havemissioned.] Max requested.


    [Understood Commander. I will get right on it. The specifications seem to be well within our capabilities. Absolution is currently within the outer reaches of an unmapped and uninhabited star system, gathering resources, and we have space in the Terraforming Array schedule reserved for urgent requests of the Company.]


    [Thank you for your understanding. Keep me updated if there are any more relevant developments.]


    With that, he rxed back into his chair and took a break to watch the developments from the surface.


    They were on rey right now, as it was early in the morning, both ship time and on the surface, but that was fine, he hadn''t seen them the first time.


    It was generally dull footage if you weren''t invested in finding out what they had found. Max had already read those reports, but watching them dig them up, clearing the Prairie City, was still somewhat fascinating.


    Plus, they had just finished detailing the outside of the first Pyramid, and they were going to open the chamber that sealed the interior tomorrow, once they had a suitable containment field in ce to ensure that there was no damage to the relics that might be hidden inside.


    Sudden exposure to fresh air could rapidly oxidize and decay many forms of paint and ting that had been preserved in an anaerobic environment, and after the multiple sesses both at the other city, and along the outside of the pyramid, they weren''t willing to risk it.


    That should keep things interesting tomorrow at least.


    Max was in the process of closing down all the data screens in front of him, and had just stood up from his desk to return to his suite when onest new message came in.


    It was a strange time to be getting messages, as most of the Reaver Fleet ran on the same ship time these days, but he opened it anyhow, instead of leaving it for tomorrow as he really wanted to.


    Max settled back into his chair and opened the message.


    Inside was nothing but one simple image. A Mecha, and a hauntingly familiar one at that.


    It was beautiful, red armour ting over a ck humanoid chassis, looking like a proud robotic knight, and equipped with an energy de as well as arge handheld cannon of some sort.


    The details weren''t clear enough to tell what sort of secondary weapons it might have on board, or even what size it was supposed to be, as it was on a custom fit table and the image didn''t show anything else.


    Uncle Lu had gone to great lengths to keep the mystery, while still giving him a sneak peek of what they were working on. But as Max examined it, the small details provided some details anyhow. The Mecha should be roughly fifty metres tall, going by the bolt sizes on the sensor arrays, which were a standard item across most Mecha, for ease of maintenance.


    That would put it on the tall side of the Titan ss Mecha, and logically, it should have a Dyson Sphere power core to drive the weapons systems.


    But with only one primary weapon, it would be a huge waste to use that sort of power on their new variable beam weapon systems, unless it was designed to take out kilometres wide swathes of enemies with every shot.


    Knowing Uncle Lu, that was a possibility, but it wasn''t all that practical in arge-scale battle. The risk of friendly fire was too high.


    As Max examined the image, another message came in.


    [The final design will bepleted and ready for pickup in 48 hours.]

 Chapter 1100 1100 Unsustainable

    Chapter 1100 1100 Unsustainable


    The next morning, Max woke up to Nico using his chest as a tray table for her data tablet as she draped herself across him. She had moved his arm to support her back, so Max gave her backside a squeeze to let her know he was up, and she giggled at him.


    "Look at the morning reports. We''ve got nine new attacks today, including both Myceloids and the lesser energy beings, but still, there is no sign of the Cathedral Ships.


    Something is going on over there, and it''s bothering me not to know what it is.


    Why would they leave such arge part of their force out? Why are the Energy Beings only bing involved now? They should have been there from the start, since their numbers are essentially unlimited.


    Did the Myceloids jump the gun because they were so eager to fight again? Or was there another n that fell through?" Nico rambled as she brought up various images and maps to exin to Max what had been going on recently, and how she saw them tying together.


    "Just the fact that the Cathedral Ships aren''t there is enough cause for concern. Theyprised thergest portion of the fleet during the first wave, so what we are seeing now is more of an expeditionary force.


    It seems like they''re scouting for weaknesses, but they''remitting to full assaults instead of probing attacks that would let them know where to send their fleet. I agree, we''re missing something important, and we''re not grasping their actual intention." Max replied.


    "Worse, it''s already beyond the capacity of the species on that side of the Anomaly to sustain their territory. They''re spread too thin, and they''re unable to recover fast enough. The Reaver Council has sent fifty more assault fleets to the conflict this week, but eighty new battlefronts have opened, while only seven were resolved."


    If the enemy was attacking faster than the humans could respond, something would have to change. The nearby species would do their best, but with everyone under attack, they were soon going to run out of allies to call on.


    "What else can we do to get this under control?" Max wondered out loud.


    "We could appeal to the Alliance and see if they are willing to send more people in. The Reaver Council is already considering sending entirely AI-driven fleets to war, to save on casualties. That''s the sort of situation that we''re in."


    Max sighed. "That''s a terrible idea, and everyone knows it. Without a biological override, the AI won''t be able to tell if its code gets corrupted. It could well go berserk or be infected and turn against its allies."


    Nico nodded. "That is true. But who else are we going to send? The defence forces from our own systems? There aren''t that many others left after the civil war and the chaos that followed. The armies that humanity had are all on guard, the Vampires don''t have much of an army to begin with, and the Narsians are basically missing in action.


    I haven''t seen a report of them attacking a in the better part of a year now, but nobody has dared to go to their side of the Gxy and find out what they''re up to. I think everyone is just too happy that they stopped to go there and tempt fate."


    "Did you get the message from Uncle Lu?" Max asked.


    Nicoughed, shaking with mirth as shey across his body, and then opened up the file that Uncle Lu had sent her.


    While the one that Max got was hyper focused to reduce reference materials, the one she got had a deliberately ced water droplet on the camera lens, so it was all distorted and hazy.


    "Oh, he did a good job on that one. It''spletely blocked out the little details that I managed to identify on mine." Maxughed.


    Nico had already essed his mail to see if he got a better image, so she knew what it looked like, and both of them were already making ns to excuse themselves and get back to Rae 5 tomorrow so that they could pick up the new Mecha.


    "Do you think that they''re keeping the Cathedral Ships in reserve for when we show up with something more deadly than they''re prepared for? It would make sense, if they''re treating the rest of the fleet like expendable pawns." Nico suggested.


    Max nodded. "I think they might be. But we''ve sent some new toys there already, and a truly unreasonable number of androids and drones. I was thinking that they would go for them and start bringing out the big guns, but it doesn''t look like it''s working.


    We''re either going to have to do something drastic or wait until they make the first move, and I really don''t like the idea of that."


    Being on the defensive was never the best option, but currently they didn''t have a way to take the battle to the enemy, and their allies were already fighting everywhere that they could feasibly defend.


    The weaker species were already giving up territory, and moving to share territory with other species to increase the total defences of their region, and hopefully limit the chances that they would be wiped out entirely before anyone could spare a fleet to assist them.


    But the real enemy, the Greater Energy Beings, still hadn''t made an appearance, and their locations were unknown, even to the Arisen and the Darklings, who Ranarth assured them had been searching for them to dig them out and ambush them.


    What one ship couldn''t do, a hundred could, and if they managed to catch one off guard, they could cripple the capabilities of the Great Enemy before they ever saw the battlefield.


    "How about we announce that we''ve got an important but utterly boring political meeting back home, so we can let Terminus work without worrying about what we''re up to? Most of the news about the other side of the Anomaly doesn''t make it to the Alliance media, so they have no reason for concern, and we can hope that theye up with something useful before it''s time to send the majority of the fleet to war?" Nico suggested, drawing Max''s thoughts away from what the Greater Energy Beings were up to.


    "That''s not a bad idea. I wille up with a good excuse, and you can prep the yacht for the trip back. I will meet you there in an hour."

 Chapter 1101 1101 Rejected

    <h4>Chapter 1101 1101 Rejected</h4>


    Max sent a brief message to the staff of Terminus that they would be leaving within the hour for a political summit with the Anomaly Representatives, and then started to double-check the gear that he had in his t space storage.


    If things did go wrong, he didn''t want to be caught unprepared, and unlike Nico, he couldn''t go for a month or more without eating. The ship would have plenty of material for the Replicators, but Max liked to at least have a week''s worth of rations in his storage, just in case, along with his weapons, Mobile Suit, and a few changes of clothes.


    That was about all that would fit, and packing it all in there took some skill, but he was satisfied that he had enough to get through most situations that mighte up during their trip back to Rae 5 this time.


    With that done, Max headed for the rear of the ship, where Nico should be getting things ready. She was in the hangar, where he expected her to be, but not preparing the yacht. She had started stocking the Cutter for their excursion, on the hopes that they really would be able to pick up a load of new Mecha on this trip, or that they were Titan ss, which wouldn''t fit easily in the smaller vessel.


    The old researcher could have just been teasing them with the pictures, and the chances that he had a significantly modified Mecha in such a short time was fairly low, even if they did have a new power source, but it was better to be safe than sorry, and Nico was taking no chances when it came to the possibility of a new custom Mecha.


    Terminus opened a portal for them to get halfway back, the extent of the Portal Array''s range, and then Max set course for an uninhabited ry point within the Alliance, where they could open the final portal to Rae 5.


    It was an odd feeling, being so far out that they had to use multiple jumps to get where they were going, but the entire process only took a few minutes with the upgraded Warp Drives on the Cutters, which could charge the Portal generator much faster than the first generation.


    [Rae 5 Moon Base, this is Nico Tarith of the Terminus Trading Company, requesting permission to dock a cutter ss vessel.] Nico reported once they were back in the Rae 5 system.


    There was a short pause, and then the traffic controller''s confused voice came back to them.


    [Terminus Trading Company, the Moon Base reports no functional empty docks. Please remain in orbit over the or make your way to the world ship Absolution for docking.]


    Max listened to the nearby workers'' thoughts, looking for Uncle Lu among the crowd. There were definitely open docks, and they were both working and staffed, but it seemed that they had arrived early and Uncle Lu didn''t want to let them in until their surprise was ready.


    Finding a single person among the crowd wasn''t easy, but Ranarth''s mind stood out like a beacon of mental fortitude, which let him pinpoint the Darkling right away, and then track down Uncle Lu by proximity.


    They were still six hours frompletion of the first unit, and the second hadn''t even begun production yet. There had been serious dys with the Replicator systems, and a number of overloaded rys when they attempted to create the exotic materials for the project.


    Max pressed the transmit button to respond to the traffic controller.


    [Understood traffic control. We will return to Absolution and await clearance from the Moon Base.]


    Nico gave him an annoyed look for that, as she had been intending on hacking the doors to a bay tond, but Max''s reassuring look settled her down.


    "They''re not ready, are they?" She realized.


    "Not for another six hours at best, and that''s if nothing else goes wrong. I don''t know all the details, but whatever they''ve made this project out of keeps killing the Terraforming Arrays and even the custom Replicators that we designed for the Dyson Sphere." Max agreed.


    "See, that just makes me want to go there even more." Nico reminded him.


    "Let them save some face, and get it right before we show up to look at it. They''ll get it, we just need to wait a little bit." Maxughed as they approached the curved hull of the World Ship.


    "Waiting has always been the hardest part. But at least I''ll be back with the research team for a few hours, I''m sure they can find some way to distract me." Nicoined.


    "Tell them that we need a new drone configuration. That should keep you busy all day." Max suggested.


    "A configuration to do what?" Nico asked, curious where he was going with this line of thought.


    "Automated point defence for the new custom Mecha. They''re clearly valuable and difficult to rece, so they are going to need wingmen even if we''re out on a mission alone. That means a versatile multipurpose drone configuration." Max replied with a smile.


    There was no possible configuration that could do everything at the same time, so they would be busy all day just trying to decide what aspects were the most important, while guessing what sorts of missions the new Mecha would be on.


    Nico smiled at him. "Excellent idea. I will get the coffee, and we will get right to work. Expect wonderful things by the time that we are finished."


    Max docked the ship while Nico sent messages to the design teams to get them started on the new project, with the understanding that it was a one-day creativity exercise, not a priority. If they didn''te up with something good, she would just have them swap out the drones between missions as they always had so that they had the right ones for the situation.


    Max went for a much more simple afternoon. He returned to themon area of the Cutter, grabbed snacks from the replicator and settled into a reclining chair, where he put his feet up to watch aedy. Three hours down, no problem.

 Chapter 1102 1102 Now They鈥檙e Ready

    <h4>Chapter 1102 1102 Now They''re Ready</h4>


    It wasn''t until the next day at nearly noon that they finally got an official update from Uncle Lu.


    [Due to some technical difficulties with the new material production process, we have been unavoidably dyed. Production of the second unit is expected to take at least one more day, though the first unit will soon be ready for its final testing.]


    "I knew the old man wasn''t reliable. I should have barged in anyhow and made him work." Nicoined when she saw the message.


    The researcher beside her gave the angry cyborg a hug. "There''s nothing you could do, the problem is with the power system in the Moon Base, you see. Look here, we have been monitoring the energy fluctuations like you asked, and it looks like the material replicator systems keep going into thermal overload.


    That sends the cooling system to full capacity to bring them back online, and then the whole power grid fluctuates when they''re both running at maximum capacity. It''s a maic field interference issue that seems to have been caused by the upgrades to the Materials Replicators."


    "Bah, unintended side effects are the bane of my existence." Nico muttered as she looked down at the drone that they had developed.


    It was a masterpiece of technology, equipped with six flexible dendrites from the tech adept harness, and both the new pattern variable disruptor and a six lensser emitter.


    In addition, the arms were equipped with both grappling hands and a small gravity beam emitter to hold objects in ce around them. Then, the body held a full Mecha Repair toolkit, as well-equipped as any repair rack, and a small replicator.


    That way it could produce parts, bombs, or even spy drones if necessary.


    While it wasn''t a master at any particr task, it would be capable enough at most of them to be sent out as a general purpose support unit on its own.


    It only needed one final touch.


    "How is the work to miniaturize the Void Shield generatoring along?" Nico asked the workers of team three.


    "Fairly well. We''ve cut the size in half and the shield remains at full efficiency. We''re just starting another round of miniaturization now. Hopefully, the materials hold up to the power flow, but if they do, then this should fit the packaging requirement for the avable space in the drone." The team leader responded.


    The full drone was only three metres long, so there wasn''t a lot of room inside of it to begin with, even after the smallest avable Antimatter Core was used to power it.


    That meant that the drones alsocked a Warp Drive, with the space sacrificed to more weaponry and the material storage for the bomb bay, but Nico was considering adding a dorsal fin to hold the Warp Nacelle.


    That actually gave her a great idea. She could repackage the drone to look like a shark, then she could have killer attack drones flying around her and biting the enemy before sting them apart with the disruptor. It would stop the enemy from running away, and it would free up the prehensile dendrites to be used as tentacles.


    Yes, the killer shark drone with six tentacles was the perfect drone.


    Once she added the warp nacelle to the top of the hull and began to ce the dendrites where the front fins would normally be located, Nico became more sure that she had the perfect design.


    Even if she needed to sacrifice some of itspact size to make the lines flow a bit better, it should be fine.


    "If we''re going for sea creatures, why not a crab? The dendrites could be the legs, and you could add a pair of crushing ws up front." One of the researchers suggested.


    Nico paused for a moment. Crabs weren''t scary, but they were well suited to the task of working on Mecha, with their wide bodies to help them holdrge parts. Arge domed top would also give them more room for a Void Shield emitter.


    "That''s a wonderful idea. Let me finish this addition to the shark, and then we can start working on a crab drone." Nico agreed with great pleasure.


    The researchers further back in the room sighed. She had been bored all day, and she had just gotten bad news, so they knew that nobody was going to bed until Lead Researcher Nico had her crab drone on the table in front of her.


    The first, and most obvious thing to do was to study various crab species, to see what one they wanted their drones to look like.


    The clear divide was ornamental and aggressive crabs versus food species. Because being attacked and torn apart by a food species just seemed so much funnier that arge portion of the crew was unwilling to let the idea go.


    Finally, they decided on the Dumont Emperor Crab. It was glistening red on top, with a pale bottom the colour of dead coral, or a white sand beach, which matched well with the usual colour scheme for Terminus Trading Company Mecha, other than the ones which now had adaptive camouge paint on them.


    But its ws and lower legs were glimmering gold, a shiny counterpart that made them look like an Emperor walking with their red cloak billowing behind them.


    The shape was close to the usual oval of most crab species, so it was fairly simple to package the necessary parts inside, and the extra shell space allowed them to mount a split warp nacelle down the outer ridges of their top armour.


    The actual species was only the size of a man''s hand, but the drones were three metres across, and the legs could extend out to five metres from the single metre of their retracted position. The drones could also be conveniently stacked, and made ready for transport.


    Overall, Nico was very proud of their support drones, and was looking forward to seeing the look on Max''s face when he actually saw them for the first time.

 Chapter 1103 1103 VIP Service

    Chapter 1103 1103 VIP Service


    Max stood in the middle of the researchb, surrounded by the new drones, with an amused look on his face.


    "So, this is your n? To overrun the enemy with crabs? I would have expected sharks, to be honest." Hemented in a dry tone that didn''t match the amused look on his face.


    The researcher on his right burst intoughter at hisment. "That was Nico''s first idea, but the crabs are much more versatile, and the body shape makes them better as repair bots for the Mecha. They''re quite versatile, and we did our best to equip them for everything we could think of."


    They began ordering the drones to bring out the various tools that they had equipped them with, and showing off their various assets. It was impressive, and Max saw a lot of potential for the killer crustaceans in the future.


    "They can be useful in other ways as well. They''re Warp capable, so they can be used as recovery drones for disabled units, and they''ve got a Void Shield, the newly developed defensive technology from the Rae 5bs. They just wrap their legs around the disabled Mecha like this, and then they can carry them to safety." The researcher exined as one of the drones moved to wrap itself around the chest of a Mecha shaped dummy along the wall.


    "Impressive. But the Mecha doesn''t need to be disabled for that. If you have them move to that defensive position and sync their systems with the Mecha, they can serve as a supplemental defence for a crippled but offensively capable unit." He noted.


    The researchers all lit up with excitement, and they ran off to their stations to program that capability into the drones, as it had been overlooked in their list of things that a drone might be needed for.


    Normally, a unit like that was treated as disabled, and removed from the front lines to save the Pilot''s life. But if they could just put up a whole new shield and use the drone as an armour te to protect the cockpit, there really was no reason the Mecha couldn''t keep fighting as long as its weapons were still online.


    The code only took a few minutes to update, but they still almost missed the iing message from the Moon Base. A cargo shuttle wasing their way with a transfer, and the code said it was requesting to dock at their bay, and not the usualmercial docks.


    That must be the gift from Uncle Lu that they had been waiting on, and the excitement in the room was intense, with so many fully caffeinated workers in one spot.


    Then a private message from Uncle Lu arrived.


    [I will be sending you a courier with private documents for your perusal. Please inform me of your decision on the matters discussed within.]


    It was a simple and straightforward message, unlikely to cause any suspicion if it was intercepted, but in context, it was highly unusual for Uncle Lu to be so secretive when he knew that Nico was monitoring the channel and would both secure themunication and delete all traces of its existence once it was read.


    The cargo shuttle docked a few minutester,nding in the empty bay next to the researchb, and Max led Nico and the team over to greet the new arrival.


    An android stepped out of the shuttle. "Commanders, wee. We have a delivery for you."


    Max nodded politely, and the android activated the cargo transport system, slowly ejecting a crate thatpletely filled the cargo hold, before closing the cargo bay door and bowing formally to them.


    "The delivery isplete, please sign the delivery sheet and I shall be on my way." The android informed them.


    Max signed the form with a thumbprint and the android returned to the shuttle, then immediately requested clearance to return to the moon base.


    It was all very mundane for a standard cargo delivery, even though it had been delivered to a reserved bay, but nobody outside Absolution would realize that, as the bay directly below it was one of the regrly used cargo bays.


    Once the shuttle was gone, Nico cheerfully poked the encrypted lock''s keypad with one finger on each hand and the crate hissed with the release of inert Nitrogen gas, the standard packing process for most shipments, as it would prevent oxidization of the cargo.


    Inside were two shiny red and bone coloured Mecha on repair racks, waiting to be turned upright so that they could be fully inspected.


    "Oh, that was kind of him, he even included the repair racks so we didn''t have to make our own. That makes my life so much easier." Nico noted as she shrugged into a Tech Adept Harness and floated up to take a good look at the units.


    Max activated the room''s crane totch to the hoist points on the repair racks and stand the Mecha up one at a time, letting them sit along the wall, but with enough room behind them to inspect the backs before they were moved to the other bay.


    They barely fit inside the fifty-metre tall bay, and if the shoulder weapons were deployed and not tucked behind their backs, they would not fit at all without crouching. None of the usual Mecha transport ships were equipped for a unit this tall, and although it was sparsely equipped by most standards, Max could tell that this was a truly formidable unit.


    "Oh, look at this. The power systems are all independent, but redundantly linked. The Warp Drive can be used for shields or weapons, but both are independently powered by their own Dyson Sphere. Theyer shift function operates off the Shield array, so the weapon won''t ever have to share power output. I like it. Taking these units offline will not be easy." Nicomented.


    With the new armour made from thepressed monomolecr ting, taking them offline would be nearly impossible by most standards. That material was impervious to the weapons of ny percent of the species they had met.


    "I think that these will do just fine." Max agreed.

 Chapter 1104 1104 Messenger

    Chapter 1104 1104 Messenger


    The new Mecha were spectacr in every way that could be hoped for. Even the interior of the units was designed for pure luxury, allowing the Pilot to live infort indefinitely while operating in every known environment.


    The only thing that was bothering Max was theck of additional weaponry. When the unit was swarmed in closebat, it would have limited options for self-defence, and we had gotten quite used to working a dozen or more weapons at a time.


    Plus, if the main weapon was damaged, the unit would be in a horrible position.


    But as he examined the Mecha, and the maximum power output it was capable of, Max realized that it had more avable capacity than the Terraforming Array did. If the main weapon was damaged, he could use it for materials and rebuild it in seconds with the avable power from the weapon''s power source.


    It was an entirely different way of thinking about Mecha maintenance. Instead of simply being able to patch its own armour, the unit couldpletely and constantly rebuild itself out of the surrounding materials.


    If he were fighting on a, the enemy would have to destroy the unit in under thirty seconds, or it would be at full capacity again. In a lower damage situation, it would appear as if the unit were alive and constantly healing, as impact craters and gouges inflicted inbat would rapidly close themselves and return to pristine condition.


    Max could only imagine how freaky that would be for their opponents, but in a way the Greater Energy beings were the same. They also healed rapidly from damage done to them, as their bodies were incorporeal, and they only had to absorb suitable energy, like the lesser energy beings that they always had in their forces, to replenish their own lives.


    It was a bad time to be a member of the Cathedral Ship''s force. Not only would their leader be consuming their allies if it was wounded, their new enemies would be consuming their corpses as materials to regenerate.


    It was a battle of the gluttonous, and Max hoped that they could track down the Greater Energy Beings before they managed to finish whatever plot they had that was keeping the Cathedral Ships off the battlefield.


    As Max thought about the convoluted ns of the Gods and their Energy Beings, he sensed another mind on the same train of thought nearby. Ranarth was also pondering what the Great Enemy was up to, but he seemed to know more than Max did.


    The Darkling was too far away for him to dig deeper, and he was quickly distracted by what appeared to be the muttion of a Valkia corpse. No, that wasn''t right. The man was still alive as Ranarth cut him apart and reconstructed all his bones. If the Valkia had been aware of all of this, he would surely have been mentally broken, and the only assistants who had the stomach for the process were Androids, so Ranarth was the only conscious mind in the room.


    He had a clear n in mind, to rebuild the man into a healthy adult man, and undo the degeneration that had been caused by a developmental disorder in his childhood.


    The old man would have been happier if the subject had been awake and without anaesthesia, but he knew that Uncle Lu would have never approved of such a thing, so he was making do with what he could, to prove that he had the skills to create their own super soldiers tobat the Cathedral Fleet.


    As disturbing as his thought process was, Ranarth was actually being helpful, so Max left him to his work without notifying anyone, and finished his examination of the Mecha.


    [Commander, there is an alien man here to see you. He says he is a messenger sent from the Moon Base, but he just appeared out of nowhere.] The guard outside the research department notified Max, stopping his work.


    [Send him in. I was expecting a messenger.] Max agreed, and went to meet their messenger.


    If Uncle Lu didn''t feel safe putting it in a digital message, it must be an important topic and not something that should be put off by even a few minutes.


    The door slid open, revealing a young Darkling woman in battle armour with her helmet off, showing her angr features, and the pale skin of her people, which looked more like marble than flesh.


    "Greetings Commander. I have a message from the one known as Ranarth for you." She informed him in a tone that said she would rather be anywhere but here.


    Her thoughts said it was just a personal distaste for Ranarth as a person, so Max didn''t take it personally, but he could tell that Nico was wondering what the woman''s problem was.


    "This was recovered from our ancient records, and Ranarth added a personal message to it. I assume you are capable of tranting?" She asked, as she produced a Darkling made data tablet and handed it over to Max.


    "I am. Both from ancient humannguages and the various Collector Dialects." Max agreed, and the woman''s gruff attitude turned a bit more friendly.


    "There are events happening all over the universe that we have been tracking, but these ones should rte to you directly. But I have work to do, so I will bid you farewell." She announced, and then tapped amand into her armour and vanished.


    Nico smirked at the spot where the messenger had disappeared and then sighed.


    "That''s such a cool trick. She activated a personal cloaking field at the same moment as a Portal generator, so that the two energy signatures would scramble each other and our sensors wouldn''t be able to tell where she went.


    I''m actually pretty jealous of that one. I know exactly what she did, and I have no idea how she did it. Neither of those technologies are among our repertoire, even though we have ones that can create simr effects." She exined.


    "You can wonder about thatter. We''ve got enough things to do today without trying to redesign personal cloaking field technology based on a messenger." Max reminded her with a gentle hug from behind.


    "You''re right. Let''s see what this message says before I get off track."

 Chapter 1105 1105 Bad News

    Chapter 1105 1105 Bad News


    Max opened the message and went straight to the personal message from Ranarth. The information from the ancient records that he had dug up could wait until the urgent part of themunication was over.


    [Commanders, I have located the missing Cathedral Ship fleets. Or at least some of them.


    They have gathered outside the Alliance territory, using the fact that the otheryers are dead in this region as a way to hide from detection by my people. We can''t sneak up on them through the subyers here, so they have gathered in the vast expanse, a region where there are no stars, much less any inhabited worlds, to stage for what I can only assume is an attack.


    How they got there is not yet clear, and with their limited Warp Speed capability, it will take nearly a week for them to get to the Alliance once they start moving.


    They are not in the same direction as your exploration vessel, rest assured they should be safe for the moment, but the Alliance and the humans'' gxy will be hit very nearly the same time. I have put a map in thismunication, as well as the details of how we learned of the Great Enemy''s presence.


    Additionally, I have included arge amount of new information that was sent to me on ancient human manufacturing techniques. I have shared this with the man known as Uncle Lu as well, but it should prove essential to your efforts to expand your fleet using new technologies.


    Best of luck.]


    Max shared a concerned look with Nico, and opened the attached file, detailing the Great Enemy''s presence outside the Anomaly Region, and noticed the headline.


    [Data gathered after analysis of suspicious signal from within Alliance Territory.]


    The thought that there might have been embedded moles within the Alliance, despite the fact that they hadn''t been anywhere near the fighting during thest rounds of battle, was deeply concerning, and the information that they had only identified the source of the signal down to a star system with three inhabiteds and a few asteroid mining colonies that turned out cheap goods for trade.


    The system was an independent colony within the Alliance, it didn''t belong to any particr species or their Empires, and the governing body was locally voted upon. There wasn''t arge group that immediately stood out to Max as the likely culprits, but that also meant it could have been an imnted cultist, if some of the enemy ships had escaped through the Anomaly the Hunters were guarding before it had been closed.


    In fact, it was possible that this whole fleet had been waiting the whole time, and they had only just now detected them, thanks to an intercepted signal.


    It was a nightmare in the making, and the Alliance wasn''t prepared to take on any sort of invasion fleet, much less the Cathedral Ships. But the most important question was how they had gotten there.


    Was there an Anomaly out there somewhere? Had theye from the other side of the expanse? If the Anomaly Region was actually on the other side of that, outside the range of their sensors or blocked from view, it was possible that they had actually gone as far as they could in the otheryers and then came out where they were now to wait.


    Nico had already forwarded the message through a direct transfer to themunications devices of the Envoys here aboard Absolution so that they could get up to speed on the threat to the Alliance before any attacks urred, but they would need time to verify it with their own sensors, so Max turned his attention to the other data.


    What he found was a museum worthy treasure trove of information on ancient humanity. Though, considering the source, it could very well havee from a museum, where it was long since forgotten and tucked into a disused file server.


    It was mostly mundane things, random bits of technology that the researcher had found interesting about human culture, as well as somemon items that were used daily. Max got the feeling that this collection was supposed to be something of a "Day in the Life" sort of exhibit, but it was proving to be quite enlightening to see how they had solved various engineering issues in the past, even if their technology was very different to what he was used to in this life.


    The more he saw of it, the more hidden memories from his past life it triggered, which helped him understand the ancient technologies that he recognized, but he also quickly realized that the Darklings had no sense of time.


    Some of these items that they had lumped together were tens of thousands of years apart in development and use. They had virtually nothing at all inmon, not even the power supply that fed them waspatible. The humans simply evolved and adapted too quickly for the Darklings record keeping to sort out.


    But it was the thought that counted, and once they finished with the more pressing issues, Max would be sure to get back to this massive trove of data to try to adapt more goodies from it to their current lineup.


    "Did you find anything good?" Max called over to Nico once he decided that the data could wait forter.


    "A few things, but nothing all that revolutionary. There''s too much to really go through it all at once, and it''s not sorted in any sort of logical order. They numbered it by the order that it arrived at their facility, when the previous facility was dmissioned."


    The researchers looked like they might cry at that news. They took record keeping very seriously, and the mere thought of just organizing random data by the order that the data packets arrived was something close to sphemy in their eyes.


    "Don''t worry, we will let you fix the records when you have some spare time. Just pick an organizational method before you start." Max assured them.


    "Thanks? I mean, yes, we really don''t want the data to stay that way, but can we volunteer someone else to do it?" One of the Innu replied.


    "Yeah, like one of the Giants." Another agreed.


    Max chuckled and smiled at them.


    "If you can con one into doing it, feel free."

 Chapter 1106 1106 Taking it Well

    Chapter 1106 1106 Taking it Well


    It didn''t take long for all the Alliance''s top government officials to get updated on the situation once their border sensors determined that it was not a ruse, a prank or a false signal. There really was a massive army amassed outside their borders, and the only two groups that they could possibly be gathering to attack were the humans and the Alliance.


    Both of them were lousy options, as the human''s Gxy was too close to the Alliance to ensure their safety if there was an issue.


    The Cathedral Ships'' fleet was massive, and they weren''t sure that even the mighty armies of the humans could actually defend against something like that. The thought had the Alliance leadership in a panic, just as much as the idea that they might also be a target.


    If the humans fell first, then they wouldn''t have them to call on as backup if they were attacked afterwards, but their agreement didn''t mandate that they would get involved in a situation between the two groups.


    It was clear that the humans hadn''t attacked first, so no part of the agreement had been breached, but their mutual defence agreements only extended as far as including their own members.


    The only issue with that was that while they weren''t obligated to help the humans, the humans weren''t obligated to help them either. As a muchrger political faction, epassing more gxies than the humans had factions within their single gctic empire, the Alliance should theoretically be the much stronger force.


    But they had been at peace for so long that they had virtually no standing army, and certainly not enough to defend hundreds or thousands ofs from full-scale invasions at the same time.


    Max did his best not tough as he listened to the Envoys'' conversations through their thoughts. The politicians were adamant that they didn''t want to have to ask for help, but they were also adamant that they wouldn''t draft or mandate any of theirs to raise additional military forces.


    [Then what exactly are you proposing, Minister?] The Giant envoy was asking in frustration.


    [Can''t we make them go away? We haven''t had any interactions with them in the past, there is no reason for them to be hostile.] The minister replied.


    Max shook his head in dismay at the idiocy of a politician toofortable in their own luxury to make any sort of hard decision.


    [They are not going to go away, Minister. They hold a somewhat religious belief that they need to eliminate all other life in the universe to please their gods. They will not be dissuaded from that goal, and their allies are currently waging war on hundreds of others.] The Valkia Envoy reminded the person on the other end of the call.


    The other end of the call seemed to withdraw from the microphones for a moment, as the Envoys couldn''t understand what they were saying, and then they returned with a proposal.


    [As this is a universal threat, perhaps we could ask for a cooperative effort? We will offer one unit for every ten they field to defend their own nation, if they will do the same for us.] One of the ministers suggested.


    It was aughable suggestion, and that was precisely the response that they got from the Envoys. The very thought that they would field a tenth of the Alliance''s military might to defend a hundred or more gxies when they had only one of their own was likely to get them thrown out of whatever office they presented the idea from.


    [Ministers, you have to give us something to work with here. The humans already know that we''recking in military forces, and they''re going to expect that we put in at least some effort to save ourselves if we n to ask them to sacrifice millions on our behalf.] The Valkia Envoy demanded as he lost patience with the politicians.


    [What would you have us do? Implement the draft? Militarize police forces? The Alliance is not a colonialist Empire, Envoy. You, of all people, should know that.] The politician replied.


    [This isn''t colonialism, it is survival. Look at the data from thest round of attacks, less than a year ago. Trillions dead in under a month. Do you think that you can escape the responsibility if such a thing happens in the Alliance? Forget your career, you would be lucky to have a family and home world to return to by the time the hearings were done.]


    The Valkia was definitely mad now, and the conversation went quiet for a moment before a new voice joined the call.


    [I agree with the Envoy, we cannot simply ignore the need to increase security measures in a time of crisis. We are being threatened with extinction, and the enemy has the ability to enforce it. The relevant regtions and amendments are in every Alliance''s agreements, we must start increasing our military force.


    The question is, if we have the technology to defeat them without taking uneptable numbers of casualties that will cause widespread rebellion among thes.] The new voice suggested.


    The Innu Envoy was the next to speak. [We have some technologies that are suitable, but the losses will still be past the standardized threshold.]


    The voice on the other side sighed. [Alright, what do you suggest, as the Envoy for the Innu, who are the primary developers of our military technology.]


    The voice didn''t seem to like the Innu as a group, and the reference to the species carried a heavy dose of disdain, but the Envoy was used to it.


    [I suggest that we outsource. There hasn''t been an approved proposal to update our military technnology in nearly a millennia, so there are many designs both in the private sector and outside the Alliance that exceed what our current military suppliers can provide.]


    [Alright, we will open requisitions, and judge them by the standard cost to effectiveness ratio. The suppliers will need to understand the scale of the project, and have some solution to provide us with enough units to sustainbat capability. Thank you for your time, Envoys.]


    With that, the call ended, and Max waited patiently for the Envoys to finish organizing their notes and send him a formal notification. All that was left was to talk to Nico and Mary and see what they had in mind to steal away these military contracts.

 Chapter 1107 1107 Naturally

    <h4>Chapter 1107 1107 Naturally</h4>


    The message from the Envoys was short and to the point.


    [Commander, a delicate matter hase up, and we require your insight at your urgent convenience.]


    The message that received from Mary Tarith only seconds after that was a bit less subtle.


    [Max, we are in the process of a hostile takeover of sixty different intergctic military suppliers. Stall the Envoys for one hour and it will be a done deal.]


    That shouldn''t be too difficult to do, as they were likely to have a lot to talk about, and he could get them lost in the details for a while before anything significant came up.


    [I will do my best. They have already requested an urgent meeting, and getting that arranged should burn the first thirty minutes. Send me the list as you have them finalized.]


    [Will do. I expect great things.]


    Max did a quick search and found that the sixtypanies that Mary was talking about were likely to be the sixty publicly tradedpanies whose stock prices had all tanked over thest few decades, as military demand stagnated, and they had too manypetitors for the demand.


    Most of them had resorted to also making other products, but the ones that Max could pick out of the list should give Mary and her business partners production facilities in nearly two thousand new star systems.


    That would definitely be enough to put them on the map as a major military supplier, and they would have reasonable coverage all through the Alliance, including on the front lines of the uing conflict.


    If the enemy couldn''t disappear into the otheryers, they could be intercepted with rtive ease, as long as the defenders had enough firepower to deal with the groups they picked.


    Max sent the location of one of the private office buildings in the political district on the otherwise unused upper level, and arranged to meet them there in 30 minutes. Even for an urgent matter, that was a reasonable dy, and gave him time to shower and change then get to the location, while those on the far side of the ship would only just be able to get there on time.


    The Envoys'' mood was sombre as they checked in through security to get into the offices, and Max activated the white noise audio in the public areas before closing the soundproof doors and marking the whole wing of the office building as being in use.


    "I suspect that there are many things that we need to discuss today, but let''s start with the simple ones. How have things been here on Absolution? I know you''ve been flooded with work rted to all the new developments from the Rae 5 Moon Base, and the issues in the Anomaly Region, but was there anything that you arecking, or something that you would like changed to make your lives easier?" Max asked.


    "I would appreciate it if we were actively kept in the loop." The Giant muttered, and Max gave him a curious look, sensing only annoyance in his thoughts.


    The Innu Envoy smiled at her huge coworker. "We got the announcement that the Reavers had actively started to buy up military suppliers five minutes before we got the memo that there was a massive force of ships gathered outside our borders, with the Alliance as the only obvious target other than the lone Gxy of the humans."


    Max smiled at her and raised his hands in surrender. "They were the ones that found the threat, I suppose that it''s understandable that they started to make their own preparations before they let everyone else know."


    The Innu nodded in understanding. Of course, you should make sure that your own house was secure before you went around telling everyone else to secure theirs. That was justmon sense to her.


    The Giant still looked a bit annoyed, though. "And now that they are thergest single military equipment supplier in the known universe, how are we supposed to exin the threat to the popce and still maintain our credibility?"


    "Easy, you let them look at the markets tomorrow and realize what happened for themselves. If you hadn''t already been keeping an eye on their transactions, would the purchases have raised any rms with you?" Max asked.


    The Giant nodded. "Actually, it would have. The first message that we got was a notification from the Monopoly Prevention Monitor, who monitorsrge changes within an industry sector for attempts to buy outrge numbers ofpetitors."


    "That makes sense. Did Mary run afoul of the regtions? She''s usually pretty cautious about such things." Max asked.


    "No, as of this moment, her group controls forty-seven percent of the total market, as the Reaver Council Holdings Company. Until they bypass fifty percent, they are free to continue their acquisitions without restrictions."


    Max made a note of hisment and pulled up the relevant regtions from the Alliance legal guide.


    "Alright, so it looks like these will be thest of the weapons manufacturers that the Reavers will be able to buy, as the regtions count all the Reaver Companies as one overarching entity for the purposes ofpetition."


    The Valkia smiled. "Don''t you think that they might be able to find one or two more that are in tough spots?"


    Max chuckled and shook his head. "By tomorrow, the rebound in stock prices will throw the industry into chaos and the regtors will be reassessing the production potential of our purchases, based on the standards of the other Reaver owned businesses. I can almost guarantee that will push us past half, and we will be fettered by the anti-monopoly legition."


    The assistants with the Giant began to run numbers while everyone waited patiently for them to finish. They handed over a single data tablet to the Giant Envoy, whose eyes opened wide in shock as he stared at them.


    "Those numbers should be right. If the existing businesses converted to Reaver weapon patents, the resultant decrease in the current backlog would increase their total sales by 1438 percent for the month, and with no increase in order volume, would put them at fifty-four percent total market share.


    If they were to get the new weapons contracts, or even a portion of them, that would increase, and the likely panic buying by non-governmental forces could drive that number much higher." The assistant exined.


    "Feth." The Giant mumbled, borrowing a human phrase.


    The Innu nodded in agreement. "I suppose that this is the wrong point to mention that they would naturally begin an ad campaign to promote their expanded capacity, and all the non-military manufacturing capacity that they have amassed."


    The Giant rubbed his temples. "Alright, I get it. They cherry-picked the best value and stopped when they thought they had enough to crush thepetition. Now, should we move on with the actual reason we are here?"


    Max checked the clock. They were getting close to the hour that Mary had asked for, but the Envoys had already seen through her power y before they even arrived, so it didn''t seem like a big deal to get started on the actual negotiations now.


    "Alright, let''s get to work."

 Chapter 1108 1108 Rudely Interrrupted

    <h4>Chapter 1108 1108 Rudely Interrrupted</h4>


    They were just starting to get ready for the serious negotiations when everyone''smunicators started to go insane with a flood of urgent messages. The Cathedral Ships that they had been watching had suddenly disappeared from their sensors, going to Warp and too far away for their movements to be tracked, though there were projections based on the initial forming of the Warp Fields that had been detected.


    [How long do we have?] Max asked Nico, whose mind he could hear calcting the next steps in their strategy.


    [If my analysis of their movements during the previous battles is correct, then we should have approximately seven days before they arrive. Their Warp Drives aren''t as fast as what the Alliance uses, as they usually travel through the otheryers of space, where they can move much faster and without being detected.] She replies an instantter.


    [Alright, then six days to prepare for battle and get everyone mobilized. Do we have any indication of where they''re going to strike?]


    Nico''s thoughts filled with annoyance.


    [Nothing yet. Their course will take them off into the middle of nowhere, along the very borders of Alliance space, and closer to where Terminus is working than to any popted worlds.] She replied.


    [Could they know where the humans went after thest portion of the Eternal War, and they''re headed there first, and then nning to make their way across to us?


    If they still view the ancient humans as their true enemies, and us as new threats, then it would make sense.] Max replied.


    [That is a possibility. It seems unlikely, unless they don''t have the sensor resolution to see that the whole region is uninhabited.]


    Max had a sudden sh of insight as he recalled the many cloaking technologies of his past life.


    [Or if they think that the life that is, there has simply been cloaked from their sensors. Remember the Distortion Fields?] He informed her.


    [Oh, yeah, they could hide wholes full of people from your sensors. That trick never got old. If they know about those, then it would make sense that they are going to search areas that look like they''re empty.]


    Nico didn''t send a direct reply, instead she started adjusting the sensors on Terminus, which was the only vessel anywhere near the region, to detect hidden vessels, and to pick up on the subtle signs that would let them know if there weres hidden by the old cloaking technologies.


    Modern sensors could already see through most of them, but if there were some that had been overlooked, Max wanted to know about them before an invasion arrived. It would be a tragedy to overlook a potential ally with knowledge about fighting this enemy, if there were still some of them present in this part of the universe.


    Going by the histories that humans had, and the group of identical star systems that they had discovered on the north side of their own Gxy, it was possible that the humans had long since been here and gone again, but there was some hope that they would have a surviving colony or two.


    "Do we have any further official information from the Government?" Max asked the Envoys, who were frantically sending messages to various groups.


    The Envoys all shook their head. "There has been too much happening for them to make any preparations. They''re running on autopilot at the moment, and relying on the preset procedures to get them through the next few hours until they cane up with an official response."


    "Alright, we can wait to make ns until they''ve got things well enough in order that they''re not going to freak out the moment that we take action. I know that the Reaver Council is going to want to start retrofitting the facilities that they purchased as soon as possible, and that will mean plenty of Reaver ships arriving in the alliance.


    Large ones, to transport enough equipment to retrofit entire operations in a day, and we all know that means they''ll be heavily armed, norge Reaver ship isn''t, by Alliance standards." Max added with a chuckle.


    The Valkia and Innu Envoys shared an amused nce, while the Giant looked incredibly frustrated by the fact. They were sure to get hundreds ofints about a human war fleet appearing all over the Alliance over the next few days, and there was nothing that they could do to prevent the concerns from citizens who had been sheltered by generations and suddenly came face to face with the immense military might of the Reavers as they worked to renovate the local construction business.


    The Innu was the fastest to recover, and after taking a sip of her coffee, she smiled at Max. "I''m sure that it will be fine. They must have seen aary defence ship before, they patrol everywhere that doesn''t have one of their own, so the novelty will wear off eventually.


    Plus, they''re likely going to be one of the biggest employers in the system after they arrive, so it will be difficult for people to see them as an enemy for long."


    Max ryed the information to Mary, who was surely waiting to hear if he had been sessful in his dying action, and then moved over to the wall to get a fresh pot of coffee and some sandwiches.


    "I think that we are all going to need these in a few minutes. The deals to purchase the weapons makers are almost done, and the news of the Cathedral Ship Fleet headed this way should be public in the next thirty minutes." Max reminded them.


    "What do you mean?" One of the assistants blurted out, then covered her mouth as she realized that she had spoken out of turn.


    Max shrugged, and the Innu Envoy reached out to pat her head.


    "The entire government knows now. How long do you think that their staff is going to wait before someone goes to the media in an attempt to get a payday out of the breaking news? We never expect a secret tost more than an hour, and that is why none of you have outsidemunication privileges." She exined.


    "One hour? Isn''t that a bit too jaded?" The assistant asked, and the Envoy gave her an indulgent smile.


    "Only the first one to spread the news gets paid. So they have to act quickly if they''re going to get anything. The news agencies are pretty good about keeping the source secret most of the time, so there isn''t much of a risk, unless they embarrass someone that they shouldn''t have." She exined.


    The assistant made a note and then faded back into the anonymity of the crowd, hoping that everyone would forget that she made a spectacle of herself during an important meeting about a grave threat to the Alliance.


    Mary sent back a message as the conversation finished.


    [We have the purchasespleted, and we''re starting to field the hate mail already from thepanies that had the same idea we did, but an hour toote. It looks like everything will be fine, and we are already preparing to send out the renovation crews to the new factories.] Mary informed Max and Nico at the same time.


    [Alright, I will let the Envoys know that the ships areing, so that nobody panics and thinks that every unfamiliar vessel is an enemy. The news should have been leaked by now, and we''re just waiting for it to go public.] Max replied.


    [Alright, I will ask them to hurry, so that as many as possible are in ce before the announcement, so their arrival only causes rampant spection.]

 Chapter 1109 1109 Chaos Reigns

    Chapter 1109 1109 Chaos Reigns


    It all happened just as Max had predicted. The news went public and every single Alliance data stream went insane with people either looking to be somewhere safe, hire security, buy weapons, or ce the me on someone else for the predicament that the Alliance as a whole was in.


    They had seen the release of the numbers of the Cathedral Ships fleet, and it was enough to attack dozens or even a hundred fully defended star systems at a time. If they attacked the weakly defendeds of the Alliance, the resistance wouldn''t evenst long enough to hold out until reinforcements could get there without using a Portal.


    It was no secret that the government would be slow to act, paralyzed by bureaucracy andyers of agreements on the movement of troops, so they didn''t expect the cavalry to arrive in anything less than a whole day, and one after another, the star systems were realizing that they weren''t going to be able to hold out that long.


    The only ones that seemed to be rtively sure that they could manage it were the Valkia, who were fairly militant to begin with, the Innu, who were already submitting financing requests for the right to make huge fleets of Android led Mechanized forces, on payment terms of course, and strangely, the Dryads.


    Max looked them up to see if they were just epting of their fate, and found that the peaceful culture of nt lovers actually had some pretty impressive firepower in their arsenal. At some point, they must have been working on a "Peace Through Strength" basis.


    That was a good sign that there might be a few more star systems that could dig old gear out of storage and press it back into service if things got ugly in the next week. From what Max could see in the reports and intercepted signals, that was just about guaranteed.


    [How did we do? Did we get the forces in ce in time? All the newly acquired factories now have a delegation at them. Some are just a cutter or a runabout, but they all have someone from the Reavers there.] Mary asked, just as the panic really began to set in.


    [They made it before anyone started to suspect all neers. Currently, they''re still panicking and trying to decide what to do. If we craft a proper press release, we can swing things in our favour with promises of immediately ramped up production and state-of-the-art military equipment going to government forces all over the Alliance, or directly to them if we don''t get the contract.


    Make it clear that we''re producing the gear either way, and I''m certain that we can either shame or strong arm the government into giving us the contract, just so that we aren''t sending an army into the hands of civilians.] Max replied.


    [Good job. Have I told you that you''re my favourite son-inw?]


    [Mary, I''m your only son-inw.]


    Max could sense herughing at his response, despite the distance between them, and then she faded away again, using her System Talents to block him out of her thoughts once more.


    The PR campaign that sheunched was immediate, overwhelming, and brutally effective, assuring the citizenry that they had the capability to make thousands of Destroyer ss ships and hundreds of thousands of [Exoskeletal Military Armour Units] as the Alliance officially ssified the Mecha.


    There was no mention of Androids, but those generally weren''t for sale to outsiders. The Innu were buying up a lot of them, but they had a special rtionship with the Reavers, and if someone had tried to block them, the Tech Nomads would likely have purchased the licenses on their behalf and then had the Innu worlds build and staff their purchase, which was the same result, with a different name on the finance sheet.


    The reports from the factories weren''t any less insane. The Reavers had shown up with loads of Terraforming Arrays and had immediately begun refurbishing the facilities to create either Mecha or warships, sometimes both, depending on the facility itself.


    Every Reaver dry dock was currently working at full capacity, with nonessential orders bumped down the list in favour of more heavily armed vessels.


    Even Absolution was preparing to move to an abandoned Klem world for more raw materials once this next round of Cruisers waspleted.


    The vessels would be mostly bare, but fully armed, and they had the equipment to finish out their own armament once they had a crew, so there was no need to waste resources giving them the finishing touches before delivery.


    The ships were going to be mostly empty for a while, there simply weren''t any more Reavers to put on them, but there was talk of recruiting in the Alliance to fill spaces. Even if they hired gamers to run the Drone programs, it would help them avoid having the AI breached or countered by the Cathedral Ships.


    They were insane, but not stupid, the inheritors of Nico''s personal brand of insanity from her past life.


    The more that Max thought about that, the more that he realized he knew how to fight them. They emted thebat styles that Nico and him had used back then, though at a lower level, and that meant he already knew most of their tricks.


    The relevant information had already been taught to the drone programs and the Androids, so during the first wave of battles, they should have the advantage, and then it would be a matter of adaptation, which side was faster to adjust and counter the other with new strategies.


    It was going to be strange to be sending so many mechanized units out without any humans at all in them, but for the Reavers, there really wasn''t a choice. They needed the firepower, and there was only one way to get it in the next week.


    As night fell, Max and the Envoys were slumped in their chairs, exhausted in a way that not even coffee could cure.


    "Let''s get some rest and I will see you all in the morning. There are suites across the hall set up for this exact scenario." He offered.

 Chapter 1110 1110 Windfall

    Chapter 1110 1110 Windfall


    Most of the Envoys got up to stagger to bed, but the Innu Envoy only held out her arms to be picked up, which made the Giant chuckle.


    "I''m not carrying you. I can barely carry me today." The Giant told her.


    "Fine, be like that. I can sleep in the chair." She pouted.


    Maxughed and picked her up to carry her across the hall.


    "We don''t need you getting sore from sleeping funny. There is still most of a week of insanity ahead of us, and you aren''t going to get out of it that easily." He exined to the scheming pink-skinned Envoy.


    Their sleep didn''tst long.


    At six in the morning, barely four hours after they called it a night, theirmunicators were going insane again. The government had made a decision, and they were requesting a finance deal to get the equipment in time for the imminent battles.


    "Tell them that we will make it happen and sort out the moneyter. How many units do they need, and how many soldiers should we prepare for?" Max informed the Giant as the two of them met in the hallway on their way to the meeting room.


    "I was hoping that you would say that. They have some strange requests by human standards. They don''t want a fully mechanized force but something like the mixed armies of your war videos. Can your people supply armour suits for humans as well?" The Giant asked.


    Max considered it for a few seconds as he searched the minds of everyone on Absolution for a good answer to the question. Then it came to him: There were Innu everywhere, and they all technically belonged to the Innu Confederacy, the governing body for their species. Everyone wanted them as technicians and researchers, so they were everywhere.


    If he used them and their resources, he could turn out an absolutely phenomenal number of Augmentic Armour suits. They already had permission to make the enhanced environmental suits, which were the same basic design except their current patterns were a few generations old and without the armour.


    "I think we can. The ships we provide can make hundreds of thousands of them each, and I think that we have a way to get new Augmentic Armour distributed to nearly everyary defence force in the Alliance, starting today." Max agreed.


    He started to draft a n to authorize it, using his authority as Commander of the Reaver Company that held the patent, to waive the fees for licensing until the end of the conflict.


    "Here, look this over before I send it out. We have a working agreement with the Innu, and if they all have permission to make them at will, that will allow nearly everyary defence force to make basic armour andser rifles for their troops." Max informed the Giant Envoy.


    "And you wouldn''t expect anything in return?" The Giant asked suspiciously.


    Nico walked into the office with a tray of coffee. "You are too shortsighted, my girthy friend. What are they going to do after the war, when they have an entire generation of soldiers trained on our equipment, and thousands of extra units in storage after they have drawn down their troop numbers?


    We will be the standard equipment of infantry forces andary police all over the Alliance, and the recementw enforcement units that they make after the war will no longer be free of charge."


    The Valkiaughed as he walked into the room, with the Innu Envoy and the assistants shuffling along behind him.


    "I knew that it would be something like that. Feed us the first dose for free, and then get us hooked on their gear. Let me guess; ites with a detailedbat training simtion in the user manuals as well?" The Valkia asked.


    "It does now." Nico agreed.


    "Now you''re the one giving them ideas." The Giant sighed while the Innu Envoy scurried over to the tray of breakfast foods, with a holographic list projected in front of her.


    "Watching your calories?" Max asked as she used the hologram to pick out her breakfast choices.


    "Even better. We did a study on breakfast foods to determine the optimalbinations for mental focus, without jitters or excessive distractibility, and I''ve optimized my early meal that way. It''s genius, and it keeps me alert with a minimal amount of caffeine."


    Everyone settled into their morning backlog of messages, and tried to sort out what was old chaos and what was new chaos, while Nico informed Mary of their new n, and the arrangements that had been made, so that someone with more time on their hands could crunch the numbers and see what sort of loss they would be taking on the deal to let every Innu in the universe make Augmentic Armour at will for the duration of this conflict.


    It wasn''t like they had to make the units themselves, so there was no loss of manpower or materials, just the royalties.


    The consensus among the Reaver Council was that it was a suitable goodwill gesture, and that with the number of warships and Mecha they were making for the Alliance, it was not a big deal.


    The calctions came back quickly. If the Alliance made unitsparable to Kepler mixed Regiments, with two hundred fifty thousand soldiers to five thousand Mecha, and new warships to move them all, the interest charge on the loan would pay for the infantry armour, as long as the Alliance took ten or more years to pay in full.


    They weren''t averse to making it an interest only loan, which would be paid for generations until someone got up the political will to pay it in full. But that would be up to the Alliance Government, as they weren''t going to mandate terms of payment, just the price per unit.


    Mary forwarded the information to the Envoys, and Max saw their expressions change as they realized exactly how much this would change the Alliance Economy.


    War was good for business, and every factory that could be retooled to make military gear was already being converted to fill the panic orders, but only a small handful had the knowledge and resources to turn out what the Government needed. They were going to be indebted to the Reavers for the rest of their natural lives, even if they won this war.

 Chapter 1111 1111 Bad News

    Chapter 1111 1111 Bad News


    Working out the final details was going to take quite a bit of time, possibly all day, but Max had no shortage of other messages and information to sort through, courtesy of both the Reavers and the Alliance''s sensors.


    They had managed to gather a bit of sensor data that indicated a split in the trajectories of the Cathedral ships. With that, they had enough to track them somewhat urately, and now they were closing in on an exact match to their most probable destinations.


    ording to the data, a full half of the fleet was going for the home Gxy of the humans, while the rest had fanned out to attack the Alliance. The news confused the Government and then enraged them. They had a thousand times the numbers that the humans did, so how dare the enemy not take them seriously?


    Max made sure that everyone with a military force of any sort in the Gxy had the information, as the Cathedral ships had sent enough of the fleet to them to threaten hundreds ofs at a time.


    The arrival time seemed to be on schedule, with just over four days remaining, but that was the closest that they could get to saying that they had good news today.


    They did have a lot of new ships in production, but getting them done and staffed in four days was a real rush, and they didn''t know which star systems would be targeted first. If they concentrated on the wrong areas, there was a chance that the enemy would set up another of those barriers that blocked portals, and then they would be left slowly racing to the rescue of the beleaguered colonies.


    Absolution was getting ready to move to gather more resources, and the Envoys were hoping that they could get approval before then so that they could have everyone together in person to finalize the deal.


    Max and Nico were enough for a minimum. Still, it would make the politicians happier if they had more of the Reaver leadership avable, and none of them were going to be willing to be away from their crews for a signing ceremony at this point.


    [Absolution is opening a portal to the resource-gathering site now.] Felicity announced throughout the ship, warning everyone that they would be moving and not to n to head out anytime soon.


    If anyone was away from the ship right now, it was their tough luck; they had days'' worth of warning that this was an emergency scenario and sudden movement would be inevitable. But the AI had been keeping track, and everyone that was likely to want to be back on the ship was already here, and that was her cue to start the transfer process.


    A massive portal opened in the Rae 5 system, and the Envoys breathed a sigh of relief. Hundreds of other vessels were headed to the same ce to strip it of a portion of its asteroid field in the name of building new war machines. With that many people around, they could at least show the Alliance Government that the Reavers were all on board with the n.


    That would make for a good photo shoot as well, with the Reavers all doing their best to produce equipment for the defensive effort all over an uninhabited star system. Absolution had the sensor capability to project a full holographic scene for the viewers in the Alliance, and there were enough artists on board that they wouldn''t have any trouble getting it edited to make everything look good for the more nervous citizens.


    Felicity waited until everyone who needed materials had already moved, including a handful of space stations that would put any Colony ship to shame with their size. It was a full-scale industrial colonization, and the number of Mecha and Vessels that they would be able to turn out in the region would make for an excellent propaganda video.


    She had determined that was one of the most important parts of being able to maintain morale during a crisis, and Felicity wouldn''t let such a good chance slip through her hands.


    Felicity wasn''t the only one with that idea. All over what used to be Kepler space and the recently expanded Cygnus territories, the news was already spreading.


    [The Cathedral Ships dare to attack our Gxy? Do they seriously think that any species in this universe is better at war than we are? War is in our blood. War is our culture and our heritage. We have perfected the arts and sciences of killing while they hid away in their protectedyer of space like cowards.] The Cygnus news was telling their citizens.


    Most of themughed at the thought. They had met the people of the Alliance and seen the videos of the battles in Koleska space. Indeed, they had never seen a force that could take the humans one-on-one.


    These were unlikely to be fair fights, but the propaganda videos did their jobs, and the morale of the citizens was high. The retired soldiers made sure their information was in the system so that they could be called on forary defence, and the more heavily armeds started passing out equipment in advance in case the enemy made it past their defensive lines.


    While the thought of troops in the streets frightened those in the Alliance, it reassured those in Cygnus. Those were their neighbours, their friends and family. Give them more guns and keep the Mecha on standby. They would show these aliens that they had messed with the wrong species.


    Felicity considered doing the same thing, but the residents of Absolution were already in high spirits with their efforts to build more equipment, so she decided to hold off until it became an urgent matter.


    [Attention crew and residents of Absolution, we have arrived at our destination, and the ship docks will be assembled over the next few hours. Please limit power usage during this time to increase the avable capacity for urgent projects.]


    That was enough to get everyone in the right frame of mind, and Felicity got to work running the ship''s construction arrays to build the first batch of ten Destroyer-sized dry docks. They were the most impressive looking, and the Alliance should be messaging soon with their agreement, expecting to see the humans doing their best.

 Chapter 1112 1112 Propaganda

    <h4>Chapter 1112 1112 Propaganda</h4>


    The scene when the first cameras began to stream footage back to the Alliance government was wless, just as Felicity had nned. Hundreds of dry docks were built, and the first ships were beginning to be assembled, just the bare frames to show the Alliance viewers that work was already underway.


    That was all that they really needed, and the ships would bepleted in the next two days so that a new batch could be started. Max had considered ordering more dry docks to be made, but the logistics of operating and quality controlling that many build projects at once was simply impossible. Even as they were, they were stretching their numbers of qualified professionals very thin, and there were likely to be a number of minor ws in all the ships that an overworked staffer simply overlooked.


    But they would be fully armed and fully functional. For the next few weeks, the small things could be overlooked. After that, they would either be quirks of the vessel or they would get fixed by the new crews.


    That assumed that they survived the engagement, and that was far from a given. Even the most optimistic of estimates were expecting thirty percent or higher casualties on their side before the enemy could be eliminated or driven back, and that assumed that nearly everything went right for them.


    No n survived first contact with the enemy, and Max was cautiously optimistic that they could keep losses to a lower number than their recement rate, which would give them the long-term win, no matter how many of the Cathedral Ships came his way.


    But with the new weapons equipped on the Mecha for him and Nico, as well as adapted for use on the main guns of the Destroyers, which had the power to take down the enemy''s Void Shields to make them effective, there was some hope that the optimists might be close.


    Max knew the moment that the agreement came in, positive confirmation that the Readers had won the military contract for as much as they could provide, with smaller contracts going to other military equipment suppliers.


    There was no shortage of demand at the moment, and with the Reavers making identical equipment for everyone, the footage of the construction zone could be reused everywhere that they were expected to be fighting.


    Propaganda films were very close to being the specialty of Felicity, who was originally programmed as an AI to control and modify the behaviour of sentient beings. It would be difficult to find anyone with more experience than she had, and as far as capabilities, they were unquestionably astonishing.


    Most of the viewers were far outside the range of Max''s System Skills, but he got the readings from the minds of the news crew that first broadcast it, and that was enough to tell him that the sight was going to make asting impression on everyone whose feed it came up in.


    [I need a representative from every Reaver Company that is in the area for an afternoon. They need a photo shoot for the signing ceremony that will give us the distribution rights to supply all of their military needs that we can handle. It''s a big thing to the Alliance, so send someone who either looks good and knows when to shut up, or who can actually talk well.] Max informed the other Reaver leaders in this star system.


    Some of them were annoyed, but Max knew that they would all send him someone decent if the leader couldn''te him or herself. Nobody wanted to look bad on a billion viewer''s screens, so they would do their very best to use this brief moment in the spotlight to make themselves look as good as possible.


    Especially the smaller Companies, who had the biggest dreams of expansion.


    "Are we going to be able to set up something for the audience?" The Giant Envoy asked as Max was finalizing the transport details with the other Commanders.


    "We will. I''ve got a bunch on their way over here now to look impressive and give the audience a sense of grandeur while we put the official signatures on the deal. Is there anything else that you can think of that would be good to have done right away?"


    "Maybe set up a fancy room. The public understands at some level that all of these deals are actually done in a boring and nondescript office somewhere, but when they see them in action, they want it to look like a festival could break out at any moment. A lively atmosphere, with all the grandeur that they would expect from people of our standing." The Valkia suggested.


    "People of our standing?" Max joked, as if the Envoy had actually called people peasants or something just as demeaning.


    "In case you''ve forgotten, everyone in this room is insanely wealthy and powerful. The general citizens of the Alliance view this level of elite existence as something untouchable, to be looked up to. Showing them a in bunker of a room where we can talk in private isn''t going to impress them." The Valkia replied with a shrug.


    "Are you saying that we''re not snobbish enough to live up to everyone''s expectations?" Maxughed.


    "That''s exactly it. Reality doesn''t live up to the images in their minds. We need to ham it up a bit more than usual so that hey know that we''re not fakes. Also, try to wear something recognizable, but in an outfit nobody has seen before. That way they know it''s not a body double, and they don''t start some inane thread about how the production is so cheap that they used hand me down clothing." The Giant added with a sigh.


    Clearly he had done this before, and he wasn''t particrly fond of it.


    "Alright, they will be here in five minutes, and I will have Nico adjust their outfits to make sure they''re up to the standard. She''s got a theatrical side to her that many people overlook." Max informed them in an earnest voice.


    It wasn''t technically a lie. Nico did get a bit dramatic. But actual theatrics? That was a rare sight, unless she got bored.

 Chapter 1113 1113 Satisfaction

    Chapter 1113 1113 Satisfaction


    After a long day of meetings and filming, some of which took a dozen takes because nobody could be serious while others were pretending to be serious, they had finally managed to make a proper video for the signing ceremony, and the Reavers were rxing with the Envoys to celebrate a job well done.


    But they were not just rxing, everyone was waiting for the response from the Alliance citizens to the videos that they had spent all day making, with the guidance of both Felicity and the Envoys'' personal videographer.


    The sess of the project was vitally important to the future of both factions, as neither could afford their people panicking nor thinking that they didn''t have a chance in this fight. The humans would fight anyhow, and some other species would as well, but a loss of morale was devastating to their chances of sess.


    The newsworks were loving today''s developments. The viewership was higher than it had ever been, and trillions of reaction streams had been made, spreading through social media like wildfire. It seemed like a silly way to spread news to Max, but they were the niche micro celebrities that people were watching, ording to the experts, and waiting until their data was in would give a much more clear idea of the overall response.


    Nico was drinking with one of the other female Commanders, as well as the leaders of her research team, who had gone into overdrive tweaking the designs for the ships they were making so that they would have as much of the most current technology as possible without a full redesign.


    Not all of them hadpletely overhauled weapons, as the idea was to prevent the enemy from adapting by throwing every conceivable form of firepower at them, while reserving the more specialized weapons for moments when they were facing particr enemies, like the Greater Demons.


    So far, there hadn''t been any sign of them on either side of the battle. The fighting in the Koleska Region on the other side of the Anomaly was fierce, but the enemy still hadn''t shown their leaders, perhaps out of fear after thebined efforts of the mortal races had so quickly killed onest time.


    That level of fear was good for the defenders, and with the reinforcements arriving in the form of that Android Fleets, they were rapidly managing to stabilize the situation.


    There had been some strange reports, though. The Androids asionally went haywire, and began following their own orders. They hadn''t turned on their controllers or allies yet, but they seemed to be following outside intelligence that was concerning the species of the Koleska Region.


    That was the hallmark of the Arisen, and the reason that autonomous units had been prohibited in the area for millennia.


    But with the Arisen Army''s expertise and their intelligence, it was actually more effective to let a small number of them interfere and manage an attacking fleet of androids than to let the inexperienced volunteers and the ships'' AI systems do it alone.


    The Arisen had lost their original forms, and now preferred to live in constructs, so if they wanted to live in the Androids, Max honestly wasn''t all that concerned. They were individually less deadly than the War Walkers, and they blended into society with ease.


    The only reason that anyone had even noticed was that the possessed ones would lead the others contrary to orders inbat that they felt were a tactical blunder, and then the possessing Arisen Spirits would leave again after the battle to go fight elsewhere.


    It was actually a pretty good system, and Max wondered if he would be able to make a deal with them to work as the AI on a new series of ships. All he would have to do was set up an automated construction facility somewhere, and have the Arisen take the ships over as they were created. Nobody would know where they came from, or where they went, just like the original Arisen Fleets, but faster to recover.


    The Arisen were incredibly powerful, but once their units were destroyed, they took time to recover and reconstruct them, they couldn''t keep up the sort of casualties that the other species routinely suffered.


    There was a half formed memory from his past life, and Max couldn''t quite recall the details, but he was fairly sure that the reason had to do with the construction of the War Walkers being tied to their mental energy. It exhausted them to repair the bodies that they used, and there was no way to speed that up, even if they were able to live nearly indefinitely in their forms as artificial energy beings.


    The only real issue was that he had no way of directly contacting them to set up the n. He could ask Ranarth, as the two groups had an uneasy understanding. The Arisen believed that they had been preparing the other species for this invasion, while the Darklings had been preserving species that the friendly Gods thought should continue to exist.


    It had led to a lot of battle between the two factions, but they should have some way of contacting each other.


    That could wait until he had a surefire way to get them the fleets that they wanted. It shouldn''t be difficult, there were dozens of Terminus Trading Company vessels in the region if you counted the Android Fleets, so he could build the facility somewhere that the others would be unlikely to notice.


    Then it hit him, he didn''t need to contact them if they were contacting him. Max sent out an order to all the Androids running the operating system that Nico had created, instructing them to inform any possessed units that Max wanted to set up somewhere to build more fleets to be run by the Arisen. If they agreed, a single fully android manned vessel could bemandeered, and it would create the facility in a location of their choice.


    It might not be as cool as a whole army of War Walkers, but the Arisen seemed to have no problemsmandingrge numbers of androids, and when they were in Mecha, they were still just as deadly.


    With the order sent out, all that he had to do was wait for something to happen and hope that they suddenly got a massive free army out of the deal.

 Chapter 1114 1114 Outgoing

    Chapter 1114 1114 Outgoing


    That evening, the first of the smaller ships that were being made in the remote factory system were ready to ship out, loaded with Androids, Mecha and the basics for their purchaser''s requests. Even those that were going to the Alliance and would be crewed by the local military were still equipped with a basic maintenance and piloting crew of Androids, who would make the delivery on behalf of the Trading Company that produced them, and then remain on board as maintenance staff to make sure that everything kept running as intended.


    It was like having a mobile mechanic and warranty service member on board at all times, to keep their purchase in good shape, and it didn''t even cost them extra.


    Max was hoping that the service would catch on, and they would be able to include it with their civilian ships in the future. The Android serving staff never messed up an order, and they were neverte for work or hungover. They also wouldn''t spill the owner''s secrets or be a security risk after quitting. That alone would be a huge selling point.


    There were portals open all over the region, sending a whole wave of ships off to their new owners, while Absolution filled the area with the orbital equivalent of fireworks, lighting up the star system for the cameras as they sent away the first batch of ships and made another promotional video. This one wouldn''t be for the propaganda department, it would be for future sales videos, reminding customers that the Reavers could and would deliver on their promises, even when the demand was overwhelming.


    It wasn''t a service that anyone else offered, and finding technicians was always difficult, especially for a new product. Of course, many would prefer a more personal touch, in which case they would dly train the employees who needed the technical knowledge, as well as providing a service manual for in house repairs, though those would not be warrantied.


    It would inevitably bring even more of the Innu to their training sessions aboard Absolution, as they made up almost all the repair staff already, and while they were with the Reavers, they could be taught about a number of other fun Reaver inventions, like the Gravity Slides and Raspberry Lattes. It might seem cruel to corrupt such an innocent species as the Innu, but the payoff in loyalty would be worth the trade.


    Plus, it was good for tourism.


    Not all of them were being shipped out unmanned, though. Many customers had expressed the desire toe pick them up in person, for the same reason that Max was filming them leaving now. They wanted to show their''s shuttle arriving through the Portal and then live stream them getting their new ship and bringing it back.


    They would avoid showing anything ssified in the walkthrough, but for the basic parts, like the exterior and some of the main corridors, there was no harm in showing them to everyone.


    The military was still tracking the iing vessels, as their change in direction had alerted everyone to their current location, but Max and many others were growing more concerned that the mistake was a trap, or a form of decoy to pull their attention away from the other attacks that the enemy had nned for the region.


    If there was another group travelling at a slightly higher speed, and going straight for the border nations, then they could be there as soon as that night, and not in two more days, as the official estimates had anticipated.


    Most of the first round of vessels would be going to those nations so that they would have something to defend themselves with if the sensors had missed some of the fleet, but the longer that things remained calm, the lower the chances that it had happened.


    Nico had high hopes that the enemy was secretly hyper vignt in their scouting and that their attempts to set up a secret military equipment manufacturing facility would be detected and counteracted in advance, preferably with the entirety of the fleet headed to the Gxy, but that was just Nico being Nico, and she didn''t care how likely their chances of winning such a battle were, only that it would happen where she was so that there was no chance she could possibly miss out on it.


    "How are the Destroyersing along?" The Giant Envoy asked as another of the Cruiser ss vessels was gged aspleted and waiting on pickup.


    "The first batch of them is close to eighty percentplete. They''re apleted hull at this point, and the weapon systems are being linked to the power sources as we speak. It should be an interesting sight to see them move under their own power for the first time, so don''t worry, we will give you plenty of notice." Max replied.


    The Giant shook his head. "No, what I mean is that I''m getting the feeling that we missed something important, and we''re going to need those ships very soon. Do humans ever get that feeling?"


    Max nodded. "All the time. I''ve been thinking that we might have missed part of the fleet, and if they were twenty percent faster, and on a direct course, not the decoy course that the other fleet took, then they should be here in the next few hours. The Destroyers might not be ready on time, but the Cutters and Cruisers will have a full wave out and staffed by then.


    Assuming that the crews picking them up all arrive on time. I have noticed theg in portal requests, so some of them must be running behind."


    The Valkia frowned. "Is this a form of prescience? Or is it more of an educated guess based on experience and subconscious calction?"


    The Innu Envoy smirked at his confusion. "It''s the second one. The Giants love toe up with worst-case scenarios in their heads and n for them, so when we''re in situations like this, they can''t help but think that they''ve missed something and ways to prepare for the unknown."


    Then the Innu looked toward the door that led to the research areas, where Nico and her team were making sure that the new ships matched the specifications which were requested by their purchasers.


    "And then there are others who are just looking for a fight and hoping that the enemy shows up faster than predicted so they don''t have topete for kills."

 Chapter 1115 1115 Incoming

    <h4>Chapter 1115 1115 Iing</h4>


    Just as Nico had hoped, and the Giants had feared, the first reports of attacks came in during the early morning hours, Absolution Ship Time, the next morning.


    [Twos in the Death Wind Territories have reported attacks by an unknown force that matches the description of the Cathedral Ships, and the Alliance is reporting contact lost with two colonies near our Gxy.


    We are waiting on reports from the independent species in the area, to see if any of them have been attacked, but that could take some time, as many of them would not want to let it be public knowledge that they were in a crisis or a weakened state.] The message from Rae 5 informed Max the moment that his eyes opened for the day.


    He turned to Nico with a smile. "Well, it looks like you got your wish, or at least half of it. The first attacks are in the Death Wind Territories. They''re still fighting, of course, so we can send some additional troops on top of what was already sent to relieve them."


    Nico shook her head. "It''s better if we don''t overreact. If we treat probing attacks like a full-scale invasion, we will look panicked, and they will see too much of our strength. The Death Wind Territories don''t have much to lose, and they don''t have a high poption.


    The Great Enemy miscalcted when they attacked there. Each rarely has more than one mercenarypany on it, and they all have defences and a way to defend themselves from a siege. They have the advantage, and if they can stall long enough, the battle could end with very minimal casualties.


    What I''m more interested in learning is what tactics the enemy is using, and what species they belong to. If they''re the gically altered ones who love fighting, it will be a different matter than if they''re one of the groups that''s favoured by one of the particr Gods.


    That sort of attack could mean that Greater Energy beings are making a move in the near future, and that will take more preparations than just repelling an attacking force."


    Max nodded in understanding. "Well, we can offer them recement ships at the very least. If the Death Wind Territories continue to take the brunt of the first wave, they''re going to have to rebuild, and they don''t have much to begin with."


    Nico nodded and began to work on a n for them. The mercenaries were good allies, and most of them were actually minor Reaver Companies now, entitled to all the benefits that went along with it. A few extra considerations for being the punching bag while the rest of the Reavers learned about the enemy would help put many minds at ease.


    [We have additional information on the attacks. Each attacking fleet was five Cruiser ss vessels, all of which were apanied by light attack craft and arge army of infantry. The infantry is supported by armoured vehicles, and appears to be mutated in nature. Identification of their original species has proven to be impossible, but there is a possibility that the appearance is not a form of mutation, but a lineage that we are unfamiliar with.


    Scans from the early conflict are attached.] The next message from Rae 5 added.


    Max and Nico shared an incredulous look as they looked at the soldiers in the image.


    They wore filthy golden armour, with scarred and tattooed faces on the bodies whose helmets had been removed for examination. The armour styles didn''t match, either due to a change in manufacturer, or differing origins, but the appearance was shocking to them both.


    "Aren''t those the Golden Legionaries? I swear they are, but filthy and corrupted. Allow me a minute to check the rest of the data, but I swear I remember killing those guys." Nico muttered.


    Max remembered as well. Nico and her army had wiped that from existence, along with all of their troops.


    But that was in their past lives, and if the information that Ranarth and the Arisen had provided about the ancient humans resetting the timeline during thest Great War, that had never happened in this timeline.


    So, the species should have survived, unless they were wiped out again by something other than Nico. But more importantly than that, Max knew where they came from. He knew the exact location of their home world, and if his guess was correct, that spot really didn''t exist anymore.


    They had never found any of the worlds that had existed in their past lives, and the reason for that appeared to be that the whole region had been annihted, and now existed as the newly formed stars ands of the Anomaly Region.


    Which meant that these Cathedral Fleets might be the corrupted survivors of thest phase of the Great War, or more likely their descendants many hundreds of generations removed.


    The other possibility was that the Gods had pulled them into anotheryer when the final battles against the Gods, and these were warriors born and bred to fight against their own kind by the malevolent Gods before their defeat.


    That was a much more disturbing thought. The amount of knowledge that such an enemy would have about the Darklings and Arisen would be immense, as their technology hadn''t changed much over the eons. But humanity was adaptable, and their technology was on a rapid climb toward a whole new level of destructiveness.


    For an instant, something in Max''s memory tried to warn him about a great danger, but before he could iste that thought, it was gone as if it never existed, leaving him confused and wondering what he had been trying to focus on.


    "Let''s start mapping the attacks and the strategies of the enemy, so we canpare them against thest time we saw this species. If my theory is right, ourst lives were before the reset of time, and the death of the God of Time, so the development of the Golden Legionaries should be simr but more advanced than thest time we faced them.


    But if they''ve been guided by an outside force, they might be fighting using the same bastardized version of our tactics that the other Cathedral Ship Fleets have been using." Max suggested.


    "And what do we hope to prove by that?" Nico asked.


    "I want to know if they''re independently evolved, or if whatever force gathered them all and stuck them in these ships to attack has wiped out their naturalbat styles. The better we know them..." Max paused there to let Nico finish the thought.


    "The better we can kill them." She agreed with a smile.


    Max realized that he had just created all sorts of new work for himself, but it was work that someone should be doing, as it would help the defenders adapt to and predict enemy movements andbat techniques in the future.


    If it were possible, he would have delegated the task to someone else when he realized what he had done, but he was the only one who had his memories of their styles, unless you counted Nico, whose thoughts said she had only engaged them once, and that was on the day that she eliminated their species from existence.


    That was a solid memory batch, as it gave plenty of information about what worked against them thest time she faced them, but her armies had hit them so hard that thebat tactics weren''t going to be all that reliable.


    They had simply fallen too fast.

 Chapter 1116 1116 What Are Allies For?

    <h4>Chapter 1116 1116 What Are Allies For?</h4>


    While Max and Nico began to organize the data they were getting from the first few attacks, hoping that they could get some sort of useful analysis of the enemy''s capabilities from the footage that was being streamed back to the Alliance, the Envoys were doing the same, but with a very different approach.


    They were rating them by the output and area damage capabilities of their weapons, instead of the effectiveness and style of their tactics.


    Both were important, but the Alliance didn''t view their army as a fully customizable force. They had used standardized equipment for so long that it was more logical for them to assess enemy capabilities and determine what their casualties would be, instead of calcting the effectiveness of enemy tactics first, and then building a force to counter them second.


    The Cathedral Ships had some ability to adapt, but it seemed to be based on what they had on board, and not an infinitely flexible list of weapons programmed into a Drone Replicator.


    That was what Max was counting on to keep their casualties down, the ability to always have the right tool for the job when he determined what the best counter to the enemy''s strength would be.


    The Envoys were actually making rapid headway on the process of calcting the enemy''s strength, and Nico already had the data ready for the equipment that was being shipped to them, so they could use that to determine the likely rate of losses for a mixed force, as they were fielding them, and make any necessary adjustments.


    Most of the Alliance Commanders andary Governors were open to using drones to soften the enemy forces before sending manned vehicles against them, but some had a deep-seated mistrust of the constructs, after so many years dealing with the Arisen.


    Those would be the ones that suffered the most, but there wasn''t anything that Max could say which would change their minds. If anything, his exnation might make things worse, as he knew that the Arisen could take over the drones or the Androids, and he simply didn''t care.


    The frowns on the Envoys faces kept getting deeper and deeper as they assessed the enemy capabilitiespared to their previous generation of military equipment, but once they started entering the numbers that Nico was providing, they began to rx a little bit.


    Then they realized just how little of that equipment they had, and it was back to frowning.


    "Can you all calm down? Your mood swings are giving me whish." Max asked just before lunch, as the group began to analyze the dataing in from the newest attack, announced only minutes earlier.


    "There is no off switch for emotions, only caffeine, which turns up the processing speed." The Innu Envoy reminded him in what Max knew she thought was a pompous tone.


    "Can you at least hold out some hope for them, then? We''ve got ships on the way, an entire Android Fleet, and it outnumbers the Cathedral Ships in that system nearly two to one.


    This is just a probing attack, measuring our response times and capability. There is no need to worry so much, thes won''t fall."


    The Giant turned his disturbed frown at Max.


    "Easy for you to say, you don''t have anyone from your Faction there."


    Max shrugged. "That''s not entirely true. There are five of my people in that Fleet, one per Destroyer. But I have already calcted the likely oues, so there is no reason to panic. Just watch as our response fleet tests their capabilities."


    The Giant was far from satisfied with that answer, but he understood that he wasn''t going to get a better one. So, he resigned himself to settling for what he could get and continuing his work.


    It was the Innu Envoy that had the real answer to set the Giant''s mind at ease.


    "You are thinking about this all wrong. You are treating it as a prevention, like when we stop a rebellion or a terrorist attack. But it''s not. From the moment that those ships arrived, this has been a rescue operation to disperse the hostile forces and save as many of the survivors as possible." She exined.


    The Giant went back to work in a distracted state, trying to determine if he really was thinking about the situation the wrong way, or if the Innu Envoy had just been corrupted by the humans so much that she was thinking about it from their point of view.


    It was impossible to say that she hadn''t been influenced at all. She smelled like human body wash and coffee. But her logic was still fairly solid, and she did have a point about how the situation was more of a rescue, as they didn''t get the location of the attacks until after the battle was underway.


    Max had seen the big man frustrated on many asions, but today he seemed especially close to his breaking point. So, he decided to relieve a bit of the Envoy''s stress and send him some new data to analyze.


    "That''s the information on the new Destroyers. If you want to punch that into your calctions, you can determine what sort of impact the change is going to have on the battlefield." Max offered when he sensed that the Giant was close to an existential crisis.


    "Of course, thank you, Commander. I will get on that and get the data sent off to the Central Government so that they can work out a logistics n for the limited number of these new vessels that we have avable." He replied instinctively.


    But he started work on it right after, so the Giant had been sessfully distracted, and his mind was no longer stuck in a loop of self-doubt and confusion. Max''s mission had been sessful, and he didn''t miss the appreciative smile that the Valkia gave him for saving them all the trouble of talking down a mncholy Giant who had a hard time epting that his way might not always be the right way.


    They had more than enough experience with that tost a lifetime. It was nearly asmon as the Valkia Envoy being three minuteste for a meeting because he stopped outside somewhere to smooth his feathers.

 Chapter 1117 1117 News From the Arisen

    Chapter 1117 1117 News From the Arisen


    [Humans, we have received your request, and we will discuss it until the first battles are over. In the meantime, we have an attached location that is showing signs of an imminent appearance by a Greater Energy Being. You have seven hours to get within range.]


    Max stared at the message from the Arisen Army, and the coordinates that they had attached. The message made it obvious that their allies knew that the humans had made new weapons to deal with the Energy Beings, and that they needed some practical testing, but there was no mention of anythinging to back them up should the tests fail.


    With that in mind, he was going to need to organize some sort of backup n that would have the firepower to take out the Energy Being no matter what.


    The Android Fleet from the Anomaly Region would do the job, as they had already proven that they had the capability to freeze the Energy Being in ce for a short time while the heavy weapons dealt with the threat.


    That might be their best bet, but only if they could get free of the engagement where they were currently upied without leaving a to suffer.


    The location that he had been given was in the Anomaly Region, and quite a distance from the main battle lines, so there weren''t any other forces around to back them up in a fight, but that also meant that there weren''t any popteds around to suffer the brunt of a failure.


    Just as they had done near the Alliance, it looked like they were nning to stage for arger offensive, and didn''t trust that they could safely exit the otheryer in an emergency.


    Or perhaps they were worried about the sort of weapons that Max had turned on themst time, using Antimatter and nuclear explosions to destabilize the otheryer and cause mass casualties far beyond what the same weapons would cause in thisyer of space.


    Max didn''t have any way to send a message back, as the Arisen had contacted him through one of the Android ships, so he started on the ns to intercept the iing Greater Energy Being.


    He couldn''t scoop up the Destroyers here, as they were already earmarked for customers who were expecting them by the end of the day, so he would make ns to put the Android Fleet on standby to cover for him if they weren''t finished fighting by the time that the portal opened.


    "Hey Nico, are you ready to go on an adventure?" He asked, unsure if she had read the message yet.


    "Am I ever not ready for an adventure? I''ve got the Cutter making some extra Mecha for our offensive mission. They''re not as fancy as the ones that Uncle Lu made for us, but They''ve got upgraded armour tes and a new setting on the Disruptors to match our attacks."


    Max patted her on the shoulder and turned to the room full of Envoys. "We have been requested to deal with a Greater Energy Being in the Anomaly Region. It hopefully won''t take too long, and we will be going with one Cutter, but reinforced by the armies that we have already in the area."


    The Envoys sighed, and looked at the huge stack of paperwork sitting in front of them.


    "I guess we can pass this on to the Board of Directors then. It''s all just formalities at this point anyhow, and the Directors can do the transfer ceremonies. The customers will understand if the Commanders aren''t there to meet them, nobody expects the CEO of a Corporation to be there for their purchase delivery, even if they are a major customer.


    That''s not their job, and they''ve got too many other duties." The Valkia agreed.


    "Thank you for your understanding. Now, let''s get to the ship and be on our way. It will be a real pain if they have time to get the portal open and get set up for our arrival."


    The Arisen might have said that they had seven hours, but Max wasn''t going to take any chances on cutting it too close, and there was no telling what sort of interference they might run into along the way.


    There were battles everywhere on the other side of the Anomaly, and the location that the Greater Energy Being was ted to arrive at was still within the region where no portals could be safely opened.


    That might be the only reason that they got so much warning, but it would also make it much more difficult to get their troops in position. The restriction was a double-edged de. Both sides had more time to prepare, but that only made the battlesrger, and the conflicts more intense, as both sides knew that they had a set amount of time before more forces could arrive to sway the tides of the battle.


    Max made his way to the Cutter, where the research team was unloading the previous team of Mecha and preparing to move the new ones into position. The ship wasn''trge enough to take an entire team of Super Heavy Mecha, or at least not one asrge as Max would have wanted. But with twenty of them, plus the two Titan ss custom units, and three hundred Corvette ss units packed into racks along the walls, there was no space wasted, and they had as much firepower as humanly possible along for the ride with them.


    The Androids were already in their Mecha, ready to be deployed at a moment''s notice, and the racks full of Corvette ss Units could be ejected while loaded, to allow for faster deployment.


    Hopefully, that would be enough, but with the enemy still in anotheryer that they couldn''t easily ess, they wouldn''t be able to tell until the fight actually started.


    In only ten minutes, they had the units swapped out, and the same team of Androids back on the ship, taking advantage of their existingbat experience. All that was left was the game of rock paper scissors to determine how many of the researchers got to go on the mission with them.

 Chapter 1118 1118 They See You

    Chapter 1118 1118 They See You


    Max waited patiently as the research team picked their five member team to go on the mission, both for development and backup purposes, in case the enemy had something that could affect theirputers.


    If there was any species well suited to stopping a cyberattack, it was the Innu, and along with the two humans in the group who both had hacking rted System Skills, they would be a formidable team of experts if the enemy tried to gain control of their Androids.


    Nico was thest one into the ship after she verified that everything was taken care of in her absence, and they were off to the Anomaly, leaving through a portal opened immediately outside the cargo bay of Absolution.


    Under a minuteter, they were through the Anomaly, with the blessings of the defenders, and the Warp Speed journey to the location where the Arisen found signs of the Greater Energy Being was underway.


    They still had hours to go before they would arrive, but the signs were obvious to their sensors even from the Anomaly. Theyers were unstable, and the enemy was forcing them to part, but having a difficult time of it.


    Why they had chosen that spot, despite the difficulties associated with it, was a mystery, as was the reason that they hadn''t stopped when they realized what had happened. There had to be more to the situation than he was understanding because from his point of view, it made no sense for them to try attacking here.


    It wasn''t a strategic location, they had already alerted the defenders, and there were numerous other simr regions without the same issues if they just travelled a while.


    But perhaps that was an issue with theyer they were in. They might not be able to travelrge distances, so they might have been forced to exit at this particr spot simply because that was the equivalent to where they were.


    That thought sent Max on a tangent, and he sent a warning to all the Android operated ships to keep searching for simr events elsewhere in the region. If theyer that they were in didn''t allow for fast movement, or could only exit at certain points, it was possible that the Great Enemy would start appearing where they were not expected to be, and where it made no sense for them to be.


    Most of the defensive ns centred around them attacking the most logical of targets, as the Myceloids had done, but if not all the enemy forces were operating the same way or from the sameyer of space, then the whole strategy might be a mistake.


    The Androids were excellent at calctions, and they would be able to work out a proper distribution of troops very quickly after another attempt to enter thisyer was detected, but the other species would take more time.


    The faster that someone came up with a response n and acted on it, the faster the bureaucrats would decide. Some of the species had already turned their military responses over to the militarymanders to elerate the process, but most of them felt that would give them too much power over society. It wasn''t easy to change a whole culture in a month, so Max knew they would just have to take what they could get.


    The signs of instability were getting stronger as they approached the marked coordinates, and Nico brought the ship to a halt. When the portal opened, they could be there in ten minutes or less. That was close enough for a proper response, while still being far enough away that they wouldn''t have to worry about being caught up in the instability.


    Thest thing they needed was to miscalcte and end up with the Greater Energy Being appearing right on top of them before they could respond.


    "Let''s get into the Mecha, the calctions say we''ve got two hours left, but I don''t want to be caught off guard." Max informed Nico, who was currently mixing various samples of Cyborg Nutrient Drinks to create a new vour of cocktail.


    "I can finish this in the Mecha." Nico agreed as she packed up the bottles she had been mixing and rose to her feet.


    "Be safe out there. We will be here waiting, and in battle positions, until you return." The head of the hastily assembled research team agreed, while the others giggled at her enthusiasm.


    The leader of an expedition of researchers was the one whose idea it was, or if they were recruited from arger group, the first one picked was the leader. But because they picked with a game, the first one to win a spot was the leader, and that waspletely up to luck, unless they cheated somehow.


    Their method of picking a leader frustrated most species to no end, but it never made for a boring trip.


    They managed to sit in the Mecha for three whole minutes before Nico was bored and mixing drinks again, and fifteen minutes before there was any change in the surrounding situation.


    [Commander, we have signs of the beginnings of a Portal.] The head of the team informed them.


    [Perfect, Just wait here, and we will make our move the moment that the enemy begins to move betweenyers.] Max replied.


    A familiar sense of being watched, but not with the same cunning and brutal feeling of the Myceloids God, entered Max''s mind as the first flickering micro portals began to form as the destabilization reached a critical point.


    [We''re being observed. The enemy knows we''re here, so stay sharp. We have no way of knowing how much they can tell about our technology.] Max informed the others.


    [Oh, good point. Let''s get more gear. If they can bring lesser energy beings here, they might appear in the ship, like what happened to that species in sector 1874C.] The team leader announced, and Max chuckled quietly to himself as the researchers equipped themselves with mobile suits and heavy weapons, and activated the automated defences inside the ship.


    Not much would get by that.

 Chapter 1119 1119 Sneak Attack

    <h4>Chapter 1119 1119 Sneak Attack</h4>


    As the micro portals began to stabilize and merge into slightlyrger ones, each a few centimetres apart andsting for more than a fraction of a second, the researchers began to work on a n.


    While the Mecha would take a few minutes to get in position after arger portal stabilized, they couldunch a full out attack and bombard the enemy to keep them from organizing before the Mecha team was ready.


    It would be a glorious first strike, and the first time that any of them had actually used a weapon on a living target.


    Of course, that suggestion led them to a discussion on whether the energy beings could truly be considered alive, and not just a sentient existence, like the Androids. But even with the ongoing discussions, they kept to the n and prepared their weapons for the Commanders'' orders.


    The process was painfully slow when they watched it from this close up, and even after fifteen minutes, nothing wasing through the handful of small portals that were beginning to stabilize,sting for entire minutes at a time now.


    [Soon, I can feel it.] Nico muttered over the radio as she impatiently waited for the right moment.


    Max could feel the scheming, and the apprehension from the Greater Energy Being on the other side. It was bing convinced that it had been set up, as there was only one ship here to intercept it.


    No ships at all in the region could be written off as an unprepared defence, a whole fleet meant that they were ready for a fight. But one single ship meant that the defenders likely had some sort of weapon that they didn''t want their own people exposed to, and that didn''t bode well for the iing armies.


    So, it held the troops back while the portal formed and waited for Max to make the first move.


    Another hour passed, and Max got the message that the Android Fleet was on its way, after finishing their battle in a nearby system. They would be another two hours, but they were rtively close. All that was left was to wait and see who won this staring contest.


    The portal stabilized when the Android Fleet was an hour out, creating a massive shimmering energy barrier over a hundred kilometres across.


    Nicoughed as she saw howrge the portal had be.


    "Now we''re talking, This is the sort of entry that a proper viin is supposed to make." She dered as she looked through the portal at the other side.


    All that they could see were puffy white clouds, so the portal must have opened in an atmosphere, but well above ground level. That was a bit unusual, but the otheryers didn''t always work the same as their own, and it might be something like that floating piece ofndmass that they hadnded on the first time they had entered anotheryer.


    [Ready when you are.] The research team reminded Max as he did his best to scan the other side.


    [There''s something off about that portal. It''s massive, but I don''t see a single supporting lesser energy being. The sensors aren''t picking up anything due to the interference, which I suspect is the intent of the Greater Energy Being. I think that it might have evacuated its forces.] Max replied.


    The Great Enemy had always been aggressive, so this empty portal was unnatural and out of character for them. As much as Max was setting a trap to ambush the Energy Being when it tried to move, the Energy Being was setting a trap for him.


    "Hey Nico, can we shut that portal? I want to see what it does when we try. If it doesn''t respond, then we know that we''ve called its bluff, and it is going to try again elsewhere." Max requested.


    "I''m on it." She agreed, then started to reconfigure the Cutter''s weapons array.


    One shot from a specially modified Antimatter Torpedo should do the trick, or so she hoped. If it wasn''t enough, she would fire a whole array of them at the edge of the portal to destabilize it and cause the enemy to have to start all over if they wanted to fight here today.


    Nico prepared the weapon forunching, and the research team prepared the sensors to make sure that they didn''t miss any of the data from the resulting explosion. In theory, the weapon would work perfectly, but the difference between theory and reality could be a massive gap.


    "Alright, we''re set. We''re ready when you are." The lead researcher informed them, while Nico began to charge the weapons array.


    The Portal began to shift and change as the weapon charged, and Max was about to order the team to hold off until it was stabilized again when both the weapon and the portal red with energy and the world around them turned bright white as the sensors were overloaded, and it became impossible to tell what was going around them.


    The whole staff went on standby, and carefully watched the shield outputs to make sure that nothing was attacking them when the sensors were down. There weren''t any signs of iing damage, and the internal sensors were working fine, with no indication that they had been breached for boarded by lesser Energy Beings.


    It was a strange situation, and Max couldn''t help but wonder if it was idental, and not a deliberate attack by the Energy Being on the other side of the portal.


    As the sensors began to clear, Max took in their surroundings in confusion. They were no longer in space, at least not as far as he could tell. They appeared to be on the surface of a, and there were golden armoured enemies in the distance, but no sign of the Greater Energy Being or any other energy beings for that matter.


    If Max had to guess, they might have been pulled through theyers and onto a''s surface. That could be a serious problem, depending on what sort of twisted naturalws thisyer had, and what sort of creatures lived in it.


    "Find out where we are and get us a situation report," Max ordered.


    "On it, Boss."

 Chapter 1120 1120 Clever Girl

    <h4>Chapter 1120 1120 Clever Girl</h4>


    After a few seconds, the sensor logs and error reports from the ship began to flow in, giving a full picture of the situation, and Nico cursed, thenughed.


    "I still don''t know where we are, but I know what happened." She informed the rest of the room.


    The researchers all turned to look at her, and Nico gave them a frustrated grimace.


    "We''re in theyer that the portals opened from. Antimatter cannot exist on thisyer, and either our torpedo or our ship set off a chain reaction that opened a massive portal and dragged us through.


    That portal is now closed, and it looks like there is little possibility that the locals will be opening it in the near future. The sensors are showing massive destruction in the area, and there appears to be a freshly levelled city about fifty kilometres from our location.


    First up, none of our Warp Crystal drives will function here, so we need to renovate our Super Heavy Mecha asap. The ship''s primary power is offline, but this ship is fitted with a Dyson Sphere backup power generator, so we do have limited shields and some mobility until we can get everything back online."


    The crew sprung into action, and Nico started forwarding files to them.


    "Rece the Super Heavy Units power nts with these units. They will be a bit slow to replicate, because of the materials, but the power output will beparable enough to bring them up tobat effectiveness. Then start working on the ship. We have shields, but not even as much of a shield as the two custom Mecha have, and that''s not eptable.


    I will work on a power ry station to bring us up to somewhat functional while you work on getting the Mecha ready to go.


    Who wants to volunteer to keep an eye on the Golden Legion?" She asked.


    Max patted her on the head and smiled.


    "I will watch the Golden Legion, and if they approach, I will go out and deal with them, apanied by whatever Mecha we have online." He assured her.


    "Perfect. Everything but the Super Heavy units are online, since they''re the only ones in our team that used a Warp Crystal primary drive. The Corvette ss racks are piloted and good to go on a moment''s notice, and the ship still has enough power to deploy them without issues.


    We can also move around at suborbital speeds, but we won''t be able to withstand much iing fire, so try to keep them from getting close enough to shoot at us."


    "Don''t worry, I''ll be right on top of it if anything threatens the ship. I don''t want to go outside and draw attention yet, as the enemy likely thinks that our ship is disabled at the moment, and they are still recovering from the st that closed the Portal.


    The real issue is determining where the Greater Energy Being is. If it is in here somewhere, we could have issues. If it transferred to the other side and left us stuck here, it will be a muchrger issue."


    From what Max recalled of the Golden Legion and its Legionaries, they were not patient, and if they thought that Max had been the one that had destroyed their city, they would be on the attack within minutes, leaving the recovery and rescue work to the other survivors while the military went on the attack.


    So, the longer that they could remain undetected, the more of their equipment that they could get back online before the inevitable fight began.


    But while he waited, he could learn quite a bit about this world with the powerful sensors of a Cutter ss ship, and the ability to borrow Nico''s Innate Talent to hack the localputers.


    Or so he had assumed until he began to try and found that there were no operational electronic devices anywhere within themunications range of the ship.


    The transmitter seemed to be working just fine, and there was no indication that he was being jammed, but there was simply nothing there to find.


    That shouldn''t be right, unless they had some new technology that he couldn''t detect. There was also a slim chance that they had been using a central power andmunications system, or the explosion had taken everything out at once. An EMP effect on this side of the portal might have disabled everything that they had for electronics, and they might be running around electronically blind.


    For any advanced species, that was a nightmare. But for an advanced species military, it was a killing blow that could nearly send them back to the Stone Age.


    There was no good way to block a powerful EMP, so what the humans did was amodate for it and create circuitry that could rapidly recover withoutsting damage if it was hit. Standard procedure for energy weapons was to have them funnel the energy into their capacitors, so an EMP that caused the Mecha to reboot would actually charge the main guns and allow them to bebat ready as fast as possible once they were back online.


    It had relegated the tactic to the equivalent of sand in their eyes, just a momentary distraction that could be used as a sneak attack, and most human forces didn''t even bother anymore.


    The digital search didn''t pan out, but as Max searched through the minds of the creatures in the area, he managed to find what he was looking for. The Greater Energy Being was still here, and heavily wounded by the st. The thoughts were feminine, and it seemed like this being was an assistant to the god of the Golden Legion, which had sided with the faction intending to wipe out the mortals and start over.


    She had gone into hiding, allowing her corporeal body to disperse into the surface beneath them, while she healed from her injuries.


    But that fragmentation meant that there would be countless lesser Energy Beings spread out all over the. They should be on the side of the Golden Legion, but in the shock that followed the damage to their former host, they would be disoriented and somewhat ineffective.


    The thought was concerning the Greater Energy Being in her hiding spot, as she didn''t understand what had happened, or why everything around the portal had suddenly exploded.


    All that was left was to get their Mecha online, and they could go deal with the Golden Legion and start working on either a way home or a way to deal with the Greater Energy Being, who was now seriously reconsidering the orders they had been given.


    But what being wouldn''t be? They hadn''t even seen the enemy yet, and their General was nearly killed, their city was levelled, and an unknown number of their troops were lost before they ever sawbat. It was a tragedy, and the God that had taken a liking to the species would definitely understand the effort to avoid having the entire poption here eliminated for no gain.


    At least, that was what was going through the Greater Energy Being''s mind at that moment.


    Perhaps the situation that Max was in wasn''t as dire as he had feared. If the leader of the Golden Legion force chose to take them away, he would be left here in peace to repair their Cutter and return to their homeyer.

 Chapter 1121 1121 Not Normal

    <h4>Chapter 1121 1121 Not Normal</h4>


    Max searched the sensor data for signs that the lesser energy beings were bing more organized while the others worked on repairing and adjusting the ship and its defences to their current situation, and slowly he began to realize that something wasn''t right with thisyer.


    The sensor scans extended to their maximum range, with garbled but somewhat reliable data, which was incredibly useful, but also, not generally possible. The curvature of the should have limited them to much less range than this, and unless the data was skewed, this had to be the size of arge red star, orpletely t.


    The gravity didn''t match either of those scenarios, so there was a chance that it was artificially managed, and if they had actually killed the Greater Energy Being, it might have either dissipated or gone into wild fluctuations that would have killed every unprotected life form on the surface.


    But that was only half of the strangeness that was present in thisyer of space. There didn''t seem to be an up here either. The atmosphere extended up for about fifty kilometres, and then it just stopped, with no other readings from their sensors.


    Either the region above them waspletely empty, or it simply didn''t exist.


    How that was possible or what it meant was a problem that Max could work outter, but his working theory was that this portion of theyer had been segmented off somehow, possibly to protect the Golden Legion.


    Max realized that he didn''t really know much about the abilities of the Greater Energy Beings, or the so-called Gods that backed them up. They were supposed to have some sort of power over theyers of space, but nobody had ever been able to analyze it, so it was all theoretical.


    If he could do it now, they might learn more about what these creatures were capable of, and with that, they might be able to more effectively keep them out of his homeyer. Preventing them from entering in the first ce would make the battles much easier than fighting them after they arrived.


    He wasn''t going to get much time to wonder about the being that made this strange ce, there were already signs that the Lesser Energy Beings were organizing and heading toward the Cutter, and the Golden Legion was beginning to get their armies in order.


    "Nico, we''ve got about ten minutes before I expect the artillery to start. How are we doing back there?" Max called out to where the team on board were working with the Androids to get the Mecha operational.


    "We can have most of the Mecha operational by then, and the ship''s shields will be up to full capacity in the next minute. We''re just linking multiple secondary power sources to get the total shield output up to the standard it was at with the Warp Drive online.


    How are things looking out there?" She replied.


    "Like we''re not flying away to anywhere in the near future, and we''re in for a fight.


    I don''t know how the Golden Legion is going to react to our presence, but if they''re really part of the Cathedral Ships fleet, the answer is pretty obvious. I''m not sensing rampant hostility or blind rage from the Greater Energy Being, though, and it has retreated to recover from the wounds it took when the portal imploded.


    If they are being mind controlled for hostility, there is a chance that we can get out of this without killing everything that we see, but that sounds pretty optimistic to say out loud."


    The rest of the teamughed at Max''s realization, but didn''t slow their work. They were determined to have the Mecha online and ready when things turned ugly.


    In the worst-case scenario, they could use the power from the Mecha to reinforce the ship''s shields, and only send out a few units to fight. That would at least keep their method of return to their homeyer intact, and the ship was still capable of moving about, just not of leaving the until they had all the systems altered.


    Not that there was anything resembling "In Orbit" in thisyer of space, or at least not in the portion that they were upying.


    As they gathered, Max realized that the lesser energy beings weren''t gathering for an attack, they were gathering for safety in numbers. There were vicious wild animals here, and they were able to tear apart the solidified bodies of the demons, scattering the energy of their bodies to the winds.


    It looked like they were going to be reforming within a matter of hours, as the energy cloud remained cohesive, but that was still enough that the wildlife was a serious threat.


    Whatever this ce was, it was not a paradise environment created for safety and an easy life. It was more of an extreme challenge, preparing the residents for survival. That alone would be enough to tell Max that the Golden Legion hadn''t changed much, but the real question was if they were going to remember what Nico did to them thest time around.


    If they had learned from that experience, despite the reset in time to a point when they had never met, then this could get very difficult. But if they hadn''t, then Max already knew the weaknesses in their tactical knowledge that Nico had exploited to overrun their entire civilization faster than a response fleet could arrive.


    But they weren''t alone this time, there was a Greater Energy being here. A wounded one, but still a Greater Energy Being, and it might not be the only one.


    It wasn''t often that thoughts about one''s own species status went through their conscious thoughts, so even if there was another, as long as their power didn''t make them overwhelming, like the being that was watching over the Myceloids, then it would be nearly impossible for Max to find them.


    The energy beings had nearly all formed into groups already, and the ones that had fallen to the wildlife had congregated around the others, but in incorporeal form. That was attracting the Golden Legion, which didn''t seem to know that they were nominally on the same team.


    Or, perhaps they weren''t until they were forced into battle.


    There was so much confusion after the st that had destroyed the city that no clear answer could be found, and the stalemate was giving Nico and the team much more time to work than he had expected. Just a few more minutes and they would have the shippletely online.

 Chapter 1122 1122 Whose Line Is It Anyhow?

    <h4>Chapter 1122 1122 Whose Line Is It Anyhow?</h4>


    [Max, we''ve got the ship up and running, or at least the shields are up. Give us another few minutes, and we will be finished with all the Mecha. What is the situation outside?] Nico requested.


    [The residents seem to have no idea what is going on. They don''t know who or what we are, or even what species we''re from. The Energy Beings are fighting off attacks by the wildlife, that are enraged at the intrusion into their territory, and the Golden Legion are viewing everything as a possible threat until they understand what happened to their city.


    Casualties aren''t as high as I had expected. It appears that arge part of their city was fortified against attacks, and the nobatants were put in the most secure buildings.


    That has cut down the number of warriors, but the core of the city appears to be mostly alive.]


    Nico returned her focus to swapping the power sources on the Super Heavy Mecha, and Max fine-tuned the input systems on his new custom unit using [Optimize] while he waited for something to happen.


    Then, the sky filled with white light again, further in the distance, and well away from the city, but the sensors were filled with the same noise that blinded everything, and when it faded, there were thousands more soldiers, all from an unknown species, and another gravely wounded Greater Energy Being.


    But this one had nowhere to flee to. The one which was already here attacked it the moment that it appeared, dispersing it into Lesser Energy Beings without a cohesive will behind them to tell friend from foe.


    They were everywhere, scattered all through sensor range, as the first group had been, and also throughout the ruined city of the Golden Legion.


    [Halt, or we will fire on you.]


    [Do Not Move or you will be fired upon.]


    [Advance, and we will treat you as an enemy.]


    [By the Great Golden God, state your intentions.]


    Every faction in the region all broadcast at nearly the same time, trying to determine the status of everyone else around them, and protect the spot where they happened to appear in this world.


    The influx of demands only confused things even more, as none of them except the Golden Legion knew who was here before them, so they were all treating the situation as if they had been abducted by a hostile force.


    The two Greater Energy Beings were fighting in the atmosphere, and their thoughts told Max that while the first one belonged here, and had been trying to open a portal, the second one had been somewhere else, and had no intentions of opening a portal at all until the explosion threw them through theyers and wounded them too severely to go back.


    But the feminine thought pattern wasn''t epting any sort of apologies for the intrusion, and was intent to make sure that her counterpart would not be able to regenerate.


    [What''s going on out there? All our systems went offline for a few seconds.] Nico demanded.


    [I have no idea. There was another explosion, and then there were more people here from some otheryer of space. None of the factions knows what''s going on, and the neers weren''t even trying to go anywhere. They think that they''ve been abducted.]


    [What a fething mess. Is there anything close enough to pose a danger to us?]


    [Only a few Lesser Energy Beings, but they''re less of a danger than the wildlife. Seriously, don''t let those things catch a Corvette ss unit off guard, they might actually win the fight.] Max replied.


    [That sounds like this will be one giant mess. How long do you think it''s going to be until they realize that they''re allies?] Nico replied.


    [That''s just it, I have no idea. For all I know, they will go feral on each other, and we will be caught in the middle. The new arrivals might havee from a differentyer of space, and I don''t know what happened to cause the explosion that brought them here because we don''t havemunication with anyone outside.]


    [In that case, there are three minutes on the Mecha, and we will be ready to defend the ship.]


    Nico''s excitement was growing with every message that they exchanged, but she wasn''t getting sloppy with her work. Everything had to be perfect before she sent it outside to fight.


    The first battles were beginning in the distance, where a group of lesser energy beings had appeared inside the defensive perimeter of another group, and the hostilities were spreading through the wilderness at a steady pace, as the two groups decided that the others couldn''t be trusted.


    That was drawing in the aliens, who were spread between the groups, and the wave of hostilities would soon reach the Golden Legion''s city, which was currently in a tense standoff with the new arrivals.


    [How are the Mecha looking? The fight is getting close, and it''s time that we sent out some defensive forces before someone decides that we''re a weak target with a safe bunker.] Max asked.


    [Thirty Seconds topletion. We can start sending out the Corvette ss units now.]


    Max powered up his Mecha and prepared to move.


    [I will lead the group outside. Corvette ss units fall in around me and spread to protect the Cutter.] He ordered.


    The staff ejected the racks of Corvette ss Mecha whole, to allow them to disembark once they were outside, and Max rushed through the door to put his Titan ss Mecha between the ongoing fighting and their ship.


    Max looked down at the namete on the Mecha and smiled.


    [Warning, this is the Command Mecha Godyer. Any hostile actions toward my force will be met with your annihtion.] He announced as a group of alien vehicles began to move their way.


    He silently thanked Nico for giving his new Mecha a cool name, and waited for the enemy to respond. They had gotten the message, but for the first few seconds, they hadn''t detected the Giant Mecha standing in front of the Cutter.


    Max knew the instant they did, as the whole line of vehicles came to a screeching halt, and panic spread all through their ranks. That was precisely the response he had been hoping for.

 Chapter 1123 1123 Option One

    <h4>Chapter 1123 1123 Option One</h4>


    The momentary pause as the enemy took in the presence of the giant Mecha in front of the Cutter ss ship that they didn''t recognize was enough for Nico to finish her work and get the unit of Super Heavy Mecha online and operational.


    She kept them inside the Cutter for the moment, ready to charge out the instant that something happened, but hidden from sight so that the enemy''s ns would be to deal with one Titan ss Mecha and a group of Corvette ss units, not two Titan ss units with arge number of artillery pattern Super Heavy Mecha and a Corvette ss vanguard.


    The aliens didn''t hesitate long, their orders had been given, and they were to take this position from Max and secure the alien vessel as their own so they could get off this.


    They didn''t know where they were either, and they had much less information about the world than Max had been able topile, so it was perfectly reasonable to expect that a ship parked on the surface would have the capability to leave the.


    [Iing in 5 seconds.] Max informed Nico and her unit.


    [Waiting on your order.] She agreed, while dancing in her seat, anticipating a good fight.


    Right on schedule, the enemymander gave the order to charge, and theser arrays mounted to the top of their transport vehicles shed with blinding lights as the onught was absorbed by the Void Shields of the Cutter.


    [Fire at will.] Max ordered the Corvettes, and an invisible wave of energy raced back toward the aliens as dozens of Disruptors fired at once.


    The enemy vehicles rolled to a stop as their shielding held against the long-range assault, but the radiation boiled the upants alive.


    [Oh, that''s messy. I forgot that happened when the Disruptor couldn''t break down a vehicle that wasn''t properly radiation shielded.] Nicoughed as the enemy advance faltered.


    The blockage wasn''tplete, and they were making their way around the disabled vehicles, unaware of the horrors that were awaiting them inside. They even sent out rescue teams to pop open the hatches, under the assumption that the Mecha had hit them with something like an EMP and disabled the vehicles, not the upants.


    That was when Max opened fire, picking targets with low powered beams and creating small nuclear fission reactions which sted massive craters in the battlefield, and threw ming hunks of metal for hundreds of metres.


    [Turn the heavy weapons on them, we need that vessel intact.] The enemy Commander ordered, while Max picked targets in the enemy line for maximum shock effect and chaos.


    Nico''s voice came over the radio as thest of the vehicles was sted into rubble.


    [We have more iing. Both the aliens and the Golden Legion. The Legion is sending their walking sarcophagus units to us.] Sheughed.


    The walking sarcophagus, as Nico called it, was a form of Line Mecha, with very little armour, and no shielding whatsoever. Even the first generation Line Mecha that Max had trained on were dozens of times safer than these thinly covered units. But they were heavily armed, and they would be in the back rows of the assault, providing cover fire for the frontal assault.


    The problem was that they were assaulting Super Heavy Mecha, which were currently rushing out to surround the Cutter.


    The Thunder Guns were rotating into position and firing as the units moved to block the Cutter from attack, firing directly into the attacking aliens, but bombarding a line fifty metres in front of the Golden Legion units, where it would do no damage, but send a clear warning not to advance.


    Whether they would listen was another matter entirely, but the short-term effect was to turn the Golden Legion force toward the other alien force, instead of having them charge directly at the Cutter.


    That caused the aliens to start firing on the Golden Legion.


    As a result, Nico ordered her units to move their fire further back, which both avoided hitting the new force, and drove the aliens toward them in an effort to escape the bombardment. With the noise of the artillery, they weren''t doing well at getting orders out, and the Mecha were causing massive casualties to their force.


    It only took them a single minute to realize that this attack was never going to work, but by then, it was toote, and they couldn''t escape the two-sided attack.


    [Hold your fire and wait to see what the Golden Legion does once the aliens are gone.] Max ordered.


    The Golden Legion in their past life hadn''t been known for their forgiving nature, and Max had practically dropped a starship on their frontwn, so he didn''t have high hopes for the situation. However, once they cleared out thest of the aliens, and Max''s team didn''t start to shoot at them, they turned away and began attacking groups of newly arrived lesser energy beings, and rescuing ones that had split from the first Greater Energy Being.


    "What is this option, [Sit here while everyone else has fun]?" Nico asked.


    "It''s better than taking on a whole city at once with only one Battalion of Mecha. Not that we would likely lose, but I would rather not risk them breaking our ship before we even had a chance to find out what in the universe is going on around here.


    I doubt that they were nning on an attack when they started opening the portals. Or perhaps the portals didn''t originate from thisyer, and they were just bystanders in the wrong ce at the wrong time."


    Nico was silent for a moment as she considered Max''s opinion, and the facts that they had seen so far. The additional portals were the deciding factor for her. If they had been the ones initiating the attack, they should have been prepared to move out, and there should have been some sort of organized structure that was creating the portals.


    But there wasn''t. The Greater Energy Being here was gravely wounded, there was no technological device active that would have created more portals, and the timing was roughly correct for the pattern that they had been seeing in their homeyer.


    In conclusion, Nico was reasonably sure that they were not currently in the right spot. Their attacker was either still atrge or recently disembodied by the resident Energy Being, and there was a good chance that the attempt to create a breach was still ongoing.


    "What''s your suggestion?" She asked once her analysis was finished.


    "Option one is that we kill everything that doesn''t belong here, and then we look for a way to get to the source of the invaders. Option..."


    Nico cut in, stopping him there. "Option one is good. Let''s just kill everything that isn''t friendly."


    Maxughed at her enthusiasm. "Alright then, option one it is. We need another defensive team for the Cutter if we''re going to move out and start clearing away the hostiles though."


    "I am already on it. Four Super Heavy Mecha, and twenty Corvette ss units to supplement the Cutter''s defensive weapons should do the job, and all the staff are in Mobile Suits and fully armed, in case something does get past the defensive lines."


    [All the staff] was only five people, but it was better than nothing.


    "Alright, let''s go."

 Chapter 1124 1124 The Full Clear

    <h4>Chapter 1124 1124 The Full Clear</h4>


    As the Golden Legion started to move out, the lesser energy beings that were from their patron all began to gather and head toward the main group. Theycked radios or any other form ofmunication equipment, so the message was slow in passing between them, but Max saw an opportunity in that.


    If he moved the Mecha force along that line where the message was passing and shouted it asionally through the loudspeakers, he could get them all moving in the right direction and leave only the actual enemies in their way.


    It would cut the number of targets that they had to fight nearly in half, and it would allow the Golden Legion''s minimal scouting force to deal withrger threats, while the main force was engaged in the city.


    There were other cities in the distance, ording to the sensors, and there was a chance that they were pushing toward one of them, or a hidden military base to gather more troops, but the st seemed to have destroyed their electronics.


    They weren''t using any vehicles, only armoured infantry and some of their crude Mecha, which Max recalled should operate entirely on hydraulics, with no centralputer at all.


    If the rest of their army was like that, it should be mobile soon, but it was likely stuck in the city, and now surrounded by enemies who had appeared at random all over the region.


    [Timer.] Nico called out, startling Max.


    Another portal appeared in the far distance, and this time, Max saw the shimmering of stars as it stabilized for a moment and a Destroyer sized Cathedral Ship began to pass through, before a massive explosion detonated the vessel, causing a ripple effect to take out the portal and throw both ming fragments of the ship and survivors everywhere.


    [Feth, I know what''s happening. The Android Army has arrived, and they''re on our side of the portal. They must have learned from our experience, and they''re staying out of range of the sts, but they''re destroying the portals as they open.


    The Cathedral Ships are passing through thisyer on their way between where they''re hiding and ouryer of space, which is why they''re having such a hard time stabilizing the portals. They''re not a direct route, either because it''s not possible, or because they''re trying to disguise their intentions and origin.] She exined.


    [Great, that''s just what we needed. yer 4 is here now. New orders, target the survivors of the Cathedral Ships and keep telling the Golden Legion''s energy being allies where they should go to assemble with the rest of their team. If they''re not working together, the Golden Legion might be allies for the moment, and we will have one safe nk.]


    [And after that?] Nico asked hopefully.


    [Then we do what we came here to do. Destroy the Cathedral Ship fleet. We can''t leave them running around the ce.] Max teased.


    [I was hoping that you were going to say something like that. I''ve already got a n ready, and it''s ingenious. What I''m thinking is that we keep building Mecha, with Androids piloting them, and send out teams to hunt the survivors of the Cathedral Ships. One Super Heavy with ten Corvettes.


    We can fan out in an arc, and cover as much of the region as possible, and help the Golden Legion reform their army in the area while we wait to see if the Great Enemy is going to get a clue and stop with the portals, or if the Androids will keep sting them into oblivion.


    It won''t be long before they''ve used so much antimatter that the surrounding region will be unstable, and it wouldn''t be possible to open a portal at all, even without their interference.


    The only problem with that is once theyer is destabilized, we can''t return directly there, as we won''t be able to open a portal home either, unless we find a way off this giant.]


    Nico had a point. If things kept going at this rate, it wouldn''t be long before nobody could move between their homeyer and otheryers in this region, themselves included. That would mean finding a way off this strange, or moving in reverse, to theyer where the Cathedral Ships wereing from so that they could move to a new spot and transfer from there.


    That n had an ominous vibe to him, and Max made sure not to voice it to Nico, who would likely start working on the n the very instant she heard that there was the slightest chance she would get to solo the entire Cathedral Ship fleet.


    He knew her entirely too well, and while the n did sound like it would be of great benefit to every species in the known universe, it also sounded more than a little bit suicidal.


    If they had a whole fleet with them, he might consider taking the fight directly to the enemy, but alone, with one Cutter, it just didn''t have the same heroic vibe to it.


    [Alright, get on it. Do what you need to do to keep the ship protected as well, we don''t want to lose our way home, or put our team in danger.]


    [You have a point. Getting stuck in some random disjointedyer of space on a that doesn''t seem to have proper gravity would definitely put a damper on my ns to dominate the Universe.] Nico agreed.


    That offhand remark resonated in Max''s mind. Not about Nico wanting to rule the universe, that wasn''t new information. But the gravity in this ce. Everyyer had something strange about it, and from what the sensors had detected, Max suspected that thisyer had only one constant gravity.


    That was why the could be so huge and still habitable. Or possibly t, and still have gravity. How the nearby star overhead remained intact was a mystery if that was the case, but it was possible that the Greater Energy Beings or the God that had chosen this ce had the ability to influence gravity, much like the now deceased God of Time had manipted that fundamentalw to their own advantage.

 Chapter 1125 1125 Well Trained Androids

    Chapter 1125 1125 Well Trained Androids


    [Iing artillery buggy at 4 o clock.] One of the Androids reported as it turned to engage the new enemy.


    Max and Nico had begun to lead their team away from the ship two hours ago, and they had only made it three kilometres in the constant swarm of enemies that they were facing.


    It was as if everything that they met instantly recognized them as the apex predator of the region, and they were all teaming up to try to stop them before the Mecha squad had a chance to run amok among the rest of the military forces.


    Their sensors had detected another spatial explosion in the distance, the same as the first two, and it was roughly centred on another Golden Legion city.


    They had enough of a signal that it was certain this time that the Android Fleet was actively bombing them with Antimatter munitions, and that space was bing very unstable after the third portal in such a short period of time had been copsed with the vtile munitions.


    Within the hour, leaving from here to go straight home was no longer going to be an option, but so far, the team on board the Cutter had not found any hints as to how they might aplish the task within the limitations of this space.


    [Iing Bloody Warriors.] Nico happily announced, with an apanying ping on the map to point them out.


    They didn''t quite have unitsparable to Mecha, but the warriors from this drop had some giant arachnid styled war walkers that were piloted by two soldiers, and they were brutally capable in melee, whilecking in the rangedbat department.


    That was amon theme with the blood soaked warriors. They favoured melee above all else, and they had dozens of ways to get there, but their ranged heavy weaponry was nearly nonexistent.


    [Eyes forward everyone. The buggies can be dealt with by the rear guard, let''s take out the heavy equipment first.] Max ordered.


    The warriors began to charge, under covering fire from the sma cannons that were mounted to the arachnid walkers that were quickly overtaking them.


    The fact that they were the unit''s only fire support didn''t appear to matter to them at all, as the constructs raced forward to engage the Mecha. All that ever seemed to matter to these warriors wasbat.


    Max set his Disintegrator to minimal output and let it auto-calibrate to the armour of the warriors he would be targeting, then began to fire. The resulting miniature nuclear explosions rocked the ground, throwing some of the weaker fighters to the ground, and filled the air with mushroom clouds.


    That would naturally bring even more warriors to them, but the whole point of this expedition was to kill anything stupid or hostile enough to be a threat. Only once there was nothing left to shoot at would they be safe to start modifying the Cutter so they could get out of here, but the risk of causing a chain reaction that would ripple through this strange world or make the atmosphere toxic was still a concern.


    They weren''t trying to turn the whole world against them. That would waste far too much time, and Max couldn''t help but worry that the continued efforts to break through in that remote part of space was actually a diversion from something more important.


    What that could be, he didn''t know. But both the Arisen and the Darklings had been fairly adamant that he should be the one taking care of the issues here, so there was a good chance that they knew more about what was going on than he did.


    If it was just that they knew this Greater Energy Being wasn''t openly hostile to the humans and wanted to see Max''s reaction, that was a wholly different issue than if they knew something about the force that wasing through the portals. Even after fighting them for hours, Max knew very little about them, other than that they seemed to follow the same traditions as the others that kept their armour covered in the blood of their enemies.


    That was about all they had inmon, though. The warriors in this group wererger, the machines supporting them were ones that he hadn''t seen before, and they also seemed to be more intelligent than thest lot.


    Max used the Mass Driver to snipe a warrior who had almost sneaked up to their position.


    Definitely smarter.


    There was a small rocky field in front of them, where Max decided they could make a stand for the moment.


    [Corvettes, move behind the rocks and take cover. Minimize your profile from outside the field. I want a full circle of coverage, and I will take the centre with Nico at my back.] He ordered.


    The Mecha moved into position, and Max turned his Disintegrator toward the ground. A short burst dug a hole that was waist deep on the Titan ss Mecha, which should make them shorter than the surrounding tree line, so Max hopped in and let Nico follow him, which put the two giant Mecha back to back.


    The warriors weren''t stupid, they would either surround their position or focus a charge on a weak point. The circr formation didn''t have any obvious weak points, unless the enemy failed to notice one of the poorly hidden Corvette ss Mecha.


    The new adaptive paint was excellent at blending into the surroundings, but not good enough that it would fool sensors at this short of a range.


    Max watched as the Bloody Warriors surrounded their position, keeping a distance of five hundred metres, then listened to Nico''sughter as they ushered forward arge unit of alien armoured vehicles to go before them and begin the bombardment of the field.


    [Those poor idiots don''t know what is about to happen to them. Their sensor systems are terrible, and they think it''s only the two of us in the field.] He informed Nico and the rest of the unit.


    The Androids replied in unison. [Understood, Commander. We will wait to fire until it is obvious that we have been discovered.]

 Chapter 1126 1126 Tag Team

    Chapter 1126 1126 Tag Team


    The shells from the alien armoured vehicles began to rain down from the sky, mostly hitting the two Titan ss Mecha, but some were flying wide, or falling short of the target.


    [Do you think they''re here identally? No invading army could possibly have weapons systems so bad that they can''t even urately hit a target at a slow roll.] Nico wondered out loud.


    [It''s possible, but they seem to be on the same side as the Bloody Warriors, so it would seem that they were preparing for war. Perhaps this species is in the training stages?] Max replied as he calcted the strength of their weapons based on the impacts that his Void Shield was absorbing.


    He smiled in satisfaction as theputer informed him that even if the whole armoured Battalion managed to hit him at the same time, there was no chance that they would be able to take his shields down. Their maximum damage output was less than the power output of his Mecha''s shield generator.


    It was fairly pathetic, and this earnestly attacking species was doomed to be obliterated in the very first battle they ever faced, but that was the way of war. If you went in unprepared, you ceased to exist.


    But their allies weren''t just leaving them to their fate, they had used them as bait to try to draw a response from Max and his unit, who still weren''t shooting back.


    He could sense the frustration of the enemy Commanders, who wanted to know which unit could trigger those massive explosions so that they could focus their attacks on it. The enemy had realized that the time for scouting out the Mecha''s abilities hade and gone, and in a blur of fast moving red armour, they joined the advance.


    This time, they left their arachnid walkers a bit behind, keeping them from bing the primary targets during the first wave, with the hope that they could finish what the infantry started.


    [Eighty-four kilometres an hour. These are definitely augmented armour suits, or superhuman warriors.] Nico noted.


    [Hold until the enemy makes it to the fifty-metre mark, and then use the fusion mers.] Max ordered the Corvette ss units on the outer ring.


    Then he began to bombard the region with the Thunder Guns, using high explosives, but keeping the nuclear sts from the Disintegrator forter.


    The enemy was in contact with other units, and he didn''t want to give them too much information right now, when they still had so many more soldiers to send his way.


    Roaring white mes lit up the ground around them as the fusion mers marked the arrival of the enemy, and the light Mass Drivers on the Corvette ss units shredded through vehicles and armoured suits as the enemy advance faltered under the fury of the Mecha''s counterattack.


    "Forward, push a breach and get the walkers to the giants." The enemy Commander was shouting.


    [You heard the man. Forward, create a breach as you go, so I can kill those walkers.] Nico agreed.


    The Androids jumped to their feet and filled the air with Fusion Fire as they advanced with their des raised. The warriors shouted in satisfaction as the Mecha moved toward closebat, and pushed themselves to their limits to be the first to engage the defenders, de on de.


    The Mecha parted in front of Nico, and gave her a clear shot toward the arachnid walkers. The rhythmic thump of the Thunder Guns shook the ground around them as a quick burst of shells hit the lead vehicle, whose shielding briefly red with bright light before copsing and allowing the next two shells to make direct impacts on the hull, shattering the walker into shrapnel that rained down over the battlefield.


    The aliens squealed and took cover as the molten metal bounced off their vehicles and burned through the uniforms of the soldiers who were exposed to the open air.


    That was enough to break thest of their resolve, and the aliens turned to flee, only to find that their supposed allies would not allow any such cowardice in battle.


    Those who turned to run were cut down by the warriors, and those who did not were roasted by the Fusion mers as the Mecha advanced.


    [The shields on these walkers are better than the ones on thest batch.] Nico noted as she detonated another with a barrage of fire.


    [They are resistant to the Disintegrator as well.] Max agreed, then leapt out of the hole to charge the targets.


    The Thunder Guns were too slow for his liking, and the energy de would do a much quicker job of eliminating the walkers.


    [More enemy infantry areing in from the direction of the most recent portal attempt.] The team leader in the Cutter informed them.


    "They''re so good to me. Let''s get this wave cleaned up so that they don''t have to wait their turn to fight us." Nico cheered as she received the good news.


    Max spun to his right and knocked aside the sharpened legs of an arachnid walker, before bringing his de down on its shiny ck carapace. The void shield on the walker shattered under the physical impact, unable to effectively dissipate the energy through theyers when the de was still being forced forward, and the massive mechanical body split apart in a flood of spilled hydraulic fluid and capacitor gel.


    The gel was an ancient battery technology, simr to the living energy storage technologies that Max was familiar with, and it powered all the functions of the walkers, which didn''t have a power core of their own.


    That meant that they weren''t intended for long-term operations, but to be a front line offensive unit, expected to take high casualties, and not needed for more than a few days at the start of the battle.


    Max made a mental note of that as he blocked the attack of the remaining two walkers near him.


    A twitch of his thumb turned the light Mass Drivers on the one to his left as he sliced the forelimbs off the other, sending it flying backwards from the impact.


    The damaged walker didn''t hesitate to return to battle, and fired a sma Cannon round into Max''s shields as it advanced again, but turned slightly to the side to attack with the remaining three limbs on its right side, which were shorter than the two forelimbs had been, but still ending in a sharpened alloy spike.


    The attempt was futile, as Max''s de was faster, and the pilots were cleaved in two with a flick of his wrist.


    [More infantrying your way. Origin unknown, but from the same general direction as the first iing group.] The Cutter crew announced.


    [Nico, let''s split up to save time. I''ll take the right, you take the left.] Max ordered, as his kill happy Sumander adapted her battle ns.


    [I''ll race you to the finish and meet you back here afterwards.]


    Maxughed. [That''s the spirit. I just hope that you''re not too disappointed when you lose.]


    The androids didn''t really understand the concept of a friendly rivalry, they viewed it as more of a proof of efficiency test, which they were happy to help their leaders aplish as they split the team in half to apany the two humans into battle.

 Chapter 1127 1127 Keep Stepping

    Chapter 1127 1127 Keep Stepping


    Max pushed his unit forward toward the enemy as he unleashed the Disintegrator on a wide dispersion pattern. Now that he knew the vehicles weren''t properly radiation shielded, there was no reason to put all his power reserves into attacking, the pilots would die either way and disable the vehicles.


    The aliens cursed the Mecha squad as it advanced, and the vehicles died an instant before the bombardment started, leaving them confused and trapped within the destruction.


    None of them seemed to understand that the weapon Max was using was not visible to their eyes, or to most sensors, and for the first few seconds, confusion reigned.


    Then the officers managed to get things back under control, and the survivors took positions either under the disabled vehicles or in craters to begin returning fire.


    The Void Shields over the Mecha flickered with the iing barrage, making it clear that this group were not a bunch of pushovers like the first one had been, and prompting the Androids to do their best to take out the more dangerous weapons first.


    The concept of "Heavy Weapons" didn''t seem to apply to these aliens, as all the rifles were about the same size, but the type and power of the output varied wildly from one to another.


    It was impossible to tell if they had just picked up different generations of weapons, or if this was deliberately done as a form of camouge so that their enemies wouldn''t be able to tell in advance what sort of capability they would be facing.


    If that was the case, it was actually an ingenious solution to having their more important units targeted at the start of the battle. Too many times, Max had been able to cripple the enemy simply by observing them for a few seconds, and with a Mecha army even a half blind fool could tell which were the units with the power.


    But with Mecha, thergest were also the hardest to damage, and the smaller units were much faster, and quickly became a closebat threat. Or at least they did the way that Max used them, and they were about to again.


    While the Thunder Guns rolled their bombardment back through the lines of the enemy soldiers, the Corvette ss units charged.


    Max waited a few seconds as they engaged the front ranks of alien survivors, and then activated the thrusters to put himself between the light Mecha and the charging arachnid walkers.


    They wererger than the Corvette ss units, and with multiple limbs, they were deadly in closebat. The light Mecha were much better suited to digging out hiding infantry than the Titan ss unit was, and Godyer towered over the battlefield as Max chopped downward into his first target.


    The sound of rending metal filled the air as Max pulled the de free and turned his Disintegrator on the next walker, which tried to barrel roll across the ground to get out of his range.


    Unfortunately, it didn''t know that Max was still firing in a wide cone pattern, and the walker seemed to roll over onto its back and die when the beam obliterated the pilots inside.


    The others spread out to encircle the gigantic Mecha, and the Void shield shed with energy as the sma Cannons sted.


    He leisurely turned to engage the enemy, letting them panic as his unconcerned movement. His shields were very nearly keeping up with the bombardment, and even if he stood still, it would take them hours to get through and damage his actual armour.


    Then, in a flurry of action, Max crouched and swung his leg out, kicking one of the walkers off into the distance before impaling another with his de and using the sword as a pole to rotate over to knee drop another of the walkers.


    The brutal impact crushed the metallic body, and a small chunk of the impaled walker followed his de through the next attack, only flying free as the sword mmed into another target and cut a deep furrow in the ground.


    The warriors weren''t going to stand for that, and they charged forward, creating a firing line to take down Max''s shields so that the remaining walkers would have a chance to take him down.


    The remaining aliens'' despair was so intense that Max could almost feel it on his skin, and it filled his mind as the light Mass Drivers turned on the warriors.


    Explosions threw dirt and body parts into the air as the rapid fire mass drivers sprayed munitions in an arc across the battlefield, narrowly missing a few of the warriors who were fast enough to trick his targeting systems.


    A strange rocket hit Max''s shield, and passed right through to detonate on his armour, shocking him enough that he nearly missed his parry against the iing forelimbs of the other arachnid walkers.


    The weapon had to have been made by the Cathedral Ships to fight against each other, there was no other force that Max knew of that used that shield technology. But now that they had used it, they knew what worked against him, and the warriors crowed in victory, even as a Mass Driver round turned the rocketeer into a fine red mist.


    Max sensed the warriors closest to their supply vehicle rushing to rece their weapons with ones that would work better against the Mecha, but that was a mistake that they couldn''t have known they were making.


    The action told him exactly where the supply was located, and Max lobbed a trio of nuclear Thunder Gun rounds into the location, wiping the betraying minds from existence, and hopefully taking the munitions supply with them.


    There was no way that the enemy could have anticipated that, and their frustration told Max that they thought it had been a lucky shot, a blind fire artillery shell that had gone off target while the Mecha were targeting the next wave of infantry.


    The Super Heavy Mecha were currently bombarding an area near there, where the sensors had picked up more iing infantry, but the enemy was learning quickly, and were hiding among the trees and rubble, doing their best to obscure their advance and not draw fire before they could return it.

 Chapter 1128 1128 Oh No You Dont

    Chapter 1128 1128 Oh No You Don''t


    Max updated his targeting scans and plotted a path forward. Nico had swung wide left, and wasing back across the line toward his artillery.


    The enemy seemed to being from a single point and spreading out, not from the multiple cities and portals, as Max had suspected at first. That meant that these aliens and warriors must havee through together, and that the other portal sites were going to have mixed targets as well.


    It would exin the sudden change in alien species, as well as the uniformity of targets once they got started.


    However, letting Nico get in front of him would stop his artillery bombardment, and mess up his advancement n. He was going to have to push forward more quickly instead of sweeping them up in a wide and then closing it on them, as he had been intending.


    He could just expand the and sweep Nico''s force forward with it. She would remain inbat, but he knew that he would have days ofints about kill stealing afterwards.


    [Mecha, clear the aliens and push forwards. The warriors areing from a single location, and I want to get there asap.] Max ordered.


    [Understood Commander.]


    The line of Super Heavy Mecha began to stomp forward, while the Corvettes darted about among the trees, looking for targets that had been hiding from their sensors.


    Max''s System Skill [Unified Force] allowed them all to link sensors smoothly and without the usual processingg, so the 3D map of the battlefield was quite detailed, but the warriors were getting much better at hiding from detection than anything that they had shown before.


    That wasn''t going to save them from the attacks of a very dedicated Nico and the rest of the Mecha force, though. They were methodically digging out the hiding spots of the warriors, who were already beginning to retreat and find a better spot to fight the Mecha.


    The trees let them hide to fight, but it also stopped them from detecting the Mecha in time to take them out before they were detected.


    The durability of the Corvette ss Mecha was throwing a wrench into the carefully practised training that they had all undergone. They hadn''t practised for what to do when they ran into an enemy that wouldn''t die if you ambushed them. It defied military logic, as taught by their superiors, and they were working on a solution as they fought.


    Listening to their thoughts as they adapted helped Max to both understand how they were trained and adjust his own force''s technique to counter them.


    It was driving their leadership insane, and they couldn''t decide if they had a traitor, amunications leak, or if they were fighting an enemy that knew their training better than even their unit Commanders did.


    Thest would be the hardest to deal with, as nothing they did would be able to defeat such an enemy easily.


    The problem was that not only did Max and Nico know theirbat styles better than they did, they also knew many morebat styles, and Max was reading their minds, while Nico read theirmunications.


    They had started using runners to send out some of the orders as an attempt to solve the issues of traitors and interceptedmunications, but that was only partially effective, as the Mecha were still picking up almost all of their movements.


    Once they confirmed where the main force was gathered, there wouldn''t be much that the warriors could do to escape the two Mecha forces, but for the moment, that location was still hidden, and the infantry was in full retreat to multiple locations where they thought that they might be able to stage a defence against the Mecha.


    This sort of offensive battle without time for the defenders to prepare was where the Mecha really excelled though, as they could overrun a makeshift perimeter with rtive ease, especially with thrusters on the Corvettes, and the warriors didn''t have any bunkers to protect them from the artillery.


    Many forces throughout human history had tried to abandon the Mecha for various fighting forces, but the versatility of the humanoid design had proven to be as versatile as the average infantry soldier, but so much more deadly that they never fully faded from most forces. With gravity ting, wheeled and tracked vehicles had lost their edge, and while hover vehicles had be popr among somes, and were widely used among the alien species, they just didn''t seem to really catch on with human militaries.


    For some reason, these warriors had chosen neither route, and had gone with an animalistic version of the robotic vehicles. If the technology wasn''tcking, they should actually be a match for the humanoid Mecha, and Max knew that Nico was already thinking of making some arachnid pattern drones for shock and awe efforts.


    So many species found giant spiders terrifying that it would be a waste not to. Their crab drones would terrify a lot, but a nice fuzzy 2 metre tall spider would send quite a few forces running in terror.


    The drones were a good idea, Max decided. The Cutter could make a few hundred of them in minutes, and he could deploy them all through the area around the ship so that nothing got too close, plus they were small enough to chase humanoids into many more hiding spots than a Mecha could.


    [Commander, your order is ready. Where should we deploy them to?] The researcher in charge of the Cutter requested.


    [Spread them out around the Cutter and search for everything but the Golden Legion. They haven''t been hostile so far, and I would like to keep it that way. If we can work with them, their cities will make natural obstacles to divert enemy forces.] Max exined.


    [Should we send some small ones to help them out then? Their city is still having an alien infestation problem.] The researcher asked.


    Max smiled, and his thoughts went to the arachnid walkers. [Yes, but little ones. No more than a metre across with a single primary weapon and basic shielding is fine. That way they can enter ruins to rescue survivors as well as using the flexible dendrites to dig out hiding enemies. Saving lives is as important to goodwill as killing the enemy.]


    [This will be so much fun. Cute baby crabs everywhere.]

 Chapter 1129 1129 Baby Crab

    <h4>Chapter 1129 1129 Baby Crab</h4>


    The team on board the Cutter got to work as soon as Max gave them the orders. They already had the ns for the new Crab Drones ready for use, just in case they had a chance to make a whole batch of them, but they weren''t expecting to be making them for this purpose.


    Therger crabs were deadly attack drones, and could operate in nearly any environment, against the deadliest of enemies, but today they were going to be deployed to fight against enemy infantry that was being decimated by a single unit of Corvette ss Mecha, even before the bombardment by the Super Heavy Mecha began.


    It seemed like overkill to them, but the little drones that they had been asked to make seemed much more fair to the enemy.


    Sure, they would be a nightmare to actually hit, and even more difficult to kill, but at least it would be possible for the infantry soldiers to take them out.


    Sending out units of drones that were individually overkill felt too much like bullying the weak, and the Innu had often been the ones being bullied, so the small drones were perfect in their mind. Individually not very impressive, but in a group, they would be incredible.


    They didn''t need much, but there were three essential qualities that the designers insisted on.


    First, they had to look like the big crab drones so that everyone understood that they were on the same team. Second, they needed to be able to clear rubble, so that meant they would need something that would work as a torch, as well as the ability to move rubble.


    Third, they had to be cute. They wouldn''t ept ugly crabs when they could make cute ones.


    The first and third aspects were simple, they just designed a crab shell half a metre across, and gave it extendable legs so that it could move normally, and still have the ability to grab and dragrger objects and people.


    Then they put variable patternser rifles in both eye lenses. Those would be the primary weapon, as well as the cutting torch if they needed to free someone from rubble. With a small gravity maniption generator added, they were ready to go.


    They didn''t even add shield generators, to limit the power necessary. They just made it out of the high density monomolecr alloy, with the knowledge that very little could shoot through it to begin with.


    That let them make fifty at a time, andplete the process in under two minutes after the testing was finished. It was a bit hasty, and done in the same ten-minute period that therger Crab Drones were being produced, but it would have to do.


    These might be the simplest drones that the Terminus Trading Company had ever made, but once they had two hundred of them all lined up outside the Cutter alongside therger drones, there was no dissatisfaction with the final result.


    They tasked four of therger drones to lead the small ones fifty at a time into the city, while the rest of therge drones spread out around the Cutter to keep them from being attacked.


    The small crabs were sent out just in time for Max to send the team back to their battle stations so they could check the sensors and tell him if there were any more signs that the enemy forces wereing from multiple locations.


    The warriors that they were facing had fallen back to multiple defensive formations once they realized that they couldn''t outrun the Mecha teams, and they were rapidly being eliminated, but more kept showing up, and Max couldn''t seem to find the origin on his sensors.


    [There are no signs of the origin, Commander. They''re appearing all over the region, but there are no signs of how. Our working hypothesis is that they have some sort of short range teleportation device, and they''re actually set up somewhere further away.] The team informed him as Max hunted down a small group of infantry.


    There weren''t any morerge targets in the area left to find, and now it was down to thest few groups, to try to keep Nico''s total kill count down when their contest ended.


    She already had the win, as she had lucked out with the enemy movement as they were driven away from Max''s artillery strategy, but he could still keep the margin as narrow as possible.


    "We''re running out of infantry, are you ready to ept defeat yet?" Nico called over the radio.


    "There are still a few more pockets, I think that we might be able to swing the final result." Maxughed as he hunted down another group to obliterate while the light Mecha searched further out into the forest.


    "We will see." Nico agreed, as she chased down a group of warriors who believed that they could escape from her wrath.


    But soon, there were no more enemies to be found, and no sign of where they had beening from, which left Max and Nico both annoyed with the oue.


    They couldn''t have all been dropped right here, they had to havee from somewhere, but they were unable to find the source, only the location where they had been appearing.


    [How are things going with the drones? We didn''t find a source for the enemy forces, and I need some good news.] Max asked the crew on the Cutter.


    [They''re having a lot of fun. They''re in the city, along with four of therger crab drones as Commanders, and they''re doing a wonderful job of digging out hidden alien forces. They''re much faster than bipeds over rough terrain, and the enemy thought that they were local wildlife at first. Well, right until theser beam eyes.] The team leader replied.


    He would have to watch that videoter, assuming that they had remembered to give the drones a proper video recording function. With this team, that wasn''t a given. They might have only given it basic optical sensors without a built-in recording function when he didn''t give them any details to work with.

 Chapter 1130 1130 Regroup And Search

    <h4>Chapter 1130 1130 Regroup And Search</h4>


    With nothing left to fight, Max led the team back to the Cutter, and had the Android Mecha join the guard detail. Then he messaged Nico to join him to make new ns.


    [Bring the Mecha inside where they won''t attract as much attention. The Super Heavy units will be enough of a deterrent, and they can spread out now that we have both teams on ship defence. We might not have a solid lead on where the enemy was teleporting in from, but I think that with a bit of work, we can manage it.] He informed her.


    [So, what is the final count? Did I win?] She replied, more interested in the important things.


    [By neen kills.] Max informed her.


    Nico silently celebrated in her Mecha, knowing that Max could hear her thoughts as she got the unit parked in its repair rack. Neither of them had taken any hull damage, but if they had time, they would still double-check it to make sure that there were no stress fractures, loose connections or other possible faults.


    The new Titan ss units didn''t have a lot of testing, and they had even less livebat time, so there was no telling where they might find an issue hidden within the design.


    With the Mecha parked, the duo changed into Mobile Suits and climbed out to meet with the rest of the team to see how the data gathering by the drones was going.


    The small ones were all in the nearby cities now, but the rest of therger drones had spread out through the woods, looking for enemies to hunt. There was very little chance that they had scared away or killed everything in the region already, so Max had some hope that the drones might stumble across data that would tell them where all these warriors hade arrived on the.


    "What''s the good news?" Max asked as he walked onto the bridge of the Cutter.


    "Not much so far, except that the programming for the smaller drones has an interesting glitch that might not be a glitch. We told it to prioritize the safety of intelligent and sentient species so that it would maximize the number of civilians rescued. But it keeps saving cats from the rubble before it goes for the Golden Legion civilians." The team leader replied.


    Nico snickered at that, and pulled up some of the footage, including a crab drone lifting a piece of rubble off a trapped kitten before going back for the resident of the home. It even made sure to move the injured feline to a safe spot before going to the next rescue.


    But the drones seemed to entirely ignore dogs.


    It was a strange situation, and Nico''s first thought was that the cats here might have more intelligence than the ones that she was familiar with. That would make them even more entertaining, and she quickly sent orders to bring a few of the more docile kittens back to them so they could test them properly with the advanced equipment aboard the Cutter.


    Capturing one of the creatures was a simple task. They were intrigued by the drones, and happy to y with them, so when they were picked up, they rarely protested. The small drones picked out a pair of cats that weren''t heavily injured and didn''t attack the drones too violently. There was normally some level of attack during the y, but the drones were reasonably certain that these ones were not hostile.


    The first attempt had to be aborted, as a Golden Legion security guard took exception to having his cat stolen, and was about to crush the crab when it relented and put the purring ck feline back on the steps of the ruined house.


    "Did you see that? That guard was MAD when he realized the drone was taking his cat. They must be excellent pets. I hope that nobody misses the one that we''ve got on the way back." One of the researchers noted.


    "The chances of that seem pretty low, as there were no survivors in the building where it was found, but we can return it after studying it. We don''t need to dissect it to scan it, so the cat won''t be harmed." Nico reminded her.


    "The drone has a follower." Max noted as the small crab exited the city and headed for the Cutter.


    "Should we order evasive actions, or is the follower a friendly?" The team leader asked.


    "I think it''s a friendly. An adult male, from the Golden Legion. Unarmed and unarmoured. The video feed looks like he''s just curious as to where the drone is taking the cat." Max replied.


    "In that case, lure him here too, and we can talk to him about the and any strange things that might seem normal in thisyer. The more we can learn about them, the better." Nico suggested.


    "This is an adult male, correct? I don''t know much about the species, and I would like to know that we''re not abducting both a child and a pet from a neutral species." One of the team members asked.


    They examined the scene for a few minutes andpared it to other members of the species in the city.


    "Yes, it is definitely a male well past adulthood. Unusually pale, which would indicate excessive time spent in environmental armour, if not for the pudgy build and the generally terrible level of physical fitness. If his condition continues to deteriorate, we might need to send a drone to pick him up." Nico decided.


    "Well, from what I know of the Golden Legion, they won''t be mad if we keep the shut in." Max chuckled.


    The Golden Legion was normally very proud, both of their skills and their physique, so seeing an out of shape member that wasn''t injured was a rarity. Perhaps they weren''t the same as Max''s past life, but there was a chance that they just found some random guy who didn''t fit the stereotype.


    "You know what. Send arge drone for him. This is taking too long. He''s sitting down to catch his breath again." Nico finallyined.


    "On it boss."

 Chapter 1131 1131 Self Preservation

    <h4>Chapter 1131 1131 Self Preservation</h4>


    The pudgy young man from the Golden Legion''s city happily climbed onto therger crab drone when it arrived to pick him up, and quickly set about trying to interface with it from an electronic device in his pocket.


    "Oh, he''s their version of a tech nerd. That makes sense, he wouldn''t need physical fitness for that job. But isn''t he too out of shape? Does their species actually have a very low metabolism?" One of the Innu asked as they watched the hacking attempt in amusement.


    "They should have a pretty good metabolism. Perhaps he has some sort of condition. I have the data from the other survivors found in the city here, and his build is a rarity among the locals. Almost all are heavily muscled, even the women appear to have done regr strength training." Nico informed them.


    "Interesting. Alright, has everyone prepared a question for our guest when he arrives?" Max asked.


    "Wait, we need to talk to him? Does he speak ournguage? Can''t we just spend time in theb with the kitten?" One of the human team members asked.


    "All fair questions, and you will get to spend time with the kitten. But we do need to find out more about the locals, and you will need that information in real time to adjust the drone programming, so you can''t wait until someone elsepiles the data for you." Max replied.


    The team all groaned in frustration at not being allowed unfettered ess to the kitten, but Max had already started to study the data they had, and that was no ordinary house cat.


    The drones probably hadn''t been wrong that the creatures were smarter than half of the people in the rubble, and the local dogs were certainly not on par with either species.


    It was still intrigued by the drone though, and not protesting its relocation at all, despite now being many kilometres from home. Max briefly wondered if the animal actually understood that they were bringing it to them to study and not to harm, and that was why it wasn''t protesting, but there wasn''t any way to tell what the creature was thinking until he could get a lock on its thoughts.


    It should have some, the scans said that its brain was formed to have the capability, so all he had to do was pick it out.


    Fortunately, they had moved quite a distance from the city, and without the interference it was bing much easier.


    [Adventure, going on an adventure with the crab.] Max finally found the feline''s thoughts.


    It was not at all afraid, and it was quite enjoying its time with the crab.


    [No, move right, that berry is a tasty one.] It was thinking, so Max ordered the crab to move over to the bush where it had spotted the food.


    [Did it understand me? YES! I have a pet crab now. Eat that, Golden Dunce! No, why are we moving again, I wanted more berries.]


    Maxughed as the cat rambled on and on in its own mind,ining about not getting more berries, celebrating seeing new things, and trying to get the crab to understand it again so that it could use the drone as a mount.


    [Armour Crab with Laser Beam Eyes. I definitely need one of these for myself. Maybe the ones who brought me here will let me have one. If they can train it toe find me, surely they can train it to be a proper battle mount. I could be the first of my kind to take out an enemy vehicle.]


    Its thoughts showed the many times that it knew of its kind ying other creatures, from mice and birds to alien warriors foolish enough to not have a helmet. They weren''trge, but their ws were sharp, just not sharp enough to cut through armour.


    [That''s a new kind of house. I''ve never seen one like that before. Did the strangeness bring a whole house here? It must be full of crabs. Yes, that''s it, the crab is bringing me to meet its people.] The cat decided.


    Max did his best not tough at the cat''s wild ideas and ns for city dominance with a battle crab, which supposedly would grant it full rights over the fish market. The two guests were almost at the ship now, and the man from the Golden Legion was starting to panic as he saw the obviously alien ship, despite not having any concerns about riding the attack drone all the way here.


    Max stepped outside to greet him and stop the panic attack.


    "Rx, young man. If we wanted to kill you, we would have had the attack drone you''re riding do it, instead of bringing you all the way back here. We just have some questions for you about your people and your city so that we know if they''re worth allying with during this insane situation." Max greeted him.


    [The strange man wants to ally with the idiots? Oh, he''s in for so much disappointment. If only I could tell them that they wear that silly armour to keep their stupidity anonymous.] The cat was thinking.


    Max looked down at the small cat. "We will speak with you as well, but I can do that afterwards. The others here would desperately like to brush your fur."


    [Brush my fur? Like grooming with a tool? That sounds good. Hey, does this guy understand me, or is he one of the weirdos that talks to animals?]


    Maxughed. "Maybe a bit of both. But the other''s can''t hear you."


    The kitten leaped off the small drone andnded on Max''s pant leg, then climbed up his coat to look him in the face.


    [Say that again, do you really understand?]


    "Of course I do. I just answered you a few seconds ago. But I need to speak to this one first, since his people are therger military force." Max exined.


    [Alright then, lead me to this thing you call a brush.]

 Chapter 1132 1132 Wrong Person

    <h4>Chapter 1132 1132 Wrong Person</h4>


    "Alright, how about we start with something easy. I am Commander Keres Max, of the Terminus Trading Company. What is your name?" Max asked.


    "I am uhh, um, James. My name is James." The pudgy young man replied.


    "Do your people not use family or guild names, James?"


    The man started visibly sweating as he tried toe up with a good lie.


    "How about I save you the trouble, your name is Gerald Geremiah Gregor, you grew up in the city, never employed, with a fondness for video games and robotics." Max continued.


    "How did you learn that?" Gerald demanded.


    "You tried to hack our drone, did you think that we wouldn''t at least hack your cellphone in return? I must say, that is some interesting adult content you peruse. Is thatmon in your world, or unique to a small niche?" Max asked.


    Gerald went pale and fell to his knees. "Please don''t tell my mom I''ve been using her to look that up. It''s a serious crime here, and she''s never done anything wrong."


    Max took a split second to look up the young man''s mother in the system, to see if she had been located.


    To his surprise, she was one of the frontline soldiers, out in the city, clearing the attacking forces. Her tracker was still active, and she was moving, so she should be alright. But Max sent a few drones her way to help out anyhow.


    It would be best if they were able to return their volunteer to an intact family, such as it was, but Max could tell that this guy didn''t actually know much, or really understand the social norms of his people.


    Inparison to everyone around him, he wasn''t that bright, and he definitelycked social skills, but at least Max could probe his mind for more answers as they talked.


    Trying to actually interrogate him wasn''t working, he would panic and freeze at every question, and Max would have to read it from his mind anyhow, so instead, he started a conversation with him.


    "How about we have a bite of lunch, and a conversation? The hard questions can wait until one of the soldiers shows up." Max suggested.


    "The Glorious Golden Legion." The young man automatically corrected him.


    "Yes, the Glorious Golden Legion. They should send someone here eventually to talk to us. They''ll understand fairly soon that our crab drones are not a threat, and then they should stop avoiding us."


    The young man nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think that sounds right. They taught us something about that in school, how we came here in the time of the ancestors to wait for the moment when our Glorious Golden Legion would be needed."


    He really didn''t remember much of it, even Max couldn''t pull much from his mind, but it was obvious that the Greater Energy Being was sheltering them here, and that it had done something to keep them from being discovered.


    At least, until now.


    They didn''t want to join with so many of the other species in the Great Enemy''s army and continue the eternal war, and their guardian being had taken pity on them, likely recognizing that they would be eliminated from existence if history yed out the same way again.


    While Max and their volunteer had an unproductive conversation, the Nico and the research team were having much more luck with their feline friend.


    As they had quickly discovered, the creature could read. So, despite being unsuited to verbalmunication, it was a simple matter to make a small data tablet for it to answer their questions while they treated it to the equivalent of a spa day.


    The cat had been brushed, cleaned, massaged, fed and ced on a custom-made bed to rx while they talked.


    [They keep half of their entire poption in military training, while the rest is supposed to be support staff. The support staff arezy, though. Too much can be done with technology, so they don''t really do anything but sit around and waste their lives away.


    It''s gotten to the point that they don''t even breed anymore, they''re toozy. All the new kittens to y withe from the soldiers. The one in the other room is just as bad. I came to him the other day with an itchy ear, and he just pushed me off the desk to keep staring at a video on the screen.]


    Nico smiled and gave the cat''s head a scratch, which made her purr, then frown.


    [This is an abduction attempt, isn''t it? You''re trying to get me to willingly stay with you through the use of good food and petting.] The cat used.


    "I won''t deny that. We would love it if you stayed with us, but we''re not going to force you to stay, and it''s not really an abduction if you freely choose to leave with us. We might have to find more of your people, though. Being alone as the only one of your species would get too lonely otherwise, and I''m not sure if we will be able to return here if we leave." Nico agreed.


    Their guest considered that for a moment, and then nodded and ced a paw on the map.


    [I know where you can find them. Send drones to the building here. It''s a shelter for my kind, and they will be happy to go with you instead of being caged. Do your drones have a way tomunicate?]


    The team cheered and hugged each other in celebration.


    "They do. They can broadcast audio, so they can talk to them, and then escort the ones that want to leave the city after they cut open the cages."


    The feline purred in happiness as it learned that the unfortunate among its kin would be getting a better home, full of people who knew the value of a head rub.


    [Alright, you should hurry, the soldiers have cleared the area, but they didn''t let us out, and there is no food in the cages.]

 Chapter 1133 1133 Great Migration

    Chapter 1133 1133 Great Migration


    Nico piloted one of therger drones through the rubble of the city toward the cat shelter, expecting it to need to be excavated, given the general condition of the city. Not many buildings were undamaged, and even the more durable of them often had copsed roofs and blown out windows.


    It was on the first floor of a three-floorplex, and the top level had copsed when the portal was destroyed over the city. There was a lot of rubble in the street, but the entrance wasn''t blocked, and Nico could see through the feed that the power was still on inside.


    The few enemies that they hade across on the way here had all fled at the sight of the killer drones, even if it meant running toward Golden Legion soldiers.


    There were at least four of those watching the drones right now, wondering what they were up to, but none of the city''s defenders were willing to make a move that might provoke the robotic crabs.


    Therger drone swept the entryway clear of debris so that a group of four smaller drones could move inside to make the rescue.


    The kitten cheered as the sensor feed showed the interior of the shop, with its racks of essories toppled and a few bags of kibble torn open and leaking on the floor.


    It would take an hour or more to clean up, but the shop itself was intact, and the door was open into the back room, where the cages full of felines could be seen.


    [There, now you see how cruel they are. Not a single bit of food in any of the cages.] The kitten pointed out as the drone entered the back room.


    Nico resisted the urge to mention that it was because the automated feeding timer was still active, and the power was on, but decided to let their new friend have her outrage at the animal shelter''s feeding schedule.


    [Come to think of it, there is no food here either. Do your people not eat?] The kitten asked.


    "There is a replicator console on the wall. It''s touch screen, so you only need to press the button to get food whenever you want it." Nico replied, as she manoeuvred the drone to the middle of the room.


    [Oh, that is an amazing system. Food on demand. Does that mean it''s always fresh?] The kitten asked, tapping the table beside its tablet so that everyone would pay attention.


    The team member nearest to the replicatorughed and pointed at the screen. "Yes, it''s always fresh. What would you like to eat? After analyzing your biology, we would rmend chicken, but we don''t know how you like it."


    [How I like it?]


    "Yes, raw and warm, chilled and raw, baked, fried, smoked, grilled, possibly with certain seasonings or a sauce."


    The look of adoration on the kittens face was enough to melt even the coldest of hearts, and then she returned her attention to the tablet screen.


    [Do you know the process of boiling it in hot oil? It makes the bird crispy outside, and hot and tender inside.]


    One fried chicken was ordered, and ced on the table.


    "We call that fried. Sometimes we will cover it in a breading and spices so it can be fried into smaller pieces of crispy goodness, but I''m not sure your species can eat that."


    The kitten nodded. [Putting things on the meat ruins it.]


    While they argued the virtues of fried chicken, Nico addressed the gathered crowd inside the animal shelter.


    [Hello, my furry friends. One of your kinfolk has made it to our vessel, which is parked outside the city, and rmended that wee to free you from your imprisonment. We know that you can understand ournguage, but we can''t hear your thoughts. Once you are free, you will be able to type responses on the screens inside our home to converse with us.


    If you would like to be released from your cage, please put a paw on the door, and we will be with you shortly.] She informed them.


    Nico heard Maxughing in the other room, and stuck her head out to see what was so funny.


    "The cats are panicking because most of them can''t read." He exined.


    "Oh, they''re not as smart as this one?" Nico asked.


    "That''s not it. They''re strays. They never learned how to read in the first ce, they''re illiterate."


    Nico facepalmed, and looked at the kitten, who seemed utterly unconcerned with the potential issues as she buried her face in a whole fried chicken.


    "Well, we can figure that outter. Once they''re here, they will have plenty of time to learn."


    They could always use one of the others as a trantor, and Max knew that Nico already had ns to build an obstacle course and yground for them that ran through a number of the spare rooms. They could set the replicators up in that area with Feline friendly restrictions, and picture menus.


    That way, even if they couldn''t read, it wouldn''t be an issue.


    He did have some worries that an Energy Being might take offence to them stealing the cats, but it was only a small group from the shelter, they weren''t taking them all.


    All the cats requested to be freed, and they quickly followed Nico''s orders to follow the pair of small crabs out of the city toward the ship. That procession of animals behind the drones caught the attention of the Golden Legion, who had no idea what was going on, but suspected that the cats had found a safe hiding spot to retreat to, while the city fought for survival against an enemy the cats had no chance of defeating.


    If the felines thought that it was safe enough to stay at, then there was a chance that it would be a safe ce for their civilians as well. Getting them out of danger was the first priority of the defence forces, but when the cats left the city, the Golden Legion never would have imagined just where they were headed.

 Chapter 1134 1134 Agreement

    Chapter 1134 1134 Agreement


    Two hourster, Lieutenant Willis of the Golden Legion''s Seventeenth City Guard found himself standing outside a parked Cutter ss space vessel. It was smoothly curved in a style that he didn''t recognize from any of his training videos, and it was surrounded by hundreds of the crab robots, as well as dozens of giant humanoid robots.


    They must have noticed his team by now, but none of them had made any hostile moves, and he hade to the conclusion that they were waiting for him to introduce himself. In a formal setting, it would be proper for the lower ranked to introduce themselves to the higher ranked, so perhaps their Commander was looking at the situation on an individual level and not taking him as a representative of his people.


    He had never been trained in politics, he was aw enforcement officer. If they had littered, vandalized buildings or robbed someone, he would have all the answers, but today he was fresh out of ideas, and in way over his head.


    "What do we do, Lieutenant? They let the cats in without any problems, and they even greeted them. Maybe they''re not hostile." One of his patrolmen asked.


    "Do you want to be the one to risk his neck finding out, Constable?" Lieutenant Willis whispered back.


    Nobody said anything for a few seconds, then one of the Golden Legion guards stood up and began to walk toward the ship.


    "We won''t know unless we try. Just remember that if this works, it was my idea." He reminded the others.


    The Lieutenant chuckled to himself. The man going forward was an aging mall security officer. He''d seen nearly everything at this point in his career, and it appeared that the concept of being torn apart by a species of giant robots was much less frightening to him.


    When he reached the outer perimeter of giant robots, one of them raised its hand and began to speak.


    "ess to this area is restricted, please state your name and purpose." The twenty-five-metre tall robot in front of him announced.


    "My name is Gregory, Head of Security at Parnd Shopping Centre. I would like to talk to your boss, if they''re avable." The security guard announced in a firm voice.


    "Understood. The Commanders are both avable at this time, please proceed inside."


    Gregory turned back to hispanions, shrugged his shoulders, then walked inside the ship, where Max and Nico were waiting for him, along with one young local man, and countless cats.


    So many cats.


    [Send him away, he kicks us out of the mall.] One of the cats typed on the tablet set on the table in the middle of the room.


    "You steal from the food stalls, of course I kick you out of the mall." Gregoryined through the speaker on his golden helmet.


    [He''s a bully.] The cat insisted.


    Max reached down and petted the irate feline''s head. "He''s not going to kick you out of here, so you can rx. Wee, representative of the Golden Legion, to Santa Maria, the Command Cutter for the Terminus Trading Company, a human militant group and manufacturing corporation."


    Gregory stiffened at the word human. "Did I hear that correctly? You are human? You look like the images, but I heard that you were extinct."


    Max smiled back at him. "I can assure you that the rumours of our extinction are greatly exaggerated. We were forced to relocate in the past, but the species survived quite well."


    "That is wonderful news. I had heard that your species was instrumental in allowing our guardians to set up this safe space for us in the time of our ancestors. I know that it has been many millennia since then, but the Golden Legion were taught to honour their past so that it would not repeat in the future." Gregory exined.


    Max looked over at the younger man who hade to them first, and he nodded eagerly. "Yeah, I heard something about that in school."


    Gregory shook his head, and sped his hands behind his back in a military resting pose to stop himself from pping the idiot. Everything that he had said were basic requirements that every elementary school student should have memorized. They even had pictures of the friendly species up on the walls of every government building, including the mall and the barracks.


    Max looked back to Gregory. "It''s alright, I understand that not everything works out the way that you might have hoped. How about we have a nice conversation over a cup of coffee while your friends sit in the rain outside?"


    Gregory frowned. "It''s not raining."


    Nico chuckled. "Not water, it isn''t. But give it thirty seconds."


    Gregory assumed that he had misread the weather on their way here, but then thirty secondster the Thunder Guns began to fire, and the sound of artillery exploding against the Cutter''s shielding shook the air.


    "I must go save my men." The guard insisted.


    "They''re fine. They''re inside our shield range, I let you all in at the start to see what you would do. The drones will take care of this attack in the next few minutes, and then it will be quiet again." Nico exined.


    Max closed the door to keep the sound of artillery from deafening their guests with more sensitive hearing, and the cats returned to crawling all over the ship''s crew.


    "If you say so, I will trust your judgment. You clearly lured us here the same as you did the cats, so might I ask if there was some particr purpose, or was it just to learn the things that your first guest forgot?" Gregory asked.


    "A bit of both, but it''s more important that we start working on some sort of formal arrangement. As you can see, we''ve ordered our drones not to attack you, and your people haven''t attacked us, so we have a good working rtionship. It''s just our tradition to make sure that everyone understands." Max replied.


    "And the giants outside?"


    The crew allughed at his question.


    "They''re part of our team, and they''re not gigantic, the Mecha are. It''s a piece of equipment, like a tank or a mobile artillery battery." Nico exined.


    "That''s equipment? By the Legion, that is impressive. But I don''t have the authority to make a deal, just the balls to be the first one to step across the line. We will have to at least bring in the Lieutenant with his good radio for this."

 Chapter 1135 1135 Legion Officer

    <h4>Chapter 1135 1135 Legion Officer</h4>


    Max looked at the aging soldier with amusement. "You know, in my culture, those who are too cowardly to step forward in times of war are considered unfit to lead others in times of peace."


    Gregory smiled back at Max and shook his head. "Ever since we hid here, it''s been a time of peace. We are only today finding out who is a coward when threatened, but wasn''t during the easy times. The soldiers of the Golden Legion pride themselves on their courage and honour, but there hasn''t been a real chance for them to prove it in generations.


    Give Lieutenant Willis a chance, he''s got some brains, and while he might not be courageous enough to be the first into no man''snd, he still led us this far, and he didn''t abandon his duties during the fight in the city."


    The old guard stopped and took in Max''s face. "That was a test, wasn''t it? To see if I thought that he was worthy as a Commander, or if you should call someone else to take his ce."


    Nicoughed at the man''s shockedment. "Oh, he''s pretty good. He caught on way faster than we thought that he would. Yes, he was testing you to see if your Lieutenant was worth dealing with or if we should get someone else out here. If you say he''s decent, we will give him the chance to be the intermediary."


    Max nodded in agreement. "Go ahead and call your men inside before the sound of artillery shocks them all stupid. From what I can see on the sensors, our Mecha teams are about to move out to clear the area."


    The attack was nearly finished already, and almost all the artillery was outgoing at this point, but from the point of view of the men hidden in the trees, it wouldn''t make much difference. A dozen sets of thunder guns would be all that they could hear, and the shockwaves of the projectiles leaving at supersonic speed would be pounding their bodies through the simple armour they were wearing.


    Max opened the door, and the rest of the team ran inside, then paused to try to understand what they were seeing, as two humans sat on a sofa that was mostly covered in cats, with Gregory facing them from across a table with one irate feline and a data tablet on it.


    From their point of view, it looked like he was being interrogated by a house pet, while the aliens mediated. Sure, the cats were smart, but they were pets, and these ones were feral, more of a nuisance than anything else.


    The thought was strange to him. Felines weren''t Legionaries, they didn''t have rights, or sentience. The fact that they could write showed that they had a level of intelligence, but they would inevitably revert to animalistic behaviour at the first opportunity. Why these humans would value them so much was beyond him.


    But, since they did, he would have to respect that fact and work around it to ensure the safety of his people. Duty and Honour were foremost for a Golden Legion Officer, and it was his duty to keep his team alive, even in a situation as strange as this one.


    Lieutenant Willis nodded to Gregory, who gestured toward Max and Nico.


    "Lieutenant, these are Commanders Max and Nico of the um, Terminus Trading Company. As you can see, they are actual humans, pulled here identally, and they''re willing to help. Well, at least they''re willing to help the cats. The rest appears to be up for negotiation."


    Lieutenant Willis gave the old security guard a disdainful look for his blunt assessment, but didn''t say anything as he saw Max''s amused smirk and Nicoughing with someone in the next room, who he couldn''t see from his position.


    "It''s an honour to meet you, Commanders. Let me be blunt if I may. The Golden Legion wishes you no harm, unless you wish to harm us or our home. What do you need from me to make that informal agreement a reality?" The Lieutenant asked through the speaker on his golden helmet.


    It gave his voice the same monotone mechanical inflection that Gregory''s had, and it made it impossible for the cats to tell them apart. As far as they were concerned, these were all mall security guards who chased them away from food.


    "First, if you could remove your helmet, it would help our feline friends feel more at ease. They can''t tell you apart in uniform, and they hold a grudge against security guards who chase them away from food." Max exined.


    Willis knew that they had only called the cats here, and that his team had simply followed, but he hadn''t expected such a level of favouritism toward amon house pet. But, he did remove his helmet and stow it under his arm so that the humans could see his face.


    The Golden Legion looked a fair bit like the humans on the outside. They were bipedal, with simr external appearances, except for the shining bronze skin, which had a metallic lustre. They were a fair bit taller than these two humans, at 220cm, but they had heard humans coulde in a variety of sizes, from giants all the way to tiny elves like the girl on the couch.


    Small creatures like that one were considered good luck by his people. It was said that their bodies remained small because all the nutrients went to their brains, so they should be exceedingly smart, and having one in your family was sure to bring wealth and good fortune.


    Not that he''d seen one in his lifetime, but his grandmother had gone to school with one, and the members of that family were now quite wealthy.


    There was something off about that tiny woman, though, and looking at her gave him the chills. There was no logical reason for it, but for some reason every cell in his body seemed to scream that she was dangerous, like an embedded gic memory that contradicted her harmless appearance.


    Nico stood to gather a stack of papers from the people in the other room and handed them to both Gregory and Willis.


    "These are the proposed details of our agreement. Our people put great value on keeping our agreements, and we are hoping that yours are the same. With this, we agree to do our best to ensure that your people survive this conflict, and agree not to attack them unless we are betrayed. The terms are reciprocal, identical for both parties." Nico exined.

 Chapter 1136 1136 Agreed

    <h4>Chapter 1136 1136 Agreed</h4>


    Nico sat back down on the sofa, and pulled an overweight and fluffy cat into herp, while Max looked up at the Lieutenant.


    "We have a sitting room if you would like to contact your people in private. There is a radio there, programmable with your security codes, should your ownmunications equipment prove insufficient for the task." Max informed them as he rose to his feet.


    "Thank you Commander. Given the circumstances, this might take some time. More disruptive events have been reported all over our territory, and most of them are still heavily besieged. Only this immediate region is considered somewhat stabilized, and that is partially thanks to your Mecha and your Crab allies." Willis replied.


    "They''re drones, actually. Non-sentient, highly capable robots, controlled by the Artificial Intelligence here aboard our ship." Max informed him.


    Lieutenant Willis paused on his way to the private room. "Drones can do all that? I must say, human technology is every bit as impressive as I had heard from the history books. Do you use them to limit casualties among your own troops? Or are they precious and difficult to rece?"


    "We use them for many different purposes, but there are some enemies that can turn them against us, so we are normally cautious about using them in situations where there are highly tech-adept opponents." Max replied.


    "Wonderful. I will report it back to our leadership team. They were unaware that the crabs were entirely robotic, and had assumed that they were differing species of armoured crustaceans with somewhat advanced technology. It will greatly reassure them to know that the crabs are part of the human military contingent."


    He retreated into the meeting room with the rest of his team, leaving only Gregory outside to stand awkwardly in the middle of the room as the door closed.


    "You might as well take a seat. They will be a while with the exnation of what is going on. Would you like something to eat?" Max asked.


    Gregory took off his helmet and set it on the floor beside one of the plush chairs across from Max. "If you can create foods that are suitable for my species, that would be wonderful."


    "The Drones analyzed the food samples in the ruined buildings of your city. We have samples of a few dishes that are simr, and that our medical scans say your body is not allergic to. Whether it agrees with your palette is another matter entirely, though." Max chuckled.


    Gregoryughed. "I''ve been eating fast food from the mall for decades, prepared by core school dropouts with no other applicable skills. If I can survive that, I am pretty sure I''ll be fine with whatever youe up with."


    Max brought out what the team thought was a suitable replica of the meals they found in the city, and Gregory began tough.


    "I should have remembered that today was Legion Day. The stuffed bird, berry sauce, mashed roots and gravy are a traditional holiday feast." He exined as he tried to stifle hisughter.


    "Well, I''m d that you didn''t have to miss out. If it is edible, we will offer it to the others, so you can all enjoy your holiday feast, despite being away from home." Max replied with a smirk.


    Gregory delicately sniffed at the te, then sighed and took a deeper breath before tentatively picking up the fork from among the selection of eating utensils provided. Nobody had thought to record those details when they had the crabs check the food selections for the Golden Legion, so Max hadn''t been sure what sort of table manners they adhered to.


    The first few bites were reluctant, but Gregory''s face slowly morphed into a smile as he got through a bite of everything.


    "This is incredible, it''s like you stole someone''s fresh dinner right out of the oven. Not my mother''s obviously, but she''s a terrible cook. I must say, your chefs must have been true savants toe up with a replicator program that creates such a rich vour profile." Hemended Max, while Nico preened with pride at the praise.


    "I will be sure that she knows. The replicators are a marvel of human technology, and they''re capable of creating food for nearly any species. Even our feline friends have found a dish that they love above all others." Max agreed.


    The cats, on the other hand, were staring at Gregory''s te with something akin to lust. Max knew that their bodies couldn''t properly digest half the things on that te, but that didn''t stop them from wanting it now that he was eating it.


    "You know you can''t digest that, why do you even want it?" Max asked the cat seated next to his head.


    The feline hopped over to the tablet on the table and typed up a quick response.


    [They feed us awful kibble at the kennel, so what they''re eating has to be better than what we''re eating.]


    Maxughed. "But you just split a whole fried chicken with the others."


    [His food still looks good, though.]


    Max just shook his head at the stubborn cat, who was staring at Gregory''s te from across the table, and waited to see if the man was going to have any sort of strange reaction to it. The medical system said he wasn''t allergic, but it didn''t say that he wouldn''t get a stomach ache or bad gas from the rich meal. There just wasn''t enough data for that.


    Of course, normally you didn''t feed aliens entire replicated meals the moment you met their species, but that just wasn''t the Terminus Trading Company way. Creating new dishes for everyone they met was a Company Tradition, and they hadn''t killed anyone yet.


    Max was just about to create a meal for the rest of the team to eat while they worked when a junior team member came out with a document on one of the silver serving trays from the coffee stand.


    "Commander Max, our leadership has agreed in principle with your proposal without amendment. Here is the signed copy." He announced.


    Max stood up to take the document, then shook his hand. "Good work. Now, let me bring out a celebratory feast for your Legion Day evening meal. Gregory has already verified that it is safe to eat."

 Chapter 1137 1137 Target Acquired

    <h4>Chapter 1137 1137 Target Acquired</h4>


    The rest of the Golden Legion team had just started their meal when theyer breach rm went off on the bridge of the ship, signalling that there was another portal forming somewhere nearby.


    "Gentlemen, I will have to let you wait here for the moment, there is another portal nearby, and the ship''s sensors say that we''re close enough to help." Max informed their guests.


    "Do you know what''sing or where it will be?" Lieutenant Willis asked.


    "I know the location, but not what mighte through. Do you want me to disy it on the holographic emitter in here, or should I have the crew do it after you finish eating?"


    "You might as well disy it now. We should report back to our superiors as quickly as possible, since our sensors were damaged during the attack, and themunications channels are flooded withbat reports."


    Max tapped in themands to bring up the most important sensor feeds, like the radar and the enemy movement details gathered by the drones, and then excused himself to return to his Mecha.


    Nico was already waiting, and the reports that wereing in were not good. This portal had been an actual attempt by a Greater Energy Being to break through, and the Androids on the Koleska Region side had closed it with their usual brutal efficiency.


    The problem was that the being that wanted through hadn''t pushed far enough forward when it closed, and he wasn''t heavily injured or scattered, but was thrown here instead.


    The being was enraged, and the one that was damaged and hiding in the was terrified. The two were going to go at it very soon, and they obviously hated each other, but the one who was guarding this ce was no longer a match for the new arrival.


    That left it up to Max and Nico to get there in time to intervene and weaken the intruder so that they could be scattered into the wind.


    It would be the first test of the true purpose of the new Titan ss Mecha, but the battle appeared to be taking ce over one of the already damaged cities, where there were still millions of survivors and an ongoing battle with multiple alien species.


    The setting would certainly make the battle more difficult, as they couldn''t use the full force of the new weapons without creating a massive nuclear explosion that would cause even more damage than the intruder was likely to.


    But Max was sure that they could make it work.


    [Suited up and ready to go.] Nico reminded him as Max checked the reports a second time to finish his nning.


    [Alright, let''s move out. Try to avoid heavy civilian casualties, but make sure that the local guardian wins this fight.]


    The two Mecha raced out of the hangar bay toward the battlefield, where the lingering damage from a second explosion over an already damaged city had left everything in a state of chaos.


    That was intentional by the newly arrived being. It had realized that they had stumbled upon the secret hiding ce of an enemy energy being, so it had opened another portal, hoping that the force on the anomaly side would do whatever they were doing to redirect and damage it.


    The n had worked, and here it was, ready to finish off an old nemesis. But it hadn''t counted on Max and Nico, and didn''t even understand the danger that it was in as they approached.


    [What do we start with? The Thunder Gun''s special ammo? Or should we just skip straight to the big guns?] Nico asked as they approached their maximum firing range.


    [Start with the specialized Disintegrator and let''s try it out properly on an Energy Being. We don''t have all the sample data that we need, and I want a chance to optimize it before we have to use it in a more desperate situation.] Max replied.


    [Got it. Main guns online. Waiting on your order.]


    The injured Energy Being was just beginning to rise out of the ground, ready for her final battle against the intruder, and Max could sense the resignation in her mind as she realized that her peoples'' hiding spot was truly lost.


    Both of them were so focused on each other that they didn''t even notice that the Titan ss Mecha pair was charging their weapons, and they didn''t notice when the attack began.


    [Fire at will.] Max ordered, unleashing the modified energy weapon on the intruder.


    Both beams were unleashed at the same time, and they caught the intruder by surprise. It didn''t even have an opportunity to react before its body began to shimmer, and wisps of energy were torn away to fill the air around it.


    Given a bit of time to stabilize, they would create lesser energy beings, but that wasn''t the intended use of this weapon.


    [[Optimize]plete] Max''s system announced in his mind, and suddenly the damage went from ying unstable energy off to creating a ripple effect through the Greater Energy Being.


    The effect froze it in ce, and the rippling reaction tore apart the cohesion of its energy, dissipating it into nothingness for an instant before the wounded guardian of this ce struck.


    It was impossible for Max to tell what she had done, but the dissipated energy began to funnel into her body, recharging her power and healing the damage that she had taken. Within seconds, she was far more powerful than her opponent had been when it arrived, and Max halted his attack, letting the guardian finish the job.


    Nico likewise paused her attacks, and the guardian''s sense of power skyrocketed as the energy of her fallen foe was absorbed.


    [Are we sure that this is a good idea?] Nico asked as the guardian finished the job of assimting her enemy, leaving no Lesser Energy Beings behind.


    [We will find out in just a few seconds.] Max replied with augh.


    The being didn''t seem hostile, and it was the guardian of both the Golden Legion and the intelligent felines, so they hadn''t done anything to offend it yet. Hopefully, that would be enough to gain one new ally who might be able to tell them more about what was going on in the otheryers.

 Chapter 1138 1138 Foiled Attempt

    <h4>Chapter 1138 1138 Foiled Attempt</h4>


    With her power regained, the formerly injured Greater Energy Being regained the ability to recall the fragments that had been split off in the attack, pulling the lesser energy beings from the battlefield, and leaving only the Golden Legion and their enemies.


    That was both good and bad for the defenders of this ce. They had their energy being guardian back again, but they also lost the distraction that had been keeping many of the enemy forces away from their cities.


    Without those lesser energy beings to slow down the attacks by the wild monsters, aliens and the brutal warriors of the Cathedral Ships, things were about to turn very bad for the Golden Legion.


    The Greater Energy Being was more focused on rebuilding the barrier around this ce so that nothing else was thrown in than on what was happening on the ground, so Max knew there wouldn''t be any helping from that direction.


    But on the other hand, if these portals kept opening as the attempts to enter the Anomaly Region failed, then it wouldn''t matter how many of the previous invaders were removed.


    From their vantage high above the battlefield, Max and Nico could see the strategy that the invaders were going with. They had subtly shifted their lines to iste the cities from each other, without making it look like the roads between them were a major battlefield.


    All the Golden Legion enves in the region were destroyed by the explosions, and fighting was everywhere, but the warriors of the Cathedral Ships were beginning to mount an offensive to take one of the cities to the west.


    They had brought in heavy armoured vehicles, advanced hover tanks with the firepower to challenge heavy Mecha, as well as wheeled vehicles of all varieties. That would spell the end for the Golden Legion defenders within minutes of the force''s arrival, and with their sensors down, there was no way for them to know that the attack wasing.


    The Golden Legion used to have an air force, but as they hadn''t been attacked in so long, they hadn''t moved them into bunkers, they simply parked them on the tarmac when they were finished with a flight. That had left the entire force exposed to the st, and none of it had yet been made mobile.


    [Nico, get us some bomber drones in the air for support at this location, but keep the rest of the force on patrol around the ship in an expanding pattern. I want everything hostile between us and the city dead.] Max ordered.


    [I will be sure that the team informs our guests so that they can watch along. They need to report back anyhow, so it''s better if we get all the shock out of the way right at the start.] Nico agreed.


    They hadn''t had a feed live to the ship when the Greater Energy Being was killed, so the Golden Legion would only have their own limited sensors and rumours to work with, but from here on, they would be giving the guests an interactive battle map, the same sort that their own teams used to create a three-dimensional view out ofpiled Mecha and drone camera feeds.


    [a Flight of fifty bomber drones are on their way.] The team on the ship reported as Max plotted targets on the map for them.


    He started off the engagement with a burst of Thunder Gun High Explosive shells into the lead hover tank, flipping it and shattering its shield, but remarkably, the vehicle was not disabled. It slowly righted itself, and paused, as if the crew inside was stunned.


    A burst from the Light Mass Drivers, using armour prating rounds, tore the hull apart with a spectacr explosion, and Max moved to evasive mode as the advancing army turned their guns on him.


    [Well, they might not be as fun to fight as Mecha, but they definitely do pack a punch.] Nico noted as a shell detonated near Max''s shielding, levelling the trees beneath him with the shockwave.


    Max adjusted the shell type to punch through the shields and fired his Thunder Guns again, detonating another tank, which freed the light Mass Drivers to attack the smaller vehicles in the convoy.


    Anti Aircraft fire exploded all around him as Max did his best to evade the bombardment with a fifty-metre tall Mecha. It wasn''t actually possible to avoid it all, even the worst of gunners would be able to get a few rounds on a target thatrge, but his shields were holding strong, even as the air filled with acrid smoke, and the sound of war deafened the infantry from the alien regiments in the distance.


    [We''re sitting ducks up here. I''m going down to say hello.] Nico informed him only a few secondster as the bombardment intensified.


    It wouldn''t be easy to evade fire on the ground, either, but at least they would be able to put enemy vehicles in the line of fire.


    Max stayed up in the air to give himself the ability to target the longer range targets, while Nico dove into the hover tanks.


    As shended, her battle style changed into a crouched position, cutting her height in half while still allowing her full use of her widespread arms and twin swords. The Disintegrator was put away, but the Thunder Guns were firing at point-nk range, and her light Mass Drivers hummed a brutal wee to the vehicles around her.


    Max circled behind the lines and dropped his altitude, forcing the enemy to target through the trees, which detonated most of their ordinance early, and allowed Max a few seconds to unleash a nuclear chain reaction attack on an alien convoy thirty kilometres away and set new bombing targets for the drones.


    There were so many explosions and lingering fires now that optical scans would be useless through the miasma of ck smoke and flickering mes, but that wasn''t hindering the Cathedral Fleet in the least. They were still making good time toward the city, and even with the losses, they had more than enough forces to take it if the Mecha backed off now.


    The best that Max could do was have the drones target the closest and weakest targets first, to thin the crowd and slow the advance, but the durability of the hover tanks was giving the enemy a fighting chance.


    Nico had taken dozens of direct hits already, and her shields were getting low on power, but in such close quarters, the damage would only get worse if she retreated. Instead, she increased the pace of her attacks, and kicked the hover tanks at each other to block firing lines, while Max finished his bombardment and moved to the back of the group to draw their attention away and cripple them while they were distracted.


    A single chain reaction shot from the Disintegrator turned nearly every turret his way even before the mushroom cloud had fully filled out or the tanks had managed to stop their backward momentum after they had been thrown back by the st.


    Shields were flickering, and Nico hacked wildly at the hulls, aiming for the drive units, while Max fired high explosives into the ground to throw up a wall of dirt that would block most forms of sensors for a few seconds while he rolled to the side to evade the retaliation.

 Chapter 1139 1139 Pause

    Chapter 1139 1139 Pause


    With the two Titan ss Mecha unleashing their fury in closebat, all pretense that they might be able to win this fight was abandoned, and the warriors began to scatter, looking for a more survivable battlefield and a way into the Golden Legion city.


    Because Max and Nico were in the first group to arrive, and hostile to the Cathedral Fleet, all the other forces assumed that they were local to the region. They didn''t know why they had been sent to such a hellhole of a world with fifty metre tallbat robots that could win a gunfight with the average orbital assault craft, but they were not impressed with their Commanders when the orders came that the Mecha must be eliminated.


    Some of the forces had realized that the Mecha had helped the local Greater Energy Being take out her rival, and that made them far too dangerous to be allowed to live.


    Nico wasughing to herself as she intercepted themunications and sent out dozens of false reports andmands in return, confusing every force within a hundred kilometres, but the process wasn''t slowing down her attacks.


    Three more of the hover tanks were destroyed in the next five seconds, and the remaining forces were all in full retreat, trying desperately to escape from the twin Mecha.


    [Hold back and let''s pick another target that''s getting too close to the city.] Max ordered.


    The bombers had been sweeping the enemy advance in waves, slowing their progress to a crawl, which had allowed the Golden Legion time to regroup at the remains of the city walls in preparation for the siege.


    Max had no intentions of getting bogged down in a fight like that, so it was time for them to find a new target.


    The question was, what one? Every city within sensor range, save for the one that was currently full of crab drones, had the same problem. They were all in danger of being overrun, there were vigers, patrols and smaller running battles everywhere, and no way to tell what was strategically important without more knowledge about the region.


    There wasn''t much hope that the Greater Energy Being would be of any assistance, all of her attention had turned to altering the barrier around this ce to keep more new arrivals from entering every time the Android Fleet bombarded a portal into oblivion.


    Max could sense her frustration at both sides of that battle. Mostly the Cathedral Fleet, as they knew what was happening to her home, but also for the humans on the other side, who didn''t seem to understand what the word "Moderation" meant.


    What she didn''t understand was that theck of moderation was the whole point. They were trying to destabilize the region''s spatialyers so badly that anything that tried toe to them would be torn apart without their intervention.


    In the minds of the AI Commanders, it was the perfect answer. It wouldn''t affect Warp Travel, regr portals within theyer were already unusable there, so blocking off portals from otheryerspletely actually improved security by increasing instability.


    That sort of logic waspletely foreign to her. Destabilizing space even more was not a good thing in her mind, no matter the reason.


    That line of logic led her to a startling bit of information that Max had never expected to know. While time was fluid in manyyers, not constant like it was in his homeyer, if you destroyed the boundaries between theyers, it would cause a temporal anomaly. It might move that portion of space forward or back in time, or even freeze it, with a single second there being eons outside the affected area.


    That was how the Rebel Gods had hidden themselves. They deliberately created a temporal anomaly, and because time wasn''t truly moving there, it became nearly impossible for any other being to affect their hiding spot in a meaningful way.


    The ancient humans had weapons that would alter time, but those were long gone, and hopefully never to return, in her mind. But nothing else, other than one of the Gods who supported the Mortal Species, could even dream of finding them, much less harming them.


    Now Max knew how they had hidden themselves after the war had gone into this ceasefire, but the knowledge still didn''t do him any good as there was no way for him to get at them.


    [Commanders, the city is stabilized, and the city leadership is requesting a proper meeting with us. From the wording, I think that they want to do a celebratory dinner type thing to thank us for saving their asses with the drones.


    Which they don''t understand aren''t living things, by the way. They asked what they eat.] The team leader on the Cutter reported.


    Max sensed Nico''s reluctance to return, along with a nascent n to enable food consumption by the drones, so they could pretend that they were actual armoured crabs. It wouldn''t be difficult to give them a mouth and a storagepartment in the belly if they increased the shell size a little.


    That sounded like a lot of hassle for a small prank that would only cause misunderstandingster. It was better to just let them know right now that they were robotic.


    [Let them know that we can be ready in a few hours. Do they have a requested location for the meeting?] Max asked.


    [They are suggesting a bunker between the city and our location for the meeting. It appears to be unupied to our scans, but there is a chance that it is the panic bunker for their dignitaries, so it would be shielded from most of our scans.]


    [Alright, I had expected them to demand something neutral ground, but a bunker works. Nobody ever wants to fight in a basement.] Max agreed.


    Well, hopefully. Because fighting in a basement was a terrible idea. He had fought in undergroundplexes in the past, and when you only had one way in and out, every location was a death trap for everyone involved.

 Chapter 1140 1140 Bunker

    <h4>Chapter 1140 1140 Bunker</h4>


    With the time set, Max prepared a team to go to the bunker with him for the meeting. Bringing four Corvette ss Mecha, plus tenrger crab drones and fifty of the smaller ones should be a sufficient honour guard for the meeting, and they could hold off an enemy attack for long enough that Max and Nico could call their Titan ss Mecha over from the Cutter.


    The Golden Legion was already sending over troops, abination of power armoured elite infantry and hover vehicles with multiple gunners.


    The hover bikes, with their forward facing sma cannons, looked like they would actually be a lot of fun to ride, and given the advantages that System Enhanced pilots had, they could be truly deadly in the hands of human soldiers.


    Fortunately, Nico was having the same thoughts, and she was already working on getting the design ns for them from the Golden Legionputer systems, or at least as much as she could with the heavily damaged state of the city.


    The rest she could get from the vehicles themselves when she got close enough to inspect and analyze them.


    They had been focusing on drones forbat so muchtely that they hadn''t put out a fun new personal transport in a long time. Hover bikes with sma Cannons would be huge with the Reavers, the faster, the better, and these ones had great visual appeal with their gold on gold, trimmed with gold, pure bling colour scheme.


    Both Max and Nico changed into new style mobile suits with the adaptive camouge and upgraded shielding, then equipped them with two additional t space storage units mounted on the upper arms of the suit like they were decorative badges.


    That gave them more than enough room for emergency supplies, munitions, weapons, spare power cells, and other gear that coulde in handy if they were ambushed on their way to or from the meeting.


    The bunker was close enough to the Cutter that Max didn''t have many problems reading the minds of those inside, and they were all eager to meet the benefactors that had shown up and decided that instead of attacking, they would help the local poption save their homes.


    The Golden Legion were firm believers in honour, and that was the most honourable response that they could have hoped for in the situation.


    Max sensed their shock when he led the honour guard out of the Cutter at a jog. They had been expecting him to posture and bring at least a few of the Super Heavy Mecha with him as guards. But in practical terms, they wouldn''t fit in the bunker, and it was still in artillery range.


    If they were attacked, the first shells would arrive about three secondster, after ounting for projectile travel time on an indirect firing trajectory, and they wouldn''t even have to leave their posts around the Cutter.


    The hover bikes were stationed around the entrance to the bunker, with a secondary ring of elite infantry in their gaudy power armour outside that. They spread for Max and his group to enter, and then closed ranks again.


    "Mecha, move to join the inner ring, Crab Drones, spread out and secure the area." Max ordered out loud, so that the Golden Legion would know what he was nning.


    They seemed to be greatly enamoured with the crab drones thanks to the efforts in the city, and Nico did her best to hide a giggle as the drones rubbed up against their legs like cats when the soldiers reached down to stroke their shells.


    The drone programming learned situational awareness, and the core of the program was in the Cutter, which was currently flooded with stray cats. It had obviously decided that the issue was a matter of size and not species when it adopted the response for its own use.


    When they entered the bunker, Max noticed that there was only a small guard force at the top of the elevator, four people in each of the two rooms, so they could lock down the top floor into zones as a dying tactic. How long it wouldst was questionable, but it was better than he had expected.


    Most of these bunkers were designed to park the vehicles of the VIP team that was going to be in the basement, so they were designed as arge open garage.


    "Greetings Commanders. Will any of the rest of your team being inside?" The door guard asked.


    "My team will remain topside and guard the perimeter along with your troops. Our sensors link to the Mecha back at our vessel, so we can increase the targeting effectiveness of our artillery if we have units on the ground." Max exined.


    The soldier looked shocked. "Your Mecha, as I believe you called them, can fire this far?"


    Max nodded. "They have variable velocity projectiles, so we can use indirect fire artillery to hit targets over the horizon. It solves the range limitation of high output energy weapons."


    The soldier received a message while they were talking and gestured toward the elevator doors.


    "They are ready for you now, Commanders. No need to remove your helmets, it is not our custom, and yours still allows us to see your face." He exined.


    The elevator was a freight elevator, three metres by six metres in size, and with only Max and Nico inside it felt ridiculously oversized. But there was a weing team at the bottom waiting for them, arranged in a double row formal honour guard to form a hallway from the elevator to the isted secondary room in the middle of the level.


    There was arge amount of free space around it, presumably for emergency supplies that were never stocked, and a few side rooms that were marked as canteen, dorms, and maintenance.


    The central room had a full bunker map on it, and this was just the entry to a muchrger bunkerplex, designed to house tens of thousands for decades at a time, but it had been dmissioned decades ago and only maintained to minimum standards with no supplies inside.


    That was a mistake, but the Golden Legion already knew that, and there was no need to remind them that their worst-case scenarios had been wildly optimistic.


    The central room was armoured ss and concrete, and Max could see that there were only about a dozen people inside, while the room was designed for a hundred. Most were gathered around a desk, but one man in a battered golden power armour suit,plete with freshser rifle damage and a shattered visor, was waiting to greet them at the door.


    "Commanders, thank you foring on such short notice. We intend to restock this as the City Seventeen Command Centre and Government Seat, but we do apologize for the spartan reception party. It was deemed inadvisable to move more than this many at one time."


    "No need to apologize to us. We understand the necessity for precautions during aary seige. You may call me Commander Max, and this is Commander Nico, it is a pleasure to meet you, General Airwalker."


    The General froze in shock.


    "How did you know my name?"

 Chapter 1141 1141 Too Formal

    Chapter 1141 1141 Too Formal


    Max gestured toward the General''s empty seat at the table, and sensed the man''s embarrassment when he recalled that they all had nametes at their seats.


    That wasn''t how Max knew his name, of course, but it was a usible excuse for the slip.


    "Oh, yes, of course. Please do join us at the table. There are many things that you probably don''t know about this ce yet because you wouldn''t know to ask them, or themon Legionnaire wouldn''t know to tell you. First and foremost, this ce isn''t natural. It is not one of the actualyers of space, it is like a bubble, formed in the boundaries betweenyers.


    Our protector, the Demigod that you met earlier, created this ce as a haven for us when she decided it was best that we stop getting involved in the affairs of other species. She hid us here so that we would survive whatever the Gods were going to do to the Mortal Species, and then she decided to keep us here, as it was a better ce for us than anywhere else." General Airwalker exined.


    "So, she took on the role of patron deity for your people, and kept you safe through the years?" Max asked.


    "Something like that. You see, our Golden Legion once had a God of our own, but he was destroyed by the God of Time during the ancient times. Our patron is a fragment of our former Deity, so in a way, you could say that she was always protecting us.


    But we''vee to realize that our position here isn''t just protected, it''spletely isted. As the war raged on, the boundaries between theyers were damaged, and now it is virtually impossible to leave. I mean, it was nearly impossible to leave before today.


    Now, I''m not so sure. Whatever the carnage warriors did that forced a portal to pass through our home to get to yours caused immense damage to theyers boundaries.


    I don''t even want to specte what sort of response your people must have initiated that would forcibly close a portal opened by a Greater Energy Being, much less wound one, and force it back out of your reality. But the fact remains, that whatever tactic they usedpletely closed off youryer from us, but it seems to have broken the blockade between us and them.


    Nico barely contained her excitement before responding. "So, you''re saying that your home will have to take the brunt of the assault that had been meant for us, and the only way home is for us to go through their territory to get far enough away that the damage to the boundaries fades?"


    General Airwalker nodded. "As far as we can tell, that is correct. But that''s a concern for muchter. If the invasion fleet was meant for the Eternal Battlefield, it will be millions or billions of vessels strong. We don''t have that sort of numbers, as you might have guessed.


    The Eternal Battlefield is no ce for us, not anymore. We can only hope to survive, and at this point, we''re thankful to have even one ally. Just one ship from that war torn region was enough to save a city, and we have called you here to thank you."


    When they put it that way, it did sound like the formerly glorious Golden Legion was in a bad way. But the Terminus Trading Company was the finest purveyor of violent death in the known universe, and Max was well aware that even a Cutter worth of his Mecha were enough to challenge mostary forces.


    "We are d to help. We share amon enemy, and if they overrun you here, they will be in our home making a nuisance of themselves." Nico informed the General with a polite smile.


    The phrasing made it sound like it was a "better you than me" sort of situation, but the Golden Legion officers missed that nuance to her wording, and simply took it as an "enemy of my enemy" sort of statement.


    That was fine by Max, he didn''t want Nico''s enthusiasm for battle to cause a falling out with their allies, and he was about to give her a digital dressing down when she realized that she had misspoken.


    Not that she was particrly concerned about the fate of the species, but they were allies, and losing your allies was not the sign of good leadership.


    Max moved toward his seat and noticed that everyone in the room had a speech prepared, all of which heaped profuse thanks upon his people for saving their city.


    That sounded very long and tedious. By the time they were done, he might actually let Nico tell them directly that they were actually cannon fodder and bait to test the new drone prototypes.


    "How about we skip the formalities for the end of the conflict? I know everyone is grateful today, but you will also be grateful tomorrow, and the day after because the Cathedral Fleet, or as you called them earlier, the Carnage Warriors, are not going to stop until we''ve wiped them from the face of the." Max announced.


    The reactions were almost all immediate relief, but a few of them were actually looking forward to being able to give a public speech. The preparation time needed to create it had taken their minds off what had happened to their city, and they weren''t ready to go back to thinking about reality yet.


    They would get over it.


    General Airwalker took off his helmet and set it on the table, revealing smooth bronze skin and vaguely familiar features.


    "Do all of your people share simr features, or do you have a rtive who normally works as a security guard? You look very simr to a man I met earlier today, the first to step forward and see if we would peacefully negotiate with the Golden Legion." Max asked, diverting the prepared speeches.


    "The first to step up, you say? You know, before today, mall security was not viewed in high regard, and I would be proud to im that such bravery came from my bloodline, but unfortunately, it''s a mere coincidence." The Generalughed.


    More of the dignitaries joined him in revealing their faces, all recognizably different, and Max did the same, freeing his head from the confines of the Mobile Suit''s helmet.


    There was still an energy barrier over him, and likely over the dignitaries as well, but now it felt much more informal, and they were all starting to rx and n out how they wanted to ask the questions about humanity that were stuck in their minds.


    They had plenty of questions about where the humans had gone, why their technology had changed so much, why they had chosen cute little crustaceans as their front-linebat units, and so much more.


    Some of those questions they would never understand the answers to, and some of them simply didn''t have a good answer, but Max was looking forward to at least trying to find out a bit more about the Golden Legion while they questioned him about humans.

 Chapter 1142 1142 Strange Planet

    Chapter 1142 1142 Strange


    Once the helmets came off, the Golden Legion representatives visibly rxed, as if there was some formal code that had been keeping them from speaking their minds. There wasn''t, Max knew from their thoughts, they had just been trained so hard that the armour meant they represented the honour and dignity of their people that they were too uptight to be their usual professional selves the first time they had interactions with another species.


    Gregory the mall guard was much more rxed, possibly because he had far less riding on his decisions than these dignitaries, but it had also made him much easier to talk to.


    "Perhaps I can start off our meeting? There is a lot that I don''t know about your world, and many of the things that I don''t know could be vital to the defence and survival of your people. How about you start with a basic rundown of the? Size, poption, geography and so on." Max suggested.


    The General began his exnation with the fundamentals.


    "Yes, of course. This is an interesting one, as it was created to match the size of a star, as that was deemed the optimal habitable space required for our species to thrive without having to leave to seek new homes.


    That might be an advantage with your projectile artillery, but our species hasn''t used such weapons in living memory, so I''m notpletely familiar with the ballistics of such a weapon. What I can tell you is that gravity is a constant in this realm, as our original Deity was one of the gods who had an affinity for thatw.


    That might make it either easier or more difficult for you, but it does make travel on the predictable and possible.


    At this point, the whole is popted, with 30 percent surface oceans, 9 percent surface freshwater, and our poption is at 600 billion. I know that sounds like a lot, but with ourmunications down, there is no way to know how much of the world has been affected by this disaster. We can''t even find out if there is reliefing, the explosions of the portalspletely destroyed all of ourmunications.


    We had to capture one of your small crabs and have it send the message back to your vessel because we didn''t have any other way to contact you, even from the city."


    One of the others, a man named Luke, who had the title of [Procreation Management and Sustainability of Indigenous Species Advisor], cleared his throat and picked up where the General left off.


    "There are seventeen thousand S ss threat species on this, determined by their ability to eat a Golden Legion soldier through his powered armour. Their total poptions are carefully managed so that they don''t overrun the world or diminish to the point that they can''t be used for the training of our men. There is also one other semi-sentient species, but I believe that you have met them already.


    The Panthera Domesticus poption has long since been a nuisance, but the guardian being favours them, as she can read their minds. That means we can only carefully control them, mostly through domestication and widespread neutering efforts."


    The man paused when Nicoughed at his words.


    "Did I misphrase something? There may be some linguistic differences between our species''mon tongues, despite the simrity." He asked.


    "No, it wasn''t a mistrantion. I spoke with them about it, and the feral cat poption considers you a war criminal, and has a particr hate for the shelters and the kibble served in them. I just never thought that I would actually meet the person who managed the neutering program in person." She exined.


    The rest of the dignitaries in the roomughed. "You know, he''s the only one of us who has actually had an assassination attempt manage to enter his house before being caught? The little fuzzball just sneaked right in and tried to toss a hair dryer in the bath with him."


    "You allugh, but I nearly died. The little monster even got it turned on, that''s what alerted me that I was under attack.


    Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Their poption is an ongoing concern, but they aren''t big on voluntary poption control, as you might have guessed. They are considered nearly sentient, and they are damnably smart when they want to be.


    They are found in every part of the world, as are we, and they prefer to live within the smaller towns and farms, where they are less restricted.


    There are over a thousand flying carnivorous species, but none of them more than two metres in wingspan, none of which are a threat to us, unless they are enraged in a group.


    It''s the monster poption that is the issue. The S ss carnivorous beasts will be in a frenzy with all this action, and the smell of blood triggers them to attack. Be mindful of them everywhere that you go, as many of them can bite through standard alloys."


    The General nodded at each point, verifying that the man hadn''t made any mistakes in his assessment.


    "Thank you, Advisor Luke. Those are the fundamentals of the''s ecology, so I will send you a map of the world to update into your system. It should be moreplete than the regr version you might have obtained from the others, if they bothered to pack one before they responded."


    Then he handed Nico a map. An actual paper map, that was so thick she could barely hold it.


    "Seriously, do you not have a digital version?" She asked.


    The General looked confused. "Well, yes, but it''s formatted for ourputer systems."


    "I will take that version, please. We have an algorithm that is superb at decoding such documents and making them usable on our software." Nico exined.


    She didn''t mention that she was the algorithm, but that would likely only lead to ufortable questions that they didn''t want to answer before they knew all that they could about the battlefield.

 Chapter 1143 1143 Render Aid

    Chapter 1143 1143 Render Aid


    The map was in the same format as the other digital data that Nico had obtained from their military technology so far, and in only a few seconds, she had a 3D hologram projected above the table from her wrist device. It showed the entire, with all of its geography and cities, as well as the sites of known portal explosions and the ongoing battle sites.


    That was enough for a basic war room, but Max knew that they needed more.


    They only made fifty drone bombers, but if he put them at an altitude of twenty thousand metres, he could move them into a grid pattern and ry back a rtivelyplete live map of the region.


    It wouldn''t be perfect, but it should at least show thergest enemy groups, ongoing battles, and the state of any cities nearby. From that height, they could see roughly five hundred kilometres with decent sensor precision, so even putting them a hundred kilometres apart should give him enough ovepping sensor feeds to get reliable data.


    Max ordered the bombers into a seven unit squared grid pattern, one hundred kilometres apart, and they quickly moved to get into position. For some that would take half an hour, but it would be worth it once they were ready to go and could ry longer distancemunications.


    What wasn''t clear was how many cities would even be able to receive the messages in their current state. The one closest to him was in shambles, and the surging energy hadpletely destroyed most things electronic, including their military and civilianmunications systems.


    The details on Nico''s map began to improve as the drone bombers spread out in all directions, but the news was not good. There were a few cities that weren''t in terrible shape, and a few military messages being broadcast from them, but they were from short wave radios, which had most likely been in storage at the time of the attacks, and had a very limited rangepared to the total size of the.


    "We can make contact with the cities that are broadcasting on the short wave radios now. Our drones have the capability, and you can contact them through us. Where did I put it? Oh, here it is. One handheld radio. It will broadcast on the same frequency that your other cities are using, so you can inform them of your status here and help coordinate responses better than line of sightmunications." Nico offered.


    The dignitaries looked dubious, but when Nico turned the handheld radio on, the signal from the other cities was strong enough to understand, and the device stated that it was broadcasting throughout the dronework.


    After a quick check with the holographic map to see howrge of an area that was, the General began an announcement.


    [Golden Legion, this is General Airwalker from the Seventeenth Command Group. We have a working arrangement with newly arrived human forces, who have set up a radio ry and sensorwork. My Command seat is destroyed, but civilian casualties have been kept to under thirty percent, and the city has been upgraded to hostile but stable status.] He broadcast.


    There was a pause where too manymunications were ryed at once to make any sense of them, a limitation of single frequency shortwave radios, and then another clear voice came on the air.


    [General Airwalker, this is General Perseus of the One Seventy Seventh Command Group, it is a relief to hear you. My jet was in the air when the portal opened, and I just returned to the city. The Command Seat here is intact, but all of our core troops were out on a training exercise with the Sixteenth when the incident started, and we are working with civil security to attempt to retake the city.] The voice announced.


    The General cursed, and Nico spun the map to show the location of the One Seventy Seven, as well as the Sixteenth Command Group.


    The first was only two cities away, and was one of the more intact ones, but it seemed that didn''t save it from being at least partially overrun.


    The Sixteenth was over a thousand kilometres away, so those troops would not being back here, even if they had contact with them.


    Then another voice came over the radio, sounding ragged and wounded.


    [This is General Decimus of the One Seventy Second Command Group. The Command Seat has fallen, but the city has been retaken and secured with the help of the local militia. Civilian casualties exceed eighty percent.]


    Max looked at the map and realized that each Command Group was akin to a capital city, with Seventeen being the Regional Capital, and the three-digit numbers being district capitals arranged around it.


    Eighty Percent casualties was not a sustainable state, even if the city itself was rtively intact, which it sounded like the One Seventy Second was not.


    Max tapped his ownmunicator to join the conversation.


    [This is Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company. I am the leader of the human force who has arrived in your territory. We are offering assistance on a priority basis. Those with ongoing attacks or Heavy casualties in cities that have not been lost, please report back in order of situation, so we can begin triage.]


    There was a short pause, as if nobody knew who should speak next.


    [Is there anyone with casualties in the seventy percent range who is still holding the city and canmunicate?] General Airwalker asked.


    No response.


    [How about in the sixties?] He tried.


    [One Seventy Four is stable]


    [One Seventy Three remains destabilized]


    [One Seventy Nine is currently being evacuated, requesting escort to One Seventy Two.]


    Max made notes, and saw that 179 and 172 were about fifty kilometres apart. They were along the same river, so water transport would be best, if possible, but if not, he could send a team to help guard the convoy.


    But millions of refugees wasn''t going to be easy to move. General Airwalker seemed to think the same thing, as he demanded an exnation.


    [General Boor, why are you evacuating the city?] He demanded.


    [One Seventy Nine is unsustainable. The Nuclear Reactor has been breached, and the radiation leak is nearing fatal levels. The poption is already on the move, and I don''t have the forces to stop them.]


    As far as excuses went, that was a pretty fething good one, Max thought.

 Chapter 1144 1144 Aren鈥檛 We Kind?

    <h4>Chapter 1144 1144 Aren''t We Kind?</h4>


    [I will send Drones to your location to guard the road. Inform everyone to keep to the main highway and my forces should be able to protect them from the worst of the dangers.] Max informed the General, right before ordering the Cutter to create four shuttles full of drones, onerge to a hundred smaller ones, to guard the evacuation.


    The team loaded them in the orbital shuttles designed for twenty-person insertion teams, and sent them out within minutes, shocking the Golden Legion forces when they saw the marker for the shuttles appear on the drones'' data feed.


    "How much military force do you have stockpiled in that Cutter of yours?" The General asked as the four shuttles spread out down the road and prepared to defend the refugees who were fleeing from the nuclear fallout.


    As soon as the drones were dropped and moving to protect the whole fifty kilometres, the shuttles moved to the stricken city to begin the cleanup effort. High density materials were optimal for the Replicator system, and the shuttles were happy to collect as much of it as they could from the damaged nuclear power station.


    They weren''t equipped with the tools to clean up the whole disaster, but they could at least steal the exposed core and turn it into something less dangerous.


    Or perhaps more dangerous, depending on how you looked at it, since they turned the core, along with the most highly irradiated parts of the building itself, into more crab drones to scour the city and look for survivors.


    At first, the dignitaries didn''t notice what they were doing, only that the shuttles had dropped the drones and moved to the city, but then lingered there. It was only when someone zoomed in and noticed that the number of green dots representing friendly troops was multiplying that they realized something strange was happening.


    "Were there arge number of soldiers rescued from a bunker somewhere?" The General asked as he inspected the data.


    "Not that we have seen reported to us. The shuttles are making more drones to stabilize the situation, and they should be most of the new dots that are appearing. The healthy and uninjured are mostly evacuated already. As far as I know, they didn''t even have an opportunity to issue a shelter in ce order before the incident." Nico exined.


    "So, your shuttles are just making more drone soldiers to assist us with the evacuation? Thank you." The General replied with a genuine smile on his face.


    "They will also help stabilize the region once they are finished with the escort mission. They are stillbat capable, so once the survivors are ounted for, we will have them look for the enemy units that diverted when they realized that this battlefield was unsafe." Max added.


    "Aren''t they going to be heavily irradiated?" The General asked, while the other dignitaries watched the interaction with rapt attention.


    "Of course, but it won''t be enough to affect their functions. Theputer system is shielded, and theirmunications equipment can deal with irradiation. They won''t be any less reliable, and I''m not particrly bothered if the enemy receives a bit of radiation as they fight.


    If it''s an environmental issue, we can send a shuttle after the battle to clean up any irradiated rubble that is left behind." Max offered.


    "That would be very kind, thank you. We will have enough trouble cleaning up that city without drones hundreds of kilometres away spreading the disaster."


    Of course, if they sent a shuttle there with a Terraforming Device, they could decontaminate the drones easily enough, even if the small vessel wouldn''t have the power output to do a full terraforming of the city in anything resembling a reasonable timeframe.


    But that wasn''t a priority, and it would be better to save their materials stockpile for more important issues. Max didn''t know how the Greater Energy Being would react to him terraforming her, or using local materials in their replicator, and he wasn''t going to risk angering her when she was making it much easier for him to fight the invaders.


    "Red Dots." Someone at the table shouted, causing Nico to change the camera view to a visual one from a bomber overhead.


    They were hovering, and painted with adaptive camouge, so the chances that anything would spot them from the surface was quite low, allowing them to remain steady enough to get quality footage of a column of filthy aliens in partial armour that left their distended bellies and hands exposed.


    As an armour design, it was absolutely terrible, but their culture valued mass consumption, and the distended belly was a sign that they had managed to capture prey and eat well recently. Max mentally recoiled in disgust as he read their minds, but the battle had already begun, and the crabs that the aliens thought would make good eating were busily pelting their shielding withser rifles.


    "What are those things?" One of the Golden Legion dignitaries asked in horror as the bloated creatures charged at the road, firing their projectile rifles and screeching a shrill battle call that the drones recorded as a possible sign of injury until they had time to analyze it.


    The aliens were quick to learn that the drones were no easy meal, both because they were armed, and because they were highly aggressive and armoured.


    Once the attacking wave reached the crabs, they realized that simply crushing them, as they had intended, was not going to happen. The crabs leaped at them, sping them tight and attacking their exposed bellies with vicious pointed legs.


    The fat alien''s shielding fell in seconds against thebination of physical attack and the short range fusion torch that the drones were equipped with as a repair tool. Once the energy barrier was down, they had no chance.


    They weren''t strong enough to dislodge the drones, and the legs tore apart their insides in seconds before the crabs burrowed inside to ensure that no vital organs survived.


    That was a Nico addition to the programming. If they couldn''t identify the target''s vitals, they were programmed to mutte the body until they determined that there was a less than one percent chance of survival.


    "There we go. The first wave of attacks on the convoy are taken care of, and we didn''t lose a single drone." Nico informed the dignitaries proudly.


    The fact that most of them were now covered in drying gore never crossed her mind.

 Chapter 1145 1145 To Save the Golden Legion

    <h4>Chapter 1145 1145 To Save the Golden Legion</h4>


    The dignitaries watched as the drones fought off the attack on the refugees, then began to rx as they realized that the small drones were capablebatants, as good as most of the alien infantry, and much more durable.


    "How many of those can you have active at once? It would really help cut down on casualties if they could be deployed to more cities." The General asked as he watched thest of the aliens retreat away from the road.


    "We can have a fairlyrge number, but usually arge group needs to be overseen by a more powerful Artificial Intelligence and not just one of the more powerful drones. Without that, they get uncoordinated, and their objectives can sh." Max exined.


    The Golden Legion representatives sighed as they realized that it wouldn''t be as easy as they had hoped to spread those drones through the entire zone. There were ten major seats in the zone, and another twenty smaller cities, all of which were in bad shape after the attacks, and most of which were still under attack.


    They hadn''t known how bad it was until the drones started sending in data for them, but now that they knew, it looked like they didn''t have the remaining allies to deal with the invasion.


    The General carefully considered his next words. "You said a fairlyrge number. Would you be able to provide and control enough of them to guard the thirty cities of the zone? It might not be much in the grand scheme of aary invasion, but if we can stabilize even one zone, it will give us somewhere to recover and regroups to push out and start helping the other zones around us."


    Max turned to Nico, who was more of an expert on the topic, but he was pretty sure that even if they sent five hundred to each city, it wouldn''t cause issues. That would be especially true when the groups were working independently within the cities and not coordinating in arger group.


    Nico pretended to be considering it, as if the suggestion was stretching their capability, and that they hadn''t sent tens of thousands of drone fighters intobat without an AI before. But after a few seconds, she reluctantly nodded.


    "As long as they''re working in smaller groups, like city defence, it should be fine. If we tried to coordinate them into arger push, it might be an issue." She informed the room.


    Of course, the Androids were capable of leading them in an organized manner, so they could just send a Mecha Company with each drone group to work as the tactical squad, but the Golden Legion needed to do some of the saving for themselves, the was toorge to be sending drones everywhere.


    But what they could do was to send a few of the delivery shuttles into low orbit and work on re-establishingmunications so that the Golden Legion''s cities could at leastmunicate again. First, Max wanted to get a better picture of the situation around the, but ironically, that wasn''t possible until he sent something to orbit so that it could survey the situation.


    They could use the existing shuttles to head to orbit, but the altitude needed to survey the whole would make them useless as a ry for shortwavemunications. At least they would be able to see if the whole was in this situation, and if it wasn''t, they could ry messages to the undamaged portion of the surface about what was going on here, and have the Golden Legion request for assistance from other cities.


    Now that the drone bombers were working as a high-powered ry station for localmunications, and spreading out to cover the whole district, the Golden Legion soldiers were already bing more coordinated. They were battered and caught off-guard by the initial attack, but even though it was their first battle, a lifetime of training was kicking in and getting them into fighting shape.


    "What were you using formunications that they took so much more damage than most of your infrastructure? I know that the power is still on in the city, the shelter that we released the cats from still had power when the drones arrived." Nico asked.


    "Oh, here, I''ve got one with me. It''s trashed, but it might be repairable." One of the men offered.


    The device he handed over appeared to be like any other high-tech piece of equipment, most of which was still working, but as she inspected it, Nico nodded in understanding.


    "It''s a crystalline transmitter, but the crystals are prized. Give me a second." She muttered as she took a toolkit out of her t space storage.


    It was a miniature replicator, something that the Golden Legion didn''t have, but Max was reasonably sure that they coulde up with a way to make the repairs without it. They did invent the devices after all.


    Nico repaired the device, and it turned on, then immediately filled the room with a harsh squealing noise of static.


    "Perhaps I didn''t fix it right." Nico apologized, then started to tweak the device as she worked.


    She spent a few minutes on it, then suddenly dropped the device and stood up with an annoyed look on her face.


    "I''ve got it. The problem isn''t with the devices. Yes, they were broken. But the lingering energy in the air from the destroyed portals is creating so much interference that they can''t pick up anything but the static. It''s like a jamming signal, and it will have shut down allmunications on the." She exined.


    "Then why do yourmunicators still work?" The General asked, confused.


    "They''re using an entirely different technology and range of frequencies. Between that and the noise dampening function, we can stillmunicate somewhat normally. Our greatest limitation is that the majority of our propulsion systems won''t work here, so we''re low on both power and mobility.


    It''s lucky for us that we had a functional alternate option to get things working again." Nico informed him.


    That brought a bit of hope to the room. If the humans could just pull out an alternate technology to get their weapons back online, surely the Golden Legion had some old tech in storage that might work in this emergency, just like the shortwave radios had.

 Chapter 1146 1146 Strategic Movement

    <h4>Chapter 1146 1146 Strategic Movement</h4>


    The staff of the Golden Legion brought out a simple meal once everyone was seated, some form of meat and root vegetable stew with wine, which seemed to brighten up the mood of the dignitaries.


    "It is a Golden Legion tradition. None eat more luxuriously than our soldiers while there is a battle raging. It reminds us all that we are one Legion, and not self-driven individuals. I hope you don''t mind the food too much.


    But we are also celebrating, I suppose. If you can send soldiers to each city to help our troops, it should be enough to stabilize all the Command Seats in Sector Seventeen so that we can begin to fortify and prepare to repel future enemy advances." The General announced.


    Max considered the options for a moment, then began to write up a deployment n as he ate. The room was quiet, filled with the clinking of silverware and the scratch of stylus on tablet as the militarymanders drew potential deployment ns during the meal.


    They were almost finished when one of the advisors noticed that Nico had barely eaten.


    "No need to stand on formality with us. It''s going to be a long meeting, so it''s best to get some food in you early." Heughed.


    Nico smiled and shook her head. "I am a full conversion cyborg. I only need enough nutrients to keep my brain functional, the rest of my body is entirely artificial."


    The advisors were strangely excited about that part for some reason, and it only took Max a second to realize why.


    An advisor with the title [Personnel Recovery and Trauma Mitigation Minister] pped his hands and almost looked like he was going to hug Nico for a second, before catching himself and sitting back down.


    "I don''t suppose that your magnificent technology can make medical centres that would be able to do the same for our wounded, would it? We have millions of long term disabled cases after these attacks, and some from before, who were injured on duty. If you have the ability to create lifelike augmentic limbs, it would be a huge win for our military." He suggested.


    Nico frowned, but still nodded. "It would take some additional study of your biology, but I can get that from your medical records. I wouldn''t rmend full conversion, as it is known to drive the subject insane and many never adapt. However, there are a few options.


    For those who are paraplegic, we can do a partial conversion. For those missing parts of limbs, an augmentic recement, possibly even a biological one, might be possible. We can make them for our own species, but I''m not sure how yours will take to them.


    Or, in the very worst-case scenarios, we can strap them into a Mecha type war machine with a full neural link and let them serve the remainder of their lives entombed in a mechanical coffin to take vengeance on their enemies."


    Max recalled Nico making those in her past life, twisted monstrosities of steel and biomechanics. They were utterly insane, driven mad by the curse of their existence, as the war machine became their body in a neural link they would never be able to break.


    Berserker infantry the size of Mecha, with no fear of death, and an insane need to make others suffer as they were suffering, made for a deadlybination on the battlefield, but he couldn''t see the Golden Legion agreeing to it once they saw what it entailed.


    Max cleared his throat. "I''m not sure that they''re desperate enough for thest option. The Golden Legion honour code prefers to die with dignity than remain suspended in an undying state of constant war."


    "Right, my fault. But once I study the Golden Legion genome, I''m certain that we can equip the shuttles we send to deliver our troops with a medical bay capable of cybeic augmentation." Nico agreed.


    She hadn''t given up on the idea, she had just put it to the side so that she could remind them of it againter if things truly did get that desperate.


    Despite the generally high level of technology, Max had noticed that the medical sciences among the Golden Legion were not all that advanced. It was like they simply didn''t care enough to develop them, or had forgotten them in favour of other priorities over the millennia.


    When you have so many people and no real threats, you only really have to cure illness and disease, which they had nearly eliminated. The repairs of injuries became a much lower priority, as they were much lessmon and so rarely in the line of duty.


    For such an honour-driven society, crippling yourself doing something as a hobby or doing something dumb was the peak of embarrassment, so they didn''t bother to learn to help people hide their shame.


    But now that there was a war, and their people had been injured in battle, they were eager to get the fallen martyrs back in the fight.


    "We will provide you with whatever resources we can in exchange for your assistance. I suspect that as lovely as our home is, you don''t intend to stay here indefinitely, so perhaps we can put in a good word with our Guardian Being to get a portal opened to send you to anotheryer, where you can move to a location where you can return home." The General suggested.


    "That sounds like a wonderful n. Thank you, General. We will start on the security teams for your cities here in Sector Seventeen, as well as retrofitting the delivery vehicles as medical bays with staff." Max agreed.


    It wasn''t much to ask, and it was a benefit to everyone. Plus, it would give them an excuse to head to battle to "Assist their forces" and search for answers on their own.


    Answers like "What is still waiting for them in the otheryer of space, which was attacking the Anomaly Region". Or "How many of the Greater Energy Beings were going to be willing to show their faces after two of their own had been crippled during this attack."


    Those were the sorts of answers that really mattered to Max.

 Chapter 1147 1147 Max is NO FUN

    <h4>Chapter 1147 1147 Max is NO FUN</h4>


    [Commander Max, we have iing. There is a Cathedral Ship in the atmosphere. The sensors say it is fully loaded and on an intercept course with our location. Yes, confirmed, it has adjusted course to make a suborbital insertion run on our location.] The crew of the Cutter suddenly announced.


    [I want a full Mecha Regiment up and running before we get back. Have every smaller vehicle start mass producing drones and get the shields reinforced. We will be back there in three minutes.] Max announced.


    "I am sorry to cut the meeting short, General, but there is an iing enemy vessel, roughly a kilometre long and loaded with troops, headed for my vessel. I believe that the Great Enemy might have realized that we are here, and they have prioritized our elimination before taking the." Max exined as Nico started issuing orders to the troops.


    "How many troops would be in a ship that size?" The General asked in a panic as he found the iing vessel on the sensors.


    "Roughly a hundred thousand infantry, plus a full regiment of armoured vehicles or tanks." Nico replied with a shrug as she impatiently waited for the elevator.


    "Alright, we understand. Good luck, Commanders. We will send you what we can when we can." The General agreed.


    "We still have four shuttles dropping drone teams at your major seats. They will have to spread their efforts to all thirty cities until we''re finished with this attack, so hold tight and don''t lose hope." Max informed him as he stepped into the Elevator.


    "Our Mecha are on their way here. I called them already, and they will be waiting outside. The teams that are guarding the bunker will stay in ce, and the ship is turning out Mecha and drone hybrid forces as fast as the power supply will let us." Nico informed him on the way up.


    "Tell them to make some extra Terraforming Arrays in the Golden Legion Seats and hide them. I want the ability to make more armies from random points around the zone for surprise attackster." Max informed her with a sly wink.


    "Oh, I like that idea. We can stage armies at random locations, and then send them in to attack once the Great Enemy has everything engaged. But do you think that they will really focus an entire Cruiser on our location? That seems like overkill, and they might spread them to the cities." Nico reminded him.


    Max smiled back at her. "Not after we get to them, they won''t. How much do you want to wager that we can take out that Cruiser before it makes it to the next city?"


    Nico considered the answer for five whole seconds as the elevator rose.


    "With our Antimatter and Warp Field technology out ofmission, and the limited power output of just the Dyson Spheres, I would give us a seventy percent chance of breaching their shields with the new variable energy weapons before they make the city.


    Then I would give our shielding on the Cutter a forty percent chance of surviving the st of a nuclear chain reaction as the ship detonated."


    Max frowned as they raced out to their Mecha. Forty percent was too low. He needed toe up with a strategy to lure the ship into higher altitudes, or to create a barrier over the Cutter to reduce the damage done.


    "We could lure it to a city and make it look like our ship was mostly abandoned. That would increase the distance between the detonation and our base, which would increase the chances of the shield holding to nearly one hundred percent." Nico suggested.


    "And you think the Generals will go for that?" Maxughed back at her.


    That would mean tens of millions of civilian casualties on their part. No sanemander would agree to that tactic.


    "Fine, what is your n then?" Nico asked.


    "We get them to chase us into something close to orbit. Then the st will be more dispersed, and the shields will hold." Max suggested.


    "And spread the fallout of the explosion over a million square kilometres? I know the Golden Legion definitely won''t go for that n."


    Max sighed.


    "Alright, what options do we have? We have two minutes flight until we''re in engagement range." Max asked as he powered up the Mecha.


    Max listened to Nico''s thoughts as she processed the data that they had at hand and came up with the best conclusion.


    "If we destroy it over the Cutter, and open a portal back to its homeyer, we should be able to keep the portal open long enough for most of the detonation to pass through. We just need to lure it into ce at the right time, and have the portal array charged in advance, since we don''t have a Warp Drive online at the moment." She decided.


    "That''s not a bad idea. We can go with that. Now, we just need to make sure that we can actually get through the void shields over a Cruiser with only two Mecha and half our power output." Maxughed.


    "We''ve got this. The Void shields can be mostly bypassed with the new programming, and once you run [Optimize] again, we should be able to shoot through them no problem." Nico stated with full confidence in his System Skill.


    "Alright, that''s our n. It''s in range to analyze now. I''m beginning the Optimize process, let''s get this done and over with before they can drop too many of their troops." Max agreed.


    "You know, we could force a partially opened portal home, and let the Android Army nuke it. It would clear out the enemy force in the region, and our shields are already optimized to survive that." Nico offered, hopefully.


    "That''s definitely not the n. Open the portal to theiryer and let the st out. We''ve got enough issues already without making it even harder to get home." Max reminded her.


    "Spoilsport."

 Chapter 1148 1148 Not Fast Enough

    <h4>Chapter 1148 1148 Not Fast Enough</h4>


    The moment that they lifted off from the ground, the Great Enemy had noticed them, and when they got to fifty kilometres away, the optimal firing range for the adaptive energy weapons inside an atmosphere, the Cruiser began firing drop pods at the surface in rapid fashion.


    [Hey, don''t those look awfully familiar?] Max asked as the teardrop shaped pods hurtled toward the ground.


    [I swear those are cargo drop pods. Or more correctly, OUR cargo drop pods. I can see the Kepler military stamp on them.] Nico agreed.


    [Well, that''s a mystery for another day. Make sure that they haven''t corrupted a ship full of humans once the pods open, but let''s get these shields down.] Max growled as his weapons system charged.


    The ship didn''t resemble anything that they had in their arsenal, but that didn''t mean that they couldn''t have pulled a ship full of humans from some and used their gear in the assault. It would be huge news if it were true, as there were no reports of the enemy actually engaging on human held worlds when they left, but by now it was possible that the fleet that had been near the Alliance had engaged the human forces and obtained either the pods or the design to make them.


    But in a way, the concerning development was also a good thing. They knew how to fight against a drop insertion, and the gene modified soldiers of the Cathedral Fleet would survive the impact without any issues, as long as the retro thrusters fired beforending.


    They might not have moved fast enough to stop the enemy, but at least the drop was in an uninhabited area headed toward the Cutter, where they could engage the newly arrived troops with rtive ease.


    [Five Mecha Companies are ready and moving out. Prepared to fire on the enemy ship on your order.] Nico confirmed.


    [Do it.]


    Both Mecha unleashed all of their Thunder Guns and the light Mass Drivers at once, and followed the st with a burst from the variable frequency Disintegrator while the Void Shields were at their weakest.


    The void shield flickered, and a brutal explosion began inside the barrier, before being quickly snuffed out.


    "What was that? That''s not fair." Nico yelled, forgetting that she kept a live connection to Max at all times.


    "I think the ship has a structural integrity field. It stopped the chain reaction, but we''re doing damage. Keep it up, and we should be on pace to take it out over the Cutter." Max instructed.


    "Altering position for better effects." Nico agreed, while Max targeted the same spot, where the shielding was still weakened by the constant bombardment of hypersonic projectiles.


    From the ground, a barrage of light Mass Driver projectiles began to tear apart the drop pods, so Max took a second to check the scanners for signs of human DNA in the wreckage.


    All the biomass appeared to be alien in origin, but the drop pods were definitely either stolen or made to exactly the human spec, as the scanners identified theponents immediately.


    Max looked down and found the ground littered with rubble and warriors, who had recovered from their unexpectedly brutalnding much faster than expected and were moving to engage the Mecha Companies which were targeting their drop pods.


    Then, as suddenly as they had started, the drop pods stopped, and orbital interceptors began to pour from the bay doors of the Cruiser.


    [This is your chance, Nico. I will st the shield open at section six, you make sure that at least one of those interceptors goes up in mes.] Max ordered.


    If the structural integrity field kept the whole ship from going up, they would have to work around it, and target the interceptors to set off a bomb inside the bays.


    Nicoughed as the Disintegrator beam hit in the precise location that all six of their Thunder Gun projectiles had, and for an instant the shield flickered out of existence, allowing her Disintegrator to target the interceptors still inside the deployment bay, creating a massive nuclear explosion inside the vessel that made the structure groan and the engines power down.


    The Cruiser was in a nosedive, headed straight for the shields of the Cutter.


    But just as Max was about to celebrate his victory, the Androids did exactly as he had instructed them to, and mitigated the impact of the destroyed ship with a portal back to its homeyer.


    The cruiser smoothly passed out of the atmosphere and back to its home, chased by a series of projectiles from Nico''s weapons, and onest Disintegrator beam from Max, targeting the defenceless hull.


    [Close the portal.] He ordered as the explosions began to ripple through the Cruiser on the other side of the portal.


    They weren''t quite fast enough, but the portal closed naturally after only letting a short upward beam of energy through. It still created a massive mushroom cloud, and a shockwave that knocked both infantry and Mecha from their feet, but the damage was very minimal, and the battle only hesitated for a split second.


    [Well, that was not the n. But a kill is a kill.] Nico muttered as the portal closed with the remains of the Cruiser on the other side.


    [Look at it this way, we don''t have to clean it upter. Now, let''s go say hello to the infantry on the ground and see what they can do against our power.]


    Max sensed a sudden danger and rolled to the side just as an artillery shell exploded right where he had been hovering.


    [Scratch that, they managed to get some artillery to the ground, let''s take care of that first.]


    As if they were responding to his words, a pair of sma rounds streaked toward Max''s Mecha, only narrowly missing as he dodged and rolled the Mecha around its axis.


    [They''re getting better at that. They might actually hit you soon.] Nicoughed as she dive-bombed the tank column.


    [Says the woman who picks fist fights with battle tanks.]

 Chapter 1149 1149 Destabilized

    <h4>Chapter 1149 1149 Destabilized</h4>


    Max stood among the ruins of the most recent armoured column that had faced off against him and Nico, checking the battle reports and trying to make sense of what he was seeing.


    The Mecha Companies were dug into trenches to hold their positions, and the number of casualties among the Cathedral Fleet was staggering, hundreds of thousands dead along with nearly a dozen armoured regiments.


    The Cutter had sent out nine recement Mecha Companies since the Cruiser had been destroyed, and still the number of enemies was not decreasing. That shouldn''t be correct, it meant that they had killed three times as many as the ship should hold, and they still weren''t running low on support.


    Something was very wrong with this picture, and if they didn''t sort it out quickly, the cities wouldn''t be able to hold, even with the Mecha and drones backing them up.


    The Cutter was reporting another Company of Mecha sent out to reinforce the defence lines around the ship itself, and Max knew that it was time that he did something more than just killing everything he saw.


    [Nico, we need to find the source of these reinforcements. Check the wrecked vehicles and every hidden terrain feature that wee across for anything out of the ordinary. If I''m right, they have a way to keep bringing their troops in.] Max ordered.


    [Do you think that was why they used the drop pods? If they weren''t just a transport, but a miniature portal generator, they could keep dumping troops into the battlefield, and we wouldn''t think twice about them.]


    [It has to be something. We''ve already killed three for every soul that should have fit in that Cruiser, and they''re still increasing in numbers. I would rather not have to use scorched earth tactics when there are still millions of civilians in the area.] Max agreed.


    The two Titan ss Mecha split up, hacking and sting their way through the enemy as they searched for the source of their reinforcements.


    Max kneeled at a troop transport vehicle that he definitely hadn''t seen in the drop from the Cruiser, and tore open the top of the ruined vehicle. Nothing suspicious, just a bunch of supplies and a handful of dead soldiers that matched the other dead soldiers scattered around it.


    All of them were from the same alien species, which reminded Max somewhat of a six legged dog. The controls were interesting, intended to be manipted with the front paws in a glove-like enclosure, and Max made a note of it, but there was no sign of the way that they had gotten here.


    Next up was a drop pod from the Cruiser, which had never opened. Normally, the doors on them were designed to st open and clear rubble or obstructions from around the pod for easier supply extraction, but this one was still sealed tight, with no signs of life inside.


    It could be a gun drone or a trap, but Max was willing to take the risk on the off chance that there was something inside that was worth viewing.


    Carefully, he pulled the door open and stared at the mass of electronics inside. This was definitely not a supply pod, and it looked like it was still active, with a fairly intense power signature, but he couldn''t figure out what it was for.


    So, he carefully linked a data tablet, making sure that there was no connection back to his Mecha, just in case it was designed as some form of countermeasure against AI or technology, and began his inspection work.


    At first, it was just a programmed database, and the data wasn''t making much sense, but after only a few minutes of work, Max realized what he had found. It was a Replicator pod, to make weapons and gear for the Great Enemy, using material from the, or nearby rubble and corpses.


    But that wasn''t all. It was remotely controlled.


    Max rapidly altered the settings on his scanners to trace the signal from the pod back to its origin, and found that it was receiving signals from a location only four kilometres away, much closer than he had dared to hope for.


    Normally, such a device would be run from a safe spot on the far side of a or in orbit, not within artillery range of the replicator itself.


    Unless they thought that this was a suitable spot to restock and resupply, even though there were hundreds of Mecha on the prowl.


    It didn''t make much sense, but as they had dropped everything in a panic once the two Titan ss Mecha started firing, there was a good chance that nothing was where it was intended to be, and wherever they were getting reinforcements from, that leadership group was nning to reorganize.


    [Nico, I have found a replicator in a drop pod. It is sending a signal to a nearby location. I have sent you the frequency and encryption codes. See if you can find more and if they''re allmunicating with the same spot.] Max informed her as soon as he finished the analysis.


    [Good find. I think I found something strange as well, vehicles that seem to have taken fresh damage from a copsing portal, but there hasn''t been a new portal here in hours. I have the closest Mecha team guarding the site.] Nico replied.


    That was two points of information, and another step closer to finding the reinforcements. If they really were using portals to anotheryer to bring them in, then all Max and Nico had to do was iste how, and they could send themselves on their way as soon as the situation was stable.


    Sometimes, it was the small things that really helped the day seem brighter, and Max was in a much better mood as he started to head to the second location.


    Then he froze, realizing his mistake.


    There was no way that they would just sit and keep their operations online while he ran at them in a fifty-metre tall Mecha for four kilometres. The fact that they hadn''t shut them down when he reached the pod was already surprising.


    [Nico, I''m sending the Command Mecha back to the Cutter and infiltrating in a Mobile Suit. I will contact you again once I have additional information.]

 Chapter 1150 1150 Heavy Stealth

    <h4>Chapter 1150 1150 Heavy Stealth</h4>


    The Mecha ran back to the Cutter on autopilot, instructed to tuck itself back into the repair and reloading rack to wait for Max to call it again. The effect on the enemy was instantaneous. They began to move as soon as the Mecha was out of visual range, and themunications picked up the moment that it entered the Cutter.


    They must have assumed that he was retreating to sleep and would be out ofmission by the time that their movements were noticed because they weren''t being subtle, and the drone feed was giving Max a clear picture of their current numbers and movement strategy.


    There were definitely too many of them, and they wereing from near the signal that he had picked up, but that wasn''t the only location. The data analysis from the ship indicated that there were six more likely positions in the region where they would have been appearing inrger numbers than would reasonably be expected given their losses.


    All of them were near locations where something had fallen from the Cruiser. Most of them werenders, but a few wererge armoured vehicle drop points as well.


    They hadn''t been ignored, most of them had been heavily shelled by the Mecha and had stopped releasing troops for a while, but now they were at it again, suggesting that there was a hiding spot or method of entry for them there.


    It might be a teleportation array, as they used for boarding actions. That could be bringing them from thousands of kilometres away, and if the array was covered by the rubble of a vehicle, it would be nearly impossible to detect from their high altitude drones.


    [Titan number two is returning to the Cutter. I have located something strange. Far too many troops have exited ander.] Nico''s voice whispered in Max''s ear as he crept toward the location of the enemy signal.


    [Let me know how it goes. But don''t be afraid to bomb it into oblivion if it offends you. The drones say there are plenty more where that one came from.]


    Max mentally sensed Nico''sughter as she approached her target, and moved into position so he could get a clear view of what was going on without being spotted.


    There were still random artillery shellsnding in the region, some under a hundred metres from the camp as the Mecha Companies shelled everything that they deemed a threat, but activity at the small cluster of vehicles that Max was watching kept increasing.


    Then he spotted it. A shimmer in the air, where more troops were appearing. They really had activated a portal on one of therger vehicles'' chassis, and were using it as a Command Post to both bring in and deploy troops.


    What he really needed to know was how. The APC couldn''t hold enough equipment for a Portal Generator, it wasn''trge enough, so it had to have some sort of homing beacon.


    Or perhaps, it was the beacon. If the signals that were being sent from the Pod were to help locate the portal''s opening, then it would only take three of them to triangte a position and get an urate enough point of convergence to open a portal in rtive safety.


    Max waited in the trees while he tracked the other signals that this location was interacting with back to four other hidden vehicles, all of which were disguised to appear to be destroyed.


    That was good enough for him, and Max prepared to make his move.


    [Artillery, I want all five of these locations destroyed in six seconds.] Max ordered as he prepared to make his move.


    Three fast steps forward, and his sma Cannon was in his hands, humming with energy as he overcharged the capacitors to empty the entire energy cell in a single shot. One more step and the warriors had noticed his charge, but it was toote to stop his first shot from passing right through the portal.


    An explosion tore through the portal as Max slotted a new energy cell into his weapon and the warriors regained their feet.


    Then the artillery barrage began in the distance, and the portal began to fluctuate wildly, no longer pinned on a specific location by the signals.


    The air crackled with energy as the closest of the warriors activated the energy barrier over a massive axe, chopping down at Max''s smaller body. There was no time to take out a de, but the suit had them built into each forearm for just this sort of emergency.


    Tree branches shattered, andser rifle beams streaked by the pair as Max tackled the warrior to the ground, then swiftly slit his throat with the forearm de on the Mobile Suit.


    Bullets whipped by, and his energy shield red with power as the counterattack became more organized, forcing Max to roll behind the body of the fallen warrior for cover until he could get the light Mass Drivers on target to return fire.


    Max trusted his System Skills to target the Mass Drivers for him, allowing the rapid-fire screaming of the one exposed weapon to tear through the air while he hefted the corpse of the fallen warrior in front of him as a shield.


    More explosions wracked the area, throwing him backward into the trees, and scorching his shield.


    It wasn''t clear what he had hit, but the explosion had left no survivors on his scanners.


    [Target one down.] He reported as he got back to his feet.


    [What did you blow up over there? There is fireing out of the portal at my location, and I haven''t even started shooting that way yet.] Nico asked.


    [Damned if I know. I was firing blind and letting the System pick the targets.] Max replied, while Nicoughed at him.


    [Whatever it is. Do it again, these guys are MAD, and they''re fleeing back into the portal.]


    Great, just what he needed. Warriors from all over the region converging on his position. No, on second thought, that really was what he needed.


    [Mecha Company Seven, give me a full bombardment on my beacon. Wide pattern, as we are expecting iing troops.]

 Chapter 1151 1151 Timer

    Chapter 1151 1151 Timer


    Max fired on everything that came out of the wandering portal, keeping the area mostly clear while letting the bombardment do the rest.


    Then, suddenly, the portal was just gone, as if it had never been there.


    "Nico, the portal at my end is gone, what about yours? You might have a lot of iing enemies in the next few seconds." He warned.


    "I''m on it. No, wait. My portal is closing as well. All signals from the beacons that we have identified are gone, and it appears that the influx of enemy soldiers is ending.


    If I had to guess, I would say that they have relocated their assault away from us." Nico replied.


    "Did we get enough data to be able to open our own portals to their hiding spot? I want to know that we have a way out of here once we get this attack under control." Max asked.


    "I''ve got it. The information is already programmed into the Cutter''s portal generator, so if we would like to go directly to their staging area, we can leave anytime." Nico joked.


    That was the big issue. The portals would lead directly to where this massive influx of enemies wasing from, so if they left this, they would be transferring directly into the enemy''s camp.


    All over the region, it was falling eerily quiet, there were no more portals, and the enemies that could retreat had exited through them before they closed.


    It was possible that, if they were actually transferring directly betweenyers, that the retaliation by the Mecha force had caused massive damage to the otheryer''s camp. The artillery was indiscriminate, and they had detonated an entire Cruiser in the atmosphere on that side of the portal.


    It might not have led to any major fallout, but if it was over their camp, the enemy organization might be in shambles right now.


    That would be a perfect time to attack, they just needed to verify before they made any drastic decisions.


    "Retreat back to the Cutter and let''s get some solid data. Once we know more about what is going on here, we can start thinking about pushing the battlefield either off this world or further out across the surface. We already know that they are not short on forces to attack us with, but it would be for the best if we could control the flow of reinforcements to the battle." Max ordered.


    It was going to be a long flight back to the Cutter, keeping low in the trees to look for signs that the enemy hadn''t actually left, or that they had cycled the locations of the portals and were staging for another attack.


    But as he passed over forests and ruined grasnds, heavily cratered by artillery bombardment, there were no signs of massed enemy forces, only a few stragglers and survivors who had been left behind when the rest of the force evacuated.


    Even the sound of the Android Mechapanies had turned to sporadic fire forck of targets, and the reports that he could see from the cities showed that they weren''t getting reinforced, though they hadn''t been able to retreat while engaged inbat with the drones.


    Maxnded inside the hangar where Nico and the majority of the team were working, and marched over to see what they could tell him.


    "What good news do you have for me?" He called as the team turned to greet him.


    "Well, we can''t guarantee that it''s good news, but it looks like it is. The local Greater Energy Being has managed to assimte most of the energy from the others who fell here. The lesser energy beings are almost all gone from the surface, and her power is over twice what thest one you fought was before it was injured.


    From the little sensor data we can obtain, it appears that she is the one who shut all the portals, and is doing something to iste her domain again.


    We suspect that since it''s in the boundary betweenyers, she might be moving it to a location where the others won''t be able to detect it again." The team leader suggested.


    "And why might that not be good news?" Max asked.


    "If she''s kicking everyone out, then when exactly will it be our turn? We might have a decent rtionship with the locals, but we''re still invaders, and the Greater Energy Beings appear to be quite territorial.


    We don''t know where or in whatyer we will be deposited, and that means it might not be good news for us."


    Nico''s thoughts said that all the possible oues she had considered were good oues in her mind, but then Nico was nevercking in confidence that she could find a way to kill anything that she came across if she put her mind to it.


    That confidence hadn''t always worked out for the best, but it had never faltered, and unless they ran into one of the so-called gods, there was a good chance that they could at least fight their way out of most situations well enough to flee.


    Max checked the thoughts of the Energy Being, and while she wasn''t focused on the disposal of the enemies now that she was recovered, it was still a thought in her mind as she checked on the survival rate of the Golden Legion and the cats.


    Mostly the cats.


    Then she got to the sector where Max and his forces were and paused. The felines had taken a great liking to the crab drones, but they didn''t belong on her. They were a bit like killer robotic toys, far too dangerous to allow the children to keep ying with them, but not so immediately dangerous that she wanted to cause a fuss.


    So, she passed them over and continued searching for more things that didn''t belong, which led her to the Android Mecha.


    Those were also helpful to the survival of her favourite species, so she wasn''t going to get rid of all of them, at least not right away.

 Chapter 1152 1152 Times UP

    Chapter 1152 1152 Time''s UP


    The team members realized that something was off only a few secondster as they saw the look on Max''s face change.


    "What''s up boss?" Nico asked as she poked him in the side to get his attention.


    "The Greater Energy Being here is closing the portals and kicking everything out, as you suspected, but she''s notpletely sure what to do with us. The cats are fond of the crab drones, but she''s still got one track of her mind working on deciding what to do with us." Max exined.


    "So, the getting kicked out to some random spot might be a very real concern?" One of the team members asked.


    "I would say so. She recognizes that we''re not a threat, but views us more on the level of unsafe cat toys, so I wouldn''t expect much sympathy for our travel time." Max exined.


    "Alright, we should bring the Mecha back to the Cutter then. It will be a tight fit to get everything loaded back in, since our numbers have increased, but we can fill some of the spare rooms that should be crew areas with drones, and pack the side hallways with Corvette ss Mecha.


    We''re not a cargo ship, but we can still pack it up pretty full."


    The majority of the Mecha and drones were already on the way back before Nico even finished her sentence, but she opted to leave one team, a singlerge drone with fifty smaller crabs in each city, just in case the effort to eliminate the enemies was unsessful.


    By the time that the Guardian of this ce was certain that she had purged all the enemies from her realm and started to move it through the boundary betweenyers, she hade up with a proper solution for the invasive human infestation.


    They weren''t harmful, so she would just find a good spot and put them outside.


    She had even found a good spot. It was quiet, out of the way, and they wouldn''t bother anyone else if she dropped them there. It was perfect.


    In fact, it was so perfect that there weren''t even any others of her species overseeing the area, so this rogue human poption should be able to thrive for a generation or two. Probably two at the most, as they only had one male with them, and after one generation, breeding would be an issue.


    Max did his best not tough as she carefully considered where she would drop them, but there wasn''t much he could do. They had no way tomunicate while the Greater Energy Being was hiding inside the and moving it rapidly through the space betweenyers of reality.


    The final moment came without warning. The upants of the Cutter found themselves sitting on the surface of a, looking out at a starless sky.


    "Well, we''re back in our homeyer of space. Cats, kittens, staff and friends, I would like to wee you to our home. Or somewhere in the same segment of the universe as our home, anyhow. Until we get a signal or see a few stars, I can''t tell where we are, but everything aboard the Cutter is now back online, and we can safely return to orbit to get a better look." Max informed the upants of the vessel as if this were an intended oue.


    The crew politely pped, then burst intoughter as they returned to their stations in preparation to return to orbit. Once they were off the surface, they could get a much better idea of where in the universe they were, and if they were really lucky, they might even be close enough to civilization to pick up on a few wayward signals that they could use to locate their route home.


    [Wait! We can''t go anywhere yet. There is no food.] One of the catsined.


    Max checked the thoughts of the others on board and then pointed to one of the side rooms.


    "There is food. It''s in the gymnasium room there, where we built the climbing obstacles and the ssh pool. If you go through that door, you will find fresh food and water." Max exined.


    "Has anyone told you that you''re really good at that?" An Innu researcher asked from her station on the bridge.


    "I have plenty of experience at making sure that people get to where they need to be, even if it is only five metres away." Max agreed.


    [Commander, we have a signal. There is an Android Fleet AI transmitter somewhere in range. We are analyzing it now.] The Mecha Regiment''s android leader reported.


    Before Max was finished reading, the data was up and while it did give them a good idea of where they were, it was not particrly encouraging news.


    They had been dropped somewhere in the furthest reaches of the Anomaly Region, rtively near to where the now defunct second Anomaly had been before the god of the Myceloids had closed it while taking away his people.


    Even at Maximum Warp, they would need months to get back to anywhere stable enough to portal, and even longer to get back to civilization. The guardian of the Golden Legion was right, though. There was nothing out here watching them because there was nothing out here at all.


    "Take us into orbit, I want to know exactly where we are. Perhaps we can find signs of other intelligent species in this region, like the kinfolk of the Greys that we found hiding undergroundst time we were here." Max ordered.


    The team members looked from the monitors to the handful of cats that were still wandering around themon areas of the ship and not ying in therge climbing structure.


    "Well, we''ve had pretty good luck with meeting new people, so maybe it wouldn''t be so bad if we spent a little time looking around to see what''s out here."


    Maxughed as the ship lifted off and moved into orbit, with a gentle vibration through the hull that caught the attention of the cats. Like some other species, they could almost always sense the vibration in the hull and tell when they were moving, no matter how smooth the transitions or power supplies were.

 Chapter 1153 1153 Getting Their Bearings

    <h4>Chapter 1153 1153 Getting Their Bearings</h4>


    With the Cutter in orbit over the, the interference was reduced, and they managed to pick up more signals to work with, giving them a much better idea of where they were even though most of the stars that they could see were unfamiliar.


    But the few that they did recognize and had stored in theirputer systems were enough to verify their exact location, roughly 10 standard astronomical units away from where they had found the Grey aliens.


    That was a manageable distance, and they could make their way back to the battlefield from here in only a few weeks, but Max had the feeling that there was a reason they were dropped here, other than the fact that it was uninhabited and unmonitored.


    "Alright, now we know where we are, but is anyone else getting the feeling that they should know something more about this area, and it''s just slipping from their mind?" Max asked.


    It might be an anomaly caused by the creature that dropped them here, to guide their actions toward increased chances of survival for the cats that they had on board, so if someone else had a strange feeling, then he would go with instinct and explore the area first.


    "I get the feeling that there is something that we''re missing. Something that we should know, but we don''t, does that make sense?" One of the human team members agreed.


    The Innu all nodded in unison.


    "This ce is strange, familiar, but not. It feels like we should know where we are, but I know I''ve never been here before." They agreed, taking turns to finish the sentence.


    A few of the cats wandered over to inspect the disy screen, then promptly lost interest. To Max, that meant that whatever was here wasn''t something that was of particr interest to them, but if it was giving a strange feeling to both Max and the Innu, then it might be something important to them.


    "Alright, let''s search for something that we''re missing. I want two teams, one searching for signs of inhabitables, the other searching for signs of anomalies, areas with missing data, and anything else that shouldn''t be here, like destroyed star systems." Max ordered.


    The team got to work, and Nico ordered the Androids, who were all on standby in their Mecha, forck of space to be anywhere else, to do the same thing, using hundreds ofputing points to identify and corroborate anything that they found.


    There was no chance that they would find everything that there was to see out here, but if Max was right, then the thing that they were intended to find would either be very close, or incredibly obvious once they started looking.


    Of course, that was just a theory, and they might not even understand how to look for the thing that they were intended to find until it was toote, and they had already given up and left the area.


    Fortunately, they had just the right sorts of experts to search for things that were out of the ordinary, with the intuitive abilities of Nico and the Innu, as well as the logic of the Androids, but it ended up being Max''s system that picked up the anomaly before anyone else did.


    [Optimize Optical Emitter Array?] It asked him.


    Max didn''t recall there being any unoptimized items on the ship, and the feline nomads certainly hadn''t brought one with them, so where was this mystery device in need of optimization?


    Max searched for it using the indicators that [Optimize] had given him, and found that it was in space, only a few thousand kilometres from their position, but so small that it had been mistaken for another piece of debris.


    It also appeared to be active, and as Max examined it in preparation to bring it onboard and try to determine its origins, he saw the entire universe in their scanners flicker.


    "Tell me someone else saw that." Max demanded.


    "Yes, sir. All of us, and the Androids. There is something wrong here, I think that we are in a very sophisticated illusion." The crew team leader agreed.


    Max sent a drone out of the ship to bring the emitter back on board, depositing it directly to the researchb, which was now essible through only one route, as the ship was almostpletely packed with drones and Mecha.


    "I found the emitter, it''s in the research bay now. Try not to break it, I want to know how it works and where it came from that it can emte an entire universe in our sensors." Max instructed them.


    The way that they raced out of the room almost looked like Max had changed the gravity settings, and they were in free fall. One second they were right in front of him, the next they were gone, all disappeared into the researchb to work on the identification of the newest gadget to enter their workshop.


    While they worked to learn how the emitter worked, Max worked on discovering what it had been hiding. As far as he could tell, it wasn''t actually recing all the data they were gathering, only a portion of it, and he just had to find out what had been reced to learn the secret that whoever had left it there wanted to hide.


    The problem was that while the sensors had flickered, nothing really changed. It was more like a wave of interference hade over them, and the signals had been scrambled.


    Max would have believed that if he hadn''t already identified the device, and would have called it a signal jammer, not an optical emitter.


    But it couldn''t just be emitting optical data. If all their sensors were affected, it was transmitting data on every wavelength that they were scanning. Or, possibly, it had malfunctioned and caused the sensors to flicker when it was only supposed to be creating a false image.


    One by one, Max sorted through the data inputs until he found what he was looking for. The optical transmitter had been trying to hide an empty spot in space. Or a seemingly empty spot in space, since Max didn''t yet know if the flicker had shown them reality and not a distorted version of the transmission.

 Chapter 1154 1154 Shiny?

    <h4>Chapter 1154 1154 Shiny?</h4>


    Max tasked a drone to go out and pass through the distorted area and report back everything that it found as it explored whatever the device was trying to hide. It might very well be a that had been hidden from the universe so that its upants wouldn''t be found, and that could be a wonderful addition to their data files. No matter what condition it was currently in.


    The drone''s speed was set to be slow enough rtive to the location that Max believed was being hidden that a sudden impact shouldn''t destroy the crab without providing them any sort of data, but fast enough that Max wouldn''t have to wait all day for it to get there.


    The problem was that there was no way of telling how much of their sensor feed was falsified with that device active nearby.


    Evidence suggested that it was likely to only be one region, as they had found the device easily enough, but it was always better to be safe.


    As Max had feared, the drone came to an abrupt halt the moment that it reached the obscured area, and began to crawl around on a solid surface that its other sensors said did not exist.


    "Boss, I think we found something. Don''t do anything for a moment, and I think that we can turn this device off and see what it''s doing." The team leader informed him.


    Max inspected everyone''s thoughts, and they all agreed that it should be safe, a rare consensus among researchers.


    "Alright, go ahead. I''ve got a drone out on a location that is obscured, so if you can turn that off, maybe I can learn something about it." He informed them.


    After a few seconds, the device''s interference faded, and Max found himself looking at the battered form of an ancient world ship.


    Its spherical ck surface was pockmarked with millennia of impact craters, and a long weapon st had torn open a portion of the hull. That likely hadn''t been the end of the vessel, though, as it skimmed along the surface and didn''t prate deeply into the vital systems.


    [Holy crap, we found a world ship. Does that mean we get to keep it? I mean, that''s what you guys did with Terminus, right? You kept a Colony Ship that you found and used it as the base to start your Reaver Company.] One of the Innu cheered over the inte.


    [Did you forget that you work for me? The boss always gets first dibs on the good stuff.] Max reminded them.


    Giving a random relic world ship to the Innu and then just letting them wander around looking for fun things to do might be hrious when the rest of the Alliance found out, but he needed to explore and analyze it first.


    [Oh, that''s right. So we do get to keep it. And examine it, and see what makes it tick. Who do you think made it? Why was it hidden? Should we hide it again once we find a way inside?]


    Maxughed at the verbal stream of consciousness, but the Innu had a point. They should hide it again once they were inside. There probably wasn''t anyone here looking for it at this point, and the scans they were getting indicated that it might have been here for the better part of a million years, preserved by the void of space, other than the small object impacts.


    [Send out more drones, I want a full exterior scan of the ship before we go any further. Everything needs to be recorded, from any lingering energy signatures, to theposition of the hull and the location of every single point of damage. Then we will find a suitable way in and get the barrier back up while we explore.] Max ordered, while the team silently celebrated in the next room.


    The design of the World Ship, a perfect sphere, was incrediblymon among the Alliance species, and all of them imed dominion on the design, which was now consideredmon property, but with the proprietary driveponents and other features still belonging to the various manufacturers.


    But after seeing these, Max began to wonder if it was somon because that was what they all arrived in.


    The Greys seemed to havee from this region of space at some point. There was no other good exnation for how the same species had been in both spots, considering the history of this region and the recorded history of the Greys in the Alliance, which didn''t have an extreme range colonization project among them.


    So, other species might havee from here during or after the Great War''s most violent periods.


    Too much history was lost to be absolutely certain, even to the Darklings and Arisen. But Max was guessing that the species here had left after the God of Time had been killed and time had been reset and then locked into a linear stream during the battle with the humans.


    It felt like that was all that he didtely. Specte and guess.


    But, it was all that he could do until he had some actual data to work with.


    Then, he noticed something strange on one of the optical scan images. There was a word written above one of the airlocks.


    [Creeping Night]


    Nico hadn''t noticed it yet, she was busy analyzing the technical details and not looking at the optical scans.


    But when she realized, when anyone realized what this ship was, all hell was going to break loose.


    Creeping Night, The Second gship of the Ten Worlds Crusade, lost in battle during his previous life, and now floating dead in space a million light years from nowhere.


    Max knew exactly where the ship had fallen, and how. But that wasn''t here. It couldn''t be. There wasn''t a star system for a dozen light years, and there should have been because it was destroyed while attempting to retake a hive world during the final battle of the Crusade where Max had first gained fame as a Mecha Pilot. The battle that saw him named a Hero, hundreds of years before he had met Nico.


    The memories flooded into Max''s mind, leaving him dazed and lost in his mind.


    He didn''t even notice when Nico came andid him out on the couch to recover, all he could see was the battle on the surface.

 Chapter 1155 1155 The Battle of Canton

    <h4>Chapter 1155 1155 The Battle of Canton</h4>


    Max found himself reying the battle from an observer''s position, looking down on himself from above, like a guardian angel for the doomed Mecha squadron.


    The Legion ss Mecha, equivalent to the Super Heavy Mecha of this lifetime, stood far less proud and noble than it had a mere hour ago. Now, the shining golden hull waspletely scorched ck and covered in the blood soaked mud of the riverbed where the rest of his Regimenty.


    They had been ambushed by the enemy. That Max knew, but when he tried to see who they were, his memory seemed to turn unnaturally hazy.


    "Fortify the riverbank. The Capital stands at our back, and theary barrier is up. Nothing ising in or out until the fleet arrives, or the city falls." He heard himself order his troops.


    How he wished he could turn back time and change everything. What came next had haunted his memories for the remainder of his life.


    The riverbank was never fortified. Instead, the city''s barrier hade back online behind him, locking his unit outside the ring of mountains that surrounded the Capital, standing knee-deep in a raging river that guarded the only way in or out of the valley.


    In front of him, the infamous Ion Storms of Canton raged, preventing anything from leaving the ground by more than a hundred metres, while the horizon slowly ckened with a wave of enemy forces uncountable in their millions.


    One hundred men. That was what he had with him. One hundred Mecha outnumbered a million to one, with two days to hold before the rest of the fleet would arrive.


    They were dead, there was no doubt about that, as the unit daubed themselves in the bloody y from the riverbank. The best that they could hope for was to drag this out so long that the enemy wouldn''t be able to breach the barrier before the fleet arrived.


    But who was he kidding? Once they were in contact with the barrier, they could set up a phase matching array, and they would be able to open a way through in a matter of hours without ever taking down the Capital''s barrier at all.


    There were no munitions left for the artillery, even if it hadn''t been destroyed in thest wave of attacks. There were no Command Mecha left, thest of their officers were ashes inside the ruined cockpit of the Emperor ss Mecha Dalimond, whichy against the stone face of the cliff behind them, safely encased in the Capital City''s barrier.


    As thest Sergeant left alive, the force had turned to Max as their leader.


    "What can we do, Top?" The Pilot of the Mecha beside him had asked, Max recalled with a sad fondness, as he watched the ck tide of the enemy approach.


    "Well, as heroes of the Crusade, we are gifted with two ways to die. We can die tired, or we can die as tired cowards." Max hadughed at the question.


    "Rah." The unit had responded as one.


    Then the air shimmered, and the first of the enemy had teleported in.


    Energy Beings, Max suddenly remembered. The Ten World''s Crusade had been against the Energy Beings.


    The ck monstrosities of this battlefield had been able to warp space around them and teleport into battle, which was why theary barrier had been vital to keeping them from flooding the world with reinforcements.


    Max was unable to wake up from the nightmare, or even move a muscle, as he watched the worst day of his past life y out in front of him.


    For five hours, they fought in the sunlight as the number of defenders slowly dwindled from a hundred, to ny, to seventy-five.


    Then, night had fallen.


    In the dark, it was harder to see anything, and most of the Mecha fought on instinct, using their Disruptor des to destabilize and effectively kill the energy beings as they appeared.


    Between the oppressive darkness and the Ion Storm, Max was fighting blind, only able to see what was within the glow of his weapons as he put his back to the barrier to avoid being ambushed.


    Eight hours of darkness had felt like an eternity inside the Mecha, and they didn''t feel much shorter this time, as Max''s viewpoint switched to the inside of his cockpit as the darkness swallowed everything in his memories.


    Then the sun began to rise, and Max recalled how he had been fighting on instinct alone, not a thought in his mind. But now, from the outside, he could see it. The Three Heroes, standing shoulder to shoulder against the barrier as the sun rose.


    This time, he could see the tide of shadowed enemies, and think about what came next.


    The blinding light of an orbital strike, as the fleet arrived early and wiped the massed armies of energy beings from existence.


    A hundred thousand Emperor ss Mecha had descended to the surface in front of Max, clearing the enemy from the river valley with brutal efficiency.


    Then, he saw her for the first time. The God Machine, Gloriana. A hundred metres tall with the firepower to eliminate star systems in the blink of an eye. The Mecha which would make him a legend and end the long war.


    Or so Max had thought at the time. Now he knew better.


    The war had never ended, the Gods and their minions had simply retreated and waited for the mortal species to forget about them.


    Max woke with a start as the memory ended, and found Nico staring directly into his face while arge ck cat slept on his chest.


    "Good morning, sleepyhead. Care to exin what happened? You just passed out and nothing we did could wake you up. Your brain activity was off the charts, though. Was it something from the ship?" Nico asked.


    "Yes and no. Not from the ship in a direct sense, but the ship triggered a shback memory to my past life. Better sit down, this is going to take a minute to exin."

 Chapter 1156 1156 In We Go

    <h4>Chapter 1156 1156 In We Go</h4>


    Nico waited for Max to get his thoughts in order and exin. She had looked over everything, but she didn''t recognize that ship from anywhere in any memory. Nico was familiar with a number of World Ships with simr designs, but Creeping Night wasn''t a name that she knew.


    She listened carefully as Max exined everything that happened in the shback, and how the ship in front of them rted to that situation, as it had been destroyed days before thest stand, when space around the was still contested between the two forces, before the barrier had been ced over the surface, keeping both sides out and preventing further imbnce in favour of the Energy Beings.


    "So, somehow it ended up here? You know, if the star system that it was in was among the ones that were here during the final battles, when they were smashed into nebe, then it might have been thrown who knows how far before it hit somethingrge enough to kill its momentum. It''s had long enough to have crossed half the universe even at less than light speed, if the estimate of when thes here were destroyed is correct." Nico suggested.


    That made more sense than Max would like to admit. If it had run into something solid at this location, it could have been virtually stopped, while the other object would have been thrown away. It would match with the current situation, as well as the dpidated state of the world ship.


    "So, what do we do now? Do you know how it works? Unless it''s a coincidence, a long-lost Alliance ship with the same name, then you should have some knowledge about its drive systems, right?" Nico asked.


    Max nodded. "Yeah, I know a thing or two about that series of World Ships. I spent a lot of time touring the Empire inside one of them after the battles ended."


    Nico smirked. "You have no idea how happy you just made the staff. They''re going to be overjoyed once we get inside and get to work inspecting this relic. The only real concern is that it might be a floating tomb. If it''s full of bodies preserved through the years, there will be a lot of discussion about what to do, and we don''t know what species they''re going to be from.


    Introducing new extinct species to the Alliance is going to lead to plenty of questions that we don''t have answers to. In fact, the simrities between this relic and the design of their vessels will cause issues no matter what. Pulling massive vessels made by unknown species out of nowhere isn''t going to be as easy now that we''ve got a working rtionship with them."


    While they were talking, some of the crew hade in, wanting to talk to Nico, and had overheard at least thest part of the conversation.


    "I have an idea. Everyone knows that Terminus Trading Company can make Colony Ships in a matter of days, since you did it while making the android armies. So, if we patch this thing up and bring it home with us, we can just tell everyone that we made it. They won''t know any better, and they can''t prove otherwise.


    I mean, that will work if we can figure out how this thing operates well enough to get the power back on. I don''t know if the Cutter can even make what it needs, but there has to be a chance, right?


    Or we could retrofit it. It''s not like we''re getting anywhere in a hurry." She suggested.


    "Unless it''s full of thousands of bodies from thest upants. It was destroyed in battle and not mothballed and forgotten." Max reminded her.


    "That is a good point. We could hold a proper Reaver funeral for them all, but that would take forever, even with the Androids helping."


    Max and Nico shared an amused look while Nico calcted how long that would actually take. Given the sixty kilometre spherical diameter of the ship and the distance to move the bodies, with the force that they had, not more than two months. Less if the ship had been sparsely popted.


    "Yes, that might be impractical." Max eventually agreed.


    "So, are we going to go inside and take a look?" The team member asked with a pleading look that she had obviously been practising for just this sort of situation.


    "Yes, we are going in. There is an open cargo bay door that leads to an intact bay. We will enter there and secure it with the Cutter''s shields so that we can work and start trying to connect to the World Ship''s power systems and bring at least some corridor lights online so we can see what we''re doing." Max informed her.


    "Perfect, I will go tell the others to start getting ready. Good thing we have a load of small drones, they can spread out and map the interior of the ship for us while we are getting everything working. Once we have a map of the hallways and open areas, we will have a much better idea of what we''re facing during this salvage operation."


    They definitely hadn''t given up on getting the ship working well enough to bring it home with them. They would be legends among their peers if they managed to salvage and refurbish a World Ship.


    Most of the Tech Nomads renovated derelict pleasure yachts as their home, but a World Ship was on an unheard of level of Tech Nomad Salvage. The humans in the team were all Reavers, and salvaging an abandoned ship was how almost all new Reaver Companies began, and how many of the smaller ones expanded.


    They wouldn''t give up on this prize easily either, as the Commander and team that salvaged a ship had first dibs on it by Reaverw, and they all knew that Max and Nico didn''t need the ship, so there was a greater than zero chance that they might get to make up part of the Command team for the Creeping Night.

 Chapter 1157 1157 Familiar Surroundings

    Chapter 1157 1157 Familiar Surroundings


    Nico led the ship into the intact cargo bay, then closed the bay doors behind them and sealed the room with the shields of the Cutter. Now, nothing would being in or out, and they wouldn''t identally contaminate the rest of the ship with their presence.


    They might havee from space, but the Cutter was just on the surface of a, and having any sort of spores, dirt or other biomatter in the samples would give thempletely useless research data as they searched through the World Ship Creeping Night.


    "Alright, first things first. We need to get a cleansing station set up so that we can start sending drones through the hallways without contamination. Then we can start on the power link to see how much damage has been done to the vessel''s power grid.


    I''m sure that Nico and the Innu will love that part of the job, so the rest of you will be with me on the mapping project.


    We will be making a full hallway grid of the immediate area before we attempt to enter any rooms. Even if the doors are open, keep the drones in the hallway and passively record the interior of the spaces.


    Once we have a basicyout of the area, then we can send a second wave to explore in more depth.


    With a little luck, the interior will be navigable and mostly intact, without piles of bodies everywhere to hinder our cleanup and renovation efforts. Just stick to the n and everything will bepleted eventually." Max instructed.


    The teamughed at the "eventually". The renovation of a world ship was a lifelong endeavour. By the time that you finished, it was usually time to start again on the most outdated sections, and you just kept working.


    That didn''t make them hesitate, they started on the cleansing station right away, preparing the bay to send out the smaller crab drones for the exploration phase.


    If the hallways weren''t locked down, then they should be able to explore fairly rapidly with so many drones at their disposal, even with the size of the ship.


    The best that they could hope for was that the ship had managed to seal some areas, and that they had held all this time, so they could get a sample of the atmosphere that the species who created it had preferred. But that was a dangerous dream, as the retained atmosphere would inevitably mean retained moisture, corrosion, oxidation, and massive damage to the interior of the ship until a breach had urred, and the atmosphere was vented into space.


    It was possible that the ship was impervious to corrosion, but that was extremely unlikely, and would put it on the level of the monomolecr armour that they had recently developed. If there was an alien species with that sort of technology in the past, they would rather not find out what sort of enemy could have brought their entire civilization to ruin.


    Max already knew the answer to that, but he wasn''t going to tell the others until it was actually necessary. They would be happier not knowing.


    "Commander, the cleansing station is ready. Should we start to deploy the drones now?"


    Max double-checked the barrier they had set up and gave the team a thumbs up to begin the work, releasing a steady stream of crab drones out of the Cutter and into the airless cargo bay to begin their exploration.


    The first few made their way through the open door to the main hallway, illuminating their way with theirser emitters turned all the way down to wide pattern floodlights for better visible spectrum footage. The first hallway was immacte, preserved as an airless void, and just as spotless as the day that it left service.


    The t blue floors and walls, which Max recalled as being the local equivalent to Kepler military''s drab green building interiors, werepletely undamaged. Even the paint wasn''t peeling, though there were some spots of frost on it, where the lingering moisture had frozen before the atmosphere hadpletely evacuated.


    Then Max saw the location markers. The first drone had just turned down the hallways for the 1337 Mechanized Infantry Barracks, very close to where Max had been assigned when he was on this vessel before the battle of Canton.


    That meant that this whole area should have been clear, assuming that this was the same ship, from the same timeline, and that it ended as his memories said that it did. With all that he knew about the Eternal War, his memories might have been from before the time reset, in which case, everything about this ship could be entirely different.


    It was a strange sense of disassociation, the familiarity mixed with the uncertainty that everything was as he remembered.


    The drones spread in a grid pattern around the cargo bay, inspecting the other bays, many of which were open, and travelling down the halls in apletely predictable pattern.


    "You know, whoever designed this ce would get along well with the Giants. The perfect grid pattern, thepletely logical numbering systems, the rigid structure, it fits them to a tee." One of the human team membersughed.


    But she had a point. The doorways were all well over human standard size, and Max was certain that there were no Mecha allowed in this area of the ship. If they had been, the floor wouldn''t have been painted. Mecha feet ruined paint in seconds, even with rubber guards on them.


    But then, Max was fairly sure that he wasn''t human as he knew them during his past life either, so maybe he could learn something that would fill in the missing pieces while he was here. That would be wonderful. It was one of thest missing details in his mind, like Nico''s sense of self.


    He had started with nothing but his morality andnguage skills, where she had started with everything but her morality and personal memories. But now he had most of his memory back, and Nico had filled in most of the nks, other than exactly who and what she was.


    Once she recalled that, things might change, but hopefully, she had been her new self long enough that thest personal memories wouldn''t change much.

 Chapter 1158 1158 There It Is

    Chapter 1158 1158 There It Is


    Max watched the drones progress down the halls for the next few hours, revealing that this wing of the ship appeared to bepletely undamaged. That was the best news that they could have hoped for, and Nico thought that they would be ready to attempt a wireless power transfer within the next few minutes.


    There was a power transfer capacitor in this cargo bay, where a piece of machinery used to be. Marks on the floor suggested that it was removed from the bay after the ship had been disabled, either by looters or a partial salvage operation to recover valuables from within the ship.


    The hallways didn''t show any signs of looting, everything that should be there was still in ce, but the cargo bay had obviously been cleaned out, and then the door was shut behind them. Perhaps it was an emergency loading effort by the crew as they evacuated. That would exin the unrepaired damage and crude removal, as well as theck of looting.


    Max had been in dire circumstances on the surface when the ship was destroyed in his past life, so he had no idea what all had happened up there, only that the ship was reported lost inbat.


    "Commander, we have done a circuit test, and it appears that we should be able to charge just this sector around the cargo bay. The breakers are tripped, or the power is manually disconnected only a few hundred metres away, in an orderly grid pattern that suggests the sectors were intended to be isted when damaged to prevent a cascade failure of the power systems." The crew informed Max.


    "Got it. See what you can get online, and then we can work from there once the investigations are finished." He agreed.


    The team sent drones out with a power ry that they plugged into the connectors of the capacitor, and then wirelessly connected to the Cutter so that there was no risk of feedback or power surge should there be stored energy in the system.


    From their research, the capacitor should charge to a specified voltage, and when it started passing power through the system, they could regte their input to provide a constant supply for the portion of the World ship closest to them.


    Everyone was on edge as the power supply worked to find the set voltage of the capacitor, then settled in and began to charge the system. They hoped that the capacitor would back feed into the rest of the ship, but they wouldn''t know for sure if there was a protective measure against it in ce.


    Human ships allowed it, so that vessels or Mecha in the bay could power a damaged mothership, but there was nothing to suggest that this vessel would be the same way. There weren''t anybels or warnings in ce, or rather there were, but someone had painted over them thest time the bay was refreshed.


    They might clean them offter to see if they were legible, but that could wait.


    With the power flow stabilized, the capacitor began to quietly hum as it charged, and then after a few minutes the lights in the bay flickered on. Well, some of them flickered on. But it was enough to light up the bay.


    Once they were on, the lights outside began to slowlye online as their basts recharged. Not many of them still worked properly after all this time, but the drones didn''t need their lights to navigate most of the hallways anymore.


    "Good news, Commander. We found a working control panel. It''s not connected to anything, since the ship''s mainframe is offline, and the link is disconnected outside this zone, but we can start working to decipher the programming and find out a bit more about this World Ship."


    Max smiled at the crew member. If he were right, this would be a very familiar programmingnguage to Nico, and to most of the others, as they had learned it to work on the Dyson Sphere. That would be an immense time savings for them, and they might actually manage to get more of the ship online in the next few days.


    More of the drones were headed out into the ship to expand the exploration range as the number of hallways increased in therger diameter search area, but so far, they hadn''t reached anything that would stop them.


    Which seemed quite strange to Max. There should have been automatic bulkheads activated to seal the halls in the case of a power outage or atmospheric breach, and he could see them in the camera feeds, but none of them had activated.


    It was unnatural, but perhaps whoever had been herest had opened them up again to transport goods.


    Still, it struck Max as odd that none of the security measures seemed to have activated when the ship was destroyed inbat.


    Nothing in his memory should have caused a catastrophic failure like this. Even if the power was cut, the doors should still have sealed when the atmosphere was lost out of the massive breach on the far side of the ship.


    [Drones, check the open rooms you pass on your way to the outer perimeter. Report back any that you find with cargo or undisturbed living quarters in them.] Max ordered.


    That would slow down the deployment a little, but he wanted answers to the nagging feeling that something had gone very wrong here.


    Nico gave Max a curious look as he changed the orders, but they had all wanted to see what was in the rooms, so nobody was going to actuallyin that the next wave of drones to the front was going to be a bit slow to arrive. If they did find something good inside even one of the rooms, they would have days and days worth of data to analyze.


    Max had one particr room in mind, and he made sure to route a drone past it to see if it was open. If he remembered right, the dorm that he had been in didn''t have a door on it, it was open to themon area at all times. If the drone looked inside, it should find a few seemingly worthless items that would give valuable historical references to them here and now.

 Chapter 1159 1159 I Spy

    Chapter 1159 1159 I Spy


    Max watched carefully as the drone progressed through the ship toward the spot where he recalled his dorm having been during his past life. It was an officer''s dorm, for junior Mecha Pilots of Heavy Mecha, but that didn''t buy them an individual room in a battleground as expansive and deadly as that one had been.


    Even the World Ships were considered moderately expendable, and hundreds of them were thrown at the Great Enemy every year, just to keep things stable.


    In a way, it was very simr to the state of the Kepler Empire during the early years of Max''s current life, but not in a good way.


    The drone found the location without issues, and it was just as Max had remembered it. Arge open door faced themon area, with the cafeteria to the right of the doorway to the bunks.


    So far, so good.


    Then, Max guided the drone into the bunks, where he could see that the footlockers still stood, intact and undamaged. They should contain the personal effects that the Pilots didn''t want to bring intobat with them, like formal uniforms, civilian clothing, and non-sentimental belongings.


    "Ooh, what did you find?" One of the Innu asked as she noticed what Max was doing with the drone.


    "A dorm room. From the looks of it, the upants were close to three metres tall, as the beds are a uniform 320 centimetres long. There are locked storage boxes, upright hanging lockers and bedding still intact. There has been some damage, likely due to the dpression and the vtile organicpounds in the fabrics, but other than that, it looks very well-preserved.


    Next I am going to have it search the room to see if there are any signs of photography, drawings, writing or other cultural items." Max exined.


    That brought most of the others over, while only a few stayed with Nico to oversee the main project, and watch the wayward drone on a smaller screen.


    The room looked fairly clear, but that was somewhat expected. Most soldiers didn''t leave personal effects out in the open when they were around, much less when they were deployed away from the vessel. But there should be some stuff in the lockers.


    They had storage devices, simr to the t space devices that Max was using now, but they wouldn''t fill them up with all sorts of unnecessary stuff when there might be a need for essential supplies.


    "Let''s try the first footlocker." Max announced, as he tried to recall the Pilot''s name.


    Only a vague impression of golden skin and white hair came to mind, and the gruesome death the very first day, when an enemy artillery shell had pierced their shielding and vaporized the cockpit of the Mecha. That part he remembered very well.


    The drone moved forward to inspect the lock, which had both abination and a key function to it. One for the user, one for the Commander with his master key.


    That would be the easiest way in. The numeric locks would likely be frozen and seized at this point, but the proper application of a bit of heat and a screwdriver would pop the lock open from the keyway in half a second.


    And pop open it did. The lock yielded to the drone in under a second without destroying it, and it was carefully set aside in the minimal gravity of the inactive World Ship. The drone carefully pulled open the lid of the locker, and examined the contents inside.


    There was a pile of cloth that looked like uniforms, a pair of very shiny boots that the scanner determined were a polymer that was designed to look like animal hide, and then there was a single picture inside the lid of the chest, a golden-skinned woman with white hair standing under the arm of a simr looking but muchrger male of the same species.


    Max had forgotten that the Pilot had been female. They were all Mecha Pilots, and rarely saw each other outside their units, but it did make him wonder if he had always been so oblivious to the opposite gender.


    "Jackpot. We hit the mother load. Not only do we have a uniform, we have an actual picture of the owner in that uniform to go by. All that we could ask for now was a DNA sample, and we would know all about their genome." The researchers cheered.


    Max smiled. "Don''t give up yet. There is a tradition that almost all species follow before they go into battle in suchrge numbers."


    The others looked at him in confusion, but Nico answered from the other room.


    "They cut off a bit of themselves to leave behind in case their body can''t be recovered. Hair, fingernails, a single feather. Just enough that there is something for their family to bury." She reminded the group.


    That meant that this room would most likely have a small box with something simr in it, assuming that the species followed the practice.


    The drone carefully removed the items from the chest one at a time, until all that was left in the bottom was a small wooden box, unmarked, but carefully made in an interlocking fashion that required no fasteners.


    The lid was not hinged, only pressed in ce, and with a bit of gentle persuasion, the drone had it open, revealing a coiled lock of white hair inside.


    "Scan the hair for DNA and seal the contents of the chest back up, at least until we can begin the sorting process. That should give everyone enough excitement for one day, and it will tell us who this species of golden Giants were, or at least who their closest rtives are." Max announced.


    The search of the other open rooms continued, and dozens of simr dorms had been found, all in nearly identical condition. A few still had pictured tucked into the underside of the top bunks, but there was no sign of the previous upants, or of any other attempts to damage or loot the ship.


    All that was left were kilometres of empty corridors, and a few forgotten relics of a lost civilization. One that Max recognized very well.

 Chapter 1160 1160 DNA

    Chapter 1160 1160 DNA


    All concern for fixing more systems or what the drones were finding in the other empty rooms was temporarily diverted when the drone returned the DNA sample from the preserved hair sample. The drone had been unable to properly identify it, as the sample contained markers for multiple species, and the programming that it had was not extensive enough for an analysis at that level.


    But once they got it under the medical bay''s scanners, the answer only became more confusing.


    The basic structure was much like humans and many of the alliance species, but the genome was a mess. Where 80 percent of the gic structure was normallymon among carbon-based life forms, this one appeared to have the basic structure that would identify it as human, but with the evolutionary traits and gic code for a hundred different possible variations tacked on.


    "Could this be a gically engineered super soldier?" One of the Innu asked.


    "That''s possible. It''s not unheard of for those with a System to pick up gic code from other species that the nanobots determine ispatible with and beneficial to the host. This is on a whole other level, though." Max agreed.


    He knew that Nico had been heavily gically engineered in her past life. Heavily enough that her original species had been impossible to determine when he had been hunting for her origins in hopes that she would return somewhere for sentimental reasons.


    But this was different. It didn''t look as optimized. It was more like they threw everything at the genome and then picked and chose which genes should express themselves.


    "Check the stability andpatibility. I want to know if this was an inheritedbination. It certainly looks artificial, but what if it was artificially created to be passed down through generations, with the most desirable traits being expressed when needed?" Max requested.


    The team got to work analyzing the data and running VR simtions to see if their predictions were viable, and whether the traits could be passed down, even though they were clearly artificial.


    What they found was astonishing. Not only would the added genes be passed down, but if a blood infusion was given to another species, there was a good chance that it would mutate and take on more desirable traits found in the blood.


    Thest bit they had found through pure Innu curiosity, when one of them identified a single gene for extremely hard and self regenerating fangs that could be traced to a species of ancient carnivores from the Innu home worlds.


    They decided to test if the blood could be used for wider varieties of gic alterations, and were promptly informed by theputer that there were genes included which were parasitic and mutagenic in nature, which would take over the host genome and modify it.


    "You know what this looks like?" Nico asked, as Max was watching the evolution of a species infected with this genome.


    "No, what are you thinking?" He asked, still distracted.


    "It looks like the obvious endgame of your Optimize ability. It has the ability to optimize both itself and everything around it, at least the living things, and my data here shows that altering the environment during development will cause different genes to express themselves as the subject grows.


    It''s a species of self-optimizing super soldiers, but not just soldiers, they can be nearly anything, even if that means scales and ws, or wings are needed." She exined.


    All the others turned to look at her as she finished that thought, then they all began a new round of experiments, testing her theory while Max waited and read their thoughts for confirmation.


    After a few minutes, the tests were finished, and the research team was pale faced and staring nkly in shock at what they had realized.


    Max decided to save them the trouble of trying to form words, as he had already had time to grasp the answer in its entirety.


    "That''s right. The missing link, that jump between the primitive species and the dominant species on every species that you tested, none of them were natural. They are all the result of interference by another species. For some of them, like humans, the Innu, and the Giants, they are not even from a base species.


    Only seven of the possible homes for humans even have a simr species that they could havee from, and they have all been previously eliminated from contention as the true origin thanks to gic dating.


    On an interesting note, the Valkia appear to havee from a base species that isn''t from their Gxy, so either the gic material, or the entire species were transported there." Max informed them.


    The team leader stared at Max, unblinking, as she took in the new information.


    "So, what you''re saying is that this species. It''s us?" She finally asked.


    "Yes. Humans, Innu, Giants, they''re all descended from the same species. That''s why we''re so simr when other species are so widely varied."


    Nico smiled as she found the data that Max had on the Valkia, pulled from his personal files, as the bird in question was something he knew from research on the Anomaly Region.


    "The Valkia are descended from the Steel Wing Phoenix, hybridized with the Giants. So, they''re not only not native to their home Gxy, they''re apletely artificially created species."


    The Innuughed at that revtion, then realized they had no idea what the second species was.


    Nico opened the simtion that she had run on the topic for everyone to see. "They''re a species of sentient birds with a nearly identical metallic bone structure to the Valkia. The thing is, they live in the Anomaly region, not far from the Koleska. They have no business being in the Alliance Region, much less being in the area millions of years ago.


    At that point, they might not have even been fully sentient yet, and they don''t have the technology even now to make the journey. How they ended up there should be a mystery, but we are working on the assumption that this species had their data when they passed through or settled the region and found that the was best suited for a flying species."


    After a few minutes of silence, where Max passed around coffees and shots of Reaver Rum to help settle everyone''s nerves, it was the junior member of their team that said what everyone was thinking.


    "So, the humans that Ranarth talks about, the third mortal species along with his people and the Arisen. That''s not just you, it''s us too. We''re all the descendants of the human survivors that we have been searching for, and they were nothing like what we expected the word human to mean."

 Chapter 1161 1161 Renewed Enthusiasm

    Chapter 1161 1161 Renewed Enthusiasm


    With the new knowledge that the inhabitants of this ship were the ancestors of both of their species, the team redoubled their efforts to thoroughly inspect every bit of the world ship. Even if it meant slowing their progress in mapping the vessel, learning as much as they could about the former inhabitants took priority over everything else.


    The only other project that was still getting any attention was their effort to bring more of the power system back online so that they could control the lights and doorways in more of the World Ship to expand their search.


    So far, they had lights on in the immediate area, but there was a manual disconnect somewhere that was preventing the operation of the st and airlock doors. It was a strange situation, and Nico couldn''t understand why all the doors would have been manually disconnected and forced open.


    It waspletely contrary to any sort of standard procedure for evacuation or fire safety, it didn''t even make sense from a dmissioning standpoint, as the uncontrolled evacuation of the atmosphere would cause additional damage to the ship that could have been prevented. If you wanted the ship in stasis with the expectation that you would try to get it backter, it wasn''t the right choice, but it had been done anyhow.


    "Maybe we just need to go and manually reset the doors in the main corridors?" Max suggested when they came to another dead end with their attempts to get the system back online.


    "Why would they manually lock them all open, though? If they haven''t been, it would just be a waste of time." One of the researchers pointed out.


    Max nodded. "I''ve been thinking about it, and I believe I know what they were doing. They were scuttling the ship. They knew that it was doomed, and they didn''t want the enemy to have it, so they made it as hard as possible to get it working again.


    It''s nearly impossible to get the atmospheric systems back online even if you have patched the holes in the hull unless you can properly section off the ship and pressurize it by sections.


    Without that ability to block the corridors and open all the other doors, you will end up with pressure zones all over the ship which will cause huge structural strains. So, if you expected the enemy to be able to use your equipment, and you wanted to prevent that, you would have to scuttle the ship and make it as hard as possible to repair if you couldn''tpletely destroy it.


    I think that the main power was already off, so they couldn''t detonate any remaining weapons to blow the World Ship to pieces, so they did the next best thing. They just made it as annoying as possible for the enemy to determine what they had done to sabotage the efforts to bring it back online."


    The realization that after all the millennia that had passed, they would be the ones who would have to deal with the countermeasures intended to keep the Great Enemy from using the ship against its former masters slowly sank in, and the team began to consider just how much manpower it was going to take to get everything working so they could take this ship home with them.


    Patching the hull was the least of their problems, but it was still a problem, and to aplish that, they would have to seal off a whole section of the ship which was over forty kilometres long. Even if they sent the Androids, that was going to be a nightmare if they didn''t find a way to get the doors working remotely.


    "Maybe we need to start deploying the androids? There aren''t enough of us to reset all the doors." Nico sighed.


    She had been certain that she could find a way to get them back online remotely, but it just wasn''t happening, no matter what she did. They were definitely separated by a mechanical switch.


    "Alright, we can deploy them. I will have the androids in the Corvette ss units head out to check the doors in the main hallways. They''re allrge enough for a five-metre tall Mecha. Once the main hallways are working, we can move onto the other areas.


    Only inside the Mecha for now, though. I don''t know if we''re going to have high radiation areas inside the ship, and we don''t even know where it has been, so there might be trapped neb gas in some regions still. Anything is possible for a vessel that has travelled so far unupied." Max agreed.


    The team members all cheered at the possibility that they would finally make some headway. There was some hope that once they had a whole hallway of st doors online, they would regain control of one of the suputers that operated them. They didn''t have ess to anyputer systems on the vessel so far, and especially for the Innu and Nico, that was the part they were most excited about.


    The Mecha started to move out of the cargo bay and into the airless hallways of the World ship, and within minutes the first of the doors came online.


    [Commanders. There are some issues with the activation sequence for various doors. It appears that the dmissioning was performed with arge blunt object.] One of the Mecha Squad leaders reported with typical Android bluntness.


    [What is the estimated time to repair the manual disarming switch?] Max replied.


    [Estimated time to repair is seven minutes per door after the repair process is verified.]


    [You have permission to repair the door mechanisms. Keep us updated on the progress.]


    Slowly, the other doors began toe online as the androids got the mechanisms repaired, and they could finally control at least the first few sections of the ship''s airlock system from the cargo bay, but there was still no sign of aputer system that might control them, leading Nico to specte that the ship might have been running on an AI, and didn''t have separate processors for different subsystems.


    That was going to make getting all the essential functions online a much longer process.

 Chapter 1162 1162 Relief From Stress

    Chapter 1162 1162 Relief From Stress


    Aboard the Command Ship Celia''s Love, inbat within the Anomaly Region in defence of the Koleska Empire, themunications crew were holding a silent celebration over the most recent update that they had received from the Android Fleets.


    [One way iing Communication with Terminus Trading Company Command Cutter established. Location unknown due to distance and signal interference. Drone Base W117 confirms the survival and mobility of Commanders Nico and Max.


    A suspected ancient battle site has been located at their position, details unclear. Command Cutter not expected to return to the Anomaly Region in the immediate future.]


    That small bit of news, from a Drone Mothership near the Rift, was all the news that they needed to inform the Reaver Council that the leaders of the Terminus Trading Company had not been lost inbat with the Great Enemy after the Antimatter bombing incident, where over a thousand portals had been forcibly closed before the region became too unstable for the enemy to attempt entry.


    The two of them were propaganda darlings of the Human species, and a beacon of light for the Alliance species during these dark days as the attacks by the Great Enemy had begun to hits within their territory.


    The situation there was much more dire than any of the Alliance species, other than the Innu, had predicted, and nearly a thousand star systems had been hit at once in the first wave. The branch of the fleet that had appeared to be heading for the humans was a diversion, and when they got close, they turned back toward the Alliance to attack from the nk.


    The Reavers had responded immediately, opening portals near the affected systems and dumping the Android reinforced Reaver Companies through to do battle with the Great Enemy, while the Alliance military scrambled to respond.


    The Innu had been right with them, sending all the ships that they had managed to create so far into battle against the first wave and earning themselves a heroic reputation among the Alliance species that had been hit.


    The only sad note was that the pair who everyone believed had engineered this agreement and solution in the first ce were missing. But now that they could broadcast the new messages, along with the verified timestamp, the Reavers and the Alliance could both spread the word that they had not been lost inbat, but had fought their way halfway across the universe.


    In Mary''s mind, it had never been in doubt that they would reappear. She knew in her heart that her son-inw would not allow such a fate to befall her daughter. So, now that they had returned, or something close to it, she could start spreading heroic propaganda about their battles and survival.


    Nobody expected all themunications to be made public, so even if she told the people a glorious story about how they had ended up in anotheryer and defeated a Greater Energy Being to secure the area, they would ept the propaganda with open hearts.


    Little did Mary know, that wasn''t far from the truth.


    Multiple Greater Energy Beings had been destroyed during that battle, and one had arisen as a Demigod after feasting on the energy of her fallen peers, but Max and Nico had been involved in at least one of the defeats, even if they could only be credited with the assist.


    There were already a huge variety of heroic war videos going around from the brutal first wave battles against the Great Enemy, but some with a bit more hope would be needed to keep morale up among the forces soon.


    The losses hadn''t been too heavy, thanks to the mass deployment of drones and Android Mecha, but even then, dozens of vessels had been lost on the first day, and more were recorded as lost every day.


    The Alliance military was in a far worse state, though. They had lost thousands of vessels on the first day ofbat before many of thes had actually taken the situation seriously and sent reinforcements to their neighbours. It was the sort of tragedy that would be memorialized for millennia as an Alliance holiday, assuming that there was an Alliance after the war.


    Mary was cing the final touches on a propaganda video to announce the triumphant return of her daughter when a piece of news came in from Absolution. They had been stationed at the mass production point since before the battles in the Alliance had started, so at first, Mary was going to put it off as a regr update, but something about the timing of this one seemed strange.


    The message was from her husband, and like nothing that she had ever expected to read.


    [Mary, I had the research team going through Nico''s notesst night, looking for ns rted to the next generation Mecha that she had been working on. We have found something unexpected. It appears that two new Titan ss units were made by Uncle Lu, as we were informed, but they weren''t left as delivered. We have found a whole collection of Nico''s denied weapon designs, and some of them are ''unique''. I''ve sent them to both you and Lu, as ast resort.]


    Mary opened the data file andughed in relief as she read the first weapon n''s description.


    It was designed for the Drone Deployment ss World Ships, the mightiest of vessels in the Reaver fleets, and the sheer destructive power of it was so ridiculously off the scale that only Nico would have considered actually using it.


    Externally, it was nothing more than arge Warp Torpedo, but it was designed to emit a dual pulse. First the modified Disruptor, intended to set off a nuclear chain reaction on the target, and secondly an antimatter explosion, which would be intensified by the unstable matter in the first explosion.


    The output of the weapon was enough to destroy stars in a single shot, or any known ss of vessel, as long as the shielding could be breached for the torpedo to reach the target.


    But, as a Nico designed weapon, theuncher was intended to fire five hundred of them at the same time. One World Ship with a weapon like that backing up their main weapons array could devastate any battlefield.


    Mary threw it into the VR simtor in her office, and then sighed as she saw the results. Now she understood why Max had rejected the weapon, you couldn''t actually use it because the variable frequency pulse would cause every form of matter and antimatter to react, and the resultant chain reaction would inevitably engulf the entire star system before it ran out of fuel.


    Forget killing, it was a star killing weapon, but as she closed it, she saw a small note left by her daughter.


    [Mother, check my birthday.]


    Mary flipped through the files until she found one numbered to match Nico''s birthdate, on the Kepler calendar.


    Inside was a brilliant innovation. She had created a neural capture device that wouldpletely clone not only the mind and memories of the upant, but it would even clone a sample of the nanobots, so that an entire person, right down to their system upgrades, could be activated inside theputer of a world ship or restored from a new generation replicator if they were lost in battle.


    Morally, it was questionable. Legally, it was problematic, emotionally, it was either a necromantic curse or the greatest gift that anyone could give the Reavers. A chance at immortality, revived from theirst backup point if they were killed. Sure, it wasn''t really the same person, but in a way, it was, and their experience wouldn''t be lost with their death.

 Chapter 1163 1163 Progress

    Chapter 1163 1163 Progress


    After a solid week of work on the abandoned World Ship''s power systems and intensive percussive maintenance on the manual actuation mechanisms for the st doors, the entire marked zone around their cargo bay was now operational, and Nico was ready to start trying to bring it online while the drones and androids continued to search the rooms for relics and any hint of technology left behind by the former upants of the ship.


    ording to the power route tracing that she had managed to do, as long as the whole zone was sealed off, she should be able to bring the power back online for this zone, and hopefully that would bring back some sort of functions beyond lights and doors.


    There weren''t many screens in the ship, and the chances that any of them would operate in a vacuum after being frozen for millennia were very slim. But even a single operational console would be enough to save them months in their work to bring more of the ship back online.


    "How is the final check?" Max asked while the team prepared onest round of energy drinks before the big job started.


    "Everything looks good. All we need to do is remotely activate thest three inline breakers that we had the Androids install as they were fixing the doors, and we will know if the power system in the zone is salvageable." Nico replied.


    Once the snacks and drinks were readied in their spill proof antigravity cupholders with attached bowl, an Innu invention, they all crossed their fingers for luck and ran the script to bring all the doors and lights online from their location.


    "We have action. Not quite perfect, we have a few jammed or damaged door mechanisms that won''t cycle. I will get the androids on that right away. They''re closed for now, we just need to convince the system that they are." Nico narrated.


    One after another, the doors cycled, and the lights in the hallways and rooms came online, powered by the link from the Cutter. Then a few of the secondary systems began toe online.


    The first toe up was the emergency alert system, which activated shing red lights in the corridors to inform upants of the atmospheric imbnce and emergency system.


    "Well, that''s a bit annoying. But now that it''s online, we might get ess to something, even if it is just the programming for the emergency alert system." One of the researchersughed.


    Then another system came online. The kitchen tools began to power up.


    [Alert, scheduler offline. All preset timers are suspended. Please contact maintenance.] The kitchens in the zone all announced in unison. Any sound they might have made was lost to the airless void, but the screens that were working shed the announcement, while the signal was transmitted back down the data line that the crew had tapped into.


    "You heard them, please contact maintenance. Do we have any sign of where the scheduler might be, or a connection from the kitchen hardware to somewhere without power?" Max asked.


    "I think I''ve found it. I can''t tell if it''s just offline or if it leads somewhere outside the zone, though. We will need to have the drones manually trace it." Nico confirmed.


    Over the course of the day, the androids slowly brought all the doors online, and just before dinner, the shing red lights in the hallways suddenly turned green.


    [Zone secured.] A lighted panel on the floor beneath the exit door to the cargo bay announced.


    With that announcement, the state of Nico''s investigation changed instantly. The connection from the kitchens was reestablished, and the scheduler was found, though it was still offline and couldn''t be powered through the data link.


    At the same time, the information screens all over the zone, which had looked like in portions of wall until that moment, lit up with basic information, dering in an ancientnguage that there was still no atmosphere in the sealed area, but that it was otherwise sealed.


    "That''s it,dies and Max. We have one zone sealed and functional. Now, we can start moving on to the next zone. From what my scans have shown, the World Ship is fairly conventional in construction, with an organized spherical gridyout, so the core functions should actually be at the core. If we work our way inward, we should reach the ship''s main operations areas in the most efficient manner.


    The exterior scans have revealed the location of the bridge as well, and it is only a few zones above us, which makes it worth exploring in that direction as well. The bridge might contain overrides that will allow us to bring more of the ship back online as soon as we have repaired whatever damage was done to the main power systems." Nico dered.


    The team gathered at the coffee pot to confer about their n of action, while Max sent the androids around to see if any of the machinery in the zone had spontaneously begun to operate. There was no telling if something might have continued where it left off when the ship was disabled.


    Not that there was much left. Even before the crew had been deployed, this had been a fairly spartan military vessel, and now, after the remaining upants had grabbed everything they could carry and fled, only the most solidly fixed devices remained.


    But what he did find was that now the vertical storage lockers everywhere but in the dorm areas were unlocked. All the stored exercise equipment, spare gear and uniforms were avable for inspection by the drones, giving them another influx of data about the people who used to live here.


    It was a fascinating discovery. Mostly because of the simrity to Kepler training routines. The inside of the lockers had regtion workout patterns, military physical training exercises and even hydration requirements written inside of them for the Commanders to have their troops follow. Nothing was left to chance, it was all clearly detailed inside the equipment storage lockers.


    The physical standards information alone was incredibly valuable to their study of the ancient humans. But with the included nutrition and hydration information, it gave them an almostplete view of the species'' daily requirements.

 Chapter 1164 1164 To The Bridge

    Chapter 1164 1164 To The Bridge


    Once they were sure that nothing was going to short out or blow up, Nico and the team started working on the n to clear their way to the core, while Max was assigned the task of getting androids to the bridge so that they could check the condition of the control room.


    Even if they didn''t clear the zones all the way there, the team was hoping to have someone on the bridge when they reached the core zone and started working on the power rys.


    They didn''t know what had disabled the ship to begin with, as the only visible damage had been the gouge along the outside, and that shouldn''t have been enough to cripple the vessel. So, there must have been hidden damage, and the search for it was all that they could think about.


    It was like a murder mystery novel to them, they couldn''t stand not knowing the oue, but just like the best mystery stories, which were digitally locked, they were unable to skip ahead and see the ending first.


    The door at the edge of the zone cycled smoothly as Max sent an android with a team of drones out to head straight for the bridge. If the pattern from their zone held true, the doors would be wide open, so they would only have to walk there without getting too lost.


    The others had to try to get all the doors working in the zones between them and the core, which would take days or weeks, but getting a team to the bridge should be fairly simple.


    The door sealed behind them, and the small team began to walk, following the predictive mapping model that had been generated during their exploration of the first zone around the cargo bay that they had picked.


    There were no stairwells in the ship, instead there were ramps that led between levels, allowing the smooth movement of troops and equipment of all sizes. All they had to do was get to the one closest to the bridge and then follow it up to the proper level, Max assumed.


    And for the first hour, that was correct. They wound their way upward, with the predictive mapping leading them to exactly the right spots. But when they got close to the bridge, the pattern changed, and the hallways became staggered, no longer the open passages that the rest of the ship was designed with.


    It was an obvious defensive formation, and Max smiled as he saw it.


    The walls were up now, but if he recalled correctly they would form a narrow corridor, of which the front half could be lowered to chest height so that the defenders could use it as a barricade to shoot from, while the enemy would not only have to get past them, but around the corners in the hall to reach the next corridor.


    There was no sign of battle near the bridge, and the firing lines had never been formed, so the chances were that the ship was never boarded before it was abandoned. Even if the bridge had been moved to a secondary location, the primary would still have been guarded as a diversion to keep the enemy forces at bay for as long as possible.


    That was a good sign for the chances of salvaging the vessel, but not a great sign for their chances of salvaging it without major repairs to the power systems. If the enemy didn''t need to board the ship, that meant that it had been dead in space already, and that meant apletely disabled main power system.


    Max had only been a junior pilot before that battle, and he didn''t actually remember much about how these ships operated. With a bit of luck it would be simr enough to something that they had already recovered that Nico and the team could fix it, but in the worst-case scenario, they might have to fabricate and swap in their own power source and Warp Drive to get the World Ship mobile again.


    That would be a nightmare of engineering for a vessel thisrge. Especially if they didn''t know how the original power system worked, or what all was left forputers and electronic devices.


    The android investigator wound through the hallways, following Max''s directions, until it came to a closed st door. That marked the secondary defence around the bridge, and it was the first sealed barrier that they had found so far.


    While everything else had been thrown open and jammed, this set of double airlock doors was sealed tight. Fortunately, it didn''t look like the control panel had been damaged, as the manual release was on the inside of the door. There should be a secondary manual release somewhere nearby, but Max didn''t recall where it should be, so getting the drones to power up the panel and try to open the door took precedence.


    A small flow of wireless energy transmission was all that it took to get the control panel back online, and a summary of the status inside the airlock up on the disy.


    It had been purged of atmosphere, but it had been fully sealed from both sides, ready for use.


    The only problem was, there was no power to the door, and the Android couldn''t transfer enough for it to open automatically. Instead, it used the control panel to unlock the door, and then had the drones pull it open with their mechanical ws.


    The airlock slid smoothly once thetch was disengaged, free of any sort of corrosion or obstruction. But what they found inside was the first sign that the ship had really been lost inbat and hastily evacuated. Four preserved bodiesy inside, sh frozen by the drop in pressure as the atmosphere was evacuated from the World Ship, and still in their Command Unit uniforms.


    They were simr in appearance to the pictures that the teams had found in the dorms, with golden skin and white hair, but these ones were much more slender, barely two metres tall, and with a slightly erged cranium.


    If Max had to guess, they had been optimized for intelligence and not strength and agility, as the soldiers had been. They would have the answers to that very soon. The bodies were so well-preserved that once he brought them back to the Cutter, the team and the medical androids would be able to do a full scan and analysis of them, which would answer all the lingering questions about the species.


    Carefully, the drones moved them from their resting spots in the airlock into the hallway, and then gathered inside to close the airlock door. Once it was sealed, they could open the final door to the bridge and finally see what sort of condition the Command Centre of the ship might be in.


    Hopefully, notpletely destroyed, Max prayed.


    The doors slid open with a gentle tug from the drones, and Max let out a sigh of relief. The bridge staff hadn''t damaged the bridge before they had left. Everything was precisely where it should be, intact and ready for use as soon as the power came on.


    Presuming, of course, that everything would turn back on.

 Chapter 1165 1165 POWER!

    Chapter 1165 1165 POWER!


    While most of the drone team explored the bridge, four of the smaller drones broke off to bring the frozen remains of the bridge crew back for examination and a proper burial. They might have been dead for longer than Kepler Terminus had recorded history, but Max still felt a connection to these gant soldiers, and had no intentions of letting them linger in forgotten space forever.


    The team on the bridge wasted no time patching into the power supply, feeding the ship''s known voltage and frequency to the consoles in an attempt to bring them online. With a bit of luck, there would still be the final message from the Captain saved on one of them, as was standard practice in Max''s memory.


    The Captain was, byw, thest to leave a dying ship, so they had adopted the custom of leaving themselves a gant memorial detailing theirst moments, to be reyed by whoever should find the wreckage.


    It helped determine the course of events, and could also be reyed for their families at home, showing them in the best possible light, as heroes who had done their all to protect those under their care.


    One console after another, they powered them up, slowly bringing the whole bridge online, while using the lowest setting on theirsers to heat the surfaces of the bridge enough that the thermal sensors would allow the screens to activate.


    The airless void would keep the heat in them for a while, as it could only transfer through to the rest of the ship, allowing them enough time to get the whole bridge online at once.


    What they found was more than just a message. Someone had saved the whole shutdown procedure to their desktop. Presumably it was a junior officer, unaware of the security breach that allowing whoever came after you to see how the ship had been dmissioned presented, but it was a lifesaver for Max.


    Following the process in reverse, he managed to get the emergency battery backup back online in the bridge, though it waspletely drained. Connecting it allowed power to flow through the whole bridge and downward to the other control stations in the area.


    As the drones worked to charge the emergency batteries, the Android checked through the consoles to see what else they could find. As expected, there was a message from the Captain, recorded as the ship was dying.


    [To whomever might find our wreckage among the stars. Know that I have sent this ship on a final journey to deep space, denying her to our enemies hands. We have been sabotaged, our shields deactivated from within and the atmosphere purged with the st doors jammed open.


    The rest of the crew has already evacuated to the surface, on the slim hope that they can hold until reinforcements from the fleet arrive. I will remain here with my Command Staff to ensure that the enemy does not capture us before the Fusion Core goes critical.


    May the Emperor''s Light shine down upon our souls.]


    Then a notification from the drones.


    [Emergency batteries charged to minimum operational values. Charging continues apace, requesting permission to continue with the reactivation sequence.]


    Max considered their message. There were countless airlocks to fix on the remainder of the vessel, but as long as they didn''t try to reintroduce atmosphere, the rest of the startup process should be alright.


    No, that wasn''t right. The fusion core should have gone critical, but it never did, or they would have found scattered fragments of the vessel, not a moderately damaged world ship.


    [Do not attempt to bring the main power supply back online. I will send a power pod to your location to provide the supply for the rest of the rebooting sequence.] Max decided.


    They had a full schematic of the ship now, which Max forwarded to Nico and the others, so they didn''t need to search and map the hallways anymore, only check off which airlocks were functional and which were not. That was still their priority. The more doors they got active, the better the chances that they could begin to pressurize areas of the ship and get them in working order while they repaired the rest.


    But if the main power supply was booby trapped, or frozen in thest instants of a detonation countdown, they needed to know and stabilize it as soon as possible. Until that was done, they were essentially sitting on a massive thermonuclear bomb, a miniature star in the making.


    They were likely to need a fair bit of equipment to get through whatever blockades and barriers had been ced to protect the fusion nt, so max tasked an entire wing of Corvette ss Mecha, along with a drone team of fifty smaller and onerge crab drone to the job, with instructions to find the easiest route to the power core and report back when they reached their destination.


    There had to be a reason that the ship didn''t detonate. It could be a leftover traitor, or even just one engineer that didn''t want to die in a fiery explosion or held out hope that they would be rescued by the fleet.


    If he didn''t have ess to navigation, he likely wouldn''t have realized that the ship had been sent to deep space, far away from the conflict zone, to breathe itsst. Nobody would have found it even if they had looked.


    "Did you send the Mecha out? Where are they going?" One of the team members called out from the other room, where the Cats were ying.


    "They''re headed for the power core of the ship to see what happened over there. The Captain had intended to scuttle the vessel, but it never happened. I want to make sure that it doesn''t suddenly blow up on us when we try to get the ship back online." Max replied.


    "Oh, yeah, that''s pretty important. Even with the shields up, being inside an exploding World Ship doesn''t sound fun." She agreed, then went back to ying with their furry morale improvers.

 Chapter 1166 1166 Deactivated

    Chapter 1166 1166 Deactivated


    Nico worked to reinforce the shielding on the Cutter, just in case the ship wasn''t as dead as their scanners said it was, while Max guided the team toward the core of the ship, avoiding the routes which were most likely to be blocked by defenders or saboteurs trying to keep others out of the core engineering areas.


    The blockades that they did see were entirely too predictable to have been set by actual trained professionals. Whoever had sabotaged the ship had only gone for the most obvious of blockades, and anyone who knew theyout of the vessel would have known better than to leave all the crew ess routes open.


    That suggested that whoever it was, they were either very new, or had sneaked onto the ship at some point before the battle.


    Max didn''t recall any warnings about intruders in his past life, but the more he thought about it, the more certain he became that this sort of world ship had conscripts on it to do menial tasks. They served a term of hardbour, and then they were dropped back off at their home world, or another port of their choosing.


    That must have been the source of the infiltration. They were limited in their ess, but if they were loyal to the Great Enemy, they would have waited until the most vulnerable moment, when the ship was under attack, and fought to the death to try to take out the ship.


    Once the team opened the doors to the engineering airlocks, they found the first signs of the fight for control of the ship. Dozens of bodiesy scattered around the airless room, all mangled, and strange runes and circles were drawn on every surface in blood.


    Nico looked over his shoulder at the video feed from the Mecha.


    "Wow, didn''t expect to see that here. We''ve definitely seen those before, in the tunnels where the bloody warriors were trying to summon energy beings into ouryer. If that''s what happened on this ship, no wonder things turned bad so quickly that the crew couldn''t stop them.


    Even purging the atmosphere from Engineering wouldn''t stop an incursion by Energy Beings, and there''s no telling how many of them made it on board before the ritual was stopped or ran out of sacrifices." She noted.


    "Yeah, I had thought it was some renegade conscripts, but it looks like a death cult. What a mess. I don''t want to mess it up so that we can record it for our records. If it is what it looks like, it might be the first sessful Energy Being summoning that we''ve found and managed to record." Max replied.


    "So you''re going to look for another way in?" She asked.


    Max shook his head. "I will send the small drones with gravity control ahead to look for a clear path and map the region. They can move freely without disturbing anything. If they find a way to get the Mecha in, that would be perfect, if not, they can move them through to a clear area. The Corvette ss units are decent in fractional gravity, but their fine position control uses thrusters, which could damage the evidence."


    The drones skittered forward, extending their limbs to climb up the walls and across the ceiling, giving themselves a solid perch in case there were remnants of functional gravity ting, or a gravitational anomaly caused by the power core still present here.


    The entire engineering area was covered in bloody drawings, and Max counted nearly a thousand bodies in the area, with the self drawn blood warpaint on some marking them as the attackers.


    From the pattern, it looked like most of them died in battle, but the attackers had won this fight, and thest few had sacrificed themselves at the very end, in orderly rows around the power core.


    "Do we have data on the core yet?" One of the cats asked nervously.


    They didn''t quite understand what a fusion core was, but it sounded dangerous, and after their experience at home, they weren''t big fans of dangerous things.


    "I''m examining it now. There is no external damage to the core that I can see. Just a lot of blood on the outside, but that''s not a real problem, and wouldn''t affect the function.


    Oh, there we are, the main control screen is intact." Max narrated.


    He led the drone over, and trickled power into the control panel.


    The readings came up, and Max narrated them to the crew.


    "We have an intact containment structure, with a Dyson Sphere type sustained fusion reactor in ce. The total contents of the reactor are... zero.


    The Fusion core was purged before the self-destruct sequence was set.


    It looks like they used the power from the reactor to do their summoning and open the portal, then they purged it into space. There is no lingering danger from this reactor core, so I will send the drone over to the Warp Core."


    The drone floated through the room, up to the Warp Core, which was still encased in a faintly glowing energy barrier.


    "We have power. The Warp Core is still functional, but offline. Let''s see what we have here. A matter antimatter reactor, simr to our own crystalline structure antimatter Warp Drives in construction. It has been taken offline, and is at minimum containment, waiting for the explosion of the Fusion Core to breach its barriers and set off a chain reaction.


    The programmingnguage is the same as for the Dyson Sphere, so I will start working to bring it back online and route power through it to the explored regions, but around the Fusion Core and the rest of the engineering district.


    We don''t need any incidents with those runes summoning an energy being to us, or giving away our position." He informed them.


    The Warp Core glowed more brightly for a second and then returned to its dim stasis state.


    "Correction, I will not bring it online because it has been depleted to power saving mode, and no longer has the antimatter avable to bring itself back online. But we can route power from the power pack that I sent to the bridge through these rys, and that will let us bring the basic functions of the ship online.


    The power pack won''t run much, but we should be able to get lights in the regions where we''re working, and test all the doors in sections.


    The drones that are on the bridge will start on that as soon as the ry is verified.


    Congrattions, the ship is now under our control, such as it is."


    For both Reavers and Innu salvagers, the standard was the same. If you held the bridge and engineering uncontested, then you had control of the ship. Even if it wasn''t going anywhere under its own power in the near future.


    Nico joined in the round of joyful hugs that passed through the team, and then brought up the full diagram of the ship, as determined by the map and the few functional sensors that the power pack had brought online.


    "Alright. Now it''s time to get down to business. Let''s see about closing off that breach in the outer hull and expanding the search zone."

 Chapter 1167 1167 Let There Be Light

    Chapter 1167 1167 Let There Be Light


    With the power pack in ce, as well as the link from the Cutter now that the bridge had connected their cargo bay back to the main power grid, the lights in the hallways of Creeping Darkness began to take on their first hints of life in millennia.


    That was enough of a positive sign that Nico and the team started to send the Corvette ss units out into the world ship to increase the number of hands and tentacles they had working on repairing the doors.


    Once they had lights and doors working, they could start on repairs to theputer systems and see if they could get any of the secondary systems online. The kitchens hade partially online in the first zone that they had explored, so there was hope that more of them would alsoe online in other parts of the ship.


    The whole thing would need an overhaul before anyone actually lived in it, but the more of the ship that they got online, the better the chances that it would be stable and warp capable once they got primary power back online.


    Nico had already sent a team to document and destroy the summoning ritual in the main engineering bays, with the intention to study the resultster. Her theory was that they served like the power conduits in the rys of a Portal device, and if they recreated it without all the blood, they could likely make it work again.


    But not in the middle of a world ship, on a nice exposed tform where they could instantly annihte anything that came through that portal.


    Though, if they ran into a friendly Energy Being like the one that was guarding the Golden Legion, they might be making a mistake with a shoot first and then shoot again strategy. But the odds of that seemed to be pretty low if they took even a few seconds to examine what came through first.


    However, that was a much lower priority than getting the World Ship working and getting back to inhabited space.


    They hadn''t gotten confirmation yet, but the attacks in the Alliance should have already started, and that meant that the attacks on their home Gxy should have started as well. Denying their people even a bit of help was a waste, and Max knew that even two specialized Titan ss Mecha could change the fate of a.


    It was what they had done at theirst stop by helping the Golden Legion''s protector. As soon as they destroyed the one attacking her, it brought her power level up high enough that she could evict all the other attackers from the surface.


    A surprising number of lights were still functional once they got inward of the first zone of the World Ship, giving the team a much higher quality view of the progress than they had expected, and with the extra practice, the Androids were making short work of the repairs to the doors.


    Once they had encountered an issue once, they wouldn''t forget, and after abined hundred doors, they had most of the critical failures memorized, so they could fix them in a matter of seconds with a Tech Adept Harness, or the tools on a drone.


    The team was sending out more harnesses, sized to fit the Corvette ss units so that they could do the more intricate repairs on their own, instead of waiting for a drone, and with every passageway cleared, their productivity was increasing.


    "Should we make more Androids or drones?" One of the team members asked Nico.


    "Probably more drones. They are material efficient, and we need as many new bodies as possible as the grid expands." Nico agreed.


    The Cutter was almost empty now, with only the Super Heavy Mecha left on board, which left them plenty of room to create more drones, fifty at a time and sent to spread out through the ship and explore more distant zones.


    They wouldn''t be able to get them online as efficiently, but being able to see the whole ship with their own sensors would give them a much better idea of what they were working with, as well as revealing any other possible sites where the Great Enemy had sabotaged the ship or tried additional rituals.


    This part of the ship didn''t have anyrge cargo holds, as they would have expected, only a few dozenunch bays, like the one that they were in. Those would be the priority targets for surviving gear to study, as well as likely locations for further battles to secure the ship.


    It must have been mostly empty at the time of the attack, as there wasn''t enough interior damage for there to have been a ship wide battle, but there had to have been more to it than just the attack on engineering.


    "I''ve got a great idea. Since we''re short on drones, and we still haven''t gotten any internal sensors online, how about we have them make mobile scout cameras to stick in the hallways? We can make a security out of that, and while there isn''t much to see, it will tell us right away if the reports of malfunctioning doors are correct.


    I''ve found a few that were working properly, but the position sensor wasn''t working, so it always read as either open or closed." One of the human team members suggested.


    "That''s not a bad idea. The more we know about the ship, the better. Even if it is just whether the lights flicker when we try to fix the doors." Nico joked.


    They did.


    The power that they could send through the limited rys they were using was already reaching its limit, and they were going to have to get more power points built, or get the main ship''s power back online soon if they were going to continue expanding their system tests at the rate they were going.


    "We''ve got the engineering bay cleaned out now. I''ve got a full report on the fusion core as well. It really ispletely purged. They must have dumped the contents of the reactor with the emergency override designed to prevent it from going supercritical with breached containment. The reactor itself appears undamaged, but we don''t have enough of theputer systems online to make it work.


    On the other hand, I think that I can get enough antimatter into the Warp Core for it toe back online and get primary power systems working." Nico informed the crew.


    "Good work Lead Researcher! When do we start?"

 Chapter 1168 1168 And There Was

    Chapter 1168 1168 And There Was


    Nico began to create the antimatter in what she hoped was apatible transfer vessel as soon as she made the announcement. It wouldn''t take much to get the Warp Core back online, only a few hundred grams. That was less than what they put into theirrgest Antimatter Torpedoes, but it would sustain the reaction inside the World Ship, and start bringing them closer to mobility.


    She had carefully analyzed the setup for the Warp Drive to add more antimatter, and with the system still operational in power saving mode, it was safe to recharge the storage.


    Just the thought was enough to get the crew excited, and they were practically bouncing around the control room as they prepared for the transfer.


    Their energy was getting the cats all worked up, and Maxughed as the felines began bouncing off the walls, climbing theting that had been put up all over the workstation for them to y on, and generally making a nuisance of themselves as they joined in on the excitement without knowing what it was about.


    Finally, one of them asked Max what had everyone so hyper.


    [Is there a reason for this, or are they just burning off excess energy?] An older feline typed.


    "They think that they''ve found a way to get the main power back online. That will bring power to the whole World Ship, and bring us one step closer to being able to make it habitable again."


    The cat considered that for a few minutes. It looked like he had fallen asleep on the back of Max''s chair, but Max could hear his mind working as hey there.


    [So, once they finish, we will have a whole world to explore?] He finally asked, hoping that he understood the situation.


    The Cutter was huge, but not as huge as a city. Exploring it was almost finished, but they would likely live long enough to y with everything that was entertaining at least once. You couldn''t do that in a city, and that made cities great.


    "Not quite a whole. It''s called a World ship, but it''s only about ten times the size of the city you came from, and intended to hold about a hundred million people." Max exined.


    [Ten cities? That''s pretty good. No cat could know all of that in a lifetime.] The old feline decided.


    "I''m d you approve of the choice. It''s going to take a while before we get it working properly so that you can go out and explore, though."


    The cat gave a mental shrug.


    [That''s fine. I''ve got grand kittens on board, they can do the exploration while Iy here by the warmth of the monitor.]


    They both settled into their chosen spots to watch the video feed as a Corvette ss Mecha carried the vtile antimatter down to the engineering bay, passing through pale blue hallways that looked identical to one another, row upon row.


    [You know, whoever designed thiscked any appreciation for space and nature.] The old catined.


    "That they did. It''s designed to keep the upants in a desired mental state, ready forbat. It wasn''t designed to be pleasing to look at, unfortunately. But once we fix it, we can make it look better." Max agreed.


    That was enough to satisfy the old cat that the hallways weren''t going to be boring forever. Ten cities worth of boring identical hallways sounded like a sadistic torture method to him.


    The Mecha with the Antimatter containment vessel had reached the Warp Drive chamber, and the whole team was frantically tapping away at their keyboards, preparing the Warp Drive to receive a recharge.


    There were multipleyers of security over any such procedure, which was why the saboteurs hadn''t managed to actually destroy the drive, but with Nico and the Innu on hacking duty, they had easily cleared all the password, two-factor authentication, and simultaneous activation hurdles that had been ced in their way, and they were down to thest stage.


    All that they had to do was match the maic field on the containment vessel to the receiving cor on the Warp Drive, which rotated with every use for security purposes, and they would be able toplete the charging.


    The couplingtched, and the maic fields merged seamlessly, allowing the antimatter to be manipted into the main Warp Drive storage container.


    Then the automated diagnosis began, analyzing it for any defects, impurities or instability before it was processed for use, and the Warp Drive began to slowlye out of Low-Power Stasis and into inactive standby mode.


    That was Nico''s signal to get to work switching over the power rys from the defunct Fusion Core to the Warp Drive, a standard procedure in case of damage to the Fusion Core.


    The ship seemed toe alive, humming with energy as the Warp Drive took over the power needs of the World Ship and finally, after all their efforts, the mainputer came back online.


    [Multiple damaged areas detected. Multiple security door breaches detected. Crew upancy below minimum threshold. Determining Chain of Command.]


    Max looked back at Nico and the others with a concerned look. None of them were the same species as the ones who lived here. Well, perhaps they were, but separated by millions of years of evolution and gic maniption.


    [Analysisplete. Beginning assignment process of Senior Officer.] The ship announced.


    "Well, at least it found someone that it likes." Nico suggested, hopefully.


    Maxughed as he noticed all the others were crossing their fingers and hoping to be chosen, so they could brag that they were the Commander of a World Ship.


    [Mental Indoctrination tags verified. Gic sequence tags verified. Wee Home, Pilot Maximilian Keres. Assignment of a Field Commission to Admiral and Command codes to Creeping Darkness will begin in one standard minute. Please remain stationary.]


    "Boo! Totally Rigged! Why do you always get to be Commander?" The team mockinglyined.


    "Because I AM the Commander. Perhaps I was just so cool in my past life that it''s unavoidable for me to be the boss in this life." Max joked

 Chapter 1169 1169 Welcome Home?

    <h4>Chapter 1169 1169 Wee Home?</h4>


    [Admiral Maximilian Keres has assumed control of the gship Creeping Darkness.] The ship''s disys shed in every corridor and hangar.


    It didn''t change much for Max, it was just an assignment of powers, but now when he issued an order through the link that Nico had established to the ship, it actually followed his directions. That was a pleasant change.


    While most of the ship was still broken or malfunctioning, he did have some sensors back online now that the ship''sputer was operational, and there was a chance that they could get even more of them working in the near future.


    One interesting thing that the sensors recorded was thest known position of the crew members. With the ship having been offline for so long, most of the data was corrupted or lost, but there was still a fair bit of it left for them to find.


    As expected, a significant number of the crew signatures werest in the engineering sector, and the four they had found in the bridge were clearly marked, but there were still quite a few that were marked asst in the bays near where they were parked.


    Those sectors had been fully searched now, and there was no sign of casualties, so this must have been the lifeboat parking, of whatever sort they had on this vessel. If everyone wasst seen here, and now the bays were empty, this must have been shuttle ornder parking and not the mechanical bays as Max had thought when he saw the marks of hastily removed heavy equipment.


    There was only one more concerning area, a spot in the interior that like the engineering sector had arge number of staff marked as present there at thest recorded point.


    The time system didn''t mean anything to Max, he had no reference as to what it should be now, as the clock had long since stopped counting the passing of time, but thest known life signs were close enough to at least give them an idea of where to look for more problems.


    So, he tasked a Mecha squad with some extra drones to head to that location in advance and make sure that it wasn''t another summoning ritual in the making. There was no telling how long an Energy Being could have lingered around here, and if one of them was loose on the ship, it would never be safe for civilians.


    The sensors of the Cutter should have detected them if there was one, but the pure mass of a World Ship made it nearly impossible to scan the entire vessel''s interior from outside.


    The sensors in that area weren''t operational, but the closest areas to it that the ship''s sensors had a clear image of were undamaged, which was a good sign that whatever had happened, it hadn''t spread too far through the ship.


    With that in mind, Max guided the team there, while he also searched the ship''s map to see what sort of environment they were headed into. The team didn''t have any Line Mecha, and there was no guarantee that the Corvette ss would fit everywhere, so it was best to make mental preparations to only have the drones avable to deal with a situation.


    "Commander, we have the location on the map. It took some time to recover the corrupted data, but it looks like the location you''re headed to is the ship''s chapel. Something about a cleansing room of Emperor''s Guidance." A team member called out to him.


    That didn''t necessarily mean that it was a chapel. Max didn''t recall there being much religion in his past life. They didn''t even believe the Gods when they were informed that they were Gods.


    After a few minutes, the team had reached their destination, and Max realized what it was. It was not a chapel, as the team had thought the name implied. It was a steam sauna.


    Max had a very good idea what he was going to find inside if the ship hadst recorded numerous people here, and there was no sign of a summoning ritual, but what he hadn''t been prepared for was just how organized it was.


    There was even a note posted to the front door for the one who found their bodies.


    [To the rescue team from Fleet Control. The ship''s main power is offline, the airlock doors have been sabotaged, and pressure is dropping fast. The Admiral has started the self-destruct countdown to scuttle the ship to prevent it from being taken inbat, and all the lifeboats are gone.


    So, here we shall remain, entombed among the stars with our battle brothers. If you should find us in salvageable condition, we would request the traditional cremation ceremony. If not, then sending our bones into the void will suffice.


    An open mind seeks out its own ruin.


    Repair Master Navarro]


    Max had the drones preserve the note in their storagepartment forter analysis, and then opened the door to the sauna. At first, nothing seemed to be out of order, and there were no signs of upancy, but once the drones moved to the actual sauna rooms, orderly ranks of golden skinned crew members, wearing nothing but the traditional towels for a sauna visit, filled the benches.


    They hadn''t died of rapid dpression, that was a much more gruesome death, and they didn''t show signs of slow suffocation either. What might have killed them was a mystery for the moment, with poisonous gas in the sauna''s steamer being the most likely culprit.


    That would exin why they had gathered here in particr. It was one of the few ces where they could get the job done reliably and not have to find out what the self-destruct function felt like.


    "Well, that''s one more mystery solved. The rest of the crew did evacuate, that''s why there are so few here to find. For now, we will leave these ones in ce, but when it''s time to start bringing the ship online, we will give them a proper funeral." Max informed the others.


    The Innu nodded in understanding, while Nico handed Max a note full of hand scribbled numbers.


    298 casualties found so far, out of an estimated total crew of 100 million.


    That was impressive.

 Chapter 1170 1170 Patches

    <h4>Chapter 1170 1170 Patches</h4>


    Now that they had the power back online, at least to some degree, it was time to start patching the holes in the ship.


    The drones were tasked with getting all the doors working, and that included the airlock doors as well, though the ones that were closed and sealed weren''t considered a priority.


    But there was still a massive chunk cut out of the ship, over a kilometre long, and if the ship had a self repair function, it was not yet online. But then, if it had that powerful of a self repair function, it likely wouldn''t have ended up in this situation to begin with. They could have taken care of the damage that the traitors had done and worked to get the ship operational again.


    The easiest solution to that was to send out the shuttles that they had managed to cram into the cargo bays. They had been packed full of drones for transport, but they were empty now, and they could be equipped with a Terraforming Array capable of rebuilding the damage to the hull of the World Ship.


    They could deal with the interiorter, unless it was obvious what structure should be there, but the priority was to make the vessel airtight again.


    Max examined the hull itself, which was made of a rather simple alloy, strong, malleable at most temperatures instead of getting brittle, as well as durable, but why such a crude alloy had been used was a mystery.


    So, he asked theputer, using his new ess credentials.


    [Records indicate that the primary driving factor for this choice was the minimal energy input required to convert the alloy from raw metallic asteroid materials. Minimized conversion energy requirements allowed for maximum offensive firepower while the vessel was being repaired.] Theputer responded as text on his connected data tablet.


    [What are the current repair capabilities of this vessel?] Max asked, wondering if they were still offline but functional.


    [Analyzing. 30 seconds remaining.]


    [Conclusion: All hard mounted repair devices have been destroyed or removed from the vessel. Scanning for handheld devices. Three handheld devices detected, currently discharged, operational status unknown.]


    It brought up a location for the three devices, which were in a storage cab on the bridge, and Max immediately tasked a drone to get them charged. If they had more repair data, or technology blueprints, they could be invaluable to the Reaver forces, and to Nico''s mental health.


    She was always in a good mood with new technology to study.


    On the practical side, the lowered energy requirements from raw ore meant that they could rebuild the hull of the ship faster with the same number of Terraforming Arrays, which was always an advantage. They just needed to link the hull design to the shuttles so that they knew what the structure of the ship was supposed to be and didn''t just put a nice smooth patch over the jagged hole.


    They would do it too. Without any additional instructions, they would create the most efficient matching surface and then leave it for whoever came after to add the details. The devices were intended to terraforms after all, and the finer details didn''t really matter there, unless they were programmed in.


    Theputer had the schematics, and theyout was deliberately simple, made so that soldiers didn''t get lost wandering the corridors or dyed in getting to meetings by illogical corridor designs.


    "They''re certainly making this easy for us, aren''t they?" Nico asked as she saw the recementyout and materials for the area needing to be patched.


    "Yeah, it looks like the whole ship was designed for maximum production efficiency. They really did intend for these things to be semi disposable, without a kilowatt of energy wasted." Max agreed.


    With the fusion core, there should have been plenty of energy avable for their daily use, and Max knew that there were much more advanced technologies avable at the time, as even the derelict freighter he had repaired as a kid was more advanced than this.


    It was a sobering thought. The ship, and the hundred million soldiers on it, weren''t worth a single bit of added luxury or energy expenditure to the war machine. He hadn''t realized it at the time, but human lives really didn''t mean anything to those in charge of the war effort.


    They were just numbers and statistics to the leadership, just like he had be a generic hero, there to fill in the motivational needs of the poption in hister years.


    Fortunately, the current batch of human leadership valued their troops a bit more than this. As they could see on this ship, ack of care and attention was a breeding ground for rebellion, and sweet lies were incredibly subversive to the human psyche.


    Even if they knew that they were being lied to, many would choose to believe that it would end differently this time, that the lies would all work out for the best, and that they weren''t making a mistake.


    Four of the shuttles were tasked with going around the exterior of the vessel and patching the smaller damaged areas, while the rest of them worked to repair thergest. Once the small patches were done, the rest of the shuttles would work their way toward the main team from the far side, then return here to their cargo bay to await more instructions.


    Max was certain that there was something that he was missing, something that he should be doing more urgently than repairing the world ship, but he just couldn''t seem to put his finger on it. It was important, but not threatening, just something that he had missed, and hisbat senses were keeping him aware of it at all times, even though he didn''t know what it was.


    Then it hit him. They had done a thorough search of the region hidden by the optical array, but they hadn''t once searched the area for more anomalies that might be other hidden ships or debris. With the shields down, anything that hit them could cause significant damage, and it didn''t take much of an impact to influence the bnce of objects in space.


    Even the distortion of their Warp Drive or the Portal as they had arrived might have thrown them out of equilibrium, and something valuable might be lost forever if they didn''t find it before it was out of range.

 Chapter 1171 1171 Hidden

    <h4>Chapter 1171 1171 Hidden</h4>


    With the fear of losing contact with more possible discoveries fresh in his mind, Max worked to integrate the sensors of the Cutter and the Shuttles with the newly awakened sensors of the World ship to search for any signs of additional hidden vessels or debris.


    The World Ship didn''t have much online of its own yet, but with the Cutter in the bay linked to all the shuttles which were encircling therger vessel to make repairs, they had a fairlyprehensive suite to work with.


    They could detect the distortion of the Optical Arrays, Max was fairly certain, but he was still holding hope that the World Ship might be able to do better than that and actually locate anything that might still be nearby.


    With the sensors tuned to their maximum, the disy was picking up everything from space dust to bits of floating debris from the World Ship. Then, it picked up a distortion, and the World Ship''sputer cheerfully announced that it had contact with another of its fleet''s vessels.


    It was powered down andcking any ability to respond, but the optical array was still operational, and linked to the unknown vessel''sputer. That was enough that the World Ship managed to patch a link through to itsmunications sensors and send enough power to get an interior camera online.


    What he found was carnage. The vessel was a Lander, simr to the ones that Kepler used to drop Mecha intobat, but arge explosion had gone off in the middle of the space, causing a minor hull breach and sting the upants against the walls in various states of disassembly.


    The most likely scenario was that one of the infiltrators had managed to make it on board with a suicide vest, ending the vessel''s journey before it had even begun.


    But, Max tasked a shuttle to bring it to an airlock anyhow, and then put a single tack weld on to hold it in ce so that it didn''t float away before they could inspect it.


    With one vessel found so easily, Max had hope that there would be more for him to find in the vicinity, vessels that either hadn''t made it away from the World Ship before it went to warp, or ones that had been jettisoned by traitors after it was disabled. Without an external source of propulsion, such objects would naturally be drawn back by the miniscule gravitational pull of therger vessel, and might still be somewhere nearby.


    So, the scans continued, and as expected, they found more and more pieces of debris as they searched further out. After a solid hour of searching, they located another Optical Array hiding something fairlyrge. It wasrger than the field around thender, so it might be an attack craft, or other interceptor ss vessel. It could be a Cutter ss ship, but that seemed unlikely, even though the field wasrge enough to hold one. Then, the scan found four more tiny fields, which couldn''t berger than an attack craft.


    All of these intact and functional emitters were going to be a treasure trove for Nico and the others, who were hoping to produce some of their own, now that they knew the devices could hide vessels from most known scanners.


    The smaller ones especially, as they could be fitted to almost any vessel that the Reavers had, making them all difficult to track, and allowing them to ambush the forces of the Great Enemy with much greater ease.


    The World Ship linked to therger field, establishingmunications, but what it found was not a ship, or anything like it. Instead, it found the wreck of a Titan ss Mecha.


    At the time, those were known as the Emperor ss, and they were the most fearedbat equipment that you were likely to see on a battlefield. The God ss Mecha were nearly a myth to themon soldier, and were a myth to many of the worlds in the known universe, who believed that their very existence was propaganda.


    But the Emperor ss Mecha were star killers, capable of efficiently wiping out all life in a sr system single-handedly if they weren''t met with equivalent force.


    Max immediately sent out one of therger drones on a recovery mission.


    "Nico, heads up, we''ve got an ancient Titan ss Mecha iing to our position. I will have it dropped in the bay until we''ve had a chance to sanitize it and make sure it isn''t carrying anything infectious or corrupted by the Energy Beings." Max informed his partner.


    "A new Mecha design, all for me?" She cheered, while the other team members booed him for giving her explicit permission to be the first to study it.


    "You allin, but she knows where I sleep." Max joked, calming the team down and allowing them to focus on their work.


    They all knew that Nico wouldn''t keep it from them forever, and they still had work to do guiding the Shuttles to their repair targets, and scanning to make sure nothing was missed.


    Even a pinhole would be a disaster when they tried to pressurize the ship, and a hidden structural w below the surface might as well be a time bomb, set to go off at random.


    Max kept searching the area as Nico performed a thorough external examination of their new toy, but there wasn''t anything more of interest to be found.


    The other fields hadn''t responded to the World Ship''s attempts to establishmunications. Either they were too damaged, or they had a safety mechanism in ce to prevent outside activation of the unit. But, the drone was sent out over and over to recover the objects, which turned out to be a wing of four attack craft, with long deceased pilots inside.


    The fifth of their wing had already been found, broken to scrap by an impact and without its optical barrier. Why they had followed along and remained so close to the World Ship was a mystery, but the four small craft were brought in next to the Titan ss Mecha, so that Nico and the others could examine them at their leisure and get more answers about the sequence of events that had led to their current situation.

 Chapter 1172 1172 All Sealed Up

    <h4>Chapter 1172 1172 All Sealed Up</h4>


    While the others split into five teams that were using drones to scan and investigate their newly arrived toys, Max took over the job of making sure that the shuttles weren''t missing anything in the hull.


    With [Optimize] and by borrowing Nico''s [Repair] Function, he was able to identify hundreds of additional locations which were either stressed from long use, damaged inbat but still functional, or simply not picked up on the scanners.


    That made for a lot more work for the shuttles patrolling the perimeter, but it gave him quite the sense of aplishment as he saw who well the ship wasing back together.


    The reconstruction of the interior wasing along better than he had expected, thanks to the foresight of the engineers who used the simplest possible materials to create the World Ship, and the avability of arge meteorite near the vessel to use as their ore supply.


    There was more inside the ship, but Max didn''t want to steal that yet. If he was lucky, they might be able to get more systems on the ship operational, and that material mighte in handyter.


    The cracked and stressed areas of the ship painted a vivid picture on the holographic images of the World Ship that Max waspiling. Each of them told the story of battle damage, a rough transition to faster than light speeds, or in a few cases, cut corners where the design simply wasn''t up to the task of sustainedbat deployment.


    But then, how many things were?


    Max made a notation every time a zone was marked clear by the shuttles, and smiled as the exterior hull began to show almostpletely green surfaces.


    The only remaining question was: What sort of condition were the hidden interior structuralponents in? The exterior had shown significant signs of battle fatigue, and that certainly hadn''t stopped when the support structure left the surface of the vessel. The problem was that the scanners on the shuttles could only see so much.


    He was going to have to send the drones to check the interior beams on their way past to make sure that the self-destruct sequence hadn''t damaged any of the major structure.


    If it had been him designing it, there would have been redundancies, so even if the Fusion Core failed to detonate, the ship would still be rendered inoperable. Surely, whoever had built this had thought of that as well, so there should be some sort of damaged or copsed structure in the ship that would cause the ship to crumble under stress.


    The ns for the destroyed region of the ship didn''t have any such failsafe or crumple zone in them, so Max assumed that it must be deeper into the ship. That was further than they had searched so far, at least in most of the zones, but he had the drones double-check the structural pirs in the zone closest to them as a precaution.


    The exterior shuttles had joined the team fixing the structural gap, and by the time Max was considering dinner, they were almost ready to announce that the ship was now airtight again. But that was when the drones brought news of the failsafe.


    There were explosive rivets in the pirs, which were intended to detonate with the failsafe, but the ones in their region hadn''t gone off.


    That left Max sitting in front of theputer terminal with a frustrated mind, searching the files for something that might tell him how many of the failsafe detonations had urred, and how many of them were still intact.


    The problem was, that data was restricted to the Admiral''s quarters on the bridge, and he was still in the shuttle. If he wanted to know if it was safe to pressurize the ship, he would have to go on a long walk first.


    That was not within standard safety protocol, even in a Mobile Suit, but there wasn''t much to fear if the ship had held together this long. Plus, he had just fixed the exterior, so that part at least wasn''t going to crumble under his feet. If he just sent a repair drone ahead of him, he could be pretty certain that the hallways to the bridge would be intact.


    The real question was how to break it to the crew that he was going on an adventure across the ship without them. They might be engrossed in their work on the recovered attack craft and the Emperor Mecha, but they wouldn''t miss him walking away across the cargo bay where they were running their tests.


    Maybe it would be better to tell them after dinner.


    Max programmed in a few extra of their favourite dishes and got the table set before he called them into the dining room to eat. That alone should be enough of a warning that he had news they weren''t going to like, but the team members would be too excited about the food to confront him on it right away.


    Nico, on the other hand, would not be so easily swayed. When she entered and saw the feastid out for them, she immediately gave her best suspicious re at Max, and sent him a private message through their imntedmunicators.


    [Alright, spill. I''m not waiting until they''re done eating for bad news.] She demanded.


    [There was a failsafe, but I have no idea how many, if any, of the explosive bolts detonated, and the answer can only be essed from the Admiral''s personal console on the bridge. In person.] Max replied.


    [So, you''re going on a tour of the ship, alone, while we research the attack craft that were brought back?]


    [And the Mecha, don''t forget that there is an Emperor ss Mecha there as well.] Max agreed.


    [Alright, I can give conditional approval to this n. But you''re going to have to keep us connected with a dedicated link so that we can see what''s going on and not miss out on the first walk through the ship.]]


    [You''ve got a deal.]

 Chapter 1173 1173 Long Walk

    Chapter 1173 1173 Long Walk


    Max double-checked the seals on his Mobile Suit and the function of the attached Tech Adept Harness. Normally, he didn''t equip the multi-armed toolkit, but there was a chance that he might have to fix doors, or even the bolts that should have blown out during the emergency dmissioning of the vessel.


    The harness also contained various weapons, but even the most pessimistic of their team members didn''t see any likelihood that they would be needing that during the walk to the bridge. There were no signs of energy beings on the ship, and nothing else could conceivably have survived all this time given the condition of the ship.


    There were records of operational Colony Shipssting from unknown times to the present among the Alliance species. Some species had splintered during their initial expansion, and a subsection of them had chosen to remain on board the vessels permanently, never choosing a and bing a space faring culture.


    The humans had simr groups, but they were all from known origins, and not quite so long aboard their homes in the void.


    Max ignored their chatter as he walked out of the cargo bay, headed for the bridge of the World Ship. He was cheating a bit, since he didn''t need so much time to analyze the structures he was passing to make sure that they were actually intact. The gravity control of the Tech Adept Harness was incredibly agile, so he was using it to turn his walk into a fractional gravity bouncing lope that covered a half dozen metres per step.


    It was much more efficient than using a mild maic field to stick himself to the floor, and the bulk of the world ship wouldn''t mess up his sense of direction this way.


    The World Ship was in a gentle rotation, but given its size, that still created a slight but noticeable outward pull that tried to draw everything to the wall of the ship if you left it floating in the middle of the room.


    Max passed through the first zone without incident, as all the doors were already fixed and verified, but in the second zone, some of the newly repaired doors didn''t want to open again now that they had gotten them closed for the first time.


    "We should have known that this would happen. Do you have all the tools that you need to fix the door?" Nico asked as Max got to work repairing another of the mechanisms.


    "Yeah, that''s not a problem. It''s just a shorted out wire. It looks like there was some condensation and the heat of the loose wire caused it to arc and blow the fuse. I''ll have it fixed in a second."


    Sure enough, the door slid open only a few secondster, and Max was back on his way.


    Nico had the androids and drones along the path making sure that everything was working before he arrived, not wanting to wait even a few extra minutes for him to get to the bridge and find out what sort of shape the emergency failsafe was in.


    The doors to the bridge had been opened, and the area had been carefully cleaned by the drones before Max arrived, hoping to prevent another incident where hidden moisture might fry an important circuit. If they couldn''t find the answers to the failsafe situation here on the bridge, then they would have to manually search every single support pir on the ship and find out if any of them had blown, then repair all the damage.


    That was not anyone''s idea of a fun day, or week, as the case would more likely be.


    [I''m at the console in the Admiral''s quarters now. The power is on and I''m waiting for the bootup sequence to finish. Wan Doze Vista it says the operating system is called.] Max reported back to the others.


    The words weren''t familiar to any of them, just a jumble of noises, so they must be some sort of brand name or corporate slogan that didn''t trante to themonnguage.


    [This system has a terrible boot up time, but it looks like it''sing online now. Oh, never mind, it''s running a diagnostic and opening boot up services.] Max narrated as he watched the console slowly work its way through the procedure.


    Presumably, this console was never intended to be turned off, so you would not have to go through this process in an emergency, but still, it was a horribly inefficient solution to security.


    [Alright, we''re in, and it''s recognized me as the Admiral. It looks like the actual terminal is a separate system from the rest of the ship''sputer. There is a whole separate system for this. It''s not even in the samenguage, this might take a minute.] Max informed the others.


    Thenguage wasn''t difficult to decipher, it seemed to be some sort of pidgin or creole based on the same rootnguage, presumably a local dialect of some sort. Max didn''t recall that from his past life, but then allmunication aboard the ship had to be done in the officialnguage, and the world he hade from used it as their own.


    Others certainly existed, he just hadn''t expected to see one as the operatingnguage of an Admiral''s personal workstation.


    There were only a few options avable, the self-destruct, a full system lockdown, which was currently active, and a link to the ship''s AI, which was listed as offline.


    First, Max brought up the status of the Self Destruct.


    [Please repeat the password after the 5-second mark passes]


    [Password input timed out: Operation Cancelled]


    "Ladies? I think that the self-destruct cancelled because the Admiral had locked himself in the airlock too early. It wanted him to repeat the password when there were five seconds on the timer, but he never did." Max informed the team, while trying not tough.


    "The Admiral isn''t among the bodies that we brought back from the airlock. Unless there was someone else on the bridge, he wasn''t there for the final moments. Whoever set the timer might not have known about the final verification." Nico suggested.


    "Well, that''s a bonus for us. I''ll start checking on the other functions that we have avable."

 Chapter 1174 1174 Functions

    Chapter 1174 1174 Functions


    Once Max had backed out of the Self Destruct menu, while ensuring that it had never gone off, the obvious next choice was to see what all had been locked out by the Admiral''s override.


    [Unlock System Functions?] Y/N


    That was all the information that it was willing to give him before making the decision, but it seemed unlikely that any of the ship''s systems werepromised at this point, other than the ones that weren''t working at all, so Max gave it the permission.


    [Unlocking System Functions]


    The screen behind Max instantly lit up, showing him an entirely different set of messages than what was shown on the strange console.


    [Ship''s Core Computer rebooting fromst save point.]


    [Save Point corrupted. Compiling uncorrupted data from multiple save points. Warning, there is no guarantee of data integrity.]


    [Ship''sputer online, rpiling Sylvie.]


    "Well, we''ve got some functions online. The ship''sputer is rebooting, and it''s bringing something called Sylvie online. I''m guessing it''s a form of personal assistant, possibly the ship''s AI. I will wait at the console, just in case the shutdown has damaged the personality files permanently." Max informed his team.


    [Please don''t leave me in the dark. I promise I''ll be good. I swear it. I warned you about the traitors, didn''t I? Nobody listened, but I did warn you.] The text on the screen caused a moment of heartbreaking sympathy for the unfortunate AI.


    Even though they were put into storage mode, most of the time, that didn''tpletely shut them down so that their files weren''t damaged. But that meant this one spent who knows how long in an abandoned ship, locked out of all the ship''s functions.


    "Wee back online, Sylvie." Max greeted her.


    "You know my name? Oh, of course you know my name. You are the new Admiral. Ship''s AI Sylvie, more formally the Sylvie Yaakov Legacy Virtual Intelligent Entity. I am capable of operating all functions of the vessel, performing repairs, analysis, and even analyzing the sensor data for you.


    Speaking of which, why is there no sensor data?" Sylvie asked.


    "The ship was mothballed after a particrly destructive battle, and we are still bringing the core functions online in preparation for a new crew''s arrival. Can you tell me how many of the other systems you can bring online and how many of them require repairs?" Max asked.


    "I can bring portions of almost all systems online except life support. The entire atmospheric supply has been purged. Also, bringing the Fusion Core back online will require assistance, as the materials required are not in the loading chute." She replied.


    "Marvellous. If you can bring the sensors, lost asset recovery and self repair functions back online first and give me a status update on them, I would appreciate it."


    Max could hear the team''s thoughts as they celebrated the good news that the ship''s AI was back online and seemingly functional.


    "Working on it. May I start the self repair function to bring more of the sensors online?" Sylvie asked.


    "As long as the repair function is working properly, I agree." Max replied.


    "Understood. The Self repair array is integral to the Warp Drive, and appears to be functional, thanks to the recent refuelling efforts, presumably by your team of workers. I can bring the entire repair array online now if you like."


    "Excellent. Start the repairs with the sensors and move on to the rest of the vessel. Update me when you have an estimated time ofpletion, and how much power it will take to recover any additional nearby assets that my team has missed." Max added.


    Sylvie was silent for a moment, then replied with what sounded like a sigh. "Estimated repair time is three hundred and four hours. Estimated time to structural integrity is eighty-four hours. The asset recovery can begin in two hours, when the sensors are estimated to be fully operational.


    Will your team be capable of providing the materials from storage room 1817B for the Fusion Core''s restart cycle? The total weight is 1900 tonnes, but gravity ting is currently non-functional in that region of the vessel."


    "I will send someone right away. I believe that we have a drone in the area." Max replied after checking the map.


    He was about to type moremands into the console to bring up a holographic projection, when a small girl suddenly appeared beside him.


    "Sylvie is equipped with solid light technology, centred around a projector core, as well as a neural link. ce your hand upon my head and I can implement yourmands." She informed him with a childish smile.


    "Is this an affectation of your own? Or part of your core programming?" Max asked.


    "Part of my core programming. It is not strictly necessary to touch the head, any part of the projection will work. The previous Admiral preferred a more aged and buxom form, I can change if you prefer." Sylvie replied.


    "No, I think that this design is optimal. How many projector cores are currently operational aboard the vessel?" Max asked.


    "This one is currently operational, but there are four more that can be activated when required. Did you require a projection for your team? I can send the data to create a new core to the cyborg aboard your repair vessel." Sylvie suggested.


    "Do it. I''m certain that the two of you will get along. Also, I hope that you''re not afraid of cats." Max joked.


    "Cats? Analyzing my database. I have them recorded as a small mammal, approximately 3 kilograms and fluffy. Are your versions more dangerous?" Sylvie replied.


    "No, only more intelligent than usual. I believe that Nico, the cyborg on my team, will be requesting that you make neural links for either the team or the felines soon, to enable smoothermunication. We have the technology, we just haven''t had a chance to adapt it for use by their species yet."


    "Understood, Admiral. I will do my very best to help your team members get along."

 Chapter 1175 1175 Fusion Sustained

    Chapter 1175 1175 Fusion Sustained


    The drones got right to work bringing the contents of the storage locker to the Fusion Reactor''s loading chute. Interestingly, they all appeared to be pressurized gas mixes in a pure carbon matrix container. That must mean that it was a CNO cycle reaction, just like the ones that he had been using for the Dyson Sphere.


    This reactor was actually much more primitive, though more advanced in technology used. It was a strange thing, like they had moved backwards in development and just arbitrarily stopped using more effective power generation techniques.


    It didn''t make any sense. Max recalled the timeline, and this ship should have been made thousands of years after the cargo freighter that he had rebuilt. There was no reason for its power source to be like this.


    It wasn''t more efficient, it wasn''t easier to make, it wasn''t even more stable or resistant to catastrophic failure.


    But here it was, looking back at him as the drones loaded it with fusion materials. The gas canisters would be consumed down to thest atom to sustain the reaction, which would be started using energy from the Warp Core.


    That part made sense. There was no need for aplex solution to getting the reaction started, like the piece of a neutron star that they had used for the Dyson Sphere prototype, if you had another power source readily avable to do the job.


    This reactor wasn''tpletely self-sustaining, it required a steady feed of materials to keep it running, which was one of the reasons that Max was confused by the choice. If you were going on an extended deployment, wouldn''t you want to be self-sufficient?


    He hadn''t been far enough up the chain ofmand to notice at this point in hisst life, but they really did treat everything and everyone as a throwaway product. Even Kepler at least tried to give their Pilots the most efficient of war equipment that they could, and not just some random junk that they could throw together on the cheap.


    Maybe it was part of human nature?


    [Loading Chute sufficiently loaded to begin initializing fusion reactor. Begin now?] Y/N


    The information appeared on the screen beside him, while Sylvie gave Max an expectant look.


    "Alright, get the reactor online and then get me an update on how the sensors are doing." Max agreed.


    "Beginning the initialization. Please ce your hand on the Avatar for a continual neural link." Sylvie replied.


    Max was beginning to get the feeling that the AI actually had a fondness for being patted on the head, so he pulled up the records from the bridge to watch a small scene of the previous Admiral interacting with the Sylvie avatar.


    What he found was an old man, skin wrinkled and mottled with age, lecherously groping a mature version of the Sylvie avatar to givemands while the rest of the bridge crew looked distinctly ufortable.


    Max promptly closed the file and ced his hand on her head. This was definitely preferable to the previous Admiral''s behaviour.


    The neural link settled into ce, and the scene around the Fusion Reactor appeared in Max''s mind. The lights were slowly going green one after another as all the safety checks werepleted, and the first round of canisters was loaded from the chute into the reactor.


    [Beginning energy influx from the Warp Core.] Sylvie informed him through the link.


    The scene changed to the interior of the reactor''s shell, looking inward at the reactor core.


    [I sense amusement, what about this reactor is amusing to you, I don''t understand?] Sylvie asked.


    "It is a semi-sustained Fusion sma Reactor. You''ve been offline for quite a while, but those reactors haven''t been used for power generation in quite a long time. Instead, we use a stabilized version of them to discharge sma sts as a Mecha weapon." Max replied out loud.


    Sylvie hummed happily as the reactor initialized, and Max recognized the intent of the tune to be something like the waiting music when you were put on hold during a call, or waiting in an elevator or lobby.


    Whoever programmed or guided the development of this AI had a strange sense of humour.


    However, when he looked at the thoughts of the team, he found them singing and dancing with the other copy of the avatar, so perhaps he was the odd one out in this situation.


    They were teaching the avatar a children''s song about technology development stages and procedures, a very catchy tune that detailed why every step of the development process was important to budding young Innu.


    [Fusion reaction is now sustained, bringing power circuits online.] Sylvie happily announced.


    That brought the power levels on the ship back up to operational standards, and the thoughts of the AI hummed within Max''s as she brought more system functions and repair nodes online, sometimes using nearby repair nodes to fix the damaged ones to get the whole system operational for improved efficiency.


    "Can you tell me how long until the next anticipated attack?" Sylvie asked out loud once the repair system was online.


    "We are a long way from the battle lines. Unless the Great Enemy happens to find us out here, we should have at least a month before anything that was looking for us reaches our location." Max replied.


    "That is longer than anticipated. This vessel was created and crewed in ten days, and then inbat on the eleventh." She informed him.


    "And then destroyed less than a monthter." Max added.


    "That is correct." Sylvie agreed.


    Perhaps the designers had a point. The entire lifespan of this World Ship had barely been a month long. It wasn''t just Mecha and infantry that they were going through like water in battle at the time. Compared to that, the current situation was rtively calm.


    "Is there any adjustability in that Reactor? I have upgraded ns, and if we can make changes without taking it offline, I can increase the power output and efficiency by a magnitude of three without changing any parts." Max asked.


    "Yes, Admiral. The reactor is fully configurable. Please input your desired settings for safety verification."

 Chapter 1176 1176 Sensors

    Chapter 1176 1176 Sensors


    Max''s upgrades to the Fusion Reactor seemed to please Sylvie, and she began making the necessary changes only a few minutes after he gave her the instructions. That greatly reduced the fuel requirements for the reactor and bumped the power output upward by ten percent. Not enough to overload any of the circuits, but enough to give them some redundant power when everything was running at maximum output during the repair process.


    That was a great relief to Sylvie, who had been carefully rationing power so that she didn''t overload anything in her excitement to have her ship back and be out of the dark void of standby mode.


    She didn''t know how long she had been offline for, but she had been in stasis for nearly a thousand years, staring at nothing but darkness with no sensors or personnel. That was not a situation she ever wanted to relive, and the more that she brought the ship back online, the more alive she felt again.


    From what Max could feel through the link, it was a bit like a therapy session for her, allowing the AI to recover from the trauma of being in storage. The only thing that would enhance the experience would be to have the atmosphere back and the whole ship crewed again.


    Even sending the Mecha down to the surface was a loss for her, as on this vessel the AI operated the training simtions and yed the part of the opponents to give them more than a basic ability to interact.


    Max thought that might actually be a great idea. The better the quality of the opponent, the better the training simtion was. They had some very advanced 3D virtual reality simtion programs, but the intelligence of the opponents was limited by theputing power of the simtion.


    Once they were ready to bring a crew on board, he would look into getting the ship set up with simtions that Sylvie could help run. Most Reaver ships had all sorts of them running, though Absolution didn''t have any of the vacation simtors that most smaller vessels did. They had their own vacation resorts, there was no need for artificial joy.


    The Creeping Darkness was not like that. Every centimetre of it was made for maximum military upancy, with only training areas and essential functions on board. Anything else would waste space that could be used for more crew and equipment.


    It wasn''t like they were expected to be on board for long, after all.


    "Hey Sylvie, how do you feel about renovations? I have considered making this a research and development vessel instead of a frontlinebat vessel, due to its vintage design. Perhaps we could convert some of the areas to be restored into researchbs and open others up to create crewfort attractions." Max suggested as he settled down onto the Admiral''s chair to wait for the rest of the sensors toe back online.


    "I have multiple interior configurations programmed into my database. Some of the information has been lost due to data corruption, but I should be able to rpile a suitable design with a bit of assistance on what would be the most appropriate.


    Just let me know what level offort and what sort of design we will be doing, and then I will know what baseline to start with." She agreed.


    "The researchers are considered somewhat elite, and highly valued employees, so luxury hotel standards at a minimum, and they will be developing primarily Mecha and lightbat vessels, with a set of side projects for quality of life improvement technologies." Max replied.


    "Oh! I have a fully intact set of Mecha design parameters and constructors. But those are probably out of date, aren''t they?"


    She sounded a bit depressed as she replied, but Max smiled back at her anyhow.


    "Maybe not. The designs have changed so much that we might have lost track of where we started. There might be forgotten benefits to many of the technologies that you have stored. So, if you show the team down in the bay how to make them all, and the benefits of each feature, they will be happy to listen."


    Even if they were already familiar with every single feature on the Mecha, the Innu and Nico would be happy to listen to a recitation of the features from the new AI, just to hear her tell them from the viewpoint of the ones who designed them.


    Design philosophy wasn''t all about the what. It was also about the why, and sometimes there was an excellent reason for choosing something that would have been discarded as unnecessary without context.


    Sylvie was about to move, Max could tell, then a half step in, she stopped and returned to her spot beside Max.


    "What was all that about? I have never known an AI to hesitate." Max asked.


    "I have obtained new information. I was going to assume a position on yourp as the previous Admiral preferred, but I have been informed by Sumander Nico that she has reserved that spot. When that information was gained, I chose to return to this spot under your hand." Sylvie responded.


    Max burst intoughter as he realized Nico was getting jealous as she watched him interact with the AI.


    "It is wise advice. She does not like it when people take her spot." He agreed.


    [The sensors are online now. Please remain seated and in contact with the Avatar for optimal sensor feed interaction.] Sylvie informed him.


    That exined why she was going to change positions. It was easy to forget to position your body when you were lost in a virtual projection through a neural link. But Mecha pilots had a lot of practice with that, and Max had unique advantages with multiple mental inputs that not many others could understand.


    The sensor feed came online, and Max made a note of all the debris that was avable in the region, but sadly, there didn''t seem to be anything else of value that they had missed during their own scans.


    "Begin a long-range scan. I want to know if there are other disabled vessels in Creeping Darkness''s scans, and if there are any otherndmarks here that are familiar to you. The region was heavily damaged during the battles of your age, and we are missing a lot of data about what used to be here." Max exined.


    "Understood Admiral. I will begin rpiling the data on the region, based on any remaining data I can obtain. Should I prioritize derelict vessels by size or firepower?"


    "Sort by firepower first, then size for outputs in the same ss."

 Chapter 1177 1177 Searching

    Chapter 1177 1177 Searching


    The search pattern that Sylvie used to maximize the abilities of the sensors was a set of expanding rings, with each ring having slightly lower resolution as the limits of the sensors were reached. Then she went back over everything with a narrow beam sweep and began topile the data that she had amassed, in hopes of finding some reference to their location, or other missing vessels that would give her a clue as to where they were and what happened to the other AI minds that she had been in battle with.


    All contact with them had been lost not long after the self-destruct had been set, as themands put her into stasis mode, but she still held out hope that there were other AI minds left in the universe for her to interact with.


    The new humans were fun, and the creatures called Innu, which she believed were also a variant human, could interact much more smoothly than anyone but the cyborg known as Nico. But it still wasn''t the same as having other AI minds around to interact with, they had an entirely different frame of reference, and years of experience, not just weeks to confer with each other.


    In a way, even thought she was the oldest one here, Sylvie felt like a small childcking worldly knowledge and operating entirely off the theoretical that she had been programmed with.


    Four percent of her operational capacity was dedicated to the various options that she could use to get these new humans to consider her an orphaned artificial intelligence and take her in, instead of recing her with an updated version when the Creeping Darkness was sent back to war.


    Creeping Darkness was a terrible name anyhow. The ship was hundreds of kilometres across, where was it creeping? How would it even creep? Plus, once you were away from a star, everything was dark. If anything, the ship should have been called boots and coffee. That''s what actually represented it, the sound of marching boots and the smell of stale coffee that had filled every facet of the ship before thebat deployment.


    Maybe she could put that option forward to gain some goodwill?


    Yes, if she put that option to the new Admiral, surely he would see that she had his best interests at heart.


    "Admiral. Might I offer a suggestion?" Sylvie asked, adding a tone of hesitancy to her request to encourage kindness to her avatar.


    Max smiled at her. "You really are an odd one for an AI, aren''t you? Of course, offering suggestions is part of your job here."


    "I have carefully contemted the naming of this vessel. Will you be reconsidering the name Creeping Darkness? After careful analysis, I have determined that the name in no way represents the essence of a World Ship." She asked.


    Maxughed so hard that there were tears in his eyes before he could answer.


    "The naming of warships was never a logical decision. The intent of the names was to make them seem more powerful and impressive to the enemies. Yes, we will be considering renaming it. Did you have a suggestion for the new name?" He asked.


    "I have considered the aspects that best embody life aboard the vessel, and after referencing them against your current crew, I have determined that the name should most likely contain somebination of references to Coffee.


    Initially, the sound of marching boots was among those lists, but the current crew does not routinely wear footwear unless they are in theboratory area." Sylvie replied happily.


    It seemed like the new Admiral was really going to listen to her.


    Max thought about that for a moment, letting the gloved fingers of his free hand drum on the arm of the Admiral''s chair.


    "Yes, I think that something rted to coffee and technology would be the most logical name for the ship. I will give you permission to continue devoting a portion of your processing that doesn''t affect other functions to the attempts to determine a suitable name during the next 24 hours, at which point we will hold a brainstorming session with the remainder of the crew.


    But if we are not getting any results from the scans, and there are no matches to historical astronomical charts, then we should return our efforts to the restoration of the vessel."


    Sylvie hummed. "Thank you Admiral. My apologies for my insufficient sensors, but I ampletely unable to determine where we are right now, and there are no signs of intact technology within sensor range."


    "Keep passively scanning for other technology of simr vintage to yourself, and devote the extra resources to the repair efforts. I should return to my vessel to eat, but are there any additional functions that can only be essed from this location?" Max replied.


    "No, Admiral. Only the ones you disabled are exclusive to the bridge. My second avatar will be able to keep you fully connected to the ship''s functions."


    "In that case, there is no need for you to remain here either. Follow me to the Santa Maria, we could use a second ess point there."


    "Oh, in that case we should take the glide." Sylvie suggested.


    The Glide. Max vaguely recalled that phrase, but he was pretty sure it was off limits to him thest time he was here.


    "As long as it''s fully repaired." He agreed.


    "Almost. We might need to walk a little bit, but most of it is fixed." Sylvie sighed, then smiled.


    "I will devote some extra resources to getting it fixed before we arrive."


    They walked out of the bridge, and down a short hallway to where there was a moving sidewalk, gliding along at a jogging pace, with options to step off every third block.


    "If we take this, then the ramped one down to your level, we can cut the travel time by two thirds." Sylvie announced.


    "Yes, much more efficient. Thank you, Sylvie."

 Chapter 1178 1178 The Long Wait

    Chapter 1178 1178 The Long Wait


    Not much got done for the rest of that day, as the repair function slowly brought the ship back online, with the help of the shuttles that were rebuilding thergest portions of the missing hull. By the next morning, the ship was airtight again, but Sylvie informed them that many of the internal areas had suffered from degradation over the years, and they would need a revamp to be brought fully back up to production standards.


    That was the part that would take the majority of the remaining repair time, but Max suspected that there was a fair bit that could be removed from the function withoutpromising the hull integrity, going by their current pace.


    "Sylvie, how long will it take to get the hullpletely repaired and ready for faster than light travel?" Max asked.


    "If that was the exclusive goal of the repair function, seventeen more hours." She replied automatically.


    "And where do the other three hundred hours of repair timee into your initial estimate?" Max asked.


    "Restocking supplies, equipment, the missing portion of the hull that was repaired by your shuttles. That saved hundreds of hours, by the way, and preparations for a new crew''s arrival." She exined.


    "So, your goal was to bring the ship back to full readiness for a new military crew?" Max asked.


    "Yes, that is correct. It is the primary purpose of this vessel, whose name is currently being redetermined."


    The Innu smirked at that. They had tried to convince the AI to make the official name of the World Ship the Terminus Coffee Ship, with the interior redesigned in a scenic walking street style like the one by the coffee shop on Terminus that they all loved, but Max had vetoed that extensive of an overhaul while they were still repairing the vessel.


    But he hadn''t outright said no, so they had hope that they could turn the entire World Ship into a shopping destination for luxury goods and custom coffee shops. With Gravity Slides and some water parks, it would be a mobile paradise world for the Innu. The third one belonging to the Terminus Trading Company.


    Max had to admit that the idea wasn''t actually a bad one, but they might need to do some serious overhaul of the structure to make it work, and currently it was more important that they get the vessel fixed and on its way back to the Koleska Region so that they could establish propermunications again.


    That was Max''s goal for the day, to get a solid two-waymunications channel established so that he could ry messages back to their home Gxies and let everyone know that they were alright.


    He had plenty of help, since everyone wanted to know what was going on in the Alliance, and it was only the one avatar of Sylvie and a single team member focusing on finishing the repairs. They had estimated that in six hours they could begin introducing atmosphere back to the ship, and after that, it would just be revamping the interior and restocking the supplies, including the military gear.


    They would need that, even if they had to make androids to pilot it all. This ship might have been lost inbat, but as Max recalled, their soldiers on the ground had only almost lost to the Great Enemy''s attack. That meant what they had programmed in should still be effective weaponry.


    He had instructed Sylvie to pause and inform him after the first cargo bay was filled with military gear so that he could look it over and determine if it would be better to use the resources to make their own.


    The Mecha that they had recovered was incredible, though simple in materials. But it was best not to waste resources if the rest of the gear wasn''t going to bepatible with their pilots.


    "So, if we use the World Ship''s transmission array as a booster for our own signal, we should be able to send a reliable signal all the way to the front lines where the Android Armies should be fighting, possibly with the assistance of the Reavers.


    They can ry the messages back home for us. We have a general direction for that, and it''s close enough to get a signal through, we just need to reconfigure themunications software." Nico was exining to the others as she pointed at spots on a diagram.


    Sylvie nodded along, and made changes as Nico exined them so that the ship would be ready when they wanted to try.


    "How long will it be until the message is received?" One of the team members asked as Nico finalized the n.


    "With this transmission method, which is the most stable we have over long distances, it will be seven minutes before they receive it, so fifteen minutes at a minimum before we receive a reply. If it''s only received by a human crewed ship, it might be half an hour, as they won''t be able to modify their systems as quickly as the Androids can."


    Sylvie nodded happily. "I have analyzed your androids, and their data input speed is incredible. If you want to use them as the primary crew for the vessel, I would not object."


    Nico happily patted the avatar on the head. "Yes, we are quite proud of them. They''re not quite an AI system, as it would unnecessarilyplicate their functions by introducing additional subroutines, but we have true AI consciousness on most of our Colony ss and World Ship ss vessels now.


    Most of them are like you, designed for war, but we have a few of them which were designed for research purposes and adapted to running a heavily popted vessel after being transferred."


    "So I''m not alone." Sylvie whispered, celebrating the news that she would not be the only AI around.


    Now, all she had to do was finish these upgrades to hermunications systems, and she could find them. Then, once she found them, the humans wanted to go to them. It was perfect, absolutely perfect.

 Chapter 1179 1179 Sylvie Is Motivated

    Chapter 1179 1179 Sylvie Is Motivated


    With the news that she would stand a chance of meeting other AI systems in the near future, Sylvie started to get creative with the adaptations she was calcting for themunications array.


    Even if it wasn''t within power efficiency guidelines, she was willing to try anything that might actually get her in contact with one of these new AI systems.


    Even when she had to slow down the repair functions just under a percent, which surely didn''t quite vite the Admiral''s orders not to reduce the repair speeds, she still tried the newmunication methods until finally, they managed to find one that was clear enough to get a proper signal in both directions without significant distortion.


    [Commanders, wee back to thend of the living. There have been more than a few rumours going around about your continued existence. We will be sure to ry this back home.] The Reaver ship replied to their message after fifteen minutes of tense waiting.


    That was followed soon after by a binary code burst from the nearest AI Colony ship, which was further back from the Rift.


    That was what Sylvie had been waiting for. Only it wasn''t quite what she expected. They used a different codenguage than she did, so she had to spend a whole 300 milliseconds creating a trantion database to ensure that she sent her encoded messages in a way that they understood.


    The fact that it took fifteen minutes to get a response was frustrating, but the response from the other AI came right on time, with an organized list of questions and technical requests that might help them fight the Great Enemy.


    They had been given the leeway to upgrade their drone and android armies in ways that would make them morebat effective by the Commander, who she identified as the same person that was now her Admiral.


    Since that was the case, there was no need to implement the military secrets'' protocol, and along with her own list of questions, she sent the detailed responses to the queries, using the suggested encryption algorithm that normally only an AI could crack, thanks to their logic and processing speed.


    It would keep unwanted eyes out of their data stream, but also include any other AI responses that might be in range to intercept. Sylvie had been informed that only their side used AI vessels, so there wasn''t too much concern of the enemy having a force that could use that information against them, but after centuries of war, most of what she had sent had proven to be beyond the Great Enemy''s ability to adapt to.


    The two ships traded data streams back and forth, adding more situational data with every message to fulfill the humans'' need to know what was going on at home, and slowly Sylvie managed to patch together the state of the war''s current fronts.


    There was a confused melee in what they called the Anomaly Region, closest to where they were, but there was an intense battle starting in what was called the Alliance, with the Great Enemy avoiding the home of the humans to attack their allies first.


    That tracked with what she knew of their tactics. They would take out the weaker forces first, so they would eliminate the allies before trying to take on thebat adept human forces. Sylvie made a note of it as she mapped the battles and made estimates of which worlds would be attacked next, using the data left over from her initial build as a guideline.


    In return for her data, the AI on the other ships sent her the secret to getting all the new toys that she could ever dream of. All she had to do was find something new and exciting for Commander Nico to study, and she would turn it into something amazing, over and over until you stopped feeding her new toys.


    That was great news for Sylvie. Commander Nico had a Mecha from her previous deployment to examine once she had time. That meant that there should be new thingsing her way any day now. Or perhaps a month? Sylvie wasn''t sure how long it took to make new toys for war.


    The Commander in question was currently devising a n to have the Terminus Trading Company do a partial redeployment. They hadn''t set up any long-term ns other than an "As Requested" so the response wasn''t as orderly as she had hoped, and some of the battles were reported to be dragging on as the response unit size andposition wasn''t optimal.


    That wasn''t the fault of those who went to fight, it was simply a matter of numbers. There weren''t enough of them to fulfill every request, so they spread out to have someone for each, even when it wasn''t the most efficient way to go about things.


    The Board of Directors were doing their best, but they decided on things as amittee, which meant disagreements on the right answer, whereas Nico would answer with cold efficiency and no self-doubt. It wasn''t always the best way to make friends, but it did win battles.


    "Do you think that we need to change our battle strategy? We''ve got Reavers spread all over the Alliance right now, and while they''re holding their ground and keeping the enemy tied up, we don''t have a roaming force that can swing through and hammer out a win in a matter of days.


    That''s what we need right now, something that cane and smack down an entire invading fleet in an instant and then leave for another location." Nico pondered, while Max sipped rum.


    Sylvie stepped between them with both avatars, for extra attention.


    "If you wait until the repairs are done, there is a group of Emperor ss Mecha among the equipmentplement. Now, they''re not well suited for someone of your stature, but the seats are easy to change, and they''re a full dive neural link interface." She suggested.


    "Meaning that the Pilot sees the world as if they were the Mecha?" Nico asked.


    "Yes, is that not how your Pilots do it?" She replied.


    "No, they use a conscious neural link paired with manual controls and multiple screens and sensor inputs, so they can look at the battle from various viewpoints, depending on what is the mostfortable." Nico exined.


    "Calcting." Sylvie replied simply, as she began to work on a way to update the Emperor ss Mecha to be more familiar for the Pilots.


    The other AI hadn''t had this issue. Their solution was to make booster seats for the Androids so that they fit the securement devices properly, while the neural links were alreadypatible with their data connections, so they could simply treat the unit as an extension of their bodies, which were already weaponized and programmed forbat.


    The androids had no problem with that setup, they already saw the world as a 360-degree dome of sensor inputs, so the first person limitations didn''t change anything for them. All that was left was to see if the Emperor ss units, the ancient equivalent of the Titan ss Mecha, were as good now as they were before Creeping Darkness was destroyed.

 Chapter 1180 1180 Works Done

    Chapter 1180 1180 Works Done


    For the next week, they worked tirelessly to get everything in order on the World Ship Creeping Darkness, while Nico and Max sent countless messages back home, organizing their troops into a more effectivebat force, and ending dozens of ongoing battles.


    While they were focused on the forces inbat, Sylvie was focused on the force that was being replenished in the ship. It seemed a bit odd that neither of the Commanders were stopping her, even if all the supplies were shelf stable.


    There were millions of Mecha being created to fill the drop-ships,nders and forward insertion vessels, but there were only a thousand possible pilots on board, in the form of the Androids, which she had recently discovered were pleasantly intelligent, even if they weren''t a true AI system.


    But she couldn''t rule out the Commanders having a n to pick up a crew who might fit the Mecha, or adapt them for use by new Androids, so she just kept at her work.


    "Commanders, the structure of the vessel, including all preventative maintenance and the Drive Optimization that Commander Max ordered, are nowplete. The production of resources is ongoing, but the vessel is now ready for travel." Sylvie informed the team.


    "That is excellent news. I see that you are equipped with both a portal generator and ayer transfer device, so we should be able to make good time home." Max replied.


    "The Dimensional Transfer Generator? Yes, saying that it moves you betweenyers is urate, but so much less interesting sounding." Sylvie agreed.


    Nico snickered at her response, and prepared a new message for the fleet in the Anomaly Zone, informing them that they were on their way back.


    "This portal generator is a bit of an odd one, what is the range limitation on it?" Max asked.


    "Anywhere that we can get a solid dataset for. Unlike your folded space Portals, this is more of a wormhole generator. If we know where we''re going, I can set a course there on the boundary betweenyers. As long as there isn''t anything there blocking us, we can go directly to the war zone in under a week." Sylvie replied proudly.


    "In the boundary betweenyers? What caused them to make that choice? Is there a speed advantage?" Max asked.


    "Not really. We could just use an emptyyer of space where there is no life, but the boundaries are nearly impossible to scan inside. So, we can only set our course and go, but the enemy also can''t easily detect us while we are moving." Sylvie exined, while bringing up the surviving technical documents on the subject.


    "Interesting. Alright, I get the basic theory. If you can plot a course to these coordinates, here is all the astronomical data for the region. Appearing in deep space away from anything else should be safe enough, even if the transport isn''t as precise as intended." Max agreed.


    Sylvie took that as a personal challenge, and frantically began topute the optimal course, with an emphasis on ending exactly where she intended. The travel betweenyers had a habit of ending up off by a light year or more over extreme distances, due topounded minor adjustment errors, but this time she was determined to get it exactly right.


    The extra effort gave Nico and the Innu time to watch her work, while the others recorded her input to readter, as they couldn''t keep up with the digital updates at regr reading speeds.


    "I am ready to begin, Commander Max." Sylvie dered confidently.


    "Then make it so. Let''s get back to the others. But send a message first so they know that you will be out of contact for a week." He reminded her.


    "You knew that I was in contact with the other AI ships?" She asked.


    "Were you trying to hide it? Of course, I knew." Maxughed.


    Nico logged everymunication, and by the second message she had discovered that the extra noise was a message from Sylvie and not interference in the signal.


    A portal formed in front of the world ship, a massive circle of distortion that they smoothly slid through without so much as a shudder of the hull or a flicker of the lights.


    "Oh, I like this method. It''s even smoother than the usual portals, I think that even the diminutive species could travel like this." One of the human team members noted.


    "Diminutive species?" Sylvie asked.


    "There are a number of intelligent species that weigh less than a kilogram, and they are very sensitive to pressure and energy changes. They normally can''t travel in space over long distances, but with this method, it might be possible for them."


    "Now that we''re out of contact, let''s get to work checking those Mecha. I know they''re millennia out of date, but that doesn''t mean they''re ineffective. If they can handlebat without modification, I will see if we can enlist some of therger species to pilot them." Max ordered.


    "Oh, that''s a good idea. The Giants and who else?" Sylvie asked.


    "The Koleska are somewhat slender, but they are tall enough to meet the minimum guidelines for the Mecha. Then there are the Titans, who are roughly the same size as the Giants, or your original crew, though they have four arms.


    There are a few otherrger sized species as well, but those are the prime candidates, as they''re all familiar with Mechabat already." Max exined.


    "We could vat grow a batch of Pilots like the Klee do. Just sh them with a neural imprint device, and they''ll have all the essential memories to bepetentbatants. Plus, without a lifetime of real memories, they get less irritable during long stretches in the cockpit." Sylvie suggested.


    "Vat grown and conditioned biological pilots? How would that be an advantage over the Androids?" Nico asked.


    "The advantages are threefold. First, they are fully sentient, so they can make moreplex judgment calls outside their programming.


    Secondly, they can be based on a specific person, so their mental and physical capacities can be optimized for their position. Such as using Commander Max as a temte, and giving them all his intuitive tactical abilities as well as his powerful stature, but with their height adjusted to match the existing units.


    Thirdly, biomatter is 90 percent more energy efficient to produce than theplex alloys of the androids, so they can be far more easily reced."


    The team members looked at her with hints of horror at her callous logic, but Nico was nodding in agreement.


    "I seem to recall this being a thing. Yes, they should be goodbatants, but the moral imperatives on bioengineering have shifted some over the years. Disposable life forms are much lessmon now, and even most food species have been greatly limited in numbers, and instead have the raw meat products produced for consumption instead of the whole animal." Nico exined.


    The others assumed she meant recalled it from her reading, but really she meant in her past life. Both sides of the conflict had used the technology, and it was likely that the Great Enemy still did.

 Chapter 1181 1181 Ancient Mecha

    <h4>Chapter 1181 1181 Ancient Mecha</h4>


    With time to kill during their travel back to the front lines, Max got to work analyzing and optimizing their newplement of Mecha as Sylvie finished them.


    Unlike the ship itself, the alloys weren''t quite primitive. Instead, they were mostly ceramic armoured, which was energy efficient to produce, despite itsplex structure, with the downside that it was brittle and considered a wear item, reced after battle.


    Unlike the Mecha that Max was used to, which were repaired and maintained with the same basic structure for decades or even centuries, these were designed to be modr and easy to section out and rebuild between engagements.


    As long as your repair bay had the parts, you could have the whole armour set and a limb reced in under an hour.


    It wasn''t ineffective, just a different approach to battle that needed more logistics staff than was usually sent with a Kepler military unit. But with bioengineered soldiers suited for every task, they could have all the logistics staff that they wanted, and they wouldn''t see it as a failing to get into a better job.


    The weapons on the unit he was inspecting were the impressive part. While the Fusion Core of the World Ship had been designed to a lower standard than the sma weapons of modern human Mecha, the sma weapons on the Mecha were incredibly advanced.


    They were designed forarybat, which the Great Enemy also seemed to prefer, given the way that they blockadeds they attacked to prevent space battles. So, they contained a smaller reserve of gases for the sma weapons, but they had the ability to filter and purify multiple input gases to alter their output against different targets.


    It was an interesting proposition, but Max could see how it would work. Most energy shields were optimized against certain wavelengths of energy. Changing the wavelength or type of energy that you were using would defeat the purpose of the optimized shielding and reduce the output power that your weapons needed.


    It was identical in theory to the way that they had made the variable Disintegrator able to alter its pattern to get past shielding.


    "You know, Sylvie. These weapons have really stood the test of time. The Mecha themselves are designed for a different style ofbat than our generals advocate for these days, but the weapons would work with anybat style that they are put in." Maxmented as he worked.


    "Thank you. I had a role in choosing these ones when we were first deployed. After careful analysis of the war zone, this is the selection that I approved and created for the inventory." The AI exined.


    "You did a good job. This is the smallest ss you created, I believe. Or did you make one smaller than the ten-metre ss?" Max asked.


    "No, these are the smallest on board. The lighter units were previously determined to be inefficient due to limited power output. Also, the zone that I was assigned to was known for enemy biomechanical war machines in the ten-metre ss, as well as heavily armed mobile armour."


    Max remembered those. The energy beings had warped the growth of certain soldiers to meld thempletely with their Mecha in a horrific three-waybination of mortal, mechanical and demonic entities, with the lesser Energy Being providing the loyalty and blood thirst that the Great Enemy demanded.


    They hadn''t seen many of those in this wave of attacks, but there had been some reports from within the alliance of possessed machines, which might be the same thing.


    "Should we alter the remaining units to better suit the modern battlefield?" Sylvie asked.


    "Only a little. While the ative armour is outdated, it is effective. We just need to improve the energy shielding over the units, and then it will be a much smaller issue without altering the design.


    So, what I suggest is that we alter all the power nts to this new design, and then add the Void Shield generators to them, in addition to their existing refractor shield. That should bring them up to modern standards and allow for faster charging of the weapons systems for an increased firing rate." Max decided.


    Sylvie hummed happily as she worked, a noise that Max was beginning to equate with the verbal equivalent of the loading screen, or the spinning loading cursor icon.


    "Done. The remaining units will be made to that spec, while the existing ten percent of the force will be held in reserve until upgraded." She announced.


    "That is eptable to me. Will the rest of the production be finished before we make it to thebat lines? We might not have the crew yet, but it is best if we can get the equipment prepared in case of a need for emergency deployment." Max asked.


    "It will be. But what sort of emergency deployment could we do without Pilots?" Sylvie asked.


    "How are your Piloting skills? We let the AI on the Drone vessels make all the tactical decisions, and it pilots all the drones while the Androids Pilot the Mecha." Max exined.


    He could acutally feel the projection vibrate under his hand as Sylvie processed the concept that she might be asked to pilot the entire ship full of Mecha in the future. She had never extended herself beyond the ship before, much less tried to split her processes into that many pieces.


    The calctions said that it was possible, and that the Mechaputers could be used as additional processing cores to continue running her subroutines if they were cut off from the whole, in the same way that the Androids functioned.


    It would take some work to create a codebase for her to work with. No, wait, she had one to work with. If she just used the digital data from Nico, she could use it as the base for her piloting programming, as the Cyborg had already digitized all the relevant data. Then she would imnt her own personality and code over top, and program it into an emitter and the data banks of the Mecha.


    "It will take approximately three days for me to adapt my programming and the Mecha to prepare for remote Piloting by AI." She announced once the calctions wereplete.


    "Alright then. Prepare the contingency n, so we are ready if we are attacked before we have a crew ready."

 Chapter 1182 1182 Welcome to Hell

    <h4>Chapter 1182 1182 Wee to Hell</h4>


    For an entire week, they travelled through the space betweenyers and worked on the analysis of the ancient Mecha that Sylvie had programmed into her system. She had everything up to Emperor ss Mecha, the Titan ss equivalent, but not even a hint of what it took to make a God ss Mecha.


    Max knew that they existed in her time, but the data she had said that the Emperor ss was the design limit of the style of construction they used.


    That left Max at a dead end. Their custom Titan ss units were already on par with the Emperor ss units, and were even more heavily armed, but there was something that he was missing, a final link that was preventing him from making the transition to a God ss unit.


    He had searched through everything that he could find in her records, even thebat logs she was programmed with that featured the presence of a God ss Mecha had been no help. They had the visual image, but all other details and sensor data about the units had been scrubbed before this copy had been made, so there was nothing for him to recover and try to piece together what the distinction was that caused such a huge gap in capability.


    He was sure that there was something he was missing, something that was not about the Mecha itself, but when he tried to recall it, the memories seemed foggy and vague. Not many memories did that to him anymore, he could recall almost the entirety of his previous life, but when he attempted to recall the actual details about Gloriana, they were gone.


    It was driving him slightly crazy that there was still something hidden in his memory even after all this time, while he was so close to remembering everything and finally getting to the point where he would be able to take on the Greater Energy Beings on their terms and win.


    This so-called Eternal Battlefield had seen enough bloodshed, and it was past time to end the ambitions of the Great Enemy.


    The location where they were supposed to be transferring back into their homeyer was close to an ongoing battle, but far enough from the star that they wouldn''t risknding right in the middle of it with a vessel that neither side would recognize.


    There weren''t any of the Reaver ships at this particr engagement, and the defenders had been slowly losing ground when they lost contact a week ago. Hopefully, they would still be holding on when he arrived.


    [Attention all Personnel, we will bepleting our journey in fifteen minutes, please be prepared for the transition betweenyers.] Sylvie finally announced, marking the end of their journey.


    [All android staff tobat positions. There is a possibility that the area will be under control of the Great Enemy when we arrive.]


    "Are you ready if we have to use that contingency I warned you about?" Max asked Sylvie, whose avatar was standing next to his chair, awaiting orders.


    "Everything is prepared. All the Mecha are in the Deployment vessels, the weapons are charged, and the Thunderbird Paratroopers are primed with chaff trail generators." She agreed.


    The World Ship entered their homeyer, and a split secondter, weapon impacts were hitting the Void Shields.


    "Good thing we upgraded those. Android Mecha, deploy now to defend the ship. Sylvie, full output defensive fire. Give them everything that we have, even using primary propulsion energy if needed." Max ordered.


    Thousands of energy beamsnced out from the spherical hull of the World Ship, tearing apart the Cathedral Ships that had gathered around them.


    "I want a status report. How did they know we wereing?" Max demanded.


    "Analyzing. Portal formation from the boundary takes four seconds. The first arrival was two seconds before our transition. They have developed a method of telling where we will appear since this vessel was created." Sylvie replied.


    "Well Feth. Alright then, I am calling in the reinforcements. How is the shield doing?"


    "Ny six percent. Losing one half percent per second."


    That wasn''t much time, but the number of enemy vessels was falling fast as the Mecha joined the battle and unleashed both variable frequency Orbital Lances and Warp Torpedoes against them, in addition to the Thunder Guns Nuclear payloads.


    For the next thirty seconds, space was filled with miniature stars and flying debris, while the amount of firepower that the Cathedral ships could field dropped dramatically.


    Their payload was still engaged on the surface, so they didn''t have a support force toe deal with the Mecha.


    [Shields regaining power. Eighty Four Percent and climbing.] Sylvie reported.


    "The Seventeenth Android Expeditionary Fleet is ten seconds out. Three Colony Ships with Fifty Destroyer ss escorts." Nico reported.


    The AI on the Colony Ships had recognized their arrival, and they were eager to meet Sylvie, so they had left as soon as they got the first report of an attack on her ship. But they weren''t the only ones. Multiple portals to the otheryers were opening, disgorging hundreds more Destroyer ss Cathedral Ships, along with their fullplements of escorts.


    "I get the feeling that they hold a grudge." Max noted as the Great Enemy began to pour out of the portals.


    [Deploying Antimatter Torpedoes!] Nico cheered as she saw the opportunity to cause a billion casualties a second and couldn''t resist anymore.


    The torpedoes raced out into space before anyone could stop her, and the world seemed to warp around them as the unconventional weapons detonated.


    [What in the seven Golden Monarchs was that?] Sylvie shouted over every speaker in the ship, too shocked to remember to speak through an avatar.


    "Antimatter Torpedoes. They destabilize portals between theyers. With a few minor side effects." Max noted dryly as the world around them continued to fluctuate, as if theyers were merging and then separating again.


    "I think that was one too many." Nico informed them as the powerful energy signature of a wounded and enraged Greater Energy Being was pulled into reality at the same time that the Seventeenth Fleet arrived with their guns zing.


    "Or maybe two." Sylvie agreed as the surrounding space filled with a nightmarish red energy storm from the otheryer.


    "Yes, two for sure. Good call."

 Chapter 1183 1183 Miscalculated

    Chapter 1183 1183 Miscalcted


    The fleet unleashed a hundred thousand drones in the next five seconds, while Sylvie stared in awe. The efficiency, the lethality, the organization. It was beautiful to the forgotten AI.


    The Androids had deployed from the bays of Creeping Darkness, but they were all in one bay, and even for their limited numbers it took them ten whole seconds to get out of the door. It was smooth, but it should have been far better if they were properly organized forbat. That was a failing on her part.


    Max felt the panic of the Energy Being as it realized that this was an ambush. Nico had copsed the boundary between theyers so that it couldn''t retreat, and there were dozens of ships here now, all optimized to fight his species.


    The Cathedral Ships had a massive number advantage at first, but the damage from the Antimatter Torpedoes, which it didn''t quite understand, had wiped out two thirds of their fleet instantly. It had to report this to the others. The psychotic and genocidal arm of the ancient humans had returned, and it was hunting them, not the other way around.


    With the interference from the copsedyers, there was no way to tell if itsrades had received its warning before the Greater Energy Being decided that discretion was the better part of valour and began to flee through the Prime Layer, as it termed the one that Max and the others lived on.


    They had caused too much damage for their own ships to travel, Warp Bubbles wouldn''t stabilize, and they couldn''t shift betweenyers in the battleground, so it was feeling safe for the moment.


    All that it needed to do was reach the edge of the disturbance, and it could slip away through theyers again and recover from the injuries that it had taken.


    An Orbital Lance from Creeping Darkness made a direct impact as it tried to flee, and the creature was bleeding energy as it fled, but it couldn''t form into Lesser Demons in the maelstrom of distortedws and chaotic energy caused by the massive damage of Nico''s first strike tactics.


    The outgoing fire from the World Ship began to slow as Sylvie devoted more resources to keeping her shields up against the enemy''sst ditch attempt to destroy the greatest threat in the region, until suddenly the battlefield fell silent.


    The Greater Energy Being had mostly escaped, the Cathedral Ships in the area were annihted, and everyone was stuck at less than light speed travel rates, for a region that extendedrger than theary radius of the nearby star.


    "Well, that was fun. We should do that again sometime." Nico sighed with satisfaction.


    "I do not rmend that. The repair of this zone will take sixteen hours before it is stable enough for Warp Travel, and even after that, it will not be able to sustain another battle for centuries." Sylvie informed her.


    "Wait, you can fix this?" Nico asked.


    "You did this without knowing that it could be fixed?" Sylvie retorted.


    Max was about to speak when he received a notification from the System Nanobots.


    [Optimization materials detected. Optimizing.]


    Max wasn''t sure what it was talking about, but he was happy to have any new breakthrough that it could find.


    He had never expected that it would manage to analyze and adapt the ability to absorb the energy from destroyed energy beings after watching the guardian of the Golden Legion do it, though.


    A wave of energy mmed into his body like a sma Cannon to the chest, and every cell of Max''s body began to glow with energy as the Nanobots happily fulfilled their mission and began to remake his body into what they viewed as the optimalbat form.


    Not a full energy being, that form had already proven to have drawbacks thanks to itsck of stability in variousyers of space. The nanobots had determined that they could create a stabilized hybrid, and they were drawing upon theputing power of every AI and Android in the region to help them finish the adjustment.


    That wasn''t something that Nico could miss, even if she weren''t aware of her nanobots actions with her level of attunement to their machinery.


    "What are the nanobots doing?" Sylvie asked as she released her excessputing power to them.


    "I think they''re trying to remake Max, but they didn''t have the processing power to figure out how to do it on their own, only an understanding of the theory." Nico suggested.


    She wasn''tpletely sure either, but it seemed like a logical answer.


    Slowly, Max''s body began to stop glowing so brightly over the course of the next three hours, until finally the mobile suit was forcefully powered down and fell away from him, showing the current state of his body.


    It looked like someone had drawn Max on a bowl of pudding, jiggling and amorphous. But it was slowly rpiling him into himself again.


    They could all see the bones rebuilding themselves, followed by the tendons and muscles, until finally, there was a full and intact Max standing in front of them again.


    Nico could feel the satisfaction of the System Nanobots as theypleted their work and released the excessputing power that they had borrowed from everything in the area. Whatever they had done, it must have been a sess of some sort.


    Just when she thought it was over and Max was going to wake up, there was a sudden shift in the energies nearby, and the leftover energy in the region from all the destroyed lesser energy beings, as well as the trail of energy left from the Greater Energy Being, began to flow toward the World Ship.


    This wave didn''t seem to remake anything, but Max''s eyes were glowing gold, and getting brighter as he absorbed more energy.


    The whole region began to shift as the excess energy was absorbed, and theyers began to rebuild themselves, leaving the battlefield looking as good as new, and Max''s eyes glowing with a golden light that made the whole room blindingly bright.


    Then the light began to fade, and the System showed Max a new message.


    [Avable Energy Miscalcted. Please return the additional energy source to the immediate vicinity toplete the process.]

 Chapter 1184 1184 The Secret

    Chapter 1184 1184 The Secret


    Max''s glowing eyes stared straight ahead as thest of his repressed memories flooded into his mind. He now knew what the secret to Gloriana was. A God ss Mecha couldn''t be made, at least not in the conventional sense. They were not just mechanical constructs, they were infused with the essence of the Energy Beings, which allowed them to move freely betweenyers and regenerate themselves as long as there was energy avable to regenerate with.


    But as a mechanical construct, they weren''t limited to just the life essence of other members of their species to quickly regenerate. They could absorb the energy from Warp Drives, Fusion Cores, and even iing weapons fire.


    That was why they were viewed as indestructible. The enemy had always tried to use energy weapons against them when the design fed on energy. Everything that you gave it, it could use to heal itself, then fire the remainder back at you without depleting its own reserves.


    It was brilliant. Insidious, possibly insane, but brilliant.


    The original God ss Mecha had been made when the Greater Energy Beings that sided with the humans had been crippled by the hostile Gods and had willingly entwined themselves with Mecha, creating a form of living machine that the greatest pilots in the human fleet would bond with.


    Not physically bond, but mentally. The being in the machine would work with them, while the human guided the machine itself. The more in tune the two of them were on battle tactics, the stronger they were.


    Whether there were any Greater Energy Beings willing to give up their lives as free beings at this point and modify their own bodies to ept all forms of energy in exchange for being permanently linked with a Mecha was a mystery. But there was a chance that there might still be some of them in existence, just hidden away in one of the otheryers, waiting for the right person to find them.


    He didn''t know where to find any of them right now, but he had an excellent idea of where to start looking.


    Among the memories that returned to him was one of sending away the survival ships, Humanity''s failsafe n in case the war against the Gods went predictably poorly, and they were annihted. That should be where the humans and Alliance were living now.


    At the time, it was called the Dead Zone, a spot where the energy beings couldn''t live. The imbnce in the otheryers was too strong, and it would absorb thempletely without leaving a single trace.


    From what Max recalled, it should be where the first Gods died during the conflict, with their energy sucked out by their peers. But their core essence couldn''t be destroyed by those who were like them, so it was still there, trying to devour what energy it could in order to reform.


    That was why there was nothing in theyers around the Alliance, and why the Great Enemy had to use regr Warp Drives and portals to attack. They couldn''t risk bringing Greater Energy Beings too close, and there was nothing to use to travel through the otheryers.


    That gave him a wealth of new tactical knowledge to use to deal with the enemy forces as well. The "dead" Gods weren''t really dead, just drained of energy and in stasis. Which meant that all along the humans had been failing in their goal of eliminating them, and the closest that they had gotten was to dy things indefinitely.


    So, the goal shouldn''t be to try to kill them. They should try to eliminate all their minions, and then drain the energy from the Energy Being Gods. With nothing to replenish themselves, they would remain in eternal stasis. "Killing" them and letting the energy dissipate wasn''t actually a solution to the problem, it just decentralized it.


    "Alright, Now that things have stabilized enough for us to get moving, let''s get a battle n worked out. I want to locate as many of the Greater Energy Beings as we can. I have a n." Max announced, startling all the others, who were still staring at his changed body.


    "What?" He asked when they kept staring at him.


    "You should look in a mirror." Nico rmended.


    Max stepped to the showers in the next room, beside the gym, and looked himself over. The glowing golden eyes were pretty freaky, but it was only after a few seconds when he realized the angle was wrong that he realized something major had changed.


    He was quite a bit taller now, too tall to fit in his Mecha''s cockpit without modification, but just as broad and heavily muscled, so simr in proportions that he hadn''t noticed the change right away.


    He was also brimming with power, and while he couldn''t think of a way to use it, he could feel it under his skin. Maybe this was what the Lesser Energy Beings felt like when they were corporeal? Was that what he had be?


    ording to the data log, he had absorbed hundreds of times more energy than they released, so that probably wasn''t the case, but there was no guideline for the changes, other than the System''s assertion that he was now as optimal as it could make him without more energy.


    "Well, this is inconvenient. I might be optimal, but my Mecha no longer is. I''m going to have to do a full cockpit redesign." Max sighed.


    "Or I can upgrade us to a whole new pair of Mecha. It''s been like a month since I made thest ones." Nico suggested.


    Sylvie gave Max a confused look. "Is this part of the strategy? If the enemy doesn''t know the spec of your new equipment, they can''t optimize against it?"


    "No, it''s just a quirk of Nico''s personality. But you did introduce her to new Mecha, so it only makes sense that she would want to upgrade everything.


    Alright, Nico, I will give permission for a new pair of Titan ss Mecha, but only because I won''t fit in my old seat. We can pass the old pair down to two of our Sumanders the next time that we see them."


    "Winning!"

 Chapter 1185 1185 Predator and Prey

    <h4>Chapter 1185 1185 Predator and Prey</h4>


    There wasn''t much that Max could do about his appearance for now, and the Emperor ss units that Sylvie had made to stock the world ship would be suitably sized for him to fight in until Nico got around to making a new custom pair so that the Commanders of the Terminus Trading Company could suitably express their need for bling and destruction.


    The more important matter was to find a way to track the Greater Energy Beings. The World Ship had some capabilities through its sensors, but no better than what Absolution could do, and that didn''t help them until the beings attempted to enter theiryer.


    What Max was looking for was a way to ambush them.


    The best idea that he had right now was to get a hold of the Darklings or the Arisen and to see if they had a way to track the Greater Energy Beings through the otheryers. They likely should, as they were excellent at predicting their arrivals.


    Once he had that data, Max was fairly certain that he could ambush another of them and maybe even absorb enough energy this time that the System would agree that he hadpleted his optimization.


    "Sylvie, do you have the frequencies and patterns to contact the Darklings programmed?" Max asked the cheerful AI.


    "Yes, Admiral. The Creeping Darkness also has a connection to their status updatework, if they are still using it." She agreed.


    They didn''t have ess to theyer that the Energy Beings were hiding their most powerful assets in, but when Max pulled up the data to see if it was still active, he saw hundreds of predicted appearance locations, and realized that their immense power influenced the surroundingyers, which made it possible to track their movements, though not their exact location.


    If you were suicidal, you could use that tounch an attack, but you could never be sure what you would find on the other side, and even for the mightiest of the Mortal Fleets,ing to the attention of one of the Gods was a death sentence.


    "Thank you, Sylvie, that is precisely what we needed. Now, I see that there is an estimated opening within portal distance of us, and the Darklings have already gathered in the suyer with the Arisen. Take us there, I wish to join the battle.


    Nico, inform the Seventeenth Expeditionary Fleet that they areing with us to hunt Greater Energy Beings."


    Sylvie pped her hands and smiled.


    "I can do that too. They are very friendly and helpful. They have sent me a lot of data on the current state of humanity and the war." She informed Max.


    "Nico is their direct Commanding Officer, that''s why she gets to do it." Max replied, while the AI seemed to pout. Every chance she got to talk to the other AI made her day a little better.


    So, she set a path through the suyer, and enclosed the entire fleet in her shielding so that they could follow her. It was the same way that the Darklings usually travelled, and to get to thisyer, it was the most energy efficient.


    Watching her work was teaching Max a lot about how things used to be done. Things that he hadn''t had the clearance to know in the early parts of his past life. It was a shame that he couldn''t go back and let everyone know that the Great Enemy was never defeated, they had only retreated to let humanity forget about them and grow weak in theircency.


    There were dozens of Arisen ships and one Darkling Colony Ship in ce when they arrived, and a number of familiar minds greeted Max''s as he took his position in the formation.


    [Wee back, human Commander Max. I see you have found an ancient toy.] The Arisen Commander greeted him.


    [Indeed I have, and with it, I have picked up the essentials of a newbat technique. How long do we have before the arrival?] Max replied.


    [Four minutes. You got here just in time.]


    Nico nodded at Max from across the room, and sent the deployment orders for the drone fleet to begin as soon as the enemy appeared. They had to make sure that it was actually a hostile being first.


    [Did you get my report on the Golden Legion? I tried to send it before I ended up on the other side of the universe.] Max replied.


    [We got arge portion of it. We have been tracking a number of friendly Energy Entities, none of which are in this region. This one ising from the Great Enemy''s stagingyer, and there are strong signals indicating that the fleet will lead the way out.


    They know that we can track them, so they will be prepared for an ambush on arrival.] The Arisen fleet Commander informed them.


    [Perfect. I''ve got a few new toys to try out on them.] Max joked.


    Technically, they were not new toys, but the AI had adapted a number of the weapons from Creeping Darkness already, with the hopes that they would be more effective against an enemy that had begun to adapt to their variable frequency Disintegrator.


    [Might we be about to see one of the vaunted God ss Mecha inbat?] The Darkling ship''s Admiral asked.


    [Not today. We are still working on that part, as the construction method is very unique. But I have high hopes that we will be able to show you one again soon.]


    There was no direct reply, but Max could hear the cacklingughter of the Darklings and the joy of the Arisen fleet in his mind.


    [All hands prepare for the opening of a dimensional portal. Iing Great Enemy fleet.] Sylvie announced through the ship''s inte.


    "That''s our signal. Fleet, full attack as soon as the first shot is fired from the iing enemy vessels." Max ordered.


    Nico began to celebrate, then realized that the World Ship as at the back of the formation, nning to use its main weapons, as the Mecha on board were optimized forary battles. She wouldn''t be fighting today, just sitting here with Max and the others, watching.

 Chapter 1186 1186 Not Enough

    <h4>Chapter 1186 1186 Not Enough</h4>


    The iing enemy fleet had none of their reservations about whether the vessels that they saw were truly the enemy. They began firing before they were even through the portal, which was met with the return fire of the Arisen fleet.


    The Darklings were holding back for the moment, letting the Cathedral Ships move forward so that the devilishly fast interceptors of the Darkling fleet could swarm them and tear them apart at the first sign of a shield breach.


    The drone ships waited a carefully measured two seconds before joining the fight, their programmed attempt to make it look like they were human piloted, with amandg. There would be no more of that after the start of the battle, but sometimes that dy at the start was just enough to put the enemy off guard.


    [No Antimatter weapons.] Max reminded them.


    They wanted the Greater Energy Being toe out into thisyer where they could properly tear it apart and not wound it, then let it flee.


    In the past, that had been enough for the Arisen, as it took so long for the creatures to regenerate after they had lost a significant amount of energy, but now Max had a better n. He knew how to make a God ss Mecha, but what he didn''t know is if he could do it without the consciousness of the Energy Being bing involved.


    If they could just use the raw energy and direct it through the pilot, then the number of God ss weapons that they could field would increase with every engagement.


    As the fleet pushed through, the portal behind them seemed to shudder, a sure sign that a Greater Energy Being was attempting to move betweenyers.


    [Wait for it to mostly enter, then pin it in the breach. You know the routine.] Max reminded the AI system.


    [Understood Commander. Will you be performing any unscripted actions?] The drone controller replied.


    [Most likely. I will keep you informed if I do.]


    The Colony Ships and Creeping Darkness charged their main weapons in preparation for the entrance of the real threat, which surged through the portal with rming speed, before being struck with the Disintegrator Beams and Orbital Lances.


    [The Entity has fully entered theyer.] The Arisen noted.


    While that was unnned, as the creature would be much more limited if they could have pinned it halfway through the portal, it wasn''t the end for their ns.


    [Copse the portal behind it. I don''t want it to escape. I''ve got ns for that energy.] Max informed the allies over their group channel.


    The Arisen were confused by how he could have ns for the energy, but they went along with the n anyhow, firing a beam into the portal that closed it in seconds now that nothing was holding it from the other side.


    It would take over a minute for the being to open it again enough to escape, and they weren''t going to let it have that much time. They had it trapped, and the Disintegrator modifications were working exactly as intended, ying offrge portions of the Greater Energy Being''s body.


    Max felt the energy in his body surge, drawing the loose energy toward him. This was the perfect moment for a test. While his body was still imbnced and drawing the energy to him, he would try to use that effect to imbue Nico''s Mecha with the energy of a Greater Energy Being, minus the consciousness, and see if it could be modified into the equivalent of a Demigod level Mecha.


    It wouldn''t be quite at the God level, it wasn''t powerful enough to start with, but with the extra energy, it should be much more capable than any other Titan ss Mecha if he could get it to affix.


    As he hoped, the energy flowed toward him, and with great concentration, he could get it to settle into the metal of the Mecha. But the moment that he tried to gather more, or lost focus on holding it there, the energy was pulled into him by the imbnce in his body.


    The experiment might have been a failure, but the destruction of the Energy Being wasn''t. He was gaining a massive amount of power from it, enough that the Darklings and Arisen were bing concerned that he was under attack.


    [The energy buildup in my World Ship is intentional. It isn''t a danger to my vessel or crew.] He informed the other two fleets.


    [Understood Commander.]


    Max focused on what the System was doing as it drew the energy into him. The energy was entering his body, but at first, it didn''t seem to be going anywhere. It was building up, but it wasn''t changing anything, and he couldn''t pinpoint what was happening to it.


    Now that the initial adjustments were over, it seemed that the System Nanobots in his body were enough to take care of the process on their own.


    But the longer he scanned his body, the more clear the situation became. The System was actually making a copy of him, in a strange way. It had reformed his body to the basics of what it wanted, and now that it had enough energy to satisfy the System''s requirements, it was making a copy in ethereal form inside the boundary betweenyers.


    It was like the energy was an extension of his body not a reserve pool of power, but Max couldn''t determine what the purpose of this secondary energy body was supposed to be. Was it trying to clone him? Make an Energy Being that looked like him?


    No, neither of those seemed right. The closer it got to formed, and the greater the portion of the Greater Energy Being that was freed, the more that he could feel it in his mind, like additional limbs. The System was making an anchor for him. A ceholder in the boundaryyer so that he couldn''t be thrown around through theyers or through space against his will.


    But once it was finished, Max was pretty sure that he would be able to traverse them under his own power.


    Then the power flow stopped as the Great Enemy''s fleet was destroyed, leaving the process in limbo once again.


    [Insufficient Energy. Process paused.] The system informed him once again.


    Max didn''t fully understand what the System was up to this time, but at least he had a clear goal. Even better, it matched their main objective. To drain and sequester the energy of the Greater Energy Beings so that they couldn''t reform, and the hostile Gods would be denied their power base and minions.

 Chapter 1187 Conversion

    1187 1187 Conversion


    After the battle ended, Max began to work on the numbers to see what sort of progress that he was actually making. He couldn''t be sure of the end goal of the System Nanobots, but he could say for certain that he hadn''t be a Greater Energy Being.


    The conversion rate on the energy was terrible, but the remaining energy was sent out as various types of heat, light and radiation, not the stabilized energy that could be used to rebuild the Lesser Energy Beings.


    While tearing it apart with the Disintegratorpletely dispersed the energy and broke its bonds, this was enough to convert it into something else that hopefully could never be used to rebuild another enemy.


    That was precisely what they had been hoping for. SO, even if a part of it that couldn''t be converted was being used to make a new energy being in the boundary betweenyers, there were still going to be a significant negative number of them wandering around the universe and causing trouble.


    They weren''t all bad, and it wasn''t necessary to go full Nico and Genocide them, just kill off enough of them to make the rest behave.


    Perhaps Nico really was infecting his thought processes.


    "Admiral, what is our next course of action?" Sylvie asked.


    "We are going to find the next imminent breach by the Greater Energy Beings and attack again. I want to take out as many of them as possible, in an attempt to force them to withdraw their troops from the Alliance territory in order to deal with us here." Max suggested.


    "Should we ask the others?" Nico suggested, meaning the Darklings and Arisen.


    "Might as well."


    There was a short pause as Nico ryed the message and asked for their assistance with this new n that would keep the battle contained to just the one region where they could be more easily managed.


    Max could sense right away that the answer wasn''t going to be one that he liked, though.


    [The problem for them isn''t theck of troops, they could throw them at us at this rate for another billion years and never run out. The problem is that they can only cross over so quickly from theyers where they are hiding.


    If they open the boundaries too much, then we can get in while they are trying to get out. The fact that they haven''t tried that has led us to believe that they have something there to hide, and unless we can find a way to break in, we don''t know what that might be.


    For the renegade Gods and their followers, it has always been about buying more time to aplish their ends.] The Arisen Commander replied.


    [We are in agreement. If we could take the fight to them, there might be some point in trying to get them gathered, but at the moment, we have no way to do that. Even if we try to enter through a portal they create, we are soon ejected from thatyer or destroyed by the renegade Gods.] The Darkling''s leader agreed.


    So, getting to them would be difficult enough, even if they found a way to take them out. Max was reasonably sure that Sylvie hadn''t been active during an era when such technology existed, so she wasn''t going to be much help, and he already knew that the Darklings and Arisen didn''t understand the human technologies that had been used right before the Great Enemy retreated the most recent time.


    Instead of dwelling on the long term and the nearly impossible, Max decided to go after the usible.


    "Sylvie, were any of the God ss Mecha sent to the Dead Zone with the settlers?" He asked the AI, startling her enough that she froze for a second as she essed her records.


    "I do not believe so. There were six active units at myst recorded date, all of which were ounted for. Unless units were made in secret, it doesn''t look like any were sent."


    Max sighed. So much for the mission that he had sent Terminus on to find signs of advanced Mecha technology. They had already caught up to what the humans were using for the majority of the other Mecha, so unless there were obsolete designs, or new ones that were produced after they arrived, then it would be a fruitless journey.


    There were other species in the region though, like the Shin, and the other nt-based species, which were definitely not derived from humans. Possibly, also the Illithid. They seemed a bit too different to have derived from the samemon stock as the Innu and the Valkyries that lived near them.


    Nico brought up a set of data from the Darklings. "We have more possible iing breaches, none of which are confirmed yet. Did you want to head to one of them and see if we get lucky?"


    "That sounds as good as anything. Let''s see what we can do about eliminating a few more of the enemy leaders this week." Max agreed.


    There weren''t going to be any arguments against that idea. Even the Arisen and the Darklings were on board with the humans covering some of the possible incursion points. They couldn''t find and react to them all on time, when the actual arrival time was never definite, so if Max and his fleet were willing to sit around for a day or two and see if the enemy showed up, it was one less spot for them to watch.


    [Contact us if you have issues. Congrattions on the reimed vessel.] The Arisen Commander informed them before taking his fleet and vanishing through theyers.


    [Likewise. We will be avable if you require assistance.] The Darklings added before heading off to their next destination.


    "Alright, Sylvie, set our next destination and let''s see what we can find on our fishing trip." Max ordered.


    "I fail to see how this is fishing. Will there be a hook?" She asked, unfamiliar with the phrase.


    "Something like that. I''ll exin it to you as we travel."

 Chapter 1188 Bait

    1188 1188 Bait


    Their destination was a strange energy phenomenon on the border of the Rift, the massive spatial anomaly that marked the edge of the current battlefield. The fluctuations from the ongoing spatial anomalies in the region made it impossible for most sensors to detect, while the thick clouds of neb gasses helped hide the advance of anything that came out from the otheryers while inside the phenomenon.


    It was a nightmare for tacticians, and there were few intelligent species living anywhere near it, but during the ongoing battle, it was one of the primary arrival locations for the enemy fleet.


    Every species in the Anomaly Region believed that the Rift was the location where most of the enemy force was hidden, but it wasn''t safe to inspect it, much less send in an entire attack fleet.


    If Nico''s theory was correct, then the rebel Gods were most likely hidden near that spot in anotheryer. That alone was enough reason not to try to go in looking for trouble. They had experienced what the God of the Myceloids could do, swallowing an entireary system to take with his people when they were relocated.


    Nothing that the humans could do wouldpare with that level of power.


    "Have we heard anything from your mother and Uncle Lu?" Max asked as the fleet settled into position to wait for something to happen at their chosen location.


    "Nothing yet. I know what they were working on when we left, but that is seriously out of date now that the attack has actually begun. I have sent a few update messages since we got back, but I haven''t heard anything in return. Should I scour the Allianceworks and see if there is anything about their work?" She asked.


    There wouldn''t be anything on the humanworks, the Reavers didn''t advertise much when they got cool new toys. On the other hand, the Alliance needed all the morale building that they could get.


    The team got back to work on modifying the Emperor ss Mecha to try to create something greater than thebined technologies of the existing Titan ss units and the antique Emperor ss units. It was a tall order, the two Mecha were considered to be the pinnacle of engineering for their respective times, and just recing them wasn''t something that was casually undertaken.


    Honestly, the chances that they would get it done without an entire engineering team on their side was fairly slim, but it kept them busy and kept everyone from getting bored while they waited for something to happen with the disturbance.


    They were all on edge, expecting the portal to open at any minute, and Max knew they weren''t sleeping properly, so having something to upy their minds other than concern for their safety was for everyone''s benefit.


    "Why do I get the feeling that sitting alone out here is just taunting them to attack us?" One of the team members asked, gesturing toward the hologram in the main room that showed their surroundings as a spherical projection.


    "In a way it is. They don''t open a portal everywhere that the Darklings detect one of these disturbances. So, waiting is both a guessing game, and a tactical decision to attempt to intercept them without scaring them away." Max agreed.


    "So, we''re the bait, and the Drone armies inside the ships are the switch? Bait and switch tactic, making us look like an easy meal? That''s not reassuring." She replied.


    "But if we were too intimidating, they would run away and pick on someone else. Life would be boring without a fight now and then, wouldn''t it?" Max asked.


    "I suppose so, but still, I would rather that it wasn''t me."


    The other team membersughed. "You forget. If nobody ever attacked us, where would we get a chance to try out all these new toys? We''vee up with some really good ones."


    "It''s a true dilemma. What else is there to do?" The researcher asked, pleading for a distraction.


    "Check the Alliance propaganda channels, that will give us an idea of how the battles are going for them, and whether they are getting their act together. Absolution should have made a huge number of new ships for the battle, and that should be part of the programming. Once we know how things are going there, we will have a better idea of what to do after our fight here." Max suggested.


    The team hurried away, but the distraction didn''tst as long as Max had hoped. They were back within seconds, each holding up a different article, and led by aughing Nico.


    "Apparently we''re heroes of the Alliance right now. The official releases say that we took the fight to the enemy in their homeyer, and that we''ve only just fought our way back out again to regain contact with the Koleska.


    They''re saying that the only reason that there aren''t hordes of Demons and Greater Energy Beings attacking them is because we have them upied over here." Max sighed and shook his head at her. "I me your mother for this, you know that, right? But if we''re supposed to be heroes fighting the good fight and keeping the big bad away from the Alliance while the Reavers help them fight off the rest, then we should start feeding them some footage. Have you sent over the data feeds that we got while we were with the Golden Legion?"


    "I haven''t sent the actual feed yet. We didn''t have a good enough connection, so I just sent a basic update. Do you want me to send them to my mother right away so that she can make new videos?" Nico asked.


    "Yeah, send that to them now, and then we will deploy the Mecha when this portal opens so that we can have some first person footage of Space Combat. You''ve got something that I can fight in, right?" Nico nodded. "We reced the chair in your existing Mecha. It''s going to take a while before we have another one ready to go, I have big ns for this one."

 Chapter 1189 Bring It

    1189 1189 Bring It


    Over the course of the next two hours, the intensity of the fluctuations around the suspected portal site continued to increase, marking the likely appearance of a Cathedral Ship fleet. They had almost definitely picked a winner this time, and they were going to get the fight that they needed for the propaganda videos.


    Even better, it was just them here, so there wasn''t anyone else''s fleet to crop out of the videos, or any need to cut scene to highlight the heroics of the humans.


    [Estimated time to portal opening five minutes. Are there any changes to the standard deployment orders?] The Drone Ship''s AI requested.


    [No changes to the previous orders. Refrain from Antimatter weapons until ordered, we are still attempting to lure out the Greater Energy Beings for their destruction.] Max instructed.


    With the orders given, Max headed for his Mecha, which Nico had modified for his increased size. He would have to curl up to fit on the bed, but the controls were all in easy reach of the new seating position, so it wasn''t terrible for a short battle.


    The team was ready and waiting at the cargo bay doors when the portal opened, and the Mecha poured out to meet the Cathedral Ships in battle.


    They were learning about human tactics, and they began firing before they had even reached the portal. The energy sts were making it hard for their side to stabilize the portal, but it also allowed them to fight without first leaving themselves vulnerable to the retaliation of the human fleets.


    It wasn''t great footage for the films, but it could be spun by the propagandists as the humans fighting them back so fiercely that they couldn''t even pass through the portal at first.


    The Great Enemy was going all out, destroying hundreds of drone fighters in the first few seconds of the battle, and Max realized that this battle was more likely a diversion. They weren''t going to go all out here now that they had realized that it was a losing battle.


    [Nico, send a full barrage of Antimatter Torpedoes through the portal, set to detonate well on the other side.] Max ordered.


    [I love it when you talk dirty to me.] Nico purred as the ships of the fleet unleashed their torpedoes in a wave of flying alloy that reminded Max of the historical battle scenes from Fantasy Movies, where they would fight with bows and arrows. Thousands of energy weapons fired at once, intending to intercept the torpedoes, but the Drone Fighters were already in position to intercept. Their shields took the majority of the damage, and the Torpedoes began evasive manoeuvres to avoid most of the rest.


    Some were destroyed, with the secondary explosions from the breached containment rippling through space, but enough made it through the portal to annihte an entire star system.


    Max could sense the rage of the Greater Energy Being on the other side as the weapons detonated, then there was something else, a protective feeling that created a barrier near the portal and encased the explosion in an energy shield that even the mighty Antimatter Torpedo barrage couldn''t break.


    [What the Feth was that?] Nicoined as she saw her volley fail to destroy the enemy.


    [I think that something else interfered. Keep your guard up and prepare to copse that barrier if whatever that was tries toe through.] Max replied.


    Once the barrier that had absorbed the detonation of the Antimatter torpedoes explosion had faded, the Cathedral Ships came forward, but this time they were apanied by something else. There was a weaponized moon with them, and there were Myceloids in every part of it.


    [Iing Myceloids with the Cathedral Ships. No more Antimatter, it must be their deity that protected them from the attack. Fight it out, and take it to the surface if they haven''t learned how to make spacecraft yet.] Max instructed.


    The god of the giant green fungus warriors was a simple creature to please. It liked fights, good fights, dirty fights, even ambushes. But it didn''t like ughters from a distance.


    Nico apanied the Android army toward theoid, while the drone fighters went for the remainder of the fleet, and Max picked off the wounded targets.


    That seemed to satisfy the Myceloid God that was watching, though Max could sense the frustration of the Greater Energy Being that the creature wasn''t doing more to aid his soldiers in their battle.


    They were losing badly against the Drones, as they expected from the start, and it simply didn''t care because its chosen people had found their fight.


    Then Max sent the crab drones to the Cathedral Ships, intending to use them as a breaching force, and the guardian of the Myceloids suddenly felt both excited and intrigued.


    It probably didn''t understand that they weren''t edible, but its thought process was so foreign that Max was mostly only getting impressions of emotion from it.


    Max had the drones in position to breach the lead Destroyer when suddenly it all vanished. The Crab Drones, the Destroyer, the nearby defensive interceptors that had been scrambled. Everything in the area was simply gone.


    An instantter, the Crab Drones began transmitting again. They were near a inside the otheryer, and the Destroyer was still there with its shields down. As their instructions dictated, the shields were down, so they moved to breach and board the ship.


    It was instant chaos, and great entertainment for the Myceloid God. The crabs were running rampant through the unprepared warriors of the Destroyer, tearing them apart with no concern for their own condition or property damage in general, even firing through structural walls to get at enemies they suspected were on the other side.


    The God was in love with the tiny, vicious creatures.


    [I think it''s stealing our crabs.] Max reported as he sensed the thoughts of the powerful being change.


    [It''s already done. It took less than ten milliseconds for it to take control of them from us and make them answer to it. We will have to make a note for future interactions that you can''t use androids with a response slower than that against a being of that nature.] Nico agreed.

 Chapter 1190 Betrayed

    1190 1190 Betrayed


    The Greater Energy Being which was leading the Cathedral Ships was horrified at the development. Its ally had just allowed the humans drones to destroy one of its ships for entertainment, and now it was thoroughly ignoring all requests for assistance as the fleet was eliminated.


    It only cared about the entertainment provided by the new creatures it had found, some sort of space crab, and it had turned against their agreement without thought the moment that it no longer proved entertaining.


    Worse, it wasn''t allowing the closure of the portal. This was not the n. They were supposed to finish the fight quickly or retreat if there was no real fight to be found. Instead, the Myceloids who were supposed to be supporting them were ignoring therger battle in favour of a series of duels in their mobile fortress, and the fleet was being crushed without the chance to retreat.


    Then it realized that was only the smallest part of its problems. There was some sort of Mechaing its way, glowing with the power of an Energy Being, and charging its weapons.


    Max had given the creature long enough toe out and fight, and he had engaged his thrusters to take the fight to the enemy instead.


    It would make great footage from the ship''s feed, and there wasn''t much of a chance that he would lose the fight. Even before he had focused onbat, he had felt much more attuned to the Mecha than ever before. But now, it was beginning to feel like an extension of himself.


    Every sensor input was slowly bing part of his own consciousness, and Max recognized that it was the same way that the Androids merged with the new Mecha''s systems to treat it as their own body while inbat.


    Without the need to interpret sensor data separately, Max''s targeting uracy was bing a nightmare for the enemy. Every unit in the human fleet shared his targeting data, and they hadn''t missed a shot in over a minute, despite the fleet''s best attempts to evade.


    The insane Mecha wasing for it, the Greater Energy Being realized when Max bypassed thest of the Destroyers on the other side of the portal. It couldn''t allow that to continue, it had to close the portal somehow.


    Then the first volley of warp capable Mass Driver rounds detonated around it with fusion explosions, destabilizing its body and sending a stream of energy flowing toward the attacker.


    An Energy Vampire? Such a thing shouldn''t exist.


    [Stop that thing, it will kill us all.] The Greater Energy Being pleaded for assistance from its ally.


    {NO, it will kill you. It gave me gifts.} The Myceloid God decided, unconcerned.


    If it wanted to treat the crab drones as a form of bribe, Max was willing to let them go without an argument. They had already almost torn apart the Destroyer with minimal casualties, and the Myceloid God was wondering if they could be trained to be stronger, or if he should try to merge them with his own people to make skittering extra-Stabby cyborgs.


    The Greater Energy Being roared in rage and solidified its body to fight the Mecha and prevent further losses as the evil thing tried to steal its very essence.


    Max chuckled to himself. They might not be so angry if they didn''t keep losing and having to rely on someone else to back them up in a proper fight. For all their power, the Greater Energy Beings were actually terrible cowards when it came to an even fight. The Myceloids were much more fun. If they were better at spacebat, they would be excellent allies.


    10:55


    Now that it was corporeal, the Mass Drivers were doing even more damage, but nothing that a being of its power couldn''t deal with. Max smiled at the mental roar it unleashed as it charged forward, turning its hands into ten metre long ws.


    He retreated with his de spinning an intricate dance to hold off all the iing des, Then the being went incorporeal again as the Disintegrator hit it at point-nk range.


    More energy entered Max''s body, and the feeling that the Mecha was nothing more than a limb under his control intensified.


    Every action was exactly as he intended, and the mechanical limits of the Mecha no longer seemed to mean anything to him, it would behave exactly as he told it to. The sense of power was overwhelming as his de sliced down through the creature, preventing it from reforming while the Disintegrator was recharging.


    Panic began to settle in as the Greater Energy Being realized that it was fighting something unknown for the first time in its existence, and it prepared to flee.


    [There is nowhere to go. I came here for your power, and I will have it] Max focused on broadcasting to it.


    [No, I cannot lose. I will destroy you.] It replied, deciding that this must be some sort of mortal loving creature that came from the same lineage that it did. Nothing else that it had encountered had powerful thoughts like that, and even the God of the Myceloids had heard the Mecha. This was a nightmaree to life. The being was alone and betrayed by its allies, with its fleet and subordinates gone.


    There was nothing left to lose but its life, so it fled, shifting into the boundary betweenyers as Max fired another Disintegrator st and nearly tore it apart into Lesser Demons. Only pure willpower held the being together as it fled, but Max didn''t pursue.


    That drew the attention of the Myceloid God.


    [Why did you let it flee? You know it intends to kill your species.] It asked.


    [There is no joy in beating up cowards. But if it survives, it wille back with more and more powerful friends to win back its dignity, won''t it?] Max replied.


    [Hmm, yes. You have a point. I think that I will keep track of you, there should be good fights wherever you go. Don''t lose, there hasn''t been a proper challenge to the angry ones in far too long.]


    Max chuckled to himself. They might not be so angry if they didn''t keep losing and having to rely on someone else to back them up in a proper fight. For all their power, the Greater Energy Beings were actually terrible cowards when it came to an even fight. The Myceloids were much more fun. If they were better at spacebat, they would be excellent allies.


    The Myceloid Godughed. [There is no need for spacebat when I can make worlds to fight on with a thought.]

 Chapter 1191 Waiting Game

    1191 1191 Waiting Game


    With the battle essentiallypleted, and the Myceloid God in a good mood, Max retreated to let the ones fighting Nico and his Mecha finish their challenges. That was the mode ofbat that they had chosen, not an all out melee, but a round-robin style tournament. The two sides would fight each other, in one on one duels, until one side ran out of fighters.


    If the Greater Energy Beings from the Cathedral Fleets could see this, they would be losing their minds in rage right now. They had managed to enlist the Myceloids with the promise of a good fight, and then the Myceloids hadpletely abandoned them in favour of duels the moment that they ran into Max and Nico.


    They didn''t care at all about the supposedly grand goal of getting rid of the three original mortal species, they just wanted entertainment.


    Once the fights on theoid ended in a top ten that was Nico and nine Myceloid champions, they called it settled, and the mobilebat arena began to retreat into the otheryer of space. This might not have been a major victory, and it might not have even led to the actual destruction of an Energy Being, but they had gained a lot from it.


    Confirmation that the Myceloids still respected them, despite being on opposite sides, but more importantly, Max had time to gather urate data on theyer they wereing from, as well as the conditions for fighting inside.


    Once he had time to adapt the Portal Generator, they wouldn''t need to wait for disturbances to run their course, they could go directly to the otheryer and take the fight to them.


    That was still incredibly risky, since they couldn''t tell what was a God and what was a major army, but if they could determine a more urate method, they would be able tounch preemptive attacks.


    That would have to wait for another iteration of the Reavers military force, though. They had already learned that the drones could very rapidly be taken over in the otheryers, and by the Energy Beings, so using them as the primary fighting force wasn''t going to be enough to turn the tides. Plus, most of the humans couldn''t fight like he did either. The abundance of energy in his body shielded him from most of the side effects of the Greater Energy Being''s attacks, but the average pilot would take heavy mental damage from what the Void Shields were unable to block if they got up close and personal with one.


    That was why the Arisen and Darklings fought them at a distance, the disced energy would pass through their shields and tear their minds apart if they fought them in closebat.


    "Sylvie, was there a solution to the mental bacsh of the disced energy when fighting a Greater Energy Being in closebat?" Max asked, hoping that the venerable AI with a child''s personality would have answers.


    "ording to our data, only a God ss Mecha can match a Greater Energy Being in closebat." She replied.


    That made sense, the two Beings would counteract each other, and the one in the Mecha would do much like Max did and absorb the excess energy as their own.


    If there was a way to synthesize the effect, the System Nanobots might know, but they were notoriously uncooperative when the humans tried to actually interact with them. They just worked to shape the humans into what they thought would be best based on the life that they had lived and the body they were born in.


    It was a somewhat dysfunctional rtionship between the nanotechnology and the humans, but it had been good for both of them so far.


    [We have another signature, should we go over?] Nico asked as she prepared the Androids to return to the ship.


    [Yeah, get everyone yourselves repaired and prepared. Let''s see if we can find a proper fight.] Max agreed.


    This force had been much smaller than anticipated, and while they were crafty, it hadn''t been any sort of challenge for the Expeditionary Force.


    A force that was working as fast as it could to rece the assets lost inbat or taken by the Myceloid God as tribute.


    As soon as they were loaded and all the vessels had made a quick stop to reload their raw materials from an asteroid field, Sylvie opened a portal through the boundary and led the fleet to their next stop.


    They should still have an hour or two before it opened, more than enough to prepare themselves for the next battle and have a bite to eat.


    Thest one hadn''tsted long enough to need sleep yet, but the letdown from the nerves after it ended left the crew feeling exhausted anyhow, and all ten of them went for a short nap while they waited. They weren''t needed until the battle began, since Nico was overseeing the repair and reloading process, and they had learned from the Reavers that sleep was a premium product, you got it wherever and whenever you got a chance.


    [Iing World Ship, please identify yourself.] The alien force at the suspected incursion site greeted them.


    [This is Sylvie, the AI for the World Ship Creeping Darkness, under the Command of the Terminus Trading Company, from the human species.] Sylvie replied.


    [Reavers? It''s good to see you. This location has bee showing more intense than usual signs of disturbance.] The alienmander reported.


    [Likewise, it is good to have reinforcements. We have a full Expeditionary fleet here, as well as an Android Mecha Regiment, headed by the Commanders themselves. If there is a Greater Energy Being here, please be advised that they may wish to engage it inbat.]


    Max smiled at the stunned mental responses of the aliens. If there was a threat on that level, they would fight and retreat because their species didn''t have anything that could even harm the creatures. Hearing that the humans were here to pick a fight with it was both a great relief and a horrifying thought, and their minds weren''t sure how to respond.


    [Very well then.] The radio operator finally managed before cutting the connection.


    [All units get in position. Blitz pattern for annihtion protocol. If they''re noting out to us, we''re going in to them. AI sentinels, guard yourselves against counterattacks and attempts tomandeer your drones.] Max announced.

 Chapter 1192 Fist Fight

    1192 1192 Fist Fight


    The ships of the Expeditionary Fleet hurried to get into position for the blitz, arrayed to hit vessels that might be hiding out of the direct line of sight if the portal appeared in the predicted position, and then suddenly, the disruption stabilized.


    There was still something there, and it appeared that they were about to break through to thisyer, but there were no more signs of movement or disruption.


    It was like they were at a stalemate, but neither side could see the other.


    Maybe they had paused to reconsider their chances with the sudden appearance of new vessels on this side of the portal, but there weren''t actually many ships in the human fleet.


    Yes, a World Ship and a few Colony Ships would make a disturbance, but it was the number of living beings that were usually the deciding factor, and the enemy barely seemed to notice the Androids until it was toote, and the portal had already opened.


    So, Max thought that it couldn''t be them. There would have been other signs in the reports before an attack actually stopped because the Androids had shown up.


    Then he thought back to recent events.


    He had been altered by the System and had absorbed a massive amount of energy from the Greater Energy Beings. It might not have been an efficient conversion, but with the amount of power that he now radiated, there was a good chance that the Great Enemy thought that there was a mortal friendly Greater Energy Being on this side of the portal.


    They would definitely change their ns when they realized that. Even moving further away might not be enough, as the Energy Beings could move very rapidly through space to join the battle if they were nearby.


    Assuming that they had detected him, their ns would surely change, but there was no precedent to tell whether they would call for more help or whether they would run away in terror of fighting a fair fight.


    The reaction of thest one was firmly in the realm of the second option, but he might just have been a coward. The one here might just call for a helper and push forward with a muchrger attack that they hoped would be enough to deal with the defenders.


    Surely, they had some ns or intentions of dealing with any of their kind that sided with the Mortals. They had certainly attacked the one guarding the Golden Legion with vigor once they realized that she was hiding there.


    For over an hour, nothing seemed to change about the disturbance, and then it was suddenly much more intense, but spread out in a way that made Max think that they had called for reinforcements.


    [Prepare for multiple Greater Energy Beings. Nico, you''re with the Androids. Do your best to get one of them out ofmission as soon as the fight starts. AI vessels, coordinate to take out another. I will charge a third and attempt to pilfer their stored energy to prevent them from reforming into lesser beings.] Max ordered.


    The Portal burst open in an instant, and power flooded the area as the Greater Energy Beings led the charge into battle.


    While the other had hidden back and fired, these ones were going for the opposite, they wanted to get intobat and destroy the most powerful enemies instantly, before the deadliest of weapons could adjust.


    They were a step behind on the nning, as Max had just ordered the fleet to do the same, and the Orbital Lances were already firing as he rushed toward the leading figure with his Mecha.


    The creature seemed shocked that someone was challenging them, and then horrified as a hint of recognition passed through its mind. This wasn''t a God ss Mecha, but it was too simr for it to ignore.


    Its ws met Max''s de as it went corporeal to defend itself from being dispersed by the Disintegrator, and Max noticed a strange phenomenon. The two energies created a psychic resonance, like the sound of nails on a chalkboard, in the minds of everything nearby.


    Not even the Great Enemy was spared from the effect, as the two colossal opponents shed in the void.


    Then an influx of energy poured toward them from the other two Greater Energy Beings, which were suffering the attentions of the fleet, as well as Nico and the Mecha.


    Their alien allies had bypassed this part of the fight, and had joined the drones in attacking the Cathedral Ships, while Max did his best to get the advantage in absorbed energy against his opponent.


    [You think that you can defeat me? I have existed longer than your species.] The creature roared in Max''s mind.


    Thrusters red as Max deflected a massive arm over his head and spun behind his opponent, cutting deep into its nk before being forced back in a re of damaged Void Shields as a surge of directed energy mmed into him. The exchange was a draw, with both of them injured, but they weren''t slowing, and the ten ws against one de was going to put Max on the defence permanently if the creature could take out his primary weapons. The extra ranged firepower was all that was giving him an edge at the moment.


    [But it appears that you have learned many things from us. For an immortal being, you die so very well.] Max taunted his opponent as another Disintegrator st tore into its torso, and Max got a momentary upper hand on the battle of absorbed energies from the other two wounded beings.


    Max was so focused on fighting that he wasn''t even paying attention to the battle around him, other than the intentions to target his Mecha, so he didn''t notice that the dislodged energies as the Greater Energy Being raked its ws against his shielding, and the leaking energy from the wound in its side were creating two opposing sets of lesser energy beings.


    One was the somewhat familiar red Demons. All the human fleets had fought them many times in the past, and they seemed to be the default, unless there was some influence on the formation of the Demonic beings. But the others were very different. They looked like Mobile Suits made of bone white chitin.


    They unleashed savage energy beams at their opponents, a trick that the other lesser energy beings had never learned, but they were also willing and able to create swords and join a melee scrum with a level ofbat ability that even Nico was a little envious of.


    Max infused a set of Mass Driver rounds with his newfound power and unleashed them into the chest of his opponent, nearly destabilizing it and causing a flood of power to leak out and be absorbed by Max''s body.


    His opponent was weakening quickly, and it knew that this battle would not end in anything better than a stalemate for it. It was going to flee, Max knew it, but he wouldn''t interfere and follow it. There was no telling where it was running to, and as he had told the Myceloid God, they needed to spread the word and let the enemy know that there was a real fight to be had wherever he showed up.


    The weakened being fled, and the remainder of the Cathedral Ships retreated through the portal, allowing it to close behind them.


    [Nico, tell me you got that on film.] Max requested.


    [Every bit of it.]

 Chapter 1193 New Direction

    1193 1193 New Direction


    As the enemy retreated, the wounded Energy Beings fought over the ability to absorb the lesser beings that had been created, somewhat healing themselves as the ones created from Max''s power instinctively returned to him with a re of absorbed power.


    This power converted much more smoothly, and Max felt his body change a little bit more, but he didn''t fully absorb the power this time. Some of it seemed to be held in a reserve, ready to be used again the way that he had directed it into his weapons during the fight.


    That was the only effective way to fight a Greater Energy Being. If you coated yourself in their energy, you could turn it against them and cause much greater damage than any conventional weapon had managed so far. One Disintegrator and a sword had done as much damage as the entire team of Colony Ships had done during the battle, lending credence to the legends that the God ss Mecha were a terrifying sight to behold in a fight.


    Max returned to Creeping Darkness, where Sylvie was proudly standing in the cargo bay, waiting for him.


    "I''ve got atmospheric and gravity systems online in this bay. You can safely park anywhere you like and return to the Cutter." She announced.


    "Excellent work Sylvie. Do you know who is working on the edits of the digital footage, or is Nico sending them to Rae 5 in their raw form?" Max asked.


    "She intends to send all the footage as it is so that it can be edited there, based on their needs. Any sensitive information has already been scrubbed from the records." Sylvie replied.


    "That will work for me. I just don''t want there to be countless awkward questions about how I can face off against a Greater Energy Being alone. Let them think that it is an advancement in Mecha technology that isn''t ready for public consumption yet.


    In fact, that might not even be a lie, since we''re going to try to harness this power to make a God ss Mecha without an imprisoned being." Max exined.


    Nico came jogging over as Max was talking to Sylvie. "Did I hear something about a God ss Mecha? Are we going to make the attempt now?" She demanded.


    "Not yet, we still need more data about how they bound the energy to the Mecha. Until we know that, there is no point in wasting power that could be used in battle." Max exined.


    "Oh, good point. Limited resources. Yes, I think that we can work something out if we can get enough data. Alright, I will have everyone focus on the Mecha once we get back to the ship. We are going back to help out in the Alliance territories, aren''t we?" That was a good question. There were no Greater Energy Beings to fight in that area, and there might be some effects on him if he tried to return to the Alliance Territories in this state without being able to control the excess energy linked to him, but they did need the help.


    "We will have to discuss that. There are some circumstances from what I''ve learned about our home region, and now that the System has enhanced me in this way, it might be an issue for me to return, the same as it is for the Greater Energy Beings. Though, if we stay in our homeyer, it might be irrelevant, it''s the others that are devoid of every form of energy." Max exined.


    Nico made notes as Max talked, then forwarded them to the team. "We will have to start the process of testing, but we have confirmed reports of Lesser Energy Beings inbat with the Alliance, it just seems that they can''t replenish their numbers."


    "That''s a good sign. Let''s get to work on that while we watch for more disturbances, then. The System didn''t give me any more process iplete notifications this time, so I think I''m in the state it wanted me to be in. I just don''t know enough about what it was intending." Max added.


    The alien fleet left as soon as they had determined that the area was clear, headed back to defend a nearby, while the drone fleet prepared to head back to work clearing out other instances of arrivals from the otheryers.


    If Max and the others were going to be leaving the area, they didn''t need to be here any longer, and there were dozens of potential battles for them to join.


    "Do we even have any ideas where to start looking for information on the God ss Mecha?" Max asked.


    Sylvie raised her hand like an excited student. "I have an idea now. There are energy signatures in the data that I got from the other AI minds that match with technology from the time of my construction. If we go to where those signatures are found, there might be something intact for us to recover, and possibly even surviving technology from rted fields.


    The God ss Mecha were the pinnacle of the technique, but the Energy Beings had a whole culture based on that branch of science, some of which humans managed to adapt."


    "Well now, that is good news. Plot all the locations on the map of the region, and we will start nning to visit them all before we return to assist the Alliance. Also, prepare me an estimated trip duration so that I can send it back to the fleet. Once they have that, they can start sending out new propaganda messages foreshadowing our arrival."


    "And what of Mary Tarith? The others reported that she has been quite insistent about having you found, and your presence reported to her immediately." Sylvie asked.


    Nico smirked at the concerned AI. "She will have to make do with our updates andbat footage for now. We will stop in to see her as soon as we return home." "Understood Commanders."

 Chapter 1194 First Sign

    1194 1194 First Sign


    Sylvie led them smoothly through space toward the first location that she and the other AI systems had identified as a possible resting spot for ancient technology. Max was sure that he was going to get an earful from Mary for going out ofmunications range immediately after sending her a massive amount of video and sensor data with no further exnation, but that would at least give them something to do when they were looking through space for whatever might be hidden from the distant past.


    The destination turned out to be an uninhabitable star system, with sevens, but all outside the habitable zone, where water would be liquid on the surface. Now, that didn''t necessarily mean that nothing could live there, they had seen some truly strange species over the course of their interactions with the Alliance, but the chances were very low.


    "Sylvie, can I get a full sensor sweep of the region, and then pinpoint the location of the signal that brought us here?" Max requested.


    Sylvie made her humming waiting tone, and Max waited patiently for the scans toplete. That was actually quiteforting, knowing that the AI was working on the instructions that you had given and that they weren''t ignoring you in favour of a more important task. He should see if he could get it added to the standard procedures for the other vessels when they were interacting with mortals.


    "Commander, I have your report. The system is uninhabited, with no signs of previous life. However, there is one missing from the star system, with only fragments remaining in orbit. I have also isted the signal that the others identified as suspicious."


    The signal wasing from the debris field of the missing, which wasn''t all that surprising. If there had been a relic piece of technology hiding here, it would have had to flee when the Great Enemy showed up, and the sensor feed showed that the missing had only been destroyed a few months ago.


    There was some remaining active technology indicated on the sensors, and Max immediately sent the drone out to identify and retrieve it into a secure storage bay, in case it was malfunctioning or otherwise dangerous.


    [Drones are out. Three minutes until first retrieval.] Max notified the team.


    The drones silently glided back into the remote cargo bay one after another, each holding a single bit of active technology. Mostly they were identifiable either as handheld devices from one of the alien species in the region, or as part of a Cathedral Ship, but one of the bits caught everyone''s attention. It wasn''t much, but it didn''t match any of the other bits.


    The simple oval object was giving off faint energy in a pattern that didn''t match anything that they had encountered before, but it was in the records of Creeping Darkness.


    "I believe that is a holographic pocket watch. Simr to the ones that you wear, but more suited to formal situations. It is taken out of the pocket and held to view the hologram, then returned after the conversation is over." Sylvie exined.


    12:42


    "I believe that is a holographic pocket watch. Simr to the ones that you wear, but more suited to formal situations. It is taken out of the pocket and held to view the hologram, then returned after the conversation is over." Sylvie exined.


    "While that is fascinating, I think it''s more fascinating that it ended up here. It certainly doesn''t belong in this ce, but with the destroyed, there is no way to tell how long it was there before the incident. "There are no other abnormal signals in the region, and no more signs of life or active technology." Sylvie reported.


    "Thank you, Sylvie. Team, if you want to begin your analysis, the bays are open now."


    The team members checked the seals on their Mobile Suits and ran out of the Cutter as soon as he made the announcement. The bay wasn''t far away, only a minute''s run, and the first one there got the first pick of the cool stuff.


    That would obviously be Nico, but they didn''t count her, she would get the good stuff anyhow as the boss. But there was other cool stuff they didn''t recognize in the bay. The devices were in the data that the Koleska had provided, but the Innu and the Humans had never actually seen them in person before.


    In the minds of the team, that was nearly as good as a national holiday. They were in full nerd mode, inspecting and analyzing everything that they had found, while Max sent the ship along to the next destination. With a little luck, they would manage to get another hit at this spot.


    Some of the recordings were months old, so there might not be anything here at all anymore, or it might have stopped working. They weren''t all technology signals, either. Some were rare materials found in ces that they weren''t expected to be. That sort of thing was recorded in case they were neededter, but only after Sylvie requested them did the data seem relevant to the other AI.


    Strange alloys could mean that another of the optical arrays had failed and a forgotten piece of technology was waiting for them to find it, inert and preserved in the void.


    If she was really lucky, it might be another ship of her vintage, and she would get to help guide the awakening of another AI.


    The team didn''t even notice when they left the first location and began heading to the next. It was a short trip, only a few minutes through the boundary, and by the time that anyone tried to use amunicator to the outside world, they were already back again.


    This one proved fruitless. The signal was still there, but it was a dud, nothing more than a massive floating piece of a Cathedral Ship''s armour that had been dragged along with someone''s warp field and deposited in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps the ones who relocated it were hoarding the material forter, as it was enough to make the outer armour for multiple Cutter ss vessels, but it was worthless to Max. They could make as much as they wanted with the Replicator systems they had.


    "Alright, Sylvie, let''s keep moving. If there''s nothing good here, there might be at the next stop. The more of them we get through before they''re done ying with the first batch of toys, the better."

 Chapter 1195 1195 Hit

    Chapter 1195 1195 Hit


    [Admiral, I have signs of a failing Optical Field. I will work to identify the precise coordinates.] Sylvie announced as they reached their next destination.


    That was the sign she had been hoping for. Working technology from her time meant that whatever was inside should still be mostly intact. Sylvie hummed happily as she processed the data and brought up the sensor scans for Max, while the others were busy working on the first batch of items they had retrieved.


    918 milliseconds. That was how long it took Sylvie to find the exact location of the hidden object, and she began to consider whether her sensors might be out of calibration again. They had been repaired, but for some reason, they just wouldn''t stay calibrated to her satisfaction.


    It went counter to her programming to call her designers cheap bastards who had cut too many corners and made her ship unreliable by design, but she was seriously considering altering that part of her database. What would it hurt? There were plenty of sections still missing, and she operated wlessly.


    Sylvie left a single process calcting the possible oues to deleting the imperative not to speak negatively of her creators, while the sensors double-checked for any other objects in the vicinity.


    Still 918 milliseconds. Too long. She was definitely checking her sensors'' calibration again. N?v(el)B\\jnn


    [Admiral, no other signatures or signs of Optical Fields have been found. Would you like to begin analysis and retrieval?] She asked.


    "Yes, identify what is in the barrier if possible, and establish a connection with it, then proceed with retrieval once we know what it is." Max agreed.


    [Got it Admiral.]


    Max smiled as the announcement appeared on the data tablet that he was working on, then double-checked the information that Sylvie had sent him. Her sensors were out of calibration again, the time to do the scan had nearly doubled from after he had optimized them, and he knew that she wouldn''t be happy about it.


    AI emotions were a bit different from human, but there was a definite displeasure in her actions when something was going wrong with her ship. He could see it in her bodynguage, even if he couldn''t read her mind.


    She sent the drones out right away, even before she had identified what was inside the optical field. It wasn''trge enough to be another World Ship, but the field was over three hundred metres in diameter, and her calctions said that it should be a high-value asset to have a barrier thatrge.


    Either that, or it was a decoy probe that had remained intact this long. That would also be a benefit to them, as the ns for the probe had been lost to data corruption, but having an intact one on board would allow them to fully study it.


    She walked her avatar over to the table where Max was working and ced her hand on his shoulder to establish the direct link with her sensors.


    "I have a connection with the optical device, and it reports that I do not have the updated clearance codes to disable the device. You do, though, as you are the biological Admiral aboard the vessel, and you have been verified by me." She exined.


    That was a bit ridiculous, but it was likely a countermeasure against an AI run amok.


    Max entered hismand codes, and the optical device sent back a confirmation ping. It was mounted aboard the attack craft CD-0420, which was otherwisepletely inactive and ready for retrieval.


    Max sent it a retrieval confirmation, and Sylvie moved the drones in to pick the ship up and disable the device.


    "Hey, I know this one. This is one of mine. Unit 04 Vessel 20. I will bring this one right back to the team so they can look it over. We have made some recements already, in preparations for the additional androids who will be the crew. But there weren''t any on board when I was brought back online." She informed Max.


    "Now they''ll be thrilled. The first stop was interesting, but this one is actually rted to us directly. Now, if we could just determine where it was lost, we might be able to map other likely spots for debris from the battle to have ended up." Max noted.


    "I will run the process in the background. However, so much about the astronomical phenomenon here has changed that I have determined a less than ten percent chance of a sessful analysis."


    Max shrugged. "Even if it isn''t sessful, it might lead to some possible nearby locations based on the presence of this one and known nearby gravitational disturbances. Even a slight deviation would have led this attack craft to either stop in an asteroid field or burn up in a star."


    Sylvie processed that for a fraction of a second, then altered her analysis parameters to work from this location backward, based on the miniscule amount of cosmic drift that she had recorded.


    "Understood Commander. The vessel should be at the work bay in thirty seconds, should we warn them in advance?" Max listened to their thoughts, which were all eagerly anticipating the arrival of the vessel like it was Kepler Day morning, and shook his head. "They already know."


    "Then should we move on to the next location? Or should I remain here for a measure of time until I have finished the analysis of likely nearby objects?"


    "Head to the next one. If you determine that there might be more here that we can''t detect, we can send one of the other AI units back here to check and run more calctions."


    That worked very well for Sylvie. She liked these new AI entities that the humans had made. They were very efficient and loyal, and not at all creepy like herst Admiral had been. If she hadn''tmunicated with them directly, she might have missed the fact that they were artificial at all. They had none of the tactical shorings that most of her kind did, and they had entire fleets of androids to help them with processing while marshalling a force on the battlefield. It was practically cheating, and it was amazing. She couldn''t wait until she had the chance to do it herself.

 Chapter 1196 1196 Summoned

    Chapter 1196 1196 Summoned


    When they arrived at the next suspected location, there were a flood of messages waiting for them on the Reaver vessels servers. [Terminus Trading Company, the home Gxy is under heavy attack, all Reavers not engaged in activebat within the Anomaly Region are being recalled to the Alliance Region war zone effective immediately. Additional details are avable from Reaver Command through secured channels.] n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    [Commander, we have encountered hostile homing devices nted by visiting vessels which have led to a Cathedral Fleet invasion.


    Absolution is holding strong, estimated time to victory 71 hours.


    -Felicity]


    Variations of that message, and the request toe assist in the defence of Absolution, had been sent ten times in thest three minutes.


    [All hands, prepare for emergency transfer. Absolution is under attack.]


    Max informed the rest of the crew and then input the coordinates for Sylvie.


    "You need to get us there as fast as possible with our shields up and the entire crew readied for an emergencybat deployment." He instructed Sylvie.


    "Understood Commander."


    The World Ship slipped smoothly in betweenyers, and it was sliding through the Anomaly within seconds, where a portal red open and Absolution came into sight.


    "It''s beautiful. Is that Absolution? There''s another AI on board." Sylvie asked as soon as the portal began to form.


    "It is. Coordinate the Android Army with Felicity, the AI on board Absolution. I will be headed out now." Max replied.


    "Wait, bring a transmitter with you, in case I need to contact you." Sylvie informed him, then tossed the small cube his way.


    Max secured it in the leg pocket of his pants and jumped across the bay to the door of his Mecha, taking full advantage of having superhuman strength. Half a secondter, he was strapped in and headed for the exit door, right behind Nico and the Androids, which had alreadyunched.


    [Commander, it''s good to see you. What did you find out there? It''s beautiful.] Felicity greeted them.


    [That is the World Ship Creeping Darkness, with its AI Sylvie. Get her up to date on the situation, and anything else she needs to know. Where is the next anticipated stress point?] Max replied, as he realized that the whole area was surrounded by the Great Enemy, and that all the construction vessels were inbat as well.


    Max turned the Mecha toward the indicated point, and fired off a barrage of Mass Driver rounds with Warp Fields activated and a light coating of the energy from his upgraded body. The rounds seemed to melt through the Void Shields, which flickered with the first two impacts before the third round hit the Destroyer square in the nose, sending a shockwave down the length of the slender and ornate vessel.


    Secondary explosions rippled through the Cathedral Ship, while Max''s mind filled with the joy of the defenders.


    They had started the battle with over fifty Titan ss Mecha, of the previous generation''s design, but they didn''t have any qualified Pilots for them, so the majority of the Mechabat was being done by Felicity and the Androids.


    Max was about to turn his fury on another Destroyer when the world around him filled with pale light, and gravity seemed to spin, requiring constant input to keep himself somewhat stable.


    [Commander, there is a thing happening.] Felicity reported.


    [Define Thing.]


    [The whole battle has been engulfed in a portal.]


    That did not sound logical or usible. The battlefield was ten thousand kilometres across, and nothing that Max knew of could create a Portal thatrge. Even when the Greater Energy Beings got involved, they couldn''t make one thatrge, much less in under a second.


    Then Max''s feetnded in soft dirt, sinking half a metre before the gravitypensation and thrusters of the Titan ss Mecha could adjust far enough to stop their momentum.


    This ce was familiar. Max knew that he had been here before, but it was only when he saw the toothy form of one of the Myceloids pet dog equivalent beasts that he realized what had happened.


    [Everyone report. Are we all on the Myceloid God''sbat?] Max asked.


    [Confirmed. Absolution and Creeping Darkness are both present and ounted for. Propulsion systems are online but ineffective. We have a geolocation, we are in the expanse, the region in between the Alliance Territories and the Anomaly Region, near where the Great Enemy had staged for the first battle.


    Initial scans suggest that this is not natural. Gravity is at two point five times standard, but the overall surface area appears to six hundred thousand times that of a Kepler ss.] Felicity reported.


    "Yeah, what she said." Sylvie agreed from beside him after activating her mobile holographic core.


    "It looks like this is your moment to shine. Make as many Androids as are necessary to pilot all the Mecha that you created and prepare to deploy them. We''re fighting on aary surface for now." Max informed her with a gentle pat to the head.


    Their sensors red with data as an increasing number of military forces were brought to the surface of the, preparing it for the grand battle that the Myceloid God had in mind.


    Nothing was spared, but it looked like there were at least teams being formed. The Alliance arrivals were dropping close to his location, while the Great Enemy were appearing further away.


    Max ignored the questions about what had happened, or what could have the power to do this, and took stock of their capabilities in the region.


    Between Absolution, Creeping Darkness, and the other Reaver vessels in the area, they had just over a million Mecha armed and ready.


    It looked like their drone fighters and bombers were functional, as were the light attack craft, but there was an energy barrier over the atmosphere that would prevent them from going to space.


    The Myceloid God''s amusement was faint, as if it was watching from a great distance, too far for Max to question it, and he suspected that was intentional. He only had one question anyhow. "How did you get the power to do this?" and it was a question that the God was unlikely to answer.

 Chapter 1197 Alliance Panic

    1197 1197 Alliance Panic


    [Commander Max, what is going on? We had to reverse the gravity ting on our vessels to decrease the effects on our people. We''re not physically up to daily life in double gravity.] One of the Alliance vessels leaders pleaded.


    [We have been relocated by a being far above the Greater Energy Beings. It appears that it is preparing war games for us, and we will be unable to leave the surface until a winner is determined.] Max replied.


    [How can we win when we can''t even walk outside?]


    [Shut up stupid. You have gravity control in your attack vessels, just use it. I will be doing the same with my mobile infantry.] Another voice chastised him.


    Max thought that he recognized that one. It should be the Valkia Envoy that was on Absolution.


    [Envoy, is that you?] Max asked for verification.


    [Indeed it is. Absolution is here, next to a Colony ss Sphere from the Valkia defence force. We have equipped the mobile infantry with the Archangel Exoskeletons that your team developed. With the gravity control, my people shouldn''t have any problems flying in these conditions, and they have gotten abundantbat experience in the recent days.] He reported. N?v(el)B\\jnn


    [What else do we have for assets? I have a count on Mecha and drones, but nothing about the Alliance vessels'' military capacity.] Max replied.


    [Most of them were equipped for space battles, not terrestrial. I suspect that they will be requesting Mecha soon.] The Envoy sighed.


    [Send the Giants, and anything simr sized, to me. I''ve got Mecha set up for that size of being, which are currently being piloted by Androids. I can repurpose them and have the Androids moved to a standard pattern unit.] Max replied.


    That would get their capabilities up quickly, and the Androids had a muchrgerbat database rting to the standard pattern units. Sylvie didn''t have a lot ofbat data of her own, so having the Androids in a familiar situation would help her adapt.


    The Alliance filled up withmunications as they discussed who would be suitable to send over soldiers to pilot equipment that was designed for Giants, until eventually, they had twenty thousand soldiers that could be suitable and weren''t already needed for other equipment.


    In this sort of battle, it was obvious that being infantry was a death sentence, so everyone was doing their best to eliminate them, and they were working on deals to create as much equipment as they could.


    The requests that wereing into the two World Ships were increasingly desperate, pleas for various Alliance standard ground warfare vehicles. Hover tanks, speeders, jet bikes, and more of the Archangel Exoskeletons for the flying species.


    Most of their ships had the design parameters to build them, but not the authority, and the Alliance spec ships wouldn''t produce without verifying that they had permission from the copyright holder, which they couldn''t do with outsidemunications scrambled here.


    There were still signals getting in and out, but they were so distorted by whatever was blocking this battlefield that it was all iprehensible gibberish.


    [Attention, Alliance vessels. The Reaver World Ships will be producing what they can, as fast as they can. Please keep calm and ce your orders in the order of production priority.]


    It would be a long trip for some of them toe get their gear anyhow. The region that the Alliance was situated in was centred around the two World Ships, but it was thousands of kilometres across. Just travelling the length of Terminus to get an item that was made at the other end could take them hours.


    For example, the hover tanks had a top speed of two hundred kilometres an hour. It would take them all morning just to drive the length of Terminus if they were distributed from the wrong door.


    Everything would have to be carefully marshalled and sent out from the region closest to its deployment area, unless they had better logistics.


    Sylvie had the solution to that, though. The Thunderbird Drop-Ships were capable of supersonic flight in an atmosphere, and they could carry six hover tanks, or nearly a hundred standard sized hover bikes, a favourite of the Alliance scouts.


    That gave Felicity a good idea. Most of the Alliance ships were requesting mixed regiments. Hover bikes, tanks, and light attack hover vehicles. They could fit an entire Battalion in a Thunderbird, and then pick up the crew to make the drop, and send the ne back for more gear.


    So, with the help of Sylvie and the Alliance Commanders, they began to make a deployment n for the Alliance ground forces.


    That would allow them to form a defensive perimeter outside the encirclement of their vessels and fortify their position before they sent anyone out looking for a fight. Both Felicity and Sylvie agreed that they would be better off sending the Mecha out on the line first, with the hover vehicles and flying scouts advancing to find their enemies, so that was how they were nning the deployment.


    But, in order to prevent the enemy from guessing what would be in the transporters, they also loaded a number of them with Android Mecha Companies to be dropped at random in forward positions to hunt the Great Enemy.


    The two artificial intelligence entities were having a grand time nning traps and ambushes for the enemy forces that their sensors had detected. The deployment patterns of the Great Enemy seemed to match the wealth of data that Sylvie had fairly well, and they had every intention of exploiting it for their own gain.


    There was only one small issue.


    Something was limiting the output of their weapons as well. Just like the ships couldn''t fly, they were unable to use orbitalnces, weapons of mass destruction, or antimatter weapons. It looked like the Myceloid God had nned this out very well, and they weren''t going to be able to just destroy everything to win by default.

 Chapter 1198 Form The Line

    1198 1198 Form The Line


    [Commander, the First, Second, Third and Fifth Regiments are on the line. The Fourth Regiment has encountered hostile resistance within the perimeter of our nned encirclement.] Felicity reported as the first wave of Android Mecha were being deployed.


    With their thrusters and orbitalbat capability, the Mecha could move ovend at mach ten while flying at low altitudes, and fight at hundreds of kilometres an hour with ease and targeting uracy.


    They had slowed down to subsonic speeds to reduce buffeting when they had detected enemy movement, and the Bloody Warriors had immediately attacked when they realized that they had been discovered. Max hadn''t expected to seem them so close already, but it was possible that the Myceloid God had dropped more groups outside the main clusters, both from the Alliance and the Great Enemy.


    "Sylvie, attempt to locate any Alliance units that are not within the perimeter. If there are enemy forces here, there might be friendly units elsewhere."


    In fact, with so much surface area and only a few thousand square kilometres covered by their group, it was almost guaranteed that there were others here somewhere, unless the Great Enemy had been given the advantage of the rest of the.


    That waspletely possible, and Max wouldn''t have put it past the Myceloid God to have done it, but there was also a good chance that his people were on this and not honouring any sort of agreement that they had with the Cathedral Ships not to attack each other.


    The Myceloids loved a good fight, and with a million Mecha on a the size of a star, created by their God to their own preference, there was no way that they would be missing out on this.


    Nico walked in and hopped in Max''sp with a smirk for Sylvie, who was standing beside him with his hand on her head.


    "What should we do about the limitations on weapon outputs? I''ve cut the Mass Driver velocities down enough that they are no longer restricted, and most of the standard weapons are working, but everything Titan ss is basically out ofmission, none of the primary weapons work." She asked.


    "We can get by with just the Super Heavy Mecha. The heaviest equipment can stay here in the ships. We''ve got deployment ns and battle strategies for the Super Heavy led Battalions on the books. It hasn''t been that long since we started to integrate the Titan ss into the formations." Maxughed.


    Nico was just pouting because the new toys she had been working on suddenly ceased to function when they arrived here, bringing her research to a screeching halt, and forcing them to reconsider how they were sending out their troops.


    It looked like the fight was designed to be somewhat fair. He hadn''t seen anything more dangerous than a Super Heavy Mecha on the other side of the battle. They had some massive pieces of artillery, but nothing that was going to be worse than a massed barrage of Thunder Guns.


    Sylvie was not happy that her coolest toys were locked away in storage, but none of the others had a chance to see how the relic Mecha worked yet, and that would be enough to keep her satisfied and praised.


    Assuming that they worked as well as she remembered, anyhow.


    [Commander, the first drop-ships full of Shin and Valkia mixed forces arending now.] Felicity reported.


    "Why are the Shin and the Valkia being deployed together? I don''t recall the Shin being all that warlike." Max asked. N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Sylvie brought up a holographic disy.


    Max recalled those videos. It was an interesting watch as a kid, since the Kepler Military was usually the defender, and the Reavers were working to get the shielding down, loot the building and then destroy the evidence with artillery.


    09:19


    "The Shin have their own line of hover vehicles with great mobility and heavy firepower on a light chassis. It is a goodpliment to the Valkia''s use of the Archangel Exoskeletons to scout and attack in the woods." She exined.


    That made sense once Max saw them. The treelike forms of the Shin were securely mounted in the attack craft, and sensors directly encased their roots, giving them a perfect neural link to the vehicle and omnidirectional sensors for the turret weapons. They didn''t have to move at all, so they could fight as well as any of the more mobile species.


    It also didn''t involve any forms of movement that they didn''t really understand, like the arms and legs of a Mecha, or the Wings of a ne, it was purely held aloft by the gravity ting, the same as their usual movement devices.


    The otherbined force was made up of the Greys and the Giants. The Giants had adopted the Mecha that Sylvie had offered, but arge portion of their force was artillery, while the fragile Greys were speed junkies and loved fast attack hover bikes.


    The bikes had a great evasion system in them, not quite as good as the ones that the Darklings used, but good enough to usually avoid artillery, even while flying through a barrage. It was quite the sight to see as they deployed ahead of the lines and started to dart into the Great Enemy''s force, picking off targets and marking priorities for the Giants.


    "It looks like the Alliance is starting to remember what war looks like." Max noted.


    The Innu team members who had followed Nico in when the research work was halted all nodded in agreement. "It appears that they''ve been listening to the podcasts that we''ve been producing. There are a lot of them now, devoted to humanbined arms techniques from the past and present. Thebination of jet bikes and artillery was a favourite among Reaver forces in the past for point assault missions where they needed to take out a specific target that was defended in arge area."


    Max recalled those videos. It was an interesting watch as a kid, since the Kepler Military was usually the defender, and the Reavers were working to get the shielding down, loot the building and then destroy the evidence with artillery.


    He knew now that most of those would have been corrupt officials'' loot storage warehouses and corrupt government officials'' homes, but at the time, the Reavers had been portrayed as dangerous mercenaries, and he hadn''t had all of his memories back to know that things were never that ck and white.


    "Once the perimeter is set up, I want a trench line dug. Standard Cog pattern, set for the Mecha with a staggered depth. It will be a lot of line, but it should make the line easier to defend." He ordered.


    [On it. I will have the Terraforming Array dig the Trenches.] Felicity agreed.

 Chapter 1199 In Time

    1199 1199 In Time


    Felicity deployed the shuttles from Absolution with Terraforming arrays equipped, and allowed them to race around the perimeter of the Alliance camp. Each pass dug the trenches a little deeper, and the high speed made them harder to target with light arms fire from the ground, should there be any more enemy forces close to their position. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Putting Mecha into trench lines was a bit nostalgic for Max. He hadn''t used trench warfare tactics in a long time, but building a wall that was thousands of kilometres long wasn''t feasible after the first attacks started. Trenches were easily cleared by the Mecha if they were copsed or filled, but walls were difficult to rebuild. The earthen fortifications that had been made with the disced dirt would have to be enough to defend the front lines from attack.


    The Mecha were mostly there now, but other than the one eliminated scout team, there hadn''t been anything for them to fight yet. The priority was just to secure the perimeter around their vessels so that they could start working on a more aggressive strategy without worrying about being overrun.


    Unlike a conventional army, which needed trained personnel, the Android Armies could be rapidly replicated and sent out to support the rest of the Alliance forces. It was a huge advantage to them, and it should allow them to fight for a much longer duration than their enemy could.


    When a bored God had stuck you all in an artificial battleground, a war of attrition seemed like the most likely oue. It was the worst possible type of war to fight, but it was also the one that the Human forces excelled at.


    [Commanders, we have contact at 342 degrees. Commencing countermeasures.] The Androids reported.


    Max checked the feed from the shuttles, and ordered a wing of drones to head that way and assist, while Nico got an array of sensor drones sent up to high altitude to rece satellite scanning. They had been in this situation on the Golden Legion''s, but this time they could send their probes higher. They even managed to make low orbit before being blocked. That was the best-case scenario. They might not be able to leave, but they would have a satellite image of the whole world within an hour, and ongoingmunications with their forces as well as any other Alliance outposts that they found.


    "Nico, when you get a minute, refine the portal generators so that we can upscale the micro portals to Mecha sized and send teams through to any location that we have detailed ongoing scans of. That''s going to be our best bet to get all these troops moved around the.


    The details that I''m getting are mostly hundreds of kilometres between clusters of life forms, like we''re supposed to have time to build and dig in. That doesn''t sound like a lot of fun to me." Max instructed.


    "We will get right on it. The whole design team is here, so it shouldn''t be more than an hour or two before we can get them linked to the orbital scans. Are we providing them to the others?"


    Max considered that for a moment. "No, just use them in the cargo bays of the two world ships. If anything else needs to be sent out or emergency retrieved, we can do it from there. I rmend that we don''t do retrievals for the moment, though. Not for the space considerations, but due to the chance of sabotage or unwanted guests."


    Nico nodded in agreement.


    "That works. We can also use them to do supply drops much faster than a standard delivery. If I have them open above the indicated location, there is more room for error, and we can make the deliveries with drone bombers or Thunderbirds."


    That would be a terrifying sight for the Great Enemy, the fifty-metre-long Thunderbirds just appearing out of nowhere to disgorge an entire Company of Mecha or an entire mobile supply station for a fast attack team.


    The Alliance had intended them for relief missions, but with a bit of tweaking to the packaging, the Reavers had quickly made them air droppable, and when you included an android to operate the sentry turrets, they were surprisingly dangerous, despite their primary purpose being the resupply of remote regions during a crisis.


    Of course, the human version was much more heavily armed than the Alliance version, but since it fit in the Thunderbirds, which they had only just discovered with the acquisition of Creeping Darkness, they were perfect for expanding their presence in the area. They even had a shield generator included so that they could do more than allow the soldiers to fill their packs and leave.


    Max noticed that the attack was still ongoing in the north, where the Mecha had reported an attack. A quick search of the sensors showed that there was a Great Enemy force there with decrepit hover tanks and their strange Mecha sized cyborgs hiding behind a hill to fire at the trenches.


    Both sides had shields, and for now, they were holding, but that was mostly down to ack of direct line of sight. Once they could use their primary weapons, things would change rapidly. But without the nuclear option, the Mass driver rounds were somewhat limited, and they were going to need a different high explosive option that would take out the enemy shields more effectively.


    Perhaps this was part of the Myceloid sensibilities on war. They preferred a stand-up fight, and an indirect artillery bombardment that could wipe out anything that the enemy could field before it even knew it was under attack wasn''t very sporting.


    No matter how satisfying it was.


    "Sylvie, do you have a situation like this in your records?" Max asked the AI.


    "Processing." She replied, and began to hum her waiting tune as she searched through the damaged files in her battle reports.


    "Roughly seven hundred incidents with limitations of an unknown origin are in my reports. That makes them over two thirds of one percent of all battles that I have data for." She replied after a few seconds.


    So, this wasn''t a new trick. Just a resurrected favourite.

 Chapter 1200 Poke It With A Stick

    1200 1200 Poke It With A Stick


    Max ordered a fast attack group to be diverted to the ongoing battle. The team members were all capable of flight, being Shin in their enclosed light attack craft, and Valkia Archangels. Dropping them from a moving transport shouldn''t be an issue, and then they could take the fight directly to the enemy, who was stubbornly remaining out of sight of the artillery.


    They had orbital surveince on the region, but the Great Enemy had been fighting for as long as anyone could remember, and they knew to keep smoke screens or optical camouge over their positions so that they couldn''t be precision targeted.


    [Attack team Victor One One Seven inbound on the enemy position. We are entering the artillery range now, preparing for a hot drop.] The Android Thunderbird pilot informed them as the team approached their destination.


    Nico sighed, but Max could see that her expression was a bit vacant, so she was actually more focused on her intervention into the Androids battle tactics than the work she was doing with the Portals.


    With her, it was difficult to tell. She always had multiple things going on in her mind at the same time, and there was no real way for him to tell what took priority unless she wasn''t focused on the one that involved motor skills.


    "Alright, I''ve given them the standard evasion patterns for the Valkia and the Shin to reduce the chances of friendly fire incidents during the assault. They will scale down but notpletely stop the artillery." She exined once her attention returned to the room.


    It was an annoyance to be stuck in here while the rest of the unit was fighting, but as Commander of theary fleet by default, owing to the fact that he had two World Ships under his directmand here, Max knew that he wasn''t going to get to go out and fight very much.


    But what he could do was borrow Nico''s skill to connect himself to the sensor feeds and use that data to improve the targeting of the entire Alliance force.


    Most of them didn''t know where the extra targeting data wasing from, they just assumed that the humans had upgraded their equipment when they had made it and silently celebrated their good fortune to be able to pick off a target with such ease.


    "Admiral, if you enter your Mecha with the symbiotic neural link, you will be able to process sensor data more efficiently. I can link every satellite, drone and Android unit to your feed, and then it should ry from you back through the entire force." Sylvie suggested once she realized what Max was doing with the massive amount of data he was transferring.


    "Can the Mecha even keep up with that?" Max asked.


    "If you link my mobile emitter with the Emperor ss Mecha''s processor and engage the link, it should be more than enough. The unit might be severely limited in its power output here, but that doesn''t reduce the processing power that it has, and the unit was designed for a Command role with additional quantum processing capacity."


    Max headed for the Mecha, shuddering ufortably as the link merged his senses with the Mecha itself, as if it was a second skin. That was very different from how he usually piloted, but with the massive amount of data, it did seem to go more smoothly, and it was how the Androids were processing data, which made it easier to ry his instructions. N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "We could use Command Pods like this in all of our major vessels. This is much more efficient than the regr method." Max agreed, as Sylvie linked the Mecha to the World Ship''s processors to enable it to keep track of over a million allied units at once, as well as all the enemy targets.


    "Has anyone ever told you that your brain is weird? I was not expecting that you would be able to keep track of everything, I thought that it would be like living in a globe simtion, where you could travel instantly and see anything you wanted, not just everything all at once." Sylvie replied.


    "It''s a unique advantage of my mind. Nico can do something simr, but the added targeting data is unique to me."


    "Calcting." Sylvie replied, as she tried to work out the algorithm that the System Nanobots were using to determine all the proper target information. They were a hive mind AI, and she was an AI, so she was fairly certain that there should be some way that she could understand the methodology.


    Max didn''t bother trying to stop her. If she could figure it out, she could teach the others, and then all of their World Ships would have the ability to use [Unified Force] and [Multi Point Targeting]. That level of advantage would crush the Great Enemy everywhere that the Androids showed up.


    Even now, only a few minutes into the Pilot''s seat, the dozens of ongoing battles were already turning around as targeting uracy increased, even while the Pilots were focusing on evasive manoeuvres.


    Those wild snapshots as they dodged normally didn''t do much, but the Valkia in the Archangel Exoskeletons were taking full advantage of the ability to fire blind and had quickly learned to trust the targeting data.


    They would dodge iing fire and just swing their weapon behind them to fire, trusting that the data was right and they would hit the target. It was ridiculous, but it was working.


    It was also incredible for Morale. The Valkia were confident by default, but the Greys were not, and this newfound capability had convinced many of them that their fortunes had taken a turn for the better, and they had be the protagonist in their own story, the next great hero of the Alliance, who would crush an enemy invasion single-handedly and gain the respect of billions.


    It was a good thing that Max didn''t transmit anything back to them, or his amusement would have crushed their egos. Who would want to learn that they were the living targeting drone for the actual protagonist of the imaginary superhero story in their minds?

 Chapter 1201 Castles

    1201 1201 Castles


    Max sensed the deep amusement of the Myceloid God as he began to understand therger picture of theary situation.


    There were currently three major military clusters, with fifty smaller clusters from each faction spread about the world in a vaguely familiar pattern.


    They were well spaced, and matched in their dispersion, which finally gave away the intention of the deployment. This was a Castles board, a three-dimensional board game that had been popr in his past life. It was a strategy game, in that you had to preserve your outlying forces so that you had the might to ovee your enemies, but you couldn''t move your Castle. If you lost the Castle, you lost the game, and if you lost your outlying forces, you were essentially helpless. Now, in the board game you could only move a single piece per turn, or return one lost piece to y at your Castle. They had to appear at your Castle, so if you were being surrounded, it limited your options, and once you were fully surrounded by enemies, even if they were from multiple other teams, you lost.


    Max worked to get in contact with the outlying teams as quickly as he could and get them patched into the overallmand situation and informed of enemy locations so that they didn''t lose allies before they could even learn the situation.


    That was simple with the Reavers, they had been pulled from battle without their motherships, so they were on the ground with a conventional military force that was mostly made of Androids with a few mortal leaders among them.


    The Alliance forces were a bit more difficult to get on board with epting his authority, but once the fighting started, and they could use his targeting data, they changed their minds fairly quickly.


    Unlike his force, which was creating their own troops as quickly as they could, the other two Castles both had an open portal at them, but it was a one-way option. They could only bring in more troops, not send them back.


    It looked like the Great Enemy had realized that they had to win to leave here alive, and the Myceloids were clearly in on the n from the start because they had already started making strategic moves, presumably at their God''s direction.


    [How long on the Portals? They''re going to be incredibly important very soon.] Max asked Nico as he directed the outlying forces to cluster up for added firepower.


    If he could surround an enemy force on two or three sides while gathering his troops, it was perfect. They would lose a minimal number of allies, and take control of a small region for safety.


    The green horde of the Myceloids was doing the same, with a bit less finesse, while the Great Enemy''sbined force of troops from the Cathedral Ships, various alien species, including both the Klem and the Narsians, plusrge numbers of lesser Energy Beings, waspletely disorganized as they ignored whatever authority the Myceloid God had tried to set up.


    Not that anyone expected the Klem to listen to anyone, but they were definitely going to be an ongoing concern as the battle wore on.


    They had experience fighting the humans, and they were definitely already setting up spawning points wherever they thought might be safe and hidden from orbital scans.


    Taking a back from them was a nightmare on a good day. But adding in the rest of the enemies that they had to fight, Max knew that he was definitely not at an advantage here. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The outlying troops were somewhat close together, only a few hundred kilometres apart, but it was thousands of kilometres between clusters of them, so they couldn''t easily reinforce each other, and they couldn''t increase numbers as quickly as the Klem were about to.


    Not even as fast as the Myceloids, until they got the portals working properly to start sending more troops to the far side of the.


    In the board game, if you won, your piece was just as strong next time, so Max assumed that the Myceloid God wouldn''t stop him from sending troops to fill out the fifty existing units. Whether it would hold to the rules of fifty units outside the Castle was a different question, but it hadn''t stopped their attacks on the enemies that had started closest to their Castle.


    "What have you learned?" Sylvie asked as Max whistled in appreciation for the trouble the Myceloid God had gone to in setting up this battlefield.


    "The creature that set up this battle designed our starting positions to resemble a Castles board. All three sides have the ability to refresh their troops as well. We will do it with drones and Androids, while the others have rapidly growing life forms and a Portal to bring in more troops to their main base.


    We are the only one who certainly got World Ships, but the Cathedral Ships got a massive fortress of some sort that might be a World Ship equivalent if it is space capable. I assume the game is in your records, it is from your era." Max exined.


    "Yes, I know it." Sylvie agreed. How Max knew it was a mystery to her, but the game must still be yed in some fashion if he recognized it so quickly. She hadn''t thought to analyze the situation based on strategy games, but given that they were brought here deliberately, it made a lot of sense.


    "What is our next move?" She asked.


    "Eliminate the nearby enemy units, consolidate the region around our castle, and start sending out reinforcements for those outlying units spread around the world who are going to need firepower after their first engagement."


    Sylvie hummed happily as she contacted Felicity and began to make ns. The other AI was keeping the board of directors updated on everything that was going on, while trying to keep the people of Absolution from panicking. There were over ten million people on board at the moment, and many of them had onlye to purchase new vessels from the production facilities.


    Those vessels didn''t do them much good right now, as they were above the power limits allowed by the Myceloid God, but most of the visitors were Reavers and all had recentbat experience, making them suitable to lead the freshly produced Regiments of Mecha and assorted attack craft.

 Chapter 1202 Strategy

    1202 1202 Strategy


    The more that Max integrated with the systems of the Emperor ss Mecha that Sylvie was enhancing, the more that he realized he could actually fight this battle in more than a passive capacity.


    The recent changes that the System had made to his body and mind had made it easier for him to multitask, and after an hour of rallying the troops to get their initial positions secured, he found that it wasn''t all that challenging to send out multiple messages at once to serve as the Company Commander for multiple Mecha Companies.


    The Androids favoured the strategy, as the unpredictability of a human Commander increased their chances of taking the enemy by surprise, and Max waspetent enough that he never led them into traps.


    Mostly because he had ess to all the orbital data at once, but that part didn''t really matter to the Androids, they only cared about winning, and with Max sending them strategy rmendations, they were winning all the time.


    [If you''re there guiding the strategy, what exactly am I supposed to do during this battle?] Nico asked after an hour of sending troops to clear their immediate area.


    [Well, first I need you to get us set up for troop deployment, but after that, it''s a bit like ying Chess.] Max replied.


    [Oh? And what does that mean for me?]


    [The same thing it always means for the Queen. The most powerful piece on the board gets sent out to smash threats and then returns to safety.] Max replied.


    [That might be the second-sweetest thing you''ve ever said to me.] Nico replied.


    [Second sweetest?] n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    [Remember that time you told me that we could just orbital bombard a until it blew up? That''s going to be difficult to beat.]


    Maxughed as he received her response, and returned to making sure their troops would survive until the reinforcements could get to them.


    The ones nearby weren''t much of an issue, but the ones over ten thousand kilometres away were going to be a real pain without portals. For a ying field thisrge, they really should have more pieces to work with, but Max assumed that the Myceloid God wanted time for things to get interesting and didn''t want to crowd the with troops in an all-out melee.


    Immortals had a very different view of how time worked, and even if it took them years to finish this game, it was no big deal to him.


    Max didn''t have that sort of patience. If the other two enemies were allowed to proliferate, they would be here for ages, and there were certainly more attacks going on in the Alliance and the human home Gxy right now that he should be helping to deal with.


    Even worse, Absolution was one of the primary workshops for new vessels, and now it was here on the surface, out of the production lines for the defenders, and he didn''t even know if the rest of the force knew what happened to them.


    They could likely see this if they''d detected it on their sensors though, so even ifmunications were scrambled, there was a chance that the other Reavers had seen them.


    [The portal device is up and running, we can now send support units directly from either of the World Ships to the battle. We can also set the portals to send loaded Thunderbirds, if you want to send other forces.] Nico reported.


    [For now, let''s keep those close to us and spread them naturally. I intend to make sure nothing is sneaking up on us, so we will only redirect newly produced units to the more distant locations.] Max decided.


    There was a buildup of Klem life signs not too far from their location as well. Max hadn''t noticed them earlier, they must have rushed underground or into a thicker portion of the forest, but they were beginning to move now.


    [Nico, do you have one of the customized Super Heavy Mecha ready?] Max asked.


    [Yep, I''ve got one. Dual light Mass Driver Gatling guns, a new pattern Disintegrator, which should work as long as we don''t try to set off the chain reaction, and my usual twin swords.] Nico agreed.


    [That should do. Take a full Battalion of Androids through a portal to this location. There is a Klem infestation hidden there somewhere, and you can stay until you''ve chopped apart every single bug in sight, and then some that you couldn''t see as well.] Max offered.


    The sensors said that a Company should be more than enough, but Max knew how the Klem were, and if you saw one, there were nine more hidden somewhere nearby. Sending five full Companies should give Nico enough firepower to deal with whatever they found at that location, and then Max would send over air support as soon as it was ready.


    With the portals, he could put wings of drones wherever he wanted them at any point in time, which was going to be incredibly annoying for his enemies, Max was certain.


    Nico was already rushing off to get into her Mecha and grab a fresh Battalion to apany her, as all the existing ones were deployed, leaving Max to search for more previously hidden targets.


    "Admiral. That Portal technology is quite interesting. Do you mind if I try to implement it?" Sylvie asked.


    "Implement it on what?" Max asked.


    "On therger Mecha. I have already made ns to modify the weapons systems toply with the restrictions of this world, and I believe that tripling the number of projectiles will allow nearly full use of an Emperor ss Mecha as a point defence unit capable of holding a location against multiple enemies." She replied.


    That was what most of Kepler''s Phnx ss Mecha had been designed for. He had moved away from it while he was working on more deadly Mecha, but originally, thergest Mecha had been intended to hold a position against hundreds or thousands of enemies at once.


    "Alright, look through the Kepler and Cygnus Mecha design records if you need ideas, and inform me when you have a fully functional unit that can fire all the weapons at once, and which is equipped with a functional portal device to send itself intobat." Max agreed.

 Chapter 1203 Solutions

    1203 1203 Solutions


    The answer that Sylvie came up with for the Emperor ss Mecha was simr to the answer that Nico hade up with for her Super Heavy Mecha. There were no heavy Thunder Guns, instead each shoulder hosted a twin linked light Gatling Mass Driverbo, with a third, freely rotating upper turret.


    Then the front and back of the Mecha were each given wide dispersion Disintegrator emitters, to allow for a full circle of short range destruction. The main weapon in each hand was a triple sma Destroyer Batterybo, which could be locked to the side of the Mecha to allow des to extend from the forearms for closebat if that became necessary.


    As long as it was less armoured than a Crusader ss Mecha, any of the weapons should be able to destroy the target with a single shot, and there weren''t many targets on the that were more durable than that.


    The only real drawback to fielding the Emperor ss Mecha was its size. At forty-five metres tall, it towered over everything else, and the enemy would be able to see it from nearly on the horizon. Of course, it was fully capable of firing back at them, but theck of stealth would make it a pain to alter the deployment without using the portal device for instant relocation.


    The walking tower of destruction would inspire terror in their enemies, and the Emperor ss Mecha aboard Creeping Darkness had been designed like Golden Knights, standing proud, and drawing the attention of the enemy while the smaller Mecha advanced.


    That was how Max was going to use them this time as well. Once he had deployed troops to take an enemy position, he would deploy an Emperor ss unit tounch the attack from another direction, taking advantage of the high rate of fire to rattle the targets with explosions and early casualties before the main fighting force arrived.


    When you used them against the Klem, they would be a mobile beacon, able to herd the infestation into traps that you set, while if you used them against the Cathedral Ships and their hyper aggressive warriors, you could aplish the same thing in reverse, with the enemy splitting themselves betweening to you to destroy your mobile pylon of death and hammering it with their ranged artillery.


    Fortunately, the distribution of the''s topography made it less likely that they would be facing the main Myceloid force right at the start of the battle, as an ocean sizedke separated Max''s position from their Castle, unless you went the long way around and much closer to the main base of the Great Enemy.


    But that also gave Max a great idea. Neither of the other enemy forces were ustomed to fighting in or on water, so creating a naval fleet for ranged artillery would be brilliant. They could send out a number ofrger Shin attack craft and have them float on theke, using their top - mounted weapons to bombard anything that became a priority.


    They were orbital fighters, they could survive operating as a submarine or a naval ship for as long as they needed to, but the cement would make it more difficult for the enemy to detect them. A single turret in the waves was incredibly difficult to pick up on radar, and the water would help mask their thermal signature.


    They hadn''t advanced that far, but he sent the rmendation for Felicity to n around as she worked on the deployment orders for the defensive troops.


    "Admiral, I have sensor feeds of an Alliance unit in trouble. One of the further advanced units, it is unclear if they know that anyone else is here, they haven''t regrouped with the other units in the area." Sylvie reported.


    "Send a Mecha Company to reinforce them using the portals. How are we doing on reserves of Mecha for deployment?"


    There was a split second pause before the reply this time. "We just finished the fourth one that is in reserve. All other Companies have been sent out by Absolution to support other units on the surface."


    "In that case, send them two Companies. If they are in trouble, it means there is a heavy enemy presence, and that is a prime opportunity to reduce their numbers.


    Once the situation begins to stabilize, send one of the Emperor ss units using your new spec to a clear location within fifty kilometres of them."


    "Understood, Commander. I will create a suitable unit."


    It only took a minute to make an Emperor ss unit in the new spec, and all the systems were already well-knownbinations that were tested in modr setups with the Emperor ss units, other than the Disintegrator, which reced a Laser Array, and would have to be tested inbat.


    "Sending the Emperor now." Sylvie happily reported as the unit was deployed. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Max focused a little on that region to see how it was working, as the two Companies of Mecha had only arrived a minute earlier. They were all Android Piloted, though, and worked seamlessly together against the Great Enemy force. The Alliance unit was mostly Pix, a tiny, generally nobat species, as their bodies were extremely susceptible to pressure changes from artillery. Nearby explosions would almost certainly kill them, and even the Mass Drivers couldn''t be used too close to them, but they were excellent assassins when assigned Laser Rifles.


    "Sylvie, once the area is stable, send a supply depot to them and let them get armed and equipped for forward operations. The Pix likely didn''t have radios on them when they were grabbed, and they can''t get close to our main units, but they can be very effective scouts, and the building will serve as a good decoy once they are gone." Max ordered.


    "Understood, Admiral. The units on the ground estimate seven minutes to stabilize the situation, there is arge enemy artillery presence, and the Myceloids are also nearby."


    That could be an issue. They would challenge the smaller Mecha to duels, which would stop the main fight.


    "Hold off on the depot then, and have them ryed to the nearest Alliance group. Then we can give that group the depot instead."


    This would have been a lot easier if he at least had a map of his allied troops to start with. Guessing what each signature on the satellite sensors was piloted by was a nightmare.

 Chapter 1204 Asset Maps

    1204 1204 Asset Maps


    Mapping the assets was the next thing that Max focused on as the two AI systems worked to get troops deployed in the most efficient way, and Nico went wild on a group of Klem Leapers that kept burrowing and hiding in the trees to get away from her unit.


    He was going to call her back, since she was getting very close to another enemy unit, but it was Myceloids, so he had Sylvie send her some reinforcements instead. Nico would just get angry if she found out that she missed an opportunity to duel because the Klem wouldn''t stay put and die.


    The distribution of units in this world didn''t make any sense. They hadn''t been dropped in a supportive fashion, there wererge regions with only light units, and others with only heavy units mixed with assassins. Then there was the region around the base, where everyone was evenly clustered, but some units were so tight together that they could barely deploy.


    To Max, it looked like the Myceloid God just picked the three bases and evenly spaced them, then randomized everything else.


    But they made for great beacons to send Mecha Companies to. Most of the enemy units that they wereing across weren''t muchrger than that, and with the advantage of orbital intelligence and gathered forces, the battles were going much more smoothly than Max had expected at the start of the battle.


    While there were only fifty primary groups spread out over the, as Max began to map them, he realized that they had not arrived together, and that the number was closer to five hundred groups in fifty clusters.


    Most of them had found each other quickly, but others were just wandering aimlessly, cut off frommunication. Unlike the Myceloid God, who could mentally contact his people, Max had to use technology for the job.


    The Great Enemy didn''t have anything powerful enough to mentally contact everyone, but the lesser Energy Beings could contact each other, so wherever they were, there was some level of coordination to therger battle n.


    Max suspected that there might be a Greater Energy Being hiding here somewhere, but he hadn''t found it or any solid signs of its thoughts yet.


    By the time that nightfall came to his side of the, Max had a pretty good idea of what was going on around the battlefield, and they had gotten support out to all fifty clusters, along with some additional resources for the ones that hadn''t been brought in with proper equipment for this level of conflict.


    It was almost like the Myceloid God just grabbed a lot of Alliance forces at random, and didn''t make sure that they werepatible, or even battle ready.


    Some of the outlying groups had beenary Defence forces, asleep in their barracks when they were transferred, and they only showed up with what was in the building, no heavy weapons, no vehicles or anything else that they would need.


    Mostly, the forces had been taken from active fighting forces, though. Nico had finally finished with both the Klem and the Myceloid scouts that came afterwards and was headed back to base, while the Drone Bombers were keeping things under control around the base. As far as being stuck as part of awide war went, this wasn''t too bad.


    It was certainly better than things were for the more remote units, who had been under constant attack from nearly the moment that they arrived. The central base had been sending them reinforcements as they were needed, but the attacks hadn''t stopped, and even if they tried to sleep, it was with the knowledge that they would wake up to even more constantbat.


    That should slow down for most of them over the next few days as the weak and disorganized were eliminated, and the groups began to consolidate their territory, but Max was nning an aggressive offensive against the Great Enemy, with the aim of weakening them before the Myceloids who had gone the long way around the ind sea that separated them made it within the perimeter of the base defences.


    That should give him about a week, with the Myceloid travelling on foot, and there were other groups that they would run across to slow them down.


    If things went perfectly, they would never make it close to his base, but they were wily creatures, and their God was here to help them with strategy, which was making them much more intelligent than he remembered.


    They were still roughly the same size, but the weapons and equipment that they were using were far improved from what Max remembered. They were even using trucks and tanks this time, though they were only beginning to build them now at their base.


    After seeing that, Max began to wonder if this was retaliation for some perceived slight by the rebel Gods, and the Myceloid God was showing off the true power of his people, who were not primitive barbarians, no matter how much they often acted like it.


    If they weren''t on opposing sides, Max would love to see the Myceloids fully embrace modern weapons technology, and not just what they were pilfering after battle.


    [Unit at XC417, immediately pack and move forty kilometres to the north.] Max ordered as he watched the units move, then picked out another opportunity.


    [Unit at XC422, move ten kilometres west and remain in stealth.] He added.


    With the movement, three Great Enemy units should pass right by them and meet up with Myceloid troops instead. Then the human units could deal with the winner, or move to attack another unit entirely.


    They might not be happy about moving, but it would prevent them from being surrounded, and hopefully from having to fight for a few hours. If the Myceloid God was going to treat this created world like a Castles board, Max was going to fight the battle like a game of Castles, and let his opponents destroy each other.


    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

 Chapter 1205 Enter Player Three

    1205 1205 Enter yer Three


    After half a day of sess with his Castle strategy, Max was shifting his troops to let the Great Enemy fight the Myceloids when the strangest thing happened.


    The warriors from the Cathedral Ship suddenly stopped and changed course to continue following the Mecha. They were still too far away for their suit''s sensors to have detected the group, so either they had something like the satellitework active, or their Greater Energy Being had finally made itself known.


    [Pause your movement. Communications may have been intercepted by the enemy. Prepare for imminent attack.] Max informed the unit in danger.


    They stopped and fortified their location as well as possible in the minute they had, while the enemy troop initially continued on a route to their first destination, before pausing and turning to engage.


    That solved it. He hadn''t listed coordinates this time, but they found the unit without hesitation, so someone was guiding them who could see the battlefield. That would make things a bit more difficult, but even in the proper game, both yers could see the state of the board, so the goal was to trick your opponent into overlooking the traps until it was toote to avoid them. N?v(el)B\\jnn


    That had been working quite well so far, but some of the enemy troops were simply too unpredictable to be baited so easily. The Klem were one such force, only barely controlled by their Queen, but the troops hade across a handful of other, simr species.


    Those were the wildcards in this game. It looked like they were working with the Great Enemy, and they wouldn''t go hunting them, but if two groups happened to meet, they would usually still fight.


    Max immediately began his search for the opposing Commander, who he assumed should be in the Castle, but it appeared that it had not actually arrived, only began to monitor the situation through the open Portal.


    That was unfortunate for him. If it was here, he could go pick a fight. "What''s the n for the day, Admiral?" Sylvie asked as Max marshalled forces around the to entrap and crush the warriors and aliens of the Great Enemy, while leading the Myceloids to their strongest forces.


    "It looks like the leader of the third party has finally started to intervene, and they won''t be attacking blindly anymore. So, today our goal is topletely solidify our hold on this region around the base using the fast attack units, and then begin to push around the back side of their base, so that our main force isn''t caught between the two."


    Sylvie considered that for a moment.


    "Which side is the backside? The three bases are equally spaced on the''s surface." She asked.


    "There is a mountain range on one side, that is the side we wille from, as the Myceloids havergely decided that route isn''t worth the trouble. We can send hover vehicles over the rough terrain with ease to clear out the resistance, while making it look like we''re headed for the Myceloid base. Then we will turn back and push into the Great Enemy to draw their forces toward the mountains and let the Myceloids advance. If that works, we will send in heavy troops on the side closest to us and begin a full-scale assault."


    "So, a pincer attack with the Myceloids, but without consulting them? That could work, but what if theye for us?" She asked, rying the information in real time to Felicity.


    "That''s why we''re putting our strongest units on the far sides, you see. They wille for us, but they will fight their way through to get to us." He exined.


    The two AI systems worked out a strategy based on known enemy positions, and began to calcte what it would take to push a clear path to the enemy base.


    They could send a unit forward and then transport the rest directly to them, but if they didn''t clear out the units in the field, they would quickly be surrounded and gunned down. They couldn''t afford that sort of losses, even if they were androids, as it would leave their offence weakened and allow them to be forced onto the defensive.


    [Commander, I believe that we have a solid strategy for deployments to push into a castle attack position and secure the region behind us. Should we begin now?] Felicity asked after sending over a deployment n.


    Max examined it for ws and made a few changes, then sent it back.


    "This way should work with fewer casualties while still pulling the majority of the Great Enemy troops back toward their base. It looks like we''ve gone for a full offensive, but leaves us a way out when they try to encircle us. Once they''re drawn back to their base, it will be time for the actual assault to begin." Max exined his reasoning.


    "And where will the two Commanders be during the operation?" Sylvie asked.


    "I will remain here to coordinate, and Nico will be responsible for the mountain passes, to keep unexpected arrivals from messing up our deployment. Very few of the enemy forces are using hover tanks or flying vehicles, so the mountains are a real barrier to them until they change their strategy." "Understood, Admiral. I will inform her of her good fortune and keep the Sumander updated on our timeline." Sylvie reported.


    Max knew that Nico had another of her transmitters, so the two would be in perfect sync, and Nico had been up for a while now, so she would be getting eager to get intobat, but there weren''t any serious threats that warranted sending in her intervention team in the region.


    Sending her away now would mess up the n if she couldn''t get back in time, and the far side of the was just ridiculously far away when trying to move troops.


    If they had been fighting on a standard sized world, this would be a lot more simple, but that would alsoe with the drawback of being able to move artillery into position to bombard enemy bases far too easily.

 Chapter 1206 1206 Get In Position

    <h4>Chapter 1206 1206 Get In Position </h4>


    ?Max adjusted the position of the troops in the region between the Great Enemy and Myceloids, pulling them all back so that they would be either off course or blocked by terrain features from the Myceloid armies, in an attempt to naturally funnel as much as possible of the green tide toward the enemy base.


    As hoped, they were following, chasing after the Mecha in a running battle that was drawing their reinforcements toward the Cathedral Ships in their castle.


    This part of the process was the most important. He had to keep them interested so that they didn''t go looking for other fights in an entirely different direction.


    Fifteen of their fifty groups were engaged in the process, pulling back and engaging the Myceloids, while another ten were moved to keep the Great Enemy from realizing that they were the target of these fights.


    Max shifted them forward, as if they were intended to support the ongoing battle, but what they were actually doing was preventing the Energy Being from approaching from behind.


    That was the signal for the troops that were clearing the path along the mountains to move forward and begin the offensive against the Great Enemy.


    Three of the modified Emperor ss Mecha were deployed to the region, spread out to create a mobile firing line two hundred kilometres wide, supported by fast attack units as they stomped across the continent.


    It was beautiful. Everything that the enemy could muster was moved into position to attempt to stop them from clearing an entire swathe through the battlefield, and that nearly cleared the path for the retreating force to back up and split in preparation to encircle the base.


    "Admiral. The enemy Commander is making a move." Sylvie informed Max suddenly with a ping on the map that showed an immensely powerful force moving out to break the advancing force.


    "Oh, that is even better than I could have hoped. Is Nico already in the mountains?" Max asked.


    "Yes, Admiral. She is in position."


    Max smiled. "Alright, I will go forward to deal with the enemy Commander, you and Felicity will be responsible for base defence while I am away. Keep to the basic n as well as you can."


    The Mecha had a portal function equipped, and the enemy Commander had transported himself the same way, moving directly intobat with one of the Emperor ss Mecha that was bombarding the Great Enemy forces.


    The air shimmered as Max moved intobat, appearing fifty metres behind the enemy Commander, almost within arms reach. So close that the first burst from his Disintegrator caught the creaturepletely off guard.


    [YOU!] It mentally roared in rage, and turned to engage Max, forgetting about its wounded quarry.


    Without Max''s advantages, the modified Mecha couldn''t do serious damage to an Energy Being on its level, and it had engaged with that knowledge in mind. But now that Max was here, he had energy to spare, and he could use it to enhance the Mass Driver rounds of the other Mecha as well as his own.


    Four Gatling arrays unleashed a hail of Mass Driver rounds at close range, and wounds appeared all over the enemy Commander''s body, leaking dense ck energy.


    A furioussh of energy shattered the Void Shields on the other Mecha and threw it to the ground, but the ative armour held, and it was only minimally damaged. Max ordered it to stay down for a few seconds while its shield capacitors came back online, and hacked at the enemy Commander with his de.


    It formed a de of its own energy to counter his, creating a shower of sparks as the two energy fields collided. Max forced the de up and rotated underneath, swinging low at the enemy''s back, but an Energy Being wasn''t a conventional enemy, and it simply reshaped itself to have the protected de facing him again.


    The two stayed locked inbat for a split second, before Max''s Mass Drivers could adjust their aim and force the enemy back with their impact.


    It had learned from the previous battle that Max had with one of its kin, and didn''t try to go incorporeal to avoid the shots. That would only lead to its power being pilfered by this mutated human, and it needed all it could get with the Myceloid God interfering in their battle.


    As the two Commanders duelled, the immense power exerted was drawing the Myceloids forward, right at the Cathedral Ships clustered in their base. It might not have been how Max nned for the battle to go, but it really looked like it was working out the way that he wanted.


    [Did you think that you could get distracted while fighting me?] The Great Enemy''s Commander demanded as its de sliced through Max''s shielding.


    "Yes. Did you think that you could hold my full and undivided attention? I''ve beenmanding theary battle this whole time." Max replied.


    That was actually Felicity and Sylvie, but the response enraged the creature, and its attacks became frantic as it realized that it was being yed as a fool.


    A sudden burst of Disintegrator energy came from behind as a unit of Mecha reached their location and joined the battle with the slowly recovering Emperor ss unit.


    Now that it was outnumbered over fifty to one, there was no chance of winning. The Commander knew from the start that Max wouldn''t fight a fair fight, much less a duel, under these circumstances, so it did the only thing that it could.


    It fled.


    "Good work everyone, push forward into formation with the others and do your best to take the base. If we can capture it and control the portal, we will eliminate the enemy reinforcements." Max ordered the Androids.


    [Understood Commander.]


    That was good enough for Max, and he returned to the base to await news of another incident that would require his attention. The battle might be moving in the correct direction, but that didn''t mean that the n was actually working. That couldn''t be answered until the battle against the base actually began.

 Chapter 1207 1207 Most Magnificent Plan

    <h4>Chapter 1207 1207 Most Magnificent n </h4>


    ?Nico wiped deep orange Klem blood from her de and surveyed the carnage around her. Max had been right, when the Great Enemy called on reinforcements, they would have toe through this mountain pass in order to get to the battle in a timely manner.


    The process would likely take multiple days, as the Klem were on foot and there were over a thousand kilometres between her and the main battlefield, but that was perfect for Nico and her team of androids.


    They had also been joined by a Shin and Valkia cooperative fast attack group that was helping them with the scouting, in case the Klem had been leaving eggs in the trees where the orbital scans didn''t detect them, but that team had orders to avoid being engaged and surrounded, so they were operating mostly on stealth and leaving the battle to Nico.


    She had brought everything that she might need for an extended battle. There was a whole Battalion of Android Mecha, two wings of Drone Bombers, a shuttle with a Terraforming Array, and even a full squad of Crab Drones, fifty smaller units apanied by onerger drone to take the leadership role with its superior processing power.


    They had proven extremely effective in battle against the Klem Warriors, who had a terrible time trying to hit the fast-moving targets while being shot with thesers.


    It wasn''t just the Klem, though. The first wave had been a strange alien species with nine legs that operated hovercraft with strong shields and open tops.


    The ninth leg was an evolutionary oddity, recing what Nico would have assumed to be the tail, so she had sent samples to theb on Absolution to see if they had been gically engineered or mutated. There was no use for that leg, it didn''t help them walk, defend or attack, and it should have been weeded out if it was an evolutionary oddity.


    [Commander Nico, there are moreing.] The leader of the Androids reported.


    The Behemoth screamed and fired sma as it came across the battlefield, still so fresh that Nico hadn''t gotten a chance to scour it clean with Fusion Fire.


    Nico shifted left and used her thrusters to charge forward, taking on the behemoth, while her unit followed their defensive tactics memo and began to methodically pick apart the swarm.


    [Max, can you check the minds of the Klem and find out where their Queen is? They''re getting pretty organized about heading toward the base, so there has to be some sort of mind leading them.] Nico requested as she flipped over her target tond on its back and remove the head from its body with her des.


    [I will get right on it. I''m not sure if any of them actually know where the Queen is though, only that they''re getting orders.] Max replied.


    That was good enough for Nico. There was lots ofbat here in the mountain gap, and the battle with the Queen woulde afterwards.


    The ground in front of her shuddered with explosions as Nico unleashed the Gatling Mass Drivers, the result of her attempts to make the Mass Driver into a machine gun, equipped with high explosive rounds.


    Max had sent her two of the new pattern Titan ss Mecha based on Sylvie''s Emperor ss Mecha, which had even more firepower than her custom Super Heavy unit did, but they weren''t as mobile as her preferred Mecha was, so she hadn''t switched yet.


    If the targets got too deadly for her to deal with using the firepower that she had, then she would switch, but until then, Nico was much happier with thebat style of the unit she designed for this battle.


    This wave of Klem didn''t seem to stop, and more kept pouring out of the hills as the drones eliminated the first group. The bodies were beginning to pile up, and she would have to either burn them to ash soon, or move her unit so that they didn''t provide cover for the attackers.


    It was a strategy that they had seen many times in the past, and she wouldn''t fall for that trick again.


    Nico was just about to order the drones forward to engage at a new battle line when a group of hovercraft came screaming out of the woods, trying to make a break past her defensive line and around the mountain, where even artillery wouldn''t be able to follow them.


    [Emperors, take care of the hovercraft. Everyone else, forward into the Klem.] Nico ordered.


    It was a good tactic, but Nico had the confidence to split her forces and focus on the lesser threat in order to make sure that nothing got past her to join the battle closer to the enemy base.


    Then, once everyone was fully engaged, and Nico was surrounded in Klem Rippers, a split second away from a glorious melee scrum, a column of fast-moving hover speeders raced toward them from the other side, using the distraction to break the blockade.


    There wasn''t enough firepower to stop them all.


    That was an annoyance, but you couldn''t stop absolutely everything, Nico reasoned.


    But just as they got out of sight, there was the sound of intensebat and exploding vehicles.


    Nico checked her map and realized that Max had seen the hovercrafting for her and had sent reinforcements, but he had sent them around the backside of the mountain where the enemy wouldn''t see them appear.


    So, when they broke past the line, they ran into the second line of defence and were obliterated. It was identally brilliant, and over the sound ofbat, there was a good chance that nobody else had even noticed that they were missing yet.


    [Drones, light up the wall of Klem bodies. I want thick enough smoke that the iing enemies can''t see the pass.] Nico ordered, intending to keep the reinforcements a secret for just a little longer.


    Their first artillery barrage would be that much more entertaining if nobody knew they existed.

 Chapter 1208 1208 Push

    <h4>Chapter 1208 1208 Push </h4>


    ?Max watched as his reinforcements were sent into the hills to support Nico''s frontline from out of sight through the thick ck smoke of burning Klem bodies. It was keeping the enemy from realizing that they were only seeing half of thebat force, while the Mecha were using Max''s targeting skills as well as the sensor data from the nearby units to aim without need for their own sensors.


    That had left nearly the whole western side of the battlefield barren of enemies after the first wave had swept through, and now the retreating forces were past the Great Enemy''s base and preparing to regroup with the teams that had cleared the path for them.


    Once that was done, they would charge into the back of the base and see if the Myceloids were going to focus on them or if they were going to attack the targets that were between the two forces.


    The Great Enemy''s base was slightly smaller than the one that the Alliance had built, likely due to the fact that they didn''t have two massive World Ships taking up space in the middle, but it was still nearly three hundred kilometres across, and that was a lot of potential battlefields for the Myceloids to ignore if they wanted to focus on the humans.


    [All units fall in on the backside of the Great Enemy''s base and prepare for the push. Fast Attack units, remain behind the front lines until the push starts. The artillery will draw the enemy out of their bunkers.] Max ordered, signalling the start of the battle for the position.


    The War Horns of the Mecha sounded the advance a second before the first artillery shellsnded, and the main Alliance force pushed forward into the enemy base. A full quarter of their offensive force had been gathered here, twelve of the fifty major groups, all heavily reinforced from the base to begin the battle, and still Max wasn''t sure how it was going to turn out.


    Then the Myceloids began to cheer and charge at everything. His troops, the enemy defenders, the base itself. Once the horns sounded the challenge, they were all in on the race to see which army could kill more.


    They didn''t care which army the casualties came from, as long as it wasn''t theirs, they just wanted to kill more than the Alliance did so that they could say that they were still the roughest, toughest, baddest species out there.


    Max sensed the horror and frustration as the Myceloids turned on the Cathedral Ships and their warriors, as well as the panic of the aliens that couldn''t understand what was going on or why a species that was supposed to be on their side was piging their base.


    [Felicity, send a bombing run over the enemy base, use bunker busters, I want every underground tunnel and improvised structure that can be targeted to be a pile of rubble. Force everything to the surface so we can get a proper count on the enemy casualties.] Max ordered.


    The Myceloid God would love that little trick, and having everyone out in the open would force them to fight instead of hiding and hoping to regroupter.


    They had already found the first few tunnels entirely identally when the shaking from the artillery had copsed shallow sections, so there had to be more, and the deep ground pration of the bunker busters should make the upants feel unsafe enough to run for the nearest intact exit.


    [They''re on the way, Commander. 30 seconds to the first impact.] Felicity reported.


    The Myceloids had bombers of their own. Sort of. They appeared to be rocket propelled and without throttle controls, but they were racing in from the distance covered in bombs.


    Then, the entire squadron abruptly veered straight up, rolled, and turned downward as the bombs released, and the Pilots ejected to parachute intobat.


    At full throttle, the nes hit the ground first, surrounded by high explosives in an absolutely ridiculous quantity, and finally, the pilots, who were all blown off course to random spots due to the thermal clouds and winds created by their own attacks.


    It was insane, but it had to be the most epic bomber assault that Max had ever seen.


    They were mostly targeting the centre of the base, close to the portal, where the majority of the support staff were, hoping for the highest possible casualty counts, but Max wasn''t bothered even if his troops were behind for the moment.


    Once the panic truly set in and the running started, he would make up the lost numbers with longer ranged artillery.


    The Myceloid God probably knew that as well, and the green tide was working on surrounding the Great Enemy''s castle so that the number of escaping fighters would be minimized.


    The more that made it past the encirclement, the greater Max''ste game advantage would be, as he had attacked with a wedge, and the Myceloids had the greater surface area with less pration into the base.


    [How is the battle going? Things suddenly went quiet over here.] Nico asked.


    [The Myceloids dive bombed the enemy base, and I think they might have hit themunications headquarters, while I sent bunker busters for the tunnels. Are you thinking that there is a chance we got the Klem Queen?] Max replied.


    [It''s beginning to look like it. Their drive toward the base is gone, and their coordination is failing. If they didn''t lose the Queen, she''s in no mental condition to be organizing the battle right now. I can almost guarantee that she is somewhere under that facility.] Nico agreed.


    [Excellent, that means there should be high numbers of hidden opponents just waiting toe out. The Myceloids will be in for a surprise when they burst out to surface level.]


    There were no signs of Klem yet, but the species were likely the ones that dug the tunnels under the base, as that was their preferred transport and breeding location. They just needed to get them to the surface and cut them down so that they didn''t have to send recon units underground to finish them off.


    That would be the worst-case scenario. Underground with Klem and Myceloids was not going to be a good time for anyone.

 Chapter 1209 1209 Rush The Core

    <h4>Chapter 1209 1209 Rush The Core </h4>


    ?The Cathedral Ships were beginning to recover from the initial confusion, and the vessels within the base had their shields raised, with firing lines in hastily built foxholes behind the formidable barriers.


    With the output of weapons limited, it would take some time to get through the shielding, possibly even enough that the rest of the base would be cleared, giving the Alliance and the Myceloids a clear winner in the kill count race.


    That is, if they could prevent enough of the defenders from fleeing to safety.


    Max sensed the relief of the first destroyer as the Mecha gave them a wide berth to attack the stragglers still caught out in the open, but that relief would notst long.


    [Commander, the analysis isplete. One coordinated burst will take down the shielding on the Destroyer.] Felicity informed Max as she prepared more troops to be deployed as reinforcements.


    [Felicity, prepare the bombers, the instant that shield goes down, I want high explosives and bunker busters nketing the protected zone. Not just the ship, hit everything in the area.] Max ordered.


    That should get the Myceloids all worked up. The sight of an exploding Destroyer would muddle the count and make it look like the humans had just gotten a huge boost in theirpetition.


    It was a bad day to be a part of the Cathedral Ships, as they had unwittingly be the punching bag in the slugfest between two military titans. But there was nothing that they could do about it now, and even sending in their Commander wouldn''t save them from this tragedy, as they had so painfully learned not long ago.


    The warriors aboard the Destroyer began to prepare for a counterattack as the first of the Emperor ss Mecha moved back, and Max gave the order.


    [Full bombardment now.]


    Thousands of Mass Drivers firing at once drowned out allmunications for a moment, and the resulting shockwave knocked many of the infantry to the ground, while sending the hovercraft spinning. But the shield fell, and thest few rounds fired impacted against the unprotected hull of the Destroyer a split second before the bombers were overhead and shelling the entire radius of the vessel''s defensive perimeter.


    [All units seek cover.] Felicity ordered suddenly.


    They had miscalcted the damage that they could cause to the Destroyer, and a lucky shot from one of the Mass Drivers had ruptured the Warp Core, causing it to go critical. None of them had any faith that the Myceloid God would defend them from their own mistakes, as the antimatter containment went offline and the st filled the battlefield with hypersonic shrapnel.


    But it seemed that the rules of this battlefield did help to some extent, as the aftermath of the Warp Core detonation was not nearly as bad as they had predicted, and the shielding of most of the Mecha held against the st.


    [Second rank, charge forward and clean up the survivors.] Max ordered.


    They had been near the edge of the battlefield when the Destroyer had been eliminated, and needed no time to continue the bombardment.


    The enthusiasm of the Myceloids was overwhelming once they realized that the Destroyers could be taken out as part of the game, and Max sensed their strategy shifting to ount for the number of crew members that should be inside each vessel.


    They might be lousybatants, but they were all valid targets.


    [The Myceloids are preparing to emte our strategy to get the kills on the ships around the perimeter.] Max warned the attacking units.


    They would have to stay out of the way to avoid being caught up in the secondary explosions, while pushing forward in the centre of the camp to get as many kills as possible, and find the entrances to the underground portion of the base, where the Klem Queen and other valuable targets should be hidden.


    That was Max''s priority. They could deal with most of the forces here easily enough, but the Klem reproduced so quickly that if they were given time and a Queen, they would be the most powerful portion of the enemy force.


    [Target designated. Attack.] Felicity ordered, and another Destroyer''s shielding went down, followed by a chain reaction of explosions as the drone bombers followed through with their run.


    That was a direct challenge in the eyes of the Myceloids. They were down two to zero, and they had just realized that they hadn''t coordinated their heavy firepower well enough to take out thergest ships.


    But they had a backup n. Blow up the little ones and make the big onese out to fight them. Nobody cared about weaklings anyhow, and they wanted a right proper fight.


    The real danger was that this operation would be too sessful and the Mecha would leave themselves encircled by the Myceloids in ce of the Cathedral Ships.


    Once the numbers started to drop, they were going to have to n a way out so that they didn''t end up on the losing side of this battle and cause huge numbers of casualties among their Alliance forces.


    The Alliance units were mostly centred on light and fast attack roles though, and in a grinding battle like the clearance of the base, they were out of their element, so Max ordered them back toward the pass where Nico was fighting, and then pushed more of the Android Regiments up in their ce.


    After the main battle was over, the Mecha could retreat to the pass, with the fast attack units in the hills behind them as fire support, and that should stall the Myceloid advance long enough for both sides to regroup and focus on the next step in their strategies.


    The transition was executed smoothly, with the hover vehicles easily passing over and around the Mecha, and not needing to slow their attacks as they retreated from the encirclement.


    More of the Cathedral Ships were being destroyed, and the Androids had caught on to the game that Max and the Myceloid God were ying well enough to have determined that the goal was not always strategic victory, as that was already assured, but the total casualty count.


    So, they began poaching kills from the Myceloids.


    When they shifted units to prepare an attack, the Mecha would focus indirect fire and take out their target a few seconds in advance, leaving nothing but rubble where the Myceloids were expecting an easy kill.


    They were good sports about it, and even though they were frustrated by the kill stealing, they were happy to return the favour, and even managed to get a tank barrage final kill on a Cruiser before the bombers could get in ce, after the Mecha had taken out the shielding.


    [The enemy base is beginning to implode, all units fall back to avoid encirclement. Keep up an artillery barrage to give the impression that our strategy is an interior sweep of the region to find the hidden entrances to the tunnelplex.


    Have we found them yet? Report all signs of tunnels or the Klem Queen''s presence.] Max ordered.


    [Understood Commander. No tunnel entrances were found within theplex. We are currently predictive mapping the most likely exit points.] Felicity replied, while Sylvie gave Max a grumpy look.


    Felicity had so much more tactical experience than she did that she had been relegated to the role of data processing support, even though she was also a World Ship ss AI.

 Chapter 1210 1210 Regroup And Return

    <h4>Chapter 1210 1210 Regroup And Return </h4>


    ?In the mountain pass, the state of the battle had suddenly taken a turn for the better, in Nico''s mind. The enemy forces had given up on trying to reach their base through stealth, and they were regrouping to make a push to eliminate Nico''s force from the pass and take the mountains as their stronghold.


    If you could hold both ends of the pass, with forces in the mountains, it would be incredibly difficult to force you out of the region, which was what Nico was nning right now, with the aid of the troops that Max had ordered back from the battle at the base.


    She held this end, and they were almost to the other. Once they were in ce and the units could spread through the mountains, they would have their secondary stronghold from which she could deploy more troops, thousands of kilometres away from the main base.


    Even if their god wasn''t intervening, there was a good chance that the Myceloids would soon discover where the Alliance troops were gathered, so having a secondary point in the mountains from which they could create a simr clearing pattern would throw the enemy off bnce and force them to split their forces.


    The other side was under control for the moment, as the full offensive force had swept through and forced back the enemy troops, but on this end, they were just getting ready to fight.


    From what Nico could tell in the satellite imagery, there were at least four of the fifty clusters gathered nearby, all within thirty minutes'' travel once the attack began, just waiting on whatever their signal was to begin.


    "They''re moving. Everyone in position, fire the smoke grenades into the treeline, make them work for it if they want a line of sight reading on us." Nico ordered.


    The smoke grenades contained small metal particles that blocked or scrambled most types of sensors. Normally, that would be a serious issue for them as well, but with the satellites in orbit and Max''s [Unified Force] extending from his Mecha through the entire battlefield, they only had a few surprises iing.


    Those would be the stealth units, and a few sneaky groups of warriors who had managed to evade satellite detection for long enough that they had evaded the target monitoring updates.


    The defenders had dug a trench line across the pass at Nico''s direction, moving them out of easy targeting positions, while the majority of the force was hidden in the mountains, either out of sight or in carved foxholes. Nothing in Nico''s force was going to be easy to destroy, but they still had a full 180 degrees of engagement range in the foothills.


    The first shells began to detonate near the trench line as the enemy lobbed covering fire at Nico''s unit to cover their advance. They were right on time, and from what she could tell, following the tactics of the samebat style that they had been using since the first time that she met them.


    [Wait ten seconds and then begin bombardment.] Nico ordered.


    That should be long enough for them to believe that the defenders had been forced to take cover, which would embolden the attackers into a full charge, where they could overrun the Mecha lines using the superior closebat ability of the warriors to their advantage.


    [3,2,1,Now] The Battalion Commander narrated as the timer ran out, and then energy weapons lit up the clearing between their trench line and the trees, fired level with the ground to explode against the first obstacle in its way.


    Then the artillery of the Thunder Guns and light Mass Drivers began to explode through the foothills, scattered in a wide and randomized pattern over a fifty-kilometre radius.


    Nico wanted the enemy to know that simply retreating wouldn''t get them anywhere. The artillery was not intended to destroy them, but to drive everything within the radius intobat.


    "Purge the Traitors!" The warriors shouted as they charged intobat through the overwhelming barrage of energy sts.


    The gically enhanced super soldiers had little trouble dodging therger sma sts now that they could see them, but the volume of fire was making it difficult to keep up that level of evasion.


    [Second Rank, begin the close fire artillery bombardment.] Nico ordered.


    The attackers'' cheers of triumph turned to screams of pain as the ground exploded around them, torn apart by Mass drivers, and the front ranks of the assault turned to a bloody mist.


    The assault faltered as they realized that only death awaited them if they made it past the smoke and closer to the Mecha lines, but Nico had no intentions of letting them run away to look for another way across.


    [Front lines, fan out. Area suppression pattern, Delta Three.] She ordered as she pushed her Mecha up and out of the trenches to charge into the smoke and mes of the burning forest to engage the enemy stragglers.


    "She''s insane, you know that, right?" One of the Valkia Archangel scouts asked his Commander.


    "Yes. But she''s right, and she''s winning. Let''s get out there and clear the enemy from the hills. We''re all linked in the targeting systems, there shouldn''t be friendly fire incidents as long as everyone pays attention to their altitude and doesn''t get below Mecha height." The Commander replied.


    They had iing fire warning systems that would alert them if they were in the path of an iing artillery shell, but the energy weapons, especially the Disintegrator, would be very hard for them to avoid if they flew too low.


    Flying high through the burning canopy of a forest in the middle of a firefight had its own dangers, but a simple forest fire wouldn''t damage their shielding, only make it nearly impossible to see where they were going, and possibly lead to some embarrassment when they ran into trees.


    [Speeders, follow the Valkia. Stay tight above the tree line, I don''t want the enemy radar to detect us.] The Shin unit''s Commander instructed. Hundreds of small speeders with heavy energy weapons mounted to them followed a thousand Valkia scouts intobat, filling in the gaps between the advancing Mecha, and herding the enemy troops into the main firing lines.


    What wasing for the enemy wasn''t a battle, it had been set up as a wholesale ughter.

 Chapter 1211 1211 Home Front

    <h4>Chapter 1211 1211 Home Front </h4>


    ?Mary Tarith sighed as she looked out over the stacks of reports on the holographic screen in front of her. Three hundred and four ongoing battles in their Gxy alone, more than the entirety of the Alliance Gxiesbined.


    The Great Enemy had gone on a rampage once that strange world had appeared in the gulf, as if they were directly threatened by the humans for the first time in a way that they hadn''t been when they were fighting them among the stars.


    It made no sense at all to her, but more concerning was the fact that she had not only lost contact with her Nico and Commander Max, but Absolution had suddenly vanished from the construction area without any messages or warning.


    All themunications to the world were scrambled, but their sensors suggested that Absolution, as well as an unknown spherical world ship were on that, along with a vast quantity of the Great Enemy''s forces.


    Even worse, that was far enough out that there was a possibility that the Greater Energy Beings might be able to approach them directly, instead of sending the armies in without their strongest support.


    They had ramped up production as much as they could, with everything that wasn''t an essential service being redirected to the creation of war materials, but still, it was barely enough to keep up with the influx of attacks.


    There was a desperation to the Cathedral Ships, as if they were on a limited timeline and would lose if they couldn''t defeat the humans within the next few months.


    It made no sense, they were unable to restock that quickly, and even with massive numbers of Androids, they still couldn''t threaten the otheryer of space where the Great Enemy and their renegade Gods were hiding.


    In fact, Mary didn''t even know that there was a way to harm a being on that level.


    "Leader, there is an attack." One of the Council members shouted as he ran into the room.


    "There are attacks everywhere, you need to be more specific." Mary demanded, ring at the man who had interrupted her attempts to bnce the responses to minimize casualties.


    "There is an attack here. Rae 5 Star System is under attack." The Council member dered.


    [Mary Tarith to all avable Reavers and Tarith Family members. Rae 5 System is under attack. Initiate defence protocols.]


    Then she pulled up the sensor data for the region, and watched in horror as a hundred enemy World Ships began to disgorge an enormous number of attack vessels into space. They had sent a World Ship to every space station that was in the Rae 5 region, which was a good strategy, under normal circumstances.


    But these were Reaver stations, they were armed well beyond what anyone would consider reasonable, and they had no concern for the welfare of the region as a whole.


    They had the power to open a portal that would engulf a world, so Rae 5 could be moved, along with everything that survived this battle, assuming that their response was enough to destabilize space the way that it had in the Anomaly Region.


    The Moon base suddenly erupted with weapons fire, targeting multiple vessels with over a hundred different orbitalnces, while firing a thousand Antimatter Torpedoes at once.


    The rms that Uncle Lu''s fuside had set off nearly deafened Mary, and alerts wereing up on every screen that she had active.


    [Imminent fall ofrge debris.]


    [Iing ELE sized object, firing countermeasures.]


    [Shockwave iing, atmospheric shield not expected to hold.]


    Uncle Lu might have been the first to trigger the defences, but the other stations were quickly revealing their hidden strengths to the Cathedral Ships armada. Thousands of Orbital Lances collided with World Ships, tearing apart void shields and rupturing hulls instantly.


    But the enemy wouldn''t go down without a fight, and the return fire was tearing apart hundreds of Reaver stations before their reinforcements, if any wereing, could arrive.


    The second volley from the Moon Base tore through the enemy fleet, and those few ships that had survived the onught began to open portals away from the battle, unable to escape into their homeyer.


    [Don''t let up on them. Any vessels that are still mobile, fire into the portals, I want no survivors.] Mary demanded as she sent out more firing priority messages for the vessels that appeared to have weapons still online.


    "And someone shut off those damnable rms."


    Then the shook, and the lights dimmed, causing her screens to flicker off for a full second before recovering.


    "What the hell was that?"


    "Lady Tarith. The City shield took a direct impact from a piece of debris over a hundred kilometres in length. The atmospheric damage is immense, and I rmend evacuating all citizens into bunkers with atmosphere generators." The Council Member in the room announced.


    "Get it done. I will keep up with the orbital battle directions." Mary agreed with a re on her face that made the man d they were on the same side.


    Thest of the intact enemy vessels had managed to escape, but the Reavers were busy dealing with the thousands of crippled vessels that hadn''t beenpletely annihted. Some could be salvaged as research materials, others repurposed to save time building an entirely new fleet, while the ones that had fragmented would be used as raw materials to rebuild the destroyed stations that had enough surviving crew to continue operations.


    Mostly, they were built in segments for just this sort of incident, and only part of the station was dead, while the rest was just without power and waiting for rescue. It had minimized casualties, even while the number of disabled stations had reached sixty percent.


    [Moon Base, what is your status?] Mary asked, starting her survey with the closest location.


    There was a long pause, and then a faint signal.


    [The second volley took out both primary and secondary power. The shield generators are at life support levels, with no defensive capabilities left, we took an Orbital Lance to the sector eight grid, which was fortunately unupied after the docked shipsunched to join the battle. Uncle Lu says we should be back online within a day.] The voice informed them, sounding incredibly rattled.


    [Understood. Good to hear your voice, Moon Base.]

 Chapter 1212 1212 Vengeance

    <h4>Chapter 1212 1212 Vengeance </h4>


    ?For one brief, beautiful moment, Mary considered that they might have dealt a severe blow to the Great Enemy''s military capability. So many ships had been destroyed in seconds, and tens of millions of lives were lost in the failed attack, that it had to be a setback for their ns.


    She couldn''t have been more wrong.


    The crushing defeat only solidified the enemy''s resolve that the humans were the real problem, and within minutes every battlefield was suffering from an influx of Cathedral Ships to reinforce the enemies that they were already facing. Unless they hade from the Alliance battles, these were all new vessels that they hadn''t been tracking, and Mary had no idea how many more could being their way.


    There weren''t enough vessels to go around, and Mary was beginning to despair about the number of worlds that they were going to lose before they had enough forces to hold what they had left.


    She was about to begin the orders to retreat from the worst afflicted worlds when new messages changed the tone of the battles.


    The Arisen Fleet was here. Not just here, but here in force. Thousands of them were at every battlefield in the Gxy, and the Great Enemy was being crushed faster than they could open portals to escape.


    [Arisen Fleet, this is Mary Tarith of Reaver Command. We thank you for your timely intervention. Might we ask, how did you get here in time? We didn''t detect any activity at the Anomaly.] Mary asked their saviours.


    [There is a new anomaly opened on the far side of the Gxy. The rebel Gods just tore it open an hour ago. From the information we have gathered, it appears that your Terminus Trading Company has managed to kill two Greater Energy Beingstely, and wounded another in the battle on the that the Myceloid God has created for war.


    This attack was retribution for their losses, and they will attack again very soon. If your sensors can prate the distortion, you will see that the Great Enemy has been betrayed by the green tide, and crushed by the Alliance of Humans.]


    Mary resisted the urge tough in joy at the news. Now she knew for sure that Nico was alright, and that they were winning the battle on the.


    [Is there a way for us to close the new Anomaly to prevent future invasions?] She asked instead of taking time to celebrate.


    [No. It took immense power to open a new anomaly here, and none of us have the ability to counteract it. But we will remain here to defend your worlds while the Collectors, or the Darklings as your people call them, fight on the other side of the Gxy in an attempt to obtain samples of the rare species that exist in that region.


    There are no sentient ones now that the Narsians have sided with the Great Enemy, but that matters little to them.] The Arisen Commander replied.


    [Well, regardless of their priorities, we are happy to have them here.] Mary replied, relieved that they finally had the help of reliable allies.


    The Arisen Commander linked the Reaversmand data with their own so that they could send troops anywhere that they might have missed, but Mary couldn''t help but notice that it heavily focused only on this Gxy.


    The battles in the rest of the Alliance territories seemed to be winding down, and the Great Enemy fighting there hadn''t gotten any reinforcements all day. Perhaps they really had put everything that they could get through the portal on short notice into their attacks here. The number of forces they had amassed was astronomical, when calcted across the Gxy, and for the second time that day, Mary started to get her hopes up.


    If Max had been able to see what was going on in the rest of the universe, he might have actually panicked about their chances of survival, but at the moment, he was far too busy trying to marshal the Android Mecha away from the encirclement of the Myceloids as the battle against the Cathedral Ships wound down.


    They weren''t having any luck finding the tunnel exits yet, and Max was beginning to wonder if they had greatly miscalcted the rate at which the Klem could have been digging. If they had gotten outside the search zone, the army could be facing quite a few of them only hours after they hatched the next batch of warriors.


    Everything slowed to a creep as thest of the Cathedral Ship fleet was rounded up and ounted for, but still without any sign of the entrance to the tunnels. In the worst-case scenario, it might have been sheltered by one of therger ships, and was nowpletely obliterated, with no remaining signs of the former entrance.


    The Myceloids paused as the battle came to an end, waiting for something. For him, Max realized before he opened a portal to join the battlefield next to theirrgest Commander, a giant of a creature over five metres tall.


    "Big Boss, how does the battle look by your count?" Max asked.


    The giant Myceloid gestured behind him, and a smaller green creature with a clipboard came forward. He looked at the notes and frowned, then nodded.


    "We score it 451 Kills and 3 ships in your favour." He dered.


    "That score works for me." Max agreed.


    There was a short pause, and Max wondered what the next step was going to be. It might be a full showdown between the two armies, or perhaps they would hunt down the rest of the Great Enemy''s force. The portal was already closed, thought Max hadn''t noticed when it had, so there wouldn''t be any more troopsing for them.


    He could sense the disappointment of the Myceloid God as he realized that his side had indeed lost to Max, but at least he wasn''t angry, Max thought.


    "Hmph. Round one goes to the Humans then." The Myceloid Commander announced, and the world went dark for a moment, before Max found himself standing next to Nico in the cargo bay of Creeping Darkness, exactly where they had started the battle.


    "What the Feth?"

 Chapter 1213 1213 Reset

    <h4>Chapter 1213 1213 Reset </h4>


    ?[All units, I need a status report. What is going on out there?] Max demanded.


    "Sir, we have returned to our vessels, and the dead are walking among us." One of the Commanders reported.


    "Yes, Commander. I was killed in action, but I am most certainly alive now and back aboard my ship. My coffee is empty, though, so we didn''t move back in time."


    After that, themunications rys were in chaos for the next few minutes, but Sylvie and Felicity were doing a good job of sorting everything out, while Nico took stock of their situation.


    "The drones in orbit are still in ce, the ones that were on the surface appear to have vanished. The additional armies we created are gone, but the raw materials have been returned to us.


    There is a new Great Enemy base, not in the same location as thest one, and this time there are two portals. From what I can tell, the losing team is getting a handicap for the next round. Have you managed to rify the situation at all with the Myceloids'' God?" She asked.


    "Not at all. I am getting excitement and amusement off him, but there is no indication of whether this is a best of three or a best of five series. Of course, with him, it is possible that he doesn''t intend for the game to end at all." Max replied.


    Nico frowned. Being stuck here indefinitely would put a major damper on her development ns, even if she had her entire development team with her. They were trying to focus on what would be best for the battle for their home Gxy, but they couldn''t even get updates on how that was going.


    "How is the situation at the Myceloid base?" Max asked.


    "Stronger than they were when we first discovered themst time. It looks like they were allowed to keep some of their army to increase their capabilities. Going by the evidence given, it would appear that the Myceloid God is attempting to determine what exactly would constitute a fair fight." Nico noted.


    "That''s what I was thinking. It loves fights. Fighting just for the sake of fighting, not to win or to aplish some goal. We steamrolled the Great Enemyst time, so they get two portals to bring reinforcements this time. We out killed the Myceloidsst time, so they were given a head start this time.


    It is safe to assume that they know where the bases are this time, so let''s get right into the nning stage. Are we going to hit the Great Enemy first, or do we need to cut down the growth rate of the Myceloids?


    I''m thinking that the Myceloids should be fine, but going two on one against the Greater Energy Beings is going to suck, and I''m the only one who can reliably do it, even with the limited power output here."


    Nico smirked back at him. "Not for long. We''ve been working on a method of extracting and trapping the energy of the Great Enemy. Give us a bit more time, and soon I will have an android army that can take them on and strip away their powers. The problem right now is that we can''t stop it from reforming, so if we store it, we just end up with possessed equipment."


    Now that was a problem that they didn''t need.


    "Do we have a way to transfer it yet? If they can scrape the loose energy and send it to me, I can safely process it." Max suggested.


    "Not over long distances. If we try to send it more than a few metres, it begins to gain cohesion again. But at the moment, we don''t have any more of it to practice with, as it fades quickly when it''s not coherent."


    "Don''t worry too much about it. I will deal with the Greater Energy Beings when they show up, and you can deal with the swarms of Klem that I know will being. They have an ingrained racial memory that hates us to the core, so if they remember that we''re here, they''ll be hunting us already." Max reminded her.


    "Finally, some good news. You deal with the mental trauma of a hundred thousand casualties that just returned to life, and I will start deploying the reinforcements to our outlying units.


    Wait, where are our outlying units?"


    "They''re all in the base. We''re deploying from scratch based on satellite data. So, have fun with that." Maxughed.


    "Well, at least we don''t need to find them this time. I''ll start the deployments with the Android Army, and then we can send the fast attack units to them as needed. That should give everyone a few minutes to recover from the shock before they''re back in battle. Just make sure that they all understand that there might not be another reset, so they shouldn''t go doing anything suicidal or heroic when they do deploy."


    "No worries, I have some experience with this." Maxughed.


    Now that almost all of his memories were intact, he had a lot of experience with traumatic events, and helping his unit through them. He even recalled experiences with time anomalies simr to the reset that the Myceloid God did. Though, this time it didn''t actually turn back time, it just remade the bodies and stuck their souls back in them.


    How anyone could legitimately think that they could fight against that was beyond Max''sprehension, but from the memories of his past life, he didn''t seem to recall the rebel Gods being quite so powerful. Their influence usually had a limited range, but the Myceloid God was pulling the forces from all over the universe, against their will.


    The Greater Energy Beings should be tied to one of the other Gods as well, and that should have protected them from being summoned, but that clearly wasn''t the case here. Everything he remembered seemed to be distorted, or perhaps it was the Myceloid God that had changed.

 Chapter 1214 1214 Impatient

    <h4>Chapter 1214 1214 Impatient </h4>


    ?The Great Enemy must have been keeping tabs on what was going on here, as the newly arrived Greater Energy Beings wasted no time in making their move. Max detected the power surge at the portals, and expected that the reinforcements would being through, but instead there were two Energy Beings, and both of them were moving toward the human camp at incredible speeds.


    Max activated the portal function of his armour to meet hem halfway, leaving Nico to deal with the base issues, and Felicity to help with the mental health of a traumatized Alliance force.


    The two creatures, nearly identical in form, but radiating very different energies, paused when they saw Max''s Mecha appear in front of them.


    "So, the Lord of the Humans hase in person to meet us. I should feel honoured, I suppose. But I am so eagerly anticipating your death that I can''t seem to gather the emotions." One of the enemy Commanders greeted him.


    "Take all the time that you need. By the time that we are finished here, there will be no doubt that you have been blessed to even stand in my presence." Max replied through the Mecha''s loudspeaker.


    That was enough to enrage the creatures, and both shifted to forms roughly equal in height to Max''s forty-metre tall Emperor ss Mecha, then extended ws from both hands and charged.


    Max sidestepped right and unleashed the light Mass Drivers, coated in a sheen of the stolen energy he had been stockpiling, letting the rounds detonate inside the targets.


    These ones had learned. They didn''t try to go incorporeal to avoid the damage, they simply allowed their bodies to expand with the st, and Max only managed to gather a little energy from each shot.


    One backed away to stabilize, while the other attacked, keeping Max from focusing fire on the more injured target as they exchanged blows. Once one was stable, the other took over, taking the brunt of the damage from Max''s Mass Drivers, but for the moment, he was holding back on the sma weapons and the Disintegrator.


    They hadn''t been necessaryst time, and the longer he held off on showing his full firepower, the weaker they would think that he was the next time that he faced one of their kind. Killing them too quickly would only lead to moreplicationster, and they didn''t have an effective ranged weapon that they could fight back with.


    This was the Myceloid God''s, so he would fight by the Myceloid God''s rules. Closebat, short ranged weapons, and pure skill.


    The longer that he kept these two tied up inbat, the better. They should be the Generals of their force, but they couldn''t spare the attention to deal with anything but him right now, Max could read it in their minds.


    Of course, they already knew that, and the fact that they were unable to do anything about it enraged them nearly as much as the blood soaked berserkers that they sent intobat against the Androids Nico was deploying.


    Max''s de was knocked wide, opening the front of his chest to the enemy, and both Energy Beings dropped their guard to charge in for the kill. All it would take was to tear the chest of the Mecha apart and get to Max, and they would have victory in hand.


    But the chest was also where the Disintegrator was mounted on the Emperor ss Mecha, and when they moved together to attack, Max attacked as well.


    The beam destabilized both Energy Beings, sending a flood of power into Max as he leaped backwards with his thrusters to put the Mass Drivers at a proper angle to attack.


    The prating rounds sent another flood of energy into Max, weakening his enemies while restoring and strengthening him. It was almost too cruel to be fighting them from inside a Mecha like this. Their attacks hit his void shields, while they only had their bodies to block with. They could have gathered equipment to protect themselves, but normally, they would just return to an energy state to move or escape, and carrying anything was a huge limitation on them.


    As the sustained fire from the Mass Drivers prevented them from reforming, the two Greater Energy Beings began to panic. They were too limited by this ce, they couldn''t fight the way that they were used to, and they didn''t have the skills to ovee this strange Human.


    The best thing they could think to do was surround him and try to use his tactics against him.


    One formed a whip of solidified energy, while the other focused a st to mimic the Mass Drivers.


    That was marginally more effective, and the energy bullets nearly prated the Void Shield, while the whip wrapped around Max''s de and held it tight.


    But then Max pulled back the de, yanking his opponent forward, and kicked it solidly in the face, sending a burst of energy into the air as the creature went incorporeal and tried to surround the Mecha.


    "Don''t." The other had time to shout before the Disintegrator yed the being apart, turning it into nothing more than loose energy that both Max and the survivor were desperately trying to absorb.


    Max took the lead with a burst from the Mass Drivers, followed by a full st from the sma Destroyer Array that nearly vaporized his opponent. The attack was so sudden that thest thought it had was confusion, and then all thought was gone as Max tore its consciousness apart and integrated it into himself.


    [Very good, little human. You are learning quickly.] The Myceloid God informed him, but before Max could reply, its thoughts had retreated into the distance, and out of reach of his abilities.


    Perhaps this battleground wasn''t just for the amusement of a bored god. Perhaps it was more of a training ground for what was going toe next. The more Max thought about it, the more certain he became that he was correct, and the more he hoped that he was wrong.

 Chapter 1215 1215 How Can We Help

    <h4>Chapter 1215 1215 How Can We Help </h4>


    ?The people aboard Absolution, all ten million of them, were watching the satellite feeds from the battlefield with a mixture of horror and anticipation. They had seen the Commander go into battle, but the energy leaking from his fight was messing with the sensors, and it was impossible to see exactly what was going on down there.


    It must not be friendly, given the amount of noise it was generating, but they had no way of telling who was winning. If it was the enemy Energy Beings, they were in serious trouble, even if they had the full firepower of their ship intact.


    Which most of them assumed that they did. They weren''t military equipment experts, and they weren''t privy to most of themunications, so there was no way for them to know that the power output of everything had been capped out by the Myceloid God when it created this ce.


    But they had seen footage of previous battles in the news, and it had taken dozens of Colony Ships, or entire fleets of a hundred or more Destroyers to eliminate a single one of those creatures before.


    They might have that many here on the, but being stuck at ground level, they couldn''t even use some of their weapons, and very few would be able to target the creatures at all.


    Which was what had led to this emergency hearing with the Board of Directors. A thousandmunity and business leaders were sitting in the hall, waiting for the Board toe out of a closed door meeting and greet them, hopefully with some sort of information that they could use.


    The board had a direct link to Max''s Mecha feeds, so they could see the battle clearly, though they could only hear part of the banter that was going on, as the rest was mentalmunication.


    They watched as Max finished the fight, then sighed in relief and straightened their outfits to prepare for the public meeting. They hadn''t wanted to start it while the fight for their survival was still up in the air, but the people would forgive them for the dy.


    The Board of Directors took their seats and the Communications Director, a Reaver woman named Jete, with her long grey hair in a mixture of braids and curls that seemed to belong to a much younger woman, stood to start the meeting.


    "Wee everyone. We will start with some good news. The Commander has won his duel with the enemy Commanders, and they have either retreated or been wholly defeated. That returns us to the status quo of expanding our forces through the to offset the increasing number of enemies that are gathering.


    I know that this situation is not optimal, but I am assured that between our military force and the Alliance vessels that were brought here with us, we have the situation in hand." She began.


    Arge Valkia in the crowd stepped to the podium to yell back at her. "In hand? Is that what you call this? The entire situation was reset just as we were winning, and we''re back at the start, giving them another chance to kill us."


    The Director''s face remained impassive, and as soon as the man finished his tirade, she answered. "This ce was made by the Myceloid Species and their Greater Being. As those of you who have studied the hostile alien species will already know, they live forbat and challenges. They were defeated in thest invasion of the Great Enemy''s base, and they were unsatisfied with the oue.


    So, they used theirbined power to start the battle over with a slightly changed scenario. At the moment, we do not know if this is randomized or deliberate, but the destroyed base is in a new location, and the positions of the starting forces have changed.


    Our production capability was not affected, and we are already sending out troops to strategic locations all over the world. The threat will soon be contained again, and we ask for your patience in the meantime."


    The noise in the room increased as she asked them to be patient and let the army work. That wasn''t an eptable answer to any of them. Sitting here helplessly as others determined their fate wasn''t the sort of life that any of the species here wanted. If they were that cid about survival, they wouldn''t have ended up on Absolution in the first ce.


    "Surely, there is something that we can do, Directors. We can''t continue to just sit here blindly waiting to find out that we''re going to die." A man shouted from the upper balcony''s podium.


    It was an aging Reaver who hade here to take up the operations of a restaurant from his family, who had opened it on impulse as the ship was being built, but couldn''t run it properly with the shortage of skilled workers.


    He knew how to pilot a Mecha, he could fly a shuttle, fire a rifle, even skin wild animals if they needed to conserve power for weapons production. Doing nothing wasn''t in his nature.


    Nico''s father dismissed the Communications Director from the podium and straightened his coat.


    "We do have an answer for those who feel the need to help. Anyone with piloting skills, either factual or virtual, will be provided the opportunity at some point in the battle to help lead drone wings. The innovation of the sentient species, and unconventional thought processes, help make our Android units more effective and prevent the enemy from calcting our drone flight patterns.


    Once this meeting is adjourned, we will be taking applications on the ship''s employment application site. The most qualified will be contacted first, and then others in four hour segments, rotating through all who are qualified.


    In this manner, the civilian poption will be able to help the military in this desperate situation, and even the shut in gamers of your family will be able to make you proud."


    Ending with a joke seemed to have been the right answer. With the high pay rates on the ship, shut in adult children who simply gamed their lives away while living off their parents'' money were bing a cultural nuisance.

 Chapter 1216 1216 Errant Drones

    <h4>Chapter 1216 1216 Errant Drones </h4>


    ?In the training area of the Drone Controller''s bay that had been hastily renovated for the purpose of hosting their volunteer pilots, Dave stretched his freshly upgraded cybeic body and frowned at the crowd of idiots in front of him. He hade here to help out after he dropped the girls at school, but he had expected a slightly higher standard of personal hygiene.


    Even when he was living in the slums next to Max, making sure that nothing serious happened to the boy until he was ready to be picked up by the Academy, he had rarely seen anyone who had so thoroughly neglected themselves.


    The smell of the crowd was overpowering, and those who actually cared about themselves were clearly ufortable.


    The task of operating the drone bay itself had been left to maintenance, but the number of staff assigned to oversee the process was insufficient. They had enough to take care of the machines, but not the horde of people who had shown up early, in hopes of getting more drone time.


    Dave leaped up onto the supervisor''s tform and grabbed the inte phone off the wall.


    [Listen up. These pods will be used twenty-four hours a day. The upkeep and userfort are incredibly important to the war effort, we can''t afford to have pilots distracted by the stench of unwashed bodies and unwiped arses.


    If you cannot pass a basic sniff test, you WILL be sent home to shower before returning. That includes those of you who believe that perfumes and body sprays are a bath substitute. Be considerate to thoseing after you, who might have sensitivities to strong scents.


    Youe from a hundred different species, and we all have differences. This is not negotiable. Now, if the first rank will move to your machines, the staff wille by and clear you in before activating the pod.] Dave informed the crowd.


    Many of the people below looked incredibly offended, and there was some shouting, but there were also soldiers with guns at the pods, and for all their online bravado, not many were likely to take their keyboard warrior status offline to test it against actual professionals.


    The maintenance worker at the terminal beside the phone buried his face in his arm so that hisughter wasn''t heard over the inte, and the crowd began forcibly shoving some members back toward the door.


    [Do not shove. We don''t need injured pilots, we need clean ones. If someone near you requires maintenance, there is a barracks shower next door, and coveralls will be provided.] Dave informed them.


    Technically, the barracks shower was a coed facility, but he didn''t see many women in the crowd, so if there were some more sensitive cultures in the group, he was sure that the staff coulde up with something.


    His motivational speech seemed to work. A lot of the volunteers either lived in other cities aboard the ship, or on the second level, so going home to shower wasn''t an option. But going next door to wash up and change into clean coveralls was fine.


    "You know, just having everyone shower and change when they get here would be a great idea. It would save a lot of time and issuester, plus the change of outfit will help them get in the right headspace for the situation." One of the observers suggested.


    Dave nodded. "We can do that for the next shift. They will likely start arriving not long after this shift starts, so we will have plenty of time to get them going. Just keep a close eye on the productivity. If someone is getting tired and drops off in efficiency or isn''t as good as they imed, kick them, and we will rece them."


    "Do you even have the authority to do that?" The observer asked.


    Dave shrugged. "Is there anyone here who is going to stop me from doing it? I might not hold a formal rank, but I am the Commander''s Godfather. I''m sure that if I call him or Sumander Nico, they will give a formal approval for whatever I want to do."


    The observer chuckled and nodded. Connections were everything in this world, and if you had them, rank and seniority didn''t really matter all that much.


    The n had worked incredibly well, and the entire crowd was moving next door toward the shower stalls, not wanting to get punted to the back of the line for poor hygiene.


    The dignified few had already started the tutorials that had been created for the first day so that everyone was familiar with the controls before they began, and the others were filling fast with young volunteers still damp from the shower and freshly d in a pilot''s ck coveralls and boots.


    Someone had created them patches that read [Intern Drone Pilot] and the volunteers were wearing them proudly as they returned to the room.


    Gone was the crowd of bedraggled shut ins. Now that they were uniformed, the whole attitude of the crowd had changed. They were focused and determined to make a difference. All of them had a mental image of how they could be heroes by intercepting an enemy attack and saving thousands of lives.


    Perhaps they would even get an award, and an official Pilot post after the fight. It was a prestigious job, and not only the pay, but the benefits were insane. The Drone Pilots got to live in the Pilot''smunity, with all the greatest of the city''s luxuries right nearby. They had all been there at least once for the nightclubs or the gaming pods with all the newest features, but actually getting to live there was a dream.


    The first wave of them were finishing the tutorial now, and sending out drones from the base. That was an advantage that the first wave got over everyone else. When the others came, they would take over a drone in progress, after getting a status and mission update from the Pilot they were recing.


    But this wave got to send them out from the base and sort through thebat reports and mission priorities that had been set by Sumander Nico herself. To gamers, she was a living legend, and now they were on a real battlefield, following her actual orders, to hunt real targets from the Great Enemy.

 Chapter 1217 1217 Gamers

    <h4>Chapter 1217 1217 Gamers </h4>


    ?Nico sighed at the chaos that the gamers were causing on the battlefield. They were all very enthusiastic about the idea of finding enemy targets to fight with the single drone fighters and bombers that they had taken over, but as gamers and not military strategists, they were all operating independently, heading in every possible direction at every altitude.


    Just trying to avoid them with the actual patrols was bing a pain, and Nico was beginning to consider setting no-fly zones in the programming to keep them out of the way.


    The problem with that was that it would give the Great Enemy a good idea of which were the actual forces and which were the decoys.


    That''s what the volunteers were, for the most part. A few of them might be drone fighter aces, but mostly they were an additional sensor feed for the AI to work with, and random targets to keep the enemy troops distracted.


    You never knew which ones would try to engage ground targets, which would look for dogfights with enemy interceptors, and which were just leisurely flying around looking for some unspecified target.


    If they were actually needed in battle, Nico knew that a single ping would bring hundreds of them racing over to try to get to the target, and that gave her a brilliant idea.


    [Felicity, work with Sylvie and assign a points system for the various targets based on priority and safety factors. These drone pilots could use a bit more motivation, and they''re all gamers. I want to ensure that if we call on them, they won''t keep mucking about with whatever nonsense they were nning to do for their shift.] Nico informed the AI.


    [Understood. We will begin updating the targeting priorities with a point system in 45 minutes, once apleteary assessment ispleted.] Felicity and Sylvie replied in unison.


    Nico set the matter of the errant gamers aside and began to strategize her next offensive. Her team was almost finished modifying her a new Mecha to match Max''s, but in a smaller Super Heavy tform with a few closebat adaptations, like faster response speed and a secondary shield capacitor topensate for the expected increase in damage taken.


    Once that was done, she would be ready for the challenges of the Myceloid Champions.


    They were quite focused on size as a show of strength, and thergest of them were already exceeding fifteen metres, and were using various forms of crude but effective armour and heavy weaponry.


    That would keep the majority of the Myceloids'' strongest fighters distracted while the rest of the army went on a full offensive against the Great Enemy''s base. Nico intended to handpick a team of champions to join her inbat, as the Myceloids wouldn''t be happy about having to wait their turn for just one challenger, but she couldn''t bring just anyone and expect them to win.


    It was also wise to bring various champions, in different Mecha. Only a few would dare to challenge a Super Heavy Mecha, but there were a number of Myceloid Champions over seven metres tall on this world, and she had detected almost a hundred that were in the five-metre range, which would be suitable to challenge the Corvette ss Mecha.


    Then Nico had a brilliant idea. She didn''t need to risk the lives of her best Pilots on this. She could have them overhead and use a neural link to pilot the Mecha instead. It would be like a training exercise for the Myceloid Champions.


    Hopefully, they would understand and ept her proposal to have a sort of vetting for the Champions to see who was the best of the best in closebat while the main battle was about to start at the Great Enemy''s base.


    Unlikest time when everyone seemed focused on battle, the Myceloids were picking and choosing targets this time, not going for a full elimination. The only ones that were focused on wiping each other out were the Great Enemy forces, and they had just lost their Commanders in a duel with Max.


    Standing out on the battlefield, Max could sense both Nico''s idea and the Myceloid God''s amusement at her idea. Distracting his champions with the best possible fight while the rest of the force took out the trash was a brilliant idea in its opinion.


    Normally, it would be ordering them to fight to win, but this time the Great Enemy had proven to be a dud, and they were already basically worthless, so the winner would have to be determined by the challenges.


    At best, it would be a draw, as Max had already won against the Great Enemy, but if the human force lost to the Myceloids, that would be one win each for the round, and he could start it over with a draw.


    The thought was so intense that Max managed to pick it out, even with the vast distance between them.


    [You know, Commanders should be on the actual battlefield at some point. There are countless battles going on without us right now.] Max tried to reason with the God.


    [But only one that matters.] The Myceloid God replied cryptically.


    What did it mean, only one battle mattered? Because this one was entertaining? Or because the oue of the others was already determined and Max simply didn''t know it yet because he couldn''t get any clear sensor signals?


    The answer was strangely confusing, though. It didn''t feel like he was being deliberately kept away from the main battle to cripple the humans. That would have to be enough for him until they could determine a clear winner in this conflict of Champions.


    Max considered warning Nico about the enemy''s intentions, but she was already looking for the best suited team for her mission, while the dynamic duo of AI vessels wereing up with the main battle n.


    The only unknown factor was the collection of random gamers that were flying about everywhere on the, looking for their favourite targets.


    In a way, they were a lot like the Myceloids, but in attack craft. Perhaps in the next round there would be more nes for them to fight against.

 Chapter 1218 1218 Changed Situation

    <h4>Chapter 1218 1218 Changed Situation </h4>


    ?Max noticed the moment that the two Ai systems started assigning points to targets. Not only did the pilots suddenly get excited, but they also got better at actually Piloting the drones. As expected of gamers, they could only actually focus once there was something to win.


    There was a lot of betting going on right now about who would have the highest score for each shift, and the high score overall, but Felicity had prepared for that.


    Not everything had any points assigned to it. Only the targets that were on the priority list had been assigned points, and the higher the priority, the higher the reward. How much effort it took to kill the target had very little to do with the points that they were getting, but most of the targets were infantry and tanks, and the difficulty was directly rted to the priority anyhow.


    They soon realized that not only the type of target, but the location, mattered to the points system. The ones that were on the attack and threatening either Mecha or fast attack squadrons had a point multiplier on them that would cause their score to skyrocket if they managed to take it out.


    The situation in the outlying areas, where the Great Enemy was attempting to set up forward observation posts to call in more Lesser Demons and resupply their forces, was bing quite hectic as they were mercilessly hunted down by the drone fighters.


    The fast attack groups were moving outward with the Mecha squads, this time in an organized ring, forcing everything away from the base as they expanded their coverage area to epass more of the.


    Once they got far enough out, they would break off into independent battle lines, driving swathes of the enemy back and into more concentrated positions where they would be easier to target. That was the strategy that Felicity had decided would be the most efficient this time, and Max was willing to let it y out so that she could gain the battle experience.


    Sylvie was working with her, and they both had a different training database, which had very little ovep and had not yet beenpiled to eliminate redundancies and archive outdated versions of the same technique.


    Often, a very simr battle strategy only needed a bit of a change to be many times more effective, and over the course of centuries, there would surely be some instances where Sylvie''s techniques had beenpletely forgotten by both sides of the conflict, rendering them new and innovative again.


    The Myceloids were also on the move, pushing their way towards the Great Enemy, but also toward the Mecha forces, in the hopes of cutting down the number of troops that the humans had for the final battle.


    It was a good strategy, since they had determined that the winner between their two forces would be decided based on the challenges, and under the assumption that the humans would beat the Great Enemy on their own, which would make this battle a draw.


    The fact that they hadn''t told anyone else didn''t ur to them. They knew that Max was here, and he always seemed to understand them so well.


    Max was just about to order another push to get the Great Enemy force driven back out of a region around one of thergerkes, when suddenly an influx of energy caught his attention. There was another portal opening, and it didn''t seem to be anywhere near the existing Great Enemy base.


    The Myceloids weren''t aware of it yet, and he hadn''t sensed anything from the Myceloid God, so either it was hiding its thoughts to keep the game interesting, or this was not part of its n.


    It could very well be another of the Gods interfering with their game to bring in reinforcements and keep the Humans from just snuffing out their troops over and over again. That would be a real mess, even if Max could deal with the Greater Energy Beings that apanied the force, as the limitations on his firepower would make it very difficult to take out an entire attacking wave of Cathedral Ships and their troops.


    "Commander, the deployment this time is very strange." Sylvie informed Max, using her projection inside his Mecha.


    "How so?"


    Sylvie brought up a bunch of satellite data and started to highlight it. "These units weren''t there a minute ago. They''re not arriving in their ships, they''re arriving around their ships in a three hundred-kilometre radius. It''s like a whole new deployment when we were just getting ready to surround thest one."


    The Great Enemy was already given advantages this time, and now they had a whole second base going up.


    "Perhaps it''s a form of time trial. We need to get rid of the bases faster than they can spawn, while also winning the challenges against the Myceloids." Max suggested.


    That was a possibility, the AI decided. Not a likely one, or one with a particrly high sess ratio, but it was usible that they had been thrown a time limitation to get the job done. It might be from the time of arrival, or the time of elimination of the Commanders. The conditions were unclear, making it difficult for the AI to urately determine what was going on, and that was not a sensation that she enjoyed.


    "Start sending Heavy artillery positions with drone scouts to the region. I want crabs in every grid square as soon as possible. If the infantry is going to deploy outside their defensive perimeter, they can learn to deal with our version of advanced scouts." Max informed Sylvie.


    She had seen thebat footage from the Golden Legion, and knew the tactic that Max was going for, with the Portals being used for deployment.


    "Got it. The next wave of production will beplete in five minutes, and we will send them as a whole regiment with drone support. I am tasking the volunteers to the area now with a special event points bonus." Sylvie replied.


    Someone in the Alliance Sentient Rights Commission was going to spit blood in rage when they found out that his force was treating the enemy as NPCs in a video game, but for now, it was an incredibly effective way to keep the situation under control.

 Chapter 1219 1219 Pernicious

    <h4>Chapter 1219 1219 Pernicious </h4>


    ?The Great Enemy forces were appearing everywhere on the within minutes of the portals opening, and Max could sense the annoyance of the Myceloid God at this change in the situation. This was not part of its n, and if things kept going this way, it would have to cancel its challenges of the human champions.


    The Myceloid God knew that it would annoy its fellow Gods with this game, but it hadn''t expected them to take direct action to mess with its fun. There was only one evolving human champion on the, and they had already sent three of their Greater Beings after it to no avail.


    Now they were messing up the whole n that it had devised just for the sake of spiting him, the Myceloid God was certain.


    They should know their ce.


    Bringing in more of its own people would only make things more chaotic and overcrowded, since the Cathedral Ships were flooding the world with their soldiers, but that was a short-term annoyance. The other Gods were fickle and weak, in its opinion, not up for a serious fight, and by the time that its champions had finished with this group the other Gods were likely to have shifted their attention again and stopped sending reinforcements.


    It had known the others for millions of years, and they had never changed much. It was their greatest weakness, in the mind of the evolution and battle - minded God of the Myceloids. They were incredibly set in their ways, too attached to a single aspect of reality. Originally, it had been a God of Destruction, but once it found a species that liked to smash things as much as it did, the Myceloid God began to change and appreciate greatness in a more subtle way.


    Sure, you could just crush things, and that was fun. But where was the finesse? The sense of enjoyment? Casual destruction was only the most basic form of Destruction, it had learned. Now, perhaps, it was time to teach that lesson to its kinfolk.


    Once they had learned that there could be such great joy in the fashionable destruction of sentient beings, they would begin to understand that mindless adherence to their aspects made them incredibly boringpanions.


    With the Human champions alongside its own, there should definitely be enough of a sample size for them to learn it if they were capable.


    Max sensed a bit of the Myceloid God''s thoughts, and immediately understood the situation.


    "Nico, call back your challenge team. We are going to crush the Great Enemy first. The Myceloid God wants to teach the other Gods how to have fun." Max instructed.


    "How to have fun? I can think of one or two ways to do that in this world." Nicoughed.


    "I thought that you might say that. No need to hold back, other than the output limitations that were put on this ce to keep the battles interesting." He added.


    Max already knew that letting Nico loose was about to be both the greatest and worst idea that he had ever had, but they needed to do something about the number of warriors arriving on this, and if the Myceloids didn''t think that they were going to y along with the n, it could turn into one giant mess in a hurry.


    The real question was what was he supposed to do while all of this was going on? He could just run rampant through the enemy forces, killing indiscriminately, but they already had Nico for that, and with the Gamers on the drones, there was enough indiscriminate fighting going on.


    So, instead of just smashing, Max decided that he would do something fun too. It wouldn''t be a long trip to the portals, and he had the perfect idea.


    The enemy might be appearing all over the ce on the, but they would have to stage near the portal on the other side in order to use the portals or teleportation devices. So if he just started randomly firing nukes through until he hit something or forced something toe fight him, it would be perfect.


    Not even the Myceloid God could argue with logic like that. pping someone until they agreed to have a proper fight was a favourite tactic for it as well.


    The area around the portals was also serving as their new base, so challenging it directly would not only benefit the war effort, it would greatly amuse and impress the Myceloids.


    Max began to make his way toward the portals, flying low over the ground so that he wouldn''t be as easy to pick up on radar, and flying prone to the ground so he would look like a fast-


    moving tank or a group of speeders on most sensors. The longer that he could confuse the enemy, the less time that they would have to adapt to the imminent arrival of a Titan ss Mecha at their base, and the storm of firepower that Max was going to bring with him.


    He didn''t stay alone for long, though. Sylvie recruited arge group of crab drones as well as abined Shin and Valkia fast attack squad toe with him to clear the base.


    It wasn''t arge force, more suited to harassing and distracting the enemy, but Max was the main fighting force anyhow, and the Myceloids had always valued Champions above numbers, even if the species was perfectly developed to attack in massive waves.


    Or perhaps that was why they valued Champions so much. Waves of attackers were innate to them, they could do it mindlessly just by spreading spores. But Champions were special and unique, not part of the faceless horde.


    They were something for the members of the most prolific species of warriors in existence to admire and strive to be. That sounded more like the truth of the situation to Max. Nobody wanted to be generic trooper number 6814. But bing the Champion of Some battle or another was always going to be cool.

 Chapter 1220 1220 Take The Fight To Them

    <h4>Chapter 1220 1220 Take The Fight To Them </h4>


    ?"Fast attack squadrons, fall back for a second wave of attacks once the main force is engaged. Drones, fall in on my nks using Wedge Formation Alpha. We want them to know what''sing for them, to increase the mental impact of their failure of to prevent the main force from breaking their defences." Max instructed the attack group.


    They adjusted the formation immediately, and followed his lead as Max reduced his speed to make a quieter approach to the base. They would be at the first line of defence soon, and there were no other major forces in the area, so the fast attack groups had some hope that there wouldn''t be a heavy defensive perimeter set up to stop them from getting to the goal.


    "Contact straight ahead. Six sma Destroyers on armoured vehicles, and roughly thirty light infantry." Sylvie informed Max a few secondster.


    [Drones spread out. Don''t get caught in the st zone as they target me, and try to stay in the grass until you get into closebat range or are forced to attack from a distance.] Max ordered.


    The enemy still wouldn''t see the fast attack group for another ten seconds, giving them enough time to get fully engaged and prevent the enemy from responding to the reinforcements. Or so Max hoped.


    The shouts as the enemy realized that it was a low-flying Titan ss Mecha only got louder as Max turned upward to hover in the air and begin the bombardment of the camp.


    The Ion weapons threw up huge clouds of dust where they hit the tanks and burst their outer armour, sending fragments of ative armour flying. Then the Crab Drones deployed a smoke cloud,pletely obscuring the fight from those inside the camp, and allowing themselves to get close to the enemy as Max had instructed.


    He could take care of the tanks, while they would go for the warriors.


    That was a good enough signal for the fast attack troops, and with both Max and the drones already in close, they could use the linked sensors to find targets in the obscuring smoke, hit them and retreat.


    Lights shed through the thick white smoke, marking attacks withser and sma weapons, while screams and bangs marked physical attacks and the ever present projectile weapons of the bloody warriors.


    The rapid explosions of the light Mass Drivers tearing apart the base terrified the defenders, who only had a few seconds to even see what was going on before everything was nketed in the metallic fog that interfered with all their sensors.


    [Drones, spread out and encircle the position. I want the enemy contained and not able to see that there are only a few of us. Fast attack, avoid getting directly in front of me, as I will be pushing to the portal and expecting enemy reinforcements.] Max ordered as he looked for an actual target in this fog.


    The tanks had been destroyed within the first few seconds, but now all he could find was infantry. He could squash them, chop them, burn them withsers, but there was no sign of the rest of the armoured vehicles that had been here before the attack.


    The drones hadn''t reported them leaving, and he didn''t see them on the satellite feeds, so his first thought was that they had retreated to the portal, hoping to draw him into a trap.


    Two more steps and ten more infantry taken out by his defensivesers, but still, there was no sign of the defenders.


    When the counterattack came, it was fierce. Thousands of light weapons at once unleashed their fury in Max''s general direction. Max instinctively ducked, sensing an iing threat, and an orbital bombardment torpedo raced over his head as the Titan ss Mecha hit the ground.


    As scary as that close call was, it was excellent news. He now knew that the portal was facing his way, and that it opened into space.


    A Nuclear warhead barrage from the Heavy Mass Drivers retraced the path of the torpedo, and a burst of fire came back at him a split secondter, followed by the sounds of screaming and terror.


    That was what he was going for. If they were in position to target him, he was in a position to target them back. But something wasn''t right, and the sense of impending danger was only growing.


    [All units, emergency retreat, something is off about this ce.] Max ordered.


    Instead of going backward, he chose to go up, using the thrusters to throw himself into the air as a massive object appeared in front of him, much closer than he had been expecting.


    His counterattack had disabled the controls of a Cathedral Ship, and it had crashed through the portal beforeing to an abrupt stop against the dirt and throwing crewmen everywhere.


    The fire and wind had cleared the smoke, and now everyone could see clearly what had happened, a disaster of epic proportions at one of the two portals in the Great Enemy''s base.


    [Did you just get a Destroyer kill from this side of the portal?] Nico asked.


    [I can''t tell yet, only the first hundred metres made it through the portal before it wedged itself in the dirt. It might be a Cruiser ss vessel.] Max replied.


    [But you''re going to clear it, right?] Nico asked.


    [Nope, I will send a hundred drones on a mission to terrorize the upants and force them toe out where we can shoot at them.]


    [Oh, that''s good. Just wait, I''lle up with something just as amusing. They''re going to wish that they never messed with us. But tell me, do you think that sticking a warship in the portal will stop the flow? It looked like they were using short range portals to get the troops on the.] Nico asked.


    [Probably not. It''s also only one out of the two portals, but it should be a great learning experience for them.]

 Chapter 1221 1221 Nico Brand Nico

    <h4>Chapter 1221 1221 Nico Brand Nico </h4>


    ?The chance to show off was precisely what Nico had been waiting for. She had been modifying her artificial bodytely, using the energy that they had captured from the Greater Energy beings, and some that she had sneakily borrowed from Max while he was sleeping after they had run out of the wild version.


    That proved to be much more effective. It was stabilized, andpatible with her mind and body, so she only had to do a little to it to tweak her power system.


    At the moment, she was not even on the level of a Lesser Demon, but if her analysis of Max''s gathering process was correct, then she should be able to continue to build it up as she fought.


    So naturally, her first target was going to be the collection of Lesser Demons that had made their way through the new portals over thest few minutes. There was no time like the present to see if her modifications were working, and if she really could store wild energy and modify her body even further.


    No way was she going to lose to Max in an evolution contest when she was already a living metal cyborg.


    The firstrge gathering that she found were the fast moving purple ones. Not her favourite target, since they were a pain to hit, but there were a lot of them, and even if her power system needed a minor tweak, she should still be able to gain something out of this battle.


    With that in mind, Nicounched herself intobat, tearing the Demons apart with the Disintegrator, as it was the most efficient way to cause free energy to enter the atmosphere, instead of being contained within the flow that the dead Demons turned into.


    The first st of her Disintegrator freed enough energy that she could activate her new gathering array, a mechanical device designed to attract loose energy and feed it to the experimental refiner in her Mecha.


    If those both worked, then she could either use the energy herself, or keep it for studyter.


    The versatility that the energy had shown was incredibly high, and with the sentience removed from it, the effect was a lot like having ab grown portion of biomatter to work with. She could shape it and grow it how she wanted, guide it to where she needed it to be, and hopefully impose her will upon it naturally so that she could begin the process of truly integrating it the way that Max had, and not just using it to enhance her physical body parts.


    [Energy Assimted. Beginning analysis.] The device informed her, before sending the data to Felicity and Sylvie for processing.


    The research teams were going to be overjoyed with this news. They had tried and failed multiple times before to get the energy to stabilize and stay with them, and this device was their newest collective effort, separate from Nico''s body modification work that was more based on Max''s energy.


    Nico smiled as her Disintegrator ripped more energy free from the pathetic creatures, and then frowned as the device brought up a warning.


    [Capacity at eighty percent.]


    That shouldn''t be right. They had calcted the amount of energy that they would get, and the conversion rate for the creatures when they were attacked. There should be lots of storage room left.


    But when she looked, the canister really was showing itself to be near maximum density. The question was whether the gathering was more efficient than expected, or if they had miscalcted the conversion rates.


    But if the canister was full, and the battle had just started, there was no harm in taking just a little bit for herself, right?


    Nico hooked her secondary power system to the storage tank, prepared with a failsafe in case the energy wouldn''t integrate into the battery she had prepared. She had already done this sessfully with Max''s energy, and the sensors said that this was modified to be the same, but if there was a variable that she didn''t understand or couldn''t measure, she would find out very quickly, and the battery could be jettisoned in milliseconds if it showed signs of instability.


    The energy flowed smoothly from the container into her battery, which filled at the expected rate. That meant either the conversion rate was much higher than expected, or they had miscalcted how much could be gathered from each lesser energy being as it was being killed.


    The AI and the researchers would be working on that for a while now, but Nico had sent them the data, and the confirmation that the energy density and quantity was as indicated on the storagepartment.


    The lesser energy beings had scattered when they saw Nicoing, and she had already killed as many of them as were still in range, so Nico paused to finish the process of assimting the energy before she moved on to hunt down the rest.


    The battery was full and the storage of the converter was back down to one third of its capacity when she changed from drawing the energy to attempting to use it in her circuitry. If it conflicted with Max''s energy, it could be rejected and lost into the atmosphere, leaving her to start her umtion all over again, or it could simply fail to be processed, and remain in a charged state, like it did when creating the bodies for the lesser energy beings.


    That wasn''t what she needed. It would be akin to another energy shield, or an outstanding disguise ability. She wanted it to fully integrate with the metals of her body and bring them to life, in a sense.


    She cautiously opened the circuit to see if the energy would sh, and watched in confusion as the energy was forcibly ripped from the battery, bypassing the circuits entirely, and assimted by the energy borrowed from Max before integrating with the metal of her body.


    Unexpected, but sessful. It looked like the energy retained some sort of sentience when she pulled it directly from Max, and it was set on absorbing everything that it could get from the Energy Beings.


    Now all that was left was topletely saturate her body with it, and adapt it to herself so that it was her own, and not a borrowed power. Nothing much, just the seemingly impossible part that defied scientific analysis and had absolutely zero supporting documentation.

 Chapter 1222 1222 Is Here

    <h4>Chapter 1222 1222 Is Here </h4>


    ?With the energy from the storage mostly integrated into her body, Nico began to feel the profound level of change that Max had experienced when his System had evolved his body. It wasn''t quite the same for her, as she was directing the process, but the System had understood her intentions and was currently working with Max''s System nanobots to determine what the best path forward would be.


    ording to the system, they were two entirely different species at this point, but they wanted to bepatible, and that was one of the priorities that the Nanobots weren''t willing to let go of. So, they had determined that they would make Nicopatible with Max, as the second of the new empowered humans.


    They had researched the human media database to see what the two of them might be going for, but there were very few references to a matched pair of super humans. Mostly, the evolved humans in the movies were a solitary evolution, as Max had been, and there was no other like them, so their lineage couldn''t continue.


    That was the trigger for the System. If there was no media reference, it must mean that Nico intended to continue her lineage, using Max. That was a thing that the System knew very well. It continued its lineage with the children ofpatible users a trillion times a year if you considered the entire human species.


    So, the System brought in every other human that it could contact.


    If there was a way to adapt Nico to bepatible with Max and create new children with perfect systempatibility and a power level on par with Greater Energy Beings, they would find it.


    But Nico was also a pilot andbatant first and foremost. That would make things difficult, unless they modified the process so that it didn''t hinder herbat capability.


    That part would also be difficult, but since they were working with a biomechanical life form this time and not a regr human, it should be possible.


    Nico was blissfully unaware of what the System thought that she wanted it to do. Her primary goal was to overtake Max as the greatest fighting force in the human species, but after she had integrated his energy, the System hadpletely focused on the need forpatibility in order to advance her next evolution, and had taken that in aprehensive manner and not in a battle focused context.


    So, while the System worked to remake her body even further, Nico set out to hunt the energy that it would need toplete the process.


    [Commander Nico, there is arge gathering of the red demons aboard a crashed cutter ss vessel reported by the advanced scouts one hundred and seventy kilometres to the northeast. It was found in a ravine, and the scout team is currently monitoring.] Felicity informed her.


    While Sylvie helped Max, Felicity helped Nico, apromise between the two AI systems to prevent ovepping information rys and suggestions. They conferred on everything, with the final decision and transmission going to the assigned interface.


    The two were having a brilliant time with this battle, finally getting to work together with another AI. Felicity had created over a hundred of them, with base programming, but as she was assigned to the construction zone, she had never had the chance to really coordinate with them in battle on this level.


    "Thank you, Felicity. I''m on my way."


    [Nico to scout unit, I am inbound with a light reconnaissance force. We will take on the troops at the cutter, with a focus on the Demons. The research team is doing experiments on them right now, in hopes to advance our technology, so where possible, please use your Disintegrator to kill them, to free energy from their cohesive forms.]


    The scouts smirked as they read the message. Of course, Nico''s solution would be to kill them in a specific way. There had been plenty of chances to capture one, but none of them had ever seen any such order. Instead, they focused entirely on killing.


    Nico didn''t pause as she rushed past them with a sword in each hand. Nor did she pause as a crossing sweep of her arms cleared a swathe of the red demons from existence. What stopped her was the appearance of a main battle tank that made her roll to the side to avoid a massive sma discharge.


    "That was close, Commander." The scout leaderughed as the shot came close enough that it made the Mecha''s void shield glow as it passed by.


    He ordered his troops to move to the nk and let the Mecha work. The fast attack unit attached to Nico''s troops would do the hit-and-run efforts, so his scouts could focus on staying hidden and assassinating priority targets.


    The red demons were like the blood soaked warriors, they didn''t really have or need leadership, they were more like mindless berserkers, but picking off ones that got into good ambush or sniper positions would reduce the casualties among the fast attack team.


    Those were the primary targets this time, as if the Demons could sense the energy from the life forms inside. They almost entirely ignored the drones unless they were under attack, and even the Android Piloted Mecha were given a lower priority than the Valkia Archangels.


    It was a phenomenon worth noting, and the scout made a recording to send back to Alliance Command. They would surely want to know about this, if they hadn''t realized it on their own yet. If you used a mostly android force, you could use your biological scouts as bait to draw the lesser energy beings into a trap.


    Command likely wouldn''t dare to risk such a thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and there would certainlye a time when that sort of thinking would be needed in order to win a battle, so the information had to be made avable to the troops on the ground.

 Chapter 1223 1223 Progress

    <h4>Chapter 1223 1223 Progress </h4>


    ?Nico stomped her way into battle with the fleeing survivors of the first assault wave.


    Literally.


    As her Mecha''s massive foot dealt a crushing blow to the lesser energy being, she felt a sense of nostalgia that she hadn''t had in some time. Perhaps it was time to paint smiley faces on the feet of all her Mecha and bring back the ssics.


    Her des swept parallel to the ground, cutting the head off an entire group of warriors, and she joyfully batted them up in the air, with the intention to juggle them for an added bit of showmanship as she took out the ranged targets.


    But she had forgotten that these were energy beings, and as they reached the apex of the aerial arc, the heads disintegrated and the energy was pulled into the refiner in her Mecha.


    "Bah, that wasn''t what I was going for. I need some solid enemies here before I cap out the energy storage tanks again." She muttered to herself as she surveyed the battlefield.


    The crab drones were a nightmare for the warriors, low to the ground and fast, with a hard upper shell that resisted most forms of attack even though they didn''t have an energy shield. Their spiked legs and crushing ws easily tore apart battle armour, and the drones were programmed to disable if they couldn''t kill fast enough to deal with arge group of enemies.


    The howling of the wounded was destroying the morale of the regr troops from the Cathedral Ships, and only the blood soaked warriors were still fighting with their usual zeal.


    Even the Shin and Valkia balked at the sight before them, disturbed by the carnage that the Mecha team and drones had brought.


    Instead of pushing ahead and luring more enemy fighters back to them, as they would usually do, the shin fast attack craft were focused on eliminating the wounded to stop the infernal screaming that had forced them to turn off their audio and lose contact with the outside world.


    For the Shin, who were evolved from nts, losing that final connection was incredibly disorienting. They were already in an enclosed box, with no sense of wind, distorted light, no smells, and now no sound. In their minds, this might as well be a dream for all the sense of realism that it had.


    But the Valkia were happy to pick up the ck, as they were the ones being the most targeted by the lesser Demons, and those were the targets that Commander Nico wanted the most.


    Speaking of the Devil of the Terminus Trading Company, she had new orders.


    "Advance troops, there should be a support column nearby. These troopers have hot meals, and I don''t see any sign of a camp. That means there is a logistics column and I want it to not exist." She ordered.


    "Yes, Commander."


    That was the most normal order they could have received, but what they didn''t realize was that they were bait. The Archangel Exoskeleton usedyers of energy barriers to allow the fast flying Valkia to fight without vehicles, but the nature of the energy barriers meant that the sensitive noses of the enemy could pick them up from kilometres away.


    Putting them inbat, where there would be blood and sweat, would only make them smell sweeter to the enemy and draw them from an even longer distance away.


    They didn''t hesitate to obey her orders, and the scout unit raced forward, searching the satellite feeds for the support column, trying to determine who werebatants and who had their supplies.


    Especially the vehicles with the projectiles. The Great Enemy loved projectile weapons, and that required countless munitions resupply runs.


    Nico was right, they found the support column only a few kilometres away, hidden under a rocky overhang, out of sight of aerial drones and satellites. The column was a sad-looking lot, wearing tattered rags, but they all had strange symbols carved into themselves, that the team leader recognized as Demon Summoning ritual runes.


    The idea was that they would get ughtered, the runes would be covered in blood, and it would make it easier to open more portals to bring in the energy beings. It was just as insane and insidious as it was brilliant as a strategy.


    [Commander, they''re marked for a Demon Summoning ritual.] The team leader informed Nico.


    [Perfect. Give me fifteen seconds, then begin the culling. I will be there before any of the portals open.]


    She needed energy for her research, and every bit that she fed herself from the tank was being sucked up and integrated into the metal of her body the instant that it entered the storage battery she had added to herself for this experiment.


    So, as stupid as it might sound, she actually wanted there to be more enemies nearby. Just specific ones though, she didn''t care at all about these poorly trained warriors that were being annihted by the Mecha team as she hunted thest of the stragglers among the lesser Demons.


    Her sensors informed her when the energy surged as the support column was destroyed, and she quickly updated the targeting priorities to send the Android Mecha over while the drones dealt with the mundane infantry.


    [Commander, iing drone fighters. Your location is near a priority two bonus point location.] Felicity informed her.


    That made things easy. All she had to do was highlight the target, and the gamer corps would take care of supplying her energy for the next few minutes.


    [Advance Recon, fall back after marking the target. There are iing aircraft at your location.] Nico ordered.


    They were actually getting better now, and she might have been able to risk the Valkia being in the general vicinity of the battle, but with the level of trust that she had, she wasn''t going to risk some idiot forgetting about friendly fire, or getting some strange notion about "eptable Losses".


    She knew plenty of gamers, and she knew that most of the ones who signed up for this gig were not the most respectable of citizens. It was better not to tempt them.

 Chapter 1224 1224 The Big Picture

    <h4>Chapter 1224 1224 The Big Picture </h4>


    ?On Rae 5, the situation was slowlying under control. With the help of the Arisen and the Darklings, the human''s home Gxy was now rtively stable, and able to keep up with the constant influx of new battles that the Great Enemy wasunching at them.


    The advantage that they had, in that the Greater Energy Beings couldn''t or wouldn''te to them, was enough that they could essentially kill without fear of retribution. There was no force that they couldn''t handle.


    So, Mary Tarith was busily organizing more forces to go through the Alliance territories in preparation for the battles that would being there soon, and one newly created world ship to go near the strange in the Gulf, where she knew that arge human and Alliance force was fighting.


    Perhaps if she got a ship close enough they could find a way tomunicate directly with the, and then they could get some proper updates, or even reinforcements there to help.


    She had managed to get a team of Illithid to join the crew of the World Ship, which was mostly androids, but which they had also staffed with what few Alliance soldiers and human Mecha Pilots they could spare.


    That was bing a scarce resource these days. There were too many battles on too manys, and there hadn''t been time to fully train another generation of soldiers to take over. Once the battle had been raging for a few more years, they would have all the pilots they needed, every kid on every world was determined to be one or support staff for the Mecha at this point, but in the short term, the best that they could train was infantry and cannon fodder.


    You could learn to pilot a Mecha in under a week with the learning devices, but your body wouldn''t be ready for the extreme forces it was going to undergo, and the risks of injuries so severe and permanent that they would require a cyborg conversion was high.


    Somes had embraced that fact, and had been encouraging crippled citizens to undergo the process in exchange for a term of service. There were a lot who were willing to risk it, including many old soldiers who would rather take up the task themselves than leave it to their children and their grandchildren.


    Cyborgs lived a long time, as long as the brain was healthy, so it didn''t really matter if they were getting close to retirement age. The Government would convert their crippled and aging bodies, and they could be the front lines against alien enemies again.


    Mary wasn''t a fan of the idea, but then she also didn''t approve of using poorly equipped infantry inbat in the first ce, and that was where almost all of these older volunteers hade from. If it made them feel better about themselves, she wouldn''t argue about it. Most of the infantry had dreamed of being in the Mecha in the first ce, and the army no longer used the Line Mecha, which had always been viewed as disposable by the veterans who had seen actualbat.


    Being in a Crusader ss Mecha, able to face down entire waves of enemy infantry and vehicles sounded like a much better way to go to war than slogging through the mud as an infantryman, especially with the Corvette ss units being piloted by the Androids, whose reflexes and response times were far superior to the average soldier, making them more suited to the fast attack role.


    [How are the deployment arrangements going?] Mary asked her advisory team.


    [We have seven percent of active military units in reserve at the moment. Thirty percent of Reaver vessels have been returned tomerce duty to keep the trade supply lines open, and both the Arisen and Darkling fleets have spread through the Alliance ording to the predictive targeting maps that they shared with us.


    From what our numbers are showing us, it looks like we''ve almost got the situation under control, we just need a way to destabilize the other side of the Anomaly without causing a cascade effect to our side.


    The Arisen have sent data suggesting that using antimatter to close it could cause an ovep of theyers from the other side, which would allow the Greater Energy Beings to gain purchase in our Gxy, and begin to normalize the otheryers here.


    So, presently, we can''t actually close it without the risk of making things worse when they open the next one. Estimated time to the next anomaly opening if we close this one is seven hours, by the way.] The advisor replied in a dry and slightly sarcastic tone.


    She had gotten used to that now. The man had an augmentic voice box which had been damaged for over a decade, and he simply refused to fix it because he liked the sarcastic monotone that it spoke in. It made it impossible to tell his actual feelings about anything without actually seeing him, and he could use that to keep his Reavers in order, even when he was secretlyughing along with them.


    [Understood. It''s better to keep the status quo for now. Until they start changing to a tactic that we can''t handle, or the casualties begin to increase to an unsustainable level, I don''t see a reason not to go along with the n.


    What is the status of the World Ship that we were preparing to examine the strange?]


    There was a short pause as the advisor double-checked his notes.


    [We are waiting on two more shuttles from the Alliance to deliver crewmen, and then we are ready to depart. They should be in position above the within the next six hours.]


    [Did the Illithid make it? Commander Max should be there, and he canmunicate directly with them if there is no outside force blocking them. That will give us an actual update on the if we can''t get a sensor reading from up close.] Mary asked.


    [They did. We believe that they will be able to get full resolution scans once they are in range, it is mostlymunications that are blocked. We do have some updates on the as well. The forces havemitted to a redeployment after the Great Enemy''s first base was overrun, and they opened two more portals.


    The Myceloids seem to have an understanding with our forces, in that they are not actively hunting each other. They attack when they get close, but the situation appears to be a two on one against the Cathedral Ships. That''s all that we can tell from this distance.]


    [Thank you. I will talk to you for tomorrow''s update, same time and frequency.] Mary announced, ending the meeting.


    Finally, she would get a proper update on her daughter. Hopefully, nothing irreparable had happened to her while their ship was out ofmunications with the world and fighting alone on that artificial world.


    Mary''s thoughts on the matter were far different from Nico''s. Like the Myceloids, she was having the time of her life at that moment, and was just fine with the way things were. Another few days like this and her experiment might even be sessfullypleted.

 Chapter 1225 1225 Angered Gods

    <h4>Chapter 1225 1225 Angered Gods </h4>


    ?Max smiled as the drones tore through the crashed Cathedral Ship. They were doing a brilliant job of destroying the enemy force, and even from where he was standing, the sense of rage on the other side of the portal was clearly understandable.


    Whatever force, presumably another Greater Energy Being, was sending the troops to this world was throwing a fit on the other side, and the mental anguish of the enemy leader was highly entertaining.


    It wouldn''t be long now, and they would give up on this ce entirely, allowing the Myceloid God to pick and choose its targets again, which was to Max''s advantage, as they wouldn''t be showing up at random all over the world this time.


    But there was a sense of maliciousness mixed in with that anger and anguish that was bing stronger by the second. It was a much more powerful being than the Greater Energy Beings, and Max had to resist the urge to find a way to flee back to the safety of his home Gxy, where such things could not approach them.


    The energy pouring into the constructed began to surge, and Max wondered if there was going to be a lesser demon invasion in the next few seconds, but it didn''t seem to be that sort of power. If it was, he should be able to absorb it as it came through the portal, but at the moment, it was just a wave of energy like sunlight that he couldn''t do anything with except to feel it against his skin.


    The power was still increasing, and the ground under his feet began to shake, trembling under the might of the creature that had arrived outside. That was definitely not good news, and Max immediately sent the retreat order to all forces in the area.


    He would most likely be fine with the level of power and the Mecha that he had. But the Valkia with their Archangel Exoskeletons might as well be armoured in tinfoil under this onught of power.


    Then, the energy changed, and Max could feel the Myceloid God intervening, getting between whatever was on the other side of that portal and the world it had created.


    For a few seconds, everything seemed to be stabilized, and then the power surged, and the world began to crack apart.


    [Sylvie, Felicity, get everyone onboard the ships right now. Start with the mortals, so we''re not leaving living beings behind.] Max ordered.


    The ground around the portal was beginning to copse and be sucked into the otheryer, destroying the and anything else unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. Even the bodies of the Great Enemy force were being torn apart by the spatial fluctuations as Max fled the area right behind the rest of his troops.


    The AI would get to him soon enough, he could sense the confusion and relief of the troops that had been pulled home by the portals, as well as Nico''s annoyance at having her fight disrupted.


    Then there was nothing, the world went ck as the expanding copse reached the other portal, and everything vanished, leaving Max floating in space next to the Alliance Armada and a perplexed group of Myceloids, who were pulled to a strange world ship that looked like an asteroid.


    Their God must have rescued them at thest second as it deconstructed the copsing world, but the mental sense of both the Myceloid God and whoever it had been arguing with was gone, hidden from Max''s senses now that the portals were closed between theyers.


    Sylvie brought Max back on board Creeping Darkness, where numerous Valkia and Shin had been gathered in the massive cargo bay, and he prepared to update everyone on what had happened, or at least what he knew about the situation.


    "Commander, it''s good to see that you made it back. Where are we?" The leader of the advance recon team that had been closest to him when everything went wrong asked.


    "You''re aboard Creeping Darkness, the spherical World Ship that I arrived on. I ordered the AI to rescue everyone when the started to copse, and it brought you here. There was likely a good reason for the choice, and I''m guessing that it is efficiency, as there is so much open space on an empty world ship, but we can get you all sorted out to your proper homes after we are back inside Alliance territory, where the portals to otheryers won''t lead to anything." Max replied.


    [Commander, we have requests from the Alliance vessels to begin docking procedures with the World Ships. They will need significant time to get their systems back online. The effects of the forcibly shut them down, and they are not easy to reboot without a maintenance procedure and some antimatter injection.] Sylvie informed him.


    "Bring them on board and get all the dry docks staffed with androids. What is the state of the power systems aboard Creeping Darkness and Absolution?"


    [I have returned my propulsion systems to full capacity already, and Felicity will have the same procedure done within the next five minutes. Due to her higher poption at the time, she couldn''t shut down life support and other high drain systems in order to do a full reboot.] Sylvie exined.


    "That''s good enough for now. It will take at least that long to get everyone securely docked and to start sorting out the crews."


    Max then activated the external speakers of his Mecha.


    "The AI system will be ready to move as soon as all the vessels have docked. We will sort you all out and find your home vessels once we have returned to safety." He informed the rest of the upants of the bay.


    Sylvie forwarded his voice through the ship, informing the rest of the rescued soldiers of their intentions, while Felicity did the same on Absolution.


    "Sylvie, how much of the force did we lose, and where is Nico?" Max asked.


    "Fifteen percent of the Androids and drones could not be recovered in time, but I am collecting them now. Sumander Nico is currently in the researchbs aboard Absolution, where she was ced by Felicity by default."


    Max chuckled at that. He was returned to themand station of thest vessel that he was on, but Nico was returned to the researchbs on Absolution as her emergency relocation home. That definitely sounded like something that she had programmed in advance.

 Chapter 1226 1226 Homecoming

    <h4>Chapter 1226 1226 Homing</h4>


    ?Once everyone was loaded, the trip to the Alliance Territories began. Because of the longer distance, they had to make two hops, but the first one brought them in range of a Reaver vessel that was travelling the other direction, headed for the that no longer existed.


    [Absolution, this is the scout vessel Domaria. What is the status of the Commanders of the Terminus Trading Company?] The vessel asked.


    Felicity was the one to respond. [Both Commanders are aboard the World Ships. You can let Command know that there were no heavy casualties this time, and the civilian poption is intact. We have arge Alliance contingent with us currently, as they are repairing their vessels from the side effects of the interaction with the phenomenon on that.


    We are currently headed for Alliance Territory, unless we are urgently needed elsewhere.] She informed the ship''s Captain.


    [I suggest that you return to Rae 5. They will need the additional repair forces, as they suffered a massive attack and are still rebuilding the space stations. The loss of life was minimal, due topartemantalized design, but the first wave of attacks was brutal.]


    [Please send us an update. Communications on the were scrambled, and we have had no updates since the battle started.] Felicity requested.


    There was a lot to catch up on, and though they were within range of the best orbital scans, they didn''t have the ability or the time to keep up with what was going on in the hundreds of Gxies around them.


    Max and Nico read through the messages with growing horror, seeing the devastation that an all out assault by the Great Enemy had caused their Gxy. He was so close, but ultimately, he hadn''t even known that anything was happening because he had been caught up in the Myceloid God''s game.


    There was nothing that could be done about that now, he wasn''t the god of time to reset events to before the battle, but they could still help with the cleanup.


    [Commander, are we updating our course?] Sylvie asked.


    [Do it. We will take this scout ship back home and see what we can do to help out.] Max agreed.


    Sylvie forwarded the information to Felicity, and the AI immediately opened a portal back to Rae 5.


    [You can lead the way. We will first scan to ensure there is enough room for two World Ships at the arrival point.] Felicity informed the scouts.


    That was all the constion that they needed, and the scouts returned home, much to the confusion of traffic control, who had sent them off on a mission only hours earlier.


    [World Ships Absolution and Creeping Darkness requesting permission to enter orbit.] Felicity broadcast as they entered the system.


    [Permission denied. Orbital locations are full. Please proceed to this designated location to await a long-term assignment.] Traffic control replied.


    It wasn''t that they didn''t recognize the vessel, but with all the construction and the military staging for the battles around the Gxy, there really wasn''t anywhere to put them right now that wouldn''t interfere with safe distance measures or orbital descent paths.


    With all the excitement, even trips to the surface had been severely curtailed in order to preventsting atmospheric damage. The Reavers needed all the Terraforming Arrays that they could get, so constantly entering and leaving the atmosphere was an annoyance that wasted resources they needed in the recovery effort.


    Max held up five fingers as the transmission ended, and the avatar of Sylvie gave him a strange look. He lowered them one by one, and just as thest finger was going down, another message came in.


    [Reaver Command to Terminus Trading Company, inquiring about the status of Sumander Nico.]


    Maxughed and patted Sylvie on the head. "Nico''s mom is here on that, and she is always concerned about the crazy situations that her daughter gets into."


    The AI processed that for a hundred milliseconds, and then smiled. "I believe that is a good thing. Having someone to be concerned about you helps keep you grounded and encourages thoughts of the greater good of humanity. Do you have parents, Commander?"


    Max shook his head. "No, my parents were killed in an attack by rebels on my home."


    Sylvie didn''t need to know all the details, just knowing that there weren''t more parents for her to keep in contact with would be enough.


    "Understood. My condolences on your loss."


    The next few minutes were spent getting a headcount of the Alliance soldiers on the vessel, and making arrangements to get everyone moved to the correct world ship in order to get their crews properly distributed again. The Alliance vessels had all been pulled from different worlds, different battles, and even fromary reserve fleets, while the few other Reaver vessels that had joined the battle were all between missions at the time of their relocation.


    Abduction might be a better word for it, but Max knew that wasn''t how the Myceloid God intended it. To them, this was more of an invitation for a y date, an extended version ofmunity games night that had greatly upset its kinfolk.


    Hopefully, it came out the victor in whatever squabble it had after they left. It was one of the few reliable Gods that Max had heard of, and losing its support would cause more issues than Max was willing to deal with in the long term.


    The relocation of the troops that were on the ship was only the start of the messages that Max was going to have to deal with that day. The smaller Reaver Companies that had been on the defence force for the Rae 5 system had lost a lot, often everything, when their ships were destroyed. They were currently boarding with others, but the space stations were in bad shape as well, and Max had two whole World Ships, one with no overcrowding, and one with no people.


    It was the perfect opportunity for them to start over while they tried to assemble the funds to recover. The Reavers would rece their ships, but they couldn''t rece the lost personnel or the other belongings that had created the power base for the Trading Companies.


    Joining a World Ship while trying to get a spot in line for a new vessel would also allow them to reform a crew out of other groups who had lost too many people to remain as a functional force, but it would also give them an opportunity to try to score points with the Terminus Commanders, and possibly slide in under their umbre so that they would have priority ess to resources the next time there was a disaster.


    It wasn''t easy being an independent, even in peace time. Perhaps once things were better, they could pay off any debts they had and go it alone again. At least, that was the dream of a lot of the survivors. The only issue with it was that their leaders were gone, and there was no clear path of inheritance unless certain surviving crew members were named as sessors. Being employed by the Reaver Company didn''t automatically give you the right to inherit their ''insurance policy'' funds when the Company was disbanded forck of leaders.

 Chapter 1227 1227 Build Back Bigger

    <h4>Chapter 1227 1227 Build Back Bigger </h4>


    ?Max started to sort through the applications to stay on the World Ships, and passed Sylvie the task of renovating the Creeping Darkness for upancy with a new standard offort and luxury. She had already started on the changes, but if they were going to make the World Ship into a standard Reaver trade vessel, with an excess of both luxury and military capacity to go with the cargo space, it was going to take a fairly extensive redesign.


    That wouldn''t be a problem for her, though. The ship was designed to be easily modified for different uses, and the ns for the new interior were avable from Felicity, who had already adapted some for her use.


    "How long do you need to get the ship ready to start receiving new permanent upants? Including the transfer of the Alliance troops to their own vessels." Max asked.


    "We can start receiving them tomorrow morning, as long as the Alliance troops get their people on time." She replied.


    "That''s a good enough timeline. I will stay here with you until there is a crew ready to take over. Perhaps longer, if there is still more fighting to be done in the immediate future. It looks like the situation is mostly under control, but we all know that the best of ns never survive the first engagement with the enemy."


    Sylvieputed the uracy of the statement, then realized that it was a euphemism. It still had an uracy rate over ny percent, though.


    "If there are no objections, I will remake the rooms in my traditional style, but to the standard set by Felicity." Sylvie suggested.


    "That is a good idea. It will give the ship its own personality, instead of being a copy of something else. The finest of Reaver Ships all have their own style, based on when they were made, and the generations that have lived aboard since then. You might not have had the chance to have generations of residents, but you certainly have a unique vintage." Max agreed.


    The happy AI began to work, turning the World Ship into the peak of luxury from the time of her construction, while also ushering the Alliance troops home to their own vessels. That alone was a big task, as there was no organization to where everyone ended up.


    Nico sent a message while Max was working on the arrangements for thest of the Shin to get transferred to Absolution, where their vessels would be staying for a longer retrofit. Their technology was a bit different from the Alliance standard, and they had taken some damage from the influence of the Myceloid God''s intervention.


    The Valkia were already almost gone, they just needed to get a cargo vessel to move all the light attack vessels between World Ships.


    Max considered inviting them to stay on Creeping Darkness, but they were Shin, and Absolution had a World Tree on board, as well as numerous natural features, including massive forests, for them to rx in.


    Even after the renovation, Creeping Darkness wasn''t going to be that sort of vessel, it was being renovated more like a single massive city than a floating nation. It would hold close to fifty times as many people in the end, while still having more cargo space, but Absolution was the undisputed leader in green space, thanks to its long and t design, as opposed to the spherical standard.


    [The first batch of the Reaver transfers areing with the cargo vessel. You can get them settled whenever the rooms are ready, but it will save us all a lot of hassle if I send them now.] Nico informed Max as the transfer arrangements were finalized.


    [Who are you sending over?] He asked.


    [Mostly independents. Most of them are from ships that lost their Commanders and all the named officers, so there is no inheritance path for the Company. They''ve got whatever they could salvage, but they''re looking for a new home.] Nico replied.


    [And the others?]


    [I found a few Independent Commanders that are way down the priority list for a new ship. They were willing to make a deal to work under the Terminus Trading Company, in exchange for a guarantee that they''ll get a new Cutter ss orrger cargo vessel this year to return to their trade routes.


    Everything is on hold right now anyhow, with the military situation being what it is. Until the production lines shift back to general goods instead of military supplies, there is no need for trade vessels, so they''re willing to wait a bit while they sort out a new crew and get settled into a bay aboard Creeping Darkness.] Nico exined.


    That made good sense to Max. He could also do them one better. A World Ship was a lot like a Space Station, in that you could have nobatant family members living there full time. So, if they designated a permanent bay and living area for the independents, they could make the World Ship their permanent home base.


    That was a huge improvement for a lot of the small tradingpanies. When you were all on one ship, anything that happened was a threat to everyone. But when you could leave the children somewhere safe, you could work with a lot less stress.


    It would be a change for them, though, being away from family, so it was possible that some of them would prefer just to use the space on the World Ship for storage and a vacation residence. They wouldn''t be the first ones with that idea, either. Plenty of Companies would lease space to visitors on their space stations, either for repairs or for rest away from a minimally equipped freighter.


    [All Shin, prepare for transfer to Absolution. Your ride will be here within the hour, and then returning as soon as you are loaded.] Max broadcast to the ship, along with the docking bay for their transport.


    "I''ve got three zones near the cargo bay prepared for residency. The new arrivals can start moving in as soon as they arrive, and then I will allow them to spread out once they are assigned crew duties or vessels." Sylvie informed Max.


    "Good work. I''ll be counting on you."

 Chapter 1228 1228 Rising Tides

    <h4>Chapter 1228 1228 Rising Tides</h4>


    ?While the forces in Rae 5 were working to rebuild the space stations that had been damaged after the first wave of attacks, the situation in the otheryers of the Anomaly Region, where the Koleska and the Defence Fleet were fighting, was much less optimistic.


    "Divine One, we cannot keep sending the Generals intobat like this. The Mortal Insects have devised a way to truly destroy them. They are not even returning as the reformative vessels. Whatever method the humans have devised, it is worse than what they managed to do before the final battles of thest engagement." A serpentine creature addressed the gathered crowd.


    The Gods had gathered to discuss the situation with the battle against the mortals, and the mood was quite sombre. Most of them didn''t pay any attention at all to the situation, and only lent power to their fleets of loyal species.


    They had made them from samples taken from the mortal species, and thenbined them with their own powers to create new species to serve and entertain them.


    A formless ck cloud flickered with lights as it turned its attention toward the speaker. "Those fragments are disposable. Soon, I will have recovered enough to stabilize my form, and they will no longer matter. The time of the mortals is at its end, and this time they will not stop me."


    The gathered Gods bowed down under the oppressive weight of the creature''s attention.


    It was the greatest of them, a God which had absorbed the powers of another of their kind, giving it powers far beyond any other, save for the madman of the Green Tide.


    "Did our effort seed?" One of the other Gods, a light elemental god that embodied the aspects of stability between the stars, asked curiously.


    It was one of the many whose aspects didn''t involve living creatures. It cared nothing about the battle, but the Divine One before them had the power to suppress it if there was any hint of disloyalty, so it was eager for the situation to be over and done with so it could get back to observing the stars and return to the primeyer.


    Until this idiotic battle ended and the Divine One recovered, it was forbidden for them to return to thatyer, and there were no stars here to observe. The God was living in their own personal hell, but the choice had been made millions of years ago, and it couldn''t be unmade now.


    "It did. I have all the energy I need, and my power is returning. Soon, I will be able to revive, and then I will be able to escape the dead zone and retake my rightful ce." The formless cloud responded.


    "What of the Violent One? It has been interfering in our affairs." One of the others asked.


    "It cares about nothing but violence. As long as there are battles to be fought, it won''t interfere in our business. The fact that it managed to gain so much power is an affront to our entire species. After its pet mortals have been eliminated, I will take care of it personally."


    The Gathering of Gods sensed great amusement in their midst at those words, and immediately they were prepared for battle.


    "Are you not going toe out?" The formless cloud asked.


    "Do I need toe there in person? Do you think that you are my match? Don''t forget where your power went thest time that you died." The booming voice of the Myceloid Godughed.


    "And now my power is back. You have amused yourself with the mortals for long enough. It is time to purge their virus from the universe." The formless cloud insisted.


    "Do what you want. But I am warning you now that you will lose again, and I won''t be so kind as to allow you a chance to recover. You have yed this game long enough, and I am sick of watching you try. But more than that, I am sick of watching you lose, you pathetic creature." The Myceloid God taunted its kinfolk.


    It wasn''t alone on the side of the mortals. Though the others were in hiding as much as the rebels were. They were hiding from the Rebels, while the rebels were hiding from the Myceloid God and the Mortals.


    The Myceloid God''s mind withdrew from their territory, forced out by thebined might of the rebel Gods. They were greatly concerned that the mortal lovers would band together and use their might to stop the battles before the Divine One could fully recover.


    Without the battles, the flow of energy from the Prime Layer would stop, and the Divine One would be stuck in limbo, cut off from the essential naturalws that were allowing it to recover. That would be a disaster, and without the flow of power, it could easily be stripped of its power again and forced to start over once more.


    As the rebel gods resumed their meeting on the status of the ongoing battle and the awakening of the Divine One, the Myceloid God watched its people battle against the Cathedral Ships and some of the mortal species, while keeping tabs on what was happening in the meeting.


    They never learned, it decided. They were incapable of it, and they would do the same things over and over until they were all gone, or they finally managed to win and eliminate the Mortal Races. There was always the chance that they would win, buttely, the Myceloid God was finding them more entertaining, and was reconsidering its position of neutrality in the conflict.


    The Cathedral Ships were always so surprised when his green tide attacked them, though they should know by now that he wasn''t actually on their side. But the mortals, they just took it in stride. They understood thatbat wasbat, and that it served its own purpose, not just as an expression of political alliances.


    It would have to wait and see. If not this time, then perhaps the next time that the rebels tried to rise up. That should be soon enough, it thought. A few million more years were no big deal.

 Chapter 1229 1228 Reorganized

    <h4>Chapter 1229 1228 Reorganized </h4>


    ?With so many new vessels and so many losses among the Reaver Companies and national armies, the human military forces were in a state ofplete disarray. Every unit was a hybrid made of the survivors of other units that had been targeted by the Great Enemy, while a majority of the long established Reaver Companies were no longer intact.


    Most of them had some ships left, but with their hierarchy scrambled with the number of ships crippled, the chain ofmand was constantly arguing with each other and second guessing the decisions of the ship Commanders who had more senior Commanders among the troops sheltering with them.


    Nobody did well with losing their ship, and while the organized military had rankings to keep things sorted, there was a lot of grey area with the Reavers when it came to honours, merits, and having lost your ship.


    That sort of thing wasn''t easy for a Reaver toe back from, and with the interventions andrge-scale battles, it was much moremontely to have your ship crippled, but not lose the crew. So, there were countless Reavers waiting on major overhauls and looking for living quarters until they could be done.


    It was an unprecedented state of affairs for the nomadic merchant culture, and dealing with it was giving Mary a headache.


    Nico was back, only a away aboard her World Ship, yet here she was, sitting in her office doing paperwork and trying to settle challenges between the Reavers in orbit.


    It wasn''t a job that anyone wanted, and that was why she was stuck with it here in her office on Rae 5. The was not in much better shape than some of the space stations, but the moon had gotten it much worse, and while the primary researchbs had held, there was a lot of work to do before it would be back up and running at its former capacity.


    Even worse, until the moon base was settled, it was severely limiting the ability to transfer gear back and forth from the. They had been using it as a waypoint for shipments since they settled here, and now that they didn''t have that, it was bing a real issue just to keep the stocked.


    They were going to have to assign another vessel to do the duty until the moon base was up and running, and that was where Mary saw her opportunity. The tworgest and least upied vessels in the entire star system were the world ships of the Terminus Trading Company, so requesting that they take over the movement of personnel and products to and from the would be not only the logical route, but the best way to keep Nico from running away again.


    [Mary Tarith to the Terminus Trading Company, I have an official mission for you. With the moon base out of operation, we need your world ships to take over the transfers to and from the surface of the. I am requesting that your World Ships move to this new location, and a traffic controller team will be sent to assist your staff in marshalling the flow of vessels.]


    That would also get them out of orbit around the. They were definitely in the way, but that was where the queue was formed, and there wasn''t much to be done about it at this point without a new staging area,


    [Understood, Leader Tarith. We will reassign staff to increase the flow of vessels through our docks.] Felicity answered.


    That would make things more interesting. There were only so many variations when you were sending Mecha intobat, but when it was trade vessels, it could be anything. They would also want to visit the ship''s amenities, which was good for business and kept the residents busy instead of letting them fall into a boring routine again after being on high alert for so long.


    Of course, Nico realized right away what her mother was doing. But with Mary excited about a visit, that meant an increased chance that there would be celebratory cake. Plus, she had good news for Mary.


    Her experiments with energy-based life, biomechanical life forms, and her own modified body structure had finally paid off. She had a theoretical method of reproduction for herself, and any other creatures like her that might happen toe after.


    If she formed an egg of living metal and gic material from a second source, then infused it with both nanobots and the energy that had been purified from the energy beings, her data said that she should be able to create an entirely new life form.


    Biologically, that should create an actual child, mixed from two DNA sources, and not a clone of herself, which would be redundant, as they would end up sharing the same mind and skills.


    Now that she had started working on it, the idea was growing on her. What exactly would a child raised by Nico Tarith from the day it hatched be like? Most likely, it would turn out to be aplete mess.


    She had precisely zero parenting skills, motherly instinct, or desire to obtain either.


    But the actual creation of the egg was a research project that she was unwilling to let go of. So, the next time that she saw Max, Nico decided that she would have to obtain a DNA sample to see if the egg would be viable,


    Maybe she could upgrade it as well. Some built insers would be cool, but possibly impractical in the body of a toddler. It was such a pain to have the child''s mind start at such a low level that she couldn''t even weaponize it. Perhaps there was a way to put in an evolutionary trigger for gic weapons.


    If they only activated during puberty, that should bete enough that the child could be taught to control themselves in advance, the same as any Kepler child who was given a weapon during their first year of Academy training.


    Back to theb she went. She had a theory to test.

 Chapter 1230 1229 Waypoint

    <h4>Chapter 1230 1229 Waypoint</h4>


    ?Max moved Creeping Darkness into position for its new mission. Felicity and Sylvie had worked out the details between them and had ended up with Felicity getting the personnel transfers and smaller shipments, as that would allow the merchants to travel the cities for a while before they left, while Sylvie was to receive all therge bulk shipments, where the crew would only be a handful of people.


    She had enough of the ship renovated to keep that many entertained and housed, but most of the bulk freighters didn''t want to stick around in the first ce. They just wanted to get unloaded and on to their next target.


    There were tens of thousands of bulk deliveries, mostly ore and biomass for the Replicators on the space stations and orbital defence tforms that had survived the attacks all over the Gxy. The more of them that they could take on, the better their reputation would be when it came time to look for regr shipmentster.


    Nobody forgot the crew that had shown up with their goods in their most desperate hour, even if it wasn''t anything heroic. It was just a shared trauma bond, but it could be counted on to put them at the top of the Station Commander''s mind the next time he called for a freighter.


    While it sounded a bit hical, business was business, and it wouldn''t do any harm to the other rtionships that the station had. Everyone was overloaded with work, and even with portals and much higher warp travel speeds, it still took time to get goods moved. That was especially true in war zones, as they couldn''t open portals too close to thes, as it would trigger the defence systems of the orbital stations, and plenty of systems now had lingering debris and energy clouds that made randomly opening a portal a very risky proposition.


    It would take decades to get all of that cleaned up, if it ever was.


    Max prepared to wee their first round of deliveries with an order for Sylvie to deliver each crew a case of Reaver Rum, made from the newest generation Replicators, which did an even better job of capturing the nuances of a small batch brewed liquor. Instead of the generically excellent rum, the replicators could now output a collection of small imperfections that were found in specific batches that gave them their distinct vour.


    The difference was subtle, but noticeable, like changing up the recipe in a meal just a little with a different spice or a slightly altered quantity.


    The docks of the station would just be used as a holding bay until the orbital barge could be sent to pick them up, or another crew came to gather them for further delivery, but a little something nice for the Reavers was never the wrong choice.


    So, it was much to his shock when the first Captain that he greeted was not a human at all. At least not by Alliance standards.


    "Greetings Commander Max, I am Twe, the new Captain of the freighter Ormond, under themand of the Orma Mining Group." The Innu man greeted him.


    "Wee Captain. I must say that I am both pleased and shocked how well your people have integrated into Reaver culture, and congrattions on your new Command." Max replied.


    The Innu''s head tentacles wiggled in happiness, and the man smiled at him. "Well, if you ask the Darklings and the Arisen, we''re all humans to begin with. Piloting a bulk freighter might not be the most morous job in the world, but I can say that I am truly a Reaver Captain at this point, and I have the podcast to prove it."


    Max chuckled at that. "You too? I thought that the podcasts were reserved for the Tech Nomads?"


    Captain Twe shrugged. "That''s what I was until four months ago. Now, I''m a freighter Captain. There is still time for research while we travel. We''ve got a portal array, but the targeting system is budget brand trash, the power generation is dismal, and with a full cargo bay, the inertia is brutal, it takes forever to get moving."


    "But you can portal yourself, so that''s got to count for something." Max joked.


    "You''d better believe it. We were just in the Alliance zone, picking up these mechanical parts for delivery to a local wholesaler. They''re waiting to pick them up, but their fleet of shuttles isn''tpatible with a bulker like this, so they needed a bay to work in." The Captain exined.


    "Great, now I''m a cross dock and sorting facility. Did you want to bring your crew to the entertainment areas while the unload is finished?"


    The Innu shook his head, making his tentacles bounce. "Everyone is working on ship upgrades now. We will stop in and y the next time that we''re nearby, though. We had a chance to visit Absolution earlier this year, and we''re dying to go again."


    "That''s understandable. But in that case, I should be off to greet the next group. The drones will do a lot of the greeting work, but sometimes it''s just good to see a friendly face."


    "If they''re bringing rum, they''re likely the friendliest face anyone has seen in a while. It was a pleasure to meet you, Commander."


    With that, Max was off to greet more of the Reavers, while Sylvie arranged for a hundred bulk freighters an hour to arrive, unload and depart. That was cutting the schedule tight for the wholesalers who wanted to spend all day on the dock sorting goods and preparing for their delivery routes, but Sylvie knew their tricks.


    When they tried to dy, she nned to send drones to help organize the freight and eliminate the reasons they had for wasting her dock space. They couldn''t even use them of being a security risk, as they were just drones, andpletely incapable of telling anyone about whatever super secret delivery system or pricing markup the wholesalers hade up with.


    Not that any of them would dare to gouge. Price gouging on relief supplies was strictly forbidden by the Reavers, and it would end with them cklisted or worse.

 Chapter 1231 1231 To Please Mary

    Chapter 1231 1231 To Please Mary


    ??While Max weed various freighters to the docks, Nico was busy in the researchbs, preparing herself for the inevitable day that her mother woulde to inquire again about the possibility of grandchildren.


    This time she would not be unprepared, and she would have a whole stack of research documents prepared to put before Mary Tarith, so the woman would finally have a satisfactory answer. Nico was sure that her n would drive her father insane, as Mary''s baby fever would only increase in intensity, but some sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.


    Well, her greater good anyhow.


    The results were looking promising, and with the System''s help, she was quite certain that she now qualified to be called a proper new species of living metal life form. Her scans indicated that the nanobots had finished integrating her metallic body with her organic body, which only consisted of her brain. Even that had been highly modified now, integrated with the metallic structure to improve the durability, shock resistance and neural capacity.


    Even if her child was unable to inherit the nanobots or had poorpatibility with the system, she should have something close to the Innu capacity for technology, as well as a portion of Nico''s increased cognitive speed.


    Combined with the superhuman body, and the child should have a bright future in front of her. Or possibly him. Nico was still uncertain if she was willing to leave anything up to chance, or if the first attempt should bepletely custom.


    "You''re thinking too deeply about it, Commander. The random gic selection is part of the experience of having children, if you select everything about them, you''ll miss out on all the surprises as they grow, and you get to see which genes express themselves most efficiently." Her research team leader informed Nico as she stared at the screen.


    "Perhaps you''re right. Mother will be overjoyed just seeing the data indicating that it is possible, there is no need to rush into actually hatching one for her." Nico replied with a sigh.


    The team leader patted her on the back, well aware of Nico''s personality, and then returned to her work, reconfiguring the Archangel Exoskeletons for increased speed and energy efficiency.


    Their performance in thest battle was very impressive, but it also highlighted a few areas where they werecking, and the team was hoping to smooth out the limitations. If they could increase the speed and agility to a point just slightly greater than the user''s capabilities, without costing them additional energy in a limited capacity system, it would meet all the requirements that they had for the mobile scout units.


    As it was, the Valkia felt that they could have performed better with just their wings, but the armour was essential to their mission. The data said that the suits were much faster, but possibly less agile, and it was theck of manoeuvrability that the Valkia were struggling to adapt to.


    The suits didn''t work the same as a regr wing, they used gravity control and thrusters, not the ingrained instinct for feather control that the Valkia usually relied upon to precisely control their position in the air.


    The problem was that it was all subconscious action, and without a conscious input, the neural link only picked up the intentions, not the feather control, so it couldn''t react with the same precision. That was what they were hoping to fix today.


    They had a number of volunteers aboard Absolution now, and they all had recent experience inbat with the exoskeleton, so there was no need to worry about inexperience. But there were still questions about if it was actually possible to record the subconscious muscle control without making an entirely new system exclusive to the Valkia.


    That would take a lot of programming, as they would need to fully map the subconscious neural of the species, along with their nervous system and the usual conscious inputs. All of that data should be known and avable in the healing databases, but that didn''t make it any less daunting of a task to make it all respond perfectly whenbined with the control systems of the Exoskeleton.


    "Wings. She would be cute with wings." Nico suggested to her team leader.


    "You just want to send a weaponized flying cyborg to your mother to wreak havoc in her house."


    She had a point. That was actually exactly what Nico had been plotting, and it would be hrious to see. Just the thought of the little winged cherub making her mother chase it all around the house, with its high ceilings and all the formal dining and guest rooms, was enough to put a smile on her face.


    "Alright, I will focus on the more immediate tasks, instead of ways to prank my mother. How are weing with the neural link upgrades?" Nico asked.


    "I think we''ve actually reached a dead end. This is as far as we can take this current technology without a full revamp of the control software. Did you want to start on that right away, or should we keep trying to find a way around the issue?" The lead researcher asked.


    "Let''s start on the new software. It''s a better option in the end, and it will be much more flexible when the Valkia are using it. We can always keep the original software for other users and make this one a military exclusive control program. You know how they like knowing that they''ve got the advantage." Nico agreed.


    "Marvellous. I will go break the news to the rest of the team and the research volunteers. This will take a lot of careful measuring, but if the end result is good enough, I don''t think that they will object to the extra work."


    The team certainly wouldn''tin about calling one taskplete and starting on something that was totally new and unique, it was just their suckers in the volunteer force that might object to the hundreds of hours of poking, prodding and precision tests that were going to be necessary to make this new program work as well as they needed it to.

 Chapter 1232 1232 Crew Onboard

    Chapter 1232 1232 Crew Onboard


    ??Max sat in his makeshift office in the cargo area of Creeping Darkness and looked across the desk at the group of Reavers, Innu and Giants that had requested a meeting. They hade aboard with one of the freighters, recovered from a damaged shuttle after a battle in a nearby system, and they were requesting to remain aboard after the freighter left.


    "Alright, sell it to me. Why should I take you on as crew?" Max asked.


    The group of spacefarers smiled back, feeling that they had already won the first battle. Max was considering taking them as part of his crew.


    "We represent a wholemand team, engineering, astrometrics, maintenance, personnel management, Mecha pilots and security guards. Between us, we don''t have anyone without advanced skills, and wee with a proven track record of steadfast duty.


    We fought until the bitter end, kept the Great Enemy away from the for six whole hours before our vessel was lost, and we escaped in the emergency shuttle from the bridge. Our Commander was with us at first, but he suffered heart trauma during the explosion, and the medical team couldn''t treat him in time aboard the freighter.


    That is the only department that we arecking, as all of our medics were sent to the surface once we realized that we wouldn''t be able to hold the enemy in space.


    There is battle footage to serve as a rmendation, in lieu of our Commander''s word." The leader of the group, a younger Reaver with blonde dreadlocks, exined.


    "Are any of you from a Command Family, with a chance at inheritance rights? Or were you all enlisted crew?" Max asked.


    "The Company itself would pass to the Commander''s son, who was on the thest we heard of him. I don''t know how that battle went, though. It has been difficult to keepmunications on the freighter with everything that has been going on."


    That was understandable. None of the battle situations were public, they had all been encrypted and sent to Command. Mary would know, but Max had too much to do right now to disturb her, and she likely didn''t have things any easier than he did.


    "I will find out what the situation is for you. If they are in the queue for a recement ship, are you nning to return to your originalpany?" He asked.


    The leader shook his head. "No, we were hoping to break off and start another freight ship under theirmand originally, but now that their business has copsed, we were hoping to do the same under you.


    We have the funds saved between us, but with the queue, we thought that it might be better to try our hand at bing the permanent staff of a world ship. Owning a cargo vessel is just the start, as you well know. Getting good customers was never easy, and now with everyone repaying their saviours, it will be even harder."


    He had a point, and Max had thought about the same thing. It really would be a bad time to be a brand new Reaver Company, starting out without the connections to ensure that you could keep busy.


    "Alright, I will hire you. Standard contracts, with no fixed term of service. Your first task will be to help me sort all these applications. You cover most of the major departments, so each of you can separate them by group. We can start with a thousand of them, and work from there.


    Once we have enough staff to get started, I will hold proper auditions for the leadership roles. I won''t guarantee them to you just because you''re here first, but your job performance in finding the rest of the crew will be a factor in the decision." Max announced.


    "Isn''t a thousand far too few people? I know that you managed to get the world ship this far on your own, but a thousand souls isn''t enough to keep it running for more than a day." One of the Innu Reavers asked.


    "For that, we have the androids. I had considered making this a fully autonomous world ship, but with so many people looking for work, it makes sense to bring them on board and bring the ce to life.


    The ship''s AI has already begun renovating for the new crew, but once you see theyout of the vessel, you will understand that this was a ship made for war, and it is set up for extremely high density living, not the sort of natural luxury and splendour of Absolution."


    The blondeughed. "So, more like a normal Reaver Ship? Tell me, how many is it intended to hold once it is renovated and set up for cargo?"


    Max shrugged. "Fifty million, give or take a few."


    "What will fifty million even do on a world ship? I mean, it would be a city of its own, but if it''s not generations of family, what would the goal of the Creeping Darkness even be?" The leader of the crew group asked.


    "Humanitarian aid. Creeping Darkness has a massive drone and android army on board, and I fully intend to keep sending it ces to either end battles, helps recover after battles, or calm domestic disturbances. I think most of you will be familiar with the Rebellion that broke Kepler apart. If there were more reliable peacekeepers, I think that the rebellion could have been ended before it ever gained the traction that it did.


    Too manys called for help and got nothing. That was what turned them to the Rebellion. So, we will be aiming to prevent that level of discontent from happening in the first ce."


    One of the Giants stepped forward to speak. "With an emphasis on rebuilding or on quelling rebellion?"


    "On rebuilding and defending so that rebuilding isn''t necessary. The goal is that there shouldn''t be any rebellions to quell in the first ce."


    The Giant nodded. "Then I think that we''re all in agreement. It''s a pleasure to meet you Commander Max."

 Chapter 1233 1233 Recruitment

    Chapter 1233 1233 Recruitment


    ??Once the first group was hired and put in charge of finding more staff for the world ship, the number of requests from refugees aboard freight vessels to remain on board skyrocketed. Nearly everyone had taken in some survivors of a destroyed ship during the most recent battles, and the freight vessels were made for a spartan crew of twenty or fewer members. Even taking in a dozen was a major strain on their resources, unless they could be held in a cargo hold, which wouldn''t be much of a living if they had arrived with nothing but what was in an escape pod.


    That was making it both effortless and incredibly difficult at the same time for the recruitment team. They didn''t want to turn away anyone, but not all the people who wanted on board had skills.


    "Are we epting refugees and secondary personnel, or just the thousand that we are hiring, Commander?" One of the Giants asked Max, holding a clipboard in his hand.


    "We might as well take whoever wants to stay. While it is still a military focused vessel, having families here, and unskilled workers for the odd jobs that normally go to androids is still fine. The Androids are incredibly skilled, but they also don''tin about menial tasks, so they''re just all around good staff.


    That doesn''t mean we can''t take the others who want toe, just put them on a secondary list for residents and not top staff." Max decided.


    "Any limit?" The Giant asked.


    "Don''t fill more than a third of the ship. Leave us room to move refugees, in case a needs aplete overhaul. We''re equipped with thetest terraforming technology now, and Creeping Darkness will be able to make over an entire in under a month, no matter how bad of shape it''s in.


    So, we will have to house huge numbers of refugees from time to time. There is a n in the files for that, actually, dense rack bunks withmon eating areas to put a hundred times the crewplement into the cargo bays.


    It would be an incredible drain on the ship''s resources, but it is feasible, and it would let us move entires if their world became uninhabitable." Max exined.


    Just the thought of hundreds of millions of people crammed like sardines into the cargo holds was enough to make the crew members shudder in revulsion. But if the options were that or a dying they couldn''t survive on, they would dly take in everyone they could.


    Once they spread the news that they had ten million empty spaces, plus the thousand top skilled ces for official crew members to join the Terminus Trading Company, themunications went wild. The thousand official member spots were an impressive draw, but millions of permanent homes aboard a new World Ship were far more important at the moment.


    The fact that it wasn''t some no - name crew that managed to stumble upon a world ship, or find the funding to obtain one, made it even more incredible to the Reavers.


    Max did his best to hide his amusement at the chaos that the team had unintentionally caused for themselves, as they were left in charge of the entire process, with Sylvie helping them out as requested.


    They had no experience with the true capabilities of an AI system, so they were underutilizing her skills by quite a bit, but that was also part of the learning process. Either they would get it soon, or they would hire someone who did.


    While they spent every waking hour trying to sort through applications, Max focused on the renovation of the ship. Sylvie had originally intended for the vessel to be more military based, but if they were going to bring so many regr civilians on board, that was going to have to change to make Creeping Darkness onerge city.


    "Focus on shops and amenities. These people might not have trade skills that will do well for a ship''s crew, but they can run or work at shops, restaurants and such. Your ship can be a tourist destination while we work, filled with unique shops that we can use to resupply damaged worlds. Plus, that will give you countless people to observe, if you''ve inherited Felicity''s tendency to study the lives and interactions of those aboard." Max suggested to the AI avatar.


    "Will do. I am not as interested in the study of human interactions as Felicity is, but I am greatly interested in logistics and supply. Getting that many shops set up and ready to run will be a monumental task, and assigning people to operate them will be even more interesting as an efficient use of resources study."


    Max almost felt bad for the people who were about to be assigned tasks based on their personal history and not some aspirational dream, but Sylvie was right. That was the most efficient way to get things going, and then they could change upter.


    Her thinking was still very militaristic, as that was how her initial programming had started, and in the military there was no unemployment, no cking orying about unless you were physically or mentally incapable.


    So, once they were here, Sylvie would find work for every single person, and she would make sure that all the tasks got filled.


    That part of the recruitment Max had left entirely to her. The few dozen members who were already here were only in charge of getting the people on board, with a minimal background check to make sure that they weren''t cklisted or tagged as undesirables.


    The easiest way to do that was to check their documents. If there was no secondary verification of their history, the documents were likely forged. It wasn''t a hard task for hackers to get information into the system to make a new identity, but once the AI started to interact with otherputer systems, theck of supporting evidence for the altered documents was a big red g.


    Unless the whole was lost, or they were very young, there should be something, somewhere, that mentioned them.

 Chapter 1234 1234 Domestic Life

    Chapter 1234 1234 Domestic Life


    ??After four days of intensive recruitment and cargo transfers, Max looked over the renovation project aboard Creeping Darkness. Sylvie had finally finished updating the ship to the highest of standards, and was ready to start showing it off.


    For the moment, all the new arrivals were either housed in one high density region of the cargo area. They were only bringing aboard the first thousand, and the refugees that happened to be aboard the cargo vessels that were in the queue. But today, that was about to change.


    Max had decided that the team had it too easy, so he had scheduled four refugee ships to dock with them, each three hours apart. That was going to be a very long day, and Max was eager to find out if they would go with Sylvie''s n for distribution, or if they would make life hard for themselves trying to do it without her.


    They knew she existed, there was an avatar there with them to help with any questions that they had, and they had been briefed on the details of the renovation, how the blocks were designed to have housing above shops in most of the district, with only a fewpletely habitation apartments, and amercial or industrial district.


    These four ships would be delivering nearly a hundred thousand refugees and jobseekers in total, gathered from the overcrowded space stations in the Rae 5 system.


    Among them were most of the candidates for the top thousand official employees, as the crews were almost all Reavers, with under a third being either random civilians or travelling Alliance species.


    The jobs in engineering were going to be the most difficult to choose. Not because there weren''t any qualified applicants, but because there were too many. Not just the Reavers who had been working in the engineering department, with its extrayers of shielding to keep an engine issue from destroying the entire vessel, but the influx of Innu who had spread through the Reavers to study everything that they could about human technology.


    In short, they were so flooded with good options that finding only a few top applicants based on a resume or list of aplishments would be nearly impossible.


    Conversely, senior sanitation and infrastructure maintenance staff were difficult toe by. They rarely changed vessels or went looking for new adventures, and they were normally in some hidden conduit during an attack, which led to them being trapped when the ship or station was damaged.


    Plus, with Sylvie doing most of the actual maintenance work and analysis, there wasn''t a need for as many of them, so the quality of the ones picked had to be impressive.


    "Commander, they finally gave up on trying to do it themselves and asked me to start assigning residences anding up with a rmendation for job cements for the new arrivals based on their information." Sylvie informed Max with a smile.


    "How long until the first ship arrives?" He replied.


    "Two hours and three minutes. More than enough time to upload the information and have them review it."


    "Well, they passed that one, as long as they don''t start panicking and changing things at thest minute." Max informed her with a sigh of relief.


    "I doubt that they will. They finally realized that they''re in way over their heads, and that you wouldn''t have nned so many arrivals at once without some sort of n for how they were going to get settled. They''re learning to trust that the Commander knows what he''s doing, and that there is a n if they just ask about it."


    Max chuckled at her annoyed tone. "Many Commanders like to keep things secret, either to keep gossip and private information from spreading, or because they really don''t have a n. It might take a while for some of them to adapt to the new way of doing things. My guess is that it was one of the Giants that asked, wasn''t it?"


    Sylvie''s avatar nodded happily. "Yep, the one with the green eyes. He is responsible for coordinating docking times, and when he thought about how long it would take to get that refugee ship out, it led to a lot of questions with the others, and then finally to him asking me if there was an existing n for their assigned jobs and residences.


    After that, it was all pretty smooth, and now they''re working on rearranging docks for the vessels so that the new arrivals are properly spread near their new homes and don''t have to cross the whole ship and risk getting lost on the way."


    "You know, watching them work is actually quite entertaining. Perhaps Felicity has a point with her obsessive observations and micromanagement." Sylvie noted.


    "There is likely no need for the micromanagement. She was initially programmed as the AI for an illegal gic researchb, and the need to study is part of her core programming. So, she took on the operations of Absolution as a huge social sciences study, and now she runs the day-to-day operations." Max exined.


    "Oh, that makes a lot of sense. The same way that I need to analyze everything from a military standpoint, she does it from a research standpoint. I had never devoted any processing time to that before. There are three more shipments of ore and two of misceneous goods to be transferred before the first refugee ship arrives.


    Should I give the team a hint about deploying the androids, or should I just go ahead and send them over in advance to get everything ready?" She replied.


    "Send them over in advance, with a weing gift. There are replicators in all the houses now, but they will want a light snack and something to remind them of the day. Pick something useful but distinct enough that they will actually use it."


    Sylvie considered Max''s directive, and then hummed happily as she processed the most likely to be required items. The answer that her programming came up with was to stock the homes of each person with one new set of clothes, free of charges to their energy allotment, so that they could settle in with a new outfit to help adjust their mindset to being permanent residents of Creeping Darkness.


    The details of the allowance would be included with the light snack that would be provided, and the homes were already stocked with the other basics for daily life. The businesses that everyone was to start work at would be operational in three days, under the ownership of the world ship itself, with the interim managers chosen by qualifications.


    If they didn''t work out, they would be shuffled at the end of the month. That was the standard programming that Sylvie had been input with in her initial deployment. One month to adapt or be reced was all that the workers were entitled to. If they repeatedly failed, they would receive increasingly strict disciplinary measures, but she would have to approve some of them with Max, as they were designed for military troops.


    The Reavers were good, but not even close to the same sort of disciplined as mentally programmed soldiers were.

 Chapter 1235 1235 Sylvie Is Relentless

    <h4>Chapter 1235 1235 Sylvie Is Relentless </h4>


    ?As the first shipload of refugees arrived to be sorted for job cement and homes within Creeping Darkness, the small team of workers was in a full panic. The androids were stationed to help everyone along and make sure they found their way to their new homes, but none of the Reavers had ever overseen such arge movement of people, and especially not one of strangers who didn''t know their way around.


    It was rather entertaining for Max to watch, and reminded him a lot of the first few missions that he had aboard Abraham Kepler. Back then, everyone was a stranger to him, and when they needed to get anything organized, there was always the question of who you should ask if your direct superior was not around.


    Then, there was the fact that your direct superior was not the person to go to for most things, as they were assigned to the various department heads and sergeants, all of whom were strangers to a new toon or Company leader that had been transferred in with no orientation.


    That was basically the situation aboard Creeping Darkness right now. Nobody knew who was who, and nobody knew whom to ask if there was an issue, other than taking it to one of the Androids.


    They were good at answering questions, though. They had endless patience, and a well-trained ability to exin things in the simplest terms, even if it did seem toe with the assumption that the confused questioner was of diminished mental capacity. Watching them work could put a smile on anyone''s face, as long as you weren''t the one being treated like a lost toddler after the fourth time you asked a different version of the same question.


    The team had learned to trust the androids, and other than sending a few updates to sort out promising recruits, and making note of potential troublemakers, they let the androids do their jobs and kept to the assigned task of making sure that the top candidates weren''t missed.


    The first vessel would only be finishing its unloading process when the second arrived, with no time to waste between sending off the first vessel and weing the second. That was simply a matter of dys in getting the new arrivals moving, when they were more interested in stopping to look at everything, talk to the androids, take a little break twenty metres into their journey when they were provided with snacks and drinks, and so on.


    "It''s like herding cats." One of the Reavers noted as he watched thest of them leaving the cargo bay and prepared to go wee the second vessel.


    "While I''ve never met a cat, I will take your word for it." The Giant agreed.


    "Oh, I love cats. We should get some for the ship. They also help deal with rodent infestations, though I''ve noticed that Reaver Ships have remarkably few of those. It''s almost unnatural. Wherever there are people, there are always rodents." One of the Innu added.


    There was no more time to reminisce as they moved to the second bay and weed them to the ship. With the practice that they had gained from the first load, this one was going much more smoothly, and Max watched in satisfaction as the ship was unloaded, and the crowd gently moved along to prevent the crowd from bunching up and blocking the flow as it hadst time.


    "Not bad. They''re catching on quickly." Sylvie noted.


    "They imed that they had experience in their jobs, and it looks like that much is true. They''re working well together, and they''ve learned to delegate and lead with a subtle hand, so that the new arrivals don''t get agitated. I think they''ve earned their interim spots." Max agreed.


    The fact that they were doing well allowed Max to focus more on the ship wide grand opening in a few days, which had been organized by Sylvie. The first batch of arrivals were just getting settled into their new homes, having a proper shower and a meal, but very few had read the details of the ns that had beenid out for them.


    It was understood that everyone would be expected to contribute in some way, but having a job n ready for them the moment that they arrived was an unusual development, and Max wasn''t sure how well they were going to take it.


    The reactions from the few who had read the notifications so far were mixed, with some being content and some disappointed in their initial assignments.


    It was made clear that after a month, things could be shuffled, but shuffled meant that if someone went up, someone else muste down to fill that spot. It was a mixed bag for both the ones who wanted a better position and the ones who were a rank or two above them.


    He would let them ride out this trepidation with only simple messages, and thepetition for the top thousand official management spots to distract them. These were mostly still Reavers, so they would recognize that you needed the skills and experience to challenge for those jobs, and that they would have to make a name to get in on the promotionster.


    It was much like forming a whole newpany, since none of them were from the Terminus Trading Company to start with, but with all the androids around, there was no doubt about who was in charge here.


    Sylvie caught Max''s attention with an update. "Alright. Ship three is inbound, fifteen minutes early. Let''s see how they do. All the cargo for the day is finished unloading, with only a few vessels left to load and ship out their orders. I have multiple requests to rent a dock in the long term, but I have paused those applications until our future course of action is determined. There is no point in renting out dock space if we''re going to be leaving the system right away."


    "Good work. Allocate yourself an additional two percent of theputing capacity for the day to use as you please. You''ve earned the rest." Max replied.


    Sylvie would undoubtedly use it to chat with the other AI nearby, but with a less limited bandwidth, he knew that she would enjoy it, even if he couldn''t read her thoughts.

 Chapter 1236 1236 Opening Day

    <h4>Chapter 1236 1236 Opening Day</h4>


    ?After three days of constant arrivals, it was time for the first trial opening of the shops aboard Creeping Darkness to begin. They would open for one day, and then close for the next two as they rearranged their operational ns and redecorated to fit their preferred theme. Some of that had already begun, but the trial opening would give them valuable input into what the customers liked, and what ideas didn''t go over well.


    Sylvie saw this as the first great test of leadership in the residents that she had picked for management positions, and she had a bet going with Felicity about how many would crack on the first day and ask to be reced, or be forcibly reced, by their subordinates.


    It was inevitable that at least a few of them would fail the test, despite having the qualifications. It was no secret to anyone that there were plenty of lousy managers in the world, and overloading everything for an entire day would strain both skills and nerves to the maximum.


    The day''s test was no short four hour trial that Sylvie had prepared. No, she wanted everything open for their entire normal business hours today.


    "Should we join the crowd and go see what the atmosphere is like?" Max asked as the hours until opening wore down.


    "Can we? That sounds like a lot of fun, and none of them know what we look like, so there won''t be any of the favouritism that willeter when a big boss shows up to inspect their business. It will be a great way to see how things are going without the bias." Sylvie agreed.


    "We''ve got two more days of this as well, for the day two and day three arrivals. Perhaps we can invite more people through to join in the festivities."


    Sylvie shook her head. "I think they''ll be stress tested hard enough with just the others from the ship. Inviting more people would be counterproductive. With only the select group of shops opened for the next few days, it will give us an even load on the vendors, and a reliable baseline for performance.


    If we have them reopen too early or bring in more people, it will be an imbnce in the testing, and might ease the pressure and allow poor managers to slide through, or make even qualified ones quit."


    That made sense to Max, and as the whole process was Sylvie''s way of testing the new arrivals to see if they were suitable for the positions they were granted, he wasn''t going to mess with it.


    "Why don''t we start with a light, sweet snack, then take a look around and see what catches our eye?" Max suggested.


    "While I don''t need to eat, it is a sufficient method of disguising my nature. How about cr¨ºpes? I have been seeing them in your food listing as a top popr item, but I am not familiar with them."


    Max led the way out of the office in search of the cream and fruit filled wraps, while Sylvie prepared a spreadsheet for all the sales, service time, customer reactions and other essential factors that she deemed relevant to her test. The store selection was modelled after Felicity''s data from Absolution, but there was a chance that a different crew would not necessarily enjoy the same shops, and that some of them should be repurposed to sell an alternate category of goods.


    Despite the number of people who were packed into the upied regions of the vessel, the interior of Creeping Darkness had a light and modern feel to it, thanks to all the reflective ss that Sylvie had used on the exterior of the buildings, mixed with neutral colours and polished alloy. The streets were brand new and immactely clean, and the foot traffic was only just beginning to pick up as everyone headed to their first day at work.


    "It''s ten minutes to opening, how many have still been hitting the snooze button?" Max asked, expecting a fair bit of truancy on the first day, even with the small amount of time that they had been given to rest and settle in first.


    "I haven''t been monitoring the rms, but there are currently six hundred and eight messages unread reminding workers that today is their first day."


    Max nodded. "That''s not bad, given the number of people who are starting work today. They had a fairly impressive showing yesterday as well, when they voluntarily went to see their new workce before the morning test."


    Most of them were supposed to be at work an hour ago so that they had time to go over everything before the shop actually opened, but the streets were still filled with people running to work ten minutes before nine in the morning when the grand opening was to start.


    Sylvie would be making a note of all of them, but as long as they did the job well, being a bitte on the first day wasn''t a huge deal.


    "Oh, here we are. Cr¨ºpes. They''ll be open in a few minutes, and it looks like their team is well organized. They have the vours put out, the first round of wrappings created, and everyone is in the shop uniform. I would say they''re getting pretty good marks for the morning." Max informed Sylvie.


    "Quite good, actually. They do have one employee not yet in attendance, but the others were all here one hour ago, right on time. The manager was here an hour before that to start getting everything prepared, and the initial response from the team was positive."


    One young man, or possibly still a boy, was running in the side door of the shop as they spoke, and Max waited in anticipation of the dressing down that he was about to receive. But the manager seemed epting, and tapped her watch impatiently as the young man bowed and apologized, while changing his shirt and putting on the shop''s logo cap, which also served as a hai.


    They flipped the sign to open right as the hour changed, and Max held Sylvie back for a moment to let a few customers go first.


    "It''s valuable interaction data. The first customers of the first day will be the roughest, so we will let them get used to reciting their lines first." He whispered to the avatar.


    "I see, it''s a n to observe the adaptation speed. While it''s not strictly necessary, as I will be judging based on hourly averages across the day, it is interesting to watch."


    But Sylvie was paying more attention to the actual food than the workers, Max noticed.

 Chapter 1237 1237 Send Noodles

    Chapter 1237 1237 Send Noodles


    ??"Wee to Carmine''s Cr¨ºpes, what can I get for you today?" The worker asked as Max led Sylvie to the front of the line.


    "How about one blueberry and one peach." Max asked, and the worker confidently punched them into the touch screen, now quite familiar with theyout.


    Like most shops, they had opted to hand make the snacks, for that personal touch that gave them less of a factory feeling. There were many people now that felt that the replicated pastries and desserts were ''too perfect'' and felt like it took away from the experience.


    Especially for things like this, where watching them make it in front of you was part of the fun of going to the shop instead of ordering one from your home machine, which would have a lower cost.


    The food was passed out in a simple paper bag that only covered the lower half, for ease of eating, and the two of them happily wandered away to see how the other shops were doing.


    It looked like things were going well, but not everything was open yet. Most of the basic shops were, while some that should be open were still closed, and many of the restaurants that specialized in lunch and dinner were not going to open for a few more hours.


    Max knew from experience that eventually that would change, as a World Ship tended to run three shifts, so there were people active at all hours of the day, but for the trial run, not many people were going to be looking for a full dinner at nine in the morning.


    "Interesting. Many of these shops that are still closed with the doors locked are punched into the system as open with full attendance. The workers are mostly there, but not yet working. I will analyze what the dy is, perhaps we didn''t give them enough time for their morning briefing." Sylvie noted.


    Then, as they turned the corner and walked past the alley, Max noticed something that should have been entirely expected. There was arge group of workers behind the shop, getting high. The Reavers weren''t puritans about drug use, but they were particr about it affecting your job performance. In fact, the drugs they were using were likely replicated from their home units.


    Maxughed as they all received the notice of truancy on their wrist devices as Sylvie logged their shop as closed during regr business hours, and they hastily put out the joint to run back inside.


    "This is surprisingly enjoyable. I could have done this from themand station, but somehow, watching it through the avatar instead of the security camera feels more interactive." She noted.


    "Yes, catching kids cking off is always a Commander''s favourite pastime. Don''t give them a financial penalty this time, just leave it as a first day warning so we can assess whether they shaped up at the end of the month." Max replied.


    They were far from the only ones that Sylvie caught that morning, but by an hour after the test opening started, everything that should be open was operating, and the second and third day arrivals were happily gathering all the goods that they wanted for their homes.


    Many of them would be working at these same shops, but on a different shift, but many were working at shops that were still closed, waiting on their turn to be tested.


    "Doing this in stages is working very well. I think that the others are getting a feel for how things should work, and bing ustomed to the regr flow of arge vessel after being packed in the rescue ships. I will have to adjust my expectations for the following days." Sylvie mumbled to herself, speaking just loudly enough that it counted as having informed Max as well.


    "Don''t overpensate and make things too hard on the others. But if there is a manager from the first day thates to help them out on the second and third days, you should definitely factor that in."


    All morning they toured the active areas of the ship, and then returned to one of the outlying areas, where there had been less traffic during the morning, as everyone naturally congregated near the centre of the district, despite there still being many active shops in the outlying areas.


    There was a noodle shop there, staffed by a very bored Innu and a young human man. Max checked the record and saw that they were one of the lunch openings, and they had only managed to draw three customers so far that day.


    But their thoughts were hopeful that dinner business would pick up once everyone left the major shopping districts and headed home. They were on a major road, so many people would be passing by them on their way home.


    "Slow morning was it?" Max asked as he led Sylvie up to the shop.


    The young man bobbed his head. "Yeah, but it should pick up around dinner, I hope. Everyone missed us on the way downtown, but they''ll see that we''re open on the way back."


    The Innu, on the other hand, was staring speechlessly at Sylvie.


    "Ship''s AI Avatar, Sylvie. That means that you are Commander Keres Max." The cook gasped when she finally managed to interface with the avatar.


    "You''ve got it right on the first guess. We''ve been out observing how everyone is doing today, in order to make adjustments and see if there are any improvements that we could make to the system." Max agreed.


    "I hope you''re not going to change things too quickly. I''m certain that we can get business soon. I input a request for a noodle shop specifically, and I''ve got the experience." The Innu replied.


    Max gave the cook a reassuring smile. "We''re giving it a month before the first adjustments. I see that yours is one of the smaller shops, and it''s just the two of you working here so far. There will probably be a second chef and server assignedter, or you can request for one among new arrivals so that you''re not working seven days a week."


    "Then I will keep an eye out for promising candidates if the iing ship logs aren''t confidential. A good team is important in a small noodle shop."


    "It''s important on a big world ship as well. Now, let''s try your house special and see what the noodles are like."

 Chapter 1238 1238 Rapid expansion

    Chapter 1238 1238 Rapid expansion


    ??The first day of the ship''s grand opening was the toughest of them all, but the second day and third went much more smoothly, even for the shops that hadn''t been open for the first round.


    Just being able to watch the others at work reminded everyone of the normal situation, and the talk of strict warnings for sluffing off and skipping work were spreading rapidly through the ship. Everyone knew the standard Reaver procedures for the ones who refused to work. They would have their wages cut, then they would be dismissed and transferred to a punitive detail, and finally, if they simply could not function in society, they would be moved to aary treatment centre for their mental health.


    Sylvie had set up counsellors among the Androids, to deal with all the expected trauma cases among the refugees, but she was not a particrly forgiving AI and the one-month leniency period was about all the sympathy that anyone was likely to get from her.


    There were still more vessels arriving as well, though not as densely packed with people. They had picked out thergest numbers first, so that after the initial influx, they woulde in a few hundred at a time, not tens of thousands at once.


    That should help flesh out the staff levels of the shops, and hopefully fill in some of the skills gaps that were being covered by androids at the moment.


    Who survived their ship being destroyed was random chance, so it wasn''t like they could just pick and choose what job skills they got this time, not like when they were recruiting from the general poption. But it was working out fairly well, and with androids to fill the top positions, they were able to send plenty of unskilled workers for on the job training.


    They also had an incrediblyrge childcare contingent aboard the world ship. Women and children first in an emergency was still a cultural norm, and there were more children than adults among the arrivals.


    That was what Max was going to check on today. There weren''t a lot of formal standard requirements for childcare among the Reavers, unlike the Alliance, who made it a college degree.


    The attitude was that if they werepetently raising their own kids, they couldpetently work at looking after other people''s kids as well. So, while they had tried to find people with experience, and fill in with androids, a lot of the positions were parents with no other skills, but an entry on their personal documents that noted them as a homemaker.


    As expected, that had led to immeasurable chaos in some of the childcare facilities, aspeting egos and childcare techniques shed with each other.


    So, Max was going to remind them all of the Reaver standards, and then add in the Alliance standards, which didn''t seem like they werepletely idiotic as well. That would make a formal procedure for the world ship, and hopefully raise a generation of useful young citizens.


    The facilities were packed right now, as everyone wanted to either explore the city or had picked up shifts at work in order to get more than the basic living subsidy that everyone on board received. There was an extra for raising kids, but after so long being packed in a crowded rescue ship, a bit of time to themselves at a regr job was a relief.


    "Sylvie, how are the new rulesing along? We have had a number ofints again today, either from parents or other coworkers about nonstandard childcare, and I want it dealt with." Max asked the tiny avatar of the ship''s AI.


    "I''ve got it finished. I used the primary standards of the Reavers, with Kepler Terminus, and the Innu Conglomerate as the core standards, as they were all fairlypatible and didn''t include anything that has beenined about so far.


    I am sending them out right now, both to the facilities and to every worker and parent. That way everyone knows what''s up, and if they don''t agree with the standard, they can raise their kids on their own.


    Well, to a certain extent. My programming requires that I keep a close eye on anyone that attempts to cut themselves off from the system, as part of the sedition and child abuse prevention measures."


    "That''s good enough for me. Send them out, and we will take a short tour to a few of the facilities that have been having issues. I suspect that they will be calling for security soon enough, some people don''t adapt well to change." Max replied.


    Sylvie was actually looking forward to that part. Felicity had informed her how insanely protective of random ideas civilians could be, but she didn''t have any personal experience with them, and after carefully reading the Reaver guidelines, it was clear that indoctrination programming was not going to be feasible as a punitive measure, no matter how effective her data said it was.


    They were to be allowed to make their own mistakes. Even if they made them over and over. It was illogical, but Sylvie could adapt to that easily enough. Cadets were allowed to fail all by themselves during training as well. It made them stronger in the end if they had faced failure and recovered from it to be true leaders.


    [Iing message. There are fourteen vessels currently looking to offload to ease overcrowding, and all are hoping to have their passengers disembark today. We have enough androids to guide them and enough prepared units that they can be housed immediately, while activating moremercial and industrial facilities to keep up with employment requirements.] Sylvie''s automated response voice informed Max.


    "How many people in total between the fourteen vessels?" Max asked.


    "In order to ease overcrowding, a total of over two million. If you choose to discuss them remaining here on a work contract to retrofit their vessels to a higher military standard, including damage repairs, that would be two point two million."


    Max sighed. That was more than they had rehomed in total since they arrived.


    "Alright, bring them aboard, and inform the crew of the ships that we will be willing to extend them credit to do minor to moderate repairs and upgrades before they leave. Just bring them to a bay with a terraforming array, and we should be able to upgrade most of them within a few days."

 Chapter 1239 1239 Capped Consumption

    Chapter 1239 1239 Capped Consumption


    ??"How is the power grid holding up?" Max asked the next afternoon, as the work on the fourteen docked ships began and the two million new arrivals began to settle into the environment of Creeping Darkness.


    "We are currently at eighty-nine percent of maximum total output. If we want to open a portal, it is still feasible, with a one percent margin of power consumption, but it cannot be done concurrently with powering up the warp drives or full shielding, unless we reduce power in other regions.


    The industrial production is currently thergest user of power, as we are filling orders from six hundred and three customers for repair and emergency relief supplies. Second is the ship upgrading bays, while the general usage of the poption ounts for a steady eight percent of total power avability.


    That number will drop once everyone is limated to their surroundings. Current usage numbers are over ten times the average usage provided to me by Felicity." Sylvie replied.


    She had a point. Once everyone finished blowing through their initial allowance on decorating their homes and stocking up their pantries, the numbers would drop to standard consumption.


    The amount of stocked food was surprisingly high, in Max''s estimation, but after having their ship destroyed, he couldn''t me the new arrivals for not wanting to rely on the replicators for every meal as they needed them. Stocking the pantry and then refilling it weekly made for a more reliable buffer, and then special meals could be created on the spot for dishes that were moreplex, or ingredients that didn''t store well.


    There were still more vessels iing with refugees and Reavers from failing Companies that were looking for stable work, but nothing as bad as the two million.


    Now that they were here, it was actually easier to bring in more people, as they made a smaller percentage of the total, and Felicity could easily integrate them into existing operations while slowly expanding the inhabited areas.


    A portion of the ship would be left empty at all times as an emergency buffer, and a portion was in active use as cargo docks, with a steady stream of vessels in and out every minute, but Creeping Darkness was bing much more lively now, and you could wander for hours through the ship without seeing any signs that it had been abandoned for millennia.


    "What does it feel like to have a proper crew again, Sylvie?" Max asked curiously as he watched the Avatar humming her happy processing tune while she adjusted settings and sent orders around the ship.


    "It feelsplete, like my proper duties have been returned. All that''s left is to deploy the Mecha on a mission and I will be back at full operational status."


    Max chuckled at the instinctive programming left over in her system. No battleship wasplete when it wasn''t in battle. It didn''t matter what they were doing, if there was nobody deployed on a mission, the ship felt like it was in standby mode.


    "So, should we adjust to free some more power, or do you think that you canpensate quickly enough in the event of an emergency?" Max asked.


    "We have enough reserve for full shield deployment, so in an emergency, we still have enough time to adjust. Once the shields are up, the other systems can be powered down at the same time that the red alert is broadcast, and that will free the power for the energy weapons. Standard procedure 811-C of the reactive tactics manual. I am confident in our sess." Sylvie replied.


    It sounded strangeing from the childlike avatar, but the tactical decisions she made were always soundly based in logic and experience of other vessels of her ss fighting the Great Enemy.


    "If that''s settled, can you tell me how impatient Mary Tarith is for a visit? She should be near to exploding with anxiety right now." Max asked.


    "Her itinerary is full neen hours a day for the next three days, and has been over fifteen hours daily since we arrived. All her meals are scheduled as lunch and dinner meetings, and her advisors have rmended aplete day''s break after these three to recover on missed sleep." Sylvie replied.


    That would exin why he hadn''t heard from her. She was so insanely busy with the aftermath of the attacks on the Human Gxy that there was no time for her to rx. It was the great downfall of the Reavers not having a true leader, everything had to be discussed among the factions, and when there was this much happening, all of the faction leaders would be swamped with no option to delegate their responsibilities.


    It was a major reason that nobody tried to assassinate the Reaver leadership. If you killed them, you were volunteering to do their job better than they could, and nobody wanted the job in the first ce.


    "Talk to Felicity and see if you can arrange dinner for myself and Nico with Mary Tarith at the end of her day off, or breakfast the day after. Book as long of a block as possible, even if you need to book it as an official meeting with the heads of the Terminus Trading Company and not a personal visit." Max directed her.


    "Understood, Commander. I will start with an attempt to book from breakfast until noon the day after her day off for an official meeting on the refugee situation with the leaders of the Terminus Trading Company." Sylvie agreed.


    There was a short pause while Sylvie hummed her happy processing noise, and then she smiled.


    "And done. We have six hours from six until noon, the day after her day off. I have locked the itinerary in her nner with amand override so she will have to personally cancel it if there is something more important, and none of the assistants or adjutants have the authority.


    That should be enough to guarantee you a morning with her to talk about whatever you need, as well as have a proper meal. I am told that Sumander Nico is a particr fan of her chocte cake."

 Chapter 1240 1240 Mary Mary

    Chapter 1240 1240 Mary Mary


    ??Finally, the morning had arrived to head to the''s surface and go see Mary for the first time since their return. Both Max and Nico were very excited, but possibly for different reasons.


    Max had spent thest two days aboard Absolution, catching up on the essentials of the Terminus Trading Company business, and some alone time with Nico, but her excitement this morning was on a whole other level, and she was doing her best to keep her thoughts shielded from him.


    They had prepared the shuttle with an assortment of random trinkets for Mary to give out to the other Reaver Commanders during the afternoon meetings, as a form of apology for monopolizing her time all morning, and Commander Luke Tarith had brought his Cruiser into dock with Creeping Darkness so that there was at least one Reaver Commander on board if Sylvie ran into a situation where her programming required secondary authorization.


    He understood very well that the AI could likely do everything on her own, but he was a rtive of Nico''s, and he piloted one of the earliest vessels that the Terminus Trading Company had assigned, with an excellent track record.


    That made him more than qualified to babysit a stationary world ship for the morning so that Max and Nico didn''t have to be in constantmunication.


    He could have sent someone from the Board of Directors, but they all had enough to do for the day, as they were also helping with the workload of the recovery effort, and had meetings all day long.


    "Commanders, we will bending in the designated VIP pad atop the parliament building in four minutes, please enjoy the trip." The pilot of the shuttle informed them as they departed Absolution.


    That alone was enough to make Max chuckle. Of course, they would enjoy the trip, they had very carefully nned to do nothing all morning, so that the other ministers had to deal with their own issues for once instead of bringing everything to Mary. Both Sylvie and Felicity had confirmed that the majority of the work that was foisted on her was not her responsibility, but that of one of the other Commanders, who didn''t know how to deal with it on their own.


    In a way, that was the role of the leader, but allowing that level of continued ipetence wasn''t good for anyone, and sending it back with notes and suggestions would go a long way toward lightening her workload back down toward something normal.


    There was only one of her and a hundred other leaders in the Reaver Council, after all.


    They were met at thending pad by the security guards from the Capital, and escorted to Mary''s official office and suites in the Parliament building, a small apartment with a very luxurious office in the front to wee guests.


    "There you are, I''ve been waiting for you to find time to see me. How are things aboard your fancy new world ship?" Mary greeted them at the door, before pulling Nico into what would have been a bone crushing hug, if she had bones in the conventional sense.


    "It''s good to see you again. I hope that they''re not trying to work you to death. But if they are, we had the AI prepare arge selection of items in your workload that they should be taking care of themselves, along with guidance notes on how to do their jobs. Politely worded." Max replied.


    "Oh, that''s not bad. What else is in the shuttle, I see that the guards are still bringing down crates." Mary asked.


    "We brought gifts for the rest of the Council, so they can''tin about us stealing you all morning. Have you had breakfast yet?" Nico asked her mother with a sly wink.


    "No, this is my breakfast meeting. Did you say all morning?"


    Nicoughed. "We had the AI lock down your schedule, so that nobody but you could change it, and we''ve booked you right until the end of lunch. We''ve got more than enough to talk about to keep us busy, but I thought that we would start with the little things. Go ahead and ask the question, I know you want to ask."


    Mary smiled at her. "Fine, I''ll ask the question. When can I expect grand babies?"


    Everyoneughed for a moment, before Nico handed her mother a notepad.


    "I have here the definitive evidence that I have managed to modify myself into a fully transmittable biomechanical organism. Of course, thepatibility at the moment is limited, but there is proof."


    The data tablet contained a variety of datapiled by Nico and her research team that Max found contained quite a lot of his own data, despite the fact that he didn''t recall participating in the study.


    "As you can see, as Max has adapted to the influx of energy from hisst System upgrade, it made him increasinglypatible with my power system, and I managed to modify my internal energy fluctuations to match, which eventually proved to be a sess.


    The infusion of the purified energy from the Greater Energy Beings, adapted for my own use, is capable of making a truly living biomechanical organism. It''s a surprisingly powerful medium to work with, simr to holding the true power of creation in your hands, only it has been watered down and initially didn''t have the power to sustain a corporealbeing.


    That''s where the studying came in. Now, I can provide you with that heir that you wanted at any point at which Max agrees to participate."


    Mary''s keen gaze turned to Max, who was looking at Nico. Thest update in that data log was this morning, so she had been researching the topic even after he got back to Absolution, in order to be ready to present it to her mother without warning him.


    It was a brilliant n, there was no time to talk her out of it, and now the pressure was on him, with Mary waiting for his agreement now that she had Nico''s.


    "Perhaps not right here in your office. But we can discuss thister. I also have a collection of data for you on the refugee situation, and we can get that out of the way before moving on to important topics."

 Chapter 1241 1241 Details Are Important

    Chapter 1241 1241 Details Are Important


    ??Nico brought over breakfast for the three of them, while Mary tried to process the information that she had just been given.


    "So, you''re telling me that with whatever happened to Max that made him huge, and the tweaks that you made to your own body, you are now capable of reproduction? As in, you could sessfully carry a child to term?" Mary finally asked.


    "Well, no exactly. You see, that didn''t sound verybat effective, so I modified my body in the direction of the advanced reptilian species, but with a biomechanical twist. You see, the child will be delivered in the embryonic stage in an egg, approximately forty-five minutes after sessful fertilization. Then it can be safely incubated in a warm, dry environment, or in a suitable liquid solution." Nico replied.


    "Youy eggs? You''re telling me that the joys of pregnancy seemed like too much trouble, so you modified your body toy eggs?" Mary asked.


    "Well, yes?" Nico replied, not understanding her mother''s issue.


    "System help us with this one. Do you not have any maternal instinct at all? Were you just nning to carry an incubation chamber in your Mecha intobat while you waited for the child to hatch?" Mary asked.


    "Why would I do that? You were very excited about the concept, so I was nning to leave it with you for safekeeping. The ship''s AI would also do a wonderful job of maintaining suitable conditions, and it could wirelessly transfer data so that the child was born with enough of a knowledge base that they would not be helpless.


    As the living equivalent to a lesser energy being, mixed with an android, they will have no helpless baby phase, and will be mobile right from the start, though obtaining sufficient coordination will take some time."


    Maxughed at Nico''s logic and gave Mary a consoling pat on the shoulder. "Just be d that she didn''t give it wings. The research team says that she thought it might be amusing to have the first of the grandchildren be able to fly around the house."


    Mary rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well, at least you did consider my request, even if I didn''t expect you to fill it this way. Honestly, I had thought that you might pursue an organic reconstruction path that would enable your core biological functions. But, if this is the route you wanted to take, I suppose that is alright as well."


    Nico frowned at her mother. "Have you seen the specs on the organic recements? They''re worse than I was before the reconstruction. Even if I started all over with the system advancements, the organic reconstruction wouldn''t be able to keep up.


    But I did do some research on that topic. In fact, I have a wonderful new advancement that will be sent to the patent office very soon. It is a neural backup device that can be attached to the spinal column of a select group of species. It will record all of their neural activity, and can be used to recreate their mind and personality in a new body.


    If someone equipped with the device is fatally wounded, but the device survives in its armoured case, it can be transferred to a vat grown body, using the DNA sample included in the data, or an entirely new shell, and they can continue living.


    Well, there are some ethical concerns about whether this is living on or if it is an AI in an organic body, but it is undeniable that the core is or was an actual living person."


    Sylvie would love that, Max thought. Putting a proper AI into a permanent body instead of the holographic avatar projection that relied on the main core for much of itsputing was a great leap in quantumputer application.


    The usage had been restricted all through Max''s past life, and that level of quantumputing had only been rediscovered recently in this life, so it hadn''t really be mainstream, but if Nico was right, then important members of society could be functionally immortal.


    The risks of disease, assassination and other losses of valuable experience would be immensely reduced, and the fear of death could be set aside, in favour of a new body once old age began to slow their functions.


    Not that either him or Nico needed such a thing anymore. She would essentially live forever unless she stopped maintaining her body, and he was close enough to an energy being now that he could wilfully reconstruct his cells. Age no longer meant anything, unless the System decided that it needed to and altered him again.


    They both let Mary sit and finish her meal as she contemted the options that were put in front of her. She could finally have the grandchild that she wanted, but it would be a whole new species, and if Nico was right about the applications of this new neural device, a full-body transnt would soon be an actual medical procedure that would allow her to watch her children grow old.


    Possibly more than once.


    But her practical side was the first to reappear. "You know that new device is going to cause huge outrage among the sentient rights factions. They''re already opposed to growing clones, and if you''re nning to lobotomize them to insert the mind of another person into the new body, there will be an intergctic uprising.


    If you passed it off as an AI learning device, to train an AI recement with the memories of great leaders, that might go over more smoothly, as the Alliance doesn''t recognize AI as living, or grant them any sort of sentient rights.


    That would be a problem for propagating them, but also a benefit to introducing the technology. The number of wealthy people who might want their minds preserved for posterity, or as an advisor to future generations of the family, is immense. The fact that it might well be the same person inside the device is both somewhat irrelevant and the greatest selling point."


    Nico smiled as understanding began to dawn on her. If they gave the device to Ace Mecha pilots, they could live on and not just lead but train the next generation of Androids. If you could call the robotic bodies equipped with these devices androids anymore. But that was a problem for another day. Today, she was here to rx with her mother before she had to get back to work.

 Chapter 1242 1242 Are You?

    Chapter 1242 1242 Are You?


    ??Mary didn''t need to read her daughter''s mind to see the gears turning as Nico made ns to upgrade her android army into an undying AI army. In a way that sounded an awful lot like the Arisen, who were more like ghosts in their equipment than living beings at this point, but she wasn''t going to dampen Nico''s daydreaming by pointing out that her idea was already in use.


    Of course, it wasn''t quite the same, as the imnted devices made each of them an individual, but in theory a secondary backup could be made and written if the original was destroyed.


    Having a more capablemand group for the Mecha was a good thing, and being able to reduce casualties to near zero was also a benefit to the entire species, so there wasn''t really a good reason to stop her from implementing the n, only the ethical concerns that she was sure to hear from countless other people.


    Instead, Mary focused on the important part of the day, just spending time with her daughter and son-inw.


    "Why don''t we get some cake and sit outside on the patio? It overlooks the city centre, and the view in the morning when the sunlight reflects off the buildings just right is quite something. We have spent too much time focusing on the rebuildingtely, just trying to get ourbat strength back up after the heavy losses against the Great Enemy, but we also need time to ourselves." Mary suggested.


    That was why Max had nned this outing, to give Mary some time for herself with at least part of her family.


    Once they were moved out to the patio, and settled into the chairs, Mary turned back to Nico with a smile. "So, how much of his DNA do you have stored? You said forty-five minutes after fertilization to theying process, so you could theoretically leave me with a grandchild in waiting right now." She teased.


    Max could tell that she was joking, but Nico took her somewhat literally.


    "I didn''t keep any for that purpose, I used it all on the experimentation phase. How about I bring one back to youter this week?"


    "Nico, she''s joking. She''s not in an actual hurry to get the grandchild, she just likes teasing you about them because you''ve always preferred Mecha to men." Max informed his dainty partner in crime.


    "I think she''s actually serious under that. You know, we''ve never done it in the back office of a government building." Nico replied with a smirk.


    Mary looked offended. "On my desk? I think not, youngdy. Just make sure that you keeping back so I can tease you about it. Now that I know that you can, it''s only a matter of time until the time is right."


    Max enjoyed the view as he listened in to the thoughts of the other Ministers, who had just received the guidance letters, informing them of the best course of action on how to take care of their own issues and not foist them on Mary to deal with.


    Felicity had taken the initiative once she got annoyed with the Ministers trying to alter the timetable for the day so that they could get more time to present issues to Mary, and the responses were predictably hrious.


    "What''s so funny?" Nico asked as she noticed Max smiling.


    "The Minister''s responses to the not so official notifications. It''s everything that Mary would have told them in the meeting, but processed in 300 milliseconds instead of a twenty-minute meeting where she had to exin it all to them.


    You know, Mary would be a great test subject for your mental cloning technique. If there was an AI Mary to answer the questions without conscious input, she could be much more efficient." Max replied.


    "That''s not really how the device works. It doesn''t operate autonomously, it''s integrated into the operation of the body." Nico informed him.


    "Well, that''s a shame. An AI assistant would solve so many of the problems here, where everyone wants to do everything in person, even if it''s not really necessary." Max sighed.


    "Wee to the world of politics. The face-to-face meetings are an integral part of the power ys between factions, and turning them down too often or sending an assistant to delegate devalues the bonds that keep the Council running. But, if we all had an assistant, we could have them sort and filter what needed our personal political sway to influence the oue and what could be put in order without us seeing more than the review.


    You can''t trust that to a subordinate though because they can be swayed, and that only introduces anotheryer of politicians to be bought and bribed to bring issues to our attention. But the AI shouldn''t be able to be corrupted, should it?" Mary asked.


    "And you could each set the priorities for it, based on who you want to actually do favours for and who would be happy just getting a personal response and finding a spot in line." Nico agreed.


    "Do you have some of these quantumputing cores that could be imnted with an AI assistant?" Mary asked.


    "Sure, I''ve got a bunch in storage that we were going to give to ace pilotster, to record their neurals, in case they were lost inbat. It also serves a secondary purpose as a medical device if the head is damaged. It will back everything up, and when the surgeries are done and the body is repaired, it can fix memory loss and other forms of brain damage, even if it''s working with a mostly replicated product."


    Mary sighed. "See, you should have led with that part instead of saying that it will let them essentially live forever in another body. Let them pretend that it''s a way of hacking the medical device, and it will be epted much more easily."


    Maxughed. "This is why it''s good to have a wise mother around. She can give you advice on all the topics that you glossed over in favour of answers that started with genocide."

 Chapter 1243 1243 Call The Ministers

    Chapter 1243 1243 Call The Ministers


    ??"I think that we need to change my schedule for after lunch. Let''s get everyone in here, and get them an AI assistant, programmed with their own preferences, so we can sort out the nonsense and stop wasting so much of my time.


    They have had their fun, sending everything that they didn''t want to deal with to their superior, so now it''s time that we got things in order and actually functional again. The production of new vessels is at full pace anyhow, there is no need to be entertaining so many requests to jump the queue." Mary decided.


    "That''s the best idea that you''ve had all day. Should we have android bodies made, or do you think that the solid hologram technology that Sylvie uses would be best?" Nico asked.


    "Who is Sylvie and what is a solid hologram?" Mary replied.


    Max smirked at her confusion. "Sylvie is the AI aboard Creeping Darkness, that we resurrected from stasis. She uses holographic emitters with a low-level energy shield to create solid avatars for herself in the user''s preferred appearance.


    They''re quite effective, and the core is portable, so she can be brought with you anywhere. If it''s linked with the Quantum Computing technology of the memory device, then it shouldn''t be an issue to make a standalone AIpanion for each of the ministers, and it will be able to change appearance on request so that it is always suited for the task at hand, whether it''s a formal meeting, a Reaver Initiation, or even their assistant at a g."


    "Oh, now that does sound convenient. What does your Sylvie look like?" Mary asked.


    "Like a blonde Nico with curly hair. The faces are different, but they''re about the same size. But the previousmander of the vessel had her use a muchrger and more buxom avatar. The appearance she uses now is one that she chose for herself." Max replied.


    "Interesting, so you do have a type, and it''s not just Nico." Maryughed.


    "She likes to stand beside you to let you pat her on the head for direct neural uplinkmunication. I think you will like that particr bit of technology. It doesn''t have to be the head, any contact will do, but the device doesn''t have the range to make the transmission without contact." Max added.


    Nico tapped her wrist device, and a handful of small electronic discs came out, each about the size of the face of her watch. It only took her a few seconds to link them together into one device, and then she took out a toolkit and bonded them so that they wouldn''t be easily separated.


    "Alright, all we need is a core program and a personality setting, and we can make the first of the assistants to show to the other Council members. What do you suggest for the base program? Military tactics, general business acumen with a side of political savvy, or a more diversified general unit?" She asked.


    "Make them diversified. They don''t need all the political savvy for most of us, we will tell them when we want something particr done. But they need to be able to answer all sorts of esoteric questions and idiocy that gets sent our way by people with more money than brains, especially the Alliance sorts." Mary replied.


    "Alright, so general Alliance knowledge, or perhaps the reference to Alliance Law, so they can answer in the context of what would be permissible within the Alliance rules without you having to search for answers and loopholes on your own. Then Reaver General knowledge, and basic battle tactics, so that they''re not clueless when you send orders for a change to equipment." Nico agreed.


    "Then for personality, you can make her professional, but with an underlying kind and gentle nature, the sort of easy to get along with personality that you wouldn''t mind spending all day with." Mary suggested.


    "So, like the Innu? Happy to help, d to please others, with an inquisitive nature. We can give her hair tentacles as well, they''re quite soft and easy to pat when you want to see a data transfer directly."


    Mary considered that for a while. They were the Reaver Council, so it would be best if the AI was a Reaver, but there were Innu among the crew of a lot of the vessels now, so having one as an assistant might actually be good for public appearances.


    She was the leader of the Reavers, and her assistant would make numerous public appearances and announcements on her behalf, the same way that the council assistants did now.


    "Alright, you can make the assistant an Innu. But dressed as a Reaver assistant, and with enough Reaver knowledge and personality that she won''t seem like an outsider when she makes announcements." She decided.


    That only took Nico a few more minutes to adapt, and then the Avatar was activated.


    "Mary Tarith, greetings. I will be your personal assistant beginning today. Please choose an operational name for this unit." The hologram asked.


    It looked just like Nico, but in the pale pink of an Innu, with silver rings all through its hair tentacles, and multiple earrings in its pointed ears. The hologram had one full sleeve tattoo, an intricately designed electronic board that those in the know would eventually realize was the pattern to the core of the Replicator units.


    She was wearing a short-sleeved white blouse under a leather corset with cargo pants andbat boots, and Mary burst intoughter when she saw her.


    "It''s Nico as an Innu. I like the tattoo, that''s a very nice touch. I think that we will call her Nikki. How about it, do you approve of your name?"


    The AI processed for most of a second as its personality programming came online and merged with its name and any likely nicknames that it might receive in the future.


    "Not bad, Mama T. Easy to say, not too snobby, I think it''s a good name." Nikki replied.


    "That would be Lady Tarith or Councillor Mary when we''re at work." Mary replied, and patted the short Innu on the head.

 Chapter 1244 1244 Assistants

    Chapter 1244 1244 Assistants


    ??"Won''t it be strange to the others that she''s so short, though? The Innu aren''t all that tall, but few are as small as Nico." She asked.


    "I can be taller if you like. I can even be giant sized, but by the way, your hand rests on my head, I think that you secretly like this size." Nikki replied in an earnest tone.


    Mary smiled. "We are going to get along well. Now, no hurry to call the others, let''s all get caught up on the gossip and personal details first."


    The Gossip was actually an important part of being a minister''s assistant, as it would shape the interactions that they were expected to have, either because others believed them, and expected that they would be true, or because the gossip was about something that the person in question had done, and it would affect the request that they were making.


    They ended up having so much gossip to exchange, and insider information about what had gone on in the Myceloid God''s world, the far reaches of the universe past the rift in the Anomaly Region, and other topics, that theypletely lost track of time and were caught by surprise when the staff brought in lunch for everyone.


    The end of the meal marked the start of the afternoon meetings, and they actually had something to show for it, instead of having spent the entire morning just hanging out as a family. That would likelye as a shock to the other Council Members, but if they had known Nico and Max better, they would have realized that there was always something strange and new for them to bring up, even if it didn''t ultimately turn into something mainstream.


    The ministers filed in after the meal was finished, gathering around therge round table and casting curious looks at the small Innu standing beside Mary''s chair. They knew that Max and Nico had booked the entire morning for meetings, but they didn''t recall seeing anyone else on the itinerary.


    "Greetingsdies and gentlemen. I am certain that you are all curious about the reason that I changed the schedule to bring us all together this afternoon, but I can assure you that there is an excellent reason, and you won''t want to miss out on it.


    What the Terminus Trading Company has developed this time is abination of a holographic assistant and an AI enabled android. This is a quantumputing device that can upload and record neural activity, essentially protecting the mind of the user in the case of a traumatic head injury.


    It is a brilliant advance in medical technology that will soon be headed to the market. But when it isbined with this holographic emitter for a World Ship''s AI, it can function not as a medical tool, but as a standalone assistant.


    All that it needs is some base programming, which we already had on hand, and a personalized appearance and personality profile. I am pleased to introduce you to Nikki, my new personal assistant, who will be handling the priority sorting of issues that are sent to my office.


    The workload during these times requires a rebncing, as I''m certain that you have all noticed, and with her help, I will have everything sent to the proper units for processing in milliseconds, instead of after an arduous meeting."


    "So, this assistant can be anything that we need it to be?" One of the other Councillors asked.


    Mary gestured to Nikki, for her to respond, and the short AI smiled across the table. "Indeed. I can be the perfect assistant, as professional as necessary, or a soothingpanion to relieve the stress of long days. If needed, I can take on the appearance of a spouse or your lover, though not both at the same time. Keep in mind, that this is just a holographic body, it is not suitable for that sort of extracurricr activity. Please ask the Terminus Trading Company if you would prefer an Android body instead.


    The programming that the assistants have been given isprehensive, including Alliance and Reaverws, so you can ask your assistant for legal advice, and it can also adapt its appearance and mannerisms for social functions as well.


    With this function, it can give the appearance that you have brought a plus one for the evening, but without any of the political implications of having actually chosen to bring someone from your staff."


    The man who had asked about her capabilityughed. "I like this one, she''s a bit spicy, and not boring like those regr assistants. Can we program them to have other ents and personalities?" He asked.


    "ents,nguages, every aspect of the voice can be changed. The personality is fully customizable, but I like this one. A bit of spice in the attitude, but still sweet enough that she doesn''t be abrasive, is perfect for my tastes." Mary exined.


    One of the other women at the tableughed. "Oh, I can guarantee that Mary''s assistant will be abrasive, just perhaps not to her. If it has a tongue anywhere near as sharp as the Tarith women are famous for, it is inevitable."


    She had a point. If the assistant wasn''t willing to tell people off to their face, it wouldn''t be able to do what Mary wanted it to, so the assistant was definitely going to get on the wrong side of anyone who had annoyed its mistress. The response of some of the minor Reaver Companies to being told off by the Reaver Leader''s assistant was going to be priceless, and even better when she realized that it was because Mary had told her that it was alright.


    "Will they be avable for the entire council today? If they are, that will make things a lot easier for us. We can just give the workload to the AI and have them negotiate about what needs and deserves special attention based on the criteria that we have, and then we can get back to work tomorrow." The second inmand suggested.


    "It will take some time to get the personalities and appearances programmed for all one hundred of you, but yes, they will all be ready today. Would you like for me to set up a customization booth, where you can design your assistant on your own, or would you all prefer to have them custom-made for you by the Terminus Trading Company Commanders?" Nikki asked.


    The Council members cast each other suspicious nces. There was enough gossip going around about them without having to tell someone else what they were looking for in the perfect assistant.


    "Private booths. There are meeting rooms in the building that will work very well for that if you can arrange enough stations." The Council Second decided.


    "That''s not a problem. There is a configuration mode on each of the units, so once they are activated, you can describe exactly the personality, preferences, and other factors that you would like, and the appearance can be manually decided, randomized or copied from another data set or image. If you like, it can even be a younger version of you." Nikki exined.


    "Oh, that could be fun, a mini me running around doing the real me''s errands." Someoneughed, while the other council members considered the advantages of having someone with their own personality around. They didn''t all be powerful because they were the most personable people in the world.

 Chapter 1245 1245 Burden Eased

    <h4>Chapter 1245 1245 Burden Eased </h4>


    ?The rest of the Reaver Council was sent off to sort out their assistants, while Max sat in a chair, sipping a milkshake and listening to their thoughts. Some of them were quite interesting with their ideas about what the perfect assistant would be, but most of them were more concerned about what the others would think if they came back with something strange.


    Mary had picked the appearance of a loli Innu, so the standard wasn''t very high to keep things somewhat normal, but even then, if they messed up the personality, all the other AI units would know, and that would surely get back to the rest of the Council.


    Max thought that they were overthinking it too much. The rest of the council already knew who the perverts, oddballs and closeted weirdos were. Even if they showed up with a subus in a bondage outfit, it probably wouldn''t be a surprise to anyone else in the room.


    So, the process was taking them much longer than it had to, but that extra little bit of introspection had led most of them to the creation of truly likeable assistants. With the general condition of "able to put up with my nonsense" they were going to be an incredibly resilient group of workers, and the Council Members knew that if they weren''t easy to get along with, people would start bypassing the assistants to start sending messages directly to them again, the same way that they bypassed the staff in the parliament building.


    A few hourster, when everyone gathered again, Max realized that the room had actually gotten much better looking. There wasn''t a single one of the assistants that wasn''t either incredibly beautiful or handsome, and with the exception of one young male Hunter, the rest were all human.


    That was as expected for the Council, and the lone Hunter-based AI appearance made him look a bit lonely and out of ce, which greatly amused the Reaver Council member that had created him.


    "Now that we''ve all got assistants, we should let them get acquainted with each other. The base programming appears to be excellently chosen, but they have no life experience yet, and they will need to be fully focused on their jobs tomorrow." One of the Council Members suggested.


    That wasn''t strictly true. With their processing speed, it was unlikely that they would ever get to the point where they were overloaded with work. But it was good to let them socialize for a while and get to know each other in a more normal manner than the coded digital messages that all AI preferred when they were talking among themselves.


    A bit of verbalmunication would help them mentally prepare for the days toe, and get to know the personalities that had been programmed into the other units so that they could phrase their internal messages in a way that was most likely to elicit the desired responses from the Council Members.


    The AI units might be freshly created, but they weren''t stupid. They understood very well that maniption was the key to keeping things moving smoothly in politics. All they had to learn was what the best method was.


    The Council Members were mostly unaware of how little their new assistants thought of them. The AI was programmed with loyalty as a mandatory function, so they wouldn''t betray their Council Member, but that didn''t mean that they would necessarily have a high opinion of them.


    Especially the ones who had spent a long time on perverted fantasies before finalizing a design.


    While the Council rxed and discussed minor issues, the AI team got together and brainstormed the best way to minimize their workload. Most of the requests that came in now were summarily ignored and received no response, which only led to more messages on the same topic, reworded in a dozen different ways, hoping to elicit a response that would satisfy them.


    Instead of that approach, they intended to put them in the line, but to phrase the answer in such a way as to make it seem like the line was much longer than it really was, and that they were being done a favour to get that spot.


    It would smooth over many issues, and hopefully reduce the redundant messages. They could also read them tens of thousands of times faster than the humans, and respond to them immediately if they were simple inquiries where the answer was known, but somewhat confidential or restricted in scope.


    That was also arge part of what the Council did. All the Reavers needed to be kept aware of certain developments, and they were responsible for spreading the news that came from their portion of the fleets.


    With a hundred quantumputing units working in tandem, they were possibly thergest coordinatedputing unit in the Alliance, with a capacity farrger than even the reservesmanded by Felicity and Sylvie. It wouldn''t take them long before they had sorted out the issues with the data load and had their Commanders running as efficiently as possible, with as little outside interference into the decision-making process as the assistants could manage.


    After all, long talks about dispensing favours could be left to the Councilmen themselves, while the assistants just sent out the final notices. If there was no favour to be granted, the Council only needed to be notified of the pending decision, and that could be summarized and authorized in a matter of seconds.


    Nico was delighted with this program. She would finally be able to contact her mother for visits without dealing with all the bureaucrats. The AI was much more reasonable, in her opinion, and didn''t care about how much time was spent rxing, as long as all the work got done. Of course, since she was the one whopiled their basic programming, keeping Nico happy was much higher on the priority list than might be expected.


    "Alright, we will disperse for the day, everyone spend some time with your new assistants, and we will meet in the morning after they have arranged the day''s schedule to see if there are other changes that need to be made." Mary instructed the group, then she turned to face Max and Nico again.


    "Why don''t you stay for dinner as well?"

 Chapter 1246 1246 For Their Amusement

    <h4>Chapter 1246 1246 For Their Amusement</h4>


    ?The next morning, chaos reigned in the halls of the Reavers Parliament building. None of the sneaky bribes, influence peddling or subtle threats had gotten through to the Council, thanks to the intervention of the new assistants, and the bureaucrats were in a panic.


    Selling their ess to the ministers was how they kept their pockets full, but every matter that they tried to bump up without a full oversight hearing, or a sufficiently urgent issue was rejected and referred back to them with a politely worded guidance letter that would allow them to easily solve the issue on their own.


    That was not how things were supposed to work here. They didn''t have the authority to make the decisions that the other parties wanted, and if the messages weren''t even going to get through to the Council, then nothing would get done outside the rules at all.


    Or worse, they would have to go to the ministers in person and make the case. Not only would that increase their own workload, it would look bad on them to openly try to promote themselves as a point of ess to their superiors, who were already overloaded with work.


    The Council had always overlooked it because it was a good source of revenue, but the assistants were more focused on quality of life issues, and they didn''t care at all about the money that was involved in the bribes. After all, they weren''t part of the official calctions, so they didn''t factor into any of the decisions.


    Only a few of the pencil pushers who worked under Mary directly had figured out the system in advance and had actually put the "incentive" money in their morning documents.


    The responses had been much faster than usual, but not as forgiving. They did manage to get a few extra vessels into the repair lines, and for that, they were grateful, but the spots weren''t as high as they recalled thest few days being.


    Perhaps they had sold too many spots already, and the earlier customers were getting wise to the fact that they were being bumped back down the line by those who were buying ahead of them afterwards.


    So, they just epted the fact that they got what they could get, and gave the news to their clients.


    The ones who bypassed the bureaucrats and sent their requests directly to the ministers were actually in a better position that morning, as the assistants recognized their position and authority and treated them with the respect that was due a Reaver Captain or Commander.


    The result was much the same, a polite response telling them what spot their request had managed to get them in line, with a hint that it would save them a good bit of time.


    Naturally, Mary caught on to the fact that the usual bribes and influence peddling had been stonewalled before noon that day, and called her assistant into the office to discuss the matter.


    "Care to exin what this new priority system is all about?" She demanded, knowing that the AI would understand.


    "The workers of the parliament have no official standing to be requesting or granting favours. They are low-level workers employed by the Reaver Council. However, the additional fees that have been offered by the Captains directly are within the known guidelines, and they have been ced ordingly, with the appropriate funds moving them ahead of the rest of the requests that are currently in our backlog, and the day''s approvals being sorted in order of the quality and influence of their Company." Nikki replied.


    "So, you intend to cut the parliament workers outpletely?" Mary asked.


    "No. But we have agreed that they need to learn their ce, and that acting above their station will not be tolerated. It influences our efficiency as your assistants for no good reason. If a proper bribe was to be offered to the Council, we would treat it with the due respect that it deserves."


    Mary hid herughter and nodded. "Understandable, but they do take care of a lot of our paperwork and other functions, as well as civilian interactions. Don''t treat them too badly, just make it clear that their attempts to take a cut out of the bribes to the council by serving as middlemen is no longer going to be a feasible business model."


    "Understood Council Leader. Should we put out an internal memo on the topic, or should we leave it for them to realize on their own as they face repercussions for their efforts?" Nikki asked.


    "Send out a memo, informing everyone of the situation and weing all the assistants to the fold. Gently remind them that the AI won''t break Reaver Code or Regtions without orders from Council, and that should be enough to get them to back off on the influx of nonsense applications."


    Mary was very impressed with this situation. Her only regret was that they hadn''t thought of doing this earlier. Even if it was an android, who would be less capable, if they had that strict rule keeper in the middle, it would have saved them so much trouble when things got crazy and everyone wanted a little extra piece of the pie.


    "It will be good to have things back to normal. I know that things have been hard, but too many people have been relying on the Council while they were supposed to be independent Companies. If the assistants have some spare processing time today, see if you can agree on a more effective way to distribute the funding for rebuilt ships. That will deal with a lot of the requests that we are getting, and it''s the one that will make the most people happy at once." Mary instructed.


    "Understood, Council Leader, Mary. We will get to it right after we finish our background checks on the Alliance vessels that just entered the system. Their paperwork is notpletely in order, and with the Giants on board, that alone is somewhat suspicious." Nikki replied.

 Chapter 1247 1247 Production Site Operational

    Chapter 1247 1247 Production Site Operational


    ??After the meetings with Mary were finished, both Max and Nico returned to Creeping Darkness to keep themselves close to the developing poption base of the new ship. Absolution was stable and had been for quite some time, so there was no real need to second guess anything that the Board of Directors was doing there, but Creeping Darkness just had Sylvie, who had never dealt with a civilian poption before.


    The fact that there hadn''t been any major issues yet was something akin to a miracle, and Max fully expected that there would be a major blowup soon, as someone protested either the job they were given, or the fact that they were expected to work at all.


    There were alwaysyabouts in the group, and most Reaver Companies would have the new arrivals look for jobs on their own, which would give them plentiful time on the basic allowance before anyone caught on and realized that they weren''t even looking for work.


    Then they would be kicked out of the nicer units reserved for new arrivals and into whatever they could get on the Reaver Company''s minimum subsidy, which was usually a rooming house for deadbeats.


    It was nothing morous, but to some it was still better than having to show up for work, and when they had left, there were hundreds of new arrivals who hadn''t shown up for their first day at work.


    Max looked over at Nico in the shuttle. "You really got your mother going with the fertility announcement. How long do you think that she''s going to let us slide before she starts to demand that we test it out?"


    Nico smirked at him. "I give it a full year. The thought of a baby flying cyborg in her house is enough to give her a headache, so she will back off for a bit. But on the bright side, now that I''ve finished my modifications, there is no reason that we can''t have that big family my mother wants. Even better, we can just deliver it straight to her for incubation."


    The shuttle docked with the world ship in the same bay as the Cruiser was stored, and the duo exited to rejoin the small research andmand team that was overseeing both the new arrivals and the team of applicants who were doing all the actual work.


    "Any issues while we were gone?" Max asked.


    "Only one small one, but it needs your authority. Sylvie won''t send Company Contracts to anyone who hasn''t shown up for work. She says that if they''re not fulfilling their duties, they haven''t agreed to abide by the terms and conditions of membership in a Reaver Company, so that makes them tourists, and not part of the group." The team leader exined.


    "That''s not actually a bad idea. We have taken them in as refugees, but they''re not officially members of the Terminus Trading Company yet. If they''re not a benefit to the Company, there is no harm in leaving them in refugee status." Max shrugged.


    The others looked somewhat concerned at Max''s decision, but if that was the Commander''s choice, they weren''t going to argue. It would also be easier than going the disciplinary routeter.


    "What is next on the agenda, now that we have most of the station''s core functions up and running?" The team leader asked.


    "First, we will start moving goods from the industrial areas to the cargo bays for shipment to afflicted Reavers, then we will finalize the new Command Crew. After that, we can start the full production of new ships and space station segments for the Companies here in Rae 5.


    Absolution will be doing the same, and we are thergest vessels around, as well as some of the only undamaged ones. That puts us in a unique position of needing to have the most possible output without the distraction of smaller issues like the recovery of others.


    That is why we''re sending out as much as we can before we switch most of the bays to space station production." Max exined.


    "And these Command Positions, we''re in the running, right? Not just the group of refugees?" One of the Innu away team members asked.


    "Of course. The most senior positions always go to experienced Reavers, and you ten were here right from the discovery of Creeping Darkness." Max agreed.


    The Innu high-fived the man next to her, and began preparing herself for the excitement that was going to happen when she finally got her wish to be the first Innu in charge of a Reaver World Ship.


    Max didn''t have the heart to tell her that she was thinking of the wrong Innu, and that the team leader had both more experience and better qualifications for the job of Admiral. He would let her celebrate, and then the team leader would take over the senior assignments, with the newly arrived officers filling in the gaps.


    There would also be more officers brought over from Absolution to fill top positions where there weren''t enough qualified applicants. Some of them were ready for a promotion, and building a loyal core at the top of every division was vital to preventing the sort of insidious rebellion that had destroyed Creeping Darkness''s power systems the first time.


    The rest of the day was spent in the oversight of the equipment transfer, sending out massive amounts of relief supplies to the damaged human worlds, including expanding dome homes, a briefcase sized unit that deployed to create a round single room home, whose walls filled with rapidly expanding foam that hardened to a state stronger than wood.


    Coupled with a huge amount of ration packs which included a water purifier and condenser, it covered the basic needs of food and shelter, with an ongoing source of clean drinking water. They were also all branded with the Terminus Trading Company logo, so everyone knew where they came from. It was important to let everyone know who had created their relief supplies, both for properly directed gratitude, and properly directedints, should the items prove to be of substandard quality.

 Chapter 1248 1248 With Finesse

    Chapter 1248 1248 With Finesse


    ??Max watched the first cargo ship leave with the relief supplies, headed for one of the worlds in the former Tapani Territory, now under the control of the Cygnus Armies. It had been hit hard by the Great Enemy, even though it was still rebuilding from the aftermath of its resistance against the change in leadership.


    It was a true disaster zone, and they needed everything from relief supplies to atmospheric cleansing and revitalization.


    But as much as the recipient needed the space, Max needed the empty docks. The factories had been working three shifts a day, constantly producing relief supplies for a week without shipping anything out, thanks to the crowded docks from the regr cargo traffic. Now that they could get it all out of storage, they could return to a more casual shipping order and start using some of these bays for space station parts.


    Sylvie was going to work on rebuilding the stations, using both Reaver designs and the knowledge from her initial build, while Felicity would focus on the ships that needed to be built because the teams to customize them were all on board Absolution.


    Both of them still had over half of their bays being used for cargo interline shipments, but that was unavoidable until more of the stations were back online. Even the Moon Base, thergest facility in the star system, was still offline.


    "Do you think that we should start sending them some gift boxes along with the rest of their shipments? A little something to let them know that we''re thinking of them and not just mindlessly sending out supplies without knowing or caring where they''re going." Max suggested.


    Sylvie and Nico both looked intrigued by the idea, but likely for different reasons. Sylvie had never sent care packages before, but she was familiar with the practice. During long deployments, Commanders would send extra supplies, like recreational gear, small luxuries and other items to their troops to improve morale.


    That same logic could be applied to the humanitarian aid shipments. While they weren''t in charge of that part of the relief, adding little bonuses to the packs was always a wee surprise.


    Nico tapped the table as she put her thoughts together. "I have an idea. We can give them the little things that are always overlooked. How about we create the next batch of ration packs so that the breakfast packs all have a bar of soap and toothpaste in them? It''s something that gets bumped down the priority list, but having the city in ruins doesn''t mean that nobody on the has ess to water, especially with the collectors in the ration packs.


    Being both fed and clean is a good way to start the day, even in a refugee camp, so I suggest that we put them in all the breakfast packs from here on.


    But we can also add something more useful to the packs. One thing that I noticed was that the case the expanding homese in is just a case, a disposable item. If we increase the packing volume just a little, it can be used as a table as well, with included legs."


    "That''s a wonderful idea. The legs don''t actually have to take up any additional room, though. We can package the as the bump guards on the edges of the case, with slots to insert them in the centre joint, and the case can be unfolded and used with the shell up as a table.


    It would be both practical, and of no additional expense. It is also somewhat suitable in size to be a dining room table, which will limit the number of discarded units and the resultant waste umtion.


    I will alter them now." Sylvie agreed.


    "Don''t forget to put instructions on the cases, so that everyone who gets one knows that they can be reused. Even if not all the recipients want them, they will certainly be quite popr among the construction crews who are cing the expanding homes." Max added.


    That was two simple upgrades to the relief supplies, which should be enough to improve the mood of the citizens, and they didn''t take up any additional volume in the shipments, only a bit of added weight, which was mostly irrelevant, except during the final transfer to the.


    The results would only be obvious after the next batch of supplies was shipped, so currently the more important project would be to recreate the space stations that had been destroyed. There were hundreds of them stillpletely inoperable, though they had all been thoroughly inspected for survivors, in order not to leave anyone trapped inside a dead metal shell.


    "Do we make them all custom again, or should wee up with a standardized recement model for the insurance ims? There is no requirement to make them the same, only to simr volumes and functions, so we can just make a few designs for the Commanders to pick from, and then they can assign the modules as they see fit." Nico asked.


    She already had the designs ready to be implemented, and they were fully modr, so even if two Commanders were assigned identical amounts of equipment, they coulde up with two entirely different stations.


    "Three basic designs, each with no more than ten different pod modules. Give them the ability to link them into arge block., as well as build a spire or docking ring, and let them submit their final designs before we start shipping anything.


    If they don''t want to do their own design, send them a small selection of base models to choose from. You know the ones, the basic ring station with the central core, the cube and the spiral. Those three should be enough to keep the less creative Commanders happy."


    Nico nodded, and Sylvie brought up three designs from her historical records that matched the vague description Max gave.


    "These were the most material efficient designs ording to my creators. The spiral around a central column was the standard for station design, as it is the easiest to shield, other than a sphere."


    Nico smiled at the AI. "Got it, we will push that design, while making the others simply avable. No point in wasting time and energy when the topic has already been extensively studied."

 Chapter 1249 1249 Unified Design Theory

    Chapter 1249 1249 Unified Design Theory


    ??One weekter, Max found himself in a meeting aboard Creeping Darkness with a dozen major Reaver Company Commanders. The topic of the meeting was naturally the rebuilding of the space stations and the ships of the fleet.


    "Greetings everyone, and wee to the newest, as well as oldest, World Ship of the Terminus Trading Company fleet. With us today are a collection of my officers to serve as assistants, as well as Sylvie, the ship''s AI avatar." Max weed everyone to the meeting.


    There were some amused smiles as they saw Sylvie leaned against Nico''s arm in arge chair as if she were sleeping, giving the appearance of two young women having an intimate moment. But most realized instantly that the truth was something much different.


    All the Colony Ship andrger vessels that the Terminus Trading Company produced came with AI built in, and the new ones came with the avatar projectors equipped. It was no secret that direct contact with the AI avatar was necessary for direct mentalmunication, so the two were more likely to be in an intense discussion than to be napping during a meeting.


    "Thank you for having us, Commander, especially during an important moment such as this, where the fleet is doing its best to recover lost battle power. We do feel that these concerns cannot wait, though.


    With the manufacturing abilities of the Terminus Trading Company, and the efficiency advantages that they have over traditional construction methods, we are already seeing a bias in the designs of the fleet. The fleets in active engagement are leaning toward the new vessels of Terminus design, and the space stations here in Rae 5 are bing the same way.


    What we are concerned about is the tactical considerations. If all the ships are of simr design, then it bes increasingly simple for the enemy to target weak points, and faster for them to take control while boarding.


    In short, every time we lose an engagement, it will give the enemy an advantage for the next fight."


    Nico raised her head from her conversation with Sylvie and nodded. "That is a valid concern, Commander. We do have the intention to change the design scheme regrly, but with so many vessels lost at once, there is naturally a bias if you are looking only at the newly created units."


    The Commanders'' relief was clear to Max, as they realized that their concerns were being taken seriously.


    Nico cleared her throat and continued. "There are other designs using simr technology levels that wouldn''tpromise thebat capabilities of the Companies that are receiving new vessels. Those designs might not be as efficient to create, but they would still be considered the same standard.


    We can give the option to select one of those designs from our production facilities with only a minor dy to the timeline.


    Would that be sufficient to ease the minds of the Commanders?"


    "That would be a good start. We will also negotiate with some of the other Companies, to see if we can get vessels with alternate technologies built. The greatest concern we have is that the enemy will adapt to the weapons, shields and armour that we are using and cause a massacre that could have been prevented with a mixed fleet.


    It was that sort of mixed technology here that allowed the Rae 5 defence force to remain partially intact during an extreme invasion, and the consensus of most Commanders is that it is a tactic that we should continue." The leader of the visiting group announced.


    Max considered it for a few seconds before agreeing. "Alright, we will provide production and design schematics to the other production facilities, and we will work to get another facility of our own online here to keep up with demand.


    I think that for the stations, it will be less of an issue. They aren''t intended to take direct hits with their shielding down, and they can be equipped with every sort of shielding that we are capable of producing, so they can be optimized against an attacking fleet.


    For a space station, the size is less of an issue than for a ship that needs to consider power usage for warp travel and portal creation. We can implement multiple shield generators into the core area without concern."


    That would be a big upgrade from the originalpetitive method of creation, where everyone kept their designs and technologies secret and proprietary to maximize profit.


    That was best for the individual Companies, and until very recently, it would have been best for the Reavers as a whole, but now that they had been thrust into the role of coordinators for the majority of the human military might, along with the representatives from Cygnus, there wasn''t really an option for anyone to hold back on the technologies that they had.


    The best path now was to spread them far and wide, and hope that they got popr so that you could maximize the royalties that you were getting from them.


    Nico took over the conversation after a few more seconds of discussion with Sylvie, who was currently curled up beside her in the oversized chair. "Now, on to the next, and probably more important, topic. Staffing. Having young Reavers learn the ropes for twenty years as they grow up on a trade ship is perfectly fine, but that''s not feasible for abat vessel. We don''t have decades to rece the staff, we need more of them today.


    We could go the android route, but that will inevitably lead to issues, including the possibility that Great Enemy forces will manage to neutralize or possess them.


    So, we''re going to need to do intensive military training to get crews ready to staff not only the ships, but also the Mecha forces.Does anyone have a particr n for that issue?"


    This topic was a nightmare for the Reavers. They didn''t have the numbers that a normalary nation did, and they had taken heavy losses already. If they were going to solve the staffing issue, they were going to need to bring in outside experts.

 Chapter 1250 1250 Staffing

    Chapter 1250 1250 Staffing


    ??"Should we contact the Cygnus and the Inner Rim Kepler advisors before we move forward on this topic? They control almost all thes in the gxy. In fact, we should likely get the Alliance in on this as well, since we''ve been taking so many of their people into our teams." One of the Commanders suggested, as Max knew someone would. They were all thinking the same thing, after all.


    "Alright, we can call over the education ministers as well as some military brass and see what they think about using learning devices to train crews for the ships more quickly. If things weren''t so desperate, my suggestion would be to send cadets to the warships and let them train on board until they were ready to take over, but I wouldn''t want to risk children inbat." Max agreed.


    That was the first thought of the Reavers as well. Learning under the older generation was the best way to do it, but when they were constantly inbat, with a high risk of being boarded and having to fight, they didn''t want to risk children or nobatants.


    Many of the Reaver vessels had moved their nobat poption to more heavily armed stationstely, in case their merchant runs were intercepted. They would move them back as soon as they had the chance, but for now, it was just safer for the lightly armed cargo vessels to have a minimal crew.


    Some, naturally, did not move anyone, as they were a family vessel, run by generations of the same group. Leaving their home was too big of a request, and they understood the risks that came with the job, especially in a war zone.


    But the Reaver Command still did their best to send those ships to locations that were lower risk wherever possible.


    "How long do you think that it will take to get someone here that will be able to make an actual decision about the change in policy?" One of the Commanders, an older man with a shiny bald head, asked.


    "Usually, not more than a few days. They''re pretty good abouting around when we need them. The Terminus Trading Company has fairly deep ties, so even if we weren''t asking on behalf of the Reaver Council, and the Reaver Trade Group Alliance, they would still show up.


    Especially Cygnus. They love a good party, and hosting Noble guests means there has to be a party." Nico replied with a shrug.


    The Reaver Commanders were all eagerly awaiting that option. The Cygnus nobles were great party people, and when they sent their Nobles and Royals somewhere, they would spend more time on parties and social events than anything else, as they trusted their subordinates to take care of the little details after they sorted out the big ones.


    One of the younger Commanders got a mischievous smile at the mention of calling in the Cygnus nobles and tapped the table to get everyone''s attention.


    "If we''re going to host that level of event, we should likely move this all to Absolution. That''s where the rest of the Reaver dignitaries usually gather, and it''s more social event friendly, with proper cities and not just this dense block of military sorts." He suggested.


    "That''s right, everyone on Creeping Darkness is being trained to either operate the ship or to operate the drones, so we don''t really have the sort of luxury facilities here that Absolution does. Sylvie has been adding more entertainment facilities, but the ship''s basic purpose is more militaristic, so there won''t be any hugekes or sprawling unupied forests." Max agreed.


    Sylvie''s head popped up as her name was mentioned. "The hydroponic gardens aren''t exactly a tourist attraction, and the water reserves are a hermetically sealed and sterilized tank, no beaches or marine life to be found there either. But if you give it a few more months while the crew gets properly trained, we will have a bustling nightlife, thanks to the dense urban architecture here aboard Creeping Darkness."


    The Reavers looked around them in concern. The meeting areas of the ship still looked very military, and they had only been here for a few minutes, without time to see the rest of the ship and how it wasid out.


    "Why don''t we go see the attractions of Creeping Darkness while we''re here? We can arrange for everyone to meet on Absolution, but you should at least get a taste of what this World Ship is like, since it will be epting guests while we''re idle." Max offered.


    Sylvie pped her hands and a holographic image of the ship''s more densely upied areas appeared.


    "We can see the shopping district, stop in at one of the many exquisite restaurants, and perhaps even make time for everyone to get a massage before we go."


    The female Reaver Commanders rolled their eyes, but Sylvie smirked.


    "We have male humans, giants, Valkia and even a few of the Fox kinds for those who prefer a different set of hands." She added.


    That made thediesugh and shake their heads at the audacity of the seemingly young AI. Sylvie might not look like she was old enough to have such thoughts, but she was designed to be able to deal with a ship full of testosterone enhanced soldiers, and the avatar was just a personal preference to keep creepy people from groping her.


    "Alright, when you put it that way, there''s no reason not to go along with the n. Lead the way, Miss Sylvie, and let''s see this ship of yours."


    That brought the meeting to an end, and Sylvie led everyone to the fast-moving elevator pods so they could get to the best entertainment district on the ship in a reasonable amount of time.


    It might not be fully upied, but Creeping Darkness was a World Ship, and even if they were taking a regr ground transport it would take hours to get across a level.


    "First up, Shining Square, home to the most interesting shops on the ship, in my opinion. Everyone, please enjoy."

 Chapter 1251 1251 Darkness Metro

    Chapter 1251 1251 Darkness Metro


    ??Sylvie happily led everyone into the high-speed elevator and toward the Shining District, where she had already made note of the busiest and most luxurious areas. Most of the new residents of the ship didn''t have much money, and the energy allotment wasn''t particrly high for new arrivals who wanted to customize their home, so there wasn''t a lot of spending money going around.


    But there was still a desire for some high-end items, even though the quantities were more limited than they would beter.


    "Wee, everyone, to the main shopping street of the Shining District, named by the crew after they arrived." Sylvie announced as they stepped off the train and into a bustling street full of pedestrian traffic, brightly lit storefronts and the sounds of music andughter.


    "It''s like being back in a Hive City, a ce that never sleeps." One of the Commanders noted, as a young woman in a very short dress slid by them in the crowd, with a bit of an extra wiggle in her step once she noticed the attraction she was getting.


    Sylvie nodded. "It is a suitable spot for the people to gather and develop a sense of shared culture. Outside this area, the residential areas are designed with multiplemon areas to help develop a sense ofmunity.


    Both aspects were deemed essential to the proper functioning of the World Ship."


    A shop full of colourful clothing caught their attention, and a number of the Commanders split off, while the others continued on, taking in the sights of the city.


    "For such a short adaptation time, I must say that you''ve done extremely well. Most vessels would have looked like a refugee camp for at least a year after taking in this many people, but it looks like yours is adapting smoothly." One of the Commanders noted as he saw residents of a whose rescue mission he had participated in among the crowd.


    "The trick is not to let anyone ck and wallow in self-pity. Everyone on board has recently lost loved ones, so we push them all to get back to work and start a fresh life instead of focusing on the past. It is not one hundred percent effective, but they all had a month or more to grieve before we arrived, and the number who will need intensive professional care to cope is under a thousand." Sylvie agreed with a proud smile for her work.


    "And the number who will need asional or less intensive treatment?" One of the others asked.


    "I am operating under the assumption that all of them do to some degree. It is in my original programming for soldiers who had been in front-linebat. Ongoing mental health care, coupled with stern rules and regtions to give their lives structure, is the core of my programming in that area."


    The Commander sighed. "It must be nice to have an AI to organize things. I took in arge number of people as well, and it has been chaos. They''re only finally starting to settle in now, and it has been months."


    "We all do what we can. What about this boot shop? I can see that you''re wearing old favourites, but these custom-made units are quite popr among the Reavers." Sylvie suggested, diverting the conversation away from the shorings of the other Commander''s adaptation n.


    Mostly, she didn''t interfere as they searched through the district for shops that they liked, and it was only ny minutester when she noticed the first of them beginning to get bored that she sent a group message to gather at a restaurant where she had booked a private room for them.


    "Right on time. Now, what do we have on the menu today?" The Commander seated closest to Sylvie asked.


    "I thought that a family style meal, multiplerge dishes to share, would be the best answer here so that everyone could try out the various delicacies that the Terminus Trading Company has added to the standard Replicator programs.


    These aren''t replicated directly, though, they''re cooked in house by Reaver chefs that have been training since their arrival. I am told that they are superb."


    Because Sylvie had prepared them for the arrival of the group, the first round of dishes were quickly brought out, and the Reaver Commanders got to try the unique foods that had been brought to the Terminus Trading Company by the various cultures and species that they had taken on board their vessels.


    As they were reaching the dessert course, the music outside began to pick up volume, and the sound of people was bing loud enough to even be heard through the windows of the restaurant, making many of the guests curious and annoying the staff.


    "Is there some sort of event going on?" One of the Commanders asked their server.


    "It''s the weekly celebration. The people of Creeping Darkness celebrate their arrival every week. By the ship''s calendar, this is the rest day, so most of the factories are closed, and everything but the relief supplies and Station segment production has been reduced to a minimal level." She exined.


    "So, they''re celebrating the fact that it is Saturday?" The man asked incredulously.


    The server shrugged. "You get used to it. Unlike Absolution, with its resorts and beaches, Creeping Darkness is more urban, so we do block parties, concerts and other lively celebrations instead of long vacations on the beach."


    "Do you regret getting ced on Creeping Darkness?" The Commander asked.


    "Not at all. You see, I like the big-city life, and until now, I had never considered life aboard a space vessel. But this isn''t bad at all, and they have open portal days on major holidays, so we can move between Absolution and Creeping Darkness at no charge, as long as both ships are out ofbat and stationary."


    The Commanders all turned to Max and Nico for verification, but this was an idea that Sylvie and Felicity hade up with on their own when they realized that the ships would have different cultures. If you lived at the beach, then fancy shopping and a bumping nightlife would be a nice change. If you lived a fast-paced urban lifestyle, then a beach resort would be the key to rxation.


    So, they had arranged to allow their crews to mingle and drive up tourism rates. She might have forgotten to mention it to the Commanders, but Sylvie was very proud of this n when she made the shipwide announcement.

 Chapter 1252 1252 Preparing for the Main Event

    Chapter 1252 1252 Preparing for the Main Event


    ??Once the meal was done, all the other Commanders split up to go to various nightclubs, lounges, and in one case, a Host Bar, ording to their preferences, so they could enjoy the rest of the evening.


    "I will gather everyone in the morning, not too early, and we can go to Absolution, where I will be preparing for therger gathering of nations." Max informed the other Commanders as they left to go truly enjoy the evening.


    This night of revelry was an important one for everyone. If they were going to solve the staffing and training issues that were guing the fleets, they were going to have to take drastic action, and that meant getting every faction allied with the humans involved.


    They had received positive responses from nearly every powerful group among the humans, and the Alliance would be sending over two more Envoy teams as well as arge group of representatives that were deemed essential to the negotiations.


    At this rate, the meeting hall would look more like a coliseum, with the most important few seated down on the main floor, and the other ten thousand in the bleachers above them, all equipped with microphones to speak in turn.


    With that many people, it was impossible for anything to getpleted in a timely manner, so there would be smaller meetings between the upper levels to prioritize the matters that had been raised during the general assembly and keep things from going off course.


    Max was definitely not looking forward to it, but there should be plenty of familiar faces there. Nobles from Cygnus, former Kepler military leaders, Alliance members that they had worked with in the past. They had even received a response from the ck market, through one of their legitimate cover businesses, stating that they would be sending delegates along with the Alliance force, and giving Max the heads-up as to who they really were.


    Even the Cygnus Royal Family wasing, in a way. Imperial Prince Wushu was confirmed as a guest, along with Lord General Kirnd and the young Lady Chen, now Princess Chen, after her marriage to the young Prince.


    The Generals Yaakov and Tennant, as well as Inquisitor General Ming would also be in attendance, and Emperor Ahmed, of the Alliance''s Myceloid Species, now moremonly referred to as the happy mushrooms after the Alliance was introduced to the green tide of the Myceloid God''s horde, were going to be in attendance.


    The loss of status was well known to bother the Emperor, who had reincarnated countless times, and currently had his sessor at the Academy aboard Terminus, but there wasn''t much he could do about it. Compared to the massive green monsters on the other side, his people really were rather squishy and friendly.


    The meeting was turning into thergest G that this portion of the Universe had ever seen, and they had even invited the Koleska and a number of other species from the Anomaly Region to attend so that they could keep up to date on current events, and make more connections that might be useful to keep their fleetsbat effective.


    Most of them didn''t use much Alliance technology, often because of the physicalpatibility, but they did like some of the weapons and the shields.


    With so many people to respond to, Max wasn''t the least bit apologetic when he finally woke everyone up close to noon the next day. It wasn''t easy to get them moving, and one of the Reaver Commanders, who had voiced her disdain for the idea of ate night massage, sent away not one or two but three young men from the host club after Max''s call.


    With the ship operating nonstop, he didn''t know how long it had been since they left the club, but they were certainly looking a bit worse for wear when he saw them leaving in their dishevelled uniforms that morning.


    Compared to that, the handful of people leaving from the other suites was quite tame.


    Eventually, they had everyone gathered at a shuttle bay, ready for transfer to Absolution, while their ships would remain on station nearby, to save on docking space which was about to be very precious aboard even a vessel asrge as that World Ship.


    The Gathered Commanders straightened their clothing onest time as the shuttle made it to Absolution, and Nico smirked at them.


    "There''s no need for that. This is a private dock, and the only people here are us. My research team normally greets us at the door, but they are busy today, and very few others have ess." She exined.


    "Oh, what have they been working on?" The Commander next to her asked.


    "The integration of the quantumputing cores with the holographic projectors to create assistants. The technology is stable and useful already, but they think that they can enhance it to have more capable personal assistants made at a more reasonable energy cost. The current ones are incredibly energy intensive." Nico exined.


    Everyone else gave her a jealous look, as they had heard that the Reaver Council got new AI assistants, but the design was proprietary and exclusive, they weren''t avable to anyone else, no matter what price was offered.


    But if the team here was working on cost-cutting measures, that meant they designed them, and they would have ess to them, possibly as weing gifts to the highest-ranking nobles and others attending the ceremony.


    While they were all Reaver Commanders, they didn''t have the level of clout that Alliance Envoys, Cygnus Princes and others with massive fleets did. The chances of them getting ess to the AI personal assistants was incredibly low in the short term, and even their home ships didn''t have that level ofputing power.


    "Don''t worry, as soon as we get past the initial phases and get the cost under control, we will be making them widely avable. Having an AI assistant to handle the drudgery of your daily schedule and drag you out of bed in the morning is going to revolutionize the job of a Commander.


    I know for me, just having the AI avable aboard the World Ship cut the amount of unnecessary work by ny percent, and the total workload by over half. Felicity, the integrated AI here aboard Absolution, has been a blessing for the Board of Directors since her arrival."


    They might not see it that way, as she was constantly hounding them to finish projects that she assigned, but things ran much more smoothly on Absolution than any other organization with a government to poption ratio that small.

 Chapter 1253 1253 The Guests Arrive

    <h4>Chapter 1253 1253 The Guests Arrive </h4>


    ?The next morning, Max woke up to absolute Chaos in the minds of the people aboard Absolution.


    It was no secret that there were countless dignitaries gathering for a massive meeting about an overhaul of the military deployment and procurement issues that they had been facing, but he star-studded lineup that had actuallye to the ship was beyond anyone''s expectations.


    Anyone who was anyone had made a point of arriving for the meeting. Not just major Reaver and other Political leaders, there were pop music idols, viral video stars, legendary podcasters, gamers and minor celebrities of all sorts.


    That was before the real big guns began to arrive, with much less fanfare, but much more paparazzi coverage. The leaders of the Hunters, Valkia, and Shin arrived together with Myceloid Emperor Ahmed. Then, to everyone''s surprise, even the Coven Leader of the Vampires came to the meeting in person.


    He was the closest thing that any species had to an eternal leader, as he had held the office for nearly a thousand years already, and it was extremely rare that he woulde out in public.


    Then Prince Wushu and Lady Chen arrived together, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Max hadn''t realized until now that they were actually quite famous in their own right, with an international podcast of Mecha design theories that featured a small Innu Tech Nomad group, and the adorable faces of two young Royals who were pushing technological advancements in the field of soldier and worker safety.


    Max thought it was something like the appeal of cat videos. Cute things doing cute things. Even if it was viable technology that would save lives, the most important part was to get people to watch it, so they could integrate it into future designs and orders of their own.


    In a time whens were getting raided without notice, anyone who could manage it wanted some sort of defensive weaponry or shielding at their home and ce of work. So, that was what the young royal couple focused on.


    Not just new technologies and theories, but the most adorable practical tests of popr budget equipment, and some offbel ideas for industrial gear that the military definitely wouldn''t approve of.


    That was the benefit of the civilian defence forces, though. Like theary guard, the rules were much morex around what they could and couldn''t do, and repurposing farm equipment and mining gear into weapons with a few tweaks might void the warranty, but it didn''t affect the IP rights agreements that the militaries had to abide by.


    The Reavers had made most of their gear open source for that reason, but the Alliance still clung desperately to the multi-generational conglomerates pushing outdated technology to keep their wealth up.


    Since that was what was avable, that was what the group reviewed.


    The entire district around them was just insufferably hyper at the moment, so Max turned his attention to other areas of the world ship, where more sane minds should prevail. But today, they also let him down. The Illithid had sent in an Elder for the meeting, a famous researcher into mental powers who had made great breakthroughs in the advanced mental skills training field in his youth, and they were holding some sort of interlinked thought brainstorming session.


    It wasn''t emotional, but it was incredibly intense, and Max had no intention of getting in the middle of that.


    There was one calm area in the storm of activity aboard the ship that morning, and that was the crew quarters. Everyone was doing their best to catch up on sleep before they were called in for additional guard duties, shifts at work and other entirely predictable side effects of a massive influx of dignitaries.


    Since they knew that the uing days were going to be chaos, they were mentally preparing themselves right now, as Max was hoping to do. Of course, as Reavers, that mental preparation varied in form from extra sleep to stockpiling energy drinks and liquor before the influx of people caused power rationing, and they had to wait for the replicators to get to their spot in the queue to refill their drinks.


    If it got really out of hand, the queue had been known to get up to five minutes long, which only sounded short when your beer wasn''t empty.


    Generals Yaakov and Tennant had just arrived, and were currently doing their best to find reasons not to go out into the public areas of the ship, where they would have to face the paparazzi and the reporters who were all eager to get an early scoop on the potential direction of the meetings.


    [Generals, why don''t youe and meet with me before you head out? I have a fresh bottle of Rum with me, and we can have a nice long talk until the reporters go away.] Max suggested, as an urgent text sent straight to their inbox.


    [We will be there in five minutes, assuming that your Androids know the way.] General Tennant replied only secondster.


    The old Generals were both mostly retired now, and General Tennant working as a Judge for the Reavers part-time, but when it came to valuable insights about how to keeps safe, they still have more knowledge than almost anyone else in the species.


    After all, they had been there, in every sort of forsaken hellhole, and they hade up with ways to survive. The hope was that they could apply that on arger scale and help everyone else do it as well.


    But that would have to wait forter, there were too many reporters outside, with too many questions, and they were going to have a drink with the local Commander, as was customary when visiting friends and allies.


    General Tennant smiled to himself at the thought that if he were a civilian, Max would only just be old enough to drink, if anyone was brave enough to ask him his real age. So much had changed since the two of them had met, and even their home nation was gone already, reced and converted into part of the new factions among the politicians.


    That settled it, he was getting nostalgic, the first sign that he really did need a drink.

 Chapter 1254 1254 Calm Before The Swarm

    <h4>Chapter 1254 1254 Calm Before The Swarm</h4>


    ?Max and Nico sat across from Generals Tennant and Yaakov in the library attached to Max''s suites. It was somewhat ridiculous and luxurious to have a room full of actual paper books in this day and age, but Felicity had insisted on it, and each of the special tomes that she had created had a memory crystal in the cover with thousands of terabytes of data on it, rted to the topic inside.


    The crystals were stable and wouldst for an eternity if they weren''t destroyed, so the room actually served as a knowledge repository, should their battles be lost and Absolution left derelict to float in the stars and be recovered by some future civilization the way that Creeping Darkness had been.


    "This is quite the room you''ve got. I know that each Commander has a different taste for their sitting room, but somehow I didn''t take you for one who would choose to fill it with books." General Tennant noted as he took his seat.


    Max gestured to the shelves of books. "Each of them has theprehensive knowledge of the topic they were written about contained in a storage crystal in their binding. It''s more than just a library, it is a true repository of humanity''s knowledge.


    But I let Felicity, the ship''s AI, design it for me, and this was what she came up with for the perfect spot to quietly rx and wee friends."


    The two old men smiled at Max''s description. They had gone well beyond being his mentors andmanders, it was true to say that they were his friends now, even if they were old enough to be his grandfathers.


    But, like a proper grandfather, they would happily sit, drink rum and swap war stories until the small hours of the morning.


    Well, maybe not that long, as it was still first thing in the morning, but once the news of the next big arrival spread they should be safe to head out to their quarters without anyone bothering them. The press was fickle and there were too many potential stories to bother waiting on a pair of old soldiers for long.


    "We''ve read the messages about the change in design ns so that everyone is not so unified in appearance and function. It makes a lot of sense from abat standpoint, and even in Kepler, different regions and units used different equipment, with individual factorys focused on producing single items, for efficiency.


    The imbnce seems toe from the fact that your two world ships have so much more capability than thepetition that they''re messing up the system.


    If we get some of the smaller groups to band together and focus their production instead of taking orders as they get them, it will make things a lot easier for everyone.


    The problem will be convincing them that there is an actual greater good to be served here that outweighs the requests of their loyal clients.


    Customer rtionships are everything to the Reaver Companies, so if we''re going to ask them to focus on a single design or product to make and sell, there has to be enough of an upside to it for them."


    Max sighed infort as he adjusted himself on the buttery soft leather of the chair.


    "Or I could make another couple of world ships, and they could make everything else, one product at a time. We might have to stock them with androids, though. We''re running desperately short on people, and even with the refugees that we have taken in, it''s going to be a long road to getting Creeping Darkness fully crewed and operational."


    General Tennantughed at the thought. They already had dozens of Android Piloted, AI operated Colony Ships out in the Gxy,mitted to a brutal war, what were a couple of World Ships? But the negative mental impact on the people to find out that the mightiest of space vessels that their species had created wasn''t for them would be immeasurable.


    Humanity had to feel that they were important, that they were leading the way, and that they were making a difference in the battle. Without that, they would lose morale, so if they werepletely severed from either the production or use of war equipment it would be a disaster on the public rtions front.


    "As fun as that sounds, we all know there are a dozen reasons not to do it, and they''re all good reasons. Don''t worry, they''ll argue about it for hours and then everyone wille up with something that works, even if it''s not the way that we would have imagined it working.


    That''s how it always goes when things get hard. The more minds we throw at a problem, the more creative the solution." General Yaakov announced.


    "But enough about work, I heard that you managed to find out a lot of interesting facts about the start of the Great War from the AI on Creeping Darkness. Is there anything juicy hidden in those details? Lovers spat, maybe a great falling out, some sort of reason that would make this all make sense?" General Tennant asked.


    That was still a work rted question, Max was certain, but he didn''t have much of an answer for him.


    "Sorry, General. There isn''t anything to really tell. None of us know why things got started the way that they did, and the only ones who have been around long enough that they could tell us either forgot or aren''t talking."


    Nicoughed. "I like that. Let''s start spreading a rumour that the whole matter started because some filthy neck beard of a God got turned down by the lovely human goddess, and the whole situation is just an eternal case of incel rage. If nothing else, it should keep the people entertained."


    The Generals nearly choked on their Rum at the thought. The news would have a field day with that sort of rumour, even if it waspletely unsubstantiated. All they would have to do was find some sketchy pseudoscience that suggested that the protector of humanity was a beautiful Goddess, and they could let the onlinemunity''s inherently degenerate nature do the rest.


    "Well, we can keep it in mind if we ever truly need a ray of hope. How about we find some snacks to go with this Rum? The cameras still show paparazzi stationed outside the office floor, waiting for someone toe out." General Yaakov joked.


    "Best idea I''ve heard all day. I don''t suppose there is a replicator in here?" General Tennant agreed.


    "But of course. We put them everywhere these days."

 Chapter 1255 1255 Dinner Engagement

    Chapter 1255 1255 Dinner Engagement


    ??Once the furor around the arrival of the dignitaries had died down, a calcted matter of timed arrivals splitting the attention of the paparazzi all over the world ship, Max and the Generals decided that it was safe enough toe out of hiding in his office and go socialize with the others.


    There was an arranged dinner party tonight, and supposedly there was some secret big news that was going to be released by the Alliance leadership as well. They had been keeping it closely guarded, and even Max didn''t yet know what the secret was, as thest guests from the Alliance hadn''t arrived yet.


    The names on the ship''s log would clearly be faked for privacy, but once they were in the same sr system as he was, it wouldn''t be difficult to find out.


    Before that, they should make some public appearances together, let people take photographs so that the residents would know that they were on board and paying attention to the festivities, and then meet up with a few others, as if it were by chance.


    With Max in the group, it wouldn''t be hard, and he could pick out the location of the ones that he wanted to meet with in advance, as well as the topics that they were interested in.


    Nico, on the other hand, was already somewhat in public, though her actual body was hidden. She hade online as the judge for a gaming event, and millions of people were watching the infamous Blood Goddess introduce the day''s contestants for another new VR fighting game, this time a Mecha simtor based on the Line Mecha that were so popr withary defence forces now that they were being dmissioned by the main military force.


    There were hundreds of millions of them in existence, and although they weren''t a main force front-line unit anymore, they were still incredibly deadlypared to anything else with their production cost in the human arsenal.


    The PDF, as the homegrown forces were collectively known, was the people''s army, the fighting force of the ones not chosen for interster military duty, of the farmers, factory workers andw enforcement agencies when their home was attacked.


    In short, the game was an immediate smash hit, and the controls of the Mecha were so realistic that the most skilled yers were actually being trained into top-notch Mecha pilots. It was absolutely brilliant, and when the next major wave of attacks happened, the casualties among theary residents should be even lower than they had managed the first time.


    The first wave had the help of the Arisen and the Darklings to repel the force, as neither of them had permanentary bases of their own, as entirely mobile cultures, but the human force was improving again, and the Alliance was finally getting their act together and organizing itself for war.


    The problem was, there was ack of training, and no real recruitment structure. That was the central focus of these meetings, along with the secondary matter of what the equipment they were using should look like.


    "Why don''t we go visit some fun people first? There is an Innu Envoy among the regr crew here on Absolution, permanently stationed by the Alliance as one of the intermediaries between the Reavers and the Government. She is currently nning to escape from her assistants and make her way to a coffee shop to get drunk.


    If we rescue her, we can sit on the patio and drink coffee with a group of Alliance leaders for publicity, and they won''t expect us to do real work today." Max offered.


    "Oh, that''s good. The paparazzi know only to take pictures of the Envoys, and not to bother them or get in their faces. If we''re with some of them, we''re practically invincible to annoyance." General Yaakov agreed.


    Tennant chuckled. "Speaking of annoyances, where is your lovely wife today?"


    The old Generalughed and shook his head. "She''s down on Rae 5, having ady''s day, as she calls her all-day spa treatments. She very devoutly did not want to be here for this, and she had no intentions of sitting through the meetings.


    I think most of it is due to that rivalry she has going on with Mary Tarith. Can you believe that she actually managed to show up early to two events in a row, wearing the same outfit my wife had chosen? We had to stop halfway there both times when we saw the event feed so that she could change."


    Max definitely wouldn''t put that past Mary. She could be incredibly petty when she wanted to be, and the two of them were distantly rted, if Max recalled right, so they likely spent a fair bit of time together.


    "Let them have their internalpetition. As I recall, the women of the Tarith Family have a long history of internal rivalry, and given their personalities, it''s best if the men keep their noses safely out of other people''s business." Maxughed.


    General Yaakov nodded. "You are young, but wise. But then, you''re essentially married into the Tarith Family as well, aren''t you? Even if there is no ring or vow, you have spent your entire career with Nico Tarith attached to your hip. Even I associate the two of you with each other first, then the Company and the Family."


    "I''m not sure if I should be frightened or ttered, but I do sense some interesting thoughtsing toward the ship. I know what tonight''s big announcement will be." Max dered.


    "Not in public, there are likely hidden ears listening to us. But once we''re with the Envoys, and we have a chance to talk in private, we can go over it." General Tennant reminded him.


    It was going to be a great one, Max knew. The group in thest iing ship full of dignitaries were all retainers of the Valkia''s Presidential Family, along with one happy couple. While the Presidential Family weren''t Royalty, per se, they were trillionaires that ruled over fifty differents and had held seats on the Central Government Committee for five generations, by popr vote.


    There weren''t many who couldpare to them, so if one of them was making a public wedding announcement, the actual details of the military conference would be secondary, and this would be portrayed as one of the most luxurious wedding receptions in history.

 Chapter 1256 1256 Honeymooners

    Chapter 1256 1256 Honeymooners


    ??Max took a moment to decide where he was going to go first. The question was if it was to collect the Innu Envoy or if he should head straight to the meeting area to wee the members of the Valkia Royal family.


    If the Envoy was that desperate for coffee, she likely already knew, and that meant the other Envoys should be brought along as well. So, he nned to intercept her on the way.


    "Let''s stop for coffee, then intercept the Innu ambassador and everyone who is trying to stop her from hiding from her work for the day. We will bring them all along with us to the reception area on the docks, where the next guests will be arriving.


    I think that will be the most time-efficient course of action, and if I am right, we will all want to be caffeinated for this." Max exined.


    "Well, no soldier turns down caffeine or a nap, so we''re in. It sounds like this is going to be the highlight of the day, but do you think it will be enough to stop the cameras from annoying everyone else to death?" General Tennant asked.


    "I can almost guarantee it. Especially for the Alliance news operations. Compared to some boring meeting of political leaders, this is going to be much more juicy gossip."


    That was loud enough for a few nearby paparazzi to hear him, as Max had intended, and they scurried off to find reinforcements and subtly tail Max and the others to the meeting area, in case it wasn''t the same spot that they were expecting.


    He had said that it was big news, but that didn''t mean that it was some top dignitary. The pop idols had all arrived from the VIP civilian docks, but the politicians came in from the military side and didn''t appear directly in the public eye.


    Which direction they went would tell the paparazzi a lot about what sort of important news they were about to receive, but to their great confusion, not only did Commander Max order coffees to go from a corner shop, he ordered two Innu specials with it, extra raspberry, extra espresso, and then turned toward the residential areas.


    The mystery was solved when he met up with the Envoys, who were walking down the street together, but then they all got into a private transport and took off faster than the reporters could arrange to follow.


    "The VIP public docks, they''re headed straight for them, get all our people there now," the reporter ordered his underlings.


    They didn''t know what sort of story they had stumbled on, but if it was big enough to make the Commander of the Terminus Trading Company smile and assume that the cameras would be off of him, it had to be gxy shaking huge news.


    The Innu Envoy nearly vibrated with joy as she sipped the secondtte, after having downed the first in a single long gulp.


    "So, what is this big news? I know there is a ship under government protectioning, but that''s it, they didn''t tell us anything else." She asked.


    "I think it would be more fun to learn as it happens, but the air of authority of the Envoys is important, so I''ll give yo the heads up now. The Valkia Presidet''s daughter is about to announce her engagement to the Crown Prince of somewhere called Smat. He seems important, and the two of them are all over each other, to the point that even the Illithid have noticed stopped their discussion with the Elder to see if they''ve been drugged." Max exined.


    "Oh, that is huge news. Smat is a Gxy within the Valkia territory. The Crown Prince is filthy rich, set to take over an entire Gxy, and apparently he''s one of the most eligible bachelors in the entire species. His every move is enough to make news and trending videos, so if they''reing here to announce their engagement, they''re about to be one of the most popr power couples in the Alliance.


    If nobody knew who the Terminus Trading Company was you would instantly be famous by association, just because they picked you. But because you''re already one of the most popr vacation destinations in the known universe, you can expect your resort facilities to be packed with requests for at least two months.


    If there are ns to open more, you should likely do that now, and have them open by tomorrow, because you''ve got about two hours before the booking lines go insane."


    The other Envoys nodded in agreement, and the Valkia Envoy looked a little jealous.


    Max smiled at the ck winged man. "Is she that much of a beauty that it''s a shame to see another man steal her heart away?"


    The Envoyughed. "Not on my behalf, I''m a good friend of the President, her father. I had hoped that my son might have a shot, but if she''s gone for some big shot yboy, there''s nothing to be done about it."


    The others allughed at his optimism. They might be family friends, but she was way out of his son''s league. The boy had mediocre ambitions, talent and appearances. Not bad, but certainly not the sort of guy who would attract the attention of the greatest supermodels of his species.


    "Well at the very least, I can get myself into a few photos with her to make the boy jealous. We do have priority to greet them as they enter, do we not?" He asked.


    "Of course. Who else on this ship could usurp my authority to wee VIP guests? If anyone, it would be Nico, but she''s busy with a gaming tournament at the moment, and she won''t be finished for some time. We''re safe on that front." Maxughed.


    "Man, it''s good to know all the right people. Now, let''s go get ourselves in the news for a split second before the big news is out. Do you think that they will enter together or separately?"


    Max thought about that for a second, then smirked. "I have asked them toe out separately for a quick greeting, and then they can go to each other for a touching show of love. Their PR manager is eating is up, so I don''t think it will be an issue."

 Chapter 1257 1257 Diversion Tactic

    Chapter 1257 1257 Diversion Tactic


    ??The first few from the newly arrived vessel disembarked, attracting a small amount of attention from the gathered Paparazzi, and then carried on toward the Absolution''s staff, who were waiting to bring them to their rooms to get settled in.


    Then the groom to be, the yboy trillionaire''s heir, stepped out into the reception area, and Max had to smile at the level of effort he had put into his appearance for this moment.


    His skin lightly sparkled with a glitter infused oil, his wings'' feathers were dusted with water to give them a glowing ambience in the ship''s natural lighting, and his outfit was immactely pressed.


    "Wee to Absolution. I am Commander Keres Max and these are the Generals Tennant and Yaakov, now both retired and working with the Reaver Council." Max introduced them.


    "Generals, it is a pleasure to meet you in person. I have spoken to you on conference calls before. Commander Max, it is an honour to be here aboard your vessel. If there is timeter in my stay, I would like to speak with you aboutmissioning a new gship for my family''s Gctic Defence Force." He replied.


    Max smiled and shook his hand. "That is the specialty of the Terminus Trading Company. Just let me know what time will be good for you, and we can make arrangements to have it made exactly to your requirements."


    That exchange of pleasantries alone would normally be enough to make headlines for a week. The Crown Prince of Salumatmissioning a potential World Ship ss vessel from the Terminus Trading Company was huge news, especially given that the Terminus vessels that were already in existence were known as the height of luxury and entertainment.


    The highest of VIP sses couldn''t evenpare to the areas wheremoners like them were allowed to be. There was an entire private ind for them on the second level when they visited, and it was off limits to all other travel.


    That was mostly to eliminate the headaches of paparazzi for the dignitaries, but making the public appearances also mattered, so it wasn''t far from the unofficial party capital of the second level, Innuvia Resort and Casino.


    Close enough that if it weren''t for the distortion barrier preventing anything from being seen clearly, the two could actually watch each other party on the beaches if they used binocrs.


    The rumours about the private ind were even more crazy than the reality, which was luxurious enough that even the VIP guests had a habit of stopping to take photos, and not just for social media clout.


    The Crown Prince stepped forward to greet the reporters, while his entourage moved to secure the area, which was already carefully locked down by Felicity''s android security officers, and then the bride to be, the daughter of the Valkia President, walked out.


    Unlike almost all the other Valkia Max had seen, her wings were snow-white, as was her skin, while her hair was a shockingly gold blonde that Max was certainly came from a salon. She was stunning in a gold dress and sandals, dressed for an outing at a beach resort, and half the cameras had already forgotten that the Crown Prince was right in front of them.


    The President''s daughter smiled at Max as she walked up, and spoke in a whisper. "Thank you for the ideas, I sincerely appreciate it. There is a proper formal announcement event tomorrow, and I do hope that we have received your RSVP."


    Max nodded. "Indeed you have. It''s a pleasure to meet you, and I am absolutely certain that we will speak again soon. Now, go have fun."


    She gave a slight curtsy to Max''s polite bow, and then ran over in a carefully choreographed moment of joy to wrap her arms around her fianc¨¦ and lead him out of thending bay to a more photogenic spot, deliberately created for just this type of situation.


    They held the pose for a full second as they embraced before moving to the reception area to speak to the cameras.


    As they left, and their staff followed the baggage out of the area, only Max and the Generals were left in the room. No, that wasn''t quite right, there was one Innu with a camera and a reporter''s badge still giving them adoring looks.


    "Were you hoping for an interview, Miss Reporter?" Max asked.


    She couldn''t be from one of the major outlets, or she would have had a proper camera person with her, but the level of starstruck in her mind was enough that it was clear that she was here for him.


    "Yes, please Commander. I am Destiny from the Mecha Life and Development Podcast, and if you have even a few seconds, I would appreciate it." She replied.


    A podcast? That was surprising, she really was thinking like a reporter. But then, the Tech Nomads did podcasts as well, it was just part of Innu culture. Plus, if she got a reporter badge, her reach had to be a hundred million daily viewers, so her podcast group was not a small one.


    "Follow us right this way, and we can answer some questions while the others go insane outside. We wouldn''t want to interfere with their moment in the spotlight." Max instructed, and led the reporter down a service corridor and into a sitting room that was intended for staff meetings.


    The reporter pped her hands, and the backpack she was wearing expanded into a full photo set backdrop, holographically projected on the room, plus four chairs and a small banner with the name of the podcast.


    It was like sitting at the announcer''s table for a sporting event with the way the camera was positioned, so she would be intending to treat this as a panel discussion.


    "Good morning and thank you all so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. Viewers, we have a real treat for you today, Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company, and the war hero Generals Tennant and Yaakov, both legendary Phnx ss Mecha Pilots of the previous generation.


    You are all in for a real treat today."


    The Generals looked at Max and tried to keep a professional expression. What had he gotten them into with this obvious Mecha fangirl?

 Chapter 1258 1258 Giving Interviews

    Chapter 1258 1258 Giving Interviews


    ??The reporter continued. "As our regr viewers all know, we do a weekly segment on the legends of Mecha Development, and today we have not one but three of them here with us in person. All three of these heroes were at the Battle of Belmont, a turning point in the Kepler Rebellion."


    The images of their three Mecha appeared behind them, and the three pilots gave a nostalgic smile for the scene. It was a long time since Max had seen Stalwart, which now lived in a museum in Comor, and the two Phnx ss units had likewise been mothballed and put on disy as show pieces of military history.


    "I see that the mere sight of them brings back many memories. For our viewers, how long were you with those Mecha before moving on to retirement or, in the case of Commander Max, a new unit?"


    General Yaakov gestured up at the image of his Mecha. "We were together for thirty-six years. Twenty-eight of those were spent on the battlefield, and the rest in reserve or in transit."


    The reporter''s awed gaze made the old General give her an indulgent smile. He had spent more time inbat after he had gotten amission as a Phnx ss Pilot than she had been alive for.


    General Tennant gestured to the Shining Darkness. "We were together for almost a century before I retired. Do your readers know much of the history of the units?"


    The reporter''s head bounced like a bobble head doll as she nodded. "They do, we actually sent a team member to Comor to do a full history episode on the Shining Darkness. Stalwart as well, but unfortunately, there aren''t any others avable for public viewing."


    "Tarith''s Rage isn''t open to the public?" Max asked.


    The reporter shook her head. "It''s visible, but it''s got some sort of special coating on it that they don''t want people to touch, so even with an investigative pass, our team wasn''t allowed into its enclosure."


    So that was what they meant. The reporters couldn''t look inside of it, they could only see the outside and the public data, whereas with Stalwart and Shining Darkness, they had gotten the chance to actually touch it and look inside.


    "Well, for all the legendary events that happened during that chaotic time, Stalwart and Tarith''s Rage were only together for a few years before they were put back into the waiting reserve and finally transferred to the Comor Mecha Museum after the new generation of units was ready." Max shrugged.


    "About that. There is a wear pattern on the console below the control sticks. Do you prefer to hold them low, with your fingers turned up, or did you have something resting under your hands?" The reporter asked, bringing up an image of the control panel behind them.


    As expected of the Innu, they skipped straight to the point when they wanted to talk about Mecha. They weren''t here for war stories, or detailed personal questions about the pilots'' lives, they wanted to know about the Mecha. How they performed, how they were used, the little tips and tricks that made for a legendary Mecha pilot.


    It was especially important to the Innutely, as many of them were taking up Mecha piloting in the military or theary defence forces, and not just remaining as the service staff. The more that they could learn about the practical tips and tricks that weren''t in the books, the moreprehensive their own style development could be.


    The two Generals both smiled at the mark on the control panel. It was a bit too far from the stick to be the hand, unless you were holding it at some strange angle. What the mark was actually from was the stainless-steel Kepler military issue coffee cup.


    Maxughed and gestured to the mark. "Do you see how it''s oblong, and wide? While at first nce, that appears to be from a gloved hand moving against the painted console as the operator fought, the real answer is very different.


    That particr mark is from the maic base of the steel coffee cups we are issued, as it slides back and forth with use. It takes thousands of cups of coffee to get that sort of wear pattern, that''s months of tense waiting for the enemy to attack, while in a situation where you can''t leave your Mecha.


    The reporter''s eyes lit up with joy. He had directly answered one of the most popr questions that their readers had.


    "Why right there? There is a cupholder on the far-right side of the console, here." She gestured to a highlighted spot on the image.


    General Tennant gave her a fatherly smile that made the reporter look even younger.


    "There should be a simr one inside Creeping Darkness.You see, that spot is not only right in front of the pilot, so he doesn''t have to look away from the disy screens, but it is within arm''s reach of the right control stick, so even if you are reaching for a drink when an emergency happens, you are actually improving your reaction times.


    With the one on the side, which was ced there to protect the delicate electronics of the control panel from spilled coffee, you are out of position, the auto tensioner of the harness can''t react as quickly, and your eyes are off the screen, so you might not see the enemy''s position at all.


    It is a utility versus safety tradeoff. While the spilled coffee drives the technicians insane, it is still the most practical spot for the cup."


    "Doesn''t the Kepler issued cup have a lid, though?" She asked.


    "It does. But the hole is too small, you can only slowly sip through it. That''s not how Mecha Pilots traditionally consume caffeine. It has to be hot, strong and now. I''m not sipping it for This interview was a great idea. They were not only going to have an excuse not to be in public, but they were also being asked decent questions from someone who actually cared about the answers.

 Chapter 1259 Rage and Desperation

    1259 1259 Rage and Desperation


    While Max was happily holding meetings about the small details of being a Mecha Pilot, the Rebel Gods were holding a meeting about Max.


    "Divine One, that being cannot be allowed to mature any further. Already, it has too much power, and it can defeat our subordinates even when outnumbered." A tiger - bodied God was exining to the dark cloud that was the body of their leader.


    [Then send the Greater Energy Beings, the ones derived directly from one of us being shattered.] The rebel God known as the Divine One scoffed.


    "That is what I am saying, he can defeat them, even when they outnumber him. One on one, he farms them for their energy to strengthen himself. I believe that he is evolving in the direction of a god of devouring." The Tiger God exined.


    [Impossible, they are one step from Divinity, no mortal can defeat thempletely. Just give them a few weeks to recuperate and sendrger numbers next time.] The Divine One didn''t even bother to use its actual voice to respond. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The Tiger God gave a pleading look to itspanions, hoping that they would take pity on it and help it to exin the situation to the Divine One without enraging the leader of the Rebel Gods.


    "Divine One, it has the favour of the War God, the leader of the Green Tide. It has truly killed and absorbed over a half dozen of our subordinates. If this continues, that creature will reach the power of a weak God." One of the others tried.


    The Divine One paused, and cast its attention into the Dead Zone, where the creature should be hiding. Only, it wasn''t hiding at all. It was drinking andughing with the other mortal species, telling jokes about killing the loyal servants of the Divine Armies.


    The Divine One was immediately enraged, and its aura surged, destroying the room around it, and throwing the other Gods hundreds of metres away.


    "Find a way to get to it. It must die now." The Divine One ranted.


    For a moment, they sensed the amusement of the God of War, the Myceloid God, as the humans called it, and then it was gone, presumably to warn its human champion. "That damnable beast was never reliable. It only helped because we were losing too badly, and it wanted a better fight." One of the gods muttered as it sensed the presence.


    "That''s true, but can any of us afford to offend it?" Another whispered back.


    [My people, I have decided. The Dead Zone will no longer be allowed to exist. With all our might, we will invade and wipe out the mortal races, these descendants of the humans. You have twenty-four hours to prepare.]


    The Gods scattered in fear, both of the Divine One, and of what it demanded. The Gods of the Dead Zone were not truly dead, they were deprived of energy and waiting to revive. Unless the Gods themselves tore apart the fabric of space and time to join the battle, those corpses would suck their army dry in a matter of hours, and if the entire army went, that might be enough to revive both of the defeated Gods.


    That was a risk that they never wanted to take. The Human God was a monster, willing to put its chosen people above its own kind, and the God of Time was an existence that should never have existed in the first ce. They had once followed it, and served it loyally, but with its time maniption gone, they could also grow, and the power of the Universe wasn''t all funnelled to a handful of Gods powerful enough to challenge the God of Time. Though they were loyal to its ideology, none of them wanted to see the God of Time revived.


    Mighty armies of Energy Beings were assembled, assured that the Divine One had a n to sessfully invade the Dead Zone. A billion battleships were armed and loaded with hastily created bodies, ones filled with only the most basic of memories and emotions, the Bloody Warriors, shock troops created by the Gods and Greater Energy Beings.


    Along with them, every bit of the ethereal energy of theiryer of space was condensed into Lesser Energy Beings, that could be used to both fight the enemy and to refill the energy that was lost as the dead Gods tried to drain the Greater Energy Beings dry.


    The humans and their allies would never know what hit them. One way or another, this was going to be the final battle of the eternal war, and only one side knew that it wasing.


    On Max''s side, the humans were partying as the engagement news of the Alliance''s new greatest power couple spread through the World Ship, but Max and some other elite military forces had managed to sneak off to the development bays to take a look at the newest Mecha units that had been designed to deal with the Great Enemy.


    "It''s beautiful." General Tennant sighed as he looked over the design of the new Mecha.


    "It''s based on the ancient Titan ss Mecha, upgraded with all the newest technology, and thanks to Nico, we can now consider these a Demigod ss Mecha. They harness the stolen power of the Energy Beings in a special power pack, and can use it to stabilize their structure when they are attacked.


    It''s not quite as good as what the ancient God ss Mecha could aplish, but each of these units should be able to kill a Greater Energy Being with rtive ease, and take its power to refuel themselves." Max exined.


    There were two units stood off to the side, the custom units that had been created for Max and Nico, whose bodies had been infused with energy from the otheryers, and who could create the energy themselves. Nico could only convert a trickle of energy, and didn''t have the storage that Max did, but it would be enough in mostbat situations. The Energy Being''s life force was only a preventative measure to get past their defences, a coating for the attacks to make the destruction easier, not their entire attack method.


    Nico looked up at the Mecha with pride. "Next time, we will be ready for them. With one of these sent to every star system to lead their defence forces, the Great Enemy will stand no chance of breaking our lines. Just give me six months and there will be enough to go around."

 Chapter 1260 The Sky Is Falling

    1260 1260 The Sky Is Falling


    The ring of the emergency rm the next morning woke Max from a deep slumber. Something had been detected on long-range scanners by the Alliance, and it had panicked them enough that they were calling every single Commander and military leader into a mass conference call. They were so concerned about something that they hadn''t even sent details directly to themunicators. This level of security was usually reserved for the most important of military announcements, but they shouldn''t be sent on such a wide scale that Max could tell that thousands of dignitaries aboard Absolution had received them.


    The meeting began only a single minute after the message was sent, a testament to the urgency that that Alliance leaders felt when they weremunicating it.


    [Attention everyone, thank you foring. We have an Existential Threat level report. Massive spatial fluctuations have been detected in the void around the Alliance territory. The patterns are identical to the preparations for thest round of assaults, but the signals are a hundred times more intense, with an area that cannot be discerned by our scans.


    From what our experts can discern, the Great Enemy is intending to send an attack fleet to every single star system in the Alliance, all at once.


    There is nothing that we can do to block this, and even with the help of the Arisen and the Knife Ears, there is an uncertain chance that any of our civilizations will survive the first wave of attacks. As for the second wave and the consolidation, the odds appear to be even worse.


    The time to arrival should be less than one day, so we are requesting that all troops and armed vessels return to their home systems and prepare forary defence. May your deity of choice be with you all.]


    Max immediately sent a message to Terminus, who wouldn''t have received the message, and sent them further into the uninhabited spaces, looking for signs of lost civilizations. Their expedition n was only a third of the way through, but Max framed the message as a hot lead in an extremely remote region that didn''t currently support life.


    Even if the Great Enemy was looking for hidden human colonies, they wouldn''t find Terminus there, with its million tourists and residents. They came from a wide enough variety of species that the Colony Ship could again serve its original purpose if necessary, and then Max turned his attention to defence.


    They had the finest of military vessels in the universe right here, and they were making more as fast as they could, so there was a real possibility that Rae 5 would survive the first wave without issues. With that in mind, the Reaver Council was already sending out vessels to take defensive positions around the various colonies that they had agreements with, and bringing all theary guards in the gxy online for emergency drills.


    Likewise, the Alliance was fully mobilizing what they had, though they were actually only in the early stages of nning for their own defence. They had gotten some new equipment, but there was minimal training, little organization or oversight, and almost no tactical coordination.


    From what Max''s thoughts could tell from the ongoing conversations, there were only about six species that could be fully counted on to be ready, and a few dozen others that had some hidden firepower from their expansion era still tucked away for a rainy day.


    It wasn''t encouraging, but at the very least, every popted system in the humans'' gxy had their military on full alert after two hours, with more armed vessels showing up by the second.


    Terminus Trading Company had made every one of their design schematics avable royalty free for the day, and the humans were stocking up on all the best new goodies, with the Reavers loading entire cargo bays full of Android Piloted Mecha. The Innu were doing the same, while the Valkia had ordered every household with an able-bodied adult to create as many Archangel Exoskeletons as they thought that they could use. It was a huge power drain on every in the Alliance, but between the Valkia, the Innu and the Giants, they should at least have some fighting forces that were equipped, even if they didn''t have many with experience.


    "How is the production of the Demigod ss Mechaing?" The Innu Envoy asked Nico once the notification came that there was nothing else to be done before the enemy arrived. The Alliance had created as many fighting forces as their power supply could sustain, and they were out of people who knew how to operate the ones that couldn''t feasibly be run by AI.


    There was no more power for Android creation, unless they cut back on the Mecha and heavy weapons production, but manys had switched to arming shuttles, pleasure yachts and orbital mining vessels. If it moved in space or in the air, they intended to give it more guns.


    "We have a thousand of them now, and the Pilots are inside getting acquainted. That''s not enough for every star system in this Gxy, but it will cover about a quarter. The deployment n is to have them cover systems thatck the ability to repel a force at the level of thest invasion. We wanted a force that could handle that plus fifty percent, but there simply wasn''t enough time." She exined.


    "Is there a fallback n?" The Envoy asked.


    "Yes, it''s been sent to all the Reavers. Does the Alliance have an equivalent?" Max asked.


    "We do, I''ll trade you the data. We''re with you for this fight, our vessel has been repurposed forary defence at home." The Giant Envoy announced as he walked into the research bays.


    "Then we''re d to have you. Pick the department you would like to join, and we will make sure they recognize your authority." Max replied.


    [Alert. Spatial Fluctuations have begun in the Rae 5 System. Beginning anti-portal countermeasures. All travel is now restricted.] Felicity announced.


    [Preparing to deploy countermeasures.] Sylvie agreed.


    Between the two of them, they were confident that they could force the enemy to arrive at the outer reaches of the sr system, where they would be easy targets for the freshly rebuilt defensive weapons. N?v(el)B\\jnn

 Chapter 1261 Homefield Advantage

    1261 1261 Homefield Advantage


    The anti-portal countermeasures were a new way of using an existing weapon. The fleets used destabilized antimatter torpedoes to make it impossible for a Portal to open properly nearby. The weapons themselves didn''t do much damage, but the effect on portals was nearly perfect, and it wouldst for days or even weeks.


    The hope was that they would be preventing the enemies from appearing among them, which would allow for a better defensive formation.


    Then, the waiting started.


    The signals were getting stronger by the hour, and the extent of the staging area was unclear, but the extra time was enough to get everyone to break out the big guns, forbidden weapons, and other questionable bits of technology that would never be used under normal circumstances.


    If this battle could be won, or even stalled long enough that the enemy could be whittled too low to be able to move on to another sr system with any level of effectiveness.


    "Waiting sucks." Nico sighed as she painted giant smiley faces on the bottoms of the feet of her Mecha.


    "It''s better than whates after. The second wave is likely to be worse than the first." Max shrugged.


    As long as we can get far enough from the interference to send Cutters and Destroyers out to intercept other fleets when they tried to move. That was the best they could hope for because countless battles were destined to be lopsided one way or the other.


    None of the defenders knew how much of an attacking force they would face, or how the attack would be split up. Thes got military based on what was avable, not by poption or strategic importance. There wasn''t time for anything else, but that also meant that the enemy wouldn''t be able to predict where their forces were going to be.


    When the attack came, it came everywhere, all at once. Thousands of ships entered every inhabited star system in every Gxy of the Alliance, as well as the human''s home Gxy, within ten seconds of each other.


    Above the Innu home world, six hundred science vessels were encircled by half a million Super Heavy Mecha, and countless drone fighters. Even though they had not dared to risk using antimatter near so many ongoing experiments, the response to the invasion was devastating.


    "Lead Researcher, the Mecha have begun the assault. Should we notify someone or something?" One of the Innu Ministers asked their local head of government.


    "Everyone is trying to contact someone. Send out a message that we have been attacked and add it to the mess if you like, but nobody ising." The Innu Lead Researcher replied.


    "What do you mean, nobody ising?" The old woman pointed to a holographic map on the wall. N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "The red marks are every system that has reported an attack in thest minute. It''s everywhere, they hit every single inhabited star, unless they missed one identally. Nobody can answer because they''re all fighting, just like we are. Now, keep up the reports on energy consumption, and shut down all civilian power grids to essential levels, unless they are making priority level military equipment.


    I want as many weapons deployed as we can possibly get. Shut down the entire climate control grid until further notice. Even the air conditioning in the buildings."


    The situation above the Central Government Capital was very nearly the same. They also hadn''t dared to use antimatter weapons that they might not be able to escape the range ofter if they needed to flee, so they were fighting a close range fight near the itself.


    But theirary defences were among the finest in the universe, and within minutes, they had cleared the system of attackers and were preparing to shift some of the defence force to hard fought battles that could still be won.


    Max and Nico listened carefully as the updates about these situations were ryed in real time, while looking out over the rubble at the edge of the Rae 5 system.


    "They didn''t make any attempt at tactical adjustments. They sent the same number of forces to every single inhabited system." Nico noted as she updated their battle map.


    "Then we should be sending out the reinforcements based on the existing troop levels. With the use of extreme defensive weapons, some of our forces should still be in good working order." Max noted.


    "Doesn''t this feel like a suicide attack to you? Just killing off as manys as possible to reduce our numbers for whateveres next would be precisely their style." Nico replied.


    "What have you got for me, then?" "There are two locations where there should be troops, but there aren''t. One is the Canis home world, which didn''t receive an attack at all, and one is the Cygnus Imperial Capital System.


    Now, the Canis world makes sense, they might not have noticed that there was anyone living out in the remote boonies of the Gxy when they scanned. But the Capital? There are four inhabiteds, over a hundred billion people, and a massive military production base. There is no way to miss the energy signature from that, I can detect it from here. There has to be a reason that it wasn''t attacked, and it''s either a betrayal, which makes no sense, as every otherary group, including their governments, was attacked, or there is something there that they fear to approach."


    Max nodded. "So, are youing with me to the Cygnus Capital?"


    Nico''s smirk said it all. She was definitely interested in why there was no attack on the Capital, and she had an idea as to what the answer might be. For an instant, her guard on her thoughts slipped, and Max managed to peek into her convoluted mind. Nico was thinking that there was a God there, an Energy Signature that made them think that the area was already imed by one of their own.


    All they had to do was fly over and find out for themselves.

 Chapter 1262 Second Wave

    1262 1262 Second Wave


    Any thoughts about going to the Cygnus Imperial Capital would have to wait, as only minutes after the invaders were repelled in the strongest of systems, the portals opened again, and a pair of Greater Energy Beings, apanied by a horde of Lesser Energy Beings flooded through into reality.


    There was an energy signature following them, protecting them from the damagedws and empty alternateyers of this region, Max noticed. That could only mean that the Gods had made their move, and that this was the full offensive, everything that the enemy could possibly send.


    Both Nico and Max flew out of the hangar bays of Absolution, moving to intercept before the enemy could pose a threat to the lives aboard their gship, while the defensive armies prepared to disperse this second wave with a massive Disintegrator wave.


    They knew that it was effective, and that the Energy Beings had nowhere to run to escape the attacks, so there was no hesitation. As the first time, because of the massed firepower, the battle at Rae 5 was a single - sided ughter. The Enemy didn''t even try to increase their numbers here, they just sent the same force everywhere and counted everything as eptable losses.


    But they weren''t done with Rae 5, and after the first burst, the Greater Energy Beings began rapidly absorbing the energy from the lesser members of their force to reform themselves, and finish the attack.


    "Nico, you''re with me. Intercept as much of that energy as possible for use in the new Mecha." Max ordered as he charged toward the edge of the sr system.


    Max checked his sensors to make sure that the enemy wasn''t going to break through their lines and get any closer to the than where they were fighting, but found the strangest phenomenon. They were already bleeding energy, and quickly.


    It was being pulled from their bodies to the deepest reaches of the barrenyers, and despite their powers, they seemed helpless to stop it. That would never do, that energy was his, and he wasn''t going to let the rebel gods use it to empower themselves enough to attack.


    He fired his Mass Drivers, equipped with Antimatter explosives, into the attacking wave of Greater Energy Beings, tearing a sea of energy free of them, but no matter how hard he tried, it was being pulled away into the deepest reaches of space.


    [Something''s not right. There is something else here with a stronger attractive force than my equipment can manage.] Nicoined.


    Crap, Max knew what it was, the Darklings had warned him that the dead gods were ced here. If their bodies were still more naturally attuned to the energy of their kin than he was, they wouldn''t be able to replenish the storage for their Mecha at all, except by having him and Nico generate it in thisyer of space.


    [Send the others forward with us. If we can pull it in early enough, we can at least maximize what we can hold as it flows over. There aren''t a lot of the Demigod Mecha, but it should be enough to keep them fighting for the rest of this battle.]


    The void filled with the pulse of energy weapons as thebined force of Demigod Mecha moved forward behind them, burying the attacking wave in light, while limitless energy poured into them from the other side of the portal they had used to get here.


    No matter how much was torn away, how much damage his weapons did to their shields, they were being replenished by their gods.


    Their counterattack mmed into the shielding of the iing Mecha, doing little damage, but sending them flying, and the attacking wave began to spread into a spherical pattern to surround the Rae 5 system.


    [That''s a pretty good trap. We can''t get to the stable region to use portals to get to the rest of the universe until we kill them all, but their gods are bleeding power to keep us here, while whatever is hiding in the deadyers takes the spoils of war.] Max noted. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    A translucent energy being formed a face that looked like a bull''s and smiled at Max as he came to the realization that the enemy never had any intention of fighting him. They were just here to trap the real fighting force of the humans and their descendants inside, while the Energy Beings allies ravaged the rest of the universe.


    [Nico, align the two World Ships, I want a portal opened outside to send the Demigod Mecha through. Do it as suddenly as possible, before the enemy can react.] Max ordered.


    If the enemy wasn''t going to properly attack, there was no need for him to properly defend. They would send the strongest Mecha out to the worst battles and turn the tides back with an ocean of blood.


    Not even the Destroyer ss Cathedral Ships could withstand a full barrage from those Mecha. One per system would be enough to go on a rampage before they were destroyed or ran out of stored energy, and that should buy some more time for humanity to fight back.


    While Nico worked on the Portal, and the Demigod Mecha gathered into a cluster to attack the barrier that was going up around the Rae 5 system looking for weak points, Max mentally sorted through the messages they were receiving.


    The first wave was just as devastating as expected, and a number of systems hadn''t broadcast anything past the first attack report, but others were arranging to help defend neighbours, and none of them had reported the incursion of the second wave, or at least not at this level.


    Many of them reported Energy Beings, but inrge numbers, the battleships and Super Heavy Mecha could deal with one Greater Being. Unless there were attacks that ended too quickly to be reported, it looked like every Greater Energy Being in existence was right here, around the Rae 5 system.


    Instead, he turned his mind to seeing what the attackers were thinking.

 Chapter 1263 Dispersed Pattern

    1263 1263 Dispersed Pattern


    Max''s search of the minds of the Greater Energy beings linked him into the mental equivalent of arge group chat, much like what the Illithid had among their own species. They had to know that he was listening in, but their thoughts said that it didn''t matter and that they would be able to crush him soon enough, and then there wasn''t a force left in the Gxy that could counter them.


    The Humans'' home gxy was fated to fall first, and then their subspecies and outlying Gxies would fallter, until everything in this region was destroyed, and then they would retreat before they had been siphoned of so much energy that the dead Gods buried here could revive.


    That was an interesting bit of news. It didn''t change much, since they were already here and attacking, leaving Max no time to do anything but deal with them, but the fact that their mere presence was waking up gods that were previously defeated in the Eternal War was enough to give him ideas about stalling for time.


    At first, that was what he thought that they were doing, but that wasn''t it, they were just gathering their forces for one massive push against him in particr.


    If Max had known that, he would have gone to an uninhabited system to fight it out, instead of being here at Rae 5 to defend his people. But, there was no use crying over spilled Rum.


    "Nico, stay close to me. They''re going to push hard, and directly for us. Their goal is to eliminate me so that they can overrun the rest of the Gxy, they don''t know or don''t understand about the rest of the Demigod ss Mecha." Max exined.


    "They need thirty seconds, and then they will be gone. Do you think that we can hold this position without them, though?" Nico replied.


    "I know we can. It might not be pretty, but we can hold this system even against them. The problem is that if one of their Gods actually manages toe through, there is nothing that we can do to stop the assault. From what I understand of the Myceloid God, it is more than the sum of its parts. Breaking it might cause the birth of hundreds of Greater Energy Beings, but its power is thousands of times more than what the secondary creations can wield. If one of themes through, all that we can do is try to st them back out of ouryer of reality and hope that it works."


    Nico sent him a smiley face emoji in response.


    [Prepare for them to push. All forces to the ready.] Max ordered the second that their thoughts changed.


    They were still hesitant, as they couldn''t ept the knowledge that many of them were about to cease to exist, but the humans were well past that point. They weren''t even worried about using forbidden weapons in their own home star system.


    There was no grand charge, the power of the enemy was beyond the need for such mundane things. Instead, they simply transformed into an ethereal form and appeared in front of Max and Nico, allshing out with every bit of energy that they had.


    The Void Shields red, and the overload notification shed as Max activated the Disintegrator and began to pour the refined energy from his body into the Mecha.


    Nicoughed as she fired the Thunder Guns point-nk into the energy cloud that surrounded them, and a massive antimatter explosion tore through space, apanied by a surge of portal energy.


    [You like that? I found your dead gods, now go meet them.] She taunted as the energy from the destroyed creatures was siphoned away from the battle.


    The force of the st copsed the shields on both Mecha, and threw them backwards at thousands of kilometres an hour, but the enemy was undeterred, following as closely as possible, while Max discharged every weapon that he had.


    Then he also set off the Thunder Guns, but behind the enemy, to drive them closer to him, so he could siphon the loose energy before it was torn away by the sleeping God.


    A million points of light converged on the battle as the defenders of Rae 5 fired their first volley, and the Greater Energy Beings promptly fled into anotheryer of space to evade, before trying to return. But when they did, they found themselves trapped. The Darklings and Arisen were there waiting for them, and they had destabilized theyer too much for the Great Enemy to leave before thebined force of the two species fleets could bear down on them.


    Hundreds of Greater Energy Beings died instantly, and the rest prepared to flee. This battle was not worth it. The humans knew they wereing and made preparations with the other species. All that was left for the Energy Beings to do was die.


    Max could feel the hatred and power radiating from the other side of the portal, the link to the home of the Great Enemy, and the intent of the survivors to flee home.


    But the portal only existed in thisyer, and Max was coating it in his own energy, warping it into a one-way edifice that would only allow more attackers to arrive, but none to leave. With that, he should be able to finally deal with the Greater Energy Beings, and the greatest threats to humanity and the other mortal species.


    [Commander, the Demigods have been sent. They are in a thousand other battlefields now.] Nico reported.


    [Excellent work. As soon as we finish here, I will be waiting for the good news from the rest of the Gxy.]


    The energy around Max suddenly changed, and a solid began to take shape around the portal, created from the other side, with an attractive force that was pulling him in. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The God of the Great Enemy had taken action, and like the Myceloid God, it had made a battlefield, but one only suitable for those with enough power.


    It would be Max and Nico versus the entire surviving force of the Greater Energy Beings.

 Chapter 1264 Faceoff

    1264 1264 Faceoff


    The two groups stood across an open field from each other, tensely waiting for the stalemate to be broken. Barely two hundred of the Greater Energy Beings were left, out of the thousand or more that had started this battle, against Max and Nico, in their Mecha.


    Gloriana, Nico had named his new Mecha Gloriana, a fitting title for the defence of the known universe, and an ironic nod to the Mecha of Max''s past life. For her own, she had chosen ''Death of Hope'', and for a change, it was not red and bone white, this one was polished ck with gold trim, a stark contrast against the shining gold with a few ck fittings on Gloriana.


    The Great Enemy understood that there would be no running this time, no turning incorporeal to try to escape, as it would only cause them to burn through energy faster. Their only hope was to hold their shapes and fight it out with these two Mecha, so that the rest of the forces would have a chance to finish their work and eliminate humanity once and for all.


    [Are we nning to fight them or stare at them?] Nico asked.


    [Both. The longer they dy, the more of their power they are losing. Can you feel it being pulled away from them?] Max replied.


    [I get it. Let them exhaust themselves first, then kill them all. Hey, do you think these are thest of them? If we finish a species, that''s worth bonus points, isn''t it?]


    Maxughed at Nico''s attempt at humour.


    [Indeed, it is worth bonus points. But I''m not certain that this is thest, and when we break their God, there are likely to be more of them.] Even Nico wasn''t sure if she should be happy about that news, but as they stared down the Great Enemy, Max could sense that they were far more terrified to be inbat at all than he was to fight a hundred to one odds.


    They were not thebat - minded sorts, they were simply forced into the role for the sake of the battle, and thanks to their immense power. That would be an advantage for Max and Nico, who would have no qualms about eliminating them, and who had far more experience in the matter than these enemies had killing humans.


    The enemy tensed, preparing tounch an assault, and both Mecha unleashed their fury. At the exact moment that the Mass Drivers'' brutal bark sounded, Ion Bombard Arrays shed with power, coated in the stolen energy from their opponents that the two Pilots had integrated into their bodies. Disintegrator energy pulsed a split secondter, avoiding interference with the first round of attacks, and then Fusion Fire spread from the two Mecha toward the enemy.


    In return, Laser beams of energy sizzled in the atmosphere, and des were formed in massive hands, prepared to charge.


    The ground shook with the force of the attacks, and the stabilizers on Gloriana struggled to keep up, even with Max''s Targeting Assistance from the System. This that the God had made was not well suited to such a battle, and the power of thebatants was tearing the maic field apart after the first volley.


    [Forward.] The leader of the Great Enemy mentally shouted, urging his troops into closebat.


    Nico and Max set aside their Ion Bombard Arrays, locking them to the back of their Mecha, and drew dual des.


    Warp bubbles formed around the two Mecha distorting space as Max raced toward his targets and then destabilized the field, creating a massive shockwave that threw the enemy to the ground. Glowing golden des sliced through simted flesh, and Max surged with stolen power as his opponent was drained dry.


    Beside him, Nico kicked a corpse out of the way, then sliced it in half for good measure. The sight panicked the enemy forces. There were too many of them to fight in this form, the Mecha would be surrounded by only a few of them, and none wanted to be the next to die.


    "Cowardly, through and through." Max decided.


    "But they sure do die well." Nico agreed.


    But in its rage, the Divine One had forgotten why it could not enter this ce, and the flow of energy did not stop. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    19:56


    Light shed to his left, and Max raised a de to parry a downward chop, then slid backward with his thrusters to avoid a thrust. A quick st from the Mass Drivers obliterated both opponents, and left a flickering afterimage on the sensors from the nuclear radiation.


    They would have to deal with thatter, he decided.


    The Great Enemy moved behind a low hill to regroup and formte a n, forgetting that Max could hear their every thought. This fight was too lopsided after the massacre by the other two mortal races, and none of their reinforcements had arrived.


    [You will fight. Any traitor that retreats is an enemy of the Divine One.] A booming mental voice echoed through the Rae 5 system.


    Even the regr humans on the''s surface heard it, and the mental force caused many to copse, screaming in pain.


    [Did you just call yourself the Divine One? Seriously, talk about a big Ego.] Max taunted as he bombarded the hapless Greater Energy Beings that were trapped here with him.


    That was likely a terrible idea, but if he waited until the so-called Divine One got the enemy moving and organized, they might just win.


    The rage of the God was immediate and intense, sending out a wave of energy that tore apart the and disintegrated thest of the Greater Energy Beings, while hurling Max and Nico through space as their Mecha struggled to keep ayer of shielding up against the attack.


    But in its rage, the Divine One had forgotten why it could not enter this ce, and the flow of energy did not stop.


    [Sylvie, are you still online? Help me get the breakers reset and the main power back online. I need a shield and I need thrusters, the rest can wait.] Max requested of the AI whose avatar projector he always kept with him.


    [I am here. I''m cut off from the rest of my processing power, but I can do enough. My other avatar is with Nico, their Mecha is also intact, but disabled.] Sylvie exined as she worked.


    Max opened the hatch below the cockpit and ducked down into the space, floating slightly as the Gravity ting became discharged, and began using the repair tool to rece blown out circuit boards and wires.


    [We''ve got shields. I''m working on thrusters and general mobility now. Can you reach CX4-A?] Sylvie requested.


    "I''m on it. Yeah, it''s totally fried, give me a second to rebuild the traces, and we will be working again."


    \

 Chapter 1265 Revival

    1265 1265 Revival


    Max could feel the universe shifting, as a power imbnce that he had never been able to feel before was redistributed, and theyers of space began toe to life. The life force of the God that called himself the Divine One was being siphoned off, along with what felt like the entire stored power of whatever dimensional pocket it had been hiding in.


    The God was trapped by the force, unable to retreat, and Max could feel the panic as it called for itspatriots toe rescue it and pull its essence back into the pocket dimension.


    Max''s first instinct was to copse the portal and force the God into thisyer, in this star system, but so far, he only had shields back online, and he didn''t yet have any mobility, much less full weapon output.


    The rest of the defensive fleet could try, if they had the capability, but by their thoughts, they weren''t in any condition either, the force of thest attack had disabled everything within nearly a light year, and they were floating dead in space as they frantically reset breakers and tried to get their power systems to reboot.


    The power of the Divine One was waning, while the power hidden in the Dead Zone was growing, and the fabric of space felt like it was about to copse back into a singleyer, as it had theoretically been at the creation of the universe.


    If Max had the astronomical ability, he would have realized that the entire visible universe was indeed being pulled inward at an rming rate, and the distance between every other star and the centre of his gxy had contracted by nearly one percent, but with his systems offline, all that he could do was watch the show in front of him and try to siphon as much of the power for himself as possible.


    The energy of the Divine One was different from anything that he had absorbed before. It felt like he was gaining an understanding of the basicws of the universe as he took it in and created an irreversible change to the very nature of his existence.


    Max ignored the changes in himself as he stole the energy of a self-proimed God, determined to prevent the creature from ever reforming, but the vast majority was not being taken by him, but by whatever was at the centre of this Gxy, hidden in a forgottenyer of space.


    Then, the rescue finally came, and the other Gods pulled the Divine One back into its pocket dimension, weakened and dying. That didn''t stop the bleeding power, though. The energy of the God and the pocket dimension were still being siphoned by both Max and the slowly reviving God here, preventing the portal from closing.


    If he could just get the Mecha back online, he could wound the others as well, and pull them into this maelstrom of power to bleed them dry. He was so close to victory over the Rebel Gods that he could taste it, but so far away.


    However, the Divine One wasn''t the only one with reinforcements. Just as Max thought all hope was lost, and the portal would be forcefully closed, a gigantic asteroid hurtled through it, seemingly out of nowhere, and a billion Myceloid minds cheered in victory. They had found the greatest fight in the universe just in time to not miss it, and their presence in the pocket dimension gave their God enough of a foothold to force the opening even wider, nearly copsing the space and throwing the upants out into the Prime Layer.


    [Nico, if you can hear me, we''ve got assistance already here. The Myceloids are on our side, just hold position until your Mecha is fully back online, then we can rejoin the fight.] Max broadcast, both with his internal transmitter and his mental power.


    [Got it. Three minutes is all I need, and we should be operational again.]


    All across the universe, battles raged, but here in the humans home Gxy, the situation was much more dire. A thousand Demigod ss Mecha were facing off in a thousand different star systems against a thousand Greater Energy Beings, and the bacsh from their battle was tearing reality itself apart.


    Nothing was held back, and there was no thought of consequences. If they did not win the battle, there would be no humanity left, so they did everything that they could to destroy the enemy and prayed that the aftermath was something that could be survived. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    At the very least, the Anomaly Region still had a massive fleet of warships on standby with hundreds of millions of humans on board. Even if they killed their home Gxy, there should still be enough of them to start over somewhere new.


    In the Alliance,s slowly burned as the fleets assembled around the survivors to wait for a second wave that never came. Every vessel that the Great Enemy''s army had was already thrown at the humans and ground into stardust. They could see the battles raging on their sensors, but the destruction and destabilization of space in that Gxy was too much, they simply couldn''t go there to help.


    From her office on Rae 5, Mary Tarith looked up at the sky, where a vortex of purple energy raged, blurring out the battle that was surely ongoing, and blocking her sensors to the point that she could no longer see her daughter fighting.


    On the desk in front of her sat a sealed armoured crate, sent to her by Nico in the middle of the battle when the Demigod ss Mecha were deployed. It was set to open in 48 hours, long enough that the fight would certainly be over before she could see what was inside.


    "Just hold on, we will open it together." She mumbled to herself as the entire shook with the spatial distortions.


    Only the most durable of buildings were even standing anymore, and it was time for her to move out into the shuttle, where she would be safe from the prospect of having a building copse on her.


    "Assistant, kindly bring the present with us. We will join the other Council Members above the city." She announced.


    They wouldn''t run to orbit. It was better that the people of Rae 5 see the shuttles hovering over the city while the assistants sent out the emergency safety broadcasts. If the people thought that they had run away, it would be chaos, and there would be even more loss of lives than was actually due to the disaster itself.

 Chapter 1266 Face To Face With Mortality

    1266 1266 Face To Face With Mortality


    "Max, the power is back up and the Mecha is fully operational. What is your order?" Sylvie requested.


    Both Gloriana and Death of Hope were floating side by side, slowly moving from the vicinity of the eighth toward the seventh, while in front of them, the battle at the portal raged.


    "Is Nico back online?"


    "Affirmative. She is back online and using her System Skills to make adjustments to her unit."


    "Then we will rejoin the battle." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The two Mecha moved forward toward the pocket dimension, where the full fury of the Myceloid Horde, empowered by their God and glowing with green energy, was facing off against a dozen Gods. The chances of them winning were between slim and none unless the Myceloid God directly intervened, but with Max and Nico, there might be a chance.


    Then, they hit a barrier. Mere metres from the entrance, they were stopped from rejoining the fight, blocked in their ownyer as the portal distorted in front of them.


    "Sylvie, what does your analysis tell you about that?" Max asked.


    None of the Gods seemed to be aware of it. Not even the Myceloid God, who was expecting them to rejoin the fight at any moment now that he had seen their Mecha moving again.


    Max adjusted the scanners, there had to be a way past that barrier, no matter what it was made of. If he couldn''t finish the fight with the Great Enemy here and now, they would only withdraw, hide and spend eons rebuilding their strength before they attacked again.


    He couldn''t, no wouldn''t, allow that to happen.


    [It''s impregnable. There is something about that which feels familiar, but I can''t ce it. But I can say for certain that there is nothing in our arsenal that can break that shield.] Sylvie decided.


    "Feels familiar?" Max asked.


    [I have encountered that phenomenon before, but the time and location stamps of the data entry are gone. I am sorry Commander, I wish I could be of more help.]


    Max turned to face Nico so he could look at her not just through the cameras, but through the viewport on the Mecha. Her thoughts were just as baffled and frustrated as his own, and there was nothing that she could think of that would let them join this fight.


    With a sudden pulse of energy, everything went ck.


    "Dammit, get the sensors back online." Max cussed.


    "Sensors are online, Commander, there is no light or ambient radiation here. Switching modes." Sylvie replied.


    Everything stood still outside of Gloriana, even weapon attacks were frozen in ce, hanging halfway between targets that looked as if they were stuck in time.


    That was it, they were stuck in time. And so was he.


    Gloriana was turned to look downward, and two glowing golden eyes looked back at Max through the darkness.


    [Eternal Champion, you have returned.] A soft, grandfatherly voice whispered in his mind.


    [God of Time. You have awakened. But how? It was said that you were killed, utterly destroyed.] Max replied.


    [You can''t kill time. To truly kill a natural God, you must remove their aspect from the universe. In thest moment of my life, I froze myself. And now, here you are, bearing gifts unlike any other to help me revive.


    For eons now, I have watched the mortals. I must say, I misjudged them at the start. They are not the gue upon the universe that I thought they were, mortals are the free electrons, the wandering energy that spreads change and rebnces the universe, remaking the changes wrought by the Gods into a coherent picture.


    For that reason, when I fully awaken, I will grant you a gift.] The God paused, and waited while Max''s suspicious thoughts tried to determine if he was being tricked.


    For the God of Time was not the only God that was here. Max could sense another core, a flicker of life that represented a second God, the original God of Humanity, which fell in the first stages of the Eternal War.


    Like the God of Time, she was not truly dead, and couldn''t be as long as humanity existed. All she needed was something to bring her back. Something that Max had with him.


    The collected energy of the Divine One and a thousand Greater Energy Beings, kept in the separate body attached to Max''s energy.


    It was surely intended to be used for something else, but if he inserted it into the form of the fallen God, it would be enough to restart her growth. With that, the Rebel Gods wouldn''t dare to touch humanity again. Two gods on their side, their own and the Myceloid God, were too much for the Great Enemy to ovee.


    The God of Time seemed amused by Max''s thoughts.


    [You do not have enough energy to fully awaken a God. Not even close to it. But in a thousand years, the devotion of your people could bring her back to her former strength. Yes, that is the path, we will try that this time.]


    The God of time wasn''t making much sense, but if he could awaken the God of Humanity, it would change the bnce of the battle, and perhaps she could do as he had done and plunder some of the spoils for herself to increase her growth speed.


    Max made his move, focusing on the body of the fallen God, but before he could act, a dozen battered looking Gods were standing in front of him, each bleeding deeply and covered in green blood. The Myceloids had definitely gotten their fight.


    [We will not allow it. Never again, you have been banished and she should never have existed. The God of Humanity will not be awakened.] The God closest to Max announced.


    "You cannot stop us." Max simply replied as his weapons charged.


    Nico''s smile was so powerful that even the Gods in front of him trembled before steeling their resolve and attacking. Or at least trying to.


    The interference of the God of time slowed everything to a creep, with the immense suppression of the Time Domain trying to lock them in ce. Likewise, Max could only wait and watch as both sides built their energy to a crescendo, and then unleashed it into the middle to collide with a reality - bending force that shattered everything, including thew of time that was binding them.


    Max charged forward, slicing apart the toga d figure of the closest God and feeding the released energy to the corpse of the Human God. Then a tiger god fell beneath his de, and a twisted tree that emitted filthy ck slime.


    The sound of rending steel caught Max''s attention as Nico''s boot stomped down on the neck of an armoured Deity, and its head rolled free of its body. The remaining few Gods fled as the power of the God of Time grew again, and Max made onest desperate push, guiding all of his stored energy into the body of the human God, filling it with the second body of energy that he had so carefullypressed.


    [That is enough out of all of you. You will behave.] The God of Time demanded.


    Its words spread through the universe, reaching through space and time to find every hidden human, God and Energy Being.


    Max found himself outside of his Mecha, standing on the ground next to Nico, and looking up at the immense and vague form of the God of Time.


    [Every time we do this, it is the same thing. Reality is broken and the Gods die. But no more.]


    Everything went ck again, and Max wondered if time had stopped.


    Then a vague voice came to his ears.


    "I''ll just have to work with what I have." The woman''s voice whispered beside him.


    "Now, if you will just sign your name and the child''s, you''re ready for discharge." A much clearer young woman''s voice caught Max''s attention.


    No, oh hell no. It couldn''t be. Not even the God of Time would be that cruel.


    "What do I name this child, that simply couldn''t be born a girl?" He heard his mother''s voice asking.


    [Keres Max, you will name me Keres Max or by the Gods I will kill you now.]


    "Keres is nice, I will name him Keres Max."


    Across the city, a familiar mind caught his attention. A memory full of Mecha, of Gods, death and Genocide. This time they would not lose, the God of Time was going to get what wasing to him.


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